An example error, said Professor Kumar, is when a chip fails to complete a cycle of instructions within a given time.

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Ireland made a mistake by bailing out all its bank liabilities, and Spain for example should not repeat that error.

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Some sources of potential error have been known for a long time (for example, because of slight changes in their orbits, satellites do not always take temperature measurements at precisely the same time of day).

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The researchers, led by Richard Kerensky of the University of Florida, found that, for example, with 16:1 compression, the error rate for the detection of calcification was 30% higher than for uncompressed images.

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Another common example might involve an application for regulatory permission to market a new pharmaceutical, where there is an arguable error or even falsehood, but where the officer has no actual knowledge of the error or falsehood.

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