Comparison of Allen Carr's Easyway programme with a specialist behavioural and pharmacological smoking cessation support service: a randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: A combination of behavioural and pharmacological support is judged to be the optimal approach for assisting smoking cessation. Allen Carr's Easyway (ACE) is a single-session pharmacotherapy-free programme that has been in operation internationally for 38 years. We compared the effectiveness of ACE with specialist behavioural and pharmacological support delivered to the national standard in England. DESIGN: A two-arm, parallel-group, single-blind, randomized controlled trial. SETTING: London, UK, between February 2017 and May 2018. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 620 participants (310 in ACE and 310 in the combined behavioural and pharmacological support condition) were included in the analysis. Adult (≥ 18 years) smokers wanting to quit were randomized in a 1 : 1 ratio. Mean age for the total sample was 40.8 years, with 53.4% being male. Participant baseline characteristics (ethnicity, educational level, number of previous quit attempts, nicotine dependence) were evenly balanced between treatment groups. INTERVENTION AND COMPARATOR: The intervention was the ACE method of stopping smoking. This centres on a 4.5-6-hour session of group-based support, alongside subsequent text messages and top-up sessions if needed. It aims to make it easy to stop smoking by convincing smokers that smoking provides no benefits for them. The comparator was a specialist stop smoking service (SSS) providing behavioural and pharmacological support in accordance with national standards. MEASUREMENTS: The primary outcome was self-reported continuous abstinence for 26 weeks from the quit/quit re-set date verified by exhaled breath carbon monoxide measurement < 10 parts per million (p.p.m.). Primary analysis was by intention to treat. Secondary outcomes were: use of pharmacotherapy, adverse events and continuous abstinence up to 4 and 12 weeks. FINDINGS: A total of 468 participants attended treatment (255 ACE versus 213 SSS, P < 0.05). Of those who did attend treatment, 100 completed 6-month measures (23.7% ACE versus 20.7% SSS). Continuous abstinence to 26 weeks was 19.4% (60 of 310) in the ACE intervention and 14.8% (46 of 310) in the SSS intervention [risk difference for ACE versus SSS 4.5% (95% confidence interval (CI) = -1.4 to 10.4%, odds ratio (OR) = 1.38)]. The Bayes factor for superiority of the ACE condition was 1.24. CONCLUSION: There was no clear evidence of a difference in the efficacies of the Allen Carr's Easyway (ACE) and specialist smoking cessation support involving behavioural support and pharmacotherapy

Elastic Cross Sections for Electron Collisions with Molecules Relevant to Plasma Processing

Absolute electron-impact cross sections for molecular targets, including their radicals, are important in developing plasma reactors and testing various plasma processing gases. Low-energy electron collision data for these gases are sparse and only the limited cross section data are available. In this report, elastic cross sections for electron-polyatomic molecule collisions are compiled and reviewed for 17molecules relevant to plasma processing. Elastic cross sections are essential for the absolute scale conversion of inelastic cross sections, as well as for testing computational methods. Data are collected and reviewed for elastic differential, integral, and momentum transfer cross sections and, for each molecule, the recommended values of the cross section are presented. The literature has been surveyed through early 2010.This work is accomplished as a collaboration through APAN (Asia-Pacific Atomic Data Network: a network for dissemination of collisional data relevant to plasmas, discharges, materials, and biosciences). H.C. acknowledges a support by the National Research Foundation of Korea (Grant No. 20100000035), and M.J.B. and S.J.B. support from the Australian Research Council Center of Excellence for Antimatter-Matter Studies. Collaboration between NIFS and NFRI is also acknowledged for the Korea-Japan exchanges

Elastic electron scattering from CF3I

Experimental results are reported for elastic differential and integral cross sections for electrons scattering from CF3I. These measurements were made at ten incident electron energies in the range 10–50 eV, with a scattered electron angular range of 20◦–135◦. Where possible, comparison is made to the only other comprehensive experimental set of results available in the literature and to calculated cross sections from the Schwinger multichannel with pseudopotentials method. In general, quite good agreement is found between the present results and those of the earlier studies

Cross sections for electron impact excitation of the C 1 and D 1+ electronic states in N2O

Differential and integral cross sections for electron-impact excitation of the dipole-allowed C 1Π and D 1Σ+ electronic states of nitrous oxide have been measured. The differential cross sections were determined by analysis of normalized energy-loss spectra obtained using a crossed-beam apparatus at six electron energies in the range 15–200 eV. Integral cross sections were subsequently derived from these data. The present work was undertaken in order to check both the validity of the only other comprehensive experimental study into these excitation processes and to extend the energy range of those data. Agreement with the earlier data, particularly at the lower common energies, was typically found to be fair. In addition, the BEf-scaling approach is used to calculate integral cross sections for the C 1Π and D 1Σ+ states, from their respective thresholds to 5000 eV. In general, good agreement is found between the experimental integral cross sections and those calculated within the BEf-scaling paradigm, the only exception being at the lowest energies of this study. Finally, optical oscillator strengths, also determined as a part of the present investigations, were found to be in fair accordance with previous corresponding determinations

Benchmarking electronic-state excitation cross sections for electron-N2 collisions

We report differential cross sections for electron impact excitation of the a 1Πg, C 3Πu, E 3Σg+, a″ 1Σg+, b 1Πu, c3 1Πu, o3 1Πu, b′ 1Σu+, c4′ 1Σu+, G 3Πu, and F 3Πu electronic states in N2. The incident electron energies are 20, 30, and 40 eV, while the scattered electron angles are 10° and 20°. These kinematic conditions were specifically targeted in order to try and shed new light on the worrying discrepancies that exist in the literature for the a 1Πg, C 3Πu, E 3Σg+, and a″ 1Σg+ cross sections, and in general the present measurements confirm that those from the more recent results of the University of California, Fullerton, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory are reliable. In addition, we provide a rigorous cross-check for the remaining seven electronic states, where the only recent comprehensive study is from Khakoo and colleagues. Here, however, some of those cross sections are confirmed and others are not, suggesting that further work is still needed

Elastic Differential Cross Sctions for Electron Collisions with Polyatomic Molecules

Experimental data for electron-polyatomic molecule collisions are reviewed in connection with fusion and processing plasmas, as well as with the associated environmental issues. The electron scattering experiments for differential cross section (DCS) measurements for various processes, such as elastic scattering, have been performed across a broad range of energies (1-100 eV), mainly, at Sophia University since 1978, and some done under the collaborations with the Australian National University, Flinders University, and the Chungnam National University. As a benchmark cross section, elastic DCS are essential for the absolute scale conversion of inelastic DCS, as well as for testing computational methods. The need for cross-section data for a wide variety of molecular 2 species is also discussed, because there is an urgent need to develop an international program to provide the scientific and technological communities with authoritative cross sections for electron-molecule interactions. Note that the detailed comparison with other data available is not given here. Ruther, other available data can be found in the references we cite. This course of action was adopted to keep this report to a sensible length, so that only our numerical data is provided here

Substitution effects in elastic electron collisions with CH₃X (X=F, Cl, Br, I) molecules

We report absolute elastic differential, integral, and momentum transfer cross sections for electron interactions with the series of molecules CH₃X (X=F, Cl, Br, I). The incident electron energy range is 50–200 eV, while the scattered electron angular range for the differential measurements is 15°–150°. In all cases the absolute scale of the differential cross sections was set using the relative flow method with helium as the reference species. Substitution effects on these cross sections, as we progress along the halomethane series CH₃F, CH₃Cl, CH3Br, and CH₃I, are investigated as a part of this study. In addition, atomic-like behavior in these scattering systems is also considered by comparing these halomethane elastic cross sections to results from other workers for the corresponding noble gases Ne, Ar, Kr, and Xe, respectively. Finally we report results for calculations of elastic differential and integral cross sections for electrons scattering from each of the CH₃X species, within an optical potential method and assuming a screened corrected independent atom representation. The level of agreement between these calculations and our measurements was found to be quite remarkable in each case.This work was conducted under the support of the Japanese Ministry of Education, Sport, Culture and Technology and also by the Ministerio de Educación Ciencia e Innovación Plan Nacional de Fisica, Project No. FIS2006- 00702, the Consejo de Seguridad Nuclear and the European Science Foundation COST Action No. CM0601. Additional support from the Australian Research Council, through its Centres of Excellence Program, and the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation Grant No. 2009-0052415 is further noted. One of us H.K. also acknowledges the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science JSPS for his fellowships as grants-in-aid for scientific research and, most recently, to facilitate his visit to Flinders University and the ANU

A study of electron scattering from benzene: excitation of the 1B1u, 3E2g, and 1E1u electronic states

We report results from measurements for differential and integral cross sections of the unresolved 1B1u and 3E2g electronic states and the 1E1u electronic state in benzene. The energy range of this work was 10–200 eV, while the angular range of the differential cross sections was -3°–130°. To the best of our knowledge there are no other corresponding theoretical or experimental data against which we can compare the present results. A generalized oscillator strength analysis was applied to our 100 and 200 eV differential cross section data, for both the 1B1u and 1E1u states, with optical oscillator strengths being derived in each case. The respective optical oscillator strengths were found to be consistent with many, but not all, of the earlier theoretical and experimental determinations. Finally, we present theoretical integral cross sections for both the 1B1u and 1E1u electronic states, as calculated within the BEf-scaling formalism, and compare them against relevant results from our measurements. From that comparison, an integral cross section for the optically forbidden 3E2g state is also derived

Parental Attitudes toward Genetic Testing for Pediatric Deafness

Recent molecular genetic advances have resulted in genetic testing becoming an option for deaf individuals and their families. However, there is little information about the interest in such testing. To investigate this issue, parents with normal hearing who have one or more deaf children were surveyed about their attitudes toward diagnostic, carrier, and prenatal genetic testing for deafness. This population was chosen because it represents the majority of individuals who are encountered in clinical practice, given that 90%–95% of deaf individuals are born to persons with normal hearing. Of 328 surveys distributed, 96 were completed and returned. Of the respondents, 96% recorded a positive attitude toward genetic testing for deafness, including prenatal testing, although none would use this information to terminate an affected pregnancy. All respondents had a poor understanding of genetics, with 98% both incorrectly estimating the recurrence risk of deafness and misunderstanding the concept of inheritance. Notably, these findings were similar in the group who had had genetic testing for their children and in the group who had not, suggesting either that the parents who received genetic testing did not receive genetic counseling or that the counseling was not effective. On the basis of these results, it was concluded that this population is interested in the use of genetic testing and that testing should not be done without first providing formal genetic counseling. Appropriate counseling can help parents to understand the risks, benefits, and limitations of genetic testing