Culture

PHILADELPHIA – Less acculturated Latino men have a more difficult time quitting smoking than those who are more acculturated to U.S. culture, but acculturation has no affect on Latinas odds of quitting smoking. Details of these findings are published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. The December issue has a special focus on tobacco.

PHILADELPHIA – Mexican-American adolescents exposed to cigarette smoking scenes in movies are more likely to pick up the habit themselves, and this may be part of the acculturation process associated with smoking initiation, according to new study findings.

HOUSTON - The more movie scenes of smoking they watch, the more likely Mexican-American youths are to experiment with smoking, researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center and Dartmouth College report in the December issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention.

HOUSTON - Whether non-smoking Mexican-American adolescents go on to experiment with smoking depends largely on their initial attitude toward the habit, researchers at M. D. Anderson Cancer Center report in the December issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

A new study by researchers at Queen's University looking at the transitions young people make from secondary school to university, college, apprenticeship and the workplace found that over 60 percent of first-year college enrollees do not come directly from secondary school, but that within one or two years after secondary school, a substantial number of youth enroll in college from the workforce.

The study, based on information from about 750,000 secondary school students, shows that it's not always a smooth transition to post-secondary education (PSE).

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Married people in the United States are living longer these days, but the widowed are experiencing a higher mortality rate, according to new research by a Michigan State University sociologist.

The widening mortality gap between the two groups is a disturbing trend that should prompt scholars and politicians to seek out strategies to better protect and promote health for the widowed, said Hui Liu, study author and assistant professor of sociology.

Recalls of ground beef, peanut butter, and other foods have done more than raise public awareness and concern about food safety. They also are quietly fueling a boom in the market for food testing equipment and fostering new food safety regulations. That's the topic of the two-part cover story in the current issue of Chemical & Engineering News, (C&EN) ACS' weekly newsmagazine.

Scientists are reporting the first identification of substances involved in the Jekyll-and-Hyde transformation that changes harmless marine bacteria into killers that cause "coral bleaching." Their study appears in ACS' Environmental Science & Technology, a semi-monthly journal.

CHICAGO – A randomized, controlled study comparing standard conservative therapy to a minimally invasive treatment called percutaneous disc decompression for painful herniated disc revealed that while both treatments help patients in the short run, only disc decompression kept patients pain free up to two years later. Results of the study, the first of its kind, were presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

EVANSTON, Ill. --- Ethnic pride may be as important as self-esteem to the mental health of young African-American adolescents, according to a new study in the Nov./Dec. issue of the journal Child Development.

The empirical study is one of the first to look at the effects of self-esteem and of racial identity and to separately explore their effects by gender. The study specifically measures racial identity in terms of ethnic pride.

The oceans could become the source of more of humanity's food if steps are taken to expand and improve marine aquaculture, according to a study published in the December 2009 issue of BioScience.

COLUMBIA, Mo. – More than half of all marriages end in divorce, and the majority of these involve children, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. Conflict between parents, before and after divorce, is associated with feelings of anger, helplessness, loneliness and guilt in children. Now, an online program created by University of Missouri researchers is teaching separated parents to maintain and nurture relationships with their children.

COLUMBUS, Ohio – When Americans begin routinely complaining about how they hate their government and don't trust their leaders, it may be time to look warily at the homicide rate.

In researching the new book American Homicide (Harvard University Press, 2009), an Ohio State University historian tried to make sense of changing homicide rates by sifting through records of tens of thousands of homicides in the United States and western Europe over the past four centuries.

Montreal, December 1, 2009 – A Université de Montréal researcher, funded by the Interdisciplinary Research Center on Family Violence and Violence Against Women, has launched a new study to examine the effects of pornography on men. "We started our research seeking men in their twenties who had never consumed pornography. We couldn't find any," says Simon Louis Lajeunesse, a postdoctoral student and professor at the School of Social Work.

Young men who believe that happiness declines with age are more likely to engage in risky health behaviors such as binge drinking. Their misguided negative view of the aging process may act as a disincentive to behave 'sensibly' and encourage them to make the most of the present in anticipation of 'miserable' old age. These findings1 by Dr. John Garry and Dr. Maria Lohan from Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland, are published online in Springer's Journal of Happiness Studies.