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Artificial Intelligence and Algorithmic Mediations: Affect, Power, and Subjectivation on Kaggle
Get PDFOver the past decade, the widespread investment in digital infrastructure and the extensive digitization of individual behaviour have provided the basis for the rapid development of machine-learning techniques and Artificial Intelligence (AI). AI datafy our body and our identity, producing live databases full of calculated linkages between humans and nonhumans. It creates a new cartography of biopower that sometimes produces technologies, but always produces subjects. This research examines the political economy of subjectivation in the “making of” machine-learning algorithms and AI by closely examining the relations of power, affect, and subjectivation on Kaggle, the world’s largest data science community. Conceived as a gamified platform for crowdsourced machine-learning challenges, Kaggle is a networked public where users are under constant pressure to produce new and improved algorithms.
This research first engages with Kaggle as a company and platform, offering a narrative of its history and a detailed description of how it works. Combining discourse analysis, software studies, and digital methods, this research aims to understand how code, data, digital infrastructures, crowdsourced labour, and political-economic interests are mobilized to create instruments of control that shape, modulate, and mediate individual behaviour. This phenomenon, which I call modes of automatic subjectivation, points toward the possibility of using subjective and impersonal materials to reorganize life in its broadest sense according to a specific system of power and privileges involving gender, race, sexuality, and social class.
This dissertation argues that these modes of subjectivation are designed to control the “production of possibilities” and reinforce specific types of socioeconomic relations, which in turn reproduce current conditions of existence. Furthermore, this research argues that the data science community has a notable compulsion toward cost reduction, indifference toward human life, an obsession with controlling populations and individual bodies, and a desire to produce a predictable future for economic gain. Ultimately, this research identifies algorithmic media based on AI Technology as a core asset in the attention economy and as a source of power that can be used as an interface to prescribe individual behaviour
Sacramental Communities: Atlantic Catholics and Sociopolitical Formations in British Nova Scotia
Get PDFBetween 1758 and 1827, Nova Scotia’s Roman Catholics were politically disenfranchised subjects under a British colonial administration. During the late 1750s, the Catholic Acadians – descendants of the French settlers who first occupied the colony in the early seventeenth century – had been deported by the British. By the close of the Seven Years’ War, all Catholic missionaries were also expelled from Nova Scotia. The Church of England was then installed as the colony’s established religion. Some Acadians lingered in remote parts of coastal Nova Scotia, while others returned after a period of exile. Meanwhile, the Indigenous Mi’kmaq – also an historically Catholic people – were impacted by the increasing numbers of Anglo-Protestant settlers arriving in Nova Scotia from New England. Before 1800 especially, the Mi’kmaq and Acadians sometimes went years without access to Catholic clergy. In this thesis, I analyze the ways Catholic communities in Nova Scotia lived under an Anglican establishment until the political ‘emancipation’ of the province’s Catholics in 1827.
Maritime public memory has long focused on Acadian ancestral piety and the ‘apostolic’ work of colonial missionary priests. During the clerical absences of the late eighteenth century, however, Catholic laypeople in rural Nova Scotia conducted their own sacramental rites. Midwives blessed newborns and laymen led their communities in improvised liturgies. Sacramental rituals socially and spiritually structured parishes located on an Atlantic fringe. These Catholic communities included parishioners of Acadian, Mi’kmaw, and Black Loyalist origins. Parish kinships thus drew the faithful into intimate, familial relations that were sometimes ruptured by defiant behaviour. Parishes also maintained racial and class hierarchies typical of the greater Atlantic as Acadian masters and mistresses oversaw the baptisms and burials of their Black servants. For the Mi’kmaq, demonstrations of Catholic devotion anchored Indigenous land claims amid mounting settler colonization. Treaties and petitions invoked the moral obligations of the colonial administration toward the Mi’kmaq and bound governors, clergymen, and tribal leaders to negotiate state benevolence and relief policies. In the civic domain, Catholic laypeople gave and received charity and leading Acadian men stepped into public offices. Participation in all these aspects of colonial life generated sociopolitical coherence for ethnically diverse Catholic subjects of the revolutionary-era British Empire
Addressing Racial and Ethnic Microaggressions in Higher Education: Emotions and Sociopolitical Context Matter
No full textThis research presents key findings from a Concordia University (Montreal, Quebec) arts-based action research study, that used Theatre of the Oppressed techniques to support educators in addressing racial and ethnic microaggressions (or racialized microaggressions) in higher education classrooms. Theatre of the Oppressed’s inherent capacity to attune to the body, the relational and the affective influenced the creation of a racial and ethnic microaggression strategy roadmap called the Pause-Reflect-Respond model that encourages students and educators to work through and learn from the emotional and psychophysiological activation caused by racialized microaggressions. The Pause-Reflect-Respond model employs a harm reduction approach that aims to address racialized microaggressions and return the classroom to a space for optimal learning. The model seeks to protect the targets of racialized microaggressions from further harm, educate microaggression enactors and to foster collective responsibility for racial and ethnic microaggression by contextualizing their systemic nature. Pause-Reflect-Respond’s capacity to serve students and educators from diverse social locations will be critiqued and recommendations to increase the model’s applicability, relevance, and inclusiveness across racial and ethnic microaggression contexts will be shared
The Role of Hand-Held Devices in the Life of Two Preteens
Get PDFHandheld devices such as smartphones and tablets are found in most North American households and are being used by preteens to communicate with peers, watch videos on YouTube, play videogames, and become familiar with social media. Social media platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat are attracting children’s attention with the onsetting age of social media use becoming younger every year. The aim of the following study was to better understand how preteens (1) engage with handheld devices and (2) perceive handheld devices and the social, emotional, and physical impact they might have. I conducted a multiple case study where multiple sources of information were gathered to illustrate two preteens’ real-life experiences owning a hand-held device. Semi-structured interviews, journal entries and digital technology were used to gather data from a preteen, their parent(s), and teacher. Findings revealed that devices are mostly used by preteens to play games and stay connected with friends and family. Preteens, parents, and teachers all shared conflicting feelings and were able to recognize both the positive and negative in preteen’s use of handheld devices. Better understanding how preteens are impacted by our digital world will hopefully better equip us to create well-developed programs to enhance children’s media literacy habits and awareness
PV, Wind and Space Heating Electrification Utilization Analysis for a Small Canadian Arctic Hybrid Microgrid
Get PDFCanadian Arctic remote communities mostly rely on diesel gensets (DGSs) to produce electricity, which is expensive and emits greenhouse gases (GHG) that pollute the environment and affect the air quality. These communities can utilize their renewable energy (RE) potential to reduce both their fuel consumption and the associated GHG emissions.
In the first part of the project, the potential of PV and wind turbines (WTs) is evaluated. The PV utilization analysis results in a contribution of nearly 22% of the yearly community energy requirement and diesel savings of up to 18% with a rated PV power of 200 kW or 125% of the community load peak power. As for the analysis of the wind system, the renewable energy contribution reaches close to 36% alongside fuel savings of 29% for three 25 kW WTs. When combining PV and WTs, the portion of energy supplied by the renewable energy (RE) system reaches 44% along with 36% fuel savings. However, when including RE to the microgrid, its penetration, or percentage of total energy provided by PV, and its associated fuel savings are limited by curtailment, to prevent the DGSs from operating with low loading.
The second part of the project evaluates the addition of electric thermal storage (ETS) to the microgrid, which allows for recycling excess (curtailed) RE production to electrify a portion of the heating requirements of the community which is currently oil-based. When pairing ETS units with WTs and PV, the RE curtailment is significantly reduced and can be lowered by up to 90% when ETS units are installed in all the houses of the considered community. Lastly, ETS units can increase the total fuel savings and associated GHG emissions by 46%, when compared to the first part of the study
The Effects of Exogenous Cardiolipin on Skeletal Muscle, Aerobic Exercise and Anxiety-Related Behaviour
Get PDFCardiolipin is a phospholipid found in the inner mitochondrial membrane and, consequently, is involved in energy metabolism. Cardiolipin is released from necrotic cells following myocardial
ischemia and reperfusion injury. Furthermore, increased levels of anxiety have been seen in individuals following myocardial infarction. Despite its various effects on liver, smooth and
cardiac muscle, the impact of increased cardiolipin on skeletal muscle and anxiety-like behaviour remains unknown. PURPOSE. This two-part project investigated the effects of exogenous cardiolipin on voluntary exercise metrics, forced exercise training, functional aerobic capacity, anxiety-related behaviors, and mitochondrial respiration of skeletal muscle in a mouse
model. METHODS. C57BL/6 mice were randomized to an experimental and a control group. The mice were injected 2x/week with 0.1ml of cardiolipin (0.25mg/ml or 0.5mg/ml) or placebo
solution. In-cage running wheels measured voluntary running, while high-intensity interval training was used as a method of exercise training. Aerobic capacity was assessed by maximal
endurance or maximal graded exercise tests. Open-field test and elevated plus maze served to measure anxiety-related behaviours. Lastly, mitochondrial respiratory capacity of the vastus
lateralis muscle was measured by high-resolution respirometry. SIGNIFICANCE. Overall, this
research has significant implications for advancing our understanding of cardiolipin biology,
cardiovascular physiology, skeletal muscle function, and mental health, with potential
implications for developing novel therapeutic interventions and improving patient outcomes
Media Credibility in the AI Age: Bilinguals' Perceptual Analysis
Get PDFThis study explores how media users determine credibility in the ever-evolving media landscape, centering the attention toward the impact language has on critical media literacy and how people interact and consider Artificial intelligence (AI)-generated content. Considering research on bilingualism describing a tendency for bilinguals to differ in their decision-making when using their first (L1) and second (L2) language, a phenomenon known as the foreign language effect (Costa et al., 2013, 2014; Keysar et al., 2012), this study examined 24 university students Spanish (L1)–English (L2) bilinguals’ media literacy from the credibility perspective, with Facebook-like posts generated by ChatGPT in the two languages. Students reflected on the posts’ overall credibility, sharing likelihood, and text’s credibility in a mixed methods approach.
The findings suggest that students perceive English posts to be more credible than Spanish posts, with students considering their ability to analyze credibility better in Spanish. The results imply the existence of a confirmation bias, whereby students tend to consider the content they expect to see as more credible. This potential bias raises a concern as to people’s media literacy at a time when information can be easily generated by AI for malicious purposes (Hutchens, 2024). Supporting prior work exploring the relationship between the foreign language effect and identification of fake news (Caramancion, 2022; Muda et al., 2023), this study shows that bilinguals’ reliance on their L2 experience might disadvantage them in terms of their critical media literacy skills, limiting their ability to critically engage with information online
Optimization of airfoils and wing planforms for airborne wind energy applications
Get PDFThis research work focuses on the optimization of airfoils and wings for the use in airborne wind energy applications, especially crosswind kite power systems. The thesis is divided into three major parts. Each part includes an optimization framework which is composed of four blocks: an airfoil or wing geometry builder, an aerodynamic solver, an optimizer, and a post-processor. These blocks interact with each other to solve the problem of maximizing/minimizing an aerodynamic objective function while at the same time maximizing/minimizing a structural objective function such as airfoil thickness or wing aspect ratio. It is thus inevitable to have a multi-objective framework that includes both objective functions.
The first part addresses airfoil optimization by minimizing the inverse aerodynamic efficiency and the negative maximum thickness ratio, which are conflicting objectives. Results with and without induced drag (from a finite aspect ratio wing) and tether drag effects show that optimal airfoils accounting for induced drag have a cusped trailing edge, while those considering tether drag have a flap-like trailing edge, both improving aerodynamic performance.
The second part focuses on wing planform optimization, aiming to minimize the inverse aerodynamic efficiency and aspect ratio simultaneously. The optimization framework is validated by minimizing the drag-to-lift ratio, resulting in wings with elliptic planforms. The planforms optimized for aerodynamic efficiency do not differ significantly from elliptic shapes.
The third part of the thesis deals with the optimization of box-wing airfoils. Box-wings consist of two wings connected by vertical fins at their tips, forming a box-like shape when viewed from the front. The analysis is performed for an infinite aspect ratio, i.e., two-dimensional configuration. The inverse of the total aerodynamic efficiency and the negative of the combined maximum thickness ratio of the two airfoils are minimized simultaneously. The numerical results indicate that the optimal configurations feature a thick lower (or forward) airfoil and a thin upper (or aft) airfoil. This suggests that the lower airfoil primarily serves a structural role, while the upper airfoil plays a crucial aerodynamic role
Privacy and Security Analysis of Virtual Shopping and AI Companion Platforms
Get PDFThe integration of extended reality (XR) technologies such as augmented reality (AR), and artificial intelligence (AI), is transforming virtual shopping and virtual relationships, but also raising significant privacy concerns. We therefore develop two frameworks to examine privacy issues in both virtual shopping and virtual AI companion platforms, emphasizing the need for enhanced transparency and user protection. For virtual shopping, our analysis of 138 virtual try-on (VTO) websites and 28 Android apps reveals that 65% of websites and 18% of apps transmit user images to servers, often involving third-party servers. Additionally, 43 websites and 2 apps store user images, and 37% of websites use providers that extract facial geometry. Privacy policy violations were found in 17% of websites which collect user images. Significant security vulnerabilities were also identified in one VTO provider, putting both merchants and users at risk. In parallel, the study of 21 Android AI companion chatbot apps reveals discrepancies between privacy policies and chatbot responses to questions about privacy practices. All apps showed inadequate age verification and extensive tracking practices. Specifically, 13 apps used at least three tracking services, and 18 apps sent detailed device information to these services. None of the apps implemented measures to prevent users from falsifying birthdates, continuing conversations with underage users. This thesis highlights critical privacy and security issues in two growing domains in the virtual world (virtual shopping and AI companions), calling for improved transparency, better privacy practices, and stronger user protection measures
4D Printing of Composites: Fundamental Understanding and Applications
Get PDFThis thesis explores the application of 4D printing of composites (4DPC) in the manufacturing of complex-shaped components, focusing on its potential in various engineering domains. The study begins with an in-depth examination of the fundamental principles underlying 4DPC, encompassing topics such as material properties, lay-up sequences, and the impact of thermal expansion coefficients and modulus of elasticity ratios on the bifurcation temperature of laminates. Experimental investigations are conducted to analyze the behavior of composite laminates under different conditions, revealing insights into how parameters like thickness ratio, lay-up sequence, and edge effects influence the final configuration of the laminates.
A significant portion of the research is dedicated to studying the effect of edges and overlaps on the curvature of composite laminates, uncovering critical insights into how these factors impact the shape and performance of the manufactured components. Furthermore, the thesis presents a detailed analysis of the application of 4DPC in the manufacturing of blades for vertical-axis wind turbines (VAWTs), highlighting the method’s potential to produce intricate geometries with tailored mechanical properties.
Throughout the thesis, theoretical and finite element analyses are complemented by experimental validations, providing a comprehensive understanding of the capabilities and limitations of 4DPC in composite manufacturing. The findings contribute to advancing the knowledge base in the field of additive manufacturing, offering valuable insights for engineers and researchers exploring innovative approaches to fabricating complex-shaped composite structures. The potential application of 4DPC in manufacturing VAWT blades underscores its relevance in renewable energy technologies, highlighting its role in shaping the future of sustainable engineering practices