US Virgin Islands Lures Businesses With Tax Breaks

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Democratic Gov. John de Jongh toured New Yorklate last week with regional economic development officials, meeting companies and investors. De Jongh has been promoting the territorys 90 percent cut in corporate income taxes to financial firms and light manufacturing companies, among others.

That comes alongside a 90 percent cut in personal income tax, and considerable exemptions for excise, property and import taxes. There are no territorial or local taxes in the U.S. Virgin Islands, which has about 100,000 residents.

These generous tax breaks dont render the Virgin Islands a corporate or offshore tax haven, like such well-known rivals as Bermuda or the Cayman Islands, de Jongh asserted in an interview with IBTimes. Thats because the Virgin Islands tax benefits are legally sanctioned by the U.S. government, unlike regimes at overseas havens under pressure from a global regulatory crackdown.

Our program is sanctioned by the Congress and the U.S. Treasury, Percival Clouden, CEO of the Virgin Islands economic development authority, told IBTimes. Its a safe environment for them [businesses] to operate.

Mandated job creation offsets any lost tax revenue, added de Jongh. Under the incentives program, companies must employ at least 10 Virgin Islands residents and invest $100,000 or more toward the economic well-being of the territory.

The program has 85 corporate beneficiaries so far, with 15 pending applications, mostly from financial companies. Existing beneficiariesinclude hotel companies.

Asset managers and hedge funds have increasingly left high-tax places for low tax jurisdictions, said de Jongh, who seeks such firms as low-hanging fruit for the islands. The Virgin Islands already hosts Denali Asset Managementas one longtime resident firm.

The Cayman Islands, a British territory, has a reputation as a hedge and mutual fund haven, hosting thousands of accounts that collectively managed $1.8 trillion by the end of 2011, according to the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority.

One reason for de Jonghs outreach is the January 2012 lossof the islands single biggest taxpayer and employer, the HOVENSA oil refinery. That shutdown cost the island $100 million in revenue and 2,000 jobs, worsening an economy that has shrunk 22 percent since the 2008 financial crisis.

Tourism is one of the largest sectors in the Virgin Islands, accounting for almost half of employment alongside trade in 2010. Officials are promoting tourism from Europe, especially from Denmark, which ruled the islands until selling them to the U.S. in 1917.

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US Virgin Islands Lures Businesses With Tax Breaks

Doctor Tom Borody claims faecal transplants curing incurable diseases like Crohn's

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Doctor Tom Borody claims faecal transplants curing incurable diseases like Crohn's

An Australian doctor claims he is curing incurable diseases using an all-natural waste product we usually flush away - human stool.

Professor Tom Borody has been championing the treatment, known as faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT), for 25 years.

As modern science begins to appreciate the critical role gut bacteria plays in human health, his treatment of diseases including Crohn's and colitis, auto immune diseases and even neurological disease is provoking both criticism and excitement.

While some doctors regard faecal transplants as potentially dangerous, two of Australia's biggest teaching hospitals are embarking on a large national trial.

Professor Borody is at science's new frontier, manipulating the bacteria that live in the human gut.

"In terms of genetics there are 3.1 million genes. That's a hell of a crowd of individuals living in our colon," he said.

Bacterial cells far outnumber human cells in our bodies and bacteria experts includingCSIRO's chief research scientist, Dr David Topping, believe the world is at the edge of an extraordinary medical revolution that will come through the understanding of the so-called human microbiome.

"I think we're on the edge of something extraordinary. The attention has switched entirely to the large bowel bacterial population which we now know is absolutely critical to human health," Dr Topping said.

Professor Borody is not waiting for controlled clinical trials to treat a range of diseases.

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Doctor Tom Borody claims faecal transplants curing incurable diseases like Crohn's

Standard & Poor’s U.S. Consumer, Retail, And Health Care Weekly Review (March 17) – Video

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Standard Poor #39;s U.S. Consumer, Retail, And Health Care Weekly Review (March 17)
In this segment of U.S. Consumer, Retail, and Health Care Weekly, Standard Poor #39;s Associate Director Mariola Borysiak reviews the recent actions we took on...

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Standard & Poor's U.S. Consumer, Retail, And Health Care Weekly Review (March 17) - Video

Father Explains Custody Battle with State over Daughter’s Health Care — Dr. Phil – Video

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Father Explains Custody Battle with State over Daughter #39;s Health Care -- Dr. Phil
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Ethical Need for Better Health Care Regulatory Oversight

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Newswise Patients in health care systems are suffering for a lack of clear federal regulatory guidance in support of low-risk quality improvement research, according to a viewpoint article by health and policy experts in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

The Office for Human Research Protections, the Office for Civil Rights, and the US Food and Drug Administration should provide more complete and coordinated advice, to avoid institutions making unnecessarily restrictive decisions on what research can go forward because of uncertainty about what regulations allow, thus impeding much-needed medical research, the article says, under the heading Time for a Change.

Looking specifically at the generally low- or no-risk type of research known as comparative effectiveness research, the viewpoint asks: what level of oversight is necessary? The authors offer recommendations for both the current health policy landscape and a hopeful vision of harmonized regulation in transparent, data-driven health care systems of the future.

Our federal regulatory system is critical in protecting patients when research poses risks or threats to their wellbeing. But our regulations also need to have flexibility to allow different oversight options for research that alters patients care very little yet has the opportunity to improve care enormously, says Nancy Kass, co-author of the viewpoint and the Deputy Director for Public Health at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics.

All clinical care carries risk, and to assume that research automatically imposes additional risks beyond those the same patient would otherwise have experienced in clinical care may overinflate the risks of research and underestimate the risk of not conducting these evaluations, the viewpoint states.

Joining Kass in the opinion is Richard Platt, a research physician trained in infectious diseases, of Harvard Medical School and Pilgrim Health Care Institute, and Deven McGraw, a health care lawyer and privacy expert, of the Center for Democracy and Technology.

The authors highlight the paradox of stringent research regulations for studies evaluating changes in how healthcare is organized coexisting alongside the lack of oversight when administrative decisions are made to health system operations. Such administrative clinical decisions are not considered research and thus are not subject to review, patient consultation or other transparency yet can have considerable impact on patients experience and successful treatment. The authors use the example of changing the ratio of nurses to patients, which could have profound effects on patient outcomes.

The viewpoint also stresses the importance of patient engagement in oversight and in the research process. The engagement of patients and other stakeholders will be critical to collecting and using data in ways that seem respectful and acceptable to patients.

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Vivek Wadhwa: The triumph of genomic medicine is just beginning

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"A Decade Later, Genetic Map Yields Few New Cures," said a New York Times headline in June 2010. It declared the failure of the $3 billion Human Genome Project and claimed that medicine had seen none of the benefits that President Bill Clinton had promised in announcing the first draft of the human-genome sequence in 2000. According to the article, geneticists were "almost back to square one in knowing where to look for the roots of common disease."

The New York Times judged the project too soon.

The cost of sequencing a human genome had fallen from about $100 million in 2001 to $30,000 when the article was written; today, it can be done for nearly $1,000. And the promise is coming true.

Hardly a week passes without the announcement of a major scientific breakthrough in genomics. The March 6 edition of The New England Journal of Medicine detailed how human cells can be genetically engineered to make them resistant to the virus that causes AIDS. A week earlier, the journal published a finding that analyzing fetal DNA in a pregnant woman's blood was a more accurate -- and less intrusive -- way of screening for Down syndrome and other chromosomal disorders than methods such as ultrasound imaging and blood tests.

Genome analysis is already being used to guide the treatment of cancers of the brain and the breast. Eric Green, director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, explains that cancer is essentially a genomic disease: "Instead of classifying cancers by the tissue where they are first detected -- colon, breast or brain, doctors are beginning to categorize cancer by its genomic characteristics and select treatments based on the signature of different mutations. This approach promises to treat patients with the most effective medicines while minimizing undesirable side effects, especially when chemotherapy is unlikely to help."

Green says that the end of the Human Genome Project was the starting point on the path to genomic medicine. He predicts that before long, doctors will tailor treatment for many diseases on the basis of an individual's genomic information.

The early triumphs are being seen with rare inherited diseases -- which together afflict more than 25 million Americans. Genomic strategies, driven by the plummeting cost of genome sequencing, have led to the identification of the genomic defects for more than 5,000 of the inherited diseases caused by mutations in a protein-encoding gene. An intense four-year, more than $400 million, research program, the Centers for Mendelian Genomics, is working to find the genomic cause of the remaining 2,000 to 4,000 rare genetic diseases.

We may be predisposed to certain diseases because of our genes, but it is not only genes that determine our health. It is also our lifestyle, habits and environment. These may cause genes to be switched on and off and even altered. There is also still a lot to be understood about what was once-called "junk DNA" -- which is now known to contain important control mechanisms over the bits we recognize as genes. And then there is the microbiome -- an ecosystem of microorganisms that live on and in the human body. So a lot more data are needed and much more research and analysis still needs to be done.

The good news is that other technologies are also rapidly progressing that will facilitate this. With the cost of genome sequencing dropping to affordable levels, genome data soon will be available for millions of people. Additionally, our smartphones are capturing information about our lifestyle and habits, location and activity levels. Wearable medical devices, which many companies are developing, will record vital signs such as temperature, blood oxygenation and heart rhythm. When you combine these data, you gain the ability to rapidly analyze the correlation between our genome, habits and disease -- exactly what is needed to develop individualized treatments for disease.

This is the same type of data analysis that is done of social media streams and shopping and online-browsing data by Silicon Valley start-ups and marketers.In other words, we human beings have become data and software -- and entrepreneurs can now do the work of pharmaceutical companies and medical research labs.

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Vivek Wadhwa: The triumph of genomic medicine is just beginning

Anti-psychotic drug could help treat brain cancer

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A gene-by-gene examination of cells from one of the deadliest forms of brain cancer may have uncovered a new treatment option.

Neurosurgeon Clark Chen and his colleagues at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine decided to use a form of genetic engineering in which individuals genes in a cell are, in effect, turned off to see what impact this has on the cell.

In this case, Chen and his teams were applying this gene-silencing technique on cells from glioblastoma, one of the most aggressive and hard-to-treat malignant brain tumors. They were trying to find which genes played a key role in helping the cancerous brain cells grow and survive.

After compiling their list of genetic suspects, the U.C. San Diego researchers made an interesting discovery: Many of the genes involved in glioblastoma growth help regulate the effect of the neurochemical dopamine, they reported recently online in the journal Oncotarget.

Chen and his team made their discovery by using shRNA in a molecular engineering technique known as RNA interference. Called short-hairpin RNA by some and small-hairpin RNA by others, shRNA can keep a gene from turning the genetic blueprint encoded in its DNA into a specific protein molecule. Scientists use viruses to insert the shRNA into a target gene and block its role in the production of the protein.

ShRNAs are invaluable tools in the study of what genes do. They function like molecular erasers, said Chen, the vice chairman of the division of neurosurgery at the U.C. San Diego School of Medicine. We can design these erasers against every gene in the human genome.

Because of the similarities in the lists of genes involved in glioblastoma growth and dopamine regulation, the researchers decided to see what effect dopamine antagonist drugs would have on the brain cancer cells. They discovered these drugs have significant anti-tumor effects on glioblastoma cells grown in laboratory dishes and in lab mice.

The anti-glioblastoma effects of these drugs are completely unexpected and were only uncovered because we carried out an unbiased genetic screen, said Chen.

In addition to psychosis, dopamine antagonists are used to treat other disorders, including anxiety-panic and Parkinsons disease and to control nausea and vomiting and already have a stamp of approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

First, these drugs are already FDA-cleared for human use in the treatment of other diseases, so it is possible these drugs may be re-purposed for glioblastoma treatment, thereby bypassing years of pre-clinical testing, said Bob Carter, chairman of the U.C. San Diego School of Medicine division of neurosurgery.

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hired to help New Smyrna Beach plan

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Published: Tuesday, March 18, 2014 at 4:57 p.m. Last Modified: Tuesday, March 18, 2014 at 6:36 p.m.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH Protecting the Indian River Lagoon, preserving land for public use, redeveloping U.S. 1 and managing growth on State Road 44 should be top priorities for city officials.

Thats according to surveys filled out by residents and visitors, feedback that will be used as part of a wide-ranging effort to craft a plan that charts the citys course for the next 25 years.

I know were over 500 in terms of surveys received, which is just awesome, City Manager Pam Brangaccio said Monday.

City officials are also seeking the publics help to steer the planning process during a day-long community forum from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at the Brannon Center, 105 S. Riverside Drive.

Rebecca Ryan, a nationally renowned futurist from Madison, Wis., will be the keynote speaker and lead the forum, in part talking about how national and international trends can impact the citys planning. The city is paying Ryan about $11,375, plus travel expenses, an amount approved by the City Commission in December as part of the total funding for Saturdays visioning event.

Those who attend will break into groups to discuss what steps need to be taken to address each of the citys biggest concerns, Brangaccio said. Several provocateurs, or experts on each topic, will help lead the discussions. They are: Mike Abels, a University of Central Florida instructor and former DeLand city manager, who will speak about neighborhood preservation; Ken Parker, retired Port Orange city manager, who will discuss State Road 44 development; Clay Henderson, an environmental attorney, will talk about the Indian River Lagoon; New Smyrna Beach Vice Mayor Jason McGuirk, who owns the Dairy Queen on North Dixie Freeway, will talk about redevelopment of the blighted corridor: Doug Weaver, former director of Volusia Countys Land Acquisition and Management Department, will discuss preservation and management of parks and open space, and Denise Mott, Team Volusias director of business development, will talk about economic development and job creation, said Holly Smith, the citys public information officer.

Registration begins at 8 a.m. For more information contact the citys Planning Department at 386-424-2132.

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hired to help New Smyrna Beach plan

In the age of wearable technology, don't forget who wears the trousers

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Computers are getting bigger and smaller at the same time, but Intel futurist Steve Brown says what's most important about wearable technology is the person doing the wearing.

CuteCircuit's latest fashion line reminds us that wearable technology doesn't have to sacrifice beauty.

From smartwatches to smart shoes, in the age of wearable technology computers are getting bigger and getting smaller at the same time -- but according to Intel future-gazer Steve Brown, the most important thing about a wearable device is the person doing the wearing.

"Anything can become a computer," says futurist Steve Brown speaking at the Wearable Technology Show in London. Gazing into his crystal ball, he sees three things happening in technology: "Computing is becoming smaller, computing is becoming bigger, and computing is becoming more natural."

How can computers get smaller and bigger at the same time? "Computers becoming smaller is the key thing," says Brown. As chips and computers shrink, "computers are getting closer to merging with us... computers are getting closer and closer to our brains."

At the same time, computers are getting bigger -- somewhere. Huge data centres that can crunch huge numbers can connect to Google Glass, Samsung Gear or any device we carry or wear, and "the experience you get is that you have one of these giant computers on your wrist, on your eyes, on your feet," says Brown.

Finally, our interaction with computers is becoming more natural. "For the first years of computing we have talked to computers in the way they need us to. But we're now in the era of touch, and we invented a whole new language to communicate with devices. We need to do that again for wearable devices."

Be your best self

But the success of wearables depends on more than just the technology. "The things that you wear say something about you," says Brown, highlighting the cultural meanings of spectacles or watches. "There are some things that wearables signify that are unintentional... What do you think when you see someone wearing a Bluetooth headset?"

Brown's advice to those developing wearable kit is to always think about the person doing the wearing. "Be bold," he advises. "Don't let engineers lead you. A device has to fit in with what is important to people... how do people use it? How does it help people be their best selves? They must help people be the best parent they can be, the best employee they can be, the best friend they can be.

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In the age of wearable technology, don't forget who wears the trousers