ICT Systems Research Articles

Preserving Minors’ Data Protection in IoT-based Smart Homes According to GDPR Considering Cross-Border Issues

Apart from the positive effects οf smart homes, such as economic, energy, and security enhancements, and the focus on their efficiency and reliability, it should also be paid attention to the legal, ethical and social impacts of these ICT systems. The field of children’s data protection is challenging, as they are likely more vulnerable to online risks, and as a result, their protection requires a specialized privacy-preserving scheme. This research work addresses the crucial issues of minors’ data protection, from a European law perspective, through IoT-based devices inside a smart home environment.

Synthesis and photophysical properties of metal complexes of curcumin dyes: Solvatochromism, acidochromism, and photoactivity

Curcumin and its dyes have attracted attention due to their environment-sensitivity and optical properties. However, the free molecule has low photoactivity, which is a limitation for use in photodynamic therapy. To overcome this limitation, we proposed the chelation of a D-π-A-π-D curcumin dye (1) with the metals Cu (II) and Pd (II). The photophysical properties of the curcumin dyes were investigated in different solvents, using UV–vis spectroscopy and time-resolved/steady-state fluorescence techniques. In our results, all curcumin dyes exhibited a positive solvatochromism from non-polar to polar solvents, with the Stokes’ shift in the range of 1895–4970 cm−1. The acidochromism studies were performed in chloroform solution and TLC plates using trifluoroacetic acid (TFA). The results exhibited a negative acidochromism and fluorescence quenching upon gradual addition of TFA, demonstrating reversibility upon addition of triethylamine (TEA). The main mechanism which influences the solvatochromism/acidochromism is the ICT system and fluorescence lifetime decays exhibited mono-exponential fit for aprotic solvents and bi-exponential fit for protic solvents (EtOH and MeOH). Compared to the curcumin ligand (1), the metal complexes (1a-b) exhibited higher singlet oxygen quantum yields (ΦΔ = 0.36 and 0.54, respectively). The in vitro antimicrobial photoactivity of the compounds was evaluated against six different microorganisms. The results showed that the metal complexes (1a-b) exhibited both antileishmanial (MIC = 2.29 μM against Leishmania amazonensis promastigotes) and antifungal (IC50 = 10 μM against Sporothrix brasiliensis yeasts) activities, while the ligand showed no activity, suggesting the chelation with the metals Cu (II) and Pd (II) may improve its photoactivity.

Use of AI Algorithms in Different Building Typologies for Energy Efficiency towards Smart Buildings

Buildings’ heating and cooling systems account for an important part of total energy consumption. The EU’s directives and engagements motivate building owners and relevant stakeholders in the energy and construction sectors towards net zero energy buildings by maximizing the use of renewable energy sources, ICT, and automation systems. However, the high costs of investment for the renovation of buildings, in situ use of renewable energy production, and installation of expensive ICT infrastructure and automation systems in small–medium range buildings are the main obstacles for the wide adoption of EU building directives in small- and medium-range buildings. On the other hand, the concept of sharing computational and data storage resources among various buildings can be an alternative approach to achieving smart buildings and smart cities where the main control power resides on a server. Unlike other studies that focus on the implementation of AI techniques in a building or separated buildings with local processing resources and data storage, in this work a corporate server was employed to control the heating systems in three building typologies and to examine the potential benefits of controlling existing buildings in a unified energy-savings platform. The key finding of this work is that the AI algorithms incorporated into the proposed system achieved significant energy savings in the order of 20–40% regardless of building typology, building functionality, and type of heating system, despite the COVID-19 measures for frequent ventilation of the buildings, even in cases with older-type heating systems.

A Critical Analysis of Adoption of Information Technology in Fostering Supply Chain Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Devolved Governments in Kenya

Kenya being a developing nation is faced with unemployment challenges, unstructured entrepreneurial activities, and poor performance of devolved governments. These challenges have led to dwindling economic performance and growth. With the adoption of devolved system of governance, there has been a progressive demand for innovative and transformative leadership for entrepreneurial development and performance. To address the challenges of inefficiencies and ensure effective delivery of public services, the national government has incorporated Information Communication Technology in almost all its operations. ICT is a pillar in accessing government’s services by the citizens. Integrated Financial Management Information Systems (IFMIS), an ICT system, was conceived in 1998, but was rolled out in 2003for implementation in national government and 2013 in devolved governments. IFMIS was implemented to enhance efficiency of financial management and encourage adoption of modern public expenditure management practices. Since its inception, IFMIS has seen tremendous improvement in government service delivery. Besides the benefits of IFMIS, there have been challenges like inadequate personnel capacity, inappropriate implementation strategies, unclear government policies and inadequate ICT infrastructure. The objective of the study was there to conduct a Critical Analysis on Adoption of Information Technology in Fostering Supply Chain Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Devolved Governments in Kenya. Study was anchored on economic entrepreneur agency, resource-based view theory and adopted multiple case study design. Units of analysis comprised 14 Lake Region Economic Block (LREB) county governments. The study targeted 196 staff including procurement officers, chief officers and procurement committee members. Primary data were used. Pilot results (n=2) revealed 20 item instrument reliability (α=0.9563). Study finding (n=181 (92.3%) results in two retained attitudes (positive and negative) comprising 7 items with a good fit (p<.005). Bivariate ordered probit regression analysis revealed that IMFIS adoption are significantly associated with procurement performance (p<0.05) and supplier adoption of IFMIS are significant (

The Development of Cassava Agribusiness in Lampung Province (The Implications for The Cassava Agribusiness Partnership Model)

Cassava agribusiness has several problems and obstacles that must be overcome completely. So yet, no institutional method of transaction is compatible with and advantageous to all cassava agricultural stakeholders. The objective of this research was to look at the cassava agribusiness partnership model in Lampung and placed study in three districts in Lampung Province, each with its distinctive characteristics: Central Lampung, East Lampung, and West Tulang Bawang. Primary and secondary data were used in the study. In this study, survey methods and in-depth interviews were utilized to obtain data. Qualitative descriptive analysis with an institutional perspective was used to analyze this study. The findings revealed that institutional collaboration in sustainable partnerships between farmer groups associations (Gapoktan), factories with third-party help, and an ICT system could improve the farm, factory, and overall cassava agribusiness performance. Keywords: institutional, partnership, agribusiness, cassava, farmer

Exploring the impact of port-centric information integration on port performance: the case of Qingdao Port

ABSTRACT Digital technologies are dramatically reshaping the maritime industry and transforming how ports operate in a global transport system. To remain competitive and improve its productivity, a port needs to build its digital capability and become a ‘smart’ port. Despite its increasing importance, port digitalisation is largely under-researched. Our research explores how information integration afforded by the recent development of Port Centric ICT systems (PCIS) may impact port performance. A survey was conducted in Qingdao Port, the seventh-largest comprehensive port in the world. We adopted the partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) technique for analysis. Our model focuses on testing the mechanism of information integration on port performance among the port community members; that is, both internal information integration and external information integration and their direct and indirect impact on port performance. Our main contribution lies in that our study identifies two clear pathways for developing a port’s digitalisation processes to achieve competitive advantages: a) the mediated path, where port performance will improve if information integration is coupled with port community operational capability (PCOC); b) the direct path, where the innovative use of PCIS leads to radical ideas, new business models and transformative changes.

Electronic Signature of the Taxpayer in Times of COVID-19

Abstract The aim of the article is to present the legal provisions used to identify taxpayers (and similarly other entities) using electronic communication in the times of COVID-19, in the light of the construction of public ICT systems for submitting declarations and applications. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the IT transformation, including the benefits of switching to digital tools, unless the legislator had already imposed an obligation to use electronic communication. For tax purposes, the range of possible signatures has not been limited to a qualified electronic signature, a trusted signature, a personal signature, and possibly a simple identity verification mechanism using an account in an ICT system secured only with a password. It is often used to sign the so-called “authorization data” (“tax data”). The new facilitations in the field of creating a trusted profile should translate into the popularization of the trusted signature, especially as there are more and more non-tax online services provided by public entities.

Realizing the Need for Digital Transformation of Stakeholder Management: A Systematic Review in the Construction Industry

The construction industry is among the least digitized industries, and the lack of innovation in construction project management practices has led to decreases in productivity. The European Directives for Public Procurement are pushing the entire construction supply chain towards more radical digital transformations over the next years, and project managers are left with the difficult task to harness ICT for the involvement and management of project stakeholders. Digitalization of various processes and practices used to manage stakeholders in construction projects is still low, and part of this problem lies in weak systematization of ICT systems which support these practices. Thus, this paper provides a systematic review of how digitalization and digital transformation affect the way stakeholders behave, engage, and communicate in projects. Following the PRISMA methodology, 73 sources from the literature were chosen for the final analysis. Results are presented through descriptive and qualitative content analysis. Six research topics were identified and thoroughly analyzed. Results show that BIM, social network analysis, and web-based applications as means to digitalize stakeholder management are more mature than social media and VR/AR. An important finding is the need to reengineer and digitally transform processes in construction projects and construction firms to enable further digitalization and effectiveness of digital technologies. Suggestions for further studies follow this line of thought.

Estimation of BER Bit Error Rate Using Digital Smoothing Filters

In the article, the authors present a new method of numerical determination of Q and BER parameters based on which the quality of transmission in optical fibre transmission systems is determined. The proposed method is based on the use of digital smoothing filters algorithms and does not require the knowledge of the so-called “eye diagram”, which greatly simplifies the entire measurement procedure. This method can be implemented in a simple manner in real-time systems, and in particular it is crucial for ICT systems and networks with a high bit rate of more than 10 Gbps and 40 Gbps and systems with time division or wavelength division multiplexing of 100 GBE and 400 GBE.

A comparative study of the most important methods for forecasting the ICT systems vulnerabilities

A comparative study of the most important methods for forecasting the ICT systems vulnerabilities

Cybersecurity in ICT Supply Chains: Key Challenges and a Relevant Architecture.

The specific demands of supply chains built upon large and complex IoT systems, make it a must to design a coordinated framework for cyber resilience provisioning, intended to guarantee trusted supply chains of ICT systems, built upon distributed, dynamic, potentially insecure, and heterogeneous ICT infrastructures. As such, the solution proposed in this paper is envisioned to deal with the whole supply chain system components, from the IoT ecosystem to the infrastructure connecting them, addressing security and privacy functionalities related to risks and vulnerabilities management, accountability, and mitigation strategies, as well as security metrics and evidence-based security assurance. In this paper, we present FISHY as a preliminary architecture that is designed to orchestrate existing and beyond state-of-the-art security appliances in composed ICT scenarios. To this end, the FISHY architecture leverages the capabilities of programmable networks and IT infrastructure through seamless orchestration and instantiation of novel security services, both in real-time and proactively. The paper also includes a thorough business analysis to go far beyond the technical benefits of a potential FISHY adoption, as well as three real-world use cases highlighting the envisioned benefits of a potential FISHY adoption.

A Study on Healthcare ICT Systems and their Usefulness During CoVid-19 Focused in the European Environment

A Study on Healthcare ICT Systems and their Usefulness During CoVid-19 Focused in the European Environment

Quantifying geospatial interdependencies of ICT and power system based on open data

In order to evaluate the effectiveness of innovative services and technologies spanning over the ICT-enabled power system, realistic models are required. Although nowadays there is a wide range of power system data models, these models do not include a lifelike representation of the ICT system architecture and do not consider the level of interconnectedness of the two systems. In this paper, we propose a methodology for quantification of the geospatial relations between ICT and power system based on openly available data. We describe a graph-theoretic approach, formulate a problem of assessing geospatial relations and discuss the methods required to process publicly available data, retrieve scenarios for different regions and quantify the level of interdependence between ICT and power system.

Assessment and Effectiveness of E-learning and Students’ Satisfaction with Online Classes: The Example of Polish Universities

Purpose: The article is an attempt to assess the effectiveness of e-learning as well as the satisfaction of students with online learning. Design/Methodology/Approach: The study was conducted in 2021 on a random sample of 1203 students of chosen Polish universities. The methods used in the study was CAWI. In the first stage of the analysis attempts were made to define the variables influencing the effectiveness of e-learning as well as the degree of the satisfaction of students with the online classes. Findings: The studies demonstrate a close correlation between the student's satisfaction with e-learning and the lecturer's involvement in the classes, good support and functioning of the university's ICT system, an technical and methodological preparation of the university for the implementation of e-learning. Practical Implications: The results of the research show clearly that authorities should put emphasis on good support and functioning of their university's ICT system, on technical and methodological preparation and on lecturer's involvement in the classes conducted, because it will result in a higher degree of student satisfaction with e-learning. These variables should also be systematically monitored and analysed as this would be mutually beneficial for both university and students and would contribute to the effectiveness of distance learning. Originality/Value: A set of variables that affect students’ satisfaction was identified and the strength of influence between endogenous variables was shown.

A Hierarchical Category Embedding Based Approach for Fault Classification of Power ICT System

A Hierarchical Category Embedding Based Approach for Fault Classification of Power ICT System

Perspectives for the development of courier services in post-pandemic reality

Logistics is the most important element of e-commerce market, because in self existence supports the broad activity of enterprises development. Expanding knowledge in this area allows for a broad look beyond the basic framework of the market. It is possible by developing ICT systems and new technologies. Virtual activity of the organizations shows the complexity of market development systems. The article present perspectives for the development of couriers services in post-pandemic reality and evaluates Smith`s management system under changing lockdown condition.

The City as an Experimental Environment: The Identification, Selection, and Activation of Distributed Knowledge in Regional Open Innovation Ecosystems

Over the past decade, open innovation (OI) literature has extended its scope beyond strictly economic contexts to the context of societal value creation. This has given rise to the notion of (local) distributed knowledge as a driver for sustainable innovation and has highlighted the importance of multi-stakeholder collaborations in new product development (NPD) processes to develop new ICT systems for complex urban issues. Several studies have discussed sustainable stakeholder ecosystem architectures for such collaborations. However, little is known about stakeholder identification and selection processes for collaborations in the urban environment. By combining action research with a case study design, this paper studies the nature of contextualized interactions between knowledge actors in the ecosystem and the processes of attraction, identification, selection, and activation of stakeholders in an urban living lab (ULL). These insights converge in the development of a ‘stakeholder acupuncture framework’, which structures mechanisms and practices within dynamic collaboration ecosystems and defines key boundary conditions for such open-ended ecosystems.

Linear Programming Model and Online Algorithm for Customer-Centric Train Calendar Generation

An important objective for train operating companies is to let users, especially commuters, directly query the ICT system about trains’ availability calendar, based on an online approach, and give them clear and brief information, expressed through “intelligent” phrases instead of bit maps. This paper provides a linear programming model of this problem and a fast and flexible heuristic algorithm to create descriptive sentences from train calendars. The algorithmic method, based on the “Divide and Conquer” approach, takes the calendar period queried in its whole and divides it into subsets, which are successively processed one by one. The dominant limitation of previous methods is their strong dependence on the size and complexity of instances. On the contrary, our computational findings show that the proposed online algorithm has a very limited and constant computation time, even when increasing the problem complexity, keeping its processing time between 0 and 16 ms, while producing good quality solutions that differ by an average surplus of 0.13 subsentences compared to benchmark state-of-art solutions.

‘This is a solar-powered website, which means it sometimes goes offline’: a design inquiry into degrowth and ICT

This paper describes how principles derived from degrowth can be a useful heuristic for designing an ICT system within energy limits. It does so by discussing the design choices behindhttps://solar.lowtechmagazine.com, an ongoing design research project that set out to build a ’low-tech website’. This research resulted in a design which is lightweight, tailored towards older and lower-powered devices, is powered by off-grid solar energy and thus designed with energy scarcity in mind. The project shows that values and frameworks theorized within the Computing within Limits community are technically applicable to practices of web development but also identifies hurdles to their more widespread applicability.

The Possibility to Recreate the Shapes of Objects on the Basis of Printer Vibration in the Additive Printing Process

Information protection is an important safety issue in many human activity fields. Technological advances and related ubiquitous computerization bring new challenges in this area. In particular, the problem concerns the protection of devices against non-invasive acquisition processed information in ICT systems. It is known that, e.g., VGA, DVI/HDMI interfaces or laser printer formatter systems that process visual signals are the effective sources of compromising electromagnetic emanations. The emission safety of the more and more commonly used 3D printers is less known. In many cases, the disclosure of information about printed objects might constitute an infringement of the state/industrial/commercial secret, copyright, patent protection, etc. In order to analyze the existing threat, a selected printer using FDM technology was tested. During the tests, simple objects were printed to identify the operation of the stepper motor and the movements of the printer head and the printer platform, which are sources of emissions in the secondary channels. The analyses performed focused on finding the correlation between the recorded vibration signals and the printer head movements when an object was printed. It was shown that the analysis of the registered sensitive signal runtimes and their spectrograms allowed to recreate the printed object shape. Three simple objects (a trihedron, a tube and a tetrahedron) were selected for testing because they include elements that allow the four major movements of the printer head to be easily recognized: along the X axis, along the Y axis, along an arc and diagonally (between the X and Y axes). The paper presents the test results and their analyses.