An index is an indirect shortcut derived from and pointing into a greater volume of values, data, information or knowledge. Index may refer to:
A database index is a data structure that improves the speed of data retrieval operations on a database table at the cost of additional writes and storage space to maintain the index data structure. Indexes are used to quickly locate data without having to search every row in a database table every time a database table is accessed. Indexes can be created using one or more columns of a database table, providing the basis for both rapid random lookups and efficient access of ordered records.
An index is a copy of select columns of data from a table that can be searched very efficiently that also includes a low-level disk block address or direct link to the complete row of data it was copied from. Some databases extend the power of indexing by letting developers create indices on functions or expressions. For example, an index could be created on upper(last_name)
, which would only store the upper case versions of the last_name
field in the index. Another option sometimes supported is the use of partial indices, where index entries are created only for those records that satisfy some conditional expression. A further aspect of flexibility is to permit indexing on user-defined functions, as well as expressions formed from an assortment of built-in functions.
In statistics and research design, an index is a composite statistic – a measure of changes in a representative group of individual data points, or in other words, a compound measure that aggregates multiple indicators. Indexes summarize and rank specific observations.
Much data in the field of social sciences is represented in various indices such as Gender Gap Index, Human Development Index or the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
Item in indexes are usually weighted equally, unless there are some reasons against it (for example, if two items reflect essentially the same aspect of a variable, they could have a weight of 0.5 each).
Constructing the items involves four steps. First, items should be selected based on their face validity, unidimensionality, the degree of specificity in which a dimension is to be measured, and their amount of variance. Items should be empirically related to one another, which leads to the second step of examining their multivariate relationships. Third, indexes scores are designed, which involves determining their score ranges and weights for the items. Finally, indexes should be validateds, which involves testing whether they can predict indicators related to the measured variable not used in their construction.
Diesel may refer to:
Mark Denis Lizotte, (born 31 May 1966,Fall River, Massachusetts, United States) is an American-born Australian musician, who has released material as leader of Johnny Diesel & the Injectors, under his birth name, or by the pseudonym Diesel. Two of his albums reached No. 1 on the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Albums Charts, Hepfidelity in 1992 and The Lobbyist in 1993.
Since 1987, Diesel has played on several albums by well-known Australian rock singer and brother-in-law, Jimmy Barnes. Although better known as a singer-songwriter and guitarist, Diesel is also competent on bass guitar, drums, percussion and keyboards; and has also produced an album by Richard Clapton and one by Vika and Linda Bull. He has won five ARIA Music Awards with three for 'Best Male Artist' in 1993, 1994 and 1995.
Diesel was born in 1966 in Fall River, Massachusetts, United States, and emigrated to Australia with his family, in November 1971. His father, Henry Bertram Lizotte (born 19 June 1929), and his mother, Theresa Rita (née Morin, born 18 January 1930) were parents of Jeannine, Bruce, Michael, Laura, Donna, Brian and Mark. They settled in Perth, Western Australia, where he later had a job pouring petrol—an experience that provided inspiration for his music. Henry was a professional saxophonist performing in the US and Australia, Diesel and his siblings were surrounded by music from an early age. While his siblings became teachers, Diesel eventually settled on electric guitar as his main instrument. He later recalled a time in Year 8 (c. 1979) at Scarborough Senior High School when he decided on a musical career: "I was trying to get my head around algebra [...] and suddenly I thought: 'Hang on, I don't have to do this. I can play music as a job!'".
Kevin Scott Nash (born July 9, 1959) is an American semi-retired professional wrestler and actor, currently signed to WWE under their legends program. Nash has wrestled under several ring names, but is best known by his real name in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), and in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), where he has also been billed as Diesel.
In 1994, Nash (as Diesel) won all three titles comprising the WWF Triple Crown, and at that year's Slammy Awards won the MVP (now Superstar of the Year) and (with Shawn Michaels) the Best Tag Team (now Tag Team of the Year) awards.
Between WWE, WCW, and TNA, Nash has won a total of 21 championships, including being a six-time world champion (a five-time WCW World Heavyweight Champion and one-time WWF World Heavyweight Champion), and a 12-time world tag team champion between the three promotions. Although he held the WWF World Heavyweight Championship only once, Nash is the longest-reigning titleholder of the 1990s, with a 358-day run. During his time in WCW, Nash also became the first wrestler to defeat Goldberg and in the process ended his undefeated streak of 173–0 at Starrcade in 1998.