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Background: Malnutrition among women disproportionately exists across socioeconomic classes of Bangladesh. According to our knowledge, studies which attempted to identify determinants and their contributions to explain BMI-based nutritional gap between the poorest and the richest categories of Wealth Index are still scarce. Objectives: To identify the nutritional gap of women between the richest-poorest classes in Bangladesh, and to determine how much of this gap are attributed to differences in predictors and differences in coefficients. Study population: Reproductive-aged (15–49 years) women of Bangladesh. Methods and procedures: We utilized the latest round (2017–2018) data of the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS). Body mass index (BMI) has been used to measure the nutritional status of women. The kernel density was used to visualize the nutritional gap. The Oaxaca-Blinder (OB) decomposition method was used to ascertain influential determinants and their contributions to the existing gap between the richest-poorest classes of women. Results: We analyzed the data of 18,682 reproductive-aged women. There was a significant mean BMI gap of 4.1 unit (95% CI: 3.90–4.35) between the poorest-richest (25.6 vs 21.5) women. The overall prevalence of underweight, overweight and obese were 11.8%, 33.8% and 15.4%, respectively. The richest women were less underweight (7.5%) but more overweight (23.7%) and obese (42.2%). In contrast, the poorest women were more underweight (32.0%) but less overweight (13.9%) and obese (7.0%). According to results of OB decomposition method, all predictors combinedly can explain 1.62 units (95% CI: 1.31–1.93) of the total mean BMI gap (equivalent to 40%). Some of the major predictors were women years of education (0.45 units, 95% CI: 0.27–0.64), spouse years of education (0.16 units, 95% CI: -0.02–0.34), current working status (0.17 units, 95% CI: 0.10–0.34), access to Television (0.50 units, 95% CI: 0.28–0.72), and place of residence (0.37 units, 95% CI: 0.22–0.72). The unexplained part of the poorest-richest gap was 2.51 units (95% CI: 2.13–2.89), which means that this particular gap will remain unchanged even though the mean difference of the predictors was diminished. Conclusions: A large part of the nutritional gap (approximately 60%) between the poorest and richest classes of women are found to be unchanged by the predictors of the study. Therefore, further predictors should be identified to minimize such gap. Moreover, policy makers and relevant stakeholders should implement feasible strategies to minimize the existing differences in the major predictors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Australia, summer brings intense, bright sunlight with high ultraviolet (UV) radiation and hot temperatures, which might impact free-range hens' ranging outside. To determine how range use was correlated with different sunlight variables and weather factors, a study was carried out on three commercial free-range layer farms during the summer/autumn period (December-May) across diverse regions of Australia in Tasmania (TAS), Queensland (QLD), and Western Australia (WA). Hens' range distribution was determined by counting the number of hens in the direct sunlight ('sun') or 'cloud' and shaded areas ('sun-shade' or 'cloud-shade', in sunny or cloudy conditions, respectively) using image snapshots taken at 30 min intervals from video recordings of a portion of one shed comprising 20,000–30,000 hens on each farm during the production phase of the laying cycle. The solar radiation spectrum [UV radiation (UVAB) (288–432 nm), photosynthetically active radiation (PAR; visible light) (400–700 nm), and total solar radiation (TSR) (285 nm-3000 nm)] and weather data (ambient temperature and relative humidity) were recorded through an on-site weather station. Data were analysed separately due to discrepancies between the farms' layouts. The effects of time of day and months on range use were analysed using General Linear Models in JMP® 16.0 and the relationship of sunlight and weather variables with hens' distribution in 'sun'/'sun-shade' and 'cloud'/'cloud-shade' in sunny and cloudy conditions respectively was determined by fitting linear ridge regression models using the 'lmridge' package in R. Overall, the time of day and month had significant effects on hens' distribution on the range (all p < 0.0001). Hens' range occupancy in the 'sun' decreased during the midday period with gradual increases in the late afternoon to evening, and the opposite pattern in the 'sun-shade'. A linear increase in the number of hens on the range over the months indicated the seasonal effects on hen ranging patterns. Temperature, UVAB and PAR were the most important factors for discouraging hens' range use in the 'sun' suggesting free-range systems in Australia should be designed to account for the extreme sunlight using adequate shade for optimum ranging across summer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rabies is one of the most lethal infectious diseases, with those living in Asia and Africa having the highest risk of dying from rabies. We conducted a knowledge, attitudes and practices survey in urban and peri-urban areas of Bangladesh to describe canine bite rates, rabies knowledge, and healthcare seeking behaviors and barriers to human and dog vaccination. A bite risk assessment score (BRAS) and healthcare-seeking behavior score (HSBS) was calculated for each bite victim. Respondents were given two hypothetical situations to assess potential behaviors after a bite and willingness to pay for rabies vaccine and immunoglobulin. In total, 2,447 households participated in the survey and 85 bite victims were identified. The BRAS identified that 31% of bites posed no risk of rabies transmission. Multivariate analyses showed that living in Chittagong (β = 1.4; 95% CI: 0.1, 2.7) was associated with a higher HSBS. Findings presented here provide useful information regarding bite occurrences, healthcare-seeking behaviors, and a need for strategies to increase rabies awareness. Author summary: Rabies is one of the most lethal infectious diseases and those living in Asia and Africa have the highest risk of dying from rabies. Bangladesh has the third highest number of estimated human deaths from rabies of all countries with an estimated 2,000–2,500 deaths annually. In 2018, a knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP) survey was conducted to better describe the rabies burden in four urban and rural areas. Our manuscript will deepen the understanding of ways to develop cost-effective, risk-based PEP delivery to persons with probable rabies exposures to prevent unnecessary PEP shortages among urban and peri-urban populations. The findings here provide useful information regarding bite occurrences, healthcare-seeking behaviors, and a need for strategies to increase rabies awareness in urban and peri-urban areas. This study confirmed a high human rabies death rate in Bangladesh despite a high rate of PEP usage and completion rates and makes a case for IBCM as cost effective means to rabies control in Bangladesh. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Citrus macroptera Montr. (C. macroptera) is locally known as Satkara. The fruit of this plant is used as appetite stimulant and in the treatment of fever. This study therefore aimed to evaluate the toxic effects of the fruit extract using some biochemical and hematological parameters in rat model. The effects of methanol extract of Citrus macroptera Montr. fruit administered at 250, 500 and 1000 mg/kg body weight were investigated on hematological and biochemical parameters in Sprague-Dawley female rats. Moreover, histopathological study was performed to observe the presence of pathological lesions in primary body organs. The extract presented no significant effect on body weight, percent water content, relative organ weight and hematological parameters in rat. Significant decrease from control group was observed in the levels of triglyceride, total cholesterol, low density lipoprotein and very low density lipoprotein; thus leading to significant decrease of cardiac risk ratio, castelli's risk index-2, atherogenic coefficient and atherogenic index of plasma at all doses. 500 mg/kg dose significantly decreased alkaline phosphatase (P<0.05), 1000 mg/kg dose significantly increased high density lipoprotein cholesterol (P<0.05) and 250 mg/kg dose significantly decreased the level of glycated hemoglobin (P<0.05) from the control group. There were no significant alterations observed with other serum biochemical parameters. Histopathological study confirmed the absence of inflammatory and necrotic features in the primary body organs. Study results indicate that methanolic fruit extract is unlikely to have significant toxicity. Moreover, these findings justified the cardio-protective, moderate hepato-protective and glucose controlling activities of the fruit extract. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]