Yudelson to Keynote Green Cities Conference in Melbourne

Yudelson to Keynote Green Cities Conference in Melbourne

Green building consultant Jerry Yudelson will keynote the fourth annual “Green Cities” conference in Melbourne, Australia, February 23rd.

Tucson, AZ (Vocus) February 4, 2010

Green building industry thought leader Jerry Yudelson will keynote the fourth annual Green Cities (http://www. greencities. org. au/) conference of the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) in Melbourne later this month. The green building consultant will speak on February 23rd, addressing green building business and performance issues with his presentation, "If It Doesn’t Perform, It’s Not Green." Yudelson also keynoted the first Green Cities conference in Sydney in 2007, speaking then to nearly 1,000 delegates.

According to the [conference organizers (http://www. greencities. org. au/article. asp), property and environmental industry leaders from around the world will use the Green Cities 2010 event to tackle the issue of greenhouse gas production from Australian cities, which are estimated to account for 70% of that nation's greenhouse gas output. Green Cities 2010 is the largest and most influential green building conference in the Asia Pacific region.

“The major focus of the green building movement has become the performance of green-rated and green-labeled buildings,” explains Jerry Yudelson, the principal of Tucson-based green building consultancy, Yudelson Associates. “What we’re seeing is many high-level rated green buildings falling well short of predicted performance.” Yudelson advocates reducing the certification level of green buildings that fall short of initial performance claims. “Certifying existing buildings as green uses actual performance data; new buildings should be held to the same standard,” he added.

Green Cities is a joint initiative of the Green Building Council of Australia and the Property Council of Australia. Romilly Madew, CEO of the GBCA, said urban greenhouse gas production was one of the greatest challenges facing Australia today. "Sustainable, productive and healthy cities are crucial to Australia's future success," she said.

Yudelson says that research for his most recent book, [Greening Existing Buildings (http://mhprofessional. com/product. php), showed him that buildings could reduce the energy and water use of existing buildings by 40 percent or more. “It’s unacceptable to give green certifications to new buildings that don’t meet the same standard,” he said. “We need to hold performance of new construction accountable, if we are going to meet our goals for reducing carbon emissions from the built environment.”

About Yudelson Associates
Yudelson Associates is a leading international firm in sustainability planning and green building consulting. The founder, Jerry Yudelson, is widely acknowledged as one of the nation’s leading green building and sustainability consultants. He is the author of 12 green building books, including the forthcoming Dry Run: Preventing the Next Urban Water Crisis (http://www. newsociety. com/bookid/4071) (New Society Publishers, 2010), and served for two years as Research Scholar for Retail Real Estate Sustainability for the International Council of Shopping Centers, a 70,000-member international trade organization. He is a frequent green building speaker at industry and professional conferences and chaired the industry’s largest annual show, Greenbuild, for the past six years, from 2004 through 2009.

For more information please contact Jerry Yudelson, 520-207-9759, info(at)greenbuildconsult(dot)com or visit http://www. greenbuildconsult. com (http://www. greenbuildconsult. com).

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10 Elements of Online Marketing

10 Elements of Online Marketing

Jennifer Henczel shares her communication expertise and reveals the 10 Elements of Online Marketing.

(PRWEB) August 17, 2007

Now with over 140 domains, Communication Coach Jennifer Henczel is often asked how she drives so much traffic to all her sites. All of these strategies work together to build on, what Henczel likes to call, online equity. Building a network of sites that link to a company's offerings increases the power to reach people and create profit. The items listed below are not necessarily steps that must be conducted in order, but rather elements that work simultaneously.

1. Develop Website Content
SEO is an important factor in online content management. Keywords are words and phrases that people use to search the web, and they should be built into the content throughout the website. Post new content at least once a month, including updates, information, articles, and resources that will compel people to want to visit the site. Keeping the content fresh will attract repeat visitors.

2. Search Engine Submissions
Each search engine provides a place to submit website URLs for consideration to be recognized by their robots. There is no formula to guarantee that any site will be placed at the top of the list for any particular keyword, however, using the strategies in this article, will increase the odds for getting a desired spot. Submit It is a great resource for submitting websites to several search engines at once. Test a site's ranking by using tools such as Google's PageRank. Check detailed traffic statistics through a free Google Adwords account.

3. Link Exchange Program
Invite people to link to the site by creating a page titled "Link to Us" that describes how to link to the website, and be sure to include suggested titles, text descriptions, and banners. Once this page is created, invite other related but non-competing sites to exchange links.

4. Write and Post Articles
This article strategy works in two ways: First, create an article section on the website to incorporate even more keywords into the content. For example, a spa or wellness clinic may include articles and resources for skin care, body care, or healthy foods, in addition to regular company information. Secondly, write and post articles on OTHER websites to sites like these:

Affective Communication Ezine
Business Smart Start Group
Import Export Coach Ezine

5. Conduct Tele-seminars
Conducting free or low fee tele-seminars is another way to attract more clients and loyal visitors to the website. Advertise the tele-seminar on the website, ezine, social media sites, networking sites, and in print. Adding the description of the seminar to the website will in turn, also increase the SEO of the website. It all works together, each piece enhancing the other. To create the tele-seminar requires a bridge line such as FreeConference. com, a way for people to sign up such as PayPal shopping cart, and a way to record the tele-seminar with services like AudioStrategies. com.

6. Domains
A url is the website address, for example, if you have a domain it may look something like this www. sitename. com. Marketing efforts will be more effective if the domain is short rather than long and confusing that may be confusing for someone to type in, and then they may not bother. The idea is to make it as simple as possible for people to get to the site.

7. Create Micro-sites and Online Resources
Once the main website is established, consider adding a network of complimentary micro-sites. The idea is to create several small sites, called micro-sites that each have their own unique domain, and link to one another. Micro-sites typically contain a long, one-page, compelling sales letters that includes benefits and descriptions to promote new products and services. However, these sales micro-sites do not necessarily draw traffic; drive traffic to them. What Henczel suggests here is to develop online resources that are packed with information and tips about a specific topic and link to the microsites, linking the value of the offerings.

8. Advertising and PPC
Start getting visitors and potential customers today with these strategies! Drive traffic to a website right away with pay-per-click (PPC) advertising through services such as Google Adwords. Sign up for account, create a small ad and it is placed onto other content relevant sites and in search results. For off-line marketing and advertising, include the website on letterhead, postcards, business cards, thank you cards, holiday cards, and promotional items.

9. Participate in Social Media
Social media is considered the driving force behind the Web 2.0 movement. It allows people to interact with site owners, comment on articles, contribute to site content, and participate in creating and re-creating media, and ultimately, network with other people. Basically we're talking about forms of consumer generated media (CGM) and consumer generated content (CGC) such as blogs, podcasting, video casting, wiki, social networking, and social book-marking. Messages are distributed through RSS, which stands for Real Simple Syndication, and subscribers read them using services such as Bloglines. To take advantage of this technology to generate traffic to a website, create an account at sites such as Facebook, Linked In, Youtube, iFilm, Technorati, StumbleUpon, Del. icio. us,

10. Create an Online Newsletter or Ezine
Urgent! Before anything else, start collecting email addresses from clients. Then by the time everything else is set up, a good opt-in subscriber list will be developed. Email marketing is proven to provide the best ROI (Return on Investment) than any other marketing available. It offers the lowest cost method for reaching an audience with the most impact. Amazingly, this strategy produces both short term and long term results, if produced consistently. A regular bi-weekly distribution is recommended. Henczel suggests using a digest format that involves placing a title and brief paragraph, description, or summary into the newsletter which then links to the full content on the website.

About Jennifer Henczel
Jennifer Henczel has a Masters in Communications and specializes in interpersonal, organizational, and external/marketing communications. Her focus is on communication, motivation, and creativity. She offers personal coaching, professional development training, and communication skills workshops. Other services include writing, training, speaking, and creating company ezines.

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World Contraceptives Market to Reach US$11.7 Billion by 2010, According to New Report by Global Industry Analysts

World Contraceptives Market to Reach US$11.7 Billion by 2010, According to New Report by Global Industry Analysts

Driven by the development of new generation, low dose, lower side effects, hormonal contraceptives, the world contraceptives market is projected to reach US$11.7 billion by the year 2010. Strong growth is expected to stem from developing countries where growing population, and rising incidences of STDs, and AIDS are causes of national concern. The significant role played by governments in these countries in the form of establishing, and implementing social marketing programs is poised to benefit sales of contraceptives in the upcoming years.

San Jose, California (PRWEB) March 17, 2008

World Contraceptives Market (http://www. strategyr. com/Contraceptives_Market_Report. asp) stands enthused by the huge untapped potential in developing countries like China, and India. An estimated 50% of condoms sold are branded and available commercially while the remaining is distributed in developing countries under social marketing programs designed to promote safe sex. The growing cultural trend of postponing childbearing until later in life, is offering opportunities for the market's growth in both developed and developing countries alike. In the recent times, planned parenthood is rising in popularity as well informed, educated couples make premeditated decisions on parenting a child or children. The reason fingered for postponing pregnancies to later in life, is the rising level of education, sophistication, and consequently career goals among young workingwomen. The desire to be financially independent, and stable has redefined the priorities of an average woman.

While the developed countries with their rapidly growing base of aging population face unfavorable demographics such as, decline in the number of females in the child bearing age, and falling fertility rates, the developing countries are expected to offer the required impetus for future growth. As stated by the recent report published by Global Industry Analysts, Inc., world market for contraceptive Implants/Injections (http://www. strategyr. com/Contraceptives_Market_Report. asp) is forecast to grow the strongest in Asia-Pacific over the period 2000 to 2015, to reach US$359.60 million by the year 2015. World oral contraceptives market (http://www. strategyr. com/Contraceptives_Market_Report. asp) is dominated by the United States and Europe with a combined 75.82% share estimated in the year 2007. By the year 2015, sales of condoms in Latin America are forecasted to reach US$841.5 million. 

Leading global and regional players operating in the industry include Ansell Limited, Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc., Bayer Schering Pharma AG, Female Health Company, Church & Dwight Co. Inc., Conceptus Inc, Condomi Health International, Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical Inc, Schering-Plough Corporation, Organon USA Inc, SSL International PLC, Wyeth Corporation, and Warner Chilcott, among others.

The report titled "Contraceptives: A Global Strategic Business Report" published by Global Industry Analysts, Inc., provides a comprehensive review of market trends, drivers, issues, and challenges. Richly annotated with authoritative, and unbiased commentaries, and hard-to-find statistical facts, the report provides unequivocal views on future potential while throwing light on the prevailing climate in key regional markets. Latent demand patterns for contraceptives are quantified across major geographic market verticals including the United States, Canada, Japan, Europe (France, Germany, Italy, UK, Spain, Russia) Asia-Pacific, and Latin America. Product markets analyzed in the report include Oral Contraceptives, Condoms, and Implants/Injections. Also provided in the report is an enumeration of recent mergers, acquisitions, and other strategic industry activities.

For more details about this research report, please visit
Http://www. strategyr. com/Contraceptives_Market_Report. asp (http://www. strategyr. com/Contraceptives_Market_Report. asp)

About Global Industry Analysts, Inc.
Global Industry Analysts, Inc., (GIA) (http://www. strategyr. com) is a reputed publisher of off-the-shelf market research. Founded in 1987, the company is globally recognized as one of the world's largest market research publishers. The company employs more than 700 people worldwide and publishes more than 880 full-scale research reports each year. Additionally, the company also offers a range of more than 60,000 smaller research products including company reports, market trend reports and industry reports encompassing all major industries worldwide.

Global Industry Analysts, Inc.
Telephone 408-528-9966
Fax 408-528-9977
Email press@StrategyR. com
Web Site www. StrategyR. com

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Removing Obstacles to Clinician Excellence in Home Health

Removing Obstacles to Clinician Excellence in Home Health

"Removing the Obstacles to Clinician Excellence" is the next Webinar in home health and hospice series sponsored by Thornberry Ltd. Running through January 2010, the entire series is "Prospering in the Perfect Storm." It focuses on how home health and hospice agencies can succeed in a changing industry environment.

Lancaster, Pa. (PRWEB) August 10, 2009

Thornberry Ltd is sponsoring a free Webinar series for home health and hospice agencies. The series will provide educational, practical information on how agencies can prepare for both the challenges and the opportunities of home health and hospice.

The second Webinar in the series will focus on removing the obstacles to clinician excellence. Many processes, regulations and technologies - all implemented with the best of intentions - often become obstacles to clinician excellence.

In this free, one-hour Webinar, an experienced home health executive will share how to use technology to remove obstacles hampering clinician excellence. Agencies don't have to continue to settle for incomplete assessments, regulatory non-compliance and discouraged clinical staff. There is a better way. This Webinar demonstrates how to improve compliance, productivity and morale while continuing to deliver quality care.

Space is limited. Home care and hospice managers and executives may register for this free, one-hour Webinar at www. thornberryltd. com/webinar (http://www. thornberryltd. com/webinar). Call 717.283.0980 ext. 153 with questions.

About Thornberry Limited
Thornberry Limited provides strategic technology platforms to home health and hospice agencies. Focused on increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of clinical, clerical and executive staff, Thornberry provides proven solutions to the challenges facing the healthcare industry. Challenges met by Thornberry's highly respected NDoc point-of-care system. Challenges met by the connected care provided by Thornberry and its broad network of technology partners that provide fully integrated telemedicine, mobile technology, e-faxing, billing, benchmarking and other essential services. Visit www. thornberryltd. com or call 717.283.0980 to find out how Thornberry can provide a game-changing solution for your organization.

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RAC Audit and Appeal Services Now Offered by Intersect Healthcare

RAC Audit and Appeal Services Now Offered by Intersect Healthcare

Intersect Healthcare, Inc., one of the nation's leading providers of Payor Compliance and Audit and Denial Management software, has assembled the nation’s most highly specialized team of expert advocacy resources, VERACITY AppealMasters, to assist healthcare providers in responding to virtually every RAC Audit & Appeal Process.

Baltimore, MD (Vocus/PRWEB) January 06, 2011

Intersect Healthcare, Inc., one of the nation's leading providers of Payor Compliance and Audit and Denial Management software for healthcare providers, today announced they have assembled the nation’s most highly specialized team of expert advocacy resources, VERACITY AppealMasters, to assist providers in responding to virtually every RAC Appeal Process and provide educational programs on constructing winning appeals.

“Medicaid RAC and other audit activities are predicted to heat up in 2011, and many healthcare facilities have already begun seeing strong evidence of this. Wouldn’t it feel great to have a team of dedicated, experienced, reliable appeals experts lined up and ready to step in and help when you need them?” asks Mark McGraw, Vice President of Audit & Appeal Services.

“VERACITY AppealMasters will provide an intensive, timely, and exhaustive appeals process invoking a combination of medical, technical, managed care and legal resources to formulate a winning appeal” stated Mr. McGraw. “VERACITY AppealMasters’ team of medical necessity, documentation and coding review experts were hired by specialty to draw upon individual experiences. Each specialist has been actively involved in creating RAC Coding Appeal templates to support specific audit appeals.”

Mr. McGraw went on to comment that VERACITY AppealMasters’ focused goal is Performance Enhancement - to prevent future takebacks and denials. “We provide Appeal Educationto the healthcare providers’ appeals staff to help construct winning RAC appeal letters, offer RAC appeal letter templates with input from industry experts, and provide affordable, easy-to-use and effective tools and services to correct potential flaws in current coding or clinical documentation processes.”

The VERACITY AppealMasters team is led by Denise Wilson, RN, RRT, MS, who was appointed as Director of Appeal Services and brings over 28 years of experience in healthcare management. Denise has extensive experience as a successful Medicare appeals specialist and has personally managed over 350 appeal cases with a 95% success rate at the ALJ level. Denise shares her knowledge and experience of appeals processes and the design of successful appeals through FREE webinars and onsite education programs.

About Intersect Healthcare
Intersect Healthcare is a leading provider of risk management, compliance and audit management solutions currently licensed for to over one hundred healthcare providers nationwide. To learn more about Intersect Healthcare and the VERACITY™ suite of products, please visit http://www. intersecthealthcare. com.

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UCSF Ranks Fifth in New "U. S News" Survey on Best Medical Schools

UCSF Ranks Fifth in New "U. S News" Survey on Best Medical Schools

The UCSF School of Medicine ranks fifth among all medical schools in the nation in a new survey on ''America's Best Graduate Schools'' conducted by ''U. S. News & World Report.''

San Francisco, CA (Vocus) April 23, 2009

The UCSF School of Medicine ranks fifth among all medical schools in the nation in a new survey on ''America's Best Graduate Schools'' conducted by ''U. S. News & World Report.''

Medical schools were assessed for both the quality of their research training and primary care training. The UCSF School of Medicine ranks fifth in both categories. It is one of only two universities in the country -- along with the University of Washington -- to rank in the top 10 in both categories. Both are public universities.

The UCSF medical school also ranks among the top 10 in all of its clinical specialty programs that were ranked in the new survey.

The rankings are reported online by U. S. News magazine today (April 23, 2009) at www. usnews. com/grad (http://www. usnews. com/grad). They will be published in the May issue of the magazine available on newsstands April 28.

The new rankings do not include nursing and pharmacy school programs, which U. S. News also surveys but not on an annual basis. The most recent ranking for "best" nursing schools was reported in 2007 and for "best" pharmacy schools in 2008. In those surveys, the UCSF School of Nursing ranked second and the UCSF School of Pharmacy was first. U. S. News does not conduct a survey of dental schools.

The most recent rankings for all graduate schools that are part of the survey process also are represented in the U. S. News Media Group's 2010 edition of the guidebook ''America's Best Graduate Schools.'' This year's edition includes new rankings for a variety of PhD programs, as well as the first ranking of part-time law school programs. That guidebook will be available for purchase April 28.

The new medical school rankings are based on two types of data: expert opinions about program quality and statistical indicators that measure the quality of a school's faculty, research and students. These data are derived from surveys conducted in 2008 of more than 1,200 medical schools and 11,000 academics and professionals, according to the magazine.

"Once again, the UCSF School of Medicine has been recognized as one of the foremost medical training programs in the country," said Sam Hawgood, MB, the school's interim dean. "Our unique position among the top five schools in the U. S. both in medical research and in primary care reflects the excellence of our teaching and the breadth of experience we offer our students."

The new rankings for the UCSF School of Medicine specialty programs, according to the survey, are:
AIDS - 1 Women's health - 2 Internal medicine - 3 Drug/alcohol abuse - 5 Family medicine - 6 Geriatrics - 9 Pediatrics - 10 The medical school rankings are based on assessments of research activity and primary-care programs by deans and senior faculty, admission acceptance rates and faculty resources. Specialty rankings were based on ratings by medical school deans and senior faculty at peer schools.

The UCSF School of Medicine is one of five medical schools in the 10-campus University of California system and its faculty and medical students support the UCSF Medical Center, which routinely ranks in the top 10 medical centers nationwide in outside surveys. The UCSF schools of dentistry, nursing and pharmacy also routinely rank among the premier schools in their fields in education and research funding.

UCSF is a leading university dedicated to promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care. For further information, please visit www. ucsf. edu.

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New Video and Research Shows that Libraries Play a Key Role in Connecting the Disconnected

New Video and Research Shows that Libraries Play a Key Role in Connecting the Disconnected

In recent research and activities, Connected Nation has found that libraries, across the country, are playing a critical role in connecting America’s disconnected. And, Americans are already speaking out about how libraries are transforming their families’ lives through broadband. Connected Nation has captured some of these stories in a video called “Connecting America Through Broadband at the Library.” In addition, Connected Nation’s survey research--which was recently filed in a policy brief with the Federal Communications Commission—further validates the important role libraries play as a community technology hub.

Washington, DC (Vocus) October 30, 2009

In recent research and activities, Connected Nation has found that libraries, across the country, are playing a critical role in connecting America’s disconnected. And, Americans are already speaking out about how libraries are transforming their families’ lives through broadband.

Connected Nation has captured some of these stories in a video called “Connecting America Through Broadband at the Library.” In addition, Connected Nation’s survey research--which was recently filed in a policy brief with the Federal Communications Commission—further validates the important role libraries play as a community technology hub.

Below are some of these testimonies.

Watch Video “Connecting America Through Broadband at the Library.” (http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=iz_NdjVxc1Y)

Along with this anecdotal evidence, Connected Nation conducted surveys across the states of Tennessee and Ohio to better understand the role of libraries in the broadband age. The report has been filed with the FCC, encouraging the commission to consider the important role community anchor institutions—specifically libraries—play in the national broadband plan.

Key findings of this survey research include:
 Significant percentages of those who normally don't subscribe to broadband – specifically single parents, minorities and low-income residents – are relying on the local library as their sole or primary Internet resource: 25 percent of single parents, 25 percent of minorities, 18 percent of low income residents, and 11 percent of people with disabilities depend on libraries for Internet connections.

 More than one-half of library Internet users (51 percent) have children at home, suggesting that a significant portion of library Internet users are children. Of this group, 42 percent do not have a broadband connected computer at home.

 Library Internet users are significantly more likely than other Internet users (those who connect at home or elsewhere) to use a number of online applications related to workforce development and education, civic engagement and healthcare.

 Nearly half of library Internet users (46 percent) search for jobs online, compared to 29 percent of other Internet users.

 Library Internet users are significantly more likely than other Internet users to communicate online with local government officials (25 percent compared to 14 percent.)

 28 percent of library Internet users communicate online with healthcare professionals, compared to 16 percent of other Internet users.

To view the filing, click here. (http://fjallfoss. fcc. gov/ecfs2/document/view? id=7020243838) To view more data from this survey, click here (http://connectednation. com/_documents/LibraryApps_102809_FINAL. ppt) to view graphs.

These voices and research are already helping Connected Nation work with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, in a pilot program called Opportunity Online. (http://www. opportunityonline. org/)

This initiative partners the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Connected Nation and the American Library Association to host broadband summits for librarians, public and private leaders and other influencers in six different states.

These summits help communities across each state devise a plan for greater library connectivity, especially for libraries that cannot offer broadband connected computers. Following the summits, the libraries are offered the opportunity to apply for grants to help fund their connectivity plans.

To learn more about the Opportunity Online summits, click here. (http://www. opportunityonline. org/)

For more information, contact Jessica Ditto at jditto@connectednation. org or (202) 251-4749.

Related Links:
FCC Filing: Connecting America through Broadband at the Library:
A Connected Nation® Policy Brief (http://fjallfoss. fcc. gov/ecfs2/document/view? id=7020243838)

Watch Video: Connecting America Through Broadband at the Library (http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=iz_NdjVxc1Y)

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