Household Safety Monitor

It is often necessary to make changes around the living spaces at home and around the home when there is a new addition to the family in for form of a child. These changes would become necessary mainly from a safety angle as the presence of a child in the equation would require some serious considerations in this particular area. Get all the info you need here.

This book provides an integrated solution for security and safety in the home, covering both assistance in health monitoring and safety from strangers/intruders who want to enter the home with harmful intentions. It defines a system whereby recognition of a person/stranger at the door is done using three modules: Face Recognition, Voice Recognition and Similarity Index. These three modules are taken together to provide a percentage likelihood that the individual is in the "known" or "unknown" category. The system can also continuously monitor the health parameters of a vulnerable person living alone at home and aid them in calling for help in an emergency. The authors have analyzed a number of existing biometric techniques to provide security for an individual living alone at home. These biometric techniques have been tested using MATLAB® image processing and signal processing toolboxes, and results have been calculated on the basis of recognition rate. A major contribution in providing security is a hybrid algorithm proposed by the author named PICA, which combines features of both PCA (Principle Component Analysis) and ICA (Independent Component Analysis) algorithms. This hybrid approach gives better performance recognition than either system alone. The second proposed hybrid algorithm for voice recognition is named as a MFRASTA algorithm by combining features of MFCC (Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficient) and RASTA-PLP (RelAtive SpecTrA-Perceptual Linear Prediction) algorithm. After performing experiments, results are collected on the basis of recognition rate. The authors have also proposed a third technique named as a Similarity Index to provide trust-based security for an individual. This technique is text independent in which a person is recognized by pronunciation, frequency, tone, pitch, etc., irrespective of the content spoken by the person. By combining these three techniques, a high recognition rate is provided to the person at the door and high security to the individual living independently at home. In the final contribution, the authors have proposed a fingertip-based application for health monitoring by using the concept of sensors. This application is developed using iPhone 6’s camera. When a person puts their fingertip on a camera lens, with the help of brightness of the skin, the person’s heartbeat will be monitored. This is possible even with a low-quality camera. In case of any emergency, text messages will be sent to the family members of the individual living alone by using 3G Dongle and MATLAB tool. Results show that the proposed work outperforms all the existing techniques used in face recognition, voice recognition, and health monitoring alone.

"Nurses play a vital role in improving the safety and quality of patient car -- not only in the hospital or ambulatory treatment facility, but also of community-based care and the care performed by family members. Nurses need know what proven techniques and interventions they can use to enhance patient outcomes. To address this need, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), with additional funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, has prepared this comprehensive, 1,400-page, handbook for nurses on patient safety and quality -- Patient Safety and Quality: An Evidence-Based Handbook for Nurses. (AHRQ Publication No. 08-0043)." - online AHRQ blurb, http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/nurseshdbk/

From the time she was five years old, author Lynn Stacy-Smith has lived side by side with dogs as her best friends and constant companions. Love, Laugh, Woof, a memoir and guide to being a compassionate forever dog owner, shares a collection of stories from the authors life with her dogs a tribute to how her dogs brought joy and adventure into her childhood and later life. It segues from her memories into a training manual and pet care book that helps potential pet owners decide if a dog is right for them, and the importance of training and teaching the dog the rules of living in a human world. Smith shares the responsibilities involved in bringing a pet into their lives, and she strives to help people become more compassionate and understanding dog owners. A combination of anecdotes and instructional materials, Love, Laugh, Woof offers a look at Smiths philosophy on dog ownership. Love Laugh, Woof is a way of life and a set of beliefs that she follows to be a loving, thoughtful and fair dog owner.

The authors of this book set out a system of safety strategies and interventions for managing patient safety on a day-to-day basis and improving safety over the long term. These strategies are applicable at all levels of the healthcare system from the frontline to the regulation and governance of the system. There have been many advances in patient safety, but we now need a new and broader vision that encompasses care throughout the patient’s journey. The authors argue that we need to see safety through the patient’s eyes, to consider how safety is managed in different contexts and to develop a wider strategic and practical vision in which patient safety is recast as the management of risk over time. Most safety improvement strategies aim to improve reliability and move closer toward optimal care. However, healthcare will always be under pressure and we also require ways of managing safety when conditions are difficult. We need to make more use of strategies concerned with detecting, controlling, managing and responding to risk. Strategies for managing safety in highly standardised and controlled environments are necessarily different from those in which clinicians constantly have to adapt and respond to changing circumstances. This work is supported by the Health Foundation. The Health Foundation is an independent charity committed to bringing about better health and health care for people in the UK. The charity’s aim is a healthier population in the UK, supported by high quality health care that can be equitably accessed. The Foundation carries out policy analysis and makes grants to front-line teams to try ideas in practice and supports research into what works to make people’s lives healthier and improve the health care system, with a particular emphasis on how to make successful change happen. A key part of the work is to make links between the knowledge of those working to deliver health and health care with research evidence and analysis. The aspiration is to create a virtuous circle, using what works on the ground to inform effective policymaking and vice versa. Good health and health care are vital for a flourishing society. Through sharing what is known, collaboration and building people’s skills and knowledge, the Foundation aims to make a difference and contribute to a healthier population.

Learn the ins and outs of health promotion and disease prevention in Canada with Edelman and Kudzma’s Canadian Health Promotion Throughout the Life Span. This all-new, comprehensive text grounds you in the Canadian health objectives for promotion and prevention which aims to improve the health of the entire population and to reduce health inequities among population groups. Among the text’s chapters you’ll find extensive coverage of growth and development throughout the life span — including coverage of the normal aspects, the unique problems, and the health promotion needs that are found in each age and stage of development. Separate chapters discuss each population group — the individual, the family, and the community — and highlight the unique aspects of caring for each of these groups. In all, this comprehensive and culturally relevant text provides all the tools needed to stay up on the latest research and topics in Canadian health promotion.

With the advent of health care reform and an emphasis on reducing health care costs, health promotion and disease prevention is a priority in nursing care. Be prepared with Health Promotion Throughout the Life Span, 8th Edition, your comprehensive guide to major health promotion concepts. Featuring practical guidance – including boxes on diversity awareness, evidence-based practice, innovative practice, hot topics, and quality and safety as well as case studies and care plans – our experienced authors give you all the tools you need to stay current on the latest research and trends in health promotion. Extensive coverage of growth and development throughout the lifespan emphasizes the unique problems and health promotion needs of each age and stage of development. Separate chapters on each population – group, individual, family, and community – stress the unique issues faced when providing care to each group. Evidence-Based Practice boxes emphasize current research efforts and opportunities in health promotion. Hot Topics and Innovative Practice boxes engage students’ interest by introducing significant issues, trends, and creative programs and projects in health promotion practice. Diversity Awareness boxes address various cultural perspectives and provide important information that needs to be considered in planning care. Case studies and care plans present realistic situations that challenge students to reflect upon important health promotion concepts. Think About It boxes dig deeper into the chapter topic and encourage critical thinking. Numerous pedagogical features such as objectives, key terms, and textual summaries highlight the most important concepts and terms in each chapter. Updated nutrition coverage includes MyPyramid from the FDA, as well as the latest information on food safety and fad diets. Expanded health policy coverage focuses on global health, historical perspectives, financing healthcare, concierge medical practices, and the hospitalist movement. Health Promotion for the Twenty-First Century explores current and future health promotion challenges and research initiatives. Updated Healthy People 2010 data includes midcourse review objectives and an introduction to Healthy People 2020. Case Studies and Care Plans summarize key concepts and show how they apply to real-life practice.