Instruments to assess secondhand smoke exposure in large cohorts of never smokers: The smoke scales

© 2014 The Authors. Published by PLOS. This is an open access article available under a Creative Commons licence. The published version can be accessed at the following link on the publisher’s website: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0085809The objectives of this study were to: (i) to develop questionnaires that can identify never-smoking children and adults experiencing increased exposure to secondhand smoke (SHS+), (ii) to determine their validity against hair nicotine, and (iii) assess their reliability. A sample of 191 children (85 males; 106 females; 7-18 years) and 95 adult (23 males; 72 females; 18- 62 years) never-smokers consented to hair nicotine analysis and answered a large number of questions assessing all sources of SHS. A randomly-selected 30% answered the questions again after 20-30 days. Prevalence of SHS+ in children and adults was 0.52±0.07 and 0.67±0.10, respectively (p16.5 and >16, respectively. Significant Kappa agreement (p0.05). Area under the curve and McNemar's Chi-square showed no pair-wise differences in sensitivity and specificity at the cutoff point between the two different days for SS-C and SS-A (p>0.05). We conclude that the SS-C and the SS-A represent valid, reliable, practical, and inexpensive instruments to identify children and adult never-smokers exposed to increased SHS. Future research should aim to further increase the validity of the two questionnaires. © 2014 Misailidi et al.Published versio

Environmental and Psychophysical Heat Stress in Adolescent Tennis Athletes

Purpose: We investigated the environmental conditions in which all outdoor International Tennis Federation (ITF) junior tournaments (athlete ages: 35°C WBGT; 0.1%) conditions. Thereafter, 8 acclimatized male junior tennis athletes (age = 16.0 [0.9] y; height = 1.82 [0.04] m; weight = 71.3 [11.1] kg) were evaluated during 2 matches: one with head–neck precooling (27.7°C [2.2°C] WBGT) and one without (27.9°C [1.8°C] WBGT). Head–neck precooling reduced athletes’ core temperature from 36.9°C (0.2°C) to 36.4°C (0.2°C) (P = .001; d = 2.4), an effect reduced by warm-up. Head–neck precooling reduced skin temperature (by 0.3°C [1.3°C]) for the majority of the match and led to improved (P < .05) perceived exertion (by 13%), thermal comfort (by 14%), and thermal sensation (by 15%). Muscle temperature, heart rate, body weight, and urine specific gravity remained unaffected (P ≥ .05; d < 0.2). Small or moderate improvements were observed in most performance parameters assessed (d = 0.20–0.79). Conclusions: Thirty percent of the last decade’s ITF junior tournaments were held in hot, very hot, or extremely hot conditions (25°C–36°C WBGT). In such conditions, head–neck precooling may somewhat lessen the physiological and perceptual heat strain and lead to small to moderate improvements in the match-play performance of adolescent athletes. © 2021 Human Kinetics, Inc

Furanylfentanyl: another fentanyl analogue, another hazard for public health

The fentanyls are a family of drugs that have caused hundreds of deaths in Europe and the United States. They first appeared in the United States in the late 1970s; they were sold as heroin to unsuspecting users. Furanylfentanyl is a potent synthetic drug, an analogue of fentanyl that belongs to the above family. It has no proven medical use, but it is abused throughout the world for its opioid-like effects. The drug is mainly manufactured in China and is distributed worldwide. It is used mainly intranasally, but other routes of administration have also been reported. Furanylfentanyl has been involved in many intoxication cases, fatal or not, and many seizures of the drug have been recorded. The aim of this review is to summarize all the available information on furanylfentanyl, concerning its chemistry, synthesis, prevalence, metabolism, pharmacology, and toxicology, as well as its legal status. Analytical methods for the determination of furanylfentanyl in biological specimens are presented. Intoxications and lethal cases published in the scientific literature or reported on the web are also reviewed. © 2017, Japanese Association of Forensic Toxicology and Springer Japan

Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curves for SS-C (A) and SS-A (B) indicating the designated cut off points at 16.5 and 16, respectively.

<p>The points at the ROC curve at the designated cut offs for SS-C (C) and SS-A (D) forms 1 and 2 are also illustrated.</p

Factor loadings for the Smoke Scale in children and adults.

<p>Note: VAS = 10 cm visual analogue scale; Likert = 5-level likert scale (not at all, somewhat, moderately, a lot, extremely).</p

Results (median ± interquartile range) for hair nicotine and prevalence rates (±95% confidence interval) for SHS+ and SHS- in children and adult never-smokers.

<p>Note: * = χ² significant difference (p<0.05) between SHS+ and SHS–.</p><p> = χ² significant difference (p<0.05) between children and adults.</p><p>Key: SHS+ = positive diagnosis of SHS exposure using the forms; SHS– = negative diagnosis of SHS exposure using the forms.</p

Reliability results for SS-C and SS-A.

<p>Note: * = AUC test statistically significant (p<0.05) from 0.5 (i.e., no diagnostic ability).</p><p>Key: IR = interquartile range; 95%LoA = 95% limits of agreement; %CV = percent coefficient of variation; SE = sensitivity; SP = specificity; PPV = positive predicted value; NPV = negative predicted value; LR = likelihood ratio; AUC = area under the ROC curve; CI95% = 95% confidence interval; SE = standard error.</p