Hong Kong Polytechnic University

TLD-YOLO: A Lightweight Detector with Cross-Scale Adaptive Fusion and Dual Attention for Tiny Litchi Detection and Counting in Unstructured Orchards

Accurate detection and counting of tiny litchi fruits in natural orchards are fundamental for approximate yield estimation and precision harvesting; however, small-target signals are easily lost during downsampling, while dense clusters, occlusion, and complex backgrounds further...

Unexpectedly High Levels of Environmentally Persistent Free Radicals in Barbecued Foods: An Overlooked Source

Abstract Environmentally persistent free radicals (EPFRs) are recognized oxidative stressors, but existing research focuses predominantly on inhalable particles. Thermally carbonized foods represent a potentially major, yet unexplored, dietary EPFR pathway. Here, we quantified EP...

"When I see Jodie, I feel relaxed": Examining the Impact of a Virtual Supporter in Remote Psychotherapy

Virtual agents have shown promising potential in mental health applications, but current research has predominantly focused on contexts outside of traditional therapy sessions. This paper examines the impact of a virtual supporter in remote psychotherapy sessions conducted via Zo...

Estimating vehicular emissions by applying deep learning on video camera scenes

Despite advances in electrification, urban traffic remains a substantial source of air pollution and poses a major threat to public health. Addressing the spatial and temporal heterogeneity of vehicular emissions requires scalable methodologies. Here, we present a deep learning-b...

The state-led reproductive boundary: Divisions and income disparity in mainland China's paid care work

This study examines how the state and the market shape income divisions among paid care workers in China's domestic service economy. We develop the concept of the state-led reproductive boundary to examine how state intervention, through certification, training, work arrangement,...

Interpreting sustainability signals: how brand origin and consumer cosmopolitanism shape CSR inferences and downstream consumer responses

Purpose As restaurants worldwide increasingly adopt plant-based offerings to advance sustainability goals, understanding how consumers interpret these initiatives has become essential. Drawing from signaling theory and social identity theory, this research aims to demonstrate tha...

Creativity Recognition: Roles of Political Skills, Creativity Communication and Paradoxical Frame

ABSTRACT Supervisor recognition plays a pivotal role in fostering employee creativity. Although prior research has examined creativity recognition to some extent, a significant gap persists in understanding how this process is shaped by the cognitive traits and characteristics of...

Facial Expression Recognition and Spatial Analysis in Urban Environments: An Exploratory Proof-of-Concept Study

Facial Emotion Recognition (FER) has transformed human–computer interaction, yet its application to understanding relationships between physical environments and human emotional responses remains an emerging area within urban studies. This study presents an exploratory proof-of-c...

Two-stage model predictive control for battery electric vehicle-centric mobile energy storage in microgrids

With the accelerated global energy transition, integrating battery electric vehicles into microgrid systems has emerged as a promising approach to enhance operational flexibility and reduce energy storage infrastructure costs. This paper proposes a two-stage model predictive cont...

Effect of bond performance on flexural crack width of SCBSB concrete beam

Stainless steel-clad bimetallic steel bars (SCBSB) are an attractive choice for durable reinforced concrete (RC) structures in aggressive environments, where controlling crack width is critical to preventing chloride ingress and exploiting the cladding’s corrosion resistance. How...

Comparing Airbnb hosts’ and guests’ attitudes toward smart technology to support authenticity experiences

Purpose This study aims to examine how smart technology in peer-to-peer (P2P) accommodation may support, disrupt or reconfigure authenticity-related experiences. Focusing on Airbnb stays as a tension-laden hospitality context, it investigates how hosts’ intentions and guest-side...

Ultrasonic Vibration Assisted Laser Processing: A Hybrid Paradigm for Extreme Surface Enhancement

ABSTRACT Traditional laser processing techniques offer many advantages, but they often encounter limitations such as heat‐affected zones, recast layers, residual tensile stresses, and poor surface finish. The integration of ultrasonic vibration (UV) presents a promising hybrid ap...

Validity of wearable inertial measurement units for monitoring lower-limb running biomechanics: a comparison with optical motion capture

Wearable inertial measurement units (IMU) provide a portable alternative to optical motion capture (OMC) systems for assessing running biomechanics. However, whether IMU-derived lower-limb kinematics demonstrate consistent agreement with OMC across different joints and kinematic...

Where is the love? The anthropomorphism paradox in human-AI intimacy

The advanced language capabilities of large language models (LLMs) have intensified humans’ tendency to anthropomorphize technology. This research takes an interactional, processual approach to examine human-AI intimacy. We introduce the “anthropomorphism paradox,” arguing that w...

ProactiveAudioBench: Evaluating Condition-Driven Responses in Audio Streams

Audio assistants are moving from turn-based question answering toward continuous listening, where they must interpret incoming audio while deciding whether to respond or remain silent. Existing proactive benchmarks emphasize video and audiovisual interaction, while audio-centric...

Vision-based assembly target pose estimation and adaptation for robotic assembly in Modular Integrated Construction

Modular Integrated Construction (MiC) accelerates building processes, yet the positioning and alignment of MiC modules on-site remain hazardous and labor-intensive. This paper formulates the robotic perception task for automated MiC module assembly as the pose estimation of assem...

Omni2Web: Benchmarking Audiovisual Website Development

32 pages, 6 figures, 18 tables.

Investigating tunnel seepage erosion and induced structural mechanical response using CFD-DEM-FEM method

Seepage erosion, induced by groundwater infiltrating surrounding soils through cracks between tunnel segments, poses a significant threat to the long-term stability of underground tunnels. However, the evolution of erosion and its influence on tunnel mechanical behavior remain in...

Online fatigue performance evaluation method for smart CFRP-strengthened steel beam structures incorporating FBG monitoring information

Steel beams are susceptible to fatigue damage under long-term cyclic loading. Carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) strengthening technology has been widely adopted to improve the fatigue performance of steel beams due to its high strength-to-weight ratio, corrosion resistance,...

Systematic benchmarking of evaluation paradigms, safety boundaries, and clinical reasoning gaps for multimodal large language models in rehabilitation

Abstract Motor rehabilitation and clinical biomechanical assessment rely on expert judgement to evaluate movement quality, pathological compensation, and spatiotemporal motor dynamics. Existing automated approaches mainly depend on conventional computer vision methods, such as sk...