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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.

The purpose of this study is to restore the spatial distribution of overseas remittance businesses in Shantou during the 1940s. It explores various socioeconomic factors that influenced the concentration of local remittance business investment in real estate. By reconstructing the spatial distribution of remittance business activities in Shantou, this study hopes to lay a foundation for further analysis of the business strategies of Chaoshan merchants.

This research draws on information from the published Swatow Guide, archival sources and cadastral maps to identify the location of remittance enterprises and the native place and overseas networks of property owners.

This study reveals that the spatial distribution of the remittance enterprises was determined by the native place origins of local property owners, and that the inflow of overseas Chinese capital contributed to real estate development in Shantou.

Despite the limited access to Chinese official archives, this paper manages to identify several building blocks and neighbors in Shantou for spatial analysis.

This study is the first attempt to use the geographical information system (GIS) method in Chinese urban history research and hopes to establish a larger historical database of Shantou as a sample for comparison.

This investigation advances the spatial study of urban history and overseas Chinese remittances in the maritime society of South China.

Through the scientific and reasonable evaluation of the site selection of the emergency material reserve, the optimal site selection scheme is found, which provides reference for the future emergency decision-making research.

In this paper, we have chosen three primary indicators and twelve secondary indicators to construct an assessment framework for the determination of suitable locations for storing emergency material reserves. By mean of the improved entropy weight-order relationship weight determination method, the evaluation model of kullback leibler-technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution (KL-TOPSIS) emergency material reserve location based on relative entropy is established. On this basis, 10 regional storage sites in Beijing are selected for evaluation.

The results show that the evaluation model of the location of emergency material reserve not only respects the objective knowledge, but also considers the subjective information of the experts, which makes the ranking result of the location of the emergency material reserve more accurate and reliable.

Firstly, the modification factor is added to the calculation formula of traditional entropy weight method to complete the improvement of entropy weight method. Secondly, the order relation analysis method is used to assign subjective weights to the indicators. The principle of minimum information entropy is introduced to determine the comprehensive weight of the index. Finally, KL distance and TOPSIS method are combined to determine the relative entropy and proximity degree of alternative solutions and positive and negative ideal solutions, and the scientific and effective of the method is proved by case study.

The paper seeks to identify key features of prenatal care utilization and quality in western regions of China and to determine the factors affecting the quality of prenatal care.

A descriptive, cross‐sectional study was conducted. The instrument for the study was a 10‐stem respondent‐administered, structured questionnaire, designed in Chinese, composed of two segments: general information on infants who were under two years old; and their mothers. The authors determined the quality (both amount and content) of prenatal care using recommendations made by UNICEF and the Chinese Ministry of Health (MOH) jointly for rural areas of China.

The median number of prenatal visits was three and rate of first trimester visits was 53.6 per cent (n=1,474). Over three quarters (75.3 per cent) of respondents had fewer than five prenatal visits, with this proportion highest in Gansu (95.8 per cent) and lowest in Shanxi (55.4 per cent) provinces. The percentage of women who received qualitatively adequate prenatal care services was only 1.8 per cent. No respondents in Gansu received a completely correct prenatal test, while this rate was 4.0 per cent in Shanxi and 0.2 per cent in Sichuan. Mothers' age (p=0.05), level of educational attainment (p=0.07) and place of prenatal care (p=0.01) were related to the quality of care.

The prenatal care utilization among women in western regions of China is not adequate. Those women who have received prenatal care seldom receive qualitatively adequate prenatal care services, according to national standards. This situation clearly requires urgent attention and improvement.

The purpose of this study is to integrate network externality and service quality as antecedents to the synthesis of expectation–confirmation model (ECM) and perceived ease of use (PEOU) in explaining customers’ continuance intention of internet-based sharing economy service platforms.

Sample data for this study were collected from students enrolled in a comprehensive university in Taipei, Taiwan. A total of 600 questionnaires were distributed in various campus locations, and 510 usable questionnaires were analyzed in this study, with a usable response rate of 85.0%. Collected data were analyzed using structural equation modeling.

The primary findings are as follows. First, service enablers’ online service quality positively affected customers’ perceived usefulness (PU), confirmation and PEOU of internet-based sharing economy service platforms, which directly or indirectly explained customers’ satisfaction and continuance intention of the platforms. Next, service providers’ offline service quality positively influenced customers’ PU of internet-based sharing economy service platforms, which in turn caused customers’ satisfaction and continuance intention of the platforms. Finally, network externality from customers’ side and service providers’ side all positively affected customers’ PU of internet-based sharing economy service platforms, which in turn led to customers’ continuance intention of the platforms.

First, this study contributes to the identification of network externality and service quality that may reveal deep insights to the understanding of customers’ continuance intention of internet-based sharing economy service platforms greatly driven by their confirmation of expectations and satisfaction with the platforms. Next, the empirical evidence on capturing ECM and PEOU for completely explaining the antecedents of customers’ continuance intention of internet-based sharing economy service platforms is well documented. Hence, this study’s findings have significantly shed light on the possible formulation of a richer post-adoption model.

This study aims to identify SHRM (strategic human resource management) essential practices for the TQM (total quality management) program regarding an Indian tire manufacturing company and formulate an inclusive interrelationship to prioritize them.

Semistructured interview with ten experts from the company was made to give SHRM practices scores. The SLR (systematic literature review) and TOPSIS (technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution) techniques are used to establish the model for 12 key practices and rank them afterward.

The findings clearly show that strategic planning and staffing, teamwork and leadership development have appeared as the top three essential practices. Simultaneously, performance measurement and evaluation, work design and analysis and promotion are identified as the bottom three practices. These essential practices are identified as contributing attributes.

The findings prioritize the SHRM practices as contributing attributes that help other tire manufacturing industries identify their key practices. Moreover, it provides the necessary inputs comprised of ten experts' decisions to become more active and well prepared.

The novelty of this study is to identify the key practices by using SLR and measured by the TOPSIS method to rank and consider a tire manufacturing company as a case-based approach to gain high productivity and competitive advantage.

Recent technological advancements, often linked to Industry 4.0, require organizations to be more agile and innovative. Blockchain technology (BT) holds immense potential in driving organizations to achieve efficiency and transparency in supply chains. However, there exist some insurmountable challenges associated with the adoption of BT in organizational supply chains (SC). This paper attempts to categorically identify and systematize the most influential challenges in the implementation of BT in SC.

This study resorts to an extensive literature review and consultations with experts in the field of supply chain management (SCM), information technology and academia to identify, categorize and prioritize the major challenges using VlseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR) and Combined Compromise Solution method (CoCoSo).

The top three classes of challenges revealed in this study are privacy challenges (PC), infrastructure challenges (IC) and transparency challenges (TC). Maintaining a balance between data openness and secrecy and rectification of incorrect/erroneous input are the top two challenges in the PC category, integration of BT with sustainable practices and ensuring legitimacy are the top two challenges in the IC category, and proper and correct information sharing in organizations was the top most challenge in the TC category.

Future scholars and industry professionals will be guided by the importance of the challenges identified in this study to develop an economical and logical approach for integrating BT to increase the efficiency and outcome of supply chains across several industrial sectors.

This study aims to present a study on the supply chain process of a Myanmar-based pharmaceutical company (named ABC Pvt. Ltd. in this study) that produces pharmaceutical products across Myanmar and aims of bringing quality medical products and best care for Myanmar people’s health. The study aims to identify the key supply chain challenges and manage the opportunities executed by this pharmaceutical company to improve the supply chain process during the COVID-19 outbreak.

This work used a case study and conducted semistructured interviews with the manager, senior managers and senior staff of the ABC Company to improve the supply chain process and develop a comprehensive structural relationship to rank them to streamline the uncertainties, real-time information and agility in a digital supply chain using grey relational analysis (GRA) method.

From the data analysis and results, “Impact of political factor,” “Delay in import process” and “Weak internet connection,” and “Weak knowledge of the use of digital platform,” “Poor information sharing in online by employees” and “Information flow from top management to operational level” have been identified as top and bottom three key challenges, respectively. “Inventory management,” “Selection of transport method” and “Operational cost”, and “Marketing and brand Innovation,” “Online delivery of products” and “E-commerce enablement (Launching applications, tracking system)” are identified as the top and bottom three managing the opportunities, respectively.

The findings of the study help to supply chain decision-makers of the company in their establishment of key challenges and opportunities during the COVID-19 era. As a leading company, it always tries to add value to its product through a supply chain system, effective management teams and working with skillful decision-making toward satisfying the demand on time and monitoring the supplier performance.

The novelty of this study is to identify the key supply chain challenges and opportunities by the GRA method to rank them, considering the case of Myanmar pharmaceutical manufacturing company as a case-based approach to measuring its performance during the COVID-19 outbreak era. This work will assist managers and practitioners help to the company to provide optimal services to its consumers on time in this critical situation.

By building on cooperation–competition theory, this study aims to investigate the multidimensional flipped effects of neighborhood hotels on Airbnb listings’ popularity, examining the degree to which such impacts are influenced by hotel types and geographical areas.

This study explores the interdependent and competitive relationship between neighborhood hotels and Airbnb from the perspective of effects on Airbnb listings’ popularity by exploring a data set covering 10,492 Airbnb listings and 2,691 hotels from Ctrip.

Results reveal that neighborhood hotels’ number of reviews, review ratings and prices each have positive spillover effects on Airbnb listings’ popularity, while quality assurance labels and negative review topic sentiments exert competitive effects on Airbnb popularity. Moreover, the number of budget chain hotels and high-star hotels have positive and negative effects on Airbnb popularity, respectively. Geographical areas also have a moderating effect on the relationship between various hotel-related influencing factors and Airbnb.

This study can offer hotel managers and Airbnb operators a clearer understanding of these businesses’ coexisting relationship. Findings can also provide Airbnb-specific guidelines for practitioners in terms of site selection, promotional features and development strategies for Airbnb listings.

This study establishes a cooperation–competition relationship model between hotels and Airbnb and considers the flipped effects of hotels on Airbnb for the first time. It expands previous studies by considering the multidimensional effects of hotels on Airbnb listings’ popularity and by examining the influences of hotel types and geographical areas on hotels’ impacts on Airbnb.

This study aims to use a social exchange perspective to investigate the influence of organizational justice on organizational citizenship behavior (OCB).

Survey and interview data were collected from a sample of insurance firm sales representatives in Taiwan. Structural equation modeling was deployed to explore the relationship between organizational justice, trust, supervisor–subordinate guanxi and OCB.

The findings offer important theoretical, managerial and social implications for life insurers’ human resource managers.

Organizational justice is a primary influence on OCB, which is connected with the underlying mediating mechanism of trust (trust in supervisor and trust in subordinate) and supervisor–subordinate guanxi (i.e. off-the-job activities).

Subordinates can enhance guanxi with their supervisors to create a more harmonious working environment, creating mutual trust. The results suggest that supervisor–subordinate guanxi is based on long-term social exchange. How to balance fairness and efficiency is an import question for decision-makers.

This study’s examination of the role of trust and supervisor–subordinate guanxi in mediating the relationship between organizational justice and OCB expands the organizational behavior literature into a different industry (life insurance) and cultural context (Taiwan).