Privacy Enhancing Machine Learning via Removal of Unwanted Dependencies

The rapid rise of IoT and Big Data has facilitated copious data driven applications to enhance our quality of life. However, the omnipresent and all-encompassing nature of the data collection can generate privacy concerns. Hence, there is a strong need to develop techniques that ensure the data serve only the intended purposes, giving users control over the information they share. To this end, this paper studies new variants of supervised and adversarial learning methods, which remove the sensitive information in the data before they are sent out for a particular application. The explored methods optimize privacy preserving feature mappings and predictive models simultaneously in an end-to-end fashion. Additionally, the models are built with an emphasis on placing little computational burden on the user side so that the data can be desensitized on device in a cheap manner. Experimental results on mobile sensing and face datasets demonstrate that our models can successfully maintain the utility performances of predictive models while causing sensitive predictions to perform poorly.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures, submitted to IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning System

Ferroelectricity driven-resistive switching and Schottky barrier modulation at CoPt/MgZnO interface for non-volatile memories

Ferroelectric memristors have attracted much attention as a type of nonvolatile resistance switching memories in neuromorphic computing, image recognition, and information storage. Their resistance switching mechanisms have been studied several times in perovskite and complicated materials systems. It was interpreted as the modulation of carrier transport by polarization control over Schottky barriers. Here, we experimentally report the isothermal resistive switching across a CoPt/MgZnO Schottky barrier using a simple binary semiconductor. The crystal and texture properties showed high-quality and single-crystal Co$_{0.30}$Pt$_{0.70}$/Mg$_{0.20}$Zn$_{0.80}$O hetero-junctions. The resistive switching was examined by an electric-field cooling method that exhibited a ferroelectric T$_C$ of MgZnO close to the bulk value. The resistive switching across CoPt/MgZnO Schottky barrier was accompanied by a change in the Schottky barrier height of 26.5 meV due to an interfacial charge increase and/or orbital hybridization induced reversal of MgZnO polarization. The magnitude of the reversed polarization was estimated to be a reasonable value of 3.0 (8.25) $\mu$ C/cm$^2$ at 300 K (2 K). These findings demonstrated the utilities of CoPt/MgZnO interface as a potential candidate for ferroelectric memristors and can be extended to probe the resistive switching of other hexagonal ferroelectric materials

‘Framing the project’ of international human rights law: Reflections on the dysfunctional ‘family’ of the Universal Declaration

Full text embargoed until November 2013.The task of ‘framing the project’ of international human rights law is daunting to say the least. First, there is the sheer enormity and complexity of the international human rights law ‘project’: adequately mapping the subject and its key related issues is impossible in a whole book, let alone a short chapter. Secondly, it is daunting because of the sense of epistemic responsibility involved. Every framing inevitably involves selection – if not pre-selection – through the conscious (and/or unconscious) placing of focus upon features or factors considered to be significant and/or valuable. As Gitlin puts it, framing is a way of choosing, underlining and presenting ‘what exists, what happens and what matters’. In this sense, the founding document (or as Entman might put it, the inaugural ‘communicating text’) of international human rights law (the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, UDHR) functions as a particularly potent form of framing, for it selects aspects of perceived reality, making them not just salient but symbolically central to the entire philosophical, moral, juridical order designated by the term ‘international human rights law’

A dynamical comparison between iterative methods with memory: Are the derivatives good for the memory?

[EN] The role of the derivatives at the iterative expression of methods with memory for solving nonlinear equations is analyzed in this manuscript. To get this aim, a known class of methods without memory is transformed into different families involving or not derivatives with an only accelerating parameter, then they are defined as discrete dynamical systems and the stability of the fixed points of their rational operators on quadratic polynomials are studied by means of real multidimensional dynamical tools, showing in all cases similar results. Finally, a different approach holding the derivatives, and by using different accelerating parameters, in the iterative methods involved present the most stable results, showing that the role of the appropriated accelerating factors is the most relevant fact in the design of this kind of iterative methods. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.This research was partially supported by Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad MTM2014-52016-C02-2-P and Generalitat Valenciana PROME-TEO/2016/089.Cordero Barbero, A.; Jordan-Lluch, C.; Torregrosa Sánchez, JR. (2017). A dynamical comparison between iterative methods with memory: Are the derivatives good for the memory?. Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics. 318:335-347. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cam.2016.08.049S33534731

The role of statins in prevention and treatment of community acquired pneumonia: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Emerging epidemiological evidence suggests that statins may reduce the risk of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) and its complications. PURPOSE: Performed a systematic review to address the role of statins in the prevention or treatment of CAP. DATA SOURCE: Ovid MEDLINE, Cochrane, EMBASE, ISI Web of Science, and Scopus from inception through December 2011 were searched for randomized clinical trials, cohort and case-control studies. STUDY SELECTION: Two authors independently reviewed studies that examined the role of statins in CAP. DATA EXTRACTION: Data about study characteristics, adjusted effect-estimates and quality characteristics was extracted. DATA SYNTHESIS: Eighteen studies corresponding to 21 effect-estimates (eight and 13 of which addressed the preventive and therapeutic roles of statins, respectively) were included. All studies were of good methodological quality. Random-effects meta-analyses of adjusted effect-estimates were used. Statins were associated with a lower risk of CAP, 0.84 (95% CI, 0.74-0.95), I(2) = 90.5% and a lower short-term mortality in patients with CAP, 0.68 (95% CI, 0.59-0.78), I(2) = 75.7%. Meta-regression did not identify sources of heterogeneity. A funnel plot suggested publication bias in the treatment group, which was adjusted by a novel regression method with a resultant effect-estimate of 0.85 (95% CI, 0.77-0.93). Sensitivity analyses using the rule-out approach showed that it is unlikely that the results were due to an unmeasured confounder. CONCLUSIONS: Our meta-analysis reveals a beneficial role of statins for the risk of development and mortality associated with CAP. However, the results constitute very low quality evidence as per the GRADE framework due to observational study design, heterogeneity and publication bias

Teacher–researcher partnership in the translation and implementing of PALS (Peer‐Assisted Learning Strategies): An international perspective

Funding Information: We would like to thank the schools, teachers and students who have alongside us developed PALS for each international context outlined. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Authors. Journal of Research in Reading published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of United Kingdom Literacy Association.Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies (PALS) is a class-wide structured supplementary paired reading programme to support learners with their reading (Fuchs et al., 1997). What remains at the core of implementing PALS in any given location is the co-creation with teachers to ensure PALS fits with that educational context. This paper discusses the involvement of teachers as co-creators in the process of adapting PALS in England, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Taiwan and Iceland. The aim is to demonstrate the importance of careful adaptation when implementing a programme adopted from another country. Each adaption used a different methodological approach to co-creation. For example, in England, field notes, informal conversations and interviews were utilised for co-creation. In Iceland, preschool and elementary teachers were instrumental in translating and adapting the PALS materials to the Icelandic context. From each adaption, the teachers supported the development of a literacy programme that was suitable for classroom use. In England, teachers' involvement resulted in the removal of the motivational point system. For the UAE context, PALS began in English to support second language learning, but the instructional routines were a good ‘fit’ for the school culture and were developed in Arabic. For the Taiwan context, PALS provided an empirical basis for a model of differentiated instruction to enhance the reading literacy of Chinese-speaking elementary students. In Iceland, teachers trained other teachers in PALS as a research-based and efficient approach to meeting diverse learning needs of students, especially those with Icelandic as an additional language. Careful adaptation, piloting and the involvement of key stakeholders is important for the successful implementation of a reading programme.Peer reviewe