Abstract

Abstract
Patients with end-stage renal disease should be educated and trained to take care of their own arteriovenous fistula (AVF) with the purpose of developing self-care behaviors concerning vascular access. This was a prospective and observational study. We designed this research to identify clinically meaningful self-care behavior profiles in hemodialysis (HD) patients, and it was carried out in a private dialysis unit in the Lisbon region, Portugal, involving 101 patients. The proportion of male patients was 66.3%, the mean age was 60.9 years, and the frequency of self-care behaviors was 71%. Cluster analysis based on the subscale scores grouped patients in two clusters named "moderate self-care" and "high self-care." Those profiles exhibit significant differences concerning gender, education, employment, dialysis vintage, AVF duration, and information on care with the AVF. Identification of self-care-behavior profiles in HD patients with AVF enables one to adjust education programs to the patients' characteristics.

Abstract
The evolutionary growth of information technology has enabled us with platforms that eases access to a wide range of electronic services. Typically, access to these services requires users to authenticate their identity, which involves the release, dissemination and processing of personal data by third parties such as service and identity providers. The involvement of these and other entities in managing and processing personal identifiable data has continued to raise concerns on privacy of personal information. Identity management systems (IdMs) emerged as a promising solution to address major access control and privacy issues, however most research works are focused on securing service providers (SPs) and the services provided, with little emphases on users privacy. In order to optimise users privacy and ensure that personal information are used only for intended purposes, there is need for authorisation systems that controls who may access what and under what conditions. However, for adoption data owners perspective must not be neglected. To address these issues, this paper introduces the concept of IdM and access control framework which operates with RESTful based services. The proposal provides a new level of abstraction and logic in access management, while giving data owner a decisive control over access to personal data using smartphone. The framework utilises Attribute based access control (ABAC) method to authenticate and authorise users, Open ID Connect (OIDC) protocol for data owner authorisation and Public-key cryptography to achieve perfect forward secrecy communication. The solution enables data owner to attain the responsibility of granting or denying access to their data, from a secured communication with an identity provider using a digitally signed token.

Abstract

Abstract
Increasingly social networks are used both in the personal and professional levels, being companies and employees also exposed to the risks posed by them. In this sense, it is relevant to analyze employees' perception of the risks and vulnerabilities posed by the use of social networks in corporate environments. For this purpose, a questionnaire was developed and distributed to 372 employees of small and medium-sized companies that allowed the characterization and analysis of those risks. The results indicate that the security risks are perceived moderately by employees, emphasizing the risk of defamation and cyberbullying as being the most pertinent. On the other hand, the findings indicate that older employees, the existence of lower academic qualifications, and those working in medium-sized companies are more aware of these risks.

Abstract
A femtosecond laser direct writing system was developed to explore the fabrication of long-period fiber gratings (LPFGs) in SMF28 fibers. The LPFGs, showing the mode LP1,6 at 1500 nm, were exposed to high-temperature annealing up to 950 °C. Modifications in the refractive index (RI) modulation are observed through a blue-shift in the LPFG attenuation bands and above 850 °C, the mode LP1,7 appear at 1600 nm. The wavelength sensitivity to external RI from 1.300 to 1.452 was estimated for both modes before and after annealing. Greater sensitivity was found for the higher order mode in the entire range reaching 2400 nm/RIU around 1.440.