A bare wall inside an entryway or foyer makes a perfect place to build a small mudroom. Install coat hooks, a bench, and hang some framed photos to add visual interest to the unused space, and you may find that your family gets out of the house faster by having shoes, mittens, and jackets at hand and ready to go.
If you are in need of a home improvement project, consider an extension on your home. Extensions can be added to the exterior or the interior of your home and expand on space you already have but aren?t using. For example, loft spaces can be created out of rooms with cathedral ceilings, or a finished attic can act as an extra bedroom.
When it comes to home improvement, consider adding extra insulation to your home to assist with your cooling costs in the summer and heating costs in the winter. This will save you money as well as keep you and your family more comfortable. The two best ways to insulate are to add weather strips to your doors and ensure that your attic is lined.
To increase energy efficiency and save significantly on your utility bills, consider replacing single pane windows with newer energy efficient ones. The investment you make in new windows now will easily pay for itself over time as your utility bills will be lower and, of course, your home will be more comfortable.
Here?s a simple way of fixing gaps at the bottom of poorly fitted interior doors. Sandwich a section of timber (cut to the width of the door) between two pieces of paneling. Leave each piece of paneling sticking out beyond the upper side of the two by two by about one inch. Slip the extension over the bottom of the door and screw each piece of paneling into place against each side of the door.
In any home improvement project involving brick, purchasing extra bricks is a very wise investment. When repairs or additions must be made to brick work, it can be surprisingly difficult to match new bricks to the color and texture of the originals. Brick styles change regularly. A store of surplus bricks bought with the originals ? as many as can be reasonably bought and stored ? will take the difficulty out of future brick-matching.
One of the easiest improvements you can make to your dining room is by installing a dimmer light switch. This allows you to adjust the levels of lighting according to the desired atmosphere of your dining experience; dim the light for a soft, romantic dinner for two, or brighten the room for a festive holiday dinner.
Remember that updating your home is going to increase its value a great deal. If you are trying to decide on a home improvement project, you want to choose updates that are needed and those that are most common. This will increase the value of your home, helping you to sell it much faster if you decide to do so in the future.
These ideas are just a sampling of the vast home improvement resources out there. You should keep learning to get the most out of your home improvement efforts. Ahead-of-time research can make the difference between a successful home improvement project and a poor one. Make sure you have a thorough understanding of the next project you tackle.
Patrick Chenette posesses an internet site on the subject of Colored Duct Tape
When you are building a house, replacing a roof, re-designing a roof, or even just need your roof repaired, then you will want to call roofing contractors in Chelmsford for all your roofing needs. There is more to a roof than just being the part of your home that keeps the rain out. Usually you will find that there are two different main parts of a roof, the support structure, and the outer, waterproofed, layer.
The support structure for your roof will usually be built from either timber or metal beams, depending on preference and whether it is a commercial or private building. Sometimes you can even find support structures for roofs made from bamboo or concrete. Occasionally the support structure of a roof is left exposed, as opposed to being covered with dry wall or another material, either for aesthetics or because the roofing contractors in Chelmsford and their clients decide that they are too expensive to close up. One example of roofing beams being left exposed for practical verses aesthetics reasons is in a barn or other out building. A barn, particularly one which houses equipment and not livestock, will probably not be needing insulation so there is little need to spend the extra expense to cover the beams up.
The outer layer of the roof is usually done in layers to add more water proofing ability. Roofing contractors in Chelmsford will usually be able to help you decide which roofing materials are best for your aesthetics, roof type, and budget as well as show you several different styles, colors, and materials that you can purchase for your roof. These different materials can include, bamboo, bark, wood, composite, slate, clay, copper, and tin. Some materials will practically require a skilled craftsman to install and others can be installed by anyone with the proper tools and instructions.
Since a roof's primary function is to protect from the weather, different parts of the world have differently shaped roofs to keep out their various types of weather. For example, in areas of abundant snow fall a roof needs to be adequately sloped so that the snow will slide off of the roof and not settle in on top of a building. Snow can be quite heavy and can break through a roof and into the building below if given the chance. Some roofs are even tinted so that sunlight will bounce off of them instead of be absorbed to help keep the cooling costs down.
Roofing contractors Chelmsford - Finding a roofing contractor in Chelmsford, visit First Call Roofing for 24/7 emergency roofing services in Chelmsford and surrounding area.
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When does a headache need an engineer to fix it?Public release date: 27-Jun-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Denise Henry henryd@uakron.edu 330-972-6477 University of Akron
University of Akron receives funding for research center to help heal patients with Chiari malformation
Akron, Ohio, June 27, 2012 Expertise in fluid mechanics at The University of Akron has attracted funding for a new research center designed to help physicians better diagnose and treat an unusual cause of pain in the head, neck and shoulders. Chiari malformation is a disorder of the neurologic system caused in part by an imbalance in brain and spinal fluid. UA engineers are able to probe the "hydraulics behind the headaches" and develop new diagnostic methods to detect which patients are most likely to benefit from surgery.
Chiari gets its name from a pathologist who discovered a malformation in the brain in which the bottom part of the brain (the cerebellum) bulges out of the base of the skull and crowds the spinal cord, blocking the normal flow of spinal fluid, and creating unusual pressure and sometimes excruciating headaches and nerve damage. CM is similar to multiple sclerosis in its frequency, but has received little attention until recently when advanced diagnostic imaging has increased the incidence of detection and understanding.
The Conquer Chiari Research Center will open this summer at UA's new engineering research facility, with $275,000 in initial funding from the Conquer Chiari foundation, based in Pittsburgh, and a pledge for $140,000 in annual renewal funding. The funding supports the work of mechanical engineer and associate professor Dr. Francis Loth: "Essentially, we're developing new MRI methods using computational fluid dynamics to simulate the flow of fluids from the intracranial space into the spine. We can visualize the blockages that prevent normal flow of fluid and determine if surgery is warranted."
Working with physicians and patients from the Cleveland Clinic and University of Cincinnati Medical Center, Loth has tested his imaging model on 10 patients during the past two years with positive results.
An earlier grant from the National Institutes of Health, totaling nearly a half-million dollars, supporting Dr. Loth's research helped inspire funding for the new UA research center.
"It's clear to us that the University and the Greater Akron area represent a hub of biomedical activity parallel with our priorities," says Rick Labuda, founder and executive director of Conquer Chiari. "This is a critically important project and it is spreading a great deal of excitement."
Patients with CM often suffer from head, neck and shoulder pain, trouble swallowing, sleep apnea, loss of bladder, bowel or fine motor control, weakness in arms and legs, balance problems, numbness in hands and feet, and progressive nerve damage. The symptoms can be relieved after surgery to create a more normal flow of spinal fluid with a reported 70 percent success rate in reduction of symptoms.
"Physicians have come to understand that a dynamic movement of fluids in and around the brain plays a vital role in maintaining the brain's shape and vital blood supply. Dr. Loth's work addresses the critical question of how fluid movement may actually push the posterior portion of the brain out of the skull, as seen in Chiari malformation," says Cleveland Clinic neurosurgeon Dr. Mark Luciano, who has partnered with Loth on this research. "Understanding this process is our best hope for the treatment of a disease, which is being increasingly diagnosed and can have devastating neurological consequences. His work on the dynamic fluid flow through the brain may also add insight to the treatment of other neurological disorders such as hydrocephalus and traumatic brain injury."
Dr. Bryn Martin, a former scientist with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology of Lausanne and former postdoctoral research fellow at UA, returned to Akron earlier this week to lead the center.
"Frank Loth has been an inspiration to me as an engineer and a longtime mentor," Martin says. "As an engineer, it's a true pleasure to work on Chiari because it doesn't involve building bombs or automobiles. We work with people and can have an impact on lives."
###
About The University of Akron
The University of Akron is the public research university for Northeast Ohio. The Princeton Review listed UA among the "Best in the Midwest" in its 2011 edition of Best Colleges: Region-by-Region. Nearly 30,000 students are enrolled in UA's 300 associate, bachelor's, master's, doctorate and law degree programs and 100 certificate programs at sites in Summit, Wayne, Medina, Cuyahoga and Holmes counties. For more information, visit www.uakron.edu.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
When does a headache need an engineer to fix it?Public release date: 27-Jun-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Denise Henry henryd@uakron.edu 330-972-6477 University of Akron
University of Akron receives funding for research center to help heal patients with Chiari malformation
Akron, Ohio, June 27, 2012 Expertise in fluid mechanics at The University of Akron has attracted funding for a new research center designed to help physicians better diagnose and treat an unusual cause of pain in the head, neck and shoulders. Chiari malformation is a disorder of the neurologic system caused in part by an imbalance in brain and spinal fluid. UA engineers are able to probe the "hydraulics behind the headaches" and develop new diagnostic methods to detect which patients are most likely to benefit from surgery.
Chiari gets its name from a pathologist who discovered a malformation in the brain in which the bottom part of the brain (the cerebellum) bulges out of the base of the skull and crowds the spinal cord, blocking the normal flow of spinal fluid, and creating unusual pressure and sometimes excruciating headaches and nerve damage. CM is similar to multiple sclerosis in its frequency, but has received little attention until recently when advanced diagnostic imaging has increased the incidence of detection and understanding.
The Conquer Chiari Research Center will open this summer at UA's new engineering research facility, with $275,000 in initial funding from the Conquer Chiari foundation, based in Pittsburgh, and a pledge for $140,000 in annual renewal funding. The funding supports the work of mechanical engineer and associate professor Dr. Francis Loth: "Essentially, we're developing new MRI methods using computational fluid dynamics to simulate the flow of fluids from the intracranial space into the spine. We can visualize the blockages that prevent normal flow of fluid and determine if surgery is warranted."
Working with physicians and patients from the Cleveland Clinic and University of Cincinnati Medical Center, Loth has tested his imaging model on 10 patients during the past two years with positive results.
An earlier grant from the National Institutes of Health, totaling nearly a half-million dollars, supporting Dr. Loth's research helped inspire funding for the new UA research center.
"It's clear to us that the University and the Greater Akron area represent a hub of biomedical activity parallel with our priorities," says Rick Labuda, founder and executive director of Conquer Chiari. "This is a critically important project and it is spreading a great deal of excitement."
Patients with CM often suffer from head, neck and shoulder pain, trouble swallowing, sleep apnea, loss of bladder, bowel or fine motor control, weakness in arms and legs, balance problems, numbness in hands and feet, and progressive nerve damage. The symptoms can be relieved after surgery to create a more normal flow of spinal fluid with a reported 70 percent success rate in reduction of symptoms.
"Physicians have come to understand that a dynamic movement of fluids in and around the brain plays a vital role in maintaining the brain's shape and vital blood supply. Dr. Loth's work addresses the critical question of how fluid movement may actually push the posterior portion of the brain out of the skull, as seen in Chiari malformation," says Cleveland Clinic neurosurgeon Dr. Mark Luciano, who has partnered with Loth on this research. "Understanding this process is our best hope for the treatment of a disease, which is being increasingly diagnosed and can have devastating neurological consequences. His work on the dynamic fluid flow through the brain may also add insight to the treatment of other neurological disorders such as hydrocephalus and traumatic brain injury."
Dr. Bryn Martin, a former scientist with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology of Lausanne and former postdoctoral research fellow at UA, returned to Akron earlier this week to lead the center.
"Frank Loth has been an inspiration to me as an engineer and a longtime mentor," Martin says. "As an engineer, it's a true pleasure to work on Chiari because it doesn't involve building bombs or automobiles. We work with people and can have an impact on lives."
###
About The University of Akron
The University of Akron is the public research university for Northeast Ohio. The Princeton Review listed UA among the "Best in the Midwest" in its 2011 edition of Best Colleges: Region-by-Region. Nearly 30,000 students are enrolled in UA's 300 associate, bachelor's, master's, doctorate and law degree programs and 100 certificate programs at sites in Summit, Wayne, Medina, Cuyahoga and Holmes counties. For more information, visit www.uakron.edu.
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?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Have you ever considered real estate for your retirement account? Investing in real property may be one of the best ways to secure your financial future. Prices are still very depressed around the country and there are some great deals that you can take advantage of on all types of income producing properties.
To take advantage of many properties that are selling for less than the cost of construction ? sometimes as much as 50 percent less, it helps to have plenty of cash. While most people don?t have enough savings to take advantage of the opportunities in today?s real estate market, they may have sufficient funds in their IRA, 401k or other retirement account. People who?s retirement accounts have been losing value in the stock market can capitalize on real estate opportunities by converting their account into self-directed retirement accounts. We take care of all the details, setting up your account and getting you started on a better way to save for retirement.
A Solo 401k (for qualified self-employed individuals) or Checkbook IRA are completely self-directed and allow you to invest your retirement funds how you want, when you want and into virtually any investment including real estate. You stay in full control of your retirement account.
Investing in real estate using a Checkbook IRA or Solo 401k is, in my opinion, less risky compared to the very unpredictable stock market. With an investment in rental property you have much better control of how it is managed and you are buying at rock bottom prices.
All of the cash flow generated by properties inside your Solo 401k or Checkbook IRA goes right into your retirement account, compounds, and grows over time, tax deferred. The stream of revenue and earnings is steady. In time you will build up equity and your property has a high chance for appreciation as the weak market conditions improve.
Now is the time to think seriously about investing in real estate through a Solo 401k or Checkbook IRA. It is a buyer?s market. Banks are accepting short sales and want to get rid of foreclosed properties on their books. You can get a great return on your money with very limited risk.
JOHANNESBURG (AP) ? The century-old African National Congress, which led the victory over apartheid 18 years ago and has governed South Africa since, must root out corruption and return to the values of its past, President Jacob Zuma said Tuesday.
Zuma, who leads the ANC party, also called for radical steps to speed the lifting of the country's black majority out of poverty. However, he acknowledged the global recession would make that difficult, and offered no details. The ANC remains by far the most dominant party in South Africa, but impatience among its core supporters has erupted into scattered protests in the poorest communities over lack of housing, jobs and government services such as water and electricity.
Zuma spoke at the opening of an ANC policy conference where the party hammers out stances on economic and other issues and prepares for internal leadership elections. Zuma won the last leadership elections in 2007 after an unusually public and bruising contest among ANC factions that led to a split in the party. He is expected to face a tough fight to hold onto the party presidency at the leadership conference in December. The next general election in South Africa is in 2014.
On Tuesday, Zuma called for an end to divisiveness. He quoted Nelson Mandela, the ANC leader who was South Africa's first black president, as saying unity was the rock on which the party was founded. Zuma wore a black leather jacket with the ANC logo emblazoned over his heart and addressed about 3,000 delegates.
In a speech that lasted more than an hour, Zuma called on the ANC to "cleanse itself of alien tendencies."
Among the ills, he said, were corruption, abuse of power and lack of discipline, contrasting with the party's historic values of selflessness, honesty and sacrifice. His audience responded with scattered applause.
"We should support, guide and strengthen the ANC Youth League in particular," Zuma said. And he called on other party factions not to deepen divisions.
Zuma owes his rise in part to support from the Youth League under its now ousted leader, Julius Malema.
After a lengthy disciplinary process that strained an already tense party, Malema was expelled from the ANC earlier this year for sowing disunity and failing to show remorse or willingness to accept party discipline. Malema alleges he was targeted because of his political differences with Zuma and other senior ANC members.
Malema portrays himself as the voice of an impoverished, young and restive South Africa. Critics say he's drawn too much negative publicity with racially divisive remarks and calls for nationalizing South African mining companies and seizing land from white farmers.
Addressing economic issues Tuesday, Zuma said that while white racist rule has ended, much of South Africa's economy remains controlled by whites. He said Mandela's government in 1994 had been unable to radically change the economy for fear of spooking foreign investors.
Zuma pointed to the slow pace of land reform, which includes government efforts to buy land from whites to be transferred to blacks. Under apartheid, laws barred blacks from owning property in most of South Africa.
"The current willing buyer, willing seller model must be reviewed," Zuma said, earning applause.
He did not explain, however, how he would get around legal barriers to the government simply seizing property. An ANC review of land policy released earlier this month cautioned changes should not risk "significantly disrupting agriculture production and food security."
Zuma called for "a dramatic shift, or giant leap to economic and social transformation" to combat poverty, unemployment and inequality. He said solutions tried in the past, such as giving black South Africans an opportunity to take shares in existing companies, had helped increase the number of middle class South Africans but not created new sources of wealth.
He acknowledged growth was slowing worldwide, and "many economic targets will be difficult to attain."
Sandile Zondi, a delegate to the conference from Zuma's eastern KwaZulu-Natal stronghold, said Zuma was not overstating problems within the party and the government. Zondi traced the crisis in part to the party's growth, and its attempt to embrace all classes and races in South Africa. That creates competing factions, Zondi said.
But he said the party remains strong, and would be further strengthened by "continuing to reflect and renew itself."
Whenever I conduct a business productivity workshop, I talk about the ?do?s and don?ts? of email communication. I?ve spent many years at a large organization where email was misused in a number of ways which lead to drastic declines in productivity. Email is a great communication tool, but it needs to be used in a proper manner in order to be effective. For many of you, the recommendations below will seem very basic, but I still wanted to share some guidelines for proper email communication because there are, unfortunately, a large group of people who don?t follow them. If you want to know more on how to follow some of the advice below in Microsoft Outlook 2010, you can watch the video called ?Communicate properly using email?.
1. Think of the ?subject? line as a ?summary? line
Every email has a subject line that many people use to determine whether or not they should read the email, save it or delete it. Think of the subject line as a summary of your email and try to add as much context as possible for the recipient.
For example, instead of just writing ?Meeting notes? in the subject line, write a more descriptive subject like ?Meeting notes from 2012 Strategic Planning meeting on Nov 10th?. This way the receiver can determine in an instant what to do with the email.
2. Be brief and to the point
Many business professionals are likely to receive over 100 emails a day. If you want your emails to be read, you need to make them brief. Read through the email before you send it and ask yourself if there is any way you can make it shorter and more to the point. In some cases you might want to attach a document with some of the text if you feel this is essential information that needs to be included in the email.
3. Make sure follow up actions are clearly articulated
Many emails contain follow up actions assigned to various people. If these actions are hidden in the text they stand a big risk of being missed. Make sure that all action items are clearly articulated with proper ownerships and deadlines. If you add this in a table it?s very easy for everyone to see.
To save time, I?ve added a ?follow up action? table template into Microsoft Outlook 2010 that I can easily insert into emails.
Everyone who has an action item assigned to them should be added to the ?to? field of the email. You might want to add some people to the ?cc? (short for carbon copy) field if you believe they should have a copy of the email. Personally I feel that copies of email are being sent too often and for the wrong reasons, so I recommend you use the cc field sparsely.
4. Check your spelling
In my eyes it?s very unprofessional to send out email messages with spelling errors, especially since most email clients today have built in spell checkers that can help you correct your spelling mistakes.
If you are using Microsoft Outlook 2010 you can enable the option to ?Always check spelling before sending? an email. This way you will be prompted if there is a spelling mistake in your text before you send an email ? it?s a nice ?safety net?.
5. Add a signature to your email
Make sure to add a proper business signature to your email. The signature should include your full contact details ? including the email address. Make sure that the email hyperlink (mailto:) contains the correct email address. It?s happened numerous times that I?ve clicked an email address link in a signature and the address is someone else?s.
6. Add an automatic reply if you are unable to respond
If you are traveling, attending a conference, or just busy on a project and you are unable to respond to email within a reasonable time frame (I would say about one-two business days depending on the nature of your business), I recommend that you add an automatic reply to your email. This sets the right expectations and it enables the sender to contact someone else in case they need to get a rapid response. If you are using Microsoft Outlook 2010 with Microsoft Exchange 2010 you can add different automatic replies inside and outside the organization.
A final note on email communication
As a final note I would like to add that written text always sounds much harsher then the spoken words. You should never write an email to someone when you are upset, you might regret it the day after, and when you do, there is no way to take it back. Also, make sure to be polite, use proper greeting phrases and refrain from using abbreviations or jargon (at least when you are communicating with people outside your organization).
If you follow these tips you will have come a long way and I can assure you that you will be much more effective in your email communication.
(If you have difficulties reading this article, you can access the full article in pdf here)
The Supreme Court ruling on Arizona law SB 1070 will let states help enforce federal immigration law through police checks on immigration status. This should create more federal-state cooperation in battling illegal immigration, especially in states hit hardest by such massive lawlessness.
By the Monitor's Editorial Board / June 25, 2012
Community members Leticia Ramirez, left, and Jovana Renteria watch the United States Supreme Court decision regarding Arizona's controversial immigration law, SB1070, come down at the Puente Movement offices June 25 in Phoenix.
Matt York/AP Photo
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A Supreme Court ruling on Arizona law SB 1070 puts a tight fence around a state?s ability to deal with illegal immigrants. But while asserting a preeminent federal role, the justices nonetheless gave some strong advice: The nation needs a ?searching, thoughtful rational civic discourse? about immigration.
Indeed serious political discourse on this topic has been lacking even as many states experience an unfair and costly burden because of lapse federal enforcement.
Now with this court decision, Washington must work more closely with the states and carefully tailor a joint responsibility for each state?s particular needs on immigration.
The court upholds the key part of Arizona law SB 1070 ? one that mandates police check the immigration status of someone on suspicion of being in the United States illegally if the person is stopped for another reason.
If all states can now pass such a provision, that will help create more transparency about the extent of illegal immigration ? as well as reveal how often the federal government simply looks the other way in upholding the immigration laws.
The nation needs more openness and accountability about this federal discretion. That will improve the ?civic discourse? and possibly lead to a consensus on how to deal with the 11 million to 12 million illegal immigrants in the US.
The justices left open the possibility that they may restrict a state?s ability to detain someone over immigration status if such detentions are too long. Such an approach reflects the court?s view that states must defer to the power of Congress in setting national immigration policy.
Such deference is difficult, however, for those states hit hard by the high costs of illegal immigrants. The court noted, for example, that unauthorized immigrants make up 8.9 percent of the population of Arizona?s Maricopa County (which includes Phoenix) while being responsible for 21.8 percent of felonies in the county.
Yet the court decided that states cannot impose special actions against either illegal immigrants or employers who hire them.
The uneven impact of illegal migrants across the US requires more federal attention. States cannot be left unprotected in the face of such massive lawbreaking that challenges a state?s ability to govern. Road signs in parts of Arizona, for example, now read: ?DANGER ? PUBLIC WARNING ? TRAVEL NOT RECOMMENDED / Active Drug and Human Smuggling Area.?
At least for the time being, the court will allow greater arrest authority for states on immigration ? although deportation is left up to the federal government. With the legal lines more clearly drawn, Washington must expand enforcement while also welcoming states to join the national effort at defending the border and enforcing immigration laws.
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Public release date: 27-Jun-2012
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