Patient privacy protection using anonymous access control techniques

Objective: The objective of this study is to develop a solution to preserve security and privacy in a healthcare environment where health-sensitive information will be accessed by many parties and stored in various distributed databases. The solution should maintain anonymous medical records and it should be able to link anonymous medical information in distributed databases into a single patient medical record with the patient identity. Methods: In this paper we present a protocol that can be used to authenticate and authorize patients to healthcare services without providing the patient identification. Healthcare service can identify the patient using separate temporary identities in each identification session and medical records are linked to these temporary identities. Temporary identities can be used to enable record linkage and reverse track real patient identity in critical medical situations. Results: The proposed protocol provides main security and privacy services such as user anonymity, message privacy, message confidentiality, user authentication, user authorization and message replay attacks. The medical environment validates the patient at the healthcare service as a real and registered patient for the medical services. Using the proposed protocol, the patient anonymous medical records at different healthcare services can be linked into one single report and it is possible to securely reverse track anonymous patient into the real identity. Conclusion: The protocol protects the patient privacy with a secure anonymous authentication to healthcare services and medical record registries according to the European and the UK legislations, where the patient real identity is not disclosed with the distributed patient medical records

Spectral signatures of thermal spin disorder and excess Mn in half-metallic NiMnSb

Effects of thermal spin disorder and excess Mn on the electronic spectrum of half-metallic NiMnSb are studied using first-principles calculations. Temperature-dependent spin disorder, introduced within the vector disordered local moment model, causes the valence band at the $\Gamma$ point to broaden and shift upwards, crossing the Fermi level and thereby closing the half-metallic gap above room temperature. The spectroscopic signatures of excess Mn on the Ni, Sb, and empty sites (Mn$_\mathrm{Ni}$, Mn$_\mathrm{Sb}$, and Mn$_\mathrm{E}$) are analyzed. Mn$_\mathrm{Ni}$ is spectroscopically invisible. The relatively weak coupling of Mn$_\mathrm{Sb}$ and Mn$_\mathrm{E}$ spins to the host strongly deviates from the Heisenberg model, and the spin of Mn$_\mathrm{E}$ is canted in the ground state. While the half-metallic gap is preserved in the collinear ground state of Mn$_\mathrm{Sb}$, thermal spin disorder of the weakly coupled Mn$_\mathrm{Sb}$ spins destroys it at low temperatures. This property of Mn$_\mathrm{Sb}$ may be the source of the observed low-temperature transport anomalies.Comment: 5 pages, 7 figures, updated version with minor revisions and an additional figure, accepted in Phys. Rev. B (Rapid Communication

Evolution, present status and issues concerning small tank systems in Sri Lanka [Small tanks in Sri Lanka: evolution, present status and issues]

Tank irrigationHydrologyWater qualityIrrigation managementWater managementWater distributionWatershedsIrrigation designMaintenanceFarming systemsGovernmental interrelationsSmall scale systemsVillagesHistory

Internationalisation of SMEs: Critical Review of Theories and Antecedents

Scholars have paid close attention to developing several theories for internationalisation of small and medium-sized enterprises. These theories explain the firm strategic directions and the gradual process of international expansion. This theoretical literature review aims at comprehensively examining the wide array of literature relating to theories of SME internationalisation and the antecedents of internationalisation. This study looks at the connections and contrasts between twelve internationalisation theories, discusses their shortcomings and provides theory-based insights to SMEs in understanding the internationalisation process. Further, this paper examines ten different antecedents of SME internationalisation and how various researchers measure the impact of the identified antecedents on internationalisation. According to the literature analysis, it has been identified that the majority of the SME internationalisation studies are done in developed countries. Moreover, most of the internationalisation theories are built in developed countries by observing the behaviour of large firms. Hence, these theories and models may not be sufficient to explain SME success in developing and emerging markets. Furthermore, companies currently use many strategic approaches (such as joint ventures, strategic alliances) to internationalise their operations. As a result, it is argued that the existing internationalisation-based literature and theories are insufficient to explain the internationalisation of SMEs in developing countries. Keywords: Capabilities, Firm Age, Firm Specific Resources, Firm Size, Internationalisation, Small and Medium Enterprise

CeRC Story-Game Engine: An open source technology to power story based investigation games

Playing computer games is widely popular among children and teenagers as an entertainment activity; however computer games can also be easily transformed into tools for education. City University London’s City eHealth Research Centre (CeRC) - has developed such educational computer games to improve young people’s understanding of the importance of hand and respiratory hygiene and responsible antibiotic use; and to teach school syllabus concepts such as microbes, the spread and prevention of infection, antibiotic use and antibiotic resistance. We have developed a game platform as an open-source framework to promote game development for education and entertainment. The platform enables the efficient development of new games with new learning objectives along with the ability to support translation into any language. For example, the current CeRC games have been translated into 11 European languages (English, BelgianFrench, Flemish, Czech, Danish, French, Greek, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, and Spanish). The existing CeRC games are targeted towards school children; however, we investigate the usability of utilizing such games for adult education as well as examining the effectiveness of these games to convey messages to particular academic, industrial (or otherwise) communities

Enabling Collaborative eHealth Research using Web 2.0 Tools

In this paper, we describe two Web 2.0 based systems designed to facilitate and enhance collaborative eHealth research activities. Using a combination of Forums, Wikis and connectivity to 3rd party social networking systems, we have designed systems to support collaborative document creation (including editing, reviewing and publication), dissemination of material to relevant communities, discussion of ideas, and sharing of opinions. The ECDC Field Epidemiology Manual Wiki and Medicine Support Unit Online Forums are presented herein, including an overview to the system architectures, and user interaction models. We present our planned methods of evaluation, focusing on the ability to measure successful and sustainable community involvement

Modelling and Forecasting the Unit Cost of Electricity Generated by Fossil Fuel Power Plants in Sri Lanka

The national grid system which is evolved to deliver electricity must be always kept in balance so that it must have a sufficient production to meet the demand of electricity while minimizing the generation cost. This study presents a statistical time series model for forecasting the Unit Cost (UC) of generation of electricity in fossil fuel power plants by using two approaches namely Auto Regressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) and time series regression. This is conducted as a case study in a Diesel/Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) power plant in Sri Lanka which consists of two sub stations. ARIMA (1,1,0) and ARIMA (2,1,2) were selected as the best models with the lowest Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) under the ARIMA model approach while two dynamic regression models with coefficient of determination (R2) value 0.55 were selected under time series regression approach for Station 1 and Station 2 respectively. The regression model was identified as the best forecasting method for two stations with the minimum Mean Absolute Error (MAE) and Root Mean Square Error (RMSE). The forecasts of the future generation cost of electricity are extensively helpful for the national grid system for financial and capacity planning, fuel management and operational planning

Analysis of a Modified RC4 Algorithm

In this paper, analysis of a simply modified RC4 algorithm is presented. RC4 is the most widely used stream cipher and it is not considered as a cipher that is strong in security. Many alternatives have been proposed to improve RC4 key generation and pseudo random number generation but the thoughts behind this work is to try out a simple modification of RC4’s PRGA, where we can mention like this: Output = M XOR GeneratedKey XOR j After having done the modification the modified algorithm is tested for its secrecy and performance and analyzed over the variable key length with respect to those of the original RC4. The results show that the modified algorithm is better than the original RC4 in the aspects of secrecy and performance

An Effective RC4 Stream Cipher

RC4 is the most widely used stream cipher around. A lot of modifications of RC4 cipher can be seen in open literature. Most of them enhance the secrecy of the cipher and the security levels have been analyzed theoretically by using mathematics. In this paper, a new effective RC4 cipher is proposed and the security analysis has been done using Shannon’s Secrecy theories where numerical values are obtained to depict the secrecy. The proposed cipher is a combination of Improved RC4 cipher proposed by Jian Xie et al and modified RC4 cipher proposed by T.D.B Weerasinghe, which were published prior to this work. Combination is done in such a way that the concept used in the modified RC4 algorithm is used in the Improved RC4 cipher by Jian Xie et al. Importantly, an immense improvement of performance and secrecy are obtained by this combination. Hence this particular modification of RC4 cipher can be used in software applications where there is a need to improve the throughput as well as secrecy

The Psychological Impact of Austerity: A Briefing Paper

This report directly links cuts to public services with mental health problems. Well-established psychological research that explains these links already exists. However, this knowledge has been missing from the debate on austerity so far. Psychologists are often in a position to see the effects that social and economic changes have on people. We also occupy a relatively powerful position as professionals and therefore have an ethical responsibility to speak out about these effects. Key conclusions: Austerity policies have damaging psychological costs. Mental health problems are being created in the present, and further problems are being stored for the future. We have identified five ‘Austerity Ailments’. These are specific ways in which austerity policies impact on mental health: 1. Humiliation and shame 2. Fear and distrust 3. Instability and insecurity 4. Isolation and loneliness 5. Being trapped and powerless These experiences have been shown to increase mental health problems. Prolonged humiliation following a severe loss trebles the chance of being diagnosed with clinical depression. Job insecurity is as damaging for mental health as unemployment. Feeling trapped over the long term nearly trebles the chances of being diagnosed with anxiety and depression. Low levels of trust increase the chance of being diagnosed with depression by nearly 50 per cent. These five ‘ailments’ are indicators of problems in society, of poisonous public policy, weakness of social cohesion and inequalities in power and wealth. We also know what kind of society promotes good health. Key markers are that societies are equal, participatory and cohesive. Some important indicators of a psychologically healthy society are: 1. Agency 2. Security 3. Connection 4. Meaning 5. Trust Mental health isn’t just an individual issue. To create resilience and promote wellbeing, we need to look at the entirety of the social and economic conditions in which people live