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In the context of fire incidents within buildings, efficient scene perception by firefighting robots is particularly crucial. Although individual sensors can provide specific types of data, achieving deep data correlation among multiple sensors poses challenges. To address this issue, this study aims to explore a fusion approach integrating thermal imaging cameras and LiDAR sensors to enhance the perception capabilities of firefighting robots in fire environments.

Prior to sensor fusion, accurate calibration of the sensors is essential. This paper proposes an extrinsic calibration method based on rigid body transformation. The collected data is optimized using the Ceres optimization algorithm to obtain precise calibration parameters. Building upon this calibration, a sensor fusion method based on coordinate projection transformation is proposed, enabling real-time mapping between images and point clouds. In addition, the effectiveness of the proposed fusion device data collection is validated in experimental smoke-filled fire environments.

The average reprojection error obtained by the extrinsic calibration method based on rigid body transformation is 1.02 pixels, indicating good accuracy. The fused data combines the advantages of thermal imaging cameras and LiDAR, overcoming the limitations of individual sensors.

This paper introduces an extrinsic calibration method based on rigid body transformation, along with a sensor fusion approach based on coordinate projection transformation. The effectiveness of this fusion strategy is validated in simulated fire environments.

We investigate the association between attributes of the audit committee of a firm and the likelihood of negative events occurring in the firm’s life in Israel. The mandate of the audit committee in Israel is substantially different from its mandate in the US. The responsibilities of the committee in the US are divided between two committees in Israel, one of which deals with reviewing the financial statements and the other one, titled “audit committee,” is in charge of the remaining tasks of the US-type audit committee. This allows us a unique opportunity to focus on the roles of the audit committee other than reviewing the financial statements. Using hand-collected data on firms traded on Tel Aviv Stock Exchange in 2010–2014, we find that the larger the audit committee size, the larger the likelihood of negative events, consistent with the cumbersome workings and potential conflicts of interests characterizing a large committee. The percentage of directors with accounting and financial expertise on the audit committee is associated with a lower likelihood of negative events, in line with the value of such experts in tasks beyond reviewing the financial statements. The fraction of independent directors on the audit committee is not found to be significantly related to the likelihood of negative events. This is consistent with the notion that some independent directors are independent in form but not necessarily in substance, which is surprising in light of the comprehensive regulation regarding audit committee independence imposed by the Israeli regulator.

Preventing and tackling bullying effectively are important agenda for schools to safeguard all children’s well-being, engagement and sense of belongingness. Children perceived to be different from their peers tend to have a higher risk of being bullied at school, in particular, children with disabilities. It can be challenging for teachers to stop bullying that targets children with disabilities. This chapter considers bullying as a barrier to ensuring inclusive and quality education for everyone. It draws on findings from an ethnographic study concerning the status of inclusion of children identified as having learning difficulties in mainstream schools in China, by listening to what children and teachers have to say (Wang, 2016). The study found that the child participants were subject to forms of bullying. They found it useful to gain support from others when bullying happened, and they showed empathy towards peers’ well-being. The teacher participants reflected on the dilemmas and challenges of dealing with bullying and were keen to share experiences about what they found helpful in addressing the issue. The chapter discusses how insights about bullying learned from children and teachers can be used to inform the enactment of inclusive pedagogy. It is concluded that an inclusive pedagogical response that recognizes every child’s voice is necessary for tackling bullying and co-creating an inclusive environment.

This study aims to investigate the impact of mandatory audit partner rotation (MAPR) on Chinese listed firms’ insider trading, as well as the moderating effects of firm characteristics on this impact. The economic mechanism behind this impact is also explored.

This study conducts a regression analysis on firms associated with mandatory and voluntary audit partner rotation based on 2009–2019 firm data and examines whether corporate insiders of these two types of firms increase their share sales within 12 months before their financial statements are submitted to a new rotated auditor.

Client firms’ corporate insiders increase their share sales within 12 months before their financial statements are submitted to a new mandatory rotated auditor. In addition, such an association is less pronounced for client firms that changed from Big 4 auditors to those with higher financial constraints. This is more pronounced for client firms with higher information asymmetry. The economic mechanism of the finding is that is the MAPR implementation reduces earnings management activities from client firms. Moreover, client firms’ buy-and-hold stock returns decline in the first year after MAPR.

This study should assist investors, corporate shareholders and Chinese policymakers. Investors can be well protected through the adoption of MAPR because upcoming auditors enhance the audit quality of clients by restraining managers’ manipulation of reported earnings and declining firms’ insider trading afterwards. Investors, Chinese policymakers and corporate shareholders should pay more attention to firms’ financial report quality, auditor selection, financial situation, corporate governance and the information environment. Explicitly, firms with less transparent financial report quality, non-big 4 auditors and fewer financial constraints are more likely to be involved in insider trading.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, none of the extant studies have examined the impact of MAPR on insider sales. This study extends the research on the effect of the audit process on firm market performance by investigating the impact of audit partner rotation policy on insider trading behaviors.

The purpose of this paper is to provide theoretical model about supplier-induced demand (SID) in health care market in China. Then, an empirical analysis will also be carried out according to the theoretical model above. At last, some advices will be provided in order to control or eliminate the SID in Chinese health care market.

SID has in fact been one of the most contentious topics in the economics of health care. According to the SID theory in health economics, the theoretical model about SID in China has been provided, then, based on the co-integration theory, the empirical analysis has been brought out.

The study tells that it is the reduction of government finance to hospital, not the increase of supply that is the long-term steady determinants of growth of health care expenditure and that the difference of marginal return to hospital among all kinds of services and medicines is the external factor.

To provide theoretical model about SID in health care market in China is the main originality value.

If we were to liken the long, intense doctoral journey to a battle, a strategy for winning can start from understanding well and then setting the right expectations about modern supervision. We need to ask whether doctoral learners’ expectations are aligned with their supervisors’ expectations. With the wide and evolving roles of PhD supervisors, we focus only on three key areas: (1) academic conventions, (2) psychological well-being, and (3) career development. Using a hypothetical scenario for each area, we compare doctoral learners’ perspectives with their supervisors’, which highlights the need for greater understanding and connectivity between both parties. This leads to our discussion on how appreciating these areas has practical implications for doctoral learners and supervisors. Drawing mainly on UK-based examples, we raise useful ideas that can help promote a holistic doctoral journey and increase doctoral learners’ chances of winning the metaphorical “doctoral battle.”

This study investigates the determinants of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) cash compensation in relation to corporate governance and performance in China's listed firms. This article also aims at analyzing gender earning differentials among CEOs.

The empirical analysis is based on the panel data set which contains information on the CEOs of 1,701 firm-year observations over the period 2006-2010. A Oaxaca decomposition is also implemented to measure the gap between male and female CEO compensation.

The paper observes that CEO compensation relies more on firm accounting performance than on stock market performance. This relationship is especially evident when accounting performance is measured as the return-on-assets. Dominant shareholders such as the state and block holders have a distinct impact on the use of incentive pay. The presence of a compensation committee in a Chinese listed firm is correlated with an excessive pay package for the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), even though there is evidence that pay-for-performance is more likely in the presence of a compensation committee. Furthermore, this context extends the international body of evidence on CEO compensation by offering a novel accounting of the gender gap in pay among China's listed firms. Examination of the dataset reveals that women represent approximately 6.8 percent of CEOs. In keeping with international norms, female CEOs are more senior and better educated than their male counterparts, yet they receive less favorable compensation. The Oaxaca decomposition shows a larger unexplained part of the pay-gap and suggests that the gender statistically explains a great deal of the gap in pay between male and female CEOs across China's listed firms.

This article contributes to the international corporate governance literature and implications for the design of good corporate governance for China's listed firms. Moreover, this article also highlights the current gender gap among CEOs in compensation.

The purpose of this paper is describing the seamless integration of the question‐answer interaction into automatic lecture recordings (ALRs). This includes the design and implementation of the question management (QM) software for a virtual camera team.

Coming from the human role model the interaction and its management to the virtual world is transferred and integrated it into a virtual camera team. All events are translated into sensor inputs which get processed by the virtual director and are used for the collaboration of the team in order to implement more complex cinematographic rules.

It is found that it is possible to record the whole interaction, to record the original voice of the questioner out of an audience without handing out a microphone or forcing him/her to walk to one, and to record a video of the questioner while asking. So, it is easier to follow a lecture recording as more details are recorded automatically.

First experiences on using this software clearly show the small weaknesses of the first version. As mentioned in the outlook, these are currently being addressed, e.g. by looking for a more natural interface.

The paper demonstrates how to use the question‐answer interaction as sensor input for an automatic lecture recording (ALR) system based on the roles of the according human originals. It ensures that many details of a lecture can be recorded seamlessly to keep the lecture context continuous and therefore to make the lecture recording more vivid and interesting.

The purpose of this study is to present a depth information-based solution for automatic camera control, depending on the presenter’s moving positions. Talks, presentations and lectures are often captured on video to give a broad audience the possibility to (re-)access the content. As presenters are often moving around during a talk, it is necessary to steer recording cameras.

We use depth information from Kinect to implement a prototypical application to automatically steer multiple cameras for recording a talk.

We present our experiences with the system during actual lectures at a university. We found out that Kinect is applicable for tracking a presenter during a talk robustly. Nevertheless, our prototypical solution reveals potential for improvements, which we discuss in our future work section.

Tracking a presenter is based on a skeleton model extracted from depth information instead of using two-dimensional (2D) motion- or brightness-based image processing techniques. The solution uses a scalable networking architecture based on publish/subscribe messaging for controlling multiple video cameras.