ABSTRACT
At a time when the COVID-19's second wave is still picking up in countries like India, a number of reports describe the potential association with a rise in the number of cases of mucormycosis, commonly known as the black fungus. This fungal infection has been around for centuries and affects those people whose immunity has been compromised due to severe health conditions. In this article, we provide a detailed overview of mucormycosis and discuss how COVID-19 could have caused a sudden spike in an otherwise rare disease in countries like India. The article discusses the various symptoms of the disease, class of people most vulnerable to this infection, preventive measures to avoid the disease, and various treatments that exist in clinical practice and research to manage the disease.
ABSTRACT
With rapid advancements in the technology, almost all the devices around are becoming smart and contribute to the Internet of Things (IoT) network. When a new IoT device is added to the network, it is important to verify the authenticity of the device before allowing it to communicate with the network. Hence, access control is a crucial security mechanism that allows only the authenticated node to become the part of the network. An access control mechanism also supports confidentiality, by establishing a session key that accomplishes secure communications in open public channels. Recently, blockchain has been implemented in access control protocols to provide a better security mechanism. The foundation of this survey article is laid on IoT, where a detailed description on IoT, its architecture and applications is provided. Further, various security challenges and issues, security attacks possible in IoT and their countermeasures are also provided. We emphasize on the blockchain technology and its evolution in IoT. A detailed description on existing consensus mechanisms and how blockchain can be used to overpower IoT vulnerabilities is highlighted. Moreover, we provide a comprehensive description on access control protocols. The protocols are classified into certificate-based, certificate-less and blockchain-based access control mechanisms for better understanding. We then elaborate on each use case like smart home, smart grid, health care and smart agriculture while describing access control mechanisms. The detailed description not only explains the implementation of the access mechanism, but also gives a wider vision on IoT applications. Next, a rigorous comparative analysis is performed to showcase the efficiency of all protocols in terms of computation and communication costs. Finally, we discuss open research issues and challenges in a blockchain-envisioned IoT network.
ABSTRACT
Healthcare professionals, patients, and other stakeholders have been storing medical prescriptions and other relevant reports electronically. These reports contain the personal information of the patients, which is sensitive data. Therefore, there exists a need to store these records in a decentralized model (using IPFS and Ethereum decentralized application) to provide data and identity protection. Many patients recurrently visit doctors and undergo treatments while receiving different prescriptions and reports. In case of an emergency, the doctors and attendants may need and benefit from the patients' medical history. However, they are unable to go through medical history and a wide range of previous reports and prescriptions due to time constraints. In this paper, we propose an AI-assisted blockchain-based framework in which the stored medical records (handwritten prescriptions, printed prescriptions, and printed reports) are stored and processed using various AI techniques like optical character recognition (OCR) to form a single patient medical history report. The report concisely presents only the crucial information for convenience and perusal and is stored securely over a decentralized blockchain network for later use.
ABSTRACT
With the ever-increasing awareness among people regarding their health, visiting a doctor has become quite common. However, with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, home-based consultations are gaining popularity. Nevertheless, the worries over privacy and the lack of willingness to assist patients by the medical professionals in the online consultation process have made current models ineffective. In this paper, we present an advanced protected blockchain-based consultation model for minor medical conditions. Our model not only ensures users' privacy but by incorporating a calculation model, it also offers an opportunity for consulting end-users to voluntarily take part in the consultation process. Our work proposes a smart contract based on machine learning to be implemented for the prediction of a score of a professional who consults based on various prioritized parameters. This is done by using word2vec and TF-IDF weighting to classify the question and cosine similarity scores for detailed orientation analysis. Based on this score, the patient is charged, and simultaneously, the responder is awarded ether. An incentivized method leads to more accessible healthcare while reducing the cost itself.
ABSTRACT
This article provides a literature review of state-of-the-art machine learning (ML) algorithms for disaster and pandemic management. Most nations are concerned about disasters and pandemics, which, in general, are highly unlikely events. To date, various technologies, such as IoT, object sensing, UAV, 5G, and cellular networks, smartphone-based system, and satellite-based systems have been used for disaster and pandemic management. ML algorithms can handle multidimensional, large volumes of data that occur naturally in environments related to disaster and pandemic management and are particularly well suited for important related tasks, such as recognition and classification. ML algorithms are useful for predicting disasters and assisting in disaster management tasks, such as determining crowd evacuation routes, analyzing social media posts, and handling the post-disaster situation. ML algorithms also find great application in pandemic management scenarios, such as predicting pandemics, monitoring pandemic spread, disease diagnosis, etc. This article first presents a tutorial on ML algorithms. It then presents a detailed review of several ML algorithms and how we can combine these algorithms with other technologies to address disaster and pandemic management. It also discusses various challenges, open issues and, directions for future research.
ABSTRACT
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) have revolutionized the aircraft industry in this decade. UAVs are now capable of carrying out remote sensing, remote monitoring, courier delivery, and a lot more. A lot of research is happening on making UAVs more robust using energy harvesting techniques to have a better battery lifetime, network performance and to secure against attackers. UAV networks are many times used for unmanned missions. There have been many attacks on civilian, military, and industrial targets that were carried out using remotely controlled or automated UAVs. This continued misuse has led to research in preventing unauthorized UAVs from causing damage to life and property. In this paper, we present a literature review of UAVs, UAV attacks, and their prevention using anti-UAV techniques. We first discuss the different types of UAVs, the regulatory laws for UAV activities, their use cases, recreational, and military UAV incidents. After understanding their operation, various techniques for monitoring and preventing UAV attacks are described along with case studies.
ABSTRACT
A Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) acts as a communication mechanism using brain signals to control external devices. The generation of such signals is sometimes independent of the nervous system, such as in Passive BCI. This is majorly beneficial for those who have severe motor disabilities. Traditional BCI systems have been dependent only on brain signals recorded using Electroencephalography (EEG) and have used a rule-based translation algorithm to generate control commands. However, the recent use of multi-sensor data fusion and machine learning-based translation algorithms has improved the accuracy of such systems. This paper discusses various BCI applications such as tele-presence, grasping of objects, navigation, etc. that use multi-sensor fusion and machine learning to control a humanoid robot to perform a desired task. The paper also includes a review of the methods and system design used in the discussed applications.
Subject(s)
Brain-Computer Interfaces , Machine Learning , Algorithms , Brain/physiology , Electroencephalography , Humans , RoboticsABSTRACT
With the integration of Wireless Sensor Networks and the Internet of Things, the smart grid is being projected as a solution for the challenges regarding electricity supply in the future. However, security and privacy issues in the consumption and trading of electricity data pose serious challenges in the adoption of the smart grid. To address these challenges, blockchain technology is being researched for applicability in the smart grid. In this paper, important application areas of blockchain in the smart grid are discussed. One use case of each area is discussed in detail, suggesting a suitable blockchain architecture, a sample block structure and the potential blockchain technicalities employed in it. The blockchain can be used for peer-to-peer energy trading, where a credit-based payment scheme can enhance the energy trading process. Efficient data aggregation schemes based on the blockchain technology can be used to overcome the challenges related to privacy and security in the grid. Energy distribution systems can also use blockchain to remotely control energy flow to a particular area by monitoring the usage statistics of that area. Further, blockchain-based frameworks can also help in the diagnosis and maintenance of smart grid equipment. We also discuss several commercial implementations of blockchain in the smart grid. Finally, various challenges to be addressed for integrating these two technologies are discussed.
