ERECTING THE PUBLIC INFORMATION MARKETPLACE

How can we incentivize public agencies to share electronic information effectively? I first argue that the Obama Administration\u27s Web 2.0 methodology of addressing this question (http://www.data.gov) will fail because (1) Federal agencies will not willingly surrender precious information assets that are the source of their political power; (2) valuable data has a currency value in the information age—it is not free; and (3) a Web 2.0 approach to sharing public sector data ignores (and sometimes exacerbates) important problems including how to delete data about citizens, how to create historical versions of the digital image of the citizen, and how to uncover the hidden and powerful algorithms that govern the production of public sector data. Instead of Obama\u27s Open Data approach, I propose to redefine the public sector as that which holds the legitimate monopoly on primordial data (such as social security IDs). Based on this, I have developed a new information sharing architecture based on three key ideas: (1) bureaucratic politics must take primacy over technology; (2) bureaucratic language can be automated to facilitate information-sharing transactions; and (3) information-sharing transactions can be monetized as buy and sell transactions. This paper also presents the theoretical foundations for a computational linguistics project to erect a Public Information Marketplace, and discusses several political, legal, economic, ethical, regulatory and technical challenges for building such a marketplace. The paper concludes with a concrete political strategy on how to advance the proposed new information marketplace

Hole probability for zeroes of Gaussian Taylor series with finite radii of convergence

We study a family of random Taylor series $$F(z) = \sum_{n\ge 0} \zeta_n a_n z^n$$ with radius of convergence almost surely $1$ and independent identically distributed complex Gaussian coefficients $(\zeta_n)$; these Taylor series are distinguished by the invariance of their zero sets with respect to isometries of the unit disk. We find reasonably tight upper and lower bounds on the probability that $F$ does not vanish in the disk $\{|z|\le r\}$ as $r\uparrow 1$. Our bounds take different forms according to whether the non-random coefficients $(a_n)$ grow, decay or remain of the same order. The results apply more generally to a class of Gaussian Taylor series whose coefficients $(a_n)$ display power-law behavior.Comment: 42 pages, new aproach taken in Section

Interview: Alon Peled on the public sector information exchange, avoiding disasters, and big data

Alon Peled is the man behind the Public Sector Information Exchange, a new digital tool which will allow citizens to access state agency data and compare it across different countries and continents. Last year, Sean Kippin spoke to Alon about both this project specifically and the potential for big data more generally

Interview: Alon Peled on open data, incentives, and ‘traversing digital Babel’

Governments across the world have attempted to improve their capacity for open data, with the UK improving its efforts since the turn of the decade markedly. Last year, Sean Kippin interviewed Alon Peled, an academic and computer software expert who has created an incentive-based system and programme for governmental informational sharing which he claims holds the key for improving the way in which data is created and shared across ‘siloed’ governmental organisations

Towards Open Data for Political Accountability: Examining the US and UK models

Since 2009 governments worldwide have been developing Open Government Data (OGD) programs. Our paper examines the ways in which public agencies in the two leading OGD countries, the US and the UK, have released information assets to promote public sector accountability. Theoretically and empirically, we discuss the vision and execution of the OGD policy in these countries since 2009 and demonstrate that the movement took a different path than the one chartered by the original policy makers. We then propose a new path for the OGD movement to better support the democratic ideal of improved accountability of public sector agencies.ye

Diffuse Facial Hyperpigmentation as a Presenting Sign of Lupus Erythematosus: Three Cases and Review of the Literature

Lupus erythematosus (LE) is an autoimmune disorder commonly affecting the skin; cutaneous lesions may indicate systemic involvement, warranting further evaluation. Photosensitivity, which may result in hyperpigmentation, is a well-known feature of the disease. In contrast, the prevalence of primary hyperpigmentation as a presenting sign of LE is not well established. Here, we compare 3 unique cases of diffuse facial hyperpigmentation as the primary manifestation of LE (cutaneous or systemic) and review previously reported cases. Our data highlight the need for considering LE in the differential diagnosis of facial hyperpigmentation and substantiate the importance of this unique lupus variant in early diagnosis and patient evaluation

In the Hunt for Therapeutic Targets: Mimicking the Growth, Metastasis, and Stromal Associations of Early-Stage Lung Cancer Using a Novel Orthotopic Animal Model

BackgroundThe existing shortage of animal models that properly mimic the progression of early-stage human lung cancer from a solitary confined tumor to an invasive metastatic disease hinders accurate characterization of key interactions between lung cancer cells and their stroma. We herein describe a novel orthotopic animal model that addresses these concerns and consequently serves as an attractive platform to study tumor–stromal cell interactions under conditions that reflect early-stage lung cancer.MethodsUnlike previous methodologies, we directly injected small numbers of human or murine lung cancer cells into murine's left lung and longitudinally monitored disease progression. Next, we used green fluorescent protein-tagged tumor cells and immuno-fluorescent staining to determine the tumor's microanatomic distribution and to look for tumor-infiltrating immune cells and stromal cells. Finally, we compared chemokine gene expression patterns in the tumor and lung microenvironment.ResultsWe successfully generated a solitary pulmonary nodule surrounded by normal lung parenchyma that grew locally and spread distally over time. Notably, we found that both fibroblasts and leukocytes are recruited to the tumor's margins and that distinct myeloid cell attracting and CCR2-binding chemokines are specifically induced in the tumor microenvironment.ConclusionOur orthotopic lung cancer model closely mimics the pathologic sequence of events that characterizes early-stage human lung cancer propagation. It further introduces new means to monitor tumor–stromal cell interactions and offers unique opportunities to test therapeutic targets under conditions that reflect early-stage lung cancer. We argue that for such purposes our model is superior to lung cancer models that are based either on genetic induction of epithelial transformation or on ectopic transplantation of malignant cells

Maximum gradient embeddings and monotone clustering

Let (X,d_X) be an n-point metric space. We show that there exists a distribution D over non-contractive embeddings into trees f:X-->T such that for every x in X, the expectation with respect to D of the maximum over y in X of the ratio d_T(f(x),f(y)) / d_X(x,y) is at most C (log n)^2, where C is a universal constant. Conversely we show that the above quadratic dependence on log n cannot be improved in general. Such embeddings, which we call maximum gradient embeddings, yield a framework for the design of approximation algorithms for a wide range of clustering problems with monotone costs, including fault-tolerant versions of k-median and facility location.Comment: 25 pages, 2 figures. Final version, minor revision of the previous one. To appear in "Combinatorica

Epidermolytic Ichthyosis Sine Epidermolysis

Epidermolytic ichthyosis (EI) is a rare disorder of cornification caused by mutations in KRT1 and KRT10, encoding two suprabasal epidermal keratins. Because of the variable clinical features and severity of the disease, histopathology is often required to correctly direct the molecular analysis. EI is characterized by hyperkeratosis and vacuolar degeneration of the upper epidermis, also known as epidermolytic hyperkeratosis, hence the name of the disease. In the current report, the authors describe members of 2 families presenting with clinical features consistent with EI. The patients were shown to carry classical mutations in KRT1 or KRT10, but did not display epidermolytic changes on histology. These observations underscore the need to remain aware of the limitations of pathological features when considering a diagnosis of EI

CLIC: clustering analysis of large microarray datasets with individual dimension-based clustering

Large microarray data sets have recently become common. However, most available clustering methods do not easily handle large microarray data sets due to their very large computational complexity and memory requirements. Furthermore, typical clustering methods construct oversimplified clusters that ignore subtle but meaningful changes in the expression patterns present in large microarray data sets. It is necessary to develop an efficient clustering method that identifies both absolute expression differences and expression profile patterns in different expression levels for large microarray data sets. This study presents CLIC, which meets the requirements of clustering analysis particularly but not limited to large microarray data sets. CLIC is based on a novel concept in which genes are clustered in individual dimensions first and in which the ordinal labels of clusters in each dimension are then used for further full dimension-wide clustering. CLIC enables iterative sub-clustering into more homogeneous groups and the identification of common expression patterns among the genes separated in different groups due to the large difference in the expression levels. In addition, the computation of clustering is parallelized, the number of clusters is automatically detected, and the functional enrichment for each cluster and pattern is provided. CLIC is freely available at http://gexp2.kaist.ac.kr/clic