Fashion Rental: Smart Business or Ethical Folly?

The research presented here illustrates the spectrum of fashion rental PSS firms and business strategies within the New Zealand fashion rental market. The evidence collected suggests that there is a market for fashion rental; however, this market is underdeveloped in regard to its potential as a benefit exchange medium that encourages alternative consumption practice. This study finds that there is, indeed, enormous potential in PSSs as a means to divert fashion-conscious consumers away from ownership behaviours; however, the current systems fall short of this goal. This study offers a taxonomy to create and develop fashion rental PSSs that achieve central aims of circular economy fashion systems, enhancing the collective, social aspects of access, value-sharing and continuing development of mutual gain within the system. It is anticipated that this taxonomy could be further refined and extended through research in other countries, including those with more established, larger fashion rental organisations. Further, there is potential for action research approaches to the design and analysis of alternative fashion rental PSSs.

Social Capital Mediates the Relationship between Social Distancing and COVID-19 Prevalence in Japan

The threat of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is increasing. Regarding the differences in the infection rate observed in each region, additionally to studies investigating the causes of differences in population density as a proxy for social distancing, an increasing trend of studies investigating the causes of differences in social capital has also been seen (ie, value sharing, acceptance of norms, unity, and trust through reciprocity). However, studies investigating whether social capital that controls the effects of population density also influences the infection rate are limited. Therefore, in this study, we analyzed the relationship between infection rate, population density, and social capital using statistical data of Japan’s every prefecture. Statistical analysis showed that social capital not only negatively correlates with infection rates and population densities, but also negatively correlates with infection rates controlling for the effects of population density. Additionally, controlling the relationship between the variables by mean age showed that social capital had a greater correlation with infection rate than population density. In other words, social capital mediates the relationship between population density and infection rates, indicating that social distancing alone is not enough to deter coronavirus disease; social capital needs to be recharged.

Entire functions that share two pairs of small functions

In this paper, we study the unicity of entire functions and their derivatives and obtain the following result: let f f be a non-constant entire function, let a 1 {a}_{1} , a 2 {a}_{2} , b 1 {b}_{1} , and b 2 {b}_{2} be four small functions of f f such that a 1 ≢ b 1 {a}_{1}\not\equiv {b}_{1} , a 2 ≢ b 2 {a}_{2}\not\equiv {b}_{2} , and none of them is identically equal to ∞ \infty . If f f and f ( k ) {f}^{\left(k)} share ( a 1 , a 2 ) \left({a}_{1},{a}_{2}) CM and share ( b 1 , b 2 ) \left({b}_{1},{b}_{2}) IM, then ( a 2 − b 2 ) f − ( a 1 − b 1 ) f ( k ) ≡ a 2 b 1 − a 1 b 2 \left({a}_{2}-{b}_{2})f-\left({a}_{1}-{b}_{1}){f}^{\left(k)}\equiv {a}_{2}{b}_{1}-{a}_{1}{b}_{2} . This extends the result due to Li and Yang [Value sharing of an entire function and its derivatives, J. Math. Soc. Japan. 51 (1999), no. 7, 781–799].

A Community of Shared Values? Dimensions and Dynamics of Cultural Integration in the European Union

Whether the EU is a community of shared values is increasingly contested in public debates and academic discourses alike. We analyse the level and change in the acceptance of the EU’s officially promoted values in seven domains: personal freedom, individual autonomy, social solidarity, ethnic tolerance, civic honesty, gender equality and liberal democracy. We find that EU-member populations support the EU- values strongly and increasingly over time, especially in individual freedoms and gender equality. Regarding support for these values, EU-member populations are notably distinct from non-EU populations. Simultaneously, however, EU-member populations are internalizing the EU-values at different speeds—alongside traditional cultural fault lines that continue to differentiate Europe—in the following order from fastest to slowest internalization: (1) Protestant, (2) Catholic, (3) Ex-communist and lastly (4) Orthodox countries. In conclusion, the EU- population writ large evolves into a distinct value-sharing community at different speeds.

Uniqueness of meromorphic functions concerning their difference operators and derivatives

Let f and g be two nonconstant meromorphic functions. Shared value problems related to f and g are investigated in this paper. We give sufficient conditions in terms of weighted value sharing which imply that f is a linear transformation or inversion transformation of g. We also investigate the uniqueness problem of meromorphic functions with their difference operators and derivatives sharing some values.