Number Of Different Measures Research Articles

Allotment plan as a condition for sustainable development on the example of detailed regulation 'Stanko Vlasotincanin' in Nis

In order to protect the environment and creation the conditions for a good and healthy life, the construction of buildings should be sustainable. It is essential that the entire process that includes planning, design and realization, be consistent with bioclimatic principles. Allotment plan should be an integral part of the planning process because it is an instrument to control the use of construction land and prevention the negative consequences that are created by uncontrolled action of the market. This paper analyzes the detailed regulation plan, 'Stanko Vlasotinčanin' in Nis with emphasis on the lack of plan allotment and (non) application of bioclimatic principles in the planning. Performs a comparison with the detailed planning before 2003, ie. before the Law on planning and construction. Analyses the legislation relating to land use. Recommendations for amending the same, and the introduction of urban consolidation as a possible model of land development and implementation of spatial planning. It is concluded that it is necessary to undertake a number of different measures that are primarily related to the amendment and enforcement of legislation, the introduction of assessment of market value of land and the involvement and the willingness of experts and institutions for their implementation.

NonConvex Iteratively Reweighted Least Square Optimization in Compressive Sensing

In this paper, we study a method for sparse signal recovery with the help of iteratively reweighted least square approach, which in many situations outperforms other reconstruction method mentioned in literature in a way that comparatively fewer measurements are needed for exact recovery. The algorithm given involves solving a sequence of weighted minimization for nonconvex problems where the weights for the next iteration are determined from the value of current solution. We present a number of experiments demonstrating the performance of the algorithm. The performance of the algorithm is studied via computer simulation for different number of measurements, and degree of sparsity. Also the simulation results show that improvement is achieved by incorporating regularization strategy.

Interaction véhicule-voie-sol et vibrations dues aux trains

This contribution presents models that are necessary to calculate the vibrations due to the passage of a train. The models allow to calculate the propagation of the waves and the receptances of the soil and the track. The layered soil and the coupling with the track are treated by a (double) integration in wavenumber domain. The dynamic stiffnesses of the track and vehicle are combined and the excitation forces due to the irregularities of the track and the wheel are calculated. Finally, these excitation forces are used to simulate the ground vibration of a passing train. All these models are validated by a number of different measurements at two sites in France and Germany.

Rural and urban areas: comparing lives using rural/urban classifications

Most people have a clear impression of what the cities, towns and countryside look like in the UK, both physically and in terms of the lives of the people who live there. This article compares rural and urban areas statistically for themes such as working, earnings, services and population, using geographical classifications.There is quantitative evidence that rural areas are better off than urban areas on a number of different measures, such as unemployment and crime, but there are substantial differences within both rural and urban areas. In a few respects rural areas are worse off. Analysis indicates that house prices are less affordable to local workers in rural areas than urban areas and the costs, travel time and carbon emissions resulting from transport tend to be higher in rural areas.Using classifications that show sparse areas of England, some topics, such as incomes and qualifications, show ‘two countrysides’ – a better off, less sparse and more accessible one, and a less populous and isolated sparse countryside. Patterns within urban areas often differ, with the most urban areas of England frequently showing different trends from those in other places, and the widest variations.This article shows that while no single rural/urban classification can be used for all geographies, using such a product helps to better understand the differing characteristics of rural and urban areas in a consistent, transparent way. This article will be of interest to those who wish to explore local authority or small area datasets, covering countries within the UK, for rural/urban differences, as well as those who wish to develop a greater understanding of rural/urban differences in general. It will also be of interest to those involved in local policy development and the allocation of resources within areas, as well as academics, journalists, researchers and members of the public with an interest in the classification and characteristics of rural and urban areas.

How accurate are predicted waiting times, determined upon a patient's arrival in the Emergency Department?

BackgroundInformation regarding waiting times has been shown to be a key determinant of patient satisfaction. This study aimed to examine the potential accuracy of predicted waiting times determined on the...

Congestion charging in Budapest – a comparison with existing systems

Transport is undoubtedly an extremely important sector in Europe. Accounting for 10% of GDP, as well as 10 million workers, it is also a major source of pollution and noise emissions. The adverse effects of transport are amplified by congestion, resulting in traffic jams, aggravation for motorists and even more pollution. A number of different measures have been devised to address this problem, and to spare populated city centers from heavy traffic loads, while also promoting the ``polluter pays principle´´. One of these measures is congestion charging, already implemented in several cities across Europe and worldwide, and may soon be introduced in Budapest. The purpose of this paper is to find a common ground for the schemes introduced in London and Stockholm, comparing them to the possible scheme in Budapest.

Spatial Targeting of Agri-Environmental Measures: Cost-Effectiveness and Distributional Consequences

Agri-environmental measures are payments to farmers to reduce environmental risks or to preserve cultivated landscapes. These measures are codified in European Union regulations. Poor spatial targeting is one of the major causes of low cost-effectiveness in agri-environmental measures. Existing studies on spatial targeting focus primarily on selected individual measures; hence, they do not allow for conclusions at the program level, where the planning and implementing of decisions on a number of different measures has to be made. In this study, we analyzed the impacts of two spatial targeting options (targeting of erosion-reducing measures on erosion vulnerable areas; targeting of grassland extensification on N-pollution vulnerable areas) on the cost-effectiveness of the single measures and the entire agri-environmental program of the federal state of Brandenburg in Germany. The methodological steps included an analysis of empirical data on land use and program participation, an expert-based environmental impact assessment and a spatial allocation procedure based on linear programming. The environmental impact assessment delivered goal-specific index values for each measures-land parcel combination expressing the suitability of the measures for contributing to four regionally relevant program objectives. The cost-effectiveness of the measures and the program were calculated by putting budgetary costs in relation to the achieved environmental index sum. The calculated cost-effectiveness of the program in 2006 was 89.6% of the simulated optimal cost-effectiveness. The spatial targeting of erosion-reducing measures on erosion vulnerable areas caused an increase in the cost-effectiveness at the measures level and almost no changes at the program level. The spatial targeting of grassland extensification on N-pollution vulnerable areas, despite also improving the cost-effectiveness of this measure, had negative effects on the cost-effectiveness of the program.

Measuring ethnicity: challenges and opportunities for survey research

Measuring ethnic identity in social surveys has traditionally been problematic, often using a single question and allowing the respondent to choose one category from a pre-defined list. In this paper we discuss the rationale for and limitations of measuring a complex and multi-dimensional concept with a simple, uni-dimensional question. We propose that operationalizing ethnicity as multi-dimensional requires multiple questions to capture the complexity of the concept. Giving researchers a number of different measures enables them to focus on the dimensions of interest to them, and has the potential to open up the rich resources of theoretically robust survey research to researchers from a range of disciplines concerned with questions of ethnic identification.

Fundamental Considerations of Soil Organic Carbon Dynamics

The dynamics of soil organic carbon (SOC) decomposition have received renewed attention in recent decades because of the concerns over its potential feedback to predicted climate change. At present, the dominant theory of SOC decomposition is based on the idea that SOC consists of kinetically homogeneous compartments decomposing according to first-order kinetics. A simpler and more consistent theoretical framework is developed based on the view that SOC is a population of carbon with widely distributed ages, along with three fundamental assumptions―that of the possibility of steady state, linearity, and rate-time equivalence. The new theory bases its description and prediction of SOC dynamics on a single observable SOC decomposition function, the R function. A number of different measurements of SOC decomposition are shown to be connected by R. Accurate description and prediction of SOC dynamics over a wide range of time scales are obtained based on approximation of R by a simple two-parameter hockey stick function. Previously perceived inconsistencies in experimental observations, particularly in the determination of SOC turnover time and the response of SOC decomposition to temperature, are shown to be consistent with the new theory. The new theoretical framework can serve as the foundation for more consistent interpretation of experimental observations and for the development of more robust process-based predictive models of SOC.

Comparing Cost-Utility Estimates

A number of different measures can be used within cost-utility analyses, we compared results according to both the EQ-5D and SF-6D. A randomized trial was conducted to compare 4 options for people with knee pain. Over the 2 year trial period, the change in cost to health-service was estimated, and both the EQ-5D and SF-6D were used to estimate the change in quality-adjusted life years (QALYs). Using a complete case analysis, the cost-utility (incremental cost-effectiveness ratio [ICER]) of each option, according to both the EQ-5D and SF-6D, was calculated and assessed in relation to the cost-effectiveness threshold of pound20,000 per QALY. Of the 389 participants, 247 had complete cost, EQ-5D and SF-6D data. According to the EQ-5D, option 1 had an estimated ICER of pound10,815 (compared with option 4), option 2 was dominated by option 1, and option 3 was subject to extended dominance. Conversely, according to the SF-6D, option 3 had an ICER of pound9999 (compared with option 4), option 2 had an ICER of pound36,883 (compared with option 3), and option 1 was subject to extended dominance. The EQ-5D and SF-6D estimated that different options (1 and 3, respectively) were cost-effective at the pound20,000 per QALY threshold, demonstrating that the choice of measure does matter.

Lady and the Trump: Status and Wealth in the Marriage Market

SUMMARYIndicators of past wealth –‘old money’– typically bestow prestige and contribute to high status. Nobility, a culturally determined, hereditary status marker, might act as such an indicator, and thereby serve as a vehicle for the cultural transmission of economic standing. As an institution, nobility is an anachronism. Status, however, plays an important role in most societies, making individuals allocate valuable resources to status‐enhancing activities. This suggests that even though nobility no longer entails formal privileges, it may continue to be coveted as a status marker. We examine the relative performance of nobility in the marriage market. Data on Swedish marriages provide an opportunity to test the hypothesis that the probability of hypergamy (marrying ‘up’) in terms of wealth increases when an individual belongs to the nobility. Our main finding is a significantly higher probability of hypergamy for members of the nobility, controlling for own wealth and other covariates. This ‘nobility premium’ is sizeable. The effect is statistically significant and robust to a number of different measures of hypergamy. This finding has implications for the intergenerational transmission of inequality, and for the longevity of the institution of nobility itself.

Mapping growth patterns and genetic influences on early brain development in twins.

Despite substantial progress in understanding the anatomical and functional development of the human brain, little is known on the spatial-temporal patterns and genetic influences on white matter maturation in twins. Neuroimaging data acquired from longitudinal twin studies provide a unique platform for scientists to investigate such issues. However, the interpretation of neuroimaging data from longitudinal twin studies is hindered by the lacking of appropriate image processing and statistical tools. In this study, we developed a statistical framework for analyzing longitudinal twin neuroimaging data, which is consisted of generalized estimating equation (GEE2) and a test procedure. The GEE2 method can jointly model imaging measures with genetic effect, environmental effect, and behavioral and clinical variables. The score test statistic is used to test linear hypothesis such as the association between brain structure and function with the covariates of interest. A resampling method is used to control the family-wise error rate to adjust for multiple comparisons. With diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), we demonstrate the application of our statistical methods in quantifying the spatiotemporal white matter maturation patterns and in detecting the genetic effects in a longitudinal neonatal twin study. The proposed approach can be easily applied to longitudinal twin data with multiple outcomes and accommodate incomplete and unbalanced data, i.e., subjects with different number of measurements.

Methods for Equivalence and Noninferiority Testing

Classical hypothesis testing focuses on testing whether treatments have differential effects on outcome. However, sometimes clinicians may be more interested in determining whether treatments are equivalent or whether one has noninferior outcomes. We review the hypotheses for these noninferiority and equivalence research questions, consider power and sample size issues, and discuss how to perform such a test for both binary and survival outcomes. The methods are illustrated on 2 recent studies in hematopoietic cell transplantation.

Recognising subtidal foraminiferal assemblages: implications for quantitative sea‐level reconstructions using a foraminifera‐based transfer function

AbstractMicrofossil‐based transfer function models are increasingly used to provide decimeter‐scale sea‐level change reconstructions. In this paper I demonstrate that in the tropical location of northern Australia problems arise in selecting the appropriate elevation range for the modern training set used to calibrate fossil calcareous foraminiferal assemblages. Most calcareous foraminiferal species found in cores occur in both modern intertidal and shallow subtidal environments. A lack of independent measures to indicate whether fossil assemblages come from intertidal environments forces use of a training set that includes intertidal and subtidal environments. This results in decreased precision compared to using a training set solely from intertidal environments. The widely used method of assessing model fit to fossil assemblages (modern analogue technique) often fails to discriminate between acceptable and unacceptable reconstructions. It is important to investigate a number of different measures including modern analogue technique, canonical correspondence analysis and changing bootstrapped sample specific transfer function errors to fully understand the level of similarity between modern and fossil foraminiferal samples, to judge the reliability of transfer function‐predicted sea‐level reconstructions. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Correlations between intelligence and components of serial timing variability

Psychometric intelligence correlates with reaction time in elementary cognitive tasks, as well as with performance in time discrimination and judgment tasks. It has remained unclear, however, to what extent these correlations are due to top–down mechanisms, such as attention, and bottom–up mechanisms, i.e. basic neural properties that influence both temporal accuracy and cognitive processes. Here, we assessed correlations between intelligence (Raven SPM Plus) and performance in isochronous serial interval production, a simple, automatic timing task where participants first make movements in synchrony with an isochronous sequence of sounds and then continue with self-paced production to produce a sequence of intervals with the same inter-onset interval (IOI). The target IOI varied across trials. A number of different measures of timing variability were considered, all negatively correlated with intelligence. Across all stimulus IOIs, local interval-to-interval variability correlated more strongly with intelligence than drift, i.e. gradual changes in response IOI. The strongest correlations with intelligence were found for IOIs between 400 and 900 ms, rather than above 1 s, which is typically considered a lower limit for cognitive timing. Furthermore, poor trials, i.e. trials arguably most affected by lapses in attention, did not predict intelligence better than the most accurate trials. We discuss these results in relation to the human timing literature, and argue that they support a bottom–up model of the relation between temporal variability of neural activity and intelligence.

Environmental risk factors for relapse of melanoma

AimTo identify lifestyle factors affecting risk of relapse. MethodsA comparison of 131 relapsed melanoma patients with 147 non-relapsers. ResultsRelapsers were more likely to report financial hardship using a number of different measures including access to holidays and feeling financially insecure (odds ratio (OR) 5.7, 95% confidence interval (CI) (1.5, 21.4)). Relapsers worked longer hours (mean 37h per week compared with 31, p=0.02). There was no reported difference in stress associated with recent life events. There was no effect of housing quality, employment factors or body mass index (BMI) on risk of relapse. There was a protective effect of antibiotics in the peri-operative period. ConclusionThe study provides preliminary evidence for adverse effects of chronic financial hardship, but not recent stressful events on cancer relapse. As these data were collected in a retrospective case–control study subject to recall bias, the data must now be explored in a prospective study.

Effects of Brood Size Manipulation on Physiological Condition of Nestling Blue TitsCyanistes caeruleus

Producing high quality offspring of good physiological performance, able to survive to independence and, then, to reproductive maturity is a major component of life history strategies. The ability of nestling altricial birds to develop a good physiological condition depends to a large extent on the amount and quality of food provided by par- ents, as well as other aspects of parental care. We hypothesized that experimental changes to the original brood size should affect both parental Blue Tits and their offspring, resulting in corresponding changes in the body condition of the nestlings. Over two breeding seasons, using two habitat sites, we conducted an experiment with two manipulative treatments applied to broods of three-day-old nestlings — the reduction or enlargement of broods by three nestlings, and one non-manipulative control treatment. Our aim was to test whether the experiment would affect a number of different measures of nestling condition: blood concentrations of hemoglobin and glucose, heterophil-to-lymphocyte ratio and morphometric condition index, all being analyzed when the nestlings were 13 days old. We found no effect in the case of hemoglobin, despite the fact that it had previously been shown to be sensitive to large-scale differences in trophic conditions between habitats and years and to the experimental removal of nest parasites. All the remaining variables, i.e. heterophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, glucose concentration and morphometric condition index, responded to the experimental treatments, showing different but reasonable patterns of variation. We suggest that an experimental increase in brood size definitely hinders the development of nestling physiological condition, but even an experimen- tal reduction of broods can affect some physiological indicators (glucose), probably because of readjustments in the feeding rate.

A novel method for nonstationary power spectral density estimation of cardiovascular pressure signals based on a Kalman filter with variable number of measurements

We present a novel parametric power spectral density (PSD) estimation algorithm for nonstationary signals based on a Kalman filter with variable number of measurements (KFVNM). The nonstationary signals under consideration are modeled as time-varying autoregressive (AR) processes. The proposed algorithm uses a block of measurements to estimate the time-varying AR coefficients and obtains high-resolution PSD estimates. The intersection of confidence intervals (ICI) rule is incorporated into the algorithm to generate a PSD with adaptive window size from a series of PSDs with different number of measurements. We report the results of a quantitative assessment study and show an illustrative example involving the application of the algorithm to intracranial pressure signals (ICP) from patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Sensitivity analysis of imaging geometries for prostate diffuse optical tomography.

Endoscopic and interstitial diffuse optical tomography have been studied in clinical investigations for imaging prostate tissues, yet, there is no comprehensive comparison of how these two imaging geometries affect the quality of the reconstruction images. In this study, the effect of imaging geometry is investigated by comparing the cross-section of the Jacobian sensitivity matrix and reconstructed images for three-dimensional mathematical phantoms. Next, the effect of source-detector configurations and number of measurements in both geometries is evaluated using singular value analysis. The amount of information contained for each source-detector configuration and different number of measurements are compared. Further, the effect of different measurements strategies for 3D endoscopic and interstitial tomography is examined. The pros and cons of using the in-plane measurements and off-plane measurements are discussed. Results showed that the reconstruction in the interstitial geometry outperforms the endoscopic geometry when deeper anomalies are present. Eight sources 8 detectors and 6 sources 12 detectors are sufficient for 2D reconstruction with endoscopic and interstitial geometry respectively. For a 3D problem, the quantitative accuracy in the interstitial geometry is significantly improved using off-plane measurements but only slightly in the endoscopic geometry.

Reproducibility of Acoustic Rhinometry in the Investigation of Occupational Rhinitis

To diagnose occupational rhinitis, it is mandatory to conduct an objective assessment of changes in nasal patency during specific inhalation challenge (SIC). The reproducibility of acoustic rhinometry measurements in the setting of occupational challenges has never been examined. This study assessed the reproducibility of acoustic rhinometry during SIC investigation of occupational rhinitis. Twenty-four subjects underwent acoustic rhinometry measurements during SIC investigation of occupational rhinitis. Subjects attended 3-6 days of SIC within a week by means of a realistic or closed-circuit apparatus methodology All of the within-day intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) for nasal volume (2-5 cm) and minimum cross-sectional area (MCA) based on a different number of measurements (2-7) were above 0.85; all of the coefficients of variation (CVs)for the same parameters were low (below 10%). The between-day CVs based on different numbers of SIC sessions ranged from 8.0 to 8.8% and from 6.8 to 8.8%for nasal volume and MCA, respectively. The between-day ICCs ranged from 0.80 to 0.88 and from 0.83 to 0.94 for nasal volume and MCA, respectively. Acoustic rhinometry showed good within- and between-day reproducibility and can be recommended for the objective monitoring of nasal patency during SIC investigating occupational rhinitis.