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The purpose of this paper is to assess the development of China's rural labor markets and the identification of the important factors that affect rural labor's off-farm employment and migration.

Based on a set of long-term panel data, this paper makes a clear judgment on the trend of rural labor transfer. High-quality survey design makes it possible to examine the development of the rural labor market from multiple dimensions. Adding household fixed effects to the empirical model alleviates endogenous problems.

The authors find that the increasing trend toward off-farm employment, which is dominated by migration, has continued. There are some other important findings: (1). young male workers dominated off-farm employment, but the gap between groups continues to narrow; (2). the structure of employment is a good response to the economic transformation and (3). the quality of off-farm laborers, especially in terms of human capital, has also enhanced significantly and has continued to support off-farm employment and migration. These findings all indicate that the China's rural labor markets have been constantly improving in recent years, although there is still segmentation.

It is the first paper that uses a nationally representative survey data to address the development of rural labor market in the 21st century. With the help of a long-term panel data structure and by controlling the household-level fixed-effect, the authors obtained a deeper and more robust conclusion. Specifically, this article finds that whether it is for the off-farm transfer or the migration, the influence of labor age, gender, human capital and marital status is gradually weakening.

This research aims to provide a theoretical method and data supports for a future study on interfacial reaction mechanism and spreading mechanism between molten solder and V-shaped substrate, which also gives guidance for those complicated welding operation objects in brazing technique.

Wetting experiments were performed to measure the contact angles at different temperatures of molten Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu wetting on the quartz substrate with an included angle of 90°. According to the experimental results, the theoretical spreading morphology of molten solder on V-shaped substrate at corresponding temperature was simulated by Surface Evolver.

The theoretical morphology profiles of the molten solder sitting on the V-shaped substrate are simulated using Surface Evolver when the molten solder reaches spreading equilibrium. The spreading mechanisms as well as the impact of surface tension and gravity on interfacial energy of the molten solder wetting on the V-shaped groove substrate are also discussed where theoretical results agree well with experiment results. The contact area between the gas and liquid phases shows a tendency of first increasing and later decreasing. Otherwise, the spreading distance and the height of the molten solder increases as the droplet volume increases as the included angle and the contact angle are given as constants, and both the interfacial energy and the gravitational energy increase as well. This research has a wide influence on predicting the outcomes in commercial impact and also gives guidance for those complicated welding operation objects in brazing technique.

It is of very important significance in both science and practice to investigate the differences between the flat surface and V-shaped surface. Some necessary parameters including intrinsic contact angle and surface tension need to be directly measured when the droplet spreads on the flat surface. The relevant simulation conclusions on the inherent characteristics can be given based on these intrinsic parameters. Compared with the flat surface, the V-shaped substrate is chosen for further discuss on the effects of gravity on the droplet spreading behavior and the changes of apparent contact angle which can only occurs as the substrate is inclined. Therefore, this research provides theoretical method and data supports for a future study on interfacial reaction mechanism and spreading mechanism between molten solder and substrate.

The research is developed for verifying the accuracy of the model built in Surface Evolver. Based on this verified model, other researches on the spreading distance along y-axis and the contact area that are especially difficult to be experimentally measured can be directly simulated by Surface Evolver, which can provides a convenient method to discuss the changes of horizontal spreading distance, droplet height and contact area with increasing the included angle of V-shaped substrate or with increasing the droplet volume. Actually, the modeling results are calculated for supplying the theoretical parameters and technical guidance in the welding process.

This research provides theoretical method and data supports for a future study on interfacial reaction mechanism and spreading mechanism between molten solder and substrate, which has a wide influence on prediction the outcomes in commercial impact and also gives guidance for those complicated welding operation objects in brazing technique.

Surface Evolver, can also be used to discuss the structure and spreading mechanism of droplets on V-shaped substrates, which have not been discussed before.

The ergonomic performance of protective clothing for earthquake disaster search and rescue team members is significant for its protective performance. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

By experimental simulations of the rescue tasks, an evaluation system for the protective clothing in both static and dynamic conditions was designed and established in this study. In static evaluation, motion capture system was used to measure the ranges of motions. The mobility was analyzed by the comprehensive evaluation method. In dynamic experiments, three types of rescue tasks were simulated for ergonomic evaluation. The results were analyzed based on the multi-levels joint evaluation method.

It was shown that the established evaluation system could meet well with the requirements of the ergonomic evaluation.

Fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method is an effective tool in ergonomic evaluation of clothing. The newly designed coverall and suit are of better ergonomic performance compared with the in-service clothing.

Purpose – Informed by Chinese mothers from four villages, the purpose of this chapter is to address the old issue of feminization of family survival, but situated within the landscape of neoliberalism. This study investigates the interplay between Chinese patriarchal values and neoliberal ideas that have shaped the Happiness Project – Action to Aid Impoverished Mothers – an official population control program that has been combined with poverty reduction “Action.”

Methodology – This research began in 2001 in Sichuan Province, Southwest China. Over a period of three years I interviewed 48 women who were participants in the Happiness Project.

Findings – The goal of the Happiness Project is to bring “happiness” to poor mothers through the introduction of microcredit, literacy programs, and the improvement of reproductive health. Three maternal aspects of the Happiness Project, as the study indicates, coincide with three particular patriarchal values. These include an official construction of a good mother image, targeting women's bodies as objects of the state's population control, and reinforcing gender stereotypes through market activity. The findings of this research suggest that feminization of family survival coincided with achieving the goal of the Project. Mothers thus have carried a double burden on behalf of the Chinese state and their families: the goals of declining fertility and increasing family prosperity.

Social implications – Based on this outcome, the study not only calls for reevaluating this “women-only” economic development model, but also calls into question whether bringing Chinese women into public production/market activity is a path to women's emancipation under neoliberalism.

The purpose of this paper is to consider the role of accounting in the construction and maintenance of political hegemony during Mao’s People’s Commune movement in China between 1958 and 1966. Drawing on concepts of ideological power and intellectual diffusion in political and civil society from Gramsci’s theory of hegemony, it analyses the process by which accounting intellectuals established a set of socialist accounting practices to meet the political challenges of the People’s Commune.

Gramsci’s theory is adopted to examine how the accounting systems of People’s Commune acted as a mechanism that reflected Mao’s political ideas.

This paper demonstrates that the accounting system that emerged during these socio-political movements served the ideological purpose of reinforcing Mao’s political ideology and his hegemonic leadership. Accounting functioned within the spheres of both political and civil society to facilitate a national collective will, and to construct behaviours that satisfied the political requirements of the People’s Commune.

This paper will contribute to the accounting history in China from 1958 to 1966.

Installing a tight tolerant stepped shaft is not a trivial task for an industrial robot. If all peg-hole constraints are complete, the cascaded peg-in-hole task can be simplified into several independent stages and accomplished one by one. However, if some of the constraints are incomplete, the cross stage interference will bring additional difficulties. This paper aims to discuss the cascaded peg-in-hole problem with incomplete constraints.

In this paper, the problem is formulated according to geometric parameters of the stepped shaft and completeness of the corresponding hole. The possible jamming type is modeled and analyzed. A contact modeling and control strategy is proposed to compensate the peg postures under incomplete constraints.

The above methods are implemented on an experiment platform and the results verify the effectiveness of the proposed robotic assembly strategy.

Based on force/torque sensor, a hybrid control strategy for incomplete constraints cascaded peg-in-hole assembly problem is proposed.

Robots, as the crystallization of new artificial intelligence, are being applied in various fields, especially the hotel industry. They are seizing the opportunities, using technology to improve the overall quality and comprehensive competitiveness. However, they also cause many problems due to practical limitations. The purpose of this paper is to study customers' recognition and acceptance of hotel service robots to guide the successful promotion of this technology.

This paper proposed a comprehensive model based on the theory of planned behavior, the technology acceptance model and then the perceived value-based acceptance model. Exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, grouped regression analysis and path analysis was adopted to validate the impacts of each variable to obtain the final reliable model using data collected from hotel guests using a self-designed questionnaire.

The empirical research based on the theoretical model shows that the constructed conceptual model can thoroughly explain the influencing factors of hotel robot acceptance, enrich the acceptance theory and provide academic support for the use and popularization of hotel service robots. Among all variables, attitude, usefulness and perceived value are the factors that have the greatest impact on acceptance. They have significant differences in the effects of adjustment variables such as gender, educational level, whether hotel robots have been used, and whether other robot services have been experienced on different paths in the model.

This paper explored the customer acceptance of service robots in hotels, helped to understand the process of decision-making on service robot selection and contributed to the theoretical extension of the hospitality industry. The work guides hotel management to promote better-personalized products and services of robot technology in the hospitality industries.

The acceptance study on hotel service robots provides insight into the hotel industry to understand customers' attitudes and acceptance of emerging technology.

This paper aims to clarify the effects of metallic nanoparticles (NPs) additives and room temperature ionic liquids (ILs) on the tribological performance of electric contacts.

Tribological properties of copper (Cu) and silver (Ag) NPs as lubricant additives in different lubricants of ILs or polyalphaolefin (PAO) oils under applied electric currents were investigated. After tribological tests, morphologies of worn surfaces were observed; meanwhile, lubrication and anti-wear properties were analyzed.

The mixture solution of the IL and Cu NPs showed desirable lubrication and anti-wear properties due to the reduction of electrocorrosion and the enhancement of rolling effects of particles in the contact region. The anti-wear performance of Cu NPs is better than that of Ag NPs due to the difference in the particle size. The PAO oil with the Cu NPs additives showed poor lubrication properties due to the low solubility of the particles in the oil. When the direction of applied current was changed, the friction of the lubricant with better conductivity was more stable in the variation trend.

This paper begins with a study of tribological properties of Cu and Ag NPs as lubricant additives in different lubricants of IL or PAO oils under applied electric currents. The authors then propose several methods and possible solutions which could be implemented to improve the tribological performance of electric contacts.