Meat quality in ewes submitted to reduction in water supply.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the reduction in water supply (ad libitum intake - 100%, or 80%, 60% and 40% of ad libitum intake) on the proximate composition, physicochemical properties, mineral composition and fatty acid profile of ewe meat. Thirty-two crossbred Santa In?es ewe (n = 8 per treatment) were distributed in a randomized block design, receiving a diet consisting of elephant grass and concentrate (70:30). The experimental period lasted 63 days, preceded by 14 days of adaptation. Ewes were slaughtered at the end of experimental period, at a mean final body weight of 37.63 kg. Carcasses were cut lengthwise and the loin (longissimus lumborum) was taken of the left half carcass to evaluate the proximate composition, the physicochemical characteristics, the minerals content and fatty acid profile. The reduction in water supply resulted in a quadratic effect for resilience (p < 0.05), Lightness L* (p < 0.05), potassium (p < 0.05) and iron content (p < 0.001). There was a decreasing linear effect for magnesium content (p < 0.05), copper content (p < 0.001), C18:1n7t content (p < 0.05) and &#931;monounsaturated content (p < 0.05). Crossbred Santa In?es ewe tolerate water restriction up to 40% voluntary intake without compromising the meat quality

Whole-genome sequencing of 1,171 elderly admixed individuals from Brazil

As whole-genome sequencing (WGS) becomes the gold standard tool for studying population genomics and medical applications, data on diverse non-European and admixed individuals are still scarce. Here, we present a high-coverage WGS dataset of 1,171 highly admixed elderly Brazilians from a census-based cohort, providing over 76 million variants, of which ~2 million are absent from large public databases. WGS enables identification of ~2,000 previously undescribed mobile element insertions without previous description, nearly 5 Mb of genomic segments absent from the human genome reference, and over 140 alleles from HLA genes absent from public resources. We reclassify and curate pathogenicity assertions for nearly four hundred variants in genes associated with dominantly-inherited Mendelian disorders and calculate the incidence for selected recessive disorders, demonstrating the clinical usefulness of the present study. Finally, we observe that whole-genome and HLA imputation could be significantly improved compared to available datasets since rare variation represents the largest proportion of input from WGS. These results demonstrate that even smaller sample sizes of underrepresented populations bring relevant data for genomic studies, especially when exploring analyses allowed only by WGS

Fostering support for non-democratic rule? Controlled political liberalization and popular support for non-democratic regimes

When the Cold War ended, many non-democratic regimes across the globe embarked on a course of controlled political liberalization, hoping to stabilize their autocratic rule by mitigating popular demands for democratization and increasing regime legitimacy. But does this strategy actually work? This article uses multi-level analyses to examine how the degree of political liberalization affects regime support in non-democratic political systems and to ascertain which mechanisms underlie this effect. Drawing on aggregate measures of political liberalization and comparative survey data from four regional survey projects and 31 non-democracies, the study's results indicate that the degree of liberalization has no decisively positive effect on regime support, suggesting controlled political liberalization might not be an effective legitimizing strategy after all.Nach Ende des Kalten Krieges haben viele nicht-demokratische Regime weltweit einen Kurs der begrenzten politischen Öffnung eingeschlagen, um öffentliche Forderungen nach Demokratisierung zu entschärfen und auf diese Weise die Legitimität ihrer autokratischen Herrschaft zu erhöhen. Doch ist diese Strategie tatsächlich effektiv? Der Beitrag verwendet Mehrebenenanalysen, um zu untersuchen wie der Grad an politischer Öffnung die Regimerunterstützung in nicht-demokratischen politischen Systemen beeinflusst. Auf Basis von Aggregatmaßen zur politischen Öffnung und Individualdaten aus vier regionalen Umfrageprojekten und 31 Autokratien kann kein klarer positiver Effekt des Grads der politischen Öffnung auf die Regimeunterstützung nachgewiesen werden, was eine begrenzte politische Öffnung als wenig effektive Legitimationsstrategie erscheinen lässt

A genome-wide association study of asthma symptoms in Latin American children

Abstract\ud \ud Background\ud Asthma is a chronic disease of the airways and, despite the advances in the knowledge of associated genetic regions in recent years, their mechanisms have yet to be explored. Several genome-wide association studies have been carried out in recent years, but none of these have involved Latin American populations with a high level of miscegenation, as is seen in the Brazilian population.\ud \ud \ud Methods\ud 1246 children were recruited from a longitudinal cohort study in Salvador, Brazil. Asthma symptoms were identified in accordance with an International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC) questionnaire. Following quality control, 1 877 526 autosomal SNPs were tested for association with childhood asthma symptoms by logistic regression using an additive genetic model. We complemented the analysis with an estimate of the phenotypic variance explained by common genetic variants. Replications were investigated in independent Mexican and US Latino samples.\ud \ud \ud Results\ud Two chromosomal regions reached genome-wide significance level for childhood asthma symptoms: the 14q11 region flanking the DAD1 and OXA1L genes (rs1999071, MAF 0.32, OR 1.78, 95 % CI 1.45–2.18, p-value 2.83 × 10−8) and 15q22 region flanking the FOXB1 gene (rs10519031, MAF 0.04, OR 3.0, 95 % CI 2.02–4.49, p-value 6.68 × 10−8 and rs8029377, MAF 0.03, OR 2.49, 95 % CI 1.76–3.53, p-value 2.45 × 10−7). eQTL analysis suggests that rs1999071 regulates the expression of OXA1L gene. However, the original findings were not replicated in the Mexican or US Latino samples.\ud \ud \ud Conclusions\ud We conclude that the 14q11 and 15q22 regions may be associated with asthma symptoms in childhood.This work was supported by the Department of Science and Technology\ud (DECIT, Ministry of Health), National Fund for Scientific and Technological\ud Development (FNDCT, Ministry of Science and Technology), Funding of\ud Studies and Projects (FINEP, Ministry of Science and Technology, Brazil), the\ud Brazilian National Research Council (CNPq) and the Wellcome Trust UK, Ref\ud 072405/Z/03/Z.\ud E.G.B. was funded by grants from National Institutes of Health (HL088133,\ud HL078885, HL004464, HL104608, HL117004, ES015794 and MD006902) and\ud by the American Asthma Foundation, the Sandler Foundation and the RWJF\ud Amos Medical Faculty Development Award.\ud Supported in part by the Intramural Research Program of the NIH, National\ud Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, USA