An Extensive Review on Spectral Imaging in Biometric Systems: Challenges and Advancements

Spectral imaging has recently gained traction for face recognition in biometric systems. We investigate the merits of spectral imaging for face recognition and the current challenges that hamper the widespread deployment of spectral sensors for face recognition. The reliability of conventional face recognition systems operating in the visible range is compromised by illumination changes, pose variations and spoof attacks. Recent works have reaped the benefits of spectral imaging to counter these limitations in surveillance activities (defence, airport security checks, etc.). However, the implementation of this technology for biometrics, is still in its infancy due to multiple reasons. We present an overview of the existing work in the domain of spectral imaging for face recognition, different types of modalities and their assessment, availability of public databases for sake of reproducible research as well as evaluation of algorithms, and recent advancements in the field, such as, the use of deep learning-based methods for recognizing faces from spectral images

The effect of obesity upon Health Related Quality of Life (HRQoL): A comparison of the AQoL-8D and SF-36 instruments

OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to describe and measure the loss of health related quality of life (HRQoL) associated with obesity using two generic instruments. The first of these, the SF-36, is the most widely used and validated HRQoL instrument worldwide. However, it does not provide utility weights and cannot be used to measure quality adjusted life years (QALYs), an increasingly common unit for comparing the effect of health states in economic evaluation studies. The second, the AQoL-8D, is a multi-attribute utility (MAU) instrument which was developed to increase sensitivity of previous MAU instruments to psycho-social dimensions of a health state and to allow the calculation of QALYs. Since the two instruments differ, an important additional objective of the study was to determine the validity of the AQoL-8D as judged by the SF-36, and therefore the confidence which might be placed upon its use in the context of obesity.METHODS: Data were obtained from patients waiting for bariatric surgery who had completed both the SF-36 and AQoL-8D quality of life instruments and a general questionnaire including height, weight, demographic and socio-economic information. For comparative purposes, scores were standardized using results from a representative sample of the general population. The content validity of the AQoL-8D was assessed by comparing it with the dimension scores from the SF-36 and the summary component (physical and mental) scores. Overall scores from the SF-36 and AQoL-8D instruments were regressed upon patient BMI and the results from the AQoL-8D used to estimate the effect of overweight and obesity upon utility and lost QALYs.RESULTS: The comparison of the instruments indicated that the AQoL-8D has good convergent, concurrent and content validity. Using both instruments, obesity was significantly associated with lower scores for 14 of their 16 dimensions. AQoL-8D, in particular, identified a significant decrease in psychological and social health with happiness, self-worth, coping and mental health, all being poorer than in the control group. Regression results implied that a change in BMI from 30 to 50 decreases utility by 0.12 or by 13.8 percent of the average utility for a 25-35 year old.CONCLUSION: AQoL-8D is a valid measure of utility in the context of obesity. Its inclusion of psycho-social effects significantly increases the measured adverse effects of obesity

Donation of Human Organs and Transplantation in the Light of Great Religions

Donation of Human Organs and Transplantation are very important issues of the current era. It is being processed in different manners. The medical field is providing new kinds of treatments as well as the transplant of organs for the benefit of humanity. It is, no doubt, a very difficult and intricate part of recent medication. It is a substitution of original but defective organ of a human being by an alternative but perfect organ through operation. It has a variety of methods. Inserting and organ transplantation is a significant issue currently. The medical field is presenting new sources of treatments together with the human organs transplant for human welfare at large. In Christianity and Judaism organ donation is permissible but in Islam there are a small number of religious scholars of the Indo-Pak who are in conflict with the matter of organ donation. But the middle-of-the-road of religious scholars of Islamic states approve and support that organ donation is permissible in Islamic Shariah. From the Islamic point of view, Organ Donation and Transplantation is only allowed if the goals of Islamic Sharia are pursued in letter and spirit. It will be helpful, under the direction of a certified transplant team. In this article, the legitimacy of Donation of Human Organs and Transplantation in the light of great Religions has been deliberated

Rising atmospheric temperature impact on wheat and thermotolerance strategies

Temperature across the globe is increasing continuously at the rate of 0.15–0.17 °C per decade since the industrial revolution. It is influencing agricultural crop productivity. Therefore, thermotolerance strategies are needed to have sustainability in crop yield under higher temperature. However, improving thermotolerance in the crop is a challenging task for crop scientists. Therefore, this review work was conducted with the aim of providing information on the wheat response in three research areas, i.e., physiology, breeding, and advances in genetics, which could assist the researchers in improving thermotolerance. The optimum temperature for wheat growth at the heading, anthesis, and grain filling duration is 16 ± 2.3 °C, 23 ± 1.75 °C, and 26 ± 1.53 °C, respectively. The high temperature adversely influences the crop phenology, growth, and development. The pre-anthesis high temperature retards the pollen viability, seed formation, and embryo development. The post-anthesis high temperature declines the starch granules accumulation, stem reserve carbohydrates, and translocation of photosynthates into grains. A high temperature above 40 °C inhibits the photosynthesis by damaging the photosystem-II, electron transport chain, and photosystem-I. Our review work highlighted that genotypes which can maintain a higher accumulation of proline, glycine betaine, expression of heat shock proteins, stay green and antioxidant enzymes activity viz., catalase, peroxidase, super oxide dismutase, and glutathione reductase can tolerate high temperature efficiently through sustaining cellular physiology. Similarly, the pre-anthesis acclimation with heat treatment, inorganic fertilizer such as nitrogen, potassium nitrate and potassium chloride, mulches with rice husk, early sowing, presoaking of a 6.6 mM solution of thiourea, foliar application of 50 ppm dithiothreitol, 10 mg per kg of silicon at heading and zinc ameliorate the crop against the high temperature. Finally, it has been suggested that modern genomics and omics techniques should be used to develop thermotolerance in wheat.Higher Education Commission (HEC) Pakistan | Ref. 1a55b19f0b99ca1

Amplification of Environmental Appraisal Coordination at General Hospital Lahore and its Implications to Evaluate Management Review

Quality standards have been a significant achievement for organizations worldwide. Environmental standards should be established in hospitals by coding ISO14001. Hospital water pollution can cause health issues in nearby urban areas and settlements. The study was aimed to estimate, characterize, use, and response to water quality parameters on amplification of environmental coordination at General Hospital Lahore (GHL), and their implications for evaluation in management reviewing. For these purposes, the drinking water samples were collected from different locations in the study area. All these samples were analyzed for different water quality parameters namely, pH, TDS, turbidity, and chloride, and compared with national environmental quality standards (NEQS). All the results and management processeswere also compared with ISO 14001:2015, which indicated the weakness in the general administration framework and Environmental Management System (EMS). The results show that pH 8.6, TDS 1100 mg/l, turbidity 5.5 NTU, and chloride 260 mg/l were exceeding the maximum permissible limits. The present study recommended that GHL water should be treated before its use/ disposal. In the end, an EMS (a policy with protocol) manual was developed for continual improvement of water use. Drinking water quality assessment and EMS framework offer assistance to oversee the water quality and environment in health centers. Drinking water quality management under the guidelines of the environment management system manual developed in this study will greatly help to manage the environment, particularly water pollution in local hospitals of Pakistan

Breast Cancer Classification using Deep Learned Features Boosted with Handcrafted Features

Breast cancer is one of the leading causes of death among women across the globe. It is difficult to treat if detected at advanced stages, however, early detection can significantly increase chances of survival and improves lives of millions of women. Given the widespread prevalence of breast cancer, it is of utmost importance for the research community to come up with the framework for early detection, classification and diagnosis. Artificial intelligence research community in coordination with medical practitioners are developing such frameworks to automate the task of detection. With the surge in research activities coupled with availability of large datasets and enhanced computational powers, it expected that AI framework results will help even more clinicians in making correct predictions. In this article, a novel framework for classification of breast cancer using mammograms is proposed. The proposed framework combines robust features extracted from novel Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) features with handcrafted features including HOG (Histogram of Oriented Gradients) and LBP (Local Binary Pattern). The obtained results on CBIS-DDSM dataset exceed state of the art

The Impact of Social Media on Teacher's Performance: A Case of Higher Educational Institutions of Pakistan

The purpose of this study is to see the impact of social media on teacher’s performance in higher educational institutions of Pakistan, particularly in Vehari (Punjab) and D.I Khan (KPK). This research study explored that social media has a significant impact on teachers performance. Because the faculty members of higher educational institutions play a vital role in the development of students, society and as a whole the nation. The main purpose of this study is to understand the nature of social media and up to how much extend social media is playing its role regarding the development of faculty performance. This study is quantitative and descriptive in nature .The researcher, distributed 357 survey questionnaires to the higher education sector of District Vehari and D.I. Khan and got a response from 318 respondents. Linear and multi regression were used to analyze the results and for drawing a conclusion. Knowledge sharing, creativity, collaboration and interaction through social networking sites have a significant impact on teacher’s performance which suggests that use of social networking sites in education increases the teacher performance

Legitimacy and Significance of Art. 2A in the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan, 1973

Religion is a nearly common institution in humanity. It is found in all societies past and present. All the prehistoric societies have the influence of religions in their societies. Religion goes back to commencement of the culture itself. There is no primeval society without religion. It is social treatise that deals with familiarity and restraint. Religion is concerned with the shared beliefs and practices of human being. Allah being creator of this universe delegates his authority to those who owes it as a sacred trust in order to maintain peace and justice on this earth as per his commandments. Islam is an ideology sanctioned by revealed law. It is a way of life universal, humanitarian, eternal and egalitarian based on equality, fraternity, justice and liberty. Now, it is the duty of the state as well as the people of Pakistan to resort to the golden rules of Islam as enunciated by the Holy Quran and Muhammad (PBUH), in all fields of life. The key concern of this research is to evaluate the legitimacy of Art. 2A in the constitution of Pakistan and how is it practiced in Pakistan?&nbsp

The Relationship between Knowledge Management Practices and Organizational Performance: Evidence from Banking Sector of Southern Punjab, Pakistan

The main objective of this study is to empirically investigate the relationship between knowledge management practices and organizational performance in the banking sector of districts of Punjab, Pakistan. Target population of the study was all the employees providing customer services of all banks located in the districts of Punjab province of Pakistan. Simple random sampling was used to select an appropriate and truly representative sample. Sample size of this research was 306 and out of 306 questionnaires, 291 were useful for the purpose of this research and hence making our response rate 95%. The reliability of data was tested by Cronbach’s alpha and regression analysis was used for testing of hypotheses. All the hypotheses of the study were accepted which stated that information technology, organizational elements and knowledge have positive relationship with organizational performance and further this relationship was statistically significant. This study has been conducted in the banking industry which bars to generalize the results of this research to other business settings. The findings of this kind of study are possibly useful to decision making bodies within the Banking services and it is also helpful for the government policy makers to develop policies for the better operations of banking sector with the aim of growing banking industry. This study makes a contribution in knowledge management literature by empirically investigating the impact of knowledge management practices on organizational performance