A qualitative exploration of consumers’ perceived impacts, behavioural reactions, and future reflections of the EU Tobacco Products Directive (2017) as applied to electronic cigarettes

Background: Electronic cigarette regulations included in the Tobacco Products Directive (TPD), Article 20, implemented in Europe by May 2017, aimed to improve safety for e-cigarette consumers, and prevent uptake among non-smokers, particularly young people. Before implementation, there were significant concerns from consumers, industry, and some in the scientific community about the potential negative impact of the TPD on people using e-cigarettes to stay stopped from smoking. To date, there is limited evidence on how the TPD has affected consumers. This study aimed to add insight into how consumers perceived and experienced the regulations. Methods: Qualitative data, collected between March 2018 and March 2019, relating to participant views of the TPD were extracted from 160 interviews/extended surveys of e-cigarette consumers as part of a wider study into e-cigarette use trajectories (ECtra study). Data were thematically analysed. Results: Awareness of the TPD amongst consumers was not universal. Participants’ smoking behaviour did not appear to be influenced by the legislation. Participants were reassured by manufacturing regulations and requirements for ingredients labels. Participants responded negatively to changes perceived to cause inconvenience and extra plastic waste. The product restrictions prompted some participants to purchase non-compliant products illegally, potentially putting their safety at risk. Conclusions: E-cigarette regulation should focus on ensuring product safety. Raising awareness of the TPD amongst consumers and smokers could be beneficial

On the Diversity of Erosion Control Products: Implications for Snake Entanglement

After a road construction project, Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) mandates that erosion control products (ECPs) are installed to prevent soil loss and promote plant growth. However, their presence on the landscape pose negative consequences to wildlife via entanglement. TxDOT provides an Approved Products List (APL) of ECPs meeting soil erosion prevention and plant growth standards. In Texas, multiple types of ECPs are produced with a range of materials and attributes to decrease the erosion potential on multiple soil types and slopes. Certain attributes are more likely to lead to snake entanglement (Ebert et al. 2019 Wildl. Soc. Bull.; Fig. 1A & B). The purpose of this study was to quantify the diversity of traits of the erosion control products to determine which products pose the least risk of snake entanglement to limit this additional source of mortality

Torsion pendulum measurements on viscoelastic materials during vacuum exposure

A torsional pendulum apparatus designed for testing in situ in vacuum, the dynamic mechanical properties of materials is described. The application of this apparatus to an experimental program to measure the effects of vacuum on the mechanical properties of two ablator materials (a foamed material and a filled elastomer) and a solid rocket propellant (a filled elastomer) is presented. Results from the program are discussed as to the effects of vacuum on the mechanical properties of these three materials. In addition, time-temperature-superposition, as a technique for accelerating vacuum induced changes in mechanical properties, is discussed with reference to the three materials tested in the subject program

Making sense: talking data management with researchers

Incremental is one of eight projects in the JISC Managing Research Data programme funded to identify institutional requirements for digital research data management and pilot relevant infrastructure. Our findings concur with those of other Managing Research Data projects, as well as with several previous studies. We found that many researchers: (i) organise their data in an ad hoc fashion, posing difficulties with retrieval and re-use; (ii) store their data on all kinds of media without always considering security and back-up; (iii) are positive about data sharing in principle though reluctant in practice; (iv) believe back-up is equivalent to preservation. <br></br><br></br> The key difference between our approach and that of other Managing Research Data projects is the type of infrastructure we are piloting. While the majority of these projects focus on developing technical solutions, we are focusing on the need for ‘soft’ infrastructure, such as one-to-one tailored support, training, and easy-to-find, concise guidance that breaks down some of the barriers information professionals have unintentionally built with their use of specialist terminology. <br></br><br></br> We are employing a bottom-up approach as we feel that to support the step-by-step development of sound research data management practices, you must first understand researchers’ needs and perspectives. Over the life of the project, Incremental staff will act as mediators, assisting researchers and local support staff to understand the data management requirements within which they are expect to work, and will determine how these can be addressed within research workflows and the existing technical infrastructure. <br></br> <br></br> Our primary goal is to build data management capacity within the Universities of Cambridge and Glasgow by raising awareness of basic principles so everyone can manage their data to a certain extent. We will ensure our lessons can be picked up and used by other institutions. Our affiliation with the Digital Curation Centre and Digital Preservation Coalition will assist in this and all outputs will be released under a Creative Commons licence. The key difference between our approach and that of other MRD projects is the type of ‘infrastructure’ we are piloting. While the majority of these projects focus on developing technical solutions, we are focusing on the need for ‘soft’ infrastructure, such as one-to-one tailored support, training, and easy-to-find, concise guidance that breaks down some of the barriers information professionals have unintentionally built with their use of specialist terminology. We are employing a bottom-up approach as we feel that to support the step-by-step development of sound research data management practices, you must first understand researchers’ needs and perspectives. Over the life of the project, Incremental staff will act as mediators, assisting researchers and local support staff to understand the data management requirements within which they are expect to work, and will determine how these can be addressed within research workflows and the existing technical infrastructure. Our primary goal is to build data management capacity within the Universities of Cambridge and Glasgow by raising awareness of basic principles so everyone can manage their data to a certain extent. We’re achieving this by: - re-positioning existing guidance so researchers can locate the advice they need; - connecting researchers with one-to-one advice, support and partnering; - offering practical training and a seminar series to address key data management topics. We will ensure our lessons can be picked up and used by other institutions. Our affiliation with the Digital Curation Centre and Digital Preservation Coalition will assist in this and all outputs will be released under a Creative Commons licence

Incremental scoping study and implementation plan

This report is one of the first deliverables from the Incremental project, which seeks to investigate and improve the research data management infrastructure at the universities of Glasgow and Cambridge and to learn lessons and develop resources of value to other institutions. Coming at the end of the project’s scoping study, this report identifies the key themes and issues that emerged and proposes a set of activities to address those needs. As its name suggests, Incremental deliberately adopts a stepped, pragmatic approach to supporting research data management. It recognises that solutions will vary across different departmental and institutional contexts; and that top-down, policy-driven or centralised solutions are unlikely to prove as effective as practical support delivered in a clear and timely manner where the benefits can be clearly understood and will justify any effort or resources required. The findings of the scoping study have confirmed the value of this approach and the main recommendations of this report are concerned with the development and delivery of suitable resources. Although some differences were observed between disciplines, these seemed to be as much a feature of different organisational cultures as the nature of the research being undertaken. Our study found that there were many common issues across the groups and that the responses to these issues need not be highly technical or expensive to implement. What is required is that these resources employ jargon-free language and use examples of relevance to researchers and that they can be accessed easily at the point of need. There are resources already available (institutionally and externally) that can address researchers’ data management needs but these are not being fully exploited. So in many cases Incremental will be enabling efficient and contextualised access, or tailoring resources to specific environments, rather than developing resources from scratch. While Incremental will concentrate on developing, repurposing and leveraging practical resources to support researchers in their management of data, it recognises that this will be best achieved within a supportive institutional context (both in terms of policy and provision). The need for institutional support is especially evident when long-term preservation and data sharing are considered – these activities are clearly more effective and sustainable if addressed at more aggregated levels (e.g. repositories) rather than left to individual researchers or groups. So in addition to its work in developing resources, the Incremental project will seek to inform the development of a more comprehensive data management infrastructure at each institution. In Cambridge, this will be connected with the library’s CUPID project (Cambridge University Preservation Development) and at Glasgow in conjunction with the Digital Preservation Advisory Board

Correlation length and negative phase velocity in isotropic dielectric-magnetic materials

A composite material comprising randomly distributed spherical particles of two different isotropic dielectric-magnetic materials is homogenized using the second-order strong-property-fluctuation theory in the long-wavelength approximation. Whereas neither of the two constituent materials by itself supports planewave propagation with negative phase velocity (NPV), the homogenized composite material (HCM) can. The propensity of the HCM to support NPV propagation is sensitive to the distributional statistics of the constituent material particles, as characterized by a two--point covariance function and its associated correlation length. The scope for NPV propagation diminishes as the correlation length increases

Resummed Quantum Gravity

We present the current status of the a new approach to quantum general relativity based on the exact resummation of its perturbative series as that series was formulated by Feynman. We show that the resummed theory is UV finite and we present some phenomenological applications as well.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure; presented at ICHEP0

QED \otimes QCD Threshold Corrections at the LHC

We use the theory of YFS resummation to compute the size of the expected resummed soft radiative threshold effects in precision studies of heavy particle production at the LHC, where accuracies of 1 percent are desired in some processes. We find that the soft QED threshold effects are at the level of 0.3 percent whereas the soft QCD threshold effects enter at the level of 20 percent and hence both must be controlled to be on the conservative side to achieve such goals.Comment: 8 pages, no figures; improved text; improved refs. and tex

The Virtual Correction to Bremsstrahlung in High-Energy e+ e- Annihilation: Comparison of Exact Results

We have compared the virtual corrections to single hard bremsstrahlung as calculated by S. Jadach, M. Melles, B.F.L. Ward and S.A. Yost to several other expressions. The most recent of these comparisons is to the leptonic tensor calculated by J.H. Kuhn and G. Rodrigo for radiative return. Agreement is found to within a part in 10^5 or better, as a fraction of the Born cross section, for most of the range of photon energies. The massless limits have been shown to agree analytically to NLL order.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures. Presented by S.A. Yost at ICHEP 2004, International Conference on High Energy Physics, Beijing, August 16-22, 200