Search results for: confidentiality

Authors: Muhammad Rana, Quazi Mamun, Rafiqul Islam

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In the Internet of Things (IoT), many devices are connected and accumulate a sheer amount of data. These Internet-driven raw data need to be transferred securely to the end-users via dependable networks. Consequently, the challenges of IoT security in various IoT domains are paramount. Cryptography is being applied to secure the networks for authentication, confidentiality, data integrity and access control. However, due to the resource constraint properties of IoT devices, the conventional cipher may not be suitable in all IoT networks. This paper designs a robust and effective lightweight cipher to secure the IoT environment and meet the resource-constrained nature of IoT devices. We also propose a symmetric and block-cipher based lightweight cryptographic algorithm. The proposed algorithm increases the complexity of the block cipher, maintaining the lowest computational requirements possible. The proposed algorithm efficiently constructs the key register updating technique, reduces the number of encryption rounds, and adds a layer between the encryption and decryption processes.

Keywords: Internet of Things, IoT, cryptography block cipher, s-box, key management, IoT security.

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Authors: Nidal F. Shilbayeh, Reem A. Al-Saidi, Ahmed H. Alsswey

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In this paper, we presented an evaluation and analysis of E-Voting Authentication Preparation Scheme (EV-APS). EV-APS applies some modified security aspects that enhance the security measures and adds a strong wall of protection, confidentiality, non-repudiation and authentication requirements. Some of these modified security aspects are Kerberos authentication protocol, PVID scheme, responder certificate validation, and the converted Ferguson e-cash protocol. Authentication and privacy requirements have been evaluated and proved. Authentication guaranteed only eligible and authorized voters were permitted to vote. Also, the privacy guaranteed that all votes will be kept secret. Evaluation and analysis of some of these security requirements have been given. These modified aspects will help in filtering the counter buffer from unauthorized votes by ensuring that only authorized voters are permitted to vote.

Keywords: E-Voting preparation stage, blind signature protocol, nonce based authentication scheme, Kerberos authentication protocol, pseudo voter identity scheme PVID.

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Authors: Amirhossein Safi

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Internet of things (IOT) is a kind of advanced information technology which has drawn societies’ attention. Sensors and stimulators are usually recognized as smart devices of our environment. Simultaneously, IOT security brings up new issues. Internet connection and possibility of interaction with smart devices cause those devices to involve more in human life. Therefore, safety is a fundamental requirement in designing IOT. IOT has three remarkable features: overall perception, reliable transmission, and intelligent processing. Because of IOT span, security of conveying data is an essential factor for system security. Hybrid encryption technique is a new model that can be used in IOT. This type of encryption generates strong security and low computation. In this paper, we have proposed a hybrid encryption algorithm which has been conducted in order to reduce safety risks and enhancing encryption's speed and less computational complexity. The purpose of this hybrid algorithm is information integrity, confidentiality, non-repudiation in data exchange for IOT. Eventually, the suggested encryption algorithm has been simulated by MATLAB software, and its speed and safety efficiency were evaluated in comparison with conventional encryption algorithm.

Keywords: Internet of things, security, hybrid algorithm, privacy.

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Authors: Pantaleon Lutta, Mohamed Sedky, Mohamed Hassan

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The inability of organizations to put in place management control measures for Internet of Things (IoT) complexities persists to be a risk concern. Policy makers have been left to scamper in finding measures to combat these security and privacy concerns. IoT forensics is a cumbersome process as there is no standardization of the IoT products, no or limited historical data are stored on the devices. This paper highlights why IoT forensics is a unique adventure and brought out the legal challenges encountered in the investigation process. A quadrant model is presented to study the conflicting aspects in IoT forensics. The model analyses the effectiveness of forensic investigation process versus the admissibility of the evidence integrity; taking into account the user privacy and the providers’ compliance with the laws and regulations. Our analysis concludes that a semi-automated forensic process using machine learning, could eliminate the human factor from the profiling and surveillance processes, and hence resolves the issues of data protection (privacy and confidentiality).

Keywords: Cloud forensics, data protection laws, GDPR, IoT forensics, machine learning.

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Authors: Umair Shafique, Hafiz Usman Zia, Fiaz Majeed, Samina Naz, Javeria Ahmed, Maleeha Zainab

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The Internet of Things (IoT) has become a hot topic for the last couple of years. This innovative technology has shown promising progress in various areas and the world has witnessed exponential growth in multiple application domains. Researchers are working to investigate its aptitudes to get the best from it by harnessing its true potential. But at the same time, IoT networks open up a new aspect of vulnerability and physical threats to data integrity, privacy, and confidentiality. It is due to centralized control, data silos approach for handling information, and a lack of standardization in the IoT networks. As we know, blockchain is a new technology that involves creating secure distributed ledgers to store and communicate data. Some of the benefits include resiliency, integrity, anonymity, decentralization, and autonomous control. The potential for blockchain technology to provide the key to managing and controlling IoT has created a new wave of excitement around the idea of putting that data back into the hands of the end-users. In this manuscript, we have proposed a model that combines blockchain and IoT networks to address potential security and privacy issues in the healthcare domain and how various stakeholders will interact with the system.

Keywords: Internet of Things, IoT, blockchain, data integrity, authentication, data privacy.

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Authors: R. Kabila

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IPsec has now become a standard information security technology throughout the Internet society. It provides a well-defined architecture that takes into account confidentiality, authentication, integrity, secure key exchange and protection mechanism against replay attack also. For the connectionless security services on packet basis, IETF IPsec Working Group has standardized two extension headers (AH&ESP), key exchange and authentication protocols. It is also working on lightweight key exchange protocol and MIB's for security management. IPsec technology has been implemented on various platforms in IPv4 and IPv6, gradually replacing old application-specific security mechanisms. IPv4 and IPv6 are not directly compatible, so programs and systems designed to one standard can not communicate with those designed to the other. We propose the design and implementation of controlled Internet security system, which is IPsec-based Internet information security system in IPv4/IPv6 network and also we show the data of performance measurement. With the features like improved scalability and routing, security, ease-of-configuration, and higher performance of IPv6, the controlled Internet security system provides consistent security policy and integrated security management on IPsec-based Internet security system.

Keywords: IDS, IPS, IP-Sec, IPv6, IPv4, VPN.

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Authors: Ren-Junn Hwang, Chung-Chien Lu, Jain-Shing Wu

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Cloud outsource storage is one of important services in cloud computing. Cloud users upload data to cloud servers to reduce the cost of managing data and maintaining hardware and software. To ensure data confidentiality, users can encrypt their files before uploading them to a cloud system. However, retrieving the target file from the encrypted files exactly is difficult for cloud server. This study proposes a protocol for performing multikeyword searches for encrypted cloud data by applying k-nearest neighbor technology. The protocol ranks the relevance scores of encrypted files and keywords, and prevents cloud servers from learning search keywords submitted by a cloud user. To reduce the costs of file transfer communication, the cloud server returns encrypted files in order of relevance. Moreover, when a cloud user inputs an incorrect keyword and the number of wrong alphabet does not exceed a given threshold; the user still can retrieve the target files from cloud server. In addition, the proposed scheme satisfies security requirements for outsourced data storage.

Keywords: Fault-tolerance search, multi-keywords search, outsource storage, ranked search, searchable encryption.

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Authors: Osamah M. Al-Qershi, Khoo Bee Ee

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In recent years image watermarking has become an important research area in data security, confidentiality and image integrity. Many watermarking techniques were proposed for medical images. However, medical images, unlike most of images, require extreme care when embedding additional data within them because the additional information must not affect the image quality and readability. Also the medical records, electronic or not, are linked to the medical secrecy, for that reason, the records must be confidential. To fulfill those requirements, this paper presents a lossless watermarking scheme for DICOM images. The proposed a fragile scheme combines two reversible techniques based on difference expansion for patient's data hiding and protecting the region of interest (ROI) with tamper detection and recovery capability. Patient's data are embedded into ROI, while recovery data are embedded into region of non-interest (RONI). The experimental results show that the original image can be exactly extracted from the watermarked one in case of no tampering. In case of tampered ROI, tampered area can be localized and recovered with a high quality version of the original area.

Keywords: DICOM, reversible, ROI-based, watermarking.

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Authors: Simon B. N. Thompson

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Cortisol is essential to the regulation of the immune system and yawning is a pathological symptom of multiple sclerosis (MS). Electromyography activity (EMG) in the jaw muscles typically rises when the muscles are moved and with yawning is highly correlated with cortisol levels in healthy people. Saliva samples from 59 participants were collected at the start and after yawning, or at the end of the presentation of yawning-provoking stimuli, in the absence of a yawn, together with EMG data and questionnaire data: Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Yawning Susceptibility Scale, General Health Questionnaire, demographic, health details. Exclusion criteria: chronic fatigue, diabetes, fibromyalgia, heart condition, high blood pressure, hormone replacement therapy, multiple sclerosis, stroke. Significant differences were found between the saliva cortisol samples for the yawners, t (23) = -4.263, p = 0.000, as compared with the non-yawners between rest and post-stimuli, which was nonsignificant. Significant evidence was found to support the Thompson Cortisol Hypothesis suggesting that rises in cortisol levels are associated with yawning. Further research is exploring the use of cortisol as an early diagnostic tool for MS. Ethics approval granted and professional code of conduct, confidentiality, and safety issues are approved therein.

Keywords: Cortisol, Multiple Sclerosis, Yawning, Thompson’s Cortisol Hypothesis.

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Authors: Vishal Awasthi, Tanya Soni, Vigya Awasthi, Swati Singh, Shivali Verma

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There is a growing demand for a network that grants a high level of data security and confidentiality. For this reason, the semantic web was introduced, which allows data to be shared and reused across applications while safeguarding users privacy and user’s will grab back control of their data. The earlier Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 versions were built on client-server architecture, in  which there was the risk of data theft and unconsented sale of user data. A decentralized version, Known as Web 3.0, that is mostly built on blockchain technology was interjected to resolve these issues. The recent research focuses on blockchain technology, deals with privacy, security, transparency, and innovation of decentralized applications (DApps), e.g. a Twitter Clone, Whatsapp clone. In this paper the Twitter Alike built on the Ethereum blockchain will replace traditional techniques with improved latency, throughput, and data ownership. The central principle of this DApp is smart contract implemented using Solidity which is an object- oriented and highlevel language. Consequently, this will provide a better Quality Services, high data security, and integrity for both present and future internet technologies.

Keywords: Blockchain, DApps, Ethereum, Semantic Web, Smart Contract, Solidity.

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Authors: Aspalella A. Rahman

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Money laundering has been described by many as the lifeblood of crime and is a major threat to the economic and social well-being of societies. It has been recognized that the banking system has long been the central element of money laundering. This is in part due to the complexity and confidentiality of the banking system itself. It is generally accepted that effective anti-money laundering (AML) measures adopted by banks will make it tougher for criminals to get their "dirty money" into the financial system. In fact, for law enforcement agencies, banks are considered to be an important source of valuable information for the detection of money laundering. However, from the banks- perspective, the main reason for their existence is to make as much profits as possible. Hence their cultural and commercial interests are totally distinct from that of the law enforcement authorities. Undoubtedly, AML laws create a major dilemma for banks as they produce a significant shift in the way banks interact with their customers. Furthermore, the implementation of the laws not only creates significant compliance problems for banks, but also has the potential to adversely affect the operations of banks. As such, it is legitimate to ask whether these laws are effective in preventing money launderers from using banks, or whether they simply put an unreasonable burden on banks and their customers. This paper attempts to address these issues and analyze them against the background of the Malaysian AML laws. It must be said that effective coordination between AML regulator and the banking industry is vital to minimize problems faced by the banks and thereby to ensure effective implementation of the laws in combating money laundering.

Keywords: Banking Industry, Bank Negara Money, Laundering, Malaysia.

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Authors: Shubat S. Ahmeda, Ashraf M. Ali Edwila

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Short Message Service (SMS) has grown in popularity over the years and it has become a common way of communication, it is a service provided through General System for Mobile Communications (GSM) that allows users to send text messages to others. SMS is usually used to transport unclassified information, but with the rise of mobile commerce it has become a popular tool for transmitting sensitive information between the business and its clients. By default SMS does not guarantee confidentiality and integrity to the message content. In the mobile communication systems, security (encryption) offered by the network operator only applies on the wireless link. Data delivered through the mobile core network may not be protected. Existing end-to-end security mechanisms are provided at application level and typically based on public key cryptosystem. The main concern in a public-key setting is the authenticity of the public key; this issue can be resolved by identity-based (IDbased) cryptography where the public key of a user can be derived from public information that uniquely identifies the user. This paper presents an encryption mechanism based on the IDbased scheme using Elliptic curves to provide end-to-end security for SMS. This mechanism has been implemented over the standard SMS network architecture and the encryption overhead has been estimated and compared with RSA scheme. This study indicates that the ID-based mechanism has advantages over the RSA mechanism in key distribution and scalability of increasing security level for mobile service.

Keywords: Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC), End-to-end Security, Identity-based Cryptography, Public Key, RSA, SMS Protocol.

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Authors: Ki Hyun Kim, Jang-Hee Yoo, Kyo Il Chung

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This paper proposes a VPN Accelerator Board (VPN-AB), a virtual private network (VPN) protocol designed for trust channel security system (TCSS). TCSS supports safety communication channel between security nodes in internet. It furnishes authentication, confidentiality, integrity, and access control to security node to transmit data packets with IPsec protocol. TCSS consists of internet key exchange block, security association block, and IPsec engine block. The internet key exchange block negotiates crypto algorithm and key used in IPsec engine block. Security Association blocks setting-up and manages security association information. IPsec engine block treats IPsec packets and consists of networking functions for communication. The IPsec engine block should be embodied by H/W and in-line mode transaction for high speed IPsec processing. Our VPN-AB is implemented with high speed security processor that supports many cryptographic algorithms and in-line mode. We evaluate a small TCSS communication environment, and measure a performance of VPN-AB in the environment. The experiment results show that VPN-AB gets a performance throughput of maximum 15.645Gbps when we set the IPsec protocol with 3DES-HMAC-MD5 tunnel mode.

Keywords: TCSS(Trust Channel Security System), VPN(VirtualPrivate Network), IPsec, SSL, Security Processor, Securitycommunication.

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Authors: Simon B. N. Thompson

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Cortisol is important to our immune system, regulates our stress response, and is a factor in maintaining brain temperature. Saliva cortisol is a practical and useful non-invasive measurement that signifies the presence of the important hormone. Electrical activity in the jaw muscles typically rises when the muscles are moved during yawning and the electrical level is found to be correlated with the cortisol level. In two studies using identical paradigms, a total of 108 healthy subjects were exposed to yawning-provoking stimuli so that their cortisol levels and electrical nerve impulses from their jaw muscles was recorded. Electrical activity is highly correlated with cortisol levels in healthy people. The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Yawning Susceptibility Scale, General Health Questionnaire, demographic, health details were collected and exclusion criteria applied for voluntary recruitment: chronic fatigue, diabetes, fibromyalgia, heart condition, high blood pressure, hormone replacement therapy, multiple sclerosis, and stroke. Significant differences were found between the saliva cortisol samples for the yawners as compared with the non-yawners between rest and post-stimuli. Significant evidence supports the Thompson Cortisol Hypothesis that suggests rises in cortisol levels are associated with yawning. Ethics approval granted and professional code of conduct, confidentiality, and safety issues are approved therein.

Keywords: Cortisol, Diagnosis, Neurological Disease, Thompson Cortisol Hypothesis, Yawning.

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Authors: Ronald F. Gonzales, Gordon W. Romney, Pradip Peter Dey, Mohammad Amin, Bhaskar Raj Sinha

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A virtualized and virtual approach is presented on academically preparing students to successfully engage at a strategic perspective to understand those concerns and measures that are both structured and not structured in the area of cyber security and information assurance. The Master of Science in Cyber Security and Information Assurance (MSCSIA) is a professional degree for those who endeavor through technical and managerial measures to ensure the security, confidentiality, integrity, authenticity, control, availability and utility of the world-s computing and information systems infrastructure. The National University Cyber Security and Information Assurance program is offered as a Master-s degree. The emphasis of the MSCSIA program uniquely includes hands-on academic instruction using virtual computers. This past year, 2011, the NU facility has become fully operational using system architecture to provide a Virtual Education Laboratory (VEL) accessible to both onsite and online students. The first student cohort completed their MSCSIA training this past March 2, 2012 after fulfilling 12 courses, for a total of 54 units of college credits. The rapid pace scheduling of one course per month is immensely challenging, perpetually changing, and virtually multifaceted. This paper analyses these descriptive terms in consideration of those globalization penetration breaches as present in today-s world of cyber security. In addition, we present current NU practices to mitigate risks.

Keywords: Cyber security, information assurance, mitigate risks, virtual machines, strategic perspective.

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Authors: Souvik Bhattacharyya, Gautam Sanyal

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Over last two decades, due to hostilities of environment over the internet the concerns about confidentiality of information have increased at phenomenal rate. Therefore to safeguard the information from attacks, number of data/information hiding methods have evolved mostly in spatial and transformation domain.In spatial domain data hiding techniques,the information is embedded directly on the image plane itself. In transform domain data hiding techniques the image is first changed from spatial domain to some other domain and then the secret information is embedded so that the secret information remains more secure from any attack. Information hiding algorithms in time domain or spatial domain have high capacity and relatively lower robustness. In contrast, the algorithms in transform domain, such as DCT, DWT have certain robustness against some multimedia processing.In this work the authors propose a novel steganographic method for hiding information in the transform domain of the gray scale image.The proposed approach works by converting the gray level image in transform domain using discrete integer wavelet technique through lifting scheme.This approach performs a 2-D lifting wavelet decomposition through Haar lifted wavelet of the cover image and computes the approximation coefficients matrix CA and detail coefficients matrices CH, CV, and CD.Next step is to apply the PMM technique in those coefficients to form the stego image. The aim of this paper is to propose a high-capacity image steganography technique that uses pixel mapping method in integer wavelet domain with acceptable levels of imperceptibility and distortion in the cover image and high level of overall security. This solution is independent of the nature of the data to be hidden and produces a stego image with minimum degradation.

Keywords: Cover Image, Pixel Mapping Method (PMM), StegoImage, Integer Wavelet Tranform.

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Authors: S. Karthikeyan, Naveen Bindra

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Introduction: To update ourselves and understand the concept of latest electronic formats available for Health care providers and how it could be used and developed as per standards. The idea is to correlate between the patients Manual Medical Records keeping and maintaining patients Electronic Information in a Health care setup in this world. Furthermore, this stands with adapting to the right technology depending upon the organization and improve our quality and quantity of Healthcare providing skills. Objective: The concept and theory is to explain the terms of Electronic Medical Record (EMR), Electronic Health Record (EHR) and Personal Health Record (PHR) and selecting the best technical among the available Electronic sources and software before implementing. It is to guide and make sure the technology used by the end users without any doubts and difficulties. The idea is to evaluate is to admire the uses and barriers of EMR-EHR-PHR. Aim and Scope: The target is to achieve the health care providers like Physicians, Nurses, Therapists, Medical Bill reimbursements, Insurances and Government to assess the patient’s information on easy and systematic manner without diluting the confidentiality of patient’s information. Method: Health Information Technology can be implemented with the help of Organisations providing with legal guidelines and help to stand by the health care provider. The main objective is to select the correct embedded and affordable database management software and generating large-scale data. The parallel need is to know how the latest software available in the market. Conclusion: The question lies here is implementing the Electronic information system with healthcare providers and organization. The clinicians are the main users of the technology and manage us to “go paperless”. The fact is that day today changing technologically is very sound and up to date. Basically, the idea is to tell how to store the data electronically safe and secure. All three exemplifies the fact that an electronic format has its own benefit as well as barriers.

Keywords: Medical records, digital records, health information, electronic record system.

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Authors: Simon B. N. Thompson

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Cortisol is essential to the regulation of the immune system and pathological yawning is a symptom of multiple sclerosis (MS). Electromyography activity (EMG) in the jaw muscles typically rises when the muscles are moved – extended or flexed; and yawning has been shown to be highly correlated with cortisol levels in healthy people as shown in the Thompson Cortisol Hypothesis. It is likely that these elevated cortisol levels are also seen in people with MS. The possible link between EMG in the jaw muscles and rises in saliva cortisol levels during yawning were investigated in a randomized controlled trial of 60 volunteers aged 18-69 years who were exposed to conditions that were designed to elicit the yawning response. Saliva samples were collected at the start and after yawning, or at the end of the presentation of yawning-provoking stimuli, in the absence of a yawn, and EMG data was additionally collected during rest and yawning phases. Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Yawning Susceptibility Scale, General Health Questionnaire, demographic, and health details were collected and the following exclusion criteria were adopted: chronic fatigue, diabetes, fibromyalgia, heart condition, high blood pressure, hormone replacement therapy, multiple sclerosis, and stroke. Significant differences were found between the saliva cortisol samples for the yawners, t (23) = -4.263, p = 0.000, as compared with the non-yawners between rest and poststimuli, which was non-significant. There were also significant differences between yawners and non-yawners for the EMG potentials with the yawners having higher rest and post-yawning potentials. Significant evidence was found to support the Thompson Cortisol Hypothesis suggesting that rises in cortisol levels are associated with the yawning response. Further research is underway to explore the use of cortisol as a potential diagnostic tool as an assist to the early diagnosis of symptoms related to neurological disorders. Bournemouth University Research & Ethics approval granted: JC28/1/13-KA6/9/13. Professional code of conduct, confidentiality, and safety issues have been addressed and approved in the Ethics submission. Trials identification number: ISRCTN61942768. http://www.controlled-trials.com/isrctn/

Keywords: Cortisol, Electromyography, Neurology, Yawning.

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Authors: Nami Matsumoto

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This study explores the experiences of cross-linguistic medical encounters by patients, and their views of receiving language support therein, with a particular focus on Japanese-English cases. The aim of this study is to investigate the reason for the frequent use of a spouse as a communication mediator from a Japanese perspective, through a comparison with that of English speakers. This study conducts an empirical qualitative analysis of the accounts of informants. A total of 31 informants who have experienced Japanese-English cross-linguistic medical encounters were recruited in Australia and Japan for semi-structured in-depth interviews. A breakdown of informants is 15 English speakers and 16 Japanese speakers. In order to obtain a further insight into collected data, additional interviews were held with 4 Australian doctors who are familiar with using interpreters. This study was approved by the Australian National University Human Research Ethics Committee, and written consent to participate in this study was obtained from all participants. The interviews lasted up to over one hour. They were audio-recorded and subsequently transcribed by the author. Japanese transcriptions were translated into English by the author. An analysis of interview data found that patients value relationship in communication. Particularly, Japanese informants, who have an English-speaking spouse, value trust-based communication interventions by their spouse, regardless of the language proficiency of the spouse. In Australia, health care interpreters are required to abide by the national code of ethics for interpreters. The Code defines the role of an interpreter exclusively to be language rendition and enshrines the tenets of accuracy, confidentiality and professional role boundaries. However, the analysis found that an interpreter who strictly complies with the Code sometimes fails to render the real intentions of the patient and their doctor. Findings from the study suggest that an interpreter should not be detached from the context and should be more engaged in the needs of patients. Their needs are not always communicated by an interpreter when they simply follow a professional code of ethics. The concept of relationship-centred care should be incorporated in the professional practice of health care interpreters.

Keywords: Health care, Japanese-English medical encounters, language barriers, trust.

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Authors: Ola A. Nassr, Ali M. Abd Alridha, Rua A. Naser, Rasha S. Abbas

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Background: Excessive and inappropriate use of antimicrobial agents among hospitalized patients remains an important patient safety and public health issue worldwide. Not only does this behavior incur unnecessary cost but it is also associated with increased morbidity and mortality. The objective of this study is to obtain an insight into the prescribing patterns of antibiotics in surgical and medical wards, to help identify a scope for improvement in service delivery. Method: A simple point prevalence survey included a convenience sample of 200 patients admitted to medical and surgical wards in a government teaching hospital in Baghdad between October 2017 and April 2018. Data were collected by a trained pharmacy intern using a standardized form. Patient’s demographics and details of the prescribed antibiotics, including dose, frequency of dosing and route of administration, were reported. Patients were included if they had been admitted at least 24 hours before the survey. Patients under 18 years of age, having a diagnosis of cancer or shock, or being admitted to the intensive care unit, were excluded. Data were checked and entered by the authors into Excel and were subjected to frequency analysis, which was carried out on anonymized data to protect patient confidentiality. Results: Overall, 88.5% of patients (n=177) received 293 antibiotics during their hospital admission, with a small variation between wards (80%-97%). The average number of antibiotics prescribed per patient was 1.65, ranging from 1.3 for medical patients to 1.95 for surgical patients. Parenteral third-generation cephalosporins were the most commonly prescribed at a rate of 54.3% (n=159) followed by nitroimidazole 29.4% (n=86), quinolones 7.5% (n=22) and macrolides 4.4% (n=13), while carbapenems and aminoglycosides were the least prescribed together accounting for only 4.4% (n=13). The intravenous route was the most common route of administration, used for 96.6% of patients (n=171). Indications were reported in only 63.8% of cases. Culture to identify pathogenic organisms was employed in only 0.5% of cases. Conclusion: Broad-spectrum antibiotics are prescribed at an alarming rate. This practice may provoke antibiotic resistance and adversely affect the patient outcome. Implementation of an antibiotic stewardship program is warranted to enhance the efficacy, safety and cost-effectiveness of antimicrobial agents.

Keywords: Acute care, antibiotic misuse, Iraq, prescribing.

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