Daily Archives: December 18, 2012

Education

Online Dental Education Site Raising Money for Local Charity

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E-den Education is currently running a charity campaign to support Alzheimer’s Australia Dementia Research Foundation.

Alexandria, New South Wales (Australia), December 18, 2012 — eDen Education is currently raising money to support those with Alzheimer’s. Alzheimer’s Australia http://www.fightdemetia.org.au Dementia Research Foundation is an organization committed to offering support, education, and information about Alzheimer’s to people with dementia, their families, and those professionals working in the dementia industry.

Alzheimer’s Australia offers national dementia services and programs that are funded by the Commonwealth and provide advocacy and national policy for the 280,000 Australians who are living with dementia. The LWML (Living with Memory Loss Program) offers those within the early phases of dementia with a customized program of advice, information, and peer support to help them in coming to terms with dementia and prepare for their future.

The foundation offers free counseling for the ones with dementia, as well as their families. Counseling offers a chance to discuss problems associated with dementia privately with highly experienced and skilled counselors.

Currently e-Den Education is running a campaign on their Facebook page in which they will donate $1 to the foundation when you “Like” their Facebook page. In the month of November, the company received 61 new “Likes” and so they donated $61 on their supporter’s behalf. Their goal is to raise $1,000 by January 31st, and all those who ‘liked’ will go into a drawing to win one of 5 annual memberships worth $997 each. That’s nearly a $5000 FREE giveaway Please help them to reach their goal and spread the word. Their five lucky winners are going to be announced on Friday, February 15, if they reach their goal for charity! Remember, they need 1,000 ‘likes’ by January 31. To show your support and help raise money and donate to a worthy cause, visit their Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/eDen.Dental.Education

About e-Den Education:
e-Den includes an Internet education website specifically designed for dental experts. Karen McDonagh and Jennifer Craig are the directors of e-Den Education. Karen’s background is within marketing, sales, and training within the beauty and health field, and she also has expertise in online learning. Jennifer has been a Dental Prosthetist within private practice for twenty-five years and additionally is a teacher part-time of Dental Prosthetics with TAFE. For more information visit the website: http://www.e-deneducation.com/.

Press & Media Contact:
Jennifer Craig, Director
e-Den Education
Suite 18, 112 McEvoy Street
Alexandria, NSW 2015 – Australia
1 800-773-757
admin@e-deneducation.com
http://www.e-deneducation.com

Education

Online Dental Education Site Promoting New LMS Platform

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eDen Education, an online education site for dental professionals, is currently rolling out their new LMS platform.

Alexandria, New South Wales (Australia), December 18, 2012 — eDen Education is currently rolling out their new LMS Dental platform. It’s a Dental LMS (learning management system) specifically designed for large organizations and suppliers to educate their staff members and gain CPD (Continuing Professional Development) This simple, cost effective solution for large groups and companies to offer training in the convenience of an online environment has proven to be a breakthrough in online training.

The platform may be customized to the specific needs of the company, with features including the flexibility to upload your own lectures, presentations, documents, videos and resources, brand it with your own logo, publish your own welcome message, upcoming events, conferences and latest news. Alternatively, you may access the education provided. What is most unique about this system though, is it’s functionality that allows thousands of users simultaneous access to this online training tool.

The comprehensive platform has an extensive reporting system which allows you to monitor and record all the activity of your members if you wish, whilst remaining extremely user friendly. Reporting includes who has accessed the platform, what time of day, how long users stayed active, what topics have been most or least popular among many other things. Upon completion of each module, your users are able to download a certificate of completion.

The LMS platform http://www.elearningden.com is available by invitation only to companies who would like a training session. Should you qualify, eDen Education is offering 20 licenses for 30 days to companies within the health and dental sector. Training sessions are available face to face within Australia or via skype internationally.

According to one satisfied member, Glenda Cowley RDH, Director of Fill The Gap Locum Hygienist Agency Pty Ltd, who has taken advantage of the education eDen has provided on the LMS “I would just like to say how much I look forward to your educational modules and how professional this training platform is. It’s convenient, easy to use and inexpensive. I’d like to take this opportunity to commend you on all that you have done to set up this whole online training concept … which must have been and still is no doubt a massive enterprise that you have embarked on!

It is one of the most professionally presented and managed CPD options available. Being able to tune in from home or wherever one is includes a huge improvement on the old system of turning up at venues etc. etc. So, THANKYOU VERY MUCH for your quality of service and for the speakers that you no doubt ‘hand pick’ for their ability to present prepared quality informative material….I tune into as many lectures as I can, and can see myself becoming an eDen lifetime member! Thank you once again and keep up the marvelous work.”

About e-Den Education:
e-Den started as a Dental education website specifically designed for individual dental Professionals. Karen McDonagh and Jennifer Craig are the directors of e-Den Education. Karen’s background is within marketing, sales, and training within the beauty and health field, and also has expertise in online learning. Jennifer has been a Dental Prosthetist in private practice for twenty-five years and additionally is a teacher of Dental Prosthetics with TAFE NSW and TAFE SA.

eDen education has spent the past 6 months expanding and growing the new e-Leaning Den. For more information on this new and exciting system, visit their personal website: http://www.e-deneducation.com and get in touch, via their Free call number or email

Press & Media Contact:
Jennifer Craig, Director
e-Den Education
Suite 18, 112 McEvoy Street
Alexandria, NSW 2015 – Australia
1 800-773-757
admin@e-deneducation.com
http://www.e-deneducation.com

Technology

MOD Spin-out Receives CA £500K Funding for Technology

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ProKyma, a spin-out from the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) and founded by Ploughshare Innovations, today announced a £482K grant from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) i4i programme.

Hampshire, UK, December 18, 2012 – ProKyma, a spin-out from the Defence Science and Technology laboratory (Dstl) and founded by Ploughshare Innovations, today announced a £482K grant from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) i4i programme. The funding will help it to apply its technology to improve the detection of cancer and monitor changes during treatment.

The investment will allow ProKyma to apply its ‘KymaSep’ technology, which automates the manipulation of magnetic particles to purify and concentrate very low numbers of Circulating Tumour Cells (CTCs) from a blood sample. The cancer cell, once purified, can be sequenced using tools developed for the human genome project to find the patient’s specific and individual cancer mutation. This information then allows cost effective measurement of CTC numbers, which should decrease during treatment. Oncologists will use this unique tool to adapt and change therapy in real time if the CTC numbers do not decrease.

ProKyma is working with a world-class multi-disciplinary team in Merseyside to deliver the challenging technical breakthroughs needed in this project. A unique cell capture technology has been licenced from CellCap Technologies, which is currently being optimised to harvest millions of stem cells for cellular therapies. Through a long-standing collaboration with the UK Centre for Tissue Engineering at the University of Liverpool, ProKyma will adapt this technology for the very low-number of cell captures needed for CTC detection (5 CTC cells per test-tube of blood). The Liverpool Pancreatic Biomedical Research Unit will then optimise the method for capture, sequencing and enumeration of CTCs. This will then be translated into a device for routine use, which will be tested against samples from the Liverpool Cancer Trials Unit to measure its usefulness on real patient samples.

Damian Bond, chief executive of ProKyma, stated, “The NIHR support has come at a very good time for us and builds on six years of expertise and development. We are excited to collaborate with the teams from CellCap and the University of Liverpool to develop this much needed, but challenging technology.”

KymaSep is a small, portable system that is based around an injection moulded device, providing simple operation at low cost – making it ideal for clinic or point-of-care use. It is the result of six years development at ProKyma that started from Dstl’s work to develop continuous detection systems for biothreat agents. It has been funded by investment from the Rainbow Seed Fund; Merseyside Special Investment Fund’s Liverpool Seed Fund; and the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA).

With the funding and support of NIHR, ProKyma is looking to develop its technology to a point where it can raise a Series A funding round to begin manufacture of the CTC monitoring product in Merseyside by the end of 2014.

Notes to the editor:

For further information, please contact Damian Bond on 07798 600 833 or e-mail damianbond@prokyma.com

CellCap Technologies (www.cell-capture.com)

CellCap is an early stage business developing products to harvest adult stem cells from body tissues for research and cellular therapies. Supported by grants from the Technogy Strategy Board and imvestment from the NWFund Biomedical LP, its lead product is due to start external evaluation in 2013.

Dstl (www.dstl.gov.uk)

The Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) is a centre of scientific excellence for the Ministry of Defence (MOD). Its 3,500 strong workforce includes some of the nation’s most talented and creative scientists with the brief to ensure that the UK Armed Forces and Government are supported in-house by the very best impartial scientific and technological advice. Dstl’s position at the heart of the MOD means that its advice is trusted by overnments academia, industry and international partners. It offers timely and accurate advice at all levels of military planning and operations, both overseas and on the home front.

NESTA (www.nesta.org.uk)

NESTA is the National Endowment for Science, Technology & the Arts. With endowed funds of over £300 million, our mission is to transform the UK’s capacity for innovation. We do this in three main ways: by working to build a more pervasive culture of innovation in this country; by providing innovators with access to early-stage capital; and by driving forward research into innovation, with a view to influencing policy.

The Liverpool Seed Fund

Merseyside Special Investment Fund’s (MSIF) Liverpool Seed Fund is a £27m fund which invests in companies with new ideas, innovations and intellectual property. Seed funding can support three stages of development: proof of concept (£50,000 to £100,000) commercialisation (up to £350,000) and first round venture capital (up to £750,000). Liverpool Ventures, a subsidiary of MSIF, was set up specifically to provide pre and post investment support to businesses invested in by the Seed Fund to help give them the best possible chance of success.

About Rainbow Seed Fund:

http://www.midven.co.uk/Rainbow-Seed-Fund/

The £8.5m Rainbow Seed Fund was established in 2001 with funding from the Office of Science and Innovation to commercialise scientific research in a leading group of the UK publicly funded institutions, our partners. The Fund, which is independently managed by Midven Ltd, made its first investment in 2002, and currently has a portfolio of 16 companies with one exit.

The Fund invests at the earliest stages of a technology’s development, and helps to turn an idea into a business by actively identifying and supporting experienced management and facilitating additional coinvestment. Rainbow’s partners spend over £1 billion on research and development every year giving the Fund privileged access to high quality investment propositions at the earliest stage.

ProKyma is a spinout from Dstl. Founded by Ploughshare Innovations in 2006 with initial investment from the Rainbow Seed Fund, it has developed novel approaches in sample handling to enhance diagnostic technologies to provide improved information and simplified handling.

About Ploughshare:
Ploughshare Innovations manages the commercial licensing to industry of intellectual property developed by the UK’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl). Ploughshare’s goal is to give clients a competitive edge, by lowering technology risk, reducing R&D costs, speeding time to market, and maximizing the business opportunity. It provides leading edge, application focused technology, backed up with the assurance of advanced IP support and protection. Ploughshare is a wholly owned subsidiary of Dstl.

Contact:
Chris Goff
Ploughshare Innovations Ltd.
Unit 2, Nine Mile Water Business Park
Nether Wallop, Stockbridge
Hampshire SO20 8DR
+44 (0) 1794 301602
info@ploughshareinnovations.com
http://www.ploughshareinnovations.com

Business

AAA: Asian Real Estate Investments are Booming

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Asian investors are extremely positive about the outlook for real estate in the region, according to AAA.

Boston, MA, USA, December 18, 2012 — Asian investors are extremely positive about the outlook for real estate in the region, according to Alternative Asset Analysis (AAA).

The alternative investment advocacy group was keen to endorse the findings of the recent Colliers 2013 Global Investor Sentiment Survey. The survey found that 70 per cent of Asian investors said they planned to increase their investment in Asia and expand their property portfolio. Some 41 per cent of those questioned about their real estate investments said they expected to achieve returns exceeding 20 per cent.

AAA’s analysis partner, Anthony Johnson, said “Return on investment totalling 20 per cent is incredibly strong, suggesting that real estate in the emerging regions of Asia, such as China and India, is a really great investment for those looking to diversify their portfolios with an alternative investment.”

The survey of Asian investors also discovered that 69 per cent of them expect that market conditions in real estate will improve even further in the coming five years, with only 12 per cent expecting the market to decline. There were, however, a few concerns. Some said that it was still difficult to raise capital for real estate investments, while others said that the economic conditions were still a little unpredictable.

With regards to the most popular cities to invest in property, the top five were named as Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo. The growing economies in China have prompted many investors to set their sights on office developments in Central Business District areas.

AAA is a supporter of many kinds of alternative investments, but specialises in endorsement of ethical options, like timberland investment through firms like Greenwood Management. Greenwood runs sustainably managed plantations of non-native timbers in Brazil and Canada. Investors can buy up their own sections of forest and see returns over the medium term.

About Alternative Asset Analysis:
The remit of Alternative Asset Analysis is to analyse and provide news on the global performance of a wide range of alternative asset classes including, but not restricted to, commodities, real estate, forestry, foreign exchange, hedge funds, private equity and venture capital.

Media Contact:
Anthony Johnson
Alternative Asset Analysis
71 Commercial St
Boston, MA 02109-1320
617-939-9596
info@alternativeassetanalysis.com
http://www.alternativeassetanalysis.com

Business

FRA Endorses the Use of Real Christmas Trees

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FRA has endorsed reports from a sustainability expert in Canada, claiming that buying a real tree is a much better choice, from a sustainability perspective, than opting for a fake tree.

Seattle, United States, December 18, 2012 — Forestry Research Associates (FRA) has endorsed reports from a sustainability expert in Canada, claiming that buying a real tree is a much better choice, from a sustainability perspective, than opting for a fake tree.

Artificial plastic trees would need to be kept for many years to ensure that the carbon emitted in their production is saved. However, most of them head to landfill within a few years. Steve Mitchell, a lecturer on sustainability issues at the University of British Columbia, stated, “Artificial trees need to be kept for 20 years for the carbon emissions to be equivalent to using natural trees.” He cited evidence from a study carried out by sustainability consultancy Ellipses in 2009.

FRA’s analysis partner, Peter Collins, said, “There are, of course, many choices to make when it comes to buying a real tree, with some options being more eco-friendly than others. However, providing you choose a Christmas tree from a sustainable plantation, you are likely to make a greener choice than if you go with an artificial tree.”

FRA claims that it is always a good idea to try to buy your Christmas tree from as close to your home as possible, to minimize the carbon emissions from the transport of the tree. Wild trees can be an option for some people, but it’s recommended that you check the local laws on using wild trees in your area.

Another green option is to buy a Christmas tree with a root ball still attached so that it can continue to grow after Christmas. “Planting your Christmas tree in your yard after the festive season is over is a lovely thing to do and you might even get more than one Christmas out of the same tree,” added Mr Collins.

FRA supports sustainable forestry investment and proved research and advisory services for those thinking of investing in forestry or timberland, through firms like Greenwood Management, which operates sustainable Christmas tree plantations in Canada.

About Forestry Research Associates

Forestry Research Associates is a research and advisory consultancy that focuses on forestry management, sustainability issues and forestry investment around the globe.

Media Contact:
Peter Collins
Forestry Research Associates
620 Vineyard Lane
Bainbridge Island, WA 98110
(206) 316 8394
info@forestry-research.com
http://www.forestry-research.com

Education

University Ventures Launches Education Technology Development Company: UV Labs

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Enterprise Founded with Education Veteran with Deep Expertise Developing Innovative Products in Higher Education

San Francisco, CA, December 18, 2012 – University Ventures, the premier investment firm uniquely focused on the global higher education sector, today announced the launch of UV Labs, a company that will partner directly with universities and other providers of higher education to build innovative products and technologies to help solve the serious issues of accessibility, affordability, quality and accountability facing higher education.

UV Labs will be led by Co-Founder and CEO Dr. Satish Menon. Over the past two decades, Menon has steered the development of multiple technological innovations in education and digital media, including the development of several mobile products, personalized learning management platforms and a suite of education-to-career tools for postsecondary learners. Prior to co-founding UV Labs, Menon served as Chief Technology Officer for Apollo Group, a Fortune 500 company and one of the world’s largest private education providers. He also previously served as Vice President at Yahoo’s Consumer Platforms division.

A team of product designers, social scientists, and experts in education, cognitive science and technology will support him in developing new products for students, higher education institutions and employers.

“This is an exciting collaborative new venture. For too long higher education has remained unchanged by the technological advances taking place in other industries. If universities around the world want to meet the need for a more skilled and prepared workforce, innovative products and technologies are needed,” said Menon. “In partnership with global thought-leaders in higher education and the private and public sectors, UV Labs has the opportunity to deploy products that will adequately prepare learners to meet and solve the pressing needs facing our world today.”

“We are thrilled to have Satish at the helm of this new enterprise. His knowledge of the education, media and consumer sectors and his strong technology expertise, paired with the team’s experience and passion for higher education, will aid UV Labs in becoming a great resource for innovative education products and technologies,” said Ryan Craig, Managing Director at University Ventures. “This foray into development helps advance the core mission of University Ventures and move higher education as a whole closer to where it needs to be to better serve students.”

UV Labs is funded by University Ventures, and follows its differentiated strategy of “innovating from within.” By partnering with top-tier universities and colleges, UV Labs will create products and solutions for universities to set new standards for student outcomes, rather than competing against them. Through this partnership, University Ventures aims to expand its role in advancing the development of the next generation of colleges and universities on a global scale.

Product designers, social scientists and others interested in becoming a part of this unique venture should visit www.uvlabsinc.com for more information.

About UV Labs;
UV Labs is a company that seeks to build innovative products and technologies to help solve the increasingly complex issues facing higher education today. By collaborating with universities and working with experts in the field of social science and technology, UV Labs aims to assist learners find more efficient pathways to meet their goals through education. By doing this, UV Labs will create a more skilled and prepared workforce to solve social and economic challenges. To learn more, visit www.uvlabsinc.com.

About University Ventures
University Ventures is the premier investment firm focused exclusively on the global higher education sector. University Ventures pursues a differentiated strategy of ‘innovation from within’. By partnering with top-tier universities and colleges, and then strategically directing private capital to develop programs of exceptional quality that address major economic and social needs, University Ventures expects to set new standards for student outcomes and advance the development of the next generation of colleges and universities on a global scale. For more information, visit www.universityventuresfund.com.

Contact:
Kavitha Thimmaiah
Communications Strategy Group
3225 East 2nd Avenue
Denver, CO 80206
303-433-7020
kthimmaiah@csg-pr.com
http://www.csg-pr.com