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Past performance ratings of government contractors are becoming a critical pathway to the $300 billion of contract dollars Congress sets aside for small businesses annually. This was a descriptive study exploring leadership strategies small business leaders use to attain positive performance ratings in government contracting, viewed through the lens of the principal-agent theory. The exploration occurred by interviewing 21 small business leaders located within 30 miles of Washington, DC, with favorable performance ratings on at least 3 government contracting opportunities. Clustering themes according to Moustakas's modified van Kaam helped organize, analyze, interpret, and provide meaning to participant accounts of the phenomenon. Findings revealed 5 overall themes: (a) leadership strategies that influence positive performance ratings, (b) behavioral or trait-based attributes of leaders, and (c) understanding bureaucratic dynamics and contract requirements, (d) resource-based capacity as an impediment, and (e) competitive intelligence as a valuable resource. The findings indicated a need for leaders to adapt approaches to contract performance that is appropriate for the situation as agencies implement the procurement process differently. The identification of strategies that positively influence performance ratings may increase the longevity of small businesses participation or excite the proliferation of small businesses aspiring or struggling to increase performance. Findings may also encourage various business leaders within socioeconomic groups to gain access to federal set-asides.

The purpose of this study was to understand the reasons, as perceived by elementary school teachers at the target Title I school, for low student achievement in reading. The conceptual framework that guided this study was the ecological theory that postulates that students' academic achievement is influenced by several subsystems that affect human growth and development: microsystems, mesosystems, exosystems, macrosystems, and chronosystems. Four research questions guided this study. The questions investigated teachers' perceptions of how effective classroom practices, differentiated instruction, professional development, and parental involvement influence student achievement in reading. Participants included 9 elementary school ELA teachers. Data collection included audiotaped interviews, classroom observations, and the examination of teacher lesson plans. Data were manually coded and organized into 7 themes. The themes were: back to basics, reading practice, classroom environment, meeting students' needs, professional development, communication, and home environment. The data indicated that the teacher participants believed that there is a need for increased parental involvement in reading. Parental involvement and the home environment were listed as two of the most important factors in student achievement in reading. Based on the research findings, a 3-day teacher facilitated family literacy program was developed. The goal of the program is to equip parents with resources and strategies to facilitate the reading achievement of their children at home. Increased parental involvement has the potential to positively affect student achievement in reading, which can bring about positive social change for families and teachers.

The Utah chub is one of the most important non-game fish in Utah. It has a wide range, and occurs in every drainage in Utah. The Utah chub is not important economically as food fish nor is it of much value commercially. The sportsmen think of this species as trash and do not consider catching or consuming the. However, the Utah chub may be caught on hook and like more readily than many game species. The Utah chub in Scofield Reservoir have been caught by trolling, bait fishing and fly casting and furnish considerable sport when caught with a light tackle. Their real importance becomes evident when a large population of Utah chub exist in waters where game fish species are desired. With their high reproductive potential, the Utah chub may become the dominant species and cause trout populations to decrease. This competition for food and space has been evident in many areas. Hazzard (1935) stated that Utah chub and trout compete with trout for food in Fish Lake, Utah, and Sigler (1948) also found that Utah chub compete with trout for food.

Arithmetic problems and the mastery of such problems play an important role in society as it exists today. The pressure from the public has been and is for better teaching of the basic skills. Public school teachers have often evaded this issue (2). For the past decade the emphasis has been "Why Johnny Can't Read," but it seems equally important, because of the relationship of reading and arithmetic, that the focus also center on the mathematical phase of educa­tion (8). A working knowledge of arithmetic is required in our present day society. Almost all means of earning a livelihood, and certainly the running of a budget for the home, require a working knowledge of arithmetic. The atomic age requires a knowledge of arithmetic. Science demands more and better educated people, with the emphasis on math­ematics. It is impossible to advance far in any scientific field with­ out the ability to understand and to use the principles of arithmetic. Industrial leaders insist that a way should be found to eradicate the errors found to be most common in our attempts to solve simple arithmetic problems. Teachers often make little use of the material which is available on the teaching of arithmetic and the diagnosis and eradication of errors. This study has been prepared in an effort to identify these errors and thus aid the teachers in eradicating such error

The Forest Service faces significant climate change-related management challenges. Understanding employee perspectives on climate change will inform potential strategies to address these challenges. By analyzing data from key informant interviews and an internet survey of Forest Service employees in the Intermountain West, this study examined how Forest Service employees view and approach climate change, assessed how they perceive barriers to and opportunities for climate change adaptation within the National Forest System, and compared their perspectives across the organizational hierarchy, from district level to national policy making. The results show that although forest managers consider climate change a concern for the agency in general, they do not necessarily see how it affects the work they do personally. Although they tend to agree that climate change should be a high priority for the agency, their own ability to incorporate adaptive practices into managing a National Forest is limited by various constraints, including a lack of time, funding, and personnel, a lack of direction for on-the-ground management, and a communication gap, which has inhibited climate change-related knowledge transfer within the agency. Thus, more effective communication is needed to help forest managers see how climate change affects various aspects of forest ecosystem health in their own National Forests or districts, how climate change poses challenges to forest resilience, and what can be done to incorporate climate change considerations into their own work. The agency needs to focus on building trust, especially across its hierarchical structure, and on encouraging both vertical and horizontal information flow among employees to facilitate scientific knowledge sharing and to enhance formal and informal social networking for increased collaboration. The agency also needs to create more opportunities for district-level employees to provide feedback and get involved in climate change-related policy making, as they are a crucial source of local knowledge and experience and can be invaluable in problem-solving within the National Forest System. The insights from this study not only contribute to the Forest Service’s continuous efforts to adapt to climate change but also shed light on strategies that can be tailored by other natural resource agencies to address various management challenges within the context of global environmental change.

Zinc deficiency, in many cases, is closely related to organic matter decomposition. DeRemer and Smith (1964) studied the effects of decomposing sugar beet tops on the reactions of Zn65 in a Portneuf soil. They found that with time the Zn65 associated with lime minerals, eschangable, and water soluble fractions of the soil decreased, while that found with the organic and mineral fractions increases. This increase in the mineral fraction is of particular interest, since the majority of the Zn65 was found to be with this fraction after a period of time. They also showed that the increase in Zn65 associated with sand-silt size fraction after a rough separation was greater than with the clay fraction. Smith, Henry, and Shourky (1965) studied the Zn65 associated with the organic fraction as it changed with time. They found that the Zn65 associated with the fulvic acid increased rapidly during early incubation periods, but in the later incubation periods had decreased considerably and was found in the mineral fraction. Shourky (1966), in a study of the effect of decomposing organic matter on the available Zn65 as determined with various reagents, found that after 12 weeks incubation a great portion of the Zn65 was found associated with the mineral fraction.

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