Friday, November 29, 2019

Googles New Values Usable, Shareable Sites

by Constant Content Arecent article on SearchEngineWatch.com highlighted a change in Google’s advice to webmasters on ranking. Where Google once advised webmasters who wanted to improve their sites’ rank to increase â€Å"the number of high quality sites that link to their pages,† it now says that, â€Å"†¦webmasters can improve the rank of their sites by creating high-quality sites that users will want to use and share.† This is a subtle, but important, shift. Instead of rewarding webmasters who entice other webmasters to link to them, a somewhat unnatural approach, Google seems to be placing a greater emphasis on the user experience. Rather than focusing on getting backlinks, webmasters should be focusing on creating high-quality sites. What makes a site a high-quality site? Below are the three most important aspects: The user – The user is by far the most important part of any website. If your site is useful to users, easy to navigate, and pleasant, pat yourself on the back. There’s a word for this: usability. Website usability is a concept that considers how easy a site is for users to use, navigate, and enjoy. According to Jakob Nielson, a renowned usability expert, â€Å"utility† means whether a design provides the features you need; â€Å"usability† describes how easy and pleasant these features are; and a site is â€Å"useful† if it has both utility and usability. The design – Your website design should meet the usability definitions above. After all, your users need to be able to find useful, relevant information with minimal fuss – otherwise, they’ll go elsewhere. It should also be attractive and load quickly. You may need to update your site’s design every few years in order to keep it from looking dated. The content – It doesn’t matter how pretty a site is, however, if it doesn’t contain fresh, unique content. Not only should your site’s articles and blog posts be relevant and informative to users, they should also be shareable. Google now emphasizes the creation of high-quality sites that users want to â€Å"use and share.† As a webmaster, you’re likely well-versed in the art of usability and website design. Now that Google is less concerned with backlinks and more concerned with quality, and usability, you can focus on your area of expertise. Filling your site with fresh, informative, and shareable content, however, may be a challenge. Let Constant-Content help. That’s our area of expertise.

Monday, November 25, 2019

Arabic Loanwords In English

Arabic Loanwords In English Arabic Loanwords In English Arabic Loanwords In English By Sharon The Arabic language has contributed hundreds of words to the English language by many different routes. Thats partly because in what my daughter likes to call the olden days (from around 700AD to the Middle Ages), the Arabic kingdoms had a great influence on Europe and the world. In part this was through colonisation, but there were also many great mathematicians, alchemists and astronomers. Of course, language development is not that simple. Not all the words that have entered English via Arabic originate from that language. Linguistically speaking, the Arabs borrowed as freely as they lent and their language included words originating from Spanish, Latin, Greek, Persian, Hebrew and many others. Many of the words start with the Arabic definite article al, which also appears in silent form without the l in words such as admiral. Heres a list of some of the common words that the Arabic language has bequeathed to English. admiral adobe alchemy via Greek alcohol the quintessence of earthly substances, originally from alchemy alcove algebra restoration of missing parts, later used in a 9th century mathematical book written by a Persian scientist whose name gave us algorithm almanac amber apricot arsenal factory assassin hashish user artichoke aubergine burnoose via Latin caliber carat via Greek checkmate coffee possibly from the name Kefa, where the coffee plant originates cotton divan elixir medicinal potion, via Greek gauze from the Persian for raw silk gazelle genie giraffe harem hashish henna jasmine from Arabic via French kohl lilac, from Persian for indigo lime loofah lute magazine storehouse mocha named after a city in Yemen monsoon mummy via Persian muslin nadir orange safari from Arabic via Swahili saffron sequin sugar tamarind tariff typhoon zenith zero Theres a fun quiz on Arabic loan words here and more words can be found here. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:100 Words for Facial ExpressionsAbstract Nouns from AdjectivesPreposition Mistakes #3: Two Idioms

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Students will be required to research the topic of Effective Assignment

Students will be required to research the topic of Effective Advertising and write a literary review and analysis - Assignment Example Marketers can use different mediums like TV, Radio, internet, billboards, public personnel, celebrity, electronic display boards etc to communicate the message to viewers and in some case press releases are being used to communicate the message. Dube and Manchanda (81-95) stated that important thing is to measure the effectiveness of advertisement and due to non-tangibility of parameters; it becomes very difficult to measure effectiveness of advertisement. In such context, this essay will try to address the theme â€Å"Effective Advertising† with the help of research works conducted by various research scholars on that subject. Although, key objective of the paper is to answer the question â€Å"What Makes Advertising Effective† but the essay will take funnel approach to concentrate on specific aspect like â€Å"role of internationalization on advertising† in the later part. Understanding concepts or factors that might affect the effectiveness of advertisement wo uld also be important part of the discussion. Discussion Literature Review Nguyen and Shi (965-973) pointed out that it is very difficult to summarize all the factors that may affect the effectiveness of advertisement and they also identified macro and micro influencer of advertisement. For macro factor, synchronization of advertisement theme with socio-cultural dimension of particular population or theme variation can play important role in influencing purchase action of viewer. On the other hand, Bruce (659-673) identified micro factors like product involvement and ad/context congruency or cognitive appeal of the advertisement can play important role in determining the effectiveness of advertisement. Considering the vastness of the topic, it is to be understood that addressing or identifying all the factors that may influence effectiveness of advertisement is beyond the scope of this short essay. Therefore, in this literature review, the researcher will focus on issue like impact of internationalization on advertising, theme effects and ad/context congruency etc in order to address key deliverables in the assignment. Theme Effects Bass, Bruce, Murthi and Majumdar (179–195) stated that quality of advertisement might vary over the time and alteration of themes might affect effectiveness of the advertisement. According to these scholars, quality of the advertisement is intangible and relative measure which has indirect link with the themes of the advertisement. For example, these Bass, Bruce, Murthi and Majumdar (179–195) used advertisement example of a fast food joint which has changed its theme over the course of time in order to remain relevant and effective. Bass, Bruce, Murthi and Majumdar (179–195) found that repetition of the same advertising theme in longitudinal manner might decrease the effectiveness of the advertisement. In such context, MacInnis, Rao and Weiss (391–407) found that effectiveness of the advertisement is dec ided by the existence of pooling effects like emotional appeal, logical appeal, sense of benefits etc in the promoted advertisement. For example, Chandy, Tellis, MacInnis and Thaivanich (399–414) gave examples of argument based advertisement themes in consumer durables sector and stated that effectiveness of the advertisement gets increased when marketers compare the benefits of offering with

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

The arbitrage theory of capital asset pricing Literature review

The arbitrage theory of capital asset pricing - Literature review Example At the same time, the risk factor offers price to investors for investing their money in risky securities. The sum total of both these factors gives a clear view regarding the expected rate of return on a particular asset. It is generally calculated by using a risk measure called beta. The arbitrage pricing theory is a well known alternative to capital asset pricing model that is beneficial for the investors to determine whether an asset is correctly priced or not. This paper tends to evaluate various aspects of the arbitrage theory of capital pricing. Structure of Arbitrage Pricing Theory Arbitrage Pricing Theory (APT) is an alternative to capital asset pricing theory and it is formulated by the economist Stephen Ross in 1976. In order to clearly evaluate the potentiality of arbitrage pricing theory, it is necessary to understand the range and terms of capital asset pricing model (CAPM). As discussed above, CAPM calculates rate of return of an asset by adding the value of risk taken with duration of investment. It is relevant to understand the working method of CAPM also. Assume that risk-free rate is 5%, the beta measure of the stock is 3 and the expected rate of market return for this period is 12%; then the expected rate of stock becomes: 5%+3(12% - 5%) = 26% In the opinion of Roll and Ross (1980), this theory had considerable significance in empirical work during the periods of 1960’s and 1970’s. However further researches on this concept have questioned its reliability and authenticity of the computation of empirical constellation of asset returns; and, many related theories have detected ranges of disenchantment with the CAPM (ibid). Authors say that this situation led to the demand for a more potential theory and it caused the formulation of APT. Although, APT was developed recently, CAPM is considered as the basis of modern portfolio theory. Huberman and Wang (2005) claim that both the CAPM and APT show relation between expected returns o f assets and their co-variance with other random variables; and an investor cannot avoid some types of risks by diversification and the concept of covariance is interpreted as a measure of such risks. While comparing with CAPM, the APT contains fewer assumptions; and at the same time, this theory is very difficult to use. Roll and Ross (1980) clearly tells that the basic idea behind arbitrage pricing theory is that the price of a security is varied by mainly two groups of factors such as macro factors and company specific factors. Since no ‘arbitrage assumptions’ are employed, this theory is popularly known in this name. The group categorization and thereby macro as well as company specific factors are very crucial to form the following formula: r = rf + ?1f1 + ?2f2 + ?3f3 + †¦ where r represents the expected rate on the security and rf is the risk free rate. In this formula, f stands for a separate factor and ? is a relationship measure between the security price and that factor. Cho, Eun, and Senbet (1986) have conducted an empirical investigation so as to evaluate the international performance of the arbitrage pricing policy. In their research, they mainly employed two valuation techniques such as inter-battery factor analysis and Chow test. The inter-battery factor analysis helped the authors to estimate the international common factors while they could test the validity of the APT using Chow test method. A

Monday, November 18, 2019

Historical analysis of recent events Research Paper

Historical analysis of recent events - Research Paper Example Once the protests were successful in Tunisia, all other North African Countries in the vicinity of the Arab League joined protests in their nations to protest over similar demands. Specifically, the demonstrators were successful to remove from office presidents in countries such as Libya, Egypt, Algeria, Yemen, Tunisia, Morocco, Kuwait, Jordan and Iraq. Strong protests had since been recorded in areas such as Syria, Sudan, Palestine and Oman. It is safe to mention that there was some coercion and influence in the way in which people strove and joined the protests. It is important to contextualize the causes so as to understand the reasons which made the countries take up arms against their governments. Firstly, it was held and believed that there was some level and degree of dissatisfaction by young people and labour unions due to disparities in the levels of incomes and poverty. The youths were the backbone of the protests due to unemployment and the varying gap that existed between the level of wealth between them and the ruling class. Equally of interest was the issue of mass or grave violations of human rights, monarchy and exclusivity of power concentrated to the hands of a few people and corruption or misuse of public resources. The youths and the Arabs nations by extension were particularly concerned by the extravagance of the ruling elites yet they did not have even jobs or any meaningful source of income. Equally unsettling to the protestors was the fact that there was no room for dissent or difference of opinion from the ruling autocrats. The word of the ruling autocrats became rule and law without following any due process of legislation or constitutionalism. A practical case and instance in this respect and line of thought was the Libya case where there so many political prisoners. The prisoners in Libya

Saturday, November 16, 2019

Case Study: Liver Disease and Hepatitis B

Case Study: Liver Disease and Hepatitis B Case study   Ã¢â‚¬â€œ Liver Disease Introduction A 60 year old woman with a history of hepatitis B and cirrhosis presents with oedema and constipation. The GP takes the following tests on her and these are the results. Albumin 30g/L Platelet count Alpha – fetoprotein 450 ng/mL Test results The test results can be used for analysis to clarify what disease the 60 year old woman has, and by linking her symptoms with the test results. Hepatitis B is a virus that affects the liver, chronic hepatitis can develop without proper treatment. Having hepatitis B will eventually cause scarring to the liver which is known as cirrhosis. The 60 year old woman has developed Chronic hepatitis, the hepatitis is ongoing and serious, this will eventually cause the liver tissue to produce scares and stop functioning as it should .A liver biopsy (tissue sample) can be taken to find out how serious the hepatitis is. One of the function of the liver is to produce a protein called albumin, having liver cirrhosis will cause permanent damage to the liver and when this happens the liver will find it had to produce albumin.(Aspinall et al 2011:Pubmed) Albumin is a protein that is made by the liver which measures the exact amount of protein in the clear liquid portion in blood. The test is usually t aken place to determine whether a person has a sort of liver or kidney disease which is the main reason why the test was carried out. The normal range in human is between 3.4 – 5.4g/dL. The woman’s albumin level shows that it is below average, low albumin may cause oedema which is a symptom that the woman is experiencing. Cirrhosis results in an increase in fluid retention. Cirrhosis also leads to low levels of albumin and other proteins in the blood which could also be the cause of oedema. (Gupta and Lis, 2010) Platelet count determines the amount of platelet in the blood, normal adults produce 1 x10^11 platelets every day, portal hypertension is a complication of cirrhosis of the liver. Portal hypertension always takes place in the liver at all times, an increase in the pressure within the portal vein is caused by barrier of the blood flow to through the liver (Kotoh et al 2012). Portal hypertension causes symptoms to patients that are linked to their liver disease which could be hepatitis B,C or cirrhosis, patients that have cirrhosis had a very high chance of developing portal hypertension and it was increase over years. Patients who have portal hypertension usually have low platelet count which is the case of the 60 year old woman whose platelet count is Alpha fetoprotein is a protein that is found in the liver, it is considered a tumour marker for liver cancer, the test may be done to diagnose possible liver diseases. The normal values in males or non-pregnant females is generally less than 40 micrograms/litre.High levels of alpha-fetoprotein indicates that there could be liver cancer which is the key factor which shows that there is something wrong with the liver.If your AFP level is unusually high but you are not pregnant, it may indicate the presence of certaincancers or liverconditions.so a liver transplant could be an option for the woman. In adults, high blood levels can be a sign of certain types of cancer, including liver cancer. (Alejandro et al, 2012) Symptoms and Diagnosis Constipation is a liver related issue, in this case It was most likely caused by her progressing tumour formation this may press on her digestive system causing constipation, having cirrhosis may also not allow her to properly digest fatty lipids because her bile might possibly be blocked resulting in constipation.  Hypothyroidism  can cause constipation. Blood tests to check thyroid hormones / TSH will help in diagnosing hypothyroidism. Oedema is swelling that is caused by fluid trapped in the bodies tissues, oedema can be a sign of lots of things including malnourishment and low albumin level in the blood and the woman’s albumin level is below average these are the results of having liver failure and cirrhosis. Having history of cirrhosis is the main reason she has oedema. (Gaw et al 2013) Because of the woman’s age cancer would need to be tested for cancer as old people are much more prone to have cancer. Albumin is produced by the liver meaning that her liver is affected inducting liver cancer. Some patients with chronic liver diseases are more likely to develop thyroiditis, hyperthyroidism or hypothyroidism through autoimmune mechanisms (Huang, Liaw 2008). The woman may have Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) which is most common and popular type of liver cancer. The main risk factors associated with HCC are hepatitis B,C and cirrhosis which the woman has a history of. HCC develops in patients with chronic liver disease and patients with cirrhosis are more likely to develop HCC and people over the age of 50 are more likely to develop HCC. The most common diseases that affects the liver are cirrhosis and hepatitis (Marshall and Bangert 2008). HCC is a serious disease in which alpha-fetoprotein will be elevated in a person, alpha-fetoprotein is a gene that becomes expressed when lots of damage has occurred to the liver in HCC. The normal range for AFP is 10-20 ng/mL.A level of >400 ng/mL may be regarded as diagnostic for HCC by some. Further tests A test that can be proposed is an ultrasound of the liver, an ultrasound test uses sound waves to create pictures and to see what is going on with organs inside the body. If any tumours are found in the liver then this can be furthered to test for cancer. An MRI scan can be useful for looking at liver cancers, MRI are sometimes good at telling which cancers are a tumour. Another tests that can be carried out is biopsy which involves actually taking the tumour and inspecting it under the microscope for further analysis which is likely to be more effective and reliable. Alanine aminotransferase(ALT)An alanine aminotransferase (ALT) test measures the amount of this  enzyme  in the blood. ALT is found mainly in the  liver, ALT is measured to see if the liver is damaged or diseased. Low levels of ALT are normally found in the blood. But when the liver is damaged or diseased, it releases ALT into the bloodstream, which makes ALT levels go up. Most increases in ALT levels are caused b y liver damage. Treatment and Prognosis Some treatment for HCC can include a liver transplant or surgery which can remove small or small-growing tumours.Sorafenib tosylate (Nexavar), which is an oral medication can be taken to block and stops tumour from growing.The prognosis is often poor, because only 10 20% of hepatocellular carcinomas can be removed completely using surgery. Radio frequency ablation can be used to kill cancerous cells. If the cancer cannot successfully be removed or killed, the disease is usually deadly within 3 6 months. However, this is not always the case as everybody is difference and so on some occasions people will survive much longer than 6 months. (Forner at al 2012: Pubmed) References Alejandro Forner, Josep M Llovet, Dr Jordi Bruix. (2012). The Lancet.  Hepatology. 379 (9822), P1245–1255. Allan Gaw, Michael J. Murphy, Rajeev Srivastava, Robert A. Cowan, Denis St. J. OReilly. (2013).  Clinical Biochemistry. 5th ed. London: Churchill Livingstone. p197-202. Aspinall EJ, Hawkins G, Fraser A, Hutchinson SJ, Goldberg D.. (2011). Pubmed:  Occupational Medicine. 8 (2), p531-540. Digant Gupta and Christopher G Lis. (2010). Nutrition Journal. Pubmed:  Pretreatment serum albumin as a predictor of cancer survival: A systematic review of the epidemiological literature. 9 (69), p112-120. Feldman M, Friedman LS, Brandt LJ, Pratt DS (2010).  Liver chemistry and function tests. 9th ed. Philadelphia: Saunders Elsevie. p436-450. Kazuhiro Kotoh, Marie Fukushima, Yuki Horikawa, Shinsaku Yamashita, Motoyuki Kohjima, Makoto Nakamuta, Munechika EnjojiJanuary. (2012). Experimental and theurapitcal mediine.  Serum albumin is present at higher levels in alcoholic liver cirrhosis as compared to HCV-related cirrhosis. 3 (1), p166-170. Miau-Ju Huang and Yun-Fan Liaw. (2008). Wiley Online Library.  Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology. 10 (3), P237–364. William J Marshall, Stephen K Bangert (2008).  Clinical chemistry. 6th ed. Edinburgh: Mosby Elsevier. p40-50.

Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Voices of Protest :: essays research papers

Voices of Protest: The Politician and the Radio Priest   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Alan Brinkley, the author of Voices of Protest, wrote about Huey Long and Father Coughlin who launched attacks on Roosevelt’s administration during the years of 1933 – 1935. This period of time was during the great depression. The book described in great length and detail about Huey Long and Father Coughlin, who were extremely influential politicians, and their opposition to the new society of big business and high technology. They felt that the owners of large companies such as Rockefeller, Carnegie and Pullman were to blame for the financial woes of the United States. Long and Coughlin were successful in taking their arguments and beliefs to the American people in the 1930’s.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Huey Long was an energetic, passionate young man at a very young age. In fact, at the age of twenty he stated he planned to run for election. He said, â€Å"first to secondary stated office Louisiana, then for governor, then for United States Senator, and finally for president.† He wrote in the New Orleans Item, â€Å"that about 65 or 70 percent of the entire wealth of the U.S. is owned by two percent of the people†¦wealth is fast concentrating in the hands of the few.† He had the combination of ambition, along with the love and compassion of the less fortunate Americans. He was known throughout Louisiana as â€Å"the kingfish† because of the power and influence he possessed, almost to the point of dictatorship. For several years he was in the limelight and news constantly, in part before of his very colorful and extravagant lifestyle. Even after his death, the people of Louisiana still supported him even though his life was the center of greed and controversy. During his term as Governor, he built hundreds of miles of paved highways, provided free textbooks, constructed bridges, built hospitals, schools and a major university, Louisiana State University or better known as â€Å"LSU.† He obtained his law degree from Tulane and age the age of twenty-one, he moved back to Louisiana to practice law. At the age of thirty-five, Huey Long was elected Governor of Louisiana. He did a couple of things that no governor had ever done before such as consolidating his personal power over all levels of state government and forcing through a program of progressive legislation, thus enabling him to fulfill his promise to the common people of the state.