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The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship among job training satisfaction (JTS), job satisfaction (JS) and turnover intention (TI) and moreover, the role of JS in the relationship between the JTS and TI.

A survey was used in this study for a sample size of 115. The principal component analysis was carried out to examine the factors in JTS and JS. The regression and mediation analyses were applied to assess the relationship among the JTS, JS and TI.

A significantly negative relationship between JTS and TI was found and mediated by JS. The paper also suggests that JS is positively related to JTS but is negatively related to TI, which is in accordance with what have been reported in the earlier studies.

This study reinforced the significance of job training in human resource management practices. The employees’ satisfaction with job training that would lead to higher JS and lower TIs was emphasized. Therefore, it becomes important for HRD professionals to consider both the delivery of the training to the employees and the employees’ satisfaction with the training approach when designing the training program.

While many different variables have been studied in the relationship with TI, the JTS is rarely discussed. This paper attempts to examine the relationship among JTS, JS and TI with addition of new insights.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the dependent competing failure reliability of harmonic drive (HD) with strength failure and degradation failure.

Based on life tests and stiffness degradation experiments, Wiener process is used to establish the accelerated performance degradation model of HD. Model parameter distribution is estimated by Bayesian inference and Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) and stiffness degradation failure samples are obtained by a three-step sampling method. Combined with strength failure samples of HD, copula function is used to describe the dependence between strength failure and stiffness degradation failure.

Strength failure occurred earlier than degradation failure under high level accelerated condition; degradation failure occurred earlier than strength failure under medium- or low-level accelerated condition. Gumbel copula is the optimum copula function for dependence modeling of strength failure and stiffness degradation failure. Dependent competing failure reliability of HD is larger than independent competing failure reliability.

The reliability evaluation method of dependent competing failure of HD with strength failure and degradation failure is first proposed. Performance degradation experiments during accelerated life test (ALT), step-down ALT and life test under rated condition are conducted for Wiener process based step-down accelerated performance degradation modeling.

This is a literature survey paper. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the latest developments in textual analysis on China’s financial markets, highlighting its differences from existing works in the US markets.

The authors review the literature and carry out an experiment of sentiment analysis based on a small sample of Chinese news articles.

Based on the experiment of sentiment analysis, there is limited evidence on the association between sentiment and other contemporaneous or future returns.

The supply of financial textual information has grown exponentially in the past decades. Technological advancements in recent years make the programming-based analysis an effective tool to digest such information. The authors highlight the use of credible textual information and discuss directions of research in this important field.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the drinking behaviour of alcohol dependents in the small island economy Mauritius, which is characterised by different cultures and ethnic groups. The drinking culture of Mauritius as a nation has dramatically changed over recent decades.

The analysis is based on a survey carried out on 300 alcohol dependents in different regions across the island in 2012. Information on alcohol consumption is derived from data obtained on the different types of drink consumed, their drinking preferences and habits, combined with information from the respondents on their alcohol intake. Alcohol-dependent individuals in this study are defined as those people who drink every day, drink in the morning before work and also drink during their working hours. Furthermore, they may also drink to get drunk and may encounter alcohol-related health problems.

The results first reveal that there is a gender gap in alcohol consumption with men being more dependent on alcoholic beverages on a daily basis, in the morning and at work. Second, the paper innovates by focussing on the most vulnerable segment of the population, that is those working in the informal sector. There is evidence that operating in the informal sector or being self-employed enhances the probability of the individual to become alcohol dependent through daily intake and consumption at the workplace. Informality is characterised by low wages, poor working conditions and high vulnerability which makes alcohol an escape avenue from financial difficulties. Consumption of other substances is also entwined with alcohol intake.

The authors focus on the characteristics and behaviour of alcohol-dependent individuals in a small pluriethnic changing society.

This paper aims to deepen the understanding of the relationship between global economic uncertainty and price volatility, specifically focusing on commodity, industrial materials and energy price indices as proxies for global inflation, analyzing data from 1997 to 2020.

The dynamic conditional correlation generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity model is used to study the dynamic relationship between variables over a while.

The results demonstrated a positive relationship between commodity prices and the global economic policy uncertainty (GEPU). Except for 1999–2000 and 2006–2008, the results of the energy price index model were very similar to those of the commodity price index. A predominant positive relationship is observed focusing on the connection between GEPU and the industrial material price index. The results of the pairwise Granger causality reveal a unidirectional relationship between the GEPU – the Global Commodity Price Index – and the GEPU – the Global Industrial Material Price Index. However, there is bidirectional causality between the GEPU – the Global Energy Price Index. In sum, changes in price indices can be driven by GEPU as a political factor indicating unfavorable economic conditions.

This paper provides a deeper understanding of the role of global uncertainty in the global inflation process. It fills the gap in the literature by empirically investigating the dynamic movements of global uncertainty and the three most important groups of prices.

Most of the linear encoders are based on optics. The accuracy and reliability of these encoders are greatly reduced in polluted and noisy environments. Moreover, these encoders have a complex structure and large sensor volume and are thus not suited to small application scenarios and do not have universality. This paper aims to present a new absolute magnetic linear encoder, which has a simple structure, small size and wide application range.

The effect of swing error is analyzed for the sensor structural arrangement. A double-threshold interval algorithm is then proposed to synthesize multiple interval electrical angles into absolute angles and convert them into actual displacement distances.

The final linear encoder measurement range is 15.57 mm, and the resolution reaches ± 2 µm. The effectiveness of the algorithm is demonstrated experimentally.

The linear encoder has good robustness, and high measurement accuracy, which is suitable for industrial production. The linear encoder has been mass-produced and used in an electric power-assisted braking system.

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.

This research explored how COVID-19 affects Shenzhen high school students' reading behavior and preference and their parents' attitudes toward reading during the lockdown.

This research adopted a qualitative approach to conduct one-on-one semi-structured interviews with parents of a boarding high school in Shenzhen, China. Thirteen parents were recruited through a purposeful sampling method, and NVivo12 software was used to analyze the results with a theme-based approach guided by the 5E instructional model.

The results revealed the effectiveness and problems of high school students' use of electronic resources and discovered changes in the reading behavior of high school students and their parents' attitudes during COVID-19.

There are few studies specifically on the reading behavior of boarding students from a parental view, especially in Asia. This research can fill the gaps in related research during COVID-19.

Phenolic compounds, including flavonoids, are nutritionally important for their antioxidant activities and protective functions against disease risk caused by oxidative stress. These compounds are primarily found in fruits, and mangoes are an important source. This paper aims to address these issues.

In this work, the antioxidant activities of mangoes cultivated in three different ways were evaluated by their ability to capture free radicals using the DPPH radical.

The results showed that the biodynamic mangoes had highest antioxidant activity in mature‐green and ripe fruits, while for those of organic origin the antioxidant activity was highest in unripe fruits. The organic mangoes also showed highest values of phenolic compounds at all maturation stages. The mangoes from conventional crops had lower values for all parameters evaluated in this study than the organically and biodynamically cultivated fruits.

This work brings an important contribution in the field of agriculture at a time when organic and biodynamic systems of cultivation are an alternative to the conventional system and that pollutes the environment and produces food that contains quantities of chemical contaminants that can damage the health of the consumer. The comparison in phenolic compounds content, flavonoids and antioxidant activity in biodynamic, organic and conventional systems is original and of great importance, showing that the ecological cropping systems are less harmful to the environment and promote improvements to the chemical composition of foods.

Wheeled mobile robots (WMR) are the most widely used robots. Avoiding obstacles in unstructured environments, especially dynamic obstacles such as pedestrians, is a serious challenge for WMR. This paper aims to present a hybrid obstacle avoidance method that combines an informed-rapidly exploring random tree* algorithm with a three-dimensional (3D)-object detection approach and model prediction controller (MPC) to conduct obstacle perception, collision-free path planning and obstacle avoidance for WMR in unstructured environments.

Given a reference orientation and speed, the hybrid method uses parametric ellipses to represent obstacle expansion boundaries based on the 3D target detection results, and a collision-free reference path is planned. Then, the authors build on a model predictive control for tracking the collision-free reference path by incorporating the distance between the robot and obstacles. The proposed framework is a mapless method for WMR.

The authors present experimental results with a mobile robot for obstacle avoidance in indoor environments crowded with obstacles, such as chairs and pedestrians. The results show that the proposed hybrid obstacle avoidance method can satisfy the application requirements of mobile robots in unstructured environments.

In this study, the parameter ellipse is used to represent the area occupied by the obstacle, which takes the velocity as the parameter. Therefore, the motion direction and position of dynamic obstacles can be considered in the planning stage, which enhances the success rate of obstacle avoidance. In addition, the distance between the obstacle and robot is increased in the MPC optimization function to ensure a safe distance between the robot and the obstacle.