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This paper reviews the pros and cons of different parametric modeling methods, which can provide a theoretical reference for parametric reconstruction of 3D human body models for virtual fitting.

In this study, we briefly analyze the mainstream datasets of models of the human body used in the area to provide a foundation for parametric methods of such reconstruction. We then analyze and compare parametric methods of reconstruction based on their use of the following forms of input data: point cloud data, image contours, sizes of features and points representing the joints. Finally, we summarize the advantages and problems of each method as well as the current challenges to the use of parametric modeling in virtual fitting and the opportunities provided by it.

Considering the aspects of integrity and accurate of representations of the shape and posture of the body, and the efficiency of the calculation of the requisite parameters, the reconstruction method of human body by integrating orthogonal image contour morphological features, multifeature size constraints and joint point positioning can better represent human body shape, posture and personalized feature size and has higher research value.

This article obtains a research thinking for reconstructing a 3D model for virtual fitting that is based on three kinds of data, which is helpful for establishing personalized and high-precision human body models.

The assumption that the family migrates as a unit downplays migrants’ circularity. This chapter focuses on China's rural–urban labor migrants that travel back and forth between the sites of work and home community and between places of work. I argue that migrants and their households pursue work flexibility in order to obtain the best of the urban and rural worlds, by gaining earnings from urban work and at the same time maintaining social and economic security in the countryside. Work flexibility demands flexibility in household organization, in the form of division of labor and collaboration between genders, generations, and households. Based on a study in Sichuan, I examine household biographies and narratives to identify migrants’ work and household strategies.

Migrants change jobs frequently, switch from one type of work to another and one location to another readily, and often return to the home village for months or even years before pursuing migrant work again. Not only are migrants ready to split the household between the city and the countryside, but also they frequently change from one form of division of labor to another. The inside–outside model, where the wife stays in the village and the husband does migrant work, used to be the dominant arrangement. Over time, the outside–outside model, where both the husband and wife migrate to work and leave behind other family members, is increasingly popular. This is facilitated by intergenerational and interhousehold division of labor in the form of assistance by the extended family. Intergenerational division of labor takes place when the second generation is replacing the parents in migrant work. This research's findings support the notion that rural–urban migrants are fast becoming a hybrid segment of Chinese society, playing dual roles of farmers and urban workers and straddling the peasant and urban worlds.

The operational framework of external financing in the correlation between the gender of entrepreneurs and firm performance remains to be resolved. This study aims to investigate the mediating effect of external financing on gender-based disparities in private firm performance and to explore its heterogeneity within the Chinese context.

Based on national data from the 10th to 13th Chinese Private Enterprise Survey, this study used a bootstrap-based mediation effect model to analyze the role of external financing as a mediator in the relationship between entrepreneur gender and firm performance.

This study found that external financing is a constructive mediator between entrepreneur gender and firm performance. Heterogeneity analysis revealed that external financing plays a complementary mediation role in the impact of entrepreneur gender on performance in West China. In the tertiary industry, external financing acts as the sole mediator for the impact of gender on firm performance. Notably, this mediating effect is present in non-startups but not in startups.

The findings suggest that external financing can improve the firm performance of female entrepreneurs. Governments and policymakers should strengthen financial support for female entrepreneurs in West China, tertiary industry and non-startup enterprises.

This paper contributes to the literature on gender and corporate governance by shedding light on the mediating role of external financing in the relationship between the gender of business owners and firm performance.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the housing behaviors of rural-urban migrant workers in China and the associated socioeconomic determinants.

The authors developed a model to empirically identify the effects of income in multi-dimension, destination expected to live in the future, local housing policy, and a set of individual characteristics on housing-related expenditure and home purchase of rural-urban migrants. A survey data collected by the Development Research Center of the State Council was employed.

The results showed that migrants’ expecting place to live in the future is a significant factor influencing their housing-related decisions. Including migrant workers in local housing security system of the host city could also significantly improve their incentive to purchase home. Income jointly with income stability affects migrants’ housing-related expenditure positively, but has an insignificant effect on home purchases in host city. The cost to buy home in city is still far away from migrant’s affordability is a likely explanation.

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study aiming to investigate rural-urban migrants’ housing behavior in host city and to empirically identify the associated influencing factors.

Ride comfort is one of the important factors affecting passenger health. Therefore, the elevator industry usually uses the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 18738-1 standard to evaluate elevator ride quality and optimize elevator design. However, this method has certain limitations in its evaluation of comfort due to the problem of boundary division. The ISO 2631-4 standard is used as a general method of comfort evaluation in the current rail transit system, but it has not been applied in the elevator industry. In order to explore the difference and connection between the two standards, the author aims to conduct a detailed analysis on this.

Based on the elevator internet, a large amount of measured data of normal and abnormal vibration of elevator car were collected and analyzed and preprocessed; based on ISO 18738-1:2012 standard and ISO 2631-4:2001 standard, the differences of ride comfort assessment methods in the two standards were analyzed, and the ride comfort assessment study of elevator under normal and abnormal vibration conditions was carried out.

The experimental results show that the comfort assessment results of ISO 2631-4:2001 standard and ISO18738-1:2012 standard are consistent under two vibration conditions. At the same time, ISO 2631-4:2001 can not only provide a more accurate quantitative description of comfort, but also roughly determine the comfort interval of each vibration, which can provide theoretical reference for elevator vibration classification and car comfort design.

The authors designed an Internet of Things (IOT)-based elevator vibration signal acquisition method to address the shortcomings of the previous elevator ride comfort assessment methods, which can realize the dynamic assessment of elevator ride comfort; by comparing the assessment results of elevator ride comfort under normal vibration and abnormal vibration, the feasibility of ISO 2631-4:2001 for elevator ride comfort assessment was fully verified. In addition, the experimental results also give the influence of abnormal vibration on elevator riding comfort under the stages of start-stop, uniform speed, acceleration and deceleration, which can provide theoretical support for elevator vibration suppression and comfort transformation.

The purpose of this paper is to quantify the barriers to the use of integrated project delivery (IPD), as assessed by 115 construction professionals in Malaysia.

Barriers recording highest citation amongst researchers worldwide were collated in the form of a conceptual model. This model was validated via a partial least squares structural equation modelling technique.

Findings advance the body of knowledge on IPD by providing original insights into the nature of key barriers, quantifying the relative importance of each barrier.

Despite the above-mentioned contributions, and before drawing any conclusion, it is prudent to acknowledge limitations, particularly the chosen research approach in focusing on the Malaysian context. Therefore, caution must be exercised in direct application of findings to other contexts; research findings should be seen through the lens of moderatum generalisations (see Payne and Williams, 2005).

Apart from contributions to the body of knowledge, for the world of practice, conditions impacting a transition to IPD are discussed, with a recommendation for change management through a tested mechanism like the European Corporate Sustainability Framework.

Being the first empirical study undertaken to quantify the relationship among the identified barriers and IPD, the present study contributes to the field by addressing the gap in IPD research in Malaysia, as an exemplar of a developing country; it creates knowledge to inform further improvements in project performance through facilitating IPD use. The study also offers insight to construction stakeholders in other developing countries for tackling issues that hinder the adoption of an IPD approach, and it also points to major barriers such that resources for tackling barriers may be allocated properly.

The purpose of this paper is to bring into the public domain converging ways of thinking about reality and human systems, exploring parallels between the theory of Physical Vacuum and the concept of Qi in Medical Qigong science.

The approach adopted in this paper includes: review of the relevant literature; dialogues between the first two authors over an eight-month period; review of the findings and discussion of interpretations by all.

There is evidence for the existence of an ideal information field. This field is a real space-time torsion structure. Qi is a torsion field. It spreads with superluminal velocity and connects the whole Universe. Any entity is in a constant dynamic connection with everything else in the Universe.

This paper offers limited discussion of the wider area of scientific discoveries.

The findings may impact future interdisciplinary research, health/well-being practices and public policy.

There is no known to us publication interpreting the parallels between the theory of the Physical Vacuum and the concept of Qi.