Menthol sensory qualities and smoking topography: a review of tobacco industry documents.

ObjectiveTo determine what the tobacco industry knew about the potential effects of menthol on smoking topography-how a person smokes a cigarette.MethodsA snowball strategy was used to systematically search the Legacy Tobacco Documents Library (http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu) between 1 June 2010 and 9 August 2010. We qualitatively analysed a final collection of 252 documents related to menthol and smoking topography.ResultsThe tobacco industry knew that menthol has cooling, anaesthetic and analgesic properties that moderate the harshness and irritation of tobacco. Owing to its physiological effects, menthol contributes to the sensory qualities of the smoke and affects smoking topography and cigarette preference.ConclusionOur review of industry studies suggests that the amount of menthol in a cigarette is associated with how the cigarette is smoked and how satisfying it is to the smoker. If menthol in cigarettes was banned, as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is currently considering, new/experimental smokers might choose not to smoke rather than experience the harshness of tobacco smoke and the irritating qualities of nicotine. Similarly, established menthol smokers might choose to quit if faced with an unpleasant smoking alternative

High strength, wire-reinforced electroformed structures

Using half-round reinforcing wires, electrodeposited matrix metal readily fills spaces between wires in intimate contact with wires and without voids. Procedure combines advantages of electroforming with high-strength of commonly available wire to produce non-welded shell structures for high pressure uses

The Fallacy of Mandating Contraceptive Equity: Why Laws That Protect Women with Health Insurance Deepen Institutional Discrimination

This Comment takes a close look at the United States\u27 approach to health insurance and various unsuccessful efforts at broadening the health care choices of American women in the form of contraceptive equity laws

Context-specific adaptation of vertical vergence to correlates of eye position

AbstractVertical phoria (vertical vergence in the absence of binocular feedback) can be trained to vary with non-visual cues such as vertical conjugate eye position, horizontal conjugate eye position and horizontal vergence. These prior studies demonstrated a low-level association or coupling between vertical vergence and several oculomotor cues. As a test of the potential independence of multiple eye-position cues for vertical vergence, context-specific adaptation experiments were conducted in three orthogonal adapting planes (midsagittal, frontoparallel, and transverse). Four vertical disparities in each of these planes were associated with various combinations of two specific components of eye position. Vertical disparities in the midsagittal plane were associated with horizontal vergence and vertical conjugate eye position; vertical disparities in the frontoparallel plane were associated with horizontal and vertical conjugate eye position; and vertical disparities in the transverse plane were associated with horizontal vergence and horizontal conjugate eye position. The results demonstrate that vertical vergence can be adapted to respond to specific combinations of two different sources of eye-position information. The results are modeled with an association matrix whose inputs are two classes of eye position and whose weighted output is vertical vergence

Operations management system

The objective of an operations management system is to provide an orderly and efficient method to operate and maintain aerospace vehicles. Concepts are described for an operations management system and the key technologies are highlighted which will be required if this capability is brought to fruition. Without this automation and decision aiding capability, the growing complexity of avionics will result in an unmanageable workload for the operator, ultimately threatening mission success or survivability of the aircraft or space system. The key technologies include expert system application to operational tasks such as replanning, equipment diagnostics and checkout, global system management, and advanced man machine interfaces. The economical development of operations management systems, which are largely software, will require advancements in other technological areas such as software engineering and computer hardware

High resolution mapping of Puget Sound shorelines

In an effort to collect high-resolution baseline coastal topographic data of beaches and bluffs around the Puget Sound and Strait of Juan de Fuca, the Washington State Department of Ecology Coastal Monitoring & Analysis Program (CMAP) conducted a series of boat-based lidar surveys in October 2013, May through September 2015, and May 2016 at a total of 16 sites spanning 220 km of shoreline and over two dozen drift cells. The drift cells were selected based on a rigorous and systematic geospatial analysis of bluff-backed beaches for their potential for significant bluff sediment supply to intact shorelines identified as having a relative abundance of habitat for forage fish, eelgrass, herring, shellfish, and geoduck, as well as having previous investments in beach restoration projects, and potential for future shoreline armoring and habitat loss based on population growth scenarios. As such, the surveyed drift cells are top candidates for implementing drift cell-scale protection and restoration strategies. The boat-based lidar and GPS topography data were used to produce 0.5-m digital elevation models (DEMs) for the beaches and bluffs at each of the survey sites. These DEMs provide the opportunity to inventory and characterize the shoreline landscape that affects nearshore ecosystem services such as feeder bluff activity, beach slope and width, and the position, length, and elevation of armoring relative to the backshore. Boat-based lidar provides an advantageous point of view of the bluff face, resulting in high resolution data which is needed to gain insight into bluff failure and erosion mechanisms and corresponding sediment transport processes. In addition, it successfully collects data under overhanging vegetation and overwater structures. Repeat surveys in the future would enable change analyses for quantifying bluff sediment supply, changes in marine riparian vegetation, and a better understanding of the linkages between physical and ecological processes

High-temperature magnetic anomaly in the Kitaev hyperhoneycomb compound β-Li2IrO3

We report the existence of a high-temperature magnetic anomaly in the three-dimensional Kitaev candidate material, β-Li2IrO3. Signatures of the anomaly appear in magnetization, heat capacity, and muon spin relaxation measurements. The onset coincides with a reordering of the principal axes of magnetization, which is thought to be connected to the onset of Kitaev-like correlations in the system. The anomaly also shows magnetic hysteresis with a spatially anisotropic magnitude that follows the spin-anisotropic exchange anisotropy of the underlying Kitaev Hamiltonian. We discuss possible scenarios for a bulk and impurity origin

Beyond Bostock: Implications for LGBTQ+ theory and practice.

The recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County is a landmark piece of case law that offers fundamental rights to LGBT persons. This essay reflects on how this case arrived at the Supreme Court and its implications for theory and praxis. The overall conclusion is that cautious optimism is warranted