28 August 2011

Special issue: Risk analysis of critical infrastructures

International Journal of Risk Assessment and Management 15(2/3) 2011
  • Models for reducing the risk of critical networked infrastructures
  • Risk assessment methodology for interdependent critical infrastructures
  • Assessing supply chain dependency on critical infrastructures using fuzzy cognitive maps
  • Defining resilience within a risk-informed assessment framework
  • Unbounded impacts and risk mitigation in billing infrastructures
  • Optimisation of security system design by quantitative risk assessment and genetic algorithms
  • Transport vulnerabilities and critical industries: experiences from a Finnish stevedore strike
  • Vulnerability of complex critical systems: case water supply and distribution networks
  • Climate change scenarios: risk and impact analysis for Alaska coastal infrastructure

Special issue: Unbalanced production line systems: merits and applications

International Journal of Manufacturing Technology and Management 23(1/2) 2011
  • Unbalanced production systems with floats: analysis and lean design
  • A response surface methodology for parameter setting in a dynamic Conwip production control system
  • The use of dynamic work sharing production methods to reduce the impact of labour turnover in serial assembly lines
  • Unpaced production lines with jointly unbalanced operation time means and buffer capacities – their behaviour and performance
  • Modelling of parallel production system with rework paths and its GA based simulator for optimal design
  • Metrics and experimental data for assessing unbalanced disassembly lines
  • Simulated annealing vs. genetic algorithms applied using a new cost function for the car sequencing problem


Special issue: Learning in 3D

International Journal of Technology Enhanced Learning 3(5) 2011
  • Recognition of variety: considering learning with digital games as cybernetic systems
  • Understanding student engagement in 3D virtual learning environments
  • Virtual cultural heritage consumption: a 3D learning experience
  • Language learning resources and developments in the Second Life metaverse
  • Limitless or pointless? An evaluation of augmented reality technology in the school and home
  • EduSHARE: a peer to peer document sharing system for obtaining adaptive learning procedures
  • A haptic framework for the study of inter-molecular interactions

Special issue: Laws, regulation and new product development – the role of the regulatory framework for the management of technology and innovation

International Journal of Technology, Policy and Management 11(3/4) 2011
  • Ecosystem dynamics: the principle of co-evolution and success stories from climate policy
  • Modelling the antecedents of innovation-based growth intentions in entrepreneurial ventures: the role of perceived regulatory conditions in the German renewable energies and disease management industries
  • The role of the regulatory framework for innovation activities: the EU ETS and the German paper industry
  • Long-term impacts of environmental policy and eco-innovative activities of firms
  • Orphan drugs: ten years of experience with the EU framework on stimulating innovation for treating rare diseases
  • The role of policy in the evolution of technological innovation systems for photovoltaic power in Germany and the Netherlands
  • Environmental innovations, complementarity and local/global cooperation: evidence from North-East Italian industry

24 August 2011

Special issue: Trends and opportunities in managing business – an Indian perspective

International Journal of Value Chain Management 5(2) 2011
  • Materialised views selection using size and query frequency
  • Proposing a AHP-based reference model to assist Indian SME's in their ERP implementation
  • Portrayal of vitality of technology enablers in the Indian R&D scenario
  • Sales force automation: research agenda
  • Reusable knowledge pattern extraction from peer-to-peer communication elements
  • Lite marketing: consumer attitude and market response


Special issue: Risk management in projects and enterprises

International Journal of Project Organisation and Management 3(3/4) 2011
  • The effects of cooperative procurement procedures on joint risk management in Swedish construction projects
  • Major cost-overrun risks in construction projects in China
  • Critical uncertainty factors for efficient allocation of demand risk in privately financed public infrastructure projects in Australia
  • Risk mitigation in take or pay and take and pay contracts in project financing: the purchaser's perspective
  • Risk associated with managed investment primary production projects
  • Risk accountability in the tender process of contractors in Ghana and UK
  • Managing stakeholder perceptions of risk and opportunity in social infrastructure projects using a multimedia approach
  • Assessment of risk paths in construction projects
  • Earned value management under risk
  • Risk factor analysis of the Chinese building energy efficiency market using system dynamics methodology
Additional Paper
  • Simulation application in project risk management for infrastructure transportation project


Special issue: Advances in peer-to-peer computing and applications

International Journal of Grid and Utility Computing 2(3) 2011

Includes papers from the 13th International Conference on Network-Based Information Systems (NBiS-2010) held in Takayama, Gifu, Japan, 14–16 September 2010.
  • TMPR-scheme for reliably broadcast messages among peer processes
  • A game theoretic framework for peer-to-peer market economy
  • Design and evaluation of algorithms for obtaining objective trustworthiness on acquaintances in P2P overlay networks
  • A keyword search algorithm for structured peer-to-peer networks
  • A modular framework for the development of peer-to-peer applications and services
  • Content-based video search on peer-to-peer networks

Special issue: Computations in biomedical data and image processing

International Journal of Computational Science and Engineering 6(3) 2011
  • Feature analysis and denoising of MRS data based on pattern recognition and wavelet transform
  • Emission image reconstruction based on incremental optimisation transfer algorithm
  • Speedup performance analysis of parallel Katsevich algorithm for 3D CT image reconstruction
  • Adaptive coupled diffusion model for vessel image enhancement
Submitted Papers
  • Crystal structure determination by global optimisation in configuration space: a case study for distributed computing on the NRW-grid
  • A virtual reality design for learning the basic concepts of synchrotron light source
  • A web-based travel system using mashup in the RESTful design
  • Effective feature set construction for SVM-based hot method prediction and optimisation
  • Arithmetic operations beyond floating point number precision

Special issue: Technology, operations and strategy in innovation and entrepreneurship

International Journal of Engineering Management and Economics 2(2/3) 2011
  • ICT capital and employment of information workers: are they related?
  • Service industrialisation and beyond: findings from a service networks project
  • Strategic technology management practices in select auto component joint ventures in India: a case study using SAP-LAP methodology
  • Strategic confluence of continuity and change for improved innovation performance
  • Decision-making and risk management in a globalised knowledge economy
  • The influence of strategic entrepreneurship on the outcome of innovation projects
  • Entrepreneurship in Indian context: SAP-LAP learning critical success factors
  • Determinants of management training in small and medium-sized businesses: some stylised facts on the influence of managers' individual characteristics

18 August 2011

Call for Papers: Supply Network Evolution in Emerging Industries

A special issue of International Journal of Manufacturing Technology and Management

The study of emerging industries has recently captured the interest of academics, industrialists and government policy makers as a means to providing potential sources of ‘value’ creation. In recent years, research in this area has typically focused on product R&D technologies, coupled with their particular technology commercialisation challenges. However, industrial systems are more complex and are not readily described by a single viewpoint.

It is now widely recognised that manufacturing value chains (including subsequent stages of design for manufacture, engineering, production operations ramp-up, route-to-market and in-use activities) are critical to transforming new technologies and ideas into innovative products and services. However, the design, set-up and operation of enabling supply networks, in the context of emerging industries, is poorly understood.

One key challenge is that there is no defined strategy that a firm can follow due to lack of certainty in the business eco-system and in end-consumer requirements, forcing entrepreneurs to experiment with multiple supply chain strategies. This process can be very time-consuming, increasing time-to-market and making it difficult to maintain critical “first mover advantage”.

The increasing focus on emerging industries, with these inherent uncertainties, is also concurrent with changes in the industrial landscape for mature sectors, which have arisen from the twin impacts of globalisation and the dissolution of vertically integrated value chains, raising the importance of supply networks as an enabling element of emerging industrial development.

This special issue focuses on supply network evolution in emerging industries, drawing on examples of ‘industrial innovation’ spanning technology-based product innovation, new production or supply chain replenishment models (e.g. new routes to market) and/or novel business models. Consistent with the mission of IJMTM, submitted papers should contain a significant empirical contribution and enable communication between academics, industrialists and policymakers to further knowledge and research, as well as theory and practice, in the field of manufacturing technology and management. Original research and development papers, review papers and case studies are welcome. The relevance of supply network evolution in emerging industries must be explicit.

The issue will carry revised and substantially extended versions of selected papers presented at the Cambridge International Manufacturing Symposium Workshop on Supply Network-based Product Innovation, but we also strongly encourage researchers who did not participate in the conference to submit papers for this call.

Suitable topics include but are not limited to:
  • Understanding the dynamics of emerging technologies/industries and subsequent engagement with complex industrial networks
  • Insights on the interaction between various stages of the manufacturing value chain
  • Visualisation of value showing potential value streams for network partners
  • Industrial network development from the perspectives of different stakeholders
  • Trends and generic stages of supply network evolution within emerging industries
  • Effective management of resources through effective supply chain strategies
  • Development of frameworks and their application to supporting the configuration of networks for the commercialisation of nascent and emergent technologies
Papers should address relevant practical problems and provide either valuable managerial insight and/or a fundamental improvement of our understanding of supply network evolution in emerging industries.

Important Date
Manuscript submission: 5 December, 2011

Call for Papers: International Engineering Operations

A special issue of International Journal of Product Development

International network collaboration in engineering, manufacturing and innovation is gaining an increasing prominence in practice and in theory. In recent years the global landscape of engineering has been dramatically changing, driven by the trends of globalisation, rapidly changing markets and emerging technologies.

In many developed countries, the traditional engineering and manufacturing sectors are shifting away to lower cost locations and the remaining operations are transforming towards a knowledge-based model focusing on higher value-added activities. At the same time, many emerging or less developed economies are reforming their engineering bases across a wide range of core industries to sustain rapid economic and societal development.

Such transformation and upgrading processes provide a unique opportunity for the reshaping of sustainable engineering sectors around the world. This, however, would also require an overall understanding of the complexity and dynamics of global value networks, as well as the skills required for systematic engagement with such networks.

This special issue focuses on international operations along the engineering value chain from research, design and manufacturing to service, support and recycling. Consistent with the mission of IJPD, submitted papers should contain a significant empirical contribution and enable communication between academics, industrialists and policymakers. Original research and development papers, review papers and case studies are welcome. The relevance of engineering to the international operations context must be explicit.

The issue will carry revised and substantially extended versions of selected papers presented at the Cambridge International Manufacturing Symposium Workshop on Supply Network-based Product Innovation, but we also strongly encourage researchers who did not participate in the conference to submit papers for this call.

Suitable topics include but are not limited to:
  • Engineering technologies, expertise and capabilities generating high value for the economy and society
  • Engineering’s contribution to the creation and production of innovative products and services
  • Supply network-based product innovation
  • Trends of engineering off-shoring/out-sourcing and their implications
  • Innovative concepts of operations focusing on advanced engineering capabilities and value chain integration
  • Engineering services, integrated manufacturing and servicing systems, and the internationalisation process
  • Engineering’s role in building sustainable industrial systems
  • Emerging trends of low-carbon economic growth based on advanced engineering and manufacturing capabilities
  • The impact of information and communication technologies (ICT) on international engineering operations
Paper should address relevant practical problems and provide either valuable managerial insight and/or a fundamental improvement of our understanding of international engineering operations.

Important Date
Submission deadline: 5 December, 2011

Call for Papers: Sustainability Tales, Fictions and Other Stories from the Movie Industry

A special issue of International Journal of Sustainable Development

Environmental issues have inspired good storytelling in both big and small budget movies during the last decades. Box office numbers account for millions of viewers for feature films such as An Inconvenient Truth, March of the Penguins, The 11 th Hour, The Age of Stupid, Erin Brockovich, etc., and smaller budget movies with great impact such as The Big Ask, featured at COP15 (2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference) in Copenhagen, or The Story of Stuff.

Many of these movies were viewed by millions of people in movie theatres, at home, etc., but they are also used in organised contexts such as educational settings, NGO’s environmental campaigns and even by politicians who engage in environmental sustainability debates. We argue that movies and other forms of popular culture need to be interrogated in regard to their role in communicating scientific issues to their audiences, their role in raising awareness of and initiating debates about sustainability issues, as well as their role in developing agency and collective action concerning the sustainability stories they tell. These intriguing issues are relevant to those engaged in movie script writing, storytelling and public engagement in sustainability conversations.

This special issue seeks contributions aimed at exploring the role of movies in conversations about sustainability, but also at unveiling and critically discussing what narratives are framing the sustainability discourses told by the movies’ stories.

Examples of questions that could be addressed include but are not limited to:
  • What are the implicit sustainability narratives behind the sustainability tales told by the movies?
  • What is the intentionality of media choices in portraying sustainability ideas in movies, including responsibility and other sustainability principles (imagery, soundtrack, etc.)?
  • How are futures (including utopias and dystopias) represented and discussed in sustainability movies?
  • What is the role of sustainability movies in forming public opinions and perceptions about the issues they portray?
  • What are the social, cultural and psychological conditions through which the public engage with and attach meaning to representations of sustainability issues in movies?
  • What are the roles of movies in developing agency and responsibility towards environmental issues?
  • What is the importance of people and institutions involved in the movie-making process (e.g. producers, directors, narrators, actors) in forming opinions about and fostering engagement with sustainability issues?
  • What are the effects of movie genre (e.g. science-fiction, documentary, “docudrama”, cartoons, drama) on the public’s engagement with a movie’s message?
Important Dates
Submission of abstract (500 words): 30 October, 2011
Notification of acceptance: 15 November, 2011
Full papers due: 15 February, 2012
Peer review results: 30 May, 2012
Final paper due: 15 July, 2012

Call for Papers: Architectures and Algorithms for Irregular Applications

A special issue of International Journal of High Performance Computing and Networking

Many data-intensive scientific applications are irregular by nature. They may present irregular data structures, control flow or communication. Irregular applications pertain both to well-established and emerging fields, such as Computer-Aided Design (CAD), bioinformatics, semantic graph databases, social network analysis and security. These applications typically use pointer-based data structures such as graphs and trees, often present fine-grained synchronisation and communication, and generally operate on very large data sets.

Current supercomputing systems are organised around components optimised for data locality and regular computation. Developing irregular applications on them demands a substantial effort, and often leads to poor scaling and performance due to their limits with fine-grained synchronisation and small data transfers. However, executing these applications efficiently will be a key requirement for future systems.

The solutions needed to address their challenges can only be found by considering the problem from all the points of view, from micro- to system-architectures, from compilers to languages, from libraries to runtimes, up to rethinking how algorithms operate.

Only collaborative efforts among researchers with different profiles, including end users, domain experts and computer scientists, can lead to significant breakthroughs.

This special issue aims at identifying, outlining and systematising the set of challenges and the state-of-the-art approaches for irregular applications that today appear in many different venues at many different levels (e.g. algorithms, architectures, compilers, languages, libraries), but really are strongly connected by the theme of irregularity.

The issue will carry revised and substantially extended versions of selected papers presented at the SC'11 Workshop on Irregular Applications: Architectures & Algorithms (IA3) and at the HiPC Workshop on Parallel Algorithms and Software for Analysis of Massive Graphs (ParGraph), but we also strongly encourage researchers who did not participate in these events to submit papers for this call.

Suitable topics, of both theoretical and practical significance for irregular applications, include but are not limited to:
  • Micro- and system-architectures
  • Network and memory architectures
  • Heterogeneous and custom architectures (GPUs, FPGAs)
  • Modelling and evaluation of architectures
  • Innovative algorithms
  • Parallelisation techniques and data structures
  • Languages and programming models
  • Library and runtime support
  • Compiler and analysis techniques
  • Combinatorial (graph) algorithms and their applications
Important Dates
Submission due: 15 March, 2012
First review results: 30 April, 2012
Final copy deadline: 25 June, 2012

Call for Papers: User Interfaces and Interaction Models in Context-based Computing

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

In recent years, advances in technology have enabled the development of mobile systems and applications that are increasingly present in our daily life. Non-invasive, pervasive and ubiquitous installations are sought today to respond to many application domains with human users at the centre.

The evolution of these technologies is expanding the coverage of mobile applications, systems and services. But context awareness requires devices sensing and reacting to environments and circumstances under which they are able to operate. To fulfil the potential of new services, applications and systems required by new mobile devices and platforms, several complex research issues on user interfaces and interaction models need to be further investigated.

This special issue seeks contributions of high quality papers addressing recent advances on user interfaces and interaction models in context-based computing. It will carry revised and substantially extended versions of selected papers presented at CISIS 2012 or in one of its satellite workshops , but we also strongly encourage researchers who did not participate in the conference to submit papers on the topics listed below.

Suitable topics include but are not limited to:
  • Mobile applications and services
  • Software architectures for mobile systems
  • Hardware architectures for mobile systems
  • Management and control of mobile systems
  • Modelling and performance evaluation for mobile communications
  • Communication and cooperation technologies through mobile systems
  • Personalisation, privacy and security in mobile systems
  • Pervasive and ubiquitous computing
  • Mobile network management
  • Mobile markets and business models
  • Secure mobile applications
  • Advanced interfaces for mobile systems
  • Mobile access to web and database applications
  • Mobile systems for biomedical applications
  • Mobile systems for cultural heritage applications
Important Dates
Submission deadline: 8 November, 2012
Notification of acceptance: 31 December, 2012
Final papers due: 15 February, 2013

Newly announced title: International Journal of Computational Microbiology and Medical Ecology

Beginning publication in 2012 International Journal of Computational Microbiology and Medical Ecology publishes original research contributions on computational microbiology, microbial bioinformatics, medical ecology and computational microbial ecology. The journal particularly welcomes contributions from studies in the Human Microbiome Project (HMP) and its ramifications in personalised medicine.

17 August 2011

First issue: International Journal of Public Law and Policy

Considering public law and policy in their various contexts, from global to national levels, International Journal of Public Law and Policy includes topical commentaries on recent development in public sector law and policy and analysis of jurisprudence and legislation. It seeks to address topics across the whole range of scholarship in public law, including but not limited to legal theory, legislation analysis and critique, case law annotations, comparative studies and practice note

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

First issue: International Journal of Powertrains

Covering powertrain technology, ranging from components and subsystems to system integration and controls International Journal of Powertrains focuses primarily on ground vehicle applications, but other applications are considered.
The journal’s perspective is largely inspired by the fact that many modern innovations in powertrain advancement are only possible due to synergies between the research areas of mechanical design, mechanisms, mechatronics, controls, networking system integration and others.

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

Special issue: Analysis and policy for sustainable and cultural tourism

International Journal of Sustainable Development 14(3/4) 2011
  • Evaluation of cyber-tools in cultural tourism
  • An analysis of tourists' attitudes towards sustainable tourism: application to Malaysia
  • Crossroads of tourism: a complex spatial systems analysis of tourism and urban sprawl in the Algarve
  • Tourism, residents' attitudes and perceived carrying capacity with an experimental study in five Tuscan destinations
  • The importance of e-services in cultural tourism: an application to Amsterdam, Leipzig and Genoa
  • An expenditure patterns segmentation of the music festivals' market
  • The spatial-economic impact of cultural events
  • The contribution of tourism to well-being and welfare: the case of Hungary

Special issue: Towards new challenges for innovation management: methods and tools

International Journal of Technology Management 55(3/4) 2011

Papers from European Research on Innovation and Management (ERIMA) symposiums.
  • A review and conceptualisation of innovation models from the past three decades
  • Towards a multi-input model, method and tool for early design phases in innovation
  • Supporting the ideation processes by a collaborative online based toolset
  • Change prediction in innovative products to avoid emergency innovation
  • Innovative product design for students-enterprises linked projects
  • A general framework for new product development projects
  • Relevance and innovation of production-related services in manufacturing industry
  • A TRIZ-based approach to manage innovation and intellectual property
  • A maturity model to assess organisational readiness for change
  • Learning virtual teams: how to design a set of Web 2.0 tools?

Special issue: The renewed voice of the customer in innovation design

International Journal of Technology Marketing 6(1) 2011

Papers from the XXI ISPIM (International Society for Professional Innovation Management) Conference held in Bilbao, Spain, 6-9 June 2010.
  • Reconsidering the role of brainstorming in the marketing of technology-driven innovation
  • Practices for efficient customer collaboration in innovation – insights from the Finnish industry
  • Motivational profiles of toolkit users – iPhone and Android developers
  • The dynamism of the two-sided application store market
  • Consumer driven innovation in website design: structured experimentation in landing page optimisation
  • A comparative study of publicly accessible web-based idea portals


Special issue: Structural rehabilitation of historic buildings

International Journal of Materials and Structural Integrity 5(2/3) 2011
  • Fixed and base isolation retrofitting of historic masonry buildings
  • Effective techniques for restoration of heritage masonry
  • Restoration of historic buildings: conservation principles and structural assessment
  • In-situ testing of a low intervention NSM seismic strengthening technique for historic URM buildings
  • A simplified theoretical model for the evaluation of structural behaviour of masonry spandrels
  • Safety assessment of the Sanctuary of Vicoforte, Italy
Additional Papers
  • Study on the heat transfer characteristics of Al2O3/ZnO film interface by using molecular dynamics simulations
  • Life cycle assessment of microwave tube furnace using analytic hierarchy process and fuzzy comprehensive evaluation
  • First-principle investigation of electronic structure and optical properties of In-doped wurtzite ZnO
  • Research on CM multi-granular resource access control strategy based on graph theory

Special issue: Shifting end markets and upgrading prospects in global value chains

International Journal of Technological Learning, Innovation and Development 4(1-3) 2011
  • What are the implications for global value chains when the market shifts from the north to the south?
  • Upgrading of smallholder agro-food production in Africa: the role of lead firm strategies and new markets
  • Upgrading and restructuring in the global apparel value chain: why China and Asia are outperforming Mexico and Central America
  • Value chain dynamics, local embeddedness, and upgrading in the clothing sectors of Lesotho and Swaziland
  • Global value chains in the electronics industry: characteristics, crisis, and upgrading opportunities for firms from developing countries
  • Going mobile in China: shifting value chains and upgrading in the mobile telecom sector
  • Global value chains in the automotive industry: an enhanced role for developing countries?
  • The offshore services value chain: upgrading trajectories in developing countries
  • Labour standards and technological upgrading: competitive challenges in the global football industry


Special issue: Economics, finance and accounting

Global Business and Economics Review 13(3/4) 2011
  • Assessing quality of financial reporting through audit reports: the case of Greek municipalities
  • On the relationship between systematic risk and financial and operating risk: the case of the Greek listed firms
  • A structural equations approach to assessing alternative service quality metrics within an extended service quality, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty model
  • Where to? – The EU unemployment post crisis
  • The effects of situational and personal factors on employee motivation for relocation
  • An analysis of dysfunctions and biases in financial performance measures
  • Exploring the history of accounting in Cyprus
  • Isomorphic immigrant effect in foreign entry


Special issue: Entrepreneurship in Asia

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business 13(4) 2011
  • Barriers to small business creations in India
  • Religion in entrepreneurship: how international and indigenous Indian entrepreneurs differ
  • Livelihoods, social capital and small-scale indigenous enterprises in rural India: embeddedness or social exclusion?
  • Human resource management of new Japanese founders
  • Push and pull factor in an entry into an employment route: a study of nurtured entrepreneurship students
  • Entrepreneurial traits and firm performance: is gender a matter?
  • Preliminary investigation of Yemeni women entrepreneurs: some challenges for development and barriers to success

Special issue: Intelligent control systems

International Journal of Modelling, Identification and Control 13(4) 2011

Includes papers from the 6th International Symposium on Neural Networks (ISNN2009) held in Wuhan, China, 26-29 May 2009.
  • Neuro-hierarchical sliding mode control for a class of under-actuated systems
  • Dynamic neural-fuzzified adaptive control of ship course with parametric modelling uncertainties
  • Modelling of a traffic cell based on a recurrent-neural network
  • A novel decentralised adaptive NN tracking control for double inverted pendulums
Additional Papers
  • Model reduction and identification for temperature control of the phenol-formaldehyde reaction in batch reactors
  • Design of self-tuning controllers for highly non-linear mechatronic systems
  • Modelling and control of a piezo actuated micro robot with active force control capability for in-pipe application
  • Non-certainty-equivalent adaptive control of chaos in Lorenz systemLink


4 August 2011

Call for Papers: Innovation in Product and Process Development

A special issue of International Journal of Logistics Economics and Globalisation

There is a growing need expressed by many developing countries for the capacity to discover, develop and produce innovative products and processes. There is also a desire felt by many countries to better access and utilise indigenous knowledge for innovative products and processes.

These needs have been recognised most recently in a report by the Commission for Intellectual Property and Innovation. There are increasing instances of institutions focusing on product and process innovation-driven R&D, mainly in emergent economies. However, the application of innovation with consideration for usability, safety and ergonomics remains a challenge to both the public and private sectors of developing countries.

Internationally there is a greater level of understanding about how to develop public-private partnerships for product and process development. Opportunities exist to coordinate existing academic networks and research groups into internationally competitive R&D teams, linking them to appropriate private sector contacts, and brokering access to technologies and practices that would empower them to competitively develop products and processes and to obtain funding from national and regional sources as well as the larger international community. An area that could be particularly capitalised on is that of indigenous knowledge and its potential application to innovative products and processes.

The objective of this special issue is to contribute new insights to the extant body of knowledge, focusing on innovation in product and process development with consideration for usability, safety, reliability, durability and ergonomics. The special issue is intended for revised and substantially extended versions of selected papers presented at the International Conference on Ergonomics and Human Factors: Innovation and Usability in Product Development - Humanizing Work and Work Environment (HWWE 2011) on 15 th to 17th December, 2011, organised by the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai - 600036, Tamil Nadu, India . However, we also encourage other researchers to submit their manuscripts to this special issue.

Suitable topics include but are not limited to:
  • Innovation management
  • Models of innovation
  • Economics and market adoption
  • Marketing insights to facilitate innovation
  • Innovative new products and consumption patterns
  • Innovation diffusion theories
  • Organisational heritage and innovation experience
  • Cross functional cooperation and coordination
  • Strategy towards innovation, alliance and networks in innovation
  • Process design and triggers for innovation
  • Total quality management in product and process innovation
  • Business process reengineering for product and process innovation
  • Managing intellectual property
  • Human genetic patenting
  • Technology trajectories in product and process innovation
  • New service and product innovation and development
  • Market research and its influence
  • Product differentiation and innovation positioning
  • Product platforms and knowledge platforms
  • Excellence in design and product reliability
  • Designing to ensure quality
  • Establishing product selling price
  • Fostering innovation and entrepreneurship
  • Innovation through new technologies
  • Convergence theory and macro-ergonomics
  • Performance measurement in innovation
Important Dates
Manuscript submission: 1 April, 2012
Notification of initial decision: 1 May, 2012
Submission of revised manuscript: 1 June, 2012
Notification of final acceptance: 1 July, 2012
Submission of final revised paper: 1 August, 2012

Call for Papers: Computer-aided Ergonomics in the Manufacturing and Service Industries

A special issue of International Journal of Electronic Transport

Computer-aided ergonomics is an interdisciplinary field of work that involves the use of computers to solve complex problems regarding the human body’s interaction with its environment. Ergonomics traditionally involves many disciplines including biomechanics, anthropometry, mechanical engineering, industrial engineering, kinesiology, health sciences and physiology.

Due to the highly interdisciplinary and complex nature of ergonomics, it is hard to get a full understanding of an ergonomic situation. The human body is a complex system; thus it is beneficial to have a computer system that models the human body as a mechanical system. The human body contains several parts that can be modelled as known mechanical systems, e.g. bones connected to joints and driven by actuators (muscles).

The development of automation through extensive implementation of technology is one of the major trends of modern society. Computers are being used more and more frequently to improve the quality of different areas of ergonomics and protection. Computer-aided production and design technology requires the implementation of computer-aided ergonomics methods. Computer-aided ergonomics methods can be defined as the implementation of information technology in ergonomics and safety methods and the integration of those methods into design, production and decision making.

Computer-Aided Design (CAD) clearly offers new possibilities for integrating ergonomic knowledge into the design process. A wide variety of ergonomic topics are of relevance to the application of computer-aided design systems concerned with layout design, displays and controls, fields of vision, areas of movement, physical strength and working environment. Computer systems have been developed, for example, to analyse and improve workplace structures, man-machine systems, production information systems, working methods and operator instructions.

The objective of this special issue is to contribute new insights to the extant body of knowledge, with its main focus on computer-supported ergonomics and safety in the manufacturing and service industries. The issue is intended for revised and substantially extended versions of selected papers presented at the International Conference on Ergonomics and Human Factors: Innovation and Usability in Product Development - Humanizing Work and Work Environment (HWWE 2011) on 15 th to 17 th December, 2011 , organised by the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai - 600036, Tamil Nadu, India . However, we also encourage other researchers to submit their manuscripts for this special issue.

Suitable topics include but are not limited to:
  • Digital human modelling
  • Product/process development
  • Human motion modelling
  • Static and dynamic models
  • Static and dynamic measurement
  • Static and dynamic optimisation solutions
  • Opto-electronic systems
  • Non-optic systems
  • Electromagnetic systems
  • Bio-mechanical systems and models
  • Seamless integration
  • Simulating humans: computer graphics, animation and control
  • Quantitative analysis of motion coordination
  • Dynamic animation of human walking
  • Position and orientation in space of bones during movement
  • Evolutionary optimisation for robust hierarchical computation
  • Digital modelling for vehicles and workplace
  • Occupational biomechanics
  • Ultrasonic motion analysis systems
  • Ergonomic expert systems
  • Evaluation and design of tasks
Important Dates
Manuscript submission: 1 April, 2012
Notification of initial decision: 1 May, 2012
Submission of revised manuscript: 1 June, 2012
Notification of final acceptance: 1 July, 2012
Submission of final revised paper: 1 August, 2012

Special issue: Uncertainty, risk and information management

International Journal of Intercultural Information Management 2(4) 2011
  • Is the quality of corporate governance associated with the market risk for Brazilian energy companies?
  • How does software project risk vary across projects? An exploratory study from India
  • Assessing information-exchange risks and disruptions in supply chains
  • Uncertain programming model for portfolio selection
  • The optimisation on the multi-period mean-average absolute deviation portfolio selection in friction market
  • A methodology for modelling and designing robust information systems in an uncertain use environment
  • An estimation and evaluation of China's grain security: 2010-2015

Special issue: Viral DNA analysis and rational vaccine design

International Journal of Bioinformatics Research and Applications 7(3) 2011
  • From Pauling's abzyme concept to the new era of hydrolytic anti-DNA autoantibodies: a link to rational vaccine design? – A review
  • Computation of entropy and energetics profiles of a single-stranded viral DNA
  • CDS identification in a viral single-strand DNA (ssDNA) using Fisher linear discriminant
  • Virus infection on brain white matter: statistical analysis of DT MRI scans
  • B- and T-cell epitope mapping of human sapovirus capsid protein: an immunomics approach
  • Computer-aided vaccine design for liver cancer using epitopes of HBx protein isolates from HBV substrains
Added paper
  • BioHCVKD: A bioinformatics knowledge discovery system for HCV drug discovery – identifying proteins, ligands and active residues, in biological literature

Special issue: Entrepreneurial finance

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management 14(2/3) 2011
  • Entrepreneurial finance – issues and evidence, revisited
  • Financing constraints and small firm investment behaviour
  • Finance for high-tech sectors: state-led support for start-ups and spin-offs
  • Do credit constraints matter more for college dropout entrepreneurs?
  • Financing stages of technology-based firms in Germany
  • External capital for NTBFs: the role of bank and venture capital
  • Theory and evidence on mergers and acquisitions by small and medium enterprises