On the Origin of Narrow, Very Long, Straight Jets from Some Newly Forming Stars

Observations have shown the existence of narrow, very long, straight jets emitted by some newly forming stars (1). It is highly likely that stars forming in the plane of a spiral galaxy do so in the presence of an almost uniform magnetic field. In the Strong Magnetic Field model (SMF), gravitational collapse of a highly conducting plasma in the presence of such a field will result in the formation of a stable, highly relativistic current loop (storage ring) around the central object. The concept was first described by Greyber (2-14). In the figures in Mestel & Strittmatter (15), one can see such a storage ring beginning to form. Such an increasing dipole magnetic field (formed temporarily for 10$^4$ to 10$^6$ years) will produce, accelerate and confine a narrow, very long, straight jet. When the density becomes too high, either the loop is destroyed, or the current-carrying plasma ring is buried inside the newly forming star and is the source of primordial stellar magnetism.Comment: 6 pages, LaTeX-AAS styl

Provider satisfaction with an inpatient tobacco treatment program: results from an inpatient provider survey

Background: Hospitalization offers an optimal environment for ensuring that patients receive evidence-based treatment. An inpatient tobacco treatment program can deliver interventions broadly, but minimal research has examined the impacts of a consult program on inpatient providers. The Nicotine Dependence Program at the University of North Carolina has provided an inpatient tobacco treatment consult service since 2010. Objective: The program sought feedback from inpatient providers to examine factors that prompted tobacco treatment consult orders, the impact on provider counseling behavior, provider satisfaction, and suggested program improvements. Design: Providers who had ordered a tobacco treatment consult received an online anonymous survey. Setting: The University of North Carolina Hospital is an academic medical facility with 803 beds and over 37,000 inpatient admissions annually from all 100 counties in North Carolina. Approximately 20% of these inpatients report current use of any tobacco product. Patients/participants: Medical providers who ordered inpatient tobacco treatment consults from July 2012 to June 2013 (n=265) received the survey, with 118 providers responding (44.5% response rate). Results: Almost all providers reported being satisfied with the consult program and believed it was effective. Key factors in provider satisfaction included ease of accessing the service, saving provider time, and offering patients evidence-based tobacco use treatment. The consult program increased the likelihood of providers prescribing tobacco cessation medications at discharge, as well as following up at post-discharge appointments. Conclusion: This is some of the first research to show provider satisfaction, program usage, and outcomes with an inpatient tobacco treatment program and demonstrates the important impact of implementing tobacco treatment services within hospitals

Successful use of nicotine replacement therapy to quit e-cigarettes: Lack of treatment protocol highlights need for guidelines

Key Clinical Message: Although use of electronic nicotine delivery system devices, such as e-cigarettes and vapor pens, is on the rise, no treatment protocols exist to help such users quit. We report the case of a 24-year-old patient in a tobacco treatment program who successfully quit e-cigarette use by using nicotine replacement therapy

Provider satisfaction with an inpatient tobacco treatment program: Results from an inpatient provider survey

Background: Hospitalization offers an optimal environment for ensuring that patients receive evidence-based treatment. An inpatient tobacco treatment program can deliver interventions broadly, but minimal research has examined the impacts of a consult program on inpatient providers. The Nicotine Dependence Program at the University of North Carolina has provided an inpatient tobacco treatment consult service since 2010. Objective: The program sought feedback from inpatient providers to examine factors that prompted tobacco treatment consult orders, the impact on provider counseling behavior, provider satisfaction, and suggested program improvements. Design: Providers who had ordered a tobacco treatment consult received an online anonymous survey. Setting: The University of North Carolina Hospital is an academic medical facility with 803 beds and over 37,000 inpatient admissions annually from all 100 counties in North Carolina. Approximately 20% of these inpatients report current use of any tobacco product. Patients/participants: Medical providers who ordered inpatient tobacco treatment consults from July 2012 to June 2013 (n=265) received the survey, with 118 providers responding (44.5% response rate). Results: Almost all providers reported being satisfied with the consult program and believed it was effective. Key factors in provider satisfaction included ease of accessing the service, saving provider time, and offering patients evidence-based tobacco use treatment. The consult program increased the likelihood of providers prescribing tobacco cessation medications at discharge, as well as following up at post-discharge appointments. Conclusion: This is some of the first research to show provider satisfaction, program usage, and outcomes with an inpatient tobacco treatment program and demonstrates the important impact of implementing tobacco treatment services within hospitals

Case Study: Use of Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS) By a Pregnant Woman

Introduction: The use of electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) such as electronic cigarettes, vapour cigarettes, and vapour/hookah pens is rapidly increasing. The effectiveness of ENDS for smoking cessation and their safety, particularly amongst pregnant women, is largely unknown. Some women who use tobacco products in pregnancy, such as the one described in this case study, switch to ENDS assuming they are a safer alternative to smoking traditional cigarettes. Many obstetric providers do not screen for ENDS use and may miss an opportunity to counsel their patients about ENDS usage, side effects, or alternatives. Case Description: Motivated by concern for her baby's health, a 28-year-old patient reduced consumption of traditional cigarettes and began using ENDS shortly after learning she was pregnant. Her obstetric team did not screen for ENDS use and was unaware that she had started using ENDS. During the postpartum period, her providers ordered a tobacco cessation consult and the tobacco treatment specialist (TTS) discovered the patient's ENDS use as well as her desire to quit. Conclusions: In the absence of consistent screening by providers and a lack of safety data regarding ENDS use during pregnancy, women are often given little guidance in deciphering the potential risks and benefits of ENDS use. In this case, the patient turned to ENDS because she thought it was safer than smoking tobacco cigarettes and was unaware that there is limited research on ENDS safety. This case highlights the importance of updating clinical screening tools to include ENDS and the need for further research investigating the safety of ENDS use during pregnancy

The Emerging Global Tobacco Treatment Workforce: Characteristics of Tobacco Treatment Specialists Trained in Council-Accredited Training Programs from 2017 to 2019

Tobacco use is projected to kill 1 billion people in the 21st century. Tobacco Use Disorder (TUD) is one of the most common substance use disorders in the world. Evidence-based treatment of TUD is effective, but treatment accessibility remains very low. A dearth of specially trained clinicians is a significant barrier to treatment accessibility, even within systems of care that implement brief intervention models. The treatment of TUD is becoming more complex and tailoring treatment to address new and traditional tobacco products is needed. The Council for Tobacco Treatment Training Programs (Council) is the accrediting body for Tobacco Treatment Specialist (TTS) training programs. Between 2016 and 2019, n = 7761 trainees completed Council-accredited TTS training programs. Trainees were primarily from North America (92.6%) and the Eastern Mediterranean (6.1%) and were trained via in-person group workshops in medical and academic settings. From 2016 to 2019, the number of Council-accredited training programs increased from 14 to 22 and annual number of trainees increased by 28.5%. Trainees have diverse professional backgrounds and work in diverse settings but were primarily White (69.1%) and female (78.7%) located in North America. Nearly two-thirds intended to implement tobacco treatment services in their setting; two-thirds had been providing tobacco treatment for 1 year or less; and 20% were sent to training by their employers. These findings suggest that the training programs are contributing to the development of a new workforce of TTSs as well as the development of new programmatic tobacco treatment services in diverse settings. Developing strategies to support attendance from demographically and geographically diverse professionals might increase the proportion of trainees from marginalized groups and regions of the world with significant tobacco-related inequities

Mapping extreme-scale alignments of quasar polarization vectors

Based on a new sample of 355 quasars with significant optical polarization and using complementary statistical methods, we confirm that quasar polarization vectors are not randomly oriented over the sky with a probability often in excess of 99.9%. The polarization vectors appear coherently oriented or aligned over huge (~ 1 Gpc) regions of the sky located at both low (z ~ 0.5) and high (z ~ 1.5) redshifts and characterized by different preferred directions of the quasar polarization. In fact, there seems to exist a regular alternance along the line of sight of regions of randomly and aligned polarization vectors with a typical comoving length scale of 1.5 Gpc. Furthermore, the mean polarization angle \bar{\theta} appears to rotate with redshift at the rate of ~ 30\degr per Gpc. The symmetry of the the \bar{\theta} -z relation is mirror-like, the mean polarization angle rotating clockwise with increasing redshift in North Galactic hemisphere and counter-clockwise in the South Galactic one. These characteristics make the alignment effect difficult to explain in terms of local mechanisms, namely a contamination by interstellar polarization in our Galaxy. While interpretations like a global rotation of the Universe can potentially explain the effect, the properties we observe qualitatively correspond to the dichroism and birefringence predicted by photon-pseudoscalar oscillation within a magnetic field. Interestingly, the alignment effect seems to be prominent along an axis not far from preferred directions tentatively identified in the CMB maps. Although many questions and more particularly the interpretation of the effect remain open, alignments of quasar polarization vectors appear as a promising new way to probe the Universe and its dark components at extremely large scales.Comment: Accepted by Astronomy & Astrophysics; 19 pages, 17 figures. Include Table A1 which will be available via CD