Attribute-Based Encryption for Access Control in Cloud Ecosystems

<p>We introduce a distributed, fine-granuled, policy-based resource access control protocol leveraging on Attribute-Based Encryption. The protocol secures the whole access control procedure from the authorization issuer to the resource server providing grant confidentiality, proof of possession, antiforgery and may be implemented through a common web token exchange flow plus a HTTP basic authentication. As such, it may easily map to Cloud computing SaaS paradigms, enabling services integration into a single authorization-centric ecosystem even across multiple identity domains. We also present the results of a performance evaluation on a first prototype implementation.</p>

Effect of Integrating Maternal and Child Health Services, Nutrition and Family Planning Services on Postpartum Family Planning Uptake at 6 Months Post-partum in Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire and Niger: Protocol of a Longitudinal Quasi-experimental Study

Background : Although several interventions integrating maternal, neonatal, child health and nutrition with family planning have been implemented and tested, there is still limited evidence on their effectiveness to guide program efforts and policy action,on health services integration. This study aims to assess the effectiveness of a service delivery model integrating maternal and child health services, nutrition and family planning services, compared with the general standard of care in Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, and Niger. Methods: This is a quasi experimental study with one intervention group and one control group of 3-4 health facilities in each country. Each facility was matched to a control facility of the same level of care and that had similar coverage on selected reproductive health indicators such as family planning and post-partum family planning. The study participants are pregnant women (with a 6 months pregnancy at maximum) coming for their first antenatal care visit. They will be followed up to 6 months after childbirth, and will be interviewed at each antenatal visit and also during visits for infant vaccines.The analyzes will be carried out by intention to treat, using generalized linear models (binomial log or log Poisson) to assess the effect of the intervention on the ratio of contraceptive use prevalence between the two groups of the study at a significance level of 5%, while taking into account the cluster effect and adjusting for potential confounding factors (socio-demographic characteristics of women, unevenly distributed at inclusion). Discussion :This longitudinal study, with the provision of family planning services integrated into the whole maternal care continuum, a sufficiently long observation time and repeated measurements, will make it possible to better appreciate the timeline and the factors influencing women's decision-making on the use of post-partum family planning services. The results will help in increasing the body of knowledge regarding the impact of maternal and child health services integration on the utilization of post-partum family planning, taking into account the specific context of sub-Saharan Africa French speaking countries where such information is very needed.

Attribute-Based Encryption for Access Control in Cloud Ecosystems

<p>We introduce a distributed, fine-granuled, policy-based resource access control protocol leveraging on Attribute-Based Encryption. The protocol secures the whole access control procedure from the authorization issuer to the resource server providing grant confidentiality, proof of possession, antiforgery and may be implemented through a common web token exchange flow plus a HTTP basic authentication. As such, it may easily map to Cloud computing SaaS paradigms, enabling services integration into a single authorization-centric ecosystem even across multiple identity domains. We also present the results of a performance evaluation on a first prototype implementation.</p>

Restructuring of U.S. Federal Coordination to Advance Meteorological Services

For the first time in over 50 years, the United States has, at the direction of Congress, restructured the way in which Federal departments and agencies coordinate to advance meteorological services. The new framework, known as the Interagency Council for Advancing Meteorological Services (ICAMS), encompasses activities spanning local weather to global climate using an Earth system approach. Compared to the previous structure, ICAMS provides a simplified, streamlined framework for coordination across all stakeholders in implementing policies and practices associated with the broad set of services needed by the United States now and into the future. ICAMS also provides improved pathways for research and services integration, as well as mechanisms to more effectively engage the broader community, including academia, industry, nonprofit organizations, and particularly the next generation of educators, researchers, and operational practitioners.

Managerial Perspectives on Integration of Complementary and Alternative Medicine Services into the Ghanaian Public Healthcare System: An Exploratory Study

Background This study explores healthcare managers’ perspective of integration of CAM service into Ledzorkuku Krowor Municipal (LEKMA) Hospital in Ghana. Methods A questionnaire on CAM services integration was constructed and distributed to all 9 healthcare managers at the Ledzorkuku Krowor Municipal (LEKMA) Hospital.Results The level of integration of CAM services into the health care system was good. The overall self-reported depth of integration was found to be good (2.23), the self-reported extent of was 100% and perceived scope of integration was classified as excellent (90.1%). The drivers of integration process were made up of 7 (19.1%) of the elements of integration functions (47) assessed. Conclusion The drivers of integration were mainly the elements of integration functions of patient satisfaction, right of patients to use other services, interpersonal systems, monitoring and supervision systems, nature of working relationship among staff, reporting, and financial management.

Machine Learning-Based Cooperative Spectrum Sensing in Dynamic Segmentation Enabled Cognitive Radio Vehicular Network

A vehicle ad hoc network (VANET) is a solution for road safety, congestion management, and infotainment services. Integration of cognitive radio (CR), known as CR-VANET, is needed to solve the spectrum scarcity problems of VANET. Several research efforts have addressed the concerns of CR-VANET. However, more reliable, robust, and faster spectrum sensing is still a challenge. A novel segment-based CR-VANET (Seg-CR-VANET) architecture is therefore proposed in this paper. Roads are divided equally into segments, and they are sub-segmented based on the probability value. Individual vehicles or secondary users produce local sensing results by choosing an optimal spectrum sensing (SS) technique using a hybrid machine learning algorithm that includes fuzzy and naïve Bayes algorithms. We used dynamic threshold values for the sensing techniques. In this proposed cooperative SS, the segment spectrum agent (SSA) made the global decision using the tri-agent reinforcement learning (TA-RL) algorithm. Three environments (network, signal, and vehicle) are learned by this proposed algorithm to determine primary (licensed) users’ activities. The simulation results indicate that, compared to current works, the proposed Seg-CR-VANET produces better results in spectrum sensing.