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The paper examines the effectiveness of materials designed and distributed among course instructors to teach an intermediate writing course in an online platform during the pandemic. The study is examined in the context of a private university in Bangladesh, where the students enrolled are bi-lingual learners. The paper reviews literature in fields of technology-enhanced language learning (TELL), activity theory and scaffolding to understand the extent to which the teaching materials are effective. In addition, by analysing semi-structured interview responses from course instructors, the paper highlights numerous strengths, weaknesses and suggestions regarding the materials disbursed among the faculty members. The research findings suggest that the given materials were useful and helped to promote understanding of course content, but improvements can be made to assist student learning. Increased emphasis on learner autonomy can facilitate the learning process for students and motivate them to become independent learners. Based on the findings, the writer includes suggestions that might be beneficial for institutions beyond borders.

In the face of sudden migration to online teaching due to Covid-19 pandemic, education is going under trying times globally, especially in the low resource contexts of the Global South. Little is, however, known about how this forced migration to and coping with emergency remote teaching (ERT) are happening in the low resource context of developing Bangladesh, particularly in the Higher Education (HE). This paper, therefore, aims to understand how virtual classrooms look like in the Higher Education context in Bangladesh through TESOL teachers' narratives from initial virtual classrooms imparting ERT. Employing narrative inquiry, four teachers from four different public and private universities in Bangladesh share their experiences of doing, undergoing and reflecting as they try to adopt, adapt and strive in imparting ERT and carrying out education in HE. Insights from these initial teacher narratives may inform higher education pedagogies, teacher development in distance education environments in Bangladesh and similar contexts in the Global South. As the paper addresses HE teachers' initial orientation to ERT without exclusively dealing with TESOL education, it has multidisciplinary approach to migration to and coping with ERT in HE in general.

The study aims to understand the foremost challenges in the transition to online teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study adopts the PRISMA approach to screening the selection of journal articles and review papers according to the research aims and the inclusion criteria. The journal articles and review papers were extracted and stored in Microsoft Excel and Google Scholar, Academic. Microsoft, Semantic Scholar, Elsevier, and Emerald Insight databases searched relevant documents using formulated keywords. A statistical technique was applied using the M.S. Excel analysis tool (PivotTable and an independent t-Test) to analyze data and determine the differences between teachers and students. The review revealed the evidence that the majority of the studies were primarily focused on the individual developing countries and results from other developing countries were not considered. In addition, the foremost challenges in the transition to online teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic were inadequate skills and training, inadequate Internet/Infrastructure, lack of supporting resources and lack of online student engagement and feedback. Finally, the independent t-test reveals there is no statistically significant difference in challenges in the transition to online teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Both teachers and students encounter similar challenges. The systematic review raised concerns that higher learning needs to effectively implement long term strategies and support teachers and students in getting into online teaching and learning.

This paper seeks to explore the impact of video lectures on the students of the Department of English of a Bangladeshi private university during the world pandemic, COVID-19. Using various online resources, especially YouTube videos, website links, e-texts, and journal articles, to make a classroom vibrant, interesting, engaging, and entertaining and to disseminate the best possible knowledge among students was the common trend in the classrooms of the English Department of Daffodil International University (DIU) before the pandemic. However, using teacher-developed materials in the classroom was not a regular phenomenon in the culture of higher education in Bangladesh, particularly in the Department of English at DIU. This paper will explore what kind of positive motivation this shift brought to get the students more engaged in the classroom during the worldwide crisis. It will also discuss whether the teacher-made video lectures helped students understand the topic(s) better. This study intends to address these issues besides inspecting the general pros and cons of using such materials in a tertiary classroom. The data were collected through close-ended and open-ended questionnaires from the selected students and analyzed using qualitative and quantitative research methods. The researchers hypothesized that teacher-made video lectures were more effective given that students' and instructors' similar stress and intonation, pronunciation, and cultural experiences which helped learners comprehend the lesson topics in comparison with materials prepared commercially. This paper also highlights the students' expectations and satisfaction, particularly related to the video lectures made by teachers compared to those taken from popular online resources.

Bangladesh is experiencing a second wave of COVID-19 since March 2021, despite the nationwide vaccination drive with ChAdOx1 (Oxford-AstraZeneca) vaccine from early February 2021. Here, we characterized 19 nasopharyngeal swab (NPS) samples from COVID-19 suspect patients using genomic and metagenomic approaches. Screening for SARS-CoV-2 by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction and metagenomic sequencing revealed 17 samples of COVID-19 positive (vaccinated = 10, nonvaccinated = 7) and 2 samples of COVID-19 negative. We did not find any significant correlation between associated factors including vaccination status, age or sex of the patients, diversity or abundance of the coinfected organisms/pathogens, and the abundance of SARS-CoV-2. Though the first wave of the pandemic was dominated by clade 20B, Beta, V2 (South African variant) dominated the second wave (January 2021 to May 2021), while the third wave (May 2021 to September 2021) was responsible for Delta variants of the epidemic in Bangladesh including both vaccinated and unvaccinated infections. Noteworthily, the receptor binding domain (RBD) region of S protein of all the isolates harbored similar substitutions including K417N, E484K, and N501Y that signify the Beta, while D614G, D215G, D80A, A67V, L18F, and A701V substitutions were commonly found in the non-RBD region of Spike proteins. ORF7b and ORF3a genes underwent a positive selection (dN/dS ratio 1.77 and 1.24, respectively), while the overall S protein of the Bangladeshi SARS-CoV-2 isolates underwent negative selection pressure (dN/dS = 0.621). Furthermore, we found different bacterial coinfections like Streptococcus agalactiae, Neisseria meningitidis, Elizabethkingia anophelis, Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Pseudomonas plecoglossicida, expressing a number of antibiotic resistance genes such as tetA and tetM. Overall, this approach provides valuable insights on the SARS-CoV-2 genomes and microbiome composition from both vaccinated and nonvaccinated patients in Bangladesh., (© 2021 Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

In response to the COVID-19 crisis, governments all around are producing new policy provisions to mitigate the learning gap. Based on the new policy provision, universities switched to online education because social distancing was necessary to stop community transmission of the virus (Crawford et al., 2020). This study aims to explore how faculties perceive the effect of higher education policy response on Bangladeshi students. The paper identifies cost-sharing approach, disregard of policy context, encouragement of global job market competition, decentralisation of management, digitization of education, and individual responsibility as neoliberal features of emergency response. The data were critically analysed to understand the effect of neoliberal features of the emergency response on the university students of Bangladesh from the faculty perspective. The paper argues that the policy response is failing to address the learning gap of the students. Moreover, the implementation of this policy is generating more challenges for students by strengthening the root of social inequality and hindering social mobility.

Aim: To test the efficacy of an integrated microfinance/livelihood and community-based rehabilitation (IMCBR) programme in improving health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and motor function of children with cerebral palsy (CP) and gain in social capital to their ultra-poor families in rural Bangladesh., Method: This was an open-label cluster randomized control trial. Children with CP aged 5 years or under were randomly allocated to three arms; Arm A: IMCBR; Arm B: community-based rehabilitation (CBR); and Arm C: care-as-usual. The CBR was modified with phone follow-up followed by home-based CBR at 2.5 months post-enrolment because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Intention-to-treat analysis was performed., Results: Twenty-four clusters constituting 251 children-primary caregivers' dyads were assigned to three arms (Arm A = 80; Arm B = 82; Arm C = 89). Between baseline and endline, the percentage mean change in the physical functioning domain of HRQoL was highest in Arm A (30.0%) with a significant mean difference between Arm A and Arm B (p = 0.015). Improvement in the mean social capital score was significantly higher in Arm A compared to Arm C (p < 0.001)., Interpretation: The findings suggest that IMCBR could improve the HRQoL of children with CP and the social capital of their ultra-poor families. Long-term follow-up of the trial participants and future exploration of such interventions are essential. The integrated livelihood and CBR programme holds potential to improve health and well-being of children with CP and their ultra-poor families., What This Paper Adds: Half of the families who received livelihoods were impacted by a cold-wave, suggesting the need for a more disaster-resilient livelihood asset. The integration of livelihood with community-based rehabilitation programme helps to improve health-related quality of life of children with cerebral palsy and the social capital of their ultra-poor families., (© 2022 Mac Keith Press.)

Purpose: The paper documents the roles played by the institutional quality assurance cells (IQACs) to implement the University Grants Commission (UGC) directive to shift to online education during the COVID-19 pandemic period in Bangladesh. It highlights the government's efforts to ensure quality education, particularly in utilizing IQACs in the various public and private universities. The paper starts with the pandemic situation in the country, followed by the overall responses of the government, including its directives regarding the conduct of higher education. Design/methodology/approach: The paper utilizes as framework the Sloan Consortium's Five Pillars of Quality Online Learning--learning effectiveness, student satisfaction, teacher satisfaction, scale and access. The paper then analyzes the oral reports of 26 IQACs, which were presented to government officials in two meetings. Findings: From the analysis, it is apparent that IQACs have contributed toward the shift to full online education during the pandemic period. Universities responded to the crisis mainly in the areas of governance, teaching and learning and student support services. To guide policy formulation, the IQACs (with the help of other university units) conducted surveys among their faculty and students regarding their access to Internet, financial difficulties and mental health situation. From here, they drafted academic policies (attendance, student assessment and online teaching), conducted capacity building activities, monitored faculty performance, formulated guidelines on student online behavior and encouraged stakeholders to trust the online system. Originality/value: The study is original since (like many countries) the pandemic has forced education activities to go online. It looks at both the macro level (the concerns of the University Grants Commission or UGC concerning quality education in an online setting) and the micro level (what universities have undertaken to address the concerns of the UGC).

During the COVID-19 pandemic situation, the English literature learning and assessment have moved from classroom form to online form. This study emphasizes on the challenges of online English literature learning and students' experience and expectation regarding online English literature course assessment in private universities of Bangladesh. English literature students were invited to participate in the survey and 326 students from 10 private universities partook. Students dwelling in towns and villages addressed their problems what they experienced while attending online literature class and assessment. Previous researches shed light on abrupt transit to online education in different countries including Bangladesh, voices and views of teachers and students of English and other departments, even on language courses, but none of them addressed the situation English literature students of private universities undergo during the pandemic of COVID-19, which stopped on-sight education across the globe. This paper determines to elaborate the challenges, experience, expectation and overall voices of English literature students from private universities of Bangladesh regarding online literature class and assessment. This qualitative research labels students' exact problems and recommendation which will help minimize the loss of students' learning, thus, will benefit the students of English literature of Bangladeshi private universities. The findings will also assist the instructors to overcome the challenges of online English literature teaching and assessment.

This paper depicts the current panorama of virtual learning of the tribal students in Bangladesh with the constrictions and possible solutions. The study aimed to deal with the major issues about tribal students' online education by bringing out the key restraints of their distance learning and the possible solutions. The researchers followed a mixed method using a 5-point Likert Scale to point out the learner sensitivities, an online Focus Group Discussion (FGD) to know specific information from all the tribes who participated in the study. Additionally, four different questions were also set for multiple response analyses. The results suggested that the tribal students have not agreeably received adequate facilities such as technological support, university funding, departmental encouragements, or monetary benefits from the quota system in the current pandemic (COVID-19) time to attend virtual learning sessions though they expect arrangements and future steps for academic learning. All institutions also could not provide them adequate opportunities to attend online classes. In conclusion, the study proposed some imperative measures for example, inclusion of flipped classroom, introducing blended learning henceforth, revising quota facilities, adequate electricity support and internet connection, to help the tribal students as they should not get deprived.

Campus crisis management remains an understudied topic in the context of COVID-affected higher education. In this paper, we contrasted the ability to tame the wicked problems brought by the pandemic of COVID-19 in private and public universities in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Colombia, India, Kazakhstan, Uganda, and Ukraine. The cross-country analysis and diversity of institutional types allowed us to consider a wide range of challenges faced by academic leaders and their institutions during the global pandemic. By drawing on institutional policy reviews and interviews with university administrators, we have examined tensions between the human and institutional agencies on these crisis-stricken campuses given differing institutional coupling, sizes, resources, and missions. The focus on agential co-dependencies and institutional coupling lays the ground for conceptualizing campus crisis management as a culturally specific construct in the context of higher education affected by the global pandemic.

The paper is a reflective narrative of engaging two school students aged 13-16 as advisors in participatory research in Bangladesh during the COVID-19 crisis. It outlines different ways to facilitate the active engagement of children and young people and include their voices in research. The authors also discuss the benefits and methodological and ethical complexities of engaging children and young people as advisors of adult researchers during the pandemic in a country from the Global South, such as Bangladesh. The findings underscore the need to rethink the traditional view of considering children and young people as vulnerable and passive members of society in times of emergency and explore the scope of involving them as active stakeholders in producing quality research data.

Purpose: Like every other sector, educational institutions have also been suffering immensely due to COVID-19 pandemic. Many educational institutions are now adopting digital classroom services. However, an online platform with the need for appropriate technology and infrastructure from the students' perspective poses a severe challenge to developing countries like Bangladesh. The paper aims to figure out the relevant factors that affect the extent of student satisfaction with digital classroom services at the school and tertiary levels. Design/methodology/approach: It is a quantitative study of 450 students from Bangladesh who encountered online classes during the pandemic of COVID-19. An equal number of students from all levels, including schools, colleges and tertiary stages, participated in the survey. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses are used to interpret the data. Structural equation modeling using AMOS graphic software is incorporated to test the study's hypothesis. Findings: Among all the four determinants of student satisfaction during this critical era, all levels look satisfied with the three underlying influences--technological, convenience and resource-related factors. However, school-level students found the digital classroom services abrasive with Internet connectivity and technical structures during online classes and exams. Research limitations/implications: A comprehensive study can assess the difference between private and public university students in this regard. In addition, the impact of gender and/or location (rural/urban area) can be assessed by using the same model of the study. Practical implications: Having the experience of the students' satisfaction level during this pandemic, the government, educational institutions and other stakeholders can take away the findings of the results to have a better plan for Internet-based education at every level. Originality/value: The study is unique to see the readiness of developing nations such as Bangladesh to focus on the sudden uncertainty like a pandemic in introducing the digital education platform. The study can add value to achieving the country's sustainable development goal of becoming a digitally enabled regional education hub.

The purpose of the current study is to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the education sector in China and Bangladesh. This research employs document analysis technique to represent the context. The majority of the research articles used in this study are chosen from well-recognized platforms (i.e., Web of Science, Scopus, Science Direct, PubMed, EBSCOhost and Google Scholar). The findings of this paper illustrate that the pandemic has shaken the education system across the world. The COVID-19 pandemic forced to shut down many educational institutions, which temporarily displaced millions of students across the world. Undoubtedly, the COVID-19 pandemic revealed a direct relationship to reduced learning possibilities of many students in Bangladesh. On the contrary, the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed a new learning dimension across the world. However, the pandemic threatens mental health and throws questions regarding the effectiveness of online education in many nations, e.g. Bangladesh, and China. This study adds notable value to the existing literature by recommending some visionary guidelines for the education stakeholders.

Online learning has been extensively conducted to continue the academic activities in the universities transversely the realm during the pandemic instigated by COVID-19. Like other countries' universities across the world, universities in a developing country such as Bangladesh are going through the online learning phenomenon. However, the current virtual platform of learning implies enormous challenges for undergraduates to participate in the online learning process due to numerous barriers. Thus, the current paper intends to examine barriers that intensify unwillingness to online education at the university level in the context of Bangladesh. Based on the underpinning theories of TAM3 and UTAUT, this study identified four major barriers such as financial, insufficient institutional support, technological, and individual. Furthermore, gender is considered as moderating variable in the model. To inspect such barriers along with the moderating variable, this study employs the Partial Least Squares (PLS) technique to estimate the measurement and structural model parameters and to generate the coexisting bootstrap assessments. The bootstrapping procedure has been initiated to test the statistical significance of the model parameter estimations. The findings confirm that technological, and insufficient institutional support barriers are statistically significant whereas the other two barriers have been revealed as non-significant to intensify learners' reluctance to the online study. Furthermore, current findings also ratify no significant effect of gender as a moderating variable. Finally, this study augments specific policy implications for diverse stakeholders in current settings.

COVID-19 pandemic has affected one and all in unison. Different sectors, including the educational sector, have been disproportionately affected in developing and the least developed nations. Against this backdrop, this paper, while considering the impact that the pandemic has had on the education sector in developing nations viz. -- India, South Africa, and Bangladesh, aims to bring to light the importance of teaching global mindset as there are several unique implications, challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for these nations. Using qualitative methodology, this research adopts an exploratory approach to understand how, among other things, the education sector can catalyze the development and teaching of a global mindset in the selected three countries and can be responsive even beyond. Ten semi-structured interviews have been conducted with "institutional heads/directors" across higher educational institutions in the nations under study to answer the research question that brings out three themes: global and local problem solving, resources, and international experiential learning and exposure toward developing a global mindset. Finally, while corroborating the findings of the research, the article also proposes a new definition of a "global mindset".

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has seriously impacted countries across the globe. The pandemic has created a completely new teaching-learning environment of interaction for early childhood educators. In many countries, face-to-face teaching has been replaced by remote teaching, while in others, there have been intermittent lockdowns and limited interruptions to regular teaching norms. Given the play-based nature of preschool teaching-learning activities in most countries, educators are required to reimagine the sociocultural relationships to their pedagogical practices in their everyday teaching-learning contexts. This paper sheds light on educators' experiences and the dramatic shift in their indoor-outdoor teaching-learning environment due to the evolving health measures. The study draws on notions of teachers' identities and Vygotsky's cultural-historical concept of social situation of development (Vygotsky, 1994) to capture the new forms of relationships that early childhood educators experienced with their pedagogical environments across different countries during the pandemic. Data were collected from preschool teachers across five countries--Australia, Bangladesh, Norway, Singapore and India using online surveys which included open- and close-ended questions. Findings reveal the on-ground realities and teachers' adaptations to new pedagogies emerging across the five countries. The new digital environments provided an equally new dimension for change. These changes were seen in interactions, relationships within the everyday pedagogical contexts, as well as the shifting physical and social environment of early years educators.

ESL/EFL teachers, especially those working in higher education, across the world were required to teach online after the spread on COVID-19. Many empirical studies have been conducted in the last 1 year to investigate various aspects of online teaching and learning of languages. However, online ESL teaching in South Asian contexts remains almost unexplored. This paper reports a multiple case study that aimed to bridge this gap and explore online formative assessment (FA) and feedback practices of three ESL teachers working in three universities in India, Bangladesh and Nepal. Data were collected through classroom observations, interviews and document analysis. The results indicate that all three teachers actively engaged their students in a variety of FA practices, although they did not use the obtained information from assessments properly and there remained many areas of improvement. Their feedback practices, which involved the integration of a few digital tools, were regular and student-friendly. The study is significant in that it is the first of its kind. Future researchers can conduct large scale studies to verify if the findings of the study are true for other university ESL teachers who are teaching online.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the mediating role of online learning motivation (OLM) in the COVID-19 pandemic situation in Bangladesh by observing and comparing direct lectures (DL), instructor-learner interaction (ILI), learner-learner interaction (LLI), and internet self-efficacy (ISE) as predictors of OLM and online learning satisfaction (OLS). Data were collected from 442 undergraduate and graduate students from more than 35 universities in Bangladesh. To test the hypotheses, the PLS-SEM approach was applied using SmartPLS 3.0. The study shows a significant mediating role of OLM between the independent variables and learning satisfaction. In addition, DL, ILI, and ISE are shown to be significant predictors of student satisfaction. The findings have a number of valuable implications for education policy makers, universities, instructors, and students. Moreover, the study suggests some new research perspectives to overcome the limitations of this research and to gain precise knowledge on students' learning motivation and satisfaction regarding other online classes for different categories of students (e.g., high school and college, professional, and PhD).

During COVID-19, female informal workers living in urban informal settlements in Bangladesh have faced greater challenges in re-entering the labour market than their male counterparts. This paper presents the findings of a qualitative study, which has explored how the pre-existing socio-economic constraints around gender norms, gender roles, occupational sex-segregation, lack of education and skills, informality and restricted mobility have made the re-entry process extremely difficult for these workers during COVID-19 in Dhaka city. The paper also illustrates that these workers have adopted strategies catered for short-lasting crises to cope with the challenges arisen from their struggle to secure livelihoods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 shock resulted in a large number of people becoming newly poor in Bangladesh, for whom recovery was slow and difficult. In response, BRAC implemented a nationwide program – credit, business planning support, and mentoring – targeting the economic recovery of the new poor. This paper estimates its impact using a mixed method and finds that the program had a significant positive effect on employment, income, and assets, indicating a faster economic recovery of program participants. The learnings from this program can have major policy implications for future disaster responses targeting livelihood recovery, specifically during the time-sensitive transitory phase from relief to long-term development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has given a chance for researchers and policymakers all over the world to study the impact of lockdowns on air quality in each country. This review aims to investigate the impact of the restriction of activities during the lockdowns in the Asian Monsoon region on the main criteria air pollutants. The various types of lockdowns implemented in each country were based on the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic. The concentrations of major air pollutants, especially particulate matter (PM) and nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ), reduced significantly in all countries, especially in South Asia (India and Bangladesh), during periods of full lockdown. There were also indications of a significant reduction of sulfur dioxide (SO 2 ) and carbon monoxide (CO). At the same time, there were indications of increasing trends in surface ozone (O 3 ), presumably due to nonlinear chemistry associated with the reduction of oxides of nitrogens (NO X ). The reduction in the concentration of air pollutants can also be seen in satellite images. The results of aerosol optical depth (AOD) values followed the PM concentrations in many cities. A significant reduction of NO 2 was recorded by satellite images in almost all cities in the Asian Monsoon region. The major reductions in air pollutants were associated with reductions in mobility. Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Vietnam, and Taiwan had comparatively positive gross domestic product growth indices in comparison to other Asian Monsoon nations during the COVID-19 pandemic. A positive outcome suggests that the economy of these nations, particularly in terms of industrial activity, persisted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall, the lockdowns implemented during COVID-19 suggest that air quality in the Asian Monsoon region can be improved by the reduction of emissions, especially those due to mobility as an indicator of traffic in major cities., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

This descriptive study describes the practice and challenges of occupational therapists in Bangladesh during the COVID-19 pandemic using an online survey. Eighty-four participants who are practising in both clinical and community settings anonymously participated in the study between January - March 2021. About a third (38.5%) of participants continued hands-on service, 29.5% started working from home, 19.2% worked in both methods, and 12.8% stopped working and almost 12% commenced telerehabilitation service as a new practice. This paper describes the practice as well as the different challenges. Implications of the results are explored as well as future needs.

Purpose: As Covid-19 became a pandemic, numerous people were forced to stay at home, leading to increased intimate partner violence (IPV) in many countries, particularly in developing and least-developed ones. This paper aims to highlight the IPV based on 15 different cases formed from the practical evidence of five developing countries. Design/methodology/approach: The authors interviewed 15 women from five countries who were the victims of IPV during the early periods of Covid-19 outbreak. Due to geographical remoteness, the authors conducted informal telephone interviews to collect the participants' personal experiences. The conversations were recorded with participants' permission; afterwards, the authors summarized participants' experiences into 15 different cases without revealing their original identities (instead, disguised names were used). Findings: It was revealed that the women were the primary victims of such violence, particularly from their intimate partners (husbands). In most cases, such IPV, as reported by the interviewees, originated or increased after the pandemic when they were forced to stay at home, losing their partners' jobs or income sources. Originality/value: The authors summarized the causes of IPV and put forward a few action recommendations based on the interviewees' practical experience and existing literature. This paper will open a new window for research investigations on IPV during emergencies such as Covid-19 outbreak. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we use qualitative research data to explore the phenomenon of the boundaryless work-life interface during the COVID-19 pandemic as perceived by working parents. We define a boundaryless work-life interface as the weak or virtually absent boundary between work and life domains. We look closer at the relations between space, time, emotions, roles and the boundaryless work-life interface among working parents. The first two subsections introduce the linkages between the boundaryless work-life interface, focusing primarily on time and space in what we call 'collapsed role boundaries'. The second subsection examines the issues related to mental and emotional tensions the perceived boundarylesness has caused during the pandemic. The paper's final subsection provides a summary with interpretations and conclusions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Remittances are one of the major driving forces of economic growth in Bangladesh. The paper's main objective is to empirically investigate the effect of COVID-19 on the remittance inflow to Bangladesh using a gravity model framework. We have employed monthly data of remittance inflow to Bangladesh from January 2018 to September 2022 with its top twelve partners, namely the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, Libya, the United Kingdom, Italy, Malaysia, Singapore, and Japan. Using the gravity equation, we tapped the COVID-19 dummy as the critical variable of our interest, along with COVID transmission, mortality, and vaccination data at home and abroad. Using Poisson pseudo-maximum likelihood (PPML), fixed-effect (FE), and random-effect (RE) estimations, we find that during the COVID-19 pandemic, remittance inflow to Bangladesh increased significantly after controlling for other Gravity variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the design and implementation of a health monitoring system using the Internet of Things (IoT). In present days, with the expansion of innovations, specialists are always looking for innovative electronic devices for easier identification of irregularities within the body. IoT-enabled technologies enable the possibility of developing novel and noninvasive clinical support systems. This paper presents a health care monitoring system. In particular, COVID-19 patients, high blood pressure patients, diabetic patients, etc., in a rural area in a developing country, such as Bangladesh, do not have instant access to health or emergency clinics for testing. Buying individual instruments or continuous visitation to hospitals is also expensive for the regular population. The system we developed will measure a patient's body temperature, heartbeat, and oxygen saturation (SpO2) levels in the blood and send the data to a mobile application using Bluetooth. The mobile application was created via the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) inventor app and will receive the data from the device over Bluetooth. The physical, logical, and application layers are the three layers that make up the system. The logical layer processes the data collected by the sensors in the physical layer. Media access management and intersensor communications are handled by the logical layer. Depending on the logical layer's processed data, the application layer makes decisions. The main objective is to increase affordability for regular people. Besides sustainability in the context of finance, patients will have easy access to personal healthcare. This paper presents an IoT-based system that will simplify the utilization of an otherwise complicated medical device at a minimum cost while sitting at home. A 95 percent confidence interval with a 5 percent maximum relative error is applied to all measurements related to determining the patient's health parameters. The use of these devices as support tools by the general public in a certain situation could have a big impact on their own lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the impact of the online teaching-learning of the Computer Science and Engineering program's female students at the Central Women's University in Bangladesh due to the COVID-19 epidemic. A survey was directed to comprehend the students' perspectives on online engineering education. The performances of the same students under the same course instructor of various courses as well as of different students under the same course instructor of the same courses before the pandemic and during the pandemic were investigated. After that, this paper analyzed students' experiences of the evaluation method before and during the outbreak, and then found out the transformation of the students' concerns regarding online engineering education. The research was based on the student surveys and observations, and their academic performances. All indicators exhibited that the procedure that was implemented had a positive impact on students' achievement. Students' involvement, particularly in the core courses that are essential to fulfilling their degrees, had improved. Furthermore, students gained more precise and constructive knowledge from the course teachers during the pandemic, as such the impact on the students' learning due to the online teaching of Computer Science and Engineering students were positive than before the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Weather and climate‐related human mobility (climate mobilities) including displacement are often viewed as security concerns. The recent coronavirus (COVID‐19) pandemic adds yet another layer of complexity which calls for unpacking these connections. This paper explores how existing patterns of migration and displacement that are driven by climate change impacts are compounded by the ongoing COVID‐19 pandemic. First, the paper outlines the links between extreme weather events and human mobility to then explore how the impacts from COVID‐19 interact, cascade and compound pre‐existing vulnerabilities of people on the move. Examining the ways in which climate change is potentially driving or shifting patterns of climate mobility allows a shared understanding of this complex issue to be gained. This paper contextualises the compounding impacts with a geographical focus on Bangladesh, a well‐known climate hotspot. The paper contributes to the debates on impacts and human responses to climate change and concludes with a set of policy recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores Covid-19-related corruption in Bangladesh. Specifically, we analyse the issue of Covid-19-related corruption in the health sector of Bangladesh. We also explore how denial strategies adapted by government officials have worsened the problem. Using Cohen's notion of denial strategies (Cohen 2001. States of Denial. Cambridge: Polity), we analyse media reports during the pandemic that highlighted Covid-19-related corruption occurring in the Bangladeshi health sector. Our analyses reveal that the Covid-19 pandemic has given rise to a new wave of corruption, particularly in the procurement of testing kits and personal protective equipment (PPE), as well as the issuance of false Covid-19 certificates. We call for an in-depth investigation of Covid-19-related corruption in Bangladesh and other developing countries that follows similar social, contextual and cultural values via interviews with policymakers and health professionals. Our paper extends the ongoing debate on Covid-19-related corruption and its impacts on public health sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since August 2020; the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b) in collaboration with UNICEF has been operating a COVID-19 field hospital at the Teknaf sub-district of Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh. This paper is focused on estimating the effects of a history of tobacco smoking and pre-existing co-morbidities on the severity of COVID-19 infection among adult patients admitted into the aforesaid hospital. We conducted a retrospective data analysis of COVID-19 adult patients hospitalized from August 27, 2020 to April 20, 2022. Based on inclusion criteria; a total of 788 admitted patients were included in the analysis. We conducted a Chi-squared test and Fisher's exact test for the categorical variables to see their associations. Multinomial logistic regression models were performed to explore the risk factors for the severity of COVID-19 infection. Among 788 patients, 18.4%, 18.8%, 13%, 7.1%, 3.4%, and 1.9% have had a history of smoking, hypertension, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), cardiovascular diseases (CVD), and asthma respectively. Overall, the mean age of the patients was 40.3 ± 16.4 years and 51% were female. In multivariate analysis, history of smoking and co-morbidities were identified as the risk factors for the severity of COVID-19 infection; the history of smoking was found linked with an increase in the risk of developing critical, severe, and moderate level of COVID-19 infection- notably 3.17 times (RRR = 3.17; 95% CI: 1.3-7.68), 2.98 times (RRR = 2.98; 95% CI: 1.87-4.76) and 1.96 times (RRR = 1.96; 95% CI: 1.25-3.08) respectively more than the patients who never smoked. It was evident that patients with at least one of the selected co-morbidities such as hypertension, diabetes, COPD, CVD, and asthma exhibited a significantly higher likelihood of experiencing severe illness of COVID-19 compared to patients without any co-morbidity. History of tobacco smoking and pre-existing co-morbidities were significantly associated with an increased severity of COVID-19 infection., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2023 Islam et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

This paper tackles the question of how female leaders at national levels of government managed COVID-19 response and recovery from the first COVID-19 case in their respective countries through to 30 September 2021. The aim of this study was to determine which COVID-19 mitigations were effective in lowering the viral reproduction rate and number of new cases (per million) in each of the fourteen female presidents' countries-Bangladesh, Barbados, Belgium, Bolivia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Lithuania, New Zealand, Norway, Serbia, and Taiwan. We first compared these countries by finding a mean case rate (29,420 per million), mean death rate (294 per million), and mean excess mortality rate (+1640 per million). We then analyzed the following mitigation measures per country: school closing, workplace closing, canceling public events, restrictions on gatherings, closing public transport, stay-at-home requirements, restrictions on internal movement, international travel controls, income support, debt/contract relief, fiscal measures, international support, public information campaigns, testing policy, contact tracing, emergency investment in healthcare, investment in vaccines, facial coverings, vaccination policy, and protection of the elderly. We utilized the random forest approach to examine the predictive significance of these variables, providing more interpretability. Subsequently, we then applied the Wilcoxon rank-sum statistical test to see the differences with and without mitigation in effect for the variables that were found to be significant by the random forest model. We observed that different mitigation strategies varied in their effectiveness. Notably, restrictions on internal movement and the closure of public transportation proved to be highly effective in reducing the spread of COVID-19. Embracing qualities such as community-based, empathetic, and personable leadership can foster greater trust among citizens, ensuring continued adherence to governmental policies like mask mandates and stay-at-home orders, ultimately enhancing long-term crisis management.

Background: Following the mass influx of Rohingya refugees into Cox's Bazaar, Bangladesh in 2017, makeshift settlement camps in Ukhiya and Teknaf have been overburdened, leading to livelihood challenges for both Rohingya and host communities. The humanitarian crisis has had adverse effects on vulnerable populations, which include older people, persons with disabilities, adolescents, and single female household heads. Using a subset of a larger dataset on households with most vulnerable groups in both communities, we analysed the effect of the pandemic and lockdown on the livelihood of single female household (HH) heads., Methods: A cross-sectional household roster survey was designed to collect data from households with most vulnerable groups (MVGs) of host and Rohingya communities from December 2020 to March 2021; 11 host community villages and 10 Rohingya camps purposively selected as per the affiliated intervention of the project. The paper analysed quantitative and qualitative data from the sub-group of single female household heads without any income/low income. Participants were surveyed for their socio-demographic characteristics, COVID-19 experiences and knowledge, food security situation, social experiences and mental health using PHQ-2 test for depression., Results: We surveyed 432 single female HH heads. Support during the pandemic was reported to be low, with less than 50% of HHs reporting relief meeting their needs; only 36% and 15% of these HHs received rations in camps and host communities respectively. Loan facilities were mostly unavailable and there were reported insufficiencies in food consumption. Over 50% of respondents tested positive on the PHQ-2, a scale used to screen for depression. Further analyses indicates that having a chronic health issue (OR 2.2, 95% CI 1.33-3.66) was positively associated with the PHQ-2 score for Rohingya single females. For host single females, having an ill member in the HH (OR 1.46, 95% CI 1.02-2.08) and the inability to save before the pandemic (OR 1.57 95% CI 1.11-2.23) increased the odds of screening positive for depression., Conclusion: Our study findings revealed insufficiencies with economic opportunities and food security for single female-headed households, as well as a high rate of positive screening for depression amongst this population. These findings call for a more in-depth understanding of the needs of this group., (© 2023. BioMed Central Ltd., part of Springer Nature.)

The study analyzed the molecular dynamics of the circulating SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant from its identification in November 2021 to January 2023. The SARS-CoV-2 sequences from Bangladesh revealed three distinct waves of the Omicron variant. More than 50 sub-lineages of Omicron variant were introduced into the country, with the majority belonging to the major lineages of BA.1-like (24.91%), BA.2-like (43.35%), BA.5-like (5.76%), XBB (10.47%), and "Others and Unassigned" (18.64%). Furthermore, the relative frequencies over time revealed that Omicron lineages existed for a short period of time before being replaced by other sub-lineages. Many potential mutations were found in the receptor binding domain of the Spike protein including G339D/H, S371 L/F, K417 N, T478K, E484A, Q493R, Q498R, and N501Y. In conclusion, the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant from Bangladesh showed diverse genetic features and continuous evolution. Therefore, the choice of vaccine and monitoring of hospitalized patients is important alongside genetic characterization of the circulating SARS-CoV-2., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The wellbeing of teachers and students has emerged as a common concern in research studies in recent times, specifically during the critical period of COVID-19. Based on the findings drawn from the qualitative data through focus group discussions of five groups of teachers (16 females and 8 males) and students (10 males and nine females) at the tertiary level of education in Bangladesh, this paper shows that online teaching during COVID-19 is affected by personal and social challenges, and consequently, both teachers and students experience anxieties and stresses. Teachers are anxious because of the university authorities' surveillance, frequent pay cuts, and fear of losing jobs due to students' low enrollment in universities. They also suffer from physical discomforts, such as back pain, blur vision, and headache because of the prolonged engagement with online activities. Students, especially those from a non-privileged background located in peripheral rural contexts, seem to suffer more from contextual realities that are non-conducive for technology-based learning. Increased numbers and various forms of online assessments also seem to become a burden for them. In general, educational experiences of online teaching seemed to have a peripheral role in their conceptualization of wellbeing. The paper concludes that the insurmountable attention given to online pedagogic practices across the world needs to be balanced out by an equal effort in improving the wellbeing of both teachers and students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The pandemic situation has increased the domestic violence rate against women and children significantly around the world. However, it is difficult to measure the accurate rate of increased domestic violence because of restrictions and limited mobility in accessing help and reporting. This paper aims to highlight the current situation of the novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and domestic violence in Bangladesh. It also states the challenges of the unprecedented situation and how to encounter increasing domestic violence cases. Design/methodology/approach: This paper is a viewpoint of the COVID-19 pandemic and domestic violence situation in Bangladesh. Accordingly, this paper includes a comprehensive literature review that summarises related articles and newspapers on domestic violence. Findings: Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable countries to COVID-19 because of its most dense population. Currently, the COVID-19 virus is spreading rapidly in all parts of Bangladesh. In Bangladesh, the COVID-19 pandemic is increasing domestic violence for women and girls. Because of the lockdown, financial stress and livelihood scarcity, domestic violence rates show an increasing tendency that should not be overlooked to ensure the safety and security of women and girls in Bangladesh. Originality/value: This paper delivers information about the current situation of COVID-19 in Bangladesh and the challenges of domestic violence that have risen. This paper will be helpful to policymakers, government and non-government officials for developing effective social safety net interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Bangladesh government issued a lockdown throughout the country from March–May 2020 in response to the COVID-19. The sudden lockdown caused economic ruptures across the country due to job loss. We conducted a comprehensive analysis of the outbreak through 40 in-depth interviews with men and women living in three Dhaka informal settlements from January to November 2021 to identify gaps to mitigate negative downstream effects of global pandemic policies. In this paper, we explore the critical importance of social networks as coping mechanisms for those who lost livelihood due to COVID-19 lockdown. Due to the congested living conditions in informal settlements, many established residents foster close, trusting relationships, and a strong sense of community. Formal and informal networks in urban slums, whether reciprocal or strategic, played an integral role as a way of coping during times of scarcity. We found limited analysis in public health literature on the resilience of these social networks and its impact on health and wellbeing. Our paper attempts to unpack the ways our respondents drew on their own social networks to combat the socio-economic and emotional health challenges brought on by a lack of adequate formalized support as part of the pandemic response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aimed to examine the role of faith‐based organizations (FBOs) in the distribution of social assistance (SA) during the COVID‐19 pandemic in Bangladesh. The paper adopts a qualitative case‐study approach to explore the best practices in the distribution of SA by five (5) organizations including FBOs, governmental organizations (GOs), Non‐governmental organizations (NGOs), political groups, and private voluntary groups. In this study, 14 beneficiaries of SA were selected by stratified proportionate random sampling method, and five (5) key personnel were selected purposively based on their experiences in the management of SA distribution. The study found that "no‐move, no touch" approach followed by FBOs is more likely to establish human rights and social justice and reduce the transmission of diseases. In contrast to the modern idea, which undermines the faith‐based charity, the study proved that faith‐based charity is gaining attraction as an effective approach combating global pandemic. The findings of this paper will be useful for policymakers, voluntary service workers, GO, and NGO workers to ensure the distribution of SA in a more productive and disciplined way during and after an emergency like the COVID‐19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the earnings of migrant workers decreased due to joblessness and the lack of new work. Against this backdrop, this paper aims to look at the potential of rural entrepreneurship as a form of financially managing the insecurity and vulnerabilities caused by the pandemic. The literature review shows that although international migration has played a crucial role in economic growth in Bangladesh, remittance has been underutilized and not translated into investment usually. The qualitative research methodology of the paper followed the thematic analysis design method to apprehend and explain the research findings. The findings of the study indicate that despite several challenges, rural entrepreneurship can indeed be a sustainable livelihood alternative that improves the resilience of returnee migrants. The right kinds of skillsets and adequate measures to tackle the infrastructural and socio-political barriers can boost rural entrepreneurship appreciably. Other recently published research works also highlight that entrepreneurship can be an effective tool for the reintegration of returnee migrants. This paper concludes that the sustainability of rural entrepreneurship will require engaging local development organizations, forming incubation and support centers, and organizing peer support groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The COVID-19 epidemic significantly impacted daily life and led to the adoption of significant steps to stop the virus's spread. Educational institutions and social gatherings were placed on prolonged lockdown, with people continuing to maintain physical distance. As a result, students of all classes are highly engaged in using the internet. In this article, the usage of the internet of the student's Information Science and Library Management, University of Rajshahi are studied. The aim of the present study was to examine the usage of the internet during the post-pandemic. Furthermore, this research aims to investigate the internet usage rate, career development, academic development through the internet, the efficiency of online classes etc. Methods A questionnaire data collection method was used. The respondents were randomly selected from the department of Information Science and Library Management, University of Rajshahi. For the research, some data were entered and analyzed using SPSS and Biblioshiny software. Findings The research shows that the respondent had an average age of 23. The results of this paper show that the data of students are relatively valuable, and it shows that students had not only wasted their valuable time using the internet aimlessly but students had developed their career besides academic improvement. Students had developed many extra-knowledges through the internet, such as, language learning, IT skills, reading e-books habit etc. COVID-19 influenced the daily life of students as internet usage impacted on both positive and negative sides. However, most of the respondents were in rural places during the pandemic. Limitations The first barrier was time and financial supports for conducting the study. In addition, the study was conducted on a limited sample. The further research can be conducted within a broader area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most challenging aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic is the inability to ensure equitable distribution of vaccines to fight the pandemic. Many governments around the globe had to prioritize and perform a triage in distributing the vaccines due to the limited supply as well as a lack of financial strength to acquire a sufficient number of vaccines in time. The present study assessed the public opinion in Bangladesh regarding vaccination prioritization strategy and its associated aspects. Due to the infectious nature of the viral transmission, the study used an online survey and collected a sample of 2291 respondents, distributed proportionally across sex, and income groups. Descriptive statistics and multinomial logistic regression modelling were utilized to conduct the analyses. The results emphasized unanimous preference of prioritized vaccination leaning towards the frontline workers, the severely sick and the elderly. However, the segregation across ethnicity was noted with no major preference among sexes or religion. The results reinforce the Bangladesh government's undertaken strategy of prioritization. However, the preference rankings varied across sociodemographic factors including self-assessed COVID-19 knowledge and income tiers, among others. The findings underline the necessity of improved risk communication strategies to ensure public confidence and conformity to vaccination efforts and their effective deployment across the country., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: To evaluate the understanding, opinions and actions concerning COVID-19, referred to as knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP), among rural adolescents in Bangladesh. Additionally, the study aimed to identify the determinants that may influence adolescents' KAP., Design: An interview-based cross-sectional study., Setting: The study area was the Thakurgaon district, which was located in the northwestern region of Bangladesh., Participants: A total of 266 rural adolescents were selected using a non-probability (convenience sampling) technique., Main Outcome Measures: Sociodemographic characteristics, source of information, COVID-19-related KAP, and their associated factors., Results: The majority of the respondents were females and reported that mass media (eg, television channels and papers) was the main source of information to learn about COVID-19. The mean score for knowledge was 7.15±3, whereas the scores were 10.5±2.8, and 8.78±2.66 for attitude and practice, respectively. Among the adolescents, only 11% had adequate knowledge, a positive attitude (27%) and good practices (31%). The predictive factors related to adolescents' knowledge and attitude were their religion, educational level and family income. Adolescents who were from the Islamic religion and who had secondary education were more knowledgeable and encompassed more positive attitudes. Besides, poor KAP towards COVID-19 was significantly higher among the participants with the lowest family income (less than 10 000 BDT). Moreover, their knowledge was significantly associated with their attitudes and practices., Conclusion: The study found that adolescents in rural areas lacked sufficient knowledge of COVID-19 and engaged in unsatisfactory preventative behaviour. Therefore, the development of effective health education programmes that incorporate consideration of KAP-modifying factors is needed. In addition, the result would be helpful for other similar types of pandemics., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2023. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

Globally, a traditional management model has generally been used to manage disaster situations, including in Bangladesh. In Bangladesh, the government mostly uses the preparedness policy for pandemic outbreak case management. With regard to the limitations arising from the pandemic outbreak the current research will investigate the following questions: when facing a devastating situation, what exactly is the nature of the pandemic outbreak management model incorporated at the governmental level? Keeping these questions in mind, the intention of the existing model is to provide smooth and appropriate assistance to recover from a pandemic outbreak, and to implement effective governance of the situation. This research will identify deficiencies in the current epidemic management policy in Bangladesh, and will assist in forming a new model and developing a systematic procedure for managing future pandemic outbreak situations. The main deficiency in Bangladesh's pandemic management is that the policy paper has failed to identify all hazardous events that may occur in a pandemic outbreak. In most cases, it has underestimated the issues of bioethical responsibility toward the different stakeholders affected during the devastating situation of a pandemic outbreak. The policy does not emphasize the bioethical model; therefore, it fails to encourage support for either public protection or an ethically friendly management system. The model proposed in this article demonstrates an appropriate way to reduce or, if possible, avoid potential damages and losses from a pandemic outbreak. The model aims to prioritize the problems that need assistance to recover from the outbreak. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on library and information services (LIS) and how library professionals overcome the challenges of COVID-19 pandemic in the current reality. Design/methodology/approach: This study used quantitative and qualitative methods to investigate the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on Bangladesh's LIS professionals. A structured online questionnaire was designed for the purpose of a quantitative survey. The respondents of this study were LIS professionals in all categories of libraries (e.g. academic libraries, public libraries, special libraries and national library) in Bangladesh. A total of 106 responses from LIS professionals in Bangladesh were received. This study analyzed qualitative data using Braun and Clark's technique for thematic coding. Researchers interviewed librarians in two phases (during the COVID-19 pandemic and after COVID-19) about how libraries cope up with the COVID crisis. The descriptive findings were examined using diverse descriptive statistics (i.e. frequency numbers and percentages), and for examining the significant differences among demographics' information regarding challenges faced by LIS professionals, Mann–Whitney and Kruskal–Wallis tests were conducted. The qualitative responses were carefully analyzed for familiarizing, coding and theme generation. Findings: The result showed that most LIS professionals (i.e. 46.2% and 43.4%) had faced difficulties in accessing e-resources from home and had failed to maintain balance between work and personal life and to offer remote library services. The LIS professionals mostly used Facebook Messenger and Zoom to communicate with their colleagues and users. Furthermore, many LIS professionals (50.0%) secured their health and safety, adopted hygienic procedures at their workstations and provided virtual reference services. The qualitative findings show that though some libraries have faced challenges in providing online sources and services due to the absence of authority interest, budget scarcity and inadequate information and communication technology infrastructure, some libraries took the initiative to establish library institutional repository and make it available for users from home. Research limitations/implications: The present study only concentrated on the staff and their actions during and after the pandemic, which was mentioned as a limitation. It would be more effective if the study also considered the user's viewpoint. The researchers hope that this study will help LIS professionals to support and provide digital and innovative service initiatives in their organization. Originality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first of its kind study in Bangladesh where the staff of all types of libraries expressed their views on the problems they faced during the COVID-19 pandemic and the steps they took recently to overcome them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As social and interdependent beings, we have responsibilities to each other. One of them is to recognize each other appropriately. When we fail to meet this responsibility, we often stigmatize. In this paper, I argue that the COVID‐19‐related stigmatization is a variation of the lack of recognition understood as an orientation to our evaluative features. Various stereotypical behaviors regarding COVID‐19 become stigmatized practices because of labeling, stereotyping, separation, status loss and discrimination, and power. When people stigmatize COVID‐19 victims, they orient themselves to their evaluative quality of being vulnerable to the SARS‐CoV‐2 virus by internalizing the victims as dangerous, understanding them as separable, and being motivated to act with them differently. All this causes the COVID‐19 victims to lose status and suffer discrimination for which they do not experience participatory parity in different facets of their lives, rendering the COVID‐19‐related stigmatization an appalling example of misrecognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pregnant and lactating women's vaccine decision-making process is influenced by many factors. Pregnant women were at increased risk for severe disease and poor health outcomes from COVID-19 at various time points during the pandemic. COVID-19 vaccines have been found to be safe and protective during pregnancy and while breastfeeding. In this study, we sought to examine key factors that informed the decision-making process among pregnant and lactating women in Bangladesh. We conducted 24 in-depth interviews, with 12 pregnant and 12 lactating women. These women were from three communities in Bangladesh: one urban community, and two rural communities. We used a grounded theory approach to identify emerging themes and organized emerging themes using a socio-ecological model. The socio-ecological model suggests that individuals are influenced by many levels, including individual-level influences, interpersonal-level influences, health care system-level influences, and policy-level influences. We found key factors at each socio-ecological level that influenced the decision-making process of pregnant and lactating women, including perceived benefits of vaccines and vaccine safety (individual-level), the influence of husbands and peers (interpersonal-level), health care provider recommendations and vaccine eligibility (health care system-level), and vaccine mandates (policy-level). As vaccination can reduce the effect of COVID-19 disease in mothers, infants, and unborn children, targeting critical factors that inform the decision-making process is paramount for improving vaccine acceptance. We hope the results of this study will inform vaccine acceptance efforts to ensure that pregnant and lactating women take advantage of this life-saving intervention., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

COVID-19 has accelerated the generation of healthcare (medical) waste throughout the world. Developing countries are the most affected by this hazardous and toxic medical waste due to poor management systems. In recent years, Bangladesh has experienced increasing medical waste generation with estimated growth of 3 % per year. The existing healthcare waste management in Bangladesh is far behind the sustainable waste management concept. To achieve an effective waste management structure, Bangladesh has to implement life cycle assessment (LCA) and circular economy (CE) concepts in this area. However, inadequate data and insufficient research in this field are the primary barriers to the establishment of an efficient medical waste management systen in Bangladesh. This study is introduced as a guidebook containing a comprehensive overview of the medical waste generation scenario, management techniques, Covid-19 impact from treatment to testing and vaccination, and the circular economy concept for sustainable waste management in Bangladesh. The estimated generation of medical waste in Bangladesh without considering the surge due to Covid-19 and other unusual medical emergencies would be approximately 50,000 tons (1.25 kg/bed/day) in 2025, out of which 12,435 tons were predicted to be hazardous waste. However, our calculation estimated that a total of 82,553, 168.4, and 2300 tons of medical waste was generated only from handling of Covid patients, test kits, and vaccination from March 2021 to May 2022. Applicability of existing guidelines, and legislation to handle the current situation and feasibility of LCA on medical waste management system to minimize environmental impact were scrutinized. Incineration with energy recovery and microwave sterilization were found to be the best treatment techniques with minimal environmental impact. A circular economy model with the concept of waste minimizaton, and value recovery was proposed for sustainable medical waste management. This study suggests proper training on healthcare waste management, proposing strict regulations, structured research allocation, and implementation of public-private partnerships to reduce, and control medical waste generation for creating a sustainable medical waste management system in Bangladesh., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Introduction: Globally, the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic poses fundamental challenges in everyday life. Various controlling measures, including nationwide lockdowns, movement restrictions, travel bans, social distancing, and improved hygiene practices, have been widely introduced to curtail transmission of the disease. Notably, these measures have affected the execution of population health research that typically involves face-to-face data collection. This paper details a subjective reflective account of the challenges and mitigating strategies in conducting a nationwide study during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021. Challenges and strategies: The research team faced a wide range of challenges in conducting this study. The major categories of challenges were defined as follows: (i) challenges relating to the COVID-19 pandemic, such as insufficient access to field sites; (ii) challenges related to contextual factors, such as cultural and gender sensitivity and extreme weather events; and (iii) challenges related to data quality and validity. The key mitigating strategies to overcoming these challenges included engaging a local-level field supervisor, hiring data collectors from respective study sites, incorporating team members' reviews of literature and experts' views to develop research instruments, modifying original research instruments, organizing regular meetings and debriefing, adjusting field operation plans, building gender-sensitive teams, understanding local norms and adopting culturally appropriate dress codes, and conducting interviews in local languages. Conclusions: This paper concludes that despite several COVID-19-related challenges coupled with contextual factors, data were successfully collected through timely and successful adaptations of several mitigating strategies. The strategies adopted in this study may be useful for overcoming unforeseeable challenges in planning and conducting future population-based health research in similar circumstances elsewhere.