Policy management and enforcement using OWL and SWRL for the internet of things

© Springer International Publishing AG 2017. As the number of connected devices is exponentially growing, the IoT community is investigating potential ways of overcoming the resulting heterogeneity to enable device compatibility, interoperability and integration. The Semantic Web technologies, frequently used to address these issues, have been employed to develop a number of ontological frameworks, aiming to provide a common vocabulary of terms for the IoT domain. Defined in Web Ontology Language – a language based on the Description Logics, and thus equipped with the ‘off-the-shelf’ support for formal reasoning – these ontologies, however, seem to neglect the built-in automated reasoning capabilities. Accordingly, this paper discusses the possibility of leveraging this idle potential for automated analysis in the context of defining and enforcing policies for the IoT. As a first step towards a proof of concept, the paper focuses on a simple use case and, using the existing IoT-Lite ontology, demonstrates different types of semantic classification to enable policy enforcement. As a result, it becomes possible to detect a critical situation, when a dangerous temperature threshold has been exceeded. With the proposed approach, IoT practitioners are offered an already existing, reliable and optimised policy enforcement mechanism. Moreover, they are also expected to benefit from support for policy governance, separation of concerns, a declarative approach to knowledge engineering, and an extensible architecture

Association of mechanical bowel preparation with oral antibiotics and anastomotic leak following left sided colorectal resection:an international, multi-centre, prospective audit

Introduction: The optimal bowel preparation strategy to minimise the risk of anastomotic leak is yet to be determined. This study aimed to determine whether oral antibiotics combined with mechanical bowel preparation (MBP+Abx) was associated with a reduced risk of anastomotic leak when compared to mechanical bowel preparation alone (MBP) or no bowel preparation (NBP). Methods: A pre-planned analysis of the European Society of Coloproctology (ESCP) 2017 Left Sided Colorectal Resection audit was performed. Patients undergoing elective left sided colonic or rectal resection with primary anastomosis between 1 January 2017 and 15 March 2017 by any operative approach were included. The primary outcome measure was anastomotic leak. Results: Of 3676 patients across 343 centres in 47 countries, 618 (16.8%) received MBP+ABx, 1945 MBP (52.9%) and 1099 patients NBP (29.9%). Patients undergoing MBP+ABx had the lowest overall rate of anastomotic leak (6.1%, 9.2%, 8.7% respectively) in unadjusted analysis. After case-mix adjustment using a mixed-effects multivariable regression model, MBP+Abx was associated with a lower risk of anastomotic leak (OR 0.52, 0.30–0.92, P = 0.02) but MBP was not (OR 0.92, 0.63–1.36, P = 0.69) compared to NBP. Conclusion: This non-randomised study adds ‘real-world’, contemporaneous, and prospective evidence of the beneficial effects of combined mechanical bowel preparation and oral antibiotics in the prevention of anastomotic leak following left sided colorectal resection across diverse settings. We have also demonstrated limited uptake of this strategy in current international colorectal practice

Evaluating the incidence of pathological complete response in current international rectal cancer practice

The mainstay of management for locally advanced rectal cancer is chemoradiotherapy followed by surgical resection. Following chemoradiotherapy, a complete response may be detected clinically and radiologically (cCR) prior to surgery or pathologically after surgery (pCR). We aim to report the overall complete pathological response (pCR) rate and the reliability of detecting a cCR by conventional pre-operative imaging.A pre-planned analysis of the European Society of Coloproctology (ESCP) 2017 audit was performed. Patients treated by elective rectal resection were included. A pCR was defined as a ypT0 N0 EMVI negative primary tumour; a partial response represented any regression from baseline staging following chemoradiotherapy. The primary endpoint was the pCR rate. The secondary endpoint was agreement between post-treatment MRI restaging (yMRI) and final pathological staging.Of 2572 patients undergoing rectal cancer surgery in 277 participating centres across 44 countries, 673 (26.2%) underwent chemoradiotherapy and surgery. The pCR rate was 10.3% (67/649), with a partial response in 35.9% (233/649) patients. Comparison of AJCC stage determined by post-treatment yMRI with final pathology showed understaging in 13% (55/429) and overstaging in 34% (148/429). Agreement between yMRI and final pathology for T-stage, N-stage, or AJCC status were each graded as 'fair' only (n = 429, Kappa 0.25, 0.26 and 0.35 respectively).The reported pCR rate of 10% highlights the potential for non-operative management in selected cases. The limited strength of agreement between basic conventional post-chemoradiotherapy imaging assessment techniques and pathology suggest alternative markers of response should be considered, in the context of controlled clinical trials

Advanced service brokerage capabilities as the catalyst for future cloud service ecosystems.

Market analysts have foreseen the emergence of cloud brokers in the mediation of cloud services. But rather than focus on current kinds of intermediary role, it is more constructive to consider the kinds of brokerage capability that could be offered in the future, which go far beyond the integration, aggregation and customization services available today. This paper identifies advanced capabilities for cloud service governance, quality assurance and optimization that will be critical in catalyzing the emergence of cloud service ecosystems, environments in which all parties will find their symbiotic niches. It shows the path whereby a platform provider could evolve to become the hub of a cloud service ecosystem, through gradually taking on more of these advanced brokerage capabilities. The paper provides an overview of work conducted by the EU FP7 Broker@Cloud project towards realizing these advanced brokerage capabilities

Asthma phenotypes in children and stratified pharmacological treatment regimens

Introduction: Asthma is the most common inflammatory disease in childhood. The interaction of genetic, environmental and host factors may contribute to the development of childhood asthma and defines its progress, including persistence and severity. Until now, various classifications of childhood asthma phenotypes have been suggested based on patient’s age during onset of symptoms, type of inflammatory cells, response to treatment and disease severity. Many efforts have been carried out to identify childhood asthma phenotypes and to clarify which are the risk factors that define asthma prediction and the response to therapy. The identification of asthma phenotypes has not only prognostic but also therapeutic role. However, the classification of asthma phenotypes is complex due to the heterogeneity of the disease. Areas covered: The current childhood asthma phenotypes and the new therapeutic strategies for each phenotype are reviewed. Expert commentary: There are multiple phenotypes in childhood asthma and it is crucial to define them before the initiation of personalized treatment. Both the therapeutic strategy and monitoring should follow the recent guidelines. © 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group

Policy management and enforcement using OWL and SWRL for the internet of things

© Springer International Publishing AG 2017. As the number of connected devices is exponentially growing, the IoT community is investigating potential ways of overcoming the resulting heterogeneity to enable device compatibility, interoperability and integration. The Semantic Web technologies, frequently used to address these issues, have been employed to develop a number of ontological frameworks, aiming to provide a common vocabulary of terms for the IoT domain. Defined in Web Ontology Language – a language based on the Description Logics, and thus equipped with the ‘off-the-shelf’ support for formal reasoning – these ontologies, however, seem to neglect the built-in automated reasoning capabilities. Accordingly, this paper discusses the possibility of leveraging this idle potential for automated analysis in the context of defining and enforcing policies for the IoT. As a first step towards a proof of concept, the paper focuses on a simple use case and, using the existing IoT-Lite ontology, demonstrates different types of semantic classification to enable policy enforcement. As a result, it becomes possible to detect a critical situation, when a dangerous temperature threshold has been exceeded. With the proposed approach, IoT practitioners are offered an already existing, reliable and optimised policy enforcement mechanism. Moreover, they are also expected to benefit from support for policy governance, separation of concerns, a declarative approach to knowledge engineering, and an extensible architecture

Policy management and enforcement using OWL and SWRL for the internet of things

© Springer International Publishing AG 2017. As the number of connected devices is exponentially growing, the IoT community is investigating potential ways of overcoming the resulting heterogeneity to enable device compatibility, interoperability and integration. The Semantic Web technologies, frequently used to address these issues, have been employed to develop a number of ontological frameworks, aiming to provide a common vocabulary of terms for the IoT domain. Defined in Web Ontology Language – a language based on the Description Logics, and thus equipped with the ‘off-the-shelf’ support for formal reasoning – these ontologies, however, seem to neglect the built-in automated reasoning capabilities. Accordingly, this paper discusses the possibility of leveraging this idle potential for automated analysis in the context of defining and enforcing policies for the IoT. As a first step towards a proof of concept, the paper focuses on a simple use case and, using the existing IoT-Lite ontology, demonstrates different types of semantic classification to enable policy enforcement. As a result, it becomes possible to detect a critical situation, when a dangerous temperature threshold has been exceeded. With the proposed approach, IoT practitioners are offered an already existing, reliable and optimised policy enforcement mechanism. Moreover, they are also expected to benefit from support for policy governance, separation of concerns, a declarative approach to knowledge engineering, and an extensible architecture

Policy management and enforcement using OWL and SWRL for the internet of things

© Springer International Publishing AG 2017. As the number of connected devices is exponentially growing, the IoT community is investigating potential ways of overcoming the resulting heterogeneity to enable device compatibility, interoperability and integration. The Semantic Web technologies, frequently used to address these issues, have been employed to develop a number of ontological frameworks, aiming to provide a common vocabulary of terms for the IoT domain. Defined in Web Ontology Language – a language based on the Description Logics, and thus equipped with the ‘off-the-shelf’ support for formal reasoning – these ontologies, however, seem to neglect the built-in automated reasoning capabilities. Accordingly, this paper discusses the possibility of leveraging this idle potential for automated analysis in the context of defining and enforcing policies for the IoT. As a first step towards a proof of concept, the paper focuses on a simple use case and, using the existing IoT-Lite ontology, demonstrates different types of semantic classification to enable policy enforcement. As a result, it becomes possible to detect a critical situation, when a dangerous temperature threshold has been exceeded. With the proposed approach, IoT practitioners are offered an already existing, reliable and optimised policy enforcement mechanism. Moreover, they are also expected to benefit from support for policy governance, separation of concerns, a declarative approach to knowledge engineering, and an extensible architecture