Index
An index is an indirect shortcut derived from and pointing into a greater volume of values, data, information or knowledge. Index may refer to:
Business
Publishing
Database index
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.
Index (statistics)
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.
Paradise (Cody Simpson album)
Paradise is the debut studio album by Australian recording artist Cody Simpson, released on 28 September 2012 by Atlantic Records.
Background
On 12 June 2012, Simpson released Preview to Paradise, a four song teaser EP. The EP featured the songs "Got Me Good", "So Listen", "Wish U Were Here", and "Gentleman". All of the songs, besides "So Listen" were released as a part of Paradise. Simpson stated the reason behind only having a few collaborations on the album is because "I wanted my debut full length album to be a representation of me." It is rumored that Simpson could perform a one off song with JLS star Aston Merrygold once Surfers Paradise has been released.
Singles
On 25 May 2012, the lead single, "Got Me Good" was released as a teaser on Simpson's official website and radio. The accompanying music video was released on 5 June.
"Wish U Were Here", which features American YouTube singer Becky G, was the second official single off the album, released on 12 June 2012. The music video debuted on 7 August 2012. Four days later, three remixes of the song were released.
Paradise (What About Us?)
"Paradise (What About Us?)" is a studio EP by Dutch symphonic metal/rock band Within Temptation from their sixth studio album Hydra. It was released on 27 September with three songs from the upcoming album in their demo versions and also accompanying a music video. Beside its digital release, the EP has also been released as a physical CD (only in Japan).
Background
At the end of May 2013, the band started the process of finalization of the song vocal lines. Next month, the band went on to record the first music video for the new album. On 12 July 2013, the band released a teaser trailer of the upcoming music video, but without any names revealed. Next month, the band announced the title of the lead single, in which was called "Paradise (What About Us?)", also uploading a teaser trailer revealing some of the song lyrics and a guitar solo in anticipation for the release. During the recording process of the song, the band came to a point of confusion in which they couldn't decide how to mix it, so the song was sent to several different mixers for the band's to choose the better one. They wanted a mix that was "pumping, heavy, big and melancholic" at the same time, and to make sure that nothing was left missing on the song. According to lead vocalist Sharon den Adel, the early idea was to put "a swingy dance beat with rap in all verses" but the band disliked the end result because it led to a place "a bit too much out of our comfort zone", and then they led it to a well-known territory, transforming the song into a "big symphonic, and heavy guitar cranking song."
Paradise, Arizona
Paradise is a ghost town in Cochise County in the U.S. state of Arizona. The town was settled in 1901 in what was then the Arizona Territory.
History
In 1901 the Chiricahua Development Company located a vein of ore here. A post office was established on October 23, 1901, and at its peak, the town had saloons, general stores, a jail and a hotel. The town was essentially abandoned when the local mines failed, and the post office closed on September 30, 1943. However, a few residents remained. In June 2011, there were five permanent residents and 29 standing structures when the Horseshoe 2 Fire swept through the area.
Geography
Paradise is located 5.7 miles west (up-mountain) from Portal, Arizona at 31°56′5″N 109°13′8″W / 31.93472°N 109.21889°W / 31.93472; -109.21889 (31.9348131,-109.2189503), and is surrounded by Coronado National Forest land.
In popular culture
A fictional town named Paradise in Arizona is the main setting of the video game Postal 2. The town is destroyed by a nuclear explosion at the end of the game. However, the town in Postal 2 is actually based on Bisbee, Arizona, as confirmed by one of the developers.
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