Use of tobacco retail permitting to reduce youth access and exposure to tobacco in Santa Clara County, California

AbstractObjectiveTo target youth smoking, the impact of a local tobacco retail permit was evaluated on the number and location of tobacco retailers, and on the level of enforcement and compliance with tobacco sales regulations from 2010 to 2012 within unincorporated Santa Clara County, California.MethodsGeographic Information Systems (GIS) mapping of each of 36 tobacco retailers pre- and post-intervention, observational surveys of tobacco retail environments pre- and post-intervention, and post-intervention enforcement surveys to measure location of sales, level of enforcement action, and compliance with laws governing sale of tobacco products were conducted.ResultsEleven (30.6%) of the initial 36 retailers selling tobacco at the start of the intervention stopped selling tobacco post intervention. Of these 11 retailers, one was within 500feet of another retailer, and three were within 1000feet of a K–12 school. Ten (91%) of the retailers who stopped selling tobacco were non-traditional retailers.ConclusionAn immediate reduction in the number of stores selling tobacco occurred following implementation of tobacco retail permitting. Post-implementation, all retailers who underwent compliance checks were in compliance with laws prohibiting sales of tobacco to minors. Compliance with laws governing the sale of tobacco has potential to reduce access and use of tobacco products by youth

Economic Analysis of Knowledge: The History of Thought and the Central Themes

Following the development of knowledge economies, there has been a rapid expansion of economic analysis of knowledge, both in the context of technological knowledge in particular and the decision theory in general. This paper surveys this literature by identifying the main themes and contributions and outlines the future prospects of the discipline. The wide scope of knowledge related questions in terms of applicability and alternative approaches has led to the fragmentation of research. Nevertheless, one can identify a continuing tradition which analyses various aspects of the generation, dissemination and use of knowledge in the economy

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead