International Journal of Powertrains establishes biennial International Conference on Advanced Vehicle Powertrains

The editorial team of the International Journal of Powertrains has launched the biennial International Conference on Advanced Vehicle Powertrains (ICAVP). The conference's first edition (ICAVP2017) was hosted in 2017 by the Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, one of most beautiful cities In China. The second edition, ICAVP 2019, took place in August at the Hefei University of Technology, Heifei, China. In Hefei there are two cutting-edge areas of research: quantum communication for better future wireless communication, and nuclear fusion for electricity and clean energy. Both technologies will be critically beneficial for future zero-emission connected and autonomous vehicles.

ICAVP 2021 is planned to be held in at Beihang University, Beijing, China. The conference welcomes submissions from both academia and industry on solutions to both the latest and future challenges in the development of, but not limited to, advanced vehicle powertrains, new energy vehicular technology, and vehicular motive powers. More details will follow.

Research pick: Hair today – New polymer composites - "Mathematical model and optimisation for tensile strength of human hair reinforced polyester composites"

Materials scientists are always on the look out for new composites, materials comprising two or more different substances that combine to bring together the useful properties of each component and to overcome the limitations of any. Moreover, some composites might also work synergistically so that the useful properties of one component enhance those of the other and vice versa. Often, computation and modelling can be used to work out the likely outcomes of combining certain components.

New research published in the International Journal of Computational Materials Science and Surface Engineering, reveals a mathematical model that can be used to optimize a novel composite for tensile strength. The composite is made from the synthetic polymer, polyester, and human hair as a reinforcing component.

Divakara Rao and Udaya Kiran of the J.B. Institute of Engineering and Technology, in Hyderabad, and Eshwara Prasad of the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University also in Hyderabad, prepared polymer-based composites using chopped fibres of human hair at between 5 and 25 per cent by weight and with fibre lengths of 10 to 50 millimetres. Data from tensile strength testing of these experimental composites were used to build a model that might then be used to optimize the formulation of new composites.

Given the need for novel composites with new properties and a need to reduce our reliance on petrochemicals and invoke the use of renewable materials, brushing up on hair science in this context makes complete sense. There are, of course, many other natural fibres that might also be incorporated into semi-synthetic composites for a wide range of materials science and engineering applications.

Rao, P.D., Kiran, C.U. and Prasad, K.E. (2019) ‘Mathematical model and optimisation for tensile strength of human hair reinforced polyester composites’, Int. J. Computational Materials Science and Surface Engineering, Vol. 8, No. 1, pp.76–88.

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

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

• Exporting identity: Italians in London during the long 19th century
• Social bonds: migration and comparative analysis of remitting behaviour between Pakistani and Indian diaspora
• A review strategy for carrying out an academic literature analysis as part of the problem analysis for an empirical study
• TQM techniques as an innovative approach in sport organisations management: toward a conceptual framework
• Evaluating the impacts of corruption on firm performance in developing economies: an institutional perspective
• Three types of learning processes in entrepreneurship education
• The impact of age and reading on the desire for training of managers in entrepreneurial ventures
• How do self-employed Sami people perceive the impact of the EU and globalisation?

International Journal of Comparative Management to invite expanded papers from International Conference on "Industry 4.0 and Future of Work" for potential publication

Extended versions of papers presented at the International Conference on "Industry 4.0 and Future of Work" (6-7 December 2019, IILM University, Gurugram, India) will be invited for review and potential publication by the IInternational Journal of Comparative Management.

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

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

• Social ties, prior experience, and venture creation by transnational entrepreneurs
• Entrepreneurship and universities David B. Audretsch
• Transnationals in an English-speaking world Ivan Light
• The knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship: an application to foreign direct investment
• Entrepreneurship theory, process, and practice in the 21st century
• Globalisation, entrepreneurship and regional environment
• Enterprise profiles in deprived areas: are they distinctive?
• Celebrity entrepreneurship: communication effectiveness through perceived involvement
• Conceptualising entrepreneurship in a transition context
• Expanding the scope of methodologies used in entrepreneurship research

Research pick: Partner violence against migrant women - "Counting the uncounted burdens: intimate partner violence in migrant communities – systematic review of the literature"

Disease, disasters, drought, famine, climate change, the terrorist threat, oppressive regimes…the list of problems facing people the world over continues to grow and the number of people displaced from their homes for any of a variety of such reasons means populations are constantly on the move. Migrant make risky crossings through deserts, across water, seeking asylum, seeking a new life in the hope that there is grass, greener or otherwise. However, the pressures on people forced to abandon their homes means there are problems within the migrant communities on the move too that may arise while they are in transit or latent problems that were always there emerge anew.

Writing in the International Journal of Gender Studies in Developing Societies, Nour Daoud of the University of Padova, in Italy, discusses an insidious problem, that of intimate partner violence in migrant communities. The main goal of the work was to understand the exposure to and impact of such violence against migrant women, what causes it, and what barriers the women face to disclosing that the violence is happening and how they might seek help. She has carried out a systematic review of the empirical evidence surrounding this problem.

Ultimately, the study reveals that fundamentally the problem is violent men, but that the causes at the individual level are common to migrant and non-migrant communities: alcohol and substance abuse, the reversal of gender roles, and the apparent social “acceptability” of such violence in a given environment or community.

The barriers to the women seeking help seem familiar in the context of non-migrant communities, but are perhaps more acute when women are in this even more vulnerable situation. These barriers include social isolation, lack of awareness about where to seek help, dependence on the men, distress regarding the stigma associated with seeking help, and fear of losing or leaving their children or the breakdown of their family.

Daoud, N. (2019) ‘Counting the uncounted burdens: intimate partner violence in migrant communities – systematic review of the literature’, Int. J. Gender Studies in Developing Societies, Vol. 3, No. 2, pp.126–152.

Special issue published: "Recent Advances in Information Security"

International Journal of Embedded Systems 11(5) 2019

• Microcontroller design for security system: implementation of a microcontroller based on STM32F103 microchip
• A dynamic cluster job scheduling optimisation algorithm based on data irreversibility in sensor cloud
• Design and application of real-time network abnormal traffic detection system based on Spark Streaming
• Big data and collective intelligence
• DDoS attack detection based on global unbiased search strategy bee colony algorithm and artificial neural network
• Research on profit abilities of order placement strategies in pairs trading
• Research on borrower's credit classification of P2P network loan based on LightGBM algorithm
• Differentially private geospatial data publication based on grid clustering
• HighPU: a high privacy-utility approach to mining frequent itemset with differential privacy
• Cryptanalysis of the existing integrated PKE and PEKS schemes
• A novel HHT and KS statistic approach to detect RoQ attack in wireless sensor network
• Research on user acceptance behaviour of mobile group intelligent sensing applications based on UTAUT
• A design methodology for mobile and embedded applications on FPGA-based dynamic reconfigurable hardware
• Research on modelling and scheduling strategy for mine transportation control system based on CPS

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Public Sector Performance Management

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

• Entrepreneurship in Jordanian public sector organisations
• The role of perceived risk in influencing online shopping attitude among women in India
• An efficiency analysis of grant awarded research projects: a case study of a Malaysian public university
• Study on factors influencing employee retention in companies
• A study on CRM effectiveness in public and private sector banks
• A path model of antecedents of green purchase behaviour among Indian consumers
• The effect of perceived security on consumer purchase intensions in electronic commerce

Special issue published: "Green And Sustainable Practices In Supply Chains"

International Journal of Productivity and Quality Management 28(1) 2019

• Literature review: continuous improvement through Lean Six Sigma
• Inventory reduction using the optimal policy curve approach: a case study
• A framework for analysis of the supplier selection in green supply chain
• Optimal autonomous mobile robot motion planning for green logistics
• Qualitative and quantitative analysis of discomfort glare due to artificial indoor lighting
• Determinants of green supply chain practices of manufacturing companies in Sri Lanka
• Exploring the relationship between dimensions of quality management practices and business performance

Free open access article available: "Research on modelling and scheduling strategy for mine transportation control system based on CPS"

The following paper, "Research on modelling and scheduling strategy for mine transportation control system based on CPS" (International Journal of Embedded Systems 11(5) 2019) is freely available for download as an open access article.

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

Special issue published: "Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus in the Mirror of Nano: Nano-Sized Phenomena Reflected in Professional Community Reports"

International Journal of Nanotechnology 16(1/2/3) 2019

• Synthesis and study of the properties of containers of DCOIT with the polyurea shell
• Neuroevolutionary paradigm as a model for the formation of large nanotechnological projects
• Development of nanoscale measurement system
• Hybrid quantum technologies of intellectual nanomaterials
• Study of acoustoplasma discharge as a technique for synthesis of optically active materials
• Dynamics of accumulating pollutants and essential elements in the process of plant growth and development
• Nanostructured gradient coating based on carbide of tungsten in carbon steel
• Metal composite materials reinforced with nanostructural carbon particles synthesised from fullerenes under pressure
• Preparation and investigation of in vitro cytotoxic activity of pH-sensitive liposomes with sanguinarine
• Development of bacterial cellulose biomaterial: preparation and establishment of cytotoxicity for eukaryotic cells
• The use of fullerenes as a biologically active molecule
• Hierarchical approach in modelling exciton solar cells
• The change in the lattice parameter of Cu nanopowders under the action of a pulsed electron beam
• Influence of copper nanopowder on parameters of carbohydrate and lipid metabolism of Holstein heifers
• Biologically active nanomaterials in production and storage of arable crops
• Exhaled breath mass spectrometry in heart failure diagnostics
• Mathematical models and methods for functional control of large-scale integrated circuits at the stage of their production
• Synthesis of carbon nanostructures using arc discharge in the liquid phase
• High element integration in logical and memory matrices of neuroprocessor by applying composite memristor-diode crossbar
• Methods for improvement of the consistency and durability of the inorganic memristor structures
• The stainless steel structure after pulsed plasma flow interaction
• Obtaining of copper nanoparticles in combined RF+DC discharge plasma

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Industrial Electronics and Drives

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

• Dead time compensation in H-bridge inverters
• Effective model predictive instantaneous power control for a sensorless induction motor drive
• Optimisation-based parameter estimation of photovoltaic modules
• An effective IGBT driver circuit for three level neutral point clamped converters
• Improved load frequency characteristics with genetically tuned supercapacitor energy storage in interconnected power system
• A current source inverter-based unified power quality conditioner for mitigation of voltage and current harmonics

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Nanotechnology

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

• Sonochemical synthesis of Ga-doped ZnS nanoballs with enhanced photocatalytic activity for Orange II dye degradation in wastewater
• Synthesis of metal oxide nanocomposites from self-assembled block copolymer templates as cathode materials for all-solid-state lithium batteries
• Effect of heat on grape marc extract
• Materials genome approach to organic ferroelectrics and piezoelectrics
• Synthesis and characterisation of supported Re nanoparticles for the synthesis of biofuels
• Self-assembling dairy proteins for the production of novel bionanomaterials
• Microstructure characterisation through ultra-small-angle neutron scattering
• Surface roughness of fibre reinforced composite sails as quality indicator for their appropriate use
• PVP treatment of PS/PtOEPK sensor films for improved adherence of cancer cells
• Thermal characterisation of high density polyethylene with multi-walled carbon nanotube
• Room-temperature synthesis of nickel nanoparticles and their use as catalyst for methyl orange dye degradation
• Effect of holding time on electrochemical analysis of milk antioxidants using PEDOT electrodes
• The caesium and strontium adsorption properties of bamboo charcoal-containing concrete blocks
• Novel prism designs for solid immersion optical lithography in the ultra high-NA regime
• Characterisation of the polyketone fibre reinforced thermoplastic composites with different interfacial conditions
• Thermal and mechanical properties of polyurethane composites filled with thermally expanded hollow microspheres
• The potential of nanoclay modified Spartium junceum L. fibres used as reinforcement in PLA matrix composites for automotive applications
• Poly(ethylene oxide) in polypyrrole doped dodecylbenzenesulfonate: characterisation and linear actuation
• Caesium and strontium adsorption ability of activated bamboo charcoal
• Enhancing the resolution of bioimprinted casein microdevices
• Photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue dye using catalyst based on the gold-containing clusters supported on TiO2
• Investigation of dose and development time for thin e-beam resist poly(methyl methacrylate) for large area dense nanopattern applications
• The effect of pulsed electric fields on the rheology and microstructure of chitosan-poly(vinyl alcohol) composites
• The influence of pre-treatment of poly(ethylene terephthalate) on its barrier properties base on ALD Al2O3
• Electronic and structural properties of few-layer antimonene

Resarch pick: Necklace Graph to protect social networks - "A challenge-response mechanism for securing online social networks against social bots"

Social bots are malicious computer programs that can penetrate the inner workings of online social networks and social media sites. They are automated software tools built with malicious intent and can execute activity on systems to automatically post and share, send fake “friend” requests to members of those networks, and harvest private and personal information. It might be assumed that such social bots are the work of hackers and crackers, so-called cyber criminals, and others, but they might also be the digital agents of advocacy organizations with a particular agenda, political entities, and others looking to game and manipulate the networks for a wide range of criminal, economic, and political ends.

Writing in the International Journal of Ad Hoc and Ubiquitous Computing, Torky Mohamed, Meligy Ali, and Ibrahim Hani of the Department of Computer Science in the Faculty of Science at Menoufia University, in Egypt, explain how malicious software tools, such as these social bots, represent a big security challenge against social network service providers.

There are tools to safeguard online systems against malware but too often the creators and propagators of these tools find simple ways to circumvent even the most sophisticated of protection systems. The Menoufia team has now devised a new type of “CAPTCHA” – Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart – that can, they say, automate protection of online networks against social bots.

Their new CAPTCHA, which they call a Necklace CAPTCHA, is an image-based test that requires user input to gain entry to the networks’ signup and subsequent services. It is based on Necklace Graph, which allows the “challenge-response” to be carried out in a novel manner that will hopefully be opaque to social bots attempting to get into the system. In their initial tests of the system, brute-force attacks achieved a very low success rate of just 1.65%. It is, the team says, more effective than the commonly used reCAPTCHA systems with which most users of web and social network signups and logins will be familiar.

Mohamed, T., Ali, M. and Hani, I. (2019) ‘A challenge-response mechanism for securing online social networks against social bots’, Int. J. Ad Hoc and Ubiquitous Computing, Vol. 32, No. 1, pp.1–13.

Research pick: Viral marketing - "Viral advertising: message quality, trust and consumers intention to share the content in social media"

Writing in the International Journal of Technology Marketing, Georgios Tsekouropoulos of the Hellenic Open University, in Patra, Greece, discusses the notion of viral advertising. Specifically, he addresses the relationship between message quality, trust, and consumer intention to share content on social media.

His survey of consumers with a penchant for social media showed that perceived sender trust, perceived advertiser trust, message quality and attitude toward sharing electronic content are not significantly related to a viewer’s intention to share viral advertising messages. Conversely, the frequency with which viral advertising messages are shared is affected by those very same factors. Marketers are keen to know how to make their advertising messages “go viral”, it being the fastest “word-of-mouth” marketing we know.

The key message from the research for those hoping to spread the word quickly, effectively, and widely is that “a company can transform his communication strategy and take advantage from the benefits of viral marketing by producing high-quality messages which in combination with actions that can increase the trust of the consumer on the company itself, can transform those consumers into the best representatives of the company and make them part of the marketing communication process.”

Tsekouropoulos, G. (2019) ‘Viral advertising: message quality, trust and consumers intention to share the content in social media’, Int. J. Technology Marketing, Vol. 13, No. 2, pp.111–124.

Special Issue published: "Evolutionary Algorithms in Intelligent Systems"

International Journal of Intelligent Information and Database Systems 12(1/2) 2019

• Object tracking using the particle filter optimised by the improved artificial fish swarm algorithm
• Solve the IRP problem with an improved discrete differential evolution algorithm
• Inventory routing optimisation using differential evolution with feasibility checking and local search
• Hybrid fireworks algorithm with differential evolution operator
• Ant colony optimisation with local search for the bandwidth minimisation problem on graphs
• Applying distance sorting selection in differential evolution
• Outlier detection based on cluster outlier factor and mutual density
• A new quantum evolutionary algorithm using dynamic rotation angle catastrophe for knapsack problem
• A novel particle swarms with mixed cooperative co-evolution for large scale global optimisation
• Study on the optimisation ability of natural selection mechanism

Inderscience journals to invite expanded papers from ARTEM OCC Conference 2020 for potential publication

Extended versions of papers presented at the ARTEM OCC Conference 2020 (19-21 March 2020, Chemnitz University of Technology in Chemnitz, Germany) will be invited for review and potential publication by the following journals:

• International Journal of Innovation and Sustainable Development
• International Journal of Technology Management

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:

• Intensional FOL for reasoning about probabilities and probabilistic logic programming
• Personality modelling and sentiment analysis on Chinese micro-blog posts
• OB-tree: a new write optimisation index on out-of-core column-store databases
• K-means** - a fast and efficient K-means algorithms
• A systematic approach to efficiently managing the effects of retroactive updates of time-varying data in multiversion XML databases

Research pick: Dishing up a web signature - "Creating web signature for each individual user and its various applications"

Rozita Jamili Oskouei of the Department of Computer Science and Information Technology, at the Islamic Azad University, in Mahdishahr, Iran, is working on the concept of creating a web “signature” of student activity online. Writing in the International Journal of Web Science, she explains how her findings suggest that contrary to popular opinion from certain media pundits and even some academics, access to and use of the internet does not generally have an adverse effect on academic performance, quite the opposite, she suggests.

Her development of a unique web signature for each student could be used by educators to better predict the demand on computing resources in an academic institution. It might also be used to group together users with common interests based on their online behaviour and be used to establish a social network between those users or open up such a social network to those who appear to be excluded or confined to cliques.

This social networking benefit could be most useful during a student’s early days in the academic environment, when they are still “freshers” as it could allow mentoring and guidance to be given by older fellow students or connect the new students to the requisite professional and expert advice to help them discuss problems and overcome any difficulties.

Oskouei, R.J. (2019) ‘Creating web signature for each individual user and its various applications’, Int. J. Web Science, Vol. 3, No. 2, pp.83–103.

Research pick: What’s that smell? - "Identification of the malodour source in a complex office environment using solid-phase microextraction and gas chromatography"

Odours, scents, smells…whatever you call them, they are inextricably linked to our mood and memory. The delightful scent of a rose in bloom can evoke delicious emotions whereas a stench in the office can offend everyone and even disrupt work.

Olga Trhlíková of the Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry in Prague, Czech Republic, is using a powerful analytical technique that can home in on the source of a bad smell in the complex environment of a working office. She reports details of the technique, solid-phase microextraction and gas chromatography, in the International Journal of Environmental Technology and Management.

“Permanent or recurring malodours invading office rooms have not only detrimental effects on the staff productivity but also on their health directly or through the stress mechanisms,” Trhlíková writes. Identifying the source of an offensive odour and removing or at least neutralizing it can be critical to office wellbeing. Solid-phase microextraction coupled with gas chromatography and mass spectrometric (SPME/GC-MS) can identify previously unknown, but smelly volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in an office whether the source is microbial spoilage and contamination, a chemical spill, or even fire.

The data from tests in four rooms of an office building were able to identify the malodours by matching the spectra and chromatograms to a database of known chemical fingerprints. In the proof of principle work, malodours from the most likely source, the lavatory, were ruled out quickly and the actual source of the bad smells turned out to be the rotting carcasses of dead animals within the building, such as small rodents.

Trhlíková, O. (2019) ‘Identification of the malodour source in a complex office environment using solid-phase microextraction and gas chromatography’, Int. J. Environmental Technology and Management, Vol. 22, Nos. 2/3, pp.115–127.

Special Issue published: "Computational Intelligence and Deep Learning for Computer Vision"

International Journal of Computational Vision and Robotics 9(5) 2019

• Attention-based argumentation mining
• Segmentation and recognition of characters on Tulu palm leaf manuscripts
• Combination of domain knowledge and deep learning for sentiment analysis of short and informal messages on social media
• A real time aggressive human behaviour detection system in cage environment across multiple cameras
• Exploring the effects of non-local blocks on video captioning networks
• A novel approach for mitigating atmospheric turbulence using weighted average Sobolev gradient and Laplacian

Research pick: Getting better with age - "Inventory models for maturing and ageing items: cheese and wine storage"

Some things fade and deteriorate as they age, but not fine wine and cheese, many types of these products get better with maturity and their value goes up. In the world of logistics coping with products whose value changes with age is a conundrum for storage and transport.

A team from Italy, writing in the International Journal of Logistics Systems and Management, has looked in detail at this problem and come to some important conclusions for those handling and marketing maturing products.

Simone Zanoni, Lucio Enrico Zavanella, and Ivan Ferretti of the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the Università degli Studi di Brescia, in Brescia, point out that particular cheeses, red wines, but also spirits, balsamic vinegar, and other consumable goods have a particular set of peculiarities associated with aging and maturing and their growing value on the market.

Their work points to a new way to model product lifecycles, inventory and logistics in a way that was not considered in the original business models from the early part of the twentieth century where products were either seen as having an essentially “infinite” storage time or were perishable goods that had a limited shelf life.

Zanoni, S., Zavanella, L.E. and Ferretti, I. (2019) ‘Inventory models for maturing and ageing items: cheese and wine storage‘, Int. J. Logistics Systems and Management, Vol. 34, No. 2, pp.233-252.

Research pick: Superficially satisfying spending - "Rich unboxing experiences: complexity in product packaging and its influence upon product expectations"

The overuse of packaging is a growing environmental problem in terms of resource use and waste production. Unfortunately, interesting and intriguing packaging is a crucial part of the modern approach to marketing and is perceived by many consumers, particularly those buying high-end goods, such as smartphones and other electronic gadgets as an essential part of the purchase experience.

The notion of a “rich unboxing experience” as infantile as that might sound is discussed in detail in the Journal of Design Research. Jieun Bae Busan of the National Science Museum in Busan, and James Self and Chajoong Kim of the Department of Industrial Design, at UNIST, in Ulsan, also in South Korea explore the influence of complexity in packaging design, defined as complexity of action and transformation, upon product appraisal at an unboxing phase of product life cycle.

Their surveillance of the market’s response to packaging reveals as one might expect that the complexity of product packaging significantly influences how the consumer appraises the product they have purchased and what might be described as the product’s “personality”. The findings contribute to a greater understanding of the role of packaging in increased expectations and delight as opposed to dissatisfaction, buyer’s remorse, one might say. The findings thus have implications for the use of complexity of action and transformation in product packaging design.

Unfortunately, it seems that the rich unboxing experience is probably here to stay at least for certain types of product unless companies and consumers can negotiate a position where satisfaction with a product is based solely on the product itself rather than the layers of wrappers in which it comes to the possession of the buyer.

Bae, J., Self, J.A. and Kim, C. (2019) ‘Rich unboxing experiences: complexity in product packaging and its influence upon product expectations‘, J. Design Research, Vol. 17, No. 1, pp.26-46.

Research pick: Education hashtags on Twitter - "Analysing professional discourse on Twitter: a mixed methods analysis of the #openeducation hashtag"

New work published in the International Journal of Social Media and Interactive Learning Environments suggests how professional discourse might usefully be analysed on the micro-blogging platform known as Twitter.

Fredrick Baker of the Department of Instructional Design and Technology at the University of West Florida Patrick Lowenthal of Boise State University in Idaho explain how both professionals and academics now commonly use social networking sites such as Twitter for scholarly discourse around resources and networking. They point out that the use of so-called hashtags – keywords that are assigned a special searchable place within the Twitter system by virtue of adding a “hash, #” character (often known as the pound sign in the US) can be very useful for finding connections between users and related content.

In their work, they have looked at how education is discussed on Twitter by tracking and following the #openeducation hashtag. They used as a scalable mixed methods content analysis model to follow the discourse associated with this hashtag . They were able to analyse almost one thousand Twitter updates, or “tweets” and then group them according to themes. Thirty-two themes emerged from the analysis across eight main categories. They were than able to develop a questionnaire to survey users in a more informed manner and to reveal ties between users and connections within the information discussed that could might then be useful to those involved in open education in the broadest sense.
“The study shows that the hashtag is an active platform for connecting with others and sharing ideas, that open education designs and open educational content are the primary theme areas discussed on the #openeducation hashtag, and that the most active hashtag contributors are active voices in open education in a variety of ways,” the team concludes.

Baker III, F.W. and Lowenthal, P.R. (2019) ‘Analysing professional discourse on Twitter: a mixed methods analysis of the #openeducation hashtag‘, Int. J. Social Media and Interactive Learning Environments, Vol. 6, No. 2, pp.107-121.

World Review of Science, Technology and Sustainable Development to invite expanded papers from 2020 Vietnam Sustainability Forum (VSF-2020) for potential publication

Extended versions of papers presented at the 2020 Vietnam Sustainability Forum (VSF-2020) (23-24 March 2020, Hanoi, Vietnam) will be invited for review and potential publication by the World Review of Science, Technology and Sustainable Development.

International Journal of Medical Engineering and Informatics increases issues

The International Journal of Medical Engineering and Informatics has announced that it will be increasing issues from four to six from 2020 onwards.

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Vehicle Noise and Vibration

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Vehicle Noise and Vibration are now available here for free:

• Genetic and random search algorithms for optimising vehicle interior noise and vibration
• Further proof for the theory of elastic sound absorption about flexible porous materials
• Wind noise from A-pillar and side view mirror of a realistic generic car model, DriAver
• Comparison of different tyre models for tyre/road noise applications
• A nonlinear quarter-car active suspension design based on feedback linearisation and H∞ control

International Journal of Power Electronics increases issues

The International Journal of Power Electronics has announced that it will be increasing issues from four to eight from 2020 onwards.

Research pick: An antenna for detecting breast cancer - "Characterisation of breast tissue using compact microstrip antenna"

Breast cancer is a common illness around the world. It is the most common invasive of cancers in women and affects around one in eight and represents about a quarter of all invasive cancers.
A research team in India well aware of the issues, costs and discomfort surrounding screening and assessment of breast tumours with conventional mammography have developed a novel system for monitoring changes in such a tumour that uses a compact microstrip antenna. Such devices are relatively easy to fabricate and have a wide range of more conventional applications in the world of telecommunications as satellite television receivers and such.

The team describes details in the International Journal of Biomedical Engineering and Technology and explains how the devices comprise a radiating patch with a rectangular slot, three stubs, a feed-line and a partial ground plane. The devices operate at a frequency of between 2.4 and 4.76 gigahertz (microwave, or UH, ultrahigh frequencies) and measure the resonance of the tumour, as opposed to healthy breast, tissue, which have different dielectric properties.

The team reports how resonant frequency in the antenna falls as the tumour grows and rises if it shrinks due to treatment. This offers a relatively simple, non-surgical, and less risky way for the oncologist to monitor a tumour of the breast that is also more comfortable for the patient than standard measurement techniques.

Selvaraj, V., Srinivasan, P., Baskaran, D. and Krishnan, R. (2019) ‘Characterisation of breast tissue using compact microstrip antenna‘, Int. J. Biomedical Engineering and Technology, Vol. 31, No. 2, pp.161-175.

International Journal of Management Practice increases issues

The International Journal of Management Practice has announced that it will be increasing issues from four to six from 2020 onwards.

Special issue published, in Memory of the Late Professor Emeritus Richard O. Goss

International Journal of Shipping and Transport Logistics 11(5) 2019

• Goss and ensuing research in shipping and port
• Port policy: are the Goss principles still relevant today?
• Principles in practice: an examination of cascading
• International port investment of Chinese port-related companies

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

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

• A quantitative assessment of variations in the palm surface area as a percentage of total body surface area within the general population
• Driver response to steering perturbations: mechanical arm admittance and grip pressure
• Ergonomic risk assessment in DHM tools employing motion data - exposure calculation and comparison to epidemiological reference data
• Projection of anthropometric correlation for virtual population modelling
• Predictive simulation of human circular gait

Research pick: Science and Star Wars - "Star Wars science on social media! Using pop culture to improve STEM skills"

Might popular culture, such as the Star Wars science fiction franchise be used to boost skills among those involved in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics)? Writing in the International Journal of Social Media and Interactive Learning Environments, Stephan Längle of the Danube University Krems in Austria discusses the possibility.

His study is based on the period 2000-2018 and focuses on Star Wars as one of the more enduring and well known of the science fiction franchises, It began in the late 1970s and still persists with a huge fan-base across all kinds of media, not just the original cinematic format. He points out that an increasing number of scientists use pop-cultural elements to communicate scientific theories and methods to the public and Star Wars is one of those. Längle suggests that learning through social media is on the increase among STEM students and the pop culture of Star Wars is successfully engaging many students in those areas.

The research suggests that there are two ways in which pop culture might be used in class: science principles might be communicated directly with reference to a fictional world, for instance, or the world might serve as a template for preparing teaching materials. Of course, some learners may not want to learn about the real science behind Star Wars and it may not be suitable for every class, some may be fans of Star Trek or another fictional world. Educators should, regardless, take into account the interests of their students and do so in a serious way so that those interests might be integrates into everyday school life in a positive way that improves learning.

Längle, S. (2019) ‘Star Wars science on social media! Using pop culture to improve STEM skills‘, Int. J. Social Media and Interactive Learning Environments, Vol. 6, No. 2, pp.137-149.

International Journal of Management in Education increases issues

The International Journal of Management in Education has announced that it will be increasing issues from four to six from 2020 onwards.

Inderscience journals to invite expanded papers from International Conference on Sustainable Developmental Goals and Management Practices in Tourism & Hospitality Sector (SDGMP 2019) for potential publication

Extended versions of papers presented at the International Conference on Sustainable Developmental Goals and Management Practices in Tourism & Hospitality Sector (SDGMP 2019) (1-2 November 2019, Lovely Professional University, Phagwara, Punjab, India) will be invited for review and potential publication by the following journals:

• International Journal of Business and Globalisation
• World Review of Entrepreneurship, Management and Sustainable Development

International Journal of Energy Technology and Policy increases issues

The International Journal of Energy Technology and Policy has announced that it will be increasing issues from four to six from 2020 onwards.

Special issue published: "Emerging Trends In Computer Applications In Technology"

International Journal of Computer Applications in Technology 61(1/2) 2019

• Cooperative evaluation mechanism based on the optimal decision of DE-CA-CR
• Improved data envelopment analysis model based on geometric mean model
• Improved face recognition with accelerated robust features improved by means of mean shift k-means clustering
• Analysis of system implementation effect based on Bayes analysis of imbalanced measures
• Effect of cognitive need and purchase involvement on information processing in the online shopping decision-making
• Analysis and prediction of autistic children's game characteristics
• Development mode of circular economy industrial cluster based on game theory
• Community discovery method based on complex network of data fusion based on super network perspective
• Relay protection method based on decentralised control logic based on two side active excitation detection
• A dynamic modelling method for dynamic wireless charging system of electric vehicles based on dual LCL non-resonant compensation
• An image segmentation algorithm based on combination of slope width reduction and cross cortical model
• A comprehensive evaluation model based on fuzzy meta-association rules
• A risk preference model for teaching resource allocation based on functional link fuzzy neural network algorithm classifier
• Collaborative sparse unmixing using variable splitting and augmented Lagrangian with total variation
• Fusion algorithm for information interaction control of multi-UAVs based on intelligent algorithm
• Computer-based outdoor sport sustainable development using wavelet neural network
• Design of extensible multi-source signal acquisition device based on DSP and STM32
• Design and implementation of LTE physical layer on FPGA
• Innovation mechanism of cluster industry based on weighted time-varying multi-criteria and similarity evaluation method

International Journal of Computer Aided Engineering and Technology increases issues

The International Journal of Computer Aided Engineering and Technology has announced that it will be increasing issues from six to eight from 2020 onwards.

Global Business and Economics Review increases issues

The Global Business and Economics Review has announced that it will be increasing issues from six to eight from 2020 onwards.

International Journal of Public Sector Performance Management to invite expanded papers from Malaysian Technical Universities Conference on Engineering and Technology (MUCET 2019) for potential publication

Extended versions of papers presented at the Malaysian Technical Universities Conference on Engineering and Technology (MUCET 2019) (19-22 November 2019, Pahang, Malaysia) will be invited for review and potential publication by the International Journal of Public Sector Performance Management.

Journal of Design Research increases issues

The Journal of Design Research has announced that it will be increasing issues from four to six from 2020 onwards.

International Journal of Embedded Systems increases issues

The International Journal of Embedded Systems has announced that it will be increasing issues from six to twelve from 2020 onwards.

International Journal of Public Sector Performance Management increases issues

The International Journal of Public Sector Performance Management has announced that it will be increasing issues from four to six from 2020 onwards.

Special issue published: "Valuing Innovation for Enhancing Commercialisation and Sustainability in Multiple Domains"

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management 23(5) 2019

• Sustainable value creation in the commercialisation of innovation: the case of Auria Biobank
• A case study of exploring the barriers of pro-environmental behaviour
• Drivers of and barriers to networked commercialisation: a business model perspective
• The importance of being known: evaluating companies for growth-oriented incubation
• A case study on accounting faculty's perceptions of technology in accounting classes
• Appreciative inquiry - lessons learned from virtual teams

International Journal of Dynamical Systems and Differential Equations increases issues

The International Journal of Dynamical Systems and Differential Equations has announced that it will be increasing issues from four to six from 2020 onwards.

International Journal of Computing Science and Mathematics increases issues

The International Journal of Computing Science and Mathematics has announced that it will be increasing issues from six to eight from 2020 onwards.

International Journal of Computational Biology and Drug Design increases issues

The International Journal of Computational Biology and Drug Design has announced that it will be increasing issues from four to six from 2020 onwards.

Research pick: Ebola’s economic effects - "Estimating the economic impact of the 2014 Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa: an empirical approach"

While the world’s media may well have moved on to new stories, the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, which was one of the most devastating in history continues to have a significant impact on the lives of those affected by it. Writing in the International Journal of Healthcare Policy, Mohamed Jalloh of the Economic Policy Analysis Unit (EPAU), Macroeconomic Policy Department, ECOWAS Commission, in Abuja, Nigeria, discusses the long-lasting economic impact.

Ebola virus disease (EVD) causes a viral haemorrhagic fever that is lethal in up to 90 percent of those infected. The virus is highly contagious, spreading quickly through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person. Control of outbreaks requires coordinated medical services and community engagement. Where infrastructure and response are limited an outbreak can lead to many deaths within a short period of time.

The worst Ebola outbreak we have seen in modern times started in Guinea when an infant died at the end of 2013. The disease quickly spread to neighbouring countries, specifically Liberia and Sierra Leone. This specific outbreak led to almost 30000 suspected cases and some 11,323 registered deaths.
Jalloh’s study shows that in addition to the adverse impact of the disease on the people, the consequent isolation of the countries affected simply worsened their economic conditions. This will ultimately reduce still further the ability of those nations to cope well with future health problems of this kind. He suggests that there is an urgent need to strengthen healthcare systems, enhance the training and skills of health workers, to put in place methods to allow people and goods to move more effectively and to improve the coordination of efforts to combat a future epidemic of this or any other emerging pathogen.

One important and specific call to action from Jalloh if taken up would see the World Health Organization (WHO) strengthening its collaborations with international financial institutions including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), as well as the likes of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) in coordinating responses for the combating of epidemic outbreaks

Jalloh, M. (2019) ‘Estimating the economic impact of the 2014 Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa: an empirical approach’, Int. J. Healthcare Policy, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp.1–23.

Special issue published: "Valuing Innovation for Enhancing Commercialisation and Sustainability in Multiple Domains"

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management 23(5) 2019

• Sustainable value creation in the commercialisation of innovation: the case of Auria Biobank
• A case study of exploring the barriers of pro-environmental behaviour
• Drivers of and barriers to networked commercialisation: a business model perspective
• The importance of being known: evaluating companies for growth-oriented incubation
• A case study on accounting faculty's perceptions of technology in accounting classes
• Appreciative inquiry - lessons learned from virtual teams

International Journal of Business and Globalisation increases issues

The International Journal of Business and Globalisation has announced that it will be increasing issues from eight to twelve from 2020 onwards.

Special issue published: "Green Mobile Computing for Energy-Efficient Next-Generation Wireless Communication – Part II"

International Journal of Advanced Intelligence Paradigms 13(3/4) 2019

• Adaptive multi-loop IMC-based PID controller tuning using bat optimisation algorithm for two interacting conical tank process
• Swarm dynamics for enhanced energy aware clustering
• Neural network-based virtual backbone tree construction and dynamic sink implementation to enhance the lifetime of the network and minimise the energy consumption
• An adaptive low power coding scheme for the NoC
• Severity of defect: an optimised prediction
• High-level optimised systems design using hardware-software partitioning
• Feature extraction using CMIM for sentiment analysis
• Bayesian approach for brain-computer interface using feature fusion techniques
• Power audit: an estimation model-based tool as a support for monitoring power consumption in a distributed network infrastructure
• Nonlinear channel tracking of a high mobility wireless communication system
• Securing ad hoc networks using energy efficient and distributed trust-based intrusion detection system
• Contribution to radio resource distribution approach in wireless cellular software defined networking

International Journal of Internet Technology and Secured Transactions increases issues

The International Journal of Internet Technology and Secured Transactions has announced that it will be increasing issues from four to six from 2020 onwards.

Research pick: Recognising the signs - "Real time sign language recognition using depth sensor"

Machine recognition of sign languages is on the cards thanks to work by a team in India who are using a Microsoft Kinect movement-identifying controller. Writing in the International Journal of Computational Vision and Robotics, the team explains how their system uses just 11 of the 20 joints tracked by a Kinect and can extract novel features per frame, based on distances, angles, and velocity involving upper body joints. The team reports how the algorithm recognizes 35 gestures from Indian sign in real time with almost 90 percent accuracy.

Jayesh Gangrade and Jyoti Bharti of the Maunala Azad National Institute of Technology, in Bhopal, India, explain how many people with a significant hearing deficit utilize gesture-based communication, hand movements, and orientation together with facial expression are used dynamically to convey meaning in as nuanced and expressive a way as any other language dialect.

The development of technology that could also be competent in sign languages would give those who rely on this form of communication a new approach to interacting with machines and computers. Camera, digital gloves, and other gadgets have been investigated previously in this context. However, the potential of an inexpensive video game controller, such as the Kinect, that can track body movements could facilitate this rapidly.

The team points out that their approach requires no markers nor special clothing with tracking objects as was necessary with some of the earlier efforts in this area. “We have experimented with a minimal set of features to distinguish between the given signs with practical accuracies,” the team writes. They are now experimenting with the Kinect v2 sensor which is more accurate and could push the research closer to its ultimate goal.

Gangrade, J. and Bharti, J. (2019) ‘Real time sign language recognition using depth sensor’, Int. J. Computational Vision and Robotics, Vol. 9, No. 4, pp.329–339.

Thematic issue published: "Negotiating International Strategic Alliances: Examples of Successes and Failures"

European Journal of International Management 13(5) 2019

• Business diplomacy and international strategic alliances
• Applying a trust lens to the study of international strategic alliance negotiations
• The Lafarge-Holcim merger negotiations
• AstraZeneca versus Pfizer
• Cameron's pre-Brexit settlement for the UK within the European Union: failure or missed opportunity?
• The Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) during the COP 18 negotiations
• Negotiating international strategic alliances: success and failures - some closing thoughts
• Associations in transition: the business of Russian civil society
• Managing political risk in the oil and gas industry in a developing economy: the case of BP in Angola

Special issue published: "Applied Soft Computing for Optimisation and Parallel Applications"

International Journal of Grid and Utility Computing 10(5) 2019

• An enhanced Jaya algorithm for solving nurse scheduling problem
• An adaptive technique for cost reduction in cloud data centre environment
• Novel mobile palmprint databases for biometric authentication
• IoT-based intensive care secure framework for patient monitoring and tracking
• Facial expression recognition using geometric features and modified hidden Markov model
• An autonomic mechanism based on ant colony pattern for detecting the source of incidents in complex enterprise systems
• Evaluation prediction techniques to achievement an optimal biomedical analysis
• An intelligent water drops-based approach for workflow scheduling with balanced resource utilisation in cloud computing
• The energy consumption laxity-based algorithm to perform computation processes in virtual machine environments
• A new bi-matrix game model with fuzzy payoffs in credibility space
• An efficient content sharing scheme using file splitting and differences between versions in hybrid peer-to-peer networks
• Fog computing with original data reference function

Free open access article available: "Impact of social media on consumer behaviour"

The following paper, "Impact of social media on consumer behaviour" (International Journal of Information and Decision Sciences 11(3) 2019) is freely available for download as an open access article.

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

Research pick: Spermcount? There’s an app for that - "Image-based human sperm counting method"

Research published in the International Journal of Social and Humanistic Computing discusses the potential for a smartphone application that can be used in conjunction with a microscope attachment that might allow a physician to assess a man’s fertility much more quickly than is usually possible. The system might even be used by the man himself given sufficient information and guidance. The counting technique segregates live sperm from background noise on the basis of the constant movement, motility of active sperm in a sample.

Hyun-Mo Yang, Dong-Woo Lim, Yong-Sik Choi, Jin-Gu Kang, In-Hwan Kim, Ailing Lin, and Jin-Woo Jung of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Dongguk University, in Seoul, South Korea, explain that experimental results have already demonstrated the effectiveness of their procedure.

“Experimental results with grade A, B and C sperm images based on WHO [World Health Organization] criteria show that each grade sperm image could be effectively categorized by using the proposed sperm counting algorithm. This result could be directly used for the development of consumer device which can classify the health condition of user sperms based on WHO criteria,” the team writes. They add that while the approach utilizes sperm motility further research will allow them to develop the algorithm to look at the degree of sperm motility, which will give the man additional information about his fertility as both sperm count and degree of sperm motility are both important factors.

Yang, H-M., Lim, D-W., Choi, Y-S., Kang, J-G., Kim, I-H., Lin, A. and Jung, J-W. (2019) ‘Image-based human sperm counting method’, Int. J. Social and Humanistic Computing, Vol. 3, No. 2, pp.148–157

International Journal of Business Performance Management to invite expanded papers from International Conference of Research and Studies in Finance (ICRSF'20) for potential publication

Extended versions of papers presented at the International Conference of Research and Studies in Finance (ICRSF'20) (3-4 March 2020, Fez, Morocco) will be invited for review and potential publication by the International Journal of Business Performance Management.

Special issue published: "Reliable and Intelligent Information and Communication Technology"

International Journal of Intelligent Systems Technologies and Applications 18(5) 2019

• Arabic sign language recognition using vision and hand tracking features with HMM
• Quality of service task scheduling algorithm for time-cost trade off scheduling problem in cloud computing environment
• Data stream management system for video on demand hybrid storage server
• Interest emotion recognition approach using self-organising map and motion estimation
• Efficient blind nonparametric dependent signal extraction algorithm for determined and underdetermined mixtures

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Sustainable Society

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

• Couples and breadwinning in low-income dual-earner households in India
• Social-ecological resilience for the spatial planning process using a system dynamics model: case study of Northern Bandung area, Indonesia
• Green information technology for sustainability elicitation in government-based organisations: an exploratory case study
• A simple method to assess walkability around metro stations

Research pick: What sends Youtube clips viral? - "Behaviour of viewers: YouTube videos viewership analysis"

What we often think of as the real world and the online, or digital, realm, are increasingly intertwined in the daily lives of so many people now. Social networking sites boast, for instance, of populations of active users far greater than even some of the most populous nations. New research published in the International Journal of Business Innovation and Research undertook an analysis of users of one of the most well-known parts of the digital world – the video system known as Youtube.

Niyati Aggrawal and Anuja Arora of the Jaypee Institute of Information Technology, in Uttar Pradesh, India, hope to uncover what it is about the millions of hours of videos streamed daily from the site that makes a particular audio-visual snippet go “viral”, whether it is personal, professional, political, or even educational. Youtube has about 1.3 billion users, 30 million a day watching any of 5 billion videos. That is a large fraction of the world’s population and represents, to some, a significant marketing and business opportunity. Understanding user behaviour could allow the commercial world to more keenly tap its potential.

The team’s analysis reveals, perhaps not surprisingly, that music videos are among the most popular content available on Youtube. It is, after all, a free service, and this represents a way to listen to one’s favourites tunes as well as see the artists or an artistic interpretation of those tunes. The team has, however, developed a model of putative virality based on the length of a given video, its age, and various other factors. They hope that their work points the way to a method for mapping in advance how well a video might do in terms of virality. Of course, the internet continues to confound and a video that is superficially the most esoteric and obscure might go viral spontaneously while the best devised and targeted campaign will only rarely achieve such hallowed status in the digital world.

Aggrawal, N. and Arora, A. (2019) ‘Behaviour of viewers: YouTube videos viewership analysis‘, Int. J. Business Innovation and Research, Vol. 20, No. 1, pp.106-128.

Special issue published: "Cyber Security Issues and Solutions"

International Journal of Information and Computer Security 11(4/5) 2019

• Behavioural analysis approach for IDS based on attack pattern and risk assessment in cloud computing
• A critical insight into the effectiveness of research methods evolved to secure IoT ecosystem
• An efficient authentication and key agreement scheme for e-health applications in the context of internet of things
• An ontology-based approach to improve access policy administration of attribute-based access control
• A multi-agent system approach based on cryptographic algorithm for securing communications and protecting stored data in the cloud-computing environment
• An efficient user authentication model for IOT-based healthcare environment
• Cloud-based DDoS attack detection and defence system using statistical approach
• Sequential pattern analysis for event-based intrusion detection
• SQL injection attacks - a systematic review
• Password security by encryption using an extended ADFGVX cipher

Special issue published: "High-Performance Information Technologies for Engineering Applications"

International Journal of Computational Science and Engineering 19(4) 2019

• Execution of scientific workflows on IaaS cloud by PBRR algorithm
• Development and evaluation of the cloudlet technology within the Raspberry Pi
• Parallel data processing approaches for effective intensive care units with internet of things
• Study of runtime performance for Java-multithread PSO on multicore machines
• Water contamination monitoring system based on big data: a case study
• Arrhythmia recognition and classification through deep learning-based approach
• A personalised ontology ranking model based on analytic hierarchy process
• Collective intelligence value discovery based on citation of science article
• Differential evolution with k-nearest-neighbour-based mutation operator
• Genetic or non-genetic prognostic factors for colon cancer classification
• A medical training system for the operation of heart-lung machine
• Underwater image segmentation based on fast level set method
• Using Gaussian mixture model to fix errors in SFS approach based on propagation
• Estimation of distribution algorithms based on increment clustering for multiple optima in dynamic environments

Inderscience journals to invite expanded papers from International Conference on Business Management and Information Technology (11th ICOBMIT - 2019) for potential publication

Extended versions of papers presented at the International Conference on Business Management and Information Technology (11th ICOBMIT - 2019) (28-30 December 2019, Gwalior, India) will be invited for review and potential publication by the following journals:

• Int. J. of Public Sector Performance Management
• Int. J. of Trade and Global Markets

Special issue published: "Services Design and Innovation and Serviceology"

International Journal of Services Technology and Management 25(5/6) 2019

• A user preference awareness k-neighbour optimised selection algorithm: modelling and implementation
• Service recommendation using conditional restricted Boltzmann machines
• An optimal selection method of model transformation rules based on clustering
• Mining resource service sequences based on similarity for collaborative tasks
• A multi-modal health data fusion and analysis method based on body sensor network
• The QoS analysis of web services composition based on Jackson queuing network
• Finding service compositions in complex homecare service network
• Application study on image recognition algorithm in visual service of deaf mute under complex environment
• Research and application of ambient air quality monitoring service based on data fusion
• Customer satisfaction-oriented after-sales service node analysis for home appliance enterprise
• Pattern-based service composition for user satisfaction and service revenue