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In this paper we describe a policy based authorisation infrastructure that a cloud provider can run as an infrastructure service for its users. It will protect the privacy of users' data by allowing the users to set their own privacy policies, and then enforcing them so that no unauthorised access is allowed to their data. The infrastructure ensures that the users' privacy policies are stuck to their data, so that access will always be controlled by the policies even if the data is transferred between cloud providers or services. This infrastructure also ensures the enforcement of privacy policies which may be written in different policy languages by multiple authorities such as: legal, data subject, data issuer and data controller. A conflict resolution strategy is presented which resolves conflicts among the decisions returned by the different policy decision points (PDPs). The performance figures are presented which show that the system performs well and that each additional PDP only imposes a small overhead.

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is the new European data protection law whose compliance affects organisations in several aspects related to the use of consent and personal data. With emerging research and innovation in data management solutions claiming assistance with various provisions of the GDPR, the task of comparing the degree and scope of such solutions is a challenge without a way to consolidate them. With GDPR as a linked data resource, it is possible to link together information and approaches addressing specific articles and thereby compare them. Organisations can take advantage of this by linking queries and results directly to the relevant text, thereby making it possible to record and measure their solutions for compliance towards specific obligations. GDPR text extensions (GDPRtEXT) uses the European Legislation Identifier (ELI) ontology published by the European Publications Office for exposing the GDPR as linked data. The dataset is published using DCAT and includes an online webpage with HTML id attributes for each article and its subpoints. A SKOS vocabulary is provided that links concepts with the relevant text in GDPR. To demonstrate how related legislations can be linked to highlight changes between them for reusing existing approaches, we provide a mapping from Data Protection Directive (DPD), which was the previous data protection law, to GDPR showing the nature of changes between the two legislations. We also discuss in brief the existing corpora of research that can benefit from the adoption of this resource.

Reverse redistribution (RR) of 99mTc-sestamibi is observed after direct percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) in acute myocardial infarction (AMI). The purpose of this study was to clarify the functional characteristics of myocardial segments with RR after direct PTCA in AMI. Thirty patients with AMI who had undergone direct PTCA were examined. Myocardial perfusion tomography with 99mTc-sestamibi and low dose dobutamine echocardiography were performed within 2 weeks of the onset. The 99mTc-sestamibi images were obtained 1 and 3 h after tracer administration. The left ventricle was divided into nine segments, and regional 99mTc-sestamibi uptake and clearance were quantitatively evaluated in each segment. RR was defined as a decrease in 99mTc-sestamibi uptake of >10% on 3 h delayed images compared with the 1 h early images. The left ventricle in the echocardiographic images was also divided into nine segments corresponding to the scintigraphic images, and regional wall motion was assessed in the resting condition as the baseline and during dobutamine administration (5-10 microg x kg(-1) x min(-1)). Out of a total of 270 myocardial segments, 111 segments were perfused by the culprit coronary artery and were defined as ischaemic segments. There were 25 segments with RR and 86 segments without RR in the ischaemic myocardium. Enhanced clearance of 99mTc-sestamibi was observed in ischaemic segments with RR (P<0.001). Echocardiography demonstrated that 24 out of 25 segments with RR and 61 out of 86 segments without RR had wall motion abnormalities. Dobutamine infusion improved wall motion in 20 (83%) of the 24 dysfunctional segments with RR and 33 (54%) of the 61 dysfunctional segments without RR (P<0.02). These findings suggest that RR indicates reversible functional abnormalities associated with preserved contractile reserve in response to dobutamine. The early and delayed imaging of 99mTc-sestamibi provides useful information regarding the residual viability of the dysfunctional myocardium in AMI patients.

Congestive heart failure is the most common cause of mortality in patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Ultrasonic tissue characterization with integrated backscatter offers a promising method for the noninvasive assessment of regional myocardial contractile performance and fibrosis. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of hemodialysis (HD) on myocardial tissue characterization and left ventricular function in ESRD patients. We examined 26 patients with ESRD undergoing routine HD (age 63 +/- 12 years, duration of HD 9.2 +/- 3.2 years) and 30 patients with essential hypertension (HT; 60 +/- 10 years). Routine echocardiographic parameters and the cyclic variation of ultrasonic integrated backscatter of the ventricular septum (CV-IBS) were measured. Left ventricular mass index was significantly larger in patients with ESRD than in those with HT (217 +/- 56 vs 146 +/- 45 g/m(2), P < 0.05). The indices for left ventricular diastolic function (E/A, the ratio of left ventricular peak early to late diastolic filling velocity; DT, the deceleration time of the early diastolic filling) and CV-IBS had deteriorated significantly in patients with ESRD before HD compared with those with HT (E/A, 0.6 +/- 0.2 vs 0.9 +/- 0.3, P < 0.05; DT, 228 +/- 23 vs 184 +/- 19 ms, P < 0.05; CV-IBS, 9.0 +/- 1.3 vs 12.4 +/- 0.9 dB, P < 0.05), possibly reflecting interstitial fibrosis. In patients with ESRD, HD reduced calculated left ventricular mass index by 19% (before HD, 217 +/- 56 vs immediately after HD, 176 +/- 45 g/m(2), P < 0.05) and CV-IBS by 19% (9.0 +/- 1.3 vs 7.3 +/- 1.1 dB, P < 0.05), that possibly reflected improvement of interstitial edema. HD also significantly improved indices for left ventricular diastolic function (E/A, 0.6 +/- 0.2 vs 0.9 +/- 0.2, P < 0.05; DT, 228 +/- 23 vs 188 +/- 21 ms, P < 0.05). HD improves myocardial interstitial edema and left ventricular diastolic function in patients with ESRD. Noninvasive assessment of ultrasonic tissue characterization is useful in defining the pathophysiological changes of ventricular myocardium in patients with ESRD.

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