Special issue: Lean manufacturing

International Journal of Rapid Manufacturing 1(3) 2010

• Lean manufacturing in the screw cutting sector: assessment of maturity level
• A double neural network approach for the automated detection of quality control chart patterns
• Quantifying lean construction effects: a discrete system simulation approach
• A conceptual framework to excogitate agile from lean transformation
• Scope for lean implementation: a survey of 127 Indian industries
• A robust optimisation approach for the milk run problem with time windows with inventory uncertainty: an auto industry supply chain case study
• Creating lean suppliers: an empirical study of adopting lean manufacturing in supply chains
• New approaches for online visual inspection of products with multiple-characteristics and known tolerances

Special issue: Modelling approaches for the management of environmental pollution

International Journal of Environment and Pollution 42(1-3) 2010

• Pollution abatement for improving air quality of Tangshan municipality, China: a perspective of urban-airshed carrying-capacity concept
• Air contaminants modelling by use of several receptor-oriented models
• Effects of meteorological conditions on concentration of air pollutants in Delhi
• Application of The Air Pollution Model (TAPM) to the urban airshed of Bangkok, Thailand
• Uncertainty adjustments to deterministic atmospheric dispersion models
• Interval-fuzzy possibilistic mixed integer linear programming for environmental management under uncertainty
• Chemical and physical properties of rice straw waste and hospital sewage sludge in turned windrow aeration system
• Study on primary metabolites and possible biodegradation pathways of nonylphenol
• Applications of numerical simulation to the sedimentation in the Sanmenxia reservoir and the Lower Yellow River
• Analysis of relationships between NDVI and climatic/hydrological parameters in the Yellow River basin
• Examining social-economic factors in spatial and temporal change of water quality in red soil hilly region of South China: a case study in Hunan Province
• Integrated 3D physical-numerical modelling for simulating bioremediation of petroleum contamination in heterogeneous subsurface environment
• A fuzzy multi-criteria decision analysis approach for the management of petroleum-contaminated sites
• A simple method to check for natural attenuation downstream of abandoned waste disposal sites
• Optimal solute transport in heterogeneous aquifer: coupled inverse modelling
• Integrated fuzzy framework to incorporate uncertainty in risk management

Special issue: Wireless networking technologies

International Journal of Wireless and Mobile Computing 4(3) 2010

• Small-world effects in wireless agent sensor networks
• Programmable agents for efficient topology formation of Bluetooth scatternets
• A Bluetooth routing protocol supporting minimum average transmission latency
• An interaction model for QoS support in ad hoc networks connected to fixed IP networks
• A routing-profitable MAC protocol for Mobile Ad Hoc Networks
• A server selection algorithm for group mobility
• Modelling synchronisation of a coordination system
• Speeding-up information retrieval with the employment of a multi-agent system
• Agents in Service-Oriented Wireless Sensor Networks
• A framework of online chain store integrated with personalised recommendation for e-commerce
• On the architecture of Authentication, Authorisation, and Accounting for real-time secondary market services

Call for papers: Automotive Mechatronics: Innovations in Design, Analysis and Implementation

A special issue of International Journal of Vehicle Design

The electrical and electronic control systems associated with modern vehicles are characterised by a series of networked propriety solutions. Individual control units interact with one another in order to deliver the required functions of the vehicle. The traditional model within the automotive industry is for the vehicle manufacturer to outsource the development of a complete system to a supplier. This activity may include both the development of the controller functionality and its subsequent software implementation. The manufacturer then primarily acts as the systems integrator for the vehicle. The high levels of system complexity and interconnectivity found in today’s automotive applications brings into doubt the long-term viability of this strategy.

Software-intensive electronic control systems are widely seen as the enabling technology for a number of the safety, driver assistance, infotainment and powertrain features of new vehicles. However, within the automotive sector, there are strong commercial drivers to re-use and extend existing software-based legacy systems. This fact, coupled with the traditional mechanically-orientated view of the design and verification processes still adopted by many vehicle manufacturers in which their internal structure reflects the major vehicle domains, leads to the hardware and software design elements of the same system often being undertaken in a highly decoupled manner.

This development approach has resulted in the creation of unnecessarily complex automotive systems in which maintainability and extendibility are a significant challenge. The increasing demand for mechatronics and vehicle electrification, including the introduction of hybrid powertrains, requires the reunification of these decoupled engineering activities. Automotive mechatronics addresses these challenges by naturally changing the current mechanically-oriented view of the vehicle to a unified mechatronic system view. Within a mechatronics approach, the electromechanical systems, including their control algorithms and software implementation, are designed as a single unit. Vehicle control options are investigated concurrently and are deemed to be an inherent part of the hardware and overall system design.

Papers are invited that can demonstrate the innovative application of automotive mechatronic design methods and principles. Topics of interest include, but are not restricted to, the application of:

• New mechatronic design processes for improved automotive system design
• Advanced vehicle control and multidisciplinary modelling to support the design of novel automotive mechatronic systems
• Novel analysis methods for improved non-functional attributes of mechatronic systems, such as reliability, safety, robustness and extendibility
• New methods for managing and reducing system complexity within automotive mechatronic design

Important Dates
Manuscript Submission Deadline: 31 March 2011
Reviewers' Reports and Decisions: 31 July 2011
Revised Manuscript Submission: 31 October 2011

Newly announced journal: International Journal of Mechatronics and Automation

To begin publication in 2011, International Journal of Mechatronics and Automation will is to provide an international forum to report the latest developments in mechatronics and industrial automation from interdisciplinary theoretical studies, computational algorithm development and practical applications. It particularly welcomes those emerging methodologies and techniques which bridge theoretical studies and applications and have significant potential for real-world applications.

Call for papers: The Effectiveness and Reform of Water Resource Research and Management

A special issue of International Journal of Water

Water resources around the world are under profound stress. Chronic water shortages and profound environmental despoliation appear to becoming worse, despite extraordinary public expenditures to rectify matters. The scale of national spending on research and programs to better understand the ecology and hydrology of the stressed water systems has been huge as has been the effort to improve the technical efficiency of existing use. International cooperation and expenditure on these perspectives has also been consequential.

Unfortunately, in the setting of such circumstances as rapid urbanization and industrialization as well as climate change, it appears to be the case that the traditional approaches of research and management are not working.

The first part of the Special issue will be focused on testing the proposition that the general current approaches of water resources research and management are not working, while the second part will be directed to improving the current approach if that is seen to be desirable and possible, or alternatively to articulating approaches which might actually achieve an improvement in water resource management.

Given the diverse range of questions and perspectives on both Issues, it is anticipated that the skills of a range of disciplines will be relevant here and contributions are canvassed widely without any disciplinary preconceptions. Generally, a priority will be given to work with a theoretical or methodological focus rather than to general case studies.

Part A. Special Issue on: Why Isn’t Water Research and Management Working?
The topics here could be broad and open ended, and potential contributors are asked to take the initiative with their analysis. The scope of contribution could be wide ranging from issues of defining the problems, appropriate research methodology, secondary research agendas, organizational priorities or political imperatives amongst others.

Part B. Special Issue on New Alternatives for Water Management and Research
Again the scope and topic range could be quite wide, with the reasonable expectation that any new alternatives should be methodologically coherent and amenable to general application both nationally and internationally.

Important Dates
Deadline for submission of proposals/abstracts or prospective papers: 1 October, 2010
Deadline for submission of completed papers: 28 February, 2011

Call for papers: Haptic and Audio-Visual Stimuli: Enhancing Experiences and Interaction

A special issue of International Journal of Autonomous and Adaptive Communications Systems

Multimodal stimulation is capable of creating strong effects on users, because the effects of the various stimuli can reinforce each other. This form of stimulation can be used to enhance entertainment experiences, as well as well-being and relaxation experiences. The causes of these strong effects and the exact relation to intensity, spatial distribution and timing of the stimuli are the subject of many investigations. One example application is using haptic and tactile actuator elements to provide the player of a game with a more thrilling experience. Linked to the visual and auditory information of the game, haptic stimuli are provided. Haptics combined with audicons are also often applied for enhancing applications in mobile (phone) systems. However, the effects of multimodal and cross-modal stimulation (involving haptics) on the user experience and on user interactions has not yet been thoroughly studied in the context of entertainment, well-being and relaxation applications.

In this special issue, we want to address the specific effects of combined (multi-sensory) stimuli. Topics we want to address range from the effect of mutual timing in audio, video and haptic stimuli, through actuator technologies, to how such "more than the sum of the elements" effects of multimodal stimuli are created in a user's perception and how to evaluate these experiences and perceptions. Our guiding hypothesis is that an optimal user experience will be obtained by taking into account human perception, careful personalization, and intelligent optimization. The latter should be based on both general knowledge of human perception, and on (measured or inferred) knowledge of the individual user. Research on human perception will provide information on the basic capabilities and limitations of individual modalities but also on how combined information processing in multiple modalities operates. To this end, we plan a number of papers on the technologies employed, the psychological and physiological sensitivities of people and the algorithms used to optimize the effect of multimodal stimuli. This Special Issue is a follow-up of a satellite workshop of the International Conference EuroHaptics 2010, held in Amsterdam in July 2010.

We are especially interested in applications in the field of consumer health, well-being, and entertainment. Topics which will be considered include but are not limited to:

• Audio, video and haptic stimulation
• Influence of temporal and spatial patterns of (haptic) stimuli
• Relaxation, easing the mind, comforting
• Intelligence and algorithms to optimize the user experience
• Interaction paradigms especially suited for these application areas
• Mediated social touch
• Personalized tactile feedback
• Tactile stimulation for entertainment

Important Dates
Abstract submission: 1 September, 2010
Deadline for submissions: 10 October, 2010
Date of confirmation: 15 November, 2010
Final paper due: 15 December, 2010

Call for papers: Managerial Issues in Mass Customisation

A special issue of International Journal of Mass Customisation

The traditional elicitation (dialogue with consumers to determine their preferences), process flexibility (the ability to produce small lot sizes efficiently), and logistics systems (that direct the flow of goods and information among a manufacturer and its suppliers) currently used by companies will need to be significantly changed as firms adopt mass customisation.

This special issue explores strategic and implementation issues relating to mass customisation of products and/or services. Among the topics covered are the potential benefits, the infrastructure requirements, necessary marketing strategy revisions, and the pitfalls that can accompany a mass customisation strategy. This information will better enable a manager to evaluate and develop a mass customisation strategy. As such, research papers with an applied basis will be particularly welcome. All submissions must reflect an international orientation in terms of examples as well as references.

Potential contributions may include but are not limited to:

• A cost/benefit analysis of mass customisation
• Components of successful mass customisation system strategies
• Managerial issues in transitioning from mass production to mass customisation
• Supply chain management issues relating to mass customisation
• IT issues relating to mass customisation
• Logistics issues relating to mass customisation
• Purchasing and sourcing decisions associated with mass customised products
• Location and capacity decisions associated with mass customisation
• Mass customisation and quality management
• Inventory management issues relating to mass customisation
• Pricing issues relating to mass customisation
• Designing an elicitation system for mass customisation
• Integrated marketing communications issues of mass customisation
• Case studies of successful mass customisation implementations
• Mass customisation and/or design for global product/service offerings
• Mass customisation and/or design for services
• Mass customisation and/or design for B2B products/services

Important date
Deadline for submission: 15 January, 2011.

Call for papers: Applications of Ultra WideBand Technology in Healthcare

A special issue of International Journal of Ultra Wideband Communications and Systems

The medical care is increasingly associated with and reliant upon concepts of and advances in electronics and electromagnetics. Recent technological advances in sensors, low-power microelectronics, miniaturization, and wireless networking have enabled the design and proliferation of wireless body area networks capable of autonomously monitoring and controlling different applications.

One of the most promising applications of body area networks is for human health monitoring. A number of tiny wireless sensors, strategically placed on/in the human body, create a wireless body area network that can monitor various vital signs, providing real-time feedback to the user and medical personnel. Communications from in-body implants and on-body sensors will allow for better diagnoses and improve therapy. The wireless body area networks promise to revolutionize health monitoring.

Healthcare systems can be significantly improved with lower cost and higher quality of services by using ultra wideband new emerging technologies. These benefits and impacts have fuelled increasing interest from the public and have attracted significant support and investment from government, industrial and academic researchers. Challenges facing the UWB wireless communications in healthcare systems include:

• the design of architectures among wireless communications for supporting secure and
• reliable signal propagation with low network latency;
• channel modelling and RF and propagation close to body;
• waveform destruction due to body tissue;
• accurate indoor positioning; emergency response and detection;
• the need for privacy preservation of patients and
• the definition of healthcare policy and legal issues towards potential new applications.

This special issue aims for covering the state-of-the-art research on ultra wideband emerging wireless technologies and applications in healthcare, highlighting research challenges and open issues and bringing together researchers and medical professionals from academia, industry and government with the goal of fostering collaboration among them. Original, unpublished contributions and invited articles, reflecting those aspects of UWB communication research in healthcare, distinctly different from the wireless communication research in general, are encouraged.

The topics of interest for the special issue within the area of healthcare include, but are not limited to:

• UWB WBAN antennas
• WBAN channel modelling
• Field trials and measurements campaigns
• Media access control (MAC)
• Modulation and detection
• QoS provisioning
• Energy-efficient algorithms
• Middleware for enabling medical applications
• UWB sensors for remote diagnosis
• Mobile patient monitoring devices and systems
• Interactive and real-time WBAN systems and devices
• Interference and co-existence
• Security and privacy issues
• Policy and standardization
• Hardware architecture and implementation

Important Dates
Deadline for submission: 1 February, 2011
End of review process: 1 April, 2011
Deadline for final manuscript submission: 15 May, 2011

Special issue: Advanced knowledge environments

International Journal of Knowledge and Web Intelligence 1(3/4) 2010

• An ad-hoc unicursal protocol for stable and long-lived communication systems in disaster situations
• CAFE: Collaboration Aimed at Finding Experts
• Strategy-centred modelling for better understanding of learning/instructional theories
• Product retrieval based on semantic similarity of consumer reviews to natural language query
• Construction of linefeed insertion rules for lecture transcript and their evaluation
• Web-based lecture system using slide sharing for classroom questions and answers
• Evaluation of network construction exercise system LiNeS on the basis of heterogeneous and distributed virtual machine network composition function
• Construction of a learning environment for algorithm and programming where learners operate objects in a domain world
• Supporting real-time awareness for the community of runners

Special issue: E-technologies: innovations in an open world

International Journal of Electronic Business 8(3) 2010

Includes papers from the 4th International MCETECH Conference on e-Technologies (MCETECH 2009) held in Ottawa, Canada, 4-6 May 2009.

• Federated identity management to link and protect healthcare data
• Toward an aspect-oriented framework for business process improvement
• Integrating business strategies with requirement models of legal compliance
• Coordination mechanism design in supply chains using multi-behaviour agents

Special issue: Advances in computer-aided design and digital entertainment

International Journal of Computer Applications in Technology 38(1-3) 2010

• Dynamic clothing collision resolution using PSO
• A stylistic human motion editing system based on a subspace motion model
• Extraction and analysis of the speech emotion features based on multi-fractal spectrum
• Combining location and feature information for multimedia retrieval
• A new approach for texture classification in CBIR
• Proximity queries using separating bounding volumes
• A novel automatic motion capture data recognition method based on statistics learning and subspace
• A script engine for realistic human motion generation
• Content-based organisation, analysis and retrieval of soccer video
• A multi-scale triangular mapping and its applications in variation scale scrambling
• Real-time digitised shadow play performance method based on multi-point interactive controlling method
• A reactive and protective character motion generation algorithm
• Improve matching results for structure from motion problems
• An efficient simplification and real-time rendering algorithm for large-scale terrain
• Watermark-based digital fake image detection
• A two-stage multimodal speaker location-aware approach in pervasive computing
• Local resampling for patch-based texture synthesis in vector fields
• A 3D shape classifier with neural network supervision
• Semi-automated human body 3D animator
• Synthesis of cartoon fire based on hand-drawn samples
• A SaaSI: an approved architecture for SaaS service composition
• Facial expression recognition based on combined HMM
• Efficient reconstruction from architectural drawings
• Calibration and segmentation free 3D modelling from images based on GPU
• An interactive motion-editing method for human animation
• Contour recovery of tablet calligraphy characters
• Q-Cartoon: a novel cartoon creating system
• An emotion generation model based on random graphs
• Multi-chessboards localisation based on FCM and Radon transform algorithm
• A heuristic non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm-II for satellite-module layout optimisation

Call for papers: Variable Structure Systems in Automotive Applications

A special issue of International Journal of Vehicle Design

Over the last two decades a significant progress has been reached in the field of higher order sliding mode (SM) controllers and observers. These observers/controllers ensure the insensibility of the system with respect to matched smooth uncertainties/perturbations by use of absolutely continuous controllers. Moreover, higher order based sliding mode observers ensure the best possible asymptotic accuracy of the state observation and unknown inputs identification with respect to sampling step and deterministic bounded noises.

These are reasons why various researchers are starting to use the new techniques for the vehicle dynamics analysis and design. This special issue will join both theoretical results and laboratory experiments. Its objective is to present recent research concerning vehicle dynamics, covering dynamics observation (accelerations, side slip, forces estimation etc), parametric identification, risk prediction (rollover, jackknifing etc) and vehicle control (lane departure avoidance, steering control etc.) based on modern variable structures techniques (sliding mode observers, sliding mode observers based identification, sliding mode control).

The specific topics of interest within the scope of this Special Issue include (but are not limited to) the following technical areas:

• SM based vehicles parameters and forces estimation
• SM based control of automotive driver robots
• SM control of motor bicycles
• SM control of unicycles
• SM control of wheel slip
• SM control of heavy vehicles

Important Dates
Manuscript Submission Deadline: 30 October 2010
Reviewers' Reports and Decisions: 28 February 2011
Revised Manuscript Submission: 30 March 2011

Call for papers: The Role of Business Environment in Information Technology Managerial Decisions

A special issue of International Journal of Business Environment

Information technology (IT) has become a key functional area through which firms design new business processes and develop distinctive organizational capabilities. Some prior research has focused attention on analysis of the enabling role of IT in enhancing the value of several types of business processes (e.g., innovation) and on the development of higher-order process capabilities (e.g., knowledge management). However, less effort has been devoted to theoretically analyzing or empirically testing the role of firms’ environment in the IT decision-making process and in the generation of an IT-enabled competitive advantage.

It does not seem rational to think that the business value of these IT managerial decisions is generated in isolation and independently of the business environment surrounding a firm. Thus, like other functional decisions, IT decisions will be influenced by the business environment in which firms operate. In other words, the impact of IT decisions on both business processes and firm-level performance could be conditioned by the environmental circumstances that firms encounter. We believe that it is central for the strategy and information systems literatures to deepen and improve their knowledge of these circumstances.

This Special Issue seeks to disseminate high-quality research regarding the analysis of the role of business environment in the IT decision-making process and in the generation of competitive advantage enabled by IT. We hope to publish work that demonstrates better ways of understanding this stream of research and new advances in it. We welcome both theoretical and empirical investigations.

We expect that a variety of interesting research questions may be related to this Special Issue. Topics may include, but are not limited to, the following:

• The impact of environmental dynamism on IT investment decisions.
• The impact of the business environment on the generation of IT business value.
• The influence of the business environment on the generation of IT resources and capabilities.
• The role of IT in alignment with environmental change.
• The relationship between the business environment and IT strategic alignment.
• IT outsourcing decisions and the business environment.
• The influence of IT decisions on the implementation of environmental management, corporate social responsibility and ethical corporate practices.
• The role of IT in strategic alliances between business corporations.
• IT decisions, organizational learning and the business environment.
• New advances in the emerging IT-enabled organizational capabilities perspective.
• Other issues related to the role of business environment in IT managerial decisions.

Important Date
Deadline for submission: 31 August, 2011

Call for papers: Data Mining in Biomedicine

A special issue of International Journal of Data Mining, Modelling and Management

Data mining can be defined as the set of computational techniques that, given a complex problem, allow the transformation of the original data into information which can be easily assimilated. For this purpose, a series of techniques can be applied, such as data transformation (calculus), classification (contextualisation or categorisation), cluster analysis (categorisation), anomaly detection (correction), etc. These techniques allow understanding the data more easily (condensing or summarising the data).

One of the fields in which data mining is mostly being applied is biomedicine. Since the sequencing of the human genome in 2001, a large amount of data has been generated, this amount being increased every day. The improvements made in the existing technology (such as genome-wide association studies (GWAS), microarrays, mass spectrometry, etc.) generate a large amount of data from different organisms at different levels, starting from genomic or proteomic levels to epidemiological levels. The analysis of this data requires a change of paradigm. Thus, new computational data mining techniques are essential to analyse at a full extent all of these new information sources.

In this special issue, efforts in data mining in the biomedical field will be published as an attempt to approach this field from different perspectives. Thus, the papers contained in this special issue will be a representation of the latest data mining techniques or of the application of previously existing techniques to this field.

We welcome theoretical, empirical papers, and interesting case studies that are within the scope of this issue. The issue will contain invited papers and papers submitted directly as per instruction below. If the number of accepted papers is more than the need of the special issue, they could appear in a regular IJDMMM issue.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Intelligent information systems
• Knowledge representation, visualization and integration
• Knowledge discovery and data mining
• Association studies
• Image analysis

Important Dates
Submission due date of full paper: 2 May, 2011
Feedback from referees: 1 June, 2011
Submission due date of revised paper: 4 July, 2011
Notification of acceptance: 15 July, 2011
Submission of final revised paper: 30 July, 2010

First issue: International Journal of Computers in Healthcare

Covering research ideas and concepts in both computer science and artificial intelligence techniques in biomedicine and healthcare, International Journal of Computers in Healthcare focuses on articles that report novel approaches of wide healthcare significance in the areas of decision support systems, medical diagnosis, data mining, e-Health, knowledge management, information retrieval and text mining.

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

First issue: International Journal of Biomedical Nanoscience and Nanotechnology

Dealing with scientific and technological investigations of nanomaterials in biology and medicine, International Journal of Biomedical Nanoscience and Nanotechnology has an emphasis on their biomedical implications and impacts upon the biosphere.

There is a free download of the papers from this first issue - a special one on nanotoxicity.

Summer Highlights newsletter from Inderscience

Contents of the Summer Highlights:

• Newly published titles
• Newly announced titles
• Metaheuristics: highlighting good practice, by Dr. C.L. Mumford, Editor-in-Chief, International Journal of Metaheuristics
• Highlighting... the Entrepreneurship, Innovation and SMEs collection of 27 established and developing titles
• Calls for papers for Inderscience journal special issues
• Journal news
• Calls for papers for conferences and other events where Inderscience is a media partner or a publisher of selected papers.
• Papers in the press - those that have recently featured in the scientific and business, or national press

Call for papers: Learning in 3D

A special issue of International Journal of Technology Enhanced Learning

This special issue seeks to bring together research, from different perspectives, on a range of 3D technologies that may be used to enhance or support learning.

Suitable topics may relate to, but are not limited to, the use of a range of 3D technologies in enhancing learning:

• Virtual worlds
• Game-based learning
• Immersive simulation
• Augmented reality
• Cross and mixed-reality
• Assessment in 3D environments
• Pedagogies for TEL in 3D environments
• Communities of learners in 3D environments
• Standards and interoperability

Important Dates
Title and Abstract deadline (optional): 6 August 2010
Full paper submission deadline: 6 September 2010
Decision notification: 15 October 2010
Camera-ready version: 12 November 2010

Special issue: Distance education

International Journal of Applied Systemic Studies 3(2) 2010

• Distance learning standards: technologies and challenges
• Teaching computer data transfer principles through simulation and animation
• Self-learning support through access to related information on distributed VOD
• Mining test results to personalise and refine web-based courses
• An applicative distance education payment protocol
• A Smart Courseware System for distance education
• 3D Collaborative Virtual Environment based e-learning system
• Recommendation agent behaviour with Dynamic Fuzzy Petri Net in e-learning environment
• A systemic approach to virtual collaboration: developing collaboration rooms for secondary education science teachers