Gene variations linked to intestinal blockage in newborns with cystic fibrosis

Public release date: 1-Apr-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Les Lang
llang@med.unc.edu
919-966-9366
University of North Carolina School of Medicine

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researchers working as part of the International Cystic Fibrosis Consortium have discovered several regions of the genome that may predispose cystic fibrosis (CF) patients to develop an intestinal blockage while still in the uterus.

A report of this international study appears online April 1, 2012 in the journal Nature Genetics. It was the work of the North America CF Gene Modifier Consortium, which brought together dozens of investigators from the United States, Canada, and from France, to identify genetic variations that could be linked with meconium ileus (MI), an intestinal obstruction that usually requires emergency surgery for treatment, and can result in a substantially increased rate of serious health problems.

MI affects roughly 15-20 percent of all patients with CF, a genetic condition that causes scarring throughout the body, especially the lungs and pancreas. Though every CF patient carries mutations in both copies of the same gene coding for a protein called cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator, or CFTR symptoms can vary widely from patient to patient.

The genome-wide association study (GWAS) of more than 3,700 CF patients identified non-CFTR genetic variants in the cell membrane that separates the interior of cells from the outside environment. More specifically, the variants involved genes responsible for ion transport in the lower end of the small intestine.

"These variants involve cells in the small intestine that predispose CF patients to develop MI while still in the womb," said one of the senior study authors Michael Knowles, MD, professor of pulmonary and critical care medicine at UNC and a member of UNC's Cystic Fibrosis-Pulmonary Research and Treatment Center.

"The discovery provides new understanding of the pathogenic mechanisms underlying MI. In addition, it offers the possibility of developing therapies to intervene in utero," Knowles said. "Further, it provides molecular insight into the role of genetic variation in ion transporters in CF, which may be applicable to more commonly, and severely, involved organs such as the lungs."

###

Other UNC study coauthors are Wanda K. O'Neal, Rhonda G. Pace, Jaclyn R. Stonebraker, Sally D. Wood, and Fred A. Wright. In the U.S., the study was funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, and the U.S. Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 1-Apr-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Les Lang
llang@med.unc.edu
919-966-9366
University of North Carolina School of Medicine

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researchers working as part of the International Cystic Fibrosis Consortium have discovered several regions of the genome that may predispose cystic fibrosis (CF) patients to develop an intestinal blockage while still in the uterus.

A report of this international study appears online April 1, 2012 in the journal Nature Genetics. It was the work of the North America CF Gene Modifier Consortium, which brought together dozens of investigators from the United States, Canada, and from France, to identify genetic variations that could be linked with meconium ileus (MI), an intestinal obstruction that usually requires emergency surgery for treatment, and can result in a substantially increased rate of serious health problems.

MI affects roughly 15-20 percent of all patients with CF, a genetic condition that causes scarring throughout the body, especially the lungs and pancreas. Though every CF patient carries mutations in both copies of the same gene coding for a protein called cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator, or CFTR symptoms can vary widely from patient to patient.

The genome-wide association study (GWAS) of more than 3,700 CF patients identified non-CFTR genetic variants in the cell membrane that separates the interior of cells from the outside environment. More specifically, the variants involved genes responsible for ion transport in the lower end of the small intestine.

"These variants involve cells in the small intestine that predispose CF patients to develop MI while still in the womb," said one of the senior study authors Michael Knowles, MD, professor of pulmonary and critical care medicine at UNC and a member of UNC's Cystic Fibrosis-Pulmonary Research and Treatment Center.

"The discovery provides new understanding of the pathogenic mechanisms underlying MI. In addition, it offers the possibility of developing therapies to intervene in utero," Knowles said. "Further, it provides molecular insight into the role of genetic variation in ion transporters in CF, which may be applicable to more commonly, and severely, involved organs such as the lungs."

###

Other UNC study coauthors are Wanda K. O'Neal, Rhonda G. Pace, Jaclyn R. Stonebraker, Sally D. Wood, and Fred A. Wright. In the U.S., the study was funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, and the U.S. Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

bells palsy channel 5 news uc berkeley harrison barnes bby brett ratner stevie nicks

Check This Out! It's About Automobile Windshield Repair ...

Check This Out! It?s About Automobile Windshield Repair

Article by Keith Puetz

Car or truck owners have to undertake repairs on their vehicles which could consist of replacing the auto glass at some point. Automobile windscreens are produced of laminated glass which is vulnerable to breakages and cracks because of to exposure to normal climate factors and mishaps. While accidents account for some auto windshield damage and breakages, loose gravel on the road cause the most automobile windshield breaks which if not repaired could gradually increase into bigger issues. The aforementioned elements are the primary causes of car windshield repair and replacement. If you live in Mesa or your windshield breaks while there, auto glass windshield repair could be a pricey expenditure if you have to pay for it from your own pocket. Insurance companies have been known to promote the repair of auto windshields as an alternative of replacing the complete unit. Insurance clients who repair their automobile windshields as opposed to replacing them are rewarded with incentives. Do you need good quality mobile automobile auto glass repair and auto door glass replacement cost, we believe so!Some of the elements that lead to automobile windshield breaks and the unavoidable visit to the Mesa auto glass replacement shop could really be stemmed by adhering to some basic maintenance suggestions. To start with, always assure that you try to prevent any dirt or sand from getting into your car windshield glass crack that might get lodged in there. These are the leading agents of unsatisfied or unsuccessful repairs on a windshield. Next, prevent all cleaners that have ammonia in them. Last but not least, shield your auto from direct sunlight or heat as much as you can. You should need to find a skilled expert in a cheap automobile auto door glass replacement & automobile auto windshield chip repair mobile service located in Phoenix, Arizona. Repairing a car window rather than replacing would ensure that the original seal?s integrity from the producer of the car is maintained. In accordance to the United States Department of Labor, the automotive repair sector has furnished employment to some 185,900 people as of 2008. Of these, ten percent specialize in the installation and repair of auto windscreens. In Mesa AZ, there are numerous firms providing car window repair and installation services. Some of these entice new consumers by offering them on the spot cash back of once their claim is accepted by thier insurance provider. Obtaining a skilled car window replacement and repair provider can be rather tough particularly if you have never dealt with the business before. In spite of this, there are many firms that present the best of customer centered services in Mesa. Respected and professional auto windshield repair and replacemen organizations in Phoenix offer free on the internet charges upon request. They also use the greatest automobile glass and other items as per the guidelines set out by the federal and state government. Good automobile door glass replacement costs do exist keep on searching for mobile windshield chip repair & automobile auto glass auto door glass replacement.The front car windshield is an vital part of a car or truck. It is only by having one created of quality glass that you would be confident of your safety on the street. Automobile windshield repair and installation is a highly specialized market. It is for this reason that you should only have your automobile worked on by a company that employs automobile glass specialists who are licensed by the National Glass Association (NGA). The accreditation is an assurance that the technicians are highly trained on all facets of auto glass repair and part replacement. Phoenix windshield replacement shops that use the newest repair technological innovation such as PRISM or pre injection resin suspension for dings, cracks and a auto windshield chip are sure to assure you great benefits. Put any consideration about replacing your cheap automobile auto door glass of your car? Because now may be the time.

cain velasquez vs dos santos cain velasquez vs dos santos oregon stanford oregon stanford darrell hammond darrell hammond boxer rebellion

Capuchin monkey for Sale in Texas | Exotic Pets For Sale

User Rating

One of the best website to buy Exotic Pets Online.

Rating: 10 out of 10 based on 5 ratings

Categories

pasco county rooney mara solstice x factor results x factor results the hobbit movie trailer xfactor

Countries that spend the most on health care

Joe Raedle / Getty Images file

The United States spends more than any other country but has the eighth-lowest life expectancy in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development survey.

By Michael B. Sauter and Charles B. Stockdale, 24/7 Wall St.

This week, the Supreme Court considered President Obama?s health care reform law. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act expands health coverage to millions of uninsured Americans. If the law is overturned, health care costs covered by the federal government would drop substantially.

While government spending on health care could decline, that will not result in?lower health?care costs. Based on data published by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development on global health issues, 24/7 Wall St. identified the countries where health care costs are the highest per person.

Spending a great deal on health care does not result in a healthier population. Of 34 OECD member countries, only three that spent the most per person have citizens that live the longest. The United States spends more than any other country but has the eighth-lowest life expectancy in the OECD. Japan, meanwhile, spends $2,878 per person -- about $5,000 less than the U.S. -- and has the highest life expectancy among developed nations.?

According to the OECD's Matthias Rumpf, health care spending does not result in better treatment. In countries that spend more, he says, people opt for expensive tests and elective procedures that drive up costs. To discourage excess in Germany, for example, citizens are penalized if they see a specialist without first consulting their doctor.

In most of the OECD countries, health care expenses come to more than $2,000 per person each year. In the case of the 10 countries with the highest costs, expenses are roughly twice that. In the U.S., spending on health care per capita comes to nearly $8,000 per person.?Many proponents of public health care blame the U.S.?s highly privatized system as the reason for such high costs. But according to Rumpf, a number of factors influence the national spending on care.

How patients use medical services impacts health care expenses. Expensive diagnostic procedures and elective surgeries, like MRI scans and corrective knee surgeries, drive up costs. Conversely, irregular visits to the doctor impair preventative care.

In many of these countries, the source of high costs is drug prices. In four of the countries with the most expensive health care, pharmaceutical expenses come to at least $600 per person per year. In the U.S., those costs are more than $950 per capita.

Another factor that increases cost is poor health-related behavior of the population. Of course, excessive alcohol consumption, tobacco use and poor exercise increase health problems. The incidence of these behaviors is different country to country.

24/7 Wall St.: The 10 most educated countries in the world

Many of the countries that spend the most per capita on health care have highly privatized systems. In the U.S. and Switzerland, which spend the most and third-most on health care, respectively, the government pays less than 65?percent of the total health care costs. In most of the countries in the developed world, public expenditure accounts for at least 70?percent of total costs.

Many of the countries with the highest expenditure per capita on health care also have among the most government-funded health care systems. The governments of Denmark, Austria and Luxembourg pay 84?percent or more of the total health care cost. Total public spending in these countries, without accounting for private health care spending, ranges from 6.5?percent of GDP in Luxembourg to the OECD-high 9.8?percent of GDP in Denmark. In most of the OECD nations, the government foots the majority of the health care bill.

These are the countries that spend the most on health care.?

1. United States

• Total expenditure on health per capita:?$7,960
• Expenditure as?percent of GDP:?17.4?percent (the most)
• Annual growth of total health expenditure:?+2.2 percent (14th least)
• Life expectancy:?78.2 years (27th highest)

The U.S. has, by far, the highest total expenditure on health care per capita. America spends approximately $2,600 more per person annually than Norway, the second-highest spender. Only 47.7 percent of this amount is public expenditure -- the third-smallest percentage among developed countries. However, the actual amount of public spending, $3,795, is among the highest. The U.S. also spends the largest amount on pharmaceuticals and other medical nondurables. The country has fairly low rates of doctors and hospital beds relative to its population. It also has the eighth-lowest life expectancy, at 78.2 years.

24/7 Wall St.: America's most miserable states

2. Norway

• Total expenditure on health per capita:?$5,352
• Expenditure as?percent of GDP:?9.6?percent (16th most)
• Annual growth of total health expenditure:?+8.4?percent (4th most)
• Life expectancy:?81.0 years (10th highest)

After its neighbor, Denmark, Norway has the most nationalized health care system in the developed world. Of the country?s $5,352 expenditures per person, 84.1?percent are covered by the public sector. Access to health care in the country is high. There are approximately four physicians per 1,000 people, the third most in the OECD. Despite the high percentage of total costs covered by the public, the nation?s residents still pay more than $800 per person on health care.

3. Switzerland

• Total expenditure on health per capita:?$5,344
• Expenditure as?percent?of GDP:?11.6?percent (5th most)
• Annual growth of total health expenditure:?+2.8?percent (17th most)
• Life expectancy:?82.3 years (2nd highest)

Switzerland currently spends the third most on health care per capita, or the equivalent of 11.6 percent of the country?s GDP. Switzerland has one of the most privatized health care systems in the world, with 30.9 percent of expenses coming out of pocket. Because of the wealth of country, this comes to $1,650 per person, more than double every country in the developed world except the U.S.

24/7 Wall St.: Highest-paid hosts on late-night TV

4. Netherlands

• Total expenditure on health per capita:?$4,914
• Expenditure as?percent?of GDP:?12?percent (second most)
• Annual growth of total health expenditure:?+16.4?percent (the most)
• Life expectancy:?80.6 years (14th highest)

Health care costs in the Netherlands amount to $4,914 per person each year. The Dutch health expenditure is equivalent to 12?percent of the nation?s GDP -- the second greatest relative health expenditure of every nation in the OECD except the U.S. Total expenses jumped by 16.4?percent between 2008 and 2009, the most among OECD nations. Despite this increase, total out-of-pocket expenses per capita are just $227 per person, the fourth-lowest in the OECD.

5. Luxembourg

• Total expenditure on health per capita:?$4,808
• Expenditure as?percent?of GDP:?7.8?percent (seventh least)
• Annual growth of total health expenditure:?+8?percent (6th most)
• Life expectancy:?80.7 years (tied for 12th highest)

Health care expenditure in Luxembourg is $4,808 a year, or 7.8?percent of national GDP. This is the greatest decrease among OECD countries. Of that, public expenditures account for 84 percent of the total, the eighth-highest rate among OECD countries. The country?s system faces some difficult challenges in offsetting unhealthy lifestyle choices. For instance, Luxembourg has the highest annual rate of alcohol consumption at 15.5 liters per capita.

Click here to read the rest of the countries that spend the most on health care.

Comment on this story on Facebook.

war horse k cups best buy we bought a zoo we bought a zoo ipad accessories derrick rose

remodeler fixes problem with local mentor | Home Improvement ...

Our Logo

As I get more completed projects under my belt, there are still powerful lessons to be learned. Some are expensive, some are painful. As I say in my Selecting a Remodeler Booklet, it is wise to select a seasoned remodeler. The problem is,

?if you always do what you always did; then you?ll always get what you always got.?

This is why I love working on the business as much, or more than working in the business.

This post is about how I was able to make a systemic solution to what I discovered was a recurring nagging problem.

Working together

Remodeling is difficult enough without having to redo things. This is why there are so many ?one horse show? remodelers out there. No one can do it better than the remodeler him or herself. That is all well and good but my idea of remodeling necessitates me getting results through others.

I have always been a cooperative sort of guy. Great partnerships exist in EMS (Emergency Medical Services) where on a hot call, we rarely need to talk because we know what needs to be done. We work together in harmony to save a life. Like my dad Ed Levitch used to say, in reference to working hard together? ?when I come back, all I want to see is assholes and elbows?.

In my mind, the entire concept of remodeling? rests on bringing a crew of very talented people working hard together to create a project. I now believe that subcontractors and specialty contractors in general get an undeserved bad reputation. I couldn?t understand why a highly recommended subcontractor could screw up a project so easily. This became painfully obvious when we did a root cause analysis of a series of situational problems. When placed side by side, to my horror, they turned out to be a pattern of identical recurring problems. There was obviously a systemic flaw, yet I had no idea where or how to fix it. I now believe that it is the contractor not the subcontractor that holds the key to making the project go smoothly.

Subcontractor Agreement

Levco has always used a simple form to describe what we expect from our subcontractors. I figured it was worth publishing because we all need to be on the same page. I hold everyone who works for us in a subcontractor role to these standards. In the event that there are issues we go right back to the agreement. When something comes up that hasn?t been addressed, this is where it will go. I broke it up into two parts

1, Things I love

2, Things I won?t tolerate

Many companies do not even have this type of form. It was born out of frustration with the process. For years I thought this was the magic bullet to ensure my process would work. All of my subcontractors had agreed to work within the parameters, but something was still missing.

As it turned out, having this form in place was not enough. There was still a nagging problem that haunted me. The more I looked at it, the more I got stuck. Knowing full well that some of my best ideas come from being frustrated, I was not too worried. This time however, I was hopelessly paralyzed and extremely frustrated for a few weeks when I finally found a way out.

My Mentor

I was reading a self help book on business in general, when a brief paragraph recommended I seek out a mentor. It suggested that there are lots of smart people that are willing to help if you just ask. As it turns out, that was the tiny spark I needed. It reminded me that I had already developed relationships with wise, successful remodelers throughout the country, so I reached out to them. Amazingly, it was the one in my own back yard that was able to pinpoint the problem and, in a loving way, gave me a nudge in the right direction.

The problem, it turns out was deeply rooted in a flawed Description of Work document.? A pattern of small problems had turned into big problems. We were having to redo work that had already been done. In some cases work that was required had not been included in the bid. Thankfully, it appears that we have solved our problems, as I like to say, ?FFN? (forever for now). Our new improved Description of Work spells out the project in a surface by surface way that explains what the finished project will look like to everyone. Perhaps this is what one previous employee was trying to tell me when she said ?communication? when asked her opinion of our companies number one problem. Although I couldn?t see it then, I believe I?ve got it fixed now.

As we ring in the new year I give thanks to my mentors, my employees, my clients, and all of my subcontractors. I look forward to a year filled with clear expectations and fantastic results.

Your comments are welcome. To ask questions or get more information about remodeling, email me directly or visit our contact page.

Disclaimer: Some of these images came from the WEB. If they are yours, and you object to them being used, please claim them and I will gladly remove and replace them at once.

lsu football bcs jay z glory alabama crimson tide barry larkin at the drive in jay z new song

Honda to recall 554000 SUVs in the United States ... - Chinese Cars

guise

Automotive News, according to Reuters, Honda Motor Company announced that its U.S. recall of 554,000 SUV models recalled because these vehicles headlight circuit failure.

Honda models included in this recall involves 2004-2004 model year CR-V SUV, and 2003 models Pilot SUVs, will be more than fault vehicle maintenance and replacement of the headlight wiring system.

Honda said that the failure line of the above vehicle headlights, the headlights can not be lighting, increase the likelihood of an accident.

the fault has not yet caused no casualties, the Honda vehicle owners to send to the failure in late April to recall notification letter, the owners of Honda Motor Company websites can be accessed through related information.

the ( Source: K-car network)

coolio daylight savings time 2012 ricky rubio day light savings time peter paul and mary edgar rice burroughs catch me if you can

Dachis Group: The Challenge of Measuring ... - Social Media Today

Online social influence is one of those phenomena that are hard to define, but we ?know it when we see it.?

And social influence is even much harder to track than it is to define.? Businesses are becoming increasingly social in their marketing, sales and customer service using a wide range of strategies, tactics and platforms. Some work, some work better than others.

How big a challenge is measuring social influence online?? The answer lies in why we?re asking the question.? Do we want to know whom influences whom in what ways to get people to buy a certain car, or vote for a certain political candidate?? If that?s the case we?re in for a wild ride because the psychology of individual choice is wide, deep and rich.? We can understand social influence in its correlations?when certain influencers say something we can see a correlated set of responses occurring.

But correlation isn?t the same as causality.? Proving causality means you can specifically attribute when certain influencers say something it causes the following responses.? This is not measurement, its attribution.? And attribution is the real proof of social influence.

Klout and its mongrel brethren have built simple models defining ?influencers? as people whose social messages are repeated repeatedly by others.? Klout then parses these influencers into buckets numbered from 1 to 100 and sells them to Virgin Airlines and other corporations like a PR agency in reverse.

I?ve wondered what the respected minds in data science think about the challenge of defining, capturing and measuring online social influence.? I?ve set out to meet and talk with people who are trying to capture, measure and analyze social causality on the largest scales.

Gilad Elbaz, a Google alum,?has a start up called Factual Inc, which the New York Times profiled last Sunday.??The goal of Factual leaves one gobsmacked: to capture and normalize all the data in the world.? All the data, baby. ??I?m sure that will take a little time and present enough challenges to keep armies of experts on the cutting edges of technology, semantics, and library science.

I?ve been challenged by some to point to organizations and people who are going about the business of measuring social influence and using that to create understanding and then actions based on that understanding.? If Klout is wrong, who is right?

One place to start is in Austin, Texas, twenty-six floors above Congress Boulevard, in the aviary headquarters of Dachis Group. Here, among half-finished offices lined with whiteboards filled to overflowing, are people working to understand the causality in social influence?how can we accurately attribute social communications to influencing real world actions?

Jeff Dachis founded Dachis Group in 2008 in Austin.? The idea behind Dachis Group is consulting with clients about what he calls ?Social Business,? a sweeping change he sees as corporations become more transparent and social.? With this change comes the opportunity to build strong, direct relationships with customers, participating in the marketplace of social conversation.

Dachis is best known as the founder of Razorfish, now the lead digital agency owned by advertising giant Publicis Groupe.?? He saw Razorfish through a successful IPO in 1998, and then the dot-bomb crash before leaving in 2001.? Now he?s on to social, and Dachis Group has become ?a leading strategic consulting firm to Fortune 500 companies about social media, transparency and authenticity.? Interestingly, they consider themselves to be foremost a SaaS and solutions provider.

As a foundation for that strategy, a year ago Dachis announced an ambitious project, the Dachis Social Business Index (SBI) a project to build a data platform that could ingest enormous amounts of social network messages and use them to provide detailed analysis of howbrands and corporations are talked about in the vast social communications ecosystem.

What nascent start-ups like Kred, Klout and PROScore are trying to do to measure ?social influence? of people, the SBI is doing in the online world for global corporations.? And the scale, complexity and analytical capabilities of the SBI platform are close to staggering.? Corporations pay well to collaborate with Dachis on the SBI as it adds more and more capabilities.?The basic ?SBI has been made available for free to the public?since September, providing information and graphing the social communications of major corporations around the world, ranking them on their effectiveness.? (Top dog??News Corp, owned by Rupert Murdoch)

Starting with 2,000 corporations worldwide, the SBI began to scrape 100 million social sources, pulling in conversations and links and analyzing the language of those tweets, posts and comments and adding overlays of dozens of other data sources.? Today more than 30,000 companies and brands are analyzed by the SBI platform.? According to Dachis Group each day more than 50 million ?brand relevant? social network messages are analyzed.

Courtney Boyd Myers, writing last September in The Next Web, described the SBI as: ?derived from company, employee, partner/vendor,?customer, engaged market and influencer data, and it is sourced from scraping sites like?Twitter, Facebook, Wikis, YouTube, forums,?and blogs as well as data?buys, data partnerships, company contributions, and its?own internal data team.?It had over 100 of the world?s largest companies participating in its?early access program to help cement the data and gain insights as to how the data is?used.?

?Social listening? platforms like Radian6 provide data about keywords.? Assuming you define your keywords correctly, there?s a lot you can learn.? But it?s a big like playing 20 Questions?you have to ask the right question to get a worthwhile answer.? SBI is a ?big data? platform that grabs a huge portion of the relevant social communications of a brand?s ?business social graph? and from this enormous data set you can query, organize, drill down, and slice and dice the entire data set.

This pushes much farther towards a new standards for social media attribution.? How effective is a specific marketing campaign?? Which events affected a brand?s perception in the southeastern US?? What messages were triggered by a Facebook promotion?

The SBI platform extends into China, Russia and other foreign countries, further complicating the problem of gathering this morass of big data, wrestling it to the ground and beating it into coherent shape enough to provide analysis and attribution for a brand or corporation.

In the midst of the SXSW swirl this month, I sat with Erik Huddleston, CTO and EVP-Products and Craig Bromberg, Vice President of Business Development for Dachis Group and talked with them about the challenge of measuring the social influence of corporations.

I also took a closer look at the structure and performance of the Social Business Index (SBI) tool and the far more comprehensive cloud platform offering SBISaaS.?? (The public SBI is available at?http://socialbusinessindex.com.)? In November the next module called Social Portfolio Insight was released, to be the ?system of record? for a brand?s social accounts across all brands. Social Performance Monitor was released in January to enable real-time measurement of social conversations on a brand?s performance.? It?s also the first module that requires a substantial subscription.? ??Coming next are two more subscription modules, Advocate Insight and Employee Insight, which will enable companies to drill down into the influence of brand advocates and their own employees.

The fundamental question is, given the huge morass of unstructured social communication about a brand, realistically how can anyone measure ?social influence??

?Measuring is a big problem,? Huddleston granted, ?but attribution is a much bigger one.?

Social messages are what are called ?unstructured data,? meaning it travels with almost no metadata that relates with other messages. ?Structured data would be like data from a spreadsheet or from a database.? Unstructured data has to be harvested and then evaluated with natural language processing, semantic analysis, and machine learning algorithms in order to interpret what the data mean.

This is akin to taking all the rocks in the Yosemite National Park and carefully reviewing each one for size, shape, mineral content, location, relationship to other rocks and so on.

?From the NLP and so on we build what we call a brand vocabulary index,? said Huddleston.? ?This is the taxonomy of meaning of the brand?the words, the ideas, the phrases that the brand uses, and that people use in talking about the brand.? In this way we?re trying to understand conversations, not just keywords.?

?Radian6 and others track and find keywords,? Bromberg explained.? ?We?re not saying that?s not valuable?it is.? There is a more important opportunity to analyze the performance of a brand or a company in the conversations and the context they provide.?

?BP could have used Radian6 to analyze social conversations when their oil platform was leaking,? Bromberg continued.? ?But they didn?t know which of the five or six methods of social media crisis management were working, and how they were working in different geographies, precisely on what platforms.?? That?s what the SBISaaS platform is designed to do.?

Huddleston used a term coined by Jeff Dachis, the ?social business graph,? which they take to mean the connections and relationships of a brand or corporation to people across social communications.? SBI builds a map of the social business graph of a corporation across all of the messaging that relates to the brand vocabulary.

?The SBI helps our client?s aggregate social media conversations into a system of record,? said Huddleston.? ?From this they can look into the performance of their campaigns and see what measures they can take to reach the full potential of the subscriber set in each social platform.?

?Advocacy is a perplexing and seductive problem,? Bromberg pointed out.? ?Every company has to create content programming, and social media represents an opportunity to use measure this programming.? They key is that we?re now able with SBI to not just measure ideas like sentiment and trending, but we can follow influence down to specific conversations.? This isn?t just measurement; we?re drilling down to provide attribution.?

?When you get the complete picture like this it allows you to see how all of your communications are actually working in the market,? Bromberg continued.? ?With this you see the power of advertising receding and the power of advocacy becoming much more important.? It gives you answers to questions of ?how do we reach them??

Dachis Group says it is currently working with 40% of Fortune 500 companies.? When it began working on the SBI in 2010, Dachis approached a selected group of companies and asked them to collaborate by integrating internal data with the social data that the SBI would collect and helping think through how to model the data to make it useful.

So how does a platform like the SBI deliver a real understanding of ?social influence??

?There are two answers to that,? said Huddleston with a smile. ?The first is that we gather the data and figure out what it means, then (the client) can figure out the value from that meaning according to their existing measures.? Proctor and Gamble has a long track record of modeling what certain actions and chains of action mean to a brand in the marketplace.?

?If Nokia and Microsoft want to reposition Nokia as a smartphone rather than a value brand phone they come to the table looking for specific ways to use social to communicate to achieve their goals.?

?Second,? Huddleston continued, ?then we help customers do this, figure out what the attribution means to them.? We?re concerned with business outcomes, how this directly drives our client?s businesses.? We?ve got the biggest social strategy group in the world to help them do this.?

Still he admitted that we?re standing at the dawn of really understanding how communication in social networks drives real business outcomes.

?It?s just too early in this,? he said.? ?There are just not solid models of ROMI (return on marketing investment).? I?m sure we?ll see best practices emerge about how to truly accurately measure return on investment, but its way too early in the game for that.?

Huddleston smiled.?? ?We?re just over a year into it.?

barnaby the cabin in the woods the cabin in the woods trace adkins the darkest hour the darkest hour neverland