Why two smoking cessation agents work better than one: role of craving suppression.

Objective: This research examined why smokers receiving combination medication for smoking cessation are more likely to quit smoking than are those who receive either single agent (monotherapy) or placebo.

Method: Data were collected from 1,504 current smokers (58.2% women, 83.

Surgically placed wound catheters (SPWC) and local anaesthetic infusion in breast surgery: efficacy and safety analysis.

Background: The effectiveness of surgically placed wound catheters (SPWC) and local anaesthetic infusion in the management of post-operative pain following breast surgery is controversial. This meta-analysis was performed to assess efficacy SPWC compared to other techniques of pain management.

Material And Methods: The meta-analysis included randomised control trials that compared SPWC with other forms of pain control.

Absence of effects of Sir2 overexpression on lifespan in C. elegans and Drosophila.

Overexpression of sirtuins (NAD(+)-dependent protein deacetylases) has been reported to increase lifespan in budding yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae), Caenorhabditis elegans and Drosophila melanogaster. Studies of the effects of genes on ageing are vulnerable to confounding effects of genetic background. Here we re-examined the reported effects of sirtuin overexpression on ageing and found that standardization of genetic background and the use of appropriate controls abolished the apparent effects in both C.

Dietary restriction and aging: a unifying perspective.

Dietary restriction (DR) and mutations in nutrient signaling pathways can extend healthy life span in diverse organisms. Studying the interaction between these interventions should reveal mechanisms of aging, but has yielded some apparently contradictory results. A multidimensional representation of nutrition, called the geometric framework, can better describe the responses of life span and other traits, including metabolism, and can reconcile these apparent contradictions.

Nuclear factor one X regulates the development of multiple cellular populations in the postnatal cerebellum.

Development of the cerebellum involves the coordinated proliferation, differentiation, maturation, and integration of cells from multiple neuronal and glial lineages. In rodent models, much of this occurs in the early postnatal period. However, our understanding of the molecular mechanisms that regulate this phase of cerebellar development remains incomplete.

Increasing consumer demand among Medicaid enrollees for tobacco dependence treatment: the Wisconsin "Medicaid covers it" campaign.

Purpose: Smoking prevalence among Medicaid enrollees is higher than among the general population, but use of evidence-based cessation treatment is low. We evaluated whether a communications campaign improved cessation treatment utilization.

Design: Quasi-experimental.

Transcription factor Lhx2 is necessary and sufficient to suppress astrogliogenesis and promote neurogenesis in the developing hippocampus.

The sequential production of neurons and astrocytes from neuroepithelial precursors is a fundamental feature of central nervous system development. We report that LIM-homeodomain (LIM-HD) transcription factor Lhx2 regulates this transition in the developing hippocampus. Disrupting Lhx2 function in the embryonic hippocampus by in utero electroporation and in organotypic slice culture caused the premature production of astrocytes at stages when neurons are normally generated.

Thrombospondin-1 contributes to mortality in murine sepsis through effects on innate immunity.

Background: Thrombospondin-1 (TSP-1) is involved in many biological processes, including immune and tissue injury response, but its role in sepsis is unknown. Cell surface expression of TSP-1 on platelets is increased in sepsis and could activate the anti-inflammatory cytokine transforming growth factor beta (TGFβ1) affecting outcome. Because of these observations we sought to determine the importance of TSP-1 in sepsis.

Tobacco Dependence: Insights from Investigations of Self-Reported Smoking Motives.

The Wisconsin Inventory of Smoking Dependence Motives (WISDM) assesses 13 theoretically-derived dimensions of smoking motivation. These 13 subscales were intended to index comprehensively the severity of tobacco dependence and provide insight into the disorder. Recent studies indicate that four subscales (Automaticity, Craving, Loss of Control, and Tolerance) represent the core features of tobacco dependence and have been dubbed the Primary Dependence Motives (PDM).

Efficient cellular release of Rift Valley fever virus requires genomic RNA.

The Rift Valley fever virus is responsible for periodic, explosive epizootics throughout sub-Saharan Africa. The development of therapeutics targeting this virus is difficult due to a limited understanding of the viral replicative cycle. Utilizing a virus-like particle system, we have established roles for each of the viral structural components in assembly, release, and virus infectivity.

Tobacco withdrawal components and their relations with cessation success.

Rationale: Tobacco withdrawal is a key factor in smoking relapse, but important questions about the withdrawal phenomenon remain.

Objectives: This research was intended to provide information about two core components of withdrawal (negative affect and craving): (1) how various withdrawal symptom profile dimensions (e.g.

Smoker characteristics and smoking-cessation milestones.

Background: Contextual variables often predict long-term abstinence, but little is known about how these variables exert their effects. These variables could influence abstinence by affecting the ability to quit at all, or by altering risk of lapsing, or progressing from a lapse to relapse.

Purpose: To examine the effect of common predictors of smoking-cessation failure on smoking-cessation processes.

The effect of five smoking cessation pharmacotherapies on smoking cessation milestones.

Objective: Most smoking cessation studies have used long-term abstinence as their primary outcome measure. Recent research has suggested that long-term abstinence may be an insensitive index of important smoking cessation mechanisms. The goal of the current study was to examine the effects of 5 smoking cessation pharmacotherapies using Shiffman et al.

Effects of smoking and smoking cessation on lipids and lipoproteins: outcomes from a randomized clinical trial.

Background: the effects of smoking and smoking cessation on lipoproteins have not been studied in a large contemporary group of smokers. This study was designed to determine the effects of smoking cessation on lipoproteins.

Methods: this was a 1-year, prospective, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial of the effects of 5 smoking cessation pharmacotherapies.

The multiphase optimization strategy for engineering effective tobacco use interventions.

The multiphase optimization strategy (MOST) is a new methodological approach for building, optimizing, and evaluating multicomponent interventions. Conceptually rooted in engineering, MOST emphasizes efficiency and careful management of resources to move intervention science forward steadily and incrementally. MOST can be used to guide the evaluation of research evidence, develop an optimal intervention (the best set of intervention components), and enhance the translation of research findings, particularly type II translation.

New methods for tobacco dependence treatment research.

Introduction: Despite advances in tobacco dependence treatment in the past two decades, progress has been inconsistent and slow. This paper reviews pervasive methodological issues that may contribute to the lack of timely progress in tobacco treatment science including the lack of a dynamic model or framework of the cessation process, inefficient study designs, and the use of distal outcome measures that poorly index treatment effects. The authors then present a phase-based cessation framework that partitions the cessation process into four discrete phases based on current theories of cessation and empirical data.

WISDM primary and secondary dependence motives: associations with self-monitored motives for smoking in two college samples.

The Wisconsin Inventory of Smoking Dependence Motives (WISDM) assesses 13 domains of smoking motivation emphasized by diverse theoretical perspectives. Emerging findings support a distinction between four primary dependence motives (PDM) indexing core features of tobacco dependence and nine secondary dependence motives (SDM) indexing accessory features. The current study explored the validity of this distinction using data from two samples (Ns=50 and 88) of college smokers who self-monitored their reasons for smoking with electronic diaries.

Subcellular profiling reveals distinct and developmentally regulated repertoire of growth cone mRNAs.

Cue-directed axon guidance depends partly on local translation in growth cones. Many mRNA transcripts are known to reside in developing axons, yet little is known about their subcellular distribution or, specifically, which transcripts are in growth cones. Here laser capture microdissection (LCM) was used to isolate the growth cones of retinal ganglion cell (RGC) axons of two vertebrate species, mouse and Xenopus, coupled with unbiased genomewide microarray profiling.

Cognitive conflict following appetitive versus negative cues and smoking cessation failure.

Rationale: Attentional biases and executive control deficits may play a role in smoking cessation failure.

Objectives: The object of this study was to determine whether smokers' pre-quit reaction times on a computerized modified Simon task (which assesses attentional biases and executive control deficits) predict abstinence following a quit attempt.

Methods: Participants (N = 365) in a larger smoking cessation clinical trial completed the modified Simon task twice (while 10-h nicotine-deprived vs.

Anxiety diagnoses in smokers seeking cessation treatment: relations with tobacco dependence, withdrawal, outcome and response to treatment.

Aims: To understand the relations among anxiety disorders and tobacco dependence, withdrawal symptoms, response to smoking cessation pharmacotherapy and ability to quit smoking.

Design: Randomized placebo-controlled clinical trial. Participants received six 10-minute individual counseling sessions and either: placebo, bupropion SR, nicotine patch, nicotine lozenge, bupropion SR + nicotine lozenge or nicotine patch + nicotine lozenge.

Risk factors for subclinical carotid atherosclerosis among current smokers.

This study characterized the determinants of carotid atherosclerosis in a large contemporary sample of current smokers. Associations between risk factors, carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT), and carotid plaque presence were determined by multivariable regression. Participants included 1504 current smokers (58% female) who were a median (interquartile range) of 44.