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The Northfleet Group of Gravesend, Kent — UK market leaders in retail display systems — has appointed Gary B. Pettit to head the company's projects division as major accounts manager. This is a new position within the group which is aimed at the continued expansion and development of the division in serving the company's multiple retail and wholesale outlets. In this capacity, Mr Pettit reports directly to the sales director and leads a team of four managers and a further 16 sales and administrative personnel.

As noted in the introduction, this book is concerned with resistance to professional guidance that teachers may evince as they hold rigidly to an ‘inherited script’ that undermines the flexibility needed to respond to the emergent needs of learners. We propose that this resistance, and the sense of excessive entitlement that propels it, are responses to fundamentally incoherent theorizations of learning that form the basis for unworkable pedagogical models promulgated by reform-oriented teacher educators. Inherited scripts, therefore, are the only working models of pedagogy available to teachers, torn by the need to make sense of their own teaching while fending off the incomprehensible demands of their academic mentors. Our critique of learning theory is based on Thomas Kuhn's well-known perspectives on preparadigmatic science. Our thesis is that the various branches of learning theory reflect incommensurable interpretations of learning. Thus, any synthesis of perspectives – for instance, in reform pedagogies – is necessarily unstable. We support this critique through an examination of a lesson in an afterschool philosophy club illustrating lapses in reform-oriented pedagogy that trace back to incoherent theoretical framings.

This report aims to examine the sectoral composition of Europe's real estate investment market, the factors likely to drive a shift in portfolio composition away from the office sector and toward retail, and how this will likely occur.

The article examines the sectoral breakdown of Europe's real estate market and describes the shift in the UK's sectoral breakdown over the past two decades. Economic convergence in Europe, the increasing number of third‐party fund managers offering access to the performance of retail assets, the historically superior risk‐adjusted returns of retail in mainland Europe are noted as factors that will drive the shift. Eight mechanisms that could help achieve the shift are described.

Many investors in European real estate are modifying strategy to capitalise on the expected outperformance of the office sector over the short to medium term. However, as the office rental recovery matures and the potential for outperformance diminishes, a substantial, long‐term increase in the portfolio weightings of retail and other property types will likely occur in mainland Europe. Improved asset and fund management infrastructure has made retail assets more accessible to investors. Retail has tended to outperform offices over fairly long time horizons and will likely continue to provide superior risk‐adjusted returns.

Many investors in European real estate have recently been making tactical allocation decisions to benefit from the potential upside offered by offices. This analysis suggests that at a strategic level, investors in mainland European real estate should diversify away from offices (now about half of investors' portfolios) by raising allocations to other sectors.

The fact that stocks going ex‐dividend decline in price by less than the dividend amount is theoretically attributed to the differential taxation of dividend and capital gains or the differential taxation of investor groups. NYSE, Amex and Toronto Stock Exchange listed stocks, and stocks interlisted on these three exchanges, are examined to infer the tax jurisdiction of the marginal investor. The stock price changes relative to the dividends are consistent with a tax clientele effect. Further, the stock price changes are plausible given the tax rates. Ex‐dividend day behavior is different for non‐interlisted stocks on all three exchanges, suggesting each exchange has a different tax clientele. Canadian firms interlisted on US exchanges exhibit ex‐dividend day behavior consistent with the appropriate US exchange’s non‐interlisted stocks, suggesting that the marginal investors in these stocks are American.

Some classes of scenario planning tools and techniques are designed to inform near‐term strategic decisions. In addition, some of these are more appropriate for lower levels of uncertainty, while others are best suited for highly uncertain, truly ambiguous business environments. This paper provides a typology of scenario planning tools and techniques that enables managers to identify the best approach to follow in various circumstances. By choosing the right scenario‐planning tool for near‐term strategy decisions, companies can generate the foresight necessary to prevail in today’s turbulent markets. Though most scenario exercises are intended to enrich an organization’s awareness of potential environmental discontinuity in the long‐term, some classes of scenario planning tools and techniques are designed to inform near‐term strategic decisions. Some of these tools for assessing the near term are more appropriate for lower levels of uncertainty, and others are best suited for highly uncertain, truly ambiguous business environments. This paper provides a typology of scenario planning tools and techniques that enables managers to identify the best approach to follow in various circumstances. By choosing the right scenario‐planning tool for near‐term strategy decisions, managers can generate the foresight necessary to help their organization prevail in today’s turbulent markets.

Outlines the work necessary to refurbish a 200‐year‐old ancient monument and category ′A′ listed building, for the purposes of providing upgraded facilities to suit the current requirements of the army as a barracks. Examines and assesses the methods considered to strengthen aged timber structures, discussing consolidation, strengthening, replacement and preservation and infestation treatments. Details the materials used to affect the strengthening process and explains the tests made on Epoxy resin and its subsequent uses. Briefly addresses the impact of variations made due to site anomalies – the ′Fort George Factor′.

A theory of pre‐bid building price forecasting accuracy is proposed, based on the heuristic bias framework and with reference to the common practice of basing building price forecasts on the price per square metre of floor area, termed here as Price Intensity (PI). The main prediction of the theory, that high PI contracts will be underestimated and low PI contracts will be overestimated, is tested by a re‐analysis of a set of Singapore data and in comparison with previous work.