Identification of novel canine rabies virus clades in the Middle East and North Africa

Four novel phylogenetic clades of canine rabies virus (RABV) variants have been identified in the Middle East and North Africa. The three novel Middle Eastern clades comprise RABV isolates from the borders between Israel and neighbouring countries. The North African clade (Africa 4) comprises four RABV isolates from Egypt and one from Israel. We characterized various RABV lineages antigenically by using a panel of monoclonal antibodies to the nucleoprotein (N) and phylogenetically by analysis of entire N gene sequences. The estimated mean substitution rate for the N gene alignment (2.7×10−4 substitutions per site per year) is comparable with previous estimates for RABV. The application of a molecular clock indicates the emergence of current canine RABV diversity to have occurred at about the same time (approx. 1870) in the Middle East and Europe, following divergence from established lineages in Africa and Asia.

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The North African “Extremistan” of the Islamic State Caliphate

International conference KNOWLEDGE-BASED ORGANIZATION ◽

10.1515/kbo-2016-0002 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 22 (1) ◽

pp. 10-13

Author(s):

Adrian Cosmin Basarabă ◽

Maria-Mihaela Nistor

Keyword(s):

Middle East ◽

Real Estate ◽

North Africa ◽

Islamic State ◽

North African ◽

Boko Haram ◽

Ongoing Process ◽

The North ◽

Terrorist Groups ◽

Cellular Matrices

Abstract This article aims at presenting ISIS expansion in North Africa in the first quarter of 2016, with its subsequent implication in the wider framework of Jihadist proliferation worldwide. It can be argued that, while losing real estate in the Middle East, ISIS has started a permanent search for extra-cellular matrices or an ongoing process of de- and reterritorialization. The allegiance and support pledged by other African-based terrorist groups or organizations such as Boko Haram, al-I’tisam of the Koran and Sunnah in Sudan, al-Huda Battalion in Maghreb of Islam, The Soldiers of the Caliphate, al-Ghurabaa, Djamaat Houmat ad-Da’wa as-Salafiya and al-Ansar Battalion in Algeria, Islamic Youth Shura Council, Islamic State Libya (Darnah), in Libya, Jamaat Ansar Bait al-Maqdis, Jund al-Khilafah and Mujahideen Shura Council in the Environs of Jerusalem in Egypt, Okba Ibn Nafaa Battalion, Mujahideen of Tunisia of Kairouan and Jund al-Khilafah in Tunisia and al-Shabaab Jubba Region Cell Bashir Abu Numan in Somalia is an alarming hypothesis of Jihadism reaching “the threshold of inevitability”- syntagm existent in the network theories of David Singh Grewal- turning a whole region, continent of even world into what Nassim Nicholas Taleb would call Extremistan.

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The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Middle Eastern and North African History

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199672530.001.0001 ◽

2015 ◽

Keyword(s):

Middle East ◽

World War I ◽

Middle Eastern ◽

World Politics ◽

African History ◽

North African ◽

The North ◽

East Region ◽

Historical Developments ◽

Middle East Region

It is in moments of great upheaval that societies may best be studied. Today, The North Africa and the Middle East region (MENA) finds itself in the most alarming state since World War I. The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Middle East and North African History is a timely intervention to interrogate the region’s internal dynamics and take stock of its place in world politics. It illuminates afresh dominant historical currents as well as counter-currents that previous accounts have not given their due attention or have failed to notice. Broadly chronological, this volume combines thematic and country-based, multi-disciplinary analysis in order to reconsider half a century of scholarship and to critically examine the defining processes and structures of historical developments from Morocco to Iran and from Turkey to Yemen over the past two centuries.

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Dietary trends in the Middle East and North Africa: an ecological study (1961 to 2007)

Public Health Nutrition ◽

10.1017/s1368980011003673 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 15 (10) ◽

pp. 1835-1844 ◽

Cited By ~ 45

Author(s):

Mahdieh Golzarand ◽

Parvin Mirmiran ◽

Mahsa Jessri ◽

Karamollah Toolabi ◽

Mehdi Mojarrad ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Middle East ◽

North Africa ◽

Dietary Patterns ◽

Middle Eastern ◽

Alcoholic Beverages ◽

North African ◽

African Countries ◽

Food Items ◽

Study Results ◽

North African Countries

AbstractObjectiveMiddle Eastern and North African countries are undergoing nutrition transition, a transition which is associated with an increased burden of non-communicable diseases. This necessitates the evaluation of dietary patterns in these regions. The present study aimed to assess changes in dietary patterns in Middle Eastern and North African countries between 1961 and 2007.DesignAvailability of energy and fifteen main food items during 1961–2007 was examined using FAO food balance sheets from the FAOSTAT database.SettingFifteen countries including nine in the Middle East and six in North Africa were selected and the average availability of total energy and different food items in these regions were compared.ResultsOver the 47 years studied, energy and food availability (apart from animal fats and alcoholic beverages) has increased in the Middle East and North Africa. In both regions the proportion of energy derived from meat and vegetable oils has increased significantly while that from cereals decreased significantly. In addition, the proportion of energy from milk and dairy products and vegetables has shown an ascending trend in North Africa while the proportion of energy from fruits has shown a descending trend in the Middle East.ConclusionsThe study results reveal an unfavourable trend towards a Westernized diet in the Middle East and, to a certain extent, in North Africa. Tailored nutritional education encouraging healthy eating for prevention of the burden of chronic diseases in these countries seems essential.

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Cross-species hybridization and the origin of North African date palms

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ◽

10.1073/pnas.1817453116 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 116 (5) ◽

pp. 1651-1658 ◽

Cited By ~ 25

Author(s):

Jonathan M. Flowers ◽

Khaled M. Hazzouri ◽

Muriel Gros-Balthazard ◽

Ziyi Mo ◽

Konstantina Koutroumpa ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Middle East ◽

North Africa ◽

Date Palm ◽

Eastern Mediterranean ◽

Middle Eastern ◽

Introgressive Hybridization ◽

Nucleotide Polymorphisms ◽

North African ◽

Mixed Ancestry ◽

History Of

Date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) is a major fruit crop of arid regions that were domesticated ∼7,000 y ago in the Near or Middle East. This species is cultivated widely in the Middle East and North Africa, and previous population genetic studies have shown genetic differentiation between these regions. We investigated the evolutionary history of P. dactylifera and its wild relatives by resequencing the genomes of date palm varieties and five of its closest relatives. Our results indicate that the North African population has mixed ancestry with components from Middle Eastern P. dactylifera and Phoenix theophrasti, a wild relative endemic to the Eastern Mediterranean. Introgressive hybridization is supported by tests of admixture, reduced subdivision between North African date palm and P. theophrasti, sharing of haplotypes in introgressed regions, and a population model that incorporates gene flow between these populations. Analysis of ancestry proportions indicates that as much as 18% of the genome of North African varieties can be traced to P. theophrasti and a large percentage of loci in this population are segregating for single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that are fixed in P. theophrasti and absent from date palm in the Middle East. We present a survey of Phoenix remains in the archaeobotanical record which supports a late arrival of date palm to North Africa. Our results suggest that hybridization with P. theophrasti was of central importance in the diversification history of the cultivated date palm.

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Phylogenetic Analysis of the Rabies Virus N-coding Region in Lithuanian Rabies Isolates

Acta Veterinaria Brno ◽

10.2754/avb200978020273 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 78 (2) ◽

pp. 273-280

Author(s):

Dainius Zienius ◽

Kristina Sajute ◽

Henrikas Žilinskas ◽

Arunas Stankevicius

Keyword(s):

Phylogenetic Analysis ◽

Rabies Virus ◽

Virus Isolate ◽

N Gene ◽

Bootstrap Support ◽

Gene Sequences ◽

Red Foxes ◽

North East ◽

The North ◽

Nucleoprotein N

Rabies infection among wild and domestic animals constitutes a well-known problem in Lithuania, but only one dog rabies virus isolate sequence (1992) from Lithuania was used in the European rabies virus phylogenetic analysis. The objective of this work was to determine nucleoprotein (N) gene sequences and genetically characterize the rabies virus isolates in order to learn which virus group (biotype) is circulating in reservoir species in Lithuania. Classical rabies virus isolate nucleoprotein (N) gene sequences from different parts of Lithuania were found to be closely related to each other and demonstrated nucleotide identity from 97.7 to 100% and could be placed in one lineage with 100% bootstrap support. All 12 sequences of raccoon dogs, red foxes, dogs and marten rabies viruses exhibited 97.7 - 99.0% identity to previously published sequences from Eastern parts of Poland, Estonia, Finland, and the North-Eastern part of Russia. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that all Lithuanian strains belong to the North East Europe (NEE) group of rabies virus.

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Assessment of the effectiveness of the EUROFORGEN NAME and Precision ID Ancestry panel markers for ancestry investigations

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-021-97654-0 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

D. Truelsen ◽

T. Tvedebrink ◽

H. S. Mogensen ◽

M. S. Farzad ◽

M. A. Shan ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Middle East ◽

Central Asia ◽

North Africa ◽

Middle Eastern ◽

North African ◽

Likelihood Ratios ◽

North East ◽

Asian Populations ◽

South Central ◽

Central Asian

AbstractThe EUROFORGEN NAME panel is a regional ancestry panel designed to differentiate individuals from the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe. The first version of the panel was developed for the MassARRAY system and included 111 SNPs. Here, a custom AmpliSeq EUROFORGEN NAME panel with 102 of the original 111 loci was used to sequence 1098 individuals from 14 populations from Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, North-East Africa, and South-Central Asia. These samples were also sequenced with a global ancestry panel, the Precision ID Ancestry Panel. The GenoGeographer software was used to assign the AIM profiles to reference populations and calculate the weight of the evidence as likelihood ratios. The combination of the EUROFORGEN NAME and Precision ID Ancestry panels led to fewer ambiguous assignments, especially for individuals from the Middle East and South-Central Asia. The likelihood ratios showed that North African individuals could be separated from European and Middle Eastern individuals using the Precision ID Ancestry Panel. The separation improved with the addition of the EUROFORGEN NAME panel. The analyses also showed that the separation of Middle Eastern populations from European and South-Central Asian populations was challenging even when both panels were applied.

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Middle East Studies in Japan

Middle East Studies Association Bulletin ◽

10.1017/s0026318400042395 ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 34 (1) ◽

pp. 23-36

Author(s):

Miyazi Kazuo

Keyword(s):

Middle East ◽

North Africa ◽

Present Status ◽

Middle Eastern ◽

African Studies ◽

North African ◽

The Status ◽

History Of ◽

Middle East Studies ◽

The Relationship

The Purpose of this Paper is to present the history and the present status of Middle Eastern and North African Studies in Japan. As the status of the studies is closely related to the status of the relationships between Japan and the regions concerned, I will first write about the history of Japan-Middle East (including North Africa) relations and the relationship thereof to the studies.

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Insights into the Middle Eastern paternal genetic pool in Tunisia: high prevalence of T-M70 haplogroup in an Arab population

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-021-95144-x ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Sarra Elkamel ◽

Sofia L. Marques ◽

Luis Alvarez ◽

Veronica Gomes ◽

Sami Boussetta ◽

...

Keyword(s):

North Africa ◽

Middle Eastern ◽

North African ◽

Arab Population ◽

The North ◽

High Prevalence ◽

Sub Saharan ◽

Genetic Pool ◽

Spread Of Agriculture ◽

Two Populations

AbstractTo obtain refreshed insights into the paternal lineages of Tunisian populations, Y-chromosome diversity was assessed in two populations belonging to an Arab genealogical lineage, Kairouan and Wesletia, as well as in four Tunisian Andalusian populations, Testour, Slouguia, Qalaat-El-Andalous and El Alia. The Arabs from Kairouan revealed 73.47% of E-M81 and close affinities with Berber groups, indicating they are likely arabized Berbers, clearly differentiated from the Arabs from Wesletia, who harbored the highest frequency (71.8%) of the Middle Eastern component ever observed in North Africa. In the Tunisian Andalusians, the North African component largely prevailed, followed by the Middle Eastern contribution. Global comparative analysis highlighted the heterogeneity of Tunisian populations, among which, as a whole, dominated a set of lineages ascribed to be of autochthonous Berber origin (71.67%), beside a component of essentially Middle Eastern extraction (18.35%), and signatures of Sub-Saharan (5.2%), European (3.45%) and Asiatic (1.33%) contributions. The remarkable frequency of T-M70 in Wesletia (17.4%) prompted to refine its phylogeographic analysis, allowing to confirm its Middle Eastern origin, though signs of local evolution in Northern Africa were also detected. Evidence was clear on the ancient introduction of T lineages into the region, probably since Neolithic times associated to spread of agriculture.

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CONSEQUENCES OF THE REALIZATION OF NATO STRATEGY IN THE CONFLICTS OF "THE ARAB SPRING" FOR THE STATES OF THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA

MGIMO Review of International Relations ◽

10.24833/2071-8160-2016-2-47-118-124 ◽

2016 ◽

pp. 118-124

Author(s):

E. A. Antyukhova

Keyword(s):

Middle East ◽

North Africa ◽

Arab Spring ◽

Arab World ◽

Middle Eastern ◽

Islamic State ◽

Eastern Area ◽

Regional Conflicts ◽

The North ◽

The Arab Spring

The article considers the consequences of the realization of NATO strategy in the conflicts of "the Arab spring" for the states of the Middle East and North Africa. It is pointed out that the main approaches to the realization of NATO strategy, its results and the consequences of the Alliance crisis management of "the Arab spring" have a contradictory character. On the one hand, the strategic problem of the block has been realized: arrangement of conflicts and an attempt to appear in the opinion of the world community as the only peacekeeping force capable of controlling and resolving regional conflicts. At the same time the Alliance has shown the efficiency of its partner programs. The high quality performance of the military forces of NATO has been confirmed. The North Atlantic Alliance has started moves towards strengthening its own positions in the region under the auspices of assistance in democratization of Arab states by supporting protest performances. On the other hand, the members of the Alliance have very specifically approached the realization of tasks of settlement of the conflicts. As a result, in the majority of the countries of the Arab world the conflicts not only have not been settled but, on the contrary, in a number of cases have intensified. One of the main consequences of the realization of NATO of its approaches to settlement of the events of "the Arab spring" was the export of "instability" which entailed radical changes in the geopolitical situation in the Middle East region. The geopolitical configuration of all the Middle Eastern area has changed. Some diffusion of the territorial activity of certain states (Iraq, Libya, Syria) is observed. In the course of the Arab crisis there appeared new ethnic (Kurdish) and territorial ("The Islamic State") enclaves. More and more countries are found to be involved in the conflict.

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Determinants of Total Factor Productivity in the Middle East and North Africa

Review of Middle East Economics and Finance ◽

10.1515/rmeef-2014-0017 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 11 (2) ◽

Author(s):

Anna K. Raggl

Keyword(s):

Human Capital ◽

Middle East ◽

Total Factor Productivity ◽

North Africa ◽

Middle Eastern ◽

Output Growth ◽

Factor Productivity ◽

North African ◽

African Countries ◽

North African Countries

AbstractA decomposition of output growth rates of Middle Eastern and North African countries shows that the contributions of human capital-augmented labor and physical capital to output growth are comparably small and stable over time and that in most countries a considerable share of output growth is attributed to growth in total factor productivity. This paper empirically assesses the determinants of total factor productivity in the Middle East and North Africa region between 1980 and 2009. The findings suggest that human capital is not only an input factor of production but also a quantity that changes the efficiency by which existing input factors are used. Domestic innovations appear to be efficient only if a certain level of educational attainment is reached by a country. In addition, human capital contributes to the ability of efficient adoption of technology from abroad and allows a faster catch-up with technological leaders. Globalization, in combination with a (comparably low) threshold endowment of human capital, is estimated to increase total factor productivity in Middle Eastern and North African countries.

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