Evaluating software-based fingerprint liveness detection using Convolutional Networks and Local Binary Patterns

With the growing use of biometric authentication systems in the past years, spoof fingerprint detection has become increasingly important. In this work, we implement and evaluate two different feature extraction techniques for software-based fingerprint liveness detection: Convolutional Networks with random weights and Local Binary Patterns. Both techniques were used in conjunction with a Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier. Dataset Augmentation was used to increase classifier's performance and a variety of preprocessing operations were tested, such as frequency filtering, contrast equalization, and region of interest filtering. The experiments were made on the datasets used in The Liveness Detection Competition of years 2009, 2011 and 2013, which comprise almost 50,000 real and fake fingerprints' images. Our best method achieves an overall rate of 95.2% of correctly classified samples - an improvement of 35% in test error when compared with the best previously published results.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1301.3557 by other author

Silver Standard Masks for Data Augmentation Applied to Deep-Learning-Based Skull-Stripping

The bottleneck of convolutional neural networks (CNN) for medical imaging is the number of annotated data required for training. Manual segmentation is considered to be the "gold-standard". However, medical imaging datasets with expert manual segmentation are scarce as this step is time-consuming and expensive. We propose in this work the use of what we refer to as silver standard masks for data augmentation in deep-learning-based skull-stripping also known as brain extraction. We generated the silver standard masks using the consensus algorithm Simultaneous Truth and Performance Level Estimation (STAPLE). We evaluated CNN models generated by the silver and gold standard masks. Then, we validated the silver standard masks for CNNs training in one dataset, and showed its generalization to two other datasets. Our results indicated that models generated with silver standard masks are comparable to models generated with gold standard masks and have better generalizability. Moreover, our results also indicate that silver standard masks could be used to augment the input dataset at training stage, reducing the need for manual segmentation at this step

Psychopathology in newspaper cartoons and comic strips

OBJETIVO: Este artigo classifica e analisa a forma e a frequência com a qual uma amostra de histórias em quadrinhos brasileiras e norte-americanas retrata a psicopatologia. Além disso, compara a frequência dos temas saúde, saúde mental, psicopatologia geral e especial entre essas tiras. MÉTODO: Foi coletada uma amostra de 1.883 tirinhas publicadas pelos jornais Folha de São Paulo e New York Times, no período de 1/2/2007 a 31/7/07. Nessa amostra, 1.022 tiras são de seis autores nacionais e 293, de autores norte-americanos, publicados pela Folha de São Paulo, e 568 publicados pelo New York Times. Foram criadas categorias para classificá-las. RESULTADOS: Entre os autores nacionais, 75,3% das tiras contêm temas relacionados à área da saúde. Tal categoria se divide em: saúde física, 12,9%, e saúde mental, 62,4%. Por outro lado, os autores americanos registram a temática da saúde em 39,2% das tiras. Sua preferência é pela crítica de costumes e temas políticos, principalmente a guerra. Quando saúde foi apresentada, os temas foram obesidade e ausência de cuidados adequados aos veteranos de guerra. CONCLUSÕES: As histórias em quadrinhos mostram que violência, pobreza e principalmente saúde são temas muito representados pelos autores brasileiros. Já os quadrinhos americanos abordam principalmente a temática da crítica aos costumes. O tema psicopatologia geral é amplamente utilizado como recurso para criar situações de humor. Os temas de psicopatologia são semelhantes no Brasil e nos Estados Unidos. As histórias brasileiras cobrem variedade maior de problemas de saúde física. Por meio do humor, os quadrinhos chamam atenção para os problemas de nossas sociedades.OBJECTIVE: This paper classifies and analyzes how and with what frequency psychopathology is portrayed in a sample of Brazilian and American cartoons and comic strips. It compares the frequency in which health issues, mental health, special and general psychopathology are addressed. METHOD: A sample of 1,883 cartoons and comic strips published in a six month period by the newspaper Folha de São Paulo and the New York Times was collected from February first to July 31 of 2007. Thousand and twenty-two strips were by Brazilian authors, 293 by American authors published by Folha de São Paulo and 568 by the New York Times. Categories were created to classify them. RESULTS: Among Brazilian authors, 75.3% of the strips deal with health related themes. This category is divided into: physical health (12.9%) and mental health (62.4%). On the other hand, the American authors seldom address the theme health. Their preference was to social customs and habits and political issues, specially related to war. When health was presented the issues were mainly related to obesity and the lack of adequate care to the war veterans. DISCUSSION: Comic books and strips show that violence, poverty and especially health are major concerns of the Brazilians comics authors, whereas the American comics and cartoons deal mainly with election politics and the war. The Brazilian stories address the topic of mental health more frequently, yet the portrayed psychopathological signs and symptoms are basically the same as Americans'. Brazilian stories also cover a greater variety of topics related to physical health. The American ones deal mostly with obesity related themes. Through humor, the comics call attention to the problems of our societies. In Brazil especially those of mental health and in United States the Iraq and Afghanistan war

Cinematherapy as psychotherapeutic intervention: characteristics, applications and identification of cognitive-behavior techniques

CONTEXTO: Filmes têm sido utilizados como recurso terapêutico. A cinematerapia propõe uma nova intervenção psicoterápica por meio da indicação de filmes comerciais. OBJETIVOS: Realizar uma revisão sistemática da literatura sobre as características, aplicações e o efeito terapêutico da cinematerapia e identificar técnicas da terapia cognitivo-comportamental (TCC) nessa revisão. MÉTODOS: Sem limite de data, fez-se uma busca bibliográfica manual e nos seguintes bancos de dados: LILACS, MEDLINE, SciELO e PsycINFO. Combinaram-se os seguintes descritores em inglês e, na base LILACS, os correspondentes em português: "motion pictures as topic" E "psychiatry" OU "psychotherapy", além de "cinematherapy". Estipularam-se critérios precisos de inclusão e exclusão. RESULTADOS: Quatro artigos indexados, três livros e dois artigos não indexados. Vinte e cinco técnicas da TCC foram identificadas. DISCUSSÃO: A análise dos resultados permitiu delinear a cinematerapia desde suas características até seus efeitos terapêuticos. Embora positivo, o impacto do uso de filmes comerciais em psicoterapia partiu na maioria de relatos de caso e inferências pessoais; houve apenas dois ensaios clínicos. CONCLUSÃO: A identificação de várias técnicas da TCC e os resultados de alguns estudos apontam para uma provável eficácia da cinematerapia. Entretanto, seu efeito terapêutico precisa de melhor evidência científica que o sustente.BACKGROUND: Motion picturescan be used as a therapeutic resource. Cinematherapy proposed a new psychotherapeutic intervention indicating commercial films. OBJECTIVES: A systematic literature review of the characteristics and therapeutic effects of cinematherapy and to identify cognitive-behavior techniques (CBT) in this review. METHODS: With no date limits, we searched the databases: LILACS, MEDLINE, SciELO and PsycINFO. We used the following terms in English and, in LILACS, their equivalent in Portuguese: "motion pictures as topic" AND "psychiatry" OR "psychotherapy"; besides "cinematherapy". A manual search was also done. Accurate inclusion and exclusion criteria were stipulated. RESULTS: Four indexed articles, three books and two no indexed articles. Twenty-five CBT were identified. DISCUSSION: The analysis of data allowed the description of cinematherapy: its characteristics and therapeutic effects. The positive impact of cinematherapy was shown mainly through case reports and personal inferences; only two clinical essays were found. CONCLUSION: The identification of several CBT and the results of some studies have indicated a probable efficacy of cinematherapy. Controlled studies are necessary

Portuguese version of Duke Religious Index: DUREL

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The Ibero-American Science and Technology Education Consortium (ISTEC):\nThe Initiative Approach for Science and Technology Education, Research and Development

Effective and efficient, up-to-date education and information interchange are needed for the well-being of a country or region. To this end the Ibero-American Science and Technology Education Consortium (ISTEC) has been organized. The Consortium is providing mechanisms for improvement of education, research and development, and technology transfer throughout the Americas and the Iberian Peninsula. The mechanism utilized to identify and facilitate these activities is the Initiative, which is an area of interest identified by participating institutions to address the needs of a member institution, country, or region. By creating projects organized within these initiatives, current technology and information are made available for the solution of problems. Four initiatives have been identified to date, and within each of these initiatives projects are being carried out to achieve the objectives of the Consortium. The Library Linkages Initiative promotes the use and creation of innovative real-time information-sharing services. Within this initiative are projects which seek to provide technical information in a timely fashion to a user community which is diverse in its needs and its geographical distribution. This includes distribution of material through networked interconnection, development of regional data bases, and improved availability of materials for education and research. The Advanced Continuing Education Initiative seeks to upgrade human resources through a variety of activities. Included in this initiative are a number of training efforts. Short courses are being developed and delivered in a series of advanced technical presentations. Distance education is being used to distribute information about Information Technologies. Network facilities are being utilized to provide collaborative educational activities which draw together faculty and students on three continents. In addition, exchange programs, such as “sandwich” graduate programs which minimize time away from the home institution and maximize information transfer, permit the sharing of expertise among participating institutions. The Research and Development Laboratories Initiative creates cooperating laboratories that are modular, flexible, and expandable for education, R&D, and other activities. Similar laboratories are made available in many ISTEC institutions. With common basic elements in the laboratory, experiments, experiences, and techniques can be shared. These results, both in teaching mechanisms and research explorations, are made available to minimize the impact of starting new avenues of activities.\nThe “Los Libertadores” Initiative has been started, an initiative which will culminate in the creation of a nextgeneration network connecting multidisciplinary Centers of Excellence for addressing current in-country and regional problems. The Centers of Excellence allow technology to be utilized to address concerns of a country or region, and the network of these Centers is designed to share the information between cooperating sites to effectively utilize scarce resources throughout Ibero-America. The distributed nature of the projects and initiatives avoids duplication of efforts and responds needs identified by the members. A variety of projects are underway based on the initiatives in order to bring the benefits of technology to participants. Projects are designed to be dynamic and extensible, and maximum utilization of available resources is encouraged by transnational coordination and collaboration

Oral candidiasis in HIV+ patients under treatment with protease inhibitors

The purpose of this work was to evaluate the influence of Protease Inhibitors (PI) on the occurrence of oral candidiasis in 111 HIV+ patients under PI therapy (Group A). The controls consisted of 56 patients that were not using PI drugs (Group B) and 26 patients that were not using any drugs for HIV therapy (Group C). The patient's cd4 cell counts were taken in account for the correlations. One hundred and ninety three patients were evaluated. The PI did not affect the prevalence of oral candidiasis (p = 0.158) or the frequency of C. albicans isolates (p = 0.133). Patients with lower cd4 cell counts showed a higher frequency of C. albicans isolates (p = 0.046) and a greater occurrence of oral candidiasis (p = 0.036).State of São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP

Validação de um questionário de sintomas cerebrovasculares para inquéritos epidemiológicos

CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVE: Stroke is a relevant issue within public health and requires epidemiological surveillance tools. The aim here was to validate a questionnaire for evaluating individuals with stroke symptoms in the Stroke Morbidity and Mortality Study (Estudo de Mortalidade e Morbidade do Acidente Vascular Cerebral, EMMA), São Paulo, Brazil. DESIGN AND SETTING: This was a cross-sectional study performed among a sample of the inhabitants of Butantã, an area in the western zone of the city of São Paulo. METHODS: For all households in the coverage area of a primary healthcare unit, household members over the age of 35 years answered a stroke symptom questionnaire addressing limb weakness, facial weakness, speech problems, sensory disorders and impaired vision. Thirty-six participants were randomly selected for a complete neurological examination (gold standard). RESULTS: Considering all the questions in the questionnaire, the sensitivity was 72.2%, specificity was 94.4%, positive predictive value was 92.9% and negative predictive value was 77.3%. The positive likelihood ratio was 12.9, the negative likelihood ratio was 0.29 and the kappa coefficient was 0.67. Limb weakness was the most sensitive symptom, and speech problems were the most specific. CONCLUSIONS: The stroke symptom questionnaire is a useful tool and can be applied by trained interviewers with the aim of identifying community-dwelling stroke patients, through the structure of the Family Health Program.CONTEXTO E OBJETIVO: A doença cerebrovascular como parte da agenda de saúde pública necessita de instrumentos de vigilância epidemiológica. O objetivo foi validar um questionário para avaliação individual de sintomas de acidente vascular cerebral através do Estudo de Morbidade e Mortalidade no Acidente Vascular Cerebral (EMMA), São Paulo, Brasil. TIPO DE ESTUDO E LOCAL: Estudo transversal realizado em uma amostra de habitantes do Butantã, uma área na zona oeste da cidade de São Paulo. MÉTODOS: Em todos os domicílios de área adstrita de uma unidade básica de saúde, moradores com mais de 35 anos responderam questionário de sintomas de acidente vascular cerebral enfocando fraqueza de membros e facial, dificuldade em falar, alteração de sensibilidade e déficit de visão. Foram selecionadas 36 participantes aleatoriamente para exame completo com neurologista (padrão-ouro). RESULTADOS: Considerando todas as questões do questionário, a sensibilidade foi de 72,2%, a especificidade, 94,4% e os valores preditivos foram 92,9% (positivo) e 77,3% (negativo). As razões de verossimilhança foram 12,9 (positiva) e 0,29 (negativa) e o coeficiente kappa obtido foi 0,67. Fraqueza de membros foi o sintoma mais sensível e dificuldade para falar, o mais específico. CONCLUSÃO: O questionário de sintomas cerebrovasculares é um instrumento útil, e pode ser aplicado por entrevistadores treinados com intuito de identificar pacientes que sofreram evento cerebrovascular na comunidade através da estrutura do Programa Saúde da Família.Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa (CNPq), BrasíliaFundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP