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The authors propose to estimate a varying coefficient panel data model with different smoothing variables and fixed effects using a two-step approach. The pilot step estimates the varying coefficients by a series method. We then use the pilot estimates to perform a one-step backfitting through local linear kernel smoothing, which is shown to be oracle efficient in the sense of being asymptotically equivalent to the estimate knowing the other components of the varying coefficients. In both steps, the authors remove the fixed effects through properly constructed weights. The authors obtain the asymptotic properties of both the pilot and efficient estimators. The Monte Carlo simulations show that the proposed estimator performs well. The authors illustrate their applicability by estimating a varying coefficient production frontier using a panel data, without assuming distributions of the efficiency and error terms.

The purpose of this study is to provide a nuanced understanding of the marketing placebo effect (MPE) of products with reduced sugar labeling and how it forms certain perceptual underpins (perceived healthiness (PH) and perceived tastiness (PT)), with the potential effect of product category and social class in consideration.

The proposed model is tested using a sample of 822 participants by employing partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Hypothetical relationships among MPE, PH, PT, purchase intention (PI) and social class are examined for both hedonic and utilitarian products.

The results highlight the positive role of MPE in leveraging consumer PI through the parallel mediation of PH and PT. The positive effect of MPE on PH and PT was more pronounced for the utilitarian product. In addition, social class negatively moderated the relationship between PH and PI only in the case of the utilitarian product.

This paper contributed to the MPE literature in the food industry by challenging the conventional intuition of “Unhealthy = Tasty” and highlighting the potential of perceived food healthiness to positively influence perceived food tastiness under the effect of MPE. An upper social class would attenuate the positive effect of perceived food healthiness on PI.

Sustainable development is inseparable from rational and responsible use of resources and promotion of green entrepreneurship. The contemporary green development agenda encompasses climate, economic, technical, social, cultural, and political dimensions. International efforts to greening the global development are conducted by the major economies, including China as the world’s largest consumer of energy and the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases. China is aware of its environmental problems, as well as of its part of the overall responsibility for the accomplishment of the sustainable development goals. By means of the decarbonization efforts, the latter are integrated both into the national development agenda (the concept of ecological civilization) and China’s international initiatives (the greening narrative within the Belt and Road Initiative). Over the past decade, China has made a breakthrough on the way to promoting green entrepreneurship and greening of its development (better quality of air and water, renewable energy, electric vehicles, and organic farming). On the other hand, emissions remain high, agricultural land loses productivity, and freshwater resources degrade due to climate change. In conventional industries (oil, coal mining, and electric and thermal energy), decarbonization faces an array of impediments. In this chapter, the authors summarize fundamental provisions of China’s approach to building an ecological civilization and measures to reduce emissions and achieve the carbon neutrality status within the nearest decades. The analysis of obstacles to the decarbonization of the economy and possible prospects for the development of green entrepreneurship summarizes China’s practices for possible use in other countries.

The purpose of this paper is to study the aerodynamic characteristics and uplift force tendencies of pantographs within the operational height span of 1,600–2,980 mm, aiming to offer valuable insights for research concerning the adaptability of pantograph-catenary systems on double-stack high container transportation lines.

Eight pantograph models were formulated based on lines with the contact wire of 6,680 mm in height. The aerodynamic calculations were carried out using the SST k-ω separated vortex model. A more improved aerodynamic uplift force method was also presented. The change rule of the aerodynamic uplift force under different working heights of the pantograph was analyzed according to the transfer coefficients of the aerodynamic forces and moments.

The results show that the absolute values of the aerodynamic forces and moments of the upper and lower frame increase with the working height, whereas those of the collector head do not change. The absolute values of the transfer coefficients of the lower frame and link arm were significantly larger than those of the upper frame. Therefore, the absolute value of the aerodynamic uplift force increased and then decreased with the working height. The maximum value occurred at a working height of 2,400 mm.

A new method for calculating the aerodynamic uplift force of pantographs is proposed. The specifical change rule of the aerodynamic uplift force of the pantograph on double-stack high container transportation lines was determined from the perspective of the transfer coefficients of the aerodynamic forces and moments.

The study's main objective is to evaluate the morphological developments in the characteristics of the spatial configurations of the residential layouts in Kerman, Iran, in examining the impact on the level of visual privacy through the spectrum of permeability and wayfinding in space syntax analysis.

In this paper, plan graph analysis is used to measure the syntactic properties of seven topological residential architecture plans in Kerman, Iran, built from the 1970s to 2010s. The methodology involves the development of mathematical measurements to signify permeability and simulation of visibility graph analysis (VGA) to indicate wayfinding.

The findings reveal the residential layouts of Iranian houses tend to be less integrated over decades of design development from the 1970s to 2010s. Reduction in spatial integration corresponds to increase segregation allowing for enhanced visual privacy. The study underpins that, even with the constraints in the scale of the house and reduction in the number of nodes, as evident in the design of the modern residential layout, the efficient level of visual privacy is still achievable with regards to the standards demanded by the local culture.

The study examines the development in residential spatial configuration and building scale on visual privacy through a proposed methodology based on the level of permeability and wayfinding measured as a combined effect using the space syntax analysis and visual accessibility.

Component positioning is an important part of aircraft assembly, aiming at the problem that it is difficult to accurately fall into the corresponding ball socket for the ball head connected with aircraft component. This study aims to propose a ball head adaptive positioning method based on impedance control.

First, a target impedance model for ball head positioning is constructed, and a reference positioning trajectory is generated online based on the contact force between the ball head and the ball socket. Second, the target impedance parameters were optimized based on the artificial fish swarm algorithm. Third, to improve the robustness of the impedance controller in unknown environments, a controller is designed based on model reference adaptive control (MRAC) theory and an adaptive impedance control model is built in the Simulink environment. Finally, a series of ball head positioning experiments are carried out.

During the positioning of the ball head, the contact force between the ball head and the ball socket is maintained at a low level. After the positioning, the horizontal contact force between the ball head and the socket is less than 2 N. When the position of the contact environment has the same change during ball head positioning, the contact force between the ball head and the ball socket under standard impedance control will increase to 44 N, while the contact force of the ball head and the ball socket under adaptive impedance control will only increase to 19 N.

In this paper, impedance control is used to decouple the force-position relationship of the ball head during positioning, which makes the entire process of ball head positioning complete under low stress conditions. At the same time, by constructing an adaptive impedance controller based on MRAC, the robustness of the positioning system under changes in the contact environment position is greatly improved.

This study examines the influence of Centrality of Visual Product Aesthetics (CVPA) on multi-stage food consumption and emotions under aesthetic disruption, assessing how CVPA affects consumption and whether food aesthetics moderate these behaviours and emotional responses.

Data were collected using qualitative interviews and quantitative experimental designs, employing a moderated mediation model for statistical analysis.

Consumers with higher CVPA are more likely to adopt multi-stage consumption for higher aesthetic food, generating greater positive emotions, both in personal experiences and when viewing food bloggers' posts.

This study introduces the novel concept of “multi-stage consumption” and investigates its origins and outcomes.

This paper aims to realize an in-situ quality inspection system rapidly for new injection molding (IM) tasks via transfer learning (TL) approach and automation technology.

The proposed in-situ quality inspection system consists of an injection machine, USB camera, programmable logic controller and personal computer, interconnected via OPC or USB communication interfaces. This configuration enables seamless automation of the IM process, real-time quality inspection and automated decision-making. In addition, a MobileNet-based deep learning (DL) model is proposed for quality inspection of injection parts, fine-tuned using the TL approach.

Using the TL approach, the MobileNet-based DL model demonstrates exceptional performance, achieving validation accuracy of 99.1% with the utilization of merely 50 images per category. Its detection speed and accuracy surpass those of DenseNet121-based, VGG16-based, ResNet50-based and Xception-based convolutional neural networks. Further evaluation using a random data set of 120 images, as assessed through the confusion matrix, attests to an accuracy rate of 96.67%.

The proposed MobileNet-based DL model achieves higher accuracy with less resource consumption using the TL approach. It is integrated with automation technologies to build the in-situ quality inspection system of injection parts, which improves the cost-efficiency by facilitating the acquisition and labeling of task-specific images, enabling automatic defect detection and decision-making online, thus holding profound significance for the IM industry and its pursuit of enhanced quality inspection measures.

As technology increasingly integrates into the restaurant industry, avatar servers present a promising avenue for promoting healthier dining habits. Grounded in the halo effect theory and social comparison theory, this study aims to delve into the influence of avatars' appearance, humor and persuasion on healthier choices and customer satisfaction.

This paper comprises three experimental studies. Study 1 manipulates avatar appearance (supermodel-looking vs normal-looking) to examine its effects on perceived attractiveness, warmth and relatability. These factors influence customer satisfaction and healthy food choices through the psychological mechanisms of social comparison and aspirational appeal. Studies 2 and 3 further refine this theoretical model by assessing the interplay of appearance with humor (presence vs absence) and persuasion (health-oriented vs beauty-oriented), respectively.

Results suggest that avatars resembling supermodels evoke stronger aspirational appeal and positive social comparison due to their attractiveness, thus bolstering healthier choices and customer satisfaction. Moreover, humor moderates the relationship between appearance and attractiveness, while persuasion moderates the effects of appearance on social comparison and aspirational appeal.

This research bridges the halo effect theory and social comparison theory, offering insights enriching the academic discourse on technology’s role in hospitality.

The findings provide actionable insights for managers, tech developers and health advocates.

Despite its significance, avatar design research in the hospitality sector has been overlooked. This study addresses this gap, offering a guideline for crafting attractive and persuasive avatars.

Environmental sustainability orientation has emerged to drive firms into eco-friendly production. Yet, the consequence of this new strategic thinking on firms’ green innovations, especially small- and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs), remains unresolved. Recognizing that the connection between environmental sustainability orientation and green innovation may not always be direct, the study theorizes that dynamic capability and entrepreneurial orientation may form part of the boundary conditions that strengthen its effect on small enterprises’ green innovation. The study adjoins the dynamic capability theory with the entrepreneurial orientation theory to test this relationship among small businesses within a developing economy. Results from the partial least squares–structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) suggest that environmental sustainability orientation will result in green innovation when the SME’s dynamic capability can develop a creative reconfiguration of knowledge and new distinctive resources to support this new strategic direction. Similarly, findings from the study suggest that environmental sustainability orientation will translate into better green innovation outcomes when the SME entrepreneurial orientation has a solid attraction to protect the ecosystem and does not perceive green innovation as a risky enterprise.