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Daily Archives: March 19, 2015

The first fine-scale genetic map of the British Isles

Wellcome Trust news release – “Many people in the UK feel a strong sense of regional identity, and it now appears that there may be a scientific basis to this feeling, according to a landmark new study into the genetic makeup of the British Isles. An international team, led by researchers from the University of OxfordUCL (University College London) and the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute in Australia, used DNA samples collected from more than 2,000 people to create the first fine-scale genetic map of any country in the world. Their findings, published in Nature, show that prior to the mass migrations of the 20th century there was a striking pattern of rich but subtle genetic variation across the UK, with distinct groups of genetically similar individuals clustered together geographically. By comparing this information with DNA samples from over 6,000 Europeans, the team was also able to identify clear traces of the population movements into the UK over the past 10,000 years. Their work confirmed, and in many cases shed further light on, known historical migration patterns.
Key findings

  • There was not a single “Celtic” genetic group. In fact the Celtic parts of the UK (Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and Cornwall) are among the most different from each other genetically. For example, the Cornish are much more similar genetically to other English groups than they are to the Welsh or the Scots.
  • There are separate genetic groups in Cornwall and Devon, with a division almost exactly along the modern county boundary.
  • The majority of eastern, central and southern England is made up of a single, relatively homogeneous, genetic group with a significant DNA contribution from Anglo-Saxon migrations (10-40% of total ancestry). This settles a historical controversy in showing that the Anglo-Saxons intermarried with, rather than replaced, the existing populations.
  • The population in Orkney emerged as the most genetically distinct, with 25% of DNA coming from Norwegian ancestors. This shows clearly that the Norse Viking invasion (9th century) did not simply replace the indigenous Orkney population.
  • The Welsh appear more similar to the earliest settlers of Britain after the last ice age than do other people in the UK.
  • There is no obvious genetic signature of the Danish Vikings, who controlled large parts of England (“The Danelaw”) from the 9th century.
  • There is genetic evidence of the effect of the Landsker line – the boundary between English-speaking people in south-west Pembrokeshire (sometimes known as “Little England beyond Wales”) and the Welsh speakers in the rest of Wales, which persisted for almost a millennium.
  • The analyses suggest there was a substantial migration across the channel after the original post-ice-age settlers, but before Roman times. DNA from these migrants spread across England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, but had little impact in Wales.
  • Many of the genetic clusters show similar locations to the tribal groupings and kingdoms around the end of the 6th century, after the settlement of the Anglo-Saxons, suggesting these tribes and kingdoms may have maintained a regional identity for many centuries.”
  • Citation – UK mapped out by genetic ancestry. Finest-scale DNA survey of any country reveals historical migrations by Ewen Callaway, Corrected: .”

BIS Quarterly Review, March 2015

BIS Quarterly Review March 2015 International banking and financial market developments [268 pages, PDF] – Table of Contents follows: A wave of further easing – Largely unexpected, a wave of monetary policy easing over the past few months has taken centre stage in global financial markets. Amid plunging oil prices and rising foreign exchange tensions,… Continue Reading

EPIC Files Comments with FTC on Merger Review and Consumer Privacy

“EPIC, along with 26 technical experts and legal scholars, has submitted extensive comments for the FTC’s review of the merger remedy process. EPIC urged the Commission to consider the privacy risks to consumers that result from the merger of big data firms. The comments detailed EPIC’s efforts, over 15 years, to warn the FTC about… Continue Reading

Consumer Watchdog Cites Shortcomings In Driverless Car Technology

“Consumer Watchdog today warned the California Department of Motor Vehicles that it must not allow Google and others with a vested interest in developing driverless vehicles to push the DMV into issuing rules regulating the public use of robot cars on highways that are inadequate to protect public safety. “Most importantly, a driverless vehicle must… Continue Reading

Google researchers – FaceNet: A Unified Embedding for Face Recognition and Clustering

Florian Schroff, Google Inc.; Dmitry Kalenichenko, Google Inc.; James Philbin, Google Inc. FaceNet: A Unified Embedding for Face Recognition and Clustering. “Despite significant recent advances in the field of face recognition implementing face verification and recognition efficiently at scale presents serious challenges to current approaches. In this paper we present a system, called FaceNet, that… Continue Reading

Commentary and document release – CIA declassifies document used to support Iraq invasion

Article by Jason Leopold – March 19, 2015: “Thirteen years ago, the intelligence community concluded in a 93-page classified document used to justify the invasion of Iraq that it lacked “specific information” on “many key aspects” of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programs. But that’s not what top Bush administration officials said during their campaign to… Continue Reading

New GAO Reports – DOE Facilities, Financial Company Bankruptcies, Geospatial Data, IRS Info Security, Military Personnel

DOE Facilities: Better Prioritization and Life Cycle Cost Analysis Would Improve Disposition Planning, GAO-15-272: Published: Mar 19, 2015. Publicly Released: Mar 19, 2015. Financial Company Bankruptcies: Information on Legislative Proposals and International Coordination, GAO-15-299: Published: Mar 19, 2015. Publicly Released: Mar 19, 2015. Geospatial Data: Progress Needed on Identifying Expenditures, Building and Utilizing a Data… Continue Reading

NOAA Global Climate Data – February 2015

“February 2015 second warmest February on record; December–February warmest on record February Arctic sea ice extent third smallest on record. The globally averaged temperature over land and ocean surfaces for February 2015 was the second highest since record keeping began in 1880. Both the year-to-date (January–February) and seasonal (December–February) globally averaged temperatures were record high.”… Continue Reading