Selfie Periocular Verification Using an Efficient Super-Resolution Approach

Selfie-based biometrics has great potential for a wide range of applications since, e.g. periocular verification is contactless and is safe to use in pandemics such as COVID-19, when a major portion of a face is covered by a facial mask. Despite its advantages, selfie-based biometrics presents challenges since there is limited control over data acquisition at different distances. Therefore, Super-Resolution (SR) has to be used to increase the quality of the eye images and to keep or improve the recognition performance. We propose an Efficient Single Image Super-Resolution algorithm, which takes into account a trade-off between the efficiency and the size of its filters. To that end, the method implements a loss function based on the Sharpness metric used to evaluate iris images quality. Our method drastically reduces the number of parameters compared to the state-of-the-art: from 2,170,142 to 28,654. Our best results on remote verification systems with no redimensioning reached an EER of 8.89% for FaceNet, 12.14% for VGGFace, and 12.81% for ArcFace. Then, embedding vectors were extracted from SR images, the FaceNet-based system yielded an EER of 8.92% for a resizing of x2, 8.85% for x3, and 9.32% for x4.

Social and economic impact by Covid-19 in Mexico and other countries

The objective of this research is to analyze the statistics of social and economic impact in the ten most affected countries in the world in terms of deaths from Covid-19. In addition, on Mexico, the five states of the republic most affected by the pandemic are analyzed and they are contrasted with the five least affected states. The analysis is based on the analytical method of research related to the subject in other countries and on official data sources such as Worldometer, Federal Security Secretary, International Monetary Fund, Federal Ministry of Economy, among others. The data show that countries such as the United States, Brazil, Mexico and India have the highest number of deaths, despite the fact that they have already started their vaccination coverage. It is concluded that, in 2020, the entire group of countries analyzed here registered negative GDP growth rates, although there is an encouraging forecast for 2021. © 2021, Universidad del Zulia. All rights reserved.

In-hospital mortality from severe COVID-19 in a tertiary care center in Mexico City;causes of death, risk factors and the impact of hospital saturation

Background: As the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has remained in Latin America, Mexico has become the third country with the highest death rate worldwide. Data regarding in-hospital mortality and its risk factors, as well as the impact of hospital overcrowding in Latin America has not been thoroughly explored. Methods and findings: In this prospective cohort study, we enrolled consecutive adult patients hospitalized with severe confirmed COVID-19 pneumonia at a SARS-CoV-2 referral center in Mexico City from February 26th, 2020, to June 5th, 2020. A total of 800 patients were admitted with confirmed diagnosis, mean age was 51.9 +or- 13.9 years, 61% were males, 85% were either obese or overweight, 30% had hypertension and 26% type 2 diabetes. From those 800, 559 recovered (69.9%) and 241 died (30.1%). Among survivors, 101 (18%) received invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV) and 458 (82%) were managed outside the intensive care unit (ICU);mortality in the ICU was 49%. From the non-survivors, 45.6% (n = 110) did not receive full support due to lack of ICU bed availability. Within this subgroup the main cause of death was acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in 95% of the cases, whereas among the non-survivors who received full (n = 105) support the main cause of death was septic shock (45%) followed by ARDS (29%). The main risk factors associated with in-hospital death were male sex (RR 2.05, 95% CI 1.34-3.12), obesity (RR 1.62, 95% CI 1.14-2.32)-in particular morbid obesity (RR 3.38, 95%CI 1.63-7.00) - and oxygen saturation < 80% on admission (RR 4.8, 95%CI 3.26-7.31). Conclusions: In this study we found similar in-hospital and ICU mortality, as well as risk factors for mortality, compared to previous reports. However, 45% of the patients who did not survive justified admission to ICU but did not receive IMV/ICU care due to the unavailability of ICU beds. Furthermore, mortality rate over time was mainly due to the availability of ICU beds, indirectly suggesting that overcrowding was one of the main factors that contributed to hospital mortality.

SARS-CoV2 infection rate in patients and health care personnel in a chemoradiotherapy unit: A prospective cohort in Mexico

Background: Cancer treatment during the COVID- 19 pandemic represents a challenge. Increased hospital visits to receive treatment as well as interaction with healthcare personnel (HCP), represent a potential risk factor for acquiring COVID-19. Our objective was to analyze the SARS-CoV-2 infection rate in patients (pts) with cancer and HCP of a chemoradiotherapy unit localized in a center designated as a COVID-19 priority facility in Mexico City. Methods: We invited HCP and pts with solid tumors attending the chemoradiotherapy unit to participate in a prospective follow-up cohort to early detect asymptomatic COVID-19 infection. Only participants who gave informed consent were included. A RT-PCR test for SARS-COV-2 from nasopharyngeal swab samples was performed every 2 weeks, and daily electronic clinical questionnaires were sent. Recruitment started on June 12, 2020. Participants entered the study in different moments and they were followed until a positive test for COVID-19 was found, or pts finished treatment or, HCP changed work area or, withdrawal of inform consent, or follow up completion, which ever occurred first. The last day of follow up was September 30, 2020. The general infection rate during all the period of follow-up was calculated, as well as the infection rate per month. Results: We included 130 asymptomatic participants, 44.6% (n = 58) were HCP and 55.4% (n = 72) were cancer pts, 45.9% (n = 61) were men, and 54.1% (n = 72) were women. During a median follow-up of 85 days (IQR 48-103) we performed 634 nasopharyngeal swabs for SARSCoV- 2 RT-PCR, with a median number per participant of 5 (IQR 3-7). Within this period, 18 (13.5%) participants tested positive for SARS-CoV- 2 infection. 12 were asymptomatic and 6 developed symptoms. None of them had a severe form of COVID-19 and we did not register any death associated to COVID-19. Table shows the infection rate per month. Conclusions: In our center, during the time period of follow up, the overall rate of COVID-19 infection was higher than that reported in a study from asymptomatic HCP and office workers in Mexico City (13.5 vs 8.4%). We also observed a monthly variation that was consistent with the months with the highest number of cases detected in Mexico City during the first wave. With careful implementation, it is feasible to continue to safely deliver systemic oncologic treatments during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Educational System and action in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic: opinion and prospects for improvement according to teachers

The objective of this work was to know the opinion of the pre-school, primary and secondary education teachers about their situation and that of the students before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, carrying out a series of recommendations to improve in future similar cases. A questionnaire was passed to assess the Responsibility of the students (PSRQ, alpha = .932), as well as two ad hoc questionnaires, to assess the teacher's perception of the attitude of the students prior to the pandemic (OASBP, alpha = .910) and general management during the pandemic (MPES, alpha = .884). The results indicated that prior to the pandemic, students had shares of personal and social responsibility similar to those of previous studies, but decreased during confinement with less committed attitudes towards the teacher, especially in the Secondary stage. In addition, during the pandemic, the teachers perceived that the most relevant was the lack of training and resources for families in the use of ICT, together with the lack of support from the administration to the centers. The importance of providing the students with technological and training means was highlighted, as well as working on education in values and the autonomy of the students. Finally, the majority of teachers indicated that they would be willing to train in active methodologies and ICT even if this would involve an extra effort. It is recommended that administrations bet on increasing teacher training in the use of ICT and methodologies to promote autonomy, as well as training courses for students and families in tele-training, together with the possibility of carrying out campaigns or collections of technological material for families most disadvantaged.