Achieving Sustainable Development in Construction Essay

Achieving Sustainable Development in Construction - Essay Example But it must be recognized that in modern world, there is greater emphasis on efficient infrastructure as far as construction and development are the two issues of concerns (HM Government, 2008). Therefore, many stakeholders have postulated that construction industry has a big role to play in ensuring that infrastructures are built in the most innovative way and in the most cost-effective way. On overall, it must be noted that, construction industry has a big impact on the way resources are used and utilized, and it is from this aspect that advocacy has increased in recent times to ensure a sustainable construction industry is designed and developed (Clements-Croome, 2004). The government of UK has in the recent past come out strongly with a message that sustainable development has to take place firmly in the construction industry. As a result, it is clear today that the impact that emerges to the built environment as a result of construction plays a great role in driving or accelerat ing sustainable growth and development (HM Government, 2008). Sustainability and Government Effort Since emergence of sustainable development goals, efforts by different governments and agencies have been directed towards development initiatives, which are undertaken in such a way that, the future generation is not sacrificed with the kind of development initiatives undertaken now. ... reover, the government is keen on promoting environmental conservation, where the aim has been directed at reducing the greenhouse gas (GHG) emission (Department for Business Innovation and Skills, N.d). More importantly, the UK government has made it clear that efforts of all stakeholders should be directed at maintenance of high and stable opportunities of employment, while at the same time, ensuring sustainable economy is promoted (Department for Business Innovation and Skills, N.d). Therefore, the paramount aim or goal here for the government is to promote sustainable development of economic, social, and environmental issues in the most responsible way, and this does not isolate or subtract construction industry (Myers, 2011). Moreover, effort has to be made and identify how the government of UK has played its role in the development of sustainable construction industry in the country (Department for Business Innovation and Skills, N.d). Therefore, some of the government initiati ves that the government has developed include developing Enterprise Strategy and the Innovation White Paper, which the government has collaborated with the industry players to ensure that sustainability in construction industry remain the major driving focus. Construction industry in UK Construction industry in UK continues to realize bountiful output which at the moment is estimated to be about 10 billion pounds (HM Government 2008). At the same time, it accounts for about 8% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and is responsible in creating numerous employment opportunities. It is recognized that both the public and private sector are involved in construction sector, a situation that has seen immense sprouting of commercial buildings, homes and diverse infrastructures. As a result,

A Balanced Chemical Equation by Experiment Essay Example for Free

A Balanced Chemical Equation by Experiment Essay Introduction The purpose is to use the mole relationships to prove the validity of the balanced chemical equation and that the final product of the experiment would confirm the balanced equation. The hypothesis made is that the experiment would in fact confirm the balanced equation. This is because, by balancing the equation two products that do exist are hypothetically formed. By the end of this experiment it will be seen whether the products calcium carbonate and sodium chloride will be made upon mixing calcium chloride and sodium carbonate together. The dependent variables are the amount and the chemical composition of the product formed and the independent variables are the individual amounts of deionized water, calcium chloride and sodium carbonate. Therefore, if calcium chloride and sodium carbonate are mixed together, then the reaction will produce calcium carbonate salt and sodium chloride. Materials * Stirring rod * Electronic balance * Fine filter paper * Deionized water * 2 small beakers * Sodium carbonate * Erlenmeyer flask * Graduated cylinder * Calcium chloride * Safety glasses * Funnel Procedure 1. The groups name was marked in pencil on the rim of the filter paper. 2. The mass of the filter paper was measured and recorded. 3. A clean dry small beaker was put on the electronic balance and was tarred. 2.138 grams of sodium carbonate crystals were added and the exact mass was recorded. 4. A different beaker was then put on the electronic balance and was tarred. 1.040 grams of calcium chloride was added to and the exact mass was recorded. 5. Approximately 25 mL of deionized water was added separately to each of the beakers. Each beaker was stirred with different ends of a stir rod until the solids were dissolved. 6. The calcium chloride solution was poured into the sodium carbonate solution. 7. The funnel was rested in a tall Erlenmeyer flask and the liquid was poured through into the filter paper which lined the inside of the funnel. This collected the solid. 8. Two separate 10 mL quantities of deionized water was poured through the filter paper. 9. The beakers and stir rods were cleaned and returned to their appropriate places. 10. When dried, the mass of the filter paper and soil was measured and recorded and discarded into the garbage. Results Quantitative Results Na2CO3 2.138 grams CaCl2 1.040 grams Final Substance (Na2CO3 + CaCl2 ) 2.125 grams Filter Paper Qualitative Results Na2CO3 * When mixed with water, foam appeared at the side and the surface of the solution * There was also a white flaky substance that formed CaCl2 * When mixed with water, the solution fogged up with foamy substance at the sides of the solution * Tiny bubble like substance also formed at the side Final Substance (Na2CO3 + CaCl2 ) * When the two substances mixed together, a white powdery precipitate was formed. * The flakes of powder were easily broken down. Calculations Conclusion The initial hypothesis stated can now be proved correct as after completing the experiment, the statement, which stated that the experiment would prove the balanced chemical equation true. As in the balanced equation CaCO3 was formed, this is in fact calcium carbonate, which is the salt that was produced. It is known that a chemical reaction took place because a precipitate was formed, one of the indications of a chemical equation. Also, this is a double displacement reaction. The information given by coefficients in a balanced equation can be understood to represent the relative number of molecules of that substance and as the relative number of moles involved in the reaction. Equations must be balanced because: Law of Conservation of Matter: Atoms can be neither created nor destroyed in an ordinary chemical reaction, so there must be the same number of atoms on both sides of the equation. The mass of all the reactants (the substances going into a reaction) must equal the mass of the products (the substances produced by the reaction). By using the percent yield, the success of the experiment can be determined. The higher the number of the percent yield (closer to 100%) is an indication that the experiment was more successful. The percent yield of this experiment is 99.68% 100.32%, which indicates that the reaction was successful, but the change of 0.32% is also to be noted. This change may have been caused because of incorrect mass data. Possible errors that could have occurred involve an inaccurate measure in mass of the final substance. When pouring the calcium chloride into the sodium carbonate, there was a residue left in the beaker that held the calcium chloride therefore not all of the substance was poured into the sodium carbonate. This also occurred when the final solution was poured through the filter paper. This would have led to a change in the mass data of the initial products to produce the insoluble calcium carbonate salt. Another error that could have occurred includes the fact that the product produced was kept overnight exposed to dust particles which may have mixed with the product and changed the mass data or the chemical composition of it. Also, there may have been impurities within the instruments used to perform the experiment. As other classes also use the same instruments, it can be determined how well they were cleaned and what chemical residue may have been left on the instruments. Modifications to the procedure of this lab that can lead to fewer errors include and more reliable results would be to check the utensils used for the experiment very well and to clean them with a cleaning agent to cancel out the possibilities of chemical residues left on them. Also, leaving the filter paper with the product in an airtight container or other vessel that would allow for steady temperatures and not let any substances in or out of the vessel.

Social and Formal Groups Comparison Essay Example for Free

Social and Formal Groups Comparison Essay I suppose that the Cornerstone Hospice center where I do volunteer work counts as a formal organization. As for a social group I did attend a church social club for mother’s years ago. With the social group all activities were pretty much the same for all. We did potluck each week and rotated who brought what. We did arts and crafts and rotated on who’s idea would be used and we had older more experienced moms as guest lecturers. As for the Formal group activities varied from one’s education and or experience and training. Only nurses could do their jobs and so on. I worked the office doing filing, sorting, or putting together booklets or filling orders for the nurses. They trained me to see and spend time with hospice patients but everyone pretty much had their place. Hierarchy in the social group didn’t exist and in the formal it went according to their position in the company. The norms for the social group were just to participate and for the formal group we had pages of information we had to go through study sign and were tested on. Membership Criteria for the social group was just that you were a mom or an expectant mom. They advertised in the city local paper and the church paper. As for the formal group anyone can volunteer however a back ground check has to be passed, you also have to be trained and pass all tests, and have a current Hepatitis vaccine. I sought them out since I wanted to do volunteer work and knew hospice centers took volunteers. Relationships with the social group were primary whereas with the formal group it seemed to be more of selective primary ties. Communications in the social group were always face to face and very friendly whereas in the formal group it varied from face to face to formal and in writing. Focus of the social group was person oriented and the formal group was task oriented because the task of seeing to it that the patients on hospice were getting the right kind of care was the number one goal and task of all of us. Reference: Macionis, John J. (2011). Society: The Basics (11th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall. Retrieved from University of Phoenix Axia, Soc120 – Sociology course website.

Contemporary Issues In Nursing Leadership In Nursing Practice Nursing Essay

Contemporary Issues In Nursing Leadership In Nursing Practice Nursing Essay Leadership plays an important role in nursing. This essay will define leadership and how leadership qualities relate to nursing practice in order to help nurse leaders to work effectively with in nursing environment. Furthermore, the will discuss how the key characteristics influence followers to work commonly in a group for a specific goal. Moreover, these qualities help them to Leadership is defined as personal skills which can be helpful to influence other people to the leadership benefits. It can effectively take the people in the same direction, sharing the same goals. (Lansdale, 2003). In this way, the important task of a leader is to make an action plan and encourage the team members to achieve the negotiated goals. Leadership is a major concern to the health care system. Its style is based on personal, professional and organisational value system because leaders provide shape to clinical practice with their qualities. Using their own skills leaders can easily address the needs of patients and colleagues. Leadership reflects the values of people, organizations and societies in which the leaders are working. In order to work effectively and to avoid the risk of conflict, the leaders always need to become acquainted with the values and beliefs of the individuals and organisation with whom they are working. (Stanley, 2008). Moreover, a leader uses interpersonal skills and specific behaviour for the purpose of effectiveness within profession. Because of this, the quality of leaders has a crucial role in influencing others. These qualities give them authority to work and develop their strategies effectively. (Daly, Speedy, Jackson, 2010). There are ten essential qualities which influence the work of a leader in a professional environment. First of all, a leader must have integrity which means leader should be honest and trustworthy. As, these key values are necessary to promoting a positive attitude and better performance in staff and colleagues. All staff expects these mandatory requirements from a leader. Besides this, courage to take a leadership risk is crucial to attain excellence. It is the ability to confront risk without fear which is sometimes necessary to get success. A leader may have good ideas and strategies in mind but they can not be effective without any action. This is called initiating w hich is the first step that needs to be taken in order to get the things done successfully. As it is hard task to do, wise use of energy and effort and an optimistic attitude are needed to give role satisfaction in leadership. Along with this, it is very common that rapid success of other colleagues discourage someone easily but positive thinking helps to keep up leaders and their co workers to resolve difficulties. This also ledà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢s to remotivation in staff members. Effective leaders never quit easily, instead, they continuously use their efforts for work. (Tappen, Weiss Whitehead, 2004). Balance is another characteristic of leaders. It is essential to make an equal balance between personal and professional life. Paying attention towards the working environment needs to be balanced with attention shown to family and friends, because social activities are as important as professional. The most effective leaders easily balance between work and leisure time. Regardless, there are some stresses in almost every job which puts on work pressure and causes stressful life. In such conditions, leaders should think positively to address the issues and they should act as a role model for others in order to bring about possible solution. (Tappen, Weiss Whitehead, 2004) Self awareness is a most valuable key quality that is essential to motivate other people, because people who can not understand themselves they can not change others. In addition of these, according to International Council of Nursing (Sally, 2007) there are some more key elements that could be helpful for leaders. They should have a vision which could be a dream and it helps them to think strategically and differently from the daily schedule. Along with this, awareness about external environment is also crucial because it might affect the organization, its strategies and future planning. Having, confidence about the work one is doing also count a lot, because it helps to influence others. Knowledge related to political skills is another key value for leaders as it teaches them how to cope with conflicts and how to understand goals, values, expectations and behaviour of others. It is also significant to review all strategies to make any change according to the demand of time. Thereaf ter team work, partnership alliances and effective communication teach them how to work with others to achieve common goals and how it helps them to share new ideas and information with others. (Sally, 2007) All these characteristics of leaders play a vital role in nursing practice. They influence and shape the clinical practice. During clinical practice, leaders confront many challenges. To figure them out successfully, they implement strategies which lead out as the result of critical thinking discussion to improve patient care and outcomes. (Daly et al 2006). Nursing leader always faced challenge to think creatively about the development of critical thinking. This has a powerful impact on the problem solving and decision making. Working as a leader always requires continuous development of skills and regular improvement in them. In nursing, nursesà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢ leaders confront many different team workers. To work efficiently nurse leaders must create an environment of trust among their followers. This leads to the involvement of co workers in planning and decision making on issues that will affect them directly or indirectly. Sometimes to get success, leaders have to take risk without any fear. Courage helps them to make some crucial decision strongly, which may be stressful and have to be made while under pressure. It also enables them to have confidence about making judgements. According to Kanter in ICN Nursing Leadership (Sally, 2007) it is the expectation of success which provides a link in between someoneà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢s ideas and performance. Leaders should have knowledge about interpersonal skills. This means they can motivate or generate others toward shared goals with positive attitudes. To achieve this, nurse leader take initiative steps. Nurse leaders encourage team to work effectively with a range of different people at different levels so that they can feel supported. This will result improvement in health care settings. Along with this, nurse leaders develop new roles and skills regarding any changes and challenges in health organization because all these will result in quality care, efficiency and improvement in equity of access, especially for needy populations. Because nursing provides essential health care services, leaders should alert staff about any changes in policy. A key quality of leader is to transmit their passion about the future to others. A vision for nursing means what would be the ideas of the leader for organization to happen within a specific period of time. Then to get there, all major programmes, projects and activities are planned strategically to turn toward the same vision. The external environment might affect it. For this purpose external awareness related to health trends, issues, new policies and other factors is necessary. SWOT (strength, weaknesses,) and environment scanning helps them to review the whole situation and creates more opportunities. Regardless, political skill is needed to understand, from all stakeholders and to cope with conflicting situations, values, fears and behaviour of different people. It also means being able to plan creative, proactive and appropriate strategies for various situations. Effective communication means one can easily understand someoneà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢s language. It is crucial for work safely and to give commands to followers. (Sally, 2007)

Habitat for Humanity: Helping the Homeless :: Volunteer

Habitat for Humanity: Helping the Homeless Homelessness is not something that I could ever imagine completely. I, like everyone else, have a simple idea of what it would be like to be homeless. There is so much more to being homeless than most believe. My exposure to Habitat for Humanity is showing me some about the idea of living in a lower income family. This exposure is an experience that all high school and college students should have. One reason for my ignorance on homelessness is my modest exposure to homeless people. I have really never had close contact to homeless or have never done much service work for the homeless. Many people in my family do work with homeless and low-income families. I have heard their stories and I have a little knowledge from what my family has told me. If people, including myself, did more to get involved, we would have more knowledge about the homeless and other poverty-stricken families. I finally got exposure to the low-income families with my grandfather. My grandfather is the person who got me involved in the Habitat work. He is a retired construction teacher and he has taught me many carpentry and handyman skills. I have done a Blitz Build before and I enjoyed it very much. I love doing that type of work and it is even more fun when I get to help out a family with my skills. At Clemson I got to practice these skills once again when my English class helped work on a Habitat house. Now we are assisting the actual Habitat organization by making a promotional brochure. I think that all students should get involved with an organization such as Habitat for Humanity. Doing this will bring them to a closer understanding of what it is like to live in a low income or even homeless family. It is an interesting experience to get involved with the families in society that need help.

The Digital Divide Essay -- Technology Poverty Technological Papers

The Digital Divide When walking into a house, there are many things that can be seen. There may be a television, a phone and maybe a computer. There are lights overhead and warm air all around. There is running water and music to listen to. These may seem like no big deal, but to people in third world countries, this is a dream. People do not realize how lucky they are and what other people go through. If everyone could choose their lifestyle we would all be able to enjoy these luxuries, but that is not the case. In these times we are set apart by a digital divide. A digital divide is the separation of those who can afford technology and those who cannot. Even today, the day of modern technology, more money and better lifestyles, there is still that gap, that divides the digital world. In Heather MacDonalds article, Online Use Sees Digital Divide, MacDonald states that a growing population of people are logging on. This includes adults and teenagers, however, the oldest and the poorest are not logging on. There will always be a digital divide when it comes to technology, but at certain times the gap may be narrower or wider depending on access to that technology. A digital divide can occur between neighborhoods, between cities, between states, countries, and continents. Many factors figure into why the gap is so big. Many kids and teenagers are plugged in because they find that it is fun. It also allows them to feel they are a part of a group. Most adults are connected because some of them can stay at home and work. They can get help from a doctor twenty-four hours a day if their child is sick. They can book a vacation in just minutes, or even bank online According to a recent study by Pew Internet and American Life Project, ... ...have your health, food, money, and a good education. With all these blessings, you are luckier that over half the worlds population. Being connected to the Internet is not one of the most important aspects of life. We first need to worry about getting food, shelter, education, and medical attention to Africa. We cannot solve all of lifes problems, but we can work towards making it better. We cannot stop the digital divide from happening but we can try to prevent it from getting worse. Works Cited MacDonald, Heather. Online use sees digital divide. Daily News 20 Feb. 2001, sec. B: 1,13. OConnor, Rory J. Africa: The Unwired Continent. Composing Cyberspace. Ed. Richard Holeton. Boston: McGraw Hill, 1998, 270-274. Rodriguez, Richard. A Future of Faith and Cyberspace. Composing Cyberspace. Ed. Richard Holeton. Boston: McGraw Hill, 1998, 259-261. The Digital Divide Essay -- Technology Poverty Technological Papers The Digital Divide When walking into a house, there are many things that can be seen. There may be a television, a phone and maybe a computer. There are lights overhead and warm air all around. There is running water and music to listen to. These may seem like no big deal, but to people in third world countries, this is a dream. People do not realize how lucky they are and what other people go through. If everyone could choose their lifestyle we would all be able to enjoy these luxuries, but that is not the case. In these times we are set apart by a digital divide. A digital divide is the separation of those who can afford technology and those who cannot. Even today, the day of modern technology, more money and better lifestyles, there is still that gap, that divides the digital world. In Heather MacDonalds article, Online Use Sees Digital Divide, MacDonald states that a growing population of people are logging on. This includes adults and teenagers, however, the oldest and the poorest are not logging on. There will always be a digital divide when it comes to technology, but at certain times the gap may be narrower or wider depending on access to that technology. A digital divide can occur between neighborhoods, between cities, between states, countries, and continents. Many factors figure into why the gap is so big. Many kids and teenagers are plugged in because they find that it is fun. It also allows them to feel they are a part of a group. Most adults are connected because some of them can stay at home and work. They can get help from a doctor twenty-four hours a day if their child is sick. They can book a vacation in just minutes, or even bank online According to a recent study by Pew Internet and American Life Project, ... ...have your health, food, money, and a good education. With all these blessings, you are luckier that over half the worlds population. Being connected to the Internet is not one of the most important aspects of life. We first need to worry about getting food, shelter, education, and medical attention to Africa. We cannot solve all of lifes problems, but we can work towards making it better. We cannot stop the digital divide from happening but we can try to prevent it from getting worse. Works Cited MacDonald, Heather. Online use sees digital divide. Daily News 20 Feb. 2001, sec. B: 1,13. OConnor, Rory J. Africa: The Unwired Continent. Composing Cyberspace. Ed. Richard Holeton. Boston: McGraw Hill, 1998, 270-274. Rodriguez, Richard. A Future of Faith and Cyberspace. Composing Cyberspace. Ed. Richard Holeton. Boston: McGraw Hill, 1998, 259-261.

Winesburg Ohio Critical Analysis Essay -- Critical Analysis

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Written by Sherwood Anderson in 1919, Winesburg, Ohio, a collection of short stories, allows us to enter the alternately complex, lonely, joyful, and strange lives of the inhabitants of the small town of Winesburg, Ohio. While each character finds definition through their role in the community, we are witness to the individual struggle each faces in trying to reconcile their secret life within. A perfect example of two characters are Alice Hindman and Enoch Robinson. The loneliness and illusion that encompass the lives of Alice Hindman and Enoch Robinson are the result of the discrepancy between their own capacity for intimacy and affection and the inability of others to truly understand them.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the short story, â€Å"Adventure†, Alice Hindman lives a life full of illusions and loneliness. Alice is a very quiet person on the exterior while a passion boils underneath. Alice Hindman is limited by life denying truths and guilty of allowing them to run her life. She believes in love and tradition absolutely. Alice’s blindness to the changing social mores limits her capacity to progress forward in life. She become consumed instead by the idea of herself and her memories. â€Å"It is not going to come to me. I will never find happiness. Why do I tell myself lies?† (Anderson 117). If she cannot have Ned, she will have no other.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This extremity of emotion brings her to downfall. Her tendency to limit her own abilities by her nature of fixed habits or unmovable convictions isolates Alice from her community and distorts her features. She had once been a beautiful girl but grows into a woman with a head too large for her body. This is symbolic of her self-consumption, loneliness, and illusions. â€Å"I am becoming old and queer. If Ned comes he will not want me.† (Anderson 117). She grows to support the theme of life in death, living within her own imagination and memory to the point that her head is nearly expanding under the stress. She denies herself the reality of life by narrowing the experience to a dream world. By making absolute convictions and believing her own lies, Alice refuses to meld her worlds of dream and reality together. For example, Will Hurley, the man who walks her home from Church meetings, is an impostor into her narrowly constructed universe and thus she does no t want to... ...asy life. When a woman invades this life, he cannot compromise the two worlds once again and one must be destroyed. â€Å"Enoch Robinson is so open to the power of the feminine that he feels his own identity would be â€Å"submerged, drowned out† by any intimate relationship with a real woman.â€Å" (Rigsbee 435). Of course, Enoch’s attempts at happiness would be destroyed but the story lies in the story of Enoch’s absolute hold on his particular truths which cannot be maintained. Enoch continued to live a lonely life, full of illusions. â€Å"I’m alone, all alone here. It was warm and friendly in my room but now I’m all alone.† (Anderson 178).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Alice Hindman and Enoch Robinson were two perfect examples of how a person can live a life full of illusions and loneliness. The main cause of their distorted lives was due to the inability of others to truly understand them. For example, Ned and Alice’s friends didn’t understand Alice and Enoch’s wife and art friends didn’t understand them. This caused them to make their own lives interesting, which they did by creating illusions, which also encompassed unwanted loneliness from Alice and Enoch both.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚