24 research outputs found

    A patient agent controlled customized blockchain based framework for internet of things

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    Although Blockchain implementations have emerged as revolutionary technologies for various industrial applications including cryptocurrencies, they have not been widely deployed to store data streaming from sensors to remote servers in architectures known as Internet of Things. New Blockchain for the Internet of Things models promise secure solutions for eHealth, smart cities, and other applications. These models pave the way for continuous monitoring of patient’s physiological signs with wearable sensors to augment traditional medical practice without recourse to storing data with a trusted authority. However, existing Blockchain algorithms cannot accommodate the huge volumes, security, and privacy requirements of health data. In this thesis, our first contribution is an End-to-End secure eHealth architecture that introduces an intelligent Patient Centric Agent. The Patient Centric Agent executing on dedicated hardware manages the storage and access of streams of sensors generated health data, into a customized Blockchain and other less secure repositories. As IoT devices cannot host Blockchain technology due to their limited memory, power, and computational resources, the Patient Centric Agent coordinates and communicates with a private customized Blockchain on behalf of the wearable devices. While the adoption of a Patient Centric Agent offers solutions for addressing continuous monitoring of patients’ health, dealing with storage, data privacy and network security issues, the architecture is vulnerable to Denial of Services(DoS) and single point of failure attacks. To address this issue, we advance a second contribution; a decentralised eHealth system in which the Patient Centric Agent is replicated at three levels: Sensing Layer, NEAR Processing Layer and FAR Processing Layer. The functionalities of the Patient Centric Agent are customized to manage the tasks of the three levels. Simulations confirm protection of the architecture against DoS attacks. Few patients require all their health data to be stored in Blockchain repositories but instead need to select an appropriate storage medium for each chunk of data by matching their personal needs and preferences with features of candidate storage mediums. Motivated by this context, we advance third contribution; a recommendation model for health data storage that can accommodate patient preferences and make storage decisions rapidly, in real-time, even with streamed data. The mapping between health data features and characteristics of each repository is learned using machine learning. The Blockchain’s capacity to make transactions and store records without central oversight enables its application for IoT networks outside health such as underwater IoT networks where the unattended nature of the nodes threatens their security and privacy. However, underwater IoT differs from ground IoT as acoustics signals are the communication media leading to high propagation delays, high error rates exacerbated by turbulent water currents. Our fourth contribution is a customized Blockchain leveraged framework with the model of Patient-Centric Agent renamed as Smart Agent for securely monitoring underwater IoT. Finally, the smart Agent has been investigated in developing an IoT smart home or cities monitoring framework. The key algorithms underpinning to each contribution have been implemented and analysed using simulators.Doctor of Philosoph

    Mobile Device and App Use in Pharmacy: A Multi-University Study

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    Twitter and society

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    Undergraduate Student Catalog 2012-2013

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    The contents of this document highlight the central pillars of Qatar University’s mission, namely the provision of high-quality education and the pursuit of an active role in the development of Qatari society. The courses described here have been designed, reviewed and assessed to meet the highest educational standards, with a strong focus on the knowledge- and skill-bases needed for a graduate to be competitive in today’s labor market or in higher education pursuits

    Mobile-agent based multi-constraint one-to-many bilateral e-Negotiation framework

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    The thesis proposes a multi-constraint one-to-many bilateral e-Trade negotiation framework. It deploys mobile agents in negotiation, considers trading competition between vendors and search space, efficiently manages the risk of losing top utility offers that expire before the negotiation deadline, accurately evaluates offers, and truly maintains the security of negotiation data

    Communication and energy delivery architectures for personal medical devices

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    Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2012.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 219-232).Advances in sensor technologies and integrated electronics are revolutionizing how humans access and receive healthcare. However, many envisioned wearable or implantable systems are not deployable in practice due to high energy consumption and anatomically-limited size constraints, necessitating large form-factors for external devices, or eventual surgical re-implantation procedures for in-vivo applications. Since communication and energy-management sub-systems often dominate the power budgets of personal biomedical devices, this thesis explores alternative usecases, system architectures, and circuit solutions to reduce their energy burden. For wearable applications, a system-on-chip is designed that both communicates and delivers power over an eTextiles network. The transmitter and receiver front-ends are at least an order of magnitude more efficient than conventional body-area networks. For implantable applications, two separate systems are proposed that avoid reimplantation requirements. The first system extracts energy from the endocochlear potential, an electrochemical gradient found naturally within the inner-ear of mammals, in order to power a wireless sensor. Since extractable energy levels are limited, novel sensing, communication, and energy management solutions are proposed that leverage duty-cycling to achieve enabling power consumptions that are at least an order of magnitude lower than previous work. Clinical measurements show the first system demonstrated to sustain itself with a mammalian-generated electrochemical potential operating as the only source of energy into the system. The second system leverages the essentially unlimited number of re-charge cycles offered by ultracapacitors. To ease patient usability, a rapid wireless capacitor charging architecture is proposed that employs a multi-tapped secondary inductive coil to provide charging times that are significantly faster than conventional approaches.by Patrick Philip Mercier.Ph.D

    Undergraduate Student Catalog 2011-2012

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    The contents of this document highlight the central pillars of Qatar University’s mission, namely the provision of high-quality education and the pursuit of an active role in the development of Qatari society. The courses described here have been designed, reviewed and assessed to meet the highest educational standards, with a strong focus on the knowledge- and skill-bases needed for a graduate to be competitive in today’s labor market or in higher education pursuits
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