Camel No. 9 cigarette-marketing campaign targeted young teenage girls.

CONTEXT: The 1998 Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) restricted tobacco industry advertising practices that targeted teens. OBJECTIVE: To assess whether cigarette-advertising campaigns conducted after the MSA continue to influence smoking among adolescents. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: Participants were a national longitudinal cohort of 1036 adolescents (baseline age: 10-13 years) enrolled in a parenting study. Between 2003 and 2008, 5 sequential telephone interviews were conducted, including the participant's report of brand of "favorite" cigarette advertisement. The fifth interview was conducted after the start of RJ Reynolds' innovative "Camel No. 9" advertising campaign in 2007. Smoking outcome reported from the fifth survey. RESULTS: The response rate through the fifth survey was 71.8%. Teenagers who reported any favorite cigarette ad at baseline (mean age: 11.7 years) were 50% more likely to have smoked by the fifth interview (adjusted odds ratio: 1.5 [95% confidence interval: 1.0-2.3]). For boys, the proportion with a favorite ad was stable across all 5 surveys, as it was for girls across the first 4 surveys. However, after the start of the Camel No. 9 advertising campaign, the proportion of girls who reported a favorite ad increased by 10 percentage points, to 44%. The Camel brand accounted almost entirely for this increase, and the proportion of each gender that nominated the Marlboro brand remained relatively stable. CONCLUSIONS: After the MSA, adolescents continued to be responsive to cigarette advertising, and those who were responsive were more likely to start smoking. Recent RJ Reynolds advertising may be effectively targeting adolescent girls.

Telephone counseling to implement best parenting practices to prevent adolescent problem behaviors.

There is considerable suggestive evidence that parents can protect their adolescents from developing problem behaviors if they implement recommended best parenting practices. These include providing appropriate limits on adolescent free time, maintaining a close personal relationship with the adolescent, and negotiating and providing incentives for positive behavior patterns. However, retention of the study samples has limited conclusions that can be drawn from published studies. This randomized controlled trial recruited and randomized a national population sample of 1036 families to an intensive parenting intervention using telephone counseling or to a no-contact control group. At enrollment, eligible families had an eldest child between the ages of 10-13 years. The intervention included an initial training program using a self-help manual with telephone counselor support. Implementation of best parenting practices was encouraged using quarterly telephone contacts and a family management check-up questionnaire. A computer-assisted structured counseling protocol was used to aid parents who needed additional assistance to implement best practices. This, along with a centralized service, enabled implementation of quality control procedures. Assessment of problem behavior is undertaken with repeated telephone interviews of the target adolescents. The study is powered to test whether the intervention encouraging parents to maintain best parenting practices is associated with a reduction of 25% in the incidence of problem behaviors prior to age 18 years and will be tested through a maximum likelihood framework.

Evidence that the hexose-to-sucrose ratio does not control the switch to storage product accumulation in oilseeds: analysis of tobacco seed development and effects of overexpressing apoplastic invertase.

Wild-type tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.) seed development was characterized with respect to architecture and carbohydrate metabolism. Tobacco seeds accumulate oil and protein in the embryo, cellular endosperm and inner layer of the seed coat. They have high cell wall invertase (INV) and hexoses in early development which is typical of seeds. INV and the ratio of hexose to sucrose decline during development, switching from high hex to high suc, but not until most oil and all protein accumulation has occurred. The oil synthesis which coincides with the switch is mostly within the embryo. INV activity is greater than sucrose synthase activity throughout development, and both activities exceed the demand for carbohydrate for dry matter accumulation. To investigate the role of INV-mediated suc metabolism in oilseeds, genes for yeast INV and/or hexokinase (HK) were expressed under a seed-specific napin promoter, targeting activity to the apoplast and cytosol, respectively. Manipulating the INV pathway in an oilseed could either increase oil accumulation and sink strength, or disrupt carbohydrate metabolism, possibly through sugar-sensing, and decrease the storage function. Neither effect was found: transgenics with INV and/or HK increased 30-fold and 10-fold above wild-type levels had normal seed size and composition. This contrasted with dramatic effects on sugar contents in the INV lines.

Teoría y práctica de la prevención del hábito de fumar: sus implicaciones en la prevención del abuso de drogas / Theory and practice of smoking prevention: implications in drug abuse prevention

Puesta que el hábito de fumar constituye en los Estados Unidos la causa más frecuente de muertes prevenibles, y que los intentos para lograr que los fumadores habituales reduzcan su consumo sólo han obtenido magros resultados, la investigación ha derivado hacia los programas de prevención del abuso del cigarrillo. Esta investigación en prevención puede proporcionar un modelo útil para ser aplicado en los programas deprevención del abuso de drogas. Los programas de prevención del hábito de fumar se basan en gran medida en teorías acerca de la adquisición del hábito y en los datos que las sustentan. Los adolescentes empiezan a fumar como resultado de la influencias sociales, lo que incluye las que reciben de sus padres, hermanos, familiares y de los medios de comunicación social. Pueden también influir en la iniciación en el consumo las características de la personalidad de los jóvenes y su propensión a conductas riesgosas. En este estudio se presentas un informe teórico acerca de estas influencias sobre el consumo de tabaco en los adolescentes. En el trabajo se describen los componentes comunes de los currículos de prevención del hábito, que han sido confirmadas empíricamente. Con el fin de ilustrar cómo están organizados e implementados los programas de prevención, hemos resumido concisamente un amplio programa de prevención del abuso del cigarrillo y las drogas desarrollado por nosotros. También se examina aquí la aplicabilidad potencial de la investigación sobre la prevención del hábito de fumar a la investigación del abuso de drogas y se dan sugerencias sobre componentes adicionales que podrían utilizarse. Concretamente, los programas de prevención requieren de un análisis más completo del sistema social en el que viven los adolescentes, de manera de poder objetivizar las influencias sociales que se ejercen sobre el joven para que fume y consuma otras drogas en una realidad concreta