Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Economics and Accounting

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

• R&D expenditure, financing policy, and default risk
• The to whom and the when of the attest function
• Historical inefficiencies and future potential: a critical analysis of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977
• A review on the evolution of the definitions of materiality
• Credit rating agencies analysing IFRS data: a sample of rated companies and their reported information

Special issue published: "Contemporary Issues in Accounting and Finance in an Emerging Economy: the Case of Ghana"

International Journal of Management Practice 9(2) 2016

• The effects of earnings management and corporate tax avoidance on firm value
• The influence of tax audit on tax compliance in Ghana
• Risk disclosures in the annual reports of firms in Ghana
• Does interest rate matter to the Ghanaian stock market?
• What drives mobile money services demand by farmers in Ghana? A study of maize farmers
• Foreign exchange rate volatility and firm value: evidence from Ghana

Call for papers: "New Trends in Multimedia Data Management: Techniques and Applications"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Applied Systemic Studies.

Essential to many tasks in relation to multimedia research and development is the availability of a sufficiently large data set and its corresponding ground truth. However, most available data for multimedia research is either too specific (e.g. data for text retrieval), too small (e.g. face figures), or without ground truth, such as gathering millions of un-preprocessed images from the web for testing.

While it is relatively easy to crawl and store a huge amount of data, the creation of ground truth necessary to systematically train, test, evaluate and compare the performance of various algorithms and systems remains a challenging issue. For this reason, researchers tend to put (or redirect) efforts into the creation of such corpus individually to carry out research on large-scale data sets. Thus the promising trend of united web-scale and distributed multimedia data management is urgently needed, which would benefit the entire multimedia research community.

This special issue intends to present and report on the construction and analysis of large-scale multimedia data sets and resources, and to provide a strong reference for multimedia researchers interested in large-scale multimedia data sets. In particular, the issue aims to demonstrate the emerging techniques and applications for large-scale multimedia data management. Original and research articles are solicited in all aspects including theoretical studies, practical applications, new techniques and experimental prototypes. All submitted papers will be peer-reviewed and selected on the basis of both their quality and their relevance to the theme of this special issue.

Suitable topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Algorithms, techniques, frameworks and models for multimedia computing
• Multimedia human-computer interaction
• Mobile and multi-device empowered multimedia
• Large-scale multimedia data management
• Ubiquitous/pervasive data for multimedia
• Social media and presence
• Cloud-based multimedia services
• Web-scale data management and analysis
• Security issues for multimedia computing
• Media/data transport, analysis and delivery
• Data searching, browsing and discovery
• Emerging systems, services and middleware
• Crowd-sourcing, authoring and collaboration
• Recent other issues in large-scale multimedia data

Important Dates

Submission of manuscripts: 31 October, 2016

Notification to authors: 31 December, 2016

Final versions due: 28 February, 2017

Inderscience journals to publish expanded papers from Second International Conference of Young Computer Scientists, Engineers and Educators

Extended versions of papers presented at the Second International Conference of Young Computer Scientists, Engineers and Educators (20-21 August 2016, Harbin, China) will be published by the following journals:

• Int. J. of Computational Science and Engineering
• Int. J. of Embedded Systems
• Int. J. of High Performance Computing and Networking

Special issue published: "Total Quality Management and Sustainable Development"

International Journal of Productivity and Quality Management 18(2/3) 2016

• A life cycle approach to robust design methodology
• An approach to foster eco-design in 'traditional' companies without eco-knowledge
• Continuous improvement planning through sustainability assessment of product-service systems
• Evaluating the impact of product eco-redesign on CLSC performances through a system dynamics approach
• Factors and barriers affecting the purchase of electric vehicles in the Italian market
• Internalisation strategies of external costs of transport for a sustainable logistics
• Assessing product sustainability measurement within quality management systems: a case study in automotive industry
• Investigating the relationship between energy consumption and overall equipment effectiveness for improving manufacturing systems' productivity: an application in the thermoforming process
• Investigating the sustainability of a high-energy consuming industrial process to achieve total quality
• LCA methodology applied to the realisation of a domestic plate: confrontation among the use of three different raw materials
• Managing environmentally driven change in manufacturing organisations - moving from reactive to proactive behaviour
• Quality sustainability in engineering educational institutions - a theoretical model
• The impact of renewable energy systems on local sustainability
• A pick-up and delivery problem with time windows by electric vehicles

Inderscience journals to publish expanded papers from National Conference of Theoretical Computer Science

Extended versions of papers presented at the National Conference of Theoretical Computer Science (19-21 August 2016, Guizhou, China) will be published by the following journals:

• Int. J. of Computational Science and Engineering
• Int. J. of Embedded Systems
• Int. J. of High Performance Computing and Networking

Special issue published: "Some Crucial Micro and Macro Issues Confronting Emerging Markets"

Journal for Global Business Advancement 9(3) 2016

• A study of culture in a non-profit organisation in India: organisational development and change
• The impact of environmental uncertainty on international joint venture performance: the mediating role of international joint venture adaptation
• Technology strategy framework for firms in growing economies
• Emotional intelligence, a tool for customer satisfaction
• The Shariah Advisory Council in the Malaysian Islamic financial institutions: features and legal issues
• Implementing enterprise resource planning in Saudi Arabia

Call for papers: "Advanced Intelligence and Computing Technology"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Advanced Intelligence Paradigms.

The main goal of this special issue is to analyse the research ideas, methods, opinions and discussions concerning advanced intelligence and computing technology. Computing intelligence technology involves various research methodologies and computational and decision problems. This issue therefore aims to gather the various ideas of researchers, engineers and other professional to help solve these decision and computational problems in an effective manner. Articles involving all approaches including theoretical reports, real applications, new social sciences and experimental prototypes are welcome.

  

Suitable topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Machine learning and related automatic detection systems
• Cognitive aspects of AI
• Intelligence discussions and related philosophy
• Case-based reasoning
• Heuristic search
• Intelligent interface
• Automated reasoning and inference
• Constraint processing and methodologies
• Common sense reasoning and related discussions
• Intelligent robotics
• Knowledge representations
• High-level computer vision
• Natural language processing
• Planning and theory actions
• Reasoning under uncertainty
• Multi-agent systems
• Soft computing and related applications
• Possibility theory
• Belief function and rough sets
• Decision theory
• Philosophical foundation and models

Important Dates

Submission of manuscripts: 1 September, 2016

Notification to authors: 1 December, 2016

Final versions due: 1 March, 2017

Facebooking your physician appointment

Telemedicine, which allows doctors to communicate, diagnose and even treat their patients remotely is on the rise thanks to advances in information technology. It allows healthcare workers to securely monitor patients in inaccessible parts of the world as well as providing more timely responses for patients in many situations. New research published in the International Journal of Medical Engineering and Informatics suggests that the well-known social networking site, Facebook, and smart phone use could make telemedicine even more common and useful in healthcare.

Agostino Giorgio of the Politecnico di Bari, Italy, points out that, for most patients, telemedicine means fewer hospital visits, but it also provides critical services that might otherwise be unavailable. Remote heart monitoring and other diagnostic tools are quite common. Now, Giorgio has developed smart phone software, an application or “app”, that connects patient and doctor via the social networking site Facebook, although it could be adapted to work with another such networking system.

The Care-App allows private and secure communication between doctor and patient as well as offering a medication diary for the patient rescue call and clinic search and booking utility. Video connectivity makes the visit more personal but also allows a patient to show the doctor some symptoms or problems. There is also the option to use a “tele-stethoscope” device that connects to the smart phone headphone jack and would be provided to the patient or their carer. Giorgio and colleagues in the Cardiology department have already tested and validated a tele-stethoscope with this app. Other devices such as blood-oxygen saturation and pulse monitor, electrocardiogram (e.g. the AliveCor Heart Monitor), thermometer could also be used in conjunction with the smart phone input or in some cases simply through the video connection or a verbal/textual reporting of temperature, for instance.

@The patient also may use the Facebook share button or private message button, to send the doctor any other kind of information he may acquire and store with its own smart phone, concerning its own health status,’ says Giorgio. ‘Care-app manages all these steps, apps and operations, performed by the doctor and by the patient during the remote medical visit.’ Care-App is written in HTML5/Java, and so should work on any operating system with all smart devices – smart phones, tablets, notebook and desktop computers.

‘The app offers patients frequent and easy check-up in the privacy of the home and by avoiding expensive hospitalization,’ adds Giorgio. ‘This could permit a significant saving of the healthcare expenses and an improvement of the quality of chronic patient’s life.’


Giorgio, A. (2016) ‘Social networks, apps and smartphones for telemedicine’, Int. J. Medical Engineering and Informatics, Vol. 8, No. 3, pp.183-195.
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Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Electronic Governance

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

• Simple low cost online monitoring system for municipal waste collection authority of under developing countries
• Gaps close, gaps open: a repeated cross-sectional study of the scope and determinants of the ethnic digital divide
• E-parliament services as tools for anti-corruption and transparency
• Implementing mobile government in Jordan: strategies for success

Inderscience journals to publish expanded papers from International Conference on Innovations in Information Technology

Extended versions of papers presented at the 12th International Conference on Innovations in Information Technology (28-30 November 2016, Al Ain, UAE) will be published by the following journals:

• Int. J. of Computational Science and Engineering
• Int. J. of High Performance Computing and Networking

Inderscience is media partner for 7th Process Driven Innovation Conference

Inderscience is a media partner for the 7th Process Driven Innovation Conference (13-15 September 2016, Philadelphia, USA).

The journals involved are:

• Int. J. of Business Innovation and Research
• Int. J. of Business Process Integration and Management
• Int. J. of Innovation and Regional Development

More information on this event is available here.

Special issue published: "Methodologies, Technologies and Tools Enabling e-Government"

International Journal of Electronic Governance 8(1) 2016

• On federated single sign-on in e-government interoperability frameworks
• Federated identity management in e-government: lessons learned and the path forward
• A methodology for recording, analysing and prioritising public services
• Towards personal data services: a view on some enabling factors

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Managerial and Financial Accounting

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Managerial and Financial Accounting are now available here for free:

• Accounting valuation models under international financial reporting standards: evidence from some European listed companies
• A study of conversion effect of international financial reporting standards: evidence from Taiwan's banking sector of financial holding company
• Analysis of the true and fair view concept: an Islamic perspective
• Effects of working capital management on firm profitability: empirical evidence from Sri Lanka
• Internal governance mechanisms and value relevance of accounting earnings: an empirical study in the French context

Call for papers: "Mobile Learning Applications and Strategies"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Mobile Learning and Organisation.

This special issue is aimed at publishing empirical studies related to mobile learning applications and strategies in various academic fields. The advancement of personal computing devices, from personal computers to mobile devices, has been gradually changing the landscape of technology-transformed learning. This practice facilitates the incorporation of one-to-one computing into modern education.

Meanwhile, mobile learning and applications open up numerous possibilities for the design and enactment of innovative teaching and learning models and the refinement of pre-existing models, such as perpetual and ubiquitous learning, personalised learning, authentic and contextualised learning, seamless learning, rapid knowledge co-construction, among others. Moreover, this realisation leads to the further empowerment of learners in deciding what, where, when, and how they will learn and develop new knowledge and skills, and whom they will learn with/from. After the initial hype, however, there have been various voices within the researcher community to reassess the theory and practice of one-to-one computing in the classroom and informal learning contexts. Such mobile learning research issues and topics are worth investigating with state-of-the-art technology and knowhow. In particular, feedback of students as well as investigation of instructors who conduct mobile learning in their blended learning courses are welcome.

Suitable topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Theory-driven mobile learning
• Pedagogy of mobile learning and learning design
• Cutting-edge constructions of mobile learning infrastructure
• Government and school policies for mobile learning
• Socio-cultural perspectives and implications of mobile learning
• Teachers' professional development for transformation and refinement of pre-existing mobile learning models
• Mobile learning applications for self-directed, collaborative and socio-constructivist learning
• Seamless learning-driven theories, infrastructure, pedagogy, practices, parental and community factors
• Mobile learning on special platforms, e.g., Learn Mode, Web 2.0 tools
• Effective studies on Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) models
• Comparative studies between one-to-one, many-to-one, one-to-many, many-to-many and/or hybrid course settings for mobile learning

Important Dates

Submission of manuscripts: 30 September, 2016

Notification to authors: 30 November, 2016

Final versions due: 31 December, 2016

First issue: International Journal of Multinational Corporation Strategy (free sample issue available)

Transforming a domestic firm into a multinational corporation (MNC) innately entails the liabilities of foreignness as firms do not exactly know the actualities of foreign business environments. International business scholars have long been raising the question of why MNCs invest across borders and how they maximise earnings in unfamiliar markets. In the ongoing search for solutions, scholars realise in particular that they need to grapple with appropriate MNC strategies. The International Journal of Multinational Corporation Strategy provides a forum for in-depth exploration of this research area.

There is a free download of the papers from this first issue.

Electricity and economics

A nation’s electricity consumption has been seen as a useful proxy for measuring economic growth offering a useful alternative to conventional measures such as gross domestic product (GDP) by incorporating the assumption that greater consumption means a better quality of life. However, country-by-country analysis reported in International Journal of Global Energy Issues suggests that this may not necessarily be the case.

Sunderasan Srinivasan and Vamshi Krishna Reddy of Verdurous Solutions Private Limited, based in Mysore, Karnataka, India, have looked at the impact of aggregate electricity provision on all-round socioeconomic development as measured by the Human Development Index (HDI). The team analyzed data from a sample of 21 countries chosen on the basis of average annual HDI scores of 4.00 and above cumulated over the periods 1981–1990, 1990–2000 and 2000–2012.

They found that for four of the countries analyzed, specifically China, Egypt, Morocco and Nepal, there was the expected unidirectional causality linking electricity consumption to human development. However, the reverse was true for five other countries, Algeria, Egypt, Myanmar, Sudan and Yemen. “Despite staggering improvements in energy efficiency of production processes as well as of end-user appliances, growth in emerging economies is as energy-intensive as witnessed among the industrialized nations four decades past,” the team reports. Their new study avoids the limitations of traditional measures of aggregate production and consumption that ignore the effects of economic activity on individuals in whose name the macroeconomy is said to be managed.

“The present study observes that the availability of electricity plays a significant role in achieving development outcomes in a few instances, while developmental outcomes such as higher incomes, themselves drive higher electricity consumption in others,” the team explains. They suggest that if the production-consumption gap can be narrowed by managing technical and commercial losses in transmission and distribution more effectively, human development outcomes could be improved for those nations where a negative impact is seen in their data.

“Our paper takes the argument further to attempt and establish a causal relationship from electricity consumption through HDI to stated “life satisfaction” among citizens in the countries analyzed,” Sunderasan explains.


Srinivasan, S. and Reddy, V. K. (2016) ‘Full Circle: Electricity, Development and Welfare’, Int. J. Global Energy Issues, vol. 39, no. 5, pp.289–304.
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Special issue published: "Tackling Enterprise in the Informal Economy"

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business 28(2/3) 2016

• Tackling enterprise in the informal economy: an introductory overview
• Determinants of the informal economy of an emerging economy: a multiple indicator, multiple causes approach
• Explaining participation in informal employment: a social contract perspective
• Re-theorising the role of the informal economy in Sub-Saharan Africa: some lessons from Gambia
• Tackling informal entrepreneurship in Ghana: a critical analysis of the dualist/modernist policy approach, some evidence from Accra
• Beyond the marginalisation thesis: evaluating participation in informal sector entrepreneurship
• Tackling undeclared entrepreneurship in a transition setting: the case of Croatia
• Determinants of entrepreneurs' views on the acceptability of tax evasion and the informal economy in Slovakia and Ukraine: an institutional asymmetry approach
• Contributing and constraining factors faced by women entrepreneurs in the informal sector: a study of Mumbai Metropolitan
• From Budapest to Berlin - the role of reputation in the market economy
• Institutional approach and competitive behaviours of informal Ghanaian women entrepreneurs
• An evaluation of the shadow economy in Baltic states: a tax morale perspective
• What determines enterprises' technical efficiency? An empirical investigation of informal enterprises in Burkina Faso
• Tax compliance of small enterprises in Greece

An algorithm for juicier gossip

Today, more and more of us get our news and information from social networking sites, which include the likes of Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and countless others. This runs in obvious parallel with the slow decline of printed magazines and newspapers as well as television being usurped by YouTube and on-demand video streaming services such as Netflix. Our lives are changing as a result.

A new study from the Nanjing Research Institute of Electronics Engineering (NRIEE), in China, suggests that there is now a need to improve exactly how information is spread through online social networking. A “gossip algorithm” could improve the reach and rate at which important, useful or simply entertaining information spreads, Bo Yang and colleagues suggest in the International Journal of Ad Hoc and Ubiquitous Computing. Their findings are particularly pertinent to the ease with which information can be divested across a mobile social network.

The team has demonstrated how a gossip algorithm can be used to spread information with simplicity and robustness through the 4G-enabled world of smart phone ad hoc social networks that utilise D2D (device to device) technology including LTE Direct and Wi-Fi Direct. The team has successfully tested their protocol under in two typical application scenarios where smart phone users took a random walk. They determined the theoretical upper bounds of how long a piece of information would take to spread to all users in the ad hoc D2D mobile network. “Simulation results indicate that the growth of communication cost is almost linear [as opposed to geometric or exponential growth] when the scale of mobile social networks becomes larger, which is a quite encouraging result for application,” the team reports.

Given just how reliant we are all becoming on continuous and rapid access to information even when we are on the move, the advent of mobile social networks that allow clusters of smart phone users to spread that information efficiently without recourse to all devices interminably sending and receiving data to and from the cellular network and thence the internet will become increasingly important. Yang and his colleagues offer a novel solution in their gossip algorithm for reducing the cellular network overheads.


Yang, B., Liu, D. and Zhang, W. (2016) ‘Information dissemination in mobile social networks with gossip algorithms‘, Int. J. Ad Hoc and Ubiquitous Computing, Vol. 21, No. 4, pp.259-265
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A slick way to test artificial knees and hips

A new study suggests that natural proteins can be used to effectively test new replacement hip and knee joints in the laboratory. The work could help with improving design in order to reduce wear and tear and increase the lifespan of such prosthetics. Details are reported this week in the International Journal of Surface Science and Engineering.

Belinda Pingguan-Murphy and Subir Ghosh of the University of Malaya, Malaysia, and Dipankar Choudhury of Brno University of Technology, Czech Republic, explain that albumin and globulin proteins are the predominant protein components of the synovial fluid which surrounds healthy joints. Albumin is also the main protein component of egg white and blood plasma. The proteins are also found within the fluid held around our joints by the synovial membrane. They play important roles in the lubrication mechanism of our joints.

The selection of materials for the prosthesis head and cup of a replacement joint relies on the mechanical and surface properties of the materials chosen and how well they take aboard the natural lubricating proteins. Advanced joints use ultra high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) because it is not only flexible but is also resistant to wear. UHMWPE also repels water, it is hydrophobic and this is usually coupled with a ceramic component which is the opposite, hydrophilic, and so makes a perfect sliding partner for least friction.

However, there is always room for improvement in terms of lowering friction and making a prosthetic joint move even more smoothly as well as in terms of extending the lifespan of a joint. Such improvements would give patients a better quality of life as well as extending the time between prosthetic surgery, if a repeat procedure is even an option.

Pingguan-Murphy and colleagues point out that hip and knee replacements tend to fail at a rate of 10 to 12 percent within about ten to fifteen years. Given an aging population and increased life expectancy, such statistics will be an increasing burden on healthcare services and a problem for elderly patients themselves. The team has now investigated the frictional properties, the tribology, of albumin and globulin on ceramic-on-polyethylene hip joint implants.

“Our work seeks to better understand the use of natural lubricant selection in the in vitro [laboratory] testing of potential joints,” explains Pingguan-Murphy. “Many joints which do well in tests fail in practice; and one of the reasons may be the failure to use these natural lubricants in testing, and so failure to mimic the actual tribology in vivo [in a patient],” she explains.

The data point to an improved approach to testing new designs, different materials and different surfaces for prostheses that function better with the body’s natural joint lubricants.


Ghosh, S., Choudhury, D. and Pingguan-Murphy, B. (2016) ‘Lubricating ability of albumin and globulin on artificial joint implants: a tribological perspective‘, Int. J. Surface Science and Engineering, Vol. 10, No. 2, pp.193-206.
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Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Space-Based and Situated Computing

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Space-Based and Situated Computing are now available here for free:

• Detection of sensitive information leakage in Android applications using signature generation
• Variable social vector clocks for exploring user interactions in social communication networks
• Test-bed building process for context-aware peer-to-peer information retrieval evaluation
• Clone attack detection and data loss prevention in mobile ad hoc networks
• Investigation of diffracted fields in buildings and wedges: a comparison study

New Editor for International Journal of Intelligent Defence Support Systems

Prof. Chee-Peng Lim from Deakin University in Australia has been appointed to take over editorship of the International Journal of Intelligent Defence Support Systems.

Special issue published: "Harmonisation within Atmospheric Dispersion Modelling for Regulatory Purposes: Part II" (includes free OA papers)

International Journal of Environment and Pollution 58(1/2) 2015

Extended versions of papers presented at the 16th International Conferences on Harmonisation within Atmospheric Dispersion Modelling for Regulatory Purposes (HARMO 16).

• Comparison of the WRF and Sodar derived planetary boundary layer height
• The FMI emission inventory and source-receptor calculations across Finland's eastern border [OPEN ACCESS]
• On the effect of the aspect ratio on flow and turbulence over a two-dimensional street canyon
• A source term estimation method for a nuclear accident using atmospheric dispersion models
• Analysis and modelling of turbulent fluxes in two different ecosystems in Argentina
• Temporal trends of spatial correlation within the PM10 time series of the AirBase ambient air quality database [OPEN ACCESS]
• How does the use of biodiesel affect urban air quality?
• Mean annual population exposure to atmospheric particulate matter in Poland
• The effects of trees on micrometeorology in a real street canyon: consequences for local air quality
• Experiences in dispersion modelling in the development of an air quality management system in Krakow
• Application of chemical dispersion model during a high ozone episode in South-West Poland

Inderscience journals to publish expanded papers from International Conference on Peaceful and Prosperous South Asia 2017

Extended versions of papers presented at the International Conference on Peaceful and Prosperous South Asia - Opportunities and Challenges (ICSA) 2017 (27-29 March 2017, Uttar Pradesh, India) will be published by the following journals:

• Int. J. of Business and Globalisation
• Int. J. of Learning and Change
• Int. J. of Society Systems Science

Special issue published: "Disaster Information System and Network from Experience of the Great East Japan Earthquake"

International Journal of Space-Based and Situated Computing 6(1) 2016

Extended versions of papers presented at the 7th International Workshop on Disaster and Emergency Information Network Systems (IWDENS-2015) Workshop.

• Evaluations of commodity WiFi-based multihop access network for disaster recovery
• Delay tolerant networks-based vehicle-to-vehicle wireless networks for road surveillance systems in local areas
• A road condition monitoring system using various sensor data in vehicle-to-vehicle communication environment
• The digital contents management system based on position information initiate fusion of AR and sensor technology

Additional papers

• A read-write abortion protocol to prevent illegal information flow in role-based access control systems
• Monitoring and auditing mobile operating systems

First issue: International Journal of Financial Innovation in Banking (free sample issue available)

The International Journal of Financial Innovation in Banking provides a scientific publication outlet for the topic of financial innovation in the economics of banking. It focuses on financial innovation in terms of bank products and services, and bank production processes and organisational forms. This perspective acknowledges the complexity and importance of innovation in the financial intermediation industry. IJFIB aims to foster discussion and research on this fast-growing topic.

There is a free download of the papers from this first issue.

Special issue published: "Engine Combustion Optimisation and Control"

International Journal of Powertrains 5(2) 2016

• A control oriented multivariable identification procedure for turbocharged diesel engines
• Simulation and experimental study on ion current under GDI-HCCI combustion mode
• Correlation of light-off activity for full size and cored catalyst samples
• Model-based optimisation and predictive control of a turbocharged diesel engine with variable geometry compressor
• A control-oriented NOx emissions model for diesel engines

International Journal of Bio-Inspired Computation increases issues

The International Journal of Bio-Inspired Computation has announced that it will be increasing issues from six to eight from 2017 onwards.

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Human Factors and Ergonomics

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Human Factors and Ergonomics are now available here for free:

• Review of the effects of fatigue on performance of laboratory tasks
• Touchscreen mobile devices and older adults: a usability study
• Multi-response ergonomic evaluation of female CNC machine operators
• Individual performance markers and working memory predict supervisory control proficiency and effective use of adaptive automation
• Flight attendant and pilot perceptions of in-flight events

Research Picks Extra May 2016

Algal route to biofuels
Two species of marine algae found along the coast of the Indian Ocean can be treated with strong acid to make a third-generation biofuel, according to researchers in Mauritius. Acid break down of Ulva recticulata and Sargassum cristaefolium releases sugars that can be converted to ethanol and made into fuel. This renewable source could become a more efficient way to make biofuel rather than growing fuel crops or treating waste biomass. Such a fuel could help Mauritius meet its fossil fuel reduction aims. The researchers also suggest that there might be applications for the by-products of the process too and this will be investigated.
Jeetah, P., Bholah, B. and Mohee, R. (2016) ‘Bioethanol production from algae’, Int. J. Global Energy Issues, Vol. 39, Nos. 3/4, pp.204–221.

Noisy shades of grey
By focusing on distortion in the greys of an image, researchers can eliminate noise much more effectively than with other approaches. The technique will be important to remote sensing and weather pattern imaging and other areas. The team explains that their algorithm can reduce Gaussian noise, Poisson noise and so-called “salt-and-pepper” noise. Their initial tests demonstrate that the approach is general, powerful and accurate. Fundamentally, the new framework can fix the thresholding problem and improving robustness towards edge signals and so eliminate distortions in grey levels within an image.
Karthikeyan, B., Ballakur, S., Sowvarnica, S., Vaithiyanathan, V., Vinayakaram, N. and Vasanth, G. (2016) ‘Elimination of grey level distortion using multiscale gradient multiplication’, Int. J. Computational Vision and Robotics, Vol. 6, No. 4, pp.369–380.

Mmm
The realm of mobile business – mBusiness, mMarkets and mServices – is massively fragmented and thus there are many opportunities for improvement as well as openings for new players. However, it is also characterised by many uncertainties that device manufacturers, network operators and service providers must face to take mBusiness forward. New research suggests that end-to-end solutions for customers are key to success and that partnerships that reduce the fragmentation to mutual benefit will improve operations for all players and thus improve the services and products provided which then improves profits.
Ivanochko, I., Gregus, M., Urikova, O. and Masiuk, V. (2015) ‘mBusiness, mMarkets and mServices: exploration of opportunities’, Int. J. Services, Economics and Management, Vol. 7, No. 1, pp.74–93.

Carbon absorbing carbon
Could a hybrid composite of carbon nanotubes and carbon fibres with a vast surface area to volume ratio be used to absorb carbon dioxide with a view to ameliorating some of the negative effects on climate of burning fossil fuels? Researchers in Taiwan have undertaken a study to answer this question. The team has found that by “doping” the nanotubes with nitrogen atoms they can increase absorption significantly. The resulting material might ultimately be developed as a “scrubber” for removing carbon dioxide from the flue gases of fossil-fuel burning factories or power stations.
Chiang, Y-C. and Hsu, W-L. (2016) ‘Carbon dioxide adsorption on nano/micro-scale porous adsorbents’, Int. J. Nanomanufacturing, Vol. 12, No. 1, pp.1–14.


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Inderscience is media partner for Biosimilars Europe 2016

Inderscience is a media partner for Biosimilars Europe (29-30 September 2016, London UK).

The journals involved are:

• Int. J. of Bioinformatics Research and Applications
• Int. J. of Biotechnology
• Int. J. of Computational Biology and Drug Design
• Int. J. of Medical Engineering and Informatics

More information on this event is available here.

Special issue published: "IP for Development: the Emerging Paradigm"

International Journal of Intellectual Property Management 8(3/4) 2015

• Patent landscape analysis for crop biotechnology in India
• Implementation of Dice coefficient to identify target for IP asset licensing
• Patent analytics driven approach to technology roadmaps - a case of photovoltaic technology
• Impact and significance of compulsory licensing for access to medicine
• Obvious to try and non-obviousness post KSR: origins and implications
• Strategic alliances for advanced materials' intellectual property value chain: research and technology organisation's perspective
• A study of the maintenance of patents by the non-residents in India: insights for strategic management of patents
• Implications of Indian IP policy on patenting activity of pharmaceutical multinational corporations in India

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Accounting and Finance

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

• Mechanisms of corporate governance and fixed asset revaluation
• An activity-based costing model for an engineering department of an Indian university
• Did PwC lose reputation post audit failure at Satyam Computer Services? Evidence from the Indian audit market
• Impact of environmental uncertainty on the relationship between budgetary participation and managerial performance and job satisfaction: some Tunisian evidence
• Adoption of IFRS by listed companies in Qatar: challenges and solutions

 

Inderscience is media partner for Cancer Vaccines 2016

Inderscience is a media partner for Cancer Vaccines (21-22 September 2016, London UK).

The journals involved are:

• Int. J. of Bioinformatics Research and Applications
• Int. J. of Biotechnology
• Int. J. of Immunological Studies

More information on this event is available here.

International Journal of Information and Computer Security to publish expanded papers from ICCS 2016

Extended versions of papers presented at the 2nd International Conference on Cyber Security (ICCS) 2016 (13-14 August 2016, Rajasthan, India) will be published by the International Journal of Information and Computer Security.

Special issue published: "Quantitative Methods in Decision Making Processes"

International Journal of Applied Nonlinear Science 2(1/2) 2015

• Multi-objective methods in development planning
• Public investment management system in Kuwait
• An evaluation of the impact of foreign direct investment on Bahraini economy
• A multi-criteria policy set optimisation framework for large-scale simulation models
• Multi-objective decision making in macro- and micro-economics with application of the MULTIMOORA method
• Determinants of Malaysian bank efficiency: evidence from bootstrap data envelopment analysis
• A comparison of different lower bounding procedures for the routing of automated guided vehicles in an urban context

Inderscience is media partner for Benelux Infrastructure Forum 2016

Inderscience is a media partner for the Benelux Infrastructure Forum (23-24 November 2016, Amsterdam, Netherlands).

The journals involved are:

• Int. J. of Accounting and Finance
• Int. J. of Banking, Accounting and Finance
• Int. J. of Bonds and Derivatives
• Int. J. of Financial Markets and Derivatives
• Int. J. of Green Economics
• Int. J. of Sustainable Real Estate and Construction Economics

More information on this event is available here.

Special issue published: "Recent Advances in Signal and Image Processing"

International Journal of Networking and Virtual Organisations 16(2) 2016

Extended versions of papers presented at the European Conference in Information Systems 2014 E-health Workshop.

• Evaluating the feasibility of using tablets in emergency departments
• Mobile healthcare services adoption
• The connection between viewing medical historical information and using-clinical tests
• Exploring the possibilities for intelligent risk detection in healthcare contexts
• Tailoring patient information to encourage patient engagement

Additional paper

• An investigation of the benefit of using IT in the context of university students with ADHD 

Special issue published: "Political Economy of Money, Banking and Policy"

International Journal of Monetary Economics and Finance 9(2) 2016

Extended versions of papers presented at the SIBR-RDINRRU 2014 Conference on Interdisciplinary Business and Economic Research.

• The behaviour of sovereign CDS and government bond in the Euro zone crisis
• Fragility and contagion within European Union's banking system: the network prospective
• Financial contagion in interbank network
• Creating contestable banking market: the effect of changes in the regulatory structure in Indonesia
• International trade financing: a comparative study on the performance of state-owned and private commercial banks of Bangladesh
• Evaluating gender responsive budgeting in Turkey
• Good government governance and opinions of the audit board of Republik Indonesia 
• The role of money multiplier in monetary transmission mechanism in Iran (bank lending and money supply)

Inderscience is media partner for Mediterranean Oil & Gas 2016 Summit

Inderscience is a media partner for Mediterranean Oil & Gas 2016 Summit (25-27 May 2016, Rome, Italy).

The journals involved are:

• Int. J. of Oil, Gas and Coal Technology
• Int. J. of Petroleum Engineering

Special issue published: "Open Innovation, Knowledge Cities and the Creative Economy"

International Journal of Knowledge-Based Development 7(2) 2016

• Embracing networks of national policy research in future foresight
• Perceived innovation barriers and open innovation performance: insights from Korea
• Clustering and commuting patterns of knowledge workers. A comparative analysis of Barcelona and Helsinki metropolitan areas
• Knowledge-based urban development potential of Turkish provinces
• Complex regional innovation networks and HEI engagement - the case of Chicago

Call for papers: "Advanced Techniques in Multimedia Watermarking"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Information and Computer Security.

In the digital information age, multimedia content such as text, image, audio, video and 3D computer graphics models can be easily copied, manipulated and distributed over the open channel. This makes copyright protection, ownership identification, content authentication, and identity theft challenging issues to the content owner and distributors. Recently, data hiding techniques have developed very fast and have applied to many applications, such as e-government, military, communication, medical/healthcare, privacy protection, identification, media file archiving, broadcast monitoring, remote education and insurance companies, secure e-voting systems, digital cinema, fingerprinting and so on. Digital watermarking is a data hiding technique for inserting multimedia information, also known as a watermark, into multimedia data, which can be later extracted or detected for a variety of purposes including identification and authentication. In addition to providing security, this technique can also be used to recognise the source, owner, distributor or creator of the data.

The objective of this special issue is to call for all future research aspects and directions, state-of-the-art approaches and methodologies, and most recent developments related to this specific area.

We invite researchers to contribute original research articles as well as review articles that will seek the continuing efforts to understand the advanced techniques that lead to future improvements for the multimedia watermarking.

Suitable topics include, but are not limited, to the following:

• Data hiding techniques for multimedia security
• Steganography and steganalysis
• Digital forensics for multimedia data
• Biometrics for multimedia
• Multimedia applications
• Text/image/audio/video delivery over open channels
• Electronic security
• Protection systems against personal identity theft
• Multimedia communications and services
• Integrity verification of multimedia content

Important Dates

Submission of manuscripts: 31 January, 2017

Notification to authors: 31 March, 2017

Revised paper submission: 30 April, 2017

Final version due: 15 June, 2017

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Globalisation and Small Business

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Globalisation and Small Business are now available here for free:

• Zealous leadership paradigms
• Supporting changes in the Slovenian wood sector by introducing timber logistics centres
• Social enterprise manager's career path preferences
• Competitive advantage in knowledge-based firms of emerging economies: evidence from Mexico
• Employee and corporate branding: antecedents of change management
• The optimal selection of internal communication tools during change in organisations

Special issue published: "Electromobility Challenging Issues: Public Policies and Experiments"

International Journal of Automotive Technology and Management 16(1) 2016

Extended versions of papers presented at the Second International Conference of the Armand Peugeot Research Chair.

• How can startups create the conditions for a dominant position in the nascent industry of Electromobility 2.0?
• Pricing and commercialisation of electric mobility - dealing with high market uncertainty 
• Coupling local renewable energy production with electric vehicle charging: a survey of the French case
• Smart transportation and the economic effects of the Quebec-California caps and trade market
• Which role should the electric car play in Europe's cities? An analysis of publicly funded demonstration projects 2007-2013

New Editor for International Journal of Signal and Imaging Systems Engineering

Dr. Hua-Liang Wei from the University of Sheffield in the UK has been appointed to take over editorship of the International Journal of Signal and Imaging Systems Engineering.

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Environment and Waste Management

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

• An overview of current household waste management in Indonesia: development of a new integrated strategy
• Urban environmental services: valuing the environmental benefits of solid waste recycling in Brazil
• Improved understanding of the pozzolanic behaviour of MSWI fly ash with Ca(OH)2 solution
• Vermicomposting of dewatered sludge from pulp and paper mill
• Management of organic content in municipal solid waste - a case study of Lahore
• Effect of MGO additive on preventing leakage of Cr(VI)

Special issue published: "Advances in Product Development Underpinned by Multiple Technologies"

International Journal of Materials and Product Technology 53(2) 2016

Extended versions of papers presented at the 2013 International Conference on Advanced Design and Manufacture.

• The tribological performance research of modified PTFE composite material
• Knowledge representation and data management of ontology-based vessel man-machine-environment system
• Numerical analysis of helical rolling processes for producing steel balls
• Internet-based remote monitoring system of thermo-electric-generations with mobile communication technology
• Modelling and optimisation of a five dimensional vibration isolator
• Two-level agent environment for intelligent lighting control

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Business Intelligence and Data Mining

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Business Intelligence and Data Mining are now available here for free:

• Fuzzy logic and coherence control in multi-criteria evaluation of urban redevelopment projects
• The identification of 'fuzzy profiles' through the c-means clustering
• A granularity theory for modelling spatio-temporal phenomena at multiple levels of detail
• An estimate model for the equalisation of real estate tax: a case study
• How to help end users to get better decisions? Personalising OLAP aggregation queries through semantic recommendation of text documents

New Editor for European Journal of Cross-Cultural Competence and Management

Prof. Fabrizio Maimone from Libera Universit Maria Ss. Assunta in Italy has been appointed to take over editorship of the European Journal of Cross-Cultural Competence and Management.

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Reliability and Safety

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

• Reliability evaluation of capacitated mobile ad hoc network using log-normal shadowing propagation model
• Calibration of partial safety factors for offshore foundation design
• Probabilistic re-analysis of nonlinear systems when energy of excitation changes
• Reliability analysis of load-sharing m-out-of-n systems with arbitrary load and different probability distributions of time to failure
• Capturing uncertainty in fatigue life data

Special issue published: "Advances in Mobile Computing and Applications"

International Journal of Ad Hoc and Ubiquitous Computing 21(4) 2016

• Hybrid cluster-based geographical routing protocol to mitigate malicious nodes in mobile ad hoc network
• A method of cleaning RFID data streams based on Naive Bayes classifier
• Routing and CDMA-MAC based cross-layering for wireless ad hoc networks
• Information dissemination in mobile social networks with gossip algorithms
• Leakage resilient CCA secure IBE with all-but-one lossy filter
• Design and performance analysis of a cost-effective proxy-LMA mobility management scheme in IP-based mobile networks with global mobility support

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Nuclear Energy Science and Technology

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Nuclear Energy Science and Technology are now available here for free:

• The combined effect of changes in the condenser cooling seawater temperature, fouling and salinity on the thermal performance of a pressurised water reactor nuclear power plant
• Study on hydrodynamics and heat transfer of solitary wave on film flow with CFD method
• Experimental determination of dose uniformity in the CDTN gamma irradiator
• Systematic study of the subshell effect at Z = 64 and the neutron discontinuity at N = 88-90
• Solution of non-linear neutron point kinetics equations with feedback reactivity in nuclear reactor dynamics
• Fuzzy finite element analysis of multi-group neutron diffusion equation with imprecise parameters

Special issue published: "Medical Devices"

International Journal of Design Engineering 6(2) 2015

• Quantitative reliability assessment based design of a medical fluid management system
• A study into the use of tolerance analysis in the mechanical design of medical devices
• Putting medical devices in context: a systematic review of evidence on design targeting low-resource settings
• Computerised rapid prototyping of human foot using computed tomography

Call for papers: "Strategic Choices, Capital Structure, Innovative and Financial Performance of European SMEs"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business.

In the current context of economic crisis, globalisation, increasing competition and the rise of the development of new technologies, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are forced more and more to reformulate their strategies, in particular, with regard to innovation and funding strategies (Rossi et al., 2012; Santoro et al., 2016). In fact, investments in R&D are crucial for European SMEs linking firm's innovation with growth and performances (De Faria and Mendonça, 2011). “However, funding strategies are often unbalanced towards traditional debt instruments and are more undifferentiated considering the final objectives of the investment." (Bresciani, 2010; Ferraris, 2013).

Thus, in order to increase competitiveness and to achieve better financial performance, there is a need to carefully investigate the critical factors of success and/or failure, and the strategies adopted by firms and their capital structure (Rossi et al., 2014). At the same time, SMEs have been forced to pay attention to the way the management is affected by the increasing importance of knowledge assets (Del Giudice et al., 2010; Del Giudice, 2011). As a result, knowledge management orientation influences the overall strategy of SMEs mainly with regard to innovative and financial aspects and choices.

We welcome qualitative as well as quantitative and mixed methodologies, as long as this is well grounded in the literature (Dana and Dana, 2005; Dana and Dumez, 2015). Thus, this special issue solicits high-quality papers presenting original research results on European SMEs.

Suitable topics include, but are not limited, to the following:

• Financial structure and the impact on performance
• Family business and innovation
• Knowledge management and performance
• R&D and funding strategies
• New financial sources for SMEs
• Knowledge, strategy and innovation outcomes
• Open innovation strategy and knowledge management

Important Dates

Submission of manuscripts: 31 March, 2017
Notification to authors: 30 June, 2017
Final versions due: 31 August, 2017

References:

Bresciani, S. (2010). Innovation within firms: a survey in the Piedmont area. International Journal of Quality and Innovation, 1(2), 138-152.

Dana, L.P. & Dana, T.E. (2005) "Expanding the Scope of Methodologies Used in Entrepreneurship Research," International Journal of Entrepreneurship & Small Business 2 (1), 2005, pp. 79-88.

Dana, L.P. & Dumez, H. (2015) "Qualitative Research Revisited: Epistemology of a Comprehensive Approach," International Journal of Entrepreneurship & Small Business 26 (2), October 2015, pp. 154-170.

De Faria, P., & Mendonça, J. (2011). Innovation strategy by firms: Do innovative firms grow more? International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 12(2), 173-184.

Del Giudice, M. (2011). Knowledge Management and Family Business. In Knowledge and the Family Business (pp. 11-46). Springer New York.

Del Giudice, M., Della Peruta, M. R., & Carayannis, E. G. (2010). Knowledge and the family business: the governance and management of family firms in the new knowledge economy. Springer Science & Business Media.

Ferraris, A. (2013). Innovative Capacity of Italian Manufacturing Firms. Management, 3(3), 174-183.

Rossi, M., Vrontis, D., & Thrassou, A. (2012). Wine business in a changing competitive environment-strategic and financial choices of Campania wine firms. International Journal of Business and Globalisation, 8(1), 112-130.

Rossi, M., Vrontis, D., & Thrassou, A. (2014). Agro Business in a Changing Competitive Environment-Campania firms' strategic, marketing and financial choices. World Review of Entrepreneurship, Management and Sustainable Development 5, 10(2-3), 312-333.

Santoro, G., Ferraris, A., Giacosa, E., & Giovando, G. (2016). How SMEs Engage in Open Innovation: a Survey. Journal of the Knowledge Economy, 1-14.

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Business Governance and Ethics

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Business Governance and Ethics are now available here for free:

• Gender diversity and father-daughter relationships: understanding the role of paternalistic leadership in family firm succession
• Do corporate governance mechanisms influence environmental reporting practices? Evidence from an emerging country
• Strategic corporate social responsibility: the struggle for legitimacy and reputation
• Governance codes and types of issuer: a global study
• Organisational citizenship behaviour in the Islamic financial sector: does Islamic work ethic make sense?

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of High Performance Systems Architecture

The following sample articles from the International Journal of High Performance Systems Architecture are now available here for free:

• STSHC: secure and trusted scheme for Hadoop cluster
• Enhancing the search ability of differential evolution through competent leader
• Research on born-digital image text extraction based on conditional random field
• A novel approach to generate and extract audio watermark
• Public-key searchable encryption from lattices
• On provably secure code-based multiple grade proxy signature scheme
• Computing the PUE of data centres by leveraging workload fluctuation
• Private mutual authentications with fuzzy matching

Special issue published: "Climate Change, Energy Security and Sustainability"

International Journal of Global Energy Issues 39(3/4) 2016

Extended versions of papers presented at the International Conference on Renewable Energy Sources and Sustainability (RESUS-2015).

• Performance of co-current and counter-current parallel flow three-fluid heat exchanger due to perturbations in flow
• Flexible solar photovoltaic deployments for Singapore: an economic assessment
• Numerical analysis of wind flow patterns over complex hilly terrains: comparison between two commonly used CFD software
• Bioethanol production from algae
• An assessment of hydrocarbons as an alternative refrigerant: the Mauritian context
• Biogas production potential from cow dung to be used in the Vedic farm
• Analysis of fuel efficiency of largest European airlines in the context of climate change mitigation

Call for papers: "Internal Combustion Engine Powertrain Technologies for Future Connected Vehicles"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Powertrains.

Vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure connectivity, collectively referred to as V2X, has already shown immense promise to improve vehicle safety, convenience and efficiency. Examples include crash avoidance, vehicle platooning and traffic signal timing. V2X also has the potential to improve internal combustion (IC) engines and their associated powertrain systems. Connected IC engine technologies include using V2X connectivity to alter engine or powertrain behaviour in real-time, to characterise powertrain performance over time for pre-fault diagnostics, to use collected vehicle data to improve the design of engines or powertrain components, and to alter engine operation as a function of vehicle geographic location (geo-fencing).

With the inevitable proliferation of V2X, this special issue will provide a forum for publishing new research quantifying how IC engine powertrain efficiency and emissions can be improved through connectivity. High-quality articles are invited that explore this growing area and provide vision for future research activities.

Suitable topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Impact of connectivity on IC engine combustion control
• Use of connectivity in evaluating real-world fuel performance or quality
• Predictive engine or powertrain control using external data
• Engine and powertrain fault pre-diagnostics
• Real-world emissions from connected vehicles
• Hybrid powertrain control algorithms using external data

Note: Articles that describe methods for powertrain optimisation without the use of data provided through V2X connectivity are not of interest.

Important Dates

Submission of manuscripts: 31 July, 2016

Notification to authors: 30 September, 2016

Final versions due: 30 November, 2016

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Innovation and Regional Development

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

• Service innovation in the complex environment of tax administration: the Indonesian public sector perspective
• Technology transfer as a driver for location of R&D active firms on science parks
• The role of technology transfer offices in growing new entrepreneurial ecosystems around mid-sized universities
• The structural and functional analysis of innovation systems: outline of the Polish case
• A system dynamics model of science, technology and innovation policy to sustain regional innovation systems in emerging economies

Inderscience journals to publish expanded papers from Second International Symposium on Intelligent Systems Technologies and Applications (ISTA'16)

Extended versions of papers presented at the Second International Symposium on Intelligent Systems Technologies and Applications (21-24 September 2016, Jaipur, India) will be published by the following journals:

• Int. J. of Computational Science and Engineering
• Int. J. of High Performance Computing and Networking

Phoney protection for passwords

Corporate data breaches seem to be on the rise, rarely a week passes without a company revealing that its database has been hacked and regrettably usernames, passwords, credit card details and its customers’ personal information has been leaked on to the open internet. A new protection, nicknamed Phoney, is reported in the International Journal of Embedded Systems.

Rong Wang, Hao Chen and Jianhua of Sun College of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha, China, explain that once password files have been stolen, attackers can quickly crack large numbers of passwords. With their “Phoney” system which employs a threshold cryptosystem to encrypt the password hashes in the password file and honeywords to confuse attackers, even if the hackers have comprised a database, the phoney, honeywords, obfuscate and camouflage the genuine passwords. Moreover, if those honeywords are de-hashed and used in a login attempt, the hacked system will know to immediately block the fake user and lock down the account they tried to break into.

Until a secure and safe alternative is found, passwords will remain the simplest and most effective way to login to online systems, such as shopping, banking and social media sites. Passwords lists stored by the providers can be salted and hashed to make it harder for hackers to decrypt them and users can help themselves by using long, sophisticated passwords. However, the hash used to mask a password database can itself be cracked and breaches happen and data is inevitably compromised. For example, recently 6.5 million logins from a major social networking site were stolen and within a week almost two-thirds of those passwords had been cracked making a large proportion of the user base vulnerable to further exploitation and compromise of their personal data.

The team explains that, “Phoney is helpful to existing password authentication systems and easy to deploy. It requires no modifications to the client, and just changes how the password is stored on the server, which is invisible to the client.” They have carried out tests and show that the time and storage costs are acceptable. “Of course, it is impossible for Phoney to guarantee no password leak absolutely in all possible scenarios,” they say. But the so-called cracking ‘search space’, in other words the amount of effort a hacker needs to breach the data is increased significantly.

 

Wang, R., Chen, H. and Sun, J. (2016) ‘Phoney: protecting password hashes with threshold cryptology and honeywords‘, Int. J. Embedded Systems, Vol. 8, Nos. 2/3, pp.146-154.

via Inderscience – Science Spot http://ift.tt/1NW8zrC

New Editor for International Journal of Granular Computing, Rough Sets and Intelligent Systems

Prof. Antonio Di Nola from the University of Salerno in Italy has been appointed to take over editorship of the International Journal of Granular Computing, Rough Sets and Intelligent Systems.

Special issue published: "Public-Private Partnerships and Financial Performance In or Out of Crisis"

Global Business and Economics Review 18(3/4) 2016

• Financial crisis and Greek banks' internationalisation
• The relationship between wine sector and regional competitiveness
• Work cost impact analysis in FTSE MIB companies
• Two suggestions to improve the outcomes of public-private partnerships
• The economic effects of new PPP accounting treatments: a critical analysis of the IPSAS 32
• Two models of family firms in dividends and investments policy
• Management accounting and enterprise risk management. A potential integration as a new change in managerial systems
• Public private partnership and IFRIC 12 in Italy
• Efficiency, leverage and profitability: the case of Greek manufacturing sector
• Impact of taxation on FDI flows into European Union countries: empirical evidence from a gravity approach

Additional papers

• Construction measures of bankruptcy: case study of Polish enterprises
• A comparative analysis in the EU shadow economy using a DEA model
• Venture capital in Europe: investors and targets
• Twin deficit hypothesis: some recent evidence from India

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Happiness and Development

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

• The productive and happy agent: performance and positive emotions at call centres
• Happiness in ASEAN member states
• Validity and reliability of Finnish version of WHOQOL-Bref on adult population in Finland
• Work life balance and quality of life among employees in Malaysia
• Differences between affective profiles in temperament and character in Salvadorians: the self-fulfilling experience as a function of agentic (self-directedness) and communal (cooperativeness) values
• Happiness in the United Arab Emirates: conceptualisations of happiness among Emirati and other Arab students

Inderscience is media partner for Defence Exports 2016

Inderscience is a media partner for Defence Exports (28-29 September 2016, Amsterdam, Netherlands).

The journals involved are:

• Int J. of Intelligent Defence Support Systems
• Int. J. of Shipping and Transport Logistics

More information on this event is available here.

Thematic issue published: "The Role of Multinational Enterprises in Local Market Developments" (includes free OA article)

European Journal of International Management 10(3) 2016

• Supplier strategies to compensate for knowledge asymmetries in buyer-supplier relationships: implications for economic upgrading [FREE OPEN ACCESS ARTICLE]
• The contribution of inward FDI to Chinese regional innovation: the moderating effect of absorptive capacity on knowledge spillover
• Knowledge spillovers through inward FDI in emerging markets: an empirical examination in the supermarket industry

Regularly submitted papers

• Chinese outward foreign direct investments in Europe
• Entrepreneurial orientation in the emerging Russian regulatory context: the criticality of interpersonal relationships

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Advanced Operations Management

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

• A heuristic zero/one programming for a bi-objective web-based convergent product networks
• Manufacturing system with immediate rework and partial backordering
• Evaluation and precedence of factors affects telecom service quality by AHP and fuzzy analysis
• A stochastic decision model for strategic supplier relationship portfolio management

Special issue published: "Frontiers in Computer Science and Technology"

International Journal of Computational Science and Engineering 12(2/3) 2016

• Image restoration using anisotropic multivariate shrinkage function in contourlet domain
• Optimal transitional trajectory generation for automatic machines
• A security improved image encryption scheme based on chaotic Baker map and hyperchaotic Lorenz system
• Expert selection service system by fuzzy ontology modelling
• A formal method to model and analyse QoS-aware fault tolerant service composition
• An algorithm for mining frequent closed itemsets with density from data streams
• Predicting robustness against transient faults of MPI based programs
• Isolation-based subsumption reasoning with enormous volume of web ontologies for scalable semantic service discovery 
• Online commercial intention detection framework based on web pages

Additional papers

• SAT-based algorithm for finding all maximal cliques
• Evolution of distributed monitoring for scalable business process management in cloud-based databases
• Convex cone volume analysis for finding endmembers in hyperspectral imagery
• A queue state driven analysis of IEEE 802.11 DCF for ad hoc networks under non-saturation conditions
• VLSI architectures for high speed and low power implementation of 5/3 lifting discrete wavelet transform 

Inderscience is media partner for Precision Medicine Congress 2016

Inderscience is a media partner for Precision Medicine Congress (12-13 September 2016, London, UK).

The journal involved is the International Journal of Functional Informatics and Personalised Medicine.

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Mobile Learning and Organisation

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Mobile Learning and Organisation are now available here for free:

• The effects of using interactive e-book on English learning effectiveness of different proficiency students
• Dimension of mobile security model: mobile user security threats and awareness
• Dedicated design and usability of a context-aware ubiquitous learning environment for developing receptive language skills: a case study
• The effect of the use of addition learning e-book on first-grade students' addition performance
• Collaborative experience sharing with the support of M-Learning 2.0: a fundamental framework, a case study and research issues
• An empirical study on cloud computing requirements for better mobile learning services

Special issue published: "Interdisciplinary Approaches to Environmental Challenges for Urban Centres"

Interdisciplinary Environmental Review 17(2) 2016

• Close-knit cities
• Nature in the neighbourhood: rethinking the urban environment
• Identifying opportunities and hurdles for food security: a critical examination of the City of Edmonton's food and agriculture strategy
• Urban sustainability: from neoliberal governance to the right to the city
• Vulnerability assessment of small community water systems in Puerto Rico

Additional paper

• Assessing the intersections between renewable energy, sustainable development and the challenges of environmental justice in Nigeria

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of System of Systems Engineering

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

• Emerging systems theory-based pathologies for governance of complex systems
• Environmental scanning implications in the governance of complex systems
• Visual resource monitoring for complex multi-project environments
• Metasystem communication in governance of complex systems
• A metasystem perspective and implications for governance
• Competencies for governance of complex systems of systems
• Complex system governance requires systems thinking - how to find systems thinkers
• Complex system governance reference model
• Systems theory as a foundation for governance of complex systems

International Journal of Tourism Policy to publish expanded papers from International Conference on Hospitality & Tourism Management

Extended versions of papers presented at the International Conference on Hospitality & Tourism Management (26-27 May 2016, Bangkok, Thailand) will be published by the International Journal of Tourism Policy.

Special Issue published: "Smart Mobile Service Computing"

International Journal of Embedded Systems 8(2/3) 2016

Extended versions of papers presented at the 2014 Asia-Pacific Services Computing Conference.

• Re-examining social network services from sociability perspective
• The embedded real-time detection system of moving object based on improved Gaussian mixture model
• Low-cost sensors aided vehicular position prediction with partial least squares regression during GPS outage
• ePush: a streaming push service for mobile content delivery
• Phoney: protecting password hashes with threshold cryptology and honeywords
• Design and application of top ontologies for the transactions on IoT
• Lightweight semantic service modelling for IoT: an environment-based approach 
• Cloud backup: an enhanced smartphone app designed with cross-platform approach
• Active or inactive: infer private user information in location-based social network
• Variable ferry routing algorithm for sparse wireless sensor networks
• K-anonymisation of social network by vertex and edge modification
• Mobile traffic identification based on application's network signature
• Interest overlay network model on distributed social network service
• MGPA: a multi-granularity space preallocation algorithm for object-based storage devices 
• High capacity reversible steganography in encrypted images based on feature mining in plaintext domain
• Optimal node deployment strategy for wireless sensor networks based on dynamic ant colony algorithm
• LibTiP: a lightweight and robust scheme for data trustworthiness and privacy protection in participatory sensing

Research Picks – May 2016

Unemployment – keep it out of the family
Italian research suggests that “weak” jobseekers – who are defined as migrants, women, and young people – are less likely to find employment if they have strong family ties. A multivariate analysis of a trainee’s individual social networks – family, friends and acquaintance – affects subsequent employment outcome, the team found. They suggest that public employment and training agencies could improve employability of “weak” groups by strengthening connections between different hubs so that job referrals and reputation come to the fore.
Lamonica, V., Ragazzi, E., Santanera, E. and Sella, L. (2016) ‘The role of personal networks in the labour insertion of weak jobseekers’, Int. J. Computational Economics and Econometrics, Vol. 6, No. 3, pp.315–335.

Biological mining
Biology and medicine and their overlapping discipline, biomedical science, generate vast amounts of data on a daily basis, not least in the form of papers and reviews in the scientific literature. A powerful new literature mining tool, BioTopic, has now been developed and shown to have a search performance of 86% which is higher than conventional data mining techniques at retrieving pertinent information. Fine-grained pre-processing, topic modelling, and shallow parsing allow the tool to work quickly and accurately to find relevant papers. Mining of three topics “neuron”, “signalling pathway” and “apoptotic cell death” demonstrated proof of principle and highlight ways in which the system might be improved still further by generating a background word list and creating automated filtering rules.
Wang, X., Zhu, P., Liu, T. and Xu, K. (2016) ‘BioTopic: a topic-driven biological literature mining system’, Int. J. Data Mining and Bioinformatics, Vol. 14, No. 4, pp.373–386.

Go by rail
Rail travel is on the increase and associated with such an increase is the risk of accidents given conditions remaining unchanged or issues left unresolved. One particularly vulnerable component of rail infrastructure is the tunnels. A new safety model shows what measures must be adopted to preclude critical situations arising that can lead to serious accidents, including preventative maintenance and corrective measures to reduce risk. Of course, risk can never be reduced to zero in any activity, but as rail travel grows, the statistics must be countered to minimise it.
De Felice, F., Petrillo, A. and Zomparelli, F. (2015) ‘Railway tunnels safety: analysis of critical reliability aspects’, Int. J. Decision Sciences, Risk and Management, Vol. 6, No. 2, pp.103–127

Why the rich get richer
It’s a perennial concern of the poverty stricken – why is it that the rich get richer. Researchers in China suggest that this fact of life is down to mathematics, with wealth accumulation following a power law and thus generating asymmetries in society that lead to income and wealth distribution towards the haves and away from the have-nots. They found that wealth is more unequally distributed than income and that from a dynamical perspective revenues from financial investments are the key factor to sustaining wealth accumulation. “In other words, wealth-dependent asymmetries among agents lead to a rising inequality of income and wealth as the time goes on,” the researchers suggest.
Desiderio, S. and Chen, S. (2016) ‘Why the rich become richer: insights from an agent-based model’, Int. J. Computational Economics and Econometrics, Vol. 6, No. 3, pp.258–275.


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