bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Imaging at 3.0 Tesla
Authors: Gutberlet M. , Freyhardt P. , Spors B. , Schwinge K. , Grothoff M. , Noeske R. , Niendorf T. , Felix R. 
Published: November 2004

AbstractCardiovascular MR imaging often requires high temporal and spatial resolution, especially in order to acquire data about cardiac function. Furthermore, the current results at 1.5 T for coronary artery imaging or plaque imaging are still not satisfying even with the use of the latest technology. Therefore, cardiac imaging inherently demands high signal‐to‐noise (SNR) and contrast‐to‐noise ratios (CNR) and hence may benefit from higher magnetic field strengths. However, higher magnetic field strengths do not inevitably improve the image quality for all cardiac imaging techniques as compared with their 1.5 T counterparts. At higher magnetic field strengths one has to cope with increased field inhomogeneities, longer T1, shorter T2* relaxation times and radiofrequency power deposition constraints, which require further methodological developments. Initial studies using 3.0 T whole‐body scanners for cardiac imaging revealed that optimized steady‐state free precession or spin‐echo sequences meet the expected SNR increase at 3.0 T but showed different results for CNR. These results are especially encouraging for cardiac tissue characterization at 3 T together with the evolving parallel imaging techniques. This review focuses on the feasibility of cardiac MR imaging at high magnetic field strengths. The pros and cons of cardiac imaging at 3.0 T vs. 1.5 T are examined and technical solutions are discussed.
Is household smoking status associated with expenditure on food at restaurants, alcohol, gambling and insurance? Results from the 1998–99 Household Expenditure Survey, Australia
Authors: Siahpush M , Borland R , Scollo M 
Published: November 2004

Aim:To examine how household expenditure on food at restaurants, alcohol, gambling and insurance vary between smoking and non-smoking households.Design:Cross sectional survey of households from private dwellings, conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), using a stratified multistage area sample design.Setting:Australia, 1998–99.Participants:Nationally representative sample of households (n  =  6892).Main outcome measures:Expenditure on meals at restaurants, alcohol, alcoholic beverages at licensed premises, gambling, and insurance.Results:The odds of reporting expenditure on restaurant food and health insurance were 20% and 40% smaller for smoking than non-smoking households, respectively. The odds of reporting expenditure on alcohol (not including expenditure at licensed premises), drinking at licensed premises, and gambling were 100%, 50%, and 40% greater for smoking than for non-smoking households, respectively.Conclusions:The study suggests that smokers are more likely to engage in risky behaviour. Implementing smoking bans in licensed premises and gambling venues can provide an opportunity to reduce smoking prevalence. Quitting or cutting down smoking can provide opportunities for expenditure on other products or services, and enhance standards of living.
Which smokers use the smoking cessation Quitline in Hong Kong, and how effective is the Quitline?
Authors: Abdullah A S M , Lam T-H , Chan S S C , Hedley A J 
Published: November 2004

Objective:To describe the characteristics of the Chinese subjects who utilised the first telephone smoking cessation service in Hong Kong, and to evaluate its effectiveness.Methods:The Quitline provided Hong Kong residents with free telephone smoking cessation services which was publicised through a press conference, media reports, pamphlets, and posters at public and private hospitals and clinics. Callers who completed an initial interview from 13 December 2000 to 31 May 2002 were included. Smokers were interviewed using a structured record sheet and provided with stage matched counselling. A follow up interview was carried out after six months. Analysis was conducted by intention-to-treat.Results:Of the 1120 callers who completed initial assessments, 1047 were current smokers and 872 consented to follow ups. Compared to the general smoking population, the Quitline attracted more of those who were female, younger, single, unemployed, higher educated, smoking more than 20 cigarettes per day, and those with quitting experience. At six months, 12% (95% confidence interval 10% to 15%) of the participants reported that they had not smoked a cigarette for the past seven days. A stepwise logistic regression model showed that the use of nicotine replacement therapy at the present attempt to quit, having made one or more serious attempts to quit in the past, perceiving less difficulties in quitting, and smoking the first cigarette at age 15 years or above were significant predictors of quitting.Conclusion:This first Quitline in Asia appears to be acceptable to Chinese smokers, with quit rate comparable to those of better funded Quitlines in the West. A low cost Quitline is a promising model for smoking cessation services in the East.
Relation between local restaurant smoking regulations and attitudes towards the prevalence and social acceptability of smoking: a study of youths and adults who eat out predominantly at restaurants in their town
Authors: Albers A B , Siegel M , Cheng D M , Biener L , Rigotti N A 
Published: November 2004

Objective:To examine the relation between strength of local restaurant smoking regulations and smoking related social norms among youths and adults.Design:We used generalised estimating equations logistic regression analysis to examine the relation between regulation strength and youths’ and adults’ perceptions of adult smoking prevalence and the social acceptability of smoking in their town, while controlling for baseline anti-smoking sentiment in the town.Setting:Each of the 351 Massachusetts towns were classified as having strong (complete smoking ban), medium (restriction of smoking to enclosed, separately ventilated areas), or weak (all others) restaurant smoking regulations.Subjects:1147 Massachusetts youths ages 12–17 years and 2116 adults who reported that they often or always eat out in their own town, drawn from a random digit dial survey.Main outcome measures:Perceived adult smoking prevalence and perceived social acceptability of smoking in restaurants, in bars, or in general.Results:Compared to youths from towns with weak regulations, youths from towns with strong regulations were more likely to perceive lower adult smoking prevalence (odds ratio (OR) 1.71; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.02 to 2.84) and social unacceptability of adult smoking (OR 2.00, 95% CI 1.29 to 3.08) in their town. Adults from towns with strong regulations were not more likely to perceive lower adult smoking prevalence, but had more than twice the odds of perceiving that smoking was unacceptable in restaurants (OR 2.19, 95% CI 1.58 to 3.02) or bars (OR 2.51, 95% CI 1.90 to 3.31).Conclusions:Strong local restaurant smoking regulations are associated with favourable smoking related social norms among youths and adults.
Adults only: the prevalence of tobacco promotions in bars and clubs in the Boston area
Authors: Biener L , Nyman A L , Kline R L , Albers A B 
Published: November 2004

Objective:To document the nature and prevalence of tobacco promotions in bars and clubs in a major US city.Design:We conducted systematic observations in a representative sample of 38 establishments in the Boston area, half of which had been advertised in a tobacco company ad. We also observed seven events in six additional clubs hosting Camel Casbah promotions. Telephone interviews were later completed with club managers.Main outcome measure:Use of branded give-away items, distribution of free cigarette samples, managers’ reports of costs and benefits of hosting promotions.Results:The majority of the 38 clubs were observed to use bar paraphernalia including matchbooks with tobacco brand logos, regardless of their history of appearing in tobacco sponsored ads. Free cigarette samples were not observed at any of the sampled clubs, but were a feature of every Casbah event. Managers of clubs in the advertised group were somewhat more likely to report having hosted promotions, but 44% of managers of non-advertised clubs indicated that tobacco promotions had occurred in their establishments in the past. Approximately one third of club managers viewed public links with a tobacco company as a negative feature of hosting promotions.Conclusions:Based on managers’ reports, tobacco promotions occurred in more than 50% of the Boston area entertainment venues frequented by young adults. Cigarette companies should be required to inform the attorney general of plans to conduct promotions in adult-only venues to facilitate monitoring of compliance with the Master Settlement Agreement. The negative health and business consequences of hosting promotions should be communicated to bar owners.
“A phony way to show sincerity, as we all well know”: tobacco industry lobbying against tobacco control in Hong Kong: Table 1
Authors: Knight J , Chapman S 
Published: November 2004

Objective:To examine the tobacco industry’s efforts to influence public policy and block the legislative process on tobacco control in Hong Kong, 1973 to 1997.Method:Systematic review of relevant tobacco industry documents made public via the Master Settlement Agreement.Results:The tobacco industry in Hong Kong has sought to manipulate the policymaking process and delay the introduction of tobacco control legislation in Hong Kong from at least 1973. The industry ensured that each of the government’s initial meagre steps toward tobacco control were delayed and thwarted by drawn out “cooperation” followed by voluntary concessions on issues the industry regarded as minor. By the 1980s the government had became increasingly active in tobacco control and introduced a number of initiatives, resulting in some of the tightest legislative restrictions on smoking in Asia. The tobacco industry was successful in thwarting only one of these initiatives.Conclusions:Throughout the 1980s and 1990s two factors played a significant role in hindering the tobacco industry from successfully blocking policy initiatives: a growing political imperative, and an active and sophisticated tobacco control movement. Political will to promote public health and a strong tobacco control advocacy presence can enable governments to resist the enormous pressure exerted upon them by multinational tobacco companies.
Merchandising of cigarettes in San Francisco pharmacies: 27 years later
Authors: Eule B , Sullivan M K , Schroeder S A , Hudmon K S 
Published: November 2004

Objective:To estimate changes since 1976 in the proportion of San Francisco pharmacies that sell cigarettes and to characterise the advertising of cigarettes and the merchandising of non-prescription nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) products in these retail establishments.Methods and setting:100 randomly selected San Francisco pharmacies were visited in 2003. Pharmacies were characterised based on the sale of cigarettes, advertising for cigarettes, and the merchandising of non-prescription NRT products.Results:In 2003, 61% of pharmacies sold cigarettes, a significant decrease compared to 89% of pharmacies selling cigarettes in 1976 (p < 0.001); 84% of pharmacies selling cigarettes also displayed cigarette advertising. Non-prescription NRT products were stocked by 78% of pharmacies, and in 55% of pharmacies selling cigarettes, the NRT products were stocked immediately adjacent to the cigarettes.Conclusions:Since 1976, there has been a decline in the overall proportion of pharmacies in San Francisco that sell cigarettes yet most pharmacies, particularly traditional chain pharmacies, continue to merchandise the primary known risk factor for death in the USA.
How Philip Morris unlocked the Japanese cigarette market: lessons for global tobacco control
Authors: Lambert A , Sargent J D , Glantz S A , Ling P M 
Published: November 2004

Background:The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control includes tobacco advertising restrictions that are strongly opposed by the tobacco industry. Marketing strategies used by transnational tobacco companies to open the Japanese market in the absence of such restrictions are described.Methods:Analysis of internal company documents.Findings:Between 1982 and 1987 transnational tobacco companies influenced the Japanese government through the US Trade Representative to open distribution networks and eliminate advertising restrictions. US cigarette exports to Japan increased 10-fold between 1985 and 1996. Television advertising was central to opening the market by projecting a popular image (despite a small actual market share) to attract existing smokers, combined with hero-centred advertisements to attract new smokers. Philip Morris’s campaigns featured Hollywood movie personalities popular with young men, including James Coburn, Pierce Brosnan, Roger Moore, and Charlie Sheen. Event sponsorships allowed television access despite restrictions. When reinstatement of television restrictions was threatened in the late 1980s, Philip Morris more than doubled its television advertising budget and increased sponsorship of televised events. By adopting voluntary advertising standards, transnational companies delayed a television advertising ban for over a decade.Conclusions:Television image advertising was important to establish a market, and it has been enhanced using Hollywood personalities. Television advertising bans are essential measures to prevent industry penetration of new markets, and are less effective without concurrent limits on sponsorship and promotion. Comprehensive advertising restrictions, as included in the Framework Convention for Tobacco Control, are vital for countries where transnational tobacco companies have yet to penetrate the market.
“Asian yuppies…are always looking for something new and different”: creating a tobacco culture among young Asians
Authors: Knight J , Chapman S 
Published: November 2004

Objective:To identify and analyse the themes employed by the Asian based transnational tobacco companies to construct a tobacco culture among Asian young men and women.Methods:Systematic review of relevant tobacco industry documents made public through the Master Settlement Agreement.Results:The industry utilised six vehicles and themes to construct a tobacco culture in Asia: music, entertainment (including nightclubs, discos, and movies), adventure, sport (including motorsports, soccer, and tennis), glamour (beauty and fashion), and independence.Conclusions:The tobacco industry set about constructing a tobacco culture that sought to make smoking desirable, even normal, for young men and women. Understanding the way industry constructed this culture provides insights into ways that culture might now be challenged. Countering the transnational nature of many activities will require coordinated effort at the international, regional, and national levels. Implementation of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) will be a powerful tool in this process. All nations throughout Asia are encouraged to support the FCTC and its broad protocols addressing advertising and sponsorship. Measures are also required to disassociate smoking from progress in sex equality.
ARTIST (Asian regional tobacco industry scientist team): Philip Morris’ attempt to exert a scientific and regulatory agenda on Asia
Authors: Tong E K , Glantz S A 
Published: November 2004

Objective:To describe how the transnational tobacco industry has collaborated with local Asian tobacco monopolies and companies to promote a scientific and regulatory agenda.Methods:Analysis of previously secret tobacco industry documents.Results:Transnational tobacco companies began aggressively entering the Asia market in the 1980s, and the current tobacco industry in Asia is a mix of transnational and local monopolies or private companies. Tobacco industry documents demonstrate that, in 1996, Philip Morris led an organisation of scientific representatives from different tobacco companies called the Asian Regional Tobacco Industry Science Team (ARTIST), whose membership grew to include monopolies from Korea, China, Thailand, and Taiwan and a company from Indonesia. ARTIST was initially a vehicle for PM’s strategies against anticipated calls for global smoke-free areas from a World Health Organization secondhand smoke study. ARTIST evolved through 2001 into a forum to present scientific and regulatory issues faced primarily by Philip Morris and other transnational tobacco companies. Philip Morris’ goal for the organisation became to reach the external scientific and public health community and regulators in Asia.Conclusion:The Asian tobacco industry has changed from an environment of invasion by transnational tobacco companies to an environment of participation with Philip Morris’ initiated activities. With this participation, tobacco control efforts in Asia face new challenges as Philip Morris promotes and integrates its scientific and regulatory agenda into the local Asian tobacco industry. As the local Asian tobacco monopolies and companies can have direct links with their governments, future implementation of effective tobacco control may be at odds with national priorities.
“If we can just ‘stall’ new unfriendly legislations, the scoreboard is already in our favour”: transnational tobacco companies and ingredients disclosure in Thailand
Authors: MacKenzie R , Collin J , Sriwongcharoen K , Muggli M E 
Published: November 2004

Objectives:To review the strategies employed by overseas cigarette manufacturers operating in Thailand to obstruct the passage and subsequent enforcement of national public health legislation, specifically the ingredients disclosure provision of the 1992 Tobacco Products Control Act.Methods:Analysis of previously confidential tobacco industry documents relevant to non-compliance with the ingredients disclosure legislation.Results:Requirement for disclosure of ingredients contained in cigarettes contained in the Tobacco Products Control Act was identified by transnational tobacco companies (TTCs) not only as a significant threat to their operations in Thailand, but as a dangerous global precedent. Industry documents reveal a determined campaign to block, stall, or amend the proposed regulation during the legislative process. Industry representatives petitioned the Ministry of Health to revise the requirement from by brand disclosure to a more palatable by company submission. Strategies were adapted in the wake of the passage of the Act. Most significantly, the industry in concert with embassies in Bangkok threatened the Thai government with appeals to international trade bodies on the grounds of violation of international agreements. Industry documents also reveal that as submission of ingredient lists appeared unavoidable, leading companies operating in Thailand endeavoured to confound the disclosure requirement by disguising ingredients and reformulating brand recipes.Conclusions:The evidence presented highlights the importance of ingredients regulation and demonstrates how health policy can be transformed during its implementation. A greater understanding of trade agreements emerges as a priority for global tobacco control.
The Philippine tobacco industry: “the strongest tobacco lobby in Asia”
Authors: Alechnowicz K , Chapman S 
Published: November 2004

Objective:To highlight revelations from internal tobacco industry documents about the conduct of the industry in the Philippines since the 1960s. Areas explored include political corruption, health, employment of consultants, resisting pack labelling, and marketing and advertising.Methods:Systematic keyword Minnesota depository website searches of tobacco industry internal documents made available through the Master Settlement Agreement.Results:The Philippines has long suffered a reputation for political corruption where collusion between state and business was based on the exchange of political donations for favourable economic policies. The tobacco industry was able to limit the effectiveness of proposed anti-tobacco legislation. A prominent scientist publicly repudiated links between active and passive smoking and disease. The placement of health warning labels was negotiated to benefit the industry, and the commercial environment allowed it to capitalise on their marketing freedoms to the fullest potential. Women, children, youth, and the poor have been targeted.Conclusion:The politically laissez faire Philippines presented tobacco companies with an environment ripe for exploitation. The Philippines has seen some of the world’s most extreme and controversial forms of tobacco promotion flourish. Against international standards of progress, the Philippines is among the world’s slowest nations to take tobacco control seriously.
ON THE COMPLEXITY OF THE MAPPING PROBLEM FOR MASSIVELY PARALLEL ARCHITECTURES
Authors: ANTONELLI SILVANO , PELAGATTI SUSANNA 
Published: November 2004

The mapping problem arises when a concurrent program is executed on a parallel architecture. The goal is to devise an allocation of processes onto physical processing nodes which optimizes a global measure of system performance. In this work we analyze the complexity and the approximability of both the mapping problem in its general formulation and some of its subproblems that are interesting for massively parallel systems. Unfortunately, it turns out that all the problems introduced are NP-Hard. Moreover, they can be solved only with approximate algorithms for which the distance between the exact and the approximate solution is not bounded.
GENERALIZATION ERROR AND DYNAMICAL EFFECTS IN A TWO-DIMENSIONAL PATCHES DETECTOR
Authors: Kocher I. , Monasson R. 
Published: November 2004

We study the supervised learning of a two-dimensional patches detector. We compute the generalization error of the network with the annealed approximation; a first-order phase transition appears at all temperatures on the generalization error curve as a function of the size of the training set. We show that the system is subject to dynamical effects: the earlier story of presentation of the patterns to the system can be relevant, and a hysteresis appears on the generalization error curve. We show Monte Carlo simulations which agree with the theoretical predictions.
Statistical Mechanics and Special-Purpose Computers
Authors: BLÖTE H.W.J. 
Published: November 2004

A number of special-purpose computers (SPC’s) have been built in the last two decades, and more are under construction. In parallel with the evolution of generalpurpose computers, the capacity of the fastest SPC’s has grown considerably in this period. The increase of speed is partly due to the availability of faster components, but even more important is the introduction of new architectures using pipelining and parallel processing. Apart from becoming faster on the average, a pronounced diversification has taken place in SPC’s which does not only affect their speed but also their versatility and, of course, their cost. An evaluation of SPC performances and costs in comparison with general-purpose supercomputers shows that, under certain circumstances, SPC’s can play a very useful role. They enable calculations that would not be feasible otherwise, because of excessive costs. However, the effort needed to build even a relatively simple SPC can easily be underestimated.