Special issue published: "Competitiveness of Agro-Food Firms: Threats and Opportunities"

International Journal of Management Practice 8(3) 2015

• The capital structure choices of agro-food firms: evidence from Italian SMEs
• Towards a Gradual Growing Strategy of small business: an analysis through the performance in the wine industry
• The family variable in the wine sector: an Italian perspective
• The impact of intangible assets on wine firms' value: some empirical evidence
• The relationship between unstructured information and marketing knowledge: an experiment in the US wine market
• A value co-creation model for wine tourism

Call for papers: "Model and Data Engineering"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Intelligent Information and Database Systems.

The development of advanced applications is gradually becoming more and more complex due to the natural evolution of corporations from the local to global scales. This evolution sig-nificantly impacts the different phases of the lifecycle of application development. Globalisa-tion increases the number of heterogeneous actors, where each one proposes an important number of models for each phase and consequently contributes in generating heterogeneous data. As a consequence their interoperability is required.

 

From a models perspective, the foundations and successful stories of modelling have to be leveraged to cope with advanced areas such as business intelligence, sensors, cyber secu-rity, cloud computing, services, etc. From the data perspective, database management has to get benefits from the diversity of storage models, deployment platforms, processing units, query optimisations, etc.

 

The purpose of this special issue is to present new and challenging issues in both model and data engineering.

 

Suitable topics include, but are not limited to:

• Modelling and model engineering
• Design of general-purpose modelling languages and related standards
• Model-driven engineering, modelling languages, meta-modelling, model transformation, model evolution
• Formal modelling, verification and validation, analysis, testing
• Ontology-based modelling, role of ontologies in modelling activities
• Model manipulation and models as first objects
• Heterogeneous modelling, model integration, interoperability
• Applications and case studies
• Data engineering
• Heterogeneous data, data Integration and interoperability
• Distributed, parallel, grid, p2p, cloud databases
• Data warehouses and OLAP, data mining
• Database system internals, performance, self-tuning benchmarking and test-ing
• Database security, personalisation, recommendation
• Web databases, ontology-based databases
• Applications and case studies
• Modelling for data management
• New models and architectures for databases and data warehouses
• Modelling and quality of data
• Modelling for enhancing sharing data
• Models for explicit and implicit semantics-based data optimisation
• Model reification, model repositories
• Modelling nonfunctional properties of systems
• Data as models and models as data
• Service- based data management, service-oriented applications
• Models for data monitoring
• Urbanisation of database applications
• Applications and tooling
• Industry transfer, experiences
• Data and model manipulation and tooling
• Modelling tools and experimentation

 

Important Dates

Submission of manuscripts: 1 February, 2016

Notification to authors: 1 April, 2016

Final versions due: 1 June, 2016

Inderscience journals to publish expanded papers from 2016 International Workshop on Hardware/Software Interface for Internet of Things and Big Data

Extended versions of papers presented at the 2016 International Workshop on Hardware/Software Interface for Internet of Things and Big Data (InterIoT&BigData'2016) (in conjunction with International Conference on Parallel Processing 2016) will be published by the following journals:

• International Journal of Computational Science and Engineering
• International Journal of Embedded Systems
• International Journal of High Performance Computing and Networking

Special issue published: "Building Sustainable Entrepreneurship Ecosystems"

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business 26(4) 2015

Extended versions of papers presented at the 6th Indonesia International Conference on Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Small Business (IICIES).

• Entrepreneurship policy implementation model in Indonesia
• Understanding a viable value co-creation model for a sustainable entrepreneurial system: a case study of Batik Solo industrial cluster
• Towards holistic approach to education: creative industries perspective in Bandung, Indonesia
• Energy consciousness and business opportunity after the 2011 disaster
• The mediating role of entrepreneurial alertness in relationship between environmental dimensions and entrepreneurial commitment: entrepreneurial self-efficacy as moderating variables
• Asian leadership styles, entrepreneurial firm orientation and business performance

Call for papers: "Sensor Networks and Cloud Computing"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Advanced Intelligence Paradigms.

Sensor networks and cloud computing (SNCC) have received tremendous attention from both academia and industry, as they are emerging to present numerous exciting applications in the Internet of Things and machine-to-machine and cyber-physical systems (e.g. industrial process control, video surveillance, structural health monitoring, mobile commerce, mobile learning, mobile gaming), which can fundamentally change the way people interact with the physical world.

Recently, integrating sensor networks with cloud computing is widely acknowledged as further enhancing the performance of sensor networks or cloud computing applications by utilising the powerful cloud to store, process and share the data gathered by a variety of sensors.

However, new research challenges need to be addressed in order to accelerate the development of these SNCC-integrated applications. For instance, mobile network bandwidth is still quite limited, with dramatically increasing mobile and cloud users. Intelligent resource management is required to provide users with services in an on-demand and scalable fashion. A secure mobile computing model is necessary to protect user privacy and data secrecy.

In this special issue, we solicit research papers addressing all aspects of SNCC. The goal of the issue is to bring together state-of-the-art research contributions, tutorials and position papers that address various aspects of analysis, design, optimisation, implementation and applications of SNCC.

The issue will carry revised and substantially extended versions of selected papers presented at the 3rd International Symposium on Big Data and Cloud Computing Challenges (ISBCC 2016), 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:

• Mobile-aware cloud computing models, infrastructures and approaches
• Mobility modelling, management solutions and measurement techniques in cloud computing
• Mobile-aware cloud databases, data retrieval
• Cloud-based mobile applications and systems
• Distributed, edge and fog computing
• Middleware for enabling sensors to join the cloud
• Sensing data aggregation and processing over the cloud
• Sensing data dependability over the cloud
• Secure sensing data over the cloud
• Quality of service of sensor cloud-based services
• Architecture of sensor clouds
• Self-configuring, self-healing of sensors interacting with cloud
• Sensing as a service
• Novel sensor-cloud systems and applications
• Sensor cloud architecture for distributed wireless sensor networks
• Theory and technology of infrastructure for sensor cloud systems
• Technologies for data management and integration in sensor cloud systems
• Scalability, reliability and other quality assurances in sensor cloud systems
• Massive data processing in sensor cloud systems
• Data analysis and mining in sensor cloud systems
• Integration of heterogeneous sensor information for sensor cloud systems
• Security, privacy and system integrity in sensor cloud systems
• Commercial and industrial applications of sensor cloud systems
• New applications of sensor cloud systems
• Experience and case studies on sensor cloud systems
• Demos and prototype testing
• Localisation and tracking of WSNs with sensor cloud infrastructure
• Architectures and models for integrated big data and sensor networks
• Big sensor data semantics
• Large-scale sensor data modelling, storage and visualisation
• Big sensor data analytics
• Data analysis and mining for sensor networks
• Big data processing in sensor networks
• Big sensor data aggregation and filtering
• Big sensor data querying
• Complex event processing and big data
• Data transfer protocol for big sensor data
• Secure big sensor data management
• Spatial data warehouses for sensor networks
• Sensor data streaming via cloud computing systems
• Sensor cloud systems for remote and real-time monitoring
• Sensor-cloud protocols
• Cloud-based communication for sensor networks
• Computation and storage in sensor networks
• Data analysis and mining in sensor networks
• Distributed algorithms for data and computation placement in sensor networks
• Big data analytics in large sensor networks
• Big data mining and processing in sensor networks
• Efficient sensor data dissemination
• Mining big data collected from large-scale smartphone sensing deployments

Important Dates
Submission deadline: 10 April, 2016
Review notification: 10 May, 2016
Submission of revised papers: 10 June, 2016
Notification of final review results: 1 August, 2016

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Decision Sciences, Risk and Management

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Decision Sciences, Risk and Management are now available here for free:

• Applying QE-DEA in the evaluation of the Greek public sector: the case of the agencies for aliens and immigration of the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace
• Scheduling periodic preventive maintenance with a single server in a finite horizon
• Combined interpretive structural modelling and expected value method approach for managing project risks in oil exploration project
• Exploring the resilience development process by implementing the crisis strategic planning framework: a Swedish textile SME perspective

Inderscience is media partner for Oil and Gas Telecommunications 2016

Inderscience is a media partner for Oil and Gas Telecommunications (14-16 March 2016, London, UK).

The journals involved are:

• International Journal of Critical Infrastructures
• International Journal of Information Technology, Communications and Convergence
• International Journal of Mobile Communications
• International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Technology
• International Journal of Systems, Control and Communications
• International Journal of Satellite Communications Policy and Management

Special issue published: "Reliability and Computations of Infrastructures"

International Journal of Reliability and Safety 9(2/3) 2015

Extended versions of papers presented at the 6th International Conference on Reliable Engineering Computing.

• Reliable engineering computations of large infrastructures
• Structural design with polymorphic uncertainty models
• Geometric misfitting in trusses and frames: an interval-based approach
• Hybrid surrogate modelling for mechanised tunnelling simulations with uncertain data
• Targeted random sampling: a new approach for efficient reliability estimation for complex systems
• Reliability assessment of temporary structures using past performance information
• Dynamic analysis of uncertain structures using imprecise probability
• Reliable condition assessment of structures using uncertain or limited field modal data

Call for papers: "Data to Decision"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Big Data Intelligence.

Computing and networking, data collection and analytics have been booming in the recent decades to manifest the coming big data era. Today, more and more data are being collected and analysed by organisations in order to make critical decisions. However, many challenges still need to be addressed; for example, the difficulty of tracking the versions of data sets in workflows, supporting data scientists in exploring subsets of data locally, sharing reproducible exploration and scaling up, and keeping semantic and physical consistency of views among distributed and multiple data stores. This special issue aims to present solutions to these challenges from both researchers and practitioners.

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

• Data to decision management
• Data transformation and analytics pipelines
• Workflow management in service and scientific computing
• Entity resolution/matching and schema matching
• (Big) data provenance and lineage
• Data processing and tracking
• Semantic issues in data provenance
• Semantic issues in APIs
• Data management in data science, AI, data mining and machine learning
• Data management in exploration environments and production environments
• Data and data computing platforms
• Service-oriented architecture for data analytics pipelines
• Data analytics as services
• Trustworthiness of data and analytics
• Reproducible data analytics and decisions
• Traceability from decisions to data
• Understanding and explaining of decisions
• Mining and analysis of contracts and e-contracts
• Entity matching
• Data analytics and pipelines
• Transactions in web services
• Semantic issues in analysis and verification of APIs
• Data provenance and lineage
• Data automata
• Data semantics in multimedia processing
• Functional programming for data processing
• Approximate computing for big data

Important Dates
Submission of manuscripts: 15 April, 2016
Notification to authors: 30 May, 2016
Final version to due: 10 July, 2016

New Editor for International Journal of Semantic and Infrastructure Services

Associate Prof. Paulo F. Pires from Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro in Brazil has been appointed to take over editorship of the International Journal of Semantic and Infrastructure Services.

Special issue published: "Sustainability in Agribusiness"

International Journal of Globalisation and Small Business 7(3/4) 2015

• Socioeconomic sustainability, food production, and food 'stakeholders': an exploratory study 
• Sustainability perceptions and actions of Italian agri-food firms
• Consumers' literacy and preferences for sustainability labels: an exploratory analysis on Italian young adults
• Green economy and social responsibility in the Italian agri-food sector: the focus on the wine sector
• Sustainable European fishery and the Friend of the Sea scheme: tools to achieve sustainable development in the fishery sector
• Inter-firm cooperation as strategic element to get a sustainable competitive advantage in rural tourism: network contract 'green-road'
• Reaching out to organic agriculture for sustainability in agribusiness
• Understanding limits to data informative power for sustainable food policies in transition and post-transition countries

Special issue published: "Impact in University-Business Cooperation"

International Journal of Technology Transfer and Commercialisation 13(1/2) 2014

Extended versions of papers presented at the 2013 University-Industry Interaction Conference ‘Challenges and solutions for fostering entrepreneurial universities and collaborative innovation’ and the 13th International Science-to-Business Marketing Conference ‘Cross Organisational Value Creation’.

• The motivations of research teams and their cooperation with industry
• Organising for knowledge and technology-related outcomes in industry-university relationships 
• University-industry technology transfer: a systems approach with policy implications
• Estimating the economic effects of university-industry collaboration
• Factors fostering entrepreneurial universities to develop academic entrepreneurship activities: an assessment of European universities

Call for papers: "Information and Coding Theory for Data Storage"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Information and Coding Theory.

Coding theory has long been known to have applications to storage, starting from the use of Reed Solomon codes in CDs. The range of applications of information and coding theory to storage has been widening over the years, and now encompasses different layers and areas of storage technologies, such as flash memories, RAID systems or networked distributed storage systems.

The goal of this special issue is to provide a platform for information and coding theorists to publish recent results in the broad area of information and coding theory for data storage.

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

• Channel models for memories and storage
• Erasure codes and error correction codes for storage
• Network coding for distributed storage systems
• Array codes
• Coding for flash memories

Important Dates

Submission of manuscripts: 30 April, 2016

Special issue published: "Sustainable Shipping and Transport Logistics in Developing Economies"

International Journal of Shipping and Transport Logistics 7(6) 2015

• Introduction: Sustainable shipping and transport logistics in developing economies
• Including carbon emissions in the planning of logistic networks: a Brazilian case
• Estimating CO2 emissions from water transportation of freight in China
• Sustainable transportation: an overview, framework and further research directions
• Identification and evaluation of influential criteria for the selection of an environmental shipping carrier using DEMATEL: a case from India 
• Study on analysing the criteria's for selection of shipping carriers in Chinese shipping market using analytical hierarchy process
• GHG emission assessment of Chinese container terminals: a hybrid approach of IPCC and input-output analysis

Special issue published: "In the Name of Sustainability"

International Journal of Sustainable Development 18(4) 2015

• Indicator-based sustainability assessment of shrimp farming: a case for extensive culture methods in South-western coastal Bangladesh
• Quality assurance of knowledge claims in governance for sustainability: transcending the duality of passion vs. reason
• The productivist rationality behind a sustainable certification process: evidence from the Rainforest Alliance in the Ivorian cocoa sector
• Sustainability and techno-science: What do we want to sustain and for whom?
• Complex moral dilemmas of large scale development projects: the case of Macdom-ARDA Chisumbanje ethanol project in Chipinge, Southeastern Zimbabwe

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Technology Transfer and Commercialisation

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Technology Transfer and Commercialisation are now available here for free:

• How do Indonesian industries perceive university-industry collaboration? Motivations, benefits and problems
• Recent trends of technology transfer in US universities with comparison to those following Bayh-Dole Act
• Means becoming ends? Recent evidence from patent registration in Portugal
• Investigating inventive productivity at Sweden's largest medical university
• International technology transfer: innovative quantitative tools
• Screening for start-up potential in universities and research institutions - or how to map invisible innovation potentials
• The role of geographical proximity in university and industry collaboration: case study of Japanese companies in the UK
• Corporate culture and the adverse impact of cultural differences on technology transfer
• International technology transfer and its impact on innovation enhancement for firms based in Sri Lanka
• Technology transfer and innovation: exploring the multifaceted nature of this interaction

Special issue published: "Access to Large Scale Information Content and Information Interchange Infrastructure"

International Journal of Computational Science and Engineering 11(3) 2015

Expanded versions of papers presented at the Seventh International Workshop on Databases in Networked Information Systems (DNIS) 2011.

• Energy aware RAID configuration for data intensive applications in enterprise storages
• Collecting all data continuously in wireless sensor networks with a mobile base station
• User behaviour modelling by abstracting low-level window transition logs
• Topic transition detection about the East Japan great earthquake based on emerging modularity over time
• Organic databases
• In-depth querying of web-based medical documents: beyond single page results
• Structural analysis of issues in exchanging qualified master data under cloud computing

Additional papers

• Flexible facial morphing
• Solution method of optimisation problem based on a modified Armijo-type line search
• GPU-accelerated DEM implementation with CUDA

Linking up for better business

LinkedIn is perhaps one of the most well-known of the online social networks and is commonly used by professionals hoping to make new and fruitful contacts with other professionals in their field and the organisations and businesses associated with them. Research published in the International Journal of Social Media and Interactive Learning Environments, suggests that LinkedIn users are well acquainted with and fairly happy with the technological performance of the network, but have mixed responses to its social benefits and raise concerns regarding privacy and professional authentication.

According to Eng Li Yap and Qiyun Wang of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, the proliferation of online social networks has allowed communication and conversation to be carried out on an unprecedented scale across the globe. LinkedIn has almost 400 million members although fewer than 100 million are known to be active users. Nevertheless, 100 million individuals is a large network and one that has mutual benefits for those who are active. The team suggests, however, that theirs is the first examination of the network from the perspective of professional development taking into account social, technological and pedagogical affordances.

A better understanding of LinkedIn, its facilities and how its members use the service should enable researchers, educators, policymakers and professional group administrators to improve the way in which they and the members they represent use the service. On the basis of their case study, the team reports that, “The quantitative and qualitative findings of this study revealed that adults are receptive to using LinkedIn for sharing and learning knowledge, ideas and meeting other professionals. However, they also found that some users had negative experiences: “There are some uncontrollable negative aspects such as meeting unpleasant people, unsolicited invitation from strangers and unwanted advertisements.”

Nevertheless, the team concludes, “LinkedIn may have excellent potential as a professional development tool. The findings from this study indicate that adults are receptive to incorporating LinkedIn for their professional development.”


Yap, E.L. and Wang, Q. (2015) ‘A case study of using LinkedIn for professional development’, Int. J. Social Media and Interactive Learning Environments, Vol. 3, No. 3, pp.230–247.

Original article: Linking up for better business.
via Science Spot » Inderscience http://ift.tt/1KzX8xh

Inderscience is media partner for Pharmaceutical Microbiology 2016

Inderscience is a media partner for Pharmaceutical Microbiology (20-21 January 2016, London, UK).

The journals involved are:

• International Journal of Computational Biology and Drug Design
• International Journal of Computational Microbiology and Medical Ecology

More information on the event is available here.

Special issue on: "Transport"

International Journal of Engineering Management and Economics 5(3/4) 2015

Extended versions of papers presented at the International Conference on Modelling, Simulation and Applied Optimisation (ICMSAO’13).

• Wrong-way driving on Florida toll roads: an investigation into multiple incident parameters and targeted countermeasures for reductions
• The impact of random mid-block pedestrian crossing on urban arterial operational characteristics in developing countries
• Roles of driver and vehicle characteristics in speed choice along rural highways
• Expanding the capabilities of existing vehicle detection infrastructure to monitor red light running
• General deterrence of drinking and driving: an evaluation of the effectiveness of three Ontario countermeasures
• Efficiency and productivity: an empirical analysis of public sector buses in India
• An equity analysis of fuel tax and VMT fee based on the revenue-neutral principle
• Pedestrian speed at signalised crosswalks: analysis and influencing factors
• Professionals' perception towards using building information modelling (BIM) in the highway and infrastructure projects
• Decision model for performance evaluation of flexible pavement
• Impact of manufacturing flexibility and pallets on buffer delay in flexible manufacturing systems

First issue: EuroMed Journal of Management (free sample issue available)

Along with the 28 EU member states, 16 Southern Mediterranean, African and Middle Eastern countries are defined as 'Euromed'. The connections between the EU and its Mediterranean neighbours may be seen as critical in terms of geopolitical and economic development. The EuroMed Journal of Management addresses management issues within this growing and diverse region. It proposes and fosters collaboration and openness between different research cultures and trends related to business topics, topics that illustrate innovative models and concepts coming into and within EuroMed.

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

Call for papers: "Financial Reporting Quality from the Perspective of Earnings and Revenue Management"

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

The aim of this special issue is to examine financial reporting quality (accounting quality) as reflected in earnings and revenue management activities. We invite high-quality research offering insights into the key emerging new challenges in this area, and are interested in papers that are industry-specific or offer cross-industry comparisons, and which are country-specific or international in content.

Since it is a special issue, we are not bound by methodological restrictions. We are more interested in papers that make significant contribution in understanding earnings and revenue management decisions in various industry or country contexts. We are open to diverse methodologies including data-based mathematical models, empirical research, integrative literature reviews, meta-analysis papers, case studies, experimental research, conceptual frameworks and/or any innovative methods.

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

• Accounting for revenue or revenue recognition
• Valuation of advertising and promotion
• Event studies in marketing
• Real earnings management
• Management’s choices of accounting estimates
• Timing of transactions or reporting of transactions
• Income smoothing
• Earnings management from the views of regulators
• Fraudulent accounting

Other specific earnings management and revenue management topics with significant implications are also welcome. 

Important Dates
Manuscript submissions: 31 May, 2016
Review reports: 31 July, 2016
Revised paper submissions: 30 September, 2016
Final manuscript submissions: 31 October, 2016

Inderscience is media partner for RNA Therapeutics 2016

Inderscience is a media partner for RNA Therapeutics (15-16 February 2016, London, UK).

The journals involved are:

• International Journal of Bioinformatics Research and Applications
• International Journal of Data Mining and Bioinformatics

More information on this event is available here.

Special issue published: "Globalisation, the Internationalisation of SMEs and Intangible Assets"

International Journal of Business and Globalisation 15(4) 2015

• The negative impact of family ownership structure on firm value in the context of Indonesia
• Preferred leadership behaviours by different personalities
• Cultural characteristics of small business entrepreneurs in India: examining the adequacy of Hofstede's framework
• Analysis of external and internal developments in public and private sector: strategic guidelines for corporate leaders
• Market entry mode and performance: capability alignment and institutional moderation
• Internationalisation of the firm theories: a schematic synthesis

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Intercultural Information Management

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Intercultural Information Management are now available here for free:

• Issues in implementation of fixed time fixed price software projects: an Indian case
• Modelling the barriers of supply chain performance measurement in the Indian automotive industries
• Analysing the importance rating of CSR challenges in order to improve the supply chain performance
• Effect of culture on perceptions of IS service quality
• Corporate sustainability performance assessment: an analytical hierarchy process approach

Call for papers: "Export Marketing Management and International Marketing Issues"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Export Marketing.

The exit from the economic crisis of 2008 provides firms with new opportunities for business growth. Therefore, international firms operating in different markets need to refresh their export strategies and overseas distributor relations.

 

This special issue welcomes all types of studies – quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods as well as meta-analysis/critical review/conceptual papers, empirical studies and case studies. Other areas related to international marketing management strategies of firms are also encouraged.

 

The issue will carry revised and substantially extended versions of selected papers presented at the 4th International Conference on Contemporary Marketing Issues (ICCMI 2016), 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:

• Motivation/stimulation of exporters
• Barriers to exporting
• Standardisation versus adaptation strategies in exporting related to international marketing mix
• Export sales management
• Export assistance programmes
• Export unethical behaviour
• CSR in exporting
• RBV theory in exporting
• Export performance
• Competitive advantage in exporting
• Social media in exporting
• Other issues related to exporting
• Other areas related to international marketing management strategies of firms

 

Important Dates

Submission of manuscripts: 30 October, 2016

Notification to authors: 30 December, 2016

Final versions due: 28 February, 2017

New Editor for International Journal of Agile and Extreme Software Development

Dr. Matt Ganis from Pace University in the USA has been appointed to take over editorship of the International Journal of Agile and Extreme Software Development.

Call for papers: "Signal Processing, Security and Privacy for Mobile/Wireless and Computer Networks"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Mobile Network Design and Innovation.

With the proliferation of many innovative data communications services such as social networks, cloud computing, location-based services and the Internet of Things, security and privacy issues are becoming more and more demanding and challenging. In addition, wireless physical layer secrecy has attracted much attention in recent years due to the broadcast nature of the wireless medium and its inherent vulnerability to eavesdropping. While recently published work on physical layer secrecy focuses on the information-theoretic aspect, with this special issue we will look specifically at the signal processing aspects of secure physical layer communications.

This special issue aims to compile relevant research contributions from academics and industry professionals in the signal processing area, as well from practitioners and engineers working on the security and privacy aspects of data communications and computer networks. It will also serve these scientific communities by presenting the state of the art in signal processing methodologies and computer network security and fostering future research in this emerging area.

Accordingly, we invite contributions that apply these signal processing approaches to more advanced wired and wireless systems, such as OFDM systems, cognitive radio, multi-hop networks, etc. We also welcome novel research on side-channels and covert channels, where approaches from signal processing are used to strengthen/weaken the security of embedded devices. This will draw interest from researchers who wish to pursue the topic further in these new directions, facilitating scientific cross-fertilisation.

The overall focus of this issue will be on signal processing methodologies, tools and technologies for designing innovative methods and algorithms for security and privacy in mobile/wireless and computer networks.

Suitable topics include, but are not limited to, signal processing, security and privacy in regard to the following:

• Intrusion detection and protection systems
• Mobile and wireless communications
• Software and cognitive radios
• Cloud computing
• Pervasive and ubiquitous computing
• Location-based services
• Social networks
• Internet of Things
• Side and covert channels
• Key management and public key infrastructures

Important Dates

Deadline for paper submission: 12 February, 2016

Completion of first-round reviews: 10 March, 2016

Revision due: 15 May, 2016

Final decision notification: 30 May, 2016

Publication materials due: 20 June, 2016

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Trust Management in Computing and Communications

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Trust Management in Computing and Communications are now available here for free:

• Formal security analysis and verification of a password-based user authentication scheme for hierarchical wireless sensor networks
• Identity business processes
• A privacy enabling content distribution framework for digital rights management
• A trust-based AODV routing protocol for improved QoS in mobile ad-hoc networks
• Editorial article: On the boundaries of trust and security in computing and communications systems

Inderscience editors appointed to international committees

Professor Constantin Zopounidis, Editor in Chief of the International Journal of Multicriteria Decision Making and International Journal of Financial Engineering and Risk Management, has been elected to the Executive Committee of the International Society on Multiple Criteria Decision Making following a vote in which 677 people participated from all over the world. Furthermore, Dr. James S. Etim, Editor in Chief of the International Journal of Gender Studies in Developing Societies, has been appointed as the 2015 Education Panel Chair for the Undergraduate Awards, the world's largest academic awards program.

Research Picks Extra – October 2015

Vocal stress detection
Our voices change when we are under stress, for instance, people often talk higher and faster. Automating the detection of stress or fatigue in users of voice-controlled systems could be used to improve safety and security. Researchers in India have carried out an analysis of emotionally charged speech as well as neutral voices to tease out the details. They report that the spectra of relaxed and stressed speech are different, with the fundamental frequency of the vocal tract elevated in someone stressed. Moreover, characteristics of the voice known as formants are different in subtle ways that are perhaps obvious to another person listening to the speech but might not be embedded in a digital system to automatically recognise when a person is stressed.
Sondhi, S., Khan, M., Vijay, R., Salhan, A.K. and Chouhan, S. (2015) ‘Acoustic analysis of speech under stress’, Int. J. Bioinformatics Research and Applications, Vol. 11, No. 5, pp.417–432.

Keeping us interested
How long does a new update on a social network maintain its users’ interest. US researchers have investigated four popular sites – Reddit, 4chan, Flickr, and YouTube – to ascertain the lifespan and popularity of content. Data mining and statistical techniques have allowed them to build a model of content longevity that is 95% accurate in predicting lifespan and could be of use to educators and marketers looking to utilise online social networks to get their message home more effectively.
Gibbons, J.W. and Agah, A. (2015) ‘Modelling content lifespan in online social networks using data mining’, Int. J. Web Based Communities, Vol. 11, Nos. 3/4, pp.234–263.

The leapfrog shuffle
Researchers in China have used a shuffled frog leaping optimisation algorithm to help them detect communities in a social network. Given that there are hundreds of millions, if not billions, of people using online social networks, it is important from the social science perspective as well as from the business and political points of view to be able to simplify the complexity of these vast networks by finding communities within the wider network in which members have shared interests, affiliations and political persuasions. The team’s modified leapfrog algorithm gives more precise results than other algorithms that have been used on the same test data for classifying users according to community membership.
Wang, T., Zhao, X. and Zhou, Y. (2015) ‘Community detection in social network using shuffled frog-leaping optimisation’, Int. J. Security and Networks, Vol. 10, No. 4, pp.222–227.

A gesture token
Scientists in Taiwan have developed a real-time hand gesture recognition system for the retrieval of information from the internet that sidesteps endless mouse clicks and keyboard shortcuts. The system uses face recognition to identify the user of a given computer with a set of gestures taught to the computer by that user for carrying out particular tasks. A user might set an index finger pointing up to signify they want to read a particular site, a fist might give them the weather forecast, a thumbs-up take them to their favourite online comic etc.
Tsai, J.C., Chang, S-M., Yen, S-H., Li, K-C., Chen, Y-H. and Shih, T.K. (2015) ‘A real-time hand gesture recognition system for daily information retrieval from the internet’, Int. J. Computational Science and Engineering, Vol. 11, No. 2, pp.105–113.


Original article: Research Picks Extra – October 2015.
via Science Spot » Inderscience http://ift.tt/1jpoUaw

Special issue published: "Online Education"

International Journal of Services and Standards 10(4) 2015

• Student engagement in a technology-mediated distance learning course
• A report on the online learning experience of students in accounting course
• Japanese learners' point of view on learning management system
• Open textbooks: engaging education stakeholders to share learning resources
• The effectiveness of a web-based homework and testing software for operations management

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Postharvest Technology and Innovation

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Postharvest Technology and Innovation are now available here for free:

• Effect of storage conditions on physico-chemical properties and fatty acid ratio, C18:2/C16:1 of blended fat
• Development and evaluation of low cost evaporative cooling systems to minimise postharvest losses of tomatoes (Roma vf) around Woreta, Ethiopia
• Salinity effects on colour and health traits in the pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) fruit peel
• Effect of nano-silver particles on postharvest life of Lilium orientalis cv. 'Shocking'
• Evaluation and quantification of the contributions of damaged shea kernels to the quality of Nigerian shea butter
• Low oxygen pre-storage treatment is effective in reducing chilling injuries of deciduous fruit
• Indirect solar drying kinetics of sheanut (Vitellaria Paradoxa Gaertn.) kernels

Special issue published: "Business in Emerging Markets"

International Journal of Business and Emerging Markets 7(4) 2015

• Teaching ethics: a case study-based, interdisciplinary framework
• An overview of higher education in the Arabian Gulf
• Effects of internationalisation on performance of BRICS multinationals moderated by organisational slack and R&D intensity
• Expatriates' personal attributes and knowledge acquisition in brownfield IJVs: the case of CJ LION in Korea
• Standardisation/adaptation of the curriculum - relevance of 'Western' business textbooks for the MENA

New Editor for International Journal of Electronic Democracy

Prof. Hamid Jahankhani from GSM London in the UK has been appointed to take over editorship of the International Journal of Electronic Democracy.

Inderscience is media partner for International Interdisciplinary Student Conference: Responsible Global Citizenship and Sustainable Development

Inderscience is a media partner for the International Interdisciplinary Student Conference: Responsible Global Citizenship and Sustainable Development (22 January 2016, Hong Kong).

The journals involved is the International Journal of Sustainable Real Estate and Construction Economics.

Special issue published: "New Cryptographic Techniques for Large-Scale Network Security"

International Journal of Embedded Systems 7(3/4) 2015

Extended versions of papers presented at the 8th International Conference on Network and System Security (NSS 2014).

• Cooperative attribute-based access control for enterprise computing system
• Proof of retrievability with efficient verification
• Weak leakage resilient extractable hash proof system and construction for weak leakage resilient CCA-secure public-key encryption
• On the provable security of TPM2.0 cryptography APIs
• MVP: modelling virus propagation for IPv6 wireless sensor networks
• A two-factor authenticated key exchange protocol based on RSA with dynamic passwords
• Energy-efficient key agreement protocols for wireless body area networks
• Lightweight handover authentication with location privacy-preserving in mobile wireless networks
• A GAA-based batch authentication and key agreement for LTE networks
• Investigating severity of blackhole attack and its variance in wireless mobile ad hoc networks
• Anonymous hierarchical identity-based encryption without key delegation in decryption

Additional papers

• A low energy consumption WSN node
• A secured transmission model for EPC network
• Optimisation of moving target's low-power and high-precision monitoring with RSSI based on static and dynamic clustering

Call for papers: "3D Anthropometric Databases and Their Applications"

For a special issue of the International Journal of the Digital Human.

Over the last two decades, 3D body scanning has been successfully employed in a number of large-scale anthropometry surveys, providing unprecedented shape information about the human body. However, effective use of the 3D data remains a challenge. Although anthropometry itself is a relatively standardised craft, processing, accessing, describing and querying 3D body data are mostly in-house projects; in short, 3D body shape databases are largely scattered and under-used.

Currently, there much active research into the processing of 3D scan data, including that exploring new computational methods for de-noising and parameterising scan data, automatically generating manifold surfaces and reconstructing missing surfaces without sacrificing data integrity, and new statistical shape models. In product design and mass production, novel shape description and classification methods are needed in utilising 3D scan data at population level to augment the traditional anthropometric measurements.

This special issue aims to bring together the latest research results relevant to 3D anthropometric databases, ranging from data collection, data processing and database planning to implementation to 3D model creation, 3D shape analysis and synthesis and other applications of 3D databases. Researchers are cordially invited to submit their original work on large-scale 3D body data collection methods, post-processing of 3D scan data, database implementation for storing and querying 3D body scans and anthropometric measurements, shape descriptions and classifications of the 3D body surfaces, and applications of 3D database and 3D scan data.

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

• 3D anthropometric databases: structure, standard and accessibility
• Methods of 3D body shape description, query and retrieval
• Post processing of 3D body scan data
• Automatic landmark identification and measurement extraction methods
• Methods for analysing, modelling and classifying 3D body shape data
• 3D model creation from population data
• Sizing systems based on 3D databases
• Applications of 3D body scan data

Important Dates

Submission of manuscripts: 30 June, 2016
Notification to authors: 31 August, 2016
Final versions due: 30 November, 2016

Special issue published: "Selected Topics on Air Transport Economics"

International Journal of Aviation Management 2(3/4) 2015

Extended versions of papers presented at the Air Transport Research Society (ATRS) World Conference 2013 and the 2013 World Conference on Transport Research Society (WCTRS).

• Market analysis for small and mid-size commercial turboprop aircraft
• Air traffic growth, energy, and the environment 2040: drivers, challenges, and opportunities for aviation 
• Scenario-based life-cycle cost assessment of future air transport concepts
• Managing the risky matter of business model innovation in the context of the airline industry 
• Key factors contributing to operating cost of short-haul domestic air routes 
• Ancillary revenue and price fairness: an exploratory study pre and post flight
• How to measure airport connectivity? - average shortest travel time and average highest path velocity as indicators
• A passenger's perspective of surface access issues at a UK regional airport: a case study of Forecast of air traffic's CO2 and NOx emissions until 2030

Additional paper

• Slot premium: London Heathrow versus London Gatwick

Special issue published: "Managing Risk in the Globalisation Era: Micro and Macro Evidence"

International Journal of Computational Economics and Econometrics 5(4) 2015

• International investment positions and risk-sharing: an empirical analysis on the coordinated portfolio investment survey
• The US home mortgage market during the financial crisis
• Credit risk and universal banking: evidence from the banking industry in Ghana
• Risk-management criteria in the Latin-American stock markets: an assessment with a TGARCH model with a skewed normal distribution and autoregressive conditional asymmetry
• Historical and risk-neutral estimation in a two factors stochastic volatility model for oil markets

Special issue published: "Theory and Applications of the Harmony Search Method"

International Journal of Bio-Inspired Computation 7(5) 2015

• On the application of multi-objective harmony search heuristics to the predictive deployment of firefighting aircrafts: a realistic case study
• Finding resonant frequencies of microwave cavities through a modified harmony search algorithm
• Clustering microarray gene expression data using enhanced harmony search

Additional apers

• An investigation on mixing heterogeneous differential evolution variants in a distributed framework
• Differential evolution algorithm with local search for capacitated vehicle routing problem 

Int. J. of Computational Economics and Econometrics to publish expanded papers from MIC2016

Extended versions of papers presented at the Management International Conference 2016 (1-4 June 2016, Pula, Croatia) will be published by the International Journal of Computational Economics and Econometrics.

Special issue published: "Information Sciences and Green Supply Chain Management"

International Journal of Business Information Systems 20(3) 2015

• A study on the factors affecting customer satisfaction in online airline services
• Travel recommendation system based on trust using hybrid neuro-fuzzy: a study of potential trust in blog and Facebook
• A constructivist didactics framework for e-collaboration through social media
• Diabetic deduction through non-parametric analysis
• Exploring factors that affect on cancer patients performance in social networks for informational support
• Electronic content management systems support highly integrated business processes
• Collaborative learning using tabletop and interactive whiteboard systems

European J. of International Management to publish expanded papers from GEM&L International Conference on Management & Language

Extended versions of papers presented at the 10th GEM&L International Conference on Management & Language (17-18 March 2016, Paris, France) will be published by the European Journal of International Management.

Special issue published: "Modern Technologies as Future Solutions for Performance Products"

International Journal of Materials and Product Technology 51(3) 2015

Extended versions of papers presented at the ModTech2014 international conference.

• Representation of polymer mixing status during extrusion based on the model of ultrasonic reflection at screw
• Process parameter optimisation for plasma sprayed nanostructured ZrO2-7%Y2O3 coatings based on PSO algorithm
• MgZnFeAlLDHs nanoarchitectonics for photocatalytic removal of some organic pollutants by using solar irradiation
• A study on the uniformity of silver coatings on nanometer SnO2 particles through chemical plating
• An analysis of forces during three roller bending process
• Influence of hot-working conditions on a structure of X11MnSiAl17-1-3 steel for automotive industry 
• Modified random walker segmentation method of welding arc thermograms for welding process diagnostics
• Methods of detection of power transmission lines components using image analysis
• Improvement of sinterability of KNN ceramics by mechanochemical activation-assisted process

Animal algorithms

“What’s in a name?” asks Shakespeare’s Juliet of her beloved Romeo when sworn family enemies, the Montagues and the Capulets, forbid their affair. But, while a rose by any other name may indeed smell as sweet, there are certain areas of human endeavour that pick their names very carefully. I’m thinking of the likes of the world of genetic science wherein exist the likes of Sonic Hedgehog genes and in magnetic resonance spectroscopy with its bizarrely named COSY, NOESY and SLITDRESS techniques…then there is the world of algorithms where the behaviour or social, swarming and foraging animals are used to add a clue as to the nature of the process in question, Forget “Blum Blum Shub” and the lagged Lagged Fibonacci generator, forget the Travelling salesman problem and Lexicographic breadth-first search, here we have:

“Shuffled Frog Leaping” is one technique that features in a forthcoming paper in the International Journal of Bio-inspired Computation from Farzan Rashidi, Ebrahim Abiri, Taher Niknam, Mohammad Reza Salehi on optimising power plants.

The pros and cons of “Bat Foraging” and “Cuckoo Search” in spam filtering are compared in a paper from Arulanand Natarajan, S. Subramanian, and K. Premalatha in the International Journal of Bio-Inspired Computation

Mohammad Reza Jabbarpour, Hossein Malakooti, Rafidah Md Noor, Nor Badrul Anuar, Norazlina Khamis discussed “Ant Colony Optimization” in the context of road traffic also in the International Journal of Bio-Inspired Computation.

One usually thinks of shoals of fish and schools of whales, but “Artificial Fish Swarm” optimisation is the order of the day on this paper on natural language processing published in the International Journal of Artificial Intelligence and Soft Computing.

The “Artificial Bee Colony Algorithm” is widely used and comes into its own in a paper on profitable undirected routing published in the International Journal of Operational Research

In 2009, “Glow-worms Swarm Optimization” was a new method for optimising multi-modal functions according to work published in the International Journal of Computational Intelligence Studies by K.N. Krishnanand and D. Ghose. Xiangqin Xiang reports on an improvement to the related “Firefly Algorithm” for numerical optimization in the International Journal of Computing Science and Mathematics

And, the “Eagle Strategy” soars in a paper from Xin-She Yang and Suash Deb published in the International Journal of Bio-Inspired Computation.

Then there is “Bacterial Colony Foraging” “Bug Triaging Based on Ant Systems”, the “Krill Herd Algorithm”, “Bee-inspired Metaheuristics”, “Bee Royalty Offspring Algorithm”, “Slime Mould Computers”. The list goes on and they’re all bio-inspirational…


Original article: Animal algorithms.
via Science Spot » Inderscience http://ift.tt/1VDP7Dt

Call for papers: "Service-oriented Software Architecture and Assessment in the Future IOT Environment"

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

SOA (Service-oriented architecture) is a flexible set of design principles used during the phases of systems development and integration in computing, and a system based on SOA architecture will provide a loosely integrated suite of services that can be used within multiple separate systems from several business domains. Recently, as SOA is having a substantial impact on the development of software architecture, many architectures/systems are being developed and designed by utilizing the SOA-based style.

Although some progress has been made in several aspects regarding various issues including assessment concerns, there still exists the need for much research addressing SOA-based software architecture in terms of design, development and operation.

This special issue aims at bringing together researchers and practitioners with the common objective of developing SOA-based software architecture and methods into a mature discipline with both solid scientific foundations and mature software engineering development methodologies. In particular, we encourage work and discussions addressing what SOA-based software architecture still needs in order to achieve its original goal. Papers on practical as well as theoretical topics and problems are welcome.

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

• Software architecture for legacy systems and systems integration
• Software architecture from ultra-large to very small systems
• Service-oriented architecture, SOA migration and governance
• Software testing models and approaches
• SOA-based software testing and maintenance
• SOA-based software quality assurance
• Software security on the Internet of Things
• Software education and its applications

Important Dates

Deadline for manuscript submission: 31 August, 2016

Thematic issue published: "Employer Duty of Care: the Role of HRM in Managing Talent in Dangerous Locations"

European Journal of International Management 9(6) 2015

• Introducing a new set of guidelines to implement the 'duty of care' of the EU institutions and agencies towards their internationally mobile workforce
• Building psychological contracts in security-risk environments: evidence from Colombia and Mexico
• Medical requests for assistance from globally mobile populations: contrasting international assignees from different sectors
• 'Oh, the places you won't go as an LGBT expat!' A study of HRM's duty of care to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender expatriates in dangerous locations

Regularly submitted paper

• Drivers of social entrepreneurship

Special issue published: "Innovation and New Marketing Channels"

International Journal of Technology Marketing 10(4) 2015

Extended versions of papers presented at the 7th Euromed Annual Conference.

• Value creation based on IT marketing: an exploratory study for developing strategic partnerships in the Greek wood and furniture sectors
• Neuroscience technologies in marketing: a study of gender and TV advertisements using electroencephalography
• Communicating local products on the web: a comparison between Italian and English-language blogs
• Reliability of the online payment process and its impact on online purchase behaviour
• Influence of social media on motivations for visiting a destination and image formation

Call for papers: "Entrepreneurship: Made in German (Language)"

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

German is hip again. German is not only the most widely spoken native language in the European Union, but there is also a global increase in persons interested in learning German as a foreign language. Moreover, the German language area has for decades now been a major growth engine of the global economy.

Against this backdrop, the aim of this special issue is to explore entrepreneurship in the German-speaking countries Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Liechtenstein to get a better understanding of the stories, reasons and antecedents behind this successful development. Furthermore, we are no less interested in contributions on entrepreneurship in Germanophone (border) regions such as in Denmark, Belgium, Luxemburg, France, Italy, Poland, Slovakia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Namibia, Brazil, Chile and further countries where German is a national minority language.

In this broadest sense of German, submissions could also focus on the export of German expatriate entrepreneurs and business models, capture perceptions of German entrepreneurship abroad (e.g. in China), or revisit particularities of German entrepreneurship research (Schmude et al., 2008).

We invite theoretical, conceptual and empirical submissions, and are particularly keen to read daring, ironic or surprising perspectives on German entrepreneurship.

References:

Dana, L-P (1993) 'An Analysis of Strategic Intervention Policy in Namibia,” Journal of Small Business Management', 31, 90-95.

Dana, L-P (2007a) ed., Handbook of Research on Ethnic Minority Entrepreneurship: A Co-evolutionary View on Resource Management, Cheltenham, United Kingdom: Edward Elgar.

Dana, L-P (2007b) 'Promoting SMEs in Africa: Some Insights from An Experiment in Ghana and Togo', Journal of African Business 8 (2), October, 151-174.

Durst, S. and Henschel, T. (2014) 'Governance in small firms – A country comparison of current practices', International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 21(1), 16-32.

Durst, S. and Wilhelm, S. (2012) 'Knowledge management and succession planning in SMEs', Journal of Knowledge Management, 16(4), 637 – 649.

Durst, S. and Wilhelm, S. (2011) 'Knowledge management in practice: insights into a medium-sized enterprise's exposure to knowledge loss', Prometheus, 29(1), 23-38.

Kaufmann, H. R. and Durst, S. (2008) 'Developing inter-regional brands', EuroMed Journal of Business, 3(1), 38-62. doi:10.1108/14502190810873812. Müller, K. (2010) 'Knowledge Governance: The Social Dimension of Innovation', Central European Journal of Public Policy, (1), 4-13.

Müller, K., Roth, S. and Žák, M. (2010) The social dimension of innovation, Prague: Linde.

Roth, S. (2009) 'New for whom? Initial images from the social dimension of innovation', International Journal of Innovation and Sustainable Development, 4(4), 231-252. 10.1504/ijisd.2009.03308.

Roth, S. (2014a) 'Booties, Bounties, Business Models. A map to the next red oceans', International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 22(4), 439-448.

Roth, S. (2014b) 'The eye-patch of the beholder. Introduction to entrepreneurship and piracy', International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 22(4), 399-407.

Roth, S. (2015) 'Free economy! On 3628800 alternatives of and to capitalism', Journal of Interdisciplinary Economics, 27(2), 107-128.

Roth, S., Kaivo-Oja, J. and Hirschmann, T. (2013) 'Smart regions: Two cases of crowdsourcing for regional development', International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 20(3), 272-285.

Roth, S., Schneckenberg, D. and Tsai, C.-W. (2015) 'The Ludic Drive as Innovation Driver: Introduction to the Gamification of Innovation', Creativity and Innovation Management, 24(2), 300-306. 10.1111/caim.12124.

Schmude, J., Welter, F. and Heumann, S. (2008) 'Entrepreneurship Research in Germany', Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 32(2), 289-311. 10.1111/j.1540-6520.2007.00227.x.

Welter, F. (2006) 'Entrepreneurship in West and East Germany', International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 4(2), 97-109.

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

• Virtues, self-definitions and caricatures of German entrepreneurs
• Historical entrepreneurship: made in German (language)
• German entrepreneurship and piracy (Roth, 2014a; Roth, 2014b)
• Dark sides of German entrepreneurship
• German thoroughness and entrepreneurship
• German business planning
• German intercultural differences, regional development and interregional entrepreneurship (Kaufmann and Durst, 2008; Welter, 2006; Roth et al., 2013)
• German entrepreneurship, green entrepreneurship?
• Entrepreneurship and degrowth, German (horror) visions?
• German entrepreneurs, German capitalisms (Roth, 2015)
• German entrepreneurial ecosystems
• German governance (Durst and Henschel, 2014)
• German knowledge lost in translation (Durst and Wilhelm, 2011; Durst and Wilhelm, 2012)
• Ethnic minority entrepreneurship in German-speaking countries (Dana, 2007a)
• Germanophone entrepreneurship education
• Germanophone social media and entrepreneurship
• German entrepreneurship and big data
• German families, German businesses
• Social entrepreneurship and innovations - Made in German (language) (Müller et al., 2010; Müller, 2010; Roth, 2009)
• German gender mainstreams in entrepreneurship
• German games, innovations and adventures (Roth et al., 2015)
• Entrepreneurship in former German colonies, including Namibia (Dana, 1993) and Togo (Dana, 2007b)

  

Important Dates

Submission of manuscripts: 30 September, 2016

Special issue published: "International Perspectives on Full Spectrum Resilience"

International Journal of Critical Infrastructures 11(3) 2015

• Blast resistant design of precast reinforced concrete walls for strategic infrastructures under uncertainty 
• An investigation of the effects of critical infrastructure on urban mobility in the city of Medellín 
• Barcelona: building resilience strategies
• Consequence modelling of the population risk exposure resulting from airborne toxic material released from rail cars within Toronto, Ontario
• Spatial criticality - identifying CIP hot-spots for German regional planning

Additional paper

• The spatial justice implications of telecommunication infrastructure: the socio-economic status of early national broadband network rollout in Australia

Social sharing and popular posts

Sharing to be sociable or posting to be popular? Whatever your stance on social media it seems from recent research in the Netherlands that a student’s decision to share information on Facebook is predicated primarily on their perception of the benefits of sharing and not on their privacy concerns.

Writing in the International Journal of Web Based Communities, Ardion Beldad of the Department of Corporate and Marketing Communication, at the University of Twente, explains how Facebook use is closely tied to the need to disclose various types of personal information for users to experience the full benefits of using the platform. He wanted to know whether Dutch vocational students are actually deterred from sharing potentially sensitive personal and private information given awareness of risks and privacy valuation of the site.

His survey of almost 300 students revealed that the majority are quite happy to share photos, statements of their current activities, thoughts on issues or products regardless. The benefits derived from ease of communication and connectivity between friends and members of an online social network, and Facebook, in particular, seem to be perceived as far outweighing any problems that might arise from users sharing such vast amounts of information about themselves.

Aside from the issue of advertisement targeting that becomes easier for the provider of a social network given this plethora of personal information, there are also the risks of exposure to a wider and potentially malicious “audience”, either inadvertently through inappropriate privacy settings or should an online social network be hacked. “Users seem unperturbed by the negative repercussions of disclosure, as information sharing proceeds unabated,” Beldad reports.

He adds that, “Analysis reveals that people with more Facebook contacts are more inclined to share personal information on their Facebook walls than those with fewer contacts.” Moreover, “Those who have been members of the platform for a relatively long period tend to share personal information more frequently than those who are new to the site.”


Beldad, A.D. (2015) ‘Sharing to be sociable, posting to be popular: factors influencing non-static personal information disclosure on Facebook among young Dutch users’, Int. J. Web Based Communities, Vol. 11, Nos. 3/4, pp.357–374.

Original article: Social sharing and popular posts.
via Science Spot » Inderscience http://ift.tt/1jaxwli

Special issue published: "Trust and Gratuitousness in Economics"

International Journal of Happiness and Development 2(3) 2015

• On the economic relevance of the principle of gratuitousness
• Trust, family, and education
• Re-regulating finance to return markets at the service of society
• Social capital and life satisfaction in Switzerland
• Civil economy and solidarity in Latin America
• Is unpaid work conducive of well-being? The case of within-household unpaid work in the Modena District 

Call for papers: "Computational Imaging and Multimedia Processing"

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

With the rapid progress of industrialisation and civilisation, intelligent systems are emerging as a concept in which every device, person, vehicle, building and street in an area can be used as a component to probe social intelligence for the purpose of serving people and their lives.

Computational imaging systems and multimedia systems aim to enhance both human lives and environments smartly through a recurrent process of sensing, mining, understanding and improving. They also aim to deeply understand the nature and science behind phenomena occurring in urban spaces, using a variety of heterogeneous data sources, such as traffic flows, human mobility, geographic data, environment protection, energy consumption, economics, etc. In all of the above, intelligent systems can give rise to a richer user experience with a wide variety of interactive devices, from recommenders to storytelling platforms.

This special issue's objective is to provide a platform for researchers to share their thoughts and findings in various issues in computational imaging and multimedia processing. Our goal is to compile the latest advancements addressing the topic of intelligent systems.

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

• Computational imaging methods and models
• Computational image formation
• Computational photography
• Computational consumer imaging
• Tomographic imaging
• Computational image processing
• Multi-spectral imaging
• Multimedia systems
• Multimedia retrieval
• Multimedia in mobile and ambient systems
• Multimedia applications
• Web-based multimedia services
• Multimedia tools
• Animation and visualisation
• Multimedia indexing and annotation
• Multimedia coding and compression
• Oceanic imaging and processing
• Multimedia big data
• Multimedia sensors
• Multimedia imaging

Important Dates

Submission of manuscripts: 1 May, 2016

Notification to authors: 1 July, 2016

Final versions due: 1 October, 2016

Special issue published: "Advances in Pervasive, Ubiquitous and Mobile Systems"

International Journal of Adaptive and Innovative Systems 2(2) 2015

Extended versions of papers presented at the 8th International Conference on Complex, Intelligent, and Software Intensive Systems (CISIS-2014).

• Efficient matching of services with users in opportunistic network environments
• FlightQM: a multi-agent system for the analysis of flight qualities
• A write abortion-based protocol in role-based access control systems
• A machine learning system for automatic detection of preterm activity using artificial neural networks and uterine electromyography data
• Context-based service for intelligent public transportation systems

Int. J. of Strategic Business Alliances to publish expanded papers from ICROSMOS 2016

Extended versions of papers presented at the International Conference on Role of Social Media for Organizational Sustainability (12-13 February 2016, Noida, India) will be published by the International Journal of Strategic Business Alliances.

Special issue published: "Capturing Underlying Trends in Web Communities"

International Journal of Web Based Communities 11(3/4) 2015

• Modelling content lifespan in online social networks using data mining
• Analysing observable success and activity indicators on crowdfunding platforms 
• Fostering online social capital through peer-support
• Science teaching strategies developed in an online community of practice: a case study
• Examining the risks of social networking adoption in the Bhutanese healthcare system
• Prediction of health behaviours of users of online weight control communities: the effects of social support, and social connectedness
• Sharing to be sociable, posting to be popular: factors influencing non-static personal information disclosure on Facebook among young Dutch users

New Editor for International Journal of Immunological Studies

Dr. Borros Arneth from the Institut für Laboratoriumsmedizin und Pathobiochemie, Molekulare Diagnostik in Germany has been appointed to take over editorship of the International Journal of Immunological Studies.

Special issue published: "Sustainable Manufacturing: a Systems Perspective"

International Journal of Strategic Engineering Asset Management 2(3) 2015

• Centre of energy competence - logistics and factory planning: concept and implementation of a qualification system for energy efficiency
• Establishing foundational concepts for sustainable manufacturing systems assessment through systems thinking
• Sustainability strategies of manufacturing companies on corporate, business and operational level
• Conceptual modelling of interactions among value creation factors for improved sustainable value creation

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Environment and Pollution

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Environment and Pollution are now available here for free:

• CFD modelling for atmospheric pollutants/aerosols studies within the complex terrains of urban areas and industrial sites
• Removal of selected steroid estrogens in a sewage treatment plant with Unitank process in Nanjing, China
• Modelling of air pollution in the area of Algiers City, Algeria
• Spline interpolation for modelling of accumulated effects of ozone
• A mixed-integer non-linear programming with surrogate model for optimal remediation design of NAPLs contaminated aquifer

Special issue published: "Sustainability in Business: Managing on Organisational Continuity"

International Journal of Environmental Technology and Management 18(4) 2015

• Adoption of clean technology for sustainable development: a literature review 
• Lean thinking as organisational practice in enabling supply chain sustainability
• The challenge of mission drift through growth in the hybrid organisation
• Assessment of organisational performance of environmental audits in the aerospace industrial company
• Investigating the causal relationship between energy consumption and firm growth in India 
• Measuring China's industrial energy efficiency, both DEA and directional distance function approach at the provincial level

Special issue published: "Advances in Networking Security and Communication Protocols"

International Journal of Information and Communication Technology 7(6) 2015

• Study of randomness in AES ciphertexts produced by various types of dynamic S-boxes
• Cache agent-based geocasting in VANETs
• SiCaL: a swarm inspired congestion aware probabilistically load balance routing in MANETs
• Reliable job execution with process failure recovery in computational grid
• TCP and UDP-based performance evaluation of proactive and reactive routing protocols using mobility models in MANETS
• An efficient event matching algorithm for publish/subscribe system in sensor cloud platform
• Energy aware routing protocols for mobile ad hoc networks - a survey
• Enhanced multicast cluster-based routing protocol for delay tolerant mobile networks

Call for papers: "Vehicle Routing Problems: Formulations and Solution Algorithms"

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

The vehicle routing problem is one of the most important problems in the field of supply chain management of logistics, of combinatorial optimisation and, in general, of operational research.

Interest in this problem has recently increased from both the theoretical and practical perspectives.

From the practical point of view, the problem is one of the most crucial ones in supply chain management and, thus, the finding of the optimal set of routes will help decision makers to reduce the cost of the supply chain and increase profit. In the formulation of the problem, managers can simulate the complete network and add any constraints concerning customers, vehicles, routes and, additionally, the traffic conditions of the network and the energy consumption of the vehicles.

From the theoretical point of view, there are a number of researchers that deal with the solution of a variant (or more variants) of the problem. These variants of the problem focus on specific constraints and the researchers are trying to find an algorithm that gives the best new solutions in a specific set of benchmark instances or in problems from real life.

For this special issue, we invite contributions in both theoretical and practical aspects of the vehicle routing problem.

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

• Variants of the vehicle routing problem
• Capacitated vehicle routing problem
• Cumulative capacitated vehicle routing problem
• Dynamic vehicle routing problem
• Inventory routing problem
• Green vehicle routing problem
• Location routing problem
• Multi-depot vehicle routing problem
• Open vehicle routing problem
• Pollution routing problem
• Production routing problem
• Split delivery vehicle routing problem
• Stochastic vehicle routing problem
• Vehicle routing problem with simultaneous pickup and deliveries
• Vehicle routing problem with time windows
• Vehicle routing problem with backhauls
• Solution algorithms for vehicle routing problems
• Ant colony optimisation
• Artificial bee colony
• Artificial immune systems
• Differential evolution
• Genetic algorithms
• Greedy randomized adaptive search procedure
• Particle swarm optimisation
• Simulated annealing
• Tabu search
• Variable neighborhood search
• Decision support systems for vehicle routing problems

Important Dates

Deadline for full paper submission: 30 April, 2016
Notice of acceptance/rejection: 31 June, 2016
Revised paper submission: 31 August, 2016
Final decision: 31 September, 2016

Chewing over the aging process

Could scientists use the Second Law of Thermodynamics on your chewing muscles to work out when you are going to die? According to research published in the International Journal of Exergy, the level of entropy, or thermodynamic disorder, in the chewing muscles in your jaw increases with each mouthful. This entropy begins to accumulate from the moment you’re “on solids” until your last meal, but measuring it at any given point in your life could be used to estimate life expectancy.

The Second Law of Thermodynamics states the precise opposite of the optimistic phrase “things can only get better”. In fact, the disorder in a closed system, its entropy, always increases…eventually. In other words, things can only get worse. Castles of stone or sand eventually collapse, the bodies of those who build such castles ultimately decay, in the meantime the food they eat is broken and only temporarily rebuilt into muscles. The masseter muscles, for instance, strong and the most prominent chewing muscles in the jaw that are particularly powerful in herbivores, but all mammals use these muscles to chew.

While we live and breathe our bodies have repair systems for mending damaged tissues, but they do suffer wear and tear, mainly through friction. Nevertheless, Mustafa Özilgen of the Department of Food Engineering, at Yeditepe University, in Istanbul, and colleagues, point out that the lifespan entropy concept suggests that organisms have a limited capacity for generating disorder, entropy, during their lifetime. When that limit is reached, the organism dies, essentially “of natural causes”.

A person living out their three score years and ten, or perhaps more realistically in the modern era, 76 years on average will generate 10 kilojoules per degree Kelvin of entropy in their masseter muscles as they chew from out of the cradle and into the grave. An obese person, who may be taking up 10 percent more nutrients than their slim friend, may generate that same amount of entropy five years earlier. A more efficient body, and specifically more efficient muscles will take longer to generate entropy. As such, the team says, it should be possible to determine entropy of the masseter muscles under laboratory conditions by recording precise energy measurements of the tissue while a person chews and so provide an estimate of lifespan based on likely quantities of food they eat each day through their lives.


Çatak, J., Develi, A.Ç., Sorguven, E., Özilgen, M. and İnal, S.H. (2015) ‘Lifespan entropy generated by the masseter muscles during chewing: an indicator of the life expectancy?’, Int. J. Exergy, Vol. 18, No. 1, pp.46–67.

Original article: Chewing over the aging process.
via Science Spot » Inderscience http://ift.tt/1jD1vlY

Special issue published: "Social Networks and Technologies in Leisure and Tourism Marketing"

International Journal of Leisure and Tourism Marketing 4(3/4) 2015

• Second homes tourism and sustainable rural development in all around the world
• Is it really making an impact? Examining the effect of social media marketing participation benefits on perceived value and behavioural intention: evidences from India
• Investigating the effect of place quality and word-of-mouth communication on intention to revisit the city of military service
• The effects of mobile applications as a marketing tool in airport infrastructure and airlines
• Long tails in the tourism industry: towards knowledge intensive service suppliers
• A missed opportunity? Unravelling the marketing potentials of tourism in Ghana through GIS

Special issue published: "Advances in Computational Biology and Genomics"

International Journal of Computational Biology and Drug Design 8(3) 2015

• SWATH-MS in proteomics: current status
• NGSPERL: a semi-automated framework for large scale next generation sequencing data analysis
• Non-invasive electroencephalography signals classification using rough neural network
• MARAGAP: a modular approach to reference assisted genome assembly pipeline
• Robust hybrid wrapper/filter biomarker discovery from gene expression data based on generalised island model
• Predicting tumour stages of lung cancer adenocarcinoma tumours from pooled microarray data using machine learning methods
• In-silico study of computational modelling and GLP-1 receptor inverse agonist compounds on a cancer cell line inhibitory bioassay dataset

Call for papers: "Knowledge Management: Theory and Practice in SMEs"

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

Knowledge management is a discipline concerned with the analysis and technical support of practices used in an organisation to identify, create, represent, distribute and enable the adoption and leveraging of good practices embedded in collaborative settings and, in particular, in organisational processes.

 

Knowledge management is the expedient and systematic management of knowledge processes, techniques and means in order to comprehensively exploit the potential of knowledge for goal achievement, problem solving and effective decision making.

 

Effective knowledge management is an increasingly important source of uniqueness and a key to the success of contemporary organisations, bolstering the collective expertise of its employees and partners.

 

The main aim of this special issue is to analyse the current state of knowledge management theory, practice and learning processes in SMEs as a result of new factors that characterise today’s international economic climate. The issue will deal with the diverse and complex characteristics of knowledge management in SMEs that lead to uniqueness in the face of the effects of globalisation.

 

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

• Knowledge management and internationalisation in SMEs
• Knowledge and learning processes in SMEs
• Management of tacit and explicit knowledge
• Knowledge management processes
• Knowledge management methods and tools
• Knowledge management process evaluation methods
• Peculiarities of knowledge management implementation in SMEs
• Similarities and differences of knowledge management practice in SMEs and the specific factors affecting knowledge management efficiency
• Innovation policy in SMEs

 

Important Dates

Submission of manuscripts: 15 January, 2016

Notification to authors: 15 March, 2016

Final versions due: 15 May, 2016

Special issue published: "Managerial Complexity in Shipping and Port Markets"

International Journal of Shipping and Transport Logistics 7(5) 2015

Extended versions of papers presented at the 2013 International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME) Conference.

• Does multimarket contact lead to mutual forbearance? The influence of the coopetition network of maritime and port companies
• Container ship size and the implications on port call workload
• Beyond the landlord: worldwide empirical analysis of port authority strategies
• Stakeholder management practices found in landlord seaport authorities in Flanders: an inside-out perspective
• The impact of multiple-site acquisitions on corporate growth patterns of international terminal operators

Open access [free] issue on climate change

Emerging perspectives on loss and damage from climate change are covered by the special issue published in the International Journal of Global Warming, vol.8(2), 2015. This is available as an Open Access issue.

Research Picks for October 2015

Social media and disasters
Researchers in South Korea and the USA hoped to determine whether public organisations can encourage people to use social media during a natural or other disaster for mutual benefit and safety. Using the 2013 Seoul Emergency Management Survey covering the Seoul floods as a basis for their analysis, the team found that social networking services do indeed help organisations communicate more effectively during a period of upheaval and increased dangers to the public. Information and advice, they found can spread rapidly via such networks especially if the public is encouraged to participate in risk communication via this medium.
Song, M., Kim, J.W., Kim, Y. and Jung, K. (2015) ‘Does the provision of emergency information on social media facilitate citizen participation during a disaster?’, Int. J. Emergency Management, Vol. 11, No. 3, pp.224–239.

Down to Earth in Australia
There is a growing need for commerce to innovate and become sustainable. The example of indigenous food entrepreneurship offers many lessons for businesses around the world, according to a study by researchers in Australia and France. The team has used Mark Olive and Indigiearth, an Aboriginal owned and operated business, employing local Aboriginal staff, strengthening Aboriginal People and Culture, as examplars of success in this sphere. Olive is often referred to as the “Australia’s Jamie Oliver” because of his ethical approach, but the team points out that the indigenous people of Australia have always had a strong association between the land, nation, families, individuals and communities that inspires innovative cooking and food use at the local level. The team concludes that, “the entrepreneurial capacity of indigenous people can be strengthened by promoting commercially viable but culturally ethical business ventures.”
Ratten, V. and Dana, L-P. (2015) ‘Indigenous food entrepreneurship in Australia: Mark Olive ‘Australia’s Jamie Oliver’ and Indigiearth’, Int. J. Entrepreneurship and Small Business, Vol. 26, No. 3, pp.265–279.

Fitness Trackers
Scientists at Portland State University working with colleagues at Intel and Nike have investigated the decision-making process when consumers wish to purchase a wearable fitness tracker. Their findings show that a hierarchical decision model defines and organises the decision-making criterion that is used in the selection a fitness tracking device. Factors such as water resistance for different types of sport, what metrics the device records (heart rate, distance travelled, steps taken etc), as well as other functionality such as connectivity with social media and email, operating system (Android, Apple’s iOS etc) are all involved in the purchase decision. Intriguingly, the decision algorithm recommended all users in their test cases to use the UP Jawbone fitness tracker device.
Daim, T.U., Al-Mulla, N., Sengupta, S.B., Shah, K. and Demchig, B. (2015) ‘Technology assessment: case of the wearable computing for fitness’, Int. J. Medical Engineering and Informatics, Vol. 7, No. 4, pp.321–364.

Aggregated assessment
A team in Azerbaijan has investigated how an aggregated “score” for scientific output might prove a better metric for how well researchers are…researching. An aggregate score must be based on reliable and validated indices, the team says, but many are somewhat lacking or focus on a specific aspect of the scientific process, such as publication, rather than taking a holistic view. The team’s aggregate score gives a weighted index which was compared with 25 indices against two citation data and the results suggest that it could be used as a valid supplement to the familiar h-index. Future work will investigate whether “fuzzy clustering” can be used to improve the aggregate still further.
Alguliyev, R., Aliguliyev, R., Fataliyev, T. and Hasanova, R. (2015) ‘An aggregated index for assessment of the scientific output of researchers’, Int. J. Knowledge Management Studies, Vol. 6, No. 1, pp.31–62.


Original article: Research Picks for October 2015.
via Science Spot » Inderscience http://ift.tt/1Vofmxw