10 Tips for Taking Notes

10 Tips for Taking Notes 10 Tips for Taking Notes 10 Tips for Taking Notes By Maeve Maddox Winston writes: On my job, part of my responsibility is doing transcription. Often I attend scientific meetings and have to [take notes]. The notes/minutes are written as indirect quotes. Can you please give some guidance on taking meeting notes and minutes? The purpose of taking minutes at a meeting is to create a record that can be used later to verify what took place. Minutes need to be accurate, but they dont need to be lengthy. My suggestions are based on the idea that the notes are going to be handwritten. 1. Keep your notes together. Use a bound notebook like a school composition book. Loose sheets of paper are easy to lose and its easy to tear out the wrong page in a spiral notebook. 2. Have more than one pen or pencil with you. 3. Sit close to the podium or wherever most of the speaking will take place. 4. Have a clear idea of what you plan to do with the notes youre taking. The purpose of a conference-goer is not the same as that of a club secretary. 5. Take advantage of the kindness of others. For example, if youre taking notes for a club or a business meeting, pass around a sheet for attendance. Ask officers and members to give you copies of their reports and motions. 6. Follow the agenda. Begin by noting the place of the meeting and the time at which it begins. Take things down as they happen. You can always rearrange things in a more logical order when you type up your notes. 7. Write down the exact words for motions. 8. Write legibly. Write as fast as you can, but dont scribble. If you dont know shorthand, youll need to use your own symbols and abbreviations. Dont be too creative. What you meant by AGMP may not be so obvious the day after the meeting. 9. Be accurate. Spell everyones name correctly. If youre taking notes in a chemistry course, youd better get the names of the chemicals right. If necessary, buttonhole people after the meeting to double check on anything youre not sure of. 10. Type up your notes as soon as possible after the meeting. Cold notes are hard to decipher. Type them up the same day if possible. Bonus tip from Sharon in a previous DWT post. Here are some web sources that go into the subject in more detail: Taking notes at a business meeting Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the General category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:"Because Of" and "Due To" Latin Words and Expressions: All You Need to KnowIs "Number" Singular or Plural?

Free sample - We at McDonalds. translation missing

We at McDonalds. We at McDonaldsIf you are trying to create a mob, you can just shout out and you will have a gathering in no minutes. But that is NOT a group in essence. A group is formed of likeminded individuals who are gathered on a same purpose and work on a systematic synchronization. But to form a group needs a comprehensive method or a system. In the year 1965, Bruce Tuckman gifted us with the model of group development in the typical Dr. Suess style. According to original system proposed by Tuckman, there were four stages to the group development process, as follows: a)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Forming – This is the stage where the group is just forming. Group members are getting introduced and coming to know each other. The shy members are not being favorable and the extravert members are asserting their leadership over the group. At this stage, the group is yet not a group and it still works on the psychology on an individual basis. b)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Storming – But the initial struggle to decide the hierarchy of dominance does not end in the previous stage. It continues on to the second stage known as ‘storming’. In this stage, a natural fight among who the leader will be and who the follower will be is decided, through extensive back and forth social momentum. c)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Norming – Now, let us say the social hierarchy is being set and we have a certain leader for us. This is the perfect time to set the norms, the objectives and policies of the group. This decides the basic structure and ideology of the group. At this stage, it is not about individual power but about establishing the group identity. This is highly susceptible to revert back to the Storming stage and that’s why communication is subtle and implicit most of the time. d)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Performing – Everything is determined at this moment and the group is supposed to head towards action now. With the stable internal structure and preset ideology and purpose, the group is all ready to take the plunge now. Even in McDonalds, we follow these same stages of group development. To start with the introduction, we are a group comprising of six members in our team. We work at the front end, which is catering food to the customers. Sometimes, if we have been contacted on a delivery at a certain place and time, and it is urgent, we take on that job as well. So, our job profile includes the food catering service mainly. In our group, the team members are supposed to be active during the work hours and that is why, we have chosen some young people for the group. The oldest member is twenty-nine years old and the youngest member is around nineteen years old. We are an efficient group of front-end workers and peering closely at the interaction sort of our group, it can be proclaimed that we are at the ‘performing’ stage of group development at this moment. The longest time was taken during the ‘norming’ stage. It was the time when group ideology, or identity, is being decided and instilling the vision and focus of the McDonalds can be somewhat hard to infuse into minds of the young people.   They had to understand that McDonalds is not just a burger company servicing people. It is important to understand that McDonalds is a people’s company first of all, and there goes more into the functioning of the company other than just producing burgers. This is basically instilled into every employee working for McDonalds - from the restaurant manager to the door attendant. And this is even more important for the food-catering end to understand and believe in. So, it can be easily said that our group has moved into the ‘performing’ stage and now the most crucial factor is to keep up the motivation and performance going.

Car Park Design Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Car Park Design - Essay Example This essay stresses that highway is designed after a careful study of various areas to ensure complete safety and smooth traveling of different vehicles. Speed restraints are especially designed to ensure safety and to discourage high speeds. Developers can ensure smooth traffic if designed a highway properly. Moreover, nearby places are carefully designed to reduce crime rate. Mostly it happens that people completely overlook their surroundings. It is better option to design in clusters of small dwellings that further encourage neighbor hood. Land with unobstructed access should be walled or fenced carefully. Footpaths must be designed in ways that discourages hiding places. Car parking must be lighted properly whether practiced in private areas or communal entities. This paper makes a conclusion that autocad has brought revolutionary variations in the field of engineering and designing. In this system designers can make different designs without using paper. They work on screen that further increases efficiency and reduced the efforts of paper works that were once used by many designers. So, if a designer wants to plan a building or roadwork then he can easily go with this technology. However, remember that professionals and highly skilled engineers are always required to run this system. With the help of this system a designer or developer can satisfy more complex needs. This drafting system is used for electrical, architectural, mechanical, electronic and structural designs.

Software Architectures Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Software Architectures - Essay Example Logic tier is associated with the manipulation of the data in use by the application. It is commonly referred to as the implementation of "business logic", the "brains" of the application. Presentation tier is associated with the displaying of the manipulated data on the screen. (Scott Rosenthal, 2007) In the beginning, all three functional tiers were located at the central server, the Mainframe. Users could access this centralized computer by the means of dumb terminals. Applications in which the three tiers are located at the user's local system are known as Desktop applications. The commonly used Microsoft Office application is an example of desktop application. The 1980s saw the advent of the popular two-tier, client-server architecture. In this arrangement the application running in the client machine interacts with the server, most commonly, a database management system. The client contains the presentation logic and the business rules. Thus making changes to the business rules caused changing and redistributing the application. This gave rise to the implementation of the three-tier architecture which visualized the separation of the presentation logic and the business rules. (Scott Rosenthal, 2007) Adopting of any particular architecture for a software application is based on what that a... It depends on the number of users trying accessing the application. Two-tire client-server architectures work fine if the number of users is expected to be low, less than 100 and when non-real-time information processing is required. Today, however, the increasing complexity of client/server applications, the sophistication of technologies available and access to the internet all contribute to the high performance demand of the application. The trend today, therefore, is evidently towards more complex three-tier architectures. Examples Today, the IS (information systems) organizations prefer to buy certain applications such as those for accounting and human resources instead of developing them themselves. The vendors of packaged enterprise software, such as SAP, Oracle etc. that make these applications have implemented them on three-tier client/server architectures because to them the sophistication of available technologies required a three-tier architecture to provide adequate performance. (Gill, 1998) The advent of internet giving rise to millions of users requesting for information processing and companies adding back-end databases have given rise to the adoption of three-tier architecture or conversion from two-tier to three-tier architecture in application development in order to provide the increased scalability needed. Today, over the internet, real-time information processing is required everywhere. Be it sending/receiving important e-mails for business purposes, playing online games with people in different parts of the world or even browsing for information for school assignments. This demand for real-time information processing has obligated the web application developers to

Stock Markets Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Stock Markets - Essay Example Hypothesis being the Greek word for "assumption", the Efficient Markets Hypothesis therefore assumes that capital markets, of which the stock or equity market is one, is efficient. And what we mean when we say that a market is efficient is that buyers and sellers of stocks have all the relevant information they need to make an intelligent decision to either buy or sell stocks in companies at a certain price that reflects all available information. The first to propose the hypothesis is Eugene Fama of the University of Chicago in a paper (1970) where he presented a method of testing the efficiency of the New York Stock Exchange. Since then, hundreds of studies have been conducted to either prove or disprove the hypothesis. Since we know that in science, a scientific hypothesis that survives experimental testing becomes a scientific theory, the fact that the efficiency of markets remains a hypothesis begs the question: why Do test results thus far show that capital markets are inefficient because scientific investigation has not proven otherwise Or, if capital markets are efficient, and stock prices reflect all available information, then why is the trade on mere pieces of paper (called stocks) growing Is it a case of altruistic holders of stocks, seeing the potential for future earnings, selling these stocks to others in order to share the wealth Or are all sellers of stocks just looking for another fool to unload a worthless piece of paper And why do people still make (and lose) money in the stock market And if capital markets are efficient, are all investing decisions intelligent and based on complete information As we will show, capital market efficiency does not necessarily mean an increase in the intelligence quotient of all investors. Power of Information in Capital Markets Today Capital markets have the advantage of getting buyers and sellers to agree on a deal without the use of financial intermediaries like banks and insurance companies who direct the flow of resources from savers to borrowers. Capital market transactions are therefore deemed more efficient in the absence of intermediaries except for brokers who put buyers and sellers together and get a small commission for the effort, making the deal almost frictionless. This is one factor that leads to our hypothesis: the low transaction costs of capital markets enhance its efficiency. With transaction costs negligible, the only real factor that determines the current price of a stock should be the net present value of its future cash flows in the form of dividends and, assuming the company lasts long enough, capital gains when the stock is sold at a future date. After all, a stock is nothing else but a claim to a company's future cash flows. A company's cash flow is affected by several factors, among which are its business prospects, management quality and strategic plans, the economy's over-all performance, and the company's standing within the economy. If all these pieces of information are known, making a study of free

Anaesthesia and Associated Infection: An Unrecognized Source

Anaesthesia and Associated Infection: An Unrecognized Source Hospital acquired infections (HAIs) are preventable diseases and place anenomrous socio-economic burden on economy. It is well established that intensive care units (ICU) are epicenters of cross infections and bacterial resistance, but a little is known about the role of anaesthesia atmosphere in this process. Intraoperative environment due to several reasons serves as risk factor for HAIs. [1-3] Immune suppression associated with general anaesthesia, aerosolized particles and healthcare tools used within the anaesthesia workstation area, may also be linked with development of HAIs [4]. There is high probability of patient contamination during the practice of anaesthesia due to rapid patient care combined with frequent contact with potential sources of bacterial transmission. HAIs are more common in countries with poor socioeconomic status where disposable or single use only items are re-used many times. Hospital acquired infections caused by various infectious organisms including ba cteria, virus, fungi and parasites, all of which flourish on suitable reservoirs, such as medical equipment. Precautions are recommended for all patients regardless of their diagnosis or presumed infectious status when there is a possibility of contact with blood, body fluids, non-intact skin and mucus membranes. Preventive measures should be based on the likelihood of an infectious agent being present, the nature of the agent and possibility of dispersion. A standard set of precautions should be established for every invasive procedure with additional risk assessment of each patient. FACTOR RESPONSIBLE FOR CROSS INFECTION Intravascular catheter Stopcocks used for injection of medication, administration of intravenous (IV) infusions, and collection of blood samples represent a potential portal of entry for microorganism into vascular access catheters. Stopcocks should be capped when not being used. â€Å"Piggyback† systems (a side port on a primary infusion set) are used as an alternative to stopcocks but also have risk of infection. Modified piggyback systems have the potential to prevent contamination at these sites. Use of needleless connectors or mechanical valves appears to be effective in reducing connector colonization as compared with standard stopcocks. To reduce intravascular catheter related infection change needleless components of catheter at least every 72 hour, minimize leaks and breaks in the system, scrubbing the access port with an appropriate antiseptic and accessing the port only with sterile devices. Contamination of drugs Drugs and fluids need safe handling by anaesthesiologist and should follow protocols for preparation and administration to prevent contamination. Infusion setswith side port (preferably needle-free Luer injection devices)for drug administration and self-collapsible intravenous fluid bags, so no need of air venting which prevent entry of air born infectious particles into fluids. Connection and injection ports in intravenous lines should be kept least.Prepared syringes and needles should be kept in a clean sterile container and capped. Care must be taken when drawing drugs. Single used ampules should be discarded after required amount of drug is drawn up and not re-used for next patients. Syringes and needles must not be used for multiple patients once connected to a patient’s vascular lines or infusions. Injection port kept free of blood and covered with a cap when not in use. After use all syringes and needles should be discarded into an approved sharp container. Unsafe use and disposal of sharps Inadvertent injury or inoculation with infected blood is an occupational hazard and present a significant risk to anaesthesiologist. These are mainly caused by needles during venipuncture, drug administration and during recapping of needles. These should be prevented by adhering to guidelines and standards regarding this. Sharps must not be transferred between personnel and handling should be kept minimum. Needle must not be bent or broken prior to use or disposal. Movement within the theater complex Restricted movement in and out of operating theater reduces airborne contamination. Door should be closed and eatable items should not be allowed inside O.T complex. Patient’s dress should be changed before transferring to O.T complex. Visitors should change into theater suits and wear designated footwear. Order of patients Patients likely to disperse microbes and at risk to others should be scheduled last in the operating list. In between successive patients, transmissions of infection are airborne or on surfaces and object that have been contact with patients. Cleaning of the operating theater between all patients should be undertaken. When there is visible contamination with blood or others body materials, the area must be disinfected according to local protocols and then cleaned with detergent and water. Floors of the operating room should be disinfected at end of each session. Anesthetic equipment Either by direct contact with patients or indirectly via splashing, by secretion or from handling anaesthetics equipment may become contaminated. All used equipment’s or its parts must be assumed to be contaminated and disposed of or, if reusable, undergo a process of decontamination. Areas of anaesthetics machine and monitoring equipment which are touched by gloved hand that has been in contact with blood or secretion, should be regarded as contaminated and should be cleaned as early as possible. Equipment that touches intact skin or not touches the patient at all but visibly contaminated is cleaned at the end of day or whenever visibly contaminated. This includes non-invasive blood pressure cuffs and tubing, pulse oximeter probes and cables, stethoscopes, electrocardiographic cablesetc. Oxygen mask and tubing should be single-patient use products. If reused it must be cleaned and sterilized if possible or according to manufacturer’s instructions. Anaesthetic face masks are usually in contact with intact skin; these are frequently contaminated by secretions from patients and have been implicated in causing cross infection.[5]Airways and tubes readily contaminated with transmissible organism and blood and should be single-use type.[6, 7] Supra-glottic airways commonly used are re-usable design; therefore they should be sterilized but no more often than the manufacturer recommends. A supraglottic airway used for tonsillectomy or adenoidectomy should not be used again (due to risk of Prion Disease). Laryngoscope blades are regularly contaminated with blood due to penetration of mucous membranes, which places these items into a high–risk category.[8] Decontamination and disinfection between patients are ineffective, leaving residual contamination that has been implicated as source of cross infection.[9, 10] So proper cleaning of laryngoscope blades is important before decontamination /sterilization particularly around light sources or articulated section. ForAnaesthetic machinesManufacturers cleaning and maintenance policesshould be followed, and bellows, unidirectional valves and carbon dioxide absorbers should be cleaned and disinfected periodically. Bacterial/viral filter is used between patient and circuit to prevent air born transmission of microorganism. Surfaces of anaesthesia machines should be cleaned on daily basis with an appropriate disinfectant.Anaesthesia breathing system actsas important reservoir for microorganism if used for longer period or used without filter. It is recommended that an appropriate filter should be placed between the patient and breathing system for each new patient. It is claimed that hydrophobic filters have better performance than most electrostatic filters, the clinical relevance yet to be established. [11, 12] Departments may follow the manufacturer’s recommendations for use but if visibly contaminated or used for highly infectious case, the circuit should be changed between patients and safely discarded. Bougies re-use has been associated with cross infection.[13]Gum elastic bougie may be disinfected up to five times or according to manufacturer recommendation and stored in a sealed packet. Preferably single-use intubation aids are employed when possible. INFECTIOUS COMPLICATION OF REGIONAL ANAESTHESIA Infectious complication of regional anaesthesia includes abscess formation, necrotizing fasciitis, meningitis, arachnoiditis which can lead to paralysis and death. The rate of spinal- epidural abscess or meningitis occurrence has been reported to be 1:10000 to 1:40000.[14, 15]Potential routes might be contaminated syringes, catheter hubs, local anaesthetics or breaches in aseptic technique.The suggested mechanism of hematogenous infection of central nervous system caused by subarachnoid or epidural puncture might be an accidental vessel puncture lead to introduction of blood into the intrathecal space. Staphylococcus aureus is the organism most commonly associated epidural abscess and often this infection occurred in patient with impaired immunity. Meningitis follows dural puncture is typically caused by alpha-hemolytic streptococci, with the source of organism the nasopharynx of the anaesthesiologist. [14] WHAT IS THENEED? Anesthesiologist’s are insensitive regarding prevention of infection in anaesthesia atmosphere in many institution of our country. Excessive movement in Operation Theater complex, drug bags or edible items in operative room and poor compliance with cap and mask by anaesthesiologist are also contributing factors. Equipment’s are used repeatedly without cleaning/sterilization e.g. Face mask, ventilator circuit, bougie, tubes etc. Stress should be given on preventive medicine in medical and nursing curriculum. Irrespective of specialty infection prevention should be a part of the teaching curriculum. Hospital must dedicate time to re-educating and re-training their staff in infection prevention. Various studies shows that, in spite of increase in knowledge scores regarding infection prevention, doctors were least compliant of the HCW in infection control practices. [16, 17] Early detection with surveillance and screening are the important step in the prevention of hospital acquired infections. Prevention of cross infection is by isolating the affected patients, educating the public/ healthcare professionals, appropriate use of antibiotics, meticuloushand hygiene and appropriate cleaning and decontamination of the environment and medical equipment Three main techniques are important to prevent infection transmission from provider to the patients. These include aseptic practice, proper hand hygiene, and appropriate barrier techniques are recommended by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. References Madar R, Novakova E, Baska T. The role of non-critical health-care tools on the transmission of nosocomial infection. Bratisl Lek Listy 2005;106:348-50. Maslyk PA, Nafziger DA, Burns SM, Bowers PR. Microbial growth on anaesthesia machine. AANA J 2002; 70:53-6. Lessard MR, Trepanier CA, Gourdeau M, Denault PH. A microbiological study of contamination of the syringes used in anaesthesia practice. Can J Anaesth 1988;35:567-9. Hajjar J, Girard R. Surveillance of nosocomial infections related to anaesthesia. A multicenter study. Ann Fr Anesth Reanim 2000,19:47-53 MacCallum FO, Noble WC. Disinfection of anaesthetic face masks. Anaesthesia 1960; 15: 307. Miller DH, Youkhana I, KarunaratneWU,Pearce A. Presence of protein deposits on cleaned re-usable anaesthetic equipment. Anaesthesia 2001; 56: 1069–72. Chrisco JA, Devane G. A descriptive study of blood in the mouth following routine oral endotracheal intubation. Journal of American Association of Nurse Anesthetists 1992;60:379-83. Phillips RA, Monaghan WP. Incidence of visible and occult blood on laryngoscope blades and handles. Journal of American Association of Nurse Anesthetists 1997;65:241-6. Ballin MS, McCluskey A, Maxwell S, Spilsbury S. Contamination of laryngoscopes. Anaesthesia 1999;54:1115-6. Esler MD, Baines LC, Wilkinson DJ, Langford RM. Decontamination of laryngoscopes: a survey of national practice. Anaesthesia 1999;54:587-92. Wilkes AR. Breathing system filters. British Journal of Anaesthesia. CEPD Review. 2002;2:151-4. Wilkes AR, Benbough JE, Speight SE, Harmer M. The bacterial and viral filtration performance of breathing system filters. Anaesthesia 2002;55:458-65. 33- Jerwood DC, Mortiboy D. Disinfection of gum elastic bougies. Anaesthesia 1995;50:376. Horlocker T T, Wedel D J. Infectious complication of regional anaesthesia. Best Pract Res Clin Anaesthesiol 2008;22:451-75. Moen V, Dahlgren N, Irestedt L. Severe neurological complications after central neuraxial blocksdes in Sweden 1990-1999.Anaesthesiology 2004;101:950-9. Gupta A, Kapil A, Lodha R, Sreenivas V. Knowledge, attitude and practice towards infection control among healthcare professionals. Nat Med J India 2013;19:76-81. Suchitra JB, Lakshmi Devi N. Impact of education on knowledge, attitudes and practices among various categories of health care workers on nosocomial infections. Indian J Med Microbiol 2007;25:181-7

Romanticism in Scarlet Letter, Ministers Black Veil, and Young Goodma

American Romanticism in The Scarlet Letter, The Minister's Black Veil, and Young Goodman Brown      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Nathaniel Hawthorne took elements of the European romanticism and reshaped them into a new literary form that is called American Romanticism. "The American Romanticists created a form that, at first glance, seems ancient and traditional; they borrowed from classical romance, adapted pastoral themes and incorporated Gothic elements" (Reuben 22). Some of the definable elements of romanticism combined with the Gothic including the crossing of some boundary or a taboo broken (Crow 1), the emotional response of pleasure and pain that the reader experiences and the mixing of good and evil to form a flawed hero. "Hawthorne developed a literature of shadows and moonlight" to questions what is real and made-up (Crow, 106). Examining Hawthorne’s writings in the works of The Scarlet Letter, "The Minister's Black Veil," and "Young Goodman Brown" exemplifies American Romanticism at its best.    Hawthorne used extensive study and his own innate knowledge from his own family history to examine the New England Puritan to give the reader an accurate picture of seventeenth century life. In the introduction to The Scarlet Letter Hawthorne describes his ancestor as "a soldier, legislator, judge; he was a ruler in the Church; he had all the Puritanical traits, both good and evil. He was likewise a bitter persecutor ·" (Scarlet Letter 89). The women waiting for Hester to emerge from prison pronounce the sentence of the "A" not harsh enough. " ·they should have put the brand of a hot iron on Hester Prynneà ¢s forehead" (Scarlet Letter 114). The people used their severe beliefs to ward off any workings of the devil among there midst through t... ...Heath Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Paul Lauter. New York: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1998. 2207-2216. ---The Scarlet Letter. The Complete Novels and Selected Tales of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Ed. Norman Holmes Pearson. New York: Random House, 1937. 81-240. Melville, Herman. "Hawthorne and His Mosses." Literary World. 17 and 24 Aug. 1850. Pearson, Norman Holmes. Introduction. The Complete Novels and Selected Tales of Nathaniel Hawthorne. By Pearson. New York: Random House, 1937. vii-xv. Poe, Edgar Allan. "Tale-Writing." Rev. of Twice-Told Tales and Mosses From An Old Manse. Godeyà ¢s Ladyà ¢s Book. Nov. 1847: 252-256. Reuben, Paul P. "Chapter 3: Early Nineteenth Century: Romanticism à ¶ An Introduction" PAL: Perspectives in American Literature- A Research and Reference Guide. 1-38. http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap3/hawthorne