scholarly journals Angiotensin–Converting Enzyme (ACE) 1 Gene Polymorphism and Phenotypic Expression of COVID-19 Symptoms

Genes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 1572
Author(s):  
Naoki Yamamoto ◽  
Nao Nishida ◽  
Rain Yamamoto ◽  
Takashi Gojobori ◽  
Kunitada Shimotohno ◽  
...  

The renin–angiotensin–aldosterone system (RAAS) appears to play an important role in SARS-CoV-2 infection. Polymorphisms within the genes that control this enzymatic system are candidates for elucidating the pathogenesis of COVID-19, since COVID-19 is not only a pulmonary disease but also affects many organs and systems throughout the body in multiple ways. Most striking is the fact that ACE2, one of the major components of the RAAS, is a prerequisite for SARS-COV-2 infection. Recently, we and other groups reported an association between a polymorphism of the ACE1 gene (a homolog of ACE2) and the phenotypic expression of COVID-19, particularly in its severity. The ethnic difference in ACE1 insertion (I)/deletion (D) polymorphism seems to explain the apparent difference in mortality between the West and East Asia. The purpose of this review was to further evaluate the evidence linking ACE1 polymorphisms to COVID-19. We searched the Medline database (2019–2021) for reference citations of relevant articles and selected studies on the clinical outcome of COVID-19 related to ACE1 I/D polymorphism. Although the numbers of patients are not large enough yet, most available evidence supports the notion that the DD genotype adversely influences COVID-19 symptoms. Surprisingly, small studies conducted in several countries yielded opposite results, suggesting that the ACE1 II genotype is a risk factor. This contradictory result may be the case in certain geographic areas, especially in subgroups of patients. It may also be due to interactions with other genes or to yet unexplained biochemical mechanisms. According to our hypothesis, such candidates are genes that are functionally involved in the pathophysiology of COVID-19, can act in concert with the ACE1 DD genotype, and that show differences in their frequency between the West and East Asia. For this, we conducted research focusing on Alu-related genes. The current study on the ACE1 genotype will provide potentially new clues to the pathogenesis, treatment, and diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infections.

Author(s):  
Esraa Aladdin Noori ◽  
Nasser Zain AlAbidine Ahmed

The Russian-American relations have undergone many stages of conflict and competition over cooperation that have left their mark on the international balance of power in the Middle East. The Iraqi and Syrian crises are a detailed development in the Middle East region. The Middle East region has allowed some regional and international conflicts to intensify, with the expansion of the geopolitical circle, which, if applied strategically to the Middle East region, covers the area between Afghanistan and East Asia, From the north to the Maghreb to the west and to the Sudan and the Greater Sahara to the south, its strategic importance will seem clear. It is the main lifeline of the Western world.


2020 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
pp. 379-397
Author(s):  
Elmar Holenstein

AbstractNot everything that is logically possible and technically feasible is also natural, for example, placing China in the exact center of a world map. Such a map would not correspond to the laws of perception.Matteo Ricci, who was the first to create Chinese world maps on which the Americas were depicted, had to choose between two ideals, between a world map that obeys the gestalt principles of perception and a world map with the “Central State” China in its center. The first ideal mattered more to him than the second, although he took the latter into account as well. The result was a Pacific-centered map.Since we live on a sphere, what we perceive to be in the East and in the West depends on our location. It is therefore natural that in East Asia, world maps show America in the East and not – as in Europe – in the West. This was the argument underlying Ricci’s creation of Pacific-centered maps, and not the intention of depicting China as close to the center of the map as possible.It is only in East Asia that Ricci was the first to create Pacific-centered maps. World maps with the Pacific in the midfield were made in Europe before Ricci, motivated by the traditional unidirectional numbering of the meridians (0°–360°) from West to East starting with the Atlantic Insulae Fortunatae (Canary Islands).


Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 237
Author(s):  
Mehmet Ozalp ◽  
Mirela Ćufurović

Muslim youth have been under scrutiny over the last two decades from a radicalisation and countering violent extremism lens. This bias has largely carried itself to research conducted on Muslim youth in the West. This article undertakes a systematic review and analysis of literature conducted on Muslim youth in the West and in Australia in the last two decades since 11 September 2001. The body of literature in this field can be grouped under three main themes: (1) the impact of terrorism policies and discourse on Muslim youth and their disengaged identities, (2) the relationship between religion (Islam) and civic engagement of Muslim youth, and (3) Muslim youth as active citizens. An important conclusion of this review is that most of the research is dated. There have been significant changes in the development of youth as they quickly evolve and adapt. The systematic review of literature exposed a number of gaps in the research: the current literature ignores generic adolescent factors and external social factors other than Islam that also influence Muslim youth; studies that examine both online and traditional activism and volunteering space are needed to understand the dynamics of change and shift; research needs to focus on Muslim youth who were born and raised in Australia rather than focus only on migrant youth; the ways some Muslim youth use their unique sense of identity as Australian Muslims to become successful citizens engaged in positive action is not known; how Muslim youth use avenues other than their faith to express themselves in civic engagement and their commitment to society is underexplored; it is not known the degree to which bonding networks influence the identity formation and transformation of Muslim youth; there is no research done to examine how adult–youth partnership is managed in organisations that successfully integrate youth in their leadership; there is a need to include Australian Muslim youth individual accounts of their active citizenship; there is a need to understand the process of positive Muslim youth transformations as a complement to the current focus on the radicalisation process. Addressing these gaps will allow a more complete understanding of Muslim youth in the West and inform educational and social policies in a more effective manner.


Literator ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Laude Ngadi M

Manifestos and literary programs in French-Speaking sub-Saharian of Africa: About ‘invisibility’ of the corpus in literary criticism. Despite an abundant production, the corpus of literary manifestos and programmes from sub-Saharan Francophone Africa is relatively invisible in literary criticism. With the exception of a few studies, critical works devoted to the programmatic works of writers are rare. This article proposes some hypotheses that can explain why the body of literature of authors’ ideas in this space is generally ‘invisible’. The approach of the literary field, applied to the sociology of scientific production, makes it possible to highlight three main causes for this invisibility: the importance of identity and cultural discourse, which makes it impossible to delimit the geographical space of writers from sub-Saharan Francophone Africa, whose production and reception are dominated by that of their colleagues from the West Indies and the Caribbean; the omnipresence of political and social discourse which takes precedence over poetic reflection; the metalanguage of the manifesto due to the fact that writers are also generally literary critics.


2021 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-13
Author(s):  
S. O. K. Fajemilehin

The study was conducted using 800 adult local chickens comprising 355 males and 445 females, which were obtained from 2 major markets in Ado Ekiti, the capital city of Ekiti state, Nigeria. Convenience sampling technique was employed in selecting animals for observation. The birds were individually observed for phenotypic expression of shank colour, feather morphology, feather structure, polydactyly, ptylopody and comb types. The number in each group was expressed as a percentage of the total number of birds. The body size parameters measured include body weight, body girth, body length, shank length, wing length, toe length, keel length and shank diameter. The result revealed that the phenotypic frequencies of birds with dominant genes for feather morphology (FF, Ff), feather structure (NaNa + Nana), poly dactyl (PoPo + Popo) and ptylopods (FshFsh + Fshfsh) were 0.033, 0.037, 0.042 and 0.046 respectively, while that of the recessive gene carriers were 0.967, 0.963, 0.958 and 0.954 respectively. The calculated gene frequencies for frizzled (F), Naked neck (Na), Polydactyly (Po) and ptylopods (Fsh) were 0.035, 0.024, 0.034 and 0.035 respectively. The local chicken showed different plumage coloration with black, brown and pink predominating. The male birds were superior to their female counterparts with significant differences (P<0.05) in all the parameters measured except weight.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger Buckley

Supported by an in-depth Introduction and contextual analysis, this six-volume set complements Series I (1918-1937 – From Armistice to North China), addressing the history between 1938 and1945. Despite the widespread operation of war-time censorship and surveillance, publishers in the West and, to a lesser degree in East Asia, put out a range of material that remains of considerable value to later generations. Some of the texts selected are undeniably partisan but the quantity of the published material (and to some extent its quality) left the general public with a vast and varied archive of printed matter that deserves to be consulted and debated by today's researchers and students. Greater attention is given to American and British literature rather than Chinese or Japanese simply by virtue of the practical realities.


2021 ◽  
Vol 64 (2) ◽  
pp. 110-127
Author(s):  
Henri Hude

This articles describes the “neuronal crisis,” the epidemic of psychosomatic illnesses observed all over the world, particularly in the West. The paper looks into the deeper real causes and seeks the most effective kind of cure for this malady. This leads to rational consideration of the metaphysical dimension of the human being and the fundamental problems (those of evil, of freedom, of God, of the soul, and of the body), where lack of sufficiency plays a major part in the etiology of these pathologies, as the desire for the Absolute is the basis of the unconscious. This approach presumes the Freudian model but denies its purely libidinal interpretation that substitutes desire for the Absolute with libido. Hence, an explanatory system applied to increasingly serious pathologies: ailments, neuroses, depressions, and psychoses. Frustration of one’s desire for the Good gives rise to a sublimation of finite goodness. The inevitable desublimation, caused by anguish because of the Evil, intense guilt, and the dramatization of evils, causes neuroses as awkward but inevitable solutions to the existential problem that is still unresolved, due to lack of functional and experimental knowledge. Psychiatry and even medicine must take into account the metaphysical layer, and, therefore, operate within an existential dynamic, aiming to progress in wisdom and to discover man, man’s brain and body, as these are structured around the axis of his desire.


2018 ◽  
Vol 236 ◽  
pp. 1197-1205 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcin Kaczmarski

A decade ago, Beijing's relations with Moscow were of marginal interest to China scholars. Topics such as growing Sino-American interdependence-cum-rivalry, engagement with East Asia or relations with the developing world overshadowed China's relationship with its northern neighbour. Scholars preoccupied with Russia's foreign policy did not pay much attention either, regarding the Kremlin's policy towards China as part and parcel of Russia's grand strategy directed towards the West. The main dividing line among those few who took a closer look ran between sceptics and alarmists. The former interpreted the post-Cold War rapprochement as superficial and envisioned an imminent clash of interests between the two states. The latter, a minority, saw the prospect of an anti-Western alliance.


2000 ◽  
Vol 182 (11) ◽  
pp. 3219-3227 ◽  
Author(s):  
Asish K. Mukhopadhyay ◽  
Dangeruta Kersulyte ◽  
Jin-Yong Jeong ◽  
Simanti Datta ◽  
Yoshiyuki Ito ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT The genotypes of 78 strains of Helicobacter pylori from Calcutta, India (55 from ulcer patients and 23 from more-benign infections), were studied, with a focus on putative virulence genes and neutral DNA markers that were likely to be phylogenetically informative. PCR tests indicated that 80 to 90% of Calcutta strains carried the cag pathogenicity island (PAI) and potentially toxigenic vacAs1 alleles of the vacuolating cytotoxin gene (vacA), independent of disease status. This was higher than in the West (where cag PAI+ vacAs1 genotypes are disease associated) but lower than in east Asia. The iceA2 gene was weakly disease associated in Calcutta, whereas in the West the alternative but unrelatediceA1 gene at the same locus is weakly disease associated. DNA sequence motifs of vacAm1 (middle region) alleles formed a cluster that was distinct from those of east Asia and the West, whereas the cagA sequences of Calcutta and Western strains were closely related. An internal deletion found in 20% of Calcutta iceA1 genes was not seen in any of ∼200 strains studied from other geographic regions and thus seemed to be unique to this H. pylori population. Two mobile DNAs that were rare in east Asian strains were also common in Calcutta. About 90% of Calcutta strains were metronidazole resistant. These findings support the idea that H. pylori gene pools differ regionally and emphasize the potential importance of studies of Indian and other non-Western H. pylori populations in developing a global understanding of this gastric pathogen and associated disease.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 251-254
Author(s):  
C BIGOT ◽  
F O NGONGANG ◽  
E NSEME ◽  
M SOUMAH ◽  
Z SANDO

Homicide may be an isolated impulsive act arising from a situation or based on a previous conception, which is premeditation. Despite its nature or motivations, homicide remains a wrongful criminal act at all times and in all places. Several studies conducted in Western countries on this topic have highlighted the overriding concern of the criminal, which includes concealing the criminal offence in most cases.In Africa, apart from cases of infanticide, the discovery of the body of a homicide victim in a public place is a relatively common phenomenon, particularly if it involves mutilation.The body was examined; it was a young adult African female whose corpse was wrapped in a plastic bag. The autopsy established that the section or cutting planes were preferably lodged in the large joints.Death was caused by mechanical asphyxia. The focus of this case lies in the atypical nature of this type of postmortem manipulation in the West African context.The unusual nature of this type of homicide illustrates and underscores some reality in our development context.


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