Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Management Practice

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

• A model for measuring the direct and indirect impact of organisational culture factors and knowledge-sharing on the success of employee performance (field study in Jordanian Islamic banks sector)
• Forecasting audit opinion based on multilevel perceptron neural network model using one-goal particle swarm optimisation
• Structural equation modelling of transfusion of TQM-TPM model for Indian manufacturing industries
• The impact of accounting training on small business performance and new technology adoption
• Supply chain drivers and retail supply chain responsiveness: strategy as moderator

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Business and Systems Research

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

• Critical success factors in the stages of technological transfer from university to industry: study in the Andean countries
• Building loyalty in e-commerce: does consumer income matter?
• The TODIM multi-criteria method applied to the ANBIMA ranking of Brazilian investment funds
• Impact of after-sales service on consumer behavioural intentions
• A queuing-based mathematical model for the congested network design problem under demand uncertainty
• Identification and analysis of factors influencing food advertisements on buying behaviour of children in emerging consumption markets: the case study of Afghanistan

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Business Intelligence and Data Mining

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

• Mining multilingual and multiscript Twitter data: unleashing the language and script barrier
• Research on aircraft landing schedule using opposition-based genetic algorithm with Cauchy mutation
• Trajectory tracking of the robot end effector for the minimally invasive surgeries
• Characteristic of enterprise collaboration system and its implementation issues in business management
• Frequent pattern mining for parameterised automatic variable key-based cryptosystems
• Analytics on talent search examination data
• Optimal page ranking system for web page personalisation using kernel-based fuzzy C-means and gravitational search algorithm

Research pick: Digital forensics - "Mobile phone forensics – a systematic approach, tools, techniques and challenges"

A systematic approach to mobile phone forensics is discussed in the International Journal of Electronic Security and Digital Forensics. Manish Kumar of the M.S. Ramaiah Institute of Technology in Bangalore, India, that insight and understanding the digital tools available in this sphere are important in both civil and criminal legal cases as well as in the broader fight against organized crime and terrorist activity.

With the exponential growth in digital devices, computers, laptops, and mobile phones the demand from law enforcement for digital forensics has grown apace. With every release of new software and hardware, there is a need for the tools to advance, the tools must also be able to cope with broken or otherwise compromised devices. This is especially the case as criminals and others of malicious intent develop the ways and means to protect their devices from forensic examination. Critically, the forensic tools uses must themselves be compliant with the law in order to offer admissible evidence in court that can uphold a conviction.

The forensic investigator must also be aware that a seized device may be PIN or password protected and may be retrieved in either the on or off state, and internal battery status as this can all affect what evidence might be obtained. In a certain state, an outside criminal party might have the ability to erase a device remotely if appropriate protections are not put in place on being seized from a crime scene or elsewhere. An expeditious examination can allow communication data, such as call logs, contact details, even text messages to be extracted from a mobile phone, for instance. Application data and multimedia files might also be accessible as well as internet history, GPS data, and cloud storage data.

Kumar discusses in detail the various levels of forensic examination available and what level of evidence might be retrieved when used expertly. “Evidence extraction and analysis is always a challenging job. The success completely relies on the approach, tools, techniques, and the skill-set of the examiner. There is no single straight-forward approach which can be applied in all situations,” Kumar writes.

Kumar, M. (2021) ‘Mobile phone forensics – a systematic approach, tools, techniques and challenges’, Int. J. Electronic Security and Digital Forensics, Vol. 13, No. 1, pp.64–87.

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Automation and Control

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

• Novel robust stability condition for uncertain systems with interval time-varying delay and nonlinear perturbations
• Synthesise of MPC controller for uncertain systems subject to input and output constraints: application to anthropomorphic robot arm
• Stability analysis and robust synchronisation of fractional-order modified Colpitts oscillators
• A distributive approach for position control of clamps in a reconfigurable assembly fixture
• Stabilisation of a rotary inverted pendulum system with double-PID and LQR control: experimental verification
• Optimal preview control design of pneumatic servo system: a comparative analysis

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Mathematical Modelling and Numerical Optimisation

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Mathematical Modelling and Numerical Optimisation are now available here for free:

• Reconstruction of an orthotropic thermal conductivity from non-local heat flux measurements
• A higher-order hybrid numerical scheme for singularly perturbed convection-diffusion problem with boundary and weak interior layers
• Numerical analysis on thermal performance of a trapezoidal micro-channel heat sink using an improved version of the augmented ε-constraint method
• Numerical analysis of the European and American options with the SPH method
• Frequency regulation of a power system integrated with renewables using a novel DE-DA optimised controller

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Electronic Security and Digital Forensics

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

• Forensic of an unrooted mobile device
• Augmenting smart home network security using blockchain technology
• A novel approach to secret data concealment with high cover text capacity and security
• Application of quality in use model to assess the user experience of open source digital forensics tools
• Authenticate audio video-crypto invisible watermarking approach for enhancing hidden information security and robustness
• A 3-layer RDH method in encrypted domain for medical information security

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Computational Economics and Econometrics

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

• Real options games between two competitors: the case of price war
• Evidence for the globalisation types model integrating different trade theories
• An analysis of long-run relationship between ICT sectors and economic growth: evidence from ASEAN countries
• Overvaluation in a non-optimal currency area
• Modelling agricultural risk in a large scale positive mathematical programming model

Research pick: Automatic for the pharma - "Research on design of unattended intelligent pharmacy system"

Researchers in China are developing an unattended intelligent hospital pharmacy system that can dispense seal boxes of prescription drugs. Details are reported in the International Journal of Computer Applications in Technology. Haifei Si, Xingliu Hu, Yizhi Wang, Xiang Luo, and Mingming Huang of Jinling Institute of Technology, in Nanjing, Jiangsu and Zhen Shi of Harbin Engineering University, in Harbin, Heilongjiang, explain how their system cuts patient waiting times for prescription collection by two-thirds (66 percent).

Hospital pharmacies are often overwhelmed by the sheer volume of prescriptions that have to be dispensed on a given day and long delays commonly occur between the time a medicine is prescribed for a patient and it being dispensed. Moreover, delays at the pharmacy on the day of discharge are a common problem for waiting to go home. An automated, intelligent system could reduce the pressure on pharmacists dealing with a large number of patients and many prescriptions. The team writes that there are tens of thousands of hospitals in China but only a couple of hundred have automation in their pharmacies, so addressing the problem more widely could potentially benefit many more people.

The system uses an Automated Guided Vehicle with an optimised path strategy that takes control input from the prescription software to retrieve the boxed medicines from storage. The team suggests it is something of a breakthrough in hospital dispensing. It is reliable, stable, and low maintenance.

Si, H., Hu, X., Wang, Y., Shi, Z., Luo, X. and Huang, M. (2020) ‘Research on design of unattended intelligent pharmacy system’, Int. J. Computer Applications in Technology, Vol. 64, No. 2, pp.197–207.

Free open access article available: "Local brand franchise competition in the disruption era"

The following paper, "Local brand franchise competition in the disruption era" (International Journal of Productivity and Quality Management 31(4) 2020), is freely available for download as an open access article.

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

Research pick: Sustainability in a pandemic - "COVID-19 and sustainable development"

A new perspective to be published in the International Journal of Sustainable Development suggests that the current sustainable development framework is strong enough to face long-term global challenges including poverty and climate change and even, emergent diseases, such as the current COVID-19 pandemic.

Mohan Munasinghe, Chairman of the Munasinghe Institute for Development (MIND) in Colombo, Sri Lanka, explains however that the emergence of the virus SARS-CoV-2, which led to the COVID-19 pandemic beginning at the end of 2019 has highlighted major existing unsustainabilities. Among those are potentially unhealthy interactions between ecological and socio-economic systems. Such interactions where people encroach on wildlife habitats can, it seems, facilitate the transfer of pathogens from wild species to domesticated species or humans and occasionally lead to diseases that affect humanity on a global scale.

In 2015, humanity recognised sustainable development as a key objective of our future health and prosperity. The concept gave rise to the universal acceptance of the United Nations 2030 Agenda and 17 sustainable development goals by all countries. When the World Health Organisation declared COVID-19 a global pandemic in March 2020 those aspirations were put on hold to some degree as humanity attempted to cope with what has become an unprecedented a horrendous health crisis with ongoing socio-economic effects.

From this perspective, seven preliminary policy-relevant lessons can be gleaned that would allow us to reinvigorate our approach to sustainable development issues. This will hold under the proviso that we learn the lessons and follow their guidance.

• Protect the environmental base and avoid dangerous feedbacks
• Find integrated, globally coordinated, systems-based long-term solutions for multiple problems
• Empower individuals to act now
• Focus on social issues
• Pursue a transformative path to sustainability via balanced inclusive green growth
• Promote sustainable urban habitats and lifestyles using digital technology
• Use better risk analysis and management.

“The pandemic does have a silver lining – it confirms that achieving sustainability is an effective but urgently needed response,” Munasinghe says. “If we do not change, it will not be the end of the world,” he adds. “The earth will certainly continue as it has for billions of years, but perhaps with a diminished human presence or none – a relatively minor blip in the greater scheme of things.”

Munasinghe, M. (2021) ‘COVID-19 and sustainable development’, Int. J. Sustainable Development, in press.

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Learning and Change

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

• Integrating disciplinary plans to manage learner behaviour in the pre-instructional phase of a lesson in South African schools
• The relationship of leadership qualities and professional ideas among teachers of the additional education system
• Characteristics of psychological and pedagogical support of children with special needs
• Types of communicative coordination in dialogues in academic sphere of communication
• The use of technological cycles in the management of an educational institution by integrating marketing technologies
• On innovative pedagogical technologies and training methods
• Using activity systems theory to understand change process in developing teacher as researcher at master level studies

Research pick: Students at the movies - "Assessing the effectiveness of using western movies in elucidating economic concepts"

Higher education establishments in Malaysia take many innovative approaches to teaching, particularly in digital learning. Work published in the International Journal of Education Economics and Development suggests that the careful choice of western cinematic output, movies, can be useful in teaching certain economic concepts and how these relate to the real world.

Siew King Ting, Sze Wei Yong, Tze Wee Lai, and Geetha Subramaniam of the Universiti Teknologi MARA in Cawangan Sarawak and Selangor, together with Brian Dollery of the University of New England, in Armidale, Australia, suggest that digital approaches to education have complemented traditional “chalk-and-talk” approaches for many years now. The approach lends itself to innovation as the digital world itself innovates continuously. As such smartphones and tablets, websites and apps, social media and social networking have all been used as teaching tools. They can enrich and engage students in various ways. Recently, educators in business schools teaching economics have employed movies, music, videos, and TV shows to explicate economic concepts to students.

The team writes that those conventional chalk-and-talk lectures often represent a unidirectional monologue with the educator essentially disseminating information to the students with little mutual engagement. As such, they are often criticised as being ineffective, although the approach does have its benefits. Conversely, innovative approaches add to the workload of the educators who must maintain their own up to date knowledge of the digital realm and be constantly under pressure to find ways to use the digital in novel teaching approaches.

Traditional lectures are tried and tested, the digital can be a distraction.

Either way, teasing apart the benefits of traditional as opposed to modern methods in learning and teaching economic courses is difficult. It is appreciated that young students can struggle to understand economic concepts because of their youth, attitudes, and limited worldly experience.

“The net outcome of using conventional and innovative instructional methods thus remains inconclusive and further empirical research is essential,” the team writes. This is their motivation for investigating the pros and cons of one particular novel teaching tool – the use of movies in education to impart knowledge about particular aspects of economics. The team also suggests that the analysis of movies could be used to enhance writing and critical thinking skills. They add that making short movies of their own might also be used to reinforce understanding.

Ting, S.K., Yong, S.W., Lai, T.W., Subramaniam, G. and Dollery, B. (2021) ‘Assessing the effectiveness of using western movies in elucidating economic concepts’, Int. J. Education Economics and Development, Vol. 12, No. 1, pp.45–60.

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Education Economics and Development

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

• Work-integrated learning: a powerful connecting tool between classroom and industry
• Effects of classroom experiments on student learning outcomes and attendance
• Implementing pragmatism and John Dewey's educational philosophy in Emirati elementary schools: case of mathematics and science teachers
• Returns to schooling in Palestine: a Bayesian approach
• Factors influencing students' motivation to study at a university
• Organisational communication in higher educational institutions: scale development and validation

Research pick: Boosting science teaching with mobile technology - "An exploration of inquiry-based authentic learning enabled by mobile technology for primary science"

It can almost be taken as read that mobile communications technology can help with science education. However, there is little detailed research that has investigated how well mobile devices have been integrated into what might be called authentic learning in a formal science curriculum.

Now, Wing Kei Yeung and Daner Sun of the Department of Mathematics and Information Technology at The Education University of Hong Kong, have explored how enquiry-based science might be assisted by mobile technology. They have focused on the learning platform nQuire-it which has scientific mobile sensors. They used a mixed-methods approach to test how well students benefited from using the system in their learning.

Their findings suggest that this kind of platform can be useful in improving academic performance, boosting student motivation and interest in learning, as well as their ability to link knowledge gained inside the classroom with the world outside. All such outcomes are a key part of modern education.

The team points out that any tool used in education is just that – a tool. It is, they conclude, important to have well-designed teaching plans in place alongside effective methods of increasing student motivation and engagement whether mobile technology or other approaches. “To merge this learning approach with a formal curriculum,” they add, there is a need to “foster an open learning environment complete with sufficient resources and training.”

Yeung, W.K. and Sun, D. (2021) ‘An exploration of inquiry-based authentic learning enabled by mobile technology for primary science’, Int. J. Mobile Learning and Organisation, Vol. 15, No. 1, pp.1–28.

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

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

• Execution of UML-based oil palm fruit harvester algorithm: novel approach
• Bi-level user authentication for enriching legitimates and eradicating duplicates in cloud infrastructure
• A real-time auto calibration technique for stereo camera
• Automatic identification of acute arthritis from ayurvedic wrist pulses
• Evaluation of video watermarking algorithms on mobile device
• Hybrid algorithm for twin image removal in optical scanning holography
• Improved automatic age estimation algorithm using a hybrid feature selection
• Improved indoor location tracking system for mobile nodes

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Networking and Virtual Organisations

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Networking and Virtual Organisations are now available here for free:

• Unified enterprise modelling language-based interoperability for collaborative access control framework in critical infrastructures
• Implementation of inter-organisational mediums: synthesising framework as a design exemplar
• QoS integrated energy aware routing for wireless sensor networks
• A novel machine learning-based attacker detection system to secure location aided routing in MANETs
• A QoS-enhanced data replication service in virtualised cloud environments

Free open access article available: "Gateway controller with deep sensing: learning to be autonomic in intelligent internet of things"

The following paper, "Gateway controller with deep sensing: learning to be autonomic in intelligent internet of things" (International Journal of Communication Networks and Distributed Systems 26(1) 2021), is freely available for download as an open access article.

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

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Communication Networks and Distributed Systems

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

• A topic-based synchronisation protocol in peer-to-peer publish/subscribe systems
• An automated fault-tolerant route discovery with congestion control using TFRF model for 3D network-on-chips
• An adaptive model for spectrum assignment in elastic optical networks
• A review on propagation of secure data, prevention of attacks and routing in mobile ad-hoc networks
• Resilient intrusion detection system for cloud containers

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Technology Enhanced Learning

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

• Developing ICT adoption model based on the perceived awareness and perceived usefulness of technology among telecom users
• Impact of used programming language for K-12 students' understanding of the loop concept
• Leveraging learners' activity logs for course reading analytics using session-based indicators
• Blended learning of physics in the context of the professional development of teachers
• Designing and implementing constructionist learning in a blended advertising photography course
• Kuwaiti female university students' acceptance of the integration of smartphones in their learning: an investigation guided by a modified version of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT)

Research pic: Minimising the negawatts - "Negawatt planning via stochastic programming"

Supply and demand…when it comes to power generation if supply outweighs demand it can get very uneconoical as fuel is used at prodigious rates in conventional power stations to produce wattage that goes to waste. Writing in the Asian Journal of Management Science and Applications, a team from Japan discusses the concept of “negawatts” – negative watts – and how they might be traded when power supply exceeds demand.

Masahiro Yamada, Tomoki Fukuba, and Takayuki Shiina of Waseda University in Shinjuku and Ken-ichi Tokoro of the Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry in Kanagawa, suggest that vast daily fluctuations in the demand for electricity leads to huge and costly inefficiencies. The team has developed a stochastic programming model is formulated for a negawatt planning operation that can manage uncertainty in power demands, the probability of the customer’s failure to reduce it, and a way to optimise operations.

“The experimental results show that customers can choose an operation method tailored to their strategy while controlling the value of the failure probability,” the team explains. “Compared to using a deterministic model, this stochastic programming model ensures high profits and a stable supply to consumers,” they add. The team concludes that with their approach, negawatt planning can be made profitable for the consumer and a stable supply can be attained for the supplier. Such approaches will be essential for many years to come until viable technology for large-scale electricity storage are available and ubiquitous.

Yamada, M., Fukuba, T., Shiina, T. and Tokoro, K. (2020) ‘Negawatt planning via stochastic programming’, Asian J. Management Science and Applications, Vol. 5, No. 1, pp.40–55

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Mobile Learning and Organisation

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

• Advancement and research trends of smart learning environments in the mobile era
• Effects of a mobile technology-supported peer assessment approach on students' learning motivation and perceptions in a college flipped dance class
• Stakeholders' perceptions of integrating mobile devices in teaching and learning
• The use of student response systems with learning analytics: a review of case studies (2008-2017)
• Voluntary participation and natural grouping with smartphones: an effective and practical approach to implement a quasi-experiment
• Using Kahoot in law school: differentiated instruction for working adults with diverse learning abilities
• Optimising the learning process with immersive virtual reality and non-immersive virtual reality in an educational environment
• A mobile application with augmented reality in exploring the natural environment of Hong Kong

Research pick: Let us prey - "Analysis of migration pattern of prey species with reserved zone"

One of the reasons that prey species migrate is to avoid predators over long time scales, this ultimately has a powerful effect on the balance of predator and prey in a given ecosystem. This is especially the case if the migration is seasonal and the predator lacks the capacity to migrate.

New work published in the International Journal of Dynamical Systems and Differential Equations, looks at how modeling predator-prey interactions in divided into hypothetical reserved and non-reserved areas – the reserved zone is the area to which the prey migrates and is inaccessible to predators – can improve our understanding of the biological phenomenon of migration. Moreover, the creation of artificial reserved zones could be useful in reducing the detrimental effects of climate change, exploitation, random harvesting, poaching, and pollution on prey species without having any significant negative impact on the predators. Prey and predator both deserve a chance at being part of a sustainable, biodiverse environment, after all.

“Several factors should be taken into account in the time of creating protected areas for a particular species, such as the number of individual of species to be protected, the carrying capacity of the reserved area, dynamics of the ecosystem supporting these species and many others,” write Jyotirmoy Roy and Shariful Alam of the Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology in Howrah. The team’s modeling show how migration into and out of the reserved zone has a powerful effect on the system dynamics, the changing predator-prey balance, in other words. However, the movement of prey from reserved to non-reserved zone has the greatest impact and if that movement falls below a particular threshold then the whole system becomes unstable. Conversely, if there is too great a migration back and forth then the concept of creating a reserved zone becomes meaningless as the prey are essentially perpetually in the purview of the predators.

The next step to modeling such systems will take seasonality into account to create a more realistic system that can be tested more rigourously.

Roy, J. and Alam, S. (2020) ‘Analysis of migration pattern of prey species with reserved zone’, Int. J. Dynamical Systems and Differential Equations, Vol. 10, No. 5, pp.383–400.

Research pick: You’re beautiful, it’s true - "Facial beauty prediction via deep cascaded forest"

Social media, networking, dating apps, and other resources, such as entertainment software, might have a use for an automated system that can analyse a photo of a person’s face and determine how beautiful that face might be to other people. Research published in the International Journal of High Performance Systems Architecture, suggests that a deep cascaded forest could be the answer to developing a prediction system of beauty.

The researchers based in China and Italy have used multi-grained scanning to obtain the features of the portrait and then applied multiple random forests to enhance the person’s features ahead of classification. Tests with a data set of some 10000 previously categorised portraits showed the new algorithm developed from their approach could accurately assign a degree of beauty, automatically for the people without any eye to behold them.

“The method used in this paper is superior to other methods in feature extraction and prediction accuracy relatively,” the team writes. They add that their optimised approach will ultimately offer a stable and accurate facial beauty recognition tool. Of course, as is often remarked beauty is in the eye of the beholder and no automated approach to determining whether someone is handsome, pretty, or other is going to be considered 100% accurate when assessed by real people all of the time.

However, for a dating app or website a rough and ready way to categorise people and so give them a more equitable opportunity to match with a potential new partner could be more successful given that real people really do judge books by their covers however shallow that may seem.

Zhai, Y., Lv, P., Deng, W., Xie, X., Yu, C., Gan, J., Zeng, J., Ying, Z., Labati, R.D., Piuri, V. and Scotti, F. (2020) ‘Facial beauty prediction via deep cascaded forest’, Int. J. High Performance Systems Architecture, Vol. 9, Nos. 2/3, pp.97–106.

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

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

• Water quality protection of the Canada-US Great Lakes: examining the emerging state/nonstate governance approach
• An application of the ‘foundational principles’ of the second pillar of the United Nations guiding principles on business and human rights to the ranger mine, in the Northern Territory of Australia
• Developing a framework for sustainable development in extractive industries: a Latin America perspective
• Change is possible: the effects of a corporate social responsibility course on business student attitudes
• The emergence and devolution of sustainable organisations
• Obesity: locating social responsibility in the context of evolving norms

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Leisure and Tourism Marketing

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

• Explaining visit intention involving eWOM, perceived risk motivations and destination image
• Mouth advertising, an effective tool for loyalty of sport customers, case study: women's health clubs in Mashhad
• Impact of place brand names on destination image
• A study of tourism market for Chinese citizens travelling to the USA
• The influence of perceptions of other consumers on consumer responses and the mediation of crowding tolerance: a study on tourism, hotels and the Olympics

Free sample articles newly available from Asian Journal of Management Science and Applications

The following sample articles from the Asian Journal of Management Science and Applications are now available here for free:

• Dynamic incentive remuneration design for functional recovery care
• On a stochastic degradation model based on the generalised inverse Gaussian distribution
• Green fuzzy parallel machine scheduling with sequence-dependent setup in the plastic moulding industry
• Long-distance delivery route planning using a commercial electric vehicle including the arrangement of charging stations
• Regression model for estimating thermal resource usage in air conditioning systems: daily demand forecast by potential integral method, considering thermal inertia of room and weather conditions

Research pick: Current city buses - "How suitable is lithium-sulphur battery for electric city bus application?"

Rechargeable batteries are de rigueur in the modern world. We find them in everything from our ubiquitous smartphones and tablets to the electric vehicles in which we taxi ourselves from A to Z. Unfortunately, despite the advances in battery technology, the lithium-ion battery has its inherent problems. For instance, limited discharge time, an ultimately limited number of charge-discharge cycles, high cost of the raw metal, lithium to make them, and their overall bulk and weight. Writing in the International Journal of Powertrains, a team from the UK has looked at the developments around an alternative, the lithium-sulfur battery, that might find use in electric buses for our cities.

Victor Calvo-Serra, Abbas Fotouhi, Mehdi Soleymani, and Daniel Auger of the Advanced Vehicle Engineering Centre in the School of Aerospace, Transport, and Manufacturing at Cranfield University, in Bedfordshire, explain how they have used MATLAB/Simulink software to build and simulate an electric bus of a similar model to those currently used in London. The software also models a putative lithium-sulfur battery and compares activity and efficiency with conventional lithium-ion batteries used in such vehicles.

“The results demonstrate that the proposed Li-S battery pack can fulfill the requirements of an electric city bus in terms of power while achieving a considerable increase in vehicle’s range,” the team writes. However, they point out that current Li-S cell prototypes also suffer from limited cycling life that precludes their commercial development for the time being. However, once that limitation is overcome, the technology could ultimately drive forward the move to longer journeys for electric buses. Indeed, there is much promise in Li-S batteries and many advances have been made over the last ten years. It will be interesting to see, after such a long wait, whether three all turn up at once in the very near future.

Calvo-Serra, V., Fotouhi, A., Soleymani, M. and Auger, D.J. (2020) ‘How suitable is lithium-sulphur battery for electric city bus application?’, Int. J. Powertrains, Vol. 9, No. 4, pp.265–288.

First issue: International Journal of Family Business and Regional Development (free sample issue available)

Family business is a driving force in economic development worldwide. It constitutes a whole range of enterprises whereby one or more family members exercise significant influence through leadership, control, participation, governance, investment, etc. Due to the emotional connection with the communities in which such businesses are launched, the family invests heavily in development of the region it calls home. The International Journal of Family Business and Regional Development expands understanding of family business and the relationship with regional development in different economies and countries from an interdisciplinary perspective.

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

Research pick: Evaluating cryptocurrencies - "Economic, legal and financial perspectives on cryptocurrencies: a review on cryptocurrency growth, opportunities and future prospects"

Cryptocurrencies are a revolutionary monetary system. They are decentralized, essentially unhackable, and represent a novel and disruptive alternative to monetary systems controlled by banks and governments. The value of various cryptocurrencies has waxed and waned, but at the moment one of the more well-known is riding high at a record-breaking valuation. A review in the World Review of Entrepreneurship, Management and Sustainable Development considers the growth, opportunities, and future prospects of cryptocurrencies.

Shweta Goel of the department of Management Sciences at Jagannath Institute of Management Sciences in New Delhi and Himanshu Mittal of the Department of Computer Science at Jaypee Institute of Information Technology in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India, suggest that cryptocurrencies can be regarded as the safest mode of transferring money and making payments internationally. Moreover, they represent a system that is beyond the control of governments, banks, and even law enforcement, a fact that has its pros and cons in the wider scheme of commerce, international relations, and crime-fighting. They suggest that the likes of Bitcoin, Ripple, Ethereum, etc have over the last decade or so changed the financial sector in unimaginable ways and have yet revealed their full potential especially as the world responds and evolves in the wake of the global Covid-19 pandemic.

While many everyday people still perceive folding cash money as the most “real” of currencies, organisations and individuals across a wide range of business sectors have recognised the unfolding of cryptocurrencies. This area of finance, despite some perceived limitations and purported but surmountable authoritarian controls, is likely to grow considerably in the medium to long term. In the short term, there will be a gradual understanding and a shift in perception that will facilitate that long-term recognition and growth.

Goel, S. and Mittal, H. (2020) ‘Economic, legal and financial perspectives on cryptocurrencies: a review on cryptocurrency growth, opportunities and future prospects’, World Review of Entrepreneurship, Management and Sustainable Development, Vol. 16, No. 6, pp.611–623

Special issue published: "The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Entrepreneurship and Business Management"

World Review of Entrepreneurship, Management and Sustainable Development 16(6) 2020

• Financial credit risk evaluation model using machine learning-based approach
• Fine grain sentiment grading of user-generated big data using contextual cues
• Internet of things-based wearable health solutions: empirical study for health startups
• Economic, legal and financial perspectives on cryptocurrencies: a review on cryptocurrency growth, opportunities and future prospects
• Modified artificial bee colony algorithm for facility layout design problem
• Grey wolf optimisation-based colour image watermarking
• A hybrid cluster technique for improving the efficiency of colour image segmentation

Research pick: Where have all the flowers gone? - "Recognition of flowers using convolutional neural networks"

There are numerous software applications, apps, that can identify birds, trees, flowers, and other living things all with varying degrees of accuracy. New research published in the International Journal of Intelligent Engineering Informatics offers a new approach to flower identification.

Abdulrahman Alkhonin, Abdulelah Almutairi, Abdulmajeed Alburaidi, and Abdul Khader Jilani Saudagar of the Information Systems Department at the Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, explain how flowers are a big part of our lives in the aesthetic and recreational, educational, and even medicinal contexts and beyond.

Deep learning algorithms have been widely used recently in the fields of image processing and computer vision.

The team’s new algorithm has been trained on a variety of photos of four well-known flower types – sunflower, dandelion, rose, and tulip. The resulting application tested with colour photos on the Android mobile operating system could then identify new photos of dandelion flowers with an accuracy of 94.6%, sunflowers at 92.5%, tulips with 95.7%. For roses the recognition rate was a little lower at just under 90%. They explain that increasing the training data set will allow the accuracy of the algorithm to be improved.

The team adds that in future work they will incorporate an augmented reality feature in the application as extension that would help with flower identification out in the field, as it were.

Alkhonin, A., Almutairi, A., Alburaidi, A. and Saudagar, A.K.J. (2020) ‘Recognition of flowers using convolutional neural networks’, Int. J. Intelligent Engineering Informatics, Vol. 8, No. 3, pp.186–197.

Research pick: Exoskeletons for the elderly - "Structural design and analysis of a lower limb exoskeleton for elderly"

The concept of a powered exoskeleton has been discussed widely in the context of science fiction and in industry where a human operator exploits robotic components that allow them to wield much greater strength in lifting and moving objects than is normally humanly possible. However, a robotic exoskeleton might be just as useful for the infirm who struggle with everyday mobility.

Writing in the International Journal Advanced Mechatronic Systems a research team from India discusses the design and potential of a lower-limb robotic exoskeleton for otherwise immobile older people. The system could help overcome one of the more common problems – rising from a seated position to standing from a chair.

Vishnu Vardhan Dadi, P.V.N.S. Sathwik, D. Mahesh, Dala Jaswanth, Karthik Kumar, M.M. Ramya, and D. Dinakaran of the Hindustan Institute of Technology and Science, Chennai, have designed their exoskeleton so that it can be adapted to varying body shapes, height, weight, and waist circumference. Modelling in Ansys workbench predicts the maximum loads, and static characteristics of the design as well as revealing the vibrational properties of the system. The design can bear 350 kilograms, which is well beyond the 100 kg person for which it was initially designed. Follow-up studies will investigate dynamic characteristics and responses of the design.

Dadi, V.V., Sathwik, P.V.N.S., Mahesh, D., Jaswanth, D., Kumar, S.K., Ramya, M.M. and Dinakaran, D. (2020) ‘Structural design and analysis of a lower limb exoskeleton for elderly’, Int. J. Advanced Mechatronic Systems, Vol. 8, Nos. 2/3, pp.65–74.

Research pick: Social media and Sudan - "The impact of social media on Sudan’s uprising behaviour"

The received wisdom is that the advent of social media has changed our lives significantly, it affects many aspects of business, entertainment, sport, and day to day living. But, according to researchers in the USA writing in the International Journal of Business Forecasting and Marketing Intelligence little research has been done to investigate its role on behavioural and political change. They hope to remedy that situation in the context of the impact of social media on the citizens of Sudan in their seeking civil government and the ensuing uprising.

The Sudanese Revolution led to the overthrow of President Omar al-Bashir after thirty years in power in April 2019 following widespread street protests in December 2018 and months of sustained civil disobedience. Ashraf Attia, Merve Yanar Gürce, Rana Fakhr, and Barry Friedman of the State University of New York at Oswego, USA, explain how social media is used by billions of people and that its platforms, most famously Facebook and Twitter have influenced our lives and perhaps even the results of elections and referenda. These tools provide an immediacy in political events from France to the USA, India to Iran, and Nigeria to Malaysia, and many other places besides.

The team suggests that platforms allow people to encourage others to participate in mass demonstrations through the creation of an organic group solidarity. Protestors can mobilize themselves with the help of social media platforms and build a voice that is louder and heard that might ultimately change a government stance or even change the whole government.

In the years before the Sudanese Revolution and coup d’état, economic conditions worsened, food prices escalated, and unemployment among the young increased enormously. Thus a thirst for freedom, democracy, and social justice arose. Social media facilitated the spread of the revolutionary urge and the information that brought together otherwise independent professional unions, rebel groups, and civil opponents with members from diverse race, religious, and ethnic groups. Importantly, it is well known that most of the protestors (80%) were young and 70% of those young people were women.

Attia, A.M., Gürce, M.Y., Fakhr, R.A. and Friedman, B. (2020) ‘The impact of social media on Sudan’s uprising behaviour’, Int. J. Business Forecasting and Marketing Intelligence, Vol. 6, No. 3, pp.186–203.

Special Issue published: "The 7th International Workshop on Nanotechnology and Applications" [includes OPEN ACCESS article]

International Journal of Nanotechnology 17(7/8/9/10) 2020

• Capillary folding of patterned polymer polyhedra
• A review of 2019 fuel cell technologies: modelling and controlling
• Impacts of copper-containing precursors on the photocatalytic activity of Cu-modified ZnO nanoparticles
• Fabrication of Mn-(Bi, Ga) based hard magnetic nanocomposites
• Plasmonic interconnects for global wires in integrated circuits
• One-photon absorption based direct laser writing for fabrication of multi-dimensional photonic and plasmonic nanostructures
• A novel cathodic composite in lithium ion battery based on LiNi0.7Co0.3O2, Li2MnO3, and LiCoO2 combination: synthesis and characterisation
• Development of new Mg-Zn-Sr alloys for medical purpose
• Wafer-scale fabrication and modification of silicon nano-pillar arrays for nanoelectronics, nanofluidics and beyond [OPEN ACCESS]
• Fabrication of TiO2/Al2TiO5 nanocomposite photocatalysts
• Effect of calcination temperature on optical properties of Gd3PO7:Eu3+ nanophosphors synthesised by the combustion method
• Morphology and optical properties of chemically synthesised CePO4:Tb3+ nanorods
• Study on electrochemical properties of gelled electrolytes using nano fumed silica in the presence of some organic additives
• Sensitive electrochemical measurement of As (III) using Nafion modified platinum electrode via anode stripping voltammetry
• Fabrication of paper-based microfluidic channels by electrohydrodynamic inkjet printing technology for analytical biochemistry applications
• Upconversion luminescence of Er3+ doped Y2O3 and Gd2O3 nanophosphors
• Development of a microfluidic flow-focusing droplet generating device utilising rapid prototyping technique
• Effects of silver nanoparticles on the growth, mortality rate and morphology of Chlorella vulgaris and Thalassiosira weissflogii algae
• Nickel nanoparticles loaded on ceria oxide spheres as catalyst for dry reforming of methane

Free open access article available: "Wafer-scale fabrication and modification of silicon nano-pillar arrays for nanoelectronics, nanofluidics and beyond"

The following paper, "Wafer-scale fabrication and modification of silicon nano-pillar arrays for nanoelectronics, nanofluidics and beyond" (International Journal of Nanotechnology 17(7/8/9/10) 2020), is freely available for download as an open access article.

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

Special issue published: "Intelligent Mechatronic Systems and Additive Manufacturing"

International Journal of Advanced Mechatronic Systems 8(2/3) 2020

• Obstacle avoidance system and wireless communication for an unmanned underwater vehicle for low depth water surfaces
• Maze path planning of mobile robots by gradient map rendering and gradient follow
• Structural design and analysis of a lower limb exoskeleton for elderly
• Machine learning based ovarian detection in ultrasound images
• Design and development of robotic end-effector position measuring device
• Platform tilt stabilisation using inertial measurement unit sensor
• Development of pass-through augmented reality interface for human robot interaction
• Operator-based nonlinear fault detection and fault tolerant control for microreactor using one-class SVM
• Optimal wavelet analysis and enhanced independent component analysis for isolated and combined mechanical faults diagnosis

Research pick: Philosophical thoughts for the future - "Mankind’s path from ignorance to knowledge – from ego structures to truth: a foresight"

Science, philosophy, and religion all attempt to distill the essence of reality, the essence of being – albeit from very different points of departure. Writing in the International Journal of Foresight and Innovation Policy, Austrian scientist Franz Moser presents a foresight paper that looks at humanity’s path from ignorance to knowledge and how ego structures have evolved into truth. Moser points out how our history is littered with war, misery, and suffering, yet none of our philosophical meanderings of whatever kinds have reconciled us. None has yet pulled us out of the paradigm that leads to that state of being to give us a new holistic paradigm.

“The present world view, the Newtonian paradigm, confronts us with a divided world of contradictions, antagonism, and egotism,” writes Moser. This arises from the basic human delusion of dualism wherein we imagine mind and matter to be separate rather than our minds, our consciousness, emerging from the electrochemistry of our brains. “Ego illusions prevail and dominate man’s behaviour towards his fellow man and towards himself,” adds Moser.

Our modern scientific understanding and our spiritual lives also thus exist in a dualistic place. The next evolutionary steps in the wellbeing of humanity must find a holistic approach that allows what one might have thought of as the heart and mind to become one and to guide us forward to a better world where misery, suffering, and war are greatly reduced if not entirely precluded from the human condition. The current philosophical paradigms cannot correct this dualistic world view at any level.

Ultimately, once we cast off the dualism, humanity can move from a place of ignorance, scarcity, and fear to knowledge and truth.

Moser, F. (2020) ‘Mankind’s path from ignorance to knowledge – from ego structures to truth: a foresight‘, Int. J. Foresight and Innovation Policy, Vol. 14, Nos. 2/3/4, pp.264-274.

Research pick: Strawberry plants guide healthcare schedules - "Plant propagation algorithm for nurse rostering"

The way in which strawberry plants propagate has been modelled mathematically and used to develop an algorithm that can help solve complicated problems. Writing in the International Journal of Innovative Computing and Applications, a team from Algeria has shown how such a plant propagation algorithm can be used to decide on an efficient nursing roster in a hospital.

Salim Haddadi of LabSTIC at the 8 Mai 1945 University in Guelma, explains that the nurse rostering problem is a combinatorial optimisation problem that has to be solved in every healthcare institution. It is a computationally hard problem with huge numbers of possible solutions and so requires a sophisticated approach that can find the optimal solutions from that huge number. There are many additional constraints on the solutions that might be tenable in a healthcare environment because nurses with different skills are needed at different times. There are also many regulations that must be complied with in the healthcare setting. Such constraints make solving the problem even tougher than a roster for shop assistants would be, for instance.

Plants have evolved many different propagation strategies. The most obvious is sexual reproduction which produces seeds that are dispersed by various mechanisms and grow into new plants. However, some plants, such as the strawberry plant can produce runners that branch from the main plant and generate new plants asexually with roots implanted from those new buds along the branches. The way in which strawberry plants project these runners and the positions of the new asexual offspring along the runners is determined by the plant’s sensing of sunlight, moisture levels, and nutrient concentrations. If conditions are inadequate when shorter runners are sent out, the parent plant will allow the runners to grow longer before a new plant bud forms to set roots. The algorithm models this process as a proxy for positioning nursing staff in the roster.

Haddadi, S. (2020) ‘Plant propagation algorithm for nurse rostering’, Int. J. Innovative Computing and Applications, Vol. 11, No. 4, pp.204–215.

Reasearch pick: The end of fake news - "Fake news circulation on social media and the need for a policy evolution in India"

Fake news is another level of media manipulation beyond propaganda and it is becoming increasingly commonplace thanks to social networking and ubiquitous connectivity. Researchers in India, writing in the International Journal of Advanced Media and Communication suggest that India needs an evolution in policy to stem the flow of fake news.

Raj Kishore Patra of the Department of Mass Communication and Media Technology at Khallikote University, in Berhampur, Odisha, and Arpita Saha of the Xavier School of Communications at Xavier University, in Bhubaneswar, suggest that the spirit and ethics of journalism are compromised by fake news and the public perception of the place of ethical journalism within the modern information sphere. The social media giants seem not to have the strength of policy to cope with fake news and the regulatory authorities too are apparently somehow debilitated by the scale of the issue. The team adds that frail and inadequate public policies cannot monitor nor counteract this progressive dysfunction within the media.

The team has examined the origins of fake news, its gradual emergence and how the advent of social media which gave everyone a place to voice their opinions in public has pushed it to such a level that even those in power not only utilize it without impunity but endlessly accuse their opponents of exploiting it to their detriment.

Fake news can confuse and dupe adults, it can lead to culture jamming, polarization of opinion, obstruction of reality, and harassment of conventional mainstream media who become perceived not only as purveyors of fake news but also being biased against those who believe the fakery and peddling lies those who believe they are beyond that confusion. The presence and spread of fake news on social media and elsewhere represent a setback to what we might otherwise perceive as human progress. In many circles, there is little desire to impose legal constraints, which might be seen as restrictions on free speech. We must hope that journalistic integrity and professional ethics will prevail and ultimately quash the voices of those peddling and echoing fake news.

Patra, R.K. and Saha, A. (2019) ‘Fake news circulation on social media and the need for a policy evolution in India’, Int. J. Advanced Media and Communication, Vol. 7, No. 4, pp.282–308.

Special issue published: "Mathematical Modelling of Technical Processes and Systems"

International Journal of Engineering Systems Modelling and Simulation 11(4) 2020

• Phase equilibrium modelling for multi-component mixtures using highly accurate Helmholtz energy equation of state
• Oscillations and hysteresis: from simple harmonic oscillator and unusual unbounded increasing amplitude phenomena to the van der Pol oscillator and chaos control
• A model of advective changes in air humidity: a stochastic approach
• Controlled attitude motion of the space tether system at the retraction tether stage
• Impact analysis and orbit reboost of payload tossing using spinning electrodynamic tether system
• Thematic classification with support subspaces in hyperspectral images
• Application of digital twin and IoT concepts for solving the tasks of hydraulically actuated heavy equipment lifecycle management
• Numerical analysis of parameter identifiability for a mathematical model of a chemical reaction
• Computational modelling to determine the physical characteristics of biological tissues for medical diagnosis
• Research on dynamic simulation and prediction of urban expansion based on SLEUTH model
• Numerical simulation of landslide motion based on thermo-plastic mechanics

Special issue published: "Transition of Global Society and Technology – Part I"

International Journal of Foresight and Innovation Policy 14(2/3/4) 2020

• A kaleidoscope of societies. Variations of contents of international, transnational, global and world society
• Global organisation for overcoming risks
• Global values, digital transformation and development strategy for global society: conceptual framework
• Are we living in a time- and spaceless world? - The Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradoxon
• The challenge principle: introduction to the social analysis of synoptics: method, theory and case studies - synoptics part I
• Application of the synoptics model for the social analysis of small and large groups - synoptics part II
• Innovation networks: an agent-based model
• Fishbone diagram for technological analysis and foresight
• Innovative creation technologies for the growth substrate based on the man-made waste - perspective way for Ukraine to ensure biological reclamation of waste dumps and quarries
• Mankind's path from ignorance to knowledge - from ego structures to truth: a foresight
• Geopolitical tectonics - considerations with respect to the future organisation and transformation of societies
• Designing a strategic foresight model in small and medium-sized enterprises

Research pick: Naked body image and self esteem - "A nudity-based intervention to improve body image, self-esteem, and life satisfaction"

For people predisposed to take part in non-sexual nude activities body image, self-esteem, and life-satisfaction are improved by such participation. Now, research published in the International Journal of Happiness and Development suggests that for people who may not be predisposed to such activities, a nudity-based intervention may nevertheless lead to positive improvements in body image.

Negative body image is a mental health problem that is widespread. Surveys of thousands of people across many different countries suggest that dissatisfaction with one’s own body is common across many diverse body types. This dissatisfaction can lead to deeper, problems, such as depression, substance abuse, self-harm, risky sexual behaviour, eating disorders, and suicide.

Conversely, those with a positive body appreciation, enjoy better psychological well-being in this context are often proactive in coping with personal crises and other problems, have greater optimism, and take part in safer sexual behaviour. Overall, “Body image is an important aspect of one’s self-concept, and has a profound influence on both self-esteem,” writes researcher Keon West of the Department of Psychology at Goldsmiths, University of London, UK

West emphasizes how a person’s body image can profoundly affect their self-esteem and life-satisfaction and if of a negative nature can be a predictor for the onset of eating disorders, including anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. West has undertaken a small-scale study to test the hypothesis and found that participants reported a positive effect of the intervention that persisted for at least a month after the four-day trial period.

“Results suggest that nudity-based interventions can meaningfully and enduringly improve body image and related outcomes, even among non-nudists,” West reports. West adds that this area of research is still in its infancy and much is to be studied and understood. However, he points out that as society becomes more diverse and tolerant of different types of activity once perceived as taboo, we might find new approaches to confronting old and widespread problems, such as those that arise from negative body image.

West, K. (2020) ‘A nudity-based intervention to improve body image, self-esteem, and life satisfaction’, Int. J. Happiness and Development, Vol. 6, No. 2, pp.162–172.

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

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

• Valuation of a risk-averse investor under incomplete information
• Flipping activity in Malaysian IPO market: a new explanation from the winners' curse perspective
• Explaining the functional orientation of the budget: a survey of Swedish organisations
• Impression management using graphical resources in Brazilian company reports

Special issue published: "Advanced Nature-Inspired Optimisation Techniques for Engineering Applications"

International Journal of Swarm Intelligence 5(2) 2020

• Teaching learning-based optimisation algorithm: a survey
• Modelling of nature inspired modified Fourier elimination technique for quadratic optimisation
• A novel control approach of DC motor drive with optimisation techniques
• Application and development of improved meta-heuristic for making profitable bidding strategy in a day-ahead energy market under step-wise bidding scenario
• A survey of swarm-inspired metaheuristics in P2P systems: some theoretical considerations and hybrid forms

Special issue published: "Engineering Aspect-Based Electronic Marketing and Retailing"

International Journal of Electronic Marketing and Retailing 11(4) 2020

• Consumer ethnocentrism: validation of CETSCALE and measurement among Saudi citizens
• Self-congruity and brand loyalty - an innovation of diffusion approach
• Does spiritual intelligence contribute to sales force effectiveness?
• Generational difference as predictors of financial behaviour
• Digital marketing: a quantitative approach on the scientific production

Special issue published: "Energy Saving in Cities"

International Journal of Global Energy Issues 42(5/6) 2020

• Convergence analysis of urban green traffic carbon emission based on grey prediction model
• Optimal lighting operation method for photovoltaic new energy access system of urban street lamp
• Energy-saving control method of electric heating film temperature for urban zero energy consumption building heating
• Optimisation of energy-saving control parameters of urban underground sewage treatment pumps based on fuzzy parameter adaption
• Feasibility model of urban residential buildings with zero-energy-consuming using solar energy sources based on Laplace transformation
• Energy-saving feature extraction method for urban buildings with near-zero energy-consuming based on SVR
• Energy-saving optimisation method for green space planning of urban gardens based on artificial bee colony algorithm
• Study on energy conversion efficiency of biomass continuous carbonisation in municipal domestic sewage based on filtration technology
• Energy saving and emission reduction method for green transportation in tourist cities based on grey correlation degree
• Study on the energy-saving reconstruction method of the outer architecture envelope of urban public architecture
• Design of building energy consumption monitoring model based on parallel cloud computing

Research pick: Education in the time of Covid - "A study on work from home in education industry due to COVID-19"

With the emergence of the pandemic coronavirus and the spread of Covid-19 throughout 2020, many people who work in the service sector have been forced to work from home rather than commuting to offices. The social and economic impact of such measures, put in place to help restrict the spread of this disease, are yet to be fully understood.

Writing in the International Journal of Social and Humanistic Computing, a team from India describes the impact on the education “industry” of the work-from-home rules that have been put in place in many parts of the world. Rajwinder Kaur and Gagandeep Kaur of the University School of Business at Chandigarh University in Ghruan, Mohali, Punjab, suggest that there have been pros as well as cons for higher education in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The researchers suggest at among the benefits are a reduction in office distractions and office politics for those in the education industry. There are also the benefits of essentially zero commuting time and the ability to schedule work more efficiently. Of course, such benefits have been well-known for many years among those who previously worked from home. Conversely, the delivery of lectures, tutorials, and assessment via online tools while also having benefits means that students are missing out on direct contact and conversation with their educators. There are many barriers to having students take examinations throughout and at the end of a course because of physical (also known as social) distancing measures.

This is the first time that educators have been forced to handle their students in this way and they are only now beginning to face the challenges and recognise some of the benefits. Whether or not we see an end to the Covid-19 pandemic is a moot point, but the “new-normal” must take education into account to ensure a positive future for learners.

Kaur, R. and Kaur, G. (2020) ‘A study on work from home in education industry due to COVID-19’, Int. J. Social and Humanistic Computing, Vol. 3, Nos. 3/4, pp.339–358.

Research pick: British publishing not servitised - "Limited evidence for servitisation in UK publishing: an empirical analysis"

Researchers have demonstrated that there is very little, if any, servitisation in the UK and Ireland publishing industry. They present their results in the International Journal of Business Environment.

Alexander Kharlamov and Glenn Parry of the Faculty of Business and Law at the University of the West of England (UEW) Frenchay Campus, in Bristol, UK, explain how “servitisation is a strategic transition of firms towards the creation of additional value through services.” They have used a data-driven approach to investigate the activities of publishing companies as revealed by the descriptions those companies use to represent themselves. “If there is a trend of traditional publishing firms adopting servitisation strategies, this should emerge from textual analysis of company descriptors,” the team suggests.

Despite the apparent servitisation of other commercial endeavours, it seems that there is no significant evidence of strategic diversity in publishing, the team found. An alternative explanation might be that the publicly available dataset is not representative of corporate strategy in the publishing industry but one might assume that for an industry the stock in trade of which is sharing information that this explanation is unlikely.

A critical point that emerges from the research independent of the subject or its research conclusions is that it demonstrates how unsupervised clustering can be used to detect naturally occurring groups in large datasets without the need for prescribing categories of companies. This allows an analysis to be undertaking without introducing bias that would result from anticipating the conclusions that might emerge from said analysis.

Kharlamov, A.A. and Parry, G. (2020) ‘Limited evidence for servitisation in UK publishing: an empirical analysis’, Int. J. Business Environment, Vol. 11, No. 3, pp.336–346.

Research pick: Emotion detection in Parkinson’s disease - "A review on emotion recognition in Parkinson’s disease using bioinformatics"

Parkinson’s disease is a neurodegenerative disorder that leads to significant disturbances to motor control resulting in involuntary tremor, shuffling gait, muscular rigidity, and other problems. The disease also leads to cognitive decline and a reduction in the patient’s ability to understand facial expressions and other people’s emotions from their faces. Work published in the International Journal of Medical Engineering and Informatics, has used bioinformatics to examine this change in this ultimately fatal disease.

K.N. Rejith and Kamalraj Subramaniam of the Karpagam Academy of Higher Education in Coimbatore, India, explain how electroencephalograms (EEGs) have been used in much of the work into understanding the recognition of six “standard” emotions – happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise, and disgust – in Parkinson’s disease.

The team points out that EEG offers a simpler alternative to more sophisticated techniques for studying the brain, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET). But, despite its relative simplicity, the quantification of EEG rhythms could provide an important biomarker for several neuropsychiatric disorders. The researchers suggest that this could be critical for early diagnosis and thus intervention in such diseases allowing better disease management and treatment to be put in place at an earlier stage of the disease’s progression.

Rejith, K.N. and Subramaniam, K. (2020) ‘A review on emotion recognition in Parkinson’s disease using bioinformatics’, Int. J. Medical Engineering and Informatics, Vol. 12, No. 6, pp.542–552.

Research pick: Electronic word-of-mouth - "Online information bombardment! How does eWOM on social media lead to consumer purchase intentions?"

Word-of-mouth has always been a powerful mantra for marketing, whereby a positive consumer passes on their recommendation of product or service to their friends, family, and work colleagues. In the age of social networking, electronic word-of-mouth (eWoM) becomes a potentially even more powerful tool. Social media can amplify the positive message especially of those one might refer to as “influencers” people with larger than average reach and audience on the various websites and apps. Of course, the negative of the power of eWoM is the potential for negative messages to be amplified too.

Writing in the International Journal of Grid and Utility Computing, an international team has looked at the world of online information bombardment and how eWoM within that might affect consumer purchase intentions.

Muddasar Ghani Khwaja and Shaheed Zulfikar of the Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology, in Islamabad, Pakistan, and Saqib Mahmood and Ahmad Jusoh of the Azman Hashim International Business School at the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, in Skudai, Johor, Malaysia, suggest that eWoM is a great marketing opportunity. Social media conversations can grow exponentially given how such a large proportion of the world’s population now has access to always-connected devices, such as smartphones and tablets, and how so many of those people use social media and networking as well as email on a daily basis.

The team surveyed some 342 social media users with respect to their purchasing intentions and how eWoM affected their decision-making process. Statistical analysis of the responses provided a framework around which the team could build their conclusions. As one might expect the quality of information users receive had a positive effect on their perceptions of how useful that information is and whether it would influence their purchase intentions. The implication is that marketing management has to keep abreast of information that is being disseminated about their products. They must ensure that the information being shared is useful and of the highest quality to ultimately reflect a positive message through eWoM that can translate into sales.

Khwaja, M.G., Mahmood, S. and Jusoh, A. (2020) ‘Online information bombardment! How does eWOM on social media lead to consumer purchase intentions?’, Int. J. Grid and Utility Computing, Vol. 11, No. 6, pp.857–867.

Special issue published: "Modelling and Expert Intelligence for Traditional Chinese Medicine Diagnosis and Knowledge Base Development"

International Journal of Computer Applications in Technology 64(1) 2020

• State Chinese medicine theory based on the mathematical description TCM principles and modelling of complex human system
• The physical pattern evaluation and identification method of infrared thermal image of human health state in Traditional Chinese Medicine
• A novel classification tree based on local minimum Gini index and attribute partial order structure diagram
• Application research on quantitative prediction of TCM syndrome differentiation based on ensemble learning
• Formal concept attribute partial-order structure diagram and applications
• Assumption of constructing intelligent recommend model of diabetic Chinese patent medicines
• Research on the regular pattern of Professor Saimei Li using Chinese medicine alone in treating middle-aged type 2 diabetes mellitus on the basis of partial order structure theory
• Knowledge discovery for spleen yang deficiency syndrome based on attribute partial order structure diagram
• Effects of low frequency somatosensory music on heart rate and skin temperature in healthy people
• Statistical analysis for user group of opposing traditional Chinese medicine in Weibo

Special issue published: "Intelligent Systems for Cyber Security: Current Trends, Applications and New Challenges"

International Journal of Computational Intelligence Studies 9(4) 2020

• Intrusion detection using data mining
• An integrated approach for multimodal biometric recognition system using Pearson type-II (beta) distribution
• IbPaKdE: identity-based pairing free authenticated key and data exchange protocol for wireless sensor networks
• DCT statistics and pixel correlation-based blind image steganalysis for identification of covert communication
• Adaptive QoS constraint-based service differentiated routing in wireless sensor network

Special issue published: "Health Engineering and Informatics"

International Journal of Medical Engineering and Informatics 12(6) 2020

• Bio-medical analysis of breast cancer risk detection based on deep neural network
• A review on emotion recognition in Parkinson's disease using bioinformatics
• A study on indirect immunofluorescence image classification methods for bioinformatics
• Query optimisation with weighted fish school search in ontological database with application of bioinformatics
• A cloud-based secured framework for smart medical diagnosis: a survey
• The efficacy of mechanical cervical traction for cervical spondylosis patients
• Predicting anxiety disorders and suicide tendency using machine learning: a review
• Wavelet-based feature extraction technique for classification of different shoulder girdle motions for high-level upper limb amputees
• Automated EEG-based epilepsy detection using BA_SVM classifiers

Thematic issue published: "The Future of the Eurozone"

International Journal of Diplomacy and Economy 6(2) 2020

• EU diplomacy after Brexit
• Developing a context specific model in the euro zone for data security within the financial system in anticipation for digital currencies and blockchain
• Credit unions in Croatia: challenges ahead and far forward
• Crisis context and the community of fate
• Outward FDI location and economic diplomacy: the case of Greece
• EU banking regulation on capital and liquidity ten years after the crisis: the Slovenian perspective

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

Journal for Global Business Advancement 13(3) 2020

• Reviewing knowledge-based dynamic capabilities: perspectives through meta-analysis
• Unboxing Hulu: a tale of strategic alliance to survive in the sharing world
• Insight of entrepreneurship in Indian context
• Retailer responsiveness: a total interpretive structural modelling approach
• Evolution of entrepreneurship education literature: a future direction for research
• A framework for successful IoT adoption in agriculture sector: a total interpretive structural modelling approach

Research pick: Nostalgia ain’t what it used to be - "Childhood memories affecting brand loyalty and consumption behaviour among adult consumers"

Memories from childhood can be the most engaging when it comes to marketing. Feelings of nostalgia or of having a shared recognition for times gone by can be strong. Work published in the International Journal of Business Innovation and Research, looks at twelve variables that influence memory and brand engagement and awareness in a group of men and women in the age group 21 to 45 years.

Rajagopal of the EGADE Business School at the Tecnologico de Monterrey in Mexico City, Mexico, explains how childhood memories can affect how adults make their purchasing choices when it comes to consumer goods. The strongest effect is simply that of nostalgia, adults wishing to recapture the pleasures of their childhood, through rekindled brand loyalty.

Childhood memories are often retrieved when we are in adulthood during leisure time with family, friends, or in social gatherings. The narratives that emerge may well then influence engagement with the brands and products with which we become familiar as children and lead us to look again at those products in adulthood. The study was based on convenience brands familiar to those in Latin American markets. The research suggests that this effect is strongest in women who took part in the research survey.

If a person was not particularly familiar with a given brand in childhood, there will be only a weak nostalgia association and thus re-engaging with that brand in adulthood is less likely. However, ones where a strong memory is present and some degree of emotional attachment will necessarily lead to a stronger sense of nostalgia and a greater chance of said brand becoming familiar and cherished once more in adulthood.

Rajagopal (2020) ‘Childhood memories affecting brand loyalty and consumption behaviour among adult consumers’, Int. J. Business Innovation and Research, Vol. 23, No. 3, pp.400–420.

Research pick: TV viewers with second sight - "The roles of motivation and media engagement in second-screen viewing experiences"

More and more of us choose to watch television while using our smartphones and tablets. This second-screen viewing behaviour often means that viewers are less engaged with the television programming and advertising than they would have been previously because there are the endless distractions of social media, for instance, on that second screen.

This change has been partly driven by the blinkered attitude of television companies to the evolving needs of their viewers. The companies, preoccupied with piracy and surveillance concerns have attempted to control content and information and to limit interaction to their official websites and to have linear programming schedules as their output. Consumers expect more and conventional broadcasting simply does not meet the modern viewer’s demands. Viewers are not sufficiently gratified by the programmed content and constantly seek alternative and parallel media consumption opportunities.

Writing in the International Journal of Mobile Communications, researchers in Taiwan have looked at second-screen viewing behaviour in the context of engagement with the “primary screen”, the television and the implications for programmers and advertisers of this increasingly prevalent behaviour.

Po-Chien Chang of the Department of Communications Management at Shih Hsin University in Taipei and Cheng-Yu Lin in the University’s Department of Radio, Television and Film, explain that traditional television viewing has become a blended experience for many viewers. Some of that second-screen activity may well be related to whatever is being shown on the television at the time. For instance, people may well be discussing a live show, sporting event, or other programming on social networks while it is being broadcast. They may well be involved in gaming or other activities associated with that show. Alternatively, the second-screen activity may be entirely independent of the traditional broadcast.

“New features and behaviour are emerging that create challenges and opportunities for attracting advertising revenues and viewer attention in the second-screen environment,” the team writes.

Based on a survey of 562 television audience participants, the team has identified four categories second-screen TV viewing behaviour: control, enrichment, sharing, and participation. From an analysis of their data, they have developed an empirical model that integrates an understanding of audience motivation, media engagement, and second-screen behaviour. From this model, they have found that mobile users who are motivated by common interests and social sharing tend to be more engaged with online activities while watching television. They also found that second screen users are often strongly immersed, if not obsessed, with their social connectivity experiences rather than any interactive features that a television program may have of its own.

Chang, P-C. and Lin, C-Y. (2020) ‘The roles of motivation and media engagement in second-screen viewing experiences’, Int. J. Mobile Communications, Vol. 18, No. 6, pp.619–640.

Special issue published: "Emerging Digitalisation Technologies and Future Trends for Intelligent Transportation Systems"

International Journal of Vehicle Information and Communication Systems 5(3) 2020

• A scheduling heuristic in mobile distributed real-time database systems
• Efficient transportation: future aspects of IoV
• Collaboration of UAV and HetNet for better QoS: a comparative study
• Clone detection using fuzzy logic in static wireless sensor network
• Impact of wormhole attack on AODV routing protocol in vehicular ad-hoc network over real map with detection and prevention approach

Special issue published: "Leadership in Organisations: Contemporary Concerns and Key Developments"

International Journal of Business and Globalisation 26(3) 2020

• The role of leadership in developing a strong employer brand
• Study of role of business strategy on competencies and human capital - Indian context
• Leadership in the digital age: emerging paradigms and challenges
• A conceptual development of spiritual leadership model
• Use of timeline interview method for research in the area of leadership: a multi-method approach
• Diaspora networks as drivers of Indian global technology start-ups - a case study
• Nature of leader-member exchange model in territoriality and organisational politics
• A perceptual study on post-acquisitions leadership disruption on human resource factors

Research pick: Mentoring the good, the bad, and the ugly - "Is a bad mentor better than no mentor?"

Mentoring is usually seen as an important part of one’s personal development whether one is in education or employment. But, research published in the International Journal of Learning and Change looks at whether no mentor is sometimes better than a bad mentor.

Jiwon Jung and Barry Bozeman of the Center for Organization Research and Design, School of Public Affairs at Arizona State University, in Phoenix, suggest that the research literature in the field of mentoring in the workplace has given scant mention to the negative effects one might experience under mentoring schemes. The team analysed information from 3000 respondents – full-time workers – asked about their experiences, their job satisfaction, and salary.

The team writes that “The quality of the mentoring experience influences job satisfaction more while a mere presence of a mentor is important for the salary of the protégés.” Of course, there are many endogenous factors that affect mentees differently and perception of what is good or bad mentoring are also subjective so it is difficult to unravel the impact of mentoring on job satisfaction and salary.

The team has looked specifically at eight types of bad mentoring and offers suggestions that can explain some of the unexpected and curious findings they report. One particularly surprising finding from their research is that people working in the public sector with a mentor, unlike workers in the private and non-profit sectors, generally have a lower salary and job satisfaction compared to those who have no mentor.

Jung, J. and Bozeman, B. (2020) ‘Is a bad mentor better than no mentor?’, Int. J. Learning and Change, Vol. 12, No. 4, pp.444–475.

Special Issue on: "Swarm Intelligence Techniques for Optimum Utilisation of Resources in Grid and Utility Computing"

International Journal of Grid and Utility Computing 11(6) 2020

• A vector-based watermarking scheme for 3D models using block rearrangements
• Entropy-based classification of trust factors for cloud computing
• Towards self-optimisation in fog computing environments
• Improved African buffalo optimisation algorithm for petroleum product supply chain management
• Towards an effective approach for architectural knowledge management considering global software development
• Hardware implementation of OLSR and improved OLSR (AOLSR) for AANETs

Regularly submitted papers

• Dynamic group key management scheme for clustered wireless sensor networks
• Hybrid energy-efficient and QoS-aware algorithm for intelligent transportation system in IoT
• Analysing control plane scalability issue of software defined wide area network using simulated annealing technique
• Energy-aware multipath routing protocol for internet of things using network coding techniques
• Efficient variant transaction injection protocols and adaptive policy optimisation for decentralised ledger systems
• Online information bombardment! How does eWOM on social media lead to consumer purchase intentions?

Special issue published: "Advancements in Industrial Marketing: Exploring Product-Service Innovation Strategies for Sustainability"

International Journal of Business Environment 11(3) 2020

Manufacturing technologies (digitalisation) supporting PSI

• Exploring 3D printing technology in the context of product-service innovation: case study of a business venture in south of France
• Cloud computing for SMEs, servitisation through contracts
• Measuring the impact of digital capabilities on product-service innovation in Spanish industries
• Adjusting customer journey mapping for application in industrial product-service systems

Strategic orientation to promote PSI

• 'Avatar journey mapping' for manufacturing firms to reveal smart-service opportunities over the product life-cycle
• Place leadership in emerging product-service systems
• Limited evidence for servitisation in UK publishing: an empirical analysis

Special issue published: "Artificial Intelligence and Education"

International Journal of Continuing Engineering Education and Life-Long Learning 30(4) 2020

• Research on evaluation model of oral English teaching quality based on cloud computing
• Design of virtual education experiment platform based on artificial intelligence
• Integration model of English teaching resources based on artificial intelligence
• Research on teaching quality evaluation method of network course based on intelligent learning
• Design of step-by-step teaching system for English writing based on cloud network technology
• The evaluation method of English teaching efficiency based on language recognition technology
• Design of interactive English reading teaching system based on hybrid communication network
• Research on evaluation method of students' classroom performance based on artificial intelligence
• Research on integration method of AI teaching resources based on learning behaviour data analysis

Research pick: Aircraft air quality - "Volatile organic compounds in aircraft cabins"

Air quality in aircraft cabins is monitored for levels of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, ozone, and airborne particulates for the health and safety of passengers and crew. Researchers from Turkey writing in the International Journal of Sustainable Aviation, point out that volatile organic compounds are not monitored despite the health and other problems that can arise through exposure to some of these substances. In general, however, organic hydrocarbons are not considered worthy of consideration in assessing the atmosphere to which passengers and crew are exposed as a matter of course in an aircraft.

Veli Gokhan Demir and Enver Yalcin of Balikesir University, Ziya Sogut of the Piri Reis University in Instanbul, and Hikmet Karakoc of Eskişehir Technical University have investigated the potential sources of VOCs in an aircraft and what factors might influence concentrations in the air within the passenger and crew areas. Aircraft that fly at high altitude, such as international passenger aeroplanes are pressurized compartments, often with high occupant density, the effects of any volatile pollutants present in the air in this confined, airtight space, could ultimately have a detrimental effect on frequent flyers whether passenger or crew.

One such source of pollutants discussed by the team is from “bleed air”. Air from outside the aircraft is pressurized by the engines and pumped into the interior and recirculated to help maintain an acceptable pressure within. Bleed air can often carry components from engine oil with it. In extreme cases a so-called fume event may occur where concentrations of substances carried in with this bleed air reach uncomfortable levels inside the aircraft. Other VOCs may be present due to reactions with ozone in the aircraft or from other mechanical equipment, such as air conditioning units. Cleaning agents and even cosmetics and perfumes used by occupants can all add to the recirculating load of volatile materials to which all passengers are ultimately exposed during a high-altitude flight.

The team suggests that carbon filtration should be adopted to scrub recirculating air within an aircraft. In addition, there should be dedicated intake vents for bleed air rather than it passing through engines. Given that the presence of ozone can exacerbate the problem of other pollutants because of its reactivity, scrubbers for this compound should also be put in place. An additional factor is to avoid the intake of bleed air during takeoff when ambient pollution from engines and exhaust and service vehicles would compromise air quality for the duration of the flight.

Demir, V.G., Yalcin, E., Sogut, M.Z. and Karakoc, T.H. (2020) ‘Volatile organic compounds in aircraft cabins’, Int. J. Sustainable Aviation, Vol. 6, No. 2, pp.87–111.

Special issue published: "Impact of Nanomaterials in Rapid Manufacturing for Industrial Challenges"

International Journal of Rapid Manufacturing 9(4) 2020

• Comprehensive analysis on aluminium in sand casting by using intelligent techniques
• Experimental prediction and investigation of spring back in 'V' bending profile process modelling using artificial neural network
• Tool wear investigation of micro-textured and non-textured carbide inserts for machining industrial component
• Process evaluation and optimisation of friction welding parameters on aluminium grade 6061 by direct drive friction welding method
• Performance analysis of untreated tungsten carbide tool and cryogenically treated with oil quenched tungsten carbide tool while turning of Inconel 713C
• Performance analysis of solar box preheaters for energy conservation in metal casting

Special issue published: "Entrepreneurship in the Wine Sector"

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business 41(3) 2020

• The role of brand architecture and brand heritage for family-owned wineries: the case of Crete, Greece
• Designing a cost accounting system at a winemaking company
• Working capital management and profitability of wine firms in France: an empirical analysis
• The entrepreneurship power house of ambition and innovation: exploring German wineries
• Stories a world apart: storytelling differentiation in Napa and Stellenbosch
• Disintermediation: the optimal distribution strategy for small wineries?

Special issue published: "The Global Governance of Corporate Social Responsibility"

International Journal of Business Governance and Ethics 14(4) 2020

• 'The challenge is who rules the world': accounts and implications of transnational governance 
• CSR governance framework of South Africa, pre, during and post-apartheid: a manifestation of ubuntu values?
• The Chinese approach to CSR development: an analysis of CSR-government relationship in China
• Corporate social responsibility, hydraulic fracturing and unregulated space: recognising responsibility without the law

Additional papers

• Board characteristics, board leadership style, CEO compensation and firm performance
• Does board structure index and ownership structure index impact on top listed Indian company's performance?

Free open access article available: "The impact of foreign capital on profitability: the case of Portuguese manufacturing SMEs"

The following paper, "The impact of foreign capital on profitability: the case of Portuguese manufacturing SMEs" (International Journal of Globalisation and Small Business 11(4) 2020), is freely available for download as an open access article.

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