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For a long time, teacher efficacy and organizational effectiveness have been researched in primary, junior high schools or university settings. Training institutions are a special type of profit-making educational organization, there is relatively little research conducted on them. Entrepreneurial leadership is an innovative leadership concept that, to some extent, contributes to improving teacher efficacy and organizational effectiveness, which is rarely studied in the educational domain. In accordance with the tenets of the open social system theory, this study proposed a model that teacher efficacy has a mediation effect on principal entrepreneurial leadership and organizational effectiveness. To evaluate the proposed model and explore the relationships among principal entrepreneurial leadership, teacher efficacy and organizational effectiveness, this study researched 381 teachers in English training institutions via Pearson correlation analysis and mediation effect analysis. The findings showed that positive and significant relations among principal entrepreneurial leadership, teacher efficacy and organizational effectiveness, and confirmed that teacher efficacy has a mediating effect on principal entrepreneurial leadership and organizational effectiveness in training institutions. These findings contributed to expanding the implementation of open social system theory from the three perspectives, providing new comprehension for government educational departments, principals and teachers in the organizational effectiveness of training institutions.

A lithium-metal composite is proposed, which includes a carbon-nitrogen modified stainless steel mesh (CNSSM) favoring homogeneous lithium-metal nucleation and growth of fresh and dense lithium deposits when employed as anode for lithium-metal batteries. This novel approach is able to overcome the usual drawbacks linked to the preexisting passivation layer at the surface of lithium. Instead, a favorable interphase with low resistivity is formed with the electrolyte, and the CNSSM modified lithium-metal composite (CNSSM-Li) results in low-voltage hysteresis (±24 mV) and allows stable and dendrite-free lithium electrodeposition. The performance of lithium-metal batteries demonstrates the outstanding capabilities of the novel CNSSM-Li electrode in promoting cell energy density and cycling stability. In addition, advanced X-ray nano-tomography is employed to characterize the composition and morphology changes of this electrode upon plating.

The purpose of this paper is to offer a critical understanding of the motivations and benefits of social media usage by small and medium financial enterprises with an empirical study from an emerging economy such as Ghana. Based on previous studies, the current study hypothesizes that customer-firm relationship, financial expectation, firm’s visibility and growth, and market share expectation drive social media usage intensity in the financial industry. Quantitative data was gathered from management and staff of SMEs, specifically, financial institution outlets (having social media channels i.e., Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, etc.) was used to investigate the proposed conceptual framework. Using structural Equation Modelling, the research showed that customer-firm relationship, financial expectation, firm’s visibility and growth, and market share expectation are positively associated with social media usage intensity within the financial sector. Moreover, it was discovered that financial firms that offer physical products only were equally employing social media networks for marketing communication purposes based on cost-effective motives. At the same time, we found that SMEs are more likely to consider ‘market share expectation’ as a key motivation for social media adoption by the financial industry. The findings from this study have provided some solutions to potential research issues specific to strategic management practices. Limitations and future research directions are discussed in the concluding remarks.

We propose and demonstrate an integrated optical switch that leverages an optical phased array (OPA) and an on-chip metalens, highlighting its potential for efficient and scalable beam switching across multiple ports within a compact footprint. The device consists of an input multimode interference (MMI) coupler, a phase modulator (PM) array, a beam-transformation region featuring an on-chip metalens layer, and a tapered waveguide array serving as the output ports. The PM array, engineered to effectively manipulate multiple phases for a waveguide array using a single voltage, utilizes metal strips of varying lengths to streamline operation. The on-chip metalens, characterized by varying slot lengths, facilitates the wavefront manipulation of the fast Fourier transform, resulting in beam deflection with a focusing length of 20 µm. The simulated validation of the proposed compact optical switch demonstrated efficient beam deflection, yielding a 1 × 8 beam switching at a wavelength of 1550 nm. Combinations of diverse OPAs and metalens configurations resulted in potential scalability, allowing for the realization of optical switches with pathway numbers ranging from 4 to 16. This development of a metalens-assisted optical switch on a compact chip presents significant practical implications for enhancing data transmission efficiency and scalability in photonic integrated circuits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Railway Point Machine (RPM) is a fundamental component of railway infrastructure and plays a crucial role in ensuring the safe operation of trains. Its primary function is to divert trains from one track to another, enabling connections between different lines and facilitating route selection. By judiciously deploying turnouts, railway systems can provide efficient transportation services while ensuring the safety of passengers and cargo. As signal processing technologies develop rapidly, taking the easy acquisition advantages of audio signals, a fault diagnosis method for RPMs is proposed by considering noise and multi-channel signals. The proposed method consists of several stages. Initially, the signal is subjected to pre-processing steps, including cropping and channel separation. Subsequently, the signal undergoes noise addition using the Random Length and Dynamic Position Noises Superposition (RDS) module, followed by conversion to a greyscale image. To enhance the data, Synthetic Minority Oversampling Technique (SMOTE) module is applied. Finally, the training data is fed into a Dual-input Attention Convolutional Neural Network (DIACNN). By employing various experimental techniques and designing diverse datasets, our proposed method demonstrates excellent robustness and achieves an outstanding classification accuracy of 99.73%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-Balanced lower limb exoskeleton (SBLLE) is designed for rehabilitation and walking assistance for dyskinesia persons with spinal or lower limb muscle injury to regain the locomotion ability in daily activities. In this paper, an innovative feedback control strategy for a fully actuated SBLLE is presented, which helps users to walk stably without crutches or other assistive devices. Exoskeleton is approximated as a simplified center of mass (CoM) model. Based on this simplified dynamic model, the trajectory generation and walking feedback control strategy, which enhances the locomotion stability, is introduced. The proposed strategy is implemented on our exoskeleton, AutoLEE-II, and its stability and dynamic performance are demonstrated in the stable walking simulations and experiments for exoskeleton with a female subject. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research aims to address the environmental concerns of marine pollutions and explores the international legal legislation to regulate the equilibrium in the marine ecosystem. It outlines the impacts of marine pollution on the biodiversity, social economy and the wellbeing and health conditions. Subsequently, a critical assessment of law regulation in marine pollutions/Limitations in the international environmental law regulations; and utilizes the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea as a foundation for policy recommendations.