Dagstuhl Reports : Volume 1, Issue 2, February 2011

Online Privacy: Towards Informational Self-Determination on the Internet (Dagstuhl Perspectives Workshop 11061) : Simone Fischer-Hübner, Chris Hoofnagle, Kai Rannenberg, Michael Waidner, Ioannis Krontiris and Michael Marhöfer Self-Repairing Programs (Dagstuhl Seminar 11062) : Mauro Pezzé, Martin C. Rinard, Westley Weimer and Andreas Zeller Theory and Applications of Graph Searching Problems (Dagstuhl Seminar 11071) : Fedor V. Fomin, Pierre Fraigniaud, Stephan Kreutzer and Dimitrios M. Thilikos Combinatorial and Algorithmic Aspects of Sequence Processing (Dagstuhl Seminar 11081) : Maxime Crochemore, Lila Kari, Mehryar Mohri and Dirk Nowotka Packing and Scheduling Algorithms for Information and Communication Services (Dagstuhl Seminar 11091) Klaus Jansen, Claire Mathieu, Hadas Shachnai and Neal E. Youn

A Critical Evaluation of the Policy Options Towards the Undeclared Economy

To evaluate critically the policy options available for tackling the undeclared economy, this paper commences by evaluating the implications of four hypothetical policy choices, namely doing nothing, de-regulating the declared economy, eradicating the undeclared economy, or moving undeclared work into the declared economy. Finding that a combination of all these is required, a typology of policy measures for tackling the declared economy is then outlined. Drawing inspiration from the literature on eliciting behavior change in organizations, this identifies that the shift from direct controls (deterrents and incentives) to indirect controls (which engender a commitment to individual self-governance) can be scaled up to the societallevel to elicit behavior change in relation to undeclared work. To shift towards the pursuit of individual self-governance as a means of achieving collective self-governance, a multi-pronged approach is called for which seeks to change both the codified laws and regulations of formal institutions and the norms, values and beliefs that constitute the informal institutions of a society in order to create symmetry between them. The paper concludes by discussing the various ways of combining and sequencing direct and indirect controls in a manner that foregrounds the centrality of individual self-governance to the achievement of collective self-governance

Approximate solutions for expanding search games on general networks

We study the classical problem introduced by R. Isaacs and S. Gal of minimizing the time to find a hidden point H on a network Q moving from a known starting point. Rather than adopting the traditional continuous unit speed path paradigm, we use the dynamic “expanding search” paradigm recently introduced by the authors. Here the regions S(t) that have been searched by time t are increasing from the starting point and have total length t. Roughly speaking the search follows a sequence of arcs ai such that each one starts at some point of an earlier one. This type of search is often carried out by real life search teams in the hunt for missing persons, escaped convicts, terrorists or lost airplanes. The paper which introduced this type of search solved the adversarial problem (where H is hidden to maximize the time to be found) for the cases where Q is a tree or is 2-arc-connected. This paper’s main contribution is to give two strategy classes which can be used on any network and have expected search times which are within a factor close to 1 of the value of the game (minimax search time). These strategies classes are respectively optimal for trees and 2-arc-connected networks. We also solve the game for circle-and-spike networks, which can be considered as the simplest class of networks for which a solution was previously unknown

Tech, Regulatory Arbitrage, and Limits

Regulatory arbitrage refers to structuring activity to take advantage of gaps or differences in regulations or laws. Examples include Facebook modifying its terms and conditions to reduce the exposure of its user data to strict European privacy laws, and Uber and other platform companies organizing their affairs to categorize workers as non-employees. This essay explores the constraints and limits on regulatory arbitrage through the lens of the technology industry, known for its adaptiveness and access to strategic resources. Specifically, the essay explores social license and the bundling of laws and resources as constraining forces on regulatory arbitrage, and the legal mismatch that can arise from new business models and innovations as a key area in which the limits of regulatory arbitrage can be observed

Health privacy : methods for privacy-preserving data sharing of methylation, microbiome and eye tracking data

This thesis studies the privacy risks of biomedical data and develops mechanisms for privacy-preserving data sharing. The contribution of this work is two-fold: First, we demonstrate privacy risks of a variety of biomedical data types such as DNA methylation data, microbiome data and eye tracking data. Despite being less stable than well-studied genome data and more prone to environmental changes, well-known privacy attacks can be adopted and threaten the privacy of data donors. Nevertheless, data sharing is crucial to advance biomedical research given that collection the data of a sufficiently large population is complex and costly. Therefore, we develop as a second step privacy- preserving tools that enable researchers to share such biomedical data. and second, we equip researchers with tools to enable privacy-preserving data sharing. These tools are mostly based on differential privacy, machine learning techniques and adversarial examples and carefully tuned to the concrete use case to maintain data utility while preserving privacy.Diese Dissertation beleuchtet Risiken für die Privatsphäre von biomedizinischen Daten und entwickelt Mechanismen für privatsphäre-erthaltendes Teilen von Daten. Dies zerfällt in zwei Teile: Zunächst zeigen wir die Risiken für die Privatsphäre auf, die von biomedizinischen Daten wie DNA Methylierung, Mikrobiomdaten und bei der Aufnahme von Augenbewegungen vorkommen. Obwohl diese Daten weniger stabil sind als Genomdaten, deren Risiken der Forschung gut bekannt sind, und sich mehr unter Umwelteinflüssen ändern, können bekannte Angriffe angepasst werden und bedrohen die Privatsphäre der Datenspender. Dennoch ist das Teilen von Daten essentiell um biomedizinische Forschung voranzutreiben, denn Daten von einer ausreichend großen Studienpopulation zu sammeln ist aufwändig und teuer. Deshalb entwickeln wir als zweiten Schritt privatsphäre-erhaltende Techniken, die es Wissenschaftlern erlauben, solche biomedizinischen Daten zu teilen. Diese Techniken basieren im Wesentlichen auf differentieller Privatsphäre und feindlichen Beispielen und sind sorgfältig auf den konkreten Einsatzzweck angepasst um den Nutzen der Daten zu erhalten und gleichzeitig die Privatsphäre zu schützen

An investigation of communication strategy use in reception

This thesis is a theoretical and empirical investigation of communication strategy use in the receptive behaviour of second/foreign language learners. The investigation is descriptive in design, and seeks to describe the phenomenon of communication strategies both as a constituent of communicative discourse and as a part of that discourse, in inter-relationship with other constituents. The theoretical framework for the research is an interactional one. Description is sought from analysis of the dynamics of communication. The need for a study on communication strategy use in reception lies in the fact that second/foreign language learners see reception as being particularly problematic, and in the fact that very little research has been done in the area of learners\u27 solutions to problems in reception. The thesis concerns itself to define, describe and explain strategy use in reception. The theoretical investigation leads to the definition of communication strategies as: action taken at points in communication where limiting conditions prevail, or where there is distance between speaker and hearer communicative systems which is recognized, perceived as a problem, and which the individual seeks to reduce. The empirical investigation reveals that while this definition indicates the primary purpose of communication strategy use, there appears to be a secondary purpose, which is to manage impressions. Communication strategies are described as issuing from two different responses to communication problems achievement behaviour, where the problem is tackled, and avoidance behaviour, where it is not tackled. In the empirical study, these two responses appear, realized as achievement and avoidance strategies. Explanation for variation in strategy selection is sought from examination of a whole array of factors which operate simultaneously in any interaction. The empirical study finds that selection is related to the way factors operate at three levels. These are: the way communicative systems are used in particular interactions, the social constraints in operation in those interactions, and the personal constraints which are imposed by perceptions, attitudes, goals and capacities of the participants. The research has application to the study of native speaker/non-native speaker role-relationships. It is suggested that achievement strategies maintain the balance of power which usually exists between native and non-native speakers, and that avoidance strategies may alter that balance. There is also application to second and foreign language teaching. Some suggestions for teaching seem to be prescriptive, and to imply that learners should only use achievement behaviour to solve communication problems. This prescriptive approach is seen as unhelpful to learners

Reflection on Leviathan: State and Governance in Nepal

Nepal’s state-society relations are moving in tandem with the change in global conceptual design and claim of Nepalese citizens to share state sovereignty and authority. Nepalese citizens have experienced various nature of state system—patrimonial, extractive-patrimonial, constitutional, authoritarian, subsidiary and now fragile. The state fragility is marked by the erosion of its “legitimate monopoly on power,” incapacity to achieve governance goals—national security, law and order, voice, civic articipation, service delivery and cope with post-state challenges. Endogenous post-conflict state building process in Nepal requires addressing the crisis of power, a legitimate social contract, a workable constitution, structural reforms to address the root causes of conflict and democratic peace. The support of international community to the Nepalese citizens’ aspiration for a constitutional state is necessary to maintain a golden rule of politics: the instinct of society for freedom and the imperative of state for public order to keep mixed fabric of Nepalese society together and attain civil peace, social justice and changing ideals of democracy rooted into constitutional and cosmological rights

A typology of the traditional games of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples

This publication is designed to outline information on traditional games and details relevant to A Typology of the Traditional Games of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. The typology has been developed as a result of an extensive review of information on traditional games which has been researched over many years. The use of a typology provides a convenient way of classifying and organising the body of knowledge about the traditional games in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. It also allows for a greater understanding of the similarities and differences between different types of traditional games and provides the opportunity to identify their integration within culture as well as with other cultural aspects

Two Concepts of Immortality: Reframing Public Debate on Stem-Cell Research

Regenerative medicine seeks not only to cure disease, but also to arrest the aging process itself. So far, public attention to the new health care has focused on two of its methods: embryonic stem-cell research and therapeutic cloning. Since both processes manipulate embryos, they alarm those who believe life begins at conception. Such religious objections have dominated headlines on the topic, and were central to President George W. Bush\u27s decision to restrict stem-cell research. Although they are now politically potent, the present religious objections to regenerative medicine will soon become irrelevant. Scientists are fast developing new ways of culturing the biological materials now exclusively produced by embryos. Given their expressed commitment to the sanctity of life, religious leaders will soon find the tables turned: researchers will accuse them of causing death if they fail to support medicine that cures the sick without harming embryos. Perhaps anticipating this development, those uneasy with regenerative medicine have tried to shift the debate to focus on its long-term effects. They believe that innovations that now look benign might lead to an era of untrammeled biotechnological manipulation of our lives. For example, the same technology used to eliminate disease-causing genes or to clone embryos may eventually be deployed to produce genetically engineered children. That could, in turn, entrench class differences, since only the wealthy could afford the most desirable genetic enhancements. Such objections may be speculative. Nevertheless, they deserve more attention - not necessarily as predictions of the future, but as indictments of the present. We are all disturbed by hypothetical dystopias like Huxley\u27s Brave New World. But their most important flaws - the inequality, degradation, and moral irresponsibility of their inhabitants - are already apparent in the distribution of regenerative therapies. The world\u27s wealthiest nations spend hundreds of millions of dollars on elaborate technologies of life-extension, while contributing much less to efforts to assure basic medical care to the poorest. Public debate on regenerative medicine must acknowledge this inequality. Societies and individuals can invest in it in good conscience only if they are seriously committed to extending extant medicine to all