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We re-examine the effects of pairing gaps on charge-changing transitions and the associated β -decay half-lives. Calculations are performed using the proton-neutron quasiparticle random phase approximation (pn-QRPA) model for 250 nuclei possessing astrophysical significance. Pairing gaps between like nucleons are key model parameters in the pn-QRPA approach. Three different values of empirically computed pairing gaps were used as input parameters in our nuclear model. Changing the pairing gap values significantly altered the Gamow-Teller distributions including the total strength and centroid values. The β -decay half-lives also changed substantially. The half-lives computed via the three-term pairing formula, based on separation energies of nucleons, were in best agreement with the measured data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]