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Examines the thirteenth published year of the ITCRR. Runs the whole gamut of textile innovation, research and testing, some of which investigates hitherto untouched aspects. Subjects discussed include cotton fabric processing, asbestos substitutes, textile adjuncts to cardiovascular surgery, wet textile processes, hand evaluation, nanotechnology, thermoplastic composites, robotic ironing, protective clothing (agricultural and industrial), ecological aspects of fibre properties – to name but a few! There would appear to be no limit to the future potential for textile applications.

Discusses how resources are allocated in capitalist and socialist economies comparing the concept of interest (e.g. for present value calculations) with the use of capital charges (e.g. for calculating opportunity cost). Contrasts the Islamic economic system, which rejects interest but considers moral factors and the will of Allah when measuring welfare. Explains how these ideas can be expressed in the accounting price of capital (for objective factors) and by Islamic welfare criteria; and how they differ from the Pareto Criterion and capitalist concepts of utility. Lists four principles and 12 welfare criteria for an Islamic allocation of resources; and some hints on their practical application before summarizing the conclusions.

The wake of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic had caused substantial disruptions to the usual delivery of healthcare services. This is because of restrictive orders that were put in place to curb the spread of the infection. Palliative care services in Brunei also face challenges to deliver effective services during this period. However, the impact of advanced illnesses on patients' health and end-of-life care are issues that cannot be planned, postponed or cancelled. Hence, the palliative care team needs to continue to deliver effective palliative care services. As Brunei faced its second pandemic wave in August 2021, crucial adaptations were made to ensure palliative care service was not disrupted. This reflective case study aims to discuss the adaptations made in providing palliative care during this era of disruptions.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of explanation on customer satisfaction in the service failure stage. It seeks to better understand the dynamics of consumer repurchase intention through a mediating effect of customer satisfaction.

A structured questionnaire was e-mailed to collect the primary data. With three reminders, this study managed to obtain 322 responses from customers who complained about their internet service in Malaysia. Structural equation modelling techniques were applied to examine both direct and mediating effects between variables.

Results reveal that all four dimensions of explanation have significant partial mediating effect on repurchase intention through customer satisfaction. Results also disclose that there is no significant relationship between excuse and customer satisfaction in service failure. Among all dimensions, reference and apology have higher influence on repurchase intention through customer satisfaction.

The results are particularly valuable for managers, as it supports the role of using explanation as a practical tool for fostering positive and profitable outcomes like repeat customer purchases.

The findings of this study will help organisations rethink their explanation strategies with the eye to foster greater customer repurchase intention.

The results are particularly valuable for managers, as they support the role of using explanation as a practical tool for fostering positive and profitable outcomes like repeat customer purchases.

With the growing importance of service quality in Indian retail, it becomes critical for the retailers to identify the appropriate dimensions for their retail stores. In the process of evaluating service quality the decision maker is often faced with ambiguities due to the imprecise information gained from the respondents. The purpose of this paper is to present an integrated fuzzy (fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) approach to help the decision makers/retailers in practicing and judging the priorities of service quality strategies and accordingly benchmarking retail stores in Indian retail environment.

The study incorporated the five basic dimensions of Retail Service Quality Scale proposed by Dabholkar et al. (1996) and the FAHP approach to three leading apparel retail stores of a major city (Rourkela) of Orissa (an Indian state located in eastern part of the country) to determine the weights of criteria and sub-criteria of retail service quality.

The study identified that the dimensions, namely, personal interaction, physical aspects, reliability and policy are perceived as important by the Indian consumers. Merchandise and the store’s willingness to handle returns and exchanges emerge as the most influencing variable affecting the overall service quality of the store.

The study was restricted to a major city of Orissa and to three apparel stores. The results obtained may not be extrapolated to the country as a whole. The authors believe that the integrated approach of FAHP could be used by a variety of service industries to evaluate the service quality. The study did not investigate switching behavior among the respondents as they had been visiting all the three apparel stores during the preceding months.

The integrated approach of FAHP makes an empirical contribution to the service quality and retail marketing literature by overcoming the uncertainty of concepts those are associated with human beings’ subjective judgments.

The retailer can improve the quality of service provided by them based on the parameters important in Indian context, which will lead to higher customer satisfaction.

This paper can help the retail service providers to identify which of the retail service quality dimensions requires much attention to create sustainable competitive advantage.

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.

There is extensive evidence that decision-makers, faced with increasing information load, may simplify their choice by reducing the amount of information to process. One simplification, commonly referred to as attribute non-attendance (ANA), is a reduction of the number of attributes of the choice alternatives. Several previous studies have identified relationships between varying information load and ANA using self-reported measures of ANA. This chapter revisits this link, motivated by recognition in the literature that such self-reported measures are vulnerable to reporting error.

This chapter employs a recently developed modelling approach that has been shown to effectively infer ANA, the random parameters attribute non-attendance (RPANA) model. The empirical setting systematically varies the information load across respondents, on a number of dimensions.

Confirming earlier findings, ANA is accentuated by an increase in the number of attribute levels, and a decrease in the number of alternatives. Additionally, specific attributes are more likely to not be attended to as the total number of attributes increases. Willingness to pay (WTP) under inferred ANA differs notably from when ANA is self-reported. Additionally accounting for varying information load, when inferring ANA, has little impact on the WTP distribution of those that do attend. However, due to varying rates of non-attendance, the overall WTP distribution varies to a large extent.

This is the first examination of the impact of varying information load on inferred ANA that is identified with the RPANA model. The value lies in the confirmation of earlier findings despite the evolution of methodologies in the interim.

For a long time, one has carried on an endless debate for the problem of the origin of cognition. Much of the debate surrounding this comes from the problem of infinite regress. In a discussion on theory of the thought of abstract neural automata (ANA), we have considered thought, resulting from the nonuniqueness of ANA, to be an important stage of all evolutionary processes of cognition. If thought is considered to be an evolutionary process, we may ask where is the origin of the evolutionary process? In this paper, using ready‐made theory, merely for the problem of origin of thought, we shall offer views of ourselves, which cannot begin to talk about bringing forth new ideas in theory. The view on the theory of ANA about such a problem is that the thought of ANA results from its nonuniqueness, the nonuniqueness results from its uniqueness, the uniqueness originates from its non‐existence – “empty”, i.e. essential answer having universal sense is that thought of ANA originates from “empty”.

By means of topological conjugate transformation, the previous theory of abstract neural automata (ANA) on d‐dimensional (d≥1) integer lattice is extended to compact Riemannian manifold. This paper points out emphatically that intelligence of ANA is related to the geometrical features. The greater the volume of relative plane, the stronger the intelligence; curved Riemannian manifold X˜ configuration space of ANA are locally flat such that the cognitive process of NAN limits the Gibbs' probability measure for a sufficiently small time i.e. the cognitive process of ANA can determine the solution in a sufficiently small time the problem. This hypothesis was supported by studying the human brain, in particular by studying Einstein's brain.

Believes that in the view of philosophy, a concept is the highest form of activity of human brain. This paper demonstrates Abstract Neural Automata and a more perfect brain's models that have the ability of transition of concept‐ability of thought. The transition of the concept of Abstract Neural automata results from the non‐uniqueness of its limit Gibbs measure‐variability of the structure of Abstract Neural Automata.By means of topological conjugate transformation, the previous theory of Abstract Neural Automata on a d‐dimensional (d≥1) integer lattice is extended to the compact Riemannian manifold. We have pointed out emphatically that functions of cognition and thought of Abstract Neural Automata depend crucially on its topological and the Riemannian structure, particularly, on its Riemannian volume of some relative places which are relative learning, memory, cognition and thought. Furthermore, the larger the Riemannian volume, the stronger the intelligent function. In the study of the human brain, and in particular, Einstein's brain, one has discovered such information.