bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Hybrid Wheel Innovative Suspension System
Authors: Kocoń Wojciech  , Skarka Wojciech
Published: February 2025

Car industry has dynamically developed the electric car segment. One of the main aspect is the search for innovative solutions in the field of lightweight structures. Thus many ideas have been made to replace conventional vehicle suspension by the use of a flexible wheel rim. Based on the existing concepts testes have been carried at to develop a new design of the susceptible rim using the TRIZ method as well to compare the properties of tested concepts under given load conditions and to examine vibration characteristic of each concept with is fundamental in suspension design. By the use of INVENTOR software 3D models have been created also the criterion analysis of all concepts have been done. In addition a static simulation of the load conditions have been performed. Thanks to that, spring constant has been determined. For each case a mathematical model of vibration damping have been created using MATLAB simullink software. The obtained results have been analyzed using TRIZ method to create a new innovative lightweight suspension concept. Moreover the suspension quality and energy loss analysis have been performed to examine influence of dampers for motion resistance. All of presented examinatations give necessery data in order to future design a new hybrid lightweight structure wheel.
The Comparative Research on the Development Positioning of the Industrial Design Awards
Authors: Zhou Kun  , Hu Fei  , Xu Xing
Published: February 2025

Design competition and design awards are considered as an important approach to promote the awareness of design and to enhance the added value to the whole industrial chain. It has inevitably become an approach to encourage the enterprise's independent innovation,design education,and the design ideal popularization. Having been developing for several decades, not only the organizers of design awards, but also all other stake-holders are caring very much about the development orientation of design awards. However,the realistic references are difficult to acquire.In this paper, eight dimensions of the development positioning of design awards have been identified by literature review. Furthermore, this paper has chosen five international awards, Red Dot, iF, IDEA, Compasso d'Oro, and G-Mark, as research objects. By analyzing the activities brought by the design awards, we have defined several different development modes and has verified the reasonability of our model.Taking G-Cup as an example and with the consideration of the context of Chinese industries and design development, this paper has provided new vision and advice for the future development of Chinese design completions by establishing a supporting and analyzing frame for the positioning and strategic decision making for design awards.
Towards Cost Modelling for Laser Drilling Process
Authors: Sarfraz Shoaib  , Shehab Essam  , Salonitis Konstantinos  , Suder Wojciech  , Sajid Muhammad
Published: February 2025

Laser drilling is a widely used non-traditional machining process, in power generation and high-value manufacturing industries, to produce components such as nozzle guide vanes, combustion chambers, fuel injection nozzles and turbine blades. The operating cost of the drilling process is one of the critical factors for companies to consider to survive in the competitive global market. This research is intended to develop the cost model for laser drilling process due to its extensive application in the aerospace sector. Cost estimation facilitates the aerospace sector economically through the identification of critical parameters which act as key cost drivers and their relationship with cost. The proposed model will benefit the designers and cost engineers to have a brief overlook of cost distribution before manufacturing the component.
OPTIMISED – Developing a State of the Art System for Production Planning for Industry 4.0 in the Construction Industry Using Simulation-Based Optimisation
Authors: Teufl Sabine  , Owa Kayode  , Steinhauer Dirk  , Castro Elkin  , Herries Graham  , John Robert  , Ratchev Svetan
Published: February 2025

Although it is not uncommon to have a predictive model of a factory, these models are often simplistic in nature. Such models rarely reflect the current operating performance of the system, use simple and separate data streams and do not go down to machine/workstation resolution. They can support production scheduling, but typically they are of limited use for optimising factory performance in response to changing external stimuli. The industrially led research project OPTIMISED develops a holistic factory management platform to react quickly and efficiently to unanticipated disruptions to the factory. The project consortium consists of 10 partners from various disciplines. The project develops three industrial demonstrators in three different domains. Strengths of this research project include the high technology readiness level of its demonstrators and their application with real data at an industrial scale. This paper presents the application of simulation-based optimisation to support production scheduling of the manufacturing process of one of the industrial demonstrators. The simulation model captures all relevant production constraints of the factory down to each machine and work station. The simulation model reads data from business information systems, live data from machines and data from retrofitted sensors on the shop floor. The optimisation uses the simulation model as a fitness function. As a result, both service level and production costs are optimised. The paper highlights the main characteristics of the solution, its application in real industrial usage scenarios and some of the main conclusions and opportunities for future research identified during its development.
Productivity Improvement of a Production Line Through Quick Changeover Concept – A Case Study
Authors: Otero Eduarda  , Lopes Isabel
Published: February 2025

This paper describes a project that aims at the reduction of setup or changeover times in a final assembly line that produces automotive instrument panels, using the Quick Changeover concept and, methodologies and tools associated with Lean Production. Setup or changeover times are non-productive times, and therefore are considered waste, having a direct impact on line availability, reducing its Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE). In this way, high changeover times reduce the productive flexibility, as they lead to a deliberate reduction in the number of changeovers, and consequently to the increase of produced stocks.
Application of TOC for a Newly Developed Shipbuilding Industry
Authors: Doi Hirofumi  , Shinoda Takeshi
Published: February 2025

The development of production technologies has been very influential in promoting economic growth, inducing changes in both social life and culture. The first wave of technology was organized by the agriculture revolution 15,000 years ago, and the second wave came with the industrial revolution started in Britain in the 17th and 18th centuries. In the more recent era, a third wave has undoubtedly been triggered by the advances with development of IT (Information Technology). Moreover, IoT (Internet of Things) will now trigger major technological innovation and shape the face of the industry. But when looking over the world, stagnation of industrial growth can be locally seen in various industry domains. The Theory of Constraints (TOC) may prove useful in examining main causes and mechanism of this phenomenon, and induce some paradigm shifts in the system. But unfortunately, there is no case of applying TOC for innovating shipbuilding. In this paper, the logics of growth and stagnation pertaining to the shipbuilding industry are extracted by applying the “TOC Thinking Process,” The core dilemma restraining industrial development in that industry is clarified and resolved by this process. Furthermore, the effectiveness of the solution is verified by constructing a brief, random simulation model applied to the ship design stage in the upper-level process of shipbuilding, and the ship production stage within the lower process.
Optimization Methodology for Automotive Chassis Design by Truss Frame: A Preliminary Investigation Using the Lattice Approach
Authors: Mantovani Sara  , Campo Giuseppe Alessio  , Ferrari Andrea  , Cavazzuti Marco
Published: February 2025

The present paper investigates the application of optimization methodologies to vehicle chassis in view of an integrated and transdisciplinary vehicle design. A detailed sizing optimization in cascade to Topology Optimization (TO) for the design of automotive chassis is investigated. This approach is also known as lattice optimization. The TO is employed to find a coarse optimum chassis lay-out under linear elastic conditions. The second stage of the methodology converts into a truss frame the edges of the FE cells, including only the elements that remained above a certain density threshold after TO. The diameter of each truss is then optimized in view of chassis weight reduction while meeting a set of given design requirements, such as maximum stress and minimum size. Various tubular frame architectures for lightweight solutions are considered complying with different sets of constraints over different design spaces. Finally, the balance between the computational cost and the feasibility of the lattice solution is discussed in comparison to TO.
Single-Shot Areal Profilometry: Towards Real-Time Surface Quality Control in Additive Manufacturing
Authors: Reichold Tobias V.  , Ruiz Pablo D.  , Huntley Jonathan M.
Published: February 2025

Hyperspectral Interferometry (HSI) is a recently-proposed technique for measuring 3-D point clouds from an opaque object in a single shot. We propose a new application of HSI enabling single-shot 3D surface measurements of optically rough surfaces commonly found on additively manufactured and machined components. Using an additively manufactured sample, single-shot surface profiles were taken at a fixed distance to capture and reconstruct the surface profile. This enables the single-shot measurements of rough surfaces over many independent channels in a short time.
Rapid Prototyping for Micro-Engineering and Microfluidic Applications: Recycled PMMA, a Sustainable Substrate Material
Authors: Ongaro Alfredo E.  , Howarth Nicola  , La Carrubba Vincenzo  , Kersaudy-Kerhoas Maïwenn
Published: February 2025

Poly(methylmethacrylate), PMMA, is one of the most commonly used thermoplastics for the manufacture of micromechanical and microfluidic devices, due to its optical transparency, rigid mechanical properties, low cost and good workability in conjunction with its rapid prototyping and mass manufacturing. Recent advances in the rapid-prototyping fields have allowed the production of precise features compatible with microfluidic structures and accelerated the conversion process from bench-side to mass market. For example, to address the need for fast design cycles using material compatible with mass manufacturing, we have developed an ultrafast prototyping technique for the manufacture of multi-layer PMMA micro devices (doi:10.1007/s10404-016-1823-1) and described a method to choose the right PMMA for this prototyping technique (doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-792-4-181). PMMA is a petrochemical-derived material and the rising demand for single-use disposable devices will inevitably result into increased medical plastic waste. To address this problem at the design/prototyping stage, we explored the possibility of utilizing recycled PMMA (Re-PMMA) as the substrate material in our technique. The aim of this work is to compare commercially available recycled PMMA (Re-PMMA) with pristine PMMA (pPMMA) in conjunction with our prototyping technique. The information reported here will provide a practical guide to researchers when selecting Re-PMMA material for a more sustainable approach to micro-engineering and microfluidic rapid-prototyping.
Intelligent Planning Using Genetic Algorithm for Automated Disassembly
Authors: Parsa Soran  , Saadat Mozafar
Published: February 2025

Intelligent disassembly process planning is a relatively new approach to deal with the end-of-life (EOF) products. Demands for recycling and remanufacturing EOF products, limitation of the natural resources and new environmental regulations make an efficient disassembly process vital. The main problem to find an efficient plan for disassembly process is that the number of possible sequences rises dramatically with the number of the parts and makes it NP-hard type problem. An effective method to optimize the disassembly sequences is using genetic algorithm (GA). In this work, a genetic algorithm method based on robotic disassembly process was successfully used to optimize robotic disassembly sequence of a case study product.
Remote Control Systems for Lights; An Exploration of Available Technologies in the Market
Authors: Manarvi Irfan Anjum  , Qusaibati Mahmoud  , Syed Hassan Muneel
Published: February 2025

Putting on lights is an inconvenient task for people during the night at homes as well as businesses especially when they are not aware of the exact location of switches. In recent past a lot of research has been done on developing wireless controlled lighting fixtures all around the world. It has resulted in availability of a large number of products in the market which can be controlled by Wi-Fi systems. Everyone is a mobile user these days and is well versed with use of blue tooth and Wi-Fi applications. Researchers have made use of this ability of educated as well as novice users to design and develop controls of the lighting fixtures through a mobile. At this time we a have a number of products available in the market using Wi-Fi as well as mobile phone applications for domestic and commercial buildings. Present research is a compilation of product information and their functions. It is based on latest literature in this area as well as some of the products in the market to create awareness of users for this unique application. The techniques usually covered in a typical product design and development course at undergraduate level were reviewed and applied throughout the process of this product design. Business opportunities likely to be created, customer needs, concept design, selection and development processes were adopted to arrive at the final product. It was observed that if learners are provided an opportunity to explore customer needs for a specific product they could get a hands on learning experience and come up with innovative ideas to satisfy the need through applying their theoretical knowledge.
A Little More Conversation: How Conversant Online Communities Can Drive New Product Innovation
Authors: Defeo Christian  , Harding Jennifer  , Wood Robert
Published: February 2025

Research and development spending is in decline in the United Kingdom; given this, user-led innovation may be a viable option to substitute this reduction. User-led innovation has been a subject of academic study for over a decade; this form of invention has been spurred on in recent years by the increasing use of online communities and the burgeoning availability of cheap tools such as the Raspberry Pi single-board computer. Combined with the nascent rise of the Maker Movement, this form of innovation can lead to working prototypes for industrial products developed within home and workshop settings. Furthermore, this innovation scenario can be given added stimulus by the use of competitions. But how can the innovative capacity and performance of online communities be assessed and improved? By looking at three innovation contests hosted by the electronics distributor Premier Farnell in collaboration with industrial partners, this paper will demonstrate the basis of a new methodology for uncovering these measures, and propose a set of analytical tools for consistent measurement. The suggested toolkit uses data to look at conversational density and flows, that is, the frequency of communication between community participants and the direction of information sharing, the skillsets of the online community population, the knowledge exchanged between participants, and the motivations of the participants engaged in contest activity. The paper proposes that the more conversant a community is, i.e., the more willing members are to engage in information exchange, the greater its innovative capacity.
Effect of Giving Feedback on Postural Working Techniques
Authors: Mahdavian Nafise  , Lind Carl Mikael  , Diaz Olivares Jose Antonio  , Iriondo Pascual Aitor  , Högberg Dan  , Brolin Erik  , Yang Liyun  , Forsman Mikael  , Hanson Lars
Published: February 2025

Working postures and movements affect work efficiency and musculoskeletal health. To reduce the biomechanical exposure in physically demanding settings, working techniques may be improved by giving instant ergonomic feedback to the operator. This study investigates if feedback can be used to decrease adverse postures and movements in assembly work. A prototype solution of a smart textile workwear was used on a trainee assembly line. Posture and movement signals of 24 trainee operators were sampled via the workwear, transferred to a tablet for analyses and used to provide feedback suggesting improvements of work technique. Two modes of feedback were tested. Every participant's work technique was measured before and after receiving the feedback and the results were compared. For upper arm elevation angle ≥60°, behaviour change is indicated, supporting a positive work technique change, and indicated a future usefulness of technical automatic feedback for operators.
Interaction Effects Affecting Human Performance in Manual Assembly
Authors: Brolin Anna  , Case Keith  , Thorvald Peter
Published: February 2025

This paper presents an experimental study aimed at investigating interaction effects affecting personnel in manual assembly. The main experiment with 36 subjects used a mixed method design which included a quantitative study, including time and errors as dependent measures, and a qualitative study, including workload ratings and a questionnaire. The overall task in the experiment was to assemble components on a pedal car. The main factors involved were assembly information (text & component numbers or photographs), material presentation (using structured kits, unstructured kits and material racks) and component variation (situations with and without component variation). It was found that performance, measured in assembly time, was best when combining photographs with no component variants and when using an unstructured kit.
Software Containers as a Generic Foundation for IEC 61499 Distributed Control Systems
Authors: Senington Richard
Published: February 2025

It is predicated that in the future factories will be more dependent upon complex distributed control software, where execution and communication occur at the edge of the system, close to the machines that are involved in the manufacturing process. This introduces the problem of how to effectively design, deploy and manage such systems. The IEC 61499 function block standard has been given as one way to solve this problem, proposing applications made from a number of modular event driven blocks that encapsulate algorithms potentially in any programming language. At the same time the Internet of Things and Cloud computing fields have encountered the similar problem of encapsulating, managing and distributing scalable applications, and have been investigating software containers as a solution. This paper proposes to combine these two approaches using containers to enable easy distribution and management of software modules on manufacturing devices while taking advantage of the IEC 61499 application model to enable an application orchestration tool. It describes the properties of container technology that can support the creation of function block like components and the proposal is supported by a prototype version of such a system which has already been implemented.
Similarity-Based Cost Estimations for ETO-Products
Authors: Alblas Gerrit  , Coenen Jenny
Published: February 2025

Correct and accurate cost estimations are critical for shipyard companies. Traditionally cost estimations for one-off ship designs are based on expert opinions and statistical-based methods. In this paper, we introduce a method for improving cost estimations in the pre-contract stage of a one-off design shipbuilding project. Pre-contract means that the available information is limited. The introduced method is based on the idea that, although a new vessel has never been built before, cost of similar building assemblies can be found in the production information of earlier produced vessels. The assessment of similarities is performed by means of error-tolerant graph matching. Research to date shows that only taking the basic activities into account, without taking the context into account, does not always lead to a good and reliable result. The example in this paper is based on the ship block assembly process.
QR-Code Enabled Product Traceability System: A Big Data Perspective
Authors: Benatia Mohamed Amin  , Remadna Ahmed  , Baudry David  , Halftermeyer Pierre  , Delalin Hugues
Published: February 2025

Product traceability can ensure high level of product: quality, integrity and availability. It can be defined as the ability to track & trace individual items throughout their whole lifecycle from manufacturing to recycling. This includes real-time data analytics about actual product behavior (ability to Track) and product historical data (ability to Trace). The need of such systems is becoming increasingly important in multiple domains such as: food, pharmaceutical and cosmetics Supply chains suffering from proliferation of counterfeit items, product diversions and grey market. This paper presents a comparative study between several works on product traceability and proposes a standardized traceability system architecture. We consider a cyber-physical system vision of the supply chain to ensure system integrity and guarantee safety and quality to consumers. We also demonstrate that using Big Data technologies can ensure system interoperability between the different supply chain actors.
Production Management and Smart Manufacturing from a Systems Perspective
Authors: Machado Carla G.  , Kurdve Martin  , Winroth Mats  , Bennett David
Published: February 2025

The traditional view of production systems relies on the organization of physical and information flows enabling customer satisfaction with products or services, following inputs from strategy, policies, rules and principles, supported by tools, systems and methods, and improved through performance management systems. Moving forward to new levels of industrialization, smart manufacturing represents systems integration and automation supported by Cyber-Physical-Systems (CPS) to enable more autonomous, agile and sustainable production processes, which can at the same time be influenced by, as well as influencing the organizational system in real time. As a new managerial topic, this research paper intends to study and systematically organize the literature related to smart manufacturing and production systems design in order to identify whether smart manufacturing can be implemented through the production systems approach and, if so, what are the requirements for implementation and integration of different management systems (e.g. quality, and environment systems).
An Outline of a Complementary Inspection System for Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS) Devices Based on Radiography and Plenoptic Camera
Authors: Chong Alvin  , Feng Guojin  , Kanfoud Jamil  , Gan Tat-Hean
Published: February 2025

In the last decades, micro manufacturing was driven by micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS), where well-established manufacturing methods based on semiconductor technologies are able to produce structures in miniscule dimensions. Often, such modern electronic devices offer high level functionality in reduced space. However, such components may be impaired in several ways during fabrication and assembly stages resulting in damages or/and structural failures. To enable inspection of MEMS components, new technologies are needed to ensure reliable quality control in particular, in medical/aerospace industries where 100% quality inspection is required to achieve highest safety standards. In this paper, an outline of the inspection system architecture that can be applied to inspect MEMS component during the production phase using plenoptic camera and x-ray will be described. Preliminary test results demonstrate the system applicability. The inspection system aims to achieve an autonomous, reliable and accurate solution to reduce the production costs.
Machine Maintenance Decision Support System: A Systematic Literature Review
Authors: Gandhi Kanika  , Ng Amos H.C.
Published: February 2025

Growing competition market situations have emerged the requirement of the real-time data, understanding data behaviour, and maintenance actions in the manufacturing system. The future decision-making process in manufacturing needs to be more flexible to adapt to various methods for maintenance decision support systems (MDSS). This paper classifies various application areas of MDSS through a systemic literature review. Specifically, it identifies the relationship between the machine maintenance areas and the processes in which it integrates different tools and techniques to develop MDSS. The accumulated information helps in analyzing trends and shortcomings to concentrate the efforts for future research work. The reviewed papers are selected based on the contents, application tool assessments and clustered by their application areas. Furthermore, it proposes a structure outlined based on the functional knowledge as well as the information flow design during the development of MDSS, along with the relationship among application areas.
Characterisation and Optimisation of a Failure-Model for High Strength Aluminium Alloys
Authors: Schlosser Julian Marc  , Mouchtar Serkan  , Schneider Robert  , Schanz Jochen  , Rimkus Wolfgang  , Harrison David K.  , Macdonald Martin  , Kulatunga Muditha
Published: February 2025

In the present work an effective parameter identification for the evaluation of a failure model for FE-simulations has been carried out. This failure model is suitable to calculate different fracture elongation values among occurring triaxiality of a high-strength aluminium sheet metal alloy (AA7075). Various specimen geometries have been selected to achieve different loading states (triaxiality). For biaxial strains a forming limit curve (FLC) is converted by using mathematical formulations. To measure the equivalent local strains in the event of fracture an optical measurement system has been installed and adapted to a tensile testing machine. The failure curve and the material model which includes the extrapolated flow curve are implemented into the FE-simulation model. In order to improve the accuracy of the failure-curve a parameter optimization has been carried out. It shows that by using the optimised failure curve a high correlation between experimental and calculated force-displacement curves for any given specimen geometry can be achieved.
A Holistic Solution for Integrating a Simulated Twin of an Automation System During the System's Entire Life-Cycle
Authors: Syberfeldt Anna  , Ayani Mikel  , Holm Magnus
Published: February 2025

This paper describes a project that attempts to develop a holistic solution for integrating a simulated twin of an automation system during the system's entire life-cycle. With such holistic solution, virtual commission could be undertaken in all steps of the life-cycle which facilitates companies in realizing flexible and intelligent automation systems. Based on the simulated twin, the companies could easily and cost-efficiently evaluate modifications, make improvements, and train operators when changes in the production setup occurs due mass-customization or new products being introduced. This aids the companies in staying competitive on a global and rapidly changing market and meet the challenges coming with the forth industrial revolution, such as mass-customization and short product life-cycles.
An Experimental Study on MQL Assisted High Speed Machining of NiTi Shape Memory Alloy
Authors: Miller Terence  , Gupta Kapil  , Laubscher Rudolph
Published: February 2025

Nickel Titanium (NiTi) shape memory alloy is a prominent material for biomedical implants. Machining of shape memory alloy is challenging and requires intervention of sustainable techniques to produce quality products with minimum environmental footprints. This paper details the results of experimental investigation conducted on MQL assisted high speed machining of shape memory alloys. It reports the effect of MQL parameters on surface roughness and tool wear during turning (at speed 90 m/min) of NiTi shape memory alloy. Experiments are conducted based on Taguchi's robust design of experiment technique with L9 orthogonal array. A rhomboid-shaped simple carbide tool is selected for experimentation. Green lubricant which is a blend of natural, synthetic and sulphurized esters is used as MQL fluid. The three important MQL parameters of flow rate, air pressure and nozzle distance are each varied at 3 levels. Parameters are optimized to secure the optimum combination producing best surface finish (Ra~1.39μm) and tool flank wear 1.6 mm.
Cyberspace Defense: The Estonian Kaitseliit Model
Authors: Padar Andrus
Published: February 2025

This article describes the development and components of the Estonian Cyber Defense Unit or Küber-Kaitseliit, a voluntary force in the Estonian Defense League. It is distinct from the National Guard and serves as a force multiplier to support other military and commercial sectors of society as needed. The paper argues the key to its success is to invest into both technical and human factors and provide a well-considered legal framework that provides sufficient structure without inadvertently hampering flexibility and response required in successful cyber defense. It also posits that another critical element is to engage in a whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach that includes collaboration and exercising with regional and international partners. Finally, it advocates for ingenuity and creativity as essential elements in finding solutions to address significant threats with limited resources.
GIS Support and Other Technical Tools to Mitigate South East European Border Security Threats
Authors: Rančić Dejan  , Vulič Ivan
Published: February 2025

This paper discusses a distributed, multi-platform architecture of geographic information system (GIS) suitable for use in a variety of civil and military scenarios. Traditionally, GIS was seen a as a monolithic and platform-dependent application; as such, it was used by rather small group of professionals. With the development of computer hardware and availability of geospatial data in recent years, GIS evolved and adapted to new environments. Greater availability has led to its increased use in multiple areas. What was reserved for small group of professionals in the past, has now become available worldwide, using Internet on personal computers and mobile devices. This paper focuses on architecture specifications that allows distribution of geospatial data and functions to different hardware and software platforms. It does so by discussing the GiNis GIS framework and a GIS-based application for the mitigation of border security threats in Serbia, the Border Security System (BSS). Both were developed by the University of Niš. Other complementary tools that are used with this application are also detailed. The complex structure of armed conflict entails a variety of GIS user needs and profiles. Because of that, the paper will focus on defining roles and possible scenarios from the viewpoint of South East Europe (SEE) border security threats.
The Impact of Human Behavior on Cyber Defense
Authors: Houston Nancy
Published: February 2025

Perhaps the greatest challenge to cybersecurity is that people are inherently behind each attack as well as its solution. Focusing on the three fundamental components of any organization—people, processes, and technology —and how to best use the strengths of each while minimizing weaknesses will lead to improved organizational reliability in dealing with cyber threats. This requires understanding and using the four Cs of people—collaboration, capacity, culture, and change—and the three Ms of process—models, metrics, and monitoring—to provide a roadmap for creating a high reliability organization.
The Pitfalls of Propaganda – The Theoretical Challenge
Authors: Cucută Radu
Published: February 2025

The paper discusses the need for greater conceptual clarity and theoretical framing of the concept of propaganda. Arguing in favor of a perspective grounded in social constructivism, part of the larger intellectual tradition of understanding, the concept is considered in its instrumental dimension and in its relation with technology and modern media. The interaction with several other concepts, such as ideology, nationalism, soft power is discussed in order to assert the specificity of a working definition, from an agnostic standpoint about the truth of propaganda information.
Fighting Fake News – The Key Role of the Public
Authors: Bratu Roxana  , Cristea Darie  , Dumitrescu Diana-Alexandra
Published: February 2025

The paper argues that the spreading of fake news and other forms of misinformation (which are not entirely untrue nor published with a clear intent to mislead) is facilitated by specific features of today's mainstream media and social media, as well as by the way the public interacts with “news stories”. Moreover, it is precisely these specific features and the public's interaction with media content that generate vulnerabilities that can be easily exploited in the information warfare. Taking into account that regulations on media content are difficult to implement and also questionable from the perspective of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, the focus should be placed on educating the public to identify fake news. However, before launching any information campaigns, the first step is to assess the public perception of the fake-news phenomenon and other forms of misinformation. To this end, we propose a methodological design for investigating the public awareness of media threats.
Using a Semantic Networks Approach to Monitor and Evaluate Influence on Social Media
Authors: Himelboim Itai  , Isa Daud
Published: February 2025

As information is massively consumed and exchanged over the Internet and social media in particular, governments and nongovernmental entities see the potential to influence public opinion via these platforms. From a conceptual standpoint, communication scholars have studied the agenda that is transferred from traditional media to the public since the 1970s. Recognizing that social media allows multiple and competing agendas to emerge, this essay proposes a conceptual and methodological approach to identifying agendas, their sources and evaluate their success in terms of transfer of agenda salience to the public. Taking a semantic networks approach, we conceptualize agenda as a set of issues and attributes that are mentioned together in social media posts. The extent to which such issues and attributes are found among the public discussion, then, allows us to evaluate the success of public opinion influence. Specifically, it allows us to identify the subgroups of social media users that are more susceptible to influence, via information, disinformation and mal-information.
Women and Women's Organizations in Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (P/CVE)
Authors: De Leede Seran
Published: February 2025

This essay explores how women's organisations contribute to countering and preventing violent extremism (CVE/PVE) and what concerns exist when linking women's initiatives to the security agenda. It explores the different ways in which women and women's organisations have contributed to CVE/PVE efforts and discusses the nexus between improving women's rights and countering and preventing violent extremism. This essay draws on academic literature, reports on the issue and interviews with practitioners working in the field.
Blind Spots and Urban Sanctuaries. The Case of Belgium's Institutionalization of Islam
Authors: Leman Johan
Published: February 2025

Belgium case suggests that external international pressures, in combination with emotional events at home, are the decisive factors for new steps in the institutionalisation process of Islam in Western societies. This demonstrates that real challenges are not picked up on time by governments, bringing only partial solution and, as soon as external pressure decreases, returning to business as usual. Blind spots remain, permitting the creation of Black Homes in uncontrolled, or under controlled, Urban Sanctuaries where deviant practices can develop. Geographical spaces may so exist in the midst of very well-developed nation-states, even in central neighbourhoods of large Western cities, permitting terrorists from neighbouring countries in search of ‘safe havens’ to organize in a hidden way their activities till in detail. Religions represent a numerically important category of people whom ‘recognition’ may become an important factor in the construction of social cohesion. Through its negligence, often under the excuse of freedom of expression, government permitted the development of a parallel policy besides the policy promoted by the officially recognized ‘Executive of Muslims in Belgium’. Policies promoted by some foreign embassies didn't make the official Executive better accepted among Muslims. It means that the government was not consequent with its own official policy and accepted de facto the development of some uncontrolled Black Holes in the country, financed by bodies belonging to families from foreign countries (Gulf States, Saudi Arabia). As other Western European governments, it neglected to see the real urgency of an official national Islamic body that corresponds to all the prerequisites to function in a Western State, capable to deal with the challenges of a Western multicultural society.
Socio-Political and Criminological Dimensions of Terrorism
Authors: Labovic Miodrag
Published: February 2025

Terrorism has been explained as a doctrine and method of struggle for certain purposes by means of systematic use of illegal force. The notions of terror and terrorism, although essentially based on the spread of fear through violence, is often differentiated as such: terror is qualified as the inducement of fear and violence in an organized and institutional way by a State apparatus against its citizens, while terrorism is applied to the method practiced by individuals and groups in order to achieve own interests. Applied to both situations, terrorism can be defined as a criminal activity accompanied by the use of illegal force and other methods of violence by individuals, groups, networks or institutions with the intent to cause mass fear, insecurity and mistrust among citizens towards their own institutions, in order to force governments to promote their political, ideological, economic and/or religious interests. Nowadays, terrorism also appears as a method in conducting hybrid war, where sponsoring and interfering States officially deny any such sponsorship and even deeply condemn those operations. The problem of “inability” to define terrorism at the international level has become a serious obstacle to its being placed under social control. An inadequate perception of democratic institutions about a problem creates inadequate social control. Lack of proper social control reflects in inadequate normative/institutional law-enforcement corpus competent for detecting, preventing and fighting crimes. The fight against “terrorism” has been paradoxically implemented, hence its poor successes. This paradoxical situation, opposing the reasons of economy to the reasons of human security, cannot be resolved without a fundamental resolution of internal, deep contradictions in the very essence of contemporary society, by means of a qualitatively new socio-economic and political system, a truly free, humane and pluralistic society.
Keep Your Powder Dry. Democracy Without Rule of Law. The Balkans as Weak Link for NATO
Authors: Paparella Ivo
Published: February 2025

“Security/defense” are products of a mechanism called state apparatus, which must deliver some essential public goods. If those public goods are not delivered, or are delivered in small quantities and are of poor quality, it is difficult to have a robust “security/defense” chain. Therefore, the Balkans are and will stay (with the Baltic States) the weak links of NATO. It is generally accepted that in the early 90s “democracy” was introduced into the Balkan countries, starting with free elections. However, condition sine qua non for genuine democracy is not the existence of institutions but the functioning of institutions. Instead of law and order, chaotic “freedoms” were introduced. The main beneficiaries of the change are crooks, organized crime and “political elites.” The raison d'être of public institutions is to promote public goods, and above all trust, so that governments can introduce reforms and citizens are confident about their intentions and aims. It is known that too many judges are corrupted, but what is not yet recognized is that attorneys-at-law and public notaries are also corrupted and have set up, with the support of judges, ad hoc criminal groups. Let's add that terrorism is a blessing for the Western European tourist industry while for NATO, it is an additional burden because both organized crime, for keeping on their “business”, and terrorists, for getting documents and find safe havens, need failed States. When institutions deliver “public bads,”, when taking to the streets appears not to solve the problem, young people choose to emigrate. Economically this is called “fiscal mortality”. However, more deathful than generally recognized is the brain drain of quality and democratically educated workforce that leaves free space for corruption. Until now such “controlled instability” in the Balkan by Western power and money rely on their supremacy in the region. But with the rewarming of the Cold War, balances are changing, and hidden instabilities could easily be revitalized to produce similar conditions that produced World War I.
Managing Multiple Identities Touchstones in the Fight Against Terrorism
Authors: Lebamoff Mary Frances
Published: February 2025

Identity is a potent force in today's world, often shaped by social organizations. The paper explores critical factors, the ‘lenses’ of cultural, linguistic, socialization and civilizational identities leading to to tribalism. Identity politics are used by minority and civil rights organizations to form a coalition with or against members of the majority. It is often connected to the concepts of deprivation, repression and oppression of one or more minorities in a State. Political tribalism and amoral familism are based on this belief that if it is good for the family (tribe), then it is “good” and no further moral, ethical, or other questioning need to occur. One-third of the world's population lives in such “back-sliding democracy”, in which authoritarian traits are on the rise. Awareness and understanding of multiple identities are crucial when considering propensity for or against violence or illicit activities. Determining political, legal and institutional frameworks for trustfully addressing a multicultural society, and accommodating its multiple, diverse characteristics are critical for the development and prosperity of a State and its citizens.
Low Stock of Social Capital, Obstacle to Reducing Vulnerabilities in Societies
Authors: Zarić Siniša
Published: February 2025

Democracies are vulnerable. Factors that negatively affect their stability come from low democratic capacity, weakness of the civil sector, threat of terrorism, migrant crisis and environmental threats.
Regulatory Response. Germany and the Threat of Jihadist Terrorism
Authors: Jacobs Andreas
Published: February 2025

Since Germany became a target of transnational jihadist terrorism in 2016, calls for stronger cooperation in counterterrorism at the European and NATO-level have grown. An analysis of German experiences evidences particularities in terms of political culture, institutional division of labour and legal oversight. So far, Germany has opted to sustain its traditional regulatory approach and abstained from a stronger international or military reaction, unlike other Western countries. The article details the specifics of this approach regarding the contemporary public debate on jihadist terrorism in Germany, the law enforcement framework, the various deradicalization programs as well as the role of foreign and security policy [1].
The Enemies from Within. Can We Save Democracy While Defeating Terrorism?
Authors: Tupman Bill
Published: February 2025

The enemies of democracy are not just the Takfiri. Democratic societies have enemies in the Ministries, also of the Interior, and in major corporations. Terrorists engage in judo, using the coercive apparatus of the State under attack to do their work for them by over-reacting. Risk assessment is not just about the risk from suicide bombers and paramilitary attacks. We need to assess the risk from within as much as the risk from outside. The media is as much part of the problem as it is the solution. Liberal democracy is not just about regular contested elections. It is about the Rule of Law, institutions for conflict resolution, ideas of legitimacy and public consent as well as the freedoms of expression, association (Roosevelt: worship, speech, freedom from want and freedom from fear) and then of course, human rights. A new dimension is now appearing: the use and abuse of the internet: States and terrorists creating fake identities to amplify a point of view. How do democratic States get the balance right on this? Where should balances be struck, and can those balances be changed in times of emergency?
Criminal Threats Against Democracy Require a Common Counter-Action System
Authors: Macri Vincenzo
Published: February 2025

In democracy, the label of “member of a criminal organization” for anyone using, against the community, terror in an organized framework, would better define the problem. This would also take away the romanticism that some want to attach to extreme violence acts for so called ideological purposes. Art. 83 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (2007) deals with organized crime and terrorism. It associates the last to other forms of crime with transnational aspects, listing “serious crimes,” terrorism included that, due to ontological characteristics, manifest themselves under the framework of “criminal organizations”.
Islamistic' Trends and Terrorism in the Western Balkans
Authors: Simeunović Dragan
Published: February 2025

The paper analyses, by using the content analysis method and historical-comparative method, the causes of the emergence and development of ‘Islamistic’ extremism. It compares the presence and the tendency in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo, FY Republic of MacedoniaTurkey recognizes the Republic of Macedonia with its constitutional name (this note applies to any mention of the name FY Republic of Macedonia in this document).