bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Mood changes, body mass index and bioavailable testosterone in healthy men: results of the Androx Vienna Municipality Study
Authors: Kratzik Christian W. , Schatzl Georg , Lackner Jakob E. , Lunglmayr Gerhard , Brandstätter Nadja , Rücklinger Ernst , Huber Johannes 
Published: June 2007

OBJECTIVETo determine whether sex hormones alone or in combination with body mass index (BMI) influence mood in men.SUBJECTS AND METHODSBlood samples were taken from 669 manual workers (aged 43–67 years) to measure sex hormone levels, in particular bioavailable testosterone (BAT). At the same time BMI was calculated. All participants completed the Beck’s Depression Inventory (BDI) for the evaluation of depression. Then BMI and BAT were correlated to the BDI scores, to determine a possible interaction.RESULTSThere was a quadratic main effect for BAT on the BDI scores, i.e. an increased risk of depression with an odds ratio of 1.871 (P = 0.029) for hypo‐ and hypergonadal men. Also, there was an interaction between BAT and BMI, which was mainly detected in underweight and obese men. This U‐shaped effect for underweight and obese men was not detected in men with a ‘normal’ weight, who had a significantly linear decrease in the risk of depression by changing from the hypogonadal to the eugonadal subgroup, as well as for changing from the eugonadal to the hypergonadal subgroup, with a mean odds ratio of 0.513 (P = 0.032).CONCLUSIONSDepression depends on BAT and BMI; in men of normal weight, an increase in BAT reduces the risk of depression, which is not the case in underweight and obese men. Consequently eugonadal men with normal testosterone levels have the lowest risk of depression.
What determines early exercise of employee stock options in Australia?
Authors: Boyd Tristan , Brown Philip , Szimayer Alex 
Published: June 2007

AbstractEmployee stock options (ESOs) are a popular way of remunerating employees. We analyse factors at the firm and option level affecting the employee's decision to exercise ESOs before they mature. Exercises over the period 1998–2004 are analysed and the key factor influencing early exercise is found to be dividends. Exercises frequently occur well before maturity, but in most cases little time value is sacrificed. Our findings have implications for the ‘fair’ valuation of ESOs in companies’ financial statements, as required by the relevant Australian accounting standard, AASB 2.
Effect of perceived conflict among multiple performance goals and goal difficulty on task performance
Authors: Cheng Mandy M. , Luckett Peter F. , Mahama Habib 
Published: June 2007

AbstractContemporary performance measurement systems, such as the balanced scorecard, often advocate the use of an array of financial and non‐financial measures. Despite many claimed advantages for these systems, recent research shows that the inclusion of multiple performance measures sometimes has undesirable effects. The present study examines one of the potential problems of implementing these systems; namely, the impact of perceived goal conflict on task performance. Using survey data from employees working in multiple call centres in a telecommunication company, we find that perceived goal difficulty increases perceived goal conflict. Additionally, perceived goal difficulty also has a negative, indirect effect of task performance, through the mediating role of perceived goal conflict. Our results have important implications for both the research literature and the designers of performance measurement systems.
Global ranking of accounting programmes and the elite effect in accounting research
Authors: Chan Kam C. , Chen Carl R. , Cheng Louis T. W. 
Published: June 2007

AbstractWe provide a global ranking of accounting research and examine the elite degree and elite affiliation effect. Based on 24 accounting journals during the period 1991–2005, the top 5 most productive countries in accounting research are in the following order: the USA, the UK, Australia, Canada and Hong Kong. We find a significant elite degree effect, indicating that authors who graduated from elite accounting programmes have a disproportionate share of publications in top‐notch journals. The same conclusion is also supported by the elite affiliation effect in which leading accounting journals have higher concentration of authors who are affiliated with elite institutions.
Distance‐Ranked Connectivity Compression of Triangle Meshes
Authors: Marais P. , Gain J. , Shreiner D. 
Published: June 2007

Abstract We present a new, single‐rate method for compressing the connectivity information of a connected 2‐manifold triangle mesh with or without boundary. Traditional compression schemes interleave geometry and connectivity coding, and are thus typically unable to utilize information from vertices (mesh regions) they have not yet processed. With the advent of competitive point cloud compression schemes, it has become feasible to develop separate connectivity encoding schemes that can exploit complete, global vertex position information to improve performance. Our scheme demonstrates the utility of this separation of vertex and connectivity coding. By traversing the mesh edges in a consistent fashion, and using global vertex information, we can predict the position of the vertex that completes the unprocessed triangle attached to a given edge. We then rank the vertices in the neighborhood of this predicted position by their Euclidean distance. The distance rank of the correct closing vertex is stored. Typically, these rank values are small, and the set of rank values thus possesses low entropy and compresses very well. The sequence of rank values is all that is required to represent the mesh connectivity—no special split or merge codes are necessary. Results indicate improvements over traditional valence‐based schemes for more regular triangulations. Highly irregular triangulations or those containing a large number of slivers are not well modelled by our current set of predictors and may yield poorer connectivity compression rates than those provided by the best valence‐based schemes.
Real‐Time GPU Silhouette Refinement using Adaptively Blended Bézier Patches
Authors: Dyken C. , Reimers M. , Seland J. 
Published: June 2007

Abstract We present an algorithm for detecting and extracting the silhouette edges of a triangle mesh in real time using Graphical Processing Units (GPUs). We also propose a tessellation strategy for visualizing the mesh with smooth silhouettes through a continuous blend between Bézier patches with varying level of detail. Furthermore, we show how our techniques can be integrated with displacement and normal mapping. We give details on our GPU implementation and provide a performance analysis with respect to mesh size.
Teaching, Exploring, Learning—Developing Tutorials for In‐Class Teaching and Self‐Learning
Authors: Beckhaus S. , Blom K. J. 
Published: June 2007

Abstract This paper presents an experience report on a novel approach for a course on intermediate and advanced computer graphics topics. The approach uses Teachlet Tutorials, a combination of traditional seminar–type teaching with interactive exploration of the content by the audience, plus development of self‐contained tutorials on the topic. In addition to a presentation, an interactive software tool is developed by the students to assist the audience in learning and exploring the topic's details. This process is guided through set tasks. The resulting course material is developed for two different contexts: (a) for classroom presentation and (b) as an interactive, self‐contained, self‐learning tutorial. The overall approach results in a more thorough understanding of the topic both for the student teachers as well as for the class participants. In addition to detailing the Teachlet Tutorial approach, this paper presents our experiences implementing the approach in our Advanced Computer Graphics course and presents the resultant projects. Most of the final Teachlet Tutorials were surprisingly good and we had excellent feedback from the students on the approach and course.
Graphics‐Based Learning in First‐Year Computer Science
Authors: Davis T. A. 
Published: June 2007

Abstract This paper proposes a method for teaching a first‐year course in computer science using graphics‐based problems as the teaching medium. Specifically, we present a method for instruction in programming using a semester‐long project of developing a ray tracer. This effort is part of a larger project, known as
, in which a broad range of undergraduate courses are taught using computer graphics as the motivating application. An overview of this project is provided, along with description and results from the first trial CS2 course instructed using this technique.
THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE AND THE COASE THEOREM
Authors: Szymanski Stefan 
Published: June 2007

ABSTRACTThis paper considers the relevance of the Coase Theorem to the analysis of sports leagues. It is widely believed that there exists an ideal competitive balance between teams in a sporting contest, and that without competitive restraints to redistribute resources championships will be too unbalanced. The paper reviews the empirical evidence on this issue to date, and then examines a model where the outcome may be either too little or too much competitive balance. Empirical evidence from English football suggests that the bias is likely to be in favour of too much competitive balance. The implications for European football in general and the Champions League in particular are then discussed.
RATIONAL EXPECTATIONS AND PRO SPORTS LEAGUES
Authors: Fort Rodney , Quirk James 
Published: June 2007

ABSTRACTWe put a new set of shoes on that old workhorse, the competitive talent market (CTM) model in sports economics. There exist unique rational expectations equilibria for both national football league (NFL‐type leagues) and major league baseball (MLB‐type leagues) under the CTM model. A cursory statistical test fails to reject the empirical implications for the NFL‐type league. The model also suggests empirical tests of whether or not talent demand (marginal revenues from talent), including induced effects, actually slopes down. But like all models, the competitive talent model should be applied in its context. It describes highly cooperative North American sports leagues that have a wealth of common information. But it may not do the same for other leagues if they lack this common information.
THE PECULIAR INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS OF PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL IN EUROPE
Authors: Kesenne Stefan 
Published: June 2007

ABSTRACTMost European industries have a history of gradually opening international markets, with growing international capital mobility and increasing free trade of goods and services. However, although labour markets have been officially deregulated as well, there is much less international mobility of labour, mainly due to cultural and social barriers. An apparent exception to the rule been the industry of professional team sports in Europe, where the Bosman verdict in 1995 has freed the European player market while the product market was still nationally protected. In this paper, we try to derive the consequences of this deviant evolution in the European sports industry, concentrating on the competitive balance within and between national leagues and on the player salary levels, using a simplified ‘two country–four team’ model with quadratic revenue functions.
THE FOOTBALL PLAYERS' LABOR MARKET: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM THE MAJOR EUROPEAN LEAGUES
Authors: Frick Bernd 
Published: June 2007

ABSTRACTThe growing economic importance of professional football and the recent fundamental changes in the regulatory regime governing the football players' labor market together with the availability of detailed information on player salaries, transfer fees and contract lengths have convinced an increasing number of economists from all over Europe to devote their attention to the operation of that particular market. The following paper reviews the available evidence on the various dimensions of that market (remuneration, transfers, contracts and mobility) and points out some promising directions for further research.
A Comparison of WAIS‐R and WAIS‐III in the Lower IQ Range: Implications for Learning Disability Diagnosis
Authors: Fitzgerald Suzanne , Gray Nicola S. , Snowden Robert J. 
Published: June 2007

Background  Whether the Flynn effect (the increase in the populations’ IQ over time) affects the IQ scores of people with learning disability or borderline learning disability remains unclear. The issue is important as the Flynn effect should alter the number of people eligible for health service resources. A comparison of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale‐Revised (WAIS‐R) with the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale‐Third Edition (WAIS‐III) in individuals with learning disability or borderline learning disability was conducted.Method  All participants completed the WAIS‐R and the WAIS‐III. Discrepancy scores were calculated for the Full Scale IQ score and the Verbal and Performance subscale scores.Results  WAIS‐III Full Scale scores were significantly lower by over 4 IQ points. Verbal and Performance Scale IQ scores were also significantly lower than the corresponding WAIS‐R scores.Conclusion  The shift from WAIS‐R to WAIS‐III means that 66% more people meet criterion A for the diagnosis of learning disability and hence this has major resource implications for health service providers.
Parents Plus Programme 1: Evaluation of Its Effectiveness for Pre‐School Children with Developmental Disabilities and Behavioural Problems
Authors: Quinn Mark , Carr Alan , Carroll Louise , O'Sullivan David 
Published: June 2007

Background  This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the Parents Plus programme with families of pre‐school children with developmental disabilities and significant behavioural problems in the Irish health service. The Parents Plus programme is a group‐based parent training package involving video modelling, which was designed to be effective for children with conduct problems, but without developmental disabilities.Materials and methods  Pre‐ and post‐treatment assessments were conducted with 22 treated cases and 19 waiting‐list controls with a protocol that included the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, the Child Behaviour Checklist, the General Health Questionnaire‐12, the Kansas Parental Satisfaction Scale, the Family Assessment Device, the Perceived Social Support Scale, the Family Inventory of Life Events and Changes, the Parenting Stress Index and the Questionnaire on Resources and Stress.Results  Following the treatment, a comparison of treatment and control group means showed that the treated group showed better adjustment on the total difficulties scale of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. These gains were maintained at 10‐month follow‐up. Fifty per cent of treated cases showed clinically significant improvement and 14% showed reliable change on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. The treatment group reported a high level of satisfaction with the Parents Plus programme and showed significant goal attainment after treatment and at follow‐up.Conclusions  For some families of pre‐school children with developmental disabilities and significant behavioural problems, the Parents Plus programme is an effective intervention and may be incorporated into routine early intervention clinics in the Irish health service.
Enhancing the Emotion Recognition Skills of Individuals With Learning Disabilities: A Review of the Literature
Authors: Wood Pamela Margaret , Kroese Biza Stenfert 
Published: June 2007

Background  It has been repeatedly demonstrated that individuals with intellectual disabilities experience significant difficulties in recognizing facial expressions of emotion. The aim of this review was to address whether such skills can be enhanced amongst individuals with intellectual disabilities.Materials and Methods  The PsychInfo database on Dialog DataStar (1972–2006) was searched for all published journal articles investigating whether emotion recognition skills can be enhanced amongst individuals with intellectual disabilities.Results  Four relevant articles were identified. Training in emotion recognition skills resulted in improvements in all four studies, with one study maintaining improvements at 8‐month follow‐up.Conclusions  The four published studies identified that emotion recognition skills can be enhanced and maintained over time. Despite claims in the literature that training in emotion recognition skills will enhance the social skills of individuals with intellectual disabilities, none of the studies considered the impact of training upon everyday functioning, leaving the ultimate efficacy of such training open to question.
Functional respiratory morphology in the newborn quokka wallaby (Setonix brachyurus)
Authors: Makanya A. N. , Tschanz S. A. , Haenni B. , Burri P. H. 
Published: June 2007

AbstractA morphological and morphometric study of the lung of the newborn quokka wallaby (Setonix brachyurus) was undertaken to assess its morphofunctional status at birth. Additionally, skin structure and morphometry were investigated to assess the possibility of cutaneous gas exchange. The lung was at canalicular stage and comprised a few conducting airways and a parenchyma of thick‐walled tubules lined by stretches of cuboidal pneumocytes alternating with squamous epithelium, with occasional portions of thin blood–gas barrier. The tubules were separated by abundant intertubular mesenchyme, aggregations of developing capillaries and mesenchymal cells. Conversion of the cuboidal pneumocytes to type I cells occurred through cell broadening and lamellar body extrusion. Superfluous cuboidal cells were lost through apoptosis and subsequent clearance by alveolar macrophages. The establishment of the thin blood–gas barrier was established through apposition of the incipient capillaries to the formative thin squamous epithelium. The absolute volume of the lung was 0.02 ± 0.001 cm3 with an air space surface area of 4.85 ± 0.43 cm2. Differentiated type I pneumocytes covered 78% of the tubular surface, the rest 22% going to long stretches of type II cells, their precursors or low cuboidal transitory cells with sparse lamellar bodies. The body weight‐related diffusion capacity was 2.52 ± 0.56 mL O2 min−1 kg−1. The epidermis was poorly developed, and measured 29.97 ± 4.88 µm in thickness, 13% of which was taken by a thin layer of stratum corneum, measuring 4.87 ± 0.98 µm thick. Superficial capillaries were closely associated with the epidermis, showing the possibility that the skin also participated in some gaseous exchange. Qualitatively, the neonate quokka lung had the basic constituents for gas exchange but was quantitatively inadequate, implying the significance of percutaneous gas exchange.
Postcranial skeletal pneumaticity: a case study in the use of quantitative microCT to assess vertebral structure in birds
Authors: Fajardo R. J. , Hernandez E. , O’Connor P. M. 
Published: June 2007

AbstractLimb elements in birds have been characterized as exhibiting a reduction in trabecular bone, thinner cortices and decreased bending strength when pneumatized, yet it is unclear if these characteristics generalize to the axial skeleton. Thin section techniques, the traditional gold standard for bone structure studies, have most commonly been applied to the study of avian bone. This destructive technique, however, makes it subsequently impossible to use the same samples in experimental testing systems that allow researchers to correlate structure with the mechanical properties of the bone. Micro‐computed tomography (µCT), a non‐destructive X‐ray imaging technique, can be used to assess the effect of pneumatization on vertebral cortical and trabecular bone through virtual extraction and structural quantification of each tissue type. We conducted a preliminary investigation of the application of µCT methods to the study of cortical and trabecular bone structure in a small sample of pneumatic and apneumatic thoracic vertebrae. The sample consisted of two similar‐sized anatids,Aix sponsa(n = 7) andOxyura jamaicensis(n = 5). Volumes of interest were created that contoured (outlined) the boundaries of the ventral cortical bone shell, the trabecular compartment and the whole centrum (cortical bone + trabecular bone), and allowed independent structural analysis of each volume of interest. Results indicated that bone volume fraction of the whole centrum was significantly higher in the apneumaticO. jamaicensisthan in the pneumatizedA. sponsa(A. sponsa = 36%,O. jamaicensis = 48%,P < 0.05). In contrast, trabecular bone volume fraction was similar between the two species. The ventral cortical bone shell was approximately 23% thinner (P < 0.05) inA. sponsa(0.133 mm) compared with apneumaticO. jamaicensis(0.172 mm). This case study demonstrates that µCT is a powerful non‐destructive imaging technique that may be applied to the three‐dimensional study of avian bone. The preliminary results suggest that pneumatic and apneumatic vertebrae of comparably sized avian species differ in relative bone volume, with the largest difference apparent at the level of the cortex, and not within trabecular bone. The presence of relatively thin cortices in pneumatic vertebrae is consistent with previous studies contrasting diaphyseal cortical bone between pneumatic and apneumatic long bones. Methodological issues related to this and any comparative µCT study of bone structure are discussed.
Slit–Robo interactions during cortical development
Authors: Andrews William D. , Barber Melissa , Parnavelas John G. 
Published: June 2007

AbstractInterneurons are an integral part of cortical neuronal circuits. During the past decade, numerous studies have shown that these cells, unlike their pyramidal counterparts that are derived from the neuroepithelium along the lumen of the lateral ventricles, are generated in the ganglionic eminences in the subpallium. They use tangential migratory paths to reach the cortex, guided by intrinsic and extrinsic cues. Evidence is now emerging which suggests that the family of Slit proteins, acting through Robo receptors, play a role not only in axon guidance in the developing forebrain, but also as guiding signals in the migration of cortical interneurons. Here we describe the patterns of expression of Slit and Robo at different stages of forebrain development and review the evidence in support of their role in cortical interneuron migration. Slit–Robo signal transduction mechanisms are also important during normal development in a number of systems in the body and in disease states, making them potential therapeutic targets for the treatment of neurological disorders and certain types of cancer.