Friday, December 26, 2008

Benefits of Online Education

Benefits of Online Education
A school that is open 24 hours a day 7 days a week.
No parking fees, or car maintenance
Cheaper tuition
No physical attendance at the school
Study at home, work, or on the road
No extra child care costs to go to school
Access to the school is always available
Read materials online or download them for reading.

What is online education?

What is online education?
With the availability of computers and the Internet, people can study for many different qualifications – including online degrees – using online education.

Online education uses latest computer technology to deliver courses over the Internet. Instead of traveling to a college campus to attend lectures and meet tutors face-to-face, they can access this over the internet. Earning an online degree has been easier than ever.

Using a computer and the Internet and the knowledge necessary to operate them are essential, providing these basic requirements are met it is possible to access course information online. Students can access changes to the syllabus and assignments by visiting a course page, communicate easily with lecturers and fellow students with email and join in discussions using message boards.

E-Learning - University Degrees Online Through Distance Education

Looking to improve your language skills, but you don't have the time to go overseas to attend school? More and more universities around the world are offering opportunities for students to obtain degrees online (distance education) from the comfort of their own homes, and many of these institutions are accredited, meaning that they have met certain standards of excellence.

If you decide to take language courses online (or any subject for that matter), be sure to evaluate the benefits of studying online verses going abroad. The advantages of studying online are that the costs are usually lower, you can study at your own pace, and you have access to the materials 24-hours-a-day from almost any computer in the world. However, you won't get the human interaction of meeting people to face to face like you would if you were physically attending a school overseas.

On the other hand, the advantages of going overseas may include day-to-day opportunities to learn a new culture, meet new friends with whom you can use and practice the language, and chances to see different parts of the world. However, there may be a number of disadvantages for some including expense, time away from one's school, family, or work life, and the challenge of adapting to a new culture and way of life.

Whatever you do, consider a distance education program that meets your educational needs, is within your budget, and equally important, provides you with opportunities to grow beyond the classroom through cultural and educational activities.

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Monday, December 10, 2007

Breakfast -- Don't Leave Home Without It

By Suzanne Proulx, M.S., R.D., L.D.N.
Brigham and Women's Hospital

Breakfast Benefits
Quality Counts
Beating The Breakfast Blues
Tips And Ideas
No Time For Breakfast?
Not Interested In Traditional Breakfast Foods?
No Appetite In The Morning?
Eating a nutritious breakfast is a great way to jump-start the day, yet a tasty breakfast might not be finding its way onto your kitchen table. Rushed morning routines, trying to lose weight, and lack of appetite early in the morning are all reasons people skip breakfast. Nevertheless, mounting evidence supports the idea that breakfast may indeed be the most important meal of the day.

Breakfast Benefits

Studies examining eating habits suggest that the regular consumption of breakfast can:

Reduce risk of obesity and high cholesterol
Decrease insulin resistance (a condition that increases risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease)
Improve performance on memory-related tasks
Minimize impulsive snacking and overeating at other meals
Increase intake of essential nutrients that are rarely replenished by other meals of the day
Enhance school performance in children and young adults
Although it would seem to make sense that skipping breakfast would save calories, data suggest otherwise. In a study of nearly 3,000 adults who lost and kept off at least 30 pounds for longer than one year, close to 90 percent reported eating breakfast on most days of the week. Interestingly, the breakfast eaters and breakfast skippers consumed almost the same total daily calories; the breakfast skippers made up the missed breakfast calories throughout the day. In addition, researchers at the University of Massachusetts Medical School found that breakfast skippers are 4.5 times more likely to be obese than are breakfast eaters.


Quality Counts

Before reaching for that doughnut or pastry, keep in mind that what you choose for breakfast is just as important as eating breakfast. Think of breakfast as the perfect opportunity to start accumulating the minimum five servings of fruits and vegetables and three servings of whole grains recommended for optimal health. Furthermore, the National Academy of Sciences recommends that adults consume 21 to 38 grams of fiber per day. This presents quite a challenge for those choosing low-fiber breakfast options or for those skipping breakfast altogether. Whole grains, fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts and seeds are the best sources of dietary fiber. High-fiber foods have the added benefit of warding off mid-morning snack attacks by creating a feeling of fullness. Likewise, adding some protein such as seafood, low-fat dairy products, skinless poultry, egg or egg substitute can also aid in suppressing hunger.


Beating The Breakfast Blues

Breakfast can be one of the most monotonous meals of the day, but with a little creativity, the first meal of the day can be one of the best. Variety can beat breakfast boredom, so don’t be afraid to include some unorthodox breakfast foods for a change of pace. Additionally, if you have abandoned breakfast due to a busy lifestyle, some of these breakfast ideas can be packed up and taken along for a delicious grab-and-go breakfast treat.


Tips And Ideas

No Time For Breakfast?

Wrap a whole-grain tortilla around peanut butter and a banana and serve with low-fat milk or soy milk.


Stuff a whole-wheat pita with low-fat cream cheese or low-fat cottage cheese and canned sliced peaches.


Plan ahead and place whole-grain cereal (at least 3 to 4 grams of fiber per serving) with dried fruit and nuts in a sealed bag. Grab in the morning along with a carton of low-fat yogurt or low-fat milk.


Try some whole-grain crackers, string cheese and grapes.


Mix instant plain oatmeal with dried fruit, nuts and a dash of cinnamon.


Spread peanut butter and jam on whole-grain bread and have with a piece of fruit and low-fat milk or soy milk.


Munch on a handful of unsalted mixed nuts served with an individual portion of low-sodium vegetable juice.


Top a whole-wheat English muffin with soy sausage patty and a slice of low-fat cheese.


Take along a piece of fruit, low-fat milk or soy milk and a homemade muffin made on the weekend and stored in the freezer. (Substitute at least half the flour in recipes with whole-grain flour and supplement the batter with vegetables, nuts and/or fruit.)
Back to top

Not Interested In Traditional Breakfast Foods?

Choose whole-grain varieties (check ingredient list for the words "whole" or "whole grain" in the first ingredient) of breads, tortillas, crackers, bagels or pita breads and top or stuff with any of the following:
Salmon spread made with low-fat cream cheese, canned salmon and your favorite herbs
Hummus with grated carrots and raisins
Leftover skinless chicken or turkey with light mayonnaise and cranberry chutney
Bean spread with lettuce, tomato and cucumber slices
Avocado, baby greens, roasted red pepper and a few chopped sun dried tomatoes
Low-fat feta cheese with walnuts and dates
Scrambled egg substitute or eggs with salsa
Freezer pops made from a mixture of low-fat yogurt, low-fat milk or soy milk mixed with 100-percent juice and fruit slices


Baked tortilla chips with salsa and cut-up vegetables


Grilled cheese sandwich made with whole-grain bread, low-fat cheese or soy cheese served with fruit. (For variety, stuff with grilled or sautéed vegetables made on the weekend and frozen as individual servings.)


Celery and sliced apple with peanut butter


Vegetables with low-fat dip and a hard-boiled egg


Soy hot dog or veggie burger in a whole-grain bun with lettuce, tomato, your favorite condiments and a side of baby carrots


Pizza made with whole-grain pita bread, spaghetti sauce and low-fat cheese served with fruit


A bowl of vegetable soup and whole-grain crackers. (Try low-fat pureed soups in a travel mug if eating on the run.)


No Appetite In The Morning?

A lack of appetite in the morning may be the result of a large meal or snack consumed the night before. Perk up your morning appetite by eating lighter and earlier in the evenings. If a large breakfast is still not appealing, perhaps a breakfast smoothie may be the answer. Try blending a mixture of either low-fat milk, low-fat yogurt or soy milk with fruit, 100 percent fruit juice and your favorite spices or flavor extract. Oat bran, wheat germ or ground flax seed can be added for extra fiber.


So start your day the healthy way by fueling up with a nutritious breakfast!

Suzanne Proulx M.S., R.D., L.D.N., is a senior nutritionist at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. She is also a group nutritionist for the Women's Health Initiative, which is a landmark research study designed to investigate some of the major causes of disease and death in postmenopausal women. She has a Bachelor of Science degree in biology from Boston College and a Master of Science degree in nutrition from Boston University.

Hearing Loss In Adults

What Is It?

Hearing loss is a decrease in the ability to perceive sounds. In adults, hearing loss can be partial or total, sudden or gradual, temporary or permanent. It can affect one ear or both. Currently in the United States, 28 million people over age 3 have some form of hearing loss. The condition affects approximately 3% of all adult men and women. In general, the risk of hearing loss increases with age. Between 24% and 40% of adults over age 65 have difficulty hearing. Thirty percent of people over age 85 are deaf in at least one ear.

To understand hearing loss and treatment, it helps to know how hearing works. Sound enters the ear and strikes the eardrum (tympanic membrane). This causes the eardrum to vibrate. The eardrum's vibrations are amplified through the middle ear by three tiny bones. Inside the ear, the vibrations are transformed into nerve impulses. These nerve impulses travel to the brain, where they are interpreted as sounds.

Because the outer ear and middle ear transmit (or conduct) sound, any injury to this part of the hearing pathway is called conductive hearing loss. Sensorineural hearing loss is injury to the inner ear, eighth cranial nerve and brain, which all deal with the production, transmission and interpretation of nerve impulses.

In adults, some of the most important causes of hearing loss are:

Middle ear disease — A bacterial infection of the middle ear can injure the eardrum, disrupt the middle-ear bones, or cause fluid buildup.


Noise — Without adequate ear protection (earmuffs or earplugs), loud sounds can injure delicate cells within the ear. This is a form of sensorineural hearing loss, and it is the most common cause of hearing loss among American adults. Noise-induced hearing loss can happen because of a single brief burst of an extremely loud sound, such as a gunshot or firecracker. It is more often the result of long-term exposure to loud sounds of slightly lower intensity, such as factory noise or rock music. Among U.S. workers, noise-induced hearing loss is the most common of all occupational injuries. It is a significant health problem among carpenters, miners, plumbers, factory workers, farmers, construction workers and workers exposed to aircraft, sirens or explosives. People can also develop noise-induced hearing loss from recreational activities, such as listening to very loud music, operating a personal watercraft (such as Jet Ski and WaveRunner) or snowmobile, shooting firecrackers or guns, or operating a loud lawnmower or leaf blower.


Otosclerosis — This conductive hearing loss involves the abnormal overgrowth of one or more bones in the middle ear. It prevents the small bones from moving normally. Otosclerosis often runs in families. It strikes 1% of American adults, and is especially common among white, middle-aged women.


Acoustic neuroma — This noncancerous (benign) tumor grows on part of the eighth cranial nerve, which carries signals to the brain. Because this tumor develops near parts of the body that help control balance as well as hearing, it often causes dizziness and equilibrium problems in addition to gradual hearing loss. Acoustic neuromas most often occur in adults between the ages of 30 and 60.


Ménière's disease — This typically causes dizziness, hearing loss, ringing in the ears (tinnitus) and a sensation of fullness or stuffiness in one or both ears. Although research suggests that Ménière's disease is related to a change in the volume of a fluid inside the ear, the reason for this volume change remains unknown. Ménière's disease currently affects three to five million Americans.


Trauma — Many types of accidents can cause hearing loss, including stab wounds, gunshots or being hit on the ear or skull. Hearing loss can come from a blast injury to the eardrum from the force of an explosion or simply from a cotton swab (Q-tip) that ruptures the eardrum during an attempt to clean the ear canal.


Sudden sensorineural hearing loss — This is a medical emergency. A person loses hearing over a period of three days or less. In 85% to 90% of cases, the cause is unknown, although many doctors believe that the underlying problem may be a viral infection. Doctors diagnose about 4,000 Americans with this type of heearing loss each year. In 90% of the cases, only one ear is affected.


Drugs — Many prescription and nonprescription medications can damage the ear and cause hearing loss. These include:


Antibiotics, such as erythromycin (several brand names), vancomycin (Vancocin), tetracycline (several brand names) and aminoglycosides, such as gentamicin (several brand names), streptomycin (Zanosar), tobramycin (Nebcin) and amikacin (Amikin)
Anticancer chemotherapeutic drugs, such as cisplatin (Platinol), 5-fluorouracil (Ancobon) and bleomycin (Blenoxane)
Aspirin
Antimalaria drugs


Age — Age-related hearing loss, also known as presbycusis, is not a single disease, but a category for the cumulative effects of aging on the ears. In most cases, hearing loss begins after age 60, and is usually more noticeable in men than women. Both ears are affected. It is typically harder to hear high-pitched tones (women's voices, violins) than low-pitched ones (men's voices, bass guitar). Because this usually occurs gradually over a period of years, the person may not realize that he or she has difficulty hearing. A family member may bring the problem to the person's attention.


Other causes — There are more than 100 different causes of hearing loss in adults. The most common reversible cause is severe buildup of earwax in the ear canal and acute infections of the external ear or middle ear.
Symptoms

If you have sudden, severe hearing loss, you will notice right away that your ability to hear has decreased dramatically or disappeared totally in the affected ear. For example, you may snap your fingers next to the affected ear and not hear it, or you may put the telephone receiver against your ear and hear nothing.

If your hearing loss is gradual, your symptoms may be more subtle. You may have difficulty understanding conversations, either in person or over the telephone. Family members may complain that you play the radio or TV too loudly. You may ask them to repeat what they say or frequently misunderstand what they are saying.

Some diseases and conditions that cause hearing loss may produce additional symptoms, including:

Ringing in the ears (tinnitus)
Discharge or bleeding from the ear
Deep earache, or pain in the ear canal
Pressure or a "stuffy" feeling inside the ears
Dizziness or problems with balance or equilibrium
Nausea
Diagnosis

After you describe your symptoms, the doctor will ask if anyone in your family has had (or has) hearing loss. Your doctor will want to know if you have been exposed to loud noises, trauma of the ear or head, or ear infections. To rule out the possibility that medications may be the cause of your hearing loss, your doctor will review the prescription and over-the-counter drugs you take.

Your doctor will examine you, and look closely at your ears. This ear exam may include:

An examination of your ear canal and eardrum using a lighted instrument for looking inside the ears (otoscope)
The Rinne test, in which a vibrating tuning fork is placed on the bone behind your ear to test for conductive hearing loss
The Weber test, in which a vibrating tuning fork is placed in the middle of your forehead to help diagnose one-sided hearing loss
Audioscopy testing, in which the doctor uses a hand-held device to generate tones of various intensities to find out if you can hear them
If the results of your ear exam suggest that you have hearing loss, your doctor will refer you to an audiologist. The audiologist will test your hearing sensitivity (with audiometry) and check for middle-ear problems by measuring your eardrum's ability to reflect sounds (impedance testing). Further testing and treatment will follow.

Expected Duration

The duration of hearing loss depends on its cause. In general, sensorineural hearing loss tends to be permanent.

Prevention

You can help prevent hearing loss by taking the following steps:

Wear protective earplugs or earmuffs if you are often exposed to loud noise at work or during recreational activities. To help protect workers, the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has developed regulations governing noise exposure on the job.
Never put cotton swabs or other foreign objects in your ears.
Wear a seatbelt while driving, and wear a protective helmet while riding a bicycle.
Be informed about the possible side effects of your prescription and nonprescription medications.
Treatment

Both age-related and noise-related hearing loss tend to be permanent. However, depending on the severity of your hearing loss, your doctor may recommend either a hearing aid or an implant to improve your ability to communicate with others. A hearing aid amplifies sounds electronically and is effective for many people with age-related hearing loss. Newer digital technology has produced smaller and more powerful devices. A cochlear implant is a device that translates sounds into electrical signals that can be carried by the eighth cranial nerve to the brain.

Certain other forms of hearing loss may be treated medically or surgically:

Otosclerosis — For mild cases, a hearing aid is usually the first option. In severe cases, one of the small bones is surgically replaced with a tiny piston-like prosthesis.


Acoustic neuroma — Treatment includes surgery or highly focused radiation therapy.


Ménière's disease — There is no cure. Some people with this disease improve with a personalized diet plan (such as limiting intake of salt, caffeine or alcohol), quitting smoking, or medications to reduce fluid retention in the ear. In some cases, surgery may be considered.


Traumatic hearing loss — A damaged eardrum can sometimes be repaired surgically by using tough, fibrous connective tissue (muscle fascia).


Drug-induced hearing loss — Stopping the problem medication may reverse hearing loss or prevent it from getting worse.


Sudden sensorineural hearing loss — In most cases, when the cause is unknown, this condition is treated with steroids.


Other — A dense plug of earwax can be dissolved or gently removed from your ear canal by your doctor; also, antibiotics can treat hearing loss caused by ear infections.
When To Call a Professional

Call your doctor immediately if you have sudden hearing loss. This is a medical emergency.

Also, make an appointment to see your doctor if:

You are an older adult, and hearing loss interferes with your quality of life.
You work in a high-noise environment, and you have trouble hearing.
You have hearing loss together with an earache, a discharge from your ears, tinnitus, dizziness or balance problems.
Prognosis

The prognosis is highly variable. However, even if your hearing loss cannot be treated with medications or surgery, your quality of life may improve significantly with a hearing aid. In some people who do not improve with a hearing aid, a cochlear implant may be an option.

Additional Info

National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders
National Institutes of Health
31 Center Drive, MSC 2320
Bethesda, MD 20892-2320
Phone: 301-496-7243
Toll-Free: 1-800-241-1044
Fax: 301-402-0018
TTY: 1-800-241-1055
Email: nidcdinfo@nidcd.nih.gov
http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/

American Academy of Otolaryngology — Head and Neck Surgery
One Prince St.
Alexandria, VA 22314-3357
Phone: 703-836-4444
Email: info@entnet.org
http://www.entnet.org/

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA)
10801 Rockville Pike
Rockville, MD 20852
Toll-Free: 1-800-638-8225
TTY: 1-800-638-8225
Fax: 301-571-0457
TTY: 301-897-0157
Email: actioncenter@asha.org
http://www.asha.org/

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
4676 Columbia Parkway
Mail Stop C-18
Cincinnati, OH 45226
Toll-Free: 1-800-356-4674
Fax: 513-533-8573
http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/

American Tinnitus Association
P.O. Box 5
Portland, OR 97207-0005
Phone: 503-248-9985
Toll-Free: 1-800-634-8978
Fax: 503-248-0024
Email: tinnitus@ata.org
http://www.ata.org/

Coffee -- Grounds for Concern?

By Robert Shmerling,M.D.
Harvard Medical School

Do you find yourself looking forward to that first cup of coffee in the morning? How about the next cup? If it's part of your routine to drink coffee on a regular basis, you're not alone.

You also have company when it comes to concerns about the health effects of coffee — hundreds of studies have addressed coffee's effect on the body and whether or not caffeine causes harm. Perhaps you've heard it's good to drink coffee when you have a headache, or bad to drink it if you have stomach problems. So what is myth, and what is fact?

Coffee's Punch

The effects of coffee on the body fall into several categories:

Stimulant effects. Because one of its major ingredients is caffeine, coffee is a well-established stimulant, meaning that it stimulates the nervous system, including such diverse networks as the nerves controlling intestinal activity, blood pressure and airway size. As a result, any caffeine-containing food or beverage (including tea, cola and chocolate milk) may impair sleep, but avoiding coffee late in the day is usually an easy way to avoid this problem. Jitters and anxiety may also be related to caffeine's stimulant effects.


Heartburn. Even decaffeinated coffee can stimulate secretion of stomach acid, leading to heartburn.


Diuretic features. Caffeine is also a diuretic — it encourages the kidneys to produce urine so effectively that it may contribute to mild dehydration. In addition, the water contained in coffee also leads to frequent urination to rid the body of excess fluid.


Miscellaneous. Features of coffee may also have other effects on the body. For example, yellowed teeth are common among regular users of coffee. Injuries related to burns from hot coffee are not rare. And there is even a suggestion by some mental health professionals that occasional caffeine users, including coffee drinkers, should be considered dependent, addicted or struggling with substance abuse.
As for the overall health risks of coffee or caffeine use, concerns have been raised by studies over the past 50 years, including an association with stomach problems, pancreatic and bladder cancer, fibrocystic breast disease and gallbladder disease, among other conditions. When rigorously analyzed, these studies fall far short of implicating modest coffee consumption as a significant health risk, even among pregnant women and cardiac patients. A review from April 2007 examined the evidence that coffee consumption might increase the risk of stomach cancer or leukemia; the data were considered inconclusive and additional study was recommended.

One largely discredited study which found that coffee intake was associated with an increased risk of pancreatic cancer, is often used as a model for how a flawed study design can lead to misleading research results. In that study, researchers analyzed a number of "exposures" among patients with pancreatic cancer, including coffee intake. Because of the number of factors examined, many scientific researchers call this sort of study a "fishing expedition." As reasonable as it may seem to examine many factors at once, the problem is that if you look at enough exposures, one or more will show an association just by chance. So there is a danger of generating misleading results if you cast too wide a net, and well-respected researchers avoid doing so, or they make statistical adjustments to account for analyzing many variables in a single study.

Coffee May Be Good for You

It may surprise you to learn that there are therapeutic uses of caffeine other than as a stimulant to avoid sleep (as in NoDoz, Vivarin and many others):

Newborns, especially those who are premature or have undergone surgery just after birth, may be treated with caffeine to stimulate their breathing.
Many over-the-counter headache or pain remedies include caffeine (such as Excedrin, which also contains acetaminophen and aspirin). The effectiveness of these agents may be related, at least in part, to the treatment of caffeine withdrawal, a common cause of headaches.
Studies have examined whether caffeine could be useful in the treatment of asthma, given its dilating effects on airways, and several have found modest benefits. In fact, some recommend that coffee intake be avoided before breathing tests because the abnormalities that breathing tests aim to detect may be diminished by caffeine intake.
Coffee has several effects on the intestinal tract. Although it increases stomach acid and gallbladder contractions, it has not been definitively linked to ulcer disease, it may protect against pain from gallstones and it may even act as a remedy for constipation.
A 1999 review (in the medical journal Gut) found a reduced risk of colon cancer among coffee drinkers compared with nonusers, although this association has not been widely accepted and has not led to any specific recommendations to encourage coffee's use.
Several studies published in 2003 suggest that coffee reduces the risk of Parkinson's disease. some research suggests that as little as one cup a day can reduce the risk by 50%. Why this may be the case is uncertain, and no clearly benficial effect of coffee has been demonstrated for people who already have Parkinson's disease.
At the American Society for Nutrition's annual conference, Experimental Biology 2007, researchers reviewed evidence that moderate intake of coffee (3 to 5 cups per day) might reduce the risk of diabetes, Alzheimer's disease, kidney stones, gallstones, and depression. Other potentially beneficial effects of coffee included a reduced risk of adenomas of the colon (a precursor of cancer), liver cancer and rectal cancer although the data on these were not conclusive.
Contrary to popular belief, coffee is not an effective way to reverse the effects of inebriation.

For the vast majority of coffee drinkers, the news is encouraging: the health risks are minimal if present at all. There are probably rare, high-risk patients who are better off avoiding the stimulant action of caffeine or the heartburn provoked even by decaffeinated coffee.

Perhaps the biggest problem of all for most coffee drinkers is its financial impact. The cost of a cup of coffee can be $3 or more at many specialty coffee shops now. It may be true that the best reasons to drink coffee or to avoid it have little to do with your health.

Robert H. Shmerling, M.D. is associate physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and associate professor at Harvard Medical School. He has been a practicing rheumatologist for over 20 years at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He is an active teacher in the Internal Medicine Residency Program, serving as the Robinson Firm Chief. He is also a teacher in the Rheumatology Fellowship Program.

BOCOG, sponsors join hands to fight ambush marketing

BOCOG issued a written proposal aimed at joint anti-ambush marketing work efforts Monday morning during a symposium on anti-ambush marketing for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. Representatives of the Olympic worldwide partners and the partners and sponsors of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games enthusiastically accepted the proposal.

At the symposium, representatives of the BOCOG marketing and legal affairs departments discussed with those present the anti-ambush marketing work efforts over the course of 2007, including the thought processes and strategy. Representatives from the State Administration for Industry and Commerce also offered suggestions regarding the protection of intellection property rights.

Next year will be the decisive year of battle for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, and brand protection remains a significant task. In the proposal, BOCOG explicitly states the following:

-- The Olympic worldwide partners and Beijing 2008 Olympic partners and sponsors do not engage in any kind of activity that would promote ambush marketing.

-- The various industry associations actively develop Olympic brand protection as well as activities and promotional efforts surrounding anti-ambush marketing education

-- Advertising agencies should increase their understanding of Olympic marketing regulations, respect professional ethics, and not engage in ambush marketing activities.

Some 30 Olympic worldwide partners and Beijing 2008 Olympic partners and sponsors as well as their relevant industry associations were invited to attend the symposium.