A Phylogenetic Approach to the Uneven Global Distribution of the COVID-19 Pandemic

2022 ◽  
pp. 105-126
Author(s):  
Ole Bernt Lenning ◽  
Ronny Myhre ◽  
May Sissel Vadla ◽  
Geir Sverre Braut
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Molecular Mechanisms ◽  
Sex Bias ◽  
Very High Frequency ◽  
Receptor Modulation ◽  
Different Populations ◽  
Second Wave ◽  
Very High

A possible role of Y chromosomal haplogroups in COVID-19 mortality is discussed without claiming causality. The mortality of COVID-19 seems unequally distributed in different populations and statistically significant regional covariation is presented between COVID-19 mortality and the haplogroup Y-R1b. Y-R1b is suggested as a possible marker for mortality in the first wave of the pandemic affecting the Western Europe. September 2020 the pandemic involved also Eastern Europe severely in a second wave, while South East Asia, with a very high frequency of Y-0, had strikingly low COVID-19 mortality rate. Eastern Europe is dominated by Y-haplogroups (i.e., Y-R1a), with close ancestry to Y-R1b. Molecular mechanisms mediated by the Y chromosome involved in COVID-19 mortality are discussed, presenting a possible role of KDM5D in androgen receptor modulation and regulation of TMPRSS2 known to enable SARS-CoV-2 binding to ACE2 and facilitating virus entrance into the cell and virus replication. Sex bias and comorbidities point at the role of variations in the Y-chromosomal phylogeny.

scholarly journals Enlightened Travelers and Their Mental Maps

2015 ◽  
pp. 145-155
Author(s):  
Nikolay Aretov
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
General Description ◽  
Common Elements ◽  
Mental Maps ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
Patriarchal Culture ◽  
Mental Mapping

Enlightened Travelers and Their Mental MapsThe issue of mental mapping of Eastern Europe (Wolff), posed during the Enlightenment, and the similar problem of the image of the Balkans (Todorova), are both multifaceted. This paper deals with three aspects of these processes and seeks to analyse them through the prism of the Orientalism-Occidentalism opposition.The article opens with a very general description of the Oriental mental maps on the part of 19th-century Bulgarian revolutionaries and modernisers. Most characteristic in this respect are the diaries of those convicted to exile in the Diarbekir fortress. I then turn my attention to texts by influential foreigners who arrived in Bulgaria immediately after 1878, including especially the publications by the Czech historian and Slavonic scholar Constantine Jireček and some of the reactions they provoked.The article reveals common elements in both the foreign perspective on the inhabitants of the Orient/the Balkans/Bulgaria and the Bulgarian perspective on the Occident/Western Europe. A hypothesis is proposed that what the analysed texts portray is not a general clash between traditionalism (patriarchal culture) and modernity but rather a very particular conflict over which group should perform the role of the “civiliser” of Bulgarian society. Both sides of the conflict made instrumental use of existing discourses, be it modernist or patriarchal, Orientalist or Occidentalist.Oświeceni podróżnicy i ich mapy mentalneProblem mentalnego kartografowania Europy Wschodniej (L. Wolff), jak też Bałkanów (M. Todorowa), od czasów oświecenia jest wieloaspektowy. Artykuł charakteryzuje trzy spośród tych aspektów i poszukuje związków pomiędzy nimi, poprzez analizę opozycji orientalizm – okcydentalizm.Na początku prezentuję najogólniej mapy mentalne bułgarskich rewolucjonistów i przedstawicieli nowoczesności z XIX wieku na Bałkanach (Orient). Najbardziej charakterystyczne pod tym względem są dzienniki skazańców z twierdzy tureckiej w Diar-Bekir. Następnie moja uwaga skupia się na tekstach wpływowych cudzoziemców, którzy znaleźli się w Bułgarii bezpośrednio po 1878 roku, a wśród nich w centrum mojego zainteresowania znajdują się niektóre publikacje Czecha Konstantina Irečka i reakcje na nie.Artykuł jest próbą zarysu punktu widzenia cudzoziemca w stosunku do przedstawicieli Orientu /Bałkanów/Bułgarii i bułgarskiego dystansu w odniesieniu do Okcydentu /Zachodu/ Europy. Materiał analizowany skłania ku hipotezie, że nie o zderzenie między tradycjonalizmem (patriarchalną kulturą) i nowoczesnością idzie, ale o konkretną walkę o odegranie roli "cywilizatora" bułgarskiego społeczeństwa. W tej walce oponenci wykorzystują instrumentalnie dostępne dyskursy, modernistyczne, czy też patriarchalne, orientalne, czy okcydentalne. Просветени пътешественици и техните ментални картиПроблемът за менталното картографиране на Източна Европа (Л. Улф) от Просвещението, както и сродния му проблем за отношението към Балканите (М. Тодорова) имат многобройни аспекти. Статията очертава три от тях и търси връзките им, видени през опозицията ориентализъм – оксидентализъм. В началото са представени най-общо менталните карти на българите революционери и модернизатори от ХІХ в. на Ориента. Те са особено характерни за мемоарите на заточениците в Диарбекир. След това вниманието се насочва към текстовете на влиятелни чужденци, попаднали в България непосредствено след 1878 г., на първо място някои публикации на чеха Константин Иречек и някои реакции към тях. Разкрити са общите елементи в ориенталистката гледна точка на чужденеца и оксиденталистките възражения на българина. Изказва се хипотезата, че в случая не се наблюдава сблъсък между традиционно (патриархално) и модерно, а конкурентна борба за ролята на "цивилизатора" на българското общество. В тази борба опонентите използват инструментално наличните дискурси, били те модернистки или патриархални, ориенталистки или оксиденталистки.

De-Orientalizing the Western Gaze on Eastern Europe

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 136-162
Author(s):  
Barbara Christophe
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
The Political ◽  
Traditional Role ◽  
The Past ◽  
Soviet Occupation ◽  
Publishing Houses

Comparing narratives of the Soviet occupation in 1940 in current textbooks by two leading Lithuanian publishing houses, I claim that Lithuanian textbooks offer diverging accounts, which mirror to a large extent the opposing mnemonic frames supported by two rival political camps. I also show that the same textbooks tame those differences by transcending the politically charged frames they have chosen in the first place, presenting, for example, the USSR as both villain and victim of the war. Considering the relevance of these findings for our understanding of dynamics of remembering in general and in the Lithuanian culture of memory in particular, I point out that embracing the political inherent in all acts of recalling the past does not necessarily lead to politicized, i.e. narrow-minded memories, and I reflect on what these mnemonic practices mean for reevaluating the traditional role of Eastern Europe as the backward other of Western Europe.

Developing attachments to new political institutions: a multi-level model of attitude formation in post-Communist Europe

2010 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 475-494 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerhard Loewenberg ◽  
William Mishler ◽  
Howard Sanborn
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
Communist Regime ◽  
Democratic Regimes ◽  
Institutional Structures ◽  
Level Model ◽  
Multi Level

In America and Western Europe, legislatures preceded democratization and contributed to the establishment and maintenance of democratic regimes in the late 18th and the 19th centuries. In Central and Eastern Europe in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, legislatures and democratic regimes appeared simultaneously. In the first 15 years of post-Communist transitions in 12 countries, attachments to the new regimes have been influenced by their institutional structures, their economic performance, and their records in protecting human freedom, while attachment to the new parliaments have been predominantly influenced by cultural factors related to early life socialization including education, age, gender, social status, and attitudes toward the former communist regime. Attachment to parliament was a product more than a cause of attachment to the new regimes, but the parliamentary system of government created a context that contributed to citizens’ attachment to their new political institutions. In that respect, attitudes toward parliaments in Central and Eastern Europe played a role similar to the role that these attitudes played in an earlier stage of democratization in Europe and North America, the role of attaching citizens to new political institutions.

Role of very-high-frequency excitation in single-bubble sonoluminescence

2000 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 2233-2237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco J. Moraga ◽  
Rusi P. Taleyarkhan ◽  
Richard T. Lahey ◽  
Fabian J. Bonetto
Keyword(s):  
High Frequency ◽  
Single Bubble ◽  
Very High Frequency ◽  
High Frequency Excitation ◽  
Frequency Excitation ◽  
Single Bubble Sonoluminescence ◽  
Very High

Some Thoughts on Sican Marked Adobes and Labor Organization

1988 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raffael Cavallaro ◽  
Izumi Shimada
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
North Coast ◽  
Labor Organization ◽  
Very High Frequency ◽  
Monumental Architecture ◽  
Moche Valley ◽  
Labor Tax ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Very High

This paper explores the applicability of the segmentary construction-labor tax model of marked adobe distribution proposed for the solid adobe Mochica pyramids in the Moche Valley on the Peruvian North Coast for Middle Sican monumental architecture in Batan Grande farther north. The model is found inadequate to account for the Middle Sican brick-marking pattern characterized by, among other things, a very high frequency of marking and lack of a one-to-one correspondence between brick size/shape and mark. The difference seems due in part to the chamber-fill building technique of the Middle Sican pyramids which required large scale, unitary construction. Cluster analysis was carried out to assess the relative merits of various alternative models. The most plausible models are those that posit a relatively complex labor organization and specify the role of local, lower-level administrators.

Import/Export: Housework in an International Frame

PMLA ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 127 (4) ◽  
pp. 845-862 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anca Parvulescu
Keyword(s):  
Labor Migration ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Language Translation ◽  
Women's Work ◽  
Private Sphere ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Second Wave ◽  
Eastern And Western Europe

A close reading of Ulrich Seidl's Import Export (2007), a film on labor migration between eastern and western Europe, provides an international frame for revisiting the second-wave feminist debate on housework. In the last two decades, “women's work” has been outsourced transnationally on a large scale, leading to the emergence of an international private sphere inhabited by a new housewife figure. The feminist housework debate of the 1970s supplies the groundwork for a critique of autonomist neo-Marxism that foregrounds the role of language, translation, and visual gesture in the contemporary import/export of labor.

scholarly journals Metabolic Perturbations and Severe COVID-19 Disease: Implication of Molecular Pathways

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Ersilia Nigro ◽  
Fabio Perrotta ◽  
Rita Polito ◽  
Vito D’Agnano ◽  
Filippo Scialò ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Respiratory Failure ◽  
Metabolic Disorders ◽  
Molecular Mechanisms ◽  
Metabolic Diseases ◽  
Respiratory Illnesses ◽  
Receptor Modulation ◽  
High Incidence ◽  
The Impact

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is caused by SARS-CoV-2 virus, which can result in serious respiratory illnesses such as pneumonia leading to respiratory failure. It was first reported in Wuhan, Hubei, China, in December 2019 and rapidly spread globally, becoming a pandemic in March 2020. Among comorbidities observed in SARS-CoV-2 positive patients, hypertension (68.3%) and type 2-diabetes (30.1%) are the most frequent conditions. Although symptoms are highly heterogeneous (ranging from absence of symptoms to severe acute respiratory failure), patients with metabolic-associated diseases often experience worse COVID-19 outcomes. This review investigates the association between metabolic disorders and COVID-19 severity, exploring the molecular mechanisms potentially underlying this relationship and those that are responsible for more severe COVID-19 outcomes. In addition, the role of the main biological processes that may connect metabolic alterations to SARS-CoV-2 infection such as hyperglycemia, immune system deregulation, ACE-2 receptor modulation, and inflammatory response is described. The impact of metabolic disorders on the prognosis of COVID-19 has major implications in public health especially for countries affected by a high incidence of metabolic diseases.

scholarly journals The advantage of channeling nucleotides for very processive functions

F1000Research ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 724 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diana Zala ◽  
Uwe Schlattner ◽  
Thomas Desvignes ◽  
Julien Bobe ◽  
Aurélien Roux ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Energy Metabolism ◽  
Molecular Mechanisms ◽  
Nucleoside Triphosphate ◽  
High Turnover ◽  
Physiological Importance ◽  
Adenosine Triphosphatases ◽  
Close Proximity ◽  
Nucleoside Diphosphate Kinases ◽  
Very High

Nucleoside triphosphate (NTP)s, like ATP (adenosine 5’-triphosphate) and GTP (guanosine 5’-triphosphate), have long been considered sufficiently concentrated and diffusible to fuel all cellular ATPases (adenosine triphosphatases) and GTPases (guanosine triphosphatases) in an energetically healthy cell without becoming limiting for function. However, increasing evidence for the importance of local ATP and GTP pools, synthesised in close proximity to ATP- or GTP-consuming reactions, has fundamentally challenged our view of energy metabolism. It has become evident that cellular energy metabolism occurs in many specialised ‘microcompartments’, where energy in the form of NTPs is transferred preferentially from NTP-generating modules directly to NTP-consuming modules. Such energy channeling occurs when diffusion through the cytosol is limited, where these modules are physically close and, in particular, if the NTP-consuming reaction has a very high turnover, i.e. is very processive. Here, we summarise the evidence for these conclusions and describe new insights into the physiological importance and molecular mechanisms of energy channeling gained from recent studies. In particular, we describe the role of glycolytic enzymes for axonal vesicle transport and nucleoside diphosphate kinases for the functions of dynamins and dynamin-related GTPases.

scholarly journals Gabapentin in Mixed Drug Fatalities: Does this Frequent Analyte Deserve More Attention?

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grant Finlayson ◽  
Michael Chavarria ◽  
Stephanie Chang ◽  
Tyler Gardner ◽  
Abigail Grande ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Item Analysis ◽  
The United States ◽  
Prescribing Practices ◽  
Very High Frequency ◽  
Related Drug ◽  
Drug Fatalities ◽  
Multiple Drugs ◽  
Overdose Deaths ◽  
Very High

From 2000 to 2014, drug overdose deaths increased 137% in the United States, and 61% of these deaths included some form of opiate. The vast majority of opiate-related drug fatalities include multiple drugs, although there is scant data quantitatively describing the exact drugs that contribute to deaths due to multiple drugs. In the present study, we sought to quantitatively identify the drugs that occur with opiates in accidental multidrug-related fatalities. We retrospectively explored fatal drug trends in four Michigan counties, with a focus on profiling drugs present concurrently with opiates. Blood and urine toxicology reports for mixed drug fatalities (N=180) were analyzed using frequent item analysis approaches to identify common analyte trends in opiate-related fatalities. Within our cohort, the most prevalent serum analytes included caffeine (n=147), morphine (n=90), alprazolam (n=69), gabapentin (n=46), and tetrahydrocannabinol (n=44). In 100% of cases where gabapentin was present (n=46), an opiate was also present in the serum or urine. The average gabapentin serum concentration was 13.56 μg/mL (SEM =0.33 μg/mL), with a range of 0.5-88.7 μg/mL. Gabapentin was found at very high frequency in accidental mixed drug fatalities. Gabapentin concentrations were generally within the normal therapeutic range (2-20 μg/mL). It is unknown whether a synergistic effect with opioids may contribute to central respiratory depression. Further research is warranted to determine any contributory role of gabapentin in these deaths. Confirmed interactions could have broad implications for future reporting by forensic pathologists as well as prescribing practices by clinicians.

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