This study investigates university students' perceptions of identity, rights and duties. The context of the study is an English department at a public-sector university in Sindh, Pakistan. The main ...research question that guides this study is 'What perceptions of identity,
rights and duties are held by a sample of undergraduate students in Pakistan?' Semi-structured interviews were used as the research instruments. Cogan's model of citizenship was used as theoretical frameworks guiding this study. Data were collected from twenty students of final-year
undergraduate class. The key arguments based on findings of this study are that participants' perceptions of identity, rights and duties included types and examples of citizenship themes discussed by Cogan as well as the themes particularly relevant to the participants' context
such as religion, morality and caste issues. Asian understanding of citizenship advocates importance of morality and religion or spirituality for Asian citizens. However, the literature reviewed did not exhibit any reference to the importance of caste in a citizen's sense of identity.
I make recommendations for further research to explore the role of context in learners' citizenship interpretations along with other recommendations for research and professional practice.
Gender representation in textbooks is of core importance in the classroom as textbooks are at the centre of the classroom in public sector schools in Sindh, Pakistan. This paper investigates ...teachers’ perceptions regarding the representation of gender in the textbooks. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with 10 secondary school teachers in Sindh, Pakistan. The results show that most of the teachers conformed to the traditional roles of men and women. Moreover, they emphasised the need to revise textbooks as they thought textbooks had a greater influence on students. It is argued that teachers, other than a few exceptions, appear to be unaware of the influence they have on learners’ perceptions. It is recommended that teacher training need to focus on the role of the teachers with reference to the use of textbooks.
Researchers into Literature and Education from Norway, Pakistan and the United Kingdom used William Golding's Lord of the Flies to explore the potential of a literary text to encourage intercultural ...dialogue, employing an innovative teaching method, Google Circles, to provide a platform for asynchronous online discussion among three cohorts of students in higher education. The authors present here the ethical and moral responses to the novel. The authors' analysis of the data explores the students' thoughts about human nature and law and order, as well as responses made by the students to moral turning points in Golding's novel. The authors report that - although the novel provided a space for students from three national contexts to debate major existential questions using the affordances of the asynchronous digital platform - the students found it difficult to distinguish between the writer, the implied author and the narrative voice.
This paper is a theoretical contribution to discussions about the emancipatory potential of citizenship education across four sites (i.e. Catalonia, Colombia, England, and Pakistan). By reflecting on ...policy and empirical data from our four contexts of study, we discuss whether citizenship education manifests different conditions of emancipatory education (modern, postmodern, and posthumous). We argue that citizenship education offers possibilities for emancipation, but these are constrained by capitalist and Enlightenment barriers. We conclude that if an emancipatory form of citizenship education is to be possible, there is a need to make room for politics in school classrooms and further politicise epistemological and anthropological assumptions. We recommend a form of citizenship education that conceptualises emancipation as our ability to respond ethically to situated challenges by thinking by ourselves with others.
The ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has left patients with current or past history of cancer facing disparate consequences at every stage of the cancer trajectory. This ...comprehensive review offers a landscape analysis of the current state of the literature on COVID-19 and cancer, including the immune response to COVID-19, risk factors for severe disease, and impact of anticancer therapies. We also review the latest data on treatment of COVID-19 and vaccination safety and efficacy in patients with cancer, as well as the impact of the pandemic on cancer care, including the urgent need for rapid evidence generation and real-world study designs. SIGNIFICANCE: Patients with cancer have faced severe consequences at every stage of the cancer journey due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This comprehensive review offers a landscape analysis of the current state of the field regarding COVID-19 and cancer. We cover the immune response, risk factors for severe disease, and implications for vaccination in patients with cancer, as well as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cancer care delivery. Overall, this review provides an in-depth summary of the key issues facing patients with cancer during this unprecedented health crisis.
Functional retentive overflow incontinence (retentive FI) is the most common cause of fecal soiling in children. Based on the clinical experiences, the treatment of retentive FI in patients with ...comorbid psychiatric disorders was accelerated when Risperidone was used as treatment for their psychiatric comorbidities; therefore, this study was conducted to evaluate the effect of risperidone in the treatment of retentive FI in children and adolescents.
In this double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial, 140 patients aged 4-16 years eligible for the study were randomized into two groups, receiving either 0.25-0.5 mg of Risperidone syrup (n = 70) or maltodextrin syrup (placebo group, n = 70) every 12 h daily for 12 weeks. Sociodemographic data, including age, sex, weight, height, BMI, BMI z-score, and socioeconomic status, was recorded, and the number of nocturnal FI, diurnal FI, and painful defecations was measured.
136 participants (69 on Risperidone and 67 on placebo) were included in the study. Mean age of participants in the intervention and placebo groups were 7.2 ± 2.4 years and 8.0 ± 3.1 years, respectively. The mean number of nocturnal FI (P
=0.39) and diurnal FI (P
=0.48) in patients without psychiatric comorbidities, and the number of painful defecations for participants with and without psychiatric comorbidities (P = 0.49, P = 0.47, respectively) were not significantly different between the groups, but a significant effect was observed in diurnal FI after Risperidone treatment in patients with psychiatric comorbidities (P < 0.001).
Risperidone, when used along with other non-pharmacological interventions, may be helpful in treating FI in pediatric patients with psychiatric comorbidities.
Background COVID-19 is a worldwide pandemic and has placed significant demand for acute and critical care services on hospitals in many countries. Objectives To determine the predictors of severe ...COVID-19 disease requiring admission to an ICU by comparing patients who were ICU admitted to non-ICU groups. Methods A cohort study was conducted for the laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 patients who were admitted to six Saudi Ministry of Health's hospitals in Alahsa, between March 1, 2020, and July 30, 2020, by reviewing patient's medical records retrospectively. Results This cohort included 1014 patients with an overall mean age of 47.2 + or - 19.3 years and 582 (57%) were males. A total of 205 (20%) of the hospitalized patients were admitted to the ICU. Hypertension, diabetes and obesity were the most common comorbidities in all study patients (27.2, 19.9, and 9%, respectively). The most prevalent symptoms were cough (47.7%), shortness of breath (35.7%) and fever (34.3%). Compared with non-ICU group, ICU patients had older age (p less than or equai to 0.0005) and comprised a higher proportion of the current smokers and had higher respiratory rates (p less than or equai to 0.0005), and more percentage of body temperatures in the range of 37.3-38.0 degreesC (p greater than or equai to 0.0005); and had more comorbidities including diabetes (p less than or equai to 0.0005), hypertension (p greater than or equai to 0.0005), obesity (p = 0.048), and sickle cell disease (p = 0.039). There were significant differences between the non-ICU and ICU groups for fever, shortness of breath, cough, fatigue, vomiting, dizziness; elevated white blood cells, neutrophils, alanine aminotransferase and alkaline aminotransferase, lactate dehydrogenase, and ferritin, and decreased hemoglobin; and proportion of abnormal bilateral chest CT images (p < 0.05). Significant differences were also found for multiple treatments (p < 0.05). ICU patients group had a much higher mortality rate than those with non-ICU admission (p less than or equai to 0.0005). Conclusion Identifying key clinical characteristics of COVID-19 that predict ICU admission and high mortality can be useful for frontline healthcare providers in making the right clinical decision under time-sensitive and resource-constricted environment. Keywords: Admission, Clinical, Characteristics, COVID-19, ICU, Intensive, Care, Critical, Mortality, Outcomes, SARS-CoV-2, Saudi Arabia
Background: The cytoskeleton-associated intermediate filaments, CK20 belong to epithelial subgroups and it has a controlled expression in gastrointestinal marked cells and in the urinary tract. ...During embryogenesis, cytokeratin is the first intermediate filament type and they provide facilitation in maintaining the integrity and mechanical stability of cells. It is identified with regard to neoplastic urothelial cells there is a strong and diffuse cytoplasmic immunoreactivity for CK20 that involve all three layers of the urothelium. Therefore, the aim of the study was to determine the role of the immunohistochemical expression of CK20 in the grading of urothelial carcinoma.
Methodology: It was a retrospective cross-sectional study that was conducted at the Department of Histopathology, Lady Reading Hospital, Peshawar, Pathology department, Sheikh Zayed medical college and Hospital, Rahimyar Khan and Khyber Medical college and Khyber Teaching Hospital, Peshawar from March 2021 till September 2021. Ninety-seven, (97) Paraffin-embedded blocks of urothelial carcinoma along with records of these patients, which were collected over three years from January 2018 till December 2020, were retrieved from the archives of the Histopathology departments of these hospitals. These blocks were cut and stained with Hematoxylin Eosin and CK20 antibodies. Expression of CK20 was noted by two consultant pathologists. Positive expression was considered when cytoplasmic immunohistology expression of CK20 was seen in deep layers of the urothelium or diffused strong cytoplasmic staining of urothelial cells beyond the superficial cells was found. Negative expression was defined as CK 20 staining restricted to the superficial cells or Negative expression was defined as CK 20 staining restricted to superficial “Umbrella” cells of urothelium.
Results: Out of 97 patients, the minimum age was 20 years and maximum age was found to be 90 years with mean + standard deviation of 64 +11 years. There were 86 (88.6%) male patients and 11 (11.3) female patients. Low grade urothelial carcinoma was seen in 49(51 %) patients while 48 (49%) cases displayed high grade morphology. CK20 was found positive in 74 (76.3%) patients. Among positive cases, 43 cases were high grade and 31 cases were low grade urothelial carcinomas.
Conclusion: CK20 Positivity was seen in 76.3% of the patients with papillary urothelial carcinoma. CK20 is an important immunohistochemical marker for early diagnosis and grading of urothelial carcinomas. Positive Immunohistochemistry staining of the urothelial carcinomas were found in high-grade as well as low-grade urothelial carcinomas but in comparison, 43 cases of high-grade urothelial carcinomas had exhibited positive immunohistochemistry staining for CK 20 and 31 cases of low-grade urothelial carcinomas had exhibited positive staining for CK20 which would indicate that perhaps immunohistochemistry staining features of urothelial carcinoma would tend not to completely differentiate between high-grade and low-grade urothelial carcinomas.
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