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Epipremnum aureum, sometimes known as the Money Plant, is a popular houseplant known for its hearts-shaped leaves and durability. Commonly referred to as Golden Pothos or Devil's Ivy, it is also appreciated for its ornamental value and air cleaning ability. They say that these plants are attractive to many people owing to their tolerance to several conditions and easy care, therefore, it is no surprise that they are found in many households and workplaces. Money Plants are hardy, but like any other plant they can also be infected by various diseases, which may render them less attractive, or even unattractive. This work encompasses bacterial wilt, manganese poisoning aspects and together with a healthy leaves aspect presents all prevalent masses and offer a comprehensive image of diseases. A dataset of 224 × 224 pixel images is utilized to accomplish this work with the intention to further enhance support in Ornamental Horticulture practices and diagnose more accurately. This work not only contributes ideas and approaches in understanding the field of plants pathology but also stresses on the fact how image processing can be beneficial in looking after plants. The dataset serves as a solid foundation for deep learning approaches into Ornamental Agriculture and provides useful insights for researchers studying the cultivation of money plants.

In this paper, three types of horizontal ground heat exchangers (GHEs) such as U-tube, spiral, and slinky were numerically analyzed to investigate their thermal performance in cooling mode for 7 days of continuous operation with specific boundary conditions where a rectangular trench of 5 m in length, 2 m in width, and 5 m in depth served as the basis for the modeling of each heat exchanger. The pipe material was selected to be high density polyethylene for higher durability and corrosion resistance, as well as the soil and working fluid, which were clay and water. To confirm the accuracy of simulation results and reduce the computational time, a mesh independence test was performed, and simulation models were validated. There were four types of modifications, and in all of the cases, slinky GHE has better thermal performance. For instance, the heat exchange rate per unit trench length of slinky GHE was 20.72 W/m, which is higher than U-tube and spiral tube with a heat exchange rate of 9.75 and 13.62 W/m, which is of maximum 53% and 28% than U tube GHE, respectively, for the same pipe wall thickness and different material volumes of U-tube, spiral, and slinky GHEs. The pressure drop of slinky GHE is also higher (maximum 87% higher than U tube). To balance the heat exchange rate and pressure drop, the thermal performance capability (TPC) was examined. The slinky GHE has the highest thermal performance capability for all the cases. From the energy balance point, the TPC valued a maximum of 1.72 for the same material volume and different pipe wall thickness. The effectiveness was investigated to examine the heat exchange rate with different ground temperatures, and the slinky GHE showed higher effectiveness than spiral and U-tube GHEs. Finally, the thermal performance of slinky horizontal GHE was examined with different trench lengths to investigate the excavation work reduction with reduced trench length. With the decrease in trench length, the heat exchange rate and excavation work also decreased. The heat exchange rate of slinky horizontal GHEs with trench lengths of 1.5 and 1 m remained better than that of spiral and U-tube horizontal GHEs with a trench length of 3.5 m.

The dataset extensively examines the factors considered when choosing sweet potato genotypes, considering various characteristics. Notably, Moz1.15 demonstrated the highest marketable root yield at 46.46 t/ha, H5.ej.10 exhibited the highest beta-carotene level at 48.94 mg/100 g, and Moz1.9 recorded the highest vitamin C content at 23.89 mg/100 g. Moreover, there were significant correlations (ranging from 0.21 to 0.84) among the yield and quality traits studied in sweet potatoes. Principal component analysis (PCA) confirmed the connections among these traits, identifying four distinct clusters of genotypes, each characterized by specific significant combinations of traits. Factor analysis using the multi-trait genotype-ideotype index (MGIDI) highlighted the considerable impact of sweet potato traits across two growing seasons (2020–21 and 2021–22), facilitating the selection of genotypes with potential genetic gains ranging from 1.86 % to 75.4 %. Broad-sense heritability (h2) varied from 64.9 % to 99.8 %. The use of the MGIDI index pinpointed several promising genotypes, with BARI Mistialu-12 and H9.7.12 consistently performing well over both years. These genotypes exhibited both strengths and weaknesses.

Ground heat exchanger (GHE) is the most crucial element of a ground source heat pump (GSHP) system for building cooling and heating by the utilization of geothermal energy. Therefore, intending to enhance the performance of GHE, the present study conducts a computational investigation of the thermal performance of modified spiral tube vertical GHEs. Several modifications of uniform-pitched spiral GHE are made to increase its thermal performance. Some modifications are introduced as variable-pitched spiral tube GHE where spiral inlet pipes are densified in the lower part of GHEs by reducing pitch distance. Conversely, in some modifications, the position of the outlet straight pipe is changed. Water is considered as the working fluid and the inlet temperature of the water is maintained fixed at 300.15 K. After extensive analysis, it is evident that, when the outlet pipe is placed outside of the spiral coil, there is a 7.67 % enhancement in the thermal performance than a traditional uniform-pitched spiral tube GHE. However, modifications like variable-pitched spiral tube GHEs are not significant to improve the thermal performance due to the quick saturation of the ground soil temperature around the GHE pipes. To have a balance between heat transfer rate and pressure drop, thermal performance capability (TPC) and coefficient of performance improvement (COPimprvt) criterion were evaluated and it is found that the uniform-pitched spiral tube GHE along with the outlet pipe at the outside of the spiral provides maximum thermal performance with a maximum TPC value of 1.062 and provides the positive value of COPimprvt criterion. The positive values of COPimprvt indicate that the spiral tube GHEs are energy efficient based on heat transfer and pressure drop. Moreover, spiral GHE with high-density polyethylene (HDPE), concrete pile, and sandy clay outperform the other materials for pipe, backfill, and soil, respectively. Specifically, HDPE pipe, concrete backfill, and sandy clay as soil offer around 7 %, 5 %, and 7.8 % higher thermal performance compared to polyethylene, sand silica, and clay, respectively.

Summary: Background: Globally, stunting affects ∼150 million children under five, while wasting affects nearly 50 million. Current interventions have had limited effectiveness in ameliorating long-term sequelae of undernutrition including stunting, cognitive deficits and immune dysfunction. Disrupted development of the gut microbiota has been linked to the pathogenesis of undernutrition, providing potentially new treatment approaches. Methods: 124 Bangladeshi children with moderate acute malnutrition (MAM) enrolled (at 12–18 months) in a previously reported 3-month RCT of a microbiota-directed complementary food (MDCF-2) were followed for two years. Weight and length were monitored by anthropometry, the abundances of bacterial strains were assessed by quantifying metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) in serially collected fecal samples and levels of growth-associated proteins were measured in plasma. Findings: Children who had received MDCF-2 were significantly less stunted during follow-up than those who received a standard ready-to-use supplementary food (RUSF) [linear mixed-effects model, βtreatment group x study week (95% CI) = 0.002 (0.001, 0.003); P = 0.004]. They also had elevated fecal abundances of Agathobacter faecis, Blautia massiliensis, Lachnospira and Dialister, plus increased levels of a group of 37 plasma proteins (linear model; FDR-adjusted P

In Bangladesh, sweet potato holds the fourth position as a crucial carbohydrate source, trailing rice, wheat, and potato. However, locally grown sweet potato varieties often display limited stability and yield. To tackle this challenge, diverse selection methods and statistical models were utilized to pinpoint sweet potato genotypes showcasing both stability and superior yield and quality traits. In the initial two years, multiple selection methods were employed to narrow down the collections based on preferences for yield and its contributing traits. Subsequently, a multi-environment trial (MET) was conducted in the following year to pinpoint superior and stable genotypes with desirable yield and quality characteristics. An integrated approach involving the Multi-Trait Genotype Ideotype Distance Index (MGIDI), Factor Analysis and Ideotype-Design (FAI-BLUP), and Smith-Hazel Index (SH) led to the identification of 71 superior sweet potato genotypes out of a total of 351 in the initial growing season. In the subsequent season, the MGIDI selection index was applied to the 71 genotypes, resulting in the selection of 11 top-performing genotypes. This selection process was complemented by a detailed analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the selected genotypes. In the MET, the mixed effect model, specifically the linear mixed model (LMM), identified significant genotypic and genotype-environment interaction (GEI) variances. This points to elevated heritability and selection accuracy, ultimately boosting the model's reliability. By combining the strengths of LMM and additive main effects and multiplicative interaction (AMMI), the best linear unbiased prediction (BLUP) index identified H20 as the top-performing genotype for marketable root yield (MRY), H37 for dry weight of root (DW), H8 for beta carotene (BC) and H41 for vitamin c (VC). These genotypes surpassed the overall average in the WAAS index. For simultaneous stability and high performance, the WAASBY index selected H37 for MRY, H6 for DW, H61 for BC, and H3 for VC. Finally, genotypes H3 and H20 were selected using multi-trait stability index (MTSI), as they possessed high performance and stability. Based on the selection sense, the objective has been achieved with regards to the trait MRW, which serves as a major criterion for a superior variety of sweet potato.

Background: This study aimed to evaluate the knowledge, awareness, and perceived barriers regarding cervical cancer screening among women in Bangladesh. Methods: A hospital-based survey was conducted from January to April 2021 among 200 female participants. Statistical analysis of this study was performed by using Stata 13 (StataCorp LP, 4905 Lakeway Drive, College Station, TX 77845, USA), where Chi-square test was used for the determination of the correlation among different variables. Results: Among the participants, 86.5% were rural residents, 96% were married, 87.5% were housewives, 47% were uneducated, and 93.5% lived on a husband’s income. Moreover, 84.5% hadn’t any family history of cancer, 91.5% had no knowledge about cervical self-examination, 74.5% and 61.5% never heard of screening programs and cervical cancer, respectively (p < 0.05). In addition, 23.5% knew that early sexual activity was a risk factor for cervical cancer. Again, the outcome of ideas about other people’s thinking (6%), the stigma of cancer diagnosis (15%), difficulty talking with doctors (5%), poor knowledge (12.5%), and fear of physicians and examiners (5%) were statistically significant (p < 0.05). Conclusions: This study revealed that most female respondents lack knowledge and awareness regarding cervical cancer. To improve this situation, appropriate and socially acceptable awareness programs are necessary.

Detecting pathogenic bacteria and their phenotypes including microbial resistance is crucial for preventing infection, ensuring food safety, and promoting environmental protection. Raman spectroscopy offers rapid, seamless, and label-free identification, rendering it superior to gold-standard detection techniques such as culture-based assays and polymerase chain reactions. However, its practical adoption is hindered by issues related to weak signals, complex spectra, limited datasets, and a lack of adaptability for detection and characterization of bacterial pathogens. This review focuses on addressing these issues with recent Raman spectroscopy breakthroughs enabled by machine learning (ML), particularly deep learning methods. Given the regulatory requirements, consumer demand for safe food products, and growing awareness of risks with environmental pathogens, this study emphasizes addressing pathogen detection in clinical, food safety, and environmental settings. Here, we highlight the use of convolutional neural networks for analyzing complex clinical data and surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy for sensitizing early and rapid detection of pathogens and analyzing food safety and potential environmental risks. Deep learning methods can tackle issues with the lack of adequate Raman datasets and adaptability across diverse bacterial samples. We highlight pending issues and future research directions needed for accelerating real-world impacts of ML-enabled Raman diagnostics for rapid and accurate diagnosis and surveillance of pathogens across critical fields.

BackgroundThe recent human monkeypox (mpox) outbreak in 2022 has become a serious concern due to its rapid expansion to various non-endemic countries. There is limited information about the knowledge regarding mpox among the Bangladeshi population. Therefore, this study's objectives were to: (i) determine the level of knowledge regarding mpox among undergraduate and post-graduate students in Bangladesh, and (ii) assess the determinants of knowledge regarding mpox among the study sample.MethodsAn online-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 879 tertiary-level students from selected tertiary institutions (n = 13) in Bangladesh. The structured questionnaire consisted of two parts: (i) socio-demographic information and (ii) an assessment of knowledge regarding mpox. The Kruskal-Wallis test, Mann-Whitney test, and multivariable quantile regression model were employed.ResultsThe median age of the study participants was 23 years (IQR: 25-22). Low knowledge of mpox was found among study participants (20.7%, 23.2% and 56.1% had good, moderate and poor knowledge, respectively). The overall median knowledge score for mpox was 11 (IQR: 16-6). The median knowledge score of mpox significantly differed by participants' gender, study major, and academic education about mpox. In the quantile regression analysis, the association between gender and mpox knowledge was observed at the 25th (β = 1.343), 50th (β = 2.00) and 75th (β = 1.59) quantiles with females having more knowledge compared to males. The effects of study group were significant at 25th (β = 1.746), 50th (β = 1.5), 75th (β = 1.361) and 90th (β = 1.248) quantiles. Thus, those in medical or public health programs were likely to have more knowledge about mpox relative to those who were in non-medical related study groups. Students who received information about mpox during their education were more knowledgeable compared to those who had not, with statistical significance occurring at 10th (β = 3.711), 25th (β = 6.656), 50th (β = 5.75), 75th (β = 3.404) and 90th (β = 2.592) quantiles.ConclusionThese findings imply that educational interventions about mpox should consider the gender dynamics and program of study among the students in Bangladesh.

In a very dense urban landscape, incorporating renewables becomes challenging due to a lack of space, planning, and mindset. Utilization of already existing large infrastructures in combination with existing technology and necessary adaptation can create the right synergy for harnessing renewables like solar. This paper proposes the installation of a solar power plant in Dhaka, Bangladesh, using available space on Metro Rail Line 6 to meet the increasing demand for clean and renewable energy. The proposed system involves the selection of suitable space, and PV panels, the calculation of annual electricity generation, and performing financial and environmental analyses. The proposed on-grid/grid-tied system offers the advantage of reducing dependence on power supplied to the grid, resulting in lower energy costs, and promoting the use of green energy. The system has a payback period of 7.7 years and a return on investment of 45.7 %. It is estimated that the system saves 14,053.203 tons of CO2 emissions per year and 281,064.06 tons of CO2 emissions over its lifetime. Also, the grid life cycle emission is 584 gCO2/kWh, and the system life cycle emission is 39,119.4 tCO2, which further proves that it is a feasible solution to meeting energy demands while reducing the dependency on fossil fuels and promoting sustainable energy utilization. The results of simulations run using PVsyst and HOMER confirm the economic viability of the proposed solar power station, supporting its viability. The levelized energy cost (LCOE), as projected by PVsyst, is $0.09 per kWh, nearly matching HOMER's prediction of $0.0835. This convergence of results from several simulation tools supports the solar power plant's predicted cost-effectiveness, demonstrating its potential as a key player in the effort to create a greener and more affordable energy landscape.

BackgroundHigh maternal mortality rates still today remain a significant public health concern in South Asian countries. The majority of maternal deaths occur during pregnancy, and these deaths may typically be avoided by ensuring that women have access to reliable maternity care such as antenatal care (ANC) and facility delivery. The objectives of this research were to assess socioeconomic disparities in the utilization of health care services by mothers and to determine the factors influencing this utilization among women aged 15 to 49 in five South Asian countries.MethodsFor this study, nationally representative data from the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) were analyzed. This research included a total of 262,531 women between the ages of 15 and 49. To determine the likely causes of maternal health care utilization, simple bivariate statistics and binary logistic regression were applied, and decomposition analysis and the concentration curve were used to quantify disparity (Lorenz curve).ResultsANC and institutional delivery were both prevalent in 59.27% and 86.52% of cases, respectively. Among the five nations, Maldives has the greatest ANC (96.83%) and institutional delivery (99.39%), while Bangladesh has the lowest ANC (47.01%) and institutional delivery (49.81%). Women's and husbands' education, household wealth status, BMI, and urban residents are the most important factors influencing maternal health service utilization, whereas higher education level, affluent wealth quintiles, and place of residence are the major contributors to socioeconomic inequalities in access to maternal health care that favor the wealthy.ConclusionMaternal health care services must be utilized properly in order to promote optimal health and prevent maternal mortality. Several socioeconomic and sociodemographic variables of the individual population, as well as policy issues, all have an impact on maternal mortality. This research recommends for concerted action to enhance how successfully women use maternity care services.

To obtain improved thermal performance of flat plate solar collectors, the effect of square and rectangular riser tubes of a flat plate collector (FPC) were numerically investigated and compared with circular riser tube FPC in the present study. For this purpose, a three-dimensional numerical model for FPC collectors has been developed and simulated in CFD software ANSYS FLUENT. Transient thermal performance analysis is carried out to find out the optimum geometrical configuration of the FPC riser tube. The numerical results indicated that using the square-shaped riser tube in FPC improves the collector’s useful heat exchange rate as well as thermal efficiency as compared to the use of circular and rectangular riser tubes. There is a maximum 8.1% higher heat exchange rate of the collector with a square riser tube than a circular riser tube under the same operating conditions. The average efficiency of the collector with the circular tube is 65.95%, whereas the square tube has the highest efficiency of 70.44%. However, the pressure drops through the square and rectangular riser geometry are higher than the circular tube. By making a balance between enhanced heat exchange rate and increased pressure drop, the performance evaluation criterion was evaluated and the square-shaped riser tube having the highest value of 2.65 is better than the other configurations. The results clearly indicate that the collector’s performance is notably influenced by the shape of the riser tube, with a square shape yielding superior performance.

The quaternary compound copper manganese tin sulfide Cu2MnSnS4 is a potential absorber semiconductor material for fabricating thin film solar cells (TFSC) thanks to their promising optoelectronic parameters. This article numerically investigated the performance of Cu2MnSnS4 (CMTS)-based TFSC without and with tin sulphide (SnS) back surface field (BSF) thin-film layer. First, the impact of several major influential parameters such as the active material's thickness, doping concentration of photoactive materials, density of bulk and interface defect, working temperature, and metal contact, were studied systematically without a BSF layer. Thereafter, the photovoltaic performance of the optimized pristine cell was further investigated with an SnS as BSF inserted between the absorber (CMTS) with a Platinum back metal of an optimized heterostructure of Cu/ZnO:Al/i-ZnO/n-CdS/p-Cu2MnSnS4/Pt. Thus, the photoconversion efficiency (PCE) of 25.43% with a JSC of 34.41nullmA/cm2 and VOC of 0.883 V was achieved under AM1.5G solar spectrum without SnS BSF layer. Furthermore, an improved PCE of 31.4% with a JSC of 36.21nullmA/cm2 and VOC of 1.07 V was achieved with a quantum efficiency of over 85% in the wavelengths of 450–1000 nm by the addition of SnS BSF layer. Thus, this obtained systematic and consistent outcomes reveal immense potential of CMTS with SnS as absorber and BSF, respectively and provide imperious guidance for fabricating highly a massive potential efficient solar cell.

Enterocytozoon hepatopenaei (EHP) is a parasite that mostly affects shrimp; it is linked to spore-forming and obligatory intracellular microsporidia and causes growth retardation and body length fluctuation, which results in financial consequences for the shrimp industry in Asian nations. However, the introduction of technologies to detect EHP has been complicated by the absence of a thorough knowledge of the properties of spore wall proteins (SWPs) linked to host infection. Thus, characterization, feature identification, 3D modeling of protein sequence, prediction of transmembrane regions, motif analysis, as well as model validation of SWPs can help improve drug delivery in the future. Conservation analysis was performed using ClustalW. InterPro, MEMEsuite, and TMHMM Server v2.0 were used to perform motif analysis, family domain prognosis, and transmembrane region analysis, respectively. Finally, the Alphafold2 server was used for analogy modeling and 3D layout. Different model validation servers were used to validate the protein structural model. Physicochemical features for SWPs were analyzed and found molecular weight around 16.701 KDa-38.314 KDa, theoretical pI 5.25–9.05, instability index 32.04–48.89, aliphatic index 76.49–99.84, grand average of hydropathicity (GRAVY) – 0.059 to −0.892. Each SWP was discovered to be hydrophilic. There was no significant region detected in the conserved region analysis. Both a lower and higher E value were found by the motif analysis. For most of the proteins, there were no transmembrane regions. Finally, analogous 3D models for each protein were created and verified using various bioinformatics tools and software. This investigation could aid in the further research of diseases and the development of drug delivery systems.

The increasing disposal of waste tires and tubes represent a major environmental problem since they are non-biodegradable and require bulk storage space for open dumping. However, significant heating value, low ash content makes them a valuable source of energy. Pyrolysis is an environmentally friendly thermochemical process which produce useful products (oil, char, and gas) from solid wastes. The main purpose of this paper is to produce pyrolysis oil from waste tire and tube of bicycle/rickshaw by using lab scale fixed-bed internally heating reactor. Experiments were conducted to investigate the effect of reaction temperature (300–600 °C), feed size (0.5–2.0 cm3) and pyrolysis reaction time on the pyrolysis product yields. Moreover, the physiochemical properties of obtained oil also been discussed. The maximum liquid yield from the waste tire was 45.29 wt% at temperature of 450 °C with optimum sample size 1.5 cm3 and reaction time of 39 minute, while for tube pyrolysis, the maximum yields of liquid was 43.89 wt% at temperature of 550 °C with sample size of 2.0 cm3 and reaction time of 38 minute. The pyrolysis of waste tube, which is new in this study, the maximum liquid produced (43.89 wt%) is comparable with the maximum liquid yield (45.29 wt%) from tire pyrolysis. GCV obtained for tire and tube pyrolysis oil are 39.78 MJ/kg and 39.17 MJ/kg, respectively. Physiochemical properties of derived oil are comparable with that of commercial diesel fuel, and this obtained oil can be used as an alternative fuel in engine after proper treatment.

Objectives The prime objectives of the study were to measure the prevalence of facility delivery, assess socioeconomic inequalities and determine potential associated factors in the use of facility delivery in Bangladesh.DesignCross-sectional.Setting The study involved investigation of nationally representative secondary data from the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey between 2007 and 2017–2018.Participants The participants of this study were 30 940 (weighted) Bangladeshi women between the ages of 15 and 49.Methods Decomposition analysis and multivariable logistic regression were both used to analyse data to achieve the study objectives.Results The prevalence of using facility delivery in Bangladesh has increased from 14.48% in 2007 to 49.26% in 2017–2018. The concentration index for facility delivery utilisation was 0.308 with respect to household wealth status (p

Modern-day chip manufacturing requires precision in placing chip materials on complex and patterned structures. Area-selective atomic layer deposition (AS-ALD) is a self-aligned manufacturing technique with high precision and control, which offers cost effectiveness compared to the traditional patterning techniques. Self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) have been explored as an avenue for realizing AS-ALD, wherein surface-active sites are modified in a specific pattern via SAMs that are inert to metal deposition, enabling ALD nucleation on the substrate selectively. However, key limitations have limited the potential of AS-ALD as a patterning method. The choice of molecules for ALD blocking SAMs is sparse; furthermore, deficiency in the proper understanding of the SAM chemistry and its changes upon metal layer deposition further adds to the challenges. In this work, we have addressed the above challenges by using nanoscale infrared spectroscopy to investigate the potential of stearic acid (SA) as an ALD inhibiting SAM. We show that SA monolayers on Co and Cu substrates can inhibit ZnO ALD growth on par with other commonly used SAMs, which demonstrates its viability towards AS-ALD. We complement these measurements with AFM-IR, which is a surface-sensitive spatially resolved technique, to obtain spectral insights into the ALD-treated SAMs. The significant insight obtained from AFM-IR is that SA SAMs do not desorb or degrade with ALD, but rather undergo a change in substrate coordination modes, which can affect ALD growth on substrates.

Smart Grid technology as a platform can encompass several advanced technological features across the spectrum of the power system. Smart Grid may introduce an early warning system for structural damage on the surface of large-scale power utility facilities providing crucial information to maintain the safety of the plant. To achieve such a cost-effective structural health monitoring system, a holistic smart inspection implementation framework is required. Using recently available sophisticated inspection technologies, high-resolution images covering the structural condition of large infrastructure can be routinely acquired as a remote monitoring process. Automated analysis of these inspection images can significantly reduce the inspection cost, provide an effective detection mechanism, and shorten reporting time, as a result, reducing overall maintenance costs, and improving safety measures. In this work, we have applied state of art deep learning based inspection image analysis methods for surface damage detection of various renewable energy power plants with a single unified model. We have achieved the state-of-the-art accuracy of 0.79 mean average precision on average even where input images are of varied modalities: from thermal images to visual images, from high- to low-resolution images, and from PV panels to wind turbines. All variations have been tackled with one single deep learning model to detect surface damages. Our results demonstrate the promise of effectively deploying a single trained model to inspect a wide range of energy installations while reducing the monitoring cost significantly. In addition, this work also published the reported dataset comprising four specific image sets for the research community.

The temporal distribution of drugs in the eye tissues after the topical dosing is required to study the efficacy of the drugs. Glaucoma is one of the primary causes of vision impairment around the world and timolol is used in the treatment of glaucoma in general. This paper contributes to developing a model to represent the more accurate biophysics of the human eye through the finite element method compared to other state-of-the-art simulation models. A 2D human-eye model is used to simulate the temporal distribution of timolol after topical dosing within the COMSOL Multiphysics environment. The biophysics of the human eye including temperature regulation, fluid flow in the anterior segment, convection, diffusion, reaction kinetics of timolol, and metabolic consumption are incorporated in the proposed simulation model. The temporal concentration of timolol is analyzed for seven ocular tissues (cornea, iris, sclera, aqueous humor, lens, ciliary body, and trabecular meshwork) in this work. The peak concentration of timolol takes place within 2500 s in the ocular tissues considered in the simulation and the peak in the anterior chamber is observed at 1150 s. The comparison based on the normalized concentration of timolol in the anterior chamber demonstrates that the results of the proposed ocular model comply close with the practical findings. The mean difference with the experimental results is lower in this study compared to the recent numerical works on timolol. The proposed model can be used for analyzing the physiological behavior of human eyes under different types of drug delivery with varying initial concentrations.

This study aims to investigate the drying kinetics, energy analysis and milling performance of two common rice varieties namely BRRI-28 and BR-16 by two stage drying. Parboiled paddy samples were dried employing two schemes of two stage drying. First scheme is first stage by fluidized bed drying at temperature profile of (150–170 °C) with fixed bed thickness of 10 cm, tempering (30 min) and followed by fluidized bed drying again using lower temperature 80±2 °C and second scheme is first stage fluidized bed drying (150–170 °C) and tempering and followed by sun drying method. In addition, sun drying method as complete single stage drying was considered as control drying. Drying results indicated that total drying time required in first scheme, second scheme and control drying are 1.4, 4.75 and 11–12 h, respectively. Energy analysis showed that for both paddy varieties, first scheme yielded the highest specific electrical (12.6 MJ/kg H2O evaporated) and thermal energy consumption (10.5–11.6 MJ/kg H2O evaporated) compare to second scheme (0.58–1.6 MJ/kg H2O evaporated) of drying. Milling quality as head rice yield (HRY) was significantly varied among the drying schemes. For BR-16 variety, first scheme yielded the highest HRY (66 ± 0.706%) compare to BRRI-28 variety that yielded the lowest HRY (43.9 ± 0.571%). Better milling recovery (75 ± 0.64%) was obtained in first scheme compare with control dried sample (71 ± 0.56%). Therefore, parboiled paddy is suggested to be dried by any scheme of two stage drying for achieving quality dried grain with minimum energy consumption.

Nanofluids have been extensively studied in recent decades and have been regarded as “next-generation heat transfer fluids” due to their superior properties. However, dispersion stability and application at higher temperatures are among the challenges that must be overcome. In this work, a new class of stable hybrid nanofluid based on multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) + cupric oxide (CuO) nanocomposite is produced with Therminol55 (TH55) as the base fluid. Nanofluids' thermophysical characteristics are investigated at varying concentrations (0.005–0.08 wt%), and they are subsequently employed as the heat transfer medium in a tube heat exchanger (HEX) for the turbulent flow regime. Thermal conductivity was significantly increased by 128.4% at the maximum nanocomposite concentration of 0.08 wt%. Despite this, nanocomposites enhanced the nanofluids' viscosity, which climbed gradually with concentration to a maximum enhancement of around 25% at 0.08 wt%. The heat transfer performance of the formulated nanofluids was numerically assessed and found to be good; for example, when compared to pure TH55, the heat transfer coefficient improved by up to 128%. The highest increase in Nu was 38.4%, while the maximum increase in pumping power was determined to be 103.88%. Furthermore, the maximum exergy efficiency was 47.84% at a 0.08 wt% concentration and a Reynolds number (Re) of 12500, which is somewhat higher than the 40.96% attained with pure TH55. The highest thermal performance factor was 1.31 for 0.08 wt %, exceeding the maximum thermal performance factors of 1.17, 1.11, 1.08, and 1.03 for 0.04, 0.02, 0.01, and 0.005 wt %, respectively. Consequently, a nanofluid made of MWCNT + CuO/TH55 might be a promising candidate for usage as a heat transfer fluid.

Smart Grid technology as a platform can encompass several advanced technological features across the spectrum of the power system. Effective Smart Grid system includes smart metering, robust communication infrastructure, deep integration of renewable energy sources, and distributed generation, among other important factors. The presented work in this paper highlights the required adaptation of the potential prime features of Smart Grid technology covering niftier equipment integration and internal cross-platform communication adaptable to the context of Bangladesh. This paper also focuses on the potential cost model for Smart Grid installation in Bangladesh based on the current scenario regarding the power sector. A study on India’s Smart Grid that simulates a quasi-similar circumstance helped better comprehend the essential steps required to implement Smart Grids in Bangladesh.

COVID-19 has elapsed all over the world with massive losses which indicate the lack of availability of medical equipment during the pandemic such as a ventilator. This is exemplified by the densely populated country Bangladesh who unable to maintain COVID-affected people because of the ventilator. Due to the higher price, unavailability, and manufacturing defection, most medical are unable to purchase this ventilator which causes terrible death for a respiratory problem. Of these cases, this paper represents a way to escape this problem and proposed a mechanical ventilator named “NISHASH” which will help to anticipate COVID affected people and higher price of the ventilator. Through the electromechanical instruments, a prototype lightweight easily moveable where preciously it automatically controls with digital feedback system ventilator which fulfills oxygen flow based on patient requirement are developed with different selection mode. The aim was to design and develop inexpensively automated easy to build to minimize the extreme shortage of the ventilator in Bangladesh. In this model of a mechanical ventilator, the cost is less than $90 where components are available all over the world.

Objectives This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of childhood diarrhoeal diseases (CDDs) and acute respiratory infections (ARIs) and also to determine the factors associated with these conditions at the population level in Bangladesh.Setting The study entailed an analysis of nationally representative cross-sectional secondary data from the most recent Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey conducted in 2017–2018.Participants A total of 7222 children aged below 5 years for CDDs and 7215 children aged below 5 years for ARIs during the survey from mothers aged between 15 and 49 years were the participants of this study. In the bivariate and multivariable analyses, we used Pearson χ2 test and binary logistic regression, respectively, for both outcomes.Results The overall prevalence of CDD and ARI among children aged below 5 years was found to be 4.91% and 3.03%, respectively. Younger children were more likely to develop both CDDs and ARIs compared with their older counterparts. Children belonging to households classified as poorest and with unimproved floor materials had a higher prevalence of diarrhoea than those from households identified as richest and with improved floor material, respectively. Stunted children had 40.8% higher odds of diarrhoea than normal children. Being male and having mothers aged below 20 years were 48.9% and two times more likely to develop ARI than female counterparts and children of mothers aged 20–34 years, respectively. Children whose mothers had no formal education or had primary and secondary education had higher odds of ARI compared with children of mothers having higher education.Conclusion This study found that children aged below 24 months were at higher risk of having CDDs and ARIs. Thus, programmes targeting these groups should be designed and emphasis should be given to those from poorest wealth quintile to reduce CDDs and ARIs.

IntroductionThe usage of dietary supplement (DS) such as vitamins, minerals, and fish oil has expanded, but there is limited data on their use by sub-populations such as university students. The study was aimed to investigate the prevalence of DS use among Bangladeshi university students and its associated factors.MethodsA cross-sectional survey of 390 students was conducted from two public universities from Barishal Division in Bangladesh using a structured questionnaire with 72 questions divided into five sections: sociodemographic, knowledge, opinions, and attitudes, types of DS, reasons and sources for using DS, and adverse reactions after taking DS. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression were utilized to estimate the results.ResultsAmong all the students, 15.6% students were using DS where only 7.7% of them used DS according to physicians' recommendation. Additionally, students used DS for general health and well-being, weight gaining and as a source of energy for physical and sporting activities, etc. The use of DS was significantly associated with female sex (AOR = 5.44, 95% CI: 2.18-13.52), ≥25 years age (AOR = 0.08, 95% CI: 0.01-0.67), underweight (AOR = 5.86, 95% CI: 1.95-17.62), having major illness (AOR = 6.99, 95% CI: 1.98-24.70) and good knowledge of DS (AOR = 2.64, 95% CI: 1.23-5.64).ConclusionThis study provides new findings on DS use and its correlates in Bangladeshi students which may be used by the policymakers to improve DS usage among students. Adaptation of an appropriate program is recommended to educate students on proper and safer ways of using DS.

BackgroundIn many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), including Bangladesh, socioeconomic inequalities in access to maternity care remain a substantial public health concern. Due to the paucity of research, we attempted to determine the factors affecting the facility delivery, quantify wealth-related inequality, and identify potential components that could explain the inequality.MethodsWe used the latest Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS 2017-18) data in this study. We utilized logistic regression to investigate the associated factors of facility delivery. The concentration curves (CC), concentration index (CIX) and decomposition of CIX techniques were used to analyze the inequality in-facility delivery.ResultsWomen living in the urban areas, age at first birth after (18-24 years ≥25 years), being overweight/obese, having secondary and higher-level education of the women and their husband, seeking four or more ANC, coming from more affluent households, and women with high enlightenment were significant determinants of facility delivery. The concentration curve was below the line of equality, and the relative concentration index (CIX) was 0.205 (p ConclusionThe study demonstrates a clear disparity in the use of facility delivery among Bangladeshi women; hence, immediate action is required to lower the inequalities, with a special emphasis on the contributing factors.

Enhanced sustainability and efficiency are among the prime indicators to achieve in the power generation sector of any country. The decline in efficiency might be caused by improper utilization of fuels and increasing entropy in outdated generation units. Reduced efficiency in power generation is particularly detrimental for the sustainability in developing countries, as resources are limited and need to be carefully allocated and maintained. Exergy analysis based on the laws of thermodynamics are currently gaining traction among researchers to study the overall performances of power generation units. Taking Bangladesh as a case study, this work investigates the power generation data for the country since 2009 till 2019 to study the internal energy losses of natural gas, oil, high-speed diesel, coal, and hydro based plants and provides a baseline for investment policy formulation. Our study found that, due to lack of maintenance and proper planning during the initial phases, the overall energy efficiencies among these sectors are relatively low, staying in the range of 34.55%–36.1% while the exergy efficiencies are 35.07%–36.59%. Corresponding exergetic parameters as depletion number, exergy sustainability index, relative irreversibility, lack of production, cumulative exergy loss, waste exergy ratio, and environmental effect factor pointed to similar findings in terms of sustainability as well. Comparing these parameters, it is observed that hydroelectric plants are more sustainable and efficient compared to fossil fuel-based generation units. Cost estimation of fuels and financial losses in the power generation sector are also explored for a better understanding of the return on investment.

In this work, we establish the sum-capacity-achieving signaling schemes and the sum-capacity of a 2-user multiple access Rayleigh fading channel with 1-bit output quantization in the presence of Gaussian-mixture co-channel interference. The considered Gaussian mixture channel is an accurate model to capture non-Gaussian co-channel interference plus noise in practical wireless networks under coexistence regimes, especially for those having heterogeneous structures and high frequency reuse factor. By first examining the phases of the optimal input signals, we demonstrate that these phases must be π/2 circularly symmetric. As a result, the problem of optimizing the sum-rate is equivalent to minimizing the conditional output entropy. By establishing the Kuhn-Tucker condition on the optimal amplitude input distributions, we then show that the optimal input amplitudes are bounded. Our proof relies on the convexity of the log of sum of Q functions. Then, given the linearity of the conditional entropy over the feasible set of bounded amplitude distributions, it is concluded that the optimal input signals must have constant amplitudes. Therefore, the use of any π/2 circularly symmetric signaling schemes with constant amplitudes and full power are sum-capacity-achieving. Using these optimal input signals, the sum-capacity can finally be calculated.

COVID-19 pandemic is now a great headache for the world population. Respiratory symptoms are the main presentation of COVID-19. However, musculoskeletal pain, headache, loss of taste and smell sense, and neurological manifestations may occur. Identification of patterns of musculoskeletal pain, fatigue and physical health status in COVID-19 is crucial. In this cross sectional study, a total 380 individuals with COVID-19 were recruited from the population following selection criteria. Pain varied widely in hip, neck, leg and calf muscles, back and spine, shoulder, arms and hand, and other parts of the body among the respondents. Inconstant, among respondents of younger age group (aged ≤50 year), 37.59% had moderate pain, 6.77% had severe pain, 13.91% had mild pain, and 41.17% had no pain. On the other hand, among older respondents (aged >50 year) 47.37% had moderate pain, 25.44% had severe pain, 13.15% had mild pain, and 14.03% had no pain. The differences between two groups was statistically significant (p

BackgroundHigh maternal mortality is still a significant public health challenge in many countries of the South-Asian region. The majority of maternal deaths occur due to pregnancy and delivery-related complications, which can mostly be prevented by safe facility delivery. Due to the paucity of existing evidence, our study aimed to examine the factors associated with place of delivery, including women's preferences for such in three selected South-Asian countries.MethodsWe extracted data from the most recent demographic and health surveys (DHS) conducted in Bangladesh (2014), Nepal (2016), and Pakistan (2017-18) and analyzed to identify the association between the outcome variable and socio-demographic characteristics. A total of 16,429 women from Bangladesh (4278; mean age 24.57 years), Nepal (3962; mean age 26.35 years), and Pakistan (8189; mean age 29.57 years) were included in this study. Following descriptive analyses, bivariate and multivariate logistic regressions were conducted.ResultsOverall, the prevalence of facility-based delivery was 40%, 62%, and 69% in Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan, respectively. Inequity in utilizing facility-based delivery was observed for women in the highest wealth quintile. Participants from Urban areas, educated, middle and upper household economic status, and with high antenatal care (ANC) visits were significantly associated with facility-based delivery in all three countries. Interestingly, watching TV was also found as a strong determinant for facility-based delivery in Bangladesh (aOR = 1.31, 95% CI:1.09-1.56, P = 0.003), Nepal (aOR = 1.42, 95% CI:1.20-1.67, PConclusionOur findings suggest that the educational status of both women and their husbands, household economic situation, and the number of ANC visits influenced the place of delivery. There is an urgent need to promote facility delivery by building more birthing facilities, training and deployment of skilled birth attendants in rural and hard-to-reach areas, ensuring compulsory female education for all women, encouraging more ANC visits, and providing financial incentives for facility deliveries. There is a need to promote facility delivery by encouraging health facility visits through utilizing social networks and continuing mass media campaigns. Ensuring adequate Government funding for free maternal and newborn health care and local community involvement is crucial for reducing maternal and neonatal mortality and achieving sustainable development goals in this region.

Antenatal care (ANC) contacts have long been considered a critical component of the continuum of care for a pregnant mother along with the newborn baby. The latest maternal mortality survey in Bangladesh suggests that progress in reducing maternal mortality has stalled as only 37% of pregnant women have attended at least four ANC contacts. This paper aims to determine what factors are associated with ANC contacts for women in Bangladesh. We analysed the data, provided by Bangladesh demographic and health survey 2014, covering a nationally representative sample of 17,863 ever married women aged 15-49 years. A two-stage stratified cluster sampling was used to collect the data. Data derived from 4,475 mothers who gave birth in the three years preceding the survey. Descriptive, inferential, and multivariate statistical techniques were used to analyse the data. An overall 78.4% of women had ANC contacts, but the WHO recommended ≥8 ANC contacts and ANC contacts by qualified doctors were only 8% for each. The logistic regression analysis revealed that division, maternal age, women's education, husband's education, wealth index and media exposure were associated with the ANC contacts. Likewise, place of residence, women's education, religion, and wealth index were also found to be associated with the WHO recommended ANC contacts. Furthermore, the husband's education, division, religion and husband's employment showed significant associations with ANC contacts by qualified doctors. However, Bangladeshi women in general revealed an unsatisfactory level of ANC contacts, the WHO recommended as well as ANC contacts by qualified doctors. In order to improve the situation, it is necessary to follow the most recent ANC contacts recommended by the WHO and to contact the qualified doctors. Moreover, an improvement in education as well as access to information along with an increase of transports, care centres and reduction of service costs would see an improvement of ANC contacts in Bangladesh.

Abstract Background Pneumonia is the leading infectious cause of morbidity and mortality in young children in Bangladesh. We present the epidemiology of pneumonia in Bangladeshi children

Energy harvesting from the ocean called ‘blue energy’ began in the 1970's and should have reached its peak by today, but due to varying interests in the field and the growing potentials of other sources, its development was delayed. Recently, it receives more interest and a number of institutes has deployed their pilot plant. Blue energy is a type of renewable energy based on salinity gradient where power is generated from different salt concentration in saltwater (the ocean) and freshwater (river). When the mixing of seawater and freshwater occurs, an increase in the entropy of this system is observed and free energy is dissipated. This research aims to identify and compare existing techniques or methods of blue energy harvesting developed over time. Five different techniques were reviewed, looking at their principle of operation, configuration and performance. Based on the review, capacitive mixing method was selected for further analysis. Experiment was conducted to evaluate different factor including the concentration of sea water, volumes and type of electrodes. The highest output power obtained is 89.7 mW, while the average is about 30 mW.

Assessing the erosion and accretion (EA) rate of the lower Ganga River in India is crucial for scientific planning and implementing development activities in river basin management. The current study utilized the digital shoreline analysis system (DSAS model) to measure the erosion and accretion rate from 1972 to 2022. The objective was to quantify the spatiotemporal variation of erosion vulnerability and project future trends at the village level to support different developmental programs. Satellite images and field survey data were employed to analyze the EA rates. The results indicated a significantly higher average erosion rate of 0.0583 ​km/year on the left banks compared to the right bank in the study area. The net shoreline movement (NSM) analysis demonstrated that erosion on the left bank occurred at an average distance of approximately 2.91 ​km, which was twice as high as the erosion on the right bank. Furthermore, the findings suggested a consistent trend of increasing erosion rates that are projected to continue until 2042. It is noteworthy that the study identified a majority of highly erosional villages (92.86% of the villages) located on the left bank of the river, particularly upstream from the Farakka barrage. The DSAS model underwent validation using RMSE, T-test, ROC, and R2 techniques, confirming its acceptance with satisfactory results. In summary, this research introduces a new technique and framework for accurately measuring EA rates and making future predictions for management projects.

The current study investigates the effects of thermal radiation and Lorentz’s force on heat and mass flow in a nanofluid with a magnetic field and free convection, as it passes over a vertical permeable sheet. The dominant PDEs are turned into linked nonlinear ODEs using an appropriate similarity transformation. Using the MATLAB ODE45 tool, dimensionless ODEs are numerically computed using the finite difference procedure. Four different water-based nanofluids are considered, including copper, titanium dioxide, aluminum oxide, and silver. The influence of emerging dimensionless numbers and other parameters, such as the magnetic force parameter, the radiation parameter, the suction parameter, the Prandtl number, the Schmidt number, the Dufour number, as well as for constant values of the modified local Grashof number and local Grashof number on the concentration, velocity, and temperature profiles is emphasized and mentioned. Moreover, the visual representation of the effects of a volume percentage of up to 4% copper nanoparticles on the distributions of concentration, temperature, and velocity is also shown. The temperature profile, concentration profile, and velocity profile all grow with an increase in the volume percent of copper nanoparticles between 0.00 and 0.04. Furthermore, numerous scenarios are investigated for the distributions of the local Sherwood number, the local Nusselt number, and the local skin friction coefficient. The local Nusselt number decreases, and the local skin friction coefficient and Sherwood number increase about by 30 %, 45 %, and 60 % respectively due to increasing the value of volume fraction from 0 % to 4 %. The local skin friction coefficient increases and the local Nusselt number decreases by about 15 % and 39 % respectively for rising values of the thermal radiation number from 0.5 to 3.5. In addition, for magnetic force parameter values between 0.5 and 4.0, the local skin friction coefficient drops by about 13 %.

Bananas are among the most widely consumed fruits globally due to their appealing flavor, high nutritional value, and ease of digestion. In Bangladesh, bananas hold significant agricultural importance, being one of the most extensively cultivated fruits in terms of land coverage and ranking third in production volume. The banana image dataset presented in this article includes clear and detailed images of four common banana varieties in Bangladesh: Sagor Kola (Musa acuminate), Shabri Kola (Musa sapientum), Bangla Kola (Musa sp.), and Champa Kola (Musa sapientum), as well as four key stages of banana ripeness: Green, Semi-ripe, Ripe, and Overripe. The bananas were collected from wholesale markets and retail fruit shops located in different places in Bangladesh. Overall, the dataset has 2471 original images of different varieties of bananas and 820 original images of varying ripeness stages of bananas. All the images were carefully captured using a high-quality smartphone camera. Later, each image was manually reviewed, maintaining the quality standard throughout the dataset. The augmented version of the banana variety classification dataset contains 7413 images and the augmented banana ripeness stages dataset contains 2457 images. The dataset possesses immense potential in driving innovation and development of automated and efficient processes and mechanisms in several fields, including precision agriculture, food processing, and supply chain management. Machine Learning (ML) and Deep Learning (DL) models can be trained on this dataset to accurately categorize banana varieties and determine their ripeness stages. Such ML and DL models can be leveraged to develop automated systems to determine the optimal harvest time, establish standards for quality control of bananas, develop products and marketing strategies through analysis of consumer preferences for various banana varieties and ripeness levels, and streamline the banana supply chain through improvements in harvesting, sorting, packaging, and inventory management. Additionally, researchers aiming to contribute to developing Computer Vision technologies in food and agricultural sciences will find this dataset valuable in advancing precision farming and food processing mechanisms. Therefore, the dataset has a vast capacity for automating banana production and processing, minimizing the costs of manual labor, and improving overall efficiency.

Bacteriophages or bacteria infecting viruses are genetically diverse. Due to the emergence of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria, lytic bacteriophages are gaining enormous attention for treating superbug infections. Klebsiella pneumoniae is one of the eight most significant nosocomial pathogens and is addressed as a critical priority pathogen by WHO, requiring alternative treatment options. We reported two highly lytic bacteriophages, Klebsiella phage Kpn BM7 and the novel Klebsiella phage Kpn BU9, isolated from hospital wastewater and exhibiting lytic activity against different clinical isolates. Whole-genome analysis revealed that phages BM7 and BU9 belong to class Caudoviricetes. Phage BM7, with a genome length of 170,558 bp, is a member of the genus Marfavirus and the species Marfavirus F48. While phage BU9, with a genome length of 60,450 bp, remains unclassified. Neither phage harbors any lysogenic, toxin, or antimicrobial resistance genes. Both phages can steadily survive up to 40 °C and at pH 5–7. The optimal MOI was 0.1 for BM7 and 1 for BU9, with short latent periods of 10 and 25 min and burst sizes of 85 PFU/cell and 12 PFU/cell, respectively. This is the first carbapenem-resistant K. pneumoniae targeting lytic phages to be reported from Bangladesh. This study suggests that BM7 and BU9 are potential candidates for targeting carbapenem-resistant K. pneumoniae.

This article statistically investigates the impact of heat production on the unstable MHD natural convection transport of nanofluid flow via a perforated sheet. The ordinary differential equations (ODEs) are derived from the partial differential equations (PDEs) by using of the similarity transformation. The dimensionless ordinary differential equations (ODEs) may be numerically resolved with the help of the MATLAB ODE45 tool and the finite difference method (FDM) along with the shooting strategy. Four innovative water-based nanofluids such as TiO2, Cu, Al2O3, and Ag are considered nanoparticles. The numerical results have been explained for the role of numerous non-dimensional numbers or parameters such as heat generation or absorption (Q), nanoparticle volume fraction (φ), Dufour number (Df), Prandtl number (Pr), magnetic force parameter (M), Soret number (Sr), and Schmidt number (Sc) on the fluid flow, and heat and mass transfer rates. The fluid temperature drops but velocity is enhanced for higher amounts of Q. Copper nanoparticle volume fraction up to 4 % shows a rise in temperature, concentration, and velocity curves. Heat transfer rate ( − θ′(0)) diminishes by about 124 %, while the values of f′(0) promote by approximately 26 % owing to an increase in the values of Q (heat generation) from 1.0 to 2.0. The value of ( − θ′(0)) increases by 49 %, but f′0 decreases by 15 % due to a rise in Q (heat absorption) from -3.0 to -10.0. The local skin friction coefficient (f′(0)) diminishes by about 65.21 % due to an increase in the values of the magnetic force parameter (M) from 0.5 to 3.5 whereas the rate of heat and mass transfer remain unchanged. As φ increased from 0.01 to 0.04, the local skin friction coefficient (f′(0)) exhibited a 36 % increase, while the heat transport rate (θ′(0)) decreased around by 10 %. In conclusion, a comparison was made between our findings and those of the published research. The comparison indicates a high degree of consistency.

The present study aimed to elucidate the effect of different levels of dietary protein during late pregnancy on the performance of Black Bengal does and their kids. Twelve does were divided into three groups, with four in each, and three diets, i.e., high protein (18% CP), medium protein (14% CP), and low protein (10% CP) were supplied for 50 days, commencing from 100 days post-coitum to parturition. During the first 100 days of pregnancy, uniform rations with similar ingredients were provided to fulfill the nutrient requirements depending on the live weight of does. All three diets were isocaloric (10.0 MJ/kg DM). Data were subjected to one-way ANOVA, and the significance of the difference among means was determined by Duncan’s Multiple Range Test (DMRT). The main effects of diet and sex, as well as their interaction, were analyzed by two-way ANOVA by using the GLM procedure. The relative expression values of qPCR were calculated by using the 2−ΔΔCt analysis method. Live weight gain was significantly (p < 0.05) higher in high-protein-fed dams than other groups during the experimental period. The milk yield of does was significantly (p < 0.05) higher in high-protein-fed goats than in the low-protein group. The lactation length of does was significantly (p < 0.05) higher in the high- and medium-protein-fed does than in the low-protein-fed does. The duration of post-partum anestrus of does was significantly (p < 0.05) higher in the low-protein-fed dams than in the high-protein group. The birth weight of kids tended to be higher in the high-protein group but did not differ significantly among the treatment groups. In male kids, weaning weight, final weight, live weight gain, and average daily gain were significantly (p < 0.05) higher than in female kids. Weaning weight was higher (p < 0.05) in kids of the high-protein-fed does than the low-protein group. Final weight and live weight gain were significantly (p < 0.05) higher in kids of the high-protein-fed does than in the low-protein-fed group. On the other hand, average daily gain was significantly (p < 0.05) higher in kids of the high- and medium-protein-fed does than the low-protein group. The average body length and wither height of kids at the 32nd week was significantly (p < 0.05) higher in kids of high-protein-fed does than those of the low-protein-fed group. The average heart girth of kids at the 32nd week was significantly (p < 0.05) higher in kids of high-protein-fed does than the medium- and low-protein groups. The survival rate of kids was higher in the medium- and high-protein-fed does than in low-protein group. Hot carcass weight and ether extract content of meat were significantly (p < 0.05) higher in the high-protein group than in the other groups. The dressing percentage was significantly (p < 0.05) higher in the kids of high-protein-fed does than low-protein-fed goats. The expression of the H-FABP gene was significantly (p < 0.05) higher in kids of high-protein-fed does than those of the medium- and low-protein groups. In conclusion, maternal dietary protein levels positively influences the production performance of Black Bengal does and their kids.

The implementation of antiretroviral therapy (ART) has effectively restricted the transmission of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and improved overall clinical outcomes. However, a complete cure for HIV remains out of reach, as the virus persists in a stable pool of infected cell reservoir that is resistant to therapy and thus a main barrier towards complete elimination of viral infection. While the mechanisms by which host proteins govern viral gene expression and latency are well-studied, the emerging regulatory functions of non-coding RNAs (ncRNA) in the context of T cell activation, HIV gene expression and viral latency have not yet been thoroughly explored. Here, we report the identification of the Cytoskeleton Regulator (CYTOR) long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) as an activator of HIV gene expression that is upregulated following T cell stimulation. Functional studies show that CYTOR suppresses viral latency by directly binding to the HIV promoter and associating with the cellular positive transcription elongation factor (P-TEFb) to activate viral gene expression. CYTOR also plays a global role in regulating cellular gene expression, including those involved in controlling actin dynamics. Depletion of CYTOR expression reduces cytoplasmic actin polymerization in response to T cell activation. In addition, treating HIV-infected cells with pharmacological inhibitors of actin polymerization reduces HIV gene expression. We conclude that both direct and indirect effects of CYTOR regulate HIV gene expression.

This study examined whether work-family conflict mediates the effects of perceived organizational support and perceived supervisor support on turnover intention among nurses in the healthcare sector in Bangladesh. Data collected from 383 participants were analyzed using structural equation modelling. Both perceived supervisor support and perceived organizational support were found to have a significant negative association with nurses' intention to leave. The study further revealed that the connection between perceived support and turnover intention among nurses in Bangladesh was positively mediated by work-family conflict; it was shown that work-family conflict increases turnover intention. This study recommended that, hospitals should focus on creating a socially interactive environment and addressing work-family conflicts, as selected variables can as these factors can mitigate nurses’ turnover intentions through job satisfaction and increase overall well-being among nurses. An increase in job satisfaction may ultimately improve patient care within healthcare organizations. This study aimed to provide support to human resource managers in the development of strategies that can effectively reduce nurse turnover, which is a critical issue in Bangladesh and other countries facing similar challenges.

The present study aimed to determine the effects of dietary energy levels on follicular development and in vitro maturation of oocytes in pre-pubertal goats. Thirty-six female six-month-old stall-fed Black Bengal goats were divided into three equal groups that were randomly assigned to receive three iso-nitrogenous diets containing different levels of metabolizable energy (8.67, 10.20, and 11.73 MJ/kg DM). After 150 days of rearing, the weight, length and width of the ovaries increased significantly in medium and high levels of dietary energy groups than in the low-energy group. Medium and high-energy levels in the diet significantly increased the number of visible antral follicles and large antral follicles than the low level of dietary energy. The number of antral follicles per ovary was higher in high-energy fed goats than medium- and low-energy groups. The low-energy group showed more non-growing primordial follicles and degenerated follicles than the other groups. The medium- and high-dietary energy levels significantly increased the maturation rate of oocytes to metaphase II than the low-energy group. These results reveal that the level of dietary energy positively influences follicular development and meiotic competence of goat oocytes.

This paper investigates the role of heat absorption or production on time-dependent free MHD convective transport over a vertical porous plate with thermal radiation. The PDEs are changed into non-dimensional couple ODEs by adopting proper similarity analysis. Then the finite difference method (FMD) is used for solving the converted non-dimensional coupled ODEs. The roles of the dimensionless parameters or numbers like the radiative parameter (R), internal heat absorption or generation(Q), the suction (v0), the magnetic force parameter (M), the Schmidt number (Sc), and Prandtl number (Pr) the on the numerical results of the temperature, velocity, and concentration distributions are explained in graphically. The results indicate that improving values of the heat absorption or production with thermal radiation improves the thermal boundary layer thickness. The local skin friction coefficient increases by about 11 % and the heat transfer rate reduces by about 85 % due to improving values of Q from 1.0 to 2.0. Growing values of the radiative parameter from 1.0 to 4.0 improves the local skin friction coefficient by about 13 %. The heat transfer rate lessens by about 41 %. Our numerical results are more compared with the published paper.

Antibiotic resistance has been recognized as a public health threat in recent years, and mortality due to resistance is increasing alarmingly every year. Antibiotic resistance, among many factors, may arise due to the consumption of substandard antibiotic brands that provide subnormal levels of the drug in the blood. Post-market evaluation can provide important information in assessing pharmaceutical products in terms of quality, purity, and therapeutic aspects. Ciprofloxacin, a broad-spectrum antibiotic, has been used against a wide range of infectious diseases in Bangladesh. The present study aimed to determine the quality attributes of twenty-two commonly prescribed brands of ciprofloxacin 500 mg tablet collected from Dhaka city and the rural regions of Jessore. RP-HPLC coupled with UV–visible spectrophotometry was used to determine the potency of ciprofloxacin in tablets, and the zone of inhibition was determined using Kirby-Bauer's disc diffusion method to assess the antimicrobial efficacy against different strains of microorganisms. We found that 95.45% of brands (21 out of 22 brands) of ciprofloxacin tablets met United States Pharmacopoeia (USP) and British Pharmacopoeia (BP) specified potency, whereas one brand failed. From dissolution studies, we observed that 68.2% of brands (15 out of 22 brands) followed USP/NF dissolution test specifications, whereas 31.8% (7 out of 22 brands) failed to release 80% of the labeled amount of drug within 30 min. Drug release kinetics data showed that most brands followed the Weibull drug release kinetic model. Fit factor analysis exhibited that 8 brands out of 22 (36.4%) failed to comply similar dissolution profiles with the reference product. Minimum inhibitory concentrations, assessed against five bacterial strains, further showed good antimicrobial sensitivity by all brands.

Abstract Increased consumption of water resource due to rapid growth of population has certainly reduced the groundwater storage beneath the earth which leads certain challenges to human being in recent time. For optimal management of this vital resource, exploration of groundwater potential zone (GWPZ) has become essential. We have applied Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), Frequency Ratio (FR) and two machine learning techniques specifically Random Forest (RF) and Naïve Bayes (NB) here to delineate GWPZ in Gandheswari River Basin in Chota Nagpur Plateau, India. To achieve the goal of the study, twelve factors that determine occurrence of groundwater have been selected for inter-thematic correlations and overlaid with location of wells. These factors include elevation, drainage density, slope, lithology, geomorphology, topographical wetness index (TWI), distance from the river, rainfall, lineament density, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), soil, and Land use and Land cover (LULC). A total 170 points including 85 in well site and 85 in non-well site have been selected randomly and allocated into two parts: training and testing at the share of 70:30. The implemented methods have significantly provided five GWPZs specifically Very Good (VG), Good (G), Moderate (M), Poor (P) and Very Poor (VP) with high and acceptable accuracy. The study also finds that geomorphology, slope, rainfall and elevation have greater importance in shaping GWPZs than LULC, NDVI, etc. Model performance has been tested with receiver operator characteristics (ROC), Accuracy (ACC), Kappa Coefficient, MAE, RMSE, etc., methods. Area under curve (AUC) in ROC curve has revealed that accuracy level of AHP, FR, RF and NB is 78.8%, 81%, 85.3% and 85.5, respectively. The machine learning techniques coupled with AHP and FR unveil effective delineation of groundwater potential area in said river basin which by genetically offers low primary porosity due to lithological constrains. Therefore, the study can be helpful in watershed management and identifying appropriate location wells in future.

CD4 T cell activation induces nuclear and cytoplasmic actin polymerization via the Arp2/3 complex to activate cytokine expression and strengthen T cell receptor (TCR) signaling. Actin polymerization dynamics and filament morphology differ between nucleus and cytoplasm. However, it is unclear how the Arp2/3 complex mediates distinct nuclear and cytoplasmic actin polymerization in response to a common stimulus. In humans, the ARP3, ARPC1, and ARPC5 subunits of the Arp2/3 complex exist as two different isoforms, resulting in complexes with different properties. Here, we show that the Arp2/3 subunit isoforms ARPC5 and ARPC5L play a central role in coordinating distinct actin polymerization events in CD4 T cells. While ARPC5L is heterogeneously expressed in individual CD4 T cells, it specifically drives nuclear actin polymerization upon T cell activation. In contrast, ARPC5 is evenly expressed in CD4 T cell populations and is required for cytoplasmic actin dynamics. Interestingly, nuclear actin polymerization triggered by a different stimulus, DNA replication stress, specifically requires ARPC5 but not ARPC5L. TCR signaling but not DNA replication stress induces nuclear actin polymerization via nuclear calcium-calmodulin signaling and N-WASP. Diversity in the molecular properties and individual expression patterns of ARPC5 subunit isoforms thus tailors Arp2/3-mediated actin polymerization to different physiological stimuli.

The effects of radiative and viscous dissipation on the transfer of unsteady magnetic-conductive heat-mass across a vertically porous sheet is studied in this article. The non-dimensional ODEs are solved by applying the Finite Difference Method (FDM) through the MATLAB software numerically. The fluid temperature and velocity enhance for uplifting values of the Eckert number. Enhancing values of the transpiration parameter the velocity, concentration, and temperature distributions reduce. The local skin friction enhances about 9%, and 18% due to increase the Eckert number (0.5–3.0) and Dufour number (0.5–4.0), respectively and reduces 17%, 38%, and 31% due to increase Prandtl number (0.71–7.0), magnetic force parameter (0.5–3.0), and suction parameter (0.5–3.0), respectively. Enhancing values of the Eckert number (0.5–3.0) reduces the heat transfer rate by 40%. The increasing value of the Prandtl number (0.71–7.0) and the suction parameter (0.5–3.0) increases the heat transfer rate by 27% and 92%, respectively. With an increase in the values of the Schmidt number (0.22–0.67), the mass transfer rate increased by approximately 94%. At last, the numerical results of this paper has compared with the previously published paper. We noticed that the comparison has an excellent acceptance.

Objective: To investigate the effect of L-carnitine on in vitro maturation and subsequent in vitro embryo production of buffalo oocytes. Methods: Cumulus oocyte complexes (COCs) were aspirated from ovaries of slaughtered buffaloes. COCs were classified into good and fair qualities based on morphological observation of numbers and integrity of cumulus cells surrounding the oocyte. Both categories of COCs were placed in in vitro maturation medium with supplementation of different concentrations (0, 0.250, 0.375 or 0.500 mg/mL) of L-carnitine. Oocytes from both qualities were in vitro fertilized and in vitro cultured for 7 days, to examine the developmental competence. Results: Supplementation of L-carnitine to in vitro maturation medium increased the cumulus cell expansion rate of COCs to grade A, and reduced the cumulus cell expansion of COCs to grade B and grade C in both good and fair quality oocytes. Similarly, L-carnitine induced the in vitro meiotic progression of buffalo oocytes to metaphase Π in both good and fair quality oocytes. Additionally, L-carnitine reduced the rate of oocyte degeneration in both good and fair quality oocytes. L-carnitine increased the rate of cleaved formation at day 2 and blastocyst formation at day 7 during in vitro culture in both qualities of oocytes. Moreover, a higher rate of blastocyst production was observed in L-carnitine-treated fair quality oocytes, which was higher than the results in the untreated good quality oocytes. Conclusions: L-carnitine enhances meiotic maturation and subsequent embryo development from both good and fair quality buffalo oocytes.

In this study, a set of coupled multi-media compartments (i.e., sediment, soil, water and vegetable) was used to assess ecological and health risks from the ingestion of 11 PTEs (Pb, Cd, Cr, As, Hg, Cu, Zn, Ni, Co, Fe, and Mn) and their transportation routes in the water-soil-plant system from the coastal Bhola Island, Bangladesh. The mean concentrations of Cd, Pb, and Co for soil and Cd, Co, and As for sediment were higher than their reference values. In contrast, Cd, Pb, and Ni concentrations in water surpassed the acceptable limits set by national and international laws and were considered unsuitable for drinking purposes. Vegetables demonstrated high Pb and Cd contents, demonstrating a potential food safety risk to the inhabitants. Results of principal component analysis (PCA) revealed that Cd, Pb, Hg, Cu, Ni and Zn sources were likely to be anthropogenic, especially agro-farming inputs, whereas the Fe, As, Cr, Mn, and Co sources were similar to natural origin. So, Cd, Pb and Co are the key contaminants in the study area and pose the elevated health and ecological risks in the coastal area. Cd and Pb exhibited higher ecological risks in soils and sediments, as Pb had the highest bio-accessibility (BA; 0.02 ± 0.003) and Cd possessed a high bioaccumulation factor (BCF; 0.004 ± 0.006). The self-organizing map analysis recognized three spatial patterns which are good agreement with PCA. The average hazard index (HI) values for soil were above the permissible level (HI > 1) set by the respective agency; two times higher HI values were noticed for children than adults, suggesting children are highly susceptible to health risk. Continuous monitoring and source controls for Cd and Pb, along with agro-farming management practices, need to be implemented to reduce the risk of PTE contamination to the aquatic ecosystem and its inhabitants.