Point-of-Sale Marketing in Recreational Marijuana Dispensaries Around California Schools.

PurposeAfter marijuana commercialization, the presence of recreational marijuana dispensaries (RMDs) was rapidly increasing. The point-of-sale marketing poses concerns about children's exposure. This study examined advertising and promotions that potentially appeal to children and access restrictions in RMDs around California schools.MethodsThis was a cross-sectional and observational study conducted from June to September 2018. Trained fieldworkers audited retail environments in 163 RMDs in closest proximity to 333 randomly sampled public schools in California.ResultsAbout 44% of schools had RMDs located within 3 miles. Regarding interior marketing, 74% of RMDs had at least one instance of child-appealing products, packages, paraphernalia, or advertisements. RMDs closer to a school had a higher proportion with interior child-appealing marketing. More than three fourths of RMDs had generic promotional activities; particularly, 28% violated the free-sample ban. Regarding exterior marketing, only 2% of RMDs had those appealing to children. More than 60% of RMDs had exterior signs indicative of marijuana. Approximately, one-third had generic advertisements, and 13% had advertisements bigger than 1,600 square inches. Regarding access restrictions, almost all RMDs complied with age verification, but 84% had no age limit signs, and only 40% had security personnel.ConclusionsDespite minimal point-of-sale marketing practices appealing to children on the exterior of RMDs around California schools, such practices were abundant on the interior. Marketing practices not specifically appealing to children were also common on both the interior and exterior of RMDs. Dispensaries' violation of age verification law, lack of security personnel, and presence of child-appealing marketing should be continuously monitored and prevented

The Performance of Canadian Pooled Equity Funds

In this paper, we evaluate and rank the performance of 65 Canadian Equity Pooled Funds. We adopt traditional performance measures to evaluate pooled fund managers’ performances from January 1999 to December 2008. We employ the geometric mean as a reward measure, standard deviation and beta coefficient as risk measures, and Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) risk-adjusted measures that include Jensen’s (1968) alpha, the Treynor (1965) ratio, the Sharpe (1966) ratio, and Modigliani and Modigliani’s (1997) M-Squared. Treynor-Mazuy (1966) and Henriksson-Merton (1981) are used to measure market-timing. According to our results, thirty-five percent of 65 Canadian Equity Pooled Funds managers have abnormal returns in terms of Jensen’s (1968) alpha. Only eight pooled fund managers have market-timing ability. None of 65 pooled fund managers has both selectivity and market-timing ability at the same time

儒学经典中的数学知识初探————以贾公彦对《周礼. 考工记 》㮚氏为量的注疏为例

International audienceBy analysing an excerpt of Jia Gongyan’s commentary on the Rites of Zhou, this paper uncovers different mathematical knowledge as compared with that previous known from Chinese mathematical sources, for example the Nine Chapters on Mathematical Procedures. The differences cover several aspects: structure of procedure, cognition of numbers and figures, mode of reasoning, and the use of counting rods. On the other hand, similar mathematical knowledge to that of Jia Gongyan exists in other Confucian canons. Moreover, a scholar, Wang Zhenru, commented on Confucian canons with Jia Gongyan, and later commented on mathematical books with Li Chunfeng. This paper emphasizes the necessity for further study of the mathematical knowledge in Confucian canons, and the relationship between Confucianism and mathematics

A Methodology to Pre-Screen Commercial Buildings for Potential Energy Savings Using Limited Information

Typical energy audits are sufficiently expensive and time-consuming that many owners and managers of buildings are not willing to invest the time and money required for a full audit. This dissertation provides a methodology to identify buildings with large potential energy savings using limited information, specifically, utility bills, total area and weather data. The methodology is developed based on the hypothesis: if a commercial building is properly designed, constructed, operated, and maintained, the measured energy consumption should approximately match the simulated value for a typical building of the same size with the most efficient HVAC system; otherwise, there may be potential for energy savings. There are four steps in the methodology: 1) testing to determine whether the utility bills include both weather-dependent and weatherindependent loads; 2) separating weather-dependent and weather-independent loads when both are present in the same data; 3) determining the main type of HVAC system; 4) estimating potential energy savings and recommending an energy audit if appropriate. The Flatness Index is selected to test whether the utility bills include both weatherdependent and weather-independent loads. An approach to separate the utility bills based on thermal balance is developed to separate utility bills into weather-dependent and weather-independent loads for facilities in hot and humid climates. The average relative error in estimated cooling consumption is only 1.1% for 40 buildings in Texas, whereas it is -54.8% using the traditional 3P method. An application of fuzzy logic is used to identify the main type of HVAC system in buildings from their 12-month weatherdependent energy consumption. When 40 buildings were tested, 18 systems were identified correctly, seven were incorrect and the HVAC system type cannot be identified in 15 cases. The estimated potential savings by the screening methodology in eight large commercial buildings were compared with audit estimated savings for the same buildings. The audit estimated savings are between 25% - 150% of the potential energy savings estimated by the screening procedure in seven cases. The other two cases are less accurate, indicating that further refinement of the method would be valuable. The data required are easily obtained; the procedure can be carried out automatically, so no experience is required. If the actual type of HVAC system, measured weather-dependent, and weather-independent energy consumption are known, the methodology should work better

Development of high resolution arrayed waveguide grating spectrometers for astronomical applications: first results

Astrophotonics is the next-generation approach that provides the means to miniaturize near-infrared (NIR) spectrometers for upcoming large telescopes and make them more robust and inexpensive. The target requirements for our spectrograph are: a resolving power of about 3000, wide spectral range (J and H bands), free spectral range of about 30 nm, high on-chip throughput of about 80% (-1dB) and low crosstalk (high contrast ratio) between adjacent on-chip wavelength channels of less than 1% (-20dB). A promising photonic technology to achieve these requirements is Arrayed Waveguide Gratings (AWGs). We have developed our first generation of AWG devices using a silica-on-silicon substrate with a very thin layer of silicon-nitride in the core of our waveguides. The waveguide bending losses are minimized by optimizing the geometry of the waveguides. Our first generation of AWG devices are designed for H band and have a resolving power of around 1500 and free spectral range of about 10 nm around a central wavelength of 1600 nm. The devices have a footprint of only 12 mm x 6 mm. They are broadband (1450-1650 nm), have a peak on-chip throughput of about 80% (-1 dB) and contrast ratio of about 1.5% (-18 dB). These results confirm the robustness of our design, fabrication and simulation methods. Currently, the devices are designed for Transverse Electric (TE) polarization and all the results are for TE mode. We are developing separate J- and H-band AWGs with higher resolving power, higher throughput and lower crosstalk over a wider free spectral range to make them better suited for astronomical applications.Comment: 12 pages, 13 figures, 3 tables. SPIE Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation, Edinburgh (26 June - 1 July, 2016

Improving immunogenicity and safety of flagellin as vaccine carrier by high-density display on virus-like particle surface

Flagellin is a protein-based adjuvant that activates toll-like receptor (TLR) 5. Flagellin has been actively explored as vaccine adjuvants and carriers. Preclinical and clinical studies find flagellin-based vaccines have a risk to induce systemic adverse reactions potentially due to its overt activation of TLR5. To improve safety and immunogenicity of flagellin as vaccine carriers, FljB was displayed at high densities on hepatitis b core (HBc) virus-like particle (VLP) surface upon c/e1 loop insertion. FljB-HBc (FH) VLPs showed significantly reduced ability to activate TLR5 or induce systemic interleukin-6 release as compared to FljB. FH VLPs also failed to significantly increase rectal temperature of mice, while FljB could significantly increase rectal temperature of mice. These data indicated systemic safety of FljB could be significantly improved by high-density display on HBc VLP surface. Besides improved safety, FH VLPs and FljB similarly boosted co-administered ovalbumin immunization and FH VLPs were found to induce two-fold higher anti-FljB antibody titer than FljB. These data indicated preserved adjuvant potency and improved immunogenicity after high-density display of FljB on HBc VLP surface. Consistent with the high immunogenicity, FH VLPs were found to be more efficiently taken up by bone marrow-derived dendritic cells and stimulate more potent dendritic cell maturation than FljB. Lastly, FH VLPs were found to be a more immunogenic carrier than FljB, HBc VLPs, or the widely used keyhole limpet hemocyanin for nicotine vaccine development with a good local and systemic safety. Our data support FH VLPs to be a potentially safer and more immunogenic carrier than FljB for vaccine development

Dielectric Property of MoS2 Crystal in Terahertz and Visible Region

Two-dimensional materials such as MoS2 have attracted much attention in recent years due to their fascinating optoelectronic properties. Dielectric property of MoS2 is desired for the optoelectronic application. In this paper, terahertz (THz) time-domain spectroscopy and ellipsometry technology are employed to investigate the dielectric response of MoS2 crystal in THz and visible region. The real and imaginary parts of the complex dielectric constant of MoS2 crystal are found to follow a Drude model in THz region, which is due to the intrinsic carrier absorption. In visible region, the general trend of the complex dielectric constant is found to be described with a Lorentz model, while two remarkable peaks are observed at 1.85 and 2.03 eV, which have been attributed to the splitting arising from the combined effect of interlayer coupling and spin-orbit coupling. This work affords the fundamental dielectric data for the future optoelectronic applications with MoS2.Comment: 6 page

訪日中国人の旅行ブログのテキストマイニングで探る訪日中国人の温泉体験への関心と評価

東京都立大