Destination Street Art Toronto

The designed platform facilitates a conversation between street artists and their spectators in terms of the street art of Toronto. It is a tool to be used in order to build a digital community, to represent the artists’ views, and understand public art. By allowing them to freely express themselves through their own art, this platform has started a dialogue onto the street art itself. This is done in the way spectators capture, engage and show their relationship with the public art of Toronto. Collectively, the submissions are mapped onto a photo map, using geotags, representing the actual location of the street art on the roads of Toronto that is uploaded onto an online platform. The product of Destination: Street Art Toronto is a whole new digital world, similar to a segment of Second life, as it exists outside of the physical realm visualized onto a virtual environment

Code-Switching as a Pedagogical Tool in English as a Foreign Language (Efl) Classrooms

The study explores and analyzes the pedagogical implications of code switching between Urdu and English languages in undergraduate EFL classrooms. It examines the ways in which code switching can be employed in EFL classrooms as a teaching and learning tool to boost learning speed and understanding of the language students. The objectives of the study were achieved by carrying out a mix of qualitative and qualitative research methodologies. A sample of thirty teachers and thirty students (male and female in both cases) was taken from a Rawalpindi based university and college. Questionnaires were designed to collect data, from students and teachers, containing both open and closed-ended questions. The analysis of responses revealed that a limited, deliberate and controlled use of code-switching in EFL classrooms benefits both teachers and learners as it considerably supports the pedagogical process and boosts EFL students’ succes

Code-Switching as a Pedagogical Tool in English as a Foreign Language (Efl) Classrooms

The study explores and analyzes the pedagogical implications of code switching between Urdu and English languages in undergraduate EFL classrooms. It examines the ways in which code switching can be employed in EFL classrooms as a teaching and learning tool to boost learning speed and understanding of the language students. The objectives of the study were achieved by carrying out a mix of qualitative and qualitative research methodologies. A sample of thirty teachers and thirty students (male and female in both cases) was taken from a Rawalpindi based university and college. Questionnaires were designed to collect data, from students and teachers, containing both open and closed-ended questions. The analysis of responses revealed that a limited, deliberate and controlled use of code-switching in EFL classrooms benefits both teachers and learners as it considerably supports the pedagogical process and boosts EFL students’ succes

Self-reported health and smoking status, and body mass index: a case-control comparison based on GEN SCRIP (GENetics of SChizophRenia In Pakistan) data

Introduction Individuals with schizophrenia are at a high risk of physical health comorbidities and premature mortality. Cardiovascular and metabolic causes are an important contributor. There are gaps in monitoring, documenting and managing these physical health comorbidities. Because of their condition, patients themselves may not be aware of these comorbidities and may not be able to follow a lifestyle that prevents and manages the complications. In many low-income and middle-income countries including Pakistan, the bulk of the burden of care for those struggling with schizophrenia falls on the families.Objectives To determine the rate of self-reported physical health disorders and risk factors, like body mass index (BMI) and smoking, associated with cardiovascular and metabolic disorders in cases of schizophrenia compared with a group of mentally healthy controls.Design A case-controlled, cross-sectional multicentre study of patients with schizophrenia in Pakistan.Settings Multiple data collection sites across the country for patients, that is, public and private psychiatric OPDs (out patient departments), specialised psychiatric care facilities, and psychiatric wards of teaching and district level hospitals. Healthy controls were enrolled from the community.Participants We report a total of 6838 participants’ data with (N 3411 (49.9%)) cases of schizophrenia compared with a group of healthy controls (N 3427 (50.1%)).Results BMI (OR 0.98 (CI 0.97 to 0.99), p=0.0025), and the rate of smoking is higher in patients with schizophrenia than in controls. Problems with vision (OR 0.13 (0.08 to 0.2), joint pain (OR 0.18 (0.07 to 0.44)) and high cholesterol (OR 0.13 (0.05 to 0.35)) have higher reported prevalence in controls. The cases describe more physical health disorders in the category ‘other’ (OR 4.65 (3.01 to 7.18)). This captures residual disorders not listed in the questionnaire.Conclusions Participants with schizophrenia in comparison with controls report more disorders. The access in the ‘other’ category may be a reflection of undiagnosed disorders