Books on the topic 'Quantitative index of dissimilarity'

Assessing the right ventricle by any imaging modality is a challenge because of the thin wall and crescent shape that wraps around the left ventricle. Structured echocardiographic examination using two-dimensional imaging provides a detailed regional and global qualitative assessment for routine evaluation. Quantitation is possible using one or more methods including tricuspid annulus plane systolic excursion, fractional area change, and myocardial performance index but speckle tracking deformation imaging and three-dimensional echocardiography are emerging as more robust quantitative methods. Right ventricular pressures should also be estimated routinely as long as a clear tricuspid regurgitant jet is identified.

The human rights to water and sanitation have developed dramatically under international human rights law over the past forty years, with international political declarations leading to specific state obligations. Yet despite this evolution of human rights under international law, there are few mechanisms to monitor the progressive realization of those rights in national practice. The Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WaSH) Performance Index employs frontier analysis to monitor human rights to water and sanitation, across countries and over time. Tracking rates of change in water and sanitation coverage, the WaSH Performance Index allows for measurements of the progressive realization of human rights, publishing quantitative indicators reflective of the human rights to water and sanitation. Such external monitoring of outcome measures, correlating national implementation efforts with water and sanitation coverage data, provides a basis for future research and advocacy to facilitate rights-based accountability for water and sanitation policy.

This chapter asks whether environmental and human health are well served by the creation and use of simple indices, such as the California Communities Environmental Health Screening Tool and the Environmental Performance Index. Reducing vast complexity to a single number offers the possibility of helping to communicate complex science to the public and to decision-makers. Indices are appealing because they are quantitative, have the appearance of being data-based, and seem objective. However, the biases and potential errors inherent in simplifying multidimensional data can result in misleading or incorrect conclusions. This chapter details some problems inherent to environmental indices, examines how these issues have led wellintentioned studies astray, and offers solutions to navigate the indices landscape.

The Thesis has developed a methodology for evaluating the reliability level of buildings in use. The overall reliability of the building is characterized by the global reliability index which allows to quantify and compare the reliability levels of different buildings and, depending on the type of use of the building, determine the lowest permissible level. New methods have been developed in the work – the method of quantitative risk classification of buildings and the method for determining the reliability level of individual structural elements in operation. A large-scale study on the state of existing public buildings in Latvia has also been conducted and the practice of building inspection during operation in Europe has been analysed.

The Second edition Russian Scientometric Handbook is designed to provide an overview of the field of scientometrics. The Handbook describes the history of creation of the breakthrough concept of citation indexing by Dr. Eugene Garfield, and development of the first multidisciplinary scholarly citation index, the Science Citation Index. Application of scientometric tools and methods in research management and resource allocation is discussed. Authors survey various scientometric indicators relevant to individual researchers, journals, research institutions and whole countries. Authors explore new types of indicators, such as altmetrics, relationship between scientometric indicators and the nature of scientific communication, and various methods of visualizing scientometric information. Possibilities and limitations of various scientometric techniques are examined. Authors highlight the need for an informed and reasonable approach to the use of quantitative indicators for research assessment. The Handbook includes the first Russian translations of three articles by Dr. Eugene Garfield. The Handbook is intended for use by researchers, science analysts, universities and research institutions administrators, libraries and information centers staff, graduate students, and the general reader interested in scientometrics and research evaluation.

The publication of the potters’ stamps on Gallo-Roman sigillata (Names on Terra Sigillata: An Index of Makers’ Stamps & Signatures on Gallo-Roman Terra Sigillata) offers an unparalleled opportunity for re-examining the movement of sigillata (samian) across the western provinces of the Empire between the first and third centuries AD from production centres in south, central, and eastern Gaul, and in Germany. The potters’ stamps provide a common means for quantitative analysis. This chapter examines examples where there is no decline in volume of supply of samian with distance from production centres, suggesting that this can be explained if the cost of transport was subsidized or met in full by the state, probably through the organization of the cursus publicus. Controlled supply raises further questions about the nature of luxury in the Roman world and, for Britain, of the role of London in the supply system.

In modern anaesthesia practice, hypnotic drugs, opioids, and neuromuscular blocking agents (NMBAs) are combined. The introduction of NMBAs in particular substantially increased the risk of awareness and recall during general anaesthesia. Hypnotic drugs such as propofol and volatile anaesthetics act through GABAA receptors and have typical effects on the electroencephalogram (EEG). During increasing concentrations of these pharmaceuticals, the EEG desynchronization is followed by gradual synchronization, slowing frequency, and increasing amplitude of EEG, thereafter EEG suppressions (burst suppression), and, finally, isoelectric EEG. Hypnotic depth monitors such as the Bispectral Index™, Entropy™, and Narcotrend® are based on quantitative EEG analysis and translate these changes into numbers between 100 and 0. Although they are good predictors of wakefulness and deep anaesthesia, their usefulness in prevention of awareness and recall has been challenged, especially when inhalation anaesthetics are used. External and patient-related artifacts such as epileptiform discharges and frontal electromyography (EMG) affect the signal so their readings need careful interpretation. Their use is recommended in patients at increased risk of awareness and recall and in patients under total intravenous anaesthesia. Monitors of analgesia and nociception are not established in clinical practice but mostly remain experimental although some are commercially available. Some use EEG changes induced by noxious stimulation (EEG arousal) or quantify the frontal EMG in relation to EEG, while others are based on the sympathoadrenergic stress response. Various other devices are also discussed in this chapter.

The main objective of this work was to develop a study to obtain information on which characteristics influence the performance of a startup, including analyzing if companies that go through the acceleration process perform better than those that do not. As a research question, the idea was explored how to measure the performance of a company through cognitive aspects regarding the financial ratios of startups that went through the acceleration process or not, companies were investigated when they go through acceleration programs, are able to perform better when compared to companies in the same industry that did not enjoy the same initiatives, the proposal to create a performance indicator was also analyzed. Thus, a scenario was developed from which an analysis was conducted which, in turn, resulted in a Startup Performance Indicator (IDS), for purposes of comparison between companies that were accelerated and those that were not, because each Accelerator has a certain performance analysis criteria and keeps it secret about the core of your business. After the quantitative and qualitative analysis, the data collected in this research resulted in an indicative formula for the assessment of an index for Startups performance measurement to answer the research question. This work was carried out from 2014 to 2019 and was based on the scenario / ecosystem of startups and accelerators in Brazil, bringing a contextualization of the methods used by accelerators, within a global, national, regional and local context.

The European Union (EU) has sought to establish itself as a global environmental leader. However, from 2007–8 onwards, the combined effects of the economic and financial crisis led some to question whether the EU would continue to adopt ambitious environmental policy. This volume brings together leading scholars from across Europe to analyse the impacts of the crisis upon environmental policy in the EU and its member states. The authors analyse policy decisions in fourteen countries to determine whether environmental policy has been dismantled, expanded, or has stayed the same. If policy has been dismantled, contributors identify the kind of dismantling strategy adopted, and at what levels change has occurred. A new measurement approach, the Index of Policy Activity (IPA) is applied systematically across the cases, offering a comprehensive reference framework for both quantitative and qualitative analysis. A wide range of policy areas, from climate change to biodiversity, are examined and non-European cases are also included to provide a counterpoint for comparison. The book finds that, while the EU has not actively dismantled environmental policy, its economic policies have had negative effects upon some Member States, prompting policy dismantling in places. Climate and energy policies have seen some policy expansion, but there are examples, most notably the UK, where there has also been active policy dismantling. The main trend is one of stasis— environmental policy in Europe has plateaued, calling into question Europe’s much-vaunted environmental leadership. The book contributes to scholarship on environmental policy and public administration, combining empirical and methodological insights to give an up-to-date perspective on the impact of crisis upon European environmental policy.

Horseradish roots, due to the content of many valuable nutrients and substances with healing and pro-health properties, are used more and more in medicine, food industry and cosmetics. In Poland, the cultivation of horseradish is considered minor crops. In addition, its limited size causes horseradish producers to encounter a number of unresolved agrotechnical problems. Infectious diseases developing on the leaves and roots during the long growing season reduce the size and quality of root crops. The small range of protection products intended for use in the cultivation of horseradish generates further serious environmental problems (immunization of pathogens, low effectiveness, deterioration of the quality of raw materials intended for industry, destruction of beneficial organisms and biodiversity). In order to meet the problems encountered by horseradish producers and taking into account the lack of data on: yielding, occurrence of infectious diseases and the possibility of combating them with methods alternative to chemical ones in the years 2012–2015, rigorous experiments have been carried out. The paper compares the impact of chemical protection and its reduced variants with biological protection on: total yield of horseradish roots and its structure. The intensification of infectious diseases on horseradish leaves and roots was analyzed extensively. Correlations were examined between individual disease entities and total yield and separated root fractions. A very important and innovative part of the work was to learn about the microbial communities involved in the epidemiology of Verticillium wilt of horseradish roots. The effect was examined of treatment of horseradish cuttings with a biological preparation (Pythium oligandrum), a chemical preparation (thiophanate-methyl), and the Kelpak SL biostimulator (auxins and cytokinins from the Ecklonia maxima algae) on the quantitative and qualitative changes occurring in the communities of these microorganisms. The affiliation of species to groups of frequencies was arranged hierarchically, and the biodiversity of these communities was expressed by the following indicators: Simpson index, Shannon–Wiener index, Shannon evenness index and species richness index. Correlations were assessed between the number of communities, indicators of their biodiversity and intensification of Verticillium wilt of horseradish roots. It was shown that the total yield of horseradish roots was on average 126 dt · ha–1. Within its structure, the main root was 56%, whereas the fraction of lateral roots (cuttings) with a length of more than 20 cm accounted for 26%, and those shorter than 20 cm for 12%, with unprofitable yield (waste) of 6%. In the years with higher humidity, the total root yield was higher than in the dry seasons by around 51 dt · ha–1 on average. On the other hand, the applied protection treatments significantly increased the total yield of horseradish roots from 4,6 to 45,3 dt · ha–1 and the share of fractions of more than 30 cm therein. Higher yielding effects were obtained in variants with a reduced amount of foliar application of fungicides at the expense of introducing biopreparations and biostimulators (R1, R2, R3) and in chemical protection (Ch) than in biological protection (B1, B2) and with the limitation of treatments only to the treatment of cuttings. The largest increments can be expected after treating the seedlings with Topsin M 500 SC and spraying the leaves: 1 × Amistar Opti 480 SC, 1 × Polyversum WP, 1 × Timorex Gold 24 EC and three times with biostimulators (2 × Kelpak SL + 1 × Tytanit). In the perspective of the increasing water deficit, among the biological protection methods, the (B2) variant with the treatment of seedlings with auxins and cytokinins contained in the E. maxima algae extract is more recommended than (B1) involving the use of P. oligandrum spores. White rust was the biggest threat on horseradish plantations, whereas the following occurred to a lesser extent: Phoma leaf spot, Cylindrosporium disease, Alternaria black spot and Verticillium wilt. In turn, on the surface of the roots it was dry root rot and inside – Verticillium wilt of horseradish roots. The best health of the leaves and roots was ensured by full chemical protection (cuttings treatment + 6 foliar applications). A similar effect of protection against Albugo candida and Pyrenopeziza brassicae was achieved in the case of reduced chemical protection to one foliar treatment with synthetic fungicide, two treatments with biological preparations (Polyversum WP and Timorex Gold 24 EC) and three treatments with biostimulators (2 × Kelpak SL, 1 × Tytanit). On the other hand, the level of limitation of root diseases comparable with chemical protection was ensured by its reduced variants R3 and R2, and in the case of dry root rot, also both variants of biological protection. In the dry years, over 60% of the roots showed symptoms of Verticillium wilt, and its main culprits are Verticillium dahliae (37.4%), Globisporangium irregulare (7.2%), Ilyonectria destructans (7.0%), Fusarium acuminatum (6.7%), Rhizoctonia solani (6.0%), Epicoccum nigrum (5.4%), Alternaria brassicae (5.17%). The Kelpak SL biostimulator and the Polyversum WP biological preparation contributed to the increased biodiversity of microbial communities associated with Verticillium wilt of horseradish roots. In turn, along with its increase, the intensification of the disease symptoms decreased. There was a significant correlation between the richness of species in the communities of microbial isolates and the intensification of Verticillium wilt of horseradish roots. Each additional species of microorganism contributed to the reduction of disease intensification by 1,19%.