1,892 research outputs found
Knowledge and attitude towards sexually transmitted infections among female students living in hostels in a university community of the south-south region of Nigeria
Introduction: A cross sectional study was conducted in the female students’ hostel of the University of Calabar to determine their knowledge and attitude towards sexually transmitted infections (STI).Methodology: A structured questionnaire was administered to those who consented to the study. Information obtained were age, year of study, knowledge of sexually transmitted infections.Results: Most subjects were in the age category of 21-25years (56.2%) and predominantly of the Igbo tribe 34%. Over 90% of the subjects had heard of STIs. Vaginal itching (70.2%) and discharge (65.7%) were the commonest symptoms reported. Despite the level of knowledge, some students still patronize Chemist 4.8% and self-injection administration 4.8%.Conclusion: The awareness of STI is high but the understanding of symptomatology is poor.Keywords: Sexually transmitted infections, Female hostel, Tertiary Institution
Reduction and reconstruction of stochastic differential equations via symmetries
An algorithmic method to exploit a general class of infinitesimal symmetries
for reducing stochastic differential equations is presented and a natural
definition of reconstruction, inspired by the classical reconstruction by
quadratures, is proposed. As a side result the well-known solution formula for
linear one-dimensional stochastic differential equations is obtained within
this symmetry approach. The complete procedure is applied to several examples
with both theoretical and applied relevance
The product of the spindle formation gene sad1+ associates with the fission yeast spindle pole body and is essential for viability.
Interaction of Vortices in Complex Vector Field and Stability of a ``Vortex Molecule''
We consider interaction of vortices in the vector complex Ginzburg--Landau
equation (CVGLE). In the limit of small field coupling, it is found
analytically that the interaction between well-separated defects in two
different fields is long-range, in contrast to interaction between defects in
the same field which falls off exponentially. In a certain region of parameters
of CVGLE, we find stable rotating bound states of two defects -- a ``vortex
molecule".Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let
Psychopathic traits influence amygdala-anterior cingulate cortex connectivity during facial emotion processing
There is accumulating evidence that youths with antisocial behavior or psychopathic traits show deficits in facial emotion recognition, but little is known about the neural mechanisms underlying these impairments. A number of neuroimaging studies have investigated brain activity during facial emotion processing in youths with Conduct Disorder (CD) and adults with psychopathy, but few of these studies tested for group differences in effective connectivity – i.e., changes in connectivity during emotion processing. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging and psycho-physiological interaction methods, we investigated the impact of CD and psychopathic traits on amygdala activity and effective connectivity in 46 male youths with CD and 25 typically-developing controls when processing emotional faces. All participants were aged 16-21 years. Relative to controls, youths with CD showed reduced amygdala activity when processing angry or sad faces relative to neutral faces, but the groups did not significantly differ in amygdala-related effective connectivity. In contrast, psychopathic traits were negatively correlated with amygdala-ventral anterior cingulate cortex connectivity for angry versus neutral faces, but were unrelated to amygdala responses to angry or sad faces. These findings suggest that CD and psychopathic traits have differential effects on amygdala activation and functional interactions between limbic regions during facial emotion processing
When are active Brownian particles and run-and-tumble particles equivalent? Consequences for motility-induced phase separation
Active Brownian particles (ABPs, such as self-phoretic colloids) swim at
fixed speed along a body-axis that rotates by slow angular
diffusion. Run-and-tumble particles (RTPs, such as motile bacteria) swim with
constant \u until a random tumble event suddenly decorrelates the
orientation. We show that when the motility parameters depend on density
but not on , the coarse-grained fluctuating hydrodynamics of
interacting ABPs and RTPs can be mapped onto each other and are thus strictly
equivalent. In both cases, a steeply enough decreasing causes phase
separation in dimensions , even when no attractive forces act between
the particles. This points to a generic role for motility-induced phase
separation in active matter. However, we show that the ABP/RTP equivalence does
not automatically extend to the more general case of \u-dependent motilities
Spatially Resolved Mapping of Local Polarization Dynamics in an Ergodic Phase of Ferroelectric Relaxor
Spatial variability of polarization relaxation kinetics in relaxor
ferroelectric 0.9Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-0.1PbTiO3 is studied using time-resolved
Piezoresponse Force Microscopy. Local relaxation attributed to the
reorientation of polar nanoregions is shown to follow stretched exponential
dependence, exp(-(t/tau)^beta), with beta~~0.4, much larger than the
macroscopic value determined from dielectric spectra (beta~~0.09). The spatial
inhomogeneity of relaxation time distributions with the presence of 100-200 nm
"fast" and "slow" regions is observed. The results are analyzed to map the
Vogel-Fulcher temperatures on the nanoscale.Comment: 23 pages, 4 figures, supplementary materials attached; to be
submitted to Phys. Rev. Let
Doppler Effect of Nonlinear Waves and Superspirals in Oscillatory Media
Nonlinear waves emitted from a moving source are studied. A meandering spiral
in a reaction-diffusion medium provides an example, where waves originate from
a source exhibiting a back-and-forth movement in radial direction. The periodic
motion of the source induces a Doppler effect that causes a modulation in
wavelength and amplitude of the waves (``superspiral''). Using the complex
Ginzburg-Landau equation, we show that waves subject to a convective Eckhaus
instability can exhibit monotonous growth or decay as well as saturation of
these modulations away from the source depending on the perturbation frequency.
Our findings allow a consistent interpretation of recent experimental
observations concerning superspirals and their decay to spatio-temporal chaos.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Nutritional status of children 0-59 months in selected intervention communities in northern Ghana from the Africa RISING project in 2012
Background
Poor nutritional status during childhood and its long-term impact on economic growth and wellbeing is well known. This study assessed the nutritional status of children in selected communities in northern Ghana, to serve as baseline data for the Africa Research in Sustainable Intensification for the Next Generation (Africa RISING) project that sought to improve farm-household nutrition through agriculture.
Methods
A cross-sectional study was conducted among children 0–59 months in selected communities in the Northern (Tibali andCheyohi No. 2), Upper West (Goli and Zanko) and Upper East (Bonia and Sambulgu) regions of northern Ghana. A pre-tested, semi-structured questionnaire was used to obtain information on background characteristics of caregivers and children. Weight and height were measured for children following World Health Organization (WHO) procedures and transformed into z-scores using the WHO Anthro.
Results
All the caregivers (522) were females; majority (73.4 %) had no formal education, 82.7 % were married and 70.5 % engaged in farming. In all, 533 children were recruited: Northern region (38.6 %), Upper West (33.4 %) and Upper East (28.0 %). Majority (52.5 %) of the children were males. The mean age was 32 ± 19 months. Levels of stunting, underweight and wasting were 27.2, 17.6 and 8.2 % respectively. Stunting, underweight and wasting levels increased within the first two years of life. Overall, 33.8 % of the children in northern Ghana were malnourished; 20.2 % were from the Northern region, 7.0 and 6.8 % were from Upper East and Upper West respectively.
Conclusion
Different forms of malnutrition still exist as a public health problem in various communities in northern Ghana and need to be curtailed using effective agriculture-nutrition sensitive interventions
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