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A two-dimensional (2D) body measurement system was implemented to study the application of sportswear design in measurement garment development. A total of 50 participants were recruited. The basic demographic information and sportswear preference data were collected through a survey to understand consumer preferences and acceptance of the new designs. The body measurements were collected through both the selected 2D measurement system and a commercial three-dimensional scanning booth to evaluate measurement accuracy.

Finding the right size has been a long-existing problem for clothing consumers. Size problem is the most common reason for e-commerce returns and adds a high cost for retailers. One possible solution is to offer consumers an easy-to-use method that extracts accurate body measurements to be used for clothing size selection. The purpose of this research is to apply sportswear design elements on measurement garments to see if consumers’ interest in using the 2D measurement system can be increased without influencing the measurement accuracy.

The results showed that the added design features increased consumers’ interest in using 2D body measuring technology without significantly influencing measurement accuracy.

This research applied sportswear elements to convert a 2D measurement bodysuit to a fashionable clothing product. The solution resolved users’ privacy concerns and increased their acceptance and use of the technology. Other studies have not focused on using aesthetic features to improve the 2D measurement technology.

The metaverse, through artificial intelligence (AI) systems and capabilities, allows considerable data analysis in the workplace, largely exceeding traditional people analytics data collection. While concerns over surveillance and issues associated with privacy and discrimination have been raised, the metaverse has the potential to offer opportunities associated with fairer assessment of employee performance and enhancement of the employee experience, especially with respect to gender and race, inclusiveness and workplace equity. This paper aims at shedding light on the diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) opportunities and challenges of implementing the metaverse in the workplace, and the role played by AI.

This paper draws on our past research on AI and the metaverse and provides insights addressed to human resources (HR) scholars and practitioners.

Our analysis of AI applications to the metaverse in the workplace sheds light on the ambivalent role of and potential trade-offs that may arise with this emerging technology. If used responsibly, the metaverse can enable positive changes concerning the future of work, which can promote DEI. Yet, the same technology can lead to negative DEI outcomes if implementations occur quickly, unsupervised and with a sole focus on efficiencies and productivity (i.e. collecting metrics, models etc.).

Managers and HR leaders should try to be first movers rather than followers when deciding if (or, better, when) to implement metaverse capabilities in their organizations. But how the metaverse is implemented will be strategic. This involves choices concerning the degree of invasive/pervasive monitoring (internal) as well as make or buy decisions concerning outsourcing AI capabilities.

Our paper is one among few (to date) that discusses AI capabilities in the metaverse at the intersection of the HR and information systems(IS) literature and that specifically tackles DEI issues. Also, we take a “balanced” approach when evaluating the metaverse from a DEI perspective. While most studies either demonize or celebrate these technologies from an ethical and DEI standpoint, we aim to highlight challenges and opportunities, with the goal to guide scholars and practitioners towards a responsible use of the metaverse in organizations.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the challenges faced by the Ludhiana’s woolen knitwear industry that got accentuated with the outbreak of Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). The paper discusses the road map for building capabilities within the industry from the perspective of “system of innovation” approach that would help the industry to comply with the recent call for “AatmaNirbhar Bharat Abhiyan.”

The woolen knitwear industry from Ludhiana district of North Indian state, Punjab, was taken as a case to examine the impact of COVID-19. Data was collected online through self-structured questionnaire along with telephonic interviews. Stage I was the period of “total lock-down” and Stage II was conducted after the announcement of “stimulus package” and during the unlocking period. Some local industry associations and labor unions were also interviewed to understand the wider perspectives of different stakeholders. Descriptive statistic was applied to analyze the results of the survey.

It is estimated that the industry would lose about INR 2,000 crores approximately US$282.1m with the monetary loss of man-days nearing INR 157 crores approximately US$22.1m for the total lockdown period of 68 days. This amount is feared to increase with the lackluster re-opening of the industry in the unlocking period. The study reveals that there were some concerns, such as infrastructural bottlenecks, obsolete internal and international connectivity and institutional rigidity with cumbersome rules and regulations that get heightened with the outbreak of COVID-19. The entrepreneurs and workers are skeptic regarding the nature of demand revival in the changing world economic order. The paper suggests a dynamic policy intervention with inbuilt feedback mechanism along with reviving the organizations to infuse enthusiasm among various actors of industry.

The study is one of the first few to conduct surveys at two different stages to assess the impact of COVID-19 from the perspective of micro, small and medium enterprises and workers working therein while taking the case of Ludhiana woolen knitwear industry. The findings of this study will aid the industry and policymakers to take essential steps to make the industry more innovative and competitive in the dynamic world market.

The purpose of this paper is to understand compression garment in the area of medical industry, compression garments were used initially for patients with circulatory problems. External pressure was created by compression garments on the body surface which prevents blood clots, leg swelling and improves venous hemodynamics.

Compression rehabilitation is a significant element in the effective management of lower limb problems of people associated with venous, lymphatic, fat disorders like lipoedema.

Compression garments have been attributed primarily for the increase in blood flow, improvement in recovery, reduction in muscle vibration that increase stability, improvement in thermoregulation, decrease in muscle pain, elimination of blood lactate and creatine kinase after exercise.

Compression garments are extraordinary clothes that contain elastomeric yarns or fibers that are responsible for applying significant mechanical pressure on the required body surface for compressing, stabilizing and supporting underlying tissues.

The purpose of this study is to determine the temperature ratings of infant bedding.

Mathematical models were developed for predicting temperature ratings of infant bedding for all age groups based on the thermal balance equation. These models were validated by the published physiological data and the baby manikin tests. The air temperature was compared with the predicted temperature rating, and the skin temperature of infant or baby manikin was used to explain the validation results.

The models had higher prediction accuracy, especially for the infant bedding with uniformly distributed thermal insulation. The results showed that an increase of 1 clo in thermal insulation caused a decrease of 4.2–6.0 °C in temperature rating. The slope of the model reduced with the increasing month-age, indicating that an older infant had a lower temperature rating than a younger infant.

Suggestions were given for caregivers that younger infants ought to be covered with more bedding than adults; however, older infants were expected to require less bedding.

The outcomes provided scientific guidelines on the selection of bedding for infants at a particular room temperature to ensure the health and safety of infants.

Embroidery as a textile embellishment technique plays an important role in people's daily life. Esthetic embroidery artworks possess cultural values. With the development of robotics and artificial intelligence (AI), these technologies have been studied and applied in the embroidery process. This study aims to survey how these technologies facilitate embroidery from different aspects.

This paper surveys how the technologies of robotics and AI are applied in the embroidery field. The applications are mainly reviewed from three aspects: computerized robotic embroidery systems has been widely used for the mass production of embroidered textiles, the advanced technological systems and techniques have greatly facilitated the development of smart textiles and the artificial intelligence plays an important role in the inheritance, innovation and protection of traditional handicraft artwork of embroidery.

The programmable robotic embroidery machines have greatly improved the production efficiency of embroidered textiles and promoted the development of electronic textiles. The AI, mainly the deep learning technology, brings significant benefits to esthetic embroidery creation. Technology-based embroidery has become a hot research topic in the field of textiles.

This paper summarizes the application of robotics and AI technologies in the field of embroidery, which provides readers a comprehensive and systematic understanding about the research progress of modern technology-oriented embroidery. This helps readers gain inspiration from the technology perspectives.

Personal Protective Equipment plays an inevitable part in the current scenario of pandemics in the world. A novel coronavirus, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Corona Virus-2 (SARS-Cov 2), began as an outbreak of pneumonia in Wuhan, China, in late December 2019, and quickly spread worldwide. It quickly escalated into an international public health crisis. This opened up the high demand for the innovation and research of new materials in the Personal Protective Equipment industry.

PubMed, Embase and Google Scholar were searched for relevant literature regarding personal protective equipment and the information was organized in a systematic way.

There are no adequate number of studies taken up in the field of use of textiles in medical applications especially with PPEs.

This structured review will generate a sense of the significance of using PPE for controlling pandemics and also awaken need for additional research and innovations in this area.

The authorities of the management should take timely intervention in choosing the right material for their PPE in their hospitals. Hence health care professionals teams have an inevitable role in preventing the adverse environmental impact due to the inadvertent disposal of PPEs.

There is a lack of systematic way of disposing contaminated single-use face masks in a safe, environmentally acceptable manner. The dumping of single-use PPE in domestic garbage has had an adverse effect on the environment. Mismanaged plastic waste endangers the health of ecosystems by polluting marine and terrestrial environments, posing a significant risk of ingestion or injury to animals and contaminating habitats.

This review article provides an in-depth review of the use of different materials in PPE and challenges regarding its long-term use and implications on the environment.

Of all the major, global professional sports where women have made inroads, striving toward equality in terms of status, earnings and media attention, tennis stands at the forefront. This chapter traces this historical development, outlining the sport's earliest socio-cultural features that afforded the inclusion of female players and charting the progress of notable women who thrust tennis into the limelight and turned themselves into commodities – the essence of professionalisation. Suzanne Lenglen blazed the trail by becoming, in 1926, the principal attraction in the sport's inaugural professional tour. Female players were encouraged to cast aside the shackles of restrained femininity and chart their own courses in a sport still dominated by men and played according to male standards. The rise of ‘Open Tennis’ in 1968 removed the playing restrictions and stigma of professionalism, but by opening up to the male-dominated corporate world, unsurprisingly it was the male players who initially competed for the lion's share of new money. Billie Jean King's efforts to galvanise her fellow female professionals to compete on a rogue tour sponsored by Virginia Slims left them ousted by the sport's main officials, but the tour's commercial success propelled them toward equality in terms of prize money and status. Still more or less a white, middle-class-dominated pursuit, the arrival of Venus and Serena Williams in the late 1990s turned tennis toward new markets, and the sport's significance for women remains apparent in the fact that its leading players are the most recognisable and well-paid of all professional female athletes.