A Double-blind, Placebo-Controlled, Randomized Trial of Bupropion for Smoking Cessation in Primary Care.

BACKGROUND: Studies undertaken in academic settings have shown that bupropion hydrochloride can double the odds of smoking cessation compared with placebo. To assess whether these results are applicable in primary care, we launched a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized trial to be conducted by general practitioners. METHODS: We assigned 593 healthy smokers to receive bupropion hydrochloride, 150 mg twice a day, or placebo daily for 7 weeks (hereinafter, bupropion group [n = 400] and placebo group [n = 193], respectively). After the baseline visit, 4 clinical visits and 3 telephone calls were scheduled over the 1-year period. The primary end points were biochemically confirmed continuous abstinence at week 7 and at week 52. RESULTS: Seventy-one Italian general practitioners enrolled participants from April 2004 to May 2005. Of the bupropion group, 41.0% were continuously abstinent from week 4 to week 7 compared with 22.3% of the placebo group (multivariate odds ratio, 2.37; 95% confidence interval, 1.60-3.53). The continuous abstinence rates from week 4 to week 52 were 25% in the bupropion group and 14% in the placebo group (odds ratio, 2.11; 95% confidence interval, 1.32-3.39). The mean weight gain was similar in both groups and among long-term abstainers was 3 kg in women and 4 kg in men. More participants in the bupropion group experienced an adverse event than those in the placebo group, but the percentage who discontinued use of the study medication was similar. CONCLUSIONS: Bupropion more than doubled the odds of continuous abstinence from smoking. The adherence of general practitioners and participants to the protocol was excellent, making our findings robust and easy to generalize to the context of primary care.

Three South Korean hostages set free in Afghanistan

Three out of 19 South Korean hostages were set free on Wednesday by the Taliban movement in Ghazni Province, in the eastern part of Afghanistan. According to coming reports, the hostages were turned over to the sheikh of one of the local tribes.

Russia 1st vice PM visits State University Scientific Centre

Russian First Vice Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov on Wednesday visited the Scientific Park of the Lomonosov Moscow State University (MGU). He familiarised himself with certain innovations, examined a number of scientific stands and also watched a presentation organised by students within the framework of a business game modelling investment projects.
After a meeting Ivanov held at the university he went to watch an exhibition. In particular, intellectual security systems, software and mathematical support that are currently being developed by a company set up here were demonstrated to Ivanov at the exhibition. The company’s products make it possible to identify people on biometric data, as well as identify transport vehicles, things, collect information in complex and organize video surveillance.
At the university’s chemistry department buildings Ivanov was also demonstrated a number of innovations, in particular, a functional mock-up of a fuel element, modern materials for insulation and protection from fire, as well as installations modelling gas-diffusion processes.
The first vice prime minister was invited to take part in the business game. Students divided into two teams were to prepare investment projects and in a short period of time convince a hypothetical investor of the necessity of implementing the project. In particular, two students presented to Ivanov their plan “Intellectual Advertising” – a project based on video surveillance, intellectual analysis and a flexible system of presentation that is to offer to the potential customer the product that may interest him.
Although the first vice prime minister warned the inventors that “advertising is always obtrusive and most people do not watch it at all,” he nevertheless gave a high assessment to this idea.
Wishing the students success, Ivanov expressed regret that he had no time to look at all projects.
Ivanov said earlier at a meeting he chaired at the university that he believes that it is necessary to raise effectiveness of the country’s innovation policy by means of improving the existing funds, and not only by creating new ones.
“We need specific steps aimed at raising the innovation policy effectiveness and it is necessary to do this not only by creating new investment structures, but also by actively improving and modifying the existing funds,” Ivanov said at a meeting that focused on matters related to activities of the Foundation for Assistance to Small Innovative Enterprises (FASIE) on Wednesday.
Ivanov said that a meeting of the Commission for the Development of the Industry, Technology and Transport that will be held on September 21 would be devoted to this issue.
“It is also necessary to give closest attention to the creation of regional and sectoral structures of support of innovation activities, including forms of initial financing and venture business activity,” Ivanov said. He added that the guidelines of the Russian policy in the sphere of the development of the innovation system for a period up to 2010 contain the corresponding clauses.
“By means of the creation of a ramified innovation system we will finally be able to remove the national economy from the export-raw material environment in a short period of time, will ensure high growth dynamics of processing sectors of the industry and first of all sectors that are linked with the output of science-intensive and high technology products,” believes the first vice prime minister.
Ivanov also considers it necessary to create a system of support mechanisms of most qualified research associations that are engaged in the development and putting into operation of innovation ideas.
“For sustainable innovation development of the national economy it is vitally important for us to have a system of flexible financial mechanisms that would ensure supply of resources to most qualified research collectives and ‘advanced’ firms, as well as would make it possible to considerably curtail the path from the scientific idea birth to its implementation in production,” believes the first vice prime minister.
“Such a system should be based on competitive financing of innovation projects through a network of specialised funds, such as the FASIE,” Ivanov said.
In the view of the first vice prime minister, such an approach has a number of advantages – it provides possibility for a qualified and transparent expert examination of projects, inventors and research collectives will be provided with a real chance to get the necessary financing for putting their initiatives into practice and moreover, it makes it possible to effectively put into practice the principles of the state-private partnership in the sphere of science and innovations.
The FASIE is a state non-profit organisation established in 1994. Its main tasks include pursuing the state policy of the development and support of small enterprises in the scientific-technical sphere, support of small innovative enterprises (SME) implementing projects for the development and introduction of new types of science-intensive products and technology based on intellectual property of these enterprises, creation and development of infrastructure for the support of small innovative businesses.
The FASIE is an initiator and participant in the development of laws and legislative acts providing state and social support for small business.
Since its creation, more then 4,000 SME from various regions around the country have applied to the foundation. The foundation’s tender commission and experts have selected around 2,000 projects for funding.
Ivanov’s secretariat said that the results of the Wednesday visiting of the MGU Scientific Park would be used, in particular, in the preparation for a regular meeting of the Commission for the Development of the Industry, Technology and Transport. On September 21, the commission with gather for a meeting to consider the results of activities of investment-innovation foundations among which is the Russian Venture Company, Russian Investment Fund of Information-Communication Technologies, Russian Technological Development Fund, Fund for the Development of Nanotechnologies and FASIE.

First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev visits Tambov

First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev visited the office the Pension Fund in the Tambov region on Wednesday.
He familiarised himself with the document processing procedure, including the so-called maternity capital certificates, which are issued to all mothers who have two or more children.
Medvedev inquired about the birth rate in the region and the procedure for issuing the maternity capital certificates. In Russia n average, the document is issued within a month. In the Pension Fund’s office of the Tambov region, which has modern computer equipment, this procedure takes 15 days.
The staff told Medvedev about the social programmes implemented by the Fund, including aid to senior citizens’ homes and specialised medical institutions.

Death toll in Baku house collapse accident rises to 8

The death toll in the Baku house collapse accident has risen to right, Health Minister Samaya Mamedova said on Wednesday
Rescuers found the body of a woman and a child under the debris in the evening. They are believed to have been passing by when the multi-storey building collapsed on Tuesday.
One of the builders who was working at the construction side died in hospital on Wednesday.
During the day, the Emergencies Ministry, the Interior Ministry, and Prosecutor General’s Office issued a report saying that five people had been killed and five injured.
The 16-storey building in Baku collapsed due to the violation of construction safety rules and the failure to observe relevant building technology requirements, specialists said.
The Emergencies Ministry, the Interior Ministry and the Prosecutor’s General Office said in a statement that four people – Mutafakkir Company Director General Ali Muradov, engineer Asker Aliyev, and construction managers Farkhad Gasanov and Gadir Salimov -- had been detained and accused of “violation of safety rules during the construction works that led to the loss of life and other serious consequences”.
Earlier in the day, Baku Prosecutor Aziz Seidov said there might be another four or five people under the debris.
The rescue operation on the site went through the night, the Emergencies Ministry said.
Heavy machinery is clearing off the debris, ambulance vehicles are on the standby, and the area is cordoned.
Azerbaijani President Ilkham Aliyev inspected the site where a multi-storey building under construction collapsed.
Aliyev instructed all structures to conduct a technical expertise of all new houses in Baku, Prime Minister Abid Shafirov said. “A special group will be set up that will study necessary parameters of new houses, including their seismic resistance. Then necessary decisions will be taken,” the prime minister added.
Construction workers were trapped under the debris of the house, which was being built three kilometres from downtown Baku. The death toll has reached seven, the Azerbaijani Ministry for Emergency Situations reported. Reports say at least six people were injured. Two of them are in grave condition.
According to rescuers, voices still can be heard from under the rubble. Rescue work continues at the site with the use of heavy machinery.
The site is still cordoned off by police, who are trying to keep away reporters and relatives of builders who may have been trapped under the rubble.
“The preliminary theory of this accident is the flagrant violation of safety rules in the construction process,” chief of the civil defence department of the Emergency Situations Ministry Kamil Bagirov said. Tenants of nearby houses said that the unfinished building looked shaky and had numerous cracks in the walls.
“A huge crack formed in the building shortly before the accident and it went down,” an eyewitness said.
According to the local media, tenants of nearby houses asked the court to ban the construction, which was too close to their homes.
A criminal case has been opened against heads of the Mutafakkir company, which was building the house, Azerbaijani Prosecutor General Zakir Garalov said at the accident scene. Two company executives were taken into custody.
The house was under construction in a busy area. The cost of one square metre varies from 500 U.S. dollars to 800 U.S. dollars. The housing prices are even higher in the central areas of Baku – from 1,500 U.S. dollars to 5,000 U.S. dollars.

N Korea nuke talks parties have no agt on control measures-Hill

There is no agreement so far among states participating in the six-sided talks on the North Korean nuclear problem settlement on control measures over the liquidation North Korea’s nuclear programmes and facilities, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Christopher R. Hill who is the US chief negotiator at the six-sided talks admitted.
At a special briefing on Wednesday Hill answered an Itar-Tass question on the supposed verification regime within the framework of dismantlement of Pyongyang’s nuclear programmes. Hill’s press conference was timed to coincide with the second meeting of the working group on normalisation of relations between Washington and Pyongyang that is scheduled for September 1-2 in Geneva.
According to the diplomat, the verification issue is being broadly discussed at the six-sided talks both in the bilateral and multilateral format. Nevertheless, Hill said he did not think that the parties have already worked out consensus approach on the issue how this (i.e. control over the liquidation of North Korean nuclear programmes) should be implemented.
The expert said that the George W. Bush administration undoubtedly hopes that nuclear powers participating in the six-sided process – Russia, China and the United States – will play a considerable role in this. Besides, the US assistant secretary of state stressed, Washington officials are quite satisfied with discussions (on the above problem) with the Russian delegation at the six-sided talks among which were experienced atomic experts. He said the US side hopes for very close cooperation with Russian nuclear experts as the parties advance in this phase – verification.
The US government had repeatedly stated in the past that it expected important participation of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council in the process of control over the liquidation of North Korean nuclear programmes. After that the US authorities said that Russia that accumulated major experience in this sphere could be placed in the head of this process.
Hill also said that the US administration believes that the next round of the six-party talks on the North Korean nuclear problem settlement may be started right after annual meetings of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC) that are to take place in Sydney in early September.
Hill confirmed that he would take part in APEC events in Sydney. In the words of the diplomat, he plans talks with the Japanese Foreign Ministry’s Asia and Oceania department head Kenichiro Sasae and possibly with colleagues from Russia.
In the view of Hill, it would be real to hold the next round of the six-sides talks on the Korean Peninsula denuclearisation the week after the APEC meetings. However, the decision on this is to be made first of all by China that hosts the six-party talks, the US assistant secretary of state noted.
The diplomat also highly assessed the results of a meeting of the working group for the mechanism of ensuring peace and security in Northeast Asia that was held in Moscow on August 20-21. It was a very good meeting, Hill stressed.

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