An international team from Bahrain, Estonia, Germany, and Hungary has looked at the notion of unlearning in the face of new paradigms, understanding and knowledge.

Information and communication technology (ICT) has changed the way we work and in the current crises of climate change, pollution, and emergent disease is more important than ever. Workers, students, and the populus in general must learn new skills and develop new capacity to utilise the ICT of the day as it evolves rapidly. Critically, this is where forgetting the old ways, or unlearning redundant and obsolete knowledge and skills becomes important so that the culture of old technology is not conflated and confused with the new.

Susanne Durst of the Department of Business Administration in the School of Business and Governance at Tallinn University of Technology, in Estonia, Ilka of the Heinze School of Management and Organizational Science at Kaposvár University, in Hungary, Thomas Henschel of the Business School at the Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft Berlin, Germany, and Nishad Nawaz of the College of Business Administration at Kingdom University in Bahrain discuss the concepts and provide a literature review of unlearning in the International Journal of Business and Globalisation.

"Unlearning of old knowledge, practices, and routines may be key to success. It is argued that an unwillingness or inability to unlearn old knowledge can hamper creativity and innovation in organisations when employees are unwilling to view new knowledge that they do not possess or control as useful or applicable," the team writes.

Their review reveals gaps in the business knowledge of unlearning. When looking both at the individual as well as organisational levels, there is a clear call for the application of more sophisticated research methods to allow for triangulation, they report. The research findings are practical for entrepreneurs and managers but also highlight where more research might be done to create a more coherent literature in this area and provide guidance for those entrepeneurs and managers, as well as others.

Durst, S., Heinze, I., Henschel, T. and Nawaz, N. (2020) 'Unlearning: a systematic literature review', Int. J. Business and Globalisation, Vol. 24, No. 4, pp.472–495.
DOI: 10.1504/IJBG.2020.106959

Low wetlands known as fens, store huge amounts of organic matter, usually in the form of peat, which is old, decomposed vegetable matter. Drained, agricultural fenland is thus of great importance in terms of growing crops and also fens in general from the perspective of the organic carbon biogeochemical cycle. Work published in the International Journal of Agricultural Resources, Governance and Ecology has looked at the chemical characterization of the vast range of humic acids present in fenland peat.

Janis Krumins, Maris Klavins, and Raimonds Krukovskis of the Department of the Environmental Science in the Faculty of Geography and Earth Sciences at the University of Latvia, in Riga, Latvia, explain how humic acids form the major part of fen peat organic matter. "They are also the most refractory and recalcitrant natural substances to degradation," the team writes, "and thus they contain essential information regarding mire and peat development over large periods of time as well as the organic carbon biogeochemical cycle."

The team has compared the properties of humic acids isolated from different fen peats of varied botanical compositions and origins. They hope to understand better the humification process that leads to the formation of peat. "The formation of humic acids of varied origins shows similarities; however, at the same time, differences can be found in the further development of humic acids, depending on the environment in which they are present," the team reports.

At a time, when the importance of fenland and peat conservation are high on the environmental agenda, the work could guide the use of this invaluable resource in a less potentially malignant way. "Fen peat is a potential source for humic acid extraction on an industrial scale; however, geological settings and peat botanical composition of a potential excavation site must be evaluated in high detail in future studies," the team writes. The better a picture we have of the chemical composition of peat, the easier it will be to utilize this limited resource more wisely.

Krumins, J., Klavins, M. and Krukovskis, R. (2020) 'Characterisation of humic acids in fen peat', Int. J. Agricultural Resources, Governance and Ecology, Vol. 16, No. 1, pp.74-89.
DOI: 10.1504/IJARGE.2020.107066

Social networking applications have taken their place in almost all parts of our lives. Writing in the International Journal of Mobile Communications, researchers reveal how immigrant children, adolescents, and young adults are using these apps, which include WhatsApp and Facebook, to maintain contact with the family and friends they have left behind in relocating to a new country.

Gila Cohen Zilka of Bar-Ilan University, in Ramat Gan, Israel, has looked specifically at how youngsters are using these apps to help them acclimatize in Israel as their new home. The research surveyed 551 participants of whom 110 were also interviewed directly. Interviewees shared both positive and negative feelings and experiences.

Fundamentally, writes Cohen Zilka, "participants feel that communication alleviates the sense of longing, enables intimate discourse, sentiment sharing, release of anger, and relief of frustration." She points out that the use of web applications encourages significant interaction with those who remained in the country of origin, but conversely, to a certain extent, causes social isolation in the new country.

The study found that many young immigrants to Israel did not feel as if they had been uprooted from one country and placed rootless in a new land, but rather that they still had roots in the country of origin and were already putting down new roots in their new home. "The use of internet applications for communication made them happy and gave them a sense of relief in the process of acclimatisation in the new country," the team reports.

Zilka, G.C. (2020) 'Use of social networking applications by immigrant children, adolescents, and young adults to maintain contact with those who remained in the country of origin: usage characteristics and habits', Int. J. Mobile Communications, Vol. 18, No. 3, pp.257–272.
DOI: 10.1504/IJMC.2020.107099

Keeping children safe online should be a major priority of internet providers, content creators, and the authorities. Writing in the International Journal of Web Based Communities, a team from India has surveyed international efforts.

To overcome online risks, we need to understand the characteristics of the online ecosystem and to learn how to cope once risks are faced. The online ecosystem involves different stakeholders such as service providers, the physical network, online users being connected, social media sites and tools and technology, the team reports. "Elimination of online risks is difficult," they have found, "but the intensity of risks can be reduced."

Dittin Andrews of the Center for Development of Advanced Computing, in Electronics City, Bangalore, worked with Sreejith Alathur and Naganna Chetty of the National Institute of Technology Karnataka, in Surathkal, Mangalore, on the survey.

With an increase in the availability of rich content over the internet, information and communication technology (ICT) has brought many benefits to users of all ages around the world," the team writes. ICT is transforming societies and economies. It has also attracted children to its benefits, with many regularly accessing social networking sites, playing video games, and sharing videos, for instance. With any positive benefit, there is always a negative, however, and access to the boundless resources of the online world brings with it risks to vulnerable young people. This might be through exposure to inappropriate materials, exploitation through malware or social engineering, cyber-bullying, and even the risk of physical and mental harm when the online world spills into their offline lives.

"International bodies are providing assistance to children online with different tools, technologies, regulations, legal protections, safety resources, education, training, guidance, safety measures, crime reporting system, and child-friendly search engines," the team writes. However, much remains to be done to address the countless risks to which children are exposed online.

Andrews, D., Alathur, S. and Chetty, N. (2020) 'International efforts for children online safety: a survey', Int. J. Web Based Communities, Vol. 16, No. 2, pp.123–133.
DOI: 10.1504/IJWBC.2020.107146

A paper published in the International Journal of Behavioural and Healthcare Research looks at the link between parental alcohol consumption and the mental wellbeing of children in the household. Nazli Ezgi Sidal and Tekin Kose of the Department of Economics, at TED University, in Ankara, Turkey, have taken their home country as a case study on this issue. They use data from the Turkey Health Survey of 2016, which is conducted by the Turkish Statistical Institute.

In their analysis, the team looked for correlations between mental deficiency, learning disability, attention deficit, late talking, and behavioural issues in children within a household where the parents consume alcohol. They found that there is a negative association with the children's mental wellbeing status and alcohol consumption. Additionally, the self-assessed health status of mothers was positively correlated with children's mental health. The greater the alcohol use in mothers, the more likely were offspring to have problems.

It is well-known that parental behaviour can have a significant impact on children's life outcomes such as health status and educational performance. That said, many other factors are involved. Smoking and alcohol use, for example, can have an impact on the parents' health as well as direct and indirect effects on offspring.

"Policymakers should consider giving priorities in enhancing life and health conditions of parents in Turkey to improve life outcomes of children," the team suggests. They add that "Improvements in health literacy of parents and specifically health statuses of mothers may significantly contribute children's life outcomes."

Sidal, N.E. and Kose, T. (2019) 'Parental alcohol use and children's mental health: the case of Turkey', Int. J. Behavioural and Healthcare Research, Vol. 7, No. 1, pp.65–76.
DOI: 10.1504/IJBHR.2019.106992

Quality of life is an ancient concept dating back to at least Aristotle, although the philosopher equated a good life or doing tasks well with happiness, rather than what we refer to today as quality of life. There is much talk of mental health and wellbeing today and the purported problems of neuroticism and addictive behaviour. Nowhere does this seem to be more sharply in relief than when we talk of internet addiction and how this might be modulated by the neurotic type personality and be detrimental to quality of life.

Writing in the International Journal of Behavioural and Healthcare Research, a team from Iran discusses exactly how so-called internet addiction can have an effect on people of a neurotic disposition and their quality of life. Fundamentally, their study shows that neuroticism as a personality trait can lead to avoidance of everyday life as a coping mechanism and this is commonly manifest in dependency and addiction to the internet and perhaps more obviously online social media.

"Our results indicate that those [students] who score high in neuroticism are more prone to move towards addictive behaviour such as internet addiction," the team writes. This corroborates earlier independent work and also resinforces the idea that neuroticism is usually accompanied by an avoidance of face to face communication with other people. The internet and online social media lend themselves heavily to this behaviour. The team adds that overuse of the technology required to engage with the internet – computers and mobile phones, for instance – often do not lend themselves to appropriate posture nor physical activity and in many cases lead to avoidable repetitive strain injury, all of which can have a negative impact on quality of life.

Khayyer, Z., Najinia, M.A. and Harandi, R.J. (2019) 'Neuroticism and quality of life: the mediating role of internet addiction', Int. J. Behavioural and Healthcare Research, Vol. 7, No. 1, pp.37–48.
DOI: 10.1504/IJBHR.2019.106989

Researchers from Brazil and France have undertaken a review of the value curves and motivations implicit in the choice between autonomous and traditional vehicles. Their findings suggest that self-driving cars will eventually become more and more widespread and as they do the concepts of affective attributes and symbolism associated with conventional driving will be usurped by instrumental attributes. Fabio Antonialli of the Universidade Federal de Lavras, in Lavras, Brazil, and colleagues provide details of their work in the World Review of Intermodal Transportation Research.

Although in some sense, autonomous vehicles remain something of a futuristic option, many vehicles already have cruise control, steering correction, emergency braking systems, and self-parking features. Autonomous vehicles, which are essentially robot vehicles are used in logistics and agriculture in many parts of the world. It is perhaps only a matter of time before a much greater proportion of road users are no longer drivers, but simply passengers in their vehicles. Autonomous vehicles will hopefully provide accessibility to transport for people in need, boost efficiency, reduce costs and time, improve comfort, and reduce road traffic accidents caused by errant driving.

The transition will occur when the attributes of traditional vehicles are no longer seen as essential and the functionality and features of autonomous vehicles displace those not only in the vehicles themselves but in the popular perception of driving and cars. It is likely that autonomous taxis are likely to represent the biggest wave of uptake and will represent a vast investment opportunity, the team suggests. There is "a massive growth opportunity for technology players or automakers that are able to piece together a successful autonomous strategy," the team writes.

Antonialli, F., Cavazza, B.H., Gandia, R.M., Nicolaï, I., de Miranda Neto, A., Sugano, J.Y. and Zambalde, A.L. (2020) 'Human or machine driving? Comparing autonomous with traditional vehicles value curves and motives to use a car', World Review of Intermodal Transportation Research, Vol. 9, No. 2, pp.137–156.
DOI: 10.1504/WRITR.2020.106918

When natural or other disaster strikes there is usually an enormous increase in demand for donated blood and blood products for those who have suffered serious injury. Writing in the International Journal of Modelling in Operations Management, a team from Iran has taken a fault-tree analysis approach to understanding risks to the chain of blood supply.

The study involves the design of a process map that shows the workflow of the blood supply chain visually from donation to distribution. This, then allows the team to look at the risks associated with each step and activity from donor to hospital. The researchers can then pluck out each significant risk and work out a probability of supply chain failure and so identify the most vulnerable parts of the process.

The blood supply chain has four main processes: blood collection, product processing, laboratory testing, and storage and distribution of blood products.

The team's work could help eliminate certain serious risks while other risks might be mitigated rather than precluded and the process still function. "Proper planning and accurate prediction of the amount of required equipment at the time of disaster would decrease this risk and can control its impact on the blood supply chain," the team adds. Ultimately, the risk will depend on the exact nature of the disaster in hand. But, anything that can be done to reduce the overall impact on human lives is welcome.

Abtahi, A-R., Zenouz, R.Y., Ghaderian, M-R. and Aghaie, A. (2019) 'Blood supply chain risks in disasters – a fault tree analysis approach', Int. J. Modelling in Operations Management, Vol. 7, No. 4, pp.269-283.
DOI: 10.1504/IJMOM.2019.106877

Humanity bounces from one crisis to another as history shows us. Food waste and climate change are perhaps part of the same crisis. Now, research published in the International Journal of Global Warming suggests that finding secondary uses for food waste might reduce the overall impact of this problem.

Mustafa özilgen and colleagues at Yeditepe University, in Istanbul, Turkey, explain how the issue is a self-perpetuating problem: "Global warming increases the food waste; in return, the food waste causes further increase in global warming," they say. Remedies that have been suggested at least for kitchen waste suggest that burning such waste instead of fossil fuels might help. The team has now used thermodynamic calculations to show that food waste from a fast food outlet after compression and drying to produce one tonne of waste could be used to generate 3.5 gigawatts.

They have estimated that all the fruit and vegetable waste in Turkey, including agricultural waste, could produce 7.2 gigajoules of energy each year. Of course, part of the problem of food waste is the plastic and paper packaging and some of this will be a component of the overall dried and compressed material from the food outlets.

"Our analysis indicates that trying to find a secondary use for food waste is not a feasible process, when compared with electric power production via combustion in a Rankine cycle with regeneration," the team reports. There may well be niche secondary uses for normally inedible fruit peel, vegetable stems, and other unusable plant materials that do not simply involve burning them for energy, but thermodynamically we would benefit more from burning such food waste instead of fossil fuels.

Gökbulak, S.K., Nazir, S., Tunçel, S. and Özilgen, M. (2020) 'How to benefit from the food waste in the era of global warming?', Int. J. Global Warming, Vol. 20, No. 3, pp.216–236.
DOI: 10.1504/IJGW.2020.106595

It is possible to integrate conventional wireless internet, Wi-Fi with the fifth generation of cellular mobile phone networks, so-called 5G. Writing in the International Journal of Wireless and Mobile Computing, a team from the USA discusses how Wi-Fi traffic can move flexibly between 5G cells and Wi-Fi cells. It does this through overflow, vertical handoff, horizontal handoff, and take-back operations, the team explains.

Shensheng Tang of St Cloud State University, in Minnesota, John O'Rourke of Altec Industries in Joseph, Missouri, and Grace Tang of Central High School, also in St. Joseph have proposed a traffic modelling method that allows for generally distributed user-dwell times.

"We consider an integrated wireless network using 5G cellular architecture as mobility support for Wi-Fi traffic and perform traffic modelling of the integrated architecture with generally distributed user-dwell times. In the integrated architecture, the Wi-Fi traffic takes on complete user mobility," the team explains.

The researchers add that the same approach to quality assurance might also be extended to 5G integrated with other types of system, such as sensor networks, intelligent vehicle networks, and Internet of Things applications.

Tang, S., O'Rourke, J. and Tang, G. (2020) 'Traffic modelling of an integrated 5G/Wi-Fi network with generally distributed user-dwell times', Int. J. Wireless and Mobile Computing, Vol. 18, No. 3, pp.242–254.
DOI: 10.1504/IJWMC.2020.106772