Patterns and predictors of contraceptive usage among HIV-positive women of reproductive age attending PMTCT/ART clinics in Ogbomoso, Nigeria

Objective: the objective of the study is to assess the patterns and predictors of contraceptive usage among HIV positive women of reproductive age attending PMTCT/ART clinics in Ogbomoso, Oyo state, Nigeria.Methods: it was a cross-sectional descriptive cross-sectional study conducted among HIV positive women of reproductive age group selected using multi-stage sampling technique. Data was collected using a pre-tested semi-structured interviewer administered questionnaire and analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences. The questions about knowledge of and attitude towards contraception were scored, and categorized as good or poor knowledge, favourable or unfavourable attitude. Univariate, bivariate, and multivariate analyses assessed predictors of contraceptive usage. A bivariate logistic regression model which used p<0.05 as the entry criterion, was generated to calculate the odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals respectively.Results: age ranges from 16 to 48 years with mean age 31.8 + 7.8 years. Majority are within age range of 25-35 years 110 (40.7%), Christians 178 (65.9%), Yoruba 235 (87%), educated 246 (91.1%) and within monogamous settings 179 (66.3%). About half of the respondents 158 (58.5%) had favorable attitude and adequate knowledge respectively. There is a significant difference (p<0.05) between education and categorized knowledge on usage of contraception. Those who have adequate knowledge are twice more likely to use contraception compared to those with inadequate knowledge. Those who are less educated are 3.3 times less likely to use contraception compared to those that are educated.Conclusion: The findings in this study showed that about half of the respondents had high knowledge and favorable attitude on family planning.Keywords: reproduction, education, health, virus, knowledg

Leadership of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs), Inflation and Economics Development in Nigeria (1981-2021)

Однією з важливих складових економічного розвитку, яка сприяє зростанню рівня зайнятості населення, є збільшення експортного потенціалу країни, розвиток внутрішнього ринку товарів і послуг, малого та середнього підприємництва. Особливу роль він відіграє в наповненні державного бюджету в країнах з низьким і середнім рівнем економічного розвитку. Метою даної роботи є моделювання взаємозв’язку рівня економічного розвитку країни як показника функціонування малого та середнього підприємництва, оцінка впливу інфляції на рівень економічного розвитку. Інформаційною базою дослідження є дані Світового банку, Національного бюро статистики Нігерії та щорічний статистичний бюлетень Центрального банку Нігерії. Об’єктом дослідження є показники функціонування малого та середнього підприємництва та економічного розвитку Нігерії, період дослідження 1981-2021 рр. Як залежні змінні, що характеризують розвиток малого та середнього підприємництва, обрано обсяг доходу на одиницю капіталу та ВВП як показник економічного розвитку країни. Факторні змінні характеризують зв'язок між розвитком малих і середніх підприємств та економічним розвитком Нігерії. До них належать валове накопичення капіталу, процентна ставка, обмінний курс і рівень інфляції. Методичним інструментарієм дослідження зв’язку між аналізованими показниками є метод оцінки авторегресійного розподіленого лагу, розширений тест Дікі Фуллера та критерій Грейнджера. За результатами економетричного моделювання доведено негативний вплив зростання валютного курсу та рівня інфляції на розвиток економіки Нігерії. Таким чином, підвищення обмінного курсу на 1% призведе до зниження ВВП на 0,01%, тоді як зниження інфляції на 0,01% супроводжуватиметься зростанням ВВП приблизно на 1%. Водночас валове нагромадження має позитивний і статистично значущий вплив на обсяг ВВП (зростання на 1% призведе до зростання ВВП приблизно на 7%). За результатами дослідження було зроблено висновок, що стимулювання зростання інвестицій у малі та середні підприємства шляхом спрощення доступу до кредитних ресурсів, розвитку інфраструктури та нарощування потенціалу є передумовою довгострокового соціально-економічного розвитку нігерійців.One of the important components of economic development which contributes to the growth of the population employment level is the increase in the country’s export potential, development of domestic market of goods and services and small and medium – sized entrepreneurship. It plays special role in the filling of state budget in countries with low and medium level of economic development. The purpose of this paper is to model the relationship between the level of economic development of the country as an indicator of the functioning of small and medium- sized enterprises, assessment of the impact of inflation on the level of economic development. The information base of the research is the data of the World Bank, National Bureau of Statistics of Nigeria, and annual statistical bulletin of the Central Bank of Nigeria. The object of the study is indicators of the functioning of small and medium-sized enterprises and economic development in Nigeria, the period of study is 1981-2021. As dependent variables characterized by the development of a small and medium- sized enterprise, the volume of income per unit of capital was chosen and the GDP was chosen as an indicator of the country’s economic development. Factor variables are characterized by the relationship between the development of small and medium-sized enterprises and the economic development of Nigeria. These include gross capital formation, interest rate, exchange rate and inflation rate. The methodological tools for researching the relationship between the analyzed indicators are the method of estimating the autoregressive distributed lag, the extended Dickey Fuller test and Granger test. According to the results of econometric modeling, the negative impacts of the growth of the exchange rate and the level of inflation on the development of the Nigerian economy has been proven. Thus, a 1% increase in exchange rate would lead to a 0.01% decrease in GDP, while a 0.01% decrease in inflation would be accompanied by an increase in GDP of about 1%. At the same time, gross capital formation exerts a positive and statistically significant influence on the volume of GDP (an increase of 1% will lead to an increase of GDP by approximately 7%). Based on the results of the research, it was concluded that stimulating the growth of investment in small and medium- sized enterprises by simplifying access to credit resources, infrastructure development and capacity building is a prerequisite for long- term socio- economic development of Nigerians

Radiological Impacts of Natural Radioactivity in Locally Produced Tobacco Products in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria

Radionuclides are found naturally in air, water and soil. They are even found in vegetation, consumer products and in human body. Everyone on the planet is exposed to some background level of ionizing radiation through external exposures that occurs as a result of irradiation, and internal exposures that occurs as a result of ingestion and inhalation. Studies have shown that tobacco contains minute quantities of radioisotopes from uranium and thorium-decay series which are radioactive and carcinogenic. Tobacco product increases both external and internal exposure due to these radioisotopes. In fact, tobacco products have been considered to be one of the most significant causes of lung cancer. Owing to the large-scale consumption of tobacco in Nigeria at the present time, locally produced tobacco products in Nigeria were collected from the market and the naturally-occurring 238U and 232Th decay series, as well as non-series decay 40K in these products were measured using γ-ray spectrometer. The radiological impacts of the radionuclides in these products were assessed from their specific activities. The average values of the absorbed dose rate were 19.72 and 17.59 nGy h-1 for snuff and cigarette products respectively. The average values of the effective doses due to daily inhalation of smoke by consumers from one wrap of snuff and one stick of cigarette products is 592.32 and 66.62 μSv yr-1 respectively. Similarly, the values of the radium equivalent activity index for snuff and cigarette samples were 40.95 and 38.95 Bq kg-1 respectively. Also the external radiation hazard index were 0.12 and 0.11 for snuff and cigarette samples respectively while the internal radiation hazard index were 0.17 and 0.15 for the two samples respectively. The average excess lifetime cancer risk (x 10-3) values for daily inhalation of smoke from one wrap of snuff and one (1) stick of cigarette were 2.07 and 0.23 x 10-3 respectively. The estimated values of some of these parameters were found to be lower than the recommended limit by UNSCEAR (2000). However, the effective dose poses a serious health risk to addicted consumers of the product when three (3) or more wraps of snuff and one (1) or more packs of cigarette products are consumed daily. The mean excess lifetime cancer risks values estimated were also much higher than the recommended limits by UNSCEAR (2000). This then makes the risk of suffering cancer and other radiation injuries to be high.Keywords: Radiological impacts, Tobacco, Cigarette, Snuff, Cancer, Radiation injury, Nigeria

Preparation, Release Pattern and Antibacterial Activities of Chitosan-Silver Nanocomposite Films

The present study examined the preparation of chitosan-silver   nanocomposite films as carriers for silver release pattern. Chitosan a biopolymer   having immense structural possibilities for chemical and mechanical modifications   to generate novel properties, functions and applications. Chitosan–silver   nanocomposite films has been synthesised by reduction method, which is a simple   and inexpensive method. The chitosan-silver nanocomposite films was   characterized in terms of its surface plasmon resonance and crystalline structure by   using UV-Visible spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared and   Scanning electron microscope. Swelling and release studies were carried out on   crosslinked and un-crosslinked nanocomposite films. Antibacterial activities of   chitosan-silver nanocomposite films were investigated on some pathogens:   Staphylococcus aureus, Shigella dysenteriae, Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhii   and Klebsiella pneumonia using agar well diffusion method. crosslinked chitosan-silver nanocomposite demonstrated a slower release pattern relative to un-crosslinked chitosan-silver nanocomposite. The crosslinked and un-crosslinked   nanocomposite became dislodged and completely released at 120 minutes and 90   minutes respectively. The results of the antibacterial activities revealed that the   cross-linked chitosan-silver nanocomposite films has higher antibacterial   properties than un-crosslinked chitosan-silver nanocomposite films. This study   provides nanocomposite films potentially useful for delivery system.</p

Physiological and morphological changes associated with recurrent selection for low nitrogen tolerance in maize

Published online: 17 June 2017Increase in maize grain yield in West Africa can be achieved by developing maize varieties tolerant to low soil nitrogen (N) and improving soil fertility. Six maize populations were evaluated in two locations in Nigeria under low-N (45 kg N ha−1) and high-N (90 kg N ha−1) conditions to identify morphological and physiological traits that changed in genotypes that had undergone recurrent selection for tolerance to low soil N and to determine the relationship between physiological and yield traits in both nitrogen environments. Results revealed that improved cycles of three populations displayed longer leaf area duration, larger leaf area ratio, larger leaf area index and higher crop growth rate (CGR) at silking than their earlier versions at 45 and 90 kg N ha−1. Net assimilation rate increased significantly in response to selection in three out of six populations at 45 kg N ha−1. Significant yield changes were observed in response to selection in three populations at 45 kg N ha−1 and four populations at 90 kg N ha−1, accompanied by increments in 100 kernel weight in three populations and number of kernels per row in one population. Grain yield and 100 kernel weight reduced by 31 and 5% respectively in response to N-stress. Among physiological traits, only CGR and SPAD chlorophyll readings had significant positive relationship with grain yield under low and high N conditions. Hence, CGR and SPAD chlorophyll values can be utilized in selecting for tolerance to low-N in maize for West Africa region

Assessment of heterotic patterns of tropical low-nitrogen–tolerant maize (Zea mays L.) inbred lines using testcross performance, morphological traits and SNP markers

Published online: 30 Sep 2020Breeding efforts in West and Central Africa (WCA) have focused on the development of Low‐N‐tolerant (LNT) maize inbreds and their classification into heterotic groups. This study was conducted to classify LNT maize lines into heterotic groups using testcross performance, morphological and SNP markers and to compare the consistency of groupings by the three methods. Thirty‐six LNT inbreds were crossed to two contrasting inbred testers to generate 72 testcrosses that were evaluated under low‐N conditions in Nigeria in 2014. Also, the 36 inbreds and the two testers were evaluated for per se performance under similar conditions as the testcrosses in 2014 and genotyped in 2015 using 1,123,196 SNP markers. Based on testcross performance, 33 of the 36 LNT inbreds were grouped by the two testers. Morphological characterization from per se performance and genetic relationship by SNP markers classified the inbreds into four groups that were inconsistent with their pedigree. Correlation analysis showed non‐concurrence of the three grouping methods. However, information from these groupings would assist in reducing the number of crosses to be made and evaluated

Assessment of genetic diversity among low-nitrogen-tolerant early generation maize inbred lines using SNP markers

Low soil nitrogen (low-N) level is responsible for yield reduction in maize (Zea mays L.) fields in sub-Saharan Africa. A clear understanding of the genetic diversity among early generation inbred lines selected from various elite low-N- tolerant populations offers an opportunity to obtain lines that could be used in parental combinations to develop high-yielding low-N-tolerant maize hybrids. A total of 115 S3 lines derived from four low-N-tolerant populations were assessed for genetic diversity using 15 670 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers. The SNP markers were highly polymorphic with polymorphic information content ranging from 0.0 to 0.38. The genetic diversity among the inbred lines ranged from 0.0 to 0.50 and thus indicated the high level of dissimilarity among the inbred lines. The neighbour-joining clustering algorithm and model-based population structure classified the 115 lines into four distinct groups that were generally consistent with the genetic backgrounds of the inbred lines. The information obtained from this study revealed genetic diversity among the inbred lines and may guide the selection of potential parents for detailed combining ability studies and eventual use in hybrid combinations. The selected inbred lines would be invaluable in the development of low-N-tolerant hybrids

Serologic evidence of exposure to Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 and Dengue Virus among patients attending diagnostic Laboratory, Lagos State, Nigeria

Reportedly, in co-infection, dengue viral (DENV) replication negatively impacts human&nbsp; immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1). Reports on this or on&nbsp; people having dual HIV-1/DENV&nbsp; are however, scarce in Nigeria, where both HIV-1 and DENV are endemic. As a preliminary&nbsp; investigation in&nbsp; southwest Nigeria, we hypothesized that a high proportion of individuals&nbsp; presented for laboratory tests have serologic evidence of dual&nbsp; HIV-1/DENV infection. This is a&nbsp; cross-sectional Research Institute-based serologic study; patients attending a specific Clinical&nbsp; Diagnostic Laboratory&nbsp; in Lagos State were enrolled. Plasma samples (n=150) of consenting&nbsp; asymptomatic patients were serially screened for evidence of&nbsp; HIV-1 antibodies using&nbsp; DETERMINETM and UNI-GOLDTM HIV-1/-2 rapid test kits. Only the samples (n=54) confirmed&nbsp; HIV-1 reactive by the latter&nbsp; (and some randomly selected non-reactive samples [n=37]) were&nbsp; tested with ELISA kit for anti-DENV immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies. Microsoft&nbsp; Excel and&nbsp; Statistical Package for the Social Sciences were used for statistical analysis. Some participants&nbsp; had detectable HIV-1/DENV antibodies&nbsp; with dual positivity rate of 16.5% [as group-specific&nbsp; point-prevalence rate]. This was independently associated (p=0.04) with marital status as&nbsp; participants who were neither single nor married (categorized as ‘others’) had more than 11&nbsp; times (OR: 11.3) likelihood of being dual seropositive.&nbsp; Mono-positivity of HIV-1 antibody&nbsp; among the 91 participants tested for dual HIV-1/DENV seropositivity was 59.3%;&nbsp; corresponding rate for DENV&nbsp; antibody was 20.9%. As per mono-positivity rates, the likelihood of participants testing positive to HIV-1 antibody was more than 21 times (Odds ratio [OR]: 21.3) that of DENV antibody. In conclusion, 15 participants (16.5%) of this specific group had serologic evidence of dual HIV-1/DENV infection; this we considered low given the endemicity of Nigeria for both viruses. As a subpopulation with unusually high HIV-1 mono-positivity; thelow DENV mono-positivity might be responsible for the low dual HIV-1/DENV positivity

Preparation, Release Pattern and Antibacterial Activities of Chitosan-Silver Nanocomposite Films

&lt;p&gt;The present study examined the preparation of chitosan-silver   nanocomposite films as carriers for silver release pattern. Chitosan a biopolymer   having immense structural possibilities for chemical and mechanical modifications   to generate novel properties, functions and applications. Chitosan–silver   nanocomposite films has been synthesised by reduction method, which is a simple   and inexpensive method. The chitosan-silver nanocomposite films was   characterized in terms of its surface plasmon resonance and crystalline structure by   using UV-Visible spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared and   Scanning electron microscope. Swelling and release studies were carried out on   crosslinked and un-crosslinked nanocomposite films. Antibacterial activities of   chitosan-silver nanocomposite films were investigated on some pathogens:   Staphylococcus aureus, Shigella dysenteriae, Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhii   and Klebsiella pneumonia using agar well diffusion method. crosslinked chitosan-silver nanocomposite demonstrated a slower release pattern relative to un-crosslinked chitosan-silver nanocomposite. The crosslinked and un-crosslinked   nanocomposite became dislodged and completely released at 120 minutes and 90   minutes respectively. The results of the antibacterial activities revealed that the   cross-linked chitosan-silver nanocomposite films has higher antibacterial   properties than un-crosslinked chitosan-silver nanocomposite films. This study   provides nanocomposite films potentially useful for delivery system.&lt;/p&gt

Prevalence and predictors of exclusive breastfeeding among mothers in a semi-urban Nigerian community: A cross-sectional study

Background: The uptake of exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) is low globally including Nigeria despite its benefits and interventions. This study aimed to assess the prevalence and predictors of EBF among mothers in a semiurban Nigerian community. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study among nursing mothers attending the immunization clinic at the Federal Medical Centre, Owo, Ondo State. A semi-structured questionnaire containing the World Health Organization’s indicators for assessing breastfeeding practices was used for data collection. Results: A total of 386 mothers were recruited with a mean age of 30.8 ± 5.0 years. Among them, 149 (36.8%) were below 30 years, 345 (89.4%) have had ANC visit at least four times, and 259 (67.1%) had initiated breastfeeding immediately after delivery. The prevalence of EBF was 52.6%. Natural feeds were the common feeds introduced after 6 months among 159 (78.3%) mothers. One hundred and forty-four&nbsp; (62.1%) nursing mothers aged 30 years or older practiced EBF compared to 72 (48.3%) persons below 30&nbsp; years (X2 = 6.290, p = 0.012). Also, 38 (70.3%) mothers who have delivered four or more children practiced&nbsp; EBF compared to 180 (54.2%) with fewer children (X2 = 5.437, p = 0.020). Nursing mothers aged&nbsp; 30 years or older had 36% higher odds of practicing EBF compared to younger persons (Adjusted&nbsp; Odds Ratio = 1.358, 95%CI = 0.886 – 2.081, p = 0.160). Conclusion: To achieve the WHO recommended target of ensuring that 90% of nursing mothers practice EBF, advocacy and health education must be intensified