Estimating the ‘consumer surplus’ for branded versus standardised tobacco packaging

© 2016 BMJ Publishing Group. All rights reserved. Background: Tobacco companies question whether standardised (or ‘plain’) packaging will change smokers’ behaviour. We addressed this question by estimating how standardised packaging compared to a proven tobacco control intervention, price increases through excise taxes, thus providing a quantitative measure of standardised packaging’s likely effect. Methods: We conducted an online study of 311 New Zealand smokers aged 18 years and above that comprised a willingness-to-pay task comparing a branded and a standardised pack at four different price levels, and a choice experiment. The latter used an alternative-specific design, where the alternatives were a branded pack or a standardised pack, with warning theme and price varied for each pack. Results: Respondents had higher purchase likelihoods for the branded pack (with a 30% warning) than the standardised pack (with a 75% warning) at each price level tested, and, on average, were willing to pay approximately 5% more for a branded pack. The choice experiment produced a very similar estimate of ‘consumer surplus’ for a branded pack. However, the size of the ‘consumer surplus’ varied between warning themes and by respondents’ demographic characteristics. Conclusions: These two experiments suggest standardised packaging and larger warning labels could have a similar overall effect on adult New Zealand smokers as a 5% tobacco price increase. The findings provide further evidence for the efficacy of standardised packaging, which focuses primarily on reducing youth initiation, and suggest this measure will also bring notable benefits to adult smokers

A note on "symmetric" vielbeins in bimetric, massive, perturbative and non perturbative gravities

We consider a manifold endowed with two different vielbeins $E^{A}{}_{\mu}$ and $L^{A}{}_{\mu}$ corresponding to two different metrics $g_{\mu\nu}$ and $f_{\mu\nu}$. Such a situation arises generically in bimetric or massive gravity (including the recently discussed version of de Rham, Gabadadze and Tolley), as well as in perturbative quantum gravity where one vielbein parametrizes the background space-time and the other the dynamical degrees of freedom. We determine the conditions under which the relation $g^{\mu\nu} E^{A}{}_{\mu} L^{B}{}_{\nu} = g^{\mu\nu} E^{B}{}_{\mu} L^{A}{}_{\nu}$ can be imposed (or the "Deser-van Nieuwenhuizen" gauge chosen). We clarify and correct various statements which have been made about this issue.Comment: 20 pages. Section 7, prop. 6 and 7. added. Some results made more precis

Dissuasive cigarette sticks: The next step in standardised (‘plain’) packaging?

© 2016 BMJ Publishing Group. All rights reserved. Background: Standardised (or ‘plain’) packaging has reduced the appeal of smoking by removing imagery that smokers use to affiliate themselves with the brand they smoke. We examined whether changing the appearance of cigarette sticks could further denormalise smoking and enhance the negative impact of standardised packaging. Methods: We conducted an online study of 313 New Zealand smokers who comprised a Best-Worst Choice experiment and a rating task. The Best-Worst experiment used a 2×3×3×6 orthogonal design to test the following attributes: on-pack warning message, branding level, warning size and stick appearance. Results: We identified three segments whose members’ choice patterns were strongly influenced by the stick design, warning theme and size, and warning theme, respectively. Each of the dissuasive sticks tested was less preferred and rated as less appealing than the most common stick in use; a ‘minutes of life lost’ stick was the most aversive of the stimuli tested. Conclusions: Dissuasive sticks could enhance the effect of standardised packaging, particularly among older smokers who are often more heavily addicted and resistant to change. Countries introducing standardised packaging legislation should take the opportunity to denormalise the appearance of cigarette sticks, in addition to removing external tobacco branding from packs and increasing the warning size

Temperature dependence of instantons in QCD

We investigate the temperature dependence of the instanton contents of gluon fields, using unquenched lattice QCD and the cooling method. The instanton size parameter deduced from the correlation function decreases from 0.44fm below the phase-transition temperature $T_c$ ($\approx 150$MeV) to 0.33fm at 1.3 $T_c$. The instanton charge distribution is Poissonian above $T_c$, but it deviates from the convoluted Poisson at low temperature. The topological susceptibility decreases rapidly below $T_c$, showing the apparent restoration of the $U(1)_A$ symmetry already at $T \approx T_c$.Comment: 8 pages TEX, 3 Postscript figures available at http://www.krl.caltech.edu/preprints/MAP.htm

Planetary Nebulae as Probes of Stellar Evolution and Populations

Planetary Nebulae (PNe) have been used satisfactory to test the effects of stellar evolution on the Galactic chemical environment. Moreover, a link exists between nebular morphology and stellar populations and evolution. We present the latest results on Galactic PN morphology, and an extension to a distance unbiased and homogeneous sample of Large Magellanic Cloud PNe. We show that PNe and their morphology may be successfully used as probes of stellar evolution and populations.Comment: to appear in: Chemical Evolution of the Milky Way: stars versus clusters, ed. F. Giovannelli and F. Matteucci, Kluwer (2000), in pres

Compressional and extensional tectonics in low-medium pressure granulites from the Larsemann Hills, east Antarctica

AbstractMeta-sediments in the Larsemann Hills that preserve a coherent stratigraphy, form a cover sequence deposited upon basement of mafic–felsic granulite. Their outcrop pattern defines a 10 kilometre wide east–west trending synclinal trough structure in which basement–cover contacts differ in the north and the south, suggesting tectonic interleaving during a prograde, D1 thickening event. Subsequent conditions reached low-medium pressure granulite grade, and structures can be divided into two groups, D2 and D3, each defined by a unique lineation direction and shear sense. D2 structures which are associated with the dominant gneissic foliation in much of the Larsemann Hills, contain a moderately east-plunging lineation indicative of west-directed thrusting. D2 comprises a colinear fold sequence that evolved from early intrafolial folds to late upright folds. D3 structures are associated with a high-strain zone, to the south of the Larsemann Hills, where S3 is the dominant gneissic layering and folds sequences resemble D2 folding. Outside the D3 high-strain zone occurs a low-strain D3 window, preserving low-strain D3 structures (minor shear bands and upright folds) that partly re-orient D2 structures. All structures are truncated by a series of planar pegmatites and parallel D4 mylonite zones, recording extensional dextral displacements.D2 assemblages include coexisting garnet–orthopyroxene pairs recording peak conditions of ∼ 7 kbar and ∼ 780°C. Subsequent retrograde decompression textures partly evolved during both D2 and D3 when conditions of ∼ 4–5 kbar and ∼ 750°C were attained. This is followed by D4 shear zones which formed around 3 kbar and ∼ 550°C.It is tempting to combine D2–4 structures in one tectonic cycle involving prograde thrusting and thickening followed by retrograde extension and uplift. The available geochronological data, however, present a number of interpretations. For example, D2 was possibly associated with a clockwise P–T path at medium pressures around ∼ 1000 Ma, by correlation with similar structures developed in the Rauer Group, whilst D3 and D4 events occurred in response to extension and heating at low pressures at ∼ 550 Ma, associated with the emplacement of numerous granitoid bodies. Thus, decompression textures typical for the Larsemann Hills granulites maybe the combined effect of two separate events.C. J. Carson, P. G. H. M. Dirks, M. Hand, J. P. Sims & C. J. L. Wilso

Topological Structure of the SU(3) Vacuum

We investigate the topological structure of the vacuum in SU(3) lattice gauge theory. We use under-relaxed cooling to remove the high-frequency fluctuations and a variety of "filters" to identify the topological charges in the resulting smoothened field configurations. We find a densely packed vacuum with an average instanton size, in the continuum limit, of about 0.5 fm. The density at large sizes decreases as a large inverse power of the size. At small sizes we see some sign of a trend towards the asymptotic perturbative behaviour. We find that an interesting polarisation phenomenon occurs: the large topological charges tend to have, on the average, the same sign and are over-screened by the smaller charges which tend to have, again on the average, the opposite sign to the larger instantons. We also calculate the topological susceptibility for which we obtain a continuum value of about 187 MeV. We perform the calculations for various volumes, lattice spacings and numbers of cooling sweeps, so as to obtain some control over the associated systematic errors. The coupling range is from beta=6.0 to beta=6.4 and the lattice volumes range from 16x16x16x48 to 32x32x32x64.Comment: LaTeX. Self-unpacking, uuencoded tar-compressed fil