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Social networking sites (SNSs) are popular among college-aged adults. The defining characteristic of SNSs is that they are a platform to electronically share content. Most students report posting alcohol-related content (ARC) on SNSs. Little is known concerning these students who consume both alcohol and ARC yet choose not to generate ARC.Objective: The purpose of the current study was to compare key characteristics of posters and non-posters and develop a measure assessing reasons for not posting ARC.Method: The researchers recruited a diverse sample of 1063 college students from two universities for an online study.Results: Relative to posters of ARC, non-posters tend to drink less, have fewer alcohol-related problems, and report fewer reasons for drinking. Non-posters also report viewing several positive and negative consequences of drinking on SNSs, but at lower levels than ARC posters. The Reasons Not to Post ARC Scale was correlated with common alcohol measures (drinking motives, drinking problems) and self-monitoring. The scale was not correlated with some other measures (posting and sharing alcohol-related content).Conclusions: Given the dominant echo chamber effects of ARC on SNSs, examining non-posters can provide insight into the cognitions that might prevent others from joining the ARC social media culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Discrimination is a pervasive stressor among African-American adults. Social support is an important protective factor for psychological distress, especially among minority populations. Although a number of studies have examined social support in relation to discrimination, little research has examined how social support may serve as an important protective factor against both physical and psychological symptoms related to overall psychological distress within this group. The current study examined social support as a moderator of the relationship between discrimination and overall psychological distress as measured by the Brief Symptom Inventory among a community sample of 122 African-American church-going adults. Results indicated that social support buffered the associations of discrimination and overall psychological distress (p < 0.0001) in expected directions. Findings highlight the importance of cultivating strong social relationships to attenuate the effects of this social determinant on mental health disparities among this group. Highlights • Everyday discrimination was positively associated with psychological distress. • Social support buffered the impact of discrimination on psychological distress. • Social support may provide resilience against mental health disparities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fungicide application for controlling fungal diseases can increase copper (Cu) accumulation in soil. More urgently, Cu released from fungicides can associate with soil clay and favour the mutual aggregation of Cu and soil clay, thereby potentially intensifying the accumulation of Cu. We investigated the effects of Cu salt and six common Cu-based fungicides on colloidal dynamics of a clay fraction from citrus cultivated soil. Batch experiments were carried out to provide the loading capacity of the clay fraction for Cu. The colloidal dynamic experiments were performed over a pH range from 3 to 8 following a test tube method, while surface charge, the key electrochemical factor of the solid-liquid interface, was quantified by a particle charge detector. It was found that all the studied fungicides, via releasing Cu2+, acted to effectively favour clay aggregation. The dissolved organic matter obtained from the dissolution of polymers in fungicides can theoretically stimulate clay dispersion. However, their effects were obscured due to the overwhelming effect of Cu2+. Therefore, Cu2+ appears as the most active agent in the fungicides that intensifies clay aggregation. These findings imply that the intensive application of fungicides for plant protection purposes can inadvertently reduce clay mobility, favour the co-aggregation of clay and fungicides, and hence potentially exacerbate the contamination of the citrus soil. [Display omitted] • Fungicide application introduces more copper into citrus soils. • Copper reduces negative surface charge of clay and favours clay aggregation. • Increasing doses of fungicides inadvertently inhibit clay transport. • Co-aggregation of clay and fungicides exacerbate the contamination in citrus soils. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite a large body of work exploring associations between perceived norms and drinking and norms-based interventions for drinking, less work has examined moderators of associations between norms and drinking outcomes to determine potential sub-groups that might benefit most from brief norms-based interventions. The present study investigates shyness as a moderator of associations between drinking norms and alcohol use. We hypothesized that shyness would moderate associations between drinking norms and alcohol use such that individuals who are higher in shyness might be more sensitive to social influence and thus show stronger associations between drinking norms and alcohol use. Participants included 250 college students (70% female; 44.5% White/Caucasian) aged 18-26 (M = 21.02, SD = 2.16) who met heavy drinking criteria (4/5 drinks on one or more occasions in the past month for women/men). Participants completed measures of demographics, shyness, alcohol use, alcohol-related problems, and drinking norms remotely at baseline and one-month follow-up (N = 169). Drinking norms were negatively associated with shyness and positively associated with baseline and follow-up drinking. Shyness was negatively associated with baseline drinking but not associated with follow-up drinking. Interaction models tested longitudinal associations between shyness, descriptive drinking norms, and follow-up drinking, controlling for baseline drinking and gender. Results showed that associations between drinking norms and drinks per week were strongest among people who were higher in shyness. Individuals who are shy may be more susceptible to social influence and thus may benefit more from a norms-based drinking intervention. Future work may explore shyness as a moderator of norms-based intervention efficacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is considerable research demonstrating that college life alcohol salience is associated with alcohol use among undergraduates. However, the strength of this association may depend on whether students self-identify with other students on their campus; self-identification with other students may indicate how influential other students are on an individuals' drinking. As such, the current research investigated whether identification with the "typical student" moderated the relationship between college life alcohol salience beliefs and alcohol-related outcomes. Five-hundred and eleven undergraduates reported their alcohol use, how closely they identified with other students, as well as their college life alcohol salience beliefs. Poisson moderated regression models and negative binomial moderation regression models were employed. Results indicated that self-identification with other students was a significant moderator of the association between college life alcohol salience beliefs and frequency of drinking as well as peak number of drinks, but not drinks per week or alcohol-related problems. Findings suggest that it may be important to shift students' perceptions surrounding drinking as being an important part of the college experience, particularly for those who identify with their peers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has established two types of passion (i.e., harmonious and obsessive) for several activities, behaviors, and relationships (Vallerand & Houlfourt, 2003). Harmonious passion is characterized by an autonomous orientation toward an activity, while obsessive passion is characterized by a more controlled orientation toward an activity. Similar but not congruent conceptualizations of approaches to religion have been explored. Moreover, the preponderance of research suggests that religiousness is associated with decreased problematic alcohol use. However, little research has been done into contrasting approaches to religious devotion. We explored harmonious and obsessive passion for religious beliefs and practices and their association with alcohol use and alcohol-related problems. Perceived stress and satisfaction with life were examined as mediators. Participants included 707 undergraduate students (54.8% female) from a large southwestern university who were recruited as a part of a larger alcohol-related intervention trial. Data were collected at three time points: baseline, 3-month follow-up, and 6-month follow-up, and were analyzed prospectively, with passion and mental health at time 1 and time 2 predicting alcohol outcomes at time 2 and time 3. The indirect effects of both obsessive passion and harmonious passion on alcohol problems through perceived stress were significant, and in opposite directions. Additionally, moderation analyses showed that both obsessive and harmonious passion for religion moderated the associations between perceived stress and drinking and between perceived stress and alcohol problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Individuals rate opposite sex faces as more attractive after consuming or being primed with alcohol. However, other traits such as intelligence and likeability have not been examined and might vary as a function of information about one's drinking habits. We expected social drinkers to be rated more positively than heavy drinkers, abstainers, or recovering alcoholics. We further hypothesized that faces with similar drinking habits to participants would be rated as more appealing.Methods: Five hundred ninety-four undergraduates viewed 25 opposite sex faces randomly paired with drinking information, and rated each face on perceived appeal.Results: Hierarchical linear models revealed that social drinkers were rated as most appealing, as expected. Unexpectedly, recovering alcoholics were rated as the next most appealing, followed by abstainers, then heavy drinkers. The interaction between drinker type and participants' own drinking predicting ratings indicated that the heavier the participant drinks, the more favorably they rated heavy drinkers compared to other types of drinkers. Thus, as expected, ratings varied as a function of participants' own drinking; however, ratings did not vary as a function of participants' alcohol-related problems.Conclusions: Findings support hypotheses in that social drinkers were generally perceived as appealing compared to other drinker types, and ratings tended to be influenced by participants' own drinking. Individuals' prototypes and norms regarding drinking may influence how they perceive others when others' drinking habits are known. This might be especially important to consider with heavy drinkers who may seek out others who drink similarly, which could reinforce problematic drinking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To evaluate the accuracy of dynamic gadolinium-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DGE-MRI) to detect extravesical bladder cancer (BC) and lymph node-positive disease in patients with invasive BC. Material and Methods: In a prospective single-center study from 2004 to 2009, patients with clinically invasive BC, who were candidates for curative surgery, underwent preoperative DGE-MRI. Radiologic T and N staging was determined by 2 MRI expert radiologists, and the interobserver agreement was calculated. The sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values, and accuracy of radiologic staging in differentiating lymph node-negative organ-confined vs nonorgan-confined BC and negative vs positive nodal disease was determined and compared with the postoperative pathologic staging as the reference standard method. Results: A total of 122 patients (72 men) with a mean age of 67.8 years were included. Pathologic examination revealed invasive BC in 80/122 (65.5%), including stage pT4 in 15/122 (12.3%), pT3 in 27/122 (22.1%), and pT2 in 38/122 (31.1%), and 27 patients (22.1%) had node-positive disease. The interobserver agreement for T and N staging according to the κ score was 0.44 and 0.49, respectively. The sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of DGE-MRI in differentiating lymph node-negative organ-confined from nonorgan-confined BC was 87.5%, 47.6%, and 74% and for the detection of positive nodal disease was 40.7%, 91.5%, and 80.3%, respectively. Conclusion: We have presented the results of the largest cohort of patients with invasive BC underwent preoperative DGE-MRI. Although DGE-MRI improved T and N staging of invasive BC, it is still not the ideal modality and needs a standardized protocol for interpretation of the imaging findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Deviance Regulation Theory (DRT) proposes that individuals regulate their behavior to be in line with the behaviors of others. Specifically, individuals desire to stand out in positive way and not stand out in a negative way. DRT has been successfully applied to encourage other health behaviors and offers a unique method to utilize both injunctive norms in combination with descriptive norms in brief alcohol interventions. This randomized controlled trial evaluated a computer-delivered, norms-based personalized feedback intervention which systematically varied the focus on whether specific drinking behaviors were described as common or uncommon (a descriptive norm), whether the drinking behaviors were healthy versus unhealthy, and whether the drinking behaviors were positively or negatively framed (an injunctive norm). Nine-hundred and fifty-nine college drinkers completed baseline, three-month, and six-month follow-up assessments. Results indicated messages focusing on unhealthy drinking behaviors, particularly when described as uncommon, were most effective in reducing drinking and alcohol-related problems over time. This research utilizes deviance regulation theory as a way of improving personalized normative feedback by elucidating how to construct messages for brief interventions based on descriptive characteristics associated with specific target drinking behaviors in combination with perceptions of prevalence and acceptability of such drinking behaviors (an injunctive norm). Highlights • This RCT applied deviance regulation theory to a personalized feedback intervention. • Common versus uncommon and healthy versus unhealthy conditions were examined. • Messages also framed specific drinking behaviors positively or negatively. • Uncommon, unhealthy messages were effective in reducing drinking outcomes. • Findings suggest how to incorporate both injunctive and descriptive norms in PFIs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background The aim of the present study was to test promising constructs (decisional balance and drinking identity) and their interaction with gender as predictors of risky college drinking. We expected that, consistent with previous work, drinking identity would be positively associated with alcohol consumption and problems. We further expected that drinking identity would be more strongly related to outcomes among individuals scoring low in decisional balance. Additionally, we expect the relationship between drinking identity and alcohol behavior to vary as a function of decisional balance. Methods Participants included 329 undergraduates ( M = 23.11; SD = 5.63; 74.47% female) who met heavy drinking criteria (defined as women who consumed 4 or more drinks per occasion and men who consumed 5 or more drinks per occasion) and completed an online survey comprised of self-report measures. Results Decisional balance was negatively correlated with both drinking and problems, which partially supported expectations. As expected, drinking identity was positively correlated with drinking and problems. A two-way interaction emerged between drinking identity and decisional balance regarding problems, indicating that drinking identity was associated with more problems, especially among those lower in decisional balance. A three-way interaction between drinking identity, decisional balance, and gender emerged regarding problems such that drinking identity was associated with more problems for those lower in decisional balance and this effect was stronger among men. Discussion Findings lend support to the perspective that decisional balance, drinking identity, and gender are all influential factors that are associated with the experience of alcohol problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] As previously shown, AEE was negatively associated with perceived social support. [•] Pet affinity was positively associated with perceived social support. [•] Pet affinity buffered against the negative effects of AEE on social support. [•] Our findings emphasize the benefit of feeling a close connection to one’s pet. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Background: Despite the growing prevalence of cannabis use and associated consequences among U.S. young adults, relatively little is known about precisely what level of marijuana involvement may be problematic.Method: With this study we sought to identify empirically-derived cut-scores for the Marijuana Consequences Questionnaire (MACQ) that would distinguish among levels of cannabis risk in a sample of young adult college students (N = 496). We also examined how these levels of cannabis risk corresponded to a variety of indicators of cannabis involvement, including frequency of use, intoxication, other measures of cannabis consequences, and indicators of more severe cannabis involvement (e.g., physiological dependence, loss of control over use, cannabis use disorder).Results: Receiver operating characteristic analyses yielded cutoffs that distinguished among three distinct levels of risk, "Low", "Moderate", and "High". These empirically derived cut scores showed strong overall differentiation among classifications, with good sensitivity and specificity. MACQ-based risk levels were validated across several indices of cannabis involvement. Cutoffs differed across genders.Conclusions: Findings offer a new application for the MACQ, allowing for the identification of those at greatest risk. As such, this measure may be used to facilitate appropriately targeted intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rice plants assimilate both silicon (Si) and arsenic (As) from the soil solution and accumulate these elements in their tissues. While Si has been known as a major material that builds up a so-called phytolith structure throughout the plant body, the fate of As in rice plants is not fully understood. This study aims to clarify the possible encapsulation of As into the phytolith structure in rice straw or rice straw ash and to evaluate the dissolution properties of the encapsulated As. Rice straw contains up to ~12 mg As kg−1, which highlights this material as a sink and source of As that needs to be taken into account. The intensified heat treatments of rice straw could lead to an enrichment of As in the burned products, from which As is likely associated more tightly with the phytolith structure. We observed strong correlations of released As and Si, demonstrating that the release of As is tightly controlled by the dissolution of phytoliths. This means that phytoliths can contribute to the soil As pool, but this As source might be obscured because it is recalcitrantly lodged within the phytolith structure. This finding serves as a basis for further assessing the role of phytolith-encapsulated As rice paddy systems and for developing proactive practices to manage As-tainted straw. • The precipitation of silicon leads to the formation of phytolith in rice plants. • A phytolith captures various components, including arsenic, in its structure. • The release of arsenic is well correlated with the dissociation of silicon. • Developing proactive practices for arsenic tainted straw is a necessity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]