MATC Source Corner

October 23, 2011 Preparing for the 2011/12 Influenza Season by Tim Greene - Risk and Loss Control Consultant – Districts Mutual Insurance What sort of flu season is expected this year? Flu seasons are unpredictable in a number of ways.  Although epidemics of flu happen every year, the timing, severity, and length of the epidemic depends on many factors, including what influenza viruses are spreading and whether they match the viruses in the vaccine. Will new strains of flu circulate this season? Flu viruses are constantly changing so it's not unusual for new flu virus strains to appear each year.    When will flu activity begin and when will it peak? The timing of flu is very unpredictable and can vary from season to season. Flu activity most commonly peaks in the U.S. in January or February. However, seasonal flu activity can begin as early as October and continue to occur as late as May. What should I do to prepare for this flu season? CDC recommends a yearly "flu vaccine" for everyone 6 months of age and older as the first and most important step in protecting against this serious disease. While there are many different flu viruses, the flu vaccine is designed to protect against the three main flu strains that research indicates will cause the most illness during the flu season. For information about which viruses this season's vaccine will protect against visit http://www.cdc.gov/flu/protect/keyfacts.htm  Getting the flu vaccine as soon as it becomes available each year is always a good idea. The protection you get from the vaccination will last throughout the flu season. How effective is the flu vaccine? Inactivated influenza vaccine effectiveness (VE) can vary from year to year and among different age and risk groups. For more information about vaccine effectiveness, visit http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/qa/vaccineeffect.htm   Will this season's vaccine be a "good match" for circulating viruses? Flu viruses are constantly changing (called drift) – they can change from one season to the next or they can even change within the course of one flu season. For more information about the vaccine virus selection process visit http://www.cdc.gov/flu/protect/keyfacts.htm   Can the vaccine provide protection even if the vaccine is not a "good match"? Yes, antibodies made in response to vaccination with one strain of flu viruses can provide protection against different, but related strains. Even during seasons when there is a less than ideal match, CDC continues to recommend flu vaccination. This is particularly important for people at high risk for serious flu complications and their close contacts. Learn more at http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/disease/high_risk.htm. What actions can I take to protect myself and my family against the flu this season? CDC recommends a yearly flu vaccine for everyone 6 months of age and older. In addition, you can take the everyday preventive steps found at http://www.cdc.gov/flu/protect/habits.htm like staying away from sick people and washing your hands to reduce the spread of germs. If you are sick with flu, stay home from work or school to prevent spreading influenza to others. Is there treatment for the flu? Yes. If you get sick, there are drugs that can treat flu illness.  They are called antiviral drugs and they can make your illness milder and make you feel better faster. They also can prevent serious flu–related complications, like pneumonia. For more information about antiviral drugs, visit http://www.cdc.gov/flu/antivirals/    What is antiviral resistance? "Antiviral resistance" means that a virus has changed in such a way that the antiviral drug is less effective in treating or preventing illness. Samples of viruses collected from around the United States and worldwide are studied to determine if they are resistant to any of the four FDA–approved influenza antiviral drugs.  To learn more on influenza or find more facts for your prevention/education campaign - visit the CDC website http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/season/index.htm The MATC Source Corner provides expert commentary from members of the MATC community on current events and timely topics. Have a suggestion for The Corner? Send it to hohlk@matc.edu   September 15, 2011 Information about Measles MATC Wellness Coordinator Anne Sheridan shares timely information about measles in a new edition of Source Corner. With the latest development of measles in the Milwaukee area, it's a good time for a review of important information. Measles is: caused by a virus spread by an infected person during coughing, sneezing (even if not directly at you) or sharing of food or beverages infectious from 4 days prior to when the rash appears through four days after the rash appeared symptomatic 8-12 days after exposure; symptoms can include runny nose, sneezing, cough, fever, sensitivity to light, muscle pain, rash, redness of the eyes, sore throat and tiny white spots inside the mout treated with interventions similar to that of a bad cold, including plenty of rest,  lots of fluids and over-the-counter medications as directed by a physician or pharmacist (individuals under age 20 should not take aspirin because this has been linked to a serious illness called Reye's Syndrome); antibiotics are not used to treat the measles  Essential tips: Call your physician if you think you have the measles, do not go directly to a health care facility (call first to prevent spreading the measles to others) Remain indoors, away from other people Recovery is approximately two weeks   If a person contracts the measles, they cannot get it again.  Childhood vaccinations prevent measles.  Adults who have not been vaccinated and would like additional information on the best plan of action, please contact your local health department.    Milwaukee Health Department: http://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/localhealth/counties/milwaukee.htm zaukee County Health Department: http://www.co.ozaukee.wi.us/PublicHealth/index.html    July 11, 2011 Cyber Security Safety Tips Spam … phishing … cyber hacking … spyware … how can you make it stop? Electronic communication is critical in our professional and personal lives, but new threats seem to be identified every day. Here are some tips to protect yourself and your computer: Be suspicious about emails and don't open attachments from untrusted sources.  Be wary about oddly worded emails, or those containing only a link, even from sources you know, since an infection could be responsible for sending it.   Treat emails you send and receive like a post card. Assume that anyone might read it because they are not private and someone with a little technical knowledge can find various ways to read them (and you never know to whom your recipient forwards them).   Your bank and other corporations don't need to contact you to confirm your password, account number or social security number. If you're being asked to confirm private information it's probably not legitimate. If you must confirm, initiate contact with them through a different means – telephone call, personal visit - from which they contacted you.   Keep your operating system and applications up to date with the latest security patches.  Operating systems do a decent job of this but not all applications do. Secunia.com has a free scanning tool that checks all installed software.   Be careful about how much private and personal information you put on the Internet. This can be used in several different ways including leverage in social engineering attacks.   Use strong passwords. Using a few simple rules in combination will greatly strengthen your password.  Use at least 8 characters. The more characters, the stronger your password will be.  Use a combination of letters, numbers, and special ch4rac+3rS.   On top of that, it's also important to have a different password for each site that you visit.  One method is to combine the same strong password with a unique name representing a site, such as adding "ebay" to the end of your strong password. Here's a good video for an alternative to this method - http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2009/03/10/password-website/   Run an anti-malware (virus) program, and turn on the real-time scanning feature if it is available.  Even legitimate Web sites can contain malware that you'll pick up just by visiting.   Last but not least, regularly scan your computer with a tool other than your regular anti-malware program (free: malwarebytes, or Microsoft Safety Scanner), consider using encryption for at least important files on your hard drive, definitely encrypt your home wi-fi and avoid the easily crackable WEP encryption.   For more information, browse this list of topics: http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/tips/    Tips provided by MATC IT security and networking instructor Mark Miller.     June 1, 2011 National Safety Month Each June the National Safety Council promotes National Safety Month with a variety of topics. Five themes are covered and include tips for your entire family. June 1-4: Summertime Safety June 5-11: Preventing Overexertion June 12-18: Teen Driving Safety June 19-25: Preventing Slips, Trips and Falls June 26-30: On the Road, Off the Phone Visit http://www.nsc.org/Pages/Home.aspx for weekly information to help you stay safe.   April 13, 2011 Spring Severe Weather Tips Recent events are indicators that the severe weather season has arrived in southeastern Wisconsin. MATC’s Department of Public Safety would like to take this opportunity to share some common severe weather and tornado precautions.  Invest in an All Hazards NOAA Weather Radio. These devices are relatively inexpensive, but can be invaluable during severe weather.  They quietly monitor public warning system broadcasts and alert you when messages are issued for your area.  Radios that are designated as "all hazards" will include weather messages as well as traffic accidents or terrorist attacks.  Know the difference between a Watch and a Warning.  A "watch" indicates that conditions are favorable for severe weather or tornados to develop.  A "warning" indicates that severe weather (tornado, large hail, damaging winds) has been spotted and there is imminent danger to life and property for those in the path of a storm.  Have a plan and a designated safe place.  Prepare for severe weather at home and at work.  Designate a safe place for all of the locations you may be during severe weather.  Discuss these places with your family and co-workers.  Severe Weather Myths and Truths Myth: Areas near lakes, rivers and hills are safe from tornadoes.  Truth: No place is safe from tornadoes.  A 1998 tornado that struck Door County formed on the waters of Lake Michigan and moved onshore.  Myth: The low pressure with a tornado causes buildings to explode as the tornado passes overhead.  Truth: Violent winds and debris slamming into buildings cause most structural damage. Myth: Windows should be opened before a tornado approaches to equalize pressure and minimize damage.  Truth: Leave windows alone!  The most important action is to immediately go to a safe shelter.  Myth: People caught in the open should seek shelter under highway overpasses.  Truth: Take shelter in a sturdy, reinforced building if possible.  The winds of a tornado may actually increase in the tight space of an overpass, increasing the chance for injury.  Myth: If it is not raining, there is no danger from lightning.  Truth: Lightning can strike outside of rain.  If you hear thunder, the storm is close enough to pose a lightning threat.  Myth: People struck by lightning carry an electric charge and should not be touched. Truth: Lightning strike victims carry no charge and should be attended to immediately.  Contact 911 and then assist the victim.  Myth: The rubber soles of shoes or rubber tires on a vehicle will protect you from lightning. Truth: Rubber-soled shoes and rubber tires provide NO protection from lightning.  Although you are may be injured if lightning strikes your car, you are much safer inside a vehicle than outside.  Myth: Flash floods occur only along flowing streams and rivers. Truth: Flash floods can occur in urban areas where no streams are present. Myth: Large vehicles, such as SUVs and pickup trucks, are safe to drive through flood waters. Truth: Two feet of rushing water can carry away most vehicles.  If you come to a water covered road or intersection, turn around, don't drown.    March 7, 2011 Tips for Beginning a Winter Fitness Routine Spring and summer can't get here soon enough, but that's no reason your fitness plan has to go on hiatus! MATC physical education instructor Judy Springer shares tips on winter fitness routines. Judy Springer, PhD, MATC Physical Education instructor who teaches a ACE Personal Trainer Exam Preparation course, ACE Group Fitness Instructor Exam Preparation course, and ACE Lifestyle and Weight Management Consultant Exam Preparation course, shared the following tips to successfully start a winter fitness program: Weave physical activity into your daily routine.  Simple substitutions such as taking the stairs instead of the elevator, parking the car further away from the entrance, or standing instead of sitting use extra calories.  Shoveling snow, playing a musical instrument, and cleaning the house also keep the body moving during our long Wisconsin winters.  Investigate places where people are active - finding locations where other people are active helps to spark your enthusiasm for activity.  The MATC Fitness lab (located in the Main building on the Downtown Milwaukee campus), area run/walks, the Pettit Center, or a local gym are all great places to try a new activity. Nurture your inner child with a fun workout - it may be a game of tag with your children around the house or bowling, golf, or tennis on Xbox Kinect or Wii at the MATC West Allis Campus Student Center.  Games like hot potato, cold potato are a natural for indoor activity. Angela Peterson, ACE-certified Personal Trainer and graduate of MATC's ACE Personal Trainer Exam Preparation course, explains: Form a circle. One person in the center passes a solid color ball to individuals in the circle, while 2-3 same colored balls are passed around the circle from person to person. The goal is to not drop the ball and if you do, you have to do some type of exercise (e.g., push ups, jumping jacks, squats) outside the circle until the next person drops the ball. Team up with a partner.  Studies suggest that finding a friend to enjoy a workout with you is one of the best strategies for beginning and staying with a routine.  The mutual encouragement and satisfaction from your accomplishments will build a strong foundation for success.  Web-based sources of support are also available free in many cases.  Sites such as www.myfitnesspal.com or www.socialworkout.com offer food and activity diaries that are shared with others to help maintain motivation. Enlist the services of a personal trainer.  If your program is stalled or you are not quite sure where to begin, consulting a personal trainer for one or two sessions or attending a group fitness class to learn new strategies will strengthen your physical activity base.   Reward yourself.  Be sure to build a system of rewards into your routine to maintain momentum and interest.  Tracking your progress can be done in a diary or in your daily calendar - the rewards can be simple such as relaxing with a good book on a sunny afternoon or going to the movie with friends.  Building and maintaining health in the WINTER means celebrating your successes!     February 25, 2011 Winter Weather Tips Substantial snow, below zero temperatures, hazardous road conditions... how can you stay safe this winter? Follow tips from MATC's Department of Public Safety. MATC's Department of Public Safety has compiled a list of winter weather tips. During severe weather, avoid unnecessary travel whenever possible.  Even if the roads appear fine where you are, you don't know what's in between you and your destination. Use caution when crossing streets.  Be prepared for automobiles that may not be able to stop on icy roads. Keep an emergency supply kit in your car with warm clothes, blankets, food, water, battery powered radio and flares. Keep an emergency supply kit in your home with extra batteries, water, and canned foods, etc.  Think about what you would in need if you lost power or the ability to leave your home. During weather emergencies, keep your cell phone battery fully charged.  Invest in a portable charger. After heavy snow fall, check your furnace vent for ice and snow blockage.  Improper or blocked venting can lead to failure and carbon monoxide poisoning.  Inspect carbon monoxide detectors and replace batteries. Be careful when removing snow and ice.  Snow can be deceptively heavy and can easily lead to over exertion.  Spray shovels with cooking spray to avoid snow and ice buildup. Check on elderly neighbors or those who may need assistance removing snow.  Be a good neighbor.   February 8, 2011 Rating the Super Bowl Ads Brand Bowl (http://brandbowl2011.com/) was created to gauge public reaction to the brands advertised during Super Bowl XLV by monitoring Twitter. The results were measured by the volume of conversations and by the positive/negative sentiment surrounding those conversations. As the Brand Bowl Web site explains it:  First they tally—using many, many selected keywords—the total number of tweets about a brand. Second, they look at the opinions stated in those tweets to calculate a "net sentiment" score. The purpose of this score is to measure whether the overall public reaction to the brand is positive or negative. The net sentiment score is defined by the formula: (Positive tweets + Neutral tweets – Negative tweets)/ Total brand tweets. Finally, to rank the brands, they calculate a "Brand Bowl score," in which they divide by the total tweets for all brands: (Positive tweets + Neutral tweets – Negative tweets)/ Total tweets for all brands. Since the Brand Bowl folks are interested in measuring the initial public reaction to the ads, they use a narrow five-hour sliding window around each ad and calculate the final rankings right after the game. Based on the 302,977 total tweets monitored, Chrysler was the overall winner, Doritos the most talked about and Volkswagen the most loved. And it appears that the day-after classroom and online discussions about the Super Bowl ads in my MATC courses would serve to support the Brand Bowl findings: The Doritos ad with the Pug dog knocking down the door was the first "good ad" posted to the online discussion. The ad features a young man inside a glass door teasing his girlfriend's pet Pug, which is outside, with an open bag of Doritos. The Pug, on a mission, runs towards the door as the boyfriend teases the Pug like he's a clown. The pint-sized Pug jumps at the door, knocks it on top the guy and takes his Doritos. Conversation about this spot was enough to send some of my on-campus students scurrying to the cafeteria to purchase Doritos after class. The Volkswagen ad featured a miniature Darth Vader (played by 6 year-old actor Max Page) who was frustrated until he thought he started Dad's Passat. As one student in the online discussion posted, "I think you could hear the 'awe's!' everywhere at that moment!" Described as "adorable" and "cute" in class, the YouTube version has now been viewed over 18 million times. The two-minute Chrysler "Imported from Detroit" spot, the longest in Super Bowl history, reportedly cost somewhere just south of $9 million to air and featured rapper Eminem.  The spot chronicles the story of Detroit's decades of decline, then tracks the city’s eventual return, and promises that the best days are still ahead. The spot closes promoting the new Chrysler 200, ending with the tongue-in-cheek slogan, "Imported from Detroit." It was a well-produced commercial with a powerful message that clearly stood out from the majority of spots that were just going for quick laughs…..not that there’s anything wrong with quick laughs…I also liked the Budweiser spot in which the grizzled cowboy, refreshed with a cold Bud, breaks out in a chorus of Elton John’s 1972 "Tiny Dancer" with the rest of the saloon patrons. But that's just how I roll. You can view all the Super Bowl XLV commercials at http://www.youtube.com/user/adblitz For more information about MATC’s Marketing associate degree program, visit http://matc.edu/student/offerings/markmanaas.html   January 31, 2011 Cheering on the Packers with Healthy Snacks! MATC dietetic technician faculty and students share healthy snacking tips and recipes for your Super Bowl party. Keep your New Year's Resolution AND celebrate Super Bowl XLV! The Super Bowl is not just a game, it is a time for you and your friends and family to share "super" snacks! MATC Dietetic Technician instructor Jean Dueling shared that with just a few additions to the typical tailgate party, you can have some nutritious and delicious options.  A few ideas she uses to help her guests feel like winners on Monday morning are: Provide some snacks in individual portion size dishes.  She notes that when we snack, it's always best to put the food in a dish or on a plate.  When we munch directly from the serving dish, we have no idea how much we are eating. Serve food with the plenty of beverages. Did you know that drinking alcohol can cause your blood sugar to decline, and this can result in an increase in hunger, and yes possibly eating and drinking more than you want? Consider mixing up the usual salsa and chips with Salsa Verde “Green” salsa and “Gold” tortilla chips for an authentic Packer theme. Rachel Hughes, another instructor in MATC's Dietetic Technician program, reminds people to eat before the big event to stop overeating due to hunger. You goal to have fun and have a variety of snacks, is just a few ideas and recipes away.  The entire menu does not need to be healthy, but guests will enjoy some options. The first recipe for "GREEN and GOLD Bok Choy Salad" was developed by dietetic technician student Nan Bartz, the second was selected from the internet by Danielle Poppe, also a student who is pursuing a dietetic technician degree from MATC.  "Green and Gold" Bok Choy Salad An all-out blitz to a healthy side dish Large head of Bok Choy sliced thin 6 green onions, sliced 3/4 c. canola oil 1/2  c. seasoned rice wine vinegar 2 T. sugar 1 chicken ramen noodle pkg. 6 oz. can "Lime and Chili" flavored almonds Fresh pineapple, chunked Shake/mix vinegar, sugar, canola oil and ramen seasoning together. Add to bok choy, onions, nuts, pineapple and crushed ramen noodles right before serving. Stir and Bring it on! Cheesy Bread Recipe This recipe will go well with your cheesehead theme! 8 oz shredded Mozzarella cheese 1 lb shredded sharp cheddar cheese 1/2 to 1 cup chopped green onion (to taste) 1/2 cup mayonnaise 2 Tbsp sour cream (optional) 3-4 cloves garlic, minced 1 stick unsalted butter (1/2 cup, 4 ounces), softened to the point of being slightly melted 1 to 2 loaves of French or Italian bread (I used Ciabatta), depending on the size of the loaves In a large bowl, mix together the cheeses and the green onion. Stir in the mayonnaise and sour cream. In a separate small bowl blend the butter and garlic until smooth. Add the butter mixture to the cheese mixture. Preheat broiler. Slice loaf of bread in half horizontally, lay crust side down. Spread cheese mixture over the bread. Place under the broiler until nicely browned, about 3 to 5 minutes. Remove from broiler and let sit for 5 minutes until cool enough to handle. Slice the bread with a bread knife. Serve. Makes 30 to 40 slices. From Simply Recipes.com  The MATC Source Corner provides expert commentary from members of the MATC community on current events and timely topics. Have a suggestion for The Corner? Send it to hohlk@matc.edu