Sport and recreation activity patterns of 12-year-old learners at a city private primary school

Published ArticleThe new millennium brought about many changes, including changes in the physical activity patterns of children. Children are labelled as the "screen generation". Owing to the wide exposure to computers, television, play stations and cellphones, children tend to lead more sedentary lifestyles as their age increases. A survey was done at a city private primary school to determine the physical activity patterns of the Grade 6 (12 year old) learners (N=63, 33 boys and 30 girls). A self-constructed questionnaire, based on the activities the school offers and on the extramural activities the learners participate in, was used to measure the learners' physical activity patterns and to obtain data about their reasons and key motivators for participation. The responses show that the same group of learners participates in almost all the activities offered. The main problem clearly concerned learners who were uninvolved in all physical activities. Schools were identified as the key element to promote physical activity among learners (Vidyya, 2002:4; Aarnio, 2003:27). The activities must be positive and enjoyable to keep learners motivated and interested in future participation

The utilization of the protein of Somerset beans by rats and sheep

By means of carefully controlled metabolism experiments it was shown that the biological value for Somerset beans with rats is 37, and that this value is significantly enhanced by the inclusion of 0.2 per cent. cystine. The same product when tested out with sheep gave a biological value of 52, and when supplemented in equal proportions, with maize, a value of 62. When April grazing is supplemented by Somerset beans the average biological value obtained is 59.The articles have been scanned in colour with a HP Scanjet 5590; 300dpi. Adobe Acrobat XI Pro was used to OCR the text and also for the merging and conversion to the final presentation PDF-format

Whole-genome sequencing reveals host factors underlying critical COVID-19

Critical COVID-19 is caused by immune-mediated inflammatory lung injury. Host genetic variation influences the development of illness requiring critical care1 or hospitalization2,3,4 after infection with SARS-CoV-2. The GenOMICC (Genetics of Mortality in Critical Care) study enables the comparison of genomes from individuals who are critically ill with those of population controls to find underlying disease mechanisms. Here we use whole-genome sequencing in 7,491 critically ill individuals compared with 48,400 controls to discover and replicate 23 independent variants that significantly predispose to critical COVID-19. We identify 16 new independent associations, including variants within genes that are involved in interferon signalling (IL10RB and PLSCR1), leucocyte differentiation (BCL11A) and blood-type antigen secretor status (FUT2). Using transcriptome-wide association and colocalization to infer the effect of gene expression on disease severity, we find evidence that implicates multiple genes—including reduced expression of a membrane flippase (ATP11A), and increased expression of a mucin (MUC1)—in critical disease. Mendelian randomization provides evidence in support of causal roles for myeloid cell adhesion molecules (SELE, ICAM5 and CD209) and the coagulation factor F8, all of which are potentially druggable targets. Our results are broadly consistent with a multi-component model of COVID-19 pathophysiology, in which at least two distinct mechanisms can predispose to life-threatening disease: failure to control viral replication; or an enhanced tendency towards pulmonary inflammation and intravascular coagulation. We show that comparison between cases of critical illness and population controls is highly efficient for the detection of therapeutically relevant mechanisms of disease