scholarly journals Geographic and Genomic Distribution of SARS-CoV-2 Mutations

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniele Mercatelli ◽  
Federico Manuel Giorgi
Keyword(s):  
Spike Protein ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Single Nucleotide ◽  
Genomic Distribution ◽  
Genomic Variability ◽  
The World ◽  
The Status ◽  
Novel Virus ◽  
Initial Interaction ◽  
Local Modulation

The novel respiratory disease COVID-19 has reached the status of worldwide pandemic and large efforts are currently being undertaken in molecularly characterizing the virus causing it, SARS-CoV-2. The genomic variability of SARS-CoV-2 specimens scattered across the globe can underly geographically specific etiological effects. In the present study, we gather the 10,014 SARS-CoV-2 complete genomes currently available thanks to the collection endeavor of the GISAID consortium and thousands of contributing laboratories. We analyze and annotate all SARS-CoV-2 mutations compared with the reference Wuhan genome NC_045512.2. Our analysis shows the prevalence of single nucleotide transitions as the major mutational type across the world. There exist at least three clades characterized by geographic and genomic specificity. In particular, the clade G, prevalent in Europe, carries a D614G mutation in the Spike protein, which is responsible for the initial interaction of the virus with the host human cell. Our analysis may drive local modulation of antiviral strategies based on the molecular specificities of this novel virus.

scholarly journals Origin, Phylogeny, Variability and Epitope Conservation of SARS-CoV-2 Worldwide

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Filipa F Vale ◽  
Jorge M.B. Vítor ◽  
Andreia T. Marques ◽  
José Miguel Azevedo-Pereira ◽  
Elsa Anes ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ◽  
Rna Virus ◽  
Spike Protein ◽  
Nucleotide Polymorphisms ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Single Nucleotide ◽  
Genomic Variability ◽  
Spike Gene ◽  
The World ◽  
Structure Of Proteins

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) challenges include understanding what triggered SARS-CoV-2 emergence, how this RNA virus is evolving or how the genomic variability may impact the primary structure of proteins that are targets for vaccine. We analyzed 19471 SARS-CoV-2 genomes and 199,984 spike glycoprotein sequences available at the GISAID database from all over the world and 3335 genomes of other Coronoviridae family members available at Genbank, collecting SARS-CoV-2 high-quality genomes and distinct Coronoviridae family genomes. Here, we identify a SARS-CoV-2 emerging cluster containing 13 closely related genomes isolated from bat and pangolin that showed evidence of recombination, which may have contributed to the emergence of SARS-CoV-2. The analyzed SARS-CoV-2 genomes presented 9632 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) corresponding to a variant density of 0.3 over the genome, and a clear geographic distribution. SNPs are unevenly distributed throughout the genome and hotspots for mutations were found for the spike gene and ORF 1ab. We describe a set of predicted spike protein epitopes whose variability is negligible. All predicted epitopes for the structural E, M and N proteins are highly conserved. This result favors the continuous efficacy of the available vaccines.

scholarly journals Tradition Versus and Modernity in Laila al-Juhani’s The Waste Paradise: An Intertextual Approach

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 1197-1202
Author(s):  
Mohammed Abdullah Abduldaim Hizabr Alhusami
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Short Story ◽  
World Literature ◽  
Narrative Structure ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Saudi Women ◽  
The Core ◽  
The World ◽  
The Status ◽  
Story Writer

The aim of this paper is to investigate the issue of intertextuality in the novel Alfirdaws Alyabab (The Waste Paradise) by the female Saudi novelist and short story writer Laila al-Juhani. Intertextuality is a rhetoric and literary technique defined as a textual reference deliberate or subtle to some other texts with a view of drawing more significance to the core text; and hence it is employed by an author to communicate and discuss ideas in a critical style. The narrative structure of Alfirdaws Alyabab (The Waste Paradise) showcases references of religious, literary, historical, and folkloric intertextuality. In analyzing these references, the study follows the intertextual approach. In her novel The Waste Paradise, Laila al-Juhani portrays the suffering of Saudi women who are less tormented by social marginalization than by an inner conflict between openness to Western culture and conformity to cultural heritage. Intertextuality relates to words, texts, or discourses among each other. Moreover, the intertextual relations are subject to reader’s response to the text. The relation of one text with other texts or contexts never reduces the prestige of writing. Therefore, this study, does not diminish the status of the writer or the text; rather, it is in itself a kind of literary creativity. Finally, this paper aims to introduce Saudi writers in general and the female writers in particular to the world literature.

scholarly journals Baleia, de Graciliano Ramos: uma meditação sobre a vida sensível do animal

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fernanda Coutinho
Keyword(s):  
Nonhuman Animal ◽  
Human Reasoning ◽  
The Novel ◽  
The Gaze ◽  
The Family ◽  
The World ◽  
The Status

In this essay, I examine the status of Baleia, the family dog in Graciliano Ramos’s Vidas secas (1938). My principal interest is to analyse the attenuation of distances and the differentiation of sensibility between humans and animals in the novel. I argue that Baleia allows Ramos to leave aside an absolute belief in human reasoning and think of the nonhuman animal as a being endowed with complexity. In this, Ramos deviates from a speciesist appreciation of history and sharpens the gaze of his readers with respect to the limitations of our understanding of the world and its beings.

scholarly journals COVID-19 and the Heart

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chaitanya Rojulpote ◽  
Karthik Gonuguntla ◽  
Shivaraj Patil ◽  
Abhijit Bhattaru ◽  
Paco Bravo
Keyword(s):  
Cardiovascular System ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Risk Of Death ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
The World ◽  
Significant Burden ◽  
Coronary Syndromes ◽  
Novel Virus ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) which causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has resulted in a global health crisis. Prior to the arrival of this viral pandemic, the world was already plagued with a significant burden of cardiovascular disease. With the introduction of the novel virus, the world now faces a double jeapordy. Early reports have suggested an increased risk of death in individuals with underlying cardio-metabolic disorders. The exact effects of COVID-19 on the cardiovascular system are not well determined, however lessons from prior viral epidemics suggest that such infections can trigger acute coronary syndromes, arrhythmias and heart failure via direct and indirect mechanisms. In this article, we aimed to discuss the effects and potential underlying mechanisms of COVID -19 as well as potential implications of treatments targeted against this virus on the cardiovascular system.

scholarly journals COVID-19: a novel zoonotic disease caused by a coronavirus from China: what we know and what we don't

2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 45 ◽  
Author(s):  
John S Mackenzie ◽  
David W Smith
Keyword(s):  
Public Health Emergency ◽  
World Health ◽  
Director General ◽  
The Novel ◽  
New Disease ◽  
Unknown Aetiology ◽  
The Third ◽  
The World ◽  
Novel Virus ◽  
Health Organization

At the end of December, 2019, a new disease of unknown aetiology appeared in Wuhan, China. It was quickly identified as a novel betacoronavirus, and related to SARS-CoV and a number of other bat-borne SARS-like coronaviruses. The virus rapidly spread to all provinces in China, as well as a number of countries overseas, and was declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern by the Director-General of the World Health Organization on 30 January 2020. This paper describes the evolution of the outbreak, and the known properties of the novel virus, SARS-CoV-2 and the clinical disease it causes, COVID-19, and comments on some of the important gaps in our knowledge of the virus and the disease it causes. The virus is the third zoonotic coronavirus, after SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV, but appears to be the only one with pandemic potential.

Discourse and symbol in Le Minh Phong’s novel The Path

2020 ◽  
Vol 65 (8) ◽  
pp. 98-108
Author(s):  
Linh Phan Trong Hoang
Keyword(s):  
Modern Society ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Artistic Style ◽  
Study Results ◽  
The World ◽  
Vietnamese Literature ◽  
The Status

Following Mikhail Bakhtin’s poetics, the article approaches Le Minh Phong’s novel The Path from two characteristics including discourse and symbolization. The writer created the coexistence and dialogue between two symbols of awareness and body and used it to present the understanding of people’s lives in modern society. Surrounded by irrational taboos, people fell into the status of losing their voice power. Regaining that lost power, as for the character by Le Minh Phong, is a hopeless path. Hence, the world in the novel exhibited gloom, tearfulness, blood and death, along with the sound of screams, profanity and curses. With the achieved study results, the article contributes to assert Le Minh Phong’s position as a typical artistic style of contemporary Vietnamese literature.

scholarly journals Mutation patterns of human SARS-COV-2 and bat RaTG13 coronaviruses genomes are strongly biased towards C>U indicating rapid evolution in their hosts

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roman Matyasek ◽  
Ales Kovarik
Keyword(s):  
World Wide ◽  
Genome Structure ◽  
Rapid Evolution ◽  
Protein Domain ◽  
Spike Protein ◽  
Single Nucleotide ◽  
The World ◽  
Cpg Dinucleotide ◽  
Rhinolophus Affinis ◽  
Contact Domain

Abstract Background: The world pandemy caused by SARS-CoV-2 spreading has raised considerable interest about its evolutionary origin and genome structure. Here we analysed mutation patterns in 13 human SARS-COV-2 isolates and a closely related RaTG13 isolated from Rhinolophus affinis bat. We also evaluated the CpG dinucleotide contents in SARS-COV-2 and other human and animal coronavirus genomes. Results: Out of 1107 single nucleotide differences (c. 4% divergence) between human SARS-COV-2 and bat RaTG13, 672 (61%) can be attributed to C>U and U>T substitutions significantly (P<0.001) exceeding other types of SNPs. A similar trend was observed among the 13 sequenced SARS-COV-2 genomes. Accumulation of C>U mutations was also observed in a highly variable subregion encoding the ACE2 receptor contact domain. Contrast to most other coronaviruses both SARS-COV-2 and RaTG13 exhibited CpG depletion in their genomes. Conclusion: The data support that the C-to-U conversion played a significant role in the evolution of pathogenic RNA coronaviruses including SARS-COV-2. These mutations apparently also influenced amino acid composition of the SARS-Cov-2 spike protein domain receptor implicated in virus pathogenicity. We propose that SARS-COV-2 was evolving relatively long in humans following the transfer from animals before spreading world-wide.

scholarly journals John Banville’s „Ghosts”: “A different way of being alive”

2017 ◽  
Vol 55 ◽  
pp. 69-82
Author(s):  
Bożena Kucała
Keyword(s):  
The Novel ◽  
Ontological Status ◽  
Empirical Reality ◽  
Fictional World ◽  
Work In Progress ◽  
Literary Character ◽  
The World ◽  
The Status

This article analyses the ontological status of the characters who inhabit the world of John Banville’s novel Ghosts. While the problem of volatile selfhood recurs in Banville’s fiction, in this novel the very existence of the characters within the fictional world remains doubtful. It is argued here that the numerous metafictional elements in the text are central to its interpretation. The novel itself should be treated as a work in progress or a design for a novel rather than a completed project. The narrative initiates and ultimately resists familiar patterns; the characters’ peculiar way of being alive seems to stem from an intersection of empirical reality and an obscure realm of fantasy, imagination as well as textual and artistic allusions. Correspondingly, the narrator’s status as a literary character is ambiguous. The article suggests that the narrator is the most likely creator of the characters within the fictional world and is himself a playful author-substitute in the novel. In conclusion, a reading that treats Ghosts as a postmodern artefact appears to provide a viable framework for resolving the apparent contradictions and ambiguities in the status of the characters.

Costumes in Henryk Sienkiewicz’s Quo vadis and their Literary and Painterly Sources

2020 ◽  
pp. 55-72
Author(s):  
Ewa Skwara
Keyword(s):  
Ancient Rome ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Classical Education ◽  
Roman Literature ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The World ◽  
Close Relationship ◽  
The Status ◽  
Quo Vadis ◽  
Colour Coding

Sienkiewicz had to dress the characters of Quo vadis in period garments. Their descriptions rarely appear, but they are highly suggestive of how the author understood ancient Rome and tried to recreate it in his work. Sienkiewicz gives detailed descriptions of costumes only when they concern the most important figures in his novel, or if clothing plays an important role in the plot. The rest of the protagonists are treated as collective characters whose clothing is identified only in terms of togas, stolae, or the robes of the poor. Beside the ubiquitous tunic, other Latin names of clothing primarily indicate the status of characters or are mentioned when Sienkiewicz uses clothes to disguise them. In those cases, the ubiquitous tunic receives an adjectival descriptor of colour or shade, which in the world of Quo vadis has a differentiating function. The names of the characters’ outfits have their origins in Roman literature. The terms introduced in the novel allow for an easy recreation of the author’s reading list, which consists of the basic works of a classical education—Cicero, Suetonius, Plutarch, Pliny, Horace, Propertius, Juvenal, Martial. Sometimes Sienkiewicz mixes his classical terminology with those of ecclesiastical Latin, creating an unintendedly humorous effect. However, the writer’s use of costume colour seems to have been inspired by the paintings of Lawrence Alma-Tadema and Henryk Siemiradzki. This chapter will explore the very close relationship between text and paintings, and utilizes Sienkiewicz’s colour coding to pinpoint some of the images on which he drew.

scholarly journals Prediction of Global Spread of Covid-19 Pandemic: A Review and Research Challenges

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saloni Shah ◽  
Aos Mulahuwaish ◽  
Kayhan Ghafoor ◽  
Halgurd S. Maghdid
Keyword(s):  
Local Governments ◽  
Scientific Community ◽  
World Economy ◽  
Statistical Modelling ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Virus Spread ◽  
Local Authorities ◽  
The World ◽  
Global Spread ◽  
Novel Virus

<p>Since the initial reports of the Coronavirus surfacing in Wuhan, China; the novel virus currently without a cure has spread like a wildfire across the globe. The virus spread exponentially across all inhabited continent; catching local governments by surprise in many cases and bringing the world economy to a standstill. As local authorities work on a response to deal with the virus, the scientific community has stepped in to help analyse and predict the pattern and conditions that would influence the spread of this unforgiving virus. Using existing statistical modelling tools to latest AI technology; the scientific community has used public and privately available data to help with predictions. A lot of this data research has enabled local authorities to plan their response – whether that is to deploy tightly available medical resources like ventilators or how and when to enforce policies to social distance including lockdowns. On one hand, this paper shows what accuracy of research brings to enable fighting this disease; while on the other hand it also shows what lack of response from local authorities can do in spreading this virus. This is our attempt in compiling different research methods and comparing their accuracy in predicting the spread of COVID-19.</p>

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