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Wheeled robots have been widely used in People’s Daily life. Accurate positioning is the premise of autonomous navigation. In this paper, an optimization-based visual-inertial-wheel odometer tightly coupled system is proposed, which solves the problem of failure of visual inertia initialization due to unobservable scale.The aim of this paper is to achieve robust localization of visually challenging scenes.

During system initialization, the wheel odometer measurement and visual-inertial odometry (VIO) fusion are initialized using maximum a posteriori (MAP). Aiming at the visual challenge scene, a fusion method of wheel odometer and inertial measurement unit (IMU) measurement is proposed, which can still be robust initialization in the scene without visual features. To solve the problem of low track accuracy caused by cumulative errors of VIO, the local and global positioning accuracy is improved by integrating wheel odometer data. The system is validated on a public data set.

The results show that our system performs well in visual challenge scenarios, can achieve robust initialization with high efficiency and improves the state estimation accuracy of wheeled robots.

To realize robust initialization of wheeled robot, wheel odometer measurement and vision-inertia fusion are initialized using MAP. Aiming at the visual challenge scene, a fusion method of wheel odometer and IMU measurement is proposed. To improve the accuracy of state estimation of wheeled robot, wheel encoder measurement and plane constraint information are added to local and global BA, so as to achieve refined scale estimation.

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.

This paper aims to examine the financial outcome of reverse logistics among firms in a developing country. The authors draw on the organizational information processing theory to propose that analytics capability moderates the relationship between reverse logistics and financial performance.

The authors collected firm-level survey data from 200 manufacturing firms in Ghana, a developing country in sub-Saharan Africa. Partial least squares structural equations modeling is used to examine the proposed relationships, and the moderating effects are further probed using Hayes PROCESS.

The empirical results show that reverse logistics is negatively related to financial performance. However, analytics capability attenuates this negative relationship, such that firms with high analytics capability obtain a positive relationship between reverse logistics and financial performance.

Firms in developing countries should combine their reverse logistics strategies with developing analytics capabilities that help minimize uncertainties and increase the efficient collection and use of information to reduce the cost of reverse logistics.

This paper examines how reverse logistics relates to financial performance in low-resource contexts. Beyond the novelty of the context, it explores the information processing needs of reverse logistics systems and provides empirical data to support analytics capability. This has yet to be considered in prior studies.

Seaports seek to find innovative technological solutions to deal with the ever-increasing growth of transportation and increasing the intensity of competition through the use of emerging technology such as digital twin technology to improve the quality of their logistics operations. Despite the success of digital twins in many industries, there is still a lack of their application in the field of seaports where ports play a central role as part of global transportation chains. Seaports sustainability comprises three main aspects: the social aspect that encompasses more job opportunities, the economic aspect that enhances foreign trade, and the environmental aspect that refers to the process of managing and operating ports in a way that saves the environment. This chapter discusses how to apply digital twins’ technology on the imported Twenty equivalent foot unit (TEUs) taking into consideration the population growth, and the capacity of the storage area of the container terminals in an attempt to explore the impact on Kuwait’s seaports sustainability. The study provides a framework for capacity management in an attempt to initiate the next generation of smart seaports cities and consequently impact society, economy, and well-being in Kuwait and Gulf region. The results of the study showed that there is a strong correlation between population growth and imported TEUs growth during the essential stage of the study. The correlation factor was 0.97, and this correlation will support the prediction until Kuwait vision 2040.

Social recommendation has been recognized as a kind of e-commerce with large potential, but how social recommendations influence consumer decisions is still unclear. This paper aims to investigate how recommendations from different social ties influence consumers’ purchase intentions through both behavior and brain activity.

Utilizing behavioral (N = 70) and electroencephalogram (EEG) (N = 49) experiments, this study explored participants’ behavior and brain responses after being recommended by different social ties. The data were analyzed using statistical inference and event-related potential (ERP) analysis.

Behavioral results show that social tie strength positively impacts purchase intention, which can be fitted by a logarithmic model. Moreover, recommender-to-customer similarity and product affect mediate the effect of tie strength on purchase intention serially. EEG findings show that recommendations from weak tie strength elicit larger N100, N200 and P300 amplitudes than those from strong tie strength. These results imply that weak tie strength may motivate individuals to recruit more mental resources in social recommendation, including unconscious processing of consumer attention and conscious processing of cognitive conflict and negative emotion.

This study considers the effects of continuous social ties on purchase intention and models them mathematically, exploring the intrinsic mechanisms by which strong and weak ties influence purchase intentions through recommender-to-customer similarity and product affect, contributing to the applications of the stimulus-organism-response (SOR) model in the field of social recommendation. Furthermore, our study adopting EEG techniques bridges the gap of relying solely on self-report by providing an avenue to obtain relatively objective findings about the consumers’ early-occurred (unconscious) attentional responses and late-occurred (conscious) cognitive and emotional responses in purchase decisions.

Protein-energy wasting is a common complication among patients with kidney failure undergoing dialysis. This study aims to develop a homemade oral nutrition supplement (ONS) to fulfill the energy and protein requirements of these patients.

Three formulations of homemade ONS were developed using soybean milk, whey protein isolates and canola oil. Two of these formulations were flavored with pineapple and honeydew juices, respectively. The energy and macronutrient contents were determined using proximate analyses, and mineral contents were determined using inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy. The acceptance of homemade ONS for five attributes, namely color, taste, odor, consistency and overall acceptability, was assessed using the nine-point hedonic scale.

The homemade ONS provided 198–212 kcal and 8.4–9.6 g protein per 100 mL, which were comparable to commercial products. Similarly, the sodium (45–65 mg/100 mL) and phosphorus (56–66 mg/100 mL) contents were on par with commercial products. However, the potassium content of homemade ONS was higher, ranging from 141 to 155 mg per 100 mL. The sensory evaluation indicated that the formulation added with honeydew juice had a similar degree of acceptance as the commercial ONS, while formulations containing pineapple juice and without added fruit juice were less favored.

A few studies have investigated the development of food products for individuals with kidney failure on dialysis. However, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to focus on developing a homemade ONS specifically tailored to meet the unique nutritional needs of hemodialysis patients. In addition, this research included a comprehensive assessment of the beverage’s nutritional content and sensory attributes.

Based on stakeholder theory, this study aims to examine the impact of family firm succession on corporate philanthropy while considering the potential role of the clan cultural context, industry context, and the stage of succession.

Data were based on a sample of 7,502 firm-year observations from listed family firms in China’s A-share markets between 2007 and 2018. Several Tobit models are used for analysing the data. Difference-in-difference regression method and propensity score matching method are used for robustness tests.

Family firms undergoing succession tend to spend more on corporate philanthropy compared to non-succession counterparts. This effect is more pronounced among polluting industry firms and weaker in regions with strong clan cultures and after the process of succession is complete.

This study sheds new light on the relationship between inter-generational succession and corporate philanthropy. By considering the moderating effect of the clan cultural context, industry context, and the stage of succession, this study further advances the understanding of the role of corporate philanthropy in managing family firm succession.

The purpose of this study is to study the quantitative evaluation method of contact wire cracks by analyzing the changing law of eddy current signal characteristics under different cracks of contact wire of high-speed railway so as to provide a new way of thinking and method for the detection of contact wire injuries of high-speed railway.

Based on the principle of eddy current detection and the specification parameters of high-speed railway contact wires in China, a finite element model for eddy current testing of contact wires was established to explore the variation patterns of crack signal characteristics in numerical simulation. A crack detection system based on eddy current detection was built, and eddy current detection voltage data was obtained for cracks of different depths and widths. By analyzing the variation law of eddy current signals, characteristic parameters were obtained and a quantitative evaluation model for crack width and depth was established based on the back propagation (BP) neural network.

Numerical simulation and experimental detection of eddy current signal change rule is basically consistent, based on the law of the selected characteristics of the parameters in the BP neural network crack quantitative evaluation model also has a certain degree of effectiveness and reliability. BP neural network training results show that the classification accuracy for different widths and depths of the classification is 100 and 85.71%, respectively, and can be effectively realized on the high-speed railway contact line cracks of the quantitative evaluation classification.

This study establishes a new type of high-speed railway contact wire crack detection and identification method, which provides a new technical means for high-speed railway contact wire injury detection. The study of eddy current characteristic law and quantitative evaluation model for different cracks in contact line has important academic value and practical significance, and it has certain guiding significance for the detection technology of contact line in high-speed railway.

This study aims to examine the factors influencing early education teachers’ motivation, attitudes and beliefs toward science and continuing education. It also explores perceptions of parental involvement and cooperation among public and private institutions in Kosovo.

This study adopted a quantitative and cross-sectional design. Study variables were assessed using questionnaires with validated measures administered to 460 early education teachers from both public and private institutions.

Education teachers in the public sector had higher professional development, work experience and salaries, while private school teachers had higher education levels and worked with fewer children per class and more teachers per class. Public school teachers displayed better attitudes toward science and greater parental involvement. Attitudes toward science positively correlated with salary in both sectors. In the public sector, work motivation was correlated with experience, while in both sectors, it was linked to salary. Attitudes toward science were predicted by parental cooperation, teachers’ attitudes toward continuing education and work motivation.

This study provides insights into the distinct challenges and opportunities of integrating science into the curriculum in public and private early education institutions. The study emphasizes assessing needs and designing tailored, data-driven strategies to address barriers and leverage opportunities to improve teacher attitudes and parental engagement, ultimately strengthening science education and improving the quality of early education.

In the knowledge-based view, knowledge is a valuable source of enterprise success. Its transfer through expatriates is a key mechanism in the value proposition of outward foreign direct investment by multinational enterprises (MNEs). Unfortunately, individuals are not always willing to share what they know. Expatriates are crucial players in knowledge transfer, and their knowledge-hiding behavior can significantly inhibit enterprise success. This paper thus aims to explore the patterns and antecedents of knowledge hiding, as well as the underlying mechanisms in the hiding process by expatriates within MNEs.

This paper focuses on expatriates assigned to emerging economies in Chinese MNEs. It is based on a systematic qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews with 24 expatriates from 16 companies across 25 countries.

Not all knowledge hiding should be perceived as a negative behavior, as moderate rationalized hiding can fulfil a positive purpose. Antecedents of expatriates’ knowledge hiding were identified within a framework covering knowledge, individual, organizational and cultural features. Three main scenarios of knowledge-hiding process were also disclosed to illustrate the internal generative logic.

The comprehensive analysis of knowledge hiding presented in this paper enriches the existing literature on cross-border knowledge management and provides novel theoretical insights to better promote knowledge transfer by expatriates. A practical framework of knowledge transfer within MNEs is developed to guide the management of expatriates, even a broader spectrum of knowledge workers.