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The purpose of this paper is to model and predict suitable gait trajectories of lower-limb exoskeleton for wearer during rehabilitation walking. Lower-limb exoskeleton is widely used for assisting walk in rehabilitation field. One key problem for exoskeleton control is to model and predict suitable gait trajectories for wearer.

In this paper, the authors propose a Deep Spatial-Temporal Model (DSTM) for generating knee joint trajectory of lower-limb exoskeleton, which first leverages Long-Short Term Memory framework to learn the inherent spatial-temporal correlations of gait features.

With DSTM, the pathological knee joint trajectories can be predicted based on subject’s other joints. The energy expenditure is adopted for verifying the effectiveness of new recovery gait pattern by monitoring dynamic heart rate. The experimental results demonstrate that the subjects have less energy expenditure in new recovery gait pattern than in others’ normal gait patterns, which also means the new recovery gait is more suitable for subject.

Long-Short Term Memory framework is first used for modeling rehabilitation gait, and the deep spatial–temporal relationships between joints of gait data can obtained successfully.

Starting from corporate entrepreneurship, spin-off entrepreneurship and business model theory, this paper aims to examine the key influential factors and inherent mechanism in the process of business model transfer from parent enterprise to spin-off start-ups.

Grounded theory method is fit for constructing theoretical models, which can discover and interpret phenomenon and activities. According to the guidance of theoretical sampling and other core principles in grounded theory, this study extracts two parent enterprises named Haier and Phnix and lots of spin-offs derived from them.

This paper presents the theoretical framework that business models transfer from parents to spin-offs and probes into the embedding logic and connection relationship between factors and categories in this process, such as preconditions, incubation veins, business model elements, stripping mechanism and independent operations.

Although this study is focused on the manufacturing industry, the main characteristics, comparative advantages, governance rules summarized from transfer activities of business model in spin-off entrepreneurship can also bring inspirations to both parent enterprises and spin-off start-ups.

Excavates process and mechanism of business model transfer from internal to external, extends the theoretical perspectives about existing related theories such as corporate entrepreneurship, spin-off entrepreneurship and business model theory and reveals new approaches and methods on business model design, which is different from the past way.

This paper aims to improve the wear resistance of titanium alloy using a high-hardness boride layer, which was fabricated on Ti6Al4V by a high-temperature boronizing process.

The boride layers on Ti6Al4V were obtained at 1000°C for 5–15 h. Scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive analysis and X-ray diffractometer were used to characterize the properties of the boride layer. The tribological performance of the boride layer at room and elevated temperatures was investigated.

The X-ray diffraction analysis showed that the boride layers were a dual-phase structure of TiB and TiB₂. When the boronizing time increased from 5 h to 15 h, the microhardness increased from 1192 HV_0.5 to 1619.8 HV_0.5. At 25°C and elevated temperatures, the friction coefficients of the boride layers were higher than that of Ti6Al4V. The wear track areas of T-5 at 200°C and 400°C were 2.5 × 10^–3 and 1.1 × 10^–3 mm², respectively, which were 6.1% and 2.6% of that of Ti6Al4V, indicating boride layer exhibited a significant wear resistance. The wear mechanisms of the boride layer transformed from slight peeling to oxidative wear and abrasive wear as the temperature was raised.

The findings provide an effective strategy for improving the wear resistance of Ti6Al4V and have important implications for the application of titanium alloy in a high-temperature field.

This paper aims to synthesize a novel alkanolamine borate and explore the performance of as a copper wire drawing oil.

In this paper, a copper wire drawing oil (CU-KL) was formulated by using a novel alkanolamine borate, naphthenic base oil, fatty alcohol polyoxyethylene ether and palm oil. The tribological performance of CU-KL and commercial copper wire drawing oils (CU-DRB and CU-8010) was investigated

Under applied loads of 5 N-15 N, the average friction coefficient of CU-KL was 29.4%, 5.4% and 25.3% lower than that of CU-DRB, respectively. At sliding speed of 1000–5000 rpm, the average friction coefficient of CU-KL was reduced by 14.3%, 6% and 10.3% compared with CU-DRB, respectively. Through scanning electron microscope and energy dispersive spectrometry, CU-KL can form B-containing compound at the contact interface, which could synergistically enhance the lubrication effect and improve the wear resistance.

The properties of CU-KL under different test condition were studied, and the findings are of great significance for the application of alkanolamine borate in copper wire drawing oil.

Introduction: This chapter examines the impact of Financial Technology (Fintech) on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) goals to promote a sustainable financial system. Digital payment platforms, blockchain applications, and AI-powered analytics have revolutionised the financial landscape in recent years. These advancements have made integrating ESG principles into investment decisions and business practices easier.

Purpose: The main aim of this chapter is to analyse the connections and possibilities that Fintech offers to achieve ESG goals. Understanding how Fintech can facilitate sustainable finance practices is crucial for promoting investment in Fintech.

Methodology: A series of indexes have been examined, including the Global FinTech Index (GFI) in Global and Regional Rank, the Global Sustainable Competitiveness Index, and performing the Green Growth Index, the Green Economic Opportunity Index, the Global Green Finance Index (GGFI), and the Financial Inclusion Index.

Findings: Through comparative analysis, it can be concluded that the countries with the highest rankings are Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Switzerland, and Germany. Sweden ranks highly in the GFI. These results show that these countries rank highly in achieving ESG objectives. Balkan countries, specifically Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro, have the weakest results compared to other countries. Policymakers can benefit from the study’s findings to design better regulations and frameworks that promote responsible fintech practices and foster sustainable finance.

Practical Implications: Regulators and agencies responsible for measuring fintech and ESG should strive to align the indexes associated with these two domains as closely as possible. In addition, businesses can utilise the findings of this study to increase awareness about the diverse solutions that fintech offers to achieve the objectives of ESG.

This study examines how Confucianism, as an informal system, alleviates manager–shareholder conflicts and thus decreases managerial behavior of keeping higher levels of cash reserves. This study also investigates whether formal governance mechanisms (state ownership and institutional investors) moderate the relationship between Confucianism and cash holdings.

This study opts a sample of Chinese listed firms over the period of 2004–2015. The geographical-proximity-based method was followed to measure Confucianism, which is the distance between a firm's registered address and the national Confucianism centers.

The results indicate that Confucianism adversely influences cash holdings. The authors’ findings illustrate that Confucian culture promotes ethical behavior, and therefore, firms in a strong Confucianism environment keep a lower level of cash reserves. The authors further document that the effect of Confucianism on cash holding is weaker for state-owned firms but stronger for firms with low institutional ownership.

The findings provide implications for policymakers, academicians, and corporations. The results suggest that culture can reduce cash holdings. Especially, in emerging markets, such as China, where formal mechanisms are relatively less effective, informal institutions can serve an alternative system for alleviating adverse effects of agency conflicts.

This study contributes to the literature in two ways. First, this study contributes to cash holdings literature by showing that culture (Confucianism) is negatively associated with cash holdings. Second, this study extends the incumbent literature that seeks to explore how Confucian culture influences corporate behavior. To the best of the authors knowledge, this is the first study that identifies that Confucianism is associated with cash holdings.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a novel methodology based on two-level protection for ensuring safety of the moving human who enters the robot’s workspace, which is significant for dealing with the problem of human security in a human-robot coexisting environment.

In this system, anyone who enters the robot’s working space is detected by using the Kinect and their skeletons are calculated by the interval Kalman filter in real time. The first-level protection is mainly based on the prediction of the human motion, which used Gaussian mixture model and Gaussian Mixture Regression. However, even in cases where the prediction of human motion is incorrect, the system can still safeguard the human by enlarging the initial bounding volume of the human as the second-level early warning areas. Finally, an artificial potential field with some additional avoidance strategies is used to plan a path for a robot manipulator.

Experimental studies on the GOOGOL GRB3016 robot show that the robot manipulator can accomplish the predetermined tasks by circumventing the human, and the human does not feel dangerous.

This study presented a new framework for ensuring human security in a human-robot coexisting environment, and thus can improve the reliability of human-robot cooperation.

The objective of this study is to examine how formal and informal institutional environment influences managers’ fair value opinion shopping behaviour in the largest International Financial Reporting Standards adopter, China.

To test the hypotheses, I conduct a 2 × 2 between-subject randomised experiment since the inferences about cause and effect are important in this study. The between-subject experimental situations are manipulated on the basis of the financial condition of companies and boards’ oversight.

I find that managers are likely to seek favourable fair value opinions from external valuation professionals when they are under the weak boards’ oversight and high stress to meet the regulation target of the China Securities Regulatory Commission. These results are more pronounced for managers with higher both rent-seeking and favour-seeking guanxi orientations are more likely to engage in fair value opinion shopping.

Consistent with theoretical analysis of Balfoort et al. (2017), this study provides empirical evidence that guanxi influences the neutrality and faithful representation in fair value measurement in China. In addition, the findings extend Salzsieder’s study (2015) and reflect the context-embeddedness nature of accounting.

This paper aims at the problem of attaching the data of doctors, patients and the real-time sensor data of the exoskeleton to the cloud in intelligent rehabilitation applications. This study designed the exoskeleton cloud-brain platform and validated its safety assessment.

According to the dimension of data and the transmission speed, this paper implements a three-layer cloud-brain platform of exoskeleton based on Alibaba Cloud's Lambda-like architecture. At the same time, given the human–machine safety status detection problem of the exoskeleton, this paper built a personalized machine-learning safety detection module for users with the multi-dimensional sensor data cloned by the cloud-brain platform. This module includes an abnormality detection model, prediction model and state classification model of the human–machine state.

These functions of the exoskeleton cloud-brain and the algorithms based on it were validated by the experiments, they meet the needs of use.

This thesis innovatively proposes a cloud-brain platform for exoskeletons, beginning the digitalization and intelligence of the exoskeletal rehabilitation process and laying the foundation for future intelligent assistance systems.

This paper aims to examine how the law may play a role in mediation by paying special attention to how the law is excluded from and included in the process of court mediation in China.

Hundred model court mediation cases selected by the Supreme People’s Court of China were analysed and reviewed.

The law is relevant in Chinese-style court mediation in four ways: first, judge-mediators are intended to use mediation to avoid resolving legal difficulties or challenges; second, judge-mediators consult the law to anticipate the losing party and the potential negative effects that might result from the adjudication; third, judge-mediators refer to the law to propose a mediation scheme or plan to guide the parties to settle; and fourth, judge-mediators would use the law as a bargaining chip in various ways to induce the parties to settle.

Standards should be set out for the use of law in the mediation process to standardise judge-mediators’ actions, to ensure that the law is not used coercively to push settlement, which would undermine the parties’ self-determination in mediation.

This paper provides an original understanding of how law affects the process, the outcomes and, ultimately, the nature of settlements that parties achieve through court mediation in China. This study contributes to the literature that argues that ethical norms and legal standards should be set to direct those legal evaluations.