31 March 2009

Special issue: Streamlining the supply chain operations through intelligent systems

International Journal of Intelligent Systems Technologies and Applications 6(3/4) 2009
  • Design of an agent-based system for improving supply chain strategy
  • Development of an Information Exchange Model for supporting logistics operations
  • Systems thinking benefits in supply change management: an illustration of the viable systems model in a Supply Chain
  • Production and distribution scheduling of Supply Chain structure using intelligent Particle Swarm Optimisation algorithm
  • Altruistic behaviour in a two-echelon supply chain with unmatched proportional feedback controllers
  • Application of an operational trip planning software to a transportation problem for a Norwegian dairy
  • Supply chain strategy for high technology-content product and its consequences to technology transfer mechanism
  • Real-time distributed vision-based network system for logistics applications
  • A multi-criterion approach for order distribution in supply chain management
  • Supply Chain Management models for Industrial Districts: an Agent-Based Simulation study
Additional papers
  • A simplified Empirical Bayesian method to safety evaluation of traffic calming treatment for urban road systems
  • Altering the Information System for a plywood supply chain in order to tame the Bullwhip effect
  • Advanced supervisory control for manufacturing systems: from concepts to a separated monitoring system

Special issue: Combustion, fuels and emission control in internal combustion engines. Part 1

International Journal of Vehicle Design 49(1-3) 2009
  • Quasi-dimensional, multi-zone combustion modelling of turbulent entrainment and flame stretch for a spark ignition engine fuelled with hydrogen-enriched biogas
  • On the application of Wiebe functions to simulate normal and knocking spark-ignition combustion
  • Knocking diagnostics in the combustion chamber of boosted port fuel injection spark ignition optical engine
  • Performance and emissions of motorcycle engines using water-fuel emulsions
  • First and second law analysis of a gasoline engine for various compression ratios
  • Exhaust emissions estimation during transient turbocharged diesel engine operation using a two-zone combustion model
  • A comparison between cylinder charge composition of common rail diesel engine
  • Chemiluminescence imaging of pre-injection reactions during engine starting
  • Analysis of an extremely fast valve opening camless system to improve transient performance in a turbocharged high speed direct injection diesel engine
  • Assessment of a sequentially turbocharged diesel engine on real-life driving cycles

Special issue: Design for Six Sigma

International Journal of Six Sigma and Competitive Advantage 5(1) 2009
  • Guest editorial: Statistical thinking and experimental design as dual drivers of DFSS
  • Implementing DFSS to increase the performance level of an extrusion process
  • Track roller and idler design improvement using DFSS
  • Minimising warranty cost by design for reliability in product development phase
  • Application of ANN in Six Sigma DMADV and its comparison with regression analysis in view of a case study in a leading steel industry
  • The integration of DFSS, lean product development and lean knowledge management
  • Robust design of a radio-frequency identification system using Design for Six Sigma approach

30 March 2009

Special issue: Product development practices in automotive industry

International Journal of Product Development 8(3) 2009
  • A hierarchical choice modelling approach for incorporating customer preferences in vehicle package design
  • Neural network application for supplier selection
  • Strategies for feedback on reliability and robustness from automobile warranty data
  • Crash simulation evolution and its impact on R&D in the automotive applications
  • An alternative definition of reliability reinvigorated traditional metal fatigue strength performance assessments
  • Co-design – from an automaker perspective

Special issue: Parallel architectures and bioinspired algorithms

International Journal of High Performance Systems Architecture 1(4) 2008

Papers from the Workshop on Parallel Architectures and Bioinspired Algorithms (WPABA) held in conjunction with the Parallel Architectures and Compilation Techniques (PACT 08) Conference held in Toronto, Canada, 25-29 October 2008
  • Particle swarm optimisation of memory usage in embedded systems
  • Particle swarm optimisation for the design of two-connected networks with bounded rings
  • Genetic programming on GPUs for image processing
  • High performance computing for dynamic multi-objective optimisation
  • Using cellular automata for parallel simulation of laser dynamics with dynamic load balancing
  • Resilience to churn of a peer-to-peer evolutionary algorithm
  • Minimising the delta test for variable selection in regression problems

29 March 2009

Call for papers: Codes, Lattices, and Cryptography

Call for papers: Codes, Lattices, and Cryptography

A special issue of International Journal of Information and Coding Theory

In recent years there have been many new developments in the area of lattices as related to coding theory and cryptography. This special issue focuses on several aspects of this interrelation.

Lattices are related to several geometric problems (sphere packing, sphere covering, the kissing number problem), as well as other areas of mathematics, such as number theory, combinatorics and cryptography. The main application of lattices is in engineering, and specifically in the channel coding problem, i.e. the design of codes for a band-limited channel with white Gaussian noise. Design and construction of lattices that have good performance with low decoding complexity is of interest.

Many novel applications in cryptography have appeared based on the difficulty of finding shortest vectors in lattices. For example, the well-known NTRU system is one of these applications. Given the apparent difficulty of this problem it has been even considered for post-quantum cryptography.

In connection with the above problems, and of independent interest, arithmetic algorithms, especially in finite fields, are on the fundamental importance for the efficient implementations of these algorithms in cryptography, in coding theory and in communications.

This special issue is seeking papers in any of the above problems, and related areas, that present new methodological approaches or that deal with known or new applications in coding theory, lattices and cryptography.

Topics include, but are not limited to:
  • Applications of lattices in communications
  • Applications of lattices in cryptography
  • Decoding algorithms for codes and lattices
  • Low-density parity-check lattices
  • Sphere packing problem
  • Lattice decoding problem
  • Arithmetic in finite fields
  • Finite fields in cryptography
  • Combinatorial methods and algorithms in coding theory
Important Dates
Deadline for submissions of manuscript: 1 July, 2009
Final selection of papers to be published: 1 November, 2009

Special issue: Futures of design education

Journal of Design Research 7(3) 2008

Papers from the 9th International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education held in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, 13-14 September 2007
  • Bridging design disciplines: preparing students for unpredictable challenges
  • Distributed collaboration in design education: practising designer and client roles
  • Sustainable design and the design curriculum
  • Individual learning styles and design performance in the metaphorical reasoning process
  • Aligning industrial design education to emerging trends in professional practice and industry
  • An activity theory framework for industrial design
  • Ontologically shaping a designed future: design education as revelation

Special issue: Content management in concurrent product development structures

International Journal of Product Development 8(2) 2009
  • Proposition of the project management framework through integration of the knowledge and information of the collaborative decision-making processes
  • Data exchange among different modules in a manufacturing or service framework
  • A new closed-loop PLM Standard for mass products
  • Ontology-driven codification for discrete and modular products
  • Content management based on multi-agent system for collaborative design
  • Important factors for project performance in collaborative product development: a survey investigating contextual settings
  • Administration and operation of product-related content

Special issue: Business innovation in 21st century organisations

International Journal of Business Innovation and Research 3(3) 2009

Papers from the Global Business Innovation and Development Conference (GBID 2008) held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in January 2008.
  • Successful strategic alliances with international partners: key issues for small- to medium-sized enterprises
  • A typology framework of Greek business-to-business electronic marketplaces
  • Innovation and R&D in the global environment: the case of group Thales
  • Business excellence and human resources: investigating best practices in European Quality Awarded Hellenic organisations
  • Business model design for biotechnology firms
  • Culture effect on innovation level in European countries

Special issue: Innovation portfolio management: an understudied driver of innovation success?

International Journal of Technology Intelligence and Planning 5(2) 2009
  • Innovation portfolio management: an understudied driver of innovation success?
  • Evaluating innovation ideas: a comprehensive approach to New Product Development
  • Innovation portfolio management: a framework for SMEs in the automotive industry
  • Evaluation of research and technology projects: a status quo analysis of technology-intensive companies
  • R&D-portfolio management of German industrial enterprises
  • An overview of tools for managing the corporate innovation portfolio

28 March 2009

Special issue: Future multimedia networking: Part two

International Journal of Internet Protocol Technology 4(1) 2009

More papers from the First International Future Multimedia Networking (FMN 2008) workshop, held in Cardiff, UK, 17-18 September 2008
  • Multi-component multimedia resource optimisation for 3G and beyond
  • Assessing the Quality of Experience of SopCast
  • Application-level QoS: improving video conferencing quality through sending the best packet next
  • Cross-Layer joint optimisation of FEC channel codes and Multiple Description Coding for video delivery over IEEE 802.11e links
  • Wireless multicast cross-layer framework for rate allocation: protocol design
  • Quality of Experience management framework for real-time multimedia applications
  • Equitable quality video streaming for IP networks

27 March 2009

Call for papers: The Family-Driven Entrepreneurial Venture: Is There a Link Between the Family Background and the Entrepreneurial Behaviour

Call for papers: The Family-Driven Entrepreneurial Venture: Is There a Link Between the Family Background and the Entrepreneurial Behaviour of a Family Business?

A special issue of International Journal of Entrepreneurial Venturing

This special issue seeks manuscripts that tackle the question: “What is the current state of the art in entrepreneurship and family business research”? Since Landsberg (1982) revealed that there are more benefits for a company than having just one entrepreneur, an increasing number of researchers have tried to integrate the “family” concept into their work.

The issue should be of interest to researchers with specialisation in the fields of family business and entrepreneurship, or related fields. The internationalisation process of family business research is an emerging research area. An increasing number of institutions worldwide are examining the significance of disseminating their research in order to look at the peculiarities of family businesses. In our opinion, it is necessary to facilitate knowledge transfer between researchers globally.

The central theme of IJEV is "The Entrepreneurial Venture" (Sahlmann/Stevenson/Roberts/Bhidé). In this view, entrepreneurship can be viewed as the concentration of opportunity, growth and value creation regardless of company size, age or kind. To understand this, it can be very helpful to take into account the role the family of the entrepreneur plays. Can an entrepreneurial family background be a valuable resource? How do family, business and ownership, as interrelated subsystems, influence the entrepreneurial behaviour of a firm? And how can this be sustainable in trans-generational succession?

The issue itself is built on two major research streams. Firstly, the “traditional entrepreneur”, and secondly the “traditional entrepreneur who is inseparable from his business family or family business.” It very much welcomes authors who link entrepreneurship research and family firm research.

Suitable topics include, but are not limited to:
  • The entrepreneur and his/her theoretical role in a family business
  • The definition of family business
  • Critical factors involved in moving a company into a new family generation
  • Knowledge as an underestimate factor in family business.
  • Interdisciplinary research: family business as seen through the lens of other research disciplines
  • Regional differences in family business
  • New methodological approaches in family business research
  • Arrangements in family business for generational transitions
  • Role playing in family business
  • Managing my own business: is this a contradiction?
  • The social aspects of family businesses : implications for "trans-generational" processes
  • The internal and external networks in family business as a resource for transferring the company to the next generation
Important Dates
First paper submission deadline: 30 August, 2009
Notification of acceptance for second review process: 15 September, 2009.
Submission of amended papers: 15 November, 2009.
Notification of final acceptance: 10 January, 2010.

Special issue: Inclusive risk governance in the enlarged EU: challenges and opportunities

International Journal of Risk Assessment and Management 12(1) 2009
  • Editorial: Inclusive governance, changing science-policy relations and multi level decision making in the enlarged EU
  • Revolution or passing fashion? Reassessing the precautionary principle
  • Life at all costs: European precautionary policies on xenotransplantation
  • Beyond inclusion: effects and limits of institutionalised public participation
  • Being a member of the club: the transnational (self-)governance of networks of biobanks
  • Implementing the EU Water Framework Directive in Hungary: a pilot project in the Upper-Tisza region
  • The Vienna airport mediation: point of view of the Vienna Ombuds-Office for Environmental Protection

Special issue: Knowledge management within the health, pharmaceutical and clinical sectors: towards patient-centric health care systems

International Journal of Technology Management 47(1-3) 2009
  • Using ontology-based knowledge networks for user training in managing healthcare processes
  • Managing personal medical knowledge: agent-based knowledge acquisition
  • Implementation Methodology of Evidence-Based Medicine based on technological diffusion approach: a case of system establishment within the hospital industry
  • Managing clinical knowledge among hospital nurses
  • A generic approach to computer-based Clinical Practice Guideline management using the ECA Rule paradigm and active databases
  • Managing, measuring and reporting knowledge-based resources in hospitals
  • Achieving knowledge management integration through EAI: a case study from healthcare sector
  • The role of Knowledge Management in the pharmaceutical enterprise
  • Applying cluster analysis to build a patient-centric healthcare service strategy for elderly patients
  • Complexity metrics for ontology based information
  • Drug effectiveness reporting and monitoring systems: discussion and prototype development
  • Knowledge representation issues in ontology-based clinical Knowledge Management systems
  • Knowledge Representation issues in structural engineering: a framework for application in the case of structures in healthcare
  • Semantic Web and Knowledge Management for the health domain: state of the art and challenges for the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) of the European Union (2007-2013)
  • Longitudinal knowledge strategising in a long-term healthcare organisation

26 March 2009

Call for papers: Marine Renewable Energy

Call for papers: Marine Renewable Energy

A special issue of International Journal of Renewable Energy Technology

The British Wind Energy Association mentioned that the UK has the best wave and tidal resources in Europe, an asset that has the potential to provide a considerable proportion of the UK power market in years to come. Coupled with this is a strong history of innovation that has produced some of the leading marine energy devices in the world today. These devices face a number of challenges before they can meet their potential and reach large-scale commercialisation ahead of their global competition, but the rewards will be great.

Supporting innovation early is the key to developing a globally competitive manufacturing industry in renewable energy, as Denmark and Germany have learnt from their experiences of wind energy. The UK is now fully committed to developing the next generation of commercial renewable energy technologies in the emerging wave and tidal energy market. The main objective of this special issue is to foster the development of marine renewable (wave, tidal, current and ocean wind) energy.

The objective of the special issue is to provide a means for the publication and interchange of information, on an international basis, on marine renewable energy including, but not limited to:
  • Research and development: wave, tidal, current and ocean wind technology
  • Design
  • Construction
  • Materials technology and production
  • Marine spatial planning
  • Environmental protection
  • Sustainable development
  • Economics
  • Policy
  • Installation
  • Maintenance
  • Operations
  • Regulations
  • Licensing
  • Future directions for development
Important Dates
Manuscript submission: 31 July 2009
Notification of Acceptance: October/November 2009
Final manuscript Submission: 31 December 2009

Call for papers: Ethnicity, Cultural Diversity and Entrepreneurship

Call for papers: Ethnicity, Cultural Diversity and Entrepreneurship

A special issue of Global Business and Economics Review

The unit of analysis in traditional entrepreneurship was the entrepreneur. More recently, evidence has shown that individuals of different ethnic backgrounds react in unlike ways to opportunities for entrepreneurship (Dana, 1995). Therefore, entrepreneurship cannot be explained simply by individual level accounts. Furthermore, in some cultures, the backbone of the economy is community-based enterprise (Peredo & Chrisman, 2006), collective entrepreneurship (Dana, 2007), or subsistence self-employment (Meis-Mason et al, 2008).

Examples of ethnic entrepreneurs can include, among others, Native Americans (USA), Aboriginals (Australia), the Sami people (Finland) or immigrated ethnic groups (e.g. Pakistanis in UK, Algerians in France). This special issue will focus on entrepreneurship as a function of ethnicity, reflecting various contexts in which cultural diversity is an explanatory variable for the nature of the economy. Anthropological and sociological perspectives are welcome, as are economic studies.

REFERENCES
[1] Dana, L ., “Entrepreneurship in a Remote Sub-Arctic Community: Nome, Alaska,” Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice, 20 (1), Fall 1995, pp. 55-72. Reprinted in Norris Krueger, editor, Entrepreneurship: Critical Perspectives on Business and Management, Volume IV, London: Routledge, 2002, pp. 255-275.
[2] Dana, L., and Dana, T., “Collective Entrepreneurship in a Mennonite Community in Paraguay,” Latin American Business Review 8 (4), 2007, pp. 82-96.
[3] Meis-Mason, A., et al., “Entrepreneurship in Coral Harbour, Nunavut” International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation 9 (2), June 2008, pp. 1-10.
[4] Peredo, A, and Chrisman, J., “Toward a Theory of Community-based Enterprise,” Academy of Management Review 31 (2), 2006, pp. 302-328.

Suitable topics include, but are not limited to:
  • Indigenous people
  • Immigrant groups
  • Enterprise development and support
  • Knowledge transfer
  • Land rights
  • Traditional knowledge
  • Opportunity recognition
  • Collective entrepreneurship
  • Religion and entrepreneurship
  • The Arctic
Important Date
The deadline for submissions is September, 15th 2009

Special issue: 5th International Conference on Information Technology and Applications (ICITA 2008)

International Journal of Computer Applications in Technology 34(4) 2009

The 5th International Conference on Information Technology and Applications (ICITA 2008) was held in Cairns, Australia, 23-26 June 2008
  • Implementing an agent based auction model on a cluster of reused workstations
  • An adaptive segmentation method using MRF model for suburban aerial images
  • Development of power facility management services using RFID/USN
  • Joint source-cryptographic-channel coding for dependable systems
  • An ultrasonic thickness and wave speed determination system aided by fuzzy logic
  • Improvement of redundancy principle for multimedia technical foreign-language learning
  • Effect of human-biometric sensor interaction on fingerprint matching performance, image quality and minutiae count
  • Analysis and classification of three-dimensional trunk shape of women by using the human body shape model
  • An evaluation of interactive stacked bar charts
  • Towards computer-human interaction in natural language
  • Fractal terrain generation for SIMD architectures
  • A robust inverse kinematics algorithm for animating a joint chain
  • Growth maximisation and downside protection using power-log utility functions for optimising portfolios with derivatives
  • Differential convolution for medical diagnosis
  • Search in the mood: the information filter based on ambiguous queries
  • A pervasive tele-health system for continual and low intrusive monitoring using peer-to-peer networks
  • Skin diagnosis algorithm for analysis of skin images captured from a fingerprint sensor

Special issue: Competition and entrepreneurship

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business 8(1) 2009
  • An asymmetric perspective on coopetitive strategies
  • Coopetition between SMEs: an empirical study of French professional football
  • Power asymmetries, flexibility and the propensity to coopete: an empirical investigation of SMEs' relationships with franchisors
  • Managing strategic innovation through coopetition
  • The causes of conflict when small- and medium-sized competitors cooperate
  • When entrepreneurship requires coopetition: the need for standards in the creation of a market
  • Innovative coopetition: the strength of strong ties
  • Coopetition and business ecosystems in the information technology sector: the example of Intelligent Mobile Terminals
  • The role of collective action in the New Zealand dairy industry: an international comparison

25 March 2009

First issue: International Journal of Computational Intelligence in Bioinformatics and Systems Biology

International Journal of Computational Intelligence in Bioinformatics and Systems Biology deals with research in the application of artificial and computational intelligence to the field of bioinformatics and systems biology, for example, in predicting and understanding data from gene expression, and other emerging genomic and proteomic technologies.

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

First issue: International Journal of Information and Coding Theory

International Journal of Information and Coding Theory publishes research that significantly advances the study of information and coding theory and their applications to cryptography, network security, network coding, computational complexity theory, communication networks, and related scientific fields that make use of information and coding theory methods.

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

First issue: International Journal of Materials Engineering Innovation

International Journal of Materials Engineering Innovation publishes papers on recent advances in composites, ceramics, functionally graded materials, cellular materials, and ecomaterials. It deals with all aspects of modern materials engineering, such as materials preparation and processing, relationships between structure (nano and micro) and properties (physical, chemical, mechanical, thermal, electrical and magnetic), computational and optimisation techniques, as well as performance and technological applications for advanced industry.

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

Special issue: Digart

International Journal of Arts and Technology 2(1/2) 2009

Papers from the inaugural DigArt symposium held in Esbjerg, Denmark in March 2008
  • (Re)searching through play: play as a framework and methodology for collaborative design processes
  • Visual music instrument
  • Locating the ephemeral: capturing the fleeting moment in digital arts
  • Up close and personal: some effects of technology on portraiture
  • Autonomous Expressionism: a framework for installation directed Network Arts
  • Exploring a parameterised portrait painting space
  • Aesthetic experience of proactive interaction with cultural art
  • Cinesthesis: cross-modal and cross-cultural perceptions of the Aurora Borealis for the design of an interactive installation
  • Real-time audio-visual composition: Mugenkei as a Live Dream
  • ReacTickles: playful interaction with information communication technologies
  • The brain, biology and evolution in art and its communication

Special issue: BIOMAT 2007 Conference

International Journal of Bioinformatics Research and Applications 5(2) 2009

BIOMAT 2007, the Seventh International Symposium on Mathematical and Computational Biology was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 24-29 November 2007
  • Polyhelices through n points
  • Homology modelling of pyrophosphosrylase, enzyme involved in chitin pathway of Moniliophthora perniciosa
  • Parallelisation of a multi-neighbourhood local search heuristic for a phylogeny problem
  • Scaling properties of transcription profiles in gene networks
  • Optimisation and data mining techniques for the screening of epileptic patients
  • Modelling biomolecular structure with geodesic curves through ordered sets of atom sites
  • Fuzzy cluster stability analysis with missing values using resampling
  • Correcting short reads with high error rates for improved sequencing result

23 March 2009

Call for papers: Thermal Modelling, Simulation and Analysis, Management, , CFD and Experimental Verification of Power Electronic Systems

Call for papers: Thermal Modelling, Simulation and Analysis, Management, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and Experimental Verification of Power Electronic Systems

A special issue of International Journal of Power Electronics

Thermal modelling and analysis have become an integral part of power electronics system (PES) design and development, facilitating faster product development and reduced time to market. Furthermore, numerous software packages are available for successful thermal modelling and analysis on power engineering applications. Therefore, the purpose of this Special Issue is to present state of the art solutions in the field of thermal modelling, simulation and analysis, management, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and experimental verification on power electronics systems.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
  • Induction motors/generator drives
  • Synchronous motors/generator drives
  • Permanent magnet motors/generator drives
  • Switched reluctance motors/generator drives
  • Synchronous reluctance motors/generator drives
  • Flux switching machine drives
  • Claw pole machine drives
  • Stepper motor drives
  • Servo motor drives
  • Buck, boost, buck- boost, two switch forward, half bridge and full bridge converters
  • Renewable energy systems
  • Photovoltaic systems
  • Automotive and electric vehicles
  • Electric traction
  • Uninterruptible power supplies
  • Induction heating
  • HVDC transmission
  • Energy storage systems
  • Static compensators
  • Flexible AC transmission systems
Important Dates
Paper due: 30 July, 2009
Acceptance notification: 30 September, 2009
Final paper version due: 30 November, 2009

Special issue: Life cycle engineering: towards a closed loop economy

International Journal of Sustainable Manufacturing 1(3) 2009

Expanded versions of papers presented at the 13th CIRP International Conference on Life Cycle Engineering (LCE2006) held in Leuven, Belgium, 31May - 2June 2006.
  • The role of the social dimension in life cycle engineering
  • A new comprehensive methodology for the evaluation of product sustainability at the design and development stage of consumer electronic products
  • The eco-efficiency of reuse centres critically explored – the washing machine case
  • Life cycle assessment of film and digital imaging product system scenarios
  • Optimal heat-reversible snap joints for frame-panel assembly in aluminium space frame automotive bodies
  • Comparison of the environmental impact of five electric vehicle battery technologies using LCA
  • Materials flow of platinum group metals in Germany
  • Flat screen monitor disassembly and testing for remanufacturing
  • Environmental impact of ship hull repair

Special issue: Dynamic virtual communities in the information society

International Journal of Web Based Communities 5(2) 2009
  • Knowledge sharing in virtual communities – a review of the empirical research
  • The acceptance of mobile communication technologies in student communities
  • Self-organised virtual communities: bridging the gap between web-based communities and P2P systems
  • Communities detection and the analysis of their dynamics in collaborative networks
  • The open source software phenomenon as a role model for networked innovations in biotechnology: an exploratory study
  • Virtual eBMS: a virtual learning community supporting personalised learning
  • Human affordance
  • A secure collaborative web-based environment for virtual organisations
  • A framework for privacy in social communities
  • A business privacy model for virtual communities

Special issue: Advances in manufacturing processes and management techniques

International Journal of Manufacturing Technology and Management 17(4) 2009
  • Evaluation of tool wear mechanism of TiAlN coated tools when drilling Ti-6Al-4V
  • Developing and implementing statistical process control tools in a Jordanian company
  • Determining optimum EDM parameters in drilling a small hole by Taguchi method
  • Lean manufacturing concept: the main factor in improving manufacturing performance – a case study
  • Precision microfinishing by electro-chemical honing
  • Experimental study on machining of titanium alloy (Ti64) by CVD and PVD coated carbide inserts
  • Experimental study of effect of surface roughness of blank diameter on external threads
  • A consensus on critical success factors for enterprise resource planning systems implementation: the experience of Malaysian firms
  • Study on rock-drilling using PDC bits for the prediction of torque and rate of penetration
  • Laser and arc weld methods for direct metal deposition of Waspaloy
  • Study of out-of-roundness (OOR) of holes in ceramics by USD process using Taguchi's methodology
  • Cost of quality for an automotive industry: a survey and findings

Special issue: Advanced design and manufacturing

International Journal of Manufacturing Technology and Management 17(3) 2009

Extended papers from the International Conference on Advanced Design and Manufacture (ADM2006) held at Harbin, China, 8-10 January 2006
  • Feedrate scheduling and jerk control algorithm for high-speed CNC machining
  • Rapid design of tool-wear condition monitoring systems for turning processes using novelty detection
  • Neural network adaptive control for machining process based on generalised entropy square error and wavelet analysis
  • The development of a probing system for investigating friction generated acoustics
  • Research on a new type mechanism to lock and unlock space borne appendages
  • Optimal pricing and advertising competition in two supply chains with deterministic demand
  • Adaptive control for a class of non-linear systems using fuzzy logic based on motion controller

Special issue: Multi-disciplinary problems, models, and feedback control designs

International Journal of Computer Applications in Technology 34(3) 2009
  • Improving consumer quality-efficiency by using simple adaptive feedback in a choice setting
  • The effect of phase matching factor on four wave mixing in optical communication systems: fuzzy and analytical analysis
  • Complex plane design strategy for a responsive lean manufacturing system
  • Dynamic load balancing through real-time transport feedback control for VoIP QoS
  • Scheduling data reads and writes using feedback control on a weakly connected environment
  • Modelling and performance analysis of networked control systems under different driven modes
  • A conceptual model for feedback control based instruction and evaluation
  • Application of optimal control theory in marketing: What is the optimal number of choices on a shopping website?
  • Modelling and control of an overhead crane with a variable length flexible cable

21 March 2009

Special issue: Integration of knowledge management with e-learning

International Journal of Internet and Enterprise Management 6(2) 2009
  • Effective ontology management in virtual learning environments
  • Foundations of cultural design in e-learning
  • Exchange Ideology as a moderator of Knowledge Sharing in virtual teams: a social exchange theory perspective
  • The socialisation of organisational learning through learning technology
  • An investigation into knowledge discovery in collaborative learning communities

19 March 2009

Call for papers: Recent Advances in Sensor Integration

Call for papers: Recent Advances in Sensor Integration

A special issue of International Journal of Sensor Networks

Recently, there has been a growing interest in the design, development and deployment of sensor systems for applications of high-level inference, which leads to an increasing demand on interconnecting wireless sensor networks with other emerging technologies, such as RFID technology, multimedia based surveillance system, biomedical technology, mobile agent based networks, P2P technology and business process and semantic technology, etc. With sensor technology being incorporated into these technologies, demands from an increasing number of autonomous and intelligent applications can be met.

This special issue is intended to provide a forum for presenting, exchanging and discussing the most recent advances in different aspects of integrating wireless sensor networks with emerging technologies. In particular, it will bring together leading researchers, industry professionals, and research students to study the applications, architectures, protocols, models, evaluation methods, and experimental studies of the advanced sensor integration technology.

Topics to be covered in this special issue include but are not limited to:

Sensor Integration with RFID technology :
  • Novel architecture for integrating RFID and wireless sensor networks
  • RFID based wireless sensor networks
  • Ubiquitous RFID and sensor networks
  • Intelligent applications for RFID and wireless sensor networks
Sensor Integration with Multimedia based Surveillance System:
  • Multi-camera system algorithms and applications
  • Multimedia aggregation and fusion in video sensor networks
  • Testbed and experimental studies for video sensor networking
  • Real-time and reliable video transmission over WSNs
  • QoS provisioning for video transmission in WSNs
Sensor Integration with Biomedical Technology :
  • Wireless sensor networks in e-heathcare
  • Health care and medical applications for wireless body area sensor networks
  • Body sensor networks
Sensor Integration with Mobile Agent Technology :
  • Middleware design for mobile agent based wireless sensor networks
  • Novel itinerary plan for mobile agent in wireless sensor networks
  • Agent-based architectures for WSNs
  • Agents design issues dealing with reliability, efficiency, and fault tolerance
  • Mobile agent based intelligent sensory data fusion
Sensor Integration with P2P Technology :
  • P2P-based diverse sensor networks integration
  • P2P-based sensor networks resource discovery
  • P2P-based worldwide sensor networks sharing
Sensor Integration with Business Process :
  • Novel middleware design for sensor networks assisted business process
  • Integrating sensor networks with business process
  • Sensor networks based context aware business process management algorithmic methods and tools
Sensor Integration with Semantic Technology :
  • Semantic descriptions of sensors and sensor data
  • Semantic data integration of heterogeneous sensor network data streams
  • Semantic sensor web applications, architectures, middleware, and languages
  • Sharing, annotation, and (distributed) management of sensor data
Important Dates
Manuscript due: September 1, 2009
Acceptance/rejection notification: December 31, 2009
Final manuscript due: January 31, 2009

Special issue: Recent advances of utilising technologies of solar energy

International Journal of Global Energy Issues 31(2) 2009
  • Performance of a solar drier with and without heat storage material for copra drying
  • Comparison of performance prediction of solar water heaters between Artificial Neural Networks and conventional correlations
  • Development of optimum solar irradiation energy model for Iran
  • Rural electrification by photovoltaic solar energy in Algeria
  • Genetic Algorithm optimisation of stand-alone Photovoltaic energy systems
  • A new type of solar concentrator employing a cone-cylinder combination
  • Experimental investigation of the performance of the solar tunnel dryer for drying aonla pulp
  • Night operation of solar chimney power system using solar ponds for heat storage
  • Solar water cost and feasibility of solar water heating system

Special issue: Decision support systems and knowledge management in SMEs

International Journal of Management and Decision Making 10(1/2) 2009
  • An exploratory study of the relevance of trans-national global information systems to small and medium enterprises: evidence from Egypt
  • Semi-star schema for operational and analytical requirements of SMEs
  • Customer relationship management in Taiwan's banking industry
  • Project termination analysis in SMEs: making the right call
  • KM in SMEs: a research agenda
  • Impact of knowledge management on the self-efficacy of entrepreneurs: Mexican SME context
  • An intelligent decision support system for SMEs' activation in the energy sector
  • A model for managerial decision-making in wireless technology management: user-based evaluation criteria for business application – an empirical study with Middle Eastern companies

Special issue: Technology enhancement

International Journal of Internet Technology and Secured Transactions 1(3/4) 2009
  • A framework towards enhancing trust and authorisation for e-commerce service
  • The MIT beer game as multiagent simulation: a practical approach using AOR-modelling and an XML-based implementation framework
  • Contrast enhancement of bimodal SAR images using a new desired histogram method with Gamma distribution
  • A genetic algorithm that simulates social behaviour
  • Translating STATEMATE models into FNLOG for the verification of safety requirements in reactive systems
  • New approach to e-lecturing
  • Reducing latency through efficient channel allocation methods for multiversion data dissemination in mobile computing environment
  • High-throughput implementation of the RIPEMD-160
  • The heterogeneous world: towards platform independent adaptive session mobility

18 March 2009

Special Issue: 22nd Annual ACM Symposium on Applied Computing

International Journal of Data Mining and Bioinformatics 3(1) 2009

The top 3 papers from the Bioinformatics Track in the 2007 ACM Symposium on Applied Computing
  • A cube framework for incorporating inter-gene information into biological data mining
  • Finding new Core Promoter Elements using backward-looking strategies
  • An on demand data integration model for biological databases
Additional Papers
  • Predicting protein–protein interfaces as clusters of Optimal Docking Area points
  • A hybrid graph-theoretic method for mining overlapping functional modules in large sparse protein interaction networks
  • Irrelevant gene elimination for Partial Least Squares based Dimension Reduction by using feature probes

Special issue: Performance and dynamics of diversified land vehicle systems: Part two

International Journal of Heavy Vehicle Systems 16(1/2) 2009
  • The application of understeer gradient in stability analysis of articulated vehicles
  • A survey of stability enhancement strategies for articulated steer vehicles
  • A method for powertrain selection of heavy-duty vehicles with fuel savings
  • Experimental investigations of a new type of fuelling system for heavy-duty diesel engines
  • Optimised braking force distribution strategies for straight and curved braking
  • Longitudinal dynamics of freight trains
  • Development and validation of a modular simulation model for commercial vehicles
  • Analytical analysis of tyre forces as a function of normal pressure distributions
  • Experimental investigation on the dynamic behaviour of a railway vehicle travelling through a turnout
  • Lateral sloshing in partially filled elliptical tanker trucks using a trammel pendulum
  • Kinematics model for the wheeled vehicle tractive performance determination on Sepang's peat terrain in Malaysia
  • Effect of permanent jersey-shaped concrete barrier height on heavy vehicle post-impact stability
  • Retrofit of an existing Italian bridge rail for H4a containment level using simulation

Special issue: Web and grid services for advanced network and information systems

International Journal of Web and Grid Services 5(1) 2009

Extended versions of papers presented at the IEEE 22nd International Conference on Advanced Information Networking and Applications (AINA2008) held in Okinawa, Japan, 25-28 March 2008.
  • A clustering analysis and agent-based trust model in a grid environment supporting virtual organisations
  • A web interface for the HyperSim-G Grid simulation package
  • OVerFA: a collaborative framework for the semantic annotation of documents and websites
  • Semantic web services discovery based on structural ontology matching
  • Design and implementation of a Click-Search interface for web browsing using cellular phones
Additional Paper
  • Monitoring data dependencies in concurrent process execution through delta-enabled grid services

17 March 2009

Renamed journal: International Journal of Knowledge Management in Tourism and Hospitality.

The previously announced International Journal of Hospitality Knowledge Management has changed its title to the International Journal of Knowledge Management in Tourism and Hospitality. This change follows discussions with relevant experts in the field and reflects their feedback. The journal is currently being developed and will be launched later this year.

Special issue: Entrepreneurship and innovation triggers, catalysts and accelerators

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management 9(1/2) 2009

A companion to the special issue: Innovation Networks and Knowledge Clusters in the Knowledge Economy and Society in International Journal of Technology Management 46(3/4) 2009
  • Is knowledge creation hindered by intellectual property rights?
  • Regions and innovation: a discussion of concepts illustrated with the German bioregional picture
  • The role of KIBS in the technological renovation of local economies. Evidence from the computer services sector
  • Small business performance: seeking efficiency through knowledge based networks
  • An exploratory analysis of networking, R&D and innovativeness in the Spanish electronics sector
  • The influence of geographical knowledge networks on innovative performance: evidences from the Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park, Taiwan
  • Establishing and managing an innovation network: the case of NTT DoCoMo
  • Innovation penetration into a region with specific features: the case of Crete, Greece
  • University-Industry-Government linkages in biotech in a small transition country: the Estonian case
  • Glocal knowledge networks in the development of India's outsourced software sector
  • The vendors' perspective on the choice process of IP telephony

15 March 2009

First issue: International Journal of Entrepreneurial Venturing

International Journal of Entrepreneurial Venturing reflects the concept of entrepreneurship as not being limited to new ventures and start-ups, but as the concentration of opportunity, growth and value creation regardless of company size, age or kind.

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

Call for papers: Advances in Waste Engineering and Management

Call for papers: Advances in Waste Engineering and Management

A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Technology and Management

At present, our unique planet 'Earth' is facing immense environmental problems due to ignorance, over-exploitation and waste generation. All the three basic components of the environment, i.e., air; water and land, are in the disturbed state. The quality of air we inhale, the water we drink and the land we live are all deteriorating day-by-day. In such a situation, it is of utmost importance and necessity to improve the understanding of environmental risk and learn how to minimise waste generation and utilise the same for useful products. Globally, many environmental technologies have been developed towards better waste management, but developing countries are still facing problems in solving the grave concern of waste management. Hence, a special issue is proposed to cover the advances made in waste engineering and management globally in general and developing countries in particular.

Globally, the most widely accepted technologies for MSW treatment are incineration and landfill disposal. Incineration is an efficient way to reduce the waste volume and demand for landfill space. Incineration plants can be located close to the centre of gravity of waste generation, thus also reducing the cost of waste transportation. Incineration provides the best way to eliminate methane emissions from waste management processes. Waste incineration may be advantageous when a landfill cannot be sited because of lack of suitable sites or long haulage distances resulting into higher costs. Hence, incineration will have the upper hand for reducing the quantum of MSW reaching landfills. But incineration practices have not become lucrative in developing counties due to low calorific value of wastes. Other technologies like anaerobic digestion are also not gaining popularity to date. Similarly, there are number of technologies for wastewater treatment. This special issue invites submissions addressing innovative research globally on waste engineering and management which will have great impact on policy makers, technologist and academicians.

Original research papers or reviews are invited in the following and related areas:
  • R & D on different aspects of waste management
  • Case studies including critical reviews on different aspects of waste management
  • Modelling in waste management
  • Various processing technologies waste management in general and MSW management in particular
  • Climate change issues related to waste management
  • Economics of technologies for waste management
Important Dates
Deadline for paper submission: 31 December 2009
First turn of papers review: 30 January 2010
Second turn of papers review: 30 July 2010
Final papers submission: 31 September 2010

Call for papers: Ubiquitous RFID Computing

Call for papers: Ubiquitous RFID Computing

A special issue of International Journal of Ad Hoc and Ubiquitous Computing

RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) technology has been one of the most popular research topics in recent years. Besides its original use of replacing barcodes, RFID has permeated many other fields such as supply chain automation, asset tracking, medical applications, people tracking, manufacturing, retail, warehouses, livestock, timing, and so on. Its applications are limited only by imagination.

As a result, it can be expected that RFID will be embedded into many objects, whether large or small, mobile or stationary, with or without your knowing. Its ubiquity raises many issues such as availability, reliability, security, privacy, and so on. Behind all these RFID applications and issues, a computing framework exists to support their normal and continuous functioning. It includes the front-end readers, the middleware, the networking, the backend databases or programs, and many others. How to make all these systems integrate seamlessly and flawlessly is very important.

This special issue aims to foster state-of-the-art research in the area of RFID related computing and is expected to focus on all aspects of RFID technologies and to present novel results and solutions to solve the various problems and challenges in RFID applications.

We encourage the submission of innovative and mature results in designing, analysing, and developing technology, services, and applications of RFID computing. Areas of interest include, but are not limited to, the following topics:
  • RFID architectures and systems
  • RFID resource management
  • RFID models and services
  • RFID economics and architectures
  • Middleware for RFID computing
  • RFID reader scheduling and load balancing
  • RFID programming models, tools, and environments
  • RFID performance evaluation and modelling
  • Information retrieval in RFID computing
  • Novel architectural models for RFID computing
  • Performance monitoring for RFID applications
  • Novel applications for RFID computing
  • RFID security
  • RFID privacy issue
  • Reliability and availability
Important Dates
Deadline for Submission: 30 September, 2009
Acceptance notification: 31 December, 2009
Camera ready papers due: 15 February, 2010

Special issue: The role of the universities in the entrepreneurship education in some countries

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management 8(6) 2008

Papers from an international seminar held in Benevento, Italy on 5 April 2005
  • Woman entrepreneurship programme breaks government's gender neutrality in Finland
  • Entrepreneurship education in India: an assessment of SME training needs against current practices
  • The role of the University of Tartu in the development of entrepreneurship in the region of South Estonia
  • The institutional education and training for entrepreneurship development in the Italian Universities
  • Entrepreneurship and innovation at work and schools: the Greek paradigm

Special issue: The hydrogen economy and hydrogen treatment of materials. Part 2

International Journal of Nuclear Hydrogen Production and Applications 2(1) 2009

Further papers from the Fifth International HTM Conference ‘Hydrogen Economy and Hydrogen Treatment of Materials’ (HTM-2007) held on 22–25 May 2007 in Donetsk, Ukraine.
  • Hydrogen production by catalytic methane decomposition and catalyst regeneration by oxygen mixtures in fluidised and fixed bed reactors
  • The effects of hydrogen on the electrical and optical properties of ZnO
  • Development of Pd-coated ceramic electrodes in hybrid sulphur cycle
  • The kinetics of hydrogen-induced diffusive phase transformations in Sm2Fe17 alloys
  • Surface reaction and transport kinetics of hydrogen through palladium-based membranes under gas co-existing with hydrogen atmospheres
  • Potential applications of amorphous/metallic glassy alloys as hydrogen-permeable membranes for hydrogen production and bipolar plates for PEFC
  • The possibilities for hydrogen production from H2S and storage in the Black Sea

Special issue: Application of metaheuristics in the optimisation and performance measurement of operations, logistics and supply chains

International Journal of Business Performance Management 11(1/2) 2009
  • The design of vehicle routes for a third-party logistics service provider using the simulated annealing algorithm
  • The relative technical efficiency of European transportation systems concerning air transport and railways
  • Development and analysis of scheduling decision rules for a dynamic flexible job shop production system: a simulation study
  • Analysing the performance of supply chain designs
  • Performance value analysis for the justification of the leagile supply chain
  • The inventory management systems of a production unit and some academic institutions: a comparative study
  • A metaheuristics-based decision support system for the performance measurement of reverse supply chain management

12 March 2009

Special issue: Sustainable environmental management and technological applications in small island developing states and island territories – progress

International Journal of Environmental Technology and Management 10(2) 2009
  • Combined photovoltaic and energy storage systems: an integrated electrification solution for small islands
  • Air quality modelling: an investigation of the merits of CMAQ in the analysis of trans-boundary air pollution from continents to small islands
  • Improving access to safe drinking water in rural, remote and least-wealthy small islands: non-traditional methods in Chuuk State, Federated States of Micronesia
  • Building with technology, management and innovation: challenges for Vanuatu
  • Small islands and the adoption of ICTs: comparative study of SMEs in Jamaica and Mauritius
  • Environmental and sustainability impact assessment in small islands: the case of Azores and Madeira

Call for papers: Dynamics of Innovation and Competitive Strategy in Transportation Research

Call for papers: Dynamics of Innovation and Competitive Strategy in Transportation Research

A special issue of World Review of Intermodal Transportation Research

While innovation has been noted to be essential to sustained competitive advantage in many industry sectors, academic and practitioner research of innovation in transportation has been minimal. Yet transportation provides a unique context in which to examine the dynamics of innovation and its impacts to competitive strategy.

As industries age, innovations developed and implemented within organisations change in type and intensity. Product innovation and production process innovation, both highly examined in manufacturing sectors across industry life cycles, are not adequately researched in transportation industries. Additionally, there is an enormous gap in research with respect to less “visible” innovations, which include, but are not limited to, administrative and organisational innovations that focus on organisational structure, administrative processes and human resources; technical innovations that pertain to the technology used to produce products and render services; and marketing innovations that focus on the generation and implementation of new, novel elements in the marketing process, focusing on product, price, placement, and promotion as the variables of interest. These less “visible” types of innovations often provide sustained competitive advantage as they challenge competitors to discover and uncover an organisationally-embedded, rare and valuable innovation which is not easily imitated or substituted.

This special issue is intended to present current research in the development and implementation of a broad spectrum of innovation types, their applications in transportation and supporting/related industries, changes in innovation across industry life cycles, and the resulting implications for strategy and competitive advantage. We encourage papers from all aspects of transportation and intermodal transportation where innovation has occurred or should occur, which include but are not limited to:
  • Air cargo and passenger transportation
  • Alliances in the transportation industries
  • Brokering services
  • Cargo handling, equipment and facilities
  • Container development and evolution
  • Development of hubbing systems
  • Electronic data interchange
  • Future innovation trends in intermodal transportation
  • Ground transportation
  • Infrastructure development, maintenance, and upgrade
  • Intelligent transportation systems
  • Leasing companies
  • Network design
  • Ocean port development, facilities, and linkages
  • Pipeline operations
  • Railroad development and involvement in intermodal transportation
  • Security and safety of the transportation system
  • Supply chain innovation
  • Sustainability/transformational innovation
  • Transportation competition and cooperation
  • Transportation networks
  • Warehousing and inventory
Important Date
Submission of full paper before: 30 June 2009

Call for papers: Creativity and Interdisciplinarity – a Discursive Tension?

Call for papers: Creativity and Interdisciplinarity – a Discursive Tension?

A special issue of International Journal of Arts and Technology

Interdisciplinarity and creativity are the buzz words of the moment. However, these terms are often employed without consideration for their complementary value. The policy agendas that drive current developments in research are often instrumentalist, conflating creativity with innovation and interdisciplinarity with novel epistemologies. Such research often engages new technologies, with a consequent emphasis on novelty for its own sake. Related research debates are interestingly and inevitably manifesting as a result of the accelerated interactions within and between disciplines. This special issue invites contributions which explore relationships between interdisciplinary research methodologies and creative practices informed by various forms of technology, both old and new.

Responses are sought to questions which include, but are not limited to:
  • If 'interdisciplinarity' is in itself a modality of research, rather than a set of defined methodologies, then what are the implications of such a context for the final outcome of research?
  • How do we apply interdisciplinary methodologies to specialist knowledge without inappropriately transplanting concepts from one discipline to another?
  • What are the implications of 'interdisciplinarity' for research relying on a sophisticated structuring of elements that originate in different disciplinary fields, far beyond the basic processes of assembling, arranging or collecting such elements?
  • Does an emphasis on rhizomic connections, linkages, overlaps and crossovers and lateral thinking (outside the box) inevitably lead to novel and creative apprehension? What are the forms and value of such novelty and creativity?
  • There is significant anxiety concerning the translation of interdisciplinary methods into ways of working, how to establish productive relationships and applications amongst familiar elements and the exploration of unfamiliar terrains. How do we evaluate what works and what does not? How do we deal with the gaps between disciplines - do we attempt to build bridges or exploit the consequent tensions?
Important Dates
Deadline for abstracts (optional): 1 June, 2009
Deadline for full paper submission: 25 June, 2009
Review results returned to authors: 20 September, 2009
Deadline for camera-ready papers: 1 October, 2009

Special issue: Reconfigurable manufacturing systems: concepts, technologies and applications

International Journal of Manufacturing Technology and Management 17(1/2) 2009
  • Reconfigurable manufacturing systems: meeting the challenges of a dynamic business paradigm
  • Configurable supply chain: framework, methodology and application
  • Structure dynamics control-based framework for adaptive reconfiguration of collaborative enterprise networks
  • A stochastic programming approach to design the production system flexibility considering the evolution of the part families
  • A control design strategy of a reconfigurable manufacturing system
  • Dynamic modelling of reconfigurable manufacturing planning and control systems using supervisory control
  • A simulated annealing algorithm for dynamic system reconfiguration and production planning in cellular manufacturing
  • Production planning of reconfigurable manufacturing systems with stochastic demands using Tabu search
  • Layout configuration selection for reconfigurable manufacturing systems using the fuzzy AHP
  • BTO supply chain configuration via agent-based negotiation
  • Developing taxonomy and model for security centric supply chain management

Special issue: Future multimedia networking: Part One

International Journal of Internet Protocol Technology 3(4) 2008

Papers from the First International Future Multimedia Networking (FMN 2008) workshop, held in Cardiff, UK, 17-18 September 2008
  • Towards seamless source mobility in SSM: design and evaluation of the Tree Morphing protocol
  • Comparative analysis of routing protocols for VoIP in a Wireless Mesh Backbone: a user perspective
  • Enhancing the serviceability of IMS-based multimedia services: preventing core service failures
  • Enabling global multimedia distributed services based on hierarchical DHT overlay networks
  • Suffix caching: an approach to ensure data availability in P2P streaming systems
  • Playback delay in mesh-based Peer-to-Peer systems with random packet forwarding and transmission capacity limitations

Special issue: Business excellence in New Zealand: role of leadership in managing corporate governance and knowledge culture in the global village

World Review of Entrepreneurship, Management and Sustainable Development 5(2) 2009
  • Business excellence and governance: the drive for integration
  • New Zealand entrepreneurs: leading for excellence
  • Broken links: Absorptive Capacity and the internationalisation process of high-tech companies
  • Sustainable futures and Maori business education
  • New Zealand wine industry: a study of changing comparative advantage and competitiveness
  • Developing emotional intelligence as a means to increase team performance
  • Mentoring needs: the staff experiences of a peer-group mentoring programme in a tertiary education environment

Special issue: Environmental management and sustainable development

International Journal of Environmental Technology and Management 10(3/4) 2009
  • Isolation and identification of airborne fungi that can cause asthma: a case study from Eastern Puerto Rico
  • Evaluation of environmental factors and equipment configuration on efficiency of a solar soil water collector
  • Reducing water consumption in industry through flow analysis and simulation: a case study from India
  • Purification of domestic sewage by water-hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes)
  • Equilibrium and thermodynamics of dye removal from aqueous solution by adsorption using rubber wood saw dust
  • Activated Carbons from lignocellulosic waste materials for water treatment: a review
  • Demographics as a new challenge for sustainable development in the German wastewater sector
  • Evaluation of the combined effects of binary mixtures of sodium hypochlorite and surfactants against Daphnia magna Straus
  • Assessment of a national system of sustainable innovation in residential construction: a case study from The Netherlands
  • Restructuring of a civic authority responsible for environmental issues
  • Integrating environmental management and manufacturing strategy: an emerging competitive priority
  • Recycling industrial waste heat for sustainable district heating: a multi-actor perspective
  • Quality concepts for environmental sustainability in seaports: a case study from Egypt
  • Exploring mechanisms for mobilising industrial sustainability models across different industrial locations

9 March 2009

Call for papers: Modelling and/or Control of Multi-Vehicle Formations

Call for papers: Modelling and/or Control of Multi-Vehicle Formations

A special issue of International Journal of Vehicle Autonomous Systems

Interest in multi-vehicle formation and their control has increased because of the many possible applications in military as well as civil fields. The study of robot formation control, inspired from swarm evolution in nature, began from the industry and military worlds with the idea of using multiple small vehicles instead of one big one. Teams of inexpensive robots, performing cooperative tasks, may prove to be more cost and energy effective than a single one. They are, in addition, capable of achieving a mission more efficiently. Using formations of robots includes other advantages such as increased feasibility, accuracy, robustness, flexibility, and probability of success.

Many works have focused on the subject, based on different approaches and using different strategies, such as the virtual structure, the behavioural approach, the leader following approach, swarm intelligence, and so on. Each approach has its advantages and disadvantages, and is used in order to achieve a specific goal.

This special issue aims to showcase recent advances in modelling, parameter identification, and minimisation of multi-vehicle formation, self-organised task allocation strategies for multi-vehicle systems, and formation control.

Topics include, but are not limited to the following areas:
  • Multi-vehicle coordination, cooperation and collaboration
  • Kinematics and dynamics modelling of vehicles formation
  • Path planning and task allocation of robots formation
  • Stabilisation and tracking control of robots formation
  • Obstacles avoidance and formation control
  • Self-organisation of vehicle groups
  • Biologically inspired of multi-robot behaviour
  • Multi-agents system and robots formation
  • Aerial and/or terrestrial group of vehicles in coordination
  • Swarms of robots
Important Dates
Submission of full paper before: 30 June, 2009
Notification of Acceptance: 30 September, 2009
Final paper due: 30 November, 2009

Call for papers: Intelligent Text Processing with its Applications and Computational Linguistics

Call for papers: Intelligent Text Processing with its Applications and Computational Linguistics

A special issue of International Journal of Computer Applications in Technology

We are interested in whatever helps, will help eventually, or might help computers to meaningfully process language data. This special issue promotes the exchange of opinions between experts working in different areas of the growing field of computational linguistics and intelligent text processing. The main purpose of the special issue is to bring together scientists representing linguistics, computer science and related fields, sharing a common interest in the advancement of computational linguistics and natural language processing. The issue covers a broad spectrum of disciplines working towards enabling intelligent systems to interact with humans using natural language.

The research and development of such systems, which exploit knowledge in the target domain, is at the forefront of modern research. This special issue is intended to present applications of intelligent text processing. Submitted papers are expected to postulate diverse problems, models and solutions for these applications.

Papers are invited on recent, substantial, original and unpublished research on all aspects of computational linguistics and intelligent text processing with its application, methods and applications, including, but not limited to:
  • Representation of linguistic knowledge
  • Morphology, syntax, semantics, parsing
  • Text generation data mining
  • Document classification and clustering
  • Information retrieval
  • Text mining and applications
  • Dictionary search
  • Question answering
  • Intelligence systems for e-business
  • Knowledge-based systems
  • Automatic text summarisation and information extraction
  • Classification and clustering
  • Machine translation and translation aids
  • Spell checking
  • Natural language interfaces
  • Information retrieval/NLP applications
  • Information extraction/summarisation
  • Cross-Language information retrieval
  • Knowledge acquisition and representation
  • Knowledge management
  • Web-based information systems and applications
  • Machine learning and data mining
Important Dates
Submission of full paper before: 30 May 2009
Notification of acceptance before: 15 August 2009
Submission of final and revised manuscripts: 15 November 2009

Call for papers: Evaluation Aspects of Semantic Search Applications

Call for papers: Evaluation Aspects of Semantic Search Applications

A special issue of International Journal of Metadata, Semantics and Ontologies

Nowadays, the Web is one of the dominant information sources for learning and acquiring new knowledge. However, finding the relevant information is still a huge challenge. To solve this problem, a significant research effort has been devoted to enhance linguistics and statistics based search by added semantics. In the recent years, many approached to semantic search have emerged. Ontologies are typically used by most of the approaches. Some approaches are relying on semantic annotations by adding additional metadata; some are enhancing clustering of retrieved documents according to topic or semantically enriching queries; some are developing powerful querying languages for ontology.

The progress and existing sparse evaluations of the semantic search tools offer a promising prospect to improve performance of traditional information retrieval (IR) systems. However, the results lack indications of whether this improvement is optimal, causing difficulties in benchmarking different semantic search systems. Yet, the majority of IR evaluation methods are mainly based on relevance of retrieved information, while additional sophistication of the semantic search tools adds complexity to user interaction to reach improved results. Therefore, standard IR metrics as recall and precision do not suffice alone to measure user satisfaction because of the complexity and efforts needed to use the semantic search systems. There is a need to investigate what ontology properties can further enhance search performance, to assess whether this improvement comes at a cost of interaction simplicity and user satisfaction, etc.

Furthermore, evaluation methods based on recall and precision do not indicate the causes for variation in different retrieval results. There are many other factors that influence the performance of ontology-based information retrieval, such as query quality, ontology quality, complexity of user interaction, difficulty of a searching topic with respect to retrieval, indexing, searching, and ranking methods. The detail analysis on how these factors and their interactions affect a retrieval process can help to dramatically improve retrieval methods or processes.

On the other hand, semantic search systems depend on correct information specified in ontology at the appropriate level of granularity and precision. An important body of work already exists in ontology quality assessment field. However, most of ontology evaluation methods are generic quality evaluation frameworks, which do not take into account application of ontology. Therefore there is a need for task- and scenario-based quality assessment methods that, in this particular case, would target and optimise ontology quality for use in information retrieval systems.

In order to promote more efficient and effective ontology usage in IR, there is a need to focus on analysis of ontology quality- and value-added aspects for this domain, summarise use cases and identify best practices. Several issues have been raised by the current research, such as the workload for annotation, the scalability, and the balance between the express power and reasoning capability. An approach to holistic evaluation should assess both technological and economical performance viewpoints. An aspect of value creation by semantics-based systems is important to demonstrate that the benefits of the new technology will overwhelm the payout.

The aim of this special issue is to present new and challenging issues in semantic search and how the solutions can be evaluated, compared and systemised. Therefore, submissions dealing with ontology quality aspects and their impact on IR results, evaluation of usability of the semantic search systems, analysis of user behaviour, new evaluation methods enabling thorough and fine-grained analysis of semantic search technological and/or financial performance, etc. are strongly encouraged.

Original and high quality submissions that focus on different evaluation aspects of semantic search are invited. The topics of interest include but are not limited to:

Evaluation of Semantic Search Systems :
  • Evaluation of information retrieval efficiency and effectiveness
  • Scalability assessment
  • Assessment of annotation quality/labour-load
  • Evaluation and benchmarking techniques and datasets
Ontology quality aspects in Semantic Search :
  • Ontology quality evaluation
  • Ontology utility in semantic search
  • Ontology maintenance
Evaluation of Human-Computer Interaction :
  • Query interpretation and refinement
  • User acceptance of semantic technology
  • Usability evaluation
  • Interaction modes in semantic search
Business Value :
  • Ratio of semantics processing cost/ retrieval utility
  • Incentives for annotation and interaction
  • Costs of maintenance of semantic search solutions
  • Value of information
Important Dates
Submission of abstracts: May 17, 2009
Full paper submission: May 31, 2009
Notification about acceptance/rejection: August 15, 2009
Submission of revised version: September 27, 2009
Final camera-ready submission: November 15, 2009

Call for papers: Risk Management in Construction Projects and Enterprises

Call for papers: Risk Management in Construction Projects and Enterprises

A special issue of International Journal of Project Organisation and Management

Today’s construction projects and businesses are becoming ever more complicated and complex. Hence the associated risks are also becoming more complicated and complex. Properly identifying, assessing and responding to these risks are vitally important for achieving project and organisational objectives and success. Furthermore, it is also vitally important to monitor and learn from the risk management processes.

The special issue seeks original contributions in the areas on risk management in construction projects and enterprises include but not limited to following areas:
  • New theories and techniques for risk identification, risk analysis/evaluation and allocation
  • Risk perceptions and attitude
  • Case studies in project risk management
  • Enterprise risk management
  • Risk management maturity assessment
  • Strategic and operational risk management
  • Supply chain risk management
  • Risk management and sustainability development
  • Major incidence and Disaster management
  • Business continuity management
  • Organisational resilience
Important Date
Closing date for submission: 30 August 2009

Special issue: Patient-centric modelling and enhanced security in distributed healthcare systems

International Journal of Healthcare Technology and Management 10(1/2) 2009
  • A conceptual framework to define indicators of information technology in the hospital
  • Data mining trauma injury data using C5.0 and logistic regression to determine factors associated with death
  • Ubiquitous and personalised contextual biomonitoring
  • A pervasive computing architecture fostering integration in patient centred communities of care
  • Long term success of a telehealth network: a case study of the Upper Peninsula Telehealth Network
  • Pervasive assistance system for mobile physicians on the road
  • Modelling how the healthcare user acquires health information: Tasmanian case studies
  • Radio frequency identification (RFID) in pervasive healthcare

Special issue: High Speed Machining HSM2007 Conference (San Sebastián)

International Journal of Machining and Machinability of Materials 4(4) 2008

HSM 2007 was held in San Sebastian, Spain, 21-22 March 2007
  • White layers generated in AISI O1 tool steel by hard turning or by EDM
  • Advances in the ecological machining of magnesium and magnesium-based hybrid parts
  • On the robustness of stable turning processes
  • Milling induced residual stresses in structural parts out of forged aluminium alloys
  • Experimental and simulative investigations on machining aluminium lightweight structures
  • Influence of adapted five-axis tool paths on the machine behaviour
  • Toolpath dependent stability lobes for the milling of thin-walled parts
  • Wear of cathodic arc coated WC-Co tools in the machining of Ti-6Al-4V alloy
  • Tool flank wear influence on workpiece heating in dry machining
  • Influence of characteristic material properties on machinability under high speed cutting

8 March 2009

Newly announced journal: International Journal of Knowledge-Based Development

International Journal of Knowledge-Based Development - to begin publication in 2010 - will take a multi-disciplinary systems approach to the theory and practice of knowledge-based development activities and processes, focusing on knowledge cities and societies, knowledge-based urban development, knowledge and innovation clusters, and knowledge-intensive service activities.

First issue: International Journal of Strategic Business Alliances

International Journal of Strategic Business Alliances considers inter-firm partnerships as an alternative and effective strategic option for gaining and sustaining competitive advantage. It focuses on inter-firm collaboration in a variety of forms in various industries in both national and international environments and promotes our understanding patterns and strategies of such ventures in the competitive global marketplace.

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

Special issue: Enterprise modelling and simulation in a broader context

International Journal of Simulation and Process Modelling 4(3/4) 2008

Papers from the 4th International Workshop on Enterprise and Organisational Modelling and Simulation held in Montpellier, France, 16-17 June 2008.
  • Automatic verification of business process integrity
  • Formal modelling and discrete-time analysis of BPEL web services
  • Formalisation and verification of interaction protocols for business process integration: a Petri net approach
  • Modelling and simulation of complex workflow processes using multi-level Petri nets
  • Dynamic simulation modelling using descriptive information in natural language
  • Developing a software process simulation model using SPEM and analytical models
  • SIMONE: A Simulator for Interruptions and Message Overload in Network Environments
  • Challenges in collaborative modelling: a literature review and research agenda
  • Use cases and personas: uses in service sector simulation development
  • Embedding simulation education into the engineering management body of knowledge
  • Learning to build network-oriented epidemic simulation models in epidemiology education

7 March 2009

Special issue: Software agents in e-business: concepts, development and applications

International Journal of Agent-Oriented Software Engineering 3(2/3) 2009

Papers from MASeB’2007, the 2nd International Workshop on (Multi-)Agent Systems in E-Business: Concepts, Technologies and Applications
  • The design and implementation of an agent-based auction service
  • The RBVO Formation Protocol
  • An agent-oriented mobile payment system secured using a biometrics approach
  • Adaptability in an agent-based virtual organisation
  • IDSS: an intelligent decision support system for e-purchasing using CBR and CF
  • Support for virtual organisation creation – partners' profiles and competency management
  • Motivation for a new formal framework for agent-oriented software engineering
  • MA-UML: a conceptual approach for mobile agents' modelling
  • Advanced separation of concerns in agent-oriented design patterns
  • A development framework for component-based agent-oriented business services

Special issue: Power electronics for motion control

International Journal of Power Electronics 1(4) 2009
  • Advanced BLDC machine drive with minimum torque ripple and maximum power
  • Feedforward fuzzy logic control for permanent magnet synchronous motor drive
  • A simple and low-cost measurement system for switched reluctance motor drive
  • Generalised bond graph model of a rotating machine
  • Hybrid modelling and control of a synchronous DC-DC converter
  • Study, modelling and control of a single-phase power factor corrector based on the Sheppard-Taylor topology

4 March 2009

New book: The Role of Diaspora in Technology Transfer and Achieving Sustainable Development in Sudan

The latest book in the Globalisation, Technology and Sustainable Development Book Series is The Role of Diaspora in Technology Transfer and Achieving Sustainable Development in Sudan: First Sudanese Diaspora International Conference edited by Dr. Allam Ahmed, University of Sussex, price 160 Euros in print or online.

Call for papers: Knowledge Management in Higher Education

Call for papers: Knowledge Management in Higher Education

A special issue of International Journal of Management in Education

Knowledge is a complex phenomenon that has become one of the most important yet one of the less understood in our society and even civilization, and should thus be, as any other aspect of cultural production, carefully managed. Knowledge management is all about connection knowledge in and for an organisation to its mission, competition, performance and attitude towards changes. Higher education institutions (hereafter referred to as HEI) are the sole subjects to empower the information with meaning and share the knowledge produced with society by linking research to teaching/educational programmes. This is the point where knowledge management becomes of the utmost importance. To complete a full circle, the question of quality needs to be added to the scheme.

By producing and attracting proper knowledge (i.e. important to the HEIs’ field of practice), as well as distributing this knowledge (in the physical form of researchers, teachers, students, and administrators who altogether form the knowledge capital of the HEI), an HEI can perform outstandingly, and the flexibility of knowledge will allow it to quickly adapt to changes and answer challenges of any kind, putting it always in-line or even ahead of its competitors and thus successfully fulfilling its mission. Operating, however, is not that easy, for HEIs are not individual subjects in a void space; they exist and function in an agitated, unpredictable environment that often goes beyond national and cultural borders. Therefore, this special issue will be a reference for institutions and practitioners who are dealing with questions of higher education development, quality and knowledge improvement.

The special issue provides a global forum for presenting authoritative references, academically rigorous research and case studies in both theoretical and applied research. The purpose of the special issue is to discuss knowledge management in higher education in all its aspects, varying from production of knowledge, human resource management to knowledge transfer and quality in higher education. Specifically, it intends to disseminate research and studies in this specific field concerned not only with higher education, but with broader socio-economical issues, trying to get more insight to the problem of how knowledge produced and afterwards distributed from HEIs back to society will allow society to prosper and will once again establish HEIs as bearers of progress.

The subject coverage of this special issue includes, but is not limited to:
  • Management of higher education institutions
  • Knowledge production in higher education
  • Knowledge distribution in higher education
  • Higher education's changing environment
  • Internationalisation in higher education and its impact on knowledge
  • Knowledgeable human resource management in higher education
  • Knowledge transfer from higher education to practice
Important Dates
Proposal deadline (optional): 1 September, 2009
Early submission deadline: 15 October, 2009
Full paper deadline: 30 December, 2009
Notification of status & acceptance of paper: 15 February, 2010
Final version of paper: March 15, 2010

Call for papers: Virtual University

Call for papers: Virtual University

A special issue of International Journal of Management in Education

The Virtual University is a new way to organise academic work, including research and studies. The Virtual University has, at the same time, pedagogical, social, managerial and technological aspects. This way it is an interesting area for research in a wide range of scientific disciplines. Therefore, this special issue will be a timely issue for institutions and practitioners who are interested in the phenomena of wider utilisation of ICT in higher education organisations, especially from the management point of view.

The special issue provides a global forum for presenting authoritative references, academically rigorous research and case studies in both theoretical and applied research. Its purpose is to discuss the effective management in virtual universities. Specifically, it intends to disseminate research and studies in the situation where university management has to cope with traditional academic work and the virtual university type of approach.

The subject coverage of this special issue includes, but is not limited to:
  • Management of the virtual university
  • University networks
  • Management of educational ICT innovations in universities
  • Analysis of political, economical, social, legal and cultural environment in the virtual university
  • E-learning curriculum development in higher education
  • ICT utilisation in future academic research
  • IPR issues in the virtual universities
  • Plagiarism
  • E-learning good practices in higher education
  • Change management in universities
  • Public-private-partnerships in the virtual university context
  • E-learning as part of the HRM
Important Dates
Proposal deadline (optional): 1 November, 2009
Early submission deadline: 31 December, 2009
Full paper deadline: 31 March, 2010
Notification of status & acceptance of paper: 30 April, 2010
Final version of paper: 31 May, 2010

Call for papers: Mobile Collaboration Services and Management (MCSM)

Call for papers: Mobile Collaboration Services and Management (MCSM)

A special issue of International Journal of Services, Economics and Management

Recent advances in workflow technologies and the adoption of service-oriented architecture (SOA) has much facilitated the automation of business collaboration within and across organisations to increase their competiveness and responsiveness to the fast-evolving global economic environment. The widespread of mobile technologies has further resulted in an increasing demand for the support of mobile collaboration across multiple platforms anytime and anywhere. Examples include supply-chain logistics, group calendars, and dynamic human resources planning. As mobile devices become more powerful, the adoption of mobile computing is imminent. However, mobile business collaboration is not merely porting the software with an alternative user interface, but rather involves a wide range of new requirements, constraints, and technical challenges.

This special issue intentionally seeks scientists, engineers, educators, industry people, policy makers, decision makers, and others who have insight, vision, and understanding of the big challenges in mobile collaboration services and management (MCSM).

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the theoretical, technical, or empirical aspects of the following related to MCSM:
  • Principles, theories, models, challenges of MCSM
  • Economic, social, and legal issues of MCSM
  • MCSM requirements, design, implementation, and case studies
  • MCSM deployment, adoption, and diffusion
  • Inter- and intra-organisational integration for mobile platforms
  • Mobile database, service, and workflow management
  • Multi-databases, federated databases, parallel, and distributed databases for MCSM
  • Temporal, spatial, and mobile databases for MCSM
  • Data mining and knowledge discovery for MCSM
  • Intelligent and agent based technologies for MCSM
  • Machine learning and cybernetics for MCSM
  • Context and location sensitive applications
  • RFID and sensor applications and management for collaboration
  • Service Level Agreements (SLA), quality, and reliability
  • Web Services, ontology, and Web x.0 support for MCSM
  • Cloud computing and emerging technologies for MCSM
  • Content management and man-machine interactions for MCSM
  • Virtual organisations and supply-chain issues for MCSM
  • Trust, reputation, security, and privacy in MCSM
Important Dates
Submissions due: 30 October, 2009
Reviews to authors: 15 January, 2010
Revised manuscripts: 15 February, 2010

Call for papers: Manufacturing for Alternative Energies

Call for papers: Manufacturing for Alternative Energies

A special issue of International Journal of Mechatronics and Manufacturing Systems

Alternative energy is a term used for an energy source that is an alternative to using fossil fuels. This form of non-conventional energy derived from non-fossil fuels includes all energy sources that minimise environmental impacts relative to conventional hydrocarbon resources. This special issue highlights research and development into recent advances in materials, manufacturing processes and mechatronics systems for alternative energy devices.

The special issue invites the submission of high quality research articles related to manufacturing for alternative energies. Special interest will be on applications of alternative energy devices, such as solar energy systems, fuel cell systems, photovoltaic systems, etc. This special issue accepts original research articles or any other original contribution review papers, short communications on new concepts.

Topics covered by this special issue include, but are not limited to, following forms of alternative energies:
  • Photovoltaic technology conversion
  • Biomass conversion
  • Biofuel energy
  • Hydrogen energy
  • Solar thermal applications
  • Geothermal energy
  • Wind energy technology
  • Tidal/wave energy
Important Date
Submission: 31 March 2010