High doses of Uvaria chamae root extract impair sperm motility and viability

Uvaria chamae is a tropical medicinal plant with documented antimicrobial and antimalarial activities. Agents with these activities are known to impair fertility. This study investigated the antifertility effects of ethanolic extract of U. chamae on male albino Wistar rats. Two different oral doses; 56.6 mg/kg body weight and 113.2 mg/kg body weight of the extracts were administered to low dose and high dose group, respectively. A third group served as control and received 2 mL of distilled water. There were five animals in each group. Administration lasted six weeks after which animals were sacrificed and samples collected. Results showed that sperm count, sperm morphology and semen pH were not affected (P>0.05) by the extract. Sperm motility (55.65 %) and viability (64.38 %) were however decreased (P<0.05) by high doses of the extract. Histopathology of testicular tissues also showed no difference across the groups. U. chamae thus impair fertility in vivo especially at high doses

Collection Development Policies of Electronic Resources in University Libraries in Southeast Nigeria.

This paper is an empirical study of collection development policy of electronic resources in university libraries in South East Nigeria. The study ascertains the types of policies guiding electronic resources collection development practices; identifies the tools used in making sound electronic resources collection development; and determines the criteria considered in the evaluation of electronic resources of university libraries in South East Nigeria. It employed a descriptive survey design. The population of the study was 86 librarians in collection development, serials and digital library (e-library). All the 86 librarians working in collection development, serials and digital library units (e-library) were used hence the number is manageable. The survey used questionnaire and interview as instruments of data collection. Data collected were tabulated and analyzed using simple statistics of percentages and mean. The result revealed that the university libraries under study adopted traditional policies with 69 respondents representing (80.2%) of the respondents; that the libraries under study used all the five (5) items which include; the use of trial offers by mounting a link to their resources without cost; visits to similar libraries that already have the product and see it in action there; the use of vendor exhibits at conferences; the use of demonstrations from publisher /vendor in the library and demonstrate their resource and the use of reviews provided through electronic resources as tools used in making sound electronic resources. The criteria used by the libraries under study to evaluate their resources which include cost-effectiveness based on the number of searches; relevance of the research on campus and the curriculum of the library users; dissatisfaction with a resource; access criteria on the technical reliability of the content provider; the database can be ranked by acquiring statistics; comparing duplication in various formats or overlap in full-text resources. The study recommended that libraries should formulate and develop electronic resources collection development policy; efforts should be made by libraries to adopt a written electronic resources collection development policy which serves as a guide and for references and continuity among the librarians that are involved in e-resources collection development. Also, electronic resources should be evaluated on a regular basis by considering relevant factors to disclose those electronic resources that are of high and maximum utilization

Antifungal activity of aqueous and corn steep liquor extract of Ficus exasperata, Anonna muricata and Azadiractha indica

This study investigated the activity of aqueous and corn steep liquor (CSL) extracts of Ficus exaperasta, Azadirachta indica and Annona muricata against Candida spp isolated from high vagina swab samples. Phytochemical screening of the plants was done using standard methods, the antifungal activity of the plant’s extracts and standard drugs were tested against isolates of Candida spp using the agar well diffusion method; the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum fungicidal concentration (MFC) were also determined using microdilution standardized techniques. Phytochemical screening of the aqueous and CSL extracts of the plants revealed the presence of tannin, saponin, phenols and flavonoids. Among the five Candida strains, the zone of inhibition (ZI) produced by the plant extracts against C. kefyra shows a range of 6-28 mm; C. kruseia: 5-25 mm; C. albican: 0-18 mm; C. kefyrb: 0-27 mm; while, C. kruseib ZI: 0-18 mm. CSL extract had higher inhibitory action compared with aqueous extract while F. exasperata and A. muricata gave better antifungal activity against the tested Candida strains. The MIC of the aqueous and CSL extracts of the F. exasperata ranged between 6.25-12.5 mg/ml; A. muricata: 3.125-12.5mg/ml, while the aqueous and CSL extracts of A. indica was found to have no activity at all the tested concentrations against C. albican, C. kruseiaand C. kruseib, similar observation for the MFC. This study proved the antifungal efficacy of aqueous and CSL extracts of F. exasperata, A. muricata, and A. indica against isolates of Candida species which are usually implicated in candidiasis

Environmental Degradation and Sustainable development in Nigeria: The Need for Environmental Education

Environmental hazard poses major threat to humanity and development. Nigeria government has put in place environmental programme and policies to restore environmental quality and to sustain it, but much has not been achieved. The Environment has been seriously and continuously subjected to enormous degradation due to natural and man-made activities which has rendered it unhealthy and non-habitable. Findings show that the present government attitude towards the environment is still highly unsustainable despite the modicum of efforts of the Nigeria government to raise people’s awareness on the right type of attitude towards the environment through series of conferences, seminars and workshop. This paper aims to bridge the knowledge gap in the students attitude towards the environment with the demonstration of environmental friendly strategies in the school environment, through the active participation of the teachers and learners in the practice of and following the environmental friendly strategies – planting of trees, practice conservation, conserve water, use less fossil fuel product, reduce the use of harmful chemicals, avoiding of plastic bags, join environmental groups, and attitude towards stop littering. We adopted descriptive survey research design, simple random sampling techniques was used to sample five schools in the Niger delta area of Delta State, being a state that suffers most of these natural and man-made disaster on their environment. In conclusion, inculcation of these environment friendly strategies to the younger generation through environmental education will enhance the attitudinal change that is essential for healthy and sustainable environment. This paper recommends Environmental education as the most viable tool to develop responsible attitude and behavior to achieve sustainable development goals in Nigeria. Keywords Education, Environment, Degradation, Sustainable Developmen

Outcomes from elective colorectal cancer surgery during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic

This study aimed to describe the change in surgical practice and the impact of SARS-CoV-2 on mortality after surgical resection of colorectal cancer during the initial phases of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic

Cross-sectional survey data of adolescent sexual and reproductive health in Nigeria 2018

A cross-sectional survey of adolescents and heads of households was done in six urban and rural local government areas in Ebonyi state, Nigeria in August 2018. Modified cluster sampling technique was used to select households from which eligible adolescent boys and girls were recruited. The two datasets describes expansively, for the first time, adolescents’ sexual and reproductive behaviours in Nigeria. The datasets include variables on adolescents’ demographic and socioeconomic characteristics; family relationships; sexual behaviour; awareness and use of contraceptives; access to sexual and reproductive health information and services; gender norms and ideology about adolescent sexuality; and potential strategies for reducing unwanted teenage pregnancies and unsafe abortions. The datasets provide a template that could be replicated for national or regional surveys on adolescent sexual and reproductive behaviours.This dataset would be useful to public health researchers and social scientists investigating drivers of adolescent sexual and reproductive behaviour, as well as programme managers seeking potential strategies for improving adolescent health outcomes. The research leading to the datasets in this manuscript received funding from IDRC MENA+WA implementation research project on maternal and child health (IDRC grant number: 108677). The main aim of the project is to adapt, design, implement and evaluate an inclusive community-embedded intervention program to address unmet sexual and reproductive health needs of adolescents in rural and urban areas in Ebonyi state, Nigeria. The project from which the datasets were generated is being implemented in six local government areas in Ebonyi state, Nigeria. At the first phase of the project, situational analysis was conducted using a mixed-method approach (quantitative and qualitative study method). A cross-sectional household survey was carried out among a sample of 1057 adolescents selected from 556 households in urban and rural areas. Twelve adolescent questionnaires were excluded/discarded because they were not properly matched to households, leaving 1045 for analysis. The WHO illustrative questionnaire for interview-surveys with young people was adapted and used to collect data from unmarried adolescents aged 13-18 years. Background characteristics and expenditure patterns of households were elicited using a questionnaire that had been severally used in other research projects. Fifty-four research assistants were recruited and trained for five days to administer survey questionnaires. The research assistants were trained on the rules and ethics involved in data collection. They were paired to collect data with both paper and android tablets. Electronic copies of the questionnaire were built on SurveyCTO and the survey data was collected over a period of two weeks. </p