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Mechanoreception is crucial for robotic planning and control applications, and for robotic fingers, mechanoreception is generally obtained through tactile sensors. As a new type of robotic finger, the soft finger also requires mechanoreception, like contact force and object stiffness. Unlike rigid fingers, soft fingers have elastic structures, meaning there is a connection between force and deformation of the soft fingers. It allows soft fingers to achieve mechanoreception without using tactile sensors. This study aims to provide a mechanoreception sensing scheme of the soft finger without any tactile sensors.

This research uses bending sensors to measure the actual bending state under force and calculates the virtual bending state under assumed no-load conditions using pressure sensors and statics model. The difference between the virtual and actual finger states is the finger deformation under load, and its product with the finger stiffness can be used to calculate the contact force. There are distinctions between the virtual and actual finger state change rates in the pressing process. The difference caused by the stiffness of different objects is different, which can be used to identify the object stiffness.

Contact force perception can achieve a detection accuracy of 0.117 N root mean square error within the range of 0–6 N contact force. The contact object stiffness perception has a detection average deviation of about 15%, and the detection standard deviation is 10% for low-stiffness objects and 20% for high-stiffness objects. It performs better at detecting the stiffness of low-stiffness objects, which is consistent with the sensory ability of human fingers.

This paper proposes a universal mechanoreception method for soft fingers that only uses indispensable bending and pressure sensors without tactile sensors. It helps to reduce the hardware complexity of soft robots. Meanwhile, the soft finger no longer needs to deploy the tactile sensor at the fingertip, which can benefit the optimization design of the fingertip structure without considering the complex sensor installation. On the other hand, this approach is no longer confined to adding components needed. It can fully use the soft robot body’s physical elasticity to convert sensor signals. Essentially, It treats the soft actuators as soft sensors.

The structural adaptive ability of the soft robot is fully demonstrated in the grasping task of the soft hand. A soft hand can easily realize the envelope operation of the object without planning. With the continuous development of robot applications, researchers are no longer satisfied with the ability of the soft hand to grasp. The purpose of this paper is to perceive the object’s shape while grasping to provide a decision-making basis for more intelligent robot applications.

This paper proposes a dual-signal comparison method to obtain the fingertip position. The dual signal includes the displacement calculated by the static model without considering the external load change and the displacement calculated by the bending sensor. The dual-signal comparison method can use the obvious change trend difference between the above two signals in the hover and contact states to identify the touch position. The authors make the soft hand scan around the object through touch operation to detect the object’s shape, and the tracks of every touch fingertip position can envelop the object’s shape.

The experimental results show that the dual-signal comparison method can accurately identify the contact moment of soft fingers. This detection method makes the soft hand develop the shape detection ability. The soft hand in the experiment can perceive squares, circles and a few other complex shapes.

The dual-signal comparison method proposed in this paper can detect a touch action by using the signal change trend when the working condition suddenly changes with the rough robotic model and sensing, thus improving the utilization value of the measured signal. The problems of large model errors and inaccurate sensors also negatively impact the use of other soft robots. It is generally difficult to achieve good results by directly using these models and sensors with the thinking of rigid robot analysis. The dual-signal comparison method in this paper can provide some reference for this aspect.

This paper aims to understand the implication of night soil selling at the public toilets for the shared interests between colonial state and business in nineteenth-century Hong Kong. More specifically, this paper attempts to look at the ways the toilets were sustained by the sharing interests over night soil profits between state and business sector.

It is argued from the political economy perspective that the night soil profit determined the public toilet development.

The successful emergence of the modern state of colonies was generally attributed to colonial modernization, a force that was widely recognized for having introduced hygienic modernity. It was easily assumed that the public toilets would be provided by colonial government. Instead, sanitary problems during the early colonization of this colony were addressed by the privately-owned public pail toilets provided by big Chinese landowners through the selling of night soil. Based on this quasi-commercial mode, these toilets, which served as night soil collection points, were certainly inefficient; they however survived for half a century into the early twentieth century.

The paper challenges the long-established assumptions of binary relations and hierarchical public roles that put them into zero-sum competition of capacity. It rather argues that the interests aligned with each other.

Individuals with intellectual disability (ID), mental health needs and criminal justice system involvement are likely to be admitted to forensic units; however, not all of those individuals are served in that system. It is, therefore, important to understand the profile of those admitted to non‐forensic specialized units for individuals with ID and mental health issues. This paper aims to address this issue.

Demographic, clinical and criminal profiles of individuals discharged over nine years from a specialized dual diagnosis program were reviewed to delineate clinical subgroups.

A total of 20 out of 84 total discharges were identified as having past or current criminal justice system involvement. The most common offence was assault and 60 per cent of these individuals had admissions longer than one year. Subgroups by psychiatric diagnosis differed in their age, legal status, offence history, and length of hospital stay, as well as in therapeutic interventions and discharge process.

The results suggest that inpatients with ID and criminal justice system involvement present with unique treatment, support and risk management needs based on psychiatric diagnosis. The number of individuals in clinical subgroups was low, thus further research is needed to determine if the observed patterns hold true in bigger samples.

The study delineates the complexity and heterogeneity of treatment and supports needs of individuals with intellectual disabilities and offending behaviour.

The purpose of this research is to investigate how generalisable the public service motivation (PSM) observed in Western society is to China and to examine the effects of public service motivation on job satisfaction.

Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis techniques are applied to survey data of 191 public servants in China to investigate the generalisability of Western PSM. Using hierarchical regression analysis, the paper examines the effects of the dimensions of PSM on job satisfaction.

The results show that the public service motivation observed in the West exists in China, but the generalisability of the construct is limited. Three of the four dimensions of public service motivation (attraction to public policy making, commitment to the public interest, and self‐sacrifice) exist in China, but the fourth dimension (compassion) is unconfirmed.

The paper is the first to examine the generalisability and instrumentality of PSM as observed in Western society to China. The results indicate that the public service motivation observed in the West also exists in China, but that the generalisability is limited. Public service motivation emerges from the results as a positively significant predictor of job satisfaction in the public sector of China. It enhances the applicability and meaningfulness of the concept of public service motivation across political and cultural environments.

The Hausawas are the largest ethnic group in sub-Saharan Africa, and significantly influence trade and development in the region (Limbs & Fort, 2000; Sabiu & Sarwar, 2019). They are highly entrepreneurial and have participated in international trade for centuries, particularly along the trans-Sahara. Historically, the Hausas have been considered one of Africa’s major trading powers. As of the twelfth century ad, their trading prowess was only rivalled by that of the Mali Empire and the Kanem-Bornu Empire (Sabiu, Zainol, & Abdullah, 2019).

Much can be learnt from indigenous Hausa culture of responsible management. Unfortunately, due to its multiple acculturative history, many aspects of this culture have not been properly preserved. Using historical sources, proverbs, and folktales, the author reclaims key cultural practices, values, and attitudes of the Hausa people that promote responsible management. Prominent amongst these values are kirki, respect for human dignity, spirit of work, being responsible, and honesty.

Copper‐clad polyimide glass laminates that pass the GPY/Polyimide Specifications of IPC‐L‐108A have been developed using the Michael reaction of bismaleimide and m‐aminophenol. The addition reaction of m‐aminophenol to N‐phenylmaleimide has been confirmed from NMR, IR, and ultimate analysis. The peel strength of copper‐clad laminates is 1·8–2·0 kg/cm. The coefficient of expansion in the Z direction (25°C–246°C) is 0·96%. The glass transition temperature with post‐curing for an hour at 250°C is about 295°C. Water absorption by IPC‐L‐108A is 0·25%.

It often becomes necessary to analyse a grease for a variety of reasons:

This chapter critically evaluates whether football can attain recognition as a national sport in China. Article No. 11, released by the Chinese government in 2015, aimed to develop a new national strategy centralised on the sport of football to foster consumption and enhance national soft power. Consequently, this also means encouraging Chinese football fans to support the national football team. Comparing the significance of local football clubs and the national football team to Chinese football fans is deemed meaningless and unable to generate useful information to comprehend Chinese people's attitudes towards local and national communities. Through literature comparisons with established Chinese national sports such as Chinese martial arts, badminton and table tennis, the discussion reveals that football currently falls short of meeting the general criteria of invention and popularity to be considered a Chinese national sport. In the specific Chinese context, it also proves that football fails to meet the criterion of politics, hindering its identification as a national sport. Consequently, the chapter rebuts the assumption and advocates for the validity of comparing how fans assess their fandom for local and national football teams.