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Paediatric congenital esophageal atresia surgery typically requires delicate and dexterous operations in a narrow and confined workspace. This study aims to develop a novel robot assisted surgical system to address these challenges.

The proposed surgical robot consists of two symmetrical slave arms with nine degree of freedoms each. Each slave arm uses a rigid-dexterous configuration and consists of a coarse positioning manipulator and a distal fine operation manipulator. A small Selective Compliance Assembly Robot Arm (SCARA) mechanism was designed to form the main component of the coarse positioning unit, ensuring to endure large forces along the vertical direction and meet the operational demands. The fine positioning manipulator applied the novel design using flexible shafts and universal joints to achieve delicate operations while possessing a high rigidity. The corresponding kinematics has been derived and then was validated by a co-simulation that was performed based on the combined use of Adams and MATLAB with considering the real robot mass information. Experimental evaluations for the tip positioning accuracy and the ring transfer tasks have been performed.

The simulation was performed to verify the correctness of the derived inverse kinematics and demonstrated the robot’s flexibility. The experimental results illustrated that the end-effector can achieve a positioning accuracy within 1.5 mm in a confined 30 × 30 × 30 mm workspace. The ring transfer task demonstrated that the surgical robot is capable of providing a solution for dexterous tissue intervention in a narrow workspace for paediatric surgery.

A novel and compact surgical assist robot is developed to support delicate operations by using the dexterous slave arm. The slave arm consists of a SCARA mechanism to avoid experiencing overload in the vertical direction and a tool manipulator driven by flexible shafts and universal joints to provide high dexterity for operating in a narrow workspace.

Visitor center plays an important role in the normal operation and sustainable development of scenic spots, especially as a portal image of its management. This paper presents resilience theory for visitor centers to identify some common issues in designing visitor centers in China scenic spots, including the lack of function, loss of architectural characteristics, and difficultly in adapting to changes in the number of visitors with periodic variations. The framework of resilience theory was set from four dimensions, namely, resilience and match in the composition of ontology function, the extended function, integration of buildings into the surrounding environment, and alternative construction technologies and materials. This theory was explained and analyzed with the application of the theory in practice in combination with the design of Mount Hua visitor center. Results showed that resilience theory yields good application effect.

Along with the acceleration of Chinese urbanization, urban history degrades at a rapid rate, and development follows formalism. Based on architectural typology, this study introduces a methodology of concept mapping and discusses the urban complex design method from a perspective of regional cultural elements. The theoretical analysis shows that concept mapping represents an integrated solution that incorporates regional cultural elements into architectural planning. Through the concept mapping method, it not only protects the physical environment, but also strengthens modern urban residents’ psychological sense of belonging to their own living space. Meanwhile, distinct regional cultural elements can be efficiently combined in the overall layout, monomer building design, building details design, and landscape design of urban complex by using different architectural design methods. This design method is validated using an actual case in Guizhou. Therefore, it forms a complete set of design method with a three-step framework, namely positioning cultural areas, summarizing regional cultural elements, and selecting the mapping method and combination mode.

Green building (GB) has been actively promoted in many countries, but it has not become the mainstream in Chinese construction industry due to various reasons. This paper aims to investigate the major driving factors for the development of GB with reference of the Chinese construction market. Twenty-one factors influencing the development of GB were identified through a literature review, questionnaire survey, and face-to-face interview with professionals in the construction industry. Structural equation model was established to identify the critical driving path and three critical factors hierarchies. The result of model analysis also verifies the theoretical hypotheses that government body is the biggest motivation for the development of GB, and the path coefficient is high. The results demonstrate the necessity for the formulation of incentive policies and power of GB propaganda. We identify distinct government and market effects and then induce a government-led GB development path. These findings provide a valuable reference for government body aiming at promoting GB in the construction industry to put forward relevant policies and incentives and for the market body to understand the major driving factors and path when making decisions.

Automatic interpretation of Nominal Compounds is a crucial issue for many applications, for example, sentence understanding, machine translation, question-answering system and so forth. Many automatic interpretation models of Nominal Compounds use the strategies based on verbs or rules to obtain the interpretation of compounds. However, the performances of these models are still limited. The purpose of this paper is to propose an effective approach for automatic interpretation of Chinese nominal compounds.

The authors propose a top-down and bottom-up model based on rules and large-scale corpus for automatic interpretation of Nominal Compounds.

Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed model outperforms the state-of-the-art automatic interpretation model.

The paper is an up-to-date study of automatic interpretation for Nominal Compounds. It can help people understand the meaning of Nominal Compounds in reading. With a better understanding of Nominal Compounds, we can discover more hidden knowledge in them.

High risk is one of the most prominent characteristics of the Chinese construction industry, and it poses a significant threat to construction projects. Owing to initiatives aimed at achieving high efficiency, low carbon emissions, etc., industrialization of the construction industry has become an inevitable trend in China. However, it remains to be discussed whether industrialization of construction can reduce the risks entailed in construction projects compared with traditional construction. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Based on the theory of risk life cycle, this paper proposes a practical risk assessment technique to assess the risk life cycle, including the risk occurrence time and potential financial losses. This technique is then applied to assess the differences between the risks involved in an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) project executed via traditional and industrial production modes.

The results show that the total duration of risks in the industrial construction project is half of that in the traditional project. In addition, the expected financial loss entailed in the industrial construction project is 29 percent lower than that in the traditional construction project. Therefore, industrial construction has the potential to optimize risk performance.

There is no significant difference between the traditional and industrial construction models in terms of probability of risk. The maximum total loss might occur in the procurement stage in the case of industrial production, and in the construction stage in the case of traditional production. Moreover, the total expected loss from risk in the EPC project in the industrial production mode is only half of that in the traditional production route. This study is expected to provide a new risk evaluation technique and promote an understanding of the life cycle of risk management in the construction industry.

Construction safety has been a long-term problem in the development of the construction industry. An increasing number of smart construction sites have been designed using different techniques to reduce injuries caused by construction accidents and achieve proactive risk control. However, comprehensive smart construction site safety management solutions and applications have yet to be developed. Thus, this study proposes a smart construction site framework for safety management.

A safety management system based on a cyber-physical system is proposed. The system establishes risk data synchronization mapping between the virtual construction and physical construction sites through scene reconstruction design, data awareness, data communication and data processing modules. Personnel, mechanical and other risks on site will be warned and controlled.

The results of the case study have proved the management benefits of the system. On-site workers gradually realized that they should enter the construction site based on the standard process. And the number of people close to the construction hazard areas decreased.

There are some limitations in the technology of smart construction site. The modeling speed can be faster, the data collection can be timelier, and the identification of unsafe behavior can be integrated into the system. Construction quality and efficiency issues in a virtual construction site will also be solved in further research.

In this paper, this system is actually applied in the mega project management process. More practical projects can use the management ideas and method of this paper to ensure on-site safety.

This study is among the first attempts to build a complete smart construction site based on CPS and apply it in practice. Personnel, mechanical, components, environment information will be displayed on the virtual construction site. It will greatly promote the development of the intellectualized construction industry in the future.

As a typical resource energy-intensive industry, the scale of construction industry has been expanding rapidly owing to the large-scale urbanization and the economic booming in China, which results in a sharp increase in the energy consumption of construction industry. However, it is infeasible to mitigate the energy consumption by reducing the production activities of construction industry. Therefore, improving the energy efficiency of construction industry is essential for energy saving. Construction industry has close relationships with other industries. The production activities have not only consumed a great deal of energy but they have also generated a massive energy consumption from other industries. Previous literature studied the efficiency of energy consumed directly by the construction industry. However, no research has been found focusing on the efficiency of energy consumed directly by the construction industry and indirectly by the related industries. The purpose of this paper is to put forward a total energy efficiency evaluation framework to measure the energy efficiency of construction industry in depth.

This paper employs the data envelopment analysis (DEA) method and the framework of embodied energy efficiency (EEE) to establish a total energy efficiency evaluation model. Next, the comprehensive analysis of direct energy efficiency (DEE) and EEE in different provinces with various levels of urbanization and various economic levels is conducted.

The results show that the embodied energy intensity and its regularities differ greatly between provinces. From the comparison of DEE and EEE, the provinces of Zhejiang and Jiangsu remain DEA-effective and Hainan is the only province in which the EEE is higher than DEE in 2002, 2007 and 2012. Besides, the DEE and EEE in the provinces with higher levels of urbanization and high economic levels are not more effective than those in the provinces with relatively lower levels of urbanization and low economic levels.

Previous literature studied the efficiency of energy consumed directly by the construction industry while ignoring the energy consumed indirectly by the related industries. Besides, no research has been found focusing on the regulation of energy efficiency in different provinces with different levels of urbanization and different economic levels. It can be concluded that the increasing levels of urbanization and higher economic levels have not brought development and benefits for improving DEE and EEE. Therefore, under the condition that the self-regulation of construction industry and market fail to facilitate the improvement of DEE and EEE in China, policymakers should develop policies and market incentive mechanism to encourage construction industry for employing new technologies to improve the energy efficiency. Since the EEE can reveal the energy efficiency in depth, the evaluation method of EEE should be paid more attention. Besides the fact that the EEE is lower than the DEE in almost all provinces, except Hainan province, the industrial structure is essential to develop the EEE. Hence, improving the energy structure, increasing the energy efficiency and developing new and renewable energy are the basic energy strategies in China.

This article intends to explore the sustainability accounting practices that emerge from the business of artificial forestry in the Qingshui River society of southwest China in the 18th-19th centuries.

Using a historical approach, we set out to discuss the systematic use of “folk contract” as a tool of tracing accountability in timber trading and in the collective management of community forests in this region, based on the archives of Qingshui River Manuscripts.

The findings indicate that active transactions of small forest plots facilitated by the prevalent use of folk contracts allow both the landlords and the tenants to easily acquire cashflow needed any time before the harvest, and in turn prevent premature logging and deforestation for crop farming. An “open ledger” bookkeeping system emerged from the extensive contracting practices guarantees the functioning of a dualistic accountability system, where both market value of timbers and “face” value of community members' reputation are preserved for long-term sustainability of local economy, society and ecological environment.

From the perspective of economic anthropology, this study forms the link between the folk contract practice in sustainable forestry of the Qingshui River society and the emancipatory accounting literature.

In the context of exploring and implementing China's new urbanization, green eco-city have become a transformation model for urban development. Sharpening green buildings in the construction industry can significantly influence and determine China's economic growth trends, as well as the growth and overall development of its national economy. However, current green eco-city still lack appropriate standards and scientific theoretical basis to determine the target star program of green buildings. To fully implement the green building standards, establish and improve a sound technical standard system for the construction of green building demonstration areas, this study considers the spatial layout of green buildings as the core, adopts a plot potential evaluation method for evaluating a few green building plots, and utilizes four factors in verifying plots with great star potential. The study also establishes a system to calculate the star proportion of green buildings and applies the system in calculating the green building ratio of GM New District. Results indicate that the system can quantitatively analyze a plot potential, calculate the star proportion of green buildings scientifically and rationally, and provide some references for the construction of eco-city and the preparation of special planning for green buildings. The system construction is conducive to provide technical support for the construction of green eco-city. The improved system can be applied in the green building demonstration areas in China, and will be a reference model of constructing green building demonstration areas in the country.