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

What moderates the attainment gap? The effects of social identity incompatibility and practical incompatibility on the performance of students who are or are not Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic

A successful journey through higher education is, for many, a once in a lifetime opportunity for social mobility. Unfortunately, one notable feature of higher education systems is that students from some backgrounds do not achieve the same academic attainments as do others. The current study tests the role of one particular set of processes: social identity (in)compatibility on academic performance. Participants were recruited at two time points from a pool of first year undergraduates at a modern London University (N=215) of which 40.1% were classed as Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic (BAME), 57.1% as non-BAME and 2.8% did not provide this information. A prospective design was employed: Alongside demographic data, measures at the start of the academic year consisted of measures of student and ethnic identity, and both practical and identity incompatibility. At the end of the academic year, average marks achieved were gained for each student from the university’s registry system. Results indicate that BAME students had equal levels of student identity to non-BAME students, but higher levels of ethnic identity. They also typically experienced higher levels of both practical and identity incompatibility. Finally, BAME students had lower attainment than did non-BAME students. Both practical and identity incompatibility appeared to moderate this effect. However, contrary to predictions, it was only under conditions of low and medium levels of incompatibility that BAME students attained lower marks than their non-BAME peers. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed

Erratum for “Pyramidal Aberrometry in Wavefront-Guided Myopic LASIK”

The article "Pyramidal Aberrometry in Wavefront-Guided Myopic LASIK" by Andreas Frings, MD, MHBA; Hala Hassan, BSc (Hons); Bruce D. Allan, MD, which was published in the July 2020 issue of the Journal of Refractive Surgery (volume 36, number 7, pp. 442-448, doi:10.3928/1081597X-20200519-03), has been amended to include factual corrections. An error was identified subsequent to its original publication. On pages 442 and 444, respectively, the last line of the Abstract Results section and the Results section should read "No eyes lost two or more lines of corrected distance visual acuity." instead of "No eyes lost one or more lines of corrected distance visual acuity." The online article and its erratum are considered the version of record

What moderates the attainment gap? The effects of social identity incompatibility and practical incompatibility on the performance of students who are or are not Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic

A successful journey through higher education is, for many, a once in a lifetime opportunity for social mobility. Unfortunately, one notable feature of higher education systems is that students from some backgrounds do not achieve the same academic attainments as do others. The current study tests the role of one particular set of processes: social identity (in)compatibility on academic performance. Participants were recruited at two time points from a pool of first year undergraduates at a modern London University (N=215) of which 40.1% were classed as Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic (BAME), 57.1% as non-BAME and 2.8% did not provide this information. A prospective design was employed: Alongside demographic data, measures at the start of the academic year consisted of measures of student and ethnic identity, and both practical and identity incompatibility. At the end of the academic year, average marks achieved were gained for each student from the university’s registry system. Results indicate that BAME students had equal levels of student identity to non-BAME students, but higher levels of ethnic identity. They also typically experienced higher levels of both practical and identity incompatibility. Finally, BAME students had lower attainment than did non-BAME students. Both practical and identity incompatibility appeared to moderate this effect. However, contrary to predictions, it was only under conditions of low and medium levels of incompatibility that BAME students attained lower marks than their non-BAME peers. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed

Paläotemperatur-Anomalien in spät-Variskischen Kohlebecken am Beispiel des Cinera-Matallana Beckens, Kantabrisches Gebirge, NW Spanien

Das Stefanische Ciñera-Matallana Kohlebecken weist durch Inkohlungsgrade bis hin zu Anthraziten und Metamorphosegrade bis hin zur Grenze Anchi-/Epizone auf eine anomale Paläo-Temperaturgeschichte hin. Um diese Anomalie qualitativ und quantitativ näher beschreiben zu können, wurden die Beckensedimente auf die Haupteinflussfaktoren Versenkung, Deformation, Fluidbewegung und Magmatismus sowie Wechselwirkungen zwischen diesen hin untersucht. Als Methoden kamen die Untersuchung der Tonmineralparagenese mit Schwerpunkt Illitkristallinität und die Messungen der mittleren Vitrinitreflexion, der Anisotropie der Vitrinitreflexion (AVR) und der Anisotropie der magnetischen Suszeptibilität (AMS) zum Einsatz. Die Untersuchungsergebnisse zeigen, dass die Inkohlung hauptsächlich durch die Versenkungstiefe bei einem hohen mittleren paläogeothermischen Gradienten von 85 °C/km für die Stefanischen Einheiten gesteuert wurde. Aufgrund der Berechnungen ergibt sich eine ehemalige, vermutlich Stefanische Überlagerung von ca. 1000 m zur Zeit der maximalen Inkohlung. Der hohe Gradient wird mit den magmatischen Aktivitäten im CMB in Verbindung gesetzt. Lokale Inkohlungsmaxima sind an einen direkten Kontakt zu den Intrusionen gebunden. Die durch die IK angezeigten Metamorphosegrade bis maximal der unteren Epizone zeigen ein regionales Muster ohne Abhängigkeit zur Versenkungstiefe. Hier ist als Haupteinflussparameter eine ausgeprägte Konvektion von warmen Fluiden im Dach der magmatischen Körper diskriminiert worden. Das Inkohlungsgefüge, angezeigt durch die AVR, und das Gesteinsgefüge, angezeigt durch die AMS, zeigen eine gute Korrelation. An Fallbeispielen (Faltenstrukturen) wird nachgewiesen, dass beide Gefüge kompaktionale und tektonische Elemente besitzen

Universal magnetic structure of the half-magnetization phase in Cr-based spinels

Using an elastic neutron scattering technique under a pulsed magnetic field up to 30 T, we determined the magnetic structure in the half-magnetization plateau phase in the spinel CdCr$_2$O$_4$. The magnetic structure has a cubic $P4_3$32 symmetry, which is the same as that observed in HgCr$_2$O$_4$. This suggests that there is a universal field induced spin-lattice coupling mechanism at work in the Cr-based spinels.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

The influence of tDCS on perceived bouncing/streaming

Processing ambiguous situations is a constant challenge in everyday life and sensory input from different modalities needs to be integrated to form a coherent mental representation on the environment. The bouncing/streaming illusion can be studied to provide insights into the ambiguous perception and processing of multi-modal environments. In short, the likelihood of reporting bouncing rather than streaming impressions increases when a sound coincides with the moment of overlap between two moving disks. Neuroimaging studies revealed that the right posterior parietal cortex is crucial in cross-modal integration and is active during the bouncing/streaming illusion. Consequently, in the present study, we used transcranial direct current stimulation to stimulate this brain area. In the active stimulation conditions, a 9 cm2 electrode was positioned over the P4-EEG position and the 35 cm2 reference positioned over the left upper arm. The stimulation lasted 15 min. Each participant did the bouncing/streaming task three times: before, during and after anodal or sham stimulation. In a sample of N = 60 healthy, young adults, we found no influence of anodal tDCS. Bayesian analysis showed strong evidence against tDCS effects. There are two possible explanations for the finding that anodal tDCS over perceptual areas did not modulate multimodal integration. First, upregulation of multimodal integration is not possible using tDCS over the PPC as the integration process already functions at maximum capacity. Second, prefrontal decision-making areas may have overruled any modulated input from the PPC as it may not have matched their decision-making criterion and compensated for the modulation

Re-entrant hidden order at a metamagnetic quantum critical end point

Magnetization measurements of URu2Si2 in pulsed magnetic fields of 44 T reveal that the hidden order phase is destroyed before appearing in the form of a re-entrant phase between ~ 36 and 39 T. Evidence for conventional itinerant electron metamagnetism at higher temperatures suggests that the re-entrant phase is created in the vicinity of a quantum critical end point.Comment: 8 pages, including 3 figures (Physical Review Letters, in press) a systematic error in the field calibration has been fixed since the original submission of this manuscrip