【Abstract】The advancement of information technology allows the creation of smart devices that not only are programmable, but also can perform machine-to-machine communication in order to reach a flexible large-scale manufacturing strategy in Industry 4.0. However, as more components are connected to the Internet, cybercriminals can perform malicious actions remotely. As one lasting threat, sabotaging smart devices' execution integrity can cause a large financial loss, i.e., causing malfunctioning. Hence, it is important to secure the execution integrity of smart devices in Industry 4.0. Motivated by the emerging blockchain technology, in this article, we focus on how blockchain can help Industry 4.0 application protect execution integrity and propose a blockchain-based execution protection scheme named NoSneaky, which is low-cost and can be easily integrated into the current production systems. In the evaluation, we demonstrate its performance and effectiveness in securing the execution integrity.
【Abstract】The development of advanced information technologies are paving the digital transformation of manufacturing systems, of which Digital Twin-based manufacturing system (DTMS) has become a prevailing topic attracted ever-increasing concerns from both industry and academia. As a cutting-edge smart manufacturing system, DTMS can improve manufacturing accuracy and efficiency based on high fidelity simulation, near real-time monitoring and control in a cyber-physical integrated manner. However, the connotation and boundary of DTMS lack a clear definition and systematic analysis. Therefore, this paper reviews the existing Digital Twin reference models and implementation architectures on manufacturing system, and further proposes a reference model of DTMS. Based on it, the characteristics and operational mechanism of DTMS are analyzed from three perspectives: hierarchy, dimension, and scale. Specifically, the composition of DTMS is described from a multi-level perspective, the specific characteristics of the DTMS are analyzed from a multi-dimensional perspective, and the temporal and spatial characteristics of the DTMS under different application scenarios are depicted from a multi-scale perspective, respectively. At last, the potential research directions of DTMS are highlighted in terms of reusability, interpretability and adaptability. It is envisioned that this work can provide a clear understanding with insightful knowledge to attract more in-depth research of DTMS.
【Abstract】Supply chain (SC) networks now need to submit structural adjustments to respond to events like natural and unanticipated disasters that tend to cause interruptions and damage the continuity of business operations. Artificial intelligence, robotics, blockchain, 3D printing, 5G, and the Internet of Things are just a few examples of disruptive technologies that are being widely used and will drastically alter how SCs sustainability is conducted in the real world. The sustainability of SC operations can be greatly enhanced by disruptive technology. Organizational competency is needed to strike a balance between sustainability and SC disruption. Sustainable SCs may not have enough resilience to survive disruptive events since they prioritize efficiency and economic aspects. That is why sustainable SC management studies trends toward disruption utilizing new technologies. To adapt SCs to the needs of contemporary manufacturing processes, innovations in environmental conservation and social development have been put into place. In contrast, even though the fact that sustainability and disruptive technologies have each been extensively examined separately, few suggestions combine them in the measuring of SC performance. Since there are not any studies in the literature that identify the influence of disruptive technologies on SC sustainability generally, in this research we concentrate on several disruptive technologies that are used to provide SC sustainability. The objective of this work's suggestion is to provide a framework that integrates multi-criteria analysis methods with neutrosophic theory to evaluate the influence of disruptive technologies on the sustainability of SCs. This framework is an integration of the a-discounting technique for multi-criteria decision-making (alpha-D MCDM) and the Vlse Kriterijumska Optimizacija Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR) method. The new alpha-D MCDM approach overcomes the analytical hierarchy process's (AHP) method limitations of pairwise comparison to n-wise comparisons and also deals with inconsistent problems. SC sustainability has three main criteria which are economic, environmental, and social, their weights are measured using alpha-D MCDM with n-wise comparison. Also, the twenty sub-criteria weights were evaluated using the standard AHP method with consistent comparison. To rank the disruptive technologies that influence SC sustainability, we utilize the VIKOR method. The proposed framework is applied under a neutrosophic environment to ensure more accurate results and deal with uncertainty and vague conditions. Finally, sensitivity and comparative analyses were performed to confirm the verity, strength, and stability of the enhanced methodology.
【Abstract】Crowdsourced data streams are popular and extremely valuable in several domains, namely in tourism. Tourism crowdsourcing platforms rely on past tourist and business inputs to provide tailored recommendations to current users in real time. The continuous, open, dynamic and non-curated nature of the crowd-originated data demands specific stream mining techniques to support online profiling, recommendation, change detection and adaptation, explanation and evaluation. The sought techniques must, not only, continuously improve and adapt profiles and models; but must also be transparent, overcome biases, prioritize preferences, master huge data volumes and all in real time. This article surveys the state-of-art of adaptive and explainable stream recommendation, extends the taxonomy of explainable recommendations from the offline to the stream-based scenario, and identifies future research opportunities.
【Abstract】The security of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) systems is a challenge that needs to be addressed immediately, as the increasing use of new communication paradigms and the abundant use of sensors opens up new opportunities to compromise these types of systems. In this sense, technologies such as Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) and Hardware Security Modules (HSMs) become crucial for adding new layers of security to IIoT systems, especially to edge nodes that incorporate sensors and perform continuous measurements. These technologies, coupled with new communication paradigms such as Blockchain, offer a high reliability, robustness and good interoperability between them. This paper proposes the design of a secure sensor incorporating the above mentioned technologies-HSMs and a TEE-in a hardware device based on a dual-core architecture. Through this combination of technologies, one of the cores collects the data extracted by the sensors and implements the security mechanisms to guarantee the integrity of these data, while the remaining core is responsible for sending these data through the appropriate communication protocol. This proposed approach fits into the Blockchain networks, which act as an Oracle. Finally, to illustrate the application of this concept, a use case applied to wine logistics is described, where this secure sensor is integrated into a Blockchain that collects data from the storage and transport of barrels, and a performance evaluation of the implemented prototype is provided.
【Abstract】Healthcare is a vitally important field in the industry and evolving day by day in the aspect of technology, services, computing, and management. Its potential significance can be increased by incorporating Internet of Things (IoT) technology to make it smart in the aspect of automating activities, which is then further reformed in the healthcare domain with the help of blockchain technology. Blockchain technology provides many features to IoT-based healthcare domain applications such as restructuring by securing traditional practices, data management, data sharing, patient remote monitoring, and drug analysis. In this study, a systematic literature review has been carried out in which a total of 52 studies were selected to conduct systematic literature review from databases PubMed, IEEE Access, and Scopus; the study includes IoT technology and blockchain integration in healthcare domain-related application areas. This study also includes taxonomy that mentions the aspects and areas in healthcare domain incorporating the traditional system with the integration of IoT and blockchain to provide transparency, security, privacy, and immutability. This study also includes the incorporation of related sensors, platforms of blockchain, the objective focus of selected studies, and future directions by incorporating IoT and blockchain in healthcare domain. This study will help researchers who want to work with IoT and blockchain technology integration in healthcare domain.
【Abstract】In this era of increased technological and medical advancements, remote monitoring of patients and elderly people has become more popular. Even in situations like the present Covid'19 pandemic the hospital and medical facilities are in demand. In such scenarios, elderly people who need medical care and patients who need round-the-clock medical attention can be made to stay in their homes and can be monitored remotely with the help of a remote patient monitoring system. Such a system can be built by incorporating Wireless Body Area Networks (WBAN). WBAN encompasses various biological wearable sensors which monitor the patient's health around the clock. The accumulated sensor data is then shared with hospitals and medical professionals through wireless sensor networks. This data includes personnel details, various vital parameters, medical images, etc. which are highly confidential. So providing security and confidentiality in such networks is mandatory. Several cryptographic mechanisms and algorithms are available for ensuring security in WBANs. In recent days several works have been proposed to incorporate the emerging Blockchain technology to improve the privacy, security, and confidentiality in WBANs. In this survey, we discuss various research that proposed blockchain-based solutions for ensuring security, integrity, and data privacy in WBAN.
【Abstract】Increased industrialization has led to unprecedented resource depletion on a global scale. The current state of affairs has compelled practitioners and academics to investigate the role of sustainable technologies in greening the operations of businesses. Previous studies have attempted to examine the number of operational aspects for their role in making firms sustainable, yet the utility of blockchain technologies is in its infancy. The role of BT in enhancing integration across supply chains has been in the limelight in the recent past. At the same time, its ability to cause sustainable supply chain performance (SSCP) in sync with the circular economy (CE) and supply chain integration (SCI) has largely remained unexplored. Therefore, this study intends to examine the association between blockchain technologies (BTs) and SSCPs through integration to fill the empirical gaps. The study was pursued to investigate the moderating role of the CE on the relationship between multiple extents of SCI and SSCP. Based on dynamic capability theory (DCT), the study considered BT a dynamic resource. BTs are used to integrate and reenergize the relationships with upstream and downstream channel members in pursuit of sustainable performance outcomes. The study opted for a cross-sectional design, where data was collected through convenience sampling from 475 managers from SMEs operating across Pakistan. PLS-SEM was used to analyze the data and to generate the required empirical outcomes. Study results favored the significant association between BT and SSCP, followed by a significant mediating role of SCI dimensions and moderating role of the CE. The study's findings propagate the utility of BTs adoption for SMEs, which holds the potential for firms to achieve system-wide integration to achieve sustainable outcomes. The given empirical investigation holds valuable insights for practitioners and scholars intending to pursue research on the subject matter.
【Abstract】We consider the problem of proving in zero knowledge that an element of a public set satisfies a given property without disclosing the element, i.e., for some u, "u is an element of S and P(u) holds". This problem arises in many applications (anonymous cryptocurrencies, credentials or whitelists) where, for privacy or anonymity reasons, it is crucial to hide certain data while ensuring properties of such data. We design new modular and efficient constructions for this problem through new commit-and-prove zero-knowledge systems for set membership, i.e. schemes proving u is an element of S for a value u that is in a public commitment c(u). We also extend our results to support non-membership proofs, i.e. proving u is not an element of S. Being commit-and-prove, our solutions can act as plug-and-play modules in statements of the form "u is an element of S and P(u) holds" by combining our set (non-)membership systems with any other commit-and-prove scheme for P(u). Also, they work with Pedersen commitments over prime order groups which makes them compatible with popular systems such as Bulletproofs or Groth16. We implemented our schemes as a software library, and tested experimentally their performance. Compared to previouswork that achieves similar properties-the clever techniques combining zkSNARKs and Merkle Trees in Zcash-our solutions offer more flexibility, shorter public parameters and 3.7x-30x faster proving time for a set of size 2(64).
