Hotels In Northern California - Study Shows Men Just As Likely To Be Depressed As Women

Source        - http://www.latimes.com/
By              - Melissa Healy
Category    - Hotels In Northern California
Posted By  - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Hotels In Northern California

Depression can look very different in men and women. And many of its hallmarks — rage, risk-taking, substance abuse and even workaholism — can hide in plain sight.

Now researchers say that when these symptoms are factored into a diagnosis, the long-standing disparity between depression rates in men and women disappears.

That conclusion overturns long-accepted statistics indicating that, over their lifetimes, women are 70% more likely to have major depression than men. In fact, when its symptoms are properly recognized in men, major depression may be even more common in men than in women, according to a study published Wednesday by the journal JAMA Psychiatry.

The findings help unravel a mystery that has long puzzled mental health authorities: If men are so much less likely than women to be depressed, why are they four times more likely to commit suicide?

"When it comes to depression in men, to some extent we have blinders on," said Dr. Andrew Leuchter, a psychiatrist who studies depression at UCLA. "We have not been asking about and taking into account a range of symptoms that may be gender-specific."

Health policy researchers from the University of Michigan and Vanderbilt University set out to test the feasibility of two new checklists that might diagnose depression in men as well as women with greater accuracy.

In addition to familiar depression symptoms such as sadness, difficulty sleeping, feelings of guilt or worthlessness and loss of interest in pleasurable activities, the researchers expanded the list to include anger attacks, aggression or irritability, substance abuse, risk-taking behavior and hyperactivity. They devised two scales — one designed to be gender-neutral and one tuned toward the way the disease manifests itself in men.

The researchers tested these diagnostic criteria in a group of nearly 5,700 American adults who had been interviewed as part of a long-term study of mental health organized by researchers at Harvard Medical School; 41% of the participants were men.

The results of the analysis were striking.

When assessed using the "gender inclusive depression scale" that included widely recognized depressive symptoms such as sadness and hopelessness as well as symptoms commonly seen in men, 30.6% of men and 33.3% of women were found to have experienced a depressive episode at some point in their lives. In research terms, that gap between men and women was so narrow it may have been a statistical fluke.

And when the subjects were evaluated with the "male symptoms scale," 26.3% of men and 21.9% of women were said to have experienced a major depressive episode in their lifetimes. That difference was large enough that it could not be due to chance, the researchers reported.

"Everything we think we know about depression is a reflection of how we defined it to begin with," Leuchter said.

That bias, he added, may have fostered the perception that depression is predominantly a "woman's disease" — and that men don't need treatment for emotional suffering.

Sigmund Freud, the father of psychiatry, portrayed depression as rage turned inward. But for many men today, depression's rage appears not so much directed at oneself as it is spat outward — at spouses, co-workers and friends.

While women may not feel shame in acknowledging their sadness and sagging self-esteem, mental health experts find that depressed men often respond to such feelings with actions that look like their opposite: They bluster and bully. They throw themselves into harm's way. They numb themselves with sex, drugs and endless workdays.

If the emotional pain of many men is to be understood for what it is, depression's definition should be expanded to include these "externalizing" symptoms — the opposite of "internalizing" symptoms that have long defined depression, some mental health professionals argue.

"These findings could lead to important changes in the way depression is conceptualized and measured," the study authors concluded.

If psychiatrists update their official diagnostic criteria to reflect these gender differences, that would be only a first step, Leuchter said.

Doctors, including primary care physicians who now diagnose most depression, would have to be educated to look for an expanded set of symptoms, he said. Researchers would not only need to understand how seemingly separate diseases such as substance abuse and depression relate to each other, they would also need to assess whether the treatments currently available — antidepressants and talk therapy — would help men with these symptoms, he said.

For men as well as women, the checklists now in wide use to diagnose depression may fail to capture the experience and language of the emotional distress they feel, said study leader Lisa Martin, a health policy studies professor at the University of Michigan.

Attractions In Santa Clarita - Scientists Raise Mini Human Brain In a Petri Dish

Source        - http://news.cnet.com/
By              - Dara Kerr
Category     - Attractions In Santa Clarita
Posted By   - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

 

Attractions In Santa Clarita

Petri dishes have hosted all sorts of experiments, like cultivating mold or creating amoeba breeding grounds. But now, truly futuristic events are happening in these circular glass plates -- most notably, growing a brain.

That's right, scientists are now raising brains in petri dishes.

According to a study in the science journal Nature, biologists at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology in Vienna have grown a human brain using stem cells. This brain isn't full-grown; instead, it is small 3D sections of tissue that apparently resemble the brain of a 9-week-old fetus. It is about 3 to 4 millimeters in size.

Despite not being fully developed, this brain model still has distinct regions of the brain, like the dorsal cortex, ventral forebrain, and an immature retina.

"The parts are correctly organized, but not put together," said study coordinator Juergen Knoblich, according to Popular Science. Knoblich describes it as "a car where you have an engine, you have the wheels -- but the engine is on the roof... that car would never drive, but you could still take that car and analyze how an engine works."

The goal of these scientists is to be able to use lab-grown brains to study illnesses, like schizophrenia and autism. Apparently, animal brains are too dissimilar from human brains for conclusive studies on many types of neurological diseases.

Scientists have created other body parts, like livers and heart tissue, but these organs are nowhere near as intricate as a brain. According to Popular Science, the 3D brain model created by the Viennese researchers is the most complex in vitro creation of tissue to date.

Hotel In California - Japan To Launch Internet ‘Fasting Camps’ For Half a Million Web-Addicted Students

Source       - http://www.foxnews.com/
By              - Trevor Mogg
Category    - Hotel In California
Posted By  - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Hotel In California

Do you spend way too much time online? Do you logon first thing when you wake up? Take your smartphone to the bathroom to check your messages? Surf the Web while you’re driving? Go online when you should be working? Check Twitter and Facebook last thing at night? Sweat when you get separated from your smartphone? Retch when your Internet connection drops? What? You do? Jeez, sounds like you have a real problem there, although you’re not the only one.

According to the Japanese government, more than half a million of the nation’s children aged between 12 and 18 are addicted to the Internet and in need of help.

In an effort to deal with the issue, the Education Ministry said from next year it’ll offer addicted students the chance to attend so-called Internet ‘fasting camps’, a disconnected world free from computers, smartphones, tablets, and any other Net-connecting devices.

Are your hands getting clammy at the mere thought of such a place?

518,000 addicted students
A Daily Yomiuri report Tuesday said that around 518,000 students in Japan are addicted to the Web. The discovery was first reported earlier this month after the publication of research results by the Health Ministry.

The ministry said there was evidence that the addiction was having a negative impact on not only their performance at school but also their health, with sleep and nutritional disorders, as well as depression, reported. Even deep vein thrombosis gets a mention.

While centers for Internet addiction already exist in many countries, Japan, one of the most connected nations on the planet, currently has few places specializing in treatment for those considered to be Web addicts.

Reconnecting
The government intends to use existing facilities such as youth outdoor learning centers for its Internet fasting camps, a place where, over a number of days, students will be slowly and gently encouraged to reconnect with the real world.

Special counseling sessions will be offered by trained psychologists, and lectures about outdoor activities without a smartphone will be given by experts.

Last month, DT’s Jam Kotenko investigated the subject of Net addiction in a piece which included a look at Digital Detox, a personal wellness retreat organization in Ukiah, California, where participants have to hand over their gadgets and gizmos in exchange for a week in the wilderness.

Vacations In Santa Clarita - 70% Of Americans Have High-Speed Internet: Study

Source         - http://news.yahoo.com/
By               - Press Release
Category      - Vacations In Santa Clarita
Posted By   - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Vacations In Santa Clarita

The percentage of Americans with high-speed Internet connections at home has reached 70 percent, while just three percent still use dial-up to go online, a study showed Monday.

The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project said the percentage of high-speed users represented a small but statistically significant rise from the 66 percent of adults who said they had home broadband in April 2012.

The percentage using dial-up as of May 2013 has held steady at three percent for the past two years, Pew found, but is down sharply from a peak of 41 percent in 2001.

Overall, 85 percent of Americans use the Internet, the report said. Of those who lack a high-speed connection at home, 10 percent have smartphones that can access the Web.

As previous research has found, those with the highest rates of home broadband use continue to be college graduates, adults under age 50, and adults living in households earning at least $50,000 per year. Whites and adults living in urban or suburban areas also had above-average rates.

"We've consistently found that age, education, and household income are among the strongest factors associated with home broadband adoption," said Kathryn Zickuhr, research associate for Pew and lead author of the report.

"Many dial-up users cite cost and access as the main reasons they don't have broadband, but for adults who don't use the Internet at all, a lack of interest is often the main issue."

The survey notes that more than half of all American adults own a smartphone, but it did not determine whether this constitutes "broadband" speed.

"Broadband users can consume and create many types of content in ways that dial-up users cannot, and our research has long shown major differences in these two groups' online behavior," said Pew's Aaron Smith, a co-author of the report.

"Smartphones may offer an additional avenue for Internet access that surpasses the dial-up experience in many ways, but those who rely on them for home Internet use may face limitations that are not shared by those with traditional broadband connections."

Meeting Space Santa Clarita - Could A Spray Of Perfume Replace Your Morning Coffee?

Source           - http://www.thegloss.com/
By                 - Jamie Peck
Category       - Meeting Space Santa Clarita
Posted By     - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

 

Meeting Space Santa Clarita

Do you love how coffee makes you feel but hate having to ingest it though your mouth? Is all that cumbersome sipping and tasting distracting you from your very important work? No, me neither. But that didn’t stop one college dropout from inventing a caffeine spray that goes on like perfume.

Using the funds given to him by billionaire libertarian Peter Thiel‘s $100,000 fellowship—a grant program for college dropouts who just cannot wait to solve “the world’s hardest problems”—Harvard dropout Ben Yu created “Sprayable Energy,” a caffeine spray that you apply topically. Just spritz it on your neck a few times, and bam! All of the energy with none of the laborious swallowing. The website touts that it is highly portable, and at $15 for about forty doses, it’s definitely cheaper than coffee. It purports to eliminate “the jitters.” And because it doesn’t actually go in your mouth, there’s no way that pesky FDA can slow its progress to you, the consumer. Hooray!

It has no odor as of yet, so it’s not technically a perfume, but why not combine two products into one? You could even make it smell like coffee for an added burst of synesthesia. And why stop there? I look forward to the day when I can apply my morning coffee, bagel, newspaper and cat calls in one handy spray that smells like the subway to boot.

Another point to recommend it? “No Bad Taste. Tasteless and odorless. No need to assault your tastebuds every time you want energy.” Because who actually likes the taste of coffee, anyway? Oh right, almost everyone. Well, maybe he’ll use some of those fat stacks for some mind blowing marketing strategy that will convince you otherwise.

Accommodation In Santa Clarita - Are Young Drivers Unsafe In Their Older Cars

Source        - http://www.theautochannel.com/
By               - Press Release
Category     - Accommodation In Santa Clarita
Posted By   - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Accommodation In Santa Clarita

Getting behind the wheel of your first car is a memorable event, especially for younger people. Yet inexperience brings higher risk, so new teen drivers need all the safety advantages they can get, and the latest poll from PEMCO Insurance shows that newly licensed teens often drive older vehicles short of safety features that lessen injuries in a crash.

PEMCO set out to explore the premise that when teens get their first car, those vehicles often tend to be older models, which are more affordable, and smaller models, which get better mileage and cost less to fuel. That's a concern because older cars lack safety improvements, and the laws of physics prove that smaller cars suffer most when they collide with larger vehicles.

According to the PEMCO Insurance Northwest Poll, about one-third of respondents under age 55 said their first car was more than 10 years old when they became drivers. Respondents of all ages in Portland, Ore., and Western Washington said their first cars were about 8 years old, and Eastern Washington drivers reported an average first-car age of nine years.

About two-thirds of respondents in Washington and Portland report that their parents owned the first car they drove and more than half said their parents paid for the insurance on their teens' first car.

"While older cars are often more affordable for parents and teens, our poll confirms the trend we suspected – parents opt for older and sometimes smaller cars for their teens when a newer car would be a safer option," said PEMCO spokesperson Jon Osterberg.

The poll shows that just 4 percent of drivers between 35 and 54 said their first car included a safety feature critical by today's standards – driver-side front airbags. Airbags didn't become standard in a majority of new models until 1994, according to Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) data.

Baby-boomer drivers were more likely to say their first cars were newer – more than half of those 55 and older said their first car was less than 10 years old, and almost one in three said their first car was less than 5 years old, the poll revealed.

However, those drivers may also remember that their first car lacked important safety features for their passengers. While front-seat lap and shoulder belts became a federal standard in 1968, backseat lap and shoulder seatbelts weren't standard in vehicles until 1990. According to PEMCO's poll, 36 percent of drivers 55 and older said their first car had lap seatbelts without shoulder harnesses, and very few – just 3 percent – said their first car offered shoulder harnesses in addition to lap belts.

While there's no doubt automakers have made significant advances in safety over the decades, chances are even a 10-year-old vehicle today would lack newer recommended safety features such as electronic stability control and driver head-protecting side airbags.

In 2003, less than 25 percent of vehicles offered side airbags as a standard feature, and electronic stability control wasn't available in more than 60 percent of vehicle models, according to data from IIHS.

Beyond a vehicle's age, the Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI) reports that the size of car driven by teens is one of the most significant contributors to their likelihood to crash, when compared to the auto-accident rates of older drivers.

The HLDI study indicates that while small cars tend to be popular among teen drivers, they're also more dangerous than larger vehicles because a shorter wheelbase can be less forgiving with driving mistakes. Still, nearly 30 percent of teens in the U.S. drive one of the three types of vehicles – small two-door cars, and mini and small four-door cars – that have the highest claim frequency among all drivers, according to HLDI.

HLDI's report also shows that teens are two times more likely to crash a small car than their adult counterparts.

According to the PEMCO poll, the most popular first cars among Washington and Portland drivers have been American made, with more than half of the poll's 55-and-older drivers saying they drove a Ford or Chevrolet as their first vehicle as a teen.

"Among those who told us the make of their first car, Chevys were far and away the most common," Osterberg said. "About a third of those who recalled the make of their first car drove a Chevy, with Impalas and Bel Airs – combined – taking the top spot."

But through the years, Toyotas and Hondas have increased in popularity among younger drivers at the expense of Chevrolet, in particular. About 17 percent of drivers under 35 said they drove a Toyota and another 13 percent said their first car was a Honda, while about 10 percent of those younger drivers opted for a Chevrolet.

"There are many resources for teens and parents to help you choose a first car that's safe, reliable, and affordable," Osterberg added. "Websites that compare crash-test results and safety ratings across makes and models are often a great place to start. Check out IIHS's crash-test results or 5-Star Safety Ratings from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration."

Hotel Reservations In Santa Clarita - Why Apple Is Eyeing Gold For The New iPhone

Source        - http://www.usatoday.com/
By               - Jefferson Graham
Category    - Hotel Reservations In Santa Clarita
Posted By  - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Hotel Reservations In Santa Clarita

If you've noticed #iphonegold showing up all over Twitter, there's a good reason.

The Internet on Monday lit up over reports that the next iPhone, set for unveiling on Sept. 10, could be available in black, white and gold. If Apple does indeed launch a gold iPhone, it would be the first color added to the iconic device since its debut in 2007.

According to reports from TechCrunch and All Things D, gold will join black and white as options for Apple's next smartphone. Both reports claim the iPhone won't feature a gaudy gold, such as you might see on a gold bar, but more of a champagne color. The phone will have a white face with a golden tone on the backplate and edging.

Apple declined to comment.

The addition of gold would not be a big deal here, but "huge" in China, says Tim Bajarin, an analyst at Creative Strategies.

"The market is driven by colors, and gold means prosperity," says Bajarin.

Apple is expected to introduce both a successor to the iPhone 5 and a lower-price, plastic iPhone for cost-conscious consumers at the September event.

The new iPhone is expected to have staple upgrades including a faster processor, stronger battery and improved camera. It could also include new fingerprint technology.

Apple purchased security firm AuthenTec in 2012, so Bajarin expects Apple to include AuthenTec's fingerprint technology in the new iPhone.

Because so many iPhones are either lost or stolen, and so much of our personal data live inside the phone, "Security is very high in consumers' minds right now," says Bajarin.

The latest version of Apple's mobile operating system, iOS 7, which will be released with the new iPhone, has a "death sentence" feature that lets the owner send a signal to the phone if it's lost, effectively turning it into a useless brick.

"The combo of the two is a killer," says Bajarin. Additionally, "Android doesn't have anything like it — not yet anyway."

Apple is under pressure in the smartphone market, especially from Samsung and other companies that make smartphones running Google's Android operating system. The security features could give Apple bragging rights over features Androids don't currently have.

Not to be outdone, rival Samsung is hosting an event Sept. 4 where it is not only expected to unveil the next Galaxy Note smartphone, but could also unveil a new smartwatch, according to a Bloomberg report.

Yet another new huge phone from Samsung, the "Galaxy Mega," goes on sale Friday at AT&T stores for $150 with a 2-year service contract. The screen is 6.3 inches diagonally, making it almost as big as a small tablet.

Santa Clarita Local Colleges - Pregnant? It's OK To Have A Glass Of Wine*

Source        - http://www.kplu.org/
By               - Press Release
Category    - Santa Clarita Local Colleges
Posted By   - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Santa Clarita Local Colleges

In her new book Expecting Better, economist and new mom Emily Oster parses the evidence behind all the recommendations given to pregnant women. She argues that, as an economist, she's trained to both examine evidence and think about trade-offs. 

Oster is the guest on today's show, which we'll post shortly. In the meantime, here are a few of her findings in the book: 

On Alcohol

There is no question that very heavy drinking during pregnancy is bad for your baby. ... However, this does not directly imply that light or occasional drinking is a problem. ... The bottom line is that the evidence overwhelmingly shows that light drinking is fine. In fact, there is virtually no evidence that drinking a glass of wine a day has negative impacts on pregnancy or child outcomes.

On Weight Gain

The evidence was strong enough to convince me that weight gain does matter in the sense that it impacts the baby's size in particular. But that wasn't quite the same as convincing me that the weekly haranguing [at the doctor's office] was appropriate. How should I think about the downside to gaining too much weight? How should I trade that off against the fact that, let's face it, I was hungry and I like cookies.

The one overwhelming thing I took away from this was that it doesn't matter very much. Gaining a few pounds, even 10 or 15, over the weight limit is not very important. Even in studies that do find some risks to too much weight gain, these effects are small and don't kick in for women who gain, say, 37 pounds. At one visit I was informed that if I continued my current rate of gaining, I would be at 36 pounds, and the limit was 35, so I should try to cut down. Nothing — not evidence and not basic logic — supports this.

On Caffeine

I ultimately concluded that the weight of the evidence didn't support limiting my consumption very much. I decided the 3 to 4 cups a day I was having was fine. It's possible you will read this evidence and decide that you would like to stay under 2 cups. There's no reason to have less than that if you feel up to it.

Hotel In Santa Clarita - New Samsung 'Mega' Phone Nearly Tablet-Sized

Source          - http://www.caller.com/
By                 - Press Release
Category      - Hotel In Santa Clarita
Posted By    - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Hotel In Santa Clarita

Smartphones are getting bigger as people use them more to watch movies and play games. A new one from Samsung is beyond big.

With a screen measuring 6.3 inches diagonally, the Galaxy Mega is almost as big as a 7-inch tablet computer. The difference: It makes phone calls.

Samsung says the Mega is a hybrid that combines the portability of a smartphone with the immersive experience that a tablet offers for movies, books, music and games. Phones of this size are typically referred to as phablets.

Samsung Electronics Co. is known for big phones. Its flagship Galaxy S4 is 5 inches, while the Galaxy Note 2 is 5.5 inches. Apple's iPhone 5 is 4 inches.

Samsung is also known for offering a variety of devices, with different screen sizes and prices, to target a range of consumers. Because of that, it's now the leading maker of phones. Apple, by contrast, has been releasing one model a year that targets high-end consumers. A new iPhone is expected this fall.

The Mega includes many features available in other recent Galaxy phones. That includes Multi Window, which allows multitasking in a split screen, and Easy Mode, which reduces the number of features and choices for new smartphone users.

AT&T Inc. says it will start selling the Mega on Friday for $150 with a two-year service contract. The Mega is also coming to Sprint and U.S. Cellular. Dates and prices weren't announced for those carriers. The Mega made its debut in Europe and Russia in May, but hasn't been available in the U.S. until now.

As Samsung's phones get larger, at least one of HTC Corp.'s is getting smaller. AT&T announced Monday that it will start selling a smaller version of the HTC One. Called the HTC One Mini, it will have a 4.3-inch screen, compared with 4.7 inches on the standard model. It's also lighter, at 4.3 ounces. The One is 5 ounces. The One Mini will be about $100 cheaper than its big brother. It will be available starting Friday for $100 with a two-year service agreement.

California Vacation Packages - Samsung Said To Introduce Watch-Like Phone Next Month

Source - http://www.bloomberg.com/
By - Jungah Lee
Category - California Vacation Packages
Posted By - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

California Vacation Packages

Samsung Electronics Co. (005930) will introduce a wristwatch-like device named the Galaxy Gear next month that can make phone calls, surf the Web and handle e-mails, according to two people familiar with the matter. 

The Galaxy Gear will be powered by Google Inc. (GOOG)’s Android operating system and go on sale this year to beat a potentially competing product from Apple Inc. (AAPL), the people said. The device will be unveiled Sept. 4, two days before the IFA consumer electronics show begins in Berlin, one of the people said, asking not to be identified because the plans are private. 

Asia’s biggest technology company is racing other electronics makers, including Sony Corp. (6758), to create a new industry of wearable devices as the market for top-end handsets nears saturation. The global watch industry will generate more than $60 billion in sales this year, and the first companies to sell devices that multitask could lock customers into their platform, boosting sales of smartphones, tablets and TVs. 

“It will carve a niche for sure as this is an initial product in the market,” said Chung Chang Won, an analyst at Nomura Holdings Inc. in Seoul. “Wearable devices could be one of the trends in the smartphone market, but I’m not sure yet whether watches or glasses will set the trend.” 

The Galaxy Gear being released next month won’t have a flexible display, though the company is continuing to work on developing a bendable screen, one person said. It will be unveiled the same day as Samsung’s Galaxy Note 3, a combination smartphone and tablet computer.

Apple Watch

Apple had a team of about 100 designers working on watch-like device, two people familiar with the matter said in February. The Cupertino, California-based company is seeking to introduce its device this year, one of the people familiar said at the time. 

Samsung became the world’s largest smartphone maker last year, overtaking Apple. The Suwon, South Korea-based company had about 33 percent of the global smartphone market in the second quarter, while the iPhone maker fell to a three-year low as more consumers chose inexpensive handsets from Chinese makers, according to researcher Strategy Analytics. 

Samsung posted second-quarter earnings July 26 that missed analyst estimates as sales growth for the flagship Galaxy S4 was curbed by slowing demand for high-end handsets. Shares have fallen 15 percent this year in Seoul trading, compared with a 4 percent decline in the benchmark Kospi index. 

Samsung released the Galaxy S4 smartphone in April and plans at least two other high-end handsets this year, including a device using the Tizen operating system. 

Lee Young Hee, executive vice president of Samsung’s mobile business, said in a March interview the company was working on a watch device.

Hotels In Northern California - Heavy Coffee Consumption Linked To Higher Death Risk

Source              - http://www.usatoday.com/
By                     - Cathy Payne
Category          - Hotels In Northern California
Posted By        - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Hotels In Northern California

The debate over coffee's health risks continues to brew. A new study, out Thursday, finds that heavy coffee consumption is associated with a higher death risk in men and women younger than 55.

In the study published online in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings, men younger than 55 who drank more than 28 cups of coffee a week (four cups a day) were 56% more likely to have died from any cause. Women in that age range had a twofold greater risk of dying than other women. The study looked at 43,727 men and women ages 20-87 from 1971 to 2002.

"From our study, it seems safe to drink one to three cups of coffee a day," says the study's second co-author Xuemei Sui. "Drinking more than four cups of coffee a day may endanger health," says Sui, assistant professor of exercise science with the Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. She defines a cup of coffee as 6 to 8 ounces.

The study did not find a higher death risk for adults 55 and older. Sui says there may be a bias — the research may not include unhealthy older people because they might have already died.

The reasons for the higher death risk among younger adults are not clear since experts through the years have found both health benefits and problems associated with coffee.

Sui says the caffeine in coffee can elevate heart rate as well as raise blood pressure and blood sugar levels. However, coffee is a major source of antioxidants, she says.

Sui says the study didn't find a significant association between coffee consumption and heart disease death. Further research is needed to look at any connection between coffee and cancer, she says.

Gregg Fonarow, co-chief of clinical cardiology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, says, "Differences in other dietary factors, marital status and other socioeconomic factors that were not adjusted for in this study may account for some or all of these observations."

Fonarow, who was not involved in this research, says observational studies that survey people about their coffee intake and tie that to how many died from any cause have yielded mixed results.

Consider a 2012 study that found that coffee drinkers ages 50-71 had a lower risk of death than their peers who did not consume coffee. In that study, researchers from the National Cancer Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, and AARP found that the more coffee consumed, the more a person's death risk declined.

Joseph DeRupo, a spokesman for the National Coffee Association of USA, says the new study "presents findings that are out of step with prevailing science as well as with widely accepted research methods."

Because coffee still stirs debate, Sui says more research is needed. In the meantime, people should watch their coffee intake, she says. "Avoid excessive coffee drinking."

Hampton Hotels Santa Clarita - Turning To Your Phone For a Better Night’s Sleep

Source            - http://www.nytimes.com/
By                   - KIT EATON
Category        - Hampton Hotels Santa Clarita
Posted By       - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Hampton Hotels Santa Clarita

I’m terrible at sleeping. Over the years, I have tried various remedies and tricks, and they haven’t helped. I figured there wasn’t much I could do about my problem until I discovered sleep-aid smartphone apps. 

My favorite is Sleep Cycle, a $2 iOS app. Although this app doesn’t help get you to sleep, it does help you learn about your sleep habits. It’s also designed to wake you at just the right point in your sleep cycle, when you’re sleeping lightly, so you won’t feel that familiar sinking sensation after your alarm clock jerks you awake. 

The app is meant to work with your phone set on your mattress. It uses the iPhone’s sensors to monitor movements, recording when you were in different phases of sleep — from light to deep. In the morning, you get a time graph showing how well you managed to stay in deep sleep. 

There’s a notes section for each night’s data, so you can track if drinking a cup of tea upsets your sleep or if your sleep patterns are related to stress. If you’re really interested in detailed analysis of your sleep habits you can export the data to an Excel spreadsheet. 

The app’s instructions are easy to follow, and the interface is easy to use. I’ve found it usually wakes me when I’m feeling well rested. It does take a while to get used to this, because it means you’re awakened in a window around your chosen alarm time instead of, say, at 7:30 a.m. sharp. Perhaps my only criticism is the app’s array of soothing alarm sounds can get tiresome, but you can also set it to use your downloaded music.

A very similar free app on Android is Sleepbot. It also uses your device’s motion sensors to track your sleep patterns, and can wake you gently when you’re in light sleep. Its interface isn’t quite as polished nor as easy to use as Sleep Cycle’s, but this app is more powerful. 

You can set target sleep times and see over several days if you have a sleep deficit, and you can set a reminder to go to bed. It also has a sound-monitoring function so you can see if there are noises that disturb your sleep, or how your sleep correlates to quiet environments. 

Another way apps can help you sleep is by playing soothing sounds for a time and then quietly shutting off.

One of my favorite sleep apps is Simply Rain, a $1 iOS app that plays soothing rain sounds. Its interface has a large slider to control the sound volume and a small slider to adjust the intensity of the rain. 

You can choose to have different intensities of thunder sounds in the mix, and set the app to oscillate the volume to simulate the variation in a real rain shower. There’s also a simple sleep timer. I find I fall asleep easily to this sort of white noise, but it may not suit you. 

For alternative sleep sounds try Sleep Pillow Sounds, a $2 iOS app with sounds like rain on water, crackling fires or lapping waves on the shore. You can even layer these sounds on top of one another. 

The app has a cute, graphic-heavy interface and a sleep timer, but the timer has a maximum setting of only 75 minutes. It’s also possible to notice patterns in the sounds, and that may bother you. 

On Android, Relax and Sleep is a similar app. It has an impressive array of sounds, like wolf cries and a rocking chair. 

You can layer multiple sounds, setting each sound at a desired intensity. The repetitive nature of some of the sounds seemed more irritating than relaxing, but your mileage may vary. 

Finally, I’ve learned listening to audiobooks can help me sleep — it’s like being read a bedtime story. Audiobooks from Audible (free on iOS, Android and Windows Phone) are my sleep weapon of choice because of the huge selection of titles and the sleep timer function. I also use it with a sleep-monitoring app. 

Audible’s one downside is that the price of some of the audiobooks may surprise you: The first Game of Thrones book is nearly $32, unless you sign up for one of the app’s monthly membership options. 

Quick Call

Microsoft has released a suite of Bing-related apps for Windows Phone 8 devices that bring real-time news alerts on finance, news, sports and weather. These apps are free.

Hotels In Northern California - Samsung Brings Dual View Feature To OLED TV

Source - http://www.usatoday.com/
By - Mike Snider
Category - Hotels In Northern California
Posted By - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Hotels In Northern California

The OLED TV competition is heating up.

Samsung has joined LG Electronics in offering the long-awaited organic light-emitting diode TVs. Samsung's new 55-inch curved display, priced at $9,000 (actually $8,999.99), is shipping to retailers and is also available to order on Samsung.com.

The TV and electronics maker, which, like LG, is based in South Korea, had originally priced the set to arrive in the U.S. at $15,000 — the same price as that of LG's curved OLED display that began arriving in stores last month. Samsung says it improved its manufacturing process enough to yield displays more efficiently and decided to drop the price, undercutting LG in the process.

While still pricey, the $9,000 price tag could help Samsung gain OLED market share, which, in turn, could lead to LG cutting its OLED price, says Richard Doherty of The Envisioneering Group. "It makes it easier to sell it to a spouse or put it on a credit card," he says. "I'm sure we'll see LG do something to bridge the gap or beat it."

Samsung's set has a unique MultiView feature that lets two people watch different programming simultaneously on the display while wearing 3-D glasses. "Some of us at Samsung call it 'the marriage saver' because my wife and I can be sitting on the couch watching two different programs on the same OLED TV," says David Das, vice president of home entertainment for Samsung Electronics America.

Each person has personal ear bud headphones built into the 3-D glasses (two pairs come with the set) that deliver individual audio streams to the viewer.

The half-inch thick display, like the new LG OLED TV, has a concave shape. "It actually mimics that of an arena or amphitheater," Das says.

Consumers have coveted OLED TVs since they first were shown more than five years ago, because the super-thin displays reproduce super-saturated colors, ultra-distinct blacks and whites and virtually no motion blur. But they have been hard to manufacture.

As few as 20,000 OLED displays may be shipped globally this year, estimates DisplaySearch analyst Ken Park. He expects that to grow to about 400,000 in 2014, before approaching 2 million in 2015. "Consumers may find it difficult to pay for hugely expensive OLED TVs, so volume will be limited until mass production is fully stabilized," Park says.

But OLED's promise remains because of the picture quality. "The images were very bright, well above what we've seen from any plasma TV, so you get an unparalleled contrast range that makes images pop off the screen," says Jim Willcox, senior electronics editor at Consumer Reports, who got to test the display.

Willcox calls the display "arguably the best all-around TV we've ever tested." He's looking forward to putting LG's competing curved display through its paces.

But because of the high price and difficulty of manufacturing, he says, "all OLED TV manufacturers face formidable challenges before these sets can become a mainstream choice for consumers."

Samsung also announced that retailers were now offering two new Ultra HD displays, a 55-inch model ($5,500) and 65-inch model ($7,500). Consumers could be overwhelmed by choice with new OLED and Ultra HD sets joining traditional big-screen flat-panel displays at retail, so Samsung will have detailed descriptions in stores.

"We feel that each of these technologies meets a certain consumer's needs," Das says. "Ultra HD offers the highest resolution, four times that of full HD; and in OLED, it is this amazing picture quality. It stops people in their tracks."

Vacations In Santa Clarita - Rich People Have Different Toxins In Their Bodies

Source - http://finance.yahoo.com/
By - Brandon Ballenger
Category - Vacations In Santa Clarita
Posted By - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Vacations In Santa Clarita

For some reason, British researchers were interested in which poisons Americans’ bodies contain. What they found surprised them.

A team from the University of Exeter found that being wealthy doesn’t mean you live in a nontoxic environment. Actually, it means you have a higher risk of exposure to certain chemicals, U.S. News & World Report says.

Using data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the researchers looked for associations between income level and 179 toxins found in the body. “The researchers found that, among 18 toxins that appeared to be associated with income, half were more likely to be present in richer Americans than those at the bottom of the socioeconomic spectrum,” U.S. News says. Here are some of the chemicals wealthier people had higher levels of:

• Mercury.
• Arsenic.
• Caesium.
• Thallium.
• Perfluorinated chemicals.

These likely come from sources like fish and shellfish consumption, dental fillings, and fresh or home-grown fruits and vegetables, U.S. News says. Wealthy people also have higher levels of BP3, a toxin from sunscreen that may actually increase the risk of skin cancer, Quartz says.

Here’s what poorer people are more likely to encounter:

• Lead.
• Cadmium.
• Antimony.
• Toxins in plastic.

These chemicals probably come from smoking, poor air and water quality, or jobs in construction, manufacturing and other industrial settings.

“In some ways, in moving up the economic ladder Americans are simply trading one set of environmental toxins for another,” Quartz says.

But despite the findings, the risks are far from equal, U.S. News says. For the wealthier class, many toxins are avoidable: More money can be spent on higher quality products with fewer chemicals, and they can live in less toxic neighborhoods. For the working class, many toxins are an inescapable fact of life.

Budget Hotels Santa Clarita - Cellphone Use While Driving May 'not' Be Hazardous

Source - http://www.dvice.com/
By - Adario Strange
Category - Budget Hotels Santa Clarita
Posted By - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Budget Hotels Santa Clarita

The perils of texting while driving have become so obvious to many nations with large driving populations that laws have sprouted up in recent years outlawing such behavior in a number of cities. In fact, the idea that driving while using gadgetry is dangerous is so widely accepted that even Google Glass, a product that isn't even widely available yet, is already facing scrutiny related to road safety in some parts. That said, a new study offers a surprising counter narrative that threatens to upend the notions surrounding safety concerns while using mobile devices in cars.

The study, conducted by Carnegie Mellon University and the London School of Economics, concludes that, contrary to popular belief, talking on a cellphone while driving does "not" increase the risk of automobile crashes. Using calling and crash data from approximately 8 million crashes across nine states from a period between 2002 to 2005, the study found no direct correlation between increased cellphone use after 9 p.m. (a time when a discount-related uptick in phone usage was detected) and actual crash rates.

Citing the results from the study, researcher Saurabh Bhargava said, "While our findings may strike many as counterintuitive, our results are precise enough to statistically call into question the effects typically found in the academic literature. Our study differs from most prior work in that it leverages a naturally occurring experiment in a real-world context."

These findings also fly in the face of recent research by AAA that indicated that even minimal distractions from mobile devices while driving can be dangerous. Nevertheless, it should be noted that this new study is only related to talking on a cellphone. It did not study the potential dangers of texting or surfing the Internet on your mobile device while driving.

Vacations In Santa Clarita - 5 Things: Why Does Your Dog Yawn So Much?

Source - http://nashua.patch.com/
By -  Carol Robidoux
Category - Vacations In Santa Clarita
Posted By - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Vacations In Santa Clarita

1. Someone Gets Paid to Study This:  In a study published Wednesday in the open access journal PLOS ONE, University of Tokyo researchers say dogs are more responsive to their owners' yawns than to a stranger's yawn -- a sign that dogs are more empathetic than previously understood. In the study, 25 dogs were observed in their owners' homes. Researchers recorded their responses to watching their owners yawn, then watching an unfamiliar researcher yawn. They yawned nearly fives times more often in response to their owners' yawns.

2. Christie v. Rubio in a NH Popularity Poll: Politico.com reports that Florida Sen. Marco Rubio lost favor with many New Hampshire voters in recent months while New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie saw a surge in support, according to a poll released Aug. 6. Rubio dropped 9 percentage points since April and fell from first to fifth among likely GOP contenders for the 2016 election, according to a Granite State Poll, sponsored by WMUR-TV, and conducted by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center. Rubio was the choice of 12 percent of voters in February and 15 percent in April, but just 6 percent in July.

3. Cocoa Boosts Memory: Drinking two cups of hot chocolate a day may help older people keep their brains sharp and improve their memory, U.S. researchers say. Study author Dr. Farzaneh A. Sorond of Harvard Medical School in Boston said the study involved 60 people with an average age of 73 who did not have dementia. Keeps the blood flowing, it seems.

4. George W. Gets Heart Healthier: President George W. Bush was hospitalized Tuesday morning after having a procedure to open a blocked heart artery. The procedure was successful, and according to Bush's office, the 67-year-old former president should be able to "resume his normal schedule on Thursday." including a statement issued by Bush's office.

5. Old Dogs Can Learn New Tricks: This letter to the Animal Doc Michael Fox in WaPo dispels the long-running adage that you can't teach a dog new tricks. I like it when that happens.

Meeting Space Santa Clarita - China Trade Growth Supports Shares, Dollar Weak

Source - http://www.reuters.com/
By - Richard Hubbard
Category - Meeting Space Santa Clarita
Posted By -  Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Meeting Space Santa Clarita

The better tone ended three days of steady falls in MSCI's world equity index .MIWD00000PUS caused by expectations the Federal Reserve could soon start to wind down its stimulus program, which has driven this year's rally in stocks.

"A lot of risk assets over the past few weeks have been on a negative trend, and I think a few people are thinking this Chinese data is an opportunity to buy," said Angus Campbell, market analyst at FXPro.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS was up 0.8 percent after the Chinese data, recovering more than half of Wednesday's losses, while Europe's shares .FTEU3 edged up about 0.1 percent in early dealing.

A rise in German exports for June, coming after startling jumps in industry orders and factory output, added to the steadier tone and raised hopes Europe's largest economy could record a bounce in growth.

"Exports are likely to rise more strongly in the second half of the year because euro zone countries such as Italy and Spain will have stabilized, said Alexander Koch, an economist at UniCredit Group.

With the Chinese data raising hopes of better demand for raw materials, the commodities-linked Australian dollar rose 0.9 percent to $.09073 and copper hit its highest in nearly two months

The U.S. dollar languished at a seven-week low against a basket of major currencies as yields on Treasury bonds eased back from highs reached on talk the Fed may begin to trim its bond purchases as early as next month. <FED/>

Investors have been betting the Fed would be well ahead of other central banks in scaling back its easy money policy, but inconclusive economic data and mixed comments from Fed officials in recent weeks mean the timing of the move is still unclear.

The dollar index .DXY dropped to 81.167, bringing its losses to 4 percent in just a month while the euro rose to a seven-week high of $1.3353.

Ten-year German bond yields eased in line with the U.S. Treasury market moves, dipping 2.2 basis points to 1.67 percent.

Traders said news out of Japan was also supportive of euro zone government debt, analysts said.

Japanese investors piled into foreign bonds in July, making their biggest net purchase in three years - early evidence that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's expansionary policies are having the desired effect.

Family Hotels In Santa Clarita - Some Blood Pressure Drugs May Raise Breast Cancer Risk

Source - http://news.yahoo.com/
By - Bahar Gholipour
Category - Family Hotels In Santa Clarita
Posted By - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Family Hotels In Santa Clarita

Taking one type of high blood pressure medication might increase women's risk of breast cancer, a new study suggests.

The researchers found women in the study who had been taking calcium-channel blockers to treat high blood pressure for more than 10 years were 2.5 times more likely to have breast cancer, compared with women who did not use blood pressure medication, or who used other types.

"While the results are intriguing, we really need to wait until we see confirmatory studies before we make any kind of recommendations," said study researcher Dr. Christopher Li, an epidemiologist and breast cancer researcher at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.

"People should absolutely not stop taking their medication," Li said.

About 1,900 women with breast cancer participated in the study, as well as about 850 women with no cancer who served as the control group. The researchers didn't find a link between an increased breast cancer risk and other types of high blood pressure medications, such as beta-blockers or diuretics, according to the study published today (August 5) in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Medications for treating high blood pressure, called antihypertensives, are the most commonly prescribed drugs in the United States with an estimated 678 million prescriptions filled in 2010, including 98 million prescriptions for calcium-channel blockers, the researchers said.

"This is not the first time that the specter of a link between [calcium-channel blockers] and breast cancer risk has arisen," Dr. Patricia Coogan,professor of epidemiology at Boston University, wrote in an editorial accompanying the study in the journal.

But previous studies had yielded mixed results. They did not have a sufficient number of participants, or did not investigate long-term use of antihypertensives. The new study "is a very well-done study and therefore there appears to be a hypothesis that now needs to be confirmed," Coogan said.

The study shows a link, but does not prove a cause-and-effect relationship between the drugs and breast cancer.

The evidence "is not at the stage where women should be panicking about taking these drugs," Coogan told LiveScience.

Calcium-channel blockers work by slowing the movement of calcium into muscle cells, which dilates blood vessels, reduces the force of the heart's contractions and slows the heartbeat.

In deciding which drug to use to treat a patient's high blood pressure, doctors may consider how the patient responds to different medications, and their other conditions.

"There are people who don't tolerate some of the other classes of medications, and respond well to calcium-channel blockers," said Dr. Randy Wexler from the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, who was not involved in the study.

"We still have to look at things in terms of the overall risk. Don't forget that heart disease is still one of the biggest problems in the United States," Wexler said.

However, if patients are concerned, and because there are several classes of hypertensives, patients can certainly discuss their options with their physician, and look into alternative blood pressure treatments, Wexler said.

The next step in the current research would be to look at more groups of people who take blood pressure medications, as well as to better understand the underlying mechanism by which the calcium-channel blockers may affect cancer risk, the researchers said.

"Antihypertensives only came on the market in the past few decades, so there has not been sufficient number of long-term users of these medications," Li said.

"We are now getting to the point where we have enough people who've been exposed to these medications for long periods of time to evaluate such long-term potential risks," he said.

Six Flags Magic Mountain - Obama Administration Vetoes Ban on Sale of Some Apple iPhones, iPads

Source       - http://online.wsj.com/
By              - BRENT KENDALL and IAN SHERR
Category   - Six Flags Magic Mountain
Posted By  - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Six Flags Magic Mountain

The Obama administration on Saturday vetoed a U.S. trade body's ban on the import and sale of some Apple Inc. AAPL +1.28% iPhones and iPads, a rare move that upends a legal victory for smartphone rival Samsung Electronics Co. 005930.SE -0.86%

 

U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman made the decision to veto the ban on the Apple devices, citing concerns about patent holders gaining "undue leverage" as well as potential harm to consumers and competitive conditions in the U.S. economy.

He said Samsung could continue to pursue its patent rights through the courts.

The action marked the first time since 1987 that a presidential administration had vetoed an import ban ordered by the U.S. International Trade Commission.

The ITC in June had ordered the import ban and an accompanying cease-and-desist order affecting some older-model Apple iPhones and iPads after finding the products infringed a Samsung patent.

The ban raised concerns among U.S. antitrust enforcers and touched off intense lobbying of the Obama administration by technology companies with opposing positions on the issue.

Critics of the ITC order questioned whether companies should be able to block rival products in cases involving patents that have been deemed to be essential to creating products based on key technologies overseen by industry standard-setting groups.

Apple and some other technology companies argued to the trade representative that the ban was inappropriate because Samsung had committed to fairly license such "standard essential" patents associated with technology for wireless devices.

Samsung insisted it had offered to license its patents to Apple, but the Silicon Valley company had sought to avoid paying for licenses of Samsung's patents.

The South Korean electronics giant and some U.S. technology companies disputed that their commitments to standard-setting bodies mean that patent holders can't seek import bans or court injunctions in enforcing their intellectual property. They argued that a veto of the ITC order would upset decades of settled expectations, weaken the value of patents and discourage innovation.

"We applaud the Administration for standing up for innovation in this landmark case," an Apple spokeswoman said in a statement. "Samsung was wrong to abuse the patent system in this way."

A Samsung spokesman said the company was disappointed by the veto. "The ITC's decision correctly recognized that Samsung has been negotiating in good faith and that Apple remains unwilling to take a license," he said.

The veto concludes one of the most dramatic ITC cases in years. Apple's loss in the case and the subsequent ban was seen as a blow to the company's continued efforts to press cases against competitors it says have copied technology it developed for the iPhone and iPad.

Samsung, meanwhile, is scheduled to face a ruling by the ITC this Friday on whether some of its products infringe Apple patents and should be barred from import as a result. One person familiar with ITC proceedings said it might choose to delay that decision in the wake of the Obama administration's move Saturday.

The ITC cases represent one set of fronts in a global patent war between Apple and Samsung, longtime technology partners that became bitter rivals after Apple introduced the iPhone in 2007 and Samsung later introduced products that contain similar features.

Apple launched a series of patent suits against Samsung, which responded by leveling infringement charges of its own.

The ITC order would have barred the U.S. sale or import of some Apple products still on store shelves, including a version of the iPad 2 made to work on AT&T Inc.'s T +0.14% network, and the iPhone4, which runs on AT&T and T-Mobile USA's airwaves.

Mr. Froman, in a letter explaining the veto, said he came to his decision after extensive consultations with government trade bodies "as well as other interested agencies and persons."

He said he also "strongly shares" concerns raised in a policy statement issued in January by the Justice Department and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, which said ITC product bans should rarely be allowed in cases involving standard-essential patents. Among other issues, the agencies discussed the possibility that holders of such patents could use them in ways that would unduly increase royalty rates they might receive for licenses.

DOJ officials were included during the trade representative's review of the Apple ban. A Justice spokeswoman declined to comment.

The Federal Trade Commission, which shares antitrust authority with the Justice Department, has made similar arguments. The FTC in January reached a settlement with Google Inc. GOOG +0.26% after alleging the company was misusing standard-essential patents it acquired from handset maker Motorola Mobility.

An FTC spokesman didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Former FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz, who led the agency during the Google case, said Saturday's veto would benefit consumers and promote innovation.

"When a company agrees to license what is known as a standard-essential patent at fair and reasonable terms, it shouldn't be able to ban importation of a product into the United States simply because it wants a better deal," he said.

Susan Kohn Ross, a partner at the law firm Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp, said she was surprised the Obama administration stepped in on the case. Usually, such reviews turn on whether a patent in a case was really infringed, rather than concerns about the kinds of issues laid out in government policy statements.

Either way, this blow to Samsung likely won't have much impact in the bargaining room with Apple, she said. ITC decisions typically don't have as much of an impact in setting legal precedents as rulings in federal courts.

Samsung cannot appeal the veto, but it can continue to press its own court cases against Apple. "Does it in any way end the dispute? No," Ms. Ross said.