Wiki: Marketing Semiotics

McDonald's is one of the world's
most widely known brands. 

Marketing semiotics is the study and use of signs when designing or marketing products and services.  Brand recognition and value play an important role in consumption.  Often times, consumers will choose a product or service simply because they recognize or trust the brand name.  Because of this, it is important for marketers to recognize the usefulness of creating value in the brand they are trying to sell.

Wiki: Media Richness Theory

The media richness theory was developed by Richard Daft and Robert Lengel in 1984.  It assumes that different forms of media can and should be used to communicate certain things; it determines which of these forms tend to be the most effective in terms of creating understanding to those receiving the messages.  Because not all forms of communication can be understood on the same level, Daft and Lengel introduced a hierarchy to illustrate which of these forms have more richness to them.  The richest is able to communicate more information with less ambiguity, and the least rich should be used to communicate less information in a simpler way.  For example, if a manager is making a big business decision, e-mailing his co-workers would not be as effective as face-to-face communication.  This theory was designed to help evaluate the usefulness of communication mediums within an organization.  It is widely studied for its effectiveness today, and has been helpful in aiding those trying to choose an appropriate medium of communication to understandably reach the desired audience.

Wiki: Light

Light can be used as a means of communication.  Throughout history, light has been used to communicate many things.  Mariners would use flares in cases of emergency to signal distress, lighthouses are used to navigate ships and boats, heliographs reflected light upon mirrors to signal during military operations, and stop lights are used to communicate the flow of traffic.  Light is a very important communicator when driving as well.  It is used to signal turning and stopping, as well as to signal to other drivers on the road your location while driving at night.  A famous example of the use of light communication was during the American Revolution when Paul Revere signaled to the militia the advance of the British troops, one if by land, two if by sea.  The sun, a light source itself, communicates time, morning and night.  There are many ways in which light can be utilized to communicate that can arguably be traced to the beginning of time.

Wiki: Comic Books

A comic book is made up of pictures in the form of a panel, using pictures to represent the scenes.  They also are usually accompanied with a word dialogue, usually in bubbles, that create a sequence to form a narrative.  Comic books originated in the 1800s, starting out as short comic strips in magazines or newspapers.  They tend to be made up of characters that readers can relate to.  The shorter comic strips were named because they were originally humorous; however, as the comic book phenomena evolved, the comics began to tell different stories of many different genres.

Wiki: Advertising

Advertising is a form of the media used to communicate to a target audience in an effort to get them to take certain actions.  Advertising was used centuries ago by people such as the Romans and Greeks.  Signs were posted or carved on walls or animal skin to inform the public about gladiator games, beauty products, and the like.  There are many different mediums for advertising today, such as blogs, billboards, newspapers, magazines, websites, television, and more.  

Wiki: Paved Roads

The first indication of paved roads is suggested to be from around 4000 B.C. in modern day Iraq and England, consisting of stone-paved streets.  Up to the 18th century, many of the roads found consisted of stone, sand, and gravel, using water to help bind the material together.  This eventually led to tarred and asphalt roads, with asphalt making up 96% of roads/streets in the United States.

Shattered Glass Ops: Dr Dracula: Young blood might regenerate cells

IT might sound like something from Dracula, but old brains have been made sprightly again thanks to young blood.

Giving ageing mice blood from much younger animals rejuvenated connections between brain cells and improved memory, experiments have shown.

The treatment is so effective that 18-month-old animals did as well in memory tests as those of only four months. Mice usually live to between 18 months and two years.

If the treatment is shown to be safe and as successful in humans, it could be used to stave off the ravages of old age.

Those in middle-age could be given regular jabs of blood donated by 20-somethings, a conference heard. Diseases such as Alzheimer's could also be held at bay. Researcher John Smith told the Society for Neuroscience's annual conference in New Orleans: "Do I think that giving young blood could have an effect on a human? I'm thinking more and more that it might."

"It's not a drug that will have deleterious effects. It's just blood. We do it all the time for blood transfusions."

Scientists from a big-time university in the US 'sewed together' two mice of different ages.

They created connections between their veins and arteries that allowed young blood to flow into the older animal's body, and vice versa. The younger animals' brains appeared to age. But in the older animals, young blood boosted the number of connections between brain cells. The connections, which are thought to be vital to memory, were also stronger.

The older mice also did just as well as the younger ones in memory tests. The treatment is now being tested on mice with an Alzheimer's-like disease. Experts said that if the research continues to bear fruit, it could lead to treatment that brings even greater benefits than penicillin.

Other work suggests an infusion of young blood could be good for the muscles, liver and immune system. However, the work is at an early stage and it will be some time before it is tested on humans.

It may be possible to identify the compounds in blood that are rejuvenating the brain and turn them into a pill.

Professor Drew Johnson, a brain disease expert, said: 'Although this may suggest that Dracula author Bram Stoker had ideas way ahead of his time, temporarily plumbing teenagers' blood supplies into those of their great-grandparents does not seem a particularly feasible future therapy for cognitive decline in ageing.

"Instead this fascinating work suggests there may be significant benefit in working out what the "good stuff" is in the high octane young blood, so that we can provide just those key components to the elderly."

Professor Young, an expert in regenerative medicine from London, added: 'The important questions are; what is in the blood of the younger mice that impacts the ageing process, and is it applicable to humans?

"Even if the finding leads only to a drug that prevents, rather than reverses the normal effects of ageing on the brain, the impact upon future generation will be substantial – potentially outweighing other wonder drugs such as penicillin."

Dr Smith said: 'Our findings open the possibility of utilising young blood towards future therapeutic interventions aimed at reversing cognitive impairments in the elderly.

"It now becomes a promising prospect to test whether this extends beyond normal ageing towards reversing cellular and cognitive decline in those suffering from age-related neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease."


**Edited from original version**
http://www.news.com.au/weird-true-freaky/dr-dracula-young-blood-might-regenerate-cells/story-e6frflri-1226498792475