An attentional control task reduces intrusive thoughts about smoking.

INTRODUCTION: Attentional control tasks such as body scanning and following isometric exercise instructions have been shown to reduce smoking cravings, apparently by reducing stress (Ussher, M., Cropley, M., Playle, S., Mohidin, R., & West, R. [2009]. Effect of isometric exercise and body scanning on cigarette cravings and withdrawal symptoms. Addiction, 104, 1251-1257. doi:10.1111/j.1360-0443.2009.02605.x). Related work based upon elaborated intrusion theory (Kavanagh, D. J., Andrade, J., & May, J. [2005]. Imaginary relish and exquisite torture: The elaborated intrusion theory of desire. Psychological Review, 112, 446-467. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.112.2.446) has shown that similar tasks can reduce hungry participants' involuntary food-related thoughts (May, J., Andrade, J., Batey, H., Berry, L.-M., & Kavanagh, D. [2010]. Less food for thought: Impact of attentional instructions on intrusive thoughts about snack foods. Appetite, 55, 279-287. doi:10.1016/j.appet.2010.06.014). This study tests the effect of body scanning instructions upon smoking-related thoughts as well as craving. METHODS: Twenty-seven smokers took part in 2 counterbalanced sessions, on different days, having been asked to abstain from smoking for 2 hr. In each session, they followed audio instructions for three 10-min blocks during which their thoughts were probed 10 times. In the first and third blocks, they were instructed to let their mind wander; during the second block of the control session, they also let their mind wander, but in the experimental session, they followed body scanning instructions. "Smoking thought frequency" was assessed using thought probes; "Craving" was measured using Factor 1 of the Questionnaire on Smoking Urges (Tiffany, S. T., & Drobes, D. J. [1991]. The development and initial validation of a questionnaire on smoking urges. British Journal of Addiction, 86, 1467-1476. doi:10.1111/j.1360-0443.1991.tb01732.x). RESULTS: Participants reported fewer smoking-related thoughts and lower smoking cravings in the body scanning block of the experimental session, whereas they rose in the comparable mind-wandering block of the control session. The reduction in thoughts during the body scanning correlated with the corresponding reduction in craving. CONCLUSIONS: Body scanning reduces cravings and reduces the frequency or shortens the duration of smoking thoughts. Attentional control strategies may form a useful part of smoking cessation practices

Anomalous Thermoluminescent Kinetics of Irradiated Alkali Halides

Anomalous thermoluminescent kinetics of irradiated alkali halide

ERTS image data compression technique evaluation

There are no author-identified significant results in this report

Radiochemical synthesis of pure anhydrous metal halides

Method uses radiation chemistry as practical tool for inorganic preparations and in particular deposition of metals by irradiation of their aqueous metal salt solutions with high energy electrons. Higher valence metal halide is dissolved in organic liquid and exposed to high energy electrons. This causes metal halide to be reduced to a lower valence metal halide

Production of pure metals

A process for depositing elements by irradiating liquids is reported. Ultra pure elements are precipitated from aqueous solutions or suspensions of compounds. A solution of a salt of a metal to be prepared is irradiated, and the insoluble reaction product settles out. Some chemical compounds may also be prepared in this manner

Lost in translation: a multi-level case study of the metamorphosis of meanings and action in public sector organisational innovation

This paper explores the early implementation of an organisational innovation in the UK National Health Service (NHS) - Treatment Centres (TCs) - designed to dramatically reduce waiting lists for elective care. The paper draws on case studies of eight TCs (each at varying stages of their development) and aims to explore how meanings about TCs are created and evolve, and how these meanings impact upon the development of the organisational innovation. Research on organisational meanings needs to take greater account of the fact that modern organisations like the NHS are complex multi-level phenomena, comprising layers of interlacing networks. To understand the pace, direction and impact of organisational innovation and change we need to study the interconnections between meanings across different organisational levels. The data presented in this paper show how the apparently simple, relatively unformed, concept of a TC framed by central government, is translated and transmuted by subsequent layers in the health service administration, and by players in local health economies and, ultimately in the TCs themselves, picking up new rationales, meanings, and significance as it goes. The developmental histories of TCs reveal a range of significant re-workings of macro policy with the result that there is considerable diversity and variation between local TC schemes. The picture is of important disconnections between meanings, that in many ways mirror Weick’s (1976) ‘loosely coupled systems’. The emergent meanings and the direction of micro-level development of TCs appear more strongly determined by interactions within the local TC environment, notably between what we identify as groups of ‘idealists’, ‘pragmatists’, ‘opportunists’ and ‘sceptics’ than by the framing (Goffman 1974) provided by macro and meso organisational levels. While this illustrates the limitations of top down and policy-driven attempts at change, and highlights the crucial importance of the front-line local ‘micro-systems’ (Donaldson & Mohr, 2000) in the overall scheme of implementing organisational innovations, the space or headroom provided by frames at the macro and meso levels can enable local change, albeit at variable speed and with uncertain outcomes

Trapping of hydrogen atoms in X-irradiated salts at room temperature and the decay kinetics

The salts (hypophosphites, formates, a phosphite, a phosphate, and an oxalate) were X-irradiated, whereby hydrogen formed chemically by a radiolytic process becomes trapped in the solid. By room temperature vacuum extraction, the kinetics for the evolution of this trapped hydrogen was studied mass spectrometrically. All salts except two exhibited second-order kinetics. The two exceptions (NaH2PO2(H2O) and K2HPO4) showed first-order kinetics. Based on experimental results, the escape of hydrogen involves three steps: the diffusion of hydrogen atoms from the bulk to the surface, association of these atoms on the surface (rate controlling step for second-order hydrogen evolution), and the desorption of molecular hydrogen from the surface. The hydrogen does not escape if the irradiated salt is stored in air, apparently because adsorbed air molecules occupy surface sites required in the escape mechanism

Developable Images Produced by X-rays Using the Nickel Hypophosphite System. 1 X-ray Sensitive Salts

Twenty-eight crystalline salts were X-irradiated and treated with an ammoniacal nickel hypophosphite solution. Treatment (development) of six of the salts resulted in precipitation of nickel metal. The developable salts were four hypophosphites, sodium phosphite, and nickel formate. A mechanism is proposed for the process based on the postulate that micro amounts of hydrogen atoms are formed during the radiation step. During development, these hydrogen atoms cause the formation of nucleation sites of nickel metal. In turn, these sites catalyze further reduction of the nickel cations by the hypophosphite. The results are discussed in terms of application of the process to the formation of developable latent images

Developable images produced by X-rays using the nickel-hypophosphite system. 3: The latent image and trapped hydrogen

The hydrogen trapped in X-irradiated hypophosphites, phosphites, formates, oxalates, a phosphate, and some organic compounds was vacuum extracted and measured quantitatively with a mass spectrometer. After extraction, normally developable salts were found to be still developable. Thus, the latent image is not the trapped hydrogen but a species of the type HPO(-)2. The amplification factor for irradiated hypophosphites is about 100. A narrow range of wavelengths (at about 0.07 nm, 0.7 A) is responsible for the formation of the latent image

Rethinking the patient: using Burden of Treatment Theory to understand the changing dynamics of illness

<b>Background</b> In this article we outline Burden of Treatment Theory, a new model of the relationship between sick people, their social networks, and healthcare services. Health services face the challenge of growing populations with long-term and life-limiting conditions, they have responded to this by delegating to sick people and their networks routine work aimed at managing symptoms, and at retarding - and sometimes preventing - disease progression. This is the new proactive work of patient-hood for which patients are increasingly accountable: founded on ideas about self-care, self-empowerment, and self-actualization, and on new technologies and treatment modalities which can be shifted from the clinic into the community. These place new demands on sick people, which they may experience as burdens of treatment.<p></p> <b>Discussion</b> As the burdens accumulate some patients are overwhelmed, and the consequences are likely to be poor healthcare outcomes for individual patients, increasing strain on caregivers, and rising demand and costs of healthcare services. In the face of these challenges we need to better understand the resources that patients draw upon as they respond to the demands of both burdens of illness and burdens of treatment, and the ways that resources interact with healthcare utilization.<p></p> <b>Summary</b> Burden of Treatment Theory is oriented to understanding how capacity for action interacts with the work that stems from healthcare. Burden of Treatment Theory is a structural model that focuses on the work that patients and their networks do. It thus helps us understand variations in healthcare utilization and adherence in different healthcare settings and clinical contexts