Call for papers: "Tourism Discourse: Local and Global Perspectives"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Tourism Anthropology.

With the growth of the tourism industry globally, tourism discourse is enriched when more and more people are involved in travelling and entering diverse communicative situations. According to Schiffrin, Tannen and Hamilton (2001), discourse has been generally defined from three aspects: (1) anything beyond the sentence, (2) language use and (3) a broader range of social practice that includes non-linguistic and nonspecific instances of language (Pritchard & Jaworski, 2005, p.3).

Given the rich meaning of this concept, discourse requires both local and global approaches to understand the language of tourism as well as social norms, values and ideologies (Coupland & Jaworski, 2001).

This special issue seeks to publish leading-edge research that investigates how tourism shapes discourse about people and places from both local and global perspectives. It aims to exchange knowledge on a broad range of issues relating to discourse in the context of tourism. Conceptual, empirical and case-based papers are all encouraged. Submissions by authors from different disciplines are welcome.

References

Coupland, N., & Jaworski, A. (2001). Discourse. In P. Cobley (ed). The Routledge 

Companion to Semiotics and Linguistics (pp. 134-148). London: Routledge. 

Pritchard, A. & Jaworski, A. (2005). Discourse, communication and tourism dialogues. In A. 

Jaworski, & A. Pritchard (eds). Discourse, Communication, and Tourism (pp. 1-13). 

Buffalo and Toronto: Channel View Publications. 

Schiffrin, D., Tannen, D., & Hamilton, H. E. (2001). Introduction. In D. Schiffrin, D. Tannen 

& H.E. Hamilton (eds). The Handbook of Discourse Analysis (pp. 1-10). Oxford: Blackwell.

Suitable topics include but are not limited to:

• Construction of self and others through tourism and travel
• Making/remaking of identities of people or places
• Representations of tourist experiences through printed/online textual/visual messages
• Representations of local languages in tourist genres
• Political discourse and tourism
• The role of discourse in stakeholder engagement in events
• Policy discourse and tourism development
• The discourse of power in the context of tourism
• Local discourses and sustainable tourism
• The discourse of authenticity
• Tourism discourse: theory and applications
• Theoretic frameworks and approaches to understand tourism discourse

Important Dates

Deadline for submission of manuscript: 1 March, 2014

Thematic issue: "e-HRM in an International Context: an Emerging Topic for Research"

European Journal of International Management 7(4) 2013

• E-HRM in MNCs: what can be learned from a review of the IS literature?
• The use of Manager Self-Service (MSS) HR portals in MNCs: the influence of attitudinal, normative, behavioural and national cultural factors
• Localising versus standardising electronic human resource management: complexities and tensions between HRM and IT departments
• Levels of e-HRM adoption in subsidiaries of a US multinational corporation: the mediating role of power, politics and institutions
• Facing e-HRM: the consequences on employee attitude towards the organisation and the HR department in Italian SMEs
• Exploring and comparing HR shared services in subsidiaries of multinational corporations and indigenous organisations in The Netherlands: a strategic response analysis

Special issue: "Innovation and Entrepreneurship for Integrated Sustainability"

International Journal of Innovation and Regional Development 5(2) 2013

• Defining innovative competencies of leading: systems intelligence
• Mapping risk factors of innovation activity enterprises
• Clustering entrepreneurship aspirations: innovation, growth and international orientation of activities
• Developing cross-border regional innovation systems with clean technology entrepreneurship: the case of Øresund
• Multicriteria analysis for decision making in the innovation processes
• The impact of autotelic and dynamic capabilities on the performance of knowledge-intensive, low-tech ventures
• Cooperation for innovation: evidence from southern European countries

Special issue: "Soft Computing Techniques for Complex Optimisation Problems"

International Journal of Computational Intelligence Studies 2(2) 2013

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

• Power law-based local search in differential evolution
• Optimal advertising and pricing policies of successive generations of product in segmented market
• Automated thermal face recognition based on minutiae extraction
• Hybrid strategy of multi-objective differential evolution (H-MODE) for multi-objective optimisation
• Performance of classification using a hybrid distance measure with artificial bee colony algorithm for feature selection in keystroke dynamics

Special issue: "Technology Strategy in Family Business"

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management 17(1/2/3) 2013

• Technology strategy in family business: a new avenue for research
• Collaborative technology strategies and innovation in family firms
• Photovoltaic-technology adoption: emerging peculiarities in an Italian micro-family firm
• Leading transformation in a family-owned business: insights from an Italian company
• Patenting in family firms
• The learning ability of Portuguese small family businesses
• Product innovation and firm's growth in family firms: a quantile regression approach
• Technology, innovation and performance in family firms

Additional Papers

• The emergence of science-driven entrepreneurship in China: a case study of technological innovation in nano-pigment inks
• The process of organisational change in open innovation: evidence from high tech firms 

Special issue: "Advanced Control Theory and its Applications"

International Journal of Advanced Mechatronic Systems 5(1) 2013

Includes expanded versions of papers presented at the 2012 International Conference on Advanced Mechatronic Systems (ICAMechS 2012).

• Oscillation criteria of solutions for a new class of impulsive parabolic equations with delay
• Design of a multirate PD control system for improvement in the steady-state intersample response
• Design and experimental evaluation of a data-oriented multivariable PID controller
• A robust high-speed position control scheme based on computed torque method for 2 DOF flexible link robot arms
• Robustness investigation of the linear multi-variable control technique for power management of DFIG wind turbines
• Multiple model adaptive control of a hydro turbine plant - performance of H∞, LQG and PI controllers
• Hybrid optimal filtering for linear continuous-time Markovian jump systems with non-Gaussian noises by MPT approach

Regular Paper

• A robust hybrid active noise control system using IIR notch filters

Special issue: "Malaysian Accounting Research"

International Journal of Critical Accounting 5(2) 2013

• Research traditions in Malaysia and the West
• Board of directors and corporate diversification in Malaysia
• Complexity of accounting change during corporatisation: insights from two case studies
• The association between environmental disclosure and financial disclosure on the internet by Malaysian listed companies
• Impairment of assets disclosure by public listed companies in Malaysia
• The corporate governance landscape of Malaysia: then and now
• Government-linked companies' (GLCs) performance - a structuration perspective: Malaysian evidence

Special issue: "Multidisciplinary Approach to Complex Systems Design and Management: Modelling and Simulation based on Methodologies and Tools"

International Journal of Simulation and Process Modelling 8(1) 2013

Includes expanded versions of papers presented at the International Multidisciplinary Modeling & Simulation Multiconference 2011 (I3M 2011).

• Multicriteria approach for process modelling in strategic environmental management planning
• On the short period production planning in industrial plants: a real case study
• On the use of estimated tumour marker classifications in tumour diagnosis prediction - a case study for breast cancer
• HLA-based real time distributed simulation of a marine port for training purposes
• Bayesian knowledge modelling for healthcare practices
• Petri nets with exclusive entities for decision making
• Measuring degree-dependent failure in scale-free networks of bipartite structure
• Modelling of aerodynamic flutter on a NACA 4412 airfoil with application to wind turbine blades

Auditing award goes Dutch

Auditors

On June 25 2013 The European Court of Auditors (ECA) 2012 Fabra Vallés Award was awarded to Mieke Hoezen of the University of Twente in The Netherlands for her research project titled “The competitive dialogue procedure: negotiations and commitment in inter-organisational construction projects.”

“I am really honoured because I started doing research not just to make a scientific contribution but also to contribute to society,” Hoezen said on hearing of the Award. “The Award is a crown to this work,” she adds.

Results from this research project are set to appear in a forthcoming edition of the Inderscience publication the International Journal of Project Organisation and Management. That paper “Procuring complex projects using the competitive dialogue” will discuss European Commission efforts to develop a procurement system aimed at aligning the complex demands of principals with the possible solutions of contractors.

Hoezen has compared the expectations of the EC and 33 experts from industry and demonstrates that most anticipate that the new approach to procurement will meet the EC’s objectives of dialogue, competition, innovation and trust, there are experts in the Dutch construction industry who foresee several negative side effects. Among those side effects might be large transaction costs, lack of clarity about when the procedure is allowed to be used, risk averseness and opportunistic behaviour of the parties involved, and a lack of openness, reports Hoezen.

The award recognises Hoezen’s outstanding research into public sector auditing and provides an incentive and recognition for research on public audit related issues. ECA President Vítor Caldeira said: “In presenting the 2012 ECA Award to Ms Hoezen for her research on the EU competitive dialogue procedure, I believe the Court has found itself a worthy prize winner.”

More details and a video interview with Hoezen is available online together with a video interview.

Auditing award goes Dutch is a post from: David Bradley's Science Spot

via Science Spot http://sciencespot.co.uk/auditing-award-goes-dutch.html

HYCCUPS cure for phone battery life

A new system that goes by the name of “hybrid contextual cloud in ubiquitous platforms comprising of smart phones” or HYCCUPS for short, has been developed by Romanian computer scientists. The system discussed in a forthcoming research paper in the International Journal of Intelligent Systems Technologies and Applications, boosts phone battery life by booting power-consuming computational tasks on to an on-the-fly ad-hoc cloud in which smart phones are both clients and computing resources.

Radu-Corneliu Marin of the University Politehnica of Bucharest, explains how the advent of the smart phone gives almost everyone a very powerful computer for communications, watching and editing videos, taking photographs, browsing the web and even making phone calls. However, computer power usually comes at a price in the form of massively increased power consumption. This means that users who switch from older phones that lasted a week on a single charge are soon frustrated by how quickly the battery drains on their new device, usually in a matter of hours rather than days if it is used intensively.

Much of the computational activity used by a smart phone to carry out various tasks could be offloaded on to other mobile devices, just as it now often is with a desktop or laptop computer. The device itself then becomes an interface to applications running on other phones “in the cloud” and simply uploads raw data and downloads the processed material as and when it is needed. As more and more functionality can be ported to the cloud in this way, so the central processing unit (CPU) of the device requires less power, which means longer battery life.

HYCCUPS is, Marin explains, middleware – software that sits between the end-user device, the smart phone in this case, and the mobile cloud. The system creates a hybrid cloud allowing smart phones to schedule and offload process execution on to other resources and so reduce energy consumption to save battery life. The scheduling process itself is assisted by a contextual search technology that works behind the scenes without user intervention to predict the availability and mobility of mobile resources – such as other smart phones on a user’s high-speed wireless, Wi-Fi, network – so that the whole power-saving process can be optimised without loss of service or slowing down applications.

“Hybrid contextual cloud in ubiquitous platforms comprising of smart phones” in Int. J. Intelligent Systems Technologies and Applications, 2013, 12, 4-17

HYCCUPS cure for phone battery life is a post from: David Bradley's Science Spot

via Science Spot http://sciencespot.co.uk/hyccups-cure-for-phone-battery-life.html

Int. J. of Human Factors and Ergonomics to publish expanded papers from SHO 2014

Expanded versions of papers presented at the International Symposium on Occupational Safety and Hygiene (13-14 February 2014, Guimarães, Portugal) will be published by the International Journal of Human Factors and Ergonomics.

New Editor for Int. Journal of Agricultural Resources, Governance and Ecology

Professor Walter Leal Filho, Senior Professor and Head of the Research and Transfer Centre Applications of Life Sciences at Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, has been appointed as Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Agricultural Resources, Governance and Ecology.

Call for papers: "Ethical Issues, the Use of Online Discussion Boards, and Community Building by Way of Computer-Mediated Communication"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Web Based Communities.

In the field of tertiary education today, online discussion boards are used to assist teaching and learning. This new technology may be seen as a way to facilitate communication, collaboration, contribution, creativity and interaction among individuals and groups.

But it is not clear whether this type of computer-mediated communication also helps build community, or only exacerbates colonising tendencies and/or exclusion of particular parties, e.g. those that are other-literate, less ‘verbal’ and/or less computer-literate.

This special issue is aimed at a readership that includes higher education management, teaching and learning staff, tertiary education policy-makers and online lecturers.

Suitable topics include but are not limited to:

• The standpoint of the moderator (in education, the teacher) who manages and facilitates the online environment
• The moderator's motivation/s to erect an online discussion board
• The moderator's context and how that affects what participants write and do not write
• The moderator's timing of intervention
• The moderator's communication style and related interaction between the moderator and the participants
• The intention behind participation (e.g. to generate knowledge, as a form of self-study, to partake in a learning community, to broadcast one's own viewpoints, to improve one's writing skills, to have a sounding board)
• Variations in the 'colour' and/or the emotional 'tone' of the online discussion board
• Futurist perspectives on the use of online discussion boards
• The purpose (role) of online discussion boards in the context of globalisation and a fluid modernity

Important Dates

Deadline for abstracts: 15 August, 2013

Deadline for papers: 15 September, 2013

Feedback on submissions: 15 October, 2013

Final notification of acceptance: 1 November, 2013

New Editor for Progress in Industrial Ecology

Professor Walter Leal Filho, Senior Professor and Head of the Research and Transfer Centre Applications of Life Sciences at Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, has been appointed as Editor-in-Chief of Progress in Industrial Ecology.

Newly announced journal: International Journal of Software Engineering, Technology and Applications

The International Journal of Software Engineering, Technology and Applications discusses new computation methodologies in the software engineering process. For large software projects, innovative software development approaches are of vital importance. In order to gain higher software standards and efficiency, software process adaptation must be derived from social behaviour, planning, strategy, intelligent computing etc., based on various factors. IJSETA addresses the state of the art of all aspects of computational science and engineering, highlighting computational methods and techniques for science and engineering applications in the software development process.

Call for papers: "Modelling and Applied Optimisation in Business and Engineering"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Operational Research.

Current activities in engineering and business involve making a series of decisions. These decisions are made by looking at the relevant data and using appropriate models. Today, companies are facing highly complex problems with important consequences. These companies have thus become aware of the importance of using mathematical models for decision making.

This special issue aims to collect recent original contributions related to developing good mathematical/optimisation models for decision problems in engineering and business. Theoretical and/or empirical contributions that make a significant contribution to this field are welcome.

The issue will carry revised and substantially extended versions of selected papers presented at the International Conference on Modeling, Simulation and Applied Optimization (ICMSAO’2013) (Hammamet, Tunisia, 28-30 April 28-30, 2013), but we also strongly encourage researchers unable to participate in the conference to submit papers for this special issue.

Suitable topics include but are not limited to:

• Analytical and stochastic modelling techniques and applications
• Application of modelling in engineering and business
• Applied optimisation in engineering and business
• Combinatorial optimisation in engineering and business
• Discrete event modelling
• Mathematical modelling and application
• Multiple objective optimization
• Statistical and probabilistic modelling
• Uncertainty and fuzziness in engineering and business decisions

Important Dates
Submission of manuscripts: 15 November, 2013

Inderscience is media partner for 5th International Exhibition and Conference on Nuclear Energy

Inderscience is a media partner for the 5th International Exhibition and Conference on Nuclear Energy (27-29 November 2013, Mumbai, India).

The journals involved are:

• Atoms for Peace: an International Journal
• International Journal of Nuclear Desalination
• International Journal of Nuclear Governance, Economy and Ecology
• International Journal of Nuclear Knowledge Management
• International Journal of Nuclear Law

Call for papers: "Hybrid Environments and the Real World Internet"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Intelligent Engineering Informatics.

This special issue will look into the possibilities that smart objects raise for various types of networks including wired, wireless and cellular, and how new services and applications can be deployed and managed with them within the context of the surrounding environment.

Smart objects incorporate monitoring as well as control functions, and need to communicate with each other (or other systems) and with gateways. In many cases, communication is based on wireless sensor networks integrated within an object, such as parts of a building, logistic goods, vehicles or environmental sensors and actuators. In other cases, communication is based on a hybrid approach, where part of the network is infrastructure-based, while the rest has a varying, self-organising topology. Several solutions and applications proposed bridge different research perspectives and are characterised by the involvement of different disciplines.

Currently, many research groups are working on technologies to form a Real World Internet (RWI) where all kinds of (typically resource-constrained and wirelessly connected) devices will extend networking and processing capacity to the physical world. Application development for the RWI is complex as it unites the challenges of distributed applications and embedded programming and may often involve sociocultural and quality of experience requirements. In addition, heterogeneity, unpredictable environmental influences, the size of the networks, as well as implications stemming from the requirements for public or open use further complicates the picture.

We invite authors to submit papers reporting original, previously unpublished research which addresses this new area.

Suitable topics include but are not limited to:

• Evolutionary approaches based on current IP-centered architectures
• Revolutionary designs and new paradigms for real world internet applications in various environments
• Experimental/testbed, empirical studies as well as implementation/industry results (including field trials)
• Frameworks, models and broader classifications that can act as foundations regarding hybrid environments and the real world internet
• Strategies, models and paradigms for developing public hybrid ecosystems that involve co-creation of products and services with their stakeholders, users or the wider public
• Models and approaches of real world internet applications deployment for various environments (from personal environments to urban-scale)
• Adaptive and user-centered applications for various environments (from personal and domestic to public and urban-scale)

Important Dates
Submissions due: 15 January, 2014 (extended)

Inderscience journals to publish expanded papers from ICIBSoS 2013

Expanded versions of papers presented at the International Congress on Interdisciplinary Behavior and Social Sciences & Sustainable Ecosystem (4-5 November 2013, Jakarta, Indonesia) will be published by the following journals:

• International Journal of Economic Policy in Emerging Economies
• International Journal of Trade and Global Markets

Call for papers: "Advances in Intelligent Systems and Mechatronics"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Computer Applications in Technology.

With the rapid advances of engineering and technologies in all important fields, intelligent systems and mechatronics are growing into a new era. The goal of this special issue is to provide a multidisciplinary platform for researchers in the field to publish results from their scientific progress and technological advances, with the topics focusing on those listed below.

The scope of the issue covers, but is not limited to:

• Integration of mechatronic sensors/devices/systems
• Intelligent robots
• Mechatronics in manufacturing
• Neuroengineering systems
• Energy systems
• Mechatronics and system design
• Modelling and computational systems for mechatronics
• Autonomous systems
• Curriculum development and innovative instruction
• Advanced materials and rapid prototyping 

Important Dates

Submission deadline: 31 August, 2013

Communication of peer reviews to authors: 31 October, 2013

Deadline for revised manuscripts: 15 December, 2013

Call for papers: "Advances in the Emergence of the Mobile and Web Community"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Web Based Communities.

Over recent years, web technology has been expanding its applications and services rapidly into mobile platforms. Mobile 2.0, for example, is not just adding another layer to the social web; it is the only channel to fill the gap between web, social and traditional channels centred on individuals’ daily lives.

The integration and emergence of web and mobile communities that connect online, on-the-go and physical facilities brings a seamless user experience and business ecosystem. It brings convenience, and also changes ways and channels of communicating, learning and relating with others. It may bring diversified opportunities and challenges to the corporate, scientific, social and educational world.

Likewise, although this emergence is taking place worldwide, it has distinct advancements, approaches and challenges in different countries and cultures. We strongly feel a pertinent need for the collection of perspectives from various sources to reconsider where we can go with this emerging phenomenon.

This special issue aims to collect thoughts and perspectives on this phenomenon and on how it could impact the corporate, scientific, social and educational status quo. We welcome the results of empirical research, methods, theories, case studies, thoughts and innovative strategies on how and in which ways we can advance individual and public lives.

Suitable topics include but are not limited to:

• Business transformations, competition, strategy
• Open source and social collaboration
• Virtual collaboration, communication and remote learning
• User engagement, user experience and storytelling
• Civic rights, surveillance and democracy
• Social responsibility, cyber safety and privacy
• Regional policy, cultural differences and internationalisation
• Social media
• New products, services and technologies
• Innovations
• Other related topics

Important Dates

Deadline of submission: 15 January, 2014

Acceptance notification: 15 March, 2014

Revision submission: 15 April, 2014

Final notification of acceptance: 15 May, 2014

Special issue: "Emerging Trends in Information and Communication Technologies"

International Journal of Reasoning-based Intelligent Systems 5(1) 2013

Expanded versions of papers presented at the Jubilee International Conference on Telecommunications in Modern Satellite, Cable and Broadcasting Services (TELSIKS) 2011.

• Design of first-order differentiator utilising FIR and IIR sub-filters
• Renal DMSA scan morphology analysis using undecimated wavelet transform and isocontours
• Effects of noise and distortion in measurement of room impulse response by swept sine technique
• ICT and power: new challenges and solutions
• High-performance computing in GIS: techniques and applications
• Towards a scalable mobile telemetry system and ubiquitous access to measurements
• An RLL code design that maximises channel utilisation
• Cylindrical grid-based TLM model of a coaxially loaded cylindrical cavity

Special issue: "Collaborative Innovation in Emerging Countries: Looking Inward and Outward"

International Journal of Technology Management 62(2/3/4) 2013

• A framework for assessing innovation collaboration partners and its application to BRICs
• Motives for international cooperation on R&D and innovation: empirical evidence from Argentinean and Spanish firms
• Collaboration partner portfolio along the growth of Chinese firms' innovation capability: configuration, evolution and pattern
• The impact of founders' academic experiences on linking with local alma maters for Chinese start-ups
• Contingencies in collaborative innovation: matching organisational learning with strategic orientation and environmental munificence

Additional Papers

• Framework of open innovation in SMEs in an emerging economy: firm characteristics, network openness, and network information
• Building up a project complexity framework using an international Delphi study

Special issue: "Particle Filled Composites: Experimental and Computational Mechanics"

International Journal of Materials and Structural Integrity 7(1/2/3) 2013

• Numerical and experimental study on the response of multi-walled carbon nanotube/polymer composites under compressive loading
• Ba(Zn1/3Ta2/3)O3 filled PTFE composites for microwave substrate applications
• Micromechanical modelling of alumina trihydrate filled poly (methyl methacrylate) composites
• Properties of POSS blends with pCBT, PMMA, PC and POM thermoplastics
• Computation of tensile strength of syntactic foams
• Predicting elastic modulus of particle filled composites
• Direct multiscale 'morphological approach' for non-linear highly-filled particulate composites: theory and applications

Additional Papers

• Effect of equilateral triangle vacancy defect on the thermal conductivity and thermal rectification of graphene: a molecular dynamics study
• Numerical investigation of amorphous silicon carbonitrides ceramics
• Study on the crosstalk characteristic of non-ideal interconnect structure
• A novel hybrid election campaign optimisation algorithm for multi-objective flexible job-shop scheduling problem
• Effect of forming factors on surface temperature and residual deformation of the plate in line heating
• Cooperative navigation for multiple autonomous underwater vehicles using a single leader
• New product development period and competitive advantage resulting from manufacturing-marketing interaction: an empirical study of SMEs in the Yangtze Delta in China
• FDynamic and flutter suppression analysis of 2D aerofoil by receptance method

Computing toxic chemicals

A new computational method for working out in advance whether a chemical will be toxic will be reporting in a forthcoming issue of the International Journal of Data Mining and Bioinformatics.

There is increasing pressure on the chemical and related industries to ensure that their products comply with increasing numbers of safety regulations. Providing regulators, intermediary users and consumers with all the necessary information to allow them to make informed choices with respect to use, disposal, recycling, environmental issues and human health issues is critical. Now, Meenakshi Mishra, Hongliang Fei and Jun Huan of the University of Kansas, in Lawrence, have developed a computational technique that could allow the industry to predict whether a given compound will be toxic even at a low dose and thus allow alternatives to be found when necessary.

Toxicity is almost always an issue of availability and dosage. Whether or not a compound is natural or synthetic it can be toxic from snake venom and jellyfish stings to petrochemicals and pesticides. However, some chemicals are more toxic than others, exposure to a lower dose will cause health problems or potentially be lethal. It is very important to find a way to determine whether a newly discovered synthetic or natural chemical might cause toxicity problems.

The team also points out that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Office of Toxic Substances (OTS) in the USA had listed 70,000 industrial chemicals in the 1990s, with 1000 chemicals added each year for which even simple toxicological experiments had not been carried out. This is largely a problem of logistics and costs as well as the ethical question of whether so many tests, which would have to be carried out on laboratory animals, should be done at all.

Now, Huan and colleagues in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Kansas, have successfully tested a statistical algorithm against more than 300 chemicals for which the toxicity profile is already known. Their technique offers a computational method of screening a large number of compounds for obvious toxicity very quickly and might preclude the need for animal testing of the compounds, provided regulators don’t insist on such “in vivo” data from the latter.

The research builds on well-established principles from the pharmaceutical industry known as Quantitative structure-activity relationships (QSARs) in which the type of atoms and how they are connected together can be correlated with the activity of a drug molecule. Certain molecular shapes and types are soluble in water, for instance, or interact in a certain way with different enzymes and other proteins in the body, leading to their overall activity. Different molecular features will make a similar molecule behave in a different way – more or less soluble, stronger or weaker acting. The team has now turned the QSAR around so that instead of searching for the features in a molecule that make it of benefit in medicine they look for the atomic groups and the type of bonds that hold them together to find associations with toxicity.

The team points out that few earlier attempts at predicting toxicity of chemicals have proved successful, most approaches are no better than random guessing. The team’s new statistical approach combines “Random Forest” selection with “Naïve Bayes” statistical analysis to boost the predictions well beyond random. They team saw prediction accuracy in 2 out of 3 chemicals tested. Given that there are around 100,000 industrial chemicals that need toxicity profiling, this result should allow the industry and regulators to focus on a large number of the most pressing of those, the ones predicted to have greatest toxicity and leave the less likely until additional resources are available.

The researchers are now tuning the algorithm to work faster and with greater precision so that it ignores common molecular features now known not to contribute to toxicity characteristics in the chemicals they have studied so far.

As Britney Spears asked in her song: “Don’t you know that you’re toxic?” Well, we do now.

“Computational prediction of toxicity” in Int. J. Data Mining and Bioinformatics, 2013, 8, 338-348

Computing toxic chemicals is a post from: David Bradley's Science Spot

via Science Spot http://sciencespot.co.uk/computing-toxic-chemicals.html

Just sing!

A new computer program can automatically extract the vocals from a random collection of mp3 music files and classify each track depending on whether the singer is male or female, a trained singer, a semi-professional or an amateur. The program can also tell you in which vocal range the artist is singing. The next version might be able to tell you the song’s exact key.

Writing in the International Journal of Signal and Imaging Systems Engineering, computer scientists in the LabGed Laboratory at The University of Annaba, in Algeria, explain how they used a frequency masking tool to extract the vocal parts from the accompaniment in 1200 music samples. They then applied statistical tools known as Gaussian Mixture Models can be incorporated into a computer program to analyse the voices. In parallel, voice experts listened to the samples and classified them by into male and female groups and by vocal range: soprano, mezzo-soprano, contralto, tenor, baritone and bass. They also grouped them by quality (professional semi-professional and amateur).

Once the vocal is separated from the accompaniment by the program it can then analyse pitch and vibrato. Pitch is the attribute by which we “sort” sounds lowest to highest, the pitch of a sung note is a function of the fundamental frequency of vibration of the sound source and for the human voice that is usually most energetic in the range 200 to 2000 Hertz (vibrations per second). A bass singer might go as low as 80 Hz while a soprano would commonly hold notes at 1400 Hz. In contrast, the frequency of the spoken word is around 400 Hz at its highest, the musical note “A” above middle C is set at a frequency of 440 Hz.

How much the pitch varies and at what rate around a fundamental sung note is the vibrato and is very important in assessing the quality of a singing voice. Vibrato is largely absent from the spoken word but almost ubiquitous in the singing voice, where we perceive it to add character, emotion and other qualities to the voice. The frequency at which vibrato leads a sung note to deviate from the fundamental held note is itself not audible at between 4 and 8 Hz but the effect is obvious to the listener. The computer program can, of course, analyse the changes in fundamental frequencies in the singing voice, the vibrato frequency and depth and use this information to correlate each extract voice with a measure of quality.

The preliminary results from Faiz Maazouzi and Halima Bahi on the 1200 vocal music samples showed 97 percent accuracy for singing voice quality and almost 97% accuracy for singing voice type.

“Type-2 Fuzzy Gaussian mixture models for singing voice classification in commercial music production” in Int. J. Signal and Imaging Systems Engineering, 2013, 6, 111-118

Just sing! is a post from: David Bradley's Science Spot

via Science Spot http://sciencespot.co.uk/just-sing.html

MRI fast track for Alzheimer’s diagnosis

A new approach to analyzing MRI brain scans could help speed up the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s and other degenerative diseases, according to research published to be published in the International Journal of Computational Science and Engineering.

Clayton Chen of Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taiwan, Shih-Yu Chen of University of Maryland, USA, and their colleagues explain how standard approaches to analyzing a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) use a computer to compare pixels in the scan image so that different types of tissue can be identified. This allows cancerous cells to be highlighted as opposed to healthy cells, for instance. However, despite improvements in the quality and resolution of MRI scanning in recent years, each pixel in a scan may represent the presence of several different cell types. This means that differentiating between healthy and unhealthy tissue at close to the cellular level is not usually possible with inter-pixel analysis.

In progressive, degenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, the differences between healthy and diseases tissues may be very subtle, albeit the impact on the patient can be wholly debilitating. MRI has not therefore been the diagnostic tool of choice for tracking progress in this disease or a patient’s response at the cellular level to treatment.

Now, Chen and colleagues have built on earlier studies to devise what they refer to as intra-pixel analysis. Rather than comparing pixels across an MRI scan, their approach looks at the differences within individual pixels over a short period of time. This unconventional approach allows them to treat the pixels as dynamic entities and so delineate the tissues types at particular positions in the scan. In order to exploit this additional dimension in MRI, the scanner must be set to use pulse sequences so that different spectroscopic information, associated with different tissue types, is recorded over a short period of time rather than the snapshot of standard MRI.

The team explains that by “unmixing” the spectroscopic data from individual pixels they can extract more than one tissue type from the pixel and so boost the resolution and information obtained in a an MRI scan of small regions of the brain where only very subtle physical changes may have occurred between scans. The technique might allow much earlier diagnosis of degenerative brain diseases and allow doctors to make a better clinical prognosis based on the rate at which changes occur at the near to cellular level in their patient.

“Intra-pixel multispectral processing of magnetic resonance brain images for tissue characterization” in Int. J. Comput. Sci. Eng., 2013, 8, 87-110

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Special issue: "Green Communication and Computing"

International Journal of Intelligent Systems Technologies and Applications 12(1) 2013

• Hybrid contextual cloud in ubiquitous platforms comprising of smartphones
• Clustering-Biased Random Algorithm for Load Balancing (C-BRALB) in wireless sensor networks
• Cost models - pillars for efficient cloud computing: position paper
• Social-awareness in opportunistic networking

Additional Paper

• Reactive localisation in underwater wireless sensor networks with self-healing

Special issue: "Health Service Engineering and Redesign"

International Journal of Healthcare Technology and Management 14(1/2) 2013

• Reduction of service time variation in patient visit groups using decision tree method for an effective scheduling
• Investigating the impact of process complexity on quality of care in hospital emergency departments
• Clustering the clusters - knowledge enhancing tool for diagnosing elderly falling risk
• Response surface optimisation of surgery start times in a single operating room using designed simulation experiments

Additional Papers

• Intention to use a personal health record: a theoretical analysis using the technology acceptance model
• Dispensary assistants' attitudes and perceptions regarding automated dispensing machines in community pharmacies
• Buy-side barriers to e-business technology in the healthcare sector
• Complexities of scope and scale in claims: issues in vertical knowledge flow in cancer biotechnology

Special issue: "Sustainable Development – the Role of Environmental Management in Industrial Ecology"

Progress in Industrial Ecology, An International Journal 8(1/2) 2013

• Carbon management strategies - a quest for corporate competitiveness
• An overview of the role of informatics-based systems in furthering an integrated paddock to plate food supply system
• Building sustainability knowledge for product development and design - experiences from four manufacturing firms
• An exploratory study for the long-term integration of ecodesign in SMEs: the environmental Trojan horse strategy
• Seeking industrial synergies in the French Chemical Valley territory: a methodological approach for decision support
• A qualitative multi-criteria, multi stakeholder decision making tool for sustainable waste management

Lessons from Timbuktu

Society today might think of science parks, technology centres, business incubators and knowledge precincts as being entirely modern phenomena, representative of the great advances of human endeavour sparked into the life by the Industrial Revolution of the 19th Century and the Information Revolution of the late 20th to the present day. However, imagine mediaeval Timbuktu in what was known to Western explorers as deepest, darkest Africa and you may well see the seeds of a knowledge city that truly pioneered much of what we consider modern centuries ago.

Umar Benna of the College of Architecture and Planning at the University of Dammam, in Al-Khoba, Saudi Arabia, argues in the journal AJESD that it is the efficient and effective use of urban spaces that are key to creating what he calls “a holistic knowledge city” and that Africa as it develops must learn to avoid the traps and the trappings of the conventional science parks and their ilk found in the West. He argues that, “Africa’s scientific and literary accomplishments were far ahead of most of the other continents during medieval times and may have some lessons for contemporary societies.”

His research suggests that there are many benefits to taking an alternative approach to the “quick fix” global approach to hooking up information and communications technology (ICT) and building parochial science parks albeit often with links to local and international academia and commercial partners. He points to Timbuktu’s gradual development approach which led to an accumulation of knowledge and extraordinary achievements.

During the 14th-16th centuries, the city of Timbuktu in the West African nation of Mali, grew from what was essentially a small watering place on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert into a place known throughout the world as a seat of great learning, scholarship and trade. Learning and commerce in salt, gold, ivory and slaves were finely balanced in Timbuktu. The latter two “commodities” being rather unfortunately placed in the modern ethos of seeing the city as a role model for growth. Nevertheless, knowledge and economic development reinforced each other allowing creativity to flourish building on talent, tolerance and technology; the three T’s that are according to researchers prerequisites.

Indeed, argues Benna, Timbuktu attracted gifted scholars and students from the Western Sudan, Muslim states in Africa and the wider Islamic world and at the same time exported its scholars and students to these places – the talent. Its communities were socially, racial, ethnically and economically diverse – and tolerant. Finally, there was agricultural innovation and an intellectual entrepreneurial culture – technology.

“It was a complex system consisting of people, relationships, values, processes, tools and built environment. Pooling these factors together to produce an enlightened learning community – not just a strong university but also an active community of practice – is an important lesson for Africa,” says Benna. If there were three T’s driving creativity then they were founded on markets, mosques, and mobility, the three M’s. The lessons of Timbuktu’s growth reveal how a knowledge city can grow to fulfil the needs of its diverse inhabitants, bottom-up innovation rather than grand “top-down” designs work well, collaboration increases social cohesion and finally branding and open access, two trendy phrases in the modern world, were critical to Timbuktu’s fame and ongoing growth in Mediaeval times. All of these lessons, Benna asserts, “could prove invaluable for the emerging African countries that seek to use the knowledge cit as a tool to guide their future development.”

Benna U.G. (2013). Places for knowledge-based activities in the African medieval knowledge city of Timbuktu, African J. Economic and Sustainable Development, 2 (2) 99-121. DOI:

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Special issue: "Intelligent Information and Product Technologies for Supply Chain Integration"

International Journal of Integrated Supply Management 8(1/2/3) 2013

Includes extended versions of papers presented by the “Supply Network Engineering” working group of the IFAC TC 5.2 “Manufacturing Modelling for Management and Control”.

• How do Information Technology and Integrative Planning drive performance in today's supply chains?
• A management and orchestration model for integrating Digital Business Ecosystems
• Multi-disciplinary analysis of interfaces "Supply Chain Event Management - RFID - control theory"
• Development of Supply Chain Integration model through application of Analytic Network Process and Multilevel self-organisation of cyber-physical networks: synergic approach
• Task re-allocation in temporary production networks
• Process-based cooperation support for complementary outtasking in production networks of SME

Special issue: "Cybercrime Prevention, Detection and Response"

International Journal of Electronic Security and Digital Forensics 5(2) 2013

• The 'inverse CSI effect': further evidence from e-crime data
• Detecting malicious behaviour using supervised learning algorithms of the function calls
• Biometric encryption using enhanced finger print image and elliptic curve
• Automatic forensic log file analysis for Mac OS X systems
• SQL injection attacks with the AMPA suite 

Call for papers: "The Convergence Information System and Its Applications"

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

Due to the development of information techniques, a wide scope of information is being produced and distributed rapidly in digital convergence form. In this excess of information, it is not easy for users to search and find desired information in a short time.

 

Accordingly, a convergence information system which users can utilise to control and access filtered information efficiently has appeared in IT convergence. Building on the current technology, it is ready for a wide range of applications that support and which will gradually change our everyday lives.

 

Therefore, not only novel techniques, architectures, algorithms and experiences regarding IT convergence but also convergence information services should be considered. This special issue will focus on novel research on services, applications, infrastructures and applied real world engineering for information.

 

Suitable topics include but are not limited to:

• Software infrastructure, middleware and frameworks for convergence information
• Mobile and wearable computing for convergence information
• Agent technology in the convergence information system
• Convergence information applications in u-commerce, u-learning and u-health
• Innovative applications of convergence information
• Cooperative design in convergence environments
• Artificial intelligence methodologies for convergence information
• Speech recognition and voice recognition for convergence information
• Convergence context-aware and HCI technologies
• Convergence information indexing, searching and visualisation
• Intelligent information extraction algorithms
• Security, trust, privacy and other technical issues in convergence information

Important Dates

Manuscript submission due: 10 August, 2013

First decision notification: 30 September, 2013

Final decision notification: 30 October, 2013

Special issue: "Change and Growth"

Journal for Global Business Advancement 6(3) 2013

• Internationalisation process in turbulent and stable markets: Do firms know that they do not know?
• Thai exporter and US importer relations: a pilot study using email survey
• Brand personality as a predictor in the product/firm relationship as it relates to brand loyalty during periods of brand stress, catastrophic events or recalls
• A traditional gravity model of the endogenous nexus between transportation costs and bilateral trade
• Challenges for entrepreneurs in micro enterprise sector: a study of selected clusters of Western Uttar Pradesh, India

Inderscience journals to publish expanded papers from IIKI 2013

Expanded versions of papers presented at the International Workshop on Identification, Information & Knowledge in the Internet of Things (18-20 October 2013, Beijing, China) will be published by the following journals:

• International Journal of Computational Science and Engineering
• International Journal of Embedded Systems

ID got you under the skin

Forget fingerprints or iris recognition, the next big thing in biometrics will be a thermal imaging scan that maps the blood vessels under the skin of your face for instantaneous face recognition that would be almost impossible to spoof.

Writing in a forthcoming issue of the International Journal of Computational Intelligence Studies, a team at Jadavpur University in Kolkata, India, explains how the pattern of blood vessels just beneath the skin of our faces is as unique as a fingerprint, iris or other characteristic. It can be revealed easily with an infra-red thermal imaging camera. Rubber fingerprints can be made to simulate another person’s dabs while contact lenses can be fabricated to spoof someone’s iris so that an impostor could bypass biometric security measures.

However, it would be almost impossible to create a realistic mask for an impostor to wear that simulated the pattern of blood vessels in someone’s face because no matter how good the mask, the thermal imaging camera would be able to see the impostor’s blood vessels in their skin too and they would be unmasked, figuratively speaking.

Ayan Seal and colleagues have developed a computer algorithm that can analyze the minutiae of the blood vessels revealed by an infra-red scan of a person’s face. The thermogram readily reveals the pattern of blood vessels almost down to the smallest capillary with an accuracy of more than 97%. Such a degree of precision would suffice even for high-security applications provided the thermogram scan was tied to second or third forms of identity, such as photo ID, security card, PIN number etc.

Face recognition is widely accepted by security systems, law enforcement and legal agencies, thermal imaging takes this fundamental human trait to a lower, subcutaneous, level.

“Automated thermal face recognition based on minutiae extraction” in Int. J. Computational Intelligence Studies, 2013, 2, 133-156

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Call for papers: "Aging Society and the Changing Industrial Landscape"

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

“Aging society”, which means a society composed of an increasing proportion of elderly people, is a common phenomenon all over the globe. Particularly in countries and regions where some degrees of industrialisation have taken place, “aging” has been a powerful factor that is reshaping the industrial landscape. With this demographic change, welfare provisions tend to increase, and manufacturing and service sectors generally go through qualitative changes.

A pertinent question to ask is what will our future industrial landscape be like in the “aging” contexts based on what we have observed in different contexts so far. Different countries have taken diverse positions reflecting their specific contexts. Not only European countries, but also Japanese society has typically shown a dramatic change over the last thirty years, which will be followed by other countries.

Countries and industries have shown similarities and differences in their responses to aging and its effects on economy and industry. In order to distill meaningful insights for the future, this special issue will focus on how countries, industry and society have reacted to these economic and industrial changes.

Suitable topics include but are not limited to:

• Macro data-based analysis of society or industry responses to aging, and their consequences
• A country- or industry-specific (or better, a comparative) case studies on how societies and industries have responded to aging and industrial change, noting consequences and potential implications for other countries and industries
• A policy-oriented analysis of a country or countries to explain or describe industrial changes in the aging contexts 

Any paper in any of these three tracks may draw on ideas from the other tracks, and in every case it would be desirable to describe the dynamics of change and implications.

Important Dates

Deadline for manuscript submission: 10 March, 2014

Notification of authors: 1 June, 2014

Deadline for revisions for accepted papers: 1 August, 2014

Call for papers: "Technological Innovation Strategy: Lessons from the Emerging Economies"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Learning and Intellectual Capital.

Technology is the engine of modern economic growth. Most technological innovations until now were almost entirely developed in Western industrial nations. The standard Western model of technological innovation, with market-leading companies in the developed world branching out to the lesser developed world, is increasingly being challenged by the emergence of technological innovation models rooted in the context of emerging economies. Now, we have technological innovations that have succeeded in the emerging economies, in the face of stiff competition from established multinationals, taking their fight for dominance to the home turf of these multinationals.

This area of technological innovation abounds with numerous examples of innovations from the emerging world, and the purpose of this special issue is to open a forum for researchers to synthesise a general framework that underpins these innovations, and to distill the essential features of this interesting development.

Another important dimension linked to technological innovation is technology innovation policy adopted by emerging economies. What policy instruments are the most effective in inducing companies to conduct R&D, and to stimulate universities and government laboratories to conduct frontier research and transfer the results to industry?

The organisation of this special issue will be based on the following broad structure. We will present contributions by experts from the most prominent emerging economies such as China, India and other BRIC countries, detailing specific case studies of homegrown companies and innovators from these emerging markets. The focus will on charting out the broad outlines of their technology strategy and deducing the key lessons learned as they compete against developed world multinationals, and finally to scrutinise the strategic avenues they are pursuing to compete with traditional multinationals in the global markets.

Based on these background papers, we will develop a general framework which will distill the essence of technological innovation strategy of competitors from emerging economies. This framework will offer valuable lessons for traditional multinationals to compete effectively against this new breed of competitors when extending their production and supplier networks to emerging market economies such as China. Finally, we will synthesise the emerging governance issues, for example, managing intellectual property rights, which result from the close interaction between the established multinationals and the new competitors.

Suitable topics include but are not limited to the following:

• Emerging economies
• Technological learning
• Multinational corporations
• Innovation networks
• Technological innovation strategy
• Science and technology policy
• Intellectual capital
• Clusters and innovation
• Technological innovation patterns
• Technological innovation management

Important Dates

Submission of abstracts: 1 September, 2013

Submission of manuscripts: 1 December, 2013

Notification to authors: 1 January, 2014

Submission of final versions: 1 February, 2014

Authors of papers submitted before the submission deadline can expect communications from the Guest Editors sooner. Early submission is therefore recommended.

CSI: Digital

Scaremongering tabloids have describe the “CSI Effect” as being an increased expectation from jurors that forensic evidence will be presented in court that is instantaneous and unequivocal because that is how it is often presented for dramatic effect in television programs and movies. Of course, in reality forensic science, while exact in some respects is just as susceptible to the vagaries of measurements and analyses as any other part of science. In reality, crime scene investigators often spend seemingly inordinate amounts of time gathering and assessing evidence and then present it as probabilities rather than the kind of definitive result expected of a court room filled with actors rather than real people.

However, while suggesting this CSI Effect is perhaps not quite as widespread as one might imagine among jurors, informatician Richard Overill of King’s College London believes it might have a positive effect on reducing the tendency to criminal behaviour among some individuals. He offers details of his analysis of the “Inverse CSI Effect” in a forthcoming issue of the International Journal of Electronic Security and Digital Forensics. This would be manifest, he says, particularly among so-called cyber-criminals, fearing the instantaneous and definitive forensic evidence from the imagined cyber-sleuths.

If this inverse CSI effect exists then one might imagine that a proportion of cyber-criminals would modify their behaviour in one of three ways. They might go straight by withdrawing from their nefarious activities altogether. They might attempt to go “under the radar”, restricting their crimes to ones with lower impact and less “profit” that would not necessarily warrant costly police resources for investigation. Alternatively, they might expend large amounts of effort or money to obfuscate their modus operandi with multiple layers of concealment and stealth to make their crimes invisible to even the slyest cyber sleuth.

Overill points out that there are three trends that might emerge if this inverse CSI effect emerges in the realm of cybercrime. First, we might see a reduction in the incidence (frequency) of economic cyber-crimes over time, second there could be an increase in the impact (value) of economic cyber-crimes over time and finally there will be a rise in the use of anti-forensic techniques by cyber-criminals over time. His analysis of crime data stretching back eleven years in the US suggests that these trends have been at play and that there is an inverse CSI effect.

Of course, there might be other explanations such as improved awareness among the public of security issues and identity theft and the like as well as more effective and so protective software and security systems on putative targets of cybercrime including as email phishing attacks on bank account, for example. He also points out that cybercrime is much bigger “business” than it ever was and petty activity may well have been subsumed by much bigger crime organisations. Nevertheless, the inverse CSI effect stands out as a plausible explanation of changes in cyber crime activity over the last few years. In conclusion, Overill suggests that the TV and movie viewing habits of incarcerated criminals perhaps intent on self-education ought to be monitored closely with a view to understanding how behaviour might be “adjusted” following their release.

“The ‘inverse CSI effect’: further evidence from e-crime data” in Int. J. Electronic Security and Digital Forensics, 2013, 5, 81-89

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Int. J. of Intelligent Information and Database Systems to publish expanded papers from ACIIDS 2014

Expanded versions of papers presented at the 6th Asian Conference on Intelligent Information and Database Systems (7-9 April 2014, Bangkok, Thailand) will be published by the International Journal of Intelligent Information and Database Systems.

Int. J. of Entrepreneurship and Small Business to publish expanded papers from IECER

Expanded versions of papers presented at the 12th Annual Interdisciplinary European Conference on Entrepreneurship Research (12-14 February 2014, Chur, Switzerland) will be published by the International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business.

Call for papers: "Localisation and Positioning for Healthcare Applications"

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

Accurate localisation and positioning are becoming increasingly important for a wide range of applications including healthcare applications. Conventional localisation techniques are not suitable for healthcare due to the mobility and dynamics of patients. In addition, these techniques do not provide immediate, secure and accurate positioning information of patients in life-critical situations.

There is an urgent need to develop novel localisation and positioning techniques for healthcare applications, which must be able to accurately locate patients during abnormal circumstances. For example, these novel techniques may be able to interact with body area networks in order to locate patients who are expecting a heart attack.

Also, recent advances in cloud computing, including cloud storage, cloud database, and cloud collaboration, offer tremendous opportunities for patient localisation. By leveraging the opportunities and advantages offered by cloud computing, cloud-assisted localisation has the potential to revolutionise localisation and promises a new era of localisation in healthcare applications.

This special issue invites present research and review articles in order to promote research activities on localisation and positioning for healthcare applications. Original analytical, experimental and systems-related papers on the theme will be considered.

Topics include but are not limited to:

• Cloud-assisted data processing, mining and fusion for patient localisation
• Mobile cloud computing for patient localisation
• Social network-based localisation of patients
• Network architectures and protocols for patient localisation
• Intelligent medical devices and sensors for localisation
• Hardware and software of localisation for healthcare (RFID, IMU, smartphones, etc.)
• Simulations and test-bed implementations

Important Dates

Paper submission due: 21 August, 2014 (extended)

Call for papers: "Globalisation Processes of European SMEs: Trends and New Challenges"

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

In an increasingly globalised market environment, there is an impetus for many firms to look to foreign markets in order to maintain competitive advantage. Over recent years it’s possible to see dramatic changes that have strong impacts on all businesses. In fact, the push to engage in international development is imperative (Rossi, 2008) and even small and medium enterprises (SMEs) feel the need to extend their business activity beyond conventional local markets.

Moreover, in spite of the evolution of globalisation, it would seem that competition is equally played out more and more between geographic areas and their ability to guarantee certain operating conditions for enterprises. On the basis of these statements, internationalisation choices become more and more complex, particularly for smaller enterprises that wish to extend their own activity beyond the domestic market.

We invite contributions to this special issue, which aims at exploring the dynamics of SMEs’ entrepreneurship in the globalised economy. The goal of the special issue is to collect a number of valuable papers analysing the various aspects of SMEs’ strategic organisational and technological innovations.

The issue will carry revised and substantially extended versions of selected papers presented at the 6th EuroMed Conference 2013 (23-25 September, 2013, Estroil, Portugal), but we also strongly encourage researchers unable to participate in the conference to submit articles for this call.

Topics include but are not limited to:

• Strategy and organisation of European SMEs
• New business models for European SMEs
• European small businesses in a changing environment
• Globalisation in European family businesses
• Change of values in small businesses
• New venture creation and venture capital for European SMEs
• Small business finance and accounting
• Intra-national networks of SEMs

Important Dates
Submission deadline: 8 January, 2014

Call for papers: "Advanced Technologies for Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPANs)"

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

At present, the home entertainment networking market is growing fast. Interoperability of consumer applications such as digital cameras, digital video disk (DVD) players, digital cable, satellite TV, broadband internet access, etc. has created a need for reliable short-range high-throughput data links.

 

The trend of wireless personal area networks (WPANs) has evolved as a networking paradigm with a number of distinguishing attributes. Significant research efforts in wireless connectivity have related to appropriate methods that enable wireless networks to achieve high performance; WPANs stand out at the centre of this. A WPAN is a personal area network – a network for interconnecting devices centred on an individual person's workspace – in which the connections are wireless.

 

Typically, a wireless personal area network uses some technology that permits communication within about 10 metres, such as Bluetooth, which was used as the basis for a new standard, IEEE 802.15. A WPAN could serve to interconnect all ordinary computing and communicating devices that many people have on their desks or carry with them, or could serve a more specialised purpose such as allowing a surgeon and other team members to communicate during an operation.

 

The technology for WPANs is in its infancy and is undergoing rapid development. The objective is to facilitate seamless operation among home or business devices and systems. Every device in a WPAN will be able to plug into any other device in the same WPAN, provided they are within physical range of one another. In addition, WPANs worldwide will be interconnected. A WPAN could be employed for both low-data-rate and high-data rate communications.

 

The aim of this special issue is to present recent original advances in enabling technologies for WPANs. Both theoretical and practical papers are solicited on the following related aspects: algorithms, system design, performance analysis and experimental studies.

 

Subject Coverage

Topics include but are not limited to:

• PHY, MAC and network layer issues in WPAN
• Multiple antenna technology in WPAN
• Ultra-wideband (UWB) technology in WPAN
• Cognitive radio technology in WPAN
• Wireless body area networks (WBANs)
• IEEE 802.15.3 standard
• IEEE 802.15.4 standard
• ECMA-368 standard
• WiMedia: second generation PHY and MAC
• Spectrum policy and regulations
• New applications of WPAN
• Market analysis of WPAN

Important Dates

Manuscript submission: 31 December, 2013

Acceptance notification: 15 February, 2014

Final manuscript submission: 30 April, 2014

Converting Facebook users into ethical shoppers

UK retailing giants should be doing more to harness the power of online social networking sites to spread the message of sustainable consumerism, according to a paper due to be published this month in the peer-reviewed research journal World Review of Entrepreneurship, Management and Sustainable Development.

Peter Jones of The Business School at the University of Gloucestershire, and colleagues there and at the University of Glamorgan, have explored the extent to which the top ten retailers in the UK – Tesco, J. Sainsbury, Asda, Wm. Morrison, Co-operative Group, Kingfisher, Marks & Spencer, DSG International, John Lewis and Home Retail Group, utilise sites, such as Facebook for marketing and customer engagement. They have found that all leading retailers have a presence on this site but their activities are primarily aimed at marketing and sales promotion, as one might expect. Jones and colleagues point out that any ethical commentary or materials regarding issues such as climate change and sustainability or attempts to develop engagement with consumers on such issues is “very limited”.

The researchers point out that these leading retailers are missing an important opportunity. Given that public concerns about climate change, the availability and security of resources and waste disposal are on the increase, there is an opportunity for such organisations to utilise social networking sites to encourage more sustainable, ethical shopping behaviour. This, of course, runs counter to the business mantra of “sell, sell, sell”. However, those companies that adopt such practices early will likely reap the benefits in the long-term as they become increasingly perceived as having high ethical standards and as such will sustain customer loyalty as such issues become more pressing.

Large retailers have a pivotal role to play in promoting sustainability and in encouraging more sustainable patterns of consumption as we face what some observers have described as ‘an emerging ecological crisis,’ the team concludes.

“Sustainability: UK retailers and social media” in World Review of Entrepreneurship, Management and Sustainable Development, 2013, 9, 460-474

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

Expanded versions of papers presented at the International Conference on Safe and Sustainable Nanotechnology (14-17 October 2014, Phitsanulok, Thailand) will be published by the International Journal of Environment and Waste Management.

Int. J. of Electronic Security and Digital Forensics to publish expanded papers from ICGS3 2013

Expanded versions of papers presented at the 9th International Conference on Global Security, Safety and Sustainability (4-6 December 2013, London, UK) will be published by the International Journal of Electronic Security and Digital Forensics.

Inderscience journals to publish expanded papers from 11th GABER Conference

Expanded versions of papers presented at the 11th International Conference of the Global Academy of Business & Economic Research (12-13 March 2014, Sheraton Laguardia East Hotel, New York, USA) will be published by the following journals:

• American Journal of Finance and Accounting
• International Journal of Behavioural Accounting and Finance
• International Journal of Business and Emerging Markets
• International Journal of Business Forecasting and Marketing Intelligence
• International Journal of Human Resources Development and Management

Call for papers: "Business Continuity and Risk Management in China"

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

China has been maintaining steady growth in the last thirty years despite the fact that management has not been sufficient to support business continuity in China. However, many risks have begun to affect business operations in China, especially in the last five years. This growing phenomenon calls for more research on risk management in Chinese businesses as well as business environment studies in China.

Authors are invited to submit research focusing on organisational resiliency through risk assessment, contingency planning, systems security, crisis and disaster management and recovery planning, as well as public policy regarding infrastructure and security in China. Decision making using a multidisciplinary approach is highly desired. The goal is to prepare a reference issue for managing business risk in China.

Topics include but are not limited to:

• Professional practices of business continuity
• Infrastructure crisis, public policy
• Risk management, decision technology
• Natural resources, environmental threats
• Crisis leadership, organisational resiliency
• Enterprise risk management
• Crisis management information systems
• Homeland security/organisational threats
• Systems security for business resiliency
• Crisis communications, disaster recovery
• Natural, technological, industrial and terrorism events
• Governance, risk, regulatory compliance
• Software, training, awareness
• Successful public-private partnerships
• Modelling, visualisation, agents, simulation, gaming 

Important Dates

Submission of manuscripts: 1 September 2014
Final drafts of papers: 1 January 2015

Inderscience journals to publish expanded papers from ERPBSS 2013

Expanded versions of papers presented at the Second International Conference on Emerging Research Paradigms in Business and Social Sciences (26-28 November 2013, Dubai UAE) will be published by the following journals:

• International Journal of Business and Globalisation
• International Journal of Strategic Business Alliances
• World Review of Entrepreneurship, Management and Sustainable Development

Inderscience journals to publish expanded papers from 10th GABER Conference

Expanded versions of papers presented at the Tenth International Conference of the Global Academy of Business & Economic Research (29-30 December 2013, Sheraton Diera Dubai Hotel, Dubai) will be published by the following journals:

• American Journal of Finance and Accounting
• International Journal of Behavioural Accounting and Finance
• International Journal of Business and Emerging Markets
• International Journal of Business Forecasting and Marketing Intelligence
• International Journal of Human Resources Development and Management

Call for papers: "Six Sigma in Education"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Six Sigma and Competitive Advantage.
The aim of this special issue is to contribute to the existing body of knowledge and provide new insights/perspectives on the application of Six Sigma in academia.

Prospective authors are encouraged to employ a variety of methods utilising Six Sigma in academic settings through theoretical and empirical research investigations. This issue is targeted for academics in the areas of quality, Six Sigma and continuous improvement.

Topics include but are not limited to:

• Development of six sigma curricula
• Academic programme improvement using six sigma tools
• Project-based learning using six sigma methodology
• Approaches for teaching six sigma
• Methodologies for developing community partnerships for teaching six sigma
• Redesigning curricula using design for six sigma
• Measuring programme effectiveness using six sigma
• Other related topics

Important Dates
Submission of manuscripts: 30 September, 2014
Notification to authors: 1 November, 2014
Final versions due: 31 January, 2015

Int. J. of Technology Marketing Editor receives scientific award

At this year's XXIV British International Society for Professional Innovation Management (ISPIM) Conference, which was themed "Innovating in Global Markets: Challenges for Sustainable Growth" and which took place 16-19 June in Helsinki, Finland, Prof. Dr. Alexander Brem was awarded with the Scientific Panel Contribution Award 2013. The annual Scientific Panel Award is made to the member of the panel, which consists of more than 120 members, who has provided the best scientific input. Together with Prof. Éric Viardot, Prof. Brem is Co-Editor of the International Journal of Technology Marketing.

Call for papers: "Methods of Determining Structural Damage in Engineering Structures"

For a special issue of the Int. J. of Lifecycle Performance Engineering.

Structural damage can be considered as weakening of a structure which negatively affects its performance in supporting loadings and which could cause undesirable stresses, displacements or vibrations on the structure. In all cases damage can severely affect safety and serviceability of the structure. There are many examples all over the world of structures that were affected by structural damage including, in some cases, those resulting in complete collapse with many people injured.

Consequently, structural monitoring and damage detection are areas of current interest in civil, mechanical and aerospace engineering. Visual inspection has been the most common method used in detecting damage in a structure. However, the increasing size and complexity of structures in recent decades has reduced the efficiency of the visual inspections. Moreover, visual inspection techniques are inadequate for structures in which the damage is invisible to human eyes.

In recent years, localised experimental procedures were developed, such as the rebound hammer test, acoustic or ultrasonic methods, magnetic field methods, radiographs, eddy-current and thermal field methods. Global monitoring techniques based on changes in vibration characteristics or on structural responses of structures are also being analysed.

This special issue aims to bring together a state-of-the-art representation of recent advances in the methods of determining structural damage in engineering structures. By sharing experiences in the successes, challenges and pros and cons in the development and implementation of various techniques, it also hopes to promote the best practice in performing competent detection of structural damage for both investigative and professional purposes.

Topics include but are not limited to:

• Structural health monitoring
• Non-destructive testing (NDT) methods
• System identification
• Vibration-based methods: natural frequencies, modes of vibration, damping, etc.
• Laboratory and field testing
• Numerical simulation and modelling
• Lifecycle performance of structures
• Degradation and aging of structural materials
• Studies of causes of structural damage: corrosion, fatigue, etc. 

Important Dates
Submission of manuscripts: 30 September, 2013
Notification to authors: 30 December, 2013
Final versions due: 28 February, 2014

Inderscience is media partner for Oil and Gas Cyber Security

Inderscience is a media partner for Oil and Gas Cyber Security (25-26 November 2013, London, UK).

The journals involved are:

• International Journal of Critical Infrastructures
• International Journal of Electronic Security and Digital Forensics
• International Journal of Information and Computer Security
• International Journal of Security and Networks

Special issue: "Business Model Innovation"

International Journal of Product Development 18(3/4) 2013

• An explorative model of business model scalability
• The 4I-framework of business model innovation: a structured view on process phases and challenges
• Business model innovation from an open systems perspective: structural challenges and managerial solutions
• Business model innovation in the aviation industry
• Retaining fit between business models and product market strategies in changing environments

Additional Paper

• Learning by decomposition and recombination in technological catching-up: a case study of a Chinese leading air separator system manufacturer, 1978-2008

Call for papers: "Change Management in the Big Data Era"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Information Systems and Change Management.
The massive accumulation of information known as big data – 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are created every day – has brought benefits and competitive advantages to many businesses. However, it has also presented new challenges in technology, management and social issues.

Big data calls for new models, data standards and data infrastructure and advanced business analytics tools. It also calls for new change management theory and practice dealing with increased security risks and privacy issues.

The special issue welcomes a multidisciplinary approach to change management from fields ranging from psychology, behaviour science, management science and decision sciences to information systems and computer science. Preference will be given to high-quality papers that have a firm grounding in scientific and theoretical foundations. Case study research is acceptable, although theoretical papers that bridge the gap between theory and practice are most welcome.

We encourage submission of high-quality papers addressing issues involving change and management of change in developing and managing big data analytics models, frameworks and sociological issues. Suitable topics include but are not limited to:

• Business strategies for the big data era
• Management of big data infrastructure
• New data standards
• Big data quality management
• Database management challenges: architecture, storage and user interface
• Big data search and mining
• Big data security, integrity and privacy standards and policies
• Intrusion detection
• Privacy threat of big data
• High-performance cryptography
• Big data visualisation
• Business analytics
• Big data in health informatics
• E-government

Important Dates
Full paper deadline: 20 February, 2014
Notification of acceptance and review results: 20 April, 2014
Revised submission deadline: 20 May, 2014
Notification of acceptance: 1 June, 2014
Final version deadline: 12 June, 2014

Special issue: "Semiconductors: Microstructure and Properties"

International Journal of Nanoparticles 6(2/3) 2013

Expanded versions of papers presented at the 11th Beam Injection Assessment of Microstructure of Semiconductors (BIAMS) Workshop.

• Scanning laser induced current measurements on silicon wafer with through silicon via structure
• Illuminated versus dark lock-in thermography investigations of solar cells
• Properties of Al-doped ZnO thin films grown by pulsed laser deposition on Si(100) substrates
• Interaction between a laser beam and semiconductor nanowires: application to the Raman spectrum of Si nanowires
• Annealing effect on photoluminescence properties of SiO2/SiNx coating
• Characterisation of TCO AZO/glass structures by spectroscopic ellipsometry
• Characteristics of Al-doped TiO2 thin films grown by pulsed laser deposition
• Evaluation of diameter effects of individual coaxial SiC/SiO2 nanowires on their acoustic parameters
• Ultraviolet MSM photodetector with fast response based on ZnO thin film
• Effect of annealing on the structural and optical properties of sputtered HfNx thin films
• TiO2 thin films studied by FTIR, AFM and spectroscopic ellipsometry
• Characterisation of ZnO thin films doped and co-doped grown by pneumatic spray pyrolysis
• Low energy electron irradiation effect on optical and electrical properties of InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well structures
• Electroluminescence properties of InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well light emitting diodes
• An EBIC model to describe two close grain boundaries in semiconductors
• Calculation of an n+pSi diode collection efficiency and comparison with experiments
• Physical modelling of carbon nanotube field effect transistor
• Effect of the surface recombination and the depletion region on the electron beam induced current at a Schottky nanocontact
• Investigation of ZnO nanostructures: effect of metal and spinning speed on the physical properties
• Microstructure and opto-electrical properties of SnO2:In2O3 alloys thin films prepared by ultrasonic spray
• Impact of the polysilicon doping level and thermal oxidation on the properties of P-MOS capacitor structures