Loose associations to increase utility in data publishing

Data fragmentation has been proposed as a solution for protecting the confidentiality of sensitive associations when releasing data for publishing or external storage. To enrich the utility of data fragments, a recent approach has put forward the idea of complementing a pair of fragments with some (non precise, hence loose) information on the association between them. Starting from the observation that in presence of multiple fragments the publication of several independent associations between pairs of fragments can cause improper leakage of sensitive information, in this paper we extend loose associations to operate over an arbitrary number of fragments. We first illustrate how the publication of multiple loose associations between different pairs of fragments can potentially expose sensitive associations, and describe an approach for defining loose associations among an arbitrary set of fragments. We investigate how tuples in fragments can be grouped for producing loose associations so to increase the utility of queries executed over fragments. We then provide a heuristics for performing such a grouping and producing loose associations satisfying a given level of protection for sensitive associations, while achieving utility for queries over different fragments. We also illustrate the result of an extensive experimental effort over both synthetic and real datasets, which shows the efficiency and the enhanced utility provided by our proposal

Evaluating the quality of inter-organisational relationships: does one plus one equal only two?

Inter-organisational relations have increasingly become an 18obligation 19 for individual organisations in all sectors of the political, social and economic spheres. 18The major factors that organisations must take into account are other organisations 19, Aldrich argues (1994; cited by Sydow, 2002: 141). Therefore, organisational relationships emerge as a consequence of purposeful interactions constrained and enabled by different organisational structures and values (Sydow, 2002). The quality of these relationships are identified and examined in this paper. This is presented through the definition and characteristics of inter-organisational relationships, definition and attributes of the romantic approach to quality and the proposition of qualitative evaluation as a possible approach for assessing the quality of such relationships. Secondary data however shows that the applicability of such a research is not always valuable

Social capital and Growth in Brazilian Municipalities

According to the modern theory of social capital (see Coleman (1990), Putnam (1993), Fukuyama (1995)), widespread trust would influence the economic performances of a country through a) reduction of transactional costs (monitoring and preventive activities to protect themselves from being exploited in economic transactions) and legal disputes; b) higher percentage of time devoted to innovation in new products or processes; c) higher reliability of formal institutions like the government and the central bank which implies that people can adopt more appropriate horizons in making investment decisions and choose production technologies that are optimal over the long, rather than short, run; d) a stronger social cohesion due to the sharing of ethical norms which induces cooperative behaviours and organisational innovations. On the basis of these theories a large number of empirical contributions which confirm the existence of a positive relation between growth, efficiency and the level of trust has been produced. Following the seminal work by Knack et al. (ibidem), we try to explain growth in Brazil over the period 2000-2003 using indicators of social capital. We develop our analysis at the most detailed geographical level, considering all 5507 municipalities. This choice is motivated by the great heterogeneity inside every country in terms of growth rate. While we observe homogeneity in some countries, like Sergipe, in other countries, like Sao Paulo, we have huge differences. This forces us to consider the municipalities as unit of observation; otherwise the country level would force us to loose all the heterogeneity. In order to obtain good measures of social capital, we start from a set of objective measure, and then analyse then with factor component analysis. We find a robust evidence of the positive effect of social capital on growth rates of income per capita.DYNREG15

Green cities and health: a question of scale?

<p><b>Background:</b> Cities are expanding and accommodating an increasing proportion of the world's population. It is important to identify features of urban form that promote the health of city dwellers. Access to green space has been associated with health benefits at both individual and neighbourhood level. We investigated whether a relationship between green space coverage and selected mortality rates exists at the city level in the USA.</p> <p><b>Methods:</b> An ecological cross-sectional study. A detailed land use data set was used to quantify green space for the largest US cities (n=49, combined population of 43 million). Linear regression models were used to examine the association between city-level ‘greenness’ and city-level standardised rates of mortality from heart disease, diabetes, lung cancer, motor vehicle fatalities and all causes, after adjustment for confounders.</p> <p><b>Results:</b> There was no association between greenness and mortality from heart disease, diabetes, lung cancer or automobile accidents. Mortality from all causes was significantly higher in greener cities.</p> <p><b>Conclusions:</b> While considerable evidence suggests that access to green space yields health benefits, we found no such evidence at the scale of the American city. In the USA, greener cities tend also to be more sprawling and have higher levels of car dependency. Any benefits that the green space might offer seem easily eclipsed by these other conditions and the lifestyles that accompany them. The result merits further investigation as it has important implications for how we increase green space access in our cities.</p&gt

Special Libraries, September-October 1913

Volume 4, Issue 7-8https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/sla_sl_1913/1006/thumbnail.jp

An institutional perspective on retail internationalization success: Home Depot in Chile

This study utilizes institutional theory to assess the effect of the host institutional environment on the success of internationalizing retailers. According to this framework, retailers succeed in international markets when they adapt their retail format and practices to the salient institutional norms in the host market and achieve legitimation from the relevant social actors. This framework was used in a case study of Home Depot’s entry into Chile in 1998 and its exit three years later. Findings showed that Home Depot lacked legitimacy in Chile because they failed to offer the range of merchandise and store atmosphere demanded by the traditional family shopping activity, and because their management team did not embed themselves in the broader social network. It was also apparent the competition had anticipated and responded to Home Depot’s source of competitive advantage and that Home Depot’s scale was not great enough to command any advantages in the supply chain network

Kecenderungan kerjaya sebagai usahawan di kalangan pelajar bumiputera di Politeknik Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah, Kuantan, Pahang

Usahawan memainkan peranan penting dalam pembangunan ekonomi sesebuah negara. Walau bagaimanapun, jika dilihat senario sekarang, masih ramai Bumiputera yang kurang berminat untuk menceburi bidang keusahawanan. Justeru itu, kajian ini bertujuan untuk menyelidik tentang tahap kecenderungan keijaya sebagai usahawan di kaiangan pelajar Bumiputera tahun akhir Diploma Akauntansi Politeknik Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah, Kuantan (POLISAS). Secara khususnya, kajian ini akan menyelidik sejauh mana cita-cita pelajar Bumiputera untuk menjadi seorang usahawan dipengaruhi oleh ciri-ciri peribadi pelajar, faktor keluarga, faktor pengajian, pengalaman keija dan faktor persekitaran. Responden kajian terdiri daripada pelajar Bumiputera POLISAS iaitu seramai 51 orang. Data dikumpul menggunakan soal selidik dan dianalisis dengan menggunakan prosedur Ujian T, Crosstabs dan Korelasi Pearson melalui perisian SPSS (Statistical Package For Social Sciences). Dapatan kajian menunjukkan hanya faktor persekitaran (iaitu faktor pihak yang paling mempengaruhi pelajar untuk berniaga) yang dapat menarik minat pelajar untuk melibatkan diri dalam perniagaan. Faktor-faktor lain didapati kurang memberikan sumbangan dalam menarik minat pelajar untuk cenderung kepada bidang keusahawanan. Oleh itu, beberapa cadangan telah dibuat bagi menangani masalah ini agar kaum Bumiputera tidak jauh ketinggalan berbanding kaum lain dan seterusnya memenuhi hasrat kerajaan dalam merealisasikan matlamat Dasar Ekonomi Baru (DEB) yang masih belum dicapai sepenuhnya hingga ke hari ini