Switching people who smoke to unfiltered cigarettes: perceptions, addiction and behavioural effects in a cross-over randomised controlled trial

BackgroundBehavioural research is needed to inform a ban on sales of filtered cigarettes that could reduce plastic waste due to discarded filters. This study reports on differences in perceptions, nicotine dependence and behaviour among participants in a cross-over randomised trial of filtered compared with unfiltered cigarettes.MethodThis proof-of-concept study involved 43 people who smoke filtered cigarettes (41.9% women, mean age 36.7 years). Participants were provided 2 weeks’ supply of filtered cigarettes, 2 weeks of the same brand of unfiltered cigarettes and randomly assigned to starting conditions. Measures included the Modified Cigarette Evaluation Questionnaire; single-item cigarette perception questions; Fagerström Test of Nicotine Dependence; 7-day cigarette consumption, urinary cotinine and intention to quit. Analyses included linear and ordinal repeated measures mixed-effects models and paired t-tests.ResultsFiltered cigarettes were perceived as better tasting, more satisfying, more enjoyable, less aversive, less harsh, less potent and less negatively reinforcing than unfiltered cigarettes. Filtered cigarettes were smoked at a higher rate during the trial than unfiltered cigarettes (p<0.05). There was no difference in cotinine, dependence or intention to quit between filtered versus unfiltered cigarette conditions (p>0.05).ConclusionPeople who smoke perceived unfiltered cigarettes as having greater nicotine effects and less desirable sensory effects than filtered cigarettes, and they smoked fewer of these during the trial. Although cotinine, dependence and intention to quit were similar for smoking unfiltered and filtered cigarettes in this small trial, results suggest that banning the sale of filtered cigarettes might make smoking less attractive overall to people who smoke.Trial registration numberNCT03749876.

The Royal Louis (1668), a Sailing Masterpiece

The French Navy’s finest hour began in the seventeenth century when Colbert became the Prime Minister and decided to improve the national shipyards. Despite poor starting conditions, the results of Colbert’s efforts led France to be one of the major players in the struggle for naval power. At that moment, European shipbuilding had a change in construction techniques mostly in warships. In France, this change also involved vessels aesthetics. Indeed, shipwrights’ tasks were not only to build ships with great naval skills, but vessels had also to be aesthetically striking and eye-catching in order to show to the world Roy Soleil’s power and wealth. Many vessels were built in that style and the Royal Louis was one of the largest vessels built in 1668 at the Toulon. With particular attention to the Royal Louis, the essay aims to analyze several aspects of the world surrounding those floating masterpieces.

Experimental Study Wind Turbine Performance of Straight-Savonius and Ice-Wind Type on the Similar proportion Aspect Ratio

The Performance of wind turbines at low speed can be improved by Ice-Wind model, particularly in self-starting conditions. Compared to a traditional wind turbine with two blades of the similar area and material, Ice-Wind can increase efficiency by 19%. Research on the Savonius turbine, particularly the Ice-Wind turbine, is challenging. It is because it has many restrictive parameters, such as the height, diameter, and area of the turbine blades. The Ice-Wind turbine shape is obtained by cutting a Savonius turbine. This process led to research on Ice-Wind turbines only under the similar parameters. The aspect ratio of a Savonius turbine has a significant effect on the speed, mechanical power and static-torque produced by the wind turbine. The research was done on Savonius and Ice-Wind turbines with the similar aspect ratio. The results show that the speed, power factor and efficiency of the Savonius turbine are higher than those of Ice-Wind. However, Savonius produces a smaller static-torque coefficient value than Ice-Wind. The results of this research contrast with other studies comparing Savonius and Ice-Wind turbines. In other researches, Savonius and Ice-Wind turbines have the similar area but different aspect ratios.

Methodologies to Assess the Bioactivity of an Herbal Extract on Immunity, Health, Welfare and Production Performance in the Chicken: The Case of Melissa officinalis L. Extract

The potential of herbal extracts containing bioactive compounds to strengthen immunity could contribute to reducing antimicrobial use in poultry. This study aimed at developing a reliable and robust methodological pipeline to assess the ability of herbal extracts to strengthen chicken innate defenses, especially concerning inflammation and oxidative stress. This methodology was applied to Melissa officinalis L. (MEL) extract, recognized for its biological activities including antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Different methods were used to (1). guarantee the quality of MEL extract and its capacity to stimulate the innate immune system; (2). evaluate the relevance of an ex vivo model to mimic inflammatory and oxidative stress challenges to replace LPS injection in chickens; (3). analyse the effects of feed supplemented with MEL extract on inflammation and oxidative stress induced ex vivo; (4). assess the effects of MEL extract on the redox balance, health, welfare and performance in broilers exposed to suboptimal starting conditions through a large-scale approach. The quality of MEL extract preparations, through phytochemical quantification of rosmarinic acid (RA), revealed varying concentrations of RA in the different MEL extracts. RA concentrations remained stable for at least 9 months and in feed three months after incorporating MEL extract. When incubated with chicken cell lines MEL extract showed potential metabolic activation and ability to stimulate immune functions but induced cytotoxicity at high concentrations. The original ex vivo model of inflammation developed on chicken blood cells enabled inflammation and oxidative stress biomarkers to be expressed and revealed antioxidative and anti-inflammatory properties of blood cells from chickens fed MEL extract. The experimental model of chicken suboptimal starting conditions validated beneficial effects of MEL extract on the redox balance and also evidenced improved performance during the growth phase, a tendency for fewer muscle defects but a higher severity of pododermatitis lesions without affecting other welfare indicators. This study grouped methods and tools that could be combined according to the plant extract, the needs of professionals working in poultry production systems and staff responsible for animal health, welfare and feeding.

A Fundamental Thermodynamic Investigation of Compression Ratio Effects in Relation to Diesel Engine Size

In this study, a fundamental generalized thermodynamic model of internal combustion engines was applied to evaluate engine compression ratio effects principally in relation to engine size. Performance and efficiency metrics were investigated systematically. Further, cylinder wall temperature was varied across a range of cold start to stabilized operating temperatures. A very broad range of engine bore sizes and bore-to-stroke ratios were evaluated, representing small to large diesel engines in service. In general, it was observed that engine efficiency increases moderately with increasing compression ratio and bore size. Additionally, surface area-to-volume ratio is a critical metric when evaluating various size engines. This leads to greater relative heat transfer in the smaller bore engines with higher compression ratios. The sensitivity to heat losses is also much greater in the smaller engines. Smaller engines with higher compression ratios are expected to be most affected by cold starting conditions. Exhaust enthalpy is highest for larger bore engines with lower compression ratios, an important consideration for engine boosting. Higher convective heat transfer coefficients are also expected in smaller bore engines with higher compression ratios due to the higher operating pressures.

ASSESSMENT OF ELEMENTS OF TOURIST INFRASTRUCTURE OF UKRAINE IN COMPARISON WITH SOME EU COUNTRIES

The article considers the competitiveness of the elements of the tourist infrastructure of Ukraine in comparison with some countries of the European Union, which are the leaders in tourist revenues and flows in the analyzed region. An analysis of the dynamics of tourism development in neighbouring Poland, which in the 90’s was in similar to the domestic starting conditions. The study made it possible to clearly reflect the reasons for the low demand for the national tourism product. After all, the lag in the quality of hotel and restaurant services is not the main reason for low interest in the domestic tourism market. Morally and physically outdated material and technical base of social, informational, financial, transport and other types of infrastructure makes Ukraine less attractive in the eyes of domestic tourists. And the low level of knowledge of foreign languages, non-compliance with legal norms and rules at the national level makes grazing the country in general unattractive for the demanding foreign tourist. The modern tourist, being able to choose the directions and quality of rest in today’s conditions, will not want to travel to a region with many unknowns, where they will not guarantee him peace, comfort and safety. That is why it is so important to analyze the level of development of some elements of tourism infrastructure in developed EU countries (Germany and the Netherlands) to indicate the consequences of its radical restructuring to ensure economic growth at the national level, where neighbouring Poland was chosen. With its rich natural and recreational resources, Ukraine can rightfully become a world leader in green, rural, health, active, cognitive tourism, and the diversity of landscapes combined with the temperate climate makes its landscapes especially attractive to tourists from highly urbanized areas. more and more.

The Algorithm of Determining an Anti-Collision Manoeuvre Trajectory Based on the Interpolation of Ship’s State Vector

The determination of a ship’s safe trajectory in collision situations at sea is one of the basic functions in autonomous navigation of ships. While planning a collision avoiding manoeuvre in open waters, the navigator has to take into account the ships manoeuvrability and hydrometeorological conditions. To this end, the ship’s state vector is predicted—position coordinates, speed, heading, and other movement parameters—at fixed time intervals for different steering scenarios. One possible way to solve this problem is a method using the interpolation of the ship’s state vector based on the data from measurements conducted during the sea trials of the ship. This article presents the interpolating function within any convex quadrilateral with the nodes being its vertices. The proposed function interpolates the parameters of the ship’s state vector for the specified point of a plane, where the values in the interpolation nodes are data obtained from measurements performed during a series of turning circle tests, conducted for different starting conditions and various rudder settings. The proposed method of interpolation was used in the process of determining the anti-collision manoeuvre trajectory. The mechanism is based on the principles of a modified Dijkstra algorithm, in which the graph takes the form of a regular network of points. The transition between the graph vertices depends on the safe passing level of other objects and the degree of departure from the planned route. The determined shortest path between the starting vertex and the target vertex is the optimal solution for the discrete space of solutions. The algorithm for determining the trajectory of the anti-collision manoeuvre was implemented in autonomous sea-going vessel technology. This article presents the results of laboratory tests and tests conducted under quasi-real conditions using physical ship models. The experiments confirmed the effective operation of the developed algorithm of the determination of the anti-collision manoeuvre trajectory in the technological framework of autonomous ship navigation.

An Analysis of the Potential for the Formation of ‘Nodes of Persisting Complexity’

Human civilisation has undergone a continuous trajectory of rising sociopolitical complexity since its inception; a trend which has undergone a dramatic recent acceleration. This phenomenon has resulted in increasingly severe perturbation of the Earth System, manifesting recently as global-scale effects such as climate change. These effects create an increased risk of a global ‘de-complexification’ (collapse) event in which complexity could undergo widespread reversal. ‘Nodes of persisting complexity’ are geographical locations which may experience lesser effects from ‘de-complexification’ due to having ‘favourable starting conditions’ that may allow the retention of a degree of complexity. A shortlist of nations (New Zealand, Iceland, the United Kingdom, Australia and Ireland) were identified and qualitatively analysed in detail to ascertain their potential to form ‘nodes of persisting complexity’ (New Zealand is identified as having the greatest potential). The analysis outputs are applied to identify insights for enhancing resilience to ‘de-complexification’.