Consumption of energy drinks by children and young people: a systematic review examining evidence of physical effects and consumer attitudes

ObjectiveTo update an earlier review, published in 2016, on the health and other outcomes associated with children and young people\u27s consumption of energy drinks (EDs).Study designReview article.Systematic reviewSystematic searches of nine databases (ASSIA, CINAHL, Cochrane Library, DARE, Embase, ERIC, MEDLINE, PsycINFO and Web of Science) retrieved original articles reporting the effects of EDs experienced by children and young people up to the age of 21 years. Searches were restricted by publication dates (January 2016 to July 2022) and language (English). Studies assessed as being weak were excluded from the review. Included studies underwent narrative synthesis.ResultsA total of 57 studies were included. Boys consumed EDs more than girls. Many studies reported a strong positive association between ED consumption and smoking, alcohol use, binge drinking, other substance use and the intentions to initiate these behaviours. Sensation-seeking and delinquent behaviours were positively associated with ED consumption, as were short sleep duration, poor sleep quality and low academic performance. Additional health effects noted in the updated review included increased risk of suicide, psychological distress, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder symptoms, depressive and panic behaviours, allergic diseases, insulin resistance, dental caries and erosive tooth wear.ConclusionsThis review adds to the growing evidence that ED consumption by children and young people is associated with numerous adverse physical and mental health outcomes. Where feasible and ethical, additional longitudinal studies are required to ascertain causality. The precautionary principle should be considered in regulatory policy and restriction of ED sales to this population.PROSPERO registrationCRD42021255484

Automatic classification of takeaway food outlet cuisine type using machine (deep) learning

Background and purpose Neighbourhood exposure to takeaway (‘fast’-) food outlets selling different cuisines may be differentially associated with diet, obesity and related disease, and contributing to population health inequalities. However research studies have not disaggregated takeaways by cuisine type. This is partly due to the substantial resource challenge of de novo manual classification of unclassified takeaway outlets at scale. We describe the development of a new model to automatically classify takeaway food outlets, by 10 major cuisine types, based on business name alone. Material and methods We used machine (deep) learning, and specifically a Long Short Term Memory variant of a Recurrent Neural Network, to develop a predictive model trained on labelled outlets (n=14,145), from an online takeaway food ordering platform. We validated the accuracy of predictions on unseen labelled outlets (n=4000) from the same source. Results Although accuracy of prediction varied by cuisine type, overall the model (or ‘classifier’) made a correct prediction approximately three out of four times. We demonstrated the potential of the classifier to public health researchers and for surveillance to support decision-making, through using it to characterise nearly 55,000 takeaway food outlets in England by cuisine type, for the first time. Conclusions Although imperfect, we successfully developed a model to classify takeaway food outlets, by 10 major cuisine types, from business name alone, using innovative data science methods. We have made the model available for use elsewhere by others, including in other contexts and to characterise other types of food outlets, and for further development.This study is funded by the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) School of Public Health Research (Grant Reference Number PD-SPH-2015). The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care. This work was also supported by the MRC Epidemiology Unit, University of Cambridge (Grant Reference Number MC/UU/00006/7). TBu is funded by the Centre for Diet and Activity Research (CEDAR), a UK Clinical Research Collaboration (UKCRC) Public Health Research Centre of Excellence. Funding from the British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK, Economic and Social Research Council, Medical Research Council, the National Institute of Health Research, and the Wellcome Trust (Grant Reference Number MR/K023187/1), under the auspices of the UK Clinical Research Collaboration, is gratefully acknowledged. These funders played no role in the study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the article for publication

Particle Collisions on Stringy Black Hole Background

The collision of two particles in the background of a Sen black hole is studied. With the equations of motion of the particles, the center-of-mass energy is investigated when the collision takes place at the horizon of a Sen black hole. For an extremal Sen black hole, we find that the center-of-mass energy will be arbitrarily high with two conditions: (1) spin $a\neq 0$ and (2) one of the colliding particles has the critical angular momentum $l_{\text{c}}=2$. For a nonextremal Sen black hole, we show that, in order to obtain an unlimited center-of-mass energy, one of the colliding particles should have the critical angular momentum $l'_{\text{c}}=2 r_{+}/a$ ($r_{+}$ is the radius of the outer horizon for a nonextremal black hole). However, a particle with the angular momentum $l=l'_{\text{c}}$ could not approach the black hole from outside of the horizon through free fall, which implies that the collision with arbitrarily high center-of-mass energy could not take place. Thus, there is an upper bound of the center-of-mass energy for the nonextremal black hole. We also obtain the maximal center-of-mass energy for a near-extremal black hole and the result implies that the Planck-scale energy is hard to be approached. Furthermore, we also consider the back-reaction effects. The result shows that, neglecting the gravitational radiation, it has a weak effect on the center-of-mass energy. However, we argue that the maximum allowed center-of-mass energy will be greatly reduced to below the Planck-scale when the gravitational radiation is included.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures, published versio

The impact of interventions to promote healthier ready-to-eat meals (to eat in, to take away or to be delivered) sold by specific food outlets open to the general public: a systematic review.

INTRODUCTION: Ready-to-eat meals sold by food outlets that are accessible to the general public are an important target for public health intervention. We conducted a systematic review to assess the impact of such interventions. METHODS: Studies of any design and duration that included any consumer-level or food-outlet-level before-and-after data were included. RESULTS: Thirty studies describing 34 interventions were categorized by type and coded against the Nuffield intervention ladder: restrict choice = trans fat law (n = 1), changing pre-packed children's meal content (n = 1) and food outlet award schemes (n = 2); guide choice = price increases for unhealthier choices (n = 1), incentive (contingent reward) (n = 1) and price decreases for healthier choices (n = 2); enable choice = signposting (highlighting healthier/unhealthier options) (n = 10) and telemarketing (offering support for the provision of healthier options to businesses via telephone) (n = 2); and provide information = calorie labelling law (n = 12), voluntary nutrient labelling (n = 1) and personalized receipts (n = 1). Most interventions were aimed at adults in US fast food chains and assessed customer-level outcomes. More 'intrusive' interventions that restricted or guided choice generally showed a positive impact on food-outlet-level and customer-level outcomes. However, interventions that simply provided information or enabled choice had a negligible impact. CONCLUSION: Interventions to promote healthier ready-to-eat meals sold by food outlets should restrict choice or guide choice through incentives/disincentives. Public health policies and practice that simply involve providing information are unlikely to be effective

Food insecurity in adults with severe mental illness living in Northern England: Peer research interview findings

\ua9 2023 The Authors. International Journal of Mental Health Nursing published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.Food insecurity means that a person does not have access to sufficient nutritious food for normal growth and health. Food insecurity can lead to many health problems such as obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and other long term health conditions. People living with a severe mental illness are more likely to experience food insecurity than people without mental illness. Peer-led in-depth interviews were conducted with adults with severe mental illness from Northern England, during which their experiences of food insecurity and strategies to tackle food insecurity were discussed. Interviews took place between March and December 2022, with interviews being transcribed and analysed using deductive and inductive thematic analysis. Thirteen interviews were conducted, finding that food insecurity in adults with severe mental illness was often a long-standing issue. Unemployment, the cost-of-living crisis and fuel poverty impacted on experiences of food insecurity. Difficulties accessing food banks such as transport, stigma, and the limited selection of available food was also discussed. Strategies to tackle food insecurity centred on making food banks more accessible and improving the quality of available food. Future research should aim to eradicate food insecurity for adults with severe mental illness, as limited research and action focuses on this population group over and above ‘mental illness’ or ‘poor mental health’. Removing barriers to accessing food such as lack of transport, and providing food which is of adequate nutritional quality, should be prioritised, as well as tackling the stigma and accessibility issues surrounding food banks use

Gravitational collapse with tachyon field and barotropic fluid

A particular class of space-time, with a tachyon field, \phi, and a barotropic fluid constituting the matter content, is considered herein as a model for gravitational collapse. For simplicity, the tachyon potential is assumed to be of inverse square form i.e., V(\phi) \sim \phi^{-2}. Our purpose, by making use of the specific kinematical features of the tachyon, which are rather different from a standard scalar field, is to establish the several types of asymptotic behavior that our matter content induces. Employing a dynamical system analysis, complemented by a thorough numerical study, we find classical solutions corresponding to a naked singularity or a black hole formation. In particular, there is a subset where the fluid and tachyon participate in an interesting tracking behaviour, depending sensitively on the initial conditions for the energy densities of the tachyon field and barotropic fluid. Two other classes of solutions are present, corresponding respectively, to either a tachyon or a barotropic fluid regime. Which of these emerges as dominant, will depend on the choice of the barotropic parameter, \gamma. Furthermore, these collapsing scenarios both have as final state the formation of a black hole.Comment: 18 pages, 7 figures. v3: minor changes. Final version to appear in GR

Disfluency in dialogue:an intentional signal from the speaker?

Disfluency is a characteristic feature of spontaneous human speech, commonly seen as a consequence of problems with production. However, the question remains open as to why speakers are disfluent: Is it a mechanical by-product of planning difficulty, or do speakers use disfluency in dialogue to manage listeners' expectations? To address this question, we present two experiments investigating the production of disfluency in monologue and dialogue situations. Dialogue affected the linguistic choices made by participants, who aligned on referring expressions by choosing less frequent names for ambiguous images where those names had previously been mentioned. However, participants were no more disfluent in dialogue than in monologue situations, and the distribution of types of disfluency used remained constant. Our evidence rules out at least a straightforward interpretation of the view that disfluencies are an intentional signal in dialogue. © 2012 Psychonomic Society, Inc

A glimpse of a Luttinger liquid

The concept of a Luttinger liquid has recently been established as a fundamental paradigm vital to our understanding of the properties of one-dimensional quantum systems, leading to a number of theoretical breakthroughs. Now theoretical predictions have been put to test by the comprehensive experimental study.Comment: Unedited version of N&V article in Nature materials 4, 273 (2005

Food insecurity in adults with severe mental illness living in Northern England: A co-produced cross-sectional study

\ua9 2024 The Authors. Nutrition & Dietetics published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of Dietitians Australia.Aim: This study aimed to explore food insecurity prevalence and experiences of adults with severe mental illness living in Northern England. Methods: This mixed-methods cross-sectional study took place between March and October 2022. Participants were adults with self-reported severe mental illness living in Northern England. The survey included demographic, health, and financial questions. Food insecurity was measured using the US Department of Agriculture Adult Food Security measure. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression; and qualitative data using content analysis. Results: In total, 135 participants completed the survey, with a mean age of 44.7 years (SD: 14.1, range: 18–75 years). Participants were predominantly male (53.3%), white (88%) and from Yorkshire (50.4%). The food insecurity prevalence was 50.4% (n = 68). There was statistical significance in food insecurity status by region (p = 0.001); impacts of severe mental illness on activities of daily living (p = 0.02); and the Covid pandemic on food access (p < 0.001). The North West had the highest prevalence of food insecurity (73.3%); followed by the Humber and North East regions (66.7%); and Yorkshire (33.8%). In multivariable binary logistic regression, severe mental illness\u27 impact on daily living was the only predictive variable for food insecurity (odds ratio = 4.618, 95% confidence interval: 1.071–19.924, p = 0.04). Conclusion: The prevalence of food insecurity in this study is higher than is reported in similar studies (41%). Mental health practitioners should routinely assess and monitor food insecurity in people living with severe mental illness. Further research should focus on food insecurity interventions in this population