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Description
Blockchain technology enables peer-to-peer transactions through the elimination of the need for a centralized entity governing consensus. Rather than having a centralized database, the data is distributed across multiple computers which enables crash fault tolerance as well as makes the system difficult to tamper with due to a distributed consensus

Blockchain technology enables peer-to-peer transactions through the elimination of the need for a centralized entity governing consensus. Rather than having a centralized database, the data is distributed across multiple computers which enables crash fault tolerance as well as makes the system difficult to tamper with due to a distributed consensus algorithm.

In this research, the potential of blockchain technology to manage energy transactions is examined. The energy production landscape is being reshaped by distributed energy resources (DERs): photo-voltaic panels, electric vehicles, smart appliances, and battery storage. Distributed energy sources such as microgrids, household solar installations, community solar installations, and plug-in hybrid vehicles enable energy consumers to act as providers of energy themselves, hence acting as 'prosumers' of energy.

Blockchain Technology facilitates managing the transactions between involved prosumers using 'Smart Contracts' by tokenizing energy into assets. Better utilization of grid assets lowers costs and also presents the opportunity to buy energy at a reasonable price while staying connected with the utility company. This technology acts as a backbone for 2 models applicable to transactional energy marketplace viz. 'Real-Time Energy Marketplace' and 'Energy Futures'. In the first model, the prosumers are given a choice to bid for a price for energy within a stipulated period of time, while the Utility Company acts as an operating entity. In the second model, the marketplace is more liberal, where the utility company is not involved as an operator. The Utility company facilitates infrastructure and manages accounts for all users, but does not endorse or govern transactions related to energy bidding. These smart contracts are not time bounded and can be suspended by the utility during periods of network instability.
ContributorsSadaye, Raj Anil (Author) / Candan, Kasim S (Thesis advisor) / Boscovic, Dragan (Committee member) / Zhao, Ming (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
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Description
Blockchain technology enables a distributed and decentralized environment without any central authority. Healthcare is one industry in which blockchain is expected to have significant impacts. In recent years, the Healthcare Information Exchange(HIE) has been shown to benefit the healthcare industry remarkably. It has been shown that blockchain could hel

Blockchain technology enables a distributed and decentralized environment without any central authority. Healthcare is one industry in which blockchain is expected to have significant impacts. In recent years, the Healthcare Information Exchange(HIE) has been shown to benefit the healthcare industry remarkably. It has been shown that blockchain could help to improve multiple aspects of the HIE system.

When Blockchain technology meets HIE, there are only a few proposed systems and they all suffer from the following two problems. First, the existing systems are not patient-centric in terms of data governance. Patients do not own their data and have no direct control over it. Second, there is no defined protocol among different systems on how to share sensitive data.

To address the issues mentioned above, this paper proposes MedFabric4Me, a blockchain-based platform for HIE. MedFabric4Me is a patient-centric system where patients own their healthcare data and share on a need-to-know basis. First, analyzed the requirements for a patient-centric system which ensures tamper-proof sharing of data among participants. Based on the analysis, a Merkle root based mechanism is created to ensure that data has not tampered. Second, a distributed Proxy re-encryption system is used for secure encryption of data during storage and sharing of records. Third, combining off-chain storage and on-chain access management for both authenticability and privacy.

MedFabric4Me is a two-pronged solution platform, composed of on-chain and off-chain components. The on-chain solution is implemented on the secure network of Hyperledger Fabric(HLF) while the off-chain solution uses Interplanetary File System(IPFS) to store data securely. Ethereum based Nucypher, a proxy re-encryption network provides cryptographic access controls to actors for encrypted data sharing.

To demonstrate the practicality and scalability, a prototype solution of MedFabric4Me is implemented and evaluated the performance measure of the system against an already implemented HIE.

Results show that decentralization technology like blockchain could help to mitigate some issues that HIE faces today, like transparency for patients, slow emergency response, and better access control.

Finally, this research concluded with the benefits and shortcomings of MedFabric4Me with some directions and work that could benefit MedFabric4Me in terms of operation and performance.
ContributorsVishnoi, Manish (Author) / Boscovic, Dragan (Thesis advisor) / Candan, Kasim S (Thesis advisor) / Grando, Maria (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020
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Description
This dissertation focused on the implementation of urine diversion systems in commercial and institutional buildings in the United States with a focus on control of the urea hydrolysis reaction. Urine diversion is the process by which urine is separately collected at the source in order to realize system benefits, including

This dissertation focused on the implementation of urine diversion systems in commercial and institutional buildings in the United States with a focus on control of the urea hydrolysis reaction. Urine diversion is the process by which urine is separately collected at the source in order to realize system benefits, including water conservation, nutrient recovery, and pharmaceutical removal. Urine diversion systems depend greatly on the functionality of nonwater urinals and urine diverting toilets, which are needed to collect undiluted urine. However, the urea hydrolysis reaction creates conditions that lead to precipitation in the fixtures due to the increase in pH from 6 to 9 as ammonia and bicarbonate are produced. Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 describes the creation and use of a cyber-physical system (CPS) to monitor and control urea hydrolysis in the urinal testbed. Two control logics were used to control urea hydrolysis in realistic restroom conditions. In the experiments, acid was added to inhibit urea hydrolysis during periods of high and low building occupancy. These results were able to show that acid should be added based on the restroom use in order to efficiently inhibit urea hydrolysis. Chapter 4 advanced the results from Chapter 3 by testing the acid addition control logics in a real restroom with the urinal-on-wheels. The results showed that adding acid during periods of high building occupancy equated to the least amount of acid added and allowed for urea hydrolysis inhibition. This study also analyzed the bacterial communities of the collected urine and found that acid addition changed the structure of the bacterial communities. Chapter 5 showed an example of the capabilities of a CPS when implemented in CI buildings. The study used data mining methods to predict chlorine residuals in premise plumbing in a CI green building. The results showed that advance modeling methods were able to model the system better than traditional methods. These results show that CPS technology can be used to illuminate systems and can provide information needed to understand conditions within CI buildings.
ContributorsSaetta, Daniella (Author) / Boyer, Treavor H (Thesis advisor) / Hamilton, Kerry (Committee member) / Ross, Heather M. (Committee member) / Boscovic, Dragan (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021