A Meta-analysis of Privacy, Ethical and Security Aspects of Facial Recognition Systems

Facial recognition systems use advanced computing to capture facial information and compare the same with proprietary databases for validation. The emergence of data capturing intermediaries and open access image repositories have compounded the need for a holistic perspective for handling the privacy and security challenges associated with FRS. The study presents the results of a bibliometric analysis conducted on the topic of privacy, ethical and security aspects of FRS. This study presents the level of academic discussion on the topic using bibliometric performance analysis. The results of the bibliographic coupling analysis to identify the research hotspots are also presented. The results also include the systematic literature review of 148 publications that are distributed across seven themes. Both the bibliometric and systematic analysis showed that privacy and security in FRS requires a holistic perspective that cuts across privacy, ethical, security, legal, policy and technological aspects.

ADVANCED COMPUTING TOPOLOGICAL AND DYNAMICAL INVARIANTS OF RELATIVISTIC BACKWARD-WAVE TUBE TIME SERIES IN CHAOTIC AND HYPERCHAOTIC REGIMES

The advanced results of computing the dynamical and topological invariants (correlation dimensions values, embedding, Kaplan-York dimensions, Lyapunov’s exponents, Kolmogorov entropy etc) of the dynamics time series of the relativistic backward-wave tube with accounting for dissipation and space charge field and other effects are presented for chaotic and hyperchaotic regimes. It is solved a system of equations for unidimensional relativistic electron phase and field unidimensional complex amplitude. The data obtained make more exact earlier presented preliminary data for dynamical and topological invariants of the relativistic backward-wave tube dynamics in chaotic regimes and allow to describe a scenario of transition to chaos in temporal dynamics.

Evaluation of Breastfeeding Attitudes, Education, and Training Among Gynecology Healthcare Professionals in Greece

Background There is strong evidence suggesting that support from a trained healthcare professional can have a positive effect on initiation, duration, and experiences of breastfeeding. It is therefore important that nursing, medical and other students in healthcare, acquire knowledge about breastfeeding, and develop skills to effectively support and care for pregnant women and new mothers. This study tried to investigate the knowledge level, attitudes, and perceptions of gynecology healthcare professionals in Greece towards breastfeeding. Methods A self-administered questionnaire was provided asking the healthcare professionals and students to answer multiple choice questions. The study was conducted mainly at the facilities of Medical Faculty Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. The questionnaire was administered to 312 healthcare professionals (midwifes, students, physicians, and other healthcare professionals). Results The questionnaire demonstrated that 70% of the respondents had moderate breastfeeding knowledge at best while 30% lacked knowledge concerning the management of special breastfeeding scenarios. 84% had previous personal breastfeeding experience or at least are willing to do so in the future (themselves or their partners) with 39.1% aiming to breastfeed approximately for one year. The same pattern was observed in terms of their breastfeeding recommendations to other mothers regardless of their sex. 59.6% admitted that they did not have the necessary time to properly inform mothers about breastfeeding while 72.4% acknowledged improper breastfeeding information as an important factor for the low breastfeeding rates in Greece. Finally, 80.4% stated that their education was lacking in didactic depth and their training in hands-on experience while 88.8% clearly underlined that there was room for improvement in their education/training curriculum. Expert teams, well-organized educational programs and advanced computing could contribute to the personnel’s harmonization with the various breastfeeding objectives to create a “breastfeeding-friendly” social environment. Conclusions This study revealed that although most Greek gynecology healthcare professionals have very positive attitudes towards breastfeeding, their breastfeeding knowledge was moderate at best and could be further improved.

Lessons learned from urgent computing in Europe: Tackling the COVID-19 pandemic

PRACE (Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe), an international not-for-profit association that brings together the five largest European supercomputing centers and involves 26 European countries, has allocated more than half a billion core hours to computer simulations to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. Alongside experiments, these simulations are a pillar of research to assess the risks of different scenarios and investigate mitigation strategies. While the world deals with the subsequent waves of the pandemic, we present a reflection on the use of urgent supercomputing for global societal challenges and crisis management.