Cayman Islands authorities searching for Canadian missing from cruise ship

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David McFadden, The Associated Press Published Tuesday, December 31, 2013 8:20PM EST

PORT-OF-SPAIN -- Cayman Islands authorities were searching waters off the British Caribbean territory's main island on Tuesday for a Canadian passenger who has gone missing from one of the world's biggest cruise ships.

The Royal Cayman Islands Police Force said a 65-year-old cruise line passenger from Canada was reported missing Tuesday morning by his wife before the Royal Caribbean Cruises ship docked at Grand Cayman's port. His name and hometown were not immediately disclosed.

A search of the 15-deck Independence of the Seas and closed-circuit camera footage has turned up nothing so far. Marine search operations were also conducted until evening without success, according to police.

The man is the second passenger to go missing from a Royal Caribbean ship in the last few days. On Saturday, another Canadian man, 26-year-old Tien Phuoc Nguyen, leapt from the company's Adventures of the Seas off a remote Puerto Rican island on the final night of a weeklong Caribbean cruise with his family, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. Rescuers ended their search for him on Monday.

The missing 65-year-old Canadian was last seen entering his room on the Independence of the Seas cruise liner just before midnight, according to Tracy Quan, a spokeswoman for Miami-based Royal Caribbean.

She said a team is providing support to the man's family, saying "our thoughts and prayers are with them."

According to police, the man's wife said they went to bed at about 1 a.m. Tuesday but when she awoke some seven hours later he was gone.

"She searched for him and when she did not find him she made the report of her husband missing," Chief Inspector Patrick Beersingh said in a statement.

The ship dropped anchor at Grand Cayman at 7:40 a.m., about 15 minutes before police say he was reported missing by his wife.

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Cayman Islands authorities searching for Canadian missing from cruise ship

Cheaper Genetic Tests for Breast Cancer Risks in 2014?

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Following the Supreme Courts rejection of gene patents, the U.S. proposes steep cuts to reimbursements for breast cancer-gene tests.

That natural human genes cannot be patented was one of the biggest biotechnology stories of 2013 and the effects of that Supreme Court decision are already threatening defendant Myriad Genetics.

The Salt Lake City-based molecular diagnostic company lost the ability to patent DNA sequences of genes known as BRCA1 and BRCA2, which are associated with the risk of developing breast and ovarian cancers (see U.S. Supreme Court Says Natural Human Genes May Not Be Patented). Hours after that decision was announced, other molecular-diagnostics companies announced that they would offer similar tests at a lower cost than Myriads test.

And now, the federal governments Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, is proposing to lower the amount of money it pays for the tests. The new rate is approximately half of what the agency has previously reimbursed, according to GenomeWeb. The announcement was followed by analyst downgrades on Myriad stock.

CMS directly points to the Supreme Court decision in its announcement and notes that labs charge anywhere from $900 to $2,900 for the test. The new proposed reimbursement amount is $1,438. The proposal will likely lead to lower costs for BRCA testing even when private insurance companies are paying for it, as these companies usually base their rates on those of Medicare, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Myriad is likely to be hardest hit by such price drops because 85 percent of the companys revenue comes from BRCA testing, says the WSJ.

Is this a good deal for patients? With cheaper options available, its reasonable to think that more patients will have access to this testing. But as Robert Nussbaum wrote for MIT Technology Review, Myriad still has an unparalleled record of the natural variation in these important genes. Myriads competitors may offer more affordable tests, but they dont have access Myriads private database linking DNA variations to disease outcomes, a wealth of information the company built up over the years it monopolized BRCA testing. Thats why Nussbaum and colleagues are asking doctors to contribute such vital data for a free, public database that would help doctors interpret the potential effects of a patients BRCA sequences on their cancer risks.

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Cheaper Genetic Tests for Breast Cancer Risks in 2014?

Dr Russel Blaylock has the Truth about Obamacare – Health Care Reform Facts – Video

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Dr Russel Blaylock has the Truth about Obamacare - Health Care Reform Facts
http://merchantpro.findinfoworld.com/obamacarefacts Retired neurosurgeon, author, lecturer and educator Dr. Russell Blaylock details the truth about Obamacar...

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Dr Russel Blaylock has the Truth about Obamacare - Health Care Reform Facts - Video

President Obama’s tarnished health care law at a crossroads

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WASHINGTON All things good, bad and unpredictable converge with the new year for President Barack Obamas health care overhaul as the laws major benefits take effect, along with an unpopular insurance mandate and a risk of more nerve-wracking disruptions to coverage.

The changes bring big improvements for some, including Howard Kraft of Lincolnton, N.C. A painful spinal problem left him unable to work as a hotel bellman. But hes got coverage because federal law now forbids insurers from turning away people with health problems.

I am not one of these people getting a policy because Im being made to, Kraft said. I need one to stay alive.

Whats good for millions like Kraft is secured through what others see as an imposition: requiring virtually every American to get covered, either through an employer, a government program, or by buying a plan directly.

But the health care headlines early this year could come from continued unpredictable consequences of the insurance programs messy rollout.

The consumer-facing side of the HealthCare.gov website appears to be largely fixed with 2.1 million enrolled through federal and state websites. But on the back end, insurers say they are still receiving thousands of erroneous sign-ups from the government.

That means early in the year insured patients could go for a medication refill or turn up in the emergency room only to be told there is no record of their coverage.

One of the main worries is over certain error-tainted enrollment records that insurers call orphans and ghosts.

Orphans are sign-ups that the government has a record of, but they do not appear in insurer systems. Insurers say those customers never left the governments orphanage to go and live with the carrier they selected.

Ghosts are new customers that the insurer does have a record of, but mysteriously the information does not appear in the governments computers.

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Genetic brain development ‘peaks before birth and in adolescence’

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Genetic expression behind the development of our brains is most active before birth, in the early months of pregnancy, and during our teenage years, scientists have found.

There is a quieter intervening "movement" in the three-part "symphony" of human brain development, but one that is more sensitive to environmental factors, say the researchers publishing in the journal Neuron.

The initial surge of brain-developing genetic expression takes place during the first two-thirds of our gestation in the uterus, says the team led from the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, CT.

The middle intermission then lasts from the final trimester of pregnancy until adolescence, at which point the genetic activity surges again for the final phase of our brain's development.

These two most active spurts relevant to human brain power, found to sandwich the childhood years, involve the development of the cerebral neocortex:

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Genetic brain development 'peaks before birth and in adolescence'

Rare disease biotech picks up $8M, drug development partner for DNA-based therapies

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Amid somewhat of a renaissance in drug development for orphan diseases, another gene therapy company announced funding today for a potential treatment for a rare neurodegenerative condition called Friedreichs ataxia (FRDA).

Agilis Biotherapeutics said its raised $8 million and will work with synthetic biology company Intrexon Corp. to develop gene therapies and genetically modified cell therapies for FRDA. Whereas current treatments focus on minimizing symptoms of the disease, the partners expect their drugs to be able to target the underlying disease mechanisms.

FRDA is caused by a genetic defect that results in limited production of frataxin, a protein thought to help assemble clusters of iron and sulfur molecules in cells that are necessary for the function of many other proteins. When cells are deficient of frataxin, they may not function properly, causing damage to the nervous system and problems with movement. Most people with the disease become wheelchair-bound within two decades of diagnosis, and many die early due to weakened heart muscles.

The goal for Agilis and Intrexon is to use Intrexons gene switch technology to develop drugs that will repair the defective gene and enable increased production of the frataxin protein. Under the options of the deal, Agilis and Intrexon could add another rare genetic disease to the collaboration.

Ahead of the pair in developing new treatments for the rare disease are ViroPharma, which is in Phase 1 development of a small molecule drug for FA, and Edison Phamaceuticals, which is conducting a Phase 2 study of its drug.

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[video] Ford Futurist: Consumers Seek a Better Balance with Technology in 2014

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The video this transcript is based on appeared on December 31.

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Ford Motor Company (F) futurist Sheryl Connelly discusses the top trends expected to take shape in 2014 and how they will affect what consumers will want to buy in the coming year and beyond.

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:

Brittany Umar: What will be the biggest consumer trends in 2014? I'm here with Sheryl Connelly, Futurist for Ford Motor Company, and Sheryl, put simply, your job is to stay on top of these trends and analyze and predict what consumers will be wanting to buy next year. So what is it specifically that you look at to determine that?

Sheryl Connelly: Most people don't realize it takes three years to bring a vehicle to market. So even if we have the most innovative ideas today by the time the rubber hits the road it might be a little flat. So we look at social, technological, economic, environmental, and political arenas to try to understand was gonna shake consumer values.

Brittany Umar: So what have you found to be the top global trend for consumers in 2014?

Sheryl Connelly: One of the things we talk about in our publication for 2014 is a quiet riot of innovation. Well we've almost become immune to how advanced and rapid technology innovates and we have these dramatic disruptions that we're almost immune to. Consider for a moment that the iPad has been on the market for about four years and is already widespread throughout elementary schools. So these changes happen and they go unnoticed for the most part.

Brittany Umar: So how do you expect that to come into play and actually affect consumers' purchasing next year?

Sheryl Connelly: Well that's a double-edged sword because everyone's really excited about the new exciting thing that's out there, but we also know because innovation moves so quickly, prices drop correspondingly. So sometimes people get into a waiting game that's a 'I want that but I'm going to wait for price to drop." When the price is finally affordable, something new catches their eye and they say, "maybe I'll wait a little longer for that price to drop." And so there's this weighing of value versus innovation.

Brittany Umar: Thank you so much Sheryl Connelly. I'm Brittany Umar for TheStreet.

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Ford Futurist: Consumers Seek a Better Balance with Technology in 2014

Project Mercury: Freedom Seven – 1961 National Aeronautics and Space Administration Documentary – Video

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Project Mercury: Freedom Seven - 1961 National Aeronautics and Space Administration Documentary
This NASA film was produced in 1961 and depicts the early stages of Project Mercury, with a focus on Astronaut Alan Shepard and his role in becoming the firs...

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