May 20, 2013 ? Genomic analyses suggest that patterns of genetic diversity which indicate population movement may not be as ancient as previously believed, but may be attributable to recent events. This study published in BioMed Central's open access journal Investigative Genetics, based in the Netherlands, is able to genetically characterize geographically separated subpopulations within the country and map them to population movement within the last 2000 years.
Looking at more than 400,000 SNPs (genetic variations) of almost 1000 people across the Netherlands, this study found that the genomic diversity across the Netherlands follows a southeast to northwest gradient and that the Dutch population could be separated out genetically into four geographic groups (south, north, central-west and central-north).
These results could be explained by invoking movement of ancient, Paleolithic-Neolithic humans, similar to that proposed to explain the genetic diversity across central entire Europe. However the data also fits a model involving movement of people within the last 70 generations of modern Dutch, for which there is a wealth of archaeological evidence.
Prof Manfred Kayser from the Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam, who led the study, commented, "Because of the overwhelming geological and archaeological records for strong genetic discontinuities we explain our findings by recent rather than ancient events in Dutch population history. Our results not only are of epidemiological and forensic relevance but additionally highlight that future population history studies need to take into account recent demography before assuming all genetic variation observed is due to ancient events."
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by BioMed Central Limited.
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Journal Reference:
Oscar Lao, Eveline Altena, Christian Becker, Silke Brauer, Thirsa Kraaijenbrink, Mannis van Oven, Peter N?rnberg, Peter de Knijff, Manfred Kayser. Clinal distribution of human genomic diversity across the Netherlands despite archaeological evidence for genetic discontinuities in Dutch population history. Investigative Genetics, 2013; 4 (1): 9 DOI: 10.1186/2041-2223-4-9
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) ? The Republican National Committee chairman and a leading conservative, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, urged caution Monday for Republican critics calling for President Barack Obama's impeachment, but would not rule out impeachment altogether as new details emerged about the White House's role in the developing scandal at the Internal Revenue Service.
"There's a few chapters before we get to the last one. So it's up to us to connect the dots first," RNC chairman Reince Priebus told reporters when asked about impeachment ahead of a New Hampshire GOP fundraiser.
Some conservatives have compared recent IRS wrongdoing to the Watergate scandal, and Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., last week raised the prospect of impeachment.
"There isn't a weekend that hasn't gone by that someone says to me, 'Michele, what in the world are you all waiting for in Congress? Why aren't you impeaching the president? He's been making unconstitutional actions since he came into office,'" Bachmann said during a Washington news conference with tea party leaders.
Paul, a tea party favorite who is considering a 2016 presidential bid, said such rhetoric is premature.
"We need to figure out the truth of what happened before we go anywhere else," Paul said, standing at Priebus' side.
The Internal Revenue Service has acknowledged inappropriate scrutiny of tea party groups applying for tax-exempt status ahead of the last election.
White House chief of staff Denis McDonough and other senior presidential advisers knew in late April that an upcoming report was likely to find that IRS employees had targeted conservative political groups. The White House said McDonough and the other advisers did not tell Obama about the impending report, leaving him to learn the results from news reports later.
The issue has given conservatives a new rallying cry following a disappointing 2012 election cycle. But some GOP leaders worry their criticism could backfire if it appears their attacks appear too politically motived.
While striking a moderate tone on impeachment, Paul said Monday that it "stretches credulity" to think no one else in the Obama administration knew about the misconduct.
"For goodness sake, somebody's got to be fired, if not go to prison," he said in an evening speech to roughly 500 New Hampshire Republicans gathered in the state capital.
Priebus blamed Obama for creating a culture of political "guerrilla warfare" that allowed politics to infiltrate the IRS.
"I think this is just the beginning. It's certainly not the end," Priebus said. "And I'm sure there's going to be a lot more to it. We'll see how far it goes. We'll see how high it goes, too."
Today is Sunday, May 19, the 139th day of 2013. There are 226 days left in the year.
Today's Highlights in History:
On May 19, 1943, in his second wartime address to the U.S. Congress, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill pledged his country's full support in the fight against Japan. That same day, top U.S. and British officials meeting in Washington reached agreement on May 1, 1944 as the date for the D-Day invasion of France (the operation ended up being launched more than a month later).
On this date:
In 1536, Anne Boleyn, the second wife of England's King Henry VIII, was beheaded after being convicted of adultery.
In 1780, a mysterious darkness enveloped much of New England and part of Canada in the early afternoon.
In 1909, the Ballets Russes (Russian Ballets), under the direction of Sergei Diaghilev, debuted in Paris.
In 1913, California Gov. Hiram Johnson signed the Webb-Hartley Law prohibiting "aliens ineligible to citizenship" from owning farm land, a measure targeting Asian immigrants, particularly Japanese.
In 1921, Congress passed, and President Warren G. Harding signed, the Emergency Quota Act, which established national quotas for immigrants.
In 1935, T.E. Lawrence, also known as "Lawrence of Arabia," died in Dorset, England, six days after being injured in a motorcycle crash.
In 1962, actress Marilyn Monroe sang "Happy Birthday to You" to President John F. Kennedy during a Democratic fundraiser at New York's Madison Square Garden.
In 1964, the State Department disclosed that 40 hidden microphones had been found in the U.S. embassy in Moscow.
In 1973, Secretariat won the Preakness Stakes, the second of his Triple Crown victories.
In 1981, five British soldiers were killed by an Irish Republican Army landmine in County Armagh, Northern Ireland.
In 1993, the Clinton White House set off a political storm by abruptly firing the entire staff of its travel office; five of the seven staffers were later reinstated and assigned to other duties.
In 1994, former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis died in New York at age 64.
Ten years ago: WorldCom Inc. agreed to pay investors $500 million to settle civil fraud charges. The Supreme Court dealt a defeat to the drug industry, ruling 6-3 that a state (in this case, Maine) may try to force companies to lower prices on prescription medications for the poor and uninsured. A Palestinian woman blew herself up during a security check outside a mall, killing three Israelis in the fifth suicide bombing in 48 hours.
Five years ago: Chinese stood still and sirens wailed to mourn the country's nearly 70,000 earthquake victims. Democrat Barack Obama picked up the endorsement of Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia, less than a week after Hillary Rodham Clinton overwhelmingly won the state's primary. Jon Lester of the Boston Red Sox shut down Kansas City 7-0 for the first no-hitter of the season.
One year ago: President Barack Obama and other G-8 leaders held economic talks at Camp David, where they declared that their governments needed to both spark growth and cut debt. Chen Guangcheng (chehn gwahng-chung), a blind Chinese legal activist, was hurriedly taken from a hospital and put on a plane for the United States, closing a nearly monthlong diplomatic tussle that had tested U.S.-China relations. I'll Have Another overtook Bodemeister down the stretch to win the Preakness, two weeks after claiming the Kentucky Derby. (However, a tendon injury forced I'll Have Another into retirement on the eve of the Belmont Stakes.)
Today's Birthdays: PBS newscaster Jim Lehrer is 79. TV personality David Hartman is 78. Actor James Fox is 74. Actress Nancy Kwan is 74. Actor Peter Mayhew is 69. Rock singer-composer Pete Townshend (The Who) is 68. Concert pianist David Helfgott is 66. Rock singer-musician Dusty Hill (ZZ Top) is 64. Singer-actress Grace Jones is 61. Rock musician Phil Rudd (AC-DC) is 59. Actor Steven Ford is 57. Rock musician Iain Harvie (Del Amitri) is 51. Actress Polly Walker is 47. Actor Jason Gray-Stanford is 43. Rock singer Jenny Berggren (Ace of Base) is 41. Country/rock singer Shooter Jennings is 34. Actor Drew Fuller is 33. Christian rock musician Tim McTague is 30. Rock musician James Richardson (MGMT) is 30. Actor Eric Lloyd is 27.
Thought for Today: "We are torn between nostalgia for the familiar and an urge for the foreign and strange. As often as not, we are homesick most for the places we have never known." ? Carson McCullers, American author (1917-1967).
(Above Advance for Use Sunday, May 19)
Copyright 2013, The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Three days just isn't enough to absorb all the info from Google I/O. In fact, it's physically impossible to get to every session, be it due to overlaps, overcrowding (only so many seats) or overexhaustion. It's a good problem to have, though, and Google handles it quite well.
In case you've been living under a rock, in addition to streaming a number of the key sessions live, Google also records them, so you can watch at your leisure. And that's what I've been doing since returning home from San Francisco, the better to get a grasp on all the new features and services announced. And if you've never seen one of these developer sessions before, you might be surprised just how entertaining and engaging they can be. This was my fourth Google I/O, and it still catches me a little off guard.
Another surprise this year was the keynote address. Consolidated into a single address this year (as opposed keynotes the first two days at previous events), it went a whopping 3.5 hours. (Longer if you could the time spent waiting in line.) And it was time well-spent. There was so much information crammed into our brains in far less time than it took many of us to even get to San Francisco. But between all the new Google Play services, and the new Google Maps, and the improved Google+, and the Google Play game services -- and that's just the major Android stuff -- I could have gone another hour, easy.
There's not a lot I can say about Larry Page's appearance -- his first such speech at Google I/O in the years I've attended -- that you can't get from watching the recording. (And I recommend you do.) But I will say this: I've always believed a good CEO should overreach a little. The more Apple-friendly pundits love to poke fun at some of the things Eric Schmidt has said over the years, and perhaps rightfully so. There's certainly a fine line between cheerleading, inspiring and downright crazy talk. And occasionally crossing that line opens you up to jokes and criticism, but I love the sort of head-first-into-the-wall mentality. It's what makes Google Google, it's what gets things done, and it's what moves us forward.
A Syrian supporting the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad, holds a placard with his picture and the national flag as he participates in a protest outside the US Embassy in central London, Saturday, May 18, 2013. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)
A Syrian supporting the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad, holds a placard with his picture and the national flag as he participates in a protest outside the US Embassy in central London, Saturday, May 18, 2013. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)
AMMAN, Jordan (AP) ? The Syrian military on Sunday launched an offensive to retake a strategic rebel-held town near the Lebanese border, a government official said, as activists reported that regime airstrikes and shelling of the town have killed at least 16 people, including opposition fighters.
The western Syrian town of Qusair, home to about 20,000 residents, has been besieged for weeks by government troops. According to opposition activists, members of the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group were fighting alongside President Bashar Assad's forces in the area. Hezbollah has been a staunch Assad ally throughout Syria's conflict.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 16 people, including rebel fighters, were killed before noon in Qusair but that the death toll was expected to rise as fierce fighting is underway and the military's operation intensifies.
Speaking over the telephone, a government official in Qusair said government forces have encircled the town, beefing up three offensive positions around it while leaving one "safe passage for fleeing civilians and the armed terrorists who want to surrender."
"The offensive to liberate Qusair has begun," the official told The Associated Press. He would not elaborate further, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
Officials in Damascus were not immediately reachable for comment on the offensive. Assad's government and loyalists deny there is a civil war in the country but blame the conflict on "terrorists" ? a term they use for rebel fighters ? backed by a foreign conspiracy.
Qusair, close to the border with Lebanon and 164 kilometers (102 miles) northwest of the Syrian capital, is strategically important because it also links Damascus with Syria's Western coast, where regime loyalists are concentrated. This includes Alawites, followers of a Shiite offshoot to which the Assad family belongs. The rebellion against Assad is largely driven by Syria's majority Sunnis.
The push on Qusair may be an attempt by the regime to regain as much ground as possible before agreeing to any negotiations with the opposition in the wake of a recent U.S-Russian effort to get Assad and his opponents to negotiate an end to the country's civil war. Previous attempts to solve the conflict peacefully have failed.
The U.S.-Russian plan, similar to one set out last year in Geneva, calls for talks on a transition government and an open-ended cease-fire.
More than 70,000 people have been killed and several million displaced since the uprising against Assad erupted in March 2011 and escalated into a civil war.
On Saturday, Assad said in a newspaper interview that he won't step down before elections and that the United States has no right to interfere in his country's politics.
Assad's comments to the Argentine newspaper Clarin were the first about his political future since Washington and Moscow agreed earlier this month to try to bring the regime and the opposition to an international conference for talks about a peaceful resolution to the conflict. The U.S. and Russia have backed opposite sides in the conflict, but appear to have found common ground in the diplomatic push.
The White House and the Kremlin envision holding the meeting next month, but no date has been set. Neither Assad nor the Syrian National Coalition, the main Western-backed opposition coalition group, has made a firm commitment to attend.
In the interview, Assad seemed to play down the importance of such a conference, saying a decision on Syria's future is up to the Syrian people, not the U.S. He also said a decision on his political future must be made in elections, and not during such a conference.
"We said from the beginning that any decisions having to do with reform in Syria or any political doing is a local Syrian decision," Assad said. "Neither the U.S nor any other state is allowed to intervene in it. This issue is dealt with in Syria."
"That's why this possibility is determined by the Syrian people themselves; you go to the elections, you nominate yourself, there's a possibility you win and a possibility you don't," Assad added, hinting he might seek another term.
Disney researchers develop fast, economical method for high-definition video compositingPublic release date: 20-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jennifer Liu jennifer.c.liu@disney.com 818-544-6130 Disney Research
DuctTake system combines multiple takes into single video
ZURICH - Video compositing to create special effects, replace backgrounds or combine multiple takes of an actor's performance is an integral, but highly labor-intensive, part of modern film making. Researchers at Disney Research, Zrich, however, have found an innovative way to create these composite videos that is simple, fast, and easy to use.
Rather than perform a painstaking segmentation of elements that are to be added or subtracted from a video, the Disney system, called DuctTake, uses computer algorithms to find a spatiotemporal "seam" through the video frame that enables two or more videos to be joined together.
These seams can be highly irregular, following the contours of people, furniture and other objects that are common in each take of the scene. Because it can only combine scenes that have overlapping content, DuctTake isn't useful for combining arbitrary video clips. But it works like a charm when combining multiple takes of the same shot.
The Disney Research, Zrich researchers showed the technique can be used across a wide range of video composites. For example, it can combine the best performances by actors from several different takes into a single seamless output, reducing the number of on-set takes that are required to be filmed. Furthermore, the same technique can be used to make a cut seamless, allowing the first half of one take to be combined into a second take. In another case, the researchers eliminated unwanted cars from a street scene by offsetting the vehicle with empty street imagery from the same video take. Hard-to-shoot scenes involving animals, they demonstrated, become a bit easier when an animal trainer can be easily removed from the shot, or other actors can be added at the moment of time when the animal does the right thing.
"The most delicate component is alignment," said Oliver Wang, post doctoral researcher at Disney Research, Zrich. "But given properly aligned views, we can almost always generate good composites with minimal work."
The findings by Wang and his Disney Research, Zrich team of Jan Regg, Aljoscha Smolic and Markus Gross were presented at Eurographics 2013, the European Association for Computer Graphics conference. More information and a video demonstration is available online at http://www.disneyresearch.com/project/ducttake/.
Most video compositing is accomplished now by the digital equivalent of "cut-and-paste." Rotoscoping is the process by which elements can be added by drawing segmentation outlines. Chroma-keying, familiar to viewers of TV weathercasts in which news announcers appear to stand in front of large, animated maps, separates actors from backgrounds based on color hues; it's cheap and robust, but restricts filming to studio environments, and can require challenging color balancing in post-production.
"Our approach solves a simpler problem," Gross acknowledged, "but as a result it is robust, fast to compute and easy for artists to use, enabling compositing techniques to be used on lower budget shots and productions."
A DuctTake user can combine two videos by making a few quick brush strokes to indicate which parts of the video to keep in each take. An algorithm developed by the Disney Research, Zrich team then computes an optimal seam and merges the two videos together.
DuctTake also includes a number of tools necessary to create a composite that looks realistic, such as adjusting the seam between frames to compensate for camera movement or content movement. Other tools adjust for differences in brightness, contrast and hue between takes, blend images along seams that are visible in a common background, and increase the blurriness in some video to match blurring that occurs in the video with which it is being combined.
###
About Disney Research
Disney Research is a network of research laboratories supporting The Walt Disney Company. Its purpose is to pursue scientific and technological innovation to advance the company's broad media and entertainment efforts. Disney Research is managed by an internal Disney Research Council co-chaired by Disney-Pixar's Ed Catmull and Walt Disney Imagineering's Bruce Vaughn, and including the directors of the individual labs. It has facilities in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Boston and Zrich. Research topics include computer graphics, video processing, computer vision, robotics, radio and antennas, wireless communications, human-computer interaction, displays, data mining, machine learning and behavioral sciences.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Disney researchers develop fast, economical method for high-definition video compositingPublic release date: 20-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jennifer Liu jennifer.c.liu@disney.com 818-544-6130 Disney Research
DuctTake system combines multiple takes into single video
ZURICH - Video compositing to create special effects, replace backgrounds or combine multiple takes of an actor's performance is an integral, but highly labor-intensive, part of modern film making. Researchers at Disney Research, Zrich, however, have found an innovative way to create these composite videos that is simple, fast, and easy to use.
Rather than perform a painstaking segmentation of elements that are to be added or subtracted from a video, the Disney system, called DuctTake, uses computer algorithms to find a spatiotemporal "seam" through the video frame that enables two or more videos to be joined together.
These seams can be highly irregular, following the contours of people, furniture and other objects that are common in each take of the scene. Because it can only combine scenes that have overlapping content, DuctTake isn't useful for combining arbitrary video clips. But it works like a charm when combining multiple takes of the same shot.
The Disney Research, Zrich researchers showed the technique can be used across a wide range of video composites. For example, it can combine the best performances by actors from several different takes into a single seamless output, reducing the number of on-set takes that are required to be filmed. Furthermore, the same technique can be used to make a cut seamless, allowing the first half of one take to be combined into a second take. In another case, the researchers eliminated unwanted cars from a street scene by offsetting the vehicle with empty street imagery from the same video take. Hard-to-shoot scenes involving animals, they demonstrated, become a bit easier when an animal trainer can be easily removed from the shot, or other actors can be added at the moment of time when the animal does the right thing.
"The most delicate component is alignment," said Oliver Wang, post doctoral researcher at Disney Research, Zrich. "But given properly aligned views, we can almost always generate good composites with minimal work."
The findings by Wang and his Disney Research, Zrich team of Jan Regg, Aljoscha Smolic and Markus Gross were presented at Eurographics 2013, the European Association for Computer Graphics conference. More information and a video demonstration is available online at http://www.disneyresearch.com/project/ducttake/.
Most video compositing is accomplished now by the digital equivalent of "cut-and-paste." Rotoscoping is the process by which elements can be added by drawing segmentation outlines. Chroma-keying, familiar to viewers of TV weathercasts in which news announcers appear to stand in front of large, animated maps, separates actors from backgrounds based on color hues; it's cheap and robust, but restricts filming to studio environments, and can require challenging color balancing in post-production.
"Our approach solves a simpler problem," Gross acknowledged, "but as a result it is robust, fast to compute and easy for artists to use, enabling compositing techniques to be used on lower budget shots and productions."
A DuctTake user can combine two videos by making a few quick brush strokes to indicate which parts of the video to keep in each take. An algorithm developed by the Disney Research, Zrich team then computes an optimal seam and merges the two videos together.
DuctTake also includes a number of tools necessary to create a composite that looks realistic, such as adjusting the seam between frames to compensate for camera movement or content movement. Other tools adjust for differences in brightness, contrast and hue between takes, blend images along seams that are visible in a common background, and increase the blurriness in some video to match blurring that occurs in the video with which it is being combined.
###
About Disney Research
Disney Research is a network of research laboratories supporting The Walt Disney Company. Its purpose is to pursue scientific and technological innovation to advance the company's broad media and entertainment efforts. Disney Research is managed by an internal Disney Research Council co-chaired by Disney-Pixar's Ed Catmull and Walt Disney Imagineering's Bruce Vaughn, and including the directors of the individual labs. It has facilities in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Boston and Zrich. Research topics include computer graphics, video processing, computer vision, robotics, radio and antennas, wireless communications, human-computer interaction, displays, data mining, machine learning and behavioral sciences.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
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Public release date: 20-May-2013
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