Effects of Different Chemical Fertilizer Reduction Techniques on Flue-cured Tobacco Production

[Objectives]This study was conducted to find out the most suitable special formula fertilizer for flue-cured tobacco production in tobacco-growing areas of Zhaotong City,so as to provide a basis for scientific fertilization and reduced application of inorganic fertilizers with improved efficiency in tobacco production in Zhaotong City.[Methods]Different formulas of special base fertilizer and special topdressing for tobacco were designed by optimizing and adjusting the application amounts and proportions of nitrogen,phosphorus,potassium and medium trace elements in fertilizer formulas,and the formulas of special base fertilizer and special topdressing for flue-cured tobacco production were selected through a field plot experiment.[Results]The combination of special base fertilizer and special topdressing was conducive to the early growth and rapid growth of tobacco plants under the condition of reduced fertilizer application,and the treatment using organic-inorganic compound fertilizer as the special base fertilizer was the most obvious,with an average growth period of two days increased.Compared with conventional fertilization,the yield,output value,average price,proportion of superior tobacco and proportion of medium and superior tobacco increased in the organic-inorganic compound fertilizer treatment,with the yield increasing by 5.96%,the output value increasing by 17.08%,the average price increasing by 10.49%,the proportion of superior tobacco increasing by 4.63%,and the proportion of medium and superior tobacco increasing by 2.44%.It was concluded from indexes including growth period,agronomic traits,disease incidence and economic traits,the fertilization mode of organic-inorganic compound fertilizer with the addition of trace elements(boron,magnesium and zinc)applied as the base fertilizer and nitrogen and potassium topdressing was most efficient and economic.[Conclusions]This study provides a basis for scientific fertilization and reduced application of inorganic fertilizers with improved efficiency in tobacco production in Zhaotong City.

Study on Tobacco Leave Lean Production Management System

In recent years, tobacco lean production infrastructure is almost full-fledged through development, and professional service scope expands accordingly. Hence, the developing emphasis has transformed from hardware facilities improvement to software updating of lean management and precise work. With related documents released by China Tobacco and Guizhou Tobacco, the achievement of comprehen- sive lean management probably becomes one of the key goals for the future devel- opment of tobacco business. The construction goal of tobacco leaves lean produc- tion management system is to internalize technology, information, human resources, material and other production elements into value stream of flue-cured tobacco pro- duction, and strict control value stream of input costs and output benefits, and then create management profit, promote enterprise, core competitiveness. The lean pro- duction management is both extension and expansion of modern tobacco agriculture, closely related to agricultural standardization and GAP management, which is based on professional service training and production machinery upgrading, with team management and station working as carriers, and information feedback, key quality monitoring and benefit evaluation as assessment references.

Analysis of Employment Trend in Flue-Cured Tobacco Planting

Based on the investigation of the amount of labor used in each production link of flue-cured tobacco planting in Liuyang since 1989,and through the analysis of the changes of labor-related factors,it is concluded that the amount of labor used in tobacco planting in Liuyang experienced a significant increase and relatively stable stage in the early 1990s,and it has been declining continuously since the beginning of the 21st century;the change of flue-cured tobacco planting technology mode,as well as mechanized,large-scale and specialized production are the main factors that affect the change of the amount of labor used in flue-cured tobacco planting in Liuyang.Based on the method of changing the technical model to reduce amount of labor used,the types of labor used for planting of flue-cured tobacco can be divided into the following types:reducing the amount of labor by technical methods;reducing the amount of labor by making use of weather;reducing the amount of labor by using drugs;reducing the amount of labor used at the cost of reducing the technical implementation standards of a certain production link.The change of labor used in flue-cured tobacco planting is not only related to the cost and price factors,but also related to the profound social and economic background.In the future,reducing labor and cost is the trend of flue-cured tobacco production,and mechanization,large-scale and specialized production are the main development direction of flue-cured tobacco production,but under the condition that flue-cured tobacco production is still dominated by manual operation,maintaining a certain amount of labor is still the basis for maintaining high quality of flue-cured tobacco planting at present.

Tobacco control challenges in China: Big data analysis of online tobacco marketing information

Objective:To develop tobacco control strategies by analyzing online tobacco marketing information in China.Methods:Using web-crawler software,this study acquired 106,485 pieces of online tobacco marketing information published on 11 different Internet platforms including Weibo,WeChat,Baidu,etc.,from January-June 2018.The data were used to investigate the characteristics and social networks of online tobacco marketing via content and social network analysis.Results:The total volume of online tobacco marketing during the study period was high,showing a positive trend.Of all the marketing subjects,those involving"flavor capsule","Marlboro",and"Esse"were the most popular.The Weibo platform had the highest volume of online tobacco marketing information as well as the largest proportion of explicit marketing information.This was followed by other social media platforms such as Baidu Search,Baidu Tieba,and Xiaohongshu,where implicit marketing information predominated.The overall network structure of tobacco websites exhibited a significant centralization feature,where traditional and novel tobacco websites formed two clusters with almost no intersections.The China Tobacco Science and Education Website(http://www.tobaccoinfo.com.cn/)and E-Cigarette Home(http://ecigm.com/)were the two nodes of the highest degree centrality within the respective"circle",while the China Tobacco Monopoly Bureau Website(http://www.tobacco.gov.cn/)was the node with the highest closeness centrality.By contrast,Baidu Tieba's overall network structure was more decentralized,and the degree of correlation between different nodes was relatively low.Conclusion:Online tobacco marketing demonstrated high volumes and wide coverage,and an intertwined network,thereby creating major obstacles for tobacco control.To address this issue,the government should strengthen network supervision of tobacco marketing and revise its current regulations.Meanwhile,Internet platforms should improve self-regulation by comprehensively removing and blocking tobacco-related information.Lastly,the media and public should advocate associated policies and support Internet platform supervision.

Preliminary Studies on Evaluation and Change Trends of Dominant Components in New Types of Tobacco Sheets by Thick Pulp Process

[Objectives]This study was conducted to deeply understand the effects of production process on the quality of new types of tobacco sheets with different flavors.[Methods]Based on the pilot production process of thick pulp method,four different flavors of tobacco sheets were sampled at several links in the production process,for the detection of the contents of the main components in the samples,including propylene glycol,glycerol,menthol and glyceryl triacetate,so as to explore the change trends of various components in the thick pulp process.[Results]The change laws of propylene glycol and glycerol contents had a very high similarity,showing a trend of first decreasing and increasing then.The changes of menthol content and glyceryl triacetate content were greatly affected by the specific flavor formula.As one of the indexes of the new tobacco evaluation system,the alcohol-to-ester ratio data need to be further improved in the actual production and application process.[Conclusions]This study provides basic data support for improving the quality of tobacco sheets.

Levels of Chemical Toxicants in Waterpipe Tobacco and Waterpipe Charcoal Solid Waste

This work provides insights on waterpipe tobacco and waterpipe charcoal as potential sources of environmental toxicants. Selected harmful and potentially harmful constituents (HPHCs) from ten U.S. commercial waterpipe tobacco filler products (before and after electric heating) and five waterpipe charcoal products (before and after burning) were investigated. The differences in quantities of HPHCs between the evaluated products appear to be affected by raw material properties and/or the manufacturing processes involved in product production. Trace metal quantities in waterpipe tobacco and charcoal products were observed after heating or burning conditions compared to unheated or unburned conditions, which could impact the environment through the generation of toxic tobacco product waste. This study demonstrates that waterpipe tobacco and waterpipe charcoal contain substantial quantities of benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P) and trace metals (i.e., selenium, arsenic, cadmium, chromium, cobalt, lead, nickel) before use and that extensive and varied changes in trace metal quantities take place as a result of heating, and more studies are needed to estimate the magnitude of the environmental impact of waterpipe tobacco use.

Exclusive cigar smoking in the United States and smoking-related diseases: A systematic review

BACKGROUND Little information has been published on the risks of cigar smoking.Since 1990 cigar smoking has become more prevalent in the United States.AIM To summarise the evidence from the United States relating exclusive cigar smoking to risk of the major smoking-related diseases.METHODS Literature searches detected studies carried out in the United States which estimated the risk of lung cancer,chronic obstructive pulmonary disease(COPD),heart disease,stroke or overall circulatory disease in exclusive cigar smokers as compared to those who had never smoked any tobacco product.Papers were identified from reviews and detailed searches on MEDLINE.For each study,data were extracted onto a study database and a linked relative risk database.Relative risks and 95%CIs were extracted,or estimated,relating to current,former or ever exclusive cigar smokers,and meta-analysed using standard methods.Sensitivity analyses were conducted including or excluding results from studies that did not quite fit the full selection criteria(for example,a paper presenting combined results from five studies,where 86%of the population were in the United States).RESULTS The literature searches identified 17 relevant publications for lung cancer,four for COPD and 12 for heart disease,stroke and circulatory disease.These related to 11 studies for lung cancer,to four studies for COPD and to eight studies for heart disease,stroke or overall circulatory disease.As some studies provided results for more than one disease,the total number of studies considered was 13,with results from four of these used in sensitivity analyses.There was evidence of significant heterogeneity in some of the meta-analyses so the random-effects estimates are summarized below.As the results from the sensitivity analyses were generally very similar to those from the main analyses,and involved more data,only the sensitivity results are summarized below.For lung cancer,relative risks(95%CI)for current,former and ever smokers were respectively,2.98(2.08 to 4.26),1.61(1.23 to 2.09),and 2.22(1.79 to 2.74)based on 6,4 and 10 individual study estimates.For COPD,the corresponding estimates were 1.44(1.16 to 1.77),0.47(0.02 to 9.88),and 0.86(0.48 to 1.54)based on 4,2 and 2 estimates.For ischaemic heart disease(IHD)the estimates were 1.11(1.04 to 1.19),1.26(1.03 to 1.53)and 1.15(1.08 to 1.23)based on 6,3 and 4 estimates,while for stroke they were 1.02(0.92 to 1.13),1.08(0.85 to 1.38),and 1.11(0.95 to 1.31)based on 5,3 and 4 estimates.For overall circulatory disease they were 1.10(1.05 to 1.16),1.11(0.84 to 1.46),and 1.15(1.06 to 1.26)based on 3,3 and 4 estimates.CONCLUSION Exclusive cigar smoking is associated with an increased risk of lung cancer,and less so with COPD and IHD.The increases are lower than for cigarettes.

Discrimination of industrial products by on-line near infrared spectroscopy with an improved dendrogram

Near infrared（NIR） spectroscopy technique has shown great power and gained wide acceptance for analyzing complicated samples.The present work is to distinguish different brands of tobacco products by using on-line NIR spectroscopy and pattern recognition techniques.Moreover,since each brand contains a large number of samples,an improved dendrogram was proposed to show the classification of different brands.The results suggest that NIR spectroscopy combined with principal component analysis （PCA） and hierarchical cluster analysis（HCA） performs well in discrimination of the different brands,and the improved dendrogram could provide more information about the difference of the brands.