Special issue published: "Technological Innovation in Teaching and Learning Practices"

International Journal of Innovation and Learning 23(4) 2018

• Exploring different types of interaction on collaborative learning in online platforms
• When and how does learning satisfy? Working collaboratively online with a clear purpose
• The design and exploitation of blended learning concept: comparative study of two universities
• STEP on connected classroom climate in a hybrid learning environment
• A flexible graph-based model for facilitating digital learning activities
• CRESDA: extending data landscape of learners

International Journal of Trade and Global Markets to publish expanded papers from LEAD 2018 Entrepreneurship and Development Conference

Extended versions of papers presented at the LEAD 2018 Entrepreneurship and Development Conference (10 August 2018, Harvard University, USA) will be published by the International Journal of Trade and Global Markets.

Special issue published: "Recent Advances on Emerging Topics of Computer Vision Methods and Image Analytics"

International Journal of Computational Vision and Robotics 8(2) 2018

• Effective image retrieval based on hybrid features with weighted similarity measure and query image classification
• Content-based image retrieval with pachinko allocation model and a combination of colour, texture and text features
• Combining Zernike moment and complex wavelet transform for human object classification
• Stairways detection based on approach evaluation and vertical vanishing point
• Facial expression recognition based on eigenspaces and principle component analysis
• An automatic natural feature selection system for indoor tracking - application to Alzheimer patient support
• Exploring necessity and utility of lightweight android chatting application

Special issue published: "Big Data and Big Services for Internet-Based Enterprises"

International Journal of Internet Manufacturing and Services 5(2/3) 2018

• The optimisation design of cooling water channel for calibrator based on Kriging and NSGA-II
• Mining QoS benchmark of resource-service chain for collaborative tasks
• Testing job characteristics model: empirical research on service-oriented organisations in China
• Time-slot-based point of interest recommendation on location-based social network
• Resource selection method based on service capability in cloud manufacturing
• A compound operation method of model transformation rule based on OWL
• Cloud manufacturing service evaluation based on modular neural network
• Approach to manufacturing resource description based on metadata in cloud manufacturing
• IEDPS: intelligent elderly disease prediction system
• The design and implementation of data collection middleware for logistics traceability
• User-based collaborative filtering algorithm fusing the local and global nearest neighbour
• Research on humanoid head robot system based on interactive visual expression analysis
• Predictive maintenance strategy of running fault based on ELM algorithm for power transformer
• A process planning method based on firefly algorithm

International Journal of Masonry Research and Innovation to publish expanded papers from 10th International Masonry Conference (10thIMC)

Extended versions of papers presented at the 10th International Masonry Conference (9-11 July 2018, Milan, Italy) will be published by the International Journal of Masonry Research and Innovation.

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Metaheuristics

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

• Tabu search-enhanced artificial bee colony algorithm to solve profit-based unit commitment problem with emission limitations in deregulated electricity market 
• Induction motor parameter estimation using disrupted black hole artificial bee colony algorithm 
• Generic filtering and removing artefacts from document images using unsupervised PSO optimisation 
• Discrete cuckoo search applied to capacitated arc routing problem 
• Makespan minimisation for pre-emptive scheduling of mobile robots in FMS environment

Special issue published: "Data Security, Privacy and Trust"

International Journal of Intelligent Information and Database Systems 11(2/3) 2018

• On the rotation Boolean permutation
• A publicly verifiable network coding scheme with null-space HMAC
• Edge computing-based security authentication algorithm for multiple RFID tags
• An improved trusted method for global congestion price computing based on software defined networking in data-centred network
• Modelling behaviour of cyber-physical system and verifying its safety based on algebra of event
• Image super-resolution via Gaussian scale patch group sparse representation
• Multi-hypothesis compressed video sensing by two-step iterative thresholding

New Editor for International Journal of Automation and Control

Prof. Ling Wang from Tsinghua University in China has been appointed to take over editorship of the International Journal of Automation and Control.

Special issue published: "Well-Being Ecosystems"

International Journal of Telemedicine and Clinical Practices 2(4) 2017

• The digitalisation of the medical value network - how information asymmetries can be managed with digital innovations
• Senior citizens - perceived health self-efficacy and information barriers
• Towards improving shift leaders' information management in intensive care units: developing and testing a model for a management information system
• Healthcare as a business environment - analysing the Finnish health technology industry

International Journal of Reasoning-based Intelligent Systems to publish expanded papers from 1st Annual International Conference on Information and Sciences (AiCIS 2018)

Extended versions of papers presented at the 1st Annual International Conference on Information and Sciences (20-21 November, 2018, Fallujah, Anbar, Iraq) will be published by the International Journal of Reasoning-based Intelligent Systems.

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Healthcare Technology and Management

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

• China and Europe networks in health: an empirical analysis on co-publications
• China's legal framework for pharmaceutical products: challenges and opportunities for EU companies
• Chinese expansion in the international healthcare markets: the role of Chinese OFDI in Europe
• Chinese pharmaceuticals: does sub-national marketisation matter? Evidence of cross-province acquisitions by Guangdong pharmaceutical firms
• Focusing on the Chinese health industry: an empirical enquiry on the TCM listed firms. Is large and private beautiful?
• Value chain building and business model in the mobile device healthcare industry - the case of China
• Perceptions of health technology assessment knowledge translation in China: a qualitative study on HTA researchers and policy-makers
• China's future healthcare system: what is the role for private production and financing?
• China's strategic sectors. Trends in health-related manufacturing

Special issue published: "Algorithm and Technology Advances for Future Internet"

International Journal of High Performance Computing and Networking 11(3) 2018

• UOSM: user-oriented semi-automatic method of constructing domain ontology
• Cloud workflow scheduling algorithm based on reinforcement learning
• Quick convergence algorithm of ACO based on convergence grads expectation
• Short-term vegetable prices forecast based on improved gene expression programming
• High performance energy saving policy based on IND
• Constrained evolution algorithm based on adaptive differential evolution
• A privacy preserving and fine-grained access control scheme in DaaS based on efficient DSP re-encryption
• A parallel immune genetic algorithm for community detection in complex networks
• An automatic traffic-congestion detection method for bad weather based on traffic video

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:

• Asymmetric causality between exchange rate and interest rate differentials: a test of international capital mobility
• Green Bond and shareholders' wealth: a multi-country event study
• The contribution of Islamic bank towards the stability of financial system in Indonesia
• Clustering Indonesian companies' Annual Reports: preliminary assessment of the implementation of integrated reporting by Indonesian listed companies
• Relationships among intellectual capital, financial performance and market value: a case study from Indonesia
• Do accrual minimise (maximise) stock risk (return)?: evidence from Indonesia
• Factors determining stock returns in property, real estate and construction companies in Indonesia

Special issue published: "Interorganisational Knowledge Management and Value Co-Creation in Service Networks"

International Journal of Services Sciences 6(3/4) 2017

• The Finnish road weather business ecosystem - structure, potentials and implications for demand-driven innovation policy
• A framework of a stakeholders' value exchange model and a paradigm of practice
• Mapping multiple stakeholder value in service innovation: an industrial case study

Additional papers

• Proximity-based customer engagement in services and tourism destinations
• Factors affecting service quality perception in internet-banking services: an evidence from Uttarakhand
• Opportunity cost estimation using temporal association rule mining
• Measuring the innovation efficiency of Chinese higher education institutions by network DEA

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Critical Computer-Based Systems

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Critical Computer-Based Systems are now available here for free:

• Formal approach based on petri nets using agent paradigm for m-maintenance
• Failure detector-Ring Paxos-based atomic broadcast algorithm
• Modelling and performance analysis of video and voice streams in the IEEE 802.11e-EDCA WLANs with TXOP bursting under fading channel
• On the dependability evaluation of a virtual multiple input multiple output link
• Analysing reward measures of LARES performability models by discontinuous Markov chains
• Modelling and analysis data fragmentation in IEEE 802.15.4 slotted CSMA/CA protocol without ACK mode

Awards from the International Journal of Inventory Research

The Editor in Chief of the International Journal of Inventory Research, Prof. Prof. Tsan-Ming (Jason) Choi, is pleased to announce the following awards for 2017:

• Best Editor Award: Prof. Ata Allah Taleizadeh, for professionally handling paper reviews, organising special issues and providing timely editorial recommendations.
• Best Reviewer Award: Prof. Bin Shen for providing high-quality and constructive reviews to the submissions in a timely manner.
• Timothy Urban Best Paper Award: Prof. Barry R. Cobb of Missouri State University, USA for the following paper: Cobb, B.R., 'Lead time uncertainty and supply chain coordination in lost sales inventory models', International Journal of Inventory Research, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp.5-30.

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Applied Systemic Studies

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Applied Systemic Studies are now available here for free:

• Social media in the classroom: examining the effects of social influence mechanism on peer learning
• Empirical online big data analysis shopping behaviour based on fsQCA approach
• A framework for evaluating the mobile augmented reality systems for ubiquitous and interactive cultural learning
• A web-scale experience to identify the component impacts of intellectual capital on corporate performance from perspective of multimedia data applications
• The study on firm acceptance of cloud service introduction from the innovation diffusion theory
• Image retrieval using a scale-invariant feature transform bag-of-features model with salient object detection
• The hybrid algorithm for product design in multimedia
• Modelling medical resource allocation with multimedia data on hyper aged district in Taiwan
• A near field communication-enabled e-learning environment for context-aware mobile Japanese conversation learning
• A web-based crowd sourcing data application in exploring the effect of collaborative we-intention on adoption of cloud-multimedia drive
• A comparative study on machine classification model in lung cancer cases analysis
• Examining the learning outcomes of elderly through multimedia teaching system in Taiwan

Special issue published: "Asian Consumer and Family Behaviour"

International Journal of Revenue Management 10(2) 2018

• Real earnings management in family firms: evidence from Chinese listed firms
• The profitability of just-cut barbershops: a case study of QB HOUSEs in Hong Kong
• Typology of life insurance consumers: a Q-methodological study
• Economics is learnt in the family: revaluing family influence on financial behaviour in India
• Empirical study on conservative and representative heuristics of Hong Kong small investors adopting momentum and contrarian trading strategies
• Corporate governance, privatisation, and financial performance of Indonesian state-owned enterprises

New Editor for International Journal of Six Sigma and Competitive Advantage

Prof. Purushothaman Damodaran from Northern Illinois University in the USA has been appointed to take over editorship of the International Journal of Six Sigma and Competitive Advantage.

Research Picks 22 May 2018

Looking for dropouts
Predicting poor performance in students is important for educational establishments looking to improve their “outcomes” for students as well as reduce the dropout rates. The bottom line amounts to a less well-educated public and increased costs for the establishment. Researchers in Greece have now demonstrated an algorithm based on modern machine-learning techniques that can spot those students that are less likely to perform well in examinations and in assessments and so draw those candidates to the attention of educators for extra tuition and guidance at critical points in their education. Proof of principle has been shown with a distance learning, web-based course at an “open university”. However, the approach could equally be applied to any kind of educational system with appropriate modifications.
Kostopoulos, G., Kotsiantis, S., Pierrakeas, C., Koutsonikos, G. and Gravvanis, G.A. (2018) ‘Forecasting students’ success in an open university’, Int. J. Learning Technology, Vol. 13, No. 1, pp.26–43

Pay what you want
Bargaining has been an essential part of trade since the first humans swapped commodities or services back in prehistoric times whether it was food being traded for a stone axe, baubles for an animal skin, or sexual favours for shelter and protection. Today, digital commodities are commonplace, ephemeral, virtual entities that suggest a different kind of value and so a different form of bargaining. Indeed, where such commodities are often freely available, a “pay what you want” approach to marketing and bargaining has emerged for commodities such as music downloads and the like. Researchers in Germany have now demonstrated how the PWYW approach to bargaining plays out with real commodities, in their case study “sweet snacks”. They have found that on average PWYW buyers spend 15% more than the suggested price, while 56% of them pay the marked price. This flies in the face of conventional wisdom that would suggest that a buyer would pay as little as possible, perhaps even nothing at all, if that is an option, to obtain the goods they desire. It seems that PWYW buyers actually see treating the seller fairly as more important than obtaining a product for free or as low a price as possible.
Gerpott, T.J. (2018) ‘Explaining payment amounts among self-selected pay-what-you-want-buyers: results from a field experiment in Germany’, Global Business and Economics Review, Vol. 20, No. 3, pp.263–285.

GDPR
The European Union (EU) has led the way in privacy and data protection since the 1990s through its Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC. Indeed, it has revolutionised data protection safety across its member states. Now, with the introduction of directive GDPR 2016/679, the General Data Protection Regulation it strengthens the existing legal framework and adds new and important guarantees regarding data protection safety. Moreover, GDPR does not apply only to member states but to anyone who handles and uses the data of any EU citizen wherever the citizen or handler is in the world. The directive was approved by the European Parliament in April 2016 and will be enforced on 25 May 2018. “The GDPR aims in the empowerment of the individual in an era where [their] data are more and more endangered by the augmented use of technology,” explains Christina Akrivopoulou of the Greek Refugee Appeals Authority, in Athens, Greece. “The practical enforcement of the GDPR will surely re-open the discussion on its strengths and weaknesses which remain to be seen.”
The editorial is free to download as a PDF from the journal IJHRC:
Akrivopoulou, C.M. (2018) ‘Editorial: A new era for privacy and data protection in the EU: general data protection regulation‘, Int. J. Human Rights and Constitutional Studies, Vol. 6, No. 1.

SMURF cleans up RFID
RFID (radio frequency identification) technology is widely used in commerce and increasingly in the environment we refer to as the Internet of Things (IoT) wherein all kinds of electronic devices, computers, industrial and domestic machines, and vehicles have internet connectivity. RFID allows objects to be tracked. In order to streamline the vast quantities of data emerging from the IoT and in particular RFID tracking, there is a need to clean the data. The “traditional” Statistical Smoothing for Unreliable RFID (SMURF) data algorithm has been limited to constant speed data flow during the process of data cleaning. Now, a team from China has demonstrated how SMURF might be used to clean dynamic tags and remove data redundancy. The team shows that their approach allows a broader definition of RFID data to be cleaned as well as improving accuracy.
Xu, H., Ding, J., Li, P., Sgandurra, D. and Wang, R. (2018) ‘An improved SMURF scheme for cleaning RFID data’, Int. J. Grid and Utility Computing, Vol. 9, No. 2, pp.170–178.

Special issue published: "ICT and Services Improvements"

International Journal of Services and Standards 12(2) 2018

• Enterprise interactions: conceptualisation, ontology, and standard architectures and services
• Lexicon-based sentiment analysis approach for ranking event entities
• Social media applications framework: a lexical analysis of users online reviews
• Online learning usage and performance among students within public universities in Yemen
• The effect of awareness and perceived risk on the technology acceptance model (TAM): mobile banking in Yemen
• ICT AND CSR in the Lebanese banking sector, towards a regain of stakeholders' trust: the case of Bank Audi

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Information and Coding Theory

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Information and Coding Theory are now available here for free:

• Invariants of MacWilliams identity: weight and ideal distribution in poset spaces
• The structure of duals of cyclic codes over 𝔽2 + u𝔽2 + v𝔽2 + uv𝔽2 and some DNA codes
• On lower bounds for information set decoding over 𝔽q and on the effect of partial knowledge
• On cyclic 𝔽q-linear 𝔽qt-codes
• Defining the almost-entropic regions by algebraic inequalities

Special issue published: "Applications of Soft Computing and Intelligent Control"

International Journal of Intelligent Engineering Informatics 6(3/4) 2018

• Application of firefly algorithm for congestion management problem in the deregulated electricity market
• Multi-agent model based on combination of chemical reaction optimisation metaheuristic with Tabu search for flexible job shop scheduling problem
• An improved quantum particle swarm optimisation and its application on hand kinematics tracking
• Analysis of enhanced complex SVR interpolation and SCG-based neural networks for LTE downlink system
• General study for energy recovery from used batteries using fuzzy logic and PI controllers
• FFA-based speed control of BLDC motor drive
• A very low speech model based on frequency selection-GA approach
• Software fault prediction using firefly algorithm
• Fault detection and isolation of asynchronous machine based on the probabilistic neural network
• Performance improvement of the particle swarm optimisation algorithm for the flexible job shop problem under machines breakdown

New Editor for International Journal of Intelligent Defence Support Systems

Prof. Suresh Chandra Satapathy from Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (Deemed to be University) in India has been appointed to take over editorship of the International Journal of Intelligent Defence Support Systems.

Special issue published: "New Techniques for Secure Internet and Cloud Computation"

International Journal of Computational Science and Engineering 16(3) 2018

• Data security and privacy information challenges in cloud computing
• A perspective on applications of in-memory and associative approaches supporting cultural big data analytics
• Load balancing algorithm based on multiple linear regression analysis in multi-agent systems
• TERS: a traffic efficient repair scheme for repairing multiple losses in erasure-coded distributed storage systems
• A sound abstract memory model for static analysis of C programs
• Self and social network behaviours of users in cultural spaces
• Cost-sensitive ensemble classification algorithm for medical image
• Mining balanced API protocols
• Advance DDOS detection and mitigation technique for securing cloud
• An efficient algorithm for modelling and dynamic prediction of network traffic
• Deploying parallelised ciphertext-policy attributed-based encryption in clouds

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Technological Learning, Innovation and Development

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

• Industry environment features influencing construction innovation in a developing country: a case study of four projects in Ghana
• Assessing the impact of public support for innovation in an emerging innovation system
• Emerging specialisations and software metropolitan clusters - a comparative network analysis on San Francisco, New York and London
• Policies to promote science-industry links and technology commercialisation in emerging countries: the case of Kazakhstan's Technology Commercialization Project

Special issue published: "Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management in the 21st Century"

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management 22(3) 2018

• Relative importance of design parameters: a study of selected Indian organisations
• Women entrepreneurship in India: a review of barriers and motivational factors
• Prioritising the factors promoting innovation in Emirati female-owned SMEs: AHP approach
• Key drivers for service innovation in the UAE's hotel sector
• Building organisational resilience: role of cherishing at work
• Effect of economic growth initiatives on regional economies: a study in the Indian context
• Brand sustainability and brand development: critical issues for micro, small and medium enterprises in India

Special issue published: "Green Production and Management"

International Journal of Manufacturing Technology and Management 32(3) 2018

• A conceptual framework linking LM, TQM, QMS, and EMS practices with the SP: assessment of responses from managers of some Malaysian industries
• Prioritisation of barriers in implementation of green manufacturing in Indian SMEs through integrated grey-DEMATEL approach
• An empirical investigation on Malaysians' green purchasing behaviour
• Energy effectiveness achieved by orienting prototype of a laparoscopic instrument handle using polyjet additive manufacturing technology
• Recycling waste and upcycling people: a new type of environmentally-motivated social enterprise strategy
• Ranking of factors that underlie the drivers of sustainable manufacturing based on their variation in a sample of UK manufacturing plants

Special issue published: "The Latest Technologies for Building a Smart City"

International Journal of Simulation and Process Modelling 13(2) 2018

• Technologies for developing a smart city in computational thinking
• Container-as-a-service architecture for business workflow
• Knowledge extraction based on linked open data for clinical documentation
• Software behaviour analysis method based on behaviour template
• Boundary estimating of urban road network for traffic impact analysis when reconstructing intersections: methodology and evaluation
• A novel visible-infrared image fusion framework for smart city
• Hybrid flow shop scheduling with finite buffers
• Towards improving oil palm fresh fruit bunches yield in Malaysia: a system dynamics approach
• Simulation-based optimisation and analysis for CO2 pipeline transportation system with uncertainties

International Journal of Nonlinear Dynamics and Control to publish expanded papers from VETOMAC XIV

Extended versions of papers presented at the 14th International Conference on Vibration Engineering and Technology of Machinery (10-13 September 2018, Lisbon, Portugal) will be published by the International Journal of Nonlinear Dynamics and Control.

Special issue published: "The Entrepreneurial University: New Theoretical and Empirical Insights from An Inter- and Intra-Organisational Perspective"

International Journal of Technology Management 77(1/2/3) 2018

• Entrepreneurial academics and academic entrepreneurs: a systematic literature review
• University coworking-spaces: mechanisms, examples, and suggestions for entrepreneurial universities
• A performance-based taxonomy of entrepreneurial universities
• Business models of entrepreneurial universities in the area of vocational education - an exploratory analysis
• Entrepreneurial university: a stakeholder-based conceptualisation of the current state and an agenda for future research
• 'Mode 3' universities and academic firms: thinking beyond the box trans-disciplinarity and nonlinear innovation dynamics within coopetitive entrepreneurial ecosystems

New Editor for International Journal of Forensic Software Engineering

Dr. Ashok Prajapati from FANUC America Corp. in the USA has been appointed to take over editorship of the International Journal of Forensic Software Engineering.

Special issue published: "Big Data and Cloud Computing Technologies"

International Journal of Cloud Computing 7(1) 2018

• A new key generation technique using GA for enhancing data security in cloud environment
• Confidential storage of medical images - a chaos-based encryption approach
• A secure encryption scheme based on certificateless proxy signature
• Automatic cloud service monitoring and management with prediction-based service provisioning

Special issue published: "Logistics and Maritime Studies on One Belt One Road"

International Journal of Shipping and Transport Logistics 10(3) 2018

• Cargo type selection procedure using fuzzy AHP and fuzzy TOPSIS techniques: 'the case of dry bulk cargo ships'
• Strait/canal security assessment of the Maritime Silk Road
• Yard storage planning for river terminals on one belt one road
• Manufacturing relocation and port/shipping development along the Maritime Silk Road
• Diversification as an energy importing strategy for China under the Belt and Road Initiative
• Evaluation of a centralised transportation assistance system for passengers with special needs at a Canadian airport

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Product Lifecycle Management

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

• A reference ontology approach to support global product-service production
• Distributed data management in product development using Git
• Framework for historical knowledge management in museology
• CLIMB: maturity assessment model for design and engineering processes
• A framework for manufacturing execution system deployment in an advanced additive manufacturing process

Special issue published: "Modelling, Computing and Information Fusion"

International Journal of Computer Applications in Technology 57(2) 2018

• Study on licence plate location algorithm in complex weather
• An improved image denoising method based on contourlet transform and NeighShrink algorithm
• Research on face recognition based on DRNLGBP
• Research on the image segmentation of icing line based on NSCT and 2-D OSTU
• Research of intelligent professional search engine based on agent
• Analysis on sustainable development of manufacturing industry in Hebei Province based on synergetic degree
• Construction of logistics level evaluation system and application on Wuhan city circle
• Application of control quality evaluation technology in complex industrial process
• Application of EEMD and neural network in stress prediction of anchor bolt
• Non-destructive test method of rock bolt based on D-S evidence and spectral kurtosis
• Mechanical acoustic fault diagnosis based on improved semi-blind extraction method
• Analysis on seismic dynamic response and liquefaction area of tailings dam

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Islamic Marketing and Branding

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Islamic Marketing and Branding are now available here for free:

• Islamic advertising in Nigeria: an assessment
• A study of German consumers' perception of Islamic banking
• Self-efficacy and entrepreneur's capabilities: effects on the performance of Palestinian women-led firms
• Islamic values and materialistic consumption culture: an exploratory study

Special issue published: "Advanced Computing and Simulation Based Manufacturing"

International Journal of Service and Computing Oriented Manufacturing 3(2/3) 2018

• Solving a real world steel stacking problem
• Analysis of cumulative energy demand and carbon footprint in residential building structures
• Development of an information fractal to optimise inventory in the supply network
• Optimisation and simulation of an e-bike manufacturing system: the case of a small assembly factory
• A comparative study of hyperelastic constitutive models for an automotive shaft seal material
• A framework for multi-UAV software in the loop simulations

Additional papers

• Multi-task parallel collaborative design based on SoC multi-core architecture
• Alarm device for locating people submerged beneath water based on the geomagnetic sensor

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Human Rights and Constitutional Studies

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Human Rights and Constitutional Studies are now available here for free:

• Child labour in Pakistan: consequences on children's health
• Information without borders: towards a framework for extra-territorial respect for the right to privacy
• Major women's right issues in Ethiopia: examining efficiency of the law and its enforcement
• Separation of power in Kenya: analysis of the relations between judiciary and the executive
• Justice Verma committee: an illustration of deliberative democracy in India

Special issue published: "Soft Computing Approaches and Intelligent Systems"

International Journal of Intelligent Systems Technologies and Applications 17(1/2) 2018

• Machine learning techniques using python for data analysis in performance evaluation
• Wind energy potential estimation with prediction of wind speed distribution
• Enhanced portable text to speech converter for visually impaired
• Multi spectral image classification using cluster ensemble technique
• Simultaneous scheduling of jobs, machines and tools considering tool transfer times in multi-machine FMS using new nature-inspired algorithms
• Grammar rule-based sentiment categorisation model for classification of Tamil tweets
• Empirical study of feature selection methods over classification algorithms
• Improvement of power quality in microgrids using predictive controller
• GA tuned two degree of freedom PID controller for time delay systems
• Reactive frequency band-based real-time motor imagery classification
• A comprehensive solution for risk management in software development projects
• Area efficient SDR receiver without and with dynamic partial reconfiguration
• A new method for the optical flow estimation and segmentation of moving objects 'NMES'
• Visual substitution system for room labels identification based on text detection and recognition
• Ordered weighted averaging operator used to enhance the accuracy of fuzzy predictor based on genetic algorithm

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Learning Technology

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

• University student satisfaction and perceived effectiveness of a blended learning course
• An examination of virtual environment training fidelity on training effectiveness
• Students' evaluation of tutors in distance education: a quasi-longitudinal study
• Design of a pedagogical model to promote knowledge generation in virtual communities

Special issue published: "Family Entrepreneurship in Transition and Emerging Economies"

International Journal of Transitions and Innovation Systems 6(2) 2018

• The importance of intellectual capital in the selection of global marketing strategies: evidence from family businesses in Macedonia
• The impact of human resources management on the effectiveness of family businesses
• Family firms in the Arab world: culture influences on socioemotional wealth
• The impact of quality programs on family businesses performance
• Employee engagement: a comparative study of family and non-family businesses
• Management and development differences of family businesses between two different generations
• Conflicts in family businesses: nature and effects

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Intelligent Systems Technologies and Applications

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Intelligent Systems Technologies and Applications are now available here for free:

• Adaptive forgetting factor echo state networks for time series prediction
• MLP neural network using constructive training algorithm: application to face recognition and facial expression recognition
• Learning human-mobile nearness with multiple sensors data from steady and non-steady spaces
• Improving ABC algorithm using new search mechanisms
• Classification of defective modules using object-oriented metrics

Special issue published: "Swarm and Evolutionary Computational Approaches: Recent Advances in Networking and Internet of Things (IoT)"

International Journal of Networking and Virtual Organisations 18(2) 2018

• A lightweight mutual authentication approach for RFID tags in IoT devices
• Parallel AES algorithm for performance improvement in data analytics security for IoT
• Particle swarm optimisation-based DWT for symbol detection in MIMO-OFDM system
• Optimal cluster head selection framework to support energy aware routing protocols of wireless sensor network
• An energy-efficient frequency scaling technique for virtualised memory in clouds

Alexa…check my security settings

Do you trust the Internet of Things? More to the point, do you trust “Alexa” the voice-activated software in the Amazon Echo and related IoT devices? There is not necessarily any particular reason not to trust Alexa and Amazon, although one must always remember that data held by any company on its servers may be compromised by hackers or malware. In addition, might your “conversations” with Alexa and the Echo’s recordings of your voice while it is in seemingly passive mode might be exploited by third parties or perhaps even used as evidence in a court of law.

Writing in the International Journal of the Internet of Things and Cyber-Assurance, Catherine Jackson and Angela Orebaugh of the School of Continuing and Professional Studies, at the University of Virginia, in Charlottesville, Virginia, USA, highlight several issues and offer some advice for users. The same problems and how to address them might equally apply to any other voice-activated IoT device.

Problem 1: Alexa trusts and responds to requests from anyone, including those on TV or passing by an open window. This means that it will respond to a command from a passerby or a personality on the TV. The team suggests that without adequate security measures, unauthorised users might order items from Amazon, unlock the doors of the house, control thermostats, locate phones, and control devices such as ovens and other domestic appliances.

Recommendation 1a: Users worried about problem 1 should assign another wake word, such as “echo”, “computer”, or “Amazon” instead of using “Alexa”. This will preclude radio and television advertisements, news broadcasts, and films and television programmes with characters named Alexa from activating the device.

Recommendation 1b: Users should enable a request notification sound at the start and end of a request to know when the device has been triggered. This might alert the user to an accidental or malicious activation.

Recommendation 1c: Users should keep their Amazon Echo device away from windows, doors, and out of “earshot” of their telephone answering machine, television or other audio device.

Problem 2: There are many benefits to having an “intelligent” digital assistant, but voice activation requires the device to be constantly alert to its wake word. However, there may be times when you might not want any device to “hear” your conversation.

Recommendation 2a: Engage the mute button so that your Amazon Echo stops listening. The LED indicator for the mute button will turn red to indicate that Alexa will no longer hear you as the microphone circuit has been disconnected by this action.

Recommendation 2b: Instead of only temporarily muting the Echo, you can leave it in mute mode perpetually and use the app or remote control.

Recommendation 2c: Disconnect the power supply when you are away from your device or not using it for extended periods of time. Not only does this save the trickle of standby electricity, but ensures privacy.

Problem3: Alexa stores a log of requests on Amazon’s cloud servers, which are linked directly to the Amazon account associated with the device.

Recommendation 3: Review your stored history periodically to check for unexplained or unauthorised actions and delete stored recordings when you feel the need.

Problem 4: Voice-activated purchases from Amazon are enabled by default.

Recommendation 4: disable voice purchasing or add a 4-digit PIN for purchases through the Alexa app to preclude third-parties, including children, friends, relatives, and visitors to your home from ordering items on your account.

“While these recommendations can improve consumer security and privacy for the Amazon Echo, similar actions should be taken for other intelligent personal assistants. Additionally, it is important to raise overall consumer awareness of security and privacy,” the team concludes.

Jackson, C. and Orebaugh, A. (2018) ‘A study of security and privacy issues associated with the Amazon Echo’, Int. J. Internet of Things and Cyber-Assurance, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp.91–100.

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Intelligent Information and Database Systems

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

• Repairing errors in probabilistic databases models using probabilistic abduction reasoning
• A model-based process for the modelling and the analysis of avionic architectures
• Semi-automated integration of domain ontologies to DSL meta-models
• Using logic programming for adapting models to metamodel evolution
• Multi-viewpoint ontological representation of composite concepts: a description logics-based approach
• BPM-based framework for e-government processes improvement: legal requirements integration
• Data model for health telemonitoring and persuasive system design

Special issue published: "Recent Progress in Clean Coal Research" [includes free OA article]

International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Technology 18(1/2) 2018

• Geochemistry of Croatian superhigh-organic-sulphur Raša coal, imported low-S coal and bottom ash: their Se and trace metal fingerprints in seawater, clover, foliage and mushroom specimens [free full-text access]
• Carbonate melt-based flue gas desulphurisation: material balance and economic advantage
• Petrochemical evaluation and classification of coal deposits of Barka Sayal area, South Karanpura Coalfield and suggestion for its proper utilisation
• Potential methanol-ethanol synthesis from Hungarian sub-bituminous coal via plasma gasification and Fischer-Tropsch synthesis
• The investigation on the removal mechanism of organic sulphur in coal under the external energy
• A case study of the modification potential of using spiral separators in the circuit of the Alborz-Sharghi coal processing plant (Iran)
• Insight into the molecular structure of Huolinguole lignite via supercritical methanolysis and ambient characterisation
• Investigation of coal burst characteristics under impact loading
• Study on the extraction of fulvic acid from lignite by microwave-assisted hydrogen peroxide
• Gasification reactivity of high ash Indian coals in varying concentrations of CO2
• Effect of prewetting time on different size fraction flotation performances of low rank coal
• Structural determination of heteroatom-containing compounds in an anthracite coal
• Analysis of the methane diffusion kinetics in tectonic coal under cyclic loading
• Microcosmic thermal analysis of coal mixed with oxides at different temperatures
• Study on the microwave effect on the physical and mechanical properties of coal

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Qualitative Research in Services

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Qualitative Research in Services are now available here for free:

• Thailand's perceived medical tourism service quality: a content analysis of international patients' online testimonials
• Customer participation in services: a framework for process design
• An interpretive structural modelling for sustainable healthcare quality dimensions in hospital services
• Voices of experience: service users as advisors in a research project on the needs of homeless women
• Service blueprinting and process-chain-network: an ontological comparison

Special issue published: "Sustainable Network Architectures"

International Journal of Internet Technology and Secured Transactions 7(4) 2017

• Incorporating privacy and security in military application based on opportunistic sensor network
• Efficient storage management framework for software defined cloud
• A conceptual comparison of NSGA-II, OMOPSO and AbYss algorithms
• MDI-SS: matched filter detection with inverse covariance matrix-based spectrum sensing in cognitive radio
• Prevention of a SYNflood attack using ExtremeXOS modular operating system
• Research on naïve Bayesian and hidden Markov model on Hadoop in cluster computing applications

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Internet Protocol Technology

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Internet Protocol Technology are now available here for free:

• Categorisation of web pages for protection against inappropriate content in the internet
• A learning-based hybrid framework for detection and defence of DDoS attacks
• Enhanced security model and efficient construction for direct anonymous attestation
• Virtual representation of facial avatar through weighted emotional recognition
• Performance evaluation of intrusion detection system using classifier ensembles
• A smart home foundation scheme based on open source hardware and cloud computing
• ID-based multi-receiver signcryption scheme in the standard model

Special issue published: "Advances in Green Economy and Sustainability" [includes free OA article]

International Journal of Innovation and Sustainable Development 12(3) 2018

• The impact of energy security risks on energy consumption
• Decoupling of economic activity from transport-related energy consumption: an analysis for European Union member countries
• Pollution haven hypothesis and India's intra-industry trade: an analysis
• How green is manufacturing? Status and prospects of national green industrialisation. The case of Morocco
• Greening the workplace: conceptualising workplaces as settings for enabling sustainable consumption
• Optimal sensing duration for interweave cognitive radios based on energy efficiency
• Industrie 4.0 and a sustainable development: a short study on the perception and expectations of experts in Germany [free full-text access]

Call for papers for inaugural issue of International Journal of Blockchains and Cryptocurrencies

Blockchains and cryptocurrencies are now topics of substantial impact that academia and industry need to contemplate, exploit and adopt. The mission of the International Journal of Blockchains and Cryptocurrencies is to be the premier resource for the most innovative scholarly and professional research information pertaining to the management and use of blockchains and cryptocurrencies. Its articles will be essential for anyone interested in this area. IJBC is the first journal dedicated to this topic.

IJBC publishes original papers, review papers, technical reports, case studies and book reviews. Special Issues devoted to important topics in financial technology will occasionally be published.

We cordially invite authors to submit articles for consideration for IJBC’s inaugural issue.

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

• Blockchains 
• Blockchain applications 
• Blockchain technologies 
• Cryptocurrency 
• Blockchain security 
• Bitcoin 
• Bitcoin security 
• FinTech 
• Digital currencies 
• Distributed ledger technologies 
• Smart contracts 
• Permissioned ledgers

Details on how to submit to IJBC are available here.

First issue: International Journal of Governance and Financial Intermediation (free sample issue available)

The International Journal of Governance and Financial Intermediation provides an international forum, especially for empirical papers, on corporate governance and equity ownership structure, financial institutions and financial intermediation, corporate finance, financial markets, strategic finance and other issues related to governance and financial intermediation. The journal focuses on issues of banking, finance and governance (macro and micro level) with particular emphasis on emerging markets, more specifically on the role of financial intermediary institutions as well as corporate governance and finance in institutional (macro level governance) and economic development.

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

First issue: International Journal of Comparative Management (free sample issue available)

The International Journal of Comparative Management aims to develop comparative management theory by devoting itself entirely to comparative research ideas in corporate strategy, finance, marketing, international business and general management. IJCM is a focal avenue for contemporary research issues grounded in comparative perspectives such as context, ownership, strategy, communication, performance, research problems and methods. Specifically, the journal welcomes cross-country research perspectives leveraging either empirical or qualitative methods based on survey, interview and archival data sources.

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

Special issue published: "Advanced Techniques in Multimedia Watermarking"

International Journal of Information and Computer Security 10(2/3) 2018

• WeChat traffic classification using machine learning algorithms and comparative analysis of datasets
• Node authentication algorithm for securing static wireless sensor networks from node clone attack
• The research of reputation incentive mechanism of P2P network file sharing system
• Robust injection point-based framework for modern applications against XSS vulnerabilities in online social networks
• A nonlinear two dimensional logistic-tent map for secure image communication
• A robust reversible image watermarking scheme in DCT domain using Arnold scrambling and histogram modification
• Improved pixel relevance based on Mahalanobis distance for image segmentation
• 3D reconstruction of human face from an input image under random lighting condition
• Reversible data hiding in absolute moment block truncation coding compressed images using adaptive multilevel histogram shifting technique
• A new statistical attack resilient steganography scheme for hiding messages in audio files
• Physiological trait-based biometrical authentication of human-face using LGXP and ANN techniques

Special issue published: "Environment and Sustainable Development"

International Journal of Global Environmental Issues 17(2/3) 2018

• Policies to support environmental risk management in investment decisions
• Soft prediction model for spatial data analysis
• Impact of technical and efficiency changes on productivity
• Environment and economic growth in the Russian Arctic
• Towards sustainability performance management system of tourism enterprises: a tourism sustainable balanced scorecard framework
• The application of system dynamics as a framework for establishing sustainable cave management policies: a case study in the Philippines
• Challenges and opportunities associated with the role of forestry in promoting water-energy and food security nexus in Ethiopia
• Recognising 'conservationism of the poor' towards holistic sustainability: study of an Indian national park
• Water scarcity management: part 2: satellite-based composite drought analysis

Special issue published: "Advances in Automotive Composites"

International Journal of Automotive Composites 3(2/3/4) 2018

• Weight reduction through material changing in a commercial diesel engine: piston pin and connecting rod case studies
• Optimisation of fibre-matrix interface in carbon fibre reinforced light metals via liquid phase impregnation coatings
• Analysis and design of a crash attenuator for a lightweight racing car
• Crush performance of foam filled tubular structures made of aluminium alloys at different loading conditions
• Eco-solutions for automotive interior applications by way of thermoplastic biocomposites: cost, weight and green advancements
• Understanding the contributions of surface morphology transitions and the phenomenon of thermoelastic instabilities on the torque output of a carbon/carbon multi-plate clutch during race-start conditions
• Methodical design process for structural composites to achieve lightweight vehicles
• Penetration impact behaviour of hot-compacted self-reinforced polyamide 6 composite laminates
• Elasto-plastic response of graphene nanoplatelets reinforced polymer composite materials
• Design of a composite crash box for a Formula Student team car: preliminary testing and model tuning
• Evolution FP7 funded project: body structure design strategies using new composite and aluminium materials and enabled technologies
• Function integration concept design applied on CFRP cross leaf spring suspension
• A composite chassis for a formula student vehicle
• An iterative approach for the determination of tailored blanks for waste-free composite forming by means of FE forming simulation
• Experimental and numerical investigation of full scale impact test on fibre-reinforced plastic sandwich structure for automotive crashworthiness

Special issue published: "Biomedical Signal and Imaging Trends and Artificial Intelligence Developments"

International Journal of Computational Systems Engineering 4(2/3) 2018

• A computerised framework for prediction of fatty and dense breast tissue using principal component analysis and multi-resolution texture descriptors
• GPU-based focus-driven multi-coordinates viewing system for large volume data visualisation
• Multimodality medical image fusion using non-subsampled rotated wavelet transform for cancer treatment
• Comparison of feature extraction techniques for classification of hardwood species
• Myoelectric control of upper limb prostheses using linear discriminant analysis and multilayer perceptron neural network with back propagation algorithm
• Volumetric tumour detection using improved region grow algorithm
• Comparative study of LVQ and BPN ECG classifier
• Automatic feature extraction of ECG signal based on adaptive window dependent differential histogram approach and validation with CSE database
• A comparative study on Kapur's and Tsallis entropy for multilevel thresholding of MR images via particle swarm optimisation technique
• Comparative studies of discrete cosine transform and lifting wavelet transform techniques for compression of blood pressure signal in salt sensitive Dahl rat
• B-mode breast ultrasound image segmentation techniques: an investigation and comparative analysis
• An improved unsupervised mapping technique using AMSOM for neurodegenerative disease detection
• Active contours using global models for medical image segmentation
• Application of ensemble artificial neural network for the classification of white blood cells using microscopic blood images

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Diplomacy and Economy

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

• International comparison of import and export efficiency of transport services
• BRICS states new development bank: challenges and controversies for the global political economy system
• The input of Greek European policy in the formation of the Banking Union
• India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Corridor: understanding the aspects of economic diplomacy
• Business diplomacy management: a conceptual overview and an integrative framework

Special section published: "Questioning the Politics of Critical Management Studies – Towards Considering CMS as Practice"

International Journal of Work Innovation 2(2/3) 2017

• Ageing and its determinants: potentialities and challenges for employment in Southern Europe
• All the work's a stage: exploring the perceived theatricality of organisational working life
• Framing the process of innovating: contested meanings at the nexus of prototype
• Development and validation of the inspirational leaders survey
• Flight attendant's knowledge sharing, innovative work behaviour, and new service development
• Studying the doing and undoing of gender in the organisation: promises and challenges
• Social innovation as practice: exploring the entanglement of political and managerial logics