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To improve the trajectory tracking accuracy of 6R decoupled manipulator in singularity region, this paper aims to propose a singularity avoidance algorithm named “singularity separation plus improved Gaussian distribution damped reciprocal”.

The manipulator is divided into forearm and wrist, and the corresponding singularity factors are separated based on kinematics calculation. Singularity avoidance is achieved by replacing the common reciprocal with the improved Gaussian distribution damped reciprocal.

Compared with common damped reciprocal algorithm and classical Gaussian distribution algorithm, the continuity of the proposed algorithm is improved and the tracking error is minimized. The simulation and experiment results prove effectiveness and practicability of the proposed algorithm.

This study has an important significance to improve the efficiency and operation accuracy of 6R decoupled manipulator.

Using volatility cones as the estimate of actual volatility instead of GARCH models, the purpose of this paper is to explore whether volatility arbitrage strategy can provide positive profits and how the transaction costs existed in the real market affect the effectiveness of volatility arbitrage strategy.

A number of hedging approaches proposed to improve the hedging results and final returns of Black-Scholes model are analyzed and compared.

The general finding is that volatility arbitrage strategy can provide satisfactory returns based on the samples in Chinese market. Regarding transaction costs, the variable bandwidth delta and delta tolerance approach showed better results. Besides, choosing futures together with ETFs as hedging underlying can increase the VaR for better risk management.

This paper offers a new method for volatility arbitrage in Chinese financial market.

This paper researches the profitability of the volatility arbitrage strategy on ETF 50 options using volatility cones method for the first time. This method has advantage over the point-wise estimation such as GARCH model and stochastic volatility model.

This paper aims to collect and compile the historical data of Guanfu Salt Farm, officially built by the Song Dynasty (960–1279) within modern Hong Kong territories, to reconstruct its history for the reflection of Hong Kong society of the time.

This paper is largely based on identification and analysis of historical documents, including keyword search on electronic databases and verification with the original sources, with reference to archaeological findings when necessary.

This paper reconstructs the history of Guanfu Salt Farm based on documentary sources with reference to archaeological findings. English translation of Chinese sources is also provided when necessary.

There has been an absence of systematic compilation of historical data of Hong Kong during the Song Dynasty, which are limited in quantity and scattered across different sources. This paper seeks to fill the vacuum of knowledge about pre-colonial Hong Kong, with a more comprehensive reconstruction of the history of Guanfu Salt Farm.

This paper presents a digital imaging method based on silhouette image analysis to visualize the 3D surface roughness of textile or other flexible materials. A prototype of imaging system consisting of five components was developed: visible lighting source (white backlighting), sample stage, progressive sample feeding equipment, detector (CCD camera) and software. A sequence of silhouette images of textile surface patches could be digitalized progressively when the sample passes through the sharp edge of crossbeam in bending status, so that the whole 3D surface profile could be generated by the combination of silhouette height profile of each surface patch in sequence. This non-destructive testing method is effective for surface roughness characterization or defects detection of flexible materials; it could reconstruct a pure 3D surface profile of textile surface while discarding the information of surface color so as to avoid the fusion of shadows and dark colors, which is impossible to be implemented based on the traditional 2-D image analysis.

The purpose of this paper is to study the effects of short‐sale constraints and differences of opinions on the price premium of dual listed Chinese A‐H shares.

The analysis mainly follows the Miller's model, which indicates that the relaxation of stringent short‐sale constraint could reduce the upward bias in stock prices. Following the literature, the paper uses the idiosyncratic return volatility and monthly turnover rate as two main proxies of differences of opinions.

This study shows that the high level of A‐share differences of opinions will lead to the high price premium of A‐share portfolio with the short‐sale constraint in the A‐share market. However, the high level of H‐share differences of opinions has no effect on the price premium of H‐share portfolio and has also positively contributed to the A‐share price premium. The price premium of shorted A‐share portfolio is declined more significantly than those of non‐shorted ones after the relaxation of short‐sale constraint in the A‐share market.

The findings in this study provide further evidence that dual listed Chinese A‐shares with high level of differences of opinions and short‐sale constraints tend to be overvalued.

This study supports Miller's hypothesis that with the control of short‐sale constraint, the high level of differences of opinions could lead to the high degree of overvaluation of A‐share portfolio. The market capitalization and book‐to‐market ratio of A‐shares also generate significant positive effect to the A‐share price premium. Finally, the introduction of short‐sale mechanism in A‐share market could partially eliminate the mispricing of dual‐listed A‐shares and improve the price efficiency of A‐share market.

This study is mainly focused on the joint effects of differences of opinions and short‐sale constraints on the A‐share price premium. The new short‐sale policy in A‐share market in March 2010 provides us an opportunity to study the effect of relaxation of stringent short‐sale constraint on the A‐share price premium. In the literatures so far, all studies assumed A‐shares are strictly prohibited to be sold short.

This research paper is a literature review of the existing building retrofitting process. It proposes studying the functional, technical, and organizational issues of the green retrofit process. The purpose of this paper is to expand the domain of design framework for retrofitting existing buildings.

The paper provides a review of the model-based design process from enrollment to evaluation stages representing the green retrofitting process in selected publications. The paper opted to review the Green Retrofit Design (GRD) process model for achieving a systematic design model of GRD development in the future.

Functional and maintenance issues are mainly for new buildings, also in the field for renovation and demolishing. Publications also show that environmental, social, and technical issues are often examined separately in the decision process of GRD. Papers in the facility management scale would concentrate more on organization/legal issues. Publications with questionnaire design are devoted to the usage on life-cycle assessment on existing building, but not yet on the stakeholder management and design process and related issues.

The achievement of the study is to provide a new framework of design approach that is significant to the theoretical research, education, communication, and practical works in terms of GRD development.

The paper not only achieves a specific sequence of practical approaches, including awareness of problems, conceptual development, and design embodiment, to meet design objectives, but also conforms to academic practice-based research of creative design taking on GRD practice.

This study seeks to identify antecedents of trust among top managers representing partners in international joint ventures (IJVs) and to show how this trust influences IJV performance.

The paper proposes that the national cultural distance of the foreign partner, the business similarity of partners' organizations and behavioural integration are antecedents to trust, and that trust is a key mediator through which these antecedents affect IJV performance. Data are collected through a field survey from IJVs in Beijing and Shenzhen, PRC, and employ regression analysis to test these propositions.

It is found that: trust across IJV factional subgroups is influenced by partners' business similarity and by the behavioural integration of top managers representing the partners from both sides; and this trust mediates the relationship between the behavioural integration of top managers in Sino‐foreign IJVs and overall venture performance. The effects of business similarity and partner national cultural distance on overall performance were not mediated by trust.

The sample of the study used is limited to one country only – China. Besides, the paper's measures of cultural distance and categorization of national origin of foreign partners of IJVs may be subject to criticism.

First, the paper explicitly hypothesizes and tests the role of trust as a mediator of the relationships between trust antecedents and IJV performance. This is done in order to develop a more detailed understanding of how fixed partner characteristics and adjustable group processes affect IJV outcomes. Second, the study finds evidence that supports situational perspective and developmental perspective of trust development, but not the deterministic perspective. This is also consistent with some additional qualitative evidence which the authors collected through interviews. Third, the results indicate that some trust antecedents have direct effects on IJV performance, while others affect IJV performance through partner trust.

The study's exploratory results offer important new information for IJV researchers and for managers of IJVs.

As discovery systems take the library world by storm, there is a new opportunity for user‐centred information literacy programs to emerge. This paper aims to explore the impact that new web‐scale discovery systems might have on information literacy programs and pedagogical approaches to library instruction.

Utilizing both a conceptual approach and a case study of one particular library, various questions and possible answers are discussed with the goal of opening new avenues for information literacy instruction.

Discovery systems offer new possibilities to shift instruction programs away from their historical focus on explanatory searching and citing, towards exploratory higher level thinking in relation to evaluating and using information itself. As library search gets easier and varied platforms become unified, the focus of information literacy on search rules and platform choice and navigation is (finally) able to truly give way to critical thinking and imaginative exploration.

Many libraries have recently or are currently adopting discovery systems, but few have begun to explore and recognize the potential for a new era of instructional possibilities. This paper acts as a base for continuing exploration and discussion in this area.

The purpose of this paper is to examine two contrasting financially distressed companies in China and their restructuring strategies. Chinese firms are selected as providing a context where bankruptcy law is in its infancy and where the state is still heavily involved as a shareholder. As a result, the process of distressed company restructuring is likely to differ markedly from that observed in developed economies.

The paper adopts a case study methodology to explore on an in‐depth basis the features of the distress resolution process in the Chinese institutional context and to investigate how it differs from the process in more developed economies. The paper analyses the firms' accounting‐based performance to understand the nature of their difficulties. It then examines the complex restructuring procedures initiated and uses an event study approach to evaluate the stock market's reaction to these strategies.

The distinguishing features of the Chinese restructuring process are as follows. First, the assets of distressed firms are sometimes transferred without payment being made in return. Second, social considerations play a role, in particular the state's need to maintain employment levels or ensure the funding of redundancy payments. Finally, firms can remain in severe financial distress for extended periods of time; possible reasons for this are explored in the paper.

The existing distress literature focuses on developed economies such as the USA and the UK. The paper provides an in‐depth understanding of the special features of the Chinese situation, including the role of government and other more commercially driven shareholders; the subsequent importance of social policy issues; the protracted and complex nature of the restructurings; and the frequent use of mergers, share transfers, asset swaps and asset sales.

Within smart homes, ambient sensors are used to monitor interactions between users and the home environment. The data produced from the sensors are used as the basis for the inference of the users' behaviour information. Partitioning sensor data in response to individual instances of activity is critical for a smart home to be fully functional and to fulfil its roles, such as correctly measuring health status and detecting emergency situations. The purpose of this study is to propose a similarity‐based segmentation approach applied on time series sensor data in an effort to detect and recognise activities within a smart home.

The paper explores methods for analysing time‐related sensor activation events in an effort to undercover hidden activity events through the use of generic sensor modelling of activity based upon the general knowledge of the activities. Two similarity measures are proposed to compare a time series based sensor sequence and a generic sensor model of an activity. In addition, a framework is developed for automatically analysing sensor streams.

The results from evaluation of the proposed methodology on a publicly accessible reference dataset show that the proposed methods can detect and recognise multi‐category activities with satisfying accuracy, in addition to the capability of detecting interleaved activities.

The concepts introduced in this paper will improve automatic detection and recognition of daily living activities from timely ordered sensor events based on domain knowledge of the activities.