Assessing Statistical Disclosure Risk for Differentially Private, Hierarchical Count Data, with Application to the 2020 U.S. Decennial Census

We propose Bayesian methods to assess the statistical disclosure risk of data released under zero-concentrated differential privacy, focusing on settings with a strong hierarchical structure and categorical variables with many levels. Risk assessment is performed by hypothesizing Bayesian intruders with various amounts of prior information and examining the distance between their posteriors and priors. We discuss applications of these risk assessment methods to differentially private data releases from the 2020 decennial census and perform simulation studies using public individual-level data from the 1940 decennial census. Among these studies, we examine how the data holder's choice of privacy parameter affects the disclosure risk and quantify the increase in risk when a hypothetical intruder incorporates substantial amounts of hierarchical information

Prior-itizing Privacy: A Bayesian Approach to Setting the Privacy Budget in Differential Privacy

When releasing outputs from confidential data, agencies need to balance the analytical usefulness of the released data with the obligation to protect data subjects' confidentiality. For releases satisfying differential privacy, this balance is reflected by the parameter epsilon, known as the privacy budget. In practice, it can be difficult for agencies to select and interpret epsilon. We use Bayesian posterior probabilities of disclosure to provide a framework for setting epsilon. The agency decides how much posterior risk it is willing to accept in a data release at various levels of prior risk. Using a mathematical relationship among these probabilities and epsilon, the agency selects the maximum epsilon that ensures the posterior-to-prior ratios are acceptable for all values of prior disclosure risk. The framework applies to any differentially private mechanism.Comment: 18-page main document with 3 Figures and a 19-page appendi

Differentially Private Nonparametric Hypothesis Testing

Hypothesis tests are a crucial statistical tool for data mining and are the workhorse of scientific research in many fields. Here we study differentially private tests of independence between a categorical and a continuous variable. We take as our starting point traditional nonparametric tests, which require no distributional assumption (e.g., normality) about the data distribution. We present private analogues of the Kruskal-Wallis, Mann-Whitney, and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests, as well as the parametric one-sample t-test. These tests use novel test statistics developed specifically for the private setting. We compare our tests to prior work, both on parametric and nonparametric tests. We find that in all cases our new nonparametric tests achieve large improvements in statistical power, even when the assumptions of parametric tests are met

Optimization of microwave assisted extraction of Morus nigra L. fruits maximizing tyrosinase inhibitory activity with isolation of bioactive constituents

WOS: 000419643600023PubMed ID: 29329842Morus nigra L. is a beneficial food due to rich phenolic components. While aiming higher yields for bioactive constituents, reduction in terms of raw material, solvent, time and energy gained more importance to provide a sustainable life for human and nature. Microwave assisted extraction (MAE) of Morus nigra fruits was optimized in order to elicit process parameters maximizing bioactive metabolites and tyrosinase inhibitory activity. Spectrophotometry and UPLC-DAD-ESI-MS/MS systems were utilized for quantitative analysis of total phenol, flavonoid and anthocyanin contents. Optimum conditions for MAE were determined as 500 W, 35% ethanol, 10 min yielding 12.63 mg/g cya-3-glu equiv. anthocyanin and IC50 value of 1.60 mg/ml for tyrosinase inhibitory activity. Microwave extracts prevailed better outcomes compared to conventional extraction methods (10.93 mg/g content with IC50 of 2.81 mg/ml). MAE could be considered as an advanced technique to obtain extracts from Morus nigra fruits with higher bioactive content and activity.Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK)Turkiye Bilimsel ve Teknolojik Arastirma Kurumu (TUBITAK) [216S839]; OYP fundThis study was supported by the Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) through 216S839 project and OYP fund supplied by The Council of Higher Education (YOK). Additionally, accesses to the facilities of Novel Fluidic Technologies Laboratory at Department of Bioengineering and Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Center (FABAL) are highly appreciated

Demographic, clinical and laboratory characteristics of rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis in Turkey: Turkish Society of Nephrology-Glomerular Diseases (TSN-GOLD) Working Group

Background In our study, diagnostic and demographic characteristics of patients diagnosed with RPGN by biopsy, clinical and laboratory findings in our country were investigated. Methods Data were obtained from the Turkish Society of Nephrology Glomerular Diseases (TSN-GOLD) Working Group database. Demographic characteristics, indications for biopsy, diagnosis of the glomerular diseases, comorbidities, laboratory and biopsy findings of all patients were recorded. According to their types, RPGN patients were classified as type 1 (anti-GBM related), type 2 (immuncomplex related) and type 3 (pauci-immune). Results Of 3875 patients, 200 patients with RPGN (mean age 47.9 +/- 16.7 years) were included in the study which constitutes 5.2% of the total glomerulonephritis database. Renal biopsy was performed in 147 (73.5%) patients due to nephritic syndrome. ANCA positivity was found in 121 (60.5%) patients. Type 1 RPGN was detected in 11 (5.5%), type 2 RPGN in 42 (21%) and type 3 RPGN in 147 (73.5%) patients. Median serum creatinine was 3.4 (1.9-5.7) mg/dl, glomerular filtration rate was 18 (10-37) ml/min/1.73m(2)and proteinuria 2100 (1229-3526) mg/day. The number of crescentic glomeruli ratio was ratio 52.7%. It was observed that urea and creatinine increased and calcium and hemoglobin decreased with increasing crescentic glomerular ratio. Conclusions Our data are generally compatible with the literature. Advanced chronic histopathological findings were prominent in the biopsy of 21 patients. Early biopsy should be performed to confirm the diagnosis of RPGN and to avoid unnecessary intensive immunosuppressive therapy. In addition to the treatments applied, detailed data, including patient and renal survival, are needed

Demographic and clinical characteristics of rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis in Turkey

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Demographic, clinical and laboratory characteristics of adult-onset minimal change disease in Turkey: Turkish Society of Nephrology-Glomerular Diseases (TSN-GOLD) Working Group

Purpose In our study, diagnostic and demographic characteristics of patients diagnosed with minimal change disease (MCD) by biopsy, clinical and laboratory findings in our country were investigated. Methods Data were obtained from the Turkish Society of Nephrology Glomerular Diseases (TSN-GOLD) Working Group database. Demographic characteristics, indications for biopsy, diagnosis of the glomerular diseases, comorbidities, laboratory and biopsy findings of all patients were recorded. The data presented are cross-sectional and includes application data for the biopsy period. Results Of 3875 patients, 233 patients with MCD (median age 35.0 years) were included in the study, which constitutes 6.0% of the total glomerulonephritis database. Renal biopsy was performed in 196 (84.1%) patients due to nephrotic syndrome. Median serum creatinine was 0.7 (0.6-1.0) mg/dl, mean eGFR was 104 +/- 33 ml/min/1.73 m(2) and median proteinuria 6000 mg/day. The number of patients under the age of 40 years was 139 (59.7%) (Group A), and the number of patients aged 40 years and over was 94 (40.3%) (Group B). Compared to Group A, global sclerotic glomeruli (24 vs. 43, p < 0.001) interstitial inflammation (15 vs. 34, p < 0.001), interstitial fibrosis (20 vs. 31, p = 0.001, vascular changes (10 vs. 25, p < 0.001) and tubular atrophy (18 vs. 30, p < 0.001) were found to be significantly higher in Group B. There was no difference in immunofluorescent staining properties between the two groups. Conclusion Our data are generally compatible with the literature. Chronic histopathological changes were more common in patients aged 40 years and older than younger patients. Studies investigating the effects of these different features on renal survival are needed

Adult minimal change disease in Turkey: The results of Turkish society of nephrology glomerular diseases working group

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