The New Year brings the inevitable consideration of whether to make any New Year’s resolutions. Here’s a light-hearted look at some recent research from MDPI that can help you to make up your mind and keep you motivated. For many people, the idea of setting a resolution can be daunting while for others they border on necessary. Where do you fall in this spectrum? Here we’re going to do our best to give some interesting tips based on MDPI articles that might be relevant to anyone who’s aiming to have a New Year’s Resolution this year.

Resolutions: Want to quit smoking?

A Special Issue on e-cigarettes, published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health looking at their role in harm reduction:

Is there a potential for electronic cigarettes to be a breakthrough in tobacco harm reduction? Do they represent a gateway from or to smoking? Are they effective in promoting smoking reduction or as a complete substitution, and why? Is there a potential to cause harm, and at what level compared to smoking? How should they be regulated?

Resolutions: Thinking of going on a diet?

Here’s some advice and motivation for the coming year:

• Snack on antioxidants to decrease the risk of harmful diseases.
• Another article tells us that “Nutrition is probably the most important environmental factor that modulates expression of genes involved in metabolic pathways and the variety of phenotypes associated with obesity.”
• Take inspiration from the animal world.

What to do with that old Christmas tree?

It’s time to throw away last year’s tree, let’s hope that you get to the one for next year before something else does:

• Watch out for those pesky Douglas-Fir Tussock Moths and Douglas-Fir Beetles.
• At least we can track progress with Remote Sensing methods such as LiDAR:
• And there’s hope for forests that have already suffered.

Have other resolutions?

The benefits of having a pet are worth considering.

Sensor technology is becoming available to make it easier to track your progress in keeping going with your resolutions.

Of course, another alternative is to opt for super-resolutions 😉

A very happy 2015 from all at MDPI and good luck with your resolutions!