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A cyber world (CW) is a digitized world created on cyberspaces inside computers interconnected by networks including the Internet. Following ubiquitous computers, sensors, e‐tags, networks, information, services, etc., is a road towards a smart world (SW) created on both cyberspaces and real spaces. It is mainly characterized by ubiquitous intelligence or computational intelligence pervasion in the physical world filled with smart things. In recent years, many novel and imaginative researches have been conducted to try and experiment a variety of smart things including characteristic smart objects and specific smart spaces or environments as well as smart systems. The next research phase to emerge, we believe, is to coordinate these diverse smart objects and integrate these isolated smart spaces together into a higher level of spaces known as smart hyperspace or hyper‐environments, and eventually create the smart world. In this paper, we discuss the potential trends and related challenges toward the smart world and ubiquitous intelligence from smart things to smart spaces and then to smart hyperspaces. Likewise, we show our efforts in developing a smart hyperspace of ubiquitous care for kids, called UbicKids.

The purpose of this paper is to determine: how the thermal cycling aging affects the ratcheting behavior of anisotropic conductive adhesive film (ACF); how the loading conditions and loading history affect the ratcheting strain and strain rate of ACF with different thermal cycling aging histories.

The ACF of CP6920F was cured at 190°C in an electro-thermal vacuum drying apparatus for 30 s. The cured specimens were put into the thermal cycling chamber (−40-150°C) for aging to 25, 50, 100, 200 and 500 cycles. A series of uniaxial ratcheting tests of aged ACF after different thermal cycles was carried out under stress control at 80°C.

The ACF subjected to larger number of thermal aging cycles exhibits less ratcheting strain under the same loading conditions. The ACF with the same thermal cycling aging history shows more ratcheting strain and a higher ratcheting strain rate when loaded under a larger mean stress or stress amplitude or a lower loading rate. The ratcheting behavior of aged ACF is found to be more sensitive to the lower loading rate. The higher mean stress (or stress amplitude) enhances the deformation resistance and consequently restrains the ratcheting strain of subsequent cycling with a lower mean stress (or stress amplitude). The prior lower loading rate accelerates the plastic deformation more significantly than the higher one.

The influencing trends of thermal cycling aging, loading condition and loading history on ratcheting behavior of ACF are obtained, which is important for the design and safety assessment of ACF joints.

The advent of the new retail era witnessed the consumers’ demand shift from on the traditional product quality to on the full supply chain service quality, and product service and service manufacturing is gradually taking shape. The purpose of this paper is to propose whether there is a “quality bridge” in the dynamic evolution process of retail service supply chain (RSSC) and discuss the system role, steady-state characteristics and dynamic evolution mechanism of service quality in this dynamic evolution process.

This paper proposes the dissipation system structure of the RSSC under the steady-state quality constraint, constructs a Markov chain model (MCM) for the evolution of the service quality of RSSC, and tests the objective existence of the steady-state distribution of the service quality by taking Chinese HJ retail enterprises as samples.

The research value of this study is summarized as follows. The research finds that the evolution of service quality of RSSC is a dynamic and non-linear growth process, which has significant characteristics of complex adaptability and steady-state convergence. The study finds that the quality evolution process of the RSSC is a steady-state convergence process, and there is a steady-state distribution of quality in its co-evolution, in which different process input levels have a significant positive impact on the stable level of quality state. The study finds that the steady state of quality plays a crucial role in the collaborative evolution of the RSSC, that is, when the service quality reaches a certain steady state distribution, the operating efficiency and profit level of the whole chain will show an “explosive” growth trend.

Quality bridge, an original concept in this paper, represents the role of quality steady-state in the operation of RSSC. Based on Markov chain and system simulation tools, this paper verifies the existence of steady-state service quality and its positive effect on the co-evolution and sustainable development of RSSC. When the service quality reaches a certain steady distribution, the operating efficiency and income level of the whole chain will show n trend of explosive growth.

This study aims to obtain the more precise decision map to fuse the source images by Coefficient significance method. In the area of multifocus image fusion, the better decision map is very important the fusion results. In the processing of distinguishing the well-focus part with blur part in an image, the edge between the parts is more difficult to be processed. Coefficient significance is very effective in generating the better decision map to fuse the multifocus images.

The energy of Laplacian is used in the approximation coefficients of redundant discrete wavelet transform. On the other side, the coefficient significance based on statistic property of covariance is proposed to merge the detail coefficient.

Due to the shift-variance of the redundant discrete wavelet and the effectiveness of fusion rule, the presented fusion method is superior to the region energy in harmonic cosine wavelet domain, pixel significance with the cross bilateral filter and multiscale geometry analysis method of Ripplet transform.

In redundant discrete wavelet domain, the coefficient significance based on statistic property of covariance is proposed to merge the detail coefficient of source images.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate significant impact of partner similarity on the success of horizontal alliances in logistics service providers (LSPs) from China.

Primary data were collected via questionnaire distribution to 380 Chief Executive Officers and Managing Directors in 262 small and medium logistics enterprises in China. There are 316 valid questionnaires for further analysis with 83 percent accuracy in response rate. Structural equation modeling was used to test the impact of partner similarity on alliance management capability, stability and performance.

Partner similarity and logistics alliance management capability (LAMC) are positively correlated to alliance stability and performance in horizontal alliances among Chinese LSPs, especially competence similarity and cultural similarity. Moreover, alliance stability mediates the impact of partner similarity and LAMC on alliance performance.

The basic limitation of this research is to collect data just from small and medium logistics enterprises that operate in China with sample size (n=316). This research could further be extended to other regions in China or other countries.

This research verifies the positive relationship between partner fit and management capability. Besides, based on research findings, the research proposes guidelines for LSPs pursuing horizontal alliances

This research proposes an experimental model for Chinese LSPs to cooperate successfully and build horizontal alliances in order to increase their effective customer response capability.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a propeller performance measurement method for high-altitude platforms by analyzing of the propeller aerodynamic characteristics and application of a mobile testing system.

An experimental approach is adopted for this study. Considering the aerodynamic characteristics of the high-altitude propeller, the similitude of the scaled propeller model in the experiment is analyzed and determined. Then, the experimental method and procedure to obtain the propeller’s performance under different altitudes are presented, and the structure of hardware and software and the key techniques of the testing system are introduced in detail.

The applicability and effectiveness of the testing system is verified through comparison between experimental and numerical results. In addition, the performance of the 6.8-m propeller for a high-altitude airship is tested, which proves that the high-altitude propeller can meet the requirements of the propulsion system.

The testing methodology and the mobile testing system could be applied to aerodynamic performance evaluation of the high-altitude propellers under different altitudes.

This testing approach exhibits significant time and cost benefits over many other experimental methods to obtain the performance of the high-altitude propellers, which is important in the preliminary design of the propulsion system for high-altitude platforms.

“V-bending” is the most commonly used bending process in which the sheet metal is pressed into a “V-shaped” die using a “V-shaped” punch to form a required angular bend. When the punch is removed after the operation, because of elastic recovery, the bent angle varies. This shape discrepancy is known as spring back which causes problems in the assembly of the component in the modern aerospace industry. Regarding the optimization of spring-back accuracy, this research will illustrate the laws of the transition area (TA) of the nondeformation area (NDA) during the 90° “V-shape” bending process.

According to the traditional “V-bending” process to optimize the spring-back accuracy, the bent sheets are divided into deformation area (DA) and NDA. For this reason, the traditional “V-bending” process may prolong error to optimize the spring-back accuracy because NDA has a certain amount of deformation, which the researcher always avoids. Firstly, bent sheets are divided into three parts in this research: DA, TA and NDA to avoid the distortion error in TA that are not considered in the NDA in traditional theory. Then, the stress and strain in the DA and TA were discussed during theoretical derivation and some hypotheses were proposed. In this research, the interval, position and distortion degree of the TA of the bending sheet are used by finite element analysis. Finally, V-shape bending tests for aluminum alloy at room temperature are used and labeled all the work pieces' TAs to realize the deformation amount in the TA.

The bending radius does not affect the range of the TA, it only changes the position of TA in the bending sheet. It is evident that the laws of TA were explored in the width direction and gradually changed from the inner layer to the outer layer based on the ratio of width and thickness of the bending plate/sheet.

In the modern aerospace industry, aircraft manufacturing technology must maintain high accuracy. This research has practical value in the 90° “V-shape” bending of metal sheets and the development of its spring-back accuracy.

This study aimed to investigate positive associations between three main motivations (social interaction, information and entertainment) for the use of social network sites (SNSs) and users' well-being, as well as the multiple mediating effects of perceived social support, positive and honest self-presentation.

A sample of 759 active users of SNSs (WeChat Moments, Qzone and Weibo) aged 14–43 years was measured with online questionnaires. Correlation analysis and structural equation modeling were implemented to examine the corresponding hypotheses.

The results showed the overall intensity of motivations was positively associated with users' well-being; perceived social support and positive self-presentation played intermediary roles and honest self-presentation and perceived social support had a chain mediation effect. However, the motivations of social interaction, information and entertainment indirectly affected users' well-being through three different mediation paths.

Although some studies have investigated the effects of motivations (including social interaction, information and entertainment) for SNS use on users' well-being, there has not been a consistent conclusion. The findings may shed light on the motivations for SNS use and how they may affect people's well-being in the digital era, thereby promoting their healthy use of SNSs as well as improved interface design and user management of SNSs.

Given innovation's significance, this research examines the link between empowered leadership and frugal innovation. The research also explores how collaborative cultures and organizational commitment mediate empowered leadership's effect on frugal innovation.

Quantitative method is used with the approach of hierarchical regression to test the hypotheses with data obtained from Pakistani small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through the questionnaire from 288 participants.

The results of this study show that empowered leadership has a considerable impact on the firm's capacity for frugal innovation. Additionally, this study shows that organizational commitment and collaborative culture significantly moderate the association between empowering leadership and frugal innovation.

Future studies should examine mediating factors, including employment experience, education and perceived organizational support, and moderating variables like employee psychological empowerment and leadership styles.

This research advises SMEs in developing nations to utilize frugal innovation since they cannot afford to spend extensively on technologies that add creativity and innovation to goods and services.

This study advances how leadership both directly and indirectly helps organizations strengthen their capacity for frugal innovation through the mediating roles of collaborative culture and organizational commitment.