31 January 2011

Special issue: Recent advances in service operations and logistics

International Journal of Services Operations and Informatics 6(1/2) 2011
  • Hierarchical route control in DCV-based baggage handling systems
  • RFID-enabled complex event processing application framework for manufacturing
  • Effect of machine flexibility on the performance of FMS subjected to frequent breakdowns
  • Hybrid genetic approach for 1-D bin packing problem
  • The single-period inventory control problem: a pedagogical approach
  • Production-distribution network analysis using an intelligent simulator
  • A generic multiCAD/multiPDM interoperability framework
  • Supplier selection in global context: modelling and managerial insights with emphasis on low-cost suppliers' issues
  • Decision-making process for project portfolio management

28 January 2011

Call for papers: Sustainable Energy, Systems and Mechatronics

A special issue of International Journal of Computer Applications in Technology

Sustainable energy, its related systems and mechatronics have long been focuses of the international research community and of industrial technology development. The goal of this special issue is to provide a multidisciplinary platform for researchers in the field to publish results from their scientific and technological advancements, with the topics focusing on renewable energy and related materials, systems, mechatronics and manufacturing technologies.

Suitable topics include but are not limited to:
  • Renewable energy
  • Energy systems
  • Energy storage and mechatronics
  • Energy efficiency and systems
  • Materials for sustainable energy
  • Functional materials and devices
  • Integration of mechatronic sensors/devices/systems
  • Mechatronics in manufacturing
Important Dates
Submission deadline: 28 February, 2011
Communication of peer reviews to authors: 31 March, 2011
Deadline for revised manuscripts: 30 April, 2011

Special issue: Global security, safety and sustainability

International Journal of Electronic Security and Digital Forensics 3(3) 2010
  • Trust and reputation management for critical infrastructure protection
  • A coloured Petri net analysis of the Transaction Internet Protocol
  • Hiding the hidden message: approaches to textual steganography
  • The new strategic concept of NATO: the Portuguese role
  • User acceptance OTM machine: in the Arab culture
  • Interfacing collaboration and command tools for crises management military command and control systems
  • An audit framework to support information system security management
  • Baby crying acceptance in Portugal

27 January 2011

First issue: International Journal of Aviation Management

Addressing major management issues facing the air transport industry today. International Journal of Aviation Management offers practitioners and academics a forum for analysis and discussion in the field of aviation management. Papers cover all the major sectors of the industry: airlines, airports, air traffic control and related organisations.

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

Call for papers: Innovations in Manufacturing and Logistics Systems for Mass Customisation

A special issue of International Journal of Mass Customisation

Nowadays, many companies are shaped by customer-driven markets, shorter innovation cycles and increasingly rapid technological leaps. Mass customising companies are especially facing the challenge of providing greater variety at low cost in order to remain competitive within a turbulent technological and economical environment.

According to this, many mass customising companies are searching for new solutions in terms of strategic and operational management which correspond with the changed requirements of mass customisation. This implies an innovative strategic alignment to offer an above-average added value that gives an extra edge to the company. Moreover, greater performance within the concept of mass customisation requires the efficient design and effective handling of supplier-buyer interfaces to respond quickly to customer needs while maintaining cost-effectiveness. Hence accurate planning and monitoring of interfaces is necessary to ensure greater performance due to well-functioning interfaces.

In addition to a quick and successful strategic alignment to address faster-changing customer requirements and properly designed interfaces, mass customising companies have to provide innovative technologies and solutions in order to enhance business performance and to accelerate customer responsiveness. This refers especially to the implementation of flexible manufacturing systems to facilitate product changeovers in order to provide greater variety at reasonable cost. Hence innovative and highly-sophisticated production technologies are becoming much more important to fulfil customer-specific needs while ensuring cost-effectiveness.

Moreover, innovative information systems facilitate a more flexible and effective handling of tailored processes and customer enquiries to deal with the increasing need for customised products. Web-based technologies are therefore becoming more important in providing a greater number of customising possibilities within a short period of time.

Suitable topics include, but are not limited to, the following areas in relation to mass customisation:
  • New strategic issues
  • New information systems
  • New innovative interfaces
  • New manufacturing concepts
  • Innovative production technologies
  • Supply chain innovations
  • Innovations in managing supplier-buyer relationships
  • Innovations in performance measurement
  • Innovative concepts for human resource management
Important Dates
Abstract submission: 30 April, 2011
Notification of acceptance: 31 May, 2011
Full paper submission: 31 August, 2011

Special issue: Intelligent, distributed and parallel computing and data management

International Journal of Business Intelligence and Data Mining 6(1) 2011

Includes papers from the 23rd IEEE International Conference on Advanced Information Networking (AINA-2009) held in Bradford, UK, 26-29 May 2009.
  • A marketable quality and profitability model for corporations considering sellers and buyers market
  • A clustering method of bloggers based on social annotations
  • Trustworthy acquaintances in Peer-to-Peer (P2P) overlay networks
  • Association mining of dependency between time series using Genetic Algorithm and discretisation
  • Vietnamese Knowledge Base development and exploitation
  • WebUser: mining unexpected web usage

26 January 2011

Newly announced journal: International Journal of Computational Systems Engineering

Beginning publication in 2012 International Journal of Computational Systems Engineering will provide a forum for professionals, academics and researchers in the field of computational algorithms, intelligent information systems, computer applications and other related areas of science and engineering. It will focus on the state-of-the-art of aspects of theoretical analysis and practical application with emphasis on computational methods and systems engineering

Special issue: Business excellence and market competition: the nexus

International Journal of Business Competition and Growth 1(3) 2011
  • Validation of Robinson's trust scale for use in Mexico
  • Grid enabled business: promoting grid computing to business
  • Business growth in a tough economy
  • Checks and balances mechanism for techonology development and protection
  • Antecedents to purchase decision of high and low involvement products amongst Indian Youth
  • A novel Key Performance Indicator for measuring the competitiveness of materials production within the EU

Special issue: Nanotechnology and advanced materials – Part II

International Journal of Nanoparticles 4(1) 2011

Further papers from the International Conference in Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials (ICNAM 2009) held in Bahrain, 4–7 May 2009.

See also International Journal of Nanoparticles 3(3) 2010
  • Structural properties of ferric pseudobrookite Fe2Ti1O5 powder prepared by a new method
  • Synthesis and characterisation of ZnO/PVA composite nanofibres by electrospinning
  • Structure and magnetic properties of mechanically milled Pb3O4-Fe2O3 mixture
  • A green and an environmentally benign route to prepare Cu2O nanocrystals and their potential applications
  • Nano-sized agglomerated Ni particles synthesised by a phase transformation method
  • Solid state amorphisation of mechanically alloyed Fe-Co-Nb-B alloys
  • Photocatalytic removal of hazardous dye from water using nanostructured WO3
Additional Papers
  • Chemical route synthesis dependent particle size of Mn activated ZnS nanophosphors
  • Inserting of strontium during coating of hydroxyapatite compound on titanium substrate

Special issue: Electronic business and digital marketing

International Journal of Internet Marketing and Advertising 6(3) 2011

Papers from the 4th Mediterranean Conference on Information Systems (MCIS 2009) held in Athens, Greece, 25–27 September 2009.
  • The role of product reviews on mobile devices for in-store purchases: consumers' usage intentions, costs and store preferences
  • Advertising on the internet: perceptions of advertising agencies and marketing managers
  • Customer relationship management adoption: using a dynamic capabilities approach
  • Towards online content classification in understanding tourism destinations' information competition and reputation
  • The impact of virtual communities on e-loyalty: a conceptual framework

24 January 2011

Call for papers: GPUs and Accelerators for Scientific Applications

A special issue of International Journal of Computational Science and Engineering

GPUs are cost-effective platforms for computational intensive applications providing significant peak performance. However, it is a major challenge to deliver the intrinsic performance of such architectures to end applications.

This special issue addresses programming approaches (stream programming) and key techniques to leverage the computing power of GPUs. Experiences gained while adapting scientific codes to run efficiently on such architectures are welcome. We solicit unpublished papers about research challenges and advances addressing porting of scientific codes and algorithms to GPU platforms.

Suitable topics include but are not limited to:
  • Scientific applications optimised for GPUs
  • Programming approaches for multicore CPUs and GPUs
  • Stream computing
  • Programming environments for GPUs
  • Benchmarking/measurements for GPUs
  • GPU architectures
  • CUDA and OpenCL
Important Dates
Submission deadline: 18 April 2011
Acceptance notification: 20 June 2011
Final paper due: 31 August 2011

Call for papers: e-Deliberation 2.0

A special issue of International Journal of Electronic Governance

The concept of deliberation has a powerful normative value for democracy that is seldom contested. Under deliberative conditions, opinion formation and decision-making is based on processes of public argumentation and reasoning among equal citizens.

In the last decades, the advent of online communication technologies has removed some hitherto insurmountable constraints in the realisation of large-scale political deliberation and has revived the deliberative ideal: governments increasingly include deliberative elements in their e-government projects, while unstructured political discussion is flourishing on the “wild” web. So-called “web 2.0” communication applications (such as social networking media, blogs, twitter, wikis, collaborative filtering, etc.) provide their users with a whole new set of opportunities and different modes of processing information, networking and interacting. What is less clear is their potential for creating the conditions needed for true deliberation.

This special issue focuses on exploring the deliberative potential of web 2.0 technologies and, at the same time, on the question of whether we need to rethink the very notion(s) of deliberation, in view of the ways in which people put to use the online tools available to them.

Suitable topics include, but are not limited to:
  • Definitions and typologies: criteria and methods for evaluating and measuring the deliberative potential of web 2.0 technologies
  • Tensions between deliberation and equality, political activism/advocacy, identity politics: what advances, if any, are provided by the 'participatory web' in these respects?
  • New media and the problems of like-mindedness, fragmentation and poor quality in online deliberation
  • Applications and design of online deliberation
  • Impact of online deliberation (in comparison to face-to-face deliberation)
  • The question of scale: local, national, or transnational online deliberation? Challenges and opportunities
  • Aims and scope of online deliberation: opinion formation, community/identity building, decision-making
Additionally, case studies, experience reports and impact/efficiency assessments are sought, based on operational findings from e-deliberation 2.0 implementations with considerable impact and learning potential, documenting for each case: the problems addressed and solutions achieved; policy context and strategy; e-deliberation 2.0 aspects of the solution; evaluation of effectiveness and impact assessment; as well as results and lessons drawn.

The aim of this special issue is to provide broad and international coverage.

Contributors may operate in a number of disciplines, in theoretical or applied research, and may use various methodological perspectives, so that the notion of online deliberation is studied from different standpoints.

Important Dates
Deadline for paper submission: 30 June, 2011
Notification of review results: 30 September, 2011
Submission of revised manuscripts: 30 November, 2011

Special issue: Hybrid intelligence for bio-medical informatics

International Journal of Computational Intelligence in Bioinformatics and Systems Biology 1(4) 2010

Papers from the 2nd International Workshop on Hybrid Artificial Intelligence Systems (HAIS 2007), held in Salamanca, Spain, 12-13 November 2007.
  • TaskCBP: an intelligent agent for task planning in elderly care
  • SeqTrim07: a pipeline for preprocessing sequence reads
  • Dimensional reduction in the protein secondary structure prediction: non-linear method improvements
  • DifFUZZY: a fuzzy clustering algorithm for complex datasets
Additional Paper
  • Using classifier fusion techniques for protein secondary structure prediction

Special issue: Modelling and/or control of multi-vehicle formations

International Journal of Vehicle Autonomous Systems 9(1/2) 2011
  • Coordination of industrial AGVs
  • Formation vector control of nonholonomic mobile robot groups and its experimental verification
  • Platooning over packet-dropping links
  • Towards a unifying mathematical framework for pattern transformation in swarm systems
  • Multi-vehicle dynamics and control for aerial recovery of micro air vehicles
  • Co-leaders and a flexible virtual structure based formation motion control
  • Automated short distance vehicle following using a dynamic base RTK system

Special issue: Nanotechnology in Vietnam

International Journal of Nanotechnology 8(3-5) 2011
  • TiO2/Co nanomaterials: synthesis and properties
  • A comparative study on the NH3 gas-sensing properties of ZnO, SnO2, and WO3 nanowires
  • Synthesis of vertically aligned carbon nanotubes and diamond films on Cu substrates for use in high-power electronic devices
  • Enhancing the performance of organic light emitting diodes by using nanostructured composite films
  • Effect of reaction temperature and ligand concentration on the shape of CdSe nanocrystals
  • Metallic nanoparticles: synthesis, characterisation and application
  • Perovskite nanoparticles synthesised by reactive milling combined with thermal processing: preparation, morphology and structure characterisation
  • Novel nano-structured materials: synthesis and application
  • Microstructure of La0.7Sr0.3Mn1xZnxO3 nano-perovskites investigated by electron microscopy technique
  • Novel silver nanoparticles: synthesis, properties and applications
  • Application of ultrasound for nanomaterials synthesis
  • Electrochemical biosensor for glucose detection using zinc oxide nanotetrapods
  • SrTi1xNixO3 nanoparticles: synthesis and characterisation
  • Study on fabrication and photoluminescence of SiC nanorods synthesised by carbothermal reduction
  • Luminescent nanomaterials containing rare earth ions for security printing
  • Optical properties of normal and 'giant' multishell CdSe quantum dots for potential application in material science
  • Porous silicon as a promising material for photonics
  • Behaviour investigation of hematite nanorods synthesised by hydrothermal method use in hydrogen fuel storage
  • Immobilising of anti-HPV18 and E. coli O157:H7 antibodies on magnetic silica-coated Fe3O4 for early diagnosis of cervical cancer and diarrhoea
  • Magnetic nanoparticles: study of magnetic heating and adsorption/desorption for biomedical and environmental applications

19 January 2011

Call for papers: Ad Hoc and Ubiquitous Computing

A special issue of International Journal of Communication Networks and Distributed Systems

Ad hoc and ubiquitous computing has received unprecedented attention from both academia and industry with the explosive growth of wireless communication devices. There are many applications for this novel technology which offers futuristic high bandwidth access for users, and more exciting and efficient services are expected to be available in the future.

In order to facilitate these diverse applications, the design issues of various wireless networks such as ad hoc, sensor and mesh networks are much more complicated and a number of challenges need to be addressed. Furthermore, due to the heterogeneous features of ubiquitous and ad hoc wireless networks, several issues such as energy efficiency, energy harvesting and cross-layer approaches used in networking and computing have also received considerable attention.

This special issue invites articles relating to mobile ad hoc networks as well as the different aspects of ubiquitous computing as a whole. Suitable topics include but are not limited to:
  • Mobile ad hoc networks
  • Ubiquitous computing
  • Data and resource management in ubiquitous and ad hoc networks
  • Routing protocols for ad hoc networks
  • Cross-layer design of routing protocols for ubiquitous and ad hoc networks
  • QoS in ad hoc networks
  • Bandwidth management in ad hoc networks
  • Delay management in ad hoc networks
  • Security in ad hoc networks
  • Energy-efficient routing protocols for ad hoc networks
  • Energy-harvesting technologies in ubiquitous networks
  • IDS for ad hoc networks
  • Real time applications in ad hoc networks
  • Vehicular ad hoc networks
Important Dates
Paper submission deadline: 30 November, 2011
Notification of acceptance: 1 February, 2012
Submission of final revised paper: 1 March, 2012

Special issue: Creating value through effective governance of knowledge sharing processes in inter-organisational partnerships

International Journal of Strategic Business Alliances 2(1/2) 2011

Papers from the 3rd Annual Copenhagen Conference on Partnerships, held in Copenhagen, Denmark, 22-23 October 2009.
  • The partner selection process: steps, effectiveness, governance
  • Contractual complexity, governance and organisational form in alliances
  • Trust and control in fixed duration alliances
  • The impact of trust and formal control on interfirm knowledge transfer: an exploration of the micro-level foundations
  • Helping to learn: governance of knowledge-sharing in the Aurora preferred suppliers alliance network
  • Small and medium sized enterprises and knowledge networks: an initial analysis of the roles of external supporting organisations
  • University-industry collaboration: careers and knowledge governance in hybrid organisational space

Special issue: Share and communicate

International Journal of Web Based Communities 7(1) 2011
  • Moving from MOOsburg
  • A typology of social networking sites users
  • Identifying the value types of virtual communities based on the Q method
  • Personal profiles: enhancing social interaction in learning networks
  • What is the most important factor in switching blogs?
  • A selective publication model for the web: the webograph approach
  • Establishing and maintaining an online community of academics: longitudinal evaluation of a virtual conference series
  • Sampling proficient e-communicators in an online environment

Special issue: Emerging techniques and solutions in PLM

International Journal of Product Lifecycle Management 5(1) 2011

Papers from the the 6th International Conference on Product Lifecycle Management (PLM09) held in Bath, UK, 6-8 July 2009.
  • Network agents for supporting consumers in the lifecycle management of individual parts
  • Lightweight product lifecycle information management for small enterprises
  • Integrated visualisation for supporting decision-making in engineering processes, based on JT
  • How to address virtual teamwork in SMEs by an innovative co-design platform
  • Managing subsystem interfaces of complex products
  • Ontology applications in PLM

18 January 2011

Call for papers: Standardisation of Biometrics: Current Status and Perspectives

A special issue of International Journal of Biometrics

Biometric technology was traditionally used in law enforcement aligned with forensic activity. However, biometric systems have spread rapidly into a broad variety of fields in recent years. Not only is biometrics considered by governments as an essential security and intelligence tool, but the technology is also used by the private sector to prevent identity fraud and reduce operational costs.

Over a short period of time, different biometric devices with distinct and common features have been developed under various vendor names in broader applications such as access control, border crossings, bank ATMs, video surveillance, IT security and federal employee IDs. As with other emerging technologies that are rapidly developed, adopted and implemented, it is necessary to standardise biometric technology to ensure reliability, interoperability, usability, security and scalability of biometric systems.

Currently, six types of biometric standards are under development under the purview of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Joint Technical Committee 1, Subcommittee 37: biometric vocabulary, technical interfaces, data interchange formats, application profile standards, performance testing and reporting, and cross-jurisdictional and societal aspects. Much effort has been devoted to this development and some of the standards are already established and have been well-received by the industry.

To assist research scientists and engineers in becoming familiar with these standards, we propose a special issue introducing biometric standardisation activities, to include the scope and design of important biometric standards. This issue should be useful to a large audience since it will:
  • Introduce published and ongoing significant biometric standards
  • Provide a fundamental understanding of the advancement and availability of technical standards for biometrics
  • Enable the development of integrated, scalable and robust solutions
  • Provide guidance on the best practices in testing biometric devices
  • Provide some of the research challenges and solutions arising from the standardisation effort
This issue will explore past and present achievements and future directions in the standardisation of biometrics, which include but are not limited to:
  • Standards development procedures and policies
  • Standards for biometric terminology, data interchange formats and interoperability amongst different components, databases and/or systems
  • Standards in biometric systems' privacy and security
  • Security and privacy analysis, and attacks and solutions associated with known biometric data formats
  • Testable standards: conformity assessment methodology; performance testing and reporting; biometric data quality measurement
Important Dates
Manuscript due: 1 August, 2011
Notification of acceptance: 1 September, 2011
Revised paper due: 15 October, 2011
Submission of final revised paper: 30 October, 2011

Call for papers: Interconnections of Wireless Sensor Networks

A special issue of International Journal of Communication Networks and Distributed Systems

We have lately witnessed tremendous development in wireless sensor networking (WSN), which makes it possible to monitor, unobtrusively and for long periods of time, the physical environment. Ensuring high connectivity within the network is vital for real applications. Moreover, for many applications, sensor networks cannot operate in complete isolation. There must be a way of enabling a monitoring entity or some end-users to gain access to the data produced by the sensor network, and even to interact with a particular sensor mote to activate/deactivate it, read the sensed values instantaneously, fix some inner parameters, load dynamic code into the mote, etc. By connecting the sensor network to an existing network infrastructure such as a local-area network, a private intranet, mobile network infrastructures, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and notably the global internet, gaining remote access to the sensor network would be straightforward.

The integration of RFID and WSN is one of the most promising technologies that will play an important role in advancing the Internet of Things (IoT). For example, in a healthcare application, RFID tags can be used to track the elderly while the sensors are used to monitor their conditions. However, many questions need answers, and many challenges must be tackled before such interconnection becomes effective. Suitability of IP standards as well as connection architecture must be investigated. By openly connecting a sensor network to other networks, doors will be opened to new vulnerabilities. Intruders would not need to gain physical access to a network anymore, as they could launch attacks remotely. Security is thus a very important aspect that must be considered. Routing, QoS and interoperability are also important and challenging issues in the new heterogeneous systems.

Connecting different WSNs is another issue that needs to be considered. A WSN might get partitioned into distinct segments due to battery exhaustion of several sensors. Providing mechanisms to restore connectivity by connecting those segments is of high importance. Also, an isolated segment of sensor nodes that cannot reach its link could exploit the existence of a neighbouring reachable WSN to deliver its sensed information.

Suitable topics include but are not limited to:
  • Interconnection architecture aspects
  • Sensor deployment and connectivity issues
  • Integration of WSN and RFID
  • Interconnecting sensor and actor networks
  • Interconnecting WSN and fixed networks
  • Interconnecting WSN and mobile networks (e.g., GSM, UAV, etc)
  • Interconnecting onboard vehicular sensors and fixed infrastructure (V2I)
  • Integration of body area networks to WLAN and beyond
  • Testbeds for integrated networks
  • Authentication, vulnerability, protection and security issues
  • Fault-tolerance and dependability of WSN
  • Quality of service (QoS) issues
  • Routing and network protocols
  • Medium access control protocols
  • Transport protocols for congestion control and middleware
  • Integrated applications and services for cross networks
  • In-network processing and aggregation
  • Location and time services
  • Integration of sensor networks and web-based services
  • Security issues in integrated sensor networks
Submitted papers should not have been previously published nor be currently under consideration for publication elsewhere. Extended versions of papers that are accepted for the 2nd International Workshop on Interconnections of Wireless Sensor Networks (IWSN'2011) will be considered, in addition to other submissions. (N.B. Conference papers may only be submitted if the paper was not originally copyrighted and if it has been completely re-written).

Important Dates
Submission deadline: 30 November, 2011
First-round notification: 1 February, 2012
Submission of revised paper: 15 March, 2012
Final acceptance notification: 15 April, 2012
Final manuscript due: 15 May, 2012

Call for papers: Intelligent and Autonomous Systems

A special issue of International Journal of Rapid Manufacturing

The design of intelligent and autonomous systems that demonstrate high-level cognitive and complex decision making capabilities is well known to be a difficult engineering problem. An intelligent system should be able to learn from decisions or actions made at every state of the environment in order to improve its desired goals in an efficient manner. Building autonomous agents that perceive the environment, plan actions based on certain goals, and learn from the actions taken in their operating environment are some of the fundamental issues to contend with.

This problem involves numerous considerations that must be implemented at the system level. No one discipline can independently design autonomous systems solely with theories and methods specific to its field. It is an interdisciplinary endeavour where insights, concepts, hypotheses, and methods intersect.

The goal of this special issue is to address and publish the latest papers on a variety of topics related to intelligent and autonomous systems and to focuses on theories and topics concepts that address these issues.

Suitable topics include but are not limited to:
  • Nature of intelligence and autonomy and how it can be characterized
  • Fundamental principles necessary for designing intelligent and autonomous systems
  • Principles of building autonomous agents for application in various domains
Important Dates
Full paper submission: 15 February, 2011
Notification of reviews: 15 March, 2011
Revised manuscript submission: 15 April, 2011
Notification of results: 2 May, 2011
Accepted Final Paper: 15 May, 2011

Special issue: Network-on-chip and reconfigurable computing

International Journal of High Performance Systems Architecture 3(1) 2011

Papers from the International Conference on Information Technology - New Generations (ITNG 2009), held in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, 27-29 April 2009.
  • A networks-on-chip emulation/verification framework
  • A scheduling approach for distributed resource architectures with scarce communication resources
  • A unified design space simulation environment for network-on-chip: fuse-N
  • Reconfigurable processor based on ALU array architecture for software radio
Additional Papers
  • PRADA: a high-performance reconfigurable parallel architecture based on the dataflow model
  • Electromigration-aware dynamic routing algorithm for network-on-chip applications

Special issue: Non-technological and non-economic dimensions of innovation systems

International Journal of Innovation and Regional Development 3(1) 2011
  • Editorial: Going beyond the hard core of innovation. Non-technological and non-economic dimensions of innovation systems
  • National open innovation systems (NOIS): defining a solid reward model for NOIS
  • Non-technological innovation and multi-local territorial knowledge dynamics in the Swiss watch industry
  • Innovation within the Next Society
  • Social innovation in service delivery to youth in remote and rural areas
  • The governance structures, the innovation systems and the core competitiveness of Chinese firms

Inderscience Highlights newsletter Winter 2011

The just published Winter newsletter includes
  • an article: Human factors and ergonomics – a growing discipline with multiple goals, by Denis A. Coelho, Editor-in-Chief, International Journal of Human Factors and Ergonomics
  • recent calls for papers arranged into broad subjects
  • details of forthcoming conferences for which Inderscience is a media partner
  • articles from Inderscience journals that have recently featured in the scientific and business, or national press.

13 January 2011

Call for papers: Competing through Logistics and Supply Chain Capabilities

A special issue of International Journal of Services Sciences

Current theories concerning logistics and supply chain management (SCM) tend to ignore the prospect of competing through logistics. Tradition dictates that marketing sets the business strategy and that SCM executes it. In other words, SCM must shape its capabilities and advantages to fit the marketing strategy. One example of this is producers of low-priced and high-volume products. In these companies, the management focus tends to be on reducing supply chain cost. A common result is that business vision and strategy are replaced with focus on internal efficiencies, ultimately resulting in reduced overall effectiveness.

A different type of company is necessary when customers want customised products; they could also prefer customised service and delivery solutions, and perhaps be willing to pay more for this. Additionally, there is a trend towards commoditisation in many industries, resulting in customers perceiving little difference between products. This implies that brand loyalty dwindles and that competition through customer service becomes a major determinant of success. Such a situation, in turn, implies that companies must enhance customer value to remain competitive. This is often achieved by adding value to the core product in the form of customer-desired services, which can only be done with a service-capable supply chain.

This special issue aims to shed light on how firms can use logistics and supply chain capabilities to enhance their competiveness, and to investigate the role of logistics and supply chain capabilities in overall competitiveness. Our main interest is in industrial case studies, and real-life implementations.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following, in the context of supply chain differentiation:
  • Supply chain management
  • Supply chain design
  • Supply chain segmentation
  • Supply chain differentiation
  • Service-augmented supply chains
  • Mass customisation
  • Sourcing systems
  • Manufacturing systems
  • Distribution systems
  • Freight transportation modes
  • Intermodal transportation chains
  • Warehousing solutions
  • Logistics outsourcing
  • Concurrent design
Important Dates
Full paper due: 30 October, 2011
Notification of acceptance: 28 February, 2012
Final version of the paper due: 31 May, 2012

Call for papers: Maintenance Modelling and Management

A special issue of International Journal of Collaborative Enterprise

Maintenance is defined as the combination of activities that are required to control and supervise a system so that it may perform its intended functions and deliver the required performance. The main objective is to restore the system to a state in which it can perform its intended function. The purpose is to reduce breakdown and to increase available operational time.

The goal of this special issue is to address and publish the latest articles on a variety of topics related to maintenance models and management.

Suitable topics include but are not limited to:
  • Corrective maintenance
  • Preventive maintenance
  • Mixed maintenance policy
  • Condition based maintenance (CBM)
  • Quality-based maintenance
  • Reliability centred maintenance (RCM)
  • Total productive maintenance (TPM)
  • Maintenance optimisation models
  • Maintenance scheduling
  • Maintenance performance measurements
  • Predictive modelling
  • Effectiveness-centred maintenance
  • Strategic maintenance management
  • E-maintenance
  • Maintenance information systems
  • Case studies or any related topics
Important Dates
Full paper submission for articles: February 4, 2011
Notification of reviews: March 15, 2011
Revised manuscript submission: April 15, 2011
Notification of results: May 2, 2011
Accepted final paper: May 15, 2011

Call for papers: The Role of Technology Interface Structures in Technology Transfer and Regional Development

A special issue of International Journal of Transitions and Innovation Systems

There seems general agreement that we must develop regions, particularly poorer ones, by supporting entrepreneurship and the creation of new businesses. The problem is that we do not really know how to do so. This subject is relatively new in management literature and everyone is still looking for policies to encourage such development.

It has been documented that Technology Interface Structures (incubators, venture capital firms, universities, technology parks and others), or TIS, can play a very important role in the creation and survival of startups, particularly technology-based startups. Some studies claim TIS have a positive impact on technology transfer. We can assume that the development of regions largely results from the efforts of local organisations, including companies and organisations of the "mesoeconomy", which contribute to the development of entrepreneurship.

This call for papers draws on the results of a research project called MEDOCC Technopolis – an INTEREREG III-B MEDOCC project involved in the launch of a network of TIS in several Mediterranean regions. It studied four MEDOCC regions – the Algarve (Portugal), Andalusia (Spain), Sicily and Umbria (Italy) – and showed that the end results of the TIS were in all cases positive and relevant. However, the strategies adopted by TIS seemed to vary across regions, suggesting that different regions may use different approaches to technology transfer and entrepreneurship development efforts.

In this context, this issue focuses on deepening our knowledge and understanding of TIS’ role and impact in supporting the development and regional levels of entrepreneurship, innovation and technology transfer. Further aims are to share knowledge on the practical aspects of TIS creation and strategic management, and to encourage “best practices” recommendations for innovation, technology transfer, entrepreneurship increase and regional development.

Accordingly, this issue will survey both theoretical and empirical (both qualitative and quantitative) studies. Extensive reviews of previous literature on TIS and technology transfer are also welcome. Potential readers of the issue are not only academics but also policymakers and practitioners across the globe.

Although submitted manuscripts may focus on theory development, empirical testing or case analysis, each contributor is expected to clearly show the general implications of theoretical consequence or empirical findings for a global readership.

Suitable topics include, but are not limited to:
  • Theoretical development on the role of TIS in promoting technology transfer
  • Literature review and theoretical perspective
  • Models to evaluate TIS performance
  • Empirical analyses that evaluate practices in regional development
  • Business incubators and new firm creation resulting from university spin-offs
  • Science parks and other types of TIS
  • Other technology transfer organisations, particularly universities' research centres
  • Human resources to promote innovation, technology transfer and entrepreneurship
  • Intellectual property and licensing
  • Role of economic authorities in regional innovation systems
  • Diffusion of regional innovation policy
  • Definition of success in regional development policy
Important Date
Paper Submission Deadline: 30 June, 2011

12 January 2011

Call for papers: Multi-Constraint Algorithms for Heterogeneous Networks

A special issue of International Journal of Communication Networks and Distributed Systems

In recent times we have seen a tremendous growth in various kinds of wireless applications along with the fast proliferation of heterogeneous wireless devices and communication networks. To cope with various end-to-end optimisations, multi-constraint algorithms that can support the simultaneous optimisations of different parameters have become increasingly important.

This special issue solicits original contributions on design, implementation and management of multi-constraint algorithms with respect to routing, security, location and resource management, channel allocation and link scheduling, energy management, QoS and QoE issues, resource discovery and selection, data access mechanisms, and data dissemination techniques.

Original and unpublished papers in the above areas are solicited from prospective authors. In particular, papers presenting both analytical and simulation results are strongly encouraged.

Suitable topics include but are not limited to:
  • Multi-constraint routing algorithms
  • Multi-constraint resource allocation algorithms
  • Multi-constraint data dissemination algorithms
  • Multi-constraint channel allocation and link scheduling algorithms
  • Multi-constraint location management algorithms
  • Multi-constraint energy management algorithms
  • Multi-constraint algorithm for end-to-end QoS, and QoE multi-constraints for mobility management algorithms
  • Multi-constraints for data dissemination algorithms
Important Dates
Paper submission: 17 July, 2011
Notification to authors: 20 November, 2011
Final paper submission: 20 December, 2011

Special issue: Emerging medical imaging and biocomputing technologies

International Journal of Computational Biology and Drug Design 3(3) 2010
  • Laser imaging for rapid Microbial Source Tracking
  • Compressive neural activity detection with fMR images using Graphical Model Inference
  • Mathematical modelling and simulation of colorectal cancer
  • Fast algorithm in estimating high intensity focused ultrasound induced lesions
  • A parallel approach to multiple sequences alignment and phylogenetic tree node labelling
  • Identifying Differentially Expressed Genes based on probe level data for GeneChip arrays

11 January 2011

Call for papers: Living Labs – Environments for Concurrent Product Development

A special issue of International Journal of Product Development

Discussions about alternative approaches to innovation are high on scientific and industrial agendas. Concepts such as Open Innovation or phenomena such as Living Labs point to an understanding of innovation and product development as more networked multi-stakeholder processes. However, in many cases so far, this is more a realisation of the shortcomings of existing theories and practices than the documentation of reliable knowledge or mature methodological approaches in their own right. The motivation for this special issue is to contribute to closing this gap.

Concurrent engineering is a school of thought in the domain of engineering management which has for almost two decades explored networked processes in the pursuit of several concurrent objectives represented by different stake holders. From the initial integration of product development in R&D departments and production engineering in manufacturing, its scope has broadened to cover collaboration across more departments, across multiple companies, and with customers and users.

One finding from this discussion is that such networked processes call for distinct working methodologies, which again require dedicated organisational environments that provide appropriate support. Living Labs might be such environments; “clusters” or “regional innovation systems” might be other terms for organisational networks in which concurrent product development takes place.

While there is some literature on such network settings, research about concurrency in product development and how it is impacted by network settings is sparse. This issue aims to explore such product development and innovation processes.

Manuscripts are invited from both practitioners and researchers. Papers with original unpublished research are invited and can be either of theoretical nature to advance conceptualisation, or of empirical nature. This issue encourages submissions from all over the world to contribute to the conceptual foundation of Living Labs and other product development networks.

Suitable topics include but are not limited to:
  • Co-creation, co-innovation and open innovation
  • Collaborative engineering
  • Collaborative innovation systems and clusters
  • Collaborative mobile devices and mobile engineering
  • Concurrent engineering methods and processes
  • Creating demand for innovations
  • Integrated engineering of products, services and organisations
  • Knowledge management, representation and visualisation
  • Legal issues (IPR) in living labs
  • Product data and product life-cycle management
  • Simulations and games for CE, collaboration and learning
  • Virtual collaborative environments
This special issue is intended for revised and substantially extended (more than 50%) versions of selected papers presented at the 17th International Conference on Concurrent Enterprising, to be held from 20th to 22nd June 2011 in Aachen, Germany, but we explicitly encourage other researchers to submit their papers to this special issue as well. A special workshop will be held exclusively for authors of this IJPD special issue at the ICE conference.

Important Date
Full manuscript submission: 31 March, 2011

9 January 2011

Call for papers: Privacy Preserving Multiparty Computation

A special issue of International Journal of Information and Coding Theory

Rapid advances in computing and networking technologies in the last decade have made it easier than ever create, store, distribute and consume huge amounts of information. This information includes not only sensitive personal data such as financial, medical and biometric information, but also private behavioural patterns monitored by social networking sites and surveillance video cameras. The unprecedented ease of accessing and distributing information has raised security and privacy concerns.

In response to this emphasis on security and privacy, there has recently been a surge of interest in research on privacy-preserving multiparty computation. This has been fuelled by practitioners at the interface of cryptography, signal processing, data mining and machine learning. Secure signal processing techniques have recently been proposed for biometric access control, data classification, electronic voting, recommender systems and Smart Grid privacy.

Our aim with this special issue is to highlight enabling technologies in privacy-preserving multiparty computation and to draw the attention of the community to this fertile area of truly interdisciplinary research. We would like to provide a view of what is possible with current mathematical primitives, as well as illuminate key unsolved issues in the field.

We seek submissions on all aspects of secure multiparty computation; topics of interest include but are not limited to:
  • Secure multiparty computation primitives, homomorphic functions, secret sharing
  • Privacy-preserving signal processing, sufficient statistics, probabilistic inference
  • Problems and protocols for privacy preservation in the smart grid
  • Privacy-preserving data mining for health care, finance, cloud computing
  • Biometric cryptosystems and related secure authentication schemes
  • Privacy-preserving multimedia surveillance
  • Complexity analysis of privacy-preserving algorithms
Important Dates
Manuscript submission: 1 June, 2011
Notification of acceptance: 1 September, 2011
Revised final manuscript submission: 1 October, 2011

Special issue: Advances in waste engineering and management: Part one

International Journal of Environmental Technology and Management 13(3/4) 2010
  • Leaf composting in cold climates: a theoretical and an experimental evaluation
  • Self-sustained vermicomposting plant at municipal solid waste generation point
  • Assessment of major solid wastes generated in palm oil mills
  • Policy interventions needed to manage bacterial build-up in municipal effluent irrigated agroforestry plantations
  • Performance of soil and compost mixture in leachate purification at intermediate cover soil of tropical landfill
  • MSW management strategies for the city of Rome: a comparative assessment
  • Evaluating financial aspects of municipal solid waste management in Mysore City, India
  • Enhancing the hydrolysis step in anaerobic digestion of municipal solid waste using rumen fluid
  • Dual role of hydrolysis coefficient in modelling of bioreactors
  • Comparative study on treatment of kitchen-sink wastewater using single and multichannel ceramic membrane
  • Physico-chemical characteristics of leachate from a common hazardous waste disposal facility in South India
  • GHG emissions: an assessment at municipal solid waste disposal site in Indore, India
  • Sludge composting, sludge pretreatment and radiation technology: a review

Special issue: Product design, manufacturing processes and continuous improvement

International Journal of Mechatronics and Manufacturing Systems 4(1) 2011
  • Investigation of tool wear mechanisms in CGI machining
  • Concept design optimisation for continuously variable transmissions
  • An Interpretive Structural Modelling (ISM) approach for Advanced Manufacturing Technologies (AMTs) utilisation barriers
  • Calibration, non-geometric error modelling and correction methods for articulated arm coordinate measuring machines
  • Experimental investigation into the response of elastohydrodynamic films to harmonic vibrations
  • Experimental and numerical study of hydroforming aptitudes of welded tubes
  • A study on the impact of lead time statistical specifications on supply chain performance under uncertainty

Special issue: Marine renewable energy – Part 2

International Journal of Renewable Energy Technology 2(1) 2011
  • Research and development in ocean energy technologies
  • Sustainable rural energy: traditional water wheels in Padang (PWW), Indonesia
  • Hydro energy: techno-economic and social aspects within new climate regime
  • Implementation of a small hydro power project in India: issues and lessons
  • An efficient hybrid wave/photovoltaic scheme for energy supply in remote areas
  • Design of an autonomous renewable hybrid power system

7 January 2011

Call for papers: Advances in Rapid Manufacturing of Processes and Materials

A special issue of International Journal of Materials Engineering Innovation

Rapid manufacturing solutions have transformed over the centuries from black art to science, but their impact upon the process responsible for changes in metallurgical, mechanical properties (e.g. surface finish, hardness, dimensional stability, etc.) is still disputed. The aims of this special issue are to highlight advances in rapid manufacturing processes and materials, and to address prominent reasons for improving the properties of materials involved in rapid manufacturing processes.

The issue invites the submission of high quality research articles related to advances in rapid manufacturing of processes and materials. It encourages submissions from all over the world which expand the frontiers of the fundamental theories and concepts underlying materials and manufacturing processes.

Suitable topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

Materials and their behaviour during rapid manufacturing
  • Ferrous, non-ferrous alloys, polymers, ceramics and glasses, composites, special materials, etc. Microstructure and mechanical properties, heat treatments, material selection, etc.
Rapid casting processes
  • Hybrid sand casting, pressure die casting, investment casting, continuous casting, shell moulding, vacuum sealed casting, high speed casting, injection moulding, etc.
Rapid moulding processes
  • SLS , FDM, 3DP, silicon moulding, polyjet printing etc.
Modelling and optimization of rapid manufacturing processes
  • Statistical analysis
  • Response surface methodology
  • Taguchi’s robust design method, fuzzy set theory based modelling
  • Finite element modelling/simulation
Important Date
Submission: 30 September, 2011

Special issue: Bioinspired optimisation methods and their applications

International Journal of Innovative Computing and Applications 3(1) 2011

Papers from the Fourth International Conference on Bioinspired Optimisation Methods and their Applications (BIOMA 2010) held in Ljubljana, Slovenia, 20- 21 May 2010.
  • The slowness principle: SFA can detect different slow components in non-stationary time series
  • Analysis of exploration and exploitation in evolutionary algorithms by ancestry trees
  • Two algorithmic enhancements for the parallel differential evolution
  • MFGA: a GA for complex real-world optimisation problems
  • Days-off scheduling for a bus transportation company
  • MatPort – online mathematics learning with a bioinspired decision-making system

6 January 2011

Call for papers: Supply Chain Supported Enhancement of Business Performance

A special issue of International Journal of Business Performance and Supply Chain Modelling

Managing the entire supply chain has emerged as one of the most important factors responsible for enhancing the performance of a business organization. The impact of supply chain is visible across all functional areas in organizations. Relevant knowledge, skills, technology, integrated processes, good relations with vendors and suppliers, a well coordinated network and superior logistics all contribute to a well-functioning supply chain.

A successful business organization is founded on satisfied customers and customer relations. Supply chain management is intimately connected with these performance parameters. Product quality, product cost, delivery and flexibility are other areas which are dependent on the strategy and performance of a supply chain. The performance evaluation of a supply chain, however, remains one of the biggest challenges for decision makers, as there are difficulties in defining performance parameters due to the inherent contradictions within them.

This special issue aims to bring out the role and importance of supply chain in enhancing business performance. We solicit high quality, cutting edge and research-based submissions on all the aspects of supply chain.

The issue will carry revised and substantially extended versions of selected papers presented at the International Conference on Business Cases (ICBC 2010), held from 2 to 3 December 2010 in Ghaziabad (India), but we also strongly encourage researchers who did not participate in the conference to submit papers to this Special Issue.

Contributors are encouraged to submit original manuscripts (including case studies that have practical relevance) which focus on the areas related to supply chain management supported business performance. These areas include but are not limited to:
  • Supply chain optimisation
  • Green supply chain management
  • Agile SCM
  • Reverse logistics
  • Supplier development and vendor selection
  • Sustainable SCM
  • Supply chain as a competitive advantage
  • Supply chain performance
  • Supply chain analysis
  • Supply chain network management
  • Bullwhip effect
  • Vehicle routing
  • Responsive supply chain management
  • Flexible supply chains
  • Supply chains in new product development
  • Integrated SCM and business performance
  • Decision making in supply chains
  • SCM and organizational development
  • Supply chains and sustainable development
  • Supply chains and cultural environment
  • Problem domains in SCM
  • Supply chain strategies
  • Supply chains in service operations
  • Inter-organisational integration across supply chains
  • Human factor in supply chain performance
  • Quality dimension in supply chains
  • Implementation issues in supply chains
  • Knowledge management in SCM
  • Appreciative intelligence and SCM
  • Decision making in SCM
Important Dates
Manuscript submission by: 15 March, 2011
Notification of initial decision by: 30 April, 2011
Submission of revised manuscript by: 1 June, 2011
Notification of final acceptance by: 30 June, 2011
Submission of final manuscript by: 15 July, 2011

Call for papers: Science of Smarter Planet Systems

A special issue of International Journal of Communication Networks and Distributed Systems

'Smarter Planet' is a generic term referring to intelligent distributed computing environments which leverage information technology and networks to create new capabilities and provide more intelligent way to perform common functions in the society. Examples of such smarter planet systems include systems that create smarter water management, intelligent utilities, smarter transportation, and intelligent resource sharing across different groups and organizations. In general, smarter planet systems are built using instrumentation data collected from ubiquitous sensor deployments, retrieving sensor data using intelligent techniques for data collection and then applying data analytics and artificial intelligence to create an intelligent end-to-end system. Over the last couple of years, several smarter planet systems have been built and deployed at different locations across the world.

The overall architecture of any smarter planet system can be divided into three broad areas of instrumentation, interconnection, and intelligence. Instrumentation consists of deploying sensors and collecting information efficiently from the deployed sensors. Interconnection consists of designing different types of networks that can obtain information rapidly and efficiently under resource constrained environments. Intelligence refers to algorithms for control, analysis and guidance to be provided from the collected information. The common underlying principles behind interconnection, instrumentation and intelligence constitute the science for smarter planet. The science of smarter planet is a multi-disciplinary research area that spans fields such as sampling theory, sensor management, communications networks, network sciences, data mining, artificial intelligence and control theory.

Although each smarter planet system has some unique aspects, there are many common principles and ideas that can be leveraged across established and new smarter planet systems. The sharing of approaches, algorithms, architectural models and insights gained from deployed Systems would spur the creation of new smarter planet Systems among the technical community.

In view of this, this special issue aims to seek original research papers and review articles and expects to enhance the state-of-the-art in instrumentation, interconnection and intelligence required for solving the various problems and challenges in designing a smarter planet system.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to following:
  • Architectural models of smarter planet systems
  • Lessons learnt from deployed smarter planet systems
  • Intelligent approaches for data instrumentation
  • Interaction among different systems of systems
  • Federation of independently evolved systems and networks
  • Life cycle models for smarter planet systems
  • Intelligent networking for smarter planet systems
  • Management of widely deployed sensor networks
  • New hardware and software architectures for planetary scale deployments
  • Human factor issues in developing smarter planet systems
  • Information management for smarter planet systems
  • Real-time data mining for smarter planet systems
Important Dates
Paper Submission Deadline: 1 May 2011
Notification of acceptance: 31 June 2011
Submission of final revised paper: 15 August, 2011

Call for papers: Digital Signal and Image Processing Applications

A special issue of International Journal of Signal and Imaging Systems Engineering

This special issue will be based partly on the best papers of the International Conference on Advances in Electrical & Electronics Engineering (ICAEEE-2011) to be held on 25-26 February 2011 and organized by Moradabad Institute of Technology (MIT), Moradabad (UP), India. However, the issue is also welcomes research from outside the conference. To this end high quality papers on all aspects of applications of digital signal and image processing and especially real world problem applications are welcome.

Suitable topics include but are not limited to:
  • Adaptive DSP algorithms
  • Filter bank theory
  • Spectrum estimation and processing
  • Nonlinear systems
  • Digital transforms
  • Multidimensional signal processing
  • Speech processing and recognition
  • Audio enhancement
  • Image representation and modelling
  • Image restoration and enhancement
  • Colour and 3D vision
  • Image and video analysis
  • Digital watermarking
  • Pattern recognition
  • Data fusion
  • Speech and audio compression
  • Image and video coding
  • Scalable techniques
  • Advanced image enhancement and processing algorithms
  • Fuzzy neural and evolutionary techniques for image enhancement
  • Noise estimation and filtering
  • Image restoration, feature extraction
  • Edge detection, image analysis and classification
  • Figures of merit for assessing the image quality
  • Algorithms for image interpolation
  • Post-processing techniques for the correction of coding errors
  • Data fusion and high-level computer vision
  • Optical detectors and cameras
  • Ionizing radiation (x-rays, gamma rays) detectors
  • Detector physics, ultrasound transducers
  • MRI coils, phased array antenna elements
  • Novel detection mechanisms
  • Image formation processes
Important Dates
Submission deadline: 15 April 2011
First decision notification: 30 May, 2011
Submission of revised papers: 15 July, 2011
Final decision notification: 30 August, 2011

Special issue: Planning, scheduling and optimisation in manufacturing and services enterprise

International Journal of Enterprise Network Management 4(2) 2010
  • Impact of volume, routing and product mix flexibilities on the performance of a job shop: a simulation study
  • Measurement of surface roughness through RSM: effect of coated carbide tool on 6061-t4 aluminium
  • Modelling and optimisation of submerged arc welding process parameters using particle swarm optimisation technique
  • Simulation-based decision-making scenarios in dynamic supply chain
  • Investigation of thermal stress development by layer manufacturing on fused deposition modelling parts
  • Customer relationship-based strategic planning using balanced scorecard – a case study

Special issue: Economics of climate change

Interdisciplinary Environmental Review 11(2/3) 2010
  • Population, poverty, environment, and climate dynamics in the developing world
  • ANEMI: a new model for integrated assessment of global change
  • Carbon emission trading in India and Sri Lanka
  • A new approach to climate change: ideas beyond carbon emissions
  • Forestry as a sustainable asset class for turbulent times?
  • Land and pastoralism: New South Wales Riverina
  • A case study in land and water regeneration to reduce the impact of climate change by soil bio-sequestration of atmospheric carbon
  • A solution to climate change economics – a carbon swap bank

4 January 2011

Call for papers: Techniques and Applications for Merging Mobile and Cloud Services

A special issue of International Journal of Communication Networks and Distributed Systems

Mobile and cloud computing has emerged rapidly as an exciting new paradigm that offers a challenging model of service computing and poses fascinating problems regarding distributed resource management, ranging from information sharing to cooperative computing.

This special issue is intended to foster state-of-the-art research in the area of integration of mobile and cloud services, including the topics of virtualization, dynamic resource provisioning, energy efficient, collaboration environment, implementations, running experiments, deployment on real systems and novel applications associated with this paradigm. Papers are expected to focus on state-of-the-art technology advances towards realizing mobile and ubiquitous service environments for advanced applications and services in mobile clouds. The issue will serve as a landmark source for education, information, and reference to researchers, professionals, and graduate students interested in this fascinating area.

Topics of solicited original research papers include, but not limited to:
  • Power-aware profiling, modeling, and optimization
  • Software as a service (SaaS)
  • Virtualization technologies
  • Cloud-based services and education
  • Novel programming models for cloud computing
  • Mobility, location and handoff management
  • Traffic and congestion control, QoS, resource management
  • Management of wireless and mobile networks
  • Security in wireless and mobile environment
  • Networks convergence and integration
  • Applications and services based on wireless infrastructures
  • Cross-layer optimizations in wireless networks
  • Emerging wireless technologies
  • Wireless and mobile network deployment
  • Circuits for wireless communications
  • Spectrum allocation and management
  • Performance analysis, simulation and testing of wireless and mobile systems
Important Dates
Manuscript submission deadline: 15 April, 2011
Notifications: 30 June, 2011
Revised submission: 31 July, 2011
Final notification: 15 September, 2011

2 January 2011

Call for papers:Advances in Multimedia and Network Information System Technologies

A special issue of International Journal of Intelligent Information and Database Systems

This special issue is designed to present a series of high quality research papers in one of the topics of theoretical and practical aspects of multimedia and network information systems.

Topics of particular interest may include, but are not limited to the following subjects:

Multimedia Information Technology
  • Multimedia databases
  • Multimedia indexing and retrieval
  • Multimedia processing
  • Multimedia sharing systems
  • Multimedia content management systems
  • Virtual reality technologies
  • Video on demand, network games, extended reality, session mobility
  • Image processing, content-based image retrieval, visual retrieval systems
  • Digital video, video editing software, digital sound processing
  • Music information retrieval, speech recognition and synthesis
Data Processing in Information Systems
  • Data warehouses and data mining
  • Multi-agent systems, AI in information systems, computational intelligence
  • Human computer interaction, distributed processing, efficiency of information systems
  • Metadata in information systems, data quality, system integration, cloud computing
  • Mashup systems, topical crawlers, social networks
Digital Libraries
  • Distributed repositories
  • Cultural heritage digitalization, virtual museums
  • Services atomization, usage mining, digital library semantics
Information System Applications
  • Business intelligence, enterprise information systems
  • Geographical information systems, mobile information systems
  • Medical information systems
  • Nature-inspired information systems
Web Systems and Network Technologies
  • Semantic web, ontology management and alignment
  • Web usability and accessibility, web traffic optimization
  • Deep web processing, web mining,
  • Internet search engines, web 2.0 and collaborative systems
  • Virtual communities
  • Trust and security management, recommender systems
  • Machine learning in web-based systems
E-learning
  • E-learning systems architecture, e-learning platforms
  • Content design, intelligent tutoring systems,
  • Collaborative learning, e-learning standards, e-learning tools
  • Social and psychological aspects of e-learning
Important Date
Submission deadline: February 10th, 2011

Call for papers: Context-Aware System and Intelligent Middleware for Smart Grid

A special issue of International Journal of Communication Networks and Distributed Systems

Due to shortages of energy resources, "smart grid" technology has been promoted rapidly as a solution for issues of energy depletion, limited natural resources and global warming. These "smart grids" aim to provide electricity to end-users through a two-way digital technology that controls end-users' devices to save power in a much more easy and simple way. That is, end-users will be able to allow the smart grid to remotely control all selected devices in their home conveniently and easily in accordance with tracks of all electricity flowing in monitoring systems. To realize the technology’s advantages, appropriate and novel middleware, architectures and applications are required to construct a smart grid.

In view of this, this special issue aims to seek original research papers and review articles and expects to enhance the state-of-the-art in context-aware systems and intelligent middleware to solve the various problems and challenges in designing a smart grid.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to following:
  • Context-aware monitoring systems for smart grid
  • Intelligent agents in smart grid
  • Context-aware heterogeneous smart grid systems
  • Intelligent control systems for optimization of management for smart grid
  • Intelligent middleware for integration of devices for smart grid
  • Middleware-based development of applications and services for smart grid
  • Other context-aware system and intelligent middleware for smart grid
Important Dates
Paper Submission Deadline: 15 March, 2011
Notification of acceptance: 15 May, 2011
Submission of final revised paper: 15 June, 2011

Special issue: Nanoscience and nanotechnology: recent advances, trends and challenges

International Journal of Materials Engineering Innovation 2(1) 2011
  • A study of densification of 40wt.% Ni-Fe nanopowder prepared by mechanical alloying and sintered by SPS apparatus
  • Influence of nano-level variation of solid lubricant particle size in the machining of AISI 1040 steel
  • A facile method for the fabrication of hierarchical porous nanocrystalline zeolite silicalite-1
  • 3D Corporate Tourism: a concept for innovation in nanomaterials engineering
  • Modelling and analysis of nanodevices using a molecular dynamics simulator
  • Model of reactive sputtering process in deposition of TiAlN coating
  • Photocatalytic degradation of reactive orange 16 dye over Au-doped TiO2 in aqueous suspension

Special issue: Business networks and enterprise development

International Journal of Entrepreneurial Venturing 3(1) 2011
  • Role of networks in emergence of international new ventures
  • Political entrepreneurship in new small ventures: the case of IMS
  • Inertia in business relationships: the case of a designer furniture manufacturer
  • ERP selection through business relationships – adaptations or connections
  • Performance in strategic alliances: an analysis of objective and subjective measures

Special issue: Wireless and mobile networks

International Journal of Ad Hoc and Ubiquitous Computing 7(1) 2011

Includes papers from the First International Workshop on Wireless & Mobile Networks (WiMo-2009) held in Brisbane, Australia, 7–10 July 2009.
  • Stochastic and Equitable Distributed Energy-Efficient Clustering (SEDEEC) for heterogeneous wireless sensor networks
  • EDAP: An Efficient Data-Gathering Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks
  • An interference and load aware routing metric for Wireless Mesh Networks
  • Utilising coverage holes and wireless relays for mobile target tracking
  • An energy efficient clustering protocol for routing in Wireless Sensor Network
  • A mobility framework to improve heterogeneous wireless network services

Special issue: Media computation and system modelling

International Journal of Modelling, Identification and Control 12(1/2) 2011
  • Simulation system design of a small-scale unmanned helicopter
  • Modelling and control system design of a small-scale unmanned helicopter
  • A quick moving target detection method based on real-time airborne videos
  • Time-dependent pheromones and electric-field model: a new ACO algorithm for dynamic traffic routing
  • An adaptive immune algorithm based on the endocrine regulation mechanism for scheduling problems of flow shop with zero wait
  • Fuzzy system identification based on support vector regression and genetic algorithm
  • Non-linear modelling of drum-boiler-turbine unit using an evolving Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy model
  • An improved multi-objective particle swarm optimisation algorithm
  • Studies of the working characters of the aerial vehicle's safety control system
  • Study and realisation of a fast building algorithm of coherence cube
  • Logo recognition based on membership degree and closeness degree of fuzzy sets
  • Robust and automatic segmentation of a class of fuzzy edge images
  • Pharmaceutical crystal shape control based on online image processing and multi-scale modelling
  • Inductive data mining: automatic generation of decision trees from data for QSAR modelling and process historical data analysis
  • Intelligent animal fibre classification with artificial neural networks
  • Intelligent personalised information retrieval system based on multi-agent
  • Immune clonal selection algorithm for target coverage of wireless sensor networks
  • A pyramidal trust computing model for peer-to-peer networks inspired from social network
  • Healthcare information system: building a cyber database for educated decision making
  • Modelling and analyses of WSN-based pursuit-evasion strategies for multi-pursuers to multi-evaders
  • Dynamic modelling of the laser tracking gimbal used in a laser tracking system
  • Error analysis of robot detecting system with laser sensors in unknown environment
  • Sliding mode variable structure control of mobile manipulators
  • On the control of the liquid pouring process using cooperative manipulators
  • Real-time compensation control for hysteresis and creep in IPMC actuators