30 November 2021

Special issue published: "Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence for Computing And Networking in the Internet of Things"

International Journal of Cloud Computing 10(4) 2021

  • Translation of code mixed language to monolingual languages using rule-based approach
  • Enhancing the operations for integrity check on virtual instance forensic logs using cuckoo filter trees
  • A biometric-based secure, energy efficient, lightweight authentication protocol for wireless body area networks
  • ICU medical alarm system using IoT
  • An integrated principal component and reduced multivariate data analysis technique for detecting DDoS attacks in big data federated clouds
  • Smart scheduling on cloud for traffic signal to emergency vehicle using IoT
  • Hybrid privacy preserving clustering for big data while ensuring security

New Editor for International Journal of Reliability and Safety

Associate Prof. Yiliu Liu from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Norway has been appointed to take over editorship of the International Journal of Reliability and Safety.

Research pick: Phinding and philtering the phish - "Phishing website detection method based on CNAIR framework"

Most of us will have received a scam email that looks like it has come from our bank or an online store or other company or organization. They can look genuine but usually hidden within are malicious links that once clicked take you to a third-party server that either steals login details you enter or drops malware on your device. These are phishing emails. The deliberate misspelling of “fish” with a “ph” is related etymologically to the term “phreak” which is an abbreviated portmanteau from the 1960s meaning “phone freak” and alluding to a person who hacked phone systems for pleasure or personal gain.

Some phishing emails may have poor grammar and spelling are rarely perfect or the layout may be askew and not exactly what one would expect from a legitimate organization. Such phishing attacks are relatively easy to spot, but the close-to-perfect ones may well not be and protective systems on one’s device are then needed to avoid the user being duped into clicking a malicious link.

Writing in the International Journal of Information Privacy, Security and Integrity a team from China has developed a deep learning-based framework that might be used to detect phishing websites. Huanhuan Wang, Debin Cheng, and Hui Peng of the Fifth Electronic Research Institute of Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in Guangzhou, China, explain how their framework can extract descriptive and statistical features from a website and then determine whether these features are indicative of a phishing website. The detection of such sites could then be used in online security research and perhaps even be incorporated into browsers to protect unwary users from being phished.

The team has tested their system against two databases, one containing the website address (uniform resource locators, URLs) of 10000 legitimate and otherwise benign sites and 13000 URLs found in the PhishTank public dataset of sites that have previously been themselves hooked and identified as malicious. The team has demonstrated a detection accuracy of almost 99 percent, which they say is a significant improvement on earlier phish detection methods. The approach they have taken might also point to new areas of research in this area and the development and optimization of detection systems that can be incorporated into security systems for mobile and desktop devices.

Wang, H., Cheng, D. and Peng, H. (2021) ‘Phishing website detection method based on CNAIR framework’, Int. J. Information Privacy, Security and Integrity, Vol. 5, No. 1, pp.18–35.

Special issue published: "Advances in Engineering and Nanotechnology"

International Journal of Nanotechnology 18(11/12) 2021

  • Application of optical techniques in sedimentation study of magnetorheological fluids
  • Application of hybrid Taguchi-GRA-PCA and ANOVA in optimisation of deformation properties of sandwich structure
  • Experimental investigations on direct absorption solar flat plate collector using Al2O3 nanofluid
  • Influence of materials' hardness and operating parameters on the surface roughness during reciprocating sliding
  • Environmental impact on the use of diesel waste plastic oil nano-additive blends in a DI diesel engine
  • Performance improvement of variable compression ratio diesel engine using H2O2 as fuel additive
  • On the shape based SPR of silver nanostructures
  • Optimisation and statistical analysis of performance parameters for bio-oil production from eucalyptus leaves using fast pyrolysis
  • Design of vertical fire tube boiler using IBR code and FEA analysis
  • A simulation-based study on the disc brake temperature distribution for optimising hole geometry

29 November 2021

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Information Privacy, Security and Integrity

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Information Privacy, Security and Integrity are now available here for free:
  • Connected car and CO2 emission overview: solutions, challenges and opportunities
  • Security analysis for intelligent urban freight transport
  • Survey: secure opportunistic routing protocols in wireless networks
  • Differential cryptanalysis on DES cryptosystem up to eight rounds

26 November 2021

Free open access article available: "Relevance of single channel signals for two-colour pyrometer process monitoring of laser powder bed fusion"

The following paper, "Relevance of single channel signals for two-colour pyrometer process monitoring of laser powder bed fusion" (International Journal of Mechatronics and Manufacturing Systems 14(2) 2021), is freely available for download as an open access article.

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

Special issue published: "Progress in Sensing, Monitoring, Control and Digital Twin in Additive Manufacturing" (includes free Open Access article)

International Journal of Mechatronics and Manufacturing Systems 14(2) 2021

  • Analysis of the effects of operator experience and learning in laser sintering
  • Relevance of single channel signals for two-colour pyrometer process monitoring of laser powder bed fusion [OPEN ACCESS]
  • Selective laser melting of titanium alloys: effect of processing parameters on microstructure and mechanical properties
  • Physics-based simulation models for digital twin development in laser powder bed fusion
  • Investigating mechanical properties of 3D printed parts manufactured in different orientations on multijet printer

Free open access article available: "Reorganisation success in bankruptcy: the role of entrepreneur experience, characteristics and commitment"

The following paper, "Reorganisation success in bankruptcy: the role of entrepreneur experience, characteristics and commitment" (International Journal of Entrepreneurial Venturing 13(5) 2021), is freely available for download as an open access article.

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


Research pick: Developing a liquid radio antenna - "Analysis of conical liquid antenna for wide range of frequencies"

Solid, metal antennae have been the standard in a wide range of technologies for decades, including a wide variety of radio communications and scanning such as radar. However, research into the concept of liquid antennae was discussed in the 1990s. A liquid antenna would comprise a lightweight and perhaps collapsible container that could be erected into the appropriate shape and filled with a suitable liquid. Water, saltwater, ionic liquids, and other substances have been investigated over the years.

New work in the International Journal of Ultra Wideband Communications and Systems offers a novel design of a conical structure for a liquid antenna that can operate effectively across a wide frequency range. The antenna is compact and cost effective the team reports as well as offering a simple way to reconfigure it for different applications, something that is not easy with a solid metal antenna. Conical antennae are usually the form required for radio-frequency broadcast.

S. Roopa and E. Kiran Kumar of the Siddaganga Institute of Technology Tumakuru, in Karnataka, India, have demonstrated proof of principle for their new type of liquid antenna using pure water, seawater, and glycerin as the liquid component. The device can achieve voltage standing wave ratio of 1 to 2 over a frequency range of 300 to 850 megahertz, the team reports. They add that the gain achieved in experimental results was 2 dBi, which is comparable with their simulations in which the gain is around 1.9 dBi. The operating frequency is adjusted by changing the height of liquid within the cone.

The team concludes that their proposed antenna is simple, low cost, and covers a wide range of frequencies, which can be tuned easily. The radio emission from the antenna is omnidirectional and the fact that it is transparent gives it an additional attractive design feature for the development of wireless applications. In addition, the antenna is 30 to 40 percent shorter than its equivalent metal antenna.

Roopa, S. and Kiran Kumar, E. (2021) ‘Analysis of conical liquid antenna for wide range of frequencies’, Int. J. Ultra Wideband Communications and Systems, Vol. 4, Nos. 3/4, pp.197–204.

25 November 2021

Special issue published: "Modern Research, Design and Implementation in High/Wide and Ultrawide Band Antennas and Propagation"

International Journal of Ultra Wideband Communications and Systems 4(3/4)

  • Integrated multipath routing protocol for well-organised route selection in heterogeneous wireless networks
  • Remote monitoring of indoor/outdoor movement in epidemiological situations utilising UWB transceivers
  • Optimised floating point arithmetic-based QR decomposition for wireless communication systems
  • Trust aware IoT enhanced B-tree node authentication for secured 5G wireless communication
  • Design and analysis of capacitive RF MEMS switch with step structure and meander spring for cellular communication
  • Enhanced energy and channel aware load balancing AOMDV protocol for efficient packet transmission in MANET
  • An experimental analysis of image extract algorithm in UWB communication medium to make a smart pesticide sprayer for cassava agriculture crops
  • FPGA implementation of polar codes for 5G eMBB control channels
  • Detection and localisation of cars in indoor parking through UWB radar-based sensing system
  • Cluster-based wireless sensor network for structural health monitoring system
  • Analysis of conical liquid antenna for wide range of frequencies

Research pick: Understanding the hive mind - "User participation behaviour in crowdsourcing initiatives: influencing factors, related theories and incentive strategies"

Crowdsourcing is a method of problem solving that taps the intellectual potential and skills of a large number of people simultaneously, commonly by using the tools of social media and the internet. New research published in the International Journal of Ad Hoc and Ubiquitous Computing has investigated this phenomenon from the perspective of the various influencing factors and incentive strategies used to make crowdsourcing work the most effectively.

Xu Zhang, Zhanglin Peng, Qiang Zhang, Xiaonong Lu, and Hao Song of the School of Management at Hefei University of Technology in China, explain how crowdsourcing has been used in many different settings by companies, organizations, and innovators around the world. For instance, it has been used to guide the development of new products, it has been used in citizen science and data collection, to provide fodder for machine learning applications, the testing of new software (often referred to alpha and beta testing, it has even been used in political rallying and in the creative world to nudge performers and producers in a particular artistic direction or to specific places.

The team writes how crowdsourcing was defined in 2006 by Jeff Howe as “the act of taking a task that is traditionally performed by an employee and outsourcing it to a large and undefined crowd of individuals through an open call.”

The team has reviewed the research literature in this field and found that there are numerous factors influencing the behaviour of individuals in the “crowd”, including enjoyment and fun, monetary reward, peer recognition, skill improvement, self-marketing, a sense of belonging, work autonomy, altruism, and task complexity.

Their work offers related behavioural theories to explain the relationship between those influencing factors and how the crowd behaves when presented with a particular problem to be solved. They highlight the incentive strategies that might be used, from the perspective of both the requester and also the available crowdsourcing platforms. Finally, they discuss the current directions being taken by research and highlight new avenues that might be taken to allow the field to mature.

Zhang, X., Peng, Z., Zhang, Q., Lu, X. and Song, H. (2021) ‘User participation behaviour in crowdsourcing initiatives: influencing factors, related theories and incentive strategies’, Int. J. Ad Hoc and Ubiquitous Computing, Vol. 38, Nos. 1/2/3, pp.30–44.

Free open access article available: "Architecture and framework for data acquisition in cloud robotics"

The following paper, "Architecture and framework for data acquisition in cloud robotics" (International Journal of Information Technology, Communications and Convergence 4(1) 2021), is freely available for download as an open access article.

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

24 November 2021

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Information Technology, Communications and Convergence

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Information Technology, Communications and Convergence are now available here for free:
  • Situation-based reply candidate presentation method for mobile phone
  • Correlation-based heuristics and evaluation of existing greedy heuristics for VM allocations in cloud datacentres
  • Intelligent remote health monitoring system
  • School dropout profiling and prediction approach using machine learning

Special issue published: "Convergence Of Soft Computing For Smart Cities"

International Journal of Ad Hoc and Ubiquitous Computing 38(1/2/3) 2021

  • Evaluation of functional maturity for a network information service - design and case analysis
  • Lion plus firefly algorithm for ternary-based anomaly detection in semantic graphs in smart cities
  • User participation behaviour in crowdsourcing initiatives: influencing factors, related theories and incentive strategies
  • GSFI_SMOTE: a hybrid multiclass classifier for minority attack detection in internet of things network
  • Optimisation of K-means algorithm based on sample density canopy
  • Uncertainties evaluation and analysis using quantitative technique for a software project
  • Recent advances in blockchain technology: a survey on applications and challenges
  • Device and method for dynamic image display of financial transaction operation data
  • A machine learning approach for celebrity profiling
  • Computational trust evaluation algorithm for cloud models using fuzzy logic approach
  • Development of image-guided puncture robot used in trigeminal neuralgia treatment
  • A recommendation algorithm based on modified similarity and text content to optimise aggregate diversity
  • An ICT-based solid waste management system for smart cities: a case of municipality in India
  • SHA-AMD: sample-efficient hyper-tuned approach for detection and identification of Android malware family and category
  • A CA-GRU-based model for air quality prediction
  • An SDN-IoT-based secure simulation system for smart cities

New Editor for International Journal of Business and Emerging Markets

Prof. Vincent Charles from CENTRUM PUCP of the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru has been appointed to take over editorship of the International Journal of Business and Emerging Markets.

Research pick: COVID’s effects on control room operators - "The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the psychological fatigue of control room operators in oil, gas and petrochemical industry"

Critical workers across many different sectors and industries from healthcare and education to manufacturing and retail have faced tough times during the many months of the COVID-19 pandemic. New research in the International Journal of Human Factors and Ergonomics, considers the plight of control room operators in the oil, gas, and petrochemical industry and the psychological fatigue many such workers have faced during the pandemic.

Budiyanto Soinangun, Ivan Novendri, Jaka Matsana, Fergyanto E. Gunawan, Muhammad Asrol, and A.A.N. Perwira Redi of the Industrial Engineering Department at Bina Nusantara University in Jakarta, Indonesia, explain how within the petrochemical industry sites have to be kept running continuously and so rely on employees working shifts. However, the emergence of a novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, in late 2019, and the pandemic that arose, meant measures such as social distancing, lockdowns, quarantines, and self-isolation had to be instigated in many parts of the world to slow the spread of the disease. There were significant problems as a result for many sectors, particularly those industries which must be “always-on”.

The team recognised that in such an industry the pandemic may well have serious psychological effects on its workers. As such, they undertook research to measure sleep quality and quantity, cognitive performance, and fatigue incidents among petrochemical workers and associated accidents.

The results show that many control room operators got less sleep during the pandemic and the sleep they experienced was of a lower quality than before COVID-19. The researchers also found that cognitive performance was lower as indicated by an almost 15% increase in the number of alarms triggered on average than prior to the pandemic. Companies that adapted to the so-called “new normal” of the pandemic world saw a gradual fall in the number of incidents and accidents over time, however, as they implemented new control and monitoring measures.

As to the psychological wellbeing of workers, there is a need to implement new measures for them too. Measures that monitor well-being as well as offering counselling with an expert independent third party would improve the situation for over-stressed workers suffering from poor sleep and mental health problems. In addition, companies should offer their workers access to physical exercise equipment, the team suggests.

Soinangun, B., Novendri, I., Matsana, J., Gunawan, F.E., Asrol, M. and Redi, A.A.N.P. (2021) ‘The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the psychological fatigue of control room operators in oil, gas and petrochemical industry’, Int. J. Human Factors and Ergonomics, Vol. 8, No. 4, pp.393–407.

23 November 2021

Research pick: Mindfulness can help you work better in the cold and wet - "The effects of mindfulness and repeated cold exposure on cold tolerance and motor skill performance"

Mindfulness can be used by people who work in extremely cold and wet environments to tolerate low temperatures better and so carry out tasks that require motor skills more effectively, according to research published in the International Journal of Human Factors and Ergonomics.

Commonly, sudden exposure to extreme cold, particularly in wet conditions or following submersion in water, can lead to a cold-shock response. This affects the person’s cardiovascular system, metabolism, and leads to changes in breathing and subsequently hypothermia, which is a serious risk to life. Finding ways to inhibit the cold-shock response could be a lifesaver and so methods for improving cold tolerance and endurance to exposure to cold water are important for workers who need to spend time in cold, wet environments or underwater.

Mindfulness can be described as the practice of deliberately focusing one’s attention on the present moment without evaluation. It is an important component of many spiritual and philosophical approaches to life allowing practitioners. It allows people to concentrate on a particular experience or task in a positive way avoiding the distractions of their natural emotional responses and thought processes that normally arise in a given situation and which can interfere with the experience or task in negative ways. Mindfulness is not just another word for meditation rather it is an approach to focus and concentration that can help people cope or work better in many situations. It can also allow them to enjoy and appreciate their life’s experiences in a clearer way than if they do not focus on the given situation. There is growing clinical evidence that mindfulness can have physical and mental health benefits.

Kaitlin Mugford Heather Barry, Michael King, and Heather Carnahan of Memorial University in St. John’s NL, Canada, and Gal Ziv of The Academic College at Wingate, Netanya, Israel, investigated whether listening to a mindful passage being read could improve a person’s motor performance and cold tolerance in a low-temperature environment. Cold exposure for the participants involved holding their hand in water at a temperature of 2 Celsius while they listened to a mindfulness passage being read. The control group did not have the reading.

After this training period, the team then tested each group of participants for their ability to ensure a cold exposure. They were also tested with a grooved pegboard and knot untying. Both groups performed similarly in the motor tests. However, members of the mindfulness group were able to tolerate exposure to cold much longer than the other participants.

Mugford, K., Barry, H., King, M., Ziv, G. and Carnahan, H. (2021) ‘The effects of mindfulness and repeated cold exposure on cold tolerance and motor skill performance’, Int. J. Human Factors and Ergonomics, Vol. 8, No. 4, pp.408–420.

The following is the mindfulness passage read to one group of participants:

<pre>Please submerge your hand in the water. We will start with a few deep breaths as you experience your first exposure to this water. Breathe in through the nose… out through the mouth. Keep breathing deep into your abdomen. In. Out. Don’t divert your attention from the cold. Be mindful of the cold and accept it. Although it may feel uncomfortable or painful, just keep breathing. In through your nose and out through your mouth. Try to steady your breath. Focus on accepting the sensations that your body is experiencing. Know that what you are feeling is only temporary and it is okay to feel some discomfort. Allow these sensations to happen without reacting to them. Keep your attention on your breath and accept the sensations you are experiencing. Breathe in… and out. Think about the fact that because this is only temporary, you can do this. Remind yourself it is okay. </pre>

22 November 2021

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Modelling, Identification and Control

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Modelling, Identification and Control are now available here for free

  • Kalman filtering linear quadratic regulator for artificial pancreas in type-I diabetes patient
  • Neumann boundary geometric control of a fractional diffusion process
  • Fractal, chaos and neural networks in path generation of mobile robot
  • Backstepping controller design with a quadratic error for a double inverted pendulum
  • A novel sliding mode composite control design for fast time performance of quadrotor UAV
  • Hybrid ANFIS-ant colony based optimisation for quadrotor trajectory tracking control
  • Improving the performance of medical robotic system using H∞ loop shaping robust controller

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Knowledge-Based Development

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Knowledge-Based Development are now available here for free

  • Knowledge-based social innovation for cultural endeavours revitalising urban structures
  • A minimal viable process and tools for massive participation in urban development
  • Optional and necessary activities: operationalising Jan Gehl's analysis of urban space with Foursquare data
  • Implementing social innovation in real contexts
  • Sharing cognitive, emotional and spiritual knowledge within smart and connected communities
  • The role of social innovation for a knowledge-based local development: insights from the literature review

New Editor for International Journal of Islamic Marketing and Branding

Dr. Ahmad Jamal from Cardiff University in the UK has been appointed to take over editorship of the International Journal of Islamic Marketing and Branding.

19 November 2021

Special issue published: "Exploration of Intelligent Techniques for Computer Vision Applications"

International Journal of Intelligent Systems Technologies and Applications 20(2) 2021

  • Investigating the population dynamics of differential evolution algorithm for solving multi-objective RFID reader placement problem
  • Empirical investigations on evolution strategies to self-adapt the mutation and crossover parameters of differential evolution algorithm
  • Trajectory-based fast ball detection and tracking for an autonomous industrial robot system
  • Heuristic hidden Markov model for fuzzy time series forecasting
  • An efficient data hiding technique in image using binary Hamming code along with particle swarm optimisation

Research pick: Emergency management of the pandemic potential of poultry pathogens

Research published in the International Journal of Emergency Management asserts that infectious animal diseases, such as foot and mouth disease and avian influenza, are a significant and perennial problem in the South Korean winter. These diseases affect food production and so food security but also pose a risk to human health when people are in close proximity to such diseases especially when a pathogen mutates into a strain that has pandemic potential.

Kyoo-Man Ha of the Department of Emergency Management at Inje University in Gimhae City, South Korea, explains how better stakeholder management is possible and that this could lead to improved oversight and control of such infectious diseases. Ultimately, there needs to be a shift from an ad hoc approach to emergency disease management, Ha suggests.

Numerous factors, including climate change, globalisation, and bird migration, are involved in the pattern of outbreaks of infectious animal diseases around the world. Some diseases appear on an annual basis and there is in some parts of the world a lack of urgency regarding outbreaks. This lethargy is problematic in that new strains of common pathogens could at any time lead to far greater incidence of disease and so the loss of livestock and poultry. Moreover, neglecting the management of such pathogens might lead to the wider spread of such diseases and the chance emergence of a novel pathogen that leads to human disease.

Ha suggests that all of the stakeholders putatively affected by the impact of foot and mouth disease and avian influenza must play their role in the South Korean farming landscape to address the perennial problems of these diseases. First, central government must coordinate the 18 Korean ministries. Secondly, local governments must consider the local risks, politics, culture, and emergency management. Thirdly, farms need to be redesigned to give livestock and poultry more space. The fourth group of stakeholders, scientists must focus on research and development. And the fifth group, visitors must be aware of disease outbreaks and the hazards.

Ha, K-M. (2021) ‘Management of infectious animal diseases: the Korean experience’, Int. J. Emergency Management, Vol. 17, No. 1, pp.1–16.

18 November 2021

Special issue published: "Environmentally-Benign Solutions"

International Journal of Global Warming 25(3/4) 2021

  • Flowsheet development for the steam gasification of animal manure with subsequent CO2 capturing using CaO: an Aspen Plus® modelling study
  • Effects and critical analysis for emission reduction assessment in the road transportation sector
  • Mitigating global warming in smart energy grids via energy supply security for critical energy infrastructures
  • Techno-economic and environmental aspects of solar driven heating assistance options for residential buildings
  • Sustainable development of Qatar aquifers under global warming impact
  • Sustainable energy use and decarbonisation potential in the Hungarian residential building sector
  • Investigation of energy efficiency and environmental effects on valuation for bulk carriers
  • Prospects of renewable energy penetration to Turkey's electric power grid
  • Assessment of regional climate innovation potential in Hungary
  • Research on carbon productivity of the construction industry in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region using system dynamics model
  • Life cycle assessment of energy-efficient improvement for external walls of hospital building
  • Biochar: a sustainable approach for water stress and plant growth
  • Role of solar indoor cooker with natural circulation in mitigation of carbon emissions
  • Technical review of green roofs in hot arid region: case of Qatar
  • Drive cycle performance analysis for various powertrain alternatives of zero-emission battery electric military vehicles
  • Mitigation of urban air pollution with green vegetation for sustainable cities: a review
  • Investigations on the domestic waste and its impact on human health - case study for Qatar to understand the needs and recommendations

Research pick: Now we’re cooking in the sun - "Role of solar indoor cooker with natural circulation in mitigation of carbon emissions"

Much of the developed world is focused on the conversion of natural resources, such as sunlight, wind, the turning of the tides, waves, and other phenomena into electrical power. However, conversions require sophisticated equipment to allow a device to harness energy from the sun or the wind, for instance, and generate a usable current that can then be used to power another device or charge a battery. Moreover, any energy conversion comes with inherent losses at each stage of the process, which reduces overall efficiency.

Sometimes, a more effective approach to garnering a sustainable energy supply is simply to tap the energy source directly as is the case with rooftop water-heating systems. Similarly, there is no need to convert sunlight into electricity to power a cooker if the sunlight is bright and strong enough to be focused with a parabolic reflector on any food that is to be cooked.

As such, solar cooking is very much a viable zero-carbon and low-pollution option where gas heating or electricity supply is not necessarily available and burning wood would be the usual option in that place. Unfortunately, in rural India, firewood and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cooking are widespread and both can lead to alarming levels of indoor pollution as well as producing large amounts of the greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide. More than three-quarters of households use firewood in rural India and just under one in ten use LPG.

Writing in the International Journal of Global Warming, a team from the Renewable Energy Center at Manipal Academy of Higher Education in Manipal, Karnataka, India, explain their design of a novel solar cooking – a thermosyphon heat transport device. Their system works far more efficiently than a simple closed thermosyphon. Coupled with a hob-top parabolic dish reflector, the new design allows highly efficient solar-powered cooking and if adopted widely might bite into millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide emitted by cooking with firewood or LPG.

Of course, such a solar-powered cooking system can only be active during daylight hours when the sun’s intensity is sufficient to generate enough heat in the pan.

Varun, K., Arunachala, U.C. and Manjunath, M.S. (2021) ‘Role of solar indoor cooker with natural circulation in mitigation of carbon emissions’, Int. J. Global Warming, Vol. 25, Nos. 3/4, pp.440–460.

17 November 2021

Special issue published: "Policy for Sustainable Development in Emerging Economies"

International Journal of Economic Policy in Emerging Economies 14(5/6) 2021

  • Measuring the impact of sustainable banking variables in creating business opportunities
  • An analysis of financial literacy level of households of Punjab and Haryana state
  • Challenges and solution for renewable energy development in Uttarakhand, India
  • Social inclusion from development perspective: towards theoretical synthesis and policy framework
  • Attitude of beneficiaries towards financial literacy initiatives taken up by private sector banks for sustainable development with special reference to Rajasthan
  • Impact of sentiments on stock returns, volatility and liquidity
  • Climate finance: a systematic literature review
  • Financial development and economic growth: the inflation threshold effect
  • Causal nexus between sustainable economic growth and economic and institutional determinants: an advanced panel data estimation for BRICS countries

Research pick: Let’s get physical - "Determining habits in physical activity and diet"

Physical activity and diet are inextricably linked to health and life expectancy. The subtleties of the connections emerge from scientific research regularly and new messages for public health do change from time to time as a result. New work published in the International Journal of Behavioural and Healthcare Research has investigated the potential of an optimal range for physical activity- and diet-related habits. This cut-off point could be used to determine the effectiveness of fitness and lifestyle programmes in clinical and healthcare settings.

Nadja Walter of the Institute of Sport Psychology and Physical Education at Leipzig University, Germany, explains that developing good activity and dietary habits is important to health and wellbeing. Clinicians and healthcare workers hoping to advise people in this regard often use the Self-Report Habit Index (SRHI). Unfortunately, current practice does not embed a pre-defined cut-off value and so there is no way to measure how effective that index is when a health programme is in place.

In attempting to define such a cut-off, Walter has discovered that SHRI scores and optimal levels are different for physical activity as opposed to dietary habits. “The present study is among the first to systematically investigate the strength of daily or weekly physical activity and diet habits using the SRHI, and to calculate an optimal range,” Walter writes. The findings could be used practically in intervention studies aimed at helping people develop healthy eating and activity habits. “Against this background, discussions of frequency and physical activity habits should be pursued further,” she adds.

She adds that the optimal ranges she has defined might also be used in behaviour-change programmes other than those concerned with physical activity and diet, such as reducing unhealthy behaviour such as smoking, alcohol consumption, drug use, and addressing eating disorders.

Walter, N. (2021) ‘Determining habits in physical activity and diet’, Int. J. Behavioural and Healthcare Research, Vol. 7, No. 4, pp.289–303.

16 November 2021

Special issue published: "Data Analytics in Engineering and Management"

International Journal of Data Science 6(2) 2021

  • Estimation of success of entrepreneurship projects with data mining
  • A theoretical study on the ways of analysing electroencephalography in marketing research
  • Mathematical model structures of supply chain optimisation studies and an innovative approach proposal
  • A study on severity of traffic accidents using road, weather and time characteristics
  • Effects of discount policies on economic order quantity and total cost for perishables: a case study

Research pick: If we couch scientific misconduct as social misconduct the wider effects can be seen more clearly

We all live and work in a scientific world, even those who perceive their realm to be within the arts and humanities. At no time is this more apparent than at the height of a global pandemic. The impact of science on our lives and the environment are profound given that the technology wrought by our scientific understanding of the world around us can be used in a positive way or abused. As such, science is deeply embedded in our society.

Writing in the International Journal of Sustainable Development, Juliette Rouchier of the Université Paris-Dauphine, France, argues that the notion of scientific misconduct, once seemingly distant from our everyday lives, is in fact far more relevant and is, in reality, social misconduct. The consequences of such misconduct however it might be labelled are therefore critically important to society.

Rouchier points out that scientists might imagine they benefit from an “aura of neutrality and reason”. In this sense, they can express their negative personal opinions in public as if those opinions are somehow relevant constructed knowledge. This can have serious consequences when an issue being discussed is as important as pollution, which has a significant political component that somehow lies outside the scientific realm. This is despite the fact that the technologies involved and their effects require a fundamental scientific understanding without which the technologies would not exist, our picture of the environment and the effects of pollution, and the new technologies to address the problem would not exist.

Fake news and misinformation emerging from the realm of science must be seen as a social problem and addressed as such. If falsehoods are being spread by individuals for political, economic, or other gain, then those disseminating such lies must be seen as being involved in scientific conduct of a most serious nature. The public needs to trust science, its processes and the knowledge it generates. Without that trust, the nuance of what is meant by a scientific theory is lost and those who take an anti-scientific stance on many topics is reinforced to the detriment of us all and to the detriment of the world in which we live.

Rouchier, J. (2021) ‘Scientific misconduct as social misconduct’, Int. J. Sustainable Development, Vol. 24, No. 2, pp.141–154.

Special issue published: "Energy as an Evolutionary Basis for Dialogic International Policies"

International Journal of Global Energy Issues 43(5/6) 2021

  • Prospects for employment in renewable energy in Ukraine, 2014-2035
  • Current issues for the Ukrainian power system on its pathway towards energy transition
  • How to promote renewable energies to the public sphere in Eastern Europe
  • Financing sustainable development: the case of renewable energies in Tunisia
  • The failure of Deep Decarbonising of Europe (DDE) by 2050 in line with the Paris agreement: a losing player analysis
  • Contemporary architecture with glass facades facing the energy efficiency of solar materials (VPV-IGU) in the hot climate of the Saharan region - a case study in Bechar
  • SYNOPTICS, Part III: application of the Synoptics model for the social analysis of mass formations and organisations
  • Stability, control and modelling analysis of micro-grid connected to the wind turbine with optimised boosted converter
  • Prospects and roadmaps for harvesting solar thermal power in tropical Brunei Darussalam
  • SYNOPTICS, PART IV: application of the Synoptics model for the social analysis of territorial and functional compound systems
  • Major obstacles for implementing renewable energies in Ukraine
  • Asia-Africa energy development cooperation: double coincidence of interests
Additional papers
  • Energy data temporal information index algorithm based on critical point dynamic adjustment
  • Research on financial stochastic dynamic model of energy market based on MCMC simulation

12 November 2021

Special issue published: "Managing Digitalisation: How Entrepreneurship is Involved"

International Journal of Technology Management 87(1) 2021

  • Digitalisation in transport and logistics: a roadmap for entrepreneurship in Russia
  • Exploring entrepreneurial genetic code of smart cities
  • Gendered linguistic structures and the innovation performance of new ventures in emerging countries: the moderating effects of digitalisation and the entrepreneurial ecosystem
  • How women entrepreneurs manage the digitalisation of their business initiating a dialogue between the entrepreneurship as practice approach and the theory of bricolage

Research pick: Online tools power students and young jobseekers in a pandemic - "Healing from COVID-19 through digital platforms: exploring the influences of this pandemic on students and jobseekers in India"

During the COVID-19 pandemic, social distancing and lockdown measures have been implemented at various times and to different degrees in order to protect people from the spread of the coronavirus. These measures have meant that young students and jobseekers have been pushed towards a digital world of learning and work in unprecedented ways. There is varying evidence of the pros and cons of this situation and the impact on young people.

Digital platforms became essential during the pandemic across many walks of life not least education. Kuldeep Jayaswal and D.K. Palwalia of Rajasthan Technical University in Kota, India, go further and suggest that part of the role is in societal “healing”. Moreover, the pandemic has boosted our ability to get more out of these digital platforms in unprecedented ways that had not been touched on in the pre-pandemic world.

Of course, the tragedy of the pandemic is widespread illness and death from which we cannot escape. There have also been massive detrimental effects on society, economics, and the environment too. The new normal has however wrought new approaches and creativity in education and work that may emerge as positives in the post-pandemic world. Moreover, the lessons we have learned will hopefully come into play when must face the next inevitable global crisis.

Jayaswal, K. and Palwalia, D.K. (2021) ‘Healing from COVID-19 through digital platforms: exploring the influences of this pandemic on students and jobseekers in India’, Int. J. Smart Technology and Learning, Vol. 2, No. 4, pp.235–249.

11 November 2021

Special issue published: "Simple Mechanical Models for Unreinforced Historic Masonry Constructions – Part 1" (includes free OA article)

International Journal of Masonry Research and Innovation 6(4) 2021

  • Analytical modelling for the seismic assessment of pointed arches supported by buttresses
  • Experimental and numerical analysis of a scaled dry-joint arch on moving supports
  • Stability and load-bearing capacity assessment of a deformed multi-span masonry bridge using the PRD method [OPEN ACCESS]
  • A new membrane equilibrium solution for masonry railway bridges: the case study of Marsh Lane Bridge
  • Structural analysis of historical masonry churches: the case study of S. Giuseppe delle Scalze (Naples, Italy)
  • Considerations about the static response of masonry domes: a comparison between limit analysis and finite element method

Special issue published: "Smart Manufacturing"

International Journal of Manufacturing Technology and Management 35(3) 2021

  • Dynamic cost evaluation method of intelligent manufacturing enterprises based on DEA model
  • Monitoring of data grabbing by multi-sensor parallel robot based on visual screening
  • An obstacle avoidance trajectory control method for intelligent robot based on K decision tree
  • Research on distributed logistics scheduling method for workshop production based on hybrid particle swarm optimisation
  • Research on the invulnerability of cross-border bidirectional logistics network in e-commerce supply chain
  • Economic benefit evaluation modelling of intelligent manufacturing enterprises based on entropy value method

Special issue published: "Internationalisation of Family Business Firms"

International Journal of Business and Globalisation 29(3) 2021

  • What encourages the Indian family small and medium enterprises to internationalise?
  • Reliance: a success story in international refinery sector
  • Born global family firms: a multiple case study
  • Internationalisation of family enterprises: the role of entrepreneurial orientation and international growth orientation
Additional papers
  • 'The influence of selected factors on online shopping behaviour': a study with respect to Kottayam district
  • Enhancing domestic savings mobilisation in Ghana: does religion matter?
  • The extent of use of social media networks by the female entrepreneurs in Jordan: empirical study
  • Entrepreneurship activities to develop socioeconomic status of self-help groups in the Bhiwani District of Haryana

Research pick: Leading buyers by using scent marketing for a more emotional purchase - "Pleasant aromatic experiences through use of scent marketing"

Our sense of smell is an incredibly powerful target for marketing of everything from baked goods to new cars. Research published in the International Journal of Technology Transfer and Commercialisation has looked at how brand recognition are linked to human emotions and behaviour in a retail setting when deliberately placed ambient odours are present.

Rupa Rathee and Pallavi Rajain of the Deenbandhu Chhotu Ram University of Science and Technology in Haryana, India, used non-probability sampling to analyse the results from a questionnaire. The basic conclusion is that emotion and behaviour are well correlated with brand recognition associated with an odour. Moreover, scent marketing positively affects purchasing behaviour especially when an emotional component is present.

Marketing often talks about attracting eyeballs, to advertising, displays, and products. However modern consumers have grown jaded and cynical and are not so easily distracted by the visual. However, the new research hints at a different strategy where potential buyers if they cannot be drawn by a visual feast to a purchase might instead be led by the nose. Other researchers have previously noted how scent marketing can draw a customer to a product and at the same time influence their perception, judgement, and behaviour, in ways that conventional marketing cannot.

The key to exploiting this notion of scent marketing will be to create a brand memory effect associated with a particular odour, the team’s research suggests. The use of scent must be appealing rather than appalling given just how strong the connection between olfaction and emotion can be. The findings are, one might say, nothing to be sniffed at.

Rathee, R. and Rajain, P. (2021) ‘Pleasant aromatic experiences through use of scent marketing’, Int. J. Technology Transfer and Commercialisation, Vol. 18, No. 3, pp.320–333.

10 November 2021

Special issue published: "Innovative Business and Management Approaches to Meet The Challenges of a Volatile Global Environment"

Global Business and Economics Review 25(3/4) 2021

  • Indicators and criteria for efficiency and quality in public hospitals: a performance evaluation model
  • The contribution of a supplier of the food and beverage industry to the sustainability of the overall supply chain
  • Academic propaganda in international education: detection, remedy and conceptualisation
  • Transfer of training: an effective tool of knowledge application
  • The relationship between social capital, knowledge sharing and trust: a study between baby boomers, X and Y generations
  • Humour use in the workplace: a key to achievements or a Trojan horse of harassment?
  • Networked business incubators: a systematic literature review
  • Big data firms and information privacy
  • Impact investment effects on sustainable development in BRICS countries
Additional papers
  • Analysing time-frequency relationship between COVID-19 and FII trading activities using wavelet coherence analysis
  • A meta-analysis of the role of working capital management on firm profitability

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Emergency Management

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Emergency Management are now available here for free:
  • Search and rescue mission teaming lessons from the 13 trapped inside a Thai cave
  • Knowledge, experience and preparedness: factors influencing citizen decision-making in severe weather situations
  • Social vulnerability determinants of individual social capital for emergency preparedness
  • Twitter as a communication tool in the Germanwings and Ebola crises in Europe: analysis and protocol for effective communication management
  • Investigating causal relationship of disaster risk reduction activities in the Indian context

Special issue published: "Exergetic Solutions for Better Environment"

International Journal of Exergy 36(2/3/4) 2021

  • Thermo-hydraulic and exergy analysis of parabolic trough collector with wire matrix turbulator: an experimental investigation
  • Design and comparative analysis of a geothermal energy supported plant for tri-generation purposes
  • Potential energy optimisation in a domestic air to water heat pump
  • A sustainable PV-powered energy retrofit modelling to achieve net ZEB in churches: a simulation study for San Marcello Al Corso
  • Exergy analyses of a tunnel furnace and a tunnel dryer
  • Influence of boundary conditions on the exergetic performance of the combination of a thermal energy storage system and an organic Rankine cycle
  • Thermo-environmental analysis and performance comparison of solar assisted single to multi-generation systems
  • Exergy analysis of a biogas-diesel fuelled dual fuel engine
  • Exergy and CO2 emission analysis of rotary hearth furnace-electric arc furnace routes of steelmaking
  • Influence of orifice in entropy generation and exergy analysis under transient condition for large diameter natural circulation loops
  • Comparative exergetic, economic and exergoeconomic analyses of a hybrid cascade refrigeration system using ammonia-propane, propane-propylene and isobutane-propane refrigerant pairs
  • An experimental study on gas-to-liquids and biogas dual fuel operation of a diesel engine
  • Numerical analysis of a hybrid thermal energy storage system using thermochemical and phase change material for constant, low temperature applications
  • Evaluation of the efficiency of the dryers in thermoplastic vulcanisate extrusion production lines with the energy and exergy analysis method
  • 4-E analysis of an ammonia-water mixture-based automobile's air conditioning system assisted by exhaust gas and solar energy
  • Techno-economic analysis of a 500 MWe supercritical coal-based thermal power plant with solar assisted MEA-based CO2 capture
  • Evaluation and comparison of exergy-based resource consumption for fly ash utilisation in a cement clinker production system and landfill disposal

Research pick: Governments need to pay attention to ensure their citizens safety during a pandemic - "Spread of COVID-19 and citizens’ behaviour: a comparison of importance-compliance analyses among Bangladeshis and Malaysians"

A new study in the International Journal of Behavioural and Healthcare Research, looks at how the citizens of two different countries responded to and complied with the rules of the “new normal” that their respective governments enforced in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Md. Mahbubar Rahman of the University of Rajshahi in Bangladesh, Rafikul Islam of the International Islamic University Malaysia in Selangor, Malaysia, and Md. Shahed Mahmud of the Mawlana Bhashani Science and Technology University, in Tangail, Bangladesh, explain that nations around the globe responded to the emergence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and the ensuing COVID-19 pandemic in very different ways. Their success in controlling the spread of the virus was therefore very different.

How well citizens complied with the rules and regulations also varied considerably from country to country and so too the impact of the virus on each nation and its citizens. The present research looks at the perception of citizens in Bangladesh and Malaysia and their compliance with those rules in their respective nations. Fundamentally, the team found that it must be the job of the government to ensure that their citizens comply fully with the safety rules during a pandemic to prevent the wider spread of the disease and consequent morbidity and mortality associated with infection.

The research focused on the national responses during the first wave of the pandemic following the identification of the disease in late 2019 and its spread through the first half of 2020. The subsequent period when a lot more was known about how the disease spreads, its effects, how it might be treated, and the development of vaccines put the world on a different footing when the second wave of infections arose. Governments and citizens must learn the lessons the pandemic and our response to it have offered us nevertheless. This will be no truer than when another emergent virus appears and brings us a putative new pandemic.

Rahman, M.M., Islam, R. and Mahmud, M.S. (2021) ‘Spread of COVID-19 and citizens’ behaviour: a comparison of importance-compliance analyses among Bangladeshis and Malaysians’, Int. J. Behavioural and Healthcare Research, Vol. 7, No. 4, pp.264–288.

9 November 2021

Special issue published: "Digital Transformation in the Public Sector"

International Journal of Public Sector Performance Management 8(3) 2021

  • Decision support system for flood risk assessment and public sector performance management of emergency scenarios
  • AI transformation in retail sectors
  • Promoting digital innovation in the public sector: managerial and organisational insights from a case study
  • Feasibility of conventional neural networks for content-based image retrieval in big data
  • Architecture and use cases of digital twins towards smart manufacturing
  • Constructing a corporate bankruptcy prediction model for the Indian steel industry
Additional paper
  • Project management in a public transformation change process

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Big Data Intelligence

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Big Data Intelligence are now available here for free:
  • Improving collaborative filtering's rating prediction coverage in sparse datasets by exploiting the 'friend of a friend' concept
  • Combining the richness of GIS techniques with visualisation tools to better understand the spatial distribution of data - a case study of Chicago City crime analysis
  • Uncovering data stream behaviour of automated analytical tasks in edge computing
  • A survey of computation techniques on time evolving graphs

Research pick: Find out how an antibiotic acts as an antiviral hitting the COVID-19 virus with a three-pronged attack - "Conformers of a novel lipopeptide antibiotic, Kannurin inhibits SARS-Cov2 replication via interfering with RNA-dependent-RNA polymerase activation and function"

New research published in the International Journal of Computational Biology and Drug Design describes a novel lipopeptide antibiotic that can inhibit the replication of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19. The compound, known as Kannurin, interferes with RNA-dependent-RNA polymerase activation and function, the researchers explain.

H. Shabeer Ali of the Division of Molecular Parasitology and Immunology at the CSIR-Central Drug Research Institute, in Lucknow, Uttarpradesh, India, and P. Prajosh and K. Sreejith of the Department of Biotechnology and Microbiology at Kannur University, in Kerala, and M. Divya Lakshmanan of the Molecular Biology Division at the Yenepoya Research Centre at Yenepoya (Deemed to be University), in Deralakatte, Mangalore, explain that the key component non-structural protein 12, nsp12, of the coronavirus is a primary target for pharmaceutical intervention in the treatment of COVID-19.

The team has undertaken computer-based, in silico, experiments with the known broad-spectrum antibiotic Kannurin against the virus. They explain that the cyclic form of this drug interacts with the amino acid residues Phe 407, Leu 544, and Lys 511 which are present in the “finger” subdomain of the nsp12 protein. It is this interaction, which blocks the natural binding of nsp7 and nsp8 cofactors and so inhibits and ultimately inactivates viral activity and replication.

An additional mode of action related to that exploited by the well-known antiviral, Remdesivir, was also identified by the team for the lipopeptide. The second mechanism involves an interaction with the amino acid residue Arg 555 in the viral protein’s “palm” subdomain cavity and the linear form of Kannurin. A double mode of action could well offer a more potent attack on the virus. Importantly, from the point of view of antiviral mechanisms, Kannurin is not acting as an analogue of a natural nucleotide to carry out its blocking task. Indeed, Kannurin also has surfactant properties and can perturb cell membranes, which means it can interfere with the initial viral attachment to the body’s cells and so block entry, so this drug, in effect has a three-pronged attack on the virus.

“We propose that biomolecules such as lipopeptides offer enormous structure modification possibilities to make them suitable therapeutic candidates especially in the context of a pandemic like COVID-19,” the team writes. As such, this approach could help us address the pandemic threat when yet another novel coronavirus emerges and medicine needs new pharmaceutical treatments ahead of the development of a suitable and widely available vaccine. The present drug, Kannurin, is the prototype for this approach.

Shabeer Ali, H., Prajosh, P., Sreejith, K. and Divya Lakshmanan, M. (2021) ‘Conformers of a novel lipopeptide antibiotic, Kannurin inhibits SARS-Cov2 replication via interfering with RNA-dependent-RNA polymerase activation and function’, Int. J. Computational Biology and Drug Design, Vol. 14, No. 4, pp.251–260.

Free open access article available: "Stability and load-bearing capacity assessment of a deformed multi-span masonry bridge using the PRD method"

The following paper, "Stability and load-bearing capacity assessment of a deformed multi-span masonry bridge using the PRD method" (International Journal of Masonry Research and Innovation 6(4) 2021), is freely available for download as an open access article.

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

Special issue published: "Self-Directed Voluntary Actions and Sustainable Business"

Journal for Global Business Advancement 14(4) 2021

  • The consumption behaviour of beginner voluntary simplifiers: an exploratory study
  • Driving forces affecting the adoption of certifications in the forest-based industry: a systematic literature review
  • A qualitative study and a measurement and evaluation of public relations social media campaigns in Cyprus
  • The behavioural perspective of cause-related marketing: a conceptual framework of behavioural antecedents and outcomes
  • Giving power to those having less power: NGOs, YouTube and virality
  • Employee social media usage in the workplace: internal marketing's new found friend
Additional paper
  • Factors affecting turnover intention of logisticians: empirical evidence from Pakistan

8 November 2021

Special issue published: "Supply Chain Management Innovation as a Driver for Economic Growth"

International Journal of Business and Systems Research 15(6) 2021

  • Laying the foundation for high performance of new digital logistics ventures
  • Rural supply chain management: a multidimensional framework for future research in Europe
  • The antecedents of innovation orientation in public procurement
  • Unmanned aerial vehicles for inventory listing
  • Implementation of game theory for the selection of optimal supply chain management strategies for startups in the electronics sector
  • Analytical and simulation methods for the configuration of an efficient inventory management system in the wholesale industry: a case study
Additional apers
  • Enhancement of product design capability in the high-tech manufacturing industry
  • The drivers of customer satisfaction, trust, commitment, and loyalty among Chinese consumers

5 November 2021

Research pick: The patently obvious need to protect COVID-19 vaccine intellectual property - "COVID-19 vaccines and the role of patents"

Kelli Larson of the School of Business, Law and Entrepreneurship at Swinburne University of Technology in Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia, discusses the role of patents in the context of COVID-19 vaccines in the International Journal of Intellectual Property Management.

Given that the emergent virus SARS-CoV-2, which led to the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic, was only identified in detail in the year 2020, it is a remarkable feat of science and technology that several vaccines against this disease were developed, tested and deployed within a few months. At the time of writing, there were significant gaps in that deployment, particularly in the developing world, but for many nations widespread uptake and vaccination have taken place.

Larson points out that, nevertheless, the development of such vaccines demonstrates what can be achieved by humanity given sufficient incentive, funding and investment focus on science and technology. She adds that the requisite intellectual property laws drive the economic imperative for the necessary innovation. Within the ecosystem of intellectual property law, lies the patent system. This system protects the inventors from rivals simply copying and selling their products as their own and over the coming years predictions of multibillion-dollar turnover for the COVID-19 vaccines are predicted for those companies at the forefront of the effort in this aspect of addressing the pandemic.

While a given patent is created to protect the inventor, it also has an important role to play in driving innovation among other researchers and inventors who might wish to create a rival product and can be inspired by the details given in the original patent. Of course, simply copying a product would be in breach of a patent, but given sufficient clues as to the nature of the original invention new avenues of exploration can be opened up that will ultimately lead to such rival products within a very short time given sufficient investment and ingenuity. As Larson further explains:

“The valuable information disclosed in a patent specification allows for the public dissemination of knowledge to occur, allowing others to learn from current inventions and to build from them to create new and potentially life-saving innovations.”

Larson, K. (2021) ‘COVID-19 vaccines and the role of patents’, Int. J. Intellectual Property Management, Vol. 11, No. 4, pp.486–491.

4 November 2021

Research pick: Making augmented books a reality - "Designing for the next generation of augmented books"

Printed books and electronic books have been read in parallel for many years now. However, a new approach that can combine the best of both worlds is being developed by researchers at the University of Surrey in the form of an a-book, an augmented printed book. The team provides details of their approach to the printed word and how it can be adapted to the digital world in the Journal of Design Research.

The so-called “paperless office” predicted from the very earliest times of the digital age has not, despite the advent of the internet, the emergence of smart devices, and countless other “online” and “onscreen” tools and systems, led us into a world where the printed word has been usurped by modern technology. Indeed, many people still prefer to read from paper products rather than from a screen. As such the paper and the digital world happily exist side by side. However, digital tools have many useful characteristics that are simply not achievable in the world of the printed word, at least until the printed world is augmented.

Emily Corrigan-Kavanagh, Haiyue Yuan, and Miroslaw Bober of the Centre for Vision, Speech and Signal Processing (CVSSP) working with David Frohlich of the Digital World Research Centre (DWRC) explain how they have developed an advanced process for designing a-books that contain multimedia links that can be presented on a nearby device such as a smartphone or tablet. They concede that the concept of augmented paper is not new. However, they add that their approach facilitates mass-market use by using industry-standard publishing software to generate the a-book. A regular smartphone can then be used to scan the printed page for links and play the appropriate digital media.

“The Next Generation Paper process could provide an accessible means of creating a-books, allowing new capabilities in designing for and supporting immersive multimedia reading experiences through emergent multimodal interactions,” the team writes. Early experiments with the workflows used by travel and tourism book publishers offer a positive reflection on how a-books might be developed for that niche, but vast, market, where readers might benefit from access from their printed book to up-to-date information and videos pertinent to their destination as well as reviews and advice on exploration, eating, and entertainment there. Of course, the concept of an a-book could be extended to almost any feasible topic or subject matter one might find in a conventional book.

Corrigan-Kavanagh, E., Frohlich, D., Yuan, H. and Bober, M. (2020) ‘Designing for the next generation of augmented books’, J. Design Research, Vol. 18, Nos. 5/6, pp.356–374.

3 November 2021

Research pick: World wide woof - "Dog breed classification using convolution neural network"

Researchers in India have demonstrated how a convolution neural network can be used to identify dog breeds from photographs. Writing in the International Journal of Swarm Intelligence, the team explains how they have trained their algorithm with more than 15 million images of dogs and used a model that could carry out 22,000 different object classifications on those good resolution images. The system can then correctly identify which of 133 breeds is represented by a new photograph of a dog presented to it with 98 percent accuracy.

The critical difference between the approach taken by Amit Kumar Jakhar and Mrityunjay SinghJaypee of the University of Information Technology in Solan, and Anjani Kumar Shukla of the Bundelkhand Institute of Engineering and Technology, in Jhansi, is that rather than building a recognition system from scratch, the team has pre-trained their model using a vast database.

There is a growing need for the classification and annotation of digital images with a view to improving their curation for a wide range of purposes. A quick way to identify and classify an object in a given image could be used in industry, education, law enforcement, medicine, science, and many other areas. As such, many research teams the world over are investigating different approaches that involve machine learning and what is perhaps whimsically known as artificial intelligence to identify and categorise visual content in an image.

As a demonstration of the power of such systems being able to pick out a specific dog breed with high accuracy from a photograph given the diversity of dogs bodes well for the evolution of this area of research where even more subtle distinctions between similar objects might need to be made.

“In the future, deep learning will create other deep learning models on its own and deep learning models will write codes and surpass human coding capabilities as well and its scope can be extended in medical sciences by analysing the images by deep convolution neural network,” the team concludes.

Jakhar, A.K., Singh, M. and Shukla, A.K. (2021) ‘Dog breed classification using convolution neural network’, Int. J. Swarm Intelligence, Vol. 6, No. 2, pp.130–142.

Free open access article available: "Using the creativity support index to evaluate a product-service system design toolkit"

The following paper, "Using the creativity support index to evaluate a product-service system design toolkit" (Journal of Design Research 18(5/6) 2020), is freely available for download as an open access article.

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


2 November 2021

Free open access article available: "Interrogating the challenges and opportunities for entrepreneurs in the Fourth Industrial Revolution: a developing country perspective"

The following paper, "Interrogating the challenges and opportunities for entrepreneurs in the Fourth Industrial Revolution: a developing country perspective" (World Review of Entrepreneurship, Management and Sustainable Development 17(6) 2021), is freely available for download as an open access article.

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

Inderscience journals to invite expanded papers from 3rd Nordic International Business, Export Marketing, International Entrepreneurship and Tourism Conference 2021 for potential publication

Extended versions of papers presented at the 3rd Nordic International Business, Export Marketing, International Entrepreneurship and Tourism Conference 2021 (6-7 November 2021, Zoom) will be invited for review and potential publication by the International Journal of Export Marketing and Nordic Journal of Tourism.

New Editor for International Journal of Machine Intelligence and Sensory Signal Processing

Dr. Hien Duy Nguyen from La Trobe University in Australia has been appointed to take over editorship of the International Journal of Machine Intelligence and Sensory Signal Processing.

Research pick: The frost report - "Frost forecast – a practice of machine learning from data"

Machine learning can be used to forecast when a geographical region might have a ground frost, according to new work published in the International Journal of Reasoning-based Intelligent Systems. Weather forecasting for a specific phenomenon, such as frosts, is important for farmers, horticulturists, and others who need to know whether there will be a likely risk to crops, such as fruit trees and vines as well as to produce temporarily stored outside. Similarly, road safety might be improved given better forecasts of the likelihood of frost or ice on the roads.

Liya Ding, Yosuke Tamura, Kosuke Noborio, and Kazuki Shibuya of Meiji University in Kawasaki, Japan, have in previous work investigated the cause and effect that inevitably lead to a frost where minute-level data from sensors can be fed to an algorithm and return an accurate forecast. In the current paper, they discuss further their methods for modelling the formation of frost. Among these methods are causal and associative models. They also propose a framework for a hybrid system that can provide a short-term frost forecast over several hours and demonstrate how it might be used to predict whether a region will experience a frost several days in the future.

There are essentially two types of frost. There is frozen dew (water frost). This occurs when water vapour from the atmosphere condenses as dew on a surface, such as a leaf when the temperature drops below the dew point but above water’s freezing point, but the leaf surface temperature then falls below freezing cause the dew to solidify. The second type of frost is depositional frost (white frost) which forms when the surface temperature is initially below freezing and so rather than condensing on a surface and subsequently freezing, water from the atmosphere deposits as a solid on the surface.

Air temperature is usually used as a simple predictor, the team points out, but the spatial resolution of data that might be obtained is not always sufficiently high especially in remote farms. Moreover, temperature is not the only factor that influences whether or not a frost forms. Other parameters such as humidity, wind speed and direction, cloud cover, also have an influence. Ultimately, whether or not a frost occurs can be seen to be an accumulation of factors preceding a given time. Machine learning tools with their ability to assimilate and process data of various sorts and through an algorithm find a likely answer to a given question could offer a more timely forecast.

The team’s new model can offer a minute-by-minute forecast of frost with a 1 to 3 hour alarm to warn anyone who needs advance warning of frost.

Ding, L., Tamura, Y., Noborio, K. and Shibuya, K. (2021) ‘Frost forecast – a practice of machine learning from data’, Int. J. Reasoning-based Intelligent Systems, Vol. 13, No. 4, pp.191–203.

1 November 2021

Special issue published: "Building Intelligent Applications Using Machine Learning – Part 1"

International Journal of Swarm Intelligence 6(2) 2021

  • Analysis of malware by integrating API extracted from dynamic and memory analysis
  • Identification of female genital tuberculosis in infertility using textural features
  • Hyperparameter tuning and comparison of k nearest neighbour and decision tree algorithms for cardiovascular disease prediction
  • Dog breed classification using convolution neural network
  • Automatic speaker verification system using three dimensional static and contextual variation-based features with two dimensional convolutional neural network
  • Solving bulk transportation problem using a modified particle swarm optimisation algorithm
  • Predicting movie genre from plot summaries using Bi-LSTM network
  • Named entity recognition for weather domain text in Hindi

Special issue published: "Sustainable Consumption, Public Policy and Corporate Interventions" [includes free OA article]

World Review of Entrepreneurship, Management and Sustainable Development 17(6) 2021

  • Adoption of sustainable business practices by entrepreneurs: modelling the drivers
  • Analysis of plastic waste management in India: study of law and behaviour
  • Impact of self-control on financial behaviour and financial well-being: empirical evidence from India
  • A study of the socio-economic status of women via self-help groups in the rural areas of Karnal district in Haryana
  • Sustainable behaviour and social media: a study of centennials attitudes towards sustainable advertising
  • Attainment of sustainable development goal of empowerment of women through active employment: a study of the gendered workspace in Delhi
  • Human resource challenges in NGOs: need for sustainable HR practices
  • Impact of environmental knowledge and awareness and openness to experience on green purchase behaviour: a mediation moderation analysis
  • Measurement and reporting of carbon footprints: a step towards sustainability
  • An empirical study on channel attributes of online and offline channels based on Engel-Kollat-Blackwell (EKB) model
  • Interrogating the challenges and opportunities for entrepreneurs in the Fourth Industrial Revolution: a developing country perspective [OPEN ACCESS]

Free open access article available: "Bio-computing approaches and tools for identification of single nucleotide polymorphisms: a comprehensive review"

The following paper, "Bio-computing approaches and tools for identification of single nucleotide polymorphisms: a comprehensive review" (International Journal of Computer Aided Engineering and Technology 15(4) 2021), is freely available for download as an open access article.

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