Defining Privacy and Utility in Data Sets

Is it possible to release useful data while preserving the privacy of the individuals whose information is in the database? This question has been the subject of considerable controversy, particularly in the wake of well-publicized instances in which researchers showed how to re-identify individuals in supposedly anonymous data. Some have argued that privacy and utility are fundamentally incompatible, while others have suggested that simple steps can be taken to achieve both simultaneously. Both sides have looked to the computer science literature for support. What the existing debate has overlooked, however, is that the relationship between privacy and utility depends crucially on what one means by “privacy” and what one means by “utility.” Apparently contradictory results in the computer science literature can be explained by the use of different definitions to formalize these concepts. Without sufficient attention to these definitional issues, it is all too easy to overgeneralize the technical results. More importantly, there are nuances to how definitions of “privacy” and “utility” can differ from each other, nuances that matter for why a definition that is appropriate in one context may not be appropriate in another. Analyzing these nuances exposes the policy choices inherent in the choice of one definition over another and thereby elucidates decisions about whether and how to regulate data privacy across varying social contexts

Commercial Speech Protection as Consumer Protection

The Supreme Court has long said that “the extension of First Amendment protection to commercial speech is justified principally by the value to consumers of the information such speech provides.” In other words, consumers—the recipients or listeners of commercial speech—are the ones the doctrine is meant to protect. In previous work, I explored the implications of taking this view seriously in three contexts: compelled speech, speech among commercial entities, and unwanted marketing. In each of those contexts, adopting a listener-oriented approach leads to the conclusion that many forms of commercial speech regulation should receive far less First Amendment scrutiny than most courts have given them. In that earlier work, I distinguished those forms of regulation from the more classic case of a regulation that directly prohibits or restricts some form of commercial communication to consumers. This Essay tackles that case. What if we reimagined commercial speech protection as a form of consumer protection, or at least as a doctrine aligned with consumer protection rather than opposed to it? That would mean that when government regulations do not impinge on the information available to consumer-listeners, courts should not apply the same kind of heightened scrutiny that they do when consumer listeners are being kept in the dark, even if those regulations may harm the interests of the commercial speakers. Commercial speech doctrine cares primarily about informing consumers, and that is the lens through which courts should determine how much scrutiny to give to a commercial speech restriction. In commercial speech cases, courts should not be applying the kind of speaker-focused approaches they would be using in cases involving noncommercial speech. This Essay begins by briefly reviewing the doctrinal and theoretical support for the proposition that commercial speech doctrine is about protecting consumers. Then, using the exaple of state no-surcharge laws (which generally prohibit charging customers more to use a credit card but permit cash discounts), I will argue that laws such as these that do not restrict the information available to consumers should not be subject to heightened scrutiny under the First Amendment. Finally, I will discuss the broader implications of this perspective for other laws that regulate the framing of consumer information and thus regulate consumer “nudges.

Collateral Censorship and the Limits of Intermediary Immunity

The article presents information on the collateral censorship and the limits of intermediary immunity imposed by the law. It includes information on the development of intermediary immunity in common law and presents description for the courts that have come across problems in determining intermediary immunity in factual settings. It informs that immunity is inappropriate when the intermediary is original speaker and form of liability is one specifically directed at intermediaries

Defining Privacy and Utility in Data Sets

Is it possible to release useful data while preserving the privacy of the individuals whose information is in the database? This question has been the subject of considerable controversy, particularly in the wake of well-publicized instances in which researchers showed how to re-identify individuals in supposedly anonymous data. Some have argued that privacy and utility are fundamentally incompatible, while others have suggested that simple steps can be taken to achieve both simultaneously. Both sides have looked to the computer science literature for support. What the existing debate has overlooked, however, is that the relationship between privacy and utility depends crucially on what one means by privacy and what one means by utility. Apparently contradictory results in the computer science literature can be explained by the use of different definitions to formalize these concepts. Without sufficient attention to these definitional issues, it is all too easy to overgeneralize the technical results. More importantly, there are nuances to how definitions of privacy and utility can differ from each other, nuances that matter for why a definition that is appropriate in one context may not be appropriate in another. Analyzing these nuances exposes the policy choices inherent in the choice of one definition over another and thereby elucidates decisions about whether and how to regulate data privacy across varying social context

Decentralized congestion management for multilateral transactions based on optimal resource allocation

This paper proposes a decentralized model for dc load flow based congestion management for the forward markets via Optimal Resource Allocation (ORA). The available thermal capacities of possible congested transmission lines are considered as commonly shared resources for all bilateral and multilateral transactions in the market. In our model, each transaction maximizes its profit under the limits of transmission line capacities allocated by the ISO. The ISO searches the optimal allocation of line capacities to each transaction. Finally, the same market efficiency (social welfare) as centralized optimization can be reached. The ORA-based decentralized approach is more suitable for power market environment, since it always keeps the intermediate solution feasible during the iterations and does not require each transaction to submit their private and sensitive information. The mathematical model, computation procedure and relevant proof are presented. The computer test results from the IEEE 30 bus system illustrate the effectiveness of proposed approach. © 2007 IEEE.published_or_final_versio

Toward forward-looking OCT needle tip vision of the spinal neuroforamen: animal studies

Neurologic complications have been reported with spinal transforaminal injections. Causes include intraneural injection, plus embolization occlusion of the radicular artery with subsequent spinal cord infarction. 1 Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a non-invasive imaging modality, which is used to image tissue microstructure with very high resolution (less than 20 microns) in real-time. With a view toward needle tip OCT visualization of the spinal neuroforamen, we conducted animal studies to explore OCT imaging of paraspinal neurovascular structures. With institutional animal care committee approval, we performed ex-vivo and in situ OCT studies in a euthanized dog, pig, and rabbit. Image data was gathered on spinal nerve roots, dura, and brachial plexus. Two systems were used: frequency domain OCT imaging system developed at California Institute of Technology, and time domain Imalux NIRIS system with a 2.7 mm diameter probe. In a euthanized pig, excised dura was punctured with a 17-gauge Tuohy needle. FDOCT dural images of the puncture showed a subsurface cone-shaped defect. In a rabbit in situ study, puncture of the dura with a 26-gauge needle is imaged as a discontinuity. FDOCT imaging of both small artery and large arteries will be presented, along with H&E and OCT images of the brachial plexus

Enhancing the lateral-flow immunoassay for viral detection using an aqueous two-phase micellar system

Availability of a rapid, accurate, and reliable point-of-care (POC) device for detection of infectious agents and pandemic pathogens, such as swine-origin influenza A (H1N1) virus, is crucial for effective patient management and outbreak prevention. Due to its ease of use, rapid processing, and minimal power and laboratory equipment requirements, the lateral-flow (immuno)assay (LFA) has gained much attention in recent years as a possible solution. However, since the sensitivity of LFA has been shown to be inferior to that of the gold standards of pathogen detection, namely cell culture and real-time PCR, LFA remains an ineffective POC assay for preventing pandemic outbreaks. A practical solution for increasing the sensitivity of LFA is to concentrate the target agent in a solution prior to the detection step. In this study, an aqueous two-phase micellar system comprised of the nonionic surfactant Triton X-114 was investigated for concentrating a model virus, namely bacteriophage M13 (M13), prior to LFA. The volume ratio of the two coexisting micellar phases was manipulated to concentrate M13 in the top, micelle-poor phase. The concentration step effectively improved the M13 detection limit of the assay by tenfold from 5 × 108 plaque forming units (pfu)/mL to 5 × 107 pfu/mL. In the future, the volume ratio can be further manipulated to yield a greater concentration of a target virus and further decrease the detection limits of the LFA. Figure A schematic representation of concentrating viruses with an aqueous two-phase micellar system containing Triton X-114 surfactant prior to the detection of the virus through the lateral-flow immunoassa

Safety, Immunogenicity, and Efficacy of Intramuscular and Oral Delivery of ERA-G333 Recombinant Rabies Virus Vaccine to Big Brown Bats (\u3ci\u3eEptesicus fuscus\u3c/i\u3e)

Attenuated strains of rabies virus (RABV) have been used for oral vaccination of wild carnivores in Europe and North America. However, some RABV vaccines caused clinical rabies in target animals. To improve the safety of attenuated RABV as an oral vaccine for field use, strategies using selection of escape mutants under monoclonal antibody neutralization pressure and reverse genetics–defined mutations have been used. We tested the safety, immunogenicity, and efficacy of one RABV construct, ERA-g333, developed with reverse genetics by intramuscular (IM) or oral (PO) routes in big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus). Twenty-five bats received 5×106 mouse intracerebral median lethal doses (MICLD50) of ERA-g333 by IM route, 10 received 5×106 MICLD50 of ERA-g333 by PO route, and 22 bats served as unvaccinated controls. Twenty-one days after vaccination, 44 bats were infected by IM route with 102.9 MICLD50 of E. fuscus RABV. We report both the immunogenicity and efficacy of ERA-g333 delivered by the IM route; no induction of humoral immunity was detected in bats vaccinated by the PO route. Two subsets of bats vaccinated IM (n=5) and PO (n=3) were not challenged, and none developed clinical rabies from ERA-g333. Scarce reports exist on the evaluation of oral rabies vaccines in insectivorous bats, although the strategy evaluated here may be feasible for future application to these important RABV reservoirs