Hospital leaders told The New York Times they're wary of terms in the health care reform law that will eventually halve the amount of money they receive for caring for uninsured people without addressing the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the country, most of them lacking insurance. Emergency rooms are required to take in [...]
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Health care law ignores illegal immigrants; hospitals may get stuck with the bill
Kaiser Permanente, one of the largest health care providers in the United States, is rolling out the latest installment of its advertising campaign, "Thrive," on Friday.
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PARK CITY, Utah, July 27, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Supplemental Health Care, a leading healthcare workforce solutions provider, today announced the appointment of Cory Kreig as Division Vice President for its Supplemental Physicians division. Kreig is an accomplished healthcare staffing executive with significant experience in healthcare recruiting processes, business development initiatives, and operations and financial management.
Reflecting Supplemental Health Care's continued expansion, the Supplemental Physicians division is a growing segment for healthcare staffing provider. In his new role as Division Vice President, Kreig will drive new initiatives for Supplemental Physicians by providing strategic oversight for the entire locum tenens recruiting operations, including managing the financial health, recruiting operations, client development efforts, and marketing strategies for this segment.
"Cory Kreig is a welcomed addition to our leadership team as he possesses the entrepreneurial spirit we believe will position the Supplemental Physicians division for great success," said Janet Elkin, President and CEO at Supplemental Health Care. "Given his proven track record, we are confident he will distinguish our brand in this staffing segment and deliver positive results for our company."
Most recently, Kreig served as the Vice President at Martin, Fletcher Locums, a staffing agency based in Irving, Texas, where he is credited with growing the company from its start-up phase to a lucrative recruiting agency. Throughout his tenure, Kreig earned three promotions and managed tasks including recruitment strategy development, incentive execution, compliance monitoring, and budgeting. In previous years, Kreig served as a Corporate Recruiter at Baylor Healthcare System and an Account Manager for AMN Healthcare, distinguishing himself as a top performer in both roles as a solid leader and skilled business manager.
"It's an exciting time to join Supplemental Health Care's team," Kreig said. "The company continues to note substantial growth across all of its primary business lines, and I'm excited to take part in continuing that trend with the Supplemental Physicians division. With the support of the organization's leadership team and an expert team of staffing specialists, we are positioned to experience substantial growth in the coming year."
Supplemental Physicians is dedicated to placing physicians and physician assistants to work on a locum tenens or permanent basis. The division leverages Supplemental Health Care's exclusive client partnerships to provide rewarding career opportunities to medical doctors and physician assistants in an array of specialties such as family and internal medicine, hospitalists, psychiatry, emergency medicine and many more.
To learn more about Supplemental Physicians and its current staffing options, please visit http://www.SupplementalHealthCare.com/physicians.
ABOUT SUPPLEMENTAL HEALTH CARE
Based in Park City, Utah, Supplemental Health Care delivers wide-ranging workforce solutions that address staffing challenges faced by healthcare organizations today. For more than 27 years, the company has provided organizations better access to skilled nurses, therapists, physicians and other healthcare specialties. With more than 60 local offices in major U.S. markets and four national travel divisions, Travel Nursing, Travel Allied, Locum Tenens and Health Information Management, Supplemental Health Care places healthcare professionals in temporary and travel positions throughout the country. Visit Supplemental Health Care online at http://www.SupplementalHealthCare.com.
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Supplemental Health Care Appoints Cory Kreig As Division Vice President
Re-doing the Massachusetts Health Care Bill
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So you die in 2050. Then, a few decades later, your ancestors pick up your brain at the local cranium depot, upload it to a computer and read your memories. Maybe they reanimate you with an artificial body.
This scenario, brought to you by chemical brain preservation, is a hypothetical procedure where doctors preserve a dying persons brain complete with memories and knowledge for a possible revival later.
This is just another way of having another morning, says John Smart, sounding a bit like fictional ad man Don Draper reciting a slogan. Its just a very unusual strange way, now my morning is 50 years later, I wake up again.
Smart is a futurist and this weekend, futurists from around the world will converge at Torontos Sheraton Centre for their yearly conference about intriguing technologies and ideas. Smart, who is the co-founder of the Brain Preservation Foundation, will talk about how to live forever.
The idea is that if the synapses and connections of the brain are preserved at death, the contents of the brain your broken arm from soccer, that time you vomited on the bus downtown, the birth of your child may be understood later, when neuroscience is more advanced.
Someone will eventually crack the long-term memory code, to show which chemicals need to be preserved, Smart said.
But first, the preservation of the entire brain must be perfected like a very high end, rigorous embalming. Neuroscientists can already preserve small volumes of brain tissue after death, but The Brain Preservation Foundation is holding a contest with a $25,000 prize to the first team to perfectly preserve all the connections inside a mouses brain, and a $75,000 purse for the preservation of the large mammalian brain, using either cryogenics or plastination.
You have to have a preservation technique that will very quickly go in after the animal dies, before any cell damage starts occurring, and lock down all those protein molecules, to keep them from being able to decay and interact with each other, he said.
So far, two teams are competing, with judges from Harvard and MIT. Things seem reasonable so far.
We might come across something that makes it unreasonable at any one of these steps, he said. The biggest weirdness is this whole process, the idea that people can be preserved.
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Futurists converge on Toronto to discuss brain preservation, technology, and how we might live...
LONDON, July 27, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --
Freedom of choice in work and career creativity is significantly more important to freelancers than greater financial reward, according to our landmark Freelance Landscape survey. Major Players collected the answers and opinions of over 1,000 creative, design and marketing freelance professionals this February. We found that 42% rated greater choice over their projects as the most appealing aspect of freelancing while for 28% it was gaining greater creative experience and opportunity. Only 19% stated it was to achieve higher financial reward than the permanent equivalent. The least appealing aspect was periods of inactivity between assignments, with 39% stating this reason, followed by 26% most concerned with the comparative insecurity of freelancing - a cancelled assignment for example.
Our survey forms part of a larger investigation into the changing employment landscape across the UK by our parent company Randstad. The result is The Navigator report, which was published 12 March. It confirms that contracting continues to be a massive spark within the advertising & marketing world - with 72% freelancing through choice. Only 28% of those surveyed are freelancing because they could not find a permanent position or for other reasons. Freelancing has undoubtedly been boosted by the more challenging environment since 2009, as 39% of respondents began freelancing after this point.
Pay disparity between the sexes appears as prevalent within the creative, design and marketing freelancing community as within the permanent world. Twice as many men (8%) as women (4%) are earning over 500 per day. Similarly 71% of men earn between 200-500 per day compared with 67% of women surveyed. The high freelance earners by sector were those working in market research, and financial & professional services, with 16% of both these sectors earning over 500 per day. Creative & design jobs and retail both had the least earners of over 500 per day at only 3%. However both recorded high percentages in the middle category with 76% and 69% respectively earning between 200-500 a day.
Integrated colleagues were also seen to earn slightly more than their creative & design equivalents with only 16% earning less than 100 a day compared to 21% in creative & design. Freelancers also expressed their opinions on the everyday life of a freelancer and their motivations. 'Flexible working times around my children', 'freedom from the stink of internal politics', and as one respondent simply put it, 'freedom, money, buzz', were all reasons for freelancing.
Drawbacks included 'having to spend ages chasing payments and doing accounts', 'missing out on the social aspects and networking', and 'not being able to have blue Mondays and lazy Fridays'. Jack Gratton, CEO at Major Players, said "The response we got to this survey was phenomenal and indicates that the freelance community in the creative and marketing world wants to be heard. Freelancing has always been a lifestyle and career choice for our market, and now with agencies and brands seeking to become more streamlined and sustainable we see our space continuing to adapt. Our clients are actively using contract working not only to become more efficient but to fuel creativity.
"Freelancers stand to be a key component of the creative industries in the next decade. As ways of working change and their rights are strengthened further through legislation the freelancer looks set to be a key dynamic in our futures." To order a free copy of the Navigator report please visit http://www.majorplayers.co.uk/the-navigator-2012.html.
Editor's Notes:
Major Players are the No.1 recruiter for the creative industry and marketing in the UK. We supply high-calibre professionals to the country's top agencies and in-house divisions, across all levels within both the permanent and freelance markets. Our story began in 1993 and we are now 60 strong and growing in partnership with our parent company Randstad. Still based in the heart of Covent Garden and helping people find their way
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Freedom of Choice and Career Creativity Beats pay for Freelancers
FAIRFAX, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
The Freedom Bank of Virginia (Bank) (Bulletin Board:FDVA.OB) earned a Net Profit Before Taxes of $252,083 for the quarter ending June 30, 2012, its thirteenth consecutive quarterly profit. Net Profit for the quarter ending June 30, 2011 was $386,395. Net Profit Before Taxes was $560,855 for the first half of 2012 compared to a Net Profit for the first half of 2011 of $802,037. The reduction in profit was principally due to an increase in the provision for loan losses. According to CEO Craig S. Underhill, The Bank continues to be profitable and is growing during a challenging economy.
Total Assets increased 18% to $206,560,467, up from $174,913,192 at June 30, 2011. Loans Receivable increased $17,447,975 (12.5%) to $157,026,486 and Investment Securities increased $20,099,420 (175%) to $31,584,026 during the same period. The growth in assets was funded by $29,666,827 growth in deposits (19.5%). Non Interest Checking increased $4,508,951 (14.8%) to $34,889,239. Certificates of Deposit growth was $24,608,276 (26.1%).
Capital continues to be strong, growing $1,896,511 (8.4%) over the same period in the prior year to $24,409,278. Regulatory Capital minimums for Tier 1 Leverage Ratio, Risk Based Capital Tier 1, and Risk Based Capital Tier 2 were 5.0%, 6.0% and 10.0% respectively to be considered well capitalized. At June 30, 2012, the ratios for the Bank were 11.29%, 14.54% and 15.80% respectively, all in the well capitalized category. The Bank continues its tradition of maintaining a strong capital base to serve the needs of its customers and stockholders.
Freedom Bank is a community-oriented, locally-owned bank with locations in Fairfax and Vienna, Virginia. For information about Freedom Banks deposit and loan services, visit the Banks website at http://www.freedombankva.com.
This release contains forward-looking statements, including our expectations with respect to future events that are subject to various risks and uncertainties. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from management's projections, forecasts, estimates and expectations include: fluctuation in market rates of interest and loan and deposit pricing, adverse changes in the overall national economy as well as adverse economic conditions in our specific market areas, maintenance and development of well-established and valued client relationships and referral source relationships, and acquisition or loss of key production personnel. Other risks that can affect the Bank are detailed from time to time in our quarterly and annual reports filed with the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. We caution readers that the list of factors above is not exclusive. The forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this release, and we may not undertake steps to update the forward-looking statements to reflect the impact of any circumstances or events that arise after the date the forward-looking statements are made. In addition, our past results of operations are not necessarily indicative of future performance.
Common stock, $4.17 par value. (5,000,000 shares authorized: issued and outstanding 2,846,117 shares for June 30, 2012 and 2,842,398 shares for June 30, 2011)
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Cyborg Joe Shimamura vies for drink using his powers in ads that played in 3D theaters
The two theatrical Pepsi Nex x 009 Re:Cyborg ads produced by director Kenji Kamiyama (Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Eden of the East) began streaming online on Saturday. The ads played in 3D in Japanese theaters before Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace 3D, although they are in regular 2D here:
In the first tongue-in-cheek ad "Acceleration Device," the cyborg hero Joe Shimamura ("009") uses his enhanced powers to toy with a Pepsi Nex bottle alongside Francoise Arnoul ("003").
In the second ad "Skydiving," Joe and Jet Link ("002") battle for a Pepsi Nex bottle plummeting through the skies.
Kamiyama is directing a new computer-animated Cyborg 009 film under the title 009 Re:Cyborg. The film will open on October 27.
Besides the previous Pepsi Nex ad, Kamiyama created a "Xi AVANT" anime short with NTT Docomo and started an advertising animation firm called Steve N' Steven. Another director with Ghost in the Shell and Production I.G ties, Mamoru Oshii, directed his own 3D short of Cyborg 009 in 2010 with sponsor Panasonic.
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North Beaches Neighbors: Meet the candidates on Monday Meet the Candidates night begins at 7 p.m. Monday at the North Shores Improvement Association's Community Center, 120 Meadow Ave. Come early so you can get a seat.
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Two Bryan County Beaches Reopened For Swimming Two Bryan County Beaches Reopened For Swimming BRYAN COUNTY, OK -- The Army Corps of Engineers says they have reopened two beaches that were closed earlier this week due to blue-green algae. The Burns Run East and Burns Run West swimming beaches wereMore >> BRYAN COUNTY, OK -- The Army Corps of Engineers says they have reopened two beaches that were closed earlier this week due to blue-green algae. The Burns Run East and Burns Run West swimming beaches wereMore >> Wind Gusts Leave Damage in Calera Wind Gusts Leave Damage in Calera CALERA, OK -- Strong gusts of wind caught Bryan County residents off guard early Thursday evening. Power went out in a number of businesses and some damage was left behind. Just before 6:00 pm, 72 mileMore >> CALERA, OK -- Strong gusts of wind caught Bryan County residents off guard early Thursday evening. Power went out in a number of businesses and some damage was left behind.More >> Sherman/Denison Area Next in Line to Get New Mobile Network Sherman/Denison Area Next in Line to Get New Mobile Network SHERMAN, TX -- A new wireless network is quickly expanding across the U.S. and the Sherman/Denison area is next on the list to get it. The Sherman/Denison area is a part of the second group of citiesMore >> SHERMAN, TX -- A new wireless network is quickly expanding across the U.S. and the Sherman/Denison area is next on the list to get it.More >> Whitewright Introduces Chamber of Commerce App Whitewright Introduces Chamber of Commerce App WHITEWRIGHT, TX -- Whitewright is the latest city to jump on the chamber App bandwagon. The chamber has joined Chambers To Go, an App you can get for free on your mobile device. You just download it andMore >> WHITEWRIGHT, TX -- Whitewright is the latest city to jump on the chamber App bandwagon. The chamber has joined Chambers To Go, an App you can get for free on your mobile device.More >> Students Pitch In At New Pottsboro Park Students Pitch In At New Pottsboro Park
POTTSBORO, TX -- A new park unlike anythingthis town hasever seen is almost ready to open, and some students did their partto help.More >>
POTTSBORO, TX -- A new park unlike anythingthis town hasever seen is almost ready to open, and some students did their partto help.More >>
FANNIN COUNTY, TX -- Funeral arrangements are set for a Bonham woman who died in a head-on wreck on Highway 82.More >>
FANNIN COUNTY, TX -- Funeral arrangements are set for a Bonham woman who died in a head-on wreck on Highway 82.More >>
BRYAN COUNTY, OK -- The Army Corps of Engineers says they have reopened two beaches that were closed earlier this weekdue to blue-green algae.
The Burns Run East and Burns Run West swimming beaches were temporarily closed after test results showed high algae cell counts, but now theArmy Corps of Engineers says the beaches are safe for swimming.
"Test results have shown that toxin levels are below the state of Oklahoma guidelines. The beaches were temporarily closed earlier this week while the Corps of Engineers awaited toxin results," says a statement posted on the Corps website.
Earlier in the week, the Corps reported thattest results from July 17 at Burns Run East showed cell counts over 1.5 million cells per milliliter of water. At Burns Run West, a July 20 sample showed blue-green algae cells about 1.3 million cells per milliliter.
The Corps had said they were closingthe beaches as a precaution, but now they will be open again for swimming.
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25-07-2012 22:11 To achieve a high standard of corporate social responsibility, we strive to develop and sustain strong supplier relationships based on trust, transparency and open communication. That's why we work with suppliers that commit to our rigorous Supplier Code of Conduct. It's also why we go beyond the provisions of this code to actively engage our suppliers on a daily basis in responsible supply chain management. 'Supply Chain' is one of the pillars of our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) approach -- you can check out the six pillars on our CSR dedicated website: http://www.csr.bombardier.com. About Bombardier Bombardier is the world's only manufacturer of both planes and trains. Looking far ahead while delivering today, Bombardier is evolving mobility worldwide by answering the call for more efficient, sustainable and enjoyable transportation everywhere. Our vehicles, services and, most of all, our employees are what make us a global leader in transportation. Bombardier is headquartered in Montréal, Canada. Our shares are traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange (BBD) and we are listed on the Dow Jones Sustainability World and North America indexes. In the fiscal year ended December 31, 2011, we posted revenues of 8.3 billion USD. News and information are available at or follow us on Twitter @Bombardier.
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Bombardier Aerospace's Responsible Supply Chain Management - Video
A stand-alone medical school for Brandon University may not be realistic, but the findings of the Brandon Medical Education Study to increase training of doctors in rural environments is encouraging, said Ross Tycoles, chairman of the Assiniboine Municipal Health Committee.
"Honestly, I think all along (a satellite medical school in Brandon) was their plan," Tycoles said. "Im disappointed that the stand-alone school didnt come through, but the fact is the satellite school will help and it will address the concerns rural communities have."
His view was shared by Brandon University president Deborah Poff, who called the study "a small step in the right direction."
"It doesnt surprise me that there would be no recommendation for an independent medical school," Poff said. "Given the context in Manitoba, I knew that was a long shot beyond belief and I had said that to a lot of people. The satellite school is a half step in that direction."
Poff said her disappointment with the report rests on a conservative implementation schedule of the findings, which includes more residencies in later years of the four-year medical school program and community campuses with teaching units geared towards practising medicine in rural areas.
The provincial government stated in a press release that six residencies were already planned for Brandon, Steinbach and the Boundary Trails Hospital between Morden and Winkler this year and the study called for more next year. A satellite campus of the University of Manitobas medical school in Brandon is listed as a possibility, if more students need to be accepted in the future.
"I think it will take a long while unless theres the political will within the implementation committee to move a little faster," Poff said.
"In every province where this has been happening, which is now the majority of provinces, its taken some political will and commitments. The recommendations are not bad, just extremely slow in terms of the time horizon."
Tycoles said the study recognized the "problem that has always been around" and dealt with those issues, but Dr. Derry Decter, a proponent for training doctors in rural communities, said the study doesnt go far enough, or fast enough to deal with the doctor shortages faced by rural and northern residents.
"There is a bit of a red herring in there," Decter said.
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Poff, Tycoles like satellite med school idea
DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/57h2sv/top_472_biotechnol) has announced the addition of the "Top 472 Biotechnology (Pharmaceuticals) (Global)" report to their offering.
This report is an in-depth financial evaluation of the GlobalBiotechnology (Pharmaceuticals). Using the unique Plimsoll method of analysis, each of the top 472 companies included is individually assessed and ranked against each other and compared to industry averages.Using the most up-to-date financial information available, the two-page per company analysis provides detailed financial analysis for each organisation. The following are some of the key findings of this new report:
- 210 of the 472 companies analysed have been rated as Danger
- 126 companies are ripe for takeover
- 300 companies achieved greater than 10% increase in sales last year.
- 196 companies made a pre-tax loss.
- 145 companies saw sales fall last year.
Our analysis gives you this unrivalled market and company intelligence using a simple graphical, numeric and model. Each company is individually analysed in both the company's own currency, and USD ($) for ease of use. These individual analyses highlight a company's strengths and weaknesses instantly.
Along with individual company information, this report also contains a comprehensive study of the market, based on the companies analysed. This key information includes:
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Research and Markets: Top 472 Biotechnology (Pharmaceuticals) (Global)
DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/nngzvh/us_biotechnology_i) has announced the addition of the "US Biotechnology Industry: Sector Report" report to their offering.
This industry profile is an essential tool to help your company gain an in-depth knowledge and competitive advantage in the industry. The profile is an assimilation of insider knowledge, market characteristics and economic indicators. It analyzes the critical success factors in the industry - how the industry has evolved and how competitive dynamics have impacted market behavior.
Sectional Highlights
-- Structure of the industry, market size, and growth rates have been analyzed
-- Value chain analysis categorizes the value-adding activities to develop low-cost differentiation strategies
-- Trend analysis detects historical patterns that could help in forecasting future demand periods
-- Critical issues are reviewed that may become a threat to the industry
-- PEST analysis uses a framework of external factors for macro-environmental scanning of the industry to help in taking advantage of opportunities and making contingency plans for threats
-- Competitive positioning of the industry leaders has been evaluated in terms of sales, profitability, stock trend and other performance indicators
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Research and Markets: US Biotechnology Industry: Sector Report - Market Size and Key Trends
DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/vg7gkl/biotechnology_reag) has announced the addition of the "Biotechnology Reagents Market by Technology, Applications and End-Users - Current Trends, Opportunities and Global Forecasts to 2016" report to their offering.
The biotechnology reagent market is vast; it consists of several technologies such as PCR, cell culture, IVD, expression and transfection, chromatography, spectrometry, electrophoresis, and flow cytometry. This report studies the biotechnology reagents market, by technology, end-users, and applications. The biotechnology reagents market, by technology studied in this report are segmented as life science reagents and analytical reagents; of which life science segment accounted for the largest share of 59.37% of the total market in 2011. The global biotechnology reagents market was valued at $40.3 billion in 2011 and is expected to reach $59.3 billion by 2016; growing at a CAGR of 8% from 2011 to 2016.
The biotechnology reagents market is driven by the increasing use of reagents in therapeutics, basic research and commercial applications. The demand for biotechnology reagents is mainly dependent upon the growth of the biotechnology instrumentation market. The biotechnology instrumentation market continues to witness significant growth due to an increase in the number of biotechnology firms around the globe and increase in research and development expenditure by the biotechnology companies, thus augmenting the demand for biotechnology instruments. Continual product developments are being witnessed in various industries, such as pharmaceutical/bio-pharmaceutical, agri-biotech, and food and beverages; this is expected to facilitate market growth.
North America dominated the biotechnology reagents market with 46.28% share in 2011. Successful completion of the first phase of the Human Genome Project, ahead of schedule, has given rise in the U.S. reagent market. Investments, government funding, and new products are driving the reagents market in the U.S. The Asian market, however, shows greater opportunities, when compared to other regions, with the highest CAGR of 11.8% from 2011 to 2016; due to increased research outsourcing activities in the life technology field.
Key Topics Covered:
1 Introduction
2 Executive Summary
3 Market Overview
4 Life Sciences & Analytical Reagents Market, By Technology
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Research and Markets: Biotechnology Reagents Market by Technology, Applications and End-Users - Current Trends ...
Greys Anatomy star Eric Dane is hanging up his scrubs.
After six years aboard the hit ABC medical drama, CNN's confirmed that the actor will not be back for the shows ninth season will be leaving the show.
Series creator Shonda Rhimes told TVLine in a statement, [We] did not come to this decision lightly, but after much consideration and conversations, he and I have decided that this is the right time for his storyline to end."
Dane, who played Dr. Mark Sloan, thanked Rhimes and the cast of "Grey's" for the memories in a statement of his own. "I am extremely grateful to everyone at 'Grey's,' ABC and Shondaland for the experience," Dane told TVLine. "It has been wonderful to work alongside and learn from a creative force such as Shonda Rhimes."
Danes leaving is just the latest high-profile departure from "Grey's": The actor's fellow cast members Kim Raver and Chyler Leigh also exited the series after its eighth season finale in May.
"Grey's Anatomy" returns on September 27.
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Eric Dane departs 'Grey's Anatomy'
27-07-2012 03:27 The Delhi High Court has rejected ND Tiwari's plea to keep his DNA report confidential. The results of the DNA test will be announced at 2:30 pm today. The former Governor of Andhra Pradesh and veteran Congress leader was taken to court by a 32-year-old man, Rohit Shekhar, who claims that Mr Tiwari is his biological father. Mr Tiwari says he is not. The DNA test was ordered by the court to settle the matter. Yesterday, Mr Tiwari, who is 87 years old, moved both the High Court and the Supreme Court seeking to keep his DNA test report confidential till the conclusion of hearing in the paternity suit against him. He was appealing against a July 20 High Court order which said the DNA test results would be made public today. For more log on to
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HC rejects ND Tiwari's plea to keep DNA results secret - NewsX - Video
After decades of digging, paleoanthropologists say modern humans arose in Africa some 200,000 years ago and all archaic species of humans then disappeared, surviving only outside Africa, as did the Neanderthals in Europe.
Geneticists studying DNA now say that, to the contrary, a previously unknown archaic species of human, a cousin of the Neanderthals, may have lingered in Africa until perhaps 25,000 years ago, coexisting with the modern humans and on occasion interbreeding with them.
The geneticists reached this conclusion, reported on Thursday, July 26, in the journal Cell, after decoding the entire genome of three isolated hunter-gatherer peoples in Africa, hoping to cast light on the origins of modern human evolution.
But the finding is regarded skeptically by some paleoanthropologists because of the absence in the fossil record of anything that would support the geneticists' statistical calculations.
The geneticists, led by Joseph Lachance and Sarah Tishkoff of the University of Pennsylvania, decoded the entire genomes of five men each from two Tanzanian tribes and the forest-dwelling pygmies of Cameroon. The genomes of the pygmies and the Tanzanians contained many short stretches of DNA with highly unusual sequences. Through mutation, the genomes of species that once had a common ancestor grow increasingly unlike one another.
Tishkoff's team interprets these divergent DNA sequences as genetic remnants of an interbreeding with an archaic species of
Richard Klein, a paleoanthropologist at Stanford University, said the new claim of archaic and modern human interbreeding "is a further example of the tendency for geneticists to ignore fossil and archaeological evidence, perhaps because they think it can always be molded to fit the genetics after the fact."
Tishkoff said she agreed on the need for caution in making statistical inferences, and that there are other events besides interbreeding that can make a single DNA sequence look ancient. "But when you see it at a genomewide level, it's harder to explain away," she said.
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DNA and fossils tell differing tales of human origins
The human family tree just got another mysterious branch, an African "sister species" to the heavy-browed Neanderthals that once roamed Europe.
While no fossilized bones have been found from these enigmatic people, they did leave a calling card in present-day Africans: snippets of foreign DNA.
There's only one way that genetic material could have made it into modern human populations.
"Geneticists like euphemisms, but we're talking about sex," said Joshua Akey of the University of Washington, whose lab identified the foreign DNA in three groups of modern Africans.
These genetic leftovers do not resemble DNA from any modern humans. The foreign DNA also does not resemble Neanderthal DNA, which shows up in the DNA of some modern Europeans, Akey said. That means the newly identified DNA came from an unknown group.
"We're calling this a Neanderthal sibling species in Africa," Akey said. He added that the interbreeding likely occurred 20,000 to 50,000 years ago, long after some modern humans had walked out of Africa to colonize Asia and Europe, and about the same time Neanderthals were waning in Europe.
Akey said that present-day Europeans show no evidence of the foreign DNA, meaning the mystery people were likely confined to Africa.
The find offers more evidence that for thousands of years, modern-looking humans shared the Earth with evolutionary cousins that later died out. And whenever the groups met, they did what came naturally: They bred.
The once controversial idea that humans mated with other species is now widely accepted among scientists. In fact, hominid hanky-panky seems to have occurred wherever humans met others who looked kind of like them.
In 2010, researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany announced finding Neanderthal DNA in the genomes of modern Europeans.
by Brian Vastag - Jul. 26, 2012 11:06 PM Washington Post
The human family tree just got another -- mysterious -- branch, an African "sister species" to the heavy-browed Neanderthals who once roamed Europe.
While no fossilized bones have been found from these enigmatic people, they did leave a calling card in present-day Africans: snippets of foreign DNA.
There's only way one that genetic material could have made it into modern human populations.
"Geneticists like euphemisms, but we're talking about sex," said Joshua Akey of the University of Washington in Seattle, whose lab identified the foreign DNA in three groups of modern Africans.
These genetic leftovers do not resemble DNA from any modern-day humans. The foreign DNA also does not resemble Neanderthal DNA, which shows up in the DNA of some modern-day Europeans, Akey said. That means the newly identified DNA came from an unknown group.
"We're calling this a Neanderthal sibling species in Africa," Akey said. He added that the interbreeding likely occurred 20,000 to 50,000 years ago, long after some modern humans had walked out of Africa to colonize Asia and Europe, and around the same time Neanderthals were waning in Europe.
Akey said that present-day Europeans show no evidence of the foreign DNA, meaning the mystery people were likely confined to Africa.
The find offers more evidence that for thousands of years, modern-looking humans shared the Earth with evolutionary cousins who later died out. And when the groups met, they did what came naturally -- they bred.
The once controversial idea that humans mated with other species is now widely accepted among scientists. In fact, hominid hanky-panky seems to have occurred wherever humans met others who looked kind of like them.
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DNA links humans, mystery species