An Error Analysis on TFL Learners’ Writings

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Arif ÇERÇİ

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The main purpose of the present study is to identify and represent TFL learners’ writing errors through error analysis. All the learners started learning Turkish as foreign language with A1 (beginner level and completed the process by taking C1 (advanced certificate in TÖMER at Gaziantep University. The data of the present study were collected from 14 students’ writings in proficiency exams for each level. The data were grouped as grammatical, syntactic, spelling, punctuation, and word choice errors. The ratio and categorical distributions of identified errors were analyzed through error analysis. The data were analyzed through statistical procedures in an effort to determine whether error types differ according to the levels of the students. The errors in this study are limited to the linguistic and intralingual developmental errors

Teacher knowledge of error analysis in differential calculus

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Eunice K. Moru

2014-12-01

Full Text Available The study investigated teacher knowledge of error analysis in differential calculus. Two teachers were the sample of the study: one a subject specialist and the other a mathematics education specialist. Questionnaires and interviews were used for data collection. The findings of the study reflect that the teachers’ knowledge of error analysis was characterised by the following assertions, which are backed up with some evidence: (1 teachers identified the errors correctly, (2 the generalised error identification resulted in opaque analysis, (3 some of the identified errors were not interpreted from multiple perspectives, (4 teachers’ evaluation of errors was either local or global and (5 in remedying errors accuracy and efficiency were emphasised more than conceptual understanding. The implications of the findings of the study for teaching include engaging in error analysis continuously as this is one way of improving knowledge for teaching.

Impact of errors in experimental parameters on reconstructed breast images using diffuse optical tomography.

Science.gov (United States)

Deng, Bin; Lundqvist, Mats; Fang, Qianqian; Carp, Stefan A

2018-03-01

Near-infrared diffuse optical tomography (NIR-DOT) is an emerging technology that offers hemoglobin based, functional imaging tumor biomarkers for breast cancer management. The most promising clinical translation opportunities are in the differential diagnosis of malignant vs. benign lesions, and in early response assessment and guidance for neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Accurate quantification of the tissue oxy- and deoxy-hemoglobin concentration across the field of view, as well as repeatability during longitudinal imaging in the context of therapy guidance, are essential for the successful translation of NIR-DOT to clinical practice. The ill-posed and ill-condition nature of the DOT inverse problem makes this technique particularly susceptible to model errors that may occur, for example, when the experimental conditions do not fully match the assumptions built into the image reconstruction process. To evaluate the susceptibility of DOT images to experimental errors that might be encountered in practice for a parallel-plate NIR-DOT system, we simulated 7 different types of errors, each with a range of magnitudes. We generated simulated data by using digital breast phantoms derived from five actual mammograms of healthy female volunteers, to which we added a 1-cm tumor. After applying each of the experimental error types and magnitudes to the simulated measurements, we reconstructed optical images with and without structural prior guidance and assessed the overall error in the total hemoglobin concentrations (HbT) and in the HbT contrast between the lesion and surrounding area vs. the best-case scenarios. It is found that slight in-plane probe misalignment and plate rotation did not result in large quantification errors. However, any out-of-plane probe tilting could result in significant deterioration in lesion contrast. Among the error types investigated in this work, optical images were the least likely to be impacted by breast shape inaccuracies but suffered the

Notes on human error analysis and prediction

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rasmussen, J.

1978-11-01

The notes comprise an introductory discussion of the role of human error analysis and prediction in industrial risk analysis. Following this introduction, different classes of human errors and role in industrial systems are mentioned. Problems related to the prediction of human behaviour in reliability and safety analysis are formulated and ''criteria for analyzability'' which must be met by industrial systems so that a systematic analysis can be performed are suggested. The appendices contain illustrative case stories and a review of human error reports for the task of equipment calibration and testing as found in the US Licensee Event Reports. (author)

Error estimation in plant growth analysis

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Andrzej Gregorczyk

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The scheme is presented for calculation of errors of dry matter values which occur during approximation of data with growth curves, determined by the analytical method (logistic function and by the numerical method (Richards function. Further formulae are shown, which describe absolute errors of growth characteristics: Growth rate (GR, Relative growth rate (RGR, Unit leaf rate (ULR and Leaf area ratio (LAR. Calculation examples concerning the growth course of oats and maize plants are given. The critical analysis of the estimation of obtained results has been done. The purposefulness of joint application of statistical methods and error calculus in plant growth analysis has been ascertained.

Phase analysis in gated blood pool tomography

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nakajima, Kenichi; Bunko, Hisashi; Tada, Akira; Taki, Junichi; Nanbu, Ichiro

1984-01-01

Phase analysis of gated blood pool study has been applied to detect the site of accessory conduction pathway (ACP) in the Wolff-Parkinson-White (WPW) syndrome; however, there was a limitation to detect the precise location of ACP by phase analysis alone. In this study, we applied phase analysis to gated blood pool tomography using seven pin hole tomography (7PT) and gated emission computed tomography (GECT) in 21 patients with WPW syndrome and 3 normal subjects. In 17 patients, the sites of ACPs were confirmed by epicardial mapping and the result of the surgical division of ACP. In 7PT, the site of ACP grossly agreed to the abnormal initial phase in phase image in 5 out of 6 patients with left cardiac type. In GECT, phase images were generated in short axial, vertical and horizontal long axial sections. In 8 out of 9 patients, the site of ACP was correctly identified by phase images, and in a patient who had two ACPs, initial phase corresponded to one of the two locations. Phase analysis of gated blood pool tomography has advantages for avoiding overlap of blood pools and for estimating three-dimensional propagation of the contraction, and can be a good adjunctive method in patients with WPW syndrome. (author)

Technical Note: Introduction of variance component analysis to setup error analysis in radiotherapy

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Matsuo, Yukinori, E-mail: ymatsuo@kuhp.kyoto-u.ac.jp; Nakamura, Mitsuhiro; Mizowaki, Takashi; Hiraoka, Masahiro [Department of Radiation Oncology and Image-applied Therapy, Kyoto University, 54 Shogoin-Kawaharacho, Sakyo, Kyoto 606-8507 (Japan)

2016-09-15

Purpose: The purpose of this technical note is to introduce variance component analysis to the estimation of systematic and random components in setup error of radiotherapy. Methods: Balanced data according to the one-factor random effect model were assumed. Results: Analysis-of-variance (ANOVA)-based computation was applied to estimate the values and their confidence intervals (CIs) for systematic and random errors and the population mean of setup errors. The conventional method overestimates systematic error, especially in hypofractionated settings. The CI for systematic error becomes much wider than that for random error. The ANOVA-based estimation can be extended to a multifactor model considering multiple causes of setup errors (e.g., interpatient, interfraction, and intrafraction). Conclusions: Variance component analysis may lead to novel applications to setup error analysis in radiotherapy.

Technical Note: Introduction of variance component analysis to setup error analysis in radiotherapy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Matsuo, Yukinori; Nakamura, Mitsuhiro; Mizowaki, Takashi; Hiraoka, Masahiro

2016-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this technical note is to introduce variance component analysis to the estimation of systematic and random components in setup error of radiotherapy. Methods: Balanced data according to the one-factor random effect model were assumed. Results: Analysis-of-variance (ANOVA)-based computation was applied to estimate the values and their confidence intervals (CIs) for systematic and random errors and the population mean of setup errors. The conventional method overestimates systematic error, especially in hypofractionated settings. The CI for systematic error becomes much wider than that for random error. The ANOVA-based estimation can be extended to a multifactor model considering multiple causes of setup errors (e.g., interpatient, interfraction, and intrafraction). Conclusions: Variance component analysis may lead to novel applications to setup error analysis in radiotherapy.

Design and analysis of a tendon-based computed tomography-compatible robot with remote center of motion for lung biopsy.

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Yang, Yunpeng; Jiang, Shan; Yang, Zhiyong; Yuan, Wei; Dou, Huaisu; Wang, Wei; Zhang, Daguang; Bian, Yuan

2017-04-01

Nowadays, biopsy is a decisive method of lung cancer diagnosis, whereas lung biopsy is time-consuming, complex and inaccurate. So a computed tomography-compatible robot for rapid and precise lung biopsy is developed in this article. According to the actual operation process, the robot is divided into two modules: 4-degree-of-freedom position module for location of puncture point is appropriate for patient's almost all positions and 3-degree-of-freedom tendon-based orientation module with remote center of motion is compact and computed tomography-compatible to orientate and insert needle automatically inside computed tomography bore. The workspace of the robot surrounds patient's thorax, and the needle tip forms a cone under patient's skin. A new error model of the robot based on screw theory is proposed in view of structure error and actuation error, which are regarded as screw motions. Simulation is carried out to verify the precision of the error model contrasted with compensation via inverse kinematics. The results of insertion experiment on specific phantom prove the feasibility of the robot with mean error of 1.373 mm in laboratory environment, which is accurate enough to replace manual operation.

Analysis of error patterns in clinical radiotherapy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Macklis, Roger; Meier, Tim; Barrett, Patricia; Weinhous, Martin

1996-01-01

Purpose: Until very recently, prescription errors and adverse treatment events have rarely been studied or reported systematically in oncology. We wished to understand the spectrum and severity of radiotherapy errors that take place on a day-to-day basis in a high-volume academic practice and to understand the resource needs and quality assurance challenges placed on a department by rapid upswings in contract-based clinical volumes requiring additional operating hours, procedures, and personnel. The goal was to define clinical benchmarks for operating safety and to detect error-prone treatment processes that might function as 'early warning' signs. Methods: A multi-tiered prospective and retrospective system for clinical error detection and classification was developed, with formal analysis of the antecedents and consequences of all deviations from prescribed treatment delivery, no matter how trivial. A department-wide record-and-verify system was operational during this period and was used as one method of treatment verification and error detection. Brachytherapy discrepancies were analyzed separately. Results: During the analysis year, over 2000 patients were treated with over 93,000 individual fields. A total of 59 errors affecting a total of 170 individual treated fields were reported or detected during this period. After review, all of these errors were classified as Level 1 (minor discrepancy with essentially no potential for negative clinical implications). This total treatment delivery error rate (170/93, 332 or 0.18%) is significantly better than corresponding error rates reported for other hospital and oncology treatment services, perhaps reflecting the relatively sophisticated error avoidance and detection procedures used in modern clinical radiation oncology. Error rates were independent of linac model and manufacturer, time of day (normal operating hours versus late evening or early morning) or clinical machine volumes. There was some relationship to

HUMAN RELIABILITY ANALYSIS DENGAN PENDEKATAN COGNITIVE RELIABILITY AND ERROR ANALYSIS METHOD (CREAM

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Zahirah Alifia Maulida

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Kecelakaan kerja pada bidang grinding dan welding menempati urutan tertinggi selama lima tahun terakhir di PT. X. Kecelakaan ini disebabkan oleh human error. Human error terjadi karena pengaruh lingkungan kerja fisik dan non fisik.Penelitian kali menggunakan skenario untuk memprediksi serta mengurangi kemungkinan terjadinya error pada manusia dengan pendekatan CREAM (Cognitive Reliability and Error Analysis Method. CREAM adalah salah satu metode human reliability analysis yang berfungsi untuk mendapatkan nilai Cognitive Failure Probability (CFP yang dapat dilakukan dengan dua cara yaitu basic method dan extended method. Pada basic method hanya akan didapatkan nilai failure probabailty secara umum, sedangkan untuk extended method akan didapatkan CFP untuk setiap task. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan faktor- faktor yang mempengaruhi timbulnya error pada pekerjaan grinding dan welding adalah kecukupan organisasi, kecukupan dari Man Machine Interface (MMI & dukungan operasional, ketersediaan prosedur/ perencanaan, serta kecukupan pelatihan dan pengalaman. Aspek kognitif pada pekerjaan grinding yang memiliki nilai error paling tinggi adalah planning dengan nilai CFP 0.3 dan pada pekerjaan welding yaitu aspek kognitif execution dengan nilai CFP 0.18. Sebagai upaya untuk mengurangi nilai error kognitif pada pekerjaan grinding dan welding rekomendasi yang diberikan adalah memberikan training secara rutin, work instrucstion yang lebih rinci dan memberikan sosialisasi alat. Kata kunci: CREAM (cognitive reliability and error analysis method, HRA (human reliability analysis, cognitive error Abstract The accidents in grinding and welding sectors were the highest cases over the last five years in PT. X and it caused by human error. Human error occurs due to the influence of working environment both physically and non-physically. This study will implement an approaching scenario called CREAM (Cognitive Reliability and Error Analysis Method. CREAM is one of human

Error Analysis in Mathematics. Technical Report #1012

Science.gov (United States)

Lai, Cheng-Fei

2012-01-01

Error analysis is a method commonly used to identify the cause of student errors when they make consistent mistakes. It is a process of reviewing a student's work and then looking for patterns of misunderstanding. Errors in mathematics can be factual, procedural, or conceptual, and may occur for a number of reasons. Reasons why students make…

Data Analysis & Statistical Methods for Command File Errors

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Meshkat, Leila; Waggoner, Bruce; Bryant, Larry

2014-01-01

This paper explains current work on modeling for managing the risk of command file errors. It is focused on analyzing actual data from a JPL spaceflight mission to build models for evaluating and predicting error rates as a function of several key variables. We constructed a rich dataset by considering the number of errors, the number of files radiated, including the number commands and blocks in each file, as well as subjective estimates of workload and operational novelty. We have assessed these data using different curve fitting and distribution fitting techniques, such as multiple regression analysis, and maximum likelihood estimation to see how much of the variability in the error rates can be explained with these. We have also used goodness of fit testing strategies and principal component analysis to further assess our data. Finally, we constructed a model of expected error rates based on the what these statistics bore out as critical drivers to the error rate. This model allows project management to evaluate the error rate against a theoretically expected rate as well as anticipate future error rates.

Human Error Analysis by Fuzzy-Set

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Situmorang, Johnny

1996-01-01

In conventional HRA the probability of Error is treated as a single and exact value through constructing even tree, but in this moment the Fuzzy-Set Theory is used. Fuzzy set theory treat the probability of error as a plausibility which illustrate a linguistic variable. Most parameter or variable in human engineering been defined verbal good, fairly good, worst etc. Which describe a range of any value of probability. For example this analysis is quantified the human error in calibration task, and the probability of miscalibration is very low

Uncertainty analysis in seismic tomography

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Owoc, Bartosz; Majdański, Mariusz

2017-04-01

Velocity field from seismic travel time tomography depends on several factors like regularization, inversion path, model parameterization etc. The result also strongly depends on an initial velocity model and precision of travel times picking. In this research we test dependence on starting model in layered tomography and compare it with effect of picking precision. Moreover, in our analysis for manual travel times picking the uncertainty distribution is asymmetric. This effect is shifting the results toward faster velocities. For calculation we are using JIVE3D travel time tomographic code. We used data from geo-engineering and industrial scale investigations, which were collected by our team from IG PAS.

Elemental analysis of hair using PIXE-tomography and INAA

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Beasley, D.; Gomez-Morilla, I.; Spyrou, N.

2008-01-01

3D quantitative elemental maps of a section of a strand of hair were produced using a combination of PIXE-Tomography and simultaneous On/Off Axis STIM-Tomography at the University of Surrey Ion Beam Centre. The distributions of S, K, Cl, Ca, Fe and Zn were determined using the PIXE-T reconstruction package DISRA. The results were compared with conventional bulk PIXE analysis of tomographic data as determined using Dan32. The overall concentrations determined by PIXE were compared with elemental concentrations held in the University of Surrey Hair Database. All the entries currently in the database were produced using INAA. The merits and possible contributions of tomographic PIXE analysis to analysis of hair are discussed. The conclusions drawn from the PIXE-Tomography analysis can be used to argue for more stringent procedures for hair analysis at the University of Surrey. (author)

Bayesian tomography and integrated data analysis in fusion diagnostics

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Dong; Dong, Y. B.; Deng, Wei; Shi, Z. B.; Fu, B. Z.; Gao, J. M.; Wang, T. B.; Zhou, Yan; Liu, Yi; Yang, Q. W.; Duan, X. R.

2016-11-01

In this article, a Bayesian tomography method using non-stationary Gaussian process for a prior has been introduced. The Bayesian formalism allows quantities which bear uncertainty to be expressed in the probabilistic form so that the uncertainty of a final solution can be fully resolved from the confidence interval of a posterior probability. Moreover, a consistency check of that solution can be performed by checking whether the misfits between predicted and measured data are reasonably within an assumed data error. In particular, the accuracy of reconstructions is significantly improved by using the non-stationary Gaussian process that can adapt to the varying smoothness of emission distribution. The implementation of this method to a soft X-ray diagnostics on HL-2A has been used to explore relevant physics in equilibrium and MHD instability modes. This project is carried out within a large size inference framework, aiming at an integrated analysis of heterogeneous diagnostics.

Borehole radar diffraction tomography

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Cho, Seong Jun; Kim, Jung Ho; Yi, Myeong Jong; Chung, Seung Hwan; Lee, Hee Il [Korea Institute of Geology Mining and Materials, Taejon (Korea, Republic of)

1997-12-01

Tomography is widely used as imaging method for determining subsurface structure. Among the reconstruction algorithms for tomographic imaging, travel time tomography is almost applied to imaging subsurface. But isolated small body comparable with the wavelength could not be well recognized by travel time tomography. Other tomographic method are need to improve the imaging process. In the study of this year, diffraction tomography was investigated. The theory for diffraction tomography is based on the 1st-order Born approximation. Multisource holography, which is similar to Kirchihoff migration, is compared with diffraction tomography. To improve 1st-order Born diffraction tomography, two kinds of filter designed from multisource holography and 2-D green function, respectively, applied on the reconstructed image. The algorithm was tested for the numerical modeling data of which algorithm consists of the analytic computation of radar signal in transmitter and receiver regions and 2-D FDM scheme for the propagation of electromagnetic waves in media. The air-filled cavity model to show a typical diffraction pattern was applied to diffraction tomography imaging, and the result shows accurate location and area of cavity. But the calculated object function is not well matched the real object function, because the air-filled cavity model is not satisfied week scattered inhomogeneity for 1st born approximation, and the error term is included in estimating source wavelet from received signals. In spite of the object function error, the diffraction tomography assist for interpretation of subsurface as if conducted with travel time tomography. And the fracture model was tested, 1st born diffraction tomographic image is poor because of limited view angle coverage and violation of week scatter assumption, but the filtered image resolve the fracture somewhat better. The tested diffraction tomography image confirms effectiveness of filter for enhancing resolution. (author). 14

Formal Analysis of Soft Errors using Theorem Proving

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Sofiène Tahar

2013-07-01

Full Text Available Modeling and analysis of soft errors in electronic circuits has traditionally been done using computer simulations. Computer simulations cannot guarantee correctness of analysis because they utilize approximate real number representations and pseudo random numbers in the analysis and thus are not well suited for analyzing safety-critical applications. In this paper, we present a higher-order logic theorem proving based method for modeling and analysis of soft errors in electronic circuits. Our developed infrastructure includes formalized continuous random variable pairs, their Cumulative Distribution Function (CDF properties and independent standard uniform and Gaussian random variables. We illustrate the usefulness of our approach by modeling and analyzing soft errors in commonly used dynamic random access memory sense amplifier circuits.

Analysis of the interface tracking errors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cerne, G.; Tiselj, I.; Petelin, S.

2001-01-01

An important limitation of the interface-tracking algorithm is the grid density, which determines the space scale of the surface tracking. In this paper the analysis of the interface tracking errors, which occur in a dispersed flow, is performed for the VOF interface tracking method. A few simple two-fluid tests are proposed for the investigation of the interface tracking errors and their grid dependence. When the grid density becomes too coarse to follow the interface changes, the errors can be reduced either by using denser nodalization or by switching to the two-fluid model during the simulation. Both solutions are analyzed and compared on a simple vortex-flow test.(author)

AGAPE-ET for human error analysis of emergency tasks and its application

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, J. H.; Jeong, W. D.

2002-01-01

The paper presents a proceduralised human reliability analysis (HRA) methodology, AGAPE-ET (A Guidance And Procedure for Human Error Analysis for Emergency Tasks), covering both qualitative error analysis and quantification of human error probability (HEP) of emergency tasks in nuclear power plants. The AGAPE-ET method is based on the simplified cognitive model. By each cognitive function, error causes or error-likely situations have been identified considering the characteristics of the performance of each cognitive function and influencing mechanism of the performance influencing factors (PIFs) on the cognitive function. Then, error analysis items have been determined from the identified error causes or error-likely situations and a human error analysis procedure based on the error analysis items is organised to help the analysts cue or guide overall human error analysis. The basic scheme for the quantification of HEP consists in the multiplication of the BHEP assigned by the error analysis item and the weight from the influencing factors decision tree (IFDT) constituted by cognitive function. The method can be characterised by the structured identification of the weak points of the task required to perform and the efficient analysis process that the analysts have only to carry out with the necessary cognitive functions. The paper also presents the application of AGAPE-ET to 31 nuclear emergency tasks and its results

Segmentation error and macular thickness measurements obtained with spectral-domain optical coherence tomography devices in neovascular age-related macular degeneration

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Moosang Kim

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Purpose: To evaluate frequency and severity of segmentation errors of two spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT devices and error effect on central macular thickness (CMT measurements. Materials and Methods: Twenty-seven eyes of 25 patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration, examined using the Cirrus HD-OCT and Spectralis HRA + OCT, were retrospectively reviewed. Macular cube 512 × 128 and 5-line raster scans were performed with the Cirrus and 512 × 25 volume scans with the Spectralis. Frequency and severity of segmentation errors were compared between scans. Results: Segmentation error frequency was 47.4% (baseline, 40.7% (1 month, 40.7% (2 months, and 48.1% (6 months for the Cirrus, and 59.3%, 62.2%, 57.8%, and 63.7%, respectively, for the Spectralis, differing significantly between devices at all examinations (P < 0.05, except at baseline. Average error score was 1.21 ± 1.65 (baseline, 0.79 ± 1.18 (1 month, 0.74 ± 1.12 (2 months, and 0.96 ± 1.11 (6 months for the Cirrus, and 1.73 ± 1.50, 1.54 ± 1.35, 1.38 ± 1.40, and 1.49 ± 1.30, respectively, for the Spectralis, differing significantly at 1 month and 2 months (P < 0.02. Automated and manual CMT measurements by the Spectralis were larger than those by the Cirrus. Conclusions: The Cirrus HD-OCT had a lower frequency and severity of segmentation error than the Spectralis HRA + OCT. SD-OCT error should be considered when evaluating retinal thickness.

Evaluation of Analysis by Cross-Validation, Part II: Diagnostic and Optimization of Analysis Error Covariance

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Richard Ménard

2018-02-01

Full Text Available We present a general theory of estimation of analysis error covariances based on cross-validation as well as a geometric interpretation of the method. In particular, we use the variance of passive observation-minus-analysis residuals and show that the true analysis error variance can be estimated, without relying on the optimality assumption. This approach is used to obtain near optimal analyses that are then used to evaluate the air quality analysis error using several different methods at active and passive observation sites. We compare the estimates according to the method of Hollingsworth-Lönnberg, Desroziers et al., a new diagnostic we developed, and the perceived analysis error computed from the analysis scheme, to conclude that, as long as the analysis is near optimal, all estimates agree within a certain error margin.

Analysis of field errors in existing undulators

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kincaid, B.M.

1990-01-01

The Advanced Light Source (ALS) and other third generation synchrotron light sources have been designed for optimum performance with undulator insertion devices. The performance requirements for these new undulators are explored, with emphasis on the effects of errors on source spectral brightness. Analysis of magnetic field data for several existing hybrid undulators is presented, decomposing errors into systematic and random components. An attempts is made to identify the sources of these errors, and recommendations are made for designing future insertion devices. 12 refs., 16 figs

Detection of anomalies in radio tomography of asteroids: Source count and forward errors

Science.gov (United States)

Pursiainen, S.; Kaasalainen, M.

2014-09-01

The purpose of this study was to advance numerical methods for radio tomography in which asteroid's internal electric permittivity distribution is to be recovered from radio frequency data gathered by an orbiter. The focus was on signal generation via multiple sources (transponders) providing one potential, or even essential, scenario to be implemented in a challenging in situ measurement environment and within tight payload limits. As a novel feature, the effects of forward errors including noise and a priori uncertainty of the forward (data) simulation were examined through a combination of the iterative alternating sequential (IAS) inverse algorithm and finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulation of time evolution data. Single and multiple source scenarios were compared in two-dimensional localization of permittivity anomalies. Three different anomaly strengths and four levels of total noise were tested. Results suggest, among other things, that multiple sources can be necessary to obtain appropriate results, for example, to distinguish three separate anomalies with permittivity less or equal than half of the background value, relevant in recovery of internal cavities.

Analysis of Medication Errors in Simulated Pediatric Resuscitation by Residents

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Evelyn Porter

2014-07-01

Full Text Available Introduction: The objective of our study was to estimate the incidence of prescribing medication errors specifically made by a trainee and identify factors associated with these errors during the simulated resuscitation of a critically ill child. Methods: The results of the simulated resuscitation are described. We analyzed data from the simulated resuscitation for the occurrence of a prescribing medication error. We compared univariate analysis of each variable to medication error rate and performed a separate multiple logistic regression analysis on the significant univariate variables to assess the association between the selected variables. Results: We reviewed 49 simulated resuscitations . The final medication error rate for the simulation was 26.5% (95% CI 13.7% - 39.3%. On univariate analysis, statistically significant findings for decreased prescribing medication error rates included senior residents in charge, presence of a pharmacist, sleeping greater than 8 hours prior to the simulation, and a visual analog scale score showing more confidence in caring for critically ill children. Multiple logistic regression analysis using the above significant variables showed only the presence of a pharmacist to remain significantly associated with decreased medication error, odds ratio of 0.09 (95% CI 0.01 - 0.64. Conclusion: Our results indicate that the presence of a clinical pharmacist during the resuscitation of a critically ill child reduces the medication errors made by resident physician trainees.

Virtual electrical capacitance tomography sensor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li, Y; Yang, W Q

2005-01-01

Electrical capacitance tomography (ECT) is an effective technique for elucidating the distribution of dielectric materials inside closed pipes or vessels. This paper describes a virtual electrical capacitance tomography (VECT) system, which can simulate a range of sensor and hardware configurations and material distributions. A selection of popular image reconstruction algorithms has been made available and image error and capacitance error tools enable their performance to be evaluated and compared. Series of frame-by-frame results can be stored for simulating real-time dynamic flows. The system is programmed in Matlab with DOS functions. It is convenient to use and low-cost to operate, providing an effective tool for engineering experiment

Error begat error: design error analysis and prevention in social infrastructure projects.

Science.gov (United States)

Love, Peter E D; Lopez, Robert; Edwards, David J; Goh, Yang M

2012-09-01

Design errors contribute significantly to cost and schedule growth in social infrastructure projects and to engineering failures, which can result in accidents and loss of life. Despite considerable research that has addressed their error causation in construction projects they still remain prevalent. This paper identifies the underlying conditions that contribute to design errors in social infrastructure projects (e.g. hospitals, education, law and order type buildings). A systemic model of error causation is propagated and subsequently used to develop a learning framework for design error prevention. The research suggests that a multitude of strategies should be adopted in congruence to prevent design errors from occurring and so ensure that safety and project performance are ameliorated. Copyright © 2011. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Students’ Written Production Error Analysis in the EFL Classroom Teaching: A Study of Adult English Learners Errors

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Ranauli Sihombing

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Errors analysis has become one of the most interesting issues in the study of Second Language Acquisition. It can not be denied that some teachers do not know a lot about error analysis and related theories of how L1, L2 or foreign language acquired. In addition, the students often feel upset since they find a gap between themselves and the teachers for the errors the students make and the teachers’ understanding about the error correction. The present research aims to investigate what errors adult English learners make in written production of English. The significances of the study is to know what errors students make in writing that the teachers can find solution to the errors the students make for a better English language teaching and learning especially in teaching English for adults. The study employed qualitative method. The research was undertaken at an airline education center in Bandung. The result showed that syntax errors are more frequently found than morphology errors, especially in terms of verb phrase errors. It is recommended that it is important for teacher to know the theory of second language acquisition in order to know how the students learn and produce theirlanguage. In addition, it will be advantages for teachers if they know what errors students frequently make in their learning, so that the teachers can give solution to the students for a better English language learning achievement.   DOI: https://doi.org/10.24071/llt.2015.180205

FRamework Assessing Notorious Contributing Influences for Error (FRANCIE): Perspective on Taxonomy Development to Support Error Reporting and Analysis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lon N. Haney; David I. Gertman

2003-04-01

Beginning in the 1980s a primary focus of human reliability analysis was estimation of human error probabilities. However, detailed qualitative modeling with comprehensive representation of contextual variables often was lacking. This was likely due to the lack of comprehensive error and performance shaping factor taxonomies, and the limited data available on observed error rates and their relationship to specific contextual variables. In the mid 90s Boeing, America West Airlines, NASA Ames Research Center and INEEL partnered in a NASA sponsored Advanced Concepts grant to: assess the state of the art in human error analysis, identify future needs for human error analysis, and develop an approach addressing these needs. Identified needs included the need for a method to identify and prioritize task and contextual characteristics affecting human reliability. Other needs identified included developing comprehensive taxonomies to support detailed qualitative modeling and to structure meaningful data collection efforts across domains. A result was the development of the FRamework Assessing Notorious Contributing Influences for Error (FRANCIE) with a taxonomy for airline maintenance tasks. The assignment of performance shaping factors to generic errors by experts proved to be valuable to qualitative modeling. Performance shaping factors and error types from such detailed approaches can be used to structure error reporting schemes. In a recent NASA Advanced Human Support Technology grant FRANCIE was refined, and two new taxonomies for use on space missions were developed. The development, sharing, and use of error taxonomies, and the refinement of approaches for increased fidelity of qualitative modeling is offered as a means to help direct useful data collection strategies.

Analysis of translational errors in frame-based and frameless cranial radiosurgery using an anthropomorphic phantom

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Almeida, Taynna Vernalha Rocha [Faculdades Pequeno Principe (FPP), Curitiba, PR (Brazil); Cordova Junior, Arno Lotar; Almeida, Cristiane Maria; Piedade, Pedro Argolo; Silva, Cintia Mara da, E-mail: taynnavra@gmail.com [Centro de Radioterapia Sao Sebastiao, Florianopolis, SC (Brazil); Brincas, Gabriela R. Baseggio [Centro de Diagnostico Medico Imagem, Florianopolis, SC (Brazil); Marins, Priscila; Soboll, Danyel Scheidegger [Universidade Tecnologica Federal do Parana (UTFPR), Curitiba, PR (Brazil)

2016-03-15

Objective: To evaluate three-dimensional translational setup errors and residual errors in image-guided radiosurgery, comparing frameless and frame-based techniques, using an anthropomorphic phantom. Materials and Methods: We initially used specific phantoms for the calibration and quality control of the image-guided system. For the hidden target test, we used an Alderson Radiation Therapy (ART)-210 anthropomorphic head phantom, into which we inserted four 5- mm metal balls to simulate target treatment volumes. Computed tomography images were the taken with the head phantom properly positioned for frameless and frame-based radiosurgery. Results: For the frameless technique, the mean error magnitude was 0.22 ± 0.04 mm for setup errors and 0.14 ± 0.02 mm for residual errors, the combined uncertainty being 0.28 mm and 0.16 mm, respectively. For the frame-based technique, the mean error magnitude was 0.73 ± 0.14 mm for setup errors and 0.31 ± 0.04 mm for residual errors, the combined uncertainty being 1.15 mm and 0.63 mm, respectively. Conclusion: The mean values, standard deviations, and combined uncertainties showed no evidence of a significant differences between the two techniques when the head phantom ART-210 was used. (author)

SU-F-T-320: Assessing Placement Error of Optically Stimulated Luminescent in Vivo Dosimeters Using Cone-Beam Computed Tomography

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Riegel, A; Klein, E [Northwell Health, Lake Success, NY (United States); Tariq, M; Gomez, C [Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY (United States)

2016-06-15

Purpose: Optically-stimulated luminescent dosimeters (OSLDs) are increasingly utilized for in vivo dosimetry of complex radiation delivery techniques such as intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) and volumetric-modulated arc therapy (VMAT). Evaluation of clinical uncertainties such as placement error has not been performed. This work retrospectively investigates the magnitude of placement error using conebeam computed tomography (CBCT) and its effect on measured/planned dose agreement. Methods: Each OSLD was placed at a physicist-designated location on the patient surface on a weekly basis. The location was given in terms of a gantry angle and two-dimensional offset from central axis. The OSLDs were placed before daily image guidance. We identified 77 CBCTs from 25 head-and-neck patients who received IMRT or VMAT, where OSLDs were visible on the CT image. Grossly misplaced OSLDs were excluded (e.g. wrong laterality). CBCTs were registered with the treatment plan and the distance between the planned and actual OSLD location was calculated in two dimensions in the beam’s eye view. Distances were correlated with measured/planned dose percent differences. Results: OSLDs were grossly misplaced for 5 CBCTs (6.4%). For the remaining 72 CBCTs, average placement error was 7.0±6.0 mm. These errors were not correlated with measured/planned dose percent differences (R{sup 2}=0.0153). Generalizing the dosimetric effect of placement errors may be unreliable. Conclusion: Correct placement of OSLDs for IMRT and VMAT treatments is critical to accurate and precise in vivo dosimetry. Small placement errors could produce large disagreement between measured and planned dose. Further work includes expansion to other treatment sites, examination of planned dose at the actual point of OSLD placement, and the influence of imageguided shifts on measured/planned dose agreement.

Applications of human error analysis to aviation and space operations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nelson, W.R.

1998-01-01

For the past several years at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) we have been working to apply methods of human error analysis to the design of complex systems. We have focused on adapting human reliability analysis (HRA) methods that were developed for Probabilistic Safety Assessment (PSA) for application to system design. We are developing methods so that human errors can be systematically identified during system design, the potential consequences of each error can be assessed, and potential corrective actions (e.g. changes to system design or procedures) can be identified. These applications lead to different requirements when compared with HR.As performed as part of a PSA. For example, because the analysis will begin early during the design stage, the methods must be usable when only partial design information is available. In addition, the ability to perform numerous ''what if'' analyses to identify and compare multiple design alternatives is essential. Finally, since the goals of such human error analyses focus on proactive design changes rather than the estimate of failure probabilities for PRA, there is more emphasis on qualitative evaluations of error relationships and causal factors than on quantitative estimates of error frequency. The primary vehicle we have used to develop and apply these methods has been a series of prqjects sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to apply human error analysis to aviation operations. The first NASA-sponsored project had the goal to evaluate human errors caused by advanced cockpit automation. Our next aviation project focused on the development of methods and tools to apply human error analysis to the design of commercial aircraft. This project was performed by a consortium comprised of INEEL, NASA, and Boeing Commercial Airplane Group. The focus of the project was aircraft design and procedures that could lead to human errors during airplane maintenance

Method for computed tomography

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wagner, W.

1980-01-01

In transversal computer tomography apparatus, in which the positioning zone in which the patient can be positioned is larger than the scanning zone in which a body slice can be scanned, reconstruction errors are liable to occur. These errors are caused by incomplete irradiation of the body during examination. They become manifest not only as an incorrect image of the area not irradiated, but also have an adverse effect on the image of the other, completely irradiated areas. The invention enables reduction of these errors

Abnormal error monitoring in math-anxious individuals: evidence from error-related brain potentials.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Macarena Suárez-Pellicioni

Full Text Available This study used event-related brain potentials to investigate whether math anxiety is related to abnormal error monitoring processing. Seventeen high math-anxious (HMA and seventeen low math-anxious (LMA individuals were presented with a numerical and a classical Stroop task. Groups did not differ in terms of trait or state anxiety. We found enhanced error-related negativity (ERN in the HMA group when subjects committed an error on the numerical Stroop task, but not on the classical Stroop task. Groups did not differ in terms of the correct-related negativity component (CRN, the error positivity component (Pe, classical behavioral measures or post-error measures. The amplitude of the ERN was negatively related to participants' math anxiety scores, showing a more negative amplitude as the score increased. Moreover, using standardized low resolution electromagnetic tomography (sLORETA we found greater activation of the insula in errors on a numerical task as compared to errors in a non-numerical task only for the HMA group. The results were interpreted according to the motivational significance theory of the ERN.

SHEAN (Simplified Human Error Analysis code) and automated THERP

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wilson, J.R.

1993-01-01

One of the most widely used human error analysis tools is THERP (Technique for Human Error Rate Prediction). Unfortunately, this tool has disadvantages. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, realizing these drawbacks, commissioned Dr. Swain, the author of THERP, to create a simpler, more consistent tool for deriving human error rates. That effort produced the Accident Sequence Evaluation Program Human Reliability Analysis Procedure (ASEP), which is more conservative than THERP, but a valuable screening tool. ASEP involves answering simple questions about the scenario in question, and then looking up the appropriate human error rate in the indicated table (THERP also uses look-up tables, but four times as many). The advantages of ASEP are that human factors expertise is not required, and the training to use the method is minimal. Although not originally envisioned by Dr. Swain, the ASEP approach actually begs to be computerized. That WINCO did, calling the code SHEAN, for Simplified Human Error ANalysis. The code was done in TURBO Basic for IBM or IBM-compatible MS-DOS, for fast execution. WINCO is now in the process of comparing this code against THERP for various scenarios. This report provides a discussion of SHEAN

Analysis of multiple scattering effects in optical Doppler tomography

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Yura, H.T.; Thrane, L.; Andersen, Peter E.

2005-01-01

Optical Doppler tomography (ODT) combines Doppler velocimetry and optical coherence tomography (OCT) to obtain high-resolution cross-sectional imaging of particle flow velocity in scattering media such as the human retina and skin. Here, we present the results of a theoretical analysis of ODT where...... multiple scattering effects are included. The purpose of this analysis is to determine how multiple scattering affects the estimation of the depth-resolved localized flow velocity. Depth-resolved velocity estimates are obtained directly from the corresponding mean or standard deviation of the observed...

An error analysis in the early grades mathematics – a learning opportunity?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Roelien Herholdt

2014-07-01

Full Text Available Error analysis is the study of errors in learners’ work with a view to looking for possible explanations for these errors. It is a multifaceted activity involving analysis of correct, partially correct and incorrect processes and thinking about possible remediating strategies. This paper reports on such an analysis of learner tests. The tests were administered as part of the evaluation of an intervention project that aimed to teach mathematical problem solving skills to grade 1-4 learners. Quantitative error analysis was carried out using a coding sheet for each grade. A reliability coefficient was found for each test, as were item means and discrimination indexes for each item. The analysis provided some insight into the more common procedural and conceptual errors evidenced in the learners’ scripts. Findings showed similar difficulties across intervention and control schools and highlighted particular areas of difficulty. The authors argue that this analysis is an example of large-scale error analysis, but that the analysis method could be adopted by teachers of grades 1-4.

Error analysis of stochastic gradient descent ranking.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Hong; Tang, Yi; Li, Luoqing; Yuan, Yuan; Li, Xuelong; Tang, Yuanyan

2013-06-01

Ranking is always an important task in machine learning and information retrieval, e.g., collaborative filtering, recommender systems, drug discovery, etc. A kernel-based stochastic gradient descent algorithm with the least squares loss is proposed for ranking in this paper. The implementation of this algorithm is simple, and an expression of the solution is derived via a sampling operator and an integral operator. An explicit convergence rate for leaning a ranking function is given in terms of the suitable choices of the step size and the regularization parameter. The analysis technique used here is capacity independent and is novel in error analysis of ranking learning. Experimental results on real-world data have shown the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm in ranking tasks, which verifies the theoretical analysis in ranking error.

Dynamic Error Analysis Method for Vibration Shape Reconstruction of Smart FBG Plate Structure

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Hesheng Zhang

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Shape reconstruction of aerospace plate structure is an important issue for safe operation of aerospace vehicles. One way to achieve such reconstruction is by constructing smart fiber Bragg grating (FBG plate structure with discrete distributed FBG sensor arrays using reconstruction algorithms in which error analysis of reconstruction algorithm is a key link. Considering that traditional error analysis methods can only deal with static data, a new dynamic data error analysis method are proposed based on LMS algorithm for shape reconstruction of smart FBG plate structure. Firstly, smart FBG structure and orthogonal curved network based reconstruction method is introduced. Then, a dynamic error analysis model is proposed for dynamic reconstruction error analysis. Thirdly, the parameter identification is done for the proposed dynamic error analysis model based on least mean square (LMS algorithm. Finally, an experimental verification platform is constructed and experimental dynamic reconstruction analysis is done. Experimental results show that the dynamic characteristics of the reconstruction performance for plate structure can be obtained accurately based on the proposed dynamic error analysis method. The proposed method can also be used for other data acquisition systems and data processing systems as a general error analysis method.

ERROR ANALYSIS ON INFORMATION AND TECHNOLOGY STUDENTS’ SENTENCE WRITING ASSIGNMENTS

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Rentauli Mariah Silalahi

2015-03-01

Full Text Available Students’ error analysis is very important for helping EFL teachers to develop their teaching materials, assessments and methods. However, it takes much time and effort from the teachers to do such an error analysis towards their students’ language. This study seeks to identify the common errors made by 1 class of 28 freshmen students studying English in their first semester in an IT university. The data is collected from their writing assignments for eight consecutive weeks. The errors found were classified into 24 types and the top ten most common errors committed by the students were article, preposition, spelling, word choice, subject-verb agreement, auxiliary verb, plural form, verb form, capital letter, and meaningless sentences. The findings about the students’ frequency of committing errors were, then, contrasted to their midterm test result and in order to find out the reasons behind the error recurrence; the students were given some questions to answer in a questionnaire format. Most of the students admitted that careless was the major reason for their errors and lack understanding came next. This study suggests EFL teachers to devote their time to continuously check the students’ language by giving corrections so that the students can learn from their errors and stop committing the same errors.

Analytical sensitivity analysis of geometric errors in a three axis machine tool

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Park, Sung Ryung; Yang, Seung Han

2012-01-01

In this paper, an analytical method is used to perform a sensitivity analysis of geometric errors in a three axis machine tool. First, an error synthesis model is constructed for evaluating the position volumetric error due to the geometric errors, and then an output variable is defined, such as the magnitude of the position volumetric error. Next, the global sensitivity analysis is executed using an analytical method. Finally, the sensitivity indices are calculated using the quantitative values of the geometric errors

Attitude Determination Error Analysis System (ADEAS) mathematical specifications document

Science.gov (United States)

Nicholson, Mark; Markley, F.; Seidewitz, E.

1988-01-01

The mathematical specifications of Release 4.0 of the Attitude Determination Error Analysis System (ADEAS), which provides a general-purpose linear error analysis capability for various spacecraft attitude geometries and determination processes, are presented. The analytical basis of the system is presented. The analytical basis of the system is presented, and detailed equations are provided for both three-axis-stabilized and spin-stabilized attitude sensor models.

Error analysis of nuclear power plant operator cognitive behavior

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

He Xuhong; Zhao Bingquan; Chen Yulong

2001-01-01

Nuclear power plant is a complex human-machine system integrated with many advanced machines, electron devices and automatic controls. It demands operators to have high cognitive ability and correct analysis skill. The author divides operator's cognitive process into five stages to analysis. With this cognitive model, operator's cognitive error is analysed to get the root causes and stages that error happens. The results of the analysis serve as a basis in design of control rooms and training and evaluation of operators

Error Analysis of Determining Airplane Location by Global Positioning System

OpenAIRE

Hajiyev, Chingiz; Burat, Alper

1999-01-01

This paper studies the error analysis of determining airplane location by global positioning system (GPS) using statistical testing method. The Newton Rhapson method positions the airplane at the intersection point of four spheres. Absolute errors, relative errors and standard deviation have been calculated The results show that the positioning error of the airplane varies with the coordinates of GPS satellite and the airplane.

Determining Bounds on Assumption Errors in Operational Analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Neal M. Bengtson

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The technique of operational analysis (OA is used in the study of systems performance, mainly for estimating mean values of various measures of interest, such as, number of jobs at a device and response times. The basic principles of operational analysis allow errors in assumptions to be quantified over a time period. The assumptions which are used to derive the operational analysis relationships are studied. Using Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT conditions bounds on error measures of these OA relationships are found. Examples of these bounds are used for representative performance measures to show limits on the difference between true performance values and those estimated by operational analysis relationships. A technique for finding tolerance limits on the bounds is demonstrated with a simulation example.

Numeracy, Literacy and Newman's Error Analysis

Science.gov (United States)

White, Allan Leslie

2010-01-01

Newman (1977, 1983) defined five specific literacy and numeracy skills as crucial to performance on mathematical word problems: reading, comprehension, transformation, process skills, and encoding. Newman's Error Analysis (NEA) provided a framework for considering the reasons that underlay the difficulties students experienced with mathematical…

Interfractional and intrafractional errors assessed by daily cone-beam computed tomography in nasopharyngeal carcinoma treated with intensity-modulated radiation therapy. A prospective study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lu Heming; Lin Hui; Feng Guosheng

2012-01-01

This prospective study was to assess interfractional and intrafractional errors and to estimate appropriate margins for planning target volume (PTV) by using daily cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) guidance in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). Daily pretreatment and post-treatment CBCT scans were acquired separately after initial patient setup and after the completion of each treatment fraction in 10 patients treated with intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT). Online corrections were made before treatment if any translational setup error was found. Interfractional and intrafractional errors were recorded in the right-left (RL), superior-inferior (SI) and anterior-posterior (AP) directions. For the translational shifts, interfractional errors >2 mm occurred in 21.7% of measurements in the RL direction, 12.7% in the SI direction and 34.1% in the AP direction, respectively. Online correction resulted in 100% of residual errors ≤2 mm in the RL and SI directions, and 95.5% of residual errors ≤2 mm in the AP direction. No residual errors >3 mm occurred in the three directions. For the rotational shifts, a significant reduction was found in the magnitudes of residual errors compared with those of interfractional errors. A margin of 4.9 mm, 4.0 mm and 6.3 mm was required in the RL, SI and AP directions, respectively, when daily CBCT scans were not performed. With daily CBCT, the margins were reduced to 1.2 mm in all directions. In conclusion, daily CBCT guidance is an effective modality to improve the accuracy of IMRT for NPC. The online correction could result in a 70-81% reduction in margin size. (author)

Analysis of the computed tomography in the acute abdomen

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hochhegger, Bruno; Moraes, Everton; Haygert, Carlos Jesus Pereira; Antunes, Paulo Sergio Pase; Gazzoni, Fernando; Lopes, Luis Felipe Dias

2007-01-01

Introduction: This study tends to test the capacity of the computed tomography in assist in the diagnosis and the approach of the acute abdomen. Material and method: This is a longitudinal and prospective study, in which were analyzed the patients with the diagnosis of acute abdomen. There were obtained 105 cases of acute abdomen and after the application of the exclusions criteria were included 28 patients in the study. Results: Computed tomography changed the diagnostic hypothesis of the physicians in 50% of the cases (p 0.05), where 78.57% of the patients had surgical indication before computed tomography and 67.86% after computed tomography (p = 0.0546). The index of accurate diagnosis of computed tomography, when compared to the anatomopathologic examination and the final diagnosis, was observed in 82.14% of the cases (p = 0.013). When the analysis was done dividing the patients in surgical and nonsurgical group, were obtained an accuracy of 89.28% (p 0.0001). The difference of 7.2 days of hospitalization (p = 0.003) was obtained compared with the mean of the acute abdomen without use the computed tomography. Conclusion: The computed tomography is correlative with the anatomopathology and has great accuracy in the surgical indication, associated with the capacity of increase the confident index of the physicians, reduces the hospitalization time, reduces the number of surgeries and is cost-effective. (author)

An advanced human reliability analysis methodology: analysis of cognitive errors focused on

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, J. H.; Jeong, W. D.

2001-01-01

The conventional Human Reliability Analysis (HRA) methods such as THERP/ASEP, HCR and SLIM has been criticised for their deficiency in analysing cognitive errors which occurs during operator's decision making process. In order to supplement the limitation of the conventional methods, an advanced HRA method, what is called the 2 nd generation HRA method, including both qualitative analysis and quantitative assessment of cognitive errors has been being developed based on the state-of-the-art theory of cognitive systems engineering and error psychology. The method was developed on the basis of human decision-making model and the relation between the cognitive function and the performance influencing factors. The application of the proposed method to two emergency operation tasks is presented

Error propagation analysis for a sensor system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yeater, M.L.; Hockenbury, R.W.; Hawkins, J.; Wilkinson, J.

1976-01-01

As part of a program to develop reliability methods for operational use with reactor sensors and protective systems, error propagation analyses are being made for each model. An example is a sensor system computer simulation model, in which the sensor system signature is convoluted with a reactor signature to show the effect of each in revealing or obscuring information contained in the other. The error propagation analysis models the system and signature uncertainties and sensitivities, whereas the simulation models the signatures and by extensive repetitions reveals the effect of errors in various reactor input or sensor response data. In the approach for the example presented, the errors accumulated by the signature (set of ''noise'' frequencies) are successively calculated as it is propagated stepwise through a system comprised of sensor and signal processing components. Additional modeling steps include a Fourier transform calculation to produce the usual power spectral density representation of the product signature, and some form of pattern recognition algorithm

Analysis of Errors in a Special Perturbations Satellite Orbit Propagator

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Beckerman, M.; Jones, J.P.

1999-02-01

We performed an analysis of error densities for the Special Perturbations orbit propagator using data for 29 satellites in orbits of interest to Space Shuttle and International Space Station collision avoidance. We find that the along-track errors predominate. These errors increase monotonically over each 36-hour prediction interval. The predicted positions in the along-track direction progressively either leap ahead of or lag behind the actual positions. Unlike the along-track errors the radial and cross-track errors oscillate about their nearly zero mean values. As the number of observations per fit interval decline the along-track prediction errors, and amplitudes of the radial and cross-track errors, increase.

Comparative study of single and multislice computed tomography for assessment of the mandibular canal

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Adriana da Silva Ferreira Paes

2007-06-01

Full Text Available OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of relative measurements from the roof of the mandibular canal to the alveolar crest in multislice (multidetector computed tomography (MDCT and single-slice computed tomography (SSCT. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The sample consisted of 26 printed CT films (7 SSCT and 19 MDCT from the files of the LABI-3D (3D Imaging Laboratory of the School of Dentistry of the University of São Paulo (FOUSP, which had been acquired using different protocols. Two observers analyzed in a randomized and independent order a series of 22 oblique CT reconstructions of each patient. Each observer analyzed the CT scans twice. The length of the mandibular canal and the distance between the mandibular canal roof and the crest of the alveolar ridge were obtained. Dahlberg test was used for statistical analysis. RESULTS: The mean error found for the mandibular canal length measurements obtained from SSCT was 0.53 mm in the interobserver analysis, and 0.38 mm for both observers. On MDCT images, the mean error was 0.0 mm in the interobserver analysis, and 0.0 and 0.23 mm in the intraobserver analysis. Regarding the distance between the mandibular canal roof and the alveolar bone crest, the SSCT images showed a mean error of 1.16 mm in the interobserver analysis and 0.66 and 0.59 mm in the intraobserver analysis. In the MDCT images, the mean error was 0.72 mm in the interobserver analysis and 0.50 and 0.54 mm in the intraobserver analysis. CONCLUSION: Multislice CT was demonstrated a more accurate method and demonstrated high reproducibility in the analysis of important anatomical landmarks for planning of mandibular dental implants, namely the mandibular canal pathway and alveolar crest height.

Electric capacitance tomography and two-phase flow for the nuclear reactor safety analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Jae Young

2008-01-01

Recently electric capacitance tomography has been developed to be used in the analysis of two-phase flow. Although its electric field is not focused as the hard ray tomography such as the X-ray or gamma ray, its convenience of easy access to the system and easy maintenance due to no requirement of radiation shielding benefits us in its application in the two-phase flow study, one of important area in the nuclear safety analysis. In the present paper, the practical technologies in the electric capacitance tomography are represented in both parts of hardware and software. In the software part, both forward problem and inverse problem are discussed and the method of regularization. In the hardware part, the brief discussion of the electronics circuits is made which provides femto farad resolution with a reasonable speed (150 frame/sec for 16 electrodes). Some representative ideal cases are studied to demonstrate its potential capability for the two-phase flow analysis. Also, some variations of the tomography such as axial tomography, and three dimensional tomography are discussed. It was found that the present ECT is expected to become a useful tool to understand the complicated three dimensional two-phase flow which may be an important feature to be equipped by the safety analysis codes. (author)

Spectral Analysis of Forecast Error Investigated with an Observing System Simulation Experiment

Science.gov (United States)

Prive, N. C.; Errico, Ronald M.

2015-01-01

The spectra of analysis and forecast error are examined using the observing system simulation experiment (OSSE) framework developed at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (NASAGMAO). A global numerical weather prediction model, the Global Earth Observing System version 5 (GEOS-5) with Gridpoint Statistical Interpolation (GSI) data assimilation, is cycled for two months with once-daily forecasts to 336 hours to generate a control case. Verification of forecast errors using the Nature Run as truth is compared with verification of forecast errors using self-analysis; significant underestimation of forecast errors is seen using self-analysis verification for up to 48 hours. Likewise, self analysis verification significantly overestimates the error growth rates of the early forecast, as well as mischaracterizing the spatial scales at which the strongest growth occurs. The Nature Run-verified error variances exhibit a complicated progression of growth, particularly for low wave number errors. In a second experiment, cycling of the model and data assimilation over the same period is repeated, but using synthetic observations with different explicitly added observation errors having the same error variances as the control experiment, thus creating a different realization of the control. The forecast errors of the two experiments become more correlated during the early forecast period, with correlations increasing for up to 72 hours before beginning to decrease.

Disasters of endoscopic surgery and how to avoid them: error analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Troidl, H

1999-08-01

For every innovation there are two sides to consider. For endoscopic surgery the positive side is more comfort for the patient, and the negative side is new complications, even disasters, such as injuries to organs (e.g., the bowel), vessels, and the common bile duct. These disasters are rare and seldom reported in the scientific world, as at conferences, at symposiums, and in publications. Today there are many methods for testing an innovation (controlled clinical trials, consensus conferences, audits, and confidential inquiries). Reporting "complications," however, does not help to avoid them. We need real methods for avoiding negative failures. The failure analysis is the method of choice in industry. If an airplane crashes, error analysis starts immediately. Humans make errors, and making errors means punishment. Failure analysis means rigorously and objectively investigating a clinical situation to find clinical relevant information for avoiding these negative events in the future. Error analysis has four important steps: (1) What was the clinical situation? (2) What has happened? (3) Most important: Why did it happen? (4) How do we avoid the negative event or disaster in the future. Error analysis has decisive advantages. It is easy to perform; it supplies clinically relevant information to help avoid it; and there is no need for money. It can be done everywhere; and the information is available in a short time. The other side of the coin is that error analysis is of course retrospective, it may not be objective, and most important it will probably have legal consequences. To be more effective in medicine and surgery we must handle our errors using a different approach. According to Sir Karl Popper: "The consituation is that we have to learn from our errors. To cover up failure is therefore the biggest intellectual sin.

Prevalence and Distribution of Segmentation Errors in Macular Ganglion Cell Analysis of Healthy Eyes Using Cirrus HD-OCT.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rayan A Alshareef

Full Text Available To determine the frequency of different types of spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT scan artifacts and errors in ganglion cell algorithm (GCA in healthy eyes.Infrared image, color-coded map and each of the 128 horizontal b-scans acquired in the macular ganglion cell-inner plexiform layer scans using the Cirrus HD-OCT (Carl Zeiss Meditec, Dublin, CA macular cube 512 × 128 protocol in 30 healthy normal eyes were evaluated. The frequency and pattern of each artifact was determined. Deviation of the segmentation line was classified into mild (less than 10 microns, moderate (10-50 microns and severe (more than 50 microns. Each deviation, if present, was noted as upward or downward deviation. Each artifact was further described as per location on the scan and zones in the total scan area.A total of 1029 (26.8% out of total 3840 scans had scan errors. The most common scan error was segmentation error (100%, followed by degraded images (6.70%, blink artifacts (0.09% and out of register artifacts (3.3%. Misidentification of the inner retinal layers was most frequent (62%. Upward Deviation of the segmentation line (47.91% and severe deviation (40.3% were more often noted. Artifacts were mostly located in the central scan area (16.8%. The average number of scans with artifacts per eye was 34.3% and was not related to signal strength on Spearman correlation (p = 0.36.This study reveals that image artifacts and scan errors in SD-OCT GCA analysis are common and frequently involve segmentation errors. These errors may affect inner retinal thickness measurements in a clinically significant manner. Careful review of scans for artifacts is important when using this feature of SD-OCT device.

Common patterns in 558 diagnostic radiology errors.

Science.gov (United States)

Donald, Jennifer J; Barnard, Stuart A

2012-04-01

As a Quality Improvement initiative our department has held regular discrepancy meetings since 2003. We performed a retrospective analysis of the cases presented and identified the most common pattern of error. A total of 558 cases were referred for discussion over 92 months, and errors were classified as perceptual or interpretative. The most common patterns of error for each imaging modality were analysed, and the misses were scored by consensus as subtle or non-subtle. Of 558 diagnostic errors, 447 (80%) were perceptual and 111 (20%) were interpretative errors. Plain radiography and computed tomography (CT) scans were the most frequent imaging modalities accounting for 246 (44%) and 241 (43%) of the total number of errors, respectively. In the plain radiography group 120 (49%) of the errors occurred in chest X-ray reports with perceptual miss of a lung nodule occurring in 40% of this subgroup. In the axial and appendicular skeleton missed fractures occurred most frequently, and metastatic bone disease was overlooked in 12 of 50 plain X-rays of the pelvis or spine. The majority of errors within the CT group were in reports of body scans with the commonest perceptual errors identified including 16 missed significant bone lesions, 14 cases of thromboembolic disease and 14 gastrointestinal tumours. Of the 558 errors, 312 (56%) were considered subtle and 246 (44%) non-subtle. Diagnostic errors are not uncommon and are most frequently perceptual in nature. Identification of the most common patterns of error has the potential to improve the quality of reporting by improving the search behaviour of radiologists. © 2012 The Authors. Journal of Medical Imaging and Radiation Oncology © 2012 The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists.

Error analysis of mathematical problems on TIMSS: A case of Indonesian secondary students

Science.gov (United States)

Priyani, H. A.; Ekawati, R.

2018-01-01

Indonesian students’ competence in solving mathematical problems is still considered as weak. It was pointed out by the results of international assessment such as TIMSS. This might be caused by various types of errors made. Hence, this study aimed at identifying students’ errors in solving mathematical problems in TIMSS in the topic of numbers that considered as the fundamental concept in Mathematics. This study applied descriptive qualitative analysis. The subject was three students with most errors in the test indicators who were taken from 34 students of 8th graders. Data was obtained through paper and pencil test and student’s’ interview. The error analysis indicated that in solving Applying level problem, the type of error that students made was operational errors. In addition, for reasoning level problem, there are three types of errors made such as conceptual errors, operational errors and principal errors. Meanwhile, analysis of the causes of students’ errors showed that students did not comprehend the mathematical problems given.

Quantitative cone beam X-ray luminescence tomography/X-ray computed tomography imaging

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chen, Dongmei; Zhu, Shouping; Chen, Xueli; Chao, Tiantian; Cao, Xu; Zhao, Fengjun; Huang, Liyu; Liang, Jimin

2014-01-01

X-ray luminescence tomography (XLT) is an imaging technology based on X-ray-excitable materials. The main purpose of this paper is to obtain quantitative luminescence concentration using the structural information of the X-ray computed tomography (XCT) in the hybrid cone beam XLT/XCT system. A multi-wavelength luminescence cone beam XLT method with the structural a priori information is presented to relieve the severe ill-posedness problem in the cone beam XLT. The nanophosphors and phantom experiments were undertaken to access the linear relationship of the system response. Then, an in vivo mouse experiment was conducted. The in vivo experimental results show that the recovered concentration error as low as 6.67% with the location error of 0.85 mm can be achieved. The results demonstrate that the proposed method can accurately recover the nanophosphor inclusion and realize the quantitative imaging

Analysis of Employee's Survey for Preventing Human-Errors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sung, Chanho; Kim, Younggab; Joung, Sanghoun

2013-01-01

Human errors in nuclear power plant can cause large and small events or incidents. These events or incidents are one of main contributors of reactor trip and might threaten the safety of nuclear plants. To prevent human-errors, KHNP(nuclear power plants) introduced 'Human-error prevention techniques' and have applied the techniques to main parts such as plant operation, operation support, and maintenance and engineering. This paper proposes the methods to prevent and reduce human-errors in nuclear power plants through analyzing survey results which includes the utilization of the human-error prevention techniques and the employees' awareness of preventing human-errors. With regard to human-error prevention, this survey analysis presented the status of the human-error prevention techniques and the employees' awareness of preventing human-errors. Employees' understanding and utilization of the techniques was generally high and training level of employee and training effect on actual works were in good condition. Also, employees answered that the root causes of human-error were due to working environment including tight process, manpower shortage, and excessive mission rather than personal negligence or lack of personal knowledge. Consideration of working environment is certainly needed. At the present time, based on analyzing this survey, the best methods of preventing human-error are personal equipment, training/education substantiality, private mental health check before starting work, prohibit of multiple task performing, compliance with procedures, and enhancement of job site review. However, the most important and basic things for preventing human-error are interests of workers and organizational atmosphere such as communication between managers and workers, and communication between employees and bosses

An Analysis of Medication Errors at the Military Medical Center: Implications for a Systems Approach for Error Reduction

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Scheirman, Katherine

2001-01-01

An analysis was accomplished of all inpatient medication errors at a military academic medical center during the year 2000, based on the causes of medication errors as described by current research in the field...

Comprehensive analysis of a medication dosing error related to CPOE.

Science.gov (United States)

Horsky, Jan; Kuperman, Gilad J; Patel, Vimla L

2005-01-01

This case study of a serious medication error demonstrates the necessity of a comprehensive methodology for the analysis of failures in interaction between humans and information systems. The authors used a novel approach to analyze a dosing error related to computer-based ordering of potassium chloride (KCl). The method included a chronological reconstruction of events and their interdependencies from provider order entry usage logs, semistructured interviews with involved clinicians, and interface usability inspection of the ordering system. Information collected from all sources was compared and evaluated to understand how the error evolved and propagated through the system. In this case, the error was the product of faults in interaction among human and system agents that methods limited in scope to their distinct analytical domains would not identify. The authors characterized errors in several converging aspects of the drug ordering process: confusing on-screen laboratory results review, system usability difficulties, user training problems, and suboptimal clinical system safeguards that all contributed to a serious dosing error. The results of the authors' analysis were used to formulate specific recommendations for interface layout and functionality modifications, suggest new user alerts, propose changes to user training, and address error-prone steps of the KCl ordering process to reduce the risk of future medication dosing errors.

SU-F-I-03: Correction of Intra-Fractional Set-Up Errors and Target Coverage Based On Cone-Beam Computed Tomography for Cervical Cancer Patients

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zhang, JY [Cancer Hospital of Shantou University Medical College, Shantou, Guangdong (China); Hong, DL [The First Affiliated Hospital of Shantou University Medical College, Shantou, Guangdong (China)

2016-06-15

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the patient set-up error and interfraction target coverage in cervical cancer using image-guided adaptive radiotherapy (IGART) with cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT). Methods: Twenty cervical cancer patients undergoing intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) were randomly selected. All patients were matched to the isocenter using laser with the skin markers. Three dimensional CBCT projections were acquired by the Varian Truebeam treatment system. Set-up errors were evaluated by radiation oncologists, after CBCT correction. The clinical target volume (CTV) was delineated on each CBCT, and the planning target volume (PTV) coverage of each CBCT-CTVs was analyzed. Results: A total of 152 CBCT scans were acquired from twenty cervical cancer patients, the mean set-up errors in the longitudinal, vertical, and lateral direction were 3.57, 2.74 and 2.5mm respectively, without CBCT corrections. After corrections, these were decreased to 1.83, 1.44 and 0.97mm. For the target coverage, CBCT-CTV coverage without CBCT correction was 94% (143/152), and 98% (149/152) with correction. Conclusion: Use of CBCT verfication to measure patient setup errors could be applied to improve the treatment accuracy. In addition, the set-up error corrections significantly improve the CTV coverage for cervical cancer patients.

Sensitivity analysis of periodic errors in heterodyne interferometry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ganguly, Vasishta; Kim, Nam Ho; Kim, Hyo Soo; Schmitz, Tony

2011-01-01

Periodic errors in heterodyne displacement measuring interferometry occur due to frequency mixing in the interferometer. These nonlinearities are typically characterized as first- and second-order periodic errors which cause a cyclical (non-cumulative) variation in the reported displacement about the true value. This study implements an existing analytical periodic error model in order to identify sensitivities of the first- and second-order periodic errors to the input parameters, including rotational misalignments of the polarizing beam splitter and mixing polarizer, non-orthogonality of the two laser frequencies, ellipticity in the polarizations of the two laser beams, and different transmission coefficients in the polarizing beam splitter. A local sensitivity analysis is first conducted to examine the sensitivities of the periodic errors with respect to each input parameter about the nominal input values. Next, a variance-based approach is used to study the global sensitivities of the periodic errors by calculating the Sobol' sensitivity indices using Monte Carlo simulation. The effect of variation in the input uncertainty on the computed sensitivity indices is examined. It is seen that the first-order periodic error is highly sensitive to non-orthogonality of the two linearly polarized laser frequencies, while the second-order error is most sensitive to the rotational misalignment between the laser beams and the polarizing beam splitter. A particle swarm optimization technique is finally used to predict the possible setup imperfections based on experimentally generated values for periodic errors

Sensitivity analysis of periodic errors in heterodyne interferometry

Science.gov (United States)

Ganguly, Vasishta; Kim, Nam Ho; Kim, Hyo Soo; Schmitz, Tony

2011-03-01

Periodic errors in heterodyne displacement measuring interferometry occur due to frequency mixing in the interferometer. These nonlinearities are typically characterized as first- and second-order periodic errors which cause a cyclical (non-cumulative) variation in the reported displacement about the true value. This study implements an existing analytical periodic error model in order to identify sensitivities of the first- and second-order periodic errors to the input parameters, including rotational misalignments of the polarizing beam splitter and mixing polarizer, non-orthogonality of the two laser frequencies, ellipticity in the polarizations of the two laser beams, and different transmission coefficients in the polarizing beam splitter. A local sensitivity analysis is first conducted to examine the sensitivities of the periodic errors with respect to each input parameter about the nominal input values. Next, a variance-based approach is used to study the global sensitivities of the periodic errors by calculating the Sobol' sensitivity indices using Monte Carlo simulation. The effect of variation in the input uncertainty on the computed sensitivity indices is examined. It is seen that the first-order periodic error is highly sensitive to non-orthogonality of the two linearly polarized laser frequencies, while the second-order error is most sensitive to the rotational misalignment between the laser beams and the polarizing beam splitter. A particle swarm optimization technique is finally used to predict the possible setup imperfections based on experimentally generated values for periodic errors.

Bayesian soft x-ray tomography and MHD mode analysis on HL-2A

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Dong; Liu, Yi; Svensson, J.; Liu, Y. Q.; Song, X. M.; Yu, L. M.; Mao, Rui; Fu, B. Z.; Deng, Wei; Yuan, B. S.; Ji, X. Q.; Xu, Yuan; Chen, Wei; Zhou, Yan; Yang, Q. W.; Duan, X. R.; Liu, Yong; HL-2A Team

2016-03-01

A Bayesian based tomography method using so-called Gaussian processes (GPs) for the emission model has been applied to the soft x-ray (SXR) diagnostics on HL-2A tokamak. To improve the accuracy of reconstructions, the standard GP is extended to a non-stationary version so that different smoothness between the plasma center and the edge can be taken into account in the algorithm. The uncertainty in the reconstruction arising from measurement errors and incapability can be fully analyzed by the usage of Bayesian probability theory. In this work, the SXR reconstructions by this non-stationary Gaussian processes tomography (NSGPT) method have been compared with the equilibrium magnetic flux surfaces, generally achieving a satisfactory agreement in terms of both shape and position. In addition, singular-value-decomposition (SVD) and Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) techniques have been applied for the analysis of SXR and magnetic diagnostics, in order to explore the spatial and temporal features of the saturated long-lived magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) instability induced by energetic particles during neutral beam injection (NBI) on HL-2A. The result shows that this ideal internal kink instability has a dominant m/n  =  1/1 mode structure along with a harmonics m/n  =  2/2, which are coupled near the q  =  1 surface with a rotation frequency of 12 kHz.

Grinding Method and Error Analysis of Eccentric Shaft Parts

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Zhiming; Han, Qiushi; Li, Qiguang; Peng, Baoying; Li, Weihua

2017-12-01

RV reducer and various mechanical transmission parts are widely used in eccentric shaft parts, The demand of precision grinding technology for eccentric shaft parts now, In this paper, the model of X-C linkage relation of eccentric shaft grinding is studied; By inversion method, the contour curve of the wheel envelope is deduced, and the distance from the center of eccentric circle is constant. The simulation software of eccentric shaft grinding is developed, the correctness of the model is proved, the influence of the X-axis feed error, the C-axis feed error and the wheel radius error on the grinding process is analyzed, and the corresponding error calculation model is proposed. The simulation analysis is carried out to provide the basis for the contour error compensation.

Error Floor Analysis of Coded Slotted ALOHA over Packet Erasure Channels

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ivanov, Mikhail; Graell i Amat, Alexandre; Brannstrom, F.

2014-01-01

We present a framework for the analysis of the error floor of coded slotted ALOHA (CSA) for finite frame lengths over the packet erasure channel. The error floor is caused by stopping sets in the corresponding bipartite graph, whose enumeration is, in general, not a trivial problem. We therefore ...... identify the most dominant stopping sets for the distributions of practical interest. The derived analytical expressions allow us to accurately predict the error floor at low to moderate channel loads and characterize the unequal error protection inherent in CSA.......We present a framework for the analysis of the error floor of coded slotted ALOHA (CSA) for finite frame lengths over the packet erasure channel. The error floor is caused by stopping sets in the corresponding bipartite graph, whose enumeration is, in general, not a trivial problem. We therefore...

Error Analysis on Plane-to-Plane Linear Approximate Coordinate ...

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Abstract. In this paper, the error analysis has been done for the linear approximate transformation between two tangent planes in celestial sphere in a simple case. The results demonstrate that the error from the linear transformation does not meet the requirement of high-precision astrometry under some conditions, so the ...

Error analysis for mesospheric temperature profiling by absorptive occultation sensors

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. J. Rieder

Full Text Available An error analysis for mesospheric profiles retrieved from absorptive occultation data has been performed, starting with realistic error assumptions as would apply to intensity data collected by available high-precision UV photodiode sensors. Propagation of statistical errors was investigated through the complete retrieval chain from measured intensity profiles to atmospheric density, pressure, and temperature profiles. We assumed unbiased errors as the occultation method is essentially self-calibrating and straight-line propagation of occulted signals as we focus on heights of 50–100 km, where refractive bending of the sensed radiation is negligible. Throughout the analysis the errors were characterized at each retrieval step by their mean profile, their covariance matrix and their probability density function (pdf. This furnishes, compared to a variance-only estimation, a much improved insight into the error propagation mechanism. We applied the procedure to a baseline analysis of the performance of a recently proposed solar UV occultation sensor (SMAS – Sun Monitor and Atmospheric Sounder and provide, using a reasonable exponential atmospheric model as background, results on error standard deviations and error correlation functions of density, pressure, and temperature profiles. Two different sensor photodiode assumptions are discussed, respectively, diamond diodes (DD with 0.03% and silicon diodes (SD with 0.1% (unattenuated intensity measurement noise at 10 Hz sampling rate. A factor-of-2 margin was applied to these noise values in order to roughly account for unmodeled cross section uncertainties. Within the entire height domain (50–100 km we find temperature to be retrieved to better than 0.3 K (DD / 1 K (SD accuracy, respectively, at 2 km height resolution. The results indicate that absorptive occultations acquired by a SMAS-type sensor could provide mesospheric profiles of fundamental variables such as temperature with

Error analysis for mesospheric temperature profiling by absorptive occultation sensors

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. J. Rieder

2001-01-01

Full Text Available An error analysis for mesospheric profiles retrieved from absorptive occultation data has been performed, starting with realistic error assumptions as would apply to intensity data collected by available high-precision UV photodiode sensors. Propagation of statistical errors was investigated through the complete retrieval chain from measured intensity profiles to atmospheric density, pressure, and temperature profiles. We assumed unbiased errors as the occultation method is essentially self-calibrating and straight-line propagation of occulted signals as we focus on heights of 50–100 km, where refractive bending of the sensed radiation is negligible. Throughout the analysis the errors were characterized at each retrieval step by their mean profile, their covariance matrix and their probability density function (pdf. This furnishes, compared to a variance-only estimation, a much improved insight into the error propagation mechanism. We applied the procedure to a baseline analysis of the performance of a recently proposed solar UV occultation sensor (SMAS – Sun Monitor and Atmospheric Sounder and provide, using a reasonable exponential atmospheric model as background, results on error standard deviations and error correlation functions of density, pressure, and temperature profiles. Two different sensor photodiode assumptions are discussed, respectively, diamond diodes (DD with 0.03% and silicon diodes (SD with 0.1% (unattenuated intensity measurement noise at 10 Hz sampling rate. A factor-of-2 margin was applied to these noise values in order to roughly account for unmodeled cross section uncertainties. Within the entire height domain (50–100 km we find temperature to be retrieved to better than 0.3 K (DD / 1 K (SD accuracy, respectively, at 2 km height resolution. The results indicate that absorptive occultations acquired by a SMAS-type sensor could provide mesospheric profiles of fundamental variables such as temperature with

Reliability and error analysis on xenon/CT CBF

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang, Z.

2000-01-01

This article provides a quantitative error analysis of a simulation model of xenon/CT CBF in order to investigate the behavior and effect of different types of errors such as CT noise, motion artifacts, lower percentage of xenon supply, lower tissue enhancements, etc. A mathematical model is built to simulate these errors. By adjusting the initial parameters of the simulation model, we can scale the Gaussian noise, control the percentage of xenon supply, and change the tissue enhancement with different kVp settings. The motion artifact will be treated separately by geometrically shifting the sequential CT images. The input function is chosen from an end-tidal xenon curve of a practical study. Four kinds of cerebral blood flow, 10, 20, 50, and 80 cc/100 g/min, are examined under different error environments and the corresponding CT images are generated following the currently popular timing protocol. The simulated studies will be fed to a regular xenon/CT CBF system for calculation and evaluation. A quantitative comparison is given to reveal the behavior and effect of individual error resources. Mixed error testing is also provided to inspect the combination effect of errors. The experiment shows that CT noise is still a major error resource. The motion artifact affects the CBF results more geometrically than quantitatively. Lower xenon supply has a lesser effect on the results, but will reduce the signal/noise ratio. The lower xenon enhancement will lower the flow values in all areas of brain. (author)

Optical System Error Analysis and Calibration Method of High-Accuracy Star Trackers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zheng You

2013-04-01

Full Text Available The star tracker is a high-accuracy attitude measurement device widely used in spacecraft. Its performance depends largely on the precision of the optical system parameters. Therefore, the analysis of the optical system parameter errors and a precise calibration model are crucial to the accuracy of the star tracker. Research in this field is relatively lacking a systematic and universal analysis up to now. This paper proposes in detail an approach for the synthetic error analysis of the star tracker, without the complicated theoretical derivation. This approach can determine the error propagation relationship of the star tracker, and can build intuitively and systematically an error model. The analysis results can be used as a foundation and a guide for the optical design, calibration, and compensation of the star tracker. A calibration experiment is designed and conducted. Excellent calibration results are achieved based on the calibration model. To summarize, the error analysis approach and the calibration method are proved to be adequate and precise, and could provide an important guarantee for the design, manufacture, and measurement of high-accuracy star trackers.

Optical system error analysis and calibration method of high-accuracy star trackers.

Science.gov (United States)

Sun, Ting; Xing, Fei; You, Zheng

2013-04-08

The star tracker is a high-accuracy attitude measurement device widely used in spacecraft. Its performance depends largely on the precision of the optical system parameters. Therefore, the analysis of the optical system parameter errors and a precise calibration model are crucial to the accuracy of the star tracker. Research in this field is relatively lacking a systematic and universal analysis up to now. This paper proposes in detail an approach for the synthetic error analysis of the star tracker, without the complicated theoretical derivation. This approach can determine the error propagation relationship of the star tracker, and can build intuitively and systematically an error model. The analysis results can be used as a foundation and a guide for the optical design, calibration, and compensation of the star tracker. A calibration experiment is designed and conducted. Excellent calibration results are achieved based on the calibration model. To summarize, the error analysis approach and the calibration method are proved to be adequate and precise, and could provide an important guarantee for the design, manufacture, and measurement of high-accuracy star trackers.

Effect of computed tomography noise and tissue heterogeneity on cerebral blood flow determination by xenon-enhanced computed tomography

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Good, W.F.; Gur, D.

1987-01-01

The errors associated with derivation of cerebral blood flow values by the xenon-enhanced computed tomography (CT) method have been evaluated as a function of tissue heterogeneity and CT noise. The results of this study indicate that CT noise introduces large errors in the derived flow value when data for a single, unprocessed voxel are used for this purpose. CT noise increases the derived flow values in a systematic way. Tissue heterogeneity results in a systematic error which lowers the derived flow values. Errors due to both parameters are computed for typical and extreme conditions

Monte-Carlo error analysis in x-ray spectral deconvolution

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shirk, D.G.; Hoffman, N.M.

1985-01-01

The deconvolution of spectral information from sparse x-ray data is a widely encountered problem in data analysis. An often-neglected aspect of this problem is the propagation of random error in the deconvolution process. We have developed a Monte-Carlo approach that enables us to attach error bars to unfolded x-ray spectra. Our Monte-Carlo error analysis has been incorporated into two specific deconvolution techniques: the first is an iterative convergent weight method; the second is a singular-value-decomposition (SVD) method. These two methods were applied to an x-ray spectral deconvolution problem having m channels of observations with n points in energy space. When m is less than n, this problem has no unique solution. We discuss the systematics of nonunique solutions and energy-dependent error bars for both methods. The Monte-Carlo approach has a particular benefit in relation to the SVD method: It allows us to apply the constraint of spectral nonnegativity after the SVD deconvolution rather than before. Consequently, we can identify inconsistencies between different detector channels

Knowledge-base for the new human reliability analysis method, A Technique for Human Error Analysis (ATHEANA)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cooper, S.E.; Wreathall, J.; Thompson, C.M., Drouin, M.; Bley, D.C.

1996-01-01

This paper describes the knowledge base for the application of the new human reliability analysis (HRA) method, a ''A Technique for Human Error Analysis'' (ATHEANA). Since application of ATHEANA requires the identification of previously unmodeled human failure events, especially errors of commission, and associated error-forcing contexts (i.e., combinations of plant conditions and performance shaping factors), this knowledge base is an essential aid for the HRA analyst

Analysis technique for controlling system wavefront error with active/adaptive optics

Science.gov (United States)

Genberg, Victor L.; Michels, Gregory J.

2017-08-01

The ultimate goal of an active mirror system is to control system level wavefront error (WFE). In the past, the use of this technique was limited by the difficulty of obtaining a linear optics model. In this paper, an automated method for controlling system level WFE using a linear optics model is presented. An error estimate is included in the analysis output for both surface error disturbance fitting and actuator influence function fitting. To control adaptive optics, the technique has been extended to write system WFE in state space matrix form. The technique is demonstrated by example with SigFit, a commercially available tool integrating mechanical analysis with optical analysis.

Analysis of the effect of cone-beam geometry and test object configuration on the measurement accuracy of a computed tomography scanner used for dimensional measurement

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kumar, Jagadeesha; Attridge, Alex; Williams, Mark A; Wood, P K C

2011-01-01

Industrial x-ray computed tomography (CT) scanners are used for non-contact dimensional measurement of small, fragile components and difficult-to-access internal features of castings and mouldings. However, the accuracy and repeatability of measurements are influenced by factors such as cone-beam system geometry, test object configuration, x-ray power, material and size of test object, detector characteristics and data analysis methods. An attempt is made in this work to understand the measurement errors of a CT scanner over the complete scan volume, taking into account only the errors in system geometry and the object configuration within the scanner. A cone-beam simulation model is developed with the radiographic image projection and reconstruction steps. A known amount of errors in geometrical parameters were introduced in the model to understand the effect of geometry of the cone-beam CT system on measurement accuracy for different positions, orientations and sizes of the test object. Simulation analysis shows that the geometrical parameters have a significant influence on the dimensional measurement at specific configurations of the test object. Finally, the importance of system alignment and estimation of correct parameters for accurate CT measurements is outlined based on the analysis

Analysis of measured data of human body based on error correcting frequency

Science.gov (United States)

Jin, Aiyan; Peipei, Gao; Shang, Xiaomei

2014-04-01

Anthropometry is to measure all parts of human body surface, and the measured data is the basis of analysis and study of the human body, establishment and modification of garment size and formulation and implementation of online clothing store. In this paper, several groups of the measured data are gained, and analysis of data error is gotten by analyzing the error frequency and using analysis of variance method in mathematical statistics method. Determination of the measured data accuracy and the difficulty of measured parts of human body, further studies of the causes of data errors, and summarization of the key points to minimize errors possibly are also mentioned in the paper. This paper analyses the measured data based on error frequency, and in a way , it provides certain reference elements to promote the garment industry development.

Phase analysis in gated blood pool tomography. Detection of accessory conduction pathway

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Nakajima, Kenichi; Bunko, Hisashi; Tada, Akira; Taki, Junichi; Nanbu, Ichiro (Kanazawa Univ. (Japan). School of Medicine)

1984-02-01

Phase analysis of gated blood pool study has been applied to detect the site of accessory conduction pathway (ACP) in the Wolff-Parkinson-White (WPW) syndrome; however, there was a limitation to detect the precise location of ACP by phase analysis alone. In this study, we applied phase analysis to gated blood pool tomography using seven pin hole tomography (7PT) and gated emission computed tomography (GECT) in 21 patients with WPW syndrome and 3 normal subjects. In 17 patients, the sites of ACPs were confirmed by epicardial mapping and the result of the surgical division of ACP. In 7PT, the site of ACP grossly agreed to the abnormal initial phase in phase image in 5 out of 6 patients with left cardiac type. In GECT, phase images were generated in short axial, vertical and horizontal long axial sections. In 8 out of 9 patients, the site of ACP was correctly identified by phase images, and in a patient who had two ACPs, initial phase corresponded to one of the two locations. Phase analysis of gated blood pool tomography has advantages for avoiding overlap of blood pools and for estimating three-dimensional propagation of the contraction, and can be a good adjunctive method in patients with WPW syndrome.

Review of human error analysis methodologies and case study for accident management

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jung, Won Dae; Kim, Jae Whan; Lee, Yong Hee; Ha, Jae Joo

1998-03-01

In this research, we tried to establish the requirements for the development of a new human error analysis method. To achieve this goal, we performed a case study as following steps; 1. review of the existing HEA methods 2. selection of those methods which are considered to be appropriate for the analysis of operator's tasks in NPPs 3. choice of tasks for the application, selected for the case study: HRMS (Human reliability management system), PHECA (Potential Human Error Cause Analysis), CREAM (Cognitive Reliability and Error Analysis Method). And, as the tasks for the application, 'bleed and feed operation' and 'decision-making for the reactor cavity flooding' tasks are chosen. We measured the applicability of the selected methods to the NPP tasks, and evaluated the advantages and disadvantages between each method. The three methods are turned out to be applicable for the prediction of human error. We concluded that both of CREAM and HRMS are equipped with enough applicability for the NPP tasks, however, compared two methods. CREAM is thought to be more appropriate than HRMS from the viewpoint of overall requirements. The requirements for the new HEA method obtained from the study can be summarized as follows; firstly, it should deal with cognitive error analysis, secondly, it should have adequate classification system for the NPP tasks, thirdly, the description on the error causes and error mechanisms should be explicit, fourthly, it should maintain the consistency of the result by minimizing the ambiguity in each step of analysis procedure, fifty, it should be done with acceptable human resources. (author). 25 refs., 30 tabs., 4 figs

Fluorine-18 Fluorodeoxyglucose Positron Emission Tomography/Computed Tomography Imaging in Patients With Carcinoma of the Nasopharynx: Diagnostic Accuracy and Impact on Clinical Management

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gordin, Arie; Golz, Avishay; Daitzchman, Marcello; Keidar, Zohar; Bar-Shalom, Rachel; Kuten, Abraham; Israel, Ora

2007-01-01

Purpose: To assess the value of 18 F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma as compared with PET and conventional imaging (CI) alone, and to assess the impact of PET/CT on further clinical management. Methods and Materials: Thirty-three patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma had 45 PET/CT examinations. The study was a retrospective analysis. Changes in patient care resulting from the PET/CT studies were recorded. Results: Positron emission tomography/computed tomography had sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and accuracy of 92%, 90%, 90%, 90%, and 91%, respectively, as compared with 92%, 65%, 76%, 86%, and 80% for PET and 92%, 15%, 60%, 60%, and 60% for CI. Imaging with PET/CT altered further management of 19 patients (57%). Imaging with PET/CT eliminated the need for previously planned diagnostic procedures in 11 patients, induced a change in the planned therapeutic approach in 5 patients, and guided biopsy to a specific metabolically active area inside an edematous region in 3 patients, thus decreasing the chances for tissue sampling errors and avoiding damage to nonmalignant tissue. Conclusions: In cancer of the nasopharynx, the diagnostic performance of PET/CT is better than that of stand-alone PET or CI. Positron emission tomography/computed tomography had a major impact on further clinical management in 57% of patients

Predicting positional error of MLC using volumetric analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hareram, E.S.

2008-01-01

IMRT normally using multiple beamlets (small width of the beam) for a particular field to deliver so that it is imperative to maintain the positional accuracy of the MLC in order to deliver integrated computed dose accurately. Different manufacturers have reported high precession on MLC devices with leaf positional accuracy nearing 0.1 mm but measuring and rectifying the error in this accuracy is very difficult. Various methods are used to check MLC position and among this volumetric analysis is one of the technique. Volumetric approach was adapted in our method using primus machine and 0.6cc chamber at 5 cm depth In perspex. MLC of 1 mm error introduces an error of 20%, more sensitive to other methods

Trial application of a technique for human error analysis (ATHEANA)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bley, D.C.; Cooper, S.E.; Parry, G.W.

1996-01-01

The new method for HRA, ATHEANA, has been developed based on a study of the operating history of serious accidents and an understanding of the reasons why people make errors. Previous publications associated with the project have dealt with the theoretical framework under which errors occur and the retrospective analysis of operational events. This is the first attempt to use ATHEANA in a prospective way, to select and evaluate human errors within the PSA context

Evaluation of iterative algorithms for tomography image reconstruction: A study using a third generation industrial tomography system

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Velo, Alexandre F.; Carvalho, Diego V.; Alvarez, Alexandre G.; Hamada, Margarida M.; Mesquita, Carlos H., E-mail: afvelo@usp.br [Instituto de Pesquisas Energeticas e Nucleares (IPEN/CNEN-SP), Sao Paulo, SP (Brazil)

2017-07-01

The greatest impact of the tomography technology currently occurs in medicine. The success is due to the human body presents standardized dimensions with well-established composition. These conditions are not found in industrial objects. In industry, there is much interest in using the tomography in order to know the inner of (1) the manufactured industrial objects or (2) the machines and their means of production. In these cases, the purpose of the tomography is to (a) control the quality of the final product and (b) to optimize production, contributing to the pilot phase of the projects and analyzing the quality of the means of production. This scan system is a non-destructive, efficient and fast method for providing sectional images of industrial objects and is able to show the dynamic processes and the dispersion of the materials structures within these objects. In this context, it is important that the reconstructed image presents a great spatial resolution with a satisfactory temporal resolution. Thus the algorithm to reconstruct the images has to meet these requirements. This work consists in the analysis of three different iterative algorithm methods, such Maximum Likelihood Estimation Method (MLEM), Maximum Likelihood Transmitted Method (MLTR) and Simultaneous Iterative Reconstruction Method (SIRT. The analysis consists on measurement of the contrast to noise ratio (CNR), the root mean square error (RMSE) and the Modulation Transfer Function (MTF), to know which algorithm fits better the conditions in order to optimize system. The algorithms and the image quality analysis were performed by the Matlab® 2013b. (author)

Evaluation of iterative algorithms for tomography image reconstruction: A study using a third generation industrial tomography system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Velo, Alexandre F.; Carvalho, Diego V.; Alvarez, Alexandre G.; Hamada, Margarida M.; Mesquita, Carlos H.

2017-01-01

The greatest impact of the tomography technology currently occurs in medicine. The success is due to the human body presents standardized dimensions with well-established composition. These conditions are not found in industrial objects. In industry, there is much interest in using the tomography in order to know the inner of (1) the manufactured industrial objects or (2) the machines and their means of production. In these cases, the purpose of the tomography is to (a) control the quality of the final product and (b) to optimize production, contributing to the pilot phase of the projects and analyzing the quality of the means of production. This scan system is a non-destructive, efficient and fast method for providing sectional images of industrial objects and is able to show the dynamic processes and the dispersion of the materials structures within these objects. In this context, it is important that the reconstructed image presents a great spatial resolution with a satisfactory temporal resolution. Thus the algorithm to reconstruct the images has to meet these requirements. This work consists in the analysis of three different iterative algorithm methods, such Maximum Likelihood Estimation Method (MLEM), Maximum Likelihood Transmitted Method (MLTR) and Simultaneous Iterative Reconstruction Method (SIRT. The analysis consists on measurement of the contrast to noise ratio (CNR), the root mean square error (RMSE) and the Modulation Transfer Function (MTF), to know which algorithm fits better the conditions in order to optimize system. The algorithms and the image quality analysis were performed by the Matlab® 2013b. (author)

The recovery factors analysis of the human errors for research reactors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Farcasiu, M.; Nitoi, M.; Apostol, M.; Turcu, I.; Florescu, Ghe.

2006-01-01

The results of many Probabilistic Safety Assessment (PSA) studies show a very significant contribution of human errors to systems unavailability of the nuclear installations. The treatment of human interactions is considered one of the major limitations in the context of PSA. To identify those human actions that can have an effect on system reliability or availability applying the Human Reliability Analysis (HRA) is necessary. The recovery factors analysis of the human action is an important step in HRA. This paper presents how can be reduced the human errors probabilities (HEP) using those elements that have the capacity to recovery human error. The recovery factors modeling is marked to identify error likelihood situations or situations that conduct at development of the accident. This analysis is realized by THERP method. The necessary information was obtained from the operating experience of the research reactor TRIGA of the INR Pitesti. The required data were obtained from generic databases. (authors)

Stochastic and sensitivity analysis of shape error of inflatable antenna reflectors

Science.gov (United States)

San, Bingbing; Yang, Qingshan; Yin, Liwei

2017-03-01

Inflatable antennas are promising candidates to realize future satellite communications and space observations since they are lightweight, low-cost and small-packaged-volume. However, due to their high flexibility, inflatable reflectors are difficult to manufacture accurately, which may result in undesirable shape errors, and thus affect their performance negatively. In this paper, the stochastic characteristics of shape errors induced during manufacturing process are investigated using Latin hypercube sampling coupled with manufacture simulations. Four main random error sources are involved, including errors in membrane thickness, errors in elastic modulus of membrane, boundary deviations and pressure variations. Using regression and correlation analysis, a global sensitivity study is conducted to rank the importance of these error sources. This global sensitivity analysis is novel in that it can take into account the random variation and the interaction between error sources. Analyses are parametrically carried out with various focal-length-to-diameter ratios (F/D) and aperture sizes (D) of reflectors to investigate their effects on significance ranking of error sources. The research reveals that RMS (Root Mean Square) of shape error is a random quantity with an exponent probability distribution and features great dispersion; with the increase of F/D and D, both mean value and standard deviation of shape errors are increased; in the proposed range, the significance ranking of error sources is independent of F/D and D; boundary deviation imposes the greatest effect with a much higher weight than the others; pressure variation ranks the second; error in thickness and elastic modulus of membrane ranks the last with very close sensitivities to pressure variation. Finally, suggestions are given for the control of the shape accuracy of reflectors and allowable values of error sources are proposed from the perspective of reliability.

Covariance Analysis Tool (G-CAT) for Computing Ascent, Descent, and Landing Errors

Science.gov (United States)

Boussalis, Dhemetrios; Bayard, David S.

2013-01-01

G-CAT is a covariance analysis tool that enables fast and accurate computation of error ellipses for descent, landing, ascent, and rendezvous scenarios, and quantifies knowledge error contributions needed for error budgeting purposes. Because GCAT supports hardware/system trade studies in spacecraft and mission design, it is useful in both early and late mission/ proposal phases where Monte Carlo simulation capability is not mature, Monte Carlo simulation takes too long to run, and/or there is a need to perform multiple parametric system design trades that would require an unwieldy number of Monte Carlo runs. G-CAT is formulated as a variable-order square-root linearized Kalman filter (LKF), typically using over 120 filter states. An important property of G-CAT is that it is based on a 6-DOF (degrees of freedom) formulation that completely captures the combined effects of both attitude and translation errors on the propagated trajectories. This ensures its accuracy for guidance, navigation, and control (GN&C) analysis. G-CAT provides the desired fast turnaround analysis needed for error budgeting in support of mission concept formulations, design trade studies, and proposal development efforts. The main usefulness of a covariance analysis tool such as G-CAT is its ability to calculate the performance envelope directly from a single run. This is in sharp contrast to running thousands of simulations to obtain similar information using Monte Carlo methods. It does this by propagating the "statistics" of the overall design, rather than simulating individual trajectories. G-CAT supports applications to lunar, planetary, and small body missions. It characterizes onboard knowledge propagation errors associated with inertial measurement unit (IMU) errors (gyro and accelerometer), gravity errors/dispersions (spherical harmonics, masscons), and radar errors (multiple altimeter beams, multiple Doppler velocimeter beams). G-CAT is a standalone MATLAB- based tool intended to

Human reliability analysis during PSA at Trillo NPP: main characteristics and analysis of diagnostic errors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Barquin, M.A.; Gomez, F.

1998-01-01

The design difference between Trillo NPP and other Spanish nuclear power plants (basic Westinghouse and General Electric designs) were made clear in the Human Reliability Analysis of the Probabilistic Safety Analysis (PSA) for Trillo NPP. The object of this paper is to describe the most significant characteristics of the Human Reliability Analysis carried out in the PSA, with special emphasis on the possible diagnostic errors and their consequences, based on the characteristics in the Emergency Operations Manual for Trillo NPP. - In the case of human errors before the initiating event (type 1), the existence of four redundancies in most of the plant safety systems, means that the impact of this type or error on the final results of the PSA is insignificant. However, in the case common cause errors, especially in certain calibration errors, some actions are significant in the final equation for core damage - The number of human actions that the operator has to carry out during the accidents (type 3) modelled, is relatively small in comparison with this value in other PSAs. This is basically due to the high level of automation at Rillo NPP - The Plant Operations Manual cannot be strictly considered to be a symptoms-based procedure. The operation Group must select the chapter from the Operations Manual to be followed, after having diagnosed the perturbing event, using for this purpose and Emergency and Anomaly Decision Tree (M.O.3.0.1) based on the different indications, alarms and symptoms present in the plant after the perturbing event. For this reason, it was decided to analyse the possible diagnosis errors. In the bibliography on diagnosis and commission errors available at the present time, there is no precise methodology for the analysis of this type of error and its incorporation into PSAs. The method used in the PSA for Trillo y NPP to evaluate this type of interaction, is to develop a Diagnosis Error Table, the object of which is to identify the situations in

Error analysis of the freshmen Criminology students’ grammar in the written English

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Maico Demi Banate Aperocho

2017-12-01

Full Text Available This study identifies the various syntactical errors of the fifty (50 freshmen B.S. Criminology students of the University of Mindanao in Davao City. Specifically, this study aims to answer the following: (1 What are the common errors present in the argumentative essays of the respondents? (2 What are the reasons of the existence of these errors? This study is descriptive-qualitative. It also uses error analysis to point out the syntactical errors present in the compositions of the participants. The fifty essays are subjected to error analysis. Errors are classified based on Chanquoy’s Classification of Writing Errors. Furthermore, Hourani’s Common Reasons of Grammatical Errors Checklist was also used to determine the common reasons of the identified syntactical errors. To create a meaningful interpretation of data and to solicit further ideas from the participants, a focus group discussion is also done. Findings show that students’ most common errors are on the grammatical aspect. In the grammatical aspect, students have more frequently committed errors in the verb aspect (tense, subject agreement, and auxiliary and linker choice compared to spelling and punctuation aspects. Moreover, there are three topmost reasons of committing errors in the paragraph: mother tongue interference, incomprehensibility of the grammar rules, and the incomprehensibility of the writing mechanics. Despite the difficulty in learning English as a second language, students are still very motivated to master the concepts and applications of the language.

Uncertainty quantification and error analysis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Higdon, Dave M [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Anderson, Mark C [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Habib, Salman [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Klein, Richard [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Berliner, Mark [OHIO STATE UNIV.; Covey, Curt [LLNL; Ghattas, Omar [UNIV OF TEXAS; Graziani, Carlo [UNIV OF CHICAGO; Seager, Mark [LLNL; Sefcik, Joseph [LLNL; Stark, Philip [UC/BERKELEY; Stewart, James [SNL

2010-01-01

UQ studies all sources of error and uncertainty, including: systematic and stochastic measurement error; ignorance; limitations of theoretical models; limitations of numerical representations of those models; limitations on the accuracy and reliability of computations, approximations, and algorithms; and human error. A more precise definition for UQ is suggested below.

The application of two recently developed human reliability techniques to cognitive error analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gall, W.

1990-01-01

Cognitive error can lead to catastrophic consequences for manned systems, including those whose design renders them immune to the effects of physical slips made by operators. Four such events, pressurized water and boiling water reactor accidents which occurred recently, were analysed. The analysis identifies the factors which contributed to the errors and suggests practical strategies for error recovery or prevention. Two types of analysis were conducted: an unstructured analysis based on the analyst's knowledge of psychological theory, and a structured analysis using two recently-developed human reliability analysis techniques. In general, the structured techniques required less effort to produce results and these were comparable to those of the unstructured analysis. (author)

Analysis of human error and organizational deficiency in events considering risk significance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Yong Suk; Kim, Yoonik; Kim, Say Hyung; Kim, Chansoo; Chung, Chang Hyun; Jung, Won Dea

2004-01-01

In this study, we analyzed human and organizational deficiencies in the trip events of Korean nuclear power plants. K-HPES items were used in human error analysis, and the organizational factors by Jacobs and Haber were used for organizational deficiency analysis. We proposed the use of CCDP as a risk measure to consider risk information in prioritizing K-HPES items and organizational factors. Until now, the risk significance of events has not been considered in human error and organizational deficiency analysis. Considering the risk significance of events in the process of analysis is necessary for effective enhancement of nuclear power plant safety by focusing on causes of human error and organizational deficiencies that are associated with significant risk

Prevalence of technical errors and periapical lesions in a sample of endodontically treated teeth: a CBCT analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Nascimento, Eduarda Helena Leandro; Gaêta-Araujo, Hugo; Andrade, Maria Fernanda Silva; Freitas, Deborah Queiroz

2018-01-21

The aims of this study are to identify the most frequent technical errors in endodontically treated teeth and to determine which root canals were most often associated with those errors, as well as to relate endodontic technical errors and the presence of coronal restorations with periapical status by means of cone-beam computed tomography images. Six hundred eighteen endodontically treated teeth (1146 root canals) were evaluated for the quality of their endodontic treatment and for the presence of coronal restorations and periapical lesions. Each root canal was classified according to dental groups, and the endodontic technical errors were recorded. Chi-square's test and descriptive analyses were performed. Six hundred eighty root canals (59.3%) had periapical lesions. Maxillary molars and anterior teeth showed higher prevalence of periapical lesions (p technical error in all root canals, except for the second mesiobuccal root canal of maxillary molars and the distobuccal root canal of mandibular molars, which were non-filled in 78.4 and 30% of the cases, respectively. There is a high prevalence of apical radiolucencies, which increased in the presence of poor coronal restorations, endodontic technical errors, and when both conditions were concomitant. Underfilling was the most frequent technical error, followed by non-homogeneous and non-filled canals. Evaluation of endodontic treatment quality that considers every single root canal aims on warning dental practitioners of the prevalence of technical errors that could be avoided with careful treatment planning and execution.

A New Error Analysis and Accuracy Synthesis Method for Shoe Last Machine

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bian Xiangjuan

2014-05-01

Full Text Available In order to improve the manufacturing precision of the shoe last machine, a new error-computing model has been put forward to. At first, Based on the special topological structure of the shoe last machine and multi-rigid body system theory, a spatial error-calculating model of the system was built; Then, the law of error distributing in the whole work space was discussed, and the maximum error position of the system was found; At last, The sensitivities of error parameters were analyzed at the maximum position and the accuracy synthesis was conducted by using Monte Carlo method. Considering the error sensitivities analysis, the accuracy of the main parts was distributed. Results show that the probability of the maximal volume error less than 0.05 mm of the new scheme was improved from 0.6592 to 0.7021 than the probability of the old scheme, the precision of the system was improved obviously, the model can be used for the error analysis and accuracy synthesis of the complex multi- embranchment motion chain system, and to improve the system precision of manufacturing.

Iterative reconstruction for quantitative computed tomography analysis of emphysema: consistent results using different tube currents

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yamashiro T

2015-02-01

Full Text Available Tsuneo Yamashiro,1 Tetsuhiro Miyara,1 Osamu Honda,2 Noriyuki Tomiyama,2 Yoshiharu Ohno,3 Satoshi Noma,4 Sadayuki Murayama1 On behalf of the ACTIve Study Group 1Department of Radiology, Graduate School of Medical Science, University of the Ryukyus, Nishihara, Okinawa, Japan; 2Department of Radiology, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Suita, Osaka, Japan; 3Department of Radiology, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine, Kobe, Hyogo, Japan; 4Department of Radiology, Tenri Hospital, Tenri, Nara, Japan Purpose: To assess the advantages of iterative reconstruction for quantitative computed tomography (CT analysis of pulmonary emphysema. Materials and methods: Twenty-two patients with pulmonary emphysema underwent chest CT imaging using identical scanners with three different tube currents: 240, 120, and 60 mA. Scan data were converted to CT images using Adaptive Iterative Dose Reduction using Three Dimensional Processing (AIDR3D and a conventional filtered-back projection mode. Thus, six scans with and without AIDR3D were generated per patient. All other scanning and reconstruction settings were fixed. The percent low attenuation area (LAA%; < -950 Hounsfield units and the lung density 15th percentile were automatically measured using a commercial workstation. Comparisons of LAA% and 15th percentile results between scans with and without using AIDR3D were made by Wilcoxon signed-rank tests. Associations between body weight and measurement errors among these scans were evaluated by Spearman rank correlation analysis. Results: Overall, scan series without AIDR3D had higher LAA% and lower 15th percentile values than those with AIDR3D at each tube current (P<0.0001. For scan series without AIDR3D, lower tube currents resulted in higher LAA% values and lower 15th percentiles. The extent of emphysema was significantly different between each pair among scans when not using AIDR3D (LAA%, P<0.0001; 15th percentile, P<0.01, but was not

Linear and nonlinear magnetic error measurements using action and phase jump analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Javier F. Cardona

2009-01-01

Full Text Available “Action and phase jump” analysis is presented—a beam based method that uses amplitude and phase knowledge of a particle trajectory to locate and measure magnetic errors in an accelerator lattice. The expected performance of the method is first tested using single-particle simulations in the optical lattice of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC. Such simulations predict that under ideal conditions typical quadrupole errors can be estimated within an uncertainty of 0.04%. Other simulations suggest that sextupole errors can be estimated within a 3% uncertainty. Then the action and phase jump analysis is applied to real RHIC orbits with known quadrupole errors, and to real Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS orbits with known sextupole errors. It is possible to estimate the strength of a skew quadrupole error from measured RHIC orbits within a 1.2% uncertainty, and to estimate the strength of a strong sextupole component from the measured SPS orbits within a 7% uncertainty.

Medication errors as malpractice-a qualitative content analysis of 585 medication errors by nurses in Sweden.

Science.gov (United States)

Björkstén, Karin Sparring; Bergqvist, Monica; Andersén-Karlsson, Eva; Benson, Lina; Ulfvarson, Johanna

2016-08-24

Many studies address the prevalence of medication errors but few address medication errors serious enough to be regarded as malpractice. Other studies have analyzed the individual and system contributory factor leading to a medication error. Nurses have a key role in medication administration, and there are contradictory reports on the nurses' work experience in relation to the risk and type for medication errors. All medication errors where a nurse was held responsible for malpractice (n = 585) during 11 years in Sweden were included. A qualitative content analysis and classification according to the type and the individual and system contributory factors was made. In order to test for possible differences between nurses' work experience and associations within and between the errors and contributory factors, Fisher's exact test was used, and Cohen's kappa (k) was performed to estimate the magnitude and direction of the associations. There were a total of 613 medication errors in the 585 cases, the most common being "Wrong dose" (41 %), "Wrong patient" (13 %) and "Omission of drug" (12 %). In 95 % of the cases, an average of 1.4 individual contributory factors was found; the most common being "Negligence, forgetfulness or lack of attentiveness" (68 %), "Proper protocol not followed" (25 %), "Lack of knowledge" (13 %) and "Practice beyond scope" (12 %). In 78 % of the cases, an average of 1.7 system contributory factors was found; the most common being "Role overload" (36 %), "Unclear communication or orders" (30 %) and "Lack of adequate access to guidelines or unclear organisational routines" (30 %). The errors "Wrong patient due to mix-up of patients" and "Wrong route" and the contributory factors "Lack of knowledge" and "Negligence, forgetfulness or lack of attentiveness" were more common in less experienced nurses. The experienced nurses were more prone to "Practice beyond scope of practice" and to make errors in spite of "Lack of adequate

Error analysis for 1-1/2-loop semiscale system isothermal test data

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Feldman, E.M.; Naff, S.A.

1975-05-01

An error analysis was performed on the measurements made during the isothermal portion of the Semiscale Blowdown and Emergency Core Cooling (ECC) Project. A brief description of the measurement techniques employed, identification of potential sources of errors, and quantification of the errors associated with data is presented. (U.S.)

Analysis of errors in forensic science

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mingxiao Du

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Reliability of expert testimony is one of the foundations of judicial justice. Both expert bias and scientific errors affect the reliability of expert opinion, which in turn affects the trustworthiness of the findings of fact in legal proceedings. Expert bias can be eliminated by replacing experts; however, it may be more difficult to eliminate scientific errors. From the perspective of statistics, errors in operation of forensic science include systematic errors, random errors, and gross errors. In general, process repetition and abiding by the standard ISO/IEC:17025: 2005, general requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories, during operation are common measures used to reduce errors that originate from experts and equipment, respectively. For example, to reduce gross errors, the laboratory can ensure that a test is repeated several times by different experts. In applying for forensic principles and methods, the Federal Rules of Evidence 702 mandate that judges consider factors such as peer review, to ensure the reliability of the expert testimony. As the scientific principles and methods may not undergo professional review by specialists in a certain field, peer review serves as an exclusive standard. This study also examines two types of statistical errors. As false-positive errors involve a higher possibility of an unfair decision-making, they should receive more attention than false-negative errors.

A human error analysis methodology, AGAPE-ET, for emergency tasks in nuclear power plants and its application

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kim, Jae Whan; Jung, Won Dea [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Taejeon (Korea)

2002-03-01

This report presents a procedurised human reliability analysis (HRA) methodology, AGAPE-ET (A Guidance And Procedure for Human Error Analysis for Emergency Tasks), for both qualitative error analysis and quantification of human error probability (HEP) of emergency tasks in nuclear power plants. The AGAPE-ET is based on the simplified cognitive model. By each cognitive function, error causes or error-likely situations have been identified considering the characteristics of the performance of each cognitive function and influencing mechanism of PIFs on the cognitive function. Then, error analysis items have been determined from the identified error causes or error-likely situations to help the analysts cue or guide overall human error analysis. A human error analysis procedure based on the error analysis items is organised. The basic scheme for the quantification of HEP consists in the multiplication of the BHEP assigned by the error analysis item and the weight from the influencing factors decision tree (IFDT) constituted by cognitive function. The method can be characterised by the structured identification of the weak points of the task required to perform and the efficient analysis process that the analysts have only to carry out with the necessary cognitive functions. The report also presents the the application of AFAPE-ET to 31 nuclear emergency tasks and its results. 42 refs., 7 figs., 36 tabs. (Author)

Dose error analysis for a scanned proton beam delivery system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Coutrakon, G; Wang, N; Miller, D W; Yang, Y

2010-01-01

All particle beam scanning systems are subject to dose delivery errors due to errors in position, energy and intensity of the delivered beam. In addition, finite scan speeds, beam spill non-uniformities, and delays in detector, detector electronics and magnet responses will all contribute errors in delivery. In this paper, we present dose errors for an 8 x 10 x 8 cm 3 target of uniform water equivalent density with 8 cm spread out Bragg peak and a prescribed dose of 2 Gy. Lower doses are also analyzed and presented later in the paper. Beam energy errors and errors due to limitations of scanning system hardware have been included in the analysis. By using Gaussian shaped pencil beams derived from measurements in the research room of the James M Slater Proton Treatment and Research Center at Loma Linda, CA and executing treatment simulations multiple times, statistical dose errors have been calculated in each 2.5 mm cubic voxel in the target. These errors were calculated by delivering multiple treatments to the same volume and calculating the rms variation in delivered dose at each voxel in the target. The variations in dose were the result of random beam delivery errors such as proton energy, spot position and intensity fluctuations. The results show that with reasonable assumptions of random beam delivery errors, the spot scanning technique yielded an rms dose error in each voxel less than 2% or 3% of the 2 Gy prescribed dose. These calculated errors are within acceptable clinical limits for radiation therapy.

Non-destructive analysis and detection of internal characteristics of spruce logs through X computerized tomography

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Longuetaud, F.

2005-10-01

Computerized tomography allows a direct access to internal features of scanned logs on the basis of density and moisture content variations. The objective of this work is to assess the feasibility of an automatic detection of internal characteristics with the final aim of conducting scientific analyses. The database is constituted by CT images of 24 spruces obtained with a medical CT scanner. Studied trees are representative of several social status and are coming from four stands located in North-Eastern France, themselves are representative of several age, density and fertility classes. The automatic processing developed are the following. First, pith detection in logs dealing with the problem of knot presence and ring eccentricity. The accuracy of the localisation was less than one mm. Secondly, the detection of the sapwood/heart-wood limit in logs dealing with the problem of knot presence (main source of difficulty). The error on the diameter was 1.8 mm which corresponds to a relative error of 1.3 per cent. Thirdly, the detection of the whorls location and comparison with an optical method. Fourthly the detection of individualized knots. This process allows to count knots and to locate them in a log (longitudinal position and azimuth); however, the validation of the method and extraction of branch diameter and inclination are still to be developed. An application of this work was a variability analysis of the sapwood content in the trunk: at the within-tree level, the sapwood width was found to be constant under the living crown; at the between-tree level, a strong correlation was found with the amount of living branches. A great number of analyses are possible from our work results, among others: architectural analysis with the pith tracking and the apex death occurrence; analysis of radial variations of the heart-wood shape; analysis of the knot distribution in logs. (author)

Morphological analysis of the vestibular aqueduct by computerized tomography images

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Marques, Sergio Ricardo; Smith, Ricardo Luiz; Isotani, Sadao; Alonso, Luis Garcia; Anadao, Carlos Augusto; Prates, Jose Carlos; Lederman, Henrique Manoel

2007-01-01

Objective: In the last two decades, advances in the computerized tomography (CT) field revise the internal and medium ear evaluation. Therefore, the aim of this study is to analyze the morphology and morphometric aspects of the vestibular aqueduct on the basis of computerized tomography images (CTI). Material and method: Computerized tomography images of vestibular aqueducts were acquired from patients (n = 110) with an age range of 1-92 years. Thereafter, from the vestibular aqueducts images a morphometric analysis was performed. Through a computerized image processing system, the vestibular aqueduct measurements comprised of its area, external opening, length and the distance from the vestibular aqueduct to the internal acoustic meatus. Results: The morphology of the vestibular aqueduct may be funnel-shaped, filiform or tubular and the respective proportions were found to be at 44%, 33% and 22% in children and 21.7%, 53.3% and 25% in adults. The morphometric data showed to be of 4.86 mm 2 of area, 2.24 mm of the external opening, 4.73 mm of length and 11.88 mm of the distance from the vestibular aqueduct to the internal acoustic meatus, in children, and in adults it was of 4.93 mm 2 , 2.09 mm, 4.44 mm, and 11.35 mm, respectively. Conclusions: Computerized tomography showed that the vestibular aqueduct presents high morphological variability. The morphometric analysis showed that the differences found between groups of children and adults or between groups of both genders were not statistically significant

Kinematic Analysis of Speech Sound Sequencing Errors Induced by Delayed Auditory Feedback.

Science.gov (United States)

Cler, Gabriel J; Lee, Jackson C; Mittelman, Talia; Stepp, Cara E; Bohland, Jason W

2017-06-22

Delayed auditory feedback (DAF) causes speakers to become disfluent and make phonological errors. Methods for assessing the kinematics of speech errors are lacking, with most DAF studies relying on auditory perceptual analyses, which may be problematic, as errors judged to be categorical may actually represent blends of sounds or articulatory errors. Eight typical speakers produced nonsense syllable sequences under normal and DAF (200 ms). Lip and tongue kinematics were captured with electromagnetic articulography. Time-locked acoustic recordings were transcribed, and the kinematics of utterances with and without perceived errors were analyzed with existing and novel quantitative methods. New multivariate measures showed that for 5 participants, kinematic variability for productions perceived to be error free was significantly increased under delay; these results were validated by using the spatiotemporal index measure. Analysis of error trials revealed both typical productions of a nontarget syllable and productions with articulatory kinematics that incorporated aspects of both the target and the perceived utterance. This study is among the first to characterize articulatory changes under DAF and provides evidence for different classes of speech errors, which may not be perceptually salient. New methods were developed that may aid visualization and analysis of large kinematic data sets. https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.5103067.

Development of safety analysis and constraint detection techniques for process interaction errors

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Fan, Chin-Feng, E-mail: csfanc@saturn.yzu.edu.tw [Computer Science and Engineering Dept., Yuan-Ze University, Taiwan (China); Tsai, Shang-Lin; Tseng, Wan-Hui [Computer Science and Engineering Dept., Yuan-Ze University, Taiwan (China)

2011-02-15

Among the new failure modes introduced by computer into safety systems, the process interaction error is the most unpredictable and complicated failure mode, which may cause disastrous consequences. This paper presents safety analysis and constraint detection techniques for process interaction errors among hardware, software, and human processes. Among interaction errors, the most dreadful ones are those that involve run-time misinterpretation from a logic process. We call them the 'semantic interaction errors'. Such abnormal interaction is not adequately emphasized in current research. In our static analysis, we provide a fault tree template focusing on semantic interaction errors by checking conflicting pre-conditions and post-conditions among interacting processes. Thus, far-fetched, but highly risky, interaction scenarios involve interpretation errors can be identified. For run-time monitoring, a range of constraint types is proposed for checking abnormal signs at run time. We extend current constraints to a broader relational level and a global level, considering process/device dependencies and physical conservation rules in order to detect process interaction errors. The proposed techniques can reduce abnormal interactions; they can also be used to assist in safety-case construction.

Development of safety analysis and constraint detection techniques for process interaction errors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fan, Chin-Feng; Tsai, Shang-Lin; Tseng, Wan-Hui

2011-01-01

Among the new failure modes introduced by computer into safety systems, the process interaction error is the most unpredictable and complicated failure mode, which may cause disastrous consequences. This paper presents safety analysis and constraint detection techniques for process interaction errors among hardware, software, and human processes. Among interaction errors, the most dreadful ones are those that involve run-time misinterpretation from a logic process. We call them the 'semantic interaction errors'. Such abnormal interaction is not adequately emphasized in current research. In our static analysis, we provide a fault tree template focusing on semantic interaction errors by checking conflicting pre-conditions and post-conditions among interacting processes. Thus, far-fetched, but highly risky, interaction scenarios involve interpretation errors can be identified. For run-time monitoring, a range of constraint types is proposed for checking abnormal signs at run time. We extend current constraints to a broader relational level and a global level, considering process/device dependencies and physical conservation rules in order to detect process interaction errors. The proposed techniques can reduce abnormal interactions; they can also be used to assist in safety-case construction.

Three-dimensional structural analysis of eukaryotic flagella/cilia by electron cryo-tomography

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bui, Khanh Huy; Pigino, Gaia; Ishikawa, Takashi

2011-01-01

Based on the molecular architecture revealed by electron cryo-tomography, the mechanism of the bending motion of eukaryotic flagella/cilia is discussed. Electron cryo-tomography is a potential approach to analyzing the three-dimensional conformation of frozen hydrated biological macromolecules using electron microscopy. Since projections of each individual object illuminated from different orientations are merged, electron tomography is capable of structural analysis of such heterogeneous environments as in vivo or with polymorphism, although radiation damage and the missing wedge are severe problems. Here, recent results on the structure of eukaryotic flagella, which is an ATP-driven bending organelle, from green algae Chlamydomonas are presented. Tomographic analysis reveals asymmetric molecular arrangements, especially that of the dynein motor proteins, in flagella, giving insight into the mechanism of planar asymmetric bending motion. Methodological challenges to obtaining higher-resolution structures from this technique are also discussed

Analysis of gross error rates in operation of commercial nuclear power stations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Joos, D.W.; Sabri, Z.A.; Husseiny, A.A.

1979-01-01

Experience in operation of US commercial nuclear power plants is reviewed over a 25-month period. The reports accumulated in that period on events of human error and component failure are examined to evaluate gross operator error rates. The impact of such errors on plant operation and safety is examined through the use of proper taxonomies of error, tasks and failures. Four categories of human errors are considered; namely, operator, maintenance, installation and administrative. The computed error rates are used to examine appropriate operator models for evaluation of operator reliability. Human error rates are found to be significant to a varying degree in both BWR and PWR. This emphasizes the import of considering human factors in safety and reliability analysis of nuclear systems. The results also indicate that human errors, and especially operator errors, do indeed follow the exponential reliability model. (Auth.)

Towards adaptive, streaming analysis of x-ray tomography data

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Thomas, Mathew; Kleese van Dam, Kerstin; Marshall, Matthew J.; Kuprat, Andrew P.; Carson, James P.; Lansing, Carina S.; Guillen, Zoe C.; Miller, Erin A.; Lanekoff, Ingela; Laskin, Julia

2015-03-04

Temporal and spatial resolution of chemical imaging methodologies such as x-ray tomography are rapidly increasing, leading to more complex experimental procedures and fast growing data volumes. Automated analysis pipelines and big data analytics are becoming essential to effectively evaluate the results of such experiments. Offering those data techniques in an adaptive, streaming environment can further substantially improve the scientific discovery process, by enabling experimental control and steering based on the evaluation of emerging phenomena as they are observed by the experiment. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL)’ Chemical Imaging Initiative (CII - http://imaging.pnnl.gov/ ) has worked since 2011 towards developing a framework that allows users to rapidly compose and customize high throughput experimental analysis pipelines for multiple instrument types. The framework, named ‘Rapid Experimental Analysis’ (REXAN) Framework [1], is based on the idea of reusable component libraries and utilizes the PNNL developed collaborative data management and analysis environment ‘Velo’, to provide a user friendly analysis and data management environment for experimental facilities. This article will, discuss the capabilities established for X-Ray tomography, discuss lessons learned, and provide an overview of our more recent work in the Analysis in Motion Initiative (AIM - http://aim.pnnl.gov/ ) at PNNL to provide REXAN capabilities in a streaming environment.

Slow Learner Errors Analysis in Solving Fractions Problems in Inclusive Junior High School Class

Science.gov (United States)

Novitasari, N.; Lukito, A.; Ekawati, R.

2018-01-01

A slow learner whose IQ is between 71 and 89 will have difficulties in solving mathematics problems that often lead to errors. The errors could be analyzed to where the errors may occur and its type. This research is qualitative descriptive which aims to describe the locations, types, and causes of slow learner errors in the inclusive junior high school class in solving the fraction problem. The subject of this research is one slow learner of seventh-grade student which was selected through direct observation by the researcher and through discussion with mathematics teacher and special tutor which handles the slow learner students. Data collection methods used in this study are written tasks and semistructured interviews. The collected data was analyzed by Newman’s Error Analysis (NEA). Results show that there are four locations of errors, namely comprehension, transformation, process skills, and encoding errors. There are four types of errors, such as concept, principle, algorithm, and counting errors. The results of this error analysis will help teachers to identify the causes of the errors made by the slow learner.

Error analysis of terrestrial laser scanning data by means of spherical statistics and 3D graphs.

Science.gov (United States)

Cuartero, Aurora; Armesto, Julia; Rodríguez, Pablo G; Arias, Pedro

2010-01-01

This paper presents a complete analysis of the positional errors of terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) data based on spherical statistics and 3D graphs. Spherical statistics are preferred because of the 3D vectorial nature of the spatial error. Error vectors have three metric elements (one module and two angles) that were analyzed by spherical statistics. A study case has been presented and discussed in detail. Errors were calculating using 53 check points (CP) and CP coordinates were measured by a digitizer with submillimetre accuracy. The positional accuracy was analyzed by both the conventional method (modular errors analysis) and the proposed method (angular errors analysis) by 3D graphics and numerical spherical statistics. Two packages in R programming language were performed to obtain graphics automatically. The results indicated that the proposed method is advantageous as it offers a more complete analysis of the positional accuracy, such as angular error component, uniformity of the vector distribution, error isotropy, and error, in addition the modular error component by linear statistics.

Analysis of Employee's Survey for Preventing Human-Errors

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sung, Chanho; Kim, Younggab; Joung, Sanghoun [KHNP Central Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2013-10-15

Human errors in nuclear power plant can cause large and small events or incidents. These events or incidents are one of main contributors of reactor trip and might threaten the safety of nuclear plants. To prevent human-errors, KHNP(nuclear power plants) introduced 'Human-error prevention techniques' and have applied the techniques to main parts such as plant operation, operation support, and maintenance and engineering. This paper proposes the methods to prevent and reduce human-errors in nuclear power plants through analyzing survey results which includes the utilization of the human-error prevention techniques and the employees' awareness of preventing human-errors. With regard to human-error prevention, this survey analysis presented the status of the human-error prevention techniques and the employees' awareness of preventing human-errors. Employees' understanding and utilization of the techniques was generally high and training level of employee and training effect on actual works were in good condition. Also, employees answered that the root causes of human-error were due to working environment including tight process, manpower shortage, and excessive mission rather than personal negligence or lack of personal knowledge. Consideration of working environment is certainly needed. At the present time, based on analyzing this survey, the best methods of preventing human-error are personal equipment, training/education substantiality, private mental health check before starting work, prohibit of multiple task performing, compliance with procedures, and enhancement of job site review. However, the most important and basic things for preventing human-error are interests of workers and organizational atmosphere such as communication between managers and workers, and communication between employees and bosses.

QUALITATIVE DATA AND ERROR MEASUREMENT IN INPUT-OUTPUT-ANALYSIS

NARCIS (Netherlands)

NIJKAMP, P; OOSTERHAVEN, J; OUWERSLOOT, H; RIETVELD, P

1992-01-01

This paper is a contribution to the rapidly emerging field of qualitative data analysis in economics. Ordinal data techniques and error measurement in input-output analysis are here combined in order to test the reliability of a low level of measurement and precision of data by means of a stochastic

Wavefront-error evaluation by mathematical analysis of experimental Foucault-test data

Science.gov (United States)

Wilson, R. G.

1975-01-01

The diffraction theory of the Foucault test provides an integral formula expressing the complex amplitude and irradiance distribution in the Foucault pattern of a test mirror (lens) as a function of wavefront error. Recent literature presents methods of inverting this formula to express wavefront error in terms of irradiance in the Foucault pattern. The present paper describes a study in which the inversion formulation was applied to photometric Foucault-test measurements on a nearly diffraction-limited mirror to determine wavefront errors for direct comparison with ones determined from scatter-plate interferometer measurements. The results affirm the practicability of the Foucault test for quantitative wavefront analysis of very small errors, and they reveal the fallacy of the prevalent belief that the test is limited to qualitative use only. Implications of the results with regard to optical testing and the potential use of the Foucault test for wavefront analysis in orbital space telescopes are discussed.

Accounting for covariate measurement error in a Cox model analysis of recurrence of depression.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, K; Mazumdar, S; Stone, R A; Dew, M A; Houck, P R; Reynolds, C F

2001-01-01

When a covariate measured with error is used as a predictor in a survival analysis using the Cox model, the parameter estimate is usually biased. In clinical research, covariates measured without error such as treatment procedure or sex are often used in conjunction with a covariate measured with error. In a randomized clinical trial of two types of treatments, we account for the measurement error in the covariate, log-transformed total rapid eye movement (REM) activity counts, in a Cox model analysis of the time to recurrence of major depression in an elderly population. Regression calibration and two variants of a likelihood-based approach are used to account for measurement error. The likelihood-based approach is extended to account for the correlation between replicate measures of the covariate. Using the replicate data decreases the standard error of the parameter estimate for log(total REM) counts while maintaining the bias reduction of the estimate. We conclude that covariate measurement error and the correlation between replicates can affect results in a Cox model analysis and should be accounted for. In the depression data, these methods render comparable results that have less bias than the results when measurement error is ignored.

Detection method of nonlinearity errors by statistical signal analysis in heterodyne Michelson interferometer.

Science.gov (United States)

Hu, Juju; Hu, Haijiang; Ji, Yinghua

2010-03-15

Periodic nonlinearity that ranges from tens of nanometers to a few nanometers in heterodyne interferometer limits its use in high accuracy measurement. A novel method is studied to detect the nonlinearity errors based on the electrical subdivision and the analysis method of statistical signal in heterodyne Michelson interferometer. Under the movement of micropositioning platform with the uniform velocity, the method can detect the nonlinearity errors by using the regression analysis and Jackknife estimation. Based on the analysis of the simulations, the method can estimate the influence of nonlinearity errors and other noises for the dimensions measurement in heterodyne Michelson interferometer.

Polarimetry data inversion in conditions of tokamak plasma: Model based tomography concept

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bieg, B.; Chrzanowski, J.; Kravtsov, Yu. A.; Mazon, D.

2015-01-01

Highlights: • Model based plasma tomography is presented. • Minimization procedure for the error function is suggested to be performed using the gradient method. • model based procedure of data inversion in the case of joint polarimetry–interferometry data. - Abstract: Model based plasma tomography is studied which fits a hypothetical multi-parameter plasma model to polarimetry and interferometry experimental data. Fitting procedure implies minimization of the error function, defined as a sum of squared differences between theoretical and empirical values. Minimization procedure for the function is suggested to be performed using the gradient method. Contrary to traditional tomography, which deals exclusively with observational data, model-based tomography (MBT) operates also with reasonable model of inhomogeneous plasma distribution and verifies which profile of a given class better fits experimental data. Model based tomography (MBT) restricts itself by definite class of models for instance power series, Fourier expansion etc. The basic equations of MBT are presented which generalize the equations of model based procedure of polarimetric data inversion in the case of joint polarimetry–interferometry data.

Polarimetry data inversion in conditions of tokamak plasma: Model based tomography concept

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bieg, B. [Maritime University of Szczecin, Waly Chrobrego 1-2, 70-500 Szczecin (Poland); Chrzanowski, J., E-mail: j.chrzanowski@am.szczecin.pl [Maritime University of Szczecin, Waly Chrobrego 1-2, 70-500 Szczecin (Poland); Kravtsov, Yu. A. [Maritime University of Szczecin, Waly Chrobrego 1-2, 70-500 Szczecin (Poland); Space Research Institute, Profsoyuznaya St. 82/34 Russian Academy of Science, Moscow 117997 (Russian Federation); Mazon, D. [CEA, IRFM, F-13108 Saint Paul-lez-Durance (France)

2015-10-15

Highlights: • Model based plasma tomography is presented. • Minimization procedure for the error function is suggested to be performed using the gradient method. • model based procedure of data inversion in the case of joint polarimetry–interferometry data. - Abstract: Model based plasma tomography is studied which fits a hypothetical multi-parameter plasma model to polarimetry and interferometry experimental data. Fitting procedure implies minimization of the error function, defined as a sum of squared differences between theoretical and empirical values. Minimization procedure for the function is suggested to be performed using the gradient method. Contrary to traditional tomography, which deals exclusively with observational data, model-based tomography (MBT) operates also with reasonable model of inhomogeneous plasma distribution and verifies which profile of a given class better fits experimental data. Model based tomography (MBT) restricts itself by definite class of models for instance power series, Fourier expansion etc. The basic equations of MBT are presented which generalize the equations of model based procedure of polarimetric data inversion in the case of joint polarimetry–interferometry data.

Latent human error analysis and efficient improvement strategies by fuzzy TOPSIS in aviation maintenance tasks.

Science.gov (United States)

Chiu, Ming-Chuan; Hsieh, Min-Chih

2016-05-01

The purposes of this study were to develop a latent human error analysis process, to explore the factors of latent human error in aviation maintenance tasks, and to provide an efficient improvement strategy for addressing those errors. First, we used HFACS and RCA to define the error factors related to aviation maintenance tasks. Fuzzy TOPSIS with four criteria was applied to evaluate the error factors. Results show that 1) adverse physiological states, 2) physical/mental limitations, and 3) coordination, communication, and planning are the factors related to airline maintenance tasks that could be addressed easily and efficiently. This research establishes a new analytic process for investigating latent human error and provides a strategy for analyzing human error using fuzzy TOPSIS. Our analysis process complements shortages in existing methodologies by incorporating improvement efficiency, and it enhances the depth and broadness of human error analysis methodology. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd and The Ergonomics Society. All rights reserved.

Error Analysis for Fourier Methods for Option Pricing

KAUST Repository

Häppölä, Juho

2016-01-06

We provide a bound for the error committed when using a Fourier method to price European options when the underlying follows an exponential Levy dynamic. The price of the option is described by a partial integro-differential equation (PIDE). Applying a Fourier transformation to the PIDE yields an ordinary differential equation that can be solved analytically in terms of the characteristic exponent of the Levy process. Then, a numerical inverse Fourier transform allows us to obtain the option price. We present a novel bound for the error and use this bound to set the parameters for the numerical method. We analyze the properties of the bound for a dissipative and pure-jump example. The bound presented is independent of the asymptotic behaviour of option prices at extreme asset prices. The error bound can be decomposed into a product of terms resulting from the dynamics and the option payoff, respectively. The analysis is supplemented by numerical examples that demonstrate results comparable to and superior to the existing literature.

Spatial-temporal analysis of wind power forecast errors for West-Coast Norway

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Revheim, Paal Preede; Beyer, Hans Georg [Agder Univ. (UiA), Grimstad (Norway). Dept. of Engineering Sciences

2012-07-01

In this paper the spatial-temporal structure of forecast errors for wind power in West-Coast Norway is analyzed. Starting on the qualitative analysis of the forecast error reduction, with respect to single site data, for the lumped conditions of groups of sites the spatial and temporal correlations of the wind power forecast errors within and between the same groups are studied in detail. Based on this, time-series regression models to be used to analytically describe the error reduction are set up. The models give an expected reduction in forecast error between 48.4% and 49%. (orig.)

Error analysis: How precise is fused deposition modeling in fabrication of bone models in comparison to the parent bones?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M V Reddy

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Background: Rapid prototyping (RP is used widely in dental and faciomaxillary surgery with anecdotal uses in orthopedics. The purview of RP in orthopedics is vast. However, there is no error analysis reported in the literature on bone models generated using office-based RP. This study evaluates the accuracy of fused deposition modeling (FDM using standard tessellation language (STL files and errors generated during the fabrication of bone models. Materials and Methods: Nine dry bones were selected and were computed tomography (CT scanned. STL files were procured from the CT scans and three-dimensional (3D models of the bones were printed using our in-house FDM based 3D printer using Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS filament. Measurements were made on the bone and 3D models according to data collection procedures for forensic skeletal material. Statistical analysis was performed to establish interobserver co-relation for measurements on dry bones and the 3D bone models. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS version 13.0 software to analyze the collected data. Results: The inter-observer reliability was established using intra-class coefficient for both the dry bones and the 3D models. The mean of absolute difference is 0.4 that is very minimal. The 3D models are comparable to the dry bones. Conclusions: STL file dependent FDM using ABS material produces near-anatomical 3D models. The high 3D accuracy hold a promise in the clinical scenario for preoperative planning, mock surgery, and choice of implants and prostheses, especially in complicated acetabular trauma and complex hip surgeries.

Error Analysis: How Precise is Fused Deposition Modeling in Fabrication of Bone Models in Comparison to the Parent Bones?

Science.gov (United States)

Reddy, M V; Eachempati, Krishnakiran; Gurava Reddy, A V; Mugalur, Aakash

2018-01-01

Rapid prototyping (RP) is used widely in dental and faciomaxillary surgery with anecdotal uses in orthopedics. The purview of RP in orthopedics is vast. However, there is no error analysis reported in the literature on bone models generated using office-based RP. This study evaluates the accuracy of fused deposition modeling (FDM) using standard tessellation language (STL) files and errors generated during the fabrication of bone models. Nine dry bones were selected and were computed tomography (CT) scanned. STL files were procured from the CT scans and three-dimensional (3D) models of the bones were printed using our in-house FDM based 3D printer using Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) filament. Measurements were made on the bone and 3D models according to data collection procedures for forensic skeletal material. Statistical analysis was performed to establish interobserver co-relation for measurements on dry bones and the 3D bone models. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS version 13.0 software to analyze the collected data. The inter-observer reliability was established using intra-class coefficient for both the dry bones and the 3D models. The mean of absolute difference is 0.4 that is very minimal. The 3D models are comparable to the dry bones. STL file dependent FDM using ABS material produces near-anatomical 3D models. The high 3D accuracy hold a promise in the clinical scenario for preoperative planning, mock surgery, and choice of implants and prostheses, especially in complicated acetabular trauma and complex hip surgeries.

Diffraction analysis of sidelobe characteristics of optical elements with ripple error

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Lei; Luo, Yupeng; Bai, Jian; Zhou, Xiangdong; Du, Juan; Liu, Qun; Luo, Yujie

2018-03-01

The ripple errors of the lens lead to optical damage in high energy laser system. The analysis of sidelobe on the focal plane, caused by ripple error, provides a reference to evaluate the error and the imaging quality. In this paper, we analyze the diffraction characteristics of sidelobe of optical elements with ripple errors. First, we analyze the characteristics of ripple error and build relationship between ripple error and sidelobe. The sidelobe results from the diffraction of ripple errors. The ripple error tends to be periodic due to fabrication method on the optical surface. The simulated experiments are carried out based on angular spectrum method by characterizing ripple error as rotationally symmetric periodic structures. The influence of two major parameter of ripple including spatial frequency and peak-to-valley value to sidelobe is discussed. The results indicate that spatial frequency and peak-to-valley value both impact sidelobe at the image plane. The peak-tovalley value is the major factor to affect the energy proportion of the sidelobe. The spatial frequency is the major factor to affect the distribution of the sidelobe at the image plane.

Analysis on optical heterodyne frequency error of full-field heterodyne interferometer

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Yang; Zhang, Wenxi; Wu, Zhou; Lv, Xiaoyu; Kong, Xinxin; Guo, Xiaoli

2017-06-01

The full-field heterodyne interferometric measurement technology is beginning better applied by employing low frequency heterodyne acousto-optical modulators instead of complex electro-mechanical scanning devices. The optical element surface could be directly acquired by synchronously detecting the received signal phases of each pixel, because standard matrix detector as CCD and CMOS cameras could be used in heterodyne interferometer. Instead of the traditional four-step phase shifting phase calculating, Fourier spectral analysis method is used for phase extracting which brings lower sensitivity to sources of uncertainty and higher measurement accuracy. In this paper, two types of full-field heterodyne interferometer are described whose advantages and disadvantages are also specified. Heterodyne interferometer has to combine two different frequency beams to produce interference, which brings a variety of optical heterodyne frequency errors. Frequency mixing error and beat frequency error are two different kinds of inescapable heterodyne frequency errors. In this paper, the effects of frequency mixing error to surface measurement are derived. The relationship between the phase extraction accuracy and the errors are calculated. :: The tolerance of the extinction ratio of polarization splitting prism and the signal-to-noise ratio of stray light is given. The error of phase extraction by Fourier analysis that caused by beat frequency shifting is derived and calculated. We also propose an improved phase extraction method based on spectrum correction. An amplitude ratio spectrum correction algorithm with using Hanning window is used to correct the heterodyne signal phase extraction. The simulation results show that this method can effectively suppress the degradation of phase extracting caused by beat frequency error and reduce the measurement uncertainty of full-field heterodyne interferometer.

Quality of IT service delivery — Analysis and framework for human error prevention

KAUST Repository

Shwartz, L.

2010-12-01

In this paper, we address the problem of reducing the occurrence of Human Errors that cause service interruptions in IT Service Support and Delivery operations. Analysis of a large volume of service interruption records revealed that more than 21% of interruptions were caused by human error. We focus on Change Management, the process with the largest risk of human error, and identify the main instances of human errors as the 4 Wrongs: request, time, configuration item, and command. Analysis of change records revealed that the humanerror prevention by partial automation is highly relevant. We propose the HEP Framework, a framework for execution of IT Service Delivery operations that reduces human error by addressing the 4 Wrongs using content integration, contextualization of operation patterns, partial automation of command execution, and controlled access to resources.

Thermal error analysis and compensation for digital image/volume correlation

Science.gov (United States)

Pan, Bing

2018-02-01

Digital image/volume correlation (DIC/DVC) rely on the digital images acquired by digital cameras and x-ray CT scanners to extract the motion and deformation of test samples. Regrettably, these imaging devices are unstable optical systems, whose imaging geometry may undergo unavoidable slight and continual changes due to self-heating effect or ambient temperature variations. Changes in imaging geometry lead to both shift and expansion in the recorded 2D or 3D images, and finally manifest as systematic displacement and strain errors in DIC/DVC measurements. Since measurement accuracy is always the most important requirement in various experimental mechanics applications, these thermal-induced errors (referred to as thermal errors) should be given serious consideration in order to achieve high accuracy, reproducible DIC/DVC measurements. In this work, theoretical analyses are first given to understand the origin of thermal errors. Then real experiments are conducted to quantify thermal errors. Three solutions are suggested to mitigate or correct thermal errors. Among these solutions, a reference sample compensation approach is highly recommended because of its easy implementation, high accuracy and in-situ error correction capability. Most of the work has appeared in our previously published papers, thus its originality is not claimed. Instead, this paper aims to give a comprehensive overview and more insights of our work on thermal error analysis and compensation for DIC/DVC measurements.

Optical coherence tomography signal analysis: LIDAR like equation and inverse methods

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Amaral, Marcello Magri

2012-01-01

Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) is based on the media backscattering properties in order to obtain tomographic images. In a similar way, LIDAR (Light Detection and Range) technique uses these properties to determine atmospheric characteristics, specially the signal extinction coefficient. Exploring this similarity allowed the application of signal inversion methods to the OCT images, allowing to construct images based in the extinction coefficient, original result until now. The goal of this work was to study, propose, develop and implement algorithms based on OCT signal inversion methodologies with the aim of determine the extinction coefficient as a function of depth. Three inversion methods were used and implemented in LABView R : slope, boundary point and optical depth. Associated errors were studied and real samples (homogeneous and stratified) were used for two and three dimension analysis. The extinction coefficient images obtained from the optical depth method were capable to differentiate air from the sample. The images were studied applying PCA and cluster analysis that established the methodology strength in determining the sample's extinction coefficient value. Moreover, the optical depth methodology was applied to study the hypothesis that there is some correlation between signal extinction coefficient and the enamel teeth demineralization during a cariogenic process. By applying this methodology, it was possible to observe the variation of the extinction coefficient as depth function and its correlation with microhardness variation, showing that in deeper layers its values tends to a healthy tooth values, behaving as the same way that the microhardness. (author)

Multivariate statistical analysis of atom probe tomography data

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Parish, Chad M.; Miller, Michael K.

2010-01-01

The application of spectrum imaging multivariate statistical analysis methods, specifically principal component analysis (PCA), to atom probe tomography (APT) data has been investigated. The mathematical method of analysis is described and the results for two example datasets are analyzed and presented. The first dataset is from the analysis of a PM 2000 Fe-Cr-Al-Ti steel containing two different ultrafine precipitate populations. PCA properly describes the matrix and precipitate phases in a simple and intuitive manner. A second APT example is from the analysis of an irradiated reactor pressure vessel steel. Fine, nm-scale Cu-enriched precipitates having a core-shell structure were identified and qualitatively described by PCA. Advantages, disadvantages, and future prospects for implementing these data analysis methodologies for APT datasets, particularly with regard to quantitative analysis, are also discussed.

Image enhancement by spectral-error correction for dual-energy computed tomography.

Science.gov (United States)

Park, Kyung-Kook; Oh, Chang-Hyun; Akay, Metin

2011-01-01

Dual-energy CT (DECT) was reintroduced recently to use the additional spectral information of X-ray attenuation and aims for accurate density measurement and material differentiation. However, the spectral information lies in the difference between low and high energy images or measurements, so that it is difficult to acquire accurate spectral information due to amplification of high pixel noise in the resulting difference image. In this work, an image enhancement technique for DECT is proposed, based on the fact that the attenuation of a higher density material decreases more rapidly as X-ray energy increases. We define as spectral error the case when a pixel pair of low and high energy images deviates far from the expected attenuation trend. After analyzing the spectral-error sources of DECT images, we propose a DECT image enhancement method, which consists of three steps: water-reference offset correction, spectral-error correction, and anti-correlated noise reduction. It is the main idea of this work that makes spectral errors distributed like random noise over the true attenuation and suppressed by the well-known anti-correlated noise reduction. The proposed method suppressed noise of liver lesions and improved contrast between liver lesions and liver parenchyma in DECT contrast-enhanced abdominal images and their two-material decomposition.

Radiological error: analysis, standard setting, targeted instruction and teamworking

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

FitzGerald, Richard

2005-01-01

Diagnostic radiology does not have objective benchmarks for acceptable levels of missed diagnoses [1]. Until now, data collection of radiological discrepancies has been very time consuming. The culture within the specialty did not encourage it. However, public concern about patient safety is increasing. There have been recent innovations in compiling radiological interpretive discrepancy rates which may facilitate radiological standard setting. However standard setting alone will not optimise radiologists' performance or patient safety. We must use these new techniques in radiological discrepancy detection to stimulate greater knowledge sharing, targeted instruction and teamworking among radiologists. Not all radiological discrepancies are errors. Radiological discrepancy programmes must not be abused as an instrument for discrediting individual radiologists. Discrepancy rates must not be distorted as a weapon in turf battles. Radiological errors may be due to many causes and are often multifactorial. A systems approach to radiological error is required. Meaningful analysis of radiological discrepancies and errors is challenging. Valid standard setting will take time. Meanwhile, we need to develop top-up training, mentoring and rehabilitation programmes. (orig.)

Development of an analysis rule of diagnosis error for standard method of human reliability analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jeong, W. D.; Kang, D. I.; Jeong, K. S.

2003-01-01

This paper presents the status of development of Korea standard method for Human Reliability Analysis (HRA), and proposed a standard procedure and rules for the evaluation of diagnosis error probability. The quality of KSNP HRA was evaluated using the requirement of ASME PRA standard guideline, and the design requirement for the standard HRA method was defined. Analysis procedure and rules, developed so far, to analyze diagnosis error probability was suggested as a part of the standard method. And also a study of comprehensive application was performed to evaluate the suitability of the proposed rules

Detailed semantic analyses of human error incidents occurring at nuclear power plants. Extraction of periodical transition of error occurrence patterns by applying multivariate analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hirotsu, Yuko; Suzuki, Kunihiko; Takano, Kenichi; Kojima, Mitsuhiro

2000-01-01

It is essential for preventing the recurrence of human error incidents to analyze and evaluate them with the emphasis on human factor. Detailed and structured analyses of all incidents at domestic nuclear power plants (NPPs) reported during last 31 years have been conducted based on J-HPES, in which total 193 human error cases are identified. Results obtained by the analyses have been stored into the J-HPES database. In the previous study, by applying multivariate analysis to above case studies, it was suggested that there were several occurrence patterns identified of how errors occur at NPPs. It was also clarified that the causes related to each human error are different depending on age of their occurrence. This paper described the obtained results in respects of periodical transition of human error occurrence patterns. By applying multivariate analysis to the above data, it was suggested there were two types of error occurrence patterns as to each human error type. First type is common occurrence patterns, not depending on the age, and second type is the one influenced by periodical characteristics. (author)

X-ray computed tomography datasets for forensic analysis of vertebrate fossils

Science.gov (United States)

Rowe, Timothy B.; Luo, Zhe-Xi; Ketcham, Richard A.; Maisano, Jessica A.; Colbert, Matthew W.

2016-01-01

We describe X-ray computed tomography (CT) datasets from three specimens recovered from Early Cretaceous lakebeds of China that illustrate the forensic interpretation of CT imagery for paleontology. Fossil vertebrates from thinly bedded sediments often shatter upon discovery and are commonly repaired as amalgamated mosaics grouted to a solid backing slab of rock or plaster. Such methods are prone to inadvertent error and willful forgery, and once required potentially destructive methods to identify mistakes in reconstruction. CT is an efficient, nondestructive alternative that can disclose many clues about how a specimen was handled and repaired. These annotated datasets illustrate the power of CT in documenting specimen integrity and are intended as a reference in applying CT more broadly to evaluating the authenticity of comparable fossils. PMID:27272251

Numerical analysis of modal tomography for solar multi-conjugate adaptive optics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dong Bing; Ren Deqing; Zhang Xi

2012-01-01

Multi-conjugate adaptive optics (MCAO) can considerably extend the corrected field of view with respect to classical adaptive optics, which will benefit solar observation in many aspects. In solar MCAO, the Sun structure is utilized to provide multiple guide stars and a modal tomography approach is adopted to implement three-dimensional wavefront restorations. The principle of modal tomography is briefly reviewed and a numerical simulation model is built with three equivalent turbulent layers and a different number of guide stars. Our simulation results show that at least six guide stars are required for an accurate wavefront reconstruction in the case of three layers, and only three guide stars are needed in the two layer case. Finally, eigenmode analysis results are given to reveal the singular modes that cannot be precisely retrieved in the tomography process.

Forest Analysis by Single-Pass Millimeterwave SAR Tomography

OpenAIRE

Schmitt, Michael; Zhu, Xiao Xiang

2016-01-01

Recent investigations show that millimeterwave SAR tomography provides an interesting means for the analysis of forested areas, especially if single-pass systems are employed. Providing very high resolutions in the decimeter domain and highly coherent data also for slightly windy conditions, even individual trees can be considered. Besides, it has been shown that a certain amount of canopy penetration is possible in spite of the short wavelength.

Human error and the problem of causality in analysis of accidents

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rasmussen, Jens

1990-01-01

, designers or managers have played a major role. There are, however, several basic problems in analysis of accidents and identification of human error. This paper addresses the nature of causal explanations and the ambiguity of the rules applied for identification of the events to include in analysis......Present technology is characterized by complexity, rapid change and growing size of technical systems. This has caused increasing concern with the human involvement in system safety. Analyses of the major accidents during recent decades have concluded that human errors on part of operators...

Morphometric analysis - Cone beam computed tomography to predict bone quality and quantity.

Science.gov (United States)

Hohlweg-Majert, B; Metzger, M C; Kummer, T; Schulze, D

2011-07-01

Modified quantitative computed tomography is a method used to predict bone quality and quantify the bone mass of the jaw. The aim of this study was to determine whether bone quantity or quality was detected by cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) combined with image analysis. MATERIALS AND PROCEDURES: Different measurements recorded on two phantoms (Siemens phantom, Comac phantom) were evaluated on images taken with the Somatom VolumeZoom (Siemens Medical Solutions, Erlangen, Germany) and the NewTom 9000 (NIM s.r.l., Verona, Italy) in order to calculate a calibration curve. The spatial relationships of six sample cylinders and the repositioning from four pig skull halves relative to adjacent defined anatomical structures were assessed by means of three-dimensional visualization software. The calibration curves for computer tomography (CT) and cone beam computer tomography (CBCT) using the Siemens phantom showed linear correlation in both modalities between the Hounsfield Units (HU) and bone morphology. A correction factor for CBCT was calculated. Exact information about the micromorphology of the bone cylinders was only available using of micro computer tomography. Cone-beam computer tomography is a suitable choice for analysing bone mass, but, it does not give any information about bone quality. 2010 European Association for Cranio-Maxillo-Facial Surgery. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Estimation of the human error probabilities in the human reliability analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liu Haibin; He Xuhong; Tong Jiejuan; Shen Shifei

2006-01-01

Human error data is an important issue of human reliability analysis (HRA). Using of Bayesian parameter estimation, which can use multiple information, such as the historical data of NPP and expert judgment data to modify the human error data, could get the human error data reflecting the real situation of NPP more truly. This paper, using the numeric compute program developed by the authors, presents some typical examples to illustrate the process of the Bayesian parameter estimation in HRA and discusses the effect of different modification data on the Bayesian parameter estimation. (authors)

Critical slowing down and error analysis in lattice QCD simulations

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Virotta, Francesco

2012-02-21

In this work we investigate the critical slowing down of lattice QCD simulations. We perform a preliminary study in the quenched approximation where we find that our estimate of the exponential auto-correlation time scales as {tau}{sub exp}(a){proportional_to}a{sup -5}, where a is the lattice spacing. In unquenched simulations with O(a) improved Wilson fermions we do not obtain a scaling law but find results compatible with the behavior that we find in the pure gauge theory. The discussion is supported by a large set of ensembles both in pure gauge and in the theory with two degenerate sea quarks. We have moreover investigated the effect of slow algorithmic modes in the error analysis of the expectation value of typical lattice QCD observables (hadronic matrix elements and masses). In the context of simulations affected by slow modes we propose and test a method to obtain reliable estimates of statistical errors. The method is supposed to help in the typical algorithmic setup of lattice QCD, namely when the total statistics collected is of O(10){tau}{sub exp}. This is the typical case when simulating close to the continuum limit where the computational costs for producing two independent data points can be extremely large. We finally discuss the scale setting in N{sub f}=2 simulations using the Kaon decay constant f{sub K} as physical input. The method is explained together with a thorough discussion of the error analysis employed. A description of the publicly available code used for the error analysis is included.

Critical slowing down and error analysis in lattice QCD simulations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Virotta, Francesco

2012-01-01

In this work we investigate the critical slowing down of lattice QCD simulations. We perform a preliminary study in the quenched approximation where we find that our estimate of the exponential auto-correlation time scales as τ exp (a)∝a -5 , where a is the lattice spacing. In unquenched simulations with O(a) improved Wilson fermions we do not obtain a scaling law but find results compatible with the behavior that we find in the pure gauge theory. The discussion is supported by a large set of ensembles both in pure gauge and in the theory with two degenerate sea quarks. We have moreover investigated the effect of slow algorithmic modes in the error analysis of the expectation value of typical lattice QCD observables (hadronic matrix elements and masses). In the context of simulations affected by slow modes we propose and test a method to obtain reliable estimates of statistical errors. The method is supposed to help in the typical algorithmic setup of lattice QCD, namely when the total statistics collected is of O(10)τ exp . This is the typical case when simulating close to the continuum limit where the computational costs for producing two independent data points can be extremely large. We finally discuss the scale setting in N f =2 simulations using the Kaon decay constant f K as physical input. The method is explained together with a thorough discussion of the error analysis employed. A description of the publicly available code used for the error analysis is included.

Patient safety in the clinical laboratory: a longitudinal analysis of specimen identification errors.

Science.gov (United States)

Wagar, Elizabeth A; Tamashiro, Lorraine; Yasin, Bushra; Hilborne, Lee; Bruckner, David A

2006-11-01

Patient safety is an increasingly visible and important mission for clinical laboratories. Attention to improving processes related to patient identification and specimen labeling is being paid by accreditation and regulatory organizations because errors in these areas that jeopardize patient safety are common and avoidable through improvement in the total testing process. To assess patient identification and specimen labeling improvement after multiple implementation projects using longitudinal statistical tools. Specimen errors were categorized by a multidisciplinary health care team. Patient identification errors were grouped into 3 categories: (1) specimen/requisition mismatch, (2) unlabeled specimens, and (3) mislabeled specimens. Specimens with these types of identification errors were compared preimplementation and postimplementation for 3 patient safety projects: (1) reorganization of phlebotomy (4 months); (2) introduction of an electronic event reporting system (10 months); and (3) activation of an automated processing system (14 months) for a 24-month period, using trend analysis and Student t test statistics. Of 16,632 total specimen errors, mislabeled specimens, requisition mismatches, and unlabeled specimens represented 1.0%, 6.3%, and 4.6% of errors, respectively. Student t test showed a significant decrease in the most serious error, mislabeled specimens (P patient safety projects. Trend analysis demonstrated decreases in all 3 error types for 26 months. Applying performance-improvement strategies that focus longitudinally on specimen labeling errors can significantly reduce errors, therefore improving patient safety. This is an important area in which laboratory professionals, working in interdisciplinary teams, can improve safety and outcomes of care.

ERROR ANALYSIS IN THE TRAVEL WRITING MADE BY THE STUDENTS OF ENGLISH STUDY PROGRAM

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vika Agustina

2015-05-01

Full Text Available This study was conducted to identify the kinds of errors in surface strategy taxonomy and to know the dominant type of errors made by the fifth semester students of English Department of one State University in Malang-Indonesia in producing their travel writing. The type of research of this study is document analysis since it analyses written materials, in this case travel writing texts. The analysis finds that the grammatical errors made by the students based on surface strategy taxonomy theory consist of four types. They are (1 omission, (2 addition, (3 misformation and (4 misordering. The most frequent errors occuring in misformation are in the use of tense form. Secondly, the errors are in omission of noun/verb inflection. The next error, there are many clauses that contain unnecessary phrase added there.

Modeling coherent errors in quantum error correction

Science.gov (United States)

Greenbaum, Daniel; Dutton, Zachary

2018-01-01

Analysis of quantum error correcting codes is typically done using a stochastic, Pauli channel error model for describing the noise on physical qubits. However, it was recently found that coherent errors (systematic rotations) on physical data qubits result in both physical and logical error rates that differ significantly from those predicted by a Pauli model. Here we examine the accuracy of the Pauli approximation for noise containing coherent errors (characterized by a rotation angle ɛ) under the repetition code. We derive an analytic expression for the logical error channel as a function of arbitrary code distance d and concatenation level n, in the small error limit. We find that coherent physical errors result in logical errors that are partially coherent and therefore non-Pauli. However, the coherent part of the logical error is negligible at fewer than {ε }-({dn-1)} error correction cycles when the decoder is optimized for independent Pauli errors, thus providing a regime of validity for the Pauli approximation. Above this number of correction cycles, the persistent coherent logical error will cause logical failure more quickly than the Pauli model would predict, and this may need to be combated with coherent suppression methods at the physical level or larger codes.

Error Analysis of Brailled Instructional Materials Produced by Public School Personnel in Texas

Science.gov (United States)

Herzberg, Tina

2010-01-01

In this study, a detailed error analysis was performed to determine if patterns of errors existed in braille transcriptions. The most frequently occurring errors were the insertion of letters or words that were not contained in the original print material; the incorrect usage of the emphasis indicator; and the incorrect formatting of titles,…

Nanoparticles displacement analysis using optical coherence tomography

Science.gov (United States)

StrÄ kowski, Marcin R.; Kraszewski, Maciej; StrÄ kowska, Paulina

2016-03-01

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a versatile optical method for cross-sectional and 3D imaging of biological and non-biological objects. Here we are going to present the application of polarization sensitive spectroscopic OCT system (PS-SOCT) for quantitative measurements of materials containing nanoparticles. The PS-SOCT combines the polarization sensitive analysis with time-frequency analysis. In this contribution the benefits of using the combination of timefrequency and polarization sensitive analysis are being expressed. The usefulness of PS-SOCT for nanoparticles evaluation is going to be tested on nanocomposite materials with TiO2 nanoparticles. The OCT measurements results have been compared with SEM examination of the PMMA matrix with nanoparticles. The experiment has proven that by the use of polarization sensitive and spectroscopic OCT the nanoparticles dispersion and size can be evaluated.

A methodology for translating positional error into measures of attribute error, and combining the two error sources

Science.gov (United States)

Yohay Carmel; Curtis Flather; Denis Dean

2006-01-01

This paper summarizes our efforts to investigate the nature, behavior, and implications of positional error and attribute error in spatiotemporal datasets. Estimating the combined influence of these errors on map analysis has been hindered by the fact that these two error types are traditionally expressed in different units (distance units, and categorical units,...

Trend analysis of human error events and assessment of their proactive prevention measure at Rokkasho reprocessing plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yamazaki, Satoru; Tanaka, Izumi; Wakabayashi, Toshio

2012-01-01

A trend analysis of human error events is important for preventing the recurrence of human error events. We propose a new method for identifying the common characteristics from results of trend analysis, such as the latent weakness of organization, and a management process for strategic error prevention. In this paper, we describe a trend analysis method for human error events that have been accumulated in the organization and the utilization of the results of trend analysis to prevent accidents proactively. Although the systematic analysis of human error events, the monitoring of their overall trend, and the utilization of the analyzed results have been examined for the plant operation, such information has never been utilized completely. Sharing information on human error events and analyzing their causes lead to the clarification of problems in the management and human factors. This new method was applied to the human error events that occurred in the Rokkasho reprocessing plant from 2010 October. Results revealed that the output of this method is effective in judging the error prevention plan and that the number of human error events is reduced to about 50% those observed in 2009 and 2010. (author)

SPACE-BORNE LASER ALTIMETER GEOLOCATION ERROR ANALYSIS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Y. Wang

2018-05-01

Full Text Available This paper reviews the development of space-borne laser altimetry technology over the past 40 years. Taking the ICESAT satellite as an example, a rigorous space-borne laser altimeter geolocation model is studied, and an error propagation equation is derived. The influence of the main error sources, such as the platform positioning error, attitude measurement error, pointing angle measurement error and range measurement error, on the geolocation accuracy of the laser spot are analysed by simulated experiments. The reasons for the different influences on geolocation accuracy in different directions are discussed, and to satisfy the accuracy of the laser control point, a design index for each error source is put forward.

Error Analysis Of Clock Time (T), Declination (*) And Latitude ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

), latitude (Φ), longitude (λ) and azimuth (A); which are aimed at establishing fixed positions and orientations of survey points and lines on the earth surface. The paper attempts the analysis of the individual and combined effects of error in time ...

Boundary error analysis and categorization in the TRECVID news story segmentation task

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Arlandis, J.; Over, P.; Kraaij, W.

2005-01-01

In this paper, an error analysis based on boundary error popularity (frequency) including semantic boundary categorization is applied in the context of the news story segmentation task from TRECVTD1. Clusters of systems were defined based on the input resources they used including video, audio and

Soft error modeling and analysis of the Neutron Intercepting Silicon Chip (NISC)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Celik, Cihangir; Unlue, Kenan; Narayanan, Vijaykrishnan; Irwin, Mary J.

2011-01-01

Soft errors are transient errors caused due to excess charge carriers induced primarily by external radiations in the semiconductor devices. Soft error phenomena could be used to detect thermal neutrons with a neutron monitoring/detection system by enhancing soft error occurrences in the memory devices. This way, one can convert all semiconductor memory devices into neutron detection systems. Such a device is being developed at The Pennsylvania State University and named Neutron Intercepting Silicon Chip (NISC). The NISC is envisioning a miniature, power efficient, and active/passive operation neutron sensor/detector system. NISC aims to achieve this goal by introducing 10 B-enriched Borophosphosilicate Glass (BPSG) insulation layers in the semiconductor memories. In order to model and analyze the NISC, an analysis tool using Geant4 as the transport and tracking engine is developed for the simulation of the charged particle interactions in the semiconductor memory model, named NISC Soft Error Analysis Tool (NISCSAT). A simple model with 10 B-enriched layer on top of the lumped silicon region is developed in order to represent the semiconductor memory node. Soft error probability calculations were performed via the NISCSAT with both single node and array configurations to investigate device scaling by using different node dimensions in the model. Mono-energetic, mono-directional thermal and fast neutrons are used as the neutron sources. Soft error contribution due to the BPSG layer is also investigated with different 10 B contents and the results are presented in this paper.

A stochastic dynamic model for human error analysis in nuclear power plants

Science.gov (United States)

Delgado-Loperena, Dharma

Nuclear disasters like Three Mile Island and Chernobyl indicate that human performance is a critical safety issue, sending a clear message about the need to include environmental press and competence aspects in research. This investigation was undertaken to serve as a roadmap for studying human behavior through the formulation of a general solution equation. The theoretical model integrates models from two heretofore-disassociated disciplines (behavior specialists and technical specialists), that historically have independently studied the nature of error and human behavior; including concepts derived from fractal and chaos theory; and suggests re-evaluation of base theory regarding human error. The results of this research were based on comprehensive analysis of patterns of error, with the omnipresent underlying structure of chaotic systems. The study of patterns lead to a dynamic formulation, serving for any other formula used to study human error consequences. The search for literature regarding error yielded insight for the need to include concepts rooted in chaos theory and strange attractors---heretofore unconsidered by mainstream researchers who investigated human error in nuclear power plants or those who employed the ecological model in their work. The study of patterns obtained from the rupture of a steam generator tube (SGTR) event simulation, provided a direct application to aspects of control room operations in nuclear power plant operations. In doing so, the conceptual foundation based in the understanding of the patterns of human error analysis can be gleaned, resulting in reduced and prevent undesirable events.

Dose variations caused by setup errors in intracranial stereotactic radiotherapy: A PRESAGE study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Teng, Kieyin; Gagliardi, Frank; Alqathami, Mamdooh; Ackerly, Trevor; Geso, Moshi

2014-01-01

Stereotactic radiotherapy (SRT) requires tight margins around the tumor, thus producing a steep dose gradient between the tumor and the surrounding healthy tissue. Any setup errors might become clinically significant. To date, no study has been performed to evaluate the dosimetric variations caused by setup errors with a 3-dimensional dosimeter, the PRESAGE. This research aimed to evaluate the potential effect that setup errors have on the dose distribution of intracranial SRT. Computed tomography (CT) simulation of a CIRS radiosurgery head phantom was performed with 1.25-mm slice thickness. An ideal treatment plan was generated using Brainlab iPlan. A PRESAGE was made for every treatment with and without errors. A prescan using the optical CT scanner was carried out. Before treatment, the phantom was imaged using Brainlab ExacTrac. Actual radiotherapy treatments with and without errors were carried out with the Novalis treatment machine. Postscan was performed with an optical CT scanner to analyze the dose irradiation. The dose variation between treatments with and without errors was determined using a 3-dimensional gamma analysis. Errors are clinically insignificant when the passing ratio of the gamma analysis is 95% and above. Errors were clinically significant when the setup errors exceeded a 0.7-mm translation and a 0.5° rotation. The results showed that a 3-mm translation shift in the superior-inferior (SI), right-left (RL), and anterior-posterior (AP) directions and 2° couch rotation produced a passing ratio of 53.1%. Translational and rotational errors of 1.5 mm and 1°, respectively, generated a passing ratio of 62.2%. Translation shift of 0.7 mm in the directions of SI, RL, and AP and a 0.5° couch rotation produced a passing ratio of 96.2%. Preventing the occurrences of setup errors in intracranial SRT treatment is extremely important as errors greater than 0.7 mm and 0.5° alter the dose distribution. The geometrical displacements affect dose delivery

Analysis of Daily Setup Variation With Tomotherapy Megavoltage Computed Tomography

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhou Jining; Uhl, Barry; Dewit, Kelly; Young, Mark; Taylor, Brian; Fei Dingyu; Lo, Y-C

2010-01-01

The purpose of this study was to evaluate different setup uncertainties for various anatomic sites with TomoTherapy (registered) pretreatment megavoltage computed tomography (MVCT) and to provide optimal margin guidelines for these anatomic sites. Ninety-two patients with tumors in head and neck (HN), brain, lung, abdominal, or prostate regions were included in the study. MVCT was used to verify patient position and tumor target localization before each treatment. With the anatomy registration tool, MVCT provided real-time tumor shift coordinates relative to the positions where the simulation CT was performed. Thermoplastic facemasks were used for HN and brain treatments. Vac-Lok TM cushions were used to immobilize the lower extremities up to the thighs for prostate patients. No respiration suppression was administered for lung and abdomen patients. The interfractional setup variations were recorded and corrected before treatment. The mean interfractional setup error was the smallest for HN among the 5 sites analyzed. The average 3D displacement in lateral, longitudinal, and vertical directions for the 5 sites ranged from 2.2-7.7 mm for HN and lung, respectively. The largest movement in the lung was 2.0 cm in the longitudinal direction, with a mean error of 6.0 mm and standard deviation of 4.8 mm. The mean interfractional rotation variation was small and ranged from 0.2-0.5 deg., with the standard deviation ranging from 0.7-0.9 deg. Internal organ displacement was also investigated with a posttreatment MVCT scan for HN, lung, abdomen, and prostate patients. The maximum 3D intrafractional displacement across all sites was less than 4.5 mm. The interfractional systematic errors and random errors were analyzed and the suggested margins for HN, brain, prostate, abdomen, and lung in the lateral, longitudinal, and vertical directions were between 4.2 and 8.2 mm, 5.0 mm and 12.0 mm, and 1.5 mm and 6.8 mm, respectively. We suggest that TomoTherapy (registered) pretreatment

Analysis of daily setup variation with tomotherapy megavoltage computed tomography.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Jining; Uhl, Barry; Dewit, Kelly; Young, Mark; Taylor, Brian; Fei, Ding-Yu; Lo, Yeh-Chi

2010-01-01

The purpose of this study was to evaluate different setup uncertainties for various anatomic sites with TomoTherapy pretreatment megavoltage computed tomography (MVCT) and to provide optimal margin guidelines for these anatomic sites. Ninety-two patients with tumors in head and neck (HN), brain, lung, abdominal, or prostate regions were included in the study. MVCT was used to verify patient position and tumor target localization before each treatment. With the anatomy registration tool, MVCT provided real-time tumor shift coordinates relative to the positions where the simulation CT was performed. Thermoplastic facemasks were used for HN and brain treatments. Vac-Lok cushions were used to immobilize the lower extremities up to the thighs for prostate patients. No respiration suppression was administered for lung and abdomen patients. The interfractional setup variations were recorded and corrected before treatment. The mean interfractional setup error was the smallest for HN among the 5 sites analyzed. The average 3D displacement in lateral, longitudinal, and vertical directions for the 5 sites ranged from 2.2-7.7 mm for HN and lung, respectively. The largest movement in the lung was 2.0 cm in the longitudinal direction, with a mean error of 6.0 mm and standard deviation of 4.8 mm. The mean interfractional rotation variation was small and ranged from 0.2-0.5 degrees, with the standard deviation ranging from 0.7-0.9 degrees. Internal organ displacement was also investigated with a posttreatment MVCT scan for HN, lung, abdomen, and prostate patients. The maximum 3D intrafractional displacement across all sites was less than 4.5 mm. The interfractional systematic errors and random errors were analyzed and the suggested margins for HN, brain, prostate, abdomen, and lung in the lateral, longitudinal, and vertical directions were between 4.2 and 8.2 mm, 5.0 mm and 12.0 mm, and 1.5 mm and 6.8 mm, respectively. We suggest that TomoTherapy pretreatment MVCT can be used to

Study on Network Error Analysis and Locating based on Integrated Information Decision System

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, F.; Dong, Z. H.

2017-10-01

Integrated information decision system (IIDS) integrates multiple sub-system developed by many facilities, including almost hundred kinds of software, which provides with various services, such as email, short messages, drawing and sharing. Because the under-layer protocols are different, user standards are not unified, many errors are occurred during the stages of setup, configuration, and operation, which seriously affect the usage. Because the errors are various, which may be happened in different operation phases, stages, TCP/IP communication protocol layers, sub-system software, it is necessary to design a network error analysis and locating tool for IIDS to solve the above problems. This paper studies on network error analysis and locating based on IIDS, which provides strong theory and technology supports for the running and communicating of IIDS.

Understanding Teamwork in Trauma Resuscitation through Analysis of Team Errors

Science.gov (United States)

Sarcevic, Aleksandra

2009-01-01

An analysis of human errors in complex work settings can lead to important insights into the workspace design. This type of analysis is particularly relevant to safety-critical, socio-technical systems that are highly dynamic, stressful and time-constrained, and where failures can result in catastrophic societal, economic or environmental…

Analysis of Human Error Types and Performance Shaping Factors in the Next Generation Main Control Room

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sin, Y. C.; Jung, Y. S.; Kim, K. H.; Kim, J. H.

2008-04-01

Main control room of nuclear power plants has been computerized and digitalized in new and modernized plants, as information and digital technologies make great progresses and become mature. Survey on human factors engineering issues in advanced MCRs: Model-based approach, Literature survey-based approach. Analysis of human error types and performance shaping factors is analysis of three human errors. The results of project can be used for task analysis, evaluation of human error probabilities, and analysis of performance shaping factors in the HRA analysis

Catching errors with patient-specific pretreatment machine log file analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Rangaraj, Dharanipathy; Zhu, Mingyao; Yang, Deshan; Palaniswaamy, Geethpriya; Yaddanapudi, Sridhar; Wooten, Omar H; Brame, Scott; Mutic, Sasa

2013-01-01

A robust, efficient, and reliable quality assurance (QA) process is highly desired for modern external beam radiation therapy treatments. Here, we report the results of a semiautomatic, pretreatment, patient-specific QA process based on dynamic machine log file analysis clinically implemented for intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) treatments delivered by high energy linear accelerators (Varian 2100/2300 EX, Trilogy, iX-D, Varian Medical Systems Inc, Palo Alto, CA). The multileaf collimator machine (MLC) log files are called Dynalog by Varian. Using an in-house developed computer program called "Dynalog QA," we automatically compare the beam delivery parameters in the log files that are generated during pretreatment point dose verification measurements, with the treatment plan to determine any discrepancies in IMRT deliveries. Fluence maps are constructed and compared between the delivered and planned beams. Since clinical introduction in June 2009, 912 machine log file analyses QA were performed by the end of 2010. Among these, 14 errors causing dosimetric deviation were detected and required further investigation and intervention. These errors were the result of human operating mistakes, flawed treatment planning, and data modification during plan file transfer. Minor errors were also reported in 174 other log file analyses, some of which stemmed from false positives and unreliable results; the origins of these are discussed herein. It has been demonstrated that the machine log file analysis is a robust, efficient, and reliable QA process capable of detecting errors originating from human mistakes, flawed planning, and data transfer problems. The possibility of detecting these errors is low using point and planar dosimetric measurements. Copyright © 2013 American Society for Radiation Oncology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A posteriori error analysis of multiscale operator decomposition methods for multiphysics models

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Estep, D; Carey, V; Tavener, S; Ginting, V; Wildey, T

2008-01-01

Multiphysics, multiscale models present significant challenges in computing accurate solutions and for estimating the error in information computed from numerical solutions. In this paper, we describe recent advances in extending the techniques of a posteriori error analysis to multiscale operator decomposition solution methods. While the particulars of the analysis vary considerably with the problem, several key ideas underlie a general approach being developed to treat operator decomposition multiscale methods. We explain these ideas in the context of three specific examples

Phonological analysis of substitution errors of patients with apraxia of speech

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maysa Luchesi Cera

Full Text Available Abstract The literature on apraxia of speech describes the types and characteristics of phonological errors in this disorder. In general, phonemes affected by errors are described, but the distinctive features involved have not yet been investigated. Objective: To analyze the features involved in substitution errors produced by Brazilian-Portuguese speakers with apraxia of speech. Methods: 20 adults with apraxia of speech were assessed. Phonological analysis of the distinctive features involved in substitution type errors was carried out using the protocol for the evaluation of verbal and non-verbal apraxia. Results: The most affected features were: voiced, continuant, high, anterior, coronal, posterior. Moreover, the mean of the substitutions of marked to markedness features was statistically greater than the markedness to marked features. Conclusions: This study contributes toward a better characterization of the phonological errors found in apraxia of speech, thereby helping to diagnose communication disorders and the selection criteria of phonemes for rehabilitation in these patients.

AN ERROR ANALYSIS OF ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY (CASE STUDY AT UNIVERSITY MUHAMMADIYAH OF METRO

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fenny - Thresia

2015-10-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this study was study analyze the students’ error in writing argumentative essay. The researcher focuses on errors of verb, concord and learner language. This study took 20 students as the subject of research from the third semester. The data took from observation and documentation. Based on the result of the data analysis there are some errors still found on the student’s argumentative essay in English writing? The common errors which repeatedly appear are verb. The second is concord, and learner languages are the smallest error. From 20 samples that took, the frequency the errors of verb are 12 items (60%, concord are 8 items (40%, learner languages are 7 items (35%. As a result, verb has the biggest number of common errors.

The treatment of commission errors in first generation human reliability analysis methods

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Alvarengga, Marco Antonio Bayout; Fonseca, Renato Alves da, E-mail: bayout@cnen.gov.b, E-mail: rfonseca@cnen.gov.b [Comissao Nacional de Energia Nuclear (CNEN) Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil); Melo, Paulo Fernando Frutuoso e, E-mail: frutuoso@nuclear.ufrj.b [Coordenacao dos Programas de Pos-Graduacao de Engenharia (PEN/COPPE/UFRJ), RJ (Brazil). Programa de Engenharia Nuclear

2011-07-01

Human errors in human reliability analysis can be classified generically as errors of omission and commission errors. Omission errors are related to the omission of any human action that should have been performed, but does not occur. Errors of commission are those related to human actions that should not be performed, but which in fact are performed. Both involve specific types of cognitive error mechanisms, however, errors of commission are more difficult to model because they are characterized by non-anticipated actions that are performed instead of others that are omitted (omission errors) or are entered into an operational task without being part of the normal sequence of this task. The identification of actions that are not supposed to occur depends on the operational context that will influence or become easy certain unsafe actions of the operator depending on the operational performance of its parameters and variables. The survey of operational contexts and associated unsafe actions is a characteristic of second-generation models, unlike the first generation models. This paper discusses how first generation models can treat errors of commission in the steps of detection, diagnosis, decision-making and implementation, in the human information processing, particularly with the use of THERP tables of errors quantification. (author)

An Analysis of Students Error In Solving PISA 2012 And Its Scaffolding

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yurizka Melia Sari

2017-08-01

Full Text Available Based on PISA survey in 2012, Indonesia was only placed on 64 out of 65 participating countries. The survey suggest that the students’ ability of reasoning, spatial orientation, and problem solving are lower compare with other participants countries, especially in Shouth East Asia. Nevertheless, the result of PISA does not elicit clearly on the students’ inability in solving PISA problem such as the location and the types of student’s errors. Therefore, analyzing students’ error in solving PISA problem would be essential countermeasure to help the students in solving mathematics problems and to develop scaffolding. Based on the data analysis, it is found that there are 5 types of error which is made by the subject. They consist of reading error, comprehension error, transformation error, process skill error, and encoding error. The most common mistake that subject do is encoding error with a percentage of 26%. While reading is the fewest errors made by the subjects that is only 12%. The types of given scaffolding was explaining the problem carefully and making a summary of new words and find the meaning of them, restructuring problem-solving strategies and reviewing the results of the completion of the problem.

Analysis of RTM extended images for VTI media

KAUST Repository

Li, Vladimir; Tsvankin, Ilya; Alkhalifah, Tariq Ali

2015-01-01

velocity analysis remain generally valid in the extended image space for complex media. The dependence of RMO on errors in the anisotropy parameters provides essential insights for anisotropic wavefield tomography using extended images.

Detecting errors in micro and trace analysis by using statistics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Heydorn, K.

1993-01-01

By assigning a standard deviation to each step in an analytical method it is possible to predict the standard deviation of each analytical result obtained by this method. If the actual variability of replicate analytical results agrees with the expected, the analytical method is said...... to be in statistical control. Significant deviations between analytical results from different laboratories reveal the presence of systematic errors, and agreement between different laboratories indicate the absence of systematic errors. This statistical approach, referred to as the analysis of precision, was applied...

Soft error evaluation and vulnerability analysis in Xilinx Zynq-7010 system-on chip

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Du, Xuecheng; He, Chaohui; Liu, Shuhuan, E-mail: liushuhuan@mail.xjtu.edu.cn; Zhang, Yao; Li, Yonghong; Xiong, Ceng; Tan, Pengkang

2016-09-21

Radiation-induced soft errors are an increasingly important threat to the reliability of modern electronic systems. In order to evaluate system-on chip's reliability and soft error, the fault tree analysis method was used in this work. The system fault tree was constructed based on Xilinx Zynq-7010 All Programmable SoC. Moreover, the soft error rates of different components in Zynq-7010 SoC were tested by americium-241 alpha radiation source. Furthermore, some parameters that used to evaluate the system's reliability and safety were calculated using Isograph Reliability Workbench 11.0, such as failure rate, unavailability and mean time to failure (MTTF). According to fault tree analysis for system-on chip, the critical blocks and system reliability were evaluated through the qualitative and quantitative analysis.

A methodology for collection and analysis of human error data based on a cognitive model: IDA

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shen, S.-H.; Smidts, C.; Mosleh, A.

1997-01-01

This paper presents a model-based human error taxonomy and data collection. The underlying model, IDA (described in two companion papers), is a cognitive model of behavior developed for analysis of the actions of nuclear power plant operating crew during abnormal situations. The taxonomy is established with reference to three external reference points (i.e. plant status, procedures, and crew) and four reference points internal to the model (i.e. information collected, diagnosis, decision, action). The taxonomy helps the analyst: (1) recognize errors as such; (2) categorize the error in terms of generic characteristics such as 'error in selection of problem solving strategies' and (3) identify the root causes of the error. The data collection methodology is summarized in post event operator interview and analysis summary forms. The root cause analysis methodology is illustrated using a subset of an actual event. Statistics, which extract generic characteristics of error prone behaviors and error prone situations are presented. Finally, applications of the human error data collection are reviewed. A primary benefit of this methodology is to define better symptom-based and other auxiliary procedures with associated training to minimize or preclude certain human errors. It also helps in design of control rooms, and in assessment of human error probabilities in the probabilistic risk assessment framework. (orig.)

[Analysis of intrusion errors in free recall].

Science.gov (United States)

Diesfeldt, H F A

2017-06-01

Extra-list intrusion errors during five trials of the eight-word list-learning task of the Amsterdam Dementia Screening Test (ADST) were investigated in 823 consecutive psychogeriatric patients (87.1% suffering from major neurocognitive disorder). Almost half of the participants (45.9%) produced one or more intrusion errors on the verbal recall test. Correct responses were lower when subjects made intrusion errors, but learning slopes did not differ between subjects who committed intrusion errors and those who did not so. Bivariate regression analyses revealed that participants who committed intrusion errors were more deficient on measures of eight-word recognition memory, delayed visual recognition and tests of executive control (the Behavioral Dyscontrol Scale and the ADST-Graphical Sequences as measures of response inhibition). Using hierarchical multiple regression, only free recall and delayed visual recognition retained an independent effect in the association with intrusion errors, such that deficient scores on tests of episodic memory were sufficient to explain the occurrence of intrusion errors. Measures of inhibitory control did not add significantly to the explanation of intrusion errors in free recall, which makes insufficient strength of memory traces rather than a primary deficit in inhibition the preferred account for intrusion errors in free recall.

EEL spectroscopic tomography: towards a new dimension in nanomaterials analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Yedra, Lluís; Eljarrat, Alberto; Arenal, Raúl; Pellicer, Eva; Cabo, Moisés; López-Ortega, Alberto; Estrader, Marta; Sort, Jordi; Baró, Maria Dolors; Estradé, Sònia; Peiró, Francesca

2012-11-01

Electron tomography is a widely spread technique for recovering the three dimensional (3D) shape of nanostructured materials. Using a spectroscopic signal to achieve a reconstruction adds a fourth chemical dimension to the 3D structure. Up to date, energy filtering of the images in the transmission electron microscope (EFTEM) is the usual spectroscopic method even if most of the information in the spectrum is lost. Unlike EFTEM tomography, the use of electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS) spectrum images (SI) for tomographic reconstruction retains all chemical information, and the possibilities of this new approach still remain to be fully exploited. In this article we prove the feasibility of EEL spectroscopic tomography at low voltages (80 kV) and short acquisition times from data acquired using an aberration corrected instrument and data treatment by Multivariate Analysis (MVA), applied to Fe(x)Co((3-x))O(4)@Co(3)O(4) mesoporous materials. This approach provides a new scope into materials; the recovery of full EELS signal in 3D. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

EEL spectroscopic tomography: Towards a new dimension in nanomaterials analysis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yedra, Lluis, E-mail: llyedra@el.ub.es [Laboratory of Electron Nanoscopies (LENS)-MIND/IN2UB, Dept. d' Electronica, Universitat de Barcelona, c/ Marti Franques 1, E-08028 Barcelona (Spain); CCiT, Scientific and Technological Centers, Universitat de Barcelona, C/Lluis Sole i Sabaris 1, E-08028 Barcelona (Spain); Eljarrat, Alberto [Laboratory of Electron Nanoscopies (LENS)-MIND/IN2UB, Dept. d' Electronica, Universitat de Barcelona, c/ Marti Franques 1, E-08028 Barcelona (Spain); Arenal, Raul [Laboratorio de Microscopias Avanzadas (LMA), Instituto de Nanociencia de Aragon (INA), Universidad de Zaragoza, E-50018 Zaragoza (Spain); Fundacion ARAID, E-50004 Zaragoza (Spain); Pellicer, Eva; Cabo, Moises [Departament de Fisica, Facultat de Ciencies, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, E-08193 Bellaterra (Spain); Lopez-Ortega, Alberto; Estrader, Marta [CIN2(CIN-CSIC) and Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Catalan Institute of Nanotechnology, Campus de la UAB, E-08193 Bellaterra (Spain); Sort, Jordi [Institucio Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avancats (ICREA), Departament de Fisica, Facultat de Ciencies, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, E-08193 Bellaterra (Spain); Baro, Maria Dolors [Departament de Fisica, Facultat de Ciencies, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, E-08193 Bellaterra (Spain); and others

2012-11-15

Electron tomography is a widely spread technique for recovering the three dimensional (3D) shape of nanostructured materials. Using a spectroscopic signal to achieve a reconstruction adds a fourth chemical dimension to the 3D structure. Up to date, energy filtering of the images in the transmission electron microscope (EFTEM) is the usual spectroscopic method even if most of the information in the spectrum is lost. Unlike EFTEM tomography, the use of electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS) spectrum images (SI) for tomographic reconstruction retains all chemical information, and the possibilities of this new approach still remain to be fully exploited. In this article we prove the feasibility of EEL spectroscopic tomography at low voltages (80 kV) and short acquisition times from data acquired using an aberration corrected instrument and data treatment by Multivariate Analysis (MVA), applied to Fe{sub x}Co{sub (3-x)}O{sub 4}@Co{sub 3}O{sub 4} mesoporous materials. This approach provides a new scope into materials; the recovery of full EELS signal in 3D. -- Highlights: Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer EELS-SI tomography was performed at low voltage and low acquisition times. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer MVA has been applied for noise reduction and information extraction. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Tomographic reconstruction has been achieved for chemical information. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Elemental distribution extraction in 3D has been proved.

Multiobjective optimization framework for landmark measurement error correction in three-dimensional cephalometric tomography.

Science.gov (United States)

DeCesare, A; Secanell, M; Lagravère, M O; Carey, J

2013-01-01

The purpose of this study is to minimize errors that occur when using a four vs six landmark superimpositioning method in the cranial base to define the co-ordinate system. Cone beam CT volumetric data from ten patients were used for this study. Co-ordinate system transformations were performed. A co-ordinate system was constructed using two planes defined by four anatomical landmarks located by an orthodontist. A second co-ordinate system was constructed using four anatomical landmarks that are corrected using a numerical optimization algorithm for any landmark location operator error using information from six landmarks. The optimization algorithm minimizes the relative distance and angle between the known fixed points in the two images to find the correction. Measurement errors and co-ordinates in all axes were obtained for each co-ordinate system. Significant improvement is observed after using the landmark correction algorithm to position the final co-ordinate system. The errors found in a previous study are significantly reduced. Errors found were between 1 mm and 2 mm. When analysing real patient data, it was found that the 6-point correction algorithm reduced errors between images and increased intrapoint reliability. A novel method of optimizing the overlay of three-dimensional images using a 6-point correction algorithm was introduced and examined. This method demonstrated greater reliability and reproducibility than the previous 4-point correction algorithm.

An analysis of true- and false-positive results of vocal fold uptake in positron emission tomography-computed tomography imaging.

Science.gov (United States)

Seymour, N; Burkill, G; Harries, M

2018-03-01

Positron emission tomography-computed tomography with fluorine-18 fluorodeoxy-D-glucose has a major role in the investigation of head and neck cancers. Fluorine-18 fluorodeoxy-D-glucose is not a tumour-specific tracer and can also accumulate in benign pathology. Therefore, positron emission tomography-computed tomography scan interpretation difficulties are common in the head and neck, which can produce false-positive results. This study aimed to investigate patients detected as having abnormal vocal fold uptake on fluorine-18 fluorodeoxy-D-glucose positron emission tomography-computed tomography. Positron emission tomography-computed tomography scans were identified over a 15-month period where reports contained evidence of unilateral vocal fold uptake or vocal fold pathology. Patients' notes and laryngoscopy results were analysed. Forty-six patients were identified as having abnormal vocal fold uptake on positron emission tomography-computed tomography. Twenty-three patients underwent positron emission tomography-computed tomography and flexible laryngoscopy: 61 per cent of patients had true-positive positron emission tomography-computed tomography scans and 39 per cent had false-positive scan results. Most patients referred to ENT for abnormal findings on positron emission tomography-computed tomography scans had true-positive findings. Asymmetrical fluorine-18 fluorodeoxy-D-glucose uptake should raise suspicion of vocal fold pathology, accepting a false-positive rate of approximately 40 per cent.

Frequency and analysis of non-clinical errors made in radiology reports using the National Integrated Medical Imaging System voice recognition dictation software.

Science.gov (United States)

Motyer, R E; Liddy, S; Torreggiani, W C; Buckley, O

2016-11-01

Voice recognition (VR) dictation of radiology reports has become the mainstay of reporting in many institutions worldwide. Despite benefit, such software is not without limitations, and transcription errors have been widely reported. Evaluate the frequency and nature of non-clinical transcription error using VR dictation software. Retrospective audit of 378 finalised radiology reports. Errors were counted and categorised by significance, error type and sub-type. Data regarding imaging modality, report length and dictation time was collected. 67 (17.72 %) reports contained ≥1 errors, with 7 (1.85 %) containing 'significant' and 9 (2.38 %) containing 'very significant' errors. A total of 90 errors were identified from the 378 reports analysed, with 74 (82.22 %) classified as 'insignificant', 7 (7.78 %) as 'significant', 9 (10 %) as 'very significant'. 68 (75.56 %) errors were 'spelling and grammar', 20 (22.22 %) 'missense' and 2 (2.22 %) 'nonsense'. 'Punctuation' error was most common sub-type, accounting for 27 errors (30 %). Complex imaging modalities had higher error rates per report and sentence. Computed tomography contained 0.040 errors per sentence compared to plain film with 0.030. Longer reports had a higher error rate, with reports >25 sentences containing an average of 1.23 errors per report compared to 0-5 sentences containing 0.09. These findings highlight the limitations of VR dictation software. While most error was deemed insignificant, there were occurrences of error with potential to alter report interpretation and patient management. Longer reports and reports on more complex imaging had higher error rates and this should be taken into account by the reporting radiologist.

Effects of measurement errors on psychometric measurements in ergonomics studies: Implications for correlations, ANOVA, linear regression, factor analysis, and linear discriminant analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Yan; Salvendy, Gavriel

2009-05-01

This paper aims to demonstrate the effects of measurement errors on psychometric measurements in ergonomics studies. A variety of sources can cause random measurement errors in ergonomics studies and these errors can distort virtually every statistic computed and lead investigators to erroneous conclusions. The effects of measurement errors on five most widely used statistical analysis tools have been discussed and illustrated: correlation; ANOVA; linear regression; factor analysis; linear discriminant analysis. It has been shown that measurement errors can greatly attenuate correlations between variables, reduce statistical power of ANOVA, distort (overestimate, underestimate or even change the sign of) regression coefficients, underrate the explanation contributions of the most important factors in factor analysis and depreciate the significance of discriminant function and discrimination abilities of individual variables in discrimination analysis. The discussions will be restricted to subjective scales and survey methods and their reliability estimates. Other methods applied in ergonomics research, such as physical and electrophysiological measurements and chemical and biomedical analysis methods, also have issues of measurement errors, but they are beyond the scope of this paper. As there has been increasing interest in the development and testing of theories in ergonomics research, it has become very important for ergonomics researchers to understand the effects of measurement errors on their experiment results, which the authors believe is very critical to research progress in theory development and cumulative knowledge in the ergonomics field.

Error analysis of short term wind power prediction models

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

De Giorgi, Maria Grazia; Ficarella, Antonio; Tarantino, Marco

2011-01-01

The integration of wind farms in power networks has become an important problem. This is because the electricity produced cannot be preserved because of the high cost of storage and electricity production must follow market demand. Short-long-range wind forecasting over different lengths/periods of time is becoming an important process for the management of wind farms. Time series modelling of wind speeds is based upon the valid assumption that all the causative factors are implicitly accounted for in the sequence of occurrence of the process itself. Hence time series modelling is equivalent to physical modelling. Auto Regressive Moving Average (ARMA) models, which perform a linear mapping between inputs and outputs, and Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) and Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference Systems (ANFIS), which perform a non-linear mapping, provide a robust approach to wind power prediction. In this work, these models are developed in order to forecast power production of a wind farm with three wind turbines, using real load data and comparing different time prediction periods. This comparative analysis takes in the first time, various forecasting methods, time horizons and a deep performance analysis focused upon the normalised mean error and the statistical distribution hereof in order to evaluate error distribution within a narrower curve and therefore forecasting methods whereby it is more improbable to make errors in prediction. (author)

Error analysis of short term wind power prediction models

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

De Giorgi, Maria Grazia; Ficarella, Antonio; Tarantino, Marco [Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell' Innovazione, Universita del Salento, Via per Monteroni, 73100 Lecce (Italy)

2011-04-15

The integration of wind farms in power networks has become an important problem. This is because the electricity produced cannot be preserved because of the high cost of storage and electricity production must follow market demand. Short-long-range wind forecasting over different lengths/periods of time is becoming an important process for the management of wind farms. Time series modelling of wind speeds is based upon the valid assumption that all the causative factors are implicitly accounted for in the sequence of occurrence of the process itself. Hence time series modelling is equivalent to physical modelling. Auto Regressive Moving Average (ARMA) models, which perform a linear mapping between inputs and outputs, and Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) and Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference Systems (ANFIS), which perform a non-linear mapping, provide a robust approach to wind power prediction. In this work, these models are developed in order to forecast power production of a wind farm with three wind turbines, using real load data and comparing different time prediction periods. This comparative analysis takes in the first time, various forecasting methods, time horizons and a deep performance analysis focused upon the normalised mean error and the statistical distribution hereof in order to evaluate error distribution within a narrower curve and therefore forecasting methods whereby it is more improbable to make errors in prediction. (author)

Frame-based safety analysis approach for decision-based errors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fan, Chin-Feng; Yihb, Swu

1997-01-01

A frame-based approach is proposed to analyze decision-based errors made by automatic controllers or human operators due to erroneous reference frames. An integrated framework, Two Frame Model (TFM), is first proposed to model the dynamic interaction between the physical process and the decision-making process. Two important issues, consistency and competing processes, are raised. Consistency between the physical and logic frames makes a TFM-based system work properly. Loss of consistency refers to the failure mode that the logic frame does not accurately reflect the state of the controlled processes. Once such failure occurs, hazards may arise. Among potential hazards, the competing effect between the controller and the controlled process is the most severe one, which may jeopardize a defense-in-depth design. When the logic and physical frames are inconsistent, conventional safety analysis techniques are inadequate. We propose Frame-based Fault Tree; Analysis (FFTA) and Frame-based Event Tree Analysis (FETA) under TFM to deduce the context for decision errors and to separately generate the evolution of the logical frame as opposed to that of the physical frame. This multi-dimensional analysis approach, different from the conventional correctness-centred approach, provides a panoramic view in scenario generation. Case studies using the proposed techniques are also given to demonstrate their usage and feasibility

Turbocharging Quantum Tomography

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Blume-Kohout, Robin J. [Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Gamble, John King [Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Nielsen, Erik [Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Maunz, Peter Lukas Wilhelm [Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Scholten, Travis L. [Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Rudinger, Kenneth Michael [Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

2015-01-01

Quantum tomography is used to characterize quantum operations implemented in quantum information processing (QIP) hardware. Traditionally, state tomography has been used to characterize the quantum state prepared in an initialization procedure, while quantum process tomography is used to characterize dynamical operations on a QIP system. As such, tomography is critical to the development of QIP hardware (since it is necessary both for debugging and validating as-built devices, and its results are used to influence the next generation of devices). But tomography suffers from several critical drawbacks. In this report, we present new research that resolves several of these flaws. We describe a new form of tomography called gate set tomography (GST), which unifies state and process tomography, avoids prior methods critical reliance on precalibrated operations that are not generally available, and can achieve unprecedented accuracies. We report on theory and experimental development of adaptive tomography protocols that achieve far higher fidelity in state reconstruction than non-adaptive methods. Finally, we present a new theoretical and experimental analysis of process tomography on multispin systems, and demonstrate how to more effectively detect and characterize quantum noise using carefully tailored ensembles of input states.

Dipyridamole 201T1 myocardial perfusion tomography and bull's--eye analysis for quantitative evaluation of CAD

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jiang Maosong; Tang Xi

1992-01-01

To assess the ability of quantitative analysis of dipyridamole 201 T1 tomography for detecting and localizing coronary artery disease (CAD), 55 patients with angiographically proved CAD ( = 50% stenosis) were studied. All patients underwent dipyridamole 201 T1 myocardial perfusion tomography and coronary arteriography. The overall sensitivity for detection of CAD by Bull's-eye analysis was 89% (50 patients) and 92% (51 patients) with visual analysis. The sensitivity for detecting individual vessel involvement with the Bull'-eye analysis was 88% for LAD. 81% for RCA and 67% for LCX. With visual analysis, the results were 88%, 83% and 58% respectively. The overall rate of detection was 87% in lesions greater than or equal to 75% stenosis vs 59% in those under 75% stenosis (P 201 T1 tomography using Bull's-eye display is a highly accurate reproducible technique for the detection of patients with CAD and the localization of individual coronary vessel, and it offers the potential to quantify the percentage of the abnormally perfused myocardium

Two-dimensional errors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anon.

1991-01-01

This chapter addresses the extension of previous work in one-dimensional (linear) error theory to two-dimensional error analysis. The topics of the chapter include the definition of two-dimensional error, the probability ellipse, the probability circle, elliptical (circular) error evaluation, the application to position accuracy, and the use of control systems (points) in measurements

Research on Human-Error Factors of Civil Aircraft Pilots Based On Grey Relational Analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Guo Yundong

2018-01-01

Full Text Available In consideration of the situation that civil aviation accidents involve many human-error factors and show the features of typical grey systems, an index system of civil aviation accident human-error factors is built using human factor analysis and classification system model. With the data of accidents happened worldwide between 2008 and 2011, the correlation between human-error factors can be analyzed quantitatively using the method of grey relational analysis. Research results show that the order of main factors affecting pilot human-error factors is preconditions for unsafe acts, unsafe supervision, organization and unsafe acts. The factor related most closely with second-level indexes and pilot human-error factors is the physical/mental limitations of pilots, followed by supervisory violations. The relevancy between the first-level indexes and the corresponding second-level indexes and the relevancy between second-level indexes can also be analyzed quantitatively.

An Analysis of College Students' Attitudes towards Error Correction in EFL Context

Science.gov (United States)

Zhu, Honglin

2010-01-01

This article is based on a survey on the attitudes towards the error correction by their teachers in the process of teaching and learning and it is intended to improve the language teachers' understanding of the nature of error correction. Based on the analysis, the article expounds some principles and techniques that can be applied in the process…

The effect of decreasing computed tomography dosage on radiostereometric analysis (RSA) accuracy at the glenohumeral joint.

Science.gov (United States)

Fox, Anne-Marie V; Kedgley, Angela E; Lalone, Emily A; Johnson, James A; Athwal, George S; Jenkyn, Thomas R

2011-11-10

Standard, beaded radiostereometric analysis (RSA) and markerless RSA often use computed tomography (CT) scans to create three-dimensional (3D) bone models. However, ethical concerns exist due to risks associated with CT radiation exposure. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the effect of decreasing CT dosage on RSA accuracy. Four cadaveric shoulder specimens were scanned using a normal-dose CT protocol and two low-dose protocols, where the dosage was decreased by 89% and 98%. 3D computer models of the humerus and scapula were created using each CT protocol. Bi-planar fluoroscopy was used to image five different static glenohumeral positions and two dynamic glenohumeral movements, of which a total of five static and four dynamic poses were selected for analysis. For standard RSA, negligible differences were found in bead (0.21±0.31mm) and bony landmark (2.31±1.90mm) locations when the CT dosage was decreased by 98% (p-values>0.167). For markerless RSA kinematic results, excellent agreement was found between the normal-dose and lowest-dose protocol, with all Spearman rank correlation coefficients greater than 0.95. Average root mean squared errors of 1.04±0.68mm and 2.42±0.81° were also found at this reduced dosage for static positions. In summary, CT dosage can be markedly reduced when performing shoulder RSA to minimize the risks of radiation exposure. Standard RSA accuracy was negligibly affected by the 98% CT dose reduction and for markerless RSA, the benefits of decreasing CT dosage to the subject outweigh the introduced errors. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A phantom-based study for assessing the error and uncertainty of a neuronavigation system

OpenAIRE

Natalia Izquierdo-Cifuentes; Genaro Daza-Santacoloma; Walter Serna-Serna

2017-01-01

This document describes a calibration protocol with the intention to introduce a guide to standardize the metrological vocabulary among manufacturers of image-guided surgery systems. Two stages were developed to measure the errors and estimate the uncertainty of a neuronavigator in different situations, on the first one it was determined a mechanical error on a virtual model of an acrylic phantom, on the second it was determined a coordinate error on the computerized axial tomography scan of ...

Application of grey incidence analysis to connection between human errors and root cause

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ren Yinxiang; Yu Ren; Zhou Gang; Chen Dengke

2008-01-01

By introducing grey incidence analysis, the relatively important impact of root cause upon human errors was researched in the paper. On the basis of WANO statistic data and grey incidence analysis, lack of alternate examine, bad basic operation, short of theoretical knowledge, relaxation of organization and management and deficiency of regulations are the important influence of root cause on human err ors. Finally, the question to reduce human errors was discussed. (authors)

Theory of error for target factor analysis with applications to mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Malinowski, E.R.

1978-01-01

Based on the theory of error for abstract factor analysis described earlier, a theory of error for target factor analysis is developed. The theory shows how the error in the data matrix mixes with the error in the target test vector. The apparent error in a target test is found to be a vector sum of the real error in the target vector and the real error in the predicted vector. The theory predicts the magnitudes of these errors without requiring any a priori knowledge of the error in the data matrix or the target vector. A reliability function and a spoil function are developed for the purpose of assessing the validity and the worthiness of a target vector. Examples from model data, mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometry are presented. (Auth.)

Quantum Tomography via Compressed Sensing: Error Bounds, Sample Complexity and Efficient Estimators (Open Access, Publisher’s Version)

Science.gov (United States)

2012-09-27

ultralong lifetimes and their tomographic state analysis Phys. Rev. Lett. 92 220402 [7] Resch K J, Walther P and Zeilinger A 2005 Full characterization...of a three-photon Greenberger– Horne– Zeilinger state using quantum state tomography Phys. Rev. Lett. 94 070402 [8] Häffner H et al 2005 Scalable...Iterative algorithm for reconstruction of entangled states Phys. Rev. A 63 040303 [74] Molina-Terriza G, Vaziri A, Řeháček J, Hradil Z and Zeilinger

Interactive analysis of human error factors in NPP operation events

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang Li; Zou Yanhua; Huang Weigang

2010-01-01

Interactive of human error factors in NPP operation events were introduced, and 645 WANO operation event reports from 1999 to 2008 were analyzed, among which 432 were found relative to human errors. After classifying these errors with the Root Causes or Causal Factors, and then applying SPSS for correlation analysis,we concluded: (1) Personnel work practices are restricted by many factors. Forming a good personnel work practices is a systematic work which need supports in many aspects. (2)Verbal communications,personnel work practices, man-machine interface and written procedures and documents play great roles. They are four interaction factors which often come in bundle. If some improvements need to be made on one of them,synchronous measures are also necessary for the others.(3) Management direction and decision process, which are related to management,have a significant interaction with personnel factors. (authors)

An Error Analysis of Structured Light Scanning of Biological Tissue

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Sebastian Hoppe Nesgaard; Wilm, Jakob; Aanæs, Henrik

2017-01-01

This paper presents an error analysis and correction model for four structured light methods applied to three common types of biological tissue; skin, fat and muscle. Despite its many advantages, structured light is based on the assumption of direct reflection at the object surface only......, statistical linear model based on the scan geometry. As such, scans can be corrected without introducing any specially designed pattern strategy or hardware. We can effectively reduce the error in a structured light scanner applied to biological tissue by as much as factor of two or three........ This assumption is violated by most biological material e.g. human skin, which exhibits subsurface scattering. In this study, we find that in general, structured light scans of biological tissue deviate significantly from the ground truth. We show that a large portion of this error can be predicted with a simple...

Analysis of strain error sources in micro-beam Laue diffraction

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hofmann, Felix; Eve, Sophie; Belnoue, Jonathan; Micha, Jean-Sébastien; Korsunsky, Alexander M.

2011-01-01

Micro-beam Laue diffraction is an experimental method that allows the measurement of local lattice orientation and elastic strain within individual grains of engineering alloys, ceramics, and other polycrystalline materials. Unlike other analytical techniques, e.g. based on electron microscopy, it is not limited to surface characterisation or thin sections, but rather allows non-destructive measurements in the material bulk. This is of particular importance for in situ loading experiments where the mechanical response of a material volume (rather than just surface) is studied and it is vital that no perturbation/disturbance is introduced by the measurement technique. Whilst the technique allows lattice orientation to be determined to a high level of precision, accurate measurement of elastic strains and estimating the errors involved is a significant challenge. We propose a simulation-based approach to assess the elastic strain errors that arise from geometrical perturbations of the experimental setup. Using an empirical combination rule, the contributions of different geometrical uncertainties to the overall experimental strain error are estimated. This approach was applied to the micro-beam Laue diffraction setup at beamline BM32 at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF). Using a highly perfect germanium single crystal, the mechanical stability of the instrument was determined and hence the expected strain errors predicted. Comparison with the actual strain errors found in a silicon four-point beam bending test showed good agreement. The simulation-based error analysis approach makes it possible to understand the origins of the experimental strain errors and thus allows a directed improvement of the experimental geometry to maximise the benefit in terms of strain accuracy.

Statistical analysis with measurement error or misclassification strategy, method and application

CERN Document Server

Yi, Grace Y

2017-01-01

This monograph on measurement error and misclassification covers a broad range of problems and emphasizes unique features in modeling and analyzing problems arising from medical research and epidemiological studies. Many measurement error and misclassification problems have been addressed in various fields over the years as well as with a wide spectrum of data, including event history data (such as survival data and recurrent event data), correlated data (such as longitudinal data and clustered data), multi-state event data, and data arising from case-control studies. Statistical Analysis with Measurement Error or Misclassification: Strategy, Method and Application brings together assorted methods in a single text and provides an update of recent developments for a variety of settings. Measurement error effects and strategies of handling mismeasurement for different models are closely examined in combination with applications to specific problems. Readers with diverse backgrounds and objectives can utilize th...

SU-E-I-83: Error Analysis of Multi-Modality Image-Based Volumes of Rodent Solid Tumors Using a Preclinical Multi-Modality QA Phantom

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lee, Y [University of Kansas Hospital, Kansas City, KS (United States); Fullerton, G; Goins, B [University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX (United States)

2015-06-15

Purpose: In our previous study a preclinical multi-modality quality assurance (QA) phantom that contains five tumor-simulating test objects with 2, 4, 7, 10 and 14 mm diameters was developed for accurate tumor size measurement by researchers during cancer drug development and testing. This study analyzed the errors during tumor volume measurement from preclinical magnetic resonance (MR), micro-computed tomography (micro- CT) and ultrasound (US) images acquired in a rodent tumor model using the preclinical multi-modality QA phantom. Methods: Using preclinical 7-Tesla MR, US and micro-CT scanners, images were acquired of subcutaneous SCC4 tumor xenografts in nude rats (3–4 rats per group; 5 groups) along with the QA phantom using the same imaging protocols. After tumors were excised, in-air micro-CT imaging was performed to determine reference tumor volume. Volumes measured for the rat tumors and phantom test objects were calculated using formula V = (π/6)*a*b*c where a, b and c are the maximum diameters in three perpendicular dimensions determined by the three imaging modalities. Then linear regression analysis was performed to compare image-based tumor volumes with the reference tumor volume and known test object volume for the rats and the phantom respectively. Results: The slopes of regression lines for in-vivo tumor volumes measured by three imaging modalities were 1.021, 1.101 and 0.862 for MRI, micro-CT and US respectively. For phantom, the slopes were 0.9485, 0.9971 and 0.9734 for MRI, micro-CT and US respectively. Conclusion: For both animal and phantom studies, random and systematic errors were observed. Random errors were observer-dependent and systematic errors were mainly due to selected imaging protocols and/or measurement method. In the animal study, there were additional systematic errors attributed to ellipsoidal assumption for tumor shape. The systematic errors measured using the QA phantom need to be taken into account to reduce measurement

Two-component model application for error calculus in the environmental monitoring data analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Carvalho, Maria Angelica G.; Hiromoto, Goro

2002-01-01

Analysis and interpretation of results of an environmental monitoring program is often based on the evaluation of the mean value of a particular set of data, which is strongly affected by the analytical errors associated with each measurement. A model proposed by Rocke and Lorenzato assumes two error components, one additive and one multiplicative, to deal with lower and higher concentration values in a single model. In this communication, an application of this method for re-evaluation of the errors reported in a large set of results of total alpha measurements in a environmental sample is presented. The results show that the mean values calculated taking into account the new errors is higher than as obtained with the original errors, being an indicative that the analytical errors reported before were underestimated in the region of lower concentrations. (author)

BEATBOX v1.0: Background Error Analysis Testbed with Box Models

Science.gov (United States)

Knote, Christoph; Barré, Jérôme; Eckl, Max

2018-02-01

The Background Error Analysis Testbed (BEATBOX) is a new data assimilation framework for box models. Based on the BOX Model eXtension (BOXMOX) to the Kinetic Pre-Processor (KPP), this framework allows users to conduct performance evaluations of data assimilation experiments, sensitivity analyses, and detailed chemical scheme diagnostics from an observation simulation system experiment (OSSE) point of view. The BEATBOX framework incorporates an observation simulator and a data assimilation system with the possibility of choosing ensemble, adjoint, or combined sensitivities. A user-friendly, Python-based interface allows for the tuning of many parameters for atmospheric chemistry and data assimilation research as well as for educational purposes, for example observation error, model covariances, ensemble size, perturbation distribution in the initial conditions, and so on. In this work, the testbed is described and two case studies are presented to illustrate the design of a typical OSSE experiment, data assimilation experiments, a sensitivity analysis, and a method for diagnosing model errors. BEATBOX is released as an open source tool for the atmospheric chemistry and data assimilation communities.

BEATBOX v1.0: Background Error Analysis Testbed with Box Models

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

C. Knote

2018-02-01

Full Text Available The Background Error Analysis Testbed (BEATBOX is a new data assimilation framework for box models. Based on the BOX Model eXtension (BOXMOX to the Kinetic Pre-Processor (KPP, this framework allows users to conduct performance evaluations of data assimilation experiments, sensitivity analyses, and detailed chemical scheme diagnostics from an observation simulation system experiment (OSSE point of view. The BEATBOX framework incorporates an observation simulator and a data assimilation system with the possibility of choosing ensemble, adjoint, or combined sensitivities. A user-friendly, Python-based interface allows for the tuning of many parameters for atmospheric chemistry and data assimilation research as well as for educational purposes, for example observation error, model covariances, ensemble size, perturbation distribution in the initial conditions, and so on. In this work, the testbed is described and two case studies are presented to illustrate the design of a typical OSSE experiment, data assimilation experiments, a sensitivity analysis, and a method for diagnosing model errors. BEATBOX is released as an open source tool for the atmospheric chemistry and data assimilation communities.

Compensation for geometric modeling errors by positioning of electrodes in electrical impedance tomography

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hyvönen, N.; Majander, H.; Staboulis, Stratos

2017-01-01

Electrical impedance tomography aims at reconstructing the conductivity inside a physical body from boundary measurements of current and voltage at a finite number of contact electrodes. In many practical applications, the shape of the imaged object is subject to considerable uncertainties...

Positron Emission Tomography in Prostate Cancer: Summary of Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Jadvar, Hossein

2015-09-01

Prostate cancer is a prevalent public health problem worldwide. Over the past decade, there has been tremendous research activity in the potential use of positron emission tomography with a number of radiotracers targeted to various biological aspects of this complex tumor. Systematic reviews and meta-analysis are important contributions to the relevant literature that summarize the evidence while reducing the effect of various sources of bias in the published data. The accumulation of relevant data in this clinical setting has recently provided the opportunity for systematic reviews. In this brief article, I summarize the published systematic reviews and meta-analysis of positron emission tomography in prostate cancer. Most robust evidence suggests a probable role for first-line use of positron emission tomography with radiolabeled choline in restating patients with biochemical relapse of prostate cancer with the diagnostic performance that appears to be positively associated with the serum prostate specific antigen level and velocity. Future systematic reviews will be needed for other emerging radiotracers such as those based on prostate specific membrane antigen and gastrin-releasing peptide receptor.

X-ray-based attenuation correction for positron emission tomography/computed tomography scanners.

Science.gov (United States)

Kinahan, Paul E; Hasegawa, Bruce H; Beyer, Thomas

2003-07-01

A synergy of positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT) scanners is the use of the CT data for x-ray-based attenuation correction of the PET emission data. Current methods of measuring transmission use positron sources, gamma-ray sources, or x-ray sources. Each of the types of transmission scans involves different trade-offs of noise versus bias, with positron transmission scans having the highest noise but lowest bias, whereas x-ray scans have negligible noise but the potential for increased quantitative errors. The use of x-ray-based attenuation correction, however, has other advantages, including a lack of bias introduced from post-injection transmission scanning, which is an important practical consideration for clinical scanners, as well as reduced scan times. The sensitivity of x-ray-based attenuation correction to artifacts and quantitative errors depends on the method of translating the CT image from the effective x-ray energy of approximately 70 keV to attenuation coefficients at the PET energy of 511 keV. These translation methods are usually based on segmentation and/or scaling techniques. Errors in the PET emission image arise from positional mismatches caused by patient motion or respiration differences between the PET and CT scans; incorrect calculation of attenuation coefficients for CT contrast agents or metallic implants; or keeping the patient's arms in the field of view, which leads to truncation and/or beam-hardening (or x-ray scatter) artifacts. Proper interpretation of PET emission images corrected for attenuation by using the CT image relies on an understanding of the potential artifacts. In cases where an artifact or bias is suspected, careful inspection of all three available images (CT and PET emission with and without attenuation correction) is recommended. Copyright 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Republished error management: Descriptions of verbal communication errors between staff. An analysis of 84 root cause analysis-reports from Danish hospitals

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rabøl, Louise Isager; Andersen, Mette Lehmann; Østergaard, Doris

2011-01-01

Introduction Poor teamwork and communication between healthcare staff are correlated to patient safety incidents. However, the organisational factors responsible for these issues are unexplored. Root cause analyses (RCA) use human factors thinking to analyse the systems behind severe patient safety...... and characteristics of verbal communication errors such as handover errors and error during teamwork. Results Raters found description of verbal communication errors in 44 reports (52%). These included handover errors (35 (86%)), communication errors between different staff groups (19 (43%)), misunderstandings (13...... (30%)), communication errors between junior and senior staff members (11 (25%)), hesitance in speaking up (10 (23%)) and communication errors during teamwork (8 (18%)). The kappa values were 0.44-0.78. Unproceduralized communication and information exchange via telephone, related to transfer between...

Error Analysis of CM Data Products Sources of Uncertainty

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hunt, Brian D. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Eckert-Gallup, Aubrey Celia [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Cochran, Lainy Dromgoole [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Kraus, Terrence D. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Allen, Mark B. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Beal, Bill [National Security Technologies, Joint Base Andrews, MD (United States); Okada, Colin [National Security Technologies, LLC. (NSTec), Las Vegas, NV (United States); Simpson, Mathew [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)

2017-02-01

This goal of this project is to address the current inability to assess the overall error and uncertainty of data products developed and distributed by DOE’s Consequence Management (CM) Program. This is a widely recognized shortfall, the resolution of which would provide a great deal of value and defensibility to the analysis results, data products, and the decision making process that follows this work. A global approach to this problem is necessary because multiple sources of error and uncertainty contribute to the ultimate production of CM data products. Therefore, this project will require collaboration with subject matter experts across a wide range of FRMAC skill sets in order to quantify the types of uncertainty that each area of the CM process might contain and to understand how variations in these uncertainty sources contribute to the aggregated uncertainty present in CM data products. The ultimate goal of this project is to quantify the confidence level of CM products to ensure that appropriate public and worker protections decisions are supported by defensible analysis.

Error analysis and system improvements in phase-stepping methods for photoelasticity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wenyan Ji

1997-11-01

In the past automated photoelasticity has been demonstrated to be one of the most efficient technique for determining the complete state of stress in a 3-D component. However, the measurement accuracy, which depends on many aspects of both the theoretical foundations and experimental procedures, has not been studied properly. The objective of this thesis is to reveal the intrinsic properties of the errors, provide methods for reducing them and finally improve the system accuracy. A general formulation for a polariscope with all the optical elements in an arbitrary orientation was deduced using the method of Mueller Matrices. The deduction of this formulation indicates an inherent connectivity among the optical elements and gives a knowledge of the errors. In addition, this formulation also shows a common foundation among the photoelastic techniques, consequently, these techniques share many common error sources. The phase-stepping system proposed by Patterson and Wang was used as an exemplar to analyse the errors and provide the proposed improvements. This system can be divided into four parts according to their function, namely the optical system, light source, image acquisition equipment and image analysis software. All the possible error sources were investigated separately and the methods for reducing the influence of the errors and improving the system accuracy are presented. To identify the contribution of each possible error to the final system output, a model was used to simulate the errors and analyse their consequences. Therefore the contribution to the results from different error sources can be estimated quantitatively and finally the accuracy of the systems can be improved. For a conventional polariscope, the system accuracy can be as high as 99.23% for the fringe order and the error less than 5 degrees for the isoclinic angle. The PSIOS system is limited to the low fringe orders. For a fringe order of less than 1.5, the accuracy is 94.60% for fringe

Doctors' duty to disclose error: a deontological or Kantian ethical analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Bernstein, Mark; Brown, Barry

2004-05-01

Medical (surgical) error is being talked about more openly and besides being the subject of retrospective reviews, is now the subject of prospective research. Disclosure of error has been a difficult issue because of fear of embarrassment for doctors in the eyes of their peers, and fear of punitive action by patients, consisting of medicolegal action and/or complaints to doctors' governing bodies. This paper examines physicians' and surgeons' duty to disclose error, from an ethical standpoint; specifically by applying the moral philosophical theory espoused by Immanuel Kant (ie. deontology). The purpose of this discourse is to apply moral philosophical analysis to a delicate but important issue which will be a matter all physicians and surgeons will have to confront, probably numerous times, in their professional careers.

A Posteriori Error Analysis of Stochastic Differential Equations Using Polynomial Chaos Expansions

KAUST Repository

Butler, T.; Dawson, C.; Wildey, T.

2011-01-01

We develop computable a posteriori error estimates for linear functionals of a solution to a general nonlinear stochastic differential equation with random model/source parameters. These error estimates are based on a variational analysis applied to stochastic Galerkin methods for forward and adjoint problems. The result is a representation for the error estimate as a polynomial in the random model/source parameter. The advantage of this method is that we use polynomial chaos representations for the forward and adjoint systems to cheaply produce error estimates by simple evaluation of a polynomial. By comparison, the typical method of producing such estimates requires repeated forward/adjoint solves for each new choice of random parameter. We present numerical examples showing that there is excellent agreement between these methods. © 2011 Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics.

Team errors: definition and taxonomy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sasou, Kunihide; Reason, James

1999-01-01

In error analysis or error management, the focus is usually upon individuals who have made errors. In large complex systems, however, most people work in teams or groups. Considering this working environment, insufficient emphasis has been given to 'team errors'. This paper discusses the definition of team errors and its taxonomy. These notions are also applied to events that have occurred in the nuclear power industry, aviation industry and shipping industry. The paper also discusses the relations between team errors and Performance Shaping Factors (PSFs). As a result, the proposed definition and taxonomy are found to be useful in categorizing team errors. The analysis also reveals that deficiencies in communication, resource/task management, excessive authority gradient, excessive professional courtesy will cause team errors. Handling human errors as team errors provides an opportunity to reduce human errors

Minimizing treatment planning errors in proton therapy using failure mode and effects analysis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zheng, Yuanshui, E-mail: yuanshui.zheng@okc.procure.com [ProCure Proton Therapy Center, 5901 W Memorial Road, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73142 and Department of Physics, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma 74078-3072 (United States); Johnson, Randall; Larson, Gary [ProCure Proton Therapy Center, 5901 W Memorial Road, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73142 (United States)

2016-06-15

Purpose: Failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) is a widely used tool to evaluate safety or reliability in conventional photon radiation therapy. However, reports about FMEA application in proton therapy are scarce. The purpose of this study is to apply FMEA in safety improvement of proton treatment planning at their center. Methods: The authors performed an FMEA analysis of their proton therapy treatment planning process using uniform scanning proton beams. The authors identified possible failure modes in various planning processes, including image fusion, contouring, beam arrangement, dose calculation, plan export, documents, billing, and so on. For each error, the authors estimated the frequency of occurrence, the likelihood of being undetected, and the severity of the error if it went undetected and calculated the risk priority number (RPN). The FMEA results were used to design their quality management program. In addition, the authors created a database to track the identified dosimetric errors. Periodically, the authors reevaluated the risk of errors by reviewing the internal error database and improved their quality assurance program as needed. Results: In total, the authors identified over 36 possible treatment planning related failure modes and estimated the associated occurrence, detectability, and severity to calculate the overall risk priority number. Based on the FMEA, the authors implemented various safety improvement procedures into their practice, such as education, peer review, and automatic check tools. The ongoing error tracking database provided realistic data on the frequency of occurrence with which to reevaluate the RPNs for various failure modes. Conclusions: The FMEA technique provides a systematic method for identifying and evaluating potential errors in proton treatment planning before they result in an error in patient dose delivery. The application of FMEA framework and the implementation of an ongoing error tracking system at their

Minimizing treatment planning errors in proton therapy using failure mode and effects analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zheng, Yuanshui; Johnson, Randall; Larson, Gary

2016-01-01

Purpose: Failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) is a widely used tool to evaluate safety or reliability in conventional photon radiation therapy. However, reports about FMEA application in proton therapy are scarce. The purpose of this study is to apply FMEA in safety improvement of proton treatment planning at their center. Methods: The authors performed an FMEA analysis of their proton therapy treatment planning process using uniform scanning proton beams. The authors identified possible failure modes in various planning processes, including image fusion, contouring, beam arrangement, dose calculation, plan export, documents, billing, and so on. For each error, the authors estimated the frequency of occurrence, the likelihood of being undetected, and the severity of the error if it went undetected and calculated the risk priority number (RPN). The FMEA results were used to design their quality management program. In addition, the authors created a database to track the identified dosimetric errors. Periodically, the authors reevaluated the risk of errors by reviewing the internal error database and improved their quality assurance program as needed. Results: In total, the authors identified over 36 possible treatment planning related failure modes and estimated the associated occurrence, detectability, and severity to calculate the overall risk priority number. Based on the FMEA, the authors implemented various safety improvement procedures into their practice, such as education, peer review, and automatic check tools. The ongoing error tracking database provided realistic data on the frequency of occurrence with which to reevaluate the RPNs for various failure modes. Conclusions: The FMEA technique provides a systematic method for identifying and evaluating potential errors in proton treatment planning before they result in an error in patient dose delivery. The application of FMEA framework and the implementation of an ongoing error tracking system at their

Error analysis and algorithm implementation for an improved optical-electric tracking device based on MEMS

Science.gov (United States)

Sun, Hong; Wu, Qian-zhong

2013-09-01

In order to improve the precision of optical-electric tracking device, proposing a kind of improved optical-electric tracking device based on MEMS, in allusion to the tracking error of gyroscope senor and the random drift, According to the principles of time series analysis of random sequence, establish AR model of gyro random error based on Kalman filter algorithm, then the output signals of gyro are multiple filtered with Kalman filter. And use ARM as micro controller servo motor is controlled by fuzzy PID full closed loop control algorithm, and add advanced correction and feed-forward links to improve response lag of angle input, Free-forward can make output perfectly follow input. The function of lead compensation link is to shorten the response of input signals, so as to reduce errors. Use the wireless video monitor module and remote monitoring software (Visual Basic 6.0) to monitor servo motor state in real time, the video monitor module gathers video signals, and the wireless video module will sent these signals to upper computer, so that show the motor running state in the window of Visual Basic 6.0. At the same time, take a detailed analysis to the main error source. Through the quantitative analysis of the errors from bandwidth and gyro sensor, it makes the proportion of each error in the whole error more intuitive, consequently, decrease the error of the system. Through the simulation and experiment results shows the system has good following characteristic, and it is very valuable for engineering application.

Regional compensation for statistical maximum likelihood reconstruction error of PET image pixels

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Forma, J; Ruotsalainen, U; Niemi, J A

2013-01-01

In positron emission tomography (PET), there is an increasing interest in studying not only the regional mean tracer concentration, but its variation arising from local differences in physiology, the tissue heterogeneity. However, in reconstructed images this physiological variation is shadowed by a large reconstruction error, which is caused by noisy data and the inversion of tomographic problem. We present a new procedure which can quantify the error variation in regional reconstructed values for given PET measurement, and reveal the remaining tissue heterogeneity. The error quantification is made by creating and reconstructing the noise realizations of virtual sinograms, which are statistically similar with the measured sinogram. Tests with physical phantom data show that the characterization of error variation and the true heterogeneity are possible, despite the existing model error when real measurement is considered. (paper)

Error Analysis of Deep Sequencing of Phage Libraries: Peptides Censored in Sequencing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wadim L. Matochko

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Next-generation sequencing techniques empower selection of ligands from phage-display libraries because they can detect low abundant clones and quantify changes in the copy numbers of clones without excessive selection rounds. Identification of errors in deep sequencing data is the most critical step in this process because these techniques have error rates >1%. Mechanisms that yield errors in Illumina and other techniques have been proposed, but no reports to date describe error analysis in phage libraries. Our paper focuses on error analysis of 7-mer peptide libraries sequenced by Illumina method. Low theoretical complexity of this phage library, as compared to complexity of long genetic reads and genomes, allowed us to describe this library using convenient linear vector and operator framework. We describe a phage library as N×1 frequency vector n=ni, where ni is the copy number of the ith sequence and N is the theoretical diversity, that is, the total number of all possible sequences. Any manipulation to the library is an operator acting on n. Selection, amplification, or sequencing could be described as a product of a N×N matrix and a stochastic sampling operator (Sa. The latter is a random diagonal matrix that describes sampling of a library. In this paper, we focus on the properties of Sa and use them to define the sequencing operator (Seq. Sequencing without any bias and errors is Seq=Sa IN, where IN is a N×N unity matrix. Any bias in sequencing changes IN to a nonunity matrix. We identified a diagonal censorship matrix (CEN, which describes elimination or statistically significant downsampling, of specific reads during the sequencing process.

Evaluation of rotational set-up errors in patients with thoracic neoplasms

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang Yanyang; Fu Xiaolong; Xia Bing; Fan Min; Yang Huanjun; Ren Jun; Xu Zhiyong; Jiang Guoliang

2010-01-01

Objective: To assess the rotational set-up errors in patients with thoracic neoplasms. Methods: 224 kilovoltage cone-beam computed tomography (KVCBCT) scans from 20 thoracic tumor patients were evaluated retrospectively. All these patients were involved in the research of 'Evaluation of the residual set-up error for online kilovoltage cone-beam CT guided thoracic tumor radiation'. Rotational set-up errors, including pitch, roll and yaw, were calculated by 'aligning the KVCBCT with the planning CT, using the semi-automatic alignment method. Results: The average rotational set-up errors were -0.28 degree ±1.52 degree, 0.21 degree ± 0.91 degree and 0.27 degree ± 0.78 degree in the left-fight, superior-inferior and anterior-posterior axis, respectively. The maximal rotational errors of pitch, roll and yaw were 3.5 degree, 2.7 degree and 2.2 degree, respectively. After correction for translational set-up errors, no statistically significant changes in rotational error were observed. Conclusions: The rotational set-up errors in patients with thoracic neoplasms were all small in magnitude. Rotational errors may not change after the correction for translational set-up errors alone, which should be evaluated in a larger sample future. (authors)

Error analysis of isotope dilution mass spectrometry method with internal standard

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rizhinskii, M.W.; Vitinskii, M.Y.

1989-02-01

The computation algorithms of the normalized isotopic ratios and element concentration by isotope dilution mass spectrometry with internal standard are presented. A procedure based on the Monte-Carlo calculation is proposed for predicting the magnitude of the errors to be expected. The estimation of systematic and random errors is carried out in the case of the certification of uranium and plutonium reference materials as well as for the use of those reference materials in the analysis of irradiated nuclear fuels. 4 refs, 11 figs, 2 tabs

Positron emission tomography: Physics, instrumentation, and image analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Porenta, G.

1994-01-01

Positron emission tomography (PET) is a noninvasive diagnostic technique that permits reconstruction of cross-sectional images of the human body which depict the biodistribution of PET tracer substances. A large variety of physiological PET tracers, mostly based on isotopes of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and fluorine is available and allows the in vivo investigation of organ perfusion, metabolic pathways and biomolecular processes in normal and diseased states. PET cameras utilize the physical characteristics of positron decay to derive quantitative measurements of tracer concentrations, a capability that has so far been elusive for conventional SPECT (single photon emission computed tomography) imaging techniques. Due to the short half lives of most PET isotopes, an on-site cyclotron and a radiochemistry unit are necessary to provide an adequate supply of PET tracers. While operating a PET center in the past was a complex procedure restricted to few academic centers with ample resources. PET technology has rapidly advanced in recent years and has entered the commercial nuclear medicine market. To date, the availability of compact cyclotrons with remote computer control, automated synthesis units for PET radiochemistry, high-performance PET cameras, and userfriendly analysis workstations permits installation of a clinical PET center within most nuclear medicine facilities. This review provides simple descriptions of important aspects concerning physics, instrumentation, and image analysis in PET imaging which should be understood by medical personnel involved in the clinical operation of a PET imaging center. (author)

Controlling qubit drift by recycling error correction syndromes

Science.gov (United States)

Blume-Kohout, Robin

2015-03-01

Physical qubits are susceptible to systematic drift, above and beyond the stochastic Markovian noise that motivates quantum error correction. This parameter drift must be compensated - if it is ignored, error rates will rise to intolerable levels - but compensation requires knowing the parameters' current value, which appears to require halting experimental work to recalibrate (e.g. via quantum tomography). Fortunately, this is untrue. I show how to perform on-the-fly recalibration on the physical qubits in an error correcting code, using only information from the error correction syndromes. The algorithm for detecting and compensating drift is very simple - yet, remarkably, when used to compensate Brownian drift in the qubit Hamiltonian, it achieves a stabilized error rate very close to the theoretical lower bound. Against 1/f noise, it is less effective only because 1/f noise is (like white noise) dominated by high-frequency fluctuations that are uncompensatable. Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-program laboratory managed and operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE

Error of semiclassical eigenvalues in the semiclassical limit - an asymptotic analysis of the Sinai billiard

Science.gov (United States)

Dahlqvist, Per

1999-10-01

We estimate the error in the semiclassical trace formula for the Sinai billiard under the assumption that the largest source of error is due to penumbra diffraction: namely, diffraction effects for trajectories passing within a distance Ricons/Journals/Common/cdot" ALT="cdot" ALIGN="TOP"/>O((kR)-2/3) to the disc and trajectories being scattered in very forward directions. Here k is the momentum and R the radius of the scatterer. The semiclassical error is estimated by perturbing the Berry-Keating formula. The analysis necessitates an asymptotic analysis of very long periodic orbits. This is obtained within an approximation originally due to Baladi, Eckmann and Ruelle. We find that the average error, for sufficiently large values of kR, will exceed the mean level spacing.

Chronology of prescribing error during the hospital stay and prediction of pharmacist's alerts overriding: a prospective analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bruni Vanida

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Drug prescribing errors are frequent in the hospital setting and pharmacists play an important role in detection of these errors. The objectives of this study are (1 to describe the drug prescribing errors rate during the patient's stay, (2 to find which characteristics for a prescribing error are the most predictive of their reproduction the next day despite pharmacist's alert (i.e. override the alert. Methods We prospectively collected all medication order lines and prescribing errors during 18 days in 7 medical wards' using computerized physician order entry. We described and modelled the errors rate according to the chronology of hospital stay. We performed a classification and regression tree analysis to find which characteristics of alerts were predictive of their overriding (i.e. prescribing error repeated. Results 12 533 order lines were reviewed, 117 errors (errors rate 0.9% were observed and 51% of these errors occurred on the first day of the hospital stay. The risk of a prescribing error decreased over time. 52% of the alerts were overridden (i.e error uncorrected by prescribers on the following day. Drug omissions were the most frequently taken into account by prescribers. The classification and regression tree analysis showed that overriding pharmacist's alerts is first related to the ward of the prescriber and then to either Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical class of the drug or the type of error. Conclusions Since 51% of prescribing errors occurred on the first day of stay, pharmacist should concentrate his analysis of drug prescriptions on this day. The difference of overriding behavior between wards and according drug Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical class or type of error could also guide the validation tasks and programming of electronic alerts.

Soft error rate analysis methodology of multi-Pulse-single-event transients

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhou Bin; Huo Mingxue; Xiao Liyi

2012-01-01

As transistor feature size scales down, soft errors in combinational logic because of high-energy particle radiation is gaining more and more concerns. In this paper, a combinational logic soft error analysis methodology considering multi-pulse-single-event transients (MPSETs) and re-convergence with multi transient pulses is proposed. In the proposed approach, the voltage pulse produced at the standard cell output is approximated by a triangle waveform, and characterized by three parameters: pulse width, the transition time of the first edge, and the transition time of the second edge. As for the pulse with the amplitude being smaller than the supply voltage, the edge extension technique is proposed. Moreover, an efficient electrical masking model comprehensively considering transition time, delay, width and amplitude is proposed, and an approach using the transition times of two edges and pulse width to compute the amplitude of pulse is proposed. Finally, our proposed firstly-independently-propagating-secondly-mutually-interacting (FIP-SMI) is used to deal with more practical re-convergence gate with multi transient pulses. As for MPSETs, a random generation model of MPSETs is exploratively proposed. Compared to the estimates obtained using circuit level simulations by HSpice, our proposed soft error rate analysis algorithm has 10% errors in SER estimation with speed up of 300 when the single-pulse-single-event transient (SPSET) is considered. We have also demonstrated the runtime and SER decrease with the increment of P0 using designs from the ISCAS-85 benchmarks. (authors)

Analysis of possible systematic errors in the Oslo method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Larsen, A. C.; Guttormsen, M.; Buerger, A.; Goergen, A.; Nyhus, H. T.; Rekstad, J.; Siem, S.; Toft, H. K.; Tveten, G. M.; Wikan, K.; Krticka, M.; Betak, E.; Schiller, A.; Voinov, A. V.

2011-01-01

In this work, we have reviewed the Oslo method, which enables the simultaneous extraction of the level density and γ-ray transmission coefficient from a set of particle-γ coincidence data. Possible errors and uncertainties have been investigated. Typical data sets from various mass regions as well as simulated data have been tested against the assumptions behind the data analysis.

Solution-verified reliability analysis and design of bistable MEMS using error estimation and adaptivity.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Eldred, Michael Scott; Subia, Samuel Ramirez; Neckels, David; Hopkins, Matthew Morgan; Notz, Patrick K.; Adams, Brian M.; Carnes, Brian; Wittwer, Jonathan W.; Bichon, Barron J.; Copps, Kevin D.

2006-10-01

This report documents the results for an FY06 ASC Algorithms Level 2 milestone combining error estimation and adaptivity, uncertainty quantification, and probabilistic design capabilities applied to the analysis and design of bistable MEMS. Through the use of error estimation and adaptive mesh refinement, solution verification can be performed in an automated and parameter-adaptive manner. The resulting uncertainty analysis and probabilistic design studies are shown to be more accurate, efficient, reliable, and convenient.

A theoretical basis for the analysis of multiversion software subject to coincident errors

Science.gov (United States)

Eckhardt, D. E., Jr.; Lee, L. D.

1985-01-01

Fundamental to the development of redundant software techniques (known as fault-tolerant software) is an understanding of the impact of multiple joint occurrences of errors, referred to here as coincident errors. A theoretical basis for the study of redundant software is developed which: (1) provides a probabilistic framework for empirically evaluating the effectiveness of a general multiversion strategy when component versions are subject to coincident errors, and (2) permits an analytical study of the effects of these errors. An intensity function, called the intensity of coincident errors, has a central role in this analysis. This function describes the propensity of programmers to introduce design faults in such a way that software components fail together when executing in the application environment. A condition under which a multiversion system is a better strategy than relying on a single version is given.

Application of human error theory in case analysis of wrong procedures.

Science.gov (United States)

Duthie, Elizabeth A

2010-06-01

The goal of this study was to contribute to the emerging body of literature about the role of human behaviors and cognitive processes in the commission of wrong procedures. Case analysis of 5 wrong procedures in operative and nonoperative settings using James Reason's human error theory was performed. The case analysis showed that cognitive underspecification, cognitive flips, automode processing, and skill-based errors were contributory to wrong procedures. Wrong-site procedures accounted for the preponderance of the cases. Front-line supervisory staff used corrective actions that focused on the performance of the individual without taking into account cognitive factors. System fixes using human cognition concepts have a greater chance of achieving sustainable safety outcomes than those that are based on the traditional approach of counseling, education, and disciplinary action for staff.

On Gait Analysis Estimation Errors Using Force Sensors on a Smart Rollator

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Joaquin Ballesteros

2016-11-01

Full Text Available Gait analysis can provide valuable information on a person’s condition and rehabilitation progress. Gait is typically captured using external equipment and/or wearable sensors. These tests are largely constrained to specific controlled environments. In addition, gait analysis often requires experts for calibration, operation and/or to place sensors on volunteers. Alternatively, mobility support devices like rollators can be equipped with onboard sensors to monitor gait parameters, while users perform their Activities of Daily Living. Gait analysis in rollators may use odometry and force sensors in the handlebars. However, force based estimation of gait parameters is less accurate than traditional methods, especially when rollators are not properly used. This paper presents an evaluation of force based gait analysis using a smart rollator on different groups of users to determine when this methodology is applicable. In a second stage, the rollator is used in combination with two lab-based gait analysis systems to assess the rollator estimation error. Our results show that: (i there is an inverse relation between the variance in the force difference between handlebars and support on the handlebars—related to the user condition—and the estimation error; and (ii this error is lower than 10% when the variation in the force difference is above 7 N. This lower limit was exceeded by the 95.83% of our challenged volunteers. In conclusion, rollators are useful for gait characterization as long as users really need the device for ambulation.

On Gait Analysis Estimation Errors Using Force Sensors on a Smart Rollator.

Science.gov (United States)

Ballesteros, Joaquin; Urdiales, Cristina; Martinez, Antonio B; van Dieën, Jaap H

2016-11-10

Gait analysis can provide valuable information on a person's condition and rehabilitation progress. Gait is typically captured using external equipment and/or wearable sensors. These tests are largely constrained to specific controlled environments. In addition, gait analysis often requires experts for calibration, operation and/or to place sensors on volunteers. Alternatively, mobility support devices like rollators can be equipped with onboard sensors to monitor gait parameters, while users perform their Activities of Daily Living. Gait analysis in rollators may use odometry and force sensors in the handlebars. However, force based estimation of gait parameters is less accurate than traditional methods, especially when rollators are not properly used. This paper presents an evaluation of force based gait analysis using a smart rollator on different groups of users to determine when this methodology is applicable. In a second stage, the rollator is used in combination with two lab-based gait analysis systems to assess the rollator estimation error. Our results show that: (i) there is an inverse relation between the variance in the force difference between handlebars and support on the handlebars-related to the user condition-and the estimation error; and (ii) this error is lower than 10% when the variation in the force difference is above 7 N. This lower limit was exceeded by the 95.83% of our challenged volunteers. In conclusion, rollators are useful for gait characterization as long as users really need the device for ambulation.

The error analysis of the determination of the activity coefficients via the isopiestic method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhou Jun; Chen Qiyuan; Fang Zheng; Liang Yizeng; Liu Shijun; Zhou Yong

2005-01-01

Error analysis is very important to experimental designs. The error analysis of the determination of activity coefficients for a binary system via the isopiestic method shows that the error sources include not only the experimental errors of the analyzed molalities and the measured osmotic coefficients, but also the deviation of the regressed values from the experimental data when the regression function is used. It also shows that the accurate chemical analysis of the molality of the test solution is important, and it is preferable to keep the error of the measured osmotic coefficients changeless in all isopiestic experiments including those experiments on the very dilute solutions. The isopiestic experiments on the dilute solutions are very important, and the lowest molality should be low enough so that a theoretical method can be used below the lowest molality. And it is necessary that the isopiestic experiment should be done on the test solutions of lower than 0.1 mol . kg -1 . For most electrolytes solutions, it is usually preferable to require the lowest molality to be less than 0.05 mol . kg -1 . Moreover, the experimental molalities of the test solutions should be firstly arranged by keeping the interval of the logarithms of the molalities nearly constant, and secondly more number of high molalities should be arranged, and we propose to arrange the experimental molalities greater than 1 mol . kg -1 according to some kind of the arithmetical progression of the intervals of the molalities. After experiments, the error of the calculated activity coefficients of the solutes could be calculated from the actually values of the errors of the measured isopiestic molalities and the deviations of the regressed values from the experimental values with our obtained equations

Validating atlas-guided DOT: a comparison of diffuse optical tomography informed by atlas and subject-specific anatomies.

Science.gov (United States)

Cooper, Robert J; Caffini, Matteo; Dubb, Jay; Fang, Qianqian; Custo, Anna; Tsuzuki, Daisuke; Fischl, Bruce; Wells, William; Dan, Ippeita; Boas, David A

2012-09-01

We describe the validation of an anatomical brain atlas approach to the analysis of diffuse optical tomography (DOT). Using MRI data from 32 subjects, we compare the diffuse optical images of simulated cortical activation reconstructed using a registered atlas with those obtained using a subject's true anatomy. The error in localization of the simulated cortical activations when using a registered atlas is due to a combination of imperfect registration, anatomical differences between atlas and subject anatomies and the localization error associated with diffuse optical image reconstruction. When using a subject-specific MRI, any localization error is due to diffuse optical image reconstruction only. In this study we determine that using a registered anatomical brain atlas results in an average localization error of approximately 18 mm in Euclidean space. The corresponding error when the subject's own MRI is employed is 9.1 mm. In general, the cost of using atlas-guided DOT in place of subject-specific MRI-guided DOT is a doubling of the localization error. Our results show that despite this increase in error, reasonable anatomical localization is achievable even in cases where the subject-specific anatomy is unavailable. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Efficient gate set tomography on a multi-qubit superconducting processor

Science.gov (United States)

Nielsen, Erik; Rudinger, Kenneth; Blume-Kohout, Robin; Bestwick, Andrew; Bloom, Benjamin; Block, Maxwell; Caldwell, Shane; Curtis, Michael; Hudson, Alex; Orgiazzi, Jean-Luc; Papageorge, Alexander; Polloreno, Anthony; Reagor, Matt; Rubin, Nicholas; Scheer, Michael; Selvanayagam, Michael; Sete, Eyob; Sinclair, Rodney; Smith, Robert; Vahidpour, Mehrnoosh; Villiers, Marius; Zeng, William; Rigetti, Chad

Quantum information processors with five or more qubits are becoming common. Complete, predictive characterization of such devices e.g. via any form of tomography, including gate set tomography appears impossible because the parameter space is intractably large. Randomized benchmarking scales well, but cannot predict device behavior or diagnose failure modes. We introduce a new type of gate set tomography that uses an efficient ansatz to model physically plausible errors, but scales polynomially with the number of qubits. We will describe the theory behind this multi-qubit tomography and present experimental results from using it to characterize a multi-qubit processor made by Rigetti Quantum Computing. Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-mission laboratory managed and operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, for the US Department of Energy's NNSA under contract DE-AC04-94AL85000.

An analysis of regional cerebral blood flow in impulsive murderers using single photon emission computed tomography.

Science.gov (United States)

Amen, Daniel G; Hanks, Chris; Prunella, Jill R; Green, Aisa

2007-01-01

The authors explored differences in regional cerebral blood flow in 11 impulsive murderers and 11 healthy comparison subjects using single photon emission computed tomography. The authors assessed subjects at rest and during a computerized go/no-go concentration task. Using statistical parametric mapping software, the authors performed voxel-by-voxel t tests to assess significant differences, making family-wide error corrections for multiple comparisons. Murderers were found to have significantly lower relative rCBF during concentration, particularly in areas associated with concentration and impulse control. These results indicate that nonemotionally laden stimuli may result in frontotemporal dysregulation in people predisposed to impulsive violence.

Dosimetric Effect of Intrafraction Motion and Residual Setup Error for Hypofractionated Prostate Intensity-Modulated Radiotherapy With Online Cone Beam Computed Tomography Image Guidance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Adamson, Justus; Wu Qiuwen; Yan Di

2011-01-01

Purpose: To quantify the dosimetric effect and margins required to account for prostate intrafractional translation and residual setup error in a cone beam computed tomography (CBCT)-guided hypofractionated radiotherapy protocol. Methods and Materials: Prostate position after online correction was measured during dose delivery using simultaneous kV fluoroscopy and posttreatment CBCT in 572 fractions to 30 patients. We reconstructed the dose distribution to the clinical tumor volume (CTV) using a convolution of the static dose with a probability density function (PDF) based on the kV fluoroscopy, and we calculated the minimum dose received by 99% of the CTV (D 99 ). We compared reconstructed doses when the convolution was performed per beam, per patient, and when the PDF was created using posttreatment CBCT. We determined the minimum axis-specific margins to limit CTV D 99 reduction to 1%. Results: For 3-mm margins, D 99 reduction was ≤5% for 29/30 patients. Using post-CBCT rather than localizations at treatment delivery exaggerated dosimetric effects by ∼47%, while there was no such bias between the dose convolved with a beam-specific and patient-specific PDF. After eight fractions, final cumulative D 99 could be predicted with a root mean square error of <1%. For 90% of patients, the required margins were ≤2, 4, and 3 mm, with 70%, 40%, and 33% of patients requiring no right-left (RL), anteroposterior (AP), and superoinferior margins, respectively. Conclusions: For protocols with CBCT guidance, RL, AP, and SI margins of 2, 4, and 3 mm are sufficient to account for translational errors; however, the large variation in patient-specific margins suggests that adaptive management may be beneficial.

Dosimetric effect of intrafraction motion and residual setup error for hypofractionated prostate intensity-modulated radiotherapy with online cone beam computed tomography image guidance.

LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

Adamson, Justus

2012-02-01

PURPOSE: To quantify the dosimetric effect and margins required to account for prostate intrafractional translation and residual setup error in a cone beam computed tomography (CBCT)-guided hypofractionated radiotherapy protocol. METHODS AND MATERIALS: Prostate position after online correction was measured during dose delivery using simultaneous kV fluoroscopy and posttreatment CBCT in 572 fractions to 30 patients. We reconstructed the dose distribution to the clinical tumor volume (CTV) using a convolution of the static dose with a probability density function (PDF) based on the kV fluoroscopy, and we calculated the minimum dose received by 99% of the CTV (D(99)). We compared reconstructed doses when the convolution was performed per beam, per patient, and when the PDF was created using posttreatment CBCT. We determined the minimum axis-specific margins to limit CTV D(99) reduction to 1%. RESULTS: For 3-mm margins, D(99) reduction was <\\/=5% for 29\\/30 patients. Using post-CBCT rather than localizations at treatment delivery exaggerated dosimetric effects by ~47%, while there was no such bias between the dose convolved with a beam-specific and patient-specific PDF. After eight fractions, final cumulative D(99) could be predicted with a root mean square error of <1%. For 90% of patients, the required margins were <\\/=2, 4, and 3 mm, with 70%, 40%, and 33% of patients requiring no right-left (RL), anteroposterior (AP), and superoinferior margins, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: For protocols with CBCT guidance, RL, AP, and SI margins of 2, 4, and 3 mm are sufficient to account for translational errors; however, the large variation in patient-specific margins suggests that adaptive management may be beneficial.

Positron emission tomography response criteria in solid tumours criteria for quantitative analysis of [18F]-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography with integrated computed tomography for treatment response assessment in metastasised solid tumours: All that glitters is not gold.

Science.gov (United States)

Willemsen, Annelieke E C A B; Vlenterie, Myrella; van Herpen, Carla M L; van Erp, Nielka P; van der Graaf, Winette T A; de Geus-Oei, Lioe-Fee; Oyen, Wim J G

2016-03-01

For solid tumours, quantitative analysis of [(18)F]-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography with integrated computed tomography potentially can have significant value in early response assessment and thereby discrimination between responders and non-responders at an early stage of treatment. Standardised strategies for this analysis have been proposed, and the positron emission tomography response criteria in solid tumours (PERCIST) criteria can be regarded as the current standard to perform quantitative analysis in a research setting, yet is not implemented in daily practice. However, several exceptions and limitations limit the feasibility of PERCIST criteria. In this article, we point out dilemmas that arise when applying proposed criteria like PERCIST on an expansive set of patients with metastasised solid tumours. Clinicians and scientists should be aware of these limitations to prevent that methodological issues impede successful introduction of research data into clinical practice. Therefore, to deliver on the high potential of quantitative imaging, consensus should be reached on a standardised, feasible and clinically useful analysis methodology. This methodology should be applicable in the majority of patients, tumour types and treatments. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Analysis of Errors and Misconceptions in the Learning of Calculus by Undergraduate Students

Science.gov (United States)

Muzangwa, Jonatan; Chifamba, Peter

2012-01-01

This paper is going to analyse errors and misconceptions in an undergraduate course in Calculus. The study will be based on a group of 10 BEd. Mathematics students at Great Zimbabwe University. Data is gathered through use of two exercises on Calculus 1&2.The analysis of the results from the tests showed that a majority of the errors were due…

Critical slowing down and error analysis in lattice QCD simulations

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Schaefer, Stefan [Humboldt-Universitaet, Berlin (Germany). Inst. fuer Physik; Sommer, Rainer; Virotta, Francesco [Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Zeuthen (Germany). John von Neumann-Inst. fuer Computing NIC

2010-09-15

We study the critical slowing down towards the continuum limit of lattice QCD simulations with Hybrid Monte Carlo type algorithms. In particular for the squared topological charge we find it to be very severe with an effective dynamical critical exponent of about 5 in pure gauge theory. We also consider Wilson loops which we can demonstrate to decouple from the modes which slow down the topological charge. Quenched observables are studied and a comparison to simulations of full QCD is made. In order to deal with the slow modes in the simulation, we propose a method to incorporate the information from slow observables into the error analysis of physical observables and arrive at safer error estimates. (orig.)

Critical slowing down and error analysis in lattice QCD simulations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schaefer, Stefan; Sommer, Rainer; Virotta, Francesco

2010-09-01

We study the critical slowing down towards the continuum limit of lattice QCD simulations with Hybrid Monte Carlo type algorithms. In particular for the squared topological charge we find it to be very severe with an effective dynamical critical exponent of about 5 in pure gauge theory. We also consider Wilson loops which we can demonstrate to decouple from the modes which slow down the topological charge. Quenched observables are studied and a comparison to simulations of full QCD is made. In order to deal with the slow modes in the simulation, we propose a method to incorporate the information from slow observables into the error analysis of physical observables and arrive at safer error estimates. (orig.)

On the Relationship Between Anxiety and Error Monitoring: A meta-analysis and conceptual framework

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jason eMoser

2013-08-01

Full Text Available Research involving event-related brain potentials has revealed that anxiety is associated with enhanced error monitoring, as reflected in increased amplitude of the error-related negativity (ERN. The nature of the relationship between anxiety and error monitoring is unclear, however. Through meta-analysis and a critical review of the literature, we argue that anxious apprehension/worry is the dimension of anxiety most closely associated with error monitoring. Although, overall, anxiety demonstrated a robust, small-to-medium relationship with enhanced ERN (r = -.25, studies employing measures of anxious apprehension show a threefold greater effect size estimate (r = -.35 than those utilizing other measures of anxiety (r = -.09. Our conceptual framework helps explain this more specific relationship between anxiety and enhanced ERN and delineates the unique roles of worry, conflict processing, and modes of cognitive control. Collectively, our analysis suggests that enhanced ERN in anxiety results from the interplay of a decrease in processes supporting active goal maintenance and a compensatory increase in processes dedicated to transient reactivation of task goals on an as-needed basis when salient events (i.e., errors occur.

LEARNING FROM MISTAKES Error Analysis in the English Speech of Indonesian Tertiary Students

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Imelda Gozali

2017-12-01

Full Text Available This study is part of a series of Classroom Action Research conducted with the aim of improving the English speech of students in one of the tertiary institutes in Indonesia. After some years of teaching English conversation, the writer noted that students made various types of errors in their speech, which can be classified generally into morphological, phonological, and lexical. While some of the errors are still generally acceptable, some others elicit laughter or inhibit comprehension altogether. Therefore, the writer is keen to analyze the more common errors made by the students, so as to be able to compile a teaching material that could be utilized to address those errors more effectively in future classes. This research used Error Analysis by Richards (1971 as the basis of classification. It was carried out in five classes with a total number of 80 students for a period of one semester (14 weeks. The results showed that most of the errors were phonological (errors in pronunciation, while others were morphological or grammatical in nature. This prompted the writer to design simple Phonics lessons for future classes.

A Human Error Analysis with Physiological Signals during Utilizing Digital Devices

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lee, Yong Hee; Oh, Yeon Ju; Shin, Kwang Hyeon [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2011-10-15

The introduction of advanced MCR is accompanied with lots of changes and different forms and features through the virtue of new digital technologies. There are various kinds of digital devices such as flat panel displays, touch screens, and so on. The characteristics of these digital devices give many chances to the interface management, and can be integrated into a compact single workstation in an advanced MCR so that workers can operate the plant with minimum burden during any operating condition. However, these devices may introduce new types of human errors, and thus we need a means to evaluate and prevent such error, especially those related to the digital devices. Human errors have been retrospectively assessed for accident reviews and quantitatively evaluated through HRA for PSA. However, the ergonomic verification and validation is an important process to defend all human error potential in the NPP design. HRA is a crucial part of a PSA, and helps in preparing a countermeasure for design by drawing potential human error items that affect the overall safety of NPPs. Various HRA techniques are available however: they reveal shortages of the HMI design in the digital era. - HRA techniques depend on PSFs: this means that the scope dealing with human factors is previously limited, and thus all attributes of new digital devices may not be considered in HRA. - The data used to HRA are not close to the evaluation items. So, human error analysis is not easy to apply to design by several individual experiments and cases. - The results of HRA are not statistically meaningful because accidents including human errors in NPPs are rare and have been estimated as having an extremely low probability

Instrumentation for positron emission tomography

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Budinger, T.F.; Derenzo, S.E.; Huesman, R.H.

1984-01-01

Positron emission tomography with a spatial resolution of 2 mm full width at half maximum for quantitation in regions of interest 4 mm in diameter will become possible with the development of detectors that achieve ultrahigh resolution. Improved resolution will be possible using solid-state photodetectors for crystal identification or photomultiplier tubes with many small electron multipliers. Temporal resolution of 2 seconds and gating of cyclic events can be accomplished if statistical requirements are met. The major physical considerations in achieving high-resolution positron emission tomography are the degradation in resolution resulting from positron range, emission angle, parallax error, detector sampling density, the sensitivity of various detector materials and packing schemes, and the tradeoff between temporal resolution and statistical accuracy. The accuracy of data required for physiological models depends primarily on the fidelity of spatial sampling independent of statistical constraints

Positron emission tomography-computed tomography standardized uptake values in clinical practice and assessing response to therapy.

Science.gov (United States)

Kinahan, Paul E; Fletcher, James W

2010-12-01

The use of standardized uptake values (SUVs) is now common place in clinical 2-deoxy-2-[(18)F] fluoro-D-glucose (FDG) position emission tomography-computed tomography oncology imaging and has a specific role in assessing patient response to cancer therapy. Ideally, the use of SUVs removes variability introduced by differences in patient size and the amount of injected FDG. However, in practice there are several sources of bias and variance that are introduced in the measurement of FDG uptake in tumors and also in the conversion of the image count data to SUVs. In this article the overall imaging process is reviewed and estimates of the magnitude of errors, where known, are given. Recommendations are provided for best practices in improving SUV accuracy. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A Simple Exact Error Rate Analysis for DS-CDMA with Arbitrary Pulse Shape in Flat Nakagami Fading

Science.gov (United States)

Rahman, Mohammad Azizur; Sasaki, Shigenobu; Kikuchi, Hisakazu; Harada, Hiroshi; Kato, Shuzo

A simple exact error rate analysis is presented for random binary direct sequence code division multiple access (DS-CDMA) considering a general pulse shape and flat Nakagami fading channel. First of all, a simple model is developed for the multiple access interference (MAI). Based on this, a simple exact expression of the characteristic function (CF) of MAI is developed in a straight forward manner. Finally, an exact expression of error rate is obtained following the CF method of error rate analysis. The exact error rate so obtained can be much easily evaluated as compared to the only reliable approximate error rate expression currently available, which is based on the Improved Gaussian Approximation (IGA).

High-fidelity state detection and tomography of a single-ion Zeeman qubit

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Keselman, A; Glickman, Y; Akerman, N; Kotler, S; Ozeri, R

2011-01-01

We demonstrate high-fidelity Zeeman qubit state detection in a single trapped 88 Sr + ion. Qubit readout is performed by shelving one of the qubit states to a metastable level using a narrow linewidth diode laser at 674 nm, followed by state-selective fluorescence detection. The average fidelity reached for the readout of the qubit state is 0.9989(1). We then measure the fidelity of state tomography, averaged over all possible single-qubit states, which is 0.9979(2). We also fully characterize the detection process using quantum process tomography. This readout fidelity is compatible with recent estimates of the detection error threshold required for fault-tolerant computation, whereas high-fidelity state tomography opens the way for high-precision quantum process tomography.

High-fidelity state detection and tomography of a single-ion Zeeman qubit

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Keselman, A; Glickman, Y; Akerman, N; Kotler, S; Ozeri, R, E-mail: ozeri@weizmann.ac.il [Physics of Complex Systems, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100 (Israel)

2011-07-15

We demonstrate high-fidelity Zeeman qubit state detection in a single trapped {sup 88}Sr{sup +} ion. Qubit readout is performed by shelving one of the qubit states to a metastable level using a narrow linewidth diode laser at 674 nm, followed by state-selective fluorescence detection. The average fidelity reached for the readout of the qubit state is 0.9989(1). We then measure the fidelity of state tomography, averaged over all possible single-qubit states, which is 0.9979(2). We also fully characterize the detection process using quantum process tomography. This readout fidelity is compatible with recent estimates of the detection error threshold required for fault-tolerant computation, whereas high-fidelity state tomography opens the way for high-precision quantum process tomography.

Classification of Error-Diffused Halftone Images Based on Spectral Regression Kernel Discriminant Analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhigao Zeng

2016-01-01

Full Text Available This paper proposes a novel algorithm to solve the challenging problem of classifying error-diffused halftone images. We firstly design the class feature matrices, after extracting the image patches according to their statistics characteristics, to classify the error-diffused halftone images. Then, the spectral regression kernel discriminant analysis is used for feature dimension reduction. The error-diffused halftone images are finally classified using an idea similar to the nearest centroids classifier. As demonstrated by the experimental results, our method is fast and can achieve a high classification accuracy rate with an added benefit of robustness in tackling noise.

Fixturing error measurement and analysis using CMMs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang, Y; Chen, X; Gindy, N

2005-01-01

Influence of fixture on the errors of a machined surface can be very significant. The machined surface errors generated during machining can be measured by using a coordinate measurement machine (CMM) through the displacements of three coordinate systems on a fixture-workpiece pair in relation to the deviation of the machined surface. The surface errors consist of the component movement, component twist, deviation between actual machined surface and defined tool path. A turbine blade fixture for grinding operation is used for case study

A Monte Carlo error simulation applied to calibration-free X-ray diffraction phase analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Braun, G.E.

1986-01-01

Quantitative phase analysis of a system of n phases can be effected without the need for calibration standards provided at least n different mixtures of these phases are available. A series of linear equations relating diffracted X-ray intensities, weight fractions and quantitation factors coupled with mass balance relationships can be solved for the unknown weight fractions and factors. Uncertainties associated with the measured X-ray intensities, owing to counting of random X-ray quanta, are used to estimate the errors in the calculated parameters utilizing a Monte Carlo simulation. The Monte Carlo approach can be generalized and applied to any quantitative X-ray diffraction phase analysis method. Two examples utilizing mixtures of CaCO 3 , Fe 2 O 3 and CaF 2 with an α-SiO 2 (quartz) internal standard illustrate the quantitative method and corresponding error analysis. One example is well conditioned; the other is poorly conditioned and, therefore, very sensitive to errors in the measured intensities. (orig.)

The error performance analysis over cyclic redundancy check codes

Science.gov (United States)

Yoon, Hee B.

1991-06-01

The burst error is generated in digital communication networks by various unpredictable conditions, which occur at high error rates, for short durations, and can impact services. To completely describe a burst error one has to know the bit pattern. This is impossible in practice on working systems. Therefore, under the memoryless binary symmetric channel (MBSC) assumptions, the performance evaluation or estimation schemes for digital signal 1 (DS1) transmission systems carrying live traffic is an interesting and important problem. This study will present some analytical methods, leading to efficient detecting algorithms of burst error using cyclic redundancy check (CRC) code. The definition of burst error is introduced using three different models. Among the three burst error models, the mathematical model is used in this study. The probability density function, function(b) of burst error of length b is proposed. The performance of CRC-n codes is evaluated and analyzed using function(b) through the use of a computer simulation model within CRC block burst error. The simulation result shows that the mean block burst error tends to approach the pattern of the burst error which random bit errors generate.

A model-based and computer-aided approach to analysis of human errors in nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yoon, Wan C.; Lee, Yong H.; Kim, Young S.

1996-01-01

Since the operator's mission in NPPs is increasingly defined by cognitive tasks such as monitoring, diagnosis and planning, the focus of human error analysis should also move from external actions to internal decision-making processes. While more elaborate analysis of cognitive aspects of human errors will help understand their causes and derive effective countermeasures, a lack of framework and an arbitrary resolution of description may hamper the effectiveness of such analysis. This paper presents new model-based schemes of event description and error classification as well as an interactive computerized support system. The schemes and the support system were produced in an effort to develop an improved version of HPES. The use of a decision-making model enables the analyst to document cognitive aspects of human performance explicitly and in a proper resolution. The stage-specific terms used in the proposed schemes make the task of characterizing human errors easier and confident for field analysts. The support system was designed to help the analyst achieve a contextually well-integrated analysis throughout the different parts of HPES

Error-correction coding and decoding bounds, codes, decoders, analysis and applications

CERN Document Server

Tomlinson, Martin; Ambroze, Marcel A; Ahmed, Mohammed; Jibril, Mubarak

2017-01-01

This book discusses both the theory and practical applications of self-correcting data, commonly known as error-correcting codes. The applications included demonstrate the importance of these codes in a wide range of everyday technologies, from smartphones to secure communications and transactions. Written in a readily understandable style, the book presents the authors’ twenty-five years of research organized into five parts: Part I is concerned with the theoretical performance attainable by using error correcting codes to achieve communications efficiency in digital communications systems. Part II explores the construction of error-correcting codes and explains the different families of codes and how they are designed. Techniques are described for producing the very best codes. Part III addresses the analysis of low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes, primarily to calculate their stopping sets and low-weight codeword spectrum which determines the performance of these codes. Part IV deals with decoders desi...

Discontinuous Galerkin methods and a posteriori error analysis for heterogenous diffusion problems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stephansen, A.F.

2007-12-01

In this thesis we analyse a discontinuous Galerkin (DG) method and two computable a posteriori error estimators for the linear and stationary advection-diffusion-reaction equation with heterogeneous diffusion. The DG method considered, the SWIP method, is a variation of the Symmetric Interior Penalty Galerkin method. The difference is that the SWIP method uses weighted averages with weights that depend on the diffusion. The a priori analysis shows optimal convergence with respect to mesh-size and robustness with respect to heterogeneous diffusion, which is confirmed by numerical tests. Both a posteriori error estimators are of the residual type and control the energy (semi-)norm of the error. Local lower bounds are obtained showing that almost all indicators are independent of heterogeneities. The exception is for the non-conforming part of the error, which has been evaluated using the Oswald interpolator. The second error estimator is sharper in its estimate with respect to the first one, but it is slightly more costly. This estimator is based on the construction of an H(div)-conforming Raviart-Thomas-Nedelec flux using the conservativeness of DG methods. Numerical results show that both estimators can be used for mesh-adaptation. (author)

Residents' surgical performance during the laboratory years: an analysis of rule-based errors.

Science.gov (United States)

Nathwani, Jay N; Wise, Brett J; Garren, Margaret E; Mohamadipanah, Hossein; Van Beek, Nicole; DiMarco, Shannon M; Pugh, Carla M

2017-11-01

Nearly one-third of surgical residents will enter into academic development during their surgical residency by dedicating time to a research fellowship for 1-3 y. Major interest lies in understanding how laboratory residents' surgical skills are affected by minimal clinical exposure during academic development. A widely held concern is that the time away from clinical exposure results in surgical skills decay. This study examines the impact of the academic development years on residents' operative performance. We hypothesize that the use of repeated, annual assessments may result in learning even without individual feedback on participants simulated performance. Surgical performance data were collected from laboratory residents (postgraduate years 2-5) during the summers of 2014, 2015, and 2016. Residents had 15 min to complete a shortened, simulated laparoscopic ventral hernia repair procedure. Final hernia repair skins from all participants were scored using a previously validated checklist. An analysis of variance test compared the mean performance scores of repeat participants to those of first time participants. Twenty-seven (37% female) laboratory residents provided 2-year assessment data over the 3-year span of the study. Second time performance revealed improvement from a mean score of 14 (standard error = 1.0) in the first year to 17.2 (SD = 0.9) in the second year, (F[1, 52] = 5.6, P = 0.022). Detailed analysis demonstrated improvement in performance for 3 grading criteria that were considered to be rule-based errors. There was no improvement in operative strategy errors. Analysis of longitudinal performance of laboratory residents shows higher scores for repeat participants in the category of rule-based errors. These findings suggest that laboratory residents can learn from rule-based mistakes when provided with annual performance-based assessments. This benefit was not seen with operative strategy errors and has important implications for

Analysis of Human Errors in Japanese Nuclear Power Plants using JHPES/JAESS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kojima, Mitsuhiro; Mimura, Masahiro; Yamaguchi, Osamu

1998-01-01

CRIEPI (Central Research Institute for Electric Power Industries) / HFC (Human Factors research Center) developed J-HPES (Japanese version of Human Performance Enhancement System) based on the HPES which was originally developed by INPO to analyze events resulted from human errors. J-HPES was systematized into a computer program named JAESS (J-HPES Analysis and Evaluation Support System) and both systems were distributed to all Japanese electric power companies to analyze events by themselves. CRIEPI / HFC also analyzed the incidents in Japanese nuclear power plants (NPPs) which were officially reported and identified as human error related with J-HPES / JAESS. These incidents have numbered up to 188 cases over the last 30 years. An outline of this analysis is given, and some preliminary findings are shown. (authors)

Time-series analysis of Nigeria rice supply and demand: Error ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The study examined a time-series analysis of Nigeria rice supply and demand with a view to determining any long-run equilibrium between them using the Error Correction Model approach (ECM). The data used for the study represents the annual series of 1960-2007 (47 years) for rice supply and demand in Nigeria, ...

Electron tomography, three-dimensional Fourier analysis and colour prediction of a three-dimensional amorphous biophotonic nanostructure

Science.gov (United States)

Shawkey, Matthew D.; Saranathan, Vinodkumar; Pálsdóttir, Hildur; Crum, John; Ellisman, Mark H.; Auer, Manfred; Prum, Richard O.

2009-01-01

Organismal colour can be created by selective absorption of light by pigments or light scattering by photonic nanostructures. Photonic nanostructures may vary in refractive index over one, two or three dimensions and may be periodic over large spatial scales or amorphous with short-range order. Theoretical optical analysis of three-dimensional amorphous nanostructures has been challenging because these structures are difficult to describe accurately from conventional two-dimensional electron microscopy alone. Intermediate voltage electron microscopy (IVEM) with tomographic reconstruction adds three-dimensional data by using a high-power electron beam to penetrate and image sections of material sufficiently thick to contain a significant portion of the structure. Here, we use IVEM tomography to characterize a non-iridescent, three-dimensional biophotonic nanostructure: the spongy medullary layer from eastern bluebird Sialia sialis feather barbs. Tomography and three-dimensional Fourier analysis reveal that it is an amorphous, interconnected bicontinuous matrix that is appropriately ordered at local spatial scales in all three dimensions to coherently scatter light. The predicted reflectance spectra from the three-dimensional Fourier analysis are more precise than those predicted by previous two-dimensional Fourier analysis of transmission electron microscopy sections. These results highlight the usefulness, and obstacles, of tomography in the description and analysis of three-dimensional photonic structures. PMID:19158016

Error Analysis of Ia Supernova and Query on Cosmic Dark Energy

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

2016-01-27

Jan 27, 2016 ... Error Analysis of Ia Supernova and Query on Cosmic Dark Energy. Qiuhe Peng Yiming Hu Kun ... https://www.ias.ac.in/article/fulltext/joaa/035/03/0253-0256 ... Articles are also visible in Web of Science immediately. All these ...

Error analysis of marker-based object localization using a single-plane XRII

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Habets, Damiaan F.; Pollmann, Steven I.; Yuan, Xunhua; Peters, Terry M.; Holdsworth, David W.

2009-01-01

The role of imaging and image guidance is increasing in surgery and therapy, including treatment planning and follow-up. Fluoroscopy is used for two-dimensional (2D) guidance or localization; however, many procedures would benefit from three-dimensional (3D) guidance or localization. Three-dimensional computed tomography (CT) using a C-arm mounted x-ray image intensifier (XRII) can provide high-quality 3D images; however, patient dose and the required acquisition time restrict the number of 3D images that can be obtained. C-arm based 3D CT is therefore limited in applications for x-ray based image guidance or dynamic evaluations. 2D-3D model-based registration, using a single-plane 2D digital radiographic system, does allow for rapid 3D localization. It is our goal to investigate - over a clinically practical range - the impact of x-ray exposure on the resulting range of 3D localization precision. In this paper it is assumed that the tracked instrument incorporates a rigidly attached 3D object with a known configuration of markers. A 2D image is obtained by a digital fluoroscopic x-ray system and corrected for XRII distortions (±0.035 mm) and mechanical C-arm shift (±0.080 mm). A least-square projection-Procrustes analysis is then used to calculate the 3D position using the measured 2D marker locations. The effect of x-ray exposure on the precision of 2D marker localization and on 3D object localization was investigated using numerical simulations and x-ray experiments. The results show a nearly linear relationship between 2D marker localization precision and the 3D localization precision. However, a significant amplification of error, nonuniformly distributed among the three major axes, occurs, and that is demonstrated. To obtain a 3D localization error of less than ±1.0 mm for an object with 20 mm marker spacing, the 2D localization precision must be better than ±0.07 mm. This requirement was met for all investigated nominal x-ray exposures at 28 cm FOV, and

Detecting medication errors in the New Zealand pharmacovigilance database: a retrospective analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Kunac, Desireé L; Tatley, Michael V

2011-01-01

Despite the traditional focus being adverse drug reactions (ADRs), pharmacovigilance centres have recently been identified as a potentially rich and important source of medication error data. To identify medication errors in the New Zealand Pharmacovigilance database (Centre for Adverse Reactions Monitoring [CARM]), and to describe the frequency and characteristics of these events. A retrospective analysis of the CARM pharmacovigilance database operated by the New Zealand Pharmacovigilance Centre was undertaken for the year 1 January-31 December 2007. All reports, excluding those relating to vaccines, clinical trials and pharmaceutical company reports, underwent a preventability assessment using predetermined criteria. Those events deemed preventable were subsequently classified to identify the degree of patient harm, type of error, stage of medication use process where the error occurred and origin of the error. A total of 1412 reports met the inclusion criteria and were reviewed, of which 4.3% (61/1412) were deemed preventable. Not all errors resulted in patient harm: 29.5% (18/61) were 'no harm' errors but 65.5% (40/61) of errors were deemed to have been associated with some degree of patient harm (preventable adverse drug events [ADEs]). For 5.0% (3/61) of events, the degree of patient harm was unable to be determined as the patient outcome was unknown. The majority of preventable ADEs (62.5% [25/40]) occurred in adults aged 65 years and older. The medication classes most involved in preventable ADEs were antibacterials for systemic use and anti-inflammatory agents, with gastrointestinal and respiratory system disorders the most common adverse events reported. For both preventable ADEs and 'no harm' events, most errors were incorrect dose and drug therapy monitoring problems consisting of failures in detection of significant drug interactions, past allergies or lack of necessary clinical monitoring. Preventable events were mostly related to the prescribing and

Measurements and their uncertainties a practical guide to modern error analysis

CERN Document Server

Hughes, Ifan G

2010-01-01

This hands-on guide is primarily intended to be used in undergraduate laboratories in the physical sciences and engineering. It assumes no prior knowledge of statistics. It introduces the necessary concepts where needed, with key points illustrated with worked examples and graphic illustrations. In contrast to traditional mathematical treatments it uses a combination of spreadsheet and calculus-based approaches, suitable as a quick and easy on-the-spot reference. The emphasisthroughout is on practical strategies to be adopted in the laboratory. Error analysis is introduced at a level accessible to school leavers, and carried through to research level. Error calculation and propagation is presented though a series of rules-of-thumb, look-up tables and approaches amenable to computer analysis. The general approach uses the chi-square statistic extensively. Particular attention is given to hypothesis testing and extraction of parameters and their uncertainties by fitting mathematical models to experimental data....

Error Analysis of Galerkin's Method for Semilinear Equations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tadashi Kawanago

2012-01-01

Full Text Available We establish a general existence result for Galerkin's approximate solutions of abstract semilinear equations and conduct an error analysis. Our results may be regarded as some extension of a precedent work (Schultz 1969. The derivation of our results is, however, different from the discussion in his paper and is essentially based on the convergence theorem of Newton’s method and some techniques for deriving it. Some of our results may be applicable for investigating the quality of numerical verification methods for solutions of ordinary and partial differential equations.

An analysis of error patterns in children's backward digit recall in noise

Science.gov (United States)

Osman, Homira; Sullivan, Jessica R.

2015-01-01

The purpose of the study was to determine whether perceptual masking or cognitive processing accounts for a decline in working memory performance in the presence of competing speech. The types and patterns of errors made on the backward digit span in quiet and multitalker babble at -5 dB signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) were analyzed. The errors were classified into two categories: item (if digits that were not presented in a list were repeated) and order (if correct digits were repeated but in an incorrect order). Fifty five children with normal hearing were included. All the children were aged between 7 years and 10 years. Repeated measures of analysis of variance (RM-ANOVA) revealed the main effects for error type and digit span length. In terms of listening condition interaction it was found that the order errors occurred more frequently than item errors in the degraded listening condition compared to quiet. In addition, children had more difficulty recalling the correct order of intermediate items, supporting strong primacy and recency effects. Decline in children's working memory performance was not primarily related to perceptual difficulties alone. The majority of errors was related to the maintenance of sequential order information, which suggests that reduced performance in competing speech may result from increased cognitive processing demands in noise. PMID:26168949

Improving patient safety in radiotherapy through error reporting and analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Findlay, Ú.; Best, H.; Ottrey, M.

2016-01-01

Aim: To improve patient safety in radiotherapy (RT) through the analysis and publication of radiotherapy errors and near misses (RTE). Materials and methods: RTE are submitted on a voluntary basis by NHS RT departments throughout the UK to the National Reporting and Learning System (NRLS) or directly to Public Health England (PHE). RTE are analysed by PHE staff using frequency trend analysis based on the classification and pathway coding from Towards Safer Radiotherapy (TSRT). PHE in conjunction with the Patient Safety in Radiotherapy Steering Group publish learning from these events, on a triannual and summarised on a biennial basis, so their occurrence might be mitigated. Results: Since the introduction of this initiative in 2010, over 30,000 (RTE) reports have been submitted. The number of RTE reported in each biennial cycle has grown, ranging from 680 (2010) to 12,691 (2016) RTE. The vast majority of the RTE reported are lower level events, thus not affecting the outcome of patient care. Of the level 1 and 2 incidents reported, it is known the majority of them affected only one fraction of a course of treatment. This means that corrective action could be taken over the remaining treatment fractions so the incident did not have a significant impact on the patient or the outcome of their treatment. Analysis of the RTE reports demonstrates that generation of error is not confined to one professional group or to any particular point in the pathway. It also indicates that the pattern of errors is replicated across service providers in the UK. Conclusion: Use of the terminology, classification and coding of TSRT, together with implementation of the national voluntary reporting system described within this report, allows clinical departments to compare their local analysis to the national picture. Further opportunities to improve learning from this dataset must be exploited through development of the analysis and development of proactive risk management strategies

RELIABILITY OF POSITRON EMISSION TOMOGRAPHY-COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY IN EVALUATION OF TESTICULAR CARCINOMA PATIENTS.

Science.gov (United States)

Nikoletić, Katarina; Mihailović, Jasna; Matovina, Emil; Žeravica, Radmila; Srbovan, Dolores

2015-01-01

The study was aimed at assessing the reliability of 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography-computed tomography scan in evaluation of testicular carcinoma patients. The study sample consisted of 26 scans performed in 23 patients with testicular carcinoma. According to the pathohistological finding, 14 patients had seminomas, 7 had nonseminomas and 2 patients had a mixed histological type. In 17 patients, the initial treatment was orchiectomy+chemotherapy, 2 patients had orchiectomy+chemotherapy+retroperitoneal lymph node dissection, 3 patients had orchiectomy only and one patient was treated with chemotherapy only. Abnormal computed tomography was the main cause for the oncologist to refer the patient to positron emission tomography-computed tomography scan (in 19 scans), magnetic resonance imaging abnormalities in 1 scan, high level oftumor markers in 3 and 3 scans were perforned for follow-up. Positron emission tomography-computed tomography imaging results were compared with histological results, other imaging modalities or the clinical follow-up of the patients. Positron emission tomography-computed tomography scans were positive in 6 and negative in 20 patients. In two patients, positron emission tomography-computed tomography was false positive. There were 20 negative positron emission omography-computed tomography scans perforned in 18 patients, one patient was lost for data analysis. Clinically stable disease was confirmed in 18 follow-up scans performed in 16 patients. The values of sensitivty, specificity, accuracy, and positive- and negative predictive value were 60%, 95%, 75%, 88% and 90.5%, respectively. A hgh negative predictive value obtained in our study (90.5%) suggests that there is a small possibility for a patient to have future relapse after normal positron emission tomography-computed tomography study. However, since the sensitivity and positive predictive value of the study ire rather low, there are limitations of positive

Estimating the approximation error when fixing unessential factors in global sensitivity analysis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sobol' , I.M. [Institute for Mathematical Modelling of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow (Russian Federation); Tarantola, S. [Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, TP361, Institute of the Protection and Security of the Citizen, Via E. Fermi 1, 21020 Ispra (Italy)]. E-mail: stefano.tarantola@jrc.it; Gatelli, D. [Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, TP361, Institute of the Protection and Security of the Citizen, Via E. Fermi 1, 21020 Ispra (Italy)]. E-mail: debora.gatelli@jrc.it; Kucherenko, S.S. [Imperial College London (United Kingdom); Mauntz, W. [Department of Biochemical and Chemical Engineering, Dortmund University (Germany)

2007-07-15

One of the major settings of global sensitivity analysis is that of fixing non-influential factors, in order to reduce the dimensionality of a model. However, this is often done without knowing the magnitude of the approximation error being produced. This paper presents a new theorem for the estimation of the average approximation error generated when fixing a group of non-influential factors. A simple function where analytical solutions are available is used to illustrate the theorem. The numerical estimation of small sensitivity indices is discussed.

Quantization error of CCD cameras and their influence on phase calculation in fringe pattern analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Skydan, Oleksandr A; Lilley, Francis; Lalor, Michael J; Burton, David R

2003-09-10

We present an investigation into the phase errors that occur in fringe pattern analysis that are caused by quantization effects. When acquisition devices with a limited value of camera bit depth are used, there are a limited number of quantization levels available to record the signal. This may adversely affect the recorded signal and adds a potential source of instrumental error to the measurement system. Quantization effects also determine the accuracy that may be achieved by acquisition devices in a measurement system. We used the Fourier fringe analysis measurement technique. However, the principles can be applied equally well for other phase measuring techniques to yield a phase error distribution that is caused by the camera bit depth.

Error suppression and error correction in adiabatic quantum computation: non-equilibrium dynamics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sarovar, Mohan; Young, Kevin C

2013-01-01

While adiabatic quantum computing (AQC) has some robustness to noise and decoherence, it is widely believed that encoding, error suppression and error correction will be required to scale AQC to large problem sizes. Previous works have established at least two different techniques for error suppression in AQC. In this paper we derive a model for describing the dynamics of encoded AQC and show that previous constructions for error suppression can be unified with this dynamical model. In addition, the model clarifies the mechanisms of error suppression and allows the identification of its weaknesses. In the second half of the paper, we utilize our description of non-equilibrium dynamics in encoded AQC to construct methods for error correction in AQC by cooling local degrees of freedom (qubits). While this is shown to be possible in principle, we also identify the key challenge to this approach: the requirement of high-weight Hamiltonians. Finally, we use our dynamical model to perform a simplified thermal stability analysis of concatenated-stabilizer-code encoded many-body systems for AQC or quantum memories. This work is a companion paper to ‘Error suppression and error correction in adiabatic quantum computation: techniques and challenges (2013 Phys. Rev. X 3 041013)’, which provides a quantum information perspective on the techniques and limitations of error suppression and correction in AQC. In this paper we couch the same results within a dynamical framework, which allows for a detailed analysis of the non-equilibrium dynamics of error suppression and correction in encoded AQC. (paper)

Measurement of breast tissue composition with dual energy cone-beam computed tomography: A postmortem study

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ding Huanjun; Ducote, Justin L.; Molloi, Sabee [Department of Radiological Sciences, University of California, Irvine, California 92697 (United States)

2013-06-15

Purpose: To investigate the feasibility of a three-material compositional measurement of water, lipid, and protein content of breast tissue with dual kVp cone-beam computed tomography (CT) for diagnostic purposes. Methods: Simulations were performed on a flat panel-based computed tomography system with a dual kVp technique in order to guide the selection of experimental acquisition parameters. The expected errors induced by using the proposed calibration materials were also estimated by simulation. Twenty pairs of postmortem breast samples were imaged with a flat-panel based dual kVp cone-beam CT system, followed by image-based material decomposition using calibration data obtained from a three-material phantom consisting of water, vegetable oil, and polyoxymethylene plastic. The tissue samples were then chemically decomposed into their respective water, lipid, and protein contents after imaging to allow direct comparison with data from dual energy decomposition. Results: Guided by results from simulation, the beam energies for the dual kVp cone-beam CT system were selected to be 50 and 120 kVp with the mean glandular dose divided equally between each exposure. The simulation also suggested that the use of polyoxymethylene as the calibration material for the measurement of pure protein may introduce an error of -11.0%. However, the tissue decomposition experiments, which employed a calibration phantom made out of water, oil, and polyoxymethylene, exhibited strong correlation with data from the chemical analysis. The average root-mean-square percentage error for water, lipid, and protein contents was 3.58% as compared with chemical analysis. Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that the water, lipid, and protein contents can be accurately measured using dual kVp cone-beam CT. The tissue compositional information may improve the sensitivity and specificity for breast cancer diagnosis.

Analysis of the orbit errors in the CERN accelerators using model simulation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, M.; Kleban, S.; Clearwater, S.

1987-09-01

This paper will describe the use of the PLUS program to find various types of machine and beam errors such as, quadrupole strength, dipole strength, beam position monitors (BPMs), energy profile, and beam launch. We refer to this procedure as the GOLD (Generic Orbit and Lattice Debugger) Method which is a general technique that can be applied to analysis of errors in storage rings and transport lines. One useful feature of the Method is that it analyzes segments of a machine at a time so that the application and efficiency is independent of the size of the overall machine. Because the techniques are the same for all the types of problems it solves, the user need learn only how to find one type of error in order to use the program

ATHEANA: A Technique for Human Error Analysis: An Overview of Its Methodological Basis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wreathall, John; Ramey-Smith, Ann

1998-01-01

The U.S. NRC has developed a new human reliability analysis (HRA) method, called A Technique for Human Event Analysis (ATHEANA), to provide a way of modeling the so-called 'errors of commission' - that is, situations in which operators terminate or disable engineered safety features (ESFs) or similar equipment during accident conditions, thereby putting the plant at an increased risk of core damage. In its reviews of operational events, NRC has found that these errors of commission occur with a relatively high frequency (as high as 2 or 3 per year), but are noticeably missing from the scope of most current probabilistic risk assessments (PRAs). This new method was developed through a formalized approach that describes what can occur when operators behave rationally but have inadequate knowledge or poor judgement. In particular, the method is based on models of decision-making and response planning that have been used extensively in the aviation field, and on the analysis of major accidents in both the nuclear and non-nuclear fields. Other papers at this conference present summaries of these event analyses in both the nuclear and non-nuclear fields. This paper presents an overview of ATHEANA and summarizes how the method structures the analysis of operationally significant events, and helps HRA analysts identify and model potentially risk-significant errors of commission in plant PRAs. (authors)

Mars gravity field error analysis from simulated radio tracking of Mars Observer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Smith, D.E.; Lerch, F.J.; Chan, J.C.; Chinn, D.S.; Iz, H.B.; Mallama, A.; Patel, G.B.

1990-01-01

The Mars Observer (MO) Mission, in a near-polar orbit at 360-410 km altitude for nearly a 2-year observing period, will greatly improve our understanding of the geophysics of Mars, including its gravity field. To assess the expected improvement of the gravity field, the authors have conducted an error analysis based upon the mission plan for the Mars Observer radio tracking data from the Deep Space Network. Their results indicate that it should be possible to obtain a high-resolution model (spherical harmonics complete to degree and order 50 corresponding to a 200-km horizontal resolution) for the gravitational field of the planet. This model, in combination with topography from MO altimetry, should provide for an improved determination of the broad scale density structure and stress state of the Martian crust and upper mantle. The mathematical model for the error analysis is based on the representation of doppler tracking data as a function of the Martian gravity field in spherical harmonics, solar radiation pressure, atmospheric drag, angular momentum desaturation residual acceleration (AMDRA) effects, tracking station biases, and the MO orbit parameters. Two approaches are employed. In the first case, the error covariance matrix of the gravity model is estimated including the effects from all the nongravitational parameters (noise-only case). In the second case, the gravity recovery error is computed as above but includes unmodelled systematic effects from atmospheric drag, AMDRA, and solar radiation pressure (biased case). The error spectrum of gravity shows an order of magnitude of improvement over current knowledge based on doppler data precision from a single station of 0.3 mm s -1 noise for 1-min integration intervals during three 60-day periods

Covariate measurement error correction methods in mediation analysis with failure time data.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Shanshan; Prentice, Ross L

2014-12-01

Mediation analysis is important for understanding the mechanisms whereby one variable causes changes in another. Measurement error could obscure the ability of the potential mediator to explain such changes. This article focuses on developing correction methods for measurement error in the mediator with failure time outcomes. We consider a broad definition of measurement error, including technical error, and error associated with temporal variation. The underlying model with the "true" mediator is assumed to be of the Cox proportional hazards model form. The induced hazard ratio for the observed mediator no longer has a simple form independent of the baseline hazard function, due to the conditioning event. We propose a mean-variance regression calibration approach and a follow-up time regression calibration approach, to approximate the partial likelihood for the induced hazard function. Both methods demonstrate value in assessing mediation effects in simulation studies. These methods are generalized to multiple biomarkers and to both case-cohort and nested case-control sampling designs. We apply these correction methods to the Women's Health Initiative hormone therapy trials to understand the mediation effect of several serum sex hormone measures on the relationship between postmenopausal hormone therapy and breast cancer risk. © 2014, The International Biometric Society.

Analysis of error-correction constraints in an optical disk

Science.gov (United States)

Roberts, Jonathan D.; Ryley, Alan; Jones, David M.; Burke, David

1996-07-01

The compact disk read-only memory (CD-ROM) is a mature storage medium with complex error control. It comprises four levels of Reed Solomon codes allied to a sequence of sophisticated interleaving strategies and 8:14 modulation coding. New storage media are being developed and introduced that place still further demands on signal processing for error correction. It is therefore appropriate to explore thoroughly the limit of existing strategies to assess future requirements. We describe a simulation of all stages of the CD-ROM coding, modulation, and decoding. The results of decoding the burst error of a prescribed number of modulation bits are discussed in detail. Measures of residual uncorrected error within a sector are displayed by C1, C2, P, and Q error counts and by the status of the final cyclic redundancy check (CRC). Where each data sector is encoded separately, it is shown that error-correction performance against burst errors depends critically on the position of the burst within a sector. The C1 error measures the burst length, whereas C2 errors reflect the burst position. The performance of Reed Solomon product codes is shown by the P and Q statistics. It is shown that synchronization loss is critical near the limits of error correction. An example is given of miscorrection that is identified by the CRC check.

Comparison between calorimeter and HLNC errors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Goldman, A.S.; De Ridder, P.; Laszlo, G.

1991-01-01

This paper summarizes an error analysis that compares systematic and random errors of total plutonium mass estimated for high-level neutron coincidence counter (HLNC) and calorimeter measurements. This task was part of an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) study on the comparison of the two instruments to determine if HLNC measurement errors met IAEA standards and if the calorimeter gave ''significantly'' better precision. Our analysis was based on propagation of error models that contained all known sources of errors including uncertainties associated with plutonium isotopic measurements. 5 refs., 2 tabs

Quantitative Tomography for Continuous Variable Quantum Systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Landon-Cardinal, Olivier; Govia, Luke C G; Clerk, Aashish A

2018-03-02

We present a continuous variable tomography scheme that reconstructs the Husimi Q function (Wigner function) by Lagrange interpolation, using measurements of the Q function (Wigner function) at the Padua points, conjectured to be optimal sampling points for two dimensional reconstruction. Our approach drastically reduces the number of measurements required compared to using equidistant points on a regular grid, although reanalysis of such experiments is possible. The reconstruction algorithm produces a reconstructed function with exponentially decreasing error and quasilinear runtime in the number of Padua points. Moreover, using the interpolating polynomial of the Q function, we present a technique to directly estimate the density matrix elements of the continuous variable state, with only a linear propagation of input measurement error. Furthermore, we derive a state-independent analytical bound on this error, such that our estimate of the density matrix is accompanied by a measure of its uncertainty.

Quantitative Tomography for Continuous Variable Quantum Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Landon-Cardinal, Olivier; Govia, Luke C. G.; Clerk, Aashish A.

2018-03-01

We present a continuous variable tomography scheme that reconstructs the Husimi Q function (Wigner function) by Lagrange interpolation, using measurements of the Q function (Wigner function) at the Padua points, conjectured to be optimal sampling points for two dimensional reconstruction. Our approach drastically reduces the number of measurements required compared to using equidistant points on a regular grid, although reanalysis of such experiments is possible. The reconstruction algorithm produces a reconstructed function with exponentially decreasing error and quasilinear runtime in the number of Padua points. Moreover, using the interpolating polynomial of the Q function, we present a technique to directly estimate the density matrix elements of the continuous variable state, with only a linear propagation of input measurement error. Furthermore, we derive a state-independent analytical bound on this error, such that our estimate of the density matrix is accompanied by a measure of its uncertainty.

Enhancing multi-step quantum state tomography by PhaseLift

Science.gov (United States)

Lu, Yiping; Zhao, Qing

2017-09-01

Multi-photon system has been studied by many groups, however the biggest challenge faced is the number of copies of an unknown state are limited and far from detecting quantum entanglement. The difficulty to prepare copies of the state is even more serious for the quantum state tomography. One possible way to solve this problem is to use adaptive quantum state tomography, which means to get a preliminary density matrix in the first step and revise it in the second step. In order to improve the performance of adaptive quantum state tomography, we develop a new distribution scheme of samples and extend it to three steps, that is to correct it once again based on the density matrix obtained in the traditional adaptive quantum state tomography. Our numerical results show that the mean square error of the reconstructed density matrix by our new method is improved to the level from 10-4 to 10-9 for several tested states. In addition, PhaseLift is also applied to reduce the required storage space of measurement operator.

Quantitative comparison of analysis methods for spectroscopic optical coherence tomography: reply to comment

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bosschaart, Nienke; van Leeuwen, Ton; Aalders, Maurice C.G.; Faber, Dirk

2014-01-01

We reply to the comment by Kraszewski et al on “Quantitative comparison of analysis methods for spectroscopic optical coherence tomography.” We present additional simulations evaluating the proposed window function. We conclude that our simulations show good qualitative agreement with the results of

An error taxonomy system for analysis of haemodialysis incidents.

Science.gov (United States)

Gu, Xiuzhu; Itoh, Kenji; Suzuki, Satoshi

2014-12-01

This paper describes the development of a haemodialysis error taxonomy system for analysing incidents and predicting the safety status of a dialysis organisation. The error taxonomy system was developed by adapting an error taxonomy system which assumed no specific specialty to haemodialysis situations. Its application was conducted with 1,909 incident reports collected from two dialysis facilities in Japan. Over 70% of haemodialysis incidents were reported as problems or complications related to dialyser, circuit, medication and setting of dialysis condition. Approximately 70% of errors took place immediately before and after the four hours of haemodialysis therapy. Error types most frequently made in the dialysis unit were omission and qualitative errors. Failures or complications classified to staff human factors, communication, task and organisational factors were found in most dialysis incidents. Device/equipment/materials, medicine and clinical documents were most likely to be involved in errors. Haemodialysis nurses were involved in more incidents related to medicine and documents, whereas dialysis technologists made more errors with device/equipment/materials. This error taxonomy system is able to investigate incidents and adverse events occurring in the dialysis setting but is also able to estimate safety-related status of an organisation, such as reporting culture. © 2014 European Dialysis and Transplant Nurses Association/European Renal Care Association.

Analysis of deuterium in V-Fe5at.% film by atom probe tomography (APT)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gemma, R.; Al-Kassab, T.; Kirchheim, R.; Pundt, A.

2011-01-01

Research highlights: → Deuterium distribution in V-Fe thin film was investigated by atom probe tomography. → Correct analysis was possible at analysis temperatures below 30 K. → Inhomogeneous distribution of D atoms was nevertheless observed. → This was interpreted by trapping effect at misfit dislocation. → Atom probe analysis provides detailed information on local chemistry of M-D system. - Abstract: V-Fe5at.% 2 and 10-nm thick single layered films were prepared by ion beam sputtering on W substrate. They were loaded with D from gas phase at 0.2 Pa and at 1 Pa, respectively. Both lateral and depth D distribution of these films was investigated in detail by atom probe tomography. The results of analysis are in good agreement between the average deuterium concentration and the value, expected from electromotive force measurement on a similar flat film. An enrichment of deuterium at the V/W interface was observed for both films. The origin of this D-accumulation was discussed in respect to electron transfer, mechanical stress and misfit dislocations.

Considerations for analysis of time-to-event outcomes measured with error: Bias and correction with SIMEX.

Science.gov (United States)

Oh, Eric J; Shepherd, Bryan E; Lumley, Thomas; Shaw, Pamela A

2018-04-15

For time-to-event outcomes, a rich literature exists on the bias introduced by covariate measurement error in regression models, such as the Cox model, and methods of analysis to address this bias. By comparison, less attention has been given to understanding the impact or addressing errors in the failure time outcome. For many diseases, the timing of an event of interest (such as progression-free survival or time to AIDS progression) can be difficult to assess or reliant on self-report and therefore prone to measurement error. For linear models, it is well known that random errors in the outcome variable do not bias regression estimates. With nonlinear models, however, even random error or misclassification can introduce bias into estimated parameters. We compare the performance of 2 common regression models, the Cox and Weibull models, in the setting of measurement error in the failure time outcome. We introduce an extension of the SIMEX method to correct for bias in hazard ratio estimates from the Cox model and discuss other analysis options to address measurement error in the response. A formula to estimate the bias induced into the hazard ratio by classical measurement error in the event time for a log-linear survival model is presented. Detailed numerical studies are presented to examine the performance of the proposed SIMEX method under varying levels and parametric forms of the error in the outcome. We further illustrate the method with observational data on HIV outcomes from the Vanderbilt Comprehensive Care Clinic. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Analysis of the computed tomography in the acute abdomen; Analise da tomografia computadorizada no abdome agudo

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hochhegger, Bruno [Complexo Hospitalar Santa Casa de Porto Alegre, RS (Brazil); Moraes, Everton [Universidade Federal de Santa Maria (UFSM), RS (Brazil); Haygert, Carlos Jesus Pereira; Antunes, Paulo Sergio Pase [Hospital Universitario de Santa Maria, RS (Brazil); Gazzoni, Fernando [Pontificia Universidade Catolica de Porto Alegre (PUC-RS), Porto Alegre, RS (Brazil). Hospital Sao Lucas; Andrade, Rubens Gabriel Feijo [Fundacao Universitaria de Cardiologia de Porto Alegre, RS (Brazil). Inst. de Cardiologia; Bueno, Leticia Rossi [Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Porto Alegre, RS (Brazil); Lopes, Luis Felipe Dias [Universidade Federal de Santa Maria (UFSM), RS (Brazil). Dept. de Estatistica]. E-mail: brunorgs@pop.com.br

2007-07-01

Introduction: This study tends to test the capacity of the computed tomography in assist in the diagnosis and the approach of the acute abdomen. Material and method: This is a longitudinal and prospective study, in which were analyzed the patients with the diagnosis of acute abdomen. There were obtained 105 cases of acute abdomen and after the application of the exclusions criteria were included 28 patients in the study. Results: Computed tomography changed the diagnostic hypothesis of the physicians in 50% of the cases (p < 0.05), and the confidence index in 85.71% of the cases (p 0.014). Computed tomography also altered the management in 46.43% of the cases (p > 0.05), where 78.57% of the patients had surgical indication before computed tomography and 67.86% after computed tomography (p = 0.0546). The index of accurate diagnosis of computed tomography, when compared to the anatomopathologic examination and the final diagnosis, was observed in 82.14% of the cases (p = 0.013). When the analysis was done dividing the patients in surgical and nonsurgical group, were obtained an accuracy of 89.28% (p 0.0001). The difference of 7.2 days of hospitalization (p = 0.003) was obtained compared with the mean of the acute abdomen without use the computed tomography. Conclusion: The computed tomography is correlative with the anatomopathology and has great accuracy in the surgical indication, associated with the capacity of increase the confident index of the physicians, reduces the hospitalization time, reduces the number of surgeries and is cost-effective. (author)

Image correction for computed tomography to remove crosstalk artifacts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

King, K.F.

1990-01-01

A correction method and apparatus for Computed Tomography (CT) which removes ring and streak artifacts from images by correcting for data contamination by crosstalk errors comprises subtracting from the output S o of a detector, a crosstalk factor derived from outputs of adjacent detectors. The crosstalk factors are obtained by scanning an off-centre phantom. (author)

Error characterization and quantum control benchmarking in liquid state NMR using quantum information processing techniques

Science.gov (United States)

Laforest, Martin

Quantum information processing has been the subject of countless discoveries since the early 1990's. It is believed to be the way of the future for computation: using quantum systems permits one to perform computation exponentially faster than on a regular classical computer. Unfortunately, quantum systems that not isolated do not behave well. They tend to lose their quantum nature due to the presence of the environment. If key information is known about the noise present in the system, methods such as quantum error correction have been developed in order to reduce the errors introduced by the environment during a given quantum computation. In order to harness the quantum world and implement the theoretical ideas of quantum information processing and quantum error correction, it is imperative to understand and quantify the noise present in the quantum processor and benchmark the quality of the control over the qubits. Usual techniques to estimate the noise or the control are based on quantum process tomography (QPT), which, unfortunately, demands an exponential amount of resources. This thesis presents work towards the characterization of noisy processes in an efficient manner. The protocols are developed from a purely abstract setting with no system-dependent variables. To circumvent the exponential nature of quantum process tomography, three different efficient protocols are proposed and experimentally verified. The first protocol uses the idea of quantum error correction to extract relevant parameters about a given noise model, namely the correlation between the dephasing of two qubits. Following that is a protocol using randomization and symmetrization to extract the probability that a given number of qubits are simultaneously corrupted in a quantum memory, regardless of the specifics of the error and which qubits are affected. Finally, a last protocol, still using randomization ideas, is developed to estimate the average fidelity per computational gates for

Non-destructive analysis and detection of internal characteristics of spruce logs through X computerized tomography; Detection et analyse non destructive de caracteristiques internes de billons d'epicea commun (PICEA ABIES (L.) KARST) par tomographie a rayons X

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Longuetaud, F

2005-10-15

Computerized tomography allows a direct access to internal features of scanned logs on the basis of density and moisture content variations. The objective of this work is to assess the feasibility of an automatic detection of internal characteristics with the final aim of conducting scientific analyses. The database is constituted by CT images of 24 spruces obtained with a medical CT scanner. Studied trees are representative of several social status and are coming from four stands located in North-Eastern France, themselves are representative of several age, density and fertility classes. The automatic processing developed are the following. First, pith detection in logs dealing with the problem of knot presence and ring eccentricity. The accuracy of the localisation was less than one mm. Secondly, the detection of the sapwood/heart-wood limit in logs dealing with the problem of knot presence (main source of difficulty). The error on the diameter was 1.8 mm which corresponds to a relative error of 1.3 per cent. Thirdly, the detection of the whorls location and comparison with an optical method. Fourthly the detection of individualized knots. This process allows to count knots and to locate them in a log (longitudinal position and azimuth); however, the validation of the method and extraction of branch diameter and inclination are still to be developed. An application of this work was a variability analysis of the sapwood content in the trunk: at the within-tree level, the sapwood width was found to be constant under the living crown; at the between-tree level, a strong correlation was found with the amount of living branches. A great number of analyses are possible from our work results, among others: architectural analysis with the pith tracking and the apex death occurrence; analysis of radial variations of the heart-wood shape; analysis of the knot distribution in logs. (author)

Error Ratio Analysis: Alternate Mathematics Assessment for General and Special Educators.

Science.gov (United States)

Miller, James H.; Carr, Sonya C.

1997-01-01

Eighty-seven elementary students in grades four, five, and six, were administered a 30-item multiplication instrument to assess performance in computation across grade levels. An interpretation of student performance using error ratio analysis is provided and the use of this method with groups of students for instructional decision making is…

Advanced GIS Exercise: Performing Error Analysis in ArcGIS ModelBuilder

Science.gov (United States)

Hall, Steven T.; Post, Christopher J.

2009-01-01

Knowledge of Geographic Information Systems is quickly becoming an integral part of the natural resource professionals' skill set. With the growing need of professionals with these skills, we created an advanced geographic information systems (GIS) exercise for students at Clemson University to introduce them to the concept of error analysis,…

Guided mass spectrum labelling in atom probe tomography

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Haley, D.; Choi, P.; Raabe, D.

2015-01-01

Atom probe tomography (APT) is a valuable near-atomic scale imaging technique, which yields mass spectrographic data. Experimental correctness can often pivot on the identification of peaks within a dataset, this is a manual process where subjectivity and errors can arise. The limitations of manual procedures complicate APT experiments for the operator and furthermore are a barrier to technique standardisation. In this work we explore the capabilities of computer-guided ranging to aid identification and analysis of mass spectra. We propose a fully robust algorithm for enumeration of the possible identities of detected peak positions, which assists labelling. Furthermore, a simple ranking scheme is developed to allow for evaluation of the likelihood of each possible identity being the likely assignment from the enumerated set. We demonstrate a simple, yet complete work-chain that allows for the conversion of mass-spectra to fully identified APT spectra, with the goal of minimising identification errors, and the inter-operator variance within APT experiments. This work chain is compared to current procedures via experimental trials with different APT operators, to determine the relative effectiveness and precision of the two approaches. It is found that there is little loss of precision (and occasionally gain) when participants are given computer assistance. We find that in either case, inter-operator precision for ranging varies between 0 and 2 “significant figures” (2σ confidence in the first n digits of the reported value) when reporting compositions. Intra-operator precision is weakly tested and found to vary between 1 and 3 significant figures, depending upon species composition levels. Finally it is suggested that inconsistencies in inter-operator peak labelling may be the largest source of scatter when reporting composition data in APT. - Highlights: • Demonstration of a complete, but simple, automation chain for APT spectra analysis. • Algorithm for

Guided mass spectrum labelling in atom probe tomography

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Haley, D., E-mail: daniel.haley@materials.ox.ac.uk [Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung, Max-Plack Straße 1, Düsseldorf (Germany); Department of Materials, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PH (United Kingdom); Choi, P.; Raabe, D. [Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung, Max-Plack Straße 1, Düsseldorf (Germany)

2015-12-15

Atom probe tomography (APT) is a valuable near-atomic scale imaging technique, which yields mass spectrographic data. Experimental correctness can often pivot on the identification of peaks within a dataset, this is a manual process where subjectivity and errors can arise. The limitations of manual procedures complicate APT experiments for the operator and furthermore are a barrier to technique standardisation. In this work we explore the capabilities of computer-guided ranging to aid identification and analysis of mass spectra. We propose a fully robust algorithm for enumeration of the possible identities of detected peak positions, which assists labelling. Furthermore, a simple ranking scheme is developed to allow for evaluation of the likelihood of each possible identity being the likely assignment from the enumerated set. We demonstrate a simple, yet complete work-chain that allows for the conversion of mass-spectra to fully identified APT spectra, with the goal of minimising identification errors, and the inter-operator variance within APT experiments. This work chain is compared to current procedures via experimental trials with different APT operators, to determine the relative effectiveness and precision of the two approaches. It is found that there is little loss of precision (and occasionally gain) when participants are given computer assistance. We find that in either case, inter-operator precision for ranging varies between 0 and 2 “significant figures” (2σ confidence in the first n digits of the reported value) when reporting compositions. Intra-operator precision is weakly tested and found to vary between 1 and 3 significant figures, depending upon species composition levels. Finally it is suggested that inconsistencies in inter-operator peak labelling may be the largest source of scatter when reporting composition data in APT. - Highlights: • Demonstration of a complete, but simple, automation chain for APT spectra analysis. • Algorithm for

Accommodating error analysis in comparison and clustering of molecular fingerprints.

OpenAIRE

Salamon, H.; Segal, M. R.; Ponce de Leon, A.; Small, P. M.

1998-01-01

Molecular epidemiologic studies of infectious diseases rely on pathogen genotype comparisons, which usually yield patterns comprising sets of DNA fragments (DNA fingerprints). We use a highly developed genotyping system, IS6110-based restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, to develop a computational method that automates comparison of large numbers of fingerprints. Because error in fragment length measurements is proportional to fragment length and is ...

Analysis of S-box in Image Encryption Using Root Mean Square Error Method

Science.gov (United States)

Hussain, Iqtadar; Shah, Tariq; Gondal, Muhammad Asif; Mahmood, Hasan

2012-07-01

The use of substitution boxes (S-boxes) in encryption applications has proven to be an effective nonlinear component in creating confusion and randomness. The S-box is evolving and many variants appear in literature, which include advanced encryption standard (AES) S-box, affine power affine (APA) S-box, Skipjack S-box, Gray S-box, Lui J S-box, residue prime number S-box, Xyi S-box, and S8 S-box. These S-boxes have algebraic and statistical properties which distinguish them from each other in terms of encryption strength. In some circumstances, the parameters from algebraic and statistical analysis yield results which do not provide clear evidence in distinguishing an S-box for an application to a particular set of data. In image encryption applications, the use of S-boxes needs special care because the visual analysis and perception of a viewer can sometimes identify artifacts embedded in the image. In addition to existing algebraic and statistical analysis already used for image encryption applications, we propose an application of root mean square error technique, which further elaborates the results and enables the analyst to vividly distinguish between the performances of various S-boxes. While the use of the root mean square error analysis in statistics has proven to be effective in determining the difference in original data and the processed data, its use in image encryption has shown promising results in estimating the strength of the encryption method. In this paper, we show the application of the root mean square error analysis to S-box image encryption. The parameters from this analysis are used in determining the strength of S-boxes

Analysis of operator splitting errors for near-limit flame simulations

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lu, Zhen; Zhou, Hua [Center for Combustion Energy, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084 (China); Li, Shan [Center for Combustion Energy, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084 (China); School of Aerospace Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084 (China); Ren, Zhuyin, E-mail: zhuyinren@tsinghua.edu.cn [Center for Combustion Energy, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084 (China); School of Aerospace Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084 (China); Lu, Tianfeng [Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269-3139 (United States); Law, Chung K. [Center for Combustion Energy, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084 (China); Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544 (United States)

2017-04-15

High-fidelity simulations of ignition, extinction and oscillatory combustion processes are of practical interest in a broad range of combustion applications. Splitting schemes, widely employed in reactive flow simulations, could fail for stiff reaction–diffusion systems exhibiting near-limit flame phenomena. The present work first employs a model perfectly stirred reactor (PSR) problem with an Arrhenius reaction term and a linear mixing term to study the effects of splitting errors on the near-limit combustion phenomena. Analysis shows that the errors induced by decoupling of the fractional steps may result in unphysical extinction or ignition. The analysis is then extended to the prediction of ignition, extinction and oscillatory combustion in unsteady PSRs of various fuel/air mixtures with a 9-species detailed mechanism for hydrogen oxidation and an 88-species skeletal mechanism for n-heptane oxidation, together with a Jacobian-based analysis for the time scales. The tested schemes include the Strang splitting, the balanced splitting, and a newly developed semi-implicit midpoint method. Results show that the semi-implicit midpoint method can accurately reproduce the dynamics of the near-limit flame phenomena and it is second-order accurate over a wide range of time step size. For the extinction and ignition processes, both the balanced splitting and midpoint method can yield accurate predictions, whereas the Strang splitting can lead to significant shifts on the ignition/extinction processes or even unphysical results. With an enriched H radical source in the inflow stream, a delay of the ignition process and the deviation on the equilibrium temperature are observed for the Strang splitting. On the contrary, the midpoint method that solves reaction and diffusion together matches the fully implicit accurate solution. The balanced splitting predicts the temperature rise correctly but with an over-predicted peak. For the sustainable and decaying oscillatory

Error sensitivity analysis in 10-30-day extended range forecasting by using a nonlinear cross-prediction error model

Science.gov (United States)

Xia, Zhiye; Xu, Lisheng; Chen, Hongbin; Wang, Yongqian; Liu, Jinbao; Feng, Wenlan

2017-06-01

Extended range forecasting of 10-30 days, which lies between medium-term and climate prediction in terms of timescale, plays a significant role in decision-making processes for the prevention and mitigation of disastrous meteorological events. The sensitivity of initial error, model parameter error, and random error in a nonlinear crossprediction error (NCPE) model, and their stability in the prediction validity period in 10-30-day extended range forecasting, are analyzed quantitatively. The associated sensitivity of precipitable water, temperature, and geopotential height during cases of heavy rain and hurricane is also discussed. The results are summarized as follows. First, the initial error and random error interact. When the ratio of random error to initial error is small (10-6-10-2), minor variation in random error cannot significantly change the dynamic features of a chaotic system, and therefore random error has minimal effect on the prediction. When the ratio is in the range of 10-1-2 (i.e., random error dominates), attention should be paid to the random error instead of only the initial error. When the ratio is around 10-2-10-1, both influences must be considered. Their mutual effects may bring considerable uncertainty to extended range forecasting, and de-noising is therefore necessary. Second, in terms of model parameter error, the embedding dimension m should be determined by the factual nonlinear time series. The dynamic features of a chaotic system cannot be depicted because of the incomplete structure of the attractor when m is small. When m is large, prediction indicators can vanish because of the scarcity of phase points in phase space. A method for overcoming the cut-off effect ( m > 4) is proposed. Third, for heavy rains, precipitable water is more sensitive to the prediction validity period than temperature or geopotential height; however, for hurricanes, geopotential height is most sensitive, followed by precipitable water.

Optical tomography of the aurora and EISCAT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

H. U. Frey

1998-10-01

Full Text Available Tomographic reconstruction of the three-dimensional auroral arc emission is used to obtain vertical and horizontal distributions of the optical auroral emission. Under the given experimental conditions with a very limited angular range and a small number of observers, algebraic reconstruction methods generally yield better results than transform techniques. Different algebraic reconstruction methods are tested with an auroral arc model and the best results are obtained with an iterative least-square method adapted from emission-computed tomography. The observation geometry used during a campaign in Norway in 1995 is tested with the arc model and root-mean-square errors, to be expected under the given geometrical conditions, are calculated. Although optimum geometry was not used, root-mean-square errors of less than 2% for the images and of the order of 30% for the distribution could be obtained. The method is applied to images from real observations. The correspondence of original pictures and projections of the reconstructed volume is discussed, and emission profiles along magnetic field lines through the three-dimensionally reconstructed arc are calibrated into electron density profiles with additional EISCAT measurements. Including a background profile and the temporal changes of the electron density due to recombination, good agreement can be obtained between measured profiles and the time-sequence of calculated profiles. These profiles are used to estimate the conductivity distribution in the vicinity of the EISCAT site. While the radar can only probe the ionosphere along the radar beam, the three-dimensional tomography enables conductivity estimates in a large area around the radar site.Key words. Tomography · Aurora · EISCAT · Ionosphere · Conductivity

Optical tomography of the aurora and EISCAT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

H. U. Frey

Full Text Available Tomographic reconstruction of the three-dimensional auroral arc emission is used to obtain vertical and horizontal distributions of the optical auroral emission. Under the given experimental conditions with a very limited angular range and a small number of observers, algebraic reconstruction methods generally yield better results than transform techniques. Different algebraic reconstruction methods are tested with an auroral arc model and the best results are obtained with an iterative least-square method adapted from emission-computed tomography. The observation geometry used during a campaign in Norway in 1995 is tested with the arc model and root-mean-square errors, to be expected under the given geometrical conditions, are calculated. Although optimum geometry was not used, root-mean-square errors of less than 2% for the images and of the order of 30% for the distribution could be obtained. The method is applied to images from real observations. The correspondence of original pictures and projections of the reconstructed volume is discussed, and emission profiles along magnetic field lines through the three-dimensionally reconstructed arc are calibrated into electron density profiles with additional EISCAT measurements. Including a background profile and the temporal changes of the electron density due to recombination, good agreement can be obtained between measured profiles and the time-sequence of calculated profiles. These profiles are used to estimate the conductivity distribution in the vicinity of the EISCAT site. While the radar can only probe the ionosphere along the radar beam, the three-dimensional tomography enables conductivity estimates in a large area around the radar site.

Key words. Tomography · Aurora · EISCAT · Ionosphere · Conductivity

Error analysis of satellite attitude determination using a vision-based approach

Science.gov (United States)

Carozza, Ludovico; Bevilacqua, Alessandro

2013-09-01

Improvements in communication and processing technologies have opened the doors to exploit on-board cameras to compute objects' spatial attitude using only the visual information from sequences of remote sensed images. The strategies and the algorithmic approach used to extract such information affect the estimation accuracy of the three-axis orientation of the object. This work presents a method for analyzing the most relevant error sources, including numerical ones, possible drift effects and their influence on the overall accuracy, referring to vision-based approaches. The method in particular focuses on the analysis of the image registration algorithm, carried out through on-purpose simulations. The overall accuracy has been assessed on a challenging case study, for which accuracy represents the fundamental requirement. In particular, attitude determination has been analyzed for small satellites, by comparing theoretical findings to metric results from simulations on realistic ground-truth data. Significant laboratory experiments, using a numerical control unit, have further confirmed the outcome. We believe that our analysis approach, as well as our findings in terms of error characterization, can be useful at proof-of-concept design and planning levels, since they emphasize the main sources of error for visual based approaches employed for satellite attitude estimation. Nevertheless, the approach we present is also of general interest for all the affine applicative domains which require an accurate estimation of three-dimensional orientation parameters (i.e., robotics, airborne stabilization).

Impulse-response analysis of planar computed tomography for nondestructive test

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kim, Dae Cheon; Kim, Seung Ho; Kim, Ho Kyung [KAERI, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2016-05-15

There have been reported that the use of radiation imaging such as digital radiography, computed tomography (CT), and digital tomosynthesis (DTS) for the nondestructive test (NDT) widely is spreading. These methods have merits and demerits of their own, in terms of image quality and inspection speed. Therefore, image for these methods for NDT should have acceptable image quality and high speed. In this study, we quantitatively evaluate impulse responses of reconstructed images from the filtered backprojection (FBP), which are most widely used in planar computed tomography (pCT) systems. We first evaluate image performance metrics due to the contrast, depth resolution, and then we design the figure of merit including image performance and system parameters, such as tube load and reconstruction speed. The final goal of this study is the application of these methods to the nondestructive test. In order to accomplish it, further study is needed. First of all, the results of the ASF from various numbers of views. Second, the analysis of modulation transfer function, noise power spectrum, and detective quantum efficiency from various angular range and numbers of views.

Digital hilar tomography. Comparison with conventional technique

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schaefer, C.B.; Braunschweig, R.; Teufl, F.; Kaiser, W.; Claussen, C.D.

1993-01-01

The aim of the following study was to compare conventional hilar tomography and digital hilar tomography. 20 patients were examined both with conventional and digital hilar tomography using the same tomographic technique and the identical exposure dose. All patients underwent computed tomography of the chest as a golden standard. The digital technique, especially the edge-enhanced image version, showed superior image quality. ROC-analysis by 4 readers found equal diagnostic performance without any statistical difference. Digital hilar tomography shows a superior and constant image quality and lowers the rate of re-exposure. Therefore, digital hilar tomography is the preferable method. (orig.) [de

Estimation error algorithm at analysis of beta-spectra

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bakovets, N.V.; Zhukovskij, A.I.; Zubarev, V.N.; Khadzhinov, E.M.

2005-01-01

This work describes the estimation error algorithm at the operations with beta-spectrums, as well as compares the theoretical and experimental errors by the processing of beta-channel's data. (authors)

Error Analysis of Satellite Precipitation-Driven Modeling of Flood Events in Complex Alpine Terrain

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yiwen Mei

2016-03-01

Full Text Available The error in satellite precipitation-driven complex terrain flood simulations is characterized in this study for eight different global satellite products and 128 flood events over the Eastern Italian Alps. The flood events are grouped according to two flood types: rain floods and flash floods. The satellite precipitation products and runoff simulations are evaluated based on systematic and random error metrics applied on the matched event pairs and basin-scale event properties (i.e., rainfall and runoff cumulative depth and time series shape. Overall, error characteristics exhibit dependency on the flood type. Generally, timing of the event precipitation mass center and dispersion of the time series derived from satellite precipitation exhibits good agreement with the reference; the cumulative depth is mostly underestimated. The study shows a dampening effect in both systematic and random error components of the satellite-driven hydrograph relative to the satellite-retrieved hyetograph. The systematic error in shape of the time series shows a significant dampening effect. The random error dampening effect is less pronounced for the flash flood events and the rain flood events with a high runoff coefficient. This event-based analysis of the satellite precipitation error propagation in flood modeling sheds light on the application of satellite precipitation in mountain flood hydrology.

A trend analysis of human error events for proactive prevention of accidents. Methodology development and effective utilization

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hirotsu, Yuko; Ebisu, Mitsuhiro; Aikawa, Takeshi; Matsubara, Katsuyuki

2006-01-01

This paper described methods for analyzing human error events that has been accumulated in the individual plant and for utilizing the result to prevent accidents proactively. Firstly, a categorization framework of trigger action and causal factors of human error events were reexamined, and the procedure to analyze human error events was reviewed based on the framework. Secondly, a method for identifying the common characteristics of trigger action data and of causal factor data accumulated by analyzing human error events was clarified. In addition, to utilize the results of trend analysis effectively, methods to develop teaching material for safety education, to develop the checkpoints for the error prevention and to introduce an error management process for strategic error prevention were proposed. (author)

Computer Tomography Analysis of Fastrac Composite Thrust Chamber Assemblies

Science.gov (United States)

Beshears, Ronald D.

2000-01-01

Computed tomography (CT) inspection has been integrated into the production process for NASA's Fastrac composite thrust chamber assemblies (TCAs). CT has been proven to be uniquely qualified to detect the known critical flaw for these nozzles, liner cracks that are adjacent to debonds between the liner and overwrap. CT is also being used as a process monitoring tool through analysis of low density indications in the nozzle overwraps. 3d reconstruction of CT images to produce models of flawed areas is being used to give program engineers better insight into the location and nature of nozzle flaws.

CUSUM-Logistic Regression analysis for the rapid detection of errors in clinical laboratory test results.

Science.gov (United States)

Sampson, Maureen L; Gounden, Verena; van Deventer, Hendrik E; Remaley, Alan T

2016-02-01

The main drawback of the periodic analysis of quality control (QC) material is that test performance is not monitored in time periods between QC analyses, potentially leading to the reporting of faulty test results. The objective of this study was to develop a patient based QC procedure for the more timely detection of test errors. Results from a Chem-14 panel measured on the Beckman LX20 analyzer were used to develop the model. Each test result was predicted from the other 13 members of the panel by multiple regression, which resulted in correlation coefficients between the predicted and measured result of >0.7 for 8 of the 14 tests. A logistic regression model, which utilized the measured test result, the predicted test result, the day of the week and time of day, was then developed for predicting test errors. The output of the logistic regression was tallied by a daily CUSUM approach and used to predict test errors, with a fixed specificity of 90%. The mean average run length (ARL) before error detection by CUSUM-Logistic Regression (CSLR) was 20 with a mean sensitivity of 97%, which was considerably shorter than the mean ARL of 53 (sensitivity 87.5%) for a simple prediction model that only used the measured result for error detection. A CUSUM-Logistic Regression analysis of patient laboratory data can be an effective approach for the rapid and sensitive detection of clinical laboratory errors. Published by Elsevier Inc.

SYNTACTIC ERRORS ANALYSIS IN THE CASUAL CONVERSATION 60 COMMITED BY TWO SENIOR HIGH STUDENTS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anjar Setiawan

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Syntactic structures are the base of English grammar. This study was aimed to analyze the syntactic errors in the casual conversation commited by two senior high students of MAN 2 Semarang. The researcher used qualitative approach to analyze and interpret the meaning of casual conversation. Furthermore, the data collection had been transcribed and analyzed based on the areas of syntactic errors analysis. The findings of the study showed that all areas of syntactic errors happened during the conversation, included auxiliaries, tenses, article, preposition, and conjunction. Both speakers also had a relatively weak vocabulary and their sentences which were sometimes incomprehensible by the interlocutor.

Non-destructive analysis and detection of internal characteristics of spruce logs through X computerized tomography; Detection et analyse non destructive de caracteristiques internes de billons d'epicea commun (PICEA ABIES (L.) KARST) par tomographie a rayons X

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Longuetaud, F

2005-10-15

Computerized tomography allows a direct access to internal features of scanned logs on the basis of density and moisture content variations. The objective of this work is to assess the feasibility of an automatic detection of internal characteristics with the final aim of conducting scientific analyses. The database is constituted by CT images of 24 spruces obtained with a medical CT scanner. Studied trees are representative of several social status and are coming from four stands located in North-Eastern France, themselves are representative of several age, density and fertility classes. The automatic processing developed are the following. First, pith detection in logs dealing with the problem of knot presence and ring eccentricity. The accuracy of the localisation was less than one mm. Secondly, the detection of the sapwood/heart-wood limit in logs dealing with the problem of knot presence (main source of difficulty). The error on the diameter was 1.8 mm which corresponds to a relative error of 1.3 per cent. Thirdly, the detection of the whorls location and comparison with an optical method. Fourthly the detection of individualized knots. This process allows to count knots and to locate them in a log (longitudinal position and azimuth); however, the validation of the method and extraction of branch diameter and inclination are still to be developed. An application of this work was a variability analysis of the sapwood content in the trunk: at the within-tree level, the sapwood width was found to be constant under the living crown; at the between-tree level, a strong correlation was found with the amount of living branches. A great number of analyses are possible from our work results, among others: architectural analysis with the pith tracking and the apex death occurrence; analysis of radial variations of the heart-wood shape; analysis of the knot distribution in logs. (author)

Adjustment of Measurements with Multiplicative Errors: Error Analysis, Estimates of the Variance of Unit Weight, and Effect on Volume Estimation from LiDAR-Type Digital Elevation Models

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yun Shi

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Modern observation technology has verified that measurement errors can be proportional to the true values of measurements such as GPS, VLBI baselines and LiDAR. Observational models of this type are called multiplicative error models. This paper is to extend the work of Xu and Shimada published in 2000 on multiplicative error models to analytical error analysis of quantities of practical interest and estimates of the variance of unit weight. We analytically derive the variance-covariance matrices of the three least squares (LS adjustments, the adjusted measurements and the corrections of measurements in multiplicative error models. For quality evaluation, we construct five estimators for the variance of unit weight in association of the three LS adjustment methods. Although LiDAR measurements are contaminated with multiplicative random errors, LiDAR-based digital elevation models (DEM have been constructed as if they were of additive random errors. We will simulate a model landslide, which is assumed to be surveyed with LiDAR, and investigate the effect of LiDAR-type multiplicative error measurements on DEM construction and its effect on the estimate of landslide mass volume from the constructed DEM.

Quantification in emission tomography

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Buvat, Irene

2011-11-01

The objective of this lecture is to understand the possibilities and limitations of the quantitative analysis of single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and positron emission tomography (PET) images. It is also to identify the conditions to be fulfilled to obtain reliable quantitative measurements from images. Content: 1 - Introduction: Quantification in emission tomography - definition and challenges; quantification biasing phenomena 2 - Main problems impacting quantification in PET and SPECT: problems, consequences, correction methods, results (Attenuation, scattering, partial volume effect, movement, un-stationary spatial resolution in SPECT, fortuitous coincidences in PET, standardisation in PET); 3 - Synthesis: accessible efficiency, know-how, Precautions, beyond the activity measurement

An analysis of error patterns in children′s backward digit recall in noise

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Homira Osman

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The purpose of the study was to determine whether perceptual masking or cognitive processing accounts for a decline in working memory performance in the presence of competing speech. The types and patterns of errors made on the backward digit span in quiet and multitalker babble at -5 dB signal-to-noise ratio (SNR were analyzed. The errors were classified into two categories: item (if digits that were not presented in a list were repeated and order (if correct digits were repeated but in an incorrect order. Fifty five children with normal hearing were included. All the children were aged between 7 years and 10 years. Repeated measures of analysis of variance (RM-ANOVA revealed the main effects for error type and digit span length. In terms of listening condition interaction, it was found that the order errors occurred more frequently than item errors in the degraded listening condition compared to quiet. In addition, children had more difficulty recalling the correct order of intermediate items, supporting strong primacy and recency effects. Decline in children′s working memory performance was not primarily related to perceptual difficulties alone. The majority of errors was related to the maintenance of sequential order information, which suggests that reduced performance in competing speech may result from increased cognitive processing demands in noise.

Error analysis of the crystal orientations obtained by the dictionary approach to EBSD indexing.

Science.gov (United States)

Ram, Farangis; Wright, Stuart; Singh, Saransh; De Graef, Marc

2017-10-01

The efficacy of the dictionary approach to Electron Back-Scatter Diffraction (EBSD) indexing was evaluated through the analysis of the error in the retrieved crystal orientations. EBSPs simulated by the Callahan-De Graef forward model were used for this purpose. Patterns were noised, distorted, and binned prior to dictionary indexing. Patterns with a high level of noise, with optical distortions, and with a 25 × 25 pixel size, when the error in projection center was 0.7% of the pattern width and the error in specimen tilt was 0.8°, were indexed with a 0.8° mean error in orientation. The same patterns, but 60 × 60 pixel in size, were indexed by the standard 2D Hough transform based approach with almost the same orientation accuracy. Optimal detection parameters in the Hough space were obtained by minimizing the orientation error. It was shown that if the error in detector geometry can be reduced to 0.1% in projection center and 0.1° in specimen tilt, the dictionary approach can retrieve a crystal orientation with a 0.2° accuracy. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Analysis on the Effect of Sensor Views in Image Reconstruction Produced by Optical Tomography System Using Charge-Coupled Device.

Science.gov (United States)

Jamaludin, Juliza; Rahim, Ruzairi Abdul; Fazul Rahiman, Mohd Hafiz; Mohd Rohani, Jemmy

2018-04-01

Optical tomography (OPT) is a method to capture a cross-sectional image based on the data obtained by sensors, distributed around the periphery of the analyzed system. This system is based on the measurement of the final light attenuation or absorption of radiation after crossing the measured objects. The number of sensor views will affect the results of image reconstruction, where the high number of sensor views per projection will give a high image quality. This research presents an application of charge-coupled device linear sensor and laser diode in an OPT system. Experiments in detecting solid and transparent objects in crystal clear water were conducted. Two numbers of sensors views, 160 and 320 views are evaluated in this research in reconstructing the images. The image reconstruction algorithms used were filtered images of linear back projection algorithms. Analysis on comparing the simulation and experiments image results shows that, with 320 image views giving less area error than 160 views. This suggests that high image view resulted in the high resolution of image reconstruction.

Ultrastructural Analysis of Urinary Stones by Microfocus Computed Tomography and Comparison with Chemical Analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tolga Karakan

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Objective: To investigate the ultra-structure of urinary system stones using micro-focus computed tomography (MCT, which makes non-destructive analysis and to compare with wet chemical analysis. Methods: This study was carried out at the Ankara Train­ing and Research hospital. Renal stones, removed from 30 patients during percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PNL surgery, were included in the study. The stones were blindly evaluated by the specialists with MCT and chemi­cal analysis. Results: The comparison of the stone components be­tween chemical analysis and MCT, showed that the rate of consistence was very low (p0.05. It was also seen that there was no significant relation between its 3D structure being heterogeneous or homogenous. Conclusion: The stone analysis with MCT is a time con­suming and costly method. This method is useful to un­derstand the mechanisms of stone formation and an im­portant guide to develop the future treatment modalities.

Analysis of error in Monte Carlo transport calculations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Booth, T.E.

1979-01-01

The Monte Carlo method for neutron transport calculations suffers, in part, because of the inherent statistical errors associated with the method. Without an estimate of these errors in advance of the calculation, it is difficult to decide what estimator and biasing scheme to use. Recently, integral equations have been derived that, when solved, predicted errors in Monte Carlo calculations in nonmultiplying media. The present work allows error prediction in nonanalog Monte Carlo calculations of multiplying systems, even when supercritical. Nonanalog techniques such as biased kernels, particle splitting, and Russian Roulette are incorporated. Equations derived here allow prediction of how much a specific variance reduction technique reduces the number of histories required, to be weighed against the change in time required for calculation of each history. 1 figure, 1 table

Using Analysis Increments (AI) to Estimate and Correct Systematic Errors in the Global Forecast System (GFS) Online

Science.gov (United States)

Bhargava, K.; Kalnay, E.; Carton, J.; Yang, F.

2017-12-01

Systematic forecast errors, arising from model deficiencies, form a significant portion of the total forecast error in weather prediction models like the Global Forecast System (GFS). While much effort has been expended to improve models, substantial model error remains. The aim here is to (i) estimate the model deficiencies in the GFS that lead to systematic forecast errors, (ii) implement an online correction (i.e., within the model) scheme to correct GFS following the methodology of Danforth et al. [2007] and Danforth and Kalnay [2008, GRL]. Analysis Increments represent the corrections that new observations make on, in this case, the 6-hr forecast in the analysis cycle. Model bias corrections are estimated from the time average of the analysis increments divided by 6-hr, assuming that initial model errors grow linearly and first ignoring the impact of observation bias. During 2012-2016, seasonal means of the 6-hr model bias are generally robust despite changes in model resolution and data assimilation systems, and their broad continental scales explain their insensitivity to model resolution. The daily bias dominates the sub-monthly analysis increments and consists primarily of diurnal and semidiurnal components, also requiring a low dimensional correction. Analysis increments in 2015 and 2016 are reduced over oceans, which is attributed to improvements in the specification of the SSTs. These results encourage application of online correction, as suggested by Danforth and Kalnay, for mean, seasonal and diurnal and semidiurnal model biases in GFS to reduce both systematic and random errors. As the error growth in the short-term is still linear, estimated model bias corrections can be added as a forcing term in the model tendency equation to correct online. Preliminary experiments with GFS, correcting temperature and specific humidity online show reduction in model bias in 6-hr forecast. This approach can then be used to guide and optimize the design of sub

Characterization of scalar mixing in dense gaseous jets using X-ray computed tomography

Science.gov (United States)

Dunnmon, Jared; Sobhani, Sadaf; Kim, Tae Wook; Kovscek, Anthony; Ihme, Matthias

2015-10-01

An experimental technique based on X-ray computed tomography (XCT) is used to characterize scalar mixing of a krypton jet with air at turbulent conditions. The high radiodensity of the krypton gas enables non-intrusive volumetric measurements of gas density and mixture composition based on spatial variations in X-ray attenuation. Comparisons of these measurements to both computational results from large-eddy simulations and data from previous experiments are presented, and the viability of this diagnostic technique is assessed. Important aspects of X-ray attenuation theory, XCT practice, and relevant error analysis are considered in data processing, and their impacts on the future development of this technique are discussed.

Component Analysis of Errors on PERSIANN Precipitation Estimates over Urmia Lake Basin, IRAN

Science.gov (United States)

Ghajarnia, N.; Daneshkar Arasteh, P.; Liaghat, A. M.; Araghinejad, S.

2016-12-01

this product. Overall, we believe that different error component's analysis performed in this study, can substantially help any further local studies for post-calibration and bias reduction of PERSIANN estimations.

On-Error Training (Book Excerpt).

Science.gov (United States)

Fukuda, Ryuji

1985-01-01

This excerpt from "Managerial Engineering: Techniques for Improving Quality and Productivity in the Workplace" describes the development, objectives, and use of On-Error Training (OET), a method which trains workers to learn from their errors. Also described is New Joharry's Window, a performance-error data analysis technique used in…

High‐resolution trench photomosaics from image‐based modeling: Workflow and error analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Reitman, Nadine G.; Bennett, Scott E. K.; Gold, Ryan D.; Briggs, Richard; Duross, Christopher

2015-01-01

Photomosaics are commonly used to construct maps of paleoseismic trench exposures, but the conventional process of manually using image‐editing software is time consuming and produces undesirable artifacts and distortions. Herein, we document and evaluate the application of image‐based modeling (IBM) for creating photomosaics and 3D models of paleoseismic trench exposures, illustrated with a case‐study trench across the Wasatch fault in Alpine, Utah. Our results include a structure‐from‐motion workflow for the semiautomated creation of seamless, high‐resolution photomosaics designed for rapid implementation in a field setting. Compared with conventional manual methods, the IBM photomosaic method provides a more accurate, continuous, and detailed record of paleoseismic trench exposures in approximately half the processing time and 15%–20% of the user input time. Our error analysis quantifies the effect of the number and spatial distribution of control points on model accuracy. For this case study, an ∼87  m2 exposure of a benched trench photographed at viewing distances of 1.5–7 m yields a model with <2  cm root mean square error (rmse) with as few as six control points. Rmse decreases as more control points are implemented, but the gains in accuracy are minimal beyond 12 control points. Spreading control points throughout the target area helps to minimize error. We propose that 3D digital models and corresponding photomosaics should be standard practice in paleoseismic exposure archiving. The error analysis serves as a guide for future investigations that seek balance between speed and accuracy during photomosaic and 3D model construction.

Analysis of error functions in speckle shearing interferometry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wan Saffiey Wan Abdullah

2001-01-01

Electronic Speckle Pattern Shearing Interferometry (ESPSI) or shearography has successfully been used in NDT for slope (∂w/ (∂x and / or (∂w/ (∂y) measurement while strain measurement (∂u/ ∂x, ∂v/ ∂y, ∂u/ ∂y and (∂v/ (∂x) is still under investigation. This method is well accepted in industrial applications especially in the aerospace industry. Demand of this method is increasing due to complexity of the test materials and objects. ESPSI has successfully performed in NDT only for qualitative measurement whilst quantitative measurement is the current aim of many manufacturers. Industrial use of such equipment is being completed without considering the errors arising from numerous sources, including wavefront divergence. The majority of commercial systems are operated with diverging object illumination wave fronts without considering the curvature of the object illumination wavefront or the object geometry, when calculating the interferometer fringe function and quantifying data. This thesis reports the novel approach in quantified maximum phase change difference analysis for derivative out-of-plane (OOP) and in-plane (IP) cases that propagate from the divergent illumination wavefront compared to collimated illumination. The theoretical of maximum phase difference is formulated by means of three dependent variables, these being the object distance, illuminated diameter, center of illuminated area and camera distance and illumination angle. The relative maximum phase change difference that may contributed to the error in the measurement analysis in this scope of research is defined by the difference of maximum phase difference value measured by divergent illumination wavefront relative to the maximum phase difference value of collimated illumination wavefront, taken at the edge of illuminated area. Experimental validation using test objects for derivative out-of-plane and derivative in-plane deformation, using a single illumination wavefront

Applications of X-ray Computed Tomography and Emission Computed Tomography

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Seletchi, Emilia Dana; Sutac, Victor

2005-01-01

Computed Tomography is a non-destructive imaging method that allows visualization of internal features within non-transparent objects such as sedimentary rocks. Filtering techniques have been applied to circumvent the artifacts and achieve high-quality images for quantitative analysis. High-resolution X-ray computed tomography (HRXCT) can be used to identify the position of the growth axis in speleothems by detecting subtle changes in calcite density between growth bands. HRXCT imagery reveals the three-dimensional variability of coral banding providing information on coral growth and climate over the past several centuries. The Nuclear Medicine imaging technique uses a radioactive tracer, several radiation detectors, and sophisticated computer technologies to understand the biochemical basis of normal and abnormal functions within the brain. The goal of Emission Computed Tomography (ECT) is to accurately determine the three-dimensional radioactivity distribution resulting from the radiopharmaceutical uptake inside the patient instead of the attenuation coefficient distribution from different tissues as obtained from X-ray Computer Tomography. ECT is a very useful tool for investigating the cognitive functions. Because of the low radiation doses associated with Positron Emission Tomography (PET), this technique has been applied in clinical research, allowing the direct study of human neurological diseases. (authors)

Image interpolation allows accurate quantitative bone morphometry in registered micro-computed tomography scans.

Science.gov (United States)

Schulte, Friederike A; Lambers, Floor M; Mueller, Thomas L; Stauber, Martin; Müller, Ralph

2014-04-01

Time-lapsed in vivo micro-computed tomography is a powerful tool to analyse longitudinal changes in the bone micro-architecture. Registration can overcome problems associated with spatial misalignment between scans; however, it requires image interpolation which might affect the outcome of a subsequent bone morphometric analysis. The impact of the interpolation error itself, though, has not been quantified to date. Therefore, the purpose of this ex vivo study was to elaborate the effect of different interpolator schemes [nearest neighbour, tri-linear and B-spline (BSP)] on bone morphometric indices. None of the interpolator schemes led to significant differences between interpolated and non-interpolated images, with the lowest interpolation error found for BSPs (1.4%). Furthermore, depending on the interpolator, the processing order of registration, Gaussian filtration and binarisation played a role. Independent from the interpolator, the present findings suggest that the evaluation of bone morphometry should be done with images registered using greyscale information.

Analysis of airways in computed tomography

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Petersen, Jens

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is major cause of death and disability world-wide. It affects lung function through destruction of lung tissue known as emphysema and inflammation of airways, leading to thickened airway walls and narrowed airway lumen. Computed Tomography (CT) imaging...

Encapsulation method for atom probe tomography analysis of nanoparticles

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Larson, D.J.; Giddings, A.D.; Wu, Y.; Verheijen, M.A.; Prosa, T.J.; Roozeboom, F.; Rice, K.P.; Kessels, W.M.M.; Geiser, B.P.; Kelly, T.F.

2015-01-01

Open-space nanomaterials are a widespread class of technologically important materials that are generally incompatible with analysis by atom probe tomography (APT) due to issues with specimen preparation, field evaporation and data reconstruction. The feasibility of encapsulating such non-compact matter in a matrix to enable APT measurements is investigated using nanoparticles as an example. Simulations of field evaporation of a void, and the resulting artifacts in ion trajectory, underpin the requirement that no voids remain after encapsulation. The approach is demonstrated by encapsulating Pt nanoparticles in an ZnO:Al matrix created by atomic layer deposition, a growth technique which offers very high surface coverage and conformality. APT measurements of the Pt nanoparticles are correlated with transmission electron microscopy images and numerical simulations in order to evaluate the accuracy of the APT reconstruction. - Highlights: • Pt nanoparticles were analyzed using atom probe tomography and TEM. • The particles were prepared by encapsulation using atomic layer deposition. • Simulation of field evaporation near a void results in aberrations in ion trajectories. • Apparent differences between TEM and APT analyses are reconciled through simulation of field evaporation from a low-field matrix containing high-field NPs; ion trajectory aberrations are shown to lead to an apparent mixing of the matrix into the NPs.

Wavelet analysis enables system-independent texture analysis of optical coherence tomography images

Science.gov (United States)

Lingley-Papadopoulos, Colleen A.; Loew, Murray H.; Zara, Jason M.

2009-07-01

Texture analysis for tissue characterization is a current area of optical coherence tomography (OCT) research. We discuss some of the differences between OCT systems and the effects those differences have on the resulting images and subsequent image analysis. In addition, as an example, two algorithms for the automatic recognition of bladder cancer are compared: one that was developed on a single system with no consideration for system differences, and one that was developed to address the issues associated with system differences. The first algorithm had a sensitivity of 73% and specificity of 69% when tested using leave-one-out cross-validation on data taken from a single system. When tested on images from another system with a different central wavelength, however, the method classified all images as cancerous regardless of the true pathology. By contrast, with the use of wavelet analysis and the removal of system-dependent features, the second algorithm reported sensitivity and specificity values of 87 and 58%, respectively, when trained on images taken with one imaging system and tested on images taken with another.

Wavelet analysis enables system-independent texture analysis of optical coherence tomography images.

Science.gov (United States)

Lingley-Papadopoulos, Colleen A; Loew, Murray H; Zara, Jason M

2009-01-01

Texture analysis for tissue characterization is a current area of optical coherence tomography (OCT) research. We discuss some of the differences between OCT systems and the effects those differences have on the resulting images and subsequent image analysis. In addition, as an example, two algorithms for the automatic recognition of bladder cancer are compared: one that was developed on a single system with no consideration for system differences, and one that was developed to address the issues associated with system differences. The first algorithm had a sensitivity of 73% and specificity of 69% when tested using leave-one-out cross-validation on data taken from a single system. When tested on images from another system with a different central wavelength, however, the method classified all images as cancerous regardless of the true pathology. By contrast, with the use of wavelet analysis and the removal of system-dependent features, the second algorithm reported sensitivity and specificity values of 87 and 58%, respectively, when trained on images taken with one imaging system and tested on images taken with another.

Error Analysis of Variations on Larsen's Benchmark Problem

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Azmy, YY

2001-01-01

Error norms for three variants of Larsen's benchmark problem are evaluated using three numerical methods for solving the discrete ordinates approximation of the neutron transport equation in multidimensional Cartesian geometry. The three variants of Larsen's test problem are concerned with the incoming flux boundary conditions: unit incoming flux on the left and bottom edges (Larsen's configuration); unit, incoming flux only on the left edge; unit incoming flux only on the bottom edge. The three methods considered are the Diamond Difference (DD) method, and the constant-approximation versions of the Arbitrarily High Order Transport method of the Nodal type (AHOT-N), and of the Characteristic (AHOT-C) type. The cell-wise error is computed as the difference between the cell-averaged flux computed by each method and the exact value, then the L 1 , L 2 , and L ∞ error norms are calculated. The results of this study demonstrate that while integral error norms, i.e. L 1 , L 2 , converge to zero with mesh refinement, the pointwise L ∞ norm does not due to solution discontinuity across the singular characteristic. Little difference is observed between the error norm behavior of the three methods considered in spite of the fact that AHOT-C is locally exact, suggesting that numerical diffusion across the singular characteristic as the major source of error on the global scale. However, AHOT-C possesses a given accuracy in a larger fraction of computational cells than DD

Analysis of the "naming game" with learning errors in communications.

Science.gov (United States)

Lou, Yang; Chen, Guanrong

2015-07-16

Naming game simulates the process of naming an objective by a population of agents organized in a certain communication network. By pair-wise iterative interactions, the population reaches consensus asymptotically. We study naming game with communication errors during pair-wise conversations, with error rates in a uniform probability distribution. First, a model of naming game with learning errors in communications (NGLE) is proposed. Then, a strategy for agents to prevent learning errors is suggested. To that end, three typical topologies of communication networks, namely random-graph, small-world and scale-free networks, are employed to investigate the effects of various learning errors. Simulation results on these models show that 1) learning errors slightly affect the convergence speed but distinctively increase the requirement for memory of each agent during lexicon propagation; 2) the maximum number of different words held by the population increases linearly as the error rate increases; 3) without applying any strategy to eliminate learning errors, there is a threshold of the learning errors which impairs the convergence. The new findings may help to better understand the role of learning errors in naming game as well as in human language development from a network science perspective.

A human error taxonomy and its application to an automatic method accident analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Matthews, R.H.; Winter, P.W.

1983-01-01

Commentary is provided on the quantification aspects of human factors analysis in risk assessment. Methods for quantifying human error in a plant environment are discussed and their application to system quantification explored. Such a programme entails consideration of the data base and a taxonomy of factors contributing to human error. A multi-levelled approach to system quantification is proposed, each level being treated differently drawing on the advantages of different techniques within the fault/event tree framework. Management, as controller of organization, planning and procedure, is assigned a dominant role. (author)

Error Analysis Of Students Working About Word Problem Of Linear Program With NEA Procedure

Science.gov (United States)

Santoso, D. A.; Farid, A.; Ulum, B.

2017-06-01

Evaluation and assessment is an important part of learning. In evaluation process of learning, written test is still commonly used. However, the tests usually do not following-up by further evaluation. The process only up to grading stage not to evaluate the process and errors which done by students. Whereas if the student has a pattern error and process error, actions taken can be more focused on the fault and why is that happen. NEA procedure provides a way for educators to evaluate student progress more comprehensively. In this study, students’ mistakes in working on some word problem about linear programming have been analyzed. As a result, mistakes are often made students exist in the modeling phase (transformation) and process skills (process skill) with the overall percentage distribution respectively 20% and 15%. According to the observations, these errors occur most commonly due to lack of precision of students in modeling and in hastiness calculation. Error analysis with students on this matter, it is expected educators can determine or use the right way to solve it in the next lesson.

Outcomes of a Failure Mode and Effects Analysis for medication errors in pediatric anesthesia.

Science.gov (United States)

Martin, Lizabeth D; Grigg, Eliot B; Verma, Shilpa; Latham, Gregory J; Rampersad, Sally E; Martin, Lynn D

2017-06-01

The Institute of Medicine has called for development of strategies to prevent medication errors, which are one important cause of preventable harm. Although the field of anesthesiology is considered a leader in patient safety, recent data suggest high medication error rates in anesthesia practice. Unfortunately, few error prevention strategies for anesthesia providers have been implemented. Using Toyota Production System quality improvement methodology, a multidisciplinary team observed 133 h of medication practice in the operating room at a tertiary care freestanding children's hospital. A failure mode and effects analysis was conducted to systematically deconstruct and evaluate each medication handling process step and score possible failure modes to quantify areas of risk. A bundle of five targeted countermeasures were identified and implemented over 12 months. Improvements in syringe labeling (73 to 96%), standardization of medication organization in the anesthesia workspace (0 to 100%), and two-provider infusion checks (23 to 59%) were observed. Medication error reporting improved during the project and was subsequently maintained. After intervention, the median medication error rate decreased from 1.56 to 0.95 per 1000 anesthetics. The frequency of medication error harm events reaching the patient also decreased. Systematic evaluation and standardization of medication handling processes by anesthesia providers in the operating room can decrease medication errors and improve patient safety. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Computer tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, and positron emission tomography or positron emission tomography/computer tomography for detection of metastatic lymph nodes in patients with ovarian cancer: A meta-analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yuan Ying; Gu Zhaoxiang; Tao Xiaofeng; Liu Shiyuan

2012-01-01

Objectives: To compare the diagnostic performances of computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, and positron emission tomography (PET or PET/CT) for detection of metastatic lymph nodes in patients with ovarian cancer. Methods: Relevant studies were identified with MEDLINE and EMBASE from January 1990 to July 2010. We estimated the weighted summary sensitivities, specificities, OR (odds ratio), and summary receiver operating characteristic (sROC) curves of each imaging technique and conducted pair-wise comparisons using the two-sample Z-test. Meta-regression, subgroup analysis, and funnel plots were also performed to explain the between-study heterogeneity. Results: Eighteen eligible studies were included, with a total of 882 patients. PET or PET/CT was a more accurate modality (sensitivity, 73.2%; specificity, 96.7%; OR [odds ratio], 90.32). No significant difference was detected between CT (sensitivity, 42.6%; specificity, 95.0%; OR, 19.87) and MR imaging (sensitivity, 54.7%; specificity, 88.3%; OR, 12.38). Meta-regression analyses and subgroup analyses revealed no statistical difference. Funnel plots with marked asymmetry suggested a publication bias. Conclusion: FDG-PET or FDG-PET/CT is more accurate than CT and MR imaging in the detection of lymph node metastasis in patients with ovarian cancer.

Error performance analysis in downlink cellular networks with interference management

KAUST Repository

Afify, Laila H.

2015-05-01

Modeling aggregate network interference in cellular networks has recently gained immense attention both in academia and industry. While stochastic geometry based models have succeeded to account for the cellular network geometry, they mostly abstract many important wireless communication system aspects (e.g., modulation techniques, signal recovery techniques). Recently, a novel stochastic geometry model, based on the Equivalent-in-Distribution (EiD) approach, succeeded to capture the aforementioned communication system aspects and extend the analysis to averaged error performance, however, on the expense of increasing the modeling complexity. Inspired by the EiD approach, the analysis developed in [1] takes into consideration the key system parameters, while providing a simple tractable analysis. In this paper, we extend this framework to study the effect of different interference management techniques in downlink cellular network. The accuracy of the proposed analysis is verified via Monte Carlo simulations.

ERM model analysis for adaptation to hydrological model errors

Science.gov (United States)

Baymani-Nezhad, M.; Han, D.

2018-05-01

Hydrological conditions are changed continuously and these phenomenons generate errors on flood forecasting models and will lead to get unrealistic results. Therefore, to overcome these difficulties, a concept called model updating is proposed in hydrological studies. Real-time model updating is one of the challenging processes in hydrological sciences and has not been entirely solved due to lack of knowledge about the future state of the catchment under study. Basically, in terms of flood forecasting process, errors propagated from the rainfall-runoff model are enumerated as the main source of uncertainty in the forecasting model. Hence, to dominate the exciting errors, several methods have been proposed by researchers to update the rainfall-runoff models such as parameter updating, model state updating, and correction on input data. The current study focuses on investigations about the ability of rainfall-runoff model parameters to cope with three types of existing errors, timing, shape and volume as the common errors in hydrological modelling. The new lumped model, the ERM model, has been selected for this study to evaluate its parameters for its use in model updating to cope with the stated errors. Investigation about ten events proves that the ERM model parameters can be updated to cope with the errors without the need to recalibrate the model.

Accuracy improvement of the H-drive air-levitating wafer inspection stage based on error analysis and compensation

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Fan; Liu, Pinkuan

2018-04-01

In order to improve the inspection precision of the H-drive air-bearing stage for wafer inspection, in this paper the geometric error of the stage is analyzed and compensated. The relationship between the positioning errors and error sources are initially modeled, and seven error components are identified that are closely related to the inspection accuracy. The most effective factor that affects the geometric error is identified by error sensitivity analysis. Then, the Spearman rank correlation method is applied to find the correlation between different error components, aiming at guiding the accuracy design and error compensation of the stage. Finally, different compensation methods, including the three-error curve interpolation method, the polynomial interpolation method, the Chebyshev polynomial interpolation method, and the B-spline interpolation method, are employed within the full range of the stage, and their results are compared. Simulation and experiment show that the B-spline interpolation method based on the error model has better compensation results. In addition, the research result is valuable for promoting wafer inspection accuracy and will greatly benefit the semiconductor industry.

Optimization of sample absorbance for quantitative analysis in the presence of pathlength error in the IR and NIR regions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hirschfeld, T.; Honigs, D.; Hieftje, G.

1985-01-01

Optical absorbance levels for quantiative analysis in the presence of photometric error have been described in the past. In newer instrumentation, such as FT-IR and NIRA spectrometers, the photometric error is no longer limiting. In these instruments, pathlength error due to cell or sampling irreproducibility is often a major concern. One can derive optimal absorbance by taking both pathlength and photometric errors into account. This paper analyzes the cases of pathlength error >> photometric error (trivial) and various cases in which the pathlength errors and the photometric error are of the same order: adjustable concentration (trivial until dilution errors are considered), constant relative pathlength error (trivial), and constant absolute pathlength error. The latter, in particular, is analyzed in detail to give the behavior of the error, the behavior of the optimal absorbance in its presence, and the total error levels attainable

Analysis of the effects of Eye-Tracker performance on the pulse positioning errors during refractive surgery

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Samuel Arba-Mosquera

2012-01-01

Conclusions: The proposed model can be used for comparison of laser systems used for ablation processes. Due to the pseudo-random nature of eye movements, positioning errors of single pulses are much larger than observed decentrations in the clinical settings. There is no single parameter that ‘alone’ minimizes the positioning error. It is the optimal combination of the several parameters that minimizes the error. The results of this analysis are important to understand the limitations of correcting very irregular ablation patterns.

WORKING MEMORY STRUCTURE REVEALED IN ANALYSIS OF RECALL ERRORS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Regina V Ershova

2017-12-01

Full Text Available We analyzed working memory errors stemming from 193 Russian college students taking the Tarnow Unchunkable Test utilizing double digit items on a visual display.In three-item trials with at most one error per trial, single incorrect tens and ones digits (“singlets” were overrepresented and made up the majority of errors, indicating a base 10 organization.These errors indicate that there are separate memory maps for each position and that there are pointers that can move primarily within these maps. Several pointers make up a pointer collection. The number of pointer collections possible is the working memory capacity limit. A model for self-organizing maps is constructed in which the organization is created by turning common pointer collections into maps thereby replacing a pointer collection with a single pointer.The factors 5 and 11 were underrepresented in the errors, presumably because base 10 properties beyond positional order were used for error correction, perhaps reflecting the existence of additional maps of integers divisible by 5 and integers divisible by 11.

Output Error Analysis of Planar 2-DOF Five-bar Mechanism

Science.gov (United States)

Niu, Kejia; Wang, Jun; Ting, Kwun-Lon; Tao, Fen; Cheng, Qunchao; Wang, Quan; Zhang, Kaiyang

2018-03-01

Aiming at the mechanism error caused by clearance of planar 2-DOF Five-bar motion pair, the method of equivalent joint clearance of kinematic pair to virtual link is applied. The structural error model of revolute joint clearance is established based on the N-bar rotation laws and the concept of joint rotation space, The influence of the clearance of the moving pair is studied on the output error of the mechanis. and the calculation method and basis of the maximum error are given. The error rotation space of the mechanism under the influence of joint clearance is obtained. The results show that this method can accurately calculate the joint space error rotation space, which provides a new way to analyze the planar parallel mechanism error caused by joint space.

Ergodic Capacity Analysis of Free-Space Optical Links with Nonzero Boresight Pointing Errors

KAUST Repository

Ansari, Imran Shafique; Alouini, Mohamed-Slim; Cheng, Julian

2015-01-01

A unified capacity analysis of a free-space optical (FSO) link that accounts for nonzero boresight pointing errors and both types of detection techniques (i.e. intensity modulation/ direct detection as well as heterodyne detection) is addressed

A technique for human error analysis (ATHEANA)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cooper, S.E.; Ramey-Smith, A.M.; Wreathall, J.; Parry, G.W.

1996-05-01

Probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) has become an important tool in the nuclear power industry, both for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the operating utilities. Human reliability analysis (HRA) is a critical element of PRA; however, limitations in the analysis of human actions in PRAs have long been recognized as a constraint when using PRA. A multidisciplinary HRA framework has been developed with the objective of providing a structured approach for analyzing operating experience and understanding nuclear plant safety, human error, and the underlying factors that affect them. The concepts of the framework have matured into a rudimentary working HRA method. A trial application of the method has demonstrated that it is possible to identify potentially significant human failure events from actual operating experience which are not generally included in current PRAs, as well as to identify associated performance shaping factors and plant conditions that have an observable impact on the frequency of core damage. A general process was developed, albeit in preliminary form, that addresses the iterative steps of defining human failure events and estimating their probabilities using search schemes. Additionally, a knowledge- base was developed which describes the links between performance shaping factors and resulting unsafe actions

A technique for human error analysis (ATHEANA)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cooper, S.E.; Ramey-Smith, A.M.; Wreathall, J.; Parry, G.W. [and others

1996-05-01

Probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) has become an important tool in the nuclear power industry, both for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the operating utilities. Human reliability analysis (HRA) is a critical element of PRA; however, limitations in the analysis of human actions in PRAs have long been recognized as a constraint when using PRA. A multidisciplinary HRA framework has been developed with the objective of providing a structured approach for analyzing operating experience and understanding nuclear plant safety, human error, and the underlying factors that affect them. The concepts of the framework have matured into a rudimentary working HRA method. A trial application of the method has demonstrated that it is possible to identify potentially significant human failure events from actual operating experience which are not generally included in current PRAs, as well as to identify associated performance shaping factors and plant conditions that have an observable impact on the frequency of core damage. A general process was developed, albeit in preliminary form, that addresses the iterative steps of defining human failure events and estimating their probabilities using search schemes. Additionally, a knowledge- base was developed which describes the links between performance shaping factors and resulting unsafe actions.

Matlab enhanced multi-threaded tomography optimization sequence (MEMTOS)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lum, Edward S.; Pope, Chad L.

2016-01-01

Highlights: • Monte Carlo simulation of spent nuclear fuel assembly neutron computed tomography. • Optimized parallel calculations conducted from within the MATLAB environment. • Projection difference technique used to identify anomalies in spent nuclear fuel assemblies. - Abstract: One challenge associated with spent nuclear fuel assemblies is the lack of non-destructive analysis techniques to determine if fuel pins have been removed or replaced or if there are significant defects associated with fuel pins deep within a fuel assembly. Neutron computed tomography is a promising technique for addressing these qualitative issues. Monte Carlo simulation of spent nuclear fuel neutron computed tomography allows inexpensive process investigation and optimization. The main purpose of this work is to provide a fully automated advanced simulation framework for the analysis of spent nuclear fuel inspection using neutron computed tomography. The simulation framework, called Matlab Enhanced Multi-Threaded Tomography Optimization Sequence (MEMTOS) not only automates the simulation process, but also generates superior tomography image results. MEMTOS is written in the MATLAB scripting language and addresses file management, parallel Monte Carlo execution, results extraction, and tomography image generation. This paper describes the mathematical basis for neutron computed tomography, the Monte Carlo technique used to simulate neutron computed tomography, and the overall tomography simulation optimization algorithm. Sequence results presented include overall simulation speed enhancement, tomography and image results obtained for Experimental Breeder Reactor II spent fuel assemblies and light water reactor fuel assemblies. Optimization using a projection difference technique are also described.

Evaluation and Error Analysis for a Solar thermal Receiver

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pfander, M.

2001-07-01

In the following study a complete balance over the REFOS receiver module, mounted on the tower power plant CESA-1 at the Plataforma Solar de Almeria (PSA), is carried out. Additionally an error inspection of the various measurement techniques used in the REFOS project is made. Especially the flux measurement system Prohermes that is used to determine the total entry power of the receiver module and known as a major error source is analysed in detail. Simulations and experiments on the particular instruments are used to determine and quantify possible error sources. After discovering the origin of the errors they are reduced and included in the error calculation. the ultimate result is presented as an overall efficiency of the receiver module in dependence on the flux density at the receiver module's entry plane and the receiver operating temperature. (Author) 26 refs.

Evaluation and Error Analysis for a Solar Thermal Receiver

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pfander, M.

2001-01-01

In the following study a complete balance over the REFOS receiver module, mounted on the tower power plant CESA-1 at the Plataforma Solar de Almeria (PSA), is carried out. Additionally an error inspection of the various measurement techniques used in the REFOS project is made. Especially the flux measurement system Pro hermes that is used to determine the total entry power of the receiver module and known as a major error source is analysed in detail. Simulations and experiments on the particular instruments are used to determine and quantify possible error sources. After discovering the origin of the errors they are reduced and included in the error calculation. The ultimate result is presented as an overall efficiency of the receiver module in dependence on the flux density at the receiver modules entry plane and the receiver operating temperature. (Author) 26 refs

Passive quantum error correction of linear optics networks through error averaging

Science.gov (United States)

Marshman, Ryan J.; Lund, Austin P.; Rohde, Peter P.; Ralph, Timothy C.

2018-02-01

We propose and investigate a method of error detection and noise correction for bosonic linear networks using a method of unitary averaging. The proposed error averaging does not rely on ancillary photons or control and feedforward correction circuits, remaining entirely passive in its operation. We construct a general mathematical framework for this technique and then give a series of proof of principle examples including numerical analysis. Two methods for the construction of averaging are then compared to determine the most effective manner of implementation and probe the related error thresholds. Finally we discuss some of the potential uses of this scheme.

Singular value decomposition metrics show limitations of detector design in diffuse fluorescence tomography.

Science.gov (United States)

Leblond, Frederic; Tichauer, Kenneth M; Pogue, Brian W

2010-11-29

The spatial resolution and recovered contrast of images reconstructed from diffuse fluorescence tomography data are limited by the high scattering properties of light propagation in biological tissue. As a result, the image reconstruction process can be exceedingly vulnerable to inaccurate prior knowledge of tissue optical properties and stochastic noise. In light of these limitations, the optimal source-detector geometry for a fluorescence tomography system is non-trivial, requiring analytical methods to guide design. Analysis of the singular value decomposition of the matrix to be inverted for image reconstruction is one potential approach, providing key quantitative metrics, such as singular image mode spatial resolution and singular data mode frequency as a function of singular mode. In the present study, these metrics are used to analyze the effects of different sources of noise and model errors as related to image quality in the form of spatial resolution and contrast recovery. The image quality is demonstrated to be inherently noise-limited even when detection geometries were increased in complexity to allow maximal tissue sampling, suggesting that detection noise characteristics outweigh detection geometry for achieving optimal reconstructions.

Time-dependent stochastic inversion in acoustic tomography of the atmosphere with reciprocal sound transmission

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vecherin, Sergey N; Ostashev, Vladimir E; Wilson, D Keith; Ziemann, A

2008-01-01

Time-dependent stochastic inversion (TDSI) was recently developed for acoustic travel-time tomography of the atmosphere. This type of tomography allows reconstruction of temperature and wind-velocity fields given the location of sound sources and receivers and the travel times between all source–receiver pairs. The quality of reconstruction provided by TDSI depends on the geometry of the transducer array. However, TDSI has not been studied for the geometry with reciprocal sound transmission. This paper is focused on three aspects of TDSI. First, the use of TDSI in reciprocal sound transmission arrays is studied in numerical and physical experiments. Second, efficiency of time-dependent and ordinary stochastic inversion (SI) algorithms is studied in numerical experiments. Third, a new model of noise in the input data for TDSI is developed that accounts for systematic errors in transducer positions. It is shown that (i) a separation of the travel times into temperature and wind-velocity components in tomography with reciprocal transmission does not improve the reconstruction, (ii) TDSI yields a better reconstruction than SI and (iii) the developed model of noise yields an accurate reconstruction of turbulent fields and estimation of errors in the reconstruction

Total error shift patterns for daily CT on rails image-guided radiotherapy to the prostate bed

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mota Helvecio C

2011-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background To evaluate the daily total error shift patterns on post-prostatectomy patients undergoing image guided radiotherapy (IGRT with a diagnostic quality computer tomography (CT on rails system. Methods A total of 17 consecutive post-prostatectomy patients receiving adjuvant or salvage IMRT using CT-on-rails IGRT were analyzed. The prostate bed's daily total error shifts were evaluated for a total of 661 CT scans. Results In the right-left, cranial-caudal, and posterior-anterior directions, 11.5%, 9.2%, and 6.5% of the 661 scans required no position adjustments; 75.3%, 66.1%, and 56.8% required a shift of 1 - 5 mm; 11.5%, 20.9%, and 31.2% required a shift of 6 - 10 mm; and 1.7%, 3.8%, and 5.5% required a shift of more than 10 mm, respectively. There was evidence of correlation between the x and y, x and z, and y and z axes in 3, 3, and 3 of 17 patients, respectively. Univariate (ANOVA analysis showed that the total error pattern was random in the x, y, and z axis for 10, 5, and 2 of 17 patients, respectively, and systematic for the rest. Multivariate (MANOVA analysis showed that the (x,y, (x,z, (y,z, and (x, y, z total error pattern was random in 5, 1, 1, and 1 of 17 patients, respectively, and systematic for the rest. Conclusions The overall daily total error shift pattern for these 17 patients simulated with an empty bladder, and treated with CT on rails IGRT was predominantly systematic. Despite this, the temporal vector trends showed complex behaviors and unpredictable changes in magnitude and direction. These findings highlight the importance of using daily IGRT in post-prostatectomy patients.

Mixed Methods Analysis of Medical Error Event Reports: A Report from the ASIPS Collaborative

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Harris, Daniel M; Westfall, John M; Fernald, Douglas H; Duclos, Christine W; West, David R; Niebauer, Linda; Marr, Linda; Quintela, Javan; Main, Deborah S

2005-01-01

.... This paper presents a mixed methods approach to analyzing narrative error event reports. Mixed methods studies integrate one or more qualitative and quantitative techniques for data collection and analysis...

Republished error management: Descriptions of verbal communication errors between staff. An analysis of 84 root cause analysis-reports from Danish hospitals

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rabøl, Louise Isager; Andersen, Mette Lehmann; Østergaard, Doris

2011-01-01

Introduction Poor teamwork and communication between healthcare staff are correlated to patient safety incidents. However, the organisational factors responsible for these issues are unexplored. Root cause analyses (RCA) use human factors thinking to analyse the systems behind severe patient safety...... (30%)), communication errors between junior and senior staff members (11 (25%)), hesitance in speaking up (10 (23%)) and communication errors during teamwork (8 (18%)). The kappa values were 0.44-0.78. Unproceduralized communication and information exchange via telephone, related to transfer between...... incidents. The RCARs rich descriptions of the incidents revealed the organisational factors and needs related to these errors....

Writing Skill and Categorical Error Analysis: A Study of First Year Undergraduate University Students

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Adnan Satariyan

2014-09-01

Full Text Available Abstract This study identifies and analyses the common errors in writing skill of the first year students of Azad University of South Tehran Branch in relation to their first language (L1, the type of high school they graduated, and their exposure to media and technology in order to learn English. It also determines the categories in which the errors are committed (content, organisation/discourse, vocabulary, mechanics, or syntax and whether or not there is a significant difference in the percentage of errors committed and these categories. Participants of this study are 190 first year students that are asked to write an essay. An error analysis model adapted from Brown (2001 and Gayeta (2002 is then used to evaluate the essay writings in terms of content, organisation, vocabulary, mechanics, and syntax or language use. The results of the study show that the students have greater difficulties in organisation, content, and vocabulary and experience less difficulties in mechanics and syntax.

On Kolmogorov asymptotics of estimators of the misclassification error rate in linear discriminant analysis

KAUST Repository

Zollanvari, Amin

2013-05-24

We provide a fundamental theorem that can be used in conjunction with Kolmogorov asymptotic conditions to derive the first moments of well-known estimators of the actual error rate in linear discriminant analysis of a multivariate Gaussian model under the assumption of a common known covariance matrix. The estimators studied in this paper are plug-in and smoothed resubstitution error estimators, both of which have not been studied before under Kolmogorov asymptotic conditions. As a result of this work, we present an optimal smoothing parameter that makes the smoothed resubstitution an unbiased estimator of the true error. For the sake of completeness, we further show how to utilize the presented fundamental theorem to achieve several previously reported results, namely the first moment of the resubstitution estimator and the actual error rate. We provide numerical examples to show the accuracy of the succeeding finite sample approximations in situations where the number of dimensions is comparable or even larger than the sample size.

On Kolmogorov asymptotics of estimators of the misclassification error rate in linear discriminant analysis

KAUST Repository

Zollanvari, Amin; Genton, Marc G.

2013-01-01

We provide a fundamental theorem that can be used in conjunction with Kolmogorov asymptotic conditions to derive the first moments of well-known estimators of the actual error rate in linear discriminant analysis of a multivariate Gaussian model under the assumption of a common known covariance matrix. The estimators studied in this paper are plug-in and smoothed resubstitution error estimators, both of which have not been studied before under Kolmogorov asymptotic conditions. As a result of this work, we present an optimal smoothing parameter that makes the smoothed resubstitution an unbiased estimator of the true error. For the sake of completeness, we further show how to utilize the presented fundamental theorem to achieve several previously reported results, namely the first moment of the resubstitution estimator and the actual error rate. We provide numerical examples to show the accuracy of the succeeding finite sample approximations in situations where the number of dimensions is comparable or even larger than the sample size.

Quality of IT service delivery — Analysis and framework for human error prevention

KAUST Repository

Shwartz, L.; Rosu, D.; Loewenstern, D.; Buco, M. J.; Guo, S.; Lavrado, Rafael Coelho; Gupta, M.; De, P.; Madduri, V.; Singh, J. K.

2010-01-01

In this paper, we address the problem of reducing the occurrence of Human Errors that cause service interruptions in IT Service Support and Delivery operations. Analysis of a large volume of service interruption records revealed that more than 21

Asteroid orbital error analysis: Theory and application

Science.gov (United States)

Muinonen, K.; Bowell, Edward

1992-01-01

We present a rigorous Bayesian theory for asteroid orbital error estimation in which the probability density of the orbital elements is derived from the noise statistics of the observations. For Gaussian noise in a linearized approximation the probability density is also Gaussian, and the errors of the orbital elements at a given epoch are fully described by the covariance matrix. The law of error propagation can then be applied to calculate past and future positional uncertainty ellipsoids (Cappellari et al. 1976, Yeomans et al. 1987, Whipple et al. 1991). To our knowledge, this is the first time a Bayesian approach has been formulated for orbital element estimation. In contrast to the classical Fisherian school of statistics, the Bayesian school allows a priori information to be formally present in the final estimation. However, Bayesian estimation does give the same results as Fisherian estimation when no priori information is assumed (Lehtinen 1988, and reference therein).

Validation of Metrics as Error Predictors

Science.gov (United States)

Mendling, Jan

In this chapter, we test the validity of metrics that were defined in the previous chapter for predicting errors in EPC business process models. In Section 5.1, we provide an overview of how the analysis data is generated. Section 5.2 describes the sample of EPCs from practice that we use for the analysis. Here we discuss a disaggregation by the EPC model group and by error as well as a correlation analysis between metrics and error. Based on this sample, we calculate a logistic regression model for predicting error probability with the metrics as input variables in Section 5.3. In Section 5.4, we then test the regression function for an independent sample of EPC models from textbooks as a cross-validation. Section 5.5 summarizes the findings.

A Method to Optimize Geometric Errors of Machine Tool based on SNR Quality Loss Function and Correlation Analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cai Ligang

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Instead improving the accuracy of machine tool by increasing the precision of key components level blindly in the production process, the method of combination of SNR quality loss function and machine tool geometric error correlation analysis to optimize five-axis machine tool geometric errors will be adopted. Firstly, the homogeneous transformation matrix method will be used to build five-axis machine tool geometric error modeling. Secondly, the SNR quality loss function will be used for cost modeling. And then, machine tool accuracy optimal objective function will be established based on the correlation analysis. Finally, ISIGHT combined with MATLAB will be applied to optimize each error. The results show that this method is reasonable and appropriate to relax the range of tolerance values, so as to reduce the manufacturing cost of machine tools.

Correction of distortions in optical coherence tomography imaging of the eye

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Podoleanu, Adrian [Applied Optics Group, University of Kent, Canterbury (United Kingdom); Charalambous, Ismini [Applied Optics Group, University of Kent, Canterbury (United Kingdom); Plesea, Lucian [Applied Optics Group, University of Kent, Canterbury (United Kingdom); Dogariu, Aristide [School of Optics, CREOL, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL (United States); Rosen, Richard [Advanced Retinal Imaging Center, New York Eye and Ear Infirmary, NY (United States)

2004-04-07

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) images are affected by artefacts. These artefacts are the result of different factors such as refraction, curvature of the intermediate layers up to the depth of interest and the scanning procedure. The effect of such errors is different, depending on the way the image is acquired, either en-face or longitudinal OCT. We quantify the distortions by evaluating a lateral and an axial error. These measure the lateral and axial deviations of each image point from the object point inside the tissue. We show that the axial distortion can be larger than the achievable depth resolution in modern OCT systems. We have investigated these errors in imaging different tissue: cornea and retina in vivo and an intraocular lens in vitro.

Analysis of errors of radiation relay, (1)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Koyanagi, Takami; Nakajima, Sinichi

1976-01-01

The statistical error of liquid level controlled by radiation relay is analysed and a method of minimizing the error is proposed. This method comes to the problem of optimum setting of the time constant of radiation relay. The equations for obtaining the value of time constant are presented and the numerical results are shown in a table and plotted in a figure. The optimum time constant of the upper level control relay is entirely different from that of the lower level control relay. (auth.)

Comparative evaluation of three cognitive error analysis methods through an application to accident management tasks in NPPs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jung, Won Dea; Kim, Jae Whan; Ha, Jae Joo; Yoon, Wan C.

1999-01-01

This study was performed to comparatively evaluate selected Human Reliability Analysis (HRA) methods which mainly focus on cognitive error analysis, and to derive the requirement of a new human error analysis (HEA) framework for Accident Management (AM) in nuclear power plants(NPPs). In order to achieve this goal, we carried out a case study of human error analysis on an AM task in NPPs. In the study we evaluated three cognitive HEA methods, HRMS, CREAM and PHECA, which were selected through the review of the currently available seven cognitive HEA methods. The task of reactor cavity flooding was chosen for the application study as one of typical tasks of AM in NPPs. From the study, we derived seven requirement items for a new HEA method of AM in NPPs. We could also evaluate the applicability of three cognitive HEA methods to AM tasks. CREAM is considered to be more appropriate than others for the analysis of AM tasks. But, PHECA is regarded less appropriate for the predictive HEA technique as well as for the analysis of AM tasks. In addition to these, the advantages and disadvantages of each method are described. (author)

Technology-related medication errors in a tertiary hospital: a 5-year analysis of reported medication incidents.

Science.gov (United States)

Samaranayake, N R; Cheung, S T D; Chui, W C M; Cheung, B M Y

2012-12-01

Healthcare technology is meant to reduce medication errors. The objective of this study was to assess unintended errors related to technologies in the medication use process. Medication incidents reported from 2006 to 2010 in a main tertiary care hospital were analysed by a pharmacist and technology-related errors were identified. Technology-related errors were further classified as socio-technical errors and device errors. This analysis was conducted using data from medication incident reports which may represent only a small proportion of medication errors that actually takes place in a hospital. Hence, interpretation of results must be tentative. 1538 medication incidents were reported. 17.1% of all incidents were technology-related, of which only 1.9% were device errors, whereas most were socio-technical errors (98.1%). Of these, 61.2% were linked to computerised prescription order entry, 23.2% to bar-coded patient identification labels, 7.2% to infusion pumps, 6.8% to computer-aided dispensing label generation and 1.5% to other technologies. The immediate causes for technology-related errors included, poor interface between user and computer (68.1%), improper procedures or rule violations (22.1%), poor interface between user and infusion pump (4.9%), technical defects (1.9%) and others (3.0%). In 11.4% of the technology-related incidents, the error was detected after the drug had been administered. A considerable proportion of all incidents were technology-related. Most errors were due to socio-technical issues. Unintended and unanticipated errors may happen when using technologies. Therefore, when using technologies, system improvement, awareness, training and monitoring are needed to minimise medication errors. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Error Analysis of Explicit Partitioned Runge–Kutta Schemes for Conservation Laws

KAUST Repository

Hundsdorfer, Willem

2014-08-27

An error analysis is presented for explicit partitioned Runge–Kutta methods and multirate methods applied to conservation laws. The interfaces, across which different methods or time steps are used, lead to order reduction of the schemes. Along with cell-based decompositions, also flux-based decompositions are studied. In the latter case mass conservation is guaranteed, but it will be seen that the accuracy may deteriorate.

Error Analysis of Explicit Partitioned Runge–Kutta Schemes for Conservation Laws

KAUST Repository

Hundsdorfer, Willem; Ketcheson, David I.; Savostianov, Igor

2014-01-01

An error analysis is presented for explicit partitioned Runge–Kutta methods and multirate methods applied to conservation laws. The interfaces, across which different methods or time steps are used, lead to order reduction of the schemes. Along with cell-based decompositions, also flux-based decompositions are studied. In the latter case mass conservation is guaranteed, but it will be seen that the accuracy may deteriorate.

Error Analysis in a Written Composition Análisis de errores en una composición escrita

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

David Alberto Londoño Vásquez

2008-12-01

Full Text Available Learners make errors in both comprehension and production. Some theoreticians have pointed out the difficulty of assigning the cause of failures in comprehension to an inadequate knowledge of a particular syntactic feature of a misunderstood utterance. Indeed, an error can be defined as a deviation from the norms of the target language. In this investigation, based on personal and professional experience, a written composition entitled "My Life in Colombia" will be analyzed based on clinical elicitation (CE research. CE involves getting the informant to produce data of any sort, for example, by means of a general interview or by asking the learner to write a composition. Some errors produced by a foreign language learner in her acquisition process will be analyzed, identifying the possible sources of these errors. Finally, four kinds of errors are classified: omission, addition, misinformation, and misordering.Los aprendices comenten errores tanto en la comprensión como en la producción. Algunos teóricos han identificado que la dificultad para clasificar las diferentes fallas en comprensión se debe al conocimiento inadecuado de una característica sintáctica particular. Por tanto, el error puede definirse como una desviación de las normas del idioma objetivo. En esta experiencia profesional se analizará una composición escrita sobre "Mi vida en Colombia" con base en la investigación a través de la elicitación clínica (EC. Esta se centra en cómo el informante produce datos de cualquier tipo, por ejemplo, a través de una entrevista general o solicitándole al aprendiz una composición escrita. Se analizarán algunos errores producidos por un aprendiz de una lengua extranjera en su proceso de adquisición, identificando sus posibles causas. Finalmente, se clasifican cuatro tipos de errores: omisión, adición, desinformación y yuxtaposición sintáctica.

A phantom-based study for assessing the error and uncertainty of a neuronavigation system

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Natalia Izquierdo-Cifuentes

2017-01-01

Full Text Available This document describes a calibration protocol with the intention to introduce a guide to standardize the metrological vocabulary among manufacturers of image-guided surgery systems. Two stages were developed to measure the errors and estimate the uncertainty of a neuronavigator in different situations, on the first one it was determined a mechanical error on a virtual model of an acrylic phantom, on the second it was determined a coordinate error on the computerized axial tomography scan of the same phantom. Ten standard coordinates of the phantom were compared with the coordinates generated by the NeuroCPS. After measurement model was established, there were identified the sources of uncertainty and the data was processed according the guide to the expression of uncertainty in measurement.

VR-based training and assessment in ultrasound-guided regional anesthesia: from error analysis to system design.

LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

2011-01-01

If VR-based medical training and assessment is to improve patient care and safety (i.e. a genuine health gain), it has to be based on clinically relevant measurement of performance. Metrics on errors are particularly useful for capturing and correcting undesired behaviors before they occur in the operating room. However, translating clinically relevant metrics and errors into meaningful system design is a challenging process. This paper discusses how an existing task and error analysis was translated into the system design of a VR-based training and assessment environment for Ultrasound Guided Regional Anesthesia (UGRA).

Analysis of edentulous maxillae using computed tomography and panoramic radiography in the surgical planning of dental implants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sahuinco, Humberto Lazaro Choquepuma; Souza, Ricardo Pires de

2006-01-01

Objective: to determine agreement of three observers on analysis of linear measurements of edentulous maxillae using computed tomography and panoramic radiography in the surgical planning of dental implants. Material and Method: the samples of 17 patients were analyzed with computed tomography and panoramic radiography. Linear measurements obtained from both methods were made at the following anatomical points: left tuberosity, left canine pillar, incisive foramen, right canine pillar and right tuberosity. Kendall's W test was applied to assess the level of agreement. Results: measured W-values from the samples of the anatomical points mentioned above, analyzed with panoramic radiography and computed tomography, were: 0.75 and 0.901; 0.916 and 0.956; 0.843 and 0.964; 0.963 and 0.931; 0.95 and 0.89 respectively. Statistical analysis showed that there was no statistically significant difference. Conclusion: agreement occurred in the measurements of variables.That means that if the three observers were to select an implant to be placed in each of the anatomical regions studied, there would be a good chance whey would choose the same type. (author)

Error analysis of some Galerkin - least squares methods for the elasticity equations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Franca, L.P.; Stenberg, R.

1989-05-01

We consider the recent technique of stabilizing mixed finite element methods by augmenting the Galerkin formulation with least squares terms calculated separately on each element. The error analysis is performed in a unified manner yielding improved results for some methods introduced earlier. In addition, a new formulation is introduced and analyzed [pt

Human reliability analysis of errors of commission: a review of methods and applications

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Reer, B

2007-06-15

Illustrated by specific examples relevant to contemporary probabilistic safety assessment (PSA), this report presents a review of human reliability analysis (HRA) addressing post initiator errors of commission (EOCs), i.e. inappropriate actions under abnormal operating conditions. The review addressed both methods and applications. Emerging HRA methods providing advanced features and explicit guidance suitable for PSA are: A Technique for Human Event Analysis (ATHEANA, key publications in 1998/2000), Methode d'Evaluation de la Realisation des Missions Operateur pour la Surete (MERMOS, 1998/2000), the EOC HRA method developed by the Gesellschaft fuer Anlagen- und Reaktorsicherheit (GRS, 2003), the Misdiagnosis Tree Analysis (MDTA) method (2005/2006), the Cognitive Reliability and Error Analysis Method (CREAM, 1998), and the Commission Errors Search and Assessment (CESA) method (2002/2004). As a result of a thorough investigation of various PSA/HRA applications, this paper furthermore presents an overview of EOCs (termination of safety injection, shutdown of secondary cooling, etc.) referred to in predictive studies and a qualitative review of cases of EOC quantification. The main conclusions of the review of both the methods and the EOC HRA cases are: (1) The CESA search scheme, which proceeds from possible operator actions to the affected systems to scenarios, may be preferable because this scheme provides a formalized way for identifying relatively important scenarios with EOC opportunities; (2) an EOC identification guidance like CESA, which is strongly based on the procedural guidance and important measures of systems or components affected by inappropriate actions, however should pay some attention to EOCs associated with familiar but non-procedural actions and EOCs leading to failures of manually initiated safety functions. (3) Orientations of advanced EOC quantification comprise a) modeling of multiple contexts for a given scenario, b) accounting for

Human reliability analysis of errors of commission: a review of methods and applications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Reer, B.

2007-06-01

Illustrated by specific examples relevant to contemporary probabilistic safety assessment (PSA), this report presents a review of human reliability analysis (HRA) addressing post initiator errors of commission (EOCs), i.e. inappropriate actions under abnormal operating conditions. The review addressed both methods and applications. Emerging HRA methods providing advanced features and explicit guidance suitable for PSA are: A Technique for Human Event Analysis (ATHEANA, key publications in 1998/2000), Methode d'Evaluation de la Realisation des Missions Operateur pour la Surete (MERMOS, 1998/2000), the EOC HRA method developed by the Gesellschaft fuer Anlagen- und Reaktorsicherheit (GRS, 2003), the Misdiagnosis Tree Analysis (MDTA) method (2005/2006), the Cognitive Reliability and Error Analysis Method (CREAM, 1998), and the Commission Errors Search and Assessment (CESA) method (2002/2004). As a result of a thorough investigation of various PSA/HRA applications, this paper furthermore presents an overview of EOCs (termination of safety injection, shutdown of secondary cooling, etc.) referred to in predictive studies and a qualitative review of cases of EOC quantification. The main conclusions of the review of both the methods and the EOC HRA cases are: (1) The CESA search scheme, which proceeds from possible operator actions to the affected systems to scenarios, may be preferable because this scheme provides a formalized way for identifying relatively important scenarios with EOC opportunities; (2) an EOC identification guidance like CESA, which is strongly based on the procedural guidance and important measures of systems or components affected by inappropriate actions, however should pay some attention to EOCs associated with familiar but non-procedural actions and EOCs leading to failures of manually initiated safety functions. (3) Orientations of advanced EOC quantification comprise a) modeling of multiple contexts for a given scenario, b) accounting for

Non-Conventional Applications of Computerized Tomography: Analysis of Solid Dosage Forms Produced by Pharmaceutical Industry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Martins de Oliveira, Jose Jr.; Germano Martins, Antonio Cesar

2010-01-01

X-ray computed tomography (CT) refers to the cross-sectional imaging of an object measuring the transmitted radiation at different directions. In this work, we describe a non-conventional application of computerized tomography: visualization and improvements in the understanding of some internal structural features of solid dosage forms. A micro-CT X-ray scanner, with a minimum resolution of 30 μm was used to characterize some pharmaceutical tablets, granules, controlled-release osmotic tablet and liquid-filled soft-gelatin capsules. The analysis presented in this work are essentially qualitative, but quantitative parameters, such as porosity, density distribution, tablets dimensions, etc. could also be obtained using the related CT techniques.

THE PRACTICAL ANALYSIS OF FINITE ELEMENTS METHOD ERRORS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Natalia Bakhova

2011-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract. The most important in the practical plan questions of reliable estimations of finite elementsmethod errors are considered. Definition rules of necessary calculations accuracy are developed. Methodsand ways of the calculations allowing receiving at economical expenditures of computing work the best finalresults are offered.Keywords: error, given the accuracy, finite element method, lagrangian and hermitian elements.

Data on analysis of coronary atherosclerosis on computed tomography and 18F-sodium fluoride positron emission tomography

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Toshiro Kitagawa

2017-08-01

Full Text Available This article contains the data showing illustrative examples of plaque classification on coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA and measurement of 18F-sodium fluoride (18F-NaF uptake in coronary atherosclerotic lesions on positron emission tomography (PET. We divided the lesions into one of three plaque types on CCTA (calcified plaque, non-calcified plaque, partially calcified plaque. Focal 18F-NaF uptake of each lesion was quantified using maximum tissue-to-background ratio. This article also provides a representative case with a non-calcified coronary plaque detected on CCTA and identified on 18F-NaF PET/non-contrast computed tomography based on a location of a vessel branch as a landmark. These complement the data reported by Kitagawa et al. (2017 [1].

Human Errors in Decision Making

OpenAIRE

Mohamad, Shahriari; Aliandrina, Dessy; Feng, Yan

2005-01-01

The aim of this paper was to identify human errors in decision making process. The study was focused on a research question such as: what could be the human error as a potential of decision failure in evaluation of the alternatives in the process of decision making. Two case studies were selected from the literature and analyzed to find the human errors contribute to decision fail. Then the analysis of human errors was linked with mental models in evaluation of alternative step. The results o...

Error analysis of motion correction method for laser scanning of moving objects

Science.gov (United States)

Goel, S.; Lohani, B.

2014-05-01

The limitation of conventional laser scanning methods is that the objects being scanned should be static. The need of scanning moving objects has resulted in the development of new methods capable of generating correct 3D geometry of moving objects. Limited literature is available showing development of very few methods capable of catering to the problem of object motion during scanning. All the existing methods utilize their own models or sensors. Any studies on error modelling or analysis of any of the motion correction methods are found to be lacking in literature. In this paper, we develop the error budget and present the analysis of one such `motion correction' method. This method assumes availability of position and orientation information of the moving object which in general can be obtained by installing a POS system on board or by use of some tracking devices. It then uses this information along with laser scanner data to apply correction to laser data, thus resulting in correct geometry despite the object being mobile during scanning. The major application of this method lie in the shipping industry to scan ships either moving or parked in the sea and to scan other objects like hot air balloons or aerostats. It is to be noted that the other methods of "motion correction" explained in literature can not be applied to scan the objects mentioned here making the chosen method quite unique. This paper presents some interesting insights in to the functioning of "motion correction" method as well as a detailed account of the behavior and variation of the error due to different sensor components alone and in combination with each other. The analysis can be used to obtain insights in to optimal utilization of available components for achieving the best results.

Independent component analysis of dynamic contrast-enhanced computed tomography images

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Koh, T S [School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Ave, Singapore 639798 (Singapore); Yang, X [School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Ave, Singapore 639798 (Singapore); Bisdas, S [Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Hospital, Theodor-Stern-Kai 7, D-60590 Frankfurt (Germany); Lim, C C T [Department of Neuroradiology, National Neuroscience Institute, 11 Jalan Tan Tock Seng, Singapore 308433 (Singapore)

2006-10-07

Independent component analysis (ICA) was applied on dynamic contrast-enhanced computed tomography images of cerebral tumours to extract spatial component maps of the underlying vascular structures, which correspond to different haemodynamic phases as depicted by the passage of the contrast medium. The locations of arteries, veins and tumours can be separately identified on these spatial component maps. As the contrast enhancement behaviour of the cerebral tumour differs from the normal tissues, ICA yields a tumour component map that reveals the location and extent of the tumour. Tumour outlines can be generated using the tumour component maps, with relatively simple segmentation methods. (note)

Errors of Inference Due to Errors of Measurement.

Science.gov (United States)

Linn, Robert L.; Werts, Charles E.

Failure to consider errors of measurement when using partial correlation or analysis of covariance techniques can result in erroneous conclusions. Certain aspects of this problem are discussed and particular attention is given to issues raised in a recent article by Brewar, Campbell, and Crano. (Author)

Accounting for optical errors in microtensiometry.

Science.gov (United States)

Hinton, Zachary R; Alvarez, Nicolas J

2018-09-15

Drop shape analysis (DSA) techniques measure interfacial tension subject to error in image analysis and the optical system. While considerable efforts have been made to minimize image analysis errors, very little work has treated optical errors. There are two main sources of error when considering the optical system: the angle of misalignment and the choice of focal plane. Due to the convoluted nature of these sources, small angles of misalignment can lead to large errors in measured curvature. We demonstrate using microtensiometry the contributions of these sources to measured errors in radius, and, more importantly, deconvolute the effects of misalignment and focal plane. Our findings are expected to have broad implications on all optical techniques measuring interfacial curvature. A geometric model is developed to analytically determine the contributions of misalignment angle and choice of focal plane on measurement error for spherical cap interfaces. This work utilizes a microtensiometer to validate the geometric model and to quantify the effect of both sources of error. For the case of a microtensiometer, an empirical calibration is demonstrated that corrects for optical errors and drastically simplifies implementation. The combination of geometric modeling and experimental results reveal a convoluted relationship between the true and measured interfacial radius as a function of the misalignment angle and choice of focal plane. The validated geometric model produces a full operating window that is strongly dependent on the capillary radius and spherical cap height. In all cases, the contribution of optical errors is minimized when the height of the spherical cap is equivalent to the capillary radius, i.e. a hemispherical interface. The understanding of these errors allow for correct measure of interfacial curvature and interfacial tension regardless of experimental setup. For the case of microtensiometry, this greatly decreases the time for experimental setup

Analysis of the effects of Eye-Tracker performance on the pulse positioning errors during refractive surgery☆

Science.gov (United States)

Arba-Mosquera, Samuel; Aslanides, Ioannis M.

2012-01-01

Purpose To analyze the effects of Eye-Tracker performance on the pulse positioning errors during refractive surgery. Methods A comprehensive model, which directly considers eye movements, including saccades, vestibular, optokinetic, vergence, and miniature, as well as, eye-tracker acquisition rate, eye-tracker latency time, scanner positioning time, laser firing rate, and laser trigger delay have been developed. Results Eye-tracker acquisition rates below 100 Hz correspond to pulse positioning errors above 1.5 mm. Eye-tracker latency times to about 15 ms correspond to pulse positioning errors of up to 3.5 mm. Scanner positioning times to about 9 ms correspond to pulse positioning errors of up to 2 mm. Laser firing rates faster than eye-tracker acquisition rates basically duplicate pulse-positioning errors. Laser trigger delays to about 300 μs have minor to no impact on pulse-positioning errors. Conclusions The proposed model can be used for comparison of laser systems used for ablation processes. Due to the pseudo-random nature of eye movements, positioning errors of single pulses are much larger than observed decentrations in the clinical settings. There is no single parameter that ‘alone’ minimizes the positioning error. It is the optimal combination of the several parameters that minimizes the error. The results of this analysis are important to understand the limitations of correcting very irregular ablation patterns.

Proactive error analysis of ultrasound-guided axillary brachial plexus block performance.

LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

O'Sullivan, Owen

2012-07-13

Detailed description of the tasks anesthetists undertake during the performance of a complex procedure, such as ultrasound-guided peripheral nerve blockade, allows elements that are vulnerable to human error to be identified. We have applied 3 task analysis tools to one such procedure, namely, ultrasound-guided axillary brachial plexus blockade, with the intention that the results may form a basis to enhance training and performance of the procedure.

Accuracy and reliability of linear cephalometric measurements from cone-beam computed tomography scans of a dry human skull.

Science.gov (United States)

Berco, Mauricio; Rigali, Paul H; Miner, R Matthew; DeLuca, Stephelynn; Anderson, Nina K; Will, Leslie A

2009-07-01

The purpose of this study was to determine the accuracy and reliability of 3-dimensional craniofacial measurements obtained from cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) scans of a dry human skull. Seventeen landmarks were identified on the skull. CBCT scans were then obtained, with 2 skull orientations during scanning. Twenty-nine interlandmark linear measurements were made directly on the skull and compared with the same measurements made on the CBCT scans. All measurements were made by 2 operators on 4 separate occasions. The method errors were 0.19, 0.21, and 0.19 mm in the x-, y- and z-axes, respectively. Repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed no significant intraoperator or interoperator differences. The mean measurement error was -0.01 mm (SD, 0.129 mm). Five measurement errors were found to be statistically significantly different; however, all measurement errors were below the known voxel size and clinically insignificant. No differences were found in the measurements from the 2 CBCT scan orientations of the skull. CBCT allows for clinically accurate and reliable 3-dimensional linear measurements of the craniofacial complex. Moreover, skull orientation during CBCT scanning does not affect the accuracy or the reliability of these measurements.

Error-related brain activity and error awareness in an error classification paradigm.

Science.gov (United States)

Di Gregorio, Francesco; Steinhauser, Marco; Maier, Martin E

2016-10-01

Error-related brain activity has been linked to error detection enabling adaptive behavioral adjustments. However, it is still unclear which role error awareness plays in this process. Here, we show that the error-related negativity (Ne/ERN), an event-related potential reflecting early error monitoring, is dissociable from the degree of error awareness. Participants responded to a target while ignoring two different incongruent distractors. After responding, they indicated whether they had committed an error, and if so, whether they had responded to one or to the other distractor. This error classification paradigm allowed distinguishing partially aware errors, (i.e., errors that were noticed but misclassified) and fully aware errors (i.e., errors that were correctly classified). The Ne/ERN was larger for partially aware errors than for fully aware errors. Whereas this speaks against the idea that the Ne/ERN foreshadows the degree of error awareness, it confirms the prediction of a computational model, which relates the Ne/ERN to post-response conflict. This model predicts that stronger distractor processing - a prerequisite of error classification in our paradigm - leads to lower post-response conflict and thus a smaller Ne/ERN. This implies that the relationship between Ne/ERN and error awareness depends on how error awareness is related to response conflict in a specific task. Our results further indicate that the Ne/ERN but not the degree of error awareness determines adaptive performance adjustments. Taken together, we conclude that the Ne/ERN is dissociable from error awareness and foreshadows adaptive performance adjustments. Our results suggest that the relationship between the Ne/ERN and error awareness is correlative and mediated by response conflict. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.