A Pilot Study to Evaluate the Use of Automated Nicotine Metabolite Ratio Reporting Within Primary Care as an Implementation Strategy to Increase the Use of Tobacco Treatments.

Introduction: Concerns about safety and effectiveness of tobacco treatments reduce their use. We explored integrating the nicotine metabolite ratio (NMR), and messaging about its potential for improving safety and effectiveness, as a strategy to increase the use of tobacco treatments within primary care.

Aims And Methods: Through a prospective cohort design, we explored the effects of integrating NMR testing within primary care on the provision of tobacco treatment; 65 patients completed assessments including NMR before a clinic visit.

Forecasting daily COVID-19 cases with gradient boosted regression trees and other methods: evidence from U.S. cities.

Introduction: There is a vast literature on the performance of different short-term forecasting models for country specific COVID-19 cases, but much less research with respect to city level cases. This paper employs daily case counts for 25 Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) in the U.S.

Predictors of improved clinician screening, assessment, and treatment for tobacco use for clients in community mental healthcare following training.

Introduction: People with mental illness (MI) are more likely to smoke cigarettes and less likely to receive treatment for tobacco use than the general population. Understanding factors associated with improved staff treatment of tobacco use in community mental health settings has received limited study.

Methods: We used data from a completed cluster-randomized clinical trial that tested two interventions designed to increase treatment for tobacco use in mental health clinics.

A randomized clinical trial testing two implementation strategies to promote the treatment of tobacco dependence in community mental healthcare.

Introduction: People with serious mental illness (SMI) are more likely to smoke and less likely to receive tobacco treatment. Implementation strategies may address clinician and organizational barriers to treating tobacco in mental healthcare.

Methods: A cluster-randomized trial (Clinic N=13, Client N=610, Staff N=222) tested two models to promote tobacco treatment in community mental healthcare: standard didactic training vs.

Estimating the Effects of Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions and Population Mobility on Daily COVID-19 Cases: Evidence from Ontario.

This study uses coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) case counts and Google mobility data for 12 of Ontario's largest Public Health Units from Spring 2020 until the end of January 2021 to evaluate the effects of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs; policy restrictions on business operations and social gatherings) and population mobility on daily cases. Instrumental variables (IV) estimation is used to account for potential simultaneity bias, because both daily COVID-19 cases and NPIs are dependent on lagged case numbers. IV estimates based on differences in lag lengths to infer causal estimates imply that the implementation of stricter NPIs and indoor mask mandates are associated with reductions in COVID-19 cases.

Rate and correlates of tobacco treatment during a primary care visit for a largely urban and African American sample of smokers.

Introduction: Evidence-based treatments for tobacco use are under-utilized and primary care visits may be an opportune time to address this gap. This study examined the rate at which primary care visits included tobacco use treatment and examined patient demographics, smoking characteristics, attitudes about tobacco use treatments, and comorbidities as correlates of treatment provision.

Methods: This prospective study assessed demographics, smoking characteristics, attitudes about tobacco use treatments, and comorbidities via interview prior to a primary care visit among 105 patients.

Rationale and design of a randomized factorial clinical trial of pharmacogenetic and adherence optimization strategies to promote tobacco cessation among persons with HIV.

Background: Tobacco use is approximately three times more common in people living with HIV (PLWH) than the general population. Moreover, current behavioral and pharmacological smoking cessation interventions are less effective for PLWH, highlighting a need for novel ways to optimize tobacco cessation treatments in this group. Prior research indicates that personalized treatment based on the nicotine metabolite ratio (NMR), a biomarker of nicotine metabolism, and augmenting smoking cessation medication adherence may improve cessation treatment for PLWH.

Assessing barriers to providing tobacco use disorder treatment in community mental health settings with a revised version of the Smoking Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices (S-KAP) instrument.

Background: Tobacco use disorder (TUD) rates are 2-3 times higher among people with serious mental illness (SMI) than the general population. Clinicians working in outpatient community mental health clinics are well positioned to provide TUD treatment to this group, but rates of treatment provision are very low. Understanding factors associated with the provision of TUD treatment by mental health clinicians is a priority.

Comparing Kaplan-Meier curves with the probability of agreement.

The probability of agreement has been used as an effective strategy for quantifying the similarity between the reliability of two populations. By contrast to hypothesis testing approaches based on P-values, the probability of agreement provides a more realistic assessment of similarity by emphasizing practically important differences. In this article, we propose the use of the probability of agreement to evaluate the similarity of two Kaplan-Meier curves, which estimate the survival functions in two populations.

Using multiple agreement methods for continuous repeated measures data: a tutorial for practitioners.

Background: Studies of agreement examine the distance between readings made by different devices or observers measuring the same quantity. If the values generated by each device are close together most of the time then we conclude that the devices agree. Several different agreement methods have been described in the literature, in the linear mixed modelling framework, for use when there are time-matched repeated measurements within subjects.

History and Correlates of Smoking Cessation Behaviors Among Smokers With Serious Mental Illness.

Introduction: Individuals with serious mental illness (SMI) smoke at rates two to three times greater than the general population but are less likely to receive treatment. Increasing our understanding of correlates of smoking cessation behaviors in this group can guide intervention development.

Aims And Methods: Baseline data from an ongoing trial involving smokers with SMI (N = 482) were used to describe smoking cessation behaviors (ie, quit attempts, quit motivation, and smoking cessation treatment) and correlates of these behaviors (ie, demographics, attitudinal and systems-related variables).

The effect of temporal aggregation level in social network monitoring.

Social networks have become ubiquitous in modern society, which makes social network monitoring a research area of significant practical importance. Social network data consist of social interactions between pairs of individuals that are temporally aggregated over a certain interval of time, and the level of such temporal aggregation can have substantial impact on social network monitoring. There have been several studies on the effect of temporal aggregation in the process monitoring literature, but no studies on the effect of temporal aggregation in social network monitoring.

A Cluster-Randomized Clinical Trial Testing the Effectiveness of the Addressing Tobacco Through Organizational Change Model for Improving the Treatment of Tobacco Use in Community Mental Health Care: Preliminary Study Feasibility and Baseline Findings.

Introduction: People with mental illness are more likely to smoke and less likely to receive tobacco treatment than the general population. The Addressing Tobacco Through Organizational Change (ATTOC) approach supports organizational change to increase tobacco treatment in this population. We describe preliminary study feasibility and baseline behaviors and attitudes among clients and staff regarding tobacco treatment, and assesse correlates of treatment of smoking.

Comparing heteroscedastic measurement systems with the probability of agreement.

Deciding whether two measurement systems agree well enough to be used interchangeably is important in medical and clinical contexts. Recently, the probability of agreement was proposed as an alternative to comparison techniques such as correlation, regression, and the limits of agreement approach, when the systems' measurement errors are homoscedastic. However, in medical and clinical contexts, it is common for measurement variability to increase proportionally with the magnitude of measurement.

Assessing agreement between two measurement systems: An alternative to the limits of agreement approach.

The comparison of two measurement systems is important in medical and other contexts. A common goal is to decide if a new measurement system agrees suitably with an existing one, and hence whether the two can be used interchangeably. Various methods for assessing interchangeability are available, the most popular being the limits of agreement approach due to Bland and Altman.

Monitoring radiation use in cardiac fluoroscopy imaging procedures.

Purpose: Timely identification of systematic changes in radiation delivery of an imaging system can lead to a reduction in risk for the patients involved. However, existing quality assurance programs involving the routine testing of equipment performance using phantoms are limited in their ability to effectively carry out this task. To address this issue, the authors propose the implementation of an ongoing monitoring process that utilizes procedural data to identify unexpected large or small radiation exposures for individual patients, as well as to detect persistent changes in the radiation output of imaging platforms.

NSC 622124 inhibits human Eg5 and other kinesins via interaction with the conserved microtubule-binding site.

Kinesin-5 proteins are essential for formation of a bipolar mitotic spindle in most and, perhaps all, eukaryotic cells. Several Kinesin-5 proteins, notably the human version, HsEg5, are targets of a constantly expanding group of small-molecule inhibitors, which hold promise both as tools for probing mechanochemical transduction and as anticancer agents. Although most such compounds are selective for HsEg5 and closely related Kinesin-5 proteins, some, such as NSC 622124, exhibit activity against at least one kinesin from outside the Kinesin-5 family.