Straw cigarette branding: misleading descriptors and a new Marlboro man

BackgroundStraw cigarettes are hand-rolled tobacco in a corn straw, common in Brazil and believed to be less harmful by consumers. Traditionally consumed in rural areas and by men, a recent increase in use among young people in urban areas was observed. This study assessed marketing appeals of straw cigarette packaging in Brazil.MethodsFollowing a systematic protocol, unique straw cigarette packs were purchased in 2013, 2016 and 2019 from three cities: Manaus, Salvador and São Paulo. Packs were double-coded for the absence/presence of marketing appeals (ie, luxury/quality, masculinity, classic/timeless, flavours and less harm).ResultsThe number of unique straw cigarette packs purchased as part of the overall sample increased in the most recent collection: 2.3% (n=3), 1.3% (n=2) and 15.5% (n=27) in 2013, 2016 and 2019, respectively. Across the years, all packs presented luxury/quality elements (eg, images of crests); 93.8% (n=30) included the word ‘artisanal’. Masculine appeal (eg, images of men) was present on 56.3% (n=18) of packs. Almost half had classic/timeless elements, including the words ‘tradition’/‘original’. In 2019, 59.3% (n=16) of the packs were flavoured compared with none in previous years. Over a quarter of all packs presented a less harm appeal (eg, ‘smooth’).ConclusionWe identified an increase in availability of unique straw cigarette packs, strong branding and use of misleading descriptors on the packs. The adoption of plain packaging and the implementation of Brazil’s additive ban could help to reduce the appeal of straw cigarettes and curb the current increase in use among youth.

1041. In vitro activity of tebipenem against a recent collection of fastidious organisms recovered from respiratory tract infections

Background Tebipenem is under development as an oral treatment option for complicated urinary tract infections and acute pyelonephritis. This study further evaluated the in vitro activity of tebipenem against various fastidious organisms recovered from community-acquired respiratory tract infections (CARTIs). Methods The study included a total of 2,476 fastidious organisms: Haemophilus influenzae (692 isolates, including fluoroquinolone-resistant, β-lactamase-positive, and β-lactamase-negative ampicillin-resistant [BLNAR]), Haemophilus parainfluenzae (30 isolates, including β-lactamase-positive and BLNAR), Moraxella catarrhalis (490 isolates), and Streptococcus pneumoniae (1,264 isolates, including penicillin-resistant). The isolates were collected primarily from CARTIs (90.8%) and pneumonia in hospitalized patients (PIHPs, 9.2%). Organisms were tested using reference broth microdilution methods in a central laboratory. Results Tebipenem had MIC90 values of 0.5 mg/L against H. influenzae and 1 mg/L against H. parainfluenzae isolates. All 18 BLNAR isolates from these two species were inhibited at ≤1 mg/L of tebipenem. The MIC90 values observed for ertapenem and meropenem was 0.25 mg/L for these organisms. Tebipenem displayed good activity against M. catarrhalis (MIC90, 0.03 mg/L). Tebipenem inhibited 100% of S. pneumoniae isolates at ≤1 mg/L. Tebipenem activity (MIC90, 0.12 mg/L) was 8-fold greater than ertapenem (MIC90, 1 mg/L) against S. pneumoniae isolates. Conclusion Tebipenem displayed potent activity against fastidious organisms causing respiratory tract infections. Greater than 99.7% of all Haemophilus isolates, including all BLNAR, were inhibited at ≤1 mg/L. All M. catarrhalis isolates were inhibited at ≤0.03 mg/L. Although tebipenem activity correlated with penicillin resistance, all S. pneumoniae isolates were inhibited at ≤1 mg/L. Tebipenem in vitro activity was greater than ertapenem when tested against S. pneumoniae isolates. This data supports the possible development of tebipenem as an oral option for combating CARTIs caused by these organisms. Table Disclosures S J Ryan Arends, PhD, AbbVie (formerly Allergan) (Research Grant or Support)GlaxoSmithKline, LLC (Research Grant or Support)Melinta Therapeutics, LLC (Research Grant or Support)Nabriva Therapeutics (Research Grant or Support)Spero Therapeutics (Research Grant or Support) Abby L. Klauer, n/a, Cidara Therapeutics, Inc. (Research Grant or Support)Spero Therapeutics (Research Grant or Support) Nicole Cotroneo, Spero Therapeutics (Employee, Shareholder) Ian A. Critchley, Ph.D., Spero Therapeutics (Employee, Shareholder) Rodrigo E. Mendes, PhD, AbbVie (Research Grant or Support)AbbVie (formerly Allergan) (Research Grant or Support)Cipla Therapeutics (Research Grant or Support)Cipla USA Inc. (Research Grant or Support)ContraFect Corporation (Research Grant or Support)GlaxoSmithKline, LLC (Research Grant or Support)Melinta Therapeutics, Inc. (Research Grant or Support)Melinta Therapeutics, LLC (Research Grant or Support)Nabriva Therapeutics (Research Grant or Support)Pfizer, Inc. (Research Grant or Support)Shionogi (Research Grant or Support)Spero Therapeutics (Research Grant or Support)

Critical Notes on Hexameter Adespota

New readings and supplements on thirty-five ‘anonymous’ hexameter texts not contained in the recent collection of adespota APHex I.

Book Review: Bulgarian Literature as World Literature, edited by Mihaela P. Harper and Dimitar Kambourov (Review Essay)

The essay reviews a recent collection of seminal critical readings of Bulgarian literature as “world literature.” Published by Bloomsbury Academic, the volume under discussion contributes to the study of the dynamic interaction of “minor” literatures with local, regional, and wider manifestations of global literary space. It is organized in four sections of thematic contributions authored by scholars from Bulgaria and beyond that discuss historical, geographical, economic, and genetic processes in the development of Bulgarian literature. The review follows the sections closely, and is attentive to specific phenomena, positions, texts, and contexts that render the concept of “minor literature” negotiable and open to reformulations. As most of the static labels are nowadays flushed into the conglomerate of “marginocentricity” and the reality of “quality literature” is no longer a criterion in the admission of local literatures to worldwide prominence, literary circulation has, to a great extent, become a function of the global market. The publication of the reviewed volume is the outcome of a vigorous effort to establish Bulgaria’s literary location within these processes and beyond them.

David Tracy on fragments, fragmentation, and frag-events

This contribution offers a review of David Tracy’s recent collection of essays entitled Fragments: The Existential Situation of Our Time (2020). This volume is quite an event since Tracy’s last monograph was published in 1994. This review gives an account of the continuity and discontinuity in Tracy’s oeuvre with reference to themes such as conversation, fragments, the Infinite, and an analogical imagination. It also mentions some other jewels found in Fragments by picking up on a conversation with Tracy that started with the author’s doctoral thesis on Tracy, completed in 1992.

Antonella Sarti Evans translates Mary Maringikura Campbell

‘Yellow Moon. E Marama Rengarenga’: 7 poems by Mary Maringikura Campbell translated for the first time into Italian by Antonella Sarti Evans The original texts of Mary Maringikura Campbell’s poems have been reproduced here by the author’s generous permission and have been included in the recent collection ‘Yellow Moon. E Marama Rengarenga’ (HeadworX, Wellington, June 2020).

Sansevieria pfennigii (Ruscaceae, Asparagales): Confirmation of existence, emendation of description, and tentative threat assessment

Sansevieria pfennigii, which to date has been a doubtful species, is confirmed as extant by a recent collection from the Lindi Region in southern Tanzania. The original description of the species, which is based on herbarium material only, is here emended based on additional observations recorded from living plants, including fruits that were previously unknown. Sansevieria pfennigii distinguishes from S. canaliculata, to which it was repeatedly assigned, by its capitate instead of elongate inflorescence, rough rather than smooth leaves, non-pungent instead of pungent leaf tips, dull green leaf colour, more delicate overall appearance, alongside other traits. The difference in inflorescence architecture indicates that these species belong to different groups within Sansevieria and are not closely related; the closest relatives of S. pfennigii are probably S. fischeri and S. stuckyi. Sansevieria pfennigii occurs on well-drained soil in forests, close to S. canaliculata populations. According to the extent of the population seen and the species’ overall rarity, it is tentatively assessed as critically endangered.

On the occurrence of Oeosporangium tenuifolium (Burm. f.) Fraser-Jenk. & Pariyar in the Western Himalaya, Uttarakhand, India

Based on a recent collection from Pithoragarh district, the present communication confirms the occurrence of a Cheilanthoid fern, Oeosporangium tenuifolium (Burm. f.) Fraser-Jenk. & Pariyar in Uttarakhand State in the western Himalaya in India.

The Human Face of Knowledge

This is a brief response to comments by Struan Jacobs and Peter Blum on The Calling of Social Thought, Rediscovering the Work of Edward Shils, a recent collection of essays edited by Christopher Adair-Toteff and Stephen Turner. It identifies a distinctive contribution of Shils to the larger problem of the tacit.

“The Road to Awesomeness”: The Environment, Language and Rhetoric in Chetan Bhagat’s Postcolonial India

This paper aims to discuss how environment, language and rhetoric interplay in the postcolonial context, in particular by focusing on Making India Awesome (2015), a recent collection of essays in which journalist and novelist Chetan Bhagat offers suggestions to handle many of the challenges of India, ideally positioning the country ‘on the road to awesomeness’. Although ecology is not specifically treated, it obviously constitutes the backdrop of the themes of the book as it intertwines with broad social and cultural domains. I will look at the postcolonial environmental intertext, and its ideological implications, which the author builds up via specific frames, metaphors and devices from an interdisciplinary perspective informed by postcolonial critique, environmental humanities and ecolinguistics. The purpose of the analysis thus is to provide a critical reflection on how language shapes, creates and hides values at the interface between the postcolonial and the environmental.