quit4u: the effectiveness of combining behavioural support, pharmacotherapy and financial incentives to support smoking cessation.

The 'quit4u' stop smoking service (SSS) was developed by National Health Service (NHS) Tayside for smokers in deprived areas of Dundee (UK). quit4u combined behavioural support and pharmacotherapy with financial incentives for each week that participants remained quit. A quasi-experimental study was undertaken with smokers using quit4u between 2009 and 2011 compared with smokers using SSSs in the rest of Scotland. The outcome measures were: number of quit attempts; quit rates at 1, 3 and 12 months; cost-effectiveness. Mechanisms of change were explored through quantitative and qualitative research that explored the views and experiences of service users and professionals involved in quit4u. The number of quit attempts made using SSSs in deprived areas of NHS Tayside increased by 44% between 2007 and 2010. quit4u had significantly higher quit rates at 1 month (49.9% versus 33.7%), 3 months (30.7% versus 14.2%) and 12 months (9.3% versus 6.5%) compared with similar smokers using other SSSs. The incremental cost per quitter was £2296. A combination of elements kept clients engaged and supported quit attempts: carbon monoxide (CO) tests, financial incentives, high-quality pharmacy support, rolling groups and greater varenicline use. quit4u may provide an effective and cost-effective model for engaging and supporting smokers in deprived areas to quit.

Insight in psychosis: an elusive target.

Insight is a quality which has been highly valued by most clinicians in the mental health field, largely because a strong link is assumed between good insight and better quality of life. Yet it is a complex construct, one which has not until recently been subjected to much critical scrutiny or adequately explicated. All too often, particularly in the field of psychosis, the term has been used as shorthand for the degree of congruence between the explanatory models and views on the mode and conditions of treatment of the clinician and the patient. Conflicts about these matters are ubiquitous in the care of psychotic patients. Recently, there has been a recognition that there are a number of dimensions to the construct, and that some of these relate to differences in attributional perspective. This has opened up the issue to more sophisticated research drawing on established but untapped psychological and neurobiological theories, and has formed a better framework for the development of more effective research and therapeutic strategies.

Targeted recombination at the Chinese hamster APRT locus using insertion versus replacement vectors.

In this study, we have examined the effects of targeting vector configuration and site of vector linearization on the frequency of targeted recombination at the endogenous CHO APRT locus, and have analyzed the types and class distributions of APRT+ recombinants obtained in APRT targeting experiments employing uncut circular, insertion-type (ends-in), and replacement-type (ends-out) configurations of the same pAG7 targeting vector, including configurations produced by introduction of a double-strand break (DSB) at sites either within, or at the 5' or 3' boundaries of APRT targeting homology. Our results suggest that: 1) plasmid-chromosome targeted recombination in mammalian cells may not be stimulated to the same degree by a DSB in the targeting vector as by a DSB in the chromosomal target; 2) recombinant class distributions are highly dependent upon targeting vector configuration; and 3) one-sided invasion mechanisms may play a significant role in homologous recombination in mammalian cells.