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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.

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.

The purpose of this paper is to map and describe findings from research conducted in workspaces designed to support activity-based working (ABW) over the past 10 years (2010–2020) with a view of informing post-COVID workplaces of the positive and negative attributes of ABW.

Scopus was used as the search engine for this review. Papers which reported findings related to ABW and performed field study in ABW workspaces with adult occupants were included. Out of the 442 initial papers, 40 papers were included following iterative title and abstract and full text review process and consideration of inclusion and exclusion criteria. These papers were divided into three groupings (organizational, human and physical environment) based on their major focus. Positive and negative effects of ABW environments on occupants are discussed within these three topics in consideration of the implications for the post-COVID workplace.

Although the included studies were inclined to be either more positive (i.e. interior design) or negative (i.e. indoor environmental quality, productivity, distraction and privacy) in relation to various attributes of ABW, no single effect of ABW environments on occupants was in full agreement between the studies. The shortcomings of ABW environments are more related to how this way of working is implemented and how occupants use it, rather than the concept itself. A partial uptake of ABW leads to occupants’ dissatisfaction, lower productivity and lower well-being, while a holistic approach increases the chance of success. It is hypothesised that many currently reported negative aspects of the ABW concept might diminish overtime as ABW evolves and as new challenges arise. A continuous post-occupancy evaluation after relocation to an ABW-supportive environment can inform the organization about the changing needs and preference of the occupants; hence, the organization can tailor the ABW solution to the arising needs. The inter-connection between the three key ABW pillars (organizational, human and physical environment) is crucial to the success of this concept specifically in the context of the post-COVID-19 workplace.

This paper highlights the key shortcomings and limitations of studies produced over the past decade and identifies keys gaps in the current body of literature. It provides a new insight on how findings related to open-plan offices designed to support ABW can be categorized on the three big heading of organizational, physical and human-related aspects, and further investigates the positive and negatives outcomes reported on ABW under these headings. It also discusses how the findings arising from this literature review can inform the post-COVID workplace.

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.

In the rise of offices designed to support activity-based working (ABW), parts of industry have fully transitioned to open-plan environments and then later to unassigned seating, whereas other parts, such as tertiary education, are still in the process of moving away from individual offices. There are a few relevant studies to understand how occupants from industry sectors with different levels of adoption of ABW perceived environments designed to support this way of working. This paper aims to contribute to the knowledge gap by providing insight into workers’ satisfaction and dissatisfaction from open-plan offices designed to support ABW along with the key predictors of perceived productivity.

A data set of 2,090 post-occupancy evaluation surveys conducted in five sectors – tertiary education, finance, construction, property/asset management and design/engineering – was analyzed. ANOVA and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were conducted for the survey questionnaires. First, ANOVA tests were conducted for the whole sample with perceived productivity as the dependent variable. A seven-point Likert scale with five theoretical factors was generated with all survey questionnaires. CFA was performed to show the factor loadings. In addition, regression analyses were carried out for each of factor item taken as the independent variable, where perceived productivity was the dependent variable. Key sources of satisfaction and dissatisfaction per sector were analyzed and differences between occupants reporting a negative or positive impact on their productivity were also investigated. Finally, open-ended comments were analyzed to show the key sources of dissatisfaction based on open-ended comments.

Workers from construction were the most satisfied, followed by finance and tertiary education. Occupants from all industry sectors consistently rated their workspaces highly on biophilic and interior design. Distraction and privacy received the lowest scores from all sectors. Open-ended comments showed mismatches between spatial and behavioral dimensions of ABW both for satisfaction and perceived productivity. Interior design was the strongest predictor for perceived productivity for all sectors. Findings dispel the notion that ABW implementation may not be suitable for certain industries, as long as the three key pillars of ABW are fully implemented, including design, behavior and technology.

This paper provides insight into workers’ satisfaction and dissatisfaction from open-plan offices designed to support ABW in different industry sectors along with the key predictors of perceived productivity.