Biometrics

Biometrics-Unique and Diverse Applications in Nature, Science, and Technology provides a unique sampling of the diverse ways in which biometrics is integrated into our lives and our technology. From time immemorial, we as humans have been intrigued by, perplexed by, and entertained by observing and analyzing ourselves and the natural world around us. Science and technology have evolved to a point where we can empirically record a measure of a biological or behavioral feature and use it for recognizing patterns, trends, and or discrete phenomena, such as individuals' and this is what biometrics is all about. Understanding some of the ways in which we use biometrics and for what specific purposes is what this book is all about

Modeling of Facial Wrinkles for Applications in Computer Vision

International audienceAnalysis and modeling of aging human faces have been extensively studied in the past decade for applications in computer vision such as age estimation, age progression and face recognition across aging. Most of this research work is based on facial appearance and facial features such as face shape, geometry, location of landmarks and patch-based texture features. Despite the recent availability of higher resolution, high quality facial images, we do not find much work on the image analysis of local facial features such as wrinkles specifically. For the most part, modeling of facial skin texture, fine lines and wrinkles has been a focus in computer graphics research for photo-realistic rendering applications. In computer vision, very few aging related applications focus on such facial features. Where several survey papers can be found on facial aging analysis in computer vision, this chapter focuses specifically on the analysis of facial wrinkles in the context of several applications. Facial wrinkles can be categorized as subtle discontinuities or cracks in surrounding inhomogeneous skin texture and pose challenges to being detected/localized in images. First, we review commonly used image features to capture the intensity gradients caused by facial wrinkles and then present research in modeling and analysis of facial wrinkles as aging texture or curvilinear objects for different applications. The reviewed applications include localization or detection of wrinkles in facial images , incorporation of wrinkles for more realistic age progression, analysis for age estimation and inpainting/removal of wrinkles for facial retouching

Possible Roles for Essential Oils in Chemoprevention and Suppression of Cancer

Cancer represents one of the costliest and most prevalent diseases to afflict the modern world, even though treatments have evolved steadily over the years and produce an increasingly positive outlook with each development and innovation. Essential oils have been used medicinally- among other purposes- for thousands of years and have begun to attract attention for possible applications to the field of oncology. Numerous investigations and publications have shed light on the possible chemopreventative (antioxidant and antimetastatic) uses of these oils, alongside cancer suppressive (apoptosis-inducing and cytotoxic) abilities that they may possess. With the high annual incidence of cancer and the ever-rising price of treatment, clinical application of essential oils may transform into a viable and effective compliment to current treatments

3D Face Reconstruction: the Road to Forensics

3D face reconstruction algorithms from images and videos are applied to many fields, from plastic surgery to the entertainment sector, thanks to their advantageous features. However, when looking at forensic applications, 3D face reconstruction must observe strict requirements that still make its possible role in bringing evidence to a lawsuit unclear. An extensive investigation of the constraints, potential, and limits of its application in forensics is still missing. Shedding some light on this matter is the goal of the present survey, which starts by clarifying the relation between forensic applications and biometrics, with a focus on face recognition. Therefore, it provides an analysis of the achievements of 3D face reconstruction algorithms from surveillance videos and mugshot images and discusses the current obstacles that separate 3D face reconstruction from an active role in forensic applications. Finally, it examines the underlying data sets, with their advantages and limitations, while proposing alternatives that could substitute or complement them.Comment: The manuscript has been accepted for publication in ACM Computing Surveys. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2303.1116

Surveying Persons with Disabilities: A Source Guide (Version 1)

As a collaborator with the Cornell Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Disability Demographics and Statistics, Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. has been working on a project that identifies the strengths and limitations in existing disability data collection in both content and data collection methodology. The intended outcomes of this project include expanding and synthesizing knowledge of best practices and the extent existing data use those practices, informing the development of data enhancement options, and contributing to a more informed use of existing data. In an effort to provide the public with an up-to-date and easily accessible source of research on the methodological issues associated with surveying persons with disabilities, MPR has prepared a Source Guide of material related to this topic. The Source Guide contains 150 abstracts, summaries, and references, followed by a Subject Index, which cross references the sources from the Reference List under various subjects. The Source Guide is viewed as a “living document,” and will be periodically updated

Do informal caregivers of people with dementia mirror the cognitive deficits of their demented patients?:A pilot study

Recent research suggests that informal caregivers of people with dementia (ICs) experience more cognitive deficits than noncaregivers. The reason for this is not yet clear. Objective: to test the hypothesis that ICs ‘mirror' the cognitive deficits of the demented people they care for. Participants and methods: 105 adult ICs were asked to complete three neuropsychological tests: letter fluency, category fluency, and the logical memory test from the WMS-III. The ICs were grouped according to the diagnosis of their demented patients. One-sample ttests were conducted to investigate if the standardized mean scores (t-scores) of the ICs were different from normative data. A Bonferroni correction was used to correct for multiple comparisons. Results: 82 ICs cared for people with Alzheimer's dementia and 23 ICs cared for people with vascular dementia. Mean letter fluency score of the ICs of people with Alzheimer's dementia was significantly lower than the normative mean letter fluency score, p = .002. The other tests yielded no significant results. Conclusion: our data shows that ICs of Alzheimer patients have cognitive deficits on the letter fluency test. This test primarily measures executive functioning and it has been found to be sensitive to mild cognitive impairment in recent research. Our data tentatively suggests that ICs who care for Alzheimer patients also show signs of cognitive impairment but that it is too early to tell if this is cause for concern or not

The effect of phospholipid supplementation on cognitive performance across the lifespan

Phospholipids (PLs) are found abundantly in mammalian cell membranes and support cellular health and function. Their composition and shape promotes asymmetry within membrane bilayers and affects membrane physiological properties. PLs have the potential to facilitate cognitive function. A systematic review identified ten PL supplementation studies, including two acute and eight chronic (≥ 2 week) interventions. Cognitive benefits, mainly memory enhancement, were reported for a single PL, phosphatidylserine, and a bovine milk-derived PL composite, which was used in the supplementation studies reported in this thesis. The quality of the empirical studies reviewed was compromised by poor study designs and/or analytical approach. Moreover, the review highlighted a lack of empirical studies considering PL supplementation in children and adolescents. The focus of this thesis was to investigate the potential for bovine milk-derived PLs to promote cognitive function. Study 1 (n=70) was the first randomised placebo-controlled trial of the effects of PLs on cognitive performance in school-aged children (6-8 years). This was a six week intervention trial during which the children were tested every 3 weeks on measures of memory, motor skills, executive function and processing speed. Subjective evaluations of appetite, mood, motivation and mental alertness were also measured. The impact of the supplement on cognitive performance was limited. There was also no discernible effect on subjective state. Study 2 (n=50) extended limited existing evidence to examine effects of PL supplementation in middle-aged/older adults with a subjective memory complaint. This randomised placebo controlled trial investigated the acute and chronic effects of PL supplementation over 12 weeks on cognitive measures of memory and executive function and self-reports on the Cognitive Failures Questionnaire. Cognitive performance and the frequency of cognitive failures was measured at week 0 (acute), week 6 and week 12 (chronic). Few effects on cognitive performance following both acute and chronic supplement consumption were observed. Cognitive failures were reduced in participants who received the active supplement and reported greater cognitive failures at baseline. Across both studies, participants’ demographic characteristics and baseline performance had a greater impact on cognitive performance than the active supplement. Overall, the findings from the PL intervention studies presented in this thesis add to the existing heterogeneous evidence of the potential for PLs to moderate cognitive performance. Despite strong mechanistic data suggesting PLs could confer beneficial and/or protective effects on cognition, this thesis did not find clear evidence of a benefit of PLs for cognition. Further examination of the potential benefits of PLs in other formulations for cognitive function in young and old samples is warranted

Effects of Diversity and Neuropsychological Performance in an NFL Cohort

Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the effect of ethnicity on neuropsychological test performance by comparing scores of white and black former NFL athletes on each subtest of the WMS. Participants and Methods: Data was derived from a de-identified database in South Florida consisting of 63 former NFL white (n=28, 44.4%) and black (n=35, 55.6%) athletes (Mage= 50.38; SD= 11.57). Participants completed the following subtests of the WMS: Logical Memory I and II, Verbal Paired Associates I and II, and Visual Reproduction I and II. Results: A One-Way ANOVA yielded significant effect between ethnicity and performance on several subtests from the WMS-IV. Black athletes had significantly lower scores compared to white athletes on Logical Memory II: F(1,61) = 4.667, p= .035, Verbal Paired Associates I: F(1,61) = 4.536, p = .037, Verbal Paired Associates: II F(1,61) = 4.677, p = .034, and Visual Reproduction I: F(1,61) = 6.562, p = .013. Conclusions: Results suggest significant differences exist between white and black athletes on neuropsychological test performance, necessitating the need for proper normative samples for each ethnic group. It is possible the differences found can be explained by the psychometric properties of the assessment and possibility of a non-representative sample for minorities, or simply individual differences. Previous literature has found white individuals to outperform African-Americans on verbal and non-verbal cognitive tasks after controlling for socioeconomic and other demographic variables (Manly & Jacobs, 2002). This highlights the need for future investigators to identify cultural factors and evaluate how ethnicity specifically plays a role on neuropsychological test performance. Notably, differences between ethnic groups can have significant implications when evaluating a sample of former athletes for cognitive impairment, as these results suggest retired NFL minorities may be more impaired compared to retired NFL white athletes