The emotional connections students foster in their classrooms are likely to impact their success in school. Using a multimethod, multilevel approach, this study examined the link between classroom emotional climate and academic achievement, including the role of student engagement as a mediator. Data were collected from 63 fifth-and sixth-grade classrooms (N ϭ 1,399 students) and included classroom observations, student reports, and report card grades. As predicted, multilevel mediation analyses showed that the positive relationship between classroom emotional climate and grades was mediated by engagement, while controlling for teacher characteristics and observations of both the organizational and instructional climates of the classrooms. Effects were robust across grade level and student gender. The discussion highlights the role of classroom-based, emotion-related interactions to promote academic achievement.

Jar testing of 31 natural waters suggests many utilities may need the proposed alternative performance criterion to comply with enhanced coagulation specified in the proposed D/DBP Rule. Jar tests were performed on 31 natural waters from a variety of sources across the United States. These tests indicate that the majority of utilities supplying samples will have difficulty meeting the Step 1 total organic carbon (TOC) removal requirements in the Disinfectants/Disinfection By‐products Rule. Utilities may need the proposed point of diminishing returns alternative performance criterion to achieve compliance with the enhanced coagulation requirement. Water sources with high TOC and low alkalinity were most likely to meet the proposed Step 1 TOC requirements. Those with low TOC were most likely to need the alternative performance criterion.

Bench‐scale tests demonstrate the importance of magnesium hydroxide precipitation and NOM characteristics on precursor removal by softening. Relationships of hardness removal, natural organic matter (NOM) removal, and selected chemical characteristics of NOM were explored, and the implications of the enhanced softening portion of the proposed Disinfectants/Disinfection By‐products Rule were assessed. For most of the nine raw water sources examined, the amount of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) removed (both on an absolute and a percentage basis) correlated strongly with the amount of magnesium precipitated. A semilogarithmic model provided a good fit to the data for six of the nine waters (R2 values >0.8). Greater absolute removal of DOC was achieved for raw waters with higher initial DOC concentrations. DOC removal by softening was most effective for the raw water sources with the highest percentage of hydrophobic organic carbon. Greater specific ultraviolet absorbance values also corresponded to greater DOC removal.

In this paper we explore how Ireland's recent inward investment in internationally traded services allows for deeper integration into the world economy. Although academic researchers have long debated the economic development consequences of foreign direct investment (FDI) (for example, Dicken et al, 1994;Turok, 1993;Young et al, 1994), these debates focus overwhelmingly on FDI associated with large-scale manufacturing and until recently overlooked service-based FDI (Gripaios et al, 1997). Given the growing prominence of services, this represents a significant oversight (Daniels, 2000; Miozzo and Miles, 2003). As corporate organisational forms become more complex and diverse, there is a greater need to understand both the growing array of activities and the ways in which regional economies become entwined within the organisational structures of global firms. The multiscalar perspective of global production networks (GPNs) contributes to this understanding not only by conceptualising better the relationships between corporate networks and territorial economies but also by its considering the service activities that mediate the entire production process (Henderson et al, 2002).These issues are particularly relevant to Ireland, which for the past forty years has implemented FDI-led regional development policies. Rural, low-value-added manufacturing once dominated Ireland's inward investment profile (O'Malley, 1994), but internationally traded services now assume a much more prominent position (Grimes, 2003). The shift to services is evident through the many information and communication technology (ICT) companies such as IBM, Hewlett Packard (HP), Microsoft, and Dell that elected to locate important service functions in Ireland. This enhanced role places Irish affiliates in more advantageous positions from which to seek more extensive and sophisticated corporate mandates. As a result, Ireland remains better equipped to manage the changing demands of the world economy than during the period dominated by branch-plant manufacturing.Internationally traded services are by no means restricted to the technology sector in Ireland, as, for example, Dublin's International Financial Services Centre accounts

Raters must score accurately and consistently for classroom observation scores to be valid. This requires (a) a standard defining when scoring is accurate and consistent enough and (b) measuring and remediating rater performance against that standard. Current practice has focused on this second problem to the exclusion of the first. My goal here is to start a discussion about identifying a clear, explicit standard that ensures observation scores reflect a consistent view of teaching quality, rather than raters’ idiosyncratic perspectives. In doing so, I connect current certification test cut-scores, the current practice most analogous to a standard, to explicit rater standards, highlighting both the inadequacy of cut-scores and the low standards implicit to current practice.