Mindfulness in Education

Complexity of the modern era has led to increased difficulties of people, especially the youth. Living in the current stressful, uncertain, and highly stimulating technological era is not very easy for the young ones. Hence, there is an urgency to teach skills of stress management and resilience among children through mindfulness-based practices. This change in the present scenario has attracted the attention and interest of psychologists and educationists to the practice of mindfulness-based interventions with children and adolescents for enhancing their overall well-being. The last few years have observed a growing number of research and applications of mindfulness in educational settings because of its effectiveness and the urgent need of prevention and interventions of the youths' problems. In this chapter, the author has discussed research supporting the idea of mindfulness in education for both students and teachers and its usage to increase the academic performance, enhance overall wellbeing, and reduce the stress level of youth.

The Cultivation of Students' Musical Expressiveness in Piano Performance Teaching

This article believes that in piano performance teaching in colleges and universities, the significance of cultivating students' musical expressiveness is mainly reflected in three aspects: the future development of students, the development of piano art and the reform of education and teaching. In the specific training path, it is necessary to scientifically grasp the relationship between performance technology and music performance, enhance students' awareness of music analysis, and effectively improve students' theoretical accomplishment and create a display platform to exercise students' performance ability.

Conditions for optimizing powertrain performance in a vehicle with an internal combustion engine

The paper analyzes vehicle structural solutions that are consistent with emission standards, modern energy efficiency norms, safety requirements and consumer expectations. Powertrain parameters in a vehicle with an internal combustion engine were selected based on the following criteria: fuel consumption, engine dynamics, and emission standards for harmful substances. A light-duty passenger vehicle with gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of 3.5 tons was modified by replacing a spark-ignition engine with a diesel engine. The gear ratio in the powertrain had to be modified accordingly to optimize the engine’s performance, enhance engine dynamics, minimize fuel consumption and toxic emissions. Selected powertrain parameters were optimized based on standard driving cycle requirements, speed profiles and the road gradient during tests conducted under real-world conditions.

Effects of probiotic Clostridium Butyrate on Performance and Immunocompetence and Digestive Function of poultry

The purpose of our research was to study the effects of dietary addition of Clostridium butyricum (CB) on performance, immunocompetence and digestive function of poultry. Using single factor experiment design, 720 one-day-old and healthy AA broilers were divided into 6 groups with 6 replicates in each group and 20 broilers in each replicate. Broilers in control group were fed a basal diet, while broilers of other experimental group were fed the basal diet supplemented with CB 250 mg/kg, 500 mg/kg, 750 mg/kg, 1000 mg/kg and 1250 mg/kg. The results showed as follows: The 1000mg/mg group had the best effect on immunity enhancement, with the thymus index, spleen index and bursa index increased by 18.38 % (P < 0.05), 16.00 % (P < 0.05) and 8.03 % (P > 0.05) in 1–21 days, and 6.45 % (P < 0.05), 12.92 % (P < 0.05) and 13.94 % (P < 0.05) in 22–49 days. The 1000 mg/kg group and 1250 mg/kg group had the best effect on improving the digestive function, with the VH/CD value increased by 27.56 % (P < 0.05) and 29.56 % (P < 0.05) in 1–21 days, and 29.48 % (P < 0.05) and 30.80 % (P < 0.05) in 22–49 days, with the number of harmful bacteria Escherichia coli and Salmonella decreased significantly (P < 0.05). These results indicated that the addition of CB in diets of broiler can improve the production performance, enhance immunity and improve digestive function, and the optimal dosage is 1000 mg/kg.

The Role of Strategic Outsourcing in Global Business

This chapter reveals the role of strategic outsourcing in global business, thus describing the theoretical and practical concept of strategic outsourcing; the management theories related to strategic outsourcing; the applications of Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and Information Technology Outsourcing (ITO); and the significance of strategic outsourcing in global business. The fulfillment of strategic outsourcing is vital for modern organizations that seek to serve suppliers and customers, improve business performance, enhance competitiveness, and reach continuous achievement in global business. Therefore, it is necessary for modern organizations to explore their strategic outsourcing, establish a strategic plan to usually check their practical advancements, and immediately respond to strategic outsourcing needs of customers in modern organizations. The chapter argues that applying strategic outsourcing in global business has the potential to increase organizational performance and attain business goals in the digital age.

КОРПОРАТИВНА СОЦІАЛЬНА ВІДПОВІДАЛЬНІСТЬ ЯК СТРАТЕГІЧНИЙ ПОКАЗНИК ЛОЯЛЬНОСТІ СПОЖИВАЧІВ У НАЦІОНАЛЬНІЙ ЕКОНОМІЦІ

The article provides insights into the concept of corporate social responsibility. The key factors and incentives that encourage entrepreneurs to undertake activities to enhance the level of corporate social responsibility have been identified. The study discusses the key advantages of corporate social responsibility which contribute to the increase in financial performance, enhance company reputation and consumer loyalty, increase sales, reduce staff turnover and foster motivation in the workplace. The relevance of the research is underpinned by the need to substantiate the following aspects: a loyal customer is a consistent source of revenue over the years, based on the customer’s priority choice of a certain company and its affection to a brand; loyalty is an indicator to be statistically processed, thus requiring more active use of mathematical tools to analyze repurchases and the factors that shape buying preferences in favor of a particular company, since there is always profound data analysis on customer loyalty behind the process of building any concept, which effectiveness evaluation is often being questioned. Traditionally, loyalty is understood as consumer satisfaction which is from our perspective a mistake. The difference between satisfaction and loyalty provoked some contradictory interpretations by some of the authors. Given the above, the article explores the existing loyalty definitions which by their nature cover various aspects of the concept. The findings reveal that loyalty can manifest itself at different levels: at the level of the environment; at the level of behavior; at the level of ability; at the level of belief; at the level of values and at the identity level. It has been reasoned that within the context of the national economy, loyalty as a strategic indicator is achieved if a number of conditions are met, i.e.: a consumer should perceive a strong advantage of a certain brand against other competitors; have a desire to repurchase and continue to buy goods of a particular company; the consumer should have a sense of satisfaction with a certain brand. Thus, corporate social responsibility, as an indicator of loyalty, envisages long-term and mutually beneficial relationships between a company and a client which contribute to improving the company's image.

Does ESG Performance Enhance Firm Value? Evidence from Korea

We analyze whether a firm’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) plays a significant role in promoting its market value in an emerging market, namely Korea. We employ environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) scores to evaluate CSR performances and examine their effect on firm valuation. We find that CSR practices positively and significantly affect a firm’s market, in line with previous studies on developed countries. However, its impact on share prices can differ according to firm characteristics. For firms in environmentally sensitive industries, the value-creating effect of CSR is lesser than for firms that do not belong to sensitive industries. Specifically, corporate governance practice negatively influences the firm value of environmentally sensitive firms. Further, governance practice significantly promotes market value only for chaebols, while investors do not significantly value governance practice carried out by other firms. This finding suggests the value-enhancing effects of governance structure reformation in the former. This work mainly contributes to the literature by verifying a positive CSR-valuation relationship in emerging markets, which provides substantial policy and welfare implications in markets where governments play a major role in promoting CSR. A stronger valuation effect of CSR in chaebols may present economic background for the intervention of the Korean government in the reformation of chaebol.

Kinetically-Controlled Growth of Chestnut-Like Au Nanocrystals with High-Density Tips and Their High SERS Performances on Organochlorine Pesticides

A modified seed growth route was developed to fabricate the Au nanocrystals with high-density tips based on kinetically-controlled growth via adjusting the adding rate of Au seeds into growth solution. The obtained Au nanostructures were chestnut-like in morphology and about 100 nm in size. They were built of the radial [111]-oriented nanoneedles and were 30–50 nm in length. There were about 120–150 tips in each nanocrystal. The formation of chestnut-like Au nanocrystals is ascribed to surfactant-induced preferential growth of seeds along direction [111]. Importantly, the chestnut-like Au configuration displayed powerful surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) performance (enhance factor > 107), owing to the high density of tips. Further, such film was used as a SERS substrate for the detection of lindane (γ-666) molecules (the typical organochlorine pesticide). The detection limit was about 10 ppb, and the relationship between SERS intensity I and concentration C of 666 accords with the double logarithm linear. This work presents a simple approach to Au nanocrystal with high-density tips, and provides a highly efficacious SERS-substrate for quantitative and trace recognition of toxic chlorinated pesticides.

Good Governance According to Islamic Perspective

The objectives of the professional agencies must embody provisions that promote good governance and embrace values of integrity and accountability and seek support from the public and the government of the day to provide an independent view on all matters. The universal truth is that everything should be done in the public good. Professionals form the backbone of human infrastructure in any economy, politics, social and legal growth. Their contributions through professional performance enhance the good delivery system that facilitates policies making and management for public sector. They provide the skills and talent in balancing the pursuits of maximization of services. The expression “good governance” has constantly been used lately in both public sector as well as private sector in Malaysia. In the context of a private body, it should be within the framework of the statute, which governs the body and also its constitution. In the public sector, it means that the administrators should act professionally and not to abuse or misuse the power or authority given to them. They are regarded as the trustees of the public at large. The scope of this article is on good public governance in the public sector or to be exact, good governmental administration as interpreted by the judiciary especially through its judicial review power and Islamic Perspective based on the principles of Maqasid As Shariah (Objectives of Islamic Law). Keywords: Good Governance, Public Sector, Malaysian Law, Islamic Perspective, Maqasid As-Shariah.