Inderscience is media partner for the Stephenson Conference: Research for Railways 2017

Inderscience is a media partner for the Stephenson Conference: Research for Railways (25-27 April 2017, London, UK).

The journals involved are:

• Int. J. of Automation and Logistics
• Int. J. of Heavy Vehicle Systems
• Int. J. of Industrial and Systems Engineering
• Int. J. of Shipping and Transport Logistics
• Int. J. of Vehicle Noise and Vibration
• Int. J. of Vehicle Systems Modelling and Testing

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

For a special issue of the International Journal of Intelligent Systems Technologies and Applications.

In recent times the degree of complexity has grown in various industrial processes particularly in terms of performance and robustness. This paves the way for the emergence of a new technology called “intelligent systems”. In a broad outlook, intelligent systems are governed by soft computing approaches. The principal computing approaches involved are neural network computing, fuzzy logic, general algorithms and apparent reasoning.

In the existing system of health informatics, it provides only the information of some abnormal symptoms in the patient. The issue on this type of system is deficient of on-system surveillance of the patient. Hence, with the computing approaches in recent trends of intelligent system enhances the process of on-system analysis. Also in industries, in order to empower it by the adoption of Internet of Things(IoT), intelligent equipment and big data by solving the issue on traditional industries of analysing complex and manual machinery. This advancement takes the manufacturing intelligence to a smart level. It also overcomes the issue of using traditional manufacturing process to a digital manufacturing environment by utilising the advanced techniques such as big data analysis to handle the larger amount of database required for manufacturing processes in the high-tech industries with the new advanced control and resource optimisation.

The special issue aims for the advancement in the health informatics through on-system analytics by providing required information continuously instead of reporting only on symptoms. It also focuses on the automation in the industry by providing it with a digitised environment for the manufacturing process by involving big data analysis within it.

The issue will carry revised and substantially extended versions of selected papers presented at the International conference on I-SMAC (IoT in Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud) (I-SMAC 2017), 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:

• Pervasive e-health care intelligent systems
• Fuzzy intelligent system for pediatric care
• Fuzzy sets and neural networks
• Evolutionary algorithms for intelligent systems
• Advanced equipment control
• Intelligent planning and allocation of corporate resources
• Intelligence and informatics based manufacturing
• Simulation optimisation of intelligent systems
• Modeling, analysing and performance evaluation of a factory
• Intelligent e-diagnosis system
• Intelligent systems for big data processing
• Imaging systems and applications
• Big data case studies in health care field
• Data mining for Intelligent Information systems
• Wireless advanced systems

Important Dates

Submission of manuscripts: 27 April, 2017

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Experimental Design and Process Optimisation

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Experimental Design and Process Optimisation are now available here for free:

• Experimental process design for sorption capacity of Kogi and Ibusa clay activated with HNO3 and H2SO4 acids in palm oil bleaching
• Mathematical foundations of noise reduction in theatre ballistic missile defence radar systems
• The prediction of missile trajectories using a Kalman filter: a simulation study
• Projection properties of no-confounding designs for six, seven and eight factors in 16 runs

Inderscience is media partner for Railway Division Annual Luncheon 2017

Inderscience is a media partner for the Railway Division Annual Luncheon 2017 (3 March 2017, London, UK).

The journals involved are:

• Int. J. of Heavy Vehicle Systems
• Int. J. of Industrial and Systems Engineering
• Int. J. of Logistics Systems and Management
• Int. J. of Powertrains
• Int. J. of Shipping and Transport Logistics
• Int. J. of Services Technology and Management

Inderscience is media partner for ATO - The Future of Mainline Railway?

Inderscience is a media partner for ATO - The Future of Mainline Railway? (16 February 2017, London, UK).

The journals involved are:

• Int. J. of Automation and Logistics
• Int. J. of Computer Aided Engineering and Technology
• Int. J. of Heavy Vehicle Systems
• Int. J. of Logistics Systems and Management
• Int. J. of Shipping and Transport Logistics
• Int. J. of Services Technology and Management

Call for papers: "Happiness and Well-Being in Africa"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Happiness and Development.

In spite of enjoying more than two decades of resurgence in economic growth, a report by the World Bank on the achievement of the millennium development goal (MDG) extreme poverty target revealed that extreme poverty has been decreasing in all regions of the world with the exception of Africa where about half of the countries in Sub-Saharan Africa were considerably off-track from reaching the MDG extreme poverty target by the year 2015 (see World Bank, 2015; Asongu & Nwachukwu, 2016). Meanwhile the statistics of the World Bank substantially contrast with another study in the same year which revealed that nine of the top ten countries with the healthiest diets were from Sub-Saharan Africa, namely (ranked from 1st to 10th): Chad, Sierra Leone, Mali, Gambia, Uganda, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Israel and Somalia (see Gander, 2015). This apparent contradiction between poverty standards that are assessed in monetary terms and the quality of food with which money can buy, is a clear indication that much is yet unknown about poverty, well-being and happiness.

 

In light of the above, this special issue aims to advance scholarship on well-being and happiness in Africa. We, therefore welcome theoretical, conceptual and empirical contributions which address any relevant areas that can enhance extant knowledge on linkages between poverty, happiness and well-being in Africa.

 

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

• Measurements of well-being and happiness
• Well-being, happiness and sustainable development goals (SDGs)
• Determinants of happiness and well-being
• Environmental quality and well-being
• Trust and happiness
• Information and communication technology and happiness

 

Important Dates

Submission of manuscripts: 30 June 2017

Notification to authors: 30 September, 2017

Final versions due: 30 December 2017

 

 

References:

Asongu, S.A, & Nwachukwu, J. C., (2016). "The Mobile Phone in the Diffusion of Knowledge for Institutional Quality in Sub Saharan Africa", World Development, 86(October), pp.133-147.

Gander, K., (2015). "Revealed: the countries with the best and worst diets in the world", The Independent, http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/revealed-the-countries-with-the-best-and-worst-diets-in-the-world-10057363.html (Accessed: 24/11/2016).

World Bank (2015). "World Development Indicators", World Bank Publications http://www.gopa.de/fr/news/world-bank-release-world-development-indicators-2015 (Accessed: 25/04/2015).

Inderscience is media partner for Engineering the Upper Limb 2016

Inderscience is a media partner for Engineering the Upper Limb (12-13 December 2016, London, UK).

The journals involved are:

• Int. J. of Biomechatronics and Biomedical Robotics
• Int. J. of Biomedical Engineering and Technology
• Int. J. of Experimental and Computational Biomechanics
• Int. J. of Functional Informatics and Personalised Medicine
• Int. J. of Mechatronics and Automation
• Int. J. of Medical Engineering and Informatics

Blue skies thinking ready for takeoff

Nervous flyers and crew alike would prefer jet airliners not to vibrate so much at take off. Research published in the International Journal of Aerodynamics points to blue skies thinking that might explain the phenomenon and find ways to reduce the safety and image problems associated with this troubling aircraft noise.

Engineer Stanislaw Raczynski of the Universidad Panamericana, in Mexico City, Mexico, has used a gas flow simulation tool to follow the way in which low acoustic oscillations develop on the underside of an aircraft’s wings as it gains speed ready for takeoff. Aside from being noisy and worrying to some passengers, there is a serious engineering issue that can arise if the oscillations match the resonant frequency of the wings or fuselage. Raczynski’s simulations point to specific vibration patterns, their amplitude and frequency, that arise under certain conditions. Perhaps of greatest concern is that he has identified several low, sub-acoustic frequencies (so-called infrasound as opposed to ultrasound which is above the audible frequency range). Such oscillations can produce forces of up to several hundred kilograms per square meter of wing area.

“The air movement around the wing produces several infrasound frequencies, explains Raczynski, “Those oscillations may not be strong enough to cause damage but these frequencies can enter into resonance with the fuselage andproduce quite strong effects.” He adds, that, “During takeoff, such infrasound frequencies may also coincide with the natural frequency of the air column between the wing and the ground which could multiply the effect.”

While there are numerous design features in place in modern aircraft to reduce audible noise and some vibration, these low frequency oscillations are more worrying from a structural engineering point of view. “Model parameters used in simulations are always charged with some degree of uncertainty,” adds Raczynski. “Perhaps, more useful is the qualitative outcome of the simulations, rather than the quantitative results given that the problem is closely connected to aircraft safety”. He concludes that deeper investigations should be carried out to aid the design of new aircraft and avoid accidents.

Raczynski, S. (2016) ‘Why a jetliner vibrates during takeoff: simulating air oscillations under the wing‘, Int. J. Aerodynamics, Vol. 5, No. 2, pp.125-132.

Special issue published: "Accounting Research in Germany"

International Journal of Critical Accounting 8(3/4) 2016

• Preparers' perceptions on the consequences of introducing IFRS for SMEs - evidence from German small and medium-sized entities
• Increased materiality judgments in financial accounting and external audit: a critical comparison between German and international standard setting
• Are 'Big Four audits' really better? - Some remarks on the 'Big Four dichotomy' in the German audit market
• Methods for the analysis of verbal reporting instruments - a comparison of different approaches 
• Critical theory: Immanuel Kant's critics of philosophy-critical accounting

Additional paper

• New inflection points identified in the evolution of IAS 38 Intangible Assets: a critical approach

Special issue published: "Current Trends and Improvements in Software Engineering Practices"

International Journal of Computer Applications in Technology 54(4) 2016

• Software change prediction: a literature review
• Historical prioritisation and reprioritisations using hierarchical historical R-tree
• Rewriting rule-based model for aspect-oriented software evolution
• Method-level incremental code clone detection using hybrid approach
• Enhancing the fault prediction accuracy of CK metrics using high precision cohesion metric
• QM4MAS: a quality model for multi-agent systems
• Investigating the relationship between project constraints and appropriate iteration length in agile development through simulations
• Optimised class point approach for software effort estimation using adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system model
• Identification of crosscutting concerns at design level
• Combined architectural framework for the selection of architectures using ATAM, FAHP and CBAM
• Requirements driven test prioritisation approach for web service composition

Call for papers: "Inventory Systems and Fuzzy Set Theory"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Supply Chain and Inventory Management.

Inventory systems deal with any activities to manage the inventory of raw materials, works in process, finished products, spares and equipment. Since the date that the first essential inventory system called economic order Quantity (EOQ) model was created by Ford Whitman Harris, several models have been developed and implemented in industry. Nowadays, the increasing complexity of inventory management advocates for inventory models that explicitly consider the uncertainty of process and data. In this context, fuzzy set theory can be employed to effectively and efficiently explain and incorporate uncertain data, and fuzzy-based systems can directly aid decision-making in the real world. Specifically, fuzzy methods and techniques can be properly adopted to formulate real patterns in inventory systems.

The aim of this special issue is to contribute to the exchange of progress and advancements in the state-of-the-art of fuzzy inventory management and control models, as well as the future directions in this area. We aim to collect the most recent outstanding theoretical and practical research to help and support academics and practitioners engaged in inventory management fields. The contributed papers will attempt to cover algorithms, methodologies and applications in mentioned areas to deal with practices, policies and strategies.

Both technical and survey/review papers are welcome. We will select high-quality papers that pay attention to new methodologies to deal with the emerging problems. Specifically, papers must demonstrate substantial new contributions, and authors must explicitly indicate the scientific advances compared to the previously published research literature.

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

• Fuzzy application of EOQ and EPQ rules
• Uncertainty in supply chain management
• Joint and multi-echelon inventory models
• Newsvendor models
• Reverse logistics and closed loop supply chain
• Errors and asymmetric data in inventory control systems
• Collaborative inventory models
• Innovative replenishment rules
• Performance evaluation in operations and supply chains
• Management of uncertainties in inventory control system

Important Dates

Submission of Manuscripts: 31 May, 2017

Special issue published: "Building Information Modelling and the Product Lifecycle Management Perspective"

International Journal of Product Lifecycle Management 9(3) 2016

• Principles and recommendations for client information requirements for BIM enabled construction projects in Qatar
• Mechanical contractors: the key for supply chain integration in lifecycle BIM
• Building information modelling-enabled best practices in AEC and takeaways for Finnish shipbuilding industry
• Cross industry learning: a comparative study of product lifecycle management and building information modelling

International Journal of Innovation and Regional Development to publish expanded papers from ICEIRD 2017

Extended versions of papers presented at the International Conference for Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Regional Development (31 August - 1 September 2017, Thessaloniki, Greece) will be published by the International Journal of Innovation and Regional Development.

Call for papers: "Innovations and New Frontiers for International Marketing and Management"

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

In recent years, international business has witnessed significant changes; thus presenting new challenges within the fields of international marketing and management. The information revolution brought about by technological advances, new developments within the supply chain, and the increased importance of innovation and new business models are just some of the dynamic environmental shifts, which are changing the landscape.

In a fast changing market place, business organisations will need to better understand how to preserve their core competencies, whilst seeking out new ones in a proactive quest to compete effectively. Running parallel to this, however, is the enormous pressure internationalisation and global competition places on organisations; thus often resulting in the need to readdress or refocus on business processes, as a means to offer improved value for all the stakeholders involved, particularly the end consumer (Crawford & Nahmias, 2010).

The aim of this special issue is to provide a comprehensive synopsis of new ideas, developments or concepts within the international and business management domains, with a view to understanding some of the key challenges and subsequent practical implications for both SMEs and multinational companies. Papers may be conceptual or empirical and should cover in broad terms, the main theme of “New Frontiers for International Marketing and Management”. More specifically, the key objective of the special issue is to provide coverage of the following broad themes:

• Future issues of international marketing
• Future issues for international management
• Circular economy
• Digital transformations
• Value co- creation

The issue will carry revised and substantially extended versions of selected papers presented at the 14th International CIRCLE Conference, 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:

• Marketing (consumer behavior; digital and social media; brand innovations)
• Culture and consumption innovation
• Circular economy (ecological interchange between organisations and consumers; ecological and ethical trading practices)
• Strategy and organisation
• Supply chain management
• Accounting and finance
• Economic issues
• Quality assurance
• Tourism, hospitality
• Technology and innovation

Important Dates
Submission of manuscripts: 1 March, 2017

International journals to publish expanded papers from 15th IEEE/IFIP International Conference on Embedded and Ubiquitous Computing

Extended versions of papers presented at the 15th IEEE/IFIP International Conference on Embedded and Ubiquitous Computing (22-23 July 2017, Guangzhou, China) will be published by the following journals:

• Int. J. of Computational Science and Engineering
• Int. J. of Embedded Systems
• Int. J. of High Performance Computing and Networking

Inderscience journals to publish expanded papers from 20th IEEE International Conference on Computational Science and Engineering 2017

Extended versions of papers presented at the 20th IEEE International Conference on Computational Science and Engineering (22-23 July 2017, Guangzhou, China) will be published by the following journals:

• Int. J. of Computational Science and Engineering
• Int. J. of Embedded Systems
• Int. J. of High Performance Computing and Networking

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Six Sigma and Competitive Advantage

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Six Sigma and Competitive Advantage are now available here for free:

• Lessons from higher education: adapting Lean Six Sigma to account for structural differences in application domains
• Lean implementation in the geriatric care sector in Sweden
• Applying Lean Six Sigma tools to reduce the rate of slips, trips and falls for Joint Commission field staff
• DFSS in marketing: designing an innovative value co-creation campaign
• Using ISO (PDCA) and SCOR (PSMD) concepts for strategic partnership

Call for papers: "Ozone-Based Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOPs) Applications on Landfill Leachate Treatment"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Environment and Waste Management.

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

 

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

 

Researchers worldwide are still searching for a total solution to the leachate problem. Various site-specific treatment techniques can be used to treat hazardous wastewater depending on leachate characteristics, operation and capital costs, and regulations. The treatment technology that can be used may differ based on the type of leachate produced. Even after treatment, the effluent characteristics are always hard to comply with the discharge standard leachate treatment schemes likely to include biological, physical, and chemical processes; their combination and specific modifications are greatly influenced by the characteristics of leachate produced.

 

Leachate in classical wastewater treatment plants is rarely treated because of its nature and high levels of pollutants (i.e., high chemical oxygen demand [COD] and ammonia content and low biodegradability). Treatment by a conventional water treatment system (i.e. a combination of sedimentation, biological treatment, filtration, and carbon adsorption) cannot remove salts or organics, such as harmful recalcitrant compounds. Therefore, the papers of this special issue will address research on advanced processes for landfill leachate treatment and the related areas. Ozone is one of the chemical processes used in the water industry, and recently ozonation has been given significant attention in the treatment of landfill leachate in order to increase oxidation potential and reduce the treatment time in pre or post-treatments that utilise a combination of ozone and other treatment techniques. Although ozone is effective in leachate treatment, the treatment efficiency for stabilised leachate still needs to be improved. This improvement can be achieved through the use of advanced oxidation materials and techniques.

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

• Combination of ozone and other advanced oxidation processes (AOP) processes
• Sequential and simultaneous ozonation processes
• Combination of ozonation with physical and chemical treatments
• Biodegradability improvement of landfill leachate
• Influence of ozonation on leachate compositions
• Pre and post ozonation processes
• Chemical reactions and mass balance during ozonation
• Modelling and computation
• Design
• Other related topics of ozonation in landfill leachate treatment

 

Important Dates

Submission of manuscripts: 31 March, 2017

Notification to authors: 30 June, 2017

Final versions due: 31 October, 2017

Inderscience is media partner for 4th Lightweight Vehicle Manufacturing Summit

Inderscience is a media partner for the 4th Lightweight Vehicle Manufacturing Summit (22-23 February 2017, Detroit, USA).

The journals involved are:

• Int. J. of Automotive Technology and Management
• Int. J. of Automotive Composites
• Int. J. of Human Factors Modelling and Simulation
• Int. J. of Vehicle Design
• Int. J. of Vehicle Performance
• Int. J. of Vehicle Systems Modelling and Testing

More information on this event is available here.

Inderscience journals to publish expanded papers from 12th International Conference on Green, Pervasive and Cloud Computing

Extended versions of papers presented at the 12th International Conference on Green, Pervasive and Cloud Computing (11-14 May 2017, Cetara, Italy) will be published by the following journals:

• Int. J. of Computational Science and Engineering
• Int. J. of Embedded Systems
• Int. J. of High Performance Computing and Networking

Special issue published: "Critical and Real-Time Embedded Systems"

International Journal of Embedded Systems 8(5/6) 2016

Extended versions of papers presented at the 2014 and 2015 Brazilian Symposium on Computer Systems Engineering (SBESC).

• Optimising QoS in adaptive real-time systems with energy constraint varying CPU frequency
• Design and implementation of a 6LoWPAN gateway for wireless sensor networks integration with the internet of things
• A minimally intrusive method for analysing the timing of RTEMS core characteristics
• Model-based safety analysis of software product lines
• Priority L2 cache design for time predictability
• From RUN to QPS: new trends for optimal real-time multiprocessor scheduling
• Performance evaluation of CMSIS-RTOS: benchmarks and comparison
• Combination and mutation strategies to support test data generation in the context of autonomous vehicles
• Hybrid real-time operating systems: deployment of critical FreeRTOS features on FPGA

Additional papers

• A mobile integrated development environment for C programming
• IASA: an energy-efficient scheduling algorithm for real-time tasks with lock-free objects

Inderscience is media partner for Digital Integration in Wealth Management 2017

Inderscience is a media partner for Digital Integration in Wealth Management (15-16 February 2017, London, UK).

The journals involved are:

• Int. J. of Business Innovation and Research
• Int. J. of Electronic Finance
• Int. J. of Portfolio Analysis and Management
• Int. J. of Technology Intelligence and Planning
• Int. J. of Technology Management

Call for papers: "Technological Upgrading and Innovation in Emerging Economies"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Technological Learning, Innovation and Development.

Technological upgrading of emerging economies is a multidimensional process based on a broader understanding of innovation, which goes well beyond R&D. It is a multi-level process and at its core has structural change in various dimensions: technological, industrial, organisational (Jindra et al., 2015; Radosevic and Yoruk, 2016). It is also an outcome of global forces, embodied in international trade and investment flows, as well as local strategies pursued by host country firms and governments (Ernst, 2008; Fu et al. 2011, Lall, 1992; Giroud et al., 2012; Radosevic and Yoruk, 2014).

Technological change and catch-up takes different forms (Wang et al. 2013). Some researchers have argued in support of an incremental path from the importing of technology to the creation of original R&D (Kim, 1997; Hobday, 1995). Others have proposed a leapfrog method, either by utilising a window for technological development or by creating a new path (e.g. Perez and Soete, 1988; Lee and Lim, 2001). New structural economics makes an important qualification to this. It indicates that the path to technology upgrading as based on ‘copying industries’ using latent comparative advantages is crucial in the transition from low to middle-income levels (Lin, 2012a,b; Lin and Rosenblatt, 2012). On the other hand, the neo-Schumpeterian approach of Lee (2013) shows that middle-income economies take ‘detours’ and establish their own technological paths when moving to high income levels.

The changing nature of new technologies coupled with the proliferation of global value chains leads to new patterns of technology upgrading (or lack of it) about which we have limited in-depth knowledge. Innovation that takes place in emerging economies may not be easily identifiable as it is not R&D based but it may be present through different forms of ‘hidden innovation’ like improvements in production capability, upgrading through engineering, new forms of software support or new business models. In short, there is need to understand better not only the scale but also scope of innovation activities in emerging economies.

This special issue would like to collect contributions that help to highlight the dynamics of technological upgrading and innovation in emerging economies. This research area requires advances in conceptual approaches as well as rigorous empirical evidence. Therefore, we appreciate theoretical contributions as well as empirical studies at the micro, mezzo and macro level of analysis. We intend to deepen the knowledge about BRICS economies and other less researched emerging economies to highlight the heterogeneity of technological upgrading.

The issue will carry revised and substantially extended versions of selected papers presented at the Second Conference of UCL Centre for Comparative Studies of Emerging Economies (CCSEE) (conference date: 26/27 June 2017; call available here) and a workshop on Innovation in Emerging Economies, Technical University Berlin, (submission of extended abstracts 30 March 2017, workshop date: 13/14 July 2017),but we also strongly encourage researchers unable to participate in these events to submit articles for this call.

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

• Indicators of the dynamics and structure of technological upgrading and innovation
• Development and dynamics of national/sectoral systems of innovation
• International trade and embodied knowledge
• Innovation by foreign multinational enterprises (MNEs) in emerging economies
• Technological linkages between foreign and domestic firms
• Upgrading of emerging market firms in global value chains
• Technology sourcing and innovation by emerging market multinationals (EMNEs)
• Production and technological capabilities of emerging market firms
• Frugal innovation as specific pattern of innovation and business model
• New and fast growing technologies in emerging economies (incl. e-mobility, robotics, renewable energies, 3D printing)
• The role of industrial and innovation policy for technology upgrading and innovation in emerging economies
• Technology and innovation in emerging economies - The role for achieving the sustainable development goals
• International standards as a tool for technological upgrading

Important Dates
Submission of manuscripts: 30 September, 2017
Notification to authors: 30 November, 2017
Final versions due: 30 December, 2017

References
Ernst, D. (2008) ‘Asia’s “upgrading through innovation” 31 strategies and global innovation networks: an extension of Sanjaya Lall’s research agenda’, Transnational Corporations, Vol. 17 No. 3, pp. 31-58.
Fu, X., Pietrobelli, C., Soete, L. (2011) ‘The role of foreign technology and indigenous innovation in the emerging economies: technological change and catching-up’, World Development, Vol. 39 No. 7, pp. 1204-1212.
Giroud, A., Jindra, B., Marek, P. (2012) ‘Heterogeneous FDI in Transition Economies - A novel approach to assess the developmental impact of backward linkages’, World Development, Vol. 40 No. 11, pp. 2206-2222.
Hobday, M. (1995) ‘East Asian latecomer firms’ learning the technology of electronics’, World Development, Vol 23 No. 7, pp. 1171–1193.
Jindra, B., Dominguez Lacasa, I., Radosevic, S. (2015) ‘Dynamics of Technology Upgrading of the Central and East European Countries in a Comparative Perspective: Analysis Based on Patent Data’, Economics and Business Working Paper No.135, UCL SSEES Centre for Comparative Economics, February 2015.
Kim, L. (1997) Imitation to Innovation: The Dynamics of Korea's Technological Learning. Harvard Business School Press, Boston.
Lall, S. (1992) ‘Technological capabilities and industrialization’, Research Policy, Vol. 20 No. 2, pp. 165-186.
Lee, K. and Lim, C. (2001) ‘Technological regimes, catching-up and leapfrogging: Findings from Korean industries’, Research Policy, Vol. 30 No. 3, pp. 459–483.
Lee, K. (2013) Schumpeterian Analysis of Economic Catch-up, Knowledge, Path-creation and the Middle - Income Trap, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Lin, J.Y. (2012a) ‘From flying geese to leading dragons: new opportunities and strategies for structural transformation in developing countries’, Global Policy, Vol. 3 No. 4, pp. 397–409.
Lin, J.Y. (2012b) New Structural Economics. A Framework for Rethinking Development and Policy, The World Bank, Washington, DC.
Lin, J.Y., and Rosenblatt, D. (2012) ‘Shifting patterns of economic growth and rethinking development’, Journal of Economic Policy Reform, Vol. 15 No. 3, pp. 171–194.
Perez, C. and Soete, L. (1988) ‘Catching up in technology: Entry barriers and windows of opportunity’, in Dosi, G., Freeman, C., Nelson, R. et al. (eds.) Technical Change and Economic Theory, Printer Publishers, London, pp. 458–479.
Radosevic, S. and Yoruk, E. (2014) Are there global shifts in world science base? Analysis of catching up and falling behind of world regions, Scientometrics, Vol. 101, pp. 1897–1924.
Radosevic, S. and Yoruk, E. (2016) ‘Why do we need a theory and metrics of technology upgrading?’, Asian Journal of Technology Innovation, DOI: 10.1080/19761597.2016.1207415.
Wang, F., Fu, X. and Chen, J. (2013) ‘Differential forms of technological change and catch-up: Evidence from China’, International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management, Vol. 11, No. 2, DOI: 10.1142/S0219877014500138.

International Journal of Renewable Energy Technology to publish expanded papers from ECRES2017

Extended versions of papers presented at the Fifth European Conference on Renewable Energy Systems (27-30 August 2017, Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina) will be published by the International Journal of Renewable Energy Technology.

Call for papers: "Internet of Things in Environment, Agriculture and Waste Management"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Environment and Waste Management.

The recent advances in Internet of Things offer vast opportunities for research, development and innovation in the environment, agriculture and waste management. The imagine pattern will need to address significant complexity. On the one hand, billions of smart objects will be submerged in the environment, sensing, interacting, and co-operating with each other to enable efficient services that will bring real benefits to the environment, agriculture and waste management of the economy and the society as a whole. On the other hand, they will be extremely diverse and heterogeneous in terms of resource capabilities, lifespan and communication technologies, further complicating the structure. As a result, new problems and challenges arise spanning different areas: agriculture, smart cities, environmental monitoring, etc.

 

The special issue will provide a publication medium for articles that either address the review of existing IoT-based smart environments such as smart cities, smart homes, smart transport systems, and smart grids that will be deeply impacted by the research progress.

 

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

• IoT sensors, actuators, and consumer electronics
• Environmental monitoring
• Smart healthcare
• Network architecture and system design in IoT
• Smart cities
• Smart transport systems
• Social networks for IoT

 

Important Dates

Submission of manuscripts: 28 February, 2017

Notification to authors: 30 March, 2017

Final versions due: 30 May, 2017

Special issue published: "Topics in Mathematical and Computational Sciences"

International Journal of Convergence Computing 2(1) 2016

Extended versions of papers presented at the International Conference on Mathematical and Computational Sciences 2015.

• Neuro-fuzzy-based smart DSS for crop specific irrigation control and SMS notification generation for precision agriculture
• The b-chromatic number of Mycielskian of some graphs
• Local convergence for a derivative free method of order three under weak conditions
• Comparative numerical investigation of Burgers' equation with and without Hopf-Cole transformation
• Asymptotic expansions for approximate eigenvalues of integral operators with a weakly singular periodic kernel

Additional paper

• Remote login password authentication scheme using tangent theorem on circle

Call for papers: "Extending Strategy and Operations Management through Technology"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Business Environment.

Strategy and operations management (OM) are two of the most important aspect of literature concerning managers and firms of this century, as we can see in the quantity of papers and references in literature, such as Chatta and Butt (2015), Teece (2014) or Brown (2103), related to strategy, or work of by Hitt et al. (2016) which considered the resource based View in OM research, the work of Narasimhan (2014) which tries to define the frontiers of OM term, or the work of Barratt et al. (2011), considering OM as main aspect.

 

The main argument of this special issue is to define the relation between these key objective for managers, strategy and OM. These terms have been highly studied and published, but there is not a consensus between both of them. Moreover, we consider it fundamental for managers to study both of them with an information system (IS) perspective.

 

Competitive advantage may be achieved with the effective leveraging of information technology (IT). Firms should not justify IT investments on the basis of their direct impact on firm performance or on the sustainability of a competitive advantage. To achieve operational or strategic advantages, firms must develop the procedures and processes suitable to use IT capabilities. IT capabilities improve new product development (Pavlou and El Sawy, 2010), supply chain practices (Devaraj et al., 2007), quality (Perez et al., 2015), agility (Robers and Grover, 2012) or operational absorptive capacity (Setia and Patel, 2013). Moreover, IT strategy plays a significant role in moderating the relationship between IT investments and firm performance and there is a need for further research to better understand the linkages and interactions between the overall strategy of the firm and IT, and the implications for firm performance (Mithas and Rust, 2016).

 

This special issue tries to establish a necessary consensus in three interconnected terms that are vital for firms. Theoretical, practical, statistical or methodology contributions will be well considered to facilitate the consensus and be able to stablish a starting point.

 

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

 

Operations Management

• Interplay of IT and operational decision making
• Big data and operational decision making
• Supply chain management
• Innovation management
• Supply chain management and open innovation
• Globalisation of manufacturing operations
• Quality management
• Triple bottom line and operations management
• Behavioral aspects of operations management
• Decision making in public organisations

Strategy and Human Resource Management

• New trends in entrepreneurship activities
• Interface between IT and strategic management
• Interface between IT and human resource management
• Interface between strategic and operations management
• Interface between human resource and operations management

Information Systems

• Interplay of IT and operational decision making
• Business value of IT
• IT-enabled organisational capabilities
• IT and innovation activities
• Business value of social media
• Social media and business activities
• Social media and customer value proposition
• Social media and innovation activities
• Big data and business analytics

Decision Sciences in Accounting, Finance, and Marketing

• Accounting, financial, and marketing decision making in organisations

Instructional development in Decision Sciences

• Advances and innovation in teaching in courses on information systems, operations management, strategy, human resource management, accounting, finance, and marketing

 

Important Dates

Submissions due: 31 July, 2017

First-round revisions due: 31 December, 2017

Second-round revisions due: 30 April, 2018

Final decisions: 31 May, 2018

Final materials due from authors: 30 June, 2018

 

 

References

Barratt, M., Choi, T.Y. and Li, M. (2011). “Qualitative case studies in operations management: Trends, research outcomes, and future research implications”, Journal of Operations Management, Vol. 29 (4), pp. 329–342.

Brown, S. (2013). "An interview with Wickham Skinner, Emeritus Professor at Harvard Business School", International Journal of Operations & Production Management, Vol. 33 (1), pp. 104–110.

Chatha K.A. and Butt, I. (2015). "Themes of study in manufacturing strategy literature", International Journal of Operations & Production Management, Vol. 35 (4), pp.604 – 698

Devaraj, S., Krajewski, L., & Wei, J. C. (2007). Impact of ebusiness technologies on operational performance: The role of production information integration in the supply chain. Journal of Operations Management, 25(6), 1199–1216.

Hitt, M.A., Xu, K. and Carnes, C.M. (2016). “Resource based theory in operations management research”, Journal of Operations Management, Vol. 41, January, pp. 77–94.

Mithas, S. & Rust, R.T. (2016). How information technology strategy and investments influence firm performance: conjecture and empirical evidence, MIs Quarterly, 40(1), 223-245.

Narasimhan, R. (2014). “Theory development in operations management: Extending the frontiers of a mature discipline via qualitative research”, Decision Sciences, Vol. 45(2), 209-227.

Pavlou, P.A. & El Sawy, O.A. (2010). IT-enabled completitive advantage in turbulence through improvisational capabilities. Information Systems Research, 21(3), 443-471.

Perez, M.N, Bustinza, O., Barrales, V. (2015). Exploring the relationship between information technology competence and quality management. BRQ Business Research Quarterly, 18(1), 4-17.

Roberts, N. & Grover, V. (2012). Leveraging information technology infrastructure to facilitate a firm’s customer agility and competitive activity: an empirical investigation. Journal of Management Information Systems, 28(4), 213-270.

Setia, P. & Patel, P.C. (2013). How information systems help create OM capabilities: consequents and antecedents of operational absorptive capacity. Journal of Operations Management, 31, 409-431.

Teece, D.J. (2014). “The foundations of enterprise performance: Dynamic and ordinary capabilities in an (economic) theory firms”, The Academy of Management Perspectives, Vol. 28 (4), pp. 328–352.

Inderscience is media partner for Plant Genomics and Gene Editing 2017

Inderscience is a media partner for Plant Genomics and Gene Editing (16-17 March 2017, Amsterdam, The Netherlands).

The journals involved are:

• Int. J. of Biotechnology
• Int. J. of Ecological Bioscience and Biotechnology

More information on this event is available here.

Call for papers: "Intelligent Technologies in Modern Industries: Challenges Facing Globalisation and Informatisation"

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

In the 18th century, the British engineer Watt invented the steam engine, creating a machine to replace the manual tool of the times which led to the first industrial revolution. Man entered the industrial age. After 1870, science and technology developed in leaps and bounds, a variety of new technologies and new inventions were quickly applied to industrial production, greatly promoting the development of the economy.

 

This was the second industrial revolution. At that time, the outstanding development of science and technology was mainly manifested in three aspects, namely, the wide application of power, the creation of the internal combustion engine and new means of transport, and the invention of new communication methods.

 

Compared to the traditional industries, one of the key roles of technologies is artificial intelligence. This is the research and development of a new science and technology of intelligent simulation, extension and expansion of the theory, method, technology and application of the system, aiming to study how to use computers and modern industry with a system to mimic human intelligent behaviour. The development of artificial intelligence technology provides a more effective method for the analysis and processing of production data and information. AI technology is especially suitable for solving complicated and uncertain problems, and it can be widely used in all aspects of the manufacturing process.

 

Digital technology and automation technology support development models of the manufacturing industry, operation efficiency and so on. Digital technology alongside the manufacturing process itself can help to realise intelligent design and management; and coupled with global information integration and optimisation, this can ultimately lead to the intelligent manufacturing factory.

 

With the development of the Internet of Things in the past decade, industry as a main body of the social economy promotes the progress of society; the development of science and technology is also moving towards the direction of the development of intelligence. A manufacturing enterprise with advanced manufacturing capacity is not enough; it must also be able to respond to the market from the product development and production planning aspects of the rapid response to the market, the competitiveness of enterprises has a full range of problems. Computers can simulate all of the processes, in advance, to verify the design requirements, using the advanced technology to optimise the whole process. Information can be used for the industrialisation of wings manufacturing. The application of intelligent technology in industrial production brings new prospects, including manufacturing industry supply chain management, optimisation of production process, equipment monitoring and management, ubiquitous sensing network technology, parallel management technology, human-computer interaction technology and system integration manufacturing technology etc. It is essential to explore enterprise management systems from the theoretical viewpoint; it is also absolutely essential to the survival, growth and prosperity of any company to have some means to manage innovation in the process of economic globalisation and under the knowledge economy environment.

 

The basis of industrialisation is automation. The field of automation has been developing for nearly a hundred years. Its theory and practice have been developed - particularly in terms of control system - in line with the rise of large-scale modern industrial automation and the process control requirements of increasingly complex operations - a combination of computer technology, control technology, network communication technology and multimedia technology."

 

In the early stage of the development of IT information, the objective of information services was mainly to help people, and the main issue is to solve the problem of information islands. When the problem of information islands for human services is resolved, this will solve the problem of information islands on a larger scale to get through people's information. After people have access to this information, they can make decisions according to the information, thus triggering the next steps. But, because of individual differences, even using the same information, different people make different decisions. So how do we obtain the optimal decision from the information? In addition, the information may not be able to make a decision, but how can we give things in the information the ability to make decisions? Intelligent analysis and optimisation technology is a means to solve this problem, after obtaining information, based on historical experience and theoretical models, thus enabling quick decisions. Data analysis and optimisation technology in enterprise industrialisation and information technology is in strong demand. So, the aim of the special issue is to provide a forum for innovative ideas and implementation methodologies for researchers and users in the modern day era.

 

We will be including a rich diversity of concepts, techniques, and applications of intelligent technologies in the modern industry. Research papers that focus on empirical studies and evaluations, as well as conceptual papers will be considered for publication. Submitted papers will cover the wide range of topics of medical imaging.

 

We aim to create a common platform for motivated people through which research and development activities in the areas of intelligent technologies in the modern industry and relevant fields can accelerate so that this platform becomes able to contribute towards the growth of the society as a whole. In this regard, prospective authors/researchers are requested to submit quality original as well as review works within the scope mentioned.

 

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

• Product management
• Decision making in industrial engineering
• Big data in intelligence industry
• Sensor networks
• Genetic algorithm in industry
• Soft computing in management
• Process optimisation
• Automatic control system in industry
• Knowledge management
• Intelligent patent retrieval and evasion
• Multi-agent based information management
• Total quality control
• Advanced production management methodologies
• Lean production
• Agile manufacturing
• Computer integrated manufacturing
• Reengineering in industrial management
• Just in time production
• Advanced energy storage and control systems
• Acquisition and fusion for traffic information
• The optimisation of traffic networks and signals
• Knowledge networks and their roles
• Global and cultural issues in developing successful information systems
• Decision support systems
• Intelligent agents
• Web services, semantic web and their related business strategies
• E-education system and its application
• E-government system and its application
• Business intelligence
• Business performance management
• Customer relationship management
• It service management
• It project management
• Logistics informatisation
• Logistics distribution management
• Wireless, mobile, adhoc and sensor networks
• Ubiquitous networks
• Network security
• Multimedia networking etc
• Communication systems
• Coding and information theory
• Wireless, uwb, ultrasonic communications
• Satellite communications

 

Important Dates

Submission of manuscripts: 25 August, 2017

Notification to authors: 25 September, 2017

Final versions due: 25 October, 2017

Inderscience is media partner for 4th Microbiome R&D and Business Collaboration Forum: Europe

Inderscience is a media partner for the 4th Microbiome R&D and Business Collaboration Forum: Europe (3-4 April 2017, Amsterdam, The Netherlands).

The journal involved is the International Journal of Computational Microbiology and Medical Ecology.

More information on this event is available here.

Inderscience is media partner for 3rd Microbiome R&D and Business Collaboration Congress: Asia

Inderscience is a media partner for the 3rd Microbiome R&D and Business Collaboration Congress: Asia (1-2 March 2017, Hong Kong, China).

The journal involved is the International Journal of Computational Microbiology and Medical Ecology.

More information on this event is available here.

Inderscience is media partner for Harnessing Fintech Innovation in Retail Banking 2017

Inderscience is a media partner for Harnessing Fintech Innovation in Retail Banking (17-18 June 2017, London, UK).

The journal involved is the International Journal of Financial Innovation in Banking.

Special Issue published: "2015 Energy, Materials and Nanotechnology Conference Selected Contributions"

International Journal of Nanotechnology 13(10/11/12) 2016

Extended versions of papers presented at the 2015 Energy, Materials & Nanotechnology (EMN) meetings.

• Non-thermal plasma assisted lithography for biomedical applications: an overview
• Copolymer template etching for Au nanoparticles self-assembly
• Catalytic microreactor with immobilised silver nanocluster for organic pollutant removal from water
• A competitive relationship between wetting of oil lens and condensed film formation of fluorinated alkanol at the air-water interface
• Dynamic modelling and control of membrane filtration process
• Design and fabrication of an integrated MEMS O2 sensor based on nanostructured TiO2
• Fabrication and analysis of photoelectrode based on TiO2 nanotube/phosphor mixed TiO2 nanoparticle film for dye-sensitised solar cells
• High performance photoelectrode of dye-sensitised solar cells by Mo-Ce doped TiO2 nanoparticles/nanotubes
• Controllable one-dimensional FePt nanomaterials synthesised by chemical method
• Structural properties of indium phosphide nanorods: molecular dynamics simulations
• Competition of the nano-inclusions and the effects on critical current density in Ni and SiC co-doped MgB2 bulks
• Review of NMR studies of nanoscale molecular magnets composed of geometrically frustrated antiferromagnetic triangles
• Fabrication, characterisation and stability of TiO2 nanofluids
• Thickness dependence of thermal conductivity and electron transport properties of Fe2VAl thin-films prepared by RF sputtering technique
• Piezoelectricity in ribonucleosides and deoxynucleosides microcrystals via piezoresponse force microscopy
• Investigation of electrical transport properties in heterojunctions comprised of silicon substrate and nanocrystalline iron disilicide films
• Bipolar resistive switching properties of Cu-CuO-InGaZnO-AZO multilayer structure thin film
• Preparation of nanoscale zero-valent iron particles with different coatings for removal of Cr(VI) from water
• Bond kinetics in simulated telechelic associating polymer networks

Inderscience is media partner for Digital Transformation in Insurance 2017

Inderscience is a media partner for Digital Transformation in Insurance (17-18 May 2017, London, UK).

The journal involved is the International Journal of Electronic Finance.

Special issue published: "Big Data and Predictive Analytics Applications in Supply Chain Management"

International Journal of Automation and Logistics 2(4) 2016

• Big data for omni-channel supply chain management: the need for greater focus on people and process
• Big Data analytics in supply chain management: some conceptual frameworks
• Selection of Big Data analyst in purchasing and supply management: fuzzy VIKOR approach
• Role of big data and predictive analytics
• Importance of Big Data in financial fraud detection
• Mapping the field through bibliometric analysis of passenger centric railway transportation
• Big and high dimensional data in the digital world: statistical, computational and privacy challenges

Special issue published: "Inventory Systems with Consumer Behaviour Considerations"

International Journal of Inventory Research 3(2) 2016

• How consumer demand affects order quantity in practice: an empirical study on inventory management decisions in fashion retailing
• Inventory types and their effects on sales
• The effect of smoothing filters on supply chain performance
• A heuristic optimisation algorithm for two-echelon (R, Q) inventory systems with non-identical retailers

Call for papers: "Smart Electronics and Government Applications"

For a special issue of Electronic Government, an International Journal.

E-Government is an emerging trend. E-Government is an extension of e-business applications to the public sector. increased adoption and application of e-Government across countries is being propelled by its potential to offer not only a convenient service to citizens, but also related benefits such as reduced transaction costs and enhanced operational efficiency. the success of e-Government efforts across various countries is mostly sporadic and diffused.

 

The objective of this special issue is to provide an outlet for publishing original research highlighting current issues related to technical, organisational, managerial and socio-economic aspects of e-Government adoption, evolution, implementation and impact. We seek to invite papers that address various aspects of e-Government projects from a theoretical, conceptual, or empirical perspective to set the stage for future research direction in e-Government. Both quantitative as well as qualitative studies on e-Government from developed and developing countries perspectives will be encouraged.

 

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

• Electronics e-Government
• VLSI technology
• Embedded system e-Government
• Image processing
• Computing e-Government
• Big-data in e-Government
• E-Government projects in developing countries and developed countries
• Models of electronic service delivery
• E-Government and e-governance
• Technological environment in e-Government implementation
• Emerging e-Government issues
• E-Government using mobile technologies

 

Important Dates

Submission of manuscripts: 20 February, 2017

Notification to authors: 20 March, 2017

Final versions due: 20 April, 2017

Special issue published: "Complexity, Design Thinking and Values-Based Leadership"

International Journal of Complexity in Leadership and Management 3(3) 2016

• Could more thoughtful practice of complexity, design thinking and values-based organising address some of the limitations of current management and organising paradigms?
• Engaging with complex environments: why agility involves more than running hard
• Programme effect of authentic leadership development on trust
• Power relations and complex organisational development
• No man lives on an island: habitual agency and complexity in entrepreneurial decision-making 

Online advertising compromise

How can the internet balance targeted advertising with privacy concerns?

A novel approach to targeted advertising would allow companies to offer users relevant advertisements without having to expend energy tracking and data mining putative customers and without those customers having to compromise their privacy, according to research published in the International Journal of Internet Marketing and Advertising.

Tracking cookies and automated profile of internet users allow commercial concerns to create targeted advertising for users of social media and other websites. However, the privacy issues surrounding such approaches to marketing worry many people. Researchers in the UK have examined the implications of an alternative approach that would give users back some control of their personal information but allow companies to offer them advertising that would be precisely targeted and perhaps meaningful to the users. The solution lies in what computer scientist Reuben Binns of the University of Oxford refer to simply as a Self-Authored Interest profile.

Binns explains that much of the content we see on the internet, advertising and product and service recommendations in particular are fed to us on the basis of algorithms that track our internet history and behaviour. Needless to say, this causes friction between companies and consumers and has led to the emergence of ad-blocking software, the need for “do not track” and cookie crumblers for browsers. These are perceived as allowing users to take back some control of their privacy.

Many users do not want to see any advertisements at all and many do not want to be tracked. However it is usual that free online services rely on revenues from advertising and would not survive if they could not display advertisements to users. Those sites make more money if the advertising is targeted to users’ behaviour and interests and many run systems that block the advertisement blockers and circumvent the privacy rules.

A compromise is needed with which both company and consumer would be happy. Binns suggests that the self-authored profile might be the answer. He has tested this approach against behavioural profiling and found that it has many benefits. “People respond more positively to product recommendations when they are derived from SAI profiles,” he says. “Moreover, the mere belief that a recommendation comes from an SAI profile is also associated with more positive responses.”

Any advertising system is likely to be imperfect. Non-targeted ads are annoying to many users and do not necessarily result in sales leads. By contrast, targeted advertising works better in presenting offers that a user is more likely to be interested in but they only work if the advertiser has access to more private or personal information about the people they hope to advertise to. If users are given some control over what information the advertisers get to see, then they are, it seems, more responsive to advertisements targeted to them based on that information, Binns suggests.

The next step will be to test whether such an approach can overcome consumer scepticism as well as be effective for the advertisers. Different trusts models will also need to be built to test the legal limitations and the effectiveness of this approach to privacy with targeting.


Binns, R. (2016) ‘Self-authored interest profiles for personalised recommendations‘, Int. J. Internet Marketing and Advertising, Vol. 10, No. 3, pp.207-222.
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Call for papers: "Computational Intelligent Systems for Smart Life"

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

In the modern world, each day brings facts and information that determines the need for efficient intelligent systems that are able to solve real-life applications. Therefore, intelligent systems are becoming a consolidated discipline which aims to improve various existing approaches to real world problems. Intelligent systems are emerging as a concept where every sensor, device, person, vehicle, building, and street in the areas can be used as a component to probe intelligent social for serving people and their lives.

One of the important research challenges today is to develop intelligent systems to enhance both human life and environment through a recurrent process of sensing, mining, understanding, and improving.

Intelligent systems and smart devices aim to understand the nature and behaviour of real world applications as in healthcare, military, and environment. Intelligent systems with smart devices and spaces can help the independence and executive functions, social communication as well as the security of people with special needs.

This special issue aims to use artificial intelligence techniques and the concept of smart networks to support the daily living of aging and special needs people by allowing independency using intelligent systems within smart environments.

The focus will be on theory, design, computational methods, techniques, and algorithms of intelligent systems in smart spaces.

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

• Intelligent systems of body area networks
• Wearable and implantable intelligent systems
• Smart sensors in science and engineering
• Intelligent systems on mobile, and wireless communication
• Intelligent systems for social welfare
• Intelligent systems for creating personal records
• Intelligent infrastructure
• Smart healthcare and emergency management
• Environmental monitoring technologies
• Internet of things and intelligent systems
• Smart home and smart buildings
• Smart manufacturing and logistics
• Smart city implementation
• Computational Intelligence
• Big data analytics
• Structuring and organising personal data
• Intelligent systems for healthcare monitoring
• Understanding human behaviour
• Interaction with the smart home
• Security and privacy of intelligent systems

Important Dates

Manuscript submission: 26 March, 2017

Research Picks Extra - November 2016

Anyone for tennis?
World-class tennis players at the Wimbledon Championships each summer yield to psychological phenomena such as “loss aversion” and “decision fatigue” in how they play their first serve , according to UK researchers. The study found that in this, one of the most prestigious of the so-called Grand Slam tournaments, players often exhibit loss aversion as they deal with decision fatigue during match play. “The findings have significant implications for the debate about whether experience, competition and high stakes ameliorate the effects of behavioural biases, for the design of behavioural experiments and for the construction of theoretical models of decision making,” the team reports.
Mallard, G. (2016) ‘Loss aversion and decision fatigue at the Wimbledon tennis championship‘, Int. J. Behavioural Accounting and Finance, Vol. 6, No. 1, pp.70-91.

Sexual health and literacy
Literacy and access to education have long been found to correlate with positive indicators of women’s reproductive health and that even marginal levels of literacy are sufficient to nudge women towards appropriate healthcare. However, in low-income parts of the world, education is commonly inaccessible and this has a major impact on health, particularly reproductive health. New research comes to the important conclusion that female literacy and education correlate negatively with several indicators of reproductive health. Moreover, 75% of the countries with the lowest literacy rates for women are listed in the lowest 20% on the human development index. This is not an acceptable situation in which the global community should find itself in the twenty-first century.
Zimmerman, M.S. (2016) ‘Assessing the impact on female literacy and education on maternal and infant health‘, Int. J. Gender Studies in Developing Societies, Vol. 1, No. 4, pp.365-375.

Knuckle down for security
Fingerprints, iris recognition, voice pattern identification and even typing style have all been used as biometric security mechanisms. They all have pros and cons. Now, new research suggests that for low-level security needs the shame and surface of a person’s knuckles would provide a rapid, yet secure access system for individual identification without the complexity and computing power requirements of fingerprint analysis or iris recognition. Accuracy of more than 97% was demonstrated using the Canny edge feature extraction method.
Malik, J., Dahiya, R., Girdhar, D. and Sainarayanan, G. (2016) ‘Finger knuckle print authentication using Canny edge detection method’, Int. J. Signal and Imaging Systems Engineering, Vol. 9, No. 6, pp.333-341.

Simplifying solar
Linear arrays of solar panels – both photovoltaic for electricity generation and thermal for water heating – have attracted a lot of attention as a sustainable and environment friendly power source and approach to heating. Now, a simple procedure can be used to assess efficiency of integrated individual solar cells in a linear concentrating photovoltaic/thermal integrated system. The system can be used to balance water flow rate against the rise and fall in electricity generation efficiency depending on the needs of the user at any given time so that water heating and electricity generation can be optimised.
Vishwanath, G., Vivar, M., Kumar, N. and Balakrishnan, R. (2016) ‘A simple procedure to study the performance of individual solar cells in a linear concentrating photovoltaic/thermal integrated system’, Int. J. Renewable Energy Technology, Vol. 7, No. 4, pp.309–335.


via Inderscience – Science Spot http://ift.tt/2fb7X1L

Call for papers: "Marketing Communications Technology Revisited: its Future and Applications"

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

To create rich, technologically enabled experiences, enterprises need close collaboration between marketing and IT. The merging of technology, media, and creativity is revolutionising marketing and business strategy.

The purpose of this special issue is to draw from methodological and disciplinary perspectives to examine issues related to the use of technology in marketing communications. Submissions from across academic fields are encouraged. Papers may include conceptual frameworks, literature reviews, experiments, surveys and qualitative approaches.

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

• Use and effects of newer forms of media technologies
• Online and mobile marketing
• Social media as a tool to optimise marketing communication effectiveness
• AdWords and search engine optimisation
• Big data and marketing analytics
• Advert games as a new marketing communication vehicle
• Issues related to ethics and fairness of the use of technology in marketing communications
• The role of web technology on developing integrated marketing communications strategies
• Innovation in marketing communications
• Cross-cultural issues in marketing technology adoption
• Media literacy and persuasion knowledge of consumers
• Potential for positive and negative effects of technology to consumers
• Outlines how to adapt processes to keep up with and take advantage of rapid technological change

Important Dates
Submission of manuscripts: 30 April, 2017
Notification to authors: 30 June, 2017
Final versions due: 31 August, 2017

Special issue published: "Advanced Control Technologies and Applications"

International Journal of Modelling, Identification and Control 26(3) 2016

Extended versions of papers presented at the Sixth International Conference on Modelling, Identification and Control (ICMIC 2014).

• Consensus of linear discrete-time multi-agent systems based on full-dimensional state observer
• Design and evaluation of hybrid temperature control for cyber-physical home systems
• Robust control design for ball screw system focusing on the friction model
• Path tracking control of non-holonomic wheeled mobile robot with skidding and slipping
• Dynamics modelling and predictive control for 6-DOF rotorcraft aerial manipulator system
• Sliding mode adaptive control for DC motors using function approximation form
• Sliding mode learning compensator-based robust control of automotive steer-by-wire systems
• Dual adaptive temperature control of magnesium reduction furnace
• The research of digital-PID and sliding mode control strategy for DC/DC converter
• A finite horizon optimisation-based energy management method for a dual-mode power-split hybrid electric vehicle

Call for papers: "Recent Advances in Theory and Applications of Visual Intelligence"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Computational Vision and Robotics.

Due to recent progress in intelligent algorithms and sensing and processing devices, visual intelligence is getting more attention, and plays essential roles in many application fields such as visual surveillance, intelligent transportation systems, healthcare, virtual/augmented reality, robotics, autonomous systems and so forth. In addition, growing capability in recent years of processing large amounts of data has given rise to a large variety of interesting applications and created challenging research and development issues.

A crucial new requirement of visual intelligence in the era of big data is to develop effective and efficient methods and analytics solutions for applications by utilising big data. This special issue aims to disseminate recent advances in theory and diverse applications of visual intelligence. We cordially invite authors to submit papers presenting original contributions in the field of visual intelligence.

The issue will carry revised and substantially extended versions of selected papers presented at the 5th IEEE International Conference on Control, Automation and Information Sciences, 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:

• Methods and applications of visual surveillance, intelligent transportation systems, healthcare, virtual/augmented reality, robotics and autonomous systems
• Big data processing and analysis
• Computational models of biological and machine vision
• Automatic vehicle control and perception
• Human-machine interaction
• Multi-sensory data fusion
• Object detection, recognition and tracking
• Data association algorithms for multiple target tracking
• Video and scene classification
• Novel image features, frameworks and applications for video and scene understanding
• Modelling and recognition of events
• Anomaly detection of events
• Human and vehicle activity recognition
• Image processing and enhancement
• Large-scale and real-time image processing
• Crowd scene understanding
• Gesture and posture recognition
• 3D reconstruction
• 3D vision and perception
• Cooperative perception
• Virtual and robotic conversational agents
• Vehicle detection, counting and classification
• Machine learning methods and applications for visual intelligence

Important Dates
Submission of manuscripts: 31 May, 2017
Notification to authors: 30 June, 2017
Final versions due: 31 October, 2017

Inderscience is media partner for Smart Water Systems 2017

Inderscience is a media partner for Smart Water Systems (24-25 April 2017, London, UK).

The journals involved are:

• Int. J. of Environment and Sustainable Development
• Int. J. of Energy Technology and Policy
• Int. J. of Environment and Waste Management
• Int. J. of Hydrology Science and Technology
• Int. J. of Internet of Things and Cyber-Assurance
• Int. J. of Water

More information on this event is available here.

Call for papers: "Big Data and Decision Sciences in Management and Engineering"

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

With the advancement of big-data and decision sciences, these fields become more interacted and popular as well as wider applications in many practices. This special issue focuses on big-data and decision sciences subject areas through its cutting-edge presentation of advanced research, carefully developed applications, and innovative technology components. We will also provide a forum for researchers and practitioners to review and disseminate quality research work on big-data and decision sciences in management and engineering and to identify critical issues for further developments.

Authors are invited to submit original and unpublished research papers as well as review articles on all aspects of big data and decision sciences. Of particular interest are papers devoted to recent developments, innovative applications in management and engineering, case studies and survey results in the area of big data and decision sciences and other related areas.

The issue will carry revised and substantially extended versions of selected papers presented at the International Conference on Business, Big-Data, and Decision Sciences 2017 (ICBBD 2017), 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:

• Machine learning
• Internet of Things
• Natural language processing
• Business intelligence
• Cloud computing
• Data mining
• Data management
• Distributed, parallel, cloud databases
• Electronic commerce
• Information management
• Classification
• Clustering
• Pattern recognition
• Online algorithms
• Mining with data clouds
• Web text mining
• Computer science and artificial intelligence
• Probabilistic and statistical methods
• Multi-criteria decision making
• Operations research and management science
• Stochastic optimisation
• Heuristic algorithms
• Game theory
• Preference
• Risk management
• Customer relationship management
• Health care management
• Operation management
• Management and decision process
• Industrial engineering and manufacturing systems
• Applications and case studies of government, international development, manufacturing, education, media, retailing, service industry, sport, engineering, science and Research etc.

Important Dates
Submission deadline of manuscripts: 31 August, 2017
Notification to authors: 31 October, 2017
Final versions due: 31 December, 2017

Two types of liquid water

There are two types of liquid water, according to research carried out by an international scientific collaboration. This new peculiarity adds to the growing list of strange phenomena in what we imagine is a simple substance. The discovery could have implications for making and using nanoparticles as well as in understanding how proteins fold into their working shape in the body or misfold to cause diseases such as Alzheimer’s or CJD.

Writing in the International Journal of Nanotechnology, Oxford University’s Laura Maestro and her colleagues in Italy, Mexico, Spain and the USA, explain how the physical and chemical properties of water have been studied for more than a century and revealed some odd behaviour not seen in other substances. For instance, when water freezes it expands. By contrast, almost every other known substance contracts when it is cooled. Water also exists as solid, liquid and gas within a very small temperature range (100 degrees Celsius) whereas the melting and boiling points of most other compounds span a much greater range.

Many of water’s bizarre properties are due to the molecule’s ability to form short-lived connections with each other known as hydrogen bonds. There is a residual positive charge on the hydrogen atoms in the V-shaped water molecule either or both of which can form such bonds with the negative electrons on the oxygen atom at the point of the V. This makes fleeting networks in water possible that are frozen in place when the liquid solidifies. They bonds are so short-lived that they do not endow the liquid with any structure or memory, of course.

The team has looked closely at several physical properties of water like its dielectric constant (how well an electric field can permeate a substance) or the proton-spin lattice relaxation (the process by which the magnetic moments of the hydrogen atoms in water can lose energy having been excited to a higher level). They have found that these phenomena seem to flip between two particular characters at around 50 degrees Celsius, give or take 10 degrees, i.e. from 40 to 60 degrees Celsius. The effect is that thermal expansion, speed of sound and other phenomena switch between two different states at this crossover temperature.

These two states could have important implications for studying and using nanoparticles where the character of water at the molecule level becomes important for the thermal and optical properties of such particles. Gold and silver nanoparticles are used in nanomedicine for diagnostics and as antibacterial agents, for instance. Moreover, the preliminary findings suggest that the structure of liquid water can strongly influence the stability of proteins and how they are denatured at the crossover temperature, which may well have implications for understanding protein processing in the food industry but also in understanding how disease arises when proteins misfold.


Maestro, L.M., Marqués, M.I., Camarillo, E., Jaque, D., García Solé, J., Gonzalo, J.A., Jaque, F., del Valle, J.C., Mallamace, F. and Stanley, H.E. (2016) ‘On the existence of two states in liquid water: impact on biological and nanoscopic systems‘, Int. J. Nanotechnol., Vol. 13, Nos. 8/9, pp.667-677.

From http://sciencespot.co.uk/two-types-of-liquid-water.html

Global energy issues and the nuclear question

An international team of scientists suggests that we must ramp up energy production by nuclear power if we are to succeed in warding off the worst effects of greenhouse gas emissions on climate change. Writing in the International Journal of Global Energy Issues, the team suggests that beginning in 2020 we could achieve an annual electricity output of 20 terawatts without needing to develop carbon dioxide trapping and storage technology for the tens of billions of tons of emissions that would otherwise drive global warming to catastrophic levels.

Herve Nifenecker of the Université interages du Dauphine, in Grenoble, France and honorary chairman of “Sauvons Le Climat” and colleagues in Australia, Austria, Belgium, China, France, India, Singapore, and the USA, explain how solutions to the problem of climate change developed in the wake of requirements established by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) make various assumptions we might not be able to address. One scenario involves attempting to capture and store carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels, coal, natural gas, and oil, in power stations and vehicles. However, the quantities involved amount to a massive geological-scale engineering effort even at today’s emission rates based on rising energy requirements.

The team also points out that if we renounce nuclear power as an option, then aside from the storage needs of carbon dioxide emissions, the international demand for electricity will fall short by about 40% over the period 2020 to 2100. It is unlikely that such a scenario will be accepted by developed and developing nations alike. Several large, highly populated nations, such as China and India are forecast to need more and more power over the coming years. The uptake of sustainable, non-carbon alternatives power sources such as wind, solar, tidal and other technologies seem not to be adopted at the requisite rates to keep up with needs and are limited by physical factors such as their random production, despite the best efforts of environmental lobbyists.

“An accelerated development of nuclear electricity production, starting as soon as 2020, would significantly alleviate the constraints required to stabilise global temperatures before 2100,” the team reports. “The carbon dioxide volume to be stored would be divided by at least a factor of 2.5 and might even prove unnecessary. The constraints on the development of expansive and intermittent renewable electricity techniques might also be lessened,” the team adds.

Their research suggests that it should be physically and economically plausible to multiply by a factor of fifty the production of nuclear energy by 2100, leading to a complete elimination of fossil fuels wherein 60% of electricity demand is met through nuclear and the remainder through sustainable technology. Despite tabloid hyperbole surrounding nuclear accidents at Chernobyl and Fukushima, the long-term health effects of these accidents are negligible compared with the chronic pollution of coal-fired power stations. It might even be said that nuclear energy is the most benign way of producing electricity in terms of environmental health and biodiversity. “Nuclear power could both answer the climate challenge and give a perennial solution to humanity’s energy needs for thousands of years,” the team concludes.

Berger, A., Blees, T., Bréon, F-M., Brook, B.W., Hansen, P., Grover, R.B., Guet, C., Liu, W., Livet, F., Nifenecker, H., Petit, M., Pierre, G., Prévot, H., Richet, S., Safa, H., Salvatores, M., Schneeberger, M. and Zhou, S. (2017) ‘How much can nuclear energy do about global warming?’ Int. J. Global Energy Issues, Vol. 40, Nos. 1/2, pp.43-78

From http://sciencespot.co.uk/global-energy-issues-and-the-nuclear-question.html

Call for papers: "Inter-Organisational Networks: Towards Linking Individual, Organisational and Global Phenomena"

For a special issue of the Global Business and Economics Review.

Inter-organisational networks (IONs) have been one of the fastest developing topics in management science over last two decades. However, this construct affects not only organisational phenomena, but also influences global economy (e.g. the role of transnational corporations) on the one hand, while on the other is influenced by the impact of global factors.

Therefore, IONs realm encompasses phenomena at multi-ontological, epistemological, and methodological levels. Specifically, it reflects micro- (e.g. role of managers in establishing and retaining the network, the micro-foundations of network relationships), meso- (e.g. the role of top management teams), macro- (e.g. internal constituents of node network organisations, i.e. strategies, structures, shared values, etc.), and global (e.g. economic factors contributing to either facilitate or inhibit inter-organisational networks functioning) levels of analysis. Admittedly, it might involve a multi-level methodological approach.

Most scholars focus mostly on the advantages and benefits of participating in inter-organisational networks or on their influence on the global economy. However, too little attention has been paid to constraints and limitations of inter-organisational networks membership. Consequently, it calls for further discussions about all micro, macro, and global consequences (also negative ones) of cooperation and/or competition within the inter-organisational networks.

The objective of this special issue is to identify and discuss both positive and negative implications of inter-organisational networks, especially their associations with the micro-foundations of network relationships (micro level), teams (meso level), internal elements of node network organisations (macro level) as well as with the mechanisms of developing IONs and their role in global economy (global level).

We invite conceptual, methodological, and empirical papers using wide-range approaches, however, research results submitted should explicitly apply a network paradigm as a generative lens to theorise and empirically examine both economics and management issues considering whether, how and why the phenomena of particular levels (separately or jointly) matter in the process of network cooperation/coopetition, as well as under what circumstances they are likely to be beneficial or inhibitory in terms of network survival, particular network members effectiveness, and economic growth.

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

• Micro-, meso-, macro-, and global antecedents and mechanisms of establishing and developing inter-organisational networks and their life cycles
• Consequences of inter-organisational network membership in terms of financial and non-financial performance of both node organisations and whole IONs as well as other advantages and disadvantages of inter-organisational network membership (micro, meso, macro, and global level), e.g. the influence of network membership on strategies, structures, and organisational culture of node organisations; addiction to the inter-organisational networks; coopetition and co-specialisation
• Position and power within inter-organisational networks and its impact on network and network organisations performance (financial and non-financial)
• The role of IONs in global economy and their influence on economic growth
• Research methodology (quantitative, qualitative, mix-methods research, multi-level approach) due to examining inter-organisational networks

Important Dates

Manuscripts due by: 31 December, 2017
Notification to authors: 28 February, 2018
Final versions due by: 30 April, 2018