Exploring neuromarketing and its reliance on remote sensing: social and ethical concerns

This article evaluates the consequences of neuromarketers’ reliance on direct and indirect forms of remote sensing. These remote sensing strategies, tactics, and resources include various sophisticated techniques for evaluating neuronal and behavioral responses to commercial messages with the aid of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technology. The information generated with the aid of fMRI, in combination with inferences drawn from the massive data analyses enabled by machine learning techniques, is expected to contribute to the power and influence of marketoriented segmentation and targeting. After characterizing the current state of and future trends in applied neuromarketing research, we discuss how reliance on descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive communications strategies enabled by remote sensing will affect the life chances and well-being of segments of the global population. We conclude with a discussion of the moral and ethical implications of these developments, primarily in the context of public policy deliberations related to privacy and surveillance that we associate with remote sensing

Catch 1201: A Legislative History and Content Analysis of the DMCA Exemption Proceedings

17 USC Section 1201(a)(1) prohibits circumventing a technological protection measure (TPM) that effectively controls access to a copyrighted work. In the name of mitigating the innocent casualties of this new ban, Congress constructed a triennial rulemaking, administered by the Register of Copyrights, to determine temporary exemptions. This paper considers the legislative history of this rulemaking, and it reports the results of a systematic content analysis of its 2000 and 2003 proceedings. Inspired by the literature on political agendas, policymaking institutions, venue shifting, and theories of delegation, we conclude that the legislative motivations for Section 1201 were laundered through international treaties, obscuring the anticircumvention clause’s domestic origins. Further, we conclude that the exemption proceeding is constructed not to protect noninfringing users, but to limit courts’ ability to exonerate them via the traditional defenses to copyright infringement. We then conduct a content analysis of the first two proceedings, conducted in 2000 and 2003. Exemption proponents generally interpret the law’s intent in terms of policy goals such as fair use, whereas opponents see jurisdictional, procedural, and definitional obstacles to the granting of exemptions. The Register of Copyrights’ interpretation of the law closely resembles that of opponents and, on more than one key point, she refers proponents back to Congress. We conclude that the Register has constructed a venue that is hostile to the interests of noninfringing users; in light of congressional rhetoric to the contrary, this constructs a catch-22 for many who earnestly wish to engage in otherwise legal activities

Transportation and Smart City Imaginaries: A Critical Analysis of Proposals for the USDOT Smart City Challenge

Scholarly attention to the development of “smart cities” around the globe has been focused on the nature of these cities, and visions of the futures that these developments would provide for individuals, communities, and institutions. Much of the research about these information-intensive projects has been focused on the description of these cities in terms of their primary socioeconomic goals and on the influential roles in their development being played by globally active information technology firms. An important, but underexplored, focus of this research has been an examination of how local and regional governments have envisioned these projects. This article responds to that challenge through a critical analysis of proposals submitted to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (USDOT) Smart City Challenge. We associate the choice of population references used in these proposals with the socioeconomic characteristics of these cities and then examine the nature of changes made in the proposals by the seven finalists

Creative Restitution: A Study of Differential Response Patterns

Creative restitution offers considerable potential to the field of criminal justice. The concept is of historical significance for it has been an important element in a variety of cultures. Yet, the notion of restitution or permitting an offender to make amends is not a significant element in our society. This paper explores the responses of a variety of populations to creative restitution. A number of findings were of significance including strong support for and acceptance of the concept by diverse groups

Big data analytics: Q&A with Professor Oscar H. Gandy, Jr

Professor Oscar H. Gandy, Jr., is Emeritus Professor at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania. Following a public lecture at LSE titled ‘Surveillance and the Public Sphere: confronting a democratic dilemma’, Catherine Speller interviews Professor Gandy about some of the issues around big data analytics that he raised in his lecture

Non-Restarting CUSUM charts and Control of the False Discovery Rate

Cumulative sum (CUSUM) charts are typically used to detect changes in a stream of observations e.g. shifts in the mean. Usually, after signalling, the chart is restarted by setting it to some value below the signalling threshold. We propose a non-restarting CUSUM chart which is able to detect periods during which the stream is out of control. Further, we advocate an upper boundary to prevent the CUSUM chart rising too high, which helps detecting a change back into control. We present a novel algorithm to control the false discovery rate (FDR) pointwise in time when considering CUSUM charts based on multiple streams of data. We prove that the FDR is controlled under two definitions of a false discovery simultaneously. Simulations reveal the difference in FDR control when using these two definitions and other desirable definitions of a false discovery.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figure

Harmonized cross-sectional surveys focused on fluid intake in children, adolescents and adults: The Liq.In7 initiative

Objective: To assess the intake of water and all other beverages in children, adolescents and adults. Methods: Three thousand six hundred eleven children (8 ± 2 years), 8, 109 adolescents (13 ± 2 years) and 16, 276 adults (40 ± 14 years) (47% men) were recruited in 15 cross-sectional surveys (liquid intake across 7 days, Liq.In7 study) and completed a 7-day fluid-specific record to assess total fluid intake (TFI), where TFI was defined as the sum of drinking water and other type of beverages. Results: The median TFI was 1.2, 1.2 and 1.8 liters/day in children, adolescents and adults respectively, with important differences observed between countries. Only 39% of children, 25% of adolescents and 51% of adults met the European Food Safety Authority adequate intake (AI) recommendations of water from fluids. In the surveys of Spain, France, Belgium, Germany, Turkey, Iran, Indonesia and China, water was the major contributor (47-78%) to TFI. In the adult surveys of UK, Poland, Japan and Argentina, hot beverages were the highest contributor to TFI. The fluid intake of children and adolescents in Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay was characterized by a contribution of juices and sweet beverages that was as important as the contribution of water to TFI. Conclusion: Given that a relatively high proportion of subjects, especially children and adolescents, failed to meet the recommended AI of water from fluids and that water intake was not the highest contributor to TFI in all countries, undertaking actions to increase water intake are warranted

A comparison of drinking behavior using a harmonized methodology (Liq.In 7) in six countries

Purpose: To assess drinking occasions (volume and type) according to consumption with food in or outside meals, and location, for six countries. Methods: A total of 10, 521 participants aged 4–65 years from Argentina, Brazil, China, Indonesia, Mexico and Uruguay completed a validated 7-day fluid intake record. For each drinking event, the volume consumed, the fluid type, the location of intake, and whether the drink was accompanied by food (meal or snack) or not, was recorded. Results: Similar drinking behaviors were found in Mexico and Argentina; fluid intake during meals was 48 and 45% of total fluid intake (TFI), respectively. In Brazil (55%), Indonesia (58%) and China (66%) most fluid was consumed without food. In Uruguay, 34% of TFI was with a main meal, 31% with food between meals and 35% without food. Indonesia had the highest median (25–75th percentile) TFI; 2520 (1750–3347) mL/day, and China the lowest 1138 (818–3347) mL/day. Water was consumed with meals for 37% of Chinese and 87% of Indonesian participants, while the four Latin-American American countries showed a preference for sweet drinks; 54% in Mexico, 67% in Brazil, 55% in Argentina and 59% in Uruguay. Diversity in fluid type was noted when drinking with food between meals. Apart from China, most drinking occasions (> 75%) occurred at home. Conclusions: Three distinct drinking behaviors were identified, namely, drinking with meals, drinking as a stand-alone activity, and a type of ‘grazing’ (i.e., frequent drinks throughout the day) behavior. Most drinking occasions occurred at home