In this paper we investigate the essential minimum functionality of the autonomous blockchain, and the minimum hardware and software required to support it in the micro-scale in the IoT world. The application of deep-blockchain operation in the lower-level activity of the IoT ecosystem, is expected to bring profound clarity and constitutes a unique challenge. Setting up and operating bit-level blockchain mechanisms on minimal IoT elements like smart switches and active sensors, mandates pushing blockchain engineering to the limits. “How deep can blockchain actually go?” “Which is the minimum Thing of the IoT world that can actually deliver autonomous blockchain functionality?” To answer, an experiment based on IoT micro-controllers was set. The “Witness Protocol” was defined to set the minimum essential micro-blockchain functionality. The protocol was developed and installed on a peer, ad-hoc, autonomous network of casual, real-life IoT micro-devices. The setup was tested, benchmarked, and evaluated in terms of computational needs, efficiency, and collective resistance against malicious attacks. The leading considerations are highlighted, and the results of the experiment are presented. Findings are intriguing and prove that fully autonomous, private micro-blockchain networks are absolutely feasible in the smart dust world, utilizing the capacities of the existing low-end IoT devices.

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An information brokerage environment for effective information structuring, indexing, and retrieval in the health-care administration sector is presented. The system is based on ontology modeling, natural language processing, extensible markup language, semantics analysis, and behavioral description. Semantics-based information acquisition is achieved through the uniform modeling, representation, and handling of domain-specific knowledge, both content-based and procedural. The system has been validated using information located on several repositories in the web and its performance is reported in terms of precision and recall.

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CITATION (Citizen Information Tool in smart administrATIONs) provides an innovative information platform for improving and promoting the provision of electronic information in the health sector, ensuring that citizens have easy and direct access to essential public data (administrative procedures, legislation and available services). The system delivers mechanisms for the effective management, customization and flexible delivery of administrative information. CITATION embraces the initiative and effort to provide and promote health-related administrative information, in the framework of local or national government services. It facilitates the creation of 'smart' governmental structures, capable of providing citizens with customized, added-value services. CITATION emphasizes its efforts in the advancement and integration of current state-of-the-art information technologies, with emphasis on knowledge engineering and semantics analysis. CITATION introduces models that allow for adequate representation of the semantics of the existing healthcare administrative information content.