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This study analyzed the relationships among sub-factors of mindfulness and two anti-consumption lifestyles caused by personal and social/environmental concerns. This study also investigated the pursuit of authenticity mediating this relationship.

A survey based on self-administered questionnaires and structural equation modeling was used to analyze the collected data via Statistical Product Service Solutions (SPSS) 23 and Analysis of MOment Structure (AMOS) 23. Multiple mediation analysis was adopted to investigate the mediating role of authenticity dimensions via SPSS PROCESS macro.

The relationship between mindfulness and anti-consumption behavior was generally positive. Except for describing and non-judgment, most facets of mindfulness were positively related to anti-consumption patterns. Only the indirect effect of authentic living (AL) was significant in the impact of mindfulness on anti-consumption behavior.

To the authors' knowledge, this study is the first to examine the link between mindfulness and anti-consumption and potential mechanism of anti-consumption – authenticity seeking, extending knowledge about mindfulness and providing insights for environmentalists, public decision-makers, marketers and consumers.

The DC‐DC converters which convert one level of electrical voltage to the desired level are widely used in many electrical peripherals. During the past two decade, many different control laws have been developed. The proportional‐integral (PI) control and sliding‐mode control have been carried out for the DC‐DC converters since they are simple to implement and easy to design. However, its performance using PI control and sliding‐mode control is obviously quite limited. The purpose of this paper is to a self‐tuning nonlinear function control (STNFC) propose for the DC‐DC converters. The adaptation laws of the proposed STNFC system are derived in the sense of Lyapunov function, thus not only the controller parameters can be online tuned itself, but also the system's stability can be guaranteed.

In general, the accurate mathematical models of the DC‐DC converters are difficult to derive. This paper proposes a model‐free STNFC design method. Since the proposed STNFC uses a simple fuzzy system with three fuzzy rules base to implement the control law, the computational loading of the fuzzy inference mechanism is slight. So the proposed STNFC system is suitable for the real‐time practical applications. The controller parameters of the proposed STNFC system can online tune in the Lyapunov sense, thus the stability of closed‐loop system can be guaranteed.

The proposed STNFC system is applied to a DC‐DC converter based on a field‐programmable gate array chip. The experimental results are provided to demonstrate the proposed STNFC system can cope with the input voltage and load resistance variations to ensure the stability while providing fast transient response.

The proposed STNFC approach is interesting for the design of an intelligent control scheme. The main contributions of this paper are: the successful development of STNFC system without heavy computational loading. The parameter‐learning algorithm is design based on the Lyapunov stability theorem to guarantee the system stability; the successful applications of the STNFC system to control the forward DC‐DC converter. And, the proposed STNFC methodology can be easily extended to other DC‐DC converters.

Presents over sixty abstracts summarising the 1999 Employment Research Unit annual conference held at the University of Cardiff. Explores the multiple impacts of globalization on work and employment in contemporary organizations. Covers the human resource management implications of organizational responses to globalization. Examines the theoretical, methodological, empirical and comparative issues pertaining to competitiveness and the management of human resources, the impact of organisational strategies and international production on the workplace, the organization of labour markets, human resource development, cultural change in organisations, trade union responses, and trans‐national corporations. Cites many case studies showing how globalization has brought a lot of opportunities together with much change both to the employee and the employer. Considers the threats to existing cultures, structures and systems.

Gives an in depth view of the strategies pursued by the world’s leading chief executive officers in an attempt to provide guidance to new chief executives of today. Considers the marketing strategies employed, together with the organizational structures used and looks at the universal concepts that can be applied to any product. Uses anecdotal evidence to formulate a number of theories which can be used to compare your company with the best in the world. Presents initial survival strategies and then looks at ways companies can broaden their boundaries through manipulation and choice. Covers a huge variety of case studies and examples together with a substantial question and answer section.

Man has been seeking an ideal existence for a very long time. In this existence, justice, love, and peace are no longer words, but actual experiences. How ever, with the American preemptive invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq and the subsequent prisoner abuse, such an existence seems to be farther and farther away from reality. The purpose of this work is to stop this dangerous trend by promoting justice, love, and peace through a change of the paradigm that is inconsistent with justice, love, and peace. The strong paradigm that created the strong nation like the U.S. and the strong man like George W. Bush have been the culprit, rather than the contributor, of the above three universal ideals. Thus, rather than justice, love, and peace, the strong paradigm resulted in in justice, hatred, and violence. In order to remove these three and related evils, what the world needs in the beginning of the third millenium is the weak paradigm. Through the acceptance of the latter paradigm, the golden mean or middle paradigm can be formulated, which is a synergy of the weak and the strong paradigm. In order to understand properly the meaning of these paradigms, however, some digression appears necessary.

Presents a special issue, enlisting the help of the author’s students and colleagues, focusing on age, sex, colour and disability discrimination in America. Breaks the evidence down into manageable chunks, covering: age discrimination in the workplace; discrimination against African‐Americans; sex discrimination in the workplace; same sex sexual harassment; how to investigate and prove disability discrimination; sexual harassment in the military; when the main US job‐discrimination law applies to small companies; how to investigate and prove racial discrimination; developments concerning race discrimination in the workplace; developments concerning the Equal Pay Act; developments concerning discrimination against workers with HIV or AIDS; developments concerning discrimination based on refusal of family care leave; developments concerning discrimination against gay or lesbian employees; developments concerning discrimination based on colour; how to investigate and prove discrimination concerning based on colour; developments concerning the Equal Pay Act; using statistics in employment discrimination cases; race discrimination in the workplace; developments concerning gender discrimination in the workplace; discrimination in Japanese organizations in America; discrimination in the entertainment industry; discrimination in the utility industry; understanding and effectively managing national origin discrimination; how to investigate and prove hiring discrimination based on colour; and, finally, how to investigate sexual harassment in the workplace.

Basic education (primary and junior secondary schooling) in China has experienced phenomenal development in the reform era from the late 1970s. The most important reform policies; namely, decentralization of governance and diversification of finance, have been translated into an unprecedented scale of resource mobilization for schooling expansion. This article examines China’s education finance reform and basic education development. It analyzes international aid and assistance, particularly major basic education projects financed by the World Bank and other international organizations. The article argues that China is not necessarily “in the driving seat” in cooperation with the World Bank, and that the bank does not play purely “a pivotal positive role” in helping develop Chinese basic education. In spite of its huge aid and assistance in China, the bank, to a certain extent, also contributes to the formation of China’s bifurcated schooling system.

Man has been seeking an ideal existence for a very long time. In this existence, justice, love, and peace are no longer words, but actual experiences. How ever, with the American preemptive invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq and the subsequent prisoner abuse, such an existence seems to be farther and farther away from reality. The purpose of this work is to stop this dangerous trend by promoting justice, love, and peace through a change of the paradigm that is inconsistent with justice, love, and peace. The strong paradigm that created the strong nation like the U.S. and the strong man like George W. Bush have been the culprit, rather than the contributor, of the above three universal ideals. Thus, rather than justice, love, and peace, the strong paradigm resulted in in justice, hatred, and violence. In order to remove these three and related evils, what the world needs in the beginning of the third millenium is the weak paradigm. Through the acceptance of the latter paradigm, the golden mean or middle paradigm can be formulated, which is a synergy of the weak and the strong paradigm. In order to understand properly the meaning of these paradigms, however, some digression appears necessary.

The purpose of this paper is to overcome the weakness of the traditional model, in which the grey action quantity is a real number and thus leads to a “unique solution” and to build the model with a trapezoidal possibility degree function.

Using the system input and output block diagram of the model, the interval grey action quantity is restored under the condition of insufficient system influencing factors, and the trapezoidal possibility degree function is formed. Based on that, a new model able to output non-unique solutions is constructed.

The model satisfies the non-unique solution principle of the grey theory under the condition of insufficient information. The model is compatible with the traditional model in structure and modelling results. The validity and practicability of the new model are verified by applying it in simulating the ecological environment water consumption in the Yangtze River basin.

In this study, the interval grey number form of grey action quantity is restored under the condition of insufficient system influencing factors, and the unique solution to the problem of the traditional model is solved. It is of great value in enriching the theoretical system of grey prediction models.

Taking power consumption as an example, the accurate prediction of the future power consumption level is related to the utilization efficiency of the power infrastructure investment. If the prediction of the power consumption level is too low, it will lead to the insufficient construction of the power infrastructure and the frequent occurrence of “power shortage” in the power industry. If the prediction is too high, it will lead to excessive investment in the power infrastructure. As a result, the overall surplus of power supply will lead to relatively low operation efficiency. Therefore, building an appropriate model for the correct interval prediction is a better way to solve such problems. The model proposed in this study is an effective one to solve such problems.

A new grey prediction model with its interval grey action quantity based on the trapezoidal possibility degree function is proposed for the first time.

Discusses the transfer of undertakings in the UK, referring to the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations of 1981, the Employment Rights Act 1996, and the Acquired Rights Directive 1977. Provides the raison d’etre of the Acquired Rights Directive and outlines how it was implemented in the UK. Talks about the confusing jurisprudence of the European and British courts, mentioning the European Court of Justice’s challenges to the directive, the 1994 proposals, amended 1997 proposals, the Commission’s memorandum of 1997 and the UK government’s consultation papers. Describes how the European Directive is applied and interpreted in relation to the Acquired Rights Directive and transfer of undertakings. Outlines the regulations controlling compulsory competitive tendering. Points out the obligation to inform and consult on the transfer of an undertaking and how the directive is enforced if this fails to occur. Notes the effect a relevant transfer has on existing collective agreements and the legal implications of dismissing employees by reason of the relevant transfer. Looks at the European Commission’s proposal for a directive on safeguarding employees’ rights in the event of transfer and the implications that would have on UK business. Concludes that a new directive is needed, building on the 1977 Directive but ironing out its inconsistencies.