Statistical Terms Glossary

An index that treats the two periods being compared symmetrically by giving equal weight, or importance, to the price and value data in both periods. The price and value data for both periods enter into the index number formula in a symmetric or balanced way.

Symmetric (input-output) tables are tables in which the same classifications or units (i.e. the same groups of products or industries) are used in both rows and columns.

See Oligopoly.

A reclassification of defensive expenditure in order to achieve a symmetric treatment of environmental protection expenditure by government and industry, preserving the closed character of the accounting system.

(Digital communication) pertaining to a transmission technique that requires a common clock signal (a timing reference) between the communicating devices in order to coordinate their transmissions)

Transmission of two or more signals on the same path, but at different times.

A broadband networking standard based on point-to-point optical fibre networks. SONET will provide a high-bandwidth "pipe" to support ATM-based services.

A group of bankers and/or brokers who underwrite and distribute a new issue of securities or a large block of an outstanding issue. By extension, can also refer to a group of banks or securities firms who are involved in a Eurocredit or Eurobond issue

To arrange for a loan using a syndicate.

Loan made by a syndicate.

Formation of a syndicate for the purpose of issuing or underwriting a loan.

In computer science and linguistics, parsing, or, more formally, syntactic analysis, is the process of analyzing a text, made of a sequence of tokens (for example, words), to determine its grammatical structure with respect to a given (more or less) formal grammar.

1. Synteny describes the conservation or consistency of gene content and gene order along the chromosomes of different plant genomes.; 2. The relationship of genes that are on the same chromosome, regardless of whether the linkage is large enough to measure.; The occurrence of two or more loci on the same chromosome, without regard to their genetic linkage. Increasingly used to describe the conservation of gene order between related species.

A name for asset swaps which are artificially packaged and marketed by investment banks rather than investors themselves.

The Ministry of Higher Education supervises Syria's universities: Damascus University, Tishreen University, the University of Aleppo, and Al-Baath University. The ministry has worked cooperatively with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and UNESCO to develop the Syrian Higher Education and Research Network (SHERN), a national network for higher education with connection to the Internet. The project began in January 1999, and the core development is scheduled for completion in mid-2001. A presidential decree in 2000 led to the establishment of a Faculty of Computer Science and Engineering at the four universities with 150 openings at each site Read more: Syria - Higher Education http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/1486/Syria-HIGHER-EDUCATION….

Typically defined as the ratio of those receiving pension benefits to those accruing pension rights.

A term normally used to refer to systems that offer users an interface that screens them from the majority of the details of the physical handling of the files, leaving them free to concentrate on the logical properties of the data.

The System of Health Accounts provides for health accounting an economic framework and accounting rules which are methodologically compatible with the System of National Accounts, 1993 Revision (SNA 93).

The System for integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting is a satellite system of the SNA that comprises 4 categories of accounts.
The first considers purely physical data relating to flows of materials and energy and marshals them as far as possible according to the accounting structure of the SNA. The accounts in this category also show how flow data in physical and monetary terms can be combined to produce so-called “hybrid” flow accounts. Emissions accounts for greenhouse gases are an example of the type included in this category.
The second category of accounts takes those elements of the existing SNA which are relevant to the good management of the environment and shows how the environment-related transactions can be made more explicit. An account of expenditures made by businesses, governments and households to protect the environment is an example of the accounts included in this category. The third category of accounts in the SEEA comprises accounts for environmental assets measured in physical and monetary terms. Timber stock accounts showing opening and closing timber balances and the related changes over the course of an accounting period are an example.The final category of SEEA accounts considers how the existing SNA might be adjusted to account for the impact of the economy on the environment. Three sorts of adjustments are considered; those relating to depletion, those concerning so-called defensive expenditures and those relating to degradation.

The System of National Accounts (SNA) is the internationally agreed standard set of recommendations on how to compile measures of economic activity in accordance with strict accounting conventions based on economic principles. The recommendations are expressed in terms of a set of concepts, definitions, classifications and accounting rules that comprise the internationally agreed standard for measuring such items as gross domestic product (GDP), the most frequently quoted indicator of economic performance. The accounts present in a condensed way a mass of detailed information, organized according to economic principles and perceptions, about the working of an economy. They provide a comprehensive and detailed record of the complex economic activities taking place within an economy and of the interaction between the different economic agents, and groups of agents, which takes place on markets or elsewhere. The System of National Accounts (SNA) has been prepared under the joint responsibility of the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, the Commission of the European Communities, the OECD and the World Bank. The SNA is designed to give a realistic and compact view of the economy that is suitable for policy and analytical use.

Purchase by the Federal Reserve of securities for a short period of time with an agreement to resell them at a specified price. See also repurchase agreement.

Systematic sampling is a random method of sampling that applies a constant interval to choosing a sample of elements from the sampling frame.

The risk that the inability of one institution to meet its obligations when due will cause other institutions to be unable to meet their obligations when due. Such a failure may cause significant liquidity or credit problems and, as a result, could threaten the stability of or confidence in markets.

IBM's family of standard interfaces which enable software to be written independently of hardware and operating system.