Introducing oral tobacco for tobacco harm reduction: what are the main obstacles?

With the number of smokers worldwide currently on the rise, the regular failure of smokers to give up their tobacco addiction, the direct role of smoke (and, to a much lesser extent, nicotine) in most tobacco-related diseases, and the availability of less toxic (but still addictive) oral tobacco products, the use of oral tobacco in lieu of smoking for tobacco harm reduction (HR) merits assessment

Size-scaling of clump instabilities in turbulent, feedback regulated disks

We explore the scaling between the size of star-forming clumps and rotational support in massively star-forming galactic disks. The analysis relies on simulations of a clumpy galaxy at $z=2$ and the observed DYNAMO sample of rare clumpy analogs at $z\approx0.1$ to test a predictive clump size scaling proposed by \citet{Fisher2017ApJ...839L...5F} in the context of the Violent Disk Instability (VDI) theory. We here determine the clump sizes using a recently presented 2-point estimator, which is robust against resolution/noise effects, hierarchical clump substructure, clump-clump overlap and other galactic substructure. After verifying Fisher's clump scaling relation for the DYNAMO observations, we explore whether this relation remains characteristic of the VDI theory, even if realistic physical processes, such as local asymetries and stellar feedback, are included in the model. To this end, we rely on hydrodynamic zoom-simulations of a Milky Way-mass galaxy with four different feedback prescriptions. We find that, during its marginally stable epoch at $z=2$, this mock galaxy falls on the clump scaling relation, although its position on this relation depends on the feedback model. This finding implies that Toomre-like stability considerations approximately apply to large ($\sim\rm kpc$) instabilities in marginally stable turbulent disks, irrespective of the feedback model, but also emphasizes that the global clump distribution of a turbulent disk depends strongly on feedback.Comment: Accepted by ApJ, no changes made. 11 pages, 4 figure

Voting on Cyclic Orders, Group Theory, and Ballots

A cyclic order may be thought of informally as a way to seat people around a table, perhaps for a game of chance or for dinner. Given a set of agents such as $\{A,B,C\}$, we can formalize this by defining a cyclic order as a permutation or linear order on this finite set, under the equivalence relation where $A\succ B\succ C$ is identified with both $B\succ C\succ A$ and $C\succ A\succ B$. As with other collections of sets with some structure, we might want to aggregate preferences of a (possibly different) set of voters on the set of possible ways to choose a cyclic order. However, given the combinatorial explosion of the number of full rankings of cyclic orders, one may not wish to use the usual voting machinery. This raises the question of what sort of ballots may be appropriate; a single cyclic order, a set of them, or some other ballot type? Further, there is a natural action of the group of permutations on the set of agents. A reasonable requirement for a choice procedure would be to respect this symmetry (the equivalent of neutrality in normal voting theory). In this paper we will exploit the representation theory of the symmetric group to analyze several natural types of ballots for voting on cyclic orders, and points-based procedures using such ballots. We provide a full characterization of such procedures for two quite different ballot types for $n=4$, along with the most important observations for $n=5$.Comment: 29 pages, to be published in conference proceedings from AMS Special Session on The Mathematics of Decisions, Elections and Games, 202

The stellar mass - size relation for cluster galaxies at z=1 with high angular resolution from the Gemini/GeMS multi-conjugate adaptive optics system

We present the stellar mass - size relation for 49 galaxies within the $z$ = 1.067 cluster SPT-CL J0546$-$5345, with FWHM $\sim$80-120 mas $K_{\mathrm s}$-band data from the Gemini multi-conjugate adaptive optics system (GeMS/GSAOI). This is the first such measurement in a cluster environment, performed at sub-kpc resolution at rest-frame wavelengths dominated by the light of the underlying old stellar populations. The observed stellar mass - size relation is offset from the local relation by 0.21 dex, corresponding to a size evolution proportional to $(1+z)^{-1.25}$, consistent with the literature. The slope of the stellar mass - size relation $\beta$ = 0.74 $\pm$ 0.06, consistent with the local relation. The absence of slope evolution indicates that the amount of size growth is constant with stellar mass. This suggests that galaxies in massive clusters such as SPT-CL J0546$-$5345 grow via processes that increase the size without significant morphological interference, such as minor mergers and/or adiabatic expansion. The slope of the cluster stellar mass - size relation is significantly shallower if measured in $HST$/ACS imaging at wavelengths blueward of the Balmer break, similar to rest-frame UV relations at $z$ = 1 in the literature. The stellar mass - size relation must be measured at redder wavelengths, which are more sensitive to the old stellar population that dominates the stellar mass of the galaxies. The slope is unchanged when GeMS $K_s$-band imaging is degraded to the resolution of $K$-band HST/NICMOS resolution but dramatically affected when degraded to $K_s$-band Magellan/FourStar resolution. Such measurements must be made with AO in order to accurately characterise the sizes of compact, $z$ = 1 galaxies.Comment: 24 pages, 13 figures, 3 tables. Accepted for publication in MNRAS. Typos corrected, DOI adde

Structural Equation Modeling to Detect Correlates of Childhood Vaccination: A Moderated Mediation Analysis

OBJECTIVES: This study used a health belief theory derived framework and structural equation model to examine moderators, mediators, and direct and indirect predictors of childhood vaccination. METHODS: A secondary analysis was conducted using data collected from a cross-sectional survey of a random sample of 1599 parents living in urban and rural areas of Mysore district, India. Applying two-stage probability proportionate-to-size sampling, adolescent girls attending 7th through 10th grades in 23 schools were selected to take home a questionnaire to be answered by their parents to primarily assess HPV vaccine intentions. Parents were also asked whether their children had received one dose of Bacillus Calmette-Guérin; three doses of Diphtheria, Pertussis, Tetanus; three doses of oral Polio vaccine; and one dose of Measles vaccine. In addition, parents were asked about their attitudes towards childhood vaccination. RESULTS: Out of the 1599 parents, 52.2% reported that their children had received all the routine vaccines (fully vaccinated); 42.7% reported their children had missed at least one routine vaccine, and 5.2% reported that their children had missed all routine vaccinations. Perceptions about the benefits/facilitators to childhood vaccination significantly predicted the full vaccination rate (standardized regression coefficient (β) = 0.29) directly and mediated the effect of parental education (β = 0.11) and employment (β = -0.06) on the rate of full vaccination. Parental education was significantly associated indirectly with higher rates of full vaccination (β = 0.11). Parental employment was significantly associated indirectly with decreasing rates of full vaccination (β = -0.05). Area of residence moderated the role of religion (β = 0.24) and the \u27number of children\u27 in a family (β = 0.33) on parental perceptions about barriers to childhood vaccination. The model to data fit was acceptable (Root Mean Square Error of Approximation = 0.02, 95% CI 0.018 to 0.023; Comparative Fit Index = 0.92; Tucker-Lewis Index = 0.91). CONCLUSIONS: Full vaccination rate was relatively low among children in Mysore, especially among parents who were unsure about the benefits of routine vaccination and those with low educational levels. Interventions increasing awareness of the benefits of childhood vaccination that target rural parents with lower levels of education may help increase the rate of full childhood vaccination in India

Balneologische Mittheilung aus Hapsal. 4, Das Hapsaler Meer

https://www.ester.ee/record=b4485488*es

De morbo: Sinni wil (blaue Blatter) nominato, carbunculo quodam Esthoniae rusticis endemio : dissertatio inauguralis

http://tartu.ester.ee/record=b1714828~S1*es