Comparison Of Several Procedures Research Articles

Allocation of water loss to individual benefits provided by the Fláje reservoir - comparison of several procedures

The water footprint is the sustainability indicator, which describes direct and indirect water consumption. In the case of a water reservoir, the water consumption is represented by water evaporation from the free surface water. Most reservoirs are built as multipurpose reservoirs. The water losses from the reservoirs should be allocated among individual benefits to avoid distortion of water needs throughout the life-cycle of individual benefits provided by the reservoir. Allocation procedures, i.e. splitting a specific input between multiple outputs, tend to be problematic because different strategies can be used and it is not always possible to clearly determine which strategy is the most suitable. The allocation method significantly influences the assessment of the sustainability of individual benefits provided by the reservoir. In the article, we proposed the categorization of individual allocation strategies, we tested the strategy based on the pairwise comparison of purposes of the reservoir, and carried out an assessment of the variability of results of individual allocation strategies on the pilot case of the Fláje water reservoir. It has been proposed a simplified allocation model using the Analytic Hierarchy Process which is taken as a reasonable compromise between the processing complexity and the need to differentiate between the water reservoir purposes.

Resolution of Students t-tests, ANOVA and analysis of variance components from intermediary data.

Significance testing in comparisons is based on Student’s t-tests for pairs and analysis of variance (ANOVA) for simultaneous comparison of several procedures. Access to the average, standard deviation and number of observations is sufficient for calculating the significance of differences using the Student’s tests and the ANOVA. Once an ANOVA has been calculated, analysis of variance components from summary data becomes possible. Simple calculations based on summary data provide inference on significance testing. Examples are given from laboratory management and method comparisons. It is emphasized that the usual criteria of the underlying distribution of the raw data must be fulfilled.

Measuring Consumers' Willingness to Pay at the Point of Purchase

Economists, psychologists, and marketing researchers rely on measures of consumers' willingness to pay (WTP) in estimating demand for private and public goods and in designing optimal price schedules. Existing market research techniques for measuring WTP differ in whether they provide an incentive to consumers to reveal their true WTP and in whether they simulate actual point-of-purchase contexts. The authors present an empirical comparison of several procedures for eliciting WTP that are applicable directly at the point of purchase. In particular, the authors test the applicability of Becker, DeGroot, and Marschak's (1964) well-known incentive-compatible procedure for assessing the utility of lotteries to measuring consumers' WTP. In three studies, the authors explore the reliability, validity, and feasibility of the procedure and show that it yields lower WTP estimates than do non-incentive-compatible methods such as open-ended and double-bounded contingent valuation. They show experimentally that differences in WTP estimates arise from the incentive constraint rather than the cognitive effort required in responding. They also control for strategic response behavior.

A Simulation Comparison of Several Procedures for Testing the Poisson Assumption

The importance of the Poisson distribution among the discrete distributions has led to the development of several hypothesis tests, for testing whether data come from a Poisson distribution against a variety of alternative distributions. An extended simulation comparison is presented concerning the power of such tests. To overcome biases caused by the use of asymptotic results for the null distribution of several tests, an extended simulation was performed for calculating the required critical points for all the tests. The results can be useful to researchers as a guide to selecting the appropriate test from several alternatives that are available.

Networking of near Infrared Spectroscopy Instruments for Rapeseed Analysis: A Comparison of Different Procedures

A comparison of several procedures to establish a network of near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy instruments for analytical applications with rapeseed [moisture, protein, oil, glucosinolates (GSL), oleic acid (C18:1)] is presented. The procedures are (a) calibration transfer with bias adjustment, (b) standardisation with different products and different number of samples, (c) calibration with spectra of different instruments and (d) the use of a repeatability file for minimising instrument differences. The most successful procedure proved to be the use of a repeatability file of spectra of the network instruments after standardisation using rapeseed samples. Following this procedure the standard deviation of analyses in a network could be reduced by 50–66% compared to a direct calibration transfer. Calibrations for constituents with high absorptivity (e.g. moisture) could be transferred directly without a bias correction, while those for constituents with a low absorptivity (e.g. GSL) had to be transferred using a repeatability file and standardised instruments.

Comparison of Several Procedures Used for the Extraction of Anthocyanins from Red Grapes

Several procedures for the extraction of grape anthocyanins, based on different methods described in the literature, have been assayed. Results have shown that the use of solvents containing up to 1% of 12 N hydrochloric acid for the extraction of grape anthocyanins resulted in the partial hydrolysis of malvidin 3-O-acetylglucoside, leading to important changes in the relative content of anthocyanins in those extracts, despite their higher efficiency in extracting total anthocyans in some cases. Nevertheless, the use of different neutral solvents resulted in a similar relative content of anthocyanins in the extracts, and some of them could be as efficient in extracting total anthocyanins as other procedures that used an acid solvent for extraction. These data suggest that the use of solvents containing up to 1% of 12 N hydrochloric acid in the extraction of anthocyanins from grapes or from any other plant material containing acetylated anthocyanins should be avoided, especially if the work is related with...

Comparison of several procedures for plasmid profile determination in Escherichia coli

A comparison has been made between the plasmid content of Escherichia coli containing reference plasmids, as well as of Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) after several common plasmid extraction procedures and agarose gel electrophoresis. The results were not equivalent for the various extraction procedures. Procedure I (Kado and Liu, 1981) determine both small (here referred to as plasmids migrating before the chromosome) and large (here referred to as plasmids migrating after the chromosome) plasmids of from 1.3 to 144 MDa. However, many chromosomes were present and this could mask plasmids migrating at this level. Additionally some plasmid DNA bands migrating after the chromosome could be weak or fuzzy. Procedures II (Holmes and Quigley, 1981) and III (procedure II with an additional phenol/chloroform extraction stage, Sambrook, 1989) allowed extraction of only part of the plasmids, and often several DNA bands were identified for one reference plasmid giving evidence of the presence of forms other than CCC DNA. The addition of a phenol/chloroform extraction stage to procedure II gave improved determination of small plasmids and permitted determination of some more of the large plasmíds. Procedure IV (Birnboim and Doly, 1979) permitted thin and easily visible DNA bands migrating before or after the chromosome to be obtained, and few chromosomes were present. Some additional DNA bands migrating after the chromosome were also seen or were more visible. As with procedures II and III the largest plasmids Rts1 (120 MDa) and (TP116 143.6 MDa) were not present. When the plasmid sizes of ETEC strains were determined by either procedure I or IV, the values obtained for the large plasmids did not generally differ significantly, except for the higher plasmids of strains B41 ∗, B117 and 1676, which were up to 12.3% higher with procedure IV. The small plasmids were probably better determined by procedure IV, as shown by the weaker standard errors regularly obtained. The molecular weights of some small plasmids differed notably according to whether they were estimated by either procedure I or IV, suggesting the presence of different plasmids or conformations of the same plasmid. These results demonstrated the importance of considering different possible results when deciding which plasmid extraction procedure is to be used for a specific purpose.

A comparison of several procedures for mass selection in winter rye. II. What are the merits of adjusting phenotypic values?

To get an improved impression of the genotypic value of individual plants the literature suggests to adjust their phenotypic values according to a moving mean correction or by means of an analysis of covariance, where the mean phenotypic value calculated across neighbours is used as the concomitant variable. In the present paper it is shown that the theoretical merits of these adjustments are promising: they eliminate the contribution due to the trend in soil fertility from the phenotypic value. In an experimental verification actual merits did, however, not show up.

Comparison of several procedures for the preparation of synaptosomal plasma membrane vesicles

Synaptosomal plasma membrane vesicles (SPMV) were isolated from fresh bovine cerebral cortex by several well-known procedures, and the best procedure was selected by enzymatic and morphological standards. The SPMV isolated by the modified procedure of Smith and Loh showed the highest purity. The specific activities of Na, K-ATPase, acetylcholinesterase and 5′-nucleotidase were about 5.6-fold, 2.5-fold and 3.3-fold, respetively, enriched in the plasma membrane fraction as compared to those of the crude homogenate. Electron microscopic examination also showed that the membranes were in vesicular form.

A comparison of several procedures for mass selection in winter rye I. The relative quality of the procedures

The HS-family offspring from each of 463 plants occurring in a population of winter rye were grown in a randomized complete block design. According to 4 sets of requirements, 4 groups of HS-families were created. The HS-families belonging to a certain group were considered to be superior with regard to the specified requirements. Independently from this, selection among the 463 parental plants was simulated. The selection was according to 3 methods (truncation selection, grid selection and honeycomb selection) applied with regard to a single plant trait or with regard to two plant traits. Altogether 9 different single-trait and two-trait criteria were studied for each selection method. The quality of some selection procedure or the other, i.e. a combination of a selection method and a selection criterion, was measured on the basis of the frequency of plants giving rise to a superior HS-family among all plants selected by the procedure. It is concluded that grid selection and honeycomb selection are more effective than truncation selection. Further it is tentatively concluded that honeycomb selection is more reliable than grid selection.

Comparison of several procedures for generating J-coefficients.

Comparison of several procedures for generating J-coefficients.

Comparison of several procedures for generating J-coefficients.

Comparison of several procedures for generating J-coefficients.

A comparison of several procedures for reducing RNase contamination in preparations of DNase and a particularly successful combination of methods

The three methods most commonly used for removing RNase from preparations of DNase were compared under similar assay conditions for residual RNase activity. In order of their effectiveness they ranked: (1) bentonite, (2) agarose-UMP, (3) iodoacetate. Even the best of the single treatments did not eliminate all of the RNase, and it was discovered that a significant improvement was obtained when DNase was first passed over agarose-UMP and then treated with bentonite.

A multielement design model for component analysis and cross-setting assessment of a treatment package

The applied problem necessitating this design was a cross-setting and component analysis of a special school's natural treatment package for an autistic child's self-stimulatory behavior. The child's school day was viewed as a multielement baseline with four alternating elements, classroom, play area, small room, and large room, each with a different procedure. Conditions were held constant in the classroom and the play area, the normal school settings, so that manipulations for this one child did not disrupt the rest of the class. Components of the treatment package were manipulated in two experimental settings designated as small and large rooms. The design allowed (1) reversal comparisons of procedures (experimental rooms) over time and (2) daily comparisons of procedures across all four settings (multielement baseline). The assumption that procedures in the natural and the experimental settings were comparable was supported by the findings that the behavioral effects were comparable in natural and experimental settings when corresponding procedures were in effect. The daily comparisons of the multielement baseline seem most desirable when the applied problem requires comparison of several procedures and settings (e.g. component and cross-setting analyses) and as a result, when the possibility of time-correlated artifacts is greatest.

A comparison of several procedures for estimating the sulphur status on soils

The sulphur status of a number of soils was determined by several laboratory procedures. The chemical procedure which extracted amounts of sulphur showing the most satisfactory correlation with the sulphur-supplying ability of the soils (as measured by plant growth) was an extraction of the soil with a potassium dihydrogen phosphate solution containing 500 p.p.m. phosphorus. The superiority of this procedure over the other extraction procedures tested (cold-water extraction, hot-water extraction, acetate extraction, and Williams and Steinbergs's heat-soluble method) probably lies in its ability to displace adsorbed sulphate. The sulphate which was extractable by the phosphate solution was found to have decreased after cropping, by an amount which was closely related to, but not of the same order as, the sulphur taken up by the plants. The difference (uptake minus decrement), which represents the net mineralized sulphur, was small relative to the amounts of extractable sulphate initially present. Microbiological assay using Aspergillus niger was an equally reliable method for assessing sulphur status and had the advantage of simplicity. Except in two brigalow soils, the sulphur obtained by Aspergillus was very similar to that extracted by phosphate, which suggests that Aspergillus is able to obtain adsorbed sulphate.