Impacts of the Fair and Equitable Tobacco Reform Act of 2004 on Shareholders’ Wealth in the Tobacco Industry

This study examines the impact and efficiency of the design of the Fair and Equitable Tobacco Reform Act of 2004 in deregulating the tobacco production industry. Results offer a number of policy implications of which deregulation of an economically challenged industry can be achieved without the use of taxpayer funds.Tobacco Buyout, Tobacco Industry, Event Study, Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy,

Advanced rocket engine cryogenic turbopump bearing thermal model

A lumped node thermal model was developed representing the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) liquid oxygen (LOX) turbopump turbine end bearings operating in a cryogenically cooled bearing tester. Bearing elements, shaft, carrier, housing, cryogen flow characteristics, friction heat, and fluid viscous energy are included in the model. Heat transfer characteristics for the regimes of forced convection boiling are modeled for liquid oxygen (LOX) and liquid nitrogen (LN2). Large temperature differences between the cryogenic fluid and baring contact surfaces require detailed nodal representation in these areas. Internal loads and friction heat are affected by temperature dependent operating clearances requiring iterations between bearing thermal and mechanical models. Analyses indicate a thermal-mechanical coupling resulting in reduced operating clearances, increased loading and heating which can contribute to premature bearing failure. Contact surfaces operate at temperatures above local saturation resulting in vapor rather than liquid in the contacts, precluding possible liquid film lubrication. Elevated temperatures can reduce lubrication, increase friction, and reduce surface hardness supporting a surface failure mode rather than subsurface fatigue

Full thermal switching of enzymes by thermoresponsive poly(2-oxazoline)-based enzyme inhibitors

Controlling the activity of enzymes is an important feature for many processes in medicine, bioanalytics, and biotechnology. So far, it has not been possible to fully switch biocatalysts on and off by thermoresponsive enzyme inhibitors. Herein, we present poly(2-oxazoline)s with iminodiacetic acid end groups (POx-IDA) that are lower critical solution temperature (LCST) polymers and thus thermosensitive. They are capable of reversibly inhibiting the activity of horse radish peroxidase and laccase by more than 99 %. Increasing the temperature makes the POx-IDA precipitate, which leads to 100 % recovery of the enzyme activity. This switching cycle is fully reversible. The LCST of the POx-IDA can be tuned by varying the polymer composition to generate a wide range of switching windows

The Impact of Virtual Methodologies on Artificial Intelligence

Recent advances in atomic methodologies and perfect modalities do not necessarily obviate the need for replication. Given the current status of semantic algorithms, information theorists dubiously desire the deployment of superpages, which embodies the un-proven principles of cryptoanalysis. In order to accomplish this purpose, we investigate how courseware can be applied to the analysis of the Internet

ARE THERE ELECTRICAL DEVICES THAT CAN MEASURE THE BODY'S ENERGY STATE CHANGE TO AN ACUPUNCTURE TREATMENT? Part l, The Meridian Stress Assessment (MSA-21J Device

The general field of energy medicine is growing strongly but is still in great need of reliable monitoring instruments to assess the relative energetic state of humans with respect to a health/pathology ratio. Two commercial instruments: Bio-Meridian's MSA-21 and Korotkov's GDV were selected for an in-parallel study of the following question, "Can they meaningfully discriminate the effects of acupuncture treatment on the body's energy state?" In this part 1 paper we discuss the results obtained by Bio-Meridian' MSA-21. the experimental design was to determine if the MSA-21 and the GDV could discern a quantifiable difference between an authentic acupuncture session and a sham acupuncture session for 34 subjects. The single research hypothesis was, "If energy is added to andlor redistributed in the body via true acupuncture needling, as contrasted with sham acupuncture needling, a worthy measurement instrument must (at least) be able to discriminate this energy change contrast in a statistically significant fashion." Indeed, the MSA-21 instrument passed this test in good order and provided much useful adjunct information as well

Small-angle X-Ray scattering measurements on amphiphilic polymer conetworks swollen in orthogonal solvents

Amphiphilic polymer conetworks (APCNs), which combine two different polymer nanophases, have a broad range of applications that involve their unique potential to separately swell one of these nanophases in a selective solvent. Little is known about the structural changes of such APCNs upon swelling in dependence on the topology. Here, conetworks composed of poly(2-ethylhexyl acrylate) crosslinked by poly(2-methyl-2-oxazoline) (PMOx) are investigated with small-angle X-ray scattering in dry and swollen state using the orthogonal solvents water and toluene. The data clearly show that the structural changes induced by swelling are strongly dependent on the topology of the APCNs. While water leads to fusion of PMOx phases resulting in larger structures than found in the dry APCN, toluene is only swelling the hydrophobic phases without structural changes

Insights in the thermal volume transition of poly(2-oxazoline) hydrogels

Polymers with a lower or an upper critical solution temperature (LCST or UCST) can precipitate in a very narrow temperature range. Cross-linking of such polymers and adding them to suited solvent results in smart gels that are capable of greatly changing their dimensions with changing temperature. This transition occurs very often in a broad temperature range, which limits the applicability of smart materials. To shed some light into the design of thermo-responsive hydrogels with a narrow phase transition, poly(2-ethyl-2-oxazoline) (PEtOx), poly(2-isopropyl-2-oxazoline), and statistical copolymers of 2-butyl-2-oxazoline and 2-ethyl-2-oxazoline, respectively, are synthesized and the concentration-dependent cloud point temperatures (Tcp) of the free polymers in aqueous media are determined in relation to the thermo-responsive swelling behavior of the respective hydrogels. A narrow thermal transition of the hydrogels can only be achieved when the Tcp of the free polymers in water is independent on the concentration. Aqueous salt solutions can render even PEtOx into a concentration independent LCST polymer. However, this salt effect does not work for hydrogels

A DOUBLE-BLIND EEG-RESPONSE TEST FOR A SUPPOSED ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELD-NEUTRALIZING DEVICE Part I: Via The Clinician Expertise Procedure

Twenty-seven individuals were evaluated for effects of a clock emitting 50 milligaus of electromagnetic field energy(EMF) upon the computerized EEG(brain map). They were then retested with either an active or placebo pendant(Clarus QLink) on the chest while again receiving 50 milligaus of electromagnetic energy applied within 6 inches of the vertex of the skull and finally retested after wearing the pendant for a month. Both subject and research technician were blinded to the active versus placebo devices. The active pendant showed significantly greater protection from the EEG disturbance induced by the electromagnetically active clock

On the influence of the amorphous phase on the stability of crystals in poly(cis-1,4-isoprene) networks

Crosslinked natural rubber and synthetic rubber samples are additivated with up to 9 wt% stearic acid (StA) to better understand the influence of StA on the melting temperature Tm of strain-induced crystallized poly(cis-1,4-isoprene) crystals. To this end, lamellae thicknesses are determined from wide-angle x-ray patterns and used to calculate the crystal size dependent melting temperature Tm,calc. Comparing the measured Tm with Tm,calc reveals that Tm deviates downward from Tm,calc and converges Tm,calc with increasing StA concentration until it is identical to Tm,calc, in case of room temperature strain-induced crystallization. In case of strain-induced crystallization at 80°C, it was found that Tm is identical with Tm,calc without added StA and deviates upward from Tm,calc with increasing amount of added StA. We suggest that this is due to internal stress onto the polymer crystals exerted by highly strained macromolecules in the surrounding amorphous phase. Whether this stress has a stabilizing or destabilizing effect on the crystals is assumed to depend on its intensity and direction, which can be efficiently altered by the amount and the location of StA crystals in the amorphous phase

Enzyme-induced mineralization of hydrogels with amorphous calcium carbonate for fast synthesis of ultrastiff, strong and tough organic–inorganic double networks

Hydrogels with good mechanical properties have great importance in biological and medical applications. Double-network (DN) hydrogels were found to be very tough materials. If one of the two network phases is an inorganic material, the DN hydrogels also become very stiff without losing their toughness. So far, the only example of such an organic–inorganic DN hydrogel is based on calcium phosphate, which takes about a week to be formed as an amorphous inorganic phase by enzyme-induced mineralization. An alternative organic–inorganic DN hydrogel, based on amorphous CaCO3, which can be formed as inorganic phase within hours, was designed in this study. The precipitation of CaCO3 within a hydrogel was induced by urease and a urea/CaCl2 calcification medium. The amorphous character of the CaCO3 was retained by using the previously reported crystallization inhibiting effects of N-(phosphonomethyl)glycine (PMGly). The connection between organic and inorganic phases via reversible bonds was realized by the introduction of ionic groups. The best results were obtained by copolymerization of acrylamide (AAm) and sodium acrylate (SA), which led to water-swollen organic–inorganic DN hydrogels with a high Young’s modulus (455 ± 80 MPa), remarkable tensile strength (3.4 ± 0.7 MPa) and fracture toughness (1.1 ± 0.2 kJ m−2)