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The 3,4-methylenedioxymetamphetamine (MDMA) content in ecstasy tablets has increased enormously throughout Europe across the past decade. This study aims to determine whether this is caused by the production of “stronger” tablets (more mg MDMA per mg of tablet), or if tablets have simply been getting larger and heavier (more mg of tablet in total).

A data set of 31,716 ecstasy tablets obtained in 2012–2021 by 10 members of the Trans European Drug Information (TEDI) network was analysed.

The MDMA mass fraction in ecstasy tablets has remained virtually unchanged over the past 10 years, with increased MDMA contents being attributed almost exclusively to increased tablet weight. These trends seem to be uniform across Europe, despite varying sampling and analytical techniques being used by the TEDI participants. The study also shows that while tablet weight correlates perfectly with MDMA content on a yearly basis, wide variations in the MDMA mass fraction make such relations irrelevant for determining the MDMA content of individual tablets.

These results provide new opportunities for harm reduction, given that size is a tangible and apparently accurate characteristic to emphasise that one tablet does not simply equate to one dose. This is particularly useful for harm reduction services without the resources for in-house quantification of large numbers of ecstasy tablets, although the results of this study also show that chemical analysis remains crucial for accurate personalised harm reduction.

The findings are both new and pertinent, providing a novel insight into the market dynamics of ecstasy tablet production at a transnational level.

THE importance of control surface mass balancing does not need to be emphasized, and it is well known that the faster aeroplanes fly, the greater is the care and attention which the designer must give to this question.

Describes a novel system that simultaneously measures both force and acceleration, and hence deduces mass. The system has been in use on ships and at fish‐sorting plants in Japan for about 8 years. However, applications are far wider than the fishing industry and the system can be used for “weighing” moving objects. Strictly speaking, the systems deduce mass rather than weight, but for simplicity we talk about “weighing” when we really mean mass determination in order to determine weight due to gravity under static conditions.

The structure‐borne sound generated by power equipment can be isolated effectively through vibration absorber under hull base structures. The practical vibration isolation performance is limited due to the weight, size and cost. The dramatic attenuating wave propagation characteristic of hull base without adding weight is essential to the vessel acoustic stealth.

The characteristics of vibration wave propagated from typical shape base link structures have been investigated according to impedance mismatch and wave conversion in non‐homogeneous structure. The hull base is simplified to three degrees of freedom damped system through the mechanical impedance method. The influence of blocking mass weight, as well as location properties to the base vibration isolation performance have been discussed. Furthermore, the structure‐borne sound design of a typical hull base is carried out.

The impedance mismatch of the hull base is further increased by the comprehensive use of high transmission loss base link structures, blocking mass as well as damping layer. The effectiveness of structure‐borne sound design is verified through numerical calculation together with underwater model test. The test data show that the noise has been reduced larger than 3 dB.

The paper describes what is believed to be the first application of the high transmission loss base in hull structures based on the literature survey. The method of structure‐borne sound design of a typical hull base can be applied in different types of vessels.

This study aimed to assess the influence of the community-based campaign on weight loss and healthy lifestyle adoption among Bahrain's adult population.

A cross -sectional self-reported online questionnaire completed in February 2021. The survey evaluated the impact of the community-based campaign health program which includes (exercise, diet plan and psychological eating behavior) weight reduction using social media platforms. The authors employed data from young and middle-aged healthy adults (n = 842) between the ages of 18-55 years, of both sexes. The intervention group (n = 842) was made up of the supporters of the voluntary community initiative called Obesity does not Suit Me (n = 194), and the control group (n = 648) was made up of non-followers of the campaign.

The study showed a statistically significant difference among the followers of the community-based campaign health program in the following parameters: 3.90-4.23 kg less, 1.46-1.59 difference in BMI and 0.05-0.06 WHR. All changes were of low effect size.

Diet and exercise had significant impact on weight, BMI and WHR among the followers of the community campaign. However, more research is required for sponsorship to increase the motivation and rewards for the community campaign.

The purpose of this study was to provide the first report of weight and dieting behaviour of college students in Cyprus. A cross‐sectional survey was administered to a convenience sample of 451 students studying at the largest private college in Cyprus. The survey was used to determine the prevalence of inappropriate dieting practices that included use of diet pills, fasting, induced vomiting and laxative use to get rid of food eaten. Body mass index and accuracy of self‐perceived weight were also determined. A high rate of underweight among females and a low rate of obesity for all students were found. Students reported unhealthy dieting behaviours including use of diet pills, fasting, induced vomiting and laxative use. The results show that there are serious weight issues for students in Cyprus and indicate that disordered dieting behaviours exist in the Mediterranean.

This paper evaluates the Nutrition Intervention Project (NIP) implemented statewide in the State of Virginia to determine the effectiveness of nutritional intervention in decreasing pre‐term births and low birth weight (LBW) babies to at‐risk pregnant women in urban and rural areas. Sample size was 1,284. Majority of the respondents were white, primiparae, between 20‐29 years of age, and underweight (BMI < 19.8). Twenty‐one per cent of the of the births were pre‐term, and 13.3 per cent were in the LBW category. Regression analysis indicated that number of visits to the nutritionist was positively associated with birth weight and gestational age of the baby. Nutrition intervention (NI) decreased the smoking behaviour and improved the intake of iron supplements, both of which improved the weight gain and pregnancy outcomes. Effects analysis indicated that the causal effect operated both via intervening variables as well as directly between nutritional intervention and pregnancy outcomes. The path from NI to birth outcomes via weight gain was the strongest. Respondents in urban areas had a higher risk of pre‐term births than rural areas.

In Indonesia, 29.3% of Indonesian women were obese. Dehydrated women have 1.6 times higher risk of becoming obese than normal ones. This study was aimed to further explore the association between gestational weight gain (GWG) and maternal hydration status.

This longitudinal study involved 50 pregnant women aged 18–35 years. Subject identity, age, parity and household expenses were collected using questionnaire. Urine specific gravity (USG) was used as an indicator for hydration status. Venous blood was collected to measured haemoglobin (Hb) by anemometer method. Anthropometric data such as pre-pregnancy weight, maternal body weight, GWG, body mass index (BMI) and mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) was collected using standardized tools. Dietary and total water intake (TWI) were measured through three consecutive days of a 24-h food recall. Pearson’s correlation, independent t-test and analysis of covariance were used to appraise the hypothesis.

The subject’s mean age was 29.3 ± 5.6 years; BMI was 23.5 ± 4.1 kg/m2. MUAC (28.2 ± 4.0 cm) and Hb (11.5 ± 1.0 g/dl) were still in the normal range. Most subjects were well hydrated, with an average USG of 1.016 g/mL. GWG and TWI are significantly correlated (p < 0.01). Based on the hydration status, after corrected with TWI, GWG was not significantly different.

It calls to mind that nutrition and water intake, alongside weight gain monitoring during pregnancy, are part of an effort to prevent pregnancy risks.

An analytical rheological‐dynamical visco‐elastic solution of one‐dimensional longitudinal continuous vibration of bars has been developed and used to evaluate the validity of the classical analytical elastic solutions. As it is well known, the resonance occurs only in the continuous or singledegree‐of‐freedom ideal elastic system when the excitation frequency ωP is equal to the one of the natural frequency of the bar. However, owing to the visco‐elastic nature of materials and frequency dependence of the damping factor it is useful to consider separately the situations arising when the is positive (system is stable) and when it is negative. Negative damping factor means that the complementary solution of the response would not die away (system is unstable because of the factor e). Rheologic behavior of the bar can be characterized by one parameter, i.e. dynamic time of retardation TK D=1/ω, like in a single‐degree‐of‐freedom spring mass system. RDA model has the same phase angle as a simple single‐degree‐of‐freedom spring mass system with damping in the steady state vibration and from that the damping factor is obtained. This paper provides description of the dynamic magnification factor and the transmissibility of several metallic materials using RDA similitude and could be concluded that an ideally effective antivibration mount material should satisfy at least two requirements: first, it should posses a relatively large damping factor; and second, it should possess a damping factor that either remains constant or decreases only slowly with frequency.

This study aims to develop a data fusion method for powder-bed fusion (PBF) process monitoring based on process image information. The data fusion method can help improve process condition identification performance, which can provide guidance for further PBF process monitoring and control system development.

Design of reliable process monitoring systems is an essential approach to solve PBF built quality. A data fusion framework based on support vector machine (SVM), convolutional neural network (CNN) and Dempster-Shafer (D-S) evidence theory are proposed in the study. The process images which include the information of melt pool, plume and spatters were acquired by a high-speed camera. The features were extracted based on an appropriate image processing method. The three feature vectors corresponding to the three objects, respectively, were used as the inputs of SVM classifiers for process condition identification. Moreover, raw images were also used as the input of a CNN classifier for process condition identification. Then, the information fusion of the three SVM classifiers and the CNN classifier by an improved D-S evidence theory was studied.

The results demonstrate that the sensitivity of information sources is different for different condition identification. The feature fusion based on D-S evidence theory can improve the classification performance, with feature fusion and classifier fusion, the accuracy of condition identification is improved more than 20%.

An improved D-S evidence theory is proposed for PBF process data fusion monitoring, which is promising for the development of reliable PBF process monitoring systems.