Six new species of miniature frog discovered

UTA biologist and international team identify new amphibian species in Mexico

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT ARLINGTON

 

IMAGE: CRAUGASTOR RUBINUS IN JALISCO, MEXICO view more 

CREDIT: ERIC SMITH/THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT ARLINGTON

Eric Smith, a professor of biology at The University of Texas at Arlington, and a team of international researchers have discovered six new species of miniature frogs in Mexico.

These amphibians are so tiny that they fit on top of a Mexican coin with room to spare. Fully grown, none of the new species exceed 15 millimeters, placing them among the smallest frogs in the world.

Smith and researchers from the University of Cambridge and London’s Natural History Museum published the discovery in the journal Herpetological Monographs.

“Biodiversity research tends to focus on big, charismatic animals and can neglect smaller species,” Smith said. “Because of this, these little frogs went undetected for a very long time.”

To achieve their miniature stature, the species evolved to retain their juvenile characteristics in a process known as pedomorphosis. Over time, the amphibians began to reproduce at earlier and earlier stages of development, limiting their adult growth.

Apart from their size, other factors complicated researchers’ ability to study the diminutive creatures. Found in Guerrero and Michoacan, some of the species live in territory occupied by armed groups who operate independently of the government and are responsible for widespread crime and violence. Throughout his career, Smith said, the amount of biodiversity research conducted in Mexico has declined.

The study, “Miniaturization in Direct-Developing Frogs from Mexico with the Description of Six New Species,” recommends that each of the new species be classified as endangered due to the declining quality of their habitat and their limited distribution across subtropical and tropical regions.

“These creatures inhabit a very narrow range among the leaf litter on the mountainsides,” Smith said. “If you hike too far too quickly, you could miss them completely.”

Smith, a taxonomist, began collecting the species when he was just a graduate student. Years later, he distinguished the frogs from known species by their outward appearance and the structure of their bones and organs. His former doctoral student, Jeffrey Streicher, who is now the senior curator in charge of amphibians and reptiles at the Natural History Museum in London, performed the species’ genetic analysis at UTA.

Despite the progress they’ve made identifying new species, more research is needed to understand the diversity of miniature amphibians in Mexico, Smith said

“Our sampling efforts are limited in western Mexico and east of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, but we are already aware of more new species from this group that need to be described.”

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JOURNAL

Herpetological Monographs

ARTICLE TITLE

Miniaturization in Direct-Developing Frogs from Mexico with the Description of Six New Species

Magnetic memory milestone

Developments in the field of spintronics promise faster, more efficient devices

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO

 

IMAGE: (LEFT) A CROSS-SECTIONAL TRANSMISSION ELECTRONIC MICROSCOPE IMAGE OF THE RESEARCH MATERIAL ON A LAYER OF TUNGSTEN (W) AND MAGNESIUM OXIDE (MGO). (RIGHT) A TOP DOWN VIEW OF THE MATERIAL WITH AN INSET IMAGE SHOWING MANGANESE ATOMS IN RED AND TIN ATOMS IN LIGHT BLUE. view more 

CREDIT: ©2022 NAKATSUJI ET AL.

Computers and smartphones have different kinds of memory, which vary in speed and power efficiency depending on where they are used in the system. Typically, larger computers, especially those in data centers, will use a lot of magnetic hard drives, which are less common in consumer systems now. The magnetic technology these are based on provides very high capacity, but lack the speed of solid state system memory. Devices based on upcoming spintronic technology may be able to bridge that gap and radically improve upon even theoretical performance of classical electronic devices.

Professor Satoru Nakatsuji and Project Associate Professor Tomoya Higo from the Department of Physics at the University of Tokyo, together with their team, explore the world of spintronics and other related areas of solid state physics — broadly speaking, the physics of things that function without moving. Over the years, they have studied special kinds of magnetic materials, some of which have very unusual properties. You’ll be familiar with ferromagnets, as these are the kinds that exist in many everyday applications like computer hard drives and electric motors — you probably even have some stuck to your refrigerator. However, of greater interest to the team are more obscure magnetic materials called antiferromagnets.

“Like ferromagnets, antiferromagnets’ magnetic properties arise from the collective behavior of their component particles, in particular the spins of their electrons, something analogous to angular momentum,” said Nakatsuji. “Both materials can be used to encode information by changing localized groups of constituent particles. However, antiferromagnets have a distinct advantage in the high speed at which these changes to the information-storing spin states can be made, at the cost of increased complexity.”

“Some spintronic memory devices already exist. MRAM (magnetoresistive random access memory) has been commercialized and can replace electronic memory in some situations, but it is based on ferromagnetic switching,” said Higo. “After considerable trial and error, I believe we are the first to report the successful switching of spin states in antiferromagnetic material Mn3Sn by using the same method as that used for ferromagnets in the MRAM, meaning we have coaxed the antiferromagnetic substance into acting as a simple memory device.”

This method of switching is called spin-orbit torque (SOT) switching and it’s cause for excitement in the technology sector. It uses a fraction of the power to change the state of a bit (1 or 0) in memory, and although the researchers’ experiments involved switching their Mn3Sn sample in as little as a few milliseconds (thousandth of a second), they are confident that SOT switching could occur on the picosecond (trillionth of a second) scale, which would be orders of magnitude faster than the switching speed of current state-of-the-art electronic computer chips.

“We achieved this due to the unique material Mn3Sn,” said Nakatsuji. “It proved far easier to work with in this way that other antiferromagnetic materials may have been.”

“There is no rule book on how to fabricate this material. We aim to create a pure, flat crystal lattice of Mn3Sn from manganese and tin using a process called molecular beam epitaxy,” said Higo. “There are many parameters to this process that have to be fine-tuned, and we are still refining the process to see how it might be scaled up if it’s to become an industrial method one day.”

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Journal article: Tomoya Higo, Kouta Kondou, Takuya Nomoto, Masanobu Shiga, Shoya Sakamoto, Xianzhe Chen, Daisuke Nishio-Hamane, Ryotaro Arita, Yoshichika Otani, Shinji Miwa & Satoru Nakatsuji. “Perpendicular full switching of chiral antiferromagnetic order by current”, Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04864-1

Funding: This work was partially supported by JST-MIRAI Program (JPMJMI20A1), JST-CREST (JPMJCR18T3), JST-PREST (JPMJPR20L7), MEXT/JSPS-KAKENHI (15H05882, 15H05883, 15K21732, 19H00650, 20K21067, 21H04437, 22H00290), and Spintronics Research Network of Japan (Spin-RNJ). T.H. acknowledges support from the Hattori Hokokai Foundation. S.N. acknowledges support from the CIFAR as a Fellow of the CIFAR Quantum Materials Research Program. Institute for Quantum Matter, an Energy Frontier Research Center was funded by DOE, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences under Award (DE-SC0019331).

Useful links:

Department of Physics
https://www.phys.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/

Trans-scale Quantum Science Institute
https://tsqi.phys.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/tsqi/en/

Research contacts:
Professor Satoru Nakatsuji - satoru@g.ecc.u-tokyo.ac.jp
Project Associate Professor Tomoya Higo - tomoyahigo@g.ecc.u-tokyo.ac.jp
Department of Physics, The University of Tokyo,
7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8656, Japan

Press contact:
Mr Rohan Mehra
Public Relations Group, The University of Tokyo,
7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8656, Japan
press-releases.adm@gs.mail.u-tokyo.ac.jp

About The University of Tokyo
The University of Tokyo is Japan's leading university and one of the world's top research universities. The vast research output of some 6,000 researchers is published in the world's top journals across the arts and sciences. Our vibrant student body of around 15,000 undergraduate and 15,000 graduate students includes over 4,000 international students. Find out more at www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/ or follow us on Twitter at @UTokyo_News_en.

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JOURNAL

Nature

DOI

10.1038/s41586-022-04864-1 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Perpendicular full switching of chiral antiferromagnetic order by current

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

20-Jul-2022

Study shows widespread mislabeling of CBD content occurs for over-the-counter products

Peer-Reviewed Publication

JOHNS HOPKINS MEDICINE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

In a new study, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers tested more than 100 topical cannabidiol (CBD) products available online and at retail stores, and found significant evidence of inaccurate and misleading labeling of CBD content. The study also revealed that some of these nonprescription products contained amounts of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main active ingredient in cannabis that can cause a “high,” including some products that claimed to be free of THC. 

The study, published July 20 in JAMA Network Open, further found that some of the CBD products made therapeutic claims not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). To date, the FDA has only approved one prescription CBD product to treat seizures associated with rare epilepsy disorders, and two prescription THC products for nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy and for loss of appetite and weight loss associated with HIV/AIDS. 

“Misleading labels can result in people using poorly regulated and expensive CBD products instead of FDA approved products that are established as safe and effective for a given health condition,” says study lead author Tory Spindle, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. 

According to the National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, CBD and THC are the most commonly known compounds in the plant Cannabis sativa. A key difference between the two is that THC can produce a psychoactive “high” effect at high doses, whereas CBD doesn’t. 

Under the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (the Farm Bill), CBD products that contain less than 0.3% of THC are not considered federally illegal substances. This has made CBD products particularly popular and widely available to consumers virtually anywhere, but it also makes it difficult for the FDA to address unapproved claims and mislabeling. However, Spindle notes, “Recent research has shown that people who use CBD products containing even small amounts of THC could potentially test positive for cannabis using a conventional drug test.” This has not been determined for topical CBD products, but the authors are currently studying it. 

For the study, the research team purchased 105 CBD topical products — including lotions, creams and patches — online and at brick-and-mortar retail locations in Baltimore, Maryland, in July and August 2020. Products were tested using a technology called gas chromatography-mass spectrometry to identify the actual amount of CBD and THC they contained. 

Only 89 (85%) of the 105 tested products listed the total amount of CBD in milligrams on the label. Of the 89 products, 16 (18%) contained less CBD than advertised, 52 (58%) contained more CBD than advertised and 21 (24%) were accurately labeled. On average, the in-store products contained 21% more CBD than advertised and the online products contained 10% more CBD than advertised, though CBD label accuracy varied widely across products. 

THC was detected in 37 (35%) of the 105 products, though all were within the legal limit of 0.3%. Four (11%) of those 37 were labeled as “THC free,” 14 (38%) stated they contained less than 0.3% THC and 19 (51%) did not reference THC on the label. 

Of the 105 products, 29 (28%) made a therapeutic claim, mostly about pain/inflammation, 15 (14%) made a cosmetic/beauty claim (e.g., that they alleviate wrinkles or nourish/improve skin) and 49 (47%) noted they were not FDA approved. The other 56 (53%) products made no reference to the FDA. “It’s important to note that the FDA has not approved CBD products to treat any of the conditions advertised on the products we tested,” says Spindle, who also is a faculty member at the Johns Hopkins Cannabis Science Laboratory. 

“The variability in the chemical content and labeling found in our study highlights the need for better regulatory oversight of CBD products to ensure consumer safety,” says Ryan Vandrey, Ph.D., professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the study’s senior author. Such regulation, the authors believe, would ensure CBD products meet established standards for quality assurance so consumers can make informed decisions about product selection and are not misled by unproven therapeutic or cosmetic claims. The study authors also caution that people should check with their health care practitioner before starting any CBD regimen. 

In addition to Spindle and Vandrey, other researchers who contributed to the study include Dennis Sholler and Edward Cone from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Timothy Murphy and Mahmoud ElSohly from ElSohly Laboratories, Ruth Winecker from RTI International, Ronald Flegel from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and Marcel Bonn-Miller from the Canopy Growth Corp. 

This research was supported by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). 

COI: Tory Spindle has served as a consultant for Canopy Health Innovations, Ryan Vandrey has been a consultant or received honoraria from Canopy Health Innovations, MyMD Pharmaceuticals, Mira1a Therapeutics, Syqe Medical Ltd. and Radicle Science, and Marcel Bonn-Miller is employed by the Canopy Growth Corp. The other authors declare no conflicts of interest. 

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JOURNAL

JAMA Network Open

Johns Hopkins APL assembles first global map of lunar hydrogen

Data confirms role water played in moon’s formation

Peer-Reviewed Publication

JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY APPLIED PHYSICS LABORATORY

 

IMAGE: HYDROGEN DISTRIBUTION AT THE NORTH LUNAR POLE, POLEWARD OF 70 DEGREES LATITUDE. view more 

CREDIT: JOHNS HOPKINS APL

Using data collected over two decades ago, scientists from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, have compiled the first complete map of hydrogen abundances on the Moon’s surface. The map identifies two types of lunar materials containing enhanced hydrogen and corroborates previous ideas about lunar hydrogen and water, including findings that water likely played a role in the Moon’s original magma-ocean formation and solidification.

APL’s David Lawrence, Patrick Peplowski and Jack Wilson, along with Rick Elphic from NASA Ames Research Center, used orbital neutron data from the Lunar Prospector mission to build their map. The probe, which was deployed by NASA in 1998, orbited the Moon for a year and a half and sent back the first direct evidence of enhanced hydrogen at the lunar poles, before impacting the lunar surface.

When a star explodes, it releases cosmic rays, or high-energy protons and neutrons that move through space at nearly the speed of light. When those cosmic rays come into contact with the surface of a planet, or a moon, they break apart atoms located on those bodies, sending protons and neutrons flying. Scientists are able to identify an element and determine where and how much of it exists by studying the motion of those protons and neutrons.

“Imagine you’re playing a game of pool and the cue ball represents neutrons and the billiard balls represent hydrogen,” explained Lawrence. “When you hit a billiard ball with your cue ball, the cue ball stops moving and the billiard ball is pushed into motion, because both objects have the same mass. Similarly, when a neutron comes in contact with hydrogen, it dies and stops moving, and the hydrogen is sent into motion. So when we see a fewer number of neutrons moving about, it’s an indication hydrogen is present.”

The team calibrated the data to quantify the amount of hydrogen by the corresponding decrease of neutrons measured by the Neutron Spectrometer, one of five instruments mounted on Lunar Prospector to complete gravitational and compositional maps of the Moon. The findings were published in the Journal of Geophysical Research.

“We were able to combine data from lunar soil samples from the Apollo missions with what we’ve measured from space and finally put together a full picture of lunar hydrogen for the first time,” continued Lawrence.

PrintEmail App

CAPTION

Hydrogen distribution at the south lunar pole, poleward of 70 degrees latitude

CREDIT

Johns Hopkins APL

The team’s map confirms enhanced hydrogen in two types of lunar materials. The first, at the Aristarchus Plateau, is home to the Moon’s largest pyroclastic deposit. These deposits are fragments of rock erupted from volcanoes, corroborating prior observations that hydrogen and/or water played a role in lunar magmatic events. The second is KREEP-type rocks. KREEP is an acronym for lunar lava rock that stands for potassium (K), rare earth elements (REE) and phosphorus (P).

“When the Moon originally formed, it’s largely accepted that it was molten debris from a huge impact with Earth,” Lawrence said. “As it cooled, minerals formed out of the melt, and KREEP is thought to be the last type of material to crystallize and harden.”

Lawrence, who was part of the original team that studied initial data from the Lunar Prospector mission in 1998, said building on existing efforts to complete a full map of Earth’s nearest neighbor took time.

“Finalizing the analysis took a number of years,” said Lawrence. “As we were sorting through everything, we began making corrections to data that we discovered was not hydrogen. We went back and fine-tuned previous analyses, and in large part, we were able to do that because of discoveries from other missions. We are continuously building off of previous knowledge and stepping into new territory.”

This new map not only completes the inventory of hydrogen on the Moon but could also lead to quantification of how much hydrogen and water was present in the Moon when it was born. In 2013, APL researchers also confirmed the presence of water ice at the poles on the planet Mercury using data from the neutron spectrometer on the APL-built MESSENGER spacecraft. These discoveries are important not only for understanding the solar system but also in planning future human exploration of the solar system.

CAPTION

As cosmic rays from distant stars hit the surface of planets or moons, they break apart atoms located on those bodies. Scientists study the motion of the protons and neutrons to identify an element and determine how much of it exists.

CREDIT

Johns Hopkins APL/Magda Saina

JOURNAL

Journal of Geophysical Research Planets

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Global Hydrogen Abundances on the Lunar Surface

NIST’s indoor CO2 tool can help assess ventilation and indoor air quality

Peer-Reviewed Publication

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF STANDARDS AND TECHNOLOGY (NIST)

A key ingredient for good indoor air quality is good ventilation. One simple method that can be used to determine if a space is well ventilated is to measure indoor carbon dioxide (CO2) levels. 

This greenhouse gas drifts through more than just our skies. CO2 can be found in the buildings where we live, work and shop too, as it is part of the air we breathe out. Good ventilation will keep the concentrations of CO2 and an array of contaminants low. Poor ventilation will allow them to accumulate. How do you know which category your ventilation fits into?

A new online tool developed by researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) offers answers. The free tool calculates target CO2 levels based on the user’s desired ventilation rate and information about a building and its occupants. In many buildings, ventilation is often misunderstood or infrequently assessed, but with NIST’s new resource, building professionals can use CO2 readings to routinely check ventilation, detecting potentially unfavorable conditions that could lead to the buildup of harmful contaminants.

The approach of using CO2 to properly gauge ventilation and the tool, named Quick Indoor CO2 (QICO2), are described in a new paper published in the journal Indoor Air.

“By measuring CO2, you can verify that you’re achieving the ventilation rate that your space was designed for, but you need to consider all the factors that impact CO2 levels,” said NIST Fellow Andrew Persily, author of the new paper.

While the direct impact that indoor CO2 has on health is unclear, its concentration can serve as an indicator of a building’s ventilation rate, which, if adequate, can reduce the concentration of many important indoor contaminants. And where many contaminants are challenging to detect directly, CO2, despite being imperceptible to our senses, can easily be tracked with widely available CO2 monitors. 

CO2 monitoring technology rose in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic, as federal and industry experts recommended improving ventilation along with using other measures such as masks and air filters, which do not capture CO2 but can ensnare infectious aerosols. For establishing good ventilation, however, monitoring is only half the battle. 

“With the pandemic, many restaurants and other kinds of businesses started putting CO2 monitors on the wall. But what do those numbers they are showing mean?” Persily said.

A CO2 level of 1,000 parts per million (ppm) or higher is commonly seen as a signifier of poor indoor air quality. But this rule of thumb could be misleading. Important factors that influence indoor CO2 differ from building to building, so while 1,000 ppm or lower may translate to adequate ventilation in some spaces, it could be inappropriate for others.

“Finding the CO2 level that corresponds to one’s desired ventilation rate is a matter of collecting the relevant information and doing some math,” Persily said. 

The number of occupants and their age, weight and level of physical activity are all variables that directly drive the amount of CO2 indoors. The outdoor CO2 levels and a building’s size and indoor temperature play important roles too. Persily pulled together the mathematical relationships between these factors and indoor CO2 levels, packaging them together within QICO2. 

The computer program serves as a CO2 calculator. The user can manually enter the pertinent information or choose from a list of predefined scenarios that describe schools, residences and commercial buildings, many of which are covered by a ventilation standard issued by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE). Then QICO2 does the math to come up with CO2 levels users can compare their real-world readings against and take actions to correct their ventilation system if needed. 

By leaving ventilation unchecked or assessing it with arbitrary CO2 values, building professionals could be leaving room for poor indoor air quality to go undetected. 

“The danger is that you may miss something that really matters. And you might think things are bad when they really aren’t, or perhaps even worse, you might think the air is fine when it’s not,” Persily said.

With QICO2, which is freely available on NIST’s website, building professionals can evaluate their current approach to judging ventilation by checking it more regularly and more meaningfully to help keep indoor air clean.

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JOURNAL

Indoor Air

DOI

10.1111/ina.13059 

ARTICLE TITLE

Development and application of an indoor carbon dioxide metric

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

19-Jul-2022

Grab a coffee before shopping? You may want to think twice

News from the Journal of Marketing

Peer-Reviewed Publication

AMERICAN MARKETING ASSOCIATION

Researchers from University of South Florida, European University Viadrina, Louisiana State University, SKEMA Business School, and Neoma Business School published a new Journal of Marketing article that examines how caffeine affects consumer spending.

The forthcoming study is titled “Caffeine’s Effects on Consumer Spending” and is authored by Dipayan Biswas, Patrick Hartmann, Martin Eisend, Courtney Szocs, Bruna Jochims, Vanessa Apaolaza, Erik Hermann, Cristina M. López, and Adilson Borge.

How does drinking a caffeinated beverage influence shopping behavior? Are customers prone to impulsive purchases after consuming coffee, tea, or soda at retail stores or car dealerships?

These researchers say that “Understanding how and why caffeine consumption influences spending is important since caffeine is one of the most powerful stimulants that is both legal and widely available.” About 85% of Americans consume at least one caffeinated beverage every day with coffee being the primary source of caffeine, followed by tea and soda. Caffeine is also found in energy drinks, chocolate, and in many over the counter and prescription medications.

The study finds that drinking a caffeinated beverage before shopping leads to more items purchased at the store and increased spending. Their studies also show that the effect of caffeine is stronger for “high hedonic” products such as scented candles, fragrances, décor items, and massagers and weaker for “low hedonic” products such as notebooks, kitchen utensils, and storage baskets.

Several studies have demonstrated that caffeine intake enhances arousal, which is experienced as a state of activation and alertness that can range from extreme drowsiness to extreme excitement. Arousal can be a positive hedonic state – referred to as excitement or energetic arousal – such as when one feels active, energized, and excited or a negative hedonic state – referred to as “tense arousal” – such as when one experiences tension and nervousness. Energetic arousal enhances the perception of product features and, in turn, increases purchase intentions for hedonic products such as buttery, salty popcorn, chocolate candy, and luxury vacations.

Prior research has shown that consuming caffeine in the range of 25 mg to 200 mg enhances energetic arousal with practically no effects on tense arousal. This study examines effects of caffeine intake in the range of about 30 mg to 100 mg since most caffeinated beverage servings have caffeine content in this range. As part of the study, the research team set up an espresso station near the entrance of two different retail stores in two major cities in France and outside a department store in Spain. Upon entry, half of the 300 shoppers were handed a complimentary cup of coffee containing caffeine and the other half offered decaf or water. “We found that the caffeine group spent significantly more money and bought a higher number of items than those who drank decaf or water,” says the researchers.

Caffeine also impacted the types of items bought at the stores. The group that took in caffeine bought more hedonic (enjoyable/fun) items such as scented candles and fragrances. However, there was very little difference between the two groups with regard to utilitarian purchases such as utensils and storage baskets. Also, the effects of caffeine on spending hold for those who drink a little over two cups of coffee (or less) daily and is weakened for heavy coffee drinkers.

“Overall, retailers can benefit financially if shoppers consume caffeine before or during shopping and that the effects are stronger for high hedonic products. This is important for retailers to factor in to determine the proportion of hedonic products in their stores. Policy makers may also want to inform consumers about the potential effects of caffeine on spending,” concludes the researchers.

This research can be extended in several directions. Can arousing elements such as loud music influence the effects of caffeine on shopping behavior? It is possible that high levels of arousal

induced by a combination of caffeine and ambient elements can alter shopping behavior. What if shoppers consume coffee along with some food like chocolate cake? Several interesting findings could emerge from research involving caffeine and these variables.

Full article and author contact information available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/00222429221109247

About the Journal of Marketing 

The Journal of Marketing develops and disseminates knowledge about real-world marketing questions useful to scholars, educators, managers, policy makers, consumers, and other societal stakeholders around the world. Published by the American Marketing Association since its founding in 1936, JM has played a significant role in shaping the content and boundaries of the marketing discipline. Shrihari Sridhar (Joe Foster ’56 Chair in Business Leadership, Professor of Marketing at Mays Business School, Texas A&M University) serves as the current Editor in Chief.
https://www.ama.org/jm

About the American Marketing Association (AMA) 

As the largest chapter-based marketing association in the world, the AMA is trusted by marketing and sales professionals to help them discover what is coming next in the industry. The AMA has a community of local chapters in more than 70 cities and 350 college campuses throughout North America. The AMA is home to award-winning content, PCM® professional certification, premiere academic journals, and industry-leading training events and conferences.
https://www.ama.org

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JOURNAL

Journal of Marketing

DOI

10.1177/00222429221109247 

ARTICLE TITLE

Caffeine's Effects on Consumer Spending

The 20th anniversary of China’s signing of the Stockholm Convention: Towards a POPs-free World

Peer-Reviewed Publication

HIGHER EDUCATION PRESS

 

IMAGE: NONE view more 

CREDIT: YANG ZHANG, ZHENG PENG, ZHAOMIN DONG, MUJIE WANG, CHEN JIANG

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are a class of chemical substances that pose a serious threat to human health and the ecological environment owing to their persistence, toxicity, bioaccumulation, and long-range environmental transport. Therefore, in its decision 18/32 in May 1995 the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) called for an international assessment of a preliminary list of 12 POPs, including nine organochlorine pesticides (OCPs), PCBs, polychlorinated dibenzodioxins (PCDDs), and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs). The UNEP Governing Council, in its 19/13C decision in February 1997, requested that the UNEP prepare and convene meetings of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) to develop a legally binding international instrument for action on 12 POPs. The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (hereinafter referred to as the Stockholm Convention) was adopted and opened for signature at the Conference of Plenipotentiaries held in Stockholm, Sweden, from May 22 to 23, 2001 (Secretariat of the Stockholm Convention, 2019). To date, approximately 18 additional chemicals have been included in the Stockholm Convention, making the total number of POPs approximately 30.

According to the requirements of the Stockholm Convention, parties should first develop a National Implementation Plan (NIP) as a programmatic document for POP reduction, elimination, control, and environmental management. However, owing to the wide scope of NIP preparation, China faces issues such as lack of basic information, insufficient funds, and backward technology in the field of POPs. To solve the above issues, the Chinese government has coordinated with experts, relevant line ministries, industry associations, local governments, and other parties, and successfully completed the preparation of the NIP for the implementation of the Stockholm Convention in China. This was submitted to the Secretariat of the Stockholm Convention in November 2006, thus fulfilling China’s commitment to the international community. Concurrently, the Chinese government has gradually strengthened capacity development to meet all the requirements to comprehensively promote the implementation of the Stockholm Convention. Twenty years passes, how about the China’s implementation of the Stockholm Convention?

A comprehensive and systematic research on the history, practice, and effectiveness of China’s implementation of the Stockholm Convention was conducted by scantiest from the Ministry of Ecology and Environment of the People’s Republic of China and Beihang university. This study entitled “Twenty years of achievements in China’s implementation of the Stockholm Convention” is published online in Frontiers of Environmental Science & Engineering in 2022.

China has established an implementation guarantee system including institutions, implementation mechanisms, policies, law enforcement, and scientific and technological support. During the 20 years since the implementation of the Stockholm Convention, dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) and hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH) concentrations in the air have been steadily decreasing, and Perfluorooctane sulfonic acid/Perfluorooctane sulfonyl fluoride (PFOS/PFOSF) concentrations in water bodies have decreased. In the past 20 years, China has safely disposed of 6352.1 tons of pesticide persistent organic pollutants and 36998 sets of electrical equipment containing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), with a disposal rate of 100%. In the future, China will further strengthen the construction of persistent organic pollutant monitoring networks, scientific research, publicity, education, and international cooperation to improve environmental quality, providing a reference for other countries to implement the Stockholm Convention.

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About Higher Education Press

Founded in May 1954, Higher Education Press Limited Company (HEP), affiliated with the Ministry of Education, is one of the earliest institutions committed to educational publishing after the establishment of P. R. China in 1949. After striving for six decades, HEP has developed into a major comprehensive publisher, with products in various forms and at different levels. Both for import and export, HEP has been striving to fill in the gap of domestic and foreign markets and meet the demand of global customers by collaborating with more than 200 partners throughout the world and selling products and services in 32 languages globally. Now, HEP ranks among China's top publishers in terms of copyright export volume and the world's top 50 largest publishing enterprises in terms of comprehensive strength.

The Frontiers Journals series published by HEP includes 28 English academic journals, covering the largest academic fields in China at present. Among the series, 13 have been indexed by SCI, 6 by EI, 2 by MEDLINE, 1 by A&HCI. HEP's academic monographs have won about 300 different kinds of publishing funds and awards both at home and abroad.

About Frontiers of Environmental Science & Engineering

Frontiers of Environmental Science & Engineering (FESE) is the leading edge forum for peer-reviewed original submissions in English on all main branches of environmental disciplines. FESE welcomes original research papers, review articles, short communications, and views & comments. All the papers will be published within 6 months since they are submitted. The Editors-in-Chief are Academician Jiuhui Qu from Tsinghua University, and Prof. John C. Crittenden from Georgia Institute of Technology, USA. The journal has been indexed by almost all the authoritative databases such as SCI, Ei, INSPEC, SCOPUS, CSCD, etc.

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JOURNAL

Frontiers of Environmental Science & Engineering

DOI

10.1007/s11783-022-1587-7 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Literature review

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Twenty years of achievements in China’s implementation of the Stockholm Convention