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California Mental Health Advocates Raise Concern Over Treatment Of ICE Detainees
The San Diego Tribune on Monday profiled the La Mesa, Calif.-based private psychiatric hospital Alvarado Parkway Institute. Some advocates say that the hospital is in a network of private hospitals that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement uses to hold "severely" mentally ill detainees nationwide, often "out of reach of lawyers and even their families," the Tribune reports. The number of immigration detainees has increased dramatically over recent years. According to the Tribune, about 35,000 people are being detained in a system of public or private jails and detention centers awaiting the outcomes of their immigration cases. It is unknown how many of the detainees are mentally ill and how many are held in private facilities.Some disability-rights lawyers and advocates for the mentally ill say that conditions at many of the private facilities, including API, violate state and federal laws governing treatment of mentally ill people. Ann Menasche, a lawyer with the legal advocacy group Disability Rights California, last month sent a letter to ICE claiming that after visiting API and interviewing detainees, she found that the conditions are "excessive, unjustifiable and punitive." Menasche said that immigration detainees could not socialize, exercise or participate in group therapy, and noted that they also were kept shackled to hospital beds. She said the patients also are being denied their rights to daily visitors, access to a telephone and other lawful permissions. She said other patients were not subjected to such conditions. Earlier this month, Menasche sent another letter to county officials requesting that they investigate the facility.Hospital CEO Patrick Ziemer said that the measures taken at the hospital are done for security reasons required by ICE. He added, "Patients can move about and walk around, a few steps from their bed." ICE officials declined to answer specific questions about the treatment of patients at API but said in a statement that the agency is reviewing "visitation and telephone access practices for immigration detainees being housed in private psychiatric facilities to ensure they have appropriate access to both." Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano also has ordered a broader review of all ICE detention conditions (Moran, San Diego Tribune, 5/18).

Protein Can Help Cells Or Cause Cancer, Purdue Researcher Finds
A Purdue University scientist has discovered a key process in cell growth that can lead to the formation of tumors.
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New York Times Examines Maternal Mortality, Abortion In Africa
Focusing on Tanzania, the New York Times examines maternal mortality and abortion access in Africa. According to the New York Times, "[p]regnancy and childbirth are among the greatest dangers that face women in Africa, which has the world"s highest rates of maternal mortality - at least 100 times those in developed countries. Abortion accounts for a significant part of the death toll."
Diagnostics

In Human-Dog Communication, Breed Is As Important As Species

Dog breeds selected to work in visual contact with humans, such as sheep dogs and gun dogs, are better able to comprehend a pointing gesture than those breeds that usually work without direct supervision. A series of tests, described in BioMed Central"s open access journal Behavioral and Brain Functions, should caution researchers against making simple generalizations about the effects of domestication and on dog-wolf differences in the utilization of human visual signals. Mç¡rta Gç¡csi, from Eç¶tvç¶s University, Hungary, worked with a team of researchers to examine the performance of different breeds of dogs in making sense of the human pointing gesture. Gç¡csi said, "It has been suggested that the study of the domestic dog might help to explain the evolution of human communicative skills, because the dog has been selected for living in a human environment and engaging in communicative interactions with humans for more than 10,000 years. However, this study is the first to reveal striking difference in the performance of breed groups selected for different characteristics." The researchers found that gun dogs and sheep dogs were better than hunting hounds, earth dogs (dogs used for underground hunting), livestock guard dogs and sled dogs at following a pointing finger. They also out-performed mongrels. Moreover, breeds with short noses and centrally placed eyes were better at interpreting the gesture than those with long noses and widely spaced eyes, which can probably be connected to a more optimal retinal location of greatest visual acuity, that might help focus their attention. According to Gç¡csi, "Although these results may appear to be unsurprising, there is a common tendency to make assumptions about genetic explanations for differences in comprehension between "dogs" and wolves. Our results show that researchers must be careful to control for animal breed when carrying out behavioral experiments." Notes: Effects of selection for cooperation and attention in dogs Marta Gacsi, Paul McGreevy, Edina Kara and Adam Miklosi Behavioral and Brain Functions (in press) http://www.behavioralandbrainfunctions.com/ Graeme Baldwin BioMed Central


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