Prevalence and Factors Associated with Refractive Errors among University Students at Mbarara University of Science and Technology, Uganda

Introduction: WHO estimated that uncorrected refractive errors are the leading cause of visual impairment and second leading cause of blindness globally. University students are prone to developing refractive errors due to their curriculum that requires a lot of near work affecting their performance and quality of life unknowingly. Genetic and environmental factors are thought to play a role in the development of refractive errors. This study addresses the paucity of knowledge about refractive errors among university students in East Africa, providing a foundation for further research. Objectives: To determine the prevalence and factors associated with refractive errors among students in the Faculty of Medicine at Mbarara University of Science and Technology. Methodology: This was a cross-sectional descriptive and analytical study in which 368 undergraduate students selected using random sampling were assessed for refractive errors from March 2021-July 2021. Eligible participants were recruited and their VA assessment done after answering a questionnaire. Students whose VA improved on pin hole had subjective retinoscopy and results were compiled and imported to STATA 14 for analysis. Results: The prevalence of refractive errors was 26.36% with (95% CI) among university students especially myopia. Myopia is most predominant at 60%, followed by 37% Astigmatism and hyperopia of 3% among medical students. Astigmatism consisted of largely myopic astigmatism 72% (26) and 28% (10) compound/mixed astigmatism only. Student positive family history of refractive error was found to have a statistically significant relationship with refractive errors with AOR 1.68 (1.04 - 2.72) (95% CI) and P (0.032). Conclusion: The prevalence of refractive errors among university students, especially myopia, was found to be high and family history was associated with students having refractive errors.

OPTIMAL ERROR ESTIMATE IN L~∞(J;L^2(Ω)) NORM OF FEM FOR A MODEL FOR COMPRESSIBLE MISCIBLE DISPLACEMENT IN POROUS MEDIA

We’ll study the FEM for a model for compressible miscible displacement in porous media which includes molecular diffusion and mechanical dispersion in one-dimensional space.A class of vertices-edges-elements interpolation operator ink is introduced.With the help of ink(not elliptic projection),the optimal error estimate in L∞(J;L2(Ω)) norm of FEM is proved.

Medical errors, infection-control breaches and the use of adulterated and misbranded medical devices

Several well-publicized cases of improper cleaning,disinfection or sterilization of contaminated reusable medical equipment that posed an increased risk of patientto-patient disease transmission were reported within the past few years,resulting in the notification of approximately 20 000 patients.These medical errors,the specific infection-control standards they breached,and assessments of the risk of infection associated with each are discussed.Other topics discussed include the Food and Drug Administration’s(FDA)regulation of medical devices and infection-control products;the use of adulterated,misbranded,and investigational devices;consent decrees and associated Certificates of Medical Necessity;and informed patient consent.Focus is placed on liquid chemical sterilization,its history,and the FDA’s recent censure and discontinuation of a medical device labeled with this claim,namely,the STERIS System 1 processor.Recommendations are provided for healthcare facilities,regulatory agencies,manufacturers of reusable medical devices,and professional healthcare organizations and administrations to improve public health and prevent healthcareassociated infections.

Human Factor Based Leadership: Critical Leadership Tools to Reduce Burnout and Latent Error in a Time of Accelerating Change

The majority of errors in healthcare are from systems factors that create the latent conditions for error to occur. The majority of occupational stressors causing burnout are also the result of systemic factors. Advances in technology create new levels of stress and expectations on healthcare workers (HCW) with an endless infusion of requirements from multiple authoritative sources that are tracked and monitored. The quality of care and safety of patients is affected by the wellbeing of HCWs who now practice in an environment that has become more complex to navigate, often expending limited neural resource (brainpower) on classifying, organizing, constantly making decisions on how and when they can accomplish what is required(extraneous cognitive load) in addition to direct patient care. New information demonstrates profound biological impact on the brains of those who have burnout in areas that affect the quality and safety of the decisions they make-which affects risk to patients in healthcare. Healthcare administration curriculum currently does not include ways to address these stress-induced problems in healthcare delivery. The science of human factors and ergonomics (HFE) promotes system performance and worker wellbeing. Patient safety is one component of system performance. Since many requirements come without resource to accomplish them, it becomes incumbent upon health system leadership to organize the means for completion of these to minimize the needless loss of brain power diverted away from the delivery of patient care. Human Factor-Based Leadership (HFBL) is an interactive, problem solving seminar series designed for healthcare leaders. The purpose is to provide relevant human factor science to integrate into their leadership and management decisions to make HCWs occupational environment more manageable and sustainable-which makes safer conditions for clinician wellbeing and patient care. After learning the content, a cohort of healthcare leaders believed that adequately addressing HFE in healthcare delivery would significantly reduce clinician burnout and risk of latent errors from upstream leadership decisions. An overview of the content of the seminars is described. Leadership feedback on usability of these seminars is reported. Three HFBL seminars described are Human Factor Relevance in Leadership, Biopsychosocial Approach to Wellness and Burnout, Human Factor Based Leadership: Examples and Applications.

Parallel Algorithms for Residue Scaling and Error Correction in Residue Arithmetic

In this paper, we present two new algorithms in residue number systems for scaling and error correction. The first algorithm is the Cyclic Property of Residue-Digit Difference (CPRDD). It is used to speed up the residue multiple error correction due to its parallel processes. The second is called the Target Race Distance (TRD). It is used to speed up residue scaling. Both of these two algorithms are used without the need for Mixed Radix Conversion (MRC) or Chinese Residue Theorem (CRT) techniques, which are time consuming and require hardware complexity. Furthermore, the residue scaling can be performed in parallel for any combination of moduli set members without using lookup tables.

Reduction of Systematic Error in Radiopharmaceutical Activity by Entropy Based Mutual Information

The quality of the radiation dose depends upon the gamma count rate of the radionuclide used. Any reduction in error in the count rate is reflected in the reduction in error in the activity and consequently on the quality of dose. All the efforts so far have been directed only to minimize the random errors in count rate by repetition. In the absence of probability distribution for the systematic errors, we propose to minimize these errors by estimating the upper and lower limits by the technique of determinant in equalities developed by us. Using the algorithm we have developed based on the tech- nique of determinant inequalities and the concept of maximization of mutual information (MI), we show how to process element by element of the covariance matrix to minimize the correlated systematic errors in the count rate of 113 mIn. The element wise processing of covariance matrix is so unique by our technique that it gives experimentalists enough maneuverability to mitigate different factors causing systematic errors in the count rate and consequently the activity of 113 mIn.

Estimation under a Finite Mixture of Exponentiated Exponential Components Model and Balanced Square Error Loss

By exponentiating each of the components of a finite mixture of two exponential components model by a positive parameter, several shapes of hazard rate functions are obtained. Maximum likelihood and Bayes methods, based on square error loss function and objective prior, are used to obtain estimators based on balanced square error loss function for the parameters, survival and hazard rate functions of a mixture of two exponentiated exponential components model. Approximate interval estimators of the parameters of the model are obtained.

Implications of rare neurological disorders and perceptual errors in natural and synthetic consciousness

Recent theories on natural and synthetic consciousness overlook the geometric structure necessary for awareness of 3-dimensional space, as strikingly illustrated by left-neglect disorder. Furthermore, awareness of 3-dimensional space entails some surprisingly tenacious optical illusions, as demonstrated by an experiment in the text. Awareness of linear time is also crucial and complex. As a consequence, synthetic consciousness cannot be realized by simply intercomnecting a large number of electronic circuits constructed from ordinary chips and transistors. Since consciousness is a subjective experience, there is no sufficient condition for consciousness that can be experimentally confirmed. The most we can hope for is agreement on the necessary conditions for consciousness. Toward that end, this paper reviews some relevant clinical phenomena.

Performance analysis and design of MIMO-OFDM system using concatenated forward error correction codes

This work investigates the performance of various forward error correction codes, by which the MIMO-OFDM system is deployed. To ensure fair investigation, the performance of four modulations, namely, binary phase shift keying(BPSK), quadrature phase shift keying(QPSK), quadrature amplitude modulation(QAM)-16 and QAM-64 with four error correction codes(convolutional code(CC), Reed-Solomon code(RSC)+CC, low density parity check(LDPC)+CC, Turbo+CC) is studied under three channel models(additive white Guassian noise(AWGN), Rayleigh, Rician) and three different antenna configurations(2×2, 2×4, 4×4). The bit error rate(BER) and the peak signal to noise ratio(PSNR) are taken as the measures of performance. The binary data and the color image data are transmitted and the graphs are plotted for various modulations with different channels and error correction codes. Analysis on the performance measures confirm that the Turbo + CC code in 4×4 configurations exhibits better performance.

Determination of Timer Error and Evaluation of Its Effect on Dose for OB6, GammaBeam X200 and X-Ray Irradiators at the Secondary Standard Dosimetry Laboratory in Nigeria

Timer error as well as its convention is very important for dose accuracy during irradiation. This paper determines the timer error of irradiators at Secondary Standard Dosimetry Laboratory (SSDL) in Nigeria. The irradiators are Cs-137 OB6 irradiator and X-ray irradiators at the Protection level SSDL;and Co-60 irradiator at the Therapy Level SSDL. PTW UNIDOS electrometer and LS01 Ionization chamber were used at the Protection Level to obtain doses for both Cs-137 OB6 and X-ray irradiators while an IBA farmer type ionization chamber and an IBA DOSE 1 electrometer were used at the Protection Level SSDL. Single/multiple exposure method and graphical method were used in the determination of the timer error for the three irradiators. The timer error obtained for Cs-137 OB6 irradiator was 0.48 ± 0.01 s, the timer error for the X-ray irradiator was 0.09 ± 0.01 s while the timer error obtained for GammaBeam X200 was 1.21 ± 0.04 s. It was observed that the timer error is not affected by source to detector distance. It was also observed that the timer error of Co-60 Gamma X200 irradiator is increasing with the age of the machine. Source to detector distance and field size do not contribute towards the timer error of the irradiators. The timer error of the Co-60 Gamma X200 irradiator (the only irradiator among the irradiators with a pneumatic system) increases with the age of the irradiator.

Research and Analysis of Grammatical Error Correction Technology for Chinese Documents

With the widespread use of Chinese globally, the number of Chinese learners has been increasing, leading to various grammatical errors among beginners. Additionally, as domestic efforts to develop industrial information grow, electronic documents have also proliferated. When dealing with numerous electronic documents and texts written by Chinese beginners, manually written texts often contain hidden grammatical errors, posing a significant challenge to traditional manual proofreading. Correcting these grammatical errors is crucial to ensure fluency and readability. However, certain special types of text grammar or logical errors can have a huge impact, and manually proofreading a large number of texts individually is clearly impractical. Consequently, research on text error correction techniques has garnered significant attention in recent years. The advent and advancement of deep learning have paved the way for sequence-to-sequence learning methods to be extensively applied to the task of text error correction. This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of Chinese text grammar error correction technology, elaborates on its current research status, discusses existing problems, proposes preliminary solutions, and conducts experiments using judicial documents as an example. The aim is to provide a feasible research approach for Chinese text error correction technology.

Bayesian Joint Modelling of Survival Time and Longitudinal CD4 Cell Counts Using Accelerated Failure Time and Generalized Error Distributions

Survival of HIV/AIDS patients is crucially dependent on comprehensive and targeted medical interventions such as supply of antiretroviral therapy and monitoring disease progression with CD4 T-cell counts. Statistical modelling approaches are helpful towards this goal. This study aims at developing Bayesian joint models with assumed generalized error distribution (GED) for the longitudinal CD4 data and two accelerated failure time distributions, Lognormal and loglogistic, for the survival time of HIV/AIDS patients. Data are obtained from patients under antiretroviral therapy follow-up at Shashemene referral hospital during January 2006-January 2012 and at Bale Robe general hospital during January 2008-March 2015. The Bayesian joint models are defined through latent variables and association parameters and with specified non-informative prior distributions for the model parameters. Simulations are conducted using Gibbs sampler algorithm implemented in the WinBUGS software. The results of the analyses of the two different data sets show that distributions of measurement errors of the longitudinal CD4 variable follow the generalized error distribution with fatter tails than the normal distribution. The Bayesian joint GED loglogistic models fit better to the data sets compared to the lognormal cases. Findings reveal that patients’ health can be improved over time. Compared to the males, female patients gain more CD4 counts. Survival time of a patient is negatively affected by TB infection. Moreover, increase in number of opportunistic infection implies decline of CD4 counts. Patients’ age negatively affects the disease marker with no effects on survival time. Improving weight may improve survival time of patients. Bayesian joint models with GED and AFT distributions are found to be useful in modelling the longitudinal and survival processes. Thus we recommend the generalized error distributions for measurement errors of the longitudinal data under the Bayesian joint modelling. Further studies may investigate the models with various types of shared random effects and more covariates with predictions.

Online Capacitor Voltage Transformer Measurement Error State Evaluation Method Based on In-Phase Relationship and Abnormal Point Detection

The assessment of the measurement error status of online Capacitor Voltage Transformers (CVT) within the power grid is of profound significance to the equitable trade of electric energy and the secure operation of the power grid. This paper advances an online CVT error state evaluation method, anchored in the in-phase relationship and outlier detection. Initially, this method leverages the in-phase relationship to obviate the influence of primary side fluctuations in the grid on assessment accuracy. Subsequently, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is employed to meticulously disentangle the error change information inherent in the CVT from the measured values and to compute statistics that delineate the error state. Finally, the Local Outlier Factor (LOF) is deployed to discern outliers in the statistics, with thresholds serving to appraise the CVT error state. Experimental results incontrovertibly demonstrate the efficacy of this method, showcasing its prowess in effecting online tracking of CVT error changes and conducting error state assessments. The discernible enhancements in reliability, accuracy, and sensitivity are manifest, with the assessment accuracy reaching an exemplary 0.01%.

Comparison of Type I Error Rates of Siegel-Tukey and Savage Tests among Non-Parametric Tests

This study aimed to examine the performance of the Siegel-Tukey and Savage tests on data sets with heterogeneous variances. The analysis, considering Normal, Platykurtic, and Skewed distributions and a standard deviation ratio of 1, was conducted for both small and large sample sizes. For small sample sizes, two main categories were established: equal and different sample sizes. Analyses were performed using Monte Carlo simulations with 20,000 repetitions for each scenario, and the simulations were evaluated using SAS software. For small sample sizes, the I. type error rate of the Siegel-Tukey test generally ranged from 0.045 to 0.055, while the I. type error rate of the Savage test was observed to range from 0.016 to 0.041. Similar trends were observed for Platykurtic and Skewed distributions. In scenarios with different sample sizes, the Savage test generally exhibited lower I. type error rates. For large sample sizes, two main categories were established: equal and different sample sizes. For large sample sizes, the I. type error rate of the Siegel-Tukey test ranged from 0.047 to 0.052, while the I. type error rate of the Savage test ranged from 0.043 to 0.051. In cases of equal sample sizes, both tests generally had lower error rates, with the Savage test providing more consistent results for large sample sizes. In conclusion, it was determined that the Savage test provides lower I. type error rates for small sample sizes and that both tests have similar error rates for large sample sizes. These findings suggest that the Savage test could be a more reliable option when analyzing variance differences.

Far-Field Pattern Reconstruction from Positioning Errors Affected Near-Field Data Acquired via Helicoidal Scanning

In this paper, an effective technique to compensate the positioning errors in a near-field—far-field (NF-FF) transformation with helicoidal scanning for elongated antennas is presented and validated both numerically and experimentally. It relies on a nonredundant sampling representation of the voltage measured by the probe, obtained by considering the antenna as enclosed in a cylinder ended in two half-spheres. An iterative scheme is used to reconstruct the helicoidal NF data at the points fixed by the representation from the acquired irregularly spaced ones. Once the helicoidal data have been retrieved, those needed by a classical NF-FF transformation with cylindrical scanning are efficiently evaluated by using an optimal sampling interpolation algorithm. Some numerical tests, assessing the accuracy of the approach and its stability with respect to random errors affecting the data, are reported. Experimental tests performed at the Antenna Characterization Lab of the University of Salerno further confirm the validity of the proposed technique.

Gap Functions and Error Bounds for Set-Valued Vector Quasi Variational Inequality Problems

One of the classical approaches in the analysis of a variational inequality problem is to transform it into an equivalent optimization problem via the notion of gap function. The gap functions are useful tools in deriving the error bounds which provide an estimated distance between a specific point and the exact solution of variational inequality problem. In this paper, we follow a similar approach for set-valued vector quasi variational inequality problems and define the gap functions based on scalarization scheme as well as the one with no scalar parameter. The error bounds results are obtained under fixed point symmetric and locally α-Holder assumptions on the set-valued map describing the domain of solution space of a set-valued vector quasi variational inequality problem.

Prevalence of Refractive Errors among School Children Aged 5 to 15 Years Old at CHU-IOTA

Introduction: Undetected refractive errors constitute a health problem among school children who cannot take advantage of educational opportunities. The authors studied the prevalence of refractive errors in school children aged 5 to 15 at CHU-IOTA. Patients and Method: This is a prospective, descriptive cross-sectional study carried out in the ophthalmic-pediatrics department of CHU-IOTA, from October to November 2023. Results: We received 340 school children aged 5 to 15, among whom 111 presented ametropia, i.e. a prevalence of 32.65%. The average age was 11.42 ± 2.75 years and a sex ratio of 0.59. The average visual acuity was 4/10 (range 1/10 and 10/10). We found refractive defects: astigmatism 73.87%, hyperopia 23.87% of cases and myopia 2.25%. The decline in distance visual acuity was the most common functional sign. Ocular abnormalities associated with ametropia were dominated by allergic conjunctivitis (26.13%) and papillary excavation (6.31%) in astigmatics;allergic conjunctivitis (9.01%) and papillary excavation (7.20%) in hyperopic patients;turbid vitreous (0.90%), myopic choroidosis (0.45%) and allergic conjunctivitis (0.45%) in myopes. Conclusion: Refractive errors constitute a reality and a major public health problem among school children.

Evaluation of Generalized Error Function via Fast-Converging Power Series

A generalized form of the error function, Gp(x)=pΓ(1/p)∫0xe−tpdt, which is directly associated with the gamma function, is evaluated for arbitrary real values of p>1and 0x≤+∞by employing a fast-converging power series expansion developed in resolving the so-called Grandi’s paradox. Comparisons with accurate tabulated values for well-known cases such as the error function are presented using the expansions truncated at various orders.

Application of Genetic Algorithm in Estimation of Gyro Drift Error Model

Extended Kalman Filter(EKF)algorithm is widely used in parameter estimation for nonlinear systems.The estimation precision is sensitively dependent on EKF’s initial state covariance matrix and state noise matrix.The grid optimization method is always used to find proper initial matrix for off-line estimation.However,the grid method has the draw back being time consuming hence,coarse grid followed by a fine grid method is adopted.To further improve efficiency without the loss of estimation accuracy,we propose a genetic algorithm for the coarse grid optimization in this paper.It is recognized that the crossover rate and mutation rate are the main influencing factors for the performance of the genetic algorithm,so sensitivity experiments for these two factors are carried out and a set of genetic algorithm parameters with good adaptability were selected by testing with several gyros’experimental data.Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm has higher efficiency and better estimation accuracy than the traversing grid algorithm.

Self-Sustained Boundedness of Logical and Quantal Error at Semantic Intelligence

It is demonstrated that the recently introduced semantic intelligence spontaneously maintains bounded logical and quantal error on each and every semantic trajectory, unlike its algorithmic counterpart which is not able to. This result verifies the conclusion about the assignment of equal evolutionary value to the motion on the set of all the semantic trajectories sharing the same homeostatic pattern. The evolutionary value of permanent and spontaneous maintenance of boundedness of logical and quantal error on each and every semantic trajectory is to make available spontaneous maintenance of the notion of a kind intact in the long run.