Finding errors in applications has been achieved using a wide variety of techniques. Some tools instrument the application to check for program properties dynamically whereas others analyze the program statically. We use a technique that analyzes a program's execution by binary runtime instrumentation. Unlike tools that work on a particular language or an intermediate representation of a language, our approach works directly on binaries and hence it is not bound to any language. In order to instrument binaries, we use a binary instrumentation system called Pin, which provides APIs to instrument the application at runtime. We have built an infrastructure using Pin called Top that allows program entities like variables and events to be traced. Using finite automata we can check if certain events take place during the execution of the program. Top consists of a Tracing System that can trace movement of pointers to memory locations or 32-bit data values and keeps track of all their copies. It also provides an Event Framework that reports the occurrence of events such as function calls or returns. Top provides a programming interface which allows querying for particular events. The query is compiled with Top to produce a customized analysis tool, also called client. Running the analysis tool with the application, under Pin, results in events of interest being detected and reported. Using Top, we built a Memory Checker that checks for incorrect usage of dynamic memory allocation APIs and semantically incorrect accesses to dynamically allocated memory. Since we perform fine-grained checking by tracing references, our memory checker found some errors that a popular memory checker called valgrind did not. We have also built an MPI Checker which is used to check if programs use MPI's asynchronous communication primitives properly. This checker can detect errors related to illegal data buffer accesses and errors where the programmer inadvertently overwrote a handle needed to finish the processing of a request. / Master of Science

Within computer science education, goal-oriented feedback motivates beginners to be engaged in learning programming. As the number of students increases, it is challenging for teaching assistants to cater to all the doubts of students and provide goals. This problem is addressed by intelligent visual feedback which guides beginners formulate effective goals to resolve all the errors they would incur while solving a programming assignment. Most current automated feedback mechanisms provide feedback without categorization, prioritization, or goal formulation in mind. Students may overlook important issues, and high priority issues might be hidden among other issues. Also, beginners are not well equipped in formulating goals to resolve the issues provided in the feedback. In this research, we address the problem of providing an effective, intelligent goal-oriented feedback to student's code to resolve all the issues in their code while ensuring that the code is well tested. The goal-oriented feedback would eventually implicitly navigate the students to write a logically correct solution. The code feedback is summarized into four categories in the descending order of priority: Coding, Student's Testing, Behavior, and Style. Each category is further classified into subcategories, and a simple visual summary of the student's code is also provided. Each of the above-mentioned categories has detailed feedback on each error in that category to provide a better understanding of the errors. We also offer enhanced error messages and diagnosis of errors to make the feedback very useful. This intelligent feedback has been integrated into Web-CAT, an open-source automated grading tool developed at Virginia Tech that is widely used by many universities. A user survey was collected after the students have utilized this feedback for a couple of programming assignments and we obtained promising results to claim that our intelligent feedback is effective. / Master of Science / Within computer science education, goal-oriented feedback motivates beginners to be engaged in learning programming. As the number of students increases, it is challenging for teaching assistants to cater to all the doubts of students and provide goals. This problem is addressed by intelligent visual feedback which guides beginners formulate effective goals to resolve all the issues they would incur while programming. Most current automated feedback mechanisms provide feedback without categorization, prioritization, or goal formulation in mind. Students may overlook important issues, and high priority issues might be hidden among other issues. Also, beginners are not well equipped in formulating goals to resolve the issues provided in the feedback. In this research, we address the problem of providing an effective, intelligent goal-oriented feedback to student’s code to resolve all the issues in their code. The goal-oriented feedback would eventually implicitly navigate the students to write a logically correct solution. The code feedback is modularized smartly to guide students to understand the issues easily. A simple visual summary of the student’s code is also provided to help students obtain an overview of the issues in their code. We also offer detailed feedback on each error along with enhanced error messages and diagnosis of errors to make the feedback very effective.

No / Previous research has established health professionals as secondary victims of medical error, with the identification of a range of emotional and psychological repercussions that may occur as a result of involvement in error.2 3 Due to the vast range of emotional and psychological outcomes, research to date has been inconsistent in the variables measured and tools used. Therefore, differing conclusions have been drawn as to the nature of the impact of error on professionals and the subsequent repercussions for their team, patients and healthcare institution. A systematic review was conducted. METHODS: Data sources were identified using database searches, with additional reference and hand searching. Eligibility criteria were applied to all studies identified, resulting in a total of 24 included studies. Quality assessment was conducted with the included studies using a tool that was developed as part of this research, but due to the limited number and diverse nature of studies, no exclusions were made on this basis. RESULTS: Review findings suggest that there is consistent evidence for the widespread impact of medical error on health professionals. Psychological repercussions may include negative states such as shame, self-doubt, anxiety and guilt. Despite much attention devoted to the assessment of negative outcomes, the potential for positive outcomes resulting from error also became apparent, with increased assertiveness, confidence and improved colleague relationships reported. CONCLUSION: It is evident that involvement in a medical error can elicit a significant psychological response from the health professional involved. However, a lack of literature around coping and support, coupled with inconsistencies and weaknesses in methodology, may need be addressed in future work.

The development of category knowledge is in part a function of one's experiences with the world. The types of errors produced during category generation tasks may reveal the boundaries of these experiences and the ways in which they are organized into lexical networks. Examining the errors made by bilingual children with and without language impairment (LI) and bilingual adults may help to distinguish the effects of ability versus experience on the development and organization of lexical-semantic categories. The purpose of this study was to examine the types of errors made by bilingual (Spanish-English) children with (n=37) and without (n=35) LI and bilingual adults (n=26) on category generation tasks in both their languages and at two category levels: taxonomic and slot-filler. Results revealed a main effect for level (taxonomic vs. slot-filler) and error type (semantic vs. other) and suggest that bilingual seven to nine-year-old children's and adults' proportions and types of errors produced on category generation tasks differ significantly based on ability (i.e., TD or LI) but not on experience (i.e., TD or Adults). / text

In radiation therapy, interfraction organ motion introduces a level of geometric uncertainty into the planning process. Plans, which are typically based upon a single instance of anatomy, must be robust against daily anatomical variations. For this problem, a model of the magnitude, direction, and likelihood of deformation is useful. In this thesis, principal component analysis (PCA) is used to statistically model the 3D organ motion for 19 prostate cancer patients, each with 8-13 fractional computed tomography (CT) images. Deformable image registration and the resultant displacement vector fields (DVFs) are used to quantify the interfraction systematic and random motion. By applying the PCA technique to the random DVFs, principal modes of random tissue deformation were determined for each patient, and a method for sampling synthetic random DVFs was developed. The PCA model was then extended to describe the principal modes of systematic and random organ motion for the population of patients. A leave-one-out study tested both the systematic and random motion model’s ability to represent PCA training set DVFs. The random and systematic DVF PCA models allowed the reconstruction of these data with absolute mean errors between 0.5-0.9 mm and 1-2 mm, respectively. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is the first successful effort to build a fully 3D statistical PCA model of systematic tissue deformation in a population of patients. By sampling synthetic systematic and random errors, organ occupancy maps were created for bony and prostate-centroid patient setup processes. By thresholding these maps, PCA-based planning target volume (PTV) was created and tested against conventional margin recipes (van Herk for bony alignment and 5 mm fixed [3 mm posterior] margin for centroid alignment) in a virtual clinical trial for low-risk prostate cancer. Deformably accumulated delivered dose served as a surrogate for clinical outcome. For the bony landmark setup subtrial, the PCA PTV significantly (p30, D20, and D5 to bladder and D50 to rectum, while increasing rectal D20 and D5. For the centroid-aligned setup, the PCA PTV significantly reduced all bladder DVH metrics and trended to lower rectal toxicity metrics. All PTVs covered the prostate with the prescription dose.

中國古代典籍異文繁多，古人訓釋典籍，理當參詳眾本異文，考定字句意義。在校勘學研究方面，前人所論古人校書方法，亦有謂其廣集異本，進行比對校勘，把注家引用異文當作專為校勘之手段。至於訓詁學及異文研究的討論方面，前賢學者亦以為古人注書標示異文，僅為展示他本差異，校勘異同。即使論及異文，亦只局限於討論同一種書的不同版本，或今古文之別，並認為直至清人注書校書，方通過異文比對，探求古書字詞真義。 / 本論文集中討論由漢代至唐代古書注疏與異文之關係，以鄭玄《禮記注》、韋昭《國語解》、王肅《孔子家語注》、楊倞《荀子注》、成玄英《莊子疏》為中心，輯錄諸書有關異文，囊括古今文字異文、互見文獻、引書異文、出土文獻異文、類書異文等，以之比對該書注文，查考當中有關聯者。在訓詁學研究方面，本文據上述比對材料，考證漢唐注疏諸家運用異文以為訓詁之例，詳析其以異文為訓詁的方法及準則，繼而考察後代注疏對漢代經師注書方法的承傳，以及對後世訓詁方法的影響，從而梳理異文訓詁從漢代開始的發展脈絡。在語言學研究方面，則通過古籍傳注與異文的比對，分析一些古代字詞之通名與別名，以及辭書未有收錄的通假字、近義字，望能補正前說之未備。 / 在個別典籍及注家的研究方面，則根據注家所選用之異文，探討其學術思想之淵源及取向，如從鄭玄《禮記注》與出土文獻郭店簡、上博簡〈緇衣〉的相合詞例，探討三種版本於〈緇衣〉文意理解相輔相成的關係；從韋昭《國語解》的異文選材，查探其注史方法，並與杜預《春秋左傳注》相關釋項比對，考析二書之互見關係；從王肅《家語注》的選材運用，探討《孔子家語》的真偽，並王肅對《家語》學說淵源的看法；從楊倞《荀子注》對諸書之參考程度，分析楊倞對荀子與諸子關係的看法；從成玄英《莊子疏》大量採納互見文獻《淮南子》、《文子》，考析其對三書關係的看法，並側探成玄英的道家思想背景。 / It is generally believed that annotators before the Qing dynasty provided textual variances of ancient texts simply for the purpose of collation. This thesis proposes that textual variances actually serve as a type of commentaries on language and content from the Han through the Tang dynasties, and it examines the various examples of such usage. The texts covered by this study include Zheng Xuan's 鄭玄 (ca. 127-200) Liji zhu 禮記注, Wang Su's 王肅 (ca.195-256) Kongzi jiayu zhu 孔子家語注, Wei Zhao's 韋昭 (ca. 204-273) Guoyu jie 國語解, Cheng Xuanying's 成玄英 (fl. 631-656) Zhuangzi shu 莊子疏, and Yang Liang's 楊倞 (fl. 805-820) Xunzi zhu 荀子注. Through investigating their selecting criteria of textual variances, this research examines their scholarship and their influence on later scholars. The first chapter investigates the relation between the excavated texts and the received edition of "Ziyi" 緇衣. The second chapter evaluates Wei Zhao’s method in commentating Guoyu and comparing it with Du Yu's 杜預 (ca. 222-285) annotation to the Zuo zhuan 左傳. The third chapter delves into the authenticity and the origin of Kongzi jiayu 孔子家語. The fourth chapter analyzes Yang Liang’s perceptions towards the relation between Xunzi 荀子 and the other works of Han and pre-Han philosophers. The last chapter explores Cheng Xuanying's appreciation of the relation between Huainanzi 淮南子, Wenzi 文子, and Zhuang Zi 莊子, as well as his Daoist background. Ultimately, it aims to shed light on the method in citing textual variances as commentary and its development. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / 林麗玲 = The relation of textual variances to the commentaries of ancient texts / Lam Lai Ling. / Thesis (Ph.D.) Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2014. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 168-173). / Abstracts also in English. / Lin Liling = The relation of textual variances to the commentaries of ancient texts / Lam Lai Ling.

Kan, Ka Lai Carrie. / "May 2008." / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 118-125). / Abstracts in English and Chinese, some text in appendix also in Chinese. / Chapter CHAPTER 1: --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Chapter CHAPTER 2: --- LITERATURE REVIEW / Introduction --- p.3 / Medication error --- p.4 / Definition of medication error --- p.4 / Incidents of medication error --- p.6 / The issues of defining medication error --- p.7 / The issue of medication error reporting --- p.8 / Near miss --- p.9 / Factors associated with medication error --- p.10 / System factors --- p.10 / Environmental factors --- p.12 / Human factors --- p.13 / Slips and lapses and medication error --- p.14 / "Distraction, slips and lapses and medication error" --- p.15 / Distraction --- p.15 / Definition of distraction --- p.15 / Consequences of distraction --- p.16 / Factors associated with distraction --- p.16 / Cognitive factors --- p.17 / Personality factors --- p.18 / Environmental factors --- p.18 / Studies on distraction during medication administration --- p.19 / Distraction and medication error --- p.21 / Strategies to reduce distraction --- p.22 / Visual Sign --- p.23 / Definition of visual sign --- p.23 / Nature of visual sign --- p.24 / Studies on visual sign to reduce distraction --- p.25 / Summary of literature review --- p.25 / Chapter CHAPTER 3: --- METHODOLOGY / Introduction --- p.27 / Aims and objectives --- p.27 / Operational definitions --- p.28 / Research design --- p.28 / Setting --- p.31 / Stage one --- p.32 / Setting --- p.32 / Sampling --- p.33 / Instrument --- p.35 / Data collection method --- p.36 / Data analysis --- p.37 / Stage two --- p.38 / Stage three --- p.40 / Pilot study --- p.40 / Validity and reliability of methodology --- p.41 / Interview --- p.41 / Observation --- p.42 / Ethical considerations --- p.43 / Chapter CHAPTER 4: --- FINDINGS / Introduction --- p.44 / Stage one --- p.44 / Baseline interview --- p.44 / Informants' characteristics --- p.44 / Categories and sub-categories --- p.45 / Feelings of medication error --- p.46 / Causes of medication error --- p.47 / Causes of distraction --- p.49 / Perception of distraction --- p.50 / Feelings about distraction --- p.52 / Strategies to reduce distraction --- p.53 / Strategies to reduce medication error --- p.54 / Baseline observation --- p.56 / Findings of stage one --- p.59 / Stage two --- p.60 / One week after implementation observation --- p.60 / Findings of stage two --- p.63 / Stage three / Three months after implementation observation --- p.63 / Follow-up interview --- p.66 / Informants' characteristics --- p.66 / Categories and sub-categories --- p.67 / Conflicting feelings --- p.68 / Different effects on nursing service --- p.69 / Feelings about wearing the red vest --- p.70 / Enhanced a non-distractive culture --- p.72 / Improved cognitive process --- p.73 / Improved performance --- p.75 / Findings of stage three --- p.76 / Comparison of the three stages of quantitative observational data --- p.77 / "Lapse time, items given, and number of patients" --- p.77 / Comparison of lapse time and total distraction --- p.78 / Comparison of the ten items on distraction --- p.78 / Comparison of total distraction --- p.79 / Comparison of near misses --- p.80 / Overall Summary of the findings --- p.80 / Chapter CHAPTER 5: --- DISCUSSION / Introduction --- p.82 / Characteristics of informants and observational data --- p.82 / Nurseśة perception of distraction as a cause of medication administration error --- p.83 / Causes of distraction during medication administration --- p.87 / Evaluation outcome --- p.91 / Evaluation process --- p.98 / Chapter CHAPTER 6: --- "LIMITATIONS, IMPLICATIONS AND RECOMMEDATIONS" / Limitations --- p.111 / Setting --- p.111 / Population and sampling --- p.111 / Observer's influence --- p.112 / Interviewer's influence --- p.112 / Implications for nursing practice --- p.113 / Recommendations for future studies --- p.114 / Conclusion --- p.116 / REFERENCES --- p.118 / APPENDICES / Chapter 1: --- Literature search --- p.126 / Chapter 2: --- Medication Administration Distraction Observation Sheet (MADOS) --- p.127 / Chapter 3: --- Adapted MADOS --- p.128 / Chapter 4: --- Baseline interview guide --- p.129 / Chapter 5: --- Interview consent form --- p.130 / Chapter 6: --- Observation consent form --- p.136 / Chapter 7: --- Informal letter to nursing staff --- p.142 / Chapter 8: --- Follow-up interview guide --- p.144 / Chapter 9: --- Rationale for pilot study --- p.145 / Chapter 10: --- Ethical approval (CUHK) --- p.147 / Chapter 11: --- Ethical approval ( Hospital Administrative Council) --- p.148 / Chapter 12: --- Baseline interview (1) --- p.149 / Chapter 13: --- Baseline observation (MAC 4) --- p.154 / Chapter 14: --- One week after observation (MAC 01) --- p.155 / Chapter 15: --- Three months after observation (MAC 005) --- p.156 / Chapter 16: --- Follow-up interview (08) --- p.157 / TABLES / Chapter 1: --- Different units and the approximate numbers of nurses --- p.30 / Chapter 2: --- Proposed sample size for baseline interview --- p.33 / Chapter 3. --- Medication administration at different scheduled time --- p.35 / Chapter 4. --- Informantśة characteristics at baseline interview --- p.45 / Chapter 5: --- Categories and subcategories: baseline interview --- p.46 / Chapter 6: --- "Elapse time, items given, number of patients, distractions and near misses at baseline observation" --- p.57 / Chapter 7: --- Frequency of the ten items of distraction at baseline observation --- p.57 / Chapter 8: --- Ranking of the ten items on distraction at baseline observation --- p.58

BACKGROUND: Parent medication errors are exceedingly common, with one child experiencing an outpatient medication error every 8 minutes. In a previous randomized controlled trial where the intervention was carried out under ideal conditions, we examined the efficacy of a pictographic, health literacy-informed medication instruction sheet-based intervention (HELPix) in reducing parent dosing errors. While our intervention was efficacious in reducing errors, reproducing these results in a real world setting, is necessary to examine the true effectiveness of HELPix. OBJECTIVES: 1) To examine the impact of HELPix implementation on parent medication dosing errors. 2) To assess the effect of HELPix implementation on provider use of medication counseling strategies. DESIGN/METHODS: A pre-implementation/post-implementation study design was used in 2 pediatric Emergency Departments (EDs) in New York City, one with planned implementation of the HELPix intervention (HELPix site) and the other a control site within the same hospital network. Subject inclusion criteria included: 1) English or Spanish-speaking parent, 2) child <9 years old, child prescribed a short course (≤14 days) daily liquid medicine, and 3) parent present with the child in the emergency department and received medication counseling. Parents were recruited over the phone; those who enrolled completed a phone interview along with a follow-up in-person assessment (median time to follow-up=15 days). ED providers (residents, fellows, attendings) were also recruited. The HELPix intervention consists of: 1) provider provision of patient- and medicine-specific pictographic instruction sheets, 2) provider use of pictures/drawings as part of counseling to reinforce dosing information, 3) provider demonstration of the dose using an oral syringe, 3) teachback of dose information, 4) parent showback of the dose they plan to give, and 5) provider provision of an oral syringe. At the HELPix site, ED providers were trained in the use of HELPix counseling strategies as well as how to use the electronic medical record (EMR) system to generate the instruction sheets while ordering a prescription. Outcomes assessed were: 1) provider provision of HELPix instruction sheets via web tracking, 2) dosing errors ≥ 20% deviation from prescribed dose, assessed from observation at follow-up visit, 3) provider counseling practices (i.e. use of pictures/drawings, demonstration, teachback, showback, provision of dosing tool) obtained by parent report. RESULTS: A total of 1493 parents were assessed by telephone for eligibility in the pre-/post-implementation phases. 561 parent-child dyads were recruited by phone (284 at HELPix site; 277 at control site). A total of 92% were mothers, 52% were Spanish speakers, 78% were Latino, 16% were Black, and 85% were of low socioeconomic status. Web tracking at the HELPix intervention site indicated that for 58% of the enrolled families in the post-implementation period, providers generated HELPix medication instruction sheets. Compared to the pre-implementation period at the intervention site, parent dosing errors rates were significantly reduced during the post-implementation period (37% versus 16%; AOR=0.3, p<0.001); with an overall Relative Risk Reduction (RRR)=57%, with greatest reductions in errors among those that received HELPix sheets (12% error rate, RRR=68%). Providers at the HELPix implementation site were significantly more likely to use recommended provider counseling strategies post-implementation compared to pre-implementation (pictures/drawings: 37% versus 1%; dosing demonstration: 59% versus 33%; teachback: 24% versus 8%; showback: 33% vs. 13%, and provision of oral syringe 79% versus 25%; p<0.0001 for all strategies). In the non-intervention site, there were no differences in parent dosing error rates, or in provider use of counseling strategies between the pre- and post-implementation periods. CONCLUSION: Implementation of the HELPix intervention resulted in increased provider use of recommended counseling strategies as well as decreased parent medication dosing errors in an urban public hospital setting serving low socioeconomic status families. Use of HELPix supports high quality provider medication counseling and appears to be feasible to incorporate as part of routine Emergency Department discharge practices.

Reliability is one of the most serious issues confronted by microelectronics industry as feature sizes scale down from deep submicron to sub-100-nanometer and nanometer regime. Due to processing defects and increased noise effects, it is almost impractical to come up with error-free circuits. As we move beyond 22nm, devices will be operating very close to their thermal limit making the gates error-prone and every gate will have a finite propensity of providing erroneous outputs. Additional factors increasing the erroneous behaviors are low operating voltages and extremely high frequencies. These types of errors are not captured by current defect and fault tolerant mechanisms as they might not be present during the testing and reconfiguration. Hence Reliability-centric CAD analysis tool is becoming more essential not only to combat defect and hard faults but also errors that are transient and probabilistic in nature.In this dissertation, we address three broad categories of errors. First, we focus on random pattern testability of logic circuits with respect to hard or permanent faults. Second, we model the effect of single-event-upset (SEU) at an internal node to primary outputs. We capture the temporal nature of SEUs by adding timing information to our model. Finally, we model the dynamic error in nano-domain computing, where reliable computation has to be achieved with "systemic" unreliable devices, thus making the entire computation process probabilistic rather than deterministic in nature.Our central theoretical scheme relies on Bayesian Belief networks that are compact efficient models representing joint probability distribution in a minimal graphical structure that not only uses conditional independencies to model the underlying probabilistic dependence but also uses them for computational advantage. We used both exact and approximate inference which has let us achieve order of magnitude improvements in both accuracy and speed and have enabled us t o study larger benchmarks than the state-of-the-art. We are also able to study error sensitivities, explore design space, and characterize the input space with respect to errors and finally, evaluate the effect of redundancy schemes.

This thesis describes the analysis of over 1300 spelling and typing errors. It introduces and describes many empirical rules which these errors obey and shows that a vast majority of errors are variations on some 3000 basic forms. It also describes and tests an intelligent, knowledge based spelling error correction algorithm based on the above work. Using the Shorter Oxford English dictionary it correctly identifies over 90% of typical spelling errors and over 80% of all spelling errors, where the correct word is in the dictionary. The methodology used is as follows: An error form is compared with each word in that small portion of the dictionary likely to contain the intended word, but examination of improbable words is rapidly abandoned using heuristic rules. Any differences between the dictionary word and the error form are compared with the basic forms. Any dictionary word which differs from the error form only by one or two basic forms is transferred to a separate list. The program then acts as an expert system where each of the basic forms is a production or rule with a subjective Bayesian probability. A choice is made from the list by calculating the Bayesian probability for each word in the separate list. An interactive spelling error corrector using the concepts and methods developed here is operating on the Bradford University Cyber 170/720 Computer, and was used to correct this thesis. The corrector also runs on VAX and Prime computers.