A framework for development of android mobile electronic prescription transfer applications in compliance with security requirements mandated by the Australian healthcare industry

This thesis investigates mobile electronic transfer of prescription (ETP) in compliance with the security requirements mandated by the Australian healthcare industry and proposes a framework for the development of an Android mobile electronic prescription transfer application. Furthermore, and based upon the findings and knowledge from constructing this framework, another framework is also derived for assessing Android mobile ETP applications for their security compliance. The centralised exchange model-based ETP solution currently used in the Australian healthcare industry is an expensive solution for on-going use. With challenges such as an aging population and the rising burden of chronic disease, the cost of the current ETP solution’s operational infrastructure is certain to rise in the future. In an environment where it is increasingly beneficial for patients to engage in and manage their own information and subsequent care, this current solution fails to offer the patient direct access to their electronic prescription information. The current system also fails to incorporate certain features that would dramatically improve the quality of the patient’s care and safety, i.e. alerts for the patient’s drug allergies, harmful dosage and script expiration. Over a decade old, the current ETP solution was essentially designed and built to meet legislation and regulatory requirements, with change-averting its highest priority. With little, if any, provision for future growth and innovation, it was not designed to cater to the needs of the ETP process. This research identifies the gap within the current ETP implementation (i.e. dependency on infrastructure, significant on-going cost and limited availability of the patient’s medication history) and proposes a framework for building a secure mobile ETP solution on the Android mobile operating system platform which will address the identified gap. The literature review part of this thesis examined the significance of ETP for the nation’s larger initiative to provide an improved and better maintainable healthcare system. The literature review also revealed the stance of each jurisdiction, from legislative and regulatory perspectives, in transitioning to the use of a fully electronic ETP solution. It identified the regulatory mandates of each jurisdiction for ETP as well as the security standards by which the current ETP implementation is iii governed so as to conform to those regulatory mandates. The literature review part of the thesis essentially identified and established how the Australian healthcare industry’s various prescription-related legislations and regulations are constructed, and the complexity of this construction for eTP. The jurisdictional regulatory mandates identified in the literature review translate into a set of security requirements. These requirements establish the basis of the guiding framework for the development of a security-compliant Android mobile ETP application. A number of experimentations were conducted focusing on the native security features of the Android operating system, as well as wireless communication technologies such as NFC and Bluetooth, in order to propose an alternative mobile ETP solution with security assurance comparable to the current ETP implementation. The employment of a proof-of-concept prototype such as this alongside / coupled with a series of iterative experimentations strengthens the validity and practicality of the proposed framework. The first experiment successfully proved that the Android operating system has sufficient encryption capabilities, in compliance with the security mandates, to secure the electronic prescription information from the data at rest perspective. The second experiment indicated that the use of NFC technology to implement the alternative transfer mechanism for exchanging electronic prescription information between ETP participating devices is not practical. The next iteration of the experimentation using Bluetooth technology proved that it can be utilised as an alternative electronic prescription transfer mechanism to the current approach using the Internet. These experiment outcomes concluded the partial but sufficient proofof- concept prototype for this research. Extensive document analysis and iterative experimentations showed that the framework constructed by this research can guide the development of an alternative mobile ETP solution with both comparable security assurance to and better access to the patient’s medication history than the current solution. This alternative solution would present no operational dependence upon infrastructure and its associated, ongoing cost to the nation’s healthcare expenditure. In addition, use of this mobile ETP alternative has the potential to change the public’s perception (i.e. acceptance from regulatory and security perspectives) of mobile healthcare solutions, thereby paving the way for further innovation and future enhancements in eHealth

Blockchain-based Digital Twins:Research Trends, Issues, and Future Challenges

Industrial processes rely on sensory data for decision-making processes, risk assessment, and performance evaluation. Extracting actionable insights from the collected data calls for an infrastructure that can ensure the dissemination of trustworthy data. For the physical data to be trustworthy, it needs to be cross validated through multiple sensor sources with overlapping fields of view. Cross-validated data can then be stored on the blockchain, to maintain its integrity and trustworthiness. Once trustworthy data is recorded on the blockchain, product lifecycle events can be fed into data-driven systems for process monitoring, diagnostics, and optimized control. In this regard, digital twins (DTs) can be leveraged to draw intelligent conclusions from data by identifying the faults and recommending precautionary measures ahead of critical events. Empowering DTs with blockchain in industrial use cases targets key challenges of disparate data repositories, untrustworthy data dissemination, and the need for predictive maintenance. In this survey, while highlighting the key benefits of using blockchain-based DTs, we present a comprehensive review of the state-of-the-art research results for blockchain-based DTs. Based on the current research trends, we discuss a trustworthy blockchain-based DTs framework. We also highlight the role of artificial intelligence in blockchain-based DTs. Furthermore, we discuss the current and future research and deployment challenges of blockchain-supported DTs that require further investigation.</p

Using blockchain to create and capture value in the energy sector

The undergoing digital transition of the energy sector refers to the integration of decentralized ledger technologies and data-driven solutions that have the potential to truly revolutionize its ecosystem and business practices. The aim of a decentralized, inter connected and two-way interactive energy grid can be enabled by leveraging blockchain technologies. This research investigates how blockchain technology can create and capture value from data and the new business models applied in Web 3.0 and blockchain-based environments in the energy sector. A qualitative case study research design was conducted for primary data collection and pilot projects by the European Commission were used for secondary data collection. The analysis shows local energy communities as the main blockchain application in this sector, with adjacent applications such as P2P energy trading, smart contract & metering, carbon trading and grid management. The main benefits associated are transparency, integrity, grid automation and renewable energy sources promotion, and obstacles are mainly associated with the contrasting centralized design of the current energy systems. We conclude that value is created and captured through data provenance and transparency, data monetization and tokenization, and data sharing and collaboration in blockchain platforms. New business models include the decentralization and fusion between energy production and consumption, generating a new actor known as the prosumer. Fundamental to a successful implementation of local energy communities that allow energy and asset trading between peers.A transição digital do sector energético baseia-se na integração de tecnologias de registo descentralizadas e de soluções de tratamento de dados que têm o potencial de revolucionar o seu ecossistema. O objetivo de uma rede de energia descentralizada e interconectada em ambos os sentidos, pode ser concretizado através do recurso a tecnologias blockchain. Esta investigação analisa a forma como esta tecnologia pode criar e reter valor a partir de dados e dos novos modelos de negócio associados à Web 3.0 e a ambientes baseados em blockchain neste sector. Para a recolha de dados primários, foi efetuado um caso de estudo qualitativo. Para dados secundários foram analisados os projetos-piloto da Comissão Europeia. A análise demonstra que as comunidades locais de energia são a principal aplicação da blockchain, com aplicações adjacentes como trocas de energia P2P, contratos e contadores inteligentes, comércio de carbono e gestão da rede. Os principais benefícios associados são a transparência, a integridade, a automatização da rede e a promoção das fontes de energia renováveis. Os obstáculos estão principalmente associados à estrutura centralizada dos atuais sistemas energéticos. Concluímos que o valor é criado e capturado através da proveniência, transparência, monetização, tokenização e integração de dados em plataformas blockchain. Os novos modelos de negócio incluem a descentralização e a fusão entre a produção e o consumo de energia, gerando um novo elemento neste sector, o prosumer. Fundamental para uma implementação bem sucedida de comunidades locais de energia que permitam o comércio de energia e de ativos entre pares

SPARC 2018 Internationalisation and collaboration : Salford postgraduate annual research conference book of abstracts

Welcome to the Book of Abstracts for the 2018 SPARC conference. This year we not only celebrate the work of our PGRs but also the launch of our Doctoral School, which makes this year’s conference extra special. Once again we have received a tremendous contribution from our postgraduate research community; with over 100 presenters, the conference truly showcases a vibrant PGR community at Salford. These abstracts provide a taster of the research strengths of their works, and provide delegates with a reference point for networking and initiating critical debate. With such wide-ranging topics being showcased, we encourage you to take up this great opportunity to engage with researchers working in different subject areas from your own. To meet global challenges, high impact research inevitably requires interdisciplinary collaboration. This is recognised by all major research funders. Therefore engaging with the work of others and forging collaborations across subject areas is an essential skill for the next generation of researchers

Digital Twins and Blockchain for IoT Management

We live in a data-driven world powered by sensors getting data from anywhere at any time. This advancement is possible thanks to the Internet of Things (IoT). IoT embeds common physical objects with heterogeneous sensing, actuating, and communication capabilities to collect data from the environment and people. These objects are generally known as things and exchange data with other things, entities, computational processes, and systems over the internet. Consequently, a web of devices and computational processes emerges involving billions of entities collecting, processing, and sharing data. As a result, we now have an internet of entities/things that process and produce data, an ever-growing volume that can easily exceed petabytes. Therefore, there is a need for novel management approaches to handle the previously unheard number of IoT devices, processes, and data streams. This dissertation focuses on solutions for IoT management using decentralized technologies. A massive number of IoT devices interact with software and hardware components and are owned by different people. Therefore, there is a need for decentralized management. Blockchain is a capable and promising distributed ledger technology with features to support decentralized systems with large numbers of devices. People should not have to interact with these devices or data streams directly. Therefore, there is a need to abstract access to these components. Digital twins are software artifacts that can abstract an object, a process, or a system to enable communication between the physical and digital worlds. Fog/edge computing is the alternative to the cloud to provide services with less latency. This research uses blockchain technology, digital twins, and fog/edge computing for IoT management. The systems developed in this dissertation enable configuration, self-management, zero-trust management, and data streaming view provisioning from a fog/edge layer. In this way, this massive number of things and the data they produce are managed through services distributed across nodes close to them, providing access and configuration security and privacy protection

Innovation Policy Roadmapping for the Future Finnish Smart City Digital Twins : Towards Finland National Digital Twin Programme

Smart City Digital Twins (SCDTs) emerge as a transforming concept with the ability to redefine the future of cities in the fast-paced evolving landscape of urban development. This qualitative futures research explores thoroughly into the complex interaction of socio-technical dynamics in the Finnish setting, investigating the several ways SCDTs might revolutionise urban spaces and create resilience. By utilizing Innovation Policy Roadmapping (IPRM) method for the first time on SCDTs, it reveals the diverse capacities of SCDTs across domains such as urban planning, scenario developing, What-IF analysis, and public involvement through a rigorous examination of academic literature and multi-level analysis of expert interviews. The research emphasises the critical role of policymakers and sectoral actors in building an environment that allows Finnish SCDTs to survive in the face of technological improvements. Furthermore, it emphasises the convergence of SCDTs and Futures Studies approaches, giving a visionary path to adaptable and forward-thinking urban futures. The contributions of this study extend beyond the scope of Finnish SCDTs, giving inspiration for sustainable smart city transformations, potential foundational insights towards Finland National Digital Twin Programme and paving the way for the incorporation of futures studies methodologies and digital twins to mitigate uncertainties and create resilient urban futures. Longitudinal impact assessments, real-time citizen-centric foresight applications via SCDT, and the investigation of SCDTs' role in disaster mitigation and social well-being are among the identified future research directions, providing a comprehensive roadmap for leveraging SCDTs as transformative tools for building sustainable urban futures

Embedded System Design

A unique feature of this open access textbook is to provide a comprehensive introduction to the fundamental knowledge in embedded systems, with applications in cyber-physical systems and the Internet of things. It starts with an introduction to the field and a survey of specification models and languages for embedded and cyber-physical systems. It provides a brief overview of hardware devices used for such systems and presents the essentials of system software for embedded systems, including real-time operating systems. The author also discusses evaluation and validation techniques for embedded systems and provides an overview of techniques for mapping applications to execution platforms, including multi-core platforms. Embedded systems have to operate under tight constraints and, hence, the book also contains a selected set of optimization techniques, including software optimization techniques. The book closes with a brief survey on testing. This fourth edition has been updated and revised to reflect new trends and technologies, such as the importance of cyber-physical systems (CPS) and the Internet of things (IoT), the evolution of single-core processors to multi-core processors, and the increased importance of energy efficiency and thermal issues

Architecting integrated internet of things systems

IoT (Internet of Things) enables anytime and anyplace connectivity for anything by linking the objects of the real world with the virtual world. In the near future, it is predicted that more than 50 billion of things will be connected to the internet. This will lead to many different IoT- based systems that will have a huge impact on the society. Often, these IoT systems will not be standalone but will be composed with other different systems to create additional value. Hence, with the heterogeneity and the integration of IoT-based systems with other IoT-based or non-IoT-based systems has become an important challenge. In this thesis, the main objective is to analyze, design and integrate IoT-based systems and to answer the following research questions: RQ1. What are the characteristic features of IoT systems? RQ2. How to design the architecture for an IoT-based system? RQ3. What are the identified obstacles of the data distribution (DDS) middleware? RQ4. What are the solution directions for the identified obstacles of DDS? RQ5. What are the approaches for integrating multiple IoT-based systems? RQ6. How to design a DDS-based IoT system? RQ7. How to derive feasible deployment alternatives for DDS-based systems? In order to answer these research questions, three different research methodologies were used: Systematic Literature Review, Design Science Research, and Case Study Research. In chapter 2, we have applied a feature driven domain analysis of IoT systems. We have presented the reference architecture for IoT and discussed the corresponding layers. Among these layers, we have focused on the session layer of the IoT. The protocols in this layer are related with the communication sessions of the IoT systems and hence determine the communication characteristics of the IoT systems. We have presented the common and variant features of the most commonly used session layer protocols, namely AMQP, CoAP, DDS, MQTT, and XMPP which are used for communication between M2M (machine-to- machine), M2S (machine-to-server), and S2S (server-to-server). Further, we have provided an evaluation framework to compare session layer communication protocols. Among these protocols, we focused on the DDS that is mainly used for M2M communication in Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). In chapter 3, we have described an architecture design method for architecting IoT systems for the Farm Management Information Systems (FMIS) domain. Hereby, we have also developed a family feature diagram to represent the common and variant features of IoT- based FMIS. In order to illustrate our approach, we have performed a systematic case study approach including the IoT-based wheat and tomato production with IoT-based FMIS. The case study research showed that the approach was both effective and practical. In chapter 4, we have presented the method for designing integrated IoT systems. We showed that integration of IoT-based systems can be at different layers including session layer, cloud layer and application layer. Further we have shown that the integration is typically carried out based on well-defined patterns, that is, generic solutions structures for recurring problems. We have systematically compiled and structured the 15 different integration patterns which can be used in different combinations and likewise supporting the composition of different IoT systems. We have illustrated the use of example patterns in a smart city case study and have shown that the systematic structuring of the integration patterns is useful for integrating IoT systems. A systematic research methodology has been applied in chapter 5 to identify the current obstacles to adopt DDS and their solution directions. We have selected 34 primary studies among the 468 identified papers since the introduction of DDS in 2003. We identified 11 basic categories of problems including complexity of DDS configuration, performance prediction, measurement and optimization, implementing DDS, DDS integration over WAN, DDS using wireless networks and mobile computing, interoperability among DDS vendor implementations, data consistency in DDS, reliability in DDS, scalability in DDS, security, and integration with event-based systems. We have adopted feature diagrams to summarize and provide an overview of the identified problem and their solutions defined in the primary studies. DDS based architecture design for IoT systems is presented in chapter 6. DDS is considered to be a potential middleware for IoT because of its focus on event-driven communication in which quality of service is also explicitly defined. We provide a systematic approach to model the architecture for DDS-based IoT in which we adopted architecture viewpoints for modeling DDS, IoT and DDS-based IoT systems. We have integrated and represented the architecture models that can be used to model DDS-based IoT systems for various application domains. When designing DDS-based systems typically multiple different alternatives can be derived. Chapter 7 presents an approach for deriving feasible DDS configuration alternatives. For this we have provided a systematic approach for extending the DDS UML profile and developed an extensible tool framework Deploy-DDS to derive feasible deployment alternatives given the application model, the physical resources, and the execution configurations. The tool framework Deploy-DDS implements a set of predefined algorithms and can be easily extended with new algorithms to support the system architect. We have evaluated the approach and the tool framework for a relevant IoT case study on smart city engineering. Chapter 8 concludes the thesis by summarizing the contributions.</p