Research Pick: Managing the UK’s coasts - "Coastal and estuarine management in the UK: review and overview of perspectives"

The United Kingdom is surrounded by the sea. As such its coasts and estuaries are geographically, economically, socially, and militarily important to the nation’s character, infrastructure, growth, and development.

How the UK manages its coasts and estuaries will be critical in the face of a changing political complexion, climate change, socioeconomic upheaval, and of course geological effects such as erosion. Of the UK’s 17,380 kilometre coastline, 3,008 km is suffering erosion and an additional 3,185 km is protected by engineering structures.

“A complex interaction of physical factors (sea-level change, geomorphology, storminess, waves, tides, near shore current) and human factors (land reclamation, river regulation works, unregulated dredging, etc.) are shaping the UK coastline through the dynamic process of erosion and accretion,” researchers explain in the journal Interdisciplinary Environmental Review.

It is important that they have now reviewed coastal and estuarine management practices with a view to feeding back new understanding to the stakeholders.

Oyedotun, T.D.T. (2018) ‘Coastal and estuarine management in the UK: review and overview of perspectives’, Interdisciplinary Environmental Review, Vol. 19, No. 2, pp.103–110.

Research Pick: Predicting urban sprawl - "A fuzzy classification model for identification of potential areas of urban sprawl"

The proportion of the global population that lives in towns and cities has risen from one in fifty, two centuries ago, to approximately half of all people today.

This radical shift from rural to urban life is an especially pressing problem for developing nations, such as India, where mega cities with uncontrolled, unauthorised, uncoordinated, and unplanned urban growth – urban sprawl – are discovering serious health and safety problems for their citizens in terms of infrastructure demands, traffic and other pollution, and waste and sewage disposal, as well as the obvious pressures of increased population density and demands on food, water, and other resources.

A team from India is now using a fuzzy classification model to help identify areas that might succumb to problematic urban sprawl. They have tested their model with satellite imagery of the city of Jaipur and demonstrated that critically it can distinguish between urban and semi-urban areas and how urban sprawl is emerging.

Sisodia, P.S., Shekhawat, R.S. and Tiwari, V. (2018) ‘A fuzzy classification model for identification of potential areas of urban sprawl’, Int. J. Society Systems Science, Vol. 10, No. 3, pp.171–181.

Special issue published: "Developments and Issues in Medical Imaging"

International Journal of Biomedical Engineering and Technology 27(4) 2018

• Region-based seed point cell segmentation and detection for biomedical image analysis
• Rapid estimation of object movements in magnetic induction tomography
• Domain-specific approach for segmentation of nucleus-cytoplasm in bone cancer histopathology for malignancy analysis
• A new neural network method for peripheral vestibular disorder recognition using VNG parameter optimisation
• PET image reconstruction based on Bayesian inference regularised maximum likelihood expectation maximisation (MLEM) method

Special issue published: "Enterprise Information Systems"

International Journal of Agile Systems and Management 11(3) 2018

• Application of reconfigurable machine tools in the capacity control of job shop systems
• Towards the measurement of enterprise information systems agility to support EIS improving projects
• Heuristic and fuzzy scheduling synergy with knowledge acquisition of resource selection system development for home healthcare service
• ICT enabled collaborative e-health for cleft lip/palate treatment

Research Pick: Puffed up rice - "Study on the preparation and properties of puffing glutinous rice starch"

Researchers in China have developed a new method for “puffing” glutinous rice starch which produces a material with a water-absorbing nanotextured surface that might be exploited in oral pharmaceutical delivery and alternatively in the adhesives industry.

Glutinous rice starch is a well-known natural biopolymer widely used in the food industry as a raw material for cakes, dumplings, rice glue balls, and other food products. Its chemical character might readily be exploited in a range of environmentally benign and biodegradable non-food products, thanks to this new work.

Zhang, J-l., Yang, K. and Zhai, G-y. (2018) ‘Study on the preparation and properties of puffing glutinous rice starch’, Int. J. Nanomanufacturing, Vol. 14, No. 3, pp.219–231.

Special issue published: "Decision Support Models and Applications"

International Journal of Decision Support Systems 3(1/2) 2018

• An agent-based model to explore urban policies, pedestrian behaviour and walkability
• Development of a decision support tool for analysing the avian conservation measures in semi-arid region
• Decision support systems and strategic planning: information technology and SMEs' performance
• A multi-criteria-based ranking of Greek construction companies listed in Athens Stock Exchange using investment ratios
• An intelligent decision support system for managing natural and man-made disasters

Additional papers

• A tradeoff analysis between socio-economic efficiency and environmental performance of irrigated agriculture
• Service quality assessment in retail industry: some evidence from supermarkets in Greece

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Decision Support Systems

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

• An efficient and refined minimum spanning tree approach for large water distribution system
• Implementation of parametric design philosophy into industrial production line simulation for c-Si PV modules
• Resource levelling using genetic algorithms for a power plant boiler construction project
• Development and use of a model for the investigation of energy and emission aspects on the Athens-Thessaloniki rail intermodal freight transport
• Risk assessment of ship-to-ship transfer operations based on stochastic criteria evaluation and intervally scaled importance weights
• Evaluating the performance of a merge supply network with supplier interruptions
• Balancing setup workers' load of flexible job shop scheduling using hybrid genetic algorithm with tabu search strategy
• Occupational health and safety within corporate social responsibility context: a balanced scorecard dynamic decision making model
• Critical success factors in the TBL concept of sustainable entrepreneurship
• Optimal trading strategy under linear-percentage temporary impact price dynamics with conditional value-at-risk as timing risk measure
• Nash type games in competitive facilities location

Themed Issue on: "Management Innovation In SMEs"

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business 35(1) 2018

• Integrated software deployment and management innovation: a bricolage perspective
• The generation of management innovation in microentreprises: absorptive capacity and entrepreneur-CPA relationship
• The concept of management innovation: definition, state of the art and future research avenues
• Categorising the internationalisation of SMEs with social network analysis
• Entrepreneurship: an insomniac discipline? An empirical study on SME owners/directors
• Understanding the international strategic alliances of SMEs: a case-study approach
• Growth constraints and management consulting: the case of SMEs in peripheral regions

Research Pick: Repurposing consumers - "Exploring how and why consumers create unintended uses of products"

People often find weird and wonderful alternative uses for the products they buy. For example, coal drinks have been used as household cleaner, construction toys such as Lego and Meccano are often used to ad lib rigs for a variety of purposes such as to support cameras, and of course many people “hack” their game consoles or other devices to do computational and communications jobs for which the device was not originally designed. And for many years, people have ripped old clothing into rags for a wide range of cleaning applications.

Understanding how and why consumers engage in such creative re-use, sometimes upcycling, is the focus of research from Thailand. The aim is to help manufacturers and their designers find new ways to build original products for the consumer market. There is also the need to educate consumers about repurposing specific products where there might be new health and safety risks associated with such change of use.

Wongkitrungrueng, A. (2018) ‘Exploring how and why consumers create unintended uses of products’, Int. J. Business Innovation and Research, Vol. 16, No. 4, pp.453–470.

Special Issue on: "Developments in Risk Management Using Fuzzy Set Techniques"

International Journal of Business Continuity and Risk Management 8(3) 2018

• An unsupervised classifier system using soft graph colouring
• Scatter search for the soft graph colouring problem
• PSO-3P for the portfolio optimisation problem
• A vehicle recall index and the sales impact by type of recall
• Expert's opinion impact on financial risk management
• Linguistic work quality index

International Journal of of Business and Emerging Markets to invite expanded papers from ABEM 5th International Conference for potential publication

Extended versions of papers presented at the Academy of Business and Emerging Markets (ABEM) 5th International Conference (7-9 August 2019, San José, Costa Rica) will be invited for review and potential publication by the International Journal of Business and Emerging Markets.

Special issue published: "Thermal Engineering Theory and Applications"

International Journal of Aerodynamics 6(2/3/4) 2018

• Effect of ternary nanoparticles fluid mixture in heat enhancement and heat storage
• Brinkman-Forchheimr model for fat accumulation in arterial wall
• A numerical analysis of casing groove parameters on the performance of wave energy conversion device
• Parametric study of operational PEM fuel cell using computational simulation, engineering applications of computational fluid mechanics
• An algorithm for optimal design and thermomechanical processing of high carbon bainitic steels
• Parametric optimisation of raised-floor data centres to enhance the thermal performance

Additional papers

• Experimental and numerical evaluation of the drag and lift forces on a scaled-down airfoil
• Aerodynamic aspects of a small UAV during VSTOL

Special issue published: "Recent Advances in Theory and Applications of Visual Intelligence"

International Journal of Computational Vision and Robotics 8(4) 2018

• Calibration and using a laser profile scanner for 3D robotic welding
• Content-based image retrieval using multiresolution speeded-up robust feature
• An image encryption algorithm using logarithmic function and Henon-chaotic function
• Support vector machine-based approach for text description from the video
• Detection of defective printed circuit boards using image processing
• Improved eigenspectrum regularisation for human activity recognition

Special Issue published: "Financial Development and Economic Policies in Emerging Economies"

International Journal of Economic Policy in Emerging Economies 11(3) 2018

• Downgrading employment of university graduates in Korea and policy implications
• Unexpected social performance and share returns in South African companies: an event study methodology
• Exploring optimal hedging strategy in Thai rice pledging scheme policy
• Investment aid as a catholicon for regional development in Slovakia?
• Determining the lowest loan-to-value ratio on commercial real estate investment
• Impact of underwriter reputation on the accounting conservatism of the IPO firm: South Korean cases
• The effect of internal auditor competence and objectivity, and management support on effectiveness of internal audit function and financial reporting quality implications at local government
• Guidelines for voluntourism development: a case study of undergraduate student activities in the Northeast of Thailand
• Housing property market and tourism accommodation in South Africa: time series analysis
• Food crops production efficiency analysis in Indonesia in 1971-2008

Research Pick: Open access challenges - "Is open access publishing a case of disruptive innovation?"

Open access journal publishing means different things to different people, whether author, editor, publisher, or reader. However, it is viewed it is a disruptive concept that seeks to change the way in which the traditional academic print literature with its centuries-old heritage is handled in today’s world of instant-access databases and online publishing.

Researchers in the West Indies have reviewed the major full-text aggregator databases and other secondary sources and conducted a thematic analysis. Through this research, they hope to identify the main issues involved in open access publishing and the question of its disruptive impact on the industry.

Critically, and perhaps paradoxically given the hyperbole and the activism surrounding Open Access, it is on the increase but academia is actually slow to adopt the concept more widely. Moreover, while there are indications that the traditional business models of publishers are being affected to some degree, it would be premature to claim that Open Access has achieved its potential as a disruptive force.

Allahar, H. (2018) ‘Is open access publishing a case of disruptive innovation?’, Int. J. Business Environment, Vol. 10, No. 1, pp.35–51.

Special issue published: "Real-Time Communication Issues in IoT Using Big Data Stream Computing"

International Journal of Grid and Utility Computing 9(3) 2018

• Investigation on association of self-esteem and students' performance in academics
• Consistent and effective energy utilisation of node model for securing data in wireless sensor networks
• Image encryption based on random scrambling and chaotic logistic map
• Predicting the soil profile through modified regression by discretisation algorithm for the crop yield in Trichy district, India
• A study on computing and e-learning in the perspective of distributed models
• A personalised user preference and feature based semantic information retrieval system in semantic web search

Regularly submitted papers

• An improved multi-instance multi-label learning algorithm based on representative instances selection and label correlations
• Improved quantisation mechanisms in impulse radio ultra wideband systems based on compressed sensing

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:

• Multi-architecture profiler for Android
• Hardware design of parallel switch setting algorithm for Benes networks
• A novel high-performance and reliable multi-threshold CNFET full adder cell design
• CHILL: a system for fine-grained mapping of chained high impact long-latency load phases on tightly coupled heterogeneous multi-cores

Special issue published: "Applications of Optimisation in Finance"

International Journal of Financial Engineering and Risk Management 2(4) 2018

• Machine learning, economic regimes and portfolio optimisation
• Multi-period portfolio optimisation with alpha decay
• Asset-liability management and goal-based investing for retail business
• Factor-based optimisation and the creation/redemption mechanism of fixed income exchange-traded funds
• Why your smart beta portfolio might not work

Research Pick: Green manufacturing - "Bibliometric analysis of the term ‘green manufacturing"

The underlying concepts of green manufacturing seek to balance environmental concerns without loss of efficiency. Indeed, improvements in efficiency benefit any manufacturer in terms of reduced costs, lower energy bills, and less waste and so is a green motivator in itself. Now, researchers from Australia and Indonesia have reviewed dozens of research papers with a view to understanding what is meant by “green manufacturing” in more detail and how this term and concept are actually having an effect on industry. Overall, they found that the study of green manufacturing concepts is increasing but with special attention is now needed for more inter-regional research collaborations involving Asian researchers and other developing countries in specific sectors.

Setyaningsih, I., Indarti, N. and Jie, F. (2018) ‘Bibliometric analysis of the term ‘green manufacturing’’, Int. J. Management Concepts and Philosophy, Vol. 11, No. 3, pp.315–339.

Special issue published: "Information Systems in Support of Business Functions"

International Journal of Business Information Systems 29(1) 2018

• A user study on trust perception in persuasive technology
• E-collaborative learning experience, interdependencies of presences and learning outcomes: evidence of mediating and moderating effects
• Mobile decision support system with dynamic knowledge base using decision tree and case-based reasoning
• An investigation of factors influencing the intention to use mHealth apps for self-care
• Predicting generalised anxiety disorder among women using decision tree-based classification
• Business to customer (B2C) e-commerce implementation process: a case study experience in fashion and apparel business in Malaysia
• Toward Green IT adoption: from managerial perspective
• Validation of a multimodal interaction model for foot reflexology virtual reality stress therapy application

Special issue published: "Sustainable Technologies in Environmental Science and Engineering"

International Journal of Environment and Sustainable Development 17(2/3)

• Production of biodiesel feedstock - microbial lipid from slaughterhouse wastewater
• Biodiesel production and characterisation from Punnai oil using egg shell catalyst: engine performance and emission studies
• Biodiesel production and characterisation from Pongamia oil using low cost Pisthia shell catalyst: engine performance and emission studies
• Detoxification of food-waste hydrolysate to enhance lipid production in M. pulcherrima - an alternative feedstock for biodiesel
• Renovation of horticultural waste into organic fertiliser by vermicomposting technology: approach for solid waste management
• Effect of electrochemical operational parameters on decolourisation of reactive red-195 using batch process
• Effect of equivalence ratio on gasification of granular biomaterials in self circulating fluidised bed gasifier
• Synthesis of biogenic nano-scale gold products by natural tribes and their inborn antimicrobial activity
• Effects of retting pond wastewater pollution and seasonal variation
• A study on quality characteristics of packaged drinking water sold in and around Kanchipuram District, Tamil Nadu, India
• A quick prediction of hardness from water quality parameters by artificial neural network
• Thermodynamic aggregation behaviour of p-cymene in hydrotropic solution
• Pressure drop characteristics and efficiency enhancement by using TiO2-H2O nanofluid in a sustainable solar thermal energy collector
• Numerical investigation of unsteady buoyancy driven indoor air flow characteristics under various range of internal heat generation

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Precision Technology

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

• Optimisation strategies in ultrasonic vibration assisted electrical discharge machining: a review
• Analysis on electrochemical discharge machining during micro-channel cutting on glass
• Effect of electrolyte temperature on Faradaic effect in electrochemical microdrilling
• Development of high speed closed loop operation for single notch flexure-based nanopositioning system

Special issue published: "Continuous Improvements of Business Processes, Expanding Possibilities in the Contemporary Digital Era"

International Journal of Business and Globalisation 21(1) 2018

• Small business entrepreneur resistance of ICT adoption: a lesson from Indonesia
• Retail service quality scale in the context of Indonesian traditional market
• Towards a framework for ICT-based entrepreneurship development through business incubation processes: case study of a techno park
• The roles of M2M technology on the realisation of Bandung Smart City
• The influence of website design on customer online trust and perceived risk towards purchase intention: a case of O2O commerce in Indonesia
• Slogans as a strategy to strengthen business strongholds in the globalisation era: a case of Indonesian multinational companies
• Designing internal audit process on an infrastructure project in Indonesia

Additional paper

• Employing the matrix method as a tool for the analysis of qualitative research data in the business domain

Research Pick: Through the glass ceiling - "Through the glass ceiling: is mentoring the way forward?"

Over the last thirty years or so the term “glass ceiling” has come to symbolise the barriers faced by women in attempting to make upward progress in their careers.

Now, a UK team has demonstrated that where women break through the glass ceiling, whether in the corporate, academic or other areas, mentoring has played an important role for them. However, they point out that mentoring is no panacea and that other strategies aimed at reducing gender inequities in the workplace must also be put in place. In the twentieth century, feminist socio-political activism fostered the movement of women into education and the workforce.

The twenty-first century must now aspire to progress through equality in all walks of life. “Mentoring programmes should be such that they help mentees through the processes of relationship building, setting gender-equal dynamics between mentor and mentee and in the organisational context,” the team reports. Moreover, it is important to continue to challenging gendered attitudes and social norms so that predetermined social roles can be discarded and everyone can explore attitudes and behaviour helpful for careers and personal lives too.

Lantz-Deaton, C., Tabassum, N. and McIntosh, B. (2018) ‘Through the glass ceiling: is mentoring the way forward?’, Int. J. Human Resources Development and Management, Vol. 18, Nos. 3/4, pp.167–197.

Special issue published: "Sustainable Computing for Waste Management and Systems"

International Journal of Environment and Waste Management 22(1/2/3/4)

• Air quality index forecasting using artificial neural networks - a case study on Delhi
• Evaluation of the potential application of the precepts of solid waste reverse logistics to the civil construction sector in Curitiba, Paraná
• Modelling the chemical compositions of municipal solid waste in Ghaziabad City, Uttar Pradesh, India
• Evaluation of biodiesel potential of sewage sludge
• Small-scale steam turbine and electric generation from municipal solid waste
• Novel chitosan blended polymers for the removal of rose bengal dye: adsorption isotherms, kinetics and mechanism
• Assessment of food waste management in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam: current status and perspective
• Data reliability of solid waste analysis in Asia's newly industrialised countries
• CO2 capture by adsorption and hydrate-based separation: a technological review
• Oily-wastewater treatment using external electric field method
• Mathematical programming approach for optimal allocation in the wastewater management
• Removal of copper ions from aqueous solution by Annona squamosa biomass using biosorption
• Environmental sustainability of green marketing strategy: empirical evidence from e-tail consumer's in Tamil Nadu
• Sustainable solid waste management through 3R strategy in Gazipur City
• Sun degradation and synthesis of new antimicrobial and antioxidant utilising poly (ethylene terephthalate) waste
• Preparation of activated carbon from mixed peels of fruits with chemical activation (K2CO3) - application in adsorptive removal of methylene blue from aqueous solution
• Design of high pressure vessels using Aspen HYSYS blowdown analysis
• Environmental impact assessment of coal-based thermal power plant near Udupi Power Corporation Limited in Karnataka - India
• Review on solid waste management process and environmental impact due to solid waste in Sylhet City Corporation, Bangladesh
• Multi-echelon logistics and disposal optimisation model for municipal solid waste management in Beijing
• Fabrication and study of mechanical properties of eco-friendly banana fibre-natural rubber latex composites

Special issue published: "Big Data Analysis in the Real Estate, Construction and Business Sectors"

International Journal of Data Analysis Techniques and Strategies 10(3) 2018

• GPU based reduce approach for computing faculty performance evaluation process using classification technique in opinion mining
• Data analytics on census data to predict the income and economic hierarchy
• Using improved genetic algorithm under uncertain circumstance of site selection of O2O customer returns
• The risk in eco-innovation introduction at the enterprises
• A watchdog approach - name-matching algorithm for big data risk intelligence
• A new initialisation method for k-means algorithm in the clustering problem: data analysis
• Data analysis on big data: improving the map and shuffle phases in Hadoop Map Reduce
• A fuzzy-based automatic prediction system for quality evaluation of conceptual data warehouse models
• Multi-criteria decision support for feature selection in network anomaly detection system

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Forensic Engineering

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

• Durability of GFRP grids for masonry structures
• Seismic risk assessment of an industrial plant struck by the Emilia 2012 earthquakes
• Probabilistic risk analysis of building columns to gas pipeline explosions
• Risk analysis for severe traffic accidents in long road tunnels
• A framework for NaTech seismic risk assessment in industrial plants
• Collapse of corrugated metal culvert in Northern Sardinia: analysis and numerical simulations
• On the role of the numerical analyses in forensic investigations of fire-induced progressive collapses of tall buildings
• Fire investigation on a car park
• The collapse of a temporary structure
• Investigation on the 2010 Schola Armaturarum collapse in Pompeii

Special issue published: "Data Streams Mining and Processing: Methodologies, Architectures, and Applications"

International Journal of High Performance Systems Architecture 8(1/2) 2018

• Analysis of physico-chemical variables and their influence on water quality of the Bogota River using data mining
• Research on data mining technology for the connotation and measurement of uncertainty for reassembly dimensions
• Extending the common information model for smart grids operational computations based on bus-branch models
• Big data analytics in the context of internet of things and the emergence of real-time systems: a systematic literature review1
• Resource scheduling optimisation algorithm for containerised microservice architecture in cloud computing
• Functional encryption with efficient verifiable outsourced decryption for secure data access control in social network
• Dynamic Bayesian network threat assessment for warship formation: a data analysis method
• Research and analysis of video image target tracking algorithm based on significance
• Weighting schemes based on EM algorithm for LDA
• Evaluation of dispersed effect based on social force-based vehicle model and emotional infection model: a data simulation approach
• Type-2 fuzzy logic-based multi-threaded time sequence analysis

Research Pick: Polluted parking problem - "Concentration of air pollutants in an urban parking garage in Kuwait"

A team in Kuwait has carried out a micro-environment investigation of pollution in city parking garages. They measured carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides (NOx), and methane concentrations, in three locations on each parking floor, and repeated the measurements eight times at each floor, over a nine-month period across five parking garages.

Carbon monoxide levels were found to be higher than acceptable in terms of health risk at the parking garages in the morning and evenings, the rush hour periods. Temperature and humidity and parking density played an important role in the absolute figures. They conclude that CO monitoring devices should be installed in parking garages. Whether or not the fitting of such devices would lead to better parking garage management in terms of traffic flow may well be a moot point.
The data could, however, help inform such management and perhaps future design of parking garages in commonly hot and humid parts of the world.

Al-Rukaibi, F., Al-Mutairi, N. and Al-Rashed, A. (2018) ‘Concentration of air pollutants in an urban parking garage in Kuwait’, World Review of Science, Technology and Sustainable Development, Vol. 14, Nos. 2/3, pp.241–265.

Research Pick: Fighting over Russian geo-energy - "The role of geo-energy interests of Russia in secessionist conflicts in Eastern Europe"

The collapse of the Soviet Union led to a decade or more of instability and decay in Russia and its former domains all of which are now largely independent nation states. That said, there have been countless conflicts in the intervening years and many of them are associated with energy security and the rising cost of hydrocarbon fuels.

Researchers in Spain have analysed the history and the socioeconomic history with regard to the three secessionist conflicts in Eastern Europe (Crimea, Donbass, and Transnistria) and suggest that many Russian geo-energy commercial interests have benefited considerably from these crises.
The research illustrates the direct and clear connection between Russia’s intervention in those three conflicts and the defence of Russian geo-energy interests in the post-Soviet era, the team concludes, this is especially pertinent with regard to the rise to power of Vladimir Putin who became President in 2000, at the end of the first decade of the post-Soviet era.

Peña-Ramos, J.A. and Amirov, D.S. (2018) ‘The role of geo-energy interests of Russia in secessionist conflicts in Eastern Europe’, Int. J. Oil, Gas and Coal Technology, Vol. 18, Nos. 3/4, pp.485–511.

Research Pick: Old crisis to new customers - "Recapturing images after a brand crisis through marketing communication in social networks: the Maggi controversy"

Consumers can quickly lose confidence in a well-known company when that company fails to live up to the expectations and standards of its customers. In a world of always-on, instantaneous communication, and social media, reputations can disintegrate very quickly whether a problem with a given brand is seemingly a small issue or whether it is a major marketing nightmare associated with inadvertent or self-inflicted crises. Recovering the company image after a brand crisis is not always possible and the history of commerce is littered with corporations that did not ride out the storm, not for lack of trying, but simply because they could not counter the negative image generated by the brand crisis. Researchers in India have focused on the brand crises surrounding one particular company and its internationally known food seasonings, instant soups, and noodles. The main takeaway, the authors pun, is that social media, which can so quickly dismantle a reputation, can, if handled well, be useful in rebuilding one following multiple brand crises.

Srivastava, R.K. (2018) ‘Recapturing images after a brand crisis through marketing communication in social networks: the Maggi controversy’, Int. J. Export Marketing, Vol. 2, No. 1, pp.63–86.

Research Pick: The air-conditioned nightmare - "Thermoeconomic diagnosis of an air-cooled air conditioning system"

Air-conditioning systems are become more and more widespread and will play a important and ironical role as climate change pans out over the next decades. As temperatures rise, so will demad for cooling of buildings, which will inevitably require more energy and most likely produce more carbon emissions unless sustainable zero-carbo energy sources are found and implemented. Researchers from Korea and Turkey have looked at how the thermodynamics costs of an air-conditioning unit increase when he unit begins to malfunction and how the changes might be a useful diagnostic tool facilitating system repair.

Yoo, Y., Oh, H-S., Uysal, C. and Kwak, H-Y. (2018) ‘Thermoeconomic diagnosis of an air-cooled air conditioning system’, Int. J. Exergy, Vol. 26, No. 4, pp.393–417.

Research Pick: Cool colours - "Effects of colour terms on the digital photography – a case study of cool colours"

Colour has psychological and physiological effects on us. We have personal and cultural references associated with particular hues across different societies and within our own society. Nowhere is this more encapsulated in the modern age than through digital photography. Researchers from Taiwan have now reviewed the literature on colour use in digital photography as well as a rage of colour photographs and discuss the characteristics of different colours and the emotions and responses different colours invoke. They focus on how colours in the outside world are affected by the very process of trapping them within the camera and point out something that photographers have known for a long time, and painters before them, that colour is difficult to understand and to get right in an image.

Wu, S-H., Liu, M-Y. and Chen, J-H. (2018) ‘Effects of colour terms on the digital photography – a case study of cool colours’, Int. J. Cognitive Performance Support, Vol. 1, No. 2, pp.170–180.

International Journal of Reasoning-based Intelligent Systems to invite expanded papers from 9th International Conference on Innovations in Bio-Inspired Computing and Applications (IBICA 2018) for potential publication

Extended versions of papers presented at the 9th International Conference on Innovations in Bio-Inspired Computing and Applications (17-19 December 2018, Kochi, India) will be invited for review and potential publication by the International Journal of Reasoning-based Intelligent Systems.

Special issue published: "Unveiling the Commercialisation Mechanisms and Dynamics of University Technological Inventions"

International Journal of Technology Management 78(1/2) 2018

• Markets for university inventions: the role of patents' underlying knowledge in university-to-industry technology commercialisation
• Equity crowdfunding in technology transfer strategies and licensing
• The ecosystem of entrepreneurial university: the case of higher education in a developing country
• A glance at research-driven university's technology transfer office in the UAE
• Assessing the impact and antecedents of university scientific research on firms' innovation commercialisation
• Peeking beyond the wall: analysing university technology transfer and commercialisation processes
• Building collaboration between academia and local authorities: a case study in Norway
• Enhancing university-industry linkages potentials and limitations of government policies

Inderscience journals to invite expanded papers from SIMS 9th Annual International Research Conference (SIMSARC'18) for potential publication

Extended versions of papers presented at the 9th Annual International SIMS Research Conference (18-19 December 2018, Khadki, Pune, India) will be invited for review and potential publication by the following journals:

• Int. J. of Comparative Management
• Int. J. of Public Sector Performance Management

Research Pick: Testing for food contamination - "Applications of hyperspectral and optical scattering imaging technique in the detection of food microorganism"

Food can become contaminated with pathogenic bacteria even when hygiene standards in a kitchen, whether domestic or commercial, and in the food industry. There are so many possible microbes that can come into contact with food from a wide variety of sources including people with poor personal hygiene or outsourced ingredients that have been contaminated elsewhere.

Now, a team from China has reviewed hyperspectral and optical scattering imaging techniques to reveal whether food samples contain problematic microorganisms. These non-invasive approaches circumvent many of the long-winded and complicated laboratory techniques on which such tests have relied in the past.

Optical techniques offer quicker result and avoid the need for destructive testing and even significant operator expertise.

Xu, J., Ma, L., Wu, J., Xu, X., Sun, Y., Liu, Q., Pan, L. and Tu, K. (2018) ‘Applications of hyperspectral and optical scattering imaging technique in the detection of food microorganism’, Int. J. Computational Vision and Robotics, Vol. 8, No. 3, pp.267–282.

Research Pick: Drinking is not working - "Empirical relation between unemployment and alcohol beverage consumption in Korea"

Researchers from the Korea and the USA have investigated whether or not there is a relation between alcohol consumption and unemployment. The team examined data covering the period 1994-2013 and found that alcohol habits tracked unemployment trends in South Korea.

The team applied a statistical technique known as Granger casual models to the data and demonstrated that there is a substantial causal interaction between unemployment rates and drinking behaviour. On this basis, the team suggests that there are policy implications. Government spending on education about alcohol abuse and abuse prevention programs need to be increased.

There is a need to retrain the unemployed workers, and also to increase taxation on alcoholic beverages.

Kim, M.H., Han, Y. and Cho, W-G. (2018) ‘Empirical relation between unemployment and alcohol beverage consumption in Korea’, Int. J. Economics and Business Research, Vol. 16, No. 1, pp.1–11.

Research Pick: A breath of fresh air for hospitals - "Indoor air quality investigations in hospital patient room"

Indoor air quality is important for everyone’s health but perhaps no more so than in different kinds of medical centre. A team from India has investigated hospital waiting room air quality in terms of patient comfort with respect to ambient temperature.

The team looked at naturally ventilated, passive split ventilated, and active ventilation in hospital buildings for two scenarios in terms of numbers of people in those areas. A comfortable temperature and relative humidity are critical for physiological and psychological wellbeing as is fresh air where expired carbon dioxide levels are not too high.

Their study reveals how better ventilation management can improve well-being for patients, their carers, and healthcare workers. Moreover, active ventilation management is the only optimal choice in such environments.

Lawrence, I.D., Jayabal, S. and Thirumal, P. (2018) ‘Indoor air quality investigations in hospital patient room’, Int. J. Biomedical Engineering and Technology, Vol. 27, Nos. 1/2, pp.124–138.

Special issue published: "New Advances of Modelling and Simulation for Business Processes, Production, Services and Supply Chain"

International Journal of Simulation and Process Modelling 13(4) 2018

• The role of horizontal cooperation to improve service quality in last-mile distribution
• A case of a modelled saturation level for cooperative flight departures
• Simulation model generation for warehouse management: case study to test different storage strategies
• Enterprise operating system framework: federated interoperability based on HLA
• System dynamics for the water footprint assessment and simulation in the bioethanol production
• Setting up a serious game for major incident in industrial plants management: investigation of the learning effect
• Analysis of fraud controls using the PaySim financial simulator
• Novel robustness measures for engineering design optimisation
• Simulation of counter drugs operations based on geospatial technology for use in a military training simulator

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Innovation in Education

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

• An understanding of factors influencing retention of African-American undergraduate students in computer science
• Innovative government initiatives to prevent upper secondary school dropout: organisational learning and institutional change at the local level
• An exploratory study of undergraduate students' learning from case study competitions in the United Arab Emirates
• Bulletproof from delivery to interactivity when teaching with PowerPoint
• Transgender in the American academy: a review of social work

Call for papers for inaugural issue of International Journal of Forensic Software Engineering

The International Journal of Forensic Software Engineering proposes and fosters discussions on the definition and identification of methods, techniques, approaches, patterns and tools for systemic analysis and investigation of software failures encompassing the retrospective analysis of the impact on processes for software products and systems specification, design, development and maintenance.

IJFSE publishes original research papers, technical and experience reports, case studies and conference reports. Special Issues devoted to relevant topics in related research areas will occasionally be published.

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

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

• Software defect analysis methods and tools
• Mathematical and statistical models for data analysis and correlations
• Formal methods
• Product and process metrics collection and analysis
• Simulation techniques and environments
• System and service engineering
• Systems and services science
• Software integrity
• Domain-specific software engineering techniques and languages
• Novel software engineering methodologies
• Software development environments and CASE tools
• Software testing, analysis and verification
• Software understanding and reengineering
• Measurement, metrics, estimation methods, and empirical studies
• Software quality assurance

Details on how to submit to IJFSE are available here.

Research Pick: Fear of cyber-terrorism - "Should we be afraid of cyber-terrorism?"

Is cyberterrorism all it’s cracked up to be or is it scaremongering by cyber-security firms keen on new business from individuals, other companies, and governments?

Researchers in Australia have reviewed the research literature and debate on this subject and question whether terrorists have ever really had the capability to “weaponize” the internet. Moreover, the predictions of those in academia, as well as the cyber-security and wider internet-associated industries, have not been borne out despite the apparent threats. It seems that rather being a weapon, the internet is mostly useful to terrorists as a communication tool.

That said and to paraphrase a well-worn cliché – The net is mightier than the sword. However, there is a caveat; the team suggests that our individual, corporate, and government responses to perceived terrorist threats could be a goal in itself for the terrorist agenda, leading to costs, service disruption, and other problems.

Droogan, J. and Waldek, L. (2018) ‘Should we be afraid of cyber-terrorism?’, Int. J. Electronic Security and Digital Forensics, Vol. 10, No. 3, pp.242–254.

Special issue published: "Secure Data Storage in Cloud Computing"

International Journal of Innovative Computing and Applications 9(3) 2018

• An access control framework for multi-level security in cloud environments
• Improve the robustness of data mining algorithm against adversarial evasion attack
• Formal analysis of a private access control protocol to a cloud storage
• Scalable video coding algorithm and rate-distortion optimisation based on cloud computing
• A blue noise pattern sampling method based on cloud computing to prevent aliasing
• An empirical study of cloud computing and big data analytics

Special issue published: "Advances in Supply Chain Operations in Emerging Economies"

International Journal of Enterprise Network Management 9(2) 2018

• Modelling and analysis of a four stage supply chain under fuzzy environment
• Lean management planning in Indian cement industries and its effect on industrial psychology
• Elements of a computer aided emergency management system
• Multi-objective optimisation for the vehicle routing problem using metaheuristics
• Analysis of lean manufacturing in an automobile industry - a case study
• Frame work of conceptual model for quality management in small and medium enterprises
• A case study on hazard evaluation on catering service in educational institution
• Selection of suppliers using Swara and Copras-G

Research Pick: Text mining the presidency - "An analysis of the 2016 US presidential election using Chanakya – a knowledge discovery platform for text mining"

A new text mining technique has been developed by US researchers. The system works in two stages. Firstly, it uses a statistical tool known as a naive Bayes classifier, a supervised machine-learning algorithm to train for classes. Secondly, it uses k-means analysis, an unsupervised machine-learning algorithm to determine what categories are emerging from the mentions of each class.

The team has tested the efficacy of their data mining tool on updates from the microblogging platform Twitter extracted during the 2016 US presidential elections. The approach allows text mining to work for knowledge discovery, the team suggests. They explain that the approach thus offers a commentary on the current state of the political arena after analysing the candidate tweets and how people are reacting to these tweets.

Malhotra, R. and Malhotra, K. (2018) ‘An analysis of the 2016 US presidential election using Chanakya – a knowledge discovery platform for text mining‘, Int. J. Knowledge Engineering and Data Mining, Vol. 5, Nos. 1/2, pp.17-39.

Press Release: Pareidolia on parade - "Pareidolia: characterising facial anthropomorphism and its implications for product design"

Pareidolia is the tendency to see faces in the environment, buildings and objects that surround us even when those things are most certainly not real faces. The phenomenon has been exploited by humanity for millennia in puppetry, masks, cartoons, car design, and other cultural phenomena. It is perhaps well known that many car designers ensure that the front “face” of a vehicle looks positive, happy even, while the rear is more menacing to subconsciously preclude following drivers from dangerously “tailgating” a vehicle.

Other examples of pareidolia that have nothing to do with marketing and road safety are our recognition of a “man in the moon” and the “Face on Mars”, a natural rock formation on The Red Planet that looks superficially like a face. And, of course plenty of moths and caterpillars exploit the ability of their predators to perceived wing and body patterning as a face when they’re about to be eaten!

A UK team has now examined this anthropomorphism and the use of faces in design by looking at more than 2300 images from across the internet. They have carried out the first systematic investigation of product types and face characteristics (size, composition, emotion) that are manifest in this phenomenon. They have thus demonstrated that pareidolia is a compelling and prevalent facet of how we interpret products and is a useful tool for product designers and in marketing.

According to Andrew Wodehouse, Ross Brisco, Ed Broussard, and Alex Duffy in the Department of Design, Manufacture and Engineering Management, at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK, of the photos they examined the most common instances of pareidolia were those in which a medium-sized product was shown in which part of the product could be interpreted as a face, and that it conveyed a happy emotion. “The effects of culture and self-congruence are identified as important aspects of our interpretation of facial emotion,” the team reports.

They conclude that designers should, if they do not already do so, consider the fundamental geometric elements of products with respect to facial morphology. This should be taken into account whether or not the intention is to exploit the brain’s ability to see faces or not. Obviously, it may not be useful for a mundane safety product to appear to have a smiling face, for instance.

The researchers point out that there is more scope for neutral faces -formed of straight lines and circular holes rather than emotive faces with arcs and ellipses that might be interpreted as emotionally charged in some way. “We suggest that there may be aspects of self-congruence and surprise at play in terms of user perception,” the team says. “These will vary depending on the state of mind of the user and context of the product.” They add that there ought to be more quantified guidelines on the use of pareidolia and anthropomorphism in design.

Wodehouse, A., Brisco, R., Broussard, E. and Duffy, A. (2018) ‘Pareidolia: characterising facial anthropomorphism and its implications for product design’, J. Design Research, Vol. 16, No. 2, pp.83–98

Special issue published: "Technological Upgrading and Innovation in Emerging Economies"

International Journal of Technological Learning, Innovation and Development 10(3/4) 2018

• Accumulating technological capabilities through R&D projects: studies on the Brazilian defence industry
• Frugal innovation approaches to sustainable domestic energy: two cases of solar water heating from Brazil
• Innovation capability, network embeddedness and economic performance: profiling solar power innovators in China
• MNC technological upgrading in emerging regional areas: a case study on automotive subsidiaries in MERCOSUR
• Standards, regulation and sustainable development in a global value chain driven world
• Towards an agenda for measuring innovation in emerging African economies: what can we learn from the case of South Africa?

Special issue published: "Advances in Cyber Security, Analytics and Human Factors in IT"

International Journal of Embedded Systems 10(4) 2018

• An intelligent paradigm for denoising motion artefacts in ECG preprocessing: smart filters
• An efficient ternary tree-based TGDH protocol for dynamic secure group data sharing in cloud computing
• Privacy preserving secret key extraction protocol for multi-authority attribute-based encryption techniques in cloud computing
• Automated identification of callbacks in Android framework using machine learning techniques
• Recovering multiple versions of YAFFS2 files based on Hash and timestamps
• A framework and a process for digital forensic analysis on smart phones with multiple data logs
• Token security for internet of things

New Editor for International Journal of Responsible Management in Emerging Economies

Prof. Darko Tipurić from the University of Zagreb in Croatia has been appointed to take over editorship of the International Journal of Responsible Management in Emerging Economies.

Research Pick: Sweet leaf - "Noise removal using statistical operators for efficient leaf identification"

Software that can identify a plant from an image of a leaf has been developed by researchers in Malaysia. The system uses statistical operators to reduce noise in images of different leaves to make the process more efficient.

Given the importance of plants for global ecology, it is important as humanity strives towards a sustainable approach to living that we have the right plants in place and that we recognize the rarities we best not lose. The team says their system could help in this regard. It extracts ten features from pre-processed leaf images and with one particular filtering approach, WFT (Wiener filtering technique) has an identification accuracy of 95.1%.

Aliyu, M.G., Kadir, M.F.A., Mamat, A.R. and Mohamad, M. (2018) ‘Noise removal using statistical operators for efficient leaf identification’, Int. J. Computer Aided Engineering and Technology, Vol. 10, No. 4, pp.364–377.

Special issue published: "High-Performance Computing Technologies and Emerging Services For IoT Systems"

International Journal of Internet Technology and Secured Transactions 8(3) 2018

• Energy-efficient adaptive distributed data collection method for periodic sensor networks
• Rearranging links: a cost-effective approach to improve the reliability of multistage interconnection networks
• A review of testing cloud security
• Distributed algorithm to fight the state explosion problem
• Voice over IP on Windows IoT core
• Fuzzy-based dynamic packet priority determination and queue management method for wireless sensor network
• An improved prediction based strategy for target tracking in wireless sensor networks
• QoS oriented and delay tolerant WSN routing protocol for data gathering in IoT ecosystem

Research Pick: Senior entrepreneurs - "Entrepreneurship in the third age: retirees’ motivation and intentions"

Active ageing is a positive societal trend that is becoming increasingly relevant as life expectancy rises and the demographic shifts to an older population. Researchers in Israel have investigated the motivation for entrepreneurship in later life.

The researchers suggest that this area of gerontology and social research has so far been little explored. Their study of “retirees” shows that older adults are “pulled” towards becoming entrepreneurs in their senior years as notions of self-fulfilment, increasing personal wellbeing, self-realisation and enhancing personal interests, become increasingly important to them. Push factors, such as the need to earn a living, raise a family, comply with societal norms, are less important in the third age.

“Our findings have implications for designated training programs for older adults that aim to promote their motivation and foster their skills to launch entrepreneurial activities,” the team concludes.

Gimmon, E., Yitshaki, R. and Hantman, S. (2018) ‘Entrepreneurship in the third age: retirees’ motivation and intentions‘, Int. J. Entrepreneurship and Small Business, Vol. 34, No. 3, pp.267-288.