Call for papers: Logistics and Service Science based on the Internet of Things

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

Information and communication technology has been providing a more effective network infrastructure and development platform for the logistics and service operations. In order to meet the needs of consumers, and particularly to promote low-carbon economic development process, new types of services will also emerge.

This special issue will provide an opportunity for both researchers and industry practitioners to exchange the latest fundamental advances in the state-of-the-art and practice of logistics, informatics, service operations and service science. Related domain experts and scholars can discuss academic issues, seize future development opportunities, master the subject developing tendency and exchange the latest research and academic thinking.

Suitable topics include but are not limited to:

AREA 1 - SERVICE MANAGEMENT

• Strategic services management
• Service system and service network design
• Quality-of-service assessment
• Service operations management
• Service revenue management
• Service innovation management
• Service supply chain management
• Service information system
• Service process reengineering
• Service purchasing and supplier management
• Service marketing
• Public service management
• Financial and insurance service management
• Education service management
• Healthcare service management
• Telecom service management
• Hotel service management
• Tourism service management
• Product post-sales service management
• Transportation (aviation\railways\highways\water (passengers and cargo)) service management

AREA 2 - LOGISTICS MANAGEMENT

• Material flow theory and applications
• Logistics services strategy
• Innovation and logistics services
• Supply chain management
• Low-carbon and logistics
• Low-carbon supply chain
• Logistics alliance
• International logistics
• Regional logistics
• Emergency logistics
• Internet of things and logistics services
• Logistics service system optimization
• Logistics industry and policy

AREA 3 - INFORMATION MANAGEMENT

• Business intelligence and business analysis
• Innovative enterprise digitalized operation mode
• Dynamic supply chain planning and management
• Customer relations management
• Digital enterprise infrastructure
• Enterprise commercial intelligence
• E-commerce and e-government
• Wireless communications and mobile business
• Enterprise information resources management
• Sensor network and internet of things
• RFID technology and application
• Pervasive computing and intelligent living space
• Cloud computing theories and technologies
• Collaborative e-commence mechanism and technology
• Network marketing strategy and application
• Electronic commerce application and benefit appraisal
• Network transaction, trust mechanism and information security
• Electronic market and intervening mechanism
• Knowledge management and knowledge sharing
• Organization semiotics and informatization
• IT project management
• Information technology and enterprise sustainable development strategy
• Other relevant management theory and application issues

AREA 4 - ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT

• Engineering Consultancy Management
• IT in construction
• Engineering information system
• Informatization of construction industry
• Supply chain management in construction
• Logistics management in construction
• Engineering economics
• Project management in engineering

This special issue is intended for revised and substantially extended versions of selected papers presented at LISS2011 (1st International Conference on Logistics, Informatics, Service Operations and Service Science), held from 8th to 11th June 2011 in Beijing (China), but we explicitly encourage other researchers to submit their papers to this Special Issue as well.

Important Date
Submission deadline: 30 April 2011

Special issue: Unmanned vehicles

International Journal of Intelligent Defence Support Systems 4(1) 2011

• An agent to optimally re-distribute control in an underactuated AUV
  
• Cooperation in distributed surveillance systems for dense regions
• Towards unmanned systems for dismounted operations in the Canadian Forces
• A multiple robot solution for urban reconnaissance
• Towards autonomous robot swarms for multi-target localisation and monitoring with applications to counter IED operations

Special issue: Networking, architecture and storage (NAS)

International Journal of High Performance Computing and Networking 6(3/4) 2010

Papers from the 1st International Workshop on Networking, Architecture, and Storage held in Shenyang, China, 1-3 August 2006.

• A novel technique of recognising multi-stage attack behaviour
• HR-SDBF: an approach to data-centric routing in WSNs
• Resilient P2P anonymous routing by using redundancy
• The study on schedule policy of data transferring in storage network
• Towards a more accurate availability evaluation in peer-to-peer storage systems
• Supporting time-critical clients in scalable pub-sub systems
• Capturing the object behaviour for storage system evaluation
• Embedded hard real-time scheduling algorithm based on task's resource requirement
• Caching personalised and database-related dynamic web pages
• TEA: transmission error approximation for distance estimation between two Zigbee devices

Call for papers: Supply Chain and Operations Management in China

A special issue of International Journal of Applied Management Science

Instead of company-to-company competition, today’s businesses are in an era of supply chain-to-supply chain competition. Supply chain and operations management are increasingly global, and China has become the world manufacturing centre. In recent years, both business practices and theoretical research on supply chain and operations management in China have been booming. For this reason, we are organizing this special issue to explore the latest theories and applications of supply chain management and operations management in China. The purpose of the issue is twofold: on one hand, we attempt to introduce theoretical work related to supply chain and operations management in China; on the other, we aim to investigate supply chain and operations management business practices in different Chinese industries (e.g., food, electronics, textile, etc).

In this special issue, we welcome theoretical, empirical, and case studies that are within the scope of this issue. The issue will include invited papers and papers submitted directly as per instruction below.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Supply chain strategy
• Supply chain risk management
• Outsourcing
• Revenue management
• Supply chain quality management
• Supply chain technology management
• Supply chain sustainability
• Applications of supply chain and operations management

Important Dates
Submission due date of full paper: 30 August, 2011
Feedback from referees: 15 November, 2011
Submission due date of revised paper: 30 January, 2012
Notification of acceptance: 30 March, 2012
Submission of final revised paper: 30 April, 2012

Call for papers: Modern Tools of Industrial Engineering: Applications in Decision Sciences

A special issue of International Journal of Applied Management Science

Modern industrial engineering tools include soft computing techniques such as fuzzy sets, neural networks, tabu search and ant colony techniques. Soft computing and computational intelligent techniques (SCCITs) are used to obtain the closest solutions to computationally-hard problems. SCCITs are vitally practical tools for many complex problems since they can be tolerant of imprecision, uncertainty, partial truth, and approximation. Traditional hard computing methods are often too cumbersome for complex problems. They need a precisely stated analytical model and often a lot of computational time (Zadeh, 1965).

Artificial neural networks, genetic algorithms, fuzzy logic models, ant colony techniques, tabu search etc. are the best known soft computing techniques in the literature. The technique of artificial neural networks (ANNs) is a computational model and is inspired by biological neural networks. Genetic algorithms (GAs) are global search and optimization techniques motivated by the process of natural selection in biological system (Gen and Cheng, 2000; Kaya, 2009). Ant colony optimization (ACO) is a cooperative search algorithm inspired by the behaviour of ants in finding paths from the nest to food. ACO is used for solving combinatorial optimization problems (Yang and Zhuang, 2010). Tabu search (TS) is another algorithm which is used for the solution of combinatorial optimization problems like the traveling salesman problem. TS method is based on the neighbourhood search procedure such that the algorithm iteratively moves from a solution to another solution in the related neighborhood, until it reaches any stopping criterion.

MCDM techniques are also known as SCCITs. MCDM techniques are used classified into multiple objective decision making (MODM) and MULTIPLE ATTRIBUTE DECISION MAKING (MADM). The difference between MADM and MODM is that MADM is associated with problems of which numbers of alternatives have been predetermined. The decision maker (DM) selects/ranks a finite number of courses of action. On the other hand, MODM is not associated with the problems in which alternatives have been predetermined. In other words, MODM techniques present optimization of an alternative or alternatives on the basis of prioritized objectives while MADM techniques present selection of an alternative from a set of alternatives based on prioritized attributes of the alternatives.

In this special issue, decision-making with modern industrial engineering tools will be published to include each tool with its application through a real case study. Thus, the papers contained in this special issue will be a representation of the latest decision-making techniques in industrial engineering.

We welcome submissions of practical research results in the field of decision sciences.

Suitable topics include but are not limited to:

• Heuristics
• Fuzzy sets
• Computational intelligent systems
• Multiple criteria decision making (MCDM)
• Soft computing
• Decision making with axioms

Important Dates
Submission due date of full paper: 5 March, 2011
Feedback from referees: 15 May, 2011
Submission due date of revised paper: 30 June, 2011
Notification of acceptance: 1 September, 2011
Submission of final revised paper: 1 October, 2011

Special issue: E-learning in higher education: EU perspectives

International Journal of Management in Education 5(1) 2011

• Envisioning new post-scientific Europe through culturally balanced use of technology in learning
• The Learning Network on Sustainability: an e-mechanism for the development and diffusion of teaching materials and tools on design for sustainability in an open-source and copy left ethos
• Re-examining the Critical Success Factors of e-learning from the EU perspective
• Students' perceptions of Computer Assisted Learning: an empirical study
• Experiences and perspectives of Wikipedia use in higher education

Regular papers

• Managing quality in online education: a conceptual model for program development and improvement
• Gaming the system: the effect of media richness on student team interactions in a business simulation

Special issue: Tools to improve performance in the e-society

International Journal of Information Technology and Management 10(1) 2011

• Analysing firm performance in Chinese IT industry: DEA Malmquist productivity measure
• Assessing the risk exposure in IT outsourcing for large companies
• Performance coordination of the disrupted supply chain with transfer payment
• Modelling transport modes performance and external transaction costs
• An econometric model for evaluating success/failure of an R&D project: the case of Korea
• Consumer adoption in digital multimedia broadcasting: examining socio-cultural and economic determinants
• An empirical analysis of electricity consumption intensity based on structure factor and efficiency factor

Special issue: Financial reporting, transparency and corporate governance: issues in volatile international markets

International Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Performance Evaluation 7(1/2) 2011

• Monitoring of earnings management by independent directors and the impact of regulation: evidence from the People's Republic of China
• Local governmental management of discretionary and specific accruals
• An empirical analysis of corporate governance structures and voluntary corporate disclosure in volatile capital markets: the Egyptian experience
• Measurement vs. disclosure of accounting compliance in Indonesia
• Measuring shareholder value in Tunisian banking

Special issue: 'Entertainment = Emotion'

International Journal of Arts and Technology 4(1) 2011

Papers from the international seminar Entertainment = Emotion (E = E), held in Benasque, Spain, 21 to 26 November 2009.

• Management of emotions in US fiction series: when being (and feeling like) a woman sells
• Emotional involvement in digital games
• Disposition development in drama: the role of moral, immoral and ambiguously moral characters
• Predicting popularity of mass-market films using the tenets of disposition theory
• Sexist humour in advertising: just a joke or marketing strategy?
• Affective states, familiarity and music selection: power of familiarity
• The role of moral disengagement in the enjoyment of real and fictional characters
• The impact of perceived character similarity and identification on moral disengagement
• Influence of interactivity on emotions and enjoyment during consumption of audiovisual fictions
  

Special issue: Autonomic computing and communication systems – selected papers from Autonomics 2008

International Journal of Autonomous and Adaptive Communications Systems 4(1) 2011

Autonomics 2008, the 2nd International Conference on Autonomic Computing and Communication Systems , took place in Turin, Italy, 23-25 September 2008.

• Strategies for repeated games with subsystem takeovers implementable by deterministic and self-stabilising automata
• Emergent engineering: a radical paradigm shift
• Autonomous and scalable failure detection in distributed systems
• Component deployment using parallel ant-nests
• Model-based integrated management: applying autonomic systems engineering to network and systems management

Special issue: Production of technically challenged oil and gas resources

International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Technology 4(1) 2011

• Super insulated wells to protect permafrost during thermal oil recovery
• Artificial geothermal energy potential of steam-flooded heavy oil reservoirs
• PVT properties prediction using hybrid genetic-neuro-fuzzy systems
• Permeability effect on the concentration-dependent propane dispersion coefficient in vapex
• PVT characterisation and compositional modelling of gas condensate and volatile oil reservoirs

Special issue: Information interchange infrastructure management – Part II

International Journal of Computational Science and Engineering 5(3/4) 2010

Further papers from the 5th International Workshop on Databases in Networked Information Systems (DNIS 2007) was held in Aizu-Wakamatsu, Japan, 17-19 October 2007.

See also International Journal of Computational Science and Engineering 5(2) 2010

• Scalable information extraction for web queries
• Co-location pattern mining for unevenly distributed data: algorithm, experiments and applications
• Facilitating interaction and retrieval for annotated documents
• Paolo Bottoni, Alessandro Cotroneo, Michele Cuomo, Stefano Levialdi, Emanuele Panizzi, Book recommendation system for utilisation of library services
• Knuckles: bringing the database to the data
• Speculation-based protocols for improving the performance of read-only transactions
• Improving data availability via an economic lease model in mobile-P2P networks

Additional Papers

• Computer-aided diagnosis of radiographic patterns of lung disease via MDCT images
• A software tool for algebraic design of interval systems control

Call for papers: The Booming Chinese Automotive Industry: Strategies, Innovation, Globalization and Policies

A special issue of International Journal of Automotive Technology and Management

Since 2009, China has become the biggest world market for automobile production and sales, overtaking the USA. Such an impressive growth has been achieved in less than 30 years, after China’s opening up to the outside world in 1978. Multinational corporations (MNCs), domestic companies and governments have jointly contributed to the industrialization of Chinese automotive industry. MNCs made significant strategic changes since the 1980s, by taking into account the emergence of Chinese competitors, changing consumer’s needs and governmental policies. Chinese companies, including newcomers in the late 1990s such as Geely or BYD, have demonstrated their astonishing capability of catching up. Central and regional governments and central ministries strive to balance between intervention and liberalization by taking into account the dynamics of firms and international institutions like World Trade Organisation (WTO).

Meanwhile, the Chinese automotive industry is full of challenges and contradictions. Foreign OEMs have to cope with the second best choice of “joint ventures” imposed by Chinese regulations, while accelerating the introduction of cars with cutting edge technology. Local OEMs are highly innovative in building intrinsic brands, although they are increasingly dependent towards foreign tier-one suppliers when targeting medium to luxury sedans.

Central government set up industrial policies to rationalize a highly fragmented industry, while regional governments are competing with each other to build local automotive clusters. Chinese consumers are becoming more exigent while talent shortages in distribution network are affecting the brand value of cars. In-depth academic research on China automotive industry is lacking. The objective of this special issue is to narrow this gap.

Papers to be included in this special issue should be focused on one or more of the following subjects (the list is indicative rather than exhaustive):

• Joint ventures between Chinese and foreign carmakers: strategies, cooperation and competition.
• Local players' governance and ownership
• Vertical relationship between OEM and suppliers
• Markets, consumers behaviour, distribution network
• Innovation, R&D, catching up, and leapfrogging, new energy vehicles
• Industrial policies, regulations, and local dynamics

Important Dates
Deadline for (extended) abstract submission: 31 March 2011
Response by guest editors: 30 April 2011
Special Issue Session of GERPISA to be held in Paris: 8/9/10 June 2011 (see below)
Deadline for full paper submission (incorporating discussion comments): 31 August 2011

We propose to hold a Special Issue session for the 19th GERPISA International Colloquium, June, 2011 in Paris (more details will be communicated in the coming two months). Papers will be reviewed and discussed by special issue editors. While all submitted papers will go through the regular double-blind journal review process, we believe that a face-to-face encounter at such a special issue session will result in better papers. Participation in the GERPISA session will not be a necessary condition for acceptance into the Special Issue, but we will strongly encourage all potential authors to attend the GERPISA session.

Call for papers: Computational Intelligence and Its Applications in Engineering

A special issue of International Journal of Bio-Inspired Computation

Recent years have seen rapid advances in bio-inspired computational intelligence (BICI) theories and their growing applications in nearly all engineering fields, such as mechanical, electrical, civil, industrial, manufacturing, materials, computer, chemical, and bio-environmental engineering. BICI has been successfully employed in solving real-world engineering problems at both large-scale and small-scale levels, ranging from the design of complex engineering systems, material processing and manufacturing, assembly, signal processing and pattern identification, to system and process optimization, to name but a few.

The goal of this special issue is to provide a vigorous forum and medium for the publication of original high-quality research papers that focus on the development of new bio-inspired computational intelligence algorithms and the real-world applications of BICI in a variety of engineering fields. Papers that focus on a comparison study of multiple BICI algorithms for a particular engineering application are particularly encouraged.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• New neural networks algorithms
• New evolutionary algorithms
• New swarm-based algorithms
• New ant colony optimization algorithms
• New support vector machine algorithms
• New BICI analysis tools such as rough sets
• Applications of BICI in mechanical engineering
• Applications of BICI in electrical engineering
• Applications of BICI in civil engineering
• Applications of BICI in industrial engineering
• Applications of BICI in manufacturing engineering
• Applications of BICI in materials engineering
• Applications of BICI in computer engineering
• Applications of BICI in chemical engineering
• Applications of BICI in bio-environmental engineering
  

Important Dates
Paper submission deadline: 1 September, 2011
Final (revised based on reviewers' comments) paper submission deadline: 16 January, 2012

Call for papers: Communication and Security Systems

A special issue of International Journal of Intelligent Engineering Informatics

Communications security is the discipline of preventing unauthorized interceptors from accessing telecommunications in an intelligible form, while still delivering content to the intended recipients. No-one wants his or her confidential or classified information revealed. Confidential information that you do not want to share with others is the easiest to protect, but every so often there is a need to share this type of information. Whenever this happens, you need to be able to send the information in a secure manner to your trusted receiver. This issue is particularly important when network communication is involved, since network communication has become the cornerstone for organizational effectiveness and today’s digital communication often includes sensitive information such as control and corporate financial data. Consequently, we need security mechanisms whenever sensitive information is to be exchanged over the network.

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

• Mobile communications
• Wireless communications
• Security systems
• Data communications
• Intelligent communications and networks
• Network and information security
• Signal generation and modelling
• Spectrum sensing and dynamic spectrum sharing
• Design and analysis of quantisers and coder/decoders
• Cryptography
• Telematics
• Source coding
• Decoding algorithms
• Detection theory
• Estimation theory
• Information and differential entropy
• Channel capacity
• Coding methods for wireless applications, including error control strategies for wireless networks

Important Dates
Submission deadline: 28 February, 2011
First decision notification: 30 March, 2011
Submission of revised papers: 30 April, 2011
Final decision notification: 15 May, 2011

Special issue: Emerging markets – Part 1

International Journal of Business Environment 3(4) 2010

• Internationalisation and global competitive advantage: implications for Asian emerging market multinational enterprises
• Understanding Brazilian FDI – an investigation on the relationship between internationalisation and economic structure
• International business in an EU candidate: the case of Bulgaria
• Mobile internet business models in emerging markets
• The up-coming crisis and loan portfolio quality in Romania and Bulgaria
• The determinants of bank performance: an analysis of theory and practice in the case of an emerging market
• Knowledge economy leaders, runner-ups and laggards: a study of 140 countries

Special issue: Distortion engineering

International Journal of Microstructure and Materials Properties 5(4/5) 2010

Papers from the 2nd International Conference on Distortion Engineering, held in Bremen, Germany, 17 - 19 September 2008.

• Mechanism of transformation plasticity and the unified constitutive equation for transformation-thermo-mechanical plasticity with some applications
• On the effect of plasticity on the kinetics of the isothermal bainitic transformation
• Effects of the austenite grain size on transformation plasticity in a 35 NCD 16 steel
• Effect of the random spatial distribution of nuclei on the transformation plasticity in diffusively transforming steel
• Research on modelling of transformation plasticity via dilatometric tests
• Development and evaluation of a model for solid-state phase transformations during casting of ductile cast iron
• Development of simulation tool for predicting distortion and residual stress in nitrided parts
• A new framework for simulation of heat treatments
• Distortion optimisation of beam-welded industrial parts by means of numerical welding simulation
• Advanced numerical method for fast prediction of welding distortions of large aircraft structures
• Influences of welding parameters on distortion
• Challenges of residual stress and part distortion in the civil airframe industry
• Multidisciplinary engineering – an integrated solution
• Investigation on shot-peening induced residual stress field

Special issue:Advances in configuration systems

International Journal of Mass Customisation 3(4) 2010

Papers from the 2008 and 2009 workshops on configuration systems.

• Towards an association of product configuration with production planning
• A metamodelling approach to configuration knowledge representation
• Computing product configurations via UML and integer linear programming
• Constraint-based configuration of embedded automotive software
• Towards recommending configurable offerings
• Constraint-based personalised configuring of product and service bundles

Special issue: Knowledge and software engineering for intelligent systems

International Journal of Knowledge Engineering and Data Mining 1(3) 2011

Papers from the Knowledge Engineering and Software Engineering (KESE) workshops.

• Knowledge engineering within the application-independent architecture SEASALT
• Improving understandability of semantic search explanations
• An intelligent system for sentence retrieval and novelty mining
• Improving the quality of rule-based applications using the declarative verification approach
• Ontology agent for ensuring semantic interoperability among agents and semantic web

Special issue: IT-based proactive design and synthesis for X in product lifecycle engineering

International Journal of Product Development 13(1) 2011

• Computer-aided design synthesis: an application of shape grammars
• A global collaborative design framework for sketch-based parametric CAD modelling
• Collaborative Simulation Environment for mechanical system design
• Application of context knowledge in supporting conceptual design decision-making
• Proactive Design for Manufacture through decision analysis
• Design products to learn and to use

Special issue: Some issues concerning emerging economies

International Journal of Economic Policy in Emerging Economies 3(4) 2010

Papers from the International Conference on International Business (ICIB), held in Thessaloniki, Greece, 22–23 May 2010.

• Some new insights into FDI determinants in MENA countries: an application of a spatial panel data model
• International business spillovers in emerging markets: the Visegrad group
• Increasing the managerial capabilities in Indonesian garment manufacturing
• Corporate governance, social responsibility and corporate reputation: an empirical analysis of the situation in Croatia
• From market economics to institutional embedness of economic development: key ethical issues for transition societies

Special issue: Brazilian economics and accounting

International Journal of Economics and Accounting 1(4) 2010

• The use of positive and normative approaches in Brazil and US accounting research: a comparative analysis based on the papers published in The Accounting Review and the Revista de Contabilidade & Financas (Accounting & Finance Journal) – 1989 to 2008
• Determinants for the composition of the board of directors in SMEs: evidence from Brazil
• Testing the differences of world stock markets (1975-2009)
• The customer care IT tools as a competitive advantage factor in the Brazilian retail industry
• Preparedness of ERP systems to create intangible managerial accounting information: evidence from Brazil
• Analysis of the information quality of reports on CDM projects in light of the legitimacy approach
• Practice of corporate governance in football clubs

Call for papers: Integrating Learning Behaviour with Change Context

A special issue of International Journal of Learning and Change

The need to link learning behaviour and change processes including organisational design (OD) techniques has never been greater. At a time when organisations are calling for clear performance parameters related to measuring change, and/or measuring learning behaviour, managers lack specificity and knowledge about how to integrate key areas. Change is often studied as a process with a clear beginning and end in some studies (Greiner, 1972; Nadler and Tushman, 1989; Arthur and Huntley, 2005) yet in others, change processes are discussed as punctuated, cyclical or continuous events (e.g.Tushman and O’Reilly, 1996; Brown and Eisenhardt, 1997; Gersick, 1991). In all of these studies, what seems to be missing is a coherent sense of what kind of learning behaviours are required to understand the change(s).

Similarly, the link between individual, team and organisational learning is well known (Crossan, Lane and White, 1999; Argyris, 1999; Fiol and Lyles, 1985). Here, the key premise is that what individuals actually learn influences team learning which in turn influences organisational learning. This makes sense if an organisations intellectual capital is an accumulation or compilation of capability so that the best capabilities can be exploited in ways that unearth new behaviours on a relatively continuous basis. March (1991) contends however that organisational systems engaged in too much exploitation at the exclusion of exploration are likely to find themselves trapped in suboptimal stable equilibria (1991: p.71). Both the learning and strategy literature to this extent is consistent. That is, core capabilities can quickly become core rigidities since no new learning occurs to break the cycle.

A key thesis between these mutual associations of change and learning is form. What form or structure links the two? There is a fuzzy link thus far between change and learning.

• If change management processes are meant to both exploit existing capabilities yet explore new horizons, then how does this occur?
• What role does learning play in change from one state to another?
• Which learning behaviours are required?
• Where do these new capabilities come from if underlying learning behaviour(s) are explored?
• How does learning at both the individual and team level influence change processes or change contexts and vice versa?

Organisation design techniques are often imbued with learning behaviour yet they are not explained in terms of discrete learning events.

This special edition to our knowledge is the first of its kind to explore these mutually reinforcing processes. There are a number of factors in and around connecting themes. Scholars may choose to focus on form thus explicating important associations between learning behaviour and change processes, providing some context to bridge gaps in the literature. Alternatively, scholars may focus on more transformational events vested in individuals or managers as leaders, or in teams, or in organisational processes per se. We are particularly interested in solid empirical links that demonstrate sound constructs of learning and change. Accordingly, although our focus is quite broad in terms of context, we are particularly counting on the special issue to make a substantial contribution to the literature in these critical areas.

Examples of topics appropriate to the theme of learning and change include but are not limited to:

• Learning processes and change techniques
• earning behaviour and modes of learning
• Change models linked to learning
• Types of change and modes of learning
• Organisation design techniques and learning behaviour
• Performance management systems and behavioural change
• Learning and adaptive performance
• Small to medium sized change and learning
• Transformational leadership and learning
• Dynamic capabilities and learning modes
• Individual and team learning
• Organisational learning constructs
• Multi-dimensional individual and team learning instruments
• Multi-method research techniques of learning and change
• Contextual studies in practice
• Learning behaviour as a form of competitive advantage
• Human resource systems as dynamic learning capabilities
• Culture and learning contexts
• Knowledge creation in international markets

Important Dates
Draft submission deadline: June 30, 2011
Final paper submission deadline: August 30, 2011

Call for papers: Organisational Sustainable Development and Accountability

A special issue of International Journal of Organisational Design and Engineering

Sustainable development has evolved into one of the most important strategic issues facing organisations worldwide. Incorporating principles of sustainable development within organisational policies and processes is a critical factor in addressing global environmental problems. Sustainable development projects and sustainable business markets are forecasted to double during the period 2010 to 2014 whilst business expenditure on sustainability projects is estimated to reach $US 60 billion in the United States over this same period (Verdantix, 2010). Over the period 2009 to 2014, the compound annual growth rate in business spending on sustainability projects will be approximately 19% across all OECD countries. The ongoing industrialization and urbanisation of both the developed and developing world, and the environmental, social and economic impacts that ensue, have led to a greater awareness of the need to re-engineer organisational policies processes and systems in order to facilitate sustainable development.

The aims of this special issue are to explore sustainable development as it relates to organisation design and engineering, current trends and associated issues.

Within the scope of the special issue, papers, including industry case studies, on the following topics are encouraged, but not limited to:

• Organisational, corporate governance, policy and leadership issues arising from sustainable development
• The role of sustainable development in technology innovation and adoption
• The role of sustainable development in overall organisational and enterprise information systems design
• Improving quality control and risk management through sustainability mechanisms
• Business process re-engineering incorporating sustainable development
• Use of sustainable development concepts in project management and organisational restructure
• Accountability, measurement, performance and reporting of sustainability issues

Important Dates
Paper Submission: 15 August, 2011
First Round Review Complete and Notification: 15 November, 2011
Second Round Submission: 15 January, 2012
Final Submission: 15 February, 2012

Special issue: Medical tourism

International Journal of Behavioural and Healthcare Research 2(1) 2010

• Determinants of satisfaction and dissatisfaction among preventive and curative medical tourists: a comparative analysis
• Brand positioning in the medical tourism industry: a brand personality perspective
• Hospitality and destination marketing's role in medical tourism: a call for research
• Value propositions – suggested dimensions for medical tourism facilities in India
• Outbound US medical tourism to selected Asian countries
• The Western 'seal of approval': advanced liberalism and technologies of governing in medical travel to India

Special issue: Models for operational and business excellence

International Journal of Logistics Economics and Globalisation 2(4) 2010

• Analysis of vendor managed inventory practices for greater supply chain performance
• Human resource excellence in software industry in India: an exploratory study
• Optimisation of sequencing and scheduling in hybrid flow shop environment using heuristic approach
• Quality management model for small ancillaries: benchmarking customer's assessment criteria
• Reengineering of large discount store: advanced shipping notice replenishment – specific purchase business model
• Application of simulated annealing and genetic algorithm for solving optimum power flow problems

Special issue: Efficient techniques for autonomic resources scheduling and management in grid and P2P Systems

International Journal of Autonomic Computing 1(4) 2010

Papers from 3rd International Workshop on P2P, Parallel, Grid and Internet Computing (3PGIC-2009), held in Fukuoka, Japan, 16–19 March 2009, in conjunction with the International Conference on Complex, Intelligent and Software Intensive Systems (CICIS-2009)

• Dynamic meta-scheduling architecture based on monitoring in distributed systems
• Local agent-based self-stabilisation in global resource utilisation
• A self-* auction server: design principles, architecture and implementation
• Dynamic algorithms for autonomic pervasive services in mobile wireless environments
• SImplementation of a stackable file system for real-time network backup
• Error detection and error classification: failure awareness in data transfer scheduling
• XML-based security for JXTA core protocols

Call for papers: Designing Pleasurable and Intelligent Products: Applications and Methods

A special issue of International Journal of Design Engineering

The challenge of designing pleasurable products, interfaces, systems and services is considered as a significant subject for industrial companies for increasing their markets and fulfilling user requirements. Mass production, with the reduction of design and manufacture lead-times and costs, implies products standardization. To balance this standardization, the needs for increasing the qualitative values and assets (symbolic expectations) of the developed product should be reinforced.

Designing pleasurable and intelligent products for large market and customized needs should definitively be the target of designers: the feelings aroused by the appearance of products, by their functions and by the interactions induced by the products’ use are the linchpin of their success but are difficult to predict. Research works on designing pleasurable products and interfaces focus on innovative and creative approaches to design for emotion and pleasure, and promote the design research which emphases on technology application and integration.

In this special issue, it is intended to gather papers with specific creative approaches regarding human needs exploration for designing intelligent products and systems. Contributions may be based on both theoretical and practical approaches to facilitate the emergence of new interactions between human, world and systems.

Papers that address, but are not limited, to the following topics related to industrial design and product innovation are welcome:

• Intelligent products
• Pleasurable products
• Interaction of users with products
• IT enabled products
• High-tech products
• Embedded intelligence in products
• Technology Integration in products and systems
• Interactive products
• User and emotion-based design
• Design experiences and methods

Important Dates
Full papers due for review: 1 February, 2011
Notification of acceptance to authors: 1 May, 2011
Revised manuscript submission: 1 July, 2011
Final decision: 1 September, 2011
Final manuscripts: 1 October, 2011

Call for papers: Organisational Design and Engineering in Healthcare

A special issue of International Journal of Organisational Design and Engineering

The worldwide trend in healthcare has been to look to healthcare information technology (HCIT) for solutions to prominent challenges such as process improvement, patient satisfaction, cost reduction and labour market shortages. Yet recent reviews of the electronic health record (EHR) literature show that all is not well especially with respect to the alignment of organizational design and the engineered artifact.

Niazkhani et al (2009, p. 546) concluded "When put in practice, the formal, predefined, stepwise, and role-based models of workflow underlying CPOE systems may show a fragile compatibility with the contingent, pragmatic, and co-constructive nature of workflow.” Two of the findings of Greenhalgh et al (2009, p. 767) were “While secondary work (audit, research, billing) may be made more efficient by the EPR, primary clinical work is often made less efficient” and “The EPR may support, but will not drive, changes in the social order of the workplace”. In addition, Fontaine et al (2010) concluded from a systematic literature review in primary care that “The potential for HIE to reduce costs and improve the quality of healthcare in ambulatory primary care practices is well recognized but needs further empiric substantiation.”

Just as in enterprise resource planning (ERP) adoption, healthcare organisations (HCOs) expect HCIT to shape their organization design through the embedded workflow engineered most often from a mechanistic worldview. Often, the contingencies and exceptions are not accounted for, leaving the blame to fall upon the usual reasons for HCIT failure (e.g., poor implementation, lack of training, resistance). Organisational design and engineering (ODE) takes the position that the “either-or” mindset must be replaced with an integrated and more holistic view of designing the organisation and artifact. The complex interplay between organisation and engineering, often intangible, requires a multi-disciplinary approach to solve the challenge of the social and technological world of healthcare being inextricably linked to healthcare policy.

This special issue seeks contributions from the spectrum of disciplines that are involved directly in HCIT or broader healthcare fields that implicitly rely on HCIT (e.g., policies for care coordination). These contributions must have both the elements of organisational design and an engineered artifact regardless of research discipline. These might address theoretical, empirical and design-based studies on medical- technical infrastructures, tools and applications, health information behaviour, or cost/benefits, policy, as well as social implications. HCITs are broadly defined to include technologies in clinical informatics, e-health, m-health, consumer health, public health, and health policy.

Suitable topics include but are not limited to:

• Adoption, implementation and deployment healthcare information technology (HICT)
• Social-organisational consequences of HCIT
• Electronic medical records
• Electronic patient records
• Electronic nurse records
• Picture archive and communication systems (PACS)
• Hospital information systems
• Pharmacy information systems
• Family practice information systems
• HCIT for hospital strategies
• E-procurement and healthcare
• E-payments and e-healthcare
• End-user computing in e-healthcare and HCIT
• Organisational implications of national health information infrastructure
• Reengineering hospital processes via HCIT and e-healthcare
• E-healthcare and HCIT in primary care
• E-healthcare and HCIT in chronic care
• E-healthcare and HCIT in elderly care
• Information architecture in HCIT e-healthcare
• Mobile health
• Social media and health information
• Policy-driven HCIT
• Cloud computing in healthcare
• Web services in healthcare

Important Dates
Deadline for submission: 15 June 2011

Call for papers: Pore-Scale Flow and Transport Processes in Petroleum Reservoirs

A special issue of International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Technology

This special issue is the product of growing interest in pore-scale experimental, theoretical and numerical work to further understanding of multi-phase flow and transport processes in hydrocarbon reservoirs. Recent advances in pore-scale modeling and computational processing capabilities have allowed simulation of fluid flow and transport processes on the micro-scale. In addition, the extensive development of non-destructive microscopic imaging techniques provides us with direct observation of fluid distribution and pore structure in porous media necessary to validate representative numerical models. Findings in this area assist the representation of relevant porous media properties such as relative permeability, capillary pressure, and diffusivity.

Suitable topics include but are not limited to:

• Fundamentals of pore-scale migration and rock-fluid interaction.
• Pore-scale flow monitoring
• Development and validation of mechanistic pore-scale models
• Pore-scale physics and prediction of petrophysical properties
• Simulation of heterogeneous porous media
• Upscaling flow and transport processes in porous media
• Applications to unconventional reservoir simulation

Important Dates
Deadline for submission of paper title and list of authors: 28 January, 2011
Full paper submission deadline: 31 March, 2011
End of review process: 20 May, 2011
Final revised manuscript due: 30 June, 2011

Call for papers: Knowledge Sharing within Knowledge Intensive Organizations

A special issue of International Journal of Information Technology and Management

The role that knowledge plays in an organization became a focus of attention in the 1990s. Soon, the notion of knowledge sharing and knowledge management in general became the focus of critical attention, particularly with regard to the role that information technology was able to play, the feasibility of actually sharing knowledge and with the failure to take the political dimension of such activities into account.

Notwithstanding these criticisms, few would deny that knowledge-intensive organizations now exist or that knowledge sharing takes place within them. While some of the early pioneers have been prompted to revisit their earlier work there has not yet been a systematic attempt to reassess the issue of knowledge sharing in knowledge-intensive organizations as a whole in the light of current technologies and organizational forms; it is this that this special issue of IJITM seeks to address.

Papers for this special issue might include articles that examine the problems associated with sharing knowledge (either face-to-face or technologically-mediated), the role that knowledge sharing plays in such organizations (through encouraging innovations, as part of a competitive strategy, etc) or the nature of the knowledge sharing itself. The common theme for all of the articles is that they should attempt to place insights gained from current theory and practice within the framework of previous work in the same area.

Suitable topics include but are not limited to:

• Knowledge sharing and knowledge management systems
• Knowledge sharing communities
• Knowledge sharing in collaborative work environments
• Knowledge sharing strategies and organizational structure
• Knowledge sharing within or across organizational boundaries
• Modelling of human knowledge processes and systems
• Social and political aspects of knowledge sharing
• Social software and knowledge sharing
• Systems design issues including stakeholder requirements and participation
• HRM issues related to innovation and knowledge sharing

Important Dates
Submission of full paper: 29 April, 2011
Feedback from referees: 1 July, 2011
Submission of revised paper: 15 September, 2011

Call for papers: Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis in Manufacturing Systems (MCDAMS)

A special issue of International Journal of Industrial and Systems Engineering

This special issue aims to impart and share the recent research, development and applications dealing with engineering, technology and management aspects of manufacturing systems. Multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) is a discipline intended to support decision makers faced with making numerous and sometimes conflicting evaluations. MCDA aims at highlighting these conflicts and deriving a way to come to a compromise in a transparent process. There are many MCDA methods in use today. Choosing the best MCDA is itself a multi-criteria decision making problem.

The issue will disseminate discussion and exchange global experience in applying multi-criteria decision support models and methods emphasizing on how to design, run, control and optimize manufacturing systems. The focus will also be on sharing innovative approaches that are relevant to the sustainable development of manufacturing sector in the global context.

Papers relevant to the scope of the special issue should include, but are not limited to, the following areas:

• Systems, models, approaches and frameworks for manufacturing system evaluation (such as scenarios, technologies, operational plans etc.,) and decision support for assessing advanced manufacturing systems policies
• MCDA models to dealing with various strategic, tactical and operational decisions pertaining to manufacturing systems
• Multi-criteria decision approaches that help realizing sustainable manufacturing systems/technology transfer/diffusion etc.
• Studies dealing with energy policies, productivity, supply chains, quality, reliability, human resources, materials, technology, software etc., with the application of MCDA in the context of manufacturing systems
• Studies dealing with onshore vs offshore manufacturing decisions and make vs outsourcing decisions etc., with the help of MCDA

Important Date
Submissions deadline: 30 June, 2011

Call for papers: Regional Innovation Policy to Promote Technology Transfer in Transitional Economies

A special issue of International Journal of Transitions and Innovation Systems

Innovation is the main engine driving total factor productivity growth and, consequently, for the improvement of national living standards. Although cumulative R&D effort by the private sector is crucial for the promotion of innovation, universities and public research institutes also contribute to the promotion of industrial innovations by expanding the source of knowledge for firms. Furthermore, recent studies have shown that spillovers from research conducted at universities tend to be localized.

In this context, this special issue focuses on regional innovation policy aimed at promoting the transfer of public knowledge to the private sector in transitional economies. In addition to the medium of scientific journal publications, public knowledge can diffuse into private R&D via various channels such as spin-offs (new firm creation), patent licensing, labour mobility, consultation, and joint research. The local authorities in developed countries have implemented innovation policies to develop these spillover channels (chiefly for startups and small firms) by establishing science parks, business incubation centers, and other public technology transfer organizations. A number of studies have been conducted in developed countries to examine whether these regional innovation policies have contributed to the promotion of knowledge transfer and industrial innovations. However, little is known about how these policy instruments work (or are considered to work) in transitional economies.

One of the aims of this special issue is to review the theoretical grounds for the need for regional innovation policies to promote technology transfer in transitional economies. Theoretically, innovation policies to exploit university knowledge are important in science-based sectors such as biotechnology and information and communication technology, where industrial innovations are directly bolstered by the advancement of scientific knowledge. In these sectors, developed countries with world-leading research universities and institutes have greater advantages. However, factors inherent to transitional economies may exist that make regional innovation policies promoting technology transfer more important for economic growth.

A further aim of this special issue is to share knowledge on the practical aspects of these policies in transitional economies. Understanding the uniqueness and similarity of the policies implemented in transitional economies will help readers worldwide to identify what can be (and cannot be) learned from cases of economies in different developmental phases.

Accordingly, this special issue will survey both theoretical and empirical (both qualitative and quantitative) studies. Extensive review of the previous literature on regional innovation policy for technology transfer is also welcome. Potential readers of the issue are not only academics but 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.

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

• Theoretical development on regional innovation policy to promote technology transfer
• Literature review and theoretical perspective
• Models to evaluate regional innovation policy
• Empirical analyses that evaluate following practices in transitional economies
• Business incubators and new firm creation leveraging university inventions
• Science parks and various types of university-industry collaborations
• Other public technology transfer organizations
• Human resources to promote technology transfer
• Intellectual property and licensing
• Role of anchor tenants in regional innovation systems
• Diffusion of regional innovation policy
• Definition of success in regional innovation policy

Important Date
Paper Submission Deadline: 31 August, 2011

Call for papers: Image and Data Compression Applications

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

Compression is useful because it helps reduce the consumption of expensive resources, such as hard disk space or transmission bandwidth. On the downside, compressed data must be decompressed to be used, and this extra processing may be detrimental to some applications. For instance, a compression scheme for video may require expensive hardware for the video to be decompressed fast enough to be viewed as it is being decompressed (the option of decompressing the video in full before watching it may be inconvenient, and requires storage space for the decompressed video). The design of data compression schemes therefore involves trade-offs among various factors, including the degree of compression, the amount of distortion introduced (if using a lossy compression scheme), and the computational resources required to compress and uncompress the data.

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

• Signal generation and modelling
• Analog signal processing
• Digital signal processing
• Adaptive filtering algorithm
• Image compression applications
• Data compression applications
• Image reconstruction
• Speech and audio compression
• Wavelets applications in image compression
• Image and video coding
• Fractal image compression
• Colour image compression
• Soft computing applications for image compression
• Image clustering, classification and recognition
• Classification tools for image-based diagnosis

Important Dates
Submission deadline: 15 February, 2011
First decision notification: 30 March, 2011
Submission of revised papers: 15 April, 2011
Final decision notification: 30 May, 2011

Special issue: Nonconvex optimisation and its applications

International Journal of Computing Science and Mathematics 3(3) 2010

• Temporised equilibria: a rational concept of fairness into game theory
• An algorithm for non-linear multi-level integer programming problems
• A review of scenario generation methods
• Parameter selection of a Particle Swarm Optimisation dynamics by closed loop stability analysis
• Computation of Capacity Benefit Margin using Differential Evolution
• Duality results using higher order generalised E-invex functions
• Interpolated differential evolution for global optimisation problems

Special issue: Towards systems in support of reminiscence work

International Journal of Computers in Healthcare 1(2) 2010

Includes papers from First International Workshop on Reminiscence Systems, held on 5 September 2009 at HCI-2009 in Cambridge, UK.

• Towards the therapeutic use of information and communication technology in reminiscence work for people with dementia: a systematic review
• Remote assistance for people with dementia at home using reminiscence systems and a schedule prompter
• Drawn from memory: reminiscing, narrative and the visual image
• Building digital life stories for memory support
• Stimulating people with dementia to reminisce using personal and generic photographs
  

Call for papers: Young Researcher Special Issue on: Ground-breaking Ideas in Technology Enhanced Learning

A special issue of International Journal of Technology Enhanced Learning

IJTEL is interested in supporting young researchers and graduate student members of the TEL community. We want to encourage a debate on innovative ideas, visions, and the future of TEL research, driven by young researchers in the many fields that make up this interdisciplinary research area.

This Young Researcher special issue is designed for all junior researchers (post-graduate students, PhD students, post-docs) working in research related to technology-enhanced learning in both academia and industry. The purpose of this special issue is manifold:

• to provide opportunities for cross-fertilization of knowledge and ideas among young researchers;
• to allow young researchers to present their ground breaking fresh ideas, visions and research work;
• to promote an international collaboration and exchange of ideas between young researchers; and
• to discuss the future of TEL research by identifying trends and hot topics in the area.

Authors are especially encouraged to submit a 'visionary' article, i.e. one that describes fresh ideas, motivations, impacts and efficiencies or ideal outcomes of research and argues why they are important.

Young researchers are invited to submit articles with new innovative perspectives within the scope of:

• Grand challenges in TEL
• Emerging technologies and practices
• Future scenarios
• New policies and well-motivated requests for policy change
• Position papers
• Well-argued visions
• Gap reports that identify new research frontiers
• Roadmaps

Suitable topics include but are not limited to:

• Key issues in TEL: effective learning strategies, models and methodologies
• Deployment of ICTs in educational practice
• Web 2.0 and TEL
• Semantic web and TEL
• TEL and knowledge management
• Adaptive and personalized hypermedia for TEL
• Ubiquitous and pervasive technologies for TEL
• Intelligent tutoring systems and automated feedback
• TEL practices in different educational/learning contexts
• Policies for the promotion of TEL in education
• Serious games and 3D virtual environments
• Connecting learners through TEL
• Orchestrating TEL

Contributions from the following backgrounds are invited: Education, Psychology, Computer Science, Engineering, Sociology, Cognitive Science, as well as related disciplines.

Important Dates
Deadline for abstract submission: 15 December, 2010
Author notification for abstract: 05 January, 2011
Submission deadline for full paper: 28 February, 2011
Authors notification for full paper: 01 April, 2011
Final papers submission: 01 May, 2011

Call for papers: Knowledge Management in Software Development Process

A special issue of International Journal of Business Information Systems

Software development is a complex activity which requires application of innovative ideas without compromising the reliability and quality in the end products. It requires better tools and techniques to be employed. Recent growth in knowledge management notion has also been seen as highly instrumental in improving organizational performance. In order to achieve the goal of efficient production of software and effective development processes, numerous KM approaches and standardization efforts have been suggested. However, a majority of the organizations are finding it difficult to adopt the guidelines and approaches, as there are numerous inherent issues.

The aims of this special issue are to:

• invite and publish high quality original research contributions on the specialized theme of KM applications relating to software development processes
• examine the impact of KM on software development processes
• investigate the inherent issues and limitations with respect to KM strategies and
• disseminate the elements of good practices suggested and employed by researchers and practitioners in this field

The special issue invites research contributions, including case studies, on all aspects of knowledge management (KM) methodologies related to software development processes.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Strategies to promote KM in the software industry
• Empirical studies of adopting KM methodologies in software houses
• Lessons learned (success and failure cases)
• KM approaches for requirements elicitation
• Best practices in relation to KM in software development processes
• KM applications in system design
• Testing methodologies and novel KM paradigms
• Software standards in relation to KM
• KM for web services and SOA
• KM with respect to cloud computing environment
• Metrics to evaluate KM applications and strategies
• Workflow systems and KM methodologies
• Tools and technologies for effective KM
• KM and global software engineering
• Issues and barriers to effective KM implementation
• Case studies relating to KM in software development processes

Important Dates
Extended Deadline for papers submission: 31 May, 2011
Notification of review results: 30 September, 2011
Camera-Ready Paper Submission: 31 December, 2011

Call for papers: Curriculum Design and Pedagogical Issues in Computing Education

A special issue of International Journal of Education Economics and Development

Computing education is a challenging field due to high innovation levels resulting in a huge volume of literature with a relatively short lifecycle. Consequently, the computing faculty requires continuous involvement in research activities and syllabi updating. Furthermore, computing education requires extensive hands-on training sessions to enhance the skills of students in order to be successful in global job markets. Thus in the computing domain, traditional teaching methods are not optimal.

Advances in information and communication technologies have resulted in new forms of learning that require innovative pedagogical methodologies, curriculum and evaluation strategies. In this special issue, we focus on new approaches to pedagogy, curriculum design and evaluation strategies in relation to computing education.

The special issue invites the contributions with a special focus on computing discipline. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Best practices for computing teaching
• Experience reports and case studies of teaching and learning computer science
• Technology support in classroom environment for computing courses
• Curriculum design for virtual computing courses
• Computer based evaluation mechanisms in computing education
• E Learning and computing education
• Distance/virtual learning and implication for computing education
• Role of multimedia learning system environments in computing education
• Web 2.0 and computing education
• Professional development of computing faculty
• Computing education and digital divide

Important Dates
Deadline for papers submission: 31 March, 2011
Result notification: 30 April, 2011
Camera-ready paper submission: 31 May, 2011

Call for papers: Optimization and Learning: Theory, Algorithms and Applications

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

This special issue is designed to collect a range of high quality research papers in one of the topics of optimization and learning, from the theory to applications, and from sequential to parallel algorithms. Contributions to the solution of real-life problems are particularly appreciated.

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

* Recent developments from different optimization fields such as

• nonconvex programming
• global optimization
• D.C. (difference of convex functions) programming, etc.

* Methodological investigations and new algorithms related to

• classification
• clustering
• pattern recognition
• machine learning and support vector machines
• statistical learning and kernel methods

* Application of advanced methods in specific domains such as

• transport logistics
• bioinformatics
• biomedicine
• image processing
• finance
• text and web mining, etc.

Important Dates
Submission deadline: 31 January, 2011

Special issue: Risk management on energy and environmental conservation in CEE countries

International Journal of Global Energy Issues 34(1-4) 2010

• European Academy of Management activities on energy and environment risk management in Central and Eastern Europe
• International management and risk assessment
• Risks in development of enterprises – Silesian exporters in the times of the growing world economic crisis
• Estimation of the energy security level and definition of the criteria for damage forecasts
• Energy efficiency policies and measures in Hungary
• The future of power generation in Estonia
• Risk-reducing problems of the Latvian gas supply
• Challenges and options for development of the Lithuanian energy sector
• Implications of the principles of sustainable development for the environmental and energy policies of new EU member states
• Risk management issues in the Romanian energy sector
• Risk assessment in the Slovak energy sector
• Risk and uncertainty assessment in the development of strategy for forming the potential of dispatchable generation in the national power system of Ukraine
• Risk management on energy and environmental conservation in CEE countries

Special issue: Radio Frequency Identification applications and networks security

International Journal of Internet Technology and Secured Transactions 2(3/4) 2010

Papers from the 4th International Conference for Internet Technology and Secured Transactions (ICITST-2009) held in London, England, 9-12 November 2009.

• Lightweight mutual authentication protocol for securing RFID applications
• A survey on RFID security and provably secure grouping-proof protocols
• Evidential structures and metrics for network forensics
• Security architecture and methodology for authorisation of mobile agents
• Characterising the robustness of complex networks
• CryptoNET: a model of generic security provider
• On the security issues of NFC enabled mobile phones
• Secure unicast and multicast over satellite DVB using chaotic generators
• Framework for secure wireless health monitoring and remote access system

First issue: International Journal of Transitions and Innovation Systems

Covering the transition role of innovation systems for the community, International Journal of Transitions and Innovation Systems has an emphasis on the implications that policy choices have on both the welfare of humans through the technology, and on the catch-up process in transition countries. This perspective acknowledges the complexity of the innovation system as an interface between technology and socio-economic processes operating in parallel over different space-time scales, as well as the reflexive characteristic of human systems.

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

Special issue: Microbial immobilisation technology for wastewater treatment

International Journal of Environment and Waste Management 7(1/2) 2011

• Influence of the nature of hydrodynamic constraints on aerobic biofilms
• Dispersive transport in porous media with biofilms: local mass equilibrium in simple unit cells
• Rapid cultivation of aerobic granular sludge for Simultaneous Nitrification and Denitrification in Sequencing Batch Airlift Reactor
• Size-dependent microbial substrate uptake kinetics for aerobic granules
• A review on the essential role of substrate on aerobic granulation
• Acrylic wastewater treatment using SBR technology with aerobic granules
• Post-treatment of anaerobically pre-treated molasses wastewater in an aerobic granular sludge sequencing batch reactor
• Application of nitrifying granules to improvement of nitrification activity in activated sludge process
• Effective dispersion in channelled biofilms
  

Additional papers

• Assessment of physico-chemical behaviour and geotechnical management of pharmaceutical effluent laden clay soils
• Aral Sea partial restoration. I. A Caspian water importation macroproject
• Aral Sea partial restoration. II. Simulation of time-dependent processes
• Acid dye removal from industrial wastewater by adsorption on treated sewage sludge
• Alkaline hydrothermal conversion of agricultural waste Bagasse Fly Ash into zeolite: utilisation in dye removal from aqueous solution
  

Special issue: The wholeness of intellectual capital

International Journal of Learning and Intellectual Capital 8(1) 2011

Papers from the International Congress on Intellectual Capital: The future of business navigation held in Haarlem, Netherlands, May 2007.

• Rewinding history: paradoxes, evanescence and hubris in learning/knowledge explorations
• Enabling innovation in knowledge worker teams
• Intangible benefits of mobile business services
• How to measure and manage the risk of losing key employees?
• Strategic approach to intellectual capital development in regions
• Measuring the impact of communities of practice: a conceptual model

Additional Paper

• Action research as a knowledge generating change methodology

Special issue: Energy-efficient communications for high-performance distributed systems

International Journal of Communication Networks and Distributed Systems 6(1) 2011

• Implications of energy efficient Ethernet for hubs and switches
• UETS/EFR World Wide Net: a new network paradigm, simple, secure, highly scalable and energy-efficient
• Modelling of staged routing for reduced carbon footprints of large server clusters
• Throughput optimisation of inter- and intra-domain autonomous systems traffic engineering
  

Regular papers

• sSCADA: securing SCADA infrastructure communications
• An adaptive MST-based topology connectivity control algorithm for wireless ad-hoc networks
• Job division in service oriented computing based on time aspect

Special issue: Recent advances in sensor integration

International Journal of Sensor Networks 9(1) 2011

• Development of a shoe-mounted assistive user interface for navigation
• User-centric data gathering multi-channel system for IPv6-enabled wireless sensor networks
• Towards clock skew based services in wireless sensor networks
• Sensor integration for perinatology research
• Real-time quality of service with delay guarantee in sensor networks

Call for papers: Integration of Emotional and Technological Values in the Design of Pleasurable Products and Systems

A special issue of International Journal of Product Development

Designing pleasurable products, interfaces, systems and services constitutes an effective aim of industrial companies for fulfilling their customer needs and obtaining new markets. Paradoxically, the rationalization of the means and resources for design and manufacture leads to a relative standardization of products, and a renewal of the immaterial values (emotional and symbolic expectations) can be observed, linked to the product. Designing products for even more demanding and fickle users becomes an important challenge for the industrial companies: the feelings aroused by the appearance of products, by their functions and by the interactions induced by the products’ use are the linchpin of their success but are difficult to predict.

Research works on designing pleasurable products and interfaces focus on original and creative ways to design for emotion and pleasure, and promote the design research which emphases on learning by doing. This special issue seeks papers with specific approaches regarding the engineering, integration, mastering and management of emotional, aesthetic, environmental and technological values and assets in the preliminary stages of the product development processes, especially in the design of pleasurable products, focusing on technological and human-world interaction.

Contributions may be based on theoretical as well as practical approaches dedicated to management of the perceived quality of the products, interfaces, systems and services.

Papers that address, but are not limited, to the following topics are welcome:

• New theory and approach for product and system design
• Industrial design
• Emotion engineering
• Aesthetic design
• Sustainable engineering
• Integrated design
• Design for X: emotion, aesthetic, environment, etc.
• Requirement and value engineering
• Product synthesis
• Perceived quality
• User interface design
• User-centric engineering
• Human-machine interaction
• Technology assessment and management
• Innovative technology integration

Important Dates
Full papers due for review: 1 February, 2011
Notification of acceptance to authors: 1 May, 2011
Revised manuscript submission: 1 July, 2011
Final decision: 1 September, 2011
Final manuscript: 1 October, 2011

Special issue: Vermicuture technology for environmental management and resource development

International Journal of Global Environmental Issues 10(3/4) 2010

• Use of earthworms (Eisenia fetida) and vermicompost in the processing and safe management of hazardous solid and liquid wastes with high metal contents
• Coupling vermiremediation with phytoremediation technology to enhance the efficiency of reclamation of polluted marine sediments
• Use of vermiculture technology for waste management and environmental remediation in Argentina
• Improved performance of red worms (Eisenia andrei) in compost of cattle manure rinsed with water
• Earthworms – the environmental engineers: review of vermiculture technologies for environmental management and resource development
• Potential of Eisenia fetida for vermicomposting of garden trimmings spiked with cow dung
• Vermicomposting influences phosphorus microbiology leading to phosphorus enrichment in end product
• Management of organic wastes by earthworms: dual benefit for environment and society
• Dynamics of nutrients and microflora during vermicomposting of mango leaf litter (Mangifera indica) using Perionyx ceylanensis
• Earthworms helping economy, improving ecology and protecting health
• Vermiculture for sustainable horticulture agronomic impact studies of earthworms, cow dung compost and vermicompost vis-a-vis chemical fertilisers on growth and yield of lady's finger (Abelmoschus esculentus)
• Vermicompost production and its use for crop production in the Philippines
• Vermicomposting of flyash: a potential hazardous waste converted into nutritive compost by earthworm (Eudrilus eugeniae)
• FORUM: Similarity between the processes of sediment transport and human life cycle
• FORUM: Balancing basics and applications in teaching environmental and water resources engineering
• FORUM: Waste management is a people game

Special issue: Service quality management and developing and newly industrialised nations

International Journal of Services, Economics and Management 3(1) 2011

• Investigating the link between service quality, value, satisfaction and behavioural intentions in a public sector bank in India
• The influence of TQM practices on supply chain collaboration: a proposed model for the service industry
• Relationship between service gap and perception for mapping of quality attributes into four service quality factors
• The impact of TQM practices on learning organisation and customer orientation: a survey of small service organisations in Malaysia
• TQM and service quality: a survey of commercial banking industry in Malaysia
• Introducing iterative model into quality management with focus on emerging markets
• Challenges facing higher education as a service industry in a developing country
• Student perceptions of service quality in the school of accounting: a case analysis of a private university in Malaysia

Special issue: Creating value in leisure and tourism

International Journal of Leisure and Tourism Marketing 2(1) 2011

• Researching the implementation of motivation practices in human resources in hotels: an experience from a Greek resort
• Determinants of Indian customers' preference for online travel services
• Destination image: an overview and summary of selected research (1974–2008)
• Loyalty and occasion of consumption: an empirical analysis
• Maintaining urban greenery in developing countries for tourism and recreation: a benefit-cost analysis
• Attributes of street markets as leisure destinations in growing cities

Special issue: Open source intelligence and web mining

International Journal of Networking and Virtual Organisations 8(1/2) 2011

Includes extended and enhanced versions of papers from the International Symposium on Open Source Intelligence and Web Mining (OSINT-WM 2008) held in July 2008 in London in conjunction with the 12th International Conference on Information Visualization (IV 2008).

• The complexity of terrorist networks
• Supporting reasoning and communication for intelligence officers
• Stalker: overcoming linguistic barriers in open source intelligence
• Harvesting covert networks: a case study of the iMiner database
• A fuzzy prediction model for calling communities
• Context-based citation retrieval
• Mining ontological knowledge using Nyaya framework
• Comparative evaluation of ontology-based Automatic Reference Tracking (ART)
• Discovering cancer biomarkers: from DNA to communities of genes

Special issue: Processing, microstructure and properties of micro and nanomaterials

International Journal of Materials and Product Technology 40(1/2) 2011

• Preparation, thermal stability and permeability behaviour of Z-type hexagonal ferrites for multilayer inductors
• Numerical simulation, formation of microstructure and mechanical properties of nanocopper prepared by severe plastic deformation
• Characterisation of microstructure and mechanical properties of cermets at micro- and nanoscales
• Phase evolution, microstructure characteristics and properties of Cr3C2-Ni cermets prepared by reactive sintering
• Microstructural aspects of abrasive wear of composite powder materials and coatings
• Elastic and plastic properties of ultrafine-grained magnesium
• Fatigue mechanics of carbide composites

Special issue: IT adoption, implementation, use and evaluation in healthcare

International Journal of Healthcare Technology and Management 12(1) 2011

Papers from the 2010 Hawaii Conference on System Sciences (HICSS) minitrack on IT Adoption, Implementation, Use and Evaluation in Healthcare.

• Are public and private health insurance companies going Web 2.0? A complete inventory count in Germany
• Deploying e-health service innovations – an early stage business model engineering and regulatory validation approach
• Taxonomy for multi-perspective assessment of the value of health information systems
• Patient perceptions of electronic medical records: physician satisfaction, portability, security and quality of care
• Back to the future of IT adoption and evaluation in healthcare

Special issue: Nanopharmaceuticals

International Journal of Nanotechnology 8(1/2) 2011

• Nanoparticulate systems for oral drug delivery to the colon
• Multifunctional magnetic nanoparticles for orthopedic and biofilm infections
• Poly(propyleneimine) dendrimers as potential siRNA delivery nanocarrier: from structure to function
• The role of nanotechnology in diabetes treatment: current and future perspectives
• Nanobiotechnology approaches for targeted delivery of pharmaceutics and cosmetics ingredients
• Nanopharmaceuticals I: nanocarrier systems in drug delivery
• Nanopharmaceuticals II: application of nanoparticles and nanocarrier systems in pharmaceutics and nanomedicine
• Enhanced tumour-imaging efficacy of 5-aminolevulinic acid complexed with iron oxide nanoparticles