2,114 research outputs found
Workplace smoking ban effects in an heterogeneous smoking population
Many public policies, and especially health policies, are aimed at modifying individual behavior. This is particularly true of anti smoking policies. However, health behavior is highly heterogeneous, and so are individual responses to public policies such as taxes or restriction on use. We investigate the effect of a workplace smoking ban which took place in France in 2007. By its national aspect, the French reform offers a good case to study the effect of workplace smoking bans. Using original data on patients who consult tobacco cessation services, we show that the ban caused an increase in the demand for such services, and in the number of successful attempts to quit smoking. However, using survey data, we show that the ban had no measurable effect on overall prevalence in the general population. Models of quasi rational smoking behavior may offer an explanation for these two apparently contradictory findings.workplace smoking ban ; tobacco control ; smoking cessation ; impact evaluation
Transient Response of the Head Kinematics - Influence of a Disturbed Visual Flow
Vision influences the controlled kinematics of human body. Previous studies have shown the influence of vision on head stabilization or whole posture. However, latencies between the stimuli and the head motion have never been quantified. The aim of this study is to quantify the influence of a perturbed vision on the head kinematics. Seven healthy volunteers without uncorrected vision (26.7±6.9 years old, 1 female, 2 right-handed/right-dominant eye, 5 right-handed/left-dominant eye) were studied. Visual stimuli were performed through an immersive personal 3D viewer (HMZ-T1, Sony), securely tied on the head. Motion analysis of the head and the torso were performed using the optoelectronic Vicon system (100Hz). Three markers were glued on the personal viewer, close to the nasion, left and right tragus, in order to create the head frame. Three markers were glued to create the torso frame (both acromia and C7). Two different 3D animated scenes were created on Blender and displayed at 24Hz. The first animation was a landscape with a ball rolling on the ground, and then the ball stopped before being virtually launched via a catapult toward the screen. Two velocities were programmed: 4.67 and 10.58 m.s-1. The second animation was a beach with sea and sky, where horizon tilted anticlockwise at 2 different constant rates: 0.24 deg.s-1 and 0.48 deg.s-1 with maximal amplitude of 8° and 16° respectively. The motion of the head relative to the torso was calculated for both scenes on seated and upright position, at the 2 different velocities, 2 times each, for a total of 16 random tests on each volunteer. For the launched ball animated scene, the reaction time seated was, as expected, shorter for the fast launches. For the beach animated scene, the head profiles followed most of the time the kinematic profile of the tilted animation, linearly or by steps, and not necessary until the end. Volunteers who were right-handed and right dominant eye tilted their head clockwise, at the inverse of the stimuli. Both experiments confirmed that visual stimulus could influence the kinematics of the head-neck system. In the ball animation, velocity of the stimulus does not seem to affect the amplitude of movement. In the beach animation, the head motions were variable, but performed at the same mean speed than the stimuli. Furthermore, the limited number of volunteer cannot conclude on the direction of rotation of the head, depending of the dominant hand and eye
Elliptic flow in transport theory and hydrodynamics
We present a new direct simulation Monte-Carlo method for solving the
relativistic Boltzmann equation. We solve numerically the 2-dimensional
Boltzmann equation using this new algorithm. We find that elliptic flow from
this transport calculation smoothly converges towards the value from ideal
hydrodynamics as the number of collisions per particle increases, as expected
on general theoretical grounds, but in contrast with previous transport
calculations.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, revise
Diffusive model of current-in-plane-tunneling in double magnetic tunnel junctions
We propose a model that describes current-in-plane tunneling transport in
double barrier magnetic tunnel junctions in diffusive regime. Our study shows
that specific features appear in double junctions that are described by
introducing two typical length scales. The model may be used to measure the
magnetoresistance and the resistance area product of both barriers in
unpatterned stacks of double barrier magnetic tunnel junctions.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Workplace smoking ban effects in an heterogeneous smoking population
Many public policies, and especially health policies, are aimed at modifying individual behavior. This is particularly true of anti smoking policies. However, health behavior is highly heterogeneous, and so are individual responses to public policies such as taxes or restriction on use. We investigate the effect of a workplace smoking ban which took place in France in 2007. By its national aspect, the French reform offers a good case to study the effect of workplace smoking bans. Using original data on patients who consult tobacco cessation services, we show that the ban caused an increase in the demand for such services, and in the number of successful attempts to quit smoking. However, using survey data, we show that the ban had no measurable effect on overall prevalence in the general population. Models of quasi rational smoking behavior may offer an explanation for these two apparently contradictory findings
Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning as a Computational Tool for Language Evolution Research: Historical Context and Future Challenges
Computational models of emergent communication in agent populations are
currently gaining interest in the machine learning community due to recent
advances in Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning (MARL). Current contributions
are however still relatively disconnected from the earlier theoretical and
computational literature aiming at understanding how language might have
emerged from a prelinguistic substance. The goal of this paper is to position
recent MARL contributions within the historical context of language evolution
research, as well as to extract from this theoretical and computational
background a few challenges for future research
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