Personal identification with artificial intelligence under COVID-19 crisis: a scoping review

Background Artificial intelligence is useful for building objective and rapid personal identification systems. It is important to research and develop personal identification methods as social and institutional infrastructure. A critical consideration during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic is that there is no contact between the subjects and personal identification systems. The aim of this study was to organize the recent 5-year development of contactless personal identification methods that use artificial intelligence. Methods This study used a scoping review approach to map the progression of contactless personal identification systems using artificial intelligence over the past 5 years. An electronic systematic literature search was conducted using the PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, CINAHL, and IEEE Xplore databases. Studies published between January 2016 and December 2020 were included in the study. Results By performing an electronic literature search, 83 articles were extracted. Based on the PRISMA flow diagram, 8 eligible articles were included in this study. These eligible articles were divided based on the analysis targets as follows: (1) face and/or body, (2) eye, and (3) forearm and/or hand. Artificial intelligence, including convolutional neural networks, contributed to the progress of research on contactless personal identification methods. Conclusions This study clarified that contactless personal identification methods using artificial intelligence have progressed and that they have used information obtained from the face and/or body, eyes, and forearm and/or hand.

Intended and unintended effects of statutory deposit return schemes for single-use plastic bottles: Lessons learned from the German experience

Several EU countries discuss introducing deposit systems for single-use bottles to mitigate pollution. However, as an analysis of the German experiences indicates, the introduction of a deposit on single-use beverage containers might unintendedly compromise the endeavor to implement a circular economy. Such unintended effects need to be considered to enable the implementation of a circular economy that prioritizes reduction and reuse compared to recycling.High levels of environmental pollution and low recycling rates have triggered a debate on deposit return systems for single-use beverage containers (BCs) within the European Union. In 2003, Germany statutorily implemented a deposit for single-use BCs, which operates alongside a historically grown deposit system for multi-use bottles. The long-standing German practice can be used as a source of relevant experiences. These experiences show that the introduction of a single-use deposit is a double-edged sword: on the one hand, it caused an increase in return and recycling rates of single-use BCs. On the other hand, there were unintended effects on the long-standing multi-use system and, thus, on the endeavor to implement a circular economy where reduction and reuse are prioritized rather than recycling. It seems that the introduction of a single-use deposit system promotes a narrow mode of thinking and a focus on recycling, which hinders the revitalization of multi-use BC systems. The EU’s debate on single-use deposit lacks critical consideration of such unintended effects. The discussion of the German experiences might help to avoid unintended effects that hinder the establishment of a circular economy.

Small-scale field evaluation of geochemical blending of waste rock to mitigate acid rock drainage potential

Blending of potentially acid generating (PAG) waste rock with non-PAG waste rock to create a rock mixture which performs as non-PAG is a possible approach to permanent prevention of acid rock drainage (ARD) for PAG waste rock. In 2012, a field weathering study using 300 kg samples was implemented at Teck Coal's Quintette Project located in northeastern British Columbia, Canada to test the prevention of acid generation in the PAG waste rock by dissolved carbonate leached from overlying non-PAG waste rock and direct neutralization of acidic water from PAG waste rock by contact with non-PAG waste rock.After eight years of monitoring the experiments, the layered non-PAG on PAG barrels provided proof-of-concept that as the thickness of the PAG layer increases relative to the thickness of the non-PAG layers, acidic waters are more likely to be produced. The PAG on non-PAG layering has resulted in non-acidic water and no indications of metal leaching despite accelerated oxidation in the PAG layer shown by sulphate loadings. The study has demonstrated that the scale of heterogeneity of PAG and non-PAG materials is a critical consideration for providing certainty that rock blends designed to be non-PAG will perform as non-PAG in perpetuity. This is contrary to the standard paradigm in which an excess of acid-consuming minerals is often considered sufficient alone to ensure ARD is not produced.

A Critical Consideration of Current Social Insurance Policy Developments in New Zealand

Recent surprising announcements about the development of a social unemployment insurance (SUI) system by the Labour government are critically considered. Introducing SUI represents a major philosophical lurch from a welfare system mainly about family poverty alleviation towards one which has a stronger focus on market income replacement for individual low- and middle-income earners. We critically consider the policy process, the reasons why an SUI system might be desirable, and several alternative solutions to the likely proposal. We express scepticism about the democratic credentials of the process thus far and conclude that a persuasive case for such major reform has not yet been made.

Has the Lack of a Unified Halal Standard Led to a Rise in Organised Crime in the Halal Certification Sector?

In recent years, halal certification has become an area of significant interest due to the high level of Muslim awareness about halal products, with the development of halal hubs and investments in Muslim countries. Unfortunately, the halal market is negatively affected by various factors, like the multiplicity of halal standards, disagreements between halal certification bodies and halal accreditation bodies, an increase in halal food crime in some countries, weakness of the authorities in ensuring the integrity of halal certification, and involvement with politics and religion, which have caused some anxiety among Muslim consumers. Therefore, the aim of this work is to inform lawmakers and animal welfare organisations in the EU regarding halal food. It shows data from literature regarding animal welfare in the EU and Islam, provides a critical consideration on the aim of a religious diet and its correlation with public health and food safety, and describes the state of the art of halal accreditation bodies (HAB) and halal certification bodies (HCB), in addition to providing information about gaps in the halal market, and a description of the unethical behaviour of some HCBs. The integrity of these bodies is necessary to make halal standards more comprehensive and efficient, and this can be achieved through the activation of a harmonised monitoring system for halal accreditation bodies in Muslim countries and national EU accreditation bodies.

DEVELOPMENT OF A METHODOLOGY FOR COLLECTION OF SPEECH SAMPLES OF TRANSLANGUAGING AND MULTILANGUAGING COMMUNICATIVE PRACTICES OF FOREIGN STUDENTS AT A RUSSIAN UNIVERSITY

As a result of generalization and critical consideration of the methodological apparatus of research on translanguaging and multilanguaging as communicative practices, published over the past 10 years, the advantages and disadvantages of these methodologies are highlighted, and the problematic issues caused by them that require attention when conducting similar studies are formulated. On this theoretical foundation, possible solutions to these problematic issues, on which the effectiveness and objectivity of empirical studies of translanguaging and multilanguaging may depend, including those conducted on the material of oral and written speech generated during the educational process in higher education, are proposed, and the development of a methodology for collecting speech samples for the needs of a research project aimed at the study of translanguaging and multilanguaging communicative practices of foreign students at a Russian university is performed, based on the authors' desire to maximize the positive aspects of the earlier proposed methodological approaches and mitigate the influence of factors that could potentially have a negative impact on the results and their interpretation.

Strategic sensing

Purpose: This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies. Design: This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context. Findings: New product development is a critical consideration for any business. Utilizing market-sensing capabilities to boost this is key for gaining competitive advantage. Originality: The briefing saves busy executives, strategists and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

Contextual knowledge co-production and capacity building for sanitation planning: experience from Kerala, India

Small towns in the global South face huge infrastructure deficits in sanitation due to the lack of technical, institutional and financial capacity to establish treatment systems. This knowledge gap and capacity deficit are a socio-ecological challenge that requires knowledge co-production by both science and society. This work focuses on a transdisciplinary initiative on capacity building and knowledge co-production called CANALPY in Alleppey, a town located in the southern state of Kerala, India. The project recognises the need for data and knowledge for developing a fine-grained understanding of the sanitation situation in the town and also raises awareness about canal pollution to arrive at participatory solutions. This study analyses the drivers of co-production of knowledge with its enabling conditions as well as the challenges associated with it. The initiative has been instrumental in creating a space and platform for collaborations, dialogues and discussions on problems of sanitation, water quality and pollution. CANALPY has ensured the dissemination of findings among a larger audience and has inspired new thinking and action. It is also important to take into critical consideration the different practical, socio-political, institutional and competence-related challenges that impede the project's goal of knowledge sharing and capacity building.

The Utilization OpenCV to Measure the Water Pollutants Concentration

<strong>Abstract. </strong>Intensive water quality determination needs to be adjusted with technological developments to meet today's society's needs and increased water pollution due to urbanization. Therefore, early detection is essential for in site water quality determination and as a critical consideration in making health and environmental decisions. OpenCV is a library programming feature for Computer Vision which focuses on extracting information from images in real-time, this can be considered to be potential to measure the pollutant concentration. <strong>Objectives:</strong> This study identify the potential of colorimetry analysis method by using OpenCV as an alternative method for pollutant concentration measurement<strong>. Method and results:</strong> First stage, this study collecting the data of NH3 phenate and Pt-Co CU from the spectrophotometer. The first stage also was including the development of an OpenCV code. Then, the data was collected were processed to get the concentration of NH3 and Pt-Co both using OpenCV and spectrophotometer; factors that influence the Pt-Co sample image measurement process by using OpenCV-Python was analyzed too. Then in the analysis stage, the result of the two measurement method was tested by statistic determine its significant difference. The conclusion found whether OpenCV could be potential to measure the pollutant concentration or not. <strong>Conclusion:</strong> the OpenCV has potential to be use as alternative colorimetry measurement method to determine water pollutant as there is no significant difference in the spectrophotometric method results and the results from OpenCV for Pt-Co sample. Meanwhile, in this study found that the result of NH3 from spectrophotometer is nonlinear different with from OpenCV that is linear. Thus, further research is needed to test the validity of OpenCV method. The factor influence of measurement using OpenCV code is when determining the Region of Interest (ROI) and determining the pixel values for the normalized box filter