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Mechanoreception is crucial for robotic planning and control applications, and for robotic fingers, mechanoreception is generally obtained through tactile sensors. As a new type of robotic finger, the soft finger also requires mechanoreception, like contact force and object stiffness. Unlike rigid fingers, soft fingers have elastic structures, meaning there is a connection between force and deformation of the soft fingers. It allows soft fingers to achieve mechanoreception without using tactile sensors. This study aims to provide a mechanoreception sensing scheme of the soft finger without any tactile sensors.

This research uses bending sensors to measure the actual bending state under force and calculates the virtual bending state under assumed no-load conditions using pressure sensors and statics model. The difference between the virtual and actual finger states is the finger deformation under load, and its product with the finger stiffness can be used to calculate the contact force. There are distinctions between the virtual and actual finger state change rates in the pressing process. The difference caused by the stiffness of different objects is different, which can be used to identify the object stiffness.

Contact force perception can achieve a detection accuracy of 0.117 N root mean square error within the range of 0–6 N contact force. The contact object stiffness perception has a detection average deviation of about 15%, and the detection standard deviation is 10% for low-stiffness objects and 20% for high-stiffness objects. It performs better at detecting the stiffness of low-stiffness objects, which is consistent with the sensory ability of human fingers.

This paper proposes a universal mechanoreception method for soft fingers that only uses indispensable bending and pressure sensors without tactile sensors. It helps to reduce the hardware complexity of soft robots. Meanwhile, the soft finger no longer needs to deploy the tactile sensor at the fingertip, which can benefit the optimization design of the fingertip structure without considering the complex sensor installation. On the other hand, this approach is no longer confined to adding components needed. It can fully use the soft robot body’s physical elasticity to convert sensor signals. Essentially, It treats the soft actuators as soft sensors.

This study aims to explore the value of pocket parks and associated factors, as well as the differences between pocket parks and other green spaces, and finally to identify the role of pocket parks in cities.

This study adopts a systematic literature review method to identify 85 articles from the Web of Science and other sources. The Nvivo12plus software was employed to qualitatively analyse the value of pocket parks, and the key associated factors were visualised via the NVivo word cloud function.

As a result, pocket parks reflected high social, environmental ecological, cultural aesthetic values but low economic value. Compared to other large-scale green spaces, the particularity of pocket parks lies in their ambiguity and temporality of space and high reliance on the surrounding environment. Small and scattered pocket parks in the city are like “convenience stores” and “green magnets”, and connectivity should be strengthened to promote urban regeneration.

Compared with previous studies that mostly focused on large urban green spaces, the originality of this study is that it elaborates on the importance and values of pocket parks and proposes the particularity and roles of pocket parks in cities, which enriches the theoretical knowledge of pocket parks. In terms of practical applications, the proposed diverse values and associated factors contribute to guiding the planning, management and operation of pocket parks. Moreover, the roles of pocket parks help enhance park connectivity and establish a park network system.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of geometric parameters of removable panels on the sealing characteristics of ceramic wafer seal structure subjected to high-temperature gas flow.

Based on the laminar flow Reynolds equation, the theoretical and numerical calculation models were constructed to investigate the influence of external convex deformation of removable panel on leakage rate. The theoretical formula for leakage rate after deformation of the removable panel was derived, and the flow field and leakage characteristics of ceramic wafer seal under different operating parameters were studied.

The leakage rate exhibits consistent trends between theoretical calculation, numerical simulation and experimental value, with a maximum discrepancy of 8.9%. This validates the accuracy of both the theoretical model and numerical simulation. As the deformation angle of the removable panel increases, the sealing gap gradually widens, resulting in a compromised sealing effect. Moreover, the leakage rate in the central region of the sealing area is lower compared to that at both ends.

The leakage of the ceramic wafer seal structure under the removable panel with different deformation angles can be monitored based on Reynolds equation. The pseudo-transient numerical calculation method can be used to determine the leakage value of the micro-state ceramic wafer seal structure. These research findings provide a theoretical foundation and numerical investigation approach for studying ceramic wafer seal structures.

In the field of steel defect detection, the existing detection algorithms struggle to achieve a satisfactory balance between detection accuracy, computational cost and inference speed due to the interference from complex background information, the variety of defect types and significant variations in defect morphology. To solve this problem, this paper aims to propose an efficient detector based on multi-scale information extraction (MSI-YOLO), which uses YOLOv8s as the baseline model.

First, the authors introduce an efficient multi-scale convolution with different-sized convolution kernels, which enables the feature extraction network to accommodate significant variations in defect morphology. Furthermore, the authors introduce the channel prior convolutional attention mechanism, which allows the network to focus on defect areas and ignore complex background interference. Considering the lightweight design and accuracy improvement, the authors introduce a more lightweight feature fusion network (Slim-neck) to improve the fusion effect of feature maps.

MSI-YOLO achieves 79.9% mean average precision on the public data set Northeastern University (NEU)-DET, with a model size of only 19.0 MB and an frames per second of 62.5. Compared with other state-of-the-art detectors, MSI-YOLO greatly improves the recognition accuracy and has significant advantages in computational cost and inference speed. Additionally, the strong generalization ability of MSI-YOLO is verified on the collected industrial site steel data set.

This paper proposes an efficient steel defect detector with high accuracy, low computational cost, excellent detection speed and strong generalization ability, which is more valuable for practical applications in resource-limited industrial production.

Inland shipping has been extensively recognised as a sustainable, efficient and good alternative to rail and road modes of transportation. In recent years, various authorities and academic researchers have advocated shifting from road to other sustainable modes like inland waterway transport (IWT) or rail transport. Academic work on modernisation and technological innovations to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of waterborne transportation is becoming apparent as a growing body of literature caused by the need to achieve a sustainable transport system. Thus, it became apparent to explore the research trends on IWT.

A systematic and structured literature review study was employed in this paper to identify the challenges and concepts in modernising inland waterways for freight transportation. The review analysed 94 articles published in 54 journals from six well-known databases between 2010 and 2022.

The key findings of this review are that despite various challenges confronting the sector, there have been successful cases of technological advancement in the industry. The main interest among scholars is improving technical and economic performance, digitalisation, and safety and environmental issues. The review revealed that most of the literature is fragmented despite growing interest from practitioners and academic scholars. Academic research to address the strategic objectives, including strengthening competitiveness (shipbuilding, hydrodynamics, incorporating artificial intelligence into the decision-making process, adopting blockchain technology to ensure transparency and security in the transactions, new technologies for fleets adaptation to climate change, more effective handling, maintenance and rehabilitation technologies), matching growth and changing trade patterns (intermodal solutions and new logistics approaches) are major causes of concerns.

By employing the approach of reviewing previously available literature on IWT review papers, this review complements the existing body of literature in the field of IWT by providing in a single paper a consolidation of recent state-of-the-art research on technological developments and challenges for inland waterways freight transport in the intermodal supply chain that can act as a single resource to keep researchers up to date with the most recent advancements in research in the domain of inland waterway freight transport. Additionally, this review identified gaps in the literature that may inspire new research themes in the field of IWT.

This study aims to analyse the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) in India, emphasizing the unique challenges faced by different sectors. It highlights that 45.23% of admitted cases result in liquidation or resolution, underscoring the need for sector-specific provisions in the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC). The current framework’s limitations lead to higher haircuts and lower recovery rates. Sector operates under general provisions of IBC, which do not include specific clauses designed to address their particular requirements. The implementation of sector-specific strategies is essential for improving outcomes for both distress companies and their creditors. This approach will significantly enhance the efficacy of the insolvency resolution process.

This study uses data from the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) through March 2024. It analyses 7,567 cases admitted under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), 2016, focusing on sectoral insolvency across various industries such as manufacturing, real estate, constructions, hotels and restaurants, wholesale and retail trade, electricity, transport, storage, communications and others. It analyses data-driven decision-making approach by using formulas to calculate the key metrics such as insolvency rate, recovery rate and haircut rate from a large data set.

The overall insolvency rate is recorded at 45.23% with nearly half of the cases resulting in either liquidation or resolution plans. Out of the total cases, 2,476 resulted in liquidation, while 947 were resolved through approved plans. The recovery rate is 32.08%, indicating that less than one-third of admitted cases have been recovered. The average haircut rate is 67.89%, indicating substantial reductions in claims to facilitate resolutions. This sectoral analysis reveals that certain industries such as real estate and manufacturing are disproportionately affected, emphasizing the necessity for targeted interventions.

This study’s lies in its sector analysis and use of comprehensive data, from March 2016 to March 2024 from the IBBI. This paper caters to a unique sector and brings a novel viewpoint and valuable insights to the existing literature on insolvency processes in India.

This paper aims to provide a reference for the development of digital transformation from the perspective of manufacturing process links.

This paper applies canonical correlation analysis based on digital technology patents in the key links of manufacturing industries (product design, procurement, product manufacturing, warehousing and transportation, and wholesale and retail) and the related indicators of economic benefits of regions in China.

(1) The degree of digitalization of manufacturing process links is significantly correlated with economic benefits. (2) The improvement of the degree of digitalization in the “product design” link, the “warehousing and transportation” link, the “product manufacturing” link and the “wholesale and retail” link has significant impacts on the economic benefits of manufacturing industry. (3) The digital degree of the “procurement” link has no obvious influence on the economic benefits of manufacturing industry.

The research results can provide reference for the formulation and implementation of micro policies. The strategy of improving the level of digital transformation of key links of manufacturing industry is put forward to better promote both the digital transformation of manufacturing industry and economic development.

This paper innovatively studies the relationship between digitalization of manufacturing process links and economic benefits. The findings can provide theoretical and empirical support for the digital transformation of China's manufacturing industry and high-quality development of economy.

This study aims to propose and validate a research framework pertaining to the willingness to disclose information in the context of mobile banking apps. The interrelationships between privacy protection, perceived personalization, social presence, design aesthetics, consumer empowerment, parasocial interactions and privacy concerns are assessed as antecedents of willingness to disclose information.

Based on a self-administered survey, this study gathered data from 450 Chinese consumers. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling via SmartPLS 4 software.

The findings indicate that (1) privacy concerns are negatively related to willingness to disclose information, (2) parasocial interaction reduces privacy concerns, (3) consumer empowerment is positively influenced by privacy protection and perceived personalization and (4) social presence and design aesthetics positively contribute to the formation of parasocial interaction.

The current study serves to reinforce a theoretical understanding of the willingness to disclose information in mobile banking apps, which is underresearched. The findings offer alternative psychological mechanisms (i.e. consumer empowerment and parasocial interaction) and relevant mobile banking app attributes to explain the willingness to disclose information.

Traditional visual simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) systems are primarily based on the assumption that the environment is static, which makes them struggle with the interference caused by dynamic objects in complex industrial production environments. This paper aims to improve the stability of visual SLAM in complex dynamic environments through semantic segmentation and its optimization.

This paper proposes a real-time visual SLAM system for complex dynamic environments based on YOLOv5s semantic segmentation, named YLS-SLAM. The system combines semantic segmentation results and the boundary semantic enhancement algorithm. By recognizing and completing the semantic masks of dynamic objects from coarse to fine, it effectively eliminates the interference of dynamic feature points on the pose estimation and enhances the retention and extraction of prominent features in the background, thereby achieving stable operation of the system in complex dynamic environments.

Experiments on the Technische Universität München and Bonn data sets show that, under monocular and Red, Green, Blue - Depth modes, the localization accuracy of YLS-SLAM is significantly better than existing advanced dynamic SLAM methods, effectively improving the robustness of visual SLAM. Additionally, the authors also conducted tests using a monocular camera in a real industrial production environment, successfully validating its effectiveness and application potential in complex dynamic environment.

This paper combines semantic segmentation algorithms with boundary semantic enhancement algorithms to effectively achieve precise removal of dynamic objects and their edges, while ensuring the system's real-time performance, offering significant application value.

This study investigates the impact of intellectual capital (IC) and green innovation (GI) on the financial performance (FP) of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) within creative industry in India. It also explores the mediating role of sustainability in these relationships, aiming to provide insights into how these factors contribute to business success and long-term sustainability within the creative sector.

The research uses a quantitative methodology, analyzing data collected from creative MSMEs in India. Structural equation modeling (SEM) is used to test the hypotheses. Data was gathered through a structured questionnaire, ensuring a comprehensive analysis of the relationships among the constructs.

The study reveals significant positive relationships between IC, GI, sustainability and FP in small and midsize creative businesses. IC and GI positively influence FP, with sustainability acting as a mediating factor. These findings illustrate that integrating sustainability into business strategies can amplify the benefits derived from IC and GI.

This study advances the understanding of FP in creative MSMEs by examining the impact of IC and GI through the lens of sustainability. It introduces a framework that demonstrates how strategic resources and sustainable practices can be leveraged to achieve significant business outcomes. By providing insights into how sustainability initiatives enhance operational efficiency and profitability, this research offers a transformative approach to integrating sustainability into business strategy. The findings contribute to a generalizable model applicable across various sectors and regions, enriching the discourse on sustainable business practices.