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Friday, December 28, 2012

AP IMPACT: Ordinary folks losing faith in stocks

In this Sept. 12, 2012, photo, Andrew Neitlich poses in front of one his investment homes in Venice, Fla. Neitlich once worked as a financial analyst picking stocks for a mutual fund. During the dot-com crash 12 years ago, Neitlich didn't sell his stocks, but like many others he is selling now. An analysis by The Associated Press finds that individual investors have pulled at least $380 billion from U.S. stock funds since they started selling in April 2007. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

NEW YORK (AP) ? Andrew Neitlich is the last person you'd expect to be rattled by the stock market.

He once worked as a financial analyst picking stocks for a mutual fund. He has huddled with dozens of CEOs in his current career as an executive coach. During the dot-com crash 12 years ago, he kept his wits and did not sell.

But he's selling now.

"You have to trust your government. You have to trust other governments. You have to trust Wall Street," says Neitlich, 47. "And I don't trust any of these."

Defying decades of investment history, ordinary Americans are selling stocks for a fifth year in a row. The selling has not let up despite unprecedented measures by the Federal Reserve to persuade people to buy and the come-hither allure of a levitating market. Stock prices have doubled from March 2009, their low point in the Great Recession.

It's the first time ordinary folks have sold during a sustained bull market since relevant records were first kept during World War II, an examination by The Associated Press has found. The AP analyzed money flowing into and out of stock funds of all kinds, including relatively new exchange-traded funds, which investors like because of their low fees.

"People don't trust the market anymore," says financial historian Charles Geisst of Manhattan College. He says a "crisis of confidence" similar to one after the Crash of 1929 will keep people away from stocks for a generation or more.

The implications for the economy and living standards are unclear but potentially big. If the pullback continues, some experts say, it could lead to lower spending by companies, slower U.S. economic growth and perhaps lower gains for those who remain in the market.

Since they started selling in April 2007, eight months before the start of the Great Recession, individual investors have pulled at least $380 billion from U.S. stock funds, a category that includes both mutual funds and exchange-traded funds, according to estimates by the AP. That is the equivalent of all the money they put into the market in the previous five years.

Selling during both a downturn and a recovery is unusual because Americans almost always buy more than they sell during both.

Since World War II, nine recessions besides the Great Recession have been followed by recoveries lasting at least three years. According to data from the Investment Company Institute, a trade group representing investment funds, individual investors sold during and after only one of those previous downturns ? the one from November 1973 through March 1975. And back then a scary stock drop around the start of the recovery's third year, 1977, gave people ample reason to get out of the market.

The unusual pullback this time has spread to other big investors? public and private pension funds, investment brokerages and state and local governments. These groups have sold a total of $861 billion more than they have bought since April 2007, according to the Federal Reserve.

Even foreigners, big purchasers in recent years, are selling now ? $16 billion in the 12 months through September.

As these groups have sold, much of the stock buying has fallen to companies. They've bought $656 billion more than they have sold since April 2007. Companies are mostly buying their own stock.

On Wall Street, the investor revolt has largely been dismissed as temporary. But doubts are creeping in.

A Citigroup research report sent to customers concludes that the "cult of equities" that fueled buying in the past has little chance of coming back soon. Investor blogs speculate about the "death of equities," a line from a famous BusinessWeek cover story in 1979, another time many people had seemingly given up on stocks. Financial analysts lament how the retreat by Main Street has left daily stock trading at low levels.

The investor retreat may have already hurt the fragile economic recovery.

The number of shares traded each day has fallen 40 percent from before the recession to a 12-year low, according to the New York Stock Exchange. That's cut into earnings of investment banks and online brokers, which earn fees helping others trade stocks. Initial public offerings, another source of Wall Street profits, are happening at one-third the rate before the recession.

And old assumptions about stocks are being tested. One investing gospel is that because stocks generally rise in price, companies don't need to raise their quarterly cash dividends much to attract buyers. But companies are increasing them lately.

Dividends in the S&P 500 rose 11 percent in the 12 months through September, and the number of companies choosing to raise them is the highest in at least 20 years, according to FactSet, a financial data provider. Stocks now throw off more cash in dividends than U.S. government bonds do in interest.

Many on Wall Street think this is an unnatural state that cannot last. After all, people tend to buy stocks because they expect them to rise in price, not because of the dividend. But for much of the history of U.S. stock trading, stocks were considered too risky to be regarded as little more than vehicles for generating dividends. In every year from 1871 through 1958, stocks yielded more in dividends than U.S. bonds did in interest, according to data from Yale economist Robert Shiller ? exactly what is happening now.

So maybe that's normal, and the past five decades were the aberration.

People who think the market will snap back to normal are underestimating how much the Great Recession scared investors, says Ulrike Malmendier, an economist who has studied the effect of the Great Depression on attitudes toward stocks.

She says people are ignoring something called the "experience effect," or the tendency to place great weight on what you most recently went through in deciding how much financial risk to take, even if it runs counter to logic. Extrapolating from her research on "Depression Babies," the title of a 2010 paper she co-wrote, she says many young investors won't fully embrace stocks again for another two decades.

"The Great Recession will have a lasting impact beyond what a standard economic model would predict," says Malmendier, who teaches at the University of California, Berkeley.

She could be wrong, of course. But it's a measure of the psychological blow from the Great Recession that, more than three years since it ended, big institutions, not just amateur investors, are still trimming stocks.

Public pension funds have cut stocks from 71 percent of their holdings before the recession to 66 percent last year, breaking at least 40 years of generally rising stock allocations, according to "State and Local Pensions: What Now?," a book by economist Alicia Munnell. They're shifting money into bonds.

Private pension funds, like those run by big companies, have cut stocks more: from 70 percent of holdings to just under 50 percent, back to the 1995 level.

"People aren't looking to swing for the fences anymore," says Gary Goldstein, an executive recruiter on Wall Street, referring to the bankers and traders he helps get jobs. "They're getting less greedy."

The lack of greed is remarkable given how much official U.S. policy is designed to stoke it.

When Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke launched the first of three bond-buying programs four years ago, he said one aim was to drive Treasury yields so low that frustrated investors would feel they had no choice but to take a risk on stocks. Their buying would push stock prices up, and everyone would be wealthier and spend more. That would help revive the economy.

Sure enough, yields on Treasurys and many other bonds have recently hit record lows, in many cases below the inflation rate. And stock prices have risen. Yet Americans are pulling out of stocks, so deep is their mistrust of them, and perhaps of the Fed itself.

"Fed policy is trying to suck people into risky assets when they shouldn't be there," says Michael Harrington, 58, a former investment fund manager who says he is largely out of stocks. "When this policy fails, as it will, baby boomers will pay the cost in their 401(k)s."

Ordinary Americans are souring on stocks even though stock prices appear attractive relative to earnings. But history shows they can get more attractive yet.

Stocks in the S&P 500 are trading at 14 times what companies earned per share in the past 12 months. Since 1990, they rarely traded below that level ? that is, cheaper, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices. But that period is unusual. Looking back seven decades to the start of World War II, there were long stretches during which stocks traded below that.

To estimate how much investors have sold so far, the AP considered both money flowing out of mutual funds, which are nearly all held by individual investors, and money flowing into low-fee exchange-traded funds, or ETFs, which bundle securities together to mimic the performance of a market index. ETFs have attracted money from hedge funds and other institutional investors as well as from individuals.

At the request of the AP, Strategic Insight, a consulting firm, used data from investment firms overseeing ETFs to estimate how much individuals have invested in them. Based on its calculations, individuals accounted for 40 percent to 50 percent of money going to U.S. stock ETFs in recent years.

If you assume 50 percent, individual investors have put $194 billion into U.S. stock ETFs since April 2007. But they've also pulled out much more from mutual funds ? $580 billion. The difference is $386 billion, the amount individuals have pulled out of stock funds in all.

If you include the sale of stocks by individuals from brokerage accounts, which is not included in the fund data, the outflow could be double. Data from the Federal Reserve, which includes selling from brokerage accounts, suggests individual investors have sold $700 billion or more in the past 5? years. But the Fed figure may overstate the amount sold because it doesn't fully count certain stock transactions.

The good news is that a chastened stock market doesn't necessarily mean a flat stock market.

Bill Gross, the co-head of bond investment firm Pimco, has probably done more than anyone to popularize the notion that stocks will prove disappointing in the coming years. But he says what is dying is not stocks, but the "cult" of stocks. In a recent letter to investors, he suggested stocks might return 4 percent or so each year, about half the long-term level but still ahead of inflation.

And if America's obsession with stocks is over, some excesses associated with it might fade, too.

Maybe more graduates from top colleges will look to other industries besides Wall Street for careers. Of every 100 members of the Harvard undergraduate Class of 2008 who got jobs after graduation, 28 went into financial services, such as helping run mutual funds or hedge funds, according to a March study by two professors at the university's business school. The average for classes four decades ago was six out of 100.

Of course, those counting the small investor out could be wrong.

Three years after that BusinessWeek story on the "death of equities" ran, in 1982, one of the greatest multi-year stock climbs in history began as the little guys shed their fear and started buying. And so they will surely do again, the bulls argue, and stock prices will really rocket.

Neitlich, the executive coach, has his doubts.

Instead of using extra cash to buy stocks, he is buying houses near his home in Sarasota, Fla., and renting them. He says he prefers real estate because it's local and is something he can "control." He says stocks make up 12 percent his $800,000 investment portfolio, down from nearly 100 percent a few years ago.

After the dot-com crash, it seemed as if "things would turn around. Now, I don't know," Neitlich says. "The risks are bigger than before."

___

Follow Bernard Condon on Twitter at http://twitter.com/BernardFCondon.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-12-27-Investor%20Revolt/id-69a085f0690f4e07a1bf71ea63a51fe8

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Thursday, December 27, 2012

Fathers disappear from households across America Big increase in ...

Want one marker to see if a child will succeed in life?? Do they have a father in their home?? Parents make a difference?regardless of what the ACLU, Democrats or the Hollywood slickys who are actors/politicians.

?In every state, the portion of families where children have two parents, rather than one, has dropped significantly over the past decade. Even as the country added 160,000 families with children, the number of two-parent households decreased by 1.2 million. Fifteen million U.S. children, or 1 in 3, live without a father, and nearly 5 million live without a mother. In 1960, just 11 percent of American children lived in homes without fathers.

America is awash in poverty, crime, drugs and other problems, but more than perhaps anything else, it all comes down to this, said Vincent DiCaro, vice president of the National Fatherhood Initiative: Deal with absent fathers, and the rest follows.?

See the full story by clicking on the blue headline

Fathers disappear from households across America

Big increase in single mothers

By Luke Rosiak, The Washington Times,?? 12/25/12

Nicole Hawkins? three daughters have matching glittery boots, but none has the same father. Each has uniquely colored ties in her hair, but none has a dad present in her life.

As another single mother on Sumner Road decked her row-house stoop with Christmas lights and a plastic Santa, Ms. Hawkins recalled that her middle child?s father has never spent a holiday or birthday with her. In her neighborhood in Southeast Washington, 1 in 10 children live with both parents, and 84 percent live with only their mother.

In every state, the portion of families where children have two parents, rather than one, has dropped significantly over the past decade. Even as the country added 160,000 families with children, the number of two-parent households decreased by 1.2 million. Fifteen million U.S. children, or 1 in 3, live without a father, and nearly 5 million live without a mother. In 1960, just 11 percent of American children lived in homes without fathers.

People ?look at a child in need, in poverty or failing in school, and ask, ?What can we do to help?? But what we do is ask, ?Why does that child need help in the first place?? And the answer is often it?s because [the child lacks] a responsible and involved father,? he said.

Dangerous spiral

The spiral continues each year. Married couples with children have an average income of $80,000, compared with $24,000 for single mothers.

?We have one class that thinks marriage and fatherhood is important, and another which doesn?t, and it?s causing that gap, income inequality, to get wider,? Mr. DiCaro said.

The predilection among men to walk away from their babies is concentrated in the inner cities. In Baltimore, 38 percent of families have two parents, and in St. Louis the portion is 40 percent.

The near-total absence of male role models has ripped a hole the size of half the population in urban areas.

Tiny selfless deeds trickle in to fill that hole as the natural human desire for intimacy is fulfilled: One afternoon last week as a girl hoisted a half-eaten ice cream sandwich high over her pigtailed head, Larry McManus, the father of the girl?s sister, bent down to eat out of her hands as he picked up the girls from school.

?I know dads that say they ain?t their kids. I see dads being disrespectful of the mothers. And I see ones who take other men?s kids to football games because they know their fathers aren?t around,? said Mr. McManus, an ex-felon who said he is ?trying to make a lot of changes right now.?

Asked his daughter?s age, he consults with her sister.

?Five. She?s in pre-K,? the girl answered.

?She?s 5,? he echoed. ?Mmm, that was good,? he said gently of the ice cream sandwich. ?Can I have another bite, please???

Racial divide

Though income is the primary predictor, the lack of live-in fathers also is overwhelmingly a black problem, regardless of poverty status, census data show. Among blacks, nearly 5 million children, or 54 percent, live with only their mother. Twelve percent of black families below the poverty line have two parents present, compared with 41 percent of impoverished Hispanic families and 32 percent of poor white families.

The schism is most apparent in the District, which has a higher portion of two-parent families among whites, at 85 percent, and a lower share among blacks, at 25 percent, than any state.

In all but 11 states, most black children do not live with both parents. In every state, 7 in 10 white children do. In all states but Rhode Island and Massachusetts, most Hispanic children do. In Wisconsin, 77 percent of white children and 61 percent of Hispanics live with both parents, compared with more than 25 percent of black children.

?Something has to be done about it, and it starts with the culture and reversing the attitude that marriage is not important. The president has a role to play in that. He?s a married African-American father who can probably make a huge difference with words alone,? Mr. DiCaro said.

But the move toward single-parent homes has included every race, and from Curtis Bay in Baltimore to Millcreek outside Salt Lake City to Vancouver, Wash., just north of Portland, there are 1,500 neighborhoods with substantial white populations where most white households lack fathers. Maine, Vermont and West Virginia have the lowest dual-parenthood rates for whites.?

Southern cross

The decline has hit disproportionately in the South, which considers itself a bastion of traditional family values.

Even in places where the percentage of the black population declined, single parenthood increased over the past decade, The Washington Times? analysis of census data shows. In South Carolina, where the black share of the population fell by 2 percent, single parenthood rose by 5 percent. In Kentucky and Louisiana, where the black population was constant, single parenthood increased 6 percentage points.

?In places you?d think values are at least talked about, they are not lived out necessarily. Education and income seem to trump them. The people who might not be preaching family values, like coastal upper-class communities, those are the people who are waiting to get married,? Mr. DiCaro said.

The largest geographic area of sustained fatherlessness contains the rural, largely black poor across Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana, tributaries of broken homes running 400 miles along the Mississippi River from Memphis, Tenn., where in some neighborhoods 82 percent of children live with their mothers alone, to Baton Rouge, La., in parts of which less than one-fifth of children have both parents at home.

Black families differ from other racial groups in that the average black single mother has more children, not fewer, than her counterpart with a father present. Hispanic single mothers were most often dealing with the most mouths to feed but still had fewer children than their married counterparts.?

To have and to hold

Mr. DiCaro points to a desire among the poor to produce something.

?When you have very little going for you in your life, having children can give purpose to it. If you?re married, you?re going to be much more cautious. There?s health care costs and our jobs, whereas if we were both just kind of doing whatever, then why not just have another kid??

Mr. McManus is quick to blame the absence of fathers to deaths or incarcerations, though women point out that many absent fathers live around the corner. Mr. McManus attributes that to the young age of many parents who are not ready to be ?tied down.? He said women who need help with their children will seek the companionship of other men who they think can be father figures.

Ms. Hawkins, the mother of three, lives with her youngest child?s father but considers herself a single parent.

?When he?s home, he?s watching TV; it?s his time. I get no help. Financially, he?s been a good provider,? she said, even for the children who aren?t his. But ?as far as being involved in activities, not so much.?

Her relationship with her eldest child?s father ended over his refusal to support their offspring, and her second child?s father is in prison.

?My oldest was raised by both parents, so it?s just selfish,? she said, but ?my middle one, he wasn?t raised by either parent, so he doesn?t know how.?

?We need more fatherhood initiatives,? she said, pointing to government- and nonprofit-funded programs at churches, prisons and community centers, such as those offered by Mr. DiCaro?s group, ?so they can see what they?re missing.?

Just then, her daughter Nadya picked up a tree branch and strummed it like a guitar, jumping up and down, all smiles. Ms. Hawkins reconsidered her thoughts on government programs.

?Though to me, that?s the initiative right there,? she said. ?You can talk till you?re blue in the face about how to do it, but ultimately, you just have to do it.?

Source: http://capoliticalnews.com/2012/12/26/fathers-disappear-from-households-across-america-big-increase-in-single-mothers/

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C. African Republic president seeks foreign help

BANGUI, Central African Republic (AP) ? The president of Central African Republic on Thursday urgently called on France and other foreign powers to help his government fend off rebels who are quickly seizing territory and approaching this capital city, but French officials declined to offer any military assistance.

The developments suggest Central African Republic could be on the brink of another violent change in government, something not new in the history of this resource-rich, yet deeply impoverished country. The current president, Francois Bozize, himself came to power nearly a decade ago in the wake of a rebellion.

Speaking to crowds in Bangui, a city of some 600,000, Bozize pleaded with foreign powers to do what they could. He pointed in particular to France, Central African Republic's former colonial ruler.

About 200 French soldiers are already in the country, providing technical support and helping to train the local army, according to the French defense ministry.

"France has the means to stop (the rebels) but unfortunately they have done nothing for us until now," Bozize said.

French President Francois Hollande said Thursday that France wants to protect its interests in Central African Republic and not Bozize's government. The comments came a day after dozens of protesters, angry about a lack of help against rebel forces, threw rocks at the French Embassy in Bangui and stole a French flag.

Paris is encouraging peace talks between the government and the rebels, with the French Foreign Ministry noting in a statement that negotiations are due to "begin shortly in Libreville (Gabon)." But it was not immediately clear what, if any, dates have been set for those talks.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, meanwhile, spoke via phone with Bozize, asking the president to take responsibility for the safety of French nationals and diplomatic missions in Central African Republic.

U.S. officials said Thursday the State Department would close its embassy in the country and ordered its diplomatic team to leave. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were unauthorized to discuss the evacuation publicly.

Bozize's government earlier reached out to longtime ally Chad, which pledged to send 2,000 troops to bolster Central African Republic's own forces. But it was unclear if the Chadian troops had all arrived, and even then, it is far from certain if the combined government forces could withstand rebel attacks.

At least four different rebel groups are involved, though their overall numbers could not immediately be confirmed.

Central African Republic, a landlocked nation of some 4.4 million people, is roughly the size of France. It has suffered decades of army revolts, coups and rebellions since gaining independence in 1960 and remains one of the poorest countries in the world.

The rebels behind the most recent instability signed a 2007 peace accord allowing them to join the regular army, but insurgent leaders say the deal wasn't fully implemented.

Already, the rebel forces have seized at least 10 towns across the sparsely populated north of the country, and residents in the capital now fear the insurgents could attack at any time, despite assurances by rebel leaders that they are willing to engage in dialogue instead of attacking Bangui.

The rebels have claimed that their actions are justified in light of the "thirst for justice, for peace, for security and for economic development of the people of Central African Republic."

Despite Central African Republic's wealth of gold, diamonds, timber and uranium, the government remains perpetually cash-strapped. Filip Hilgert, a researcher with Belgium-based International Peace Information Service, said rebel groups are unhappy because they feel the government doesn't invest in their areas.

"The main thing they say is that the north of the country, and especially in their case the northeast, has always been neglected by the central government in all ways," he said.

But the rebels also are demanding that the government make payments to ex-combatants, suggesting that their motives may also be for personal financial gain.

Bozize, a former military commander, came to power in a 2003 rebel war that ousted his predecessor, Ange-Felix Patasse. In his address Thursday, Bozize said he remained open to dialogue with the rebels, but he also accused them and their allies of financial greed.

Those allies, he implied, are outside Central African Republic.

"For me, there are individuals who are being manipulated by an outside hand, dreaming of exploiting the rich Central African Republic soil," he said. "They want only to stop us from benefiting from our oil, our diamonds, our uranium and our gold."

___

Larson reported from Dakar, Senegal. Associated Press writer Sarah DiLorenzo in Paris contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-12-27-AF-Central-African-Republic-Rebel-Advance/id-5d44730aed5f4c8182810e9f0e18b565

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First genome sequence of Chinese plum provides important resource for fruit improvement

Dec. 27, 2012 ? A Chinese research team, led by Beijing Forestry University, BGI, Beijing Lin Fu Ke Yuan Flowers Co., Ltd, and other institutes, has completed the first genomic sequence of Prunus mume, known as mei. This work is extremely important for the deeper understanding of Rosaceae evolution and provides an invaluable resource for the improvement of fruit trees.

The latest study was published online December 27 in Nature Communication.

As one of the longest-lived flowering fruit trees, the P. mume was domesticated in China more than 3,000 years ago. It belongs to Rosaceae, the third most economically important plant family in temperate regions, and is characterized by high nutrition, medical value, and tolerance to low temperature in winter. Writers and artists have extolled the beauty of its flowers, and the blossom is considered to be the symbol of Chinese national spirit. The availability of P. mume genome will open a new way for better decoding the mysteries of this fascinating tree.

The plantation technique that makes P. mume so diverse--the artificial grafting--also makes their genomes difficult to assemble. In this study, researchers sequenced the genome of P. mume, a wild species from Tibet in China, using a robust approach integrated with next-generation sequencing (NGS) and whole-genome mapping (WGM) technologies. Then they constructed a high-density genetic map by applying restriction-site-associated DNA (RAD) marker strategy that further improves the quality of the genomic reference. Through all the efforts, researchers yielded the ~237Mb P. mume reference genome.

The poor phylogenetic resolution of the Rosaceae suggests rapid evolution within the family. In this study, the evolutionary analysis of P. mume genome demonstrated that there was no recent whole-genome duplication (WGD) event happened after the differentiation between P. mume and Malus x domestica (apple). However, the triplicated genomic arrangement was found in the P. mume genome by paleo-history analysis in Prunus.

Supported by the genomic data of apple and strawberry (Fragaria vesca), researchers successfully reconstructed nine ancestral chromosomes of Rosaceae family, and analyzed the chromosome fusion, fission and duplication history in three major subfamilies, including genera Prunus, Malus and Fragaria. Through analysis, they hypothesized that at least 11 fissions and 11 fusions occurred in P. mume from the nine common ancestral chromosomes. For apple, at least one WGD and five fusions took place to reach the 17-chromosome structure, compared with 15 fusions for strawberry to affect the 7-chromosome structure.

P. mume is one of the first trees that bloom in early spring, blooming even below 0?. In this study, researchers investigated the genetic characteristics underlying the mechanisms related to acclimate to cold weather and release itself from dormancy. They found that dormancy-associated MADS-box transcription factors (DAM) family and C-repeat-binding transcription factors (CBF) were two important factors related with flowering dormancy.

As the saying goes, "Plum blossom incense from the cold weather," P. mume always has a special fragrance in winter. To understand its mechanism of floral scent, researchers identified a series genes related to the biosynthesis of volatile compounds, such as benzyl alcohol acetyltransferase (BEAT) gene. They supposed the expansion of the BEAT gene family might increase the content of benzyl acetate and therefore induces the special fragrance of P. mume.

The disease resistance related-genes may benefit the future breeding improvement. In this study, researchers found many related genes expanded tremendously in the P. mume genome, such as leucine-rich repeat receptor-like kinase (LRR-RLK) genes, the nucleotide-binding site-coding resistant gene (NBS-coding R gene), and pathogenesis-related (PR) gene families. It was reported that PR proteins could mediate plant defence against pathogenic constraints and the general adaptation to stressful environments. Most PR gene families in P. mume were expanded notably especially PR10, suggesting their expansion might be related to the response of P. mume to salt, drought and fungal infection in roots and leaves.

Wenbin Chen, Project Manager of BGI, said, "The P. mume genome lays a solid foundation for identification of important economic traits, and provides a valuable resource for P. mume breeding and other Rosaceae species studies. The work here also brings a new approach for further exploring the biosynthesis of floral scent and regulation mechanism of early blooming in endodormancy, and other comparative genomics studies on Rosaceae species."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by BGI Shenzhen, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

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

Journal Reference:

Qixiang Zhang, Wenbin Chen, Lidan Sun, Fangying Zhao, Bangqing Huang, Weiru Yang, Ye Tao, Jia Wang, Zhiqiong Yuan, Guangyi Fan, Zhen Xing, Changlei Han, Huitang Pan, Xiao Zhong, Wenfang Shi, Xinming Liang, Dongliang Du, Fengming Sun, Zongda Xu, Ruijie Hao, Tian Lv, Yingmin Lv, Zequn Zheng, Ming Sun, Le Luo, Ming Cai, Yike Gao, Junyi Wang, Ye Yin, Xun Xu, Tangren Cheng, Jun Wang. The genome of Prunus mume. Nature Communications, 2012; 3: 1318 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms2290

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

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_environment/~3/KXS6HDyZXdQ/121227142951.htm

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New Laws Address Gays, Children, Immigration ? CBS Atlanta

(ATLANTA) ? Measures on gay rights and child safety are among the top state laws taking effect at the start of 2013, along with attempts to prevent identity theft and perennial efforts to restrict abortion and illegal immigration.

In many states, new laws take effect on Jan. 1, while in others they do so 90 days after a governor?s signature.

Voter-approved laws allowing same-sex couples to marry take effect in Maryland in January and in Maine on Saturday. California also approved a law exempting clergy members opposed to gay marriage from performing same-sex marriage ceremonies.

In California, a first-of-its-kind law bans a form of psychotherapy aimed at making gay teenagers straight but is on hold during a court challenge. The law would ban what is known as reparative or conversion therapy for minors; such therapies are widely discredited by medical professionals.

A number of laws seek to protect children from bullying and abuse. Pennsylvania school employees in contact with children, who already must report suspected abuse, must now be trained to recognize the warning signs, their legal obligations and what are considered appropriate relationships with children.

That law was being debated and voted on in June as a jury was finding former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky guilty of 45 counts for sexually abusing 10 boys over 15 years.

California coaches and administrators in K-12 schools, as well as higher education employees who have regular contact with children, will be required to report suspected child sexual abuse. Oregon will require school employees to report acts of bullying, harassment and online bullying. Oregon schools must also adopt a policy on teen dating violence.

In Florida, the Safe Harbor Act includes provisions that require police to turn over to the Department of Children and Families any children who are alleged to be sexually exploited or dependent for assessment and possible shelter.

States continue to wrestle with illegal immigration. Pennsylvania will include a requirement that contractors on public works projects make sure through the federal E-Verify system that their employees are legal U.S. residents, while a Montana ballot measure taking effect denies illegal immigrants of state services.

Supporters say the Montana law will prevent illegal immigrants from obtaining services and prevent them from taking jobs at a time of high unemployment. Opponents argued there is no proof illegal immigrants are using state services in Montana.

Also in Montana, voters overwhelmingly passed a measure requiring parental notification for minors? abortions, while in Georgia a new law will prohibit doctors from performing an abortion 20 weeks after an egg is fertilized unless a pregnancy is determined to be medically futile, meaning it would result in the birth of a child unlikely to survive because of a serious defect.Georgia became the seventh state in the country to approve the so-called fetal pain act.

?Today, we are reaffirming Georgia?s commitment to preserving the sanctity of all human life,? Gov. Nathan Deal said in a statement released shortly after he signed the bill in May.

The measure passed over the objection of many female lawmakers, including Sen. Valencia Seay, who said the bill?s passage and signing was ?unconscionable, but not surprising? and typical of the male-dominated General Assembly.

New Hampshire enacts a ban on a type of late-term abortion procedure sometimes called ?partial birth abortion? after lawmakers overrode the veto of Gov. John Lynch, who said the measure was unnecessary because federal law already prohibits such procedures. Supporters of the ban say they don?t trust the government to prosecute the law.

In Maryland, parents will be able to freeze their child?s credit at any time if the child becomes a victim of identity theft. ?This just freezes the information to ensure that it?s not used for ill purposes,? said Delegate Craig Zucker, a Democrat who sponsored the bill in the Maryland House of Delegates.

In Delaware, state officials must request an annual credit report for every child in foster care.

Among other new laws:

? Alabama begins cracking down on the state?s 900,000 uninsured drivers with a new system that allows instant checks by police, license plate offices and the state Revenue Department.

? A pair of laws in Georgia and Pennsylvania address the shortfalls faced by some states from the cost of unemployment benefits by raising employers? contributions to unemployment compensation trust funds.

? In New Mexico, drivers registering their car or truck will be able to donate $1 or $5 to a state fund that supports programs and services to veterans, such as assistance in finding a job or treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder. In Utah, U.S. military personnel will be exempted from having to pay a full year?s property taxes after their return from 200 days of active duty in any calendar year.

? In Florida, it will no longer be illegal to flash your headlights to warn oncoming drivers that police are lurking on the roadside ahead. The legislation was introduced after drivers were ticketed for warning other motorists that officers may be trying to catch speeders on the highway.

? A California law bans the use of dogs when hunting bobcats or bears, while Wisconsin?s expansion of its hunting seasons to a month in autumn and another in April was a scaled-back version of a proposal that would have allowed hunting across a seven-month period from mid-October to late May. Residents reacted to the longer proposal with thousands of angry letters and emails.

Most people who opposed the measure said they would stop bringing their families to state parks if there were a chance of being struck by a stray bullet or of a pet straying into an animal trap. Supporters countered that hunting has long been a Wisconsin tradition and that hunters were well-versed in practicing safe techniques.

Source: http://atlanta.cbslocal.com/2012/12/27/new-laws-address-gays-children-immigration/

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When eating healthy is a disorder | Live Well Nebraska

Ever know someone who seems to have lots of rules about what they will and will not eat? And maybe they follow these rules to a tee. Because of my profession, some people think I am like that, and they?re are surprised when they see me eat a slice of birthday cake or catch me with a dish of ice cream.

The term ?orthorexia? was coined by Dr. Steven Bratman, who was interested in describing his own eating behaviors. It?s the obsession with eating healthy. But unlike say, anorexia, it?s not a diagnosis recognized by the medical community. Orthorexia doesn?t include the obsession with weight or calories.

Instead, it is more associated with self esteem and the ability to adhere to a strict eating regimen. It involves the desire to control food quality and purity, and is often accompanied by the feeling that one?s diet is superior to the ?rest of the world.? It might start out with innocent healthy eating, but this condition can spin out of control when a person starts to take on rigid routines and strict diet ?rules.?

So what?s the difference between eating healthy as a lifestyle and being orthorexic? Eating healthy involves healthier patterns, like eating small meals often, allowing ?balance and a varied diet to prevail. Orthorexia involves an obsession with always eating extremely healthfully and causes people to feel extremely guilty when they go astray.

Ask yourself the following questions to determine if you may be headed in the direction of orthorexia. These are from the National Eating Disorders Association.

Do you wish that occasionally you could just eat and not worry about food quality?

Do you ever wish you could spend less time on food and more time on living and loving?

Does it sound beyond your ability to eat a meal prepared with love by someone else ? one single meal ? and not ?try to control what is served?

Are you constantly looking for the ways foods are unhealthy for you?

Do love, joy, play and creativity take a backseat to having the perfect diet?

Do you feel guilt or self-loathing when you stray from your diet?

Do you feel in control when you eat the correct diet?

Have you positioned yourself on a nutritional pedestal and wonder how others can possibly eat the food they eat?

If you think you might have a disordered eating pattern or orthorexia, seek help from a mental health professional or registered dietitian specializing in eating disorders.

Source: http://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org