Index Creation Research Articles

PatchIndex: exploiting approximate constraints in distributed databases

Cloud data warehouse systems lower the barrier to access data analytics. These applications often lack a database administrator and integrate data from various sources, potentially leading to data not satisfying strict constraints. Automatic schema optimization in self-managing databases is difficult in these environments without prior data cleaning steps. In this paper, we focus on constraint discovery as a subtask of schema optimization. Perfect constraints might not exist in these unclean datasets due to a small set of values violating the constraints. Therefore, we introduce the concept of a generic PatchIndex structure, which handles exceptions to given constraints and enables database systems to define these approximate constraints. We apply the concept to the environment of distributed databases, providing parallel index creation approaches and optimization techniques for parallel queries using PatchIndexes. Furthermore, we describe heuristics for automatic discovery of PatchIndex candidate columns and prove the performance benefit of using PatchIndexes in our evaluation.

A robust ranking of maritime connectivity: revisiting UNCTAD’s liner shipping connectivity index (LSCI)

Maritime connectivity is becoming increasingly important due to its inextricable relation to maritime trade, especially in the global economy. This paper presents a robust framework to rank countries on their maritime connectivity. Typically, in most index creation models, the arithmetic mean is used to build a composite index. In this paper, we propose a more reliable ranking approach, by applying the method of stochastic multicriteria acceptability analysis (SMAA). In this, we take into account the variability in the weights assigned to the connectivity factors, thus producing a probabilistic ranking for each country (i.e., the probability to achieve a certain rank). UNCTAD’s ranking, based simply on the arithmetic mean, where all the weights are equal, becomes a special case of our approach. Our results show that China achieves the highest level of connectivity, followed by Singapore.

Disaggregated validation of disaster-resilience indicators using household survey data: A case study of Hong Kong

A disaster resilience index aggregates numerous observed individual indicators into a numeric value, for the purpose of gauging various communities’ disparate disaster resilience capacities as part of decision-making in resilience management. There have been abundant studies on the creation of such indices, but only a few have sought to empirically validate individual indicators’ practical efficacy in explaining disaster-related outcomes. Therefore, this study performs such disaggregated empirical validation of nine disaster-resilience indicators’ efficacy at explaining two outcome measures: the resistant capacity and recovery capacity of households in Hong Kong. It reveals that certain indicators including education, income, and place attachment can be empirically valid, but that their explanatory power varies substantially across the two outcome measures. For instance, place attachment has divergent relationships with households’ resistant and recovery capacities. The robustness of the indicators’ explanatory power is also unequal, due to the disparate effect sizes of the outcome measures and the indicators’ interdependence. Based on these findings, we provide recommendations on indicator selection and index creation that should be useful to those seeking to create parsimonious and robust sets of indicators that are explanatory of the actual resilience capacities of local communities.

Social, Economic and Environmental Sustainability of Port Regions: MCDM Approach in Composite Index Creation

Maritime transport and ports are among the most important linkages between global economies, handling more than 90% of internationally traded goods. Economic importance of maritime transport imposes significant implications on the social and environmental performance of port regions. The paper aims to create composite indices as relevant, scientific-based tools used in comparing and monitoring various aspects of sustainability across 37 sea port regions in seven countries on the European side of the Mediterranean, covering a five-year period from 2014 to 2018. The model encompasses Eurostat and OECD annual NUTS2 level data covering economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainability. Two important indicators of maritime transport activity, maritime transport of freight and maritime transport of passengers, are included within the group of economic indicators. To create composite indices, the multicriteria decision making (MCDM) framework was used as an integrated approach of entropy in the weighting segment, and the Preference Ranking Organization METHod for Enrichment of Evaluations (PROMETHEE) as an aggregation method. The results highlight GDP per capita and population density as indicators of the greatest relative importance when it comes to port regions sustainability. The ranking results indicate that, despite the fact that Attica is the best ranked region in terms of overall sustainability, the largest number of top rated port regions are in Italy, Spain and France.

АСПЕКТИВИ ВЧЕННЯ УКРАЇНСЬКОЇ НАРОДНОЇ КАЗКИ В ОСТАННЮ ТРЕТИНУ ХХ СТОЛІТТЯ: ФОРМУВАННЯ НОВОЇ ШКОЛИ КАЗКОЗНАВСТВА

The last third of the 20th century in folklore is marked by the revival of methodology and editorial practice. International experience in studying fairy tales (creation of indexes, dictionaries, and theoretical research) had a positive effect on the development of Ukrainian storytelling, in particular its international character, but negatively created an atmosphere of national inferiority of Ukrainian science, inability to discover something new and original in its own folklore. The basis for writing our study was the work of Ukrainian storytellers (I. Berezovskyi, M. Gyrak, M. Zinchuk, L. Dunaevska), dating from the last third of the 20th century. The study also uses fairy tale works of domestic and foreign scientists in their consistent and logical interaction; points to the international issues raised by scholars in relation to the study of folk tales, its genre basis and poetics. Based on the review of collections of fairy tales, conclusions are made about the dynamics of improving the methodology of recording and publishing fairy tale narratives. Giving an assessment of the state of development of Ukrainian science of fairy tales, we can state: 1) Ukrainian storytelling of the last third of the 20th century developed in theoretical and practical aspects. The appearance of multi-volume collections of fairy tales by M. Gyrak and M. Zinchuk, as well as serial editions by L. Dunaevska laid the foundations for further theoretical research; 2) the participation of Ukrainian storytellers in international projects of indexes of plots and motives of fairy tales testified the high level of methods of studying the genre. The work of scientists has contributed to the emergence not only of textbooks, indexes and encyclopedias, but also university departments; 3) L. Dunaevska's theoretical works formed a new school of fairy tale studies, which focuses on the international context.

Análise Estatística da Vulnerabilidade Socioambiental aos Impactos da Covid-19 nos Bairros de Brasília Teimosa e Pina na cidade do Recife-PE

O Covid-19 é uma doença infecciosa causada pelo novo Coronavírus (SARS-CoV-2) que teve os primeiros registros na província de Wuhan na China e em Março de 2020 a OMS declarou a Covid como Pandemia. A partir de então diversos estudos foram realizados para analisar a transmissão do SARS-Cov-2 através de análises de Sistemas de Informações Geográficas e Estatística com a finalidade de avaliar os elementos socioambientais. Para o presente trabalho, a metodologia se caracteriza pela criação de índices de vulnerabilidade socioambientais, analisando indisponibilidade de água potável, ausência de coleta de esgoto sanitário, altas densidades demográficas, taxas de contaminação e taxas de letalidade. Os bairros selecionados foram Brasília Teimosa e Pina, utilizando informações do IJCPM, Compesa, IBGE, Secretaria de Saúde da Cidade do Recife e Secretaria de Planejamento e Gestão do Estado de Pernambuco. Após o processamento dos dados foi introduzido o Índice de Vulnerabilidade Socioambiental utilizando com os indicadores sociais. Para o bairro do Pina, foram selecionados os setores cujo IVSA foi maior ou igual a 0,6. Percebe-se que, para estes setores, a vulnerabilidade quanto ao atendimento domiciliar de esgoto e renda é moderada. Enquanto o bairro de Brasília Teimosa tem-se uma assimetria nas áreas de palafita com vulnerabilidades altas. Esse mesmo comportamento é observado quanto ao IVCD. O bairro do Pina se destaca pela quantidade de outliers, que ocorrem exatamente nos mesmos setores. Isso pode implicar uma relação direta entre a quantidade de casos e a quantidade de óbitos, mas também pode está relacionada com a vulnerabilidade socioeconômica compartilhada. Statistical Analysis of Social and Environmental Vulnerability to Covid-19 Impacts in Brasília Teimosa and Pina Neighborhoods in Recife-PE City A B S T R A C TCovid-19 is an infectious disease caused by the new Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) that had its first records in China's Wuhan province and in March 2020, WHO declared Covid as a Pandemic. Since then, several studies have been carried out to analyze the transmission of SARS-Cov-2 through analyzes of Geographic Information Systems and Statistics with the purpose of evaluating the socioenvironmental elements. For the present work, the methodology is characterized by the creation of socioenvironmental vulnerability indices, analyzing the unavailability of drinking water, the absence of sanitary sewage collection, high demographic densities, contamination rates and lethality rates. The selected neighborhoods were Brasília Teimosa and Pina, using information from IJCPM, Compesa, IBGE, Health Secretariat of the City of Recife and Secretariat of Planning and Management of the State of Pernambuco. After processing the data, the Socio-Environmental Vulnerability Index was introduced using social indicators. For the Pina neighborhood, sectors were selected whose IVSA was greater than or equal to 0.6. It is perceived that, for these sectors, the vulnerability regarding home care for sewage and income is moderate. While the Brasília Teimosa neighborhood has an asymmetry in stilt areas with high vulnerabilities. This same behavior is observed in relation to the IVCD. The Pina neighborhood stands out for the number of outliers, which occur in exactly the same sectors. This may imply a direct relationship between the number of cases and the number of deaths, but it can also be related to shared socioeconomic vulnerability.Keywords: Coronavirus; Health and wellness; Clean water and sanitation

UTCI applications in practice (methodological questions)

UTCI, although it was developed with the participation of scientists from 22 countries, it has shortcomings and people using it face various obstacles. The difficulties include wide range of issues: from different availability of meteorological data in individual countries, through the kind of air temperature which should be properly used in calculations, or the need of recalculation of wind speed. However the biggest subject concern algorithms for mean radiant temperature (Mrt) calculations, different models and programs which simplify calculations of this complex index though introduce different approximations and, as a result, many false results. The paper presents also wide range of UTCI applications in urban bioclimate studies and bioclimatic mapping, climate-human health researches and biometeorological forecasts which were the primary purpose of the index creation, but also applications in tourism and recreation or even in bioclimate change analysis.

Экономика устойчивого развития (проблемы и перспективы становления)

The present study examines the coming crisis of economic science, which does not correspond to the changes taking place in the world economy. Economic concepts based on gross domestic prod-uct calculation cannot adequately reflect the ever-increasing impact of environmental and social fac-tors on the life of society. Scientific centers in West-ern countries are intensively working on creation of indices that take into account the changes in the environment and their economic consequences, as well as their impact on the quality of life of the population. These studies show how urgent is the need for the transition of economic science from the concept of GDP to the socio-economic one. Sus-tainable development indices developed by leading research centers reveal the contours of a new, green economic science. The authors think it expedient to apply new tools with regard to contemporary Rus-sian realia.

Bioeconomy triple factor nexus through indicator analysis

The transition to a sustainable bioeconomy by a customized approach would speed up its development and make it more targeted. There is still no common international method for determining, measuring and comparing the extent of sustainability. The aim of this research is to develop a methodology for the assessment of bioeconomy-influencing factor interlinkages, and creation of benchmarks through a top-down approach. The main output is the assessment of factor interlinkages that could be further used for composite index creation. A case of triple factor nexus is presented: policy, research and innovations, and technology nexus for EU countries. As a result, the empirical model presents the mathematical description of policy, research and innovation, and technology link benchmark.

Review Paper on Composite Leading Index Creation for Forecasting the Bangladeshi Financial Sector

In perspective of the economic vulnerability faced by banks in financial sector, this study mirrors the methodology used by Shumway (2001) – the dynamic hazard model that is able to forecast systemic risk in financial market arena. Here, the terminology followed is based on the CAMELS framework variables: capital adequacy, asset, management, earnings, liquidity and sensitivity to market risk. The objective of this study is to construct a macroprudential indicator (MPI) for the case of Bangladeshi financial market. The result will then be tested for robustness with macro-stress test. Lagged independent variables will be used in the simple hazard model to allow early prediction of MPI in the year in which the crisis happens. The empirical findings can be used as a guideline for the Bangladesh Government and policy makers in accessing, examining and forecasting the health of the Bangladeshi financial system and formulate suitable financial system policies for control. MPI generates information about systemic risk allowing the detection of potential economic crises functioning as an early warning indicator. Government and policy makers will be able to make early preparation in cushioning any potential crises by means of the MPI. Thus the impact of the crises could be minimized and eventually reduce its impact on the Bangladesh economy. The specific objectives are to assemble a novel MPI that is able to recommend early signals of financial market vulnerability, to identify the MPI turning points and establish a comprehensive reference chronology for Bangladeshi financial market and to evaluate the predictive performance of newly constructed MPI on characterizing Bangladeshi financial sector.

Functional Genomics Platform, A Cloud-Based Platform for Studying Microbial Life at Scale.

The rapid growth in biological sequence data is revolutionizing our understanding of genotypic diversity and challenging conventional approaches to informatics. With the increasing availability of genomic data, traditional bioinformatic tools require substantial computational time and the creation of ever-larger indices each time a researcher seeks to gain insight from the data. To address these challenges, we pre-computed important relationships between biological entities spanning the Central Dogma of Molecular Biology and captured this information in a relational database. The database can be queried across hundreds of millions of entities and returns results in a fraction of the time required by traditional methods. In this paper, we describe Functional Genomics Platform (formerly known as OMXWare), a comprehensive database relating genotype to phenotype for bacterial life. Continually updated, the Functional Genomics Platform today contains data derived from 200,000 curated, self-consistently assembled genomes. The database stores functional data for over 68 million genes, 52 million proteins, and 239 million domains with associated biological activity annotations from Gene Ontology, KEGG, MetaCyc, and Reactome. The Functional Genomics Platform maps all of the many-to-many connections between each biological entity including the originating genome, gene, protein, and protein domain. Various microbial studies, from infectious disease to environmental health, can benefit from the rich data and connections. We describe the data selection, the pipeline to create and update the Functional Genomics Platform, and the developer tools (Python SDK and REST APIs)which allow researchers to efficiently study microbial life at scale.

Damage control hip disarticulation: two-stage operation with index creation of a large medial flap for the septic hip

BackgroundAlthough rarely performed, hip disarticulation (HD) is usually used for the patient with a non-viable leg who is also in extremis. HD was first used for trauma and infection; however, the technique was perfected during the age of hindquarter amputation for osteosarcomas. The operation performed by most surgeons today is still based on the oncological principles of high vessel control and ligation. When this approach has been used in the overwhelmingly infected or mangled extremity, it has resulted in high mortality rates. During the last 20 years, the concept of damage control operation has been embraced by emergency surgeons in all fields. We sought to extrapolate this concept and to apply it to the non-viable lower extremity.MethodsWe describe a new concept of damage control HD, review the technique and discuss our consecutive series of nine patients who underwent the procedure for trauma or necrotizing infection without flap dehiscence or mortality.ResultsAll patients survived to hospital discharge. At time of discharge or at follow-up, six of the nine patients were able to transfer to a wheelchair.DiscussionProper disarticulations for infection need to address these two operative and postoperative issues: damage control debridement with creation of sufficient flap size and thorough postoperative wound care.Level IV

Bibliography Studies of the Russian State Library: History and Present Situation

The Russian State Library has made significant contribution to the development of Russian bibliographic thought, starting from the period of the Great Patriotic War (holding scientific conferences, defending PhD theses on bibliography topics by library employees). The major achievement is the development of problems of recommendatory bibliography: the works by B.A. Smirnova of the 1940s through 1960s, major collective studies conducted in 1967—1989 under supervision of the V.I. Lenin State Library of the USSR on the problems of “Effectiveness of recommendatory bibliography in reading guidance” and “Recommendatory bibliography as means of promoting books and reading guidance”. In 1976—1989, the sector of bibliography theory played the significant role in the development of Russian bibliography (since 1983 — the sector of general problems of theory, methodology and organization of bibliography). The release of the serial collection of scientific works “Voprosy bibliografovedeniya” [Questions of bibliography science] (1976—1990) was of great theoretical and organizing value. In the 1990s, when there were no divisions on bibliography science, a number of monographs and dissertations on bibliographic topics were created by individual Library employees. In the Scientific research department of bibliography, established in 1999, there was organized the bibliography science sector (existed until 2015), where famous bibliographic scholars V.A. Fokeev and B.A. Semenovker worked. Within the framework of the sector, G.L. Levin researched on the problems of the national bibliography of Russia. Studies in bibliography science were also created by the other employees of the Department (S.P. Bavin, A.V. Teplitskaya). In 2001, there were resumed publication of the collection “Voprosy bibliografovedeniya” and the activity of the Dissertation Council, where seven dissertations on bibliographic topics were defended by the RSL employees. At present, both researchers and bibliographers of the Scientific Research Department of Bibliography carry out scientific research in parallel with the compilation activities. The authors of bibliographic publications are also employees of other scientific and library divisions of the Russian State Library. Of great importance is the activity of the Scientific Research Department of Bibliography on the information support of bibliographic science, such as creation of indexes of bibliographic literature and bibliographic production of libraries.

Computation of Irregularity Indices of Certain Computer Networks

A graph is said to be a regular graph if all its vertices have the same degree; otherwise, it is irregular. In general, irregularity indices are used for computational analysis of nonregular graph topological composition. The creation of irregular indices is based on the conversion of a structural graph into a total count describing the irregularity of the molecular design on the map. It is important to be notified how unusual a molecular structure is in various situations and problems in structural science and chemistry. In this paper, we will compute irregularity indices of certain networks.

Unraveling the Role of Cognition in the Internationalization Process

Objective: The aim of this paper is to verify the effects of triggering stimuli on internationalization and whether, according to the target population, ambidexterity and mental models (MM) increase the predisposition to exports, as well as whether the country of origin causes differences in terms of cognition.Method: Data collection consisted of applying a questionnaire to a sample of 285 students from Business Administration programs in Brazil and Spain. ANOVA Welsh was used to verify the heterogeneity of variations, the Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Shapiro-Wilk tests were used to assess normality, and nonparametric Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to verify the results of the previous tests.Main outcomes: The results showed that the strategic MM facilitates internationalization. In the sample studied, it was possible to verify that Brazilians show an operational tendency, with decisions based on logic and an improvised lifestyle, which denotes lower possibility of engaging in internationalization. This differs from what was found in the Spanish sample, which showed tendency to a strategic approach, denoting greater possibility of engagement in an internationalization process. These results may also be used to improve internationalization stimulus programs, considering cognitive aspects.Relevance: There is a low number of references relating the subject of ambidexterity to the internationalization process. This study is relevant for proposing the creation of indexes to obtain data on the MM and ambidexterity regarding the identification of personal motivation factors influencing the entrepreneur’s insertion in international markets.Theoretical/methodological contributions: Proposition of a formula for standardizing and rescaling the instruments’ value, as the differences between scales may contribute to the inclusion of a hidden dimension of the internationalization process: the analysis of cognition.

Acute Traumatic Intracranial Hematoma Index and its Significance for Objectifying Indications for Their Surgical Treatment

THE AIM OF THE STUDY. was an index creation for both single and multiple acute traumatic intracranial hematomas (ATIH) for objectification of the surgical treatment indications and using multispiral computed tomography (MSCT) and based on up-to-date clinical recommendations.MATERIAL AND METHODS. We performed a retrospective study of 3 groups of patients with ATIH. Group 1 included 19 patients who were treated conservatively and discharged from the hospital without complications (group of conservative treatment). Group 2 included 9 patients who were observed after hospitalization and were treated in a delayed manner surgically due to growth of the intracranial hematoma volume or the patient condition deterioration (group of observation). Group 3 included 18 patients who were operated due urgent indications (group of surgical treatment). For each patient, the acute traumatic hematoma index (ATHI) was calculated by our original formula. It took the ATIH location, volume in milliliters according to the first MSCT, and risk factors significant for poor outcomes into account. After a preliminary assessment of the significance of differences between the studied characters of groups, a discriminant analysis was carried out with determination of the ATHI values in each group.RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS. The suggested ATHI index has been shown to be effective in assessing single and multiple ATIHs of any location in accordance with current recommendations. The index is an objective (digital) and easy-to-use for determining ATIH surgical treatment indications and statistical treatment. If ATHI is less than 3 points, there are no indications for surgery and the repeated MSCT of the brain is indicated at least 12 hours after the first checkup or if the suspicious clinical sings appear; if ATHI is 3–4, the indications for surgery are relative and the repeated MSCT of the brain is required 6 hours later even if the patient condition is unaltered; the surgery is indicated if ATHI is more than 4 points.Authors declare lack of the conflicts of interests.

Internal and external validation of vulnerability indices: a case study of the Multivariate Nursing Home Vulnerability Index

As the frequency of natural disasters increases, there has been an emphasis on vulnerability index creation studies. In this study, we test the validity of vulnerability indices by examining a vulnerability index created for nursing homes throughout the Southeastern United States. In this index, underlying community characteristics, natural hazards frequency, and nursing home facility data were combined to create the Multivariate Nursing Home Vulnerability Index (MNHVI) using an inductive-hierarchical index structure. To internally validate these indices, a manual construction method and Monte Carlo simulations are used to create multiple unique versions of the MNHVI. Each iteration of the MNHVI considers alternative model structures for insight into regions of precision within the model and the average amount of variation for each census unit. External validation is used to determine if the indices are accurately predicting harm or mortality caused by storm events. External validation was assessed using death and injury statistics from NOAA’s storm event database and North Carolina death certificate data. Results demonstrated that indices were not precise despite changes in spatial scale and that hazard level indices were the most accurate predictor of injury and death from natural hazards. Identifying accuracy and precision for vulnerability indices provides additional assurance on the appropriate identification of at-risk regions.

Measuring the Effect of the Digitalization

Digitalization has changed the rules both in the private and public sectors of the economy. Therefore, the study of its effects has become more relevant. In previous studies, authors mainly focused on the definition of the term, its boundaries and the creation of indexes. The main downside of such papers devoted to this topic is the lack of a quantitative approach. The impacts of digitalization on economic indicators have not been quantitatively investigated in depth. This paper studies the impact of digitalization on the economy, and more specifically on GDP. The first part consists of creating a synthetic index, the Index of Digitalization (ID), which reflects the state of digitalization at the country level. The second part is dedicated to validating the ID using a Panel Data Model, where GDP in previous years is set as a dependent variable that defines a direct connection.

Створення вегетаційних індексів для потреб точного землеробства засобами MathCad

Створення вегетаційних індексів для потреб точного землеробства засобами MathCad

Framework for logistics performance index construction using DEA: an application for soybean haulage in Brazil

Freight transportation is vital to a nation’s long-term development and its performance needs to be carefully evaluated to ensure the effectiveness, efficiency, and equity of haulage infrastructure decisions. The previous attempts at benchmarking the transportation corridors and route efficiency through Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) models violated homogeneity assumptions or did not provide an appropriate robustness analysis. The present paper integrates index creation and general DEA guidelines, and proposes a framework for the creation of a long-distance cargo haulage performance index, advancing towards the limitations of the previous efforts. The methodology is applied to the context of soybean transportation, one of the relevant Brazilian exporting products, during the harvest of 2015/2016, from the main mid-sized producing regions to the key exporting ports, by land transportation. The proposed approach and findings can provide insights into public and private long-term investment strategies and infrastructure policies in Brazil and other developing countries in a similar context.