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The purpose of this paper is to provide a novel methodology based on two-level protection for ensuring safety of the moving human who enters the robot’s workspace, which is significant for dealing with the problem of human security in a human-robot coexisting environment.

In this system, anyone who enters the robot’s working space is detected by using the Kinect and their skeletons are calculated by the interval Kalman filter in real time. The first-level protection is mainly based on the prediction of the human motion, which used Gaussian mixture model and Gaussian Mixture Regression. However, even in cases where the prediction of human motion is incorrect, the system can still safeguard the human by enlarging the initial bounding volume of the human as the second-level early warning areas. Finally, an artificial potential field with some additional avoidance strategies is used to plan a path for a robot manipulator.

Experimental studies on the GOOGOL GRB3016 robot show that the robot manipulator can accomplish the predetermined tasks by circumventing the human, and the human does not feel dangerous.

This study presented a new framework for ensuring human security in a human-robot coexisting environment, and thus can improve the reliability of human-robot cooperation.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze and discuss the application of buffer zones as an urban landscape heritage management tool, using Rio de Janeiro as the main case study, in order to inform urban regulation around the sites inscribed as World Heritage Cultural Landscape and disclose its relevance to link urban planning, cultural heritage management and sustainable development.

The methodological approach encompasses: conceptual framework – contextualization of heritage protection theory, focusing on landscape protection and buffer zones; discussion: cross-national comparative overview of buffer zones conceptual framework on the international heritage protection policy; historical background and spatial analysis, through GIS mapping, of local heritage protection policy, tracing its evolution through time; examination of prospects and challenges of this management tool, including strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, based on previous international, local experiences on natural and cultural heritage protection; and gathering of strategies for the implementation of buffer zones in local landscape management.

Core heritage sites and their buffer zones are integrated elements and act together to protect landscape significance and dynamic integrity (DI). In Rio de Janeiro, beyond the function of a caution zone, other important functions of landscape heritage buffer zones are to guarantee spatial and social connections of the protected sites, as well as the visual relationship between them and other significant urban landscape features. Strategies for the implementation of buffer zones in local landscape management should address the articulation of landscape protection governance; the conservation of visual, functional and structural identity quality and legibility and the monitoring of DI.

The methodology approach adopted in this study may also benefit from and foster further investigations, which could include the elaboration of a landscape management plan and an impact assessment inventory, refining the scale of study to the level of local watersheds, and a deeper examination of the popular cultural imprints within the World Heritage property buffer zone.

Strategies to the implementation of the Carioca Landscapes buffer zone include a gradation of protection and control of impacts according to the distance of the core sites (in the form of rings or layers). The buffer zone should help to preserve the character, significance, and DI of the protected sites and guarantee their spatial and social connections, as well as the visual and functional relationship between them and between other significant landscape features of the city. All those management strategies should be founded on the elaboration of a broad urban landscape management plan with the local society involvement.

In Rio de Janeiro’s specific case, bridging the vision of culture and nature as opposite poles and, transcending the social segregation through community involvement should certainly be among the main guiding principles to the application of buffer zones for supporting landscape sustainability. Therefore, the establishment of regulation criteria and parameters within the limits of the buffer zone must acknowledge that the (urban) landscape should carefully articulate the different social agent visions and local urban contexts.

The main contribution of this paper is to gather different visions of the role of buffer zones and disclose possibilities of conciliation between theory and practice concerning landscape protection, arguing for gathering natural and cultural heritage policies into the urban planning processes. Harnessed together, the suggested buffer zone implementation strategies may provide a proactive approach to Rio’s urban landscape protection and contribute to foster landscape sustainability and resilience. Although based on a specific case study, the adopted methodological approach may be transferable, with some adjustments, to other World Heritage properties, especially those located in urban areas under development pressures.

Trade in counterfeit products has been expanding continuously. The emergence of the internet, the process of globalisation as well as the increase of digitalisation have enabled counterfeit products to infiltrate legitimate supply chains, causing harm not only to national economies but also to holders of intellectual property rights (IPR). In this chapter, we analyse the possible solutions that holders of IP rights and their legal representatives have in their fight against the online sale of counterfeit products. To elaborate on this issue, first, we explain the legislation on an international level for IPR protection and its specific characteristics. We explain the conventions on the protection of IPR that are governed by the World Intellectual Protection Organisation (WIPO) and the provisions of the TRIPS (Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights) Agreement governed by the World Trade Organisation (WTO). We also analyse the national legislative procedure of protecting and enforcing IPR in North Macedonia to explain a possible solution to fight online counterfeit trade. As a case study of this chapter, we explain the work of the Online Enforcement Programme of REACT as a not-for-profit organisation with over 30 years of experience in the fight against counterfeit trade and the challenges that they have in fighting against the online sale of counterfeit products. Since IP law is territorial in its nature as a conclusion, we suggest that a more centralised approach is needed in the fight against the online sale of counterfeit products.

Only recently have historic concrete buildings received attention and the need for their protection has been understood. Their listing as architectural heritage in most countries is ruled by legislations. The research carried out within the framework of the CONSECH20 JPI project on the conservation of historic concrete buildings in the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Italy and the Netherlands has allowed to study the legislations in the four aforementioned countries and how these are brought to practice. This paper aims at the evaluation of these legislations and of their function in practice.

The legislations have been examined focussing on the protection of historic buildings and the guidelines to achieve a correct technical conservation. These were assessed in practical situations. The situations of the four countries were studied and the parameters used allowed comparisons.

Concrete buildings are at risk and the guidelines should be further developed to meet actual conservation needs, including historical and aesthetical compatibility. The re-use of listed concrete buildings often means transforming and adapting these to a variety of modern needs and norms: the complexity of this assignment asks for a multidisciplinary teamwork. The bottom-up Dutch programme for quality in conservation, striving to bring ethical and technological principles to practice, could be a sound basis for developing respectful conservation strategies of heritage concrete buildings.

The research concerns the four countries involved in the CONSECH30 project and could be extended to include more countries.

More stakeholders have to be involved in the process of conservation and transformation of heritage concrete buildings. This should be directed by the legislation.

No direct social implications are foreseen from the outcome of the research. However, the suggestion is made that social involvement is essential in planning concrete building transformations.

The study focussed on the application of theory (the legislation) to practice (thus showing the limits of the legislation), which is an innovative way of contributing to the conservation of historic concrete buildings.

Legal deposit is the requirement that particular types of material be deposited with a national library or designated research libraries. US law does not at present include any requirement for the deposit of works that exist solely in the form of Web pages. For digital materials, it makes no sense to write rules for legal deposit based on the medium. Nations and national libraries that ignore legal deposit for digital works will find themselves missing a significant and unrecoverable portion of their cultural heritage.

Given the changing role of patents within enterprises, this research aims to investigate the link between patent management and technological innovation performance in Chinese high‐tech enterprises. Also, from theoretical underpinnings this study highlights the managerial implications of effective patent management which will lead to enhanced technological innovation performance.

Hypotheses related to patent management and technological innovation performance in Chinese high‐tech enterprises have been developed based on a review of the literature and related field interviews. Data has been collected from 118 high‐tech enterprises using questionnaires and analyzed using regression and SEM analysis.

Patent acquisition has a positive impact on both protection and commercialization of patents. Considered together, the combination of patent acquisition and commercialization has a positive impact on technological innovation performance in high‐tech enterprises. While patent protection positively affects patent commercialization, it has no direct effect on economic or societal performance. Therefore, the key factors to enhance the link between patent management and technological innovation performance of Chinese high‐tech enterprises are effective patent acquisition and subsequent commercialization.

From a resource‐based view, this paper delineates the concept of patent management and validates the link between patent management and technological innovation performance. To the authors' knowledge, it is a relatively new perspective to explore patent management based on a micro‐level.

This paper aims to highlight the surprises awaiting executives making the transition from functional to general management responsibilities – and offer a guidance system to help general managers (GMs) focus their efforts.

The paper is based on extensive discussions with and informal surveys of executives.

General management responsibilities differ greatly from functional responsibilities, both in degree and in kind. The gap is larger than most executives anticipate. The big surprises are not always those that they expected. The way companies prepare executives for general management can generate problems of its own.

GMs need a guidance system for diagnosing where to spend their time and a system for exerting influence – and the paper provides a template.

The paper identifies the ways in which the move into general management presents a massive increase in the complexity of responsibilities for executives and why it is so challenging for many. The framework helps GMs anticipate and master the challenge of general management – and helps them prepare and develop their own subordinates for a similar move.

Using administrative data from the Spanish Social Security Administration, the purpose of this paper is to analyse the nature and stability of job matches starting during the economic boom in 2005 and during the recession in 2009.

The authors compare the individual, job, and firm characteristics in the two samples and estimate a competing risk model distinguishing job-to-job, job-to-unemployment, and other transitions.

The authors find that job-to-job transitions are pro-cyclical, while unemployment transitions are counter-cyclical. Individuals most affected by the economic crisis tend to be young males, living in regions with high unemployment rates, with low qualifications and working in manual occupations (particularly construction), and (especially Spanish speaking) immigrants.

The positive relation between job stability and firm size is stronger during the recession than during the boom.