Who Bears the Burden? A Collectivist Approach to Resolving Pandemic Relief Overpayments

Unemployment rates soared when COVID-19 hit the U.S. While pandemic relief programs allowed millions to meet their basic needs, a new problem emerged: overpayments. Overpayments occur when state agencies give claimants benefits they were not entitled to. While most claimants were not at fault for these mistakes, millions are now expected to repay benefits they spent months ago. Thus far, the U.S. has prioritized fraud detection over this overpayment crisis. This misguided effort is representative of the destructive, individualistic American welfare culture at large. This note advocates for a solution rooted in collectivist European values: amending the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security ( CARES ) Act to require blanket waivers for all no-fault COVID-related overpayments. This solution would support both states and individual claimants as they recover from the financial devastation of COVID-19

A combined genome-wide approach identifies a new potential candidate marker associated with the coat color sidedness in cattle

Coat color is one of the most important phenotypic features in livestock breeds. Cinisara is a local cattle breed generally of uniform black color which occasionally presents a particular phenotype, with animals typically display a white band along their spine, from the head to the tail, and on the ventral line (color sidedness). Therefore, this breed provides an ideal model to study the genetic components underlying phenotypic variation in coat color. A total of 63 animals, ten with sidedness phenotype and 53 with uniform black color were genotyped with Illumina Bovine 50 K. The comparison among genome-wide association study and FST analysis revealed a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), ARS-BFGL-NGS-55928, significantly associated with the trait. Only one gene (PLK2)was annotated near the associated SNP in a window of ±200 kb. The protein encoded by this gene is a member of the polo-like kinases, the same family of several known coat-color candidate genes. Based on the reported results, we draw the possible conclusion that the identified marker is potentially associated with the coat color sidedness in Cinisara. The local breeds with their genetic variability represent an important resource and model to study the genetic basis affecting peculiar traits. Future studies would be particularly relevant to refine these results and to better understand the genetic basis for this phenotype

The repair of the Achilles tendon rupture: comparison of two percutaneous techniques

This study proposes a comparison between two percutaneous techniques of subcutaneous Achilles tendon rupture by evaluating the risk of lesion developing, the morbidity of the surgical technique adopted and the effectiveness of each technique. Sixty patients were operated at Padua Orthopaedic Clinic by using the two different procedures: (1) Ma and Griffith in 30 cases and (2) Tenolig in 30 cases. Risk of rupture developing has been evaluated in relation to sex, age, side, kind of trauma, work and presence of preoperative risk factors. The Morbidity of surgical technique has been evaluated in with respect to surgical time, hospital permanence, immobilization, active nonweight-bearing mobilization, assisted weight bearing until the full one, number of early and late complications before and after hospital discharge. Effectiveness has been evaluated in relation to return time to common life, work and sport; anatomical and functional features have been evaluated using McComis score, rating results as: very good (from 80 to 70), good (from 69 to 60), fair (from 59 to 50) and poor (<50). Tenolig group shows shorter average time from hospital admission and operation, hospital permanence and immobilization (P < 0.05), and it results in an easier and quicker execution and functionally stimulates the tendon healing in a short time. Effectiveness was the same for both techniques because average McComis score was good (P = 0.35), and there was no significant differences in common life returning time (P = 0.12). Tenolig technique seems to be preferable to Ma and Griffith

Genome-wide homozygosity in Maremmana cattle

The current availability of large numbers of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) throughout the genome makes these markers particularly suitable for the detection of patterns of genetic diversity and of genome-wide homozygosity in animal populations. The aim of this work was to estimate genetic diversity and homozygosity in the Maremmana cattle breed. We used a sample of 149 animals (males and females) genotyped with the BovineSNP50 v2 (54K) Illumina BeadChip. After editing for call-rate > 0.9 and removing SNP unassigned or on the sex chromosomes, 128 animals and 50,814 SNPs were left. We estimated the following genetic parameters: observed and expected heterozygosity (Ho and He), minor allele frequency (MAF), and the FIS statistic. We also scanned the genome for runs of homozygosity (ROH). In the present study, ROH were detected based on 20-SNP-long sliding-windows, and allowing for a maximum of 1 missing and 1 heterozygote genotype, and a maximum gap between consecutive SNP of 105 bp. ROH contained minimum 10 SNPs, and had a minimum length of 1 Mb and a minimum density of 1 SNP every 50 kbps. The average Ho and He were 0.374 \ub10.132 and 0.365 \ub10.120, respectively, and the average MAF was 0.274 \ub10130. These values are consistent with the range observed in other cattle breeds. We obtained some negative values for FIS (-0.162 to 0.180) which corresponded to animals with lower than average homozygosity. In total, 10,465 ROH were detected (81.75 per animal), with an average length of 2.69 Mb. Most ROH (74%) had length 64 2 Mb. ROH are contiguous lengths of homozygous genomic segments where the two inherited haplotypes are identical. ROH indicate genomic regions where a reduction in heterozygosity occurred, and offer new opportunities to estimate inbreeding (F). The inbreeding coefficient based on ROH (FROH) was estimated by the ratio between the total ROH length and the size of the genome in each animal. Average FROH was 0.0869 \ub10.032. Unlike inbreeding estimated based on Ho, FROH is not influenced by allele frequencies (sampling) and can distinguish recent from ancient inbreeding. However, FROH requires SNP positions to be known (unlike Ho). Two genomic regions with ROH in over 60% of the animals were found: one on BTA6 (38.6-39.7 Mbps), one on BTA13 (54.3-54.8 Mbps). These may highlight regions where selective pressures have shaped the genome of the Maremmana breed

Insights into genetic diversity, runs of homozygosity and heterozygosity-rich regions in maremmana semi-feral cattle using pedigree and genomic data

Semi-feral local livestock populations, like Maremmana cattle, are the object of renewed interest for the conservation of biological diversity and the preservation and exploitation of unique and potentially relevant genetic material. The aim of this study was to estimate genetic diversity parameters in semi-feral Maremmana cattle using both pedigree-and genomic-based approaches (FIS and FROH), and to detect regions of homozygosity (ROH) and heterozygosity (ROHet) in the genome. The average heterozygosity estimates were in the range reported for other cattle breeds (HE = 0.261, HO = 0.274). Pedigree-based average inbreeding (F) was estimated at 4.9%. The correlation was low between F and genomic-based approaches (r = 0.03 with FIS, r = 0.21 with FROH), while it was higher between FIS and FROH (r = 0.78). The low correlation between F and FROH coefficients may be the result of the limited pedigree depth available for the animals involved in this study. The ROH islands identified in Maremmana cattle included candidate genes associated with climate adaptation, carcass traits or the regulation of body weight, fat and energy metabolism. The ROHet islands contained candidate genes associated with nematode resistance and reproduction traits in livestock. The results of this study confirm that genome-based measures like FROH may be useful estimators of individual autozygosity, and may provide insights on pedigree-based inbreeding estimates in cases when animals’ pedigree data are unavailable, thus providing a more detailed picture of the genetic diversity

Quantitative determination of casein genetic variants in goat milk: Application in Girgentana dairy goat breed

The study was conducted to develop a high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method to quantify casein genetic variants (s2-, β-, and κ-casein) in milk of homozygous individuals of Girgentana goat breed. For calibration experiments, pure genetic variants were extracted from individual milk samples of animals with known genotypes. The described HPLC approach was precise, accurate and highly suitable for quantification of goat casein genetic variants of homozygous individuals. The amount of each casein per allele was: s2-casein A=2.9 ± 0.8 g/L and F=1.8 ± 0.4 g/L; β-casein C=3.0 ± 0.8 g/L and C1=2.0 ± 0.7 g/L and κ-casein A=1.6 ± 0.3 g/L and B=1.1 ± 0.2 g/L. A good correlation was found between the quantities of s2-casein genetic variants A and F, and β-casein C and C1 with other previously described method. The main important result was obtained for κ-casein because, till now, no data were available on quantification of single genetic variants for this protein

Genome-wide scan for Runs of Homozygosity in Valle del Belice sheep

The current availability of very large numbers of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) throughout the genome makes these markers particularly suitable for the detection of genomic regions where a reduction in heterozygosity occurred and offers new opportunities to improve the accuracy of inbreeding (F) estimates. Runs of homozygosity (ROH) are contiguous lengths of homozygous segments of the genome where the two haplotypes inherited from the parents are identical. Here, we investigated the occurrence and the distribution of ROH in medium-density SNP genotypes (~ 50 000) in order to characterize autozygosity in 512 individuals of Valle del Belice sheep and identify the regions of the genome with high ROH frequencies. A total of 11 629 ROH were identified. All individuals displayed at least one ROH &gt; 1 Mb. The mean value of FROH&gt;1Mb was 0.084\ub10.061. ROH that were shorter than 10 Mb predominated. The highest coverage of chromosome (OAR) by ROH was observed on OAR24, whereas the lowest one was observed on OAR1. A typical pattern was observed for the number of ROH per OAR with higher values in the first three chromosomes. There was a considerable difference among animals for the number of ROH segments and the length of the genome covered by ROH. The genomic regions most commonly associated with ROH were identified by selecting the top 1% of the SNPs most commonly observed in ROH within breed. A total of 239 SNPs were considered as candidate SNPs and we identified 107 potential candidate genes that may be under directional selection. Six genomic regions located on six chromosomes (OAR2, OAR3, OAR4, OAR10, OAR11 and OAR23), corresponding to ROH island, presented hotspot of autozygosity. According to KEGG database, a majority of the genes were involved in multiple signaling and signal transduction pathways in a wide variety of cellular and biochemical processes. The ROH islands spanned several candidate genes which influence traits that are associated with adaptability and with the regulation of immune responses (NPAS2, PDCL3, SERPINF1 and SERPINF2) and we did not identified candidate genes with important influence on milk production traits in sheep. The Valle del Belice breed is subjected to limited breeding selection programs for milk production traits, but shows excellent adaptability to the local environments. Therefore, these results suggest at least a partial role of natural selection in shaping the genome of Valle del Belice sheep breed

Genome wide Copy Number Variation (CNV) detection in Cinisara cattle breed

Copy Number Variations (CNVs) are classes of polymorphic genomic regions including deletions, duplications and insertions of DNA fragments from at least 0.5 kb up to several Mb. CNV represents an important source of genetic variability that provides genomics structural information complementary to the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data. Some CNVs have been shown to be important in both normal phenotypic variability and disease susceptibility in livestock. Several approaches to identify CNVs including FISH, aCGH, SNP array or NGS, were proposed and among these SNP genotyping is relatively low cost, high-throughput and high coverage method. The aim of this study was to identify the CNVs in 71 animals of Cinisara breed using Illumina BovineSNP50 BeadChip v2. PennCNV software, which incorporates Log R ratio and B allele frequency at each SNP marker, was used to identify CNVs. Seven animals showed not shared CNVs, as well as autosomes 19, 21, 22. Chromosome 25 presented no CNVs at all. A final number of 322 CNVs were detected. The average number of CNVs was 4.5 per individual, with an average length and median size of 143.04 kb and 122.14 kb, respectively. All CNVs were grouped in CNV regions (CNVRs) and a total of 107 CNVRs, ranged from 50 to ~500 kb, were detected, which covered 4.90 Mb of polymorphic sequence and corresponded to 0.18% of the total genome length. In particular, we found 81 CNVRs with only gain (duplication), 22 with only loss (deletion), and four CNVRs with both. Furthermore, 8 CNVRs with &gt;1%, 77 with &gt;2.5%, and 22 with &gt;5% frequency, were found. CNVRs having the highest frequency were located on Chr3:120501439-120647330 and Chr23:34673581-35007295, whereas the greatest number of genes was mapped in only one CNVR located on Chr 17:74123863-74393620. A total of 241 genes were included in the identified CNVRs. According to KEGG and DAVID database, most of the genes were involved in multiple signaling and signal transduction pathways in a wide variety of cellular and biochemical processes, such as immune response, adaptability, and olfactory receptors pathway. Further studies, using different algorithms and validating the CNVs discovered, will be conducted to corroborate these preliminary results on the CNVRs detected. These results will be used for the investigation of genomic changes and features of interest in the Cinisara breed, such as for association with functional or production traits and for biodiversity studies