LCEF Staff Take Creative Action in Lafayette INNOV8 Event ...

Lafayette, LA? The Louisiana Cultural Economy Foundation (LCEF) proudly participated in the ?successful INNOV8 conference held April 22?29, 2012 in Lafayette.? INNOV8, a project of the Innovation Division of the Greater Lafayette Chamber of Commerce, is an eight-day festival of creativity and innovation focusing on digital interactive technology, arts, music, and entrepreneurship. INNOV8 brought together the best and brightest in a creative setting focused on learning and sharing ideas while serving as a conduit for creative thinking and a showcase for talented creatives who make Lafayette a unique place to live and work.

LCEF CEO Aimee Smallwood and Dr. Gerd Wuestemann, Executive Director of the Acadiana Center for the Arts (AcA) provided closing remarks at the wrap-up reception held at AcA ?It was wonderful to be a small part of Innov8 and we congratulate Gerd and the Chamber team for their visionary effort to bring business and culture together,? Smallwood adds.

LCEF-HI Program Director Kathy Richard and LCEF-HI Program Coordinator Robert J. Wilson played key roles in planning and presenting Creative Economy Series .2: The Power of Creativity (CES.2) on behalf of Creative Action, a community group supporting the growth of Acadiana?s creative economy.? Creative Action was formed to engage Acadiana in a dialogue about creativity, diversity, and innovation as economic drivers in the region and works to connect creatives with local resources.

CES.2 was the second installment in a Creative Economy Series and consisted of professional development workshops, a lecture on contemporary art, and a fine art portfolio review.

Robert J. Wilson led a session for creatives on Establishing and Sustaining Creative Small Businesses, highlighting the unique needs of the creative entrepreneur from a wide array of disciplines.? ?Creative entrepreneurs often have a different mindset than their more traditionally industrial counterparts.? Both have valuable goods and services to bring to market, but creatives routinely view their contributions as something other than a commodity.? Overcoming the industrial bias and recognizing that creative industries account for well over 4% of global economic output is a challenge we can?t afford to overlook.? said Wilson.

Other sessions offered were:

• Becoming a Full-Time Music Professional
• Intellectual Property
• Grant Writing

Over-all, INNOV8 succeeded in showcasing Lafayette and Acadiana as a center of entrepreneurialism, demonstrating that Louisiana?s cultural economy produces solid business opportunities.

CES.2 was co-sponsored by Acadiana Center for the Arts, Lafayette Economic Development Authority, The Elemore Morgan, Jr. Visual Arts Endowment, and AOC Community Media.

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Sedgwick Insurance Law Blog: Keeping You Updated on Significant ...

By Benjamin E. Shiftan

In Grissom v. Liberty Mut. Fire Ins. Co., No. 11-60260, 2012 WL 1383069 (5th Cir. Apr. 23, 2012), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit overturned a jury verdict in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, holding that under Mississippi law, a purchaser of flood insurance cannot maintain a negligent misrepresentation cause of action against a flood insurer simply because the insurer failed to inform the consumer that he was eligible for a ?preferred risk? policy.

In 1977, plaintiff James Grissom purchased flood insurance for his home in Mississippi through the Federal Emergency Management Agency?s Write Your Own (WYO) flood insurance program.? Defendant Liberty Mutual Fire Insurance Company acted as Grissom?s WYO insurance provider.? In 1989, a preferred risk flood insurance policy became available for the ?flood zone? on which Grissom?s home sat.

In 2004, Grissom renewed his Liberty Mutual policy with covered total loss of up to $121,200 for a $531 premium.? The 2004 policy renewal notice noted that preferred risk policies existed, but did not indicate whether Grissom was eligible for such a policy.? If Grissom had enrolled as a policyholder under the preferred risk policy, he would have had $350,000 in total covered loss for only a $317 premium.

In August 2005, Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, destroying Grissom?s home.? Liberty Mutual paid the full $121,200 under Grissom?s policy.? Grissom then sued Liberty Mutual in Mississippi state court to recover the difference between the proceeds he received ($121,200) and the proceeds he could have received under the preferred risk policy ($350,000).? Liberty Mutual removed the case to the Southern District of Mississippi. The federal trial court denied Liberty Mutual?s motions to dismiss and for summary judgment and matter when to jury.? At trial, a jury awarded Grissom $212,900 in compensatory damages.

The Fifth Circuit reversed.? It reasoned that Mississippi law does not recognize a negligent misrepresentation cause of action under the facts alleged.? The appellate court?s ruling hinged upon whether, under Mississippi law, insurers owe a fiduciary duty to insureds when insurance is purchased.? The Fifth Circuit rejected Grissom?s argument that insurers have a ?duty to use reasonably prudent diligence and care in ?business transactions.??? The court found that under state law no such duty existed, holding that ?the purchase of insurance is an arms-length transaction and no fiduciary duty arises between an insurance company or its agents and the purchaser of the insurance.?

Relying on a recent Mississippi Supreme Court decision, the Fifth Circuit reasoned that the insured bore the burden of researching better options for insurance:? ?[I]mposing liability on agents for failing to advise insureds regarding the sufficiency of their coverage would remove any burden from the insured to take care of his or her own financial needs.?? The Fifth Circuit concluded that ?Liberty Mutual [was] not required to provide advice to insurance customers? and that Mississippi law does not recognize a negligent misrepresentation cause of action for failure to disclose that a less expensive policy with better coverage exists, and remanded the matter to the trial court to dismiss Grissom?s negligent misrepresentation claim.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 22nd, 2012 at 9:25 pm and is filed under Insurance Practices. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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Online Promoting Solutions That Deliver Targeted traffic ...

Internet marketing by itself can be a broad domain supported by several theories and techniques but not all of them are powerful adequate to push revenue. The core notion powering any World-wide-web advertising technique would be to develop an internet existence by utilizing numerous World wide web advertising and marketing solutions to drive revenue and reach maximum ROI. The query is what are the key elements of Internet marketing solutions and how can they generate ROI?

To know it superior, we must very first determine what a prosperous online strategy has to be like. A basically robust on the web strategy should really be capable of attain the subsequent:

1. It should really be able to push specific traffic for your internet site and persuade visitors to acquire a choice. This basically implies that if a person is going to your web-site for a distinct product then the provision from the product in your website as well as the consumer expertise really should finish with a sale. It is possible to use internet metrics to research at the same time as evaluate the conduct from the user.

2. It isn?t a simple process to push targeted visitors to your web site specifically inside the age of growing competition. You must use specific components of Web advertising services to drive specific targeted traffic. Many of the components consist of search engine advertising and marketing (SEM) campaign. An SEM technique additional consists of pay-per-click or PPC advertising and search engine optimization or Search engine marketing approach.

3. Application in the Search engine marketing technique is really frequent however the distinguishing factor lies within the type of keyword you choose. It is essential to determine the correct search phrases which will be utilised as being a part of the PPC and Search engine optimization campaigns.

4. Your internet marketing method should really also consist of the use of equipment like Wordtrackers, which may create a random checklist of all probable keywords and phrases fantastic for your enterprise. Making use of an instrument similar to this, you will be able to decide the frequency of look for every from the phrases. According to the result, you?ll be able to evaluate the selections and identify the power of competitors. It is possible to select the phrases and search phrases and check them by utilizing them for seo and PPC campaigns.

One with the important objectives of utilizing Web advertising and marketing solutions is to be capable of effectively persuade an internet site visitor to get a wanted action. You?ll be able to purchase a checklist of publication subscribers or offer a no cost obtain of a software package demo package in your internet site. They are just small elements that may draw a visitor for your website and aid your to realize the desired result.

Some of the other attributes that perform a crucial function in generating the advertising and marketing techniques successful contain the total style and web site architecture. Internet site architecture will involve components like navigation, style, content & copy and usability. All these components have to be in sync to support generate site visitors to your web page.

Let us acquire a closer seem at some of the World-wide-web advertising and marketing solutions tools that are an integral element of any web site or on the internet small business promotion:

PPC or Pay for every click: PPC campaigns have become extremely well-known platform of driving site visitors. In PPC, you won?t have to spend for marketing space or the advertisement by itself but you?ll be charged each individual time a visitor clicks in your advertisement. It?s also known because the cost for each click on (CPC) mode of marketing.

Search Engine Marketing: Also known as SEM, it?s an on the internet marketing method through which your online enterprise is often optimized. This is an integral part in the Internet search engine Advertising Solutions and this strategy will use your business/product/service oriented keywords to make a potential link with various other businesses. This will enhance your web page relevancy and get your web page listed among the top 20 or 30 online search engine result web page (SERP). A good SERP will increase the variety of guests to your page and will also support in converting them to customers.

Banner Advertising: A couple of years back, this was one from the top World-wide-web marketing and advertising services but since the advent of SEM, it?s not as significant but still is considered as an essential issue. In banner advertising, you?ve got to spend for the banner space. You could also display your banner in another internet site through banner exchange.

Email Marketing: Email marketing consists of mostly newsletters, mailers etc, which might be sent to a group of subscribers or customers and is used to inform them about the launch of the new service or product.

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Unique gold earring found in intriguing collection of ancient jewelry in Israel

ScienceDaily (May 21, 2012) ? Hoard of gold and silver jewelry hidden for thousands of years could have Egyptian origin, say TAU researchers

Researchers from Tel Aviv University have recently discovered a collection of gold and silver jewelry, dated from around 1100 B.C., hidden in a vessel at the archaeological site of Tel Megiddo in the Jezreel Valley in northern Israel. One piece -- a gold earring decorated with molded ibexes, or wild goats -- is "without parallel," they believe.

According to Prof. Israel Finkelstein of TAU's Department of Archaeology and Near Eastern Cultures, the vessel was found in 2010, but remained uncleaned while awaiting a molecular analysis of its content. When they were finally able to wash out the dirt, pieces of jewelry, including a ring, earrings, and beads, flooded from the vessel. Prof. Finkelstein is the co-director of the excavation of Tel Megiddo along with Professor Emeritus David Ussishkin of Tel Aviv University and Associate Director Prof. Eric Cline of George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

The researchers believe that the collection, which was discovered in the remains of a private home in the northern part of Megiddo, belongs to a time period called "Iron I," and that at least some of the pieces could have originated in nearby Egypt. Some of the materials and designs featured in the jewelry, including beads made from carnelian stone, are consistent with Egyptian designs from the same period, notes Ph.D. candidate Eran Arie, who supervises the area where the hoard was found.

A treasure trove with mysterious origins

When the researchers removed the ceramic jug from the excavation site, they had no idea there was jewelry hidden within. The jewelry was well preserved and wrapped in textiles, but the circumstances surrounding it are mysterious. According to Prof. Finkelstein, it is likely that the jug was not the jewelry's normal storage place. "It's clear that people tried to hide the collection, and for some reason they were unable to come back to pick it up." The owners could have perished or been forced to flee, he says. Prof. Ussishkin believes that it was the jewelry collection of the Canaanite woman who lived in the house.

The assortment of jewelry is also out of the ordinary, notes Arie. Though the collection includes a number of lunette (moon-shaped) earrings of common Canaanite origin, researchers found an abundance of gold items in the collection and a number of beads made from carnelian, which was frequently used in the making of Egyptian jewellery in the same period. This points to a strong Egyptian connection, whether in influence or origin. Such a connection would not be surprising, according to Prof. Cline, who stated that interactions between Egypt and Megiddo are known to have taken place during both the Bronze Age and the Iron Age.

The most notable piece, the researchers agree, is a gold earring with a pattern of molded wild goats. "For unique items, we work to find parallels to help place the items in their correct cultural and chronological settings, but in this case we still haven't found anything," say the researchers.

Adding dimension to a multi-layer dig

It's another fascinating find from a unique archaeological site. Tel Megiddo was an important Canaanite city-state until the early 10th century B.C.E. and a pivotal center of the Northern Kingdom of Israel in the 9th and 8th centuries B.C.E. It is a multi-layered site with various time periods clearly differentiated, and in this time period there are 10 to 11 strata well-dated through radiocarbon analysis. "Such a sequence of radiocarbon dates doesn't exist anywhere else in the region," says Prof. Finkelstein.

The layer in which the jewelry was found has already been dated to the 11th century B.C., just after the end of Egyptian rule in the 12th century B.C., Arie says. Either the jewelry was left behind in the Egyptian withdrawal or the people who owned the jewelry were influenced by Egyptian culture.

The researchers hope that analysis of both the textiles in which the jewelry was wrapped and the jewelry itself will tell them more about the origins of the collection. If the gold is pure rather than a mixture of gold and silver, for example, the metal most likely will have come from Egypt itself, a region that was poor in silver resources but rich in gold.

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Parasite may aid cattle TB spread

22 May 2012 Last updated at 11:00 ET By Richard Black Environment correspondent, BBC News

The spread of an animal parasite across the UK may be hampering moves to curb cattle tuberculosis, research suggests.

Scientists have known for a few years that cows carrying both TB and the fluke Fasciola hepatica are less likely to show positive on the normal TB test.

Now researchers have shown that this could lead to a reduction of one-third in the detection of infected cattle.

Cases of bovine TB soared over the last decade, leading to tighter restrictions on farmers and a possible badger cull.

The disease now costs the UK public purse more than ?100m per year.

Some of that is spent on regular testing of cattle herds for TB; but the new research, reported in Nature Communications journal, suggests the testing is being compromised by presence of the liver fluke.

It has been known since at least 2006 that under experimental conditions, infection with F. hepatica lowers a cow's reaction to the skin test.

The 3cm long parasite fends off the cow's natural defence mechanisms by "turning down" its immune system.

The TB skin test relies on detecting an immune response to a harmless part of the TB bacterium. With the cow's immune system suppressed, the response is not as strong.

More is less

The new research takes this lab result into the real world of farming by looking at the relationship across the UK between levels of liver fluke infestation and rates of TB diagnosis.

Continue reading the main story

?Start Quote

Anything that can explain where test sensitivity is going wrong is potentially very useful?

End Quote Prof Christl Donnelly Imperial College London

"We started this work thinking that infection with the liver fluke might make animals more susceptible to pathogens that are normally controlled by an inflammatory immune response, and TB is the obvious one to think about," said research leader Diana Williams from the University of Liverpool.

"We were surprised, because we suspected there would be a TB increase in cattle infected with fluke; but what we found from the data was a negative association - more fluke, less apparent TB."

Using a computer model relating disease incidence to environmental conditions such as temperature and rainfall, the researchers concluded that TB ought to be present in areas where it was not showing up.

Their conclusion is that the sensitivity of the test in picking up TB infection is reduced in areas where lots of cows carry liver fluke.

Prof Williams also said fluke had become more common in the UK over the last 15 years - the very period that has seen a tripling in the number of cattle herds where TB is present.

Flukes may be thriving partly because of climate change, she suggested, but also because of agri-environment schemes that encourage farmers to maintain ponds, lakes and marshes to support wildlife.

F. hepatica spends part of its life cycle in snails, which thrive in warm, wet conditions.

Policy time?

If the chances of detecting TB through the skin test really do go down by a third, as the researchers conclude, that would mean infected cattle are not being detected during routine testing - which in turn means they can infect other cows in the same herd and be eligible for transport from farm to farm.

Carl Padgett, president of the British Veterinary Association, described the findings as "important research".

"The skin test for TB has been proven to work well at eradicating infection in cattle throughout the world," he said.

"It is important to recognise its imperfections to maximise its value in the continued efforts to eradicate this disease."

Epidemiologist Prof Christl Donnelly from Imperial College London, a former member of a government advisory panel on bovine TB, said that if confirmed, the findings could lead to useful policy changes.

"It's potentially really interesting - anything that can explain where test sensitivity is going wrong is potentially very useful in finding out where the cattle test might be doing less well," she told BBC News.

"I think it would definitely be worth following up and asking whether there's any effect of liver fluke on gamma-interferon (another type of TB test) - and if the answer is 'no', maybe there should be more use of gamma interferon in those areas."

But the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) played down the significance of the finding.

A spokesman pointed to another line of research pursued by the Liverpool-led team, in which cattle had been infected in experimental conditions with both liver fluke and the TB-causing agent Mycobacterium bovis.

All cows showed a depressed response to the skin test - but not so much that the test would not have picked them up.

"This research shows that cattle who have both liver fluke and bovine TB still test positive for bovine TB, and would be culled to control the disease," he said.

"The absence of positive cases of bovine TB in some areas co-inciding with large amounts of liver fluke cannot be used to claim liver fluke is hiding cases, as cattle carcasses are inspected in abattoirs and we would see evidence of TB in the slaughtered animals if this was the case."

However in farm conditions, where cows may carry a heavier load of fluke, it is possible that the skin test would fail to produce a response, the researchers say.

Everybody agrees that the case is not proven by this one piece of research, and Prof Williams said more needed to be done to understand the real situation on farms and also look for ways to respond.

"Fluke infestation is quite seasonal - we tend to see it occurring towards the end of the summer, and so by controlling access to marshy pastures or fencing off marshy areas, farmers could reduce the risk of infection," she said.

The picture is somewhat clouded by the fact that the European Medicines Agency recently restricted one of the drugs routinely deployed against fluke, ivermectin, after the UK raised concerns that its presence in the cow's milk could pose a threat to human health.

The research will inevitably raise anew the question of whether badger culling, which Defra wants to see started later this year, is really needed.

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Ahead of the Bell: Facebook below IPO price

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Commercial Loan Rates for Financial Wants of Firms

At some point, a business owner or entrepreneur can find himself inside a sudden need for revenue and calls for quick monetary remedy. Getting a commercial loan to deal with emergencies is usually a prevalent necessity for most corporations today most especially when considering the amount of competition and type of economy we've. There are quite a few factors why business loans are necessary and regardless of what that purpose may well by, it is best to examine the commercial loan rates the lender charges.

Finding a business loan with very affordable rates of interest will depend on the credit history of the borrower or business owner. Should you have a excellent credit history, you will not merely get a reasonable rate, you also will get the likelihood to get the loan more rapidly. But if a business owner has not so excellent credit history, it is going to be difficult for you personally to acquire a commercial loan with feasible rates of interest.

In the event you take a secured kind of loan, you will be able to delight in decrease rates of interest.

Taking out unsecured varieties of loans can be the most effective ways to a loan from a commercial lender. The amount of funds you may acquire for this kind of loan vary from a single lender to yet another and the amount of income you can obtain from this kind of loan is often utilized for any purpose in thoughts. One of the things that make this sort of loan advantageous is it involved minimal paperwork. In a lot of cases, the repayment of the loan is based on the future sales credit of the business owner.

When you're searching to acquire a commercial loan, it can be quite crucial which you do your investigation on lending corporations offering the loans. It's a need to to compare the rates of interest which might be offering. Before committing to a lender, it is best to acquire a totally free quote from them and see which among them can give you together with the finest offers. Any time you already get the amount you need from the commercial loan, you need to make sure you can repay it ahead of and at the finish of the loan term.
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