Automatically adjusting cell height

Question

How to automatically adjust cell height based on content? The height of the cell with the normal distribution in it appears to be pushed down and not centrally aligned. Any thoughts? Similar to Automatic adjustment of cell width

\documentclass{article}%%%%%\begin{article}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage{array}%%%%%{tabular}
\begin{document}

    \begin{table}[htp]
     \centering
    \begin{tabular}{{}*5{>{\hspace{0pt}\raggedright\arraybackslash}p{\dimexpr(\textwidth-10\tabcolsep)/6\relax}}@{}}
     \toprule
     %\multicolumn{6}{c}{Care Type} \\
     %\cmidrule(l{2em}r{2em}){1-6}
    \addlinespace[2ex]
     \textbf{Lead author} & \textbf{Ref.} & \textbf{$\log_{10}$ reduction} & \textbf{In-vivo (i) /-vitro (t)} & \textbf{Organism} \\
     \midrule
     Girou &\cite{girou2002} & & i & Gram -ve bacteria\\
     Weber & \cite{weber2003} & (-0.2-0.2)&t &Bacilus spores\\
     Sickbert-Bennet &\cite{sickbert2005} & $N\sim$(1.10,0.8129)& t & \\
     Widmer &\cite{widmer2000} & & i & \\
       \bottomrule
     \end{tabular}
    \smallskip
     \caption{Literature for $log_{10}$ reductions of CFU for waterless alcohol rub, displayed as a continuous distribution or as a range}
     \label{tab:alcohol_rub}
    \end{table}
\end{document}

Answer 1

Please always test your code and generate the image from the code you post.

Your cell is top aligned with N~... appearing on the second line. The line can break (leaving just a strut on the first line) because of the \hspace{0pt} you added in the table preamble. Either don't add that or use \leavevmode\nolinebreak\hspace{0pt} so that it does not allow a break there.

The main problem is that entry is too wide for the column width you have specified.