Since February 2014, Alternet Systems, Inc. (OTC: ALYI), through wholly owned subsidiary Alternet Financial Services, has been an authority for Hub Culture’s digital currency, ven. Hub Culture is an elite by-invitation-only social network founded in 2002. Its members use the global crypto-currency ven, the value of which is determined by a weighted basket of currencies, commodities and carbon futures trading against other major currencies at floating exchange rates.

Ven is the first digital currency to float, and the first to include carbon in its pricing, making it the only environmentally linked currency in existence. Since ven in circulation is 100% backed by reserve assets, the inclusion of these assets in the reserve basket generates demand for carbon futures, resulting in environmentally positive benefits. It has been estimated that over 25,000 acres of Amazon rainforest have been preserved because of trading in ven. Ven is the only digital currency trading on any regulated financial exchange. It trades on the U.K.’s FX exchange, LMAX, and on Kraken, the Bitcoin exchange.

As a Ven Authority, Alternet takes part in the distribution of ven and in managing its liquidity by providing real-time currency trading that allows corporations to convert assets to ven to hedge their balance sheets or to meet carbon obligations. Attracted by fluctuations in the value of the crypto-currency, speculators are trading in ven both for short-term gains and as a long-term investment. Alternet’s authority status allows the company access to the sophisticated hedging algorithms that balance the underlying reserves to the issuance of currency in real time using live financial market data that is updated many times per second.

Alternet Systems’ vision is to accelerate the future of money through the creation of a digital bank; multi-channel payment solutions, including hard and digital currency; and by providing an exchange that allows for the movement from virtual money to fiat currency. The company has already entered the digital currency space, with ven, and further aims to provide end-to-end security for digital currencies, and to launch its digital currency bank, which will be fully compliant with government regulations. The ability to purchase and trade foreign currencies will be offered, and the company will also offer micro payment services to the un-banked and under-banked, domestically and abroad. In a 2013 survey, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) estimated that 7.7% of U.S. households (1 in 13) are un-banked and another 20% are under-banked.

To cement its relationship with Alternet, Hub Culture acquired a stake in Alternet Systems, using ven to fund the purchase. Hub Culture has stated: “Our investment in Alternet Systems is based on our confidence in the future success of the new products and services related to ven which Alternet is developing… We felt it was important to have a stake in their success as these services come to market. Granting Alternet Systems status as a Ven Authority leapfrogs them to the cutting edge of the multi-billion dollar digital currency industry, and maximizes their unique capabilities to grow ven in new markets faster.”

According to Hub Culture, part of the attractiveness of the deal is based on Alternet’s activity in the mobile sector, where they hope the company will be able to further the use of ven in the Latin American market. “…they have a mobile wallet and deep telecom connections, plus government multilateral connections… imagine a digital euro for LATAM”

It’s a magnificent vision: a digital euro for Latin America, a good reminder that he who dares, wins.

For more information, visit www.alternetsystems.com

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Cherubim Interests (OTC: CHIT), an investment company, focuses its attention on undervalued commercial assets and single and multi-family dwellings for purchase. The company aims to be at the forefront of alternative construction, property management, multifamily real estate, and investment opportunities. The company is involved with each project from beginning to end by covering due diligence, acquisitions, construction, and management. Cherubim Interests promotes safer living environments and better lifestyles overall with its business model while promising high returns for investors.

Recently, the company has partnered with BudCube Cultivation Systems, a subsidiary, to get involved with the rapidly growing cannabis market, which is expected to grow $35-$51 billion in the long run. BudCube has developed a proprietary cultivation technology that allows cannabis businesses to meet increasing market demands. This technology will allow a faster output of cannabis along with faster financial gain.

Cherubim Interests will own and develop new properties while BudCube will handle the technology and cannabis cultivation system application. Both will deliver macro solutions (single tenant) and micro solutions (multi-tenant) for prospective cannabis growers. This strategy is expected to promote huge financial growth for both companies.

Along with BudCube, Cherubim Interests also establishes investments within the Texaplex. This is a triangular region in Texas consisting of Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin, San Antonio, and Houston. These cities are largely populated and highly influential. They each have booming economies that cultivate innovation and culture while providing a lower-cost of living.

Using these two strategic resources, Cherubim Interests seems to have solidified its investment goals while paving the way for more. These thriving opportunities should provide a great financial return to the company and its investors.

For more information, visit www.cherubiminterests.com

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The rate at which a virus like influenza adapts and evolves has always been a subject for concern in the medical community, with vaccine technology only barely able to keep up from year to year. In many cases, as was the case this year, the latest vaccine for the latest strain is largely ineffective, with this season’s flu vaccine only obtaining around 23 percent efficacy according to the CDC’s own data (a figure which has dropped to as low as 10 percent in the past). However, in recent years this concern has given way to an increasing degree of outright alarm among savvy epidemiologists, upon whom it is now dawning that, without some serious technological innovation, we may soon be hitting a brick wall with public health crisis written all over it.

Just this week, the first Influenza fatality for the current season was reported in the state of Idaho, where 32 people died from flu-related illness last year. As many as 49,000 or more have died in the U.S. in a given year since the CDC started tracking such data over four decades ago. The majority of flu-associated deaths are typically in people over 65, and influenza vaccines are currently the most popular and widely accepted vaccination amongst adults.

As is typical, influenza vaccines accounted for the lion’s share of the $33.1 billion vaccine market last year. A market which is on track to hit upwards of $57.8 billion by 2019, growing at a CAGR of around 11.8 percent, according to a report from MarketsandMarkets out earlier this year. The market is currently dominated by a handful of major players like Merck (NYSE: MRK), Glaxo Smith Kline (NYSE: GSK) and Sanofi (NYSE: SNY), with smaller positions held by the likes of Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) and Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT), as well as CSL Limited (ASX: CSL), which acquired Novartis’ (NYSE: NVS) vaccine business earlier this year, including the influenza vaccines development pipeline.

The kind of forward growth projection contained in the MarketsandMarkets report is quite reasonable considering the increasing public attention about influenza in recent years, following the swine flu (Influenza A, H1N1) pandemic in 2009, and the avian/swine flu scares since. The rapidity with which influenza viruses mutate (driven by underlying, gradual antigenic drift), which can and has resulted in cross-species mobility into human populations for avian/swine flu, is one of the leading sources for the increasing alarm. Just this week, officials at the Hong Kong Centre for Health Protection confirmed the presence of avian influenza (AH7N9) in two humans from mainland China who have had routine exposure to poultry, both of whom are currently hospitalized and in serious condition.

Such news is particularly alarming when one stops to consider the mounting evidence that we may be approaching the end of antibiotics as we have come to know them. A daunting problem which has been illustrated most recently by a report in the Lancet Infectious Diseases Journal on plasmid-mediated resistance to the last-resort antibiotic Colistin in animals and human beings in China. The decades-old antibiotic Colistin is only used as a last-resort these days in cases where multidrug-resistant bacteria are encountered, due to significant liver toxicity risk. Thus, this report has really raised eyebrows among many in the medical community, who are concerned that even stopgap measures like Colistin are becoming ineffective.

Luckily, we have some extremely compelling work being done in this area by a development-stage nanobiopharma company called NanoViricides (NYSE: NNVC), which has developed a novel nanoviricide® class of drug candidates that employ an ingenious and wholly unique approach to antiviral therapeutics involving nanomaterials. The company’s incredibly versatile nanoviricide platform has the potential to address a wide range of underserved and unserved demands, with pipeline indications under development ranging from its injectable/oral FluCide™ for influenza and the HerpeCide™ indication for herpesvirus, to candidates that may one day become the leading combatants of such devastating diseases as HIV or Ebola.

What really makes the company’s proprietary nanoviricide technology so interesting is its exploitation of an as-yet critically under examined property among even fast-mutating viruses, where the receptor binding site does not substantially change across iterations. This ingenious approach grants the nanoviricide platform’s method of action immense versatility that is unparalleled anywhere else in the industry today, and allows for the development of both virus-specific and broad-spectrum indications. By pairing a maximally-expressed virus-binding ligand made from the binding site on the virus cell’s own surface receptors, with a proprietary nanomicelle flexible polymer, the company is able to create molecular smart bombs that seek out and attach to virus cells, and yet which look to the virus like an extremely tasty normal human cell.

The virus is fooled into attacking the antibody-scale nanoviricide and is then fully engulfed by the highly flexible nanomicelle polymer in what is effectively a nano-scale Velcro effect, completely stopping the virus from infecting any more cells, degrading the protein shell of the virus, and outrightly dismantling it. This brilliant method of action stands in stark contrast to what most current entry and fusion inhibitors do, blocking only some of the binding sites, which leaves the virus cell able to infect other cells. This method of action is also expected to be far superior to similarly-large antibody agents as well, because it does not require the often already compromised immune system of the host to clear the virus particle, and instead is able to destroy the virus particle on its own.

Moreover, the company’s already successfully demonstrated ADIF technology (Accurate-Drug-In-Field) represents a lightweight, field-deployable frontline defensive and offensive solution for novel or emergent, quickly mutating strains like Ebola. The ADIF technology allows emergency medical responders to rapid-prototype an accurate drug on-site, anywhere in the world an outbreak might occur. This capacity means that NNVC holds the power to potentially allow medical professionals to safely combat the most dangerous infectious diseases, as well as bioterrorism agents directly, before they can spread and become a more serious issue for an increasingly connected world.

This is a key advantage for NNVC that investors should keep an eye on, especially considering the latest Ebola scare in Africa, with news breaking that as of December 15, seventeen suspected Ebola patients have gone missing from a healthcare facility in the Liberian capital of Monrovia, after a mob attacked the facility on Saturday. We could be looking at the start of another Ebola outbreak surge (previously thought to be contained), tipped off by this incident in Liberia, which has not had a history of the disease until recently, but which saw more than 400 fatalities alone due to the disease after the outbreak began last year. This now apparently ongoing outbreak, which began in Guinea two years ago this month, has also caused significant loss of life in Sierra Leone, and even managed to reach the U.S. and EU, forcing governments to critically reassess the potential severity of such a problem.

Dig deeper into this company’s revolutionary tech by visiting http://www.nanoviricides.com/

Avant Diagnostics, Inc. (OTC: AVDX) is on a mission to maximize its levels of corporate transparency for the benefit of its customers and investors. Late last week, the company took a significant step toward realizing this goal when it unveiled its new website. The new site utilizes a number of design features aimed at making browsing both streamlined and informative for Avant’s current and potential customers and investors.

The site’s investor relations section, in particular, received a considerable upgrade, incorporating helpful features such as immediate posting of press releases and automated posting of SEC filings, XBRL data, Insider Section 16 filings and financial statements. Additionally, the company has incorporated CEO interviews and media coverage, corporate videos and an up-to-date frequently asked questions section in order to more adequately inform visitors about Avant’s latest advances.

“A significant part of Avant’s mission is presenting those interested in the company with the information they want in the quickest and most organized way,” Gregg Linn, president and chief executive officer of Avant, stated in a news release. “We believe our new website advances this goal by presenting our range of services and activities in an attractive and easy-to-access format.”

In the months to come, Avant in strategically positioned to continue the development of its pre-symptomatic ovarian cancer screening test, OvaDx®. Leveraging more than 10 years of research and development and a strong intellectual property portfolio, the company is seeking to reduce the costs associated with ovarian cancer detection while helping medical providers avoid costly late stage disease treatments.

According to data from the American Cancer Society, ovarian cancer ranks fifth in cancer deaths among women, accounting for more fatalities than any other cancer of the female reproduction system. However, early detection can play a major role in improving the survivability of this dangerous disease. According to the National Cancer Institute, ovarian cancer cases discovered in stage I development present patients with a five-year relative survival rate in excess of 92 percent. Despite the benefits of early detection, only about 15 percent of ovarian cancer cases are currently diagnosed at stage one.

Through the development of OvaDx, Avant is seeking to provide a more effective option for detecting early stage ovarian cancer. The microarray-based diagnostic test, which, upon FDA approval, is expected to be offered as an elective test for women with elevated risk of ovarian cancer, has been shown to detect stage IA disease markers with approximately 80 percent sensitivity and 100 percent specificity.

For more information, visit www.avantdiagnostics.com

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When planning corporate events to reward employees for all of their hard work, it is much easier to reserve a ‘one stop shop’ for everyone instead of trying to overcomplicate the process by finding the best caterer, the nicest venue, popular entertainment, etc. Latitude 360 (OTC: LATX) is following the popular Dave & Buster’s (NASDAQ: PLAY) business model, but adding a few of its own touches with its live entertainment, fantasy sports, bowling, movie theater, and cigar lounge.

The company has three locations: Jacksonville, Pittsburgh and Indianapolis. Locations vary from 55,000 to 75,000 square feet and are perfect venues for consumers and corporate events. Whether it’s just a few friends wanting to relax, have a drink, smoke a cigar, and watch their favorite football team; or a birthday party to enjoy some casual dining before taking in a movie and a game of bowling, Latitude 360 has you covered.

Since live entertainment in the form of musicians, DJ’s, and standup comedy routines is so immensely popular in metropolitan areas, the company has designed the facilities needed to capitalize on that revenue stream as well. Having options is key for keeping old and new customers coming in the door, so whatever your forte, however casual or extreme, Latitude 360 will be able to accommodate you and your family, friends, co-workers, and employees.

An effective promotional campaign is paramount for a business like Latitude 360 to stay ahead of the competition. Recently, the company signed partnership agreements with Cross, Monster Energy, and Major League Fantasy.

Fantasy sports is a booming industry, and it’s only going to get bigger. Millions of consumers use their phones and laptops religiously to update rosters, make trades, talk smack, and get the latest player news and stats. The only thing missing is a popular meeting place for friends to get together during a draft or head-to-head matchup. The company has the foresight to recognize this needed venue and has implemented it into their architectural plans.

For more information on the company visit www.latitude360.com

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The conference circuit is an all-important part of the growth process for small and start-up companies. Dataram Corp. (NASDAQ: DRAM) announced in a press release that it would be presenting at the Source Capital Group’s 2016 Disruptive Growth and Healthcare Conference in February 2016. This conference will feature executives from life science companies focusing on solutions to unmet medical needs and growth companies with disruptive technologies and business models.

Presenting at conferences to get your name out there and meeting potential institutional investors is a vital part of getting access to the capital needed to grow and expand your business. This conference, in particular, is expected to have in attendance more than 400 institutional and accredited investors, family offices, analysts, registered investment advisors, and wealth managers, as well as Source Capital representatives and their clients.

Source Capital is a seasoned investment-banking group with a myriad of Wall Street experience that focuses on the underserved and widely unknown gems of the small cap and start-up sectors. Many companies like Dataram will be presenting at the Source Capital Conference and looking to deliver their messages in hopes of attracting new money and opportunities.

Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) and Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) were both in this stage of capital raise and business development just a few short years ago. Great ideas are a dime a dozen, but what separates the winners from the losers in the small cap sector is a steadfast commitment to delivering their products and services to the most customers using whatever means necessary.

Hitting the conference circuit to let the money people put a face with a product is essential for developing trust and interest. Any smart investor scours the endless presentations for the few companies that are worth a closer look and, possibly, a capital investment that opens the door for maximized return on investment.

For more information about Source Capital Group, please visit the company’s website at www.sourcegrp.com.

For more information about Dataram Corp., please visit the company’s website at www.dataram.com.

Pets are part of the family these days. We register them in the American Kennel Club or the American Kennel Association; buy them insurance and health plans; make monthly appointments at the groomer and veterinarian; and are projected to spend $61 billion in 2015 on our pets in the U.S. alone, according to the American Pet Products Association. OurPet’s Company (OTC: OPCO) is capitalizing on this already prodigious and constantly growing market with its innovative, high quality product line designed to improve the health, comfort, safety, and enjoyment of pets.

The company markets its products through two brands: the OurPets brand caters to pet specialty customers and consumers and the Pet Zone brand focuses on the needs of the food/drug/mass-market channel and shoppers.

In the third quarter, OurPet’s reported record revenue of $6 million, which was a 7 percent increase from the comparable 2014-quarter. The company also reported a massive 428 percent increase in net income to $410,450, or $0.02 diluted earnings per share, compared to $77,751, or $0.00, for the third quarter of 2014.

Growth is key to determining whether a small company is on the right track. In the third quarter press release, Dr. Steven Tsengas, president and CEO, commented, “We have expanded and strengthened our relationship with several domestic and international independent sales representative organizations, and have added another experienced salesperson to our staff.”

Nearly 100 million households own either a dog or cat, according to the American Pet Products Association, and with the health conscience consumer segment experiencing rapid growth, it is logical to predict that this type of shopper will want to buy the same type of safe, healthy and innovative products for their pets. OurPet’s is poised for a breakout year in 2016 after expanding its product line, distribution cycle and adding more talent to its sales team.

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

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Legacy Ventures International, Inc. (OTC: LGYV), through wholly-owned subsidiary RM Fresh Brands, recently entered into a distribution agreement with Sysco (NYSE: SYY), a leading marketer and distributor of food products to restaurants, healthcare and educational facilities, hotels and inns and other foodservice and hospitality businesses. Through this partnership, Legacy will look to expand the distribution of Boxed Water, as well as its portfolio of other products, by leveraging Sysco’s network of nearly 200 distribution facilities serving roughly 425,000 customers.

In recent weeks, Legacy has made tremendous progress toward capitalizing on its Canadian distribution rights for Boxed Water, which it secured through the October acquisition of RM Fresh Brands. Just last week, the company announced a distribution deal with Rabba Fine Foods, an influential grocery chain with more than 30 locations across Canada. Legacy has also ramped up efforts to increase awareness of the Boxed Water brand as of late. Last month, the company teamed up with Holt Renfrew, Canada’s premier destination for luxury retail, for its Holiday Kick Off and Charity Shopping Event in order to get the environmentally-friendly bottled water alternative into the hands of prospective customers.

For Legacy, ‘Boxed Water is Better’ isn’t just a slogan, it’s a sustainable message to Canada’s expansive network of retailers. While traditional water bottles take over 1,000 years to biodegrade, Boxed Water is packaged in a deceptively simple, 100 percent recyclable carton that could significantly reduce the environmental impact of the bottled water market in the years to come. According to studies by Cradle to Gate, Boxed Water cartons have less than half of the carbon footprint of PET bottles. This environmental benefit also extends to shipping. According to Legacy, one truckload of modular Boxed Water cartons is the equivalent of 26 truckloads of plastic bottles.

With its newly-announced agreement with Sysco, Legacy continues to make progress toward expanding upon the Canadian retail presence of Boxed Water. Look for the company to capitalize on the marketability of RM Fresh Brands’ portfolio of trend-setting products while continuing to search for additional opportunities to promote sustainable market growth.

For more information, visit www.legacyventuresinc.com

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Currently available Parkinson’s disease treatments, while capable of improving the early symptoms of the disease, lose their effect as the disease progresses and produce involuntary writing movements in the patients. As of yet there is no cure for the disease, which is the second most common neurodegenerative disease and affects over 7 million people worldwide. International Stem Cell Corp. (OTC: ISCO), a leader in using pluripotent stem cells in regenerative medicine, this morning issued news regarding its stem cell technology – signaling a potential blockbuster shift it the treatment of Parkinson’s disease.

ISCO today announces that its wholly owned subsidiary, Cyto Therapeutics, has received regulatory approval by the Therapeutics Goods Administration (TGA) of Australia to initiate a phase I/IIa clinical trial, dose escalation trial of human parthenogenetic stem cells-derived neural stem cells (ISC-hpNSC) in patients with moderate to severe Parkinson’s disease.

“We are very pleased to start the first human study of ISC-hpNSC’s for the treatment of this debilitating disease. There is a large unmet medical need for new treatments that may halt or reverse the progression of Parkinson’s disease and we believe our human neural stem cells may fill this need for the millions of people with this disease” stated Andrey Semechkin, PhD, ISCO’s chief executive officer. “We look forward to reporting on the progress of the clinical trial over the coming months.”

ISCO last year announced positive results from its preclinical studies for its ISC-hpNSC therapeutic candidate. In those preclinical studies, the cells demonstrated an improvement in Parkinson’s disease symptoms and increase in brain dopamine levels following the intracranial administration of ISC-hpNSC. The studies further noted that the ISC-hpNSCs provided neurotrophic support and cell replacement to dying dopaminergic neurons.

About the clinical study

The upcoming phase I/IIa clinical study – which will be performed at Royal Melbourne Hospital in Melbourne, Australia – is a dose escalation safety and preliminary efficacy study of human parthenogenetic stem cells-derived neural stem cells (ISC-hpNSC) intracranially transplanted into patients with moderate to severe Parkinson’s disease. The open-label, single center, uncontrolled clinical trial will evaluate three different dose regimens of 30 million-70 million neural cells. A total of 12 participants with moderate to severe Parkinson’s disease will be treated. Following transplantation, the patients will be monitored for 12 months at specified intervals, to evaluate the safety and biologic activity of ISC-hpNSC.

“We are the first company in the world to conduct clinical trials of human pluripotent stem cells based product for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease. We believe the outcome of the study will produce findings in-line with our preclinical studies, where we demonstrated not only safety of our proprietary neural stem cells, but also their functional efficacy. The cells were able to successfully integrate into the brain and provide a significant increase of dopamine levels in the nigrostriatal system” commented Russell Kern, PhD, ISCO’s executive vice president and chief scientific officer.

For more information, visit www.internationalstemcell.com

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It’s the most wonderful time of the year and what better way to celebrate the holidays than with a Christmas party at Giggles N’ Hugs (OTC: GIGL) for a little healthy holiday cheer. Santa also recently stopped by in his sleigh to meet with the excited little youngsters, answer wish lists and find out who’s been naughty or nice.

Giggles N’ Hugs adds a much needed healthy, organic and local twist to all its menu items, so, while your kids are enjoying a little playtime, you can munch on some edamame and mahi mahi with a glass of Pinot Grigio to settle your nerves. The Christmas season is meant to be a joyous and happy time spent with family and friends, but everyone likes a deal. That’s why every Tuesday, Giggles N’ Hugs offers its ‘Two for Tuesdays’ promotion – you buy one adult meal and admission for one child, a second child gets in free.

George Bernard Shaw said it best when he stated, “We don’t stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing.” Letting go and not taking yourself so seriously all the time is a healthy habit everyone should incorporate into their lives, but doing so in a home or office setting isn’t realistic. Playing with your kids at one of the Giggles N’ Hugs locations could be just what the doctor ordered.

Membership has its privileges, and the company offers several options to save you time and money. Choose from a one, three or six month unlimited play pass for one to three children for a big discount. Also, you can conveniently make these purchases online through the company’s website.

Giggles N’ Hugs has been voted Los Angeles’s #1 Kids Party Place, #1 Family Restaurant, and #1 Indoor Playspace. It has three locations serving the greater Los Angeles area and offers magic shows, puppet shows, DJ’s, face painting, scavenger hunts, dance parties, karaoke and so much more. Come join the fun, and enjoy a healthy snack while your kids have the time of their lives.

For more information, please visit www.gigglesnhugs.com

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