Background Ethiopia is a leading khat producer in East Africa, and almost all regions are involved in khat production. Hossana, a small town in Southern Ethiopia, is also actively involved in khat production and its use. However, very few studies have been conducted to investigate the habit of khat chewing in this area. This study was conducted to assess the prevalence and predictors of khat chewing among Hossana residents. Methods The study was conducted on 1700 individuals in Hossana town from March 2018 to June 2019. A structured pre-tested self-administered questionnaire was designed and used for data collection. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression were carried out to study the prevalence and predictors of khat chewing in the study area. Results The overall prevalence of khat chewing among the respondents was 58.0% (95% CI 53.4–63.3) of which 68.4% were daily khat users and 31.5% used it occasionally. About 24.7% of females and 75.2% of males had chewed khat. Muslim religion (AOR 2.37; 95% CI 1.58–4.32), male gender (AOR 3.48; 95% CI 2.16–5.61), Older age (AOR 1.36; 95% CI 0.84–2.21), participants having habitual khat chewing friends or a khat chewer family associate (OR 1.70; 95% CI 1.17–2.20) were found to be independent predictors of chewing. Conclusion Significant portion of the population in the study area chew khat. Khat use is significantly associated with the Muslim religion, gender, age, and habit of family and friends. Further studies with larger demographic area are warranted from the study area to reproduce these findings.

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BackgroundFungal endophytes are the living symbionts which cause no apparent damage to the host tissue. The distribution pattern of these endophytes within a host plant is mediated by environmental factors. This study was carried out to explore the fungal endophyte community and their distribution pattern in Asparagus racemosus and Hemidesmus indicus growing in the study area.ResultsFoliar endophytes were isolated for 2 years from A. racemosus and H. indicus at four different seasons (June–August, September–November, December–February, March–May). A total of 5400 (675/season/year) leaf segments harbored 38 fungal species belonging to 17 genera, 12 miscellaneous mycelia sterile from 968 isolates and 13 had yeast like growth. In A. racemosus, Acremonium strictum and Phomopsis sp.1, were dominant with overall relative colonization densities (RCD) of 7.11% and 5.44% respectively, followed by Colletotrichum sp.3 and Colletotrichum sp.1 of 4.89% and 4.83% respectively. In H. indicus the dominant species was A. strictum having higher overall RCD of 5.06%, followed by Fusarium moniliforme and Colletotrichum sp.2 with RCD of 3.83% and 3%, respectively. Further the overall colonization and isolation rates were higher during the wet periods (September–November) in both A. racemosus (92.22% and 95.11%) and H. indicus (82% and 77.11%).ConclusionStudy samples treated with 0.2% HgCl2 and 75% EtOH for 30 s and 1 min, respectively, confirmed most favorable method of isolation of the endophytes. Owing to high mean isolation and colonization rates, September–November season proved to be the optimal season for endophyte isolation in both the study plants. Assessing the bioactive potential of these endophytes, may lead to the isolation of novel natural products and metabolites.

Background:The ability to achieve quality recovery of cell-free foetal DNA is important for making non-invasive prenatal diagnoses. In this study, we performed quantitative and qualitative analyses of isolated DNA from maternal plasma, using different DNA-isolation methods.Method:DNA was isolated from 30 iso-immunized women via the QIAamp column-based method, using four different elution volumes and two conventionally based methods. Real-time polymerase chain-reaction quantification of RHD and β-globin genes was performed in order to determine foetal-specific sequences and total genome equivalents, respectively.Results:The column-based method at a 3 μl elution volume yielded the highest quality and quantity of total DNA (67.0±0.6 ng/μL). At a 3 μl elution volume, the β-globin and RHD‐gene sequences were estimated to be the highest among all isolation procedures, with 2778.13±1.5 and 66.9±0.6 GEq/mL, respectively, and a 100% sensitivity for RHD‐gene sequence detection. Among the two conventional manual methods, the boiling lysis method yielded a higher DNA concentration (53.8±0.8 ng/μL) and purity (1.73±0.05). In addition, the method's sensitivity for foetal-detection sequences was only 80%, whereas the salting-out method's sensitivity was just 70%.Conclusions:This study confirms the theory that the QIAamp method is a specific and sensitive approach for purifying and quantifying plasma DNA, when used in the minimum elution volume.

Strong hypolipidemic effects of aqTAE and attenuation of these signature atherogenic biomarkers using proteomics highlights the fact that aqTAE may be useful in the prevention and management of atherosclerosis.