Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Qualitative Research in Services

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Qualitative Research in Services are now available here for free:

• The influence of social media on destination choice of Omani pleasure travellers
• A critical review analysis about the movie Ratatouille and its impact on culinary tourism
• The role of FDA enforcement in misleading product labelling claims in hospitality
• Perceptions of top management about the total rewards statement: a case study in the retail sector
• A case study of Apple v. Samsung and how big data analytics might have changed the outcome
• How ethics impacts hacktivism: a reflection of events
• Exploring entrepreneurial architecture for the service industries: the emerging role of storytelling in higher education

Special issue published: "Intelligent Sensor Data Processing, Mobile Telecommunications and Air Traffic Control"

International Journal of Reasoning-based Intelligent Systems 12(3) 2020

• Application level extension of bandwidth management in radio access network
• Flight safety sensor and auto-landing system of unmanned aerial system
• Performance of VWM algorithm in the presence of impulse noise and resizing
• Design and optimisation of bio-inspired robotic stochastic search strategy
• Influence of optimal pair-wise SUS algorithm on MU-MIMO-OFDM system performance
• The effect of background and outlier subtraction on the structural entropy of two-dimensional measured data
• A fuzzy decision maker to determine optimal starting time of shiftable loads in the smart grids
• Evaluation research on green degree of equipment manufacturing industry based on improved particle swarm optimisation algorithm
• Network security situation detection of internet of things for smart city based on fuzzy neural network

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

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

• Increased bone conducted vibration reduces motion sickness in automated vehicles
• Exploring the concept of passenger well-being in the context of automated driving
• Application of a sense of coherence-based leadership for productivity and health at Scania
• Factors influencing employees' intention to apply ergonomics at workplaces: a cultural perspective
• A front- and rear-view assistant for older cyclists: evaluations on technical performance, user experience and behaviour
• A theoretical model of human-automation interaction grounded in resource allocation policy during automated driving

Thematic issue published: "Intellectual Property – International Perspectives"

International Journal of Diplomacy and Economy 6(1) 2020

• Connecting and protecting knowledge from different disciplines into sensible toolbox approaches in medium-sized cities: the case of liminal city Cadasters
• Analysis of a Blockchain-based website using the technology acceptance model: the case of Save Ideas
• Improving competitiveness between EU rural regions through access to tertiary education and sources of innovation
• Evaluation of Save-ideas intellectual property protection concept
• What can be learned from Israel by the European Union in the field of innovation?
• Additional papers
• Economic diplomacy in small countries: a four-action plan for the Cayman Islands
• The handling of people smuggling involving foreign nationals as efforts to safeguard Indonesian territories

Special issue published: "Data Science and Applications"

International Journal of Computational Intelligence Studies 9(3) 2020

• Information technology performance management by artificial intelligence in microfinance institutions: an overview
• Intelligent intrusion detection system using multilayer perceptron optimised by genetic algorithm
• QoE in video streaming over ad hoc networks: comparison and analysis of AODV and OLSR routing protocols
• Efficient of bitmap join indexes for optimising star join queries in relational data warehouses

Additional paper

• Application of computational intelligence techniques for internet of things: an extensive survey

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Diplomacy and Economy

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

• Elusive partners: defining Canada's relationship with Brazil in the 21st century
• Feudalism, ethnic conflicts and economic geography: political economy of ECO countries
• Diplomatic engagement with transnational corporations: a path to sustainable governance
• Effects of different types of framing in advertising messages on human decision behaviour
• Transaction costs in international production and trade, and the demand for government intervention: a survey amongst entrepreneurs in the Netherlands

Special issue published: "Advanced Nanoscale Devices/Mems/Nems for Application in Microsystems"

International Journal of Nanoparticles 12(3) 2020

• Wideband piezoelectric energy harvester design using parallel connection of multiple beams
• Vertically-stacked silicon nanosheet field effect transistors at 3 nm technology nodes - simulation at nanoscale
• Line outage identification using comparison of bus power mismatch considering PMU outage
• Comparative analysis of silicon nano tube FET for switching applications using high K and work function modulation

Special issue published: "Financial Management and Market Development in Emerging Economies"

International Journal of Economic Policy in Emerging Economies 13(4) 2020

• Transmission of Japanese government bond and swap markets under negative interest rate policy
• Loan securitisation and accounting measurement methods in banks
• Factors affecting household debt in Thailand
• The antecedents of financial literacy: a study on college students
• The effect of enterprise risk management and sustainability reporting quality on performance: evidence from Southeast Asia countries
• Outcome improvement of vocational training: focusing on the changeover from satisfaction evaluation to trainee evaluation
• Why do the late middle-aged choose self-employment?: determinants of self-employment at older ages
• Research of organisational environment for staff performance improving: case of the small Trade Metal Company, Yekaterinburg, Russian Federation
• Measuring labour contributions in the creation of added value in creative industries
• Testing on productivity transition in Thai economy through the lens of state space model
• Evaluation of perceived socio-cultural context in museum visitor experience: combining the theory of planned behaviour and the norm activation model
• An analysis of factors affecting the company performance of creative footwear industries in Bandung, Indonesia
• Earnings management, earnings quality, and culture: cross-country studies
• Analysis of supply chain advantages in creative businesses: a case study on creative industries in Bandung City, Indonesia

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Computational Intelligence Studies

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

• The connectivity and the static-cost-effective analysis of a shifted completely connected network
• Improving bug report quality by predicting correct component in bug reports
• Robust estimation of IIR system's parameter using modified particle swarm optimisation algorithm
• Scalable keyword-based search and data manipulation on encrypted data
• Suitability and importance of deep learning feature space in the domain of text categorisation
• Design of fractional order PID controller for heat flow system using hybrid particle swarm optimisation and gravitational search algorithm
• Impact of C-factor on PSO for solar PV-based BLDC motor drive control
• Nonlinear time series forecasting using a novel self-adaptive TLBO-MFLANN model

Free open access article available: "Human factors validation for a rheumatoid arthritis auto-injector for the adalimumab biosimilar FKB327"

The following paper, "Human factors validation for a rheumatoid arthritis auto-injector for the adalimumab biosimilar FKB327" (International Journal of Human Factors and Ergonomics 7(2) 2020), is freely available for download as an open access article.

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

Research pick: "India adopting shared ride-hailing in India"

India is the third most polluted nation much of it derived from vehicle exhaust gases. As such, there is an urgent need to address this problem through improved transport infrastructure and technology. One possible way of reducing the number of vehicles on the roads and so lower pollution somewhat is through car-sharing on the daily commute. However, a parallel concept of shared taxi rides might offer a similar reduction in pollution by reducing the need for personal car ownership.

Writing in the International Journal of Business and Emerging Markets, Pooja Goel of the University of Delhi and Piali Haldar of Sharda University, discuss the potential and acceptance of shared ride-hailing in India. Projections suggest that shared hail-riding will account for more than a third of all car miles travelled. This estimate was made prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, which may well curtail the adoption of shared transport in the short term and push this date further into the future.

The present study focuses on the perceived benefits of shared ride-hailing services and shows how educating the public in the benefits of such an approach to transport might nudge them to abandon car ownership or to aspiring to car ownership. Future studies may well highlight the effects of perceived risks and trust on intention to participate in sharing mobility.

Goel, P. and Haldar, P. (2020) ‘Shared ride-hailing service in India: an analysis of consumers’ intention to adopt’, Int. J. Business and Emerging Markets, Vol. 12, No. 3, pp.336–353.

Special issue published: "Machine Learning Algorithms for the Era of Integrated Internet of Things and Mobile Edge Computing"

International Journal of Internet Technology and Secured Transactions 10(5) 2020

• An early prevention method for node failure in wireless sensor networks
• Hybrid machine learning model for healthcare monitoring systems
• Performance evaluation of ICI self-cancellation schemes in fractional wavelet-based OFDM system
• Survey of methodologies for quantifying software reliability
• Prevention of rushing attack in MANET using threshold-based approach
• A queuing theory model for e-health cloud applications
• EC(DH)2: an effective secured data storage mechanism for cloud based IoT applications using elliptic curve and Diffie-Hellman
• Automated intelligent public lighting system

Special issue published: "Empowering the Digital Economy: Opportunities and Challenges"

International Journal of Business Information Systems 35(1) 2020

• Social media practices in Indonesian SMEs
• Online store image effect on perceived risks towards online purchasing behaviour
• Exploring travellers booking factors through online booking agency
• Factors influencing electronic banking continuance usage intention in developing economies: a study of Nigeria
• Enhancing information technology-related skills among accounting practitioners

Special issue published: "Strategic Entrepreneurship in a Vuca Environment: Perspectives from Asian Emerging Economies"

International Journal of Entrepreneurial Venturing 12(4) 2020

• Resource allocation between exploration and exploitation strategies: a case study of a Malaysian SME family firm
• Entrepreneurial marketing orientation of young SME owners in Indonesia
• Global competition strategies for Indonesian SMEs
• Integrated clustering of creative industries to foster innovation: Bandung's creative industries
• State-assisted entrepreneurial ventures: the case of aquacultural development and the seafood industry in Hong Kong

Research pick: The limits on speed reading by RSVP - "Speed reading using Spritz has a cost: limits when reading a short text"

Lots of people can read quickly and then there are readers who have learned techniques known as speed reading. This allows a reader to get through printed text at a much higher than normal rate, sometimes as fast as several hundred words per minute. A collaboration between researchers in Italy and Spain has demonstrated that one particular speed-reading technique has a tradeoff in comprehension at that kind of reading rate when it is sustained at more than 250 words per minute for five minutes or more.

Francesco Di Nocera of the Department of Psychology at Sapienza University of Rome, Italy and colleagues there and in Spain have looked at Spritz an app that allows one to speed read by offering rapid serial visual presentation. They tested readers’ comprehension of a short piece of text when they used Spritz to read at rates of 250, 350, and 450 words per minute.

Given that comprehension is the main goal of reading not simply the need to scan through a stream of words, the team suggests that users should be made aware that speed reading for five minutes or more even at just 250 words per minute for most users will lead to a deficit in their understanding of what they have “read”. Such an insight might also be worth noting among those people using Spritz and similar software on their smartphone or other mobile device who have dyslexia, visual impairment, and other problems so that those people are fully aware of the limitations they might face in understanding a piece of text. Given that the app has been used to address several reading difficulty issues by educators, this work could provide a foundation for improving its use by lots of disparate readers.

Ricciardi, O., Calvani, G., Palmero, F., Juola, J.F. and Di Nocera, F. (2020) ‘Speed reading using Spritz has a cost: limits when reading a short text’, Int. J. Human Factors and Ergonomics, Vol. 7, No. 2, pp.161–173.

Research pick: The cardboard crash helmet - "Biomechanical performance of a bicycle helmet design on a six-year-old head impact protection"

In the age of plastic waste, the environmentally conscious are hoping to replace many of the common materials, such as expanded polystyrene in everyday objects with sustainable and recyclable materials. Now, researchers in China report successful crash tests of a new bicycle safety helmet that uses honeycombed and corrugated cardboard instead of polymer foam to provide protection.

The team describes details of the design, its environmental benefits and the positive results from crash-test simulations. Bei Li, Haiyan Li, Shihai Cui, Lijuan He, and Shijie Ruan of the Centre for Injury Biomechanics and Vehicle Safety, at Tianjin University of Science and Technology in Tianjin provide details in the International Journal of Vehicle Safety.

For youngsters on cycles, accidents often end with a blow to the head, which can be fatal or even lead to life-changing injuries and disability. As such all cyclists, young and old are encouraged to wear a safety helmet that will offer some degree of protection should they fall from their bicycle in any kind of accident and risk an impact to the head. Indeed, children’s head injury and loss of consciousness has been shown to be 63 and 86 percent less, respectively, when helmets are worn.

The team has now demonstrated that the same safety profile might be possible with cardboard crash helmets that have the added benefit of being fabricated from sustainable resources and precluding the addition of yet more plastic waste to the environment.

Li, B., Li, H., Cui, S., He, L. and Ruan, S. (2020) ‘Biomechanical performance of a bicycle helmet design on a six-year-old head impact protection’, Int. J. Vehicle Safety, Vol. 11, No. 3, pp.197–213.

Special issue published: "Recent Trends and Developments of Computer Vision and Image Processing"

International Journal of Computer Aided Engineering and Technology 13(3) 2020

• An approach for infrared image pedestrian classification based on local directional pixel structure elements' descriptor
• An efficient image system-based grey wolf optimiser method for multimedia image security using reduced entropy-based 3D chaotic map
• Calibre fuzzy c-means algorithm applied for retinal blood vessel detection
• Effective image stego intrusion detection system using statistical footprints of the steganogram and fusion of classifiers
• Incipient knowledge in protein folding kinetics states prophecy using deep neural network-based ensemble classifier
• Type-specific classification of bronchogenic carcinomas using bi-layer mutated particle swarm optimisation
• Effective user preference mining-based personalised movie recommendation system
• Steganographic approach to enhance the data security in public cloud

New Editor for International Journal of Behavioural Accounting and Finance

Dr. Matteo Rossi from the University of Sannio in Italy has been appointed to take over editorship of the International Journal of Behavioural Accounting and Finance.

Research pick: Covid and commercial research decline - "COVID-19 effect on the research-innovation-commercialisation phenomena"

Inevitably, the rapid spread of an emergent and potentially lethal virus around the world has led to huge disruption of normal life. With talk of a new-normal in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, we do not yet have any way of knowing what that might be. Work published in the International Journal of Research, Innovation and Commercialisation has looked at the effect of the pandemic on the phenomenon of research innovation and commercialization.

Alberto Boretti of the College of Engineering at Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd University in Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia, explains that the economic downturn we are experiencing as the pandemic circulates will have a detrimental effect on almost all research and development budgets. He suggests that the pharmaceutical industry may well receive special funds given its unique position in being an essential part of the fight against the current pandemic and the need for vigilance and preparedness for the next emergent pathogen. He also suggests that the health sector as well as surveillance and defense, communications, digital markets, and distance education may also see some relief from governments and funding bodies. Investment in almost every other area of R&D is expected to plummet.

With no vaccine expected to be available until at least 2021 and no targeted antiviral drugs, it has been necessary to attempt to control the disease through political and legal controls, such as curfews, halting sports and entertainment, massively reduced air travel, social lockdowns, social distancing, and other measures. However, the so-called “second wave” is becoming apparent in the UK at the time of writing.

Many other nations have not achieved real control of the virus where strict lockdowns were entirely unfeasible for geographical and sociological reasons such as population density, a lack of protective infrastructure, and poor water and food security. Natural disasters, such as forest fires and civil unrest following episodes of police brutality, and the ongoing climate crisis have also been part of the undercurrent of 2020. What impact these have had on the ease with which the virus spreads is for future retrospective studies to determine.

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) has anticipated international commerce to fall by 13% to 32% in 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic disturbs normal economic activity and life around the globe, Boretti says. Regarding these predictions proposed only a few weeks ago, it is likely the impact will be even worse than the worst-case scenario considered, he adds. The sharp decline in gross domestic product (GDP) will have a negative impact on R&D expenditure, as it always does. The opportunity to innovate and commercialize new products will decline enormously. “The future for research in 2020 does not look bright at all,” Boretti concludes.

Boretti, A. (2020) ‘COVID-19 effect on the research-innovation-commercialisation phenomena’, Int. J. Research, Innovation and Commercialisation, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp.73–82.

Research pick: Finding a job on Facebook - "Professional uses of Facebook amongst university students in relation to searching for jobs: an exploration of activities and behaviours"

Independent social media researcher Sophia Alimhas worked with Ibrahim AlShourbaji of the Computer and Network engineering Department at Jazan University in Saudi Arabia to investigate how Facebook is being used in a serious way by students to help them find employment.

Writing in the International Journal of Social Media and Interactive Learning Environments, the team questioned more than 100 students from around the world about their Facebook activity and behaviour with respect to employment. Their statistical analysis of the survey results shows that networking with businesses was the most popular career-related activity carried out by students on Facebook. Moreover, they saw a moderate positive correlation between the amount of time a student would spend on such Facebook networking on a daily basis and the number of job offers they received.

Given that Facebook has well over 2500 million users around the world and hundreds of thousands of companies using it, it is perhaps no surprise that many people are utilizing the service in more serious, professional ways. This new research hints at some of that activity although the small sample size perhaps offers a limited perspective given the much bigger numbers that might be surveyed in future work.

“Research is needed to look into the factors which can affect job searching when students use Facebook or any other social media platforms on a bigger scale. What do career advisors and students think about which types of contacts are the best options for job searching,” the team concludes.

Alim, S. and AlShourbaji, I. (2020) ‘Professional uses of Facebook amongst university students in relation to searching for jobs: an exploration of activities and behaviours’, Int. J. Social Media and Interactive Learning Environments, Vol. 6, No. 3, pp.200–229.

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Data Science

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

• Selection of 'K' in K-means clustering using GA and VMA
• Continuous skyline queries in distributed environment
• Privacy preserving solution to prevent classification inference attacks in online social networks
• Survey on iterative and incremental approaches in distributed computing environment
• An improved algorithm to handle noise objects in the process of clustering

New Editor for Journal for International Business and Entrepreneurship Development

Prof. Zafar U. Ahmed from the Academy for Global Business Advancement in the USA has been appointed to take over editorship of the Journal for International Business and Entrepreneurship Development.

Research pick: A right to water - "The right to water as a fundamental human right in Poland and worldwide"

Access to drinking water is a fundamental human right, argues research published in the International Journal of Human Rights and Constitutional Studies. Jarosław Kowalski of Maria Curie-Sklodowska University, in Lublin, Poland, suggests that climate change, population growth, and burgeoning industrial and agricultural complexes with their growing demands for water mean increasingly that a lack of access to drinking water is an increasingly serious problem for millions of people.

The protection of human rights has been an important problem in the modern world and it is addressed by governments, international organisations, non-governmental organizations, and ordinary people,” explains Kowalski. “Changes in the world trigger changes in the way we think and perceive human rights. The challenges of the 1950s and 1960s are sometimes still relevant, but there are many new issues that we must face today.

Kowalski suggests that we need to enshrine in international and local law the concept of access to drinking water as a fundamental human right. Once it is accepted as a human right, the rules and regulations that affect our response to climate change and how we regulate water usage in industry and agriculture with respect to water supply can be more effectively implemented to ensure that nobody dies of thirst.

Kowalski, J. (2020) ‘The right to water as a fundamental human right in Poland and worldwide’, Int. J. Human Rights and Constitutional Studies, Vol. 7, No. 3, pp.233-246.

International Journal of Services and Standards to invite expanded papers from the Taiwan edition of its annual conference for potential publication

Extended versions of papers presented at the International Journal of Services and Standards Annual Conference (20-21 August 2021, National Yunlin University of Science & Technology, Taiwan) will be invited for review and potential publication by the International Journal of Services and Standards.

Research pick: Collaborative algorithms at the movies - "A collaborative content-based movie recommender system"

Friends’ movie recommendations are welcomed by a lot of film buffs, but sometimes you might want to catch a movie that fits your taste better, based on particular criteria so that you get something that you will almost certainly enjoy. Enter the movie recommendation engine.

Writing in the International Journal of Business Intelligence and Data Mining, researchers from Nigeria have turned to a statistical tool known as Pearson’s correlation coefficient to help them build a new type of movie recommendation engine. Bolanle Adefowoke Ojokoh of the Department of Computer Science at the Federal University of Technology in Akure, Nigeria, and colleagues explain that their approach brings artificial intelligence to personal recommendations. The coefficient allowing collaborative filtering of data based not only on numerical analysis of the data but also the determination of linear relationships among users.

The team tested their approach on datasets assimilate from hundreds of local video shops and information extracted from the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) and ratings by those who have already seen the hundreds of movies analysed. They also added a parental control function to make it child friendly. When they had volunteers test the recommendations the system generated they found that almost 96 percent of users found the recommendations agreeable.

“The system allows new users to be given more personalised recommendations. It also allows users with similar rating patterns to influence the prediction of items,” the team writes. “Our approach offers a more efficient way of managing the cold-start problem in movie recommendation,” they conclude.

Ojokoh, B.A., Aboluje, O.O. and Igbe, T. (2020) ‘A collaborative content-based movie recommender system’, Int. J. Business Intelligence and Data Mining, Vol. 17, No. 3, pp.298–320.

Special issue published: "Service Platforms in Grid Computing – Recent Advances and Future Trends"

International Journal of Web and Grid Services 16(3) 2020

• Unconstrained temporal inconsistency checking of natural language in webpage
• Energy consumption optimisation based on mobile edge computing in power grid internet of things nodes
• Resource scheduling of information platform for general grid computing framework
• Green lighting intelligent control system with web services based on back propagation algorithm
• A memory-based task scheduling algorithm for grid computing based on heterogeneous platform and homogeneous tasks
• Distributed data mining in grid computing environment
• Association rules mining in parallel conditional tree based on grid computing inspired partition algorithm

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Work Organisation and Emotion

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Work Organisation and Emotion are now available here for free:

• Human emotion detection based on questionnaire and text analysis
• Analysis of the relationship of happiness to economic achievement and other factors in US states
• The emotion work of nurses in a person-centred care model
• Patient emotional support and healthcare organisational performance and effectiveness
• Emotional labour in non-governmental organisations: narrative analysis and theory expansion

Special issue published: "Sustainability Through Mindfulness"

International Journal of Technology Transfer and Commercialisation 17(2/3) 2020

• Investigating consumer intention to adopt mobile payment systems: an Indian perspective
• An empirical research of effect of flight airline services on the satisfaction of operational populace
• Creating a mindful organisation by redefining PMS in police organisations: a balance scorecard approach
• Analysing impact of S&P mid cap and small cap returns on BSE Sensex returns
• Analysis of benchmarking practices in Indian banking sector
• To study the parallel mediation effect of consumer trust and consumer satisfaction between web interface features and consumer purchase intentions
• The role of subjective norms in purchase behaviour of green FMCG products
• The interesting story of participatory notes in India
• Relationship of problems and personal risk with customer service in use of digital wallet: a path analysis model
• A multidimensional role of social media as marketing tool: a review of literature

Research pick: An electronic nose for wine - "Age identification of Chinese rice wine using electronic nose"

Researchers in China have applied an array of sensors, an electronic nose, that can sniff bouquet of rice wine and offer an estimate of the vintage. Writing in the International Journal of Computer Applications in Technology, the scientists explain how their artificial olfactory system takes data from sensors sampling a rice wine and uses a computer to carry out a statistical analysis of the signals to give an essentially 100 percent accurate age for the wine.

Wei Ding, Peiyi Zhu, and Ya Gu of the Changshu Institute of Technology in Jiangsu explain how they can quickly record a profile of the volatile substances present in a rice wine sample using a Taguchi Gas Sensor. The data from samples of known vintage can then be used to train an algorithm that applies a range of analytical statistical methods to find a correlation between the chemical profile of those volatile compounds and the age of the rice wine. When the system is then presented with a sample of an unknown wine the training process works in reverse to extract a profile and suggest a vintage.

The team reports that their early tests using Linear Discriminant Analysis as the statistical method could give them an accuracy a little short of 100 percent and at that level could not distinguish between wines that were made within a year or so of each other. They used a more sophisticated analysis based on a Back Propagation Neural Network and this improved the results so that they could give a vintage for any rice wine sample to the precise year it was produced, thus with 100 percent accuracy. Knowing the precise year in which a wine is produced is key to its value and to its consumption.

Ding, W., Zhu, P. and Gu, Y. (2020) ‘Age identification of Chinese rice wine using electronic nose’, Int. J. Computer Applications in Technology, Vol. 63, No. 3, pp.185–190.

International Journal of Simulation and Process Modelling to invite expanded papers from 17th International Multidisciplinary Modelling & Simulation Multiconference (I3M 2020) for potential publication

Extended versions of papers presented at the I3M 2020 17th International Multidisciplinary Modelling & Simulation Multiconference (16-18 September 2020, Virtual Conference) will be invited for review and potential publication by the International Journal of Simulation and Process Modelling.

Free open access article available: "Opportunities of frugality in the post-corona era"

The following paper, "Opportunities of frugality in the post-corona era" (International Journal of Technology Management 83(1/2/3) 2020), is freely available for download as an open access article.

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

Research pick: Students, social media, and social change - "How to change the world: the relationship between social media and social change in the classroom"

The use of social media in higher education has the potential to improve student engagement in world affairs but educators must ensure that those they teach have freedom of choice regarding which platforms they utilise and to ensure that they are taught the pros and the cons, the benefits and the pitfalls.

Critically, there is a need to strive to avoid the emergence of so-called slacktivism, wherein involvement in the political realm and beyond relies entirely on social media and does not necessarily invoke real effort or commitment on the part of the student as they emerge into the world beyond academia.

Writing in the International Journal of Social Media and Interactive Learning Environments, Sarah Jernigan of the University of Cincinnati in Ohio, USA, discusses the relationship between social media and social change in the classroom. “A challenge exists for educators to acknowledge social media in students’ personal lives, while strategically using it in the classroom,” Jernigan writes, “By approaching social media as a tool to connect both students’ personal and professional lives, educators can maximise the use of social media.”

The study suggests that a course on social media and its role in activism can make a difference in the lives of students provided they are made aware of slacktivism. Discussion and repetition of the key points, as with any educational program, would help the students learn about how social, media and activism might change lives and perhaps even have a positive effect on social injustices. Perhaps the broadest of Jernigan’s conclusions is that “College courses can influence how students view the world and impact how they may create social change.”

Jernigan, S. (2020) ‘How to change the world: the relationship between social media and social change in the classroom’, Int. J. Social Media and Interactive Learning Environments, Vol. 6, No. 3, pp.169–180.

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

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

• Developing a strategic research and technology management model based on strategic entrepreneurship approach
• The representativeness of exportations for local development: evidences from family-owned SMEs
• Exploring the involvement of academic researchers in research collaboration with knowledge users - a study of two Ghanaian universities
• Role of decision making style and innovativeness in Indian entrepreneurial firms

Special Issue published: "What Influences Marketing Practices in India?"

International Journal of Indian Culture and Business Management 21(1) 2020

• A study on sales promotions using mobile coupons for the Indian quick-service restaurants
• Antecedents of need for uniqueness: a study of adolescents in India
• Which B2B thinker are you?
• Marketing channel attribution modelling: Markov chain analysis
• Visual information impacting electronic word of mouth adoption: mediating role of perceived eWOM review credibility

Additional papers

• Feeling of insecurity in Khaki: its effects on burnout and allied consequences in Haryana Police officers
• What influences women's entrepreneurial performance? Evidence from a matrilineal society in India

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Nanotechnology

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

• Nanostructurisation of hypoeutectic silumin by electroexplosion alloying and subsequent electron beam processing
• Obtaining of composite metal-carbon nanoparticles in complex plasma
• Study of the specific features, characterising homogenisation of the promising Al-Mg system aluminium alloys with transition elements addition
• Operation principle and fabrication technology of the neuroprocessor input unit on the basis of the memristive logic matrix
• Increase of service life of friction units of machines and mechanisms with the use of serpentine tribopreparations
• Sonification of single-walled carbon nanotubes properties for engineering applications
• Application of VR/AR technology for visualisation of radiation tolerance of VLSI
• Practical tasks of training of specialists for nanotechnology industry
• Obtaining of carbon nanostructured surfaces by pulse plasma deposition method
• The effect of zinc oxide nanoparticles bioaccumulation in seedlings on growth and development of vetch (Vicia sativa)
• Biocompatibility conditions and biological activity of cobalt nanoparticles, depending on the size and concentration
• Multifunctional capsules with oil core and shells of SiO2 nanoparticles, nanodiamonds and polyelectrolyte layers with Fe3O4 nanoparticles
• Physical and mechanical properties of modified fine-grained fibre-reinforced concretes containing carbon nanostructures
• Using fractal analysis methods in studying mechanisms of deformation and destruction of nano-modified cement concretes
• Automatic localisation method for VLSI topology errors at the stage of functional control
• Methods to ensure reliable contact of super-large integrated circuit with test equipment
• Films of bacterial cellulose with lipid nanoparticles of sanguinarine as a basis for creating antimicrobial coating materials
• Emerging resistive random-access memory for 'fog' computing and IoT: materials and structural options taxonomy
• Creation of composites of bacterial cellulose and silver nanoparticles: evaluation of antimicrobial activity and cytotoxicity
• Electrochemical growth of ZnO photonic crystals
• Formation technology of X-ray quasimonochromatic fluxes with nanosize width and small angular divergence
• Method for quantitative measurements of carbon nanotubes mass amount in liquid and solid media including organic materials
• Study of nanostructure of polymer adsorption layers on the particles surface of titanium dioxide
• Nanostructure of organic-inorganic composite materials based on polymer hydrogels
• Effect of vibration on structure and properties of polymeric membranes
• Computer simulation of hybrid quantum technologies of energy accumulation, storage, transformation and transfer in nanoenergy materials
• Nanoscale displacement measurement
• How to quantify and visualise motivation hierarchy of social group: semantic analysis

Research pick: Parking sensors - "A parking space allocation algorithm based on distributed computing"

Even in the middle of a pandemic lockdown, finding a good parking space can be a painful task. Now, work published in the International Journal of Sensor Networks, offers a new approach to parking space allocation based on a distributed computing algorithm.

Yong Chen of the Business School at Zhejiang University City College, in Hangzhou, China, and colleagues explain that parking space allocation, while perhaps not common in some cities, is an essential part of ensuring drivers can all be accommodated in the busiest of metropolises. The team’s approach utilises a driver’s navigation system to pinpoint them in the city, to glean their intended destination and to plot a route for them to follow to an available and hopefully optimal parking space. Such a distributed algorithm benefits from knowing where all of the users are, their intended destinations, and the availability of parking spaces across the city.

The team has demonstrated proof of principle under different levels of traffic and parking demand ratios. They point out that their distributed algorithm approach is most suitable for scenarios with high demand and high supply to demand ratio. It works better than other centralised algorithms that either work from the perspective of a single driver or a single car park. The distributed approach offers far greater adaptability, the team says, and provides more reliable results.

Chen, G., Pang, H., Xu, H., Yang, W. and Chen, Y. (2020) ‘A parking space allocation algorithm based on distributed computing’, Int. J. Sensor Networks, Vol. 33, No. 4, pp.250–258.

Special issue published: "9th Ieee International Nanoelectronic Conference (INEC) 2019"

International Journal of Nanotechnology 17(1) 2020

• Temperature dependent characteristics of graphene/silicon Schottky junction
• Effects of various functionalisation layers on ammonia gas sensing using AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors
• Silicon on insulator-based microring resonator and Au nanofilm Krestchmann-based surface plasmon resonance glucose sensors for lab-on-a-chip applications
• Effect of the protein structure and heme iron coordination sphere on the long-range electron transfer from hematite and zinc oxide nanostructures to cytochrome c
• In-situ characterisation of the defect density in reduced graphene oxide under electrical stress using fluorescence microscopy

Research pick: Pandemic models need to be responsive - "Pandemic modelling is a dialogue with nature, not a monologue"

Research published in the International Journal of Global Warming this month suggests that the models for understanding pandemic disease and predicting their likely course need to consider the idea that it is a dialogue with nature rather than a monologue. Global lockdowns of the kind that were put in place at the time Covid-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation might then be avoided or carried out differently if such understanding is clearer.

Alberto Boretti of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd University, in Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia, suggests that as more data became available as the Covid-19 pandemic spread it quickly became obvious to epidemiologists that the mortality plugged into the models that led to specific decisions regarding lockdown was a lot higher than the actual evidence suggested. The daily death rate, he writes, was about twenty times lower than predicted. In addition, the number of people that encounter the virus and do not become infected was much higher than the earlier modelling assumed. The infection fatality rate is now estimated at between 0.12% and 0.2%; this is an exceptionally long way from the 0.9% presumed in the early models, Boretti writes.

The evidence suggests that while the initial response may well have been sensible, once it became more apparent how the disease infected people, how it spread, and the levels of morbidity and mortality, the models should have been updated in a timelier manner. Boretti suggests that how we look at an emergent that becomes pandemic requires a very different approach to the one we have taken with Covid-19 so far. The model predictions must be constantly updated through validation as experimental evidence emerge and it is on the latest data that policy measures should be based not past results that have so obviously proven to be wrong as the pandemic progressed.

We must learn this lesson to help us tackle the current pandemic and to be ready to face the next one more effectively.

Boretti, A. (2020) ‘Pandemic modelling is a dialogue with nature, not a monologue’, Int. J. Global Warming, Vol. 21, No. 4, pp.407–417.

Special issue published: "Energy Policies and Standards for Large-Scale Renewable Energy Integration with Utility Grids"

International Journal of Energy Technology and Policy 16(5/6) 2020

• Present status, energy policies and future perspective of solar photovoltaic in India
• A system dynamics modelling for energy planning and carbon dioxide estimation of the Nigerian power sector
• An investigation on the petrochemical industry development in Iran: a system dynamics approach
• Optimisation of energy and exergy parameters of a C.I. engine in dual fuel mode using Taguchi method
• Impact of wind power-based DG on nodal prices in distribution system with harmonic load
• Simultaneous allocation of multiple distributed generators and shunt capacitor banks in radial distribution systems using grasshopper optimisation algorithm
• Optimal fuel consumption planning and energy management strategy for a hybrid energy system with pumped storage
• Harmonic minimisation in direct torque controlled induction motor using neural network controller

New Editor for International Journal of Creative Computing

Associate Prof. Andy Connor from the Aukland University of Technology in New Zealand has been appointed to take over editorship of the International Journal of Creative Computing.

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Business Forecasting and Marketing Intelligence

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

• Forecasting (un-)seasonal demand using geostatistics, socio-economic and weather data
• Discovering the brand personality of Bonia
• Beneficiaries' perception and attitude towards service quality of non-profit organisations
• A comparative study of forecasting methods for sporadic demand in an auto service station
• Assessment of efficiency and ranking of microfinance institutions in India: a two-stage bootstrap DEA analysis
• Consumers' electronic word of mouth-seeking intentions on social media sites concerning Saudi bloggers' YouTube fashion channels: an eclectic approach

Special issue published: "Emerging Research Issues in the Field of Frugal Innovation" (includes free open access article)

International Journal of Technology Management 83(1/2/3) 2020

• Opportunities of frugality in the post-corona era [OPEN ACCESS)
• Frugal innovation in, by and for Europe
• Market maketh magic - consequences and implications of market choice for frugal innovation
• Frugal innovation as environmental innovation
• The role of frugal innovation in the global diffusion of green technologies
• Frugal innovation strategies and global competition in wind power
• Frugal innovation for the BoP in Brazil - an analysis and comparison with Asian lead markets
• The social dimension of frugal innovation

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Intelligent Defence Support Systems

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

• A systems model for probabilistic risk assessment of improvised explosive device attacks
• Network-centric IED detection planning
• Construction of permittivity functions for high-explosives using density functional theory
• A systems-level understanding of adversarial behaviour

Research pick: Academia and industry working together - "Bridging the perceived gap between industry and academia"

There is an inherent gap between industry and academia, between a commercial enterprise and a seat of learning. There are similarities in aims and aspirations and many of the differences are little more than misconception especially when one looks at the research spinout companies started by academics and the collaborations between those at the university bench and on the factory floor, as itwere.

A new study published in the International Journal of Supply Chain and Operations Resilience by Shalini Srivastav, Vikas Garg, and Anubhuti Gupta of Amity University in Uttar Pradesh, India, suggests that globalization may well have led to greater links between industry and academia over the last couple of decades. However, they have found that in India at least, the notion of the global village has now quite led to the meshing together of these two realms to the mutual benefit of both.

Indeed, the service industries have come to the fore in India and the developing of manufacturing makes a much smaller contribution at the moment to gross domestic product. This, in part, would mean that there are far fewer opportunities for academic and industrial researchers to build productive partnerships. This is irrespective of the different ambitions of those in each sectors.

The team suggests that one route forward might be seen in how academic institutions can offer entrepreneurs at small companies consultancy rather than collaboration. Given that many small and medium-sized enterprise will inevitably lack large-scale research facilities this could give the companies the necessary nudge they need for commercial success and at the same time providing cash-strapped academics with much-needed funds to extend and expand their own research.

Srivastav, S., Garg, V. and Gupta, A. (2020) ‘Bridging the perceived gap between industry and academia’, Int. J. Supply Chain and Operations Resilience, Vol. 4, No. 2, pp.202–216

Special issue published: "Growth Strategies and Internationalisation For SMEs"

International Journal of Globalisation and Small Business 11(2) 2020

• How do new technology ventures grow? A theory of planned behaviour based assessment of inorganic growth
• Do all entrepreneurs want to make their new technology-based firm grow? An approach through expected consequences of growth
• Mission statements in medium-sized listed firms: a content analysis
• How cultures facilitate the entrepreneurial 'thinking-doing' link
• Internationalisation strategies and firms' performance. A co-evolutionary study on Italian SMEs
• International growth of Italian acquired mid-sized firms: an analysis of post-acquisition performance

Free sample articles newly available from African Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Finance

The following sample articles from the African Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Finance are now available here for free:

• Ownership concentration, foreign ownership and corporate performance among the listed companies in East African community: the role of quality institutions
• Stakeholders' perception about strengthening the audit report 
• Towards the implementation of corporate governance best practices for Tunisian listed firms: an empirical approach using the artificial neuronal networks 
• Capital structure and return on capital employed of construction companies in Nigeria

First issue: International Journal of Forensic Engineering and Management (free sample issue available)

 

The International Journal of Forensic Engineering and Management provides a refereed source of information on failure in technical and societal systems. The journal specifically recognizes the interplay of engineering and management in the causation and prevention of failures.

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

Research pick: Inorganic business growth - "How do new technology ventures grow? A theory of planned behaviour based assessment of inorganic growth"

There is much talk in the business world of what might be referred to as “organic” growth, a kind of natural progression from seeded company, to fledgling spinout to…perhaps even multinational corporate entity. But, the converse of organic in this context is planned, inorganic, growth, the kind of growth that emerges from a strategic approach to the company’s inputs and outputs.

Leonard Benning and Tessa Christina of the Technical University of Dortmund, Germany, discuss the notion of planned behaviour and how it affects inorganic growth of a technology venture in the International Journal of Globalisation and Small Business. The team surveyed 153 company founders managing their businesses and investigated how entrepreneurial activities affected inorganic growth. Specifically, the team has looked at acquisitions as part of the strategy for planned, inorganic, growth.

They point out that this is perhaps the first empirical study of its kind that responds to an earlier call from fellow researchers in this field, dating back to 2011, to open up understanding of inorganic venture growth

Benning, L. and Flatten, T.C. (2020) ‘How do new technology ventures grow? A theory of planned behaviour based assessment of inorganic growth’, Int. J. Globalisation and Small Business, Vol. 11, No. 2, pp.88–113.

Research pick: Fighting fit - "Comparative analysis of health-related physical fitness levels among the young male workers performing sedentary and heavy occupational physical activity"

Being physically active is important for overall health and fitness. Now, researchers in India have demonstrated that occupational physical activity is an important factor in body composition, flexibility, and aerobic capacity. They investigated fitness and physical parameters, such as percentage body fat, body mass index, aerobic capacity, weight, strength, and flexibility in a group of men between the ages of 18 and 30 years. Half the men had sedentary, desk jobs, the others had physical jobs in construction. It was perhaps an obvious finding, but those in sedentary work tended towards obesity, larger waist to hip circumference and poor performance in most of the fitness tests.

Prachi Patel and Rauf Iqbal of Industrial Engineering and Manufacturing Systems, NITIE, in Mumbai, India, also showed that construction workers had superior back flexibility, trunk lift scores, and aerobic capacity. Office workers had strong hands but that was as far as it went in terms of strength comparison. However, the team found no significant difference in strength (pinch, explosive leg and back) and endurance (upper and core body) tests between the two groups.

“Physical fitness and health lifestyle habits have been reported to lower the risk of death from disease, foster healthy muscles, joints and bones, and enhance personal function and mental health,” the team writes. Physical strength and fitness are important in manual work but much less so in office work, that much is perhaps obvious. However, there is a need to ensure that the increasing numbers of those of us with sedentary jobs achieve comparable strength and fitness for the sake of health and all the implications of the burden of ill health on individuals and society. There is thus an urgent need to encourage sport and fitness regimes in the deskbound.

Patel, P. and Iqbal, R. (2020) ‘Comparative analysis of health-related physical fitness levels among the young male workers performing sedentary and heavy occupational physical activity’, Int. J. Forensic Engineering and Management, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp.62–75.

Research pick: Radio astronomy on a budget - "Multi-location anywhere astronomy paradigm"

When money is tight, an astronomer’s eye may well alight on a local disused satellite TV station as a possible option to be co-opted as part of a radio telescope array. However, there are rather a limited number of such installations around.

Now, researchers from Nigeria, South Africa, and Namibia writing in the International Journal of Ad Hoc and Ubiquitous Computing, discuss the possibility of instead utilising active satellite TV technology equipment.

They point out a collaborative effort to improve astronomy would have the benefit of broadening access to free-to-air satellite TV for the public and would be a boon to astronomers and TV watchers in the developing world alike. Given that many users are already moving away from satellite TV to streaming-based entertainment there could well be spare capacity in those still-active satellite TV earth stations.

The new approach is discussed by A.A. Periola of the Department of Electrical, Electronics and Computer Engineering at Bells University of Technology, in Nigeria, L.A. Akinyemi of the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, and S. Sesham of the Department of Electronics and Computer Engineering at the University of Namibia.

Periola, A.A., Akinyemi, L.A. and Sesham, S. (2020) ‘Multi-location anywhere astronomy paradigm’, Int. J. Ad Hoc and Ubiquitous Computing, Vol. 35, No. 1, pp.1–16.

Research pick: Virtual doctors - "Physicians social capital aids their medical decisions when they virtually share knowledge"

One might imagine that the virtualisation of many areas of life, especially in the present pandemic climate would have led to a boost to in efficiency of knowledge sharing and thus an improvement in many areas of human endeavour. This may ultimately prove to be true. In a study published in the International Journal of Knowledge Management Studies, researchers have found that the benefits of how knowledge sharing might benefit physicians in terms of improving their diagnoses and reducing medical errors are not yet widely understood by physicians.

Anjum Razzaque of Ahlia University in Manama, Bahrain and Tillal Eldabi of the University of Surrey, UK, explain how a physician’s social capital may remedy this situation by promoting the benefits to the individual, to other physicians, and to their patients.

The team asserts that this is the first study of its kind, holistically assessing the role of social capital theory, knowledge sharing, and decision making of physicians who are members of a virtual community. Ultimately, physicians need to trust the virtual community and the concept of knowledge sharing. For such a virtualised environment to work they perhaps also need to understand each other’s social capital and to have confidence in that too.

Razzaque, A. and Eldabi, T. (2020) ‘Physicians social capital aids their medical decisions when they virtually share knowledge’, Int. J. Knowledge Management Studies, Vol. 11, No. 3, pp.229–257.

Free sample articles newly available from Journal for Global Business Advancement

The following sample articles from the Journal for Global Business Advancement are now available here for free:

• Adoption of One Belt and One Road initiative by Oman: lessons from the East
• Twitter analysis of founders of top 25 Indian startups
• The impact of product diversification and capital structure on firm performance: evidence from Vietnamese manufacturing enterprises
• External barriers facing internationalising sharing economy companies: a study of European and American sharecoms
• What are the outcomes of emerging markets mergers and acquisitions? Evidence from Turkey
• Establishing a highly competitive university: a strategic management perspective

Research pick: Reducing windpower’s bad vibes - "Vibration control of wind turbines: recent advances and emerging trends"

Windpower has come to the fore as a major source of renewable energy, with “turbine farms” springing up across the land and across the oceans. Of course, any new technology has its problems and its detractors, but technological problems might be addressed in a way that other concerns might not. Writing in the International Journal of Sustainable Materials and Structural Systems, engineers from Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, discuss one of those technological challenges – vibration control.

Breiffni Fitzgerald and Biswajit Basu explain that demand for windpower and so turbines is soaring. But, any new installation must also have efficiency and longevity so that the payback in terms of manufacturing, installation materials and energy is short. The problem of vibration can lead to reduced efficiency and premature failure, both of which can counteract the benefits of installing any wind turbine in the first place and extend payback time and increase waste and losses.

The team has reviewed theoretical and experimental work in this area and focused on passive, semi-active, and active control schemes. They also discuss the development of bespoke auxiliary damping systems and the state-of-the-art in turbine control algorithms that can utilise the extant hardware that controls turbine pitch, generator torque, and yaw control. Passive physical dampening can reduce vibration by up to 50 percent in some of the latest systems, the team writes. By contrast, newer active tendons and other hardware have been shown in some instances to reduce vibration by up to 65 percent.

They point out that those parts of the industry surveyed in their literature review have not been quick to adopt more active and algorithmically controlled vibration control. If adopted soon, such technology might boost those vibration control percentages still further leading to more efficient turbines that have a longer lifespan in the future.

Fitzgerald, B. and Basu, B. (2020) ‘Vibration control of wind turbines: recent advances and emerging trends’, Int. J. Sustainable Materials and Structural Systems, Vol. 4, Nos. 2/3/4, pp.347–372.

International Journal of Services and Standards to invite expanded papers from its 2021 Qingdao conference for potential publication

Extended versions of papers presented at the International Journal of Services and Standards Conference 2021 - Qingdao (Conference Theme: "A Cultural Perspective of Technology-enhanced Judgment and Decision-making"; 2-3 August 2021, Qingdao University, Qingdao, China) will be invited for review and potential publication by the International Journal of Services and Standards.

Special issue published: "Organisational Stakeholder Fairness and Equitable Treatment"

Journal for Global Business Advancement 13(1) 2020

• Assessing the implementation of serialisation in pharmaceutical industry in Greece: a qualitative approach
• Examining the role of internal communication and employee engagement in Cyprus-based medium-sized organisations in times of challenging strategic changes
• Website words matter: an analysis of business schools' online brand personalities
• A model of duopolistic patent contest with private provisions of industry collective goods
• Barriers to change implementation process by public and private organisations in Saudi Arabia
• Employee retention during Cooperative banks' mergers and acquisitions

Research pick: What are words worth to business schools? - "Website words matter: an analysis of business schools"

Business schools at public universities signalled competence with their websites while private universities demonstrated excitement and sincerity, according to a new content analysis by researchers in the USA discussed in the Journal of Global Business Advancement.

Blake Frank, Sri Beldona, and Scott Wysong of the University of Dallas, in Irving, Texas, USA, have investigated how a business school website informs putative students about what might be referred to as the school’s brand personality. They used an analytical approach that extracted words from website content from business school websites and showed how a dictionary-based approach to identifying brand personality is a successful approach. As well as the difference between private and public business schools, the team also found that those establishments with higher enrolment numbers also portrayed themselves as more competent, while those with a smaller rollcall described themselves as being more sincere.

The team explains why their findings are important:

“Business schools today must continually fight for market share. With lower barriers to entry, there has been a burgeoning of online programs around the world,” they explain, they quote fellow researchers in adding that “Increasing competition between universities heightens the need for institutions to understand, manage, and leverage a strong brand position.”

They suggest that for a business school to simply list the requirements of its courses, application deadlines, and other functional information is no longer sufficient. “Prospective students want to know why they should choose a particular business school or program over the others they are considering,” they add. “Business schools have to make a strong case.”

They conclude that business schools need to look closely at the words they use on their websites and must ensure that the content meshes with the brand personality they hope to communicate that they might encourage the prospective students they hope to enrol from around the world.

Frank, B., Beldona, S. and Wysong, S. (2020) ‘Website words matter: an analysis of business schools’ online brand personalities’, J. Global Business Advancement, Vol. 13, No. 1, pp.53–69.

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Computational Systems Engineering

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

• Performance analysis and evaluation of software defined networking distributed controllers in datacentre networks
• Image style transfer using convolutional neural networks based on transfer learning
• A survey on word embedding techniques and semantic similarity for paraphrase identification
• Hybrid converter for electric vehicle battery charging with power quality features
• SVM classification of brain images from MRI scans using morphological transformation and GLCM texture features
• Pipel: exploiting resource reorganisation to optimise performance of pipeline-structured applications in the cloud

Research pick: Deep space mine - "Resources in space and asteroid mining: where we are and which challenges should be expected"

Many resources essential to the technology on which we depend are dwindling or are increasingly inaccessible to certain nations for geopolitical reasons. A case in point is that several of the rare metallic elements that are needed to construct the components of modern electronic devices such as smartphones and tablet PCs, fuel cells, rechargeable batteries, photovoltaic systems, and other technology are by definition low in abundance.

Moreover, such elements are often critical in the design of such devices and there are no synthetic alternatives as there might be if one were to substitute for other natural materials such as wood, where organic polymers might do the job just as well, if not better.

With this in mind, research published in the International Journal of Technology Management discusses the issue of whether we might undertake mining operations on an asteroid that comes into the Earth’s purview.

José Antonio Peña-Ramos of the Universidad Autónoma de Chile and the Universidad de Granada, Spain, and Fernando Rafael Ramírez-de Luis of the Universidad Pablo de Olavide, in Seville, Spain, ask whether the “scramble for space is a realistic possibility in the short-term or whether it is another dystopian exaggeration doomed to oblivion".

They look at the current state-of-the-art technology that would be needed to putatively mine an asteroid and point out that it is far too immature to be at all viable. They discuss whether there is adequate regulation in this notional industry, and of course, there isn’t, with some states suggesting it should be a unilateral decision and others looking for international rules and regulations. There are also many who might be involved and large amounts of money to be made and so the stakes will inevitably be high and given our track record when it comes to land grabs and goldrushes, space mining may well lead to serious conflict between the corporations and inevitably the nation states involved in such endeavours.

Peña-Ramos, J.A. and Ramírez-de Luis, F.R. (2020) ‘Resources in space and asteroid mining: where we are and which challenges should be expected’, Int. J. Technology Management, Vol. 82, Nos. 3/4, pp.197–205.

Special issue published: "Smart Structures, Structural Control and Health Monitoring – A Special Issue in Honour of Professor Fabio Casciati and Professor Lucia Faravelli"

International Journal of Sustainable Materials and Structural Systems 4(2/3/4) 2020

• State-of-the-art: shape memory alloys for monumental consolidation and base isolation
• Intrinsic differences between thinner and thicker wires in NiTi SMA
• Optimal thickness of a spherical shell subjected to double-sided corrosion
• Experimental study of structural change detection using data-driven reduced-order models
• Application of vibration-based damage detection algorithms to experimental data from multi-storey steel structures
• Design of a new wireless data acquisition system for civil structural monitoring
• Condition assessment of a supertall structure by an improved Hilbert-Huang transform and empirical mode decomposition method
• Structural health monitoring of in-service tunnels
• Automatic detection and damage quantification of multiple cracks on concrete surface from video
• Ground-penetrating radar investigation for the restoration of Al-Azhar historical minarets
• Identification of indicators, metrics and level of service for the resilience of transport critical infrastructure
• Vibration control of wind turbines: recent advances and emerging trends

Research pick: Blockchain Pet Adoptions - "Adoption of pets in distributed network using blockchain technology"

The blockchain concept underpins digital currencies, such as BitCoin. It acts as a distributed register that holds all transactions of the currency in an encrypted and immutable table. The technology is not limited to cryptocurrencies though, there are many other applications that might benefit from such as secure information system. Writing in the  International Journal of Blockchains and Cryptocurrencies, a team from India explain how a blockchain might be used in pet adoption.

The team from the Computer Science and Engineering Department at Vidyavardhaka College of Engineering, in Mysuru, explain that a blockchain can store transaction details associated with a given pet, its previous owners and the people adopting the animal. In addition, other details can be retrieved by using a hash value including the financial transaction that will have facilitated the adoption process, as it were.

The team concludes that their approach is far more secure than centralised systems and precludes “spoofing” whereby a malicious third party might intervene in a transaction and either remove funds from an account illegally or perhaps even still the pet to be adopted.

Gururaj, H.L., Manoj, A.A., Kumar, A.A., Nagarajath, S.M. and Ravi Kumar, V. (2020) ‘Adoption of pets in distributed network using blockchain technology’, Int. J. Blockchains and Cryptocurrencies, Vol. 1, No. 2, pp.107–120.

Research pick: Detecting epilepsy with entropy - "Epileptic seizure detection in EEG using improved entropy"

Epilepsy is a chronic neurological disorder wherein abnormal firing of neurons in the brain leads to seizures. It can abruptly disrupt the health and life of those people it affects. Its diagnosis can limit certain aspects of everyday life particularly if not fully treated. People with the condition, for instance, are often precluded from driving or operating hazardous machinery to reduce the risk of injury and harm should they have a seizure while doing so. Seizures are commonly associated with loss of consciousness and severe muscle spasms.

A new, non-invasive, approach to epilepsy detection is reported in the International Journal of Biomedical Engineering and Technology that uses a fuzzy entropy algorithm to examine electroencephalograms (EEG). This algorithm abstracts all of the features of the EEG trace, these features are then fed to an artificial neural network trained on known epilepsy EEG traces. The system can very effectively differentiate between brain patterns in the patient during periods of seizure and normal periods.

Gini, A.T.P. and Queen, M.P.F. (2020) ‘Epileptic seizure detection in EEG using improved entropy’, Int. J. Biomedical Engineering and Technology, Vol. 33, No. 4, pp.325–345.

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:

• Improving the performance of medical robotic system using H∞ loop shaping robust controller
• Hybrid ANFIS-ant colony based optimisation for quadrotor trajectory tracking control
• A novel sliding mode composite control design for fast time performance of quadrotor UAV
• Backstepping controller design with a quadratic error for a double inverted pendulum
• Fractal, chaos and neural networks in path generation of mobile robot

Additional papers

• Neumann boundary geometric control of a fractional diffusion process
• Kalman filtering linear quadratic regulator for artificial pancreas in type-I diabetes patient

Free open access article available: "Blockchain-based federated identity and auditing"

 The following paper, "Blockchain-based federated identity and auditing" (International Journal of Blockchains and Cryptocurrencies 1(2) 2020), is freely available for download as an open access article.

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

Research pick: Keep taking the tablets - "Understanding technology transition: a cross-cultural study on the transition from PCs to tablet computers"

New research published in the International Journal of Technology Management, shows how people make the technology transition from one type of device to another following a period of using both classes of device in parallel. For example, many users have a personal computer as well as a tablet computer, but at some point a lot of those people will abandon the PC in favour of the more portable and agile tablet, foregoing some of the benefits of a PC that may well have become legacy features once they are fully embedded in the tablet realm.

Rahul Thakurta of the Xavier University Bhubaneswar and Anamitra Basu Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) both in Bhubaneswar, India,  and Nils Urbach of the University of Bayreuth, Germany, have looked at the motivation for technology transition in their two countries.

The team has observed a behavioural phenomenon as analysed using social psychology where many users have made a complete transition at least for private, as opposed to business use, of a tablet over PC or laptop. Of course, there are hybrid devices, such as touchscreen laptops that can be separated into screen and base so that the screen becomes a standalone tablet without a physical keyboard for ease of portability in some circumstances.

“Our model was able to explain roughly 58% variance in desire towards transition in Germany, and about 50% variance in desire towards transition in India, which are considered significant. These results establish the importance of the different antecedents in understanding technology transition at an individual level,” the team writes.

Thakurta, R., Urbach, N. and Basu, A. (2020) ‘Understanding technology transition: a cross-cultural study on the transition from PCs to tablet computers’, Int. J. Technology Management, Vol. 82, Nos. 3/4, pp.276–321.

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Lifecycle Performance Engineering

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

• A parametric study of bridge load effect under stochastic vehicular load
• Fractal signal processing method of acoustic emission monitoring for seismic damage of concrete columns
• Multi-scale finite element model validation method of cable-stayed bridge based on the support vector regression
• An efficient method for Bayesian system identification based on Markov chain Monte Carlo simulation
• Operational modal analysis and Bayesian model updating of a standing seam metal roofing system

Research pick: Coffeeshop compatibility - "Effect of staff appearance on customer satisfaction and revisit intention"

A study of customers of coffee shops in the Republic of Korea suggests that they would willingly revisit the same outlet if the staff have an attractive and well-dressed appearance. Whereas they often feel less satisfied by their experience if the staff are not and a second visit to the same establishment is then unlikely, according to research published in the International Journal of Services, Economics and Management.

In the hospitality industry, staff interactions with consumers are crucial to operations and influence consumer satisfaction revisit intention. Now, Byoungho Lee and Jinkyung Choi of Woosong University, in Daejeon, South Korea, surveyed coffee shop customers with respect to perceptions and attitudes. Whereas there have been numerous studies of attractiveness and customer service in other settings, coffee shops per se have not been a focus of many studies. The team’s findings could help coffee shop owners or managers improve consumer satisfaction by influencing perceived attitudes toward the appearance of staff and their clothes or uniform.

The team emphasizes that the attractiveness to customers of service personnel in this environment may not be solely about facial attractiveness, but their personal grooming, overall demeanour, and attitude as well as how smartly dressed they are and how well-kempt their uniform. The findings perhaps offer a new definition of attractiveness in terms of staff appearance and uniforms in cafes and restaurants and could help guide management to improve the customer experience by their guiding service staff.

Lee, B. and Choi, J. (2020) ‘Effect of staff appearance on customer satisfaction and revisit intention’, Int. J. Services, Economics and Management, Vol. 11, No. 2, pp.119–136.

Research pick: Encrypting images chaotically - "Artificial neural network based image encryption technique"

An artificial neural network approach to image encryption offers many advantages over conventional encryption methods suggests a review published in the International Journal of Services Operations and Informatics. Shaimaa Abbas Fahdel Al-Abaidy of the University of Baghdad in Iraq explains that exploiting what is colloquially known as the “butterfly effect” in chaos theory can be even more effective.

Mobile computing and communications devices are almost ubiquitous now. We rely heavily on mobile phones, tablets, laptops, smartwatches, fitness trackers, smart TVs, and other such devices. They almost all rely on being constantly connected with the internet either through a cellphone network or via Wi-Fi for their many different functions. However, the transfer of data to and from such devices can often be vulnerable to third-party intrusion.

There are some instances where this is not particularly problematic, but there are other cases, such as sharing personal images where the sender and recipient, a student and educator, patient and doctor, employee and executive, may not wish other people to have access to those images. This is where encryption becomes a critical part of the communication.

There are many different approaches to encryption some are very secure but have high overheads, particularly when the files being encrypted are themselves relatively large, such as is the case with high-resolution photographs, for instance. Encryption needs to be smoother, faster, and preclude overpowering the encrypting and decrypting device as well as not adding to the data transfer costs in terms of the connecting network capacity.

The new approach discussed by Al-Abaidy offers protection against the integrity of the encrypted and decrypted image file and protection against common attacks such as a cipher attack, plaintext attack, and brute force attack.

Al-Abaidy, S.A.F. (2020) ‘Artificial neural network based image encryption technique’, Int. J. Services Operations and Informatics, Vol. 10, No. 3, pp.181–189.

Research pick: Solid state life extension - "Extending the lifetime of NAND flash-based SSD through compacted write"

Solid-state storage on mobile devices and computers is becoming de rigeur, it offers much shorter read and write times for data than conventional magnetic storage devices with spinning disks and other moving parts, it uses far less power, and it is silent in operation. But, those advantages come at a cost in that all the rapid reading and writing of data can wear out the device much faster than a conventional hard disk. There are techniques for reducing the wear based in software and settings, but ultimately lifespan is rather limited and there is an urgent need to developed solid-state storage that has greater longevity.

Research published in the International Journal of Embedded Systems offers a new approach to reducing the number of read-writes that occur when data is stored on one particular type of solid-state media, the solid-state disk (SSD). These are commonly used to replace magnetic hard disks in personal computers and laptops offering faster bootup and quicker access to data files.

Hai-Tao Wu and Tian-Ming Yang of Huanghuai University in Henan, China, Ping Huang of Temple University, Philadelphia, USA, and Wen-Kuang Chou of Providence University, Taichung, Taiwan, explain that the problem of SSD electronic wear and tear is due to the legacy of traditional file systems on mechanical drives which involvs a lot of partial page rights.

The team has traced the write activity in an SSD and found that partial page writes are most common for the heads and tails of large write requests. This, the team suggests, means that it might be possible to reduce the number of writes made by compressing two partial page writes from the same large write request into a single page before the data are written into flash. This would reduce significantly the number of accesses to each bit of memory and so prolong the lifespan of the device.

The team adds that their novel approach to prolonging the life of an SSD not only reduces erase number but write latency, and read latency by up to 69%, 47%, and 50%, respectively.

Wu, H-T., Yang, T-M., Huang, P. and Chou, W-K. (2020) ‘Extending the lifetime of NAND flash-based SSD through compacted write’, Int. J. Embedded Systems, Vol. 13, No. 2, pp.129–135.

Research pick: Whatsapp for helpful social communities - "eHealth WhatsApp for social support: design lessons"

Dutch computer scientists have assessed the value of the Whatsapp mobile communication platform in the context of social support. The research seems rather pertinent in the midst of the global Covid-19 pandemic that has forced countless people to work entirely remotely, usually at home, to engage with their doctor and other healthcare workers via online applications, and to work with educators to teach their children at home too.

Whatsapp is a free, cross-platform messaging and Voice over IP (VoIP) service provided by one of the most well-known of the social media companies, Facebook. Whatsapp users can send each other text messages and voice messages without paying the usual charges that might be required of SMS and phone calls by utilizing a Wi-Fi or internet data connection on their phone. They can also make voice and video calls, share images, documents, and other files, and even their location with other users in end-to-end encrypted connections. Users can also build groups of collaborators, friends, and family to communicate and share among that community.

Writing in the International Journal of Networking and Virtual Organisations, Luuk Simons and Catholijn Jonker of Delft University of Technology in Netherlands and Wouter van den Heuvel of the Health Coach Program also in Delft, suggest that WhatsApp groups can be used as attractive social support systems augmenting existing electronic tools and personal coaching. Their exploratory study of a small number of young professionals revealed that they were all happy to engage with others using Whatsapp. Indeed, the app led to greater engagement than other social media tools.

The team demonstrated that the use of a Whatsapp group by these young professionals led to healthy behaviour and health advocacy and confirmed the potential of the system for peer coaching. The research did show that there is a need to educate potential users on how to form relevant communities more effectively. They offer several ideas in their paper on how Whatsapp use might be improved. For instance, it is perhaps essential in a coaching community environment that at least one of the members of the group is an expert in that realm to ensure the quality of advice and discussions, to catalyse group interactions, to prompt users to act as health advocates within the group and to ensure that help is always given to participants when they need it.

Simons, L.P.A., van den Heuvel, W.A.C. and Jonker, C.M. (2020) ‘eHealth WhatsApp for social support: design lessons’, Int. J. Networking and Virtual Organisations, Vol. 23, No. 2, pp.112–127.

Research pick: We’ll meet again, online - "Shall we ever meet; does it matter: unfreezing the constructs of virtual team effectiveness"

Virtual conferences and meetings have been around for many years but they have come to the fore and are a standard form of group communication now that we are in a “new normal” because of the Covid-19 global pandemic. A team from India, writing in the International Journal of Networking and Virtual Organisations, discusses the ways in which virtual teamwork can be made more effective.

Monica Kunte, Sonali Bhattacharya, and Netra Neelam of the Symbiosis International (Deemed) University, in Hinjawadi, India, point out that virtual teams have always offered a way to reduce costs by allowing people to meet online and so preclude the need for transport and accommodation. They have measured perceived effectiveness of participants by looking at goal orientation, interdependency, knowledge sharing, empowerment, and preparedness in a multidimensional second-order construct.

The team has tested and proven their model to offer a useful scale of virtual team effectiveness. As such it will allow organizers and participants to improve their virtual meetings. Factors such as team size, diversity, participant hierarchy and even the timing, length, and frequency of virtual meetings might be optimized using the scale. This should improve efficiency, ensure any agenda is satisfied as well as ensuring all participants are essential to the team at any given point and avoid wasting human resources.

Kunte, M., Bhattacharya, S. and Neelam, N. (2020) ‘Shall we ever meet; does it matter: unfreezing the constructs of virtual team effectiveness’, Int. J. Networking and Virtual Organisations, Vol. 23, No. 2, pp.128–148.

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:

• Self-adaptative multi-kernel algorithm for switched linear systems identification
• Monitoring the lack of grease condition of rolling bearing using acoustic emission
• Modelling and attitude control of novel multi-ducted-fan aerial vehicle in forward flight
• Optimal storage sizing of energy storage for peak shaving in presence of uncertainties in distributed energy management systems
• Attitude tracking control of rigid spacecraft with disturbance compensation
• Combining recursive projection and dynamic programming technique in multi UAVs formation anomaly detection
• A recursive discrete Kalman filter for the generation of reference signal to UPQC with unbalanced and distorted supply conditions
• Modelling and fault tolerance analysis of triplex redundancy servo valve
• Kinematic calibration for industrial robots using articulated arm coordinate machines
• A model-based implementation of an MPPT technique and a control system for a variable speed wind turbine PMSG

Special issue published: "Vehicular Networking and Communication Systems"

International Journal of Vehicle Information and Communication Systems 5(2) 2020

• Research on self-organising control method of urban intelligent traffic signal based on vehicle networking
• Modelling and analysis of urban vehicle traffic congestion characteristics based on vehicle-borne network theory
• Automatic recognition of vehicle image based on monocular vision and environmental perception
• Design of recognition and compensation system for vehicle communication signal based on vehicle networking
• Anti-jamming method for vehicle communication network based on internet of vehicles technology
• Binocular vision vehicle environment collision early warning method based on machine learning
• Design of intelligent traffic guidance display system based on internet of vehicles
• Research on abnormal monitoring of vehicle traffic network data based on support vector machine

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Modelling in Operations Management

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

• Proposing a new multi objective mathematical model for university course timetabling problem regarding optimisation of the quality of lecturers
• Developing a multi-commodity multi-period mathematical model based on the travelling salesman problem for solving bike sharing rebalancing problem
• Mathematical modelling of the vehicle hybrid locating-routing problem in three-tier supply chain
• Selection of a spouse for females using hybrid multi-criteria decision-making model in India
• Mobile-social media shopping: a partial least squares-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) approach

Research pick: Cleaning up money laundering - "A novel dynamic approach to identifying suspicious customers in money transactions"

Money laundering is big business but wholly illegal big business. It has an enormously negative impact on local, national, and international economies as well as providing the financial means to fund other criminal activities such as people trafficking and drugs. By definition, money laundering is activity carried out to obscure the source of money that has been obtained illegally.

Writing in the International Journal of Business Intelligence and Data Mining, researchers from the Sultanate of Oman and Saudi Arabia describe a new dynamic approach to identifying suspicious financial transactions that might be part of the chain in a money-laundering scheme.

Abdul Khalique Shaikh of the Department of Information Systems at Sultan Qaboos University in Oman and Amril Nazir of the Department of Computer Science at Taif University, in Al-Hawiya, Saudi Arabia, explain that among the many millions, if not billions, of financial transactions carried out every day, a worrying proportion will be associated with money laundering. Identifying such illegal transactions is difficult especially as the criminals carrying out such transactions are well aware of the tools used by banks and financiers to spot suspicious money movements and as such can usually obfuscate the activity very efficiently.

The team has devised a way to profile individual users and to flag up activity that is genuinely suspicious without the false positives that might otherwise interfere with genuine banking and other financial transactions members of the public might carry out entirely legitimately.

“The approach works based on the dynamic behaviour of customer transactions that measures the customer’s own transaction history, profile features and identifies suspicious transactions,” the team writes. They have tested the approach against realistic data and validated the result with confirmed suspicious customers. The dynamic approach has an accuracy of well over 90 percent, which exceeds that seen with statistical models based on pre-defined rules, the team concludes.

Shaikh, A.K. and Nazir, A. (2020) ‘A novel dynamic approach to identifying suspicious customers in money transactions’, Int. J. Business Intelligence and Data Mining, Vol. 17, No. 2, pp.143–158.

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Financial Services Management

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

• Role of Islamic banking in financial inclusiveness in Pakistan: promise, performance and prospects
• Managing market innovation for competitive advantage: how external dynamics hold sway for financial services
• The impact of Sukuk financing on economic growth: the case of GCC countries
• Management of working capital - the Achilles heel of small and medium enterprises: the case of Greece
• Does capital structure matter? Reflection on capital structure irrelevance theory: Modigliani-Miller theorem (MM 1958)
• Factors affecting environmental performance: evidence from banking sector in Bangladesh
• Price discovery of one security traded in several markets around the world
• Performance evaluation of equity mutual funds using data envelopment analysis

New Editor for International Journal of Knowledge Science and Engineering

Associate Prof. Jianxin Li from Deakin University in Australia has been appointed to take over editorship of the International Journal of Knowledge Science and Engineering.

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Business Performance and Supply Chain Modelling

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Business Performance and Supply Chain Modelling are now available here for free:

• Evaluation of manufacturing unit location in Russia - European trade and logistics perspective
• Greening of humanitarian supply chain with focus on logistics
• Inventory policies for maximum fixed life-time product with quadratic demand under permissible delay in payments for a single supplier-two retailers
• Postponement and international transfer in global supply chains