Extracts of 41 medicinal plants used in Egyptian folk medicine were screened for their inhibitory effects on human immunodeficiency virus-1 reverse transcriptase. The extracts of fruits of Phyllanthus emblica, Quercus pedunculata, Rumex cyprius, Terminalia bellerica, Terminalia chebula and Terminalia horrida showed significant inhibitory activity with IC50 < or = 50 micrograms/ml. Through a bioassay guided-fractionation of the methanol extract of the fruit of P.
Cuisine, broadly food culture, has evolved greatly in the past ten thousand years, following the domestication of plants and animals which greatly increased the food supply and led to villages, cities and civilizations. Major factors in the evolution of cuisines have been the existing biota, soils, fuel for cooking and climates, followed by new technologies, exploration and trade. These provide the context of the world's amazing variety of cuisines, but not the understanding of why cuisines developed as they have, in particular why China has the world's greatest cuisine.
This paper proposes a causal model of sexual activity among a randomly selected sample of 305 Junio secondary school girls in Zambia. The results indicate that liberal sexual attitudes influence romantic involvement with boys. Emotional involvement is likely to result in sexual activity. Traditional courtship forms are slowly being replaced by modern patterns of courtship behaviour. Policy and programme implications are discussed.
Many studies are now documenting the circumstances of people living with HIV/AIDS in different parts of the world. We know an increasing amount about the experiences of women who make up the majority of those infected in countries in sub-Saharan Africa. However, very few researchers have examined the lives of female migrants from the region living with HIV. This article begins to fill that gap by exploring the situation of 62 women from different parts of Africa receiving treatment from the National Health Service in London.
OBJECTIVE: In order to develop patient-centered care we need to know what patients want and how changing socio-demographic factors shape their preferences. METHODS: We fielded a structured questionnaire that included a discrete choice experiment to investigate women's preferences for place of delivery care in four rural districts of Pwani Region, Tanzania. The discrete choice experiment consisted of six attributes: kind treatment by the health worker, health worker medical knowledge, modern equipment and medicines, facility privacy, facility cleanliness, and cost of visit.
The primary health care model targets social, political, and economic environments as key determinants of health for populations, as well as for individuals. If nursing in Uganda is to make a difference in health care outcomes and in the health of all Ugandans, nurses must look broadly at situations and be educated to practice primary health care nursing. After 14 years of civil war, Uganda is finally experiencing a period of reconstruction and rehabilitation: the whole infrastructure is undergoing a face-lift.
The current global tuberculosis (TB) epidemic has pressured health care managers, particularly in developing countries, to seek for alternative, innovative ways of delivering effective treatment to the large number of TB patients diagnosed annually. One strategy employed is direct observation of treatment (DOT) for all patients. In high-burden settings innovation with this strategy has resulted into the use of lay community members to supervise TB patients during the duration of anti-TB treatment. However, community involvement in health programmes is not a simple matter.
Recent behavioral experiments aimed at understanding the evolutionary foundations of human cooperation have suggested that a willingness to engage in costly punishment, even in one-shot situations, may be part of human psychology and a key element in understanding our sociality. However, because most experiments have been confined to students in industrialized societies, generalizations of these insights to the species have necessarily been tentative.
PURPOSE: To examine the health-promoting functions of storytelling in a group of women. DESIGN: Secondary analysis, descriptive. A convenience sample of 28 women of African descent living in the Seattle-Tacoma region of the United States was used. METHODS: Narrative analysis of 115 stories. Data were audio-taped in four focus groups convened during a 6-week period in 1992.