The US prison population continued to grow in 2006, increasing 2.8% over the 2005 population, according to statistics released by the US Department of Justice (New York Times). The statistics are included in the report Prisoners in 2006.

After 14 years of decline, the teen birth rate increased significantly between 2005 and 2006, according to the National Center for Health Statistics (Washington Post).  The statistics are included in a new NCHS report, Births: Preliminary Data for 2006.

Advance Data, number 393, October 2007: Electronic Medical Record Use by Office-Based Physicians and Their Practices: United States, 2006

American Journal of Public Health, volume 97 number 11, November, 2007

Asian and Pacific Migration Journal, volume 16 number 3, 2007

International Family Planning Perspectives, volume 33 number 3, September 2007

National Vital Statistics Reports, volume 56 number 3, October 11, 2007: Fetal and Perinatal Mortality

The Chronicle of Higher Education has posted an audio interview with National Institutes of Health (NIH) director Elias Zerhouni. In the interview, Zerhouni discusses the in-progress review of the NIH grant award process.

The following grant announcements are new this week on the Population Research Institute Funding Announcements web page.

Behavioral Mechanisms in the Transition to Habitual Alcohol Seeking and Drinking (R01) - National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)

Behavioral Mechanisms in the Transition to Habitual Alcohol Seeking and Drinking (R21) - National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)

International Extramural Associates Research Development Awards (IEARDA) (G11) - Fogarty International Center (FIC) - National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) - National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)

Limited Competition for Evaluating the Health Benefits of Workplace Policies and Practices - Phase II (U01) - National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) - National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) - National Institute on Aging (NIA) - Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR)

National Smart Growth Conference - U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

New Connections Initiative: Round 3 (Junior Investigators) - Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

New Connections Initiative: Round 3 (Senior Consultants) - Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Promoting Careers In Aging and Health Disparities Research (K01) - National Institute on Aging (NIA)

Research on Co-Morbid Mental and Other Physical Disorders (R01) - National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

The National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) is seeking input from environmental health researchers to assist in developing a vision a unified program referred to as Partnerships for Environmental Public Health (PEPH) that will support a variety of research, outreach and education activities to prevent, reduce, or eliminate environmental exposures that may lead to adverse health outcomes in communities, with the active engagement of those communities in all stages of the work.

For more information and to submit comments, see the Request for Information.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is undertaking a comprehensive review of its process for evaluating proposals and awarding research funding, as reported in the Chronicle of Higher Education. Critics of the current system say it is too conservative and makes it too difficult for young investigators to start independent careers.