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INTRODUCTION The word biometrics comes from the Greek words “bios” (life) and “metrikos” (measure). Strictly speaking, it refers to a science involving the statistical analysis of biological characteristics. Thus, we should refer to biometric recognition of people, as those security applications that analyze human characteristics for identity verification or identification. However, we will use the short term “biometrics” to refer to “biometric recognition of people”. MAIN FOCUS OF THE ARTIClE This article presents an overview of the main topics related to biometric security technology, with the central purpose to provide a primer on this subject. Biometrics can offer greater security and convenience than traditional methods for people recognition. Even if we do not want to replace a classic method password or handheld token) by a biometric one, for sure, we are potential users of these systems, which will even be mandatory for new passport models. For this reason, it is u...

1)On January 2, 2006, a coal mine exploded in Sago, West Virginia, trapping thirteen miners for nearly two days. All but one of the miners died. A series of subsequent mine disasters in 2006 claimed forty-seven more lives.   2)Workplace injuries come at a high cost to employers. According to a 2007 Workplace Safety Index from Liberty Mutual Insurance, the most disabling injuries cost U.S. employers over $48.3 billion in workers’ compensation claims. 3) In Japan, suicide resulting from overwork, or karojisatsu, is an officially recognized and compensated occupational hazard. By some estimates, 5 percent of all suicides in Japan are “company related.  4)From 2001 to 2002, Japan saw a record 690 claims of karoshi—death by overwork. Of these, 143 were confirmed cases: 96 from stroke and 47 from sudden heart attack. The numbers were even higher in 2003, with 819 claims, 160 of which were compensated.   5)Claims of karoshi jumped after Japan modified a rule ...

1)Falling from the roof is a specific concern at construction sites. Roof falls were the most prevalent type of deadly falls in 2007, and resulted in 686 fatalities from 2003 to 2007. Because of this, the Department of Labor recommends that construction workers avoid falling accidentally, especially from roofs.  2)A 2006 government study named agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting as the most dangerous occupations in the United States, with an average of 30 deaths each per 100,000 workers.  3)In 2007, a laundry employee at Cintas Corp. in Oklahoma was killed when he fell into an industrial dryer while attempting to free a wad of clothes that had jammed a conveyor belt. 4) In its 2008 Death on the Job Report, the AFL-CIO ranked commercial fishing as the occupation with the highest fatality rate, with almost 150 deaths on the job per 100,000 workers . The fatality rate for the fish is even higher.  5)In a 2004 survey, 17 percent of men said they had been ...

1) In 1976, the typical CEO earned thirty-six times the salary of his average worker. Today, the average CEO makes 369 times what an average worker makes.  2)There were over 600 workplace homicides in this country in 2007. I wonder how many of those were CEOs.  3)One study suggests that Californians are more likely to be murdered at work than in a motor vehicle accident while commuting to work.  4) Fatalities at construction sites are most frequently caused by falls, accounting for one–third of constructionrelated deaths each year. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports no fewer than 442 construction workers were killed by accidental falls on the job in 2007.   5)Almost 6,000 Americans— about seventeen per day— suffered fatal injuries on the job in 2006. Some people will do anything to get out of work.

1)The chronic stress of a high-pressure job has been shown to double the risk of a heart attack. Chronic stress may also result in alcoholism, hypertension, and severe depression, and can make your joints ache, your hair fall out, and even stop your period.  2)About 1.7 million workplace violence incidents occur in the U.S. every year. 18,700 of them are committed by the victim’s intimate partner.  3)An estimated 1 million workers are assaulted on the job every year in the United States.  4)The U.S. Postal Service reported 500 cases of employees being violent toward supervisors in a recent span of just eighteen months, and an additional 200 cases of supervisors being violent toward employees in that same period.  5)In August 1986, U.S. Postal Service worker Patrick Henry Sherrill—or “Crazy Pat,” as he was called—shot and killed 14 coworkers in the Edmond, Oklahoma post office where he was employed, including a supervisor who had criticized his work. 

 1)In 2006, over 11,000 workers were made ill or injured on the job every day.    2)At its current understaffed levels, it would take the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) 133 years to inspect each of the workplaces in its jurisdiction just once.   3)An estimated 50,000 to 60,000 workers die every year from occupation-related diseases.  4)Work-related stress can be as damaging to health as cigarette smoking. But if you handle that stress with a smoke break, they cancel each other out.    5)Workplace stress is a near epidemic in the United States, thanks largely to a struggling economy and corporate downsizing. A recent survey recorded half of respondents feeling too much pressure at work.

 1)Office desks have 400 times more bacteria than toilet seats. 2) Telephones carry the most germs in an office, followed by desks, microwave door handles, water fountain handles and computer keyboards. 3)The place where you rest your hands on your desk is home to 10 million bacteria at any given time.  4)In a 2008 report, the AFL-CIO claimed that regulatory activity at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) ground to a halt during the Bush Administration, with dozens of OSHA and Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) standards pulled from the regulatory agenda. 5)The 2008 AFL-CIO report also claimed that new workplace hazards such as pandemic flu and bioterrorist threats aren’t adequately addressed by government labor policies.

1) Bluefin tuna is popular at sushi bars, but it contains high amounts of mercury. Mercury poisoning can cause fatigue, memory loss, and numbness in extremities; recent studies also suggest that mercury can increase your risk of cardiovascular disease.  2)The well-known poison arsenic is approved by the FDA as an additive to poultry feed and given to at least 70 percent of chickens raised for consumption in the United States. Arsenic has been linked to cancer, birth defects, diabetes, and death. 3)Though banned by all European nations and Canada, the synthetic hormone rBGH (Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone) is still used by American dairy farmers to boost growth rates and increase body mass of cows, despite being linked to higher risks of breast cancer and hormonal disorders in humans who consume milk from those cows. 4) Overconsumption of purine-rich foods like lobster, foie gras , and liver can lead to gout, a type of arthritis. Attacks can last for weeks, and can dam...

 1)Rhubarb leaves contain a high concentration of oxalate, which is poisonous in large doses. The stems contain a lower concentration of oxalate , and also act as a good laxative. Some foods were never meant for human consumption, and rhubarb is at the top of that list.  2)Potatoes contain toxic compounds called glycoalkaloids that cannot be reduced in cooking. Consumption of high doses of glycoalkaloids can cause diarrhea, vomiting, and, in severe cases, death. 3)Apricot, cherry, and peach pits contain cyanogenetic glycosides , which release cyanide. It would take a huge dose to kill you, but there have been reports of children in Turkey suffering from apricot seed poisoning. 4)Chocolate contains the alkaloid theobromine , which in high doses can be toxic to humans, and in even small amounts can kill dogs, parrots, horses, and cats.  5)If not processed properly, tapioca can be toxic; it is made from cassava root, which contains a natural cyanide-like compound...

An accretion disk is an astronomical term that refers to the rapidly spiraling  matter that is in the process of falling into an astronomical object. In principle, any  star could have  an accretion disk, but in practice, accretion disks are often associated with highly collapsed stars such as black holes or  neutron stars.  The matter that serves as the base of the accretion disk can be obtained when a star passes through a region where the  interstellar matter is thicker than normal. Normally, however, a star gets an accretion disk from a companion star.  When two stars  orbit each other, there is an invisible figure eight around the two stars, called the Roche lobes.  The Roche lobes represent all the points in space where the gravitational potential from each star is equal.  Therefore any matter on the Roche lobes could just as easily fall into either star. If one star in a binary system becomes larger than the Roche lobe...

Absolute  zero, 0  Kelvin, 459.67° Fahrenheit, or 273.15° Celsius, is the minimum possible  temperature: the state in which all  motion of the particles in a substance has minimum motion. Equivalently, when the entropy of a substance has been reduced to zero, the substance is at  absolute zero.  Although the third law of thermodynamics declares that it is impossible to cool a substance all the way to absolute zero, temperatures of only a few billionths of a degree Kelvin have  been achieved in the laboratory in the last few years. Atoms may be cooled by many methods, but  laser cooling and trapping have  proved essential achieving the lowest possible temperatures.  A laser beam can cool atoms that are fired in a direction contrary to the beam because when the atoms encounter photons, they absorb them if their  energy is at a value acceptable to the atom (atoms can only absorb and emit photons of certain energies). If a...

The abacus is an ancient calculating machine. Thissimple apparatus is about 5,000 years old and is thought tohave originated in Babylon. As the concepts of zeroandArabic number notation became widespread,basic mathfunctions became simpler,and the use of the abacus dimin-ished. Most of the world employs adding machines,calcu-lators,and computers for mathematical calculations,buttoday Japan,China,the Middle East,and Russia still usethe abacus,and school children in these countries are oftentaught to use the abacus. In China,the abacus is called asuan pan,meaning counting tray. In Japan the abacus iscalled a soroban. The Japanese have yearly examinationsand competitions in computations on the soroban.Before the invention of counting machines,peopleused their fingers and toes,made marks in mud or sand,put notches in bones and wood,or used stones to count,calculate,and keep track of quantities. The first abaciwere shallow trays filled with a layer of fine sand ordust. Number sym...

 A diet high in processed meats like sausage, hot dogs, and luncheon meats increases the risk of pancreatic cancer. Chemical reactions that occur during the preparation of these meats yield carcinogens, which could be responsible for the association.  Mushrooms can kill. The two species most commonly to blame in mushroom poisonings are the Death Cap, which contains seven toxins and can be lethal with just one bite, and the Destroying Angel, often confused for an edible white cap mushroom.   Think you’re avoiding monosodium glutamate (MSG) by checking product labels? You could be wrong. Food makers now conceal MSG in packaged foods by listing it under other names, such as autolyzed or hydrolyzed vegetable protein, torula yeast, soy extracts, yeast extract, and protein isolate.  Blowfish (fugu), a delicacy in Japan and Hong Kong, contains deadly amounts of tetrodotoxin, a poison 500 times stronger than cyanide. Several diners die each year from blowfish con...

  Peaches, apples, nectarines, and strawberries are among the top six “dirtiest” foods, according to investigations by the Environmental Working Group. More than 90 percent of samples of these fruits tested positive for detectable pesticides, even after being rinsed or peeled.  Independent studies show that bell peppers, celery, kale, carrots, lettuce, and potatoes are the  vegetables most likely to expose consumers to pesticides, despite being rinsed or peeled. Bell peppers, celery, carrots, lettuce, and potatoes are also the foods most likely to expose family and friends to your lethal flatulence. : Red-colored grocery items like fruit punch and strawberry yogurt are often dyed with carmine, which is made from ground-up cochineal beetles. For some, carmine can cause severe allergic reactions and can even lead to anaphylactic shock. That’s too bad, because eating ground-up beetles sounds really great otherwise. Citrus Red No.2 is often used...

 Long a staple of the American diet and U.S. economy, corn is a high-carbohydrate, highglycemic food that fattens up cattle and does the same to humans who consume it in excess.  Corn is in almost everything we consume. It is the primary food for the chicken, pigs, and cows we eat; the source of corn oils found in many snack foods, margarines, and baked goods; used to make high-fructose corn syrup, the most prevalent, cheapest and, some believe, most hazardous of all sweeteners; and the source of numerous food additives. As a result, corn is found in things that come out of our bodies, too.  Beef cattle evolved to survive on grass but are  regularly fed corn, which has disastrous effects on their digestive systems, requiring a constant regimen of antibiotics to keep them healthy. The antibiotics are clearly working; cows digest things just fine.  Many environmentalists believe salmon farms could have a catastrophic effect on the world’s wild ...

 Most wines are made from grapes harvested by machines that scythe through everything in their path, including sticks, insects, rodents, and even larger mammals, which can make their way into the end product. This is known to wine growers as MOG, or “material other than grapes.” MOG also stands for “Mother of God, I think that was a hoof.”  In 2001, the Ontario, Canada wine region was hit by an infestation of ladybugs, which infiltrated many area wineries. When agitated, ladybugs secrete a strong, foul liquid containing pyrazine, a flavor similar to rancid peanuts—and one that was perceptible in numerous wines of that vintage.  Molds are tiny organisms with thread-like roots that burrow deep into the foods where they grow. While some molds are safe, like those used to make certain kinds of cheeses—Roquefort, Gorgonzola, Brie—most molds are unsafe for consumption, as they can contain listeria, brucella, salmonella and E. coli. Mold is also used to make Fr...

1) One pound of peanut butter can contain up to 150 bug fragments and 5 rodent hairs. Up to 150. That means there could only be 120–130. Whew ! I was almost disgusted there for a second 2) One in five office coffee mugs contains fecal bacteria and E. coli, which can cause diarrhea, food poisoning, and infections. Not surprising, since most office coffee tastes like shit.  3) Vegetarians beware: many low-fat and nonfat yogurts and sweets contain gelatin, which is made from animal tendons, ligaments, and bones. You’d think the crunching would give it away. It must be drowned out by the sound of all those vegetarians patting themselves on the back for being vegetarians. 4) Fining is a process used by most wineries to remove particles and impurities from wine. Typical fining agents include isinglass (a collagen from sturgeon bladders), gelatin, and ox blood. 5) Even when grapes are harvested by hand, some insects wind up in the pickers’ baskets. Workers simply don’t h...

1)Bottledng water has been marketed as being cleaner and more pure than ordinary tap water, but, in a recent study, a third of bottled water showed significant chemical or bacterial contamination, including arsenic, nitrates, carcinogenic compounds, and coliform bacteria.  2) Bottled water is rarely tested for purity. An Environmental Working Group study found that ten popular brands were riddled with chemical pollutants and bacteria, some as high as tap water.  3) While the results of tap water contamination tests are made public, manufacturers of bottled water do not divulge their test results. Chalk it up to the protection of trade secrets. Every brand of bottled water has its own proprietary blend of pathogens, contaminants, and waste that give the product its uniquely refreshing taste 4) According to government and industry estimates, almost 40 percent of bottled water is ordinary tap water, often with no additional treatment.   5)Almost 99 per...

The steroids governed by schedules of controlled substances are anabolic steroids. Anabolic substances build up parts of living organisms, as opposed to catabolic substances, which decompose those parts. Anabolic steroids are abused mainly by persons desiring to increase muscle mass, such as competitive athletes and body builders. Steroids can improve muscle strength in females and in castrated males, but scientific evidence is weaker forintactmales. Still, steroids do seem to promote muscle mass, endurance,andoverallathletic performance while dosage continues. Some scientists suspect that any performance enhancement experienced from anabolic steroids comes not from muscle power but from psychological effects, with the drugs increasing a user’s aggressiveness. Anabolic steroids can produce mania, anger, impulsiveness, euphoria, and feelings of invincibility—a combination that may lead some users into harmful social interactions. The combination can produce other types of unwise be...