Digital Governance and Privacy: The eDiplomas case study

Την τελευταία δεκαετία, ο τομέας της ιδιοκτησίας και του διαμοιρασμού δεδομένων ανάμεσα σε οντότητες με επίκεντρο την ιδιωτικότητα και την ασφάλεια, χαίρει ιδιαίτερης προσοχής. Η παρούσα πτυχιακή εξετάζει την ανταλλαγή δεδομένων ανάμεσα σε άτομα, κυβερνητικούς φορείς και εταιρείες, μέσα από το πρίσμα του eDiplomas, μιας πλατφόρμας υλοποιημένης από τα ελληνικά Πανεπιστήμια και το GUnet που επιτρέπει το διαμοιρασμό και τον έλεγχο αυθεντικότητας ψηφιακών τίτλων σπουδών με χρήση εξουσιοδοτήσεων OAuth2 και άλλων σύγχρονων τεχνολογιών. Στη συνέχεια, η πτυχιακή εξετάζει λύσεις τελευταίας τεχνολογίας στον τομέα ανταλλαγής και επιβεβαίωσης δεδομένων που δεν είναι σε παραγωγικό επίπεδο ακόμα, αλλά παρουσιάζουν ενδιαφέρον για το μέλλον.The subject of data ownership and sharing between entities in a privacy-respecting and secure manner has become of great interest over the last decade. The current thesis examines the exchange of an individual’s data with government entities and corporations through the lens of eDiplomas, a platform implemented by the Greek Universities and GUnet to facilitate sharing and validation of digital diplomas using OAuth2 authorization and other modern technologies. The thesis also explores state-of-the-art data exchange and verification solutions that are not production ready yet, but look promising for the near future

Anti-Bullying Strategy towards Parents: A Comparative Analysis between Principals of Experimental and Non-Experimental Primary Schools in Greece

School bullying is a type of bullying that occurs in an educational setting. In the present study, we examine the differences in strategy towards parents followed by principals of public experimental and non-experimental primary schools in Greece in their effort to deal with bullying in terms of issues related to the proper treatment of the phenomenon. A sample of 11 school principals was the focus of this research. In particular, the population examined were the principals of the three public experimental primary schools of the prefecture of Thessaloniki and eight randomly selected principals of non-experimental public primary schools of the same prefecture. In the prefecture of Thessaloniki, the problem of bullying seems to exist and concern to a great extent the principals of primary education who constitute the sample of this research and pursue their strategy to find appropriate solutions for its immediate and effective coping. At the same time, these principals follow, to a significant degree, common practices in dealing with the phenomenon in their effort to reduce it or even eliminate it, revealing however significant shortcomings on their part

Reversible Cortical Blindness as a Prominent Manifestation of Cerebral Embolism due to Infective Endocarditis

Introduction. Infective endocarditis in the left heart may be complicated by stroke, due to embolisation from infectious valvular vegetations. Infarction of both occipital lobes, which are supplied by the posterior cerebral arteries, is infrequent, and is the cause of cortical blindness from lesion of the visual cortex. Cortical blindness is characterized by intact pupillary reflexes, a normal fundoscopy, and, rarely, denial of visual loss. Case Presentation. We report the case of a 58-year-old woman, recipient of a mechanical aortic valve, who presented with fever, multiple organ dysfunction, and cortical blindness. Transesophageal echocardiography and blood cultures confirmed the diagnosis of infective endocarditis caused by methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus. Computed tomography of the brain without contrast revealed the presence of infarctions in both occipital lobes. It is noteworthy that the visual loss resolved after treatment of endocarditis. Conclusions. A stroke occurring in a patient presenting with fever and a history of valvular heart disease strongly suggests the presence of infective endocarditis. Bilateral thromboembolic infarcts of the occipital lobes cause cortical blindness, that can resolve after treatment of endocarditis

Neurological and neurourological complications of electrical injuries

Electrical injury can affect any system and organ. Central nervous system (CNS) complications are especially well recognised, causing an increased risk of morbidity, while peripheral nervous system (PNS) complications, neurourological and cognitive and psychological abnormalities are less predictable after electrical injuries.PubMed was searched for English language clinical observational, retrospective, review and case studies published in the last 30 years using the key words: electrical injury, electrocution, complications, sequelae, neurological, cognitive, psychological, urological, neuropsychological, neurourological, neurogenic, and bladder.In this review, the broad spectrum of neurological, cognitive, psychological and neurourological consequences of electrical trauma are discussed, and clinical features characteristic of an underlying neurological, psychological or neurourological disorder are identified. The latest information about the most recently discovered forms of nervous system disorders secondary to electrical trauma, such as the presentation of neurological sequelae years after electrocution, in other words long-term sequelae, are presented. Unexpected central nervous system or muscular complications such as hydrocephalus, brain venous thrombosis, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis are described. Common and uncommon neuropsychological syndromes after electrical trauma are defined. Neurourological sequelae secondary to spinal cord or brain trauma or as independent consequences of electrical shock are also highlighted

Laparoscopic pyeloplasty for ureteropelvic junction obstruction of the lower moiety in a completely duplicated collecting system: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>There are only a few reports on laparoscopic pyeloplasty in kidney abnormalities and only one case for laparoscopic pyeloplasty in a duplicated system. Increasing experience in laparoscopic techniques allows proper treatment of such anomalies. However, its feasibility in difficult cases with altered kidney anatomy such as that of duplicated renal pelvis still needs to be addressed.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>We present a case of a 22-year-old white Caucasian female patient with ureteropelvic junction obstruction of the lower ureter of a completely duplicated system that was managed with laparoscopic pyeloplasty. Crossing vessels were identified and transposed. The procedure was carried out successfully and the patient's symptoms subsided. Follow-up studies demonstrated complete resolution of the obstruction.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Since laparoscopic pyeloplasty is still an evolving procedure, its feasibility in complex cases of kidney anatomic abnormalities is herein further justified.</p

Tyrosine kinase inhibitors in sarcoma treatment

Sarcomas are a group of rare mesenchymal malignant tumors that arise from transformed cells of the mesenchymal connective tissue, which are challenging to treat. The majority of sarcomas are soft tissue sarcomas (STSs; 75%) and this heterogeneous group of tumors is further comprised of gastrointestinal stromal tumors (~15%) and bone sarcomas (10%). Although surgery remains the current primary therapeutic approach for localized disease, recurrent, metastatic and refractory sarcomas require cytotoxic chemotherapy, which usually yields poor results. Therefore the efficiency of sarcoma treatment imposes a difficult problem. Furthermore, even though progress has been made towards understanding the underlying molecular signaling pathways of sarcoma, there are limited treatment options. The aim of the present study was therefore to perform a systematic literature review of the available clinical evidence regarding the role of tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) in patients with recurrent or refractory STSs and bone sarcomas over the last two decades. Tyrosine kinases are principal elements of several intracellular molecular signaling pathways. Deregulation of these proteins has been implicated in driving oncogenesis via the crosstalk of pivotal cellular signaling pathways and cascades, including cell proliferation, migration, angiogenesis and apoptosis. Subsequently, small molecule TKIs that target these proteins provide a novel potential therapeutic approach for several types of tumor by offering significant clinical benefits. Among the eligible articles, there were 45 prospective clinical trials, primarily multicentric, single arm, phase II and non-randomized. Numerous studies have reported promising results regarding the use of TKIs, mainly resulting in disease control in patients with STSs. The lack of randomized clinical trials demonstrates the ambiguous efficiency of various studied treatment options, which therefore currently limits the approved drugs used in clinical practice. Research both in clinical and preclinical settings is needed to shed light on the underlying molecular drivers of sarcomagenesis and will identify novel therapeutic approaches for pretreated patients

An Extensive Quality Control and Quality Assurance (QC/QA) Program Significantly Improves Inter-Laboratory Concordance Rates of Flow-Cytometric Minimal Residual Disease Assessment in Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia: An I-BFM-FLOW-Network Report

Monitoring of minimal residual disease (MRD) by flow cytometry (FCM) is a powerful prognostic tool for predicting outcomes in acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). To apply FCM-MRD in large, collaborative trials, dedicated laboratory staff must be educated to concordantly high levels of expertise and their performance quality should be continuously monitored. We sought to install a unique and comprehensive training and quality control (QC) program involving a large number of reference laboratories within the international Berlin-Frankfurt-Münster (I-BFM) consortium, in order to complement the standardization of the methodology with an educational component and persistent quality control measures. Our QC and quality assurance (QA) program is based on four major cornerstones: (i) a twinning maturation program, (ii) obligatory participation in external QA programs (spiked sample send around, United Kingdom National External Quality Assessment Service (UK NEQAS)), (iii) regular participation in list-mode-data (LMD) file ring trials (FCM data file send arounds), and (iv) surveys of independent data derived from trial results. We demonstrate that the training of laboratories using experienced twinning partners, along with continuous educational feedback significantly improves the performance of laboratories in detecting and quantifying MRD in pediatric ALL patients. Overall, our extensive education and quality control program improved inter-laboratory concordance rates of FCM-MRD assessments and ultimately led to a very high conformity of risk estimates in independent patient cohorts