Inderscience news: June 2014

30 June 2014

Inderscience is media partner for ICE2014

Inderscience is a media partner for 4th Annual International Congress of Environment-2014 (21-23 September 2014, Qingdao, China).

The journals involved are:

Special issue published: "Young and Innovative Entrepreneurship"

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management 18(2/3) 2014

Entrepreneurial intentions of university students: an international comparison between African, European and Canadian students
Comparison of perceived barriers to entrepreneurship in Eastern and Western European countries
Exploring intergenerational influence on entrepreneurial intention: the mediating role of perceived desirability and perceived feasibility
Are we fostering opportunity entrepreneurship for women? Exploring policies and programmes in China and India
The young, the fast and the furious: a study about the triggers and impediments of youth entrepreneurship
Born global companies founded by young entrepreneurs. A multiple case study
Are youth really different? New beliefs for old practices in entrepreneurship

Inderscience is media partner for WCBE2014

Inderscience is a media partner for the 4th Annual World Congress of Bioenergy-2014 (21-23 September 2014, Qingdao, China).

The journals involved are:

First issue: International Journal of Hospitality and Event Management (free sample issue available)

The International Journal of Hospitality and Event Management is dedicated to meeting the academic and managerial needs of the fast-growing hospitality and event fields. IJHEM covers topics on operations and management of hospitality and event products and services such as lodging, restaurant and catering, meetings, incentives, conventions, exhibitions, festivals, weddings, sport and other special occasions and gatherings. The journal encourages both theoretical and empirical scholarly work, and interdisciplinary and global perspectives are highlighted.

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

29 June 2014

Int. J. of Sustainable Economy to publish expanded papers from ENEFM2014

Expanded versions of papers presented at the 2nd International Congress on Energy Efficiency and Energy Related Materials (16-19 October 2014, Oludeniz-Fethiye, Turkey) will be published by the International Journal of Sustainable Economy.

International Journal of Surface Science and Engineering increases issues

The International Journal of Surface Science and Engineering has announced that it will be increasing issues from four to six from 2015 onwards.

Inderscience is media partner for NEF2014

Inderscience is a media partner for the 4th Annual New Energy Forum-2014 (21-23 September 2014, Qingdao, China).

The journals involved are:

New Editor for the Int. Journal of High Performance Computing and Networking

Professor Kuan-Ching Li from Providence University, Taiwan, has been appointed as the new editor for the International Journal of High Performance Computing and Networking.

28 June 2014

Inderscience is media partner for LCES2014

Inderscience is a media partner for 4th Annual Low Carbon Earth Summit-2014 (21-23 September 2014, Qingdao, China).

The journals involved are:

Call for papers: "Maintenance-based Process Management as a Part of Business Competitiveness"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Process Management and Benchmarking.

During the previous two to three decades maintenance has transformed from a mere cost centre into a range of tasks which create value in industrial companies. Decision makers are starting to realise the extent to which maintenance impacts the productivity, sustainability and quality of manufacturing processes. There are a small but growing number of modern maintenance methods, tools and strategies available which enable process optimisation on several levels within an organisation.

Despite the advanced results of scientific research in this area there are still major challenges for decision makers. The impact of maintenance on achieving the company’s strategic goals is often misunderstood and not known by senior management. There is a need to communicate the technical results of maintenance management research to a wider audience using simple economic arguments that clearly indicate the effect of process-level decisions on business competitiveness.

Maintenance management is not risk averse and suffers from a number of challenges including risk management, forecasting based upon long life cycles, and large datasets which need to be analysed to provide accurate information. In practice, process optimisation and maintenance often occurs in collaboration between several parties. The decision making views of different departments, various outside service providers and original equipment manufacturers, together with the owner of the process, must be taken into account. The outsourcings of maintenance have created a need to link maintenance-based process management to the competitiveness of both single companies and large complicated business networks.

This special issue calls for submissions that contribute to process management on the basis of maintenance, translating technical maintenance norms into business information on the level of individual companies or company networks. Both theoretical and empirical research papers are invited. However, theoretical papers should introduce empirically validated models and approaches. The results must be based on well-grounded theory and rigorous research methods, and managerial implications must be included.

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

Maintenance models and tools to support decision making
Measuring and improving the quality, productivity and sustainability of processes through maintenance
Process management from a life-cycle perspective
Maintenance strategies and methods
Link between process management and strategic management in companies
Maintenance outsourcing
Maintenance and process management in business networks

Important Dates

Manuscript submission: 20 February, 2015
Notification to authors: 29 May, 2015
Final versions due: 4 September, 2015

First issue: International Journal of Sustainable Aviation (free sample issue available)

The International Journal of Sustainable Aviation handles a broad range of aviation-related issues with particular emphasis on environmental problems associated with sustainability. Aviation is cited as one of the major sources of noise and air pollution and considered a prominent cause of global warming. Future trends in aviation could constitute a major impediment to having sustainable development in economic, social and environmental perspectives. Sustainable aviation is a long term strategy aiming to offer innovative solutions to the challenges facing the aviation industry.

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

Inderscience is media partner for WCSM2015

Inderscience is a media partner for 1st World Congress of Smart Materials 2015 (11-13 March 2015, Busan, Republic of Korea).

The journals involved are:

27 June 2014

Inderscience is media partner for NANO2014

Inderscience is a media partner for 4th Annual World Congress of Nano Science & Technology 2014 (29-31 October 2014, Qingdao, China).

The journals involved are:

Special issue published: "Perspectives on China's Development: Evidence and Prospects for Sustainable Change"

International Journal of Innovation and Sustainable Development 8(2) 2014

Expanded versions of papers presented at the 2nd International Symposium on Corporate Responsibility & Sustainable Development.

A study of the new trend in the development of corporate social responsibility in China
Managing for business sustainability in China: a case study of Shoetown Footwear Co., Ltd.
US and UK social enterprise legislation: insights for China's social entrepreneurship movement
Assessing clustered SME practice towards environmental and social impact: a Bourdieusian approach
A license to operate? An empirical examination of the influence of environmental and social performance on the financial performance of mining sector firms
The development of corporate responsibility practices in Chinese petroleum enterprises

Newly announced journal: International Journal of Markets and Business Systems

The International Journal of Markets and Business Systems proposes and fosters discussion on cutting-edge system theory and grounded research and practice addressing new ways of thinking, models and methodologies for understanding and acting within the complexities of market and organisational environments. The journal seeks to contribute to debates concerning the challenges of today regarding local and global economies and society. IJMABS is the official journal of the scientific society, Business Systems Laboratory.

26 June 2014

Inderscience is media partner for Crops and Chemicals USA 2014

Inderscience is a media partner for Crops and Chemicals USA 2014 (22-23 July 2014, Raleigh NC, USA).

The journals involved are:

Int. Journal of Computational Science and Engineering increases issues

The International Journal of Computational Science and Engineering has announced that it will be increasing issues from six to eight from 2015 onwards.

Call for papers: "Internationalisation and Competitiveness of Emerging Economy Firms"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Business and Emerging Markets.

Enhancing competitiveness of emerging economy firms has been held up by scholars as an important motivation for the international expansion of emerging economy firms. Competency seeking, for example, has been attributed as a more pronounced motive for the international expansion of emerging economy firms, whereas competency exploiting is typically considered the dominant motive for the international expansion of advanced economy firms.

There is, however, a dearth of studies that have documented empirical evidence on the relationship between international expansion and the subsequent strengthening of emerging economy firm competitiveness. This special issue seeks to promote and publish research that addresses this void.

Theoretically grounded empirical studies are preferred. Carefully developed theoretical papers are also welcome. Studies can be focused on firms from one or more emerging economies. To maintain consistency and shared understanding, countries classified by the International Monetary Fund as emerging market and developing economies would be considered as emerging economies for the purpose of this special issue.

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

How does foreign expansion enhance the competitiveness of emerging economy firms in their home country markets and in international markets?
Does the relationship between foreign expansion and the subsequent enhancement of emerging economy firm competitiveness vary by international entry/expansion mode such as exports, joint ventures and wholly owned operations?
Can we empirically document the relationship between different modes of international expansion and various measures of emerging economy firm competitiveness (e.g. market share, productivity relative to competitors, and profitability relative to competitors) after allowing for time lags necessary for the development of competencies?
Does foreign expansion into advanced economies and other emerging economies contribute differently to the competitiveness of emerging economy firms?

Important Dates

Manuscript submission: 30 April, 2015

Climate control for the hospital burns unit

Individualized climate control for burns victims in hospitals might not only improve comfort for such patients, but improve working conditions for those taking care of them. In addition, it could cut energy requirements by three quarters where cooling is needed and by up to a quarter where heating is used. Details of this low-exergy, LowEx, system are described in the latest issue of the International Journal of Exergy.

Mateja Dovjak and Aleš Krainer of the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia and Masanori Shukuya of Tokyo City University in Yokohama, Japan, explain how they have simulated thermal comfort conditions from the perspective of a burns patient, healthcare worker and visitor.

“Hospitals present a highly demanding indoor environment that should be treated as a three-dimensional system of users, environmental factors and specific activities,” the team says. “Conventional heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems are designed in most cases as interventions in active spaces, based on the requirements of an average user, and are not suitable for the selected individual user.”

They have now taken inspiration from vehicle design, where climate control has been a feature of many cars and other vehicles for years. The researchers’ LowEx approach uses a sensor system connected to low-exergy heating and cooling panels controlled by a central computer. It is optimized for the creation of healing and comfort conditions for specific burns patients with minimal possible energy use for heating and cooling purposes. It also allows for individual areas of comfort for healthcare worker and visitor alike. The presented system enables the control of thermal comfort, of air quality and of visual and acoustic comfort. At the end integral individualization can be achieved.

Lowering human body exergy consumption rate valid for thermoregulation, minimizing evaporation, radiation and convection of burn patient body while allowing healthcare workers to do their job and visitors to interact with the patient is the ultimate aim of the LowEx approach as it is under such conditions that burns can heal most effectively. “This study can be considered as a first step towards individualization of personal space in indoor built environments,” the team concludes, with specific application to hospital burns units in the first instance.

“Individualisation of personal space in hospital environment” in Int. J. Exergy, 2014, 14, 125-155

Climate control for the hospital burns unit is a post from: David Bradley's Science Spot

via Science Spot http://ift.tt/1lYb3Hc

25 June 2014

Call for papers: "Health Informatics for Ageing and Independent Living"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Medical Engineering and Informatics.

Owing to the increasing ageing population of the world, including the developing world, renewed research efforts have focused on exploring innovative service models and technologies aimed at ensuring an active and independent participation in social life, and personalised health, especially for the elderly.

This special issue will focus on recent developments in the field of health informatics and assistive technologies for supporting independent living, particularly for, but not limited to, the ageing population. A key goal is to exploit technological enhancements to help facilitate the creation of better user experiences and to increase support for active and independent living.

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

Emerging m-health and p-health trends and technologies to support independent living
User requirement studies focusing on the understanding of the target user's needs for improved e-health solutions design
Social and cultural factors influencing user acceptance of e-heath for the elderly and other target populations such as people with mobility difficulties
Applications of virtual reality and data mining for ageing and independent living
Technology adoption for ICT for independent living
Public involvement in assistive technologies for ageing and independent living
Practitioners' perception of current and emerging health informatics solutions
Case study scenarios and user acceptance studies

Important Dates

Deadline for submission: 30 November, 2014
First reviews due: 15 February, 2015
Revised manuscripts due: 15 April, 2015
Final decision: 15 May, 2015

Themed issue: "Research from India"

International Journal of Business and Globalisation 12(4) 2014

The impact of earnings management on future dividend payout of Indian manufacturing firms
Causal relationship between working capital management and firm's profitability: empirical evidence from Indian FMCG firms
Financial education: institutes of higher education as delivery channels
Linking up: inclusive business models for access to energy solutions at base of the pyramid in India
A strategic analysis of the various reforms of Khadi and Village Industries Commission: case-based approach
Impact of BIMSTEC trade agreement on strengthening export performance of Indian firms: an empirical assessment
Influence of sector and size of business in motivating women entrepreneurship: a study in emerging market context
Business and globalisation the new face of micro lending in India: a case study

50 Shades of green – corporate greenwashing

When governments, organizations or corporate entities have made a mistake, we often hear that the problems that arose were covered up; there was a whitewash. The term alludes to a relatively quick, easy and cheap way of painting over the cracks in a wall. Today, we also have “greenwashing”. Greenwashing is the environmental equivalent of sweeping problems under the carpet and papering over the cracks (to mix a metaphor or two). Worryingly, it is on the increase.

The marketing and public relations departments of companies with less than emeraldine environmental credentials, and ethically dubious ecological records, can often find ways to greenwash their websites and reports to shareholders and other stakeholders. One of the most prominent, scurrilous and obvious of these is the use of photography. If a picture paints a thousand words then a carefully chosen, and even more carefully “Photoshopped”, picture can redraft those words to tell an entirely different tale. Images of children playing happily near the spouting waterpump avoid the pollution-pumping factories on the distant horizon. Verdant fields and butterflies don’t show what’s over the hills and far away, for instance.

Joel Richard Thomas of the School of Management at the University of Bath, UK and a business consultant for IBM, is skeptical of the greenwashing practices of many corporate entities. He points out that companies are obliged to present social and environmental performance alongside financial results in their annual reports. Today, many make use of highly ambiguous photography to essentially misinform and disengage the reader from the true nature of negative social and environmental effects of the company’s activities. He suggests that company reports are now so well obfuscated that it is often difficult to decipher genuine reporting from greenwashing, especially in the visual domain of carefully chosen photography and the skewed infographic.

Of course, the cynical reader of the annual report from the less than verdant company might imagine that they would quickly filter out the greenwashing, adjusting the hue by taking off the green-tinted lenses, but it is difficult to see red when confronted with beautiful, calming, green photography. Reports are there to bridge the gap between the corporate and the wider public. However, Thomas suggests that it is time for tougher regulation on how company information is represented to avoid misleading representations of activities and negative impacts.

Thomas, J.R. (2014) ‘Shades of green: a critical assessment of greenwashing in social and environmental business performance reports’, J. International Business and Entrepreneurship Development, Vol. 7, No. 3, pp.245-252.

50 Shades of green – corporate greenwashing is a post from: David Bradley's Science Spot

via Science Spot http://ift.tt/1v4t1Y1

24 June 2014

Inderscience is media partner for Global Automotive Lightweight Materials Detroit 2014

Inderscience is a media partner for the Global Automotive Lightweight Materials Detroit 2014 (20-21 August 2014, London, UK).

The journals involved are:

The results of the conference's poll on "The Greatest Challenge For Lightweight Materials" are available here.

Call for papers: "Knowledge Management at the Crossroads: Research, Challenges and Perspectives"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Knowledge and Learning.

Knowledge management (KM) emerged as a discipline in early ‘90s. Since then a lot of efforts have been made to identify and study the strategic impact of KM in business management. In this context a number of conceptual frameworks have been proposed with the aim of defining the features, contents, role and relevance of KM (Poynder, 1998; Wiig, 1993; Sveiby, 1998; Prusak, 2001; Heisig, 2009; Bontis, 1998; Liebowitz and Wilcox, 1997; Nonaka et al, 2000). These frameworks have significantly contributed to identifying and understanding the position and application of KM within organisations and to disentangle the complex relationships linking the assessment and management of knowledge resources with organisational value creation capacity.

After more than two decades of research it is important to clarify how this research stream can be further developed. Some authors point out that most of the attention has been paid to KM in terms of enablers, processes, people, technologies or performance, but mainly in isolation. For example, Meso and Smith (2000) consider that under a socio-technical perspective, knowledge management activities are seen as being complex combinations of technology and organisational infrastructure, corporate culture, knowledge and people. Korac-Kakabadse et al. (2002) argue that alternative views to knowledge management for innovation that are more contingent and contextualised need to be explored. Phipps and Prieto (2012) developed a model showing the relationship between knowledge management and creativity, and stressing the moderating effect of the entrepreneurial mindset to seek, identify, pursue and exploit opportunities.

There is no doubt that KM is now at the crossroads and needs to look towards new research and practice horizons, and then advance new thinking in relation to the complex and multifaced essence of knowledge as a driver of performance and growth. A “quantum leap” is needed to avoid KM becoming just a fad or a sales pitch (Ruggles, 1998) and to solve the question of whether KM can survive into the future (Liebowitz, 2011). As in quantum physics, the energy to allow KM to move from the current “state” of research to the next (future directions) can be provided by adopting breakthrough approaches or providing sudden energy from multi-disciplinary and holistic contributions deriving from other disciplines.

In order to alleviate these limitations, this special issue invites academics and practitioners to reflect on the future challenges of KM as a discipline or/and as an organisational practice, and to suggest insights and directions for future research (Scholl et al. 2004). The purpose is to identify the future contributions of KM to the literature and to management processes and practices.

In our view, a potential way to move research on KM forward would be to consider how existing research in other disciplines can impact KM practice. Besides strategic management, economics, accounting and information technology, more attention should be paid to psychology, sociology, anthropology, political science, arts, architecture and neurosciences (Moustaghfir and Schiuma, 2013). Some scholars also recognise the importance of such a multi-disciplinary approach and some others have already made attempts to apply such principles while conducting their research studies.

The purpose is to point out the conceptual pillars and to contribute to the evolving debate investigating new theoretical and empirical contributions at different “ontological” level of analysis: business, project, organisation, inter-organisation, university, region and ecosystems.

The issue will carry revised and substantially extended versions of selected papers presented at theInternational Forum on Knowledge Assets Dynamics (IFKAD 2014), but we also strongly encourage researchers unable to participate in the conference to submit articles for this call.

Submitted papers may investigate, from theoretical and/or practical and empirical perspectives, but without being limited to, the following relevant topics:

Advancements in KM theory and practices
Linking organisational knowledge, innovation and performance
Identifying future knowledge and information needs in organisations
Capturing the hidden value of knowledge assets in organisations
KM practice and value creation: qualitative and quantitative methods
KM as a path for developing sustainable organisations
The levers of success in KM implementation
The impact of ecological, biological and other disciplines on KM
Complexity theory and KM
KM's role for organisational capabilities development
Arts-based initiatives for innovation management and value creation
Shaping organisation environments through knowledge, creativity and art
Universities' role in KM for sustainable growth in the 21st century
The impact of web 2.0 and social technologies on KM
KM in inter-organisational networks and ecosystems
KM in different industrys' projects environments
KM for economic and social development of countries
Collective intelligence and KM for innovation

Important Dates
Manuscript submission: 12 December, 2014
Notification to authors: 31 January, 2015
Final paper submission: 31 March, 2015

Korean Music Club Recommendations

A new music recommendation system has been developed by information scientists in Korea. They report details in the latest issue of the International Journal of Intelligent Information and Database Systems.

The addition of emotional tags, evocative keywords, to the music files you listen to could improve music recommendations in a way that is not possible with the standard recommendation approaches used by well-known social music sites where number of plays and “likes” are the only factors taken into account. The approach gets around the cold-start problem for new artists and new users alike allowing music that has not had a chance to become popular to be tagged and if that if lots of users tag it positively it will become more highly recommended.

Hyon Hee Kim, Donggeon Kim and Jinnam Jo of the Department of Statistics and Information Science, at Dongduk Women’s University, in Seoul, explain that a combination of listening habits and meaningful, semantic, tagging of music files, with terms such as melancholy, tragic, joyful, awesome, unexpected, boring, annoying and many others, has allowed them to develop a unified music recommendation system. The team has tested their approach on 1,000 users, 12,600 tags added to 18,700 music items that they listened to and randomly collected from the well-known online music service last.fm. They report that their approach performs better than the conventional recommendation systems based on simple frequency of play metrics or on a simple positive-negative grading system.

The team’s approach classifies tags as being organizational, genre classifying and emotional and then breaks down the emotional into positive and negative as well as adding a greater statistical weight to those tags, such as perfect or boring, than to the ones that simply define a track as, for instance, progressive rock or jazz.

“Our proposed approach gives a good solution to the conventional cold start problem,” the researchers explain, “Collecting users’ listening habits takes time for users to listen to the music items for a long duration.” The use of emotional tags makes it much easier for users to select out music tracks based on mood or other evocative factors and avoid those that are not likely to please them, in this way not only is the new system acting as a kind of “word-of-mouth” recommendation but it also overcomes the data sparseness problem facing new users and new musicians.

“A unified music recommender system using listening habits and semantics of tags” in Int. J. Intelligent Information and Database Systems, 2014, 8, 14-30

Korean Music Club Recommendations is a post from: David Bradley's Science Spot

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

Call for papers: "Emerging Engineering Management Technologies and Innovation in Supply Chain and Reverse Logistics with Industrial Applications"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Procurement Management.

Today, in this era of globalisation we have open economies providing vast opportunities for business. In contrast, customers’ preferences are changing all of the time. To meet this demand we need to integrate our sprawling supply chains and to work in a collaborative manner by making use of management technologies and innovative methods. Rapid advances and complexity in engineering technology and management, and the accompanying growing uncertainty in the business environment, have brought about mergers and takeovers, and these have changed the shape of many markets. In all sectors quality and costs, the traditional competitive differentiators, have become broadly similar across many suppliers.

One way in which organisations can differentiate themselves, reduce costs and improve service is to consider environmental, social and economic factors relating to their supply chains as well as to their manufacturing practices. The greatest benefits are derived by extending the focus as far as possible upstream towards the consumer and then back again as the products and waste are recycled. Moreover, in recent years, factors such as evolving financial and competitive pressures, increasingly demanding customers and complex environmental regulations have elevated the attention paid to sustainable supply chains collaborating in a healthy manner and reverse logistics activities. As product life cycles shrink, many organisations are realising that sustainable supply chain management and reverse logistics are critical processes for increasing quality and profitability.

The global economy and advanced information technologies have generated unprecedented opportunities for innovative methodologies for the design and operation of sustainable supply chains, logistics and transportation systems. From recent examinations of operations and environment, the integration between sustainable supply chain management and reverse logistics is the critical next step for the comprehensive and efficient strategic design and analysis of supply chains for the future.

Therefore, through this special issue the Guest Editors hopes to move supply chain co-opetition, collaboration and reverse logistics research forward by emphasising on more realistic studies that cover multiple supply chain processes incorporating sustainability and which address both the social and environmental aspects of sustainability in supply chain integration as well as dis-integration type of activities of supply chains. Guest Editors seek to publish both conceptual and empirical research papers so as to bridge the gap between the industrial and academic worlds. However, the conceptual papers should, at a minimum, provide some exploratory analysis or case example(s) for supply chain co-opetition and collaboration. In general, more emphasis will be given to the papers describing rigorous theoretical results with real life supply chain applications.

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

Supply chain collaboration, coordination, co-opetition, integration and dis-integration
Global supply chains with shrinking product life cycles
Supply chains with socio-economic considerations
Resilient supply chains, agile supply chains
Information technology integration with supply chain management
Green supply chain and sustainability aspects
Ethical issues in supply chains and their effects in current scenarios
Decision support tools and strategies in reverse logistics
Application areas and case studies (strongly encouraged)

Important Dates

Manuscript submission: 31 October, 2014

Reviewer reports: 31 December, 2014

Revised paper submission: 15 February, 2015

Revision and completion of second review process: 31 March, 2015

Final paper submission: 30 April, 2015

The great salmon run algorithm

How to solve engineering problems by swimming against the stream and avoiding the grizzlies.

Solving complex problems is rarely a straightforward process, there are often many variables and countless plausible solutions each one of which has its pros and cons. Mechanical engineers at the Babol University of Technology in Mazandaran, Iran, have turned to nature to devise an algorithm based on the survival trials faced by salmon swimming upstream to the spawning grounds to help them fish out the optimal solution to a given problem. They provide details in the International Journal of Computer Applications in Technology.

Bio-inspiration has been widely used in problem solving, with so-called genetic algorithms plucking the best, or fittest, solutions from possible answers to a complex problem, modifying the answers slightly a random and then testing them again. Repeating the process allows problem solvers to find an optimal answer through a process akin to survival of the fittest in nature. Other problems, such as the travelling salesperson problem have been approached by mimicking how ants forage for food and create the shortest paths between nest and food source. Similarly, the flight of the honeybee from hive to floral patch and back has been emulated in computer algorithms. There are also so-called particle swarm optimization algorithms that mimic social behavior of flocking birds or schooling fish. These approaches have their benefits but they are also unsuitable for certain engineering problems.

The selective pressure on the upstream struggle of salmon offered alternative natural inspiration for Alireza Fathi and Ahmad Mozaffari. The pair realized that genetic algorithms would not cope well with certain engineering problems where many constraints on plausible solutions must be applied.

The team explains that the annual salmon run sees millions of fish migrating through mountain streams to the spawning area where the fish themselves originated. The upstream swim is fraught with hazards not least high waterfalls and people hoping to hook the fish as well as hungry Grizzly bears. Grizzlies themselves follow cooperative swarm intelligence rules for seeking out and fishing for the plumpest salmon navigating the waters of their territory. Humans too will scout a large area and then congregate where the fishing is best. There are also salmon sharks to avoid.

On the part of the salmon, they too split into groups as they head inland along the waterways and, through instinct and observation, find a navigable route upstream. Some will pass through more lakes and ponds others will opt for forested waterways and waterfalls. Grizzlies and sharks hunt the forested streams, humans tend to fish the open water, each with varying degrees of success. The team has codified the various hazards facing the salmon, and the salmon themselves thus become individual solutions to a problem fed into the computer algorithm. The great salmon run (TGSR) algorithm therefore becomes a simulation of the actual salmon run, but allows the team to home in on specific solutions to a problem that are optimal in the sense of reaching the spawning grounds unfettered by grizzly, shark or human.

The team has now successfully applied their algorithm to 25 standard benchmarking problems in engineering and to finding the best setup for a new type of laser. They compared the results with those obtainable using the conventional and more well-known genetic algorithms, particle swarm optimization techniques and artificial bee colony approaches. “In most cases, the TGSR algorithm worked better than the other methods,” the team says. “Moreover, for some problems it was quicker at converging on an optimal solution.

Fathi, A. and Mozaffari, A. (2014) ‘TGSR: the great salmon run optimisation algorithm’, Int. J. Computer Applications in Technology, Vol. 49, Nos. 3/4, pp.192–206.

The great salmon run algorithm is a post from: David Bradley's Science Spot

via Science Spot http://ift.tt/1v0FxYF

23 June 2014

Inderscience journals to publish expanded papers from ICIAE2015

Expanded versions of papers presented at the 3rd International Conference on Industrial Application Engineering (28-31 March 2015, Kitakyushu International Conference Center, Kitakyushu, Japan) will be published by the following journals:

Special issue published: "Nature Inspired Techniques for Non-Linear Optimisation"

International Journal of Artificial Intelligence and Soft Computing 4(2/3) 2014

Expanded versions of papers presented at the First International Conference on Soft Computing for Problem Solving (SocProS 2011).

Fuzzy multi-objective build-or-buy approach for component selection of fault tolerant software system under consensus recovery block scheme with mandatory redundancy in critical modules
Fixed structure constrained preview control design using enhanced PSO approach
Efficiency determination of induction motor and its sensitivity analysis towards parameter variation
Power law-based local search in artificial bee colony
Trusted and load-balanced ant-based routing in mobile ad hoc networks
Channel allocation scheme for cellular networks using evolutionary computing
A nature inspired adaptive inertia weight in particle swarm optimisation

Additional papers

Implementing a neuro fuzzy expert system for optimising the performance of chemical recovery boiler
Effect of stop word removal on the performance of naïve Bayesian methods for text classification in the Kannada language

Glas-coated nanotech hip op

Using the stuff of sand, silicon dioxide, as a binding layer for replacement bone prosthetics could allow more biocompatible artificial joints to be manufactured as well as reducing the risk of post-operative infection, according to research published in the International Journal of Surface Science and Engineering.

The metals titanium and tantalum are widely used to make replacement implants for diseased or damaged bone, in the classic hip replacement, for instance. Unfortunately, a smooth metal surface, while long-lasting and wear resistant is not entirely biocompatible so manufacturers are developing materials – such as the bony mineral hydroxyapatite – that can be used to coat such implants to allow the body to accept the prosthetic and for cells and blood vessels to accommodate it more effectively. Unfortunately, a smooth metal surface is also relatively non-stick when it comes to accepting appropriately biocompatible materials.

Researchers at Swinburne University of Technology in Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia, have demonstrated that they can deposit a thin layer of silicon dioxide, the main component of sand and glass, on to the metal surface. They use a vacuum technique known as electron beam evaporation to create this thin coating. They can then successfully spray this surface with hydroxyapatite using magnetron sputtering to create a composite coating on the implant metal just 200 nanometres thick.

There is an additional problem regarding metal implants. The smoothness of the metal surface is a hindrance when it comes to the body incorporating the prosthetic, but at the same time this prevent pathogenic bacteria from adhering to the joint and causing serious infection around the replacement bone. By adding a more biocompatible layer to the metal this could theoretically provide a surface to which bacteria might stick. The team hoped that the nanoscopic nature of their composite might preclude this hindrance. As such, they tested the metal coated with the silica-hydroxyapatite layer against the invasive microbes Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus and found that neither were able to adhere nor to grow on this surface. Indeed, there was some growth on uncoated metal, suggesting that a coated implant would not only be more biocompatible to the patient but would lower the risk of infection significantly.

“Investigation of bacterial attachment on hydroxyapatite-coated titanium and tantalum” in Int. J. Surface Science and Engineering, 2014, 8, 255-263

Glas-coated nanotech hip op is a post from: David Bradley's Science Spot

via Science Spot http://ift.tt/1szcY8P

Keeping the clouds together

A system for high-performance, scalable, multidirectional asynchronous and timely file replication of data across cloud servers has been developed by computer scientists in China. The approach, described in the International Journal of Internet Protocol Technology overcomes one of the major problems facing widespread adoption of cloud services – how to keep data in sync.

Anirban Kundu, Lin Luan and Ruopeng Liu of Kuang-Chi Institute of Advanced Technology Shenzhen, Guangdong, China, explain how earlier attempts to solve the cloud synchronization problem have several shortcomings including a lack of scalability and slow performance. These issues mean that users accessing many different servers across the globe but working with the same data set will stumble when they access the same files and discover that they have different versions. Moreover, as the number of users grow so too do the demands on the system and if it lacks the performance to keep all users up to date wherever they are on the system, then data conflicts will also arise.

Existing cloud system networks use high-end cluster machines, the team reports. However, their approach improves efficiency to such a degree that only low-category cloud servers are needed for implementation. They introduce a cloud server-side environment that has a network structure with distinct levels for controlling data transfer in different segments based on the user/system requirements and ferrying information packets through dedicated channels being used in parallel as required. Using their approach the team demonstrated that parallel execution in a cloud environment takes less time to finish a particular task by dividing it into several asynchronous activities on different machines using a distributor/scheduler and then bringing these individual parts back together in the appropriate order for the end user or output.

“Synchronisation of data transfer in cloud” in Int. J. Internet Protocol Technology, 2014, 8, 1-24

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Inderscience journals to publish expanded papers from ICISIP2014

Expanded versions of papers presented at the 2nd International Conference on Intelligent Systems and Image Processing (26-29 September 2014, Nishinippon Institute of Technology, Kitakyushu, Japan) will be published by the following journals:

20 June 2014

Call for papers: “Challenges to Cybersecurity in the 21st Century"

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

The use of the internet as a tool of international commerce is expanding at a very rapid rate. Countries that are years behind in technology have been catapulted into the 21st century by virtue of easy access to the internet and social media. There is therefore a need for specialists in the area of cybersecurity to develop the resources necessary for monitoring, designing and containing the explosion of the threat of cyber terrorism.

Recent events in the Ukraine, Nigeria, the Middle East (Yemen) and South Sudan point to the need for technology to be used to confront the spread of terrorism globally. Nations are increasingly developing the capability of surveillance of other countries; therefore countervailing strategies need to be developed to handle the inordinate growth of the incidence of cyber terrorism worldwide.

Suitable topics include, but are not limited to:

Management of information security
Principles of information security management
Planning for information security implementation
Contingency planning for information security
Information security policy
Organising for security in large and medium-sized organisations
Organisational security and information technology
Accounting and finance through information technology
Implementation of security education, training and awareness programmes
Risk management and risk assessment in the digital age
Establishment of security clearances in the 21st century
Protective mechanisms for cybersecurity
Information systems and intrusion detection systems
Information security and personnel
Law and ethics in information security
Organisational liability and information security
Information security and project management
Ethics and education in information security

Important Dates

Manuscript submission: 1 December, 2014

Notification to authors: 1 March, 2015

Final paper submission: 15 August, 2015

Special issue published: "Modern Business and Innovation Management: Transitional and Developing Economies"

International Journal of Transitions and Innovation Systems 3(2) 2014

Expanded versions of papers presented at the 2nd International Scientific Conference: ‘Contemporary Issues in Business, Management and Education 2013’.

A Delphi investigation into the corporate governance practices of Albanian joint stock companies
The technology of adaptive complex systems as an adequate synergy tool of knowledge, innovation and technology features designing universal sustainable development of country
High technologies sector under the conditions of the creation of knowledge-based society: challenges and priorities in the European Union
Innovative trends in human resource management: a case study of Lithuanian and Latvian organisations
Boundaryless career management: theoretical perspective on individual and institutional agency

Call for papers: “Trusted Computing and Information Security”

For a special issue of the International Journal of Embedded Systems.

As we see the proliferation of the information industry and the widespread use of information technology, security has been cited as a major concern in our society. In particular, with the rapid development of the latest information technologies and systems such as cloud computing, big data, Internet of Things and social networks, data is shared more ubiquitously and perceived more intelligently; thus security issues have become more serious.

Fundamental security issues include data confidentiality, information privacy, data integrity, data traceability and service availability, etc. Trusted computing and other information security technologies such as cryptography, network security, content security, privacy protection and disaster recovery need to be integrated to solve the security issues mentioned above.

This special issue aims to provide a forum for researchers, practitioners, developers and users in trusted
computing and information security areas to explore cutting-edge ideas and techniques, and to exchange solutions, tools, experiences and results.

The issue will carry revised and substantially extended versions of selected papers presented at the8th Chinese Conference on Trusted Computing and Information Security (CTCIS 2014), but we also encourage researchers unable to participate in the conferences to submit articles for this call.

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

Theory and technology of trusted computing
Cryptography and cryptanalysis
Network and communication security
Content security for multimedia
Fault tolerance and disaster recovery
Security in cloud computing
Big data security
Privacy in internet of things
Privacy in social networks

Important Dates
Submission of manuscripts: 20 September, 2014
Notification to authors: 20 November, 2014
Final versions due: 20 January, 2015

19 June 2014

Call for papers: "Innovativeness in Purchasing and Supply Management"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Procurement Management.

Innovativeness has been found to be one of the key antecedents of business performance and competitive advantage. Hence, a company’s ability to introduce new innovations can determine its future success and survival.

Innovations can take diverse forms and be born from various phases of a business process or supply chain. The uncertainty of economic development, increasing requirements of efficiency and sustainable production create a continuous need to develop new solutions and innovativeness both in supply management and supply markets.

Supply management acts as a crucial interface between an external supplier network and a company’s internal resources. Therefore, it is at the forefront of delivering innovativeness from supplier networks to a company and diffusing information about end-customer needs to the supply market.

This special issue is aimed at researchers who wish to contribute to the growing – but still scant – literature on the role of innovation in supply management. Submitted papers can be conceptual, literature reviews or empirical qualitative or quantitative studies. Submitted papers should create new knowledge on supply management and value networks as well as the development of suppliers, supplier relationships and supply markets, especially from the perspectives of the creation of new innovations and innovative supply management processes. Papers can be designed to benefit both the public and private sectors.

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

Drivers and barriers of innovativeness
Sustainability and environmental innovations in purchasing and supply chains
Innovative supply markets
Innovation strategies and typologies for supply management
IT and process innovations of supply management
The function on R&D and early supplier involvement
Innovative supplier development
Outsourcing and sub-contracting
Innovation in buyer-supplier collaboration
Supply risks and innovations
Open innovations

Important Dates

Manuscript submission: 15 January, 2015

Reviewer reports: 15 May, 2015

Revised paper submission: 15 June, 2015

Final paper submission: 15 July, 2015

Special issue published: "Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity"

International Journal of Risk Assessment and Management 17(4) 2014

Company valuation under risk and flexibility: discrete models comparison
The study on the methods of secure communications on mobile device for intelligent services
Business continuity management in UK higher education: a case study of crisis communication in the era of social media
A risk-based system for managing the retrofitting of school buildings in seismic prone areas: a case study from Iran
Long term recovery from mega-disasters: regional and business recovery periods, differential vulnerability, and business continuity
Mobile UW-ASN framework with RSSI-based protocol for shallow river monitoring

Inderscience is media partner for Oil and Gas Cyber Security 2014

Inderscience is a media partner for Oil and Gas Cyber Security (24-25 November 2014, London, UK).

The journals involved are:

Call for papers: “Youth Involvement in Entrepreneurship in the Developing World”

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

The special issue aims at enhancing understanding of young people’s background, attitudes and competencies for entrepreneurial careers, and of young entrepreneurs’ motivation and work, in the context of framework conditions in the developing world.

Articles must be focused on youth (up to 34 years old), should not be case studies but should seek statistical generalisability across countries in the developing world, and should take advantage of cross-nationally comparable data such as those available from Global Entrepreneurship Monitor.

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

Young persons’ education and training for entrepreneurship
Young persons’ entrepreneurial competencies
Young persons’ attitudes toward entrepreneurship
Young persons’ inheritance of vocations of parents
Young persons’ entrepreneurial intention
Young person’s motives for entrepreneurial pursuits
Inclusiveness with respect to gender, age, education, income, etc.
Family involvement in businesses run by young entrepreneurs
Young entrepreneurs’ financing
Young entrepreneurs’ aspirations
National framework conditions affecting youth involvement in entrepreneurship

Important Dates

Submission of manuscripts: 30 November, 2015

18 June 2014

Inderscience is media partner for Shale Gas Environmental Summit

Inderscience is a media partner for Shale Gas Environmental Summit (27-28 October 2014, London, UK).

The journals involved are:

Call for papers: "Procurement Practices in Lean and Agile Supply Networks"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Procurement Management.

In today's competitive world where supply chains compete, 'lean and agile supply chain networks' are the two models that have emerged as alternate paradigms in the field of procurement.

Lean supply networks were popularised by Japanese companies such as Toyota and Honda. Formerly known as kieretsus, these supply networks are characterised by high trust and commitment to mutual co-prosperity. Suppliers, once chosen, are developed by the manufacturers by transferring technical and managerial knowledge about manufacturing processes, quality systems, etc. Suppliers are expected to perform, but can expect reasonable tenure of relationship. These systems came to be associated with JIT and lean anufacturing, and hence are called lean supply networks.

Agile networks were more popular in the competitive markets in the US and also in fast-changing industries in Europe, where either the product or process technology was changing very quickly. Here the suppliers were chosen based on either the cost of supply or for a special 'competency'. Thus the manufacturers made use of this 'cost' or 'competency' and changed suppliers when either of these advantages were lost. Thus supplier relationships in 'agile networks are characterised by short-term contracts with template-based ramp up of supply and a planned ramp down of the supply, once the period of the contract is over.

Besides the cultural flavour related to the origin of these paradigms, there are many environmental variables which favour one or the other paradigm for cost-effective and sustainable operations. Industry 'clock speed' is one such variable which favours one paradigm over the other. Network theory which looks at formation, transformation and eventual dissolution of networks has shed more light on the subject. The stage of evolution of the network and the longevity of the network also affects the nature of the supply network and the supplier relationships.

The procurement practices which characterise each of these supply networks are also fairly different. Some changes in procurement practices have been documented, such as the nature of contracts between suppliers and manufacturers. Long-term contracts with weekly supply schedules is a practice associated with lean supply networks. Both Toyota and Honda have these kinds of contracts with suppliers.

Similarly risk-sharing contracts between manufacturers and suppliers are associated with 'agile supply networks'. Companies such as Cisco and some mobile manufacturers have been known to have favoured such contracts.

This leads to several research questions such as the following: In today's environment of 'vehicle recalls', will the supplier bear a share of a recall liability? Will this liability be different in 'lean' and 'agile' supply networks? How is supplier performance managed in lean and agile supply networks?

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

Procurement practices in lean and agile networks
Risk sharing in supplier contracts
Supplier evaluation in lean and agile supply networks
Supplier selection in lean and agile networks
Liability sharing in lean and agile networks
Supplier development practices in lean and agile completeness in supplier contracts
Tolerance for quality errors in lean and agile supply networks
Supplier performance management in lean and agile networks
Procurement practices in new and mature networks
Knowledge transfer mechanisms in lean and agile networks
Information sharing in lean and agile supply networks
Product development and innovation in lean and agile networks
Learning in lean and agile networks
IT use in lean and agile networks

Important Dates

Manuscript submission: 15 December, 2014

Reviewer reports: 15 March, 2015

Revised paper submission: 15 June, 2015

Final paper submission: 15 August, 2015

Inderscience is media partner for Energy from Waste 2014

Inderscience is a media partner for Energy from Waste (13-14 October 2014, London, UK).

The journals involved are:

Special issue published: "The Emergence of Student Entrepreneurial Activity. Connecting Scientific Knowledge with Creativity"

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management 18(1) 2014

Team conflict contributing to entrepreneurial learning: understanding conflict as positive within an effectual problem space
Linking intuition and entrepreneurial intention: a comparative study among French and US student entrepreneurs
Student entrepreneurship, creativity and success. How much does knowledge heterogeneity really matter?
Exploring gender issues in entrepreneurship: what about students and recent graduates?
The alchemy of student entrepreneurs: towards a model of entrepreneurial maturity

17 June 2014

Call for papers: "Recent Advances in Fuzzy Logic, Machine Learning and Data Mining"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Intelligent Systems Design and Computing.

This special issue aims to promote theoretical or methodological works dealing with all kinds of methods to represent and manipulate imperfectly described pieces of knowledge, excluding results on pure mathematics or simple applications of existing theoretical results. The major goal of this issue is to disseminate the latest international research findings in the areas of fuzzy logic, machine learning and data mining.

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

Fuzzy logic techniques and algorithm
Neural networks and genetic algorithm in data mining
Fuzzy mathematics
Data and knowledge representation for data mining
Fuzzy and evolutionary computation
Fuzzy neural systems, neuro-fuzzy systems
Fuzzy neural networks, genetic algorithms, graph theory and other hybrid machine intelligence techniques
Classification and clustering
Machine learning and data mining
Image/audio/video compression and retrieval
Swarm and evolutionary computation
Hybrid fuzzy systems (fuzzy-neuro-evolutionary-rough)
Intelligent information retrieval
Human-machine interaction
Advanced biologically inspired computational intelligence
Pattern recognition
Optimisation algorithms
Knowledge mining and discovery
Computer vision

Important Dates

Submission of manuscripts: 1 March, 2015

Notification to authors: 1 June, 2015

Final versions due: 1 July, 2015

Inderscience is media partner for Distribution Automation Europe 2014

Inderscience is a media partner for Distribution Automation Europe (29-30 September 2014, London, UK).

The journals involved are:

Filtering criminal dDOS attacks

A new hybrid filtering system to protect cloud computing services from distributed denial of service (dDOS) attacks has been developed by US and Indian researchers. They provide details in the latest issue of the International Journal of Grid and Utility Computing.

A distributed denial of service (dDOS) attack usually involves a network of computers infected with malware (a botnet) sending repeated data requests en masse to a single server. The botnet is usually controlled by activists intent on protesting against a particular company or organization, by hackers intent on breaching the security of the target system and opening a back door to allow them access to private or proprietary information. According to tech news site Crunchbase, numerous sites have succumbed to dDOS attacks and been thrown offline for various reasons, they include local networking site Meetup, project management tool Basecamp, video site Vimeo, link shortener Bit.ly, blogging system SAY Media/TypePad, internet domain registrar Namecheap, online dating site Plenty of Fish and search engine optimization company Moz, there are many others and many smaller companies are attacked on a daily basis. Many recent dDOS attacks have exploited unpatched security loopholes in networking protocols.

Recently, however, various cloud-based internet services including newsreader website, Feedly, online notebook and bookmarking tool Evernote were taken offline by criminals intent on extorting money from them in exchange for halting the attack. Both companies and others that were attacked this week responded by bravely refusing to give in to the criminals and fought against the dDOS by various means, switching servers, putting up additional filters and firewalls. The attack is still under way at the time of writing.

Meanwhile, Ajith Abraham, Director of Machine Intelligence Research Labs (MIR Labs) in Auburn, Washington, USA and colleagues in India, are developing what they refer to as a “multilevel thrust filtration defending mechanism” to protect cloud computing environments against dDOS attacks. Their approach authenticates incoming requests and detects the different types of dDOS attacks at different levels to spot the most intensive attacks at an early stage and to then block unwanted traffic reaching the cloud service’s data centers.

They reckon the total overhead costs to the server of integrating this filtering system would be a quarter of the cost of the overheads and downtime due to the dDOS if the tracking reaching the system is unfiltered. This, of course, does not take into account the loss of business revenues as customers and users are precluded from using the system effectively when a dDOS attack is under way.

Iyengar, N.Ch.S.N., Ganapathy, G., Mogan Kumar, P.C and Abraham, A. (2014) ‘A multilevel thrust filtration defending mechanism against DDoS attacks in cloud computing environment’, Int. J. Grid and Utility Computing, Vol. 5, No. 4, pp.236–248.

Filtering criminal dDOS attacks is a post from: David Bradley's Science Spot

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Inderscience is media partner for Telecoms for Smart Grids 2014

Inderscience is a media partner for Telecoms for Smart Grids (22-23 September 2014, London, UK).

The journals involved are:

16 June 2014

Call for papers: "Game Theory and its Applications in Economics and Management"

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

Game theory explores the rational basis of decision-making. The importance of the subject arises from the pervasiveness of the assumption of rational behavior in all of the human sciences. This assumption lies at the foundation of almost all of the work in these sciences, including economics, management science, behavioural science, and so on.

Game theory plays a significant role in much of the contemporary research in economics and management science. Applications of game theory have arisen in many fields of economics and management science, such as industrial organisation, international economics and political science. In particular, non-cooperative games have become the primary models for fruitful applications.

This special issue invites original research on game theory and its applications in economics and management science. It welcomes both theoretical and applied papers on all aspects of strategic issues in economics and management.

The following topics are recommended but not limited to:

Strategic-form games and extensive-form games
Cooperative games and network games
Foundations of decision and game theory
Applications in economics and management
Experimental and behavioral game theory

Important Dates

Full paper due: 30 September, 2015
Notification of acceptance: 31 December, 2015

Wind turbine payback

US researchers have carried out an environmental lifecycle assessment of 2-megawatt wind turbines mooted for a large wind farm in the US Pacific Northwest. Writing in the International Journal of Sustainable Manufacturing, they conclude that in terms of cumulative energy payback, or the time to produce the amount of energy required of production and installation, a wind turbine with a working life of 20 years will offer a net benefit within five to eight months of being brought online.

Wind turbines are frequently touted as the answer to sustainable electricity production especially if coupled to high-capacity storage for times when the wind speed is either side of their working range.

They offer a power source that has essentially zero carbon emissions.

Coupled lifecycle cost and environmental assessment in terms of energy use and emissions of manufacturing, installation, maintenance and turbine end-of-life processing seems to be limited in the discussions for and against these devices. “All forms of energy generation require the conversion of natural resource inputs, which are attendant with environmental impacts and costs that must be quantified to make appropriate energy system development decisions,” explain Karl Haapala and Preedanood Prempreeda of Oregon State University, in Corvallis.

The pair has carried out a life cycle assessment (LCA) of 2MW wind turbines in order to identify the net environmental impact of the production and use of such devices for electricity production. An LCA takes into account sourcing of key raw materials (steel, copper, fiberglass, plastics, concrete, and other materials), transport, manufacturing, installation of the turbine, ongoing maintenance through its anticipated two decades of useful life and, finally, the impacts of recycling and disposal at end-of-life.

Their analysis shows that the vast majority of predicted environmental impacts would be caused by materials production and manufacturing processes. However, the payback for the associated energy use is within about 6 months, the team found. It is likely that even in a worst case scenario, lifetime energy requirements for each turbine will be subsumed by the first year of active use. Thus, for the 19 subsequent years, each turbine will, in effect, power over 500 households without consuming electricity generated using conventional energy sources.

Haapala, K.R. and Prempreeda, P. (2014) ‘Comparative life cycle assessment of 2.0 MW wind turbines‘, Int. J. Sustainable Manufacturing, Vol. 3, No. 2, pp.170-185.

Wind turbine payback is a post from: David Bradley's Science Spot

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13 June 2014

Call for papers: "Data Management and Intelligent Application for the Internet of Things"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Embedded Systems.

The Internet of Things (IoT) has recently received considerable attention from academia, industry and government laboratories for developing the future Internet. IoT connects intelligent data-enabled devices to the pervasive internet infrastructure – closer to reality. IoT requires synergetic efforts from multiple disciplinal communities such as the telecommunication industry, device manufacturers and those involved in the semantic web, informatics and engineering, among many others.

The volume, velocity and volatility of IoT data impose significant challenges to existing information systems. Intelligent applications need to combine knowledge engineering and AI techniques to represent, integrate and reason upon data and knowledge. Semantic technologies have shown promise for describing objects, sharing and integrating information, and inferring new knowledge together with other intelligent processing techniques.

The addition of semantics also facilitates creating intelligent IoT applications, where data is machine-interpretable and self-descriptive. The dynamic and resource-constrained nature of the IoT requires putting special design considerations of semantic technologies into real world data and applications.

The issue will carry revised and substantially extended versions of selected papers presented at the International Conference on Identification, Information and Knowledge in the Internet of Things 2014 (IIKI2014), 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:

Knowledge engineering: knowledge retrieval and sharing; integration of heterogeneous information; reasoning algorithms for knowledge systems; data management and integration; data mining; context awareness; semantic interoperability; intelligent applications
Mobile computing: mobile health and e-health applications; mobile education and mobile learning; mobile tracking services; modeling, emulation and measurement of mobile systems
Software engineering: software engineering approaches; service-oriented computing; development methodologies; testing, debugging, validation and QoS modeling; formal verification; middleware systems for the Internet of Things
Security and Privacy: identification technologies, privacy management, security in the Internet of Things; digital publishing; social influence
Business Models: business models for the Internet of Things; business information processing; management information systems; enterprise knowledge management; applications, services, and things in the IoT enterprise

Important Dates
Full paper due: 15 January, 2015

Special issue published: "Architectures and Algorithms for Irregular Applications"

International Journal of High Performance Computing and Networking 7(4) 2014

Parallel algorithms for clustering biological graphs on distributed and shared memory architectures
Compiling irregular applications for reconfigurable systems
Parallel dynamic programming for solving the optimal search binary tree problem on CGM

Additional papers

An improved DDS publish/subscribe automatic discovery algorithm
A study of successive over-relaxation method parallelisation over modern HPC languages
A novel power-conscious scheduling algorithm for data-intensive precedence-constrained applications in cloud environments

Call for papers: "Agile Methods for Service Engineering"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Agile Systems and Management.

Manufacturing industries which produce tangible goods provide their customers with additional services such as operation support, monitoring, maintenance, repair, overhaul and training. Recently, many manufacturers have started to redefine the value of services, creating a holistic product-service offering. The term “servitisation” has been coined to describe this transformation of manufacturers to service providers, and the term “service economy” to underlay the importance of services for the national economy. Moreover, economy and society are dominated by complex networks of service systems: overlapping systems that continuously interact and create value, known as service system networks.

The increasing complexity and interactive capability of these networks lead to an extensive exploration of the expansive possibilities for service innovation and integration across different types of service systems. In parallel, service engineering as a novel engineering discipline emerges which includes comprehensive design methodology of both products and services. Today, two directions for its further development can be observed. First, depending on the industrial sector, manifold options and barriers must be considered and broken down to develop a marketable service offering. Second, traditional manufacturers have to preserve many internal and supporting activities with respect to the manufacturers’ need to reorganise their processes in order to cope with the challenges of adopting a novel business model.

With this special issue, we address various areas of service engineering from the research perspective: integral product-service development and its transformation to high-reliability service, IT services which ensure the operational readiness during transition, synchronised forecasting of spare parts demand, and tight synchronisation of maintenance services with health monitoring.

The following topics are recommended but not limited to:

Agile service systems design and evaluation methodologies
Service enterprise architecture, framework and methodology
Risks assessment for product service systems
Engineering of complex in-service systems
Product life cycle management
Product design for service and sustainability
Sustainable systems design, development, operation, maintenance and services
End of life engineering system management
Service engineering and supply chain integration
Service engineering information systems, development and evaluation
Operations management and transformation strategy for servitisation
Benchmarking, metrics and performance drivers for servitisation
Service systems resource planning and optimisation
Complexity and uncertainty in servitisation
Knowledge management in service engineering
Decision support tools for service systems
Measuring efficiency and agility in service organisations
Performance-based contracting strategies
System sustainability evaluation in socio-economic environment

Important Dates

Full paper due: 30 November, 2014
Notification of acceptance: 31 January, 2015
Final version of the paper due: 28 February, 2015