It is no secret that cancer remains a global epidemic. According to The National Cancer Institute (http://dtn.fm/RK8lF), cancer is still one of the leading causes of death in the world, with more than 8.2 million cancer-related deaths back in 2012. The American Cancer Society (http://dtn.fm/RK8lF) estimates that in 2017, just in the U.S., there will be over 1.6 million new cancer cases, with more than 600,000 cancer-related deaths, and the number of new cancer cases is expected to rise to 22 million within the next 20 years.

Some of the most common types of cancer expected in 2017 include breast cancer, lung and bronchus cancer, prostate cancer, colorectal cancer, melanoma of the skin, and urinary bladder cancer, with lung and bronchus cancer expected to be the biggest killers. Each of the types of cancer listed above needs to be detected early in order for patients to have the best survival rates, something made possible only with effective cancer screening tests.

ITUS Corporation (NASDAQ: ITUS), a company in the business of developing a series of non-invasive, inexpensive blood tests in order to detect cancer early on, has come up with Cchek™, a new form of cancer screening test that has proven to be more accurate, reliable, easy, and affordable than current screening tests. Cchek™ is a diagnostic platform that focuses on a subset of cells that are said to appear at the beginning of the formation of a tumor. By using proprietary protocols and fluorescently labeled antibodies, Cchek™ counts and sorts the specific and rare cells.

Currently, Cchek™ has been validated with 14 cancer types and has tested 315 patients, with 225 testing positive for cancer and 87 testing negative. In the preliminary results, the company achieved sensitivity and specificity of 92% accordingly for 88 patient samples, including 54 samples from patients with a variety of types of cancer, and 34 healthy patients. Sensitivity and specificity are two scientific measurements that are used to establish the efficacy of a diagnostic test.

ITUS Corporation is in the process of submitting its data at scientific meetings and plans to publish its data shortly. The company is continuing to process new patient samples with the aim of testing new cancer types while evaluating benign conditions. Currently, ITUS is still undertaking double-blinded testing in order to take Cchek™ to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for future approval.

For more information, visit www.ITUSCorp.com

Leading mobile payment technology provider Net Element, Inc. (NASDAQ: NETE) this morning released a letter to its shareholders recapping some of the company’s most noteworthy achievements in 2016, as well as its objectives for the coming year. In the letter, CEO Oleg Firer referred to 2016 as a “year of significant progress and corporate achievements,” noting Net Element’s strong transactional growth across multiple categories. All told, the company processed $2.1 billion across 187 million transactions during 2016, up from 161 million in 2015. Firer attributed this organic market growth to the hard work and dedication of Net Element’s management team, support staff and sales team.

“2016 marked a year of significant progress and corporate achievements. We executed several complex initiatives and continue to make great strides in delivering on the strategic endeavors that we have been working on for the past three years,” Firer noted in this morning’s update. “While a few of these endeavors are still in progress, our overall operations, competitive posture, and growth are much stronger today than they were one year ago.”

In addition to its transactional growth, Net Element recorded a number of significant achievements during 2016. The company was named one of the fastest-growing technology companies in South Florida Business Journal’s 2016 Technology Awards, and subsidiary PayOnline was recognized as the best payment processing gateway in 2016 by Tagline. Additionally, PayOnline was ranked as a top five payment acceptance company by Markswebb Rank & Report.

Net Element’s continued commitment to growth on a global scale also helped it secure a collection of important new partnerships and client relationships in both domestic and international markets. In particular, the company made a major push toward expanding its presence in Central Asia and the Middle East during 2016, landing high-profile partnerships with Masreqbank in the United Arab Emirates, Round Bank in Russia and AGBank in Azerbaijan. Building on these efforts, PayOnline formed new relationships with Dunkin’ Donuts, one of the world’s largest coffee and baked goods chains, in Russia; ExLine, a market-leading courier service in Kazakhstan; and VTB Insurance, a leading insurance company in Russia.

The shareholder letter goes on to outline some of Net Element’s 2016 product launches before taking a look forward at its corporate goals for 2017. The company got the new year off to a strong start by implementing payment acceptance services for ReservHotel, a leading travel distribution and booking provider, and Sutochno.ru, the number one short-term accommodation rental service in Russia.

“For the remainder of the year, we will continue to focus on strategic partnerships and innovative products that will further expand our services, positioning Net Element as a convenient one-stop solution for payments services to a global merchant community,” added Firer. “We also intend to expand our presence in North America through distribution and integrated-services programs. In addition, we intend to further consolidate and centralize our operational infrastructure and resources.”

Firer wrapped up this morning’s release by thanking the company’s shareholders for their continued support and offering a positive outlook for the coming months.

“We anticipate that our improving financial results, continued expansion, strong partnerships and executing on growth endeavors will produce improved shareholder value in 2017,” he concluded.

For more information, visit www.NetElement.com

The strategy by ChineseInvestors.com, Inc. (OTCQB: CIIX) to open the first cannabidiol (CBD) online retail store in China, and to use a wholly-owned subsidiary in the retail and wholesale business to supply CBD health oil products throughout Asia, has attracted the attention of investors who have seen global activity in the cannabis market grow.

ChineseInvestors.com operates a website for Chinese-speaking investors located in China and the U.S. Its self-directed investing model includes education products and services such as consulting. The company previously announced plans to open a retail store in the Shanghai Free Trade Area and commence distribution of CBD health oil products to Chinese people located around the globe. It expects to go live with its ChineseCBDoil.com site later this month.

Investment companies have already seen the growth of the cannabis industry globally. Marijuana is not legal in China, but oils that are cannabis-based are. Medical and recreational marijuana is growing globally. Some countries permit medical marijuana only. Legal sales are growing throughout the world and CIIX sees an important opportunity in China and Asia.

Matt Karnes of GreenWave Advisors (http://dtn.fm/6xAjK) projects that the CBD market in the U.S. could reach almost $3 billion by 2021. Warren Wang, founder and CEO of CIIX, cited the CBD Report in the Hemp Business Journal that the U.S. hemp and legal marijuana consumer sale industries could grow to $2.1 billion by 2020. The ArcView Group sees industry sales throughout North America growing to a little more than $8 billion by the end of 2017.

In a recent news release, Wang added that CIIX has entered into a wholesale agreement with a well-known manufacturer of CBD oil. He anticipates that, through its online platform and retail store, CIIX will be able to retail nutritional supplements containing CBD to China and other Asian markets.

Legalization of marijuana is happening globally. According to TMFUltraLong (http://nnw.fm/KXoo1), you can use or buy it in some form in Canada, Australia, the Netherlands, France, Uruguay, Chile, Czech Republic, Colombia, and Jamaica. In the U.S., 28 states and the District of Columbia have legalized medical marijuana. To date, a total of 16 states have legalized CBD.

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

On January 10, 2017, Crystal Equity Research (http://nnw.fm/Hk3L3) published an initial report on Moxian, Inc. (NASDAQ: MOXC). Moxian provides social commerce platforms to consumers and merchants in Asia, more specifically China, through its proprietary Moxian+ platform. The company received a ‘Speculative Buy’ rating with a price target of $5.25 per share.

The rating was based on Moxian’s ability to maintain itself as a strong contender within China’s online-to-offline (O2O) market, which, according to the report, was worth $48 billion during the first half of 2015. Thanks to the launch of both the Moxian+ User app and the Moxian+ Business app, customers are being drawn from websites to physical stores in China. Both consumers and merchants are showing a growing interest in the O2O market, with more people using mobile devices and having access to the internet.

Aside from Moxian’s ability to successfully target the country’s O2O market, the company has made significant steps toward strengthening its balance sheet with the aid of new, independent members of its board of directors. MOXC successfully closed a public offering of over four million shares of common stock, raising $9 million in new capital net fees by the end of 2016 while cutting related party debt.

The report continues to discuss Moxian’s timely entry into China’s O2O market. With nearly half the population on the mainland devoting 45 minutes a day to social media, combined with a growing adoption of banking cards, online purchases are becoming more accessible. To make Moxian’s move into the market more swift, the company is targeting small- to medium-sized businesses with a “do it yourself” website that allows merchants to create an account easily for which they can then choose the pricing plan that best suits them.

Moxian expects its primary forms of income to be advertising revenue and sales of memberships to merchants. Although the basic membership is free, the paid account offers merchants the chance to add features that will enhance their relationships with their consumers. The paid plan also gives access to consumer data and the added benefit of other O2O tactics. MOXC also expects revenue from gaming application downloads, fees from content and sales generated by users, and from sales of ‘points’ to consumers.

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

Annual spending on leisure travel, at $650.8 billion in 2015, far exceeds spending on business travel, which totaled $296.3 billion during the same period, according to the U.S. Travel Association (http://dtn.fm/4Y0zB). But travelers are increasingly mixing business travel with leisure by extending their trips and combining the two. Monaker Group, Inc. (OTCQB: MKGI) serves this market through its subsidiaries, NextTrip.com, a real-time online booking platform, and Maupintour, which specializes in luxury and customized tours.

Monaker Group’s NextTrip.com and Maupintour offer technology-driven platforms which enable travelers to learn, plan, and execute their trips online. BridgeStreet Global Hospitality (http://dtn.fm/4B4iz) has found that travelers want sightseeing, dining and arts/culture in locations they were already traveling to for business.

According to the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) (http://dtn.fm/rqAV7), 45% of employees at firms with less than 250 employees extended trips, compared to 38% at companies with 250-499 employees and just 30% at companies of 500 or more.

Some 52% are extending business trips with leisure travel with a spouse or significant other, the GBTA’s Business Travel Sentiment Index™ found in 2015. Further, 63% use the opportunity to explore the destination, and 48% said they would visit family or friends.

In the 2016 GBTA Index survey, mobile devices, social networks and apps were noted as important business travel tools. Some 72% of millennials and 64% of all business travelers check their travel itineraries at least once a day, and some 31% said they prefer to use electronic receipts instead of hard copies for tracking expenses.

Monaker Group has its own Monaker Booking Engine (MBE), which, in real time, has a global inventory of air, lodging, and tours, all viewable from a single online site. Travel bookings can be organized for the business traveler, the leisure traveler, or both. Monaker recently announced plans to release its own app for NextTrip on Android and iOS by the end of January 2017.

Additionally, Monaker Group has access to alternative lodging options for the traveler on its NextTrip.com site, with rentals of private residences or unused timeshare rooms in managed properties. In a news release, Bill Kerby, chairman and CEO of Monaker Group, said that the company is well positioned to take advantage of the trend to alternative lodging and travel. Monaker’s management team believes that the alternative lodging rental (ALR) market will reach $169 billion by 2019 and sees it as the fastest-growing segment of the business.

The company believes it is able to leverage its more than 60 years in leisure travel with new technology to best deliver its services. It said it plans to introduce artificial intelligence to NextTrip.com in the future under its ‘Travel Made Easy’ platform. Alternative travel includes everything from private residences available for rent to fractional shares of timeshare resort rooms.

Through NextTrip.com, Monaker Group is able to bring all of these elements in an online platform to the prospective traveler. Through Maupintour, it can organize even more specialized travel. Maupintour offers unique and luxury tours with a high repeat rate among travelers. Millennials want a single source for their combined business and leisure travel.

For more information, please visit www.MonakerGroup.com

Before the opening bell, top-ranked independent research firm WallStreet Research™ (WSR) announced the release of a Corporate Profile Analyst Report covering ChineseInvestors.com, Inc. (OTCQB: CIIX). In addition to highlighting CIIX’s ongoing operations, including both its efforts to provide a range of financial information to the global Chinese population via www.Chinesefn.com and its preparations to capitalize on the thriving market for cannabidiol-based products through its www.ChineseCBDoil.com website, the WSR report gives prospective investors some additional insight into the tremendous growth opportunities presented by the company’s evolving strategy.

“The Company’s recent announcements regarding expansion into the medical marijuana and CBD oil industry has driven great interest in CIIX shares,” Alan Stone, managing director of WSR, stated in this morning’s news release. “As a result, the shares have significantly increased in both market value and trading volume, potentially positioning the company for a listing either on the NASDAQ or the NYSE Markets sometime later in 2017.”

In recent weeks, CIIX has made considerable progress toward the impending launch of its operations in the emerging global cannabis industry. Last month, the company announced a new partnership with a well-known cannabidiol (CBD) health brand that will enable CIIX to retail nutritional supplements containing CBD to the Asian market through both online and in-store distribution channels. Shortly after that announcement, CIIX unveiled plans to launch the world’s first CBD health products online store available in the Chinese language by the end of January 2017. The headquarters for this operation will be located in Shanghai, and the company has already outlined plans to create a wholly-owned subsidiary within the Shanghai Free Trade Zone with the sole focus of supplying CBD-based health products to the expansive worldwide Chinese population.

This morning’s release of a research report from WSR came just days after the release of a similar update from Traders News Source (TNS), an equity research firm specializing in small and micro-cap securities. The TNS report also placed a great deal of focus on CIIX’s recent entry into the cannabis industry through www.ChineseCBDoil.com. The firm notes that, while marijuana use is currently illegal in the People’s Republic of China, cannabis-based oils are legal, providing a potential market for CIIX that includes well over one billion people in China alone.

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

Since its inception back in 1980, Aurora, Illinois-based Westell Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: WSTL) has had one primary goal: that of ensuring top-quality communications to its customers. Almost four decades ago, this meant offering highly efficient transmission equipment and telephone signaling, but since then the company has expanded significantly and adapted to now offer some of the most technologically advanced, high-performance wireless infrastructure solutions in the telecom industry. Westell Technologies offers a comprehensive set of innovative products and service geared toward advancing network performance and helping network operators and service providers lower operating expenses. Serving primarily the U.S. market, Westell has expanded to also offer its products and services to Canada, South America, Africa, and Australia.

Westell’s innovative product solutions include Intelligent Site Management (ISM), Communication Network Solutions (CNS) and In-Building Wireless (IBW) via proprietary Clearlink® technology. The ISM solution helps users gain a competitive advantage when it comes to control and operation of their networks through remote visibility, a unitary control platform, lower operating costs, flexibility, adaptability, quality and maximum efficiency. Given the rapid expansion of wireless networks and the growing challenges this poses, the focus is now more on remote site management so as to lower maintenance costs and minimize troubleshooting. Westell provides comprehensive site management focused on communications management, power and security management and environmental management.

The company’s CNS include state-of-the-art network interfaces, power distribution systems, cabinets and enclosures, cell site optimization, system integration and also copper fiber management. The main goal of the company’s CNS is to help build reliable communications networks that can sustain harsh environmental conditions and still be able to connect any outdoor facility or building effectively, safely and efficiently.

Westell’s IBW segment is based on the company’s proprietary Clearlink® technology and includes various comprehensive solutions designed to ensure wireless coverage and capacity. IBW solutions include small cell deployments and distributed antenna systems, which are becoming increasingly common due to a significant spike in the use of mobile devices and data-intensive mobile services in office buildings, universities, airports and other public venues. The company’s Clearlink® IBW solution includes antennas, distributed antenna system radiofrequency conditioners, bi-directional amplifiers, digital repeaters and other types of system components aimed at improving overall network performance while lowering capital and operating costs.

In addition to its three main product groups, Westell also offers a comprehensive range of support and services to its customers so as to put together customized, complete solutions that best meet their business needs. Leveraging its 35+ years of experience in providing quality, innovative service to the industry, Westell makes available important technical knowledge and integration services, as well as training classes and general support designed to help all of its customers, from service providers to tower operators and other network operators.

For more information, visit www.Westell.com

The hundreds of thousands of women who attended the Women’s March on Washington and its ‘sister’ marches across the nation and around the world attest to the magnitude of ‘girl power’. The status of women has certainly changed from what it was in the 15th century, when the English clergyman, John Mirk, wrote in a homily that survives, slightly altered, to this day: a maid should be seen, but not heard.

The multitude of maids that paraded across Independence Avenue and at other locations was certainly seen and definitely heard. The modern woman takes an active role in public affairs, but she also indulges her fancy for lighter fare by visiting the Function(x) Inc. (NASDAQ: FNCX) website Wetpaint, which, for over six years now, has been serving millennial women with the latest entertainment scoops, including television, music, and pop culture news.

Millennials, or those born between 1982 and 2000, make up about one-quarter of the U.S. population. At 83.1 million, they now outnumber the 75.4 million Baby Boomers, according to recent Census Bureau (http://dtn.fm/BlAo7) data. Their numbers mean they cannot be ignored.

A feature on NewsCred Insights (http://dtn.fm/pNS12) stressed the need for those who market to Millennials to have relevant content. It also pointed out that you can ‘catch Millennials where they live: on social media’. Millennial women, it seems, make up the majority of users on social media platforms such as Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram. Men prefer online discussion forums like the once profanity-laced Reddit. Gender differences on Twitter, Tumblr and LinkedIn are not, according to the Pew Research Center (http://dtn.fm/yX1BZ), significant. Most fascinating of all was the discovery that 70 percent of millennial women consider shopping to be entertainment. Who would have guessed?

That’s why, in 2010, Function(x) launched the Wetpaint Entertainment platform designed to offer the 18–34 year old female demographic information, entertainment and information on entertainment. On Wetpaint, Generation Y females can get the latest updates and breaking news on TV shows, celebrities, reality gossip, music, and fashion. The site, which depends on an advertising-based revenue model, publishes more than 55 new articles, videos and galleries each day.

To enhance its digital publishing business, Function(x) recently acquired the assets of Rant Inc., a leading digital publisher of original content across 13 different verticals, most notably in sports, entertainment, pets, cars, and food. The combined Wetpaint and Rant properties currently have approximately 13.5 million fans on their Facebook pages and generate an average of 14.4 million visits per month.

Another Function(x) property is Choose Digital, a white-label digital marketplace featuring a wide up-to-date range of digital content, including music, movies, TV shows, e-Books and audio books. The site offers an aggregation of movie and TV content plus content sourced from the world’s leading record companies and book publishers.

Function(x) also offers a daily fantasy sports experience both directly to consumers and to businesses desiring turnkey solutions through its majority ownership of DraftDay Gaming Group, which is well-positioned to become a significant player in the explosive fantasy sports market.

For more information, visit www.FunctionxInc.com

Founded in 1999, ChineseInvestors.com (OTCQB: CIIX) has become a leading financial information website for Chinese-speaking investors in the United States and China. Recognizing unprecedented opportunities in the U.S. cannabis industry, CIIX is also laying the groundwork to capitalize on growing demand for cannabidiol (CBD)-based nutrition and health products.

Through its primary website, www.ChineseInvestors.com, CIIX offers a variety of investor education products and services, including real-time market commentary, analysis and educational related services in Chinese language character sets; consultative services to smaller private companies considering becoming a public company; and advertising and public relations related support services.

At the center of this initiative is the ChineseInvestors Method, a unique integration of a disciplined investing process, web-based tools, personalized instructions and support. Using this strategy, CIIX provides reliable market information to help investors make informed investment decisions and meet their individualized financial goals.

CIIX is also leveraging its financial expertise to enter into the burgeoning CBD industry, which within a few years has grown from a relatively invisible sector to a billowing market expected to reach $2.1 billion in consumer sales by 2020.

The increasing demand for CBD-based products is a catalyst for innovative business endeavors. To this accord, CIIX has established a three-year development plan to capitalize on the convergence of CBD and the nutrition and health products market in mainland China, where the benefits of CBD oil have not been widely recognized.

Under a wholesale agreement with a reputable CBD health brand, CIIX is launching the world’s first online CBD health products store published in the Chinese language. The site, www.ChineseCBDoil.com, caters to a growing number of Chinese people awakening to the numerous health benefits of CBD oil for treatment of a variety of conditions such as anxiety, stress, poor sleep, Alzheimer’s disease, and more. CIIX expects to launch this website at the end of January 2017, and plans to sell CBD-infused products via online and in-store.

In conjunction, CIIX’s cannabis-focused “Yelp”-style mobile app is in development as a platform for Chinese people to review and discuss various cannabis products. The app will be the first marijuana social media mobile app designed for Chinese-speaking customers worldwide.

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

A Florida-based biopharmaceutical company is giving hope to patients with rare debilitating diseases by developing innovative therapies designed specifically to improve and alleviate their symptoms. The main focus of Catalyst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: CPRX) is the development of a treatment for Lambert-Eaton Myasthenic Syndrome (LEMS) – a rare, autoimmune, neuromuscular disorder characterized by muscle weakness and autonomic dysfunction.

With a prevalence of approximately 1 in 100,000 people in the United States and Canada, this ailment can be severely debilitating, as its primary symptoms are severe muscle weakness and fatigue. The disease occurs when the immune system starts attacking the nerves that control muscles, more specifically nerve cell proteins that regulate how much acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter, is released. When the body cannot release enough of it, regular muscle contractions that allow walking, wiggling one’s fingers or shrugging one’s shoulders become almost impossible. In addition to these symptoms, approximately 50 percent of LEMS patients also develop a form of cancer, typically small cell lung cancer.

Catalyst Pharmaceuticals is currently developing amifampridine phosphate specifically for the treatment of LEMS and possibly other neuromuscular disorders. The company has recently completed a crucial Phase 3 clinical trial for amifampridine phosphate with positive top-line results: the 38 subject, global, multi-center study showed that the product is safe and effective in the treatment of LEMS Patients. The therapy has already received the Orphan Drug and Breakthrough Therapy designations from the Food and Drug Administration, which means that it can be made available on a compassionate use basis to patients who really need it, pending FDA’s approval for commercialization. Clinical trial participants can get continued access to the treatment through the Amifampridine Phosphate Expanded Access Program recently initiated by Catalyst Pharmaceuticals. In the meantime, the company continues its work to secure FDA approval for the therapy so as to begin commercializing it under the proposed tradename of Firdapse®.

The company believes this product has the potential to treat several other neuromuscular disorders including Congenital Myasthenic Syndromes (CMS) and some cases of myasthenia gravis that do not respond to regular approved therapies. These possible applications of the treatment are also mentioned in the NDA that Catalyst recently filed with the Food and Drug Administration. CMS is a rare autoimmune disorder that starts affecting patients shortly after birth or in their early childhood. Ranging in severity from minor to disabling symptoms, its main effect is a significant fatigable weakness of skeletal muscles that can even lead to episodes of respiratory insufficiency if other conditions, such as fever or infections, are present. Another condition that could be improved by amifampridine phosphate is downbeat nystagmus, popularly known as “dancing eyes” because of its most common symptom: involuntary rhythmic oscillations of the eyes.

In addition to amifampridine phosphate, Catalyst Pharmaceuticals is also developing CPP-115, a very potent GABA-aminotransferase inhibitor for the treatment of infantile spasms or seizures. In-vitro studies have indicated that CPP-115 is 200 times stronger than traditional therapies for this condition and that it may also have fewer side effects. Besides infantile spasms, CPP-115 might prove effective against a wide range of conditions, including other forms of epilepsy or central nervous system ailments such as Tourette Syndrome and PTSD.

For more information, visit www.CatalystPharma.com