Practices in Project Management Essay

Abstract The St. Dismas Medical Center (SDMC) Assisted Living Facility (ALF) Project was authorized to create a new service line to counteract a decline of inpatient activity. The project objectives are to build 100 light- and heavy-assist units in a standalone residential facility with a sheltered connection to SDMC by late-July 2001 and within an $11 million budget. The particular deliverables, constraints, assumptions, exclusions, and work breakdown structure are outlined in the Project Scope Statement. Brainstorming and scenario analysis will be used in the risk strategy, while cost-benefit analysis will be the primary tool in project quality management. A project work list and milestone schedule illustrates the critical path for the 102-week construction phase. And, the $10 million budget is detailed by activity and quarter to reconcile the multiple cost perspectives of team members. Project monitoring will primarily use earned value metrics along with the Gantt chart and budget. Data will be analyzed and reported weekly to the team, and significant deviations from the plan are subject to the control strategy; milestone status reporting and meeting with the Board of Trustees and submission of change requests to get the plan back on track. The plan will conduct a formal closeout process to include an audit, closeout meetings, a final report, closeout meetings, and record archival. Project Purpose and Justification Over the past few months, there has been a steady decline of the inpatient population at St. Dismas Medical Center (SDMC) due to the increased usage of seatbelts and bicycle/motorcycle helmets. A planning retreat was held to  identify business opportunities and a solution was proposed to build an assisted living facility on the St. Dismas campus. The purpose of the project is to plan and implement Assisted Living Facility (ALF) as authorized by the Board of Trustees in May 1999. The project is being completed in order to create a new service line to take advantage of the opportunity presented by the shortage of medically-focused and highly specialized facilities available throughout the country and a growing geriatric population. We project that the ALF, the for-profit subsidiary of SDMC, will bring in a net income between $9,000 and $12,000 per unit and a net cash flow of about $1,500,000 annually. Both outpatient referrals and inpatient population are expected to increase. Furthermore, we hope that the project will have an added benefit of strengthening the organizational focus on reimbursable preventive and wellness programs for healthier aging community. Project Requirements The ALF Project Steering Committee has identified several actions and processes that need to be met, including: facility design and construction; operational needs for food services, housekeeping, and staffing; development of operational policy and procedures; creation of an operating budget; creation of payroll and accounting systems; characterization and set up of telecommunications and information system needs; preliminary marketing plans, with community and staff communications plans; development of medical assessment tools for incoming residents; designation of clinical services offerings; development of an organizational structure; identification of government regulations and industry standards. Primary Project Objectives The primary project objectives of the ALF Project are as follows: The cost objective is to fall in between $8.5 to $11 million for the construction of the facility. The time objective was to complete construction and open by July 2000, but was later revised to a duration of two years, with completion by late July 2001. The scope objectives are to build a standalone residential facility with a sheltered connection to SDMC that can access the  cafeteria and hospital services, containing 100 units that accommodate up to 150 single and couple residents with 15 to 30 â€Å"heavy-assisted† units and the remaining units â€Å"light-assisted†. Assumptions and Constraints The following is assumed: Project funds will be released in a timely manner. Project team members and resources will be available as needed. Contractors will have the skills and experience needed to complete the project. The constraints are as follows: The construction cannot begin until after the November 1999 city elections. The facility needs to open by late July 2001. Operational and administrative policies, procedures, and systems need to be created and regulations and standards need identification. High-Level Risks As with all projects, there is a risk of running over budget, over schedule, and/or falling short on scope. There are several high-level risks for the ALF project. One particular area of concern was the short seven-month time period for the complex construction project, but that has been extended about another year. Further, the organizational complexity is high with the number of people involved across many functions and the decision-making body being the Board of Trustees. This complexity may lead to delays in decision-making. The project is also much larger than SDMC has handled in the past with only one team member having construction experience. The operational and administrative regulations and standards for construction and healthcare industries will be complex and have not yet been identified. Construction projects have a strong potential to impact the local ecology which will add a risk factor to the project. Further, weather poses a high-level risk to the project and may negatively impact the schedule by delaying supply deliveries and construction work. Major Project Milestones Major project milestones include: 1. Facility design and construction 2. Identification of operational needs 3. Project and operating budget development 4. Creation of payroll and accounting systems 5. Define telecommunications needs and system setup 6. Define information systems and system setup 7. Creation of a preliminary marketing plan and communications package 8. Organize major ground breaking event 9. Clinical Services 10. Design of assessment tool for incoming residents 11. Identification of demands for clinical services 12. Development of facility’s management structure 13. Identification of governmental regulations and industry standards Preliminary Budget Estimate The preliminary budget estimate for the completed project is between $8.5 and $11 million, which includes the land purchase, facility construction, facility furnishings, and construction of the sheltered connection from the assisted living facility to the Medical Center. Key Stakeholders Illustrated below is the key stakeholder analysis matrix, which demonstrates the key stakeholders, their levels of power and interest, and an engagement plan. The matrix is followed by a communications chart that outlines stakeholders, their responsibilities, and their communication needs. The project scope is to build a standalone residential facility for the purpose of providing assisted living services to up to 150 single and couple residents. The product will also include a sheltered connective structure that provides access to St. Dismas Medical Center’s cafeteria and hospital services. The facility will contain 100 residential units with 15 – 30of those units that accommodate residents that need heavy assistance and the remaining units categorized as â€Å"light-assisted†. The cost to construct the facility should fall within $8.5 to $11 million range. Acceptance of the project requires that construction may not begin until after city elections in November 1999 and the facility must open to the public by late July 2001. Project Constraints The construction cannot begin until after the November 1999 city elections. The facility needs to open by late July 2001. Operational and administrative policies, procedures, and systems need to be created and regulations and standards need identification. The budget cap is $11 million. Project Assumptions There are several assumptions that may also impact the implementation of the project if they prove to be false (Project Management Institute, 2013): Project funds will be released in a timely manner. Project team members and resources will be available as needed. Contractors will have the skills and experience needed to complete the project. Project Deliverables facility design and construction; operational needs for food services, housekeeping, and staffing; development of operational policy and procedures; creation of an operating budget; creation of payroll and accounting systems; characterization and set up of telecommunications and information system needs; preliminary marketing plans, with community and staff communications plans; development of medical assessment tools for incoming residents; designation of clinical services offerings; development of an organizational structure; identification of government regulations and industry standards. Project Exclusions Items that are not included in the scope include: design and construction of a parking lot or garage design, construction, and furnishings of patient entertainment and activity areas design, construction, and furnishings of exercise and fitness areas design and development of landscaping, walking paths, and gardening areas design, construction, and furnishings of private visiting areas design, construction, and furnishings of salon and barber services area design, construction, and furnishings of dining area Project Risk and Quality Management Strategy Project Risk Strategy The project team has held a brainstorming session with a group of consultants in several relevant areas of expertise to identify an exhaustive list of risks by questioning what could go wrong with tasks. The scenario analysis method has also been utilized to identify, analyze, and prioritize risks from high-to-low impact. This method entails utilizing critical thinking skills to realize events that may likely impact the project (Mantel, Meredith, Shafer, & Sutton, 2011). Additionally, the work breakdown structure (WBS) and project profile were scrutinized to further identify highly probable risks as suggested by Mantel et al. (2011). The following highly probable risks have been identified: Bad weather Inadequate staffing Inadequate budget Project management team inexperience Regulatory and industry requirements Cost estimation errors Complex organizational structure and decision-making process Broad set of stakeholders that have yet to weigh in on the project Environmental impact from construction Project communication and coordination issues Inadequate deliverables (e.g. parking garage) Inadequate time schedule The strategy for handling risks is to develop a risk response plan as advised by Mantel et al. (2011). The risk response plan will include contingency plans to handle events that do happen, with more than one contingency plan and supporting logic charts developed for high-impact risk. Furthermore, risk identification and response planning will be ongoing through the project duration. Project Quality Management Strategy The ALF project quality management strategy is to follow the Project Management Institute (PMI) (2013) guidelines: identify quality requirements, document compliance levels of quality requirements, perform quality assurance auditing, and control quality by taking action to address poor quality measurements. Inevitably changes will have to be made to manage events or unsatisfactory quality results. The ALF Project change management strategy is to include provisions in the original contract to accommodate change as suggested by Mantel et al. (2011). An integrated change control process will be created and implemented, as advised by PMI (2013) to reduce project risks through holistic analysis of proposed changes. This process will outline how change requests will be reviewed, approved or denied, and how those changes will impact other aspects of the project (policies, documents, plans, etc.) (Project Management Institute, 2013). Two tools that will be used to manage quality are: cost-benefit analysis, which compares the cost of the proposed change to the expected benefit. cause-and-effect diagrams which utilizes the question  Ã¢â‚¬Å"why† to discover the root cause of a problem in order to correct it. Cost-benefit analysis will be useful in presenting problems and their possible changes to the decision-making body in order for them to fully assess their options and identify the solution that best suits their requirements. The cause-and-effect diagram will be beneficial in recognizing the true problem that needs to be addressed. Finding a solution for the root cause will help the team avoid unnecessary costs, time, efforts, and rework in addressing the wrong issues. Construction Phase Milestone Schedule Below is the work list and milestone schedule for the construction phase of the St. Dismas Assisted Living Facility project. The critical path (B-C-D-E-F-G-H-I-K-L-O-P-S-T) is illustrated in green on the milestone schedule. The project is scheduled to be completed in 102 weeks, just shy of two years. The assumptions for this schedule are the following: The milestone schedule will be approved by the Board of Trustees. The project will begin in August 1999 after action plans are submitted. Project funds will be released in a timely manner. Project team members and resources will be available as needed. Contractors will have the skills and experience needed to complete the project. Project Budget Below are the summary-level budget and detailed budget for the St. Dismas ALF Project. The assumption from examining the provided cost information chart is that the Chief Operating Officer and the Construction Project Manager provided the estimates for the facility design and construction activities of the ALF project, and upper management dictated the administrative and contingency budgets, and both did so honestly. Bottom-up budgeting utilizes the work breakdown structure in a way that cost estimates of each activity are completed by the team members responsible for carrying out those tasks, while top-down budgeting produces estimates based on the judgments and experiences of top managers (Mantel et al., 2011). The combination use in this project of top-down and bottom-up budgeting is ideal, according to Mantel et al. (2011). The advantage of top-down budgeting is that it generally has a high degree of accuracy, although it can include considerable miscalculations for low-level act ivities; bottom-up budgeting is opposite in that it provides accuracy for low-level activities and the possibility of considerable miscalculations for high-cost activities (Mantel et al., 2011). The detailed budget is also divided by task and expected quarter of expenditure to address the multiple perspectives of cost between the project manager (PM), the accountant, and the controller. Mantel et al. (2011) point out that the PM is concerned with commitments made against the budget, accountants track costs as they are incurred, and controllers are responsible for the organization’s cash flow. Dividing costs by activity and quarter allow all three parties to understand their relationship to the project. In this budget, the bulk of the detail outlines only one deliverable from the project’s scope statement and work breakdown structure—facility design and construction. The other deliverables are clumped into the central and direct administrative costs categories. Although the budget may sufficiently cover the costs of the labor that needs to go into the other deliverables (identifying needs and regulations, and developing plans, systems, and budgets), it may insufficiently cover the costs for other aspects of some of the deliverables, such as setting up  telecommunications and information systems, and organizing a major ground-breaking event. Furthermore, consideration should be given to the fact that project exclusions from the Project Scope Statement, such as design and construction of a parking area and activity and entertainment areas, are not factored into this budget. The current budget totals $10,000,000, which is still $1,000,000 under the original estimated budget and leaves some room to add deliverables if necessary. Project Summary Budget Project Monitor and Control Strategy The ALF Project monitor and control strategy is as follows. The project team will continuously monitor schedule progress via the Gantt chart and monitor budget progress via the detailed budget. Monitoring these will give the team a comparison of the time period against the actual plan. However, the team will utilize earned value (EV) metrics to not only compare the current situation with the plan, but also consider the actual progress at the point of evaluation (Mantel at al., 2011). The data from these control tools will be collected and analyzed weekly and reported to the team on a weekly basis as stated in the communication chart. The project management team will assess if any deviations from the plan are significant enough to employ control measures. If the project management team feels that intervention is  necessary, data (including the project milestone status report), assessments, and suggestions will be communicated with the Board of Trustees, and change requests will be s ubmitted with the aim to reduce the differences between the plan and the actual circumstances. Earned value metrics is the ALF Project preferred monitoring tool for the purposes of monitoring and controlling. Earned value metrics allow the team to compare the plan with the actual progress at any given point in the project, to see how efficiently our schedule and costs are being maintained, and providing an estimate of cost if the project is continued at the current rate (Mantel et al., 2011). Utilizing a go/no-go control, such as the milestone status report, allows us to compare the project output (using milestones as checkpoints) to the existing standard, assess what are needs are in terms of physical assets, human resources, and/or finances for particular tasks, and employ the necessary steps to meet those needs in order to get the project schedule, budget, and/or scope aligned with the plan (Mantel et al., 2011). Project Closeout The ALF Project will conduct a formal project closeout primarily to â€Å"help the organization improve its project management skills on future project† (Mantel et al., 2011, p. 273). The formal project closeout will allow SDMC to understand project mistakes, accomplishments, performance, and project team and management efficiencies and deficiencies, and document these in the organizational knowledge base. Furthermore, a formal close out deals with all those involved in the project in a way that has positive impact on morale and trust. The organization and the project managers show they are reliable when they finish what they start, communicate to each department that it is time to finalize their project activities, and deal with project staff and their reassignments in a tactful manner. The project closeout will follow the suggestion of Mantel et al. (2011). After the project manager ensures that all project work is complete, the project must go through the project acceptance phase. Acceptance needs to be gained from the Board of Trustees, and project management team, and officially recorded. A detailed audit will be performed to assess the progress and performance of the project’s plan through examination of â€Å"its methodology and procedures, its records, properties, inventories, budgets, expenditures, progress, and so  on† (Mantel et al., 2011, p. 275). Audit findings as well as the complete project history will be written in a final report. The final report will include the project failures, successes, and lessons learned. The final report will also document the project activities and management techniques, the location of the organization’s assets, and recommendations for improvement. The final report will be distributed to stakeholders upon completion. Closeout meetings with contractors and department heads (financial, legal, purchasing, organizational, facility, etc.) will be head to notify them of project termination, provide direction to clear the project activities in which they are responsible, and address final issues. A closeout meeting with project personnel will be conducted to address reassignments and stress, and provide closure. Finally, the project books will be closed, organizational assets will be updated, and records will be archived. References Mantel, S., Meredith, J., Shafer, S., & Sutton, M. (2011). Project Management in Practice (4th ed). Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons. Project Management Institute. (2013). A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK ® guide) (5th ed). Newtown Square: PMI Publications.

Poverty and Human Essay

Poverty is a disgraceful and unjust condition that has always haunted mankind. Most people see the problem as insoluble. They see previous solutions that have failed. Some even think that previous remedies have worsened the condition of the poor. They claim that assisting the poor increases dependency and produces a â€Å"culture of poverty† that persists from generation to generation. Some go further and blame the poor for their problems. They think many of the poor are shiftless, lazy, unintelligent, or even parasitic. All that said, there is widespread pessimism about mankind’s ability to reduce the world’s level of poverty and wasted lives. But why help the poor? This is a subject about which I feel passionately, yet at the same time realistically – with a strong compassion rather than sentimentality. Nevertheless, as I have traveled the world, my indignation has often been aroused by the sights and sounds of human need. I had the privilege once in Calcutta to meet Mother Teresa at one of her feeding centers for the poor and outcast of that teeming city. When I asked her how she coped with all the fame and adulation she receives, she replied: â€Å"It means nothing to me. But one thing I have done which I believe is important. I have helped people to talk to the poor and not just about the poor†. That is a simple but very significant statement which indicates ‘the poor’ are not just some conglomerate group which can be dismissed as an economically, non-productive sector of society that we are unfortunately stuck with. They are fellow human beings – real people, individuals – for whom we have concern and responsibility.

The Love Suicides

In The Love Suicides, Ritter by Classmate Anemones and considered to be a masterpiece, many complications arise In this romantic and dramatic tragedy that demonstrates a most complex look at love. In this essay, I will delve Into the symbolism of the work, the significances of the characters' actions, the cultural differences from those that I am accustomed, and my viewpoint of the fatal ending. The Love Suicides is set in a Snakeskin, Japan tea house in 1720 and is a great favorite of the Japanese stage.It tells the calamitous story of Jessie, a paper merchant and his lover, Koura, a prostitute. This story Is about the moral and social code ender which the townsmen lived at the time, with the status of merchants being lower than that of the samurai class. Even though considered to be a lower class, the townsmen had developed a firm ethical code whereby in order for your business to prosper, your financial and personal obligations had to be met first. Jessie is married to his cousin, San, and is tormented by his sense of duty to his family and tormented by his love for Koura.The story opens with Koura secretly meeting a â€Å"samurai customer,† while dodging Ethel. A wealthy man who Is attempting to buy her contract and take her as his own. Koura does not like Tahiti and wants no part of him. In trying to understand Tahiti, I can only imagine that he feels. Tahiti is a rich guy who loves this woman but she in love with another man who happens to be married and the father of two children. The â€Å"samurai customer† walks in wearing a wicker hat concealing his face.The samurai Is actually Jewel's brother, Magneto, a flour merchant, who has come Into the tea house to meet Koura. However, Ethel believes him to be Jell, whom he despises and begins to speak negatively about him attempting to defame him and ruin his reputation in the eyes of Koura. Tahiti continues to rant about Sissies occupation as a paper merchant, putting him down incessantly. The à ¢â‚¬Å"samurai waited patiently for his turn with Koura, and finally Tahiti left, but left her depressed and In deep thought about her love, Jill.This only makes the â€Å"samurai† even angrier because after being very irritated at all of the commotion Ethel had made, he soul Is not getting any service as a guest of the establishment. The â€Å"samurai† is getting angry with Koura for neglecting him, and she begins to tell him that she's been afraid of dying ever since Jessie asked her to omit a love suicide. Unbeknownst to Koura,Jessie is outside eavesdropping, having gone to visit her after hearing that she was meeting a samurai costumer. Jessie has been with Koura for almost two years and everyone knows it.He begins to wonder If the two years had been a lie. Jell Is so Infuriated at this point that he tries house. In an effort to defend Koura, the â€Å"samurai† grabs hold of the Sissies hand through the latticework and ties him up. Tahiti returns and sees Jes sie tied up outside the window and seizes his opportunity to beat him up, while calling him a thief trying to rob the place. The samurai comes to Sissies defense and starts assaulting Tahiti, causing him to run away. It was then that the samurai revealed himself to be Sissies brother.Magneto begins to pour his heart out to his brother, telling him how his affair with Koura has Just about destroyed his family and tarnished his own reputation. Jessie understands and tells his brother that he is ending his relationship with Koura, wanting to destroy all of the love letters that were exchanged between himself and Koura. Magneto takes all of them and finds a note from San, Sissies wife, addressed to Koura. What are the limits of love? In this story so far, boundaries have been pushed and emotions have run high. Sissies brother is clearly there out of love for his family and for his brother.When the reputation of your family and your own is at risk then this is the point where a serious d ecision has to be made on what your future actions will be. San actually starts to feel sorry for Koura and the situation the she is in, loving a married man (her husband) and has a contract on her by someone who she doesn't love. San wants Jessie to go and save Koura from committing suicide. She wants him to pay the ransom to get her out of the contract. Jessie tells San that the price is very high so San gets half of the money and tells Jessie to pawn all of the family fine garments to make up the other half.These family garments are the nicest and most valuable items at the time to own. These are thick silk and patterned clothing that have been passed down through the generations. Why does San care that much about a woman that is sleeping with her husband? These are the cultural difference that have made this one of the best stories and is still in books today. When Son's father, Agamemnon hears that San was willing to ell the family garments to save her husband's mistress, he fo rbids it and demands that Jessie divorces his daughter and takes San away.In the meantime Magneto is running around looking everywhere for his brother. Jessie hides from Magneto, watching and listening sadly to his brother's anguish and pain. Jessie sneaks back to the tea house and gets Koura and they take off to Maxima, knowing that their lives would end soon and decide that they will die at the Adagio Temple, the perfect place for their love suicide. Jessie and Shark's decision to kill themselves is quite stubbing to me. The thought of committing suicide in the western word is extremely taboo.In many eastern societies, it is considered an honorable way to die. I believe suicide to be a cowardly act. Jessie isn't thinking about his wife or his children, only himself. Jessie tells Koura that he has divorced San, but still out of respect for her they will not to die together, saving San the shame of how it will look. At dawn, the fateful couple prepare for death. Jessie stabs and kil ls Koura with a knife and then hangs himself by Jumping off a sluice gate with a noose around his neck. They die in the belief that they would share the next life together in happiness.A teaching of Buddha is that those who commit suicide for love will be together in the next life to come. As for me, this is a story of impulsiveness, heightened emotions, and human frailties. Jessie was torn between two opposing worlds, one of duty and the It is true that love is a most powerful emotion and can make some people commit some of the most irrational, unfathomable, illogical, incomprehensible, hopeless, desperate and deadly acts imaginable. In the case of Jessie and Koura, they did it for love.

Macroeconomics Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Macroeconomics - Case Study Example Due to this fact among others, there has been a suggestion that the unemployment rate that has been released by the government are not exactly accurate and may actually be higher than the numbers stated (Nutting). However, taking this mode of argument means that one has to consider a number of factors before they are in agreement with the authors of these articles. For instance, the fact that one may be hindered from looking for a job by circumstances such as other duties and responsibilities like childcare and homecare does not mean that given the chance these individuals would actively search for employment opportunities. One has to factor in the issue of willingness as well as determination especially in a time where one can easily search for jobs online without having to leave the comfort of their homes. There are also various jobs that one can perform from their homes and thus if these individuals have not tried to get these kind of employment opportunities it can be established that they would look for the more traditional forms of work had they had an opportunity. The issue of being discouraged by the current economic situation and perhaps their failure in the past can also not be seen as a serious hindrance as this is a factor that can be overcome by willpower and determination. It can thus be correct to come to the conclusion that the real unemployment rate is not as accurate as one would think (Nutting). The issue of long term unemployment is also another subject that should be considered in matters of unemployment in relation to the available job opportunities that currently exist in the market. It has been seen that those who experience longer periods of time without employment have a lesser chance of getting a job as time goes on. This is because many employers tend to favor individuals who have a smaller gap between their status of unemployment and their last job (Coy). Long term

Knowledge Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Knowledge Management - Essay Example The paper talks about knowledge management that has been developed as a tool as well as an effective strategy that focuses on using of data, information and knowledge among the people in an organization. It therefore concentrates on creating, sharing and utilizing the data or information that are either stored in database or documented in scripts or papers, and converting them to useful forms of knowledge for the benefits of the organization. Data is un-processed information, and when these are gathered, analyzed, interpreted and recorded in documents or database, it becomes information. Knowledge occurs when people gain information and are processed for the use of them in the organization. For several years, organizations have been solely depending on documents for recording and analyzing the data as well as information, but in recent years, technologies have got major significance and roles in the knowledge management landscape due to the advances in information technology. Tacit a nd Explicit knowledge are common terms in knowledge management literature. Knowledge can be classified as either explicit or tacit. This classification is based on where the data, information and knowledge are stored. According to this classification, knowledge management is a process of storing and making them used for the business throughout the papers, documents, data base as commonly referred as explicit knowledge. Information and knowledge that exists in people’s mind are known to be part of tacit knowledge. ... Tacit and Explicit knowledge are common terms in knowledge management literature. Knowledge can be classified as either explicit or tacit. This classification is based on where the data, information and knowledge are stored. According to this classification, knowledge management is a process of storing and making them used for the business throughout the papers, documents, data base as commonly referred as explicit knowledge. Information and knowledge that exists in people’s mind are known to be part of tacit knowledge (Noe, p. 170). Knowledge that are stored in computers assisted by certain specially built software are very similar to that of tacit knowledge, despite the fact that they are commonly referred as explicit, because they can easily be processed than that of papers or documents. Though both papers and technology data base together are known as explicit forms, technology has made tremendous changes and brought greater conveniences in the field of knowledge managemen t, because technology made knowledge management an easy process. Tacit knowledge is more valuable and possesses greater significance in terms of its effectiveness to business, because knowledge that exist in people’s mind can easily be processed, transferred, shared and converted to more useful forms. People may need more efforts in identifying suitable information from the documents or computers, analyzing them, summarizing and interpreting and finally using them for the business purposes. In short, knowledge management comprises of creation, sharing and using of information and knowledge, that are stored either in papers, documents, database or

Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the three views of reading Essay

Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the three views of reading instruction - Essay Example Students first learn how to read letters and combination of letters before moving on to words and complete sentences. The theory, in other words, maintains that the optimal strategy for learning reading is to study the parts and then move onto the whole. Basically, the primary advantage of the subskills theory is that it facilitates the learning of reading process by taking young learning through it step by step. Its disadvantage, however, lies in the tremendous emphasize it places on learning linguistic rules, something which young learners find difficult. The interactive theory, based on the one explained above as well as one the top-down group of reading instructions theory, calls upon readers to decode texts by bringing their background knowledge and experiences into the text. Readers, in other words, are called upon to engage with that which they read and make sense of it through their own experiences. As such, its primary intent is the teaching of decoding, vocabulary and comprehension skills. At this point, it is quite possible to infer the primary strength of the defined reading instruction theory lies in its promotion of student comprehension through learner’s experiences, implying the enhancement of comprehension through the highlighting of a text’s practical relevance. Its weakness, however, may be that it calls upon, as yet, cognitively and emotionally immature learners to subjectively engage with a text. As regards the transactional theory, it is little more than an elaboration upon the interactive group of reading instruction theories. As per this approach, readers decode, use their own knowledge, experiences and emotions to understand a text. Its strength lies in that it embraces the strengths of both the subskills and the interactive theories, while its weakness are the same as those cited for both the latter and former. Each of the reading instruction theories outlined in the preceding have their

Who are you Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Who are you - Essay Example le, I have a passion for the study of history, something that is very rare today considering that most of my friends consider history to be a boring subject. I am kind of a loner because except for my family, I have very few friends and in fact, I find it very difficult to make new friends. I like to study politics, again a subject that most of the people I know find to be boring or a waste of time but I think that it is a very relevant thing to study so that we can know what exactly is happening in our society, because these two cannot be separated. Some parts of me that have changed over time while there are others, which have remained the same since childhood. I was raised in a very conservative family whose values were instilled in me from an early age. However, as I have grown older, I have come to realize that some of the values which I was brought up to believe in are very discriminatory towards people of other cultures and that is why I strive to study other people and their cultures in order to better understand them. In other aspects, I have remained the same considering that I am still proud of my country, as well as the community within which I grew and most of all, I am still very close to my family and friends. I value my body a lot and in fact, many religions state that the body is a very holy thing (Angel, 141 – 156). I believe that it is our duty to take very good care of it because it is the vessel in, which our souls are carried. I exercise regularly and have a well balanced diet to ensure that my body remains healthy because if I were to do otherwise, then it is certain that my body would deteriorate quickly. I would like to live a long life and the best way to achieve this would be to maintain my body at the best standard I possibly can. There are many ways through, which I have come to know other people and many of these vary. The first people I have come to know are my family; this is because they are the people I first interacted with

Research Project Diabetes Proposal Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Project Diabetes - Research Proposal Example 6. diabetes-diabetic-diet.com 7. MyDiabetesCentral.com . 8. Introduction to Diabetes Diet. second-opinions.co.uk . 9. Blanchette, K. RD, CDE. The "Diabetic" Diet. . 10. The Australian Nutrition Foundation. Diet and Diabetes. 11. nutritionaustralia.org 12. Bernstein, K.. The Diabetes Diet. Diabete911.net 13. USA TODAY. Fighting Diabetes. 14. Helpguide. Diabetes Diet and Nutrition. .Patient.co.uk 15. Patienplus. Diabetes, Diet and Exercise. . 16. BeatingDiabetes. Beating Diabetes.org. . 17. Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia. Diabetic Diet. . 18. CNN.com. Diabetes. . 19. Rosenzweig J., M.D. Hamdy, O., M.D., Ph.D and Campbell, A. M.S., R.D., C.D.E. Diet and Diabetes: A Personalized Approach. . 20. The New York Times. Diabetes diet. . In order to compose the previous list, I have followed these next steps. Three different search engines were used: Yahoo.com, Google.com and MSN.com For the Yahoo.com search engine the key words used were: Diabetes diet, and the number of hits produced were...Based upon my preliminary research and the results I may find, I should narrow it down to diets, medicines, side effects, etc. As I have mentioned before, Diabetes is a very mortal disease, ranked as the fifth cause of death in the world. While trying to understand the disease I found out the different types of Diabetes. Once on that stage I found out that Diabetes could be treated, in some cases, by reforming one's diet. For that reason I have decided to focus my research on diets for the several types of Diabetes, including the ones affecting children. For the Yahoo.com search engine the key words used were: Diabetes diet, and the number of hits produced were about 66,600,000. The first one hundred pages from the list, were surfed, in order to obtain the addresses of some of the web pages from the previous list. For the second search engine, google.com, the key words used were: Diabetes diet, and it produced about 1,330,000 hits. Also for this search engine, the first one hundred web pages were examined in order to develop the previous list. The procedure used, was not effective since the three search engines produced about the same internet pages.

Creating a Culture of Evidence-Based Practice Assignment

Creating a Culture of Evidence-Based Practice - Assignment Example This is so because many people first seek information about organizations online before making decisions about them. The information can also be disseminated in hospitals through posters or having agents of the organization who can readily disseminate the information and answer any queries that might be made. In order to strengthen the culture of evidence-based practice, the organization should seek the input of patients and clients in their plans and research. This is so because they are at the peak of evidence-based practice and hence should be involved in the program every step of the way in order to ensure that the results of the program are successful. Nurses are care givers and they always aim at ensuring that the patients not only receive medical care but psychological one as well (Polit & Beck, 2012). Their input in the evidence-based practice is therefore to humanize the project through provision of a care giving and psychological assistance which will ensure the project minds the psychological aspect and impact to the patients and clients and hence making it more acceptable and have positive

Kandinsky's and Severini's Paintings Comparison Essay

Kandinsky's and Severini's Paintings Comparison - Essay Example The essay "Kandinsky's and Severini's Paintings Comparison" compares two paintings - "Picture with an Archer" by Vasily Kandinsky and "Dynamic Hieroglyphic of the Bal Tabarin" by Gino Severini. Picture with an Archer, 1909 constitutes a vibrant depiction that presents a patchwork surface. Such dematerialization of true forms is vividly depicted in the painting. On the other hand Severini's Dynamic Hieroglyphic of the Bal Tabarin, 1912 falls into an art movement in which artists were concerned with portraying the motion sensation. They were motivated by innovative techniques of photography as well as other types of new technologies along with transportation. They selected dynamic and dynamic themes such as the train station hubbub as well as nightclub energy. Before the advent of advanced photography, the movement of humans and animals could be studied only through observation for an action as it occurred before people. This article investigates these two paintings based on the way th ey are depicted, the technique used to portray them and their unique features. The depiction constitutes a mix of nostalgia, promise, and excitement and evokes an intimate environment of a dream. During the year of the painting, the artist was residing in Germany and was far from his home Russia. However, in the presence of the vivid picture's color energy offers some promise and excitement. The setting of the scene is an abstract landscape consisting of multi-hued trees and mountain that have a little house along.

Introduction to Project Managment Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Introduction to Project Managment - Assignment Example In this scenario our project main responsibility involves installation of artificial ice rinks. For this reason we will manage and plan the overall project for the enhanced performance. The main aim and objective of this project is to present a better handling, management and support for the establishment of the winter themed event at the new holiday park. For this project we are aimed to offer better facilities of project management and handling for the better performance of the overall project. In this scenario we are indentured to complete the project with the given cost and time based constraints. This will offer us a better opportunity for the overall successful completion of project. Here we will also encourage the project HR for the showing their best performance for a great deal of enhanced and successful project completion. In this project we are having a number of main project stockholders. In this scenario main project stockholders are having main intention for the project successful completion with the minimum disturbance to local residential areas. Here below I have outlined some of main project stockholders: There are lots of risks involved in every project. Here successful project management is about the effective management and handling of main project activities and tasks on time. This project for the Ice Rinks is also having some of main project risks and issues those are outlined below: Budgetary Risks: There is a number of project cost and budgetary risks at any project in case of our project for installation artificial ice rinks is also involving some of main project cost based risks. This project is going to held for 2 days. In this short time period we can take risks regarding effective resource availability. For this reason we need to invest in great deal of much better way. This can lead to overall high cost of effective project management that can cause overall project

Microsoft Powerpoint Presentation Essay Example for Free

Microsoft Powerpoint Presentation Essay a) Answer online Week 7 Forum Question: (2%) i. Research a few of the proposed changes to SMTP and DNS that are designed to reduce or eliminate SPAM. Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is responsible solely for sending e-mail messages. In Linux/UNIX, the send mail program activates in response to a command and sends the requested message.DNS servers, also called name servers, contain the server application that supports name-to-address translation. I was introduced to DNS servers earlier in the.Typically, the system on which the name server resides is called the name server system. DNS is a decentralized system: It does not depend on one source for updates, and one server does not store all the data. Instead, DNS is a distributed database that exists on name servers across the Internet. Microsoft Outlook, a popular email application often used in conjunction with Microsoft Office, comes with many Windows operating systems as a standard feature. Like other email programs, Outlook is vulnerable to spam, or junk emails. Spam emails sometimes carry viruses and can fill your inbox with junk, obscenity and advertisements. But you can stop spam in Outlook by altering the level of spam protection on the program. One of the most dramatic changes of the next 10 years will be the emergence of everyday robots and computer intelligences in our economy and everyday lives. And since the real estate industry is, at its core, a knowledge industry, the emergence of computer intelligences is going to affect all the players in the industry in a variety of ways. Richard Worzel is not only a Chartered Financial Analyst and best-selling author, but is Canada’s leading futurist. In this presentation, he provides an overview of how these developments, plus other tech-related matters, will change the industry and the way things are done, including: Crowd sourcing – The rating of houses, real estate companies, and legal services will move even more quickly in the directions pioneered by tripadvisor in travel, and Amazon in customer-rated books. This will include comments on neigh bourhoods, brokers and agents, and home-builders, as well as alternative service providers and even times of the year when sellers can achieve the greatest success. Artificial intelligence – Computer intelligences will become power aids to those in the real estate industry, as well as potential threats to some. Such intelligences will be able to quickly assess industry, national, regional, and neighbour data to reveal trends not immediately apparent, gauge the strength of economic activity with special emphasis on shifts in sentiment and interest rates, and read body language to assess the seriousness or excitement of specific individuals about either buying or selling. Meanwhile, routine work, such as legal documentation, will increasingly be done by ever-more sophisticated computer software. Its clear that technology is advancing with unprecedented speed, but what is less clear is what effects these advances will have on business, government, consumers, and society. Yet the downstream effects the secondary, tertiary, quaternary effects and beyond of technological developments are almost always more significant than the immediate impact of the technology itself. For instance, refrigeration extended life expectancy; the invention of air travel revolutionized warfare, helped produce McLuhans Global Village, spread new diseases with unprecedented speed, and boosted global terrorism; computer games lead to childhood obesity and health problems and may be eroding the socialization skills the allow society to function; and the Internet is redefining the way business is conducted as well as revolutionizing politics. Respond to at least 2 students. b) Complete and submit the class Project Paper and Presentation – see details below (15%) Lessons: View the video for Lesson 7 Project Paper and Presentation: (Post them under Week 7 Assignment area as a Microsoft Word document (10%) and a Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation (5%). You must include at least ten references. Details of the Project: Research and select a current trend in the area of telecommunications. Prepare a 10-15 page paper in Microsoft Word (counts as 10% of the final grade) AMU approved APA format (see writing expectations in the Policies section) (350 words per page). At a minimum include the following: †¢ Detailed description of the area researched †¢ Technology involved in the area. We provide both point and end-to-end solutions that leverage industry best practices and technology to deliver world-class logistics and supply chain performance. Our approach helps companies create competitive advantages by reducing costs while increasing service, visibility, responsiveness and customer satisfaction through enhanced supply chain performance. Technology The technology utilizes robust, innovative technology to optimize transportation assets and shipments, reduce empty miles, and provide our clients with succinct, actionable management information. Our web-enabled transportation management system provides clients with real-time visibility into transportation status and information anywhere in the world. Complementing this technology is our team of dedicated front-line logistics managers and staff. With decades of experience improving the flow of goods through every step in the supply chain, the team is committed to supply chain excellence and to accelerating time to results. The comprehensive supply chain assessments and analyses enable clients to capitalize on opportunities to shorten order-to-cash cycles, and reduce transportation expenses, optimize production processes, and improve customer service, No matter what your logistics challenges, The company’ solutions pave the way to operational efficiency and competitive advantage. †¢ Future trends in the area. The top business trends event providing you with the visionary views and practical applications that make you more valuable as a person and more effective as a professional. Polling from the United States and major countries in Latin America, Asia and Europe, the survey reported that 60 percent of employees use a mobile device for work, with an anticipated increase in number of devices per employee. Whether it’s multiple laptops, smart phones or tablet computers, the number of devices will rise from 2.3 per employee in 2012 to 2.8 in 2014. This is the next in a series that Ive been writing called Future Trends. In this series Ive been steadily looking at various states across the country, analyzing where trends are going. The last installment that I wrote was about the FL Panhandle. In this post I focus on the Jacksonville Area. Before I continue, though, here are previous installments: Overall the trend in the area is clear growth. St. Johns seems to be growing the fastest, although Clay isnt that far behind. Duval seems to have added the largest amounts of people. Baker and Nassau, while growing, dont seem to have been as significant as those other counties. Although these numbers dont include 2008, which doesnt include the drop-off in FL growth that might have happened due to the housing crisis, Jacksonville continues to attract people. It is a growing part of the state. †¢ Example companies involved in the area. Food Technology Service| Medical Service Companies| Information Technology Services Stocks| Funds Holding Matrix Service Company| Information Technology Services Shares| Communications Services Companies| Food Service Companies| Transportation Services Companies| Financial Services Companies| Energy Service Companies| Services Companies| Marketing Services Companies| †¢ Regulatory issues surrounding the area. Regulatory issues are those issues that result due to error on behalf of the accused. For example, when you walk into a business where someone is mopping, you tend to see that there are signs visible that say things like caution:wet floor or slippery when wet during the snow seasons. This is due to the regulations a business must adhere to. If these signs were not posted and a persons slipped, fell, and broke their leg, they would be able to to sue the business. This would create a regulatory issue. | Application Performance Management Solutions * Application Performance Management * Server Performance Management * System Management Server Application Free Tools * Help Desk Management * Active Directory Solutions * Desktop Management Software * Log Management and IT Compliance * Integrated IT Management * Virtualization Enterprise Management Security Products * Active Directory Management * Active Directory Auditing * Application Monitoring * Asset Management * Bandwidth Monitoring Traffic Analysis * Customer Support Software * Desktop Management * Exchange Reporting Tool * Firewall Configuration Log Management * Help Desk Software * Integrated IT Management (IT360) * IP Address Management (IPAM) Software * Log Management SIEM * MSP Desktop Management * MSP Help Desk Software * MSP Network Management Platform * Network Configuration Management * Network Monitoring Software * Network Security Scanner with Patch Management * OS Deployment * Password Management * Self-Service Password Management * Storage Management Software * SQL Server Management * Website Monitoring Server Monitoring (On-Demand) Social IT ManageEngine Free Tools †¢ Global implications for the area: Five Global Problems and How Canada Can Solve Them Maybe its that were not looking at the big picture. Or maybe it would just be too overwhelming if we did, but some of the solutions currently being applied to national issues have greater, global application and relevance. Most global problems are dealt with on a country-by-country basis. Sure, we have the Hague and Kyoto and Maastricht, but when you begin counting the meaningful international treaties, you almost run out of names before you run out of fingers. Its too easy to view issues on a regional level and miss the fact that most problems have global implications. So too, we tend to view the solutions on a regional level without considering that a local solution may have global benefit. Canadians have come up with creative solutions to problems that are not unique to Canada, but rather stretch well beyond our borders, and have the potential for worldwide application. Lets look at the some of the global issues that Canadians have attempted to solve on a regional level: Fisheries Depletion For over twenty percent of the worlds people, fishing is more than a pastime – its a means of survival. The international trade in fish and fish products exceeds $50 billion a year. With demand high and resources finite, the resultant shortfall has global implication. According to the World Wildlife Federation, a full 50 percent of marine fisheries are fully exploited, twenty percent are over-exploited, and the rest are being harvested in an unsustainable manner. Among the major marine fish stocks, such as cod and tuna, three out of four are being fished beyond their biological limits. To counter the shortages, many governments, including Canada, have encouraged the rapid growth of aquaculture. As a result, farmed fish now account for one-third of the worlds fish production. While this has countered the sustainability concerns, other problems have developed as a result. In Canada, particularly the West Coast, fish farms generate considerable amounts of pollution and waste. The close proximity of the confined fish increases the propagation of sea lice, and escaped farmed fish spread lice and disease to wild stocks. Just last year, as the British Columbia government lifted a seven-year moratorium on new fish farms, one of Vancouver Islands most significant pink salmon runs had already collapsed, and more than three million salmon failed to return to spawning rivers. Making the international fishing industry sustainable would require some large-scale initiatives, including massive reductions in fishing fleets, concerted effort in controlling illegal fishing and fishing practices, and strictly enforcing limits on the number of fish harvested in a given area. The fish farm industry would also need careful review to ensure that in attempting to meet demand for fish, wild stocks are not completely wiped out in the process. The solution, some argue, is even simpler: if fishing is banned in a given area for several years, the rebound in stock is significant, the overall catch is increased, and the industry becomes sustainable. Last fall the Economist reported a study which discovered that in some 100 areas where such bans occurred, the number of fish increased 90 percent within a few years, their size increased 30 percent, and the number of species by 20 percent. These effects, the researchers contended, seemed to spill over into adjacent areas where fishing remains permitted. As the Canadian experience can attest, it is not as easy as all that. Quota regulation of the Atlantic cod stocks was introduced in 1973. Labeled as the Total Allowable Catch (TAC), the policy was ineffective, due to the restrictions being set too high too quickly, and partly because enforcement was not effective. In 1992, Canadas Department of Fisheries and Oceans took one step further, imposing a moratorium on cod fishing off the coast of Newfoundland, after scientists determined that mature cod stock had dropped by 99 percent from the numbers recorded in the 1980s. Despite these measures, cod stocks really have not seen much of a rebound. It is now time for us to take a different approach. Stopping the commercial cod fishery alone will not work, argues Fred Woodman, chairman of the Fisheries Resource Conservation Council, an arms length body that advises the Federal Fisheries Ministry. He recommends that the government make a long-term commitment to rebuilding the stocks, establishing community councils to make recommendations about the local fishery, and amending the moratorium to provide protection for the most vulnerable areas and allow fishing in those areas where there has been some growth. The lessons Canada has learned from the moratorium in Newfoundland, the fish farms in the Pacific, and the Atlantic cod industry quotas are ones that need to be shared with other nations facing similar problems. Water Depletion One of the less-publicized, yet globally significant, side effects of climate change is global water depletion. Many of the worlds inland seas, such as the Black Sea, Aral Sea, and Lake Chad, have shrunk to a fraction of their size forty years ago. It is estimated that 1.5 billion people do not have access to adequate supplies of safe drinking water, and by 2020, up to 3 billion people could face acute water shortages. Water scarcity is caused mainly by increased demand and pollution, and is aggravated by global warming. Water deficits also occur from the demands of irrigation and industry, which account for almost three-quarters of the worlds demand for water. More than half of the water entering irrigation systems never actually make it to the crops, due to faulty irrigation equipment, leaks, or wasteful practice. Excess irrigation, on the other hand, does irreparable damage to rivers and marshes, by changing local ecosystems patterns and by carrying chemicals, fertilizers and pesticides back into the water supply. Water deficits have the potential to become a major global challenge. Control of water could become a major cause of international conflict, particularly where one country has the ability to restrict or control the flow of crucial waterways. Desalination of sea water is the most logical alternative to freshwater irrigation and drinking water. The process, however, is still prohibitively expensive. Greater effort, however, should be put toward this initiative. Canada actively supports desalination research and has provided federal subsidies to a number of Canadian companies like Candesal, which develops affordable desalination techniques such as using the excess heat generated by power stations. Water, labeled the new gold by some, has not quite matched its counterpart in price, supply or distribution. What we dont value, we wont conserve, contends Ducks Unlimited, an organization committed to preserving Canadas wetlands. One of the major causes of water scarcity and damage to freshwater ecosystems, the organization contends, is the gross under-valuation of water. By failing to acknowledge its importance to survival, we may unwittingly deplete the earths water supply. $75 billion per year is invested in water infrastructure and management in developing countries, almost one third of this coming from Canada alone. As well, Canada has played a significant role in desalination efforts and is a key player in supporting the development of desalination units. These efforts, however, must be sustained over the long term to make any meaningful impact. Canada, a country which possesses the greatest amount of freshwater in the world, can to use this position to raise awareness of worldwide water deficits, and the need to actively deal with the shortage. †¢ References (minimum of 10) i. Prepare a 10-12 slide Microsoft PowerPoint highlighting the content from the paper. Use Camtasia’s world-class screen recording technology to record your PowerPoint slides, onscreen activity, voice, and webcam video. Easily turn your PowerPoint presentations into reusable, HD-quality videos that your viewers can access anytime, anywhere (Counts as 5% of the final grade) ii. Use Camtasia’s world-class screen recording technology to record your PowerPoint slides, onscreen activity, voice, and webcam video. Easily turn your PowerPoint presentations into reusable, HD-quality videos that your viewers can access anytime, anywhere. Open a new document in Microsoft PowerPoint. When you first open the program, the workspace is divided into parts. The main window is the Slide pane, where you add new content to individual slides. On the left side is the Slides tab, which has thumbnails of each slide. You can use this tab to add, delete or rearrange slides, and select which slide you want to work on. i. ii. ii. You are only required to submit a final paper and presentation. However, during the previous six weeks, you will be assembling the research paper and presentation. Feel free to post questions or portions of the paper for review at any time as an email to your professor. iii. You may use esources from the APUS Online Library, any library, government library, or any peer-reviewed reference (Wikipedia and any other publicly-reviewed source is not accepted). The paper must by at least 10 pages double-spaced, 1† margin all around, black12 point fonts (Times New Roman, Arial, or Courier) with correct citations of all utilized references/sources, (pictures, graphics, etc are extra allowed but extra for the minimum page count). The title page and references are also required but don’t count in the minimum page count. The PowerPoint of 10-12 slides is a summary of this paper. No new topics, ideas or concepts are introduced in the PowerPoint that is not included in the paper. A minimum of 10 references are needed. The paper will be subjected to checking against plagiarism. iv. The required number of pages do not include title or references pages – although these must be included.

Design Of Wastewater Treatment Plant Environmental Sciences Essay

Design Of Wastewater Treatment Plant Environmental Sciences Essay Industrial wastewater treatment covers the mechanisms and processes used to treat waters that have been contaminated in some way by industrial or commercial activities prior to its release into the environment or its re-use. It involves mainly three stages, called primary, secondary and tertiary treatment. Activated sludge process can be used to treat the wastewater produces from Oushadi Ayurvedic Pharmaceuticals. Contaminants include oils, particulate solids, materials having high concentrations of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and suspended solids (SS). Primary treatment consists of temporarily holding the sewage ,where heavy solids can settle to the bottom while oil, grease and lighter solids float to the surface. The settled and floating materials are removed and the remaining liquid may be discharged or subjected to secondary treatment. One major problem faced by Oushadi was the complete removal of oil from wastewater and this posed a threat to the use of treated water for the ir boilers. Secondary treatment removes dissolved and suspended biological matter. Secondary treatment is typically performed by natural, water-borne micro-organisms in a managed habitat. Secondary treatment may require a separation process to remove the micro-organisms from the treated water prior to discharge or tertiary treatment. Tertiary treatment is sometimes defined as anything more than primary and secondary treatment. Comprising over 70% of the earths surface, water is undoubtedly the most precious natural resource that exists on our planet. Recycling of wastewater in industries is therefore a process, which is a necessity rather than a luxury. Wastewater treatment is the process of removing contaminants from wastewater. It includes physical, chemical, and biological processes to remove physical, chemical and biological contaminants. Its objective is to produce a waste stream (or treated effluent) and a solid waste or sludge suitable for discharge or reuse back into the environment. This material is often inadvertently contaminated with many toxic organic and inorganic compounds. Wastewater can cause contamination of ground water, lakes, streams and rivers. It wastes and decreases the amount of potable water available on earth, causes an imbalance in aquatic ecosystems and wastes the nutrients contained in wastewater by not recycling them. Many industries use large volumes of water in their manufa cturing operations. Because some of this water becomes contaminated, it requires treatment before discharge. Improvements in determining the effects of industrial waste discharges have led to the adoption of stringent environmental laws, which define the degree of treatment necessary to protect water quality. Discharge permits, issued under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES), regulate the amount of pollutants that an industry can return to the water source. The permitted quantities are designed to ensure that other users of the water will have a source that meets their needs, whether these needs are for municipal water supply, industrial or agricultural uses, or fishing and recreation. Consideration is given to the feasibility of removing a pollutant, as well as the natural assimilative capacity of the receiving stream. This assimilative capacity varies with the type and amount of pollutant. Wastewater treatment plants are designed to convert liquid wastes into an acceptable final effluent and to dispose of solids removed or generated during the process. In most cases, treatment is required for both suspended and dissolved contaminants. Special processes are required for the removal of certain pollutants, such as phosphorus or heavy metals. Wastewater can be recycled for reuse in plant processes to reduce disposal requirements. This practice also reduces water consumption. Sahradaya College Of Engineering Technology, Kodakara 1 Design Of Wastewater Treatment Plant 1.1 POLLUTANTS IN WASTEWATER Organic Compounds The amount of organic material that can be discharged safely is defined by the effect of the material on the dissolved oxygen level in the water. Organisms in the water use the organic matter as a food source. In a biochemical reaction, dissolved oxygen is consumed as the end products of water and carbon dioxide are formed. Atmospheric oxygen can replenish the dissolved oxygen supply, but only at a slow rate. When the organic load causes oxygen consumption to exceed this resupply, thus dissolved oxygen level drops, leading to the death of fish and other aquatic life. Under extreme conditions, when the dissolved oxygen concentration reaches zero, the water may turn black and produce foul odours, such as the rotten egg smell of hydrogen sulphide. Organic compounds are normally measured as chemical oxygen demand (COD) or biochemical oxygen demand (BOD). Nutrients Nitrogen and phosphorus are essential to the growth of plants and other organisms. However, nitrogen compounds can have the same effect on a water source as carbon- containing organic compounds. Certain organisms use nitrogen as a food source and consume oxygen. Phosphorus is a concern because of algae blooms that occur in surface waters due to its presence. During the day, algae produce oxygen through photosynthesis, but at night they consume oxygen. Solids Solids discharged with a waste stream may settle immediately at the discharge point or may remain suspended in the water. Settled solids cover the bottom-dwelling organisms, causing disruptions in population and building a reservoir of oxygen-consuming materials. Suspended solids increase the turbidity of the water, thereby inhibiting light transmittance. Deprived of a light source, photosynthetic organisms die. Some solids can coat fish gills and cause suffocation. Sahradaya College Of Engineering Technology, Kodakara 2 Design Of Wastewater Treatment Plant Acids and Alkalies The natural buffering system of a water source is exhausted by the discharge of acids and alkalies. Aquatic life is affected by the wide swings in pH as well as the destruction of bicarbonate alkalinity levels. Metals Certain metals are toxic and affect industrial, agricultural, and municipal users of the water source. Metals can cause product quality problems for industrial users. Large quantities of discharged salts necessitate expensive removal by downstream industries using the receiving stream for boiler makeup water. The contaminants in wastewater are removed by physical, chemical and biological methods. The specific method are classified as physical unit operations, chemical unit processes and biological unit processes. 1.2 Unit Operations and Process in Wastewater Treatment TABLE 1.1 Operations and Process in Wastewater Treatment Contaminant Unit Operations/ Processes Classifications Suspended solids Screening Sedimentation Floatation Filtration Physical Biodegradable Organics Activated Sludge Trickling Filters Rotating Biological Contactors Biological Phosphorus Lime Coagulation Chemical Heavy Metal Chemical Precipitation Chemical Sahradaya College Of Engineering Technology, Kodakara 3 Design Of Wastewater Treatment Plant CHAPTER 2 WASTEWATER CHARACTERISTICS 2.1 WASTEWATER CHARACTERISTICS To design a treatment process properly, characterization of wastewater is perhaps the most critical step. Wastewater characteristics of importance in the design of a treatment process can be grouped into the following categories:  · Temperature  · pH  · Colour and Odour  · Carbonaceous substrates  · Nitrogen  · Phosphorous  · Chlorides  · Total and volatile suspended solids (TSS and VSS)  · Toxic metals and compounds  · Density  · Oil grease  · Alkalinity 2.1.1 Temperature: The temperature of wastewater is commonly higher than that of the local water supply, because of the addition of warm water from household activities. As the specific heat of water is much greater than that of air, the observed wastewater temperatures are higher than the local air temperatures during most of the year and are hotter only during the hottest summer months. Depending on the location and time of the year the effluent temperatures can either higher or lower than the corresponding influent values. 2.1.1.1 Effect of temperature The temperature of water is a very important parameter because of its effect on chemical reactions and reaction rates, aquatic life, and the suitability of the water for beneficial purposes. In addition, oxygen is less soluble in warm water than in cold water. The increases in rate of biochemical reactions that accompanies an increase in temperature, combined with the decrease in the quantity of oxygen present in surface waters, can often cause serious depletions in dissolved oxygen concentrations in summer months. Optimum temperatures for bacterial activity are in range from 25 to 35oC.Aerobic digestion and nitrification stops when the temperature rises to 50oC. When the temperature drops to about 15oC, methane producing bacteria become quite inactive and at about 5oC, the autotrophic nitrifying bacteria practically Sahradaya College Of Engineering Technology, Kodakara 4 Design Of Wastewater Treatment Plant cease functioning. At 2oC, even the chemo heterotrophic bacteria acting on carbonaceous material become essentially dormant. 2.1.2 pH: The hydrogen ion concentration is an important quantity parameter of both natural waters and wastewaters. The usual means of expressing the hydrogen ion concentration is as pH, which is defined as the negative logarithm of hydrogen ion concentration. The concentration range for the existence of most biological life is quite narrow and critical typically 6 to 9. Wastewater with a extreme concentration of hydrogen ion is difficult to treat by biological means, an if concentration is not altered before discharge, the wastewater effluent may alter the concentration in the natural waters. For treated effluents, discharged to the environment the allowed pH range usually varies from 6.5 to 8.5. The pH of fresh domestic waste water is slightly more than that of the water supply to the community. However, the onset of septic conditions may lower the pH while the presence of industrial wastes may produce extreme fluctuations. 2.1.3 ODOUR AND COLOUR: Fresh domestic waste water has slightly soapy and earthy odour and cloudy appearance depending upon its concentration, With the passage of time, the waste water becomes stale, darkening in colour with a pronounced colour due to microbial activity. 2.1.3.1 Odour: Odours are usually caused by gases produced by the decompositions of organic matter or by substances added to the waste water. Fresh wastewater has a distinctive, somewhat disagreeable odour which is less objectionable than the odour of wastewater which has undergone anaerobic decomposition. The most characteristic odour of stale or septic wastewater is hydrogen sulfide. Odours have been rated as the foremost concern of public relative to wastewater treatment facilities. Within the past few years, the control of odour has become major consideration in the design and operation of wastewater collection, treatment and disposal facilities, especially with respect to public acceptance of these facilities. Effect of Odours: The importance of odours at low concentrations in human terms is related primarily to psychological stress they produce rather than to the harm they do to the body. Offensive odours can cause poor appetite, lower water consumption, impair respiration, nausea and vomiting and mental perturbation. Some odorous compounds are toxic at elevated concentrations. Sahradaya College Of Engineering Technology, Kodakara 5 Design Of Wastewater Treatment Plant 2.1.3.2 Colour: Historically, the term condition was used along with composition and concentration was used to describe waste water. Conditions refer to the age of wastewater, which is determined qualitatively by its colour and odour. Fresh wastewater is usually a light brownish grey colour. However as the travel time in collection system increases, and more anaerobic conditions develop, the color of waste water changes sequentially from grey to dark grey and ultimately black . When the color of wastewater is black, the wastewater is described as septic . In most cases the grey , dark grey and black color of wastewater is due to formation of metallic sulphites which form as the sulphide produced under anaerobic conditions react with metals in the wastewater. 2.1.4 CARBONACEOUS CONSTITUENTS: Carbonaceous constituents are measured by BOD, COD or TOC analyses. While the BOD has been the common parameter to characterize carbonaceous material in wastewater, COD is becoming more common in most current comprehensive computer simulation design models. 2.1.4.1 Biochemical Oxygen demand: The BOD test gives a measure of the oxygen utilized by bacteria during the oxidation of organic material contained in a waste water sample. The test is based on the premise that all the biodegradable organic material contained in the wastewater sample will be oxidized to CO2 and H2O, using molecular of oxygen as the electron acceptor. Hence, it is a direct measurement of oxygen requirements and an indirect measure of biodegradable organic matter. 2.1.4.2 Chemical oxygen demand: The COD test is based on the principal that most organic compounds are oxidized to CO2 and H2O by strong oxidizing agents under acid conditions. The measurement represents the oxygen that would be needed for aerobic microbial oxidation, assuming that all organics are biodegradable. 2.1.4.3 Total Organic Carbon: The total carbon analyzer allows a total soluble carbon analysis to be made directly on an aqueous sample. In many cases TOC can be correlated with COD and occasionally with BOD values. Sahradaya College Of Engineering Technology, Kodakara 6 Design Of Wastewater Treatment Plant Table 2.1: Definition of Solids Found in Wastewater Test Description The residue remaining after a wastewater Total Solids (TS) Total Volatile Solids(TVS) sample has been evaporated and dried at a specified temperature (103-105oC). Those solids that can be volatilized and burned off when the TS are ignited (500 ±50 oC). oTotal Fixed Solids (TFS) The residue that remains after TS are ignited (500 ±50 C). Portion of the TS retained on a filter with a specified pore size, measured after being dried at a specified temperature (105oC). The Total Suspended Solids (TSS) Volatile Suspended Solids (VSS) Settle able Solids filter used most commonly for the determination of TSS is Whatman glass fiber filter which has a nominal pore size of about 1.58 µm. Those solids that can be volatilized and burned off when the TSS are ignited (500 ±50 oC). Suspended solids, expressed as mL/L, that will settle out of suspension with in a specified period of time. Sahradaya College Of Engineering Technology, Kodakara 7 Design Of Wastewater Treatment Plant CHAPTER 3 STAGES OF WASTEWATER TREATMENT 3.1 STAGES OF WASTEWATER TREATMENT 1) Preliminary Treatment: Removal of wastewater constituents such as rags, sticks, floatable grit and grease that may cause maintenance or operational problems with treatment operations, process and ancillary systems. 2) Primary treatment: Removal of a portion of suspended solids and organic matter from the wastewater. 3) Advanced Primary: Enhanced removal of suspended solids and organic matter from the wastewater typically accomplished by chemical addition to wastewater. 4) Secondary treatment : Removal of biodegradable organic matter (in solution or suspension) 5) Secondary with nutrient removal: Removal of biodegradable organics, suspended solids and nutrients. (N2, P or both N2 and P). 6) Tertiary treatment: Removal of residual suspended solids (after secondary treatment) usually by granular medium filtration or micro screens. Disinfection is also typically a part of tertiary treatment. Nutrient removal is often included in this definition. 7) Advanced Tertiary: Removal of dissolved and suspended materials remaining after normal biological treatment when required for various water reuse applications. 3.2TREATMENT PROCESS FLOWSHEET: Depending on the contaminants to be removed, an almost limitless number of process combinations can develop using the unit operations and process. The term flow sheet is used to describe particular combinations of unit operations and process used to achieve a specific treatment objective. Apart from the analysis of the technical feasibility of the individual treatment methods, the exact flow-sheets configuration will depend on factors such as (1) the needs of the of the clients needs, (2) the designers past experience, (3) regulatory agency policies on the application of specific treatment methods, (4) the availability of equipment suppliers, (5) what use can be made of existing facilities, (6) the availability of qualified operating personnel, (7) initial construction costs and (8) future operation and maintenance costs. Sahradaya College Of Engineering Technology, Kodakara 8 Design Of Wastewater Treatment Plant The Process Flow Sheet proposed in this project for the wastewater treatment is as shown below : Figure 3.1: Process Flow Sheet Table 3.1: LEVELS OF WASTEWATER TREATMENT TREATMENT LEVEL DESCRIPTION Removal of wastewater constituents Such as Preliminary rags,sticks, floatables,grit and grease that may cause maintenance or operational problems with the treatment operations. Primary Removal of apportion of the suspended solids and organic matters from wastewater. Enhanced removal of suspended solids and Advanced Primary organic matters from wastewater typically accomplished by chemical addition or filtration. Secondary Removal of biodegradable matters and suspended solids Secondary with Nutrient removal Removal of biodegradable organics and nutrients. Tertiary Removal of residual suspended solids usually by granular medium filtration or micro screen Sahradaya College Of Engineering Technology, Kodakara 9 Design Of Wastewater Treatment Plant CHAPTER 4 LITERATURE REVIEW 4.1 SCREENING The first unit operation generally encountered in wastewater is screening. A screen is a device with opening, generally of uniform size, that is used to retain solids found in the influent wastewater to the treatment plant. The principle role of screening is to remove coarse material from the flow stream that could damage subsequent process equipment, reduce overall treatment process reliability and effectiveness and contaminate waterways. Fine screens are sometimes used in place of or following coarse screens where greater removal of solids are required to protect process equipment and eliminate materials that may inhibit the beneficial reuse of bio-solids. All aspects of screening, removal, transport and disposal must be considered in the application of screening devices including 1. The degree of screening removal required, because of potential effects of downstream processes 2. Health and safety of operators as screenings contain pathogenic organism that attract insects 3. Odour potential 4. Requirements for handling transport and disposal 5. Disposal options Two general types of screens, coarse screens and fine screens are used in preliminary treatment of wastewater. Coarse screens have clear opening ranging from 6 -150mm, Fine screens have openings ranging less than 6mm. Micro screens will generally have screen opening less than 50 µ m, are used principally in removing fine solids from treated effluents. Bar rack for the removal of coarse solids. 4.2 GRIT REMOVAL Removal of grit from wastewater may be accomplished in grit chambers or by the centrifugal separation of solids. Grit chambers are designed to remove grit, consisting of sand, gravels, cinders or other heavy solid materials that have subsiding velocities of specific gravities substantially greater than those of the organic putrescible solids in wastewater. Grit chamber are most commonly located after the bar screen and before the primary sedimentation tanks. Sahradaya College Of Engineering Technology, Kodakara 10 Design Of Wastewater Treatment Plant Locating grit chamber ahead of wastewater pump when desirable, would involve placing them at considerable depth at added expense. It is therefore deem more economical to pump the wastewater, including the grit to grot chamber located at a convenient position ahead of the treatment plant units, recognising that pumps may require greater maintenance. 4.2.1 Why Grit is removed?  · Prevent wear on pumps  · Accumulation in clarifiers  · Accumulation in aeration tank  · Accumulation in digesters  · Clogging of sludge piping 4.2.2 TYPES OF GRIT CHAMBERS Grit chambers are provided to (1) Reduce formation of heavy deposits in pipelines, channels and conduits (2) reduce the frequency of digester cleaning caused by excessive accumulation of grit (3) Protect moving mechanical equipment from abrasion and accompanying abnormal wear. There are three general type of grit chamber: Horizontal flow either rectangular or square configuration; aerated or vortex type. The aeration type consists of a spiral flow aeration tank where the spiral velocity is induced and controlled by the tank dimension in and quantity if air supplied to the unit. The vortex type consists of cylindrical tank, in which the flow enter tangentially vortex flow pattern; centrifugal and gravitational forces causes the grit to separate. Design of grit chamber is commonly based on removal of grit particles having a specific gravity of 2.65 and wastewater temperature 15.5oC. However analysis of grit removal data indicates the specific gravity ranges from 1.3-2.7. Horizontal Flow Grit Chambers In the horizontal flow type the flow passes through the chamber in a horizontal direction and the straight line velocity of flow is controlled by the dimension of the unit, an effluent distribution gate and a weir at the effluent end. Rectangular and square Horizontal flow grit chambers have been used for many years. Sahradaya College Of Engineering Technology, Kodakara 11 Design Of Wastewater Treatment Plant Typical Design Information for Horizontal Flow Grit Chamber Table 4.1 Item Detention time Horizontal velocity Settling velocity for removal of .21mm material Settling velocity for removal of .15mm material SI Unit Range Typical s 45-90 60 m/s .25-.4 .3 m/min 1-1.3 1.15 m/min .6-.9 .75 % 30-40 36 % 25-50 30 Head loss in a control section as % depth in channel Added length allowance for inlet and outlet turbulence Horizontal- Velocity Grit Chambers: They are controlled by either a  · Parshall flume  · Proportional weir Parshall fume is used more widely due to less head loss than the weir. The flume and weir are also used to measure flow rates. In the chamber, a constant horizontal velocities is maintained by proper cross-sectional geometry of the chamber.  · Horizontal velocity must be adequate to keep the organic matter in suspension.  · Horizontal velocities should be sufficient so as to prevent scouring of settled grit along the bottom of the channel. Values of .23-.38m/s are common. 4.3 FLOW EQUALIZATION Process for water treatment works best with uniform conditions. Shock to the bioprocesses in the form of sudden change in the concentration of nutrients can upsets. If the concentrations or flow rates of the waste vary greatly, dosages for treatment must be constantly be readjusted. Flow equalization is a method used to overcome the operational problems caused by flow rate variation, to improve the performance of downstream process, and to reduce the size and cost of t downstream treatment facilities. Flow equalisation is damping of flow rate variations to achieve a constant or nearly constant flow rate and can be applied in a number of different situations depending on characteristics of collection system. There may be aeration both to keep the fluid from becoming anaerobic and smelly and to biodegrade some of the organic compound present. Sahradaya College Of Engineering Technology, Kodakara 12 Design Of Wastewater Treatment Plant The principle applications are for the equalisation of: 1. Dry weather flow to reduce the peak flow and loads. 2. Wet weather flow in sanitary collection systems experiencing inflow and infiltration. 3. Combined storm water and sanitary system flows. In the line arrangement all of flow passes through equalisation basin. This arrangement can be used to achieve considerable amount of concentration and limits its divert into equalisation basin. Although the pumping requirements are reduced in this arrangement, the amount of constituents concentration damping is considerably reduced. The principle benefits that are cited as derived from application of flow equalisation are: 1. Biological treatment is enhanced, because shock loadings are eliminated or minimised, inhibiting substances can be diluted and pH can be stabilised. 2. The effluent quality and thickening performance of secondary sediment tank following biological treatment is improved consistency in solid loading. 3. Effluent filtration surface area requirements are reduced, filtered performance is improved and more uniform filter back wash cycles are possible by lower hydraulic loading. 4. In chemical treatment, damping of mass loading improves chemical feed control and process reliability. 5. Often the rest of the plant designed with a smaller equipment( less capital investment) because of this improvement in performance. Disadvantage of flow equalisation include  · Relatively large land areas are required.  · Equalisation facilities may have to be covered for odour control near residential area.  · Additional operation and maintenance required  · Capital cost is increased. 4.4 PRIMARY SEDIMENTATION The objective of treatment by sedimentation is to remove readily settle able solids and floating materials and thus reduce the suspended solids content. Primary sedimentation is used as a preliminary step in the further processing of the waste water. Efficiently designed and operated primary sedimentation tanks should remove from 50-70% of the suspended solids and from 25-40% of the BOD. Sedimentation tanks have also been used as storm water retention tanks which are designed to provide a moderate detention period (10-30mins) for overflows from either combined sewers and storms sewers. The purpose of sedimentation is to remove a substantial portion of organic solids that otherwise would be discharged directly to the receiving waters. Sedimentation tanks have also been used to provide detention periods sufficient for effective disinfection of such overflows. Sahradaya College Of Engineering Technology, Kodakara 13 Design Of Wastewater Treatment Plant 4.4.1DESCRIPTION Almost all treatment plants are mechanically cleaned sedimentation tanks of standardized circular or rectangular design. The selection of the type of sedimentation unit for a given application is governed by the size of the installation, by rules and regulations of local control authorities, by local site conditions and by the experience and judgment of the engineer. Two or more tanks have to be provided so that the process may remain in operation when one tank is out of service for maintenance and repair work. RECTANGULAR TANKS Rectangular sedimentation tanks may use either chain and flight solids collectors or travelling bridge type collectors. The solids settling in the tank are scraped solids hoppers in small tanks and transfers troughs in large tanks. In every long unit two collection mechanisms can be used to scrape solids to collection points near the middle of the tank length. Where possible, it is desirable to locate solids pumping facilities close to the collection hoppers. 4.4.2 SEDIMENTATION TANK PERFORMANCE The efficiency of sedimentation basins with respect to removal of BOD and TSS is reduced by 1. Eddy currents formed by inertia of incoming fluid 2. Wind induced circulation cells formed in uncovered tanks 3. Thermal convection currents BOD AND TSS REMOVAL R= Where R expected removal efficiency t- detention time a, b empirical constants 4.4.3 DETENTION TIME The bulk of finely divided solids reaching primary sedimentation tanks is incompletely flocculated but is susceptible to flocculation. Flocculation is aided by eddying motion of the fluid within tanks and proceeds through the coalescence of fine particles at a rate that is a function of their concentration and of the natural ability of the particles to coalesce upon collision. Coalescence of a suspension of solids becomes more complete as time elapses, thus detention time is a consideration in the design of sedimentation tank. Normally primary sedimentation tanks are designed, to provide 1.5-2.5hrs of detention based on the average rate of waste water. Sahradaya College Of Engineering Technology, Kodakara 14 Design Of Wastewater Treatment Plant 4.4.4 SCOUR VELOCITY To avoid the resuspension or stirring of resuspended particles horizontal velocity through the tank should be kept considerably low. The following equation gives critical velocity. ( ) VH=[ ] Where VH Horizontal velocity that will just produce scour, LT-1 (m/s) K Constant that depends on type of material being scoured s Specific Gravit

UK Social Enterprises for Sustainability

UK Social Enterprises for Sustainability Abstract Social enterprise is a dynamic and sustainable business model of choice which is able to bring social, economic and environmental benefits to the UK. It operates across all sectors of the economy, serving individuals in the private, public and third sectors. Through out this research will identify the increase levels of understanding of the role and value of Social Enterprise, given that a lack of understanding of the role and value of social enterprises was cited as a major barrier to the acceleration of the use of the business model. I will further state that social enterprises compete in the marketplace like any other business, but they use their business skills to achieve social aims. The purpose of this research will identify the key barriers faced by Social Enterprise and explore how these barriers have/could potentially be overcome to achieve sustainability. There is also a need to recognise that some social enterprise activity will need an element of finance through public fu nds, particularly because they are operating in areas of market failure or a non-commercial market such as providing services to vulnerable people, including supported employment in many cases. This paper is intended to create an environment which will lead to opportunities for social enterprise to grow successfully in the future. Chapter 1: Introduction A brief overview of social enterprise is introduced in the first chapter. Then, the purpose of the study will be next discussed which will end with a specific research question. In the end of this chapter the contribution of this research and limitation of the study are also presented. 1.1 A Brief Overview of Social Enterprise Social enterprises are organisations that supply goods and services as part of the social economy sector; this group constitutes a collection of organisations that exist between the traditionally private and public sectors and has a stronger relationship with the Community and Non-profit sector. This sector has a key role to play in achieving many of its goals, including overcoming social injustice and exclusion Todays completive business world defining social enterprise is a challenging task, according to OECD (1999, p.10) â€Å"there is no universal, commonly accepted definition of Social Enterprise.† However, the OECD (1999, p.10) has defined social enterprise as: â€Å"any private activity conducted in the public interest, organised with an entrepreneurial strategy but whose main purpose is not the maximisation of profit but the accomplishment of certain economic and social goals, and which has a capacity of bringing innovative solutions to the problems of social exclusion and unemployment†. Social enterprises are becoming a recognised part of the local and national economy in the UK, and the organisations operating in this sector are aware that becoming sustainable businesses is the path to independence both financially and in mission. However, social enterprises, in common with many small businesses, find growth difficult, and this could impact negatively on their sustainability. These should be supported and encouraged to grow both as a sector and as individual organizations so as to become more sustainable organizations. 1.2 Purpose of the Study My paper has been developed to explore how the term social enterprise has acquired meaning in England and to illustrate how practitioners, policymakers and academics influence each other in the development of new sustainable ideas, given that a lack of understanding of the role and significance of social enterprises was cited as a major barrier to the acceleration of the use of this business model. These challenges come in many forms. Some are the same as those affecting any other business including access to business support and finance, a lack of affordable premises and finding skilled staff. However, social enterprises also face one huge barrier that seriously affects their ability to assume a position within the market. That barrier is a lack of understanding of how social enterprises work and of their potential value. This lack of understanding exists across the public, private and voluntary and community sectors. The confusion and conflict about what the model could or should be for results all too often in misrepresentation and exaggeration of its potential, fragmentation in the provision of support and real and perceived barriers to accessing contracts and mainstream funding opportunities. So my dissertation will identify the key barriers faced by Social Enterprise and explore how these barriers have/could potentially be overcome in order to achieve sustainability. It examines critical incidents that have shaped the meaning of social enterprise in England and reflects on these incidents to draw conclusions about the future sustainable development of social enterprise practice. Through out this paper I will also examine the potential conditions for the growth of social enterprise through a set of outline scenarios. The aim is to inform both policy-making and the wider debate about social enterprise: what its potential might be and how that potential can be realised in different settings. So my research question is: To explore how the social enterprise is potential for sustainability in the UK. 1.3 Limitations of the Study: During conducting the research I came across certain limitations and among them the foremost one is time constrain. The interviewed person could not provide all necessary information due to lack of time. The research timeline also reveals that time constrain was actually a barrier as there was plenty to find about this research topic. A huge portion of the report is based on primary data collected through interviews which is very lengthy process. The key point here is that social enterprise cannot be identified solely by legal form or pre-set categories. Social enterprises can often see themselves as belonging to more than one category, leading to problems of double counting. For example, a social enterprise may be a charity registered with the Charities Commission or an ‘exempt charity which is also an Industrial and Provident Society. There is also much variation in the categories which have been used in studies to date, making aggregation and comparison very difficult. 1.4 Structure of the Report: This research is divided into five chapters: the first chapter is an introduction with purpose and limitation of the study. In the second chapter, literature based review of definitions of social enterprise, roots of social enterprise, discussion relevant to the sustainability of social enterprise, the nature of their contribution and their sponsors and sources of funding. The third summarises the background information of social enterprise in the UK and the fourth and fifth chapter contain the methodology and the summary of the main findings of the study with implications for policy. Chapter 2: Literature Review This chapter will give an overview of literature and models that are related to the research problem presented in the previous chapter. This chapter will introduce the roots and concepts of social enterprise in order to give a clear idea about the research area. 2.1 Roots of social enterprise Scott specified (Market, Schmarket : Building the Post-Capitalist Society,2006, p50) â€Å"The roots of social enterprises and community enterprise overall can be found in the mutual, self help and co-operative sector which goes back, in the UK, at least to the Fenwick Weavers in Ayrshire 1769 and Dr William King of Brighton in the 1820s (Trimingham, 2007), with earlier antecedents.† Within the development of this movement there has always been an important strand which has focused on the local community-based nature of these organisations and also on the economic development of poorer communities including the need to maintain paid work. For example between the two world wars, local community activists such as Harry Cowley campaigned for housing and work for returning service people and support for small local businesses. He organised marches to demand public works ‘job creation programmes from the local council for unemployed people with some success. 2.3 General Discussion on Social Enterprise Social Enterprises combine the need to be successful businesses with social aims. This is a competitive business, owned and trading for a social purpose. They seek to succeed as businesses by establishing a market share and making a profit and emphasise the long-term benefits for employees, consumers and the community. Bob Doherty and John Thompson mentioned in the journal ‘The diverse world of social enterprise stories (p.362) that social enterprises are organizations which are seeking business solutions to social crisis. These are needed to be differentiated from other socially-oriented organizations. These also need to take initiatives that can promote to communities but which are not wanting or seeking to be â€Å"businesses†. In this esteem these latter organizations remain dependent on endowments and donations rather than build up true paying customers. According to DTI report A Progress Report on Social Enterprise: A Strategy for Success (2003, p.6), social enterprise is such a business which reinvests its surpluses in the business or in the community rather than increases profit for shareholders or owners. Peter Drucker argues that social entrepreneurs â€Å"change the performance capacity of society† (Gendron, 1996, p. 37) while Henton et al. (1997: p.1) speak of ‘civic entrepreneurs as â€Å"a new generation of leaders who forge new, powerfully productive linkages at the intersection of business, government, education and community† . Ali B. Somers (Shaping the balanced scorecard for use in UK social enterprises, p.46) stated â€Å"Social enterprise emphasise creating social and/or environmental value at all stages of their production process, as an intrinsic part of their identity†. Figure:1 describes the production process of social enterprise. Inputs Production Process Outputs: Goods and Services Labour Employee/ Client Raw Materials: from Environmental Sources Can Include: Democratic Governance or training for employee/ client Base Goods and services sold to market: Economic Profit, Social Profit and Environmental Profit Economic Profit flows back to Social Enterprise and Ethical Investors Social and Environmental profit flow to Community Indicates environmental and social motives affect production Figure: 1 Production of Social Enterprise Source: Somers, A.B., 2005. Shaping the balanced scorecard for use in UK social enterprises. Social Enterprise Journal, 1(1), p.46 2.4 Discussion Relevant to the Sustainability of Social Enterprise There has been an unprecedented wave of growth in Social Entrepreneurship globally over the last ten years (Bornstein 2004, pp.3-6). For Example, as part of the 2004 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) report a survey was conducted of social entrepreneurship activity in the UK; these data suggested that new ‘social start-ups are emerging at a faster ate than more conventional, commercial ventures (Harding and Cowling, 2004, p.5) There are three sides to sustainability in business activity: environment, economy and community. When aiming for sustainable practice all three factors must be given equal consideration from a local through to a global level. Environment Ensuring that business engages in the proper and careful use of finite resources and the management of waste so as to minimize the negative and maximize the positive impact of human activity. Economy Ensuring that business is financially viable, engages in good employment practice and is of benefit to the economy as a whole. Community Ensuring that business is overall of benefit to communities, their culture heritage and does not endanger them. Figure2: Sustainable Social Enterprise Schulyer (1998: p.3) describes social entrepreneurs as â€Å"individuals who have a vision for social change and who have the financial resources to support their ideas.who exhibit all the skills of successful business people as well as a powerful desire for social change† Greater flexibility in the use of public resources to respond to innovative community proposals, and venture investments from foundations and the private sector could be used to stimulate innovation in areas thought to be too risky for government as the sole investor. As Catford (1998, p. 96) argues that â€Å"social entrepreneurswill only flourish if they are supported by the right environment, which will be created largely by governments together with the private sector†. Social Enterprise seeks surplus generation in order to achieve financial sustainability. The need to financial sustainability is fundamental to social enterprises. Emphasizing financial sustainability in addition to profit distribution becomes a way to account for all activities the organization engages in, including advocacy and in support of bono work. Sacrificing one cause and effect chain for another can have significant implications for both the quality of work and social enterprises financial sustainability. Profit Distribution (Increase Income) Increase Revenue Use Resource Efficiently Trading Revenue Non Trading Revenue Manage Cost Track Advocacy Financial: Promote Sustainability of organization Social: Increase value to target community Whilst many may rely on combination of grant and trading income, ultimately, if an organisation is not financially sustainable, it cannot deliver its social and environmental impact. Fig3. shows how the profit of social organisation is distributed to the organization itself and community. Figure: 3 Financial Sustainability Source: Somers, A.B., 2005. Shaping the balanced scorecard for use in UK social enterprises. Social Enterprise Journal, 1(1), p.50 2.5 Policy Reform and Good Governance DTI report A Progress Report onSocial Enterprise: A Strategy for Success (2003, p.6) describes the three key goals for government as creating an enabling environment, making social enterprises better businesses and establishing the value of social enterprise. The danger in not supporting social entrepreneurship is obvious to Reis (1999: p. 4) who calls for systematic intervention to accelerate and improve philanthropic efforts. Without this he argues that substantial numbers of potential donors and social entrepreneurs could be â€Å"discouraged, turned-off, and lost from philanthropy and social change work†. So, in recent years, the boundaries between the private sectors (in term of market thinking and managerial practices) have impacted the public and voluntary sectors and started to blur traditional distinctions between them (Bull, 2006, 2007). The emergence of radical business alternatives with a strong social orientation, democratic organisation, and positive attitude to profitable trading has led to formal recognition and academic scrutiny (Seanor, Bull and Ridley-Duff, 2007). Brown, H and Murphy, E (2003: p.57) mentioned on Bank of England report that â€Å"Social enterprises, like all businesses, need access to a range of financial products appropriate to their activity and stage of development† An HM Treasury report on Enterpriseand Social Exclusion (1999, p 108) came to the conclusion, arguing that social enterprise was â€Å"less understood and rarely promoted in a consistent way by the existing infrastructure for business support†. Thompson et al. (2000: p. 328) describe â€Å"people who realize where there is an opportunity to satisfy some unmet need that the state welfare system will not or cannot meet, and who gather together the necessary resources (generally people, often volunteers, money and premises) and use these to ‘make a difference†. It is more useful to consider and develop social enterprise capabilities rather than skills and capacity building. The fact that social enterprises need to combine commercial objectives with social mission as well as internal governance, means that a â€Å"capabilities approach† is more comprehensive. This is a useful way of recognising factors additional to individual skills that inter-play to determine the effectiveness and impact of a specific enterprise. It also moves away from limited considerations of a key person or group within the organisation, and their specific skills, towards a more holistic view of what the organisation is capable of doing, irrespective of the location of particular skills. Laville and Nyssens (2001: p 325) argue that while the origins of social enterprises are based in reciprocity and thus form part of the third system, their strength is based in their ability to tap into all three economic principles and systems. They are different from private enterprise in that their goal is not the maximization of profit to benefit owners, although they do develop market activities and generate profits. They are also different from the public sector in that they are independent from direct control by public authorities. But they benefit to a greater or lesser extent from public subsidy. Thus they mobilize market relations to sell services or goods, and can use redistributive relations by utilizing government funding to finance their services. Their long-term sustainability depends on their ability to ‘continuously hybridise the three poles of the economy so as to serve the project. Their complementary use of monetary and non-monetary relations guarantees auto nomy of service based on their connections within communities and economic viability. This view of social enterprises offers an insight into their complexity in terms of the roles they must juggle and of the many forms from cooperatives, community enterprises, social firms, fair-trade companies and more that they take. Dees (1998: p.4) identifies five criteria that social entrepreneurs possess: adopting a mission to create and sustain social value; recognizing and relentlessly pursuing new opportunities to serve that mission; engaging in a process of continuous innovation, adaptation and learning; acting boldly without being limited by resources currently in hand; and exhibiting a heightened sense of accountability to the constituencies served and to the outcomes created. Catford (1998, p.97) who articulates the issues and one possible solution most eloquently: â€Å"Traditional welfare-state approaches are in decline globally, and in response new ways of creating healthy and sustainable communities are required. This challenges our social, economic and political systems to respond with new, creative and effective environments that support and reward change. From the evidence available, current examples of social entrepreneurship offer exciting new ways of realizing the potential of individuals and communitiesinto the 21st century†. The Progress Report on Social Enterprise: A Strategy for Success(2003, p.68) concludes that there is little hard evidence to demonstrate the impact and added value of social enterprise. The report points out that one of the reasons for the lack of statistical evidence is that social enterprises create a range of social and environmental impacts, beyond their financial return (the ‘double or the ‘triple bottom line) that are hard to measure (even by the social enterprises themselves). Limited information on their social and environmental, as well as financial, impact also means that policy makers, business support providers and finance providers find it difficult to assess the value of targeting social enterprises or of including them in their activities. 2.6 Concluding Remarks Academic writing about modern social entrepreneurship skills is relatively limited, compared to mainstream business or charities. The concept of ‘social enterprise has been rapidly emerging in the private, public and non-profit sectors over the last few years. Currently, the non-profit sector is facing increasing demands for improved effectiveness and sustainability in light of diminishing funding from traditional sources and increased competition for these scarce resources. At the same time, the increasing concentration of wealth in the private sector is promoting calls for increased corporate social responsibility and more proactive responses to complex social problems, while governments at all levels are struggling with multiple demands on public funds. Chapter 3: Background Information of Social Enterprise This chapter will give the idea about the social enterprise types and size in the UK along with the impact, barriers and sources of fund in this organizations. Social Enterprise in the UK The UK government has been at the front position of enabling and encouraging the increase of social enterprises as part of both welfare services delivery and community regeneration at the policy level. The impacts and influence of public, private, and citizen are empirically proven and exhibit that these conventional sectors of society are playing a part in re-evaluating the value creation opportunities offered by market (or quasi-market) mechanisms. [Brief overview of types] According to the UK policy-making community, social enterprises play a vital role in the creation of economic and social value. It has been claimed that, there were some 15,000 social enterprises in the UK SBS(2005, pp.1-2), accounting for around 1.2% of all employing enterprises in the UK. These social enterprises generate around  £18 billion in annual turnover and employ over 775,000 people (475,000 paid employees and 300,000 volunteer staff). Governments Survey and existing data for the social enterprise sector estimated that there are at least 55,000 social enterprises in the UK, with a combined turnover of  £27billion per year which is raised to over  £800 million from the preceding year. This corresponds to 2% of the UKs GDP . The number of registered charities rose from around 120,000 in 1995 to more than 164,000 in 2005, and there are also hundreds of thousands of small community groups. According to Government estimates, social enterprises account for 5% of all businesses with employees and contribute approximately  £8.4billion to GDP (HM Treasury and Cabinet Office, 2006, p.29), around 0.7% of the total economy. The data obtained from the cabinet office website in social sector showed that in the year 2003/04, 56% of third sector organisations reported an increase in activity in the previous year, and 67% of them expected activity to grow in the next three years. Positive aspects of social enterprise: Social enterprise is a varied activity and can include a range of organisations working on different scales and at different levels of trading. Some work at community level, while others work nationally. They can work in public services or commercial markets. They often work in the most disadvantaged areas and work with the most disadvantaged groups. Some organisations work only as a social enterprise while in other organisations social enterprise is often a part of their activity. This most commonly applies in a voluntary organisation or a housing association. According to Bob Doherty and John Thompson (The diverse world of social enterprise stories, p.362) the common characteristics for a Social Enterprise are: They have a social rationale and yields and surpluses are not shared out to shareholders. Reinvested profit can be used to provide training and development opportunities for staff. They use assets and capital to generate community benefit. They pursue this with (at least in part) trade in a market place. Members or employees can also take part in decision making. The enterprise is responsible to both its members and a wider society. Citizenship participation and volunteering are encouraged within the local community The social enterprise model could create new forms of entrepreneurship and employment within a community The model is ideally placed to meet new needs within a community, if supported sufficiently at start up Social Enterprises can offer goods and services to poor and disenfranchised communities The potential of a profits and revenue stream could liberate organisations from the tyranny of fundraising and grant applications Organisations could flourish effectively and creatively under this model There is either a double or triple-bottom line concept. The assumption is that the most effective social enterprises exhibit healthy financial and social returns rather than high profits in one and lower profits in the other. Social enterprise makes an important contribution to the social, economic and environmental development of Scotland. This can be summarised as follows. Fig 4: Beneficiaries of Social Enterprise Source: Social enterprise is extremely varied but, importantly, it works in a number of key priority areas for the UK economy- these include: employment and training; childcare; health; adult care services; recycling; renewable energy; transport; financial inclusion; community regeneration; and rural development. In particular, social enterprise contributes to regenerating our most deprived communities in both urban and rural areas. It often works with the people who have least opportunity in our society, including those outside the labour market, and so it has a major role to play in developing employability and supported employment and ensuring equal opportunities to those people. Social enterprise can add value to many of its activities by focusing on social, economic and environmental benefits, importantly linking these aims in a positive way, which in other business models may sometimes cause conflict. Social enterprise can offer goods and services to its customers in a flexible and innovative way. It can focus on their needs to deliver better public services. Often this is in areas where the market has failed areas where the private sector does not want to go. Social enterprise can make sure resources give value for money where a public-sector contract is needed for the activity. This includes working with very marginalised groups, where the enterprise activity helps reduce the amount of public funding needed. Through encouraging social entrepreneurship in communities, levels of public subsidy and grant dependency can be reduced. Barriers of social enterprise â€Å"†¦often have boards of directors or trustees who come from a voluntary sector rather than a business background. This can lead to a lack of business focus and prevent social enterprise from truly reaching their potential (DTI 2002, p.62) Several challenges remain before the full potential of the third sector can be realised. First, the Government must carry through its commitment to provide a constructive partnership with the sector and resist the temptation to treat it as one of the instruments for the marketisation of the Welfare State. Amicus, a trade union with workers in the public, private and third sectors, is concerned that an expansion of the third sector will be a ‘stepping stone to the privitisation of the public sector (Maskell quoted in Little, 2007, p.31). Second, the majority of third sector organisations are small and under-capitalised and they are constrained in the growth aspirations by limited access to capital (Bank of England, 2003; SQW, 2007). Insufficient capital can lead to either under-investment, or a re-orientation towards market objectives in order to obtain finance, and the consequent re-prioritisation of economic over social and environmental outcomes. To enable third sector organisations to maintain the balance between economic, social and environmental outcomes, the Government must ensure that a pragmatic and realistic assessment of the financial costs of service delivery is incorporated into their policies and strategies (HM Treasury, 2006).Third, a curse of successful activities in the third sector is that they themselves are prone to being privatised and consequently turned into capitalist ventures that adopt orthodox business practices, as has been the case with the demutualisation of the Building Society movement in the UK. According to UK Government and various literatures review shows that there are mainly four significant barriers to accessing appropriate business support and finance for social enterprises throughout the region. 1. Cultural barriers between those setting up social enterprises and mainstream business advisors. 2. Lack of clarity about where to access business support at the local level, largely due to the huge diversity of routes into starting up social enterprises. 3. Limited numbers of accredited technical specialists in key business advice areas where social enterprises require specialist support, for example on legal structure, potential investors or taxation. 4. Limited sources of affordable equity and loan finance of all sizes. All of these barriers inhibit the use of available business support by social enterprise. Many of the issues are cultural, but there are also skills issues, with mainstream business advice agencies not being adequately equipped to address more technical aspects of social enterprise business development. Specialists do exist within the region but many of them are funded through short-term grant finance. This enables the free provision of services but a lack of long-term sustainability for the advice services themselves. To grow and develop social enterprise in UK, we must tackle a range of challenges and issues which have been highlighted by the research and consultation carried out to develop this strategy. Tackling these challenges, which are summarised into five key areas in this chapter, will be a major part of this strategy: Use of the social enterprise business model. Business opportunities. Finance and investment. Business support for social enterprise. Raising the profile and demonstrating value. Sources of Finance The key factor in an enterprises development is access to appropriate sources of finance. Social enterprises are more likely than SMEs to have been rejected for finance, although the majority of those rejected by one lender appear subsequently to be successful with another. In addition, a large minority of social enterprises perceive access to external finance as a major barrier to expansion, including some of those that have successfully accessed finance in the past. While there is no one, clear reason to account for the higher rejection rates among social enterprises than SMEs, this report explores possible contributory factors, which