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Over the last decade, the relationship between interdisciplinarity and scientific impact has been the focus of many bibliometric papers, with diverging results. This paper aims at contributing to this body of research, by analyzing the level of interdisciplinarity, compiled with the Simpson Index, of the top 1% most highly cited papers and of papers with lower citation percentile ranks. Results shows that the top 1% most cited papers exhibit higher levels of interdisciplinarity than papers in other citation rank classes and that this relationship is observed in more than 90% of NSF specialties. This suggests that interdisciplinary research plays a more important role in generating high impact knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a previous paper we introduced a distribution-based method for Global Sensitivity Analysis (GSA), called PAWN, which uses cumulative distribution functions of model outputs to assess their sensitivity to the model's uncertain input factors. Over the last three years, PAWN has been employed in the environmental modelling field as a useful alternative or complement to more established variance-based methods. However, a major limitation of PAWN up to now was the need for a tailored sampling strategy to approximate the sensitivity indices. Furthermore, this strategy required three tuning parameters whose optimal choice was rather unclear. In this paper, we present an alternative approximation procedure that tackles both issues and makes PAWN applicable to a generic sample of inputs and outputs while requiring only one tuning parameter. The new implementation therefore allows the user to estimate PAWN indices as complementary metrics in multi-method GSA applications without additional computational cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our paper is an empirical study on the comparison between the conventional energy- growth nexus and the energy-ISEW (Index for Sustainable Economic Welfare) growth nexus. We use a sample of American countries in a multivariate panel framework for a data span from 1990 to 2013, with variables such as labor, capital, carbon emissions, energy use, renewable energy, rents and trade. Results from this paper are critical for governments and institutional investors who are nowadays concerned with sustainable economic growth and welfare and not only the short-sighted GDP growth. An additional contribution of this paper is the calculation of the ISEW index for American countries, based on data availability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we study the Wiener index (i.e., the total distance or the transmission number) of not necessarily strongly connected digraphs. In order to do so, if in a digraph there is no directed path from a vertex a to a vertex b , we follow the convention that d ( a , b ) = 0 , which was independently introduced in several studies of directed networks. By extending the results of Plesník and Moon we characterize tournaments with the maximal and the second maximal Wiener index. We also study oriented Theta-graphs and, as a consequence, we obtain that an orientation of a given graph which yields the maximum Wiener index is not necessarily strongly connected. In particular, we characterize orientations of Theta-graphs Θ a , b , 0 and Θ a , b , 1 which result in the maximum Wiener index. In addition, orientations with the maximum Wiener index among strongly connected orientations of Θ a , b , c are characterized. We conclude the paper with several open problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Importance measure is an index to describe the importance of an individual component or a group of components within a reliability system. Up to now, importance measures for components in stochastic reliability systems have been investigated. And importance index for a component and a group of components in an uncertain reliability system has also been studied. In the real world, components with samples and components without samples always coexist in a complex system which is actually an uncertain random reliability system. For describing the importance extent of an individual component and a group of components in an uncertain random reliability system, this paper aims at introducing a new concept of importance index and presenting some formulas to calculate the importance index. Furthermore, this paper takes several examples including uncertain random series, uncertain random parallel, uncertain random parallel-series, uncertain random series-parallel and uncertain random bridge systems to illustrate how to calculate an importance index. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work is devoted to establish a general expression for calculating the bond incident degree (BID) indices of polyomino chains and to characterize the extremal polyomino chains with respect to several well known BID indices. From the derived results, all the results of the papers (An and Xiong, 2016, Deng et al., 2014, Yarahmadi et al., 2012) and some results of the papers (Rada, 2014, Ali et al., 2015) are obtained as corollaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This theoretical paper identifies the main corporate innovative activities and public innovation support systems characterizing factors and their assessment rates by providing factor groups and measured indicators. Presented complex of various innovation measurement indexes can help corporative decision makers to focus on the areas to be developed as wee as for the trends to be fostered during the estimated strategical corporative decisions making period. Paper presents vertical and horizontal decision making features focused on innovation as most competitive factor as well as the main features and criteria of innovation measurement in corporative decisions, accepted and well-used by main innovations measurement institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The h -index is a celebrated indicator widely used to assess the quality of researchers and organizations. Empirical studies support the fact that the h -index is well correlated with other simple bibliometric indicators, such as the total number of publications N and the total number of citations C . In this paper we introduce a new formula h ˜ w = h ˜ w ( N , C , c MAX ) , as a representative predictive formula that relates functionally h to these aggregate indicators, N , C and the highest citation count c MAX . The formula is based on the ‘specific’ assumption of geometrically distributed citations, but provides a good estimate of the h -index for the general case. To empirically evaluate the adequacy of the fit of the proposed formula h ˜ w , an empirical study with 131 datasets (13,347 papers; 288,972 citations) was carried out. The overall fit (defined as the capacity of h ˜ w to reproduce the true value of h , for each single scientist) was remarkably accurate. The predicted value was within one of the actual value h for more than 60% of the datasets. We found, in approximately three cases out of four, an absolute error less than or equal to 2, and an average absolute error of only 1.9, for the whole sample of datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We provide three axiomatic characterizations of Egghe's g -index, which measures a researcher's scientific output based on the number of papers the researcher has published and the number of citations of each of the researcher's papers. We formulate six new axioms for indexes, namely, tail independence (TA), square monotonicity (SM), the cap condition (CC), strong square monotonicity (SSM), increasing marginal citations (IMC), and increasing marginal citations+ (IMC+). Along with the two well-known axioms T1 and T2 (Woeginger, 2008a), the g -index is characterized by (i) T1, T2, TA, SM, and CC, (ii) T1, T2, TA, SSM, and IMC, and (iii) T1, TA, SM, and IMC+. Two out of three characterizations are obtained by adding axioms to our new characterization of the class of indexes satisfying T1, T2, and TA, which are defined as generalizations of the g -index. Thus, the remaining four axioms in our first and second characterizations—SM, CC, SSM, and IMC—distinguish the original g -index from other related indexes in the class. Furthermore, the independence of our axioms and that of Woeginger's study is shown. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents two conformance indexes that can be used to measure a similarity between two delineated structures. The authors use the presented conformance indexes for rating the results of Poisson Surface Reconstruction algorithm on real patient datasets. The rating is based on three delineations: original contours created during a standard procedure, reconstructed contours and reference contours created with an extra care by another physician. The chosen conformance indexes compare the delineations in two different forms: as a voxel grid and as a surface mesh. In this paper each of the conformance indexes is calculated in three different modes: the standard mode where all differences between datasets are taken into account and two more measuring how much one dataset exceeds the other. The last two modes are not symmetrical. The proposed conformance indexes allowed us to compare efficiently two delineations. The presented results also allow to state that the use of mesh reconstruction algorithms can improve delineations prepared within a limited time frame. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Finland, a social category called “pissis girls” has evolved into a cultural concept, used widely in various discourses concerning young women. In the paper, the empirical focus is on how, in the context of a viral video disseminated in social media, a group of young girls are presented as representatives of this category. The video, called ÄM IRK , is a short edited clip of an emergent interaction between young men and girls meeting by chance in a park. Drawing on the notions of membership categorisation, cluster of indexes and indexical field, “enoughness” and authentication, the paper investigates how the edited video, through the means of de- and recontextualisation of the emergent interaction evokes the category of the pissis girls in the ways in which it represents young adolescent girls. More specifically, the paper shows how the edited video uses selected emblems and activities that have been interpreted as key indices of the pissis category, such as the use of alcohol and the appearance and vanity of the girls, as semiotic material evocative “enough” to make the category of pissisness salient. Furthermore, in order to categorise someone as an authentic pissis girl, one has to show how the girls deviate from the ones who are not, that is, the “ordinary” or “good” or “appropriate” girls. And, in turn, when some emblems and activities are considered bound to the pissis girl category, the norms concerning girls in general become visible. In the video, the dynamics of categorisation, authentication, and normativity merge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Résumé Dans les procédures d’interprétation des scores des échelles de Wechsler, on recommande d’évaluer la cohésion des indices pour apprécier leurs valeurs cliniques. On considère que l’interprétation d’un score composite n’a de sens que s’il est cohésif. Le premier objectif de cet article est de démontrer que les valeurs seuils proposées (23 points et 5 points) par certains auteurs pour évaluer la cohésion des scores composites sont incorrectes, et que d’autres valeurs doivent être préférées. Plus important, le second objectif est de démontrer que l’argument selon lequel un score composite non cohésif ne peut donner lieu à une interprétation, n’est pas tout à fait correct. Les scores composites restent pertinents qu’ils soient cohésifs ou non. When interpreting the composite scores of the Wechsler Intelligence scales, some authors recommended to determine whether the composite scores are unitary or not. It has been suggested that when variability among scores is too large, then the composite score does not provide a good estimate of the psychological attribute, and is not interpretable. The first objective of the paper is to demonstrate that the cut-off threshold values (23 points and 5 points) proposed by some authors are inadequate. Other cut-off threshold values should be used. Most importantly, the second goal of this paper is to demonstrate that the notion of unitary abilities that was guiding principle of interpretation is also inadequate. Indeed, nonunitary index still provides relevant information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nearly a decade ago, the science community was introduced to the h -index, a proposed statistical measure of the collective impact of the publications of any individual researcher. Of course, any method of reducing a complex data set to a single number will necessarily have certain limitations and introduce certain biases. However, in this paper we point out that the definition of the h -index actually suffers from something far deeper: a hidden mathematical incompleteness intrinsic to its definition. In particular, we point out that one critical step within the definition of h has been missed until now, resulting in an index which only achieves its stated objectives under certain rather limited circumstances. For example, this incompleteness explains why the h -index ultimately has more utility in certain scientific subfields than others. In this paper, we expose the origin of this incompleteness and then also propose a method of completing the definition of h in a way which remains close to its original guiding principle. As a result, our “completed” h not only reduces to the usual h in cases where the h -index already achieves its objectives, but also extends the validity of the h -index into situations where it currently does not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses changes in the Human Development Index (HDI) rank for a sample of 135 countries over 20 years. The countries selected have had a presence in every HDI table published in the Human Development Reports since 1990. A measure of change in rank between subsequent years was developed so as to allow for differences in the number of countries included in the tables. Results suggest that changes in HDI methodology lead to increased turbulence in country ranking. Also, that there are significant differences between countries in their shifts in HDI table ranking, with five countries in particular (Romania, Jamaica, Botswana, Iran and Belize) experiencing substantially greater turbulence in rank than others. Results suggest that periods of enhanced turbulence in HDI ranking may lead to increased reporting in the world's press. The paper makes a case for a new way of thinking of indicators - in terms of a 'natural selection' process that operates over time. In the opinion of the author this approach would help create a greater understanding as to what makes some indicators and indices successful while others are not so and indeed would help with a better understanding of what is meant by the term 'success' with regard to such tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Nodal market power assessment method of FDRs is proposed. • Normal and contingency system states are considered in the assessment model. • A set of indices including NMUQ, NMCQ, ENMUQ, and ENMCQ are invented. • Key FDR nodes are identified and specific regulations are implemented. Abstract With the incorporation of higher shares of intermittent renewable energies (RES), more flexible resources are required in power systems to keep load balance. Under some extreme circumstances, the flexible demand resources (FDRs) may have the potential to dominate and obtain excess benefits, preventing other FDRs from participating in the electricity markets. Therefore, it is of great significance to identify the key FDR market power locations and implement some corresponding regulations. However, the relevant researches in power systems focused on the supply side, rather than the demand side. In this paper, a novel nodal market power analysis method is proposed to evaluate the potential influence of FDRs on electricity markets. Firstly, a multi-state model is established to present the multiple power system operation states including the random failures of system components. Then, the nodal market power assessment model is established under each specific state and new indices are proposed to evaluate the nodal market power of FDRs quantitatively. Furthermore, the key FDR nodes in demand side with stronger power in capturing excess revenue are identified. The 24-bus IEEE Reliability Test System is modified to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed method. The numerical results of the proposed method are capable to display the existence of market power in demand side, and provide some valuable guidance for classification and operation of electricity markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Walkability indices are used to characterize the relationship between health and place. Indices make assumptions that affect analysis of the built environment and resulting walkability scores. This study compares three walkability indices created by health researchers focusing on the methods, variables, and walkability scores resulting from differences in definitions and methods. This paper deconstructs the walkability algorithms utilized by each index and rebuilds them in Vancouver, Canada. We find that neighbourhoods in the northern core closer to the downtown area have similar walkability scores across all three indices, while the outer peripheral neighbourhoods with moderate to low walkability have more variation in walkability scores across indices. Most walkability variables - residential density, street connectivity, and land-use - lack a rationale for inclusion, often assumed by researchers. Walkability indices used in health research prove to be incongruent with each other and misrepresentative of actual human behavior. We explore the impact of variable selection and methodologies on indices in the interest of more rigorous health research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract In order to enhance the effectiveness of the staff incentive mechanism of non-public enterprise, this paper puts forward a design method for staff incentive mechanism of non-public enterprise from the perspective of positive organizational behavior. Firstly, it researches the staff incentive mechanism of non-public enterprise and establishes the index evaluation system from the aspects such as achievement incentive capability incentive and environment incentive; secondly, it introduces forest algorithm to use the independent growth of trees and make votes for parallel searching in order to enhance the effectiveness of model evaluation, and bases on the random weight distribution strategy to enhance the calculation efficiency of forest algorithm; finally, it verifies the effectiveness of the algorithm through empirical analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Establishing index system for IR camouflage effectiveness evaluation. • The combination of different kinds of features avoiding the one-sidedness caused by single features during the evaluation. • The nonlinear feature fusion strategy making the evaluation more objective. • The value can well reflect the camouflage effectiveness of different targets in a certain background quantitatively. • Making it possible to directly differentiate the camouflage effectiveness of different targets. Abstract This paper reports on an alternative approach to the effectiveness evaluation of IR camouflage using image saliency. The master saliency and interior saliency of a target were computed according to its background-related features and internal shape features, respectively. The fusion of master saliency and interior saliency were further used to obtain a comprehensive saliency value, by which the camouflage effectiveness value of a target was finally obtained. Under the same experimental conditions, the target with camouflage matching well with the background had the highest camouflage effectiveness value, while the target without camouflage had the lowest camouflage effectiveness value, indicating that such a value can well reflect the camouflage effectiveness of different targets in a certain background. Acting as a quantitative index, the camouflage effectiveness value makes it possible for us to directly differentiate the camouflage effectiveness of not only different targets under the same conditions but also one target under different conditions, which should be useful for the development of IR camouflage materials and the deployment of military equipment in battlefield. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A reader study, i.e. a diagnostic accuracy study aiming to assess clinical performance of one technology versus another, on the basis of image interpretation by a group of human readers, requires an accurate design, with the precise definition of each element concurring to the study itself. In this paper, the main issues to take into consideration when designing reader studies are described, and the characteristics of a number of indices of diagnostic accuracy are summarized. Special care is given to the description of the multiple sources of bias, which should be controlled in order to assure study soundness and allow consistent conclusions. Although a "perfect" reader study does not exist, because bias cannot be completely eliminated, a good study would be designed to minimize the bias effects, and possible unavoidable bias should be described in study reporting and used to provide a correct interpretation of results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Car dependency and associated car modal share is increasing in the vast majority of metropolitan areas throughout the world, and an important contributory factor lies in the lack of clear and effective integration of land use with transportation. Transit-oriented development (TOD) has been adopted as a major urban policy to achieve such integration. TOD explicitly promotes a balance between public transportation-driven supply and land use-driven demand, while simultaneously improving the pedestrian friendliness of the station areas. The objective of balancing transport with land use is the founding principle of the node-place model. Three principle dimensions can be evaluated under the extended version of this model: i) the node-index, reflecting the accessibility of the station area by several transportation modes; ii) the place-index, reflecting the land use features of the station areas; and iii) the design-index, reflecting the urban design conditions that influence pedestrian accessibility of the station areas. In this paper, we apply the extended node-place model at a local scale, using Lisbon subway stations as the focus points of our analysis, applying the same principles and methodology as for the metropolitan scale, but adjusting the parameters to reflect the subway network. Our results suggest that the introduction of a third index better distinguishes between balanced situations identified in the original node-place model. In Lisbon, the average node index is higher than the place index, and the design index varies substantially across the subway network. In general terms, city center subway stations exhibit the highest index values, whereas peripheral stations tend to be more unbalanced. Transfer stations constitute special cases in the network, having high node and design indexes but average place indexes. The typology of Lisbon subway stations based on the extended node-place model might be used to support urban planning, specifically with regard to establishing regulations for locating activities and parking supply, guiding location-sensitive or place-based fiscal policies, and also identifying the types of intervention needed to achieve the desired integration between transportation accessibility, land use intensity and diversity, and urban design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I demonstrate that the Danish change-of-state token nå , which is ordinarily employed to register a shift in a speaker's state of information, can also be used to propose and mark a transition between activities. While nå is indexical by nature, both its sequential position (after a topic or activity has been potentially closed down) and its composition (of being imbued with other – both lexical and physical – properties) mean that the co-participants have no trouble understanding when a nå indexes a shift in orientation and thus embodies a proposal to transition between activities, rather than serving as a simple receipt of information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The asphalt and filler interaction plays a significant role on the performances of asphalt mixtures, and the asphalt and filler interaction ability can be evaluated by the rheological properties. In this paper, one kind of matrix asphalt binder and three kinds of fillers were selected to prepare asphalt mastics with different filler volume fractions respectively, and the dynamic shear rheological properties of asphalt mastics were measured to analyze the four evaluation indices of △G ∗ , K-B-G ∗ , L-A-δ and K-B-δ . Results indicate that △G ∗ and K-B-G ∗ cannot represent the effects of temperature on asphalt and filler interaction ability. However, the two indices can reflect the effects of loading frequency on asphalt and filler interaction ability. L-A-δ and K-B-δ not only represent the effects of temperature on asphalt and filler interaction ability but also the effects of loading frequency on asphalt and filler interaction ability. The higher temperature is, the stronger asphalt and filler interaction ability is. But the higher loading frequency is, the worse asphalt and filler interaction ability is. And then the sensitivity analysis of evaluation indices was also conducted, and finding that the sensitivity from high to low is (1) K-B-δ , (2) L-A-δ , (3) △G ∗ , and (4) K-B-G ∗ . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In modern industry, detecting incipient faults timely is of vital importance to prevent serious system performance deterioration and ensure optimal process operation. Recently, multivariate statistical process monitoring (MSPM) techniques have been extensively studied and widely applied to modern industrial systems. However, conventional fault detection indices utilized in statistical process monitoring are not sensitive to incipient faults with small magnitude. In this paper, by introducing two representative smoothing techniques, novel incipient fault detection strategies based on a generic fault detection index in MSPM are proposed. Fault detectability for each proposed strategy is analyzed. In addition, the effects of the smoothing parameters on fault detection, including advantages and disadvantages, are also investigated. Finally, case studies on a numerical example and two practical industrial processes are carried out to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed incipient fault detection strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aim: A decreased adherence to the Mediterranean Diet (MD) may be related to a rise in chronic non-communicable diseases from childhood onward. The aim of this systematic review was to summarize the available literature regarding MD adherence in children and adolescents, and focusing, more specifically, on the association of MD adherence with demographic and anthropometric variables, body composition, lifestyle, and diet adequacy.Methods and Results: A search of scientific literature was carried out on PUBMED, SCOPUS, Clinical Trials Results, Google Scholar, and British Library Inside for studies published in the last 20 years. Fifty-eight papers were finally included according to the following criteria: MD adherence evaluated through a quantifying score or index, age 2-20 years, sample size >200 participants, observational or intervention studies regarding the general population. The KIDMED index was the most widely used scoring system. MD adherence widely varied within the Mediterranean countries for both children and adolescents, with also large differences among various European countries, while few data are available for non-Mediterranean countries. Most of the eligible studies showed that MD adherence was directly associated with physical activity (and possibly with diet adequacy) and inversely with sedentary behavior, while the results for gender, age, socioeconomic status and weight status were not consistent.Conclusions: Further validation of MD indexes in terms of reproducibility and consistency with the MD is needed. At the same time, more prospective cohort and intervention studies may better elucidate the relationships of MD adherence with behavioral and health outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We give an explicit numerical characterization in terms of classical Kronecker invariants of the subpencil relation between two matrix pencils determined only by minimal indices for columns (respectively for rows). In addition, a method to construct the completion pencils is also presented (thus solving the pencil completion problem completely in this special case). We showcase our method by carrying out the computations in a well-explained example. Theoretically, our criteria could also be obtained as a particular case of the very technical and involved results by Dodig and Stošić (from [6] and [5] ). However, our self-contained approach is easy to follow and independent of the technical results used in the mentioned papers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sierpi n ´ ski-like graphs constitute an extensively studied family of graphs of fractal nature applicable in topology, mathematics of the Tower of Hanoi, computer science, and elsewhere. In this paper, some indexes related to degree of the Sierpi n ´ ski-like graphs have been researched. Using special structure and correlation of Sierpi n ´ ski-like graphs, the radii, Randi c ´ index, Zagreb index, sum-connectivity index and metric dimension of some Sierpi n ´ ski-like graphs are obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we disprove three conjectures from Dehmer et al. (2014) on graph distance measures based on topological indices by providing explicit classes of trees that do not satisfy proposed inequalities. The constructions are based on the families of trees that have the same Wiener index, graph energy or Randić index – but different degree sequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The inverse sum indeg index is a recently-introduced bond-additive descriptor that was selected by Vukičević and Gašperov (2010) as a significant predictor of total surface area of octane isomers. In this paper, we present several sharp upper and lower bounds on the inverse sum indeg index in terms of some graph parameters such as the order, size, radius, number of pendant vertices, minimal and maximal vertex degrees, and minimal non-pendent vertex degree, and relate this index to various well-known graph invariants such as the ordinary and multiplicative Zagreb indices, Randić indices, sum-connectivity index, modified Zagreb index, harmonic index, forgotten index, and eccentric connectivity index. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Pallmann-Scherer test is a promising multicomparison procedure to test statistical hypotheses regarding generalized diversity/entropy indices, such as Tsallis family and Hill numbers ( S q and H q , respectively), which represent alternative ways of profiling species diversity along a gradient of emphasis on species richness versus evenness in abundance distributions. Given the pressing importance of reliably comparing diversity across ecological communities, and since only a few of such procedures are currently available, knowing its statistical performance under realistic ecological scenarios is of strategic importance. In this paper, we evaluated the performance of the Pallmann-Scherer test using computer simulations of communities following different species-abundance distributions, spatially aggregated as widely observed empirically, and sampled by a commonly used quadrat procedure. We found that the test is very conservative for both S q and H q , leading to biased significance levels, with low probabilities of type-I error but high probabilities of type-II error (i.e., low statistical power). Although it should be acknowledged that the current method represents an important starting point, further improvements must be made in order to enhance its power and meet the required standards in comparative studies of diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban ecosystems in China have undergone a surge of rapid urbanization leading to phenomenal socio-ecological transformation. To mitigate the regional ecological and environmental impacts, cross-scale ecological governance has not been well established. This paper aims to propose an assessment framework to examine and understand urban ecological governance (UEG), a concept that intertwines multiple aspects such as governance, planning, and urban ecology into an integrated procedure for policy formulation and implementation. To test the assessment framework and thereby derive a quantitative approach to studying socio-ecological couplings within the urban systems, we choose Lianyungang, a rapid urbanizing coastal city in China for an empirical study. We ascertain each subsystem (e.g., urbanization, ecological, governance) presents a fluctuating trend particularly after 2005. Also, the overall trends of UEG increased slightly during the two study periods (1997–2012 and 2005–2012), mainly due to the influences of the Urban Master Plan and Eastern Coastal Regional Development Strategic Planning of Lianyungang. These results imply that the UEG in China’s local governments is unique, and the planning system especially acts a core player to cope with increasing regional ecological risks and uncertainties. It is suggested that China’s UEG needs to enhance experimental governance, ecological redline policy (ERP) and multi-plan integration and combine its current government-dominant top-down system with Western bottom-up decision-making mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Range Minimum Query problem consists in answering efficiently the simple question: “what is the minimal element between two specified indices of a given array?”. In this paper we present a novel structure that offers a trade-off between time and space. Moreover we show how the structure can be easily maintained whenever an insertion, modification or deletion modifies the input sequence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drought indices are commonly used tools for drought characterisation and analysis. The Reconnaissance Drought Index (RDI) is one of the widely used indices, due to its high sensitivity and resilience. The basic form of the index is the ratio of the cumulative precipitation to potential evapotranspiration, for a specified reference period. The RDI is also transferred to a normalised and a standardised expression. Since the RDI incorporates both the main input and the main output of a natural water system, it is considered as an appropriate index of water availability. Based on this notion, as shown in recent studies, the RDI is suitable for the assessment of drought impacts on agriculture. In this paper, a modified version of the index, RDIe, is presented, in which precipitation is replaced by the effective precipitation. With the proposed modification, the amount of water beneficially exploited by the agricultural systems can be represented more accurately, enhancing the performance of the index for agricultural drought analysis. Further, alternative ways for the calculation of effective precipitation are presented and discussed. An application of the modified RDI in an agricultural area demonstrates its better performance in assessing the impacts of drought on the rainfed agricultural production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Adriatic Sea countries face significant problems regarding cross-border water resources management. DRINKADRIA project aims at developing a common methodological framework, for efficient and effective cross border water supply and resources management, taking into consideration different resources types (surface and ground water) emphasizing in drinking water supply intake. The common methodology is based in four pillars: climate characteristics and the climate change, water resources availability, water resources quality and finally water resources management. The present paper assesses both present and future vulnerability of water resources based on a common methodology and estimates the integrated vulnerability index for the Adriatic Sea region and the Corfu test area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the distribution of primes and prime-indexed primes (PIPs) is studied by mapping primes into a binary image which visualizes the distribution of primes. These images show that the distribution of primes (and PIPs) is similar to a Cantor dust, moreover the self-similarity with respect to the order of PIPs (already proven in Batchko (2014)) can be seen as an invariance of the binary images. The index of primes plays the same role of the scale for fractals, so that with respect to the index the distribution of prime-indexed primes is characterized by the self-similarity alike any other fractal. In particular, in order to single out the scale dependence, the PIPs fractal distribution will be evaluated by limiting to two parameters, fractal dimension ( δ ) and lacunarity ( λ ), that are usually used to measure the fractal nature. Because of the invariance of the corresponding binary plots, the fractal dimension and lacunarity of primes distribution are invariant with respect to the index of PIPs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi-segment models of the foot have been proposed in the past years to overcome limitations imposed by oversimplified traditional approaches used to describe foot kinematics, but they have been only partially validated and never compared. This paper presents a unique comparative assessment of the four most widely adopted foot kinematic models and aims to provide a guidance for the clinical interpretation of their results. Sensitivity of the models to differences between treadmill and overground walking was tested in nine young healthy adults using a 1D paired t -test. Repeatability was assessed by investigating the joint kinematics obtained when the same operator placed the markers on thirteen young healthy adults in two occasions. Reproducibility was then assessed using data from three randomly selected participants, asking three operators to repeat the marker placement three times. The analyses were performed on sagittal kinematics using curve similarity and correlation indices (Linear Fit Method) and absolute differences between selected points. Differences between treadmill and overground gait were highlighted by all the investigated models. The two most repeatable and reproducible investigated models had average correlations higher than 0.70, with the lowest values (0.56) obtained for the midfoot. Averaged correlations were always higher than 0.74 for the former and 0.70 for the latter, with the lowest obtained for the midfoot (0.64 and 0.51). For all investigated models, foot kinematics generally showed low repeatability: normative bands must be adopted with caution when used for comparison with patient data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we study the d -dimensional assignment problem in which entries of the cost array satisfy the Monge property, except for ∞ -entries, which may violate it. We assume that the ∞ -entries are incurred by incompatible partner indices and their number is bounded by an upper bound λ for each index. We show that the problem can be solved in linear time for fixed d and λ , and it becomes strongly NP-hard if d or λ is part of the input. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we present a clustering framework for type-2 fuzzy clustering which covers all steps of the clustering process including: clustering algorithm, parameters estimation, and validation and verification indices. The proposed clustering algorithm is developed based on dual-centers type-2 fuzzy clustering model. In this model the centers of clusters are defined by a pair of objects rather than a single object. The membership values of the objects to the clusters are defined by type-2 fuzzy numbers and there are not any type reduction or defuzzification steps in the proposed clustering algorithm. In addition, the relation among the size of the cluster bandwidth, distance between dual-centers and fuzzifier parameter are indicated and analyzed to facilitate the parameters estimation step. To determine the optimum number of clusters, we develop a new validation index which is compatible with the proposed model structure. A new compatible verification index is also defined to compare the results of the proposed model with existing type-1 fuzzy clustering model. Finally, the results of computational experiments are presented to show the efficiency of the proposed approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Graovac–Ghorbani index ( ABC GG ), was introduced by Graovac and Ghorbani, (2010). In this paper we present some upper and lower bounds on the ABC GG index and characterize the extremal graphs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Link prediction in complex networks has attracted much attention in many fields. In this paper, a common neighbors plus preferential attachment index is presented to estimate the likelihood of the existence of a link between two nodes based on local information of the nearest neighbors. Numerical experiments on six real networks demonstrated the high effectiveness and efficiency of the new index compared with five well-known and widely accepted indices: the common neighbors, resource allocation index, preferential attachment index, local path index and Katz index. The new index provides competitively accurate prediction with local path index and Katz index while has less computational complexity and is more accurate than the other two indices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the recent years the problems of using generic storage (i.e., relational) techniques for very specific applications have been detected and outlined and, as a consequence, some alternatives to Relational DBMSs (e.g., HBase) have bloomed. Most of these alternatives sit on the cloud and benefit from cloud computing, which is nowadays a reality that helps us to save money by eliminating the hardware as well as software fixed costs and just pay per use. On top of this, specific querying frameworks to exploit the brute force in the cloud (e.g., MapReduce) have also been devised. The question arising next tries to clear out if this (rather naive) exploitation of the cloud is an alternative to tuning DBMSs or it still makes sense to consider other options when retrieving data from these settings. In this paper, we study the feasibility of solving OLAP queries with Hadoop (the Apache project implementing MapReduce) while benefiting from secondary indexes and partitioning in HBase. Our main contribution is the comparison of different access plans and the definition of criteria (i.e., cost estimation) to choose among them in terms of consumed resources (namely CPU, bandwidth and I/O). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary International transparency policy indexes (ITPIs) help determine billions in investment and aid, influence “authoritative” scholarship, and shape policy choices. Are ITPIs valid yardsticks of transparency, or do they encourage dissimulation? Most scholarship on index-based evaluations focuses on “concept indexes” (e.g., governance) from quantitative approaches. This paper presents qualitative insights about ITPIs in specific and “policy indexes” in general, analyzing three measurement-related pitfalls and proposing countermeasures. Most significantly, it shows how indexes presuppose substitutability while policies contain nonsubstitutable ‘necessary’ policy provisions. This dilemma of “ontological compatibility” means that policies can rank favorably on indexes notwithstanding the absence of lynchpin policy provisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mili c ˘ evi c ´ et al. first introduced the reformulated Zagreb indices, which is a generalization of classical Zagreb indices of chemical graph theory. As we know, the Zagreb indices have been found applications in QSPR and QSAR studies. In the paper, we characterize the extremal properties of the first reformulated Zagreb index. We show some graph operations which increase or decrease this index. Furthermore, we determine the sharp bound of the first reformulated Zagreb index among all the extremal tricyclic graphs by these graph operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For a given graph G , the well-known Randić index of G , introduced by Milan Randić in 1975, is defined as R ( G ) = ∑ u v ∈ E ( G ) ( d u d v ) − 1 / 2 , where the sum is taken over all edges uv and d u denotes the degrees of u . Bollobás and Erdös generalized this index by replacing − 1 / 2 with any real number α , which is called the general Randić index. Dvořák et al. introduced a modified version of Randić index: R ′ ( G ) = ∑ u v ∈ E ( G ) ( max { d u , d v } ) − 1 . Based on this, recently, Knor et al. introduced two generalizations: R α ′ ( G ) = ∑ u v ∈ E ( G ) min { d u α , d v α } and R α ′ ′ ( G ) = ∑ u v ∈ E ( G ) max { d u α , d v α } , for any real number α . Clearly, the former is a lower bound for the general Randić index, and the latter is its upper bound. Knor et al. studied extremal values of R α ′ ( G ) and R α ′ ′ ( G ) and concluded some open problems. In this paper, we consider the open problems and give some comments and results. Some results for chemical trees are obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A large number of indices claim to quantify the performance of a country in attaining the goal of energy security and energy sustainability. The paper compares three different indices, viz., ‘Energy Sustainability Index’, ‘International Index of Energy Security Risk’ and ‘Energy Architecture Performance Index’ along with their variants to examine if they provide consistent results for various countries. A comparative assessment reveals that the three indices provide different country rankings, which are inconsistent. This situation is akin to three blind men groping the elephant with each one measuring a different part of the body and asserting that only their assessment is true. Further analysis reveals that countries which rank in the top of the list of different indices are insensitive to differences in construction of the index and it can be inferred that they have robust energy systems, which partly resolves the conflict. However, much more needs to be done, to examine energy security and energy sustainability of a country with other relevant tools. It may therefore be concluded that while the country ranking from the individual indices may be correct, basing the assessment of a country's performance, on the score obtained in one specific study may not be accurate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Let G be a graph with vertex set V ( G ) and edge set E ( G ) . The first generalized multiplicative Zagreb index of G is ∏ 1 , c ( G ) = ∏ v ∈ V ( G ) d ( v ) c , for a real number c > 0 , and the second multiplicative Zagreb index is ∏ 2 ( G ) = ∏ u v ∈ E ( G ) d ( u ) d ( v ) , where d ( u ) , d ( v ) are the degrees of the vertices of u , v . The multiplicative Zagreb indices have been the focus of considerable research in computational chemistry dating back to Narumi and Katayama in 1980s. In this paper, we generalize Narumi–Katayama index and the first multiplicative index, where c = 1 , 2 , respectively, and extend the results of Gutman to the generalized tree, the k -tree, where the results of Gutman are for k = 1 . Additionally, we characterize the extremal graphs and determine the exact bounds of these indices of k -trees, which attain the lower and upper bounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examined the citation impact of Chinese- and English-language articles in Chinese-English bilingual journals indexed by Scopus and Web of Science (WoS). Two findings were obtained from comparative analysis: (1) Chinese-language articles were not biased in citations compared with English-language articles, since they received a large number of citations from Chinese scientists; (2) a Chinese-language community was found in Scopus, in which Chinese-language articles mainly received citations from Chinese-language articles, but it was not found in WoS whose coverage of Chinese-language articles is only one-tenth of Scopus. The findings suggest some implications for academic evaluation of journals including Chinese-language articles in Scopus and WoS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social inequality is traditionally measured by the Gini-index (g). The g-index takes values from 0 to 1 where g=0 represents complete equality and g=1 represents complete inequality. Most of the estimates of the income or wealth data indicate the g value to be widely dispersed across the countries of the world: g values typically range from 0.30 to 0.65 at a particular time (year). We estimated similarly the Gini-index for the citations earned by the yearly publications of various academic institutions and the science journals. The ISI web of science data suggests remarkably strong inequality and universality (g=0.70±0.07) across all the universities and institutions of the world, while for the journals we find g=0.65±0.15 for any typical year. We define a new inequality measure, namely the k-index, saying that the cumulative income or citations of (1-k) fraction of people or papers exceed those earned by the fraction (k) of the people or publications respectively. We find, while the k-index value for income ranges from 0.60 to 0.75 for income distributions across the world, it has a value around 0.75±0.05 for different universities and institutions across the world and around 0.77±0.10 for the science journals. Apart from above indices, we also analyze the same institution and journal citation data by measuring Pietra index and median index. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]