José Luis Hernández

Privacy-Preserving Security Framework for a Social-Aware Internet of Things

As smart objects are getting part of our personal space, the new associated services must tackle both, the inherent requirements of IoT and the needs of citizens using such services. Security, trust and privacy concerns are the cornerstone requirements of a social Internet of Things, where users want to share and obtain information in a huge opportunistic environment of connected devices and services. The paper presents an IoT security framework, being devised in the scope of SOCIOTAL EU project, which is based on the Architecture Reference Model (ARM) of IoT-A EU project. The framework extends the traditional ARM putting strong emphasis on security, trust and privacy concerns in order to cope with more opportunistic and secure sharing models required in a social-aware IoT scenarios, where users can set up dynamically communities and bubbles of devices and users.

A soft computing based location-aware access control for smart buildings

The evolution of wireless communications and pervasive computing is transforming current physical spaces into real smart environments. These emerging scenarios are expected to be composed by a potentially huge amount of heterogeneous smart objects which can be remotely accessed by users via their mobile devices anytime, anywhere. In this paper, we propose a distributed location-aware access control mechanism and its application in the smart building context. Our approach is based on an access control engine embedded into smart objects, which are responsible to make authorization decisions by considering both user location data and access credentials. User location data are estimated using a novel indoor localization system based on magnetic field data sent by user through her personal phone. This localization system implements a combination of soft computing techniques over the data collected by smartphones. Therefore, our location-aware access control mechanism does not require any intermediate entity, providing the benefits of a decentralized approach for smart environments. From the results obtained, we can consider our proposal as a promising approach to tackle the challenging security requirements of typical pervasive environments.

A New Location-Aware Authorization Mechanism for Indoor Environments

This work proposes a distributed access control mechanism based on location data and its application in the context of smart buildings. Our approach includes an access control engine embedded into smart objects, which are responsible to make authorization decisions by considering both user location data and access credentials. User location data are estimated using magnetic field data measured and sent by users through their personal phone. The proposed location-aware access control mechanism does not require any additional hardware or intermediate entities, providing the benefits of a decentralized and flexible solution for indoor environments. From the results obtained, we can consider our proposal as an appropriate solution in order to tackle the challenging security requirements of typical pervasive environments.

A Framework for Citizen Participation in the Internet of Things

In line with the view of the SOCIOTAL EU project, this work presents a crucial next step in the transformation of an emerging business-driven Internet of Things (IoT) infrastructure into an all-inclusive one, tailored to the society and with the aim to accelerate the creation of a socially aware citizen-centric Internet of Things. To this purpose, this paper try to establish an IoT ecosystem that puts trust, user control and transparency at its heart in order to gain the confidence of everyday citizens. In line with this view, a privacy-preserving framework which integrates the explored relationships among identity, privacy, trust and reputation concepts is explored.

Nota ClínicaEnfermedad de Rendu-Osler con afectación hepática: primer trasplante en EspañaRendu-Osler disease with hepatic involvement: First transplant in Spain

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Rendu-Oslers disease (RO) is a rare systemic vascular disorder due to a fibrovascular dysplasia in the endothelium of vessels. Recurrent epistaxis is the main clinical manifestation, but arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) can involve many organs, including the liver. Hepatic involvement can develop refractory heart failure due to large shunts between the hepatic veins and the hepatic artery. Embolization and hepatic artery ligation have also demonstrated to reduce cardiac output in RO, but these therapeutic options have significant morbidity and complications such as necrosis or liver failure. CASE REPORT We report the case of a 48 years old woman diagnosed in 1987 with RO and significant hepatic involvement, with multiple fistulas between veins and hepatic artery. In the following years she developed progressive heart failure that limited her quality of life. RESULTS She was admitted on more times with heart failure and her dyspnea worsened progressively up to NYHA IV. At this time, an echocardiograph control showed an output cardiac about 10.6l/min. On December 2004, although the medical treatment, the worsening of the patient went on, so we finally decided to conduct a liver transplant that resolved the symptoms and the hyperdynamic circulation. Despite the fact that liver transplant has become without doubt into the best treatment for these patients in the last years. CONCLUSIONS This is the first one done in Spain. There are different therapies available for these patients, but the indications for transplantation are greater each day, mainly due to the risks of the other options. Currently the stated guidelines are heart failure and portal hypertension refractory to medical treatment. So in these situations, liver transplantation should be proposed in the early stages of the disease and may be the only viable option.

Enfermedad de Rendu-Osler con afectación hepática: primer trasplante en España

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Rendu-Oslers disease (RO) is a rare systemic vascular disorder due to a fibrovascular dysplasia in the endothelium of vessels. Recurrent epistaxis is the main clinical manifestation, but arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) can involve many organs, including the liver. Hepatic involvement can develop refractory heart failure due to large shunts between the hepatic veins and the hepatic artery. Embolization and hepatic artery ligation have also demonstrated to reduce cardiac output in RO, but these therapeutic options have significant morbidity and complications such as necrosis or liver failure. CASE REPORT We report the case of a 48 years old woman diagnosed in 1987 with RO and significant hepatic involvement, with multiple fistulas between veins and hepatic artery. In the following years she developed progressive heart failure that limited her quality of life. RESULTS She was admitted on more times with heart failure and her dyspnea worsened progressively up to NYHA IV. At this time, an echocardiograph control showed an output cardiac about 10.6l/min. On December 2004, although the medical treatment, the worsening of the patient went on, so we finally decided to conduct a liver transplant that resolved the symptoms and the hyperdynamic circulation. Despite the fact that liver transplant has become without doubt into the best treatment for these patients in the last years. CONCLUSIONS This is the first one done in Spain. There are different therapies available for these patients, but the indications for transplantation are greater each day, mainly due to the risks of the other options. Currently the stated guidelines are heart failure and portal hypertension refractory to medical treatment. So in these situations, liver transplantation should be proposed in the early stages of the disease and may be the only viable option.

Factores que influyen en el síndrome de apneas-hipopneas durante el sueño

Fundamento y objetivo: Evaluar la influencia de determinados factores, como el sexo, la edad, el consumo de alcohol y la obesidad, sobre el valor del indice de apneas-hipopneas (IAH) en pacientes con sindrome de apneas-hipopneas durante el sueno (SAHS). Pacientes y metodo: Se han revisado de forma retrospectiva las historias clinicas de pacientes diagnosticados de SAHS en el Hospital General Universitario de Murcia. Se tomaron datos sobre variables demograficas, obesidad, consumo de alcohol, somnolencia (escala de Epworth) y poligrafia cardiorrespiratoria o polisomnografia. A los datos obtenidos se les aplico un modelo de regresion multivariante para explicar la variable IAH en funcion de diversas caracteristicas. Resultados: Se estudio 127 historias clinicas de pacientes diagnosticados de SAHS. En nuestro trabajo, la variable que tiene mayor poder explicativo del comportamiento del IAH en pacientes diagnosticados de SAHS es el consumo de alcohol; la siguiente en importancia es el valor numerico de la escala de Epworth. Las demas variables tienen una influencia estadisticamente no significativa. Conclusiones: El valor del IAH en pacientes diagnosticados de SAHS podria estar relacionado con el consumo de alcohol y con el valor numerico de la escala de Epworth.

Fiabilidad del método de Lane en la evaluación radiológica de la espondiloartrosis

espanolObjetivo. La escala de Lane es un metodo ampliamente utilizado en la evaluacion de la espondiloartrosis radiologica. Disenada para el nivel lumbar, analiza la osteofitosis (OF) y la disminucion del espacio intervertebral (DEI). Los escasos datos sobre concordancia interobservador usando este metodo senalan un acuerdo elevado, que disminuye al evaluar la artrosis toracica. El objetivo ha sido conocer en detalle el grado de fiabilidad que aporta esta escala en la columna toracica (CT) y lumbar (CL). Material y metodo. 3 observadores evaluaron 110 radiografias laterales de CT y CL de 55 sujetos. En cada par de observadores fueron analizadas 4 imagenes (OF-CT, OF-CL, DEI-CT, DEI-CL); se calcularon 3 coeficientes: el kappa ponderado (KP) y Tau-B de Kendall (ambos, con valor maximo ideal = 1) y la distancia al maximo kappa alcanzable (DMK) (con valor ideal = 0). Se realizo asimismo un analisis de las discrepancias. Resultados. El mayor grado de acuerdo fue observado al evaluar la DEI-CL (KP=0,80-0,82; Tau-B=0,73-0,77), mientras que el menor acuerdo fue observado al evaluar la DEI-CT (KP=0,60-0,76; Tau-B=0,50-0,72). El valor de DMK oscilo entre 0,06 (OF-CT) y 0,43 (DEI-CT). Conclusiones. El metodo de Lane permite una elevada concordancia entre observadores; es mas fiable al aplicarse sobre la CL. La fiabilidad disminuye al evaluar la CT, y especialmente la DEI-CT, en que solo cuando la afectacion es moderada-grave el acuerdo es similar al observado con las restantes imagenes. Para mejorar el grado de reproducibilidad sobre la CT se puede considerar la utilizacion de especificaciones descriptivas o de referencias morfometricas radiologicas. EnglishObjective. Lane’s scale is a widely used method in the evaluation of radiological spine osteoarthritis on plain radiographs. It was designed for lumbar spine (LS) and is addressed to evaluate osteophytosis (OPH) and disc space narrowing (DSN). Limited data available on reliability of this method indicate a high interobserver agreement, that significantly decreases when evaluating thoracic spine (TS). Our aim was to get a detailed knowledge about the degree of reliability that Lane’s scale provides at TS and LS. Material and method. 3 raters analyzed 110 lateral thoracic and lumbar spine radiographs from 55 participants. Four images (TS-OPH, TS-DSN, LS-OPH, LS-DSN) were analyzed in each pair of raters, calculating 3 coefficients: Weighted kappa (WK) and Kendall’s Tau-B, with an ideal value of 1, and the difference between kappa and maximum attainable kappa (DMK), with an ideal value of 0. An analysis of discrepancies was also performed. Results. The highest level of agreement was observed in LS-DSN (WK=0.80-0.82; Tau-B=0.73-0.77), whereas the least level of agreement was observed in TS-DSN (WK=0.60-0.76; Tau-B=0.50-0.72). The DMK values ranged from 0.06 (TS-OPH) to 0.43 (TS-DSN). Conclusions. Lane’s method allows a high level of interobserver agreement, being more reliable when evaluating the LS. Reliability decreases when assessing the TS, specially TS-DSN. Only a moderate-severe grade in TS-DSN allows a similar agreement than observed with the other images. Descriptive specifications and morphometric radiological references may be of interest to improve the reliability of this scale when evaluating the TS.