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Various Indices (various + index)
Selected AbstractsLong-term changes in the abundance of flying insectsINSECT CONSERVATION AND DIVERSITY, Issue 4 2009CHRIS R. SHORTALL Abstract., 1.,For the first time, long-term changes in total aerial insect biomass have been estimated for a wide area of Southern Britain. 2.,Various indices of biomass were created for standardised samples from four of the Rothamsted Insect Survey 12.2 m tall suction traps for the 30 years from 1973 to 2002. 3.,There was a significant decline in total biomass at Hereford but not at three other sites: Rothamsted, Starcross and Wye. 4.,For the Hereford samples, many insects were identified at least to order level, some to family or species level. These samples were then used to investigate the taxa involved in the decline in biomass at Hereford. 5.,The Hereford samples were dominated by large Diptera, particularly Dilophus febrilis, which showed a significant decline in abundance. 6.,Changes in agricultural practice that could have contributed to the observed declines are discussed, as are potential implications for farmland birds, with suggestions for further work to investigate both cause and effect. [source] Rare-event component importance for the consecutive- k systemNAVAL RESEARCH LOGISTICS: AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, Issue 2 2002Hsun-Wen Chang Abstract Various indices of component importance with respect to system reliability have been proposed. The most popular one is the Birnbaum importance. In particular, a special case called uniform Birnbaum importance in which all components have the same reliability p has been widely studied for the consecutive- k system. Since it is not easy to compare uniform Birnbaum importance, the literature has looked into the case p = ½, p , 1, or p , ½. In this paper, we look into the case p , 0 to complete the spectrum of examining Birnbaum importance over the whole range of p. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 49: 159,166, 2002; DOI 10.1002/nav.10001 [source] Fatigue and processing speed are related in multiple sclerosisEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF NEUROLOGY, Issue 2 2010A. K. Andreasen Background:, Fatigue is common in multiple sclerosis (MS) and could be related to impaired processing speed caused by MS specific brain alterations. The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between processing speed and fatigue in patients with relapsing remitting MS. Methods:, Patients with EDSS score ,3.5 were grouped as fatigued [Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS) score ,5.0] or non-fatigued (FSS score ,4.0). Patients with FSS scores ,5 were categorized as primary or secondary fatigued according to various indices. A cognitive test battery obtained from Wechsler's Adult Intelligence Scale-III/Wechsler's Memory Scale-III was applied. Results:, Processing speed (Digit Symbol Coding) was lower amongst all MS patients being 9.4(2.9) in primary fatigued, 8.3(2.8) in secondary fatigued and 10.3(2.7) in non-fatigued versus 12.3(3.0) in healthy controls. In the combined group of primary and secondary fatigued MS patients, processing speed was slower than that in non-fatigued MS patients and inversely related to fatigue (r = ,0.35; P < 0.05). No such relationship could be established in non-fatigued MS patients or in healthy controls. Conclusion:, The degree of fatigue in MS is related to processing speed impairment and longitudinal studies should clarify their mutual dependency. [source] Functional capacity in elderly Japanese living in the communityGERIATRICS & GERONTOLOGY INTERNATIONAL, Issue 1-2 2001Hiroshi Shibata The present addresses concepts, definitions, and measurements of functional capacity. Further, distributions of functional capacity are assessed by such various indices as activities of daily living (ADL), instrumental ADL (IADL), the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology (TMIG) Index of Competence, and active life expectancy in the Japanese elderly. Further, predictors of functional status are demonstrated, and the impact of functional decline on quality of life is investigated in elderly Japanese living in the community. [source] Factors affecting the risk of behaviour problems in children with severe intellectual disabilityJOURNAL OF INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY RESEARCH, Issue 2 2000O. Chadwick In order to examine the importance of a range of potential risk factors for behaviour problems in children with severe intellectual disability, a sample was identified by the administration of a screening version of the Vineland Adaptive Behaviour Scales (VABS) to the parents of children aged 4,11years attending six special needs schools in three adjacent inner London boroughs. Parents whose children had a VABS standard score of 50 were interviewed using the Disability Assessment Schedule and both parents and teachers completed the Aberrant Behaviour Checklist. Most behaviour problems were more common in ambulant children, but problems less dependent on the ability to walk, such as sleeping difficulties, screaming and self-injury, were equally common in ambulant and non-ambulant children. Among ambulant children, there were few significant associations between the severity of the child's behaviour problems and the age or sex of the child, the presence or absence of epilepsy, and various indices of socio-economic disadvantage. Sleeping difficulties, overactivity, self-injury, destructive behaviour and autistic features, such as social withdrawal and stereotypies, were strongly associated with skills deficits, but aggression, temper tantrums and general disruptive behaviour were not. Limitations in daily living skills were better predictors of behaviour problems than were poor communication skills. [source] Variations in the Understanding of Interpersonal Behavior: Adherence to the Interpersonal Circle as a Moderator of the Rigidity,Psychological Well-Being RelationJOURNAL OF PERSONALITY, Issue 2 2010Terence J. G. Tracey ABSTRACT The idiothetic structure of interpersonal trait perceptions was examined as it moderated the interpersonal rigidity,psychological well-being relation. The focus was on the extent to which individuals' perceptions of the similarity of interpersonal behavior fits (i.e., adhered to) the normative interpersonal circle. In two samples of college students, individual differences in adherence to the interpersonal circle moderated the relation of interpersonal rigidity with various indices of psychological well-being. We found that those individuals whose perceptions of interpersonal traits were better represented by the interpersonal circle had negative relations between interpersonal rigidity and satisfaction with life, self-confidence, self-liking, and complementarity and positive relations with interpersonal problems. The results suggest that adherence to the interpersonal circle may be a new means of viewing traitedness and that cognitive interpretation of traits may have an important moderating function. [source] An empirical investigation of the g -index for 26 physicists in comparison with the h -index, the A -index, and the R -indexJOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, Issue 9 2008Michael Schreiber J.E. Hirsch (2005) introduced the h -index to quantify an individual's scientific research output by the largest number h of a scientist's papers that received at least h citations. To take into account the highly skewed frequency distribution of citations, L. Egghe (2006a) proposed the g -index as an improvement of the h -index. I have worked out 26 practical cases of physicists from the Institute of Physics at Chemnitz University of Technology, and compare the h and g values in this study. It is demonstrated that the g -index discriminates better between different citation patterns. This also can be achieved by evaluating B.H. Jin's (2006) A -index, which reflects the average number of citations in the h -core, and interpreting it in conjunction with the h -index. h and A can be combined into the R -index to measure the h -core's citation intensity. I also have determined the A and R values for the 26 datasets. For a better comparison, I utilize interpolated indices. The correlations between the various indices as well as with the total number of papers and the highest citation counts are discussed. The largest Pearson correlation coefficient is found between g and R. Although the correlation between g and h is relatively strong, the arrangement of the datasets is significantly different depending on whether they are put into order according to the values of either h or g. [source] Population change due to geographic mobility in Albania, 1989,2001, and the repercussions of internal migration for the enlargement of TiranaPOPULATION, SPACE AND PLACE (PREVIOUSLY:-INT JOURNAL OF POPULATION GEOGRAPHY), Issue 6 2007Michalis Agorastakis Abstract Being a country in transition, Albania has sustained vast political and socio-economic changes over the past 15 years, mostly due to its engagement in democratisation and transformation to an open market economy. The pathway to transition has involved economic hardship and political unrest and has been accompanied by intense, large-scale, geographical mobility. This paper describes population change due to internal and international migration, 1989,2001, using Census data at district level. Its contribution is a technical one in applying a method that allows new estimates to be made of the scale of internal migration in Albania. Descriptive analysis of population changes in 36 Albanian districts, based on the last two censuses, lead to the identification of poles of attraction of internal migrants. Limited data concerning the 1989 Census and the 12 years between the censuses resulted in the creation of various indices that characterise internal migration, such as the Attraction and Expulsion Index stemming from the Origin,Destination Matrix of the districts. In addition an Index of Conservation of the population and an Index of External Migration were also derived at the district level. By considering internal and international migration as two separate phenomena, we emphasise their uniqueness in affecting population change in Albania. The District of Tirana, capital of Albania, absorbed the majority of the inflow of internal migrants. The latter part of the paper focuses on the population of Tirana as the county's major migration destination. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] The role of fear in persuasionPSYCHOLOGY & MARKETING, Issue 11 2004James Price Dillard Previous research on fear/threat appeals has correlated fear intensity with persuasion. However, fear might influence persuasion in at least four conceptually distinct ways: (a) the proclivity to experience fear, (b) the rise from baseline to peak, (c) peak intensity, and (d) the decline from peak to postmessage fear. A study was conducted in which 361 participants read a message that first described the dangers of influenza, then advocated obtaining a free vaccination. Significant positive correlations were observed between tonic, that is, traitlike, activation of the behavioral-inhibition system (BIS) and various indices of fear arousal. Nonsignificant correlations were observed between the behavioral-activation system (BAS) and the same indices. Both rise and peak measures of fear predicted persuasion, but decline in fear had no discernible impact on persuasion. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] | ||||||||||