Businesses' voluntary pro-health tobacco policies: a review and research agenda

Research on the role of businesses in tobacco control has focused primarily on retailers, advertising firms and the hospitality industry, all of which have tended to support tobacco industry interests and resist effective tobacco control policies. However, in several countries, businesses have a history of voluntarily adopting tobacco-related policies that may advance tobacco control objectives. These phenomena have received little research attention. Existing literature on businesses ending tobacco sales, instituting voluntary workplace smoking restrictions and establishing non-smoker only hiring policies was reviewed. A research agenda on voluntary business initiatives would enhance and complement research on mandatory tobacco control policies by identifying new advocacy opportunities; suggesting avenues for strengthening or reinforcing existing policy initiatives; laying the groundwork for new mandatory policies; helping to inform ethical debates about contentious voluntary policies; and contributing to a better understanding of how alliances between the tobacco industry and other businesses might be weakened.     

Obesity. The food research agenda

It is estimated that almost 287 million children will be obese by 2010, and the overall obese population could rise to 700 million by 2015. The metabolic syndrome is a condition characterized by central obesity, hypertension, and disturbed glucose and insulin metabolism, and has been linked to increased risk of both type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Diet, socioeconomic, and lifestyle factors have a central role to play in the obesity epidemic. In this respect, the role of particular dietary components on satiety and regulation of food and energy intake, are discussed as are technological approaches to manufacture of foods with low obesigenicity.     

Researching pedagogy: a sociocultural agenda

Pedagogy is currently receiving attention from producers of education policy in England. It is, however, a version of pedagogy that remains located in a history of schooling as social control, of curricular knowledge as a commodity to be transmitted and of teachers as paraprofessionals. Those who resist recent attempts to shape pedagogy, and attempt to enhance both pedagogy and professionalism in order to prepare learners and teachers for informed participation in the new knowledge economy, are constrained by the impoverished understandings of pedagogy available in the United Kingdom. The author argues that understandings of pedagogy that are grounded in the hermeneutic psychology offered by Vygotskian theory can enhance teachers' professionalism and inform a pedagogy for the new knowledge age, 'Vygotsky is concerned to study how people, through the use of their own social activities, by changing their own conditions of existence can change themselves' (Shotter, 1993, p. 111).     

Successful development of satiety enhancing food products: towards a multidisciplinary agenda of research challenges

In the context of increasing prevalence of overweight and obesity in societies worldwide, enhancing the satiating capacity of foods may help people control their energy intake and weight. This requires an integrated approach between various food-related disciplines. By structuring this approach around the new product development process, this paper aims to present the contours of such an integrative approach by going through the current state of the art around satiety enhancing foods. It portrays actual food choice as the end result of a complex interaction between internal satiety signals, other food benefits, and environmental cues. Three interrelated routes to satiating enhancement are to change the food composition to develop stronger physiological satiation and satiety signals, anticipate and build on smart external stimuli at the moment of purchase and consumption, and improve palatability and acceptance of satiety enhanced foods. Key research challenges in achieving these routes in the field of nutrition, food technology, consumer, marketing, and communication are outlined.     

An agenda for integrated system-wide interdisciplinary agri-food research

This paper outlines the development of an integrated interdisciplinary approach to agri-food research, designed to address the ‘grand challenge’ of global food security. Rather than meeting this challenge by working in separate domains or via single-disciplinary perspectives, we chart the development of a system-wide approach to the food supply chain. In this approach, social and environmental questions are simultaneously addressed. Firstly, we provide a holistic model of the agri-food system, which depicts the processes involved, the principal inputs and outputs, the actors and the external influences, emphasising the system’s interactions, feedbacks and complexities. Secondly, we show how this model necessitates a research programme that includes the study of land-use, crop production and protection, food processing, storage and distribution, retailing and consumption, nutrition and public health. Acknowledging the methodological and epistemological challenges involved in developing this approach, we propose two specific ways forward. Firstly, we propose a method for analysing and modelling agri-food systems in their totality, which enables the complexity to be reduced to essential components of the whole system to allow tractable quantitative analysis using LCA and related methods. This initial analysis allows for more detailed quantification of total system resource efficiency, environmental impact and waste. Secondly, we propose a method to analyse the ethical, legal and political tensions that characterise such systems via the use of deliberative fora. We conclude by proposing an agenda for agri-food research which combines these two approaches into a rational programme for identifying, testing and implementing the new agri-technologies and agri-food policies, advocating the critical application of nexus thinking to meet the global food security challenge.     

Colon targeted delivery systems: review of polysaccharides for encapsulation and delivery

Colon-targeted delivery of bioactives has recently gained importance in addressing specific needs in the therapy of colon-based diseases. Many approaches have been attempted for the development of colon-specific delivery systems, with not much success in the past. Recent research into the utilization of the metabolic activity and the colonic microenvironment in the lower gastrointestinal tract has attained great value in the design of novel colon-targeted delivery systems based on natural biodegradable polymers. In the current article, special emphasis has been placed on polysaccharide systems, with minimal chemical modification, that have been exploitedfor colon targeting. These polysaccharide based encapsulation and targeted delivery systems are envisaged to have an immense potential for the development of food/nutraceutical formulations for colon-based diseases, including colorectal cancer.     

Randomised trial investigating effect of a novel nicotine delivery device (Eclipse) and a nicotine oral inhaler on smoking behaviour, nicotine and carbon monoxide exposure, and motivation to quit

OBJECTIVE: To monitor the effect of a novel nicotine delivery device that may produce fewer carcinogens (Eclipse) on cigarette smoking, carbon monoxide and nicotine concentrations, and motivation to give up smoking. The smoker's own brand of cigarette and a nicotine replacement product (Nicotrol inhaler) were used as comparisons. DESIGN: After baseline data were recorded, smokers were randomised to either Eclipse or inhaler for two weeks and then switched to the other product for another two weeks. Thereafter a second baseline was obtained. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Fifty smokers were included and data are reported for the 40 with complete data sets. The smokers were not trying to quit but were interested in trying a new product to reduce their risk. They visited a smoking clinic 10 times during the six week period of the trial. INTERVENTION: No counselling to aid reduction by Eclipse or inhaler was given. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: At each visit smoking status and carbon monoxide concentrations were recorded. In half of the visits withdrawal symptoms, attitudes towards smoking, heart rate, and blood nicotine concentrations were also recorded. RESULTS: Eclipse use decreased the number of cigarettes smoked per day (cpd) from 19.1 cpd at baseline to 2.1 cpd (p < 0.001), but increased carbon monoxide concentrations in parts per million (ppm) from 21.0 ppm to 33.0 ppm (p < 0.001). A similar decrease in cigarettes smoked per day was seen with the Nicotrol inhaler, from 19.1 cpd to 4.8 cpd (p < 0.001), but carbon monoxide decreased from 21.0 ppm to 12.7 ppm (p < 0.001). The blood nicotine concentration remained fairly stable with Eclipse, increasing slightly from 16.8 ng/ml to 18.0 ng/ml, while for the inhaler a significant drop was noted, from 16.8 ng/ml to 12. 2 ng/ml (p < 0.002). Craving and withdrawal did not increase with Eclipse. Few significant adverse events occurred with Eclipse. CONCLUSIONS: Eclipse can dramatically decrease cigarette consumption without causing withdrawal symptoms or decreases in nicotine concentrations or motivation to quit altogether. Unlike the inhaler, Eclipse produces an increase in carbon monoxide concentration. Thus Eclipse may not be a safer cigarette.     

Novel cosmetic delivery systems: an application update

World consumers are nowadays more focused on their health and appearance. This trend is creating heightened demand for products formulated with natural and nutraceutical ingredients. Functional ingredients and innovative delivery systems are driving the new product development in the field of cosmetics. A significant number of innovative formulations are now being used in personal care with real consumer-perceivable benefits and optimized sensory attributes, resulting in an economic uplift of cosmetic industry. In fact, the U.S. market alone for novel cosmetic delivery systems has been projected to be more than $41 billion for the year 2007. Novel cosmetic delivery systems reviewed here possess enormous potential as next-generation smarter carrier systems.     

Colloidal delivery systems in foods: A general comparison with oral drug delivery

The modern food industry is facing a stiff challenge of devising novel techniques for delivering functional ingredients without compromising the product functionalities. In recent times the focus on multi-disciplinary research has led to the translation of expertise and knowledge from one field to another. Likewise, the field of colloidal delivery systems which has a strong existence in the pharmaceutical arena can find a great deal of application in foods especially with the growing demand of functional foods. This article is an introductory mini-review about the colloidal delivery systems which can be used in foods. And a general comparison with oral drug delivery systems with respect to the ways in which the knowledge from drug delivery can be extended to foods and the factors which need to be considered for development of colloidal delivery systems for food ingredients.     

烟碱的微生物代谢研究进展

综述了代谢烟碱微生物的种类、微生物代谢烟碱的途径、分子生物学机理和酶学研究及微生物代谢烟碱应用研究的进展情况,揭示出微生物在降低烟草和环境中烟碱含量的潜力.