By  Jeewon Chun

Received: 2023-10-8 / Accepted: 2023-12-11 / Published: 2024-2-15

PDF Main Manuscript (249.56 KB)  DOI: https://doi.org/10.37906/isteamc.2024.1

Abstract Currently, the usage of tobacco products among adult females is prevalent, representing 10 out of 100 adult females (CDC, 2023). In addition, 4.0% of adult women have been reported as using e-cigarettes. This is mainly due to the addiction to nicotine, which releases dopamine in the brain, ultimately causing the user to want to consume more nicotine-containing products. When used during pregnancy, nicotine-containing products could be harmful to both the mother and the growing fetus. Nicotine consumption during pregnancy may impact the critical brain development period of the fetus, thus resulting in several serious birth defects. Among those who use nicotine-containing products, Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) may be used to facilitate reducing addiction to nicotine. NRT can be used as an ideal therapy to help quit smoking tobacco or e-cigarettes as it replaces much of the nicotine in nicotine-containing products, thus decreasing motivation to use tobacco. Despite the reduced nicotine levels, NRT is reported to show that it may pose a threat when used during pregnancy. As a whole, a few studies have revealed the potential detrimental connection between the usage of nicotine-containing products - including tobacco, e-cigarettes, and NRT - during pregnancy and its effects on the fetus. In spite of this, there has been little research done on the subject, which may lead to further complications if the public is largely unaware. This literature review aims to investigate the effects of nicotine-containing products on the developing fetus.  [More...]

By  Samuel Lee

Received: 2024-2-3 / Accepted: 2024-3-7 / Published: 2024-3-15

PDF Main Manuscript (559.79 KB)  DOI: https://doi.org/10.37906/isteamc.22024.2

Abstract The Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation and its anisotropies allow us to analyze many properties and phenomena of the early universe. One such important property is the Baryon Density(Ω_b), a cosmological constant for the density of Baryons in the universe in comparison to its critical density. Baryon Density affects the interactions of matter in the early universe and therefore the analysis of CMB Anisotropies to study how matter interacts allows for the estimation of the Baryon Density in the Early Universe. Understanding Ω_b, is crucial as it reveals information about the composition of the universe, such as the amount of dark matter and dark energy, the early formation of celestial bodies and matter-antimatter asymmetry. This paper aimed to test the reliability of CAMB, a simulation algorithm for CMB anisotropies, by estimating Ω_b h^2. The CAMB mainly utilizes a combination of field equations, the Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker metric, Fluid Equations, the Boltzmann Equation and Linear Perturbation theory in order to compute the CMB power spectra. We estimated the value of Ω_b h^2, maintaining other cosmological parameters constant and changing Ω_b h^2 from 0.01 to 0.03 in increments of 0.000625. The peaks, troughs, positions, damping scale and amplitudes of the resultant TT and TE power spectra were compared with data from the Planck Satellite. We use chi-square minimization and find the best fit value and uncertainty forΩ_b h^2 to be 0.02325 ± 0.00015. The estimated value of the baryon density from our study was compared to existing estimates to evaluate the reliability of CAMB as a simulation and source of information for further CMB Anisotropy related research, where it was confirmed to be accurate. However, further developments using wider sets of data was acknowledged with deep learning being a potential step forward. [More...]

By  Youngyeon Kim

Received: 2024-1-2 / Accepted: 2024-3-7 / Published: 2024-3-15

PDF Main Manuscript (390.75 KB)  DOI: https://doi.org/10.37906/isteamc.2024.3

Abstract The current paper applies the Coase theorem (Coase, 1960) to environmental investment screening. The Coase theorem is a legal and economic theory focused on explaining how parties when facing a situation involving externalities can reach economic efficiency without government intervention. Through secondary research, the paper examines practices in environmental investment screening, trends in the costs of screening, and trends in the costs of pollution. My findings are in four folds: (1) environmental screening incurs cost, (2) exclusion of environmental screening incurs costs, (3) environmental screening costs are declining, and (4) the cost per unit of pollution is increasing. Applying these findings to the Coase theorem, we conceptually identify an equilibrium point for the optimal level of environmental screening. I further show that the equilibrium point is shifting towards a higher level of environmental screening. The paper thus provides an efficiency-based argument for higher levels of environmental investment screening. [More...]