【Abstract】The comprehensive utilization of multi-energy resources has been recognized as an effective way to improve the energy utilization efficiency. This paper proposes a distributed double-side multi-energy coordination framework to minimize the total system cost by optimizing the energy supply of energy hubs (EHs) and the energy consumption of consumers, considering the tradeoff between the fuel cost of EHs and the satisfaction of consumers. In this framework, EHs and consumers are modeled through a standardized matrix modeling method by applying which arbitrary combinations of energy forms could be handled, i.e., EHs could include more forms of coupled energy rather than two or three specific forms and consumers have both time-shifting and energy-shifting loads. Hence, consumers implement the integrated demand response (IDR) such that the energy demand can be shifted among different time intervals and different energy forms, e.g., from the electricity to the gas, to achieve individual benefits. Moreover, suppose that EHs and consumers communicate via a time-varying network and only exchange information with their neighbors. Under such topology, we develop a fully distributed sub-gradient averaging consensus algorithm with the energy supply-demand balance guaranteed at each time interval. The convergence and optimality of the proposed algorithm are verified theoretically, and the numerical simulation is presented to illustrate the developed results.
【Abstract】Digital technologies such as blockchain, smart contracts, QR codes, and fintech are forecast to improve the transparency, sustainability, and efficiency of supply-chains in numerous sectors. However, such innovations may face greater resistance and implementation challenges in some sectors more than others. Here, we conduct 24 interviews with fishers, aquaculturists, restaurants, and industry experts around existing blockchain applications seeking to enhance seafood traceability and trackability in Australia. We combine innovation resistance theory, principal-agent theory, and the theory of planned behaviour to reveal how institutional norms and socio-cultural dynamics are deterring blockchain adoption. For example, the seafood industry exhibits limited digitization and automation, and an oligopoly of wholesalers with the power and networks to control the supply chain - against a backdrop of food fraud claims. Results suggest blockchain could threaten the competitive advantage of wholesalers, since it would reverse existing asymmetries around trade, price, and provenance information. Furthermore, despite favouring the decentralisation and information sharing that blockchain provides, other supply chain actors were hesitant to adopt it through fear of jeopardising relationships with these wholesalers upon which their business models rely. We assert that blockchain will only drive transformative change if the most influential supply chain actors see value in using it.
【Abstract】There has been an increasing interest in translating artificial intelligence (AI) research into clinically-validated applications to improve the performance, capacity, and efficacy of healthcare services. Despite substantial research worldwide, very few AI-based applications have successfully made it to clinics. Key barriers to the widespread adoption of clinically validated AI applications include non-standardized medical records, limited availability of curated datasets, and stringent legal/ethical requirements to preserve patients' privacy. Therefore, there is a pressing need to improvise new data-sharing methods in the age of AI that preserve patient privacy while developing AI-based healthcare applications. In the literature, significant attention has been devoted to developing privacy-preserving techniques and overcoming the issues hampering AI adoption in an actual clinical environment. To this end, this study summarizes the state-of-the-art approaches for preserving privacy in AI-based healthcare applications. Prominent privacy-preserving techniques such as Federated Learning and Hybrid Techniques are elaborated along with potential privacy attacks, security challenges, and future directions.
【Abstract】The introduction of blockchain offers new opportunities to rethink enterprise identity management. Recently, a new concept has emerged in the blockchain community called self-sovereign identity. Self-sovereign identity combines several existing decentralized identity management approaches, promising new ways to promote more convenient, connected, and secure identity services for the private and public sector. Nevertheless, research in this area is still in its infancy. Most of the very few articles focus either on the opportunities self-sovereign identity might offer or on very specific technical features. Studies on real-world applications of organizations using modern self-sovereign identity implementations and design theory are very rare. To fill this gap, we follow the design science research approach to design, implement, and evaluate a self-sovereign identity system to present tax attributes of online retailers. We present four design principles and conclude that the use of self-sovereign identity and blockchain offers opportunities to improve verification processes.
【Abstract】The Internet of Vehicles (IoV) can significantly improve transportation efficiency and ensure traffic safety. Authentication is regarded as the fundamental defense line against attacks in IoV. However, the state-of-the-art approaches suffer from several drawbacks, including bottlenecks of the single cloud server model, high computational overhead of operations, excessive trust in cloud servers and roadside units (RSUs), and leakage of vehicle trajectory privacy. This paper introduces BEPHAP, a Blockchain-based Efficient Privacy-preserving Handover Authentication Protocol with key agreement for internet of vehicles, to address these problems. BEPHAP achieves anonymous cross-domain mutual handover authentication with key agreement based on the tamper-proof blockchain, symmetric cryptography, and the chameleon hash function under a security model that cloud servers and RSUs may launch attacks. BEPHAP is particularly well suited for IoV since it allows vehicles to only perform lightweight cryptographic operations during authentication. BEPHAP also achieves data confidentiality, unlinkability, traceability, non-repudiation, non-frameability, and key escrow freeness. Formal verification based on ProVerif and formal security proofs based on the BAN logic indicates that BEPHAP is resistant to various typical attacks, such as man-in-the-middle attacks, impersonation attacks, and replay attacks. Performance analysis demonstrates that BEPHAP surpasses existing works in both computation and communication efficiencies. It is worth noting that BEPHAP reduces the computational cost of vehicles by 2 to 4 orders of magnitude compared to current schemes. And the message loss rate remains 0 at 5000 requests per second, which meets the requirement of IoV.
【Abstract】Hyperautomation is a true digital transformation using advanced techniques and automates complicated business processes. Blockchain-based networks have hyper-automation turbo-boost power as they create tamper-proof, real-time data exchange networks. The study aims to examine the impact of blockchain on the performance of Chinese electronics manufacturers through the green supply chain and circular economy in the hyper-automation environment. Respondents (n = 376) in the present study were made up of employees from 300 China-based electronics companies. The results show that blockchain technology with hyper-automation can impact business performance through a circular economy and green supply chain. In addition, they have direct practical implications for Chinese electronics manufacturers moving towards a green supply chain by applying blockchain in the hyper-automation environment.
【Abstract】Modern consumer electronics include consumer robots, which are made by heterogeneous Internet of Things, and Internet of robotics things are integral members of the Internet of Everything (IoE). IoE plays an incumbent role in smart cities and generates big data. Moreover, smart city IoE maintains various levels of security provisions. However, those are still vulnerable to security and privacy breaches. Nonetheless, mobility increases the risk of security and privacy breaches. As a result, in the internet era, providing seamless security and privacy for inter- and intra-communication of heterogeneous things is a significant challenge. Furthermore, blockchain is one of the established communication techniques that ensure both security and privacy. On the other hand, blockchain inherits trivial constraints with respect to scalability, latency, and interoperability. Cross-chain is a blockchain concept that aims to alleviate the aforementioned concerns. Therefore, we proposed a multifactor aware (privacy, security, interoperability, and scalability) model-driven reference architecture for the Internet of cross-chains, also known as cross-chain as a service platform.
【Keywords】Smart cities; Security; Monte Carlo methods; Blockchains; Service robots; Scalability; Internet of Things; Blockchain; cross-chain; cross-chains as a service; Internet of cross-chains; Internet of Everything; Society 50
【Abstract】Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) is a very serious health concern to the human life throughout the world. The Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) allows us to deploy several wearable Internet of Things-enabled smart devices in a patient's body. The deployed smart devices should then securely communicate to nearby mobile devices installed in a smart home, which then securely communicate with the associated fog server for information processing. The processed information in terms of transactions are formed as blocks and put into a private blockchain consisting of cloud servers. Since the patient's vital signs are very confidential and private, we apply the private blockchain. This article makes utilization of fog computing and blockchain technology simultaneously to come up with more secure system in an IoMT-enabled COVID-19 situation for patients' home monitoring purpose. We first discuss various phases related to development of a new fog-based private blockchain-enabled home monitoring framework. Next, we discuss how artificial intelligence-enabled big data analytics helps in analyzing and tracking the patients' information related to COVID-19 cases. Finally, a blockchain implementation has been performed to exhibit practical demonstration of the proposed blockchain system.
【Abstract】The deep integration of Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) and Artificial intelligence makes the further development of intelligent medical services possible, but privacy leakage and data security problems hinder its wide application. Although the combination of IoMT and federated learning (FL) can achieve no direct access to the original data of participants, FL still can't resist inference attacks against model parameters and the single point of failure of the central server. In addition, malicious clients can disguise as benign participants to launch poisoning attacks, which seriously compromises the accuracy of the global model. In this paper, we design a new privacy protection framework (BFG) for decentralized FL using blockchain, differential privacy and Generative Adversarial Network. The framework can effectively avoid a single point of failure and resist inference attacks. In particular, it can limit the success rate of poisoning attacks to less than 26%. Moreover, the framework alleviates the storage pressure of the blockchain, achieves a balance between privacy budget and global model accuracy, and can effectively resist the negative impact of node withdrawal. Simulation experiments on image datasets show that the BFG framework has a better combined performance in terms of accuracy, robustness and privacy preservation.
