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Saturday, February 2, 2013

Humanitarian aid workers in Uganda show signs of stress, depression, and burnout

Feb. 1, 2013 ? The latest research points to the high risk for mental health problems among staff working in humanitarian organizations in northern Uganda, due in large part to their work environment. A new study by researchers at Columbia's Mailman School of Public Health examined the mental health of 376 Ugandan workers at 21 humanitarian aid agencies and found that a significant number of the staff at these organizations experienced high levels of symptoms for depression (68%), anxiety disorders (53%), and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (26%), respectively.

Research up to now has focused on international or expatriate staff; the new study looks at humanitarian workers who are nationals of the country where they work. Workers in Gulu, Northern Uganda, are of particular interest because of their high exposure to chronic and traumatic stress following many years of conflict between the Lord's resistance Army (LRA) and the Government of Uganda forces.

Findings are published in the Journal of Traumatic Stress.

The study, based on self-reported symptoms, showed that female workers reported significantly more symptoms of anxiety, depression, PTSD, and emotional exhaustion than males. Between one-quarter and one-half of all respondents reported symptom levels associated with high risk for burnout. Chronic stressors such as financial hardship, uncertainty whether peace will continue, separation from close family, and unequal treatment of expatriate and national staff were among those cited for causing these adverse mental health effects.

"While women reported higher levels of distress than men on four of the outcomes, greater risk of poor mental health among women has been indicated by a number of studies in northern Uganda," says Alastair Ager, PhD, Professor of Clinical Population and Family Health and the study author. Therefore, he cautions against interpreting this trend purely in relation to the demands and exposures of humanitarian work.

Workers with the United Nations and its related agencies reported fewest overall symptoms. In comparison, those working for international NGOs reported significantly more signs of depression. Dr. Ager points to the structure of the UN and related organizations that serves as a protective function for national humanitarian workers.

"Although increased exposure to stressors is an inevitable consequence of working in humanitarian contexts, these findings clearly demonstrate that the characteristics of the organizational environment significantly influence the mental health and wellbeing of staff in such settings," noted Dr. Ager, who is also Director of the Program in Leadership in Global Health and Humanitarian Systems at the Mailman School.

The findings also show that over 50% of workers experienced five or more categories of traumatic events. Higher levels of social support, stronger team cohesion, and reduced exposure to chronic stressors were associated with improved mental health.

There are therefore a number of practical measures that the humanitarian agencies can do to help lessen the adverse mental health reported by workers and fortify social support mechanisms, according to Dr. Ager. These actions are:

? enabling access to the telephone or Internet for personal communications

? discouraging "presenteeism" and excessive hours spent at work

? training managers to explicitly recognize good work performance, resolve conflict within teams, and show a commitment to employee welfare

The research was facilitated through collaboration between Child Fund International, the Antares Foundation (a Dutch organization addressing stress issues in humanitarian workers), the Fuller Theological Seminary and the Centers for Disease Control.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health.

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

Journal Reference:

Alastair Ager, Eba Pasha, Gary Yu, Thomas Duke, Cynthia Eriksson, Barbara Lopes Cardozo. Stress, Mental Health, and Burnout in National Humanitarian Aid Workers in Gulu, Northern Uganda. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 2012; 25 (6): 713 DOI: 10.1002/jts.21764

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.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/ZUMG7tssYWU/130201192450.htm

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Alphabet dispute revives old injuries in Croatia

FILE - The Nov. 10, 1991 file photo shows Serbian residents of the medieval city of Vukovar fleeing with a carriage full of their personal belongings from what remains of their home, which was destroyed during heavy fighting between Yugoslav federal army troops and Croatian security forces. Thousands are expected to join a protest on Saturday, Feb. 2, 2013 organized by the veteran groups, Vukovar wartime defenders and hardline political parties. Opponents of the Serbian script have been active on Facebook, where one of the postings reads: ?The final strike on Vukovar _ Cyrillic!? More than twenty years after it was reduced to rubble in a Serb army siege, Vukovar is testing the Croatian government?s European Union agenda in a former war zone that is to become the bloc?s eastern edge when Croatia joins as 28th member on July 1. War wounds have been revived by the Croatian government bid to introduce Serbian Cyrillic the areas with sizable Serb community _ including Vukovar _ a move that is in line with the EU?s standards for the respect of minority rights, but which has infuriated war veterans and nationalists. (AP Photo/file)

VUKOVAR, Croatia (AP) ? Can Vukovar also be Bykobap?

Whether the name of the war-scarred town on the Danube is written in the Latin or Cyrillic alphabet is a sensitive question. Croatia's upcoming entry into the European Union is forcing residents of the Balkan country to answer it.

More than 20 years after it was reduced to rubble in a brutal Serb-led army siege, Vukovar is testing if Croatians are ready to respect the EU's standards on minority rights when their country joins as the 28th member on July 1.

The Croatian government is trying to introduce Serbian Cyrillic writing into areas with sizeable ethnic Serb communities, a move that has infuriated Croatia's war veterans and nationalists. Thousands of flag-waving protesters, some wearing military uniforms, joined a demonstration against the change on Saturday in downtown Vukovar.

Unlike ethnic Croats, the minority Serbs use the Cyrillic alphabet, which is influenced by Orthodox Christianity and also used by Russians. Though Vukovar, for instance, sounds the same in both alphabets, in Cyrillic it is written Bykobap.

Saturday's protest was organized by veteran groups, Vukovar wartime defenders and hardline politicians. Carrying banners reading "This is not Serbia" or "Vukovar is not Bykobap," the demonstrators warned in a proclamation that "this could lead to new clashes."

Once a picturesque baroque town, Vukovar has become a symbol of the senseless destruction during the war that followed the breakup of the former Yugoslavia in the early 1990s ? leaving more than 100,000 people dead and millions homeless in Europe's worst carnage since World War II.

Even decades later, many Croats and Serbs in Vukovar and elsewhere continue to live parallel lives, with children attending separate schools and each ethnic community visiting its own cafes or shops.

"I don't want to ever see Cyrillic here, never," said Mara Jurcic, whose 25-year-old son Pavo was among more than 200 prisoners who were executed and buried in a mass grave at a pig farm near Vucovar.

"They have done so much evil here," she said.

The EU maintains that Croatia must protect its minorities, particularly ethnic Serbs, from discrimination and violence.

A Serb representative in Vukovar, Srdjan Milakovic said introduction of the Cyrillic script "is not optional," pointing out that it is part of Croatian law and the EU integration process.

"The worst thing is that all this has revived some old memories," he said. "But I see no reason to postpone the process."

Zarko Puhovski, a liberal Croatian analyst, said rebellion is to be expected in the aftermath of the war with Serbia.

"Many people are against it, and that tells you that the situation may not be ready," Puhovski said. "But, if we were to wait until it is ready, it would never happen."

The fighting in Croatia started when it declared independence from the former federation in 1991, triggering a rebellion by the minority Serbs and an onslaught by the Serb-led Yugoslav army. Vukovar, located on the boundary with Serbia, took the first blow. Once Croatia joins the EU, the still-tense town and the Danube will become the bloc's eastern border.

During a three-month siege, the Yugoslav army bombardment all but obliterated the town before it fell in November 1991. The army troops and Serb paramilitaries overran Vukovar, killing and expelling its residents, and leaving a ghost town of shattered buildings, pockmarked by grenades and tank fire.

The war ended in 1995, in a U.N.-brokered peace agreement that envisaged the region's gradual return to Croatian rule.

Although the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, has sentenced several Serbian officers and politicians in connection with destruction of Vukovar and the killings, many in Croatia have felt it was not enough.

They say the introduction of Cyrillic is a slap in the face.

"It would be as if a sign in Arabic was put up next to Ground Zero in New York," nationalist Croatian politician Zoran Vinkovic claimed.

Today, nearly 35 percent of Serbs live in Vukovar, according to the results of a postwar census published in 2011 ? enough for the introduction of the Serbian script at road signs, in schools, and on documents.

_____

Sabina Niksic contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-02-02-Croatia-Alphabet%20Dispute/id-5f532a4d16ed466a877b3a5bad43ef7c

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If you are impulsive, take modafinil and count to ten, research suggests

Feb. 1, 2013 ? Poor impulse control contributes to one's inability to control the consumption of rewarding substances, like food, alcohol, and other drugs. This can lead to the development of addiction. FDA-approved medications for alcoholism, like naltrexone (Revia) and disulfiram (Antabuse), are thought to reduce alcohol consumption by curbing cravings and creating unpleasant reactions to alcohol, effects which reduce the desire to drink alcohol.

New medications, however, might target the uncontrollable urges to consume drugs of abuse. The idea of treating problems of self-control by improving the ability to suppress impulses is not new. This approach is precisely what one is doing when counting to 10 before acting when one is upset. What is new, however, is the idea that medications might help with this process.

A new study by Lianne Schmaal at the University of Amsterdam and colleagues, published in Biological Psychiatry, suggests that modafinil (Provigil), a drug originally developed to increase wakefulness, may help some people to reduce drinking by improving their impulse control.

Although modafinil is formally approved solely for the treatment of several sleep disorders, it has been shown to enhance cognition. Such beneficial effects have been observed in healthy individuals and in patients with schizophrenia and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. It has also been shown to reduce impulsivity in some individuals with addictions, but these effects had not yet been studied in non-stimulant addictions like alcohol dependence.

This background of potentially promising findings led Schmaal et al. to investigate the effects of modafinil on impulsivity in alcohol dependent patients and healthy controls. The researchers also measured participants' underlying brain activity while they completed a stop signal task designed to measure impulsive behavior.

"This line of research adopts a strategy from the attention deficit disorder 'playbook'. Modafinil has effects that resemble amphetamine. This interesting new study suggests that, if you are impulsive, modafinil may help your self-control," commented Dr. John Krystal, Editor of Biological Psychiatry.

They found that modafinil improved response inhibition in alcohol-dependent participants with initially poor response inhibition, but response inhibition was diminished in those who initially performed better. Modafinil also modulated brain activation in key brain regions directly involved response inhibition, but again, only in those patients with poor baseline response inhibition.

Schmaal explained further, "Most importantly, the study showed that modafinil had a positive effect in patients with high initial levels of impulsivity, whereas modafinil had a detrimental effect in patients with low initial levels of impulsivity. Positive effects of modafinil were associated with normalization of brain activation and connectivity patterns during the stop signal task."

These findings indicate that baseline levels of impulsivity should be taken into account when considering treatment with modafinil.

"The current observation of 'one size does not fit all' (i.e., that a pharmacotherapy may constitute a useful adjunct therapy for some individuals but not for others) calls for caution when prescribing modafinil and strongly supports the potential of and the need for personalized medicine," added Schmaal.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Elsevier, via AlphaGalileo.

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

Journal Reference:

Lianne Schmaal, Leen Joos, Marte Koeleman, Dick J. Veltman, Wim van den Brink, Anna E. Goudriaan. Effects of Modafinil on Neural Correlates of Response Inhibition in Alcohol-Dependent Patients. Biological Psychiatry, 2013; 73 (3): 211 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2012.06.032

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.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/M2tfpskdzNw/130201100157.htm

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Friday, February 1, 2013

How to Treat Yellow Teeth at Home - Health Care Central Texas

How to Treat Yellow Teeth at Home

Natural home remedies can change your own yellow-colored the teeth whitened. It may actually make a person the actual whitened twinkle 1 will get from the remedy carried out in the dental care center. Natural home remedies, like a setting in order to remedy yellow-colored unsightly stains, arrive in a number of choices. It?s as much as the consumer from the treatment to find the suitable the one that will be optimum to deal with yellow-colored the teeth. Natural home remedies to deal with yellow-colored the teeth tend to be greatest for those who possess issue associated with delicate the teeth. Although it is simple for you to picture the actual spectacular outcomes that may be from going to the dental professional, natural home remedies with regard to dealing with yellow-colored the teeth could be completely secure with no side-effects.

Particular Remedies

A combination of ? lemon ? liquid as well as Sodium whitening wash could have the desired effect to deal with your own yellow-colored the teeth. Within planning this particular blend, you have to combine liquid from 1 entire ? lemon ? along with 1 tablespoon associated with sodium, within the percentage associated with 75% ? lemon ? liquid as well as 25% associated with sodium. By using this blend like a mouthwash, allow it to stay in the mouth area with regard to a minumum of one moment prior to spitting this away. Soon after the actual blend is actually throw away, clean your own the teeth to get gone any kind of deposits therein. This particular is a superb home cure for anyone that don?t are afflicted by issue associated with delicate the teeth. This particular home cure can be achieved with regard to optimum twice per week to be able to deal with yellow-colored unsightly stains about the the teeth. The actual distinction could be noticeable within little while.

Likewise, 1 totally mashed blood as well as cooking soda pop may behave as a great whitening blend. The actual blend could be produced by combining fifty percent the tea spoon associated with cooking soda pop along with 1 totally mashed blood. Rather than which makes it right into a mouthwash, you have to use this particular blend straight on to tooth, allowing it to sit down for about 5 min?s. Abide by it through cleaning the teeth along with normal toothpaste to get gone the actual deposits in the mouth area. This particular whitening remedy is enough to become carried out as soon as each and every fourteen days. The reason being the actual acidity included in the strawberries might harm tooth?s teeth enamel, therefore leading to much more damage compared to great. The actual harm associated with tooth?s teeth enamel might speed up the procedure of the teeth rot.

Regimen Remedy associated with the teeth cleaning

The actual way the teeth tend to be cleaned out upon every day foundation is essential with regard to allowing elimination associated with yellow-colored unsightly stains upon the teeth. Furthermore, the healthiness of the teeth additionally depends upon the meals all of us consume and also the actions all of us carry out. The teeth cleaning procedure ought to be completed upon every day foundation along with cleaning tooth, then flossing as well as rinsing. To improve this method, the actual aforesaid particular remedies might be combined with this procedure for cleaning. Nevertheless, treatment needs to be used which quantity of particular remedies shouldn?t be going above their own limitations associated with utilization.

Aside from these types of, smashed pine is actually a organic facial cleanser in addition to help with maintaining germs away. Similarly, these types of simply leaves powder along with dried out lemon peel off may improve the teeth whitening, concurrently stopping staining associated with the teeth.

Source: http://www.healthcarecentraltexas.com/how-to-treat-yellow-teeth-at-home.html

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Ozone thinning has changed ocean circulation

Jan. 31, 2013 ? A hole in the Antarctic ozone layer has changed the way that waters in the southern oceans mix, a situation that has the potential to alter the amount of CO₂ in the atmosphere and eventually could have an impact on global climate change, a Johns Hopkins earth scientist says.

In a paper published in this week's issue of the journal Science, Darryn W. Waugh and his team show that subtropical intermediate waters in the southern oceans have become "younger" as the upwelling, circumpolar waters have gotten "older" -- changes that are consistent with the fact that surface winds have strengthened as the ozone layer has thinned.

"This may sound entirely academic, but believe me, it's not," said Waugh, of the Morton K. Blaustein Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Johns Hopkins' Krieger School of Arts and Sciences. "This matters because the southern oceans play an important role in the uptake of heat and carbon dioxide, so any changes in southern ocean circulation have the potential to change the global climate."

Waugh's team used measurements taken from the early 1990s to the mid-to-late 2000s of the amount of a chemical compound known as "chlorofluorocarbon-12," or CFC-12, in the southern oceans. CFC-12 was first produced commercially in the 1930s and its concentration in the atmosphere increased rapidly until the 1990s when it was phased out by the Montreal Protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer. (Prior to the Montreal Protocol, CFC-12 was used in products such as aerosol hairsprays and refrigerants and in air conditioning systems.)

From those ocean measurements, Waugh's team was able to infer changes in how rapidly surface waters have mixed into the depths of the southern oceans. Because they knew that concentrations of CFCs at the ocean surface increased in tandem with those in the atmosphere, they were able to surmise that the higher the concentration of CFC-12 deeper in the ocean, the more recently those waters were at the surface.

The inferred age changes -- "younger" in the subtropics, "older" nearer the South Pole -- are consistent with the observed intensification of surface westerly winds, which have occurred primarily because of the Antarctic ozone hole, suggesting that stratospheric ozone depletion is the primary cause of the changes in ocean ventilation. As stratospheric ozone recovers over the next 50 years, the changes in ventilation may slow or reverse. The impact of continued increases in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere will also need to be considered, however. The combined impact of the two factors on the southern oceans' ventilation and uptake of heat and carbon is an open question.

Also on the research team were collaborators Francois Primeau of the University of California, Irvine; Tim Devries of the University of California, Los Angeles; and Mark Holzer of the University of New South Wales and Columbia University. Funding for the study was provided by the National Science Foundation and the Australian Research Council.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Johns Hopkins. The original article was written by Lisa De Nike.

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

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

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_environment/~3/GOy7aZMxdAQ/130131144106.htm

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Early Childhood Education IS important (for ALL!) ? MomsRising Blog

As a parent of a 21 month old, I have found myself thinking about childcare and school options a lot lately. Earlier this week, as I watched the inauguration of Barack Obama with my son, I thought about how great it would be if early childhood education was something that the administration could focus on for the term.

This is a topic that is not new to the national conversation. In my research I found a NYTimes piece dating back to 1989 (?!?!) discussing a citing childcare as an area of concern, and discussing a report issues by a delegation that went to France to explore child care in that country. (Interestingly, former First Lady and Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton, was part of that delegation, when she served as Chairwoman of the Children?s Defense Fund, an advocacy group.)

Last week I read a disturbing article entitled ?The Early Education Racket.? It said among other things, that preschool only really benefits children who come from ?disadvantage families? such as families that are below the povery line, uneducated mothers or who are racial minorities).? Despite what the Slate article states, I do believe early childhood education is fundamental to getting children on the right track for success in learning later on in life? all children, not only those from ?disadvantage backgrounds.?? I compare it to building a home or a building, if your foundation is crappy, then the home is crappy. It is the same thing with children, if you do not give them a good foundation in early childhood, how can we expect that they will succeed later on in life?

From conversations I have had with other parents, I know I am not the only person who is concerned about this topic, and I knew it must be a topic of importance when? a couple of days ago, one of my favorite journalists of all time, Nick Kristof, wrote a piece discussing the importance of early childhood education and his hope that Obama would tackle it this time around. Kristof explains explains that James Heckman, a Nobel Prize-winning economist, ?argues that the most crucial investments we as a country can make are in the first five years of life, and that they pay for themselves. Yet these kinds of initiatives are underfinanced and serve only a tiny fraction of children in need.?? (key word: UNDERFINANCED)

Kristof cites research conducted in Philadelphia in an area inhabited mostly by working-class blacks and Hispanics and points to the lack of resources they have, few libraries and limited access to computers. Unfortunately, access to quality early childhood education and resources often depends on where you live, and as, often pointed out, on your socio-economic status. Data shows that children that come from homes where there are two professional parents working are exposed to more words by the time they are 3 than homes where parents are working class (30 million vs. 20 million), or on welfare (10 million). ***Before anyone starts judging ?working class? parents, or parents who rely on public assistance, it is necessary to understand them? if you are working two jobs or working long hours just to make ends meet, you are perhaps not home as much as you would like, or are too tired to engage with your children in stimulating play at the end of a long day. (I don?t work two jobs and sometimes I feel I am too tired to engage!)

Kristof explains that improving education programs for low-income families is a good start to helping end cycles of poverty. I would go further and say that it is not only necessary to improve these programs for low-income children, but for all children; society as a whole would reap the benefits. While I do not qualify for any ?low?income programs? such as Head Start, and I live in a household with two working professionals, I can tell you that I would not be able to pay the exorbitant amounts of money that Nursery School in NYC costs, (even more infuriating is that for the price, it is not even a full day of school, but rather some hours a day). If universal Pre-K existed, children would start school at an early age, and this would alleviate some stresses of working parents. I am not advocating for a government handout, but instead for a system where early childhood education is valued for what it is: a stepping stone that will prepare children for the future, and something that all children should have access to. A program that can help working parents, with affordable rates, longer hours (more in tune with the realities of working parents? schedules!)

I believe sending children to early childhood ed. programs will benefit society as a whole. In addition to preparing children for the future academically, early childhood education programs can help instill in children the social skills they need to be healthy adults. Children could learn, from certified teachers and instructors, how to deal with their feelings,? and learn how to play and work well with other children and adults, in other words? how to socialize outside the family cadre. Aside from learning about the ABCs and colors, these centers could also teach children about empathy, about bullying and why it is wrong, about healthy eating? all the issues that we are currently grappling with in our school systems. They say repetition and modeling is key to learning. Teaching children about these things early on could alleviate some social ills we are currently facing (shootings, bullying, obesity epidemic, just to name a few). ??

Debates about early childhood education, Head Start, etc. have been around for a long time. (it?s been 24 years since that NYTimes article!) I do hope things will change in my lifetime. I will leave you with some food for thought, that perhaps show what is wrong with this picture: we spend approximately $7,000 per child in a Head Start program (and much more if it is a private pre-school program, depending on the area, but around $18,000 for NYC by conservative estimates!) but we are spending an average of $31,000 per inmate incarcerated. According to the Vera Institute of Justice, ?The total per-inmate cost averaged $31,286 and ranged from $14,603 in Kentucky to $60,076 in New York.? There is something fundamentally wrong with these facts. We currently live in a society that puts more value on putting people in prison than educating children? what an alarming thought.

(This post originally appeared on my blog, Ladydeelg)

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Diana Limongi is the publisher of the LadydeeLG blog. Diana lives in Astoria (Queens), NY and works full-time. She has a Masters degree in Migration Studies from the University of Kent and is currently pursuing a second Masters degree in Nonprofit Management at the Wagner School for Public Service at New York University. Diana works hard juggling a full-time job, motherhood, family, grad school and most recently, her blog where she writes about issues she is passionate about: motherhood, teaching her son Spanish, Latino issues, good quality food, women?s rights and most recently, Obama. She contributes to Mamiverse, SpanglishBaby and Multicultural Familia. You can follow her on Twitter: @dianalimongi or on Facebook.

Source: http://www.momsrising.org/blog/early-childhood-ed-important-for-all/

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Monthly Rewind: Girl Power, Building Brand Trust and Facebook?s New Graph Search.

Rewind vertical marketing

It?s hard to believe it?s the end of the month (already!), and in this week?s post we bring you a roundup of the marketing stories that had us talking most in January:

? Weeks before all eyes were on the capitol for the Presidential Inauguration (and Michelle?s bangs! and Beyonce?s controversial performance!), consumers watched lawmakers in Washington temporarily suspend the federal debt limit, and stock prices rose, for the most part. But to the surprise of some, Apple, aka ?the world?s most valuable company?, saw its stocks continue to falter; Apple stock is down 27 percent since September 2012. Apple competitor Google, however, is enjoying an upswing, confirming consumer interest in technology is anything but predictable. Analysts have linked the upturn for Google, not to mention IBM, to a shift to data analysis and cloud computing. But some critics are saying its high-time Apple offered cheaper alternatives to its high-end goods, especially now that Google is building an experimental wireless network.

? For marketers, data can mean many things and be pulled from myriad forums. Social media strong horse Facebook revealed a new platform two weeks ago that had users as scandalized as ever about online privacy. Facebook?s new Graph Search, which is still in beta, allows for hyper-specific searches; frighteningly, one blogger wrote about successfully searching for ?Islamic men interested in men who live in Tehran, Iran, where homosexual relations are prohibited by law and Places where they?ve worked.? In other social media news, new laws are said to protect what employees say online ? even if it?s about their employer. Read more here.

? It?s been two weeks since Lance Armstrong admitted to Oprah that he did, in fact, use performance-enhancing drugs throughout his illustrious career. Last week, consumers of his 2000 memoir, in which he denies such drug use, filed a class-action lawsuit in California for his fraudulent claims. The athlete?s been a topic of water-cooler conversation since last October, when reports that he led doping programs brought a swift end to his cycling career, stripped him of seven Tour de France titles, and saw brands Anheuser-Busch InBev, Nike and Trek Bicycles sever sponsorship ties. The folks over at ESPN hit the marketing nail on the head, though, with the assessment that consumers are ?conditioned to believe in fairy tales.? In this lay the beginning of a consumer?s relationship to a brand and its sponsors. In our post-Armstrong/T?eo/Woods marketplace, how do brands encourage consumers to believe ? and trust ? again?

? Perhaps by avoiding athletes altogether and tapping someone like Amy Poelher? After her impressive performance alongside Tina Fey at the Golden Globe Awards, the comedian was tapped to star in Best Buy?s Super Bowl ad, which will be viewed by an estimated 179.1 million viewers this Sunday, up from 172.5 million last year. According to the National Retail Federation, the average Super Bowl fan spends $68.54 on game day preparations. Super Bowl spending is expected to reach nearly $12.3 billion this year.

? Coca Cola, not surprisingly, is taking a new approach to its always-impressive Super Bowl advertizing. Last week, the brand launched via its Facebook page a choose-your-own adventure style campaign, which will run through the Super Bowl then conclude with a post-game spot that takes user participation into account. Risky? Sure. But, more importantly, never dull. Of course, only time will tell how choosy consumers will respond. One thing we do know: they will respond. Consumer involvement wins again.

Did we miss one of your top stories? Let us know in the comment section below, or head over to the Vertical Marketing Network Facebook page to join the conversation.

Brought to you by?Vertical Marketing Network, a Leading Integrated Marketing Agency.

Source: http://bloggingoutloud.verticalmarketing.net/2013/01/30/monthly-rewind-girl-power-building-brand-trust-and-facebooks-new-graph-search/

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