Introduction to the Special Issue on AI Fairness, Trust, and Ethics

It is our pleasure to welcome you to this AIS Transactions on Human Computer Interaction special issue on artificial intelligence (AI) fairness, trust, and ethics. This special issue received research papers that unpacked the potential, challenges, impacts, and theoretical implications of AI. This special issue contains four papers that integrate research across diverse fields of study, such as social science, computer science, engineering, design, values, and other diverse topics related to AI fairness, trust, and ethics broadly conceptualized. This issue contains three of the four papers (along with a regular paper of the journal). The fourth or last paper of this special issue is forthcoming in March 2021. We hope that you enjoy these papers and, like us, look forward to similar research published in AIS Transactions on Human Computer Interaction

Late Pleistocene horse and camel hunting at the southern margin of the ice-free corridor: Reassessing the age of Wally’s Beach, Canada

The only certain evidence for prehistoric human hunting of horse and camel in North America occurs at the Wally’s Beach site, Canada. Here, the butchered remains of seven horses and one camel are associated with 29 nondiagnostic lithic artifacts. Twenty-seven new radiocarbon ages on the bones of these animals revise the age of these kill and butchering localities to 13,300 calibrated y B.P. The tight chronological clustering of the eight kill localities at Wally’s Beach indicates these animals were killed over a short period. Human hunting of horse and camel in Canada, coupled with mammoth, mastodon, sloth, and gomphothere hunting documented at other sites from 14,800–12,700 calibrated y B.P., show that 6 of the 36 genera of megafauna that went extinct by approximately 12,700 calibrated y B.P. were hunted by humans. This study shows the importance of accurate geochronology, without which significant discoveries will go unrecognized and the empirical data used to build models explaining the peopling of the Americas and Pleistocene extinctions will be in error

Late Quaternary loess in northeastern Colorado: Part I—Age and paleoclimatic significance

Loess in eastern Colorado covers an estimated 14,000 km2, and is the westernmost part of the North American midcontinent loess province. Stratigraphic studies indicate there were two periods of loess deposition in eastern Colorado during late Quaternary time. The first period spanned ca. 20,000 to 12,000 14C yr B.P. (ca. 20–14 ka) and correlates reasonably well with the culmination and retreat of Pinedale glaciers in the Colorado Front Range during the last glacial maximum. The second period of loess deposition occurred between ca. 11,000 and 9,000 14C yr B.P. This interval may be Holocene or may correlate with a hypothesized Younger Dryas glacial advance in the Colorado Front Range. Sedimentologic, mineralogic, and geochemical data indicate that as many as three sources could have supplied loess in eastern Colorado. These sources include glaciogenic silt (derived from the Colorado Front Range) and two bedrock sources, volcaniclastic silt from the White River Group, and clays from the Pierre Shale. The sediment sources imply a generally westerly paleowind during the last glacial maximum. New carbon isotope data, combined with published faunal data, indicate that the loess was probably deposited on a cool steppe, implying a last glacial maximum July temperature depression, relative to the present, of at least 5–6 °C. Overall, loess deposition in eastern Colorado occurred mostly toward the end of the last glacial maximum, under cooler and drier conditions, with generally westerly winds from more than one source

Wildfire and Abrupt Ecosystem Disruption on California\u27s Northern Channel Islands at the Allerod-Younger Dryas Boundary (13.0-12.9 ka)

Sedimentary records from California\u27s Northern Channel Islands and the adjacent Santa Barbara Basin (SBB) indicate intense regional biomass burning (wildfire) at the Ållerød–Younger Dryas boundary (~13.0–12.9 ka) (All age ranges in this paper are expressed in thousands of calendar years before present [ka]. Radiocarbon ages will be identified and clearly marked “14C years”.). Multiproxy records in SBB Ocean Drilling Project (ODP) Site 893 indicate that these wildfires coincided with the onset of regional cooling and an abrupt vegetational shift from closed montane forest to more open habitats. Abrupt ecosystem disruption is evident on the Northern Channel Islands at the Ållerød–Younger Dryas boundary with the onset of biomass burning and resulting mass sediment wasting of the landscape. These wildfires coincide with the extinction of Mammuthus exilis [pygmy mammoth]. The earliest evidence for human presence on these islands at 13.1–12.9 ka (~11,000–10,900 14C years) is followed by an apparent 600–800 year gap in the archaeological record, which is followed by indications of a larger-scale colonization after 12.2 ka. Although a number of processes could have contributed to a post 18 ka decline in M. exilis populations (e.g., reduction of habitat due to sea-level rise and human exploitation of limited insular populations), we argue that the ultimate demise of M. exilis was more likely a result of continental scale ecosystem disruption that registered across North America at the onset of the Younger Dryas cooling episode, contemporaneous with the extinction of other megafaunal taxa. Evidence for ecosystem disruption at 13–12.9 ka on these offshore islands is consistent with the Younger Dryas boundary cosmic impact hypothesis [Firestone, R.B., West, A., Kennett, J.P., Becker, L., Bunch, T.E., Revay, Z.S., Schultz, P.H., Belgya, T., Kennett, D.J., Erlandson, J.M., Dickenson, O.J., Goodyear, A.A., Harris, R.S., Howard, G.A., Kloosterman, J.B., Lechler, P., Mayewski, P.A., Montgomery, J., Poreda, R., Darrah, T., Que Hee, S.S., Smith, A.R., Stich, A., Topping, W., Wittke, J.H. Wolbach, W.S., 2007. Evidence for an extraterrestrial impact 12,900 years ago that contributed to the megafaunal extinctions and Younger Dryas cooling. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104, 16016–16021.]

Patient Access to U.S. Physicians Who Conduct Internet or E-mail Consults

BACKGROUND: E-mail communication has the potential to improve communication between patients and doctors. OBJECTIVE: The objective of the study is to describe the access of patients to physicians who conduct e-mail consults. METHODS: We analyzed data from the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS), a nationally representative cross-sectional survey of office-based physician visits, in 2001, 2002, and 2003. The main outcome measure was the percentage of visits to a provider who reported doing internet or e-mail consults. RESULTS: There was fewer than 1 in 10 outpatient visits in 2001 (9.2%) to physicians who reported doing internet or e-mail consults, and this did not increase in 2002 (5.8%) or 2003 (5.5%). Access to these physicians was greater among patients who were male, nonminority, lived in the Western United States, seen for pre-/postoperative care, seen by a primary care provider, and not seen by a nurse during their visit. Access to physicians who conducted internet or e-mail consults was independent of other patient (e.g., chronic conditions), provider (e.g., office setting), and visit (e.g., medications prescribed) characteristics. CONCLUSIONS: Access to physicians who do internet or e-mail consults is generally low and did not increase between 2001 and 2003, despite growth in internet access and in other internet-related activities

The ancestry and affiliations of Kennewick Man

Kennewick Man, referred to as the Ancient One by Native Americans, is a male human skeleton discovered in Washington state (USA) in 1996 and initially radiocarbon dated to 8,340-9,200 calibrated years before present (BP). His population affinities have been the subject of scientific debate and legal controversy. Based on an initial study of cranial morphology it was asserted that Kennewick Man was neither Native American nor closely related to the claimant Plateau tribes of the Pacific Northwest, who claimed ancestral relationship and requested repatriation under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). The morphological analysis was important to judicial decisions that Kennewick Man was not Native American and that therefore NAGPRA did not apply. Instead of repatriation, additional studies of the remains were permitted. Subsequent craniometric analysis affirmed Kennewick Man to be more closely related to circumpacific groups such as the Ainu and Polynesians than he is to modern Native Americans. In order to resolve Kennewick Man's ancestry and affiliations, we have sequenced his genome to ∼1× coverage and compared it to worldwide genomic data including for the Ainu and Polynesians. We find that Kennewick Man is closer to modern Native Americans than to any other population worldwide. Among the Native American groups for whom genome-wide data are available for comparison, several seem to be descended from a population closely related to that of Kennewick Man, including the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation (Colville), one of the five tribes claiming Kennewick Man. We revisit the cranial analyses and find that, as opposed to genome-wide comparisons, it is not possible on that basis to affiliate Kennewick Man to specific contemporary groups. We therefore conclude based on genetic comparisons that Kennewick Man shows continuity with Native North Americans over at least the last eight millennia

A chain mechanism for flagellum growth.

Bacteria swim by means of long flagella extending from the cell surface. These are assembled from thousands of protein subunits translocated across the cell membrane by an export machinery at the base of each flagellum. Unfolded subunits then transit through a narrow channel at the core of the growing flagellum to the tip, where they crystallize into the nascent structure. As the flagellum lengthens outside the cell, the rate of flagellum growth does not change. The mystery is how subunit transit is maintained at a constant rate without a discernible energy source in the channel of the external flagellum. We present evidence for a simple physical mechanism for flagellum growth that harnesses the entropic force of the unfolded subunits themselves. We show that a subunit docked at the export machinery can be captured by a free subunit through head-to-tail linkage of juxtaposed amino (N)- and carboxy (C)-terminal helices. We propose that sequential rounds of linkage would generate a multisubunit chain that pulls successive subunits into and through the channel to the flagellum tip, and by isolating filaments growing on bacterial cells we reveal the predicted chain of head-to-tail linked subunits in the transit channel of flagella. Thermodynamic analysis confirms that links in the subunit chain can withstand the pulling force generated by rounds of subunit crystallization at the flagellum tip, and polymer theory predicts that as the N terminus of each unfolded subunit crystallizes, the entropic force at the subunit C terminus would increase, rapidly overcoming the threshold required to pull the next subunit from the export machinery. This pulling force would adjust automatically over the increasing length of the growing flagellum, maintaining a constant rate of subunit delivery to the tip

Effect of betaine supplementation on cycling sprint performance

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Purpose</p> <p>To examine the effect of betaine supplementation on cycling sprint performance.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Sixteen recreationally active subjects (7 females and 9 males) completed three sprint tests, each consisting of four 12 sec efforts against a resistance equal to 5.5% of body weight; efforts were separated by 2.5 min of cycling at zero resistance. Test one established baseline; test two and three were preceded by seven days of daily consumption of 591 ml of a carbohydrate-electrolyte beverage as a placebo or a carbohydrate-electrolyte beverage containing 0.42% betaine (approximately 2.5 grams of betaine a day); half the beverage was consumed in the morning and the other half in the afternoon. We used a double blind random order cross-over design; there was a 3 wk washout between trials two and three. Average and maximum peak and mean power were analyzed with one-way repeated measures ANOVA and, where indicated, a Student Newman-Keuls.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Compared to baseline, betaine ingestion increased average peak power (6.4%; p < 0.001), maximum peak power (5.7%; p < 0.001), average mean power (5.4%; p = 0.004), and maximum mean power (4.4%; p = 0.004) for all subjects combined. Compared to placebo, betaine ingestion significantly increased average peak power (3.4%; p = 0.026), maximum peak power max (3.8%; p = 0.007), average mean power (3.3%; p = 0.034), and maximum mean power (3.5%; p = 0.011) for all subjects combined. There were no differences between the placebo and baseline trials.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>One week of betaine ingestion improved cycling sprint power in recreationally active males and females.</p

The Long Term Response of Birds to Climate Change: New Results from a Cold Stage Avifauna in Northern England

The early MIS 3 (55–40 Kyr BP associated with Middle Palaeolithic archaeology) bird remains from Pin Hole, Creswell Crags, Derbyshire, England are analysed in the context of the new dating of the site’s stratigraphy. The analysis is restricted to the material from the early MIS 3 level of the cave because the upper fauna is now known to include Holocene material as well as that from the Late Glacial. The results of the analysis confirm the presence of the taxa, possibly unexpected for a Late Pleistocene glacial deposit including records such as Alpine swift, demoiselle crane and long-legged buzzard with southern and/or eastern distributions today. These taxa are accompanied by more expected ones such as willow ptarmigan /red grouse and rock ptarmigan living today in northern and montane areas. Finally, there are temperate taxa normally requiring trees for nesting such as wood pigeon and grey heron. Therefore, the result of the analysis is that the avifauna of early MIS 3 in England included taxa whose ranges today do not overlap making it a non-analogue community similar to the many steppe-tundra mammalian faunas of the time. The inclusion of more temperate and woodland taxa is discussed in the light that parts of northern Europe may have acted as cryptic northern refugia for some such taxa during the last glacial. These records showing former ranges of taxa are considered in the light of modern phylogeographic studies as these often assume former ranges without considering the fossil record of those taxa. In addition to the anomalous combination of taxa during MIS 3 living in Derbyshire, the individuals of a number of the taxa are different in size and shape to members of the species today probably due to the high carrying capacity of the steppe-tundra