Fairness Testing: Testing Software for Discrimination

This paper defines software fairness and discrimination and develops a testing-based method for measuring if and how much software discriminates, focusing on causality in discriminatory behavior. Evidence of software discrimination has been found in modern software systems that recommend criminal sentences, grant access to financial products, and determine who is allowed to participate in promotions. Our approach, Themis, generates efficient test suites to measure discrimination. Given a schema describing valid system inputs, Themis generates discrimination tests automatically and does not require an oracle. We evaluate Themis on 20 software systems, 12 of which come from prior work with explicit focus on avoiding discrimination. We find that (1) Themis is effective at discovering software discrimination, (2) state-of-the-art techniques for removing discrimination from algorithms fail in many situations, at times discriminating against as much as 98% of an input subdomain, (3) Themis optimizations are effective at producing efficient test suites for measuring discrimination, and (4) Themis is more efficient on systems that exhibit more discrimination. We thus demonstrate that fairness testing is a critical aspect of the software development cycle in domains with possible discrimination and provide initial tools for measuring software discrimination.Comment: Sainyam Galhotra, Yuriy Brun, and Alexandra Meliou. 2017. Fairness Testing: Testing Software for Discrimination. In Proceedings of 2017 11th Joint Meeting of the European Software Engineering Conference and the ACM SIGSOFT Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering (ESEC/FSE), Paderborn, Germany, September 4-8, 2017 (ESEC/FSE'17). https://doi.org/10.1145/3106237.3106277, ESEC/FSE, 201

Ibero-American Society of Interventionism (SIDI) and the Spanish Society of Vascular and Interventional Radiology (SERVEI) Standard of Practice (SOP) for the management of inferior Vena Cava filters in the treatment of acute venous Thromboembolism

Objectives: to present an interventional radiology standard of practice on the use of inferior vena cava filters (IVCFs) in patients with or at risk to develop venous thromboembolism (VTE) from the Iberoamerican Interventional Society (SIDI) and Spanish Vascular and Interventional Radiology Society (SERVEI). Methods: a group of twenty-two interventional radiologist experts, from the SIDI and SERVEI societies, attended online meetings to develop a current clinical practice guideline on the proper indication for the placement and retrieval of IVCFs. A broad review was undertaken to determine the participation of interventional radiologists in the current guidelines and a consensus on inferior vena cava filters. Twenty-two experts from both societies worked on a common draft and received a questionnaire where they had to assess, for IVCF placement, the absolute, relative, and prophylactic indications. The experts voted on the different indications and reasoned their decision. Results: a total of two-hundred-thirty-three articles were reviewed. Interventional radiologists participated in the development of just two of the eight guidelines. The threshold for inclusion was 100% agreement. Three absolute and four relative indications for the IVCF placement were identified. No indications for the prophylactic filter placement reached the threshold. Conclusion: interventional radiologists are highly involved in the management of IVCFs but have limited participation in the development of multidisciplinary clinical practice guidelines

Evaluation of Spatially Targeted Strategies to Control Non-Domiciliated Triatoma dimidiata Vector of Chagas Disease

Chagas disease is one of the most important parasitic diseases in Latin America. Since the 1980's, many national and international initiatives have contributed to eliminate vectors developing inside human domiciles. Today's challenge is to control vectors that are non-adapted to the human domicile, but still able to transmit the parasite through regular short stay in the houses. Here, we assess the potential of different control strategies applied in specific spatial patterns using a mathematical model that reproduces the dynamic of dispersion of such ‘non-domiciliated’ vectors within a village of the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. We show that no single strategy applied in the periphery of the village, where the insects are more abundant, provides satisfying protection to the whole village. However, combining the use of insect screens in houses at the periphery of the village (to simultaneously fight insects dispersing from the garden and the forest), and the cleaning of the peri-domicile areas of the centre of the village (where sylvatic insects are absent), would provide a cost-effective control. This type of spatially mixed strategy offers a promising way to reduce the cost associated with the repeated interventions required to control non-domiciliated vectors that permanently attempt to infest houses

Eco-bio-social determinants for house infestation by non-domiciliated Triatoma dimidiata in the Yucatan peninsula, Mexico

Background Chagas disease is a vector-borne disease of major importance in the Americas. Disease prevention is mostly limited to vector control. Integrated interventions targeting ecological, biological and social determinants of vector-borne diseases are increasingly used for improved control. Methodology/principal findings We investigated key factors associated with transient house infestation by T. dimidiata in rural villages in Yucatan, Mexico, using a mixed modeling approach based on initial null-hypothesis testing followed by multimodel inference and averaging on data from 308 houses from three villages. We found that the presence of dogs, chickens and potential refuges, such as rock piles, in the peridomicile as well as the proximity of houses to vegetation at the periphery of the village and to public light sources are major risk factors for infestation. These factors explain most of the intra-village variations in infestation. Conclusions/significance These results underline a process of infestation distinct from that of domiciliated triatomines and may be used for risk stratification of houses for both vector surveillance and control. Combined integrated vector interventions, informed by an Ecohealth perspective, should aim at targeting several of these factors to effectively reduce infestation and provide sustainable vector control