New techniques to integrate blockchain in Internet of Things scenarios for massive data management

Mención Internacional en el título de doctorNowadays, regardless of the use case, most IoT data is processed using workflows that are executed on different infrastructures (edge-fog-cloud), which produces dataflows from the IoT through the edge to the fog/cloud. In many cases, they also involve several actors (organizations and users), which poses a challenge for organizations to establish verification of the transactions performed by the participants in the dataflows built by the workflow engines and pipeline frameworks. It is essential for organizations, not only to verify that the execution of applications is performed in the strict sequence previously established in a DAG by authenticated participants, but also to verify that the incoming and outgoing IoT data of each stage of a workflow/pipeline have not been altered by third parties or by the users associated to the organizations participating in a workflow/pipeline. Blockchain technology and its mechanism for recording immutable transactions in a distributed and decentralized manner, characterize it as an ideal technology to support the aforementioned challenges and challenges since it allows the verification of the records generated in a secure manner. However, the integration of blockchain technology with workflows for IoT data processing is not trivial considering that it is a challenge not to lose the generalization of workflows and/or pipeline engines, which must be modified to include the embedded blockchain module. The main objective of this doctoral research was to create new techniques to use blockchain in the Internet of Things (IoT). Thus, we defined the main goal of this thesis is to develop new techniques to integrate blockchain in Internet of Things scenarios for massive data management in edge-fog-cloud environments. To fulfill this general objective, we have designed a content delivery model for processing big IoT data in Edge-Fog-Cloud computing by using micro/nanoservice composition, a continuous verification model based on blockchain to register significant events from the continuous delivery model, selecting techniques to integrate blockchain in quasi-real systems that allow ensuring traceability and non-repudiation of data obtained from devices and sensors. The evaluation proposed has been thoroughly evaluated, showing its feasibility and good performance.Hoy en día, independientemente del caso de uso, la mayoría de los datos de IoT se procesan utilizando flujos de trabajo que se ejecutan en diferentes infraestructuras (edge-fog-cloud) desde IoT a través del edge hasta la fog/cloud. En muchos casos, también involucran a varios actores (organizaciones y usuarios), lo que plantea un desafío para las organizaciones a la hora de verificar las transacciones realizadas por los participantes en los flujos de datos. Es fundamental para las organizaciones, no solo para verificar que la ejecución de aplicaciones se realiza en la secuencia previamente establecida en un DAG y por participantes autenticados, sino también para verificar que los datos IoT entrantes y salientes de cada etapa de un flujo de trabajo no han sido alterados por terceros o por usuarios asociados a las organizaciones que participan en el mismo. La tecnología Blockchain, gracias a su mecanismo para registrar transacciones de manera distribuida y descentralizada, es un tecnología ideal para soportar los retos y desafíos antes mencionados ya que permite la verificación de los registros generados de manera segura. Sin embargo, la integración de la tecnología blockchain con flujos de trabajo para IoT no es baladí considerando que es un desafío proporcionar el rendimiento necesario sin perder la generalización de los motores de flujos de trabajo, que deben ser modificados para incluir el módulo blockchain integrado. El objetivo principal de esta investigación doctoral es desarrollar nuevas técnicas para integrar blockchain en Internet de las Cosas (IoT) para la gestión masiva de datos en un entorno edge-fog-cloud. Para cumplir con este objetivo general, se ha diseñado un modelo de flujos para procesar grandes datos de IoT en computación Edge-Fog-Cloud mediante el uso de la composición de micro/nanoservicio, un modelo de verificación continua basado en blockchain para registrar eventos significativos de la modelo de entrega continua de datos, seleccionando técnicas para integrar blockchain en sistemas cuasi-reales que permiten asegurar la trazabilidad y el no repudio de datos obtenidos de dispositivos y sensores, La evaluación propuesta ha sido minuciosamente evaluada, mostrando su factibilidad y buen rendimiento.This work has been partially supported by the project "CABAHLA-CM: Convergencia Big data-Hpc: de los sensores a las Aplicaciones" S2018/TCS-4423 from Madrid Regional Government.Programa de Doctorado en Ciencia y Tecnología Informática por la Universidad Carlos III de MadridPresidente: Paolo Trunfio.- Secretario: David Exposito Singh.- Vocal: Rafael Mayo Garcí

Emerging approaches for data-driven innovation in Europe: Sandbox experiments on the governance of data and technology

Europe’s digital transformation of the economy and society is one of the priorities of the current Commission and is framed by the European strategy for data. This strategy aims at creating a single market for data through the establishment of a common European data space, based in turn on domain-specific data spaces in strategic sectors such as environment, agriculture, industry, health and transportation. Acknowledging the key role that emerging technologies and innovative approaches for data sharing and use can play to make European data spaces a reality, this document presents a set of experiments that explore emerging technologies and tools for data-driven innovation, and also deepen in the socio-technical factors and forces that occur in data-driven innovation. Experimental results shed some light in terms of lessons learned and practical recommendations towards the establishment of European data spaces

The Future of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) after COVID19 Pandemic

Industrial IoT (IIoT) devices obtain, analyse, and use data from connected equipment, Operational Technology (OT), locations, and people. IIoT helps to regulate and monitor industrial systems. Also, the same implementation can be carried out for automated record updates of asset placement in industrial storage units. IIoT can realize the seamless integration of various manufacturing devices equipped with sensing, identification, processing, communication, actuation, and networking capabilities. Based on such a highly integrated smart cyber-physical space, it opens the door to create whole new business and market opportunities for manufacturing. Network control and management of manufacturing equipment, asset and situation management, or manufacturing process control bring the IIoT within the realm of industrial applications and smart manufacturing as well. IIoT in manufacturing could generate so much business value that it will eventually lead to the Fifth Industrial Revolution, also referred to as Industry 5.0. Though IIoT is getting widely explored and used by many global organizations, especially with the current COVID19 Pandemic situation. The global industry moves to address these concerns have begun including the development of international standards. This study examines the prospects of Industrial IoT and its application in the global business sectors for doing their businesses more effectively and efficiently. This study would assess the most suitable IIoT models of various IIoT services offerings industries will likely use. The study will also analyse risks and challenges for the global business entities, while adopting IIoT technologies and service offerings along with their actual needs, wants, desires, suitability, requirements, and expectations

Blending the Material and Digital World for Hybrid Interfaces

The development of digital technologies in the 21st century is progressing continuously and new device classes such as tablets, smartphones or smartwatches are finding their way into our everyday lives. However, this development also poses problems, as these prevailing touch and gestural interfaces often lack tangibility, take little account of haptic qualities and therefore require full attention from their users. Compared to traditional tools and analog interfaces, the human skills to experience and manipulate material in its natural environment and context remain unexploited. To combine the best of both, a key question is how it is possible to blend the material world and digital world to design and realize novel hybrid interfaces in a meaningful way. Research on Tangible User Interfaces (TUIs) investigates the coupling between physical objects and virtual data. In contrast, hybrid interfaces, which specifically aim to digitally enrich analog artifacts of everyday work, have not yet been sufficiently researched and systematically discussed. Therefore, this doctoral thesis rethinks how user interfaces can provide useful digital functionality while maintaining their physical properties and familiar patterns of use in the real world. However, the development of such hybrid interfaces raises overarching research questions about the design: Which kind of physical interfaces are worth exploring? What type of digital enhancement will improve existing interfaces? How can hybrid interfaces retain their physical properties while enabling new digital functions? What are suitable methods to explore different design? And how to support technology-enthusiast users in prototyping? For a systematic investigation, the thesis builds on a design-oriented, exploratory and iterative development process using digital fabrication methods and novel materials. As a main contribution, four specific research projects are presented that apply and discuss different visual and interactive augmentation principles along real-world applications. The applications range from digitally-enhanced paper, interactive cords over visual watch strap extensions to novel prototyping tools for smart garments. While almost all of them integrate visual feedback and haptic input, none of them are built on rigid, rectangular pixel screens or use standard input modalities, as they all aim to reveal new design approaches. The dissertation shows how valuable it can be to rethink familiar, analog applications while thoughtfully extending them digitally. Finally, this thesis’ extensive work of engineering versatile research platforms is accompanied by overarching conceptual work, user evaluations and technical experiments, as well as literature reviews.Die Durchdringung digitaler Technologien im 21. Jahrhundert schreitet stetig voran und neue Geräteklassen wie Tablets, Smartphones oder Smartwatches erobern unseren Alltag. Diese Entwicklung birgt aber auch Probleme, denn die vorherrschenden berührungsempfindlichen Oberflächen berücksichtigen kaum haptische Qualitäten und erfordern daher die volle Aufmerksamkeit ihrer Nutzer:innen. Im Vergleich zu traditionellen Werkzeugen und analogen Schnittstellen bleiben die menschlichen Fähigkeiten ungenutzt, die Umwelt mit allen Sinnen zu begreifen und wahrzunehmen. Um das Beste aus beiden Welten zu vereinen, stellt sich daher die Frage, wie neuartige hybride Schnittstellen sinnvoll gestaltet und realisiert werden können, um die materielle und die digitale Welt zu verschmelzen. In der Forschung zu Tangible User Interfaces (TUIs) wird die Verbindung zwischen physischen Objekten und virtuellen Daten untersucht. Noch nicht ausreichend erforscht wurden hingegen hybride Schnittstellen, die speziell darauf abzielen, physische Gegenstände des Alltags digital zu erweitern und anhand geeigneter Designparameter und Entwurfsräume systematisch zu untersuchen. In dieser Dissertation wird daher untersucht, wie Materialität und Digitalität nahtlos ineinander übergehen können. Es soll erforscht werden, wie künftige Benutzungsschnittstellen nützliche digitale Funktionen bereitstellen können, ohne ihre physischen Eigenschaften und vertrauten Nutzungsmuster in der realen Welt zu verlieren. Die Entwicklung solcher hybriden Ansätze wirft jedoch übergreifende Forschungsfragen zum Design auf: Welche Arten von physischen Schnittstellen sind es wert, betrachtet zu werden? Welche Art von digitaler Erweiterung verbessert das Bestehende? Wie können hybride Konzepte ihre physischen Eigenschaften beibehalten und gleichzeitig neue digitale Funktionen ermöglichen? Was sind geeignete Methoden, um verschiedene Designs zu erforschen? Wie kann man Technologiebegeisterte bei der Erstellung von Prototypen unterstützen? Für eine systematische Untersuchung stützt sich die Arbeit auf einen designorientierten, explorativen und iterativen Entwicklungsprozess unter Verwendung digitaler Fabrikationsmethoden und neuartiger Materialien. Im Hauptteil werden vier Forschungsprojekte vorgestellt, die verschiedene visuelle und interaktive Prinzipien entlang realer Anwendungen diskutieren. Die Szenarien reichen von digital angereichertem Papier, interaktiven Kordeln über visuelle Erweiterungen von Uhrarmbändern bis hin zu neuartigen Prototyping-Tools für intelligente Kleidungsstücke. Um neue Designansätze aufzuzeigen, integrieren nahezu alle visuelles Feedback und haptische Eingaben, um Alternativen zu Standard-Eingabemodalitäten auf starren Pixelbildschirmen zu schaffen. Die Dissertation hat gezeigt, wie wertvoll es sein kann, bekannte, analoge Anwendungen zu überdenken und sie dabei gleichzeitig mit Bedacht digital zu erweitern. Dabei umfasst die vorliegende Arbeit sowohl realisierte technische Forschungsplattformen als auch übergreifende konzeptionelle Arbeiten, Nutzerstudien und technische Experimente sowie die Analyse existierender Forschungsarbeiten

Emerging approaches for data-driven innovation in Europe

Europe's digital transformation of the economy and society is one of the priorities of the current Commission and is framed by the European strategy for data. This strategy aims at creating a single market for data through the establishment of a common European data space, based in turn on domain-specific data spaces in strategic sectors such as environment, agriculture, industry, health and transportation. Acknowledging the key role that emerging technologies and innovative approaches for data sharing and use can play to make European data spaces a reality, this document presents a set of experiments that explore emerging technologies and tools for data-driven innovation, and also deepen in the socio-technical factors and forces that occur in data-driven innovation. Experimental results shed some light in terms of lessons learned and practical recommendations towards the establishment of European data spaces

Engineering Adaptive Model-Driven User Interfaces for Enterprise Applications

Enterprise applications such as enterprise resource planning systems have numerous complex user interfaces (UIs). Usability problems plague these UIs because they are offered as a generic off-the-shelf solution to end-users with diverse needs in terms of their required features and layout preferences. Adaptive UIs can help in improving usability by tailoring the features and layout based on the context-of-use. The model-driven UI development approach offers the possibility of applying different types of adaptations on the various UI levels of abstraction. This approach forms the basis for many works researching the development of adaptive UIs. Yet, several gaps were identified in the state-of-the-art adaptive model-driven UI development systems. To fill these gaps, this thesis presents an approach that offers the following novel contributions: - The Cedar Architecture serves as a reference for developing adaptive model-driven enterprise application user interfaces. - Role-Based User Interface Simplification (RBUIS) is a mechanism for improving usability through adaptive behavior, by providing end-users with a minimal feature-set and an optimal layout based on the context-of-use. - Cedar Studio is an integrated development environment, which provides tool support for building adaptive model-driven enterprise application UIs using RBUIS based on the Cedar Architecture. The contributions were evaluated from the technical and human perspectives. Several metrics were established and applied to measure the technical characteristics of the proposed approach after integrating it into an open-source enterprise application. Additional insights about the approach were obtained through the opinions of industry experts and data from real-life projects. Usability studies showed the approach’s ability to significantly improve usability in terms of end-user efficiency, effectiveness and satisfaction

Deciphering Chronometabolic Dynamics Through Metabolomics, Stable Isotope Tracers, And Genome-Scale Reaction Modeling

Synchrony across environmental cues, endogenous genetic clocks, sleep/wake cycles, and metabolism evoke physiological harmony for organismal health. Perturbation of this synchrony has been recently correlated with a growing list of pathologies, which is alarming given the ubiquity of sleep deprivation, mistimed light exposure, and altered eating schedules in modern society. Deeper insights into clocks, sleep, and metabolism are necessary to understand these outcomes. In this work, extensive metabolic profiles of circadian systems were obtained from the development of new liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC-MS) metabolomics methods. These methods were applied to Drosophila melanogaster to discern relative influences of environmental and genetic drivers of metabolic cycles. Unique sets of metabolites oscillated with 24-hour circadian periods under light:dark (LD) and constant darkness (DD) conditions, and ultradian rhythms were noted for clock mutant flies under LD, suggesting clock-independent metabolic cycles driven by environmental inputs. However, this metabolomic analysis does not fully capture the inherently dynamic nature of circadian metabolism. These LC-MS methods were adapted to analyze isotope enrichments from a novel 13C6 glucose injection platform in Drosophila. Metabolic flux cycles were noted from glucose carbons into serine, glutamine and reduced glutathione biosynthesis, and altered under sleep deprivation, demonstrating unique energy and redox demands in perturbed sleep/wake cycles. Global isotopolome shifts were most notable in WT flies after lights-on, suggesting a catabolic rush from glucose oxidation early in the active phase. As the scope of these isotope tracer-based metabolomic analyses expand, attributing labeling patterns to specific reactions requires consideration of genome-scale metabolic networks. A new computational approach was developed, called the IsoPathFinder, which uncovered biosynthetic paths from glucose to serine, and extends to glycine and glutathione production. Carbon flux into glutamine was predicted to occur through the TCA cycle, supported by enzyme thermodynamics and circadian expression datasets. This tool is presented as a new mechanism to simulate additional isotope tracer experiments, with broad applicability beyond circadian research. Collectively, a new set of analytical and computational tools are developed to both produce dynamic metabolomic data and improve data interpretability, with applications to uncover new chronometabolic connections

METrICS: a Measurement Environment For Multi-Core Time Critical Systems

International audienceWith the upcoming shift from single-core to multi-core COTS processor for safety critical products such as avionics, railway or space computer subsystems, the safety critical industry is facing a trade-off in term of performance versus predictability.In multi-core processors, concurrent accesses to shared hardware resources are generating inter-task or inter-application timing interference, breaking the timing isolation principles required by the standards for such critical software. Several solutions have been proposed in the literature to control or regulate these timing interferences, but most of these solutions require to perform some level of profiling, monitoring or dimensioning.As time-critical software is running on top of Real Time Operating Systems (ROTS), classical profiling techniques relying on interrupts, multi-threading, or OS modules are either not available or prohibited for predictability, safety or security reasons.In this paper we present METrICS, a measurement environment for multi-core time-critical systems running on top of the industry-standard PikeOS RTOS. Our framework proposes an accurate real-time runtime and resource usage measurement while having a negligible impact on timing behaviour, allowing us to fully observe and characterize timing interference.Beyond being able to characterize timing interference, we evaluated METrICS in term of accuracy of the timing and resource usage measurements, intrusiveness both in term of timing and impact on the legacy code, as well as adherence to the hardware. We also present a portfolio of the kind of measurements METrICS provides

Emerging approaches for data-driven innovation in Europe

Europe’s digital transformation of the economy and society is one of the priorities of the current Commission and is framed by the European strategy for data. This strategy aims at creating a single market for data through the establishment of a common European data space, based in turn on domain-specific data spaces in strategic sectors such as environment, agriculture, industry, health and transportation. Acknowledging the key role that emerging technologies and innovative approaches for data sharing and use can play to make European data spaces a reality, this document presents a set of experiments that explore emerging technologies and tools for data-driven innovation, and also deepen in the socio-technical factors and forces that occur in data-driven innovation. Experimental results shed some light in terms of lessons learned and practical recommendations towards the establishment of European data spaces