Today, fewer consumers are carrying cash in their wallets. It’s not for lack of having it, but more because the technology surrounding payments has evolved significantly in the past decade. There are a variety of new payment methods, some of which include mobile and contactless. These new payment forms are an easy way to move money, and, according to a report entitled ‘Mobile Payments Convergence’ (http://nnw.fm/0v8rT), “Mobile proximity payment volume has tripled since 2013, reaching $10 billion in 2015, and is expected to surge to $92 billion by 2019.”

As a small business, it is easier than ever to participate in this new trend, and it is also recommended, as more customers expect to be able to pay with minimal effort. Mobile payments are growing and, according to a report by Total Systems Services, (http://nnw.fm/oHq7V), this new trend isn’t going to slow down anytime soon. The report shows that 44% of people surveyed were likely to or already have loaded their credit card details into a mobile phone or wallet.

One of the key reasons for small businesses to consider accepting mobile payments is the ease and speed at which payments of this nature can be processed. The customer simply needs to wave a wallet or mobile phone over the payment terminal and the transaction is complete. There is no need for printed receipts or a signature from the customer. With no need for invoice handling, businesses can be paid immediately.

But this system is more than just an easy method for companies to receive money. Mobile payments recognize the customer’s mobile phone identity, meaning that businesses can send these customers special promotions and coupons via mobile. They also have the option to enroll these consumers in a mobile loyalty program. Net Element, Inc. (NASDAQ: NETE), a global technology-driven group specializing in mobile payments and value-added transactions, offers these services through its subsidiary, Digital Provider.

Aside from its mobile payment services, the company offers mobile marketing, an effective tool for the promotion of any business. This promotional tool is perfect to gain direct connection and interaction with the customer without any intermediaries, providing individual contact with each client and allowing for a long-term connection with a targeted audience. Companies will face minimal expenses, maximal efficiency, high SMS reading levels, and a fast promotion of their business.

According to the Total Systems Services report, consumers are now very open to receiving offers and promotions, and Digital Provider aims to do just this while establishing sustainable communication between businesses and consumers. The company offers a variety of services, some of which include classic offers such as codes on soda cans, as well as sophisticated SMS-algorithms. Digital Provider’s mobile marketing solutions can be integrated into projects with the participation of other contractors.

For more information, visit www.NetElement.com

Foodborne illnesses are more common than people believe. These infections are not only common but costly, and also very preventable. Every year, one in six Americans get sick from consuming the wrong food or drink. Unfortunately, because there are so many different microbes and pathogens that can cause disease, there are also many different types of infections.

With more than 250 different foodborne diseases now described, each has its own set of symptoms, and some have lethal results. Normally, a person contaminated will suffer from temporary nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramps, or diarrhea, but because of the variety of bacteria, viruses, and parasites found in certain foods, these contaminated foods can also cause long-term health problems, or even death.

The hardest aspect of food safety is controlling the various times at which food can get contaminated. The food supply process today is extremely complicated and comes with its own set of very strict rules. However, there are many opportunities for food contamination to take place. These include on-farm production, harvesting or slaughtering, processing, storage, transport, and distribution.

Neogen Corp. (NASDAQ: NEOG) a company that develops, manufactures, and markets various products and services relating to food and animal safety, has, for its mission, to be the leading food and animal safety company, keeping people and animals safe throughout the food making and marketing process.

The company keeps food and animals safe from inside the farm gate through to the moment it arrives on people’s plates. From intervention products to diagnostic products, NEOG provides test kits, instrument systems, consumables, culture media, software, and services for the food safety market. It also provides a complete line of veterinary diagnostics, instruments, pharmaceuticals, nutritional supplements, disinfectants, and rodenticides for the safety of animals.

Although many companies today have replaced traditional lab methods with more modern test formats, Neogen still believes in the time-tested methods discovered and developed in the mid-1800’s. The company serves this market with its Acumedia dehydrated culture media lines and competes in each segment of the Food Safety market. It now has some of the world’s top food and animal producers and processors as clients, and offers more than 400 products to the market.

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.Neogen.com

SolarWindow Technologies (OTCQB: WNDW), based in Columbia, Maryland, is developing the next generation of solar technology that can outperform current solar by as much as 50 times. With 12 times the environmental benefits of current technologies, SolarWindow™ has produced independently validated financial payback within one year, a fraction of the time for conventional approaches. The key to the company’s proprietary breakthrough technology is the application of ultra-thin layers of liquid coatings on to glass and flexible plastics, producing ultra-small solar cells and forming groups of Organic Photovoltaic solar arrays (OPV). Notably, the liquid coatings are made primarily of hydrogen and carbon, which are abundant natural elements.

The wavelength-sensitive coating allows enough light to pass through to maintain visibility, while still absorbing light energy for the generation of electricity. Once generated in the micro-cells, electricity is transported by a virtually invisible system of ultra-thin conductive wires. The company is also continually working to ensure that the final product appeals to the varied aesthetic demands, as well as financial requirements, of today’s industrial and residential markets, including real estate developers, building engineers, and architects. In addition to new construction, coatings are being developed for retrofitting and replacement windows, all while minimizing additional costs to a standard window. Any added costs for electric interconnection are offset by the rapid payback in electrical savings.

A major benefit to the technology is its ability to bring highly efficient solar to urban environments, through the company’s current development of first-of-a-kind solar windows that allow for direct window-generated electricity in buildings and homes, for which solar would otherwise not be a viable solution. This new generation of solar is engineered to work in even shaded or indoor light, allowing it to be applied successfully to all four sides of tall towers, far exceeding the capabilities of traditional solar. As a result, a tall building that would require 10-12 acres of costly urban land for a typical solar panel field can now generate electricity on all sides using existing windows, dramatically dropping the payback from 5-11 years down to a single year, according to independently validated financial modeling results.

SolarWindow Technologies is starting to move from the lab toward final commercialization with the development of a range of SolarWindow™ products, including flat glass products for commercial construction and replacement, window glass for residential construction and replacement, and flexible films for retrofitting existing buildings and homes. Together, these products target America’s 85 million detached homes and commercial buildings, with five million commercial buildings in the U.S. alone, a multi-billion dollar market. Approximately 40% of the nation’s electricity is consumed by commercial buildings, and most of that electricity comes from greenhouse gas generating fossil-fueled power plants. In a 50-story building, an estimated 30%-50% of that energy could potentially be offset through the use of windows from SolarWindow Technologies.

The company envisions its technology as becoming a common part of buildings around the world, providing a source of clean, renewable energy to help meet the world’s growing energy demands.

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.SolarWindow.com

UGE International Ltd. (OTCQB: UGEIF) delivers distributed renewable energy solutions to commercial and industrial customers around the world. The company provides full-service renewable energy solutions using industry-leading technology and delivers affordable, sustainable, and reliable energy to business enterprises.

The company has four lines of business that seamlessly dovetail to deliver end-to-end renewable energy solutions that are easy to manage and don’t interfere with customer business continuity. The company’s business lines include: consulting and project management, engineering and design, development, and turn-key EPC (engineering, procurement and construction).

UGE provides consulting and project management services in all aspects of solar photovoltaic services such as site feasibility studies, financial analysis of the project, local electric authority submittals and approvals, building permits, power and energy production verification, equipment procurement and more.

The company’s engineering and design line of business sets high standards for comprehensive detail and design of renewable energy projects and includes, among others, optimal solar array layout, complex grid interconnection design, ground-mount and rooftop system design and electrical, civil, geotechnical and structural design.

Under the company’s development line of business, UGE can finance and develop complete ground and rooftop photovoltaic solutions. The company has relationships with energy cooperatives and municipalities and facilitates rooftop and ground-mount site procurement. UGE has technical expertise with knowledge and experience in the development process and has access to capital and take-out partners to address financial concerns.

The company’s turn-key EPC line of business provides complete services to manage project execution from start to completion, which includes full turn-key services such as engineering and design, equipment evaluation and procurement, construction and contractor management, system commissioning and system monitoring.

UGE International focuses on multiple markets in the United States, Canada, Panama, China and the Philippines. The company was named among the Top Solar Contractors by Solar Power World, and it has over 330 MW of solar energy experience. UGE’s dedication to excellence is reflected in its motto, “Be Green, Be Great, Have Fun,” and has catapulted the company toward becoming a world leader in distributed renewable energy.

For more information, please visit http://www.ugei.com

ImageWare Systems, Inc. (OTCQB: IWSY) has set a March 30, 2017, conference call (http://dtn.fm/4j16M) for a corporate update on its fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2016. Results for those periods will be released prior to the call, which is scheduled for 5 p.m. (ET). Hosting the call will be Jim Miller, ImageWare chairman and CEO, and Wayne Wetherell, CFO.

The San Diego-based company designs cloud-based and mobile multi-modal biometric identity management solutions, including biometric authentication technology. Its biometrics are next generation and are interactive and scalable cloud-based solutions. The company offers multi-factor authentication for desktop devices, smartphones, and mobile clients. Its products include authentication by face, voice, fingerprint, eye, DNA, and more. It also develops access control tools.

ImageWare recently received the 2017 North American Frost & Sullivan Award for New Product Innovation. The award was presented in recognition of its GoVerifyID Enterprise Suite, which provides multi-modal biometric user identification as an end-to-end turnkey solution.

“This mobile/cloud SaaS (software as a service) offering is the industry’s first multi-modal biometric user authentication solution that allows customers to strengthen the security of their passwords or two-factor authentication using biometrics. Rather than typing a password, end users can speak a passphrase, swipe their fingerprints, or even take ‘selfies’ to gain access,” Frost & Sullivan noted in a news release.

It also cited ImageWare’s GoVerifyID Enterprise Suite, which is Windows Server certified. It noted that this product is device-agnostic and allows user authentication via the cloud. Additionally, Frost & Sullivan said, ImageWare has shown speed in response to market needs in the fast changing world of identity management.

For more information, refer to www.IWSInc.com

The foundation of Vertex Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ: VTNR) was laid by the employment of a 16-year-old Alabama teenager, with the result being that a multi-faceted environmental services company was eventually built upon the endeavors of that teenager. Roughly 30 years ago, Benjamin Cowart, now the CEO and chairman of Vertex, began work at his brother’s used oil collection business in Alabama. After 15 years of working, learning, and helping to build a successful business, he ventured out on his own and formed Vertex in 2001. Vertex Energy now collects and recycles used motor oil and other petroleum by-products, off-specification commercial chemicals, and multiple other industrial waste streams.

Vertex purchases used oil, industrial waste, and chemical products from a developed network of local and regional suppliers, known as street collection, and focuses resources on recycling a portion of its collected used motor oil and other petroleum products. Vertex also sells used petroleum products as feedstock to other re-refineries and fuel blenders or as replacement fuel for use in industrial burners.

The company’s Black Oil division operates across the entire used motor oil recycling spectrum. From used oil and petroleum product collection and aggregation, the company transports, stores, refines, and sells re-refined products to end users. The company’s Refining and Marketing division aggregates feedstock, re-refines it, and then sells the various products. The company’s Recovery division delivers solutions for the recovery and management of hydrocarbon streams.

Expanding feedstock, Vertex Energy has acquired several other used oil collection routes. At oil’s peak, Vertex Energy was paying local generators $1.00 per gallon for used motor oil, but, with the collapse in oil prices, Vertex was able to move from paying for used oil to charging for collection. Vertex has been challenged like others in the oil business but has targeted 2017 as the year for its collection acquisitions to play out.

Headquartered in Houston, Texas, with facilities in Louisiana and Ohio, and offices in Illinois and Georgia, Vertex Energy has come a long way from that Alabama teenager.

For more information, please visit www.VertexEnergy.com

The modern career concept is going through core changes, as employees now enjoy the prospect of multi-decade-long careers but the half-life of skills is falling rapidly, according to Deloitte’s Global Human Capital Trends 2017 report (http://dtn.fm/O9MiY). These new workplace realities are forcing companies to completely change the way they manage careers and to focus on delivering ongoing learning and development opportunities to their employees. Most companies have already shifted toward the digital learning model, where leading EdTech service providers such as ProBility Media Corp. (OTCQB: PBYA) are providing high-quality training courses and materials for career advancement and workforce excellence.

The Deloitte report shows that this year more than ever, executives are aware of the issue and are working hard to offer their employees continuous learning as a means to ensure business success. Compared to decades ago when employees learned to gain skills for developing a career, nowadays the career is a journey of learning where they push for continuous skill development and the ability to learn and progress.

A total of 83 percent of respondents in this year’s survey said their business was shifting toward open, flexible career models (http://dtn.fm/E1lHl) that offer employees more enriching experiences and assignments instead of the traditional, static progression, and this new learning and development model seems to pay off, the report underlines, as companies that offer dynamic career models actually outperform their counterparts by providing employees with continuous learning opportunities focused on their professional development and advancement.

It is with this goal in mind that leading education technology company ProBility Media Corp. is working to provide consistent high-quality online training to prepare the workforce for excellence. Servicing a wide range of customers, from small- and medium-sized businesses to enterprise level corporations, the Houston, Texas-based company is the first to offer full chain career advancement, basically creating the first full service career advancement and training brand in the technical fields.

With a focus on offering advanced training to individuals from graduation to career placement and beyond, ProBility Media has become a key resource of industrial training for customers in various trades, including engineering, electrical contracting, plumbing contracting and fabrication, and the company is already expanding into additional vocational industries with the same full chain of education, training and certification. The company’s business model is disrupting the industry by defragmenting a market that currently has multiple separate companies that service multiple verticals in more than 60 skilled trades.

Through its continued expansion via strategic acquisitions and organic growth, ProBility Media has now become one of the largest wholesalers of the national electric code through its division, National Electric Wholesale Providers. Through its construction training division, ProBility offers programs in 22 states with the goal of servicing all 50. The company’s platform includes virtual reality training opportunities for crane operators, which are likely to be applied to other fields as well, along with advisory services and online learning subscription services for enterprises, resulting in recurring revenue streams.

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.ProBilityMedia.com

Let us hear your thoughts: ProBility Media Corp. Message Board

Late February, a study was released (http://dtn.fm/UEFx3) reviewing evidence that supports the use of cannabinoids to treat Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. Also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, ALS is a fatal illness that attacks the nerve cells that control voluntary muscles such as those in the face, arms, legs, and others.

Currently, ALS is treated with riluzole, a drug that controls neuronal signaling, but this drug does not cure the disease and can only slightly increase the chance of survival. With more effective therapeutic options needed to treat ALS, in-depth research has been done into the benefits of cannabinoids, the naturally occurring compounds found in the marijuana plant.

According to the article relating to the report, the cannabinoid system is involved in the pathology of ALS. A researcher shared that the data found proves that by editing CB2-mediated processes, it could change the progression of ALS and how much the endocannabinoid system could reduce excitotoxicity, neuroinflammation, and oxidative cell damage.

Testing on animals with ALS showed that cannabinoids have anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and neuroprotective effects. It was also proven that cannabinoids can further delay the progression of the disease and prolong survival in these animals. Despite new cases of ALS being diagnosed each day, there are no obvious racial, ethnic, or socioeconomic boundaries associated with the disease.

With a shift in consumer, political, and legal views surrounding cannabis, as well as the current studies that are starting to show proof that CBD can help treat a variety of diseases, demand for CBD oil is on the rise across the globe. Companies such as ChineseInvestors.com (OTCQB: CIIX) are launching CBD health products in order to meet this growing demand.

Although China maintains its stance that cannabis is illegal both medically and recreationally, using CBD oil for medical purposes is allowed. As a result, ChineseInvestors.com is now launching the first CBD health products store in China and aims to be the first-ever provider of CBD oil products to customers in mainland China, and to Chinese speaking people in the United States and Canada.

The company aims to help people with diseases such as ALS by offering high-quality products that are both natural and legal, using compounds found in the cannabis plant that are not psychoactive. With the valid rationale to suggest the use of CBD to manage the symptoms of ALS, and the growing global need for high-quality CBD products, ChineseInvestors.com will be entering the market and helping treat numerous patients in two of the largest countries in the world.

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.ChineseInvestors.com

Let us hear your thoughts: ChineseInvestors.com, Inc. Message Board

With a prevalence of 20 per million newborns in the United States, and an estimated 500,000 patients worldwide, epidermolysis bullosa is a group of rare inherited skin diseases that range in severity from mild to lethal and have no currently approved or known cure or treatment. The condition was brought to the public attention in the early 2000s, and, since then, efforts to find a cure have not born fruit, with most research and development focusing instead on addressing the symptoms, such as reducing blistering and swelling and preventing wounds and pain. However, a new product currently in development by Vancouver-based biopharmaceutical company InMed Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (OTCQB: IMLFF) may change that, having the potential to basically reverse the disease.

The condition causes extreme skin sensitivity that often results in painful blisters on the dermis or mucosal membranes, as a result of minor trauma such as heat or scratching or friction. Usually showing up in infancy or early childhood, the disease has various symptoms such as the appearance of large blisters on the skin, mostly on the feet and hands; loss of fingernails or toenails; blistering in the respiratory system, blistering on the scalp and hair loss; difficulty swallowing; dental problems and more. In its more severe forms, epidermolysis bullosa can cause complications such as sepsis, malnutrition and anemia, dehydration, eye disorders and even skin cancer. In some severe cases where blistering is widespread, frequent infections and sores affect the patients’ ability to breathe and eat and ultimately result in their death.

This orphan disease has no known treatment, and it is therefore a significant unmet medical need that InMed Pharmaceuticals, focusing on the research and development of innovative cannabinoid-based therapies, is working to fill. According to InMed, cannabinoid compounds have recognized analgesic, anti-inflammatory, and wound healing properties, which make them excellent candidates to alleviate some of the symptoms associated with this condition.

The company’s lead product candidate, INM-750, is the first therapy developed specifically for epidermolysis bullosa, being designed both to alleviate symptoms and target dermis imbalances that may ultimately provide a cure. INM-750 targets cannabinoid receptors in the skin to help accelerate wound healing, reduce pain and itching, reduce inflammation, and more. By upregulating specific keratins in the skin, INM-750 may also help reestablish the epidermal junction and essentially reverse the condition for patients with epidermolysis bullosa simplex (EBS) – the most common form of the disease.

Earlier this month, InMed filed an international Patent Cooperation Treaty application for intellectual and commercial protection of INM-750 and a cannabinoid-based therapy for EBS. This marks a significant milestone for the company, serving as validation for its efforts to develop new therapies based on cannabinoids and its unique approach to drug development. The company is using a proprietary bioinformatics assessment tool to identify what bioactive cannabis compounds can offer the optimal therapeutic benefits, with limited side effects and a proprietary biosynthesis technology to manufacture and test these compounds in biological systems via in vitro and in vivo experimentation. These proprietary systems and its drug development pipeline are the company’s core assets.

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.InMedPharma.com

Let us hear your thoughts: InMed Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Message Board

Extreme Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: EXTR) has entered into an asset purchase agreement for Avaya Networking, Inc. totaling $100 million, subject to adjustments. In January 2017, Avaya and certain of its subsidiaries filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the Southern District of New York. Extreme Networks’ offer is subject to court approval. The company defined its offer in an 8K SEC filing on March 7, 2017 (http://dtn.fm/t3joR).

Extreme Networks, Inc. is a networking company based in San Francisco. It designs, builds and installs ethernet computer network products. It is a software-driven company that enables IT departments of clients to build stronger relationships with customers, employees, and partners. The company maintains more than 20,000 customers in some 80 countries. A key asset for Avaya is its award-winning fabric switching technology. Switching fabric typically includes data buffers.

Extreme Networks’ asset purchase agreement comes as a result of potential synergies with Avaya Networking, Inc., as identified by the EXTR management team. Extreme Networks believes it offers complementary products between the two businesses across the company’s vertical markets. For Extreme Networks’ clients, the deal, if court approved, would offer technology for edge switching environments in addition to secure access to Avaya’s data center. For Avaya, selling its networking business is seen by its management as a positive move, enabling it to focus on its unified communications core.

Extreme Networks believes that, if the offer is consummated, it could result in $200 million of added revenues annually. The acquisition is expected to be accretive to its own earnings and cash flow beginning in fiscal 2018. Extreme Networks intends to update its quarterly guidance and revenue if the acquisition is approved.

The tentative agreement remains subject to better offers, as Avaya plans to make a motion to the court to initiate a bidding and public auction process. On execution of the purchase agreement, Extreme Networks placed $10 million in escrow. Pending approval, these funds will be applied to the purchase of Avaya’s assets, but not to any of the firm’s liabilities. If the deal is not approved, Extreme Networks may be entitled to court-approved termination fees.

For more information, visit www.ExtremeNetworks.com