University of Massachusetts Boston

About: University of Massachusetts Boston is a education organization based out in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Health care. The organization has 6541 authors who have published 12918 publications receiving 411731 citations. The organization is also known as: UMass Boston.

Privacy Leakage of Location Sharing in Mobile Social Networks: Attacks and Defense

Abstract: Along with the popularity of mobile social networks (MSNs) is the increasing danger of privacy breaches due to user location exposures. In this work, we take an initial step towards quantifying location privacy leakage from MSNs by matching the users' shared locations with their real mobility traces. We conduct a three-week real-world experiment with 30 participants and discover that both direct location sharing (e.g., Weibo or Renren) and indirect location sharing (e.g., Wechat or Skout) can reveal a small percentage of users' real points of interests (POIs). We further propose a novel attack to allow an external adversary to infer the demographics (e.g., age, gender, education) after observing users' exposed location profiles. We implement such an attack in a large real-world dataset involving 22,843 mobile users. The experimental results show that the attacker can effectively predict demographic attributes about users with some shared locations. To resist such attacks, we propose SmartMask, a context-based system-level privacy protection solution, designed to automatically learn users' privacy preferences under different contexts and provide a transparent privacy control for MSN users. The effectiveness and efficiency of SmartMask have been well validated by extensive experiments.

Between a Gay and a Straight Place: Bisexual Individuals’ Experiences with Monosexism

Abstract: Bisexual people experience monosexism, the privileging of sexual attraction to one sex or gender, from heterosexual, gay, and lesbian communities. The current study of 745 bisexual-identified participants explored their experiences of monosexism with heterosexual family members, heterosexual friends, gay family members, and gay friends. Results indicated that bisexual individuals reported significantly more discrimination from the heterosexual community in comparison to the gay or lesbian community, although the effect size was small. Acceptance of bisexuality from family and acceptance of bisexuality from friends were negative predictors of antibisexual discrimination. Clinical and research implications are discussed.

Dynamic range and sensitivity requirements of satellite ocean color sensors: learning from the past

Abstract: Sensor design and mission planning for satellite ocean color measurements requires careful consideration of the signal dynamic range and sensitivity (specifically here signal-to-noise ratio or SNR) so that small changes of ocean properties (e.g., surface chlorophyll-a concentrations or Chl) can be quantified while most measurements are not saturated. Past and current sensors used different signal levels, formats, and conventions to specify these critical parameters, making it difficult to make cross-sensor comparisons or to establish standards for future sensor design. The goal of this study is to quantify these parameters under uniform conditions for widely used past and current sensors in order to provide a reference for the design of future ocean color radiometers. Using measurements from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer onboard the Aqua satellite (MODISA) under various solar zenith angles (SZAs), typical (L(sub typical)) and maximum (L(sub max)) at-sensor radiances from the visible to the shortwave IR were determined. The Ltypical values at an SZA of 45 deg were used as constraints to calculate SNRs of 10 multiband sensors at the same L(sub typical) radiance input and 2 hyperspectral sensors at a similar radiance input. The calculations were based on clear-water scenes with an objective method of selecting pixels with minimal cross-pixel variations to assure target homogeneity. Among the widely used ocean color sensors that have routine global coverage, MODISA ocean bands (1 km) showed 2-4 times higher SNRs than the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (Sea-WiFS) (1 km) and comparable SNRs to the Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS)-RR (reduced resolution, 1.2 km), leading to different levels of precision in the retrieved Chl data product. MERIS-FR (full resolution, 300 m) showed SNRs lower than MODISA and MERIS-RR with the gain in spatial resolution. SNRs of all MODISA ocean bands and SeaWiFS bands (except the SeaWiFS near-IR bands) exceeded those from prelaunch sensor specifications after adjusting the input radiance to L(sub typical). The tabulated L(sub typical), L(sub max), and SNRs of the various multiband and hyperspectral sensors under the same or similar radiance input provide references to compare sensor performance in product precision and to help design future missions such as the Geostationary Coastal and Air Pollution Events (GEO-CAPE) mission and the Pre-Aerosol-Clouds-Ecosystems (PACE) mission currently being planned by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Physical Activity of Adults with Mental Retardation: Review and Research Needs:

Abstract: Objective To characterize physical activity levels of adults with mental retardation and identify limitations in published research. Data Sources Key word searches for “mental retardation,” “intellectual disability,” “learning disability,” or “developmental disability” combined with “physical activity” or “habitual exercise” identified articles from MEDLINE, Academic Search Elite, Psych Articles, Health Source, and SPORT Discus. This produced a total of 801 citations. Study Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria Published English-language literature that quantitatively measured physical activity levels of adults with mental retardation was included in this review. Fourteen articles met this criterion. Data Extraction Characteristics of participants, study design, outcome measures, methods of analyses, and findings in terms of percentages, step counts, and accelerometer output were extracted. Data Synthesis Data were synthesized to identify the percentage of adults with mental retardation who met publis...