Users’ Attitudes on Mobile Devices: Can Users’ Practices Protect their Sensitive Data?

Smartphones are the most popular personal electronic devices. They are used for all sorts of purposes, from managing bank accounts to playing games. As smartphone apps and services proliferate, the amount of sensitive data stored on or processed by handheld devices rise as well. This practice entails risks, such as violating users’ privacy, stealing users’ identities, etc. Particularly, stealing an unlocked device grants full access to sensitive data and applications. In this survey, we examine whether users adopt some basic practices to protect their sensitive personal data themselves, or is there a need to further strengthen their protection? Our statistical analysis assesses smartphone users’ security attitudes and practices among different age groups. Finally, we investigate the factors that affect the attitude of users with respect to their practices for the protection of personal data.The results of this study, show that while many smartphone users do take some security precautions, a high percentage (24%) of them still ignores security and privacy risks. In addition, 19,1 % of users do not follow any practices to protect their PINs and Passwords

Prevalence, associated factors and outcomes of pressure injuries in adult intensive care unit patients: the DecubICUs study

Funder: European Society of Intensive Care Medicine; doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100013347Funder: Flemish Society for Critical Care NursesAbstract: Purpose: Intensive care unit (ICU) patients are particularly susceptible to developing pressure injuries. Epidemiologic data is however unavailable. We aimed to provide an international picture of the extent of pressure injuries and factors associated with ICU-acquired pressure injuries in adult ICU patients. Methods: International 1-day point-prevalence study; follow-up for outcome assessment until hospital discharge (maximum 12 weeks). Factors associated with ICU-acquired pressure injury and hospital mortality were assessed by generalised linear mixed-effects regression analysis. Results: Data from 13,254 patients in 1117 ICUs (90 countries) revealed 6747 pressure injuries; 3997 (59.2%) were ICU-acquired. Overall prevalence was 26.6% (95% confidence interval [CI] 25.9–27.3). ICU-acquired prevalence was 16.2% (95% CI 15.6–16.8). Sacrum (37%) and heels (19.5%) were most affected. Factors independently associated with ICU-acquired pressure injuries were older age, male sex, being underweight, emergency surgery, higher Simplified Acute Physiology Score II, Braden score 3 days, comorbidities (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, immunodeficiency), organ support (renal replacement, mechanical ventilation on ICU admission), and being in a low or lower-middle income-economy. Gradually increasing associations with mortality were identified for increasing severity of pressure injury: stage I (odds ratio [OR] 1.5; 95% CI 1.2–1.8), stage II (OR 1.6; 95% CI 1.4–1.9), and stage III or worse (OR 2.8; 95% CI 2.3–3.3). Conclusion: Pressure injuries are common in adult ICU patients. ICU-acquired pressure injuries are associated with mainly intrinsic factors and mortality. Optimal care standards, increased awareness, appropriate resource allocation, and further research into optimal prevention are pivotal to tackle this important patient safety threat

Correction to: Prevalence, associated factors and outcomes of pressure injuries in adult intensive care unit patients: the DecubICUs study

The original version of this article unfortunately contained a mistake

Prevalence, associated factors and outcomes of pressure injuries in adult intensive care unit patients: the DecubICUs study

Funder: European Society of Intensive Care Medicine; doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100013347Funder: Flemish Society for Critical Care NursesAbstract: Purpose: Intensive care unit (ICU) patients are particularly susceptible to developing pressure injuries. Epidemiologic data is however unavailable. We aimed to provide an international picture of the extent of pressure injuries and factors associated with ICU-acquired pressure injuries in adult ICU patients. Methods: International 1-day point-prevalence study; follow-up for outcome assessment until hospital discharge (maximum 12 weeks). Factors associated with ICU-acquired pressure injury and hospital mortality were assessed by generalised linear mixed-effects regression analysis. Results: Data from 13,254 patients in 1117 ICUs (90 countries) revealed 6747 pressure injuries; 3997 (59.2%) were ICU-acquired. Overall prevalence was 26.6% (95% confidence interval [CI] 25.9–27.3). ICU-acquired prevalence was 16.2% (95% CI 15.6–16.8). Sacrum (37%) and heels (19.5%) were most affected. Factors independently associated with ICU-acquired pressure injuries were older age, male sex, being underweight, emergency surgery, higher Simplified Acute Physiology Score II, Braden score 3 days, comorbidities (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, immunodeficiency), organ support (renal replacement, mechanical ventilation on ICU admission), and being in a low or lower-middle income-economy. Gradually increasing associations with mortality were identified for increasing severity of pressure injury: stage I (odds ratio [OR] 1.5; 95% CI 1.2–1.8), stage II (OR 1.6; 95% CI 1.4–1.9), and stage III or worse (OR 2.8; 95% CI 2.3–3.3). Conclusion: Pressure injuries are common in adult ICU patients. ICU-acquired pressure injuries are associated with mainly intrinsic factors and mortality. Optimal care standards, increased awareness, appropriate resource allocation, and further research into optimal prevention are pivotal to tackle this important patient safety threat

Safety of reducing antibiotic use in children with febrile neutropenia: A systematic review

Safety of reducing antibiotic use in children with febrile neutropenia: A systematic revie

Continuous authentication with feature-level fusion of touch gestures and keystroke dynamics to solve security and usability issues

Behavioral Biometrics (BB) Continuous Authentication (CA) systems monitor user behavior and continuously re-authenticate user identity alongside the initial login process. Most studies use single behavioral modality systems to authenticate users. However, the behaviors of genuine users may change, and systems fail when significant changes occur. This results in either usability or security issues. In the literature, the fusion of biometrics is used to solve this problem and achieves improved results. This paper presents our research on the design and evaluation of new approaches to CA using fusion of touch gestures and keystroke dynamics. To collect the biometric data from mobile device users we have developed the BioGames App which follows an innovative approach based on the gamification paradigm. We examine each modality separately and investigate if we can improve the performance results with a feature-level fusion. For this reason, a new appropriate feature set is developed that combines touch gestures and keystroke dynamics. We used the Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) and Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) and compared their performance. We have shown that feature-level fusion of touch gestures and keystroke dynamics improves the performance of systems and solves security and usability issues. We found that the MLP is superior to LSTM in this context. The MLP achieved Accuracy 98.3% (increased 21.1%), EER 1% (error reduction by 23.7%), TAR 99.4% (increased 46%), TRR 97.4% (increased 10%), FAR 2.6% (reduced by 10.5%), and FRR 0.6% (reduced by 46%)

Key factors driving the adoption of behavioral biometrics and continuous authentication technology: an empirical research

Purpose: For the success of future investments in the implementation of continuous authentication systems, we should explore the key factors that influence technology adoption. The authors investigate the effect of various factors of behavioral intention through the new incorporation of a modified technology acceptance model (TAM) and diffusion of innovation theory (DOI). Also, the authors have created a new theoretical framework with constructs such as security and privacy risks (SPR), biometrics privacy concerns (BPC) and perceived risk of using the technology (PROU). In this paper, the authors conducted a structural equation modeling empirical research. This research is designed in such a way to respond to the trade-off between users’ concern for the protection of their biometrics privacy and their protection from risks. Design/methodology/approach: The authors provide an extensive conceptual framework for both existing models (TAM and DOI) and the new constructs that the authors have added to the model. In addition, this research explores external factors, such as trust in technology (TT) and innovativeness (Innov). In addition, the authors have introduced significant constructs, to overcome the limitations of the TAM and to adapt it to the needs of the present research. The new theoretical framework the authors introduce in the present research concerns the constructs SPR, BPC and PROU. Findings: The authors found that the main facilitators of behavioral intention to adopt the technology (BI) are TT, followed by compatibility (COMP), perceived usefulness (PU) and Innov. This research also shows that individuals are less interested in the ease of use of the technology and are willing to sacrifice it to achieve greater security. COMP and Innov also play a significant role. Individuals who believe that the usage of the behavioral biometrics continuous authentication (BBCA) technology would fit into their lifestyle and would like to experiment with new technologies have a positive intention to adopt the BBCA technology. The new constructs the authors have added are SPR, BPC and PROU. The authors’ results support the hypotheses that SPR is a facilitator to PU and PU acts as a facilitator to BI. Consequently, the hypothesis that individuals do not feel adequately protected by classical methods will consider the usefulness of the BBCA as a technology for their extra protection against risks is confirmed by the model. Also, with the constructs BPC and PROU, the authors examined if individuals’ concerns regarding their biometrics privacy act as inhibitors in the BI. The authors concluded that individuals consider that the benefits of using BBCA technology are much more important than the risks for their biometrics privacy since the hypothesis that the major inhibitor of BI is PROU is not supported by the model. Originality/value: To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is among the first in the field that examines the factors that influence the individuals’ decision to adopt BBCA technology

Behavioral biometrics & continuous user authentication on mobile devices: A survey

This paper offers an up-to-date, comprehensive, extensive and targeted survey on Behavioral Biometrics and Continuous Authentication technologies for mobile devices. Our aim is to help interested researchers to effectively grasp the background in this field and to avoid pitfalls in their work. In our survey, we first present a classification of behavioral biometrics technologies and continuous authentication for mobile devices and an analysis for behavioral biometrics collection methodologies and feature extraction techniques. Then, we provide a state-of-the-art literature review focusing on the machine learning models performance in seven types of behavioral biometrics for continuous authentication. Further, we conduct another review that showed the vulnerability of machine learning models against well-designed adversarial attack vectors and we highlight relevant countermeasures. Finally, our discussions extend to lessons learned, current challenges and future trends

Mobile phones & behavioral modalities: Surveying users' practices

Mobile phones are one of the most popular means of access to the internet. Users, via the telephone, connect to different services such as: Google, social networks, work accounts, banks accounts, etc. Those services, are many times, left open in their device. This enables risks, such as, loss or/and the violation of their personal data. In addition, in case of device theft after login, full access to sensitive data and applications may be fully granted. The purpose of this research is to analyze the most salient patterns characterizing user practices regarding certain behavioral modalities including: the way of using the various applications, power consumption, touch gestures and guest users' habits. To this end, we used an original questionnaire, created for the needs of the specific survey, to examine whether we can find some trends among the users. This can give us a qualitative information, for the different behaviors / "characters" of users, in order to be used in further research regarding User's Continuous Authentication

Comment j’explore… une tuberculose abdominale chez l’enfant ?

La tuberculose (TB) fait partie du top 10 des maladies mortelles dans le monde. La TB abdominale est difficile à diagnostiquer car ses symptômes sont insidieux. Les formes les plus fréquentes chez l’enfant sont la TB péritonéale et la TB ganglionnaire. Le diagnostic repose sur l’anamnèse, l’imagerie, la culture microbiologique et l’histologie. La polymerase chain reaction (PCR) confirme le diagnostic plus rapidement que la culture. Le traitement consiste en une quadrithérapie de 2 mois, suivie d’une bithérapie de 4 mois. Cet article décrit les différentes méthodes d’exploration permettant d’étayer le diagnostic de TB abdominale.[How I explore … abdominal tuberculosis in children ?] Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the top 10 causes of death worldwide. Abdominal TB is an uncommon presentation of TB and is challenging to diagnose due to its insidious onset. The most common forms in children are peritonitis and lymphadenitis. Diagnosis is based on radiological and histopathological findings. Specific PCR amplification confirms the diagnosis quicker than conventional cultures. The treatment includes a 6-month therapy and a close follow-up. This article describes the different methods allowing to confirm the diagnosis of abdominal TB