Santa Clarita housing update reports for Christmas Week 2012

It has been a while since we have produced our Resources for the Cities Within the Santa Clarita by bullet points. ?This is our weekly real estate update for the Cities that compose the Santa Clarita Valley. ?While the holidays are not as ?active? as other parts of the year, we have been watching as there is a lot of real estate inventory entering escrow with with regard to properties for sale in the SCV.

Watching the current trends and numbers in Single Family Residences can be seen with our Newest Market update reports for the Santa Clarita Valley Cities. ?Click on each of the links(at the bottom of this page) to view each city with more detail. And click through twice on each link?

Here is a break down on the report for Castaic California and the Single Family Residences therein:

For the week of December 24, 2012 in Castaic CA we have seen as the Median list prices have reduced to a level of $329,999.00. ?This is a downward trend for Castaic CA. ?This report is referencing Single Family Homes only. ?Condo?s and Town-homes are part of a different report we will be posting tomorrow at this very Same Sellers real estate blog for Santa Clarita Ca.

We have noted that there is a price per square foot decrease to $164.00 a square foot. ?However, the Days on the market, the times it takes a property to sell has increased to 108 days. When we see this trend we can determine a couple of things. ?Lending is becoming more difficult to obtain, getting approved for loans and to close them, is like pulling teeth ?We can also deduce that the property involved has some sort of ?requirement? in order to sell. ?It may be a short sale that has to be negotiated. ?It could also be a Foreclosure that is waiting on investor approval. ?Both of these scenarios could increase the ?days on market times?.

Over 1/4 of homes that are for sale experienced a price decrease during this week from the week before. ?In today?s Castaic real estate market, that typically has to do with the appraisers in the employ of the Buyers seeing that the home is worth less than the amount they had the home listed for. ?The fault could be with the seller, with the bank (if a short sale) or with the bank (if a foreclosure). ?When the buyers appraiser does their job in appraising the home for sale, they may come in with a very different number. ?This is when we start seeing price reductions in the current Santa Clarita real estate market.

Prices typically increase when we have other real estate factors at play. ?It could be that during the short sale approval process, the bank determines that the home is being sold at less than fair market value. ?This could be the fault of the agent undercutting the real estate market or potentially the short sale seller being misinformed. ?The bank who owns the asset, in doing their due?diligence, determines that the home should be sold for more than the agreed upon list price and for more than the current offer that is in place. ?So, they increase the price of the home. ?That is what we have seen in this?numeric?- an increase of 4%.

All of these reports and their data are?obtainable for you by email. ?All you have to do is to visit our Reports Pages for Santa Clarita real estate. ?Visit and subscribe to any of the reports you desire. ?You can choose from full city reports for the Santa Clarita valley or by zip codes, thereby narrowing the results of your real estate data. ?The reports get emailed to you very week so you can see what we talk about on our Santa Clarita sellers blog.

To access the Santa Clarita real estate and market reports data pages ? click here.

VALENCIA CA real estate housing market update December 25, 2012

STEVENSON RANCH CA real estate housing market update December 25, 2012

SAUGUS CA real estate housing market update December 25, 2012

SANTA CLARITA CA real estate housing market update December 25, 2012

NEWHALL CA real estate housing market update December 25, 2012

CASTAIC CA real estate housing market update December 25, 2012

CANYON COUNTRY CA real estate housing market update December 25, 2012

Acton CA real estate housing market update December 25, 2012

We placed the homes sold chart combined with the median sales prices for Castaic CA below on this interactive graph. ?This renders the Single Family Residence history and it?s current days on market?time-frames? ?We are happy to supply you with the data and if you want more with regard to the other Cities in the Santa Clarita Valley ? Please head over to our Santa Clarita real estate website(paris911 dot com) and type into the macBoX the word ?Prices?. ?Or you can click here to get to our Santa Clarita Housing prices pages.

Connor and Paris MacIvor are Realtors in Santa Clarita CA with the REMAX of Valencia CA Brokerage.? They realized at the beginning of their real estate career the importance of being able to be there for their clients - 100% of the time. This blog is about Seller Representation and constant real estate market updates by Factual Numbers provided by the independent Research Firm we hired for our Real Estate sellers and buyers.? Enjoy the Data by The Paris911 Team at REMAX of Valencia CA.

Tagged as: castaic ca, market in santa clartia, Market Update, market updates, santa clarita housing, santa clarita real estate, santa clartia housing, update reports

Source: http://realtor.paris911.com/2012/12/26/santa-clarita-housing-update-reports-for-christmas-week-2012/

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Packing Pro (for iPhone)

I once left for spring break without any socks, which may sound like the precursor to a wild story, except I was headed to Rochester, New York, to ride out a blizzard at my friend's father's apartment. We got to town, hit up the mall, and I bought a six-pack of cheap socks. If I had written a packing list or had an app to help me prep my trip, such as Packing Pro (for iPhone) ($2.99), chances are I would have forgotten the socks regardless. Life rolls like that sometimes. You know you ought to pack socks and you simply don't, even if it's written down.

To pay $3 for an app that reminds me to pack socks?or medication, sunscreen, a light jacket, a knitted cap, and my swimsuit?seems frivolous even to someone as into organization as I am.

For some, however, it might be the very specificity of the reminders in this indie app that make it worth the modest cost.

Checklist Planning and Packing
Packing Pro helps you pack, and that's just about all it's designed to do. You work from a sample list of items to pack or create your own and tick off items as they go into your luggage.

It has a handful of other reminders, too, like booking reservations and watering the plants before you leave home, which you can save into checklists to guide your harried soul while you're running around your apartment like a chicken with its head cut off worried that you'll miss your flight if you dally a moment longer.

The default palette puts before you a lackluster brown color scheme and insipid fonts (using excessive italics) that suggest perhaps what's inside is equally uninspiring?however, the lack of visual panache really does not speak to the attention to detail that went into creating sample packing lists. They are comprehensive and thorough, and at any time you can create a new item, which you can classify to any one of dozens of pre-programmed categories.

Moreover, you can change the color scheme and fonts, but, ultimately, no one should waste her time customizing the look of a single-utility app that's overpriced to begin with. Theme customization options turn out to be just one fatty area. The app needs a lot of tightening.

From the homescreen, I created several packing lists, a few from sample lists and a few from scratch, but based on real travel experiences as I tried to think through the kinds of things I would genuinely need. Packing Pro's sample lists range from "male" and "female" to "camping" and "business." The sample female list did have more than I imagined it might, but all the other sample lists are male-oriented. Where are the bras and sports bras? The business sample list includes three ties, a suit jacket, and a handkerchief, but not pantyhose, jewelry, or tampons.

Pack It Up, Pack It In...
As mentioned, I could always add the items that I wanted to include by either writing them in as special entries or finding them on other lists to add--except that customizing a packing list proved to be much more time-consuming than packing on the fly, forgetting my socks, and picking up a few pairs when en route to my destination. Again, there's fat to trim. The app requires heavy-handed tightening and simplification to be more useful.

If Packing Pro were a 99-cent iPhone app, I would have scored it slightly higher than the three-star grade it got. It's not a terrible app, but it costs too much for such a single-purpose tool.

More iPhone App Reviews:
??? Google+ Mobile App (for iPhone)
??? Packing Pro (for iPhone)
??? Google Maps (for iPhone)
??? Yahoo! Mail (for iPhone)
??? Gmail (for iPhone)
?? more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/4d5kEpAZOgI/0,2817,2413593,00.asp

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Businesses, city leaders say in Oakland, economy is rebounding ...

Sarah Kirnon and her business associate were putting the finishing touches on their new restaurant in Old Oakland?Miss Ollie?s, specializing in Afro-Caribbean fare?days before it was scheduled to open. In the kitchen, spices were still in their packaging: cardamom, cumin, dried and smoked habanero peppers.? Tables were stacked in front. The grill shone brand new.

But Kirnon, 43, who has worked as a chef since she was 19, said she wasn?t nervous about the opening. This location, on Washington Street and 9th, was perfect, with its floor-to-ceiling windows. Kirnon would be cooking food she loves, that she grew up eating in the Caribbean. ?I grew up in a house with lots of aunts and uncles, and eating was one of the things that brought us together,? Kirnon said. ?That?s what we wanted to do here?not just be a restaurant, but a community where people come together.?

And?crucial to her business plans?Kirnon obtained financial backing for Miss Ollie?s from a few investors. Oakland officials, in particular Mayor Jean Quan, say this is not accidental.

?Oakland is in the best financial shape we?ve seen in a decade,? Quan told reporters last month, in a special hour-long event to present encouraging news about the city?s economy. ?I?m happy to report that unemployment is down, and jobs and city revenue are both up.?

Public and private revenues here?are on the upswing, Quan said.?Donna Hom, the city?s interim budget director, said Oakland brought in more money in sales taxes, business taxes and property taxes for the fiscal year 2011, compared to 2010. In total, the city collected $5.6 million in sales taxes for all of 2011; $13.6 million in property tax revenues, and a surge of new business licenses that netted $7.7 million for the last budget year.

?Oakland is recovering at a similar speed as the greater Bay Area, and marginally faster than the nation,? Hom said. ?A few economic indicators are the drop in unemployment, and the increase of sales taxes and business taxes.?

Unemployment figures that show Oakland?s joblessness rate is at 13.1 percent, according to the most recent data from the state?s Economic Development Department. That?s still much higher than the statewide rate of 7.9 percent, and ?Alameda County?s 8.6 percent unemployment rate. But for Oakland, it?s a step up.? ?In January 2011, the city?s jobless rate was more than three points higher?16.6 percent.

?The city is continuing to grow,? Quan said.

The rosy numbers defy the narrative of Oakland as a city in struggle. The city is facing a soaring crime rate, with homicides reaching a five-year high, and Oakland?s police department spent years embroiled in a federal investigation that finally reached a resolution this month. Strict departmental oversight by an independent observer looms, following a federal court-ordered investigation that questioned the department?s use of force. Oakland leaders must also contend with public and political criticism for their decision to lay off off nearly 200 police officers in July 2010, shrinking the force to 627, down from 803.?But Quan said in a phone interview last week that the city?s growth will give her resources to accomplish two of her major goals for the next five years: putting more police officers on the streets, and creating more economic development programs to draw businesses to the city.

?Of course we need to do better?we have a lot of challenges, but I?m not going to lay off any police officers this year,? Quan said. ?We?re getting major projects off the ground, and that?s good news for the city. I?ll be able to focus on public safety and job growth.?

Quan was referring to large development projects that appear finally to be underway, such as the 170-acre Oakland Army Base development; Coliseum City, a proposal that would bring in investors to build restaurants and new retail to the city?s sports arena; and West Oakland and Lake Merritt neighborhood growth plans that are intended to bring in more housing and retail.

Some of Quan?s recent budget numbers are based on numbers that don?t really reflect sustained growth in Oakland. Some of the revenue increases come from one-time payments, such as redevelopment funds and city audits.? For example, when Gov. Jerry Brown decided in 2010 to dissolve the 400-plus redevelopment agencies throughout the state, cities had to hand their redevelopment funding over to the state.? A portion of that money is being redistributed to Oakland, though, so the city can pay for a team to wrap up the former redevelopment agency, while maintaining basic services.

One-time-only revenues also resulted from city audit projects, such as the one that tracked landlords who rent out their residential property but hadn?t previously registered as a business. The landlords this audit located were required to buy business licenses last year.

But the overall numbers, along with a study by an outside economist, show that much of the growth here is real.

Jon Haveman, chief economist for the Bay Area Council Economic Institute, a nonprofit research firm that produces studies on economic trends in the Bay Area, backed up the optimistic outlook forecast by city budget experts.??Oakland is definitely showing signs of recovery,? Haveman said. ?It?s growing at about the same pace as the state as a whole?faster than the nation, but slower than the two other regions of the Bay Area, San Francisco and Silicon Valley.?

Since January 2011, when unemployment was at its highest in Oakland, more than 4,000 new businesses have opened, according to the city?s Business Tax License center. (It?s harder to track how many business closed during the same time period; the city doesn?t track that data closely.)

The new enterprises span a wide range of genres: Harry?s Oakland Auto Service, an East Oakland repair shop that opened in January 2011; the Park Boulevard Yoga Center, in the hills; the Corner Grocery, on International Boulevard; and Homeroom, a popular mac-and-cheese restaurant in Temescal. There?s Flores Drywall, Pape Chiropractic, Bat Girl Designs, Casa Jimenez Super Burrito Truck, and Top Dog Pet Sitting and Dog Walking.

New businesses help stabilize the city?s economy by bringing in taxes, in the form of both business licenses and ongoing sales taxes. In Oakland, all new business owners?from the mom-and-pop business, to the family renting out its spare bedroom, to large corporations?are required to pay for what?s called a business tax license, or a permit to operate. The owner buys a license in the first year, and then renews it every year by paying a tax on the amount of income he or she brings in.

Oakland netted more than $40,000 in sales taxes in 2011, a 17 percent increase from 2010. That?s a greater increase than those of Emeryville and Berkeley, which grew 3 and 4 percent, respectively. Of the 14 cities in Alameda County, only Piedmont and Livermore surpassed Oakland?s growth.

The city?s economy has taken at least one small hit because of the 2012 federal interference of the pot industry in Oakland, including Oaksterdam University, city budget planners said.? But they declined to say what effect that?s had on the economy.

?The dispensary industry was rolling, but it?s questionable how much a burgeoning industry affected our overall numbers,? said Bradley Johnson, an analyst in the city?s budget and revenue division.??Would it be a problem if it went away?? he asked. ?Sure, but would it be catastrophic to business or sales taxes? No.?

Quan and City Administrator Deanna Santana assert that despite the city?s reputation for lofty, failed financial recovery ideas, this time they have a strong five-year plan, based on projections that reflect what the economy has done in the past, instead of projections about the future. And the city has an $83 million general fund reserve, of which $30 million is available for things like police services and roads repairs.

The city?s five-year financial plan, detailed in an 88-page document, lays out a financial strategy funding two police academies a year through 2018, at the cost of $6.5 million per academy, Quan said. It is also intended to plan for delayed infrastructure upkeep projects on roads, as well as obligatory costs for public employee retiree and healthcare benefits.

?There were times that the city had no reserve, so the fact that we have the mandated reserve money is huge,? Quan said. ?What we?re projecting is, if our economy continues to grow, we?ll be able to bring our police force up in a few years.?

A report by the Oakland-based private real estate investment firm Marcus and Millichap found that a large chunk of the city?s sales tax revenue comes from big retailers, such as Target, which is on the Oakland-Emeryville border. Oakland receives one-third of the sales taxes generated there, while Emeryville gets the rest. Other leading Oakland stores also belong to popular chains, including Safeway, Trader Joe?s, Peet?s Coffee and Tea, Bevmo! and Walgreens.

The investment firm?s report underscores Quan?s confidence. It also found that Oakland could do better in capturing sales taxes. Their figures show that in 2010, Oakland lost taxes on $232.5 million in grocery store sales, and $1 billion on sales of things like clothing and shoes, because shoppers took their business to competing cities like Emeryville and San Francisco.

But Haveman, the economist who studies Oakland, attributed the city?s growth to a surge of new business and development in the Bay Area as a whole, as well as relatively low rental rates here and the availability of retail space.

?A big part of the recent growth in the East Bay is coming from the fact that commercial rental markets in Silicon Valley and San Francisco are seeing very large rent increases, so the East Bay is looking much better from a cost perspective,? Haveman said. ?It?s also true that economic activity in one part of the Bay Area will lead to growth in other parts of the Bay Area, largely because people may work in San Francisco, but they?re living in the East Bay. So people will take their money they earn, for example, in San Francisco, and spend it in Oakland, where they live.?

Aliza Gallo, an economic development manager with the city of Oakland, said that in the past two years, the city has reorganized its Office of Economic and Workforce Development to target new business growth in depressed commercial areas that have already started to see a boom, like Temescal.??We?re marketing Oakland as a friendly place to do business, and we?re already seeing some of that growth,? Gallo said.

Gallo said healthcare, and the restaurant industry here, are two good examples of businesses that are growing. ?Healthcare is a major industry that?s emerging,? she said. ?We?re working with healthcare providers to look forward at trends, and look for business development opportunities. We?re asking things like, what does the Affordable Care Act mean for Oakland, and what kind of opportunities are there for us to be a part of that industry??

Back at Miss Ollie?s in Old Oakland, business is booming. Crowds regularly fill her 50-seat space during lunchtime, and Kirnon is looking forward to opening for dinner soon.

?I?ve had this kind of place in mind since I was a child,? Kirnon said on a recent day, sitting in her new space as a construction crew pounded nails and drilled screws next to her. ?This place is named after my grandma, so I feel like she?s watching over me.?

Source: http://oaklandnorth.net/2012/12/18/businesses-city-leaders-say-in-oakland-economy-is-rebounding/

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Healthy Hannah's Picture Book Joins in the Fight Against Childhood ...

LAS VEGAS, Nev., Dec. 18, 2012 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) ? A new book, ?Healthy Hannah?s Fitness Fables: A Promise to Yourself? (ISBN: 978-0-9852773-0-7) published by KidsProsper Publishing, pairs father-daughter authors in the fight against childhood obesity.

?Childhood obesity is a problem that requires multi-pronged efforts,? says Jay England, co-author. ?We have to stay on top of the issue and the earlier you introduce healthy habits to children, the more likely they will practice healthy habits and engage in fitness as they grow older. Young minds are naturally curious and eager to learn new things. And, it?s easy to begin. It?s as simple as doing a basic clapping game or showing them pictures of different fruits and vegetables.?

The Center for Disease Control estimates that there are currently 12.5 million children who are overweight or obese in America. So, the launch of ?Healthy Hannah?s Fitness Fables? is not only timely, but badly needed. Children?s fitness begins at home.

The characters in ?Healthy Hannah?s Fitness Fables? guide children on a healthy rhyming adventure about exercise and nutrition. Through playful and entertaining illustrations, one by one, Healthy Hannah, Maxwell Muscle, Low-Fat Larry, and Aerobic Annie delight in a healthy and fun journey from birth through adulthood.

Jay believes that the best time to introduce fitness to children is right out of the womb.

Dr. Allen Marino, an emergency room physician in Las Vegas, agrees: ?The great thing about this picture book is that it explains healthy habits in a way that children of all ages can understand. The rhyming story line starts as a baby and takes the reader all the way through adulthood, to show examples of fitness throughout the life cycle,? Marino says.

Hannah England, Jay?s daughter and co-author, believes that learning healthy habits is a process.

?No one should be in a hurry or expect too much too soon,? she says. ?For instance, I always wanted sugary soda with dinner when we ate out. However, after some light-hearted persuasion from my dad, over time, I drank less soda and eventually replaced it with water. If my dad had forced the issue, I may have rebelled and kept on drinking soda.?

?Healthy Hannah?s Fitness Fables? is 38 pages and currently available in hardcover; an e-book is in the works. It is illustrated by a former personal trainer, Joe Romano II.

?Joe?s illustrations really helped bring the characters? anatomy and exercise portions of the book to life,? Jay says.

The authors can be reached at: JayandHannah@Healthy-Hannah.org. The book can be found on: www.Healthy-Hannah.org/ or Amazon.com.

About the Authors, Jay and Hannah England:
For more than 15 years, Jay England has worked as a personal trainer. As a kid growing up in Palm Springs, Calif., he stayed fit by chasing desert iguanas with his dog. He served eight years in the U.S. Navy and has degrees in business and kinesiology.

Hannah England is a hardworking student and plays school sports. She lives with her dad in Las Vegas and enjoys working out with him.

NEWS SOURCE: KidsProsper Publishing :: This press release was issued on behalf of the news source by Send2Press(R) Newswire, a service of Neotrope(R). View all current news at the Send2Press for Journalists Portal: Send2PressNewswire.com/ .

About National News Desk

National news from leading U.S. wire services including other nodes in the Neotrope? News Network. Business, entertainment and technology news stories of regional and national interest.

National news from leading U.S. wire services including other nodes in the Neotrope? News Network. Business, entertainment and technology news stories of regional and national interest.

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Source: http://californianewswire.com/2012/12/18/CNW13079_005501.php

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New form of cell division found: Natural back-up mechanism during faulty cell division

Dec. 17, 2012 ? Researchers at the University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center have discovered a new form of cell division in human cells.

They believe it serves as a natural back-up mechanism during faulty cell division, preventing some cells from going down a path that can lead to cancer.

"If we could promote this new form of cell division, which we call klerokinesis, we may be able to prevent some cancers from developing," says lead researcher Dr. Mark Burkard, an assistant professor of hematology-oncology in the Department of Medicine at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health.

Burkard presented the finding on Dec. 17 at the annual meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology in San Francisco.

A physician-investigator who sees breast cancer patients, Burkard studies cancers in which cells contain too many chromosomes, a condition called polyploidy.

About 14 percent of breast cancers and 35 percent of pancreatic cancers have three or more sets of chromosomes, instead of the usual two sets. Many other cancers have cells containing defective chromosomes rather than too many or too few.

"Our goal in the laboratory has been to find ways to develop new treatment strategies for breast cancers with too many chromosome sets," he says. The original goal of the current study was to make human cells that have extra chromosomes sets. But after following the accepted recipe, they unexpectedly observed the new form of cell division.

Until now, Burkard and most cell biologists today accepted a century-old hypothesis developed by German biologist Theodor Boveri, who studied sea urchin eggs. Boveri surmised that faulty cell division led to cells with abnormal chromosome sets, and then to the unchecked cell growth that defines cancer. With accumulated evidence over the years, most scientists have come to accept the hypothesis.

Normal cell division is at the heart of an organism's ability to grow from a single fertilized egg into a fully developed individual. More than a million-million rounds of division must take place for this to occur. In each division, one mother cell becomes two daughter cells. Even in a fully grown adult, many kinds of cells are routinely remade through cell division.

The fundamental process of cells copying themselves begins with a synthesis phase, when a duplicate copy is made of cell components, including the DNA-containing chromosomes in the nucleus. Then during mitosis, the two sets are physically separated in opposite directions, while still being contained in one cell. Finally, during cytokinesis, the one cell is cut into two daughter cells, right at the end of mitosis.

Burkard and his team were making cells with too many chromosomes--to mimic cancer. The scientists blocked cytokinesis with a chemical and waited to see what happened.

"We expected to recover a number of cells with abnormal sets of chromosomes," Burkard explains.

The researchers found that, rather than appearing abnormal, daughter cells ended up looking normal most of the time. Contrary to Boveri's hypothesis, abnormal cell division rarely had long-term negative effects in human cells.

So the group decided to see how the human cells recovered normal sets of chromosomes by watching with a microscope that had the ability to take video images.

"We started with two nuclei in one cell," Burkard says. "To our great surprise, we saw the cell pop apart into two cells without going through mitosis."

Each of the two new cells inherited an intact nucleus enveloping a complete set of chromosomes. The splitting occurred, unpredictably, during a delayed growth phase rather than at the end of mitosis.

The scientists did a number of additional experiments to carefully make sure that the division they observed was different than cytokinesis.

"We had a hard time convincing ourselves because this type of division does not appear in any textbook," Burkard says.

Over time, they found that only 90 percent of daughter cells had recovered a normal complement of chromosomes. Burkard would like to leverage that statistic up to 99 percent.

"If we could push the cell toward this new type of division, we might be able to keep cells normal and lower the incidence of cancer," he says.

Burkard now thinks that among all those rounds of cell division an organism goes through, every once in a while cytokinesis can fail. And that this new division is a back-up mechanism that allows cells to recover from the breakdown and grow normally.

The group has dubbed the new type of division klerokinesis to distinguish it from cytokinesis. Burkard enlisted the help of Dr. William Brockliss, UW assistant professor of classics, to come up with the name; klero is a Greek prefix meaning "allotted inheritance."

Collaborators on the project include Dr. Beth Weaver, UW assistant professor of cell and regenerative biology; Dr. Alka Choudhary; Robert Lera; Dr. Melissa Martowicz and Dr. Jennifer Laffin.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Wisconsin-Madison. The original article was written by Dian Land.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_environment/~3/PjCQj7kK_7U/121217140328.htm

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Guinea to give civil servants 50 percent pay raise

CONAKRY, Guinea (AP) ? A labor inspector says that Guinean authorities will give civil servants a pay raise of 50 percent over the next year.

Inspector Mariama Djogo Barry on Monday announced the decision that was agreed upon Friday between the government and Guinea's main trade unions. She said the raises would be applied in three phases of 10, 15 and 25 percent before the end of 2013.

In September, when Guinea was named to the IMF and World Bank's Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative, the unions threatened to go on strike if the government did not give civil servants a 200 percent raise.

Guinean President Alpha Conde then asked for time to respond to the request.

Analyst Diawara Foromo said the increase was a positive first step but more is needed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/guinea-civil-servants-50-percent-pay-raise-145350762.html

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Tourette syndrome and other tic disorders in children

Dec. 17, 2012 ? More than one in every ten schoolchildren suffers from a transient tic disorder, and 1% have a particular type of tic disorder known as Tourette syndrome. In this issue of Deutsches ?rzteblatt International, Andrea G. Ludolph of the Universit?tsklinikum Ulm and her coauthors report on the available modes of diagnosis and treatment for these disorders.

Tic disorders usually take a benign course; in about 90% of patients, the tics regress spontaneously in adolescence. Specific treatment is indicated only if the tics are severe or cause evident psychosocial stress. On the other hand, 80% to 90% of all patients with Tourette syndrome have comorbid disorders such as attention deficit?hyperactivity disorder, depression, anxiety, or obsessive-compulsive disorder. These comorbidities often impair patients? quality of life more than the tics themselves do, and their treatment is, therefore, a priority.

At present, tics cannot be cured, nor is there any treatment aimed at their cause, which remains unknown. Moreover, there is no available treatment that can improve all of the potential symptoms of Tourette syndrome simultaneously while also treating all of its comorbidities. Atypical neuroleptic drugs are the agents of first choice in the treatment of tics, but, before any drug treatment is begun, all patients should first undergo a trial of behavior therapy, whose beneficial effect has been documented by sound scientific evidence. The state of the evidence regarding pharmacotherapy for Tourette syndrome is still poor.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Deutsches Aerzteblatt International, via AlphaGalileo.

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Journal Reference:

1. Ludolph AG, Roessner V, M?nchau A, M?ller-Vahl K. Tourette syndrome and other tic disorders in childhood, adolescence and adulthood. Dtsch Arztebl Int, 2012; 109(48): 821%u20138 DOI: 10.3238/arztebl.2012.0821

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/KLMixt8_Kcg/121217110647.htm

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Question for Gun-Rights Fanatics: Have You No Sense of Decency?

I?m still brooding over the Connecticut massacre. Here are some points I?d like to add to those I raised in my column on Friday:

One respondent to my previous post chided me for my inflammatory language. Yes, my response was emotional, because I literally get sick thinking about what the hard-core gun-rights folks?and their appeasers?have done to this country. Also, reason and logic aren?t exactly prevailing. Perhaps we need more emotion, outrage, like that dramatic moment in 1954 when lawyer Joseph Welch stood up to the anti-communist bully Senator Joseph McCarthy, asking, ?Have you no sense of decency?? That was the beginning of the end of McCarthyism.

I?m appalled by the recklessness and shallowness of the arguments of some opponents of gun control. Many eagerly seized on the fact that on Friday, a man in China stabbed 22 elementary school children. Should we outlaw kitchen knives? a clever commenter on my blog asked. Crappy comparison. None of the Chinese children died, according to The New York Times. All countries have deranged, violent people, but not all countries make it so easy for madmen to obtain weapons designed for mass murder.

Gun-lovers argue we need more people packing guns, not fewer. That?s almost as stupid as arguing that the world would be safer if more nations possess nuclear weapons. Two recent shootings in Florida show what can happen when armed civilians roam the streets. The first took place last February, when George Zimmerman, a self-styled neighborhood watchdog, shot to death Trayvon Martin, a teenager who lived in the neighborhood. Last month 46-year-old Michael Dunn asked four teenagers in a car to turn down their music. After a heated exchange, Dunn fired eight shots into the car, killing 17-year-old Jordan Davis. Dunn has been charged with second-degree murder, according to The New York Times. More guns will surely mean more lethal accidents, suicides, homicides and vigilante attacks.

Okay, now I?m really going to go off the rails. The potential connection between violent entertainment and real violence keeps nagging at me. I love violent flicks, like the latest James Bond and Batman blockbusters, and I?m a staunch believer in free speech. My son grew up playing first-person shooter games, and he?s a kind, considerate young man. Also, the surge in consumption of violent games over the past few decades has not been matched by a corresponding surge in gun violence. In fact, violent crime rates in the U.S. have fallen since the early 1990s. I nonetheless worry about the corrosive moral effects of violent entertainment on young people.

I?m even more worried about the potential link between our country?s hawkish actions overseas and mass shootings here in the homeland. President Barack Obama has signed off on drone attacks that often result in the killing of civilians, including children. There is a cognitive dissonance between our leaders? condemnation of school shootings here and their violent actions beyond our borders.

What I?m trying to say, I suppose, is that I see the Connecticut massacre and similar outbursts of violence as symptoms of a profound American sickness, a pathological infatuation with violence, which is also manifested in our militarism and atavistic adherence to the death penalty. All these forms of violence?whether carried out by crazed individuals or by our own government?violate basic human decency. When will we say, Enough!

Postscript: For good info on gun control, see these pieces by Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times, Ezra Klein of The Washington Post, and Mark Follman of Mother Jones. (I found this final source on the link-laden Facebook page of Scientific American?s Bora Zivkovik.)

Credit: chronicle.uchicago.edu

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=14e425b6adcff95b30f4c57e3d4af650

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