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Malaria is still a problem during pregnancy in Ghana and is associated with maternal anemia, premature delivery, intrauterine growth retardation and low birth weight. Ghana adopted The World Health Organization (WHO) recommendation that all pregnant women living in sub-Saharan Africa countries with stable malaria transmission to receive Intermittent Preventive Treatment during pregnancy (IPTp) using two doses of Sulphadoxine Pyrimethamine, use Insecticide treated bed nets (ITNs) and effective case management. There is a low patronage of prevention tools like ITNs in country. This study aims at determining knowledge of malaria preventive strategies among pregnant women in Tamale Metropolis, Ghana. A cross-sectional hospital based study was conducted between February - May 2011,where a pretested questionnaire was administered to 100 pregnant women atTamale west Hospital who were purposely sampled.100 pregnant women were studied, 93% were knowledgeable about malaria preventive stratergies. Giving the health impact of malaria in pregnancy, there is a need to intensify efforts to provide health education on malaria and preventive measures as well as to encourage preventive practices among pregnant women in the global world.

Table of contents for the month of January 2018

Methane is a potential greenhouse gas emitted from natural sources like wetlands, enteric fermentation in livestocks and human activities like landfills, coal mining, wastewater treatment plants and manure management to mention a few. Methanogens are obligate anaerobes present in diverse anoxic environment, forms an exclusive component of gut ruminants and have been found to have health implications in animals and recently reported in human hind gut and possible role in pathogenesis. The practical problem faced with the research in methanogens is the difficulties in isolation and detection of the organisms in the environmental samples and the in this regard antibodies may pave way for novel applications, Generation of antibodies from egg yolk have already been demonstrated to be more beneficial than other sources. Egg yolk antibodies can be generated by injecting whole cell suspensions of methanogen strains into the veins of white leg horn chickens followed by harvesting of egg yolk antibodies, their characterization, evaluating the IgY antibodies affinity to whole cell suspension and purified antigen, further optimization of antigen antibodies reaction and development of DOT-ELISA for detection of methanogens. It is already reported that the feeding of ruminants with anti-methanogens antibodies can reduce the load of methanogens in the gut of cattle that may lead to reduction in global methane emission

Today the world is moving faster. In this there is no time to serve the loving disabled in their family. Even though any care taker stays with them to help, they could not serve them heartily, especially during eating. During eating everyone will take their own time to chew the food. Someone might chew it faster and someone may consume more time. The care taker cannot serve them by spending their time with them. For providing freedom of eating to the disabled, a feeding system is designed for them. This research paper deals with the proposal to facilitate the feeding problem for physically challenged person. The “Automatic Food Feeder” has a conveyor belt with attached spoon to take the food from the parabolic bowl. It is in turn connected to an AC servo motor controlled by ATMEGA32 microcontroller. The user gives the instruction through the microcontroller and the servo motor rotates at a particular angle which is preset and hence the spoon takes the food from the bowl and comes to a position perpendicular to the user, so that the user can have their food at ease. This system gives freedom of eating to the disabled. Indeed this system will help the physically challenged person to rely on themselves instead of depending on others. Moreover the physically challenged can have food with their family members in dining table as like normal person.

We are very happy to announce that from 1st April 2018, Mr. Saba Razaq Salman Al mansoury has joined the team of Elixir Editorial Advisory Board. He/She will carry a special responsibility for dealing with manuscripts based on Solid State Physics and Materials. Mr. Saba Razaq Salman Al mansoury working as Assistant Lecturer, Physics Department, College of Education For Pure Sciences, University of Babylon, Iraq. The appointment of Mr. Saba Razaq Salman Al mansoury as member Editorial Advisory Board strengthens the links and will make it easier for prospective authors to establish contact with the journal. Please send any expressions of interest to elixirpublishers@gmail.com.

Diagnosis is the identification of the nature of an illness or other problem by examination of the symptoms. The ability to correctly diagnose and assess periodontal disease has received considerable attention in the last decade. Traditional clinical diagnostic methods such as periodontal probing, probing attachment level and radiographs are suitable for most clinical situations but do suffer from a number of drawbacks such as clinical or radiological measurements of attachment loss are not precisely accurate and if not carried out very carefully can be misleading. Recent innovations in periodontal diagnostic techniques have overcome these limitations.

This work studies the experimental approach employed in performance investigation of thermoelectric materials using Orthorhombic Tin Sulphide (SnS) crystals as a case study. The sample material was joined with Lead Telluride (PbTe) to form a closed couple in the module. The two junctions of the couples where held at different sets of temperature causing varying sets of temperature gradients with 30°C/m difference between each set. The result obtained reveals that SnS and PbTe module has a high thermoelectric conversion efficiency which ranges from 1.92% to 4.84% for the range of temperature gradient of 60°C/m to 180°C/m. These ranges of thermoelectric conversion efficiency are better than those of commercial thermoelectric modules which has efficiencies of between 0.5% to 1%. It is also seen that SnS module can operate as both low and high temperature thermoelectric material.

The attached paper is my two cents worth on emotional intelligence and professional commitment. Emerging interdisciplinary research and studies from education, business, psychology, and behavioral medicine are showing clear and significant contributions of emotional intelligence to human performance, personal health, and resilience. Emotional knowledge, skills, and intelligence hold a major key to improving education and helping students, teachers, faculty, and student development professionals attain higher degrees of achievement, career success, leadership, and personal well-being. The learned ability of emotional intelligence integrates well with the student development model of education and the historical values of the student personnel point of view. There are many important issues and challenges facing education at the public school and higher education levels. While academic achievement and scholastic performance have been the primary thrust of recent reform efforts, other equally important issues have taken center stage in education. Physical safety, healthy emotional development, standards of excellence and equalitarianism, a global economy and world perspective, changing workforce demands and the nature of work, multi-cultural and diversity issues, retention through graduation, and personal/career needs of students and educators are just a few examples.

Strychnos potatorum (Clearing nut), an important medicinal plant used in the traditional and folk medicine for treating several aliments including microbial infections, diarrhoea and diabetes. Some of its pharmacognostic studies such as fluorescent, organoleptic, ash and mineral contents of root, stem bark and seed (both collected and market) , and GC- alkaloid profiles of seed have been investigated. Considerable colour variations in the fluorescent behaviour of raw drugs were observed. The highest yields were obtained for the aqueous extracts followed by ethanol, petroleum ether and chloroform extracts. The colour of the extracts thus obtained have from ivory to dark brown and bitter to pungent bitter in taste. Higher values of the total ash and insoluble acid contents were recorded for the stem bark, followed by root and seed samples. Considerable amounts of iron and copper found in all parts of the plant. However, lead, a toxic element was found in trace amount in the market seed sample. Further, the GC-alkaloid profiles of seed samples have shown significant variation in terms of percent area of peaks. Furthermore, the co-TLC study has revealed the absence of strychnine and brucine from the seed sample.

Palani hill temple is one of the most important pilgrim centres for south Indian people. It is located in western part of dindigul district of tamilnadu and also it is situated at foot of kodaikanal hills. The temple attracts lacks and lacks people throughout the year. This temple and town are mainly depending upon Palar-Porundalar river dam for drinking water. The physico-chemical studies such as electrical conductivity, PH, Total dissolved salts, Total hardness and total alkalinity for this dam was analysed. All the physical parameters were below the permissible limit of WHO. For this analysis ten places were chosen. All the ten samples were free from CO2 which indicates this water was free from organic wastes and effluents from industries. Total hardness and total alkalinity of all the samples were below the permissible limit of WHO. Therefore this is water recommended for drinking and washing.