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Background Very few countries regulate maximum cigarette pack size. Larger, non-standard sizes are increasingly being introduced by the tobacco industry. Larger portion sizes increase food consumption; larger cigarette packs may similarly increase tobacco consumption. Here we consider the evidence for legislation to cap cigarette pack size to reduce tobacco-related harm. Aims and analysis We first describe the regulations regarding minimum and maximum pack sizes in the 12 countries that have adopted plain packaging legislation and describe the range of sizes available. We then discuss evidence for two key assumptions that would support capping pack size. First, regarding the causal nature of the relationship between pack size and tobacco consumption, observational evidence suggests that people smoke fewer cigarettes when using smaller packs. Secondly, regarding the causal nature of the relationship between reducing consumption and successful cessation, reductions in number of cigarettes smoked per day are associated with increased cessation attempts and subsequent abstinence. However, more experimental evidence is needed to infer the causal nature of these associations among general populations of smokers. Conclusion Cigarette pack size is positively associated with consumption and consumption is negatively associated with cessation. Based on limited evidence of the causal nature of these associations, we hypothesize that government regulations to cap cigarette pack sizes would positively contribute to reducing smoking prevalence.

BACKGROUND: Very few countries regulate maximum cigarette pack size. Larger, non-standard sizes are increasingly being introduced by the tobacco industry. Larger portion sizes increase food consumption; larger cigarette packs may similarly increase tobacco consumption. Here we consider the evidence for legislation to cap cigarette pack size to reduce tobacco-related harm. AIMS AND ANALYSIS: We first describe the regulations regarding minimum and maximum pack sizes in the 12 countries that have adopted plain packaging legislation and describe the range of sizes available. We then discuss evidence for two key assumptions that would support capping pack size. First, regarding the causal nature of the relationship between pack size and tobacco consumption, observational evidence suggests that people smoke fewer cigarettes when using smaller packs. Secondly, regarding the causal nature of the relationship between reducing consumption and successful cessation, reductions in number of cigarettes smoked per day are associated with increased cessation attempts and subsequent abstinence. However, more experimental evidence is needed to infer the causal nature of these associations among general populations of smokers. CONCLUSION: Cigarette pack size is positively associated with consumption and consumption is negatively associated with cessation. Based on limited evidence of the causal nature of these associations, we hypothesize that government regulations to cap cigarette pack sizes would positively contribute to reducing smoking prevalence.

BACKGROUND: Very few countries regulate maximum cigarette pack size. Larger, non‐standard sizes are increasingly being introduced by the tobacco industry. Larger portion sizes increase food consumption; larger cigarette packs may similarly increase tobacco consumption. Here we consider the evidence for legislation to cap cigarette pack size to reduce tobacco‐related harm. AIMS AND ANALYSIS: We first describe the regulations regarding minimum and maximum pack sizes in the 12 countries that have adopted plain packaging legislation and describe the range of sizes available. We then discuss evidence for two key assumptions that would support capping pack size. First, regarding the causal nature of the relationship between pack size and tobacco consumption, observational evidence suggests that people smoke fewer cigarettes when using smaller packs. Secondly, regarding the causal nature of the relationship between reducing consumption and successful cessation, reductions in number of cigarettes smoked per day are associated with increased cessation attempts and subsequent abstinence. However, more experimental evidence is needed to infer the causal nature of these associations among general populations of smokers. CONCLUSION: Cigarette pack size is positively associated with consumption and consumption is negatively associated with cessation. Based on limited evidence of the causal nature of these associations, we hypothesize that government regulations to cap cigarette pack sizes would positively contribute to reducing smoking prevalence.

[EN] Mesoporous silica nanoparticles capped with acetylcholinesterase, through boronic ester linkages, selectively release an entrapped cargo in the presence of acetylcholine. ; The authors acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Government (MAT2015-64139-C4-1-R, MAT2015-64139-C4-4-R and AGL2015-70235-C2-2-R) and the Generalitat Valenciana (PROMETEO2018/024). T. Godoy-Reyes is grateful to Generalitat Valenciana for her Santiago Grisollía fellowship. A. García-Fernández is grateful to the Spanish Government for her FPU fellowship ; Godoy-Reyes, TM.; Llopis-Lorente, A.; García-Fernández, A.; Gaviña, P.; Costero, AM.; Martínez-Máñez, R.; Sancenón Galarza, F. (2019). Acetylcholine-responsive cargo release using acetylcholinesterase-capped nanomaterials. Chemical Communications. 55(41):5785-5788. https://doi.org/10.1039/c9cc02602a ; S ; 5785 ; 5788 ; 55 ; 41 ; McCorry, L. K. (2007). Physiology of the Autonomic Nervous System. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, 71(4), 78. doi:10.5688/aj710478 ; W. M. Haschek , C. G.Rousseaux and M. A.Wallig , Nervous System , in Fundamentals of Toxicologic Pathology , 2nd edn, Academic Press CY , San Diego , 2010 , p. 377 ; Klinkenberg, I., Sambeth, A., & Blokland, A. (2011). Acetylcholine and attention. Behavioural Brain Research, 221(2), 430-442. doi:10.1016/j.bbr.2010.11.033 ; Hasselmo, M. E. (2006). The role of acetylcholine in learning and memory. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 16(6), 710-715. doi:10.1016/j.conb.2006.09.002 ; An, M. C., Lin, W., Yang, J., Dominguez, B., Padgett, D., Sugiura, Y., … Lee, K.-F. (2010). Acetylcholine negatively regulates development of the neuromuscular junction through distinct cellular mechanisms. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107(23), 10702-10707. doi:10.1073/pnas.1004956107 ; Ehrenstein, G., Galdzicki, Z., & Lange, G. D. (1997). The choline-leakage hypothesis for the loss of acetylcholine in Alzheimer's disease. Biophysical Journal, 73(3), 1276-1280. doi:10.1016/s0006-3495(97)78160-8 ; Fambrough, D. ...

5785 5788 55 41 ; S ; Godoy-Reyes, TM.; Llopis-Lorente, A.; García-Fernández, A.; Gaviña, P.; Costero, AM.; Martínez-Máñez, R.; Sancenón Galarza, F. (2019). Acetylcholine-responsive cargo release using acetylcholinesterase-capped nanomaterials. Chemical Communications. 55(41):5785-5788. https://doi.org/10.1039/c9cc02602a Díez, P., Esteban-Fernández de Ávila, B., Ramírez-Herrera, D. E., Villalonga, R., & Wang, J. (2017). Biomedical nanomotors: efficient glucose-mediated insulin release. Nanoscale, 9(38), 14307-14311. doi:10.1039/c7nr05535h ; [EN] Mesoporous silica nanoparticles capped with acetylcholinesterase, through boronic ester linkages, selectively release an entrapped cargo in the presence of acetylcholine. The authors acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Government (MAT2015-64139-C4-1-R, MAT2015-64139-C4-4-R and AGL2015-70235-C2-2-R) and the Generalitat Valenciana (PROMETEO2018/024). T. Godoy-Reyes is grateful to Generalitat Valenciana for her Santiago Grisollía fellowship. A. García-Fernández is grateful to the Spanish Government for her FPU fellowship McCorry, L. K. (2007). Physiology of the Autonomic Nervous System. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, 71(4), 78. doi:10.5688/aj710478 W. M. Haschek , C. G.Rousseaux and M. A.Wallig , Nervous System , in Fundamentals of Toxicologic Pathology , 2nd edn, Academic Press CY , San Diego , 2010 , p. 377 Klinkenberg, I., Sambeth, A., & Blokland, A. (2011). Acetylcholine and attention. Behavioural Brain Research, 221(2), 430-442. doi:10.1016/j.bbr.2010.11.033 Hasselmo, M. E. (2006). The role of acetylcholine in learning and memory. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 16(6), 710-715. doi:10.1016/j.conb.2006.09.002 An, M. C., Lin, W., Yang, J., Dominguez, B., Padgett, D., Sugiura, Y., … Lee, K.-F. (2010). Acetylcholine negatively regulates development of the neuromuscular junction through distinct cellular mechanisms. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107(23), 10702-10707. doi:10.1073/pnas.1004956107 Ehrenstein, G., Galdzicki, ...

[EN] The development of new detection systems for an accurate and rapid identification of pathogens has become an essential challenge in the biomedical field. Herein a highly selective platform based on aptamer-gated nano materials for specific Staphylococcus aureus detection is presented. In the proposed design, a nanoporous anodic alumina (NAA) scaffold is loaded with the fluorescent indicator rhodamine B, while pores entrances are capped by a DNA aptamer which selectively recognizes S. aureus cells in less than 1 h. When S. aureus cells are present, the solid is selectively uncapped, and the dye is released to the medium. This nanodevice allows the detection of bacterial concentrations between 2 and 5 CFU mL-1 (in buffer and blood, respectively) and it has demonstrated excellent behavior in terms of specificity and robustness. A set of 25 different clinical samples are analyzed using this simple procedure obtaining excellent results, which agree with conventional hospital reference techniques for the identification of S. aureus. This new method is sensitive, rapid and low cost, and avoids steps such as polymerase chain amplification reaction, which makes it suitable for use in point-of-care detection systems. ; This study was supported by the Spanish Government (projects RTI2018-100910-B-C41 and SAF2017-82251-R (MCUI/AEI/FEDER, UE)), the Generalitat Valenciana (project PROMETEO/2018/024), the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia-Instituto de Investigacion Sanitaria La Fe (B02-MIRSA project) and CIBER-BBN (NANOPATH and valorization project CANDI-EYE). It has been also co-financed by the EU through the Valencian Community ERDF PO 2014-2020. S.S. thanks the Instituto de Salud Carlos III and the European Social Fund for the financial support "Sara Borrell" (CD16/000237). L.P. thanks to Ministerio de Economia, Industria y Competitividad for his FPI grant. The authors are grateful for the professional English language editing to Mr. Arash Javadinejad, English Instructor and pubication Editor at the Instituto de ...

Quantum-confined CsPbBr3 nanoplatelets (NPLs) are extremely promising for use in low-cost blue light-emitting diodes, but their tendency to coalesce in both solution and film form, particularly under operating device conditions with injected charge-carriers, is hindering their adoption. We show that employing a short hexyl-phosphonate ligand (C6H15O3P) in a heat-up colloidal approach for pure, blue-emitting quantum-confined CsPbBr3 NPLs significantly suppresses these coalescence phenomena compared to particles capped with the typical oleyammonium ligands. The phosphonate-passivated NPL thin films exhibit photoluminescence quantum yields of ∼40% at 450 nm with exceptional ambient and thermal stability. The color purity is preserved even under continuous photoexcitation of carriers equivalent to LED current densities of ∼3.5 A/cm2. 13C, 133Cs, and 31P solid-state MAS NMR reveal the presence of phosphonate on the surface. Density functional theory calculations suggest that the enhanced stability is due to the stronger binding affinity of the phosphonate ligand compared to the ammonium ligand. ; J. S. and S.D.S. acknowledge the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (HYPERION, grant agreement number 756962). S.D.S acknowledges funding from the Royal Society and Tata Group (UF150033). R.H.F. and Y.L. acknowledge sup-port from the Simons Foundation (grant 601946). M.A. and D.K. acknowledges funding from the European Union's Hori-zon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Ma-rie Skłodowska-Curie (grant agreement number 841386 and 841136, respectively). K.J. acknowledges funding from the Royal Society (RGFR1180002). K.F. acknowledges a George and Lilian Schiff Studentship, Winton Studentship, the Engineer-ing and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) student-ship, Cambridge Trust Scholarship, and Robert Gardiner Scholarship. C. P. G. acknowledges the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 re-search and innovation program (835073) and the Royal Society for a Research Professorship (RP\R1\180147). The authors acknowledge the EPSRC for funding (EP/R023980/1).

[EN] Two different acetylcholinesterase (AChE)-capped mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs), S1-AChE and S2-AChE, were prepared and characterized. MSNs were loaded with rhodamine B and the external surface was functionalized with either pyridostigmine derivative P1 (to yield solid S1) or neostigmine derivative P2 (to obtain S2). The final capped materials were obtained by coordinating grafted P1 or P2 with AChE ' s active sites (to give S1-AChE and S2-AChE, respectively). Both materials were able to release rho-damine B in the presence of diisopropylfluorophosphate (DFP) or neostigmine in a concentration-dependent manner via the competitive displacement of AChE through DFP and neostigmine coordination with the AChE ' s active sites. The responses of S1-AChE and S2-AChE were also tested with other enzyme inhibitors and substrates. These studies suggest that S1-AChE nanoparticles can be used for the selective detection of nerve agent simulant DFP and paraoxon. ; Financial support from the Spanish Government and FEDER funds (Project MAT2015‐64139‐C4‐1‐R, AGL2015‐70235‐C2‐2‐R) and the Generalitat Valencia (Project PROMETEOII/2014/047) is gratefully acknowledged. Ll. P. is grateful to the Universitat Politécnica de Valencia for his grant. ; Pascual, L.; El Sayed Shehata Nasr, S.; Marcos Martínez, MD.; Martínez-Máñez, R.; Sancenón Galarza, F. (2017). Acetylcholinesterase-capped Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles Controlled by the Presence of Inhibitors. Chemistry - An Asian Journal. 12(7):775-784. https://doi.org/10.1002/asia.201700031 ; S ; 775 ; 784 ; 12 ; 7 ; Alberti, S., Soler-Illia, G. J. A. A., & Azzaroni, O. (2015). Gated supramolecular chemistry in hybrid mesoporous silica nanoarchitectures: controlled delivery and molecular transport in response to chemical, physical and biological stimuli. Chemical Communications, 51(28), 6050-6075. doi:10.1039/c4cc10414e ; Aznar, E., Oroval, M., Pascual, L., Murguía, J. R., Martínez-Máñez, R., & Sancenón, F. (2016). Gated Materials for On-Command Release of Guest ...

[EN] Organic-inorganic hybrid nanomaterials offer extremely valuable tools for monitoring many types of analytes in solution. Within this framework, aptamer-based nanomaterials for heavy metal detection are still very scarce. Herein, a novel sensing nanoprobe for the selective and sensitive detection of As(III) based on the combination of aptamers with mesoporous silica nanoparticles has been developed. The efficiency of the sensor is demonstrated in environmental conditions, showing a great potential in As(III) monitoring assays. ; The authors thank the financial support from the Spanish Government (projects MAT2015-64139-C4-1-R and AGL2015-70235-C2-2-R) and the Generalitat Valenciana (project GVA/2014/13). M.O. is grateful to the Universitat Politecnica for her PhD grant. A.B. thanks the Spanish Government for the finantial support "Juan de la Cierva-Incorporacion" (IJCI-2014-21534). C.C. thanks the Generalitat Valenciana for her postdoctoral contract VALi+D. ; Oroval, M.; Coll Merino, MC.; Bernardos Bau, A.; Marcos Martínez, MD.; Martínez-Máñez, R.; Shchukin, DG.; Sancenón Galarza, F. (2017). Selective Fluorogenic Sensing of As(III) Using Aptamer-Capped Nanomaterials. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. 9(13):11332-11336. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.6b15164 ; S ; 11332 ; 11336 ; 9 ; 13