Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Partial Correction of Irregular Aniseikonia Secondary to Retinal Traction

Purpose. This case report presents the management of symptomatic retinally induced aniseikonia and a short review of the literature pertaining to two clinical tests used in the measurement and management of aniseikonia. The clinician is also provided a review of how to design eikonic lenses. Case Report. A 30-year-old white male presented with symptoms of perceived image size difference after scleral buckle repair for retinal detachment in the right eye. Three measures of aniseikonia resulted in markedly different values, but all indicated larger perceived left eye image. Stereopsis was measured before and after placing an afocal magnifying lens over the right eye. Stereopsis improved immediately upon placement of the afocal lens, with further improvement after 20 minutes, and stereopsis decreased upon removal. The patient reported improved visual comfort for near work with the afocal lens. Eikonic glasses were designed, and the patient reported improved comfort for near work that has remained for over 1 year of wear. Studies evaluating the validity and reliability of the New Aniseikonia Test and the Aniseikonia Inspector are reviewed. Most studies report that induced aniseikonia is underestimated. This case report illustrates that despite the problem with underestimation, these tests are useful clinical tools to identify whether aniseikonia exists and which eye has the larger perceived image. Results can be used as a starting point when making clinical decisions about managing aniseikonia. The Aniseikonia Inspector also assists in the design of eikonic glasses. Conclusions. Even when aniseikonia is substantial, variable in magnitude, and irregular due to retinal disease, reducing the overall aniseikonia can improve binocularity and patient's comfort noticeably for the long term. The underestimation of induced aniseikonia in clinical tests does not preclude their use as a tool in the management of symptomatic aniseikonia.
Past, Present, and Future Challenges of the Marine Vessel’s Electrical Power System

The evolution of the use of electricity in marine vessels is presented and discussed in this paper in an historical perspective. The historical account starts with its first commercial use in the form of light bulbs on the SS Columbia in 1880 for illumination, going forward through use in hybrid propulsion systems with steam turbines and diesel engines and then transitioning to the present with the first fully electric marine vessel based entirely on the use of batteries in 2015. Electricity use is discussed not only in the light of its many benefits but also of the challenges introduced after the emergence of the marine vessel electrical power system. The impact of new conversion technologies like power electronics, battery energy storage, and the dc power system on overall energy efficiency, power quality, and emission level is discussed thoroughly. This paper guides the reader through this development, the present and future challenges by calling attention to the future research needs, and the need to revisit standards that relate to power quality, safety, integrity, and stability of the marine vessel power system, which are strongly impacted by the way electricity is used in the marine vessel.
The Distribution of Wages in Transition Countries

This paper seeks to document and analyse changes in the distribution of wages and employment in the transition countries since the collapse of communism. Most countries experienced an increase in wage inequality during the initial shock of the transition. Proximate causes of this increase seem to be sectoral shifts in employment and increasing inter-industry wage differentials. In Eastern Europe, where economic growth has restarted, there have been further increases in income inequality. These changes are arguably the best guide to future trends in the wage distribution. Taking the case of Poland, rising inequality appears to be entirely accounted for by an increased incidence of workless households. This rise in workless households derives from two phenomena: rising participation in post-compulsory education and earlier retirement. Also in Poland, though there is no change in hourly wage inequality, structural change has had clear impacts of the distribution of wages with increased wage premia to education, to growing sectors and geographically advantaged regions in the economy and to senior occupations.
When knowledge management meets HR strategy: an exploration of personalization-retention and codification-recruitment configurations

The resource-based view and the knowledge-based view are important developments in strategic management theory, and ‘knowledge management’ has exploded in the popular management literature. There is, however, little empirical literature that explores the connections between firms' attempts at knowledge management and their HR strategies. In this paper, we focus particularly on links between knowledge management and staffing practices. High-technology manufacturing was selected as the site of our research, as high-technology firms rely on highly skilled employees to innovate and develop new products and are therefore an ideal environment for exploring the strategies employed for both managing knowledge, and recruiting and retaining employees. Drawing particularly on the work of Hansen et al. (1999), this paper identifies and explores two fits between knowledge management and HR strategy or what we call KM-HR configurations: ‘personalization-retention’ and ‘codification-recruitment’. We argue that there is no one way to manage knowledge and its links to HRM and build a simple framework of potential KM-HR configurations with propositions for future research.
The Effects of Financial Deregulation on Consumption

This paper examines whether financial deregulation in the 1980s has reduced the importance of liquidity constraints in consumption patterns. Data for six industrialized countries are used to estimate a simple model incorporating liquidity constraints and forward looking behavior. It is concluded that the importance of liquidity constraints fell between the 1970s and the 1980s. This implies that forward looking models of consumer behavior fit the data better in the recent period.
Operating Characteristics of Opportunistic Replacement and Inspection Policies

This paper calculates some of the operating characteristics of opportunistic replacement and inspection policies. An operating characteristic of a particular policy is a function defined on the stochastic process induced when the policy is implemented. An opportunistic replacement policy makes the replacement of a single uninspected part conditional on the state (good or failed) of one or more continuously inspected (monitored) parts. An opportunistic inspection policy makes the inspection of a non-monitored part conditional on the state (good or failed) of a monitored part. Some of the operating characteristics of these policies examined in this paper are: the expected rate of opportunistic (joint) replacement of the uninspected part and one of the monitored parts; the expected rate of planned replacement of the uninspected part; the probability of at least m failures of a monitored part in the interval [0, t]; the expected rate of opportunistic inspection--inspection of the non-monitored part which is triggered by a failure of the monitored part; and the expected rate of planned inspection of the non-monitored part. These operating characteristics are precisely the information needed to establish a suitable supply policy. They should also be helpful to the maintenance manager in his efforts to predict the relative frequencies of the various maintenance actions. As an example the opportunistic replacement policy is applied to the rocket engines of a hypothetical ballistic missile. Several operating characteristics are then computed and the sensitivity of these operating characteristics to changes in the rocket engine failure rate is exhibited. This illustrative analysis indicates that both the expected rate of opportunistic (joint) replacement of the rocket engines and re-entry vehicle and the expected rate of replacement of the rocket engines due to mandatory replacement are highly sensitive to changes in the rocket engine failure rate. On the other hand, the expected rate of opportunistic (joint) replacement of the rocket engines and the guidance and control system is relatively unaffected by changes in the engine failure rate.
Authentic NGDO Partnerships in the New Policy Agenda for International Aid: Dead End or Light Ahead?

Since the 1970s, ‘partnership’ has been an aspiration for relationships amongst non-governmental organizations involved in international development (NGDOs). Unfortunately, NGDOs have shown little ability to form equitable relations, or true partnership, amongst themselves. The first part of this article examines why. The new policy agenda for international aid emphasizes contract-based relationships which will make real partnerships even more difficult to achieve. The second part of the analysis argues that trust-based authentic partnerships remain vital for development, and outlines some steps that NGOs might take towards forming them. In the long term, however, NGDOs must radically rethink their roles, which calls for a transformation from intermediaries in a funding chain to facilitators of international co-operation between the diverse groups which comprise civil society. NGDOs unwilling to take this step could be classified as hypocrites if they continue to employ the term ‘partnership’ for what is essentially old wine in re-labelled civic bottles.
Crack Detection and Quantification in Beams Using Wavelets

Abstract: A new method has been proposed to detect the location and also to quantify the crack using the deflection response of the damaged beams alone. The deflection is measured at a particular point for various locations of a concentrated load on the beam. This static deflection profile is used as the input signal for wavelet (Symlet) analysis. Due to variation in deflection at some points, compared to their adjacent points, peaks are seen in the wavelet coefficient (WC) plot. These peak points are identified as damage points along the length of the beam. The peaks can also be seen at sensor point and supports. These can be eliminated by performing wavelet analysis for the deflection profile measured at another point. In a real damaged structure, it is very difficult to measure deflection at several points, as a large amount of instrumentation needs to be installed to measure the response. This practical difficulty can be avoided by minimizing the number of measuring points in the field as explained in the present work. A parametric study has been carried out by varying the damage, location of damage, intensity of load, flexural rigidity, and length of the beam. It has been observed that the WCs change with variations in damage, location of damage, intensity of load, flexural rigidity, and length of the beam. A generalized curve has been proposed to quantify the damage in a fixed beam by taking envelop of all maximum WCs of the deflection response measured at damage points.
Social Capital, Microfinance, and the Politics of Development

Policy makers increasingly rely on theories of social capital to fashion development interventions that mobilize local social networks in the alleviation of poverty. The potential of such theory lies in its recognition of the social dimensions of economic growth. This recognition has inspired some innovative approaches to development, such as the now-popular microfinance model. In assessing the implications of these recent developments for feminist objectives of social transformation, this paper evaluates prevailing ideas about social capital (rooted in rational choice theory) against the grain of three alternative approaches: Marxian social capital theories ( À la Pierre Bourdieu), neo-Foucauldian governmentality studies, and my feminist ethnographic research on the social embeddedness of economic practice in a merchant community of Nepal. The paper concludes by bringing these critical insights to bear on possibilities for designing microfinance programs - and practicing a kind of development more generally - that could engage women's solidarity to challenge dominant gender ideologies.
Shoulder disorders and postural stress in automobile assembly work.

OBJECTIVES A case-referent study was conducted in an automobile assembly plant to evaluate the risk of shoulder disorders associated with nonneutral postures. METHODS The cases were workers who reported shoulder pain to the plant clinic during a 10-month period and met symptom criteria (pain frequency or duration in the past year) in an interview; more than one-half also had positive findings in a physical examination. The referents were randomly selected workers who were free of shoulder disorders according to the clinic records, the interview, and the physical examination. For each of the 79 cases and 124 referents, 1 job was analyzed for postural and biomechanical demands by an analyst blinded to the case-referent status. RESULTS Forty-one percent of the subjects flexed or abducted the right arm "severely" (above 90 degrees) during the job cycle, and 35% did so with the left arm. The peak torques at the shoulder were rather low. Shoulder disorders were associated with severe flexion or abduction of the left [odds ratio (OR) 3.2, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 1.5-6.5] and the right (OR 2.3, 95% CI 1.2-4.8) shoulder. The risk increased as the proportion of the work cycle exposed increased. The relationships were similar for the cases with and without physical findings. Use of hand-held tools increased the risk and also modified the association with postural stress, although the joint exposure distributions limited full analysis of this finding. CONCLUSIONS The findings support the conclusion that severe shoulder flexion or abduction, especially for 10% or more of the work cycle, is predictive of chronic or recurrent shoulder disorders.
Managing complexity: systems thinking as a catalyst of the organization performance

Purpose – The paper aims to analyse new management practices for addressing complexity, uncertainty and changes of today's business landscape. In this context it is critical to understand the role of intellectual capital and particularly what are the key competencies to be developed in order to deal with the fluidity of business. Effective decision making and learning in a world of growing dynamic complexity requires leaders to become systems thinkers – to develop tools to understand the structures of complex systems. The paper aims to clarify the relationship between systems thinking and organization performance.Design/methodology/approach – The methodology of systems thinking is inseparable from the philosophy of systems thinking, thus, the first part of the paper presents the common theory of systems and the systems approach to the organization. The paper follows a quantitative research approach. Firstly, exploratory factor analysis was employed to assess dimensionality of scales. Secondly, relationshi.
A phylogenetic mixture model for the identification of functionally divergent protein residues

MOTIVATION To understand the evolution of molecular function within protein families, it is important to identify those amino acid residues responsible for functional divergence; i.e. those sites in a protein family that affect cofactor, protein or substrate binding preferences; affinity; catalysis; flexibility; or folding. Type I functional divergence (FD) results from changes in conservation (evolutionary rate) at a site between protein subfamilies, whereas type II FD occurs when there has been a shift in preferences for different amino acid chemical properties. A variety of methods have been developed for identifying both site types in protein subfamilies, both from phylogenetic and information-theoretic angles. However, evaluation of the performance of these methods has typically relied upon a handful of reasonably well-characterized biological datasets or analyses of a single biological example. While experimental validation of many truly functionally divergent sites (true positives) can be relatively straightforward, determining that particular sites do not contribute to functional divergence (i.e. false positives and true negatives) is much more difficult, resulting in noisy 'gold standard' examples. RESULTS We describe a novel, phylogeny-based functional divergence classifier, FunDi. Unlike previous approaches, FunDi uses a unified mixture model-based approach to detect type I and type II FD. To assess FunDi's overall classification performance relative to other methods, we introduce two methods for simulating functionally divergent datasets. We find that the FunDi method performs better than several other predictors over a wide variety of simulation conditions. AVAILABILITY http://rogerlab.biochem. dal.ca/Software CONTACT andrew.roger@dal.ca SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
The Effects of Monetary Policy on the Real Economy

This paper looks for evidence of asymmetric effects of monetary policy on the real economy of the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan. In order to do this, a “new Keynesian” model is used as a basis with the regressions performed in a VAR setting. The results indicate that there is no empirical support for asymmetric effects of monetary policy shocks on the real economy. In fact, there is only vague evidence of any effects on the real economy whatsoever, for all countries under consideration. The estimation outputs reveal that no matter what lag length or sample size is chosen or if asymmetric aspects are taken into account, the effects of a monetary policy shock on the real economy are usually weak.
Decreased expression of fatty acid amide hydrolase in women with polycystic ovary syndrome

Abstract This study aimed to investigate the correlation between endocannabinoids and polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), and the expression levels of endocannabinoids in different phases of menstruation. The expression of cannabinoid receptors (CB1) and fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) in the endometrium were immunohistochemically stained and compared between women with PCOS and the control group. Integrated optical density (IOD) was assessed to analyze their expression levels. The CB1 and FAAH were expressed in endometrial epithelial cytoplasm. No significant difference in CB1 level was observed between PCOS and non-PCOS women. Additionally, the expression of CB1 did not fluctuate with menstrual cycle. However, the FAAH levels were lower in the PCOS group than the non-PCOS group (p < 0.05). FAAH levels in secretory phases were significantly elevated compared to menstrual and proliferative phases (p < 0.05). Our results demonstrate that the endocannabinoid system may play an important role in menstruation, and dysregulation of the system may result in PCOS.
Do Industrial Tax Abatements Spur Property Value Growth

Despite ongoing debate regarding the effectiveness of tax abatements, Michigan's Industrial Facilities Tax (IFT) abatement program has been widely and extensively used to boost local economic development. In this article, we estimate the effects of industrial property tax abatements on industrial, residential, and commercial property value growth in the context of regional competition for a panel of 152 communities in the five counties surrounding Detroit from 1983 through 2002. We find that: (1) offering tax abatements yields statistically significant positive impacts on industrial property value growth; (2) the impacts are larger in high tax than in low tax communities; (3) there are positive spillover effects of industrial tax abatements on residential and commercial property value growth; (4) tax abatements offered in competitor communities do not appear to influence own industrial property value growth; and (5) changes in the own as well as competitor property tax rates are important determinants of industrial property value growth. However, the fiscal benefits of tax abatements are quite small as compared with the costs of offering abatements even when spillover benefits to residential and commercial properties are considered.
Strategic alliances in the container shipping industry: a global perspective

This paper examines developments in container shipping in light of the formation of strategic alliances by many of the leading companies. It focuses on three features: the transformation of services, the evolution of the fleet, and the adjustments made to the ports of call. These elements are analysed on a global basis for 3 years: 1989, 1994 and 1999. Some of the changes wrought by the alliances are identified, including the spread and intensification of services, and the deployment of the largest vessels on alliance routes. While the individual companies that have come together in alliances are serving many more ports than before, it is also demonstrated that the total number of ports served by the industry has remained constant. The results are interpreted in the context of globalization that is tending to impose greater standardization on the container shipping industry.
Valuation of Drug Abuse: A Review of Current Methodologies and Implications for Policy Making

This article reviews the use of several valuation methods as they relate to drug abuse and places them within the context of U.S. policy. First, cost-of-illness (COI) studies are reviewed and their limitations discussed. Second, three additional economic methods of valuing drug abuse are reviewed, including cost—effectiveness analysis (CEA), benefit—cost analysis (BCA) and willingness-to-pay (WTP). As the demand for cost-effective and evidence-based practices and policies grows, the importance of economic research into drug abuse treatment is increasing. However, societal perceptions of drug abuse and their effects on current resource allocation must also be considered when designing and implementing new strategies. Findings based on rigorous and innovative methodologies have the potential to positively impact the development and delivery of new cost-effective and beneficial services, thereby providing a more solid foundation for policy makers.
Treatment of Juveniles Who Sexually Offend: An Overview

SUMMARY Juvenile sexual offending is increasingly being recognized as a serious crime among youth. The prevalence of sexual offending and sexual reoffending suggests that many juvenile sex offenders (JSOs) may repeat their offending behaviors if not treated. However, clinical trials evaluating specific interventions are virtually nonexistent. Instead, the literature on the treatment of JSOs is marked by discussions of strategies that are hypothesized to be beneficial, as well as descriptions of treatment programs that exist across the country. Further, while existing literature suggests that treatment for JSOs may deter future sexual offending behaviors, it is unclear which, if any, aspects of these treatments promote the development of positive behaviors. A discussion of existing treatment approaches, effectiveness, and treatment considerations follows.