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The Hummers method was used to make graphite oxide, and ultrasonic exfoliation at 25°C and 90°C was used to make graphene oxide (GO). At a low temperature, polyethyleneimine (PEI) was used as a reducing and changing agent for graphene oxide (GO) to make dispersions of graphene that were modified with PEI. Optoelectronics’ electron and infrared spectroscopy showed how temperature affected PEI’s ability to break down GO. The results show that PEI can partially reduce GO at 25°C. At 90°C, the grafted PEI gradually dissociated from the GO sheet. The graphene dispersion was filtered and assembled into a PEI-GO film, and its conductivity was found to be 117S.m-1, hopefully conductive material for graphene.

The psychological consequences of corona virus disease (COVID- 19) pandemic on health care professionals specially working nurses were serious due to their higher exposure. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of covid-19 pandemic on the mental health among working nurses. This institutional based cross sectional study was conducted at Bangabandhu Sheik Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) Hospital, Dhaka, Bangladesh, from July 2020 to June 2021. A total of 120 nurses, working in different units of BSMMU Hospital were included. Data were collected by face-to-face interview. The depression, anxiety and stress scale- 21 (DASS- 21) was used to assess the psychological impact of COVID- 19 on nurses. The prevalence of depression, anxiety and stress among working nurses was 25.8%, 44.2% and 64.1% respectively. Nurses working in the day shift duties, having no infection prevention training, lack of family support and excess work load were the factors significantly associated with depression (p

Saccolaimus saccolaimus is one of the six Emballonurid bats and the only species from the genus Saccolaimus that occurs in South and Southeast Asia. This species utilizes tree hollows, damaged palm trees, and occasionally artificial structures as roosts. We recorded a total of 22 bats from 10 colonies located at two dormitories in Jahangirnagar University (JU) in a sub-urban setting in central Bangladesh. The number of bats per colony varied between 1-9 individuals, with an average of four bats per colony. We found that the colonies of S. saccolaimus emerged from roosting sites when the temperature was 22.5°C or higher. The highest bat activity was recorded in September (79.66 mins) when the air temperature was 27.66°C, and the lowest was in January (47.01 mins) when the air temperature was 17.46°C. We observed variations in bat activity in different months, and bat activity was strongly correlated (R-square = 0.52) with air temperature. The most extended torpor period for the colonies was recorded for 27 days. The mean weight for male S. saccolaimus in JU was 41.66 ± 0.29 (41.46-42) g, whereas for females was 45.32 ± 3.08 (43.14- 47.5) g. Although some variation was observed in the morphological measurements, the morphometric analysis indicated no significant differences between specimens from Bangladesh and the neighbouring countries. Further research is needed to understand various ecological aspects of S. saccolaimus in Bangladesh. Therefore, to do so, the existing colonies on JU campus should be extensively monitored.

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are small peptide molecules produced by a wide range of species, from bacteria to higher vertebrates, as a part of the innate immune system. These naturally produced peptides fight against intrusive microbes like viruses, bacteria, and fungi. AMPs are produced in various body parts by different organisms, such as skin secretion of amphibians; leaf, stem, fruits, or whole parts of plants; glandular secretion of mammals; the venom of reptiles and arthropods, etc. Due to this source variation, there is no universal method for the isolation, i.e., extraction and purification of the AMPs. Therefore, several techniques have been established to extract and purify these natural peptides from various sources. Generally, solid-phase extraction and chemical extraction techniques are the most common methods used for the extraction of AMPs. For purification and identification purposes, chromatography, gel electrophoresis, filtration, Edman degradation, circular dichroism, mass spectrometry, etc. are mainly adopted. In this review, we provide a brief discussion on the isolation process of AMPs based on their sources. This study would be helpful in isolating newer AMPs that could be used as potential antimicrobial agents. Bangladesh Pharmaceutical Journal 26(1): 99-111, 2023 (January)

Background: Acute rotavirus diarrhea is one of the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in children younger than 5 years. Nitazoxanide, an antiparasitic agent, acts by inhibiting the maturation of rotavirus viral protein 7 thus interferes with viral morphogenesis. Aim of the study: was to evaluate the role of nitazoxanide in the treatment of acute rotavirus diarrhea in 6 months to 2 years aged children. Methods: This randomized controlled trial was conducted at Bangladesh Shishu Hospital & Institute, Dhaka, Bangladesh from June 2018 to July 2020. A total of 70 children with acute onset diarrhea of

Background: Recurrent abdominal pain (RAP) is a common problem in children. Mostly it is functional, but due to recent advanced diagnostic technologies more organic causes are identifying. Among the organic causes Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection is common, especially in developing countries. Early detection and treatment of this infection may prevent some serious gastrointestinal problems in later age. Objective: To evaluate the frequency of H. pylori infection as a cause of recurrent abdominal pain in children. Methods: This cross sectional study was conducted among the children with recurrent abdominal pain (RAP) in the pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition Department of Bangladesh Shishu Hospital & Institute in Bangladesh from January 2019 to December 2020. A total of 70 patients were included in the study. Demographic data, clinical manifestations, laboratory parameters were recorded in a standard data sheet. All the participants underwent to upper GI endoscopy and gastric biopsy were taken in all the patients. Rapid urease test and histopathology of gastric biopsy samples were done to confirm H. pylori infection. Collected data were checked manually and analyzed by SPSS version 22.0. Association of parameters with infection were done by unpaired t-test, chi-square test and fisher’s exact test. Results: Helicobacter pylori infection in children with RAP was 35.7%. Mean age of the infected children was 9.49±2.47 years with male (52%) predominance. There was significant association of infection with lower socioeconomic class (p=0.003). Patients with RAP for>6 months’ duration were significantly associated with infection (p=0.003). Family size and source of drinking water had no effect on results. Most of the RAP patients with positive infection had poor growth (p=0.003). Pallor, abdominal tenderness or vomiting were not significantly associated clinical manifestations of H. pylori infection. Conclusions: Helicobacter pylori infection is ....

Background: Malnutrition accounts for about 35% of under-five mortality, of which 4.4% is specifically because of severe wasting. Prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in malnourished children ranges from 31% to 61%. Addition of high dose vitamin D supplementation in children with severe acute malnutrition would be effective in elevating serum vitamin D concentration and thus improve weight gain. The association of vitamin D and malnutrition is well recognized but data are scarce. Objectives: To see the effect of vitamin D in the treatment of severe acute malnourished children. Methods: This prospective randomized controlled trial study was conducted among children 6 months to 5 years old with a diagnosis of SAM in the pediatric ward of Dhaka Shishu (Children) Hospital in Bangladesh from July 2018 to January 2020.Sample was collected through simple random sampling then randomized into two groups by lottery method. Finally, 50 patients were included in the study, among them 25 patients received 6 lac IU vitamin D orally in day 1 in addition to the standard treatment of SAM and the other 25 patients received only the standard treatment of SAM. Demographic data and other related information regarding clinical feature, laboratory feature, outcome variables were recorded and anthropometric measurement and Z-scoring was done to assess malnutrition. Collected data was checked manually and analyzed by computer-based program SPSS for Windows (version 20.0). Outcomes were: Length of hospital stay and average weight gain between the two groups. Comparison of parameters among the group were done by unpaired t-test and chi-square test. Results: There were no statistically significant difference in length of hospital stay (16.24 ±3.29 versus 15.34±2.64) days, p=0.291 but there was statistically significant difference in average weight gain (9.08±2.99 versus 7.52±2.06) gm/kg/day, p=0.037 and wasting (weight for height z score) improved significantly on follow ups (p=0.241 on first, p=0.039 on 2nd, p=0.009 on 3rd and p=

Background: Thalassemia patients who are conventionally treated by regular transfusion regimen are at a risk of acquiring transfusion transmitted infections, including hepatitis B and hepatitis C. Getting blood transfusion in different places makes them vulnerable to these blood borne infections. It is important to assess and update the prevalence of these infections along with their contributing factors for ensuring optimum preventive measures and further strengthening of the screening program. Objectives: To estimate the prevalence of hepatitis B and hepatitis C virus infections in repeatedly transfused thalassemia patients and to determine the risk factors for acquiring these infections. Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out in the Department of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, Bangladesh Shishu Hospital& Institute, Dhaka, Bangladesh during the period July 2018 to December 2019. Total 73 thalassemia patients of 2 to 18 years were enrolled into the study following the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Demographic data and other related information were recorded in a standard data sheet. Hb%, SGPT, HBsAg, Anti-HBs titre, Anti-HCV were done in all patients. Collected data was checked and analyzed by computer based program SPSS version 26.0 for Windows. Results: Out of total 73 thalassemia patients, 44 were male and 29 were female. Mean age was 8.3±3.45 years where maximum number of patients belonged to 6-10 years. 2(2.7%) patients had positive HBsAg and 11(15.1%) had positive Anti-HCV antibody at the end of study. Prevalence of hepatitis B infection was associated with lack of immunization against it which was statistically significant (P

The growth of pepped-up determining demand of final consumers always forces devices and circuits to increase power and speed. Only resonant tunneling diode can solve this problem and can be able to take a vital role in many nanoscale applications. This research paper demonstrates the simulations of the Resonant Tunneling Diode (RTD) by using Hartree Model for the single barrier (1B) and the double barrier (2B) Resonant Tunneling Diodes by the using of NEMO5 considering NEGF. In addition, switching applications also require a Large Peak to Valley Voltage Ratio (PVVR) to reduce energy loss. In this article, it has been clearly explained that compared to the Thomas Fermi Model, Hartree Model improves the Peak to Voltage Valley Ratio (PVVR) by 21.21%. The results of the Double Barrier RTD showed much better performance than the Single Barrier RTD. Furthermore, the I-V characteristic verified the notable improvement for the Hartree model.

In-hospital mortality and morbidities are significantly higher in patients who undergo coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery having a depressed left ventricular function or a left main (LM) coronary artery disease. Due to the improvement in technique and clinical outcome, Off-pump Coronary Artery Bypass (OPCAB) is thought to be beneficial in patients with depressed left ventricular function by avoiding prolonged ischemic time. This study was performed with an aim to assess whether OPCAB is better than conventional on-pump CABG (CCAB) in these sub-groups of patients. We purposively selected 100 patients with left main coronary artery disease (defined as ≥50% stenosis) with reduced left ventricular ejection fraction (defined as ejection fraction 40% or less) who underwent elective CABG in National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) between January 2014 and December 2020. Among them OPCAB was done in 50 patients and conventional CABG in another 50 patients. Both groups had similar pre-operative parameters. Total operative time, intubation time, blood loss, requirement for blood and blood products, intensive care unit (ICU) stay and hospital stay were all significantly lower in the OPCAB group. Post-operative complications were not statistically different among the two groups. Study finds that patients with left main coronary artery disease with left ventricular dysfunction can be safely revascularized in OPCAB technique. Bangladesh Med J. 2021 Sept; 50(3): 14-19

The significance of vocabulary knowledge in academic development and having a sufficient vocabulary in language learning cannot be overstated. Research has shown that postgraduate students studying English as a second language (L2) lack vocabulary and require improving it. This research study was conducted to investigate the role of morphological awareness and its relation to productive vocabulary breadth and explore the function of teaching L2 postgraduate students in intervention for improving their productive vocabulary breadth. Thirty L2 postgraduate participants were involved in an intervention. The intervention included 11 sessions of morphological awareness instructions. The students’ morphological awareness was tested using the Morphological Identification Test (MIT) and the Morphological Structure Awareness Test (MSAT), while productive vocabulary breadth was tested using the Productive Vocabulary Level Test (PVLT). A significant relationship was found between morphological awareness and productive vocabulary breadth. The synthetic aspect of morphological awareness was more closely related to the participants’ productive vocabulary breadth than the analytic aspect. The morphological awareness intervention was effective and beneficial in increasing the students’ productive vocabulary breadth. The results may indicate the benefits of teaching and learning morphology to L2 postgraduate students, especially for effective vocabulary building.

Intravascular embolization of bullets and other foreign bodies is a rare complication of penetrating trauma. It can represent a diagnostic challenge because it may present in various and unexpected ways. We report the case of a 65-year-old male who sustained shotgun pellet emboli to left ulnar artery following a right and left upper extremity gunshot injury. Pulse volumel.11 January-December 2018-2019 p.33-37

Seeds of oryza sativa were cultivated in the seedlings and the effects of urea on the changes of pH in the soil and growth of paddy were observed. Urea (80 kg/ha) was applied to one of the seedlings after 20 days of germination and the soil pH and length of paddy were determined from 25 days of urea application. Soil pH was gradually decreased with increasing paddy grown in the control seedling. However, no changes of pH were found in the urea treated seedling up to 20 days of germination and were similar to the control paddy. The pH of soil compared to the control falls gradually with increasing paddy growth. We also examined the effect of urea on paddy length and compared to the control paddy. Paddy length was gradually increasing in both the control and urea treated seedlings from the germination. However, higher length was found in the urea treated seedling. Up to 20 days of germination of paddy, no differences of paddy length in the two seedlings were observed. These findings suggest that urea is the potent compound inducing growth of paddy and pH measurements indicate the period where optimum uptake of urea is happened.

The role of reading comprehension and its correlation and prediction to other skills in terms of enhancing the proficiency level of students in English language has been widely recognized by researchers. However, research conducted on reading comprehension in roughly the last fifteen to twenty years shows no concrete evidence of identifying the knowledge of the transition words with the understanding of reading comprehension. This study was particularly designed to fill that gap and to measure students’ ability to differentiate among various categories of expressions in English language, such as descriptive, narrative, sequence, comparison and contrast, and cause and effect, and to identity the functions of their derivative transitions in the reading comprehension task. The current study adapted a quantitative method and collected data from 100 male and female EFL students at the tertiary level in a Bangladeshi university to conduct this study. To be specific, this research used transition words as the predictor variable/independent variable and reading comprehension as the dependent variable. The findings of the research suggested that there were positive and significant correlations between students’ knowledge of the transition words and their level of understanding the reading comprehension. In addition, the transitional word was found to be a strong predictor of reading comprehension. This study strongly suggests that students with a better understanding of transition words can perform equally better in their reading comprehension tasks. For tertiary level students, the knowledge of transitional words would be useful, and it would also have significance for lexical scholars and curriculum designers.

Solar energy is a renewable source of energy. Usage of this energy can reduce the carbon emissions on the environment. To store electric energy produced from solar panels, a battery is used named solar battery. The capacity of storing electricity depends on the active materials of the battery cells. Normally the capacity of a lead acid battery depends on active materials, size of the plates, gravity of the acid, construction of the grid of the plates. In this research, all other variables responsible for battery capacity (gravity of acid, size of the plates, construction of grid etc.) are constant and only one variable is active materials of the plates. 4 batteries containing different amounts of active material are used to identify the best combination which gives the highest value of active mass utilization coefficient.

The benefits of Collaborative Learning have been emphasized in the ELT literature; however, its positive implications have remained few and far between at the higher educational institutions in Bangladesh. CLT has been introduced in Bangladesh; however, the majority of Public Universities and Madrasa Systems conspicuously lack trained ELT professionals who are aware of collaborative learning. Thus, the practical use of CLT in classrooms still remains a myth let alone the implementation of collaborative learning. The current study sought to identify the impact of collaborative learning on students’ performance rate in their presentation test results, and to identity their overall perspectival response rates to (CL). The study analyzed three hundred and ten responses relating to their experience of studying in collaboration with their fellow classmates during the preparatory stages of knowledge production and gathering information that involved gathering ideas and having discussions on social media (i.e. Facebook) towards the accomplishment of their project assignments. Then, the study compares students’ previous presentation test results derived from presentations conducted in the pre-collaborative stage to the test results derived from the post-collaborative stage. Finally, the study ran several statistical tests, and found that students responded positively to collaborative learning, and they made significant improvements in the post-collaborative test.

Hereditary angioedema (HAE) is a rare disease that is characterised by recurrent episodes of angioedema in absence of urticaria or pruritus. It usually affects skin and the mucosa of the upper respiratory tract and the gastrointestinal tracts. It is usually a self-limited disease and resolves without treatment in a few days, although fatal asphyxiation may occur due to laryngeal involvement. The rarity, severity of the presentation and the need for appropriate treatment made a special interest to the clinicians for the disease. Early diagnosis can enable the attending physicians to administer an appropriate treatment to rescue the life of the patient. Our case is a 21-year medical student presented with several occasions of attack of angioedema involving lips, eyelids, and face since her 12 years of age. Lack of appropriate diagnostic facilities made the diagnosis of her disease delayed.

Thalassaemia is a commonly occurring hereditary disorder. There is a high prevalence of thalassaemia disease in South-East Asia as well as Bangladesh. It is an autosomal recessive disorder, so consanguineous marriage is a very important factor for this disease. Mutated beta globin gene of haemoglobin from both parents is responsible for this disease to occur. But when the number of thalassaemia carriers is miserably high, then only avoidance of consanguineous marriage can’t prevent the birth of children with thalassaemia major. So, this cross sectional study was conducted among 120 diagnosed (by haemoglobin electrophoresis or high performance liquid chromatography) thalassaemia major patients in the Department of Haematology, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, Dhaka from July 2019 to May 2020. History from each patient was taken and blood samples were collected from their parents to confirm carrier state by haemoglobin electrophoresis. Blood samples were also collected from patients and their parents toperform complete blood count and peripheral Blood Film. This study showed the mean age of the participants was 15±9.34 and 73 (60.8%) patients were male and 47 (39.2%) were female. About, 71% of the study population lived in urban area, 81 (67%) patients were transfusion dependent thalassaemia patients. 15% thalas- saemia major patients had the history of consanguinity of their parents. Among the parents of the thalassaemia major patients, 62.5% were Beta thalassaemia trait (heterozygous state), 25.83% parents were Hb E trait ( heterozygous state), 7.08% parents were suffering from Beta Thalassaemia Major(homozygous state) and 11 (4.58%) parents were suffering from Hb E/Beta Thalassaemia which is a compound heterozygous state. Though consanguinity is a very influential factor, but the most important causative factor is the presence of high number of thalassaemia carrier in the population. So, it’s a burning issue for the nation to perform a routine carrier screening for all rather than focusing on consanguinity only, to lessen the burden of thalassaemia disease in Bangladesh. BSMMU J 2022; 15(1): 25-28

Background: HbA1c is now accepted as a standard measure for diagnosing type 2 diabetes mellitus. Maternal high HbA1c levels have been associated with increased risk of adverse neonatal outcomes. Objective: To find out the relationship between maternal HbA1c and neonatal outcomes. Materials & Methods: This prospective observational study was conducted from February 2018 to January 2019 in the Department of Neonatology and Department of Gynecology & Obstetrics, BSMMU, Dhaka. Diabetic mothers with known HbA1c Value and their infants who were born in this study period in BSMMU were enrolled. Neonates were divided into two groups. One group that had maternal HbA1c 6%. Neonatal weights, routine capillary blood glucose were recorded. Results: Among the total 94 mothers, HbA1c level were

Robust traffic sign detection and recognition (TSDR) is of paramount importance for the successful realization of autonomous vehicle technology. The importance of this task has led to a vast amount of research efforts and many promising methods have been proposed in the existing literature. However, the SOTA (SOTA) methods have been evaluated on clean and challenge-free datasets and overlooked the performance deterioration associated with different challenging conditions (CCs) that obscure the traffic images captured in the wild. In this paper, we look at the TSDR problem under CCs and focus on the performance degradation associated with them. To overcome this, we propose a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) based TSDR framework with prior enhancement. Our modular approach consists of a CNN-based challenge classifier, Enhance-Net, an encoder-decoder CNN architecture for image enhancement, and two separate CNN architectures for sign-detection and classification. We propose a novel training pipeline for Enhance-Net that focuses on the enhancement of the traffic sign regions (instead of the whole image) in the challenging images subject to their accurate detection. We used CURE-TSD dataset consisting of traffic videos captured under different CCs to evaluate the efficacy of our approach. We experimentally show that our method obtains an overall precision and recall of 91.1% and 70.71% that is 7.58% and 35.90% improvement in precision and recall, respectively, compared to the current benchmark. Furthermore, we compare our approach with SOTA object detection networks, Faster-RCNN and R-FCN, and show that our approach outperforms them by a large margin.

Introduction: Seasonal keratoconjunctivitis of military personals in Chattogram area causes loss of many working hours with prolonged sufferings. Objective: To explore the outcome of using Ganciclovir in seasonal viral keratoconjunctivitis in Combined Military Hospital, Chattogram. Methods: This prospective study was conducted in department of ophthalmology of Combined Military Hospital (CMH), Chattogram, from January 2013 to September 2018. Diagnosis was made by clinical signs, symptoms and laboratory study of conjunctival smear to exclude bacterial or fungal cause. Initially they were treated with artificial tear and antibiotic to prevent secondary bacterial infection. After three days of complete rest, the cases presented with static or further deteriorated condition were treated with Ganciclovir eye gel five times a day for two weeks. After subsidence of acute redness, topical dexamethasone was also applied for 4 times and then 3 times at one week interval. Follow up periods were 3 days, 1 week, 2 weeks, 4 weeks and 3 months subsequently. Results: A total of 2678 cases were included in our study. About 78% of the patients were male and 22% were female. 95% patients were from age group of young and serving personnel. Ganciclovir was used in 750 (28%) cases. With conventional treatment, recovery of sign symptoms took 3 weeks (SD-3±1 weeks). Recovery was observed within 10 (9±2 day) days in 450 (60%) cases of using Ganciclovir. Short term complications such as pseudomembrane formation were found in 24% cases and corneal ulcer in 1 case. Superficial punctate keratitis (SPK) was found in 22% cases even after 3 months. Conclusion: Treating viral conjunctivitis without long term vision impairing sequel is a challenging job due to nonspecific presentation. Without specific features of bacterial or fungal conjunctivitis, patients of seasonal keratoconjunctivitis treated with Ganciclovir provide prompt resolution which save working hours of serving personnel. JAFMC Bangladesh. Vol 17, No 2 (December) 2021: 29-32

Background: Febrile seizures occur in 2 to 5% of all children with a recurrence rate of 30 to 40%. Calcium and magnesium is closely related to pathophysiology of seizures and aim of this study was to find out the association of serum calcium and magnesium level with febrile seizure. Methods: A cross sectional analytical study was conducted among One hundred (100) subjects of both sexes with age range 6 months to 60 months in department of pediatrics from June 2019 to May 2020. The subjects were grouped into case (group A) and control (group B) by purposive sampling who were seeking fever with convulsion (group A) and fever without convulsion (group B). Statistical analyses were performed by Chi-square test and/or Fisher’s exact test as applicable for comparing qualitative variables and for quantitative variables using unpaired t-test and/or Mann-Whitney U test for comparing between the groups. Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient test was done to observe the correlation between low calcium and Magnesium level in febrile seizure. A p-value of

The Computer-aided Diagnosis or Detection (CAD) approach for skin lesion analysis is an emerging field of research that has the potential to alleviate the burden and cost of skin cancer screening. Researchers have recently indicated increasing interest in developing such CAD systems, with the intention of providing a user-friendly tool to dermatologists to reduce the challenges encountered or associated with manual inspection. This article aims to provide a comprehensive literature survey and review of a total of 594 publications (356 for skin lesion segmentation and 238 for skin lesion classification) published between 2011 and 2022. These articles are analyzed and summarized in a number of different ways to contribute vital information regarding the methods for the development of CAD systems. These ways include relevant and essential definitions and theories, input data (dataset utilization, preprocessing, augmentations, and fixing imbalance problems), method configuration (techniques, architectures, module frameworks, and losses), training tactics (hyperparameter settings), and evaluation criteria. We intend to investigate a variety of performance-enhancing approaches, including ensemble and post-processing. We also discuss these dimensions to reveal their current trends based on utilization frequencies. In addition, we highlight the primary difficulties associated with evaluating skin lesion segmentation and classification systems using minimal datasets, as well as the potential solutions to these difficulties. Findings, recommendations, and trends are disclosed to inform future research on developing an automated and robust CAD system for skin lesion analysis., This manuscript has been accepted to be published in Computers in Biology and Medicine and has a total of 106 pages (single column and double spacing), 13 figures, and 11 tables

Optimizing the dose and foliar application frequency of growth regulators such as gibberellic acid (GA3) may play an important role in ensuring food security under changing climate scenarios by boosting grain yield of food legumes such as mungbean. A trial was conducted to evaluate the growth promoting effect of foliage applied gibberellic acid (GA3) at various spraying frequencies for mungbean crop. The employed treatments included four gibberellic acid levels (0, 100, 200, and 300 ppm) and two application frequencies (single spray at 30 days after sowing DAS, and two sprays at 30 and 40 DAS). Water relations, yield contributing characteristics and mungbean grain yield were among the response variables investigated. The research findings revealed that GA3 (200 ppm applied twice at pre-flowering and post-flowering stages) significantly improved the water relations, morphological and yield attributes of mungbean. This treatment combination remained unmatched by producing the highest relative water content in the stem (85.52), water retention capacity in the stem (17.24), and water uptake capacity in the stem and leaf (2.35). Furthermore, the same treatment combination resulted in the maximum plant height (50.04 cm), pods per plant (11.07), pod length (6.62 cm), grains number per pod (11.00), 100-grains weight (3.78 g), grain yield per plant (4.57 g), and a minimum water saturation deficit. Thus, GA3 foliage application at 200 ppm at 30 and 60 DAS has the potential to stimulate growth and increase the yield attributes and grain yield of mungbean. However, additional in-depth field trials with various doses of GA3 sprayed at a higher frequency may be required before recommending GA3 for general adoption to mungbean growers.

Green Infrastructure (GI) is rapidly gaining acceptance as an alternative to traditional infrastructure due to its multifold benefits. Green Infrastructure can provide economic, environmental, and social benefits to society. However, unlike economic and environmental benefits, the social benefits of GI are challenging to quantify which is why they are often overlooked when comparing the benefits of GI to other alternative options like gray/traditional infrastructure or a combination of green and gray infrastructure. Incorporating the social benefits into the benefit assessment framework can make GIs much more attractive alternatives to policymakers. This research develops a framework by incorporating the Analytical Hierarchy Process and Monte Carlo simulation to integrate GI's social benefits into the decision-making process and determine the effectiveness of different alternatives in accruing monetary gain from social benefits over the lifetime of the projects. The proposed framework was demonstrated for a case study and the results indicated that the more we integrate GI elements into a project the more cost-effective is the project when the decision-making criteria are based on public acceptance and monetary gain from social benefits over the lifetime of the project.

Objective: In this study our main objective is to develop a standard chart of anatomical measurement value of kidneys, liver and spleen by ultrasonography in children age group, so that Sonologist can use this chart as a standard reference of pediatrics age group. Method: This cross-sectional study was carried out at Patuakhali Medical College Hospital, Patuakhali. 100 patients were enrolled in this study aging between 6 months to 15years-visiting the outpatient and inpatient department of pediatrics of this college for different health problems. In this study 6months to 1year old children regarded as Group-1(n=7), 1years to 5 years old children regarded as Group-2(n=31), 5years to 10 years old children regarded as Group-3(n=51) and 10 years to 15 years old children regarded as Group-4(n=11). Result: In group -1 and group-4 majority children were male and in group -2 and group-3 majority children were female. Assessments of size of liver, both kidneys and spleen according to age and gender-shows more significant variation of size with the variation of age, less significant variation of size with gender and between left and right kidneys. In Age Group-1: Male -Liver span varies from 4.56 cm to 8.02 cm, Spleen 4.59x3.38 cm to 6.40 x3.45cm, Right kidney 5.11x2.20cm to 6.45x3.14 cm, Left kidney 5.04 x1.82cm to 6.02x3.03 cm. Female- Liver span varies from 4.2 cm to 7.6cm, Spleen4.68x1.6cm to 6.68 x3.02cm, Right kidney 5.1x2.58 cm to 5.59x2.67 cm, Left kidney4.96 x2.67 cm to 5x2.68 cm. In Age Group-2: Male-Liver span varies from 6.45 cm to10.2 cm, Spleen 5.71x3.29 to7.56x4.46cm, Right kidney 5.51x2.42 cm to 6.88x3.1cm, Left kidney 5.15x319 cm to7.21x3.43cm. Female- Liver span varies from 7.17 cm to10.5 cm, Spleen 5.29x3.12cm to 7.74x4.99 cm, Right kidney 5.55x3.19cm to 8.08x2.91cm, Left kidney 4.96x2.67 cm to 8.86x3.74 cm. In Age Group-3: Male-Liver span varies from 7.65 cm-11.8 cm, Spleen4.42x3.95 cm to 9.45cm x4.68cm, Right kidney 6.79x2.73cm to 9.11x3.76 cm, ..........

The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of industrial effluents on cabbage growth and heavy metal accumulation. Untreated effluents were collected from nine dumping sites in Bangladesh's Dhaka, Sylhet, and Chittagong divisions: including Narsingdi, Tongi, Hazaribagh, Alampur, Khadimnagar, Majortilla, Bhatiary, Bayazid bostami, and Sagorika. Pb (2.038 mgl-1), Cd (0.082 mgl-1), Ni (0.237 mgl-1) and Cr (0.172 mgl-1) concentrations found maximum in Hazaribagh effluents, whereas Fe (7.171 mgl-1) and Zn (1.938 mgl-1) were maximum in Khadimnagar. Two pot experiments were carried out in CRD with three replications. Untreated effluents had a significant influence on cabbage germination and growth in the early stages. Seed germination was reduced by 19.78% when Khadimnagar effluents were used instead of control. The seedling mortality rate in Khadimnagar effluents was higher (15.56 %), whereas no seedling mortality in the control. Because of the toxicity of heavy metals, shoot length (61.98%) and root length (66.76%), as well as other parameters, were lowered compared to control. The number of leaf plants-1, leaf length, leaf width, fresh weight, and dried weight were all highest in the control, while they were lowest when Khadimnagar effluents used as irrigation. The transfer factor values of several heavy metals (Pb-0.442, Cd-0.400, Ni-0.411, Cr-0.378, Fe-26.317, and Zn-22.951) were maximum when using effluents from Khadimnagar and Hazaribagh. Finally, the overall findings suggest that heavy metals including Pb, Cd, Ni, Cr, Fe, and Zn were significantly contaminated in Khadimnagar and Hazaribagh, with negative effects on cabbage growth and heavy metal accumulation in foodstuffs, potentially posing a health risk.

Introduction: Dry eye is a multifactorial disease of the tears and ocular surface, is highly prevalent and has a significant impact on quality of life. Long term use of Cyclosporine has demonstrated that this drug halt progression of chronic dry eye disease and is associated with a cure of signs and symptoms of Dry Eye disease. The aim of our study is to evaluate the efficacy of topical Cyclosporine A (0˙05%) for the treatment of mild, moderate and severe dry eye disease. Methods: This prospective study was conducted in the ophthalmology department of Combined Military Hospital, Jashore from January 2019 to December 2019 among selected 20 patients aged 20-26 years with a confirmed diagnosis of dry eye syndrome refractory to conventional management. All the patients were treated with Cyclosporine A twice daily and were evaluated at month 1,2,3,4,5 and 6 for changes from base line in tear film break up time, schirmer test, fluorescein staining, tear meniscus height, symptoms of ocular discomfort and visual acuity. Result: Mean age of 20 cases was 48.7 years among them 14(70%) female and 6(30%) male. Mean TBUT improved from 4.4 second to 8.7 second (p=0.001) after 6 months of treatment. SCHIRMERʼS paper test was performed before the beginning of the treatment and showed improvement of wetting from mean 3.5mm to 8.2mm (p=0.001) after 6 month. Mean lower tear meniscus height improved from 0.2 mm to 0.63 mm (p=0.002) after 6 months of treatment. Fluorescein staining was significantly lowered from mean 2.8 to 1.8 (p=0.001) with significant reduction of ocular symptoms and improvement of visual acuity after 6 months of treatment. Conclusion: Topical Cyclosporine A (0˙05%) has been demonstrated to be effective in all categories of dry eye disease. It reduces symptoms and signs of dry eye disease with the greatest improvement of signs in patients with severe dry eye disease. CBMJ 2021 January: vol. 10 no. 02 P: 98-104

This study aims to investigate the relationship between capital structure and profitability of food industry from an agro-based emerging economy perspective. To attain the objective, we have compiled panel data food and allied companies, representing 64% of total population, listed in Dhaka Stock Exchange and administered ordinary least square (OLS), fixed effect model (FEM), and random effect model (REM) estimate to test the impact of capital structure on the profitability of listed food companies in Bangladesh. The current study usage three proxy variables as the measure of profitability, viz., return on assets (ROA), return on equity (ROE), and earnings per share (EPS). Our panel data estimation using EViews 10 demonstrates that short term leverage has a significant negative impact on ROA (OLS model) and a strong positive impact on ROE (REM estimation) of the listed food and allied firms. However, the study do not produce any significant effects of long term debt on the firm profitability. The findings of the current study help develop the understanding of the corporate managers, investors, policy makers, and academics about the relationship between optimum financing mix and financial performance of food industries and provides valuable insights from an agro-based emerging economy perspective.

Background Black cumin (Nigella sativa) is a widely used ingredient of traditional medicine for its broad-spectrum pharmacological actions, including analgesic, bronchial asthma, anti-inflammatory properties, and others. We sought to evaluate BC extracts' efficacy for the anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties using a comprehensive in vivo and in silico experimental setup. To investigate whether BC extract has anti-inflammatory and analgesic therapeutic potentials in vivo anti-inflammatory activity by carrageenan-induced rat paw edema, analgesic activity by acetic acid-induced writhing test and ingenuity analysis of the BC extracts in inflammation control. Results The acetic acid-induced writhing test had shown a dose-dependent reduction of writhing number following BC administration. Rat paw edema test showed the dose-dependent reduction of paw edema volume following BC administration. Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA) suggested BC extracts containing ferulic acid, p-coumaric acid, kaempferol, and quercetin can inhibit inflammation. Conclusions This study suggests that bioactive compounds in BC extract act as an anti-inflammatory and analgesic agent by regulating several downstream and upstream inflammation pathways.

Here, we report the rediscovery ofCoelops frithiiin the pristine mangrove forest of Sundarbans Forest Reserve in Khulna division of Bangladesh. A dead individual of adult female was collected and identified to species based on morphological features and skull measurements (FA: 41.28 mm, GTL: 17.52 mm, CCL: 15.58 mm). This finding represents the first record from the type locality one and a half century after Blyth (1848) first described the species.C. frithiiis considered near threaten in the IUCN Red List. The confirmed occurrence through this record calls for future systematic surveys of this species within the Sundarbans.

PurposeGrit is a novel, rather an important psychological variable that has been associated with performance in the English as a second or foreign language (ESL/EFL) context. However, there is a dearth of research on the relationship of grit and pronunciation performance among EFL learners. Consequently, the current study sought to establish the association between grit and the pronunciation performance of Saudi EFL learners by employing pronunciation self-efficacy beliefs as a mediating variable.Design/methodology/approachA quantitative correlational research design was deployed in this research. Data were collected from 350 Saudi university EFL learners using questionnaires and a pronunciation test.FindingsFindings indicated that both the dimensions of grit (i.e. perseverance of effort and consistency of interest) showed a significant and positive association with the learners' pronunciation self-efficacy beliefs. Also, the pronunciation self-efficacy beliefs showed a significant and positive association with the pronunciation performance. Lastly, findings indicated that pronunciation self-efficacy beliefs mediated the association between girt (i.e. perseverance of effort and consistency of interest) and pronunciation performance.Originality/valueThe study’s findings have implications for the EFL classroom. By incorporating grit and self-efficacy beliefs into students, teachers can enhance their students' English pronunciation performance.

Background: There are multiple factors responsible for preterm delivery. It is difficult to completely separate factors associated with prematurity from those are associated with 'IUGR [4]. Objective: To determine morbidity and mortality pattern of preterm very low birth weight babies in neonatal period. Methods: A total number of 200 preterm very low birth weight babies consecutively admitted in this hospital were enrolled into this study. The information about the babies gathered from the history and physical examination and recorded within 24 hours of admission. Each infant was reassessed daily to record the progress and to document any new complication. In his study 50% was male and 50% was female babies. Among them 8.5% was extremely Low birth weight, 1.5% was incredibly low birth weight babies. About 64.5% of preterm VLBW babies were associated with multiple pregnancy- among them 57.1% twin pregnancy and 7.5% triplet pregnancy. Each baby had one or more problems -infection 33% (septicemia congenital pneumonia and umblical sepsis), perinatal asphyxia 30%, poor feeding 10%, neonatal jaundice 28.5, neonatal seizure 14 %, apnea 16.5%, RDS 5 %, Hypoglycemia 7%, hypocalcaemia 2.5 %, were the major problems. Result: Among the studied neonates mortality rate was 32.5 %. Perinatal asphyxia 30%, septicemia. 20.50 % were the major cause of death in preterm infants. Immediate outcome of preterm VLBW infants was closely related to maternal illness during pregnancy. We found mortality rate was related to gestational age, highest (100 %) among the babies of gestational age less than 28 weeks and lowest in babies of gestational age 35 weeks or more. Lower gestational age was associated with higher mortality rate. Higher mortality rates were observed among babies delivered vaginally (24.7%) compared to caesarian section (16.7 %). In addition to prematurity-birth weight was the important factor influencing the mortality observed in the present study. Conclusion: This study ...

Shannon's Index of Difficulty ($ID$), reputable for quantifying the perceived difficulty of pointing tasks as a logarithmic relationship between movement-amplitude ($A$) and target-width ($W$), is used for modelling the corresponding observed movement-times ($MT_O$) in such tasks in controlled experimental setup. However, real-life pointing tasks are both spatially and temporally uncontrolled, being influenced by factors such as - human aspects, subjective behavior, the context of interaction, the inherent speed-accuracy trade-off where, emphasizing accuracy compromises speed of interaction and vice versa, and so on. Effective target-width ($W_e$) is considered as spatial adjustment for compensating accuracy. However, no significant adjustment exists in the literature for compensating speed in different contexts of interaction in these tasks. As a result, without any temporal adjustment, the true difficulty of an uncontrolled pointing task may be inaccurately quantified using Shannon's ID. To verify this, we propose the ANTASID (A Novel Temporal Adjustment to Shannon's ID) formulation with detailed performance analysis. We hypothesized a temporal adjustment factor ($t$) as a binary logarithm of $MT_O$, compensating for speed due to contextual differences and minimizing the non-linearity between movement-amplitude and target-width. Considering spatial and/or temporal adjustments to ID, we conducted regression analysis using our own and Benchmark datasets in both controlled and uncontrolled scenarios of pointing tasks with a generic mouse.ANTASID formulation showed significantly superior fitness values and throughput in all the scenarios while reducing the standard error. Furthermore, the quantification of ID with ANTASID varied significantly compared to the classical formulations of Shannon's ID, validating the purpose of this study., Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures, 7 tables

This paper aims to analyze the impacts of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) adoption on foreign portfolio investment (FPI) in relation to investor protection based on existing empirical literature. This study uses a historical approach and focuses on thirty-six relevant articles published in accounting and finance journals. The author provides a theoretical groundwork of the association between IFRS adoption and FPI and summarizes the results. The findings are critically analyzed by employing developed vs. developing country lens. The review study reveals that the effects of IFRS adoption on FPI significantly differ between developed and developing countries. Although the positive impact of IFRS adoption on FPI is documented in existing literature, not all countries (particularly developing countries), firms, and users have benefited or equally benefited from IFRS adoption regarding FPI. In addition, the positive impacts of IFRS adoption on FPI are associated with the country's regulatory environment, such as level of investor protection. The findings of the study suggest that developing countries should ensure a proper regulatory environment to reap the full benefits of IFRS adoption. This review contributes to the existing literature by providing a comparative analysis of IFRS adoption effect on FPI between developed and developing countries while also suggests future research avenues.