A PROOF OF THE METRIC PROPERTIES OF THE SYMMETRIC SCALING-NESTING DISSIMILARITY MEASURE AND RELATED SYMMETRY DEFICIENCY MEASURES

摘要

The scaling-nesting similarity measures were proposed earlier for an intuitively simple shape comparison of molecular ''bodies'' enclosed by isodensity surfaces. Similarity measures have extended utility and provide rigorous comparisons which can be treated by well known mathematical techniques if they fulfill the conditions for a metric. Here, a proof is presented showing that the symmetric scaling-nesting dissimilarity measure is indeed a proper metric. Some additional features, relevant to the newly proven properties of these similarity measures, are discussed. (C) 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. [References: 25]