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This study aims to propose a visualized model of hot technology evolution to describe its development.

The basic concept is to divide a technological field into a timeline consisting of several patent clusters. Hot technology trajectories are then explored using their continuity, as well as the point in time at which they occur.

Patents in orthopaedics between 1999 and 2014 have been chosen as the research subjects and the field is divided into several hot technology trajectories. A further step is taken by interpreting high-frequency key terms. Three categories – spine-related materials, bone repairing materials and bone plates – have been identified.

The trajectories presented by evolving diagrams allow readers to understand the evolution of hot technology and help analysts to plan layout and strategies to remain competitive.

Patent clusters reflect the knowledge context of technology development. Previous studies have focused on only new technology evolution and have rarely explored the knowledge context of hot patents that have been frequently cited in recent years. Such patents often guide the development of technology.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a new framework and improve a bi-directional people counting technique using an RGB-D camera to obtain accurate results with fast computation time. Therefore, it can be used in real-time applications.

First, image calibration is proposed to obtain the ratio and shift values between the depth and the RGB image. In the depth image, a person is detected as foreground by removing the background. Then, the region of interest (ROI) of the detected people is registered based on their location and mapped to an RGB image. Registered people are tracked in RGB images based on the channel and spatial reliability. Finally, people were counted when they crossed the line of interest (LOI) and their displacement distance was more than 2 m.

It was found that the proposed people counting method achieves high accuracy with fast computation time to be used in PCs and embedded systems. The precision rate is 99% with a computation time of 35 frames per second (fps) using a PC and 18 fps using the NVIDIA Jetson TX2.

The precision rate is 99% with a computation time of 35 frames per second (fps) using a PC and 18 fps using the NVIDIA Jetson TX2.

The proposed method can count the number of people entering and exiting a room at the same time. If the previous systems were limited to only one to two people in a frame, this system can count many people in a frame. In addition, this system can handle some problems in people counting, such as people who are blocked by others, people moving in another direction suddenly, and people who are standing still.

Pay for performance has been studied in Western nations, but much less so in China and its non‐public enterprises. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the current situation of pay for performance in China's non‐public firms, specifically the importance of pay for performance in the current pay system and reasons for adopting pay for performance plans by the management.

A multi‐case study of non‐public sector, knowledge intensive firms based in Shanghai, China is presented. In total, 12 private‐owned, joint ventures and multinational companies from pharmaceutical, information technology and investment industries are included.

This paper explores that pay for performance has been widely used in non‐public sector as an important component of the employee pay mix. Performance also plays a role as a key norm in employee pay determinant plans. Three major factors are identified as reasons for management to apply pay for performance plans. The first concerns external factors – market practices/best practices; while the other two factors are internal reasons – the need to attract and retain good performers as well as the need to improve employee performance.

This paper discusses the content and context changes of pay for performance practices in China after the economic reforms in 1978 to present. It is now evident that Chinese firms are becoming much more receptive to performance‐oriented rewards.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of light intensity and sources of carbon and nitrogen on the cultivation of Spirulina maxima.

Cultures were carried out in a modified Zarrouk medium using urea, sodium acetate and glycerol. A Taguchi experimental design was used to evaluate the effect on the production of biocompounds: productivities in biomass, carbohydrates, phycocyanin and biochar were analyzed.

Statistical data analysis revealed that light intensity and sodium acetate concentration were the most important factors, being significant in three of the four response variables studied. The highest productivities in biomass (46.94 mg.L⁻¹.d⁻¹), carbohydrates (6.11 mg.L⁻¹.d⁻¹), phycocyanin (3.62 mg.L⁻¹.d⁻¹) and biochar (22, 48 mg.L⁻¹.d⁻¹) were achieved in experiment 4 of the Taguchi matrix, highlighting as the ideal condition for the production of biomass, carbohydrates and phycocyanin.

Sodium acetate and urea can be considered, respectively, as potential sources of carbon and nitrogen to increase Spirulina maxima productivity. From the results, an optimized cultivation condition for the sustainable production of bioproducts was obtained.

This work focuses on the study of the influence of light intensity and the use of alternative sources of nitrogen and carbon on the growth of Spirulina maxima, as well as on the influence on the productivity of biomass and biocompounds. There are few studies in the literature focused on the phycocyanin production from microalgae, justifying the need to deepen the subject.