The healthcare industry has been transitioning from paper-based medical records to electronic health records (EHRs) in most healthcare facilities. However, the current EHR frameworks face challenges in secure data storage, credibility, and management. Interoperability and user control of personal data are also significant concerns in the healthcare sector. Although block chain technology has emerged as a powerful solution that can offer the properties of immutability, security, and user control on stored records, its potential application in EHR frameworks is not yet fully understood. To address this gap in knowledge, this research aims to provide an interoperable blockchain-based EHR framework that can fulfill the requirements defined by various national and international EHR standards such as HIPAA and HL7. The research method employed is a systematic literature review to explore the current state of the art in the field of EHRs, including blockchain-based implementations of EHRs. The study defines the interoperability issues in the existing blockchain-based EHR frameworks, reviews various national and international standards of EHR, and further defines the interoperability requirements based on these standards. The proposed framework can offer safer methods to interchange health information for the healthcare sector and can provide the properties of immutability, security, and user control on stored records without the need for centralized storage. The contributions of this work include enhancing the understanding of the potential application of blockchain technology in EHR frameworks and proposing an interoperable blockchain-based EHR framework that can fulfill the requirements defined by various national and international EHR standards. Overall, this study has significant implications for the healthcare sector, as it can enhance the secure sharing and storage of electronic health data while ensuring the confidentiality, privacy, and integrity of medical records.

Water pipeline leakage detection is still an important issue, particularly for the development of smart cities. Thus, this paper reviews water pipeline leakage detection techniques, which can be classified into three different categories, namely, software-based, hardware-based, and conventional methods. We compare the advantages and disadvantages for all the methods in the groups and thoroughly discuss the hardware-based method, which is our focus. Specifications on water pipeline testbeds used in the previous works are also highlighted. Since many recent techniques are based on accelerometer or vibration sensors, a comparative study that includes the cost and accuracy in identifying the pipeline leaks is presented. The theoretical computation of the vibration induced from our water pipeline testbed is also demonstrated and compared with the actual vibration data collected from the experimental works using three different sensors, namely, MPU6050, MMA7361, and ADXL335.

The productivity and profitability of poultry farming are crucial to support its affordability issues in food security. Criteria in productivity measurement, including Feed Conversion Ratio (FCR) calculation, whereas economic management is essential for profitability. Hence, best management practices need to be implemented throughout the growth period for optimizing the poultry performance. This review provides a comprehensive overview of computer vision technology for poultry industry research. This review relies on the use of several online databases to identify key works in the area of computer vision in a poultry farm. We recommend our search by focusing on four keywords, ‘computer vision’ and ‘poultry’ or ‘chicken’ or ‘broiler’ that had been published between 2010 and early 2020 with open access provided by University Teknologi Malaysia only. All the selected papers were manually examined and sorted to determine their relevance to computer vision in a poultry farm. We focus on the latest developments by focusing on the hardware and software parts used to analyze the poultry data with some examples of various representative studies on poultry farming. Notably, hardware parts can be classified into camera types, lighting units and camera position, whereas software parts can be categorized into data acquisition and analysis software types as well as data processing and analysis methods that can be implemented into the software types. This paper concludes by highlighting the future works and key challenges that needed to be addressed to assure the quality of this technology prior to the successful implementation of the poultry industry.

This qualitative study aimed to explore the current status, practices, and challenges of Internet of Things (IoT) implementation and to develop an IoT framework for Industry 4.0 in Malaysia. Industry 4.0 enhances a company’s manufacturing competitiveness and efficiency. However, the implementation of Industry 4.0 in Malaysian small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is still in its early stages. Five participants from three different SMEs were selected for online interviews and a focus group. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the interviews were conducted online and lasted about 30 to 45 min. The data collected from the interviews were analyzed through thematic analysis and used to validate the literature review and to identify gaps in existing frameworks. The IoT framework was developed through a focus group of experts. This study found that the implementation of Industry 4.0 is relatively low in Malaysian manufacturing SMEs. SMEs are facing various challenges, including the need for education and training, budget constraints, and a lack of experience and knowledge among workers. This study found that the positive impact of IoT implementation included improved internal communication, reduced errors, and enhanced product quality and safety. In addition, this study resulted in the development of an IoT framework for SMEs in Malaysia.

Healthcare monitoring systems in hospitals and other health facilities have grown significantly, and portable healthcare monitoring systems using emerging technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT) technologies have aided the advancement of healthcare monitoring systems. Many studies have focused on intelligent healthcare systems in an IoT context to improve components, including wearable sensors and hardware devices, intelligent data collecting and processing, and network connections. Even while these applications are necessary and helpful for enhancing wireless healthcare settings related to monitoring, detection, and diagnostics, it might be challenging to fully understand how IoT characteristics are currently intertwined with its architecture. Accordingly, this work adds to the academic literature by thoroughly reviewing all significant areas of wireless healthcare monitoring system advancements. This research also examines a state-of-the-art healthcare monitoring system component under IoT. One hundred and ninety-four related articles were collected and filtered based on the system components defined. This study includes a thorough review and a list of genuine concerns with novel critical solutions. The study can facilitate academics and practitioners by giving them direction and vital information for future research.