Measuring the Entrepreneurialism of a University

The world of higher education is becoming more dependent on comparative measurements between individual organizations. The entrepreneurialism of a university is a typical topic of which some measurement pressure can exist. The chapter discusses the pros and cons of different means to measure the entrepreneurialism of a university. The comparisons are made between using several individual metrics, two different types of balanced scorecard approaches, and a qualitative approach. The chapter ends by presenting four short scenarios after which four recommendations about building a measurement system are given: (1) measure entrepreneurialism, (2) define what the system is used for, (3) have different systems for different stakeholders, and (4) allow for ambiguity when comparing the results. Some ideas for future research are also provided.

Commerce Web-Portal Redesigning Based on Usability Evaluation

Redesigning of the whole portal or some of its webpages does not always lead to a positive result despite the designers' expectations. Nowadays the opinion on how to carry out the redesign of web portals varies. A web portal being in service and in a wide use, a sudden change in its design may result in a drop of the number of clients. The usability evaluation has become important to make a decision on what design of webpages to choose. The paper proposes a method to redesign of commercial web-portals which is based on usability evaluation of some webpages. The evaluation can be undertaken by surveying the staff of the business organization where such a web portal is being developed. The hierarchy made of the Choquet integrals aggregates the results of the questionnaire and allows for the interdependencies between individual metrics of usability. Then, a decision about the redesign of a certain webpage is made on the basis of the aggregated results. The described experiment has shown a great impact of this innovative approach.

Optimisation of a composite difference metric for prompt error detection in real-time portal dosimetry of simulated volumetric modulated arc therapy

Objectives: In real-time portal dosimetry, thresholds are set for several measures of difference between predicted and measured images, and signals larger than those thresholds signify an error. The aim of this work is to investigate the use of an additional composite difference metric (CDM) for earlier detection of errors. Methods: Portal images were predicted for the volumetric modulated arc therapy plans of six prostate patients. Errors in monitor units, aperture opening, aperture position and path length were deliberately introduced into all 180 segments of the treatment plans, and these plans were delivered to a water-equivalent phantom. Four different metrics, consisting of central axis signal, mean image value and two image difference measures, were used to identify errors, and a CDM was added, consisting of a weighted power sum of the individual metrics. To optimise the weights of the CDM and to evaluate the resulting timeliness of error detection, a leave-pair-out strategy was used. For each combination of four patients, the weights of the CDM were determined by an exhaustive search, and the result was evaluated on the remaining two patients. Results: The median segment index at which the errors were identified was 87 (range 40–130) when using all of the individual metrics separately. Using a CDM as well as multiple separate metrics reduced this to 73 (35–95). The median weighting factors of the four metrics constituting the composite were (0.15, 0.10, 0.15, 0.00). Due to selection of suitable threshold levels, there was only one false positive result in the six patients. Conclusion: This study shows that, in conjunction with appropriate error thresholds, use of a CDM is able to identify increased image differences around 20% earlier than the separate measures. Advances in knowledge: This study shows the value of combining difference metrics to allow earlier detection of errors during real-time portal dosimetry for volumetric modulated arc therapy treatment.

Vliv znázornění výškopisu v různých typech reliéfu na grafickou náplň map

The issue of graphic map load is currently very often overlooked. Conversely, having an objective knowledge of the level of a map load helps cartographers to assume the map’s readability and suitability for a target group of users. The aim of this study is, therefore, to use the Graphic Map Load Measuring Tool (GMLMT) and Subband Entropy script as objective metrics to evaluate the influence of terrain type (plains, hills, highlands, mountains, high mountains) and elevation representation method (contour lines, shading, colour hypsometry and their combinations) to graphic map load. The resulting map load values are visualized using multiple bar graphs and tables. Measurements performed using individual metrics confirmed the assumption that the map load of various terrain types differs the most when using contour lines. Hypsography using contour lines also reached the highest graphic map load among other methods. Hillshading and colour hypsography each also react specifically to increasing elevation differences. While graphic map load is increasing with increasing elevation differences, in the case of hillshading, map load seems to be more dependent on small terrain shapes and fragmentation of hillsides’ aspect.

Knowledge as a Revenue Driver, Not a Cost Centre: the LexisNexis GLP and How to Use Market Intelligence to Make Knowledge a Vital Growth Engine for Law Firms

This article by the LexisNexis Segment Marketing team explains the approach, methodology and findings of the LexisNexis Gross Legal Product (GLP) report, first presented at the BIALL's Virtual Conference in June 2020. The GLP is a quantitative measure of underlying demand for legal services in the UK, comprised of 250 individual metrics which serve as proxies for legal activity. The article outlines the methodology and sources used to build the GLP; headline findings for Q2 2020 YTD; and provides suggestions for how firm leaders and knowledge professionals could use the information in their work. The GLP Q2 model found that demand for legal activity has declined by 7% since the start of 2020.

Multi-Biometric System Based on Cutting-Edge Equipment for Experimental Contactless Verification

Biometric verification methods have gained significant popularity in recent times, which has brought about their extensive usage. In light of theoretical evidence surrounding the development of biometric verification, we proposed an experimental multi-biometric system for laboratory testing. First, the proposed system was designed such that it was able to identify and verify a user through the hand contour, and blood flow (blood stream) at the upper part of the hand. Next, we detailed the hard and software solutions for the system. A total of 40 subjects agreed to be a part of data generation team, which produced 280 hand images. The core of this paper lies in evaluating individual metrics, which are functions of frequency comparison of the double type faults with the EER (Equal Error Rate) values. The lowest value was measured for the case of the modified Hausdorff distance metric - Maximally Helicity Violating (MHV). Furthermore, for the verified biometric characteristics (Hamming distance and MHV), appropriate and suitable metrics have been proposed and experimented to optimize system precision. Thus, the EER value for the designed multi-biometric system in the context of this work was found to be 5%, which proves that metrics consolidation increases the precision of the multi-biometric system. Algorithms used for the proposed multi-biometric device shows that the individual metrics exhibit significant accuracy but perform better on consolidation, with a few shortcomings.

Assessment of Aquatic Ecosystem Health of the Wutong River Based on Benthic Diatoms

The community structure of benthic diatoms and water environmental characteristics were extensively investigated to assess the aquatic ecosystem health of the Wutong River (Heilongjiang Province, China). Several diatom indices were calculated, and a benthic diatom index based on biotic integrity (BD-IBI) was developed. Principal component analysis (PCA), Spearman correlation analysis (CA), cluster analysis, redundancy analysis (RDA), and the box plot analysis were used to analyze the benthic diatom communities, assess the river ecosystem health, and compare the applicability of different indexes. The results indicated that Gomphonema parvulum and other tolerant species were the dominant species. Meanwhile, most sites were in “poor” or “very poor” condition according to the diatom indexes evaluation, indicating that the river has been disturbed by human activities. The sampling sites of the Wutong River were divided into three groups based on different pollution levels. The derived BD-IBI included four individual metrics of different aspects, showed strong distinguishability for three grouping and robust correlation with environmental variables. Of all the indexes selected, IBI performed the best, followed by the species-level diatom indexes and the genus-level diatom indexes.

PRIMARY PEAK RATIO CORRELATION TO THE MEASUREMENT ACCURACY OF PIV METHOD

An estimation of a measurement accuracy at each measured point is crucial regarding the applicability of results of the measurements. The aim of this work is to determine the correlation between individual metrics and the measurement accuracy by using corrected metrics of the correlation plane. This work is based on defining a corrected metric using known metrics corrected by the displacement measured in the last iteration, the number of the particles and the velocity gradient inside the interrogation area. The resulting tests are performed using conventional synthetic tests. The discovered dependencies between individual corrected metrics are subsequently approximated in order to determine the measurement accuracy. And, finally, the most suitable variant for the determination of the accuracy of the measurement by the particle image velocimetry method is specified.

Sustainable performance of microinsurance in low-income markets

Sustainable performance in microinsurance offering in low-income markets is important to ensure that the service simultaneously achieves corporate profitability and poverty alleviation. Sustainable performance requires a balanced integration of supply and demand factors in the offering of the service. Microinsurance is still supply driven thereby creating a lopsided mismatch between demand and supply that leads to oversupply and low uptake. On the basis of extant literature, the paper aims to propose and discuss factors critical to demand and supply of microinsurance. A conceptual framework for sustainable microinsurance is presented with individual metrics that can be addressed as managerial tools for driving and controlling sustained superior performance. While this is a theoretical paper, microinsurance practitioners may benefit from the application of the presented theory.