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SARS-CoV-2 is spreading worldwide with continuously evolving variants, some of which occur in the Spike protein and appear to increase viral transmissibility. However, variants that cause severe COVID-19 or lead to other breakthroughs have not been well characterized. To discover such viral variants, we assembled a cohort of 683 COVID-19 patients; 388 inpatients ("cases") and 295 outpatients ("controls") from April to August 2020 using electronically captured COVID test request forms and sequenced their viral genomes. To improve the analytical power, we accessed 7137 viral sequences in Washington State to filter out viral single nucleotide variants (SNVs) that did not have significant expansions over the collection period. Applying this filter led to the identification of 53 SNVs that were statistically significant, of which 13 SNVs each had 3 or more variant copies in the discovery cohort. Correlating these selected SNVs with case/control status, eight SNVs were found to significantly associate with inpatient status (q-values < 0.01). Using temporal synchrony, we identified a four SNV-haplotype (t19839-g28881-g28882-g28883) that was significantly associated with case/control status (Fisher's exact p = 2.84 × 10–11). This haplotype appeared in April 2020, peaked in June, and persisted into January 2021. The association was replicated (OR = 5.46, p-value = 4.71 × 10−12) in an independent cohort of 964 COVID-19 patients (June 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021). The haplotype included a synonymous change N73N in endoRNase, and three non-synonymous changes coding residues R203K, R203S and G204R in the nucleocapsid protein. This discovery points to the potential functional role of the nucleocapsid protein in triggering "cytokine storms" and severe COVID-19 that led to hospitalization. The study further emphasizes a need for tracking and analyzing viral sequences in correlations with clinical status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study shows that multi-home ownership determines the patterns of portfolio composition. The IV-Tobit models have been used on the 2015 China household and finance survey data, and the potential endogeneity problem has been addressed by using the variation of housing prices at the city level as instruments. The results show that multiple-housing ownership significantly crowds out the proportion of risky financial assets held by urban Chinese households, which reflects the substitution effect and people's risk awareness with regard to real estate. Moreover, this crowding out effect is particularly significant and generally stronger for wealthy households and for regions with a medium development level of financial markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Correction to: I Scientific Reports i https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-04376-4, published online 24 January 2022 The original version of this Article contained an error in Figure 1, where an old version of the figure was mistakenly submitted for publication. These authors contributed equally: Lue Ping Zhao and Pavitra Roychoudhury. [Extracted from the article]