Systems that integrate distributed databases and existing blockchain platforms have recently emerged, which conveniently leverage their respective strengths to build efficient, secure, and usable data sharing and collaboration environments for different organizations. However, the performance of such systems can be limited by the native blockchain platforms due to the high latency of transactions. In this paper, we present CoralDB, a bottom-up fully redesigned hybrid system of blockchain and database, aimed at enabling untrusted organizations to collaborate and share data efficiently and securely at the database level. The storage layer of CoralDB ensures data security and system throughput through key modules such as customized block structure, consensus mechanism, and transaction pool. On top of the storage layer, a database layer is introduced, which extends the blockchain of the storage layer by incorporating connection pools, collaborative tables, and query interfaces, to enhance the usability and efficiency of data collaboration and sharing. Extensive experimental results demonstrate that CoralDB provides security assurances at the level of blockchain and enables efficient decentralized data collaboration and sharing.

Wildlife re-identification (Re-ID) techniques are the key to animal tracking and preservation. However, the performance of current deep learning methods is unsatisfied in cross-camera scenarios, especially in terms of mean average precision (mAP). This work introduces ReDeformTR, a novel model designed for wildlife Re-ID tasks, particularly focusing on the identification of individual animals’ images captured by different camera. ReDeformTR integrates a lightweight deformable transformer architecture capable of multi-image feature fusion, which is capable to extract and fuse features from multiple images and scales, facilitating efficient representation of individual animals and enhancing performance during queries. While a convolutional neural network (CNN) backbone is adopted for feature extraction and a deformable transformer for feature refinement and fusion. Note that the deformable attention mechanism reduces computation overhead by selectively sampling features, thereby enhancing efficiency. The experiments show that ReDeformTR demonstrates superior performance in terms of mAP on cross-camera wildlife dataset in ATRW. The mAP is 84.98% and this achieves significant improvement of 12.29% compared with the state-of-the-art model (PPGNet). Furthermore, our model achieves a significant reduction in model parameters size, positioning it as a promising solution for wildlife Re-ID tasks.

Quantum machine learning stands out as one of the most promising applications of quantum computing, widely believed to possess potential quantum advantages. In the era of noisy intermediate-scale quantum, the scale and quality of quantum computers are limited, and quantum algorithms based on fault-tolerant quantum computing paradigms cannot be experimentally verified in the short term. The variational quantum algorithm design paradigm can better adapt to the practical characteristics of noisy quantum hardware and is currently one of the most promising solutions. However, variational quantum algorithms, due to their highly entangled nature, encounter the phenomenon known as the “barren plateau” during the optimization and training processes, making effective optimization challenging. This paper addresses this challenging issue by researching a variational quantum neural network optimization method based on collective intelligence algorithms. The aim is to overcome optimization difficulties encountered by traditional methods such as gradient descent. We study two typical applications of using quantum neural networks: random 2D Hamiltonian ground state solving and quantum phase recognition. We find that the collective intelligence algorithm shows a better optimization compared to gradient descent. The solution accuracy of ground energy and phase classification is enhanced, and the optimization iterations are also reduced. We highlight that the collective intelligence algorithm has great potential in tackling the optimization of variational quantum algorithms.

As edge devices grow smarter and application scenarios become more diverse, users' demands for lower latency and higher efficiency in data storage and processing have risen sharply. Individual edge devices and nodes are no longer sufficient to meet these expanding storage requirements. Consequently, developing efficient, low-latency, and cost-effective solutions for collaborative storage across edge devices and nodes has become a critical challenge. In this paper, we present a framework for the transaction and pricing of storage resources in an edge computing environment involving multiple edge service providers, to address trust and incentive issues in storage resource collaboration. Firstly, we propose a secure and decentralized storage resource trading mechanism by leveraging blockchain technology and smart contracts. We introduce Proof of Transaction Expectation (PoTE), an efficient, reliable, and lightweight consensus mechanism, to ensure transaction transparency, openness, and non-repudiation. Secondly, we introduce a game theory-based storage resource pricing model, where a leader interacts with multiple followers to optimize profits while maintaining service quality. To address dynamic pricing and storage resource allocation problems under incomplete information, we propose the Stackelberg Game Approach based on Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning (SGA-MARL), which formulates the optimal pricing and trading share decisions in the two-stage Stackelberg game as a stochastic Markov Decision Process (MDP). Simulations and prototype testing validate the effectiveness of the proposed system, with results showing that the PoTE consensus achieves up to 40% higher throughput than Proof-of-Work while reducing latency by over 50% compared to PBFT, and the SGA-MARL algorithm improves leader profit by approximately 30% and resource satisfaction rates by over 80% compared to baseline methods like MA-PPO and DQN.