Blockchain and Government Transformation

In today’s digital age, transactions are made increasingly in the virtual universe. Some do all financial transactions online, but some do not even want to think about this possibility since the consideration is unreliable. To make online financial transactions more reliable, many technologies have already been tested. Since passwords, tokens, physical code generation accessories, there have been many attempts, being the most elaborate, the blockchain. Governments, especially in developed countries, often find it difficult to gain the trust of their citizens, especially when it comes to evidence of service provision and improvement of existing services. In developing countries, blockchain requests from governments would be useful in eliminating some important problems, such as corruption, while ensuring more effective deployment and distribution of resources. The adoption of such technologies can also help to facilitate better use of resources. In this paper, we will analyze the impact of the application of blockchain technology on e-government.2020-2

A new product anti‐counterfeiting blockchain using a truly decentralized dynamic consensus protocol

The growth of counterfeit goods has plagued the international community for decades. Nowadays, the battle against counterfeiting remains a significant challenge. Most of the current anti‐counterfeiting systems are centralized. Motivated by the evolution of blockchain technology, we propose (Block‐Supply), a decentralized anti‐counterfeiting supply chain that exploits NFC and blockchain technologies. This paper also proposes a new truly decentralized consensus protocol that, unlike most of the existing protocols, does not require PoW and randomly employs a different set of different size of validators each time a new block is proposed. Our protocol utilizes a game theoretical model to analyze the risk likelihood of the block\u27s proposing nodes. This risk likelihood is used to determine the number of validators involved in the consensus process. Additionally, the game model enforces the honest consensus nodes\u27 behavior by rewarding honest players and penalizing dishonest ones. Our protocol utilizes a novel, decentralized, dynamic mapping between the nodes that participate in the consensus process. This mapping ensures that the interaction between these nodes is executed anonymously and blindly. This way of mapping withstands many attacks that require knowing the identities of the participating nodes in advance, such as DDoS, Bribery, and Eclipse attacks

Smart contract-based blockchain solution to reduce supply chain risks

Companies are becoming aware of the potential risks arising from sustainability aspects in supply chains. These risks can affect ecological, economic or social aspects. One important element in managing those risks is improved transparency in supply chains by means of digital transformation. Innovative technologies like blockchain technology can be used to enforce transparency. In this paper, we present a smart contract-based Supply Chain Control Solution to reduce risks. Technological capabilities of the solution will be compared to a similar technology approach and evaluated regarding their benefits and challenges within the framework of supply chain models. As a result, the proposed solution is suitable for the dynamic administration of complex supply chains

Investigation of obstructive sleep apnea using nonlinear mode interations in nonstationary snore signals

Acoustic studies on snoring sounds have recently drawn attention as a potential alternative to polysomnography in the diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). This paper investigates the feasibility of using nonlinear coupling between frequency modes in snore signals via wavelet bicoherence (WBC) analysis for screening of OSA. Two novel markers (PF1 and PSF), which are frequency modes with high nonlinear coupling strength in their respective WBC spectrum, are proposed to differentiate between apneic and benign snores in same- or both-gender snorers. Snoring sounds were recorded from 40 subjects (30 apneic and 10 benign) by a hanging microphone, and subsequently preprocessed within a wavelet transform domain. Forty inspiratory snores (30 as training and 10 as test data) from each subject were examined. Results demonstrate that nonlinear mode interactions in apneic snores are less self-coupled and usually occupy higher and wider frequency ranges than that of benign snores. PF1 and PSF are indicative of apneic and benign snores (p < 0.0001), with optimal thresholds of PF1 = 285 Hz and PSF = 492 Hz (for both genders combined), as well as sensitivity and specificity values between 85.0 and 90.7%, respectively, outperforming the conventional diagnostic indicator (spectral peak frequency, PF = 243-275 Hz, sensitivity = 77.7-79.7%, specificity = 72.0-78.0%, p < 0.0001). Relationships between apnea-hypopnea index and the proposed markers could likely take the functional form of exponential or power. Perspectives on nonlinear dynamics analysis of snore signals are promising for further research and development of a reliable and inexpensive diagnostic tool for OSA

An acoustical respiratory phase segmentation algorithm using genetic approach

10.1007/s11517-009-0518-0Medical and Biological Engineering and Computing479941-95