Medicinal plants of Otwal and Ngai Sub Counties in Oyam District, Northern Uganda

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>An ethnobotanical study was carried out in four parishes in the Ngai and Otwal Sub Counties in Oyam district, Northern Uganda, where insurgency has been prevalent for the past 20 years. Documenting medicinal plant species used in treating various health conditions among the local people.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Information was obtained from mainly the local population, the traditional healers and other experienced persons through interviews, formal and informal discussions and field excursions.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Seventy one plant species were reported for use in the treatment of various diseases in the study area. These plant species belongs to 41 families, with Asteraceae being the most represented. Roots were ranked the commonest plant part used. Oral administration was the most frequently used route of administration. A total of 41 different health conditions were reported to be treated by use of medicinal plant species. Thirty nine percent of the recorded plant species were reported for treating stomach related ailments.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The use of medicinal plants in primary healthcare is still a common practice in Ngai and Otwal Sub Counties. The trust they have is built on the curative outcome properties claimed, poverty and armed conflict that lead to inadequate healthcare facilities. The generation gap caused by the over 20 years of insurgency in the area has brought about knowledge gap on the usage of medicinal plant species between the young and the older generation.</p

Four-Hundred-and-Ninety-Million-Year Record of Bacteriogenic Iron Oxide Precipitation at Sea-Floor Hydrothermal Vents

Fe oxide deposits are commonly found at hydrothermal vent sites at mid-ocean ridge and back-arc sea floor spreading centers, seamounts associated with these spreading centers, and intra-plate seamounts, and can cover extensive areas of the seafloor. These deposits can be attributed to several abiogenic processes and commonly contain micron-scale filamentous textures. Some filaments are cylindrical casts of Fe oxyhydroxides formed around bacterial cells and are thus unquestionably biogenic. The filaments have distinctive morphologies very like structures formed by neutrophilic Fe oxidizing bacteria. It is becoming increasingly apparent that Fe oxidizing bacteria have a significant role in the formation of Fe oxide deposits at marine hydrothermal vents. The presence of Fe oxide filaments in Fe oxides is thus of great potential as a biomarker for Fe oxidizing bacteria in modern and ancient marine hydrothermal vent deposits. The ancient analogues of modern deep-sea hydrothermal Fe oxide deposits are jaspers. A number of jaspers, ranging in age from the early Ordovician to late Eocene, contain abundant Fe oxide filamentous textures with a wide variety of morphologies. Some of these filaments are like structures formed by modern Fe oxidizing bacteria. Together with new data from the modern TAG site, we show that there is direct evidence for bacteriogenic Fe oxide precipitation at marine hydrothermal vent sites for at least the last 490 Ma of the Phanerozoic

Little-studied arc-backarc system in the spotlight

A research cruise has documented changes in rift tectonics, volcanism, and hydrothermalism along the least studied and most enigmatic sector of a crustal complex in the southwest Pacific Ocean. Results from the longitudinal transect are expected to provide insight into processes involving the Kermadec arc-Havre backarc (KAHB) system, a continuum from oceanic spreading to continental rifting at a convergent plate boundary KAHB forms the central sector of an active, 2000-km arc-backarc complex between Tonga and New Zealand (Figure 1). The expedition also engaged in the first comprehensive survey of submarine vents in the Taupo Volcanic Zone (TVZ) at the south end of the KAHB system. Identified in the off-shore segment of TVZ were three major hydrothermal vent areas associated with late Quaternary fault structures. Data from the expedition and from other recent research in the same area addressed questions concerning the type of hydrothermal venting, magmatic heterogeneity along and across KAHB, the style of backarc rifting, and tectonic and magmatic consequences of anomalous terranes colliding with the subduction margin

Разработка информационной системы отчетности учреждения сферы культуры

Предметом исследования является разработка информационной системы, которая будет помогать в формировании отчетности учреждения сферы культуры. Данная система отчетности поможет домам культуры повысить эффективность в формировании статистической и других видов отчетности.The subject of the study is the development of an information system that will help in the formation of reporting institutions of the cultural sphere. This reporting system will help cultural centers improve their effectiveness in generating statistical and other types of reporting

Tectonic and magmatic controls on hydrothermal activity in the Woodlark Basin

The Woodlark Basin is one of the rare places on earth where the transition from continental breakup to seafloor spreading can be observed. The potential juxtaposition of continental rocks, a large magmatic heat source, crustal-scale faulting, and hydrothermal circulation has made the Woodlark Basin a prime target for seafloor mineral exploration. However, over the past 20 years, only two locations of active hydrothermalism had been found. In 2009 we surveyed 435 km of the spreading axis for the presence of hydrothermal plumes. Only one additional plume was found, bringing the total number of plumes known over 520 km of ridge axis to only 3, much less than at ridges with similar spreading rates globally. Particularly the western half of the basin (280 km of axis) is apparently devoid of high temperature plumes despite having thick crust and a presumably high magmatic budget. This paucity of hydrothermal activity may be related to the peculiar tectonic setting at Woodlark, where repeated ridge jumps and a re-location of the rotation pole both lead to axial magmatism being more widely distributed than at many other, more mature and stable mid-ocean ridges. These factors could inhibit the development of both a stable magmatic heat source and the deeply penetrating faults needed to create long-lived hydrothermal systems. We conclude that large seafloor massive sulfide deposits, potential targets for seafloor mineral exploration, will probably not be present along the spreading axis of the Woodlark Basin, especially in its younger, western portion

The endocrine disruptor 17 beta-trenbolone alters the relationship between pre- and post-copulatory sexual traits in male mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki)

It is now well-established that reproduction in wildlife can be disrupted by anthropogenic environmental changes, such as chemical pollution. However, very little is known about how these pollutants might affect the interplay between pre-and post-copulatory mechanisms of sexual selection. Here, we investigated the impacts of 21-day exposure of male eastern mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki) to a field-realistic level (average measured concentration: 11 ng/L) of the endocrine-disrupting chemical 17S-trenbolone (17S-TB) on pre-and post-copulatory reproductive traits. We examined male reproductive behaviour by testing the time spent near a female behind a partition, as well as the number of copulation attempts made, and the time spent chasing a female in a free-swimming context. Sperm traits were also assayed for all males. We found that exposure of male fish to 17S-TB altered the relationship between key pre-and post-copulatory reproductive traits. Furthermore, 17S-TB-exposed males had, on average, a higher percentage of motile sperm, and performed fewer copulation attempts than unexposed males. However, there was no overall effect of 17S-TB exposure on either the time males spent associating with or chasing females. Taken together, our findings demonstrate the potential for chemical pollutants to affect both pre-and post-copulatory sexual traits, and the interplay between these mechanisms of sexual selection in contaminated wildlife. (c) 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)