A case history is reported in which tire-derived aggregate (TDA) was successfully applied to reduce the weight of fill upon a cut-and-cover railway tunnel. Subsequent three-dimensional numerical ...analyses are used to explore the effect of different assumptions about the constitutive model of the TDA material. Alternative dispositions of TDA around the tunnel section are also examined. Reductions of up to 60% in lining bending moment may be achieved. For the case analyzed, the elastic description of the TDA has little influence on tunnel lining loads, although it is important for fill settlement estimates.
We examined whether alcohol use may be linked to stress associated with online racism as a risky coping behavior among racial minority adults, and potential gender differences across women and men. ...We tested parallel stress pathways in which we hypothesized that exposure to online racism would be indirectly related to alcohol use severity via general psychological distress and social media-related stress. With data from 395 racial/ethnic minority adults (M
age = 34.12; 57% women; 40% Black/African American, 23% Asian/Asian American, 20% Hispanic/Latinx American), we conducted a multi-group path analysis of online racism (Perceived Online Racism Scale) predicting alcohol use severity (Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test) mediated by social media-related stress and psychological distress (Kessler-6) across women and men. Psychological distress was a significant partial mediator for women and men, but social media-related stress was a significant partial mediator only for women. In line with cyberbullying literature noting a greater risk of online victimization for women, racial minority women may be experiencing social media-related stress in addition to general psychological distress associated with online racism that places them at greater risk of alcohol-related coping. Our findings suggest that online racism may be a contemporary digital burden that may drive detrimental health behaviors such as alcohol use and present initial evidence to advance future prevention research.
Public Policy Relevance Statement
This study found that exposure to online racism may be a contemporary risk factor associated with greater alcohol use for racial minority adults. Racial minority women may be engaging in alcohol use to cope with both social media-related stress and general psychological distress in response to online racism, whereas only psychological distress predicted alcohol use severity among racial minority men.
•Data from 8323 participants in a cannabis diversion program were analyzed.•Males and African Americans were over-represented in the program.•African Americans and Latinos were found to have lower ...completion rates.•African Americans and Latinos had longer time to program completion.
Diversion programs are considered alternatives to the arrest and incarceration of non-violent drug offenders, including those found in possession of smaller amounts of cannabis in states with prohibitive laws. Despite the progressive nature of such programs, the inability to complete diversion program requirements can often result in greater involvement with the criminal justice system than traditional case adjudication. Few studies have evaluated racial group differences in cannabis diversion program completion.
The current study examined a sample of 8323 adult participants in Harris County, Texas’ Marijuana Misdemeanor Diversion Program (MMDP) between March 2017 and July 2019. Gender, age, and race/ethnicity were examined as predictors of program completion and time to completion using Chi square, Kruskal Wallis tests, and Cox proportional hazard regression models.
Both males and African Americans were over-represented (80 % and 50 %, respectively) among participants of Harris County’s MMDP. African American (HR = 0.782, 95 % CI .735–.832, p < .001) and Latino American MMDP participants (HR = .822, 95 % CI .720–.937, p = .003) had significantly lower odds of MMDP completion and a longer interval to program completion as compared to non-Latino White participants.
The current study identified racial/ethnic and gender disparities in a large county’s cannabis diversion program. These findings may be related to law enforcement disparities which disproportionately target males and people of color. Findings may serve to inform the continued reform of the criminal justice system, particularly laws relating to cannabis.
Pictorial health warning labels (HWLs) on waterpipe (WP) tobacco packages represent a better strategy for communicating the health risks associated with WP use and promoting quit intention than ...text-only. However, the mechanism by which these warnings lead to higher intentions to quit remains unknown.
This study explores how pictorial warnings versus text-only induces higher quit intention among a sample of young adult WP smokers in Lebanon. An online randomized cross-over experimental study was conducted in August 2021 among 276 young adult WP smokers who were exposed to two conditions: pictorial HWLs and text-only warnings on WP tobacco packages in random order. After each image, participants completed post-exposure assessments of health communication outcomes (eg, attention and negative affect). Using serial and parallel mediation analysis, we examined the role of attention, negative affect, cognitive elaboration, and perceived harm in mediating the relationship between exposure to HWLs and intention to quit.
Using serial mediation, exposure to pictorial warnings versus text-only was found to affect intention to quit through the following pathways: attention and negative affect, which accounted for 17.28% of the total effect, and through negative affect and cognitive elaboration, which accounted for 21.53% of the total effect. Results of parallel mediation showed that the indirect effect pathways via negative affect (β = 0.063; 95% bootstrap CI = 0.004 to 0.149) and cognitive elaboration (0.047; 0.001 to 0.114) were statistically significant.
The findings call on designing and implementing attention-grabbing, emotionally evocative, and cognitively persuasive pictorial warnings in Lebanon and other countries to curb WP tobacco smoking.
This is among the first experimental studies looking at multiple mediators underlying the effect of exposure to pictorial HWLs on intention to quit in a sample of current WP smokers in Lebanon. The findings showed that using attention-grabbing, emotionally evocative, and persuasive pictures with a clear textual warning is crucial to maximizing the impact of implementing WP-HWLs regulations in Lebanon and other countries to curb WP tobacco smoking.
Studies have found that offline and online racism are linked to mental health issues including depressive and anxiety symptoms among racially minoritized emerging adults. To cope with these symptoms, ...racially minoritized emerging adults may resort to substance use. Thus, we examined the relationship between offline and online racism and recent smoking behaviors (past 30 days), and whether depressive and anxiety symptoms (DAS) mediate this relationship. We hypothesized that offline and online racism would be associated with a greater probability of recent smoking through depressive/anxiety symptoms. With data from 338 participants (Mage = 23.28, SD = 2.38), we conducted a path analysis of offline racism (Everyday Discrimination Scale) and online racism (Perceived Online Racism Scale) predicting recent smoking (recent cigarette smoking, recent marijuana use, recent vaping) via depressive (Patient Health Questionnaire-9)/anxiety (Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7) symptoms. Offline racism was directly associated with recent cigarette smoking while online racism was directly associated with recent vaping. No significant indirect associations were observed with cigarette smoking and vaping. Both online and offline racism were indirectly associated with recent marijuana use via depressive/anxiety symptoms. Our findings suggest that there are nuanced differences between the impact that online and offline racism experiences may have on the DAS, and smoking behaviors of racially minoritized emerging adults. Implications for research are discussed.
Public Policy Relevance Statement
We found that racially minoritized emerging adults may cope with online and offline racism through smoking tobacco, marijuana use, and vaping. They may engage in these smoking-related coping behaviors to alleviate the depressive and anxiety symptoms stemming from online and offline racism experiences. Our findings highlight the need to mitigate the impact of both online and offline racism on smoking outcomes.
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•Fibrillar ZrO2-ZSM-5 catalysts were prepared in only one step by electrospinning.•ZSM-5 submicrometric aggregates, in the form of shell-like structures, were obtained.•The catalysts ...worked efficiently for methanol dehydration in a fixed-bed reactor.•Selectivity to DME and light HCs could be finely tuned by the ZSM-5 loading.•No transport limitations nor high pressure drops inside the reactor were observed.
Zeolites are widely used in many applications, such as catalysis and adsorption processes. The use of these materials in a nanometric size would be of great interest for these applications, due to the better performance they could exhibit in terms of avoiding intraparticle mass and heat transfer limitations. However, this small particle size results in high pressure drops in adsorption columns and fixed-bed reactors, making these materials non-applicable directly in the nanometric size. In this work, ZrO2 fibers with a mean diameter of 275 nm and the presence of small well-defined ZSM-5 zeolite aggregates of 550 nm in size around the ZrO2 submicrometric fibers, in the form of a shell-like structure, have been prepared by electrospinning technique, which resulted very active for the synthesis of DME and light olefins via methanol dehydration. The submicrometric fibrillar catalysts, without any further modification, could be easily structured inside a fixed-bed reactor, which worked very efficiently in terms of heat and mass transfer, avoiding, at the same time, the usual pressure drops problems of fixed-bed reactors working with catalyst particles of submicrometric size. Methanol conversion and selectivity to DME and light hydrocarbons could be finely controlled, for a given set reaction conditions, by tuning the zeolite loading in the structured catalyst. Apparent kinetic parameters for the selective methanol dehydration to DME were calculated assuming a reversible second order rate expression and an activation energy of 75 kJ/mol was obtained.
This study investigates how ENDS harm perception influences ENDS initiation over time among US young people.
Data were from the sample of the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study ...conducted from 2013 to 2018. The Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to assess the relationship between absolute (the perception of harm from ENDS only) and relative harm perception (ENDS’ harm relative to cigarettes) and ENDS initiation among adolescents (12–17 years) and young adults (18–24 years) separately. Harm perception was assessed at the wave before ENDS initiation in a subsequent wave. Weighted results were reported.
Of the 11,633 adolescents and 5089 young adults from baseline, 17.1% and 25.5% initiated ENDS use across four waves, respectively. Among adolescents (HR=2.31; 95%CI: 1.95–2.73) and young adults (HR=1.97; 95%CI: 1.69–2.30), perceiving lower relative harm of ENDS significantly predicted ENDS initiation in subsequent waves. Among adolescents, perceiving lower absolute harm of ENDS (HR=2.18; 95%CI: 1.83–2.60) predicted ENDS initiation in subsequent waves. Additionally, adolescents and young adults who ever used any other tobacco products or alcohol and lived with anyone who used tobacco were more likely to initiate ENDS use.
Among a representative longitudinal cohort of adolescents and young adults who had never used ENDS at baseline, perceiving ENDS as reduced or low-harm products significantly predicted ENDS initiation in subsequent waves. These findings underscore the importance of ENDS harm perception and the central role of risk communication strategies that need to target those young people at particular risk of unwarranted ENDS use.
•17.1% of adolescents and 25.5% of young adults initiated ENDS use between 2013 and 2018.•Reduced or low-harm perception of ENDS predicted ENDS initiation.•Ever use of any other tobacco products or alcohol predicted ENDS initiation.•Findings underline the need for appropriate ENDS risk communication interventions.
In the past decade, recent Latinx immigrants (RLIs) from South and Central America have arrived in the United States seeking asylum from countries affected by war, political upheaval, and high crime ...and poverty rates. The premigration stress and trauma they experience are further compounded by postimmigration stress due to discrimination, lack of access to health care, and financial instability. Evidence suggests RLIs who experience such stress and trauma have an increased risk of developing depressive symptoms. We examined the combined effect of premigration stress and trauma and postimmigration stress on postimmigration depressive symptoms; we also explored the moderating effect of gender. Hierarchical multiple regression and moderation analyses were conducted on a cross‐sectional sample of 540 young adult RLIs (age range: 18–34 years, 50.2% men) in South Florida. Higher levels of postimmigration stress, β = .37, p < .001, were associated with increased postimmigration depressive symptoms. No significant associations emerged between premigration stress and trauma and postimmigration depressive symptoms. Moderation analyses revealed no significant interaction effect of gender. Post hoc analyses indicated that country/region of origin moderated the relation between postimmigration stress and depressive symptoms such that the association was stronger among Venezuelan, β = 1.51, p < .001; other South American, β = 1.06, p < .001; and Central American/Mexican RLIs, β = 1.38, p < .001, compared with Caribbean RLIs, β = .45, p = .122. These findings suggest that interventions focused on addressing postimmigration stress early in the immigration process can potentially lower subsequent depressive symptoms among RLIs.
•Tested indirect relationship between online racism and coping-related drinking.•Online racism increases depressive and anxiety symptoms.•Depressive and anxiety symptoms increase coping-related ...drinking motives.•Coping-related drinking motives predicted alcohol use severity.•Findings are supported across Black, Latinx, and Asian individuals.
Online racism has been associated with alcohol-related coping, likely to deal with mental health symptoms that arise from experiencing racial discrimination in online settings. Thus, we examined online racism as a risk factor for alcohol-related problems by examining depressive/anxiety symptoms and coping-related drinking motives as mediators among Black, Latina/o/x, and Asian emerging adults in the U.S. We hypothesized that online racism would be associated with greater alcohol use severity through depressive/anxiety symptoms and coping-related drinking motives sequentially. With data from 322 participants (Mage = 23.28; Black, n = 108; Latina/o/x, n = 118; and Asian, n = 96), we conducted a multi-group path analysis of online racism (Perceived Online Racism Scale) linked to alcohol use (Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test) via depressive (Patient Health Questionnaire-9)/Anxiety (Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7) symptoms and coping-related drinking motives (Drinking Motives Questionnaire-Revised Short Form). The hypothesized indirect pathway was significant in all groups. The direct effect was also significant for Latina/o/x and Asian groups. For the Black group, the direct effect was not significant, highlighting the salience of the mental health symptoms and drinking motives in explaining the link between online racism and alcohol use. Collectively, the results help to contextualize the risks of alcohol-related problems from experiencing contemporary forms of racial trauma such as online racial discrimination and provide implications for intervention development.
This study examines the cumulative effects of negative context of reception (NCR), traditional Latino gender norms, and acculturation on depressive symptoms among adult Latino immigrant men, and if ...levels of acculturation and traditional Latino gender norms moderated associations between NCR and depressive symptoms in the study sample. Hierarchical Multiple Regression (HMR) and moderation analyses were conducted on a cross-sectional sample of 280 Latino men. Predictor variables were entered into the HMR model: (1) demographic variables, (2) perceived stress, (3) acculturation and gender norms, and (4) NCR. Subsequently, moderation analysis was conducted using PROCESS v3.2 model 1. 19% of the variance of depressive symptoms was explained by all predictor variables entered in the HMR model. Moderation analyses revealed significant interaction effects with machismo (exacerbating) and Hispanicism (attenuating) the association between NCR and depressive symptoms. Study findings have implications for culturally appropriate interventions that target gender norms among Latino immigrant men.
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