Reversible logic for reverse logistics

There are several good reasons why a company might practice reverse logistics – the process of retrieving broken, worn out or obsolete items for recycling or refurbishment. These include improved public image wherein customers recognize the benefits of buying from an environmentally responsible company, improved environmental record and improved resource usage. However, there are several obstacles that lie between a world in which consumers dispose of their own goods and companies as a matter of ethical and economic obligations invoke a reverse logistics system.

According to researchers from Brazil and France, there are six main obstacles:

(i) Good income control

(ii) Standardized and mapped processes

(iii) Reduced time cycle

(iv) Information systems

(v) Planned logistic grid

(vi) Collaborative relations between customers and suppliers.

Writing in the International Journal of Environmental Technology and Management next month, Caroline Rodrigues Vaz of the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil, and colleagues there and at the University of Toulouse, France, UFSC, explain how companies have difficulties in implementing reverse logistics as part of their business because of the high cost and difficulties in measuring material returns. Nevertheless, several companies have successfully applied reverse logistics and have increased their competitiveness and improved their corporate image.

Given that reverse logistics is compulsory under electronic waste regulations in some parts of the world, companies should feel obliged to investigate this practice proactively for ethical, environmental and economic reasons sooner, rather than later. “Currently, a well-structured logistics process [including reverse logistics] brings benefits and advantages to companies, with a rise in competitiveness and consolidation of the corporate image, besides the reduction of consumption of natural resources and pollution to the environment,” the team says.

In order to implement a reverse logistics strategy, a company must first investigate the demand for such a system, including legal obligations. The company must then communicate its plans to customers and define the operation so that customers are fully aware of the requirements of the system and whether there are financial or other benefits to them of being involved save for the ethical disposal of old items. The company must be transparent in its plans for retrieved items whether they will resell, restore, recycle, repackage, or send to refuse.

“Some reasons to implement reverse logistics in companies” in Int. J. Environmental Technology and Management, 2014, 16, 467-479

Reversible logic for reverse logistics is a post from: David Bradley's Science Spot

via Science Spot http://ift.tt/1kw3zHb

Call for papers: "Recent Financial Developments in Vietnam"

For a special issue of the Afro-Asian Journal of Finance and Accounting.

Vietnam is an emerging economy where the economic opening and reform has transforming the economy from a central planned economy into a more market-oriented one. Since the Doi Moi economic reform in the mid 1980s, economic performance has been quite impressive. The Vietnam market is becoming more integrated into the world economy and there is an increasing presence of foreign investors in terms of FDI and portfolio investment in the country.

One of the main drivers of Vietnamese economic successes is the constant development in finance and the evolution of the banking and financial system. The constant changes in the financial landscape of Vietnam have attracted great interest from academic researchers, policy makers, institutional and foreign investors worldwide. This special issue is aimed at encouraging academic researchers worldwide to examine different aspects of constant and rapid changes in financial markets and financial system of Vietnam.

This Call invites both theoretical and empirical studies on those topics that are specific to the Vietnamese setting and can provide useful policy implications.

Possible research areas include, but are not limited to, following:

• Financing decision making in entrepreneurial and small firms
• Corporate governance in entrepreneurial and small firms
• Entrepreneurial governance and financial crisis
• Financing issues of entrepreneurial and small firms
• Financial management in entrepreneurial and small firms
• Corporate governance, disclosure and transparency issues of entrepreneurial and small firms, including IPOs and post-IPO performance
• Financial institutional reform and impacts on entrepreneurial finance
• Financial institutional liquidity management and impacts on performance
• Role of FDI and the economy
• Role of foreign investors in stock markets
• Management of commercial banks

Important Dates

Submission of manuscripts: 30 April, 2015

Special issue published: "Evidence and User Based Technology Enhanced Learning"

International Journal of Technology Enhanced Learning 5(3/4) 2013

Expanded versions of papers presented at the 2nd International Workshop on Evidenced-based Technology Enhanced Learning of 2013 (ebTEL 2013).

• Collaborative system for web seminars, distance learning sessions and virtual labs in biomedicine
• PLE for improving high school students' approach to learning (mathematics)
• Designing games for deaf children: first guidelines
• The educational relevance of experimental economics: a web application for learning entrepreneurship in high schools, universities and workplaces
• Test My Code
• Navigating complex challenges: digital competence and personal knowledge management in university education to foster skills for lifelong learning
• Cognitive abilities in the use of smart technology: difference in life span
• USALSIM: learning, professional practices and employability in a 3D virtual world

Call for papers: "The Integration of World Capital Markets: Developments and Prospects"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Bonds and Derivatives.

In 2002, Wurgler reported that financial markets appear to improve the allocation of capital. In the last few year, the financial crisis and the interaction between financial markets has shown some weaknesses. Some of these are linked to the integration of world capital markets. In fact, national capital markets have become more linked and recent history has shown that a local decision can have a huge impact on international markets. For these reason is very important to analyse the degree of integration and its impact on financial decisions.

Suitable topics include but are not limited to:

• Financial markets integration
• Monetary union and international capital markets
• International capital markets and the future of economic policy
• Global capital markets: integration, crisis and growth

Important Dates

Submission deadline: 15 July, 2014

Choices, NHS Total Quality Management

Quality is in the eye of the beholding manager – Managers in the UK’s National Health Service lack quality management skills and application and this has led to a lack of emphasis on operations excellence and future planning, according to Uche Nwabueze, now at the School of Business Administration, in Victoria, Texas, USA, who has 21 years of experience management research and consulting. Writing in the International Journal of Business Performance Management, he suggests that managers do little more than encourage their staff to work harder and faster, but instead of this leading to advancement and a questioning, intellectual approach to conventional healthcare wisdom, staff spend the majority of their time “putting out fires” to mix an emergency services metaphor.

It is therefore no surprise, Nwabueze says, that the NHS has no hospital to compare with the likes of Beth Israel, MD Anderson Cancer Centre and the Mayo Hospital in the USA. Moreover, it is, in its present condition unlikely to elicit a Deming-like observation of “a magnificent and dedicated workforce, unsurpassed management commitment, and the best statistical ability in the world”.

Nwabueze lays the blame squarely at the feet of successive governments starting with the 1979 Conservative government that allegedly sought to get the best out of existing resources and reduce costs in terms of maximising medical services through improvements in the re-structuring and management of the service, improved accountability, and better utilisation of manpower. Throughout the 1980s the NHS was the subject of much political debate and controversy, with ward closures, long waiting lists for critical operations and patients attempting to secure their health through the courts. The shift at the end of the 1980s to allowing hospitals to manage their own affairs – as hospital trusts – brought with it its own problems and the notion of Total quality management (TQM) was first mooted in a nascent form.

NHS employees can nevertheless pride themselves on the service they provide despite endless cutbacks and efforts to shuttle an essentially socialist healthcare system into the private commercial sector. It should be pointed out that in the UK socialism is not a dirty word synonymous with communism as perceived by many outsiders, indeed it is more akin to “capitalism with caring” on this side of The Atlantic. However, as TQM was implemented by the increasingly business-oriented hospital trusts, it seems that in the current climate most NHS hospitals have no clear definition of what quality actually represents from the patients perspective, says Nwabueze.

In his research he discovered three different perspectives, suggesting that quality is very much in the eye of the beholder, as with beauty: To the administrative staff, quality is about appearances, he found. To the chief executive, quality represents low cost. And, to the quality manager, quality is about giving each patient the bare essentials and not attempting to meet all of their requirements. Nwabueze cites many reasons, too numerous to list here, for the ultimate failure of TQM but suggests that it might also be the saviour of the NHS allowing its hospitals to aspire to the quality of a Beth Israel or a Mayo without compromising the vision of the Beveridge Report of 1942 that laid the foundations for a “comprehensive health and rehabilitation services for prevention and cure of disease”

Nwabueze, U. (2014) ‘TQM in the British National Health Service: nine reasons for failure’, Int. J. Business Performance Management, Vol. 15, No. 2, pp.127-137

Choices, NHS Total Quality Management is a post from: David Bradley's Science Spot

via Science Spot http://ift.tt/1kerRW2

Int. J. of Electronic Finance to publish expanded papers from Innovation for Financial Services

Expanded versions of papers presented at the Innovation for Financial Services (16-17 October 2014, Montréal, Canada) will be published by the International Journal of Electronic Finance.

Newly announced journal: International Journal of Islamic Marketing and Branding

The International Journal of Islamic Marketing and Branding lays the foundation for and advances Islamic marketing as a new discipline. Mandated to become the leader in the field, it provides the international marketing community with up-to-date research on all aspects of Islamic marketing and the Islamic market. IJIMB furnishes information on marketing needs and trends that introduce new ideas and theories and give insightful and clear illustrations of Islamic marketing thought and practice.

Special issue published: "Materials and Processing Technologies"

International Journal of Materials Engineering Innovation 5(1) 2014

• Preparation of nanostructures LaPO4 films by sol-gel reaction with different annealing temperature
• Critical process and performance parameters of thermal arc spray coating
• Effect of strain rate on tensile and work hardening properties for Al-Zn magnesium alloys
• Nanoindentation and microstructure of hybrid treated of AISI 316L at low temperature
• The physical and chemical natures of cellulose extracted from torch ginger stems
• Preparation and characterisation of epoxidised natural rubber/polyvinyl chloride/rice husk (ENR/PVC/RH) thin film composite by solution casting technique
• Effects of liquid epoxidised natural rubber on the torch ginger fibre reinforcement of natural rubber-polyethylene composites

Call for papers: "Advances in Advertising and Sponsorship Effectiveness"

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

Advertising and sponsorship dollars are an important revenue stream for sport organisations at all levels, from youth sport to professional. In 2013, the projected global spending on sponsorships was $53.3 billion, of which $13.79 billion were sport sponsorships in North America alone (IEG Sponsorship Report, 2013). With the Super Bowl in the major New York market, the Winter Olympic Games and World Cup this year, sponsorship and advertising remains an important focus.

Corporations continue to explore means of advertising and sponsoring with sport organisations in an effort to grow, solidify or enhance their brand. As the sport climate becomes increasingly commercialised and cluttered, and corporations’ sponsorship budgets become tighter, there is a need for understanding the impacts of advertising and sponsorships and optimising the investments.

The costs of advertisements and sponsorships in traditional outlets, such as television, print or radio, and new opportunities, such as through online advertising or social media, has led to increased interest in the effectiveness of sport advertisements and sponsorships. Strategies to enhance or understand the effects of corporate sponsorships or sport advertising allow both organisations and sponsors to benefit. This research should have practical implications for sport industry executives, in addition to theoretical considerations.

This special issue focuses on advances in determining advertising or sponsorship effectiveness. The topics will provide insight for advertising and corporate sponsorships from the managerial, activation, consumer, legal, sales or technological vantage point. Quantitative (including experimental design), qualitative and conceptual approaches are all encouraged.

Submissions are welcome from a broad range of topics which explore the effectiveness of sport advertising or sponsorships, including, but not limited to:

• Consumer response
• Factors influencing effectiveness
• Advances in measuring impact through technology (e.g., eye tracking)
• Economic valuation of advertising or sponsorships
• Variable measures of return on investment
• Scale development
• Sponsorship sales
• Theoretical models describing ad or sponsorship effects
• Saturation levels with consumer responses
• Associated legal issues
• Effectiveness of advertising via different media platforms, including online content, social media, mobile devices, sport video games, virtual advertising, etc.
• Relationship marketing as it relates to sponsorship
• Variables impacting athlete endorsement effectiveness
• Naming rights or jersey sponsorship effects
• Impact of ambush marketing on sponsor effects

Important Dates

Deadlines for submission: 12 December, 2014

Special issue published: "Service Improvement and Innovation"

International Journal of Process Management and Benchmarking 4(1) 2014

Expanded versions of papers presented at the International Conference on Managing the Asian Century 2013 (ICMAC 2013).

• Service improvement in Hong Kong retail banking through satisfied and committed employees
• The antecedence of customer loyalty in traditional restaurants in East Java, Indonesia
• Identification of positive deviance - methodology development
• Understanding challenges of supply chain sustainability in Asia
• Structural modelling and analysis of world-class maintenance system: a graph theoretic approach
• Border innovation management, improved passenger services and satisfaction acceptance
• Improved genetic algorithms for the travelling salesman problem

Special issue published: "Emerging Issues and Methodological Challenges in Organisational Management"

International Journal of Environmental Technology and Management 16(5/6) 2013

• Study on environmental impact model of grid-connected wind power generation
• A GIS-based methodology to delineate aquifer recharge areas
• Analysis of the business practices of sustainability in construction companies in the infrastructure sector in Brazil
• Management in a Brazilian metal mechanic leading company: social and environmental perspectives
• Sustainability in the civil construction industry: an exploratory study of life cycle analysis methods
• Virtual organisation model: the new organisation and value chain framework
• Qualitative risk assessment for using a mature oil field as a pilot experiment of CO2 geological storage in Brazil
• Some reasons to implement reverse logistics in companies
• Model to assess economic impact of hot environments on productivity

Special issue published: "Intelligent Applications in Computer Vision and Related Areas"

International Journal of Computational Vision and Robotics 4(1/2) 2014

• A speed invariant human identification system using gait biometrics
• Redundancy removal for isolated gesture in Indian sign language and recognition using multi-class support vector machine
• Obstacle avoidance for mobile robot navigation in unknown environment using geometrical information of mobile camera images
• Lapped transform-based image denoising with the generalised Gaussian prior
• Efficient indexing techniques for record matching and deduplication
• A genetic algorithm-based clustering and two-scan labelling for colour image segmentation
• A secure algorithm for biometric-based digital image watermarking in DCT domain
• Development of an electromyographic controlled biomimetic prosthetic hand
• Least squares estimation-based adaptive observation model for aerial visual tracking applications
• Automatic registration of high resolution satellite images using artificial immune system and mutual information
• Image fusion based on bilateral sharpness criterion in DT-CWT domain

Int. Journal of Computing Science and Mathematics to increase issues

The International Journal of Computing Science and Mathematics has announced an increase from four to six issues in 2015.

Special issue published: "The Ethnographic Lens"

International Journal of Work Organisation and Emotion 6(1) 2014

• With a little help from the lens: using photography to experience and represent organisations ethnographically
• Encouraging the managerial imagination: ethnography, smart phones and novel ways of seeing
• Manager's dance: reflecting management interaction through creative movement
• The forest of mirrors: mimesis and the doctrine of management control in a French multinational
• The aesthetic diaspora: a photographic study of objects in the workspace

Special issue published: "The Future of Social Entrepreneurship"

International Journal of Entrepreneurial Venturing 6(1) 2014

• Theorising and strategising with models: generative models of social enterprises
• A developmental and constructionist perspective on social entrepreneur mobilisation
• Exploring the motivation to create social ventures: a model of moral engagement
• Social entrepreneurs and social change: tracing impacts of social entrepreneurship through ideas, structures and practices
• Substantiating social entrepreneurship research: exploring the potential of integrating social capital and networks approaches
• The financing structure of social enterprises: conflicts and implications

Special issue published: "Advances in Powertrain System Integration"

International Journal of Powertrains 3(1) 2014

• Nitrous oxide emissions from a medium-duty diesel truck exhaust system
• Development of a light vehicle diesel aftertreatment system with DOC DPF and urea SCR
• Model-based development and calibration of last generation diesel powertrains for passenger cars
• Investigation of piston slap induced vibration of IC engine considering the coupled vibration of connecting rod, crankshaft and engine block
• Intake system acoustical analysis and noise prediction of a turbocharged diesel engine
• Preliminary study on compressed air powertrain of a rescue vehicle for mine accidents
• Implementation of a novel hydrogen direct-injection concept in single and multi-cylinder engines: CFD, experimental and engine powertrain design studies

First issue: International Journal of International Journal of Petroleum Engineering (free sample issue available)

The International Journal of Petroleum Engineering is an interdisciplinary and refereed journal, a think tank that fosters innovative solutions to design efficient petroleum operations. It promotes feasible system design, development, and management bringing together sustainable technologies, the people, and sound processes. It provides cross learning between various scientific and technological, as well as business and economics, disciplines comprising exploration, drilling, production, and processing, taking into account environment, health and safety, and public concerns.

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

Special issue published: "Simulation and Processing at Large Scale Systems"

International Journal of Simulation and Process Modelling 8(4) 2013

Expanded versions of papers presented at the 6th CISIS-2012/ICLS-2012.

• ComplexSim: a flexible simulation platform for complex systems
• Concurrent simulation in the cloud with the mJADES framework
• Multiple project portfolio scheduling using recurrent neural networks
• Energy and distance adaptive clustering algorithm for 3D wireless sensor networks
• A social similarity-aware multicast routing protocol in delay tolerant networks
• Research of data fusion methods of compressed sensing-based orchard monitoring system by wireless sensor networks

Int. J. of Human Factors and Ergonomics to publish expanded papers from HFES Europe Chapter Annual Meeting

Expanded versions of papers presented at the HFES Europe Chapter Annual Meeting (8-10 October 2014, Lisbon (Lisboa), Portugal) will be published by the International Journal of Human Factors and Ergonomics.

Second reminder - Inderscience Publishers content migrates to Metapress

All Inderscience Publishers' journal content has now migrated from IngentaConnect to Metapress. From 30th March 2014 onwards access to current and backfile material will only be available from the Metapress platform at http://inderscience.metapress.com. This will affect both subscribers and New Issue alert registrants.

Inderscience Publishers' staff will make sure that subscribers are set up on the Metapress site, but you will need to let them know your current IP address information so that they can do so. It may be that your institution is already registered to use Metapress for Inderscience journals or other publishers' journals, in which case the transition will be quick and easy.

Please note that any usage statistics from Inderscience Publishers' journals on IngentaConnect will not be moving to Metapress. This data will be available for extraction from your IngentaConnect administrator account until the end of March 2014.

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 visiting http://inderscience.metapress.com and selecting 'New Issue alert' or 'RSS Feeds' from the left hand side bar.

Inderscience Publishers sent an email out to all contacts earlier this summer, so it may also be that you have already made the change. But if not, or if you have any questions, please do make contact urgently with Inderscience Publishers at the following email address: jrb@inderscience.com

Call for papers: "The Evolution of Doctoral Education towards Industry and the Professions"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Technology and Globalisation.

Recent social, economic and cultural changes brought about by the knowledge economy have called into question the traditional role and function of doctoral education.

 

On the one hand , there is the need to promote a closer cooperation between universities and businesses to foster development and business innovation. In this respect, many educational institutions are unprepared for this challenge, as university research has long evolved in isolation from socio-economic development. On the other hand, these changes have raised a number of issues with regard to the employability of doctorate graduates inside and outside of academia, as they are increasingly exposed to the risk of a mismatch between their educational qualifications and the skills required by the labour market.

 

This situation has urged educational institutions to progressively gear doctoral education curricula to better meet the needs of the labour market. These efforts are aimed at preparing youth for industry-oriented or professional careers outside of academia, with a view to increasing employability and reducing unemployment levels among graduates, while promoting cooperation between businesses and universities, increasingly recognised as a crucial lever for competitiveness.

 

These trends have led to the emergence of a whole series of doctoral programmes which combine, to different extents and in different forms, academic research and labour market experience.

 

These kinds of programmes differ extensively from country to country, ranging from professional doctorates to industrial PhDs. A whole array of “hybrid” programmes that do not fall within a specific category have been emerging in recent years all over the world as a result of most recent trends in higher education.

 

In the light of the legal changes occurring in many countries to foster this new type of doctoral curricula, it is now all the more important to devote special attention to the issue. The evolution of doctoral education raises a number of questions when it comes to understanding the quality and effectiveness of higher education.

 

It is in this light that the Harvard Kennedy Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs Science, Technology and Globalization Project and ADAPT (Association for International and Comparative Studies in the Field of Labour Law and Industrial Relations, founded in 2000 by professor Marco Biagi) have decided to devote a special issue to this highly topical subject, with a view to collecting international and comparative studies and analyses as well as identifying and disseminating best practice existing all over the world and which could be further implemented across countries.

 

The editors and guest editors solicit original articles which discuss the above-mentioned issues. Articles’ subject matter should examine the issues at hand from an international and interdisciplinary perspective.

 

Authors of some of the papers published in the special issue may be invited to present their papers – provided they have been significantly adapted for a conference audience and their provenance is announced – at the V Edition of the ADAPT International Conference on Productivity, Investment in Human Capital and the Challenge of Youth Employment.

 

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

• Cooperation between businesses, higher educationand research institutions as a lever of social and economic development at the local level and as an innovation factor for universities (in terms of teaching, research and placement)
• Innovative doctoral programmes aimed at increasing the employability of doctorate graduates developed in cooperation between universities and businesses: legal frameworks, actors involved, functioning and curricula
• Models, methods and tools for the development of soft skills as well as technical and professional skills in doctoral programmes
• Becoming a researcher: good practice in the field of training, and doctorates’ employability inside and outside academia
• Professional careers of doctorate graduates: analysis of career paths and impact of doctoral education on employment outcomes

Important Dates

Submission deadline: 30 May, 2014

Int. Journal of Global Warming to increase issues further

The International Journal of Global Warming is now increasing its issue frequency to 8 issues per year from 2015.

Researching the serious business of Facebook

Establishing and maintaining relationships online is becoming ever more important in the expanding global knowledge economy. But what happens to the relationship between business and consumer when a user “unfriends”? Writing in the International Journal of the Business Environment, Christopher Sibona and Steven Walczak of The Business School, at the University of Colorado Denver, USA, have found that there are many online and offline reasons why a person might “unfriend” another party.

The team has examined these factors and offer insights into how virtual business relationships might be sustained and promoted. They point out how transient online relationships can be, how easy they are to terminate and in most contexts do not carry the social ramifications of the end of an offline relationship. As such, it is, they suggest, important for organizations that use online social networking to learn how to reduce attrition, loss of “friends” or “followers” and also to consider how employees might be frustrated by the volatile nature of online relationships.

Facebook remains a significant player in the online social media network with much research focused on this system. Despite the occasional proclamation of the death of Facebook, there remain more than one billion or so users across the globe and a large proportion of them are highly active on the site and on mobile. Recent media attention claiming that young users were abandoning the site in droves proved flawed when a typographical error in the original research paper was revealed!

The use of Facebook, Twitter, and other social platforms while initially seen by the corporate world as an annoyance, and then an extension of traditional marketing has now evolved for many, into a real-time and highly engaged approach to customer relationship management. Some companies, not-for-profits, and other organizations have recognized its potential and adapted to it more eagerly and more efficiently than others. Many have tried to game the system or exploit it purely for their own ends with no respect for the consumers or the community as a whole only to be forced to make embarrassing apologies when they are shown the error of their ways.

“In addition to providing increased consumer satisfaction, social networking sites have the potential to also enhance intra- and inter-organizational knowledge sharing (especially with the growing presence of dynamic and geographically separated teams) and serve as an expertise locater within the organization,” the team explains. Moreover, it is important for organizations to recognize that the digital natives that are their new and future employees expect social networking and social media to be a significant part of their employment and expect to have access as part of their job.

The team has factored politics, religion, sex, bigotry, use of expletives, misdeeds, loss of trust, personality, incompatibilities, promotions, breakdown of offline relationships and many others as reasons for unfriending. They have carried out a statistical analysis of more than 1500 English-speaking individuals surveyed.

They found that there are two broad reasons for unfriending: offline and online. The offline reasons follow more traditional bonding social capital influences and are affected by all three friendship issues: interdependence, effort and value. Online reasons are affected by both bonding and bridging social capital relationships, they explain.

They offer several fundamental conclusions as to how business can avoid being unfriended:

Businesses should avoid posting too frequently as this requires more effort on the part of the user and can be perceived as unacceptable behavior. They should ensure they are committed to relationships at the individual user level to make the social ties stronger. They should also generally avoid controversial and taboo subjects as these often polarize followers. In terms of employees, management should ensure their staff have separate business and personal accounts and keep the two fairly separate. Management and staff need to adhere to predetermined policies. How organisations will cope with the recent acquisition of WhatsApp and Instagram remains to be seen.

“Unfriending on Facebook: factors affecting online relationship termination in social networks and its impact on business” in Int. J. Business Environment, 2014, 6, 199-221

Researching the serious business of Facebook is a post from: David Bradley's Science Spot

via Science Spot http://ift.tt/1gZ7n30

Call for papers: "Computational Intelligence in Cultural Informatics"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Computational Intelligence Studies.

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) can be used to preserve cultural heritage and make it accessible to the general public. For this purpose, cultural informatics (CI) combines different research areas of informatics in order to address issues in archaeology, museum documentation and management, site and monument management, art conservation, archives and libraries, and other cultural disciplines.

Submissions may be of a theoretical nature or may present the state-of-the-art of technologies used in museums, archaeological sites, monuments, art conservation and libraries. Additionally, authors may present applications including 3D virtual environments, archives and collection management systems, web- and museum-based interactive applications, or may comparatively evaluate alternative methodologies and algorithms that are used within the area of cultural informatics.

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

• Virtual reality in cultural informatics
• Human-computer interaction in cultural informatics
• Cultural heritage applications in cultural informatics
• Recommendation systems in cultural informatics
• e-Learning systems for culture
• Mobile computing in cultural informatics
• Multimedia in cultural informatics
• Hybrid systems in cultural informatics
• Artificial intelligence in cultural informatics
• GIS in informatics
• New 3D cultural data acquisition, processing and visualisation methods

Important Dates
Paper submission: 20 September, 2014
Author notification: 20 December, 2014
Final paper submission: 20 February, 2015

Call for papers: "The Drivers for Coopetition Strategy in the Wine Sector: a SME’s Point of View"

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

Coopetition is a business strategy based on a combination of cooperation and competition, resulting from an understanding that business competitors can benefit when they work together.

 

Whereas a number of authors (Brandenburger and Nalebuff, 1996; Lado, Boyd and Hanlon, 1997; Gnyawali and Madhavan, 2001) have highlighted the importance of coopetition for today’s interfirm dynamics, scientific investigation on this topic has not gone much farther than naming, claiming or evoking it (Dagnino and Padula, 2002).

 

Coopetition strategy has been particularly investigated for large enterprises, but it could also be an important strategy for SMEs. In traditional sectors - such as the wine sector - coopetition could be an important strategy for a sustainable competitive advantage.

 

SMEs of the “old world” compete in a multinational arena, but they may not have the correct strategic tools to do so. Coopetition could be a way to have success in this area.

 

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

• Cooperative strategy in wine sector
• Collaboration methods for competitive advantage
• Coopetition strategy: theory and cases
• The value of relationships in the networked economy
• Marketing coopetition for small businesses
• Tools of coopetition strategy
• Financial performance of coopetitive wine firms
• The role of local actors for coopetition strategies

 

Important Dates

Submission deadline: 31 May, 2014

Notification of authors: 31 July, 2014

Revised papers submission deadline: 30 September, 2014

Self-powered chargers

New technology to capture the kinetic energy of our everyday movements, such as walking, and to convert it into electrical energy has come a step closer thanks to research to be published in the International Journal Biomechatronics and Biomedical Robotics.

Researchers have for many years attempted to harvest energy from our everyday movements to allow us to trickle charge electronic devices while we are walking without the need for expensive and cumbersome gadgets such as solar panels or hand-cranked chargers. Lightweight devices are limited in the voltage that they can produce from our low-frequency movements to a few millivolts. However, this is not sufficient to drive electrons through a semiconductor diode so that a direct current can be tapped off and used to charge a device, even a low-power medical implant, for instance.

Now, Jiayang Song and Kean Aw of The University of Auckland, New Zealand, have built an energy harvester that consists of a snake-shapes strip of silicone, polydimethylsiloxane, this acts as a flexible cantilever that bends back and forth with body movements. The cantilever is attached to a conducting metal coil with a strong neodymium, NdFeB, magnet inside, all enclosed in a polymer casing. When a conductor moves through a magnetic field a current is induced in the conductor. This has been the basis of electrical generation in power stations, dynamos and other such systems since the discovery of the effect in the nineteenth century. Using a powerful magnet and a conducting coil with lots of turns means a higher voltage can be produced.

In order to extract the electricity generated, there is a need to include special circuitry that takes only the positive voltage and passes it along to a rechargeable battery. In previous work, this circuitry includes a rectifying diode that allows current to flow in one positive direction only and blocks the reverse, negative, current. Unfortunately, the development of kinetic chargers has been stymied by current diode technology that requires a voltage of around 200 millivolts to drive a current.

Song and Aw have now side-stepped this obstacle by using a tiny electrical transformer and a capacitor, which acts like a microelectronic battery. Their charger weighing just a few grams oscillates, wiggling the coil back and forth through the neodymium magnetic field and produces 40 millivolts. The transformer captures this voltage and stores up the charge in the capacitor in fractions of a second. Once the capacitor is full it discharges sending a positive pulse to the rechargeable battery, thus acting as its own rectifier.

The team concedes that this is just the first step towards a viable trickle charger that could be used to keep medical devices, monitors and sensors trickle charged while a person goes about their normal lives without the need for access to a power supply. The system might be even more useful if it were embedded in an implanted medical device to prolong battery life without the need for repeated surgical intervention to replace a discharged battery. This could be a boon for children requiring a future generation of implanted, electronic diagnostic and therapeutic units.

Song J. & Aw K.C. (2014). An energy harvester from human vibrational kinetic energy for wearable biomedical devices, International Journal of Biomechatronics and Biomedical Robotics, 3 (1) 54. DOI: 10.1504/IJBBR.2014.059281

Self-powered chargers is a post from: David Bradley's Science Spot

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

Call for papers: "Healthcare Management: Quality and Standards in a Global World"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Services and Standards.

This special issue aims to publish papers looking at the global healthcare environment after the Affordable Health Care Act was enacted in the US, the largest economy in the world, and the latest to offer affordable healthcare to its citizens.

The issue solicits conceptual and empirical papers that pursue either theory building or theory testing related to demonstrating that quality and setting standards are critical in the management of healthcare in the US, and in the rest of world. Papers based on empirical methodologies (e.g. case research, survey research, etc.), simulation, modelling or literature review and theory that fulfil the mission of the journal are encouraged. The issue also welcomes interdisciplinary papers that support the same mission.

Quality is critical for setting standards in the management of a healthcare system the scope and magnitude of that of the US. The US may learn from other healthcare systems in the world already offering services of high quality and doing so efficiently; neighbouring Canada and countries in Europe such as Germany and France have met the challenge of quality healthcare at efficient costs. This is the kind of healthcare management the US aspires to achieve.

The objective of this call is to disseminate research that is relevant to practitioners and that identifies avenues for measuring the impact of the newly enacted Affordable Health Care Act, and that enhances and streamlines the quality of healthcare delivery in the US and in the world.

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

• Healthcare management: do quality and standards vary based on national culture?
• Motivation medicine and healthcare management
• Ethics in healthcare management
• Global healthcare management: similarities and differences
• Advances in electronic healthcare management
• Performance measurement of the Affordable Health Care Act
• The Affordable Health Care Act: why it needs standards if it is to succeed

Important Dates

Submission of manuscripts: 1 April, 2014

Notification to authors: 25 April, 2014

Final versions due: 15 May, 2014

Special issue published: "Recent Applications of Advanced Mechatronics and Machine Visions"

International Journal of Intelligent Systems Technologies and Applications 13(1/2) 2014

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

• A proposed FPGA architecture for mean shift based object tracking with bandwidth constrained sensors
• FPGA-based bio-cybernetic automation system for lab-on-a-chip zebrafish embryo arrays
• A cost effective high-speed auto-coded embedded model predictive controller
• Recursive Gauss-Newton based training algorithm for neural network modelling of an unmanned rotorcraft dynamics
• Iterative parameter estimation and model prediction of a rotary unmanned aerial vehicle
• Video event detection for fault monitoring in assembly automation
• Mechanical properties and impact response of disc-spring vibration isolator combined with polyurethane pieces
• A research on the structural design and optimisation and driving technology of decoupled vibratory feeding system

Special issue published: "Supply Chain Risk Management"

International Journal of Applied Management Science 6(1) 2014

• Supply chain risk management: an analysis of sources of risk and mitigation strategies
• Supply chain structure and risk attitude in the selection of environmentally friendly products
• Supply chain risks: development of model and empirical evidence

Additional Papers

• Evaluating manufacturing systems by fuzzy ANP: a case study
• Imitation, stock markets and Stackelberg games

Int. Journal of Exergy increases issues

The International Journal of Exergy will increase its issue frequency from 8 to 12 in 2015.

The International Journal of Exergy is indexed in Web of Science's SCI, Scopus and Compendex, among other services.

Genetically modified benefits

Despite the proclamations of the so-called “organic” movement and the anti-industry activists, small farmers in developing countries are benefiting significantly from genetically modified crops, according to a large review of the peer-reviewed research literature by US consultants. Writing in the International Journal of Biotechnology, Janet Carpenter of JE Carpenter Consulting LLC in Boylston, Massachusetts explains how they see improvements in health, education, debt repayment, maternal care services and food security.

The primary research literature tends to focus on the technology itself and the business aspects of the development and deployment of GM crops. However, there is also a substantial number of papers that have detail investigations of the broader set of socio-economic impacts, which has provided Carpenter with the necessary resources to conclude that, “The results of the available literature show that the impacts of the technology are multi-faceted and ripple through local and national economies.”

• While proportions vary, the literature show GM farmers receive a large share of the benefits. When prices change, consumers benefit from lower prices.


• Smaller farms in many countries benefit from adoption of GM crops in some cases more than big farms.


• The few studies that considered household income show greater increases among lower-income farmers in adopting GM crops.


• Labor requirements are often cut by reduced spraying and tillage but increased by greater crop yields.


• In studies of social welfare, GM adopters report improvements in health, education, debt repayment, maternal care services and food security.

Carpenter J.E. (2013). The socio-economic impacts of currently commercialised genetically engineered crops, International Journal of Biotechnology, 12 (4) 249. DOI: 10.1504/IJBT.2013.059248

Genetically modified benefits is a post from: David Bradley's Science Spot

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Special issue published: "e-Learning and Societal Needs"

International Journal of Continuing Engineering Education and Life-Long Learning 24(1) 2014

Expanded versions of papers presented at the 4th Annual International Scientific Conference entitled
‘Theoretical and Practical Aspects of Distance Learning’ (DLCC2012).

• Quality management in e-courses
• E-learning system design with the focus on knowledge flows and learning objects
• A textbook without pages?
• Generation of individual learning path in distant education
• E-learning as an effective modern method of building a sustainable society
• Blending foreign language learning with key competences. Does e-learning do the trick?
• E-training in practical teacher development - from local to global connections
• The use of blended learning and its influence on the assessment of motivating factors to learn English

Inderscience is media partner for Global Liner Shipping Conference 2014

Inderscience is a media partner for Global Liner Shipping Conference 2014 (9-10 April 2014, Hamburg): Consolidation, collaboration and the future of container shipping.

The journal involved is the International Journal of Shipping and Transport Logistics.

Follow the conference on

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Twitter
Global Liner #Shipping Conference. Hear from @MaerskLine, @Nestle, @Sony and other exprts. bit.ly/1evKqQi

Special issue published: "Spacecraft Formation Flying – Part I"

International Journal of Space Science and Engineering 1(4) 2013

Expanded versions of papers presented at the 5th International Conference on Spacecraft Formation Flying Missions and Technologies (SFFMT 2013).

• Science enabled by high precision inertial formation flying
• PROBA-3 mission
• TanDEM-X: DEM acquisition in the third year era
• Results of PRISMA/FFIORD extended mission and applicability to future formation flying and active debris removal missions
• CloudSat's return to the A-Train
• Prospects of multiple global navigation satellite system tracking for formation flying in highly elliptical earth orbits

Inderscience is media partner for Advanced Automotive Safety USA 2014

Inderscience is a media partner for Advanced Automotive Safety USA 2014 (8-9 July 2014, Novi, Michigan, USA).

The journals involved are:

• International Journal of Automotive Technology and Management
• International Journal of Vehicle Autonomous Systems
• International Journal of Vehicle Information and Communication Systems
• International Journal of Vehicle Systems Modelling and Testing

Special issue published: "Technology Management for Sustainable e-Tourism: Challenges and Opportunities"

International Journal of Technology Management 64(1) 2014

• Tourists' acceptance of advanced technology-based innovations for promoting arts and culture
• Image-focused social media for a market analysis of tourism consumption
• Using data mining for service satisfaction performance analysis for mainland tourists in Taiwan
• Evaluation model for e-tourism product: a hidden Markov model-based algorithm
• Destination management systems: creation of value for visitors of tourism destinations
• Why are bloggers willing to share their thoughts via travel blogs?

Inderscience is media partner for Global Automotive Lightweight Materials 2014

Inderscience is a media partner for Global Automotive Lightweight Materials 2014 (23-24 April 2014, London, UK).

The journals involved are:

• International Journal of Automotive Composites
• International Journal of Automotive Technology and Management
• International Journal of Materials Engineering Innovation
• International Journal of Materials and Product Technology
• International Journal of Vehicle Design
• International Journal of Vehicle Noise and Vibration
• International Journal of Vehicle Safety

Call for papers: "Health and Clinical Informatics in Chinese Medicine"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Computers in Healthcare.

Chinese medicine is valuable heritage of Chinese traditional culture. As one of the exchange issues of oriental civilisation, Chinese medicine has been disseminated by the Western world since the 1970s and has attracted universal attention through its intriguing techniques and confirmed efficacy in treating disease and disorders.

Studies on both the basic mechanisms and clinical efficacy of Chinese medicine are implemented by universities and research institutes both in China and in the West. The information era has introduced the application of computers and informatics to this traditional art of Eastern healthcare. New ideas and skills based on informatics are being proposed for the study of Chinese medicine, which leads to the need for international communication and exchange.

The aim of this special issue is to provide an international forum for discussion on the latest outcomes and novel ideas on informatics in Chinese medicine. The issue will explore the themes of health informatics in Chinese medicine and clinical studies on Chinese medicine based on informatics.

The issue will carry revised and substantially extended versions of selected papers presented at the 2013 Workshop of Information Technology for Chinese Medicine (ITCM 2013), 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 study of informatics in Chinese medicine
• Treatment mechanisms of Chinese medicine based on informatics
• Collection, analysis and mining of Chinese medicine diagnostic data
• Collection, analysis and mining of medical records of Chinese medicine
• Analysis and data mining of herbal prescriptions and combinations of Chinese medicines
• Data processing of Chinese herbal medicine
• Electronic processing and data organising of ancient literature of Chinese medicine
• Informatics on acupoint combination patterns
• Application of information technology to clinical research of Chinese medicine
• Other issues related to informatics in Chinese medicine

Important Dates
Manuscript submission deadline: 30 April, 2014
First round of reviews: 20 May, 2014

Special issue published: "m-Commerce Research"

International Journal of Mobile Communications 12(1) 2014

• Analysing m-commerce research: technology, applications and research themes
• Empirical exploration of factors that determine multiple mobile phone subscriptions
• Mobile websites: usability evaluation and design
• A comparative study in educational techniques by using combined environment via computer and mobile devices in asynchronous discussion forum
• A technology-organisation-environment (TOE)-based m-business value instrument

We've reached over 4000 likes on Facebook. Thanks so much to everyone who's followed us!

Inderscience's Facebook page has just passed a landmark of 4000 followers. A sincere thank you to those who have 'liked' our page, and we wish you all a great weekend!

Call for papers: "Energy Issues and Narratives in Global Affairs, International Relations and World History"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Global Energy Issues.

Every decade or so, energy narratives focus on a new development or revolution in the use of energy. These developments are related to the issue of energy transitions from fossil fuels such as coal to oil and then to natural gas, simultaneous with narratives about alternative sources of energy.

 

The 1950s and 1960s was a period of economic growth for many developed economies based on affordable oil energy that became an alternative to coal energy (historically the main fuel of the industrial revolution). The 1970s oil crises or oil shocks focused on diversification to non-fossil fuel sources of energy such as nuclear power. The 1980s and 1990s onwards witnessed a continuing narrative on the environmental benefits of renewable sources of energy and the fossil fuel demand from large emerging economies of the 21st century reinforced this idea.

 

In the contemporary period, the shale oil and gas revolution marks another milestone in this evolving energy narrative.

 

This special issue is interested in the following objectives. Firstly, how do contemporary developments and historical narratives on energy shape international relations and global affairs? How can they be examined through the lens of realism, constructivism, social history, conflicts and peace studies? How do they feature in constructed ideas or pragmatic realities of energy "silk roads" and "potentially exploitable" maritime resources?

 

Secondly, what are the latest debates in energy development and hot topics/issues related to energy use? How are they shaped by ideas of ethical consumption and issues of sustainability? What are the latest academic discussions on the balance between overdependence, diversification and alternatives to any single source of fuel.

 

Thirdly, what can we learn from studying the historical narratives and interpretations of energy transitions? Is the path heading towards the direction of relying on environmentally cleaner fuels deterministic? What are the debates surrounding the benchmarks for determining the environmental value of fuels? Or is energy consumption cyclical in going back to traditional sources of energy that existed in pre-modernity (e.g. waterwheels and hydropower)? Will the oil shale and gas revolution bring back the significance of fossil fuels again? Can we spot issues of continuity and discontinuity in these areas? And were the discontinuities a response to external impacts and shocks? If so, what were these impacts and shocks?

 

This call for papers is a multidisciplinary platform to discuss these issues, welcoming original research articles, commentaries, review articles and book reviews.

 

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

• The shale oil and gas revolution
• International relations and global affairs issues related to the field of energy
• Energy use and environmental impacts
• Energy issues pertaining to demand by large emerging economies
• The Great East Japan Earthquake's impact on the energy needs of East Asia
• The environmental impact of energy use and the role of environmental NGOs
• Corporate social responsibility, ethical consumption and issues of sustainability in energy use
• Alternative sources of energy: solar, hydropower, methane hydrate, wind, etc.
• Historical interpretations and narratives of energy use, including revisionist accounts and the role of energy in world history
• Commentaries, critiques and studies of energy policies as case studies
• The future of fossil fuels

Important Dates

Submission of manuscripts: 31 December, 2014

Notification to authors: 1 June, 2015

Final versions due: 1 June, 2016

Geographical passwords worth their salt (free Open Access article)

Now you can protect yourself online with your secret place.

It’s much easier to remember a place you have visited than a long, complicated password, which is why computer scientist Ziyad Al-Salloum of ZSS-Research in Ras Al Khaimah, UAE, is developing a system he calls geographical passwords.

Writing in a freely available “open access” research paper in the International Journal of Security and Networks, Al-Salloum emphasizes how increasingly complicated our online lives are becoming with more and more accounts requiring more and more passwords. Moreover, he adds that even strong, but conventional passwords are a security risk in the face of increasingly sophisticated “hacker” tools that can break into servers and apply brute force to reveal passwords. Indeed, over the last few years numerous major corporations and organizations – LinkedIn, Sony, the US government, Evernote, Twitter, Yahoo and many others – have had their systems compromised to different degrees and overall millions of usernames and associated passwords have been harvested and even leaked online.

Al-Salloum has devised geographical passwords as a simple yet practical approach to access credentials that could provide secure access to different entities and at the same time mitigate many of the vulnerabilities associated with current password-based schemes. The new “geo” approach exploits our remarkable ability to recall with relative ease a favorite or visited place and to use that place’s specific location as the access credentials. The prototype system developed at ZSS – Research has proven itself capable of protecting a system against known password threats. “Proposing an effective replacement of conventional passwords could reduce 76% of data breaches, based on an analysis of more than 47,000 reported security incidents,” Al-Salloum reports.

The geographical password system utilizes the geographical information derived from a specific memorable location around which the user has logged a drawn boundary- longitude, latitude, altitude, area of the boundary, its perimeter, sides, angles, radius and other features form the geographical password. For instance, the user might draw a six-side polygon around a geographical feature such as the Eiffel Tower, Uluru (also known as Ayer’s Rock), a particular promontory on the Grand Canyon, a local church, a particular tree in the woodland where they walk their dog…or any other geographical feature. Once created, the password is then “salted” by adding a string of hidden random characters that are user-specific and the geographical password and the salt “hashed” together. Thus, even if two users pick the same place as their geographical password the behind-the-scenes password settings is unique to them.

If the system disallowed two users from picking the same location, this will make it much easier for adversaries to guess passwords.

The guessability, or entropy, of a geographical password would increase significantly if the password comprised two or more pinpointed locations. Al-Salloum explains that a whole-earth map might have 360 billion tiles at 20 degrees of “zoom”, which offers an essentially limitless number of essentially unguessable geographical passwords.

“GeoGraphical passwords” (Open Access PDF) in Int. J. Security and Networks, 2014, 9, 56-62

Geographical passwords worth their salt is a post from: David Bradley's Science Spot

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Special issue published: "Sustainable Innovation"

International Journal of Innovation and Sustainable Development 8(1) 2014

• Voluntary carbon market and its contributions to sustainable development: analysis of the Monte Pascoal-Pau Brazil ecological corridor
• Environmental strategies and global environmental governance: the experience of carbon disclosure project/Brazil
• Integration of the soybean production chain and biodiesel: an international parallel to the Brazilian biofuel
• Environmental disclosure in the Brazilian electricity sector
• Strategic environmental assessment: one concept, multiple definitions
• Raising financial resources for small and medium enterprises: a multiple case study with Brazilian venture capital funds in the cities of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo

Additional paper

• Ecological values, narcissism, and materialism: a comparison of business students in the USA and The Netherlands

Call for papers: "Sustainable Development and Industrial Sustainability"

For a special issue of the Asian Journal of Management Science and Applications.

The need for sustainable development (SD) comes as a response to growing concerns over how economic growth was often associated with environmental damage. The triple bottom line concept addresses the importance of integrating social and economic dimensions into sustainable development to achieve environmental progress. More recently, it has been suggested that a more consistent analytical breakdown is to distinguish the four domains of economic, ecological, political and cultural sustainability. Although the idea of sustainable development has been widely accepted as a common wish, there is little guidance about its practical implementation.

Discussion of sustainable development occurs not only among world governments, academics and NGOs, but also in industry. The global industrial system has been given a 2050 target by international agreements and governments to double its output while only using 50% of current resources and generating 20% of current CO2. This represents a new industrial revolution, requiring new approaches which we term collectively industrial sustainability (IS). Industrial sustainability now appears to be moving up the management agenda in a lot of organisations. Despite this increasing awareness, many challenges for academics and practitioners are still to be resolved.

The aim of this special issue is to provide a forum for exchanging and promoting ideas, experience and knowledge, as well as fostering collaborations. A special focus is on highlighting recent advances in all research directions of the field of SD/IS. The issue will also bring researchers and practitioners together to obtain synergy between scientific developments and empirical experiences and needs.

The issue will carry revised and substantially extended versions of selected papers presented at the 2013 Asian Conference of Management Science and Applications (ASMSA2013), 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:

• Corporate environmental management
• Corporate social responsibility
• Environmental and sustainability reporting
• Green supply chain management
• Eco-design for resource efficiency
• Remanufacturing, reuse and recycling
• Product service systems
• Case studies for industrial sustainability
• Policies and strategies for industrial sustainability

Important Dates
Submission of manuscripts: 31 March, 2014
Notification of authors: 30 June, 2014

Int. J. of Environment and Waste Management to publish expanded papers from ICEOH 2014

Expanded versions of papers presented at the International Conference of Environmental and Occupational Health (7-9 April 2014, Putra Jaya, Malaysia) will be published by the International Journal of Environment and Waste Management.

Special issue published: "Learning Analytics"

International Journal of Technology Enhanced Learning 5(2) 2013

• Like diamonds in the sky: how feedback can boost the amount of available data for learning analytics
• Improving academic outcomes: does participating in online discussion forums payoff?
• Using learning analytics to identify successful learners in a blended learning course
• Towards a script-aware monitoring process of computer-supported collaborative learning scenarios
• Effect of visual-assisted pedagogy for teaching and learning properties of relations
• Learning analytics and second-language context: a digital instrument for measurement of real-time data regarding second language learners achievement

International Journal of Wireless and Mobile Computing increases issues

The International Journal of Wireless and Mobile Computing has announced that it will be increasing issues from six to eight from 2015 onwards.

Quickfix for data links

Software that can fix 90 percent of broken links in the web of data, assuming the resources are still on the site’s server, has been developed by researchers in Iran. The details are reported this month in the International Journal Web Engineering and Technology.

Everyone knows the frustration of following a link to an interesting web site only to discover the target page is no longer there and to be presented with an error page. However, more frustrating and with wider implications for science, healthcare, industry and other areas is when machines communicate and expect to find specific resources that turn out to be missing or dislocated from their identifier. This can cause problems when a computer is processing large amounts of data in a financial or scientific analysis, for instance. If the resource is still on the servers, then it should be retrievable given a sufficiently effective algorithm that can recreate the missing links.

Computing engineers Mohammad Pourzaferani and Mohammad Ali Nematbakhsh of the University of Isfahan explain that previous efforts to address the issue of broken links in the web of data have focused on the destination point. This approach has two inherent limitations. First, it homes in on a single point of failure whereas there might be wider issues across a database. Secondly, it relies on knowledge of the destination data source.

The team has now introduced a method for fixing broken links which is based on the source point of links and a way to discover the new address of the digital entity that has become detached. Their method creates a superior and an inferior dataset which lets them create an exclusive data graph that can be monitored over time in order to identify changes and trap missing links as resources become detached.

“The proposed algorithm uses the fact that entities preserve their structure event after movement to another location. Therefore, the algorithm creates an exclusive graph structure for each entity,” explains Pourzaferani. This graph consists of two types of entity called ‘Superior’ and ‘Inferior’. Which are entities point to the detached entity and point by it, respectively. When the broken link is detected the algorithm starts its task to find the new location for detached entity or the best similar candidate for it. To this end, the crawler controller module searches for the superiors of each entity in the inferior dataset, and vice versa. After some steps the search space is narrowed and the best candidate is chosen.”

The researchers tested the algorithm on two snapshots of DBpedia within which are contained almost 300,000 person entities. Their algorithm identified almost 5,000 entities that changed between the first and second snapshot recorded some time later. The algorithm demonstrated its prowess in relocating 9 out of 10 of the broken links.

“Repairing broken RDF links in the web of data” in Int. J. Web Engineering and Technology, 2013, 8, 395-411

Quickfix for data links is a post from: David Bradley's Science Spot

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Call for papers: "Sustainable Shipping and Transport Logistics in Developing Economies"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Shipping and Transport Logistics.

Governments, businesses and society all have a growing interest in the theme of sustainability. For example, a recent MIT survey (Kiron et al., 2012) shows that the majority of CEOs interviewed already invest in corporate sustainability and that attention to issues concerning sustainability will be increasing in the coming years.

However, some sectors still need to be studied further with regard to the motivations, challenges and practices involved in more sustainable management. Among these sectors, shipping and transport logistics stand out both for the economic importance and for the impact that will be generated by this growth (e.g. environmental and social impact).

Lai et al. (2011) state that society is more conscious about the environmental impact of shipping companies, requiring firms to adopt green practices. Wuisan et al. (2012) argue that sustainability in shipping would avoid many of this sector’s environmental impacts, such as emission of greenhouse gases, environmental accidents, waste generation and loss of biodiversity, among others. Logistics activities in the field of transport (e.g. road transport) are also under pressure to become more sustainable.

For example, estimates for Brazil (Antt, 2012) indicate that in 2010 the heavy trucks used for transport logistics were responsible for 82% of carbon-dioxide (CO2) emissions. Another recent study conducted by Hao et al. (2014) indicated that China’s TGE by urban passenger transport reached 335 million tons CO2 equivalent in 2010. Overall, among developing economies, greater pressure from stakeholders for more environmentally sustainable logistics require that firms respond with the adoption of green practices in this arena (Lai and Wong, 2012). Because of the economic growth that is taking place, countries with developing economies, such as BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China), need to quickly adapt their shipping and transport logistics sectors for sustainability.

Thus, the objective of this special issue is to publish high-quality original articles that deepen our theoretical and practical understanding of how shipping and transport logistics can be managed, considering the most urgent questions for truly sustainable development.

Methodologically, preferred papers can consider:

• Qualitative methodologies (multiple case studies)
• Quantitative methodologies (mathematical modelling, indicators or surveys
• Mixed methodologies
• Comparative studies (cross-country studies of developing economies) 

Publishing a set of diverse and high-quality articles should enhance the awareness of sustainable shipping and transport logistics in developing economies.

References

ANTT – Brazilian National Agency of Transport. ANTT faz inventário sobre emissões atmosféricas do transporte ferroviário. Accessed: June 2012. Available at: www.arsal.al.gov.br

Eyring, V., Isaksen, I.S.A., Berntsen, T., Collins, W.J., Corbett, J., Endresen, O., Grainger, R.G., Moldanova, J., Schlager, H., Stevenson, D. 2010. Transport impacts on atmosphere and climate: Shipping. Atmospheric Environment 44(37): 4735-4771.

Hao, H.,   Geng, Y., Wang, H., Ouyang, M. 2014. Regional disparity of urban passenger transport associated GHG emissions in China.   Energy, in press.

Kiron, D., Kruschwitz, N., Haanaes, K., Velken, I.V.S., 2012. Sustainability nears a tipping. MIT Sloan Management Review 53(2), 69-74.

Lai, K. H., Lun, V. Y., Wong, C. W., Cheng, T. C. E. 2011. Green shipping practices in the shipping industry: Conceptualization, adoption, and implications.   Resources, Conservation and Recycling,   55(6), 631-638.

Lai K, Wong CWY. Green logistics management and performance: Some empirical evidence from Chinese manufacturing exporters. Omega 2012; 40: 267–282.

Wuisan, L., van Leeuwen, J., van Koppen, C. S. A. 2012. Greening international shipping through private governance: A case study of the Clean Shipping Project. Marine Policy , 36(1), 165-173.

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

• Sustainable practices in shipping and transport logistics
• Climate change as a challenge and an opportunity for shipping and transport logistics
• Green issues in shipping and transport logistics
• Social issues in shipping and transport logistics
• Shipping and transport logistics and millennium development goals
• Role of environmental legislation in shipping and logistics
• Shipping and transport logistics, challenges and opportunities for developing economies
• Innovative policies on sustainable shipping and transport management in developing countries
• Metrics and indicators on measuring the overall performance of shipping and transport sectors in developing countries.

Important Dates

Manuscript submission: 1 August, 2014
First editorial decisions: 1 February, 2015

Special issue published: "Multivariate Analysis and Quality Control"

International Journal of Data Analysis Techniques and Strategies 6(1) 2014

• Multivariate adaptive approach for monitoring simple linear profiles
• A one-sided MEWMA control chart for Poisson-distributed data
• Investigating estimation error reduction strategies in complex engineering systems
• Multivariate process control for detection and cause identification of location shifts
• A 0-1 quadratic programme for the case of missing data in regression

Call for papers: "The Market for Luxury Goods in Emerging Countries"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Economic Policy in Emerging Economies.

Recent years have seen an enormous increase and interest in research on emerging economies. The disposable income that is used for the consumption of so-called luxury goods and services is a less debated issue.

However, recent betterment in terms of disposable income and the growing middle class has had a tremendous impact on this market for luxury goods, and understanding the causes and consequences of this new phenomenon, its impacts on the real economy, its prospects and the eventually large role of new domestic luxury brands are all topics of great relevance.

This special issue aims to collect high quality and innovative works that address these issues.

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

• What is luxury? Theory, history and philosophy of the concept of luxury, as well as the economy of luxury market: what it tells us about the economy and how it affects the economy, especially a developing one. This would be a great historical exercise leaning on the concept of longue dureé.
• Emergence of the luxury market as a reflection of a growing economy: relationship between GDP, FDI, standards of living, social indicators, changing demographics, political environment and prevalent industries with trends in luxury spending, brand prevalence and marketing of luxury goods and services.
• Emergence of domestic luxury brands: new names, challenges, benefits for the domestic economy, acceptance at home and in the international arena. Normative conclusions are welcome.
• Comparative analysis of luxury markets of emerging economies and developed countries: two main camps are Russia, China, India and Eastern Europe vs. Western Europe, USA and Japan. Emergence of luxury markets, consumer behaviour, changes in consumption trends and preferences over time.
• Entering emerging economies: a fine balance between formidable opportunities and high risks. How luxury brands strategise their integration into the new markets. Comparative analysis over time and regions.
• Role of culture and historical legacies in the luxury market: stories of success and failure in brands' adaptation of business strategies to the new environment.
• Psychology of a luxury consumer: how luxury is perceived by various social classes; is it a driver or a repellent?; paradoxical phenomena in luxury markets; how consumer behaviours are studied, analysed and manipulated by luxury marketers.
• A peek into the future: key trends and players; major opportunities and challenges; biggest winners and losers. Analysis can be applied to markets, regions, trends, consumer groups and product and service categories.
• Fashion and the environment
• Modern technologies
• Luxury and environment: recent developments and trends in adoption of environmentally friendly practices; how much does the consumers' opinion on environmental practices matter to brands?; how does going "green" affect the bottom line?; animal cruelty vs. luxury; negative and positive impact big brands have on the environment through their off-shore manufacturing.
• Luxury and technology: new developments in high technologies and smart fabrics; adaptation and transition of high technologies from military and specialised use to luxury products; additive manufacturing and 3D printing in design and manufacturing of luxury apparel, accessories, jewellery and shoes; adaptation of new technologies to design, manufacturing and marketing of luxury products.
  

A good way to structure the analysis would be to consider the grid below, pick a mode of analysis, and consistently develop the study for a logical flow of ideas.

You can choose a method of analysis and follow a temporal development (past, present and future) to follow the development of a phenomenon over time.

Likewise, you can pick a time period and highlight multiple aspects of market behaviour and specificities.

A third dimension is geography. As mentioned above, the two main camps are emerging economies and developed economies. The main focus is on Russia, China and India vs. USA, France, Japan, Italy and Germany. Special case studies can include countries of the Former Soviet Union Region, Brazil, countries of the Easter European bloc, and smaller countries of the Western European bloc.

A fourth dimension can further structure the study by product or service category: apparel and accessories, cosmetics, fine wines and spirits, real estate, travel, education, fine and modern art, antiques and personal transportation (cars, airplanes, yachts).

	PAST	PRESENT	FUTURE
THEORY
HISTORY
STATISTICS
FILED INTERVIEWS OF PROFESSIONALS
DOMESTIC POLIT INSTIT'S
MACROECONOMICS
SOCIETY
CULTURE
INT'L TRADE
INT'L ECONOMY
INT'L INSTIT'S

Important Dates
Deadline for receipt of manuscripts: 27 October, 2014.
Papers that are invited to revise and resubmit will get two months to do so.