On the Social and Technical Challenges of Web Search Autosuggestion Moderation

Past research shows that users benefit from systems that support them in their writing and exploration tasks. The autosuggestion feature of Web search engines is an example of such a system: It helps users in formulating their queries by offering a list of suggestions as they type. Autosuggestions are typically generated by machine learning (ML) systems trained on a corpus of search logs and document representations. Such automated methods can become prone to issues that result in problematic suggestions that are biased, racist, sexist or in other ways inappropriate. While current search engines have become increasingly proficient at suppressing such problematic suggestions, there are still persistent issues that remain. In this paper, we reflect on past efforts and on why certain issues still linger by covering explored solutions along a prototypical pipeline for identifying, detecting, and addressing problematic autosuggestions. To showcase their complexity, we discuss several dimensions of problematic suggestions, difficult issues along the pipeline, and why our discussion applies to the increasing number of applications beyond web search that implement similar textual suggestion features. By outlining persistent social and technical challenges in moderating web search suggestions, we provide a renewed call for action.Comment: 17 Pages, 4 images displayed within 3 latex figure

One-session bilateral sequential whole lung lavage (OSBSWLL) for the management of pulmonary alveolar proteinosis

BACKGROUND: Whole Lung Lavage (WLL) has been an important part in the management of Pulmonary Alveolar Proteinosis (PAP) since it improves radiologic and clinical parameters. Bilateral WLL is usually performed in two sessions on different days. Few case reports have described one-session bilateral sequential lung lavage (OSBSWLL), and none have described ambulatory management (same-day discharge). METHODS: Demographic characteristics, physiologic parameters, procedure details and outcomes were retrospectively collected on consecutive patients who underwent OSBSWLL for PAP following an ambulatory protocol stablished in our institution. RESULTS: A total of 13 patients underwent 30 OSBSWLL (61.5% male; mean age 40). The mean SpO2 was 90% (IQR 9) and 94% (IQR 6), before and after OSBSWLL respectively. In 63.3% of cases, patients were discharged home the same day of procedure. Only in two cases (6.6%), patients required post-procedure prolonged mechanical ventilation (\u3e 4 h) due to persistent hypoxia. CONCLUSIONS: OSBSWLL can be performed with same-day discharge

Flavour Changing Neutral Currents, Weak-Scale Scalars and Rare Top Decays

We examine the decays $t\rightarrow c\gamma$ and $c Z^0$ in the Standard Model with an extra scalar doublet and no discrete symmetry preventing tree-level flavour changing neutral currents. The Yukawa couplings of the new scalars are assumed to be proportional to fermion masses, evading bounds on FCNC's from the light quark sector. These rare top decays may be visible at the SSC.Comment: (some wording changed, and several references added) 13 pages, 2 figures included, uses harvmac.tex and epsf.tex, UCSD/PTH 93-0

Exploring Halo Substructure with Giant Stars: Spectroscopy of Stars in the Galactic Anticenter Stellar Structure

To determine the nature of the recently discovered, ring-like stellar structure at the Galactic anticenter, we have collected spectra of a set of presumed constituent M giants selected from the 2MASS point source catalog. Radial velocities have been obtained for stars spanning ~100 degrees, exhibiting a trend in velocity with Galactic longitude and an estimated dispersion of 20 +/- 4 km/sec. A mean metallicity [Fe/H] = -0.4 +/- 0.3 measured for these stars combines with previous evidence from the literature to suggest a population with a significant metallicity spread. In addition, a curious alignment of at least four globular clusters of lower mean metallicity is noted to be spatially and kinematically consistent with this stellar distribution. We interpret the M giant sample position and velocity variation with Galactic longitude as suggestive of a satellite galaxy currently undergoing tidal disruption in a non-circular, prograde orbit about the Milky Way.Comment: (1) University of Virginia, 4 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letter

Environmental effects of James River sewage treatment plant outfall construction

In the spring of 1975 the Institute began a program to determine whether significant environmental changes would occur in the area of the new James River Plant outfall that might be related to its construction and/or initial operation. Parameters measured in the study were benthic animal and oyster populations, coliform levels and chlorine residuals. The primary emphasis of the study centered on the estimation of the impact of the construction activity on shellfish beds in the area. The results of the investigation are presented in three segments, the first dealing with shellfish populations, the second with other benthic animals and the third with coliforms and chlorine. Section I. Environmental Effects of James River Sewage Treatment Plant Outfall Construction on Oyster Beds in the James River by Dexter S. Haven and Paul C . Kendall Section II. Environmental Effects of the James River Sewage Treatment Plant Outfall Construction: Soft Bottom Macrobenthos by Robert J. Diaz and Donald F. Boesch Section III. Water Quality in the Vicinity of James River Sewage Treatment Plant Outfall by Michael E. Bende

An Expert System-Driven Method for Parametric Trajectory Optimization During Conceptual Design

During the early phases of engineering design, the costs committed are high, costs incurred are low, and the design freedom is high. It is well documented that decisions made in these early design phases drive the entire design's life cycle cost. In a traditional paradigm, key design decisions are made when little is known about the design. As the design matures, design changes become more difficult in both cost and schedule to enact. The current capability-based paradigm, which has emerged because of the constrained economic environment, calls for the infusion of knowledge usually acquired during later design phases into earlier design phases, i.e. bringing knowledge acquired during preliminary and detailed design into pre-conceptual and conceptual design. An area of critical importance to launch vehicle design is the optimization of its ascent trajectory, as the optimal trajectory will be able to take full advantage of the launch vehicle's capability to deliver a maximum amount of payload into orbit. Hence, the optimal ascent trajectory plays an important role in the vehicle's affordability posture yet little of the information required to successfully optimize a trajectory is known early in the design phase. Thus, the current paradigm of optimizing ascent trajectories involves generating point solutions for every change in a vehicle's design parameters. This is often a very tedious, manual, and time-consuming task for the analysts. Moreover, the trajectory design space is highly non-linear and multi-modal due to the interaction of various constraints. When these obstacles are coupled with the Program to Optimize Simulated Trajectories (POST), an industry standard program to optimize ascent trajectories that is difficult to use, expert trajectory analysts are required to effectively optimize a vehicle's ascent trajectory. Over the course of this paper, the authors discuss a methodology developed at NASA Marshall's Advanced Concepts Office to address these issues. The methodology is two-fold: first, capture the heuristics developed by human analysts over their many years of experience; and secondly, leverage the power of modern computing to evaluate multiple trajectories simultaneously and therefore enable the exploration of the trajectory's design space early during the pre- conceptual and conceptual phases of design. This methodology is coupled with design of experiments in order to train surrogate models, which enables trajectory design space visualization and parametric optimal ascent trajectory information to be available when early design decisions are being made