In edge computing, edge devices can offload their overloaded computing tasks to an edge server. This can give full play to an edge server’s advantages in computing and storage, and efficiently execute computing tasks. However, if they together offload all the overloaded computing tasks to an edge server, it can be overloaded, thereby resulting in the high processing delay of many computing tasks and unexpectedly high energy consumption. On the other hand, the resources in idle edge devices may be wasted and resource-rich cloud centers may be underutilized. Therefore, it is essential to explore a computing task collaborative scheduling mechanism with an edge server, a cloud center and edge devices according to task characteristics, optimization objectives and system status. It can help one realize efficient collaborative scheduling and precise execution of all computing tasks. This work analyzes and summarizes the edge computing scenarios in an edge computing paradigm. It then classifies the computing tasks in edge computing scenarios. Next, it formulates the optimization problem of computation offloading for an edge computing system. According to the problem formulation, the collaborative scheduling methods of computing tasks are then reviewed. Finally, future research issues for advanced collaborative scheduling in the context of edge computing are indicated.

Most successful object detectors are anchor-based, which is difficult to adapt to the diversity of traffic objects. In this paper, we propose a novel anchor-free method, called FII-CenterNet, which introduces the foreground information to eliminate the interference of the complex background information in traffic scenes. The foreground region proposal network segments the foreground based on boxes-induced segmentation annotation, and midground is proposed to provide rich edge information of the objects. In addition to foreground location, scale information is also introduced to improve the regression performance. Extensive experimental results on two public datasets verify the benefits of the introduction of the foreground information, and demonstrate that our FII-CenterNet achieves the state-of-the-art performance in both accuracy and efficiency.

Industry 4.0 promotes manufacturing and process industry towards digitalization and intellectualization. Edge computing can provide delay-sensitive services in industrial processes to realize intelligent production. Lightweight virtualization technology is one of the key elements of edge computing, which can implement resource management, orchestration, and isolation services without considering heterogenous hardware. It has revolutionized software development and deployment. The scope of this review paper is to present an in-depth analysis of two such technologies, Container and Unikernel, for edge computing. We discuss and compare their applicability in terms of migration, security, and orchestration for edge computing and industrial applications. We describe their performance indexes, evaluation methods and related findings. We then discuss their applications in industrial processes. To promote further research, we present some open issues and challenges to serve as a road map for both researchers and practitioners in the areas of Industry 4.0, industrial process automation, and advanced computing.

As the main food source of the world’s population, grain quality safety is of great significance to the healthy development of human beings. The grain food supply chain is characterized by its long life cycle, numerous and complex business data, difficulty defining private information, and difficult managing and sharing. In order to strengthen the ability of information application processing and coordination of the grain food supply chain under many risk factors, an information management model suitable for the grain food supply chain is studied based on the blockchain multi-chain technology. First, the information on key links in the grain food supply chain is analyzed to obtain privacy data classifications. Second, a multi-chain network model of the grain food supply chain is constructed, and based on this model, the hierarchical encryption and storage mode of private data as well as the relay cross-chain communication mode, are designed. In addition, a complete consensus process, including CPBFT, ZKP, and KZKP algorithms, is designed for the global information collaborative consensus under the multi-chain architecture. Finally, the model is verified through performance simulation, theory analysis, and prototype system verification in terms of its correctness, security, scalability, and consensus efficiency. The results show that this research model effectively reduces the storage redundancy and deals with problems of data differential sharing in traditional single-chain research, as well as provides a secure data protection mechanism, a credible data interaction mechanism, and an efficient multi-chain collaborative consensus mechanism. By attempting to apply blockchain multi-chain technology to the grain food supply chain, this study provides new research ideas for the trusted protection of data and information collaborative consensus in this field.

Agent-based simulation is a useful approach for the analysis of dynamic population evolution. In this field, the existing models mostly treat the migration behavior as a result of utility maximization, which partially ignores the endogenous mechanisms of human decision making. To simulate such a process, this article proposes a new cognitive architecture called the two-layered integrated decision cycle (TiDEC) which characterizes the individual's decision-making process. Different from the previous ones, the new hybrid architecture incorporates deep neural networks for its perception and implicit knowledge learning. The proposed model is applied in China and U.S. population evolution. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that the cognitive computation is used in such a field. Computational experiments using the actual census data indicate that the cognitive model, compared with the traditional utility maximization methods, cannot only reconstruct the historical demographic features but also achieve better prediction of future evolutionary dynamics.

In the industrial sector, accurate fault identification is paramount for ensuring both safety and economic efficiency throughout the production process. However, due to constraints imposed by actual working conditions, the motor state features collected are often limited in number and singular in nature. Consequently, extending and extracting these features pose significant challenges in fault diagnosis. To address this issue and strike a balance between model complexity and diagnostic accuracy, this paper introduces a novel motor fault diagnostic model termed FSCL (Fourier Singular Value Decomposition combined with Long and Short-Term Memory networks). The FSCL model integrates traditional signal analysis algorithms with deep learning techniques to automate feature extraction. This hybrid approach innovatively enhances fault detection by describing, extracting, encoding, and mapping features during offline training. Empirical evaluations against various state-of-the-art techniques such as Bayesian Optimization and Extreme Gradient Boosting Tree (BOA-XGBoost), Whale Optimization Algorithm and Support Vector Machine (WOA-SVM), Short-Time Fourier Transform and Convolutional Neural Networks (STFT-CNNs), and Variational Modal Decomposition-Multi Scale Fuzzy Entropy-Probabilistic Neural Network (VMD-MFE-PNN) demonstrate the superior performance of the FSCL model. Validation using the Case Western Reserve University dataset (CWRU) confirms the efficacy of the proposed technique, achieving an impressive accuracy of 99.32%. Moreover, the model exhibits robustness against noise, maintaining an average precision of 98.88% and demonstrating recall and F1 scores ranging from 99.00% to 99.89%. Even under conditions of severe noise interference, the FSCL model consistently achieves high accuracy in recognizing the motor’s operational state. This study underscores the FSCL model as a promising approach for enhancing motor fault diagnosis in industrial settings, leveraging the synergistic benefits of traditional signal analysis and deep learning methodologies.