Special issue: Considerations of design process features for methodological enhancements of product design

International Journal of Product Development 15(1-3) 2011

Papers from the International Symposium on Tools and Methods of Competitive Engineering (TMCE 2010) held in Ancona, Italy, 12-16 April 2010.

• A generalised framework to compass and to support complex product engineering processes
• Methodological enhancements for concept exploration in product design
• The use of methods by advanced beginner and expert industrial designers in non-routine situations: a quasi-experiment
• Balancing trust and knowledge protection in inter-organisational product design collaboration
• Supporting virtual teamwork in Collaborative Product Development
• Engineering 2.0: an approach to support cross-functional teams in overcoming knowledge-sharing barriers in PSS design
• Capturing constraint evolution: a technique to preserve and handle design knowledge

Special issue: Organisational identity and the business environment: achieving dynamic equilibrium

International Journal of Business Environment  4(4) 2011

• Organisational identity and the business environment: the strategic connection
• Integrating competitor identification and organisational identity: a new framework of competitor sensemaking
• Incongruence between organisational identity, image and reputation: implications for corporate social responsibility
• From 'silicon steel' to 'iron lady': how a metal company's novel, responsible identity affects its business environment
• Brand communities: influencing organisations' identities and their perception of the business environment
• The emerging transnational dimension of organisational and individual identity: transnational technical communities as economic actors

First issue: International Journal of Social Computing and Cyber-Physical Systems

Dealing with the computational facilitation of social systems and the integration of computation with physical processes International Journal of Social Computing and Cyber-Physical Systems will publish papers in areas such as architecture, design, components, network analysis, security and novel applications.

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

First issue: International Journal of Instrumentation Technology

Presenting the latest developments in the field of engineering and automation technology International Journal of Instrumentation Technology publishes papers on modelling, simulation, design and implementation aspects of measurement and control technology.

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

Newly announced journal: International Journal of Diplomacy and Economy

Beginning publication in 2013 International Journal of Diplomacy and Economy is the first international journal devoted entirely to fostering and understanding issues interconnecting diplomacy and economy. It will deal with topics such as economic diplomacy, commercial diplomacy, export promotion, diplomacy and globalisation, NGOs and diplomacy, and financial diplomacy and the IMF, WB, OECD.

Call for Papers: Modelling of Integrated Production Systems

A special issue of International Journal of Logistics Economics and Globalisation

Increasing expectations of present day customers regarding the quality and variety of produced goods are becoming more and more critical on the market. With fast-changing tendencies in the market, the lifecycle of a product is constantly getting shorter, and the attention of manufacturers is slowly turning to competition and exploration of new markets in which to sell goods.

 All of this necessitates the introduction of changes to the organisation of production process, through the launch of automation, computer aid in design works and management, and the development of modern multi-stand machining and production systems. Production systems represent knowledge in the form of facts and rules, and there is almost always a sharp syntactic distinction between the two. The facts usually correspond to ground instances of logical formulas, i.e. they correspond to predicate symbols applied to constant expressions. A significant number of companies have incorporated closer integration of their customers with their production systems as a key part of their quest for competitiveness. To this end, companies are implementing various systems. Modelling of integrated production system is a current research trend and various researchers have started to contribute to this field.

 The main focus of this special issue is on the application of modelling and optimisation in solving various issues in integrated production systems. The issue will carry revised and substantially extended versions of selected papers presented at the International Conference on Modeling, Optimisation and Computing (ICMOC 2012) to be held on 10th and 11th April 2012 jointly organised by the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Noorul Islam University, India and the Management School, University of Sheffield, UK. However, we also strongly encourage researchers unable to participate in the conference to submit papers for this call.

Suitable topics include but are not limited to:

• Modelling and optimisation methods
• Mathematical models of technical systems
• Concepts of modelling technology
• Verbal and conceptual descriptions of discrete production systems
• Optimisation modelling and simulation of organisational and technological structures
• Operational planning and scheduling in production systems
• Algorithmic description of production systems
• Queuing systems
• Queuing networks
• Petri nets
• Mathematical modelling of production systems
• Performance analysis
• Bottleneck identification and elimination
• Continuous improvement by workforce and buffer capacity reallocation
• Lean buffering design
• Product quality, rework, and quality inspection
• Customer demand satisfaction
• Transients of production lines
• Industrial systems configurations
• Industrial production processes classification
• Performance measures and analysis of production systems
• Process production plants
• Industrial production systems: fabrication
• Group technology
• Industrial production systems: assembly
• Material flow analysis
• TOC in manufacturing systems
• Dynamics of manufacturing systems
• Measuring variability of manufacturing processes
• Taming turbulences in manufacturing systems

Important Dates
Manuscript submission: 1 July, 2012
Notification of initial decision: 1 August, 2012
Submission of revised manuscript: 1 September, 2012
Notification of final acceptance: 1 October, 2012
Submission of final revised paper: 1 November, 2012

Special issue: Planning and sustainability

International Journal of Sustainable Society 3(4) 2011

Papers from the UK–Ireland Planning Research Conference held in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, 1-3 April 2009.

• Understanding power dynamics in the planning process: the case of a retail development in Glasgow, Scotland
• A new understanding of formal land use plans in Germany
• Climate change adaptation in British Columbia communities: lessons for planners
• The fluidity of social sustainability in spaces of movement: the case of the art stations in Naples, Italy
• The changing focus of England’s Community Forest programme and its use of a green infrastructure approach to multi-functional landscape planning

Special issue: Corporate responsibility, sustainability and stewardship within sport

International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing 10(1/2) 2011

• Corporate philanthropy toward the community and organisational commitment in the fitness sector
• Impact of congruence in cause marketing campaigns for professional sport organisations
• NASCAR-related philanthropy and the distilled spirits sponsor category
• Toward a framework for understanding Black male athlete social responsibility (BMASR) in big-time American sports
• Social effectiveness and sport personnel: the impact of athlete political skill and influence tactics on sport organisation CSR reputation and consumer advocacy intentions
• Corporate social responsibility (CSR) communications in the G-25 football clubs
• Recycling intentions among youth baseball spectators
• Impact of green stadium initiatives on donor intentions toward an intercollegiate athletic programme
• CSR and water management in the sport sector: a research agenda

Special issue: Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)

International Journal of Ad Hoc and Ubiquitous Computing 8(4) 2011

• Implementation of terminal middleware platform for mobile RFID computing
• Using RFID for tracing cumulated resources and emissions in supply chain
• A novel Threat Evaluation method for privacy-aware system in RFID
• LOVINA: Location-aware Virtual Navigation system based on active RFID
• Parallel Splitting for RFID tag anti-collision
• A novel software-radio-defined passive RFID reading system with real-time collision resolution

Call for Papers: Engine System Design and Powertrain Integration

A special issue of International Journal of Powertrains

Modern emission and fuel economy regulations and increasing customer demands require more integrated engine/powertrain system design approaches to handle product optimisation, among different attributes (e.g. emissions, fuel consumption, NVH, power density, transient response, acceleration performance, alternative fuels capability, thermo-mechanical durability, wear, packaging and cost) and subsystems/components.

This special issue aims to address theories and applications in the field of on-road or off-road engines/powertrains.

Topics of interest include but are not limited to:

•  System durability/reliability prediction or analysis of engines and vehicles
•  Engine-vehicle integration and system integration processes
•  Diesel engines after treatment and vehicle integration with focus on system-level modelling
•  Powertrain cooling in system integration
•  Diesel engine air system design and analysis (e.g. turbocharging, EGR systems, valvetrain and manifolds)
•  Engine/powertrain controls with focus on analytical engine controller design or virtual sensors/sensing
•  Diesel engine/powertrain transient performance and calibration with focus on engine air system controls and OBD, or steady-state and transient calibrations

 Important Dates
 Submission deadline: 31 March, 2012
 Completion of first review: 30 June, 2012 (tentative)
 Submission of revised paper: 31 July, 2012 (tentative)
 Completion of final review: 30 September, 2012 (tentative)
 Final manuscript submission: 31 October, 2012 (tentative)

Call for Papers: Advancements in the Modelling and Optimisation of Complex Problems

A special issue of International Journal of Enterprise Network Management

Modelling and optimisation is an important area in intelligent computing, and is an active research field. Revitalisation of earlier methods due to the availability of high performance computing and novel optimisation methodologies, as well as continuing demands for solving complex problems, fierce competition and cutting edge profit margins in manufacturing and business sectors are the primary reasons that this subject area is a highly demanded topic for researchers.

 The goal of this special issue is to provide an open forum in which researchers and practitioners can discuss recent developments in modelling and optimisation methods for intelligent computing in various disciplines of engineering.

 The issue’s main objective focuses on the application of modelling and optimisation in solving various issues in the manufacturing and services industries. The issue will carry revised and substantially extended versions of selected papers presented at the International Conference on Modelling, Optimisation and Computing (ICMOC 2012) to be held on 10th and 11th April 2012, jointly organised by Noorul Islam University’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, India, and the University of Sheffield’s Management School, UK ). However, we also encourage other researchers to submit their papers to this Special Issue.

 Suitable topics include but are not limited to:

•  Modelling and optimisation methods
•  Non-convex programming
•  Global optimisation
•  Semi-definite programming
•  Semi-infinite programming
•  Multi-criteria optimisation
•  Graph algorithms
•  Large-scale nonlinear programming
•  Mathematical programs with equilibrium constraints
•  Robust optimisation
•  Logic constraints programming
•  Constraint satisfaction
•  Agent-based simulation
•  Analytical and stochastic modelling techniques and applications
•  Applied mechanics
•  Artificial intelligence
•  Device simulation and modelling
•  Fuzzy techniques
•  Genetic algorithms and evolutionary control
•  Industrial automation
•  Intelligent systems
•  Machine vision
•  Mathematical and numerical methods in simulation and modelling
•  Neural nets
•  System dynamics and simulation

 Important Dates
 Manuscript submission:  1 July, 2012
 Notification of initial decision:  1 August, 2012
 Submission of revised manuscript:  1 September, 2012
 Notification of final acceptance:  1 October, 2012
 Submission of final revised paper:  1 November, 2012

Call for Papers: Global Study of Culture, Food Practices, and Health

A special issue of International Journal of Food Safety, Nutrition and Public Health 

Food choices and eating habits vary across cultures and societies. What people choose to eat or not eat, how they obtain and prepare food, and when they eat differ widely from culture to culture and from region to region.

 Food choices and eating habits – considered by many social scientists as resulting from learned collective behaviours – reflect the core values and norms of a cultural group. In many ethno-religious communities, for instance, people believe that certain types of food have medical qualities and use the food to promote health and cure disease.

Thus, food cultures and their health implications deserve serious research from interdisciplinary perspectives. Studying the nutrition and health issues of a wide range of cultural and population groups has become increasingly important as transnational migration flows continue to spread traditional food cultures and create new trends in food cultures around the globe.

This special issue focuses on the role of culture in influencing eating habits, attitudes towards food, and health outcomes. It invites research papers from across disciplines and from around the world.

Suitable topics include but are not limited to:

•  Mapping diverse food cultures
•  Trends in food cultures in global or regional processes
•  New developments in theoretical perspectives
•  Impacts of culture on eating habits and health outcomes
•  Comparative studies of food cultures
•  Policy implications of global study of food cultures

Important Date
Submission deadline: 1 October, 2012

Call for Papers: Digital Human Modelling for Vehicle Design and Manufacturing

A special issue of International Journal of Human Factors Modelling and Simulation

Digital human modelling (DHM) has today matured from research into industrial application. In the automotive domain, DHM has become a commonly used tool in virtual prototyping and human-centred product design. While this generation of DHM supports the ergonomic evaluation of new vehicle design during early design stages of the product, by modelling anthropometry, posture, motion or predicting discomfort, the future of DHM will be dominated by CAE methods, realistic 3D design, and musculoskeletal and soft tissue modelling down to the micro-scale of molecular activity within single muscle fibres.

As a driving force for DHM development, the automotive industry has traditionally used human models in the manufacturing sector (production ergonomics, e.g. assembly) and the engineering sector (product ergonomics, e.g. safety, packaging). In product ergonomics applications, DHM share many common characteristics, creating a unique subset of DHM. These models are optimised for a seated posture, interface to a vehicle seat through standardised methods and provide linkages to vehicle controls. As a tool, they need to interface with other analytic instruments and integrate into complex CAD/CAE environments.

 Important aspects of current DHM research are functional analysis, model integration and task simulation. Digital (virtual, analytic) prototypes or digital mock-ups (DMU) provide expanded support for testing and verification and consider task-dependent performance and motion. Beyond rigid body mechanics, soft tissue modelling is evolving to become standard in future DHM.

 When addressing advanced issues beyond the physical domain, for example anthropometry and biomechanics, modelling of human behaviours and skills is also integrated into DHM. Latest developments include a more comprehensive approach through implementing perceptual, cognitive and performance models, representing human behaviour on a non-physiologic level. Through integration of algorithms from the artificial intelligence domain, a vision of the virtual human is emerging.

 We invite papers that can demonstrate innovation in the area of digital human modelling (DHM) for automotive engineering. Topics of interest include but are not limited to:

•  Anthropometry and dynamic human shape modelling
•  Human functional data and their modelling
•  Task-related discomfort
•  Modelling of human reach and functional space
•  Modelling of cognitive processes and man-machine interaction
•  Kinematic and dynamic motion simulation
•  Occupant posture and comfort modelling
•  Modelling of hand and foot
•  Human vibration
•  Driver-seat interface
•  Modelling of musculo-skeletal activity
•  Soft tissue modelling
•  Task simulation
•  Human-in-the-loop modelling
•  System integration
•  Ingress/egress

Important Dates
Manuscript submission deadline:  30 March, 2012
Final submission of revised paper:  30 June, 2012

Newly announced journal: International Journal of Computational Complexity and Intelligent Algorithms

Beginning publication in 2013 International Journal of Computational Complexity and Intelligent Algorithms aims to become a leader in the exciting field of computational intelligence theory and its applications, with an emphasis on analysis and measurement of computational complexity. A wide range of intelligent methodologies and techniques, including intelligent algorithms of computation, optimisation, control and system theory, will be covered.

Call for Papers: Model-based Control in Automotive Powertrains

A special issue of International Journal of Powertrains

Since electronic control was introduced to vehicular engines in the 1970s for substantial emissions reduction, modern cars are increasingly likely to be equipped with electronics in their engines, transmission, braking, etc. With the rapidly increasing complexity of vehicular powertrain systems, control technology becomes an enabling factor in the development of powertrain systems.

Model-based control was introduced and rapidly developed in recent years. Compared with traditional controller development, which is normally based on tunable PID or rule-based feed-forward control, model-based control holds the potential to dramatically reduce the calibration effort, and to meet increasingly stringent performance requirements.

This special issue is aimed at addressing the application of model-based control theory and technology in the field of automotive powertrains.

Topics of interest include but are not limited to the following:

• Linear and non-linear controller design in automotive powertrain applications
• Linear and non-linear observer design in automotive powertrain applications
• Application of model predictive control and moving horizon estimation
• Model-based design in engine control systems, including EGR, VCT, VGT, GDI and HCCI
• Application of model-based design in fuel reduction and emission after treatment
• Model-based design for control systems of clutches, transmissions and brakes
• Model-based control in electric vehicles and hybrid vehicles, including the electric hybrid, hydraulic hybrid, and mechanical hybrid

Important Dates
Submission deadline: (before) 31 January, 2012
Completion of first review: 30 April, 2012 (tentative)
Submission of revised paper: 31 May, 2012 (tentative)
Completion of final review: 31 July, 2012 (tentative)
Final manuscript submission: 31 August, 2012 (tentative)

Special issue: Web, ontologies and information system engineering

International Journal of Reasoning-based Intelligent Systems 3(3/4) 2011

Papers from ICWIT 2010, the 3rd International Conference on Web and Information Technologies,  held in Marrakech, Morocco, 16-19 June 2010

• Semantic-based document management system
• MVP-OWL: a multi-viewpoints ontology language for the Semantic Web
• Learning resources granularity: a lever for the issue of adaptability in adaptive hypermedia systems
• Geographic metadata: data quality, uncertainty and imprecision
• ASTECH project: craft ontology and terminologies to share knowledge in renewable energies area across Europe
• Towards an MDA-based multi-agent system
• A model-driven approach to developing web service compositions based on BPMN4SOA
• Hybrid reasoning-based system for collaborative decision-making
• Recognition of the Arabic handwritten letters by the neural networks
• UML-based profiles for policy-aware web services

Special issue: Environmental improvement and pollution control by 3R (Reduce, Reuse and Recycle) technologies of electrical and electronic products

International Journal of Environmental Technology and Management 14(5/6) 2011

• Heavy metal leaching potential of discarded mobile phone wastes: a laboratory-based study
• Framework for eco-innovative design with application in low-voltage electric appliance industry
• An integrated modularity approach for green product development
• GP-based optimisation of product parameters of design alternatives to support life cycle design
• Sparse principal component analysis based sustainability assessment of EOL ICT service infrastructures
• Simulation research on the influence of stress relaxation on plastic IC delamination during scrapped PCB disassembly
• Application of FCE–AHP method for multi-criteria decision-making of municipal solid waste management alternatives: a case study in the Dalian Development Zone of China
• Computer waste management: a review on Indian initiatives
• Model and solution to the product disassembly sequence planning
• Achieving sustainability through product-service life cycle management

Special issue: Global business advancement and competitive advantage

Journal for Global Business Advancement  4(4) 2011

• The renaissance of Commandaria: a strategic branding prescriptive analysis
• Islamic banking: towards a model of corporate governance
• IInternationalisation of architectural firms from emerging economies: the Malaysian experience
• Building new competitive advantage through match between specific types of strategic flexibility and sourcing strategy
• Value configuration through value chain for competitive advantage
• Entrepreneurship as a global coordinator: the Li & Fung Group

Call for Papers: Semantic Web Usage in Collaborative Product Design and Developmen

A special issue of International Journal of Product Development 

Globalisation has influenced the way product design and development is handled. Today, both customers and business partners who are involved in product design and development are geographically dispersed. In order to design and develop products that satisfy customers from different cultural backgrounds, and companies that are subject to different laws, regulations and business objectives, techniques that enable input from all parties into design are required.

 In order to satisfy the needs of product design in global markets, a large body of interesting research studies has emerged under the title of collaborative product design and development. During the past two decades, information systems research has contributed significantly to collaborative product design and development issues. A number of methodologies such as virtual reality, teleconferencing, remote usability testing, real-time data exchange protocols and interactive simulations have been developed by researchers.

 Today, expectations from information systems technologies have shifted from a medium that enables communication between parties to solution production issues. Ontology-based product design and development, semantic web, data mining, text mining and autonomous asynchronous usability tests are some of the research topics that have potential to enable scientist to develop new technologies to help organisations to handle their collaborative product design and development challenges more effectively.

 Therefore, the aim of this thematic issue is to analyse trend-setting research in the semantic web-based remote collaborative product design and development field.

 Suitable topics include but are not limited to:

•  Information technology in collaborative product design
•  Semantic web in collaborative design
•  Ontology-based collaboration for product design
•  Asynchronous usability tests
•  Pattern recognition, data mining
•  Knowledge management in collaborative design
•  Intellectual property issues in collaborative design
•  Intelligent support systems for collaboration

Important Dates
Extended abstract submission (see below): 30 May, 2012
Manuscript submission deadline: 1 September, 2012
First notification to authors: 1 February, 2013
Second draft submission: 1 May, 2013
Final acceptance notification: 1 June, 2013

Special issue: Ambient sensing and intelligence for distributed pervasive applications

International Journal of Autonomous and Adaptive Communications Systems 4(4) 2011

• An ambient intelligence framework for large-scale eco-aware systems
• Wireless sensor network system for supporting nursing context-awareness
• Data stream mining for wireless sensor networks environment: energy efficient fuzzy clustering algorithm
• Dynamic parameter adjustment in a cognitive MAC protocol with transmission tax
• Securing RDS broadcast messages for smart grid applications