Identification of Cytotoxic Flavor Chemicals in Top-Selling Electronic Cigarette Refill Fluids.

We identified the most popular electronic cigarette (EC) refill fluids using an Internet survey and local and online sales information, quantified their flavor chemicals, and evaluated cytotoxicities of the fluids and flavor chemicals. "Berries/Fruits/Citrus" was the most popular EC refill fluid flavor category. Twenty popular EC refill fluids were purchased from local shops, and the ingredient flavor chemicals were identified and quantified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Total flavor chemical concentrations ranged from 0.6 to 27.9 mg/ml, and in 95% of the fluids, total flavor concentration was greater than nicotine concentration. The 20 most popular refill fluids contained 99 quantifiable flavor chemicals; each refill fluid contained 22 to 47 flavor chemicals, most being esters. Some chemicals were found frequently, and several were present in most products. At a 1% concentration, 80% of the refill fluids were cytotoxic in the MTT assay. Six pure standards of the flavor chemicals found at the highest concentrations in the two most cytotoxic refill fluids were effective in the MTT assay, and ethyl maltol, which was in over 50% of the products, was the most cytotoxic. These data show that the cytotoxicity of some popular refill fluids can be attributed to their high concentrations of flavor chemicals

High concentrations of flavor chemicals are present in electronic cigarette refill fluids.

We characterized the flavor chemicals in a broad sample of commercially available electronic cigarette (EC) refill fluids that were purchased in four different countries. Flavor chemicals in 277 refill fluids were identified and quantified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, and two commonly used flavor chemicals were tested for cytotoxicity with the MTT assay using human lung fibroblasts and epithelial cells. About 85% of the refill fluids had total flavor concentrations >1 mg/ml, and 37% were >10 mg/ml (1% by weight). Of the 155 flavor chemicals identified in the 277 refill fluids, 50 were present at ≥1 mg/ml in at least one sample and 11 were ≥10 mg/ml in 54 of the refill fluids. Sixty-one% (170 out of 277) of the samples contained nicotine, and of these, 56% had a total flavor chemical/nicotine ratio >2. Four chemicals were present in 50% (menthol, triacetin, and cinnamaldehyde) to 80% (ethyl maltol) of the samples. Some products had concentrations of menthol ("Menthol Arctic") and ethyl maltol ("No. 64") that were 30 times (menthol) and 100 times (ethyl maltol) their cytotoxic concentration. One refill fluid contained cinnamaldehyde at ~34% (343 mg/ml), more than 100,000 times its cytotoxic level. High concentrations of some flavor chemicals in EC refill fluids are potentially harmful to users, and continued absence of any regulations regarding flavor chemicals in EC fluids will likely be detrimental to human health

Sensitivity Comparison of Searches for Binary Black Hole Coalescences with Ground-based Gravitational-Wave Detectors

Searches for gravitational-wave transients from binary black hole coalescences typically rely on one of two approaches: matched filtering with templates and morphology-independent excess power searches. Multiple algorithmic implementations in the analysis of data from the first generation of ground-based gravitational wave interferometers have used different strategies for the suppression of non-Gaussian noise transients, and targeted different regions of the binary black hole parameter space. In this paper we compare the sensitivity of three such algorithms: matched filtering with full coalescence templates, matched filtering with ringdown templates and a morphology-independent excess power search. The comparison is performed at a fixed false alarm rate and relies on Monte-carlo simulations of binary black hole coalescences for spinning, non-precessing systems with total mass 25-350 solar mass, which covers the parameter space of stellar mass and intermediate mass black hole binaries. We find that in the mass range of 25 -100 solar mass the sensitive distance of the search, marginalized over source parameters, is best with matched filtering to full waveform templates, to within 10 percent at a false alarm rate of 3 events per year. In the mass range of 100-350 solar mass, the same comparison favors the morphology-independent excess power search to within 20 percent. The dependence on mass and spin is also explored.Comment: 11 pages, 2 tables, 25 figure

Modeling the Formation of Secondary Organic Aerosol. 1. Application of Theoretical Principles to Measurements Obtained in the α-Pinene/, β-Pinene/, Sabinene/, Δ^3-Carene/, and Cyclohexene/Ozone Systems

Secondary organic aerosol (SOA) forms in the atmosphere when volatile parent compounds are oxidized to form low-volatility products that condense to yield organic particulate matter (PM). Under conditions of intense photochemical smog, from 40 to 80% of the particulate organic carbon can be secondary in origin. Because describing multicomponent condensation requires a compound-by-compound identification and quantification of the condensable compounds, the complexity of ambient SOA has made it difficult to test the ability of existing gas/particle (G/P) partitioning theory to predict SOA formation in urban air. This paper examines that ability using G/P data from past laboratory chamber experiments carried out with five parent hydrocarbons (HCs) (four monoterpenes at 308 K and cyclohexene at 298 K) in which significant fractions (61−100%) of the total mass of SOA formed from those HCs were identified and quantified by compound. The model calculations were based on a matrix representation of the multicomponent, SOA G/P distribution process. The governing equations were solved by an iterative method. Input data for the model included (i) ΔHC (μg m^(-3)), the amount of reacted parent hydrocarbon; (ii) the α values that give the total concentration T (gas + particle phase, ng m^(-3)) values for each product i according to Ti = 10^3 αiΔHC; (iii) estimates of the pure compound liquid vapor pressure P^o_L values (at the reaction temperature) for the products; and (iv) UNIFAC parameters for estimating activity coefficients in the SOA phase for the products as a function of SOA composition. The model predicts the total amount M_o (μg m^(-3)) of organic aerosol that will form from the reaction of ΔHC, the total aerosol yield Y (= M_o/ΔHC), and the compound-by-compound yield values Y_i. An impediment in applying the model is the lack of literature data on P^o_L values for the compounds of interest or even on P^o_L values for other, similarly low-volatility compounds. This was overcome in part by using the G/P data from the α-pinene and cyclohexene experiments to determine P^o_L values for use (along with a set of 14 other independent polar compounds) in calculating UNIFAC vapor pressure parameters that were, in turn, used to estimate all of the needed P^o_L values. The significant degree of resultant circularity in the calculations for α-pinene and cyclohexene helped lead to the good agreement that was found between the Y_i values predicted by the model, and those measured experimentally for those two compounds. However, the model was also able to predict the aerosol yield values from β-pinene, sabinene, and Δ^3-carene, for which there was significatly less circularity in the calculations, thereby providing evidence supporting the idea that given the correct input information, SOA formation can in fact be accurately modeled as a multicomponent condensation process

Candy Flavorings in Tobacco

Professor James F. Pankow reveals striking similarities between the patterns in the flavoring chemicals used in flavored tobacco products and those in popular candy and Kool-Aid products. The authors analyzed 12 artificially flavored candy and fruit drink products and compared them to 15 widely-available flavored tobacco products. They found significant overlap in the chemical signatures of the flavor chemicals. Several of the tobacco products contained flavor chemicals at much higher concentrations than in the non-tobacco products

Annotation Studio: multimedia text annotation for students

Annotation Studio will be a web-based application that actively engages students in interpreting literary texts and other humanities documents. While strengthening students' new media literacies, this open source web application will develop traditional humanistic skills including close reading, textual analysis, persuasive writing, and critical thinking. Initial features will include: 1) easy-to-use annotation tools that facilitate linking and comparing primary texts with multi-media source, variation, and adaptation documents; 2) sharable collections of multimedia materials prepared by faculty and student users; 3) multiple filtering and display mechanisms for texts, written annotations, and multimedia annotations; 4) collaboration functionality; and 5) multimedia composition tools. Products of the start-up phase will include a working prototype, feedback from students and instructors, and a white paper summarizing lessons learned

Phase Considerations in the Gas/Particle Partitioning of Organic Amines in the Atmosphere

Amines in the atmosphere are of interest because of their likely role in new particle formation, and because of anthropogenic emissions of amines at post-combustion carbon capture (PCCC) facilities. A conceptual framework for considering the partitioning of a monobasic amine (Am = unprotonated free-base form) from the gas phase to atmospheric particulate matter (PM) is presented for cases when the PM may be composed of multiple liquid phases. Three types of liquid phases are considered as being individually or simultaneously possible for absorptive uptake of atmospheric amines: w) a mostly water phase; α ) a mostly (by mass) organic phase that has at least some polarity (e.g., predominantly secondary organic aerosol (SOA), and may contain significant water on a mole fraction basis); and ß) a mostly organic phase that is less polar than an a phase (e.g., predominantly primary organic aerosol (POA), containing little water). That one or more salts may contain the aminium ion AmH+ (formed by protonation of Am) is subject to the fact that the trace levels of individual amines in the atmosphere make formation of pure solid such as AmHHSO4(s) exceedingly unlikely: when solid salts of AmH+ are indeed present, by far the most likely form is as a solid solution, e.g.,(NH+4)1-y(AmH+)HSO-4(s) where y \u3c\u3c1

Fast and Accurate Genome-Wide Association Test of Multiple Quantitative Traits

Multiple correlated traits are often collected in genetic studies. By jointly analyzing multiple traits, we can increase power by aggregating multiple weak effects and reveal additional insights into the genetic architecture of complex human diseases. In this article, we propose a multivariate linear regression-based method to test the joint association of multiple quantitative traits. It is flexible to accommodate any covariates, has very accurate control of type I errors, and offers very competitive performance. We also discuss fast and accurate significance p value computation especially for genome-wide association studies with small-to-medium sample sizes. We demonstrate through extensive numerical studies that the proposed method has competitive performance. Its usefulness is further illustrated with application to genome-wide association analysis of diabetes-related traits in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study. We found some very interesting associations with diabetes traits which have not been reported before. We implemented the proposed methods in a publicly available R package

Transferability and Fine Mapping of Type 2 Diabetes Loci in African Americans: The Candidate Gene Association Resource Plus Study

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) disproportionally affects African Americans (AfA) but, to date, genetic variants identified from genome-wide association studies (GWAS) are primarily from European and Asian populations. We examined the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) and locus transferability of 40 reported T2D loci in six AfA GWAS consisting of 2,806 T2D case subjects with or without end-stage renal disease and 4,265 control subjects from the Candidate Gene Association Resource Plus Study. Our results revealed that seven index SNPs at the TCF7L2, KLF14, KCNQ1, ADCY5, CDKAL1, JAZF1, and GCKR loci were significantly associated with T2D (P < 0.05). The strongest association was observed at TCF7L2 rs7903146 (odds ratio [OR] 1.30; P = 6.86 × 10−8). Locus-wide analysis demonstrated significant associations (Pemp < 0.05) at regional best SNPs in the TCF7L2, KLF14, and HMGA2 loci as well as suggestive signals in KCNQ1 after correction for the effective number of SNPs at each locus. Of these loci, the regional best SNPs were in differential linkage disequilibrium (LD) with the index and adjacent SNPs. Our findings suggest that some loci discovered in prior reports affect T2D susceptibility in AfA with similar effect sizes. The reduced and differential LD pattern in AfA compared with European and Asian populations may facilitate fine mapping of causal variants at loci shared across populations