Blockchains for Use in Construction and Engineering Projects

Author(s):  
George Blumberg

This chapter describes blockchains and illustrates this explanation using the results of a prototype project for an industrial application for a construction project. The chapter describes the application and how modular software components can be used to assemble a blockchain solution. The chapter concludes with a design of the system architecture. The background to blockchain technology includes a description of the evolving nature due to communal, open software consortia and an accelerated prototyping of systems. Four recommendations are made in the chapter. These include the need to form consortia for prototyping applications, encouraging government involvement, the need for engagement with the open software development community, and the suggestion that systems should be designed to support Lean production. A final section offers a range of discussion topics on the current state of the technology and where to expect area of increased interest. These are summarized in three areas: Lean management, Industry 4.0 and smart cities, and topics around privacy and security.

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Sándor Csikós ◽  
György Czifra ◽  
József Sárosi

Industry 4.0 requires the cooperation of several technologies. The intersections of these technologies present us with new challenges. One of these challenges is identification, since we have to identify all the items that are on the network that do work and those that are worked upon. If we fail to identify one of these items the network is presented with an unidentified potentially malicious device or a misidentified product which can cause production to halt. Blockchains or otherwise known as Distributed Ledger Technology, DLT for short is a technology that builds upon the current bookkeeping paradigm and expands it in a decentralized direction. This however can be used in more than just banking since it is essentially a distributed database that has memory of past events not just the current state. By using a blockchain based distributed database to hold processing details and using RFID-s as keys to certain entries in the database it is possible to build a tamper proof production system that can handle the challenges of industry 4.0. It may also be possible to use blockchain technology as a form of digital paper trail that can be used to validate messages sent to the nodes of the system.


Author(s):  
Svitlana Ilkovych ◽  
◽  
Maryna Korol ◽  

The article considers the essence of blockchain technology and the possibility of its application in the banking sector. The current state of development and application of blockchain technologies in various industries is analyzed. The pros and cons of using blockchain technologies for the banking sector are identified. Emphasis is placed on the role of blockchain technologies in the further development of the banking sector. The most promising directions of development of this technology are considered. Particular attention is paid to examples of the use of blockchain technology by global banking institutions.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hikari Takashina ◽  
Kengo Yokomitsu

There are thousands of mobile apps delivering information and offering support and intervention in situations of daily life. The aim of this study was to identify the current state of apps for depressive symptoms or prevention of depression within the official Android and iOS app stores in Japan. The 47 apps for depression available for download from the app stores were evaluated by the App Evaluation Model regarding background information, risk/ privacy and security, evidence, ease of use, and interoperability. Also, we evaluated their primary purpose, technology components, and cognitive-behavioral therapy components. The results suggest that in general few apps have been developed that are evidence-based, secure, and provide the services that users expect. In the future, it will be necessary to develop a framework for developing and disseminating more effective apps. This study is the first review of apps for depression available in Japan and seeks to help create a framework for such apps.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 5889
Author(s):  
Faiza Hashim ◽  
Khaled Shuaib ◽  
Farag Sallabi

Electronic health records (EHRs) are important assets of the healthcare system and should be shared among medical practitioners to improve the accuracy and efficiency of diagnosis. Blockchain technology has been investigated and adopted in healthcare as a solution for EHR sharing while preserving privacy and security. Blockchain can revolutionize the healthcare system by providing a decentralized, distributed, immutable, and secure architecture. However, scalability has always been a bottleneck in blockchain networks due to the consensus mechanism and ledger replication to all network participants. Sharding helps address this issue by artificially partitioning the network into small groups termed shards and processing transactions parallelly while running consensus within each shard with a subset of blockchain nodes. Although this technique helps resolve issues related to scalability, cross-shard communication overhead can degrade network performance. This study proposes a transaction-based sharding technique wherein shards are formed on the basis of a patient’s previously visited health entities. Simulation results show that the proposed technique outperforms standard-based healthcare blockchain techniques in terms of the number of appointments processed, consensus latency, and throughput. The proposed technique eliminates cross-shard communication by forming complete shards based on “the need to participate” nodes per patient.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 266
Author(s):  
Ziaul Haque Munim ◽  
Okan Duru ◽  
Enna Hirata

Blockchain technology, since its introduction, has been expected to be implemented in many areas. Cryptocurrency is one unique example that established a functioning application. On the other hand, blockchain technology is not immune to various challenges related to the nature of itself, privacy management, and antitrust laws, among others. This study lays out the nature of blockchain and applications in the maritime industry, while highlighting the bottlenecks. Potential resolutions and anticipated developments are proposed. To do this, we adopt a systematic approach and present an overview of blockchain in maritime literature. In addition, the fundamental problems with blockchain are investigated, beginning from their essentials to the pain points that are claimed to need improvement. For establishing a legitimate and practically meaningful blockchain platform, stakeholders need to achieve pluralism (consensus validation), privacy, and security of the system.


Author(s):  
Mohd Javaid ◽  
Abid Haleem ◽  
Ravi Pratap Singh ◽  
Shahbaz Khan ◽  
Rajiv Suman

Author(s):  
Yuchao Chi ◽  
Xiaobo Xu

The article is devoted to the current state of the development of commerce between Russia and China, as well as the measures taken in the field of development of mutual trade in this area


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