Motor racing, tobacco company sponsorship, barcodes and alibi marketing

Background Sponsorship of Formula One (F1) motor racing, which has been used as an indirect medium of tobacco advertising for several decades, was prohibited by the 2005 European Union Tobacco Advertising Directive. Most F1 tobacco sponsorship of motor racing in the EU has since ceased, with the exception of the Scuderia Ferrari team, which continues to be funded by Philip Morris. In 2007, the Marlboro logo on Ferrari cars and other race regalia was replaced by an evolving ‘barcode’ design, which Ferrari later claimed was part of the livery of the car, and not a Marlboro advertisement. Objective: To determine whether the ‘barcode’ graphics used by Ferrari represent ‘alibi’ Marlboro advertising. Methods Academic and grey literature, and online tobacco industry document archives, were searched using terms relevant to tobacco marketing and motorsport. Results Tobacco sponsorship of F1 motor racing began in 1968, and Philip Morris has sponsored F1 teams since 1972. Phillip Morris first used a ‘barcode’ design, comprising red vertical parallel lines below the word Marlboro on the British Racing Motors F1 car in 1972. Vertical or horizontal ‘barcode’ designs have been used in this way, latterly without the word Marlboro, ever since. The modern ‘barcode’ logos occupied the same position on cars and drivers' clothing as conventional Marlboro logos in the past. The shared use of red colour by Marlboro and Ferrari is also recognised by Philip Morris as a means of promoting brand association between Marlboro and Ferrari. Conclusion The Ferrari ‘barcode’ designs are alibi Marlboro logos and hence constitute advertising prohibited by the 2005 EU Tobacco Advertising Directive

Discrimination Between Mediated Facilitation and Mediated Inhibition Items

In a class of mediation paradigms investigated intensively by Schulz (1972), data suggested that subjects were capable of discriminating rapidly and accurately between mediated facilitation and mediated inhibition items. An experiment was conducted in which this discrimination was tested directly. Results showed the discrimination occurred

Anxiety and eating in the overweight: the psychosomatic hypothesis revisited.

It has been estimated that as many as 80 million people in this country are overweight (Stuart & Davis, 1972), and excessive weight is certainly a major problem in our society. While there are some unusual physical conditions which can cause a person to be overweight, the most common cause is the intake of food in excess of energy expenditure, or, put more simply, overeating (Stunkard, 1974). The cause(s) of overeating itself, however, is (are) still very much in dispute

"The Predication Semantics Model: The Role of Predicate: Class in Text Comprehension and Recall"

This paper presents and tests the predication semantics model, a computational model of text comprehension. It goes beyond previous case grammar approaches to text comprehension in employing a propositional rather than a rigid hierarchical tree notion, attempting to maintain a coherent set of propositions in working memory. The authors' assertion is that predicate class contains semantic information that readers use to make generally accurate predictions of a given proposition. Thus, the main purpose of the model-which works as a series of input and reduction cycles-is to explore the extent to which predicate categories play a role in reading comprehension and recall. In the reduction phase of the model, the propositions entered into the memory during the input phase are decreased while coherence is maintained among them. In an examination of the working memory at the end of each cycle, the computational model maintained coherence for 70% of cycles. The model appeared prone to serial dependence in errors: the coherence problem appears to occur because (unlike real readers) the simulation docs not reread when necessary. Overall, the experiment suggested that the predication semantics model is robust. The results suggested that the model emulates a primary process in text comprehension: predicate categories provide semantic information that helps to initiate and control automatic processes in reading, and allows people to grasp the gist of a text even when they have only minimal background knowledge. While needing refinement in several areas presenting minor problems-for example, the lack of a sufficiently complex memory to ensure that when the simulation of the model goes wrong it does not, as at present, stay wrong for successive intervals-the success of the model even at the current restrictive level of detail demonstrates the importance of the semantic information in predicate categories.

Estimating Cost Adjustments Required to Accomplish Target Savings in Chronic Disease Management Interventions: A Simulation Study

Chronic diseases are persistent ailments that are not preventable or curable with medication or vaccination. Many of the leading chronic conditions in industrialized societies may be related to lifestyle choices. The prevalence of these chronic conditions significantly affects the health, suffering, and longevity of patients. This paper demonstrates the utility of system dynamics as an approach to model and simulate the behavior of key cost factors in the implementation of population health management interventions. The study uses modeling and simulation as an evaluative method to identify potential savings stemming from an intervention within a well-defined population group. The model is flexible in that it allows policy-makers the ability to set saving targets that, in turn, generate knowledge about the cost structure adjustments necessary to reach these targets. The model provides useful insights into how the initial estimates of the cost of intervention, the resulting savings, and potential costs adjustments may change. The functionality of the model is demonstrated by means of scenarios implemented via sensitivity analysis

Initial concepts for CELT adaptive optics

The California Extremely Large Telescope (CELT) project has recently completed a 12-month conceptual design phase that has investigated major technology challenges in a number of Observatory subsystems, including adaptive optics (AO). The goal of this effort was not to adopt one or more specific AO architectures. Rather, it was to investigate the feasibility of adaptive optics correction of a 30-meter diameter telescope and to suggest realistic cost ceilings for various adaptive optics capabilities. We present here the key design issues uncovered during conceptual design and present two non-exclusive "baseline" adaptive optics concepts that are expected to be further developed during the following preliminary design phase. Further analysis, detailed engineering trade studies, and certain laboratory and telescope experiments must be performed, and key component technology prototypes demonstrated, prior to adopting one or more adaptive optics systems architectures for realization

Carlsberg alibi marketing in the UEFA Euro 2016 football finals: implications of Probably inappropriate alcohol advertising

Background: Alcohol advertising is a key driver of alcohol consumption, and is prohibited in France by the Loi Evin. In 2016 the Danish brewer Carlsberg sponsored the UEFA Euro 2016 finals, held in France, and used the alibis ‘Probably’ and ‘…the best in the world’ in place of Carlsberg in pitch-side advertising. We have quantified the advertising exposure achieved during the final seven games in the UEFA Euro 2016 championship. Methods: Appearances of the Carlsberg alibis ‘Probably’ and ‘the best in the world’ were counted and timed to the nearest second during all active play in live coverage of quarter final, semi-final and final matches broadcast in the UK. We used census data and viewing figures from Kantar Media to estimate gross and per capita impressions of these advertisements in the UK population. Results: In 796 minutes, 29 seconds of active play there were 746 alibi appearances, totalling 68 minutes 35 seconds duration and representing 8.6% of active playing time. Appearances were particularly frequent at the end of normal time, extra time and penalties. The seven matches delivered up to 7.43 billion Carlsberg alibi impressions to UK adults and 163.3 million to children. In the only match involving a second country with laws prohibiting alcohol advertising (France versus Iceland), exposure occurred for only 1.8% of playing time. Conclusions: Alibi marketing achieved significant advertising coverage during the final seven EURO 2016 championship games, particularly to children. Since ‘Probably’ is registered by Carlsberg as a wordmark this advertising appears to contravene the Loi Evin, though Carlsberg have defended their marketing actions

Adaptive optics for the Thirty Meter Telescope

Adaptive Optics (AO) will be essential for at least seven of the eight science instruments currently planned for the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT). These instruments include three near infra-red (NIR) imagers and spectrometers with fields of view from 2 to 30 arc seconds, a mid-IR echelle spectrometer, a planet formation imager/spectrometer, a wide field optical spectrograph, and a NIR multi-object spectrometer with multiple integral field units deployable over a 5 arc minute field of regard. In this paper we describe the overall AO reference design that supports these instruments, which consists of a facility AO system feeding the first three instruments and dedicated AO systems for the remaining four. Key design challenges for these systems include very high-order, large-stroke wavefront correction, tip-tilt sensing with faint natural guide stars to maximize sky coverage, laser guidestar wavefront sensing on a very large aperture, and achieving extremely high contrast ratios for the detection of extra-solar planets and other faint companions of bright stars. We describe design concepts for meeting these challenges and summarize our supporting plans for AO component development

Global Transcriptional Response to Hfe Deficiency and Dietary Iron Overload in Mouse Liver and Duodenum

Iron is an essential trace element whose absorption is usually tightly regulated in the duodenum. HFE-related hereditary hemochromatosis (HH) is characterized by abnormally low expression of the iron-regulatory hormone, hepcidin, which results in increased iron absorption. The liver is crucial for iron homeostasis as it is the main production site of hepcidin. The aim of this study was to explore and compare the genome-wide transcriptome response to Hfe deficiency and dietary iron overload in murine liver and duodenum. Illumina™ arrays containing over 47,000 probes were used to study global transcriptional changes. Quantitative RT-PCR (Q-RT-PCR) was used to validate the microarray results. In the liver, the expression of 151 genes was altered in Hfe−/− mice while dietary iron overload changed the expression of 218 genes. There were 173 and 108 differentially expressed genes in the duodenum of Hfe−/− mice and mice with dietary iron overload, respectively. There was 93.5% concordance between the results obtained by microarray analysis and Q-RT-PCR. Overexpression of genes for acute phase reactants in the liver and a strong induction of digestive enzyme genes in the duodenum were characteristic of the Hfe-deficient genotype. In contrast, dietary iron overload caused a more pronounced change of gene expression responsive to oxidative stress. In conclusion, Hfe deficiency caused a previously unrecognized increase in gene expression of hepatic acute phase proteins and duodenal digestive enzymes