Culture

The physical and mental health needs of juvenile offenders should be treated as a priority if offenders held in detention have any real hope of rehabilitation, according to new research from the University of Adelaide, Australia.

Adelaide researchers have conducted a comprehensive review of previous studies into the health of young offenders undertaken in the USA, UK, Europe and Australia since 1997.

The results of the review have been published in this month's Australian Journal of Primary Health.

New York, NY, June 18, 2009 – Researchers have determined that individuals with mild to severe symptoms of lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) are more likely to suffer from metabolic syndrome (MetS), a collection of cardiovascular risk factors thought to be linked by insulin resistance). LUTS encompass voiding (incomplete emptying, weak stream, intermittency, straining) and storage (frequency, urgency, nocturia) difficulties.

Bangkok, Thailand— Legal loopholes and insufficient law enforcement mean that Thailand continues to harbour the largest illegal ivory market in Asia, says a new report from the wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC.

The report also raises concerns that legal provisions governing trade in domesticated elephants are providing cover for illegal trade in wild-caught, highly-endangered Asian elephants from both Thailand and neighbouring Myanmar.

Gland, Switzerland: Like every country in Europe, the governments of Norway and Japan are using taxpayer money to subsidize their unprofitable food industries, according to a first-time analysis of the economics of whaling.

'Sink or Swim: The Economics of Whaling Today' found that Norway and Japan provide commercial whalers with huge government subsidies—even though killing whales is unlikely to ever be profitable without taxpayer support. Just like dairy farming in France.

WASHINGTON – (June 18, 2009) – Leaders of three national organizations representing nearly a third of a million physicians today visited Capitol Hill offices to express their continued concern for America's patients who do not have access to primary care physicians. The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), the American College of Physicians (ACP) and the American Osteopathic Association (AOA) represent the majority of physicians who care for Medicare patients. The leaders noted that only 17 percent of U.S.

Slow-flying, woodland bats—which tend to be at greater risk from extinction than their speedier kin—really don't like the light, according to a study published online on June 18th in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication. Lesser horseshoe bats will stray from their usual flight routes to steer clear of the artificial glow from lights that are similar to everyday street lights, the new report shows.

CHICAGO --- Most healthy 25 year olds don't stay up at night worrying whether they are going to develop diabetes in middle age. The disease is not on their radar, and middle age is a lifetime away.

As it turns out, many should be concerned. Researchers at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine have found that young adults (18 to 30 years old) with low aerobic fitness levels --as measured by a treadmill test -- are two to three times more likely to develop diabetes in 20 years than those who are fit.

NORMAN, Okla. – Representatives from the University of Oklahoma College of Atmospheric and Geographic Sciences presented recommendations for a comprehensive modernization of the Croatian Meteorological and Hydrological Service (DHMZ - Državni hidrometeorološki zavod) to the government of the Republic of Croatia in Zagreb, Croatia, on June 18.

"The modernization of the DHMZ and its resulting dividends are essential if the Republic is to become an economic force in the European Union," said Ken Crawford, Oklahoma Climatological Survey director.

Researchers from the University of Murcia (UM) have investigated the issue of cooperation between families and schools, and are proposing changes be made to the organisational structure of schools to allow families to take an active part in managing them and to take on joint responsibility for their educational programmes. The study underscores the crucial educational role of the family as a great environment within which to teach children ethical values.

Banning or restricting the use of certain types of fishing gear could help the world's coral reefs and their fish populations survive the onslaughts of climate change.

An international team of scientists led by Dr Josh Cinner of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University has proposed that bans on fishing gear - like spear guns, fish traps, beach seine nets, and gill nets – could aid in the recovery of reefs and fish populations hard hit by coral bleaching events.

Texting in class usually gets kids in trouble. But some writing instructors, intrigued by the popularity of cell-phone novels in Japan, are considering phone composition as a way to get students interested in literature.

"Some critics argue that mobile phone novels are not literature," says Yukiko Nishimura, a linguist and professor of humanities at Toyo Gakuen University in Japan. "I think they are -- it's a new genre."

Girls are gathering online to remake male-oriented Japanese animation videos into romances -- and in the process are picking up skills in film editing, storytelling and feminist literary criticism.

"Boys are more into the fighting aspects of anime," says Elizabeth Birmingham, an associate professor of English at North Dakota State University. "Girls have created this subculture where they cut the animation videos up, mix them around, and create their own stories, often romances."

Steven Krause's new freshman composition textbook, "The Process of Research Writing," is a real bargain for his students: It's free.

Between 2003 and 2007, the progress made in the 1990s and early 2000s in improving contraceptive use and reducing teen pregnancy and childbearing by teens engaged in risky behavior stalled, and may even have reversed among certain groups of teens, according to a study called "Changing Behavior Risk for Pregnancy Among High School Students in the United States, 1991�," by John S. Santelli, MD, MPH, professor and chair of the Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health in conjunction with researchers at Guttmacher Institute.

Living in an area with more fast food outlets and convenience stores than supermarkets and grocers has been associated with obesity in a Canadian study. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Public Health have shown that your local food environment can affect your weight.