Biometrics

Biometrics uses methods for unique recognition of humans based upon one or more intrinsic physical or behavioral traits. In computer science, particularly, biometrics is used as a form of identity access management and access control. It is also used to identify individuals in groups that are under surveillance. The book consists of 13 chapters, each focusing on a certain aspect of the problem. The book chapters are divided into three sections: physical biometrics, behavioral biometrics and medical biometrics. The key objective of the book is to provide comprehensive reference and text on human authentication and people identity verification from both physiological, behavioural and other points of view. It aims to publish new insights into current innovations in computer systems and technology for biometrics development and its applications. The book was reviewed by the editor Dr. Jucheng Yang, and many of the guest editors, such as Dr. Girija Chetty, Dr. Norman Poh, Dr. Loris Nanni, Dr. Jianjiang Feng, Dr. Dongsun Park, Dr. Sook Yoon and so on, who also made a significant contribution to the book

Medicines Reuse

This reprint examines the concept of medicines reuse, the idea that unused medication returned by one patient can be re-dispensed for use by another. Ten papers written by over 20 authors examine a range of issues related to medicines reuse including the circular economy of the pharmaceutical supply chain; the prevalence of unused medicines or medication waste within patients' homes; people's views about the causes of medication waste and the potential for medicines reuse; what might influence people to reuse medicines in the future; how sensing technologies might facilitate medicines reuse; and the effect of including sensing technologies on people's willingness to consider medicines reuse

Empathic connection or addictive flight? : helping fathers in recovery from addiction develop empathic relationships with their children

This thesis explores the relationship between empathy and parenting in a sample of fathers recovering from addiction. It considers whether and how the development of empathic parenting skills can facilitate changes in emotion regulation and positive attachment to their children, and considers the implications of focusing on supporting men as fathers for their recovery. Previous research has identified reduced capacities for empathy and emotion regulation in people experiencing addictions compared to those without addictions. The present study investigated firstly whether differences in attachment, empathy and emotion regulation would correlate with the presence or absence of addiction in a sample of fathers. Having established this to be the case, particularly with respect to empathy and emotion regulation, phase 2 of this study explored whether training in empathic parenting skills could help fathers undergoing treatment for addictions to improve their relationships with their children, their perceptions of themselves as fathers, and their sense of wellbeing. While the link between addictions in fathers and diminished health outcomes in their children is well established, there has been little research to date that has studied the perspectives of fathers themselves during the recovery process. Accordingly, this research also sought to explore the parenting experiences of a sample of fathers as they recovered from addictions in two residential rehabilitation centres in Sydney, Australia, in 2013. The focus on the men’s experiences encompassed two key questions: How do fathers recovering from addictions experience changing relationships with their children? What other changes take place for these recovering fathers throughout the parenting program? The two phases of this research were designed as a mixed-method study, consisting of an initial quantitative survey of 169 fathers who responded to questionnaires that assessed their attachment to their children, their difficulties with emotion regulation, their mental and physical health symptoms, and their social, cognitive and affective empathy. The following second phase was designed as an in-depth multiple case study that involved seven fathers in the two residential rehabilitation centres. The results were encouraging, as each of the seven fathers told of positive change in their lives. Through the recovery process the men described themselves and their children differently, as their children became more important to them and their confidence grew in those relationships. It was clear that fatherhood was a significant concern for these men, and their relationships with their children a central motivator for them. The men were thus able to develop greater emotion regulation themselves through learning about how their children learn to manage emotions and how they as fathers can help, in addition to emotion regulation exercises focusing on their own wellbeing as fathers. The change in the fathers’ comments and questionnaire responses between the beginning and end of the parenting program also showed evidence of closer empathy-related attachment (‘empathic connection’) to their children, which is thought to underlie both the recovery process and their relationships with their children. The implications of these results are profound. Firstly, this study has found that men with major histories of addiction still have the ability, with positive support and improved emotional awareness, to form an empathic connection with their children. Secondly, providing a means for these men to focus on fatherhood within their recovery program has also helped facilitate a greater awareness of being positive role models for their children. This in turn led some of the fathers to report that their children showed not only more respect towards them, but perhaps most importantly, improved wellbeing

Rethinking Change

UIDB/00417/2020 UIDP/00417/2020No seguimento da Conferência Internacional sobre Arte, Museus e Culturas Digitais (Abril 2021), este e-book pretende aprofundar a discussão sobre o conceito de mudança, geralmente associado à relação entre cultura e tecnologia. Através dos contributos de 32 autores, de 12 países, questiona-se não só a forma como o digital tem motivado novas práticas artísticas e curatoriais, mas também o inverso, observando como propostas críticas e criativas no campo da arte e dos museus têm aberto vias alternativas para o desenvolvimento tecnológico. Assumindo a diversidade de perspectivas sobre o tema, de leituras retrospectivas à análise de questões e projectos recentes, o livro estrutura-se em torno de sete capítulos e um ensaio visual, evidenciando os territórios de colaboração e cruzamento entre diferentes áreas de conhecimento científico. Disponível em acesso aberto, esta publicação resulta de um projecto colaborativo promovido pelo Instituto de História da Arte, Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa e pelo maat – Museu de Arte, Arquitectura e Tecnologia. Instituição parceira: Instituto Superior Técnico. Mecenas: Fundação Millennium bcp. Media partner: revista Umbigo. Following the International Conference on Art, Museums and Digital Cultures (April 2021), this e-book seeks to extend the discussion on the concept of change that is usually associated with the relationship between culture and technology. Through the contributions of 32 authors from 12 countries, the book not only questions how digital media have inspired new artistic and curatorial practices, but also how, conversely, critical and creative proposals in the fields of art and museums have opened up alternative paths to technological development. Acknowledging the different approaches to the topic, ranging from retrospective readings to the analysis of recent issues and projects, the book is divided into seven sections and a visual essay, highlighting collaborative territories and the crossovers between different areas of scientific knowledge. Available in open access, this publication is the result of a collaborative project promoted by the Institute of Art History of the School of Social Sciences and Humanities, NOVA University of Lisbon and maat – Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology. Partner institution: Instituto Superior Técnico. Sponsor: Millennium bcp Foundation. Media partner: Umbigo magazine.publishersversionpublishe

The Effect Of Acoustic Variability On Automatic Speaker Recognition Systems

This thesis examines the influence of acoustic variability on automatic speaker recognition systems (ASRs) with three aims. i. To measure ASR performance under 5 commonly encountered acoustic conditions; ii. To contribute towards ASR system development with the provision of new research data; iii. To assess ASR suitability for forensic speaker comparison (FSC) application and investigative/pre-forensic use. The thesis begins with a literature review and explanation of relevant technical terms. Five categories of research experiments then examine ASR performance, reflective of conditions influencing speech quantity (inhibitors) and speech quality (contaminants), acknowledging quality often influences quantity. Experiments pertain to: net speech duration, signal to noise ratio (SNR), reverberation, frequency bandwidth and transcoding (codecs). The ASR system is placed under scrutiny with examination of settings and optimum conditions (e.g. matched/unmatched test audio and speaker models). Output is examined in relation to baseline performance and metrics assist in informing if ASRs should be applied to suboptimal audio recordings. Results indicate that modern ASRs are relatively resilient to low and moderate levels of the acoustic contaminants and inhibitors examined, whilst remaining sensitive to higher levels. The thesis provides discussion on issues such as the complexity and fragility of the speech signal path, speaker variability, difficulty in measuring conditions and mitigation (thresholds and settings). The application of ASRs to casework is discussed with recommendations, acknowledging the different modes of operation (e.g. investigative usage) and current UK limitations regarding presenting ASR output as evidence in criminal trials. In summary, and in the context of acoustic variability, the thesis recommends that ASRs could be applied to pre-forensic cases, accepting extraneous issues endure which require governance such as validation of method (ASR standardisation) and population data selection. However, ASRs remain unsuitable for broad forensic application with many acoustic conditions causing irrecoverable speech data loss contributing to high error rates

Smart Sensors for Healthcare and Medical Applications

This book focuses on new sensing technologies, measurement techniques, and their applications in medicine and healthcare. Specifically, the book briefly describes the potential of smart sensors in the aforementioned applications, collecting 24 articles selected and published in the Special Issue “Smart Sensors for Healthcare and Medical Applications”. We proposed this topic, being aware of the pivotal role that smart sensors can play in the improvement of healthcare services in both acute and chronic conditions as well as in prevention for a healthy life and active aging. The articles selected in this book cover a variety of topics related to the design, validation, and application of smart sensors to healthcare

Figure

This open access book shows how figures, figuring, and configuration are used to understand complex, contemporary problems. Figures are images, numbers, diagrams, data and datasets, turns-of-phrase, and representations. Contributors reflect on the history of figures as they have transformed disciplines and fields of study, and how methods of figuring and configuring have been integral to practices of description, computation, creation, criticism and political action. They do this by following figures across fields of social science, medicine, art, literature, media, politics, philosophy, history, anthropology, and science and technology studies. Readers will encounter figures as various as Je Suis Charlie, #MeToo, social media personae, gardeners, asthmatic children, systems configuration management and cloud computing – all demonstrate the methodological utility and contemporary relevance of thinking with figures. This book serves as a critical guide to a world of figures and a creative invitation to “go figure!

Using MapReduce Streaming for Distributed Life Simulation on the Cloud

Distributed software simulations are indispensable in the study of large-scale life models but often require the use of technically complex lower-level distributed computing frameworks, such as MPI. We propose to overcome the complexity challenge by applying the emerging MapReduce (MR) model to distributed life simulations and by running such simulations on the cloud. Technically, we design optimized MR streaming algorithms for discrete and continuous versions of Conway’s life according to a general MR streaming pattern. We chose life because it is simple enough as a testbed for MR’s applicability to a-life simulations and general enough to make our results applicable to various lattice-based a-life models. We implement and empirically evaluate our algorithms’ performance on Amazon’s Elastic MR cloud. Our experiments demonstrate that a single MR optimization technique called strip partitioning can reduce the execution time of continuous life simulations by 64%. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to propose and evaluate MR streaming algorithms for lattice-based simulations. Our algorithms can serve as prototypes in the development of novel MR simulation algorithms for large-scale lattice-based a-life models.https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/scs_books/1014/thumbnail.jp

Figure: Concept and Method

This open access book shows how figures, figuring, and configuration are used to understand complex, contemporary problems. Figures are images, numbers, diagrams, data and datasets, turns-of-phrase, and representations. Contributors reflect on the history of figures as they have transformed disciplines and fields of study, and how methods of figuring and configuring have been integral to practices of description, computation, creation, criticism and political action. They do this by following figures across fields of social science, medicine, art, literature, media, politics, philosophy, history, anthropology, and science and technology studies. Readers will encounter figures as various as Je Suis Charlie, #MeToo, social media personae, gardeners, asthmatic children, systems configuration management and cloud computing – all demonstrate the methodological utility and contemporary relevance of thinking with figures. This book serves as a critical guide to a world of figures and a creative invitation to “go figure!