Predictors of binge drinking in adolescents: ultimate and distal factors - a representative study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>As epidemiological surveys have shown, binge drinking is a constant and wide-spread problem behavior in adolescents. It is not rare to find that more than half of all adolescents engage in this behavior when assessing only the last 4 weeks of time independent of the urbanity of the region they live in. There have been several reviews on predictors of substance consumption in adolescents in general, but there has been less high quality research on predictors of binge drinking, and most studies have not been theoretically based. The current study aimed to analyze the ultimate and distal factors predicting substance consumption according to Petraitis' theory of triadic influence. We assessed the predictive value of these factors with respect to binge drinking in German adolescents, including the identification of influence direction.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In the years 2007/2008, a representative written survey of N = 44,610 students in the 9^thgrade of different school types in Germany was carried out (net sample). The return rate of questionnaires was 88% regarding all students whose teachers or school directors had agreed to participate in the study. In this survey, prevalence of binge drinking was investigated as well as potential predictors from the social/interpersonal, the attitudinal/environmental, and the intrapersonal fields (3 factors of Petraitis). In a multivariate logistic regression analysis, these variables were included after testing for multicollinearity in order to assess their ability to predict binge drinking.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Prevalence of binge drinking in the last 30 days was 52.3% for the surveyed adolescents with a higher prevalence for boys (56.9%) than for girls (47.5%). The two most influential factors found to protect against binge drinking with <it>p </it>< .001 were low economic status and importance of religion. The four most relevant risk factors for binge drinking (<it>p </it>< .001) were life-time prevalence of school absenteeism/truancy, academic failure, suicidal thoughts, and violence at school in the form of aggressive behavior of teachers. The model of Petraitis was partly confirmed for Binge Drinking in German adolescents and the direction of influence factors was clarified.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Whereas some of the risk and protective factors for binge drinking are not surprising since they are known for substance abuse in general, there are two points that could be targeted in interventions that do not focus on adolescents alone: (a) training teachers in positive, reassuring behavior and constructive criticism and (b) a focus on high risk adolescents either because they have a lack of coping strategies when in a negative mood or because of their low academic achievement in combination with absenteeism from school.</p

Dissolution behaviour of stainless steel weld metals during active potential range: A calculational approach

Uniform or localised corrosion resistance of stainless steels is attributed to the presence of a tenacious passive film formed on the surface, the thickness and chemical composition of which depends on the applied potential. The protective properties of such films depend on the bulk composition of the alloy, presence of secondary phases and elemental segregation. In this paper the role of Cr, Mo and ferrite content on the anodic dissolution behaviour of type 316 austenitic stainless steel weld metals has been investigated. A calculational approach was tried in order to qualitatively understand the behaviour of the stainless steel weld metals with different chemical compositions and heat inputs. Extensive iterative calculations were carried out by using the experimental data on the anodic current values to arrive at the results. (C) 2000 Kluwer Academic Publishers

Microstructural evaluation of molybdenum-containing stainless steel weld metals by a potentiostatic etching technique

Microstructure of austenitic stainless steel weld metals is complicated by the presence of delta-ferrite and microsegregated regions rich in chromium and molybdenum, as well as other minor alloying elements such as sulphur and phosphorus at the delta/gamma interphase boundaries. Detailed microstructural studies are required in order to establish correlation between various metallurgical as well as electrochemical corrosion properties with the weld metal microstructure. The conventional chemical etching technique was found to be inadequate in revealing different microconstituents. A powerful potentiostatic etching technique was used to reveal not only ferrite but also different microconstituents that had different specific electrochemical potentials at which they dissolved. This paper describes the weld metal microstructure developed by the addition of molybdenum (4.16-5.83 wt%) to type 316 stainless steel weld metals during Tungsten Inert Gas (TIG) welding with different heat inputs. (C) 1998 Chapman & Hall

Evaluation of microstructure and electrochemical corrosion behavior of austenitic 316 stainless steel weld metals with varying chemical compositions

Austenitic stainless steel weld metals have, in general, inferior corrosion resistance compared with the base metals. This is due to the fact that the weld metal has an inhomogeneous and dendritic microstructure with microsegregation of major elements (i.e., Cr, Mo, and Ni) as well as minor elements (i.e., S and P) at the delta-gamma interface boundaries. The nonuniform alloying element concentration around ferrite particles plays a major role in determining the electrochemical corrosion behavior of such weld metals. Although the presence of ferrite is considered to be detrimental as far as the localized corrosion is considered, its exact role in uniform corrosion is still not clear. The uniform corrosion behavior of an alloy is determined by the fundamental electrochemical parameters of the major alloying elements. In this study, an attempt has been made to correlate the microstructure and uniform corrosion behavior of type 316 stainless steel weld metals with varying concentrations of Cr and Mo, and different ferrite contents. From the empirical equations obtained during the analysis of the electrochemical corrosion data, an attempt has been made to understand the role of Cr, Mo, and ferrite in altering the electrochemical corrosion parameters of the weld metal. Based on the extensive microstructural characterization, a dissolution model for the weld metal in the moderately oxidizing medium has been proposed

Numerical modelling and experimental determination of temperature distribution during manual metal arc welding

Welding is a highly reliable and efficient metal joining process. Manual metal are (MMA) welding is very widely used in industry. The temperature distribution that occurs during welding affects the material microstructure, hardness, and the residual stresses present in the material after welding. In the present work, the temperature distribution during bead on plate welding using MMA welding was experimentally determined for AISI type 304 stainless steel plates and low carbon steel plates of thickness 6 and 12 mm. A three-dimensional computer model based on the control volume method has been developed to predict the temperature distribution in the heat affected zone (HAZ) and in the base plate region of the bead on plate welds, using the weld parameters as input data to the computer model. In this computer model, the heat energy used to melt the electrode is considered as a separate heat flux term and the remaining heat supplied by the welding arc is considered as another heat flux term. A good match between the experimental results and the theoretical predictions was obtained, Using the computer model, the time taken to cool from 800 to 500 degreesC in the coarse grained HAZ (close to the fusion line) of low carbon steel specimens was calculated. From this cooling time and the chemical composition of the material, the maximum hardness in the coarse grained HAZ was predicted. Microhardness measurement in the same region of the welded plates was carried out. The experimentally measured values and predicted results match closely

Soft zone formation in dissimilar welds between two Cr-Mo steels

Two dissimilar weldments between 9Cr-1Mo and 2.25Cr-1Mo ferritic steels have been characterized for their microstructural stability during various postweld heat treatments (PWHTs). The samples for the investigation were extracted from bead-on-plate weldments made by depositing 2.25Cr-1Mo weld metal on 9Cr-1Mo base plate and vice versa. Subsequent application of PWHT resulted in the formation of a soft zone in the low Cr ferritic steel weld or base plate. A carbide-rich hard zone, adjoining the soft zone, was also detected in the high Cr side of the weldment. Unmixed zones in the weld metal provided additional soft and hard zones in the weld metals. The migration of carbon from low-Cr steel to high-Cr steel, driven by the carbon activity gradient, has been shown to be responsible for the formation of soft and hard zones. A carbon activity diagram for 2.25Cr-1Mo/9Cr-1Mo weldments has been proposed to aid in the selection of welding consumables for reducing or preventing the soft zone formation