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Material conscious and information network (MCIN) is a kind of cyber physics social system. This paper aims to study the MCIN modeling method and design the MCIN-based architecture of smart agriculture (MCIN-ASA) which is different from current vertical architecture and involves production, management and commerce. Architecture is composed of three MCIN-ASA participants which are MCIN-ASA enterprises, individuals and commodity.

Architecture uses enterprises and individuals personalized portals as the carriers which are linked precisely with each other through a peer-to-peer network called six-degrees-of-separation block-chain. The authors want to establish a self-organization, open and ecological operational system which includes active, personalized consumption, direct, centralized distribution, distributed and smart production.

The paper models three main MCIN-ASA participants, namely, design the smart supply, demand and management functions, which show the feasibility innovation and high efficiency of implementing MCIN on agriculture. At the same time, the paper presents a prototype system based on the architecture.

The authors think that MCIN-ASA improves current agriculture greatly and inspires a lot in production-marketing-combined electronic commerce.

This paper aims to study the node modeling, multi-agent architecture and addressing method for the material conscious information network (MCIN), which is a large-scaled, open-styled, self-organized and ecological intelligent network of supply–demand relationships.

This study models the MCIN by node model definition, multi-agent architecture design and addressing method presentation.

The prototype of novel E-commerce platform based on the MCIN shows the effectiveness and soundness of the MCIN modeling. By comparing to current internet, the authors also find that the MCIN has the advantages of socialization, information integration, collective intelligence, traceability, high robustness, unification of producing and consuming, high scalability and decentralization.

Leveraging the dimensions of structure, character, knowledge and experience, a modeling approach of the basic information can fit all kinds of the MCIN nodes. With the double chain structure for both basic and supply–demand information, the MCIN nodes can be modeled comprehensively. The anima-desire-intention-based multi-agent architecture makes the federated agents of the MCIN nodes self-organized and intelligent. The MCIN nodes can be efficiently addressed by the supply–demand-oriented method. However, the implementation of the MCIN is still in process.

This paper lays the theoretical foundation for the future networked system of supply–demand relationship and the novel E-commerce platform.

The authors believe that the MCIN, first proposed in this paper, is a transformational innovation which facilitates the infrastructure of the future networked system of supply–demand relationship.

Cyber physical system (CPS) has attracted much attention from industry, government and academia due to its dramatic impact on society, economy and people’s daily lives. Scholars have conducted a number of studies on CPS. However, despite of the dynamic nature of this research area, a systematic and extensive review of recent research on CPS is unavailable. Accordingly, this paper conducts an intensive literature review on CPS and presents an overview of existing research on CPS. The purpose of this paper is to identify the challenges of studying CPS as well as the directions for future studies on CPS.

This paper examines existing literatures about CPS from 2006 to 2018 in Compendex, presenting its definition, architectures, characteristics and applications.

This study finds that CPS is closely integrated, diversified and large-scale network with complex multiple time scales. It requires dynamic reorganization/reconfiguration, mass computing, and closed, automated and control circuits. Currently, CPS has been applied in smart manufacturing, medical systems, smart city and smart libraries. The main challenges in designing CPS are to develop, to modify, to integrate abstractions and to set predictable timing of openness and physical interconnection of physical devices. Furthermore, security is a key issue in CPS.

This study adds knowledge to the existing literature of CPS by answering what the current level of development on CPS is and what the potential future research directions of CPS are.

The synthetic application and interaction of/between the internet, Internet of Things, cloud computing, big data, Industry 4.0 and other new patterns and new technologies shall breed future Web-based industrial operation system and social operation management patterns, manifesting as a crowd cyber eco-system composed of multiple interconnected intelligent agents (enterprises, individuals and governmental agencies) and its dynamic behaviors. This paper aims to explore the basic principles and laws of such a system and its behavior.

The authors propose the concepts of crowd science and engineering (CSE) and expound its main content, thus forming a research framework of theories and methodologies of crowd science.

CSE is expected to substantially promote the formation and development of crowd science and thus lay a foundation for the advancement of Web-based industrial operation system and social operation management patterns.

This paper is the first one to propose the concepts of CSE, which lights the beacon for the future research in this area.

The purpose of this paper is to attempt to fill the need to identify critical information security issues at national level, both technical and social in the Indian context, and create a framework of these issues to provide interesting managerial insights about their hierarchy. Current literature advocates relevance of both technical and social issues in a potential framework to address national and organizational information security concerns. Such a framework can guide users in developing insight for strategy in the maize of important information security issues and their intricate interdependency.

Delphi methodology is used to identify a set of topical issues with help from members of a cyber security group. These issues are further analyzed using Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) to impose order and direction to the complex relationships among them.

The analysis using ISM creates a framework of these issues and provides interesting managerial insights about their hierarchy. These insights are used to recommend prioritized action for information security at national and organizational levels.

The highlight of this research is ingenious deployment of two idea engineering methods in developing interpretable structural model of 25 information security issues. This model provides valuable insights and can guide the policy formulation. This is the key contribution of this paper. It needs hardly any emphasis on the need for continuous search of all technical and social issues and formulating policies and programs using experts” judgment in a rigorous manner. Subsequent research may scale up to the global level for extension and validation by empanelling Delphi experts from nations belonging to different regions. Time-variant analysis can be attempted with the help of System Dynamics Modeling using causal-loop diagrams to account for the supportive and inhibiting influences of various issues. This approach has the potential to generate more realistic insights that can inform policy formulation.

It brings about key information security issues connected with its various facets, viz. national/organizational level initiatives, supportive processes, capabilities and objectives. These issues, identified by Indian experts in the Indian context, offer a method that one could apply in other national contexts and see whether substantial differences occur, and how other experts prioritize these issues. The analysis of social issues along with technical issues using the ISM tool provides us insights that are considered applicable to a larger context than India. The policy and program formulations in other nations can benefit from the insights generated by this research. The fast-paced proliferation of technology and its resultant vulnerabilities have given birth to an underground economy of malware trading by criminals, terrorists and hostile nation states. Secure cyber space for legitimate use by the globalized world can only be achieved by international cooperation.

A “digital divide” in cyber defense cannot be afforded. As explained earlier, cyber security is a challenge for both developed and developing nations. Prioritization of resources in a sequence suggested by ISM analysis would help face the challenge of cyber security better. The methodology suggested in this paper would ensure adequate response to cyber threats and eliminate knee-jerk reaction.

This research emphasizes identification of hierarchical relationship among the identified topical issues of information security rather than using them as a flat checklist. It helps us segregate the end objectives from root issues and highlights the necessity of addressing these root issues to achieve those objectives.

This paper aims to propose a new method to derive custom dynamic cyber risk metrics based on the well-known Goal, Question, Metric (GQM) approach. A framework that complements it and makes it much easier to use has been proposed too. Both, the method and the framework, have been validated within two challenging application domains: continuous risk assessment within a smart farm and risk-based adaptive security to reconfigure a Web application firewall.

The authors have identified a problem and provided motivation. They have developed their theory and engineered a new method and a framework to complement it. They have demonstrated the proposed method and framework work, validating them in two real use cases.

The GQM method, often applied within the software quality field, is a good basis for proposing a method to define new tailored cyber risk metrics that meet the requirements of current application domains. A comprehensive framework that formalises possible goals and questions translated to potential measurements can greatly facilitate the use of this method.

The proposed method enables the application of the GQM approach to cyber risk measurement. The proposed framework allows new cyber risk metrics to be inferred by choosing between suggested goals and questions and measuring the relevant elements of probability and impact. The authors’ approach demonstrates to be generic and flexible enough to allow very different organisations with heterogeneous requirements to derive tailored metrics useful for their particular risk management processes.

Despite the opportunities of digital twins (DTs) for smart buildings, limited research has been conducted regarding the facility management stage, and this is explained by the high complexity of accurately representing and modelling the physics behind the DTs process. This study thus organises and consolidates the fragmented literature on DTs implementation for smart buildings at the facility management stage by exploring the enablers, applications and challenges and examining the interrelationships amongst them.

A systematic literature review approach is adopted to analyse and synthesise the existing literature relating to the subject topic.

The study revealed six main categories of enablers of DTs for smart building at the facility management stage, namely perception technologies, network technologies, storage technologies, application technologies, knowledge-building and design processes. Three substantial categories of DTs application for smart buildings were revealed at the facility management stage: efficient operation and service monitoring, efficient building energy management and effective smart building maintenance. Subsequently, the top four major challenges were identified as being “lack of a systematic and comprehensive reference model”, “real-time data integration”, “the complexity and uncertainty nature of real-time data” and “real-time data visualisation”. An integrative framework is finally proposed by examining the interactive relationship amongst the enablers, the applications and the challenges.

The findings could guide facility managers/engineers to fairly understand the enablers, applications and challenges when DTs are being implemented to improve smart building performance and achieve user satisfaction at the facility management stage.

This study contributes to the knowledge body on DTs by extending the scope of the existing studies to identify the enablers and applications of DTs for smart buildings at the facility management stage and the specific challenges.

This paper aims to propose a new concept of product manufacturing mode which takes physical manufacturing theory as the basic starting point. In this work, the authors intend to systematically define the basic connotation and extension of physical manufacturing, and sort out the typical characteristics of physical manufacturing, in order to propose the general concept of physical manufacturing.

How to study the combination of physics, mathematics, mechanics and other disciplines with the manufacturing disciplines, and how to elevate modern manufacturing science to a new height, has always been a problem for scientists in the field of manufacturing and engineering construction people to deeply think about. Therefore, on the basis of tracing the development of physics and combining the attributes and functions of manufacturing, the authors propose the basic concept of physical manufacturing. On this basis, the authors further clarify the connotation and extension, theoretical basis and technical system of physical manufacturing, reveal the basic problem domain of research and construct the theoretical foundation of physical manufacturing research, which are of great theoretical value and practical significance to adjust and optimize the manufacturing industry structure, improve the quality of manufacturing industry development and promote the green development of manufacturing industry.

The research on the basic theory and technical system of physical manufacturing will therefore broaden the way of thinking and make a better understanding of manufacturing science and technology, which will promote the development of manufacturing industry to some extent.

On the basis of continuous improvement of the basic theory and conceptual system of physical manufacturing, the physical manufacturing technology will become more and more perfect; physical manufacturing system and intelligent manufacturing system will become the mainstream of next-generation manufacturing system.

As smart technologies become an integral part of real estate in smart cities, the purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of ubiquitous computing on space users in smart real estate.

The analysis builds on two fields of knowledge rarely referenced in real estate studies: computer sciences and social sciences. The paper starts by analysing the idiosyncrasies of a new type of space user in smart real estate, known as the Cyber-dasein in reference to Heidegger’s phenomenology. The Cyber-dasein serves as an archetypical space user in smart environments.

The paper introduces digital-time as a new realm of real estate, and discusses the use of “experienced utility” in hedonic pricing models of smart real estate. It concludes by advocating a multidisciplinary collaborative approach for future research on real estate in smart environments.

There is a need for the real estate sector to decide on a metric for the new digital dimension of real estate owing to the implementation of smart technologies in the built environment.

This is the first research paper on this important topic. It is totally original and new.

This article presents a scenario based on the inputs of 550 futurists, scholars, business planners and policy advisers from around the world. Their views on global developments were distilled into a range of issues, opportunities and actions to address. These have been woven together into a scenario based on achieving norms by 2050 that were identified and rated by Millennium Project participants from around the world. This scenario describes how technological success, human development, and economic/political policies achieved a global economy that appears to be environmentally sustainable while providing nearly all people with the basic necessities of life and the majority with a comfortable living. The resulting social stability has created a relatively peaceful world and allowed the exploration of possible futures for the second half of the 21st century.