EsPRESSo: Efficient Privacy-Preserving Evaluation of Sample Set Similarity

Electronic information is increasingly often shared among entities without complete mutual trust. To address related security and privacy issues, a few cryptographic techniques have emerged that support privacy-preserving information sharing and retrieval. One interesting open problem in this context involves two parties that need to assess the similarity of their datasets, but are reluctant to disclose their actual content. This paper presents an efficient and provably-secure construction supporting the privacy-preserving evaluation of sample set similarity, where similarity is measured as the Jaccard index. We present two protocols: the first securely computes the (Jaccard) similarity of two sets, and the second approximates it, using MinHash techniques, with lower complexities. We show that our novel protocols are attractive in many compelling applications, including document/multimedia similarity, biometric authentication, and genetic tests. In the process, we demonstrate that our constructions are appreciably more efficient than prior work.Comment: A preliminary version of this paper was published in the Proceedings of the 7th ESORICS International Workshop on Digital Privacy Management (DPM 2012). This is the full version, appearing in the Journal of Computer Securit

The Social Unit Plan (1916-1920): An Experiment in Democracy and Human Services Fails

Participatory democracy and community development are explored by looking back to the bold experiment undertaken in Cincinnati, Ohio, from 1916 to 1920, called the Social Unit Plan. It is a glimpse into the economic, political, cultural and social consciousness of those who participated in the experiment during that period in American history. The paper suggests that by understanding the cultural and social lives of participants, our awareness of the range of options or possible efforts at addressing human social welfare needs in the past and the present are enhanced

Entropic Inequalities for a Class of Quantum Secret Sharing States

It is well-known that von Neumann entropy is nonmonotonic unlike Shannon entropy (which is monotonically nondecreasing). Consequently, it is difficult to relate the entropies of the subsystems of a given quantum state. In this paper, we show that if we consider quantum secret sharing states arising from a class of monotone span programs, then we can partially recover the monotonicity of entropy for the so-called unauthorized sets. Furthermore, we can show for these quantum states the entropy of the authorized sets is monotonically nonincreasing.Comment: LaTex, 5 page

Participatory Research and Service-Learning: A Natural Match for the Community and Campus

Integrating academic content and service in the community brought my students a sense of connectedness between classroom learning and their personal lives and the lives of others within the larger community. This is the intent of service-learning, and like many other efforts at service-learning, this experience once again engaged students in terms of academic learning as well as affirming their connectedness to the larger community (Stanton, Giles, & Cruz, 1999). How we as faculty can create a setting for this to occur is always challenging and exciting in terms of the unique and creative ways faculty are making these connections for themselves, students and communities. Serendipity has always played a role in creating these opportunities and my experience with this project is a good case in point. The happenstance of a requirement of a grant for interdisciplinary efforts and the nature of the intent to address the health needs of a community in a holistic way all came together to produce a unique opportunity to merge service-learning pedagogy and participatory research methodology. The result was a two pronged finding. On the one hand, service-learning was found to be a significant pedagogical means to teach participatory research as well as other forms of qualitative research methods. On the other, participatory research methodology was found to have commonalities with the process of the service-learning requirements for engaging communities and providing the structure and means for accessing community service for students. The following is a description of these elements and how each contributed to our conceptualizations about the commonalities of participatory research and service-learning

Group supervision in Child Protective Service: Utilising the miracle question

In the United States, child protective workers often find themselves in an adver­sarial relationship with families. They usually carry out indirect work monitor­ ing set treatment plans and making referrals to treatment or intervention pro­ grammes such as parenting courses and anger management which have limited effectiveness in reducing risk behaviours. In this descriptive study, a group of child protective workers have undergone Solution-Focused training in direct work with families and are receiving Solution-Focused supervision. The use of the miracle question is outlined in detail as an example of how workers can be encouraged to move towards a more positive, hopeful practice

Lessons learned on research uptake by next users

CIAT is the leader of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), and much of CIAT’s work contributes directly to this global effort. The strength of CIAT’s climate change research is its focus on disseminating solid research results through partnerships. In order to understand the key elements of success of this participatory and user-oriented approach, CIAT is implementing a simple but effective monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system. This includes monitoring results and conducting external validation studies. Based on this M&E system, 3 main lessons have been learned during the past year and a half, which are relevant to policy makers and investors