Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Design Engineering

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

• Disinfectant chamber for killing body germs with integrated FAR-UVC chamber (for COVID-19)
• Coherence of interior and exterior formal qualities in parametrically designed buildings
• Emotional characterisation of chairs by descriptors, neural network and verbalised analysis
• Investigation of attapulgite clay crushing by bionic tooth plates inspired from convex structures on body surface of dung beetles
• A decision consequence-based model to understand the phenomena in motorcycle engineering design from a human factor's perspective

Free open access article available: "A decision consequence-based model to understand the phenomena in motorcycle engineering design from a human factor's perspective"

The following paper, "A decision consequence-based model to understand the phenomena in motorcycle engineering design from a human factor's perspective" (International Journal of Design Engineering 10(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 Systems, Control and Communications

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Systems, Control and Communications are now available here for free:

• Performance superiority of CA_TM model over N-P algorithm in detecting χ2 fluctuating targets with four-degrees of freedom
• Low power experimental prototype of a controlled three-phase inverter using D.S.P (TMS320F2812) for a hydraulic energy conversion chain application
• Analytic hierarchy process-based model reduction of higher order continuous systems using sine cosine algorithm
• Leader-follower formation suboptimal control for quadrotors
• Improved finite frequency H∞ filtering for Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy systems

Special issue published: "International Sports Management"

European Journal of International Management 15(2/3) 2021

• Understanding sport media spectators' preferences: the relationships among motivators, constraints and actual media consumption behaviour
• Converting sporting capacity to entrepreneurial capacity: a process perspective
• Economic performance in Spanish sports clubs: entrepreneurial orientation of professional and non-professional teams analysed through fsQCA
• Credibility to attract, trust to stay: the mediating role of trust in improving brand congruence in sports services
• The glocalisation of sports: a study of the influence of European Football Leagues on Nigerian society
• Owned streaming platforms and television broadcast deals: the case of the World Rally Championship
• Global hierarchy of team-sport leagues based on internet searches and revenues: Europe vs. America
• From data to dollar: using the wisdom of an online tipster community to improve sports betting returns
• Reaping the digital dividend? Sport marketing's move into esports: insights from Germany
• Sport as a vehicle for implementing corporate social responsibility: firms listed on the Warsaw and Moscow stock exchanges
• Organisational productivity: perceptions about the influence of workplace physical activity programs on performance, wellness and worker satisfaction
• Innovation management in consulting firms: identifying innovation processes, capabilities and dimensions
• Managing product innovation diffusion within multinational corporations: leveraging global scale and local responsiveness
• Globalisation: blessing or curse? Evidence from the insurance industry
• Collaborative networks and export intensity in family firms: a quantile regression approach

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Design Engineering

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

• The design of a novel approach for the assessment of thermal insulation in buildings using infrared thermography and artificial intelligence
• Design a single overlap support plate for bonded and weld-bonded T-peel joints
• Mathematical Modelling of Pressure Distribution along the Die of a Biomass Briquetting Machine
• Investigation on glass-epoxy composite drive shaft for light motor vehicle
• An intelligent computer-based framework for integrating emotions and aerodynamics in sportsbike design

Research pick: Luxurious social media - "Social media and luxury brand: what luxury watch brands need to know when on Instagram"

A business case study in the International Journal of Technology Transfer and Commercialisation shows how producers of luxury goods can benefit from a social media presence. Specifically, the team focuses on luxury watchmakers and their Instagram accounts.

Armansyah Adhityo Pramono, and Fitri Aprilianty of the School of Business and Management at the Institut Teknologi Bandung, in Bandung, Indonesia, have tracked the Instagram activities of five luxury watch brands in order to glean information about what works and what does not work on this photography-based sharing platform.

The team discusses the nature of the luxury watch market. It is a growing, sizeable, and profitable market but highly competitive and volatile, they write. There are complexities that need to be understood in order that a brand improve awareness among its target market.

Fundamentally, the team has demonstrated a positive association between social media marketing in this context, the relationship between brand and customer and purchase intention. It seems, as one might expect, that content that engages with the value customers place on status symbols such as luxury watches and their hedonism correlates with purchase intention but has not yet been used frequently in social media marketing for such brands.

In order to reap the rewards of investing in Instagram use for marketing of luxury watch brands, those brands must focus on the values that influence purchase intention the most but also improving the degree of engagement with their putative customers, the team suggests. In a world where social media is commonplace and everyday, brands must highlight exclusivity and authenticity as well as their association with high-status people and world events.

Conversely, there are aspects of marketing commonly used by non-luxury goods, such as consumer feedback and even consumer-led design that do not seem to have much effect on purchase intention of luxury watches. Similarly, special offers and promotions are not as important in this sector. After all, it is the luxurious quality of a brand that is the main appeal not its value for money. Luxury goods are commonly status symbols for hedonists and these characteristics are wherein their appeal lies and can be targeted on social media.

Pramono, A.A. and Aprilianty, F. (2020) ‘Social media and luxury brand: what luxury watch brands need to know when on Instagram’, Int. J. Technology Transfer and Commercialisation, Vol. 17, No. 4, pp.316–336.

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Wireless and Mobile Computing

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

• A new way of achieving multi-path routing in wireless networks
• Multi-agent list-based noising algorithm for protein structure prediction
• A novel pulmonary nodule classification framework based on mobile edge computing
• A novel IGBT open-circuit protection method for three-phase PWM rectifier
• Quality of experience prediction model for video streaming in SDN networks
• Sub-word attention mechanism and ensemble learning-based semantic annotation for heterogeneous networks
• Container keyhole positioning based on deep neural network
• Performance of UWB communication systems in presence of perfect/imperfect power control MAI and IEEE802.11a interference
• Particle swarm optimisation with multi-strategy learning
• Demand estimation of water resources via bat algorithm
• Performance analysis of the IEEE 802.15.4e TSCH-CA algorithm under a non-ideal channel

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Materials Engineering Innovation

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

• Statistical modelling and optimisation of the factors affecting the surface roughness of C45 steel treated by the centrifugal disk mass finishing process
• Effect of hot extrusion on the characteristics of an Mg-3.0Zn-0.7Zr-1.0Cu alloy produced by powder metallurgy
• Investigation on the effect of aluminium foam made of A413 aluminium alloy through stir casting and infiltration techniques
• Effect of parameters depth of cut and feed rate on the resistance to pitting corrosion of AISI 1018 steel
• Analysis of dry sliding wear behaviour of AA-7068/TiC MMCs

Research pick: Automated weed and feed - "Real-time segmentation of weeds in cornfields based on depthwise separable convolution residual network"

Conventional crop-spraying with herbicide to kill weeds among a crop wastes a lot of the herbicide and raises environmental concerns. A smart crop sprayer might identify weeds growing through the crop and spot spray only the unwanted plants. Work from a team in China published in the International Journal of Computational Science and Engineering, looks at the real-time segmentation of a cornfield to detect weeds that could be used to control such a smart crop-sprayer.

Uncontrolled weed growth in a crop leads to reduced yields of that crop. However, herbicides to selectively kill the weeds are expensive and also lead to pollution. It is in the best interests of farmers the world over and for the sake of the environment, that herbicides are used as efficiently and as effectively as possible.

Hao Guo, Shengsheng Wang, and Yinan Lu of Jilin University in Changchun have proposed a lightweight network based on the encoder-decoder architecture SResNet. They optimized the model so that it can quickly discern weed plant from crop plant in an image.

“In weed identification, the recognition effect is susceptible to factors like light, occlusion, and image quality, so improving the robustness of weed recognition is still a challenging subject in traditional machine vision,” the team explains. Their approach offers a lightweight semantic segmentation model based on the encoder-decoder architecture which takes into account accuracy and processing speed. To demonstrate the benefits of their system, they have compared results with classical semantic segmentation models (SegNet and U-Net) and showed it to have competitive performance. The test frame-rate is almost 70 frames per second and so capable of real-time weed identification in a cornfield. Their average score has almost 99 percent accuracy.

Guo, H., Wang, S. and Lu, Y. (2020) ‘Real-time segmentation of weeds in cornfields based on depthwise separable convolution residual network’, Int. J. Computational Science and Engineering, Vol. 23, No. 4, pp.307–318.

Special issue published: "Security and Dependability of Human-Centred Cyber Security"

International Journal of Information and Computer Security 14(2) 2021

• An improved cryptanalysis of large RSA decryption exponent with constrained secret key
• Accurate and reliable detection of DDoS attacks based on ARIMA-SWGARCH model
• Secure and unifold mining model for pattern discovery from streaming data
• Sustainable wireless clouds with security assurance
• A novel binary encryption algorithm for navigation control of robotic vehicles through visible light communication
• Analysing and comparing the digital seal according to eIDAS regulation with and without blockchain technology
• Mobile agent security using Amrani et al.'s protocol and binary serialisation

Special issue published: "New Advances in Topology Optimisation"

International Journal of Materials and Product Technology 61(2/3/4) 2020

• Multi-objective topology optimisation design of lattice structures with negative Poisson's ratio considering energy absorption and load-bearing characteristics
• Topology optimisation of periodic structures with multiple materials using BESO
• Topology optimisation of truss structures under non-stationary random seismic excitations with displacement and stress constraints
• Robust topological design of laminated composite plate under interval random hybrid uncertainties
• Optimisation design of graded lattice structures for natural frequency
• An efficient multiscale concurrent design method using fitting function
• Experimental validation of an automotive subframe stiffener plate design obtained from topology optimisation
• Experimental investigation and design optimisation for magnetic abrasive flow machining using response surface methodology
• Measurement of delamination and tool wear with sensors in end-milling using solid and carbide-tipped K10 end mills

Special issue published: "Halal Purchasing and Supply Chain Management: A Critical Halal Business Management Function"

International Journal of Islamic Marketing and Branding 5(3) 2020

• Halal procurement strategy in the food industry: a focus group discussion
• A sustainable model for halal pharmaceutical logistics
• An overlooked aspect of halal supply chains - Islamic finance
• Expectations of Muslim consumers from the halal sportswear industry

Additional paper

• 228-245 Advertising to Muslim consumers: a holistic view from the Islamic perspective

Research pick: Ageing, entropy, and waste - "Fraction of the metabolic ageing entropy damage to a host may be flushed out by gut microbiata"

One theory of ageing invokes the Second Law of Thermodynamics and suggests that in the long-term, the heat energy generated by metabolic changes causes damage to living systems that accumulates as repair mechanisms cannot keep pace with the damage, entropy accumulates, and this is manifest in the signs of ageing that are all too familiar – greying hair, wrinkled skin, immune compromise, organ failure, cognitive decline.

A team from Turkey, writing in the International Journal of Exergy, point out that as is ever the case with living systems, the picture is far more complicated. Indeed, an individual is not truly a single living thing given the presence of myriad microbes that live on the skin and within the alimentary canal, for instance. Indeed, the team from Yeditepe University in Istanbul explain that the human gut microbiota acts as an autonomous thermodynamic subsystem within what we ought to refer to as the human superorganism. These microbes generate and export their own entropy without causing age damage to their human host.

The team’s thermodynamic calculations show that between 12 and 59 percent of the metabolic entropy generated by each of us as a whole is produced by the microbial guests in our gut and exported in faeces. This entropy is not associated with ageing damage.

The researchers explain how entropy removal via the waste stream from a chemical plant is well known and discussed at length in the pertinent scientific literature. Given that we know from the work of Schrödinger and Prigogine that living systems must import energy and export entropy to maintain their living state this new research into the entropy export by the gut microbiota could open up new avenues for research into ageing that have not previously been considered in depth.

Yıldız, C., Yılmaz, B. and Özilgen, M. (2021) ‘Fraction of the metabolic ageing entropy damage to a host may be flushed out by gut microbiata’, Int. J. Exergy, Vol. 34, No. 2, pp.179–195.

Special issue published: "Latest Business Trends Through Sustainable and Digital Practices"

International Journal of Economics and Business Research 21(2) 2021

• Impact of economic conditions on business growth and development
• Economic impact of cycling across various nations
• Internationalisation of Indian SMEs: problems and prospects
• Impact of e-commerce on India's exports and investment
• Emergence of behavioural finance: a study on behavioural biases during investment decision-making
• Non-performing assets: drag for stability of Indian banking sector
• Exploring trust and responsiveness as antecedents for intention to use FinTech services
• An experimental investigation of trust and reciprocity in double-shot investment games
• Analysing the mediating effect of leader-member exchange on the relationship between servant leadership and organisational commitment

International Journal of Computational Vision and Robotics to invite expanded papers from International Workshop on New Approaches for Multidimensional Signal Processing (NAMSP 2021) for potential publication

Extended versions of papers presented at the 2nd International Workshop on New Approaches for Multidimensional Signal Processing (NAMSP 2021) (8-10 July 2021, Technical University of Sofia, Sofia, Bulgaria) will be invited for review and potential publication by the International Journal of Computational Vision and Robotics.

Special issue published: "Frontiers of Business Research Across Bangladesh"

Journal for Global Business Advancement 13(6) 2020

• HRM practices, employee engagement, organisational commitment and work-related social support
• The impact of the microcredit interest rate on capital creation in Bangladesh
• Determinants of intellectual capital disclosure of financial institutions in an emerging economy
• High performance work systems and employee performance: the moderating and mediating role of power distance
• An exploration of the Halal food export potential for Bangladesh
• Globalisation, foreign demand, real exchange rate and Bangladesh exports: some empirical tests

Research pick: Coping with eco-anxiety - "Enabling students to face the environmental crisis and climate change with resilience: inclusive environmental and sustainability education approaches and strategies for coping with eco-anxiety"

Climate change represents perhaps the biggest challenge facing humanity, therefore education has an important role to play in teaching students about how we might mitigate the problems but also how to cope with what might be termed eco-anxiety.

A team from Canada writing in the International Journal of Higher Education and Sustainability, suggests that part of a well-rounded university education must provide students with the tools with which to address the challenges presented by the environmental crisis we all face. Part of this education should show them how to be responsible eco-citizens but also give them the skills to become creative, solution-oriented thinkers. With such people entering adulthood and becoming the innovators and leaders of the future humanity might be able to cope with the acute problems and address the chronic problems facing climate and the environment.

Laura Sims and Marie-Élaine Desmarais of the Université de St. Boniface and Rhéa Rocque of the University of Winnipeg, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, suggest that educators “have a responsibility to create inclusive environmental and sustainability educational approaches that are enabling, emotionally supportive, engaging, and praxis-oriented.” Their work focuses on the concept of eco-anxiety and how students might be taught to cope with such a problem in a positive and pragmatic way.

At the time of writing their paper, humanity was facing another major challenge – the Covid pandemic caused by a lethal coronavirus that emerged towards the end of 2019. The pandemic is still with us more than a year later. The team adds that the pandemic has taught us many lessons that can equally be applied to education for sustainability, inclusion, and eco-anxiety. “In living this experience, we have seen people come together, changing their lifestyles, and acting individually for collective benefit,” they write. They add that the pandemic has shown us that “we can stop our destructive, consumptive path, if need be, at very short notice, and re-imagine other possibilities…we are strong enough, together, to face existential challenges.”

Sims, L., Rocque, R. and Desmarais, M-É. (2020) ‘Enabling students to face the environmental crisis and climate change with resilience: inclusive environmental and sustainability education approaches and strategies for coping with eco-anxiety’, Int. J. Higher Education and Sustainability, Vol. 3, No. 2, pp.112–131.

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Business Process Integration and Management

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

• An examination of mergers and acquisitions model building: a grounded theory approach
• Leadership and organisational conflict management: a case study of the Greek public sector
• SPCC: a security policy compliance checker plug-in for YAWL
• Miscegenation of scalable and DEP3K performance evaluation of nosql-cassandra for bigdata applications deployed in cloud
• Deriving organisational business process change factors using the hierarchical elicitation workshop

Special issue published: "Emerging Trends in Entrepreneurship and Building Sustainable Workplaces"

International Journal of Environment, Workplace and Employment 6(1/2) 2020

• A conceptual study: organisation culture as an antecedent to employee engagement
• Banking business transformation by adoption of sustainability practices through knowledge management
• Conflict management - a challenge to resolve through various communication styles
• Prediction of employee attrition in organisations using Garrett ranking and logistic regression
• Effectiveness of corporate governance on market capitalisation of top Indian publically listed firms
• A study of leadership styles executed by school teachers: special reference to Gurugram
• Towards creativity in Indian software companies: development of an instrument to select and evaluate creative practices
• Impact of gender and marital status on managing job stress among employees of PSPCL
• Does extent of sustainability reporting influence financial performance? Evidence from five Asian economies
• Are hedonic or utilitarian values predicting continuance usage of SNS in online sharing environment with mediation role of e-satisfaction?
• Impact of perceived risks on consumers' purchase intention while buying luxury items online

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Reasoning-based Intelligent Systems

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Reasoning-based Intelligent Systems are now available here for free:

• Two-stage portfolio risk optimisation based on MVO model
• A new reasoning-based approach for measuring the magnetic field emitted by portable computers
• Machine learning methods against false data injection in smart grid
• SCOL: similarity and credibility-based approach for opinion leaders detection in collaborative filtering-based recommender systems
• Mobile agent and ontology approach for web service discovery using QoS
• Measurement-based methodology for modelling the energy consumption of mobile devices

Research pick: Local networks for local communities - "Supervised local community detection algorithm"

Despite the growing number of tools being used to anneal so-called big data, researchers are only now beginning to find ways to handle big networks. A new approach described in the International Journal of Data Science, takes a local community approach to studying networks that could have applications in understanding how disease outbreaks become pandemics, defeating terrorist networks, thwarting malware, and understanding the effect of influencers and viral advertising on marketing.

Ali Choumane and Abbass Al-Akhrass of the Faculty of Sciences in the LaRIFA Lab at the Lebanese University in Nabatieh, Lebanon, explain analyzing huge networks is computationally very expensive in terms of the time and resources needed to process all the nodes and connections between them in order to find hubs and other interesting features. This is especially the case where a network contains densely connected nodes.

Community detection is one approach to circumventing this mammoth task allowing researchers to find the local connections from the busiest of individual nodes. The team is developing an algorithm to find such local communities in a huge network quickly and at a lower computational cost than earlier approaches. The team explains how they start with a seed node and allow the algorithm to iteratively expand on this to identify a community around that node that most resembles known community structures previously seen in real life. Such communities are likely to be the most realistic, after all.

The expansion process builds using a neural network classifier that can discern which nodes ought to be added to the local community and which ought to be discarded. The classifier can be fine-tuned to adjust resolution so that smaller or larger communities can be found within a huge network without the need to retrain the algorithm each time.

“We trained this classifier using three measures that allowed us to mutually quantify the strength of the relation between nodes and communities,” the team explains.”These measures depend on the proportion of edges that the node has with its community, how much the neighbours of the node are involved in its community and finally the membership degree of the node in the community.”

The researchers add that they used the well-known Lancichinetti–Fortunato–Radicchi (LFR) synthetic networks as a benchmark as well as real-world networks from different application domains to demonstrate experimentally the high performance of their approach.

Choumane, A. and Al-Akhrass, A. (2020) ‘Supervised local community detection algorithm’, Int. J. Data Science, Vol. 5, No. 3, pp.247–261.

Special issue published: "Emerging Technologies for the Internet of Things"

International Journal of Reasoning-based Intelligent Systems 13(1) 2021

• Estimating equations under IPW imputation of missing data
• Design and realisation of vehicle security and protection system based on multi-task polling processing
• Research on key indicators and regional comparison of green data centre
• New type NP-CSMA of adaptive multi-priority control WSN protocol analysis

Additional paper

• Cryptographic algorithm for protection of communication in drones control

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Power and Energy Conversion

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Power and Energy Conversion are now available here for free:

• Reliability analysis of the PMU microwave communication networks using generalised stochastic Petri nets Bhargav Appasani; Dusmanta Kumar Mohanta
• Design strategies for speed control of an inverter fed permanent magnet synchronous motor drive
• A hybrid Hilbert Huang transform and improved fuzzy decision tree classifier for assessment of power quality disturbances in a grid connected distributed generation system
• Variable structure power control under different operating conditions of PM synchronous generator wind farm connected to electrical network
• Empirical wavelet transform and dual feed-forward neural network for classification of power quality disturbances

First issue: International Journal of Cybernetics and Cyber-Physical Systems (free sample issue available)

Cybernetics is a transdisciplinary approach to studying how humans, animals and machines control and communicate with each other. A cyber-physical system is a mechanism operated by computer-based algorithms, tightly integrated with the Internet and its users. To reflect new developments, particularly in intelligent systems, the International Journal of Cybernetics and Cyber-Physical Systems pays close attention to emerging methodologies, techniques/algorithms and applications in cybernetics and cyber-physical systems. IJCCPS is unique in its focus on system integration.

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

Research pick: Securing the clouds - "An efficient and optimised approach for secured file sharing in cloud computing"

Cloud computing has revolutionised the way files are stored and shared and processing carried out from the corporate down to the individual private user level. Security remains a contentious issue. As such, there is an ongoing need to ensure data is protected optimally. Research published in the International Journal of Advanced Intelligence Paradigms, discusses an efficient and optimised approach for the secure sharing of files in the cloud.

Cloud computing has been with us for many years now, although still sometimes considered a “new” paradigm. It represents delocalised, distributed, and shared services and allows all kinds of organisations and individuals to offload their storage and computer processing needs on to third-party servers and services, commonly for a fee, in a freemium, model, and occasionally at zero cost to the user.

There are many benefits to cloud computing. Obviously, distributed servers can offer greater processing and storage capacity than local computers. The downside to cloud computing can be the very nature of it in that it is ultimately dependent on a third party for the service and also for privacy and protection of one’s data.

Neha Agarwal and Ajay Rana of Amity University in Noida UP and Jai Prakash Pandey of KNIT in Sultanpur UP, India, have proposed an encryption method that offers a hybrid approach comprising a symmetric and asymmetric algorithm. The approach they demonstrate is more secure and more efficient than other current approaches used to protect files for cloud sharing.

Agarwal, N., Rana, A. and Pandey, J.P. (2021) ‘An efficient and optimised approach for secured file sharing in cloud computing’, Int. J. Advanced Intelligence Paradigms, Vol. 18, No. 2, pp.232–246.

Special issue published: "Energy and Sustainable Futures"

International Journal of Design Engineering 9(2) 2020

• Computational fluid dynamics modelling to design and optimise power kites for renewable power generation
• An overview of applications of renewable energy methods in the development of structural health monitoring systems
• Using ratio-weighted sums to project data into future scenarios: the case study of heating systems
• Assessment of an innovative floating hydro generator prototype through experiments and modelling

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Ad Hoc and Ubiquitous Computing

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Ad Hoc and Ubiquitous Computing are now available here for free:

• Random forest, gradient boosted machines and deep neural network for stock price forecasting: a comparative analysis on South Korean companies
• Task allocation for crowdsensing based on submodular optimisation
• Sensor-based detection of abnormal events for elderly people using deep belief networks
• Base station assisted relay selection in device-to-device communications
• Incentive mechanism-based influential maximisation scheme for social cloud service networks
• Using ubiquitous data to improve smartwatches' context awareness: a case study applied to develop wearable products

Special issue published: "Emerging Trends in Business and Management"

World Review of Science, Technology and Sustainable Development 16(3) 2020

• Electric vehicles business models: an integrative framework for adoption of electric mobility
• Challenges faced by micro, small and medium enterprises: a systematic review
• A stakeholder perception of TQM in engineering education
• The conceptual framework of sustainable Islamic finance with special reference to Shariah index in India
• Emerging trends and growth of banking frauds in India: a substantial obstacle in the pathway of sustainable development

Research pick: Apocalypse when? - "Apocalypse now? Communicating extreme forecasts"

We seem to face apocalyptic forecasts on a more and more frequent basis and yet often the predictions do not manifest themselves in the anticipated doom and gloom. Of course, some predictions have long-term consequences such as those surrounding climate change. However, as with all areas of science, the error bars that scientists know only too well can simply look like uncertainty and dithering to some non-scientists.

Research published in the International Journal of Global Warming suggests that the framing of uncertainty that is an essential part of the scientific endeavour leads to confusion among some non-scientists. The railing against this uncertainty is often perceived as “anti-science” but for the lay public it may be more a matter of being anti-uncertainty. People prefer to know for sure what they might expect to happen in their future, especially when it comes to apocalyptic forecasts, rather than to be faced with doubt.

David Rode and Paul Fischbeck of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, have found that the mere mention in an apocalyptic climate forecast reduces the amount of media attention a given forecast receives. Given that there will be uncertainty, error bars, confidence intervals, and other such matters mentioned in every scientific source, this can lead to a credibility gap. When a report fails to mention the uncertainty, it gains more media traction than a report that does not.

The team has suggested various strategies that might allow the scientific message complete with its uncertainties to reach an appropriate audience without instilling over confidence nor without looking like it is hesitant about the data it presents. The team concludes by alluding to Carl Sagan who warned us that extraordinary predictions require extraordinary caution in communication.

Rode, D.C. and Fischbeck, P.S. (2021) ‘Apocalypse now? Communicating extreme forecasts’, Int. J. Global Warming, Vol. 23, No. 2, pp.191–211.

Best Reviewer Award announced by International Journal of Environment and Pollution

We are pleased to announce that the International Journal of Environment and Pollution has launched a new Best Reviewer Award. The 2020 Award goes to Prof. Steven Hanna of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in the USA. The senior editorial team thanks Prof. Hanna sincerely for his exemplary efforts.

Research pick: Social media burnout - "Does the benevolence value matter when social media burnout strikes?"

The number of people actively using social media is around the three billion mark. In the current Covid pandemic, such tools are increasingly useful for keeping in touch with friends and relatives when social distancing and lockdown are in place. Conversely, the additional activity and updates means that many users are becoming weary of the information overload and report feelings of “burnout” in using the likes of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and other applications and websites.

Research in the International Journal of Business Information Systems, looks at this phenomenon of social media burnout in terms of ambivalence and emotional exhaustion. These two responses to the often overwhelming nature of constant online updates and the deluge of new information, whether worthy or trivial, have been present throughout the short history of online social media but are now being discussed more commonly.

Users talk of “taking a vacation” from their social media apps, having a “digital detox”, or giving up during a culture-associated “fasting” period, for instance.

Bo Han of the College of Business at the Texas A&M University-Commerce, Shih Yung Chou of Dillard College of Business Administration at Midwestern State University, USA, and Tree Chang of the Department of Social Work and Service Management at Tatung Institute of Technology, Taiwan, have integrated the concept of benevolence value in the user experience of online social media for the first time.

A new model of the user response emerges from their work that will help guide the social media research community in understanding user behaviour as these services mature and evolve. It should also provide clues for managers of the various services hoping to learn how to preclude burnout in their users and so encourage their continued use of the services without compromising their mental health.

Han, B., Chou, S.Y. and Chang, T. (2021) ‘Does the benevolence value matter when social media burnout strikes?’, Int. J. Business Information Systems, Vol. 36, No. 2, pp.288–302.

Research pick: The confluence influence - "Viewer responses to product messages using one-person media influencers"

Someone once infamously remarked that the public has “had enough of experts”. This is so obviously not the case in so many walks of life, of course, including marketing and commerce. Social media, for instance, has given a platform to experts in products in a way that members of the public never had before. Those who study popular culture and fashion will have seen the growing follower counts on social media outlets for a small number of people with expertise in a niche area who have colloquially become known as influencers.

Research has now demonstrated what might seem obvious: the greater the expertise an influencer is perceived to have by their followers, the more likely the message they send is to be received positively and acted on by those followers. The research by Kyoo-Hoon Han and Eunmi Lee Department of the department of Public Relations and Advertising at Sookmyung Women’s University, in Seoul, South Korea is detailed in the International Journal of Internet Marketing and Advertising.

This finding reinforces what some observers suggest is a positive effect of social media and that observers in the opposite camp see as worrying. Influencers have gained power, it seems, through social media, and with power, there comes responsibility but also the potential for abuse of that power.

The Covid pandemic has led to the move online of many endeavours and activities that traditionally involved physical and face-face interactions. As such, there is perhaps a pressing need to ensure new checks and balances are in place to reduce the risk of the abuse of newly wielded power without stifling freedom of expression, personal choice, and privacy, of course. Nevertheless, given a positive outlook, there is great potential for the new normal of the online world of influencers and their followers. There is also now great scope for research into this burgeoning area within the commercial realm.

Han, K-H. and Lee, E. (2021) ‘Viewer responses to product messages using one-person media influencers’, Int. J. Internet Marketing and Advertising, Vol. 15, No. 1, pp.104–122.

Special issue published: "Green Technologies for Sustainable Environment"

International Journal of Environmental Technology and Management 23(2/3/4) 2020

• Theoretical research on sustainable ecological environment based on the concept of green tourism consumption
• Research on the development of economic transformation green agriculture based on sustainable environment green technology
• Study on the new concept of green building under the sustainable environment and technology
• Research on the development of economic transformation green agriculture under the sustainable environment green technology
• Research on environmental science education in eco-environmental tourism innovation promotion
• Green building theory and regression experiment analysis based on the sustainable development of green environment
• Research on sustainable development of urban green infrastructure based on social ecosystem framework
• Strengthening green transportation and implementing sustainable urban environmental development in the new period
• Research on environmental green development technology by sustainable utilisation of green sports buildings
• Research on environmental green technology under the development of green building
• Green technology of water system of high-rise building based on scientific sustainable environment development
• Establishment of management and evaluation system of sustainable development planning of green infrastructure
• Scientific adjustment of green agricultural structure based on sustainable environmental technology
• Management and evaluation system of sustainable development planning about green infrastructure
• Research on the application of green energy-saving and environmental protection decoration materials in building decoration construction
• Integration of flexibility in reverse supply chain planning process
• Ink and toner cartridges' remanufacturing in Greece
• Green transport efficiency and factor mismatch of airlines under environmental constraints

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Applied Decision Sciences

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

• A latent semantic analysis-based image tag optimisation method
• Efficiency measurement to identify the best efficient unit in the presence of dual-role factors
• Analysing the influence of demographics on depositor behaviour
• Attribute rank-based weighted decision tree
• Production trade-offs and weight restrictions in two-stage network data envelopment analysis
• Institutional environment, internal control and corporate social responsibility disclosure quality: evidence from China

Research pick: Agricultural resilience during Covid - "Impact of COVID-19 on agriculture supply chain in India and the proposed solutions"

The Inderscience Research Picks this week focuses on how online resources are helping people cope in different ways with the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Each day, we will highlight and discuss a paper from the publication the International Journal of Web-based Communities (Issue 1, volume 17, 2021)

This week, we have already talked about working, education, and socialising during the Covid-19 pandemic. This fifth paper homes in on some of the problems facing agriculture in India during this difficult period and offers some solutions.

Shantanu Trivedi and Neeraj Anand of the University of Petroleum and Energy Studies in Dehradun, India, and colleague Saurav Negi of the Modern College of Business and Science in Muscat, Oman, have analysed the agricultural supply chain in the Uttarakhand region based on semi-structured interviews with farmers, wholesalers, and retailers in order to find ways that the industry might be endowed with greater resilience in the time of Covid.

They found that interstate supply issues are problematic at this time and moreover, they found that transportation restrictions, labour shortages, inefficient cold-chain facilities, panic buying, fluctuation in prices, and a lack of collectors/aggregators have all conspired to cause disruption. Ultimately, the issue derives from the requirement that each stage and each transaction has historically required physical interaction.

Face-to-face and other physical interactions would be to some extent unnecessary if information and communications technologies (ICT) could take up the slack on such roles. Indeed, ICT in many spheres has replaced much of the conventional interaction and allowed efficiency to be improved across endless industries. Moreover, ICT is now critical to sustaining those industries while healthcare services and medical science work to overcome the pandemic.

“A knowledge-based view can help in developing a pandemic resilient agriculture supply chain network to support the continuous supply of food products from farm to fork, the team writes.

Trivedi, S., Negi, S. and Anand, N. (2020) ‘Impact of COVID-19 on agriculture supply chain in India and the proposed solutions’, Int. J. Sustainable Agricultural Management and Informatics, Vol. 6, No. 4, pp.359–380.

Special issue published: "Advanced Research in Computational Intelligence"

International Journal of Data Mining, Modelling and Management 13(1/2) 2021

• An enhanced cooperative method to solve multiple-sequence alignment problem
• A formal theoretical framework for a flexible classification process
• Graph-based cumulative score using statistical features for multilingual automatic text summarisation
• An ontology-based modelling and reasoning for alerts correlation
• Convolutional neural network with stacked autoencoders for predicting drug-target interaction and binding affinity
• Efficient deployment approach of wireless sensor networks on 3D terrains
• Recommendation of items using a social-based collaborative filtering approach and classification techniques
• Distributed heterogeneous ensemble learning on Apache Spark for ligand-based virtual screening
• Hash-processing of universal quantification-like queries dealing with requirements and prohibitions

Research pick: Privacy in the time of Covid - "Method of differential privacy protection for web-based communities based on adding noise to the centroid of positions"

The Inderscience Research Picks this week will focus on how online resources are helping people cope in different ways with the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Each day, we will highlight and discuss a paper from the publication the International Journal of Web-based Communities (Issue 1, volume 17, 2021)

This week, we have discussed working, education, and socialising in the online realm during the Covid-19 pandemic. This fourth paper applies more broadly than simply during the pandemic and discusses the issues of privacy in the context of online communities.

Chun Guan, Jun Hu, Yu Zhou, and Alexander Shatalov of Nanchang University in Jiangxi, China, have focused on how one’s location privacy might be preserved in this era of web-based communities and big data. The team proposes the addition of noise – spurious location data, for instance – to one’s personal “data-print” to preclude a third party, or indeed, a second party such as a service provider from, defining your path and position with any precision.

Privacy is not simply a matter for those deemed to have “something to hide”. Everyone would prefer to have control over information about themselves after all personal and private data might be exploited for nefarious purposes by others whether that is in terms of identity theft and fraud, targeted advertising, insurance premium weighting, or control by the authorities.

Mobile telecommunications devices are useful to us in many ways not least because they have sensors and software that allow the precise position of the gadget to be gleaned by various methods whether cellphone or Wi-Fi network access point or through the Global Positioning System (GPS), and perhaps other tracking technology. This location awareness allows users to benefit from a wide range of other technologies and use their device’s software in many ways that would not be possible without it. Unfortunately, the flipside to these benefits is that service providers sometimes need access to one’s location and this can be exploited by them as well as third parties. The team compares to approaches to the addition of noise in their approach and demonstrates that a “centroid” approach is the more effective.

Guan, C., Hu, J., Zhou, Y. and Shatalov, A. (2021) ‘Method of differential privacy protection for web-based communities based on adding noise to the centroid of positions’, Int. J. Web-Based Communities, Vol. 17, No. 1, pp.53–64.

Free sample articles newly available from Electronic Government, an International Journal

The following sample articles from Electronic Government, an International Journal are now available here for free:

• A performance analysis of stereo matching algorithms for stereo vision applications in smart environments
• Social spider-based unequal clustering protocol for wireless sensor environment for smart cities
• Optimal parameter tuning for PID controller using accelerated grey wolf optimisation in smart sensor environments
• Managing natural hazards in smart cities in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia using a technique based on interior search algorithm
• Social internet of things using big data analytics and security aspects - a review
• Empower good governance with public assessed schemes by improved sentiment analysis accuracy
• Smart learning using personalised recommendations in web-based learning systems using artificial bee colony algorithm to improve learning performance
• A framework for e-healthcare management service using recommender system
• Internet of medical things with cloud-based e-health services for brain tumour detection model using deep convolution neural network
• An efficient healthcare framework for kidney disease using hybrid harmony search algorithm
• Identification and characterisation of choroidal neovascularisation using e-Health data through an optimal classifier
• An analysis of parallel ensemble diabetes decision support system based on voting classifier for classification problem
• A cooperative GA-SM-based prediction model for healthcare services

Free open access article available: "Airport passenger experiences in concourses with either electrochromic or low-e glass windows"

The following paper, "Airport passenger experiences in concourses with either electrochromic or low-e glass windows" (International Journal of Aviation Management 5(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 Data Mining, Modelling and Management

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Data Mining, Modelling and Management are now available here for free:

• A survey of term weighting schemes for text classification
• A support architecture to MDA contribution for data mining
• Bees colonies for detecting communities evolution using data warehouse
• Emotion mining from text for actionable recommendations detailed survey

Research pick: Socialising in the time of Covid - "Sustaining social capital online amidst social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic: web-based communities, their mitigating effects, and associated issues"

The Inderscience Research Picks this week will focus on how online resources are helping people cope in different ways with the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Each day, we will highlight and discuss a paper from the publication the International Journal of Web-based Communities (Issue 1, volume 17, 2021)

If working practices and education have been compromised by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, then so too, obviously, have our social lives. The limitations of lockdowns and keeping apart to reduce the risk of catching or passing on the virus have been at the forefront of our minds for many months now. The usual places we might gather such as pubs and restaurants, theatres and festivals have all been off-limits periodically in many parts of the world in response to the disease.

How might we stick together even while we are apart? Ardion Beldad of University College Twente in Enschede, The Netherlands, discusses a possible answer to that question looking at how we might sustain our “social capital” through our online activity and the web-based communities in which we dwell, virtually speaking.

As a social animal, the concept of social distancing is very much at odds with our inherent nature. Of course, over the last few years before the Covid-19 pandemic, many people had adopted online technologies for many aspects of their lives. The difference now is that many are essentially obliged to now adopt an online-only social life because of the risk of infection. Unfortunately, the digital divide can now be seen as a gaping maw given that there are many less privileged in society who simply do not have the economic means to access the internet from home, for instance. How we might address this problem is discussed in Beldad’s paper.

Beldad also looks at the implications for privacy of the increasingly widespread adoption of online socialising for those who do have access as well as the potential implications for mental health of spending increasing amounts of time in a virtual world, rather than the physical world.

“The clamour to return to normal face-to-face interactions is expectedly intensifying after months of social distancing measures, Beldad writes. But until an effective vaccine for COVID-19 is developed*, people are left with no other choice but to maintain their connections and interactions online.”

Beldad, A.D. (2021) ‘Sustaining social capital online amidst social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic: web-based communities, their mitigating effects, and associated issues’, Int. J. Web Based Communities, Vol. 17, No. 1, pp.35–52.

*It is worth noting that at the time of writing this Research Pick, more or less effective vaccines are now in place in various parts of the world, but much work remains to be done in terms of vaccinating a sufficiently large proportion of the world population to allow us to overcome this pandemic. There are also the ongoing issues of the inevitable emergence of genetic variants of the original virus, which may well have a different susceptibility to the original vaccines.

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Advanced Intelligence Paradigms

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

• Performance comparison of Bat search and Cuckoo search using software artefact infrastructure repository and regression testing
• On the convergence and optimality of the firefly algorithm for opportunistic spectrum access
• Meta-heuristic algorithm to generate optimised test cases for aspect-oriented software systems
• Fuzzy system for classification of microarray data using a hybrid ant stem optimisation algorithm
• Flower pollination-based K-means algorithm for medical image compression
• Image compression based on adaptive image thresholding by maximising Shannon or fuzzy entropy using teaching learning based optimisation
• An efficient and optimised approach for secured file sharing in cloud computing
• Development of ANFIS-based algorithm for MPPT controller for standalone photovoltaic system

Special Issue on: Soft Computing Application and Reviews

International Journal of Advanced Intelligence Paradigms 18(2) 2021

• Performance comparison of Bat search and Cuckoo search using software artefact infrastructure repository and regression testing
• On the convergence and optimality of the firefly algorithm for opportunistic spectrum access
• Meta-heuristic algorithm to generate optimised test cases for aspect-oriented software systems
• Fuzzy system for classification of microarray data using a hybrid ant stem optimisation algorithm
• Flower pollination-based K-means algorithm for medical image compression
• Image compression based on adaptive image thresholding by maximising Shannon or fuzzy entropy using teaching learning based optimisation
• An efficient and optimised approach for secured file sharing in cloud computing
• Development of ANFIS-based algorithm for MPPT controller for standalone photovoltaic system

New Editor for International Journal of Human Factors Modelling and Simulation

Dr. Thomas Alexander from the Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health in Germany has been appointed to take over editorship of the International Journal of Human Factors Modelling and Simulation.

Research pick: Educating in the time of Covid - "Web-based community-supported online education during the COVID-19 pandemic"

The Inderscience Research Picks this week will focus on how online resources are helping people cope in different ways with the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Each day, we will highlight and discuss a paper from the publication the International Journal of Web-based Communities (Issue 1, volume 17, 2021)

Education has in many ways suffered terribly in the wake of the pandemic. Students have been forced into remote learning situations often in environments that are not entirely conducive to learning. This is particularly acute where the housing is crowded or access to the internet and technology such as computers is limited. Commonly, both problems are present for the same students. Young people can often bounce back from problems in ways adults might not, but too many problems in their path can nevertheless lead to long-term issues.

Nataliia Morze of the Borys Grinchenko Kyiv University in Ukraine and Eugenia Smyrnova-Trybulska of the University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland, have looked at the initiatives of private firms, society, and communities in Ukraine and Poland in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic and with regard to secondary and higher education. They write that the effects on students and the opportunities available to them or otherwise are very different depending on their position in society in terms of economics, family situation, housing, and health. It might be said, that those in a more “privileged” environment will be able to adopt the alternative learning opportunities more readily while those from economically vulnerable sections of the population may not be so fortunate. The detrimental effect of socioeconomics could ultimately widen the educational divide and thence the economic divisions in society.

The new work looks at how, given access to the internet, how web-based communities might mitigate the lack of face to face meetings between students and their teachers. They ask whether we are in a time of transition that might help us work through the current pandemic and make us more prepared for the next similar crisis that emerges.

Based on their analysis of practices and experiences, the team has found ten core elements they suggest are crucial to effective online education in an emergency of the kind the Covid-19 pandemic, and future pandemics, presents.

• Ensuring reliable network infrastructure
• Using friendly learning tools
• Providing interactive suitable digital learning resources
• Guiding learners to apply effective learning methods
• Promoting effective methods to organize instruction by adopting a range of teaching strategies
• Providing instant support services for teachers and learners
• Empowering the partnership between governments, enterprises, and schools
• Allowing the crisis to drive innovation
• Developing online and blended learning
• Making online education a strategic priority

Morze, N. and Smyrnova-Trybulska, E. (2021) ‘Web-based community-supported online education during the COVID-19 pandemic’, Int. J. Web Based Communities, Vol. 17, No. 1, pp.9–34.

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Sensor Networks

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

• A MQTT-API-compatible IoT security-enhanced platform
• Cost-effective routing as a service in sensor-cloud
• A key management scheme realising location privacy protection for heterogeneous wireless sensor networks
• Using neural networks to reduce sensor cluster interferences and power consumption in smart cities
• Low-cost localisation considering LOS/NLOS impacts in challenging indoor environments
• Centroid determination hardware algorithm for star trackers

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Internet Technology and Secured Transactions

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

• A multi-controller placement strategy in software defined networks using affinity propagation
• Efficient user authentication, server allocation and secure data storage in cloud
• Analysing thalamus and its sub nuclei in MRI brain image to distinguish schizophrenia subjects using back propagation neural network
• Microblaze-based parallel implementations of elliptic curve scalar multiplication over Fp on FPGA
• Comparative study of Topk based on Fagin's algorithm using correlation metrics in cloud computing QoS
• Fault tolerance in grid computing by resource clustering
• Vehicular-cloud simulation framework for predicting traffic flow data
• A novel hybrid broadcasting protocol based on coverage area segmentation and delay adjustment for VANETs
• Industrial internet of things over IEEE 802.15.4 TSCH networks: design and challenges
• A new model for communities' detection in dynamic social networks inspired from human families
• Virtual network functions placement system for 5G mobile network architecture

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Web Based Communities

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

• Comparison of multiple different overlapping community discovery algorithms
• Moving toward smart cities: insights from the MENA region
• The artificial fulfilment of need for orientation: agenda-setting and salience of community news in Twitter
• Hybrid feature-based approach for recommending friends in social networking systems
• Social media games: insights from Twitter analytics
• The effects of tourism websites' attributes on e-satisfaction and e-loyalty: a case of American travellers' to Jordan

Research pick: Working in the time of Covid - "Remote working in the time of covid-19: developing a web-based community"

The Inderscience Research Picks this week will focus on how online resources are helping people cope in different ways with the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Each day, we will highlight and discuss a paper from the publication the International Journal of Web-based Communities (Issue 1, volume 17, 2021)

Martin Sposato of Zayed University in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, has investigated the potential of online communities for the implementation of remote working under enforced lockdown as experienced in many countries during the Covid-19 pandemic. The main challenges are the implementation of suitable technology for workers, the maintenance of an appropriate routine for continuity, and the development of a sense of community among workers no longer able to meet face to face or chat over the proverbial watercooler.

In the face of the various challenges, employers and managers have a responsibility to ensure that staff output and productivity are not compromised and that they can sustain the quality of the work being undertaken.

Sposato points out that the unprecedented challenge of the global pandemic has led to the adoption of technologies and practices that were previously only used to any great degree by a proportion of the workforce, tools such as video conferencing. Now, almost everyone who is able and has perhaps been forced to work from home, maybe for the first time has had to become familiar and adept at using rather quickly a range of tools that may not have been part of their normal daily work before.

Remote working, Sposato explains, is changing the employment landscape significantly. Indeed, in some areas of employment, it has become increasingly obvious that the daily commute need no longer be a part of the routine and a large proportion of many types of work can be done without staff ever needing to set foot in their employer’s premises. Moreover, there is even an indication for some forms of business maintaining premises may not even be necessary.

Once we emerge from the current crisis situation at some point in the future, the new normal may look very different from the old normal for workers everywhere. Sposato suggest that there is a pressing need to develop web-based community that could increase the effectiveness of remote working and create systems that foster engagement among members of those communities. Work is in a state of flux while the pandemic is ongoing, both employers and employees need to take stock and those with the abilities need to plot our route through the pandemic to that new working normal.

Sposato, M. (2021) ‘Remote working in the time of covid-19: developing a web-based community’, Int. J. Web Based Communities, Vol. 17, No. 1, pp.1–8.

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Value Chain Management

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

• Modelling the enablers to explore the driving power, dependence and strategic importance in achieving SC agility
• Factors influencing farmers' satisfaction with the activities of horticultural cooperatives in Thailand
• Collaborative innovation in healthcare: a case study of hospitals as innovation platforms
• Management priorities of technology-based growth ventures in two Finnish high-tech business contexts

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Security and Networks

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

• Text similarity semantic calculation based on deep reinforcement learning
• AudioKey: a usable device pairing system using audio signals on smartwatches
• A real-time botnet detection model based on an efficient wrapper feature selection method
• Location big data differential privacy dynamic partition release method
• Data integrity attack detection in smart grid: a deep learning approach
• Characterising spatial dependence on epidemic thresholds in networks

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Biomedical Engineering and Technology

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

• Detection of fovea region in retinal images using optimisation-based modified FCM and ARMD disease classification with SVM
• Automatic biometric verification algorithm based on the bifurcation points and crossovers of the retinal vasculature branches
• Optimal ECC-based signcryption algorithm for secured video compression process in H.264 encoder
• Design of artificial pancreas based on the SMGC and self-tuning PI control in type-I diabetic patient

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Shipping and Transport Logistics

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

Top cited papers published between 2019 to 2020:

1. International port investment of Chinese port-related companies

2. Estimating vessel payloads in bulk shipping using AIS data

3. Selection of logistics service modes in e-commerce based on multi-oligopolies Cournot competition

4. Analysis of risk factors influencing the safety of maritime container supply chains

5. Maritime green supply chain management: its light and shadow on the bottom line dimensions of sustainable business performance

6. A statistical forecasting model applied to container throughput in a multi-port gateway system: the Barcelona-Tarragona-Valencia case

7. Seaport competitiveness research: the past, present and future Ziaul Haque Munim; Naima Saeed

8. A multi-objective approach to analyse the effect of fuel consumption on ship routing and scheduling problem

9. Development of a maritime safety management database using relational database approach

10. Container trade and shipping connectivity of Vietnam: implications of Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership and 21st Century Maritime Silk Road

11. Hedging voyage charter rates on illiquid routes

12. Analysis of performance influence factors on shipboard drills to improve ship emergency preparedness at sea

13. A tabu search approach to the cargo prioritisation and terminal allocation problem

14. Catastrophe risk assessment framework of ports and industrial clusters: a case study of the Guangdong province

15. The impact of deregulation in the hydrocarbon sector: evidence at the main Spanish ports of import of hydrocarbons (1986-2013)

16. The impact of operational strategies on vessel handling times: a simulation approach

17. Supply chain security management: a citation network analysis

18. Berth allocation and quay crane-yard truck assignment considering carbon emissions in port area

Top cited papers since 2009:

1. Port hinterland intermodal container flow optimisation with green concerns: a literature review and research agenda

2. Complementarities and alignment of information systems management and supply chain management

3. A two-stage supply chain DEA model for measuring container-terminal efficiency

4. Fleet mix in container shipping operations

5. An empirical model of the bulk shipping market

6. Two-agent single-machine scheduling with release times and deadlines

7. Measures for evaluating green shipping practices implementation

8. Efficiency considerations for sequencing and scheduling of double-rail-mounted gantry cranes at maritime container terminals

9. A study on the antecedents of supplier commitment in support of logistics operations

10. Editorial: Research in shipping and transport logistics

11. Organisational growth and firm performance in the international container shipping industry

12. The impact of capacity on firm performance: a study of the liner shipping industry

Special issue published: "Defining the Frontiers of Business Research Across India"

Journal for Global Business Advancement 13(5) 2020

• Factors affecting higher education demand in India: an interpretive review
• An investigative study of influencer marketing: nuances, challenges and impact
• Mapping responsive retailing to identify future research trajectories
• Drivers of strategic collaboration for e-governance in India: a qualitative study
• Internet of things and agriculture relationship: a bibliometric analysis
• TISM modelling of social enterprise ecosystem: a study in Indian context

Research pick: Brand benefits - "Success factors of brand community management in social media"

Consumer behaviour and the corporate response to a changing marketing landscape have been driven by the advent of social media over the last 15 years or so. There are pros and cons, but companies that manage their social media outlets and engage with customers in a positive way can reap the rewards and manage their brands for an improved bottom line.

Just how much of a boost to corporate success good brand management in social media and online social networks can be is still up for debate given the relatively small amount of research that has been undertaken in this area. Work published in the International Journal of Electronic Business, investigates the relationship between different content categories and user engagement as well as the impact on user trust of a brand and their ultimate intention to buy the brand.

Vincent Göttel, Bernd Wirtz, and Paul Langer of the German University of Administrative Sciences Speyer analysed 247 Facebook brand communities. As one would perhaps expect, they found that entertaining, vivid, informative, and credible content had a positive effect on user engagement. This positive effect is ultimately reflected in trust in a brand and purchase intention.

The team writes that “This study represents one of the first confirmatory empirical research papers about success factors of social media brand community management in terms of content categories provided by community managers which positively influence user engagement.” They thus suggest it could serve as the basis for future related conceptual and empirical research.

Göttel, V., Wirtz, B.W. and Langer, P.F. (2021) ‘Success factors of brand community management in social media’, Int. J. Electronic Business, Vol. 16, No. 1, pp.1–31.

Special issue published: "Application of Optimisation Algorithms in Electric Power Systems"

International Journal of Digital Signals and Smart Systems 5(1) 2021

• GWO-based direct power control with improved LCL filter design for three-phase inverters
• Design and implementation of three-level T-type inverter based on simplified SVPWM using cost-effective STM32F4 board
• A hybrid sensorless control of PMSG wind-power generator with frequency signal injection method and extended Kalman filter
• Induction motor rotor bars faults diagnosis based on multiple features extraction and selection with self-organising map neural network
• Low-cost three-phase self-excited induction generator for supplying isolated single-phase loads

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Internet Marketing and Advertising

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

• User response to e-WOM in social networks: how to predict a content influence in Twitter
• Users awareness of native advertising from Instagram media publishers: the effects of Instagram's branded content tool on attitudes and behavioural intent
• A new framework of electronic word-of-mouth in social networking sites: the system-based approach
• eWOM via social networking site: source versus message credibility
• Modelling the impact of activity in brand communities on loyalty

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Digital Signals and Smart Systems

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Digital Signals and Smart Systems are now available here for free:

• Feature extraction for brain tumour analysis and classification: a review
• Investigation of partial shading effect on PV array configuration
• Noise reducing performance of anisotropic diffusion filter and circular median filter in digital images
• Simulation of a model DC-DC converter with cascaded via improvement PFC with boost converter and THD using multiple loads
• Photovoltaic grid-connected with transformer less renewable source system with multilevel NPC inverter
• A novel comparator - a cryptographic design in quantum dot cellular automata
• A novel aggregation approach to reduce complexity of system
• Age and gender related variations in human EEG signals
• Power optimised hybrid sorting-based median filtering
• Design and test music recommendation system for online music websites using collaborative filtering approach Teddy Oswari; Tristyanti Yusnitasari; Reni Diah Kusumawati; Saurabh Mittal
• A facial EMG data analysis for emotion classification based on spectral kurtogram and CNN
• Performance enhancement of the triboelectric energy harvester by forming rough surface polymer film using poly-dimethyl-siloxane +25 wt% water solution
• Investigating customer satisfaction towards music website in Indonesia and India: a comparative study
• Identifying the stabilising regions of PI controller based on frequency specifications for a lab scale distillation column

Research pick: Twitter stress testing - "Stress detection from Twitter posts using LDA"

Psychological stress is an important determinant of mental health. Its early detection might allow interventions to be made to preclude chronic problems. Writing in the International Journal of High Performance Computing and Networking, a team from India, has turned to an analysis of updates on the well-known social media service, Twitter, with a view to detecting psychological stress in the platform’s users based on the characteristics of the user’s updates, or “tweets”.

Aysha Khan and Rashid Ali of the Department of Computer Engineering at ZHCET, AMU in Aligarh, India, explain how traditional psychological stress detection techniques require specialists and professional equipment. Machine learning could be used to analyse twitter output and automate the process of detection, the researchers suggest.

The pressures of life inevitably lead to stress in some individuals, they always have. Stress can not only lead to problems with mental health, but this can spill over into physical problems such as raised blood pressure and the concomitant increased risks of cardiovascular disease associated with that condition. There is growing evidence that chronic stress can also have a detrimental impact on one’s immune system and perhaps even increase the risks of certain diseases, including cancer.

Online social networking via sites such as Twitter, has radically changed the way we communicate, share information, and perceive the flow of news and updates we receive. For many, these outlets have opened up boundless possibilities for improvement, for others, the constant need to share and garner validation has led to increasing stress. The picture is complicated and many factors feed in and out of the bigger perspective of how online social network affects us on a daily and ongoing basis. The team has demonstrated a novel approach to extracting the mood and mental state of users in an automated manner that could ultimately be employed by health workers to detect stress in the people they care for.

Khan, A. and Ali, R. (2020) ‘Stress detection from Twitter posts using LDA’, Int. J. High Performance Computing and Networking, Vol. 16, Nos. 2/3, pp.137–147.

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Electronic Business

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

• Mobile app usage and adoption: a literature review
• A methodology for creating sustainable communities based on dynamic factors in virtual environments
• Influence of brand related user-generated content through Facebook on consumer behaviour: a stimulus-organism-response framework
• The drivers of user responses to social media campaigns: a field study

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

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

• The neoliberal salvation of metacapitalism
• Signals of ability in an agency model
• Is there a lock-in effect of corporate capital gains taxation? Evidence from the German market

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Business and Emerging Markets

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

• Impact of perceived risk on mobile banking usage intentions: trust as a mediator and a moderator
• Factors influencing continued use intentions in mobile shopping: the case of South Korea
• Corporate branding in an emerging business market: a phenomenological perspective
• Financial leverage and corporate performance: does the duration of the debt ratio matters?
• Corporate political analysis, state ownership of enterprises and firm performance in China
• Causality between total factor productivity and economic growth in Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey: a comparative analysis

Research pick: Indigenous knowledge during a pandemic - "Harnessing African indigenous knowledge for managing the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa"

The Covid-19 pandemic caused by the emergent coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 has forced nations to radically overhaul their healthcare systems in order to cope with the new pressures of millions of sick people. Innovation is still needed, especially in Africa. New research published in the International Journal of Technological Learning, Innovation and Development, suggests that indigenous knowledge could assist in this regard.

Olawale Olaopa of the Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University in Dammam, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has explored and examined the role of traditions and practices in influencing community and individual perceptions of health and illness, prevention, cure, and management of COVID-19. The main conclusion is that indigenous knowledge can benefit the community and might even reduce the impact of the pandemic. This will be especially true if the indigenous knowledge is used synergistically with scientific understanding and undertaken in an environmentally aware manner.

“Indigenous knowledge remains a fundamental aspect of social culture and inheritance communicated and transferred verbally from one generation to the next,” writes Olaopa. This tradition has for countless generations played a vital role in the life of the community. It has a potent effect on the socio-economic conditions and political situations in which the community lives as well as affecting the spiritual lives of people. It is more than forty years since the World Health Assembly (WHA) first recognized and supported indigenous knowledge in traditional medical practices and it is to this day seen as a critical component of primary health management at the level of local communities.

Olaopa suggests, based on his ethnomedical, explanatory, and health promotion model, that students of health-related disciplines and related fields should be encouraged to study indigenous knowledge and the associated traditional medicine. They might also benefit from an internship in a rural community where traditional medicine is used. This, he suggests, could help “remove the various misgivings, misconceptions, and prejudices against traditional medicines and practices.”

Olaopa, O.R. (2020) ‘Harnessing African indigenous knowledge for managing the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa’, Int. J. Technological Learning, Innovation and Development, Vol. 12, No. 4, pp.267–290.

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Water

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Research pick: A case of whiskey during covid - "From grain to glass to COVID-19"

A case study of a US whiskey company examines the business operations from grain to glass with particular focus on the company’s downstream supply chain and how the global coronavirus pandemic has affected risks, efficiencies, and modes of distribution.

Angelyn Bidlack, Jenny Fisher, Lascelles Hussey, Alyssa Rudner, and Janaina Siegler of the Lacy School of Business at Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA, explain how the company Midwest Whiskey was established by partners in 2014 who had left their previous day jobs to pursue this new business venture. Their ethos was to create and market a line of inexpensive, whiskeys produced entirely within Indiana, from grain to glass. Bourbon whiskey is legally required to be derived from at least 51% corn. Given that Indiana is the fifth biggest corn producer in the USA, it seemed a natural fit.

The company’s success brought challenges for the majority shareholder Casey Dixon as did grain storage and efforts to expand into bigger wholesale markets with the requisite state and federal laws. At the start of 2020, the company, nevertheless was poised for bigger and better things. New staff had been taken on, aging barrels acquired. Then Covid-19 emerged, rocking almost every industry worldwide. The team discusses the company’s response to the pandemic and how the environment for growth changed significantly through the course of the year.

One avenue of growth is the premium mixer market for home cocktail makers. While mixers are not the core business, they do open up lateral marketing possibilities as well as help raise brand awareness. Other creative marketing and business approaches are discussed in the case study that may well offer lessons to other companies as well as revealing to business students how companies are forced to adapt in the face of adversity.

At the time of writing, the pandemic is anything but over, a future of bustling, thriving restaurants and tasting rooms can be hoped for, but there is a long way to go before our new normal becomes the old normal once more.

Bidlack, A., Fisher, J., Hussey, L., Rudner, A. and Siegler, J. (2020) ‘From grain to glass to COVID-19’, Int. J. Teaching and Case Studies, Vol. 11, No. 4, pp.358–374.

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