Thursday, November 7, 2013

Importance of Reliable Drug Test Kits at Workplace

Drug testing at workplace is a well established program in many organizations. Because it ensures a drug and alcohol-free work environment that is critical for the organization's productivity and reputation. Therefore, when it comes to drug test at workplace, not all the kits are reliable. Because in today's market, you will find different drug test kits manufactures with a varied sophisticated degree of technology.

One is good at quality wise in a specific test and the other one might be technology wise good in another test. Then it becomes difficulty in choosing the right drug testing kit. So, you need to choose the right provider based on his/her experience and services in industry, reviews from outsiders, FDA approved and others. In this article, we will discuss the reasons for choosing reliable drug test kits.

Reasons to choose only reliable drug test kits:
  • False positive result: In general, this type of result occurs when the drug test kit reacts with the legitimate drug that is present in the body of the employee who might have taken in his regular diet or for healthy condition.
    • Reasons for false positive results:
      • Food: Sometimes foods may cause false positive results.
      • Vitamin supplements: Common vitamin supplements that an individual takes may cause a false positive result. (Eg. Riboflavin)
      • Prescription: Prescription medications for pain revilers (Advil, Nuprin, Motrin), menstrual cramp medications (Midol and Trendar), antibiotics (ampicillin and amoxicillin) may cause false positive results.
    • Consequences of  false positive results: When employees are caught for false positive results, he/she may feel bad and embarrassed in front of the co-workers. Even though they are innocent. This will damage the employees career and confidence. On the other side, employer has to spend hundreds of dollars on laboratory to test the sample further.
  • False negative results: This occurs when a drug which a drug abuser has taken is not picked up by the drug test kits.
    • Reasons for false negative results:
      • Employee might have ingested the drug, but the concentration in the sample is below the cut-off. i.e. level of the drug in the sample is too low for the drug test kit to identify.
      • Employee might have added adulterants to their sample. Adulterants may destroy the drug present in the sample.
      • Low quality material might have been used in the process of manufacturing the drug test kits.
Therefore, it is very important to choose reliable drug test kit at workplace. Because it directly effects the organization reputation, employee loyalty and productivity.

Saturday, October 19, 2013

Process of Recruitment

The recruitment process involves many things before you nail down the right candidate for your business. In this article, we have listed the most important things that are essential in recruitment process.

Understanding job analysis
Define a particular role by describing in functional terms such as responsibility, skill, task, etc. Performance of the existing team should be looked into, to know how it works, what is the role of the team or if there is anything that you are missing out.

Understanding what you actually want
You should be clear on what type of candidate you require. You should know how to communicate with each other at different levels, ways of dealing with the customers and suppliers, etc. You should know about the culture, values and beliefs you want in the employees for the business.

Writing the job description
  • Defining the role broadly
  • What accountability, responsibilities and tasks are involved?
  • What opportunities and challenges will involve?
  • What kind of person is required to fit in your organization?
Deciding about the process of selection
Once you are decided on the job description, next you need to properly assess the candidate and select the one that best suits the job role. You can have a few rounds of interview where you can test the aptitude, reasoning, verbal and analytical skills of the candidate. It will make the recruitment process easy for you.

Identifying sources

Advertising in news papers or hiring a reputed recruitment agency will help you reach out to many candidates. You can also take help of social media sites like twitter, facebook, linkenIn, etc., to attract candidates to your company. Using various sources is an effective way to attract and target candidates. 

Shortlisting of candidates
After advertising in many sources, you will get a good number of candidates who will come for the interview, you need to identify the right candidates and shortlist them for the next round. 

Selection
Once candidates are shortlisted, it becomes easy for selection, as selection involves interviewing, assessing and reference checking of the candidate.

Offer letter
After you have selected the candidate that matches your job profile, you should officially give him/her an offer letter that includes role of the job, responsibilities, salary details, etc.

Training and joining
The candidate you have selected for a specific job profile may struggle initially to cope up with the job. Therefore, you need to provide some training to the candidate for him/her to undertand the job well.

Reviewing
Performance of the newly joined candidate should be properly assessed by the manager or the team leader. Reviewing the candidates work helps in judging the efficiency and performance of the candidate.

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Know About the Importance of Website Monitoring Service

uptime monitor
Creating a website to represent the business through online is the best way to introduce the products and services offered by the companies to the netizens. In order to achieve good page rankings and to get listed among the top websites, the companies take the help of search engine optimization. If any problem exists in the website whether at their location or another location, it cannot be found by the companies unless they monitor their website performance every time. Even though the company has a team to monitor those things, they cannot look at their page's performance across the globe. In order to get informed about all the malfunctions of the websites, one need to go for web monitoring services which can successfully intimate the company about different problems in the website.

Website monitoring plays a vital role in detecting the problems in your websites. If your website is the only medium to introduce and expose your products to the customers then a simple problem could avoid them from seeing those products and services, which in turn makes them to another company which offers the same products. Slow working of your site could also make you to loose the customer. This not only decreases your revenue, but also becomes an indirect way of encouraging your competitor and to increase his benefits. Since website monitoring effectively identifies all such defects and problem, you can make timely corrections and hence can save your business.

These services are offered by different companies across the world which can detect the performance of the sites from various parts of the globe. They monitor your site reguhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.giflarly, without fail, at a constant time interval and reports you the problems through e-mail or SMS. They also prepare a report stating the number of visitors for your site, the average loading time, and any changes in the content. This report is provided to you through online so that you can check it and can make necessary corrections required to solve those issues.

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Functions and Food Sources of Vitamin A

Vitamin A is an alcohol compound and one of the fat soluble vitamins stored in the liver and adipose tissue of the body. The chemical name of vitamin A is retinol. It is available in many forms like retinol, retinyl esters and retinoic acid. This article is about the functions and food sources of vitamin A.

Functions of vitamin A:
  • Renowned part about vitamin A is vision. Retinal is one form of vitamin A which helps in neural transmission of light into vision. i.e. in retina of the eye, retinal turns the visual light into nerve signals to the brain.
  • Retinoic acid is essential for gene transcription and to treat skin diseases. For the developing fetus, it is essential for the growth of eyes, heart and lungs.
  • It is essential for the growth and differentiation of epithelial, bone and nervous tissues.
  • It helps eyes, skin and the mucous membranes of the nose, lungs, mouth to remain moist.
  • It helps in reproduction, bone metabolism, hematopoiesis and wound healing.
  • Beta-carotene is an anti-oxidant that protects the cells from damage by free radical cells and reduces the risk of certain types of cancers. It plays an important role in aging process.
  • It is required for healthy skin and night vision.
  • It provides immunity by production and activation of antibodies like white blood cells and maintains healthy epithelial cells. Hence, it protects the body from infections.
  • Retinoids helps the stem cells for normal differentiation into red blood cells (RBCs). And also helps in mobilization of iron from the storage site to the developing site of red blood cells.

Food sources of vitamin A:
Vitamin A is available in two sources, animal sources and plant sources:
  • Animal sources: Vitamin A in animal sources is called as retinoids. These retinoids includes retinols. They are stored in liver. Vitamin A is found in eggs, meat, fortified milk, cheese, cream, liver, kidney, cod and fish oil, etc.
  • Plant sources: Vitamin A in plants sources are called as carotenoids. The caretonoids include beta-carotene. They are stored in liver and adipose tissue. The body will convert the beta-carotene into vitamin A. This vitamin is found in dark green, yellow vegetables and yellow fruits like broccoli, spinach, green leafy vegetables, carrots, pumpkin, sweet potatoes, winter squash, cantaloupe, pink grapefruit, apricots papaya, mango, pea, etc.
It is very important to get enough vitamin A in your diet for good vision, growth and overall development of the body.

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Know the Importance of Having a Car Insurance Policy

Many people do not like auto insurance and some think, it is an unnecessary expense, because they feel, the monthly premiums will be very expensive and very big amount will have to be cut for each month from their budget to pay the premiums. Some people think, they are paying for nothing, as they cannot feel or see outright.

The premium is the amount which you are paying monthly on your car insurance. This will be determined on the basis of factors that includes good driving record, age, sex etc. this will different based on car for example if you are driving a luxury sports car then you have to higher premium or if you are driving a lower price car then you have to pay lower premium.

When You are driving on the road, you may get exposed to several accidents and dangers that may happen anytime. Then, it will be very troublesome if you don't have an auto insurance and you have even to pay. For example, if you hit someone accidentally, you should be responsible for the damages to the vehicle, the medical bills for anybody getting injuries, car repairing bills, etc. Therefore, it is important to have an auto insurance. If you have auto insurance, you need not worry about such accidents and expenses.

The car insurance is not just for registration requirements but it also provides security and investments for your car when it faces under risk. This will give you peace of mind. You just need to make a claim with the insurer. The company will take care of all the things. This will rid you of the hassles and even of worrying about the amount that needed. So you just need to find ways to lower the premium costs. Instead of thinking to stop paying.

The important thing you need to do is just wait for right insurance provider. For this you need to check for the reviews of the  insurance company and read the customer experience or feedback of the other car owners.

Monday, September 2, 2013

Which Industry is Spending More Money on Online Advertising?

Every year, the online advertising market is experiencing continuous, significant growth. More and more companies are now allocating a significant portion of their marketing budget for online advertising over traditional methods due to the following reasons:
  • Easy to track online adverting campaign performance.
  • For specific audience groups, companies can easily create customized advertising campaigns.
  • Easy to make changes to online campaigns than to traditional advertising campaigns.
According to Global Online Advertising Spending Statistics, retail industry stood higher and is spending 23% more in online advertising than the other industries in 2011. According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau(IAB), Entertainment, automotive, and healthcare were the fastest growing vertical sectors for online adverting in the first half of the year 2012.

Search accounted for 48% of the online ad spend and display-related advertising accounted for 33%. Display related advertising includes Display/Banner ads, Rich Media, Digital Video and Sponsorship.

"Pharma & Healthcare" online ad spending increased by 50%. the reason for this category includes "Pharmaceutical products, facilities, services, researchers, and biological products. It also comprises establishments providing healthcare and social assistance for individuals as well as personal care, toiletries and cosmetic products."

eMarketer has predicted that online ad spending by the health industry in 2012 will be $1.58 billion which is significantly different than the IAB estimate based on the data for the first six months of 2012.

Here we can consider that why this difference has occurred? Both companies which are opting to measure might be different than the other because eMarketer 2011 number of $1.28 billion is virtually same as what IAB said the healthcare industry spent online in 2011.

Objectives of Enterprise Computing Architecture

Enterprise computing architecture is a conceptual plan designed to describe the structure or hierarchy of computing inside an enterprise. Enterprise computing architecture describes are associated with hardware devices that are connected in a network in an organization, and offers information on any changes that are required in the enterprise network to meet the future needs of the business. In this article, we will discuss the main objectives of enterprise computing architecture are

website monitoring features
Helps Organization in identifying and optimizing primary business processes
Enterprise computing architecture comprises structure of enterprise networking that connects the hardware devices across the enterprise. These devices already contain the processes or programs that are useful for the business in day-to-day operations. These can be termed as "primary processes".

Business cannot be operated when these processes do not function optimally. Therefore, to ensure smooth running of the business, the primary processes need to be monitored constantly, and optimized to function well and computing architecture should be helpful in identifying, where devices of the enterprise networking, the primary processes are present.

Enterprise computing architecture must support new changes
As the days pass on, changes in the business occur. For example, new employees may get added or old employees may leave your organization, there may be increase or decrease in the number of the clients, your business may expand and new departments or branches may get added to your enterprise demanding increase in the computing infrastructure, etc.

Enterprise computing architecture should be simple, and be able to do alteration, if any, desired by the enterprise easily without affecting the performance of the existing computing architecture.

Help in estimating investments in technology upgradation
As mentioned above, changes in the computer world is very common. Enterprise computing architecture should help the organization explain it where the new changes fit into its architecture and what is the best possible way to adapt the new changes with less cost.

Enterprise computing architecture should give the organization a clear-cut view of whether the upgradation is necessary. if so how much it could cost and what advantages an organization gets by the upgradation.

New methodologies to meet the needs of business
Enterprise computing architecture should support changes in enterprise computing to leverage the benefits of technology to the fullest. Changes and developments in information technology industry are common.

The benefits such as increase in productivity and ability to perform complex tasks easily, etc. that computers bring to the businesses have made computers an important part of them.

However, businesses cannot leverage the benefits of computing unless it is updated according to the changes in the computing world. Therefore, a computerized business must update with the latest changes to keep their business computing modern and useful.

A well designed enterprise computing architecture not only enables good functioning of the organizations, but also helps organizations make changes to the enterprise computing network easily when required, besides being cost-effective.

Friday, August 23, 2013

Know the Various Facebook Applications and Features

Facebook is the highly popular social networking site. The user-friendly features and applications get the public hooked to its website 24 hours. Facebook already has a number of special features which you can find them in its website.

Facebook Features: Few of the Facebook features are:

Like: It is one of the features developed by Facebook through which users can click the “like” button on the site for status updates, comments, photos, links posted by friends and ads that gives a positive feedback to the things you care about and also to connect to the things you like. The like button is located at the bottom of the content and when a user clicks this 'like' button a notification appears to the friends 'news feed' with a link back to that website.

Facebook Notification: It provides alerts and updates when an interesting activity happens on Facebook. These activities include likes and comments, friend requests, messages, invitations to events and posts in groups. When a new notification comes it appears like a red bubble in the upper left corner of the site.

Photos: This feature enables users to share and tag people, brand, product on uploaded photos on Facebook and to share these photos with the people in your life. You can also edit photos and share albums. With photo privacy, you can limit to a few friends for viewing photos and can choose who to see them.

Messaging and inbox: This feature enables users to send messages to any number of people connected in the website to maintain a conversation. The message can be deleted after reading it from the inbox of the user. It also provides the facility of instant messaging, emails and regular messaging.

Wall: The wall feature is used for posting messages, sending images and leave small gifts on the user's profile and allows the user to see the posts along with the date and time of the post.

Poke: This feature is used in order to attract attention of another user for a specific purpose. The poke icon will appear on the user's home page and the options remove poke and poke back will appear when we receive a poke from someone.

Facebook Applications:
The following are some of the Facebook applications.

Jobster: This application will let users of Facebook in searching for jobs and connects them with people, provides information about opportunities that is necessary for developing their careers.

Facebook Horoscope: With the zodiac sign of your date of birth, the horoscope will appear on your Facebook wall.

Events: It is a social utility that helps know about the upcoming events, sending invitations and responding to invitations and offer social gatherings in a community.

If I Die: It is the first Facebook app that enables users to create a text message as final status update to share last words with family, friends on Facebook that will be published after you die. The tag line of the app is “What will you leave behind?”

With the growing popularity of these features, Facebook is coming up numerous unique and attractive features to keep its users more excited.

All You Need to Know About Alpha-Lipoic Acid or Vitamin N?

Vitamin N, also known as Alpha-lipoic acid, is a fatty acid found naturally inside every cell in the body. It is needed to produce energy for normal functioning of the body. Alpha-lipoic acid converts glucose into energy.

Alpha-lipoic acid  is also an antioxidant that neutralizes potentially harmful substances called free radicals. Free radicals can damage cells, organs and tissues in the body, making it harder for the body to fight  infections.

Other antioxidants work only in water or fatty tissues but Alpha-lipoic acid is both fat and water-soluble which means it works throughout the body. The uniqueness of  Alpha-lipoic acid is that it is an antioxidant and appears to be able to recycle antioxidants such as vitamin C and Glutathione after they have been used up and may help regenerate these antioxidants and make them active again.

Glutathione is an important antioxidant that helps the body eliminate potentially harmful substances. Vitamin N increases the formation of Glutathione.

Alpha-lipoic acid is made by the body and can be found in very small amounts in foods such as spinach, broccoli, peas, Brewer's yeast, Brussels sprouts, rice bran, and organ meats. Alpha-lipoic acid supplements are also available in capsule form at health food stores, some drugstores, and online. You have to take Alpha-lipoic acid on an empty stomach for maximum absorption.

Alpha-lipoic acid is changed into DI-hydrolipoic acid in the cells of the body. Alpha-lipoic acid is not the same as alpha linolenic acid, which is an omega-3 fatty acid that may help heart health There is confusion between Alpha-Lipoic acid and alpha linolenic acid because both are sometimes abbreviated ALA. Alpha-lipoic acid is also sometimes called lipoic acid.

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Advantages and Disadvantages of Cloud Computing

Cloud computing, being a new technology, a lot of developments and trials are still going on. Like any other technology, cloud computing also has its own advantages and disadvantages. Some of the major advantages and disadvantages of cloud computing are discussed below.

Advantages of cloud computing

Efficient
Cloud services are very efficient as all the services are tested before they are deployed in the cloud.

Fast
Cloud computing services are fast, because service requests and delivery of services are done through Internet connection. The data flow on the connection should be regulated and thoroughly monitored for a fast and efficient performance.

Easy maintenance
Maintenance is all done by the service providers. Users need not worry about the backups, updates etc.

High availability
Information on cloud can be accessed from anywhere and any device provided, the user has an Internet connection and the application on their devices can access the cloud. This makes the information on the cloud available to the user and can be accessed from any place.

Cheaper
Services available on cloud are cheaper, because users follow pay-per-use policy. We also know that the most of the services on the public cloud are free. Users need not buy the full software, their updates and backups. They just pay for the service they are using and stop paying for it when they are not using the service.

Disadvantages of cloud computing
Varying cost
Cost varies from time to time and depending on the type of service. Thus, it is quiet complex for the user to get to know of the cost every time it changes.

Loss of control
All the services of the cloud are monitored and maintained by the service providers and the user cannot have control over the service and the cloud, except using it.

Constant internet connectivity
Request for the service and delivery of the requests between front end and the back end always done through the Internet, without which transactions cannot be performed.

It is a good practice to update individuals or organizations with latest technologies emerging these days. But it is equally important that it should always be kept in mind the security of the confidential information. All the data stored on the cloud should be backed up. If in case the computer breakdown, the cloud should be able to retrieve the data from the place where it has backup.

There is another major issue to be solved with this cloud computing. Usually any company will have access to some of the client's confidential data. If the company is using the cloud storage fr storing the data, the client's data would go public on the cloud and accessible by the hackers. This effects the client's business. So, the companies should first let the client know and take approval before their data go on cloud.

To overcome the problem of loss of control, it is a good to own the private cloud and appoint the employee who can manage the data which is secure for any organization and the cloud will be in the control of the company.   

Cloud computing is a technology that minimizes the cost and tedious work of maintaining. So, getting the assurance of security from the service providers, cloud computing is adoptable.

Monday, July 29, 2013

Automation Impact Humans

Automation refers to the use of instrumentation that have controllable devices such as computers to control machinery and processes of the industrial by replacing human operators. It refers to process or function which is self-driven and eliminates the need for human intervention. From 21st Century, automation has seeped into every aspect of our daily living. Automation does not aid but replaces human operators.

Example for automation is Automated Teller Machine (ATM) which allows users to check out their  account balances, withdraw cash, or make any such banking transactions at any time of day or night and even in the middle of no where. 

The impact of automation on individuals and societies has been thoughtful. If you think on some level, many unpleasant, dangerous or time-consuming tasks are now being performed by machines. Example is transformation of the communications industry which has made life better for the average person. In past days calls had to go through human operators, but today millions of calls are now handled by automatic switching machines.

One of the effects of automation is displacement of jobs. Long-run of automation on human resources are arguable. In this area, most of them are controversial and some of them are inconclusive. Workers are indeed lost their jobs through automation but compensated for these jobs once the demand for the products in rise due to the growing population.

Substitution of human labor and skill with computing machinery pitches economic stability, educational policies, government rules and regulations, and cultural environment. Thus change is unavoidable.

Last but not the least, automation has its advantages and disadvantages on humans. When one machine can do the work of ten workers, most or all of those people will be out of job.

Types of Automation

Automation refers to technology that uses computers and robots to automatically control and operate machines or systems to perform work normally or to help improve productivity and create easier ways to do business. Different types of automation are used for different types of industries. Examples for automation include automated meters and pumps, control systems, robots etc.

Three types of automation in production are used:
  • Fixed automation: Also known as “hard automation”, refers to an automated production facility in which a custom-engineered apply operations that are fixed and repetitive for producing similar type of products. In fact the commands are programmed in the machines in the form of cameras, gears, wiring and other hardware that is not changed easily over one product style to another. At first, using high investment and production rates it is featured. Characteristics of fixed automation include: High priced custom engineered equipment that cannot flexible to accommodate product changes. This feature backed to use this type of automation.
  • Programmable automation: This type of automation is used when production levels are very low with variety of products to be made and produced in batches. Reprogramming is needed for production equipment for each batch start to adapt the new product style.
  • Flexible automation: It is an extension of programmable automation because the main disadvantage with flexible automation is the amount of time taking to reprogram it and the equipment need to be changed for every batch of new product. It is designed to manufacture a variety of products or parts. There is no need to group identical products into batches instead a mixture of different products can be produced one after another. It is most suitable for the mid-volume production range.
Without various types of industrial automation, every aspect of it would have to be done manually.

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

What is Thrush? What are the Symptoms of Thrush?

Thrush is an infection of the mouth caused by the candida fungus, also known as yeast. Candida fungus in not limited only to the mouth but also in other parts of the body as well. Thrush can affect anyone, it occurs most often in babies, older adults, and people with weakened immune system.

Candida fungus is found in the mouth, skin and digestive tract of most healthy people but certain causes like stress, illness or medications can cause disturb the balance and cause the fungus to grow out of control, causing thrush.

Oral thrush is the presence of white creamy lesions in the mouth that appear usually on the tongue, inner cheeks, and sometimes spread on the roof of the mouth, gums, and tonsils or back of the throat.

These are painful and sometimes bleed when you pick them or scrape them or when you brush your teeth. These may sometimes spread to esophagus or the swallowing tube and causes pain or difficulty in swallowing, feeling of food gets struck in the middle or mid chest area and causes fever, if the infection spreads beyond the esophagus.

Thrush extending to esophagus may require other tests to make the diagnosis. The tests include endoscopy of esophagus, stomach and small intestine or taking X-Rays of esophagus.

Oral thrush is a minor problem for healthy people but may turn into more severe and difficult to control among those who have a weakened immune system. There are some other factors which increase the risk of getting thrush. They are

  • People with poor health.
  • People who are very old or very young or infants.
  • People who use long term and high doses of antibiotics.

Thrush can be prevented by following certain activities.

  • Take care of oral hygiene by brushing teeth twice a day.
  • Consult your doctor or dentist regularly.
  • Use a soft toothbrush which doesn't affect your mouth.
  • Blood sugar levels should be controlled in diabetes patients.

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