Tips About Starting Your Own Garden

Written by Davinder Bisht on 5:27 AM

When you start your own garden, you need tips and advice to get you on the right track. Gardening tips are easily available through the internet, gardening clubs, books, magazines and the local nursery. Or for that matter how much sunlight your garden would get? Information like these along with tips of mulch and type of soil are important knowledge for you. You would also want to know the types of tools you need along with the kind of tiller and watering system that are required.

Tip #1: To save time, start writing down your gardening plan. Take the help of a friend if needed. Also if there are any sprinklers needed. This is over and above other points you may think of.

Gardening Tip #2: The preparation of the soil is a major piece of the garden puzzle and has huge effects on the success of your garden. Different types of plants prefer different types of soil so make sure you take that into consideration. For the natural flavor to remain in your food, use organic fertilizers in your vegetable or herb garden. A good compost or even wood chip mulch is preferred over the ordinary fertilizer.

Watch out - as it might be truly valuable when it gives you the much-needed returns. Though fresh home brew compost is a rich source of nutrients, it may not be as realistic as one imagines, for the herbal and vegetable garden. While mulch is a viable alternative to home compost mixture, but ensure that you are using softer woods which break faster, like redwood or pine. Mulch, compost or fertilizer, ensure that they are all mixed well.

Gardening Tip #3: Once the soil is ready, instead of planting the plants, simply lay them on the top of the soil, to have a final look at what your garden would look like, in case you want to make any last minute changes. I believe that the best option is to plant together all plants which have same individualities. For instance, plants which have a bigger spread should be grouped together. Segregate taller plants from the shorter plants and plant the former at the back - so that you can see all the plants.

Gardening Tip #4: Your garden needs watering regularly. For a big house, keeping your garden in ship shape is a tough task. I recommend using an automatic watering system, as then the garden can grow on its own. These auto systems can be anything from big sprinkler systems to a timer on a hose sprinkler. Remember, that it provides shade, beauty and sometimes food also.

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Man builds record breaking 25ft house of cards

Written by Davinder Bisht on 12:32 AM

Bryan Berg has a surprising gravity-defying hobby. The 33-year-old American builds huge structures out of playing cards and his latest 25ft skyscraper has broken all records.

The professional 'cardstacker' has created a variety of breathtaking sculptures over the years including models of cathedrals, skyscrapers and stadiums, without using anything to stick them together.

Berg said the combined weight of the cards and his special grid structures helped hold his constructions in place.
Berg first started building card houses at the age of eight. He broke the Guinness World Record for the World's Tallest House of Cards in 1992 at the age of seventeen, with a tower fourteen feet, six inches tall.

When asked recently if he could build a taller structure, perhaps even 100ft high, he was undaunted. "You bet!" he said.

Bryan stands amongst his card creations


His latest creation, which took five weeks to build, stands at 25ft 9inches tall and was made from 1,800 decks of playing cards. It was limited only by the height of the building he was working in.

While Berg's remarkable feats may take unyielding concentration and patience he insists his work is highly rewarding.

"I like what I do. This is no kind of torture or boredom for me," he said.

"In my lifetime, cardstacking has gone from a hobby to an obsession to a livelihood."

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Finding and refining an article topic

Written by Davinder Bisht on 10:20 AM

The first, and most important, step in writing an article is selecting a topic. The topic you choose should fit you as smoothly as a surgical glove. For some, this will be easy. Perhaps you have conducted a research study that you want to share with other nurses, or you recently cared for a patient with an unusual condition in your OR. Many nurses struggle as they attempt to choose a topic, however, and the struggle intensifies as they try to narrow a broad topic down to one they can manage and cover well in an article for publication. Fortunately, some simple strategies will make the process easier.

Nurses often say, "I'd like to try my hand at writing, but I'm not sure what to write about." Ideas are all around you--in your OR, in your hospital, in your home, on your children's playground, and even in your car. One technique that can help you open your eyes to potential topics is to ask seven "W" questions.

* What interests me?

* What can't I find in the literature?

* What does the literature contain that could be adapted to my specialty?

* What is new or improved in my specialty area?

* What could others learn from what I am doing?

* What do non-nursing sources offer?

* What are my colleagues saying?

What interests me? A topic should pique your interest. That interest will sustain you through planning, researching, writing, and revising. Expert authors say, "Write about what you know," but this does not always apply--journalists write about unfamiliar topics all the time. It is often easier to start with a topic you know well, but if an unfamiliar topic interests you, do not be afraid to challenge yourself by writing about it.

What can't I find in the literature? Think about the articles you have read in the past year. What information were you looking for that you were unable to find? Were there other topics of interest to perioperative nurses missing from the journals?

If you have a general idea about a topic, conduct a literature search online at PubMed (ie, http://www.ncbi.nih.gov) to see what has been published recently. If your hospital has a library, talk with a research librarian who can help you access nursing databases such as CINAHL (ie, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature), which is free to most medical libraries, and print resources that are not available online. Other good options are a local college library or the library at AORN. If you do not live near a library, you still may be able to call and talk with a librarian for consultation and to request copies of articles, if you are willing to pay a retrieval fee. Some articles also can be purchased online. Look for gaps in the literature and ask yourself how you can contribute to the body of nursing knowledge.

What does the literature contain that could be adapted to my specialty? Do not despair if your search turns up several articles on what you thought was a unique topic. You may be able to redirect the topic to apply to the highly specialized field of perioperative nursing. For example, many general nursing journals have published articles related to the effective use of complementary care in the practice setting. You could focus on how these methods can be adapted in the OR.

What is new or improved in my specialty area? Nurses are always interested in new techniques and concepts. For example, a recent issue of AORN Journal featured an article on photoselective vaporization of the prostate, a relatively new treatment for benign prostatic hypertrophy. (1) Examine your own practice. Your facility may be performing procedures that no one has written about.

Online searching can be helpful here, too. Check associations' web sites to access the schedules for upcoming national meetings since these tend to feature the latest developments in a field. Many national associations also post abstracts from national meetings online. A lag time exists between a new innovation and publication in journals, so these research techniques can give you the edge in identifying a topic that has not yet made it into print.

What could others learn from what I am doing? Like everyone else, nurses seek out ways to improve what they are already doing. Perhaps your specialty is orthopedics, and you have developed a detailed protocol for establishing a team for computer-assisted total knee arthroplasty. Maybe you have fine-tuned a procedure for writing a business plan for managing room turnover and staffing. You may take your innovations for granted, but publishing an article about them can help others avoid "reinventing the wheel."

What do non-nursing sources offer? Expand your horizons. A recent article on balloon sinuplasty appeared not in a medical journal but in The Tennessean, a Nashville newspaper. (2) Newspapers, magazines, and radio and television programs can be excellent sources of information for new procedures just waiting to be written about from a perioperative nurse's point of view. Business Week, Discover, and The Wall Street Journal are particularly good sources of clinical and management ideas. Use these types of sources to find ideas, but rely on standard medical and nursing references when you write the article.

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The Octocube of mystery

Written by Davinder Bisht on 12:21 AM

On first sight, the Octocube is all smoke and mirrors. You could spend quite a while trying to figure out what it is or does. Go on. See if you can figure it out. If you can’t work it out from the pictures alone then how about the name. Octocube. Any help? The sharper eye will observe the 2 cables/pipes at the rear so surely it does something right? Designer Vivien Muller has created this little mystery for your Thursday morning enjoyment. Give up? Entirely created from a single 90 degree elbow, the Octocube builds up into a radiant heater with a large surface area, and the inherent flexibility and modularity of the elbow. It is designed to be a sculptural heater that fits in with any interior.


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The healthy eating index, 1999-2000: charting dietary patterns of Americans

Written by Davinder Bisht on 10:44 PM

Healthful eating is essential for human development and well-being. In the United States today, some dietary patterns are associated with 4 of the 10 leading causes of death (coronary heart disease, certain types of cancer, stroke, and type 2 diabetes) (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [DHHS], 2000). A healthful diet, however, can reduce major risk factors for chronic diseases such as obesity, high blood pressure, and high blood cholesterol (USDA & DHHS, 2000). Studies have shown an increase in mortality associated with overweight (1) and obesity resulting from poor eating habits (DHHS, 2001). Thus, major improvements in the health of the American public can be made by improving people's dietary patterns.

To assess Americans' dietary status and to monitor changes in these patterns, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion (CNPP) developed the Healthy Eating Index (HEI), (Kennedy, Ohls, Carlson, & Fleming, 1995). Relatively new, the HEI had been computed twice, with 1989-90 and with 1994-96 data (USDA, 1995; Bowman, Lino, Gerrior, & Basiotis, 1998), and is a summary measure of the overall quality of people's diets (broadly defined in terms of adequacy, moderation, and variety).

This article presents the HEI for 1999-2000 (Basiotis, Carlson, Gerrior, Juan, & Lino, 2002), which for the first time uses data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (see box); 1999-2000 is the most recent period for which nationally representative data are available to compute the HEI. The 1999-2000 HEI is calculated for the general population and selected subgroups and is compared with the HEI of earlier years to examine possible trends in the diets of Americans.

Components and Scoring of the Healthy Eating Index

The HEI, representing various aspects of a healthful diet, provides an overall picture of the type and quantity of foods that people eat, their compliance with specific dietary recommendations, and the variety in their diets. The total HEI score is the sum of 10 dietary components:

* Components 1-5 measure the degree to which a person's diet conforms to serving recommendations for the five major food groups of the Food Guide Pyramid: grains (bread, cereal, rice, and pasta), vegetables, fruits, milk (milk, yogurt, and cheese), and meat (meat, poultry, fish, dry beans, eggs, and nuts).

* Component 6 measures total fat consumption as a percentage of total food energy (calorie) intake.

* Component 7 measures saturated fat consumption as a percentage of total food energy intake.

* Component 8 measures total cholesterol intake.

* Component 9 measures total sodium intake.

* Component 10 examines variety in a person's diet.

With each component of the HEI having a maximum score of 10 and a minimum score of 0, the highest possible overall HEI score is 100. Recommendations of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (USDA, 2000), the Food Guide Pyramid (USDA, 1996; Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, 2000), the Committee on Diet and Health of the National Research Council (National Research Council, 1989a, 1989b), as well as consultations with nutrition researchers, were the bases used by CNPP to score intake levels. (See table 1 for details on the scoring system.) CNPP assigned a score of l0 when food consumption met the Food Guide Pyramid recommendations; when fat (total and saturated), cholesterol, and sodium intake met the recommendations; or when a person consumed at least half a serving each of 8 or more different foods in a day (variety). A score of 0 was assigned when a person did not consume any item from a Pyramid food group; when intake was greater than the recommendations for fat, cholesterol, and sodium; or when a person consumed at least half a serving of 3 or fewer different foods in a day. All other consumption and intake levels were scored proportionately. With this scoring system, the higher the component scores, the closer consumption or intakes are to the recommended ranges or amounts.

An HEI score over 80 implies that a person has a good diet; a score between 51 and 80, a diet that needs improvement; and a score less that 51, a poor diet. (2) (For more details on how the HEI is computed, see The Healthy Eating Index: 1999-2000 at www.cnpp.usda.gov.)

Healthy Eating Index Overall and Component Scores

During 1999-2000, the mean HEI score for the U.S. population was 63.8; that is, the score indicates that the American diet needs improvement. Ninety percent of Americans had a diet that was poor or needed improvement. Only 10 percent of Americans had a good diet--one that mostly met recommendations of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the Food Guide Pyramid, and other recommendations for healthful eating.

During 1999-2000, the highest mean HEI component scores for the U.S. population were for cholesterol and variety, both averaging 7.7 on a scale of 10 (fig. 2a). With an average score of 6.9, total fat accounted for the next highest component score. People had the two lowest mean scores for the fruits and milk components of the HEI, averaging 3.8 and 5.9, respectively. Average scores for the other HEI components were between 6 and 6.7.

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