Image Similarity between Masked and Unmasked Face for Consumer Electronics Applications

Face recognition has become essential as a convenient biometric-based solution for a plethora of different consumer electronics applications, including access control systems, intelligent environments, smartphone authentication systems and so on. Early in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic caused the widespread use of face masks, which become essential for containing the outbreak. The masks cause a visible alteration in facial appearance, covering almost the 50% of the human face. In this work, an image similarity technique is applied to assess the difference between two images of the same face wearing or not wearing a face mask. Cosine Similarity measure-based Algorithm (CSA) was used to objectively infer the difficulties that modern facial recognition algorithms, based on deep learning techniques, encounter when dealing with a masked face. © 2023 IEEE.

Telemedicine and health care pathway of atrial fibrillation patient

Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: None. Background Among cardiovascular diseases, atrial fibrillation is the most found arrhythmia in clinical practice and appears to have a significant impact on morbidity and mortality, which in turn represents a growing socio-economic burden for our health care system. COVID-19 pandemic has witnessed a pre-existing weakness of healthcare structures which has led to an irreversible collapse of hospitals’ performance and a turning point for the implementation of telemedicine. Purpose The goal is to produce a literature review of applications and benefits which adoption of telemedicine in patients affected by atrial fibrillation could bring. The review presents implemented solutions in telemedicine field according to their respective key performance indicators (KPIs) to bring scientific evidence to papers and technological solutions. Methods Using PubMed electronic database, 47 articles were selected by entering keywords connected with both AF and Telemedicine and then skimmed-conducted through SCImago Journal Rank. They were divided into two AF-patient care pathways: diagnosis (18 articles) and follow-up (29 articles). The analysis was based on the key performance indicators KPI of several technologies proposed. Results Several innovative solutions implemented were found and that can be mainly clustered in two areas: wearables and apps for smartphone. For diagnosis, KPIs considered are accuracy(90,52-99,62%), sensitivity(62,5-100%), specificity(64,5-100%), PPV(64,7-95%) and NPV(95-100%). All these indicators show promising values. Regarding follow-up, KPIs are: adherence(70-99%), atrial fibrillation alert (AFA), specificity(83,3-100%), all-cause death, PPV (39,9-99,78%), sensitivity(98%), main adverse events (-3,3%), were calculated related to patient’s sphere;time investments, time to clinical decision in response to clinical events, unscheduled follow up and emergency admission of urgent follow-up were considered related to hospitals, while KPIs related to Healthcare system range of action are non-hospital and hospital costs, time rehospitalization and clinical follow-up and reduction in average hospitalization time. KPIs reveal an improvement in efficiency at a patient’s health status, hospitals, and health system level. Finally, some solutions have witnessed versatile functionality in both diagnosis and follow-up phases. Conclusions MHealth devices show feasibility for the detection of AF since they promote mass screening of pathology and represent a user-friendly approach to monitor diseases by population. Diagnostic performance reported depends also on population attitude towards usefulness of that technology, their risk of AF, and kind of technology used. Follow-up revision reveals a broader perspective of results which remarkably declares the implementation of remote monitoring using multiple technologies through adherence to treatments, quantity, and quality of data available for the analysis of the progress of the patient.

Telemedicine and health care pathway of atrial fibrillation patient

Background: Among cardiovascular diseases, atrial fibrillation is the most found arrhythmia in clinical practice and appears to have a significant impact on morbidity and mortality, which in turn represents a growing socio-economic burden for our health care system. COVID-19 pandemic has witnessed a pre-existing weakness of healthcare structures which has led to an irreversible collapse of hospitals' performance and a turning point for the implementation of telemedicine. Purpose: The goal is to produce a literature review of applications and benefits which adoption of telemedicine in patients affected by atrial fibrillation could bring. The review presents implemented solutions in telemedicine field according to their respective key performance indicators (KPIs) to bring scientific evidence to papers and technological solutions. Methods: Using PubMed electronic database, 47 articles were selected by entering keywords connected with both AF and Telemedicine and then skimmed-conducted through SCImago Journal Rank. They were divided into two AF-patient care pathways: diagnosis (18 articles) and follow-up (29 articles). The analysis was based on the key performance indicators KPI of several technologies proposed. Results: Several innovative solutions implemented were found and that can be mainly clustered in two areas: wearables and apps for smartphone. For diagnosis, KPIs considered are accuracy(90,52-99,62%), sensitivity(62,5-100%), specificity(64,5-100%), PPV(64,7-95%) and NPV(95-100%). All these indicators show promising values. Regarding follow-up, KPIs are: adherence(70-99%), atrial fibrillation alert (AFA), specificity(83,3-100%), all-cause death, PPV (39,9-99,78%), sensitivity(98%), main adverse events (-3,3%), were calculated related to patient's sphere;time investments, time to clinical decision in response to clinical events, unscheduled follow up and emergency admission of urgent follow-up were considered related to hospitals, while KPIs related to Healthcare system range of action are non-hospital and hospital costs, time rehospitalization and clinical follow-up and reduction in average hospitalization time. KPIs reveal an improvement in efficiency at a patient's health status, hospitals, and health system level. Finally, some solutions have witnessed versatile functionality in both diagnosis and follow-up phases. Conclusions: MHealth devices show feasibility for the detection of AF since they promote mass screening of pathology and represent a user-friendly approach to monitor diseases by population. Diagnostic performance reported depends also on population attitude towards usefulness of that technology, their risk of AF, and kind of technology used. Follow-up revision reveals a broader perspective of results which remarkably declares the implementation of remote monitoring using multiple technologies through adherence to treatments, quantity, and quality of data available for the analysis of the progress of the patient. (Table Presented).

Covid-19: a business opportunity for the informal sector in Africa?

The confinement of populations decided to deal with Covid-19 has caused an economic crisis whose effects are not fully known. Indeed, if the crisis can cause threats, it can also generate opportunities. Also, the objective of this research is to study the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on the informal sector in Africa. The results of a survey of 164 entrepreneurs in Cameroon show that the crisis has a positive impact on the creation of informal businesses and has encouraged the adoption of informal practices by formal businesses. Moreover, while in most countries, as in previous crises, government stimulus measures are based mainly on the formal sector, public management of the pandemic in Cameroon is marked by support and support measures. Support for the informal sector, but also through greater tolerance of these activities and practices. However, while this attention is surprising and appreciable, given its weight in the economy, the fact remains that no country can achieve the desired development by relying solely on informal activities. In this sense, the dynamic of informalization observed should worry and challenge the public authorities.

Fusion of Periocular Deep Features in a Dual-Input CNN for Biometric Recognition

Periocular recognition has attracted attention in recent times. The advent of the COVID-19 pandemic and the consequent obligation to wear facial masks made face recognition problematic due to the important occlusion of the lower part of the face. In this work, a dual-input Neural Network architecture is proposed. The structure is a Siamese-like model, with two identical parallel streams (called base models) that process the two inputs separately. The input is represented by RGB images of the right eye and the left eye belonging to the same subject. The outputs of the two base models are merged through a fusion layer. The aim is to investigate how deep feature aggregation affects periocular recognition. The experimentation is performed on the Masked Face Recognition Database (M 2 FRED) which includes videos of 46 participants with and without masks. Three different fusion layers are applied to understand which type of merging technique is most suitable for data aggregation. Experimental results show promising performance for almost all experimental configurations with a worst-case accuracy of 90% and a best-case accuracy of 97%. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

The impact of the CoViD 19 pandemic on cancer

Background: During the CoViD-19 pandemic, cancer screening has been suspended, routine diagnostic work deferred, and only urgent symptomatic cases had priority for diagnostic intervention. This disruption to cancer screening services may have a significant impact on patients, health care practitioners, and health systems. In this study, we estimated the increase of diagnosis of cancer in our department of Clinical Medicine. Methods: In this retrospective cohort study, we collected data on patients with active or previous malignancy, aged 18 years and older, admitted to our Unit of Clinical Medicine from 1 January 2021 to 31 March 2021 (Group A) compared with pre-pandemic figures from 1 January 2020 to 31 March 2020 (Group B). Results: We collected data of 239 patient from Group A, 121 (50.6%) were female. Median (interquartile range) age was 65.0 (56.0-70.0) years, median (interquartile range) hospitalization was 16 day (12-20), 43/239 (18%) were hospitalized due to cancer or its complications. Compared with pre-pandemic figures (Group B), we estimate an increase in hospitalizations of patients with newly diagnosed advanced cancer and/or complications of previous cancer. Conclusions: Substantial increases in the number of new cases of cancer in our wards of Internal Medicine are to be expected as a result of diagnostic delays due to the CoViD-19 pandemic. Urgent interventions are necessary, particularly the need to manage the backlog within routine diagnostic services to mitigate the expected impact of the CoViD-19 pandemic on patients with cancer.

Microvascular involvement in long-term CoViD-19: usefulness of nailfold videocapillaroscopy

Background: Endothelial dysfunction represents a key pathophysiological factor in CoViD-19. A significant proportion of patients (pts) who have been infected with SARS-CoV-2 continue to have symptoms for a long time (long-term CoViD-19). Nailfold videocapillaroscopy (NVC) is nowadays considered one of the best diagnostic techniques of non-invasive imaging, able to study the microcirculation in vivo. The aim of our study was to assess microvasculature by means of NVC in long-term CoViD-19 pts. Methods: We examined 18 pts (12 F and 6 M), aged 53.9 years (range 29-84) with recent diagnosis of CoViD-19 and two successive oropharyngeal swabs resulted negative for the SARS-CoV-2 genome, hospitalized in our ward for other acute pathologies or related to our NVC clinic. The control group consisted of 20 healthy subjects without previous or current SARS-CoV-2 infection with overlapping demographic characteristics. We used a VideoCap 3.0 (DS Medica), equipped with 200x optics to evaluate microcirculation and its elementary alterations. Results: Long-term CoViD-19 pts, compared to control subjects, showed a higher prevalence of meandering capillaries, enlarged capillaries, loss of capillaries, hemosiderin deposits expression of micro-hemorrhages and micro-thrombosis, sludge flow and pericapillary edema. Conclusions: Long-term CoViD-19 pts present greater microvascular abnormalities at NVC compared to healthy subjects. However, further studies with larger case series are needed to assess the clinical relevance of NVC in long-term CoViD-19.

Orthopedic and trauma care during COVID-19 lockdown in apulia: What the pandemic could not change

Background: this study aimed to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 lockdown on Orthopedic and trauma care in apulia, using as a reference point the orthopedic activity performed in the previous three years in the same bimester;and to assess any relationship between the COVID-19 spreading in apulia and changes in orthopedic and trauma working activity. MetHOdS: eight apulian level 1 or level 2 orthopedic and trauma centers took part in the present study. in each trauma center, between March 9 and May 3 (eight weeks), the following data were prospectively recorded: the number of patients referring to Orthopedic and trauma emergency room (er) and their cause of injury (i.e. motor vehicle accident, domestic injury, working injury or sports injury);the number of patients referring to outpatient department and the number and type of surgical interventions performed. all trauma centers were also asked to gather the data summarizing surgical, outpatient and er activities during the same period in the previous three years (2017-2019). Furthermore, data about COVID-19 total confirmed cases and total deaths in Apulia were daily recorded. reSultS: during COVID-19 lockdown, the mean number of trauma surgeries performed for non-femur fractures, and the mean number of Orthopedic er referrals for motor vehicle accidents, work injuries and sports injuries were significantly reduced, compared with the same period in the previous three years. Nonetheless, no significant differences were observed in domestic injuries (p=0.1417) and pFFs (p=0.5462). the mortality rate at discharge in patients with pFFs during COVID-19 lockdown, compared with the same period in the previous three years, was not statistically different (P=0.162). A significantly positive correlation was observed between the COVID-19 total cases number and PFFs patients’ discharge to home (P=0.003), whereas a significant negative correlation was recorded with PFFs patients’ discharge to rehabilitation centers (p=0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Although orthopedic and trauma care significantly changed in Apulia during COVID-19 lockdown, the mean number of patients referring to Orthopedic and Trauma ER for home injuries and PFFs showed no significant differences, compared to the same bimester in the previous three years. © 2020 Edizioni Minerva Medica