Kinds Of Indices Research Articles

Customer service quality improvement in the public sector through the Internet

In response to environmental change, public sectors have begun to focus on their customers and customer services. Most of the public sector organisations, however, have made little progress in making themselves more customer-friendly, when compared with the private sector. Thus to improve the quality of service for public sector clients, this study devised a framework of Service Quality Improvement in the Public Sector (SQIPS), which combines information from marketing surveys and panels. The framework calculates several kinds of indices to identify key processes and builds customer retention and maturity strategies by using them. An Internet-based system equipped with the SQIPS framework has been developed. The benefits of the framework are summarised as follows: Obtaining high-quality reliable panel data from the public sector; saving money and time to collect questionnaires; improving internal and external customer processes based on various surveys; and enhancing service quality through the analysis of organisational processes.

Index system of the water flooding development of oil fields and its structural analysis

Abstract Oilfield development is mainly subject to two kinds of indices: (1) material basis deciding the oilfield development effect (showing index system of geological status of natural reservoir geological features); (2) artificial factors deciding development effect (showing dynamic index system of development level subject to human control). Through multiple correlation analysis, 8 major indices that demonstrate the natural geological features of reservoir have been selected: effective porosity, air permeability, effective sandstone coefficient, initial oil saturation, initial difference between reservoir pressure and saturation pressure, permeability variation coefficient, flow coefficient, unit reserve factor; and 10 major indices that show the development level subject to human control: recovery degree, water flooding index, flow pressure of injector, flow pressure of producer, producer/injector ratio, well spacing density, cumulative water storage rate, volume multiple of cumulative injected water volume, flooding control extent and reserve producing degree. Factor analysis shows: the natural geological features of reservoir include structural factor of reservoir, oil scale factor, oil flow factor; the development level subject to human control includes water injection factor, oil production factor and well control factor.

HARMONIZATION BETWEEN PERSONAL AND SHARED MEMORIES

This paper discusses harmonization issues between the management of resources stored locally by users in personal repositories and the management of resources shared by a community which they belong to. The solution consists in maintaining the same kind of indexing. We discuss some requirements that the motivation implies and we present some choices that have been done for engineering the system that allows to manage different types of resources and that allows to describe them with ontological elements. This paper focuses on a knowledge-based representation of resources that supports the service that the community can bring to its members. We develop our approach of semantic indexing. Some constraints due to the nature of a distributed index are also presented. Peer to peer based communities rely on a decentralized system. The paper also presents the system engineering of a prototype that gives access to the resources. It explains how the architecture is structured and the role of its layers. The Web design of the front-end guarantees an anywhere and anytime access to the resources. The system supports an easy scalability thanks to its underlying architecture based on web services.

Consistency of accuracy assessment indices for soft classification: Simulation analysis

Accuracy assessment plays a crucial role in the implementation of soft classification. Even though many indices of accuracy assessment for soft classification have been proposed, the consistencies among these indices are not clear, and the impact of sample size on these consistencies has not been investigated. This paper examines two kinds of indices: map-level indices, including root mean square error ( rmse), kappa, and overall accuracy ( oa) from the sub-pixel confusion matrix (SCM); and category-level indices, including crmse, user accuracy ( ua) and producer accuracy ( pa). A careful simulation was conducted to investigate the consistency of these indices and the effect of sample size. The major findings were as follows: (1) The map-level indices are highly consistent with each other, whereas the category-level indices are not. (2) The consistency among map-level and category-level indices becomes weaker when the sample size decreases. (3) The rmse is more affected by error distribution among classes than are kappa and oa. Based on these results, we recommend that rmse can be used for map-level accuracy due to its simplicity, although kappa and oa may be better alternatives when the sample size is limited because the two indices are affected less by the error distribution among classes. We also suggest that crmse should be provided when map users are not concerned about the error source, whereas ua and pa are more useful when the complete information about different errors is required. The results of this study will be of benefit to the development and application of soft classifiers.

La "similaritŕ" dei flussi di commercio agro-alimentare tra Italia e Francia

- During the last twenty years world agri-food commerce shows an important growth owing to traded quantities increase and also to economic development of competitors on the world scene. This article is about agrifood commerce in European Union market. The aim of the paper is to compare the agri-food trade flows of Italy and France, two Mediterranean countries with very intense trade relations. For Italian agri-food system, in fact, France is the top import market and the second export market. On the basis of eurostat data, the paper focuses on import and export flows between Italy and the other European Union countries, on one side, and, on the other side, in the same way, between France and EU countries. The purpose is to value if - and at what extend - exchanged products are similar, to know if trade relationships between Italy and France are complementary rather then competitive. The first part of the paper consists of a brief introduction that is about the main trends of agrifood trade in the countries we examined. The most important data of agrifood balance are reported and discussed, and their trends examined over the period 1999-2006. The second part concerns more specifically the analysis of similarity. The analysis is based on three different kind of index: 1. the similarity and specialization indexes make possible the value the level of specialization and complementarity of Italy and France agri-food trade relations and their evolutional trend; 2. Finger-Kreinin and Hirshmann indexes measure structural changes in trade patterns over the period 1999-2006; 3. Balassa index gives information on compared advantages of competitors. As said above, we use eurostat external trade statistics, all data are related to intra European Union flows. In the database, for trade purposes, goods are classified according to Combined nomenclature in the European Union. The classification is based on the Harmonised Commodity Description and Coding System (hs) managed by the World Customs Organisation (wco); the hs uses a six digit numerical code for the coding of products. This article is part of a work in progress whose object is wider. The analysis will be extended to all Mediterranean countries, European Union Members and Third Countries, so our object is now to have a first discussion of the partial results we obtained.JEL Code: Q17Key words: agri-food commerce, European Union market, analysis of similarity, competitive advantage

Formula omitted]-Index: Quantitative and qualitative evaluation based on the number and impact of papers in the Hirsch core

Bibliometric studies at the micro level are increasingly requested by science managers and policy makers to support research decisions. Different measures and indices have been developed at this level of analysis. One type of indices, such as the h-index and g-index, describe the most productive core of the output of a researcher and inform about the number of papers in the core. Other indices, such as the a-index and m-index, depict the impact of the papers in the core. In this paper, we present a new index which relates two different dimensions in a researcher’s productive core: a quantitative one (number of papers) and a qualitative one (impact of papers). In such a way, we could obtain a more balanced and global view of the scientific production of researchers. This new index, called q 2 -index, is based on the geometric mean of h-index and the median number of citations received by papers in the h-core, i.e., the m-index, which allows us to combine the advantages of both kind of indices.

On the correlation between the bifurcation values of the electron localization function and the nuclear independent chemical shift in aromatic and heteroaromatic compounds

In this work, for a representative set of 24 aromatic molecules, that includes hydrocarbons, hetero and charged rings, we explore the correlations between two aromaticity indexes. One of these indexes is based on the bifurcation values of the σ and π electron localization function (ELF), while the other one is the nuclear independent chemical shift (NICS). We observe that the quality of the possible correlations between these two kinds of indexes strongly depends on the kind of rings and on the particular indexes that are considered.

Possibilities of financial health indicators used for prediction of future development of agricultural enterprises

The paper presents the possibilities how financial health indicators can be used both for the prediction of future value of agricultural holdings and for the prediction of the potential risk and dangers. The limited predicative ability of all indicators as compared to th recommended values is revealed in the first part of the paper. The second part of the article proves the hypothesis of the efficiency of indices in the inter-enterprise and time comparison. According to this hypothesis, holdings with a higher index value should be more successful in the following years. This part of investigation has shown the conditional efficiency of the Gurčík index and the IN99 index for the prediction of the increase in the value of a company. The relation between the calculated value of an index and the value of its future profit/loss has been proved for those indices. The possibilities how to predict a bankruptcy are limited. Agricultural holdings are threatened both with a long-term negative profitability and with a sudden fluctuation in the profit/loss from operations together with a high debt ratio. Each type of danger largely applies to a different kind of holding and each type of danger is indicated by a different kind of index. The possible problems with the long-term negative profitability have been indicated reliably by the OP index of financial health and by the Gurčík index. Problems with solvency have been partially predicted by the IN95 index and the Chrastinová index (these results were not statistically significant). The final part of the paper is aimed at the analysis of the advantages and disadvantaged of individual indices. A number of financial indicators for agricultural holdings correlate with the future development of a holding but the relation is non-linear (e.g. debt ratio indicators) or outweighed by another factor (e.g. activity indicators, where the development corresponds rather to the production specialization). Another reason for unsatisfactory results of the prediction are the frequent extreme values of the non-standardized indicators. The predicative ability of individual indicators is also reduced by the unsuitable setting of weights for indicators.

Comparison of the Indices of Oxyhemoglobin Saturation by Pulse Oximetry in Obstructive Sleep Apnea Hypopnea Syndrome

To comprehensively evaluate the ability and reliability of the representative previously proposed oxyhemoglobin indexes derived automatically for predicting the severity of obstructive sleep apnea hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS). Patients with a diagnosis of OSAHS by standard polysomnography were recruited from China Medical University Hospital Centre. There were 257 patients in the learning set and 279 patients in the validation set. The presence of OSAHS was defined as apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) > 5/h. Three kinds of oxyhemoglobin indexes, including the oxyhemoglobin desaturation index (ODI), time-domain index, and frequency-domain index, were used. Degrees of severity were AHI > 15/h and AHI > 30/h, representing moderate and severe OSAHS. A total of 28 oxyhemoglobin indexes were tested in our study. Among the three kinds of indexes, ODI had a better diagnostic performance than the time-domain and frequency-domain indexes, with the results coincident in the validation set and learning set. For predicting the severity of OSAHS with AHI > 15/h or > 30/h, the ODI clinically had the higher correlation with AHI than time-domain and frequency-domain indexes, with sensitivity/specificity achieving 84.0%/84.3% in AHI > 15/h and 87.8%/96.6% in AHI > 30/h, respectively. Based on the smaller SEE of the AHI, the ODI had a significantly smaller SEE than the time-domain and frequency-domain indexes. The ODI index provided a high level of diagnostic sensitivity and specificity at different degrees of OSAHS severity.

Inter-generational equity index for assessing environmental sustainability: An example on global warming

Inter-generational equity is essential for environmental sustainability. The current gen- eration inherits an environment with a certain quality from the previous generation. The impact on the environment gradually exacerbates and accumulates over a period of time between two generations. However, currently there is no index available to assess inter- generational equity. Generally a typical environmental index is established to represent the environmental status in a specific year. This kind of index, although it presents the annual environmental variation, does not reflect the degree of change in environmental sustain- ability between two generations. Therefore, an inter-generational equity index (IGEI) and an endowment equation to examine the temporal trend of the changing environment are proposed for assessing inter-generational equity. To demonstrate the applicability of the endowment equation, an IGEI was established to assess the inter-generational equity of global warming. The global warming IGEI evaluates the status between two generations based on three sub-indexes; CO2 emission, loss due to climate disasters, and the size of the existing forest area. The pressure-state-response (PSR) framework was adopted to explain the causal relationship between these three sub-indexes. According to the endowment rate determined by the proposed equation for each sub-index, the increase in CO2 emission from 1980 to 2000 shows an obviously inequitable pattern between generations. Subsequently, the loss due to climate disasters between generations was also more serious. The size of the forest area, an important factor for reducing the impact of global warming, is unfortunately also decreasing significantly between generations. Using the endowment rate determined by the proposed endowment equation, the evaluation of the inter-generational equity is made possible and is demonstrated by the IGEI established for global warming.

Pricing of catastrophe insurance options written on a loss index with reestimation

We propose a valuation model for catastrophe insurance options written on a loss index. This kind of options distinguishes between a loss period [ 0 , T 1 ] , during which the catastrophes may happen, and a development period [ T 1 , T 2 ] , during which losses entered before T 1 are reestimated. Here we suppose that the underlying loss index is given by a time inhomogeneous compound Poisson process before T 1 and that losses are reestimated by a common factor given by an exponential time inhomogeneous Lévy process after T 1 . In this setting, using Fourier transform techniques, we are able to provide analytical pricing formulas for catastrophe options written on this kind of index.

Querying XML documents in logic programming

AbstractExtensible Markup Language (XML)is a simple, very flexible text format derived from SGML. Originally designed to meet the challenges of large-scale electronic publishing, XML is also playing an increasingly important role in the exchange of a wide variety of data on the Web and elsewhere.XPathlanguage is the result of an effort to provide address parts of an XML document. In support of this primary purpose, it becomes in aquery languageagainst an XML document. In this paper we present a proposal for the implementation of theXPathlanguage in logic programming. With this aim we will describe the representation of XML documents by means of alogic program.Rulesandfactscan be used for representing the document schema and the XML document itself. In particular, we will presenthow to index XML documentsin logic programs: rules are supposed to be stored inmain memory, however facts are stored insecondary memoryby using two kind of indexes: one for each XML tag, and other for each group of terminal items. In addition, we will study how to query by means of theXPathlanguage against a logic program representing an XML document. It evolves thespecialization of the logic programwith regard to theXPathexpression. Finally, we will also explain how tocombine the indexing and the top-down evaluationof the logic program.

Boundary Effects and Repeat-Sales

We study in this article the consequences of the double censoring (right and left) applied on every sample of repeat-sales before calculating a repeat-sales index. We show that, independently of the specificities of each dataset, there exist some intrinsic features for this kind of index that directly depend on the censoring mechanism. Working with the standard deviation of the estimator and the well known bias of the Cass, Shiller model we bring to fore a time structure for these two quantities. Their behaviour is different near the edges of the interval compared to the middle, and this phenomenon is generally more pronounced for the right side than for the left side. A sensitivity analysis is developed using a neutral sample in order to study the way this U-shape evolve in relation with the fundamental parameters. With this analysis we also try to determine the optimal length of the estimation interval, the consequences of the data dispersion and the impact of the liquidity levels in the market (number of goods sold at each date and resale speed).

상수도관 부식방지를 위한 CCPP(Calcium Carbonate Precipitation Potential) 산정 프로그램 개발

본 연구에서는 상수도관의 부식방지를 위해 관망 내부에서 탄산칼슘의 침전 및 용해 여부를 판단할 수 있는 지표인 CCPP를 산정할 수 있는 프로그램을 개발하였다. CCPP 산정은 9단계 절차를 통하여 이루어지며, 평형상태의 pH를 가정하고 결정 식의 왼쪽 항의 합과 오른 쪽 항의 합이 오차의 범위에서 유사한 값을 주도록 반복계산을 수행하고, 다음 단계에서 초기 및 평형상태의 알칼리도를 대입하여 CCPP를 구한다. 프로그램 개발은 계산을 위해 포트란 언어를, 결과 값을 그래프로 표현하여 쉽게 판단할 수 있도록 비쥬얼베이직 언어를 사용하였다. 개발된 프로그램을 적용하여 한강 수계 Y정수사업소의 수질을 평가한 결과, 탄산칼슘의 불포화 상태가 심한 수질로 판명되어 부식성이 높은 것으로 평가되었다. In this study, we developed the CCPP calculating program, which is a kind of index and can determine whether calcium carbonate would precipitate or not in pipe line of water distribution system. Through 9 complicated procedures, CCPP can be calculated. Assuming pH of equilibrium as a first trial, compare the right-hand-side result with left-hand-side result. If the percentage difference between the two results is less than a prescribed tolerance, the initial assumption for the assumed equilibrium pH is adequate. If the difference is too large, make a different assumption and repeat until a result within the prescribed tolerance is achieved. Plugging the intermediate results into the final equation, we could compute the CCPP. Using Fortran and Visual Basic languages, we developed the program. As a result of application of the program, the water quality of intaking water of Han River is highly corrosive by the index of CCPP.

Data sources selection for XML data sources

In the information integration system, XML becomes an important format for information representation and exchanging. Selection of useful data sources for a query is a crucial problem for efficient query processing in an information integration system. This paper focuses on the data sources selection for XML data sources in the information integration system. For a query with both structural and value constraints, two kinds of indices, constraint index and structural index are presented for data sources selection. The former is grouped by values and captures the structure related to each value in a group. The latter is to summarise all the paths in the XML data sources. In order to reduce the size of index, index compacting and node selection strategies are presented. Based on the structure, efficient data sources selection methods are designed. Extensive experiments are performed to demonstrate the efficiency and effectiveness of the structure and data sources selection strategies presented in this paper.

Effects of the expressway on the soil-plant systems in the Longitudinal Range-Gorge Region

Taking Da-Bao expressway in the Longitudinal Range-Gorge Region (LRGR) as an example, the effects of the expressway on three kinds of soil-plant systems along the road are analyzed by seven types of indexes, which are soil nutrient, heavy metals of soil, soil moisture and pH of soil, plant nutrient, heavy metal of plant and plant diversity. Firstly, through comparing typical sampling points and their contradistinguished points, the effects of the expressway on single index is analyzed and discussed; secondly, interactions among the expressway and all kinds of indexes are discussed with correlative analysis; finally, the range and intensity of effects on three systems are analyzed with gray related analysis. All results show that 1) within the range of effect by expressway, the forms of expression of all indexes are different to the interference of expressway. 2) Expressway can cause the accumulation of HMS and HMP, especially in the farmland system; and bring a little alkalization of the soil, especially in the shrub system. 3) Expressway is the most important influencing factor of HMS, SM, HMP and PD in the forest and shrub systems, but only HMS and HMP in the farmland system. To the indexes of insignificant correlation with road, expressway works indirectly through the effect chains of the system. Comparing with three kinds of soil-plant systems, effects mostly concentrate on the areas of 10 m from the expressway in the forest and farmland systems, and on the area of 30 m on the shrub system.

Extreme times for volatility processes

Extreme times techniques, generally applied to nonequilibrium statistical mechanical processes, are also useful for a better understanding of financial markets. We present a detailed study on the mean first-passage time for the volatility of return time series. The empirical results extracted from daily data of major indices seem to follow the same law regardless of the kind of index thus suggesting an universal pattern. The empirical mean first-passage time to a certain level L is fairly different from that of the Wiener process showing a dissimilar behavior depending on whether L is higher or lower than the average volatility. All of this indicates a more complex dynamics in which a reverting force drives volatility toward its mean value. We thus present the mean first-passage time expressions of the most common stochastic volatility models whose approach is comparable to the random diffusion description. We discuss asymptotic approximations of these models and confront them to empirical results with a good agreement with the exponential Ornstein-Uhlenbeck model.

Nematode diversity and food web condition in heavy metal polluted soils in a river basin in southern Spain

Effects of heavy metal pollution on the nematode community and the soil food web were assessed (June 2000 to February 2002) by using nematode community composition, functional guild abundances and diversity, maturity and soil food web indices in polluted soils in a river basin in southern Spain. Soil content of Pb, Ni, Cu and Zn, soil pH and soil texture were measured in both polluted and non-polluted areas. The composition of the nematode community and diversity indices was strongly affected by heavy metal soil content (especially by Pb, Cu and Zn). Comparing polluted and non-polluted areas, taxonomic diversity was more different between areas than functional indices. While diversity indices were negatively correlated with metal soil pollution until the last sampling date, by the end of the survey (46 months after the pollution incident), as indicated by maturity and food web indices, the functional status of the soil community was nearly recovered. Of the three kinds of indices used (diversity, maturity and soil food web descriptors), the structure index, Margalef's diversity index and the maturity index were detected as the most appropriate indicators of the effect of soil pollution on the nematode community. The usefulness of using different descriptors assessing pollutant effects on soil communities is discussed.

View Dependent Sequential Point Trees

Sequential point trees provide the state-of-the-art technique for rendering point models, by re-arranging hierarchical points sequentially according to geometric errors running on GPU for fast rendering. This paper presents a view dependent method to augment sequential point trees by embedding the hierarchical tree structures in the sequential list of hierarchical points. By the method, two kinds of indices are constructed to facilitate the points rendering in an order mostly from near to far and from coarse to fine. As a result, invisible points can be culled view-dependently in high efficiency for hardware acceleration, and at the same time, the advantage of sequential point trees could be still fully taken. Therefore, the new method can run much faster than the conventional sequential point trees, and the acceleration can be highly promoted particularly when the objects possess complex occlusion relationship and viewed closely because invisible points would be in a high percentage of the points at finer levels.

Assessing the market power due to the network constraints in competitive electricity markets

The physical and operational constraints of the network pose very specific problems to market power analysis in the oligopolistic electricity markets. This paper presents a direct analytical approach to find the market equilibrium based on a supply function game model. The model is exploited to undertake a sensitivity analysis of the producer surplus with reference to the line flow limits under a DC power flow model for network representation. Two different kinds of indices, that can capture the market power arising under network constraints, are proposed. The first set of indices is the location privilege (LP), that measure the effect of the generators positioning in the grid on their surplus under perfect competition. The second set is for the network market power (NMP) indices that take into account the strategic behaviors of the producers that may take advantage of the congestion of the transmission lines. The indices allow for a ranking of the lines in terms of the market power they can induce and, in this respect, they may help the market regulator to focus on the network weakness in terms of the possible market outcomes under the market power behaviors from the supply side. The application of the proposed indices is illustrated with reference to the IEEE 30-bus test system.