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There is explosive gas in many disaster environments. The conventional search and rescue robots are not allowed to work in these environments, since they may cause explosion. The purpose of this paper is to describe the design and development of the serpentine omnitread robot HITSR‐I for working in these areas.

HITSR‐I consists of four segments, and each segment is equipped with crawlers in the four directions. It can be operated even under the situation of sideslip without any recovering actions. There are pressed CO₂ containers and the pressurized control system inside the robot, and the shells of the robot are a fully sealed up structure. They can maintain the inside pressure higher than the outside. The robot can release the communication relay node to extend the communicating area, so it can search a large area even amid rubble.

HITSR‐I was developed with the capability of climbing over 400 mm high obstacles. The maximum travel distance was 315 m. The pressurized system could enable the robot to work in Zones 1 and 2.

Design and development of a serpentine robot which can work in hazardous areas containing explosive gas. It can travel for a long distance in ruins by releasing the communication relay nodes.

Using two nationally representative samples from 1988 and 1995, this study demonstrates that housing quality in urban China differs across time, housing types, and socioeconomic variables. But some key variables such as Communist Party membership, education, and the total family income are consistent predictors of housing quality across time and housing types. This study indicates that housing quality situations are very complex at the national level. The author concludes that more research into the quality of urban housing is needed, so that the outcomes of housing reform can be better assessed.

This paper aims to study vehicle-type strategies for the manufacturer's car sharing by accounting for consumers' behavior and the subsidy.

The authors develop a game model, in which a monopoly manufacturer that can produce gasoline vehicles (GVs) or energy vehicles (EVs) not only sells vehicles in the sales market, but also rents them out in the sharing market by the self-built platform. The manufacturer strategically chooses which type of vehicles based on consumers' behavior and whether the government provides the EVs’ subsidy.

When consumers' low-carbon awareness is relatively high or the marginal cost is low, the manufacturer chooses EVs. The manufacturer chooses GVs when the low-carbon awareness and the marginal cost are low. Only when the low-carbon awareness and the subsidy are not too low, the manufacturer who originally chose GVs launches EVs. When the low-carbon awareness is high, the excessive subsidy discourages the manufacturer from entering the sharing market. If the government provides the subsidy, the manufacturer launches high-end EVs. Otherwise, the manufacturer launches low-end EVs. Moreover, the subsidy increases consumer surplus and social welfare since the high subsidy makes EVs’ sharing market demand be negative.

This study enriches the literature on vehicle-type strategies for the manufacturer's car sharing, owns a practical significance to guide the manufacturer's operation management in the car sharing market and provides advice on whether the government should provide EVs’ subsidy.

The purpose of this study is to restore the spatial distribution of overseas remittance businesses in Shantou during the 1940s. It explores various socioeconomic factors that influenced the concentration of local remittance business investment in real estate. By reconstructing the spatial distribution of remittance business activities in Shantou, this study hopes to lay a foundation for further analysis of the business strategies of Chaoshan merchants.

This research draws on information from the published Swatow Guide, archival sources and cadastral maps to identify the location of remittance enterprises and the native place and overseas networks of property owners.

This study reveals that the spatial distribution of the remittance enterprises was determined by the native place origins of local property owners, and that the inflow of overseas Chinese capital contributed to real estate development in Shantou.

Despite the limited access to Chinese official archives, this paper manages to identify several building blocks and neighbors in Shantou for spatial analysis.

This study is the first attempt to use the geographical information system (GIS) method in Chinese urban history research and hopes to establish a larger historical database of Shantou as a sample for comparison.

This investigation advances the spatial study of urban history and overseas Chinese remittances in the maritime society of South China.