Health Data and Privacy in the Digital Era

In 2010, the social networking site Facebook launched a platform allowing private companies to request users’ permission to access personal data. Few users were aware of the platform, which was integrated into Facebook’s terms of service. In 2014, Cambridge Analytica, a UK-based political consulting firm, developed a data-harvesting app. That app prompted Facebook users to provide psychological profiles, including responses such as “I get upset easily” and “I have frequent mood-swings” as part of a “research project.” The Facebook platform allowed users to share their friends’ data as well, enabling Cambridge Analytica to access tens of millions of personal profiles, identifying voters’ political preferences. The controversy revealed risks to identifiable health data posed by social media and web services companies’ practices. After the Cambridge Analytica controversy, Facebook suspended a project that aimed to link data about users’ medical conditions with information about their social networks. Individuals often reveal detailed, sensitive health information online. Through wearable devices, social media posts, traceable web searches, and online patient communities, users generate large volumes of health data. Although some individuals participate in online patient forums and wellness information sharing apps under their own names, others participate via pseudonyms, assuming their privacy is preserved. Many users believe their data will be shared only with those they designate

The International Health Regulations (2005), the threat of populism and the COVID-19 pandemic

The global response to the COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare weaknesses and major challenges in the international approach to managing public health emergencies. Populist sentiment is spreading globally as democratic nations are increasing their support for or electing governments that are perceived to represent “traditional” native interests. Measures need to be taken to proactively address populist sentiment when reviewing the IHR (2005) effectiveness in the COVID-19 pandemic. We discuss how populism can impact the IHR (2005) and conversely how the IHR (2005) may be able to address populist concerns if the global community commits to helping states address public health threats that emerge within their borders

Going Global, Acting Local: How an International Pandemic Convention Can Support Regional and Community Response

A WHO pandemic convention could set in place an overarching framework needed for strengthening global health security. As the World Health Assembly (WHA) debated the merits of such an agreement, a critically important regional instrument – the Treaty for the Establishment of the African Medicines Agency (AMA Treaty) – entered into force on 5 November 2021. The new agency will, among other things, ensure there is a “common framework” for addressing “emerging issues and pandemics in the event of a public health emergency on the continent with cross border or regional implications.” An improved worldwide health security strategy is essential but global mechanisms should complement without undermining effective regional, national, and sub-national approaches. Consequently, WHA decision-makers should carefully consider the scope of a potential global convention and make deliberate choices as to the content that requires truly worldwide coordination while incorporating and enhancing fit for purpose regional, national, and local strategies

Generating haptic texture using solid noise

Texture enhances haptic interaction by providing unique, distinguishable, and versatile surfaces. In computer haptics, texture can render environments more realistic and provide useful information. In this paper, an algorithm is proposed for virtual texture simulation by using solid noise, where only a few parameters need to be altered to generate a range of realistic and diverse textures by reproducing different frequencies similar to that of real vibrational signals in a virtual environment. The proposed method can capture the textural effect in a haptic simulation while retaining a simple overall geometry and stable update rate. This method also allows the user to change the texture at runtime and can be easily incorporated into any existing code and used in any traditional haptic device without affecting overall haptic-rendering performance. Moreover, the solid noise texture is independent of object geometry and can be applied to any shape without additional computations. We conducted a human-subject study to evaluate the recognition accuracy for each generated haptic texture as well as its realism and correspondence to real texture. The results indicated the high performance of the method and its ability to generate haptic textures with a very high recognition rate that were highly realistic. 2021 The AuthorsThis paper was jointly supported by Qatar University M-QJRC-2020-7. The findings achieved herein are solely the responsibility of the authors. The Open Access funding is provided by the Qatar National Library .Scopu

Augmented reality flavor: cross-modal mapping across gustation, olfaction, and vision

Gustatory display research is still in its infancy despite being one of the essential everyday senses that human practice while eating and drinking. Indeed, the most important and frequent tasks that our brain deals with every day are foraging and feeding. The recent studies by psychologists and cognitive neuroscientist revealed how complex multisensory rely on the integration of cues from all the human senses in any flavor experiences. The perception of flavor is multisensory and involves combinations of gustatory and olfactory stimuli. The cross-modal mapping between these modalities needs to be more explored in the virtual environment and simulation, especially in liquid food. In this paper, we present a customized wearable Augmented Reality (AR) system and olfaction display to study the effect of vision and olfaction on the gustatory sense. A user experiment and extensive analysis conducted to study the influence of each stimulus on the overall flavor, including other factors like age, previous experience in Virtual Reality (VR)/AR, and beverage consumption. The result showed that smell contributes strongly to the flavor with less contribution to the vision. However, the combination of these stimuli can deliver richer experience and a higher belief rate. Beverage consumption had a significant effect on the flavor belief rate. Experience is correlated with stimulus and age is correlated with belief rate, and both indirectly affected the belief rate. 2021, The Author(s).This work was partly supported by NPRP Grant #NPRP 11S-1219-170106 from the Qatar National Research Fund (a member of Qatar Foundation). This work also was not possible without the effort of students Babkir Elnimah, Ali Hazi, and Ahmed Ibrahim as part of their senior project.Scopu

No Future but a Shared Future

The COVID-19 pandemic revealed the fractured and inadequate state of national and global health law and institutions, revealing deeply embedded inequalities. In response to a World Health Assembly resolution proposing a special session to consider the benefits of developing a WHO convention or other international instrument on pandemic preparedness and response, the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law and the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH) convened 30 of the world’s leading authorities on global health law, financing, biomedical science, implementation, and emergency response along with leaders from prominent international organizations deeply engaged in responding to the pandemic. This meeting was followed by regional consultations convened in Africa, Latin America-Caribbean, and Southeast Asia. The O’Neill Institute/FNIH also held a consultation with civil society representatives. This article is a concise, edited excerpt of the report of those meetings, outlining the options for such an international instrument

The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and the Partnerships of Equitable Vaccine Access

This article highlights and evaluates the role of CEPI and its contribution to global equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines through its established partnerships for vaccine development. The article adds to the understanding of how and when such partnerships can work for public health, especially under emergency citations. The relatively spontaneous and effective cooperation between major international organizations shortly after the pandemic declaration played a significant role in reducing to a material extent COVID-19’s burden of disease and death. Future pandemic preparedness, prevention, and response will require that collaborations of this kind be sustained and effective going forward

Intracellular retention of mutant lysyl oxidase leads to aortic dilation in response to increased hemodynamic stress

Heterozygous missense mutations in lysyl oxidase (LOX) are associated with thoracic aortic aneurysms and dissections. To assess how LOX mutations modify protein function and lead to aortic disease, we studied the factors that influence the onset and progression of vascular aneurysms in mice bearing a Lox mutation (p.M292R) linked to aortic dilation in humans. We show that mice heterozygous for the M292R mutation did not develop aneurysmal disease unless challenged with increased hemodynamic stress. Vessel dilation was confined to the ascending aorta although both the ascending and descending aortae showed changes in vessel wall structure, smooth muscle cell number and inflammatory cell recruitment that differed between wild-type and mutant animals. Studies with isolated cells found that M292R-mutant Lox is retained in the endoplasmic reticulum and ultimately cleared through an autophagy/proteasome pathway. Because the mutant protein does not transit to the Golgi where copper incorporation occurs, the protein is never catalytically active. These studies show that the M292R mutation results in LOX loss-of-function due to a secretion defect that predisposes the ascending aorta in mice (and by extension humans with similar mutations) to arterial dilation when exposed to risk factors that impart stress to the arterial wall

Generating acceptable Arabic Core Vocabularies and Symbols for AAC users

This paper discusses the development of an Arabic Symbol Dictionary for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) users, their families, carers, therapists and teachers as well as those who may benefit from the use of symbols to enhance literacy skills. With a requirement for a bi-lingual dictionary, a vocabulary list analyzer has been developed to evaluate similarities and differences in word frequencies from a range of word lists in order to collect suitable AAC lexical entries. An online bespoke symbol management has been created to hold the lexical entries alongside specifically designed symbols which are then accepted via a voting system using a series of criteria. Results to date have highlighted how successful these systems can be when encouraging participation along with the need for further research into the development of personalised context sensitive core vocabularies

Advancing Equity In The Pandemic Treaty

There is a broad consensus around equity’s importance. Even countries that hoarded supplies during the acute phase of COVID-19 seem to understand that the international community must find a means to ensure fairer allocation of medical resources when the next health crisis hits. But there has been little agreement about the concrete steps needed to operationalize fairer access and benefit sharing. That is, what are the workable mechanisms that could reduce the divide between richer and poorer populations? The World Health Assembly, the governing body of the World Health Organization, has appointed an Intergovernmental Negotiating Body to develop a pandemic convention, agreement, or other instrument under the WHO constitution. The February 2023 draft is designed “to achieve greater equity … through the fullest national and international cooperation.” It is important that the negotiators develop specific, measurable metrics that directly impact equity. The mechanisms and metrics agreed upon should allow the public to evaluate whether a more equitable system is emerging through this new regime. Equity won’t just happen. We need to plan and prepare for equity, and we need international norms with which nations must comply to achieve the fairness we strive for