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Incentives for Smoking cessation
Get PDFAbstractBackground: Financial incentives (money, vouchers, or self-deposits) can be used to positively reinforce smoking cessation. They may be used as one-off rewards, or in various schedules to reward steps towards sustained smoking abstinence (known as contingency management). They have been used in workplaces, clinics, hospitals, and community settings, and to target particular populations. This is a review update. The previous version was published in 2019.Objectives: Primary To assess the long-term effects of incentives and contingency management programmes for smoking cessation in mixed and pregnant populations. Secondary To assess the long-term effects of incentives and contingency management programmes for smoking cessation in mixed populations, considering whether incentives were offered at the final follow-up point. To assess the difference in outcomes for pregnant populations, considering whether rewards were contingent on abstinence or guaranteed.Search methods: For this update, we searched CENTRAL, MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, and two trials registers on 2 November 2023, and the Cochrane Tobacco Addiction Group Specialised Register on March 2023, together with reference checking, citation searching, and contact with study authors to identify additional studies.Selection criteria: We considered only randomised controlled trials (RCTs), allocating individuals, workplaces, groups within workplaces, or communities to smoking cessation incentive schemes or control conditions. We included studies in a mixed-population setting (e.g. community-, work-, clinic- or institution-based), studies with specific populations (e.g. those with diagnosed mental health conditions), and studies in pregnant people who smoke.Data collection and analysis: We used standard Cochrane methods. The primary outcome measure in the mixed-population studies was abstinence from smoking at longest follow-up (at least six months from the start of the intervention). In the trials of pregnant people, we used abstinence from smoking measured at the longest follow-up, and at least to the end of the pregnancy. Where available, we pooled outcome data using a Mantel-Haenszel random-effects model, with results reported as risk ratios (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs), using adjusted estimates for cluster-randomised trials. We analysed studies carried out in mixed populations separately from those carried out in pregnant populations.Main results: Forty-eight mixed-population studies met our inclusion criteria, recruiting more than 21,924 participants; 15 of these are new to this version of the review. Studies were set in varying locations, including community settings, clinics or health centres, workplaces, and outpatient drug clinics. We judged eight studies to be at low risk of bias, and 16 to be at high risk of bias, with the remaining 24 studies at unclear risk. Thirty-three of the trials were run in the USA, two in Thailand, one in the Philippines, one in Hong Kong, and one in South Africa. The rest were European. Incentives offered included cash payments, self-deposits, or vouchers for goods and groceries, offered directly or collected and redeemable online. The pooled RR for quitting with incentives at longest follow-up (six months or more) compared with controls was 1.52 (95% CI 1.33 to 1.74; I2 = 23%; 39 studies, 18,303 participants; high-certainty evidence). Results were not sensitive to the exclusion of seven studies that offered an incentive for cessation at long-term follow-up (result excluding those studies: RR 1.46, 95% CI 1.23 to 1.73; I2 = 26%; 32 studies, 15,082 participants), suggesting the impact of incentives continues for at least some time after incentives cease (at least six months). For this update, we included an adjusted analysis incorporating three cluster-RCTs. The pooled odds ratio was 1.57 (95% CI 1.37 to 1.79; I2 = 30%; 43 studies, 23,960 participants; high-certainty evidence). Although not always clearly reported, the total financial amount of incentives varied considerably between trials, from zero (self-deposits), to a range of between 45 US dollars (USD) and USD 1185. There was no clear difference in effect between trials offering low or high total value of incentives, nor those encouraging redeemable self-deposits. We ran an updated exploratory meta-regression and found no significant association between the outcome and the total value of the financial incentive (P = 0.963). Any such indirect comparison is particularly crude in this context, due to differences in the cultural significance of financial amounts (e.g. USD 50 might have different significance in different contexts). We included 14 studies of 4314 pregnant people (11 conducted in the USA, one in France, and two in the UK). We judged four studies to be at low risk of bias, two at high risk of bias, and eight at unclear risk. When pooled, the 13 trials with usable data delivered a risk ratio at longest follow-up (up to 48 weeks postpartum) of 2.13 (95% CI 1.58 to 2.86; I2 = 31%; 13 studies, 3942 participants; high-certainty evidence), in favour of incentives.Authors' conclusions: Overall, our conclusion from this latest review update remains that there is high-certainty evidence that incentives improve smoking cessation rates at long-term follow-up in mixed population studies. The evidence demonstrates that the effectiveness of incentives is sustained even when the last follow-up occurs after the withdrawal of incentives. There is also now high-certainty evidence that incentive schemes conducted amongst pregnant people who smoke improve smoking cessation rates, both at the end of pregnancy and postpartum. This represents a change from the previous update in which we rated this evidence as moderate certainty. Current and future research might more precisely explore differences between trials offering low or high cash incentives and self-incentives (deposits), within a variety of smoking populations, focusing on low- and middle-income countries where the burden of tobacco use remains high.Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01526265 NCT03163056.Copyright © 2025 The Cochrane Collaboration. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.PubMed Disclaime
N-doped Fe<sub>3</sub>O<sub>4</sub> nanoparticles loaded-carbon foam for a highly efficient and recyclable desalination-photocatalysis solar evaporator
Get PDFSolar-powered evaporation technology is a green and sustainable solution to freshwater scarcity. However, massive evaporation of seawater may lead to localized accumulation of pollutants in the waterbody, causing secondary pollution. Herein, we developed a recyclable solar evaporator with a synergistic effect of solar thermal evaporation and photocatalysis by introducing Fe3O4 nanoparticles (NPs) into carbon foam scaffold. The incorporation of Fe3O4 NPs can not only enhance the light absorption capability of carbon foam composite from visible to infrared regions, but also, the photocatalytic activity of the loaded Fe3O4 has been facilitated due to the dopant of N on Fe3O4 during the carbonization process. Additionally, the combined magnetic carbon foam (N-Fe3O4@CF) exhibits sustained stability, salt resistance and good recyclability, which can avoid secondary pollution. As a result, the integrated desalination-photocatalysis system achieved an evaporation efficiency up to 93.27 % under 1.0 solar irradiation, evaporation rate reached 1.5303 kg m−2 h−1 and simultaneously the degradation rate of organic pollutant reached more than 96 % within 1 h, which provides a feasible solution to alleviate global water/energy scarcity.</p
Exploring public support for novel tobacco and alcohol control policies in Great Britain 2021-2023:A population-based cross-sectional survey
Get PDFObjective and rationale: This study assessed support for novel tobacco compared with alcohol control policies among adults in Great Britain in 2021-2023. Objectives were to assess 1) overall level of support for tobacco compared to alcohol control policies; 2) level of support for tobacco compared to alcohol control policies among people who smoke tobacco or who consume alcohol at increasing and higher risk levels, or who do both; 3) level of support for tobacco compared to alcohol control policies among different sociodemographic groups?Methods: Data were collected in September/October 2021-2023 in a monthly population-based survey on smoking and drinking behaviour of adults across Great Britain (N = 6311), weighted to match the overall population. Outcome measure was level of support for each seven tobacco and alcohol control policies.Results: More people were in support of tobacco than alcohol control policies (e.g., 57 % vs. 51 % for tax-related policies). This trend was apparent across all sociodemographic subgroups. With one exception, the policies included in this study were supported by more than half of the participants. The exception was decreasing the visibility of alcohol products in shops, which received 41 % of support. People who engaged in the behaviour targeted by policies (tobacco more so than alcohol use) were generally less supportive.Conclusion: Overall, public support for tobacco and alcohol control policies is high in Great Britain. With one exception, the policies were supported by over half of participants, suggesting that the public is in favour of government regulations to reduce smoking and drinking prevalence in Great Britain
Inter-Annual Variability of Peatland Vegetation Captured Using Phenocam- and UAV Imagery
Get PDFPlant phenology is an important driver of inter-annual variability in peatland carbon uptake. However, the use of traditional phenology datasets (e.g., manual surveys, satellite remote sensing) to quantify this link is hampered by their limited spatial and temporal coverage. This study examined the use of phenology cameras (phenocams) and uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) for monitoring phenology in a Scottish temperate peatland. Data were collected at the site over multiple growing seasons using a UAV platform fitted with a multispectral Parrot Sequoia camera. We found that greenness indices calculated using data from both platforms were in strong agreement with each other, and exhibited strong correlations with rates of gross primary production (GPP) at the site. Greenness maps generated with the UAV data were combined with fine-scale vegetation classifications, and highlighted the variable sensitivity of different plant species to dry spells over the study period. While a lack of suitable weather conditions for surveying limited the UAV data temporally, the phenocam provided a near-continuous record of phenology. The latter revealed substantial temporal variability in the relationship between canopy greenness and peatland GPP, which although strong over the growing season as a whole (rs = 0.88, p < 0.01), was statistically insignificant during the peak growing season
The challenge of assessing dental pain in horses
Get PDFDENTAL disease is one of the most common conditions affecting domesticated horses. However, it often goes undiagnosed as clinical signs can be subtle and thus difficult for horse owners to identify.1, 2 This presents a significant welfare challenge, as untreated dental disease can lead to chronic pain and a reduced quality of life
Assessment of a 6-arylaminobenzamide lead derivative as a potential core scaffold for S1P5 positron emission tomography radiotracer development
Get PDFSphingosine-1-phosphate-5 receptors (S1P5) are predominantly expressed in oligodendrocytes and as a result have been proposed as an important target in Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Selective S1P5 radiotracers could enable in vivo positron emission tomography (PET) imaging of oligodendrocytes activity. Here we report the synthesis, radiolabelling and first preclinical evaluation of the pharmacokinetics and binding properties of a lead 6-arylaminobenzamide derivative, 6-(mesitylamino)-2-methoxy-3-methylbenzamide (also named as TEFM180), as a potential core scaffold for development of novel S1P5 PET radiotracers. Following intravenous bolus injection, TEFM180 was found to quickly enter the brain with good brain:blood ratios and subsequent rapid clearance. Autoradiography studies showed that [3H]TEFM180 had a high affinity for its target (KD = 2.8 nM), with moderate levels of non-displaceable binding. Distribution of [3H]TEFM180 in the brain was found to be consistent with S1P5 expression and showed a binding potential (BP) of >2–3 in white matter rich regions. Overall, TEFM180 offers a good initial platform for development of future radiotracers targeting S1P5
Longitudinal Cognitive Changes in Cerebral Small Vessel Disease:The Effect of White Matter Hyperintensity Regression and Progression
Get PDFThe novel T107I Inherited prion disease can present as a clinical and biomarker mimic of familial Alzheimer's disease
Get PDFInherited prion diseases (IPD) secondary to mutations of the prion protein gene, PRNP, exhibit diverse clinical phenotypes, capable of mimicking numerous primary neurodegenerative conditions. We describe the clinical phenotype and neuropathological findings in a family from County Limerick in Ireland presenting with Alzheimer's disease-like cognitive decline and motor symptoms caused by a novel missense mutation of PRNP. This mutation occurs in the PRNP central lysine cluster (CLC; codon 101-110), resulting in substitution of threonine with isoleucine at codon 107 (T107I). This case series highlights that IPD can be hard to distinguish from overlapping clinical syndromes seen in other neurodegenerative diseases. We also discuss similarities and differences of the novel mutation T107I to other pathogenic mutations of the CLC of PRNP. </p
Zimbabwe Motorised Travel Time (in seconds) to nearest health centre
No full textA 100 m spatial resolution geotiff of motorised travel time in seconds to nearest health facility in Zimbabwe. The data was generated using the Child Poverty and Access to Services (CPAS) software (10.5281/zenodo.4638563) and was created as part of the CPAS project within the Data for Children Collaborative. The travel time is calculated assuming driving speeds of local public transport options on all-weather roads/asphalt roads and walking speeds on all other roads, tracks, paths and land cover types. A full description is available here a video description of the data is also available hereA 100 m spatial resolution geotiff of motorised travel time in seconds to nearest health facility in Zimbabwe. The data was generated using the Child Poverty and Access to Services (CPAS) software (10.5281/zenodo.4638563) and was created as part of the CPAS project within the Data for Children Collaborative. The travel time is calculated assuming driving speeds of local public transport options on all-weather roads/asphalt roads and walking speeds on all other roads, tracks, paths and land cover types. A full description is available here a video description of the data is also available herehttps://data.humdata.org/dataset/zimbabwe-motorised-travel-time-in-seconds-to-nearest-health-centr
Targeting TRPM3 As a Potential Therapeutic Approach for Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease
No full textAbstract Cystic diseases, especially autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD; incidence approx. 1/1000), are a leading cause of renal failure, caused by appearance and growth of renal cysts that can lead to renal failure in middle age. Most ADPKD cases are caused by mutations in PKD1 or PKD2, encoding polycystin-1 (PC1) and polycystin-2 (PC2). PC1 is a mechanosensor that controls PC2, a Ca2+-permeable cation channel that, by regulating cytoplasmic Ca2+, prevents adenylyl cyclase producing cyst-promoting concentrations of cAMP. In other systems, there is evidence for PC2 interacts with TRPM3. We therefore examined the effect of pharmacological activators and inhibitors of TRPM3 on cyst formation in cultured mouse kidney rudiments exposed to a range of concentrations of forskolin, a cAMP-elevating drug commonly used experimentally to induce cysts in cultured kidneys. We found that TRPM3 inhibitors (isosakuranetin, primidone, diclofenac) increased cyst formation, while TRPM3 activators (CIM0216 and nifedipine) greatly reduced cyst formation and reduced the sensitivity of kidneys to forskolin. These preclinical, in-vitro data suggest that TRPM3 may be a promising target in ADPKD management
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