An Exploratory Analysis of Collective Patterns of Conscious Experience Using a Self-Report Questionnaire.

This study is an exploration of collective patterns of conscious experience, as described by various psychological models, using a self-report questionnaire: The Consciousness Quotient Inventory (CQ-i). The CQ-i evaluates patterns of behaviors, attitudes, and attentional styles as well as the usage of conscious skills, awareness, and the capacity to "feel awake and alive," providing a complex exploration of conscious experience. A set of 237 items covering major aspects of the subjective conscious experience was selected to detect the phenomenal patterns of subjective conscious experience. An exploratory factor analysis on a large sample (N = 2,360), combined with our previous meta-research on conceptual convergence of conscious experiences, revealed that these experiences appear to have 15 patterns common to all of us. A sample with a quasi-normal distribution (n = 2,266) was employed for standardization and classification of scores (M = 100; SD = 15). The study provides a conceptual framework for future in-depth studies on collective patterns of self-awareness, inner growth dynamics, and psychological maturity.

Viroinformatics-Based Analysis of SARS-CoV-2 Core Proteins for Potential Therapeutic Targets.

SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) is a novel coronavirus for which no known effective antiviral drugs are available. In the present study, to accelerate the discovery of potential drug candidates, bioinformatics-based in silico drug discovery approaches are utilized. We performed multiple sequence alignments of the Spike (S) protein with 75 sequences of different viruses from the Orthocoronavirinae subfamily. This provided us with insights into the evolutionarily conserved domains that can be targeted using drugs or specific antibodies. Further, we analyzed the mechanism of SARS-CoV-2 core proteins, i.e., S and RdRp (RNA-dependent RNA polymerase), to elucidate how the virus infection can utilize hemoglobin to decrease the blood oxygen level. Moreover, after a comprehensive literature survey, more than 60 antiviral drugs were chosen. The candidate drugs were then ranked based on their potential to interact with the Spike and RdRp proteins of SARS-CoV-2. The present multidimensional study further advances our understanding of the novel viral molecular targets and potential of computational approaches for therapeutic assessments. The present study can be a steppingstone in the selection of potential drug candidates to be used either as a treatment or as a reference point when designing a new drug/antibody/inhibitory peptide/vaccine against SARS-CoV-2.