Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Web Guru Visits NZ - Is your web site up to speed? | infonews.co.nz ...

With the recent announcement by Fairfax that it would be focusing its efforts on streamlining its operations with an emphasis on online mediums, it comes as a timely reminder that less than twenty years ago for most businesses a glossy brochure, a business card and a couple of adverts in the local paper were how they got their message out.

According to Internet World Statistics there were 3.6 million users of the internet in New Zealand as of the 31st of December 2011. Approximately 1.9 million Kiwis have active Internet subscriptions via mobile phone. While the results of Cisco?s Visual Networking Index (VNI) Forecast showed New Zealand?s mobile internet growth in 2016 will outpace traditional fixed-line services by between three to five times. In Australia around 49% of Australians now use their smartphones to research businesses.

Lachlan MacPherson, Director of [Sennza](http://www.sennza.com.au), one of Australiasia?s leading digital agencies who will be visiting New Zealand in September says that it is an ?exciting time to be in the online space with the state of the web and how quickly and cheaply you can achieve things. A few years ago it woud have cost tens of thousands of dollars to build a professional and functional web site, whereas today it may cost as little as a few hundred dollars. Now the back button is your biggest competitor, because once a customer is on your website the goal is too keep them there, if they don't like or find what they want, they can hit the back button and your competitors are just one search away.? MacPherson says.

?The huge mainstream success of Apple and their current line of products over the last five years have really put a huge emphasis on design. We are entering a golden age of design where products need to be beautiful as well as functional, and that goes for your website as well. You are now marketing to Gen Y who is very tech savvy, they understand the difference between good and bad design better than you might think. In terms of your online presence, you really need to think about how your brand is being presented to your customers. MacPherson said.

?Things are changing rapidly and there are now many initiatives and options businesses can use to improve their public profile and connectivity. It is important to update your web presence on an ongoing basis as businesses that don?t are at a significant disadvantage. Often you only get one shot at the customer, when someone clicks onto your site and it looks dated and user unfriendly, then you may have just lost a potential client. One of the biggest traps people fall into is thinking that once they have a web site, that?s it, they don?t have to do anything else. This is a mistake many businesses make and they wonder why the site isn?t attracting or driving new business. The web is a moving feast and you have to adjust and tweak things once in a while to maximise its potential.? MacPherson said.

?With many of New Zealand?s businesses focused on tourism, it is a no brainer that the web presence of any tourism operator be founded on a platform that is asthetically attractive and functionally powerful. Someone isn?t going to travel half way around the world to check out your accommodation offering when they can click a few buttons and see what you have to offer online. It surprises me that so many businesses that depend on tourists have such a poor web presence,? MacPherson says.

**MacPherson will be conducting a half day web optimisation workshop in Queenstown on Friday the 14th of September to coincide with the Tomorrow's Business forum where Dick Smith (founder of Dick Smith electronics) Sam Johnson (Student Volunteer Army) and Rod Oram (economic commentator) will be speaking later the same day.**

The web optimisation workshop will focus on helping small to medium business owner?s leverge off cost effective and free software that is available online to build functional and professional web sites on a shoe string budget. MacPherson who manages the web presence of some of Australasia?s leading companies will also provide insight into how to automate your business for next to nothing, give tips on how to increase traffic to your site and how to manage your web content so it remains fresh, compelling and gets results.

**To find out more about this event visit:** **[www.tomorrows-business.org](http://)**

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Advocates angry over animal-use

WTNH) -- A national advocacy group has filed a complaint against Hartford Hospital for using live animals for surgical training.

The nonprofit group says state-of-the-art simulators are used at most health facilities.

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine says it really comes down to the use of live animals, in the case of Hartford Hospital, a pig under anesthesia, to train doctors on emergency medical procedures to be performed on humans, instead of using the latest technology available.

Dr. Marjorie Cramer said, "I have a lot of trouble with the concept of using an animal, which doesn't really resemble a human very much, has different thickness of skin, has different tissues underneath the skin."

The alternative is using a simulator, which closely resembles human tissue. A training tool approved by the American College of Surgeons.

Dr. Cramer is a retired plastic surgeon and is one of a handful of doctors who signed what they say is a criminal complaint against Hartford Hospital, that still uses live animals to train doctors in emergency medical procedures.

"If I were in a huge car accident and came into an emergency room and had someone try to save my life, I would feel a lot better had they practiced on a human based simulator," Dr. Cramer said.

A statement issued by Hartford Hospital says its' treatment of animals strictly adheres to the guidelines of the National Association of Biomedical Research stating "...scientific and medical knowledge developed through biomedical research and training has saved countless lives, has alleviated great pain and suffering, and has improved both animal and human health."

The nonprofit advocacy organization filed the complaint, alleging the hospital is in violation of animal cruelty.

"It is animal cruelty because it is gratuitous," said Dr. John Pippin. "It is unnecessary."

Dr. John Pippin is the PCRM Director of Academic Affairs.

"We've met resistance at every level," Dr. Pippin said. "We can't establish a dialogue about this so we feel compelled to take this to the next level."

He added Hartford Hospital is among five programs out of 278 in the U.S. and Canada still using live animals for trauma training.

The group has filed the complaint with the state's attorney for the Hartford Judicial District and is seeking for action to be taken.

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Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Bus overturns in Haiti river; death toll disputed

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) ? Haiti's government said Tuesday that at least 40 people died in the country's south when a bus overturned in a rain-swollen river, but a local official reported a lower toll.

A statement issued by President Michel Martelly's office says about 60 people were on the bus when the driver attempted to cross the Glace River. It said that local civil protection officials have recovered the bodies of 40 people and are still searching the area. The statement said nine people were either rescued from the submerged bus or managed to swim to safety.

But Norman Wiener, an official from the Grand'Anse department, said the bus owner who collected money from the passengers told him that there were 27 people aboard and that only eight people are missing. Wiener said another 19 people survived.

The accident occurred Monday near the town of Pestel on Haiti's southern peninsula. Marie Alta Jean-Baptiste, director of Haiti's office of civil protection, says the driver apparently ignored warnings not to try to cross the river. Jean-Baptiste said she could not confirm how many people died or survived.

Associated Press

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Draft: G-20 will produce plan for global growth

Leaders of the G-20 and guests, from left, FAO Director-General Jose Graziano da Silva, Australia's Prime Minister Julia Gillard, President Barack Obama, Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel, China's President Hu Jintao, Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen, India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Mexico's President Felipe Calderon, Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos and British Prime Minister David Cameron pose for the family photo of the G-20 Summit in Los Cabos, Mexico, Monday, June 18, 2012. (AP Photo/Andres Leighton)

Leaders of the G-20 and guests, from left, FAO Director-General Jose Graziano da Silva, Australia's Prime Minister Julia Gillard, President Barack Obama, Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel, China's President Hu Jintao, Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen, India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Mexico's President Felipe Calderon, Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos and British Prime Minister David Cameron pose for the family photo of the G-20 Summit in Los Cabos, Mexico, Monday, June 18, 2012. (AP Photo/Andres Leighton)

President Barack Obama, left, assists China's President Hu Jintao, center, as the flag who marked his position in the stage got stick to his shoe while Mexico's President Felipe Calderon walks by and Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel looks on after posing for the family photo of the G-20 Summit in Los Cabos, Mexico, Monday, June 18, 2012. (AP Photo/Andres Leighton)

Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez, second from right, adjusts her necklace as Mexico's President Felipe Calderon, left, arrives to the stage and France's President Francois Hollande, second from left, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, center, and Italy's Prime Minister Mario Monti look on before posing for the family photo of the G-20 Summit in Los Cabos, Mexico, Monday, June 18, 2012. (AP Photo/Andres Leighton)

Mexico?s President Felipe Calderon, center, gesture next to China's President Hu Jintao, front left, and South Korea's President Lee Myung-bak, front right, among other leaders during the family photo in Los Cabos, Mexico, Monday, June 18, 2012. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

China's President Hu Jintao, center, is left behind by other leaders of the G-20 while they walk off the stage as the flag that marked his spot got stick to his shoe after posing for the family photo of the G-20 Summit in Los Cabos, Mexico, Monday, June 18, 2012. From left are Italy's Prime Minister Mario Monti, President Barack Obama, Mexico's President Felipe Calderon, Australia's Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel, President Hu, India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, British Prime Minister David Cameron, South Korea's President Lee Myung-bak and Chile's President Sebastian Pinera. (AP Photo/Andres Leighton)

(AP) ? The leaders of the world's largest economies will portray themselves on Tuesday as united behind efforts to boost growth and job creation in order to repair a fragile global economy roiled by fears over the European financial crisis, according to a draft of the statement to be released at the end of the Group of 20 annual meeting.

It's far from certain, however, that the reassuring words will sooth markets whose harsh judgment of the official response to the crisis appears to be pushing Europe closer to deeper catastrophe by the day. On Monday, less than 12 hours after a Greek election quelled fears that the country could make a devastating exit from the Euro, fears about Spain drove that massive economy's borrowing costs dangerously close to the level where it would need a bailout.

The statement by the G-20 leaders includes language that appears aimed at easing the Spanish crisis by reassuring investors that Spain's treasury won't end up eating the costs of the up to 100 billion euro rescue of Spain's banks announced this month. Fears that the responsibility of paying back the bailout would fall on its government helped drive Spain's borrowing costs above the dangerously high 7 percent level.

"Euro area members of the G20 will take all necessary policy measures to safeguard the integrity and stability of the area ... and break the feedback loop between sovereigns and banks," the statement says.

It also places the G-20 on the side of those who have been arguing for a focus on job creation, including through government spending, instead of the budget cutbacks and austerity pushed most notably by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

And it singles out China and Saudi Arabia for commitments to global economic well-being, lauding a Saudi pledge to keep oil prices from going too high by amping up production from its massive reserves, and praising China for a promise to move away from policies that keep its currency artificially low, giving Chinese exports a price advantage on world markets.

"We welcome Saudi Arabia's readiness to mobilize, as necessary, existing spare capacity to ensure adequate supply," the statement says. "We also welcome the commitment by China to allow market forces to play a larger role in determining movements" in the Chinese currency.

Germany feels that it has been unfairly burdened by its large contributions to international bailouts of economically weaker European countries that overspent for years and, in exchange, it has been insisting on steep cutbacks from aid recipients such as Greece.

Those cutbacks have led to dramatic economic hardship for voters in Greece and other countries. A growing number of European countries having been advocating spending and growth, not austerity, and the G-20 statement appears to place the group of the world's largest economies into that camp.

"We are united in our resolve to promote growth and jobs," the draft says, declaring that the leaders will announce the "coordinated Los Cabos Growth and Jobs Action Plan" to achieve those goals, although the draft does not provide details of the plan.

"Strong sustainable and balanced growth remains the top priority of the G20, as it leads to higher job creation and increases the welfare of people across the world," the statement reads.

It throws its support specifically behind greater government spending as a response to a worsening global economy, saying that countries with the resources "stand ready" to take fiscal action.

The plan says the Obama administration pledged to prevent sharp tax increases and government spending cuts from kicking in at the end of the year, as scheduled under current law, to avoid sending the U.S. into another recession.

As G-20 officials wrangled over last-minute changes in the wording of the statement, European leaders at the summit struggled to reassure the world Monday that they were on the path to solving their continent's relentless economic crisis.

A bailout for Spain's ?1.1 trillion ($1.39 trillion) economy would likely outstrip the current global ability to bail it out, even after the International Monetary Fund announced late Monday that a round of contributions had increased its lending capacity to $456 billion, exceeding a round of pledges made in April.

The Spanish delegation to the G-20 bemoaned the rise in the country's borrowing costs and said the market reaction didn't correspond to the reality of Spain's economic strength.

The International Monetary Fund said in a staff report Monday that Europe was unlikely to conquer its budget problems without a greater focus on policies that promote growth. European governments should make it easier to hire and fire workers, simplify government regulations of the economy, and make it easier for workers to move to other European countries for jobs, the fund said, reforms could boost growth in the region by 4.5 percent over the next 5 years.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and European Council President Herman Van Rompuy urged markets to focus on a European summit at the end of the month that they said would help the continent move closer to deeper economic and political integration to match its single currency. The lack of common rules for the countries sharing the euro currency is seen as the primary cause of the current crisis. The EU summit would bring progress on common banking rules for member nations, Barroso and Van Rompuy said, although they cautioned, in sometimes defensive tones, against expectations of short-term results.

"I can assure you that even if we in June will not take definitive decisions, the path, the trajectory is very clear for everybody," Van Rompuy said. "In this case, the pace is less important than the decision we make."

Barroso took a more aggressive tone, declaring that "the crisis originated in North America" with the collapse of real-estate-linked financial products and taking a subtle dig at China and other non-democratic countries at the summit.

"Not all the members of the G-20 are democracies, but we are democracies, and we take decisions democratically. Sometimes this means taking more time," he said. "Frankly we are not coming here to receive lessons in terms of democracy or in terms of how to handle the economy, because the European Union has a model that we may be very proud of."

President Barack Obama met with a series of European leaders including Merkel.

Even the good news about Greece was overshadowed by lingering disagreement over the terms of the country's international bailout, which required harsh cutbacks in spending that many in Greece blame for widespread hardship suffered by ordinary citizens.

The parties that Europe hopes will form Greece's next government are committed to the bailout, but want to renegotiate some of the stricter terms.

However, Merkel indicated that finding room for negotiation might not be so easy, saying Greece had to hold its side of the bargain and that "we have to count on Greece sticking to its commitments."

______

Associated Press writers Jack Chang contributed to this report from Los Cabos, Mexico and Christopher S. Rugaber and Jim Kuhnhenn from Washington.

Associated Press

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Chemists use nanopores to detect DNA damage

ScienceDaily (June 18, 2012) ? Scientists worldwide are racing to sequence DNA -- decipher genetic blueprints -- faster and cheaper than ever by passing strands of the genetic material through molecule-sized pores. Now, University of Utah scientists have adapted this "nanopore" method to find DNA damage that can lead to mutations and disease.

The chemists report the advance in the week of June 18 online edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"We're using this technique and synthetic organic chemistry to be able to see a damage site as it flies through the nanopore," says Henry White, distinguished professor and chair of chemistry at the University of Utah and senior coauthor of the new study.

Strands of DNA are made of "nucleotide bases" known as A, T, G and C. Some stretches of DNA strands are genes.

The new method looks for places where a base is missing, known as an "abasic site," one of the most frequent forms of damage in the 3-billion-base human genome or genetic blueprint. This kind of DNA damage happens 18,000 times a day in a typical cell as we are exposed to everything from sunlight to car exhaust. Most of the damage is repaired, but sometimes it leads to a gene mutation and ultimately disease.

By combining nanopore damage-detection with other chemical ways of altering DNA, the researchers hope to make this new technique capable of detecting other kinds of DNA damage by converting the damage to a missing base, says the study's other senior coauthor, Cynthia Burrows, a distinguished professor of chemistry at the University of Utah.

She adds: "Damage to the bases of DNA contributes to many age-related diseases, including melanoma; lung, colon and breast cancers; Huntington's disease; and atherosclerosis."

A patent is pending on the new method of doing chemistry on DNA that allows damage sites to be found using nanopore technology.

White and Burrows conducted the study with first author, Na An, a doctoral student in chemistry and Aaron Fleming, a postdoctoral research associate in chemistry. The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health, with equipment and software donations by Electronic BioSciences of San Diego.

Toward Cheaper, Faster DNA Sequencing

Sequencing is the process of determining the order of the nucleotide bases A, C, G and T in one of the two strands of bases that make up a DNA double helix. It is the basic method used to determine the genomes, or genetic blueprints, of living organisms and to identify disease-causing mutations in genes.

"Twenty years ago, it cost $1 billion to sequence the first human genome," while the cost now runs from $5,000 to $20,000, White says. "The National Institutes of Health has had the $1,000 genome project for a few years, and the price likely will go lower." ` DNA sequencing is important in many ways. It is used by police to implicate or clear criminal suspects and by biologists to understand each living organism. "You can use it in agriculture if you modify a plant genome to produce a better plant," White says.

Faster, cheaper genomes of individual people promise an era of "personalized medicine," with treatments based on each person's genetic susceptibilities.

Nanopore sequencing is performed by passing a strand of DNA through a nanoscopic pore while both are bathed in an electrically charged solution known as an electrolyte. Some of that solution also is flowing through the pore. Researchers detect different current levels as differing DNA bases pass through the pore, blocking varying amounts of the electrified solution from passing through the pore.

Using Nanopores to Look for Damage

Unlike efforts to achieve nanopore sequencing of DNA, the Utah chemists are not reading the sequence of DNA bases as the strand move through a pore -- although they eventually want to do so -- but "we are detecting single base damage," White says.

"It's important to know how a damaged base leads to a mutation because that is the first step in a disease occurring," he adds. "Right now, we can see the damaged site and tell approximately where it is within the piece of DNA we're analyzing" -- to within about five or 10 bases. The goal is to pinpoint damage sites, and to understand how damage at specific sites leads to disease.

So far, the longest piece of DNA the Utah chemists put through a nanopore was about 100 bases long, and they were able to detect one or two damage sites.

"We've still got to do a lot of research and come up with ways of improving this," White says. "It's a very promising and new way of doing it. There are no other ways of doing what we're trying to do," namely, not only identify damage, but get sequence information to pinpoint damaged locations on a DNA strand.

The pore used by many DNA sequencers and by the Utah chemists is named alpha-hemolysin, and is a protein that comes from bacteria. To pass DNA through such a pore, a tiny hole -- only 400 nanometers wide, about a half percent as wide as a human hair -- is made in a glass membrane in the bottom of a glass tube. A soapy solution (known as a lipid bilayer) spreads out and forms film across that hole. The protein pore is embedded within the lipid bilayer.

The protein pore is somewhat mushroom shaped -- wider at the top where the DNA strand is captured and narrower at the bottom where the strand must pass through a tiny hole. The narrowest part of the pore measures 1.4 nanometers wide, not much wider than the 1-nanometer-wide single strand of DNA that must pass through the pore.

The billions of bases that make up a DNA strand are attached to a backbone of sugar and phosphate. To look for DNA damage in the form of a missing base, the researchers turn on the voltage, which makes current flow through the electrolyte. A positive electrode in the liquid outside the pore pulls DNA through the pore because the DNA has negatively charged phosphates making up its backbone.

The researchers created damage on some DNA by removing some bases. Where bases were missing, the sugar in the DNA backbone was exposed. The chemists attached a ring- or crown-shaped chemical known as an "18-crown-6 ether" to the sugar.

The trick was to get the DNA, with the crown ether attached, to pass through the nanopore slowly enough so missing bases can be detected.

Burrows compares the process to threading a needle. The DNA strand, once threaded through the eye of the needle, can be pulled through quickly and the presence of a tiny damage site -- a nick in the thread -- will never be noticed. Except in this case, chemists have converted the nick to a tiny loop in the thread, the crown ether. How fast the DNA can move through the tiny pore depends on the stiffness and size of the crown ether loop that marks the site of DNA damage. This can be changed with the addition of salts that attach to the loop.

The chemists tested different salts to find the best one to use as an electrolyte: potassium chloride, lithium chloride and sodium chloride, which is table salt. Whatever salt is used, the positive ion (potassium, lithium or sodium) gets bound inside the loop. That helps researchers read the current as a DNA strand moves through the pore.

But potassium was too big, making the ether loop so rigid it couldn't squeeze through the nanopore. Lithium was too small, making the ether loop slide through the nanopore too fast for damage to be detected.

But when Burrows and colleagues used sodium from table salt, the DNA and crown ether marking DNA damage sites both slid through the nanopore at just the right speed to be detected: about one-millionth of a second for an undamaged DNA base and about one-thousandth of a second for a crown ether loop marking where a base was missing, Burrows says.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Utah.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


Journal Reference:

  1. Na An, Aaron M. Fleming, Henry S. White, and Cynthia J. Burrows. Crown ether?electrolyte interactions permit nanopore detection of individual DNA abasic sites in single molecules. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, June 18, 2012 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1201669109

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

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Monday, June 18, 2012

Laughter as Suu Kyi meets 'starstruck' Bono in Oslo

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Bachelor's degree of doubt: Going straight to a master's is cheaper

The value of a bachelor's degree is in doubt: one route is to go straight to a master's degree through new accelerated programs. Emory University junior Hugh Green will get his in only five years of college.

By Lee Lawrence,?Correspondent / June 17, 2012

With doubts about the value of a bachelor's degree, many Americans are taking different routes to careers. Hugh Green (r.), a student at Emory University, is going straight to his master's degree in five years. He's pictured here with his sister Abigail Green, who was accepted to Emory, too.

PHOTO: Courtesy of Hugh Green

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Between honors classes in high school and a higher-than-average course load in college, Hugh Green is just a few credits away from qualifying for a bachelor's in environmental studies. And he is only finishing his junior year.

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But instead of jockeying to leave the graceful campus of Emory University early, Mr. Green applied to stay on an extra year.

To build toward a career in architecture or urban planning, he could complete his bachelor's and invest three more years ? and about $100,000 ? in a master's degree. Or he could forgo the architecture degree and opt for a five-year bachelor's/master's program in a related field.

RELATED: Are you helicopter parenting a future college grad? Take our quiz!

"The idea of designing appropriate communities and buildings so that they would maximize health and not create problems down the line drove me in the direction of public health," he says.

So instead of graduating in 2013 with a bachelor's of science, Green will now graduate in 2014 with both his bachelor's of science degree and a master's from Emory's Rollins School of Public Health.

There were also, he says, "more practical reasons. There just are not jobs in architecture right now, and I don't have the money to go to school for architecture. Paying tuition for a fifth year and graduating with a master's just seemed abundantly practical."

In a world where he is competing globally for work, this puts him right in line with the so-called 3-5-8 model being recommended by many in the European Commission for European universities ? three years for a bachelor's, five total for a master's, eight for a PhD.

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