129 research outputs found
Tight Lower Bounds for Differentially Private Selection
A pervasive task in the differential privacy literature is to select the
items of "highest quality" out of a set of items, where the quality of each
item depends on a sensitive dataset that must be protected. Variants of this
task arise naturally in fundamental problems like feature selection and
hypothesis testing, and also as subroutines for many sophisticated
differentially private algorithms.
The standard approaches to these tasks---repeated use of the exponential
mechanism or the sparse vector technique---approximately solve this problem
given a dataset of samples. We provide a tight lower
bound for some very simple variants of the private selection problem. Our lower
bound shows that a sample of size is required
even to achieve a very minimal accuracy guarantee.
Our results are based on an extension of the fingerprinting method to sparse
selection problems. Previously, the fingerprinting method has been used to
provide tight lower bounds for answering an entire set of queries, but
often only some much smaller set of queries are relevant. Our extension
allows us to prove lower bounds that depend on both the number of relevant
queries and the total number of queries
The Limits of Post-Selection Generalization
While statistics and machine learning offers numerous methods for ensuring
generalization, these methods often fail in the presence of adaptivity---the
common practice in which the choice of analysis depends on previous
interactions with the same dataset. A recent line of work has introduced
powerful, general purpose algorithms that ensure post hoc generalization (also
called robust or post-selection generalization), which says that, given the
output of the algorithm, it is hard to find any statistic for which the data
differs significantly from the population it came from.
In this work we show several limitations on the power of algorithms
satisfying post hoc generalization. First, we show a tight lower bound on the
error of any algorithm that satisfies post hoc generalization and answers
adaptively chosen statistical queries, showing a strong barrier to progress in
post selection data analysis. Second, we show that post hoc generalization is
not closed under composition, despite many examples of such algorithms
exhibiting strong composition properties
gamification of farmer participatory priority setting in plant breeding design and validation of agroduos
ABSTRACTParticipatory methods to characterize farmers' needs and preferences play an important role in plant breeding to ensure that new varieties fulfill the needs and expectations of end users. Different farmer-participatory methods for priority setting exist, each one responding differently to trade-offs between various requirements, such as replicability, simplicity, or granularity of the results. All available methods, however, require training, academic skill, and staff time of specially qualified professionals. Breeding and variety replacement may be accelerated by empowering non-academic organizations, such as NGOs and farmer organizations, to carry out farmer-participatory priority setting. But for this use context, currently no suitable method is available. A new method is needed that demands relatively low skill levels from enumerators and respondents, engages farmers without the need for extrinsic incentives, and gives statistically robust results. To achieve these objectives, we followed prin..
Intervention options for small-scale family poultry development in south-eastern Madagascar: an expert survey
The diets of resource-poor farmers in the Atsimo Atsinanana (AA) region of south-eastern Madagascar have limited diversity and are low in animal protein. Although poultry farming is widespread, productivity is low, and consumption of eggs is uncommon. To enable effective development interventions targeting poultry value chains, this study pursues two goals: (i) to describe current challenges in small-scale poultry rearing and egg consumption in AA, and (ii) to explore viable options for promoting poultry production. We employ a survey approach, carrying out semi-structured interviews with 16 international and 12 local key informants (KIs) on small-scale poultry development. We find that poultry production in AA is critically constrained by high mortality due to diseases and predation, poor husbandry, and lack of veterinary services. The major health constraint is the Newcastle disease. Given the high mortality rates and low egg-laying potential of local chicken breeds, only small numbers of eggs are consumed, as farmers prioritise hatching. The main identified solutions include improvements in veterinary health and animal husbandry. KIs emphasised the development of animal health support services, including village vaccinators, upgrading feed with locally accessible protein sources, and the need for biosecure housing. Furthermore, training for farmers on poultry management, marketing, and vaccinations was suggested, in addition to creating awareness about the nutritional benefits of poultry products. Our findings are relevant to local development practitioners, as achieving food and nutrition security requires a multifaceted approach that fits local conditions. Our study provides actionable recommendations for improving small-scale family poultry production in AA.
Differentially Private Medians and Interior Points for Non-Pathological Data
We construct differentially private estimators with low sample complexity
that estimate the median of an arbitrary distribution over
satisfying very mild moment conditions. Our result stands in contrast to the
surprising negative result of Bun et al. (FOCS 2015) that showed there is no
differentially private estimator with any finite sample complexity that returns
any non-trivial approximation to the median of an arbitrary distribution
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