scholarly journals Review and Critical Analysis of Privacy-Preserving Infection Tracking and Contact Tracing

Author(s):  
William J. Buchanan ◽  
Muhammad Ali Imran ◽  
Masood Ur-Rehman ◽  
Lei Zhang ◽  
Qammer H. Abbasi ◽  
...  

The outbreak of viruses have necessitated contact tracing and infection tracking methods. Despite various efforts, there is currently no standard scheme for the tracing and tracking. Therefore, many nations of the world have developed their own ways where carriers of disease could be tracked and their contacts traced. These are generalized methods developed either in a distributed manner giving citizens control of their identity or in a centralized manner where a health authority gathers data on those who are carriers. This paper outlines some of the most significant approaches that have been established for contact tracing around the world. A comprehensive review on the key enabling methods used to realize the infrastructure around these infection tracking and contact tracing methods is also presented, and recommendations are made for the most effective way to develop such a practice.

Author(s):  
Noor Mohammad Osmani ◽  
Tawfique Al-Mubarak

Samuel Huntington (1927-2008) claimed that there would be seven eight civilizations ruling over the world in the coming centuries, thus resulting a possible clash among them. The West faces the greatest challenge from the Islamic civilization, as he claimed. Beginning from the Cold-War, the Western civilization became dominant in reality over other cultures creating an invisible division between the West and the rest. The main purpose of this research is to examine the perceived clash between the Western and Islamic Civilization and the criteria that lead a civilization to precede others. The research would conduct a comprehensive review of available literatures from both Islamic and Western perspectives, analyze historical facts and data and provide a critical evaluation. This paper argues that there is no such a strong reason that should lead to any clash between the West and Islam; rather, there are many good reasons that may lead to a peaceful coexistence and cultural tolerance among civilizations


Author(s):  
Michael Goodhart

Chapter 3 engages with realist political theory throughcritical dialogues with leading realist theorists. It argues that realist political theories are much more susceptible to conservatism, distortion, and idealization than their proponents typically acknowledge. Realism is often not very realistic either in its descriptions of the world or in its political analysis. While realism enables the critical analysis of political norms (the analysis of power and unmasking of ideology), it cannot support substantive normative critique of existing social relations or enable prescriptive theorizing. These two types of critique must be integrated into a single theoretical framework to facilitate emancipatory social transformation.


The Oxford Handbook of Musical Repatriation is an edited volume comprising thirty-eight chapters from contributors working in regions all over the world. This collection highlights studies exploring sonic repatriation in its broadest sense in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. “Sonic” or “musical” repatriation refers primarily to the return of audiovisual archival materials to the communities from which they were initially recorded or collected. Repatriation is overtly guided by an ethical mandate to “return,” providing reconnection and Indigenous control and access to cultural materials—but as the chapters in this collection reveal, there are more dimensions to repatriation than can be described by simply “giving back” or returning archives to their “homelands.” The volume provides a dynamic and densely layered collection of stories and critical questions for anyone engaged or interested in archival work and repatriation projects. Its chapters constitute a body of thoughtful explorations that demonstrate through contemporary examples how negotiating ownership of and access to sonic heritage crosscuts issues involving (and challenges assumptions regarding) memory, identity, history, power, agency, research, scholarship, preservation, performance, distribution, legitimacy, commodification, curation, decoloniality, and sustainability. These examples set a precedent for musical repatriation, while also problematizing the historically transactional nature of returning archives. The Handbook explores these interdisciplinary streams and provides a dynamic space for critical analysis of archives and musical repatriation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 77 ◽  
pp. 103520
Author(s):  
Can Zhang ◽  
Chang Xu ◽  
Kashif Sharif ◽  
Liehuang Zhu

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 528-540
Author(s):  
Euclides Nenga Manuel Sacomboio

The global community is racing to slow down and eventually stop the spread of COVID-19, which is a pandemic that has killed thousands of lives and made tens of thousands sick. The new coronavirus has already reached Angola, with 25 confirmed cases, among them 2 died and 6 were cured. The government has decreed a state of emergency on 24 March 2020 for 15 days, which was extended twice for the same number of days that will make it possible to reduce clusters of people and keep them at home. This study reflected on the diverse ways of leadership. It is an article of theoretical, technical and scientific reflection, based on the experience of a new epidemiological situation, with a critical analysis based on technical, scientific and professional experience, with bibliographic input of data obtained from information published in scientific articles, newspapers, magazines and other official documents published in Angola and worldwide related to COVID-19. This article emerged from critical thinking based on the current situation of COVID-19 in Angola in the world and is reflected in this article, what Angola should learn and learned from the experience of other countries that also imported the disease, their history of investment in health, characteristics of their populations, their economies and other aspects.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 105
Author(s):  
Mohamed Yousif ◽  
Chaminda Hewage ◽  
Liqaa Nawaf

The COVID-19 pandemic provided a much-needed sanity check for IoT-inspired frameworks and solutions. IoT solutions such as remote health monitoring and contact tracing provided support for authorities to successfully manage the spread of the coronavirus. This article provides the first comprehensive review of key IoT solutions that have had an impact on COVID-19 in healthcare, contact tracing, and transportation during the pandemic. Each sector is investigated in depth; and potential applications, social and economic impact, and barriers for mass adaptation are discussed in detail. Furthermore, it elaborates on the challenges and opportunities for IoT framework solutions in the immediate post-COVID-19 era. To this end, privacy and security concerns of IoT applications are analyzed in depth and emerging standards and code of practices for mass adaptation are also discussed. The main contribution of this review paper is the in-depth analysis and categorization of sector-wise IoT technologies, which have the potential to be prominent applications in the new normal. IoT applications in each selected sector are rated for their potential economic and social impact, timeline for mass adaptation, and Technology Readiness Level (TRL). In addition, this article outlines potential research directions for next-generation IoT applications that would facilitate improved performance with preserved privacy and security, as well as wider adaptation by the population at large.


2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jing Yang ◽  
Juan Li ◽  
Shengjie Lai ◽  
Corrine W Ruktanonchai ◽  
Weijia Xing ◽  
...  

Abstract Background The COVID-19 pandemic has posed an ongoing global crisis, but how the virus spread across the world remains poorly understood. This is of vital importance for informing current and future pandemic response strategies. Methods We performed two independent analyses, travel network-based epidemiological modelling and Bayesian phylogeographic inference, to investigate the intercontinental spread of COVID-19. Results Both approaches revealed two distinct phases of COVID-19 spread by the end of March 2020. In the first phase, COVID-19 largely circulated in China during mid-to-late January 2020 and was interrupted by containment measures in China. In the second and predominant phase extending from late February to mid-March, unrestricted movements between countries outside of China facilitated intercontinental spread, with Europe as a major source. Phylogenetic analyses also revealed that the dominant strains circulating in the USA were introduced from Europe. However, stringent restrictions on international travel across the world since late March have substantially reduced intercontinental transmission. Conclusions Our analyses highlight that heterogeneities in international travel have shaped the spatiotemporal characteristics of the pandemic. Unrestricted travel caused a large number of COVID-19 exportations from Europe to other continents between late February and mid-March, which facilitated the COVID-19 pandemic. Targeted restrictions on international travel from countries with widespread community transmission, together with improved capacity in testing, genetic sequencing and contact tracing, can inform timely strategies for mitigating and containing ongoing and future waves of COVID-19 pandemic.


2020 ◽  
Vol 102 (102) ◽  
pp. 78-91
Author(s):  
Gilbert B. Rodman

Forty years ago, in his seminal essay, 'The Whites of Their Eyes', Stuart Hall admonished the left for its – our – collective failure in figuring out how to fight back against racism effectively. Sadly, his criticism is no less valid today than it was then, and we still have a lot to learn about how to defeat racism once and for all. We've known for more than a century that this thing we call 'race' isn't a scientifically valid phenomenon – and yet it continues to function perfectly well in the world as if it is one anyway. As Hall noted in a 2011 interview, the mere act of unmasking essentialisms and deconstructing binaries doesn't stop them from 'roaring away' in the world, completely undisturbed by our analytic prowess. This essay takes stock of the current state of anti-racist struggles (at least in the US) and offers a critical analysis of how and why our current efforts to combat racism continue to be so ineffective.


2018 ◽  
Vol 61 (2) ◽  
pp. 59-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Massimo Garbuio ◽  
Nidthida Lin

The future of health care may change dramatically as entrepreneurs offer solutions that change how we prevent, diagnose, and cure health conditions, using artificial intelligence (AI). This article provides a timely and critical analysis of AI-driven health care startups and identifies emerging business model archetypes that entrepreneurs from around the world are using to bring AI solutions to the marketplace. It identifies areas of value creation for the application of AI in health care and proposes an approach to designing business models for AI health care startups.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document