Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Services and Operations Management

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Services and Operations Management are now available here for free:

• Modelling the drilling crew induced process disruption factors using an ISM – MICMAC approach
• An effective model and algorithm for two-stage assembly flow shop problems
• Work life balance of women labours in Tannery Industry – a comparative empirical study
• Impact of consumer education and knowledge on purchase intentions within services industry: a study of symbiotic analysis in Mexico
• Carsharing customer demand forecasting using causal, time series and neural network methods: a case study
• Waste management by application of quality control tools in the manufacturing industry – a case study
• A neural networks model for green supplier selection

Detecting tongue cancer

Progress in image processing has allowed many advances in medicine. Work published in the International Journal of Biomedical Engineering and Technology now shows how an efficient and optimised system for image processing can be used to distinguish cancerous lesions on the tongue from other non-cancerous features.

Mahnoor Rasheed, Ishtiaq Ahmad, Sumbal Zahoor, Muhammad, and Nasir Khan of The University of Lahore in Pakistan, point out that tongue cancer is a rare form of cancer, but nevertheless can be very debilitating and in the worst cases just as lethal as other cancers. Advanced and precise early detection of cancer of any kind can lead to a better prognosis and outcome for the patient.

The new approach to tongue cancer detection involves a two-step process. In the first, advanced filtering techniques are applied to “clean” images by removing noise from the micrographs obtained from tissue cultures. In the second phase, the image is segmented to allow the computer algorithm to analyse the details in the image and discern those features associated with cancer. The team tested three segmentation and detection techniques and while all three worked well, the most efficient and accurate was the marker controlled watershed method.

The team explains that the field of medical science for the detection of cancerous cells in different parts of the body is vast and challenging. An iteration of this sort focusing on a specific form of cancer takes medicine a step forward in this ongoing battle.

Rasheed, M., Ahmad, I., Zahoor, S. and Khan, M.N. (2020) ‘An efficient and optimised system for detection of cancerous cells in tongue’, Int. J. Biomedical Engineering and Technology, Vol. 34, No. 4, pp.391–412.

Free sample articles newly available from African Journal of Economic and Sustainable Development

The following sample articles from the African Journal of Economic and Sustainable Development are now available here for free:

• Forecasting diagnostic imaging utilisation rate for effective healthcare delivery
• Total factor productivity growth and human development: the role of remittances in Africa
• A conceptual framework of innovation for economic diversification, national competitiveness and sustainable development
• Stability analysis and technical efficiency of major cereal crops in Ethiopia: a stochastic frontier approach

Special issue published: "Virtual and Augmented Reality in Industry and Logistics"

International Journal of Simulation and Process Modelling 15(6) 2020

• Effectiveness of acoustic AR-TA agent using localised footsteps corresponding to audience members' participating attitudes
• Enabling outdoor MR capabilities for head mounted displays: a case study
• Augmented reality-based solar system for e-magazine with 3-D audio effect
• Interactive design and architecture by using virtual reality, augmented reality and 3D printing
• Middleware for running and debugging Taverna workflows utilising RESTful web services
• A seawater RO desalination process driven by dynamic pressure of high-speed seawater droplets
• Staff scheduling in restaurants where hall staff and robots cooperate
• Simulation-based trajectory tracking coordination of intelligent vehicle with explicit model prediction

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Industrial and Systems Engineering

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Industrial and Systems Engineering are now available here for free:

• Innovation in ergonomics: a survey in the agribusiness sector of Brazil
• Adaptive online successive constant rebalanced portfolio based on moving window
• Supply chain coordination and decisions under effort-dependent demand and customer balking behaviour
• Fleet dimensioning and scheduling in the Brazilian ethanol industry: a fuzzy logic approach
• Supply chain performance measurement systems: a qualitative review and proposed conceptual framework
• Fostering systematic eco-innovation in an industrial symbiosis environment using DEMATEL
• Using social network analysis for industrial plant layout analysis in the context of industry 4.0

Research pick: Conflict and environment - "Can Nigeria build a sustainable democratic society in midst of environmental degradation and conflict?"

In the face of ongoing conflict and environmental degradation, how might a nation, such as Nigeria, build a democracy that might be sustained? That is the question addressed by work published in the International Journal of Sustainable Society.

Adaora Osondu-Oti of the Department of International Relations and Diplomacy in the College of Social and Management Sciences at Afe Babalola University has studied environmental degradation across Niger Delta and the attendant conflict in that part of the world using a qualitative case-study approach.

“Niger Delta is one of the most polluted cities in the world with resultant conflict that has caused immeasurable harm to the people,” writes Osondu-Oti. She suggests that the Nigerian government must work assiduously towards ensuring environmental sustainability and responding to the plights of the people. This is the peaceful route towards a sustainable democratic society amid the double jeopardies of environmental degradation and conflict.

The region, Osondu-Oti says, has suffered massive pollution of land, water, flora, and fauna, which have decimated the resources on which it depends since oil was first discovered in the Niger Delta in the 1960s. It is said that democracy is receding and the people in such places are not benefiting from its promise in the way that they had hoped.

“Economic, social, and environmental sustainability are crucial for legitimacy, smooth functioning, and ultimately the sustainability of democracy,” Osondu-Oti writes. “Yet, little steps are being made towards achieving sustainability in the country, as evident in the Niger Delta region.”

Osondu-Oti, A. (2020) ‘Can Nigeria build a sustainable democratic society in midst of environmental degradation and conflict?’, Int. J. Sustainable Society, Vol. 12, No. 4, pp.326–341.

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Global Warming

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Global Warming are now available here for free:

• The assessment of air quality in the Port of Ambarlı and several districts of Istanbul
• Multi-perspective influence mechanism analysis and multi-scenario prediction of China's carbon emissions
• Methodological framework for adopting sustainable transport measures
• Social selection analysis for a role of nuclear power generation by evolutionary game theory in the aspect of global warming assessment
• Sedge for biogas production and improving the process by pretreating sedge prior to co-digestion
• Analysis of carbon sequestration by dominant trees in urban areas of Thane city

Special issue published: "Managing Innovation and Sustainable Development in the Era of Industry 4.0"

International Journal of Technology Management 84(3/4) 2020

• Consideration of the strategic market competitiveness under the implementation of Industry 4.0
• Innovation strategy of enterprise's financial audit informatisation in the era of Industry 4.0
• The profit model design and development strategy of Industry 4.0 under the concept of green and low-carbon
• Innovation method for centralised management and control mode of enterprise financial audit under the background of Industry 4.0
• Management and control of economic cost and analysis of investment effect in small and medium-sized enterprises under the background of Industry 4.0
• Qualitative analysis of intellectual property forgery in manufacturing enterprises in Industry 4.0 environment
• Enterprise strategy matching of technology merger and performance under competition-cooperation environment

Research pick: Scheduling staff and restaurant robots - "Staff scheduling in restaurants where hall staff and robots cooperate"

Once we emerge from the Covid pandemic, there will remain a need for some level of social distancing in public places such as restaurants or at the very least an increase in automation for serving and billing. Writing in the International Journal of Simulation and Process Modelling, a team from Japan has investigated how restaurants might best manage scheduling when staff are working alongside robotic counterparts.

Takashi Tanizaki of Kindai University, Takeshi Shimmura of Ritsumeikan University, Nobutada Fujii of Kobe University, and Antonio Oliveira Nzinga Rene of Toyama Prefectural University, explain that the use of robots in the workplace has increased in recent years. Robots can carry out the more mundane, or low-value-added, tasks that are perceived as too menial for staff. This also frees up employees to improve customer relations, boost return visits to an establishment, and even improve profit margins for the owners.

In all, the team suggests that balancing customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, and management satisfaction may well be mutually exclusive to some degree. The team’s study has focused on finding a way to boost all three without any increase in one leading to a negative impact on the others.

“The simulation results show that increasing the utilisation of robots for low value-added work and hall staff for high value-added work with customer contact contributes to improvements in customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, and management satisfaction in restaurants,” the team writes.

The question remains though…how much do you tip a robot?

Tanizaki, T., Shimmura, T., Fujii, N. and Rene, A.O.N. (2020) ‘Staff scheduling in restaurants where hall staff and robots cooperate’, Int. J. Simulation and Process Modelling, Vol. 15, No. 6, pp.571–583.

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Grid and Utility Computing

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Grid and Utility Computing are now available here for free:

• Testing of network security systems through DoS, SQL injection, reverse TCP and social engineering attacks
• Scheduling communication-intensive applications on Mesos
• Implementation of a high-presence immersive traditional crafting system with remote collaborative work support
• Dijkstra algorithm-based ray tracing for tunnel-like structures
• Identifying journalistically relevant social media texts using human and automatic methodologies
• Hardware support for thread synchronisation in an experimental manycore system
• A smart network and compute-aware Orchestrator to enhance QoS on cloud-based multimedia services
• A new overlay P2P network for efficient routing in group communication with regular topologies
• Detection and mitigation of collusive interest flooding attack on content centric networking
• A novel web image retrieval method: bagging weighted hashing based on local structure information
• A real-time matching algorithm using sparse matrix

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Business Information Systems

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Business Information Systems are now available here for free:

• Behavioural intentional to use computers among educators
• How do YouTubers make money? A lesson learned from the most subscribed YouTuber channels
• Contributions from organisational collaboration to business intelligence solutions success
• The effect of organisational culture on creativity and innovation processes (case study: Tondar Department of IKCO)
• Portfolio of IT investment and organisational performance. Moderating role of decentralised decision making
• Does information system technology succeed in helping manage debt?
• A conceptual model of institutional information culture and interpersonal conflict which influence the information system success: user's perception

Special issue published: "An Overview of Business Management of Innovation and Intellectual Property in Ibero and Latin America"

International Journal of Intellectual Property Management 10(4) 2020

• 20 years later: what has changed in the Brazilian seed market with the Plant Variety Protection Law?
• The gender gap in intellectual property in Latin America and Iberia: the case of patents
• Impact of students' cultural values on the corporate entrepreneurship management linked to social responsibility
• Intellectual property in Latin America: the impact of innovation subsidies on Chilean firms
• On the concept of an integrated and lean model of product development proposed for intellectual property creation and competitive economies
• Innovative culture and leadership in technological companies from Argentina and Colombia

Research pick: Nostalgia ain’t what it used to be - "Effects of consumer personal characteristics and psychological factors on nostalgia marketing"

Exploiting nostalgia is a well-worn emotive approach to enticing customers to purchase a product or service. New work in the International Journal of Electronic Marketing and Retailing, has looked at how a person’s character affects whether or not they are susceptible to what is commonly referred to as nostalgia marketing. One of the main findings from the work is that given a high-quality product nostalgia marketing will be successful even given a concomitant high price, the team has found.

Kyunghee Kim, Ahreum Hong, and Yannan Li of the Graduate School of Technology Management at Kyung Hee University in South Korea explain how nostalgia appeals at an emotional level for many people. It is used in many areas of human endeavour books and movies, fashion and food, and more broadly in the marketing of such things. “People often have good memories of their past and enjoy looking back to happy times,” the team writes. “They enjoy being reminded of happy memories with family and friends.” As such, incorporating themes or products from the past marketers can create a unique emotional feeling in their putative customers.

The team points out that there are negative associations with nostalgia. In recent years, rather than being perceived as a positive thing, there has been a suggestion that nostalgia is somehow a psychological problem associated with an unrequited desire for the past. This is then associated with melancholy, depression, and loneliness. A more holistic view of nostalgia would be inclusive of such negative connotations but also the more positive side. A balanced view of nostalgia would see it as a complex emotion or mood associated with reflection on the past whether people, experience, ideas, or objects that are no longer part of someone’s present situation.

The team suggests that marketers need to reflect on how nostalgia “ain’t what it used to be” if they are to benefit from improved sales when exploiting this emotion in their advertising efforts.

Kim, K., Hong, A. and Li, Y. (2021) ‘Effects of consumer personal characteristics and psychological factors on nostalgia marketing’, Int. J. Electronic Marketing and Retailing, Vol. 12, No. 1, pp.89–109.

Free open access article available: "Critical business intelligence practices to create meta-knowledge"

The following paper, "Critical business intelligence practices to create meta-knowledge" (International Journal of Business Information Systems 36(1) 2021), is freely available for download as an open access article.

It can be downloaded via the full-text link available here.

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Logistics Systems and Management

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Logistics Systems and Management are now available here for free:

• Integrated inventory system with freight costs and two types of quantity discounts
• Redesigning a transportation network: the case of a pharmaceutical supply chain
• Reverse logistics practices in Indian pharmaceutical supply chains: a study of manufacturers
• An integrated approach to order picking systems in warehouses
• IT adaptation in sugar supply chain: a study at milling level
• Logistics management requirements and logistics performance efficiency: the role of logistics management practices - evidence from Egypt

International Journal of Innovation and Learning to invite expanded papers from 7th International Symposium on Educational Technology (ISET 2021) for potential publication

Extended versions of papers presented at the 7th International Symposium on Educational Technology (ISET 2021) (10-13 August 2021, Tokai, Nagoya, Japan) will be invited for review and potential publication by the International Journal of Innovation and Learning.

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Procurement Management

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Procurement Management are now available here for free:

• Is advertising on social media effective? An empirical study on the growth of advertisements on the Big Four (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp)
• Dynamic green location and routing problem for service points
• Replacing global sourcing with deep localisation: the role of social capital in building local supply chains
• Collaborative innovation: weak commitments and unenforceable contracts
• The impact of internal and external factors on sustainable procurement: a case study of oil and gas companies
• Barriers to the implementation of environmentally sustainable procurement in public universities
• Application of integrated fuzzy MCDM approach for financial performance evaluation of Turkish technology sector

Special issue published: "Redefining Frontiers of Business Research on the Global Stage"

Journal for Global Business Advancement 13(4) 2020

• Relationship intention, customer-firm association length and customer satisfaction: a multi-country exploration
• Examining market orientation, new product development and performance
• System solutions for the circular economy on the regional level: the case of Green Lungs of Poland
• Sustaining corporate performance through the happy worker influence
• Effects of strategic orientations on early internationalising SMEs from an emerging market
• Spillover effects of Covid-19 uncertainty on non-performing loans of the Turkish agricultural sector on bank performance

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Quality and Innovation

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Quality and Innovation are now available here for free:

• A knowledge management model for enhancing quality and performance of higher education institutions: insights from Oman
• The significance of supplier performance management in quality improvement - a case of construction equipment manufacturing
• Building the innovation culture or increasing financial investments in hi tech companies - searching for the right balance
• Ten years of the International Journal of Quality and Innovation

Free open access article available: "Inequality, precariousness and social costs of capitalism. In the era of corporate governmentality"

The following paper, "Inequality, precariousness and social costs of capitalism. In the era of corporate governmentality" (International Journal of Critical Accounting 11(1) 2019), is freely available for download as an open access article.

It can be downloaded via the full-text link available here.

Research pick: Artificial intelligence for food security - "Exploring technological management innovations that include artificial intelligence and other innovations in global food production"

AI, or artificial intelligence, is attracting great attention across many industries, even food production, according to research published in the International Journal of Society Systems Science.

Darrell Burrell of Florida Institute of Technology, in Fort Lee, Virginia, USA, and colleagues point out that given the growing world population, which is expected to reach almost ten billion by 2050 there is an urgent need to develop properly sustainable agricultural practices and ensure food security at a much higher level than has ever been attempted in the past. This, they suggest, might only be possible with the rapid development of technologies such as AI.

With a global population of around 7.8 billion people in 2021, there are at least a billion people who suffer chronic hunger and malnutrition. This crisis is a result of inefficient food production and distribution systems, the team says and undeveloped agricultural land. We need a process improvement initiative to address this problem now, but also to create contingency for the growing population.

“These new technologies are creating the need for new educational and new awareness programs to inform and train farmers on the existence and utilities of these new advances,” the team writes. Agricultural students and others need to be taught about robotics, computer science, cybersecurity, information security, and engineering, and other tools that will be needed to on farms of the future. They add that the technologies need to be opened up to parts of the world where food security is not guaranteed and people are chronically hungry too. Humanitarian aid and hunger aid must be apportioned to developing and underserved countries to help them advance food security and solve this global problem.

Burrell, D.N., Burton, S.L., Nobles, C., Dawson, M.E. and McDowell, T. (2020) ‘Exploring technological management innovations that include artificial intelligence and other innovations in global food production’, Int. J. Society Systems Science, Vol. 12, No. 4, pp.267–285.

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Management and Decision Making

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Management and Decision Making are now available here for free:

• An empirical net asset value forecasting model based on optimised ANN using elephant herding strategy
• Technology readiness and purchase intention: role of perceived value and online satisfaction in the context of luxury hotels
• Mobile work, mobile technology: consequences for decision-making
• Best criteria selection based PROMETHEE II to aid decision-making under 2-tuple linguistic framework: case-study of the most energy efficient region worldwide
• A hybrid multi-criteria decision making model for technological innovation capabilities measurement in automotive parts industry

Special issue published: "International Symposium on Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology"

International Journal of Nanotechnology (17(11/12) 2020

• Electromagnetic wave absorbing characteristics of C/Co-Mn and C/Co-Zn doped barium hexaferrite sandwiched nanocomposites
• The study of reduced graphene oxide/activated char from rubber seed shell composites and the capacitive behaviour of its electrodes
• Synthesis and characterisation of reduced graphene oxide-boron nitride nanotubes hybrid
• Graphene oxide-polyvinyl alcohol film in micro cavity for optical comb filter generation
• Effect of silver sulphide (Ag2S) layer towards the performance of copper indium sulphide (CuInS2) quantum dots sensitised solar cell
• Effect of the annealing temperature on the photoconversion efficiency of heterostructured photoanode Bi2S3/ZnO nanorods in photoelectrochemical cells
• Effect of nanometric and micronic particles size on physical and electrical properties of graphite thick film
• Low operating cost approach in Spirulina platensis bio-photovoltaic cell

Research pick: Blending rules for 3D printing bone - "Finite element analysis of synthetic and natural polymer blends made by 3D printing"

By combining synthetic polymers and natural materials it is possible to increase the range of characteristics that might be fabricated using 3D printing of components, according to research published in the International Journal of Nano and Biomaterials. In a proof of principle, the team has demonstrated how one such blend emulates the material properties of bone.

Gajanan Thokal and Chandrakant Patil of Amravati University in Maharashtra, India, have investigated the potential of blends of polyamide (PA12) and nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC) with formic acid solution. The team used scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to investigate the structures of the components they produced using 3D printing of these blends. Standard stress and strength tests were also carried out as well as porosity measurements.

Ultimately, the team demonstrated that certain formulations could mimic the structure and characteristics of bone, perhaps opening up the possibility of printing 3D prosthetic bone parts for surgical repair and replacement. Such materials might have greater biocompatibility than conventional metal implants, the team suggests. There are also the advantages of improving the load bearing and re-implantation opportunities when a prosthetic implant ultimately wears out with use. In addition, such blended materials might well have improved bonding and implantation with the surrounding tissue due to their porous nature when compared with solid metal components.

The team points out that the specific type of bone their blended material emulates is that of the goat. As such animal trials of implants based on this substance might be carried out in this animal prior to their being used in humans although the specific formulation would inevitably require some modification for human use.

Thokal, G.N. and Patil, C.R. (2020) ‘Finite element analysis of synthetic and natural polymer blends made by 3D printing’, Int. J. Nano and Biomaterials, Vol. 9, Nos. 3/4, pp.105–122.

Free open access article available: "Analysis of credit-rating migrations with genetic algorithms"

The following paper, "Analysis of credit-rating migrations with genetic algorithms" (International Journal of Bio-Inspired Computation 16(4) 2020), is freely available for download as an open access article.

It can be downloaded via the full-text link available here.