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INTRODUCTION: The COVID-19 pandemic is thought to have led to increased "inappropriate" or "unjustified" seeking and consumption of antibiotics by individuals in the community. However, little reference has been made to antibiotic seeking and using behaviors from the perspectives of users in Bangladesh during this health crisis. PURPOSE: This study seeks to document how antibiotic medicines are sought and used during a complex health crisis, and, within different contexts, what are the nuanced reasons why patients may utilize these medicines sub-optimally. METHODS: We used an exploratory, qualitative design. Forty semi-structured telephone interviews were conducted with people diagnosed with COVID-19 (n=20), who had symptoms suggestive of COVID-19 (n=20), and who had received care at home in two cities between May and June 2021 in Bangladesh. In this study, an inductive thematic analysis was performed. RESULTS: The analysis highlighted the interlinked relationships of antibiotic seeking and consumption behaviors with the diversity of information disseminated during a health crisis. Antibiotic-seeking behaviors are related to previous experience of use, perceived severity of illness, perceived vulnerability, risk of infection, management of an "unknown" illness and anxiety, distrust of expert advice, and intrinsic agency on antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Suboptimal adherence, such as modifying treatment regimes and using medication prescribed for others, were found to be part of care strategies used when proven therapeutics were unavailable to treat COVID-19. Early cessation of therapy was found to be a rational practice to avoid side effects and unknown risks. CONCLUSION: Based on the results, we highly recommend the take up of a pandemic specific antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) program in the community. To deliver better outcomes of AMS, incorporating users' perspectives could be a critical strategy. Therefore, a co-produced AMS intervention that is appropriate fo

Background:Diabetes is a long-term disease, which is characterised by high blood sugar and has risen as a public health problem worldwide. It may prompt a variety of serious illnesses, including stroke, kidney failure, and heart attacks. In 2014, diabetes affected approximately 422 million people worldwide and it is expected to hit 642 million people in 2040. The aim of this study is to analyse the effect of demographical and clinical characteristics for diabetics disease in Bangladesh.Methods:This study employs the quantitative approach for data analysis. First, we analyse differences in variables between diabetic patients and controls by independent two-sample t-test for continuous variables and Pearson Chi-square test for categorical variables. Then, logistic regression (LR) identifies the risk factors for diabetes disease based on the odds ratio (OR) and the adjusted odds ratio (AOR).Results:The results of the t-test and Chi square test identify that the factors: residence, wealth index, education, working status, smoking status, arm circumference, weight and BMI group show statistically (p 0.05) significant differences between the diabetic group and the control group. And, LR model demonstrates that 2 factors (“working status” and “smoking status”) out of 13 are the significant risk factors for diabetes disease in Bangladesh.Conclusions:We believe that our analysis can help the government to take proper preparation to tackle the potentially unprecedented situations in Bangladesh.

INTRODUCTION: The COVID-19 pandemic is thought to have led to increased "inappropriate" or "unjustified" seeking and consumption of antibiotics by individuals in the community. However, little reference has been made to antibiotic seeking and using behaviors from the perspectives of users in Bangladesh during this health crisis. PURPOSE: This study seeks to document how antibiotic medicines are sought and used during a complex health crisis, and, within different contexts, what are the nuanced reasons why patients may utilize these medicines sub-optimally. METHODS: We used an exploratory, qualitative design. Forty semi-structured telephone interviews were conducted with people diagnosed with COVID-19 (n=20), who had symptoms suggestive of COVID-19 (n=20), and who had received care at home in two cities between May and June 2021 in Bangladesh. In this study, an inductive thematic analysis was performed. RESULTS: The analysis highlighted the interlinked relationships of antibiotic seeking and consumption behaviors with the diversity of information disseminated during a health crisis. Antibiotic-seeking behaviors are related to previous experience of use, perceived severity of illness, perceived vulnerability, risk of infection, management of an "unknown" illness and anxiety, distrust of expert advice, and intrinsic agency on antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Suboptimal adherence, such as modifying treatment regimes and using medication prescribed for others, were found to be part of care strategies used when proven therapeutics were unavailable to treat COVID-19. Early cessation of therapy was found to be a rational practice to avoid side effects and unknown risks. CONCLUSION: Based on the results, we highly recommend the take up of a pandemic specific antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) program in the community. To deliver better outcomes of AMS, incorporating users' perspectives could be a critical strategy. Therefore, a co-produced AMS intervention that is appropriate fo

This study reviews recent developments, challenges, and the prospect of electronic waste (e-waste). Various aspects of e-waste, including collection, pre-treatment, and recycling, are discussed briefly. It is found that Europe is the leading collector of e-waste, followed by Asia, America, Oceania, and Africa. The monetary worth of e-waste raw materials is estimated to be $57.0 billion. However, only $10.0 billion worth of e-waste is recycled and recovered sustainably, offsetting 15.0 million tonnes (Mt) of CO2. The major challenges of e-waste treatment include collection, sorting and inhomogeneity of waste, low energy density, prevention of further waste, emission, and cost-effective recycling. Only 78 countries in the world now have e-waste related legislation. Such legislation is not effectively implemented in most regions. Developing countries like south-eastern Asia and Northern Africa have limited or no e-waste legislation. Therefore, country-specific standards and legislation, public awareness, effective implementation, and government incentives for developing cost-effective technologies are sought to manage e-waste, which will play an important role in the circular economy.

Background While vaccines ensure individual protection against COVID-19 infection, delay in receipt or refusal of vaccines will have both individual and community impacts. The behavioral factors of vaccine hesitancy or refusal are a crucial dimension that need to be understood in order to design appropriate interventions. The aim of this study was to explore the behavioral determinants of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and to provide recommendations to increase the acceptance and uptake of COVID-19 vaccines in Bangladesh. Methods We employed a Barrier Analysis (BA) approach to examine twelve potential behavioral determinants (drawn from the Health Belief Model [HBM] and Theory of Reasoned Action [TRA]) of intended vaccine acceptance. We conducted 45 interviews with those who intended to take the vaccine (Acceptors) and another 45 interviews with those who did not have that intention (Non-acceptors). We performed data analysis to find statistically significant differences and to identify which beliefs were most highly associated with acceptance and non-acceptance with COVID-19 vaccines. Results The behavioral determinants associated with COVID-19 vaccine acceptance in Dhaka included perceived social norms, perceived safety of COVID-19 vaccines and trust in them, perceived risk/susceptibility, perceived self-efficacy, perceived positive and negative consequences, perceived action efficacy, perceived severity of COVID-19, access, and perceived divine will. In line with the HBM, beliefs about the disease itself were highly predictive of vaccine acceptance, and some of the strongest statistically-significant (p<0.001) predictors of vaccine acceptance in this population are beliefs around both injunctive and descriptive social norms. Specifically, Acceptors were 3.2 times more likely to say they would be very likely to get a COVID-19 vaccine if a doctor or nurse recommended it, twice as likely to say that most people they know will get a vaccine, and 1.3 times more likely to

BACKGROUND: This investigation aims to validate the psychometric properties of the modified 19-item Bengali version World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL) instrument in a typical healthy rural population in Bangladesh. METHOD: The cross-sectional investigation collected 300 adults aged 18-85 years from Narail, a rural district of Bangladesh using a multi-stage cluster random sampling technique. Face-to-face interviews were conducted between July and August 2018 using an Android phone installed with a mobile data collection application CommCare. SPSS version 25; IBM. and a Rasch analysis software RUMM2030 were used for analyses. RESULTS: Results showed good overall fit, as indicated by a significant item-trait interaction with Bonferroni corrected p values, for physical ([Formula: see text] =32.13, p = 0.041), psychological ([Formula: see text] =14.93, p = 0.529), social ([Formula: see text] =12.62, p = 0.397), and environmental ([Formula: see text] =22.01, p = 0.339) domains. Item fit residual (IFR) values for all domains were within the desired limits, indicating no deviation from the expected relationship between the individual items and the rest of the items of the scale. Person fit residual (PFR) values also showed no person misfit among the samples, indicating item threshold are suitable for Rasch analysis. Reliability of the three domains of the 19-item WHOQOL scale was very good as indicated by a person separation index (PSI) = 0.873 and Cronbach's Alpha (CA) = 0.881 for physical domain, PSI = 0.739 and CA = 0.746 for psychological domain, and PSI = 0.753 and CA = 0.781 for environmental domain. The social domain (PSI = 0.650 and CA = 0.669) had below acceptable reliability. All items in each domain had ordered thresholds except one item of the environmental domain. All four domains of the 19-item WHOQOL scale showed unidimensionality and was free from local dependency. Each domain also showed similar functioning for adults and older adults, males

© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. The present study investigated the relationship between the transmission of COVID-19 infections and climate indicators in Dhaka, Bangladesh, using coronavirus infections data available from the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), Bangladesh. The Spearman rank correlation test was carried out to study the association of seven climate indicators, including humidity, air quality, minimum temperature, precipitation, maximum temperature, mean temperature, and wind speed with the COVID-19 outbreak in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The study found that, among the seven indicators, only two indicators (minimum temperature and average temperature) had a significant relationship with new COVID-19 cases. The study also found that air quality index (AQI) had a strong negative correlation with cumulative cases of COVID-19 in Dhaka city. The results of this paper will give health regulators and policymakers valuable information to lessen the COVID-19 spread in Dhaka and other countries around the world.

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to validate the psychometric properties of the World Health Organization Quality of Life Instrument, Short Form (WHOQOL-BREF) questionnaire for use in a rural district of Bangladesh. METHODS: This cross-sectional study recruited a multi-stage cluster random sample of 2425 participants from the rural district Narail of Bangladesh in May-July 2017. Rasch analysis was carried out using the sampled participants, as well as multiple validation random sub-samples of 300 participants, to validate four domains of the WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire: physical, psychological, social and environmental. RESULTS: The original WHOQOL-BREF appeared to be a poor fit for both sampled and sub-sampled group of participants in Narail district in all underlying domains: physical, psychological, social and environmental. Two items (sleep and work capacity) from the physical domain, two items (personal belief and negative feelings) from the psychological domain and three items (home environment, health care and transport) from the environment domain were excluded for goodness of fit of the Rasch model. The social domain exhibited reasonably reliable fitness while fulfilling all the assumptions of the Rasch model. A modified version of the WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire using five-items for the physical ([Formula: see text] = 36.47, p = 0.013, Person Separation Index (PSI) = 0.773), four-items for the psychological ([Formula: see text] = 28.30, p = 0.029, PSI = 0.708) and five-items for the environmental ([Formula: see text] = 36.97, p = 0.011, PSI = 0.804) domain was applied, which showed adequate internal consistency, reliability, unidimensionality, and similar functioning for different age-sex distributions. CONCLUSIONS: The modified WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire translated into Bengali language appeared to be a valid tool for measuring quality of life in a typical rural district in Bangladesh. Despite some limitations of the modified WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire, further app

The oil from waste coffee possesses the potential as a feedstock for biodiesel production. In this study, waste coffee grounds were collected from Turkey. Then the oil was extracted from waste coffee grounds using N-hexane. The two-step acid-base catalyst transesterification process was used to produce biodiesel as the acid value of the crude oil was found higher (15.4 mgKOH/g).This was followed by an investigation of some physical and chemical properties. It was found that the properties of waste coffee biodiesel fell within the limit of ASTM standards. So the studied physicochemical properties of the waste coffee biodiesel suggest that this fuel can be used as a fuel in diesel engines.

© 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. There are numerous different sorts of pre-treatment technique have been utilized with a few impediments regarding supportable natural administration in anaerobic assimilation for improvement of biogas generation. Albeit corrosive and salt pretreatment have a huge impact on the corruption of biomass, these techniques have some negative effects on the condition because of their perilous nature, while the enzymatic pre-treatment is more environmentally friendly. In this investigation is to streamline the biogas generation by enzymatic pre-treatment from Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME) with assessing the improved biogas creation in a pilot scale bioreactor. It is to concentrate coordinate utilization of protein as enzymatic pre-treatment on POME to the improved generation of biogas. Proficiency of privately manufactured chemical with Up-flow Sludge Blanket (UASB) has not been researched in pilot scale previously. In this examination proficiency of COD expulsion and aggregate methane emanation is explored through pilot scale UASB bioreactor from POME through the application of enzyme and reviewed a study with the discussion.

© 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Global energy demand has risen sharply over the years with developing countries recording the greatest share in this trend. Biomass as an energy resource is mostly available locally and can easily be converted into secondary energy without huge capital investments. Nowadays, Bangladesh shares a percentage of renewable energy only 3% of total energy ratio, Bangladesh has already taken a master plan in the renewable energy sector. Whereas installed electricity generation installed capacity of Bangladesh rapidly increased to 13265 MW with captive generation capacity which is insufficient for fulfilling the demand of electricity of the nations. One-third of the power production of Bangladesh depends on expensive imported fossil fuel energy resources and 65% of power generation depends on a natural gas reserve of the country, though one day the reserve of current gas will be diminished. Moreover, inadequate electricity production leads the country in a un-industrialization. The present and future crucial energy crisis situation adapted by installing renewable power into electricity production. The current renewable energy agenda of Bangladeshi government force the specialization of renewable energy generation budget by decreasing global pollution with saving movement of biomass, solar, hydro, wind, and tidal power sector. This paper presents the currents national energy scenario of Bangladesh. According to this, the greater potentiality of renewable energy resources is also reviewed and presented in this paper.

© 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Biomass is a promising sustainable and renewable energy source, due to its high diversity of sources, and as it is profusely obtainable everywhere in the world. It is the third most important fuel source used to generate electricity and for thermal applications, as 50% of the global population depends on biomass. The increase in availability and technological developments of recent years allow the use of biomass as a renewable energy source with low levels of emissions and environmental impacts. Biomass energy can be in the forms of biogas, bio-liquid, and bio-solid fuels. It can be used to replace fossil fuels in the power and transportation sectors. This paper critically reviews the facts and prospects of biomass, the pyrolysis process to obtain bio-oil, the impact of different pyrolysis technology (for example, temperature and speed of pyrolysis process), and the impact of various reactors. The paper also discusses different pyrolysis products, their yields, and factors affecting biomass products, including the present status of the pyrolysis process and future challenges. This study concluded that the characteristics of pyrolysis products depend on the biomass used, and what the pyrolysis product, such as bio-oil, can contribute to the local economy. Finally, more research, along with government subsidies and technology transfer, is needed to tackle the future challenges of the development of pyrolysis technology.

Objective: The present study was carried out to assess the consequence of supplementation of turmeric, ginger and their combination in the diets of broiler chickens and assessment in terms of feed intake, growth performance and economics of feeding. Materials and Methods: A total of 360 day old Cobb-500 chicks were randomly allocated to six dietary treatments each with three replicates of 20 chicks/replicate (n = 60). Six experimental diets were formulated in such a way that control diet (T0) contained neither turmeric nor ginger. Birds in group T1and T2were fed diets containing 0.50 and 0.75% turmeric, whereas birds in group T3and T4fed diet contained 0.50 and 0.75% ginger, respectively. Birds in group T5fed diets containing a combination of 0.50% ginger and 0.50% turmeric with commercial feed. The feeding experiment was carried out for 32 days and different parameters measured included: feed intake, weight gain, feed conversion ratio, dressing percentage and blood parameters. Results: Feed intake of experimental birds in T4group was higher compared to other groups, i.e., (T0, T1, T2, T3and T5) without a significant level. A body weight gain (g/bird) was found to be significantly (p<0.05) higher in ginger (T3group) and turmeric (T2group) supplemented group as compare to T4, T1, T5and T0group. Feed Conversion Ratio (FCR) was significantly (p<0.05) lower in the T3group as compare to other groups. The dressing percentage, thigh weight, back, neck, wing percentages and blood parameters (Hb, PCV and ESR) were not statistically different among control and other treatment groups. However, the relative weight of breast, wing, gizzard and proventriculus were significantly increased (p<0.05). The cost of production and return of birds was highly economical in treatment T2as compared to other treatment groups. Conclusion: On the basis of the results of the study, it is concluded that supplementation of t

INTRODUCTION: A significant proportion of the global burden of disease has been attributed to mental and behavioural disorders. People with mental disorders (MDs) have lower levels of health-related quality of life than those without MDs. Several studies have shown that in low-resource countries, a range of social determinants including poor health literacy is critical in the epidemiological transition of disease outcome. There is a lack of evidence of MDs literacy, the prevalence and risk factors of common mental health conditions, or any validated instruments to measure psychological distress or evaluate the quality of life in rural areas of Bangladesh. AIMS: The aims of this study are: (1) report the awareness, knowledge, attitudes and practice (KAP) of MDs; (2) estimate the prevalence of and risk factors for psychological distress; (3) measure association of psychological distress and other socio-demographic factors with quality of life and (4) test the feasibility to use Kessler 10-item (K10) and WHO Quality Of Life-BREF (WHOQOL-BREF) questionnaires in rural Bangladesh for measuring psychological distress and quality of life. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: A sample of 1500 adults aged 18-59 years and 1200 older adults aged 60-90 years will be interviewed from a multistage cluster random sample. Each participant will go through a face-to-face interview to assess their awareness and KAP of MDs. Information about the participant's sociodemographic and socioeconomic status will be collected along with the psychological distress (K10) and quality of life (WHOQOL-BREF) questionnaires. Internal consistency, validity, reliability and item discrimination of K10 and WHOQOL-BREF instruments will be determined by using Rasch analysis and regression techniques. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Human Ethics Approval was received from the Swinburne University of Technology Human Ethics Committee. Results of this research will be disseminated via scientific forums including peer-reviewed publ