What are anti-ligature blinds?

Anti-ligature blinds are becoming increasingly popular in a range of different settings. The way these blinds differ from traditional blinds is that they are designed to prevent suicide by hanging.

Initially, uptake for this type of blind was largely restricted to high-risk environments such as psychiatric hospitals and prisons, where suicide is common. In mental health environments and detention centres, suicide via hanging is common and preventative measures must be implemented. A huge range of objects could be used to create a ligature point, meaning anti-ligature systems are highly important.

Over the years, anti-ligature blinds have been supplied to hospitals, schools, student accommodation and even hotels.

How do they work?

There are a range of different systems on the market, but the most reliable could well be the magnetic anti-ligature system. YewdaleKestrel® products utilise load release magnets which separate when a downward force is exerted on the product. This means that the product falls to the ground safely and prevents suicide via hanging.

The magnetic systems used in Yewdale’s products are highly reliable because magnets don’t lose their strength for hundreds of years, guaranteeing a lifetime of lifesaving functionality.

Anti-ligature blinds usually have a magnetic connection point above the blind’s barrel. The blind is easy to reconnect to the magnetic bracket after it has fallen to the floor.

If you are considering an anti-ligature blind, Yewdale is a highly recommended company. Based in the UK, Yewdale produce a wide range of anti-ligature products, commercial blinds, and healthcare products including hospital cubicle tracks and medical curtains.

Yewdale produce other anti-ligature products too including a soft, lightweight en-suite door and other accessories such as soap dispensers, toilet roll holder, shelves and artwork. You can see the full range on the website using the link below.

10 Unsafe Symptoms of Cell Phones Usage on Teens

10 Unsafe Symptoms of Cell Phones Usage on Teens

Over and wrong utilization of PDAs can harm mental as well as actual health. Parents might consider giving their teens cell phones for security motivations. Be that as it may, the conceivable abuse and opposite symptoms of cell phones on young people are not obscure. While it effectively is mindful of your kid’s whereabouts, taking into account its antagonistic consequences for teens is significant. As indicated by a review led by the Seat Exploration Center, around 785 of all youngsters between ages 12 and 17 have cell phones (1). It is a typical sight these days to see a gathering of youngsters standing together yet having no discussion and being engaged with themselves. Teens utilize their cell phones to call their folks and do other great and awful things. Around one of every four teens approach the web, definitely more than grown-ups. Look at the post to know whether cells are great for teenagers, the adverse consequences of PDAs, and tips on the safe use of cell phones.

Impacts Of Cell Phones On Youngsters

There is no question that a cell phone is a convenient device. It facilitates correspondence with partners, companions, and family members. However, every innovation that gives such advantages comes with a bunch of adverse consequences. The effect of cell phones on youth and society is tremendous. This region requires consideration when you are giving your high schooler a phone. This is the way PDAs influence, teens.

Teen tendonitis (TTT)
Abundance generation of messages can prompt High schooler Tendonitis (TTT). It causes torment in the hands, back, and neck because of the unfortunate stance. As per a five-year partner study, extreme phone use is known to bring about outer muscle problems, for example, tendonitis and first carpometacarpal joint pain in the lower arm and thumb.

Stress
Having a mobile phone will entice your high schooler to go the entire day talking or messaging as opposed to doing useful things. Studies have demonstrated that youngsters who invest a lot of their energy in their cells are more inclined to pressure, uneasiness, and melancholy. Research has additionally tracked down that extreme utilization of cell phones might bring about an expanded gamble of emotional well-being issues.

Sleep misfortune
Most teenagers keep their phones close by while resting to answer messages and calls and stay reachable nonstop. This might prompt rest interference and disturbance. Investigations have discovered that young people who use cell phones after the lights out experience expanded sluggishness. Additionally, undergrads who use phones after the beginning of rest are accounted for to be alert an extra 46 minutes out of every week.

Mishaps
Adolescents will quite often go to calls and text while driving, which is demonstrated to be risky. As indicated by the Places for Infectious prevention and Counteraction (CDC), adolescents are bound to be diverted more than drivers of some other age. Thus, utilizing a mobile phone while driving ought to be a severe no.

Uneasiness
Depending on messaging as an essential method of correspondence can increment uneasiness in youngsters. Messaging is right away satisfying, yet it likewise creates tension. The moment answered by a companion can give pleasure and euphoria. However, if there should be an occurrence of deferred reaction or no reaction, this equivalent joy can transform into disillusionment. Likewise, mobile phone habit can transform into a fixation to promptly take a look at messages and answer. It might likewise increment tension by making a deception that they had gotten a message in any event, when there was no message, making them regularly look at their telephones (3).

Hazard of malignant growth
Despite the fact that there’s no obvious proof of the connection between wireless use and disease, there are a few measurably huge relationships in certain individuals. Information gathered from five European nations have shown an expanded gamble of acoustic neuroma in people who utilized a cell for at least ten years.

Despite the fact that there is no unmistakable examination supporting the gamble of malignant growth and cell utilization, it is said to have a wide scope of well-being impacts.

Cyberbullying
As indicated by a review led on 13-18-year-olds by Cox Interchanges, 15% of kids had been cyberbullied on the web, 10% had been cyberbullied by cell, and 5% had cyberbullied someone else through a phone.

As indicated by a review, cyberbullying makes young people miserable and reluctant to go to class. This study has likewise observed that youngsters who are cyberbullied have a higher gamble of psychosomatic issues, for example, incessant migraines, issues nodding off, a higher pace of tension, and depression.

Cyberbullying is considerably more challenging to recognize than actual harassment as it will in general be more imperceptible. Additionally, the culprits can take cover behind the obscurity presented by the web.

Bogus distinction
The most recent advancements in cells have made it simple for youngsters to get any data. The majority of the things projected via online entertainment and the Web may not be exact, yet teens who are innocent (at their age) could view them in a serious way and get impacted. This could lead them to live in a dreamland and foster bogus renown. Some may likewise turn to wrongdoings to satisfy their dreams.

Heftiness
Steady utilization of phones may likewise cause weight in young people. As indicated by a review led by Harvard T.H Chan School of General Wellbeing, youngsters who spend more hours daily on phones are bound to become stout. The concentrate further says that youngsters who spend over five hours daily before screens are 43% bound to get less rest or exercise, bringing about weight

Vision issues
Expanded utilization of mobile phones is said to cause vision issues in young people. According to a review led by 30 clinical understudies, 83% of them were found to have wireless vision conditions. The side effects incorporate pressure, redness, consuming sensation, obscured vision, and dry eyes.

Over-the-top use of mobile phones outperforms their value and makes new issues for young people. While you may not prevent your teen from utilizing a mobile phone, it is feasible to restrict the use by laying out some guidelines.

Prior to giving wireless to your youngster, ensure they know about the focuses underneath.

Tips On Safe Use Of Cells For Youngsters

Cells are staying put, basically not at any point in the near future. Along these lines, you want to show your adolescents about cell phone security and how to dependably utilize it. They additionally need to have concurred limits for cell phone use. Here are far to stay away from the antagonistic impacts of cellphones on youngsters:

Complete weight loss strategy

For those who want to lose weight

Research on the causes of obesity, knowledge about weight loss, and various diets for weight loss are updated every year. However, with the update of knowledge and the release of diet pills one after another, the obesity rate continues to rise every year, and there is no sign of wanting to decline. I used to be very, very fat, and I am also a person who is prone to obesity.

So I understand the voices of fat people, I really want to lose weight, but I tried many ways to lose weight at that time without success.

I have tried the common boiled meals on the market, eating less and moving more, but it was not until I tried other diets that I managed to lose weight. After I lost weight, I began to study the essence and method of losing weight, and wrote him in this weight loss strategy article, hoping to help you.

A few key myths about losing weight

The weight loss myth of eating less and moving more

The phrase “eat less and move more” is actually true, but most people do it wrong. Many people think that they should eat less of everything, so they limit their calories to a very low level, and it feels a bit like eating an ultra-low-calorie fairy meal. Then, for the hyperactive part, the first thing that everyone thinks of is aerobic exercise such as running, cycling, etc., but in fact, this is a very short-term and easy way to regain weight, mainly because eating too little is an easy way to lose weight. The reason for the loss of muscle mass, coupled with the fact that aerobic training is not helpful for muscle mass growth, causes the metabolism to drop too much.

Maybe you can lose 5 kilograms in this way, but if your metabolism declines, you will easily regain the weight. And it’s all the fat that gets back up, not the muscle you lose that makes you look fatter than before. This is what we call the yo-yo effect, lose weight, get fat back, get fatter than before, lose weight, get back on Fat, get fatter than before.

Stop taking diet pills and meal replacements

At this time, you may start to seek other ways, eat weight loss meal replacements, taking diet pills, and so on. But believe me, most diet pills will inevitably hurt the body, especially the gastrointestinal tract. You may actually lose weight in the moment, but when your gastrointestinal tract is damaged, you will be fatter than before.

The key to understanding how to lose weight

You must have thought, why some people will not gain weight no matter what they eat, while some people will gain a kilogram the next day after eating a little bread? What is the cause of obesity? This is not a simple answer that can be solved!

You can see the link to the picture below, mainly talking about the influencing factors of obesity, which are very, very complicated.

Image source: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/296290/obesity-map-full-hi-res.pdf

In the middle of this picture is the heat balance

So we can know that calorie balance is very important

But this article doesn’t keep preaching that calorie balance is the key to losing weight like other sites

If you don’t know what calorie balance is, you can probably imagine that our body has calorie consumption (exercise, thermogenesis, basal metabolism), and calorie intake (eating).

When calorie consumption exceeds calorie intake, the weight will drop, so the truth of weight loss is to eat less and move more, very simple. In the short term, it is really possible to simply achieve weight loss by eating less and moving more, but simplicity is not simple, because the operation of the body is very complicated. Many people think that they can control their calorie consumption, that they can achieve a lot of calorie expenditure by running all the time, and that eating fairy meals (low-calorie meals) can reduce calorie intake and then easily lose it.

However, according to research, 90% of people who use calorie control, eat less and move more to lose weight will fail or regain the weight.

Because eating less and moving more for too long, metabolism will easily drop, hormones will easily become imbalanced, and muscle mass will easily be lost. Even if you lose 10 kilograms, you will easily regain weight.

When losing weight, the body is like a factory

For me, the key to long-term weight loss and maintaining good posture is the environment in the body, such as hormones, the level of inflammation in the body, and the gastrointestinal system.

Think of the body as a factory

-Your hormones are the managers and workers of factory operations

-Inflamed condition is how good factory machinery and hardware are

-Calorie intake is wages for factories as well as fuel

If the manager of this factory is an idiot, or if the hardware in your factory is completely rotten, then no matter how it works, it will create a pile of waste. Just as our hormones are already out of balance and the level of inflammation in the body is very high, no matter how much you eat, if you don’t solve the existing problems, it will easily accumulate into fat. It may be easier to understand with a few examples.

Hormones vs Weight Loss

This study looked at the effects of sleep and weight loss

Research source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20921542

Both groups of humans were calorie-restricted, but one group slept 5.5 hours a night and the other 8.5 hours. Both groups lost weight, but the group that slept less lost 55 percent less body fat and 65 percent more muscle mass than the group that slept more. It is equivalent to losing weight, but most of the loss is muscle mass, which reduces metabolism and makes it easy to regain weight later.

There is such a big difference mainly because poor sleep has a negative impact. The imbalance of the secretion of these things will easily increase fat and reduce muscle.

This next study looks at the effect of insulin sensitivity on body composition!

Research source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19471290

Basically, many chronic metabolic diseases, obesity, and poor muscle-building effects are closely related to low insulin sensitivity. Insulin is an anti-catabolic hormone whose main function is to store nutrients in cells. For example, after heavy training, our muscles will be more sensitive to insulin, and the nutrients we eat will be more easily absorbed into the muscles. When insulin sensitivity is low, the nutrients we eat are more likely to be stored as fat rather than absorbed into muscles.

We can simply say that the nutrients in the food eaten by people who are insulin insensitive are more likely to be stored as fat, and the relative fat mass will be much higher than the muscle mass.

To put it simply, the key to losing weight is actually to improve hormones, improve inflammation in the body, and add an appropriate calorie deficit. It is not difficult to achieve a calorie deficit. What is more difficult is how to choose the type of food that suits your body to improve hormones and achieve a long-term good body.

If you only pursue short-term weight loss and rely on a lot of calorie deficits to achieve the effect of weight loss, and then the hormones are still the same after the loss, then I can guarantee that you will gain weight very easily.

With so many ways to eat on the internet, which diet should I try?

When talking about losing weight in Taiwan 30 years ago, everyone would definitely want to use boiled meals

When it came to losing weight five years ago, everyone might think of using a low-sugar diet. When it came to losing weight in the past two or three years, everyone might directly think of the ketogenic diet.

I lost 30kg in 3 months on a low-sugar diet myself for the first time, so I used to believe that a low-sugar diet was the best way to lose weight

But after my long-term understanding of weight loss-related research, genetic cognition, and observation of students, there is no diet that is most suitable for everyone! Although it is said that high-carbohydrate foods will most stimulate insulin secretion, which in turn promotes the storage of nutrients into fat, some people are naturally good at metabolizing carbohydrates, so they can still be healthy and strong after eating high-carbohydrate throughout their lives.

For example, this study compared the responses of people with high and low insulin sensitivity to high- and low-carb diets.

Research source: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1038/oby.2005.79

The study concluded:

-For people with high insulin sensitivity, eating high-carb and low-fat to lose weight is very helpful

-However, people who are insulin insensitive use a high-carb low-fat diet to lose fat, but the weight loss effect is not so good.

But on the contrary, studies have also shown that people with low insulin sensitivity have a very good weight loss effect on a low-carb high-fat diet, which shows that improving insulin is very important for weight loss, and it also shows that people with insulin insensitivity are more suitable

Lose weight with a high-carb diet.

So if you have been obese for a long time, you know that you eat carbohydrates easily, or you know that you have diabetes in your family and want to lose fat, then I would suggest that you can start by reducing carbohydrates, which is what we call low carb diet!

The Negative Impact of E-Levy on Mobile Banking.

DEFINITION OF TERMS

Mobile Banking is a service provided by a bank or other financial institution that allows its customers to conduct financial transactions remotely using a mobile device such as a smartphone or tablet.

Electronic Transaction Levy or “E-Levy” is a tax applied on transactions made on electronic or digital platforms.

ADVANTAGES OF MOBILE BANKING

Mobile banking offers numerous benefits such as ease of transaction, convenience, time-saving, managing your finances, and budgeting. Some advantages of Mobile Banking in remote areas include:

Financial Inclusion — mobile banking offers convenient and easy banking services to people in remote areas. Thus, it allows banking on the go and offers all benefits of a banking system to rural areas without the presence of a financial institution.

Accessing the bank 24/7 — Mobile banking provides ubiquitous banking services without the need to visit the bank to have access to services. This offers time to benefit and ease of transacting at a distance.

Cost-benefit — Mobile banking saves the banks the cost of building physical infrastructures (branches) and maintaining branches and staff. Also, reduced costs on the customer side since the burden of visiting the bank for services is eliminated.

Improving resilience in the face of poverty — Mobile money acts as both a savings vehicle and a means of transferring funds during times of economic or environmental shocks.

Strengthening the formal economy — For many micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), opening a mobile money account can facilitate access to formal financial services. Mobile money is well placed to address the issue of informality that blights many developing economies and hampers domestic resource mobilization efforts. Mobile Money enables ease of transacting, thus increasing business profits for MSMEs.

Facilitating economic growth — Mobile money has been shown to contribute to economic growth by increasing both productivity and per capita incomes

DISADVANTAGES OF E-LEVY ON MOBILE BANKING

The design of mobile money taxation policy appears to be the antithesis of a well-designed tax system. The disadvantages include:

Inequity — Mobile money taxes as currently structured to create inequity in the tax system. As the tax is mostly borne by the poor and users of the services are subject to additional taxation (unlike bank or cash transactions), the principles of both horizontal and vertical equity in the tax system are contravened.

Uncertainty -. Uncertainty and lack of transparency over taxation systems can have a direct impact on the operations of the tax authority, increasing enforcement costs, as well as discouraging investment.

Inconvenience — The administration of mobile money transaction taxes creates an inconvenience for MMPs who must calculate and collect the tax on the revenue authority’s behalf. There is an additional inconvenience for users of the service for whom remote digital transactions become more expensive or out of reach if they revert back to cash.

Inefficiency — Badly designed mobile money taxes have been shown to have a distortionary impact on demand for mobile money services. This in turn has had negative impacts on overall tax takes, as well as impacting the attainment of national economic and development goals.

EFFECT OF MOBILE BANKING — CASE STUDIES

The decision to impose taxes on mobile bank transactions will trigger so many problems.

Ghana — According to The Fourth Estate Ghana; Although the government projects a 24% decline in transactions when the levy is finally implemented, preliminary findings published by the bank of Ghana indicate the value of mobile money transactions had dropped by 3.2 billion in December 2021, less than 2 months after the proposal to introduce E-levy.

Uganda — An e-levy of 1% introduced in 2018 has led to an overall drop in the person-to-person transaction by more than 50%, and a 24% drop in industry transactions within the same year the tax was introduced according to a report by Global system for mobile communication (GSMA).

Congo — An e-levy of 1% was introduced in 2019. The government had to reverse the tax on cash outs only due to negative results of the levy on Mobile money users such as a decline in mobile money agents (unemployment) and high-value withdrawals by people.

Other countries include Benin (5%) and Cameroun (0.2%). In all these countries, the e-levy has imposed a negative effect on the economy and people. If we want to ensure the financial inclusion of people in rural areas, we need to ensure that we encourage mobile banking by withdrawing the e-levy tax.

Reference:

https://thefourthestategh.com/2022/03/16/e-levy-this-is-what-happened-when-other-african-countries-passed-it/

Purohit, S., & Arora, R. (2021). The benefits and challenges of mobile banking at the Bottom of the pyramid. Journal of Contemporary Issues in Business and Government Vol, 27(1).

Charles G. Kpan, Jr. is an Information Technologist with over 5 years of experience in the provision of Information Technology Services and an emphasis on Web Development and Visual Branding. He’s the managing Director of CYGEC IT SOLUTIONS INC. and holds a bachelor’s Degree in Information Technology from Blue Crest University, Liberia.

4 reasons blinds are better than curtains

Blinds and curtains are the go-to window treatments for providing shade from daylight. But which shading solution is better? This article discusses four reasons why blinds could be the best way to cover a window and prevent light from coming through.

Daylight shading
Blinds have the upper hand in blocking light because they are installed much closer to the windowpane than curtains. Their positioning means that blinds let less light through because the gaps are smaller.

For example, a roller blind can be positioned very close to the glass, ensuring minimal light enters the room. In contrast, most curtains are less effective because they bunch together, creating numerous gaps where light can slip through.

Cassette blinds can be fitted with side channels which hold the fabric in place and ensure that there are no gaps in the system for light to travel through. Coupled with a piece of blackout fabric, you’re guaranteed complete darkness. On the other hand, it’s more challenging to achieve total darkness using curtains because most of them are pleated, which lets small amounts of light through.

The type of window matters
You’d be surprised how many types of windows you’d find if you explored a range of properties. Some buildings have overhead windows or skylights, while others have windows installed on an angled wall. Curtains would not be suitable for these awkwardly placed windows because gravity would pull the material down.

Instead of having a curtain hanging down, blinds can be installed with the side channels we mentioned earlier. The blind side channels ensure that the fabric stays in place and the desired level of shading is achieved.

More ventilation
On a hot day, it’s crucial to get ventilation, particularly in countries such as the UK, where most buildings are not air-conditioned. Consider a teacher in a school who needs to open the windows but also needs to block out the sun’s glare to see the interactive whiteboard.

A blind can be fitted with side channels which ensure that the window can be opened without the wind blowing the blind and creating a distracting noise. This is another example of a unique situation where a curtain would not be appropriate.

Commercial and residential properties
Blinds are installed in commercial settings and residential properties. You wouldn’t think twice if you saw a blind in your friend’s home or your workplace. But you may scratch your head if you walk down the local high street and there is a curtain covering the large windows of your favourite restaurant. Blinds that are fitted in retail settings have a special fabric with an open weave that allows you to see through it. These blinds still provide some shading from daylight without obscuring views.

Blinds can be fitted in offices, retail settings, schools, hotels, leisure centres and just about any other building you can think of. Curtains are an excellent addition to building interiors, but they are mainly limited to homes, hospitals and the hospitality sector.

Summary

Based on these four points, blinds are more versatile than curtains. There is a huge range of blind types and excellent options to control the blind. Electric is a common control choice for luxury properties, but the metal control chain is the standard mechanism selected for blinds. Vertical and Venetian blinds are universally used in homes and commercial settings.