Multilingualism in London: LUCIDE City Report

This report is produced for LUCIDE (Languages in Urban Contexts: Integration and Diversity in Europe) project and network, funded by the EU Lifelong learning programme 2010- 2014, based on the collected primary and secondary data. It includes a brief historic overview of London’s demolinguistic features and a range of evidence relevant to current manifestations of multilingualism and plurilingualism in this global city. Considering the size, population and complexity of London our specific focus is on one local authority (out of an existing 33): the City of Westminster, geographically the heart of this metropolis. Westminster is in many ways representative of London language trends. It shows some of the most prominent features of multilingualism in London: an extraordinary linguistic variety with a wide distribution of languages, where no one language is dominant. Nevertheless, we also make reference to examples of multilingualism from outside Westminster, when we have considered it to be pertinent

Effect of remote ischaemic conditioning on clinical outcomes in patients with acute myocardial infarction (CONDI-2/ERIC-PPCI): a single-blind randomised controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Remote ischaemic conditioning with transient ischaemia and reperfusion applied to the arm has been shown to reduce myocardial infarct size in patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI). We investigated whether remote ischaemic conditioning could reduce the incidence of cardiac death and hospitalisation for heart failure at 12 months. METHODS: We did an international investigator-initiated, prospective, single-blind, randomised controlled trial (CONDI-2/ERIC-PPCI) at 33 centres across the UK, Denmark, Spain, and Serbia. Patients (age >18 years) with suspected STEMI and who were eligible for PPCI were randomly allocated (1:1, stratified by centre with a permuted block method) to receive standard treatment (including a sham simulated remote ischaemic conditioning intervention at UK sites only) or remote ischaemic conditioning treatment (intermittent ischaemia and reperfusion applied to the arm through four cycles of 5-min inflation and 5-min deflation of an automated cuff device) before PPCI. Investigators responsible for data collection and outcome assessment were masked to treatment allocation. The primary combined endpoint was cardiac death or hospitalisation for heart failure at 12 months in the intention-to-treat population. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT02342522) and is completed. FINDINGS: Between Nov 6, 2013, and March 31, 2018, 5401 patients were randomly allocated to either the control group (n=2701) or the remote ischaemic conditioning group (n=2700). After exclusion of patients upon hospital arrival or loss to follow-up, 2569 patients in the control group and 2546 in the intervention group were included in the intention-to-treat analysis. At 12 months post-PPCI, the Kaplan-Meier-estimated frequencies of cardiac death or hospitalisation for heart failure (the primary endpoint) were 220 (8·6%) patients in the control group and 239 (9·4%) in the remote ischaemic conditioning group (hazard ratio 1·10 [95% CI 0·91-1·32], p=0·32 for intervention versus control). No important unexpected adverse events or side effects of remote ischaemic conditioning were observed. INTERPRETATION: Remote ischaemic conditioning does not improve clinical outcomes (cardiac death or hospitalisation for heart failure) at 12 months in patients with STEMI undergoing PPCI. FUNDING: British Heart Foundation, University College London Hospitals/University College London Biomedical Research Centre, Danish Innovation Foundation, Novo Nordisk Foundation, TrygFonden

Improved propensity-score matched long-term clinical outcomes in patients with successful percutaneous coronary interventions of coronary chronic total occlusion

© 2018, International Heart Journal Association. All rights reserved. The objective of the study was to evaluate major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) after successful versus failed percutaneous coronary intervention for chronic total occlusion (PCI-CTO). Limited data are available on long-term clinical follow-up in the treatment of chronic total occlusion (CTO). Between January 2009 and December 2010 PCI-CTO was attempted in 283 consecutive patients with 289 CTO lesions. Procedural success was 62.3% and clinical follow-up covered 83% (235/283) of the study population with a median follow-up of 66 months (range, 59-74). The total incidence of MACE was 57/235 (24.3%), and was significantly higher in the procedural failure group than in the procedural success group (33/87 (37.9%) versus 24/148 (16.2%), P < 0.001). All-cause mortality was significantly lower in patients with successful PCI-CTO compared to failed PCI-CTO (10.8% versus 20.7%, P < 0.05). Also, the rate of cardiovascular death in the procedural failure group (14.9%) was slightly higher than that in the procedural success group (7.4%, P = 0.066). The rate of TVR was statistically higher in the procedural failure group (P < 0.009). Propensity score-adjusted Cox regression showed that procedural success remained a significant predictor of MACE (adjusted HR 0.402; 95% CI 0.196-0.824; P = 0.013). Our study emphasizes the importance of CTO recanalization in improving long-term outcome including all-cause mortality with a borderline effect on cardiovascular mortality

Multilingual perspectives: preparing for language learning in the new curriculum for Wales

This article will investigate the place of language learning in the new Curriculum for Wales and the value of a multilingual approach and ethos. The article will begin by setting out the historical context for modern foreign language teaching in the United Kingdom. It will then discuss the context for language learning in Wales, focusing on the Welsh Government's Global Futures five‐year strategy for modern foreign languages (2015–2020). It will evaluate the success of this languages' strategy in addressing the attrition rates for modern foreign languages in Welsh schools. The article will then proceed to analyse the assumptions underpinning language learning in the Draft Curriculum for Wales 2022, as demonstrated in the Languages, Literacy and Communication Area of Learning and Experience (AoLE) which brings together Welsh, English and international languages. This article will argue that this reconfiguration offers a unique position from which to create a sustained partnership, working between historically separate language teaching and learning communities. Finally, this article will focus on a modern foreign language mentoring project as an example of a multilingual approach to language learning. Ultimately, this article will advocate for an ambitious rethinking of how we conceive, teach and value language learning for twenty‐first century Wales