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Ameliorating Algorithmic Bias, or Why Explainable AI Needs Feminist Philosophy
No full textArtificial intelligence (AI) systems are increasingly adopted to make decisions in domains such as business, education, health care, and criminal justice. However, such algorithmic decision systems can have prevalent biases against marginalized social groups and undermine social justice. Explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) is a recent development aiming to make an AI system’s decision processes less opaque and to expose its problematic biases. This paper argues against technical XAI, according to which the detection and interpretation of algorithmic bias can be handled more or less independently by technical experts who specialize in XAI methods. Drawing on resources from feminist epistemology, we show why technical XAI is mistaken. Specifically, we demonstrate that the proper detection of algorithmic bias requires relevant interpretive resources, which can only be made available, in practice, by actively involving a diverse group of stakeholders. Finally, we suggest how feminist theories can help shape integrated XAI: an inclusive social-epistemic process that facilitates the amelioration of algorithmic bias
Mixing and Matching in the Evolution of Hemoglobin
No full textHemoglobin, a multi-subunit protein used for oxygen transport to peripheral tissues in animals, has a rich evolutionary history that spans over 500 million years. Repeated use of pre-existing genes has generated novel functions, usually by means of gene duplication events that are followed by co-option. Consequently, the evolution of hemoglobin is a valuable model in understanding the conservative use of extant genetic resources to gradually build metabolic complexity
Albert Speer: A Success Not a Miracle
No full textThis essay discusses Albert Speer's so-called "armaments miracle" and how this miracle was simply a success. It explains how Speer was successful as Minister of Armaments and War Production, and how his success was portrayed as a miracle by Joseph Goebbels
Lesbianism and Fascist Rule: Exploring the discrepancies between the persecution of gay men and women in Nazi Germany
No full textThis paper looks at the discrepancies in persecution of lesbians and gay men in the Third Reich. The historiographic scope of the paper includes the role of women as agents of fascism during the Nazi regime. It addresses the misogyny that underpinned all aspects of German life under Hitler. The author concludes that because women’s sexual autonomy (including homosexuality) was disenfranchised and invalidated, homosexual behavior among women was not believed to permanently alter women’s sexual viability (as was thought to be true for homosexual men). Resultingly, lesbian women were not considered threatening to the birth rate or the Volksgemeinschaft (people’s community) and were therefore not systemically persecuted
Playing Out French Colonial Fantasies: Algerian women's bodies and the Algerian War of Independence, 1954-62
No full textThe treatment of Muslim Algerian women by French forces during the Algerian War of Independence (1954-1962) makes a case for the potency of corporeal memory in the home front theatre of a colonial war. Through coercive campaigns of unveiling and sexualized torture, the French ultimately sought to play out the continuation of their colonial fantasies upon the symbolic, historical, and literal manifestation of the Muslim Algerian woman – the pacification of a colony through the repression of its female population. A strategic rather than strictly tactical analysis of the war reveals the potency of the French campaigns and unveils the sadistic modernism of an imperial power desperate to maintain its colonial hold
Monte Carlo investigation of structural minimality for structures of uncontrolled linear switching systems with Maple
No full textOne path to understanding a physical system is to represent it by a model structure (collection of related models). Suppose our system is not subject to external influences, and depends on unobservable state variables (x), and observables (y). Then, a suitable uncontrolled, state-space model structure S is defined by relationships between x and y, involving parameters θ ∈ Θ. That is, each parameter vector in parameter space Θ is associated with a particular model in S.
Before using S for prediction, we require system observations for parameter estimation. This process aims to determine θ values for which predictions “best” approximate the data (according to some objective function). The result is some number of estimates of the true parameter vector, θ*. Multiple parameter estimates are problematic when these cause S to produce dissimilar predictions beyond our data's range. This can render us unable to confidently make predictions, resulting in an uninformative study.
Non-uniqueness of parameter estimates follows when S lacks the property of structural global identifiability (SGI). Fortunately, we may test S for SGI prior to data collection. The absence of SGI encourages us to rethink our experimental design or model structure.
Before testing S for SGI we should check that it is structurally minimal. If so, we cannot replace S by a structure of fewer state variables which produces the same output. Most testing methodology is applicable to structures which employ the same equations for all time. These methods are not appropriate when, for example, a process has an abrupt change in its dynamics. For such a situation, a structure of linear switching systems (LSSs) may be suitable. Any system in the structure has a collection of linear time-invariant state-space systems, and a switching function which determines the system in effect at each instant. As such, we face a novel challenge in testing an LSS structure for SGI.
We will consider the case of an uncontrolled LSS structure of one switching event (a ULSS-1 structure). In this setting, we may approach the structural minimality problem via the Laplace transform of the output function on each time interval. Each rational function yields conditions for pole-zero cancellation. If these conditions are not satisfied for almost all θ ∈ Θ, then S is structurally minimal.
Analytical approaches can be quite laborious. However, we may expect a numerical approach to provide useful insights quickly. For example, if pole-zero cancellation occurs for almost all of a sufficiently large number of parameter values sampled from Θ, then structural minimality is possible. This result may encourage us to prove the existence of structural minimality.
We shall use Maple 2020-2 to conduct a numerical investigation of structural minimality for a test case ULSS-1 structure applicable to flow-cell biosensor experiments used to monitor biochemical interactions, which include the popular Biacore-branded units
A Maple implementation of a modular algorithm for computing the common zeros of a polynomial and a regular chain
No full textOne of the core commands in the RegularChains library isTriangularize. The underlying decomposes the solution set of anpolynomial system into geometrically meaningful components representedby regular chains. This algorithm works by repeatedly calling aprocedure, called Intersect, which computes the common zeros of apolynomial p and a regular chain T.As the number of variables of p and T, as well as their degrees,increase, the call Intersect(p, T) becomes more and morecomputationally expensive. It was observed in (C. Chen an M. MorenoMaza, JSC 2012) that when the input polynomial system iszero-dimensional and T is one-dimensional then this cost can besubstantially reduced. The method proposed by the authors is aprobabilistic algorithm based on evaluation and interpolationtechniques. This is the type of method which is typically challengingto implement in a high-level language like Maple's language, as asharp control of computing resources (in particular memory) is needed.In this paper, we report on a successful Maple implementation of thisalgorithm. We take advantage of Maple's modp1 function which offersfast arithmetic for univariate polynomials over a prime field.The method avoids unlucky specialization and the probabilistic aspectonly comes from the fact that non-generic solutions are notcomputed. 
Mapping Approaches to Decolonizing and Indigenizing the Curriculum at Canadian Universities: Critical Reflections on Current Practices, Challenges, and Possibilities
No full textThis article identifies five predominant approaches to Indigenizing the curriculum occurring within Canadian universities today. Examining these approaches in relation to theories of change articulated by Gaudry and Lorenz (2018) and Stein (2020), the article considers the possibilities and limits of each approach as well as the degree to which they challenge the colonial and Eurocentric edifices of Canadian universities. While many of the current approaches to curricular change involve minor reforms that focus on individual transformation rather than substantive structural shifts, the authors also identify promising initiatives that push toward greater Indigenous intellectual sovereignty and institutional autonomy. The article concludes by calling on academic institutions to better center Indigenous Peoples, lands and knowledges in curricular change, and more specifically, to embrace structural revision that ensures Indigenous leadership and autonomy
« La nuit nous lie », entretien avec Camille Readman Prud’homme
No full textCamille Readman Prud’homme est née à Montréal. Elle a complété une maîtrise en création littéraire à l’Université du Québec à Montréal et poursuit présentement des études doctorales à la New York University. En 2021, elle a publié Quand je ne dis rien je pense encore à l’Oie de Cravan, finaliste au Prix Émile-Nelligan, lauréat du Prix des Libraires – Poésie 2022 et présentement en lice pour le Prix Alain-Granbois 2022. Cette entrevue est à l’initiative d’Armel Jovensel Ngamaleu.Camille Readman Prud’homme est née à Montréal. Elle a complété une maîtrise en création littéraire à l’Université du Québec à Montréal et poursuit présentement des études doctorales à la New York University. En 2021, elle a publié Quand je ne dis rien je pense encore à l’Oie de Cravan, finaliste au Prix Émile-Nelligan, lauréat du Prix des Libraires – Poésie 2022 et présentement en lice pour le Prix Alain-Granbois 2022. Cette entrevue est à l’initiative d’Armel Jovensel Ngamaleu