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This paper focuses on the design of an inexpensive and accurate range scanner for automatic acquisition of a CAD model of a manufactured part by using two‐dimensional images to determine a digitized three‐dimensional shape. In the developed approach, the object is passed at a speed of 4 cm/s through a single linear laser stripe and forty continuous images are captured into the frame memory of the host computer for subsequent processing. A major problem that is encountered in the design of laser stripe scanner is the specula reflection, which can be mitigated by the developed approach. Six center‐locating algorithms are described, which are central to the developed approach. These algorithms are able to achieve sub‐pixel accuracy. The center of mass algorithm that uses three points, gives the best repeatability over the other algorithms. The center of mass algorithm that uses intensity threshold, provides the best linearity over the other algorithms.

The purpose of this paper is to present a new method and model for determining the optimal decision-making for the pricing strategy to the Fuji apple in Shaanxi of Chain which is representing fresh agricultural products under the e-commerce environment.

Considering the rapid development of information technology as well as internet that actually motivate the e-commerce, Fuji apple is a distinctive product in China’s Shaanxi; its sales channels have extended to online sales under the wave of e-commerce. Internet trading platforms make it possible to trade online in real time between suppliers and customers who live in different geographical areas. In this paper, the authors study how to price online to maximize the total revenue. The challenge is to optimally price two different qualities of apple. Based on the consumer surplus theory, the authors use the method that builds the function of the relationship between the proportion of consumers purchasing different qualities of products and price.

This paper presents a generalized model to determine the optimal pricing that maximizes the total revenue of a fruit grower over a finite planning horizon. The authors divided discount into two intervals and discussed the optimal discounting and pricing at both intervals. Then they determined the optimal pricing strategy for Fuji apple in Shaanxi of Chain under the e-commerce environment.

This paper makes up for the lack of existing studies of pricing under the e-commerce environment. A new method and approach to the traditional pricing strategy is established and applied to a management decision-making problem with Chinese characteristics in reality.

The purpose of this paper is to facilitate autonomous landing of a multi-rotor unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) on a moving/tilting platform using a robust vision-based approach.

Autonomous landing of a multi-rotor UAV on a moving or tilting platform of unknown orientation in a GPS-denied and vision-compromised environment presents a challenge to common autopilot systems. The paper proposes a robust visual data processing system based on targets’ Oriented FAST and Rotated BRIEF features to estimate the UAV’s three-dimensional pose in real time.

The system is able to visually locate and identify the unique landing platform based on a cooperative marker with an error rate of 1° or less for all roll, pitch and yaw angles.

The proposed vision-based system aims at on-board use and increased reliability without a significant change to the computational load of the UAV.

The simplicity of the training procedure gives the process the flexibility needed to use a marker of any unknown/irregular shape or dimension. The process can be easily tweaked to respond to different cooperative markers. The on-board computationally inexpensive process can be added to off-the-shelf autopilots.

The author presents new estimates of the probability weighting functions found in rank-dependent theories of choice under risk. These estimates are unusual in two senses. First, they are free of functional form assumptions about both utility and weighting functions, and they are entirely based on binary discrete choices and not on matching or valuation tasks, though they depend on assumptions concerning the nature of probabilistic choice under risk. Second, estimated weighting functions contradict widely held priors of an inverse-s shape with fixed point well in the interior of the (0,1) interval: Instead the author usually finds populations dominated by “optimists” who uniformly overweight best outcomes in risky options. The choice pairs used here mostly do not provoke similarity-based simplifications. In a third experiment, the author shows that the presence of choice pairs that provoke similarity-based computational shortcuts does indeed flatten estimated probability weighting functions.

In recent years, numerous banks have introduced live chat systems to their mobile banking (m-banking) applications to help customers address problems that arise while using m-banking. However, few researchers have investigated bank customers' perceptions of live chat in the context of m-banking, known as mobile chat. The present study attempts to fill this research gap and identify potential factors affecting bank customers' intention and attitude toward using mobile chat from the perspective of functional and expected advantages.

A research model was developed integrating three technological characteristics of mobile chat (mobility, reachability and convenience) identified from the mobile service and self-service technology literature with user beliefs involving performance expectancy, effort expectancy and facilitating conditions specified by the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology. The proposed model was evaluated using data collected from a field survey of 268 customers with experience in Internet or m-banking at an international bank in Taiwan. The mediating effects of attitude on the relationship between intention and its predictors were also measured.

The results suggest that reachability and convenience influence performance expectancy whereas effort expectancy is affected by all the technological characteristics. Additionally, customers' intention is determined by attitude, effort expectancy and facilitating conditions whereas their attitude depends on the three constructs of user beliefs.

The development of user behavioral research in intelligent customer engagement is lacking in the m-banking literature. This study sheds light on Internet banking and m-banking customers' viewpoints and the salient determinants of their intention and attitude toward using mobile chat. Therefore, the findings allow a broader understanding of customer engagement applications in the banking sector.

The research findings would help banks not only better understand how to deploy useful mobile applications for improving the effectiveness of their mobile service development but also develop adequate mobile strategies to engage with customers more intelligently.

This research provides valuable insight into the relationship between the adoption of intelligent customer engagement tools and the improvement of customer support performance in the context of m-banking. Moreover, this study is among the first to identify the potential mobile technological factors that might affect bank customer expectations from mobile chat applications.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a narrative review of the literature on mental health resilience and other positive mental health capacities of urban and internal migrants.

The methodology for this narrative review included a search of articles published up to 2017. The abstracts were screened and relevant articles studied and discussed. Literature on the particular mental health challenges of urban migrants in India was also studied. References found in the literature relating to neurourbanism were also followed up to explore broader historical and conceptual contexts.

Several key sources and resources for mental health resilience were identified – including familial and community networks and individual hope or optimism. Nevertheless, much of the literature tends to focus at the level of the individual person, even though ecological systems theory would suggest that mental health resilience is better understood as multi-layered, i.e. relevant to, and impacted by, communities and broader societal and environmental contexts.

This paper provides insight into an aspect of migrant mental health that has tended to be overlooked hitherto: the mental health resilience and positive mental health capacities of urban migrants. This is particularly relevant where professional “expert” mental health provision for internal migrant communities is absent or unaffordable. Previous work has tended to focus predominantly on mental health risk factors, despite growing awareness that focusing on risk factors along can lead to an over-reliance on top-down expert-led interventions and overlook positive capacities for mental health that are sometimes possessed by individuals and their communities.

Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.

There are certain differences in the production products of enterprises. What are the impacts of product differentiation on the iron and steel industry? Based on the macro background of CO₂ emission reduction, this paper aims to analyze the economic benefits and environmental changes of the iron and steel industry under the dual influence of CO₂ emission reduction policy and product differentiation policy.

Taking the basic data of iron and steel industry in six regions of China as an example, this paper constructed an extended two-stage dynamic game model to analyze the impact of product differentiation and carbon tax policy on the production, economic indicators and CO₂ emission levels for the overall industry and regional enterprises.

As the CO₂ emission reduction target increased, the unit carbon tax and total tax increased, whereas the macro-environmental losses, social welfare, consumer surplus and outputs decrease. Emission reduction pressures and other economic indicators showed obvious regional differences. Differentiated products promoted various indicators of enterprises and industries; higher degrees of product differentiation resulted in greater promoting effects on economic indicators.

This paper constructed multiple emission reduction and production backgrounds, and discusses the impact of the comprehensive implementation of these policies, which has been practically absent in previous studies. The results of this study are consistent with the current industrial policy for stable production and environmental protection, and also provides a reference for the formulation of detailed policies in the future.