ROI of Online Press Releases

Press releases used to be one of the basic tools of the public relations profession, used by PR practitioners to communicate news directly to journalists. With the advent of new online communication channels, the goals, target audiences, and overall scope of press releases have evolved, transforming press releases themselves into a new communication tool used by public relations and marketing professionals alike.The purpose of this research study was to identify and analyze current patterns in the uses of online press releases. Specifically, the objectives of this study were to identify:Goals of online press releases;Target audiences of online press releases;Criteria for evaluating the success of online press releases; as well asTactics, opportunities and challenges of using online press releases.Ultimately, the goal of the study is to examine the changing roles of public relations and marketing in the context of how the press release is being used as a tool used not only by PR professionals but also by marketing professionals and small business owners for a wide variety of purposes and objectives. Based on the study's results, the SNCR Fellows have compiled a list of recommendations about the use and evaluation of online press releases and some observations about this evolving communications profession

The Cuba Library

Concepts and implementation of the Cuba library for multidimensional numerical integration are elucidated.Comment: 6 pages. Talk given at the X International Workshop on Advanced Computing and Analysis Techniques in Physics Research, ACAT 2005, DESY-Zeuthen, Germany, 22-27 May 200

Retailers' press release activity: market signals for stakeholder engagement?

PURPOSE – To increase understanding of the role, content and effectiveness of press releases. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH – Qualitative and quantitative analyses of UK supermarkets' press releases in 2001/2002, a medium previously little researched in marketing, are undertaken. FINDINGS – Supermarkets seek stakeholder engagement on diverse issues with different mixes of groups. Treating releases as market signals demonstrates the important role of the press as filters and interpreters. Intended messages frequently fail to reach target audiences, and when they do can be significantly reinterpreted, so that positive claims are reported critically and negatively. Larger chains apparently produce more releases and gain more newspaper coverage, but generally volume of releases does not improve likelihood of press coverage. RESEARCH LIMITATIONS/IMPLICATIONS – The nature of qualitative data, the limited time frame, and possible omissions from source archives. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS – As level of coverage varied independently of turnover, higher release activity of larger chains was questioned. Seeking differentiation through press releases becomes problematic with the press as filters. ORIGINALITY/VALUE – This paper increases knowledge of press releases as market communications, and contributes to the literature of market signalling, notably emphasising the press as important signal intermediaries

Doubly Spinning Black Rings

We study a method to solve stationary axisymmetric vacuum Einstein equations numerically. As an illustration, the five-dimensional doubly spinning black rings that have two independent angular momenta are formulated in a way suitable for fully nonlinear numerical method. Expanding for small second angular velocity, the formulation is solved perturbatively upto second order involving the backreaction from the second spin. The obtained solutions are regular without conical singularity, and the physical properties are discussed with the phase diagram of the reduced entropy vs the reduced angular momenta. Possible extensions of the present approach to constructing the higher dimensional version of black ring and the ring with the cosmological constant are also discussed.Comment: 20 pages, 6 figure

Geographical distribution and aspects of the ecology of the hemiparasitic angiosperm Striga asiatica (L) Kuntze: A herbarium study

Striga asiatica (Scrophulariaceae) is an obligate root hemiparasite of mainly C-4 grasses (including cereals). It is the most widespread of the 42 Striga species occurring in many semi-tropical, semi-arid regions of mainly the Old World. Examination of herbaria specimens revealed that S. asiatica has a wider geographical distribution, is present at higher altitudes and occurs in a more diverse range of habitats than previously reported. The host range is also larger than previously reported and is likely to include a large number of C-3 plants. Morphology of examined specimens revealed variation in size and corolla colour suggesting the existence of ecotypes. Climate may exert a significant influence on the distribution of S. asiatica given the diversity of potential host plants and their distribution beyond the current recorded range of S. asiatica

Using the Output Embedding to Improve Language Models

We study the topmost weight matrix of neural network language models. We show that this matrix constitutes a valid word embedding. When training language models, we recommend tying the input embedding and this output embedding. We analyze the resulting update rules and show that the tied embedding evolves in a more similar way to the output embedding than to the input embedding in the untied model. We also offer a new method of regularizing the output embedding. Our methods lead to a significant reduction in perplexity, as we are able to show on a variety of neural network language models. Finally, we show that weight tying can reduce the size of neural translation models to less than half of their original size without harming their performance.Comment: To appear in EACL 201

The Law and the Press

This chapter offers a broad survey of the relationships between the law and the press (primarily the newspaper press) during the nineteenth century. It traces the transition from early decades of vigorous state hostility of the first third of the century, through the gradual relaxation of fiscal and regulatory controls from the 1830s to the 1860s, to the brief period of completely unregulated press production in the 1870s. It examines the main legal engagements of the press in this period: the various forms of libel, political (seditious, blasphemous and obscene), civil and criminal, as well as copyright and contempt of court. In doing so it explores the limits of the ‘free press’ of British constitutional myth, and the complex and mutually constitutive relationship between the press and the law as interests