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

CP Violation in B → ψX and B → DD: A Small Step for a Penguin

The standard model of particle physics is experimentally confirmed to a very high precision, this requires as well an improvement of theoretical precision. We use an operator product expansion to predict CP asymmetries in the exclusive decays B → ψX and B → DD. These lead to the most precise theoretical determination of the angle β (βs) in the Bd (Bs) unitarity triangle

Interlacing Patterns in Exclusion Processes and Random Matrices

In the last decade, there has been increasing interest in the fields of random matrices, interacting particle systems, stochastic growth models, and the connections between these areas. For instance, several objects that appear in the limit of large matrices also arise in the long-time limit for interacting particles and growth models. Examples of these are the famous Tracy-Widom distribution function and the Airy2 process. The objectives of this thesis are threefold: First, we discuss known relations between random matrices and some models in the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang universality class, namely the polynuclear growth model and the totally/partially asymmetric simple exclusion processes. For these models, in the limit of large time t, universality of fluctuations has been previously obtained. We consider the convergence to the limiting distributions and determine the (non-universal) first order corrections, which turn out to be a non-random shift of order t-1/3. Subtracting this deterministic correction, the convergence is then of order t-2/3. We also determine the strength of asymmetry in the exclusion process for which the shift is zero and discuss to what extend the discreteness of the model has an effect on the fitting functions. Second, we focus on the Gaussian Unitary Ensemble and its relation to the totally asymmetric simple exclusion process and discuss the appearance of the Tracy-Widom distribution in the two models. For this, we consider extensions of these systems to triangular arrays of interlacing points, the so-called Gelfand-Tsetlin patterns. We show that the correlation functions for the eigenvalues of the matrix minors for complex Dyson's Brownian motion have, when restricted to increasing times and decreasing matrix dimensions, the same correlation kernel as in the extended interacting particle system under diffusion scaling limit. We also analyze the analogous question for a diffusion on complex sample covariance matrices. Finally, we consider the minor process of Hermitian matrix diffusions with constant diagonal drifts. At any given time, this process is determinantal and we provide an explicit expression for its correlation kernel. This is a measure on Gelfand-Tsetlin patterns that also appears in a generalization of Warren's process, in which Brownian motions have level-dependent drifts. We will also show that this process arises in a diffusion scaling limit from the interacting particle system on Gelfand-Tsetlin patterns with level-dependent jump rates

Attachment style moderates the relationship between social media use and user mental health and wellbeing

Background: Past research has correlated social media use with a variety of mental health outcomes – both positive and negative. The current study aims to explore two possible moderators of the link between social media use and mental health outcomes; specifically, the effects of having an anxious and/or avoidant attachment style. Method; A cross-sectional correlational design was implemented. Participants (n = 124). aged ≥18 years completed scales measuring experiences in close relationships, general problematic Internet use, psychological wellbeing and satisfaction with life. Results: Negative relationships between problematic social media use and both psychological wellbeing and life satisfaction were observed. For psychological wellbeing, the relationship was strongest amongst individuals who were low in avoidant attachment and high in anxious attachment. Discussion: These results suggest that attachment style impacts the extent that social media affects user mental health and wellbeing; partly explaining paradoxical results in previous research. Conclusion: We suggest that individuals who are high in anxious attachment and low in attachment avoidance may be more susceptible to negative outcomes arising from problematic SNS use

Managed Forgetting to Support Information Management and Knowledge Work

Trends like digital transformation even intensify the already overwhelming mass of information knowledge workers face in their daily life. To counter this, we have been investigating knowledge work and information management support measures inspired by human forgetting. In this paper, we give an overview of solutions we have found during the last five years as well as challenges that still need to be tackled. Additionally, we share experiences gained with the prototype of a first forgetful information system used 24/7 in our daily work for the last three years. We also address the untapped potential of more explicated user context as well as features inspired by Memory Inhibition, which is our current focus of research.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures, preprint, final version to appear in KI - K\"unstliche Intelligenz, Special Issue: Intentional Forgettin

New converts and seasoned campaigners: the role of social identity at different stages in the addiction recovery journey

Social identities associated with recovery are protective of relapse from addiction. How such identities develop and differentially link to outcomes at different points of the recovery journey and across multiple recovery attempts is relatively unknown. The current study utilised a pre-existing cross-sectional dataset (n=237 Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) members, 50% male, 49.4% female and 0.6% female-to-male, aged between 19 and 71 years) to explore these issues. Relationships between AA identity, quit efficacy (a proxy for recovery maintenance) and AA meeting attendance (over the last month) were tested. The moderating effects of length of AA attendance during the current recovery episode and first vs subsequent quit attempts on the identity-efficacy link was also tested. Levels of social identity were stable amongst those in the early in their current recovery through to those who have more experience, but the relationships between identity and efficacy differed. While those early on in their current AA attendance showed a positive relationship between identities and frequency of attending meetings, those with more long-standing attendance reported social identification unrelated to involvement. Our results suggest that social identities may be particularly protective for those who are on their first quit, suggesting recovery formation and transition may be a priority