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Buildings are complex structures composed of heterogeneous elements; these require building management systems (BMSs) to dynamically adapt them to occupants' needs and leverage building resources. The fast growth of information and communication technologies (ICTs) has transformed the BMS field into a multidisciplinary one. Consequently, this has caused several research papers on data-driven solutions to require examination and classification. This paper provides a broad overview of BMS by conducting a systematic literature review (SLR) summarizing current trends in this field. Unlike similar reviews, this SLR provides a rigorous methodology to review current research from a computer science perspective. Therefore, our goal is four-fold: (i) Identify the main topics in the field of building; (ii) Identify the recent data-driven methods; (iii) Understand the BMS's underlying computing architecture (iv) Understand the features of BMS that contribute to the smartization of buildings. The result synthesizes our findings and provides research directions for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electronic Participation (eParticipation) enables citizens to engage in political and decision-making processes using information and communication technologies. As in many other fields, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has recently started to dictate some of the realities of eParticipation. As a result, an increasing number of studies are investigating the use of AI in eParticipation. The aim of this paper is to map current research on the use of AI in eParticipation. Following PRISMA methodology, the authors identified 235 relevant papers in Web of Science and Scopus and selected 46 studies for review. For analysis purposes, an analysis framework was constructed that combined eParticipation elements (namely actors, activities, effects, contextual factors, and evaluation) with AI elements (namely areas, algorithms, and algorithm evaluation). The results suggest that certain eParticipation actors and activities, as well as AI areas and algorithms, have attracted significant attention from researchers. However, many more remain largely unexplored. The findings can be of value to both academics looking for unexplored research fields and practitioners looking for empirical evidence on what works and what does not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Communication and cooperation are fundamental for the correct deployment of P5 medicine, and this can be achieved only by correct comprehension of semantics so that it can aspire to medical knowledge sharing. There is a hierarchy in the operations that need to be performed to achieve this goal that brings to the forefront the complete understanding of the real-world business system by domain experts using Domain Ontologies, and only in the last instance acknowledges the specific transformation at the pure information and communication technology level. A specific feature that should be maintained during such types of transformations is versioning that aims to record the evolution of meanings in time as well as the management of their historical evolution. The main tool used to represent ontology in computing environments is the Ontology Web Language (OWL), but it was not created for managing the evolution of meanings in time. Therefore, we tried, in this paper, to find a way to use the specific features of Common Terminology Service—Release 2 (CTS2) to perform consistent and validated transformations of ontologies written in OWL. The specific use case managed in the paper is the Alzheimer's Disease Ontology (ADO). We were able to consider all of the elements of ADO and map them with CTS2 terminological resources, except for a subset of elements such as the equivalent class derived from restrictions on other classes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes trends and possible future developments in global wood-product markets and discusses implications for the Swedish forest sector. Four possible futures, or scenarios, are considered, based on qualitative scenario analysis. The scenarios are distinguished principally by divergent futures with respect to two highly influential factors driving change in global wood-product markets, whose future development is unpredictable. These so-called critical uncertainties were found to be degrees to which: (i) current patterns of globalization will continue, or be replaced by regionalism, and (ii) concern about the environment, particularly climate change, related policy initiatives and customer preferences, will materialize. The overall future of the Swedish solid wood-product industry looks bright, irrespective of which of the four possible futures occurs, provided it accommodates the expected growth in demand for factory-made, energy-efficient construction components. The prospects for the pulp and paper industry in Sweden appear more ambiguous. Globalization is increasingly shifting production and consumption to the Southern hemisphere, adversely affecting employment and forest owners in Sweden. Further, technical progress in information and communication technology (ICT) is expected to lead to drastic reductions in demand for newsprint and printing paper. Chemical pulp producers may profit from a growing bio-energy industry, since they could manufacture new, high-value products in integrated bio-refineries. Mechanical pulp producers cannot do this, however, and might suffer from higher prices for raw materials and electricity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information and Communication Technologies are driving the improvement of industrial processes. According to the Industry 4.0 (I4.0) paradigm, digital systems provide real-time information to humans and machines, increasing flexibility and efficiency in production environments. Based on the I4.0 Design Principles concept, Virtual Assistants can play a vital role in processing production data and offer contextualized and real-time information to the workers in the production environment. This systematic review paper explored Virtual Assistant applications in the context of I4.0, discussing the Technical Assistance Design Principle and identifying the characteristics, services, and limitations regarding Virtual Assistant use in the production environments. The results showed that Virtual Assistants offer Physical and Virtual Assistance. Virtual Assistance provides real-time contextualized information mainly for support, while Physical Assistance is oriented toward task execution. Regarding services, the applications include integration with legacy systems and static information treatment. The limitations of the applications incorporate concerns about information security and adapting to noisy and unstable environments. It is possible to assume that the terminology of Virtual Assistants is not standardized and is mentioned as chatbots, robots, and others. Besides the worthy insights of this research, the small number of resulting papers did not allow for generalizations. Future research should focus on broadening the search scope to provide more-significant conclusions and research possibilities with new AI models and services, including the emergent Industry 5.0 concept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The in-depth participation and application of new-generation information and communication technologies, such as big data, Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, etc., in the field of smart cities have promoted their abilities in urban fine governance, public services, ecological livability, scientific and technological innovation, etc. Smart cities are gradually becoming recognized as the best solution to "urban problems". Smart city construction drives urban innovative development, accumulates kinetic energy for economic growth, strengthens social support functions, enhances the effectiveness of the ecological environment, and promotes the convergence and integration of urban green development and high-quality development. This paper constructs a difference-in-differences model based on propensity score matching. Additionally, fiscal science and technology investment is introduced as mediating variables to further explain the mechanism through which smart city pilot policy impacts urban green and high-quality development. This research uses panel data from 156 prefecture-level cities in China from 2006 to 2019 to empirically test that the construction of smart cities has a significant positive effect on urban green and high-quality development. The mediation effect model shows that an increase in the level of local government's fiscal science and technology investment enhances the positive effect of smart city construction on urban green and high-quality development. This research concludes with policy recommendations: the government should seize the development opportunity presented by smart city pilot policy, providing necessary policy support and financial incentive for the construction of smart cities. This will optimize the local economic structure, transform the driving forces of urban development, and assist cities in achieving green and high-quality development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data centers consume significant amounts of energy, contributing indirectly to environmental pollution through greenhouse gas emissions during electricity generation. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, information and communication technologies and networks account for roughly 10% of global energy consumption. Reducing power consumption in Data Center Networks (DCNs) is crucial, especially given that many data center components operate at full capacity even under low traffic conditions, resulting in high costs for both service providers and consumers. Current solutions often prioritize power optimization without considering Quality of Service (QoS). Services such as video streaming and Voice over IP (VoIP) are particularly sensitive to loss or delay and require QoS to be maintained below certain thresholds. This paper introduces a novel framework called QoS-Aware Power-Optimized Path Selection (Q-PoPS) for software-defined DCNs. The objective of Q-PoPS is to minimize DCN power consumption while ensuring that an acceptable QoS is provided, meeting the requirements of DCN services. This paper describes the implementation of a prototype for the Q-PoPS framework that leverages the POX Software-Defined Networking (SDN) controller. The performance of the prototype is evaluated using the Mininet emulator. Our findings demonstrate the performance of the proposed Q-PoPS algorithm in three scenarios. Best-case: Enhancing real-time traffic protocol quality without increasing power consumption. midrange-case: Replacing bottleneck links while preserving real-time traffic quality. Worst-case: Identifying new paths that may increase power consumption but maintain real-time traffic quality. This paper underscores the need for a holistic approach to DCN management, optimizing both power consumption and QoS for critical real-time applications. We present the Q-PoPS framework as evidence that such an approach is achievable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today, we are already using several-component devices and systems based on the technologies developed during the first quantum revolution. Examples include microchips for servers, laptops and smartphones, medical imaging devices, LED, lasers, etc. Now, a second quantum revolution is progressing fast, exploiting technological advances for the ability to engineer and manipulate other quantum phenomena such as superposition, entanglement and measurement. As a matter of fact, there is an impressive increase in research and development activities, innovation, public and private investments in a new wave of quantum services and applications. In this scenario, quantum information and communication technologies (QICTs) can be defined as a set of technological components, devices, systems and methods for elaborating, storing and transmitting/sharing quantum information. This paper addresses the challenges and opportunities enabling the rise of QICTs. In order to provide a concrete example, the paper describes an overview of the European project EQUO (European Quantum ecOsystems) dealing with ongoing innovation activities in the QICT avenue; in fact, EQUO aims at developing and demonstrating the feasibility of QKD (quantum key distribution) networks and their related integration in current telecommunications infrastructures towards the quantum internet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The integration of Distributed Energy Resources utilizing Renewable Energy Sources, Energy Storage Systems, and Information and Communication Technologies is transforming traditional energy systems into adaptable, flexible, and sustainable systems, with the Smart Grid concept playing a pivotal role. This paper surveys intelligent techniques and methods applied in various markets and applications, particularly focusing on their potential adaptation for negotiation processes in Smart Grid contexts. The negotiation mechanisms, crucial for prosumers who engage in real-time transactions, are analyzed with a focus on fuzzy logic tools, specifically q-Rung Orthopair Fuzzy Sets. These tools are evaluated for their capability to handle negotiation tasks and Multi-Criteria Decision-Making problems. The paper proposes a negotiation schema for healthcare buildings, especially hospitals, given their significant environmental impact, providing insight for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the pursuit of optimizing the efficiency, flexibility, and adaptability of agricultural practices, human–robot interaction (HRI) has emerged in agriculture. Enabled by the ongoing advancement in information and communication technologies, this approach aspires to overcome the challenges originating from the inherent complex agricultural environments. Τhis paper systematically reviews the scholarly literature to capture the current progress and trends in this promising field as well as identify future research directions. It can be inferred that there is a growing interest in this field, which relies on combining perspectives from several disciplines to obtain a holistic understanding. The subject of the selected papers is mainly synergistic target detection, while simulation was the main methodology. Furthermore, melons, grapes, and strawberries were the crops with the highest interest for HRI applications. Finally, collaboration and cooperation were the most preferred interaction modes, with various levels of automation being examined. On all occasions, the synergy of humans and robots demonstrated the best results in terms of system performance, physical workload of workers, and time needed to execute the performed tasks. However, despite the associated progress, there is still a long way to go towards establishing viable, functional, and safe human–robot interactive systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, information, communication, and technologies (ICTs) and the tourism sector have gained attention from researchers and practitioners. Thus, we examined the trends in using ICTs in the tourism sector using a scientific document approach based on bibliometric analysis. A bibliometric analysis was conducted on 102 selected papers from the Scopus database from 2000 to 2021. The results revealed that the most discussed keywords in the papers were ICT and destination management organization, smart tourism destination, and smart city. Co-occurrence analysis was performed to analyze the trending topic in ICTs, tourism, and hospitality used by academics, while authorship network collaboration examined the partnership between different countries around the world. Statistics such as the number of documents per country, number of citations related to each country, ICT practice studies, and research methods were also discussed in this study. Limitations and implications were also indicated to provide deeper insights to researchers and their future research in terms of ICTs, tourism, and hospitality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the development activity that has been carried out for a living laboratory for the city of Cagliari aimed at functioning as a learning center for local SMEs willing to improve their skills in IoT and create applications that will be integrated in an open innovation ecosystem. The many users belonging to the various SMEs involved in the project required an ICT laboratory with a platform that could manage them and provide a multi-tenant environment for the development of IoT applications. The architecture also had to be scalable and interoperable, and the resulting platform had to collect many kinds of data from sensors or other data sources, elaborate them, and show georeferenced information on a 3D satellite interactive view along with statistics on side panels. This work was based on a platform already developed by CRS4 for a previous project. Preserving the concept of the decision-making tool for Smart Cities, almost every component was redesigned, and, in this paper, we describe the new solutions that have been implemented. Starting from the former structure, further features were added in a novel way in order to offer an enhanced framework that can deal with the activities of the laboratory, exploiting the scalability of the open-source systems involved, their robustness and flexibility, and leveraging domain standards. In this article, the main challenges involved in the development of the platform are described, as well as the solutions that have been implemented so far. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water is an essential service for the sustainable development and economic competitiveness of any country. The global water demand has increased substantially due to economic development, climate change, and rising population. The Internet of Things (IoT) and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) can help conserve available water resources. Smart cities apply IoT to boost the performance and efficiency of urban facilities. Smart cities are towns created to use IoT and ICT (innovative technologies) such as smart water applications. Several studies on smart water technology have been conducted, but there is a need to review current research that leverages the IoT as a communication technology to design effective smart water applications. This review paper is aimed at presenting evidence on the current design of smart water applications. The study also covers publication statistics to increase collaboration between stakeholders. Findings show that various technologies such as microcontrollers, embedded programming languages, sensors, communication modules, and protocols are used by researchers to accomplish their aim of designing IoT-based smart water solutions. None of the publications employed the 5G mobile networks as a communication module for their smart water application development. Findings further show that the integration of 3D printing and solar energy into IoT-based smart water applications is revolutionary and can increase the sustainability of the systems. Future directions required to ensure that developed smart water applications are widely adopted to help conserve and manage water resources are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The essential role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in modern electricity grids makes it necessary to consider them when evaluating the scalability and replicability capabilities of smart grid systems. This paper proposes a novel step-by-step methodology to quantitatively perform an ICT scalability and replicability analysis (SRA) in a smart grid context. The methodology is validated and exemplified by applying it to two real case studies that are demonstrated in the EU-funded RESPONSE project and comprise solutions relying on different communication technologies. The results of the proposed methodology are summarised through ICT scalability and replicability maps, which are introduced in this paper as a quick way of obtaining an overview of the scalability and replicability capabilities of an ICT system and as an efficient way of estimating the feasibility of scenarios not covered in the SRA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information Communication Technology (ICT) and social networks have significant impact on everyday life. One the one hand, Internet users enjoy promoting themselves and feel free to disseminate information about themselves through websites and social networks, but on the other hand, people feel forced to reveal information about them on the Internet. Web technologies enable self-promotion for many reasons, i.e., social relations development, acquiring a new job, or research career support. This paper concerns autoethnography application for social science researcher profile cultivation. Autoethnography belongs to qualitative methods and focuses on deep analysis of experiences and competencies in a narrative way. In this study, autoethnography is self-reflection for personal development strategy. This study methodology includes the literature survey and case study. The Literature Survey (LS) on autoethnographic research is included to answer the question for what purposes autoethnography is applied. In the case study, the author proposes to expand autoethnography and presents that beyond stories, statistical data can be used to reveal researcher's experiences and personality, and data anonymization is a solution for privacy protection in autoethnographic research. The results indicate that perception of individual profile is significantly influenced by ICT, Internet services, and social networks platforms and portals. Contemporary researchers are evaluated by Web statistical measures. The researcher's profiling is much more complex and statistical measures and metrics provide a general view of the researcher. Application of statistical measures leads to concluding on general competencies of the researcher and precludes a deep focus on local scientific specificity of the researcher. This paper has added value because of presenting the academic community integration with the Internet social networks, e.g., Facebook, LinkedIn, or SciVal. The paper emphasizes transparency and visibility of researchers' profiles, as well as the necessity to analyze their activities and publications in academic community context and in comparisons with others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this systematic review is to identify recent digital technologies used to detect early signs of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in preschool children (i.e., up to six years of age). A systematic literature search was performed for English language articles and conference papers indexed in Pubmed, PsycInfo, ERIC, CINAHL,WoS, IEEE, and ACM digital libraries up until January 2020. A follow-up search was conducted to cover the literature published until December 2020 for the usefulness and interest in this area of research during the Covid-19 emergency. In total, 2427 articles were initially retrieved from databases search. Additional 481 articles were retrieved from follow-up search. Finally, 28 articles met the inclusion criteria and were included in the review. The studies included involved four main interface modalities: Natural User Interface (e.g., eye trackers), PC or mobile, Wearable, and Robotics. Most of the papers included (n = 20) involved the use of Level 1 screening tools. Notwithstanding the variability of the solutions identified, psychometric information points to considering available technologies as promising supports in clinical practice to detect early sign of ASD in young children. Further research is needed to understand the acceptability and increase use rates of technology-based screenings in clinical settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The integration of advanced information and communication technology in smart grids has exposed them to increased cyber attacks. Traditional model-based fault detection systems rely on mathematical models to identify malicious activities but struggle with the complexity of modern systems. This paper explores the application of artificial intelligence, specifically machine learning, to develop fault detection mechanisms that do not depend on these models. We focus on operational technology for fault detection, isolation, and identification (FDII) within smart grids, specifically examining a load frequency control (LFC) system. Our proposed approach uses sensor data to accurately identify threats, demonstrating promising results in simulated environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The digital maturity of universities has been a key element in coping with the forced situation brought about by COVID-19 and in subsequent years. This research paper presents a case study of a private Spanish university that aims to analyze the challenges and opportunities that have arisen after the pandemic in terms of resource management and training for teaching innovation and digitization. The nature of this study is qualitative, in which nine interviews were conducted with managers from different faculties and those responsible for Information and Communication Technologies. After analyzing the data with Atlas.ti, four categories were established (technological resources and devices, challenges, opportunities, and others). The study concludes by discussing the commitment to online training, the popularization of videoconferencing tools for teaching sessions, meetings, or synchronous tutorials, and the acceleration of digital transformation, among others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital substations have adopted a high amount of information and communication technology (ICT) and cyber–physical systems (CPSs) for monitoring and control. As a result, cyber attacks on substations have been increasing and have become a major concern. An intrusion-detection system (IDS) could be a solution to detect and identify the abnormal behaviors of hackers. In this paper, a Deep Neural Network (DNN)-based IDS is proposed to detect malicious generic object-oriented substation event (GOOSE) communication over the process and station bus network, followed by the multiclassification of the cyber attacks. For training, both the abnormal and the normal substation networks are monitored, captured, and logged, and then the proposed algorithm is applied for distinguishing normal events from abnormal ones within the network communication packets. The designed system is implemented and tested with a real-time IEC 61850 GOOSE message dataset using two different approaches. The experimental results show that the proposed system can successfully detect intrusions with an accuracy of 98%. In addition, a comparison is performed in which the proposed IDS outperforms the support vector machine (SVM)-based IDS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industry 4.0 integrates the intelligent networking of machines and processes through advanced information and communication technologies (ICTs). Despite advancements, small mechanical manufacturing enterprises face significant challenges transitioning to ICT-supported Industry 4.0 models due to a lack of technical expertise and infrastructure. These enterprises commonly encounter variable production volumes, differing priorities in customer orders, and diverse production capacities across low-, medium-, and high-level outputs. Frequent issues with machine health, glitches, and major breakdowns further complicate optimizing production scheduling. This paper presents a novel production management approach that harnesses bio-inspired methods alongside Internet of Things (IoT) technology to address these challenges. This comprehensive approach integrates the real-time monitoring and intelligent production order distribution, leveraging advanced LoRa wireless communication technology. The system ensures efficient and concurrent data acquisition from multiple sensors, facilitating accurate and prompt capture, transmission, and storage of machine status data. The experimental results demonstrate significant improvements in data collection time and system responsiveness, enabling the timely detection and resolution of machine failures. Additionally, an enhanced genetic algorithm dynamically allocates tasks based on machine status, effectively reducing production completion time and machine idle time. Case studies in a screw manufacturing facility validate the practical applicability and effectiveness of the proposed system. The seamless integration of the scheduling algorithm with the real-time monitoring subsystem ensures a coordinated and efficient production process, ultimately enhancing productivity and resource utilization. The proposed system's robustness and efficiency highlight its potential to revolutionize production management in small-scale manufacturing settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researches on the Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud computing have been pervasive in both the academic and industrial world. IoT and cloud computing are seen as cornerstones to digital transformation in the industry. However, restricted by limited resources and the lack of expertise in information and communication technologies, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have difficulty in achieving digitalization of their business. In this paper, we propose a reference framework for SMEs to follow as a guideline in the journey of digital transformation. The framework features a three-stage procedure that covers business, technology, and innovation, which can be iterated to drive product and business development. A case study about digital transformation taking place in the vertical plant wall industry is detailed. Furthermore, some solution design principles that are concluded from real industrial practice are presented. This paper reviews the digital transformation practice in the vertical plant wall industry and aims to accelerate the pace of SMEs in the journey of digital transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Featured Application: The UTOPIA Smart Video Surveillance System can be used for object recognition, tracking, and behavior analysis as well as object detection, and can also use Storm and Spark as well asMapReduce. A smart city is a future city that enables citizens to enjoy Information and Communication Technology (ICT) based smart services with any device, anytime, anywhere. It heavily utilizes Internet of Things. It includes many video cameras to provide various kinds of services for smart cities. Video cameras continuously feed big video data to the smart city system, and smart cities need to process the big video data as fast as it can. This is a very challenging task because big computational power is required to shorten processing time. This paper introduces UTOPIA Smart Video Surveillance, which analyzes the big video images using MapReduce, for smart cities. We implemented the smart video surveillance in our middleware platform. This paper explains its mechanism, implementation, and operation and presents performance evaluation results to confirm that the system worked well and is scalable, efficient, reliable, and flexible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The modernization of the current electric power grid into a smart grid requires the integration of advanced instrumentation, automation, and communication technologies to optimize efficiency, safety, and reliability. In traditional power grids, communication and control tasks are concentrated in substations, limiting their coverage to high-power equipment. As distributed energy resources increase in different sections of the grid, power flow becomes bi-directional. This requires monitoring and control at the Transmission and Distribution (T&D) level, which forms the largest portion of the power grid. To achieve efficient energy flow management and enable consumer participation in demand management, the integration of information and communication technologies (ICTs) is essential. Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have been identified as a suitable solution for communications within the distribution network. An ongoing challenge, however, is the definition of the best candidates to solve this problem, among the currently available wireless technologies. This paper reviews different wireless communication technologies that provide robustness, reliability, speed, scalability, and cost-effectiveness for monitoring distribution lines. An outline of the architecture for smart grid communications, the definition of sensor network requirements for power line environments, and an overview of specific studies focusing on technology comparisons are the main contributions of this paper. The purpose of this review is to delineate current technologies in order to establish potential future research directions within the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The past decade has seen a rise in the availability of modern information and communication technologies (ICTs) for developing smart societies and communities. However, the smart divide, characterized by inequalities in ICT infrastructures, software access, and individual capabilities, remains a significant barrier for rural communities. Limited empirical studies exist that explore what and how ICT infrastructures can be developed to bridge the smart divide. The paper aimed to address rural broadband access in the context of infrastructural dimensions of smart divide (i.e., smart infrastructural divide) in the United States, focusing on the wireless network infrastructure's role in narrowing the gap. It examined the broadband specifications needed for smart applications like smart education and telehealth, emphasizing the importance of wireless network capabilities. While fixed broadband offers higher speeds, wireless networks can support many smart applications with decent flexibility and ease of access. To further understand the implications of wireless broadband to rural communities, we conducted a case study in Carbondale and Cairo, two rural towns in Southern Illinois, using on-site user-inspired speed testing. An Android application was developed to measure download/upload speeds and Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) for broadband quality. Results suggest both Carbondale and Cairo experienced below-average speeds with high variability among census blocks, which highlights the need for improved wireless network infrastructure. The paper culminated in the technological and policy recommendations to narrow down the smart infrastructural divide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, smart grids have integrated information and communication technologies into power networks, which brings new network security issues. Among the existing cyberattacks, the false data injection attack (FDIA) compromises state estimation in smart grids by injecting false data into the meter measurements, which adversely affects the smart grids. Current studies on FDIAs mainly focus on the detection of its existence, but there are few studies on its localization. Most attack localization methods have difficulty locating the specific bus or line that is under attack quickly and accurately, have high computational complexity and are difficult to apply to large power networks. Therefore, this paper proposes a localization method for FDIAs that is based on a convolutional neural network and optimized with a sparrow search algorithm (SSA–CNN). Based on the physical meaning of measurement vectors, the proposed method can precisely locate a specific bus or line with relatively low computational complexity. To address the difficulty of selecting hyperparameters in the CNN, which leads to the degradation of localization accuracy, a SSA is used to optimize the hyperparameters of the CNN so that the hyperparameters are optimal when using the model for localization. Finally, simulation experiments are conducted on IEEE14-bus and IEEE118-bus test systems, and the simulation results show that the method proposed in this paper has a high localization accuracy and can largely reduce the false-alarm rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban areas constitute one of the main issues of sustainability as defined by the United Nations with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The recent smart city concept represents a way for achieving the urban sustainability goals. The European Commission (EC) bases the smart city concept on three pillars: energy, transport and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). The main objective of the paper is to investigate the European smart city process, by focusing on urban mobility and their interconnections with the other two pillars. The methodological approach of territorial planning is used by identifying the plan dimensions and then analyzing the processes at master and sectorial level. The applied processes are verified with a review of the European documents that constitute the rules for defining and implementing the smart city concept. European guidelines indicate the SUMP as the integrated master plan that contributes to reach the convergence among energy, transport and ICT processes. By focusing on people mobility sector, European cities are implementing the Mobility as a Service (MaaS) plan at the sectorial level. This implies the necessity to enhance the knowledge of mobility phenomenon, in relation to emerging ICT and their impact on energy consumptions. The contribution of the work is given by the identification of a planning and implementation path focused on smart city, in urban areas, which connects the general goals of Agenda 2030 with the daily implications for citizens and therefore with the specific results. The paper results are useful: from one side, for researchers that work on advancements of theories, and from another side, for planners and decision makers to explore the European attempts towards urban sustainability and the real implementations on urban mobility systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: To improve port productivity, safety, and sustainability, the use of information and communication technology is being promoted as a smart port. The utilization of a terminal operation system (TOS) is important for advanced port operations, and it is necessary to organize the issues and characteristics of the TOS. Methods: The characteristics of TOSs introduced in Japan and those widely introduced in Europe and Southeast Asia will be investigated and discussed according to the port management system in Japan. Results: Japanese TOSs are characterized by a lack of automated functions, such as ship loading plans, and by the fact that they are designed to allow the crane driver to select the order of operations, which may be attributed to a system wherein stakeholders are segmented and on-site decisions are emphasized. The promotion of smart ports in Japanese-style ports requires a system for information linkage between stakeholders. Conclusions: TOS capabilities for smart ports should be implemented according to the characteristics of port management in each region, and the studies conducted in this paper are useful in examining port system implementation strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the years, agricultural management practices are being improved as they integrate Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and Precision Agriculture tools. Regarding sugarcane crop production, this integration aims to reduce production cost, enhance input applications, and allow communication among different hardware and datasets, improving system sustainability. Sugarcane mechanization has some particularities that mandate the development of custom solutions based on digital tools, which are being applied globally in different crops. Digital mechanization can be conceived as the application of digital tools on mechanical operation. This review paper addresses different digital solutions that have contributed towards the mechanization of sugarcane crop production. The process of digitalization and transformation in agriculture and its related operations to sugarcane are presented, highlighting important ICT applications such as real-time mechanical operations monitoring and integration among operations, demonstrating their contributions and limitations regarding management efficiency. In addition, this article presents the major challenges to overcome and possible guidance on research to address these issues, i.e., poor communication technologies available, need for more focus on field and crop data, and lack of data interoperability among mechanized systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The electrification of the transport sector has emerged as a game changer in addressing the issues of climate change caused by global warming. However, the unregulated expansion and simplistic approach to electric vehicle (EV) charging pose substantial risks to grid stability and efficiency. Intelligent charging techniques using Information and Communication Technology, known as smart charging, enable the transformation of the EV fleets from passive consumers to active participants within the grid ecosystem. This concept facilitates the EV fleet's contribution to various grid services, enhancing grid functionality and resilience. This paper investigates the optimal infrastructure design for a smart charging system within the Monash microgrid (Clayton campus). We introduce a centralized Grid-to-Vehicle (G2V) algorithm and formulate three optimization problems utilizing linear and least-squares programming methods. These problems address tariff structures between the main grid and microgrid, aiming to maximize aggregator profits or minimize load fluctuations while meeting EV users' charging needs. Additionally, our framework incorporates network-aware coordination via the Newton–Raphson method, leveraging EVs' charging flexibility to mitigate congestion and node voltage issues. We evaluate the G2V algorithm's performance under increasing EV user demand through simulation and analyze the net present value (NPV) over 15 years. The results highlight the effectiveness of our proposed framework in optimizing grid operation management. Moreover, our case study offers valuable insights into an efficient investment strategy for deploying the G2V system on campus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The digital transformation of society is a reality. Technology is becoming integral to people's daily lives and children are growing up in the digital age. The education systems have to reflect and adapt to the new digital reality to effectively engage and prepare students for the future. Teachers have to possess digital competences at a high level, meaning that they are successfully able to use digital tools and technologies in their teaching practices. Digital competences include digital literacy, experience using educational software and platforms, and the ability to seamlessly integrate information and communication technologies (ICT) into the organization of educational activities. The current paper aims to study the opinion of teachers in Bulgarian schools regarding the possibilities of using digital technologies to achieve educational goals and the extent to which teachers integrate digital tools in their teaching activities. Teachers' opinions about the need for specific digital competences are important. The results of the survey show that teachers in Bulgaria actively use digital technologies in their daily teaching activities (84.8%) in order to create and provide learning content to students and to provoke their active participation, and is a convenient tool for evaluating their students' knowledge and skills and for providing effective feedback. The conducted research also identifies the necessary competences that teachers of the digital generation of learners need—skills and competences for developing authored electronic resources in various formats for students with different learning styles, as well as for working in online environments—individually and collaboratively with other teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of communication disturbances on microgrids (MGs) needs robust and scalable Information Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure for efficient MG control. This work builds on advances in the Internet of Things (IoT) to provide a practical platform for testing the impact of various cyber-attacks on a distributed control scheme for a Multi-Agent System (MAS). This paper presents a Controller Hardware-in-the-Loop (CHIL) testbed to investigate the impact of various cyber-attacks and communication disruptions on MGs. A distributed consensus secondary control scheme for a MAS within an MG cyber-physical system (CPS) is proposed. The proposed cyber-physical testbed integrates a real-time islanded AC microgrid on RT-Lab, secondary controllers implemented on single-board computers, and an attacker agent on another single-board computer. Communication occurs via a UDP/IP network between OPAL-RT and controller agents, as well as between the agents. Through meticulous experimentation, the efficacy of the proposed control strategy using the developed platform is validated. Various attacks were modeled and launched including deception attacks on sensors, actuators, and their combinations, as well as disruption attacks. The ramifications of both deception and disruption cyber-attacks on system performance are analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review investigates the evolution of green information systems (ISs) based on an examination of the literature spanning the years 2000 to 2023. Using bibliographic analysis, a method that enables the study of a large volume of sources, this paper establishes connections among pertinent concepts in the green ISs field, outlining the authors' interests in the analysed period. Based on the identification of key trends, primary directions, interdisciplinary initiatives, and emerging areas, the assessment reveals that the interest in minimizing the negative impact of information and communication technologies (ICTs) on the environment is a relevant research topic, with significant evolution in the analysed period. On this basis, this study emphasizes the need for the integration of environmental protection in all stages of the IS life cycle and in all industries, a holistic approach we consider essential for the sustainable growth of the ICT-based societal domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the smartization and autonomous navigation of vessels through ICT (Information and Communications Technologies)—combining IoT, artificial intelligence (AI), and Big Data—changes in the shipbuilding industry will progress quickly; we must acquire superior technology and vessel quality to partake in the revamped shipbuilding industry. This paper aims to research the means of collecting and managing big data in shipbuilding to suit a variety of data types and communication methods in the shipbuilding industry, as well as ways of utilizing the aforementioned big data in order to respond to rapidly progressing changes in the industry. Additionally, the model proposed in this paper is research based on the Asian shipbuilding industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Facing global market competition and supply chain risks, many production companies are leaning towards distributed manufacturing because of their ability to utilize a network of manufacturing resources located around the world. Deriving from information and communication technologies and artificial intelligence, the digital twin shop-floor (DTS) has received great attention from academia and industry. DTS is a virtual shop-floor that is almost identical to the physical shop-floor. Therefore, multiple physical shop-floors located in different places can easily be interconnected to realize a DT that is a distributed digital twin shop-floor (D2TS). However, some challenges still hinder effective and efficient resource allocation among D2TSs. In order to attempt to address the issues, firstly, this paper proposes an information architecture for D2TSs based on cloud–fog computing; secondly, a novel mechanism of D2TS resource allocation (D2TSRA) is designed. The proposed mechanism both makes full use of a digital twin to support dynamic allocation of geographic resources and avoids the centralized solutions of the digital twin which lead to a heavy burden on the network bandwidth; thirdly, the optimization problem in D2TSRA is solved by a BP neural network algorithm and an improved genetic algorithm; fourthly, a case study for distributed collaborative manufacturing of aero-engine casing is employed to validate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed method of resource allocation for D2TS; finally, the paper is summarized and the relevant research directions are prospected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last decade, the main attacks against smart grids have occurred in communication networks (ITs) causing the disconnection of physical equipment from power networks (OTs) and leading to electricity supply interruptions. To deal with the deficiencies presented in past studies, this paper addresses smart grids vulnerability assessment considering the smart grid as a cyber-physical heterogeneous interconnected system. The model of the cyber-physical system is composed of a physical power network model and the information and communication technology network model (ICT) both are interconnected and are interrelated by means of the communication and control equipment installed in the smart grid. This model highlights the hidden interdependencies between power and ICT networks and contains the interaction between both systems. To mimic the real nature of smart grids, the interconnected heterogeneous model is based on multilayer complex network theory and scale-free graph, where there is a one-to-many relationship between cyber and physical assets. Multilayer complex network theory centrality indexes are used to determine the interconnected heterogeneous system set of nodes criticality. The proposed methodology, which includes measurement, communication, and control equipment, has been tested on a standardized power network that is interconnected to the ICT network. Results demonstrate the model's effectiveness in detecting vulnerabilities in the interdependent cyber-physical system compared to traditional vulnerability assessments applied to power networks (OT). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the findings of a scoping review that maps exploratory evidence and gaps in research on information and communication technology (ICT) access and use among older persons in the Arab region. This review is part of a larger project that studies ICT access and use and related challenges faced by older adults in Qatar. A search was conducted in eleven scientific databases and search engines covering empirical studies published in English and Arabic between January 2016 and June 2021. Eleven studies were retrieved in the final corpus. A thematic analysis alongside the PRISMA for scoping reviews (PRISMA-ScR) was used to retrieve the findings. Our analysis identifies smartphones and social media applications for communication and information sharing as the most accessed and used technologies by older persons in the region. Moreover, our review highlighted the importance of the sociocultural factors in shaping ICT access and use by older persons in the region. The functional limitations of older persons in interaction with certain technology factors such as usability, functionality, and accessibility were also highlighted as major challenges inhibiting ICT access and use by this population segment. This scoping review provides a comprehensive overview of ICT access and use, and the factors affecting them among older persons in the Arab region. It highlights the scarcity of research on the subject in the region. It also stresses the fact that there is a need for more research on older persons and their caregivers in the context of the Arab world. More culturally appropriate need-based and adapted technologies are also recommended. Our review is a comprehensive source for researchers and technology developers interested in targeting and engaging older adults in the Arab region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Intrusion Detection System (IDS) is an important tool to mitigate cybersecurity threats in an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure. The function of the IDS is to detect an intrusion to an ICT system or network so that adequate countermeasures can be adopted. Desirable features of IDS are computing efficiency and high intrusion detection accuracy. This paper proposes a new anomaly detection algorithm for IDS, where a machine learning algorithm is applied to detect deviations from legitimate traffic, which may indicate an intrusion. To improve computing efficiency, a sliding window approach is applied where the analysis is applied on large sequences of network flows statistics. This paper proposes a novel approach based on the transformation of the network flows statistics to gray images on which Gray level Co-occurrence Matrix (GLCM) are applied together with an entropy measure recently proposed in literature: the 2D Dispersion Entropy. This approach is applied to the recently public IDS data set CIC-IDS2017. The results show that the proposed approach is competitive in comparison to other approaches proposed in literature on the same data set. The approach is applied to two attacks of the CIC-IDS2017 data set: DDoS and Port Scan achieving respectively an Error Rate of 0.0016 and 0.0048. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of public administrations after COVID-19, this paper formulates and validates a digital model of tutoring (e-tutoring) for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) by public administrations or PAs to help the former reduce their risks to fold in their first few years of existence and with the support of private professionals (economists, accountants, business advisors, managers, etc.). The model draws on ideas about relational administration (RA), a concept that is yet to be fully exploited or assessed in the literature. Several hypotheses derived from the model are formulated and tested using a polytomic-nominal logistic regression. A questionnaire was sent to and returned by 236 small and medium entrepreneurs in Spain facing insolvency proceedings to identify main reasons for business failure and if or how they would accept online tutoring from private professionals associated with PAs. Findings suggest that SM entrepreneurs agree with receiving selected forms of tutoring, requiring public administrations to enhance capabilities for joint information provision and decision making through the use of information and communication technologies or ICTs. These findings have important implications for the potential restructuring of public administrations, their collaborations with professionals, and the future co-design and implementation of e-government services by PAs [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The escalating reliance of modern society on information and communication technology has rendered it vulnerable to an array of cyber-attacks, with distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks emerging as one of the most prevalent threats. This paper delves into the intricacies of DDoS attacks, which exploit compromised machines numbering in the thousands to disrupt data services and online commercial platforms, resulting in significant downtime and financial losses. Recognizing the gravity of this issue, various detection techniques have been explored, yet the quantity and prior detection of DDoS attacks has seen a decline in recent methods. This research introduces an innovative approach by integrating evolutionary optimization algorithms and machine learning techniques. Specifically, the study proposes XGB-GA Optimization, RF-GA Optimization, and SVM-GA Optimization methods, employing Evolutionary Algorithms (EAs) Optimization with Tree-based Pipelines Optimization Tool (TPOT)-Genetic Programming. Datasets pertaining to DDoS attacks were utilized to train machine learning models based on XGB, RF, and SVM algorithms, and 10-fold cross-validation was employed. The models were further optimized using EAs, achieving remarkable accuracy scores: 99.99% with the XGB-GA method, 99.50% with RF-GA, and 99.99% with SVM-GA. Furthermore, the study employed TPOT to identify the optimal algorithm for constructing a machine learning model, with the genetic algorithm pinpointing XGB-GA as the most effective choice. This research significantly advances the field of DDoS attack detection by presenting a robust and accurate methodology, thereby enhancing the cybersecurity landscape and fortifying digital infrastructures against these pervasive threats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The prevalence of intelligent transportation systems in alleviating traffic congestion and reducing the number of traffic accidents has risen in recent years owing to the rapid advancement of information and communication technology (ICT). Nevertheless, the increase in Internet of Vehicles (IoV) users has led to massive data transmission, resulting in significant delays and network instability during vehicle operation due to limited bandwidth resources. This poses serious security risks to the traffic system and endangers the safety of IoV users. To alleviate the computational load on the core network and provide more timely, effective, and secure data services to proximate users, this paper proposes the deployment of edge servers utilizing edge computing technologies. The massive image data of users are processed using an image compression algorithm, revealing a positive correlation between the compression quality factor and the image's spatial occupancy. A performance analysis model for the ADHOC MAC (ADHOC Medium Access Control) protocol is established, elucidating a positive correlation between the frame length and the number of service users, and a negative correlation between the service user rate and the compression quality factor. The optimal service user rate, within the constraints of compression that does not compromise detection accuracy, is determined by using the target detection result as a criterion for effective compression. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme satisfies the object detection accuracy requirements in the IoV context. It enables the number of successfully connected users to approach the total user count, and increases the service rate by up to 34%, thereby enhancing driving safety, stability, and efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the advancement of information and communication technologies (ICTs), the way we live and communicate with each other is changing rapidly. As urban environments continue to evolve, the smart sustainable city (SSC) has sparked considerable attention. We are hoping for a new era in which numerous devices and machines including vehicles, sensors, and robots are all connected to communicate, respond, and operate in real time. The next-generation communication system, the sixth generation (6G), is expected to play a crucial role in improving the efficiency of urban operations and services. In this paper, we first provide the recent trends and key features of standardization in the SSC. To make the future SSC, we highlight key candidate technologies of 6G such as non-terrestrial networks, advanced mobile edge computing, vision-aided wireless communication, artificial intelligence (AI)-based wireless communication, and integrated sensing and communication. We put forth the main technical challenges given to each prime technology along with the potential benefits to pave the way for 6G-enabled SSC. We further address how the potential benefits of prime technologies enable various urban practice cases for 6G-enabled SSC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-terrestrial network (NTN) is a trending topic in the field of communication, as it shows promise for scenarios in which terrestrial infrastructure is unavailable. Unmanned autonomous intelligent systems (UAISs), as a physical form of artificial intelligence (AI), have gained significant attention from academia and industry. These systems have various applications in autonomous driving, logistics, area surveillance, and medical services. With the rapid evolution of information and communication technology (ICT), 5G and beyond-5G communication have enabled numerous intelligent applications through the comprehensive utilization of advanced NTN communication technology and artificial intelligence. To meet the demands of complex tasks in remote or communication-challenged areas, there is an urgent need for reliable, ultra-low latency communication networks to enable unmanned autonomous intelligent systems for applications such as localization, navigation, perception, decision-making, and motion planning. However, in remote areas, reliable communication coverage is not available, which poses a significant challenge for intelligent systems applications. The rapid development of non-terrestrial networks (NTNs) communication has shed new light on intelligent applications that require ubiquitous network connections in space, air, ground, and sea. However, challenges arise when using NTN technology in unmanned autonomous intelligent systems. Our research examines the advancements and obstacles in academic research and industry applications of NTN technology concerning UAIS, which is supported by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and other low-altitude platforms. Nevertheless, edge computing and cloud computing are crucial for unmanned autonomous intelligent systems, which also necessitate distributed computation architectures for computationally intensive tasks and massive data offloading. This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of the opportunities and challenges of unmanned autonomous intelligent systems in UAV NTN, along with NTN-based unmanned autonomous intelligent systems and their applications. A field trial case study is presented to demonstrate the application of NTN in UAIS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The gender gap in the field of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) is nothing new. Recent research warns of this through programs and initiatives that use Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as a resource to reduce this gap. However, new questions and some areas of concern are arising out of the mass use of digital repositories. The possibility of consuming and producing video (prosumers) in these digital ecosystems brings to light the prejudices and stereotypes in these fields through their content. Considering the YouTube repository, this research analyses the edutubers on 81 STEM channels from a gender perspective in 190 immersions. Through a critical approach, oriented towards change for social transformation, an exploratory and descriptive paper has been written. It employs a mixed quantitative–qualitative method. The results are described in the form of four descriptive grids about edutuber environments where an evident gender gap in the STEM edutubers can be observed, and guidelines are subsequently outlined to attempt to eliminate it. It is concluded that the educational resources offered by YouTube are popular and have a significant impact on the young population, but these resources inherit past behaviours that also entail a new risk associated with the use of ICT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technology is recognised as one of the most important factors in world economic development, particularly contributing to the trade growth of information and communications technology (ICT) products. The decomposition of export growth has been a popular way to analyse how trade has been influenced since 2000. However, there is little investigation regarding the structure of ICT product trading of China, which is the de facto largest trader of ICT goods export and import. This paper contributes to the existing methods with a non-parametric model. The coefficient estimates which functions of their factors represent a dynamic analysis of the factors' influence on decomposed trade growth. The empirical study shows that China's strategy tends to be conservative, as the growth of trade to developed countries mostly came from the volume increase of existing trade lines instead of the increase of trade varieties. Suggestions include that the trade growth could benefit from resource reallocation in ICT industries and the procedure simplification of exporting ICT products. This paper also provides empirical evidence that the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) increased the trading volume and frequency by completing the transportation chain and decreasing the variable trade costs. Furthermore, suggestions are provided on improving the impact on the globalisation of ICT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Every year, plant diseases cause a significant loss of valuable food crops around the world. The plant and crop disease management practice implemented in order to mitigate damages have changed considerably. Today, through the application of new information and communication technologies, it is possible to predict the onset or change in the severity of diseases using modern big data analysis techniques. In this paper, we present an analysis and classification of research studies conducted over the past decade that forecast the onset of disease at a pre-symptomatic stage (i.e., symptoms not visible to the naked eye) or at an early stage. We examine the specific approaches and methods adopted, pre-processing techniques and data used, performance metrics, and expected results, highlighting the issues encountered. The results of the study reveal that this practice is still in its infancy and that many barriers need to be overcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the electrical submersible pump (ESP) is combined with information and communication technologies (ICT) to diagnose the operation status and soundness of the ESP. The ICT convergence provides users with maintenance and repair information through history management and remote control in case of failure. The proposed system includes a monitoring unit (MU) that senses the operating state of the ESP, a monitoring control unit (MCU) that transmits the sensed information to internal and external databases, and a monitoring system that allows users to check the status information. The server and embedded system can monitor the operation status of the submersible pump by storing sensor values in the database and displaying them on the screen. The embedded system retrieves the sensor values stored in the database and performs individual and complex diagnoses. The diagnosis results are sent to the server and status information to the monitoring control unit. The diagnosis of the submersible pump was divided into 23 individual sensor classifications, and a multilayer perceptron was implemented. Weights were set through learning and testing. The proposed ICT-converged Smart ESP is considered to be competitive as it greatly improves the existing system in terms of status and maintenance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Internet of Things (IoT) and smart manufacturing (SM) are mutually reinforcing. The establishment of IoT-based common facilities for SM is the premise of building SM system. Industrial IoT (IIoT) infrastructure for SM refers to common facilities based on IoT that support SM in industries or sectors, and plays a dominant role and faces severe challenges in the intelligence of SM. The infrastructure is independent of the products and production process in a specific factory. This paper develops conceptual and capability frameworks of IIoT infrastructure from a unified perspective of IIoT-related SM industries. These frameworks reflect relationships between IIoT and SM with in-depth relationships among basic facilities of IIoT infrastructure and lay the foundation of SM. In this paper the common characteristics and high-level requirements with respect to the different IoT layers of IIoT infrastructure are analyzed, and the capability framework and relevant capabilities of IIoT infrastructure are summarized according to the characteristics and requirements. In order to help service providers implement their systems to meet the needs of SM, the existing and newly developed IIoT infrastructure are integrated partially or in whole according to the intelligence level, so as to provide technical guidance for stakeholders to apply emerging ICTs to SM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Instilling good privacy practices to developers and users appears to be a difficult and daunting task. TheWorldWideWeb encompasses a panspermia of different technologies, commercial and open source APIS, evolving security standards and protocols that can be deployed towards the implementation of complex, powerful, web applications. At the same time, the proliferation of applications and services on all types of devices has also increased the attack surface for privacy threats. In this paper, we present the Privacy Flag Observatory, a platform which is one of the main tools produced by the Privacy Flag EU funded research project. The goal of this initiative is to raise awareness among European citizens of the potential privacy threats that beset the software and services they trust and use every day, including websites and smartphone applications. The Privacy Flag Observatory is one of the components that contributed to a large extent, to the success of the project's goals. It is a real-time security and privacy threat monitoring platform whose aim is to collect, archive, analyze and present security and privacy-related information to the broader public as well as experts. Although the platform relies on crowdsourcing information gathering strategies and interacts with several other components installed on users' devices or remote servers and databases, in this paper, we focus on the observatory platform referring only cursorily to other components such as the mobile phone add-on. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arduino is an open-source electronics platform based on cheap hardware and the easy-to-use software Integrated Development Environment (IDE). Nowadays, because of its open-source nature and its simple and accessible user experience, Arduino is ubiquitous and used among hobbyist and novice programmers for Do It Yourself (DIY) projects, especially in the Internet of Things (IoT) domain. Unfortunately, such diffusion comes with a price. Many developers start working on this platform without having a deep knowledge of the leading security concepts in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). Their applications, often publicly available on GitHub (or other code-sharing platforms), can be taken as examples by other developers or downloaded and used by non-expert users, spreading these issues in other projects. For these reasons, this paper aims at understanding the current landscape by analyzing a set of open-source DIY IoT projects and looking for potential security issues. Furthermore, the paper classifies those issues according to the proper security category. This study's results offer a deeper understanding of the security concerns in Arduino projects created by hobbyist programmers and the dangers that may be faced by those who use these projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of citizens in the construction of knowledge is undergoing a clear transformation from a passive position, as mere observers and/or receivers, to an increasingly participatory role. This issue, which is directly related to governance policies as well as to the ICT revolution, can be seen in the field of cultural heritage and particularly architectural heritage management. The present paper aims to generate methodologies to involve citizens as active agents who must be involved in a real way in decision making concerning the protection and enhancement of cultural heritage. The results present the creation of a rural heritage interactive cartographic viewer as a collaborative mapping tool. The conclusions drawn position the citizens of rural, dispersed, or vulnerable areas as informers and builders of knowledge about the cultural and architectural heritage of their environment in terms of citizen science. At the same time, it strengthens the development of innovation strategies in the intervention, management, and communication of the existing dispersed heritage in rural areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]