Best Selling Books by Rachel Williams

This is the story of a lonely snowman, in need of some tender loving care. He has given away his eyes, nose and bright red berries to the hungry animals of the forest. Luckily, his animal friends are there to help, and enlist the Christmas fairies and the magical reindeer to give him an extra special gift - a magical hat and scarf.

Mark is the popular boy at school, who always has the latest trainers, the newest phone and the best MP3 player. He isn't always very nice, and he can be a bit of a bully, but everyone wants to be his friend. But one day Mark picks on the wrong person: Alex may not have the latest, coolest designer trainers, and his parents may be divorced, but he is a much-loved Child of the Universe, and Archangel Michael is always there to help him when he's unhappy or in trouble, and today is no exception.

How to Make Amazing Harry Potter Themed Desserts Even if You Have Never Baked a Single Cookie Before! Have you ever wanted to learn how to make the tastiest desserts out there and make your friends and family just fall in love with your culinary skills? How about having a Harry Potter marathon while eating Hagrid's Rock Cakes, Owl Pops and Hogsmeade Pudding? That and many more recipes will be exactly what you will discover inside this magic cookbook, which will bring out your inner chef even if you have never baked before. The recipes are adequate for all cooking skill levels and are a great to prepare with your kids. Bring the magical world of Hogwarts into your home! Here's what you will find inside this magical cookbook Easy recipes for delicious desserts Step-by-step instructions to make the best Harry Potter desserts even if you have never baked before Variety of recipes to choose based on every taste and personal cooking preference A rich collection of tasty and nice-looking dishes all of them having a Hogwarts inspired design Guaranteed fun by making the best Harry Potter marathon and get everyone asking for more of your cookings And much more! Amaze everyone instantly with these quick, easy, and delicious recipes for your next Harry Potter party! Your Hogwarts letter is waiting for you... Scroll up, Click on "Buy Now with 1-Click", and Get Your Copy!

The concept of time is hard to grasp. From a single minute to a full century, hearts beat, trees bloom and grow - and a human lives a lifetime. The book takes 18 different periods of time - from a single minute; to an hour; to over a century - to show the process of life, looking at biology in all its forms, from plants, animals and human biology too. In one minute, learn that your heart beats over 100 times. In one day, learn how a dragonfly unfurls a pair of wings. In a season, watch a bear hibernate for winter. In over 80 years, see a human live a lifetime. Packed with real science but rooted in the deeper things in life, this poetic non-fiction anthology is sure to prompt questions between a parent and child.

Animals are used to demonstrate the letters of the alphabet that begin their names; also includes brief profiles of each animal.

In an era of rapid charter school growth, this study sought to examine rational decision making for special populations in Texas urban charter schools. To investigate differences among charters, I categorized the schools into three groups: network corporate charters, community corporate charters, and intergovernmental charters. Quantitative analysis, including the use of ANOVAs and Tukeys, helped identify differences in expenditures among the three charter groups. Intergovernmental charters focused their spending on teachers and student programs, including programs for students with disabilities and ESL and bilingual programs. Community corporate charters spent less in most categories, except, in the majority of years, for social work, food services, cocurricular activities, and data processing. Network charters channeled their funding into areas such as school leadership, facilities, security and monitoring, and accelerated education. I then used qualitative analysis to understand how charter school administrators decide to spend their money in a way that is most cost-effective for their operations relative to their student populations. I completed 20 interviews with charter school administrators in four Texas cities. Administrators in charters were aware of the competitive accountability and fiscal environment in which they were running their schools. This resulted in cost-effective rational decision making. Charter administrators were also under significant financial stress and did not believe that their schools were adequately funded, though some charters still sought to make a profit or increase their net assets. To make up the difference in funding, some charters have relied on grants and donations from other corporations. Administrators also discussed special populations of students, such as ESL/bilingual students and students with disabilities.

Many factors potentially influence a young athlete's sport enjoyment and commitment. Social agents, such as parents, explain a large part of the variance in youth sport experiences. While research suggests the environment created by parents' impact athlete sport experiences, it is unknown if this is true for young children in the early stages of sport participation (5-8 years of age). Previous research has failed to address the reasons why parents are initially enrolling their children in youth sport which could be associated with parent-initiated motivational climate and child enjoyment and commitment to year-round swimming. The purposes of this study were to: a) to determine the reasons parents enroll their children in year-round competitive swimming, b) to examine the relationship between parent-initiated motivational climate and child's swim enjoyment and commitment, c) to study the relationship between parent-initiated motivational climate and parent's motive for enrolling their child in year-round swimming, and d) to study the relationships between parent motives for enrollment in year-round swimming and child enjoyment and commitment to swimming. Forty parent-child dyads were recruited from registered USA Swimming club teams in Southeast United States. Parents completed questionnaires to measure parent and child demographics, child swim history, parent motives for year-round swim team enrollment, and parent-initiated motivational climate. Children completed a questionnaire assessing their enjoyment and commitment to year-round swimming. Overall, the primary reason parents enrolled their child in year-round swimming was for fitness benefits (M = 4.54 ± .45). The highest-rated parent-initiated motivational climate was a learning (mastery) climate (M = 3.72 ± .28). Children, on average, year-round swimming was rated very enjoying (M = 4.35 ± .65) and commitment was also rated high (M = 4.29 ± .89). Pearson-product correlations uncovered notable relationships. No relationships were found between any of the parent-initiated climates and child enjoyment and commitment in year-round swimming (p >.05). No significant relationships were found between a parent-initiated learning climate or parent-initiated worry-conducive climate and any of the seven parent motives for year-round swimming enrolment (p > .05). A success-without-effort climate was strong and moderately negatively associated with the fitness (r = -.50, p [less-than] .01) and skill/mastery of skill (r = -.38, p [less-than] .05) motives, respectively. Lastly, the only statistically significant relationship observed in respect to parent motives and child enjoyment and commitment was between the fun/excitement parent motive and child commitment to swimming (r = .43, p [less-than].01). The current findings illustrate why parents enroll younger children in year-round swimming and help explain the relationships between the parent motives for enrollment and child enjoyment and commitment to swimming. Thus, research suggests that between ages five and eight years of age, a parentinitiated motivational climate may not be related to a child0́9s enjoyment and commitment to swimming. Understanding parent motives for enrollment could be associated to the type of climate the parent is likely to create but may not necessarily be associated with child enjoyment and commitment in the first years of year-round swimming participations. The overarching goal is for parents and coaches to understand how motives for enrollment and motivational climates may associate with enjoyment and commitment to year-round swimming in young athletes.

Uranium contaminations of the subsurface in the vicinity of nuclear materials processing sites pose a health risk as the uranyl ion in its oxidized state, U(VI), is highly mobile in aquifers. Current remediation strategies such as pump and treat or excavation are invasive and expensive to implement on a large scale. In situ bioremediation represents an alternative strategy that uses the ability of local microbial communities to immobilize contaminants and is actively studied for uranium remediation. The immobilization of U(VI) in groundwater is achieved either by bioreduction to solid uraninite (U(IV)), adsorption to the soil matrix, or non-reductive precipitation of uranium phosphate minerals through the activity of bacterial phosphatases. Bioreduction has been widely studied for remediation of the saturated zone, as anaerobic conditions typically prevail in these environments. This process is only efficient at circumneutral pH, however, and the end product uraninite is unstable under aerobic conditions or in the presence of manganese oxides, nitrite, or even freshly formed iron oxides. Although non-reductive biomineralization of uranium catalyzed by bacterial phosphatase activity successfully removes uranium from the vadose zone, further studies are needed to assess the ability of microbial communities to hydrolyze organophosphate compounds in the saturated zone where oxygen is often depleted and uranium bioreduction may be significant. To investigate this process under anaerobic conditions, low pH soil samples from a uranium contaminated site at the Oak Ridge Field Research Center were incubated anaerobically in flow through reactors in the presence of exogenic organophosphate compounds to stimulate the natural microbial communities in the original soil matrix. Aqueous uranium was injected continuously in the reactors to determine the fraction of uranium removed during these incubations. The reactors amended with organophosphate produced inorganic phosphate in the effluent, suggesting that bacterial phosphatase activity can be stimulated even in anaerobic environments at low pH. Removal of U(VI) in a control amended with organophosphate over a short time period was similar compared to reactors amended with organophosphate for long times suggesting that adsorption may also play a role in U(VI) immobilization. A sequential extraction technique was optimized to differentiate the fraction of uranium loosely adsorbed and the fraction of uranium precipitated as phosphate minerals and batch adsorption experiments were performed to obtain thermodynamic parameters that could be used to predict the fraction of U(VI) adsorbed onto the soil matrix. Results indicated that 100% uranium adsorption was favorable from pH 5 to 10 (without the presence of phosphate), and that most of the solid phase uranium was extracted in the step defined for the strongly adsorbed/uranium phosphate mineral in both long and short-term amended reactors. Overall, these results demonstrate that the biomineralization of uranium phosphate minerals is a viable bioremediation strategy in both the vadose and saturated zones of aquifers at both low and high pH, provided an organophosphate source is available.

"The purpose of this project is to examine the realities of relational aggression among pre-adolescent and adolescent girls. Several facets of relational aggression will be explored including the current definition of relational aggression, the most common tactics used to enforce relational aggression, and profiles of bullies, victims, and bystanders. Additionally, this project dissects the possible ramifications of repeated exposure to or perpetuation of relational aggression. The project will then propose a yearlong curriculum aimed at combating relational aggression. The curriculum is an intervention as well as a prevention model that can be implemented for both upper elementary and middle school girls. The goal of the program is to work with girls in developing self-esteem, positive communication skills, and supportive relationship behaviors." -- Abstract, p. 1.