Silver/poly(vinyl alcohol) nanocomposite film prepared using water in oil microemulsion for antibacterial applications.

HYPOTHESIS: Water in oil microemulsion (w/o) is a simple preparative route for nanoparticles where water droplets (dispersed in continuous oil medium and stabilized by surfactants and cosurfactants) act as nanoreactors to carry out chemical reactions. If polymeric matrix is incorporated inside the core of the microemulsions, it should prevent the agglomeration of nanoparticles after separation from microemulsions. Thus polymer nanocomposite films prepared from w/o microemulsions are expected to give narrow and homogeneous size distribution of nanoparticles throughout the polymer host. EXPERIMENTS: Silver/poly(vinyl alcohol) (Ag/PVA) nanocomposite film was successfully prepared, for the first time, using Triton X-100 (TX-100)/1-butanol/cyclohexane/water microemulsion. Reduction of the metal salt was carried out in the core of w/o microemulsion droplets containing PVA polymeric matrix. After separation from the microemulsion, Ag/PVA nanocomposite film was then prepared by solution casting method. The antibacterial activity of the nanocomposites was tested against Gram-negative, Escherichia coli and Gram-positive, Staphylococcus aureus by agar diffusion method. FINDINGS: Ag nanoparticles with an average diameter of 105 nm could be synthesized using PVA, whereas in the absence of PVA the nanoparticles agglomerated. The distribution of Ag nanoparticles on PVA surface of the nanocomposite film prepared using microemulsion was uniform, whereas the film prepared through in situ generation of Ag nanoparticles by chemical reduction process on PVA host showed non-uniform, coagulated, bunches of Ag nanoparticles. The film synthesized using microemulsion exhibited enhanced antibacterial efficacy compared to that prepared through in situ synthesis under the same test condition.

Prevalence of menopausal symptoms in Asian midlife women: a systematic review.

OBJECTIVE: To systematically review published articles for the prevalence of menopausal symptoms in Asian women. METHODS: A comprehensive and systematic literature search was performed using MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, CINAHL, SCOPUS and Google scholar in June 2013 to retrieve all English-language studies that included information on the prevalence of menopausal symptoms in women living in Asian countries. Risk of bias of included studies was assessed using a risk-of-bias tool explicitly designed for the systematic review of prevalence studies. RESULTS: Twenty-three independent studies met our inclusion criteria. Physical symptoms were the most prevalent symptoms compared to psychological, vasomotor and sexual symptoms. There was a wide variation in the prevalence of all symptoms across the menopausal stages due to the differences in modes of recruitment, study design, sampling procedures, the time frame over which symptoms were assessed and use of different diagnostic or screening tools. A high level of bias was observed for both external and internal validity for most studies. CONCLUSION: Although there is a wide variation in the reported prevalence of menopausal symptoms, physical symptoms predominate, followed by psychological symptoms, vasomotor symptoms and sexual symptoms. Further studies of representative samples are necessary to understand whether the variations in prevalence reporting are a function of methodological issues or due to ethnic, cultural or other socioeconomic differences.

Sex preference as a determinant of contraceptive use in matrilineal societies: a study on the Garo of Bangladesh.

OBJECTIVES: This paper explores the presence of sex preference and its influence on contraceptive use among the Garo, a matrilineal community, of Bangladesh. METHODS: In this study, 223 currently married Garo women were interviewed, selected purposively from two districts of Bangladesh, where most of the Garo people live. A binary logistic regression model was fitted to explore the determinants of current use of contraceptives among the Garo community. RESULTS: About 80% of the Garo women were currently using contraceptive methods, which was much higher than the contraceptive prevalence at the national level (55.8%). However, the use of modern male methods was very low in that community. Regression analysis revealed that the strong preference for girls was a significant determinant of contraceptive use. CONCLUSIONS: Even though the Garo apply contraception more than the Bangladeshi community in general, their strong preference for girls may restrain its success. Family planning information can be designed so as not to challenge the matrilineal structure of the society and both spouses counselled together to promote also modern male methods.

Determinants of exposure to mass media family planning messages among indigenous people in Bangladesh: a study on the Garo.

This paper evaluates exposure to mass media family planning (FP) messages among the Garo, an indigenous community in Bangladesh. A sample of 223 currently married Garo women were selected purposively from two districts where most of the Garo population live. The analysis demonstrated that television was the most significant form of mass media to disseminate FP messages among the recipients - more so than radio and newspapers. About 80.6% of the respondents had heard of FP messages through television, while for the radio and newspapers the percentages were 55.3% and 22.7% respectively. The contraceptive prevalence rate is much higher (79.5%) in the study area than the national level (55.8%). A linear logistic regression model was employed to identify the confluence of different demographic and socioeconomic characteristics on mass media FP messages. Regarding exposure to FP messages, four independent variables out of six had significant effects on the exposure to FP messages through any one of the types of media, i.e. radio, television and newspapers. These independent variables were age, level of education, occupation and number of children.