Share2Quit: Web-Based Peer-Driven Referrals for Smoking Cessation

BACKGROUND: Smoking is the number one preventable cause of death in the United States. Effective Web-assisted tobacco interventions are often underutilized and require new and innovative engagement approaches. Web-based peer-driven chain referrals successfully used outside health care have the potential for increasing the reach of Internet interventions. OBJECTIVE: The objective of our study was to describe the protocol for the development and testing of proactive Web-based chain-referral tools for increasing the access to Decide2Quit.org, a Web-assisted tobacco intervention system. METHODS: We will build and refine proactive chain-referral tools, including email and Facebook referrals. In addition, we will implement respondent-driven sampling (RDS), a controlled chain-referral sampling technique designed to remove inherent biases in chain referrals and obtain a representative sample. We will begin our chain referrals with an initial recruitment of former and current smokers as seeds (initial participants) who will be trained to refer current smokers from their social network using the developed tools. In turn, these newly referred smokers will also be provided the tools to refer other smokers from their social networks. We will model predictors of referral success using sample weights from the RDS to estimate the success of the system in the targeted population. RESULTS: This protocol describes the evaluation of proactive Web-based chain-referral tools, which can be used in tobacco interventions to increase the access to hard-to-reach populations, for promoting smoking cessation. CONCLUSIONS: Share2Quit represents an innovative advancement by capitalizing on naturally occurring technology trends to recruit smokers to Web-assisted tobacco interventions

Overview of the NASA Entry, Descent and Landing Systems Analysis Study

NASA senior management commissioned the Entry, Descent and Landing Systems Analysis (EDL-SA) Study in 2008 to identify and roadmap the Entry, Descent and Landing (EDL) technology investments that the agency needed to make in order to successfully land large payloads at Mars for both robotic and human-scale missions. This paper summarizes the approach and top-level results from Year 1 of the Study, which focused on landing 10-50 mt on Mars, but also included a trade study of the best advanced parachute design for increasing the landed payloads within the EDL architecture of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission

Magnetic fields in cluster cores: Faraday rotation in A400 and A2634

We present Faraday rotation data for radio sources in the centers of the Abell clusters A400 and A2634. These clusters contain large (> 100 kpc), tailed radio sources, each attached to the central cD galaxy. These clusters do not have strong cooling cores. Our data extend previous work on rotation measure in cluster centers to larger scales and non-cooling clusters. The rotation measure, and thus the magnetic field, is ordered on scales 10-20 kpc in both clusters. The geometry of the rotation measure appears to be determined by the distribution of the X-ray emitting gas, rather than by the radio tails themselves. We combine our data with previously published X-ray and radio data in order to analyze the magnetic fields in all 12 clusters whose central radio sources have been imaged in rotation measure. We find that the fields are dynamically significant in most clusters. We argue that the Faraday data measure fields in the intracluster medium, rather than in a skin of the radio source. Finally, we consider the nature and maintenance of the magnetic fields in these clusters, and conclude that either the cluster-wide field exists at similar levels, or that a weaker cluster-wide field is amplified by effects in the core.Comment: Accepted for ApJ. 43 pages including 10 embedded figures. Higher resolution versions of the figures available at http://www.aoc.nrao.edu/~jeilek/pubs/Eilekpub.htm

Nuclear stellar discs in low-luminosity elliptical galaxies: NGC 4458 and NGC 4478

We present the detection of nuclear stellar discs in the low-luminosity elliptical galaxies NGC 4458 and NGC 4478, which are known to host a kinematically-decoupled core. Using archival HST imaging, and available absorption line-strength index data based on ground-based spectroscopy, we investigate the photometric parameters and the properties of the stellar populations of these central structures. Their scale length, h, and face-on central surface brightness, mu_0^c, fit on mu_0^c-h relation for galaxy discs. For NGC 4458 these parameters are typical for nuclear discs, while the same quantities for NGC 4478 lie between those of nuclear discs and the discs of discy ellipticals. We present Lick/IDS absorption line-strength measurements of Hbeta, Mgb, along the major and minor axes of the galaxies. We model these data with simple stellar populations that account for the alpha/Fe overabundance. The counter-rotating central disc of NGC 4458 is found to have similar properties to the decoupled cores of bright ellipticals. This galaxy has been found to be uniformly old despite being counter-rotating. In contrast, the cold central disc of NGC 4478 is younger, richer in metals and less overabundant than the main body of the galaxy. This points to a prolonged star formation history, typical of an undisturbed disc-like, gas-rich (possibly pre-enriched) structure.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures, accepted for pubblication on MNRA

Who participates in web-assisted tobacco interventions? The quit-primo and national dental practice-based research network hi-quit studies

INTRODUCTION: Smoking is the most preventable cause of death. Although effective, Web-assisted tobacco interventions are underutilized and recruitment is challenging. Understanding who participates in Web-assisted tobacco interventions may help in improving recruitment. OBJECTIVES: To understand characteristics of smokers participating in a Web-assisted tobacco intervention (Decide2Quit.org). METHODS: In addition to the typical Google advertisements, we expanded Decide2Quit.org recruitment to include referrals from medical and dental providers. We assessed how the expanded recruitment of smokers changed the users\u27 characteristics, including comparison with a population-based sample of smokers from the national Behavioral Risk Factors Surveillance Survey (BRFSS). Using a negative binomial regression, we compared demographic and smoking characteristics by recruitment source, in particular readiness to quit and association with subsequent Decide2Quit.org use. RESULTS: The Decide2Quit.org cohort included 605 smokers; the 2010 BRFSS dataset included 69,992. Compared to BRFSS smokers, a higher proportion of Decide2Quit.org smokers were female (65.2% vs 45.7%, P=.001), over age 35 (80.8% vs 67.0%, P=.001), and had some college or were college graduates (65.7% vs 45.9%, P=.001). Demographic and smoking characteristics varied by recruitment; for example, a lower proportion of medical- (22.1%) and dental-referred (18.9%) smokers had set a quit date or had already quit than Google smokers (40.1%, P CONCLUSIONS: Recruitment from clinical practices complimented Google recruitment attracting smokers less motivated to quit and less experienced with Web-assisted tobacco interventions. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Clinicaltrials.gov NCT00797628; http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00797628 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6F3tqz0b3)

A matched study of surgically treated stage IB adenosquamous carcinoma and adenocarcinoma of the uterine cervix

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/72055/1/j.1525-1438.1993.03040245.x.pd

Dynamical Inflation and Unification Scale on Quantum Moduli Spaces

We show that simple strongly coupled supersymmetric gauge theories with quantum moduli spaces can naturally lead to hybrid inflation. These theories contain no input dimensionful or small parameters. The effective superpotential is linear in the inflaton field; this ensures that supergravity corrections do not spoil the slow roll conditions for inflation. We construct a simple theory in which the classical moduli space exhibits neither GUT-symmetry-breaking nor inflation whereas its quantum modification exhibits both. As a result, the dynamical origin and scales of inflation and grand unification coincide.Comment: 8 pages; no figures; plain Late

The Association of Tree Pollen Concentration Peaks and Allergy Medication Sales in New York City: 2003–2008

The impact of pollen exposure on population allergic illness is poorly characterized. We explore the association of tree pollen and over-the-counter daily allergy medication sales in the New York City metropolitan area. Dates of peak tree pollen (maple, oak, and birch) concentrations were identified from 2003 to 2008. Daily allergy medication sales reported to the city health department were analyzed as a function of the same-day and lagged tree pollen peak indicators, adjusting for season, year, temperature, and day of week. Significant associations were found between tree pollen peaks and allergy medication sales, with the strongest association at 2-day lag (excess sales of 28.7% (95% CI: 17.4–41.2) over the average sales during the study period). The cumulative effect over the 7-day period on and after the tree pollen peak dates was estimated to be 141.1% (95% CI: 79.4–224.1). In conclusion, tree pollen concentration peaks were followed by large increases in over-the-counter allergy medication sales

Bronchoarterial ratio in never‐smokers adults: Implications for bronchial dilation definition

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/135610/1/resp12875_am.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/135610/2/resp12875.pd

Poly(vinyl alcohol) molecular bottlebrushes nucleate ice

Ice binding proteins (IBP) have evolved to limit the growth of ice but also to promote ice formation by ice-nucleating proteins (INPs). IBPs, which modulate these seemingly distinct processes, often have high sequence similarities, and molecular size/assembly is hypothesized to be a crucial determinant. There are only a few synthetic materials that reproduce INP function, and rational design of ice nucleators has not been achieved due to outstanding questions about the mechanisms of ice binding. Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) is a water-soluble synthetic polymer well known to effectively block ice recrystallization, by binding to ice. Here, we report the synthesis of a polymeric ice nucleator, which mimics the dense assembly of IBPs, using confined ice-binding polymers in a high-molar-mass molecular bottlebrush. Poly(vinyl alcohol)-based molecular bottlebrushes with different side-chain densities were synthesized via a combination of ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP) and reversible addition–fragmentation chain-transfer (RAFT) polymerization, using “grafting-to” and “grafting-through” approaches. The facile preparation of the PVA bottlebrushes was performed via selective hydrolysis of the acetate of the poly(vinyl acetate) (PVAc) side chains of the PVAc bottlebrush precursors. Ice-binding polymer side-chain density was shown to be crucial for nucleation activity, with less dense brushes resulting in colder nucleation than denser brushes. This bio-inspired approach provides a synthetic framework for probing heterogeneous ice nucleation and a route toward defined synthetic nucleators for biotechnological applications