Preventing Ventilator Associated Pneumonia in the Intensive Care Unit Research Paper

Preventing Ventilator Associated Pneumonia in the Intensive Care Unit - Research Paper Example From this perspective, I want to find various methods of preventing ventilator-associated pneumonia in the ICU patients. Huang, S. J., Huang, H. J., Yu, S. F., Chen, J. H., Huang, H. Y., Cheng, P. C., ... & Lu, M. C. (2015). The implement of bundle care improves the incidence of ventilator-associated pneumonia in ICU. Journal of Microbiology, Immunology and Infection, 48(2), S153. The above journal discusses a research carried out in a medical center in central Taiwan. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the incidence of ventilator-associated pneumonia after implementation of VAP bundles. Before the introduction of VAP bundles the prevalence rate was 2.5% in 2013 where a respirator was utilized in 49.9% of the patients hospitalized in the 20-bed Medical Centre. The incidence rate reduced from 2.5% in 2013 to 1.0% in Q3 of 2014, after the application of VAP bundle care. Laird, P. (2015). Preventing ventilator-related injury in the ICU. Retrieved May 22, 2015, from http://ovidsp.tx.ovid.com.southuniversity.libproxy.edmc.edu/sp-3.15.1b/ovidweb.cgi?QS2=434f4e1a73d37e8ca9c2ed569e2a6bcb0f412b007c9b7e54280dcd11f81c8b88c241ed21141302487cfd3d58d1402427e90395d588a7c5c119687037986016f981c651e712f27d984010f4812b662d4aee3eb831 This resource talks about a mechanical ventilation technique that is utilized in the ICU. It is a treatment for patients suffering from respiratory failure. Nevertheless, the method has various complications and risks related to its use. It is, therefore, recommended that patients using this type of therapy should be monitored daily. Monitoring daily is paramount to establish preparedness to perform early extubation and safeguard against possible fatal ventilator-associated problems. The document suggests that using ‘VAP-bundle’ may minimize the infection rate. It talks about a 5-element Institute

Characters in Two Kinds Essay Example for Free

Characters in Two Kinds Essay Both, Madame Loisel and the daughter from two kinds, find themselves in similar situations. The situations seem different but in reality they arent, as both of them are expected to do certain things, the only different is that the daughter from to kinds in forced to do thing and Madame Loisel just feel like she had to do or to have a certain thing. The difference in the expectations between the two characters, is made by making one character want a certain thing, and the other to be forces to do something. So in other words one of the characters is wants to have certain thing and feels like the society expects the character to have these things. And the other one is made or forces by on other person or character from the story to do certain things, and is expected of certain things. The daughter is the forces character this is because the mother makes her do what she doesnt want to. Her mother tries to make he a wonder kid and to change the way the daughter is. The mother tries to make her daughter a wonder kid and the daughter starts to respond in a way that she just doesnt care. Then in some time the daughter be really tiered of the testes that the mother is making her that and the fact that the mother is trying to change her. And so, she starts to take short cut, and with the only intention to stay the way she it, the stops listening to her mother, doesnt pay intention at the piano lessens. On the other hand there is Madame Loisel, which is a character that just feels that it is her duty to be what the society expects of all women. She feels that she has to be in the high class, that she is worth a lot and that all because of her beauty should adore her. She also had an opinion that if she wants something she has to get it or it is the end of the world. In addition, her believe is that her just deserve, also for whom she is, expensive cloths, and expensive necklace. Both of the characters respond very similar to their pressures and expectation that they are faced in the story line. The daughter responds by not agreeing to her mother and by trying to do the opposite of what she is told to do and in addition, she doesnt listen nor try her best at the test that her mother makes her face. and a bit similar, Madame Loisel responds to  the expectations of society in a way that she just wants something and if she doesnt get it its the end of the world, as if she just is the centre of the world and that she deserves all. So in other words she believes that she is worthy of having the best of the best. Then furthermore, both of the characters change in the end of their own stories. Madame Loisel becomes more realistic about life and gets a true self-esteem for what she had actually achieved. And in addition she loses her opinion that everything that she gets or receives is granted. Then, the daughter listens to her mother in the end of the story and starts playing the piano. As a conclusion both of the characters result in the same position in other words both of the characters are dramatic characters. This is because their view and their characteristics change and became completely different in the end of the story. Madame Loisel changes in a way that she becomes more aver of life and stops taking everything for granted. The daughter also changes to the positive site as she in the end of the story starts playing the piano and in other words listens.

Uniting the Nation: Everyone Needs a Tattoo :: Solutions Papers Proposal Essays

Uniting the Nation: Everyone Needs a Tattoo   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   I think I was sixteen when I first wanted to get a tattoo, but then again I also wanted to get my ear pierced and die my hair blue. Well I'm eighteen now, my hair is red, well the red it’s been since I've had hair and neither of my ears are pierced but I did end up getting that tattoo. In fact I also got him a friend. Now I'm stuck with two of them, but I don't have any regrets, not yet anyway.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The plan for getting a tattoo was mine and my friend's. We said that on graduation night we'd do it, but I wasn't eighteen yet so we never did. My friend’s desire faded, but mine seemed to stay constant. I always planned on it but never had the bucks or the time. That's what I said atleast. The truth was I never had the nerve. But who can blame me? That's quite the plunge. There is no going back with this one. So I came up with a plan. A plan to make sure I wouldn't back out again. I told a girl. I invited her to come and ogle me while I get my body marked for life. With a chick looking on what am going to do? "No I'm sorry. I decided not to purchase." I don't think so. So I picked her up and we were off to the tattoo parlor.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   We got in and looked around for a good long while. Finally some one came up and asked if he could help us. It was pretty good customer relations for the type of business. I told him that I wanted to get a tattoo, and had a design that I drew up. The day before that same guy gave me an estimation of eighty dollars for my design, so I made sure to mention that so that the price wouldn't rise while he was looking at it. He said okay, and went behind the counter to trace the design on special paper that puts an ink on your skin. When that happens the artist can trace the pattern instead of just doing something free hand.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   My pattern was something very close to me. Something that I thought about long and hard. Its a red spider on a black web.

Self-Recognition and Embarrassment :: essays research papers

Self-Recognition and Embarrassment   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Our group’s task was to measure self-recognition and embarrassment in children ages 1-3. We had 3 children to work with, Arika was 9 months, Charlotte was 17 months and Lydia was 28 months old. We preformed 3 tasks on these children. The first was the â€Å"Overcompliment situation†. Secondly, we did the â€Å"Mirror situation† and last we did the â€Å"Request to dance situation†. Our findings in these situations lead us to some conclusions about self-awareness and feeling embarrassed.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The procedure we used was a fairly simple one, but it needed to be followed to get accurate results. The first task we did was the Overcompliment situation. With the hidden video camera running, we played with the children for a few minutes so they could get as used to us as they would in that short period of time. Then we proceeded to give them compliment after compliment, for example; â€Å"you are so pretty†, â€Å"good job†, â€Å"you’re doing great†. After doing this you should feel a little embarrassed yourself. This task is used to see how the child reacts to the barrage of compliments. If they keep playing as they were, make eye contact periodically, they most likely weren’t embarrassed. But if they keep their head down away from the experimenter or have a silly, self-conscious smile they probably are embarrassed. Our first Overcompliment experiment was with Charlotte. She showed no reaction to Kellie giving her numerous compliments; she just played without even looking at her. This does not necessarily mean that Charlotte had no feelings about Kellie’s compliments; in fact it probably means that she was more embarrassed than anything. When it was Lydia’s turn to go Mia and I watched her play for a few minutes, then began the onslaught of compliments. Lydia didn’t even acknowledge the fact that we were speaking to her. I think she did realize that we were saying how good she was doing and because of that she played more aggressively. She never looked at either of us, she never looked to her mother for comfort or to see why these people were saying these things to her, she just kept playing with her trains. Table 1 Age in months  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Reaction 21-24  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚ ¾ of all children 20  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  It was common, but not expected 15-18  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚ ¼ of all children 9-12  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  No children reacted   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The second task was the mirror situation. This experiment was first done by R. Amsterdam in 1972 on Chimpanzees.

Good teacher Essay

If I were to describe one of my teachers that I have had throughout these years, the one who I considered a good teacher is my present English teacher. The reasons why I would like to characterize my English teacher are various. Firstly, she’s well to take responsibility. She came to teach punctually. Especially, she always keeps in touch with us to try hard to study by her homework for every day. She speaks English fluently, and her voice is so loud that can make students in the class easy to listen. Actually, when we tired, she always tells jokes that always keep us smiling. Secondly, she’s been teaching for long time, so she’s got many experiences. I like the way she pronounce clearly. Moreover, I could say she is a good explainer but she also gives her best in order to help students to improve their knowledge in English. She likes to correct us each time we make mistakes both in pronunciation and grammar. Thirdly, she’s a work hard teacher. She always do a research more new documents for  the students to easy to get understand. And she also got some music lyrics, puzzle, or any other to relax at the weekend or after exam. Sometimes, she looks strong-mined to make us to try hard to study but I know that inside she’s very kind, polite and honest. In conclusion, I can say that, her lectures are well organized, interesting and her methods of teaching us demonstrate the desirable teaching method for our use. I thought that I’m very lucky that I’ve met a very good teacher like her.

Accessibility of Mobile Phone HTC Hero by visually impaired people The WritePass Journal

Accessibility of Mobile Phone HTC Hero by visually impaired people Abstract Accessibility of Mobile Phone HTC Hero by visually impaired people Abstract1. IntroductionIn this report I will investigate the issues that visually impaired people are facing when using human computer interfaces, especially with the touch screen phone HTC Hero.1.1 Physical factors associated with visually impaired people and impact on the use of technologyMaking the most of technology can have a very positive impact, helping people who are blind and partially sighted to increase their independence and more importantly feel and be as equal as normal sighted people.1.2 What is accessibility?1.3 Considerations of human physical factors when developing a mobile phone for a visually impaired person2. Review of HTC Hero2.1 Usability testing (the Heuristic evaluation)   2.1.2. Hardware2.1.2 Software2.1.3. Services2.2 Nielsens Ten Usability Heuristics3. Personal suggested improvements3.1 Audio Input and Output3.2 Tactile Input and Output3.3 Touch screen advances3.4 Introduce Mobile Magnifier3.5 Follow W3C Guidelines for Mobile Web Services4. Conclusion5. ReferencesRelated Abstract Touch screen technology has progressed a lot in the past few years and introduced a wave of various new touch screen based devices. Most of the touch screens are still not accessible to blind users, who have to take on various other ways to use them and to make them accessible. Touch screens are inaccessible to the people with visual impairment because the human computer interface technique involves the user to visually locate objects on the screen and they do not provide verbal output to communicate where controls are located on the screen or what control the user has selected. 1. Introduction The purpose of this report is to evaluate the accessibility of the HTC Hero mobile phone for visually impaired people, in particular people that have totally lost their vision (referred as blind people) and people with partially lost vision (referred as partially sighted people or partially blind). ‘The World Health Organization (WHO) defines blindness as severe sight loss, where a person is unable to see clearly how many fingers are being held up at a distance of 3m (9.8 feet) or less, even when they are wearing glasses or contact lenses. However, someone who is blind may still have some degree of vision’. Also the‘ WHO defines partial sightedness as where a person cannot clearly see how many fingers are being held up at a distance of 6m (19 feet) or less, even when they are wearing glasses or contact lenses’. The HTC Hero has touch screen technology as the main means to input and output information. Additional issues for accessibility have been brought in as touch screen technology is being introduced to interfaces. In this report I will investigate the issues that visually impaired people are facing when using human computer interfaces, especially with the touch screen phone HTC Hero. 1.1 Physical factors associated with visually impaired people and impact on the use of technology People with total or partial blindness have decreased ability to perform the activities of daily living. Total and partial blindness affect a persons ability to read, to determine the colour of items, and general day to day activities. These people must rely on memory or depend on someone else for help. Visually impaired people rely on the technology to make their daily living easier. As visually impaired people can’t see where they walk, they run the risk of falling down much more than sighted people, therefore having mobile phone can be potentially life saver. Also, visually impaired people are less likely to be doing activities like normal sighted people, so having a mobile phone is like their eyes to the world i.e. they can reach out to people at any time and feel less isolated. The technology can help visually impaired people interact with others and communicate more effectively. Also the technology can enable visual impaired people to have more access to information, become more independent and achieve their individual aims and goals in life. The market is flooded with a variety of mobile phones, but not all of them are easily usable by people with visual impairments. It is important that technology should assist visually impaired people of all ages. Making the most of technology can have a very positive impact, helping people who are blind and partially sighted to increase their independence and more importantly feel and be as equal as normal sighted people. 1.2 What is accessibility? According to Gnome, ‘Accessibility means helping people with disabilities to participate in substantial life activities. That includes work and the use of services, products, and information’. From the definition, the understanding is that accessibility is the level to which something is accessible or usable by people with disabilities. For information technology, accessibility will mean people with disabilities be able to use software, hardware and other services that are designed and available for sighted people. Software, hardware and other services should be universally designed. Article 2 from The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, says that: Universal design means the design of products, environments, programmes and services to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design. â€Å"Universal design† shall not exclude assistive devices for particular groups of persons with disabilities where this is needed. 1.3 Considerations of human physical factors when developing a mobile phone for a visually impaired person If we compare the mobile phones from a decade ago to todays phones, we notice that mobile phones are getting more and more complicated. In the past, all input was done via a keypad which could have been used by visually impaired people, because keypads had raised dot or raised bar on the 5 key which made it easy for visually impaired person to navigate and dial a number. Nowadays, with most mobile phones we use a touch screen or buttons and interact at any time; we can browse the internet, check our emails, take pictures and chat with friends. A visually impaired person will not be able to see the screen of the mobile phone, or navigate through the touch phone’s screen. It appears that as we are getting more advanced in the technology of mobile phones the accessibility has not improved at the same rate as the advancement in the technology. A visually impaired person cannot read the screen, cannot input information or read the output on a touch screen, and there isn’t an audible device to inform where they are navigating or have touched the phone. Therefore it is very important when developing mobile phones to take into account that visually impaired people can hear, can feel different surfaces with their fingers, but cannot read and navigate via a touch screen. 2. Review of HTC Hero The HTC Hero is a small, all-in-one device that is used for communication and computing functions. It enables us to choose the applications we want to install and use, as well as personalize the range of applications to suit our needs. Picture 1: Main Screen of HTC Hero mobile phone. Source: www.htc.com/www/product/hero/overview.html (Accessed 12 Feb 2011) We can note from the main screen of the HTC Hero mobile phone (See Picture 1) that the standard keypad has been omitted and touch screen technology is used, the human computer interaction is done by touching the screen for input and output. For a person to be able to make even a phone call on HTC Hero they need to see where on the screen they are touching; in other terms, the user of the phone interacts directly by seeing what they are touching. 2.1 Usability testing (the Heuristic evaluation) The international standard ISO 9241 Part 11 (www.iso.org) defines usability as; â€Å"The extent to which a product or system can be used by users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specified context of use† Based on this definition for usability, the further understanding is that is a system or product is not accessible, consequentially is not usable to the set of users that are unable to access it. Below is a brief heuristic evaluation of the HTC Hero mobile phone, to determine if it is accessible to a visually impaired person. The heuristic evaluation is broken into three sections: Hardware Software Services    2.1.2. Hardware Hardware is the physical mobile phone Picture 2: HTC Hero. Source: engadget.com/2009/07/23/htc-hero-review/ (Accessed 12 Feb 2011) The HTC Hero is very slim, light in weight, and can be held in the palm. The phone has definite shape and definite front/back/top/bottom to inform us which way round it should be used. The visual information displayed on the main screen is in immediate contrast with the background and is clear, but visually impaired person will not be able to see it. The phone has a white track ball (see arrow on Pic. 2) and touchpad. The track ball enables movement between screens and selects some services. A visually impaired person will not be able to see on which application or screen the trackball has stopped. The HTC Hero has 6 buttons located on the bottom of the phone, their colour is in contrast with the immediate background, and a visually impaired person by touching will recognize that there are buttons. The buttons are easy to press and have a positive â€Å"click† feel when pressed (although no noise is heard), which means that a visually impaired person will know they have pressed a button but not know the output function of the button pressed as there is no Braille labeling of buttons. A visually impaired person will not be able to see that the HTC Hero is compatible with other devices such as USB cable and Wi-Fi and there are no instructions in alternative media (such as Braille or audio). 2.1.2 Software The HTC Hero supports input and output via the touchpad. The input and output methods are via touchpad and they restrain the blind or partially sighted user from accessing the mobile phone. The software does not play an audible sound when an action is committed such as pressing a button, and the visually impaired person will not know on what is the function of the button pressed. The software does have speakerphone functionality, however the visually impaired person will not know how to access and navigate it. The HTC Hero does not have tactile input or output, such as Braille, to assist visually impaired users. 2.1.3. Services Services represent applications that can be accessed by touching an icon on the screen (See picture 3). Picture 3: HTC Hero applications and services. Source: engadget.com/2009/07/23/htc-hero-review/ (Accessed 12 Feb 2011) If the user wants to make a phone call they need to touch an icon on the screen (see arrow on Picture 3) and HTC hero will display list of all contacts. (See Picture 5). Picture 4: HTC Hero – List of Contacts and numerical keyboard. Source: www.htc.com/www/product/hero/overview.html (Accessed 12 Feb 2011) From pictures 3 and 4, it is noticeable that the input commands are on a touch screen, and the visually impaired person will not be able to use these functions on the smartphone HTC Hero. The HTC Hero doesn’t have audio, Braille controls or magnifier to navigate to assist the visually impaired person to select an application or service such as the web services. Also, the web services have not been designed following the W3C guidelines for Mobile Web Best Practices. 2.2 Nielsens Ten Usability Heuristics (Taken from Nielsens website www.useit.com ) Visibility of system status Match between system and the real world User control and freedom Consistency and standards Error prevention Recognition rather than recall Flexibility and efficiency of use Aesthetic and minimalist design Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors Help and documentation 3. Personal suggested improvements The HTC Hero has excluded tactile information and there is a lack of facilities to enable visually impaired people to access the information displayed on the touch screen. There is also a lack of audible input and output which makes it inaccessible to visually impaired people. Below are several personal suggestions that could improve the accessibility and usability of the HTC Hero for visually impaired people: 3.1 Audio Input and Output Introducing a form of Audio Input and Output functionality to the software will make an enormous difference to the HTC Hero. One suggestion would be a system where the user can press an icon on the touchpad and the phone audibly informs the user which icon the have pressed and navigates them to the next logical steps. 3.2 Tactile Input and Output Adding tactile input and output functionality to the HTC Hero could potentially help visually impaired people. The system should have the option to switch Braille on and off. Although Braille literacy is very low in number (only 2% of UK blind people can read Braille) this functionality within the software should not be omitted. 3.3 Touch screen advances A major improvement on touch screen accessibility would be made by adopting the audio-haptic interface techniques to allow non-visual access to touch screen appliances, as suggested per Vanderheiden’s Talking Fingertip Technique (Vanderheiden 2010). The Talking Fingertip Technique is a touch screen that speaks the descriptive names of the controls as the user accesses the screen by touch. 3.4 Introduce Mobile Magnifier Adding an assisted device such as a Mobile Magnifier would help partially sighted people on touch screen phone of the HTC Hero. The mobile magnifier enlarges and enhances the readability of the screen. 3.5 Follow W3C Guidelines for Mobile Web Services The HTC Hero could adopt the W3C Guidelines for developing Mobile Web Services to improve the accessibility for visually impaired people. 4. Conclusion In this report I have investigated the issues of accessibility faced by visually impaired people when using human computer interface, in particular the touch screen mobile phone. I have used the example of the HTC Hero mobile phone for a case study of accessibility and usability. I have evaluated it against the current accessibility and usability guidelines. During my research, I have found several issues that should be addressed if the HTC Hero is to become accessible and usable by visually impaired people. These issues include a lack of usage of assisted devices such as: audio input and output tactile input and output magnifier for visually impaired people not following the W3C Guidelines for Mobile Web Services I have suggested several improvements to the HTC Hero that can be made by using existing technology. These suggestions for improvements include following W3C guidelines for improving accessibility for mobile phones, introducing audio input and output, tactile input and output, adoption the Vanderheiden’s Talking Fingertip Technique and possibly the adoption of mobile magnifier. Hopefully, these suggestions will help developers to add accessibility to their applications in a way that is straight forward for the developer and intuitive for the user. 5. References Definition for blindness and partial blind: nhs.uk/conditions/Visual-impairment/Pages/Introduction.aspx   (Last Accessed 12 Feb 2011). Definition of Accessibility, Gnome: http://library.gnome.org/devel/accessibility-devel-guide/stable/gad.html.en (Last Accessed 12 Feb 2011). Definition of usability: iso.org/iso/ (Last Accessed 12 Feb 2011). Mobile Magnifier, sightandsound.co.uk/products/?category=1subcat=31minorcat=8 (Last Accessed 27 Feb 2011). Pictures1, 2 3: www.htc.com/www/product/hero/overview.html (Last Accessed 12 Feb 2011). Picture 4: engadget.com/2009/07/23/htc-hero-review/ (Last Accessed 12 Feb 2011). Statistics about Braille literacy: webbie.org.uk/webbie.htm (Last Accessed 26 Feb 2011). UN convention for the rights of people with disabilities: un.org/disabilities/convention/conventionfull.shtml (Last Accessed 26 Feb 2011). Use of audio-haptic interface (Vanderheiden) http://trace.wisc.edu/docs/touchscreen/chi_conf.htm (Last Accessed 27 Feb 2011). W3C guidelines for Mobile w3.org/TR/mobile-bp/   (Last Accessed 27 Feb 2011).

Free Essays on Y2K Bugged

Y2K Bugged - What Happened? Were Y2K remediation efforts a big waste of time and money for corporate America? The answer looks to be a resounding no. Network professionals have reported a host of benefits they will enjoy in 2000 and beyond because of IT inventories, business analysis and system testing completed under the umbrella of Y2K preparedness. Overall, the U.S. spent more than $100 billion fixing the Y2K problem since 1995, according to John Koskinen, the federal government's Y2K czar. He estimates that the rest of the world spent an additional $100 billion to repair and replace computer systems and networks in preparation for the millennium date change. The investments appear to have been wise. While many government agencies and companies experienced minor Y2K-related glitches, no significant system outages occurred over New Year's weekend. And although it is still early to declare absolute victory over Y2K, date-change problems expected during the next few weeks and months will likely be nuisances rather than business-crippling matters. The lesson we have learned. As IT executives close up their command centers, they are putting together the lessons they have learned from the Y2K drill. They say one of the biggest advantages is Y2K forced them to thoroughly inventory and document IT systems and networks. "We were able to conduct a very intensive inventory of all our systems," says Lyn McDermid, chief information officer of Virginia Power in Richmond, Va. "As a result of that, we have eliminated quite a few redundant applications, and we eliminated systems that were obsolete. That should reduce our support costs. "We were also able to introduce some new technology and jump-start our Web development. We feel that we really did get ancillary benefits from Y2K." Similarly, Prudential Insurance created strategic inventories of its software, hardware and business partners. Irene Dec, Prudential's Y2K program ma... Free Essays on Y2K Bugged Free Essays on Y2K Bugged Y2K Bugged - What Happened? Were Y2K remediation efforts a big waste of time and money for corporate America? The answer looks to be a resounding no. Network professionals have reported a host of benefits they will enjoy in 2000 and beyond because of IT inventories, business analysis and system testing completed under the umbrella of Y2K preparedness. Overall, the U.S. spent more than $100 billion fixing the Y2K problem since 1995, according to John Koskinen, the federal government's Y2K czar. He estimates that the rest of the world spent an additional $100 billion to repair and replace computer systems and networks in preparation for the millennium date change. The investments appear to have been wise. While many government agencies and companies experienced minor Y2K-related glitches, no significant system outages occurred over New Year's weekend. And although it is still early to declare absolute victory over Y2K, date-change problems expected during the next few weeks and months will likely be nuisances rather than business-crippling matters. The lesson we have learned. As IT executives close up their command centers, they are putting together the lessons they have learned from the Y2K drill. They say one of the biggest advantages is Y2K forced them to thoroughly inventory and document IT systems and networks. "We were able to conduct a very intensive inventory of all our systems," says Lyn McDermid, chief information officer of Virginia Power in Richmond, Va. "As a result of that, we have eliminated quite a few redundant applications, and we eliminated systems that were obsolete. That should reduce our support costs. "We were also able to introduce some new technology and jump-start our Web development. We feel that we really did get ancillary benefits from Y2K." Similarly, Prudential Insurance created strategic inventories of its software, hardware and business partners. Irene Dec, Prudential's Y2K program ma...