Smart Notices go beyond copyright

There is a high privacy threat to users of the myriad cloud services on the internet especially those that operate dynamically based on personal information such as a person’s location, their user preferences, linked calendars and social networks. As such, the cloud represents a legal quagmire especially given that a specific application that appears to be one entity to the user may utilize numerous different resources provided by several different service providers in different locations around the globe. The handling of one’s personal and commercially sensitive data in the cloud has thus been sensitized in the wake of copyright law, creative commons efforts and data protection legislation, which is handled very differently from nation to nation and under different jurisdictions.

Siani Pearson of the Security and Cloud Lab at HP Labs in Bristol, UK and Prodromos Tsiavos of the National Documentation Centre at the National Hellenic Research Foundation, in Athens, Greece, suggest that the disparities and opacity regarding rights, intellectual property and data protection are to some degree hindering more widespread adopt of cloud services by companies and individuals wary of putting their data on to remote servers over which they lack ultimate control.

However, the pair suggest that, “As cloud computing evolves towards an ecosystem of service provision, there is an increasing need for users to be more in control of the services they receive and regulatory instruments are changing from purely legal to hybrid techno-legal systems.” As such, they hope to address certain aspects of the issues surrounding data and privacy and hasten this evolution to a more stable set of regulations and codes of conduct. The aim would be to ensure that cloud service providers can continue to profit from the systems they provide while users can rest assured that they are protected and not susceptible to espionage or worse theft of their intellectual property and data based on inappropriate law in certain regions of the globe.

Their “Smart Notices” approach builds on the well-known and increasingly widely adopted Creative Commons systems that seek to supersede apparently outmoded copyright laws, as such it has to meet minimum requirements with regards to legal, technical and social issues. In addition, the Smart Notices must be constructed so that they are easy to read and understand by users as well as being machine readable. Fundamentally, Smart Notices will be customisable and searchable, provide a set of related policies that would be shown to end users by service providers, based on the choices they make when signing up for services or implementing specific modules within an overarching service and so replace the current standard fixed notice approach, including the outdated, one-size-fits-all End User License Agreement (EULA).

The Smart Notice will, the team asserts, “provide a simple and transparent way of expressing the terms of service and the options available to the data subject before they share personal information with cloud service providers.” It will thus control legally, technically and socially what can and cannot be done with the end user’s data and to what features of the cloud services the end user will have access and under what mutual obligations concerning privacy and related matters. Smart Notices could be implemented widely as dynamic consent forms on cloud platforms, in e-government and shared databases providing legal and intellectual protection for all parties.

“Taking the Creative Commons beyond copyright: developing Smart Notices as user centric consent management systems for the cloud” in Int. J. Cloud Computing, 2014, 3, 94-124

Smart Notices go beyond copyright is a post from: David Bradley's Science Spot

via Science Spot http://ift.tt/1fDWIbX

Call for papers: "Soft Computing and Intelligent Information Systems"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Reasoning-based Intelligent Systems.

Soft computing is currently receiving much attention and is a highly multidisciplinary area of research.

 

Intelligent information systems is a current research area applied to many domains such as business intelligence, data analysis and mining. It provides powerful and effective tools for problem solving in a variety of business modelling tasks such as data visualisation, data pre-processing, data engineering, data mining techniques, neurocomputing, evolutionary computing, fuzzy techniques, expert systems, knowledge filtering and post-processing.

 

This special issue will cover the latest developments in the application of soft computing techniques in modelling intelligent information systems.

 

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

• Intelligent search
• Automated reasoning and logic programming
• Machine learning
• Intelligent planning
• Visual/linguistic perception
• Evolutionary and swarm algorithms
• Derivative-free optimisation algorithms
• Fuzzy sets and fuzzy logic; rough sets
• Neural computing
• Multi-agent systems
• Data and web mining
• Emotional intelligence
• Hybridisation of intelligent models/algorithms
• Parallel and distributed realisation of intelligent algorithms/systems
• Applications

 

Important Dates

Submission deadline: 30 November, 2014

Acceptance/rejection notifications: 31 January, 2015

Final papers due: 1 April, 2015

Call for papers: "Decision Support towards Sustainable Energy and Environmental Systems"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Decision Support Systems.

The current financial and economic crisis, as well as wider socio-economic and environmental pressures, put seriously into question the traditional patterns of living, consuming and sharing resources. These pressures create high expectations for coordinated actions and holistic interventions to address comprehensively the problems of modern society and competitive economy. In particular, with regard to energy and environment issues, integrated approaches and methodological frameworks are the key challenge for policy and decision-makers in order to embark them on strategies toward sustainable development (SD) and scientifically optimise energy concepts for the future.

 

Indeed, climate change and the increasing complexity of the energy sector along with the prerequisite for sustainability have broadened the energy policy-shaping field by bringing about new challenges.

 

Researchers and practitioners have responded to the above-mentioned challenges with the development and application of new energy and environmental modelling methods, with the emphasis placed on the use of modern operational research/management science (OR/MS) techniques for assessing energy, environment and sustainability.

 

Decision support methods and systems have a key role in this respect, in the pursuit of appropriate approaches necessary to support the restructuring of the energy sector, concerning patterns of energy extraction, generation, transformation and use, from unsustainable to sustainable forms of development. Moreover, multicriteria decision making (MCDM) methods can be an important tool for decision support towards sustainable energy and environmental systems, providing the flexibility and capacity to assess implications for economical, environmental, technological and social frameworks.

 

This special issue aims to foster related discussion on and the exchange of experience in decision support towards the energy sector’s sustainable development.

 

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

• Decision support for the deployment and diffusion of low-carbon technologies
• MCDM models and methods assessing policy options' implications for economical, environmental, technological and social frameworks
• Analysis of energy and environmental policies' economic impacts, especially under the current financial crisis
• Computational models to deal with the energy sector's related uncertainties
• Computerised software design, development and testing for sustainable energy and environmental systems
• Decision support strategies toward sustainable energy technology transfer
• MCDM frameworks for policy options' evaluations (e.g. such as scenarios, technologies, operational plans), as well as assessment of socio-economic and environmental pressures
• Real-life applications to provide empirically solid foundations for energy and environmental systems' analysis
• Case studies and comparative analyses

Important Dates

Deadline for full paper submission: 30 March, 2014

Notice of acceptation/rejection: 31 May, 2014

Revised paper submission: 15 July, 2014

Final decision: 31 August, 2014

Getting political on Facebook

Social media and networks are ripe for politicization, for movement publicity, advocacy group awareness, not-for-profit fund-raising campaigns and perhaps even e-government. However, the majority of users perhaps see these tools as being useful for entertainment, interpersonal connections and sharing rather than politics. A research paper to be published in the Electronic Government, An International Journal reinforces this notion. The results suggest that the potential for political activism must overcome the intrinsic user perception that online social networks are for enjoyment rather than utility, political or otherwise.

Tobias Kollmann and Christoph Stöckmann of the E-Business and E-Entrepreneurship Research Group, at the University of Duisburg-Essen, and Ina Kayser of VDI – The Association of German Engineers, in Düsseldorf, Germany, explain that while social networks have become increasingly important as discussion forums, users are not at present motivated to accept political decisions that emerge from such discussions. As such, Facebook is yet to properly break through as the innovative means of political participation that it might become.

The team roots this disjuncture in the psychological phenomenon of cognitive dissonance where two opposing concepts cannot be rationalized simultaneously and an individual discards one as invalid in favour of the other to avoid the feeling of psychological discomfort. For example, users enjoy logging on to a social network, such as Facebook, so that they can share photos, play games and chat online with friends. This is inherently at odds, it does not resonate, with the idea of Facebook being useful as a tool for discussing and implementing the perhaps more important realm of human endeavour we know as politics.

However, the team says, the advent of politically oriented Facebook games, such as “Campaigns” and “America 2049″ blur the lines between the area of enjoyment and political discussion. Moreover, they point out that the boundaries were already blurred in terms of interpersonal discussions among some users where political discussion is facilitated by the network and also perceived as an enjoyable part of participation despite it falling in the “useful” camp. Indeed, the team’s data from several hundred randomly selected Facebook users would support the notion that the perception of mutual benefit arising from political participation on Facebook positively adds to the perception of usefulness as well as being enjoyable. They allude to the fact that the findings might apply equally well to other so-called “Web 2.0″ tools on the Internet.

Understanding political participation on Facebook: the moderating role of intrinsic motivation in Electronic Government, An International Journal, 2014, 10, 310-323

Getting political on Facebook is a post from: David Bradley's Science Spot

via Science Spot http://ift.tt/1byg0wo

Call for papers: "New Developments in PROMETHEE Methods"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Multicriteria Decision Making.

In the multicriteria decision aid community, PROMETHEE and GAIA have been developed for more than 30 years. Today, hundreds of applications have been published, several software packages are available, and new methodological developments (including group decision support, preference elicitation, sorting, etc.) have been proposed.

This special issue will carry revised and substantially extended versions of selected papers presented at the first International MCDA Workshop on PROMETHEE: Research and Case Studies, but we also strongly encourage researchers unable to participate in the conference to submit articles for this call.

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

• Theoretical advances in the PROMETHEE and GAIA methods
• Axiomatisation
• Extensions for sorting and clustering
• Group decision support
• Rank reversal
• Preference elicitation
• PROMETHEE applications in
• environmental management
• business and financial management
• energy management
• manufacturing and assembly
• international cooperation
• PROMETHEE software packages
• Industrial case studies

Important Dates
Submission of manuscripts: 15 May, 2014
Notification to authors: 15 July, 2014
Final versions due: 30 September, 2014

Special issue published: "Recent Trends in Advanced Machining Processes – Part I"

International Journal of Manufacturing Technology and Management 27(4/5/6) 2013

Expanded versions of papers presented at the 4th International and 25th All India Manufacturing Technology, Design and Research (AIMTDR) Conference.

• Development of chemo-mechanical magnetorheological finishing process for super finishing of copper alloy
• A study of electrochemical magnetic abrasive machining process
• Study of electrochemical-mechanical finishing of bevel gears
• Investigation into energy consumption, surface roughness and material removal rate of cylindrical components machined using wire electrical discharge turning process
• Optimisation of ultrasonic machining of zirconia bio-ceramics using genetic algorithm
• Material properties and selection for selective laser sintering process
• Application of desirability-function and RSM to optimise the multi-objectives while turning Inconel 718 using coated carbide tools
• Online monitoring of auto correlated linear profiles via mixed model
• Investigations on tool wear and material deposition aspects of TiC coating on aluminium by electro discharge coating process

Call for papers: "Innovations in Sustainability Management at Universities"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Innovation and Sustainable Development.

Sustainability is a multidimensional issue that requires a transformation related to a more complex and holistic understanding of the world. In this process, education and educational institutions have a key role because they have a strong influence on the way that people understand the world, its connections and the relationship between human beings, organisations and environment. In this sense, universities seem to be appropriate places to promote innovation, change and learning at both individual and organisational levels.

 

In recent decades, changes have taken place in education institutions in different areas and at different levels to address sustainability. In relation to this, some questions can be asked. How are universities dealing with the challenge of introducing sustainability? What changes and innovations have taken place in management at universities to introduce sustainability and to promote its insertion into different courses? How are they working to encompass the interests of different stakeholders? How are different areas and university programmes introducing sustainability-related issues? What has been done to promote interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity?

 

Therefore, this special issue aims to present research and discussions about what is being done and what can be done in universities and in different courses to lead to a sustainable world. It opens space for the emergence of new solutions that are required to deal with issues related to sustainability. We seek both theoretical and empirical papers that could contribute to this discussion. We are especially interested in discussions about sustainable strategies and ways to promote transformation and deep change processes in educational institutions.

 

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

• University strategies for sustainability
• New perspectives on management and education for sustainability at universities
• The role of campuses, curriculums and community in sustainability
• Integration with stakeholders at universities
• Dialogic processes and sustainability at universities
• Innovation, empowerment and sustainability at universities
• Ways to promote transformation and deep change
• Innovative research and practice in teaching, thinking and learning about sustainability
• Alternative educational approaches for sustainability
• Interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches for sustainability

 

Important Dates

Submission of manuscripts: 1 June, 2014

Notification to authors: 30 September, 2014

Final versions due: 30 November, 2014

Special issue published: "Advances in Global Business Practice"

Journal for Global Business Advancement 7(1) 2014

Expanded versions of papers presented at the 9th AGBA Annual World Congress.

• Internationalisation process of Malaysian firms: the mediating effects of motivation and network
• Barriers for implementing Sukuk (Islamic bonds) across Lebanon
• Determinants of foreign direct investment in Iran: assessing the standard factors
• The experiences of female repatriate managers in Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) companies
• Countertrade: compensatory requests to sell abroad
• Restoring service quality, satisfaction and loyalty in higher education institutions through market orientation

Call for papers: "New Business Paradigms in a Time of Constant Turbulence"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Globalisation and Small Business.

We are living in a time when change is the only constant in our lives. Never before have everyday things changed so quickly and never before have we been so globally interconnected. We have seen an “excellent” example of this during the recent economic crisis, which is sadly still taking place in some parts of the world, and which has shown that actions in some places have huge impacts on actions on the other side of the world. All of these factors represent new rules for companies, organisations, individuals and their behaviour.

It is often said that smaller companies and organisations are more flexible and thus are better off in these fluid kinds of environment. But is that really true? Or have the big players already adjusted?

Undoubtedly, you have to be flexible in this time of rapid changes, no matter from which perspective you are looking, whether large or small. It is therefore not a surprise that in the recent decade we have seen the rise not only of many small organisations, but also of numerous giants such as Apple, Google and Facebook, which can be in no way defined as small, but which are very well known for their flexibility and adaptability.

In this call for papers we are therefore interested in observing reactions of companies, their management and their organisational structure reorganisations in regard to all of these globalisation factors (e.g. turbulent, ever-changing and dynamic environments; everyday change and interconnectivity; new media). These new factors also require new management skills, new leadership paradigms and new organisation structures, which are included in the focus of special issue.

Theoretical, research and case study papers are welcome. Suitable topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Change management
• Small businesses and change
• The role of management in a changing environment
• New leadership paradigms in companies
• New leadership paradigms in smaller organisations
• Organisational structures in organisations
• Flexibility of an organisation or company (large vs. small)
• Working and developing in a changing environment
• Globalised leadership
• New media and leadership in organisations
• Decision making in a changing environment

Important Dates

Submission (online) of full papers following acceptance of abstracts: 1 October, 2014
Notification of acceptance, refusal or revision of full papers: 1 November, 2014
Submission of accepted and revised final papers: 1 December, 2014

Call for papers: "Marketing of Olympic Sport via New Media"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing.

New media is defined as internet-based non-traditional media platforms such as websites, social networking sites and applications, blogs and e-commerce systems (Stoldt, Dittmore, & Pedersen, 2011). In recent years, new media’s presence has certainly been felt by the Olympic Games, the most global of all international sporting events. As Miah (2013) noted, “the expansion of media channels afforded by new media technology and a burgeoning culture of user-generated content have changed how people consume the Games” (p. 107).

The last instalment of the Games, the 2012 London Olympics, became widely known as the “social Olympics” due to the extensive range of platforms utilised for the marketing and communication of the event. These platforms included traditional media, social media, internet-based applications and smartphone/tablet applications.

Ferrand, Chappelet and Seguin (2012) identified several stakeholders who engage in Olympic marketing, including the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the Olympic Games organising committees, National Olympic Committees (NOCs) and sponsors, all of whom utilise new media in their marketing efforts. While that list is not exhaustive, additional stakeholders engaging in Olympic sport marketing include broadcast partners, athletes and coaches.

As new media technology is ever expanding and increasingly accessible for global audiences, a greater understanding of the utilisation of new media platforms to market Olympic sport holds implications for a variety of Olympic sport organisations and stakeholders.

While manuscripts centred on topics or issues relating to the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics are welcomed for submission, scholarly inquiry from a variety of perspectives (e.g. past Olympic Games, marketing of Olympic sport in non-Olympic years, etc.) is also encouraged. Qualitative, quantitative and conceptual papers examining the marketing of Olympic sports are all welcome.

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

• Social media
• Websites
• Smartphone/tablet devices
• Branding
• Sponsorship
• Strategy
• Consumer behaviour
• Organisational behaviour
• Athlete/participant behaviour
• Sociological perspectives
• Policy implications
• Legal and regulatory issues
• Unique attributes

Important Dates

Submission of manuscripts: 17 August, 2014 (extended)

Put a plastic bag in your tank

Researchers in India have developed a relatively low-temperature process to convert certain kinds of plastic waste into liquid fuel as a way to re-use discarded plastic bags and other products. They report full details next month in the International Journal of Environment and Waste Management.

Many pundits describe the present time as the “plastic age” for good reason and as such we generate a lot plastic waste. Among that waste is the common polymer, low-density polyethylene (LDPE), which is used to make many types of container, medical and laboratory equipment, computer components and, of course, plastic bags. Recycling initiatives are in place in many parts of the world, but much of the polyethylene waste ends up in landfill, dispersed in the environment or in the sea.

Chemist Achyut Kumar Panda of Centurion University of Technology and Management Odisha, India is working with chemical engineer Raghubansh Kumar Singh of the National Institute of Technology, Orissa, India, to develop a commercially viable technology for efficiently rendering LDPE into a liquid fuel. Given that most plastics are made from petrochemicals, this solution to plastic recycling brings the life-cycle full circle allowing a second use as an oil substitute. The process could, if implemented on a large enough scale, reduce pressures on landfill as well as ameliorating the effects of dwindling oil supplies in a world with increasing demands on petrochemicals for fuel.

In their approach, the team heats the plastic waste to between 400 and 500 Celsius over a kaolin catalyst. This causes the plastic’s long chain polymer chains to break apart in a process known as thermo-catalytic degradation. This releases large quantities of much smaller, carbon-rich molecules. The team used the analytical technique of gas chromatography coupled mass spectrometry to characterize these product molecules and found the components of their liquid fuel to be mainly paraffins and olefins 10 to 16 carbon atoms long. This, they explain, makes the liquid fuel very similar chemically to conventional petrochemical fuels.

In terms of the catalyst, Kaolin is a clay mineral – containing aluminum and silicon. It acts as a catalyst by providing a large reactive surface on which the polymer molecules can sit and so be exposed to high temperature inside the batch reactor, which breaks them apart. The team optimized the reaction at 450 Celsius a temperature with the lowest amount of kaolin at which more than 70% of the liquid fuel is produced. In other words, for every kilogram of waste plastic they could produce 700 grams of liquid fuel. The byproducts were combustible gases and wax. They could boost the yield to almost 80% and minimize reaction times, but this required a lot more catalyst 1 kg of kaolin for every 2 kg of plastic.

“Thermo-catalytic degradation of low density polyethylene to liquid fuel over kaolin catalyst” in Int. J. Environment and Waste Management, 2014, 13, 104-114

Put a plastic bag in your tank is a post from: David Bradley's Science Spot

via Science Spot http://ift.tt/1mO9qHt

Special issue published: "Security Governance and SLAs in Cloud Computing"

International Journal of Cloud Computing 3(1) 2014

Expanded versions of papers from special session on Security Governance and SLAs in Cloud Computing
(CloudSecGov) at the 2nd International Conference on Cloud Computing and Services Science (CLOSER 2012).

• Benchmarking cloud performance for service level agreement parameters
• SLA-based negotiation and brokering of cloud resources
• A toolkit for automating compliance in cloud computing services
• Expressing cloud security requirements for SLAs in deontic contract languages for cloud brokers
• Taking the Creative Commons beyond copyright: developing Smart Notices as user centric consent management systems for the cloud

Special issue published: "Healthcare Research - the Status Quo and New Developments"

International Journal of Behavioural and Healthcare Research 4(3/4) 2013

• Scaling-up the development of national immunisation technical advisory groups in the Economic Community of West African States: role of a regional organisation, the West African Health Organisation
• Quantification of cardiovascular disease research in West Africa
• Interprofessional roles and cooperation in healthcare research
• Health systems in the United Arab Emirates: progression, challenges and future directions
• Efficiency measurement of comprehensive emergency obstetric and newborn care centres of Tamil Nadu
• Towards cost transparency and patients' attitude in the German healthcare system: an information economics viewpoint
• Identification of needs and attitudes of overweight and obese patients for weight loss therapy: a mix-method analysis in German rehabilitation facilities
• New approach for building multidisciplinary teams: case of surgical teams

Research Paper

• Understanding the impact of social representations in health microinsurance schemes: a preliminary theoretical framework to guide empirical research

Heavy metal resource warfare

High on the international agenda are terrorism and so-called cyber warfare and rightly so. However, there are more insidious threats to national security. For instance, communications, transport, food and water supply, healthcare and other aspects of infrastructure rely heavily on the fabrication of countless pieces of equipment that require rare chemical elements for their manufacture, not least the computers and portable devices that control so many aspects of modern life. It is of growing concern that essential systems might be compromised. One might imagine that the advent of a rogue government or an international argument between states might see a nation from whose lands those rare minerals are mined or otherwise sourced be blocked.

Zulfiqar Khan and Sarfraz Khan of Coventry University and Mils Hills of The University of Northampton, UK, explain how the importance of supply chain management has grown steadily over the last two decades and while efficient management can be to an organization’s competitive advantage, compromise of supply chain security can be a threat not only to commerce, but as alluded to above, a nation’s infrastructure. Raw metals, among them, copper, chromium, manganese, and lead as well as the likes of rhodium yttrium and others have no substitutes and are often found as accessible ores in remote regions of less than democratic regions of the globe, shall we say.

The UK team suggests that nations with a grievance need no longer send their troops to foreign shores, they might just close off the supply of a rare metal essential to the manufacture of smart phones and a rival nation might fall. They refer to this as “resource warfare” and it represents a more insidious threat to the long-term stability of a nation than one might forecast based on a “shock and awe” attack of bombs and bullets.

A separate study from Yale University emphasizes how so many of the rare metal resources on which the modern world relies for its computers and other systems cannot be substituted in current technology by other more common materials. And, so the UK team has focused on how supply chain management and presumably retrieval/recycling efforts might be used to best ensure nations and the manufacturers they support do not lose their metals regardless of the activities of rogue states or other entities intent on blocking the supply.

Khan Z., Khan S. & Hills M. (2013). Resource warfare: considering the challenge of supply chain security in an era of unrestricted warfare, International Journal of Logistics Economics and Globalisation, 5 (3) 240. DOI: 10.1504/IJLEG.2013.058824

Heavy metal resource warfare is a post from: David Bradley's Science Spot

via Science Spot http://ift.tt/KQ4IMO

Call for papers: "Operations Research and Impacts on Innovation"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Transitions and Innovation Systems.

Decision support or operations research has been a hybrid discipline whose development has always been very closely linked to information technology and communication (ICT). It refers to combinatorial and continuous optimisation, optimal control, multi-criteria modelling, scheduling, planning and POAG, game theory, performance evaluation, supervised learning, network optimisation and processes at the methodology level.

Operations research was first related to centralised organisational design and mainframe simulation and optimisation software. But in the internet era, smartphones and internet of things, the emergence of new services and socio-economic changes motivate operations researchers to confront new types of problems (e.g. revenue management, pricing, smart grids, consideration of uncertainties, the notion of robustness, average complexity, etc.), new decision paradigms (e.g. collaboration, online, dynamic, etc.) and new contextual developments (e.g. very large data size, big data, cloud architectures, generic requirements).

In this context, particular topics will be very significant in the future:

• The integration of models and techniques of operations research in contexts of dynamic data acquisition, communication and collaborative/dynamic decision making. This applies to both the support of the decentralisation process (even outsourcing) within companies, services and organisations, and the rise of technology monitoring and data management in real time, geo-location, and mobile communication.
• The integration into models of emerging societal concerns related to the preservation of the environment, mobility management and energy issues.
• The generic aspects and the integration and decomposition schemes of algorithms for operations research.
• Stochastic and uncertainty issues. These problems are all the more acute according to the number of applications of operations research which concern the control of dynamic systems operating in a not completely predictable environment.
• Evaluation of algorithms and problems (e.g. complexity analysis, approximation theory) with or without probabilistic sense.
• The adaptation of standard algorithms to very large data sizes (so-called big data) (e.g. social networks, dynamic graphs, internet or network mobility).

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

• New operations research methodologies to build innovative systems in SMEs
• Collaborative heuristics for project management
• Machine learning techniques to support innovation in monitoring services
• Fuzzy-based decision support systems to impact on knowledge-based economy
• Operations research-based applications and new challenging domains in supply chain management, revenue management, mobility management, vehicle sharing and dynamical system monitoring
• Generic mathematical programming and constraint programming solutions for complex decision problems
• Fast prototyping for complex combinatorial optimisation applications
• Operations research applications involving large scale data and HPC architectures
• Applications of game theory to economical decision making
• Issues in comparison of innovation systems to create new systems over multiple problem domains (e.g. internet of things)
• Analytical and stochastic modelling techniques for dynamical systems

Important Dates

Submission of manuscripts: 15 March, 2014

Feedback to authors: 15 April, 2014

Submission for second review: 1 May, 2014

Notification of final acceptance: 30 May, 2014

One good tern…monitoring birds

The use of portable, wireless cameras and monitoring equipment for recording and transmitting footage of wildlife is perhaps familiar to anyone who watches nature programs on TV. However, common to all such equipment is the problem of limited battery life, which becomes particularly troublesome when using such equipment in remote and hazardous locations. A new report in the International Journal of Computational Science and Engineering, reveals details of an energy-efficient system for monitoring wild birds that reduces power consumption without significantly compromising image quality.

Hsiao-Wei Yuan of the National Taiwan University in Taipei and colleagues were aware that scientific monitoring of the critically endangered Chinese Crested Tern (Thalasseus bernsteini) a migratory bird that nests on Taiwan’s Matsu Islands is important for conservation. As with many such ecosystems, observations are often unsystematic and rely on manual observation rather than continuous feedback.

The team has now developed a wireless, real-time visual surveillance system for monitoring these birds, TernCam. The system will allow scientists to gain a better picture of the tern’s behaviour through instantaneous capture of information. Crucially, the team has developed appropriate software for data transmission that retains image integrity but reduces the total number of data packets transmitted by the system and so considerably reduces battery consumption.

“The traditional techniques used to monitor wildlife are labour intensive and costly,” Yuan says. “The use of cameras allows large data collection and increases the size of a sampled area without human presence, often giving scientists a glimpse into the secret lives of wildlife and its breeding, feeding and migratory habits.” Additionally, monitoring cameras can also be used in anti-poaching efforts.

The team says their system overcomes many of the problems associated with wireless monitoring previously. The TernCam system has demonstrated that it can remain functional in severe weather conditions, wet, hot and salty environments and transmit adequate signals via the mobile phone network that is ubiquitous across Taiwan using the general packet radio service (GPRS) to provide real-time monitoring. The latter has generally not been possible with conventional equipment used in other locations before. The system has four 12 volt batteries to provide power and these are kept charged by two solar photovoltaic panels.

It is the image collection and processing for transmission that makes the system viable for such remote monitoring. Image compression and scheduling of transmission through the GPRS system allows data to be sent at very low energy cost to the scientists’ computer server on the mainland 250 km away. Testing the system on the one of the islands through a breeding season has demonstrated how well it works and points the way to the wider use of the same system in monitoring other species elsewhere in a similar manner.

“TernCam: an automated energy-efficient visual surveillance system” in Int. J. Computational Science and Engineering, 2014, 9, 44-54

One good tern…monitoring birds is a post from: David Bradley's Science Spot

via Science Spot http://ift.tt/1eJt3Pi

Special issue published: "Air Quality Modelling: Part 2"

International Journal of Environment and Pollution 53(1/2) 2013

• Effect of different meteorological fields on the regional air quality modelling over Pearl River Delta, China
• Sensitivity to input parameters of Mobile6.2-AERMOD simulated emissions and concentrations
• Numerical simulation of the impact of street geometry on vehicle emissions in urban area
• Traffic reallocation impacts and automobile toxic pollutants emission for a general network in urban highway system: a second-best congestion pricing analysis
• Projecting emission reductions from prospective mobile sources policies by road link-based modelling
• An integrated approach for source contribution estimation: a case study
• Rough set-based regionalisation in air quality monitoring
• Passive samplers for air quality monitoring in a Brazilian university
• Investigation on the interannual variability of carbon dioxide column-averaged mole fractions in Peninsular Malaysia: 2003-2009
• Analysing the spatial variability of ground-level ozone in the UK using a generalised additive model

Call for papers: "Modelling of Advanced Composite Materials (ACMs) for Automotive Applications"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Automotive Composites.

Recent improvements in manufacturing processes and material properties associated with excellent mechanical characteristics and low density have made advanced composite materials (ACMs) very attractive for application in automotive structures. However, even new designs are still very conservative, because the behaviour of ACMs is very complex. In fact, modelling of composite structures is very complicated, e.g. these structures exhibit multiple types of damage before total rupture associated to viscoelastic or viscoplastic behaviour.

To support the design of automotive parts made of ACMs, from concepts to engineering details, consistent material models are required. Based on the observation of major physical mechanisms, it is possible to develop a mathematical formulation to model the behaviour of composite structures. Moreover, by using experiments and/or literature data, it is possible to identify the parameters related to the proposed material model. The feasibility of implementing the material model as a computational tool depends on the complexity of its mathematical formulation. In order to check its potentialities and limitations, the material model proposal must be evaluated against experimental data and/or other models. Hence, the material model usually needs to be investigated for quasi-static and/or impact loadings, for fatigue and/or durability, and for vibration and/or environmental effects, considering the requirements imposed by the design.

Different approaches and material models have been developed to simulate the behaviour of structures made of ACMs. Although the number of approaches and models has increased immensely, the prediction of composite structure behaviour is still a big challenge. On the one hand, due to the intrinsic heterogeneity and/or anisotropy of composite materials, the predictions become very complex and not well defined. However, on the other hand, these characteristics give the opportunity to design not only the structure, but also the material. Thus, sometimes it is strategic to use multi-scale approaches. Therefore, it is a very difficult task to achieve the requirements imposed by automotive standards while engineers search to obtain the best performance of the ACM part, i.e. to achieve the optimum design.

This special issue aims to enhance the link between different fields of expertise that have the numerical tools to predict the mechanical behaviour of ACMs, including material models for ACMs as well as material design and structural analysis of automotive components made from these types of materials. Hopefully this will bring new insights and developments into the mathematical formulation of new material models, into aspects related to parameter identification and computational implementation and analyses and into the validation process by using experiments, literature data and/or other models.

This issue will present articles of interest to structure and material researchers, to engineers and to other scientists involved in the modelling of ACMs, mainly related to automotive applications.

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

• ACM modelling: functionally gradient materials, joints and adhesion, smart composites, textile composites, thermoplastic and thermosetting composites, sandwich structures
• Mathematical formulation of material models 
• Parameter identification process of material models 
• Computational implementation of material models 
• Validation processes of material models 
• Damage modelling and/or simulation 
• Impact modelling and/or simulation 
• Fatigue modelling and/or simulation 
• Durability and long-term modelling and/or simulation 
• Multi-scale modelling and/or simulation of ACMs: micro-, meso- and/or macro-mechanics models
• Vibration modelling and/or simulation 
• Thermal and environmental effects modelling and/or simulation 
• Design of materials for ACMs: prediction of effective properties
• Modelling and optimisation of structures made from ACMs

Important Dates

Submission of manuscripts: 15 August, 2014
Notification to authors: 1 October, 2014
Revised versions due: 15 November, 2014
Final versions due: 15 December 2014

Int. J. of Green Economics to publish expanded papers from Green Economics Institute 1 Day Conference

Expanded versions of papers presented at the Green Economics Institute 1 Day Conference (31 January 2014, London, UK) will be published by the International Journal of Green Economics.

Call for papers: "Ultra-Hazardous Activities and the Adaptation Process to Climate Change"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Risk Assessment and Management.

During the past century, deep global climate change has accompanied the expanding industrialisation of our economies. The speed of this change amplified at the beginning of the 2000s and is associated with an increasing number of extreme meteorological events: floods, droughts, typhoons, hurricanes, dust storms and forest fires, and intense low and high temperatures.

 

The last IPCC international conferences showed this rapid climate change to be mainly due to human activities. These influence the climate through massive industrial and agricultural production, transport, consumption, etc. A change of habit and a move towards less pollutant production would not produce beneficial effects for a long time. Hence, it is necessary to consider adapting existing infrastructures based on the consequences of changes in the climate.

 

Among them, ultra-hazardous activities are of particularly high importance not only because of their lethal consequences after the occurrence of a disastrous event, but also because of long-run effects on human and animal health, the environment, etc. Repetitions of climate hazards contribute to the weakening of global infrastructures such as harbours, communication ways, dikes, sea walls, etc. Hence, climate change directly or indirectly affects the safety level of facilities involved in ultra-hazardous activities. Consequently, it is the duty of the states to induce the managers to reinforce their facilities’ safety. Obviously, this involves making costly economic choices.

 

From an economic viewpoint, this increased vulnerability of both global infrastructures and ultra-hazardous activities requires from public and private decision makers a better understanding of the level of potential damages, a review of causality chains of events, and a better definition of the nature of internal and trans-boundary responsibilities.

 

Hence, this special issue’s aim is to contribute to an improved knowledge of climate change’s consequences regarding high-risk activities. Another goal concerns the way by which economic policies can help to make them safer; this essentially considers the prevention side of the adaptation process to global warming.

 

Overall, having a clear insight into how to strengthen risky infrastructures appears to be of utmost importance. Thus, among the most significant policy issues, the question of how defining the incentive schemes that induce managers to become more aware of the consequences of the climate change on their activities is an important matter. Incentives can be contractual between the regional regulator and the facilities managers. Beyond contracts, the liability question is at stake. Should we use strict liability (that is induced by ultra-hazardous activity) or should we introduce negligence rules to induce the best care schemes?

 

Another trend in questioning bears on the nature of the care itself. Is it better to strengthen existing infrastructures, moving them away to more secure places? Alternatively, is it better to give them up and move towards new, more secure technologies? What is the place of aversion for risk or aversion for ambiguity?

 

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

• Global change and adaptation of huge infrastructures
• Prevention and precaution principles
• Asymmetric information and contractual relationships with risky activities
• Tort law and liability regimes
• Real option theory adapted to climate change
• Insurance theory
• Assessment of damages
• Resiliency from an economic viewpoint

Important Dates

Submission of manuscripts: 15 April, 2014

Notification to authors: 15 July, 2014

Final versions due: 1 September, 2014

Special issue published: "Recent Applications of Biomechatronics and Machine Vision"

International Journal of Biomechatronics and Biomedical Robotics 2(2/3/4) 2013

Expanded versions of papers presented at the International Conference in Mechatronics and Machine Vision in Practice (M2VIP 2012).

• Modelling of pneumatic muscle actuator and antagonistic joint using linearised parameters
• Steering coordination control of front wheels for a four in-wheel-motor drive electric vehicle
• A novel control method for electric power steering system based on dead-zone inverse transforming compensation in a four-in-wheel-motor drive electric vehicle
• A road surface identification method for a four in-wheel-motor drive electric vehicle
• Efficiency-based optimisation of a 2-DOF robotic fish model
• Plug-and-play design and distributed logic control of medical devices using IEC 61499 function blocks
• Design of a peristaltic crawling robot using 3-D link mechanisms
• Effects of knee alignment on human gait based on wireless sensors
• Parameterisation analysis for a four in-wheel-motors drive and four wheels independent steering electric vehicle based on multi-body inverse kinematics
• Fibre optic force sensor for flexible bevel tip needles in minimally invasive surgeries
• Simulation of a 6-PUS jaw robot and a new mechanism inspired by masticatory system
• The structural synthesis of planar 10-link, 3-DOF simple and multiple joint kinematic chains
• Biologically-inspired swallowing robot for investigation of texture modified foods
• Lyapunov function-based non-linear control for two-wheeled mobile robots
• Review of EMG-based neuromuscular interfaces for rehabilitation: elbow joint as an example
• Feature-channel subset selection for optimising myoelectric human-machine interface design

Special issue published: "Commodities Financial Management: Part 2"

International Journal of Financial Engineering and Risk Management 1(3) 2014

• Crude oil prices and kernel-based models
• A two-state Markov-switching distinctive conditional variance application for tanker freight returns
• Using Monte Carlo simulation with DCF and real options risk pricing techniques to analyse a mine financing proposal
• On the lease rate, convenience yield and speculative effects in the gold futures market

Special issue published: "Computational Biomedicine"

International Journal of Bioinformatics Research and Applications 10(1) 2014

Expanded versions of papers presented at the International Conference on Computational Biomedicine (CBM 2012).

• A linearly convergent first-order algorithm for total variation minimisation in image processing
• Uses and challenges of bioinformatic tools in mass spectrometric-based proteomic brain perturbation studies
• Learning dependence from samples
• Space pruning monotonic search for the non-unique probe selection problem
• Perpendicular fibre tracking for neural fibre bundle analysis using diffusion MRI
• Integrating edge detection and fuzzy connectedness for automated segmentation of anatomical branching structures
• Vectorial total variation regularisation of orientation distribution functions in diffusion weighted MRI

Int. J. of Monetary Economics and Finance to publish expanded papers from TSFS Finance Conference

Expanded versions of papers presented at the TSFS Finance Conference (12-13 December 2014, Sousse, Tunisia) will be published by the International Journal of Monetary Economics and Finance.

Special issue published: "Novel Architectures and Accelerators for High Performance Computing"

International Journal of Computational Science and Engineering 9(1/2) 2014

Includes expanded versions of papers presented at the Workshop on Compiler Techniques for
High-Performance and Embedded Computing (CTHPC 2011) and the International Workshop on Embedded Multi-Core computing and Applications (EMCA 2011).

• Frequency-based re-sequencing tool for short reads on graphics processing units
• Efficient parallel algorithm for multiple sequence alignments with regular expression constraints on graphics processing units
• Temporal partitioning of data flow graphs for reconfigurable architectures
• Preliminary performance evaluations of the determinant quantum Monte Carlo simulations for multi-core CPU and many-core GPU
• TernCam: an automated energy-efficient visual surveillance system
• Multi-scheme co-scheduling framework for high-performance real-time applications in heterogeneous grids
• Optimising space exploration of OpenCL for GPGPUs
• Multi-source task scheduling in grid computing environment using linear programming
• Multi-core system performance prediction and analysis at the ESL
• Design and implementation of a network on chip-based simulator: a performance study
• Population-based harmony search using GPU applied to protein structure prediction
• A framework for comparing high performance computing technologies
• A novel resource selection framework to improve QoS in computational grid

Additional Papers

• Global and initiative safety mechanism in industrial control system
• Numerical simulation on the influence of gob permeability on distribution of air leakage flow field

Motoring up nano magnets

Free energy inventions, perpetual motion machines have been mooted for millennia. Humanity has always had a hankering for the something-for-nothing. Of course, we’ve known since at least the early nineteenth century that thermodynamically there is no free lunch. That’s not to say, however, that we cannot make power, if not with greater than 100% efficiency, then at least by exploiting natural phenomena that require no more input from us than to build and maintain the devices from which we might tap that power – wind, solar, tidal, nuclear.

Even the most efficient power station is never going to give us perpetual power indefinitely without additional, ongoing input of resources. So, it is always with interest when researchers suggest an alternative power supply that ostensibly breaks not the first nor the second laws of thermodynamics, but seems to offer an interminable source of power with apparently no ongoing demands. Josef Polácek and Petr Alexa of the Institute of Physics and Institute of Clean Technologies, at the VŠB – Technical University Ostrava, in the Czech Republic, however, are not working on the tidal nor the wind farm scale but at the level of Brownian motion.

To quickly recap, Brownian motion is the random movement of particles due to thermal fluctuations and was named for botanist Robert Brown whose 1827 work identified the motion of pollen grains suspended in water. Brownian motion was characterized theoretically in detail by Einstein in his annus physicus, 1905, in which the constant buffeting of the pollen grains by water molecules provided the explanation for the motion. This work was the foundations on which Jean Perrin’s experiments of 1908 to provide evidence of atoms and molecules was built.

The advent of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), lab-on-a-chip devices and the micro and nanotechnology has led to the recognition that Brownian motion can be a problem as well as a provider. It can interfere with the movement of fluids in small-scale structures but might also enable a “Brownian motor” that could propel those fluids. Much work is being done in this area. However, Polácek and Alexa have now suggested that Brownian motion might be exploited to generate electrical power on this scale.

They have considered a system, a low-density gas, containing myriad magnetic nanoparticles the movements of which might be used to induce random voltage pulses in a microscopic electric circuit. Such a circuit would contain a conducting coil with a very large number of turns and a diode rectifier that would allow current to flow in the coil in one direction only and thus produce a direct current. Of course, on such a scale, the amplitude of the voltage pulse is, they estimate, going to be around 30 billionths of a volt, a coil with at least a million turns would be required – perhaps based on self-coiling or bio-templated nanowires – conducting to allow a current to reach the rectifier and be put to use. Nevertheless, the team is enthusiastic that such a system, driven only by thermal agitation, would produce an adequate output to drive microscopic devices. One might imagine arrays of such nano-generators powering long-term remote sensors in deep, hot caves or perhaps devices onboard spacecraft heading for the stars.

Such blue-skies thinking is invaluable in fundamental science, but I do wonder whether such a system would ever have practical application. Major advances will be needed in nanotechnology to construct the requisite million-turn coils and microscopic rectifiers. The production of uniform magnetic nanoparticles en masse will be required. This will have to be sufficiently small and not too strong magnetically that they the constant Brownian buffeting of the gas molecules breaks apart any aggregates that form otherwise, the particles will simply precipitate out of the gas. But, smaller, weaker particles would mean a smaller induction effect.

“We are well aware that the practical application is a question for the future”, Alexa says. “In our paper we tried to test whether the Brownian motion of magnetic nanoparticles could be theoretically exploited to generate electric current. For this purpose we constructed a ‘toy model’. This model provides an estimate of basic conditions that have to be fulfilled to reach the rectifying region and to enable the system to work,” he adds.

However, we might assume that technical such issues could ultimately be circumvented as nanotechnology advances, so are there any inherent limitations? Concerning its utility let us ignore the details of how these generators might work, and instead focus on their practicality from the thermodynamic perspective. Ultimately, extracting power from Brownian motion means converting thermal energy to electrical energy. If the process is successful at generating electrical energy, then conservation laws dictate that the process depletes the supply of thermal energy. So that thermal energy must then be replenished somehow. Heat from the sun, geothermal heat or some other source might be exploited, for instance. But, if such a heat supply is essential to operation then we might think of this Brownian generator not as a new, untapped energy source, but simply a power conversion device just like any other electrical generator.

If the device is merely a converter, albeit on a much smaller scale than a nuclear power plant, then whether or not it is practical becomes a question of efficiency. If one must tap sunlight or geothermal energy to drive it, then there might be far more efficient and effective ways to utilize that energy even on the very small scale of MEMS and other devices without having to construct arrays of million-turn coils and such like in order to do so.

Conventional rotating generators can achieve 95% efficiency, losses arise mainly from the recovery and transmission processes, leading to 40% end-to-end efficiency. Solar are expensive and achieve anything from 2 to 30% efficiency, while Peltier effect thermoelectric generators manage just 5. All of these are likely to outperform a Brownian generator, but admittedly they operate on an entirely different scale.

Alexa adds that, of course, “thermodynamically there is no free lunch.” He points out that the efficiency of microscopic mechanical systems has been discussed and calculated before and there are perhaps inherent limitations to nano machines. Regardless, it is a fascinating idea at the cutting edge of nanoscience. I just wonder whether a magnetic Brownian motion generator idea will stick.

Polácek, J. and Alexa, P. (2013) ‘Brownian motion of magnetic nanoparticles as a source of energy?’, Int. J. Nanotechnol., Vol. 10, No. 12, pp.1109–1114.

Motoring up nano magnets is a post from: David Bradley's Science Spot

via Science Spot http://ift.tt/1avDF0o

Calls for papers: "Advances in Mobile Computing and Applications"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Ad Hoc and Ubiquitous Computing.

Today, mobile computing has been broadly deployed around the world to support mobile services and applications. However, emerging technologies such as advanced communication systems and networks, energy efficiency, fault tolerance, schedule and load balancing are still open issues for the pervasive adoption of the mobile computing paradigm. In addition, agent-based systems, human-computer interaction, multimedia communications and mobile cloud computing are important research areas able to play a key role in the efficient design and testing of mobile computing applications.

This special issue aims to collect significant contributions addressing innovative ideas, emerging technologies, methods and solutions for mobile computing systems and applications.

The issue will carry revised and substantially extended versions of selected papers presented at the 4thInternational Conference on Applied and Theoretical Information Systems Research (ATISR 2014; 18-21 June, 2014, Taipei, Taiwan). However, we also strongly encourage researchers unable to participate in the conference to submit articles for this special issue.

Suitable topics include, but are not limited, to the following in the context of mobile computing and applications:

• Artificial intelligence, neural networks and genetic algorithms
• Computer and information science
• Advanced communication systems and networks
• Intelligent agent technology, agent-based systems
• Internet technologies and applications
• Mobile/wireless computing
• SaaS, PaaS, IaaS models and applications
• Web engineering and applications
• Software engineering and information engineering
• Mobile cloud computing
• Web services and applications
• Mobile application development methods and tools
• Software performance
• Intrusion detection and malware protection
• Access control techniques and applications
• Cryptography
• Information hiding and watermarking
• Digital rights management
• Image processing and pattern recognition
• Visual and multimedia computing
• Multimedia communications
• Multimedia compression
• Multimedia databases
• Multimedia applications

Important Dates
Paper submission: 31 December, 2014
Decision notification: 30 April, 2015
Revised manuscript submission: 31 July, 2015
Final paper submission: 31 October, 2015

Special issue published: "Auditing"

International Journal of Critical Accounting 5(5) 2013

• Training auditors in strategic systems auditing using online computerised systems: can prior schema affect auditors' knowledge acquisition?
• Compare the effect of Sarbanes-Oxley on audit pricing: application of partial adjustment model
• Auditor's choice and earning management after Enron scandals: empirical approach in French context
• Determinants of auditor choice in Tunisian context
• Anatomic enhancement in bank going concern opinion
• Auditing within service-oriented architecture: the Dutch experience
• Change at last in auditing standards

Call for papers: "Gender, Governance and Agriculture"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Agricultural Resources, Governance and Ecology.

We invite authors to submit papers to a special issue on gender, governance and agriculture. The issue will focus on empirical research, studies and practical projects which address the links between gender and governance, and how they relate to agriculture.

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

• Gender roles in sustainable agricultural systems
• Gender, equity and rural innovations for nutritional security
• Gender in agriculture partnerships for food security
• Gendered approach in agri-economics, value chains and policy
• Gender-sensitive agri-extension and ICT-based knowledge services
• Inclusive natural resource governance and participation of women
• Empowering women farmers in agri-value chains to address poverty and hunger

Important Dates

Submission of full article (online): 10 June, 2014
Final version (with revisions) due: 15 September, 2014

Newly announced journal: International Journal of Corporate Strategy and Social Responsibility

The possibility that firms can develop a competitive edge over rivals by investing in social initiatives has been made increasingly likely over recent years by changes in consumer behaviour and policy choices towards society. The International Journal of Corporate Strategy and Social Responsibility fosters discussion on unresolved theoretical and empirical issues relating to the strategic implications of CSR and acknowledges that analysis of these implications can be hampered by cross-cultural differences. This perspective recognises the role of a firm's value chain in attaining competitive advantage through CSR.

Call for papers: "Sustainability in Business: Managing Organisational Continuity"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Environmental Technology and Management.

Recent financial and economic instability in Europe and the United States has resulted in extreme market volatility as well as the possible generation of a global systemic crisis, exposing large organisations to highly competitive and complex environments. As a result, the business world needs to implement timely responses using management models that entail an appreciation of the business environment based on compliance with sustainable issues in order to minimise risks and impacts. However, sustainability interferes with power structures, apportioned evenly among governments, businesses and civil society organisations, and requires economic, environmental and social equilibrium.

 

Companies are currently analysing their business activities with responsibilities that go beyond the traditional perspective of profit maximisation. New factors are related to competitiveness, such as the promotion of image and reputation, increasing employee motivation and accountability with stakeholders. In this sense, various concepts and definitions of corporate sustainability have been proposed during the course of debates in academic and business circles in order to address a more humane, ethical and transparent way of doing business. Companies should transform their products and processes so that the performance of their results can be evaluated and measured in the short, medium and long term, according to the expectations of stakeholders.

 

The challenge now is to go beyond mere compliance with laws and build sustainable businesses. How should companies adopt sustainability practices in order to solve this problem, while at the same time considering the principles proposed by the main authorities addressing the issue?

 

The purpose of this special issue is to assemble a high-quality selection of contemporary research articles on management innovation and organisational development in the contemporary context, taking into consideration some of the specific conditions described above. We are particularly seeking to publish articles on empirical research with a clear theoretical contribution based on quantitative and/or qualitative data. The theoretical basis for submitted articles must be up-to-date and relevant in order to add value to the development stage of organisational management science.

 

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

• Social responsibility and the enterprise
• Risk management and the environment
• Urbanism and sustainable construction
• Energy efficiency
• Waste management
• Environmental economics
• Environmental economics training
• Environmental education
• Environmental management
• Clean production
• Project management
• Strategic management of people
• Total quality management
• Information systems
• Marketing and products
• Strategy and competitiveness
• Corporate finance
• Process management
• Knowledge management
• Ergonomics
• Safety and occupational health management
• Quality of life at work
• Management of socially friendly projects

Important Dates

Submission of manuscripts: 5 September, 2014

Notification to authors: 7 October, 2014

Final versions due: 9 December, 2014

 

Papers submitted earlier than the submission date will be put through the review process on rolling basis and authors may expect feedback sooner.

Inderscience journals to publish expanded papers from 2014 Science-to-Business Marketing Conference

Expanded versions of papers presented at the 2014 Science-to-Business Marketing Conference (2-4 June 2014, Winterthur, Zürich, Switzerland) will be published by the following journals:

• International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management
• International Journal of Knowledge Management Studies
• International Journal of Technology Management
• International Journal of Technology Transfer and Commercialisation
• World Review of Science, Technology and Sustainable Development

Inderscience journals to publish expanded papers from 2014 University-Industry Interaction Conference

Expanded versions of papers presented at the 2014 University-Industry Interaction Conference (23-25 April 2014, Barcelona, Spain) will be published by the following journals:

• International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management
• International Journal of Knowledge Management Studies
• International Journal of Technology Management
• International Journal of Technology Transfer and Commercialisation
• World Review of Science, Technology and Sustainable Development

Special issue published: "Green and Ubiquitous Computing"

International Journal of Internet Protocol Technology 7(4) 2013

• A federated interoperability architecture for health information systems
• Energy efficient network methods on local area network
• The antecedents and impacts of green eProcurement infrastructure: evidence from the Indonesian public sector
• Online educational services searching application using service-oriented architecture technique
• Reverse extraction of protocol model from network applications

Int. J. of Global Energy Issues to publish expanded papers from ETEC 2014

Expanded versions of papers presented at the Third International Conference on Emerging Trends in Energy Conservation (2-3 March 2014, Tehran University, Tehran, Iran) will be published by the International Journal of Global Energy Issues.

Int. J. of Simulation and Process Modelling to publish expanded papers from I3M 2014

Expanded versions of papers presented at the 11th International Multidisciplinary Modeling & Simulation Multiconference (22-24 September 2014, Bordeaux, France) will be published by the International Journal of Simulation and Process Modelling.

Special issue published: "Conceptual and Methodological Dimensions of Plausibility" (includes free OA paper)

International Journal of Foresight and Innovation Policy 9(2/3/4) 2013

• Pursuing plausibility
• Science, Utopia and the human condition
• (Im)Plausibility²
• Plausibility indications in future scenarios
• Anticipating the future of technology and society by way of (plausible) scenarios: fruitful, futile or fraught with danger?
• Imag[in]ing geoengineering - the plausible and the implausible
• 'Getting there early': strategies for seeking policy influence and anticipating nanotechnology's alternative futures
• What do I make of your latinorum? Sensitivity auditing of mathematical modelling

Regular Papers

• Development of an integrated foresight process oriented toward social vision creation on ageing society in Japan
• Intelligent piggybacking: a foresight policy tool for small catching-up economies
• Innovation futures: new forms of innovation and their implications for innovation policy (Open Acess)

Newly announced journal: International Journal of Family Business and Regional Development

Family business is a driving force in economic development worldwide. It constitutes a whole range of enterprises whereby one or more family members exercise significant influence through leadership, control, participation, governance, investment, etc. Due to the emotional connection with the communities in which such businesses are launched, the family invests heavily in development of the region it calls home. The International Journal of Family Business and Regional Development expands understanding of family business and the relationship with regional development in different economies and countries from an interdisciplinary perspective.

Call for papers: "Advanced Treatment of Landfill Leachate"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Environmental Engineering.

Leachate is produced when water moves downward through a landfill, picking up dissolved materials from the decomposing wastes. The amount of leachate produced is directly related to the amount of precipitation around the landfill. Landfill leachate is defined as liquid that seeps through solid waste in a landfill, producing extracted, dissolved, or suspended materials. It is a potential pollutant that may cause harmful effects on groundwater and surface water that surround a landfill site, unless returned to the environment in a carefully controlled manner.

Leachate contains high amounts of organic compounds, ammonia, heavy metals, a complex variety of materials, and many other hazardous chemicals. The quantity of this leachate is generally small compared with that of other wastewater, but its contents are extremely hazardous In this regard, dedicated treatment facilities are required before leachate can be discharged to the environment. Researchers worldwide are still searching for a total solution to the leachate problem.

Various site-specific treatment techniques can be used to treat hazardous wastewater depending on leachate characteristics, operation and capital costs, and regulations. The treatment technology that can be used may differ based on the type of leachate produced. Even after treatment, the effluent characteristics are not always found to comply with discharge standards. Leachate treatment schemes include biological, physical, and chemical processes; their combination and specific modification are greatly influenced by the characteristics of leachate produced.

Leachate in classical wastewater treatment plants is rarely treated because of its nature and high levels of pollutants (i.e., high chemical oxygen demand [COD] and ammonia content and low biodegradability). Treatment by a conventional water treatment system (i.e., a combination of sedimentation, biological treatment, filtration, and carbon adsorption) cannot remove salts or organics, such as harmful recalcitrant compounds. Therefore, the papers of this special issue will address research on advanced processes for landfill leachate treatment and related areas.

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

• Advanced leachate treatment using integrated membranes techniques
• Combination of advanced treatment applications on landfill leachate
• Physiochemical treatment processes for landfill leachate
• Sequential and simultaneous processes for the treatment of leachate
• Landfill leachate treatment via combination of biological and physiochemical treatment processes
• Chemical, electrochemical and electrolytic oxidation of landfill leachate
• Biodegradability improving of landfill leachate using advanced treatment processes
• Evaluation of landfill leachate treatment via advanced oxidation processes.

Important Dates
Deadline for paper submission: 31 March 2014
First turn of papers review: 31 June 2014
Second turn of papers review: 31 August 2014
Final papers submission: 31 October 2014

International Journal of Management and Decision Making to publish expanded papers from ISAHP 2014

Expanded versions of papers presented at the International Symposium on the Analytic Hierarchy Process (29 June - 2 July 2014, Washington, DC, USA) will be published by the International Journal of Management and Decision Making.

Special issue published: "Recent Advances in Manufacturing Technologies"

International Journal of Manufacturing Technology and Management 27(1/2/3) 2013

• Modelling and evaluation of flank wear progression of coated carbide tools in turning hardened steels
• Correlations between tool displacement and surface roughness in a boring process: an experimental study
• Prediction of surface roughness using cutting parameters and vibration signals in minimum quantity coolant assisted turning of Ti-6Al-4V alloy
• Role of build orientation in layered manufacturing: a review
• Formation of coating layers in low and high velocity molten hollow particles impact in thermal spray coating deposition process

Additional Papers

• Experimental investigation and optimisation of process parameters in micro-electrical discharge machining
• A study on improving machining characteristics of electrical discharge machining with modified transistor pulse generator
• Simultaneous optimisation of average kerf taper and surface roughness during pulsed Nd: YAG laser cutting of thin Al-alloy sheet for straight profile

Call for papers: "Security and Trust Issues in Peer-to-Peer Networks"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Computational Science and Engineering.

P2P (peer-to-peer) networking is contributing to a vast amount of internet traffic because many internet users heavily use or depend on file sharing applications such as BitTorrent, PPStream, eDonkey, and so on. While these applications often make various types of soft resources (e.g. audio, video, games, music, e-books) easily available via the P2P model, the operational mechanism of the network also makes the system vulnerable to various kinds of security threats.

Malicious peers may often be present in such architectures because of the inherent dependence on peers who should cooperate with each other. Attacks against P2P systems can take manifold forms: distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, injection of useless data (commonly termed as “poisoning”) into the network or pollution attack, identity theft, collusion attack, Sybil attack, etc. Due to the constant efforts of high-profile hackers to breach data and find new methods of attack, unmonitored P2P file-sharing systems have been threatened today at unparalleled magnitude. Sensitive information could easily be exposed, harvested and distributed across multiple P2P networks, often with information from government or critical military facilities.

To detect malicious peers which are responsible for the vast majority of attacks, some schemes use reputation of nodes while others are based on mutual certificates. More recently, social networking-based certification systems have been proposed in which a simple strategy of “Friend of Friend” is applied, taking a chunk of nodes in the network. This chunk structure could be expanded to cover a portion of the network. The idea is that a friend could certify and support another friend (i.e. here node). However, this kind of solution leaves many issues unanswered such as privacy issues, scalability of the network, handling of non-participating nodes, resource scarcity among socially networked nodes, and so on.

Besides these efforts, intelligent and adaptive methods are being developed using artificial intelligence, fuzzy logic, game theory, and so on.

This special issue's objective is to provide a platform for researchers to share their thoughts and findings on various security issues in P2P networks and systems. Our goal is to compile the latest advancements addressing the topic of security in P2P networks and systems, with particular focus on malicious peer detection-based approaches.

The issue will carry revised and substantially extended versions of selected papers presented at theSecure Peer-to-Peer Intelligent Networks & Systems Workshop (SPINS 2014), in conjunction with ANT 2014, but we also strongly encourage researchers unable to participate in the conference to submit articles for this call.

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

• Detecting malicious peers in P2P networks
• Thwarting pollution attacks or poisoning attacks in P2P networks
• Handling resource unavailability due to the presence of malicious peers
• Trust management in P2P systems
• Social networking-based security management in P2P networks
• P2P vs. social networking security
• Intelligent and adaptive secure P2P systems
• Game theory-based P2P system trust and security
• Defending against P2P data breaches
• Measuring evidence of cyber-criminal activity on P2P networks

Important Dates
Manuscript due date: 15 July, 2014

Special issue published: "Constructing Interstitial Heritage: Architectures, Visions and Experiences"

International Journal of Tourism Anthropology 3(2) 2013

• Thailand's neglected urban heritage: challenges for preserving the cultural landscape of provincial towns of Thailand
• Constituting Swiss heritage: discourse and the management of 'invasive species'
• Social milieu of 'tradition' as interstitial heritage: an example of Japanese intangible cultural heritage
• A voice for the past: making 'public' slavery heritage in Rio De Janeiro
• Hacking the history in Budapest: public monuments as forms of an alternative messaging system
• Livingstone-heritage and the interstitial spectres of Trafalgar Square

Special issue published: "The Crisis in Greece: Some Environmental and Economic Initiatives and the First Steps Towards Implementing Green Economics"

International Journal of Green Economics 7(4) 2013

Energy questions

• Assessing the socioeconomic effects caused by overvoltages to residential blocks: the case of Greece
• SHP stations and integrated rural development: a multivariate statistical approach

Agriculture, rural areas and environmental development

• Optimisation of water pricing in the Greek agricultural sector
• "Local peoples'" and "visitors'" views on infrastructure and services in protected areas: a case study from Evros, Greece
• Involving local people in sustainable rural development and conservation: a response to the economic crisis

Economic organisation and development

• The role of organisational politics in foreign direct investment
• Post-growth policy instruments

Call for papers: "SMAC: Social, Mobility, Analytics and Cloud Computing"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Intercultural Information Management.

Data has been anointed as the oil of the new millennium. This special edition traces data from sourcing to storage. It aims to condense the immense data sourcing potential of social media, the ubiquitous data access using mobile technology, the in-depth data insights of analytics and big data and finally the cost saving data computation and storage in cloud computing.

The issue will include selected papers from the International Conference on Business Management & Information Systems, ICBMIS2013, held in Dubai, November 2013, but papers not presented at this conference are also welcome.

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

• Digital media
• Consumer behaviour
• Big data analytics
• Data center design
• Cloud computing
• Virtualisation
• XAAS models
• Disruptive innovation
• Technology adoption life cycle
• Green computing
• Emerging markets and technology adoption
• Social business intelligence
• Social media analytics
• e-Commerce

Important Dates

Submission of manuscripts: 30 April, 2014
Notification to authors: 31 May, 2014
Final versions due: 1 July, 2014

New Editor for IJ Information and Operations Management Education

Dr. Harm-Jan Steenhuis, Professor of Management at Eastern Washington University, USA, has taken over as Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Information and Operations Management Education. After seven years of service, the previous Co-Editors, Professors Bradley Ewing and Mark Thompson, have stepped down to pursue new academic interests.

Inderscience journals to publish expanded papers from TITCON’14

Expanded versions of papers presented at the First International Conference on Trends in Technology for Convergence (8-9 April 2014, University of Oulu, Finland) will be published by the following journals:

• International Journal of Circuits and Architecture Design
• International Journal of Electronic Transport
• International Journal of Enterprise Network Management
• International Journal of Logistics Economics and Globalisation

Reminder - Inderscience Publishers journal content migrates to MetaPress

This is a reminder that Inderscience Publishers' journals moved from the IngentaConnect platform at the end of 2013, meaning that access to current and backfile material will only be available on the MetaPress platform (http://inderscience.metapress.com). 

This will affect both subscribers and New Issue Alert registrants. Users registered to access Inderscience Publishers' Table of Contents (ToC) alerts on IngentaConnect can subscribe to the same alerts free of charge on the MetaPress site by visitinghttp://inderscience.metapress.com and selecting 'New Issue alert' or 'RSS Feeds' from the left hand side bar. For any queries, please contact Inderscience Publishers at jrb@inderscience.com.

Call for papers: "Smart Materials and Intelligent Devices"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Nano and Biomaterials.

Intelligent devices and smart materials are impacting all fields of science, engineering and clinical medicine. There is an increased propensity to integrate smart materials with nano/micro technology to develop novel materials or structures for application in sensors, actuators, biomaterials, robotics, and structural health monitoring, etc. The combination of intelligent systems, materials, devices and nano/micro technology provides many advantages, realises novel designs that could not be achieved in traditional engineering, and also offers greater opportunities as well as challenges.

This issue will provide cutting edge information and instructive research guidance, encouraging more researchers, industry professionals, academics and scientists, to make their contribution to this dynamic research field.

The issue will carry revised and substantially extended versions of selected papers presented at the International Conference on Intelligent Computing, Communication and Devices (ICCD 2014), but we also strongly encourage researchers unable to participate in the conference to submit articles for this call.

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

• Intelligent materials, active structures, and their applications
• Smart micro- and nano-electronic devices and systems
• Sensors, detectors and actuators: materials and applications
• Integrated and intelligent simulation techniques
• Nano and multifunctional materials
• Structural health monitoring
• Bio-inspired materials, structures and applications
• Biomedical devices
• Nanorobotics
• Numerical methods including modeling, optimisation and simulation

Important Dates
Paper submission: 15 September, 2014 (extended)

Inderscience journals to publish expanded papers from ICSMS-2014

Expanded versions of papers presented at the 3rd International Conference on Sustainability and Management Strategy (21-22 March 2014, IMT Nagpur, India) will be published by the following journals:

• International Journal of Innovation and Sustainable Development
• International Journal of Management Practice
• International Journal of Society Systems Science
• International Journal of Sustainable Development
• International Journal of Sustainable Economy
• International Journal of Sustainable Strategic Management
• Progress in Industrial Ecology, An International Journal
• World Review of Science, Technology and Sustainable Development