History of Freshwater Invasions in Illinois: Learning from the Past to Inform the Future

Rates of introduction and spread of non-native species continue to increase worldwide, with freshwater ecosystems highly impacted. Many non-native species crossed between the Great Lakes and Mississippi watersheds by traveling through waterways in Illinois. I assembled a comprehensive database of occurrences of aquatic non-native species (n=99) in Illinois inland waters. The arrival of non-native species accelerated since 1873. The Great Lakes Basin was the main source of established species into Illinois. From 1990-2012 the dominant vector was unintentional release of established species non-native to North America. Sixty of the 99 introduced species established. Eighteen established species had high or very high ecological impacts. Established species were more likely to be recorded, and first recorded, along the invasion corridor. Ten established species were recorded in \u3e50% of counties while six species were found in one county. Because Illinois is a conduit of non-native species, it should be a priority for management

An Empirical Analysis of Racial Categories in the Algorithmic Fairness Literature

Recent work in algorithmic fairness has highlighted the challenge of defining racial categories for the purposes of anti-discrimination. These challenges are not new but have previously fallen to the state, which enacts race through government statistics, policies, and evidentiary standards in anti-discrimination law. Drawing on the history of state race-making, we examine how longstanding questions about the nature of race and discrimination appear within the algorithmic fairness literature. Through a content analysis of 60 papers published at FAccT between 2018 and 2020, we analyze how race is conceptualized and formalized in algorithmic fairness frameworks. We note that differing notions of race are adopted inconsistently, at times even within a single analysis. We also explore the institutional influences and values associated with these choices. While we find that categories used in algorithmic fairness work often echo legal frameworks, we demonstrate that values from academic computer science play an equally important role in the construction of racial categories. Finally, we examine the reasoning behind different operationalizations of race, finding that few papers explicitly describe their choices and even fewer justify them. We argue that the construction of racial categories is a value-laden process with significant social and political consequences for the project of algorithmic fairness. The widespread lack of justification around the operationalization of race reflects institutional norms that allow these political decisions to remain obscured within the backstage of knowledge production.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figures, FAccT '2

Detecting Friendship Within Dynamic Online Interaction Networks

In many complex social systems, the timing and frequency of interactions between individuals are observable but friendship ties are hidden. Recovering these hidden ties, particularly for casual users who are relatively less active, would enable a wide variety of friendship-aware applications in domains where labeled data are often unavailable, including online advertising and national security. Here, we investigate the accuracy of multiple statistical features, based either purely on temporal interaction patterns or on the cooperative nature of the interactions, for automatically extracting latent social ties. Using self-reported friendship and non-friendship labels derived from an anonymous online survey, we learn highly accurate predictors for recovering hidden friendships within a massive online data set encompassing 18 billion interactions among 17 million individuals of the popular online game Halo: Reach. We find that the accuracy of many features improves as more data accumulates, and cooperative features are generally reliable. However, periodicities in interaction time series are sufficient to correctly classify 95% of ties, even for casual users. These results clarify the nature of friendship in online social environments and suggest new opportunities and new privacy concerns for friendship-aware applications that do not require the disclosure of private friendship information.Comment: To Appear at the 7th International AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Social Media (ICWSM '13), 11 pages, 1 table, 6 figure

A systematic review and meta-analysis of the use of the Omniflow II biosynthetic graft for aortic reconstruction

Objective: Despite the improvements in xenogeneic grafts and surgical techniques, management of aortic graft infection has remained challenging. The optimal graft material has remained controversial, with high rates of reinfection using prosthetic grafts and a limited time for venous harvest in an emergent setting. Recent studies have highlighted an increase in the use of Omniflow II biosynthetic vascular grafts (LeMaitre Vascular, Burlington, MA) for aortic reconstruction. The primary aim of the present study was to review the key outcomes for the Omniflow II graft in terms of reinfection and complications. Methods: The National Healthcare Service healthcare databases advanced search function was used to search nine databases for the search term “Omniflow.” The present study complied with the PRISMA (preferred reporting items for systematic review and meta-analysis) statement. Eligible studies related to aortic graft infection or in situ aortic reconstruction were selected in accordance with prespecified eligibility criteria and included for review. Data on the surgical technique, comorbidities, graft reinfection, mortality, and complications were combined. The data were analyzed using Stata/MP, version 17 (StataCorp, College Station, TX), and the probabilities were pooled using a DerSimonian and Laird random effects model with Freeman-Tukey arcsine transformation. Results: Six studies with 60 patients (44 men; age range, 29-89 years) were included. Of the 60 patients, 25 had undergone surgical reconstruction because of early graft infection (<4 months after the index procedure), 24 for late graft infection, and 3 because of mycotic aneurysms. Eight high-risk patients had undergone surgical reconstruction for prevention of an initial graft infection. Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, and S. epidermis were the most common organisms. Early mortality was 8.83% (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.12%-20.53%), and late mortality was 18.49% (95% CI, 5.51%-35.34%). Follow-up varied from 9 months to 2 years. No graft rupture or graft degeneration had occurred during follow-up. However, 6.2% (95% CI, 0.39%-15.81%) had experienced early graft occlusion, and 3.83% (95% CI, 0.00%-16.34%) had developed early graft stenosis. Two cases of postoperative reinfection were reported. The freedom from reinfection was 97.71% (95% CI, 87.94%-100.00%). Conclusions: Use of the Omniflow II graft for aortic reconstruction is a feasible alternative with acceptable mortality and low reinfection rates. However, there is a risk of limb occlusion. Although these studies were of low quality, the Omniflow II graft shows promise in this difficult patient cohort, especially when bifurcated reconstruction is required