According to the ‘median-voter’ hypothesis, greater inequality in the market distribution of earnings or income tends to produce greater generosity in redistributive policy. We outline the steps in the causal chain specified by the hypothesis and attempt to assess these steps empirically. Prior studies focusing on crosscountry variation have found little support for the median-voter model. We e...

We assess pre-outbreak and during-outbreak vaccination as control strategies for SARS epidemics using a mathematical model that includes susceptible, latent (traced and untraced), infectious, isolated and recovered individuals. Scenarios focusing on policies that include contact tracing and levels of self-isolation among untraced infected individuals are explored. Bounds on the proportion of pr...

Comparative analysis of functional results of contact lens correction and penetrating keratoplasty (PKP) in keratoconus are presented. To assess resolution ability we considered visual acuity and contrast sensitivity. 117 patients (219 eyes) with stage I-IV keratoconus, wearing rigid gas-permeable contact lenses (RPCL), and 60 patients (64 eyes) after PKP were examined. In 69% patients after PK...

AIMS To describe the fitting of patients with high or irregular astigmatism following penetrating keratoplasty with contact lenses and to answer the question whether or not contact lenses with special back surface design can improve visual acuity in complex cases after penetrating keratoplasty. METHODS 28 eyes were included. They were fitted with contact lenses with a special back surface tha...

PURPOSE To evaluate visual results, comfort of use, safety, and efficacy of mini scleral contact lenses in optical management in patients with traumatic aphakia and severe concomitant irido-corneal injury. METHODS In a case series, eight eyes with post traumatic aphakia and severe concomitant irido-corneal injury that were evaluated at the Contact Lens Clinic of Farabi Eye Hospital, Tehran, I...

Objectives. To evaluate the visual performance of Toris K soft contact lenses in patients with moderate-to-advanced keratoconus and also to compare the results according to cone types, cone location, and severity of keratoconus. Materials and Methods. Sixty eyes of 40 participants were included in this retrospective study. Uncorrected visual acuity (UCVA), best-spectacle corrected visual acuity...

We measured discrimination threshold for time to contact with a simulated approaching object at 20 locations between 0 and 32 deg eccentricity in the left, right, upper, and lower visual fields. We also measured discrimination threshold for rate of expansion at the same 20 locations. At 0 deg eccentricity, discrimination of trial-to-trial variations in time to contact was virtually unaffected b...

The present study explored how eye contact at different levels of visual awareness influences gaze-induced joint attention. We adopted a spatial-cueing paradigm, in which an averted gaze was used as an uninformative central cue for a joint-attention task. Prior to the onset of the averted-gaze cue, either supraliminal (Experiment 1) or subliminal (Experiment 2) eye contact was presented. The re...

BACKGROUND Hairdressers are at risk of developing occupational contact dermatitis because of their intense contact with wet work in combination with chemicals. OBJECTIVES To perform an analysis of a cohort study of hairdressers with occupational contact dermatitis recognized in the period 2006-2011, focusing on individual and environmental factors associated with the disease. METHODS The st...