A Context-Enhanced De-identification System

Many modern entity recognition systems, including the current state-of-the-art de-identification systems, are based on bidirectional long short-term memory (biLSTM) units augmented by a conditional random field (CRF) sequence optimizer. These systems process the input sentence by sentence. This approach prevents the systems from capturing dependencies over sentence boundaries and makes accurate sentence boundary detection a prerequisite. Since sentence boundary detection can be problematic especially in clinical reports, where dependencies and co-references across sentence boundaries are abundant, these systems have clear limitations. In this study, we built a new system on the framework of one of the current state-of-the-art de-identification systems, NeuroNER, to overcome these limitations. This new system incorporates context embeddings through forward and backward n -grams without using sentence boundaries. Our context-enhanced de-identification (CEDI) system captures dependencies over sentence boundaries and bypasses the sentence boundary detection problem altogether. We enhanced this system with deep affix features and an attention mechanism to capture the pertinent parts of the input. The CEDI system outperforms NeuroNER on the 2006 i2b2 de-identification challenge dataset, the 2014 i2b2 shared task de-identification dataset, and the 2016 CEGS N-GRID de-identification dataset ( p < 0.01 ). All datasets comprise narrative clinical reports in English but contain different note types varying from discharge summaries to psychiatric notes. Enhancing CEDI with deep affix features and the attention mechanism further increased performance.

Measurement of Infrasound Components Contained in the Noise Emitted during a Working Wind Turbine

The research reported in this paper involves the development and refinement of methods applicable to the measurement and analysis of infrasound signals generated by the operation of wind turbines. In particular, the presentation focuses on the use of a new system that is applied for simultaneous recording of acoustic signals in the low-frequency range emitted by wind farms in three independent and identical measurement setups. A comparative analysis of the proposed new system was made with the Brüel & Kjaer measurement, a commonly used methodology, which meets the requirements of the IEC 61400-11 standard. The paper focuses on the results of frequency and time-frequency analysis of infrasound signals recorded throughout the operation of a wind turbine with a rated capacity of 2 MW. The use of a correlated system with three simultaneous measurement systems can be a new and alternative measurement method that will eliminate the drawbacks of previous approaches.

Effective & Efficient Implementation of OBE Framework within Constrained Pakistani Environment to Attain Desired Learning Outcomes

Outcome-based-education (OBE) is an educational theory that bases each part of an educational system around goals (outcomes). Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) introduced the OBE in Pakistani engineering higher-education-institutions (HEIs),from 2018, in the replacement of previously followed Syllabus& Curriculum based education system. Key to success of OBE System is its continuous-quality-improvement (CQI) mechanism. The CQI mechanism design should be based on accurate assessment process and flawless evaluation of OBE System parameters; otherwise the OBE System’s benefits cannot be achieved. However, some HEIs have not devised an effective CQI mechanism and they still using classical procedures and academic tools in implementation of the OBE Framework, which cannot give desired results from the new System. This paper presents that; instead of presently employed loose-control, a modified stringent control strategy for academic activity and employment of latest technology, can make the CQI mechanism, more effective and efficient. This paper therefore presents a two-fold contribution. At first, the implementation problems of the OBE System are critically analyzed. Secondly, few modifications in the existing approaches have been introduced to achieve the desired results from the recently adopted OBE system.

A New Chaotic System with Only Nonhyperbolic Equilibrium Points: Dynamics and Its Engineering Application

In this work, we introduce a new non-Shilnikov chaotic system with an infinite number of nonhyperbolic equilibrium points. The proposed system does not have any linear term, and it is worth noting that the new system has one equilibrium point with triple zero eigenvalues at the origin. Also, the novel system has an infinite number of equilibrium points with double zero eigenvalues that are located on the z -axis. Numerical analysis of the system reveals many strong dynamics. The new system exhibits multistability and antimonotonicity. Multistability implies the coexistence of many periodic, limit cycle, and chaotic attractors under different initial values. Also, bifurcation analysis of the system shows interesting phenomena such as periodic window, period-doubling route to chaos, and inverse period-doubling bifurcations. Moreover, the complexity of the system is analyzed by computing spectral entropy. The spectral entropy distribution under different initial values is very scattered and shows that the new system has numerous multiple attractors. Finally, chaos-based encoding/decoding algorithms for secure data transmission are developed by designing a state chain diagram, which indicates the applicability of the new chaotic system.

Pension Participants’ Attitudes, Beliefs, and Emotional Responses to the New Dutch Pension System

As of 2022, the Dutch pension system will be overhauled. The success of this as well as other pension reforms also depends on how participants react to and accept such changes. We therefore studied participants’ attitudes, beliefs, and emotions toward the new pension system. We composed a text to inform them about the new system and qualitatively analyzed their responses. We investigated which beliefs and attitudes prevail among different age groups. The results show that many participants base their comments on previous experiences, misconceptions and (sometimes false) interpretations of the information in the text. Moreover, we find that young people are more optimistic, whilst older participants tend to feel victimized. Since the new Dutch pension rules have yet to be introduced, the results of our study contain valuable information for policymakers and pension funds who should acknowledge and address the oftentimes intense emotions, beliefs, and attitudes that influence the way that intentionally neutral information is perceived and accepted. A diversified communication strategy, mindful of different beliefs, emotions and attitudes among participants should help to empower citizens to get insight in their financial situation after retirement and to make informed choices.

Novel In-Situ Gelled Acid System Based on Inorganic Nanoparticles

Gelled acid systems based upon gelation of hydrochloric acid (HCl) are widely used in in both matrix acidizing and fracture acidizing treatments to prevent acidizing fluid leak-off into high permeable zones of a reservoir. The gelled up fluid system helps retard the acid reaction to allow deeper acid penetration for hydrocarbon productivity enhancement. The in-situ gelation is typically achieved by using crosslinked polymers with the acid. Conventional in-situ crosslinked gelled acid systems are made up of polyacrylamide gelling agent, iron based crosslinker and a breaker chemical in addition to other additives, with the acid as the base fluid. However, the polymer-based systems can lead to damaging the formation due to a variety of reasons including unbroken polymer residue. Additionally, the iron-based crosslinker systems can lead to scaling, precipitation and or sludge formation after the acid reacts with the formation, resulting in formation damage and lowering of hydrocarbon productivity. In this paper we showcase a new nanoparticles based gelled acid system that overcomes the inherent challenges faced by conventional in-situ crosslinked gelled acid systems. The new system can work in 5 to 20 % HCl up to 300°F. The new system does not contain any polymer or iron based crosslinker that can potentially damage the formation. It comprises nanoparticles, a gelation activator, acidizing treatment additives along with HCl. The new in-situ gelled acid system has low viscosity at surface making it easy to pump. It gels up at elevated temperatures and pH of 1 to 4, which helps with diverting the tail end acid to tighter or damaged zones of the formation. We demonstrate that the viscosification and eventual gelation of the new system can be achieved as the acid reacts with a carbonate formation and the pH rises above 1. As the acid further reacts and continues to spend there by increasing the pH beyond 4, the gel demonstrates reduction of viscosity. This assists in a better cleanup post the acidizing treatment. Various experimental techniques were used to showcase the development of the nanoparticle based acid diversion fluid. Static and dynamic gelation studies as a function of time, temperature and pH are reported. The gelation performance of the new system was evaluated at temperatures up to 300°F and discussed in the paper. Comparative performance of different types of gelation activators on the gelation profile of the nanoparticles is evaluated. It is also shown that the gelation and viscosity reduction is entirely a pH dependent phenomenon and does not require any additional breaker chemistry, and therefore provides more control over the system performance. The novelty of the new gelled acid system is that it is based upon nanoparticles making it less prone to formation damage as compared to a crosslinked polymer based system.

Residual Stress Measurements in Extreme Environments for Hazardous, Layered Specimens

Background In nuclear fuel plates of low-enriched U-10Mo (LEU) clad with aluminum by hot isostatic pressing (HIP), post-irradiation stresses arising during reactor shutdown are a major concern for safe reactor operations. Measurement of those residual stresses has not previously been possible because the high radioactivity of the plates requires handling only by remote manipulation in a hot cell. Objective The incremental slitting method for measuring through-thickness stress profiles was modified, and a system for automated, remote operation was built and tested. Methods Experimental modifications consisted of replacing electric-discharge machining (EDM) with a small end mill and strain-gauge measurements with cantilever displacement measurements. The inverse method used to calculate stresses was the pulse-regularization method modified to allow discontinuities across material interfaces. The new system was validated by comparing with conventional slitting on a depleted U-10Mo (DU) fuel plate. Results The new system was applied to two measurements each on six as-fabricated (pre-irradiation) LEU miniature fuel plates. Variations between the measurements at two locations in the same plate were strongly correlated with measured geometrical heterogeneity in the plate—a tilt in the fuel foil. Compressive stresses in the U-10Mo were shown to increase from 20 to 250 MPa as the ratio of aluminum thickness to U-10Mo thickness increased causing increased constraint during cooling. Faster cooling rates during processing also increased stress magnitudes. Conclusions The measurements trends agreed with data in the literature from similar plates made with DU, which further validates the method. Because other methods are impractical in a hot cell, the modified slitting method is now poised for the first measurements of post-irradiation stresses.

Analysis of Low Code-No Code Development Platforms in comparison with Traditional Development Methodologies

This paper examines the overview of low-code/no-code development platforms in comparison with traditional development methodologies and examines the benefits and limitations of the same. For several decades, businesses have had multiple options when they demanded new information systems. They could develop a new system using in-house developers, or they could order a system from an external merchant. This offers a close fit to business obligations. However, nowadays, there is a new alternative that is becoming increasingly prevalent. Low code/no code (LC/NC) applications can cater to business requirements efficiently, can be implemented instantly, and the cost is much less than systems developed in-house. Few, if any, programming skills are required. Keywords: Traditional development, No code development, low code development, Low code No code development, Software development life cycle (SDLC)