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SMC Heads-Up: adolescent health stats, Wozniak, superbugs
SMC Heads-Up: Our poor adolescent health stats, Apple's Steve Wozniak, superbugs
Issue 179 - April 27 - May 3
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Spotlight on NZ's
adolescent deaths
New
Zealand's high rate of youth mortality and suicide have been
highlighted in a special 'adolescent health' issue of an
international medical
journal.
The Lancet has
published a four part Series on Adolescent Health to
coincide with the 45th Session of the United Nations
Commission on Population Development in New York, which has
an adolescent health theme.
An analysis of international of youth health indicators in the special issue ranked New Zealand very poorly in comparison to other developed countries. In terms of adolescents (defined as 10-24 years by the Lancet) dying from any cause, New Zealand ranked 2nd highest out of 27 developed countries, after the US. New Zealand also ranked 3rd highest in terms of females suicide rates and was ranked highest out of all 27 countries for male suicides.
This is not the first time New Zealand's poor track record on youth mortality has been highlighted. Previous reports have also slammed New Zealand's suicide rates and this week Associate Health Minister Hon Peter Dunne acknowledged that while New Zealand's suicide rate was improving, it is still one of the worst in the OECD.
Prof Annette Beautrais, Faculty of
Medical and Health Sciences, University of Auckland, told
the SMC:
"While it is possible that New
Zealand's high ranking may reflect better accounting and
reporting of deaths, enabled by a small population and a
coronial inquest system for traffic and suspected suicide
deaths, other countries have similar coronially-based
mortality reporting systems (e.g. Australia, Canada, United
Kingdom) and do not have youth mortality rates as high as
those in New Zealand
"A more likely explanation for New Zealand's mortality may lie with New Zealand's relatively low minimum legal drinking age of 18 years, which is likely to contribute to both suicide and traffic deaths."
You can read more commentary and a round up
of media coverage on the SMC website.
On the science radar...
Southpaws skewed in sports, vibrating steering wheels, flip-flopping fliers, the fractal-flight of the albatross and
post-traumatic Tetris therapy.
Podcast: The Woz is in the house!
The revamped and
relaunched Sciblogs podcasts is out now with episode 26
featuring Apple co-founder Steve
Wozniak.
Wozniak, who helped kickstart the personal computer revolution with the launch of the Apple I in 1975, is heading to New Zealand next month for Woz Live - a seminar in which he will relate the Apple story and what we can learn from it.
Also on the podcast, British futurist Mark Stevenson, who was in the country recently visiting start-up incubators. He is an optimist who believes in the power of human ingenuity to get us out of the hole we've dug for ourselves as we face up to the consequences of exploiting our planet.
Professor Shaun Hendy is interviewed about the late Sir Paul Callaghan and reflects on what made him such an effective scientist, but also an influential visionary.
Subscribe to the Sciblogs podcast via iTunes or stream it from the Sciblogs website - each Friday we'll serve up interviews, news and a round-up of the research papers that made headlines during the week.
Twitter: @Sciblogsnz
Facebook: www.facebook.com/sciblogs
Clinicians warned over 'super
bugs'
Researchers providing an in-depth analysis of
antibiotic-resistant bacteria, isolated from New Zealand
patients returning from India, have taken the opportunity to
warn hospitals to be on the lookout for
'superbugs'.
A new article published in the
International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents details
New Zealand's first incidence of NMD positive bacteria,
isolated from patients in 2009-10.
NDM stands for
New Delhi metallo--lactamase, an enzyme which experts say can make bacteria
"essentially resistant to most known antibiotics".
Author Dr Deborah
Williamson (University of Auckland) and her colleagues
analysed five cultures of NMD producing bacteria from four
patients - all of whom had been traveling in India and had
received medical treatments there.
The gene which confers bacteria the ability to produce the NDM enzyme can be passed between strains of bacteria via a DNA swapping process called horizontal transfer. Several different bacteria species carrying variants of the NDM gene were identified in the study, including: E. coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Proteus mirabilis.
All bacterial strains carrying a
version of the NDM gene were founded be resistant to 75-80%
of antibiotics tested. The researchers also examined
bacteria DNA to identify genes that might be carried
alongside the NDM gene.
In
the article's conclusions, the authors warn of more
NDM-positive bacterial infections in the future:
"Given the reported propensity of this
resistance mechanism to disseminate, it seems inevitable
that further isolation of NDM-producing organisms will
continue to occur in our geographic locale.
"It is therefore imperative that clinicians and laboratories remain vigilant both in detecting these organisms and in instituting appropriate infection control measures to prevent further the epidemic spread of NDM-producing Enterobacteriaceae."
Quoted:
Sunday Star-Times
"Seventy-one per
cent of our merchandisable exports come from the primary
sector.
"To have just 10 PhDs in
that area ...is not going to be sufficient to produce the
value-adding activity we need".
--
--Science NZ chief executive Anthony Scott
notes that only 10 of the nation's 440 PhDs awarded in 2010
were in agriculture or environmental science
New from the SMC
Experts
Respond: Suicide
stats:
DNA
damage: British researchers who found that children
who experience violence appear to be aging at a faster rate
plan to replicate their research in a New Zealand context.
In the News:
Video game therapy: Adolescents suffering from depression can benefit just as much from specialised computer therapy as they do from one-to-one therapy with a clinician, according to New Zealand researchers.
Research 'filling the gaps'
on 1080: A recent University of Otago study into
the effects of a 1080 poison operation challenges claims about the negative
impacts on native
wildlife
Reflections:
Marine reserves require diplomacy: Gareth Morgan and Geoff Simmonds write in the NZ Herald about the need for compromise in setting Antarctic Marin Protected Areas.
Sciblogs highlights
Some of the highlights from this week's posts:
Dear David, please give us more than science
and innovation platitudes - Peter Kerr drags Labour
leader David Shearer over the coals for an unoriginal speech
on science.
sticK
Kiwimars Science: Welcome to Mars - Take
trip to the red planet with Elf Eldridge and Jared
Lee.
Just So Science
Jesus heals - but not cancer! Cures,
cancer and Christ - Ken Perrott wades into the church
billbord debate over faith and science.
Open
Parachute
Convection and continuity - Marcus
Wilson explores the physics of a very hot topic - heat
pumps.
Physics Stop
Research
highlights
Please note: hyperlinks point, where possible, to the relevant abstract or paper.
Toddlers - they're a sure bet:
Children who will turn into adult compulsive gamblers can be
identified as young as the age of three years, according to
researchers using Dunedin's well-known longitudinal study.
Kids rated at age three as being more restless, inattentive,
oppositional, and moody than other children that age are
twice as likely to grow up to have problems with gambling as
adults three decades later
Psychological
Science
Poverty-trap in childhood?:
Contrary to popular belief, NZ children brought up in
poverty are not predisposed to crime or mental health
problems in adulthood, Christchurch researchers say.
However, teens and adults who were poor in childhood do have
increased levels of poor school results, lower earnings and
more reliance on the dole and other welfare payments up to
the age of thirty.
Social Science and
Medicine
Warmer water thins ice
shelves: New research on thinning ice shelves in
Antarctica shows warm ocean currents are the dominant cause
of recent ice loss, at rates of up to 7m thickness annually.
Of the 54 ice shelves mapped, 20 -- mostly in West
Antarctica -- are being melted by warmer seas, though warm
winds also affect those on the Antarctic Peninsula. Inland
glaciers feeding the shelves with faster melt rates are
accelerating and the process is helping lift sea
levels.
Nature
Some organic crops can
compete: Under certain conditions -- such as
perennials grown on favourable soils -- organic farming
systems can nearly match conventional yields, new research
shows. The difference in performance may be as low as 5 per
cent, an important point when a variety of farming
techniques may be needed to meet rising demands for
affordable food while reducing environmental costs.
Nature
Time on
target: Super-accurate clocks used to set NZ's time
may one day be able to be synchronised more precisely with
counterparts across the Tasman, or even further afield, says
an Australian scientist in a perspective on new German
research. Such synchronisation over fibre-optic links will
be needed for very long baseline interferometry in radio
telescopes such as the proposed trans-Tasman Square
Kilometre Array.
Science
Vitamin D a double-edged sword:
Vitamin D regulates the level of calcium in the
blood stream and determines how much should be stored in the
skeleton, but several recent clinical trials in old people
now show it can also promote bone density loss. These
findings may explain clinical trials where vitamin D
supplements not only failed to prevent fractures in elderly
patients but were sometimes linked to increased fracture
rates.
Journal of Clinical
Investigation
Wear-and-tear on DNA of abused
kids: Researchers using data from a British cohort
study (running in parallel with the Dunedin cohort study)
have found that sufferers of child abuse exhibit damage to
their chromosomal DNA usually seen as a sign of aging. This
damage could lead to health problems in later life.
Molecular Psychiatry
Policy updates
Some of the policy highlights from this week:
Latest suicide stats: The Ministry of Health has released a report on NZ latest suicide data titled, Suicide Facts: Deaths and intentional self-harm hospitalisations 2009. While the suicide rate has decreased it is still high by international standards for developed countries.
Upcoming sci-tech events
• Identity Conference 2012: Managing digital
identity in a networked world - April 30-May 1,
Wellington.
• The Ocean Governance Report Launch -
From the Emerging Issues Programme, overseen by the
Institute of Policy Studies - April 30,
Wellington..
• Taking Antarctica's pulse: research in Our
Far South - Public seminar by Dr Gareth Morgan, Dr Rob
McKay, Dr Rhian Salmon & Prof Tim Naish - May 2, Wellington.
• Market-led Tech-transfer - KiwiNet
commercialisation forum - May 2, Wellington.
• Science Express: Rena - The Oil Spill -
Public talk from Prof Chris Battershill - May 3, Wellington.
For these and more upcoming events, and
more details about them, visit the SMC's Events Calendar.
ENDS
Science Media Centre NZ
Our aim is to promote accurate, evidence-based reporting on science and technology by helping the media work more closely with the scientific community.
The Science Media Centre is New Zealand's only trusted, independent source of information for the media on all issues related to science. Thousands of news stories providing context from and quoting New Zealand researchers have been published as a direct result of our work.
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