Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
In Vitro Aberrometric Assessment of a Multifocal Intraocular Lens and Two Extended Depth of Focus IOLs

Purpose To analyze the “in vitro” aberrometric pattern of a refractive IOL and two extended depth of focus IOLs. Methods A special optical bench with a Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor (SH) was designed for the measurement. Three presbyopia correction IOLs were analyzed: Mini WELL (MW), TECNIS Symfony ZXR00 (SYM), and Lentis Mplus X LS-313 MF30 (MP). Three different pupil sizes were used for the comparison: 3, 4, and 4.7 mm. Results MW generated negative primary and positive secondary spherical aberrations (SA) for the apertures of 3 mm (−0.13 and +0.12 μm), 4 mm (−0.12 and +0.08 μm), and 4.7 mm (−0.11 and +0.08 μm), while the SYM only generated negative primary SA for 4 and 4.7 mm apertures (−0.12 μm and −0.20 μm, resp.). The MP induced coma and trefoil for all pupils and showed significant HOAs for apertures of 4 and 4.7 mm. Conclusions In an optical bench, the MW induces negative primary and positive secondary SA for all pupils. The SYM aberrations seem to be pupil dependent; it does not produce negative primary SA for 3 mm but increases for higher pupils. Meanwhile, the HOAs for the MW and SYM were not significant. The MP showed in all cases the highest HOAs.
Diplopia and enophthalmos after surgical repair of blowout fracture

PURPOSE : To evaluate the incidence of residual diplopia and enophthalmos and the possible risk factors leading to their occurrence in patients who had orbital blowout fracture repair. METHODS : Forty-two patients with pure orbital blowout fracture who had at least 6 months postoperative follow-up were included in the study group. Nineteen (45.2%) patients had orbital floor, two (4.8%) patients had medial orbital wall and 21 (50%) patients had a combination of orbital floor and medial orbital wall fractures. The frac-ture was reconstructed with porous polyethylene (Medpore R ) in 22, supramide in 12 and gelatin (Gelfilm R ) in 8 orbits. Mean postoperative follow-up was 11 months. RESULTS : Preoperatively, 35 patients (83%) had diplopia and 13 patients (30.9%) had enophthalmos greater than 2 mm. Of 35 patients who had preoperative diplopia, only 7 (17%) patients experienced diplopia postoperatively. Diplopia improved 1 to 4 weeks (mean, 3 weeks) following surgery in 28 patients. Timing of surgery and age of the patient were significant for the development of postoperative diplopia (p < 0.05). Sex, location of the blowout fracture and the alloplast material were not found to be significant for the development of postoperative diplopia (p > 0.05). Enophthalmos persisted in three (7%) patients postoperatively. CONCLUSION : Old patients were more likely to have residual postoperative diplopia. Surgical repair of blowout fractures within two weeks of trauma decreases the incidence of residual diplopia.
Scoring on the stock exchange? The effect of football matches on stock market returns: an event study

We analyse the effect of results of football matches on the stock market performance of football teams. We analyse 1274 matches of eight teams in the national and European competition during 2000–2004. We find that the stock market response is significant and positive for victories and negative for defeats. The response is significantly stronger in the case of defeat. The response is stronger for matches in the European competition than for those in the national competition. Unexpected results have a stronger impact for European matches than expected ones but this is not the case in the national competition.
Publication and Patent Behaviour of Academic Researchers: Conflicting, Reinforcing or Merely Co-Existing?

Increasing entrepreneurial activity within academia has raised concerns that the number of publications added to the scientific commons might be reduced or that academic research would be directed exclusively towards the application-oriented needs of industry. In the case of academic inventions, the potential conflict between public- and private-oriented considerations seems most salient. In this contribution, we examine whether the publication behavior of academic inventors (at K.U. Leuven) differs from their colleagues (non-inventors) working within similar fields of research. Our analysis reveals that inventors publish significantly more. Moreover, no empirical evidence was found for the ‘skewing problem’. These findings not only suggest the co-existence of both activities; they may actually reinforce each other.
The utilisation of generalized audit software (GAS) by external auditors

Purpose – Generalized audit software (GAS) is the tool use by auditors to automate various audit tasks. As most accounting transactions are now computerized, auditing of accounting data is also expected to be computerized as well. While GAS is the most popular of computer assisted audit tools and techniques (CAATTs), research shows that there is little evidence that GAS has been universally adopted by external auditors. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the utilization of GAS by external auditors in the UK. The paper focuses on small and medium-sized audit firms in the UK whereas most other GAS studies have examined “Big 4” firms. Registered statutory auditors have been selected as a sample. Design/methodology/approach – A framework was developed to identify a range of relevant factors which are important when considering the application of GAS. A web-based survey has been used to gather the perceptions based on the responses from 205 statutory auditors across the UK. The questions posed to respondents were mapped against the framework. Findings – The research finds that the utilization of GAS is unusually low among audit firms in the UK. About 73 per cent of external auditors make no use of GAS, due to the perceived limited benefit of using GAS for auditing small clients. While some respondents recognized the advantages of GAS, they were put off by what they believed to be high implementation costs; significant learning curve and adoption process; and lack of ease of use – they showed a preference for using traditional manual auditing methods instead. Research limitations/implications – The paper focuses on small and medium-sized auditors, and as such the results cannot be extrapolated to Big 4 auditors. Consequently, the responses and conclusions are relevant to the use of GAS during audits of smaller and medium-sized companies which make up the client base of such audit firms. Originality/value – This is one of the few studies that have sought to research the utilization of GAS by the external auditor.
Diversification through Trade ∗

A widely held view is that openness to international trade leads to higher income volatility, as trade increases specialization and hence exposure to sector-specific shocks. Contrary to this common wisdom, we argue that when country-wide shocks are important, openness to international trade can lower income volatility by reducing exposure to domestic shocks, and allowing countries to diversify the sources of demand and supply across countries. Using a quantitative model of trade, we assess the importance of the two mechanisms (sectoral specialization and cross-country diversification) and show that in recent decades international trade has reduced economic volatility for most countries. ∗Thanks: Referees, Pol Antras, Costas Arkolakis, Robert Barro, Fernando Broner, Ariel Burstein, Lorenzo Caliendo, Julian DiGiovanni, Bernardo Guimaraes, Nobu Kiyotaki, Pete Klenow, David Laibson, Fabrizio Perri, Steve Redding, Ina Simonovska, Jaume Ventura, Romain Wacziarg, and seminar participants at Bocconi, Birmingham, CREI, Princeton, Penn, Yale, NYU, UCL, LBS, LSE, Toulouse, Warwick, as well as participants at SED, ESSIM, and the Nottingham trade conference. Calin Vlad Demian, Balazs Kertesz, Federico Rossi, and Peter Zsohar provided superb research assistance. Caselli acknowledges financial support from the Luverlhume Fellowship. Koren acknowledges financial support from the European Research Council (ERC) starting grant 313164. Tenreyro acknowledges financial support from the ERC starting grant 240852. † London School of Economics, CfM, CEPR. ‡ Central European University, MTA KRTK, CEPR. § European Comission. Correspondence: s.tenreyro@LSE.ac. uk.
Uveitic Glaucoma: Long-term Clinical Outcome and Risk Factors for Progression

ABSTRACT Purpose: To study the long-term clinical outcomes of uveitic glaucoma and to identify risk factors for progression. Methods: Retrospective study of uveitic glaucoma patients in two tertiary medical centers in 2003–2015. Patient- and disease-related data was retrieved. Clinical parameters and visual fields measured at predetermined time points were recorded. Outcome measures included maintaining intraocular pressure ≤21 mmHg and preserving visual fields. Results: Included were 34 patients (53 eyes), with a mean follow-up of 7 years. Idiopathic anterior uveitis and open-angle glaucoma were most common. In total, 62% of eyes were steroid responders. Higher IOP was associated with posterior synechiae, peripheral-anterior synechiae, steroidal, and immunomodulatory therapy (p<0.05). Glaucomatous field defects developed in 49%, with most showing no progression, despite elevation of cup-to-disc ratio (p<0.05). Conclusions: Chronic severe uveitis, expressed by structural complications and immunomodulatory therapy, was associated with high IOP and the need for more IOP lowering medications, but was unrelated to glaucomatous damage.
A G-Protein β Subunit Required for Sexual and Vegetative Development and Maintenance of Normal Gα Protein Levels in Neurospora crassa

ABSTRACT The genome of the filamentous fungus Neurospora crassa contains a single gene encoding a heterotrimeric G-protein β subunit, gnb-1. The predicted GNB-1 protein sequence is most identical to Gβ proteins from the filamentous fungi Cryphonectria parasitica and Aspergillus nidulans. N. crassa GNB-1 is also 65% identical to the human GNB-1 protein but only 38 and 45% identical to Gβ proteins from budding and fission yeasts. Previous studies in animal and fungal systems have elucidated phenotypes of Gβ null mutants, but little is known about the effects of Gβ loss on Gα levels. In this study, we analyzed a gnb-1 deletion mutant for cellular phenotypes and levels of the three Gα proteins. Δgnb-1 strains are female-sterile, with production of aberrant fertilized reproductive structures. Δgnb-1 strains conidiate more profusely and have altered mass on solid medium. Loss of gnb-1 leads to inappropriate conidiation and expression of a conidiation-specific gene during growth in submerged culture. Intracellular cyclic AMP levels are reduced by 60% in vegetative plate cultures of Δgnb-1 mutants. Loss of gnb-1 leads to lower levels of the three Gα proteins under a variety of conditions. Analysis of transcript levels for the gna-1 and gna-2 Gα genes in submerged cultures indicates that regulation of Gα protein levels by gnb-1 is posttranscriptional. The results suggest that GNB-1 directly regulates apical extension rate and mass accumulation. In contrast, many other Δgnb-1 phenotypes, including female sterility and defective conidiation, can be explained by altered levels of the three N. crassa Gα proteins.
Technology-Based Entrepreneurship Education: Meeting Educational and Business Objectives

The UK government's ‘Third Mission’ for Higher Education (2000) encourages universities to teach entrepreneurship to ‘STEM’ students (those studying science, technology, engineering and mathematics), in part to support the technology transfer agenda. Technology-based entrepreneurship education (TEE) incorporates the key elements of entrepreneurship education (EE), concentrating on the creation of economic value from technological change. In this paper, the key challenges associated with EE and TEE are outlined, and the authors propose that the way to meet these challenges is through a systematic process that takes a technology from an initial idea in the laboratory to full commercialization as a high-growth firm. The ‘Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization Algorithm’ developed at North Carolina State University (NCSU) offers such a framework for multidisciplinary teams. The paper describes why and how the Algorithm was adapted for use at Loughborough University (LU). The focus is on the educational and business objectives of the programme and the extent to which those objectives have been achieved. The paper thus makes a contribution to the TEE literature by spelling out specific challenges, discussing a potential solution to these challenges and thereby adding to our understanding of the linkages between education, innovation and entrepreneurship.
"Just Say No": A Process Evaluation of a Johns' School

This research evaluates a prostitution offender program (commonly called a “johns’ school”) located in a large Midwestern city. I evaluate the components of the program, its philosophy, the shortand long-term effectiveness of the program, and its implementation to determine whether it is effective in deterring men from hiring prostitutes. By comparing preand post-test attitudinal forms and participants’ assessment of the effectiveness of the program, I have determined that this program is effective in changing the attitudes of men that attend the program, but there are several improvements that the program organizers could implement to increase its effectiveness. Index words: Prostitution, Johns' school, Prostitution offender rehabilitation, Evaluation research.
To Bond or to Bridge? Contingent Effects of Managers’ Social Capital on Organizational Performance

A top manager’s social capital is considered a critical resource for determining organizational outcomes. However, little is known about the impact of social capital on public organizations’ performance. By dimensionalizing social capital into two subdimensions, this study investigates the impact of a superintendent’s bonding and bridging social capital on the performance of school districts. This study’s findings show that bridging social capital has positive impacts on organizational performance, but in a time of financial difficulty it worsens the negative shocks of the difficulty. Bonding social capital is found to be exactly the opposite. This study argues that choosing between bonding and bridging social capital is not an “either-or” question, and top managers are required to balance the two, depending on the situations that their organizations face.
The Economics of Regulation and Taxation Policies for Casino Tourism

A number of states and countries have promoted the development of a casino industry primarily to attract tourists. The policies operated have generally used regulatory or taxation instruments. Such policies may or may not lead to an efficient level of investment and production for the sector. This paper considers four alternative forms of regulatory and taxation policies and examines the interactions between these two sets of investments. The authors find that a turnover tax yields an efficient outcome with a competitive industry and also in the case of a cartel association; but it will be distortionary if a multiplant private monopoly controls the sector. Furthermore, a pure public sector-owned multiplant monopolist is efficient, while a tax on the fixed costs is inefficient if a casino association regulates the sector.
On Job Assignment for a Parallel System of Processor Sharing Queues

Two of the optimality criteria most commonly considered to compare job assignment policies, namely, the stochastic order and the average total completion time criterion, are discussed. It is shown that the latter, while being weaker than the former, still provides a useful criterion when policies are to be evaluated in terms of average performance measures such as the system average response time. Some of the most relevant results available in the literature on job assignment to parallel first come, first served (FCFS) servers are summarized. The assignment problem is discussed for a parallel system of processor sharing (PS) queues with exponential interarrival times and exponential and identical service requirements. The optimality of the join-the-shortcut-queue (JSQ) assignment policy for this case is proven. Feasible policies for general service time distribution are discussed. An approach allowing a meaningful comparison of servers in the perspective of job assignment is proposed. A comparison of the assignment problem for FCFS and PS parallel systems is presented. >
Influence of type of treatment on the well-being of Spanish patients with schizophrenia and their caregivers

Abstract Objective. This study aimed to investigate quality of life and burden on caregivers in Spanish outpatients with schizophrenia, treated with different antipsychotics. Methods. Sociodemographic and clinical data were collected for 1865 patients diagnosed with schizophrenia. Patients answered the EuroQol-5D questionnaire and caregivers answered questionnaires assessing caregiver burden. Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), Clinical Global Impression of Severity (CGI-S), and clinician's satisfaction were also recorded. The same data were also collected at months 3 and 6. Results. According to EQ-5D results, usual activities (29.6%) and anxiety/depression (31.1%) were the most relevant reported problems. Good overall scores (5–7) on EQ-5D were reported by 47/118 (39.8%) of risperidone long-acting injectable (LAI) patients compared to 52/218 (23.9%) for oral conventional antipsychotics, 51/194 (26.2%) for injectable conventional antipsychotics, and 332/1110 (29.9%) for oral atypical antipsychotics. Significant benefits of risperidone LAI vs. other types of antipsychotic were also found in caregiver burden and clinician-derived outcome measures. At months 3 and 6, retention was > 85%, and score on the EQ5D improved for the overall sample. Conclusions. In Spanish patients with schizophrenia, activities of daily living and anxiety/depression were more relevant reported problems. Risperidone LAI was associated with better quality-of-life outcomes and lower caregiver burden compared to other types of antipsychotic.
Accounting Errors in Nonprofit Organizations

SYNOPSIS: This study examines the accounting errors committed by public charities as revealed by searching for disclosures of their corrections in auditor reports, financial statements, and footnotes. A sample of 5,511 audited financial statements, predominantly from the years 2006 to 2010, was obtained from GuideStar, a data provider for nonprofits. Public charities report errors at a rate that is 60 percent higher than that of publicly traded corporations, and almost twice as high as that of similar-sized corporations. The errors are commonly errors of omission (i.e., failing to recognize items). The error rate has a strong positive association with internal control deficiencies and a strong negative association with Big 4 and second-tier auditors. Regressions are unable to detect a significant association between the error rate and organization size, type, or portion of the budget devoted to administrative activities. The error corrections often have low visibility in the financial reports issued by p.
Corporate social responsibility in Indian sugar industry: managers’ reflections

Based upon data collected through semi-structured interviews of the top managers in Indian sugar manufacturing firms, we explore how they understand the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and its implications for improving the level of motivation and commitment of stakeholders and the firm’s reputation which consequently influences the performance of the firm. The study indicates that the concept of CSR is perceived by the managers in their own way highlighting the divergence about the understanding and meaning of CSR in emerging economies. However, it was agreed by all the respondents that CSR initiatives create an immense influence on winning over the trust and confidence of concerned stakeholders thereby improving the business sustainability and performance of sugar manufacturing units. The findings of the study seem to be consistent with the stakeholder theory in order to understand and explain the firms’ responsibilities toward their stakeholders.
A test of significance of the predictive power of the moving average trading rule of technical analysis based on sensitivity analysis: application to the NYSE, the Athens Stock Exchange and the Vienna Stock Exchange. Implications for weak-form market efficiency testing

In this article, an alternative testing procedure for the significance of the predictive power of the Moving Average (MA) trading rule of technical analysis is proposed and applied to the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), the Athens Stock Exchange (ASE) and the Vienna Stock Exchange (VSE). In contrast to existing methodologies, for which significance testing is performed considering exclusively one combination of MA lengths each time, the one proposed in this article takes into account the variability of the performance of the MA trading rule by considering jointly the rule's cumulative returns using MAs at all lengths. More reliable testing of the hypothesis of weak-form market efficiency and more straightforward interpretation of results by investors are among the advantages of the proposed approach over the existing one. An application of the proposed methodology to capital markets for the period 1993 to 2005 shows that weak-form market efficiency is clearly accepted for the NYSE, is rejected for the ASE except for the last sub-period (2001 to 2005), while for the VSE, it is rejected for the first sub-period (1993 to 1997) and accepted for the other two sub-periods.
Purchasing Power Parity in the Long Run: A Cointegration Approach

This paper utilizes cointegration analysis to examine purchasing power parity relationships over a long-time horizon. The results indicate that the exchange rate is cointegrated strongly with the wholesale price index ratio and somewhat weakly with the consumer price index ratio. The cointegrating coefficient between the exchange rate and the price ratio is close to one when cointegration is confirmed. The hypothesis that the real exchange rate follows a random walk is rejected in most cases. Finally, a new test for common trends finds no such common trends in exchange rates or price ratios. Copyright 1990 by Ohio State University Press.
American cutaneous leishmaniasis in the Pontal of Paranapanema - SP, Brazil: ecological and entomological aspects.

UNLABELLED American cutaneous leishmaniasis (ACL) occurs in epidemic outbreaks and in sporadic cases with small annual variation in the Pontal of Paranapanema, SP. There is little research on the sandfly fauna of this region. The last outbreaks were related to the Movement of the Landless Workers (MST) and with the ecological tourism in preserved forest of the Parque Estadual do Morro do Diabo (PEMD). AIM identification of the sandfly fauna within the PEMD, mainly anthropophilic species already incriminated as vectors of ACL, as well as their seasonality, hourly frequency and data of the behavior. M&M: The captures were undertaken with CDC light and Shannon traps from 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm, monthly from May 2000 to December 2001. The temperature and relative humidity data were registered at hourly intervals. RESULTS The captured species were: Brumptomyia brumpti, Nyssomyia neivai, Nyssomyia whitmani, Pintomyia fischeri and Pintomyia pessoai. The P. pessoai predominated (34.39%) and N. neivai was less found (0.74%), only being captured in CDC traps. Shannon trap captured more sandflies (63.01%) than the CDC traps (36.99%). Despite the environmental degradation anthropophilic species, indicates favorable bioecological conditions for persistence of vectors and potential transmission of leishmaniasis.