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E-Juice Supplies Canada – How to Choose the Best Vape Seller

By
Ekansh
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0
E-Juice Supplies Canada - How to Choose the Best Vape Seller
E-Juice Supplies Canada - How to Choose the Best Vape Seller

Vaping has become very popular in Canada with many users being young people. Many vape sellers focus on both vape devices and a variety of e-juices to meet the needs of the ever-growing population of vapers. If you are one of the many vaping enthusiasts in Canada, then you should know where to get high-quality and enjoyable e-juice supplies Canada.

This article will give you more insights than this. You will also learn about the best types of e-juices that you can find in Canada and how to buy conveniently. Let’s dive into this together.

How to Choose the Best E-Juice

Do you want the best e-juice supplies Canada? Of course, every vape seller would want this.

So, how do you know the best vape sellers? There are many considerations to make.

  • The overall quality – The best e-juice supplies Canada should be of high quality to deliver an incredible experience to the user. Whether you are looking for common fruity flavors or detailed DIY e-liquid Canada, the product should have a high quality overall.
  • The ingredients – E-juices are made of different ingredients, with major ones being PG or VG, nicotine, flavors, and others. When looking for the best e-juice supplies Canada, be sure to confirm the e-juice to ensure that you are getting the ingredients you would like to consume in a vape.
  • The price – You also need to confirm the price and ensure that you are getting value for your money. Most vape juice sellers in Canada have the best e-juice supplies at the best price. But you can still search on the web to compare the prices as well as check for offers and other options to get the best value.

How to Choose the Best Seller

There is nothing better for a vaper than getting the best e-juice supplies Canada. And it all boils down to choosing the best seller, especially if you want to make your own e-juice Canada. If this is what you want, just browse around here to learn more. However, the best seller should have a license to sell vape products. This ensures that they have met the qualifications to sell the best e-juice supplies.

A good reputation is also a great quality because it shows that the seller is capable of selling high-quality products anytime they are needed. You can confirm your reputation by checking reviews on the web and social media platforms.

The best seller should also have the capability to supply e-juice as needed by the customers. Therefore, they should have a friendly shipping policy that allows people to buy from anywhere in the world.

How to Buy E-Juice Supplies Canada

Apart from knowing what the best seller should look like, you also need to know how to get e-juice supplies Canada. In most cases, people buy e-juices online because it is convenient. So, we are going to focus on how to go about this.

  • Know what you want – Every vaper should know the e-juice they want in terms of flavor and other ingredients. Therefore, you should first check different types of e-juices and see what will work best for you. There are natural, fruity, candy, nicotine, and mint flavors, among many others that you can choose from.
  • Choose a platform to buy – There are many online platforms to get e-juice supplies Canada. Some allow you to make your own e-juice Canada while others have ready-to-use e-juices. Regardless of what you want, ensure that you choose the appropriate platform.
  • Check the e-juice compliance and safety – The best e-juice supplies Canada should be safe for human use. There are various compliances they should meet as set by the authority or other regulating bodies. Assess the ingredients carefully and counter-check to confirm that they are all safe before making an order.

How to Order E-Juice Supplies Canada

After research and analysis, you can now order your e-juice and pay for it. A reliable seller will process it immediately and start the shipping process. This will help you to get your e-juice supplies Canada within the stipulated time to avoid any inconveniences.

Conclusion

There is nothing as good as getting the best e-juice supplies Canada so you can vape and enjoy every bit of it. These tips are insightful to everyone who needs to enjoy vaping in the country. So, make plans to order according to these insights.

A black hole is the brightest object in the universe and it consumes one star every day.

By
Ekansh
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0
A black hole is the brightest object in the universe and it consumes one star every day.
A black hole is the brightest object in the universe and it consumes one star every day.

Scientists have no reported evidence of the true conditions in Hell, perhaps because no one has ever returned to tell the tale. Hell has been imagined as a supremely uncomfortable place, hot and hostile to bodily forms of human life.

Thanks to a huge astronomical survey of the entire sky, we have now found what may be the most hellish place in the universe.

In a new paper in Nature Astronomy, we describe a black hole surrounded by the largest and brightest disc of captive matter ever discovered. The object, called J0529-4351, is therefore also the brightest object found so far in the universe.

Supermassive black holes

Astronomers have already found around one million fast-growing supermassive black holes across the universe, the kind that sit at the centres of galaxies and are as massive as millions or billions of Suns.

To grow rapidly, they pull stars and gas clouds out of stable orbits and drag them into a ring of orbiting material called an accretion disc. Once there, very little material escapes; the disc is a mere holding pattern for material that will soon be devoured by the black hole.

The disc is heated by friction as the material in it rubs together. Pack in enough material and the glow of the heat gets so bright that it outshines thousands of galaxies and makes the black hole’s feeding frenzy visible to us on Earth, more than 12 billion light years away.

The fastest-growing black hole in the universe

The accretion disc of J0529-4351 emits light that is 500 trillion times more intense than that of our Sun. Such a staggering amount of energy can only be released if the black hole eats about a Sun worth of material every day.

It must also have a large mass already. Our data indicate J0529-4351 is 15 to 20 billion times the mass of our Sun.

There is no need to be afraid of such black holes. The light from this monster has taken more than 12 billion years to reach us, which means it would have stopped growing long ago.

In the nearby universe, we see that supermassive black holes these days are mostly sleeping giants.

Black holes losing their grip

The age of the black hole feeding frenzy is over because the gas floating around in galaxies has mostly been turned into stars. And after billions of years the stars have sorted themselves into orderly patterns: they are mostly on long, neat orbits around the black holes that sleep in the cores of their galaxies.

Even if a star dove suddenly down towards the black hole, it would most likely carry out a slingshot manoeuvre and escape again in a different direction.

Space probes use slingshot manoeuvres like this to get a boost from Jupiter to access hard-to-reach parts of the Solar System. But imagine if space were more crowded, and our probe ran into one coming the other way: the two would crash together and explode into a cloud of debris that would rapidly fall into Jupiter’s atmosphere.

Such collisions between stars were commonplace in the disorder of the young universe, and black holes were the early beneficiaries of the chaos.

Accretion discs – a no-go zone for space travellers

Accretion discs are gateways to a place whence nothing returns, but they are also profoundly unfriendly to life in themselves. They are like giant storm cells, whose clouds glow at temperatures reaching several tens of thousands of degrees Celsius.

The clouds are moving faster and faster as we get closer to the hole, and speeds can reach 100,000 kilometres per second. They move as far in a second as the Earth moves in an hour.

The disc around J0529-4351 is seven light years across. That is one and a half times the distance from the Sun to its nearest neighbour, Alpha Centauri.

Why only now?

If this is the brightest thing in the universe, why has it only been spotted now? In short, it’s because the universe is full of glowing black holes.

The world’s telescopes produce so much data that astronomers use sophisticated machine learning tools to sift through it all. Machine learning, by its nature, tends to find things that are similar to what has been found before.

This makes machine learning excellent at finding run-of-the-mill accretion discs around black holes – roughly a million have been detected so far – but not so good at spotting rare outliers like J0529-4351. In 2015, a Chinese team almost missed a remarkably fast-growing black hole picked out by an algorithm because it seemed too extreme to be real.

In our recent work, we were aiming to find all the most extreme objects, the most luminous and most rapidly growing black holes, so we avoided using machine learning tools that were guided by too much prior knowledge. Instead we used more old-fashioned methods to search through new data covering the entire sky, with excellent results.

Our work also depended on Australia’s current 10-year partnership with the European Southern Observatory, an organisation funded by several European countries with a huge array of astronomical facilities.The Conversation

What is the duration of back pain? Furthermore, how can knowledge of pain improve the likelihood of recovery?

By
Ekansh
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0
What is the duration of back pain? Furthermore, how can knowledge of pain improve the likelihood of recovery?
What is the duration of back pain? Furthermore, how can knowledge of pain improve the likelihood of recovery?

Back pain is common. One in thirteen people have it right now and worldwide a staggering 619 million people will have it this year.

Chronic pain, of which back pain is the most common, is the world’s most disabling health problem. Its economic impact dwarfs other health conditions.

If you get back pain, how long will it take to go away? We scoured the scientific literature to find out. We found data on almost 20,000 people, from 95 different studies and split them into three groups:

  • acute – those with back pain that started less than six weeks ago
  • subacute – where it started between six and 12 weeks ago
  • chronic – where it started between three months and one year ago.

We found 70%–95% of people with acute back pain were likely to recover within six months. This dropped to 40%–70% for subacute back pain and to 12%–16% for chronic back pain.

Clinical guidelines point to graded return to activity and pain education under the guidance of a health professional as the best ways to promote recovery. Yet these effective interventions are underfunded and hard to access.

More pain doesn’t mean a more serious injury

Most acute back pain episodes are not caused by serious injury or disease.

There are rare exceptions, which is why it’s wise to see your doctor or physio, who can check for signs and symptoms that warrant further investigation. But unless you have been in a significant accident or sustained a large blow, you are unlikely to have caused much damage to your spine.

Even very minor back injuries can be brutally painful. This is, in part, because of how we are made. If you think of your spinal cord as a very precious asset (which it is), worthy of great protection (which it is), a bit like the crown jewels, then what would be the best way to keep it safe? Lots of protection and a highly sensitive alarm system.

The spinal cord is protected by strong bones, thick ligaments, powerful muscles and a highly effective alarm system (your nervous system). This alarm system can trigger pain that is so unpleasant that you cannot possibly think of, let alone do, anything other than seek care or avoid movement.

The messy truth is that when pain persists, the pain system becomes more sensitive, so a widening array of things contribute to pain. This pain system hypersensitivity is a result of neuroplasticity – your nervous system is becoming better at making pain.

Reduce your chance of lasting pain

Whether or not your pain resolves is not determined by the extent of injury to your back. We don’t know all the factors involved, but we do know there are things that you can do to reduce chronic back pain:

  • understand how pain really works. This will involve intentionally learning about modern pain science and care. It will be difficult but rewarding. It will help you work out what you can do to change your pain
  • reduce your pain system sensitivity. With guidance, patience and persistence, you can learn how to gradually retrain your pain system back towards normal.

How to reduce your pain sensitivity and learn about pain

Learning about “how pain works” provides the most sustainable improvements in chronic back pain. Programs that combine pain education with graded brain and body exercises (gradual increases in movement) can reduce pain system sensitivity and help you return to the life you want.

These programs have been in development for years, but high-quality clinical trials are now emerging and it’s good news: they show most people with chronic back pain improve and many completely recover.

But most clinicians aren’t equipped to deliver these effective programs – good pain education is not taught in most medical and health training degrees. Many patients still receive ineffective and often risky and expensive treatments, or keep seeking temporary pain relief, hoping for a cure.

When health professionals don’t have adequate pain education training, they can deliver bad pain education, which leaves patients feeling like they’ve just been told it’s all in their head.

Community-driven not-for-profit organisations such as Pain Revolution are training health professionals to be good pain educators and raising awareness among the general public about the modern science of pain and the best treatments. Pain Revolution has partnered with dozens of health services and community agencies to train more than 80 local pain educators and supported them to bring greater understanding and improved care to their colleagues and community.

But a broader system-wide approach, with government, industry and philanthropic support, is needed to expand these programs and fund good pain education. To solve the massive problem of chronic back pain, effective interventions need to be part of standard care, not as a last resort after years of increasing pain, suffering and disability.The Conversation

Has your animal companion been around smoke? The following are the major health risks:

By
Ekansh
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0
Has your animal companion been around smoke? The following are the major health risks:
Photo by Jamie Street on Unsplash

Our pets share our homes, lifestyles, and sometimes even our food and beds. For many pets, this close contact with humans can include exposure to secondhand smoke from cigarettes and other air pollutants. This may have serious health consequences for our animal companions.

So, how significant a risk is passive smoking for our pets and should we be concerned?

Smoking is well understood to come with negative health outcomes for people. Between 80 and 90% of lung cancer cases are associated with exposure to cancer-causing componds from first-or second-hand smoking.

Passive smoking is also linked increased risks of other forms of cancer including breast and colorectal cancer, heart and respiratory disease.

Children’s oral health, development, and future health outcomes are also negatively affected by exposure to secondhand smoke.

More than 50% of bladder cancer cases in humans are attributed to cigarette smoking, making exposure a significant risk factor. The recent identification of passive smoking associated with dogs developing bladder cancer highlights the potentially serious health consequences of secondhand smoke for our furry friends too.

Canine cancer risk

Cancer is commonly diagnosed in dogs and is a significant cause of death. While many factors may predispose a pet to developing cancer, evidence suggests that passive smoking is a key risk.

Scottish terriers living in homes where they were exposed to cigarette smoke were six times more likely to develop bladder cancer than those not routinely exposed.

Nasal cancer in dogs is also linked to passive smoking, and is a particular problem for dogs with long muzzles, such as collies. This is compared to a lower incidence of nasal cancer, but higher risk of lung cancer in brachycephalic, or short-nosed breeds such as pugs.

The difference in cancer type might be linked to how dogs are exposed to the many toxic compounds found in cigarette smoke. In dogs with longer noses, more of these compounds will potentially become trapped in their nasal tissues. Conversely, dogs with short snouts may be more likely to inhale these compounds into their lungs.

Not just dogs

All domestic pets living in the home are potentially at risk from exposure to secondhand smoke. This includes dogs, cats, birds, small pets such as rabbits and guinea pigs and even fish.

Cats exposed to passive smoking have an increased incidence of malignant lymphoma. Nicotine concentrations are higher in the hair of cats living with smokers than non-smokers. Similar findings have been found for dogs living with smokers, regardless of whether pet owners smoked inside or outside.

Because cats tend to self-groom by licking, they may be at particular risk of ingesting even more toxic substances from passive smoking than simply inhaling them.

Birds have particularly sensitive respiratory systems and exposure to smoke and air pollutants can be extremely distressing and harmful – think about canaries in mines. Indeed, our pets may well act as useful sentinels for air pollution more generally.

Toxic compounds found in cigarette smoke can also dissolve into the water in fish tanks, creating risks for the health and welfare of fish or amphibious pets, too.

Minimising hazards for health

Passive smoking alone is not responsible for health concerns in people and pets. Genetics, diet and exposure to other potentially toxic substances in the environment all combine to affect overall disease susceptibility.

But evidence repeatedly indicates more than just a casual link between secondhand smoke exposure and serious health concerns in our pets such as cancer and respiratory illnesses.

Owners concerned about the wellbeing of their pet may be encouraged to be more aware of air quality in their home generally and make appropriate lifestyle changes.

Choosing to smoke outdoors can reduce some risk. Opening windows, improving ventilation and using air filters may help too, although it is important to note that even low level exposure can be harmful to our furry and feathered friends.

Indeed, awareness raising and education about the dangers of pet exposure to secondhand smoke could be an important motivator for smoking cessation.

Exposure to secondhand smoke is a common but avoidable risk factor for health concerns in pets and people alike. Reducing exposure to secondhand smoke, can enhance overall health, welfare and longevity for both pets and their people.The Conversation

Your distinct scent may give away information about your level of health.

By
Ekansh
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0
Your distinct scent may give away information about your level of health.
Image by wirestock on Freepik

Hundreds of chemicals stream from our bodies into the air every second. These chemicals release into the air easily as they have high vapour pressures, meaning they boil and turn into gases at room temperature. They give clues about who we are, and how healthy we are.

Since ancient Greek times, we’ve known that we smell differently when we are unwell. While we rely on blood analysis today, ancient Greek physicians used smell to diagnose maladies. If they took a whiff of your breath and described it as fetor hepaticus (meaning bad liver), it meant you could be headed for liver failure.

If a person’s whiff was sweet or fruity, physicians thought this meant that sugars in the digestive system were not being broken down, and that person had probably diabetes. Science has since shown the ancient Greeks were right – liver failure and diabetes and many other diseases including infectious diseases give your breath a distinctive smell.

In 1971, Nobel Laureate chemist Linus Pauling counted 250 different gaseous chemicals in breath. These gaseous chemicals are called volatile organic compounds or VOCs.

Since Pauling’s discovery, other scientists have discovered hundreds more VOCs in our breath. We have learned that many of these VOCs have distinctive odours, but some have no odour that our noses can perceive.

Scientists believe that whether a VOC has an odour that our noses can detect or not, they can reveal information about how healthy someone is.

A Scottish man’s Parkinson’s disease onset was identified by his wife, retired nurse Joy Milner, after she was convinced the way he smelled had changed, years before he was diagnosed in 2005. This discovery has led to research programmes involving Joy Milner to identify the precise smell of this disease.

Dogs can sniff out more diseases than humans because of their more sophisticated olfactory talents. But technological techniques, like analytical tool mass spectrometry, picks up even more subtle changes in VOC profiles that are being linked to gut, skin and respiratory diseases as well as neurological diseases like Parkinson’s. Researchers believe that one day some diseases will be diagnosed simply by breathing into a device.

Where do VOCs come from?

Breath is not the only source of VOCs in the body. They are also emitted from skin, urine and faeces.

VOCs from skin are the result of millions of skin glands removing metabolic waste from the body, as well as waste generated by bacteria and other microbes that live on our skin. Sweating produces extra nutrients for these bacteria to metabolise which can result in particularly odorous VOCs. Odour from sweat only makes up a fraction of the scents from VOCs though.

Our skin and also our gut microbiomes are made up from a delicate balance of these microbes. Scientists think they influence our health, but we don’t yet understand a lot about how this relationship works.

Unlike the gut, the skin is relatively easy to study – you can collect skin samples from living humans without having to go deep into the body. Scientists think skin VOCs can offer insights into how the microbiome’s bacteria and the human body work together to maintain our health and protect us from disease.

In my team’s laboratory, we are investigating whether the skin VOC signature can reveal different attributes of the person it belongs to. These signals in skin VOC signatures are probably how dogs distinguish between people by smell.

We are at a relatively early stage in this research area but we have shown that you can tell males from females based on how acidic the VOCs from skin are. We use mass spectrometry to see this as the average human nose is not sophisticated enough to detect these VOCs.

We can also predict a person’s age with reasonable accuracy to within a few years from their skin VOC profile. This is not surprising considering that oxidative stress in our bodies increases as we age.

Oxidative stress happens when your antioxidant levels are low and causes irreversible damage to our cells and organs. Our recent research found by-products of this oxidative damage in skin VOC profiles.

Not only are these VOCs responsible for personal scent – they are used by plants, insects and animals as a communication channel. Plants are in a constant VOC dialogue with other organisms including pollinators, herbivores, other plants and their natural enemies such as harmful bacteria and insects. VOCs used for this back and forth dialogue are known as pheromones.

What has science shown about love pheromones?

In the animal kingdom, there is good evidence VOCs can act as aphrodisiacs. Mice for example have microbes which contribute to a particularly smelly compound called trimethylamine, which allows mice to verify the species of a potential mate. Pigs and elephants have sex pheromones too.

It is possible that humans also produce VOCs for attracting the perfect mate. Scientists have yet to fully decode skin – or other VOCs that are released from our bodies. But evidence for human love pheromones so far is controversial at best. One theory suggests that they were lost about 23 million years ago when primates developed full colour vision and started relying on their enhanced vision to choose a mate.

However, we believe that whether human pheromones exist or not, skin VOCs can reveal who and how we are, in terms of things like ageing, nutrition and fitness, fertility and even stress levels. This signature probably contains markers we can use to monitor our health and diagnose disease.The Conversation

Decoding Adverse Action: Meaning and Strategies for Effective Handling

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Ekansh
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Decoding Adverse Action: Meaning and Strategies for Effective Handling
Decoding Adverse Action: Meaning and Strategies for Effective Handling

Before diving into the intricacies of adverse action, it’s essential to grasp the significance of its precursor, the pre-adverse action phase. This initial stage serves as a critical juncture in the background check process, allowing candidates to review and respond to potential adverse decisions based on the findings. By initiating communication and transparency at this stage, employers uphold fairness and compliance with legal requirements while allowing candidates a chance to address any discrepancies.

Defining Adverse Action

Adverse action encompasses a range of unfavorable outcomes resulting from background check findings, such as job application rejections, offer rescissions, or employment terminations. These decisions are based on information obtained through background checks or other screening processes and must adhere to strict legal guidelines to ensure fairness and prevent discrimination. By defining adverse action clearly and following established procedures, employers mitigate legal risks and maintain transparency in their hiring practices.

The outcomes may include rejection of a job application, withdrawal of a job offer, or termination of employment. The decision to take adverse action is typically made when information obtained through the screening process raises concerns about an applicant’s suitability for the position or an employee’s continued employment.

Employers must adhere to specific procedures when taking adverse action to ensure fairness and compliance with applicable laws and regulations. These procedures often include providing the individual with a pre-adverse action notification, which informs them of the adverse information uncovered during the screening process and allows them to review and dispute the accuracy of the information before a final decision is made. This notification may also include details on how to request a copy of the background check report and how to initiate the dispute resolution process.

Following the pre-adverse action notification, employers must wait a reasonable period, typically around five business days, to allow the individual to respond or dispute the findings. During this waiting period, the employer should refrain from taking any final adverse action, such as rejecting the job application or terminating employment, to allow the individual adequate time to address any concerns or inaccuracies in the report.

After the waiting period has elapsed, if the individual does not dispute the accuracy of the information or fails to provide additional information to resolve the discrepancies, the employer may proceed with taking adverse action. This may involve notifying the individual of the final decision in writing, along with the reasons for the adverse action and information on their rights to further dispute the findings.

Employers must handle adverse action decisions with sensitivity and professionalism, recognizing the potential impact on the individual’s employment prospects and reputation. Employers should strive to communicate openly and transparently throughout the process, providing clear and concise explanations of the reasons for the adverse action and offering support and guidance to affected individuals.

Why Adverse Action Matters – A Short Note

Adverse action holds profound implications for both employers and candidates alike. For candidates, adverse action decisions can significantly impact their employment opportunities and professional reputation. Conversely, for employers, adhering to fair and legal adverse action processes is essential for safeguarding against potential litigation and maintaining integrity in hiring practices. Recognizing the importance of adverse action ensures that both parties are treated fairly and that hiring decisions are made based on accurate and relevant information.

Managing Pre Adverse Action

Effectively managing the pre adverse action letter phase requires a structured approach that prioritizes communication, transparency, and compliance. By following a systematic process, employers can navigate potential challenges and legal requirements while upholding fairness and integrity in their hiring practices.

Step 1: Notification and Disclosure

The initial step in the pre-adverse action process involves notifying candidates of the potential adverse decision based on the background check findings. This notification must be clear and concise, outlining the specific information that led to the adverse action and providing candidates with an opportunity to review the report for accuracy.

Step 2: Waiting for Response

Following the notification, candidates are given a reasonable period to respond and address any concerns or discrepancies identified in the background check report. This waiting period allows candidates to provide additional information or clarification, fostering open communication and ensuring that all relevant factors are considered before making a final decision.

Step 3: A Second Look at Report Results

During this phase, employers conduct a thorough review of the background check results, taking into account any information provided by the candidate in response to the notification. This step ensures that all available information is carefully considered before making a final determination on adverse action, minimizing the risk of erroneous decisions.

Step 4: Sending the Adverse Action Notification

If, after reviewing the candidate’s response, the employer determines that adverse action is warranted, a formal adverse action notification is sent to the candidate. This notification outlines the reasons for the adverse action and provides information on the candidate’s rights to dispute the decision, promoting transparency and fairness throughout the process.

Step 5: Safeguarding Data

Throughout the pre-adverse action process, employers must prioritize the confidentiality and security of candidate data to protect their privacy rights. This includes implementing robust data protection measures and adhering to applicable privacy regulations to safeguard sensitive information from unauthorized access or disclosure.

Candidate Disputes: Addressing Report Concerns

In cases where candidates dispute the accuracy or completeness of the background check report, employers must provide mechanisms for addressing these concerns promptly and effectively. This may involve conducting further investigations, engaging with reporting agencies to verify information or facilitating direct communication between candidates and background check providers to resolve discrepancies.

It’s crucial for employers to approach candidate disputes with transparency and fairness, maintaining open lines of communication throughout the resolution process. By addressing report concerns promptly and demonstrating a commitment to resolving disputes impartially, employers uphold trust and integrity in their hiring practices while mitigating potential legal risks and maintaining positive candidate experiences.

Key Thoughts

The pre-adverse action phase represents a crucial stage in the background check process, requiring employers to adopt a balanced approach that prioritizes transparency, fairness, and compliance with legal requirements. By following established procedures and effectively managing candidate disputes, employers can mitigate risks associated with adverse action and maintain trust and integrity in their hiring practices.

Why forgetting is a typical memory function and when to get concerned

By
Ekansh
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0
Why forgetting is a typical memory function and when to get concerned
Why forgetting is a typical memory function and when to get concerned

Forgetting in our day to day lives may feel annoying or, as we get older, a little frightening. But it is an entirely normal part of memory – enabling us to move on or make space for new information.

In fact, our memories aren’t as reliable as we may think. But what level of forgetting is actually normal? Is it OK to mix up the names of countries, as US president Joe Biden recently did? Let’s take a look at the evidence.

When we remember something, our brains need to learn it (encode), keep it safe (store) and recover it when needed (retrieve). Forgetting can occur at any point in this process.

When sensory information first comes in to the brain we can’t process it all. We instead use our attention to filter the information so that what’s important can be identified and processed. That process means that when we are encoding our experiences we are mostly encoding the things we are paying attention to.

If someone introduces themselves at a dinner party at the same time as we’re paying attention to something else, we never encode their name. It’s a failure of memory (forgetting), but it’s entirely normal and very common.

Habits and structure, such as always putting our keys in the same place so we don’t have to encode their location, can help us get around this problem.

Rehearsal is also important for memory. If we don’t use it, we lose it. Memories that last the longest are the ones we’ve rehearsed and retold many times (although we often adapt the memory with every retelling, and likely remember the last rehearsal rather than the actual event itself).

In the 1880s, German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus taught people nonsense syllables they had never heard before, and looked at how much they remembered over time. He showed that, without rehearsal, most of our memory fades within a day or two.

However, if people rehearsed the syllables by having them repeated at regular intervals, this drastically increased the number of syllables that could be remembered for more than just a day.

This need for rehearsal can be another cause of every day forgetting, however. When we go to the supermarket we might encode where we park the car, but when we enter the shop we are busy rehearsing other things we need to remember (our shopping list). As a result, we may forget the location of the car.

However, this shows us another feature of forgetting. We can forget specific information, but remember the gist.

When we walk out of the shop and realise that we don’t remember where we parked the car, we can probably remember whether it was to the left or right of the shop door, on the edge of the car park or towards the centre though. So rather than having to walk round the entire car park to find it, we can search a relatively defined area.

The impact of ageing

As people get older, they worry about their memory more. It’s true that our forgetting becomes more pronounced, but that doesn’t always mean there’s a problem.

The longer we live, the more experiences we have, and the more we have to remember. Not only that, but the experiences have much in common, meaning it can become tricky to separate these events in our memory.

If you’ve only ever experienced a holiday on a beach in Spain once you will remember it with great clarity. However, if you’ve been on many holidays to Spain, in different cities at different times, then remembering whether something happened in the first holiday you took to Barcelona or the second, or whether your brother came with you on the holiday to Majorca or Ibiza, becomes more challenging.

Overlap between memories, or interference, gets in the way of retrieving information. Imagine filing documents on your computer. As you start the process, you have a clear filing system where you can easily place each document so you know where to find it.

But as more and more documents come in, it gets hard to decide which of the folders it belongs to. You may also start putting lots of documents in one folder because they all relate to that item.

This means that, over time, it becomes hard to retrieve the right document when you need it either because you can’t work out where you put it, or because you know where it should be but there are lots of other things there to search through.

It can be disruptive to not forget. Post traumatic stress disorder is an example of a situation in which people can not forget. The memory is persistent, doesn’t fade and often interrupts daily life.

There can be similar experiences with persistent memories in grief or depression, conditions which can make it harder to forget negative information. Here, forgetting would be extremely useful.

Forgetting doesn’t always impair decision making

So forgetting things is common, and as we get older it becomes more common. But forgetting names or dates, as Biden has, doesn’t necessarily impair decision making. Older people can have deep knowledge and good intuition, which can help counteract such memory lapses.

Of course, at times forgetting can be a sign of a bigger problem and might suggest you need to speak to the doctor. Asking the same questions over and over again is a sign that forgetting is more than just a problem of being distracted when you tried to encode it.

Similarly, forgetting your way round very familiar areas is another sign that you are struggling to use cues in the environment to remind you of how to get around. And while forgetting the name of someone at dinner is normal, forgetting how to use your fork and knife isn’t.

Ultimately, forgetting isn’t something to fear – in ourselves or others. It is usually extreme when it’s a sign things are going wrong.The Conversation

Money Management and Debt Relief: The Power of Strategic Planning

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Ekansh
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Money Management and Debt Relief: The Power of Strategic Planning
Money Management and Debt Relief: The Power of Strategic Planning

Managing money and dealing with debt can seem daunting, but strategic planning can make them more manageable and even lead to financial freedom. This article will delve into the significance of money management and debt relief, highlighting the pivotal role that strategic planning plays in achieving financial stability.

Whether you are grappling with credit card debt, student loans, or any other financial burdens, a well-thought-out plan can make a significant difference. By implementing effective strategies and making informed decisions, you can take control of your finances and work toward a debt-free future.

So, let’s delve into the world of money management and debt relief and discover the transformative power of strategic planning.

Assessing Your Financial Health

Money management and debt relief are essential aspects of achieving financial stability and ultimately, financial freedom. Regardless of whether you’re burdened by credit card debt, student loans, or any other financial obligations, having a well-thought-out plan is crucial. It empowers you to take control of your finances and work towards a debt-free future.

The first step in this journey is assessing your financial health. This involves evaluating your income, expenses, and debt obligations to gain a comprehensive understanding of your financial situation. By doing so, you can identify areas where you can cut back on expenses, increase your income, or negotiate better terms with lenders.

Once you’ve gained a clear understanding of your financial health, you can start implementing effective strategies and making well-informed decisions. This may include creating a budget, prioritizing debt payments, exploring debt consolidation options, or seeking professional advice.

Setting Realistic Financial Goals

Considering the widespread issue of credit card debt, establishing realistic short and long-term financial goals becomes essential. Studies reveal that those who define financial goals achieve greater success. 

Create milestones such as ‘Paying off one credit card in 6 months’ and ‘Saving $2,000 in a year for emergencies’. Balance debt reduction objectives with targets for retirement and education savings. This roadmap motivates you to persist.

Budgeting for Success 

Go beyond basic budgets to advanced techniques like the 50/30/20 budget, zero-based budgeting, and others discussed below.

  • 50/30/20 Budget:
    • Allocate 50% of income to necessities.
    • Dedicate 30% to flexible spending.
    • Assign 20% to debt payments and savings.
    • Balancing covering basic needs with addressing financial goals.
  • Zero-Based Budgeting:
    • Assign every dollar to a specific category.
    • Prevents any funds from going unallocated.
    • Encourages a meticulous approach to budgeting.
  • Flexible Budgeting:
    • Analyze past variable expenses and income fluctuations.
    • Create budgets that allow for adjustments when unexpected events occur.
    • Build in buffers for healthcare, car repairs, or income drops.
  • Building Buffers:
    • Allocate a portion of the budget to buffer categories.
    • Cover unexpected expenses such as healthcare or car repairs.
    • Protect against income drops or unexpected financial challenges.
  • Prioritizing High-Interest Debts:
    • Allocate a significant portion of the budget towards debts with high interest rates.
    • Accelerates progress in becoming debt-free.

Leveraging Financial Advisory Services

When tackling complex financial situations, seeking professional guidance can provide expertise tailored to your specific circumstances. Services like credit counseling and financial planning can empower you with education and accountability.

For instance, reputable debt relief programs ohio can provide personalized guidance based on an understanding of debt management regulations and resources within your state. Their experience in creating strategic repayment plans, and budgeting effectively for debt reduction can supplement your own efforts.

Understanding when professional support is needed and identifying reputable advisors is key. Leading financial counselors act in your best interest, provide transparency about fees, and take a holistic look at your overall financial health. Their input arms you with insights and options.

Strategic Debt Repayment Plans

With the average American struggling to save and spending $18,000 annually on non-essentials, debts often spiral. With credit cards averaging a 21.19% interest rate and only 28% negotiating better terms, strategic repayment is crucial.

The debt avalanche method prioritizes high-interest debts mathematically to save the most money on interest charges over time. List debts by interest rate and systematically repay the most expensive ones aggressively.

The debt snowball method pays small balances first, creating quick wins that motivate you to persist in repaying larger debts. The sense of accomplishment can outweigh the higher long-term interest costs.

Carefully analyze interest rates, balances, psychological factors, and other elements to select the most suitable debt repayment approach for your unique situation. Seek professional help creating a tailored strategic repayment plan. With focus and discipline, you can eliminate debt.

Building Contingency and Emergency Funds

Once you have a plan in place for paying off your debts, it’s crucial to start building contingency and emergency funds. These are separate savings accounts that will act as a safety net in case of unexpected financial emergencies.

Having a contingency fund can help prevent you from falling back into debt if an unforeseen expense arises, such as a medical emergency or car repair. It is recommended to have at least three to six months’ worth of living expenses saved in this account.

Similarly, an emergency fund is intended for larger unexpected expenses, such as job loss or major home repairs. It is typically recommended to have at least six to twelve months’ worth of living expenses saved in this account.

Exploring Additional Financial Tools and Resources

In addition to strategic planning, several financial tools and resources can further support your journey toward financial stability.

Online Budgeting Apps

Leverage technology to your advantage by using budgeting apps that provide real-time insights into your spending habits. These apps can categorize expenses, set spending limits, and offer personalized financial advice, enhancing your overall financial management.

Investment Strategies

Consider incorporating investment strategies into your financial plan. While focusing on debt repayment is crucial, strategically investing your money can help it grow over time. Seek advice from financial professionals to create an investment strategy aligned with your goals.

Continuous Financial Education

Stay informed about personal finance through continuous education. Attend workshops, and webinars, or read books/articles on financial literacy. The more knowledge you gain, the better equipped you’ll be to make informed decisions in complex financial situations.

Remember, achieving financial stability is a dynamic process that may require adjustments along the way. By incorporating these additional tools into your strategic planning, you can build a comprehensive approach to financial well-being that goes beyond debt repayment and lays the foundation for a more secure future.

In Conclusion

In summary, while it may seem overwhelming to tackle both debt repayment and savings at the same time, it is crucial for long-term financial stability. By creating a budget, prioritizing debts, and consistently making payments, you can gradually pay off your debts while also building up contingency and emergency funds. Remember also to regularly review your budget and make adjustments as needed. With determination and discipline, you can achieve financial freedom and peace of mind.

FAQs

How do you balance aggressive debt repayment with saving for the future?

Set benchmarks for simultaneous debt reduction and savings goals to balance both financial priorities. Allocate larger portions of your budget to urgent debts while still automating modest savings contributions monthly. As debts decrease, increase savings amounts.

What are the psychological impacts of debt, and how can strategic planning help?

Debt can create stress, anxiety, and other emotional struggles. Strategic plans provide organization, accountability, and motivation to make progress despite challenges. Celebrating small milestones maintains positivity.

Can strategic planning help with unexpected financial crises?

Absolutely. Plans focused on eliminating debt and building emergency funds create resilience and optionality when faced with job loss, accidents, or other costly surprises. Strategic financial preparation can make the difference between sinking further into debt and successfully weathering financial storms.

 

How more affordable and better software could enhance Canada’s healthcare system and save millions of dollars

By
Ekansh
-
0
How more affordable and better software could enhance Canada's healthcare system and save millions of dollars
How more affordable and better software could enhance Canada's healthcare system and save millions of dollars

Billions of Canadian tax dollars have been funnelled to private companies to develop proprietary medical software. More tax dollars were then paid to the same companies to use the software to run our medical system.

This might not have seemed like a big deal at a time when Canadians could easily get a doctor and our medical system had one of the best doctor-patient ratios in the world.

Fast forward to today, when one-fifth of Canadians cannot find a doctor and more than half “battle” for appointments. You can now easily spend an entire day waiting when you visit the emergency room. Wait time for surgeries and diagnostic tests such as MRIs are much longer now, and over 17,000 Canadians died waiting for health care in 2023.

The once-great Canadian health-care system is being pushed to its limits, and as a result, is “failing.” Add Canada’s recent population growth into the equation, and you have an under-resourced system that is stretched too thin.

The health system might be better prepared for these challenges if literally billions of dollars had not been squandered on proprietary software development. A new study I wrote with my colleague Jack Peplinski at Western University shows how embracing open-source development saves millions and could help rescue Canada’s broken health-care system.

Undoing waste

Although the Canadian federal government has invested over $2.1 billion developing health information technology (HIT), all 10 provinces still have their own separate HIT systems. Besides being an obvious source of redundancy and waste, these systems:

  • do not work together,
  • are expensive and
  • are inconsistent.

After first reviewing how these systems operate, we analyzed the economic costs and savings of integrating some of the functions of the software. We chose something easy and straightforward that all the provinces needed and settled on the common billing, lab results and diagnostic imaging (BLD) functions of these separate systems.

Then we proposed using a free and open-source software system called HermesAPI to provide BLD for Canada. Our results provide a glimmer of hope for our struggling health-care system.

Proprietary software vs. open source

To understand how money is best spent on software development, you have to understand a little bit about licensing.

The HIT software that has been bleeding Canada dry is proprietary. No one other than the company that made it knows how it works, and each province pays these companies a licence fee to use their software even if they originally paid to develop it. No one can share the software either (for example, Ontario cannot legally share the software it helped fund with Alberta or vice versa).

That means each province must fund companies that pay employees to maintain nearly identical software, 10 times over. Each doctor’s office and each hospital has to pay for its own electronic health record licence.

Worse yet, the Canada Health Act states that health care should be portable, but because these HIT systems are separate, it is not. The Auditor General of Ontario’s 2009 report on electronic health records (EHRs) found more than a billion dollars of waste.

Another approach that immediately eliminates that waste is called free and open source software (FOSS). FOSS is available in source code (open source) form, and can be used, studied, copied, modified and redistributed with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients have the same rights as those under which it was obtained.

That last bit is the core viral idea of open source development: if anyone makes an improvement in the software, they must share it back with the community. This is how FOSS evolves and the rapid churn in innovation in a wide array of areas is the result.

Not surprisingly, industry loves open source. Ninety per cent of the Fortune Global 500 use open-source development. In fact, today, open source software is the dominant way to develop software in industry because it tends to be technically superior and more secure.

The evidence for this is that FOSS is in 100 per cent of the world’s supercomputers, 90 per cent of cloud servers, 82 per cent of smartphones and most artificial intelligence.

Every internet company you use, from Facebook to Amazon to Wikipedia, is built on a stack of open source software.

A better way to develop medical software

Currently, eight provincial governments representing over 95 per cent of Canada’s population allow private companies to create their own electronic medical records (EMR) system and integrate with provincial BLD systems.

Our study found the cost to develop and maintain HermesAPI would be about $610,000, but would prevent $120,000 per software development company per province in development costs, for a savings of $6.4 million. This approach would lower barriers to entry for the HIT industry to increase competition, improve the quality of HIT products and ultimately patient care.

The real secret of open source software is that it encourages competition in capitalism. FOSS prevents vendor lock-in and monopolistic companies, both of which are common with our current proprietary software model. For example, 90 per cent of EMRs in Canada are the products of just three United States-based companies.

Our study looked just at BLD, but there are many other such opportunities in our health-care system. The open-source approach is one option towards building a more interoperable, less expensive and more consistent HIT system for Canada.

Yes, this means we will be sending less money to prop-up American software companies, but the return on investment of open source is likely to be very high. Fifteen years ago, Ontario’s Auditor General found that by implementing a unified medical records system, we could save at least $6 billion. It is far more than that now.

This time, we could do it right and instead of subsidizing proprietary U.S. companies, we can ensure every Canadian dollar invested in software is open source so we can save our loonies for doctors, nurses and hospital beds to keep up with our burgeoning population.The Conversation

Amplifying Website Traffic: Proven Strategies

By
Ekansh
-
1
Amplifying Website Traffic: Proven Strategies
Amplifying Website Traffic: Proven Strategies

In the digital age, the success of a website profoundly hinges on its ability to attract and retain visitors. With millions of websites vying for attention, how can you ensure yours stands out and draws a significant audience? Enhancing https://www.sparktraffic.com website traffic is pivotal not merely for visibility but also for driving sales, generating leads, and establishing authority in your niche. This article outlines practical tips and insights from leading platforms such as Google Analytics, Moz, and Wikipedia to help you boost your website’s traffic significantly.

Dive Into Quality Content Creation

The axiom “Content is King” has never been more relevant. Websites that offer valuable, informative, and engaging content naturally attract more viewers. Wikipedia is a prime example of this principle in action. Its commitment to providing comprehensive and authoritative content draws millions of visitors daily. By regularly publishing high-quality content that answers your audience’s questions or solves their problems, you can significantly increase your website traffic.

Leverage SEO to Your Advantage

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the backbone of increasing organic website traffic. Moz, an industry leader in SEO, emphasizes the importance of optimizing your website for search engines to improve visibility. This includes conducting thorough keyword research, optimizing meta tags and images, and ensuring your site is mobile-friendly. By adhering to SEO best practices, you can enhance your website’s ranking in search results, thereby attracting more traffic.

Utilize Google Analytics for Insightful Data

Data-driven decisions are key to refining your strategies for boosting website traffic. Google Analytics offers a treasure trove of insights into how visitors are interacting with your website. By analyzing metrics such as bounce rate, traffic sources, and user behavior, you can identify areas for improvement and tailor your content and marketing strategies to better meet the needs of your audience.

Embrace Social Media Marketing

Social media platforms are powerful tools for amplifying your website’s reach and attracting more visitors. By actively engaging with your audience on platforms where they spend their time, you can drive targeted traffic back to your website. Share your latest posts, participate in relevant conversations, and use targeted ads to reach a wider audience. Remember, each platform has its unique audience and best practices, so customize your approach accordingly.

Focus on User Experience

A seamless, intuitive, and enjoyable user experience is crucial for keeping visitors on your website longer and encouraging them to explore. Ensure your site is easy to navigate, loads quickly, and is accessible across all devices. Websites like Wikipedia prioritize user experience by offering a clean layout and straightforward navigation, making it easy for users to find the information they seek.

Build High-Quality Backlinks

Backlinks from reputable websites not only boost your site’s SEO but also drive direct traffic. Engage in guest blogging, collaborate with influencers in your niche, and create shareable content to earn high-quality backlinks. Remember, the quality of backlinks matters more than quantity, so aim for links from authoritative sites in your industry.

Experiment with Email Marketing

Email marketing remains one of the most effective ways to engage with your audience and drive traffic to your website. Build an email list by offering valuable incentives and sending regular newsletters, updates, and exclusive content to your subscribers. Personalize your emails to increase open rates and encourage clicks back to your site.

Engage and Collaborate

Networking and collaboration can open new avenues for increasing website traffic. Participate in community forums, attend industry events, and engage with other content creators or businesses in your niche. Collaborations and partnerships can expose your website to new audiences, driving additional traffic.

Conclusion

Boosting your website traffic is a multifaceted endeavor that requires a strategic approach and ongoing effort. Drawing inspiration from significant sites like Google Analytics, Moz, and Wikipedia, you can employ a range of tactics from quality content creation and SEO optimization to embracing data-driven insights and engaging in social media marketing. By focusing on providing value to your audience and continuously refining your strategies based on performance metrics, you can significantly improve your website traffic and achieve your digital objectives.

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