1,397,555 research outputs found
Distributed Learning of Distributions via Social Sampling
No full textA protocol for distributed estimation of discrete distributions is proposed. Each agent begins with a single sample from the distribution, and the goal is to learn the empirical distribution of the samples. The protocol is based on a simple message-passing model motivated by communication in social networks. Agents sample a message randomly from their current estimates of the distribution, resulting in a protocol with quantized messages. Using tools from stochastic approximation, the algorithm is shown to converge almost surely. Examples illustrate three regimes with different consensus phenomena. Simulations demonstrate this convergence and give some insight into the effect of network topology
Sharing privacy-sensitive access to neuroimaging and genetics data: a review and preliminary validation
No full textThe growth of data sharing initiatives for neuroimaging and genomics represents an exciting opportunity to confront the “small N” problem that plagues contemporary neuroimaging studies while further understanding the role genetic markers play in the function of the brain. When it is possible, open data sharing provides the most benefits. However, some data cannot be shared at all due to privacy concerns and/or risk of re-identification. Sharing other data sets is hampered by the proliferation of complex data use agreements (DUAs) which preclude truly automated data mining. These DUAs arise because of concerns about the privacy and confidentiality for subjects; though many do permit direct access to data, they often require a cumbersome approval process that can take months. An alternative approach is to only share data derivatives such as statistical summaries—the challenges here are to reformulate computational methods to quantify the privacy risks associated with sharing the results of those computations. For example, a derived map of gray matter is often as identifiable as a fingerprint. Thus alternative approaches to accessing data are needed. This paper reviews the relevant literature on differential privacy, a framework for measuring and tracking privacy loss in these settings, and demonstrates the feasibility of using this framework to calculate statistics on data distributed at many sites while still providing privacy.This document is protected by copyright and was first published by Frontiers. All rights reserved. It is reproduced with permission.Peer reviewe
Understanding Anand - A Book Review (Book Author: Dr. Karminder Singh Dhillon)
No full textDr. Karminder Singh Dhillon is a much-acclaimed theologian, a renowned civil servant, a prolific writer and a profound
scholar of comparative religious studies. Born in 1960 at Teluk Anson, Perak, Malaysia, he retired after 32 years long
professional career in the Malaysian Civil Service. His incisive articles on Sikh theology have been regularly published in
various international journals. Currently serving as Joint Editor for the Sikh Bulletin, USA, he, with his exceptional writing style, has established himself as an eminent exponent of the Sikh doctrines. In addition, he has published about one dozen books on various aspects of Sikhi.
Dr. Dhillon’s book 'Understanding Anand' explores the Spirituality of Bliss as outlined in 'Anand,' a composition by Guru Amar Das, the third Sikh Guru, and enshrined in Sri Guru Granth Sahib (SGGS) on pages 917-922, in Ramkali Raag. He emphasizes that Gurbani advocates a spirituality of Fearlessness and Contentment leading to Anand (bliss and Joy). He laments that our clergy is intent on promoting the Spirituality of Fear and the Spirituality of Asking, which is the antithesis of what Gurbani stands for. He enunciates that Gurbani's spiritually brilliant and divinely genius messages lead to Vigaas, the Spirituality of Bliss and Joy (Anand). In 'Foreword' of the book, Gyani Jarnail Singh Arshi points out that the translation methodology adopted by the author makes the messages of Anand hymns free from literal translation trends as well as snatan, vedic and yogic slants. The book includes three 'Introductory Essays,' i.e. (i)The Spirituality of Anand, (ii) The Methodology of This Book, and (iii) How to Read This Book. The book's last section elaborates on the Anand composition
Understanding Anand - A Book Review (Book Author: Dr. Karminder Singh Dhillon)
No full textDr. Karminder Singh Dhillon is a much-acclaimed theologian, a renowned civil servant, a prolific writer and a profound
scholar of comparative religious studies. Born in 1960 at Teluk Anson, Perak, Malaysia, he retired after 32 years long
professional career in the Malaysian Civil Service. His incisive articles on Sikh theology have been regularly published in
various international journals. Currently serving as Joint Editor for the Sikh Bulletin, USA, he, with his exceptional writing style, has established himself as an eminent exponent of the Sikh doctrines. In addition, he has published about one dozen books on various aspects of Sikhi.
Dr. Dhillon’s book 'Understanding Anand' explores the Spirituality of Bliss as outlined in 'Anand,' a composition by Guru Amar Das, the third Sikh Guru, and enshrined in Sri Guru Granth Sahib (SGGS) on pages 917-922, in Ramkali Raag. He emphasizes that Gurbani advocates a spirituality of Fearlessness and Contentment leading to Anand (bliss and Joy). He laments that our clergy is intent on promoting the Spirituality of Fear and the Spirituality of Asking, which is the antithesis of what Gurbani stands for. He enunciates that Gurbani's spiritually brilliant and divinely genius messages lead to Vigaas, the Spirituality of Bliss and Joy (Anand). In 'Foreword' of the book, Gyani Jarnail Singh Arshi points out that the translation methodology adopted by the author makes the messages of Anand hymns free from literal translation trends as well as snatan, vedic and yogic slants. The book includes three 'Introductory Essays,' i.e. (i)The Spirituality of Anand, (ii) The Methodology of This Book, and (iii) How to Read This Book. The book's last section elaborates on the Anand composition
Narratives for Indian Modernity: The Aesthetic of Brij Mohan Anand
No full textA trenchant critic of both British imperialism and Indian militarism, Brij Mohan Anand?s highly politicised aesthetic tracked India?s emergence from Partition, Independence and its journey through the technological challenges of the Cold War and the complex modernity of the later twentieth century. B.M. Anand (1928-1986), an accomplished and principally self-taught artist, fashioned an exceptional range of work from scratchboards, sketches, genre scenes, pastoral images and starkly modernist figure compositions to a series of late, apocalyptic landscapes. His expansive creativity and sharp eye for visual innovation extended into graphics-based design, educational and illustration work which was routinely commissioned and supported by some of India?s leading cultural and news organisations. Anand?s life and aesthetic intersected with some of the foundational events which defined and shaped modern Indian consciousness. From the bitter, family legacy of the Amritsar massacre, through to the trauma of Partition and the post-Independence realpolitik of Congress and Communist Party mandates, he recognised the self-deception and vanity of power and the complicity of the elites through which it was exercised. Anand?s legacy registers a singular consciousness; a profoundly human belief in a socially redemptive aesthetic and the agency of ordinary men and women to realise and to fashion their own futures within a contested modernity. Narratives for Indian Modernity follows the rediscovery and painstaking restoration of much of Anand?s oeuvre, the location of previously overlooked archival and family records and interviews with surviving peers and friends. In doing so, it offers a critical perspective on an outsider artist and maverick who eschewed the attractions and blandishments of a commercial or overseas career, but who nevertheless kept witness to India?s rebirth as a sovereign nation and ultimately, its emergence as a regional superpower
Designing Incentive Schemes For Privacy-Sensitive Users
No full textBusinesses (retailers) often wish to offer personalized advertisements (coupons) to individuals (consumers), but run the risk of strong reactions from consumers who want a customized shopping experience but feel their privacy has been violated. Existing models for privacy such as differential privacy or information theory try to quantify privacy risk but do not capture the subjective experience and heterogeneous expression of privacy-sensitivity. We propose a Markov decision process (MDP) model to capture (i) different consumer privacy sensitivities via a time-varying state; (ii) different coupon types (action set) for the retailer; and (iii) the action-and-state-dependent cost for perceived privacy violations. For the simple case with two states ("Normal" and "Alerted"), two coupons (targeted and untargeted) model, and consumer behavior statistics known to the retailer, we show that a stationary threshold-based policy is the optimal coupon-offering strategy for a retailer that wishes to minimize its expected discounted cost. The threshold is a function of all model parameters; the retailer offers a targeted coupon if its belief that the consumer is in the "Alerted" state is below the threshold. We extend this two-state model to consumers with multiple privacy-sensitivity states as well as coupon-dependent state transition probabilities. Furthermore, we study the case with imperfect (noisy) cost feedback from consumers and uncertain initial belief state.Peer reviewed
The Cosmic Evolution of C IV Absorbers at 1.4 < z < 4.5: Insights from 100,000 Systems in DESI Quasars
No full textAbhijeet Anand et al.We present the largest catalog to date of triply ionized carbon (C IV) absorbers detected in quasar spectra from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument. Using an automated matched-kernel convolution method with adaptive signal-to-noise thresholds, we identify 101,487 C IV systems in the redshift range 1.4 < z < 4.5 from 300,637 quasar spectra. Completeness is estimated via Monte Carlo simulations, and the catalog is 50% complete at EWC IV 0.4 Å. The differential equivalent width frequency distribution declines exponentially and shows weak redshift evolution. The absorber incidence per unit comoving path increases by a factor of 2–5 from z ≈ 4.5 to z ≈ 1.4, with stronger redshift evolution for strong systems. Using column densities derived from the apparent optical depth method, we constrain the cosmic mass density of C IV, ΩC IV, which increases by a factor of ∼3.8 from (0.82 ± 0.05) × 10−8 at z ≈ 4.5 to (3.16 ± 0.2) × 10−8 at z ≈ 1.4. From ΩC IV, we estimate a lower limit on intergalactic medium metallicity log(ZIGM/Z ) --3.25 at z ∼ 2.3, with a smooth decline at higher redshifts. These trends trace the cosmic star formation history and He II photoheating rate, suggesting a link between C IV enrichment, star formation, and UV background over ∼3 Gyr. The catalog also provides a critical resource for future studies connecting circumgalactic metals to galaxy evolution, especially near cosmic noon.We thank the anonymous referee for providing constructive feedback that significantly improved the quality and clarity of the paper. All of the computations were performed at the DOE’s high-performance computing facility, NERSC, located at Berkeley Lab. This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Science, Office of High-Energy Physics, under contract No. DE–AC02–05CH11231, and by the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, a DOE Office of Science User Facility under the same contract. Additional support for DESI was provided by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), Division of Astronomical Sciences under contract No. AST-0950945 to the NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory; the Science and Technology Facilities Council of the United Kingdom; the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation; the Heising-Simons Foundation; the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA); the National Council of Humanities, Science and Technology of Mexico (CONAHCYT); the Ministry of Science and Innovation of Spain (MICINN); and by the DESI Member Institutions (https://www.desi.lbl.gov/collaborating-institutions). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy, or any of the listed funding agencies.Peer reviewe
Dataset supporting: A sub-nW/kHz Relaxation Oscillator with Ratioed Reference and sub-Clock Power Gated Comparator
No full textMeasured data for results presented in the paper: "A sub-nW/kHz Relaxation Oscillator with Ratioed Reference and sub-Clock Power Gated Comparator" to be published in Journal of Solid State Circuits (JSSC) authored by Anand Savanth, Alex S. Weddell, James Myers, David Flynn and Bashir M. Al-Hashimi</span
Davinder K. Anand - Research and Related Activities 1965-2020
Full text linkResearch Documents and Books published by Davinder K. Anand, Professor Emeritus of the Mechanical Engineering Department, University of Maryland, College Park.Over the past fifty-five years, I have worked on problems related to dye dilution for the analysis
of cardiac output, heat pipes as a high conductivity device, satellite attitude control, solar energy
usage and design of systems for building heating and cooling applications, design and control of
magnetically suspended flywheels for energy storage, design of magnetic bearings, magnetic
spindles for high speed machining, manufacturing systems, system simulation and virtual
environments as a design tool for a group of various mechanical components, and a number of
unique problems of interest to me such as STEM education and R&D funding policy of the Navy
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