The Missing Link of Jewish European Ancestry: Contrasting the Rhineland and the Khazarian Hypotheses

The question of Jewish ancestry has been the subject of controversy for over two centuries and has yet to be resolved. The "Rhineland Hypothesis" proposes that Eastern European Jews emerged from a small group of German Jews who migrated eastward and expanded rapidly. Alternatively, the "Khazarian Hypothesis" suggests that Eastern European descended from Judean tribes who joined the Khazars, an amalgam of Turkic clans that settled the Caucasus in the early centuries CE and converted to Judaism in the 8th century. The Judaized Empire was continuously reinforced with Mesopotamian and Greco-Roman Jews until the 13th century. Following the collapse of their empire, the Judeo-Khazars fled to Eastern Europe. The rise of European Jewry is therefore explained by the contribution of the Judeo-Khazars. Thus far, however, their contribution has been estimated only empirically; the absence of genome-wide data from Caucasus populations precluded testing the Khazarian Hypothesis. Recent sequencing of modern Caucasus populations prompted us to revisit the Khazarian Hypothesis and compare it with the Rhineland Hypothesis. We applied a wide range of population genetic analyses - including principal component, biogeographical origin, admixture, identity by descent, allele sharing distance, and uniparental analyses - to compare these two hypotheses. Our findings support the Khazarian Hypothesis and portray the European Jewish genome as a mosaic of Caucasus, European, and Semitic ancestries, thereby consolidating previous contradictory reports of Jewish ancestry.Comment: 21 pages, 7 figures, 1 table, 7 supplementary figures, 7 supplementary table

Fotografía terapéutica y oncología. Los beneficios de la comunicación expresiva en pacientes crónicos

El propósito de esta investigación es indagar el potencial terapéutico de las imágenes en el estudio de un caso: un proyecto de Fotografía Terapéutica aplicado a la oncología. The purpose of this research is to investigate the therapeutic potential of images in the study of a case: a Therapeutic Photography project applied to oncology.O objetivo desta pesquisa é investigar o potencial terapêutico das imagens no estudo de um caso: um projeto de Fotografia Terapêutica aplicada à oncologia

Uniparental Genetic Heritage of Belarusians: Encounter of Rare Middle Eastern Matrilineages with a Central European Mitochondrial DNA Pool

Ethnic Belarusians make up more than 80% of the nine and half million people inhabiting the Republic of Belarus. Belarusians together with Ukrainians and Russians represent the East Slavic linguistic group, largest both in numbers and territory, inhabiting East Europe alongside Baltic-, Finno-Permic- and Turkic-speaking people. Till date, only a limited number of low resolution genetic studies have been performed on this population. Therefore, with the phylogeographic analysis of 565 Y-chromosomes and 267 mitochondrial DNAs from six well covered geographic sub-regions of Belarus we strove to complement the existing genetic profile of eastern Europeans. Our results reveal that around 80% of the paternal Belarusian gene pool is composed of R1a, I2a and N1c Y-chromosome haplogroups – a profile which is very similar to the two other eastern European populations – Ukrainians and Russians. The maternal Belarusian gene pool encompasses a full range of West Eurasian haplogroups and agrees well with the genetic structure of central-east European populations. Our data attest that latitudinal gradients characterize the variation of the uniparentally transmitted gene pools of modern Belarusians. In particular, the Y-chromosome reflects movements of people in central-east Europe, starting probably as early as the beginning of the Holocene. Furthermore, the matrilineal legacy of Belarusians retains two rare mitochondrial DNA haplogroups, N1a3 and N3, whose phylogeographies were explored in detail after de novo sequencing of 20 and 13 complete mitogenomes, respectively, from all over Eurasia. Our phylogeographic analyses reveal that two mitochondrial DNA lineages, N3 and N1a3, both of Middle Eastern origin, might mark distinct events of matrilineal gene flow to Europe: during the mid-Holocene period and around the Pleistocene-Holocene transition, respectively

The genetic history of admixture across inner Eurasia

Eurasian taiga and tundra - harbour tremendous diversity in their genes, cultures and languages. In this study, we report novel genome-wide data for 763 individuals from Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Mongolia, Russia, Tajikistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. We furthermore report additional damage-reduced genome-wide data of two previously published individuals from the Eneolithic Botai culture in Kazakhstan (~5,400 bp

Las tecnologías emergentes en la narrativa de una sobreviviente de la Shoá (holocausto)

Este trabajo se apoya en los testimonios en primera persona. Particularmente de una mujer, Lea Zajac, sobreviviente de la Shoá (holocausto). This work is based on first-person testimonies, particularly those of one woman, Lea Zajac, a Holocaust survivor.Este trabalho baseia-se em depoimentos em primeira pessoa, particularmente os de uma mulher, Lea Zajac, sobrevivente do Holocausto

The GenoChip: A New Tool for Genetic Anthropology

The Genographic Project is an international effort aimed at charting human migratory history. The project is nonprofit and nonmedical, and, through its Legacy Fund, supports locally led efforts to preserve indigenous and traditional cultures. Although the first phase of the project was focused on uniparentally inherited markers on the Y-chromosome and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), the current phase focuses on markers from across the entire genome to obtain a more complete understanding of human genetic variation. Although many commercial arrays exist for genome-wide single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping, they were designed for medical genetic studies and contain medically related markers that are inappropriate for global population genetic studies. GenoChip, the Genographic Project’s new genotyping array, was designed to resolve these issues and enable higher resolution research into outstanding questions in genetic anthropology. The GenoChip includes ancestry informative markers obtained for over 450 human populations, an ancient human (Saqqaq), and two archaic hominins (Neanderthal and Denisovan) and was designed to identify all known Y-chromosome and mtDNA haplogroups. The chip was carefully vetted to avoid inclusion of medically relevant markers. To demonstrate its capabilities, we compared the FST distributions of GenoChip SNPs to those of two commercial arrays. Although all arrays yielded similarly shaped (inverse J) FST distributions, the GenoChip autosomal and X-chromosomal distributions had the highest mean FST, attesting to its ability to discern subpopulations. The chip performances are illustrated in a principal component analysis for 14 worldwide populations. In summary, the GenoChip is a dedicated genotyping platform for genetic anthropology. With an unprecedented number of approximately 12,000 Y-chromosomal and approximately 3,300 mtDNA SNPs and over 130,000 autosomal and X-chromosomal SNPs without any known health, medical, or phenotypic relevance, the GenoChip is a useful tool for genetic anthropology and population genetics

El camino de la Heroína: Imágenes y narrativas en las veteranas de Malvinas

This essay attempts to deepen into some insights related to the narratives that were woven around the images that document women’s participation in the Malvinas War.Este ensayo intenta profundizar algunas las miradas relacionadas a narrativas tejidas en torno a imágenes, que documentan la participación de las mujeres en la Guerra de Malvinas.Este ensaio procura aprofundar alguns pontos de vista relacionados com as narrativas que foram tecidas em torno das imagens que documentam a participação das mulheres na Guerra das Malvinas

Fotoperiodismo en el siglo de los smartphones

Este trabajo intenta describir un fenómeno comunicativo que emerge a partir de la irrupción de los teléfonos inteligentes en la vida cotidiana. Los dispositivos móviles son utilizados como un medio de comunicación al alcance de la mano de cualquier persona.&nbsp

A társadalmak környezeti sebezhetősége, ellenálló- és alkalmazkodó képessége:a korai történelmi példáktól a sérülékenység globalizációjáig (Environmental vulnerability, resilience and adaptation capacities of societies: their historical examples and globalization)

Detailed phylogenetic tree of the haplogroup Q3-L275. 47 Q3-L275 samples and 1 Q1a-M346 outgroup. Constructed with the Phylomurka software using MP criteria, from the alignment obtained with read depth > = 2, base quality > = 15 and mapping quality > = 10, call rate = 60%. (XLSX 279 kb