Service Execution Research Articles

Attack in to The Server Message Block (CVE-2020-0796) Vulnerabilities in Windows 10 using Metasploit Framework

Advances in information and communication technology encourage the development of operating systems. Windows 10 is one of the most widely used operating systems today. Unfortunately, there are still many who do not know that in the Windows 10 system there are several system vulnerabilities and some bugs. One example is the vulnerability in Server Message Block (SMB) on Windows 10 (CVE-2020-0796). This vulnerability exploits the Buffer Overflow method on one of the Execution Server Message Block (SMB) files. The impact of this attack is that the attacker can perform Remote Control Access on the target device. One of the reasons why this attack can occur is an operating system that has never been updated or uses an old operating system that has lots of bugs. The automatic updating feature is actually very helpful in overcoming this problem. However, there are still many device users who understand the importance of this. This research will explain how the process of attacking the Windows 10 operating system uses the CVE-2020-0796 vulnerability. The hope is that after understanding the readers can know the importance of using the latest version of the operating system and immediately updating the system.

Joint Optimization of Multi-User Partial Offloading Strategy and Resource Allocation Strategy in D2D-Enabled MEC

With the emergence of more and more computing-intensive and latency-sensitive applications, insufficient computing power and energy of user devices has become a common phenomenon. Mobile edge computing (MEC) is an effective solution to this phenomenon. MEC improves task execution efficiency by offloading some tasks to edge servers for execution. In this paper, we consider a device-to-device technology (D2D)-enabled MEC network communication model, and study the subtask offloading strategy and the transmitting power allocation strategy of users. The objective function is to minimize the weighted sum of the average completion delay and average energy consumption of users, which is a mixed integer nonlinear problem. We first propose an enhanced particle swarm optimization algorithm (EPSO) to optimize the transmit power allocation strategy. Then, we utilize the Genetic Algorithm (GA) to optimize the subtask offloading strategy. Finally, we propose an alternate optimization algorithm (EPSO-GA) to jointly optimize the transmit power allocation strategy and the subtask offloading strategy. The simulation results show that the EPSO-GA outperforms other comparative algorithms in terms of the average completion delay, average energy consumption, and average cost. In addition, no matter how the weight coefficients of delay and energy consumption change, the average cost of the EPSO-GA is the least.

Health Risks Management Program in Schools: An Operational Study in Türkiye.

This study was carried out to improve the quality of school health services with the operational epidemiology method. The study aimed to describe the current status of the School Health Protection and Improvement Program (SHPIP), the difficulties experienced during its implementation, to develop evidence-based solution methods, and to test the proposed solutions, in a district with a population of 400,513, 20.4% of which is of school age between the ages of 5-19. The "Health Risk Management Program at Schools", which consists of the stages of putting the results into practice by sharing the results with the relevant parties, wasdeveloped. In this study, a cross-sectional research design was employed using questionnaire forms, while qualitative data were collected through the use of the phenomenological analysis method, specifically through the conduct of focus group interviews. SHPIP year-end evaluation forms of 191 schools were reviewed retrospectively, questionnaires were applied to 554 school staff and 146 family health center staff between 21 October 2019 and 21 November 2019 using the probabilistic sampling (simple random) method, and semi-structured focus group interviews were conducted with 10 school health study executives. The most common health risks in schools and the risks identified during the execution of school health services were identified. In order to eliminate the lack of in-service training, training modules for "School Health Management Teams" were developed and impact analyses were conducted. After the intervention, a significant difference was found in the compliance of schools with SHPIP, and the application of all components of the school health program increased from 10.0% to 65.6% (p < 0.05). The program has been integrated into the "School Health Protection and Improvement Program" (SHPIP) with the decisions of the District School Health Board and District Hygiene Council.

Task offloading in Multiple-Services Mobile Edge Computing: A deep reinforcement learning algorithm

Multiple-Services Mobile Edge Computing enables task-relate services cached in edge server to be dynamically updated, and thus provides great opportunities to offload tasks to edge server for execution. However, the requirements and popularity of services, the computing requirement and the amount of data transferred from users to edge server are dynamic with time. How to adaptively adjust the subset of total service types in the resource-limited edge server and determine the task offloading destination and resource allocation decisions to improve the overall system performance is a challenge problem. To solve this challenge, we firstly convert it into a Markov decision process, then propose a soft actor–critic deep reinforcement learning-based algorithm, called DSOR, to jointly determine not only the discrete decisions of service caching and task offloading but also the continuous allocation of bandwidth and computing resource. To improve the accuracy of our algorithm, we employ an efficient trick of converting the discrete action selection into a continuous space to deal with the key design challenge that arises from continuous-discrete hybrid action space. Additionally, to improve resource utilization, a novel reward function is integrated to our algorithm to speed up the convergence of training while making full use of system resources. Extensive numerical results show that compared with other baseline algorithms, our algorithm can effectively reduce the long-term average completion delay of tasks while accessing excellent performance in terms of stability.

Screening medical students for SARS-CoV-2 to facilitate face-to-face clinical teaching and prevent onward spread to patients

Screening medical students for SARS-CoV-2 to facilitate face-to-face clinical teaching and prevent onward spread to patients

Reinforcement-Learning-Based Software-Defined Edge Task Allocation Algorithm

With the rapid growth in the number of IoT devices at the edge of the network, fast, flexible and secure edge computing has emerged, but the disadvantage of the insufficient computing power of edge servers is evident when dealing with massive computing tasks. To address this situation, firstly, a software-defined edge-computing architecture (SDEC) is proposed, merging the control layer of the software-defined architecture with the edge layer of edge computing, where multiple controllers share global information about the network state through an east–west message exchange, providing global state for the collaboration of edge servers. Secondly, a reinforcement-learning-based software-defined edge task allocation algorithm (RL-SDETA) is proposed in the software-defined IoT, which enables controllers to allocate computational tasks to the most appropriate edge servers for execution based on the global network information they have obtained. Simulation results show that the RL-SDETA algorithm can effectively reduce the finding cost of the optimal edge server and reduce the task completion time and its energy consumption compared to various task allocation methods such as random and uniform.

Legal Procedures in Regulation of the Provision of Land for Burial

The purpose of the article is to analyze the content of the legal procedure for providing land plots for burial. The article considers the law enforcement aspects of the implementation of this legal procedure based on the analysis of the norms of the current Russian legislation on the funeral business. The subject of the article is the norms of Russian legislation on burial and funeral business. Based on the analysis of the stages of the provision of municipal services for the provision of land plots for burial, the procedural-declarative nature of the implementation of the right to burial is substantiated. The participants of the relevant legal procedure are identified and the sequence of actions in the provision of this service is determined. In the course of writing the article, modern methods of scientific knowledge, both general scientific and private, were used. The author used methods of analysis, synthesis, inductive-deductive method; the analysis of the Russian legislation on burial and the funeral business was carried out using the formal legal method. As a result, the main directions for improving the legal regulation of the legal procedure for the provision of land plots for burial are proposed; the place of legal procedures in the matter of meeting the socially significant need in organizing the burial place of a deceased person is determined. The author concludes that the procedure for the provision of land plots provided for by law is of an administrative nature, since it is carried out as part of the procedure for the execution of state or municipal services. The specific nature of the limited rights to the burial place allows us to consider the regime for using the land plot provided for burial as a unique land-legal regime that requires proper legislative registration.

Restricted Boltzmann Machine Assisted Secure Serverless Edge System for Internet of Medical Things.

The Internet of things (IoT) is a network of technologies that support a wide variety of healthcare workflow applications to facilitate users' obtaining real-time healthcare services. Many patients and doctors' hospitals use different healthcare services to monitor their healthcare and save their records on the servers. Healthcare sensors are widely linked to the outside world for different disease classifications and questions. These applications are extraordinarily dynamic and use mobile devices to roam several locales. However, healthcare apps confront two significant challenges: data privacy and the cost of application execution services. This work presents the mobility-aware security dynamic service composition (MSDSC) algorithmic framework for workflow healthcare based on serverless, serverless, and restricted Boltzmann machine mechanisms. The study suggests the stochastic deep neural network trains probabilistic models at each phase of the process, including service composition, task sequencing, security, and scheduling. The experimental setup and findings revealed that the developed system-based methods outperform traditional methods by 25% in terms of safety and 35% in application cost.

P17 National antimicrobial point prevalence survey in adult inpatient mental health facilities in Ireland

Abstract Background Antimicrobial use in mental health inpatient settings has not been extensively examined in Ireland. The Healthcare-Associated Infection and Antimicrobial Use in Long-Term Care Facilities (HALT) study 2016 found that Irish long-term care facilities caring for residents with psychiatric conditions had an antimicrobial prevalence rate of 7.7%, higher than the European average of 4.9%. National community antimicrobial prescribing guidelines are available at www.antibioticprescribing.ie. In addition, a preferred antibiotic initiative for community settings advocates prescribers to choose ‘Green’ (preferred) antibiotics over ‘Red’ (reserved) agents. Reserved agents are considered to have more adverse effects, drug interactions and potential for development of antimicrobial resistance. The patient safety implications of antimicrobial stewardship along with an ageing population, and potential drug–drug interactions between many antimicrobials and psychotropic medications prompted a review of antimicrobial use practices in mental health services. Methods A sample of adult inpatient mental health facilities (MHF) operated by the state's Health Service Executive (HSE) were surveyed by community antimicrobial pharmacists (AMPs) between November 2021 and January 2022. AMPs reviewed patients’ medication charts for systemic antimicrobial prescriptions in the previous 30 days in addition to medical notes and laboratory results (where available). Adherence to HSE National community antimicrobial guidelines and the systems and structures in place to support antimicrobial stewardship were assessed. Results In total, 1003 patients in 51 MHFs were surveyed. At the time of survey, 6.3% (n=66) patients were on a systemic antimicrobial and 15% (n=153) had received a systemic antimicrobial within the previous 30 days. Prophylaxis accounted for 50% of antibiotic use (3.3% of all patients), with the most common indication being the prevention of urinary tract infection (UTI) (58%). Prophylaxis duration exceeded six months in 61% of prescriptions. The median duration of treatment courses was seven days. The proportion of ‘Green’ (preferred) antimicrobials versus ‘Red’ (reserved) antimicrobials was 58% versus 38%. Co-amoxiclav, a ‘Red’ agent was the most commonly prescribed antibiotic for treatment of infection (31%). Adherence with choice of antimicrobial agent as per national antimicrobial guidelines was 76%; adherence of dosing regimen was 75% and adherence with recommended duration was 46%. The main themes for non-adherence with choice of agent were use of unnecessarily broad spectrum agents, nitrofurantoin prescribed in renal impairment and inappropriate formulation of nitrofurantoin chosen. Dipstick urinalysis was performed routinely (on admission and/or at designated intervals) for persons asymptomatic of UTI in 53% (n=27) of MHFs. Conclusions This PPS established antimicrobial use practices in HSE MHFs and identified opportunities for improvement relating to the safe and optimal use of antimicrobials. Key national recommendations from this survey were:

Secure computation offloading assisted by intelligent reflection surface for mobile edge computing network

As an novel paradigm, computation offloading in the mobile edge computing (MEC) system can effectively support the resource-intensive applications for the mobile devices (MD) equipped with limited computing capability. However, the hostile radio transmission and data leakage during the offloading process may erode the MEC system’s potential. To tackle these hindrances, we investigate an IRS-assisted secure MEC system with eavesdroppers, where the intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) is deployed to enhance the communication between the MD and the AP equipped with edge servers and the malicious eavesdroppers may attack the wireless data offloaded by MD. The MD opt for offloading part of the tasks to the edge server for execution to support the computation-intensive applications. Moreover, the relevant latency minimization problem is formulated by optimizing the offloading ratio, the allocation of edge server computing capability, the multiple-user-detection (MUD) matrix and the IRS phase shift parameters, subject to the constraints of edge computation resource and practical IRS phase shifts. Then, the original problem is decouple into two subproblem, and the computing and communication subproblems are alternatively optimized by block coordinate descent (BCD) method with low complexity. Finally, simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme can significantly enhance the performance of secure offloading in the MEC system.

Computation offloading and tasks scheduling for the internet of vehicles in edge computing: A deep reinforcement learning-based pointer network approach

In the Internet of Vehicles, vehicles can offload computation tasks to edge servers for execution. So, execution delay of tasks and energy consumption of vehicles can be reduced. However, the current research on computation offloading has not fully considered the priority of computation offloading and tasks scheduling within the server. In this regard, a computation offloading and task scheduling scheme based on pointer network was proposed in the paper. This scheme can maximize the number of offloading executions of computation tasks with limited computing resources of the edge server while satisfying the priority of computation offloading. First, depending on whether the task can be executed in the vehicle's device, we divided the task into two types and gave a two-stage offloading policy. Next, according to the characteristics of the scheduling problem, a task offloading decision and scheduling scheme based on pointer network was proposed. Then, considering the uncertainty of the number of tasks, the extra time delay caused by task offloading, the waiting time of tasks, and the complexity of task scheduling and computing resource allocation, a deep reinforcement learning algorithm was used to train the pointer network. Finally, the trained pointer network was used for task offloading decision-making and scheduling. The experimental results revealed the effectiveness of the scheme proposed in this study.

The availability of general practice in Ireland's Mid-West Region: does the 'Inverse Care Law' still apply?

The 'Inverse Care Law' suggests the availability of good medical care tends to vary inversely with the needs of the local population. Dr Julian Tudor Hart's observations related to lack of access to care for those in both socially deprived and geographically remote areas. In this study, we aim to examine if the 'Inverse Care Law' is still relevant to GP service provision in the Mid-West of Ireland. GP clinic locations in Limerick and Clare were identified using the Health Service Executive (HSE) Service Finder and geocoded. GeoHive.ie was used to determine Electoral District (ED) centroids across the Mid-West. The shortest linear distance to a GP clinic was calculated for each ED. PobalMaps.ie was used to determine population and social deprivation scores of each ED. In total, 122 GP practices were identified across 324 EDs. The average travel distance to a GP clinic in the Mid-West is 4.7 km. Limerick City EDs had the smallest patient population per GP clinic and were all found to be within 1.5 km of a GP clinic. Proximity to GP clinics did not correlate with deprivation. However, by removing GP clinics from the analyses, it was possible to determine how vulnerable different areas (rural vs urban, deprived vs affluent) are to potential changes in GP clinic availability in the future. People living in urban areas such a Limerick City have improved geographic accessibility to GP clinics compared with their rural counterparts. However, within urban areas assessed, GP clinics were rarely found in deprived areas. Therefore, remote and urban-deprived areas are far more vulnerable to negative proximity effects secondary to practice closures, suggesting the principles of the 'Inverse Care Law' may still be active in the Mid-West of Ireland.

My Health, My Language - multilingual video messages on health in Ireland.

In Ireland, 12% of the population was born outside of Ireland. Issues such as language, knowledge of entitlements and health systems may impact the health of some migrants and public health. Multilingual video messages have the potential to overcome some of these issues. Video messages on twenty-one health topics in up to twenty-six languages have been created. They are presented by healthcare workers living and working in Ireland who originate from other countries in a friendly relaxed style. Videos are commissioned by the Health Service Executive, Ireland's national health service. Scripts are written with medical, communication and migrant expertise. Videos are platformed on the HSE website, shared on social media, via QR code posters and by individual clinicians. Video topics to date include how to access health care in Ireland, the role of a GP, screening services, vaccinations, antenatal care, postnatal health, contraception and breastfeeding. There have been over 200,000 views of videos. Evaluation is underway. The importance of trusted information has been highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Video messages presented by a professional who is culturally familiar have the potential to improve self-care, appropriate use of health services and uptake of prevention programmes. The format overcomes issues with literacy and a person can watch a video multiple times. Limitations include reaching those without internet access. Videos do not replace the need for interpreters but are a tool to improve understanding of systems, entitlements and health information, efficient for clinicians and empowering for individuals.

An audit of antibiotic prescribing in primary care 2019-2020 in Dunmanway Primary Care Centre.

Antibiotics are often the most common medication prescribed by general practitioners (GPs) and are often expected by patients despite campaigns such as Under the Weather. Antibiotic resistance is increasing in the community. The Health Service Executive (HSE) has issued 'Guidelines for Antimicrobial Prescribing in Primary Care in Ireland' aiming to optimise safe prescribing. This audit aims to analyse change in quality of prescribing after educational intervention. GP prescribing patterns were analysed over a week in October 2019 and re-audited in February 2020. Anonymous questionnaires detailed demographics, condition and antibiotic details. Educational intervention included texts, information and review of current guidelines. Data were analysed on a password protected spreadsheet. The HSE Guidelines for Antimicrobial Prescribing in Primary Care were taken as reference standard. A standard of 90% compliance for choice of antibiotic and 70% compliance for dose and course was agreed. FindingsAuditRe-AuditNumber prescriptions4024Number delayed scripts4/40=10%1/24=4.2%Adult37/40=92.5%19/24=79.2%Child3/40=7.5%5/24=20.8%IndicationURTI22.50%25%LRTI10%4%Other RTI37.50%42%UTI20%29%Skin12.50%0%Gynaecological2.50%0%2+ Infections 5%0%Co-amoxiclav17.50%12.50%AdherenceChoice37/40=92.5%22/24=91.7%Dose28/39=71.8%17/24=70.8%Course28/40=70%12/24=50%Discussion: Excellent antibiotic choice and dose concordance with guidelines was noted, with both phases meeting the set standards. Suboptimal course compliance with guidelines occurred in the re-audit. Potential causes include concerns regarding resistance and patient factors not included. This audit included unequal number of prescriptions in each phase but are still of significance and addresses a clinically relevant topic.

Health status of Syrian refugees in Ireland - research and routine data informing service provision.

The Irish government agreed to accept up to 4000 Syrian refugees for resettlement in Ireland in 2016. Prior to their arrival in Ireland, health screening was carried out by the International Organisation for Migration. GP assessments to address immediate health needs and facilitate integration into local primary care were conducted on arrival. Cross-sectional data from a self-completed questionnaire among Syrian Refugees aged 16 years and older resident in emergency reception centres (EROCs) are reported along with data from GP assessments. The questionnaire, comprising validated instruments, was developed for a similar study in Norway. From the research questionnaires, two-thirds of the respondents reported their overall health status to be good or very good. The most common health condition was headache and the most common medications used were painkillers. Those experiencing chronic pain were three times less likely to rate their general health as good compared with those without pain. From the GP assessment data, we identified that 28% had high blood pressure, 61% were assessed to be in need of dental care and 32% of refugees were found to have an issue with their vision. Our findings were communicated to the Health Service Executive via the Partnership for Health Equity and informed a change in service provision in relation to dental services in EROCs. In terms of further action, we conclude that pain is an important symptom to consider in terms of diagnosis and treatment, and impact on health status.

Intentional noncompliance: influencing employees' compliance decision in healthcare services

Ensuring service execution compliance with the requisites of day-today operational tasks continues to be a major managerial challenge for service systems, particularly in the healthcare context where patients' safety is at stake. In this qualitative inquiry, we use the data collected from a nursing care organisation to report on one underexplored category of employee failures: intentional noncompliance at the service execution stage. This specific category of failures happens when employees knowingly choose to deviate from the standards of the planned care, yet they have no malicious intention for sabotaging the organisation and/or its stakeholders. Based on our findings, preventing employees' intentional noncompliance requires designing compliance enablers that dampen the negative impact of socio-psychological inhibitors, which manifest in the form of personal and interpersonal traits and legitimise the employees' choice of deviation from the requirements.

Storage-Saving Scheduling Policies for Clusters Running Containers

Container technology plays an important role in the virtualization landscape today. A container uses its own file system consisting of a stack of layers, which are stored on the execution server's disk. Containers running on the same server share the layers they have in common, and this sharing results in valuable savings in server storage space. Many containers can run on a single server, but when their resource demands grow enough, they are distributed across a cluster of nodes/servers by orchestration systems, such as Kubernetes. In this work, we found that for the same amount of containers to run, the storage required is higher for clusters consisting of a larger number of nodes. The severity of this storage overhead depends on the scheduling policy used to select the nodes that run the containers. By comparing different storage-saving scheduling policies that differ from each other in the depth of storage knowledge they leverage to make decisions, our analysis reveals that only deep, layer-level knowledge can effectively counter the growth in storage demand as the cluster size increases. Policies with coarser-grained knowledge achieve limited benefit because they achieve performance that is nearly equal to that of a random, zero-knowledge policy.

Invisibilidade das singularidades amazônicas na organização e oferta de serviços de Atenção Primária à Saúde (APS): Estudo de caso na área rural ribeirinha de Manaus (AM)

Abstract The Amazon region encompasses a heterogenous territory with singular geographic features, that harbous different vulnerable populations, which require the development of abilities and innovations by health services. However, answers to this challenge become even more distant in the face of a marketing logic that tends to make differences invisible and privilege certain territories. In this scenario, our study analyzed the implementation of a Basic River Health Unit (UBSF), seeking to understand how the needs and singularities of riverside rural areas are included in the planning and execution of health services. To that end, interviews with health services managers and professionals and observations of health care professionals during daily activities were carried out. The results showed the forecast of services, with specific formats and resources for the Amazonian fluvial areas, was an opportunity for the specificities of the region to be evidenced and for more resources, including financial ones, being considered for these localities. However, they also showed that the services offered are still planned in a hierarchical way and organized and executed for urban areas, which points to the need for adaptations.

A study on self-medication in ophthalmic emergencies in the rural population of South India

ABSTRACT Background: Self-medication has been defined as the taking of drugs, herbs, or home remedies on one’s own initiative and advice from another person without consulting a medical specialist. The objective of the study was to identify the pattern of self-medication in ophthalmic emergencies in patients attending the emergency department in a peripheral rural setup in south India. Materials and Methods: This was a descriptive, cross–sectional, questionnaire-based observational study. The patients selected were above 18 years of age. Informed consent was taken. A questionnaire on the demographic characteristics, level of literacy, history of the ophthalmic condition for which the patient had self-medicated, type of self-medication resorted to , reasons for resorting to ocular self–medication, and the adverse effects reported were all noted in the study. Results: The study included 100 subjects. Fifty-three percent were male and 47% were female. Among the 100 subjects, 10% of the individuals were educated above primary school level. Thirty-five percent had only primary school level education and the remaining 55% had not been to a formal school and had no basic education. Among our respondents, the most commonly used self-medication was antibiotic drops (24%), followed by expired medication (23%). 20% used steroid drops. 15% had tried traditional eye medication (TEM). Herbal and other indigenous medications were used by 12% of the responders. 7% used oral nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug agents. None of the responders were aware of the adverse effects of self-medication. The most common ophthalmic emergency symptoms faced by our responders were excessive watering (37%), pain (28%), foreign body in the eye (14%), redness and discharge (12%), decreases vision (5%), and pain in the eye (4%). The common reasons given by our responders for not accessing health-care facilities were distance (living far from health-care facilities), advice from family and friends, belief if local healers, lack of finances and poverty, and lack of prioritizing health care. Following self–medication, 30% of the patients had infectious keratitis, 28% had conjunctivitis, 25% had epithelial defects, and 17% glaucoma. Conclusion: Irrational long-term use of drugs/traditional eye medicine or even the usage for ophthalmic emergencies can have dangerous visual outcomes. The study highlights the need of effective execution and establishment of high-quality accessible primary eye care services and health-care referral network in rural India.

Laboratory service relocation: experience and lessons learned from relocating a biosafety level-3 clinical mycobacteriology service to a new facility.

We recount our experiences of relocating an active mycobacteriology reference level service in Karachi, Pakistan, from an older accredited biosafety level-3 facility to a newly constructed and environmentally validated facility. The service relocation planning, execution, and verification stages are described in detail. Lessons learned from our experience include establishing a service transfer plan, including relevant service staff, obtaining their buy-in on the plan, arranging backup service facilities or liaisons for the execution phase, and ensuring viable backup arrangements for troubleshooting during the verification phase of services in the new facility. Careful planning and inclusion of all stakeholders are critical to avoid service interruptions. This narrative is expected to support other laboratorians, scientists, and clinicians providing laboratory services to large population sectors who are looking to move their services to a new location while continuing to offer said services in a proficient and reliable manner.