Databases are an indispensable resource for retrieving up-to-date information. However, curious database operators may be able to find out the users’ interests when the users buy something from the database. For these cases, if the digital goods have the identical prices, then a k-out-of-n oblivious transfer protocol could help the users to hide their choices, but when the goods have different ...

According to questionnaire studies, speech is the most annoying sound source in open-plan offices [1]. The most distracting speech comes from the nearest workstations. Therefore, speech privacy between workstations should be as high as possible, that is, the speech transmission index, STI, should be low. This presupposes that the speech is properly attenuated, e.g. using absorbents, screens, an...

Abstract A thermodynamic model is developed for a forward osmosis (FO) absorption heat pump capable of purifying graywater and providing year-round space conditioning with low-temperature as the primary energy input. The applied to 16 potential absorbents, six are selected parametric studies on desorber temperature, absorber condenser sink temperature determine effects ratio (defined total usef...

The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) often allows participants to redeem food benefits for various brands at different costs. To aid the program's food cost containment efforts, it is important to understand the individual and store characteristics associated with brand choices. This study used the WIC Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) data for 239,0...

OBJECTIVE To examine the extra cost of using higher-priced drugs as initial therapy for dermatophyte infections, because the many available effective drugs vary considerably in cost. DESIGN Cost analysis from the purchaser's perspective, comparing two prototypical regimens to treat tinea pedis: one in which all patients initially receive a lower-priced drug and those with unresponsive infecti...

OBJECTIVE To estimate the impact of global strategies, such as pooled procurement arrangements, third-party price negotiation and differential pricing, on reducing the price of antiretrovirals (ARVs), which currently hinders universal access to HIV/AIDS treatment. METHODS We estimated the impact of global strategies to reduce ARV prices using data on 7253 procurement transactions (July 2002-O...

In this work we further enhance the work of Aiello et al. [1] on priced oblivious transfer, in which selling digital goods based on oblivious transfer is discussed. Their primary goal is to mimic a scenario in which a customer is buying digital goods from the vendor where the privacy of the customer is fully protected regarding which item(s) are bought or what is the total amount of shopping. N...