Abstract: A jewelry piece to hold the ends of a plurality of parallel beaded jewelry strings has two interdigitated U shaped bodies. Each body has a slot along at least one edge in which to slide the end pieces of each bead string. This jewelry piece can be used as a coupling for a necklace or bracelet or for an earring with hanging beaded strings.

Abstract: A jewelry piece to hold the ends of a plurality of parallel beaded jewelry strings has two interdigitated U shaped bodies. Each body has a slot along at least one edge in which to slide the end pieces of each bead string. This jewelry piece can be used as a coupling for a necklace or bracelet or for an earring with hanging beaded strings.

Abstract: A system for managing objects in a hierarchial structure, the system being implemented preferably in a network management program. The system determines a composite index for a network object in the hierarchical structure from one or more parameters. In addition, the system determines composite indices for parent objects based on composite indices for child objects. Preferably, parameters are based on a scale common to all objects. Parameters are defined in the range of zero to one inclusively. Multiple composite indices for an object may be determined and combined with multiple indices of other objects at a same level of the hierarchical structure to determine multiple composite indices for parent objects. Alternatively, multiple composite indices may be combined to determine an overall state index for a parent object. Further, multiple composite indices may be determined for a root object of the hierarchical structure.