Jun Wu, Jian Huang, Yongji Wang and Kexin Xing
The purpose of this paper is to develop a novel wearable rehabilitation robotic hand driven by Pneumatic Muscle‐Torsion Spring (PM‐TS) for finger therapy. PM has complex nonlinear…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop a novel wearable rehabilitation robotic hand driven by Pneumatic Muscle‐Torsion Spring (PM‐TS) for finger therapy. PM has complex nonlinear dynamics, which makes PM modelling difficult. To realize high‐accurate tracking for the robotic hand, an Echo State Network (ESN)‐based PID adaptive controller is proposed, even though the plant model is unknown.
Design/methodology/approach
To drive a single joint of rehabilitation robotic hand, the paper proposes a new PM‐TS actuator comprising a Pneumatic Muscle (PM) and a Torsion Spring (TS). Based on the novel actuator, a wearable robotic hand is designed. By employing the model‐free approximation capability of ESN, the RLSESN based PID adaptive controller is presented for improving the trajectory tracking performance of the rehabilitation robotic hand. An ESN together with Recursive Least Square (RLS) is called a RLSESN, where the ESN output weight matrix is updated by the online RLS learning algorithm.
Findings
Practical experiments demonstrate the validity of the PM‐TS actuator and indicate that the performance of the RLSESN based PID adaptive controller is better than that of the conventional PID controller. In addition, they also verify the effectiveness of the proposed rehabilitation robotic hand.
Originality/value
A new PM‐TS actuator configuration that uses a PM and a torsion spring for bi‐directional movement of joint is presented. By utilizing the new PM‐TS actuator, a novel wearable rehabilitation robotic hand for finger therapy is designed. Based on the unknown plant model, the RLSESN_PID controller is proposed to attain satisfactory performance.
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Changzheng Gao, Juepin Hou and Jian Gong
Abundance of cultural resources is a typical feature of traditional villages. It is particularly important to explore the development path of traditional villages from the…
Abstract
Purpose
Abundance of cultural resources is a typical feature of traditional villages. It is particularly important to explore the development path of traditional villages from the perspective of cultural resources.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on symbiosis theory, establish a symbiotic development mechanism of traditional village characteristic cultural elements and use grey relation analysis (GRA) to evaluate the resource advantages of different cultural attributes. This paper proposes the traditional village development model of different symbiotic units in the county. An empirical study is conducted in conjunction with the national historical and cultural city of Xunxian County, Henan, China.
Findings
The results show that (1) according to the different attributes of humanistic cultural resources, artificial cultural resources and natural cultural resources in traditional villages, different symbiotic units can be divided, and advantageous resources can be shared through the symbiotic interface; (2) using GRA to calculate the grey relational degree between cultural resources sequence of different attributes and the sum of cultural resources sequence in the county and define as the active degree of humanistic culture, the inheritance degree of artificial culture and the integrity of natural cultural resources are shown to reflect the status of the inheritance of humanistic cultural resources, the existence of artificial cultural resources, and the protection of natural cultural resources; and (3) a comparative analysis of the active degree, inheritance, and integrity of each symbiotic unit leads to the proposal of three symbiotic models of folklore vitality, characteristic space, and natural ecology, all of which are beneficial to promote the formation of a symbiotic environment.
Originality/value
The main innovation of this paper is to put forward the research scale of symbiosis theory in the field of urban and rural planning at the county level, delimit the symbiosis units of traditional villages at the county level, complete the quantitatively evaluate cultural resources in different symbiotic units with GRA, revealing the symbiotic development mechanism of cultural resources characteristic elements in traditional villages.
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Yongji Xue and Xinyu Liu
The purposes of this paper are to explore how the cluster entrepreneurship of peasant households in the Chinese forest zone develops, and to analyze how the influence of kinship…
Abstract
Purpose
The purposes of this paper are to explore how the cluster entrepreneurship of peasant households in the Chinese forest zone develops, and to analyze how the influence of kinship and geopolitical relations can effectively construct a mechanism for the growth of cluster entrepreneurship.
Design/methodology/approach
The case study method was chosen to analyze the growth process of this cluster entrepreneurship (e.g. raising chickens in Zhenghe, planting tea in Anxi and cultivating fruit in Taizhou).
Findings
The authors found that the trust, learning and driving mechanisms of cluster entrepreneurship were influenced by kinship and geopolitical relationships, and were included in the building of the growth mechanism of such cluster entrepreneurship, as has emerged. Further, in the building of this evolution mechanism, three paths of growth were found: financial support, the introduction of technology and the introduction of management.
Originality/value
This paper enriches the understanding of how cluster entrepreneurship develops in the socioeconomic environment of the Chinese forest zone, with particular reference to kinship and geopolitical relations, and how these contribute to the growth mechanism of cluster entrepreneurship, which is important for the management of entrepreneurial activities in that habitat.
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Start-ups in emerging markets, entrepreneurship, business models and strategy.
Abstract
Subject area
Start-ups in emerging markets, entrepreneurship, business models and strategy.
Study level/applicability
The case is suitable for MBA and EMBA graduate and undergraduate students in strategic management, finance and the relevant areas.
Case overview
This case provides a real-life entrepreneurial situation in agricultural industry in China. The protagonist of the case is the founder and CEO of the start-up Harvest Agricultural Technology and Development Company Limited (Harvest). From his perspective, the case depicts the current business environment for private companies in China, and presents the opportunities and challenges a new start-up faces in this environment. Agricultural industry plays an important role in the Chinese economy. Especially because in China land is owned by the state or collective, agricultural industrialization has more significance and experiences greater difficulties. The company in the case explores the situation of integrating the different stakeholders of agricultural production and delivery given the current political and economic environment. The case describes the characteristics and quality that a typical Chinese entrepreneur has and questions why such factors matter so much in China. The case emphasizes the strategic planning process of Harvest and its unprecedented business model design. The case also touches upon the growth pattern of entrepreneurial companies in China. All the above issues deserve discussion and in-depth analysis.
Expected learning outcomes
After studying this case, students should be able to: describe the business environment in China and identify the stakeholders of the agricultural industry in China; describe the process and value chain of agriculture production and delivery by adopting management models if necessary; discuss the personality and quality of the founder and CEO and compare his characteristics with that of western entrepreneurs and analyse why these characteristics are helpful (or detrimental) to the start-up company; analyse the development of business model designs, and identify the merits, drawbacks and risks of each version of business model; analyse the competitive advantages of Harvest, and identify the key resources and capacities with management models if necessary; discuss different possibilities of Harvest's future with evidence and process analysis; discuss whether the business model and the development strategy of Harvest are applicable to other companies or industries; discuss how setting the goal of going public on the first day Harvest was founded will affect the development of the company; and compare the business models of Harvest with other companies serving as a platform in a different industry (i.e. Taobao marketplace).
Supplementary materials
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Each person in Hong Kong produces three times more waste than that of Singapore. This is because a large portion of the waste in Hong Kong is from the construction sector…
Abstract
Each person in Hong Kong produces three times more waste than that of Singapore. This is because a large portion of the waste in Hong Kong is from the construction sector. Re-decoration work carried out by dwellers in Hong Kong is one of the major sources of the construction and demolition waste. Development of flexible reusable infill systems with high recycling potential is significant. A number of these systems are currently used, mainly in public and commercial buildings. They may have potential to be applied in residential buildings in the future.
This paper starts with an introduction to the infill systems applied in open building history. It then points out the need to investigate the development of infill processes by integrating infill products available in the market. The paper further introduces current open building studies on reusability of infill systems and addresses the problem that there is a lack of quantitative information on embodied energy and other environmental impacts of infill systems.
In the methodology section the paper describes five types of partition walls selected, ranging from low flexibility to high flexibility. Applying an evaluation model for environmental impact, the paper analyzes embodied energy intensity, and environmental impacts of each partition systems in two simulated situations. One is in a two room unit of a public housing prototype and the other is in private apartment. It concludes that partition walls with higher flexibility are highly intensive in their embodied energy. In other environmental impacts, especially recycling potential, flexible partition wall panels exceed that of conventional block-work partitions. The study will enable more complete information to be obtained concerning the environmental impact of infill components and will assist architects and other building professional wisely apply open building design concepts.
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Wang Junguo, Zhou Jianzhong and Peng Bing
The purpose of this paper is to improve forecasting accuracy for short‐term load series.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to improve forecasting accuracy for short‐term load series.
Design/methodology/approach
A forecasting method based on chaotic time series and optimal diagonal recurrent neural networks (DRNN) is presented. The input of the DRNN is determined by the embedding dimension of the reconstructed phase space, and adaptive dynamic back propagation (DBP) algorithm is used to train the network. The connection weights of the DRNN are optimized via modified genetic algorithms, and the best results of optimization are regarded as initial weights for the network. The new method is applied to predict the actual short‐term load according to its chaotic characteristics, and the forecasting results also validate the feasibility.
Findings
For the chaos time series, the hybrid neural genetic method based on phase space reconstruction can carry out the short‐term prediction with the higher accuracy.
Research limitations/implications
The proposed method is not suited to medium and long‐term load forecasting.
Practical implications
The accuracy of the load forecasting is important to the economic and secure operation of power systems; also, the neural genetic method can improve forecasting accuracy.
Originality/value
This paper will help overcome the defects of traditional neural network and make short‐term load forecasting more accurate and fast.
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Arief P. Tjahyono, Kean C. Aw, Harish Devaraj, Wisnu Surendra, Enrico Haemmerle and Jadranka Travas‐Sejdic
The purpose of this paper is to review the challenges present in the development of hand exoskeletons powered by pneumatic artificial muscles. This paper also presents the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to review the challenges present in the development of hand exoskeletons powered by pneumatic artificial muscles. This paper also presents the development of a novel strain sensor and its application in a five‐fingered hand exoskeleton.
Design/methodology/approach
The issues of current hand exoskeletons powered by pneumatic artificial muscles are examined by studying the artificial muscles and the human hand anatomy. Traditional sensors are no longer suitable for applications in hand exoskeletons. A novel strain sensor was developed by depositing a conducting polymer called polypyrrole onto a natural rubber substrate through vapor phase polymerization and is used in the authors' five‐fingered hand exoskeleton.
Findings
The error of measurements from the polypyrrole strain sensor in controlling the actuation of pneumatic artificial muscles is within 1.5 mm. The small physical size and weight of the novel polypyrrole strain sensor also helped to keep the exoskeleton's profile (less than 20 mm) and total weight low (<1 kg).
Originality/value
The novel strain sensor allows the realization of hand exoskeletons that are lightweight, portable and low profile. This improves the comfort and practicality of hand exoskeletons to allow their usage outside the research environment.
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This paper seeks to address emerging practices of social enterprises (SEs) in China by exploring the institutional context, organisational features and legislative framework of…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to address emerging practices of social enterprises (SEs) in China by exploring the institutional context, organisational features and legislative framework of this new phenomenon.
Design/methodology/approach
The analysis is based on data drawn from secondary sources (laws and regulations, forum transcripts and news reports) and primary evidence (in‐depth study of six SE cases).
Findings
The various kinds of SEs are highly diversified in terms of social mission, organisational nature, legal form, and operational pattern; the institutional context is underdeveloped, providing growing but still limited financial, intellectual, technical, and human resources; although it allows increasing space for diversified development dynamics of SEs, the legislative system regulating SEs is still flawed in several vital ways.
Research limitations/implications
This paper relies heavily on qualitative research methods to make a preliminary assessment of the development of China's SEs. Neither primary nor secondary data sources collected for this paper can be used to draw any general conclusion of statistical significance.
Originality/value
The paper sheds light on the overall landscape of the recent development of SEs in China, providing a descriptive and normative foundation for cross‐country comparative studies and quantitative, explanatory analysis.
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The purpose of this paper is to contextually theorise the different patterns of emerging multinational companies’ (EMNCs’) learning processes for innovation and the different…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to contextually theorise the different patterns of emerging multinational companies’ (EMNCs’) learning processes for innovation and the different influences of their technology-driven FDIs (TFDIs) on the processes.
Design/methodology/approach
A comparative case study method and process tracing technique are employed to investigate how and why firms’ learning processes for innovation took place, how and why the TFDIs emerged and influenced the firms’ learning processes in different ways.
Findings
The paper identifies two different patterns of learning process for innovation (Glider model vs Helicopter model) and two different roles of the case firms’ TFDIs (accelerator vs starter) in the different contexts of their learning processes. It is found that the capability building of the domestic wind energy industry has an important influence on the case of EMNCs’ learning processes and thus on the roles of their TFDIs.
Research limitations/implications
The limitation of the paper lies in its small number of cases in a specific industry of a specific country. The two contextually identified learning models and roles of TFDIs may not be applied to other industries or other countries. Future research should investigate more cases in broader sectoral and geographic scope to test the models and also to identify new models.
Practical implications
For EMNCs, who wants to use the Helicopter model to rapidly gain production and innovation capability, cross-cultural management and integration management are crucial to practitioners. For emerging countries with ambitions to explore the global knowledge and technology pool, besides of the EMNC’s capability building, the capability building in the domestic industries should not be overlooked by policy makers.
Originality/value
The paper develops a dynamic and contextual analytical framework which helps to answer the important questions about how and under what context a TFDI emerges and influences firm’s learning process for innovation. It theorises the EMNCs’ learning process and TFDIs in the context of the development of the domestic industry. It strengthens the explanatory power of the learning-based view and adds new knowledge to the current FSA/CSA discourse in the international business literature.