Home Improvement::Furniture,Beds

The Basics of Home Security Protection

Wanting to keep your home safe is an important part of living in today's times. You need to know the basics of keeping your home secure. There are security systems, alarm systems, monitoring by cameras posted on your property, as well as other safety features that can help you in your quest. However, if you do not follow the basic steps needed to keep your home secure, the alarms and such will not keep you protected.

First thing you need to do is make sure that you have a clear view of the street and surrounding areas of your house from the windows in each room. That way you can monitor what is going on outside your home. It also does not give a potential criminal any cover if they attempt to break into your home.

Next you need to make sure that all of you windows and doors are strong and secure. Replace old windows and doors that are in poor shape. You want high quality materials used in the making of these, and be sure that the locking systems are secure. Add Deadbolt locks to your doors. Even windows on the second story need to be secured.

Installing sensor lights outside is a good idea. They will come on and scare the perpetrator away. The lights also give you a better view of the outside of your home. These lights are also a safety feature for you when you come home after dark. The lights will come on and light your way to the entrance and also let you see if there is anyone lurking around outside your home.

Now you need to put security measures in place inside your home. All of your valuable such as money, jewelry, art, and personal documents are safely locked up when you are not home; preferably in a hidden area of the home. It is the things that are left in unlocked file cabinets or in small jewelry boxes that get taken. Do not make it easy for the robber. Purchasing a safe and installing it into a wall in a closet is a good idea, it cannot be just picked up and taken.

When you decide to put a security system or alarm system into your home, do some research to find out who offers the best services for the best cost. If you have an emergency or a break-in you want to be sure that you are protected. The internet allows you to learn about do it yourself home security, as well as buy everything at a discount.

Alarms should be loud as this often scares away a potential burglar. Having your system alert others at a security business is also a good idea, because if you are not home they will send out the police and also notify you.

Look in your local phonebook, and online to find out what types of security options are available to you. Ask questions and ask for suggestions. Make sure that the services you want are offered. Emergency button for the elderly is often a good idea when you are putting in an alarm system. This can save a life if there is a fall or other illness.

Along with the purpose of enhancing the décor of a place, some of the Tapestry Wall Hangingsalso record the characters and historical events of the past. This is a conventional form of art that reflects beautiful craftsmanship along with an eye for detail.
Glass Table |Home Improvement tips | Discount Auto Insurance |Mortgage insurance |Wallpaper |Small Business Finance

No Comment | Posted in » bed, Furniture, Home Tips  

Finding and refining an article topic

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.

No Comment | Posted in » bed, Furniture, Home Tips  

The Octocube of mystery

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.

No Comment | Posted in » bed, Furniture, Home Tips  

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

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.

No Comment | Posted in » bed, Furniture, garden, Home Tips