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The X‐ray diffraction patterns of epoxy resins: four samples with different epoxide equivalents and coal‐tar blended epoxy resins: three samples with different epoxide equivalents were recorded using CuKa X‐ray radiation. These X‐ray diffraction patterns were indicating the amorphous nature of the resins. Their intensity curves were subjected to Fourier Analysis for the first time in order to get more information about the difference between epoxy and coal‐tar blended epoxy resins in terms of their internal structure such as particle size, percentage crystallanity and electron density fluctuations. Also, the effect of different epoxide equivalent on these physical parameters was interpreted successfully in epoxy as well as coal‐tar blended epoxy resins.

Purpose – The purpose of this chapter is to explore an application of the gradual release of responsibility (GRR) to the reading comprehension of students in kindergarten to grade five.

Findings – In this chapter, the author provides a brief review of think-alouds as a way for proficient readers to model the comprehension strategies that they apply to a text. The author introduces a three-step process in which students gradually take ownership for such strategies through think-alouds, think-alongs, and think alones. The author demonstrates that when students in kindergarten through grade five have strong models of comprehension through think-alouds, they are able to apply these strategies to their own independent reading. Though a case study of one English language arts teacher, the author shows how the teacher released responsibility to students through think-alouds.

Research limitations/implications – The examples within this chapter are from a second-grade classroom in an urban charter school.

Practical implications – This three-step process is applicable to all content areas as well as text genre and reading levels. This approach is a valuable model for teachers to understand how to gradually release comprehension strategies to students across grade levels.

Originality/value of paper – This chapter provides research-based examples of using the GRR model to build students’ ability to inference. Additionally, the chapter provides “I” language and sentence starters to help students internalize comprehension strategies and apply them to independent reading.

Thailand: Enchantment of the World describes the southeast Asian nation of Thailand with recent photographs, maps, and figures accompanying the text. Graphic and text elements together build a description of Thailand today. History and geography are discussed as is the natural environment and a changing economy. Characteristics important to the establishment of the nation as a 21st century leader in its region are discussed. Students will enjoy a wide and deep range of photographs of Thai peoples, culture, and landforms from early in the 19th century through recent years. This book facilitates students’ development of an understanding of the influences contributing to similarities and differences among Thailand and other nations.

The leadership of the Iraq and Afghanistan war has been criticized for reported cases of contractor corruption. This chapter examines the extent to which these wars have played out in the political agendas of candidates for President. The hypothesis is that while the two wars continue to be a key campaign issue in election cycles, the corruption narrative is a neglected part of the discourse. There are possible reasons for the disjuncture between United States (U.S.) positions against corruption by foreign governments and contractor behaviors within the defense industry, namely the impact of corruption on voters, candidates and other stakeholders. The chapter closes with lessons about the effects of corruption on agenda setting while also contributing to research on evaluation of private-public partnerships in public policy implementation and governance.

Qualified immunity is a defense available to law enforcement officials in Section 1983 lawsuits alleging constitutional violations. Whether qualified immunity is granted hinges on the objective reasonableness of the officer’s actions; that is, on what a reasonable officer would have done under the circumstances. However, when a plaintiff alleges a Fourth Amendment violation, another objective reasonableness test is used. The result can be a paradoxical finding of reasonably unreasonable conduct. The present study examines this quizzical feature of civil liability law and seeks to clarify the role that both objective reasonableness tests play. In doing so, it examines the varying definitions of objective reasonableness, reviews a number of court decisions where the Fourth Amendment and qualified immunity have collided, and makes recommendations for minimizing future confusion.

There is a perception in the United States that campaign contributions equate with vote buying. Outright vote buying is illegal, but many citizens believe that loopholes in campaign contribution laws allow some to buy votes while perpetuating a façade of legitimacy. Both federal and state laws attempt to regulate campaign contributions, but many of those have been limited by the Supreme Court’s ruling that campaign spending is considered free speech (Buckley vs. Valeo, 1976). Without the ability to limit campaign spending, the amount of money it takes to run a campaign, particularly a presidential campaign, has increased substantially. This had led to an increase in the use of bundling by presidential campaigns, with the winners often rewarding their bundlers. It has also led to an increase in outside independent organizations, known as Super PACs, with an unlimited ability to raise and spend money. This creates an additional problem as a small percentage of wealthy individuals constitute the vast majority of campaign contributors, leading to the perception that politicians cater to the elite. Whether a politician is affected by these factors or not is hard to prove, but it still leaves a perception by voters that their votes are less influential than large campaign contributors and there is always a risk that a vote has been bought.

The Florida electorate passed Amendment One on January 29th, 2008. The portability provision of this Amendment allows homestead owners to transfer the difference between assessed value and estimated market value of their current homestead property to their new property. Since passage, there has been limited and declining utilization of the portability provision. This paper explores whether the accrued tax savings due to the property assessment limit provide sufficient incentive for homesteaders to move by examining aggregated utilization of the portability provision among counties. Based on a panel regression using 67 counties from 2008 to 2012, our findings indicate the portability provision has had limited impact on Florida's depressed housing market and only a small number of well-educated and white homesteaders have availed themselves of this mechanism.

The purpose of this paper is to examine human resource development (HRD) in the UK National Health Service (NHS), and particularly in two Welsh NHS Trusts, to help illuminate the various ways in which learning, training and development are talked about. The NHS is a complex organisation, not least with its recent devolution and separation into the four distinct countries of the UK. Within this, there are multiple and often conflicting approaches to human resource development associated with the various forms of employee, professional (nursing, medical etc.), managerial and organisational development. How people are developed is crucial to developing a modern health service, and yet, with the diverse range of health workers, HRD is a complex process, and one which receives little attention. Managers have a key role and their perceptions of HRD can be analysed through the discursive resources they employ.

From an interpretivist stance, the paper employs semi‐structured interviews with seven Directorate‐General Managers, and adopts discourse analysis to explore how HRD is talked about in two Welsh NHS Trusts.

The paper finds some of the different discourses used by different managers, including those with a nursing background and those without. It examines how they talk about HRD, and also explores their own (management) development and the impact this has had on their sense of identity.

The paper highlights some of the tensions associated with HRD in the NHS, including ambiguities between professional and managerial development, the functional and physical fragmentation of HRD, conflict between a focus on performance/service delivery and the need to learn, discursive dissonance between the use of the terms training and learning, a delicate balance between “going on courses” and informal, work‐related learning, inequities regarding “protected time” and discourses shifting between competition and cooperation. These tensions are exposed to help develop a shared understanding of the complexities of HRD within the NHS. The paper concludes with a summary of the different discursive resources employed by senior managers to articulate and accomplish HRD. These are “surfaced” to enable managers and HRD practitioners, amongst others, to construct common repertoires and shared meaning.