Monthly Archives: January 2020

Anatomy

‘Grey’s Anatomy’: This 1 Change Is What the Show Needs to Survive – Showbiz Cheat Sheet

One of the highest-rated shows on television since its inception, Greys Anatomy continues to entertain, but will the critically acclaimed series survive? Can one change save Greys Anatomy? Those are questions a lot of fans are wondering.

When Greys Anatomy made its debut on ABC in March 2005, the show focused on the personal and professional relationships of a racially diverse group of medical residents, surgical interns, and seasoned doctors. Among the major characters in the show pilot was an ambitious young surgeon named Meredith Grey, who also happened to be the daughter of esteemed operating room physician, Ellis Grey.

Portrayed by Ellen Pompeo, Dr. Meredith Grey is one of only four characters who remain aboard the long-lived show. The three others who made it all the way to season 16 are doctors Miranda Bailey, Alex Karev, and Richard Webber.

In February 2019, Greys Anatomy toppled the record previously held by ER as American televisions most enduring prime-time scripted medical drama, according to Vulture magazine. Readers may recall the long-running medical drama spurring the careers of George Clooney, Noah Wyle, Anthony Edwards, and Laura Innes.

Now in its 16th year, each 41-minute episode of Greys Anatomy typically opens with a foretelling narrative by Dr. Meredith Grey. But that might not be enough to keep the show alive.

According to TheTalko, there are 15 reasons why Greys Anatomy could have called it quits after the third season.

For instance, most of the original cast has moved on, boring new characters have been added, and the once-beloved medical drama has become virtually unrecognizable.

Filmed primarily in sunny Southern California, Greys Anatomy is purported to take place at a Seattle teaching hospital named Grey Sloan Memorial.

Over the years, the primary characters of Greys Anatomy learned surgical techniques and hospital protocol while enduring a countless array of calamities, including bomb threats, plane crashes, and hospital fires, explains PopSugar.

Now that the lead characters have aged well beyond medical school, theres not nearly as much teaching going on as there was in the first three seasons. And that may be the key to saving the show.

Regardless of whether Greys Anatomy enacts a major change, lead actress Ellen Pompeo may. Although the 50-year-old actress told Entertainment Weekly that she still cares very much about the series that sent her to stardom, she also noted that its about time to mix it up and that she was definitely looking for a change as long ago as 2018, explains TV Line.

The Massachusetts-born actress also said that she felt as if the majority of stories had already been told.

In a Reddit thread, critical viewers offered a range of suggestions that, if enacted, might save Greys Anatomy from cancellation. One Reddit commentator recommended that Alexs sister become a bigger part of the storyline and that Merediths character should be given a brother.

One thing thats certain is that when viewers originally fell in love with the show, Greys Anatomy featured a true-to-life medical drama that offered viewers a glimpse into the inner workings of an actual teaching hospital.

Thats what made Greys Anatomy a hit in the first place, and thats what viewers want to see. If hungry new interns are introduced, and if medical teaching is reintroduced as the focus of the show, Greys Anatomy might make it into the foreseeable future.

[Correction: An earlier version said Ellen Pompeo is 60 years old. She is 50.]

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'Grey's Anatomy': This 1 Change Is What the Show Needs to Survive - Showbiz Cheat Sheet

Biochemistry

Could invisible aliens really exist among us? An astrobiologist explains – The Conversation UK

Life is pretty easy to recognise. It moves, it grows, it eats, it excretes, it reproduces. Simple. In biology, researchers often use the acronym MRSGREN to describe it. It stands for movement, respiration, sensitivity, growth, reproduction, excretion and nutrition.

But Helen Sharman, Britains first astronaut and a chemist at Imperial College London, recently said that alien lifeforms that are impossible to spot may be living among us. How could that be possible?

While life may be easy to recognise, its actually notoriously difficult to define and has had scientists and philosophers in debate for centuries if not millennia. For example, a 3D printer can reproduce itself, but we wouldnt call it alive. On the other hand, a mule is famously sterile, but we would never say it doesnt live.

As nobody can agree, there are more than 100 definitions of what life is. An alternative (but imperfect) approach is describing life as a self-sustaining chemical system capable of Darwinian evolution, which works for many cases we want to describe.

The lack of definition is a huge problem when it comes to searching for life in space. Not being able to define life other than well know it when we see it means we are truly limiting ourselves to geocentric, possibly even anthropocentric, ideas of what life looks like. When we think about aliens, we often picture a humanoid creature. But the intelligent life we are searching for doesnt have to be humanoid.

Sharman says she believes aliens exist and theres no two ways about it. Furthermore, she wonders: Will they be like you and me, made up of carbon and nitrogen? Maybe not. Its possible theyre here right now and we simply cant see them.

Such life would exist in a shadow biosphere. By that, I dont mean a ghost realm, but undiscovered creatures probably with a different biochemistry. This means we cant study or even notice them because they are outside of our comprehension. Assuming it exists, such a shadow biosphere would probably be microscopic.

So why havent we found it? We have limited ways of studying the microscopic world as only a small percentage of microbes can be cultured in a lab. This may mean that there could indeed be many lifeforms we havent yet spotted. We do now have the ability to sequence the DNA of unculturable strains of microbes, but this can only detect life as we know it that contain DNA.

If we find such a biosphere, however, it is unclear whether we should call it alien. That depends on whether we mean of extraterrestrial origin or simply unfamiliar.

A popular suggestion for an alternative biochemistry is one based on silicon rather than carbon. It makes sense, even from a geocentric point of view. Around 90% of the Earth is made up of silicon, iron, magnesium and oxygen, which means theres lots to go around for building potential life.

Silicon is similar to carbon, it has four electrons available for creating bonds with other atoms. But silicon is heavier, with 14 protons (protons make up the atomic nucleus with neutrons) compared to the six in the carbon nucleus. While carbon can create strong double and triple bonds to form long chains useful for many functions, such as building cell walls, it is much harder for silicon. It struggles to create strong bonds, so long-chain molecules are much less stable.

Whats more, common silicon compounds, such as silicon dioxide (or silica), are generally solid at terrestrial temperatures and insoluble in water. Compare this to highly soluble carbon dioxide, for example, and we see that carbon is more flexible and provides many more molecular possibilities.

Life on Earth is fundamentally different from the bulk composition of the Earth. Another argument against a silicon-based shadow biosphere is that too much silicon is locked up in rocks. In fact, the chemical composition of life on Earth has an approximate correlation with the chemical composition of the sun, with 98% of atoms in biology consisting of hydrogen, oxygen and carbon. So if there were viable silicon lifeforms here, they may have evolved elsewhere.

That said, there are arguments in favour of silicon-based life on Earth. Nature is adaptable. A few years ago, scientists at Caltech managed to breed a bacterial protein that created bonds with silicon essentially bringing silicon to life. So even though silicon is inflexible compared with carbon, it could perhaps find ways to assemble into living organisms, potentially including carbon.

And when it comes to other places in space, such as Saturns moon Titan or planets orbiting other stars, we certainly cant rule out the possibility of silicon-based life.

To find it, we have to somehow think outside of the terrestrial biology box and figure out ways of recognising lifeforms that are fundamentally different from the carbon-based form. There are plenty of experiments testing out these alternative biochemistries, such as the one from Caltech.

Regardless of the belief held by many that life exists elsewhere in the universe, we have no evidence for that. So it is important to consider all life as precious, no matter its size, quantity or location. The Earth supports the only known life in the universe. So no matter what form life elsewhere in the solar system or universe may take, we have to make sure we protect it from harmful contamination whether it is terrestrial life or alien lifeforms.

Read more: Elon Musks Starship may be more moral catastrophe than bold step in space exploration

So could aliens be among us? I dont believe that we have been visited by a life form with the technology to travel across the vast distances of space. But we do have evidence for life-forming, carbon-based molecules having arrived on Earth on meteorites, so the evidence certainly doesnt rule out the same possibility for more unfamiliar life forms.

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Could invisible aliens really exist among us? An astrobiologist explains - The Conversation UK

Biochemistry

Why people usually have an A-ha moment before they lose weight – KSTU FOX 13 Salt Lake City

Dr. Kristen Kells, a Chiropractic Physician, is an authority when it comes to weight loss. She's not only studied it in-depth, but she's been there, done that! Dr. Kells lost over 80 pounds personally and has kept it off for the last 15 years.

Dr. Kells says usually there is an "A-ha" moment when people realize they've got to lose weight. For her, it was after her son was born when she was at her highest weight. Dr. Kells say she was depressed, hopeless and felt like she'd tried everything! For her, she had to address her weight loss resistance, something she now does in her offices. Dr. Kells says when you address the underlying biochemistry (hormones, body PH, toxicity) it will help you fix your broken metabolism and correct weight loss resistance.

So how do you know if you have weight loss resistance? Dr. Kells says if you've tried everything and still can't lose the weight, and if you have some of these typical symptoms: brain fog, wired and tired, no energy, low libido, digestive issues, cravings or if you felt like she did - hopeless and discouraged, you may have it.

But it doesn't have to be that way. Stephanie Bezyack, a client of Dr. Kells, joined us to talk about the great results she's had. She lost 28 pounds in 14 weeks and has kept it off for four months. Stephanie says she has more energy and is feeling better about herself as a whole.

If you'd like to check out Dr. Kells Weight Loss Program, call (385) 217-3834 to schedule a free, no-obligation consultation. Dr. Kells' team is standing by to take your call. They have spots reserved for the first 15 Fox 13 callers - so call now!

For more information please visit: drkellsweightloss.com.

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Why people usually have an A-ha moment before they lose weight - KSTU FOX 13 Salt Lake City

Biochemistry

Food security, international students: What the new GPSC president has been focused on – Duke Chronicle

Every vice president knows they may have to take over for the president, but rarely does that situation come to fruition.

The sitting president of the Graduate and Professional Student Council, Anthony Monroe, stepped down from the position in October, leaving vice president Alyssa Florwick to fill his shoes. As GPSC President, Florwick, a Ph.D. student in biochemistry, aims to carry forward the visions of the GPSC throughout the year by continuing efforts with the Community Pantry, centralizing resources and supporting international students.

Wed already laid a lot of foundational work, she explained. I talked to Anthony earlier in the year about some of the goals he wanted to carry forward. Highlighting the Community Pantry is a continued mission of ours, and I think were really broadcasting that a lot.

From its founding in 2017, the Community Pantry has provided resources like food, professional clothing and childcare items to graduate students. GPSC will host a campus food insecurity symposium Feb. 14 based on a collaboration between Duke, the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and Durham Technical Community College, Florwick said.

Its highlighting essentially the issues, the stigma around food insecurity and the ways of moving forward about how campuses can support students, she said.

Florwick wants GPSC to continue to centralize and highlight various campus resources for students through projects such as the existing Resource Directory Task Force. She emphasized that though there is a bounty of resources available to help Duke students, theyre just really not centralized and broadcasted in a way that students are aware of.

She is currently working on a resource directory page on the GPSC website that is expected to be published by April.

Florwick also expressed an interest in working toward expanding resources available for international students at Duke. She hopes to help international students receive internships to enhance their graduate careers.

The general sentiment is that, especially students who come internationally and come with families and their spouses, may not be able to get a visa to work and dont oftensome indication that theres a financial need there, Florwick said.

She explained that schools like the Sanford School of Public Policy have a lot of professional degrees where internship experience is really integral for their success. However, there is a little bit of a disconnect between how students know they can get those internships, if they knew beforehand that they could get those, she added.

Under Florwicks leadership, GPSC created the Task Force on International Student Affairs. The representatives are now discussing the creation of an international student internal committee within GPSC that could collect more data on international students to understand what resources the council could potentially offer.

We want to know more about students who identify in that population without making them feel like were trying to target or identify them out, she said.

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The task force for international students is just one of four select task forces that the executive committee approved during their current term, along with parking and transportation, sustainability and resource directory.

She also hopes to bring students from various schools together to build collaboration efforts, such as the collaboration of the Graduate School with all other nine schools at Duke for a graduate and professional student appreciation week.

The Graduate School has done a graduate appreciation week in the past and were working with them to broaden that and in that are trying to create opportunities to have students and student leaders from the other schools provide input, she said.

Florwick wishes to strengthen the relationship between GPSC and Duke Student Government as well.

I actually met with [DSG President Liv McKinney] this semester to talk about whats going on with DSG and what theyre doing because I feel like we can learn a lot from each other, she said.

She emphasized that some of the issues being tackled by GPSC task forces, such as the Task Force on Parking and Transportation, are issues for all members of the Duke community, not just graduate and professional students.

In addition to working more with the undergraduate population, Florwick is determined to understand her own population more deeply.

One thing that Im really focusing on this year is trying to understand the heterogeneity of graduate and professional students because I think thats something we struggle with as well, she said. Were the advocates and the voices for our students and we want to be seen and know that students can reach out to us while also having the right things to advocate about.

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Food security, international students: What the new GPSC president has been focused on - Duke Chronicle

Human Behavior

A unique brain signal may be the key to human intelligence – Big Think

Though progress is being made, our brains remain organs of many mysteries. Among these are the exact workings of neurons, with some 86 billion of them in the human brain. Neurons are interconnected in complicated, labyrinthine networks across which they exchange information in the form of electrical signals. We know that signals exit an individual neuron through a fiber called an axon, and also that signals are received by each neuron through input fibers called dendrites.

Understanding the electrical capabilities of dendrites in particular which, after all, may be receiving signals from countless other neurons at any given moment is fundamental to deciphering neurons' communication. It may surprise you to learn, though, that much of everything we assume about human neurons is based on observations made of rodent dendrites there's just not a lot of fresh, still-functional human brain tissue available for thorough examination.

For a new study published January 3 in the journal Science, however, scientists got a rare chance to explore some neurons from the outer layer of human brains, and they discovered startling dendrite behaviors that may be unique to humans, and may even help explain how our billions of neurons process the massive amount of information they exchange.

Image source: gritsalak karalak/Shutterstock

Electrical signals weaken with distance, and that poses a riddle to those seeking to understand the human brain: Human dendrites are known to be about twice as long as rodent dendrites, which means that a signal traversing a human dendrite could be much weaker arriving at its destination than one traveling a rodent's much shorter dendrite. Says paper co-author biologist Matthew Larkum of Humboldt University in Berlin speaking to LiveScience, "If there was no change in the electrical properties between rodents and people, then that would mean that, in the humans, the same synaptic inputs would be quite a bit less powerful." Chalk up another strike against the value of animal-based human research. The only way this would not be true is if the signals being exchanged in our brains are not the same as those in a rodent. This is exactly what the study's authors found.

The researchers worked with brain tissue sliced for therapeutic reasons from the brains of tumor and epilepsy patients. Neurons were resected from the disproportionately thick layers 2 and 3 of the cerebral cortex, a feature special to humans. In these layers reside incredibly dense neuronal networks.

Without blood-borne oxygen, though, such cells only last only for about two days, so Larkum's lab had no choice but to work around the clock during that period to get the most information from the samples. "You get the tissue very infrequently, so you've just got to work with what's in front of you," says Larkum. The team made holes in dendrites into which they could insert glass pipettes. Through these, they sent ions to stimulate the dendrites, allowing the scientists to observe their electrical behavior.

In rodents, two type of electrical spikes have been observed in dendrites: a short, one-millisecond spike with the introduction of sodium, and spikes that last 50- to 100-times longer in response to calcium.

In the human dendrites, one type of behavior was observed: super-short spikes occurring in rapid succession, one after the other. This suggests to the researchers that human neurons are "distinctly more excitable " than rodent neurons, allowing them to successfully traverse our longer dendrites.

In addition, the human neuronal spikes though they behaved somewhat like rodent spikes prompted by the introduction of sodium were found to be generated by calcium, essentially the opposite of rodents.

Image source: bluebay/Shutterstock

The study also reports a second major finding. Looking to better understand how the brain utilizes these spikes, the team programmed computer models based on their findings. (The brains slices they'd examined could not, of course, be put back together and switched on somehow.)

The scientists constructed virtual neuronal networks, each of whose neurons could could be stimulated at thousands of points along its dendrites, to see how each handled so many input signals. Previous, non-human, research has suggested that neurons add these inputs together, holding onto them until the number of excitatory input signals exceeds the number of inhibitory signals, at which point the neuron fires the sum of them from its axon out into the network.

However, this isn't what Larkum's team observed in their model. Neurons' output was inverse to their inputs: The more excitatory signals they received, the less likely they were to fire off. Each had a seeming "sweet spot" when it came to input strength.

What the researchers believe is going on is that dendrites and neurons may be smarter than previously suspected, processing input information as it arrives. Mayank Mehta of UC Los Angeles, who's not involved in the research, tells LiveScience, "It doesn't look that the cell is just adding things up it's also throwing things away." This could mean each neuron is assessing the value of each signal to the network and discarding "noise." It may also be that different neurons are optimized for different signals and thus tasks.

Much in the way that octopuses distribute decision-making across a decentralized nervous system, the implication of the new research is that, at least in humans, it's not just the neuronal network that's smart, it's all of the individual neurons it contains. This would constitute exactly the kind of computational super-charging one would hope to find somewhere in the amazing human brain.

Related Articles Around the Web

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A unique brain signal may be the key to human intelligence - Big Think

Human Behavior

Rhode Island Hospital Tests mHealth Wearable to Track Eating Habits – mHealthIntelligence.com

January 09, 2020 -A Rhode Island hospital is launching a pilot program to determine whether an mHealth wearable can help users lose weight.

Researchers the The Miriam Hospital, part of the Lifespan Health System, will be using an mHealth device called the Automatic Ingestion Monitor. Developed at the University of Alabama, the AIM attaches to a users eyeglasses and monitors eating habits, including what kinds of foods are eaten, how much, how often and how fast.

Ultimately, we hope that it will be a tool for patients to use to improve their eating habits, says Graham Thomas, PhD, a behavioral scientist at the Providence-based hospitals Weight Control and Diabetes Research Center and an associate professor of psychology and human behavior at Brown University. The information that the AIM collects could be shared with care providers to help them evaluate their progress towards goals for diet and eating, and identify problematic eating behaviors.

Funded by a $2.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, the clinical trial aims to test whether telemedicine technology can help care providers remotely monitor the eating habits of patients dealing with weight issues. Armed with that data, providers could conceivably improve care management for a wide range of chronic issues, including obesity, diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure and even behavioral health concerns.

Alongside Thomas, the study includes researchers at the University of Alabama, Boston University and the University of Colorado.

The key to this particular technology is to learn individual eating behaviors and then attempt to provide personalized feedback to modify those behaviors, said Edward Sazarov, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Alabama who created the device and is a co-principal investigator with Thomas, in a press release.

The way you eat is as important as what you eat. We are also looking at the rates of ingestion, he added. We want to slow down and be more mindful about our eating. Every person is different in when they eat, what they eat, how much they eat and how long they eat. We use machine learning to create a model of these individual eating patterns. After we learn the individual eating patterns, we see how it can be manipulated by suggesting small changes to reduce the total amount of energy consumed.

The digital health platform captures data from the device and stores it in the users smartphone, where it can be retrieved and viewed by both the user and care providers. The platform can also be programmed to deliver messages to the user about eating behaviors.

Current programs aimed at improving diet and eating behavior largely require the patient to maintain total vigilance of their eating, often requiring them to accurately track how much they are eating, says Thomas, who is recruiting roughly half of the patients for the study. This technology has the potential to relieve much of that burden and provide the patient with more accurate information than they could collect themselves. Having accurate information on ones behavior is critical for making healthy changes to those behaviors.

A key challenge in mHealth studies that use wearables centers on whether the technology is unobtrusive and fits into the users everyday lifestyle. Thomas said this study will focus on the effects of technology on behaviors, while a long-term goal would be to continue making the technology smaller and less noticeable to improve user engagement.

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Rhode Island Hospital Tests mHealth Wearable to Track Eating Habits - mHealthIntelligence.com

Human Behavior

Applications of Machine Learning in the Life Sciences Industry – Yahoo Finance

Dublin, Jan. 10, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Machine Learning in the Life Sciences" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a term used to identify a scientific field that covers the creation of machines (e.g., robots) as well as computer hardware and software aimed at reproducing wholly or in part the intelligent behavior of human beings. AI is considered a branch of cognitive computing, a term that refers to systems able to learn, reason, and interact with humans. Cognitive computing is a combination of computer science and cognitive science.

Artificial intelligence covers various aspects of human behavior including creativity, planning and scheduling, reasoning, imaging, writing, learning, auditing, and natural language processing. The concept of artificial intelligence, however, is in continuous evolution. In fact, once the use of machines with specific smart features becomes widespread, new systems with even more advanced capabilities are developed. By enhancing equipment functionality and productivity, AI is revolutionizing virtually every sector, from research and development to manufacturing and services.

The Report Includes:

Key Topics Covered:

Technology Highlights and Market Outlook

List of TablesTable 1: Applications of Machine Learning in the Life Sciences, by FieldTable 2: Global Market for the Applications of Machine Learning in the Quantum Computing, by Country/Region, Through 2024Table 3: Current and Emerging Trends in the Applications of Machine Learning in the Life Sciences, by FieldTable 4: Global Market for the Applications of Machine Learning in the Life Sciences, by Country/Region, Through 2024

List of FiguresFigure 1: Global Market Shares for the Applications of Machine Learning in the Quantum Computing, by Country/Region, 2024Figure 2: Global Market Shares for the Applications of Machine Learning in the Life Sciences, by Country/Region, 2024

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/wd6nbg

About ResearchAndMarkets.comResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.

Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research.

CONTACT: ResearchAndMarkets.comLaura Wood, Senior Press Managerpress@researchandmarkets.comFor E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call 1-800-526-8630For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900

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Applications of Machine Learning in the Life Sciences Industry - Yahoo Finance

Human Behavior

7 Skills To Help You Close More Business At Your Hotel – Hospitality Net

Master group sales & eventsFor hoteliers selling to groups, understanding the ins and outs of the human mind can be of great benefit. It's not about manipulation; it's about understanding human behavior in a business that is, at its core, a people business.

The objective is to dial into your clients' wants and needs, and then delivering. Think of it as highly attuned Persona Matching: you know your target clients so well that you can predict behavior, influence decisions, cut through the noise and address underlying needs better than the competition. So how can you leverage the psychology of selling to become a true group sales pro? These are the seven skills that will help you close more groups and events at your hotel.

1. Be more observant

2. Ask more questions

With proper deduction skills, you'll avoid the trap of making false assumptions about a particular group or event. Sure, there's a lot to learn from the size of a group, type of the group, and who is planning the event. Yet there's also the risk of making assumptions that lead you astray. When you're asking enough questions, you eliminate assumptions and illuminate the unmet needs.

Questions also give you a path to overcoming objections. You don't just have to guess your prospects' concernsyou can ask them directly! Whether it's in your initial call or via a follow-up email, just ask so you can tackle those concerns head-on while also learning more about your prospect. Then, you can say this to them:

"You told me you were concerned about price, so I crafted three custom packages to offer you the most variety. I think you'll find one that meets your needs at a great price."

When you answer the internal conversations prospects are already having, you appear proactive and trustworthy two qualities that are especially desirable for those organizing events.

3. Listen to the answers

By staying attuned to your clients, you'll be able to connect the dots between what your property offers, what the client needs, and what you can do to make the client's event a success. To be a better listener, do three things:

4. Read body language

5. Use social proof

So, give them the nudge they need to say yes by convincing them that your hotel is the ideal host for their event. Whether at the initial RFP stage, the property walk-around, or at the final contract stage, success lies in emphasizing how your hotel meets their needs. You should provide all the information they need to give them the confidence to say yes.

This confidence is built along the prospect's journey, with each touchpoint an opportunity to position your hotel favorably in the prospect's evaluation. The key is to back up all claims with proof points, so that you can provide social proof that your hotel is as good as you say it is.

For each specific event type (wedding, off-site, etc), update your website, marketing materials, and proposal templates to feature satisfied customers. Put their photos alongside descriptive testimonials that highlight how exceptional their experience was.

Customize your proposal to include only the most relevant testimonials, choosing event types, personalities, and brands that resonate with the prospect's own needs and situation. The right social proof, coupled with compelling copy that highlights your property's bonafides, is the path to conversion.

6. Know your prospect

Remember that people don't always say what they mean or know exactly what they want. When a potential client says one thing, and exhibits behavior that suggest otherwise, it's wise to listen to that intuition. That doesn't mean ignore what they say; it means providing an additional option that may align more with what they actually want but can't verbalize.

Consider a common event type for group sales at hotels: Weddings. You should have a very different approach between building out of a proposal for a couple versus an experienced wedding planner. The couple is likely experiencing wedding planning for the first time and is personally invested in every detail. For them, there's a lot of fear and uncertainty as they plan such a major milestone event. Whereas the event planner has plenty of experience and is likely going to be much more practical and focused on delivering for the clients.

In other words, the planner may focus more on the logical benefits while a couple focuses more on the emotional benefits. It won't always be the case, but the example illustrates the importance of tailoring your approach to your audience. Your hotel's sales process should accommodate these differences and use your knowledge of the audience to strengthen your offering.

7. Tell stories that connect emotion and need

Maya Angelou once said, "People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did but people will never forget how you made them feel." When you focus on emotion or how people feel you're able to tap into a deep well of human connection.

This is especially relevant for group sales, which often involve emotional decisions: the couple getting married, the corporation celebrating a milestone, the family coming together for a reunion. Each of these event types has needs and emotion associated with it; a group sales pro leans right into those to deliver a winning proposal.

Stories are the most effective path to tie the emotion to the need. Stories should show how the prospect feels when fulfilling their needs: the couple that gets a knockout wedding under budget, the corporate events planner that wows executives with an over-the-top event, the cousin that brings together 5 generations for the first (and likely) only time. Tell that story with the prospect as the main character, and you build the scaffolding to close more deals.

Your final checklist for the group sales pro

Want to find the right solution to help you close more business? Read more about the Cendyn Sales Cloud.

Cendyn is the leading innovative cloud software and services provider for the hospitality industry. With a focus on integrated hotel CRM, hotel sales, and revenue strategy technology platforms, Cendyn drives sales, marketing and revenue performance for tens of thousands of hotels across the globe. The Cendyn Hospitality Cloud offers a complete set of software services for the industry, aligning marketing, sales and revenue teams to optimize their strategies and drive performance and loyalty across their business units. With offices in Boca Raton, Atlanta, Boston, San Diego, London, Munich, Singapore, Sydney, Bangkok and Tokyo, Cendyn proudly serves clients in 143 countries, delivering over 1.5 billion data-driven, personalized communications on behalf of their customers every year. For more information on Cendyn, visit http://www.cendyn.com.

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7 Skills To Help You Close More Business At Your Hotel - Hospitality Net

Human Behavior

The Next Climate Tech Breakthrough May Have Already Happened, We Just Didn’t Notice – State of the Planet

by Isabelle Seckler|January 10, 2020

Photo: Pixabay

The president of the UN General Assembly says we have only 11 years to prevent irreversible damage to our planet from climate change. Thats a short deadline in which to prevent an existential crisis. The global community is desperate for solutions that prevent further environmental damage and help us adapt to life in a new climate.

To stay within the targeted limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming, scientists insist that we need to reduce the carbon thats already in the atmosphere, in addition to dropping new emissions to net-zero. The goal is to implement carbon dioxide removal strategies that capture carbon from the air and safely store it.

Existing CO2 removal technologies usually mimic natural biogeochemical processes that sequester carbon, or amplify the carbon-capturing qualities of the ocean, forests and sedimentary rocks. One method would fertilize phytoplankton in the ocean to increase the photosynthetic uptake of carbon. Another relies on crushing up carbon-absorbing rocks to increase their surface area, storage potential, and the rate of carbon removal.

Now, more than ever, there is a need for creative solutions, and these examples show that the next breakthroughs in sustainable development wont come from Silicon Valley or scientific labs, but from Mother Nature. We havent paid enough attention to the natural world to recognize that it teems with potential solutions to our problems, hiding in plain sight. We can improve the very infrastructure of our built environment if we mimic certain biochemical and geological processes readily found in the natural environment.

Mother Nature is a master innovator. Her breakthroughs are not revolutionary, but evolutionary. Natural selection is the longest-running research and development project it has lasted 3.8 billion years and counting, to be exact. The traits that survive are the ones that are best adapted to thrive in their specific environment, from sticky gecko feet to water-collecting lotus petals.

The biological world that exists today is efficient, effective and made of the stuff of science fiction: self-regeneration, water resistance, antibacterial materials, incredibly weird methods of movement. Its a world of dynamic innovation that often goes unacknowledged.

Learning about the natural world is one thing. Learning from the natural world thats the switch. Thats the profound switch. Janine Benyus

There is a growing trend of scientists looking toward nature through a new perspective: biomimicry. Essentially, its design innovation that models the natural world. The term was popularized in the 1990s by Janine Benyus, co-founder of the Biomimicry Institute.

The examples are as fascinating as they are absurd. The bullet trains in Japan reach nearly 200 mph thanks to the Kingfisher birds aerodynamic beak. Wind turbines are 20 percent more energy efficient when shaped like humpback whale fins, and termite mounds show architects how to improve building air conditioning systems. Industry giants like Seventh Generation are looking to beetles that spray poison to remake aerosol packaging. Swimsuits constructed like shark skin reduce drag so effectively that they were banned at the Olympics. Medical spaces are even applying the antimicrobial properties of shark skin to create sterile surfaces without producing antibacterial resistance.

New technologies that owe their designs to biological models are highly lucrative. Its estimated that roughly $1.6 trillion of global GDP will come from products and services based on biological design by 2030.

The true value of biomimicry is priceless. Especially if it can be applied to develop carbon-capture technology. One company, Calera, believes that the way corals absorb carbon dioxide into their limestone skeletons can teach us how to capture carbon dioxide from the air and create cement. Imagine living in sustainable cities literally built from repurposed air pollution.

In a recent podcast, biomimicry expert Danya Baumeister explains how biomimicry can help us bolster our climate resiliency. In her eyes, nature is a shining model for how we could make materials that arent harmful and dont require lots of energy how we could build communities and cities in a way that actually gives back to the local ecosystem as opposed to just drains the local ecosystem.

A whole new market niche for sustainable, nature-based designs has opened up in the last few years. Databases like AskNature.org bring the diversity of life to the fingertips of engineers, artists and entrepreneurs. Companies like Biomimicry 3.8 offer biologists and chemists as consultants to reshape the way entire systems function, such as a carpet factory that functions more like a complete ecosystem. With roof gardens and wetlands built into the actual infrastructure of the factory, Biomimicry 3.8 has not only helped carpet manufacturer Interface reduce its environmental impact, but also provide local water purification and carbon sequestration. When the environment benefits, improved human health and worker productivity is soon to follow as well.

Advanced modern tools now allow scientists to analyze more complex systems in the natural world and adapt them for human behaviors. Computer algorithms can now track the ways ants avoid traffic jams on tiny twigs and in tight tunnels, and then project their efficiency onto traffic light systems and road infrastructure. We can improve our lives by mimicking not only the physical forms of nature, but also natures processes at an ecosystem scale.

Biological inspiration is a ray of hope that the global community desperately needs. Public awareness of natures applicability could usher in a new appreciation for the environment at a time when exploitation is at an all-time high. Medicine, food, water and energy systems all derive from nature. Biomimicry can help us shift from just harnessing natures resources to integrating natures already sustainable pathways into society.

Nature is a Rolodex of efficiency, but not every application of biomimicry is necessarily productive for combating climate change. For instance, ant-like traffic systems that save time by streamlining commutes actually enable more cars to move through the same space, thus intensifying the carbon emissions and fuel demands that destroy the environment. We should be conscious that failures are part of the biomimicry process after all, thats how adaptation leads to evolution. The survival of the fittest ideas will ultimately limit inefficiency.

With human spaces overtaking natural habitat, industrial factories spewing greenhouse gases into the air, excessive waste habits and widespread pollution, its no surprise that the planet is undergoing a sixth mass extinction. The World Wildlife Fund estimates that 60 percent of Earths biodiversity was lost from 1970 to 2014. We need to fundamentally change our behavior before its too late: the very design blueprints that could secure a better future might disappear before we even know it.

Its time to be more sustainable than just passing up on plastic straws. We can revolutionize the way we interact with each other and the planet by learning from evolution. Its smug of us to ignore 3.8 billion years of sustainable development as we urgently seek solutions for a better future. Lets think more like nature. Its time to adapt.

Isabelle Seckler is a first-year student studying sustainable development at Columbia College.

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The Next Climate Tech Breakthrough May Have Already Happened, We Just Didn't Notice - State of the Planet

Human Behavior

Is John Bolton Withholding Impeachment Evidence so He Can Put It in a Book? – HillReporter.com

John Bolton, Donald Trumps former National Security Adviser has been a familiar name throughout the impeachment inquiry. Bolton has played coy and hinted that he may have information that could be impactful during the upcoming trial.

While the former White House adviser has said that he would testify if subpoenaed, that it unlikely with a Republican majority. Shortly after leaving Washington DC, Bolton signed a book deal with Simon & Schuster. During Friday nights episode of Hardball, Chris Matthews and former Federal Prosecutor Glenn Kirschner talked about the possibility that Bolton could hold back important information for his book.

Matthews asked Kirschner, Lets talk about human behavior. Could it be I dont know Bolton personally, I know his politics, his ideology but could it be that he says, I thought for a while I wanted to save some of the goodies for my book, because people like to do that, people like to write the big story with the big news, but if history comes down that I sat on this stuff for a year while we didnt have a real trial, Im guilty of really withholding my citizenship here.

Kirschner pulled no punches with his answer. He told Matthews, Exactly, he said. If he had blockbuster evidence and he doesnt testify and then he puts in a book information that could have changed the course of a Senate impeachment trial, he will go down in history as a traitor and a villain.

Watch a clip of the exchange below, courtesy of MSNBC:

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Is John Bolton Withholding Impeachment Evidence so He Can Put It in a Book? - HillReporter.com