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Moral concerns should be relevant to the choice of the best legal theory on both theoretical and moral grounds because social practices such as law can change due to the theorizing activity. Hart's concept of law provides grounds for claiming that rules of social morality can constrain law in more ways than he admits in his minimum content of natural law. The belief that social morality constrains valid law allows one to treat the question of civil disobedience as sensitively as a legal positivist and leads to neither anarchism nor passivism. At the other extreme, Dworkin's law as integrity interpretation, which claims law is concerned with political morality through and through, leads to morally regrettable consequences when adopted as a normative theory of adjudication. Theoretical difficulties also flow from Dworkin's identification of the role of judge and legal theorist: that a legal theorist must be a participant in any legal system she interprets does not mean she should adopt or exclusively focus on a judge's perspective on that system. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

Acquisition is a crucial element of consumer behavior. By gaining a deeper understanding of the factors that influence consumers' acquisition of products, marketers and managers can develop more effective marketing strategies, and design products that better align with the needs and desires of their target customers. This dissertation develops two essays that examine key components of consumers' interest to acquisition: (1) the impact of ownership language on product evaluation, and (2) the influence of dispositional greed on the experience of diminishing marginal utility. Essay 1 investigates the impact of ownership language (e.g., this is my car) on prospective buyers' item evaluation. Results show that using ownership language has a negative effect on both tangible and intangible item evaluation. Specifically, using more ownership language raises contamination concerns and leads to decreased item evaluation. Essay 2 focuses on the individual differences in the experience of diminishing marginal utility (DMU), which is an essential component of consumers' interest in acquisition. By examining the relationship between dispositional greed and the experience of DMU, this research provides valuable insights into the motivations and desires that drive consumer behavior. The findings from six studies demonstrate that individuals with higher levels of dispositional greed are less likely to experience DMU and that such a heterogeneous experience of DMU depends on consumption scenarios (i.e., quantity-based vs. non-quantity-based). / Doctor of Philosophy / Understanding what motivates people to buy things is a key focus for consumer research. By studying consumers' interest in acquisition, businesses can gain valuable insights into the factors that drive consumer behavior, which can help them design better marketing strategies and create products better suited for the needs of their target customers. This dissertation features two essays that focus on the concept of "consumers' interest in acquisition." Essay 1 studies how using phrases like "this is my car" (i.e., ownership language) affects consumers' evaluation of second-hand products. The results find that using ownership language makes consumers evaluate both tangible and intangible items less favorably. To be specific, using ownership language raises contamination concerns (e.g., the feeling of having been "polluted"), which leads to lowered item evaluation. Essay 2 investigates an aspect of consumer behavior that has received little attention in previous research: the individual differences in the experience of diminishing marginal utility (DMU). I argue that individuals' dispositional level of greed (e.g., dissatisfaction of not having enough, combined with the desire to acquire more) is related to the experience of DMU, such that individuals with higher levels of greed tend to experience less DMU compared to less greedy consumers. In other words, as greedy consumers acquire more of a good or service, the additional satisfaction they gain from each additional unit does not decrease as rapidly as it does for less greedy people. Moreover, I discovered that this heterogeneous experience of DMU was more evident when consumption experiences involved changes in quantity vs. attributes or features of a product/service.

Previous literature has exposed the impact of concerns and beliefs on a teacher's decision to adopt online teaching methods, and in particular for Graphic Communications teachers, the extent to which their concerns and beliefs influence whether or not they decide to teach online. The potential problem that may exist is that of Graphic Communications teachers' concerns and beliefs are playing a role in impeding their transitioning to teaching in the online environment. The purpose of this study was to examine how teacher concerns and beliefs might be affecting a Graphic Communications teacher's adoption of online teaching. Although there are a multitude of factors that may inhibit Graphic Communications teachers from teaching online, this study sought to document the extent to which teacher concerns and beliefs toward online teaching impact their decision to adopt these practices. This study included a purposeful sample of 79 Graphic Communications educators across the United States and Canada. Data collected from the Graphic Communications Teachers Beliefs Towards Teaching Online (GCTBTTO) survey were analyzed using the Stages of Concern scoring device, simple means, and sample correlation coefficients to examine participant concerns and beliefs towards online teaching and the relationship between their concerns and beliefs. A theme analysis of open-ended responses about teaching online provided further assessment of participant beliefs and concerns towards the innovation. Findings from this study revealed Graphic Communications teachers who had taught online had higher levels of external concerns and stronger beliefs towards teaching online. Graphic Communications teachers who had not taught online had higher levels of internal concerns and average beliefs towards teaching online. T-tests revealed the difference in concerns between the sub-groups of teachers was significant across all stages except Management, where online and non-online teachers had similar management concerns about online teaching. For online teachers, task value and cost beliefs were found to have a moderately strong negative correlation to concerns in the Awareness stage, with no significant relationship between expectancy/ability beliefs and any stages of concern. For teachers not teaching online, task value and cost beliefs had a strong positive correlation with their Collaboration concerns, and expectancy/ability beliefs were strongly positively related to their Refocusing concerns. These findings also revealed that most Graphic Communications teachers do not believe hands-on courses which require manipulation of machinery can be taught online, although online teachers are teaching these types of classes with hybrid methods of instruction. The findings from this study provide implications for change facilitators and their consideration of faculty concerns and beliefs. The recommendations for this study suggest ways in which researchers, educators, and change facilitators can address concerns and beliefs in order to develop new innovative teaching methods for hands-on classes. / Ed. D.

yes / This third report from the Bradford NLW Project aims to give the reader a brief update of developments and debates within the NLWs field over the last few months. We hope that it will be of interest not only to NLW `specialists', but also to those with a general interest in this area. Interest in non-lethal weapons, which have been defined as being `explicitly designed and primarily employed to incapacitate personnel or material while minimising fatalities, permanent injury to personnel, and undesired damage to property and the environment', has increased dramatically over the last five years as a result of non-lethal technology progress and increasing calls from military forces (especially those engaged in peacekeeping) and civil police for more sophisticated non-lethal responses to violent incidents¿whilst there are evident advantages linked with non-lethal weapons, there are also key areas of concern associated with the development and deployment of such weapons. These include threats to existing weapons control treaties and conventions, their use in human rights violations (such as torture), harmful biomedical effects, and what some predict as a dangerous potential for use in social manipulation and social punishment within the context of a technology of political control.

The current study explored coping strategies toward the context of discovering a partner's sexual infidelity. There were two primary goals for the current study. First, the current study examined the gender and national differences in conflict styles toward the context of discovering a partner's sexual infidelity. Second, the current study examined the relationship between face concerns and commitment. There were national and gender differences on self-construal face concern, face-concern and conflict styles in the current study. The current findings also suggested that face concern is moderating the relationship between commitment and conflict styles. The limitation and future directions were discussed as well as the clinical implications in the current study. / Ph. D.

Yes / British South Asians have a higher prevalence of overweight and obesity than the wider population. Bradford (UK), with its high Pakistani presence and levels of economic deprivation, has exceptionally high instances, especially in deprived areas where many Pakistanis reside. British Pakistani women in Bradford are more likely to be overweight and obese. There is uncertainty on how these women can be aided to manage their weight. Therefore, the objective of this study was to explore the obesity concerns of Pakistani women living in deprived inner-city areas of Bradford. Three focus groups interviews were carried out with 23 Pakistani women living in deprived areas of Bradford. Data were analysed thematically. This exploratory study identified a wide range of concerns that women had around managing their weight. Participants disclosed distrust in information given around medication, conflicting dietary information and reported low levels of trust in women-only organized physical activities. Cultural barriers were identified, which included the gender role of the woman, the lack of culturally appropriate dietary advice, cultural misunderstandings of what constitutes a healthy diet and healthy weight, the lack of culturally suitable exercise facilities and conforming to family and community expectations. Other concerns were language barriers around a lack of understanding, the inability to read Urdu and reliance on others to translate information. These findings have implications for researchers, local authorities, policy makers and others with an interest in reducing the rates of obesity in this population. Recommendations include training health practitioners to be culturally aware of the diet and eating practices of this community, exploring different ways to support socially isolated women to be more physically active at home, addressing physical activity and diet misconceptions and designing obesity management information materials appropriate for a range of literacy levels. Public contributors were involved in the development of the interview guide and design of the research. A pilot focus group with participants not included in the present paper was used to help test and refine the focus group questions. Interview transcripts were member checked by participants, and participants assisted with data analysis. / UKPRP. Grant Number: MR/S037527/1 NIHR. Grant Number: NIHR200166

Introduction: Children of Black immigrant parents living in the US are at elevated risk of being overweight or obese, thus increasing their risks of morbidity and mortality as they age. Parents play a crucial role in shaping their children's nutrition through their food parenting practices, defined as behaviors or actions that affect the child's dietary habits. Three aims guided this study: (1) To examine food parenting practices among a sample of Black immigrant mothers living in Metro Atlanta using a modified Comprehensive Home Environment Survey (CHES); (2) To assess maternal knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, acculturation, and modeling in relation to food parenting practices among a sample of participants surveyed in Aim1 using focus groups; and (3) To refine the proposed Influences of Food Parenting Practices on BMI model (Model) using data collected in Aims 1 and 2. Methods: 103 Black immigrant mothers completed the CHES and 30 of them participated in four focus groups. Univariate, bivariate, and explanatory analysis was used for the survey data, and the qualitative data analysis was thematic. Results: Based on survey findings, mothers used structure the most in feeding their children, which directly influence mothers’ reports of their children’s dietary behavior and habits. Education, income, age of migration, mother’s concern for child’s weight, and child’s sex were significantly associated with the participants’ food parenting practices. Specifically, mothers with more income, more education, or who migrated before age 14 were more likely to have healthy food available and better meals routine. Focus group data analysis revealed seven major themes and six subthemes, where acculturation influenced mothers’ food parenting practices greatly. Since migrating to the US, some mothers’ nutrition changed in positive (e.g., eating more fruits) and negative ways (e.g., snacking more) because of schedules, cost, and access. Survey and focus group findings were instrumental in refining the Model by adding 5 new relationships to the proposed model. Conclusion: The results of this study provide a baseline for the food parenting practices of Black immigrant mothers in the US, and important factors (i.e., knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, acculturation, and sociodemographic) that influence their children’s dietary behavior.

Yes / This study empirically investigates the impact of energy related public environmental concerns on the pay gap within polluting companies. It uses the extreme environmental event of the PM2.5 surge at the end of 2011, which led to an upsurge in energy related public environmental concerns in China, as a quasi-natural experiment. According to our findings, energy related public environmental concerns lead to a significant increase in the executive–employee pay gap of polluting companies compared to that of non-polluting companies, owing to a significant increase in executive compensation and no significant change in employee income. The effect of energy related public environmental concerns on increasing the pay gap within polluting companies is more significant in samples with high agency costs, poor information transparency, less analyst follow-up, and fewer institutional investors' shareholding. Furthermore, as energy related public environmental concerns exacerbate the polluting firms' internal pay gap, their total factor productivity and investment efficiency fall significantly. In summary, energy related public environmental concerns not only widen the wage gap within polluting enterprises but also worsen their operational and investment efficiency, which has important policy implications for emerging market economies seeking to balance environmental protection and economic development. / The authors wew funded by NSFC number (71903199), Fujian Pro vincial Federation of Social Sciences (FJ2023BF045), Guangdong Phi losophy and Social Sciences Project (GD23XYJ08), the Innovation and Talent Base for Digital Technology and Finance (B21038), and "the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities", Zhongnan Univeristy of Economics and Law (2722023EJ002).

”The death of the third-party cookie”, är vad marknadsförare och stora företag kallar fenomenet där tre av de ledande webbläsarna fasar ut sina tredjepartscookies. Detta görs för att skapa en säkrare användarupplevelse online och på digitala tjänster.   Idag är det svårt för användare att bevara sin digitala integritet i ett samhälle där stora värden utvinns från användardata. Integritetsregler är utformade så ansvaret hamnar på individnivå. Samt att det är en norm att använda digitala tjänster. Detta har medfört fenomenet integritetsparadoxen som är en förklaringsmodell till varför användare inte agerar för att skydda sin integritet digitalt trots oro.   Grunden till studien lades av tidigare forskning då fenomenet varit välstuderat de senaste åren. Tidigare studiers fynd sammanställdes till ett teoretiskt ramverk som visar de bidragande orsakerna till användarnas motsägelsefulla beteende. Ramverket användes för att formulera intervjufrågor och analysera resultaten av datainsamlingen. Datainsamlingen genomfördes i form av semistrukturerade intervjuer med användare av digitala tjänster, ett företag som har digitala tjänster och integritetspolicies från tre olika företag.   Resultatet visar att orsaker såsom integritetsoro, kunskapsbrist och integritetsutmattning är alla bidragande orsaker till integritetsparadoxen. Samt framkommer det att ett asymmetriskt maktförhållande mellan användare och förmedlare av digitala tjänster bidrar till uppkomsten av de olika orsakerna som kopplats till integritetsparadoxen.   Denna studie bidrar teoretiskt med att utöka teorin om integritetsparadoxen genom att visa de olika orsakerna som påverkar användares motsägelsefulla beteende, med fokus på hur maktobalansen relaterar till detta.   Slutsatserna kan användas för att designa integritetsarbeten som kan bidra till att användare känner sig trygga med att använda företagets digitala tjänster, samt skapa en förståelse för vad användare kan uppleva integritetskränkande. Slutligen så förser studien företag med en insikt i den makt de har över användningen av användares personliga data och hur användare upplever detta.