Spacecraft sample collection and subsurface excavation of asteroid (101955) Bennu.

Carbonaceous asteroids, such as (101955) Bennu, preserve material from the early Solar System, including volatile compounds and organic molecules. We report spacecraft imaging and spectral data collected during and after retrieval of a sample from Bennu's surface. The sampling event mobilized rocks and dust into a debris plume, excavating a 9-meter-long elliptical crater. This exposed material is darker, spectrally redder, and more abundant in fine particulates than the original surface. The bulk density of the displaced subsurface material was 500 to 700 kilograms per cubic meter, which is about half that of the whole asteroid. Particulates that landed on instrument optics spectrally resemble aqueously altered carbonaceous meteorites. The spacecraft stored 250 ± 101 grams of material, which will be delivered to Earth in 2023.

Disease Burden Among Individuals with Severe Mental Illness in a Community Setting.

This study examines the prevalence of comorbid physical health conditions within a community sample of individuals with severe mental illness (SMI), compares them to a matched national sample without SMI, and identifies which comorbidities create the greatest disease burden for those with SMI. Self-reported health status, co-morbid medical conditions and perceived disease burden were collected from 203 adults with SMI. Prevalence of chronic health conditions was compared to a propensity-matched sample without SMI from the National Comorbidity Survey-Replication (NCS-R). Compared to NCS-R sample without SMI, our sample with SMI had a higher prevalence of seven out of nine categories of chronic health conditions. Chronic pain and headaches, as well as the number of chronic conditions, were associated with increased disease burden for individuals with SMI. Further investigation of possible interventions, including effective pain management, is needed to improve the health status of this population.

Are restrained eaters accurate monitors of their intoxication? Results from a field experiment.

Brief interventions encourage college students to eat more before drinking to prevent harm (Dimeff et al., 1999), although many women decrease their caloric intake (Giles et al., 2009) and the number of eating episodes (Luce et al., 2012) prior to drinking alcohol. Participants were 37 undergraduate women (24.3% Caucasian) who were recruited from a local bar district in the Midwest. This study examined whether changes in eating after intending to drink interacted with dietary restraint to predict accuracy of one's intoxication. Results indicated that changes in eating significantly moderated the relationship between dietary restraint and accuracy of one's intoxication level. After eating more food before intending to drink, women higher in restraint were more likely to overestimate their intoxication than women lower in restraint. There were no differences between women with high levels and low levels of dietary restraint in the accuracy of their intoxication after eating less food before intending to drink. Future research would benefit from examining interoceptive awareness as a possible mechanism involved in this relationship.

Influence of skip patterns on item non-response in a substance use survey of 7th to 12th grade students.

This retrospective case study assessed the influence of item non-response error on subsequent response to questionnaire items assessing adolescent alcohol and marijuana use. Post-hoc analyses were conducted on survey results obtained from 4,371 7th to 12th grade students in Ohio in 2005. A skip pattern design in a conventional questionnaire appeared to increase non-response error rates at first introduction. In previous cigarette users, these errors were associated with under-reporting of alcohol and marijuana use on subsequent questions. These effects were less prevalent in high-achieving students. Skip patterns can contribute to substantial underestimation of alcohol and marijuana use in adolescents.

Undergraduate drinking and academic performance: a prospective investigation with objective measures.

OBJECTIVE: Findings from previous prospective research suggest the association between alcohol use and undergraduate academic performance is negligible. This study was designed to address weaknesses of the past research by relying on objective measures of both drinking and academic performance. METHOD: A prospective study was conducted with repeated measures of exposure to alcohol linked to institutional academic records. Alcohol data were collected in residence halls at a nonselective, midwestern, public university in the United States. A total of 659 first- and second-year undergraduate students were tracked over the course of 15-week semesters. RESULTS: A statistically significant negative association with semester academic performance was found for different alcohol indicators: frequency of breath alcohol concentration (BrAC) above .08, mean BrAC, standard deviation, and maximum BrAC recorded. These associations remained statistically significant when controlled for sociodemographic variables and individual level confounders, but the effect sizes were relatively small with a contribution to explained variance of less than 1%. When additionally adjusted for residence hall building, all alcohol indicators no longer reached statistical significance (p > or = .05). CONCLUSIONS: Consistent with past prospective research, the magnitude of the association between undergraduate alcohol use and academic performance is small when the effects of high school academic aptitude and performance are accounted for in multivariable analyses. This is the first study to find that living environment may have a robust effect on the academic achievement of undergraduates. Future research should examine more closely the relation between residence and academic performance and the role that alcohol use may play in creating residential environments.

Normative beliefs as risk factors for involvement in unhealthy weight control behavior.

OBJECTIVE: The authors' aim in this study was to determine, after adjustment for the effects of body mass index and sociodemographic measures, whether sex-specific weight control norms would have significant independent relationships with the weight control behavior of college women and men. PARTICIPANTS: The authors used an anonymous questionnaire to assess a sample of 470 college students, aged 18 to 26 years, attending either a 2- year community college or a 4-year public university. METHODS: To calculate body mass index, the authors objectively measured the height and weight of each participant. They conducted separate discriminant function analyses for women and men. RESULTS: The discriminant function analyses clearly indicated that weight control norms of same-sex, close friends were the best discriminators of involvement in weight control. CONCLUSIONS: The findings indicate that perceived peer norms may be important but overlooked risk factors for engaging in unhealthy weight control practices. The authors discuss the implications of these findings in the context of student health promotion.

Reconceptualizing research on undergraduate alcohol use: the need for student engagement.

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is presented as an unrecognized and urgently needed approach for addressing the persistent public health concern of college student drinking in the United States. A major contention of this article is that the lack of progress in reducing alcohol-related harm among college students during the past several decades has been the research community's failure to effectively engage and collaborate with undergraduates on shared concerns. The challenges of addressing college student drinking are reviewed, distinctive features of CBPR are described, and suggestions are provided for adopting CBPR as a more viable approach than those offered by traditional campus strategies.

Outcomes of a technology-based social norms intervention to deter alcohol use in freshman residence halls.

OBJECTIVE: The authors tested a prototype intervention designed to deter alcohol use in residence halls. PARTICIPANTS: Approximately 384 freshmen participated in the study over a 2-year period. METHODS: The authors devised a feedback method that assessed residents' blood alcohol concentration (BAC) at night and allowed the readings to be retrieved the next day via the Web. Residents in an intervention hall received their BAC readings as well as normative feedback. In a comparison hall, residents could retrieve only the BAC readings. RESULTS: The authors found statistically significant hall differences, but they were small in size and not meaningful. CONCLUSIONS: Qualitative findings suggest the intervention had an overall positive impact, but the actions of a subgroup of rebellious drinkers might have obscured the effect. Social norms interventions could provoke some episodes of excessive drinking in students who find these messages objectionable. More research is needed to evaluate delayed BAC feedback.

A vision for doctoral research training in health behavior: a position paper from the American Academy of Health Behavior.

OBJECTIVE: To establish and disseminate the position of the American Academy of Health Behavior (The Academy) on doctoral research training. METHODS: A collaborative process involving the Work Group on Doctoral Research Training with input from The Academy membership led to the development of the guidelines described herein. RESULTS: A set of guidelines is provided that describe the process of learning to be a scholar/researcher and the outcomes of learning the practice of health behavior research. CONCLUSIONS: The doctoral students who are to become the stewards of our field should be prepared to engage in scholarship that creates new knowledge, uses research to transform practice, and effectively communicates research findings.

The role of sex-specific normative beliefs in undergraduate alcohol use.

OBJECTIVES: To create explanatory models of 3 undergraduate drinking practices based on sex-specific norms. METHODS: An electronic, student survey at one Mid-western university produced a representative sample of college students. RESULTS: Multivariate analyses indicated that close-friend norms were the best predictors of drinking frequency, quantity, and drunkenness. With one exception, typical student (or distal) norms had no significant relationship to drinking. Opposite-sex norms had associations with drinking above and beyond that explained by same-sex norms. CONCLUSIONS: The findings challenge the current application of the popular social norms approach that relies on distal drinking norms to provide normative feedback.

Relations between normative beliefs and initiation intentions toward cigarette, alcohol and marijuana.

PURPOSE: To examine the relations between normative beliefs and intentions to initiate cigarette, alcohol, and marijuana use among adolescents reporting no prior use. METHODS: An anonymous questionnaire was administered to 6,594 seventh- to twelfth-grade students in northeast Ohio. Separate analyses were conducted on sub-samples of respondents reporting no prior use of each substance. Within each of these 3 sub-samples, respondents were classified as holding high-risk intentions if they reported that they intended to begin using that particular substance within the next 6 months or were "not sure" of their intentions. Those reporting that they did not intend to start using a substance were classified as holding low-risk intentions. Multivariate logistic regression analyses examined the relations between normative beliefs and intention status (low- vs. high-risk), while accounting for socio-demographic characteristics. RESULTS: Across all 3 substances, normative beliefs were stronger predictors of intention status than socio-demographic variables. Higher levels of perceived acceptability and perceived prevalence were associated with holding high-risk intentions. Normative belief measures assessing close friend and sibling reference groups were much more important in explaining intention status than those assessing other reference groups (e.g., same age peers). CONCLUSIONS: Among adolescents with no prior use, normative beliefs concerning close friends and siblings may play an important role in the catalysis and support of intentions to initiate substance use. These findings challenge the utility of primary prevention strategies that provide normative feedback based on rates of substance use among distal reference groups.

A close look at why one social norms campaign did not reduce student drinking.

The authors examined 3 possible explanations for the failure of a social norms campaign at a large public university. They administered an anonymous survey to 2 random samples of undergraduate classes: a baseline assessment of 616 students before the campaign's implementation and a follow-up survey of 723 students 4 academic years later. At follow-up, 66.5% of the students were aware of the campaign, yet the survey revealed no reduction in perceived drinking norms or alcohol use in this group. An analysis of the postcampaign sample revealed that (1) a majority of the students did not find the statistics used in the campaign messages credible, (2) higher levels of alcohol use predicted lower levels of perceived campaign credibility, and (3) only 38.5% of the students understood the campaign's intended purpose. If they are to influence personally relevant drinking norms, these campaigns must undergo further development to enhance message credibility and participants' understanding.

Informed-consent issues with adolescent health behavior research.

OBJECTIVE: To identify the informed-consent issues when conducting adolescent health behavior research. METHODS: A literature review was conducted across diverse academic fields about the informed-consent issues that were relevant to adolescent health behavior research. RESULTS: Issues included defining consent, assent and permission, minimal risk, risk assessment; legal issues; adolescent capacity to participate in research, and parental permission. CONCLUSIONS: Integrity in research means doing the right thing. Obtaining adolescent informed consent must be obtained every time data are collected. There seem to be occasions in which waiver of parental permission in some adolescent health behavior research is warranted.

Field assessment of BAC data to study late-night college drinking.

OBJECTIVE: This field study of late-night college drinking sought to (1) test the ability of the 5+/4+ measure to screen for higher levels of intoxication and (2) examine the relation between estimated and actual blood alcohol concentration (BAC). METHOD: During a 15-week spring semester, college students returning to their residence halls between 10:00 PM and 3:00 AM on Wednesday through Saturday nights were anonymously interviewed to collect BAC and self-report data (n = 1,020). RESULTS: Although 70.9% had not been drinking on Wednesday nights, a majority of the intercepted students had been drinking on the other three nights. Mean BACs on these three nights were in a moderate range (48 to 51 mg/dl), but the 5+/4+ measure classified many students as heavy episodic drinkers at relatively low BACs. For example, 66.3% of those meeting the 5+/4+ criterion for the night had BACs < 100 mg/dl. Students with BACs ranging from 70 to 90 mg/dl exhibited the greatest accuracy in estimating their BAC; those with lower BACs tended to overestimate their level of intoxication; whereas those with higher BACs tended to underestimate it. CONCLUSIONS: Field assessment of student intoxication is an important tool for examining research questions in college drinking. The 5+/4+ measure classifies many college students as heavy episodic drinkers, even though their intoxication level is below conventional thresholds used to define drunkenness. In addition, there is a discernible pattern of BAC estimation in the field that corresponds to intoxication level.

Creation of an additional glycosylation site as a mechanism for type I antithrombin deficiency.

We report the identification of a new mutation resulting in type I antithrombin (AT) deficiency and the mechanism by which the deficiency arose. The single base substitution of G to A at nucleotide 2709 was identified in a proband with a family history of venous thrombosis. The mutation results in a substitution of 82 Ser by Asn, creating a new glycosylation site. Expression studies were then carried out, to confirm Asn-linked glycosylation occurred at this consensus site and that this resulted in the AT deficient phenotype. Cell-free translations using rabbit reticulocyte lysate in the presence of microsomes demonstrated that the 82 Asn variant was post-translationally processed efficiently. The 82 Asn variant protein was of a higher molecular weight than normal AT. consistent with the addition of a fifth glycan chain. Incubation of translation product with endoglycosidase H, confirmed that the higher molecular weight product had resulted from additional carbohydrate. Expression of the 82 Asn variant in COS-7 cells resulted in intracellular accumulation, with a low level of secretion of the protein into culture supernatant, consistent with type I AT deficiency. The addition of an extra carbohydrate side chain to residue 82 of antithrombin may block post-translational folding. trapping the variant intracellulary.

Adolescent perceptions of college student drinking.

OBJECTIVE: To extend knowledge about perceived drinking norms by assessing perceptions of college student drinking in a sample of 7th- to 12th-graders. METHODS: Anonymous questionnaire was administered to 2,017 adolescents in two Ohio school districts. RESULTS: By seventh grade, 89.6% of the students had formed normative perceptions of collegiate drinking. A canonical correlation analysis revealed that perceptions of collegiate drinking have substantial, independent relationships not only with alcohol use intensity and drinking onset, but also with indicators of tobacco and other drug use as well. CONCLUSIONS: Exaggerated perceptions of college student drinking are psychosocial markers of substance use in 7th- to 12th-graders.

The relationship of adolescent perceptions of peer norms and parent involvement to cigarette and alcohol use.

This investigation assessed the relative influence of peer norms and parental involvement on adolescent cigarette and alcohol use. An anonymous questionnaire was administered to 2,017 seventh- to 12th-grade students in two Ohio public school districts. Cigarette and alcohol use rates in the sample were comparable to those found in national probability surveys. Results indicated that the relative balance of peer-parent influences did not differ across grade level. At all grade levels, perceived peer norms had substantially greater correlations with cigarette and alcohol use than did measures of perceived parental involvement. The findings are interpreted from an efficiency perspective. Optimal use of prevention resources suggest that programming for seventh- to 12th-graders should focus on shaping the perceptions of peer smoking and drinking practices rather than on parent interventions. Social norms marketing or other forms of normative education should be tested in this population.

Balancing risks and benefits of deception in assessing genetic screening utilization.

OBJECTIVE: To advocate that research using intentional deception is sometimes appropriate. METHODS: A deception paradigm created to assess utilization of genetic screening for alcoholism susceptibility is reviewed in the context of competing ethical obligations and objections to the procedure. CONCLUSIONS: The paradigm is ethically defensible, it generates useful knowledge about future utilization of alcoholism screening by college students, and it exposes participants to no more than minimal risk. The use of deception to address questions related to predictive genetic screening will require investigators to balance protection of participants with the need to advance knowledge.