The climatic and genetic heritage of Italian goat breeds with genomic SNP data

Local adaptation of animals to the environment can abruptly become a burden when faced with rapid climatic changes such as those foreseen for the Italian peninsula over the next 70 years. Our study investigates the genetic structure of the Italian goat populations and links it with the environment and how genetics might evolve over the next 50 years. We used one of the largest national datasets including > 1000 goats from 33 populations across the Italian peninsula collected by the Italian Goat Consortium and genotyped with over 50 k markers. Our results showed that Italian goats can be discriminated in three groups reflective of the Italian geography and its geo\u2011political situation preceding the country unification around two centuries ago. We leveraged the remarkable genetic and geographical diversity of the Italian goat populations and performed landscape genomics analysis to disentangle the relationship between genotype and environment, finding 64 SNPs intercepting genomic regions linked to growth, circadian rhythm, fertility, and inflammatory response. Lastly, we calculated the hypothetical future genotypic frequencies of the most relevant SNPs identified through landscape genomics to evaluate their long\u2011term effect on the genetic structure of the Italian goat populations. Our results provide an insight into the past and the future of the Italian local goat populations, helping the institutions in defining new conservation strategy plans that could preserve their diversity and their link to local realities challenged by climate change

Effects of conversion of native cerrado vegetation to pasture on soil hydro-physical properties, evapotranspiration and streamflow on the Amazonian agricultural frontier

Understanding the impacts of land-use change on landscape-hydrological dynamics is one of the main challenges in the Northern Brazilian Cerrado biome, where the Amazon agricultural frontier is located. Motivated by the gap in literature assessing these impacts, we characterized the soil hydro-physical properties and quantified surface water fluxes from catchments under contrasting land-use in this region. We used data from field measurements in two headwater micro-catchments with similar physical characteristics and different land use, i.e. cerrado sensu stricto vegetation and pasture for extensive cattle ranching. We determined hydraulic and physical properties of the soils, applied ground-based remote sensing techniques to estimate evapotranspiration, and monitored streamflow from October 2012 to September 2014. Our results show significant differences in soil hydro-physical properties between the catchments, with greater bulk density and smaller total porosity in the pasture catchment. We found that evapotranspiration is smaller in the pasture (639 ± 31% mm yr-1) than in the cerrado catchment (1,004 ± 24% mm yr-1), and that streamflow from the pasture catchment is greater with runoff coefficients of 0.40 for the pasture and 0.27 for the cerrado catchment. Overall, our results confirm that conversion of cerrado vegetation to pasture causes soil hydro-physical properties deterioration, reduction in evapotranspiration reduction, and increased streamflow

Fonoaudiologia X ronco/apneia do sono Speech therapy and snore and sleep apnea

TEMA: sendo o sono necessário para termos energia, o ronco e a apneia do sono tornam-se obstáculos que acarretam problemas de saúde, como também problemas sociais, conjugais, escolares, entre outros. OBJETIVO: contribuir para um maior conhecimento do profissional fonoaudiólogo sobre as causas, consequências, diagnóstico e formas de tratamento da apneia obstrutiva do sono (AOS), a fim de favorecer a definição da conduta por este profissional, seja ela, encaminhar para um diagnóstico, tratar (por meio de fonoterapia) essa patologia ou indicar o tratamento médico, seja ele, cirúrgico ou conservador. CONCLUSÃO: as possíveis alterações fonoaudiológicas encontradas nestes pacientes são: língua alargada apresentando hipotonia, palato mole com volume aumentado, dificuldade na alimentação devido ao aporte insuficiente de ar e ao bruxismo, possivelmente causado pela tensão e ansiedade decorrentes das noites mal dormidas. Outras alterações podem ser encontradas decorrentes do tratamento cirúrgico empregado em alguns casos, como a disfagia ou até mesmo alterações na fala e na ressonância da fala decorrente de uma uvulopalatoplastia. O enfoque do tratamento fonoaudiológico é a mioterapia dos músculos envolvidos, priorizando a musculatura palatal. Percebe-se que o fonoaudiólogo pode contribuir para amenizar os sintomas encontrados nestas patologias, proporcionando uma qualidade de vida melhor aos seus portadores.<br>BACKGROUND: sleeping is necessary to provide us with energy. However, snoring and sleep apnea become obstacles that cause not only health problems, but also social, marital and educational issues. PURPOSE: contribute with a better understanding of the causes to the speech therapist, as well as the diagnosis and forms of treatment for Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA). Facilitate the definition of conduct by the therapist, be it a guide for a diagnosis, a treatment for that disease (through speech therapy) or the indication of medical treatment (surgical or conservative). CONCLUSION: some possible speech pathologies found in these patients are: enlarged tongue presenting hypotonia, soft palate with increased volume, difficulty in feeding due to insufficient intake of air and bruxism, possibly caused by tension and anxiety of bad night's sleep. Other changes can be found due to surgical treatment used in some cases, such as dysphagia or even alterations in speech and resonance of speech caused by an uvulopalatoplasty. The focus of speech therapy is the myotherapy of the involved muscles, prioritizing the palatal muscles. It is perceived that the speech therapists can help to ease the symptoms found in these diseases, providing a better life quality for their patients