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Robot usage has become an intrinsic requirement to drive the intelligence transformation of the manufacturing industry, providing a key driver for carbon emission reduction in China’s manufacturing industry. This paper examines the carbon emission reduction effect of robot usage at three levels: theoretical, empirical, and decomposition. On the basis of the pollution emission data of segments of China’s manufacturing industry from 2006 to 2020, the paper takes matching robot stock and incremental data from the International Federation of Robotics statistics, and applies the instrumental variable method to identify and estimate the role played by industry robot stock and incremental improvement in reducing pollution emissions. The empirical results show that the usage of robots does significantly reduce the carbon emissions of the manufacturing industry in China. Further, mechanism testing revealed that robot use reduces corporate pollution emissions mainly through channels such as R&D investment and manual substitution. The research provides microscopic evidence for objectively assessing the impact of robot use on environmental pollution emissions from the perspective of promoting robot applications, and suggests policy recommendations for reducing pollution emissions from China’s manufacturing sector, which can help achieve harmonious economic and environmental development.

Motivated by a couple of examples, a new term of quasi-projection pair $(P,Q)$ on a Hilbert $C^*$-module $H$ is introduced, in which $P$ is a projection, while $Q$ is an idempotent satisfying certain conditions. Some basic properties of quasi-projection pairs are provided. For every idempotent $Q$ on a Hilbert $C^*$-module $H$, it is shown that there always exist a projection denoted by $m(Q)$, and an invertible operator $W$ on $H$ such that $\big(m(Q),Q\big)$ is a quasi-projection pair satisfying \begin{equation*}Q=W^{-1}PW\quad\mbox{and}\quad \|I-W\

Power dynamics in human-human communication can impact rapport-building and learning gains, but little is known about how power impacts human-agent communication. In this paper, we examine dominance behavior in utterances between middle-school students and a teachable robot as they work through math problems, as coded by Rogers and Farace's Relational Communication Control Coding Scheme (RCCCS). We hypothesize that relatively dominant students will show increased learning gains, as will students with greater dominance agreement with the robot. We also hypothesize that gender could be an indicator of difference in dominance behavior. We present a preliminary analysis of dominance characteristics in some of the transactions between robot and student. Ultimately, we hope to determine if manipulating the dominance behavior of a learning robot could support learning., 8 pages, 1 figure

Protocol for a scoping review that aims to systematically map currently available research about the direct and indirect costs of mental disorders in China and to identify any critical gaps in current knowledge about this important issue.

Social robots have been shown to be effective educational tools. Rapport, or interpersonal closeness, can lead to better human-robot interactions and positive learning outcomes. Prior research has investigated the effects of social robots on student rapport and learning in a single session, but little is known about how individuals build rapport with a robot over multiple sessions. We reported on a case study in which 7 middle school students explained mathematics concepts to an intelligent teachable robot named Emma for five sessions. We modeled learners’ rapport-building linguistic strategies to understand whether the ways middle school students build rapport with the robot over time follow the same trends as human conversation, and how individual differences might mediate the rapport between human and robot.

Optical microresonators (OMRs) have been widely applied in various sensing applications. However, the sensing performances of conventional OMR-based sensors are subject to resonance parameters and fabrication accuracy and are further restricted by the interrogation scheme used. Recently, microwave photonic (MWP) techniques have been used to realize high-speed and high-resolution OMR-based sensors. So far, those MWP schemes are either still fabrication dependent or only applicable to specific uses, and rare attention has been paid to achieving multi-parameter sensing that is indispensable in real-life applications. The thesis proposes novel OMR-based MWP sensing schemes with improved sensing performances. Based on the MWP sideband processing technique, a new MWP interrogation scheme, which features a high resolution regardless of the OMR parameters and fabrication imperfections, is proposed and demonstrated in the sensing of temperature, humidity, and magnetic field, respectively, with high sensitivity and high resolution, where an automatic correction mechanism is added to compensate for resonance lineshape variation automatically. Next, the high-resolution MWP sensing scheme is extended to cascaded OMRs to enable multi-parameter sensing capability. The simultaneous high-resolution MWP sensing of temperature and humidity with two cascaded OMRs is demonstrated. Lastly, machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) techniques are applied to MWP sensing to reduce the complexity further. The temperature-insensitive MWP humidity sensor is first achieved with the support vector regression. Then, a new MWP multi-parameter sensing paradigm with the least requirement on the OMR structure is proposed by incorporating DL to process the raw interrogation results directly. The simultaneous MWP sensing of temperature and humidity with a single optical resonance using the convolutional neural tangent kernel is demonstrated.

Rapid risk assessment models for different types of cigarette smoke extract (CSE) exposure are critical to understanding the etiology of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The present study investigated inflammation of cultured tracheal tissues with CSE exposure. Rat trachea rings were isolated, cultured, then exposed to various concentrations of CSE from 3R4 F reference cigarettes for 4 h. Tissue/cellular morphology, ultrastructure, viability and damage, inflammatory cell infiltration, and inflammatory protein levels were measured and compared to untreated controls. Human bronchial epithelial cells (BEAS-2B) exposed to 0 or 300 μg/mL CSE were cocultured with macrophages to assess extent of mobilization and phagocytosis. Endotracheal epithelium cilia densities were significantly reduced with increasing CSE concentrations, while mucous membranes became increasingly disordered; both eventually disappeared. Macrophages became larger as the CSE concentration increased, with microvilli and extended pseudopodium covering their surface, and many primary and secondary lysosomes present in the cytoplasm. Inflammatory cell infiltration also increased with increasing CSE dose, as did intracellular adhesion molecule-1(ICAM-1), interleukin-6(IL-6). The method described here may be useful to qualitatively characterized the effects of the compound under study. Then, we use BEAS-2B cell line system to strength the observation made in the cultured tissues. Probably, an approach to integrate results from both experiments will facilitate its application. These results demonstrate that cultured rat tracheal rings have a whole-tissue structure that undergoes inflammatory processes similar to in vivo tissues upon CSE exposure.

Adiponectin is an adipocyte-specific adipocytokine that possesses anti-atherogenic and anti-diabetic properties. It has been shown to have a beneficial effect on the cardiovascular system, but it remains to be elucidated whether adiponectin has a therapeutic effect on vascular damage induced by the potential vasoactive substance angiotensin II (Ang II). In this study, the effects of adiponectin on Ang II-induced vascular endothelial damage were investigated. In cultured human umbilical vein endothelium cells, Ang II stimulation increased generation of ROS and 4-hydroxy-2-nonenal, both of which were clearly restored by administration of adiponectin. In addition, administration of adiponectin was found to increase cell viability and prevent apoptosis. Our results also demonstrate that the protective effects of adiponectin against Ang II-induced vascular endothelial damage are dependent on the binding of adiponectin to its cell surface receptor 1. Importantly, we found that adiponectin treatment modulates the apoptotic pathway by reducing the expression of LOX-1, up-regulating both cIAP-1 and the ratio of Bcl-2/Bax. Finally, our data displayed that the protective effects of adiponectin against Ang II cytotoxicity depend on AMPK activation mediated by the endosomal adaptor protein, adaptor protein with phosphotyrosine binding, pleckstrin homology domains, and leucine zipper motif.