Is Consumer Response to Plain/Standardised Tobacco Packaging Consistent with Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Guidelines? A Systematic Review of Quantitative Studies

Background and Objectives

Standardised or ‘plain’ tobacco packaging was introduced in Australia in December 2012 and is currently being considered in other countries. The primary objective of this systematic review was to locate, assess and synthesise published and grey literature relating to the potential impacts of standardised tobacco packaging as proposed by the guidelines for the international Framework Convention on Tobacco Control: reduced appeal, increased salience and effectiveness of health warnings, and more accurate perceptions of product strength and harm.

Methods

Electronic databases were searched and researchers in the field were contacted to identify studies. Eligible studies were published or unpublished primary research of any design, issued since 1980 and concerning tobacco packaging. Twenty-five quantitative studies reported relevant outcomes and met the inclusion criteria. A narrative synthesis was conducted.

Results

Studies that explored the impact of package design on appeal consistently found that standardised packaging reduced the appeal of cigarettes and smoking, and was associated with perceived lower quality, poorer taste and less desirable smoker identities. Although findings were mixed, standardised packs tended to increase the salience and effectiveness of health warnings in terms of recall, attention, believability and seriousness, with effects being mediated by the warning size, type and position on pack. Pack colour was found to influence perceptions of product harm and strength, with darker coloured standardised packs generally perceived as containing stronger tasting and more harmful cigarettes than fully branded packs; lighter coloured standardised packs suggested weaker and less harmful cigarettes. Findings were largely consistent, irrespective of location and sample.

Conclusions

The evidence strongly suggests that standardised packaging will reduce the appeal of packaging and of smoking in general; that it will go some way to reduce consumer misperceptions regarding product harm based upon package design; and will help make the legally required on-pack health warnings more salient.     

A new blunt-snouted dyrosaurid,Anthracosuchus balrogus gen. et sp. nov. (Crocodylomorpha,Mesoeucrocodylia), from the Palaeocene of Colombia

A new exceptionally brevirostrine dyrosaurid is described from the middle Palaeocene (58–60 million years ago) Cerrejón Formation, northeastern Colombia, based on four partial skulls and associated postcrania. This taxon is unique among dyrosaurids not only in skull shape, but also in having orbital tuberosities, and osteoderms that are dorsoventrally thick and unpitted, a trait otherwise unknown in Crocodylomorpha. Results from a cladistic analysis of Dyrosauridae suggest that the new taxon, together with Cretaceous–Palaeocene Chenanisuchus lateroculi from Africa and Cerrejonisuchus improcerus also from the Cerrejón Formation, are the most basal members of the family. Results from a biogeographic analysis indicate at least three independent dispersals of dyrosaurids from Africa to the New World occurred in the Late Cretaceous or early Palaeocene. Widely set orbits in the new taxon indicate a deviation from surface-based predation, characteristic of other dyrosaurids, to sub-surface predation, as in modern Gavialis. Tooth impressions found on turtle shells recovered from the same locality match well with teeth of the new taxon indicating possible predation.http://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:AB2B24A5-27CC-4D3F-B580-F11F17851CE6     

Post‐hatch dispersal of lake sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens,Rafinesque, 1817) yolk‐sac larvae in relation to substrate in an artificial stream

Knowledge of the effects of environment and genotype on behavior during early ontogenetic stages of many fish species including lake sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens) is generally lacking. Understanding these effects is particularly important at a time when human activities are fundamentally altering habitats and seasonal and diel physical and biotic stream features. Artificial stream channels were used in a controlled experiment to quantify lake sturgeon yolk‐sac larvae dispersal distance and stream substrate preference from different females (N = 2) whose eggs were incubated at different temperatures (10 and 18°C) that simulated stream conditions during early and late spawning and incubation periods in the Black River, Michigan. Data revealed that yolk‐sac larvae exhibited considerable variability in dispersal distance as a function of family (genotype), temperature experienced during previous (embryonic) ontogenetic stages, and environmental ‘grain’. Yolk‐sac larvae dispersal distance varied as a function of the juxtaposition of substrate to location of egg hatch. Lake sturgeon yolk‐sac larvae dispersed from mesh screens attached to bricks and settled exclusively in gravel substrate. Dispersal distance also varied as a function of family and egg incubation temperatures, reflecting differences in offspring body size and levels of endogenous yolk reserves (yolk sac area) at hatch. Expression of plasticity in dispersal behavior may be particularly important to individual survival and population levels of recruitment contingent upon the location, size, and degree of fragmentation of suitable (gravel) habitats between adult spawning and yolk‐sac larvae rearing areas.     

The core seafloor microbiome in the Gulf of Mexico is remarkably consistent and shows evidence of recovery from disturbance caused by major oil spills

The microbial ecology of oligotrophic deep ocean sediments is understudied relative to their shallow counterparts, and this lack of understanding hampers our ability to predict responses to current and future perturbations. The Gulf of Mexico has experienced two of the largest accidental marine oil spills, the 1979 Ixtoc-1 blowout and the 2010 Deepwater Horizon (DWH) discharge. Here, microbial communities were characterized for 29 sites across multiple years in > 700 samples. The composition of the seafloor microbiome was broadly consistent across the region and was well approximated by the overlying water depth and depth within the sediment column, while geographic distance played a limited role. Biogeographical distributions were employed to generate predictive models for over 4000 OTU that leverage easy-to-obtain geospatial variables which are linked to measured sedimentary oxygen profiles. Depth stratification and putative niche diversification are evidenced by the distribution of taxa that mediate the microbial nitrogen cycle. Furthermore, these results demonstrate that sediments impacted by the DWH spill had returned to near baseline conditions after 2 years. The distributions of benthic microorganisms in the Gulf can be constrained, and moreover, deviations from these predictions may pinpoint impacted sites and aid in future response efforts or long-term stability studies.     

Reversible inhibition of bacterial bioluminescence by long-chain fatty acids

Long-chain unsaturated fatty acids, as well as certain saturated fatty acids such as lauric acid, are inhibitors of the in vivo luminescence of wild-type strains of four species of luminous bacteria (Beneckea harveyi, Photobacterium phosphoerum, P. fischeri, andP. leiognathi) as well as the myristic acid-stimulated luminescence in the aldehyde dim mutant M17 ofB. harveyi. Based on studies with the system in vivo, the principal site of action of all the fatty acids appears to be the reductase activity that converts myristic acid to myristyl aldehyde. This was confirmed by in vitro studies: Reductase activity in crude cell-free extracts is strongly inhibited by oleic acid.     

Concomitant loss of cell surface fibronectin and laminin from transformed rat kidney cells

Both fibronectin and laminin were found by immunofluorescence as a matrix at the surface of normal rat kidney cells. These matrices were absent from the surface of virally transformed rat kidney cells. Soluble fibronectin and laminin were detected in the culture media of the transformed as well as the normal cells. Culture supernates of the transformed cells contained even more fibronectin than the supernates of the transformed cells contained even more fibronectin than the supernates of the normal cells while laminin was present in similar amounts in both culture media. This shows that the loss of fibronectin and laminin from the surface of the transformed cells is caused by failure of the cells to deposit these proteins into an insoluble matrix and not caused by inadequate production. Fibronectins isolated from culture media of the normal and transformed cells were similar in SDS polyacrylamide gel electrophresis. Laminin isolated from culture media by affinity chromatography on heparin-Sepharose followed by immunoprecipitation was composed of three main polypeptides, one with a molecular weight of 400,000 and two with a molecular weight close to 200,000 in both cell types. Fibronectins from both cell types were equally active in promoting cell attachment. Rat fibronectin from transformed cells, like normal cells, when applied to culture dishes coated with fibronectin, readily attached and spread on the substratum, requiring approximately the same amount of fibronectin as the normal cells. On the basis of these results it seem that the failure of the transformed cells to incorporate fibronectin into an insoluble cell surface matix is not a consequence of a demonstrable change in the functional characteristics of the fibronectin molecule or in the ability of the cells to interact with fibronectin. It may depend on as yet unidentified interactions of the cell surface. Similar interactions may be needed for the deposition of laminin into the matrix, because laminin was also absent from the surface of transformed cells, despite its being synthesized by these cells.     

Regulation of aspartate-derived amino-acid metabolism in Zygosaccharomyces rouxii compared to Saccharomyces cerevisiae

To elucidate the growth inhibitory effect of threonine, the regulation of the aspartate-derived amino-acid metabolism in Zygosaccharomyces rouxii, an important yeast for the flavor development in soy sauce, was investigated. It was shown that threonine inhibited the growth of Z. rouxii by blocking the methionine synthesis. It seemed that threonine blocked this synthesis by inhibiting the conversion of aspartate. In addition, it was shown that the growth of Z. rouxii, unlike that of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, was not inhibited by the herbicide sulfometuron methyl (SMM). From enzyme assays, it was concluded that the acetohydroxy acid synthase in Z. rouxii, unlike that in S. cerevisiae, was not sensitive to SMM. Furthermore, the enzyme assays demonstrated that the activity of threonine deaminase in Z. rouxii, like in S. cerevisiae, was strongly inhibited by isoleucine and stimulated by valine. From this work, it is clear that the aspartate-derived amino-acid metabolism in Z. rouxii only partly resembles that in S. cerevisiae.