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Polyimide nanocomposites were prepared with 0 and 1 wt% single wall-and double wall- CNTs (functionalized and non-functionalized) from BPADA and BAPP by refluxing in NMP. These nanocomposites were characterized using FT-IR, TGA, DSC, tensile strength, and Positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy (PALS). The FT-IR spectra for all the samples showed the characteristic peaks of polyimide. TGA curves showed weight loss with temperature in two stages. The first stage 180-300 °C showed a weight loss of ~ 15% that may be associated with the release of trapped NMP. The second stage 500-750 °C with a drastic weight loss is associated with decomposition. The residual weight is ~ 40% at 750 °C for both pure polyimide and polyimide nano composites made with functionalized single or double wall CNTs. The non-functionalized CNT dispersed polyimide showed similar two-step behavior, but the weight loss is remarkably less and about 80% weight remained at 750 °C. DSC curves of all polyimide samples showed two distinguishable endothermic peaks at around 90 °C (the onset of NMP release) and 200 °C (structural change). PALS was used to study the nano-porosity. Positron lifetime has a correlation with tensile strength showing a decrease in tensile strength with increasing pore size in CNT-polyimide composites.

Consists of a series of nine articles under the same title. Each article provides a different slant on the hiring process. Outlines the legal position when hiring employees and concentrates on providing a framework for managers. Covers areas including job analysis and descriptions, where to advertise and recruit, selection criteria, the interview, testing, negotiating the offer of employment and references. Briefly describes trends in employment practices and ways to minimize potential litigation through best practice.

Expert systems are computer programs which can emulate certain functions of human expertise. They are now used in many areas of business. In the last five years or so a number of software packages have become available, called “shells”, which offer the prospect of users building their own systems. They are relatively cheap and provide a framework into which knowledge or expertise can be built. Describes the development – using one of these shells ‐ of a prototype expert system for evaluating tenders for the supply of new freight containers. The prototype was tested using some data from a previous tender and was found to save more than 90 per cent of the time normally taken to carry out this function. Further benefits were obtained in respect of improved quality of the analysis which could result in additional substantial cost savings. This expert system was built by the manager responsible for the tender evaluation, with a limited amount of assistance. Concludes with some suggestions for managers considering building similar small expert systems.

Identity has emerged as a compelling force in understanding leadership. Situated within the identity approach to leadership, this study explored identity within the context of leadership for both assigned (i.e., positional) and emergent (i.e., nonpositional) student leaders. Findings from this study suggest that a distinct set of a leader’s identities is active in college student leadership and that personal identities are most salient to leaders. By making connections between identity and leadership, educators and practitioners may strengthen their understanding of how their curriculum and workshops may serve as identity workspaces for leaders.

Conducting effective program evaluations such that all stakeholders benefit can be challenging. Appreciative inquiry provides a framework for seeking out the “goodness” of a program. By identifying what is being done “right,” programs can be strengthened by keeping what is currently valued, discarding what is not valued, and creating what does not currently exist but is envisioned and desired by all stakeholders. This chapter explores the benefits of using an appreciative approach to program evaluation. It describes the process used to appraise the Technology for Education and Training graduate programs.

This paper provides, first, a historical perspective of accounting research relating to Asian/Pacific countries as seen from the vantage of the leading international journal in the United States and, second, a bibliographical data base and index of twenty‐six years of articles on this region of the world. It accomplishes the first objective by presenting a tabular profile of research in international accounting as it pertains to countries in the Asian/Pacific Rim region as shown in articles published in the International Journal of Accounting (formerly, the International Journal of Accounting, Education and Research) and related publications which appeared from 1965 to 1990. The articles are classified according to country, research methodology, subject, and five‐year time periods. The paper accomplishes the second objective by providing an annotated bibliography of 125 articles on Asian/Pacific Rim countries and indices by country and methodology, and subject.

While the terms theatre and drama are often used synonymously, they are marked by distinct differences. Drama is concerned with the literature of the theatre, the written basis for theatrical presentations. Theatre refers to the art of presentation, and includes the creations of the playwright, the designer, the architect, and the actor.

It is obvious to many librarians that requests for information on funding sources are increasing in most types of libraries. Public support programs are dwindling, and corporate profits are receding. The publishing field has responded to this need by producing a new array of tools to help grant seekers find appropriate funding sources.

Islam plays a powerful symbolic and cultural role in the constitution of consumer preferences, especially in Muslim countries. To quantitatively study this role in the consumption patterns of Muslim consumers we need a suitable scale for religiosity. However, the existing scales of religiosity have been developed primarily for Christian/Jewish respondents and cannot provide valid results for Muslim consumers. This study aims to address these challenges by re-conceptualizing the religiosity construct for Muslims and conducting an exploratory study to generate an initial scale.

This paper initialized the scale development exercise with a systematic review of the existing Islamic literature to ensure that we use Islamic categories to build the scale. Once the authors had a large pool of items, they consulted experts on Shariah (Islamic law) to evaluate these items for clarity, face and content validity. Next, they conducted five focus groups to (a) determine if they had covered the full terrain of Muslim religiosity; (b) identify if the items correspond with the actual experiences of the target respondents; and (c) ensure linguistic compatibility. This was followed by administering an exploratory survey designed to test psychometric properties of the new scale and to analyze the underlying dimensionality of the inventory of items.

To extract a manageable number of latent dimensions in the survey data, an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) procedure was conducted. This resulted in the extraction of five different factors which were named as Mu’amalat_societal ethics, Roshan Khayali (enlightened moderation), Ibadaat (prayers), Mu’amalat_societal laws, Azeemat (a state exhibiting scrupulous faithfulness) and Mu’amalat_business dealings. There is a divide between Ibadaat (individual and collective worship) and Muamlaat (social relations) that emerged in the data from the cluster analysis procedure.

Religion can be an important part of decision-making of a typical consumer. This paper proposes a new scale for Muslims to tap into their religiosity, as existing scales are not embedded in the Islamic literature. This study also distinguishes Muslim religiosity from its Western counterpart and thus helps in clarifying the Muslim religiosity construct.