3 pp. / 1. Drinking Water Wells; 2. Private Water Well Components; 3. Do Deeper Wells Mean Better Water; 4. Maintaining Your Private Well Water System; 5. Private Well Protection; 6. Well Water Testing and Understanding the Results; 7. Obtaining a Water Sample for Bacterial Analysis; 8. Microorganisms in Private Water Wells; 9. Lead in Private Water Wells; 10. Nitrate in Private Water Wells; 11.Arsenic in Private Water Wells; 12. Matching Drinking Water Quality Problems to Treatment Methods; 13. Commonly Available Home Water Treatment Systems; 14. Hard Water: To Soften or Not to Soften; 15. Shock Chlorination of Private Water Wells / This fact sheet is one in a series of fifteen for private water well owners. The one- to four-page fact sheets will be assembled into a two-pocket folder entitled Private Well Owners Guide. The titles will also be a part of the Changing Rural Landscapes project whose goal is to educate exurban, small acreage residents. The authors have made every effort to align the fact sheets with the proposed Arizona Cooperative Extension booklet An Arizona Well Owners Guide to Water Sources, Quality, Testing, Treatment, and Well Maintenance by Artiola and Uhlman. The private well owner project was funded by both the University of Arizonas Water Sustainability Program-Technology and Research Initiative Fund and the USDA-CSREES Region 9 Water Quality Program.

2 pp. / 1. Drinking Water Wells; 2. Private Water Well Components; 3. Do Deeper Wells Mean Better Water; 4. Maintaining Your Private Well Water System; 5. Private Well Protection; 6. Well Water Testing and Understanding the Results; 7. Obtaining a Water Sample for Bacterial Analysis; 8. Microorganisms in Private Water Wells; 9. Lead in Private Water Wells; 10. Nitrate in Private Water Wells; 11.Arsenic in Private Water Wells; 12. Matching Drinking Water Quality Problems to Treatment Methods; 13. Commonly Available Home Water Treatment Systems; 14. Hard Water: To Soften or Not to Soften; 15. Shock Chlorination of Private Water Wells / This fact sheet is one in a series of fifteen for private water well owners. The one- to four-page fact sheets will be assembled into a two-pocket folder entitled Private Well Owners Guide. The titles will also be a part of the Changing Rural Landscapes project whose goal is to educate exurban, small acreage residents. The authors have made every effort to align the fact sheets with the proposed Arizona Cooperative Extension booklet An Arizona Well Owners Guide to Water Sources, Quality, Testing, Treatment, and Well Maintenance by Artiola and Uhlman. The private well owner project was funded by both the University of Arizonas Water Sustainability Program-Technology and Research Initiative Fund and the USDA-CSREES Region 9 Water Quality Program.

3 pp. / 1. Drinking Water Wells; 2. Private Water Well Components; 3. Do Deeper Wells Mean Better Water; 4. Maintaining Your Private Well Water System; 5. Private Well Protection; 6. Well Water Testing and Understanding the Results; 7. Obtaining a Water Sample for Bacterial Analysis; 8. Microorganisms in Private Water Wells; 9. Lead in Private Water Wells; 10. Nitrate in Private Water Wells; 11.Arsenic in Private Water Wells; 12. Matching Drinking Water Quality Problems to Treatment Methods; 13. Commonly Available Home Water Treatment Systems; 14. Hard Water: To Soften or Not to Soften; 15. Shock Chlorination of Private Water Wells / This fact sheet is one in a series of fifteen for private water well owners. The one- to four-page fact sheets will be assembled into a two-pocket folder entitled Private Well Owners Guide. The titles will also be a part of the Changing Rural Landscapes project whose goal is to educate exurban, small acreage residents. The authors have made every effort to align the fact sheets with the proposed Arizona Cooperative Extension booklet An Arizona Well Owners Guide to Water Sources, Quality, Testing, Treatment, and Well Maintenance by Artiola and Uhlman. The private well owner project was funded by both the University of Arizonas Water Sustainability Program-Technology and Research Initiative Fund and the USDA-CSREES Region 9 Water Quality Program.

This thesis adds to the literature on strategy and enterprise discourses by analysing how they are used in interviews with small-firm owner-managers. The literature describes features of strategy and enterprise discourses and their shaping by historical developments. There is much work on the operation of these two discourses at societal and large-organisation levels. Much less researched is how these discourses are used by small-firm managers or how these discourses interact in use. This work characterises a particular discourse-analytical approach to the research interview as suitable for advancing the literature. Small, young publishing firms producing business magazines in late ‘Celtic Tiger’ Ireland are argued as an apposite context. Detailed analysis of three selected interviews illustrates the relevance of enterprise and strategy discourses in the particular ways these owner-managers talk. Drawing on the notion of ideological dilemmas, this work gives an explicit account of how strategy and enterprise discourses are used and interrelated in a manner described here as a ‘dichotomous unity’. This unity depends not only on the discourses’ commonalities but also on the dilemmatic tensions between them. These tensions allow creative and subtle uses of the unified discourse. Yet these same dilemmas also constrain the discourse within the bounds marked out by them. The persistence and creativity, noted by the literature, in the use of enterprise and strategy discourses is explained by the interpretation offered here. This work also stresses the need to research these discourses as two aspects of the same phenomenon. The interview method used reveals the wholeness of a discourse that other methods might show as fractured. Discourse analysts generally recognise that people both shape, and are shaped by discourses. By explicating how strategy and enterprise discourses operate, this work adds to human agency. Small-firm managers may become more aware of the constraints otherwise implicit in enterprise-strategy discourse. Policymakers may gain an appreciation of the discursive balance that the promotion of enterprise and strategy demands of small-business managers, along with the kind of costs such balancing might entail.

Over the decades of the last century, home ownership in the U.S. has become a major institution and part of the American dream. Many arguments have developed that tout the benefits of homeownership: benefits both for the individual, and for the larger society. This study examines one such argument, considering the effects for Latino immigrants of homeownership on community participation. As this is the first study to consider this model for an immigrant population, it is also the first to introduce to this model the concepts of acculturation and assimilation. Studying Latinos in Richmond, Virginia is particularly interesting as Latinos are new ethnic community members to a city that has historically been defined by differences in race (black and white), additionally, unlike most studies done on Latinos in their traditional places of settlement, ethnic enclaves in Richmond have yet to develop. As a result the types of community participation considered here are ones that involve social interaction with non-Latinos. This study has found neither theoretical nor empirical support for the model; other causal variables for community participation are suggested. It adds to the body of theoretical work by suggesting that Weber's concept of status groups be used to describe homeowners as a distinct status group in U.S. society.; additional suggestions for future research are included. Data for the thesis was drawn from the Latinos in Richmond Project.

Thesis (M.Com. Taxation) -- University of Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, School of Accountancy, 2014. / The taxation of dividends at shareholder level has been the norm in the majority of the international market. South Africa is a developing country that is constantly increasing its market share in the international stage and in order to be more competitive in the international market South Africa has to align itself with international norms and practices and this resulted, amongst other things, with the introduction of dividends tax in 2012. This study analysed the new dividends tax legislation that became effective on 1 April 2012 in South Africa, by way of a normative literature review, and briefly discusses how South Africa compares with Russia, India and China, three other developing countries. The literature review confirmed the benefits with regards to the dividends tax system; however, the review also confirmed that there are challenges within the dividends tax system. The benefits of the dividends tax system that were noted include amongst others; aligning South Africa with international tax norms, the increased tax base and the establishment of a familiar withholding tax system that can attract more foreign investment. The levying of dividends tax on beneficial owners results in an increased tax base because the number of taxpayers increases to companies and individuals, versus levying secondary tax on companies only on the companies paying the dividend. Some of the challenges of the dividends tax system are the administrative burden placed on companies and regulated intermediaries, the rate of 15% might be considered to be too high in comparison to other developing countries and the taxation of dividends in the hands of the individuals might be a disincentive to invest in equity shares. South African legislation on dividends tax differs from that of China; with the latter country taxing the dividends in the hands of the beneficial owners without a requirement on company‘s paying the dividend to withhold the dividends tax. The Russian legislation on taxation of dividends is similar to that of South Africa but taxes the dividend on the net amount. In India the dividend distribution tax is levied in the company making a dividend distribution.

L'activité entrepreneuriale génère des séries d'événements qui sont susceptibles d'impacter à la fois l'équilibre de l'entreprise et celui de son propriétaire-dirigeant. Alors que la santé de ce dernier constitue un actif immatériel clé pour une petite organisation, les caractéristiques des événements vécus et la réaction psychologique du chef d'entreprise demeurent peu étudiées. Le but de ce travail doctoral est de combler ces lacunes communes à la santé au travail et à l'entrepreneuriat, deux champs rarement croisés. En partant d'une vision pluridisciplinaire et d'une posture épistémologique de type pragmatique, nous avons mené une recherche mixte auprès d'un panel de 357 dirigeants de PME. Une étude longitudinale qualitative fut d'abord conduite pour catégoriser sémantiquement les événements les plus marquants. Puis une étude transversale quantitative a permis la pondération des événements codés via deux construits médiateurs : le stress (réponse négative à un événement) ou la satisfaction (réponse positive). Enfin, l'influence des événements vécus sur la santé physique et mentale a été testée par des régressions linéaires multiples. Au niveau conceptuel, les résultats de cette thèse étendent la théorie des événements affectifs au champ de l'entrepreneuriat. Sur le plan méthodologique, deux inventaires d'événements sont proposés : ils capturent le stress et la satisfaction générés par l'activité entrepreneuriale. De manière pratique, des actions préventives de professionnels médicaux peuvent s'appuyer sur les qualités prédictives de la santé de ces inventaires. Présentés comme un « stressomètre » et un « satisfactomètre », ils sont aussi des outils de repérage accessibles aux travailleurs non salariés. / Entrepreneurial activity generates series of events which may impact both the equilibrium of the business and the one of its owner-manager. While the health of this latter represents a key intangible asset for a small organisation, the features of the experienced events and the psychological reaction of the small business owner remain little explored. The aim of this doctoral work is to make up for these common lacks to occupational health and entrepreneurship, two fields scarcely crossed. Based on a multidisciplinary approach and an epistemological positioning of the pragmatic type, we led a mixed methods research on a panel of 357 small business owners. First, a qualitative longitudinal survey was conducted to place the most notable events experienced by the owners into semantic categories. Second, a quantitative cross-sectional questionnaire intended to weight the coded events through two mediating constructs: stress (negative response to an event) and satisfaction (positive response). Third, the influence of the events experienced on physical and mental health variance was tested through multiple linear regressions. Conceptually speaking, the results of this thesis extend the affective events theory to the field of entrepreneurship. Methodologically speaking, two checklists of events are proposed: they capture the stress and the satisfaction generated by the entrepreneurial activity. Practically speaking, some preventive actions from medical professionals can build upon the predictive qualities regarding health of these checklists. Introduced as a “stressometer” and a “satisfactometer”, they are also benchmarking tools available for the self-employed.

Small business owners with 50 to 100 employees in the physical and mental health care industry face a primary challenge of implementing health insurance under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) while sustaining their business. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore the strategies small business owners use to provide health insurance coverage under the ACA and sustained business operations. Semistructured interviews took place in Northeastern Ohio with 3 business owners in the physical and mental health care industry to acquire health care without increasing service cost. The conceptual framework for this study was strategic organizational change. Data were collected by semistructured interviews and business documents. The data were analyzed with a methodological triangulation and member checking collection method to bolster trustworthiness and credibility. The themes that emerged from the study included the importance of cost associated with health care plans, high employee turnover rates, and large insurance company participation. Purchasing affordable health care requires small business owners to make decisions that include resources and employees' reactions to change. The findings of the study may lead to social change because they include information that may benefit small business owners in the process of providing health insurance coverage to full-time employees and reducing insurance costs. The application of the results of the study may reduce the number of uninsured individuals.

E-business is growing rapidly all over the world and especially in China, which now has the largest C2C market in the world. Most studies of users’ experience of E-business either focus on the platform usage, platform adoption or include platform usage and vendors’ behavior as variables in general e-retailing models. However, we do not know much about what effect the interplay between E-business platforms and vendors operating on the platform has on consumers E-business behavior. In this paper, buyers' behavior in terms of choosing platforms and choosing stores is examined separately, while measurements for influencing factors such as size of vendor base and trust of platform owner is included to capture second order effects. Data was gathered through a questionnaire, published on a professional Chinese survey website for collecting data. Afterwards, SPSS was used for analyzing data. Similarities and differences between the outcomes for the two research questions were analyzed. The main patterns in the two models are similar, suggesting that the interaction between platform owners and vendors has impact on buyers as well. Price, which was one of the most important features of E-business, proved to be of minor importance for choosing both E-business platform and vendors. However, there are some differences between adoption of platforms and vendors, range of market is important for platform adoption, while it is not a indicator for consumers to choose a certain vendor. These findings suggest that there are second order effects involved in E-business platforms. Further, they indicate that once an E-business platform has acquired a large enough user base, the owner might consider increasing revenues from vendor fees, as long as they translate to small product price increases rather than a decreased vendor user base.

This thesis identifies the equine-related topics that are important to Texas college-age horse owners and enthusiasts and the channels/sources they use to get equine-related information. Little research has focused on this group to determine their information needs. Therefore, two focus groups were conducted in 2008 in Texas with college-age horse owners and enthusiasts to conduct a needs assessment. Participants were separated into competitive and recreational groups depending on their level of participation in the industry. They were asked what topics they consider important and what channels/sources they use to gain desired information. Training was the most mentioned topic overall, and the most mentioned by recreational participants. Alternative medical treatments was the most mentioned topic by competitive participants. Competitive participants reported a smaller number of topics as important, indicating that they have specialized information needs. Recreational participants emphasized broader, less specialized topics. Participants showed an interest in relevant and controversial topics affecting the equine industry. Participants also used a combination of channels/sources and competitive and recreational participants often placed importance on different channels/sources. Face-to-face communication was important to both groups. Magazines were important to competitive participants, while the Internet was important to recreational participants. Competitive participants doubted the trustworthiness of sources available through the Internet, but wanted more reliable sources to be made available in the future. Participants preferred to get information from industry specialist sources, such as trainers, veterinarians, other owners and enthusiasts, breed associations, and equine magazines. Participants’ perceptions of trustworthiness were affected by the source’s ability to demonstrate equine-specific knowledge and the source’s reputation and success among equine industry members. The results suggests that the influence of the Internet has altered the traditional models of communication in which source selection determines channel use. In this study, the participants’ Internet channel selection often determined their source use. The results also suggests that communicators wanting to reach this audience should target specific topics to competitive and recreational audiences, use a multi-channel approach, establish trustworthiness, and explore the changing role of the Internet in agricultural communication.