Special issue published: "Computational Advances in Healthcare Solutions: Part I"

International Journal of Computer Applications in Technology 64(4) 2020

• Performance analysis of surrounding cylindrical gate all around nanowire transistor for biomedical application
• Fuzzy logic system for diabetic eye morbidity prediction
• Survivability prediction of patients suffering hepatocellular carcinoma using diverse classifier ensemble of grafted decision tree
• Detection of bifurcations and cross-over points from retinal vasculature map using modified window feature-point detection approach
• Decision-making on the existence of soft exudates in diabetic retinopathy
• Prediction of abnormal hepatic region using ROI thresholding based segmentation and deep learning based classification
• Remote homology detection using GA and NSGA-II on physicochemical properties
• Orthogonal matching pursuit-based feature selection for motor-imagery EEG signal classification
• Computer image analysis for various shading factors segmentation in forest canopy using convolutional neural networks

Research pick: Destressing managers with yoga - "Effect of yoga intervention on mindfulness, perceived stress, emotion regulation and affect: a study on senior managers in an Indian multinational corporate"

Researchers in India have studied the effects of yoga practice on mindfulness, emotional wellbeing, and other measures of mental health among senior managers at a multinational petroleum company. Writing in the International Journal of Indian Culture and Business Management, the team explain the short-term benefits of a five-day residential yoga course and suggest that ongoing practice might be needed to preclude relapse in the context of a manager’s psychological stress.

Psychological stress among managers in high-risk corporations is well known. Maintaining mental health in the workplace can be difficult for many and adopting a healthy work-life balance is often precluded by the nature of the job. There are many tools one might use to encourage management and others within any organisation to improve their own wellbeing including exercise, rest, and recreation. Yoga is often cited by practitioners and advocates as a useful approach to adopt in one’s life for improved physical and mental health.

Solid research into the realities of its effects on individuals in this context is somewhat lacking, however. The present work remedies that situation to some degree and offers a baseline from which additional studies might build to demonstrate the efficacy of yoga practice as a tool in improving workplace wellbeing. The team suggests that even 30 minutes of daily practice with cyclic meditation can have benefits for psychologically stressed managers.

Sreekumar, T.S., Nagendra, H.R. and Ilavarasu, J.V. (2021) ‘Effect of yoga intervention on mindfulness, perceived stress, emotion regulation and affect: a study on senior managers in an Indian multinational corporate’, Int. J. Indian Culture and Business Management, Vol. 22, No. 1, pp.37–52.

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

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

• Design criteria of protective filters based on particle shape and gradation parameters
• Potential of roundabout as a stormwater detention basin in equatorial region
• Evaluation of multiple satellite-derived rainfall products over Morocco
• Hydrological model parameters space during calibration
• Assessment of modified curve number method by evaluation of runoff depth in Sulak basin-Iraq
• Impact of potential evapotranspiration on maize yields in Northern Cameroon using AquaCrop model
• A simple and efficient numerical model for simulating one dimensional dam break flows

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Environment and Sustainable Development

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

• Manoeuvring SME beach resorts in choppy environment: entrepreneurs' perspective
• Re-examining sustainable development in Europe: a data envelopment approach
• Prospect of clean coal for sustainable energy mix in Malaysia
• The effect of awareness, knowledge and cost on intention to adopt green building practices
• Lightweight and prefabricated construction as a path to energy efficient buildings: thermal design and execution challenges

Research pick: Cleaning up noisy photos - "Edge fusion algorithm of art photography image based on affine transformation"

Researchers writing in the International Journal of Arts and Technology, have proposed the use of the affine transformation to improve the performance of the edge fusion algorithms for removing noise from digital photographs, specifically in the art world.

Lei Zhao of the School of Fine Arts and Design at Mudanjiang Normal University in Mudanjiang, China, demonstrates how noise can be reduced using this transformation by about 74 per cent. Smoothing is also greatly improved when compared to two well-known approaches – non-subsampled contourlet transform and hybrid particle swarm optimisation.

Noise in a photograph is a random variation of brightness or colour in the image. In monochrome print photography, noise is often referred to as grain and is sometimes a desirable artefact. It may well also be desirable in some context in digital photography or the scanning of otherwise low-noise photographic prints. More commonly, however, avoiding the generation of noise in an image is preferred but not always possible. For photographic images taken under low-light conditions and the requisite high camera sensitivity values (high ISO) inherent noise is almost unavoidable. Such noise may be manifest as a lack of clarity between areas that would otherwise be of high contrast or else appear as a random, fuzzy veil of purple speckles in a colour image, or grey specks in a monochrome image.

“The proposed fusion algorithm based on radiation transformation can better meet the requirements of edge fusion of art photography images,” the team writes. They add that they hope to further improve the smoothness of the fusion and improve the effect of the fused art photography image still further.

Zhao, L. (2020) ‘Edge fusion algorithm of art photography image based on affine transformation‘, Int. J. Arts and Technology, Vol. 12, No. 4, pp.301-316.

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Enterprise Network Management

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

• An improved downlink packet scheduling algorithm for delay sensitive devices in both H2H and M2M communications in LTE-advanced networks
• An optimised neural network-based spectrum prediction scheme for cognitive radio
• Enterprise big data analysis using SVM classifier and lexicon dictionary
• Feature selection and instance selection using cuttlefish optimisation algorithm through tabu search
• GRO and WeGO - algorithmic approaches to integrate the heterogeneous databases and enhance the evaluation of ontology mapping systems in the semantic web
• Mining massive online location-based services from user activity using best first gradient boosted distributed decision tree

New Editor for International Journal of Space-Based and Situated Computing

Prof. Jianqiang Li from Shenzhen University in China has been appointed to take over editorship of the International Journal of Space-Based and Situated Computing.

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Mobile Network Design and Innovation

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

• Bat pack algorithm for dynamic resource allocation in OFDMA systems
• Cross-layered-based adaptive secured routing and data transmission in MANET
• A two phase energy-efficient routing protocol for underwater wireless sensor network to enhance data gathering
• Cognitive radio-based solutions for spectrum scarcity in Palestine
• Hybrid accuracy-time trade-off solution for spectrum sensing in cognitive radio networks

Research pick: Green and fuzzy decision making - "Application of fuzzy VIKOR on consumers purchasing the green home appliances"

Sometimes there is too much choice when a purchasing decision needs to be made. Consumers are often flummoxed by the myriad pros and cons of many alternative products. Often, a decision comes down to a single factor rather than an informed balance of all the options. As such, a purchase might be made that ultimately does not accommodate all of the original consumer’s needs and requirements leading to buyer’s remorse and disappointment. Environmental and “green” considerations are also now increasingly invoked in addition to the needs of the consumer in the decision-making process.

Tien Chin Wang and Yen Ying Huang of the Department of International Business at the National Kaohsiung University of Sciences and Technology, in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, have investigated the often conflicting factors using fuzzy VIKOR analysis to look at how consumers choose between “green” domestic appliances. This approach allows complicated factors to be reasonably described in conventional quantitative expressions to get quantitative and rational explanations for given purchasing decisions.

The team’s conclusions could help marketing companies find better approaches to advertising the company products and reducing the amount of conflicting and confusing information the consumer must cope with in making their decision. The team concludes that the significance of their study is to accurately identify the most likely factors affecting consumers’ purchase decision, so that the industry might optimise the use of limited marketing budgets.

Wang, T.C. and Huang, Y.Y. (2020) ‘Application of fuzzy VIKOR on consumers purchasing the green home appliances’, Int. J. Green Economics, Vol. 14, No. 4, pp.349–365.

European Journal of International Management launches Best Senior Editor Awards

The European Journal of International Management's Editor in Chief and Deputy Editor in Chief, Prof. Ilan Alon and Prof. Wlodzimierz Sroka, have launched a new annual award for EJIM's Senior Editors. They are pleased to announce the following winners of the 2020 Best Senior Editor Awards, and thank them for their continued efforts:

Associate Prof. Cristina Villar of the University of Valencia, Spain
Associate Prof. Diego Francisco Quer Ramon of the University of Alicante, Spain
Prof. Ulrike Mayrhofer of the Université Côte d'Azur, France

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Knowledge Engineering and Soft Data Paradigms

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Knowledge Engineering and Soft Data Paradigms are now available here for free:

• A Bayesian approach and probabilistic latent variable clustering based web services selection
• Exploring the risk factors of top five malignancies in Bangladesh
• Simulation and analysis of DoS attack in cloud environment
• A crowdsourced system for user studies in information extraction
• Information criterion-based non-hierarchical clustering

Special issue published: "Artificial Intelligence, Entrepreneurial Development and Innovation"

International Journal of Technology Management 84(1/2) 2020

• Artificial intelligence and business applications, an introduction
• How to become the chosen one in the artificial intelligence market: the evidence from China
• Dynamic governance of social network based on dynamic optimisation algorithm: a new perspective of AI system
• How does human resource department's client relationship management affect sustainable enterprise performance - in the context of artificial intelligence?
• A photo-sharing social network based on blockchain technology
• Public subsidies and firm innovation, a mediating role of external collaboration: the relation between diverse natures of innovation activities
• The interplay between exports and technological collaborations: effects on SME growth

Free sample articles newly available from Progress in Computational Fluid Dynamics, An International Journal

The following sample articles from Progress in Computational Fluid Dynamics, An International Journal are now available here for free:

• Numerical simulation of air flow in needle-to-cylinder electrohydrodynamic device
• A numerical study on the influence of liquid properties on gas-focused micro-jets
• Suppressing artificial equilibrium states caused by spurious currents in droplet spreading simulations with dynamic contact angle model
• FEM solution of MHD flow in an array of electromagnetically coupled rectangular ducts
• A numerical investigation of the compressible flow in the ejector of a vapour ejector refrigeration system
• Immersed boundary method for a permeable sedimenting circular particle between two parallel rigid walls
• Development of targeted compact nonlinear scheme with increasingly high order of accuracy

Research pick: Sustainable electric aircraft - "Opportunities and challenges for electric propulsion of airliners"

Research published in the International Journal of Sustainable Aviation, looks at the opportunities and challenges facing the aviation industry in its aspirations to employ electric aircraft rather than adopt biofuels.

Diego Lentini of Sapienza Università di Roma, Italy and Hernán Tacca of the Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina, explain how the growth of air travel in recent years, Covid pandemic aside, has led to a massive increase in emissions of greenhouse gases and ozone-depleting substances. New ways to power aircraft that are carbon neutral, pollution free, and sustainable are now urgently needed the industry is to become sustainable. Dedicated airframes are now needed in order to make the transition to sustainable, electrically powered aircraft.

Fundamentally, putative electric aircraft suffer from a significant limit on their range. Other types, such as turbo electric aircrafts require liquid hydrogen, which brings its own serious challenges. And, hybrid-electric aircraft require smaller wings and thus can handle only a smaller load.

The team’s analysis of current technological solutions and proposals suggests that many of the options envisaged for electric aircraft can give “only a limited relief of the aviation environmental impact, and imply substantial extra costs.” Turbo aircraft fed by liquid hydrogen may well offer a viable alternative provided the hydrogen is sustainably sourced, the team suggests, but this would require serious consideration in terms of safety. The team concludes that before electric fleets become tenable for the aviation industry there needs to be a “paradigm shift in the fuel infrastructure development, and above all, a decisive policy shift in the way environmental problems are tackled.” There perhaps remains a significant delay in departures before we see electric aircraft taxiing to the runways and taking to the skies.

Lentini, D. and Tacca, H.E. (2020) ‘Opportunities and challenges for electric propulsion of airliners’, Int. J. Sustainable Aviation, Vol. 6, No. 4, pp.247–259.

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Indian Culture and Business Management

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

• Interconnectedness between spirituality and sustainable development goals: evidence from an Indian perspective
• Exploring dimensions of psychological capital through grounded theory investigations
• Pricing of airline tickets on India's busiest aviation route (New Delhi - Mumbai)
• Use of mobile apps in online shopping: scale development and validation
• Family-controlled businesses in India: a shareholding pattern-based definition
• Social networking sites' advertising effectiveness: a systematic insight into literature
• Exploring the cultural underpinnings of knowledge management process in India
• Board leadership and executive compensation: corporate governance in India
• Direct from the horse's mouth: what bank employees feel about training and development programs in Indian banking sector

Special issue published: "Computational Intelligence, Soft Computing and Communication Networks for Applied Science"

International Journal of Autonomous and Adaptive Communications Systems 13(4) 2020

• Research on collaborative recommendation of multidimensional sparse data based on personalised directional information fusion algorithm
• Intelligent tourism route recommendation method based on big data
• Research on distributed vulnerability scanning technology based on web cross-domain authentication architecture
• Suppression of channel interference in optical communication networks based on blind signal separation
• Topic popularity prediction of online social network based on single objective evolution
• Bilinear pairings signcryption scheme for user authentication keys in heterogeneous networks
• A resource retrieval method of multimedia recommendation system based on deep learning
• Passive tracking method of distributed targets in wireless sensor networks based on potential game
• The evolution model for big data storage structure of online learning behaviour based on parallel algorithm
• A new state monitoring method for IoT sensor based on Kalman filter algorithm

Free open access article available: "Innovation procurement as key to cross-border ITS pilots"

The following paper, "Innovation procurement as key to cross-border ITS pilots" (International Journal of International Journal of Electronic Governance 12(4) 2020), is freely available for download as an open access article.

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

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

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

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

Research pick: Detecting tongue cancer - "An efficient and optimised system for detection of cancerous cells in tongue"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Global Warming

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

International Journal of Intellectual Property Management 10(4) 2020

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Procurement Management

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

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

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

Journal for Global Business Advancement 13(4) 2020

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Intelligent Enterprise

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

• Design of data scoring model for big data
• Rendezvous agents-based routing protocol for delay sensitive data transmission over wireless sensor networks with mobile sink
• Influence of human resource management practices on the organisational commitment with specific reference to selected hotels in Chennai
• Offline study for implementing human computer interface for elderly paralysed patients using electrooculography and neural networks
• Design of cost effective transistor by software simulation for profitable production
• A supervised multimodal search re-ranking technique using visual semantics
• Intelligent systems for volumetric feature recognition from CAD mesh models
• Advanced graphical-based security approach to handle hard AI problems based on visual security
• Studies on European call option of binomial option pricing model using Taguchi's L27 orthogonal array
• SMSS: does social, mobile, spatial and sensor data have high impact on big data analytics
• Indexing documents with reliable indexing techniques using Apache Lucene in Hadoop
• Regulations on sustainability reporting as a global force in shaping business enterprises: evidence from India
• Call detail record-based traffic density analysis using global K-means clustering
• Using technological modality to learn vocabulary incidentally and intentionally for effective communication
• Reinforcement-based heterogeneous ensemble for anomaly detection in streaming environment
• The effect of lean on job satisfaction
• Enhanced media independent handover for vertical handover decision in MANET
• S-transform-based efficient copy-move forgery detection technique in digital images
• A computational perception of locating multiple longest common subsequence in DNA sequences
• Analysis of double chambered single and cascaded microbial fuel cells: characterisation study based on the enrichment of fuel
• Real time noisy dataset implementation of optical character identification using CNN
• Recurrent neural network-based speech recognition using MATLAB
• A novel method for predicting kidney diseases using optimal artificial neural network in ultrasound images
• Financial access indicators of financial inclusion: a comparative analysis of SAARC countries
• Comparative study on IDS using machine learning approaches for software defined networks
• Rapid retrieval of secured data from the sensor cloud using a relative record index and energy management of sensors

New Editor for International Journal of International Journal of Business Environment

Associate Prof. Marco Opazo Basáez from the University of Deusto in Spain has been appointed to take over editorship of the International Journal of International Journal of Business Environment.

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

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

• Ownership structure and cost of equity capital: Tunisian evidence
• Influence of intra and inter-organisational relationships on CSR and their impact on a hospital's financial performance
• The moderated mediating effect of business ethics towards firm performance
• Financial indicators of corporate social responsibility in Nigeria: a binary choice analysis
• What drives leader integrity?

Research pick: Measuring up for fashion - "The application of big data in fashion retailing: a narrative review"

An international research team has reviewed how big data might be useful in the realm of fashion retailing. They offer their conclusions in the International Journal of Management Concepts and Philosophy.

Dag Øivind Madsen of the School of Business, University of South-Eastern Norway, Emmanuel Sirimal Silva of the University of the Arts London, and Hossein Hassani of the University of Tehran, Iran, suggest that big data is disrupting the fashion industry in unprecedented ways and has revolutionized traditional business models. “Leading fashion brands and new start-ups are both using big data analytics to improve business operations and maximise profitability,” they explain. In their work, take stock of the research literature in this area and summarise the fashion industry’s current position.

The team points out that there is evidence of many fashion brands actively engaging with social media whilst the most proactive fashion brands such as Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Burberry, Michael Kors, and Pink Boutique, to name but a few, are already making the most of their online presence. They add that they have found evidence indicating that brands such as Zara, H&M, ASOS, Adidas, Hugo Boss, Macy’s, Montblanc, Tory Burch, GAP, and Ralph Lauren are using big data analytics to improve their operations.
They have now identified five main drivers for the use of big data analytics in the fashion industry. The first one is that big data can allow trend prediction. Secondly, it can facilitate waste reduction. Thirdly it can be used to improve the consumer experience and engagement, and marketing. Fourthly, big data can be utilized to improve quality control and reduce the spread of counterfeit garments. Finally, big data can shorten supply chains.

There remain challenges the team has found as the industry seeks to model its markets and consumer behaviour but big data is weaving the way forward.

Madsen, D.Ø., Silva, E.S. and Hassani, H. (2020) ‘The application of big data in fashion retailing: a narrative review‘, Int. J. Management Concepts and Philosophy, Vol. 13, No. 4, pp.247-274.

International Journal of Innovation and Learning to invite expanded papers from 14th International Conference on Blended Learning (ICBL 2021) for potential publication

Extended versions of papers presented at the 14th International Conference on Blended Learning (ICBL 2021) (10-13 August 2021, Tokai, Nagoya, Japan) will be invited for review and potential publication by the International Journal of Innovation and Learning.

European Journal of International Management announces Best Paper Awards

The European Journal of International Management's Editor in Chief and Deputy Editor in Chief, Prof. Ilan Alon and Prof. Włodzimierz Sroka, are pleased to announce the following Best Paper Awards:

2020 Award
The expanded model of cultural intelligence and its explanatory power in the context of expatriation intention
European Journal of International Management 2020 14(2)
Nicole Franziska Richter (University of Southern Denmark), Christopher Schlaegel (University of Groningen, The Netherlands), Marian Van Bakel (University of Southern Denmark) and Robert L. Engle (Quinnipiac University, USA)

2019 Award
The influence of competences and institutions on the international market orientation in foreign-owned subsidiaries
European Journal of International Management 2019 13(3)
Sven Dahms (I-Shou University, Taiwan)

2018 Award
Entrepreneurial orientation in a hostile and turbulent environment: risk and innovativeness among successful Russian entrepreneurs
European Journal of International Management 2018 12(1-2)
Daniel J. McCarthy (Northeastern University, USA), Sheila M. Puffer (Northeastern University, USA) and Anna Lamin (Northeastern University, USA)

The Editors congratulate the authors on their significant contributions to research in the field of international management. All winners will receive an online subscription to EJIM and a certificate.

The winning papers are available for free from EJIM's sample articles page.

Special issue published: "Knowledge Transfer, Innovation and Entrepreneurship for Regional Development"

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business 42(1/2) 2021

• Universities, local labour markets and regional economic development
• Building regional innovation capacity: linking knowledge-intensive innovative entrepreneurship and innovation governance
• Innovation and SMEs patent propensity in Korea
• Building an open innovation model over a horizontal network by applying the open innovation theory on SMEs in Japan. From a case study on Shitamachi Bobsleigh Network Project in Ota City, Tokyo
• Reflections on a SMART urban ecosystem in a small island state: the case of SMART Reykjavik
• Heterogeneous hybrid entrepreneurs - framing the variation in entrepreneurial effort and motives for hybrid entrepreneurship
• Entrepreneurial success revisited: what Hofstede's dimensions and GEDI missed in evaluating the entrepreneurial potential in three pilot countries
• Backer behaviours: an explorative study of investor types in equity crowdfunding
• Credit risk assessment: a comparison of the performances of the linear discriminant analysis and the logistic regression
• Innovation orientation: an investigation of Italian SMEs producing building materials
• A philosophical approach to entrepreneurship education: a model based on Kantian and Aristotelian thought
• Entrepreneurial growth strategies in Central Asia: a mid-transition typology of 4S

Research pick: Criticising critique - "This is my vision’: how students depict critiques along with themselves during critiques"

Alternative approaches to understanding critique in the field of design studio teaching are discussed in the Journal of Design Research. Jason McDonald of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah and Esther Michela of the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA, suggest that rather than viewing critique as being primarily about educational outcomes, such as accumulating design knowledge, or socializing students to a particular profession, they hope their insights will help students move forward as individuals.

In design education the term “critique” is flexible, the researchers explain it is just as likely to refer to a range of activities in which students receive feedback on their work as being a formal “jury evaluation” of their output. It can also simply be an in-class discussion among instructors and students or even informal, out-of-class help among students themselves. Unfortunately, it is well recognized that critique can be harmful, dominating, and oppressive, in many ways rather than a valuable educational and learning tool.

While the teaching and socialising aspects of critique remain important, their new perspective is not so much about facilitating the management of the students’ education but more about help students take up specific ways of life that are made available through studio participation. The incentive for finding a new approach in this context is that the conventional critique approach exists in a high-stakes form and can have a detrimental effect on a student’s wellbeing rather than a positive one. There is a definite need to create healthier studio culture that provides education in a more positive environment. Critique acts upon students and can change them not necessarily for the better.

The team recognizes that the pros and cons of critique may well be understood by many educators already. “Our intent,” they write, “has not been to propose wholly unprecedented ideas about how critiques can take place.” They add that rather, “Our aim was to develop a way of speaking about critiques that considers their foremost purpose to be supporting students who are pressing into forms of the self that are opened up through studio participation.”

McDonald, J.K. and Michela, E. (2020) ‘‘This is my vision’: how students depict critiques along with themselves during critiques’, J. Design Research, Vol. 18, Nos. 1/2, pp.57–79.

Free open access article available: "Conformation of the primitive accumulation and capitalist spirit. Theory of corporate governmentality"

 The following paper, "Conformation of the primitive accumulation and capitalist spirit. Theory of corporate governmentality" (International Journal of Critical Accounting 10(5) 2018), is freely available for download as an open access article.

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

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Information and Computer Security

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

• VIKAS: a new virtual keyboard-based simple and efficient text CAPTCHA verification scheme
• Reversible data hiding methods in integer wavelet transform
• Protecting composite IoT server by secure secret key exchange for XEN intra virtual machines
• An improved key pre-distribution scheme based on the security level classification of keys for wireless sensor networks
• SAPMS: a secure and anonymous parking management system for autonomous vehicles
• Introducing virtue ethics concepts into the decision processes of information systems trusted workers: a Delphi study

Special issue published: "Recent Trends in Pattern Recognition and Biometrics"

International Journal of Biometrics 13(1) 2021

• Feature recognition method for similar key points of human face based on adaptive median filter
• Research on fast identification technology of forged fingerprints based on the improved K-means algorithm
• Method for accurately identifying local fuzzy features of sprinting video images
• Research on facial feature-based gender intelligent recognition based on the Adaboost algorithm
• Unconstrained online handwritten Uyghur word recognition based on recurrent neural networks and connectionist temporal classification
• Research on fingerprint image recognition based on convolution neural network
• Research on fingerprint feature recognition of access control based on deep learning
• Research on the application of convolutional-deep neural networks in parallel fingerprint minutiae matching
• Research on facial expression recognition of video stream based on OpenCV

Free open access article available: "Designing an agricultural system to enhance the quality of human life based on the capability approach"

The following paper, "Designing an agricultural system to enhance the quality of human life based on the capability approach" (International Journal of Sustainable Design 3(4) 2020), is freely available for download as an open access article.

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

New Editor for International Journal of Comparative Management

Prof. Vishwanath V. Baba from McMaster University in Canada has been appointed to take over editorship of the International Journal of Comparative Management.

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Knowledge Management Studies

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

• The innovative model for extracting tacit knowledge in organisations
• Knowledge management lifecycle in Islamic bank: the case of syariah banks in Indonesia
• Give or keep? A transactive memory approach to understanding knowledge hoarding on the organisational digital knowledge repository
• Does ambidexterity in leadership strategies influence public sectors' KM readiness in terms of SECI processes?
• Knowledge influences on perception of innovation drivers for sustainable housing development models

Special issue published: "Multimedia Internet of Things and Security"

International Journal of Information and Computer Security 14(1) 2021

• A low area VLSI implementation of extended tiny encryption algorithm using Lorenz chaotic system
• A novel energy efficient routing algorithm for MPLS-MANET using fuzzy logic controller
• Video watermarking using neural networks
• Secure energy efficient network priority routing protocol for effective data collection and key management in dynamic WSNs
• A facial expression recognition model using hybrid feature selection and support vector machines

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Biometrics

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

•  Algorithm research of spoken English assessment based on fuzzy measure and speech recognition technology
• Research on the optimal design of municipal roads based on genetic algorithms
• Research on logistics distribution path analysis based on artificial intelligence algorithms
• A study on the fatigue of bus drivers based on biological models Xiao Hong
• Research on manipulator motion control based on neural network algorithms
• Research on educational informatisation platforms based on Web 2.0
• Research on network intrusion detection security based on improved extreme learning algorithms and neural network algorithms
• The design of embedded image teaching systems based on ARM technology
• Linearisation control of AC permanent magnet synchronous motor servo system based on sensor technology
• Research on the optimisation of complex models of large-scale building structures dependent on adaptive grey genetic algorithms
• Research on the evaluation model of deep foundation pit supporting structures in urban traffic tunnels

First issue: MENA Journal of Cross-Cultural Management (free sample issue available)

The Middle East and North Africa region is experiencing rapid social, political and economic changes. Managers and researchers interested in this part of the world face particular challenges and issues. The MENA Journal of Cross-Cultural Management aims at contributing to a better understanding of managerial practices and business cultures by providing readers with theoretical and practical insights stemming from the diverse countries of this region. MJCCM is the only journal that deals explicitly with cross-cultural management in the MENA region.

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

Research pick: Mentally healthy days - "The mitigating impact of physical activity on mentally healthy days: differential effects based on race, ethnicity and gender"

Let’s get physical – The poor and disadvantaged tend to report higher rates of mental health issues. It’s almost as if social inequality can lead to personal problems. Work published in the International Journal of Behavioural and Healthcare Research, discusses the potential for physical activity to improve mental health in the context of race, ethnicity, and gender and the link with social inequality.

Jake Jennings of the Department of Economics at California State University, Chico and Iris Buder of the Department of Economics at Idaho State University in Pocatello, USA, explain that many steps have been taken in efforts to address inequality and inequities, but there remains a long road ahead before the gaps are closed. They write how “Positive mental health is more than the ‘absence of a mental disorder;’ it is integral in a person’s ability to fulfill productive activities, find employment, handle adversity, cope with normal stresses of life, and contribute to society.” Low socioeconomic status often correlates with poor mental health and a lack of access to the means to remedy that situation.

The team has now looked at how much physical activity might improve mental health despite inequalities for people of different race, ethnicity, and gender. Researchers have used cross-sectional, longitudinal, and experimental methods to analyse reporting of the number of mentally or physically healthy days in connection to socioeconomic factors, such as income, education, wealth, and occupation. The present team has now used the US Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) data to show the mitigating effects of physical activity on the number of mentally unhealthy days people experience.

“We believe that this work has important public policy implications, as it can help shape and target policies aimed at increasing physical activity levels,” the team writes. Physical activity is good for one’s overall health. The new research provides policymakers with new insight into how physical activity might be employed to boost the number of mentally healthy days an individual has.

Jennings, J. and Buder, I. (2020) ‘The mitigating impact of physical activity on mentally healthy days: differential effects based on race, ethnicity and gender’, Int. J. Behavioural and Healthcare Research, Vol. 7, No. 2, pp.103–116.

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Masonry Research and Innovation

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

• Sensitivity analysis of the seismic performance of ancient mixed masonry-RC buildings in Lisbon
• Experimental investigations on the initial shear strength of masonry with earth mortars
• Contact representation in rigid block models of masonry
• DEM numerical approach for masonry aqueducts in seismic zone: two valuable Portuguese examples
• Masonry walls subjected to in-plane cyclic loading: application of digital image correlation for deformation field measurement
• Nonlinear finite element modelling of high bond thin-layer mortared concrete masonry

Free sample articles newly available from World Review of Entrepreneurship, Management and Sustainable Development

The following sample articles from the World Review of Entrepreneurship, Management and Sustainable Development are now available here for free:

• Ethnicity, religiosity and SME innovation outcomes: some insights from a Muslim ethnic group
• Collective impact: dialogue at the interface of the colliding systems of philanthropy
• Green innovation in recycling – a preliminary analysis of reversed logistics in Norway
• Collective efficiency: a prerequisite for cluster development?
• The phenomenon of entrepreneurial leadership in gazelles and mice: a qualitative study from Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Combating rural poverty through altruism: a model for sustainable education
• Female entrepreneurs in transition economies: insights from Albania, Macedonia and Kosovo

Special issue published: "Virtual Reality to Support Learning"

International Journal of Smart Technology and Learning 2(2/3) 2020

• Creating intelligent virtual patients for simulation-based pharmacy education through human-centred conversation modelling
• Exploring augmented reality to support K-12 literacy: a case study
• Preparing industry-ready engineers with virtual reality: recent research and future directions
• Exploring augmented reality for mobile learning: a case study with children's readings on environmental sustainability
• Virtual reality and augmented reality: perceptions of early adopters
• S.P.E.C.I.A.L. - a conceptual framework to support learning in immersive environments
• Understanding diversity and the educational needs of students with exceptionalities: a case study of simSchool
• Integrating augmented reality for learning: working with pre-service teachers

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Structural Engineering

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

• Multi-objective optimisation of steel moment frames subjected to blast
• Evaluation of a multimode pushover procedure for asymmetric and non-regular in plan reinforced concrete buildings under biaxial seismic excitation
• Presentation of a new membrane strain-based finite element for static and dynamic analysis
• Fluid-structure-soil interaction effect on dynamic behaviour of circular water tanks
• Experimental and analytical study on reinforced concrete deep beams

Research pick: How the blockchain can unshackle markets - "The new distributed digital technology world trade and MNEs: another step in the inventive process"

The blockchain that underpins digital currencies can be used much more widely to create smart contracts and immutable and protected digital products and services. The potential of this innovation is only now being recognised but looks set to start an intellectual and innovation revolution that will have as great an impact on society as the invention of the internal combustion engine did on transport and the internet did on communications.

Writing in the European Journal of International Management, Tamir Agmon of both the Faculty of Management at Tel Aviv University, in Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel and the School of Business, Economics and Law at Gothenburg University in Gothenburg, Sweden, discusses how distributed digital technology unshackles individual creators and producers and even multinational enterprises from conventional firms, financial intermediaries, and event regulatory authorities in a way that was not possible in the pre-digital age.

“Major innovations are about reducing transactions costs,” explains Agmon. “This has been true since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution and it continues along the inventive process in the last 220 years.” He adds that the nature of the emerging distributed, non-centralised, digital technologies are disrupting conventional markets right now, However, as with the motor car and the telephone before them, they have the potential to improve the welfare of many people by transforming the way we carry out transactions in the market in the future as workers, creators, and consumers.

Indeed, this new distributed digital technology could bring us closer to the hypothetical notion of the neoclassical perfect market model wherein limited productive resources are utilised in a more optimal manner than is possible with conventional approaches. It is likely that recognition of this revolution will emerge most rapidly in the realm of information and communications technology (ICT) before the concepts spread more widely.

Agmon, T. (2021) ‘The new distributed digital technology world trade and MNEs: another step in the inventive process’, European J. International Management, Vol. 15, No. 1, pp.135–145.

Special issue published: "Formulating a New Framework for Rural Development Under the Impact of the Digital Revolution"

International Journal of Sustainable Agricultural Management and Informatics 6(3) 2020

• Students' training needs towards precision agriculture
• Assessment of the impact of Pillar I and II policy measures on the local economy: the case of the Central Macedonia region
• Back to the future: simplifying Sustainable Development Goals based on three pillars of sustainability
• Cost recovery and water pricing: the influence of current charging of irrigation water on users' willingness to pay
• The construction of the rural through social media: an imaged-based methodology to understand perceptions for the Greek countryside
• Economic complexity and the environment: some estimates on their links
• Investigating educational mobile apps for agriculture
• Assessing the high protein crops wider diffusion in the European agricultural sector. The role and prospects of legumes

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:

• Meta-analysis of computational methods for breast cancer classification
• Random forest-based active learning for content-based image retrieval
• SmartGuard: an IoT-based intrusion detection system for smart homes
• Quality materialised view selection using quantum inspired artificial bee colony optimisation
• Projecting dependency syntax labels from English into Vietnamese in English-Vietnamese bilingual corpus
• Hierarchical clustering on metric lattice

Special issue published: "Trends and Applications of Data Science and Big Knowledge"

International Journal of Data Science 5(2) 2020

• Configuration of WiMAX network supporting VoIP handover using OPNET simulator
• Smart gatekeeper using QR-code
• Safety souls mobile application for emergency response system
• Analysing the steps of currency recognition systems
• The impact of using SR-SIFT algorithm on various banknotes
• Technology-based services for deaf and dumb people
• Decision making using document driven decision support systems

New Editor for International Journal of Information and Computer Security

Associate Prof. Biju Issac from Northumbria University in the UK has been appointed to take over editorship of the International Journal of Information and Computer Security.

Research pick: Photo-sharing blockchain - "A photo-sharing social network based on blockchain technology"

A new photo-sharing social network based on the blockchain could enhance the authenticity and credibility of data as well as precluding data tampering, according to research published in the International Journal of Technology Management.

Blockchain is the technology that famously underpins digital cryptocurrencies. Fundamentally, the blockchain is simply a ledger, a digital record of transactions. It is an open system that does not require a trusted third party as all transactions are logged in an immutable distributed public ledger that requires no central repository of data, it is entirely decentralized.

Jiang Duan, Li Kang, and Zhi Chen of The Blockchain Research Center of China at the Southwestern University of Finance and Economics in Chengdu and Tao Peng and Yifeng Wang Chengdu 9Broad Technology Co. Ltd also in Chengdu, suggest that some people are reluctant still to adopt certain social networking and social media technologies because of privacy and provenance concerns. They have developed a blockchain approach that addresses many of these concerns.

Given how many people billions of people currently use social networks and how many more might if given improved security and privacy there is obvious pressure for the development of such technology. There are an estimated 5 billion accounts on the well-known centralized social networks at the moment, which represents connectivity among a large proportion of the world’s population.

The team’s new blockchain consensus algorithm supports fast and frequent transactions and improves efficiency in a way that was not possible previously. Moreover, it is highly scalable and so should cope well with the vast numbers of potential users that are online. The system allows a user to claim and control ownership of their images and to putatively be rewarded financially for their use.

Duan, J., Kang, L., Chen, Z., Peng, T. and Wang, Y. (2020) ‘A photo-sharing social network based on blockchain technology’, Int. J. Technology Management, Vol. 84, Nos. 1/2, pp.70–85.

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Gender Studies in Developing Societies

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Gender Studies in Developing Societies are now available here for free:

• Analysing male and female parents' incentives vis-à-vis gender sensitisation in urban 
• "Madam Speaker, these are colleagues who are learning to speak, can I allow them to speak?": Gendered performances and ethnographic observations in the Parliament of Uganda
• The contribution of harmful traditional practices to HIV transmission among adolescent and adult females in Sub-Saharan Africa: a victimological approach
• Tales of suffering and strength: women's experiences of working in Nepal's informal entertainment industry
• A descriptive literature review of the continued marginalisation of female entrepreneurs in sub-Saharan Africa

Special issue published: "Technology and Human Resource Management: an Interface"

International Journal of Technology and Globalisation 8(3/4) 2020

• Relationship between psychological capital, leadership styles and leader outcome in virtual and face to face teams
• Is investment in technology a threat to employment in the BRICS region?
• Traversing 'work-life equilibrium' with 'mindfulness'
• Prosocial rule breaking behaviour in banking and financial sector in central India
• Study of work values of Gen Z students
• A study to improve the job performance of the construction workers with regards to safety, health and welfare measures
• Mediation of corporate social responsibility on transformational leadership and organisational commitment: an empirical evidence
• Sense making of the socio-material implementation of ERP tool in IT organisations
• Entrepreneurship and global health: activating the ecosystem and preventing disease
• Agricultural biotechnology development challenges in Africa: lessons from Ethiopia

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Business Performance Management

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

• Robotics and Generation Z - apprehension or attachment?
• Determinants of shareholder value creation - platform versus traditional business models
• Value creation efficiency of Polish construction companies listed on Warsaw Stock Exchange during 2010-2012
• Digital technology disruption on bank business models
• Integrated business-criterion to choose a rational supply chain for perishable agricultural goods at automobile transportations
• Introducing a process for radical supply chain risk management
• Methodology of costs assessment for customer transportation service of small perishable cargoes
• A conceptual framework for reverse logistics challenges in e-commerce
• Young adults' financial literacy and overconfidence bias in debt markets
• Financial traits of bankruptcy, empirical evidence from Bosnia and Herzegovina
• An empirical study of the behaviour of real exchange rates in the UAE
• Do corporate characteristics improve sustainability disclosure? Evidence from the UAE
• Knowledge of Islamic banking and bank customer satisfaction in Afghanistan: an exploratory analysis
• Can cryptocurrencies overtake the fiat money?

Special issue published: "Artificial Intelligence, Entrepreneurial Development and Innovation"

International Journal of Technology Management 84(1/2) 2020

• How to become the chosen one in the artificial intelligence market: the evidence from China
• Dynamic governance of social network based on dynamic optimisation algorithm: a new perspective of AI system
• How does human resource department's client relationship management affect sustainable enterprise performance - in the context of artificial intelligence?
• A photo-sharing social network based on blockchain technology
• Public subsidies and firm innovation, a mediating role of external collaboration: the relation between diverse natures of innovation activities
• The interplay between exports and technological collaborations: effects on SME growth

Research pick: Virtual reality in education

Technology is providing educators with unimaginable tools that are rapidly coming to the fore especially because of restrictions due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Writing in an editorial in the International Journal of Smart Technology and Learning, Charles Xiaoxue Wang and Michele Garabedian of the Stork College of Education at Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers, USA, discuss the potential of virtual reality in education and prelude a special issue of the journal on this topic.

They define virtual reality (VR) as “any technology that provides its users an interactive computer-generated experience through text, audio, visual, spatial and/or speed messages within a simulated environment that engages its users in multi-sensory interactions and reactions”. By this definition, augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR), and hybrid reality (HR) are also included in the purview of this issue. They point out that with current technology it is possible to seamlessly integrate VR in learning, training, and instruction in many different contexts.

Broadly, VR can offer different communication methods, immersive and reproducible learning environments adaptable for special needs, a unique perspective that promotes interaction and is low-risk. VR also opens up new perspectives that an educator might offer and gives learners novel opportunities for their response.

The number of research papers discussing VR had already begun to increase dramatically in engineering and medicine and more recently the number in educational research has surged too.

“Each article in this special issue offers a unique and significant perspective in exploration of VR and VR related issues,” the authors write.

Editorial: virtual reality through the lens of educators – full editorial available as a free PDF here. Special Issue table of contents here.

Free sample articles newly available from Interdisciplinary Environmental Review

The following sample articles from the Interdisciplinary Environmental Review are now available here for free:

• A solution to climate change economics – a carbon swap bank
• A case study in land and water regeneration to reduce the impact of climate change by soil bio-sequestration of atmospheric carbon
• Land and pastoralism: New South Wales Riverina
• Forestry as a sustainable asset class for turbulent times?
• A new approach to climate change: ideas beyond carbon emissions
• Carbon emission trading in India and Sri Lanka
• ANEMI: a new model for integrated assessment of global change
• Population, poverty, environment, and climate dynamics in the developing world