Daily College Student Drinking Patterns Across the First Year of College

Objective: Despite the long recognized importance and well-documented impact of drinking patterns on health and safety, college student drinking patterns are understudied. This study used a daily-level, academic-year-long, multisite sample to identify subpopulations of college student drinking patterns and to describe how these groups differ from one another before, during, and after their first year of college. Method: wo cohorts of first-year college students (n = 588; 59% female) reported daily drinking on a biweekly basis using web-based surveys and completed surveys before and after their first year of college. Results: Cluster analyses based on time series analysis estimates of within-person drinking differences (per weekday, semester, first 6 weeks) and other descriptors of day-to-day drinking identified five drinking patterns: two low (47% and 6%), two medium (24% and 15%), and one high (8%) drinking cluster. Multinomial logistic regression analyses examined cluster differences in pre-college characteristics (i.e., demographics, alcohol outcome expectancies, alcohol problems, depression, other substance use) and first-year college experiences (i.e., academic engagement, alcohol consequences, risky drinking practices, alcohol problems, drinking during academic breaks). Low-drinking students appeared to form a relatively homogeneous group, whereas two distinct patterns were found for medium-drinking students with different weekend and Thursday drinking rates. The Thursday drinking cluster showed lower academic engagement and greater participation in risky drinking practices. Conclusions: These findings highlight quantitative and qualitative differences in day-to-day drinking patterns and suggest a link between motivational differences and drinking patterns, which may be addressed in developing tailored interventional strategies

Refined Permian-Triassic floristic timeline reveals early collapse and delayed recovery of south polar terrestrial ecosystems

The collapse of late Permian (Lopingian) Gondwanan floras, characterized by the extinction of glossopterid gymnosperms, heralded the end of one of the most enduring and extensive biomes in Earth’s history. The Sydney Basin, Australia, hosts a near continuous, age-constrained succession of high southern paleolatitude (∼65–75°S) terrestrial strata spanning the end-Permian extinction (EPE) interval. Sedimentological, stable carbon isotopic, palynological, and macrofloral data were collected from two cored coal-exploration wells and correlated. Six palynostratigraphic zones, supported by ordination analyses, were identified within the uppermost Permian to Lower Triassic succession, corresponding to discrete vegetation stages before, during, and after the EPE interval. Collapse of the glossopterid biome marked the onset of the terrestrial EPE and may have significantly predated the marine mass extinctions and conodont-defined Permian–Triassic Boundary. Apart from extinction of the dominant Permian plant taxa, the EPE was characterized by a reduction in primary productivity, and the immediate aftermath was marked by high abundances of opportunistic fungi, algae, and ferns. This transition is coeval with the onset of a gradual global decrease in δ13Corg and the primary extrusive phase of Siberian Traps Large Igneous Province magmatism. The dominant gymnosperm groups of the Gondwanan Mesozoic (peltasperms, conifers, and corystosperms) all appeared soon after the collapse but remained rare throughout the immediate post-EPE succession. Faltering recovery was due to a succession of rapid and severe climatic stressors until at least the late Early Triassic. Immediately prior to the Smithian–Spathian boundary (ca. 249 Ma), indices of increased weathering, thick redbeds, and abundant pleuromeian lycophytes likely signify marked climate change and intensification of the Gondwanan monsoon climate system. This is the first record of the Smithian–Spathian floral overturn event in high southern latitudes.This research was funded by collaborative research grants from the National Science Foundation (EAR-1636625 to CRF and TDF).</p

End-Permian (252 Mya) deforestation, wildfires and flooding—Anancient biotic crisis with lessons for the present

Current large-scale deforestation poses a threat to ecosystems globally, and imposes substantial and prolonged changes on the hydrological and carbon cycles. The tropical forests of the Amazon and Indonesia are currently undergoing deforestation with catastrophic ecological consequences but widespread deforestation events have occurred several times in Earth’s history and these provide lessons for the future. The end-Permian mass-extinction event (EPE; ∼252Ma) provides a global, deep-time analogue for modern deforestation and diversity loss. We undertook centimeter-resolution palynological, sedimentological, carbon stable-isotope and paleobotanical investigations of strata spanning the end-Permian event at the Frazer Beach and Snapper Point localities, in the Sydney Basin, Australia. We show that the typical Permian temperate, coal-forming, forest communities disappeared abruptly, followed by the accumulation of a 1-m-thick mudstone poor in organic matter that, in effect, represents a ‘dead zone’ hosting degraded wood fragments, charcoal and fungal spores. This signals a catastrophic scenario of vegetation die-off and extinction in southern high-latitude terrestrial settings. Lake systems, expressed by laterally extensive but generally less than a few-metres-thick laminated siltstones, generally lacking bioturbation, hosting assemblages of algal cysts and freshwater acritarchs, developed soon after the vegetation die-off. The first traces of vascular plant recovery occur ∼1.6m above the extinction horizon. Based on analogies with modern deforestation, we propose that the global fungal and acritarch events of the Permo-Triassic transition resulted directly from inundation of basinal areas following water-table rise as a response to the abrupt disappearance of complex vegetation from the landscape. The δ13Corg values reveal a significant excursion toward low isotopic values, down to −31ppt (a shift of ∼4deg), across the end-Permian event. The magnitude of the shift at that time records a combination of changes in the global carbon cycle that were enhanced by the local increase in microbial activity, possibly also involving cyanobacterial proliferation. We envisage that elevated levels of organic and mineral nutrients delivered from inundated dead forests, enhanced weathering and erosion of extra-basinal areas, together with local contributions of volcanic ash, led to eutrophication and increased salinity of basinal lacustrine–lagoonal environments. We propose that the change in acritarch communities recorded globally in nearshore marine settings across the end-Permian event is to a great extent a consequence of the influx of freshwater algae and nutrients from the continents. Although this event coincides with the Siberian trap volcanic activity, we note that felsic–intermediate volcanism was extensively developed along the convergent Panthalassan margin of Pangea at that time and might also have contributed to environmental perturbations at the close of the Permian.Also funded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and by a collaborative research grant from the National Science Foundation USA (EAR-1636625)</p

Sedimentology of the continental end-Permian extinction eventin the Sydney Basin, eastern Australia

Upper Permian to Lower Triassic coastal plain successions of the Sydney Basin in eastern Australia have been investigated in outcrop and continuous drillcores. The purpose of the investigation is to provide an assessment of palaeoenvironmental change at high southern palaeolatitudes in a continental margin context for the late Permian (Lopingian), across the end‐Permian Extinction interval, and into the Early Triassic. These basins were affected by explosive volcanic eruptions during the late Permian and, to a much lesser extent, during the Early Triassic, allowing high‐resolution age determination on the numerous tuff horizons. Palaeobotanical and radiogenic isotope data indicate that the end‐Permian Extinction occurs at the top of the uppermost coal bed, and the Permo‐Triassic boundary either within an immediately overlying mudrock succession or within a succeeding channel sandstone body, depending on locality due to lateral variation. Late Permian depositional environments were initially (during the Wuchiapingian) shallow marine and deltaic, but coastal plain fluvial environments with extensive coal‐forming mires became progressively established during the early late Permian, reflected in numerous preserved coal seams. The fluvial style of coastal plain channel deposits varies geographically. However, apart from the loss of peat‐forming mires, no significant long‐term change in depositional style (grain size, sediment‐body architecture, or sediment dispersal direction) was noted across the end‐Permian Extinction (pinpointed by turnover of the palaeoflora). There is no evidence for immediate aridification across the boundary despite a loss of coal from these successions. Rather, the end‐Permian Extinction marks the base of a long‐term, progressive trend towards better‐drained alluvial conditions into the Early Triassic. Indeed, the floral turnover was immediately followed by a flooding event in basinal depocentres, following which fluvial systems similar to those active prior to the end‐Permian Extinction were re‐established. The age of the floral extinction is constrained to 252.54 ± 0.08 to 252.10 ± 0.06 Ma by a suite of new Chemical Abrasion Isotope Dilution Thermal Ionization Mass Spectrometry U‐Pb ages on zircon grains. Another new age indicates that the return to fluvial sedimentation similar to that before the end‐Permian Extinction occurred in the basal Triassic (prior to 251.51 ± 0.14 Ma). The character of the surface separating coal‐bearing pre‐end‐Permian Extinction from coal‐barren post‐end‐Permian Extinction strata varies across the basins. In basin‐central locations, the contact varies from disconformable, where a fluvial channel body has cut down to the level of the top coal, to conformable where the top coal is overlain by mudrocks and interbedded sandstone–siltstone facies. In basin‐marginal locations, however, the contact is a pronounced erosional disconformity with coarse‐grained alluvial facies overlying older Permian rocks. There is no evidence that the contact is everywhere a disconformity or unconformity

Addressing alcohol use and problems in mandated college students: A randomized clinical trial using stepped care.

ObjectiveOver the past 2 decades, colleges and universities have seen a large increase in the number of students referred to the administration for alcohol policies violations. However, a substantial portion of mandated students may not require extensive treatment. Stepped care may maximize treatment efficiency and greatly reduce the demands on campus alcohol programs.MethodParticipants in the study (N = 598) were college students mandated to attend an alcohol program following a campus-based alcohol citation. All participants received Step 1: a 15-min brief advice session that included the provision of a booklet containing advice to reduce drinking. Participants were assessed 6 weeks after receiving the brief advice, and those who continued to exhibit risky alcohol use (n = 405) were randomized to Step 2, a 60- to 90-min brief motivational intervention (n = 211), or an assessment-only control (n = 194). Follow-up assessments were conducted 3, 6, and 9 months after Step 2.ResultsResults indicated that the participants who received a brief motivational intervention showed a significantly reduced number of alcohol-related problems compared to those who received assessment only, despite no significant group differences in alcohol use. In addition, low-risk drinkers (n = 102; who reported low alcohol use and related harms at 6-week follow-up and were not randomized to stepped care) showed a stable alcohol use pattern throughout the follow-up period, indicating they required no additional intervention.ConclusionStepped care is an efficient and cost-effective method to reduce harms associated with alcohol use by mandated students

Mandated college students’ response to sequentially administered alcohol interventions in a randomized clinical trial using stepped care.

OBJECTIVE: Students referred to school administration for alcohol policies violations currently receive a wide variety of interventions. This study examined predictors of response to two interventions delivered to mandated college students (N = 598) using a stepped care approach incorporating a peer-delivered 15-minute BA session (BA; Step 1) and a 60–90 minute brief motivational intervention delivered by trained interventionists (BMI; Step 2). METHOD: Analyses were completed in two stages. First, three types of variables (screening variables, alcohol-related cognitions, mandated student profile) were examined in a logistic regression model as putative predictors of lower-risk drinking (defined as 3 or fewer heavy episodic drinking [HED] episodes and/or 4 or fewer alcohol-related consequences in the past month) six weeks following the BA session. Second, we used generalized estimating equations to examine putative moderators of BMI effects on HED and peak blood alcohol content (pBAC) compared to assessment-only control (AO) over the 3, 6, and 9 month follow-ups. RESULTS: Participants reporting lower scores on the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT), more benefits to changing alcohol use, and those who fit the ‘Bad Incident’ profile at baseline were more likely to report lower risk drinking 6 weeks after the BA session. Moderation analyses revealed that ‘Bad Incident’ students who received the BMI reported more HED at 9-month follow up than those who received AO. CONCLUSION: Current alcohol use as well as personal reaction to the referral event may have clinical utility in identifying which mandated students benefit from treatments of varying content and intensity