66 research outputs found
INTER-SPOUSAL COMMUNICATION AS A DETERMINANT OF CONTRACEPTIVE USE IN NIGERIA: A MIXED METHOD
The need for understanding the level of communication among couples is important in reproductive health.
Agreement by couples on contraceptive adoption is a major consideration if population growth will be
reduced. Therefore this paper tests the hypothesis that there is no significant relationship between interspousal
communication and contraceptive use in Nigeria. The study employed both quantitative and
qualitative method of data collection. The quantitative data employed the 2013 Nigeria Demographic and
Health Survey Couple recode dataset, while the qualitative data was collected using Focus Group
Discussion. Data was analyzed using Stata13 and the qualitative data was analyzed using NVivo 11
software. The result of the logistic regression model showed that there is a significant relationship between
inter-spousal communication and contraceptive use (P<0.001). The result of the unadjusted model showed a
Log-likelihood ratio [LLR] = 2335.0875, R2 = 27.05% and Chi-square= 1731.32 on 29 degree of freedom
while, the adjusted model showed a [LLR] = 435.0011, R2 = 38.20%, Chi-square= 268.36 on 32 degrees of
freedom, p<0.05. The reduction of 1296.3189 in the Log-likelihood ratio and an increase of 11.15 % in the R2
indicate a very good fit. In the qualitative study the findings showed that majority of the couples using
contraceptives discussed with their spouses and more than half of them received their husbandâs maximum
support. We conclude that couples communication will improve the uptake of contraceptives and reduce the
increasing population growth in Nigeria
Antimycobacterial and cytotoxic activity of selected medicinal plant extracts
AbstractEthnopharmacological relevanceTuberculosis (TB) caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis remains an ongoing threat to human health. Several medicinal plants are used traditionally to treat tuberculosis in Ghana. The current study was designed to investigate the antimycobacterial activity and cytotoxicity of crude extracts from five selected medicinal plants.Material and methodsThe microplate alamar blue assay (MABA) was used for antimycobacterial studies while the CellTiter 96Âź AQueous Assay, which is composed of solutions of a novel tetrazolium compound [3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-5-(3-carboxymethoxyphenyl)-2-(4-sulfophenyl)-2H-tetrazolium, inner salt; MTS] and an electron coupling reagent (phenazine methosulfate) PMS, was used for cytotoxic studies. Correlation coefficients were used to compare the activity of crude extracts against nonpathogenic strains and the pathogenic Mycobacterium tuberculosis subsp.tuberculosis.ResultsResults of the MIC determinations indicated that all the crude extracts were active on all the three tested mycobacterial strains. Minimum inhibitory concentration values as low as 156.3”g/mL against M. tuberculosis; Strain H37Ra (ATCCÂź 25,177âą) were recorded from the leaves of Solanum torvum Sw. (Solanaceae). Cytotoxicity of the extracts varied, and the leaves from S. torvum had the most promising selectivity index. Activity against M. tuberculosis; Strain H37Ra was the best predictor of activity against pathogenic Mycobacterium tuberculosis subsp.tuberculosis (correlation coefficient=0.8).ConclusionThe overall results of the present study provide supportive data on the use of some medicinal plants for tuberculosis treatment. The leaves of Solanum torvum are a potential source of anti-TB natural products and deserve further investigations to develop novel anti-TB agents against sensitive and drug resistant strains of M. tuberculosis
Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research
Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time, and attempts to address it require a clear understanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space. While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes, vast areas of the tropics remain understudied. In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world's most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity, but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepresented in biodiversity databases. To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications may eliminate pieces of the Amazon's biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological communities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge, it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple organism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region's vulnerability to environmental change. 15%â18% of the most neglected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lost
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