Exploring the potential for graphic warning labels to reduce intentions to consume energy drinks

This item is only available electronically.The rapid increase in the popularity of energy drinks (EDs), particularly amongst adolescents and young adults, represents a growing public health risk, warranting interventions to reduce consumption of the beverage. The effectiveness of front-of-package (FoP) warning labels in informing consumers and encouraging reduced consumption has been demonstrated for a range of products with adverse health effects. However, the potential of such a strategy to reduce ED consumption requires further investigation. The aim of this study was to compare the relative effectiveness of graphic warning labels depicting weight gain and cardiac effects in reducing intentions to consume EDs in comparison to a control ‘no label’ condition. Constructs of PMT were explored as mediators of the relationship between exposure to labels and intentions to reduce consumption. A secondary aim was to examine the association between perceived label effectiveness and behavioural intentions. Australian ED consumers aged 18 to 39 years (N = 343) were recruited to participate in an experimental online survey and randomly assigned to view one of three ED packaging/labels. Results indicated that the graphic warning labels did not differentially motivate participants to reduce ED consumption and were perceived as similarly effective. However, there was a significant gender difference in intentions for participants who viewed the cardiac effects label. The findings of this study contributed to the developing evidence base for effective interventions to reduce ED consumption. Future research should explore the motivations underlying ED consumption and the type of messages that will resonate with ED consumers.Thesis (B.PsychSc(Hons)) -- University of Adelaide, School of Psychology, 202

Effects of S. cerevisiae strains on the sensory characteristics and flavor profile of kiwi wine based on E-tongue, GC-IMS and 1H-NMR

The fermentation of kiwifruit into kiwi wine (KW) can represent a strategy to reduce the economic losses linked to fruits imperfections, spoilage, over production and seasonality. In the study, Pujiang kiwifruit, a China National Geographical Indication Product, was used as raw material to produce KW fermented by four commercial S. cerevisiae strains, namely Drop Acid Yeast, DV10, SY and RW. The sensory characteristics and flavor profile of KW were assessed by means of sensory evaluation, E-tongue, GC-IMS and 1H-NMR. KW fermented by RW strain obtained the higher sensory evaluation score. E-tongue could clearly distinguish the taste differences of KW fermented by distinct S. cerevisiae strains. A total of 128 molecules were characterized by GC-IMS and 1H-NMR, indicating that the combinations of multiple technologies could provide a comprehensive flavor profile of KW. The main flavor compounds in KW pertained to the classes of esters and alcohols. Several pathways were found to be differently altered by the fermentation with the different yeast strains, namely butanoate metabolism, glycerolipid metabolism, alanine, aspartate and glutamate metabolism, arginine biosynthesis, arginine and proline metabolism. The present study will facilitate screening suitable S. cerevisiae strains for KW production and provide a theoretical basis for large-scale production of KW

Impact of biogenic SOA loading on the molecular composition of wintertime PM2.5 in urban Tianjin: an insight from Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry

Biomass burning is one of the key sources of urban aerosols in the North China Plain, especially in winter when the impact of secondary organic aerosols (SOA) formed from biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) is generally considered to be minor. However, little is known about the influence of biogenic SOA loading on the molecular composition of wintertime organic aerosols. Here, we investigated the water-soluble organic compounds in fine particles (PM2.5) from urban Tianjin by ultrahigh-resolution Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FT-ICR MS). Our results show that most of the CHO and CHON compounds were derived from biomass burning; they contain O-poor and highly unsaturated compounds with aromatic rings, which are sensitive to photochemical reactions, and some of which probably contribute to light-absorbing chromophores. Under moderate to high SOA loading conditions, the nocturnal chemistry is more efficient than photooxidation to generate secondary CHO and CHON compounds with high oxygen content. Under low SOA-loading, secondary CHO and CHON compounds with low oxygen content are mainly formed by photochemistry. Secondary CHO compounds are mainly derived from oxidation of monoterpenes. But nocturnal chemistry may be more productive to sesquiterpene-derived CHON compounds. In contrast, the number- and intensity-weight of S-containing groups (CHOS and CHONS) increased significantly with the increase of biogenic SOA-loading, which agrees with the fact that a majority of the S-containing groups are identified as organosulfates and nitrooxy-organosulfates that are derived from the oxidation of BVOCs. Terpenes may be potential major contributors to the chemical diversity of organosulfates and nitrooxy-organosulfates under photo-oxidation. While the nocturnal chemistry is more beneficial to the formation of organosulfates and nitrooxy-organosulfates under low SOA-loading. The SOA-loading is an important factor associating with the oxidation degree, nitrate group content and chemodiversity of nitrooxy-organosulfates. Furthermore, our study suggests that the hydrolysis of nitrooxy-organosulfates is a possible pathway for the formation of organosulfates.</p

Anomaly Detection Based on Mining Six Local Data Features and BP Neural Network

Key performance indicators (KPIs) are time series with the format of (timestamp, value). The accuracy of KPIs anomaly detection is far beyond our initial expectations sometimes. The reasons include the unbalanced distribution between the normal data and the anomalies as well as the existence of many different types of the KPIs data curves. In this paper, we propose a new anomaly detection model based on mining six local data features as the input of back-propagation (BP) neural network. By means of vectorization description on a normalized dataset innovatively, the local geometric characteristics of one time series curve could be well described in a precise mathematical way. Differing from some traditional statistics data characteristics describing the entire variation situation of one sequence, the six mined local data features give a subtle insight of local dynamics by describing the local monotonicity, the local convexity/concavity, the local inflection property and peaks distribution of one KPI time series. In order to demonstrate the validity of the proposed model, we applied our method on 14 classical KPIs time series datasets. Numerical results show that the new given scheme achieves an average F1-score over 90%. Comparison results show that the proposed model detects the anomaly more precisely

Diazepam and Its Disinfection Byproduct Promote the Early Development of Nervous System in Zebrafish Embryos

The widely used diazepam, as central nervous system inhibitor, has found to be ubiquitous in surface water and drinking water. Moreover, a series of byproducts such as 2-methylamino-5-chlorobenzophenone (MACB) were generated after the chlorine disinfection process. However, little information is available about the neurobiological effects of these emerging chemicals at low doses, especially on infants and children. Here, we exposed zebrafish (Danio rerio) embryos to diazepam and MACB at 0.05, 0.5, and 5 nM, which were equivalent to environmental levels. Both diazepam and MACB increased the somite number and promoted nervous development of transgenic zebrafish [Tg (elavl3: EGFP) larvae] at 72 hours postfertilization ( hpf). Both diazepam and MACB also disrupted the homeostasis of adenosine monophosphate, valine, methionine, and fumaric acid in zebrafish embryos at 12 hpf. Additionally, the locomotor behavior activity of zebrafish was significantly enhanced after 120-hour sustained exposure to diazepam or MACB. Moreover, the mRNA expression levels of oct4, sox2, and nanog, modulating the pluripotency and self-renewal, were upregulated by diazepam and MACB in zebrafish embryo. Altogether, diazepam and MACB stimulate developmental neurogenesis and may induce neuronal excitotoxicity at quite low doses. These results indicated that the chronic exposure to psychoactive drugs may pose a potential risk to the development of the nervous system in infancy

A composite approach boosts transduction coefficients of piezoceramics for energy harvesting

Piezoelectric energy harvesting is a hotspot in the field of new energy, the core goal of which is to prepare piezoceramics with a high transduction coefficient (d33×g33). The traditional solid–solution design strategy usually causes the same variation trend of d33 and εr, resulting in a low d33×g33 value. In this work, a composite design strategy was proposed that uses PZN–PZT/ZnAl2O4 as an example. By introducing ZnAl2O4, which is nonferroelectric with low εr, to the PZN–PZT piezoelectric matrix, εr decreased rapidly while d33 remained relatively stable. This behavior was ascribed to the increase of Q33 caused by an interfacial effect facilitating the formation of micro-domain structure