Perceptions of Sindhi Muslims Towards Exogamous Marriages: An Exploratory Study

It has been said that exogamous marriages tend to lead to language shift (Igboanus & Wolf, 2009 & Dumanig, David & Shanmuganathan, 2013). In an early study Gal (1978) found that Hungarian women marrying German men in the city of Oberwat had shifted to German to negate their peasant Hungarian ancestry and to move up the socio-economic ladder. Similarly, David and Dealwis (2011) found in their study of Malaysian Sindhi Hindus that exogamous marriages tend to lead to language shift but is not the only reason for the shift away from the heritage language. Therefore, before mixed marriages take place one should study perceptions of the speech community towards such marriages. In this exploratory study, the perceptions of Sindhi Muslims-men and women and from different socio-economic groups towards exogamous marriages are studied. With this objective, semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten Sindhi Muslim participants (four male adults and six female adults) who live in Karachi. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, coded and themes were generated after formal consent was obtained. The findings show that language choice in the home domain is shifting because of intercultural marriages. Also, such marriages are frequent among Sindhi community members with a high socio-economic status who live in cities. Gender plays an equal role too, as the women respondents showed mixed responses towards exogamous marriages while the male respondents had a more positive perception. Such views and perceptions may affect choice of marital partners and language choice in the home domain.

Molecular Characterization of Gene Abca1 Associated With Type 2 Diabetes

Diabetes Mellitus also known as hyperglycemia is a chronic metabolic disorder that is mainly characterized by a rise in the plasma glucose levels above the normal range, glucose intolerance and insulin resistance. There are various subtypes of diabetes mellitus of which type 2 diabetes mellitus (type 2 DM) previously also termed as non-insulin- dependent diabetes is the most prevalent form. World Health Organization (WHO) reports that 9% of the world population suffered from diabetes in 2014 of which 90% had type 2 DM (WHO, 2014).More alarming is the fact that by 2030, type 2 DM will be the 7th major cause of death worldwide. Both genetic and environmental factors result in type 2 DM.The prominent risk factors responsible for the disease include; obesity, excess body fat, high blood pressure, sedentary life style, age, poor dietary habits with high intake of sugar, smoking, high consumption of alcohol, socio-economic factors, ethnicity and stress. Mutations in the Adenosine Binding Cassette Transporter Proteins Subfamily A Member 1 (ABCA1) have been associated with abnormal lipid levels and certain variants have been linked with type 2 DM.The present study analyzed the association of ABCA1 rs2230808 gene polymorphism with type 2 DM patients in a local population. The study was carried on 94 subjects who were divided into 49 normal (control) and 45 type 2 DM patients. Genotyping of ABCA1 rs2230808 polymorphism was done through tetra- primers Amplification Refractory Mutation System Polymerase Chain Reaction (ARMS- PCR) technique. The rs2230808 genotypes in the type 2 DM patients was found to be CC (53.33%), CT (31.11%) and TT (15.55%), while in the control group was found to be CC (46.93%), CT (38.77%) and TT (14.28%). The frequency of C and T allele in type 2 DM patients was observed 0.689 and 0.31 respectively, while the allele frequency of C and T allele in control group was found to be 0.663 and 0.337 respectively. The p-value for genotypes and allelic frequency was greater than 0.05. Hence, the results indicate no significant association of ABCA1 rs2230808 polymorphism with risk for type 2 DM was observed in our study group. Additionally, association of CACNA1C rs2239127 gene polymorphism with type 2 DM was also studied. The subjects were divided into 94 type 2 DM patients and 56 normal samples. Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism technique was employed here. The rs2239127 genotypes in type 2 DM patients was observed as TT (54.25%), CT (34.04%) and CC(11.70%), while in control group it was found to be TT(53.57%), CT (37.5%) and CC (8.92%). The p-value for both genotype and allelic frequency was found to be greater than 0.05% which shows no significant association of rs2239127 polymorphism with type 2 DM in our study group.