Search results

This study aims to provide a microfluidic blood glucose sensing platform based on integrated interdigitated electrode arrays (IDEAs) on a flexible quartz glass substrate, adhering closely to pertinent electrochemical characterizations.

Sensors are the key elements of the modern electronics era through which all the possible physical quantities can be detected and converted into their equivalent electrical form and processed further. But to make the sensing environment better, various types of innovative architectures are being developed nowadays and among them interdigitated electrodes are quite remarkable in terms of their sensing capability. They are a well-qualified candidate in the field of gas sensing and biosensing, but even their sensitivities are getting saturated due to their physical dimensions. Most of the thin film IDEAs fabricated by conventional optical lithographic techniques do not possess a high surface-to-volume ratio to detect the target specified and that reduces their sensitivity factor. In this context, a classic conductive carbon-based highly sensitive three dimensional (3D) IDEA-enabled biosensing system has been conceived on a transparent and flexible substrate to measure the amount of glucose concentration present in human blood. 3D IDEA possesses a way better capacitive sensing behavior compared to conventional thin film microcapacitive electrodes. To transmit the target biological analyte sample property for the detection purpose to the interdigitated array-based sensing platform, the design of a microfluidic channel is initiated on the same substrate. The complex 3D Inter Digital array structure improves the overall capacitance of the entire sensing platform and the reactive surface area as well. The manufactured integrated device displays a decent value of sensitivity in the order of 5.6 µA mM⁻¹ cm⁻².

Development of a low-cost array-based integrated and highly flexible microfluidic biochip to extract the quantity of glucose present in human blood.

Potential future research opportunities in the realm of integrated miniaturized, low-cost smart biosensing systems may arise from this study.

Visual feedback control is a promising solution for robots work in unstructured environments, and this is accomplished by estimation of the time derivative relationship between the image features and the robot moving. While some of the drawbacks associated with most visual servoing (VS) approaches include the vision–motor mapping computation and the robots’ dynamic performance, the problem of designing optimal and more effective VS systems still remains challenging. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to propose and evaluate the VS method for robots in an unstructured environment.

This paper presents a new model-free VS control of a robotic manipulator, for which an adaptive estimator aid by network learning is proposed using online estimation of the vision–motor mapping relationship in an environment without the knowledge of statistical noise. Based on the adaptive estimator, a model-free VS schema was constructed by introducing an active disturbance rejection control (ADRC). In our schema, the VS system was designed independently of the robot kinematic model.

The various simulations and experiments were conducted to verify the proposed approach by using an eye-in-hand robot manipulator without calibration and vision depth information, which can improve the autonomous maneuverability of the robot and also allow the robot to adapt its motion according to the image feature changes in real time. In the current method, the image feature trajectory was stable in the camera field range, and the robot’s end motion trajectory did not exhibit shock retreat. The results showed that the steady-state errors of image features was within 19.74 pixels, the robot positioning was stable within 1.53 mm and 0.0373 rad and the convergence rate of the control system was less than 7.21 s in real grasping tasks.

Compared with traditional Kalman filtering for image-based VS and position-based VS methods, this paper adopts the model-free VS method based on the adaptive mapping estimator combination with the ADRC controller, which is effective for improving the dynamic performance of robot systems. The proposed model-free VS schema is suitable for robots’ grasping manipulation in unstructured environments.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce and analyze a dual-side-permanent-magnet Halbach array vernier (DSPMHV) machine and to propose methods for achieving high torque density.

Flux harmonics and torque characteristics are analyzed by using finite element analysis. First, a suitable pole-slot combination is selected by comparison. Second, field modulation processes of DSPMHV machine are analyzed to identify the reason for high torque density. And it is compared with dual-side-PM (DSPM) machine to analyze flux harmonic and verify the flux concentrating effect of the Halbach array.

The permanent magnet (PM) field of the DSPM machine is approximately equal to the superposition of stator-PM field and rotor-PM field, which is the reason for high torque density. And the Halbach array can reduce flux leakage and increase the amplitude of main flux harmonics, then further improves torque. Improvement of torque can be achieved by choosing right pole-slot combination, adopting DSPM machine structure, reducing flux leakage and adopting field modulation principle.

The DSPMHV machine with split-tooth is proposed in this paper by combining the Halbach array with DSPM structure. This paper analyzes the bidirectional field modulation process, the reason for high torque density of the DSPM machine is obtained. Comparison with the DSPM machine verifies the flux concentrating effect of Halbach array. To alleviate the magnetic saturation in part of stator teeth, this paper proposes an improved DSPMHV machine with shaped auxiliary magnet.

This study aims to promote the anti-disturbance and tracking accuracy performance of the servo systems, in which a modified active disturbance rejection control (MADRC) scheme is proposed.

An adaptive radial basis function (ARBF) neural network is utilized to estimate and compensate dominant friction torque disturbance, and a parallel high-gain extended state observer (PHESO) is employed to further compensate residual and other uncertain disturbances. This parallel compensation structure reduces the burden of single ESO and improves the response speed of permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) to hybrid disturbances. Moreover, the sliding mode control (SMC) rate is introduced to design an adaptive update law of ARBF.

Simulation and experimental results show that as compared to conventional ADRC and SMC algorithms, the position tracking error is only 2.3% and the average estimation error of the total disturbances is only 1.4% in the proposed MADRC algorithm.

The disturbance parallel estimation structure proposed in MADRC algorithm is proved to significantly improve the performance of anti-disturbance and tracking accuracy.

This paper examines the impact of board ethnic diversity on the level of compliance with international financial reporting standards (IFRS) disclosures.

Using a unique hand-collected dataset from South Africa, we develop a comprehensive disclosure index against 570 mandatory requirements of IFRS. Further, we employ the fixed-effects model to investigate whether board ethnic diversity affects IFRS disclosures.

We document a significant positive association between ethnic minority directors and IFRS disclosure levels. Furthermore, we reveal that non-busy ethnic minority directors have a greater impact on IFRS disclosure levels than their busy counterparts. Additional analyses show that ethnic minority directors have less impact on IFRS disclosure levels when their number exceeds two. Companies with more ethnic directors on audit committees are more likely to comply with IFRS disclosure requirements and ethnic diversity increases accounting disclosures irrespective of the level of ownership concentration.

Our findings shed new light on the impact of board ethnic diversity on firms’ compliance with IFRS disclosure requirements. The results are robust to alternative econometric techniques, proxies and potential endogeneity concerns.

Blockchain technology (BCT) can play a vital role in manufacturing industries by providing visibility and real-time transparency. With BCT adoption, manufacturers can achieve higher productivity, better quality, flexibility and cost-effectiveness. The current study aims to prioritize the performance metrics and ranking of enablers that may influence the adoption of BCT in manufacturing industries through a hybrid framework.

Through an extensive literature review, 4 major criteria with 26 enablers were identified. Pythagorean fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (AHP) method was used to compute the weights of the enablers and the Pythagorean fuzzy combined compromise solution (Co-Co-So) method was used to prioritize the 17-performance metrics. Sensitivity analysis was then carried out to check the robustness of the developed framework.

According to the results, data security enablers were the most significant among the major criteria, followed by technology-oriented enablers, sustainability and human resources and quality-related enablers. Further, the ranking of performance metrics shows that data hacking complaints per year, data storage capacity and number of advanced technologies available for BCT are the top three important performance metrics. Framework robustness was confirmed by sensitivity analysis.

The developed framework will contribute to understanding and simplifying the BCT implementation process in manufacturing industries to a significant level. Practitioners and managers may use the developed framework to facilitate BCT adoption and evaluate the performance of the manufacturing system.

This study can be considered as the first attempt to the best of the author’s knowledge as no such hybrid framework combining enablers and performance indicators was developed earlier.

Investigating the drivers that contribute to the success of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is crucial for ensuring the overall growth and sustainability of a country. The purpose of this research is to investigate the role of gender diversity on the Board of Directors of innovative SMEs to understand whether the presence of women on boards can improve the performance of such organizations devoted to introducing technological advancements in the product market.

The study adopts a quantitative approach, using a sample of 2,264 Italian innovative SMEs. These companies were selected from non-financial sectors and collected from Analisi informatizzata delle Aziende Italiane (AIDA), a database provided by Bureau van Dijk. An unbalanced panel data involving a period from 2016 to 2021 was used with a total of 12,173 observations.

Our findings suggest that female representation has a negative effect on a company's financial performance. Moreover, the moderation effect of sector growth opportunities confirms this negative influence since in sectors characterized by high growth opportunities, the presence of women on boards was found to have a negative outcome.

The main contribution of the work lies in offering a comprehensive and thorough examination of the business category of innovative SMEs. Specifically, it extends previous research through a focus on board gender diversity of innovative SMEs by examining the impact of the presence of women in their boardrooms on firm performance outcomes. Furthermore, it provides an analysis of this effect, considering both high-growth and low-growth sectors.

This study assessed the antecedents and consequences of tourists’ authenticity experience in a new ancient town in China. Based on Chinese cultural background and case study, this paper aims to explore this kind of tourism place making and establishes an empirical model to examine and verify the impact of tourists’ perception, authentic experience and behavioral tendency on such place making, and proposes targeted improvement measures.

Based on a Chinese cultural background and case study, this paper explored a certain kind of tourism place making and established an empirical model to examine and verify the impact of tourists’ perceptions, authentic experiences and behavioral tendencies on such place making; the goals were to try to create a new scale to measure the authenticity of the “new ancient town” in the Chinese context and to propose targeted measures for improvement.

Research shows that Chinese visitors acquire experiences that they perceive to be authentic when visiting a contrived attraction such as a new ancient town. The dimensions of cultural, functional, product, value and unique authenticity were identified as distinct dimensions of tourists’ authenticity experiences in a new ancient town. Although these dimensions have been mentioned at times in the context of traditional Western assessments of authenticity, they do not replicate exactly any category of Western objective authenticity, existential authenticity, constructive authenticity or postmodern authenticity. They instead constitute an authentic experiential dimension in a typical oriental context, which is comprehensively explicated by combining the image of a national cultural theme and the elements of functional construction created by tourist places in a new ancient town.

This study explored the path relationship among perception of place making – authenticity experience – behavioral intention, but it did not analyze relationships among the dimensions of perception of place making or among the authenticity experience variables. Furthermore, advantage was not taken of the availability of socioeconomic information to look for differences among interviewees with different attributes. In addition, there is a profound cultural and complex theoretical connotation to authenticity in the Chinese context, and the study of a single case is insufficient to fully elucidate meaning in this emerging discourse.

By verifying the path of tourists’ authenticity experiences through the perception of place making, the understanding of the effects of different elements of place making on tourists’ experiences is refined. For space producers, different elements of place making promote tourists’ authenticity experiences to different degrees. Strengthening the construction of the physical environment, marketing and scenes can promote tourists’ authenticity experiences: planning and design, marketing and scene enhancements promote tourists’ functional authenticity experiences; planning and design, the physical environment and marketing enhance tourists’ product authenticity experiences; planning and design, marketing, the physical environment and scene enhancement can improve tourists’ perceptions of value; unique authenticity experiences can be created in the marketing and scenes in new ancient towns.

Certain aspects of the space production in new ancient towns can be used to strengthen tourists’ perceptions of value. First, the scene system at scenic spots can be strengthened, catering to tourists’ visual, olfactory and other senses so that they are available in all kinds of weather. Second, the local cultural characteristics of the material environment can be strengthened and the installation of inappropriate cultural symbols can be avoided. Thus, a physical environment that is of local ethnic cultural significance can be created so that both local residents and tourists can perceive the value of the place. Third, the rational layout of the new ancient towns should be established and maintained through the ongoing involvement of professional planning and design teams. Local cultural attributes that are of national significance should be included in the layout and design of the physical environment. Fourth, daily marketing and management actions influence how tourists influence scene value. Therefore, managers of scenic places need to make prudent decisions about and integrate local folk and ethnic characteristics into their marketing, which can promote the sustainable development of tourism effectively (Saarinen, 2018).

First, this study constructed and validated the model and path relationship of the “perception of place making, authentic experience, and behavioral intention,” and it confirmed that the perception of place making had an important impact on tourists’ authentic experiences. Second, the exploratory factor analysis extracted five dimensions of the tourist authenticity experience (i.e. cultural, functional, unique, product and value authenticity) based on China’s context of ming shi, which enriched the connotations of the authenticity experience. Third, this study effectively linked the perception of place making with the real experience and behavioral intention of tourists and expanded the theoretical research boundary of place making to a certain extent.

本文以中国文化背景和案例研究为基础, 对“新古镇”旅游的地方营造进行了探讨, 并建立了实证模型。利用SPSS 23.0和Smart PLS 3.0进行数据分析, 检验和验证游客在类似场所的地方营造感知、真实体验和行为意向的路径关系。

以现代技术手段再造（创造）遗产旅游目的地已经成为一个全球性的现象。本文基于中国的文化背景和案例, 考察和验证了游客对地方营造的感知、真实性体验和行为意向的影响, 尝试创造一种新的尺度来衡量在中国语境下“新古镇”的真实性内涵, 并以此提出了针对性的改善措施。

研究表明, 中国游客在参观新古镇等人造景点时, 会获得他们认为真实的体验。文化真实、功能真实、产品真实、价值真实和独特真实是新古镇游客真实性体验的不同维度。它们构成了一个典型东方语境下的真实性内涵, 全面阐述了一个民族文化主题形象与新古镇旅游地方营造功能建设要素的结合。

本研究探讨了地方营造知觉-真实性体验-行为意向之间的路径关系, 但未分析地方营造感知各维度之间及真实性体验变量之间的关系。此外, 没有利用社会经济信息的可用性来寻找不同属性受访者之间的差异。此外, 在中国语境中, 真实性有着深刻的文化内涵和复杂的理论内涵, 仅对单个案例的研究不足以充分阐明这一新兴话题的意义

对于空间生产者来说, 加强物理环境、营销和场景的建设可以促进游客的真实体验:规划设计、营销和场景的增强可以促进游客的功能真实体验;规划设计、物质环境、营销提升游客的产品真实性体验;规划设计、营销、实体环境和场景提升可以提升游客的价值感知;在新古镇的营销和场景中应创造独特的真实性体验。

新古镇地方营造的某些方面可以提升游客的价值感知。首先, 通过迎合游客的视觉、嗅觉和其他感官, 加强景区的场景系统。其次, 可以创造一个具有当地民族文化意义的物质环境, 使当地居民和游客都能感受到这个地方的价值。第三, 通过专业规划设计团队的持续参与, 建立和维护新古镇的合理布局。第四, 日常营销和管理行为影响游客的价值体验。

首先, 本研究构建并验证了“地方营造感知、真实体验与行为意向”的模型和路径关系, 证实了地方营造感知对游客真实体验的重要影响。其次, 基于中国语境, EFA提取了旅游真实性体验的五个维度(文化真实、功能真实、独特真实、产品真实和价值真实), 丰富了真实性体验的内涵。第三, 本研究将游客的地方营造感知、真实体验和行为意向进行了有效地连接。

Basándose en un contexto cultural chino y en un estudio de caso, este artículo exploró la creación de lugares turísticos en la “nueva ciudad antigua” y estableció un modelo empírico. Se utilizaron SPSS 23.0 y Smart PLS 3.0 para el análisis de datos, con el fin de examinar y verificar la relación entre las percepciones de la creación de lugares, las experiencias auténticas y las intenciones de comportamiento de los turistas en dichos lugares.

La recreación moderna de lugares como atracciones turísticas patrimoniales es un fenómeno mundial. Partiendo de un contexto cultural chino y de un estudio de caso, este artículo examina y verifica el impacto de las percepciones de los turistas, las experiencias auténticas y las tendencias de comportamiento en dicha creación de lugares; los objetivos eran intentar crear una nueva escala para medir la autenticidad de la “nueva ciudad antigua” en el contexto chino y proponer medidas específicas de mejora.

La investigación muestra que los visitantes chinos adquieren experiencias que perciben como auténticas cuando visitan una atracción artificial como una nueva ciudad antigua. Las dimensiones de autenticidad cultural, funcional, de producto, de valor y única se identificaron como dimensiones distintas de las experiencias de autenticidad de los turistas en una nueva ciudad antigua. Éstas constituyen una auténtica dimensión experiencial en un contexto típicamente oriental, que se explica de forma exhaustiva combinando la imagen de un tema cultural nacional con los elementos de construcción funcional creados por los lugares turísticos de una nueva ciudad antigua.

Este estudio exploró la relación entre la percepción de la creación de lugares, la experiencia de autenticidad y la intención de comportamiento, pero no analizó las relaciones entre las dimensiones de la percepción de la creación de lugares, ni entre las variables de la experiencia de autenticidad. Además, no se aprovechó la disponibilidad de información socioeconómica para buscar diferencias entre entrevistados con distintos atributos. Adicionalmente, en el contexto chino, la autenticidad tiene profundas connotaciones culturales y teóricas complejas, y el estudio de un solo caso no basta para dilucidar plenamente la importancia de este tema emergente.

Para los productores de espacios, reforzar la construcción del entorno físico, el marketing y las escenas puede promover las experiencias de autenticidad de los turistas: la planificación y el diseño, el marketing y la mejora de las escenas promueve las experiencias de autenticidad funcional de los turistas; la planificación y el diseño, el entorno físico y el marketing mejoran las experiencias de autenticidad de los productos de los turistas; la planificación y el diseño, el marketing, el entorno físico y la mejora de las escenas pueden mejorar la percepción de valor de los turistas; se pueden crear experiencias de autenticidad únicas en el marketing y las escenas de las nuevas ciudades antiguas.

Ciertos aspectos de la creación de lugares en las nuevas ciudades antiguas pueden mejorar la percepción de valor de los turistas. En primer lugar, puede reforzarse el sistema escénico de los lugares de interés, atendiendo a los sentidos visuales, olfativos y de otro tipo de los turistas. En segundo lugar, se puede crear un entorno físico que tenga un significado cultural étnico local para que tanto los residentes locales como los turistas puedan percibir el valor del lugar. En tercer lugar, el trazado racional de las nuevas ciudades antiguas debe establecerse y mantenerse mediante la participación continua de equipos profesionales de planificación y diseño. En cuarto lugar, las acciones diarias de marketing y gestión influyen en la experiencia de valor del turista.

En primer lugar, este estudio construyó y validó el modelo y la relación entre la “percepción de la creación de lugares, la experiencia auténtica y la intención de comportamiento,” lo que confirmó la importante influencia de la percepción de la creación de lugares en la experiencia auténtica de los turistas. En segundo lugar, basándose en el contexto chino, el análisis factorial exploratorio extrajo cinco dimensiones de la experiencia de autenticidad turística (autenticidad cultural, funcional, única, del producto y del valor), que enriquecieron las connotaciones de la experiencia de autenticidad. En tercer lugar, este estudio vinculó eficazmente las percepciones de los turistas sobre la creación de lugares, con la experiencia real y con las intenciones de comportamiento de los turistas.

The effects of board composition on performance have long been discussed in management research using fractionalization measures. In this study, we propose an alternative measurement approach based on board polarization.

Using an exploratory analysis and applying the polarization measure to German Deutscher Aktienindex (DAX)-, Midcap-DAX (MDAX)- and Small Cap-Index (SDAX)-listed companies, this paper applies the polarization index to examine the relationship between board diversity and performance.

The results show that the polarization concept is well suited to measure principal-agent problems between the members of the management and supervisory boards. We reveal that board polarization is negatively associated with firm performance, as measured by return on investment (ROI).

This exploratory study shows that the measurement of board polarization can be linked to performance differences between companies, which offers promising starting points for further research.

In typical model-based calibration, linearization errors are derived inevitably, and non-negligible negative impact will be induced on the identification results if the rotational kinematic errors are not small enough or the lengths of links are too long, which is common in the industrial cases. Thus, an accurate two-step kinematic calibration method minimizing the linearization errors is presented for a six-DoF serial robot to improve the calibration accuracy.

The negative impact of linearization on identification accuracy is minimized by removing the responsible linearized kinematic errors from the complete kinematic error model. Accordingly, the identification results of the dimension-reduced new model are accurate but not complete, so the complete kinematic error model, which achieves high identification accuracy of the rest of the error parameters, is combined with this new model to create a two-step calibration procedure capable of highly accurate identification of all the kinematic errors.

The proportions of linearization errors in measured pose errors are quantified and found to be non-negligible with the increase of rotational kinematic errors. Thus, negative impacts of linearization errors are analyzed quantitatively in different cases, providing the basis for allowed kinematic errors in the new model. Much more accurate results were obtained by using the new two-step calibration method, according to a comparison with the typical methods.

This new method achieves high accuracy with no compromise on completeness, is easy to operate and is consistent with the typical method because the second step with the new model is conveniently combined without changing the sensors or measurement instrument setup.