Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Journalism in the Age of Data

A través del seu vídeo reportatge Journalism in the Age of Data, Geoff McGhee, periodista en línia especialitzat en multimèdia, explica la importància que la comunicació sàpiga fusionar eficaçment les narratives tradicionals amb la pantalla, assimilant els avenços tecnològics en matèria de multimèdia. Per això en el seu treball, que data de l'any 2010, entrevista a diferents professionals de mitjans de comunicació com The New York Times o BBC News Online i empreses com Google o IBM, entre altres.A través de su vídeo-reportaje Journalism in the Age of Data, Geoff McGhee, periodista on-line especializado en multimedia, explica la importancia de que la comunicación sepa fusionar eficazmente las narrativas tradicionales con la pantalla, asimilando los avances tecnológicos en materia de multimedia. Para ello en su trabajo, que data del año 2010, entrevista a diferentes profesionales de medios de comunicación como The New York Times o BBC News Online y empresas como Google o IBM, entre otras.Through its video Journalism in the Age of Data, Geoff McGhee, a journalist specializing in online media, explains the importance of effective communication merging traditional narratives into the screen, assimilating technological advances in multimedia . To do this in his report, dating from 2010, interviews different media professionals from The New York Times and BBC News Online, and companies like Google and IBM, among others

Journalism in the Age of Data

A través del seu vídeo reportatge Journalism in the Age of Data, Geoff McGhee, periodista en línia especialitzat en multimèdia, explica la importància que la comunicació sàpiga fusionar eficaçment les narratives tradicionals amb la pantalla, assimilant els avenços tecnològics en matèria de multimèdia. Per això en el seu treball, que data de l'any 2010, entrevista a diferents professionals de mitjans de comunicació com The New York Times o BBC News Online i empreses com Google o IBM, entre altres.A través de su vídeo-reportaje Journalism in the Age of Data, Geoff McGhee, periodista on-line especializado en multimedia, explica la importancia de que la comunicación sepa fusionar eficazmente las narrativas tradicionales con la pantalla, asimilando los avances tecnológicos en materia de multimedia. Para ello en su trabajo, que data del año 2010, entrevista a diferentes profesionales de medios de comunicación como The New York Times o BBC News Online y empresas como Google o IBM, entre otras.Through its video Journalism in the Age of Data, Geoff McGhee, a journalist specializing in online media, explains the importance of effective communication merging traditional narratives into the screen, assimilating technological advances in multimedia . To do this in his report, dating from 2010, interviews different media professionals from The New York Times and BBC News Online, and companies like Google and IBM, among others

Mapping Texts

Paper on mapping texts and combining text-mining and geo-visualization to unlock the research potential of historical newspapers

Mapping Historical Texts: Combining Text-mining & Geo-visualization to Unlock the Research Potential of Historical Newspapers

The digital age is overwhelming most scholars with far more information than they can process through traditional means. If scholars are going to make sense of millions of digitized historical newspapers they need more effective tools for uncovering meaningful patterns than a basic word search can provide. What scholars need are more sophisticated methods for (1) identifying meaningful patterns embedded in large-scale digital datasets and (2) tools for visualizing those patterns so they can be understood. This project will combine the two best methods for such work: text-mining and geo-visualization. We will mine digitized historical newspapers for language patterns scattered across millions of words, and then map that information as it moved across time and space. The result will be a series of working models demonstrating how humanities scholars can both extract meaningful patterns from otherwise overwhelming datasets and then make sense of those patterns by visualizing them

School de-segregation and the Politics of ‘Forced Integration’

Using the programme for creating the controversial school academies, local governments in the UK have attempted to force an integration of schools with majority white and ethnic minority pupil cohorts via new mergers. This has largely been as a response to analysts’ fears about self-segregation and insufficient community cohesion, following riots in northern towns in 2001 and the spectre of radicalisation among young Muslims following 9/11 and 7/7. An examination of school mergers in Burnley, Blackburn, Leeds and Oldham reveals how they have amplified racial attacks on Muslim pupils and their feelings of insecurity, while also fuelling a backlash against what is perceived by some members of the white working class as a form of social engineering that endangers white privilege

Common Ancestry and Novel Genetic Traits of Francisella novicida-Like Isolates from North America and Australia as Revealed by Comparative Genomic Analyses▿†

Francisella novicida is a close relative of Francisella tularensis, the causative agent of tularemia. The genomes of F. novicida-like clinical isolates 3523 (Australian strain) and Fx1 (Texas strain) were sequenced and compared to F. novicida strain U112 and F. tularensis strain Schu S4. The strain 3523 chromosome is 1,945,310 bp and contains 1,854 protein-coding genes. The strain Fx1 chromosome is 1,913,619 bp and contains 1,819 protein-coding genes. NUCmer analyses revealed that the genomes of strains Fx1 and U112 are mostly colinear, whereas the genome of strain 3523 has gaps, translocations, and/or inversions compared to genomes of strains Fx1 and U112. Using the genome sequence data and comparative analyses with other members of the genus Francisella, several strain-specific genes that encode putative proteins involved in RTX toxin production, polysaccharide biosynthesis/modification, thiamine biosynthesis, glucuronate utilization, and polyamine biosynthesis were identified. The RTX toxin synthesis and secretion operon of strain 3523 contains four open reading frames (ORFs) and was named rtxCABD. Based on the alignment of conserved sequences upstream of operons involved in thiamine biosynthesis from various bacteria, a putative THI box was identified in strain 3523. The glucuronate catabolism loci of strains 3523 and Fx1 contain a cluster of nine ORFs oriented in the same direction that appear to constitute an operon. Strains U112 and Schu S4 appeared to have lost the loci for RTX toxin production, thiamine biosynthesis, and glucuronate utilization as a consequence of host adaptation and reductive evolution. In conclusion, comparative analyses provided insights into the common ancestry and novel genetic traits of these strains