5 research outputs found

    Examining Urdu: A study of 16+ examinations in the U.K.

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    The purpose of this thesis is to investigate some aspects of Urdu examinations in Britain. The changeover from GCE to GCSE has required Urdu teachers and students to develop a broader range of skills. The goals of the Urdu-using community do not necessarily accord with the demands of the GCSE, which requires Urdu to be examined according to criteria determined for French. Chapter 1 discusses factors which affect the examination and distinguish Urdu from French: the students' bilingual background, teachers and teaching provision, the implications of the change in the examination system, the introduction of the National Curriculum and the notion of parity of status with 'Modern Languages'. Chapter 2 analyses the GCSE criteria and the Urdu syllabuses derived from them. Certain aspects of the GCSE are given special consideration, including writing standards, the oral examination, discrete-skill testing and the use of dual language papers. In view of the social priority accorded to writing by the Urdu-using community it was thought appropriate to investigate examination candidates' written performance. Chapter 3 discusses the rationale for the collection and analysis of the corpus analysed. Chapter 4 demonstrates the types and range of verbs and verb forms used by the candidates and relates them to the GCSE vocabulary and structure lists. Chapter 5 analyses errors with particular reference to the influence of Panjabi and the relationship between phonemes and graphemes and considers them from the standpoint of the GCSE assessment criteria. Chapter 6 contains an analysis of English words used in the Urdu compositions and of those included in the GCSE vocabularies. The final chapter summarises the findings of the research and suggests areas worthy of further investigation. Alternative examination formats are also suggested which may be more appropriate for Urdu than those prescribed. These include graded assessment, the introduction of national attainment targets and the development of a new post 16+ examination

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

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    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

    Ethnocentricity and the social construction of ?mass hysteria?

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

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    Altres ajuts: Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC); Illumina; LifeArc; Medical Research Council (MRC); UKRI; Sepsis Research (the Fiona Elizabeth Agnew Trust); the Intensive Care Society, Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellowship (223164/Z/21/Z); BBSRC Institute Program Support Grant to the Roslin Institute (BBS/E/D/20002172, BBS/E/D/10002070, BBS/E/D/30002275); UKRI grants (MC_PC_20004, MC_PC_19025, MC_PC_1905, MRNO2995X/1); UK Research and Innovation (MC_PC_20029); the Wellcome PhD training fellowship for clinicians (204979/Z/16/Z); the Edinburgh Clinical Academic Track (ECAT) programme; the National Institute for Health Research, the Wellcome Trust; the MRC; Cancer Research UK; the DHSC; NHS England; the Smilow family; the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health (CTSA award number UL1TR001878); the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania; National Institute on Aging (NIA U01AG009740); the National Institute on Aging (RC2 AG036495, RC4 AG039029); the Common Fund of the Office of the Director of the National Institutes of Health; NCI; NHGRI; NHLBI; NIDA; NIMH; NINDS.Critical COVID-19 is caused by immune-mediated inflammatory lung injury. Host genetic variation influences the development of illness requiring critical care or hospitalization 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

    Circulating microRNAs in sera correlate with soluble biomarkers of immune activation but do not predict mortality in ART treated individuals with HIV-1 infection: A case control study

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    10.1371/journal.pone.0139981PLoS ONE1010e013998
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