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Sericulture is a women intensive sector where 60% of the workers are either family workers or hired female workers. Productive skill makes the presence of women invincible both in pre and post cocoon sectors. This larger participation is expected to raise their level of empowerment too. Higher level of empowerment is expected to induce the woman to usher improved productive technology. However field survey in Malda districts of West Bengal reveals a complete bleak picture. Neither productivity level, nor the empowerment level have reached the desired level, which calls for an immediate intervention and revision of policies. Keywords: Sericulture, Productivity, Empowerment, Malda, West Bengal.

Introduction: The surgical treatment of perforated peptic ulcer disease has evolved in parallel to advances in medical treatment of Peptic Ulcer Disease. Objective: To investigate the feasibility of ERAS (Enhanced Recovery after Surgery) Pathways in patients undergoing emergency repair for Perforated peptic ulcer disease. Materials and methods: Institutional based prospective analytical study. Indoor patients in Dept. of General Surgery in Medical College and Hospital Kolkata. January 2019 to June 2020. Study was conducted for 18 months.14 months was provided for data collection. Next 2 months for statistical analysis and another 2 months for thesis writing and submission. Conclusion: ERAS pathway (with some modications) seems to be safe and feasible in a highly selected subset of patients undergoing emergency Omental grahams patch repair of Perforated Peptic Ulcer Disease

The present study was undertaken to determine the antimicrobial resistance pattern of Enterobacter species to guide the clinician in selecting the best antimicrobial agent for an individual patient. A total of 50 clinical isolates of Enterobacter species were collected from different clinical specimens at the microbiology laboratory of BSMMU between August, 2018 and September, 2019. The two main species of Enterobacter, E.cloacae and E.aerogenes were identified by biochemical tests. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was performed by Kirby Bauer disc diffusion method and reported according to CLSI guidelines. Majority (56%) of the isolated Enterobacter were E.cloacae, 40% were E.aerogenes and 4% were other species. The Enterobacter isolates showed relatively high resistance rates to the cephalosporins including cefoxitin (82%), cefixime (62%), ceftazidime (46%) and ceftriaxone (46%). Resistance to the carbapenems and aminoglycosides was relatively low. The high resistance rates of Enterobacter species to multiple antibiotics makes it necessary for antimicrobial susceptibility testing to be conducted prior to antibiotic prescription. Bangladesh J Med Microbiol 2019; 13 (2): 3-6

There is a high prevalence of H. pylori infection in Bangladeshi population that causes site specific diseases which includes gastritis, gastric ulcer, duodenal ulcer and gastric carcinoma. The Cross sectional study was carried out in the Department of Microbiology and immunology, Bangabandhu Medical University (BSMMU), during the period of September, 2018 to July, 2019. Dyspeptic patients, who underwent endoscopic examination at the Department of Gastroenterology of Dhaka medical College and Hospital, who fulfilled the inclusion criteria were enrolled as study population. Collected gastric and duodenal biopsy specimens from 142 patients were categorized as H. pylori positive cases (34.5%) and H. pylori negative cases (35.2%) based on the case definition used in the study by RUT, Histology and ureC gene PCR. All of the laboratory works were performed at Department of Microbiology and Immunology except Histology which was performed at the Department of Pathology of BSMMU. Endoscopic findings significantly co-related with histological findings (p = 0.001). Highest rate of H. pylori infection was found in 76% of duodenal ulcer cases and lowest in Adenocarcinoma group being only 9% of total study population. H. pylori infection was positively associated with duodenal ulcer cases (p=0.014) and negatively with adeno carcinoma cases (p=0.002) in a statistically significant manner. Bangladesh J Med Microbiol 2019; 13 (2): 11-17

In this work, a novel single-feed stacked microstrip antenna is proposed for high gain and dual polarization application. The designed antenna is useful at two purposes. In one hand, its lower operating frequency demonstrates high gain and on the other hand, the upper operating frequency shows circular polarization. The proposed design consists of two pairs of small parallel slots on the radiating surface as well as in the ground plane with a view to achieving significant amount of gain (approximately 8.3 dB) at its lower operating frequency (~ 6 GHz). An interesting aspect of this work is its polarization diversity. The designed antenna is capable of showing circular polarization at its upper operating frequency (~ 6.8 GHz). At this frequency, the axial ratio of the antenna has been kept below 3 dB for circular polarization applications. This circular polarization has been introduced by truncating the corners of radiating patch at different shapes. High gain and dual polarization play a major role on different antenna performance parameters. This antenna meets these two applications simultaneously. A prototype has been fabricated and characterized in order to validate the results. An outstanding agreement between experimental results and simulated results is achieved.

Wheat blast (WB) caused by Magnaporthe oryzae pathotype Triticum (MoT) is an important fungal disease in tropical and subtropical wheat production regions. The disease was initially identified in Brazil in 1985, and it subsequently spread to some major wheat-producing areas of the country as well as several South American countries such as Bolivia, Paraguay, and Argentina. In recent years, WB has been introduced to Bangladesh and Zambia via international wheat trade, threatening wheat production in South Asia and Southern Africa with the possible further spreading in these two continents. Resistance source is mostly limited to 2NS carriers, which are being eroded by newly emerged MoT isolates, demonstrating an urgent need for identification and utilization of non-2NS resistance sources. Fungicides are also being heavily relied on to manage WB that resulted in increasing fungal resistance, which should be addressed by utilization of new fungicides or rotating different fungicides. Additionally, quarantine measures, cultural practices, non-fungicidal chemical treatment, disease forecasting, biocontrol etc., are also effective components of integrated WB management, which could be used in combination with varietal resistance and fungicides to obtain reasonable management of this disease.

This paper aims to propose a single failure recovery for a distributed social network. Single node and multi-node recovery are both non-trivial tasks. We have considered that a user is treated as a single independent server with its own independent storage and is focused only on single-user failure. Here, failure refers to the failure of the server as a whole. With these fundamental assumptions, a new fast recovery strategy for the single failed user is proposed. In this method, partial replication of node data is used for recovery of the node to reduce the storage issue.

Introduction: Pleural effusion is a common clinical manifestation of varying aetiology. Its outcome varies according to underlying aetiology. The causes and prognosis vary between developed and developing countries. Objectives: To find out the most common causes of pleural effusion in a tertiary care hospital of Bangladesh. Materials and Methods: Total 50 patients were enrolled in the study during the period from January 2014 to November 2015 in combined military hospital, Dhaka. Informed written consent was obtained from all patients under the study, explaining the risk benefits and objectives of the study before sampling. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire containing all the key variables along with radiological, laboratory and pleural fluid analysis report. Data presented as frequency and percentage and Chai-square test was performed by using SPSS 23.0. Results: Patients' mean age was 48.28 ± 12.53 years and ranged from 12 to 70 years where half of them were above 50. Male-female ratio was 1.63:1. Sixty five percent of the patients had positive smoking history. Persistent cough, fever and weight loss were the main presenting symptoms. Radiological findings revealed 50% had isolated right-sided pleural effusion and laboratory investigation found 28% cases ESR value 50-100 mm in 1st hour. Pleural fluid examination revealed 75% patient had straw coloured pleural fluid. Sputum for Acid-Fast Bacilli and other relevant investigations revealed 44% patients had tuberculosis, 16% had pneumonia, 8% had malignancy and 24% had other causes of pleural effusion. Conclusion: This study revealed that the tuberculosis is the predominant cause of pleural effusion followed by pneumonia and malignancy. Journal of Armed Forces Medical College Bangladesh Vol.13(2) 2017: 15-17

The primary clinical tool for predicting the lineage potential of leukemic blasts is the characterization of protein expression by immunophenotyping. It is common for acute leukemias to aberrantly express protein markers more typically associated with other lineages. Therefore, this study was designed to assess the frequency of aberrant antigens expression in childhood acute leukemia. Peripheral blood and bone marrow samples were collected from 76 clinically suspected and morphologically diagnosed untreated cases of acute leukemia (children of 0

Tuberculosis remains a major threat to world health. The main aim of this study was to improve the microscopic detection of AFB from sputum by Bleach sedimentation technique using household bleach. This was a cross sectional type of study conducted for a period of one year from July 2010 to June 2011 in the Department of Laboratory Services, Khwaja Yunus Ali Medical College Hospital (KYAMCH), Sirajgonj. A total of 115 clinically suspected tuberculosis patients aged between 7-85 years were included in the study. Among them 35 (30.4%) patients had TB positive by routine (Direct microscopy) method; whereas, by bleach concentration method 42 (36.5%) were found positive; diagnosing 07 additional patients. The rise of 16.7% in sputum positivity by bleach sedimentation microscopy over the direct smear microscopy was found to be statistically significant (p=

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease that develops within a complex network of genetic and immunologic factors. Both genetic and environmental factors strongly influence the development of SLE. But genetic factors are more important both in determining the overall susceptibility to SLE and in influencing immunologic heterogenecity in affected subjects. Now it is accepted that major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genes particularly HLA (Human leukocyte antigen) class II constitute a part of the genetic factor for susceptibility to develop SLE. To determine the association of HLA-DR antigens with SLE, this case-control study was conducted over a period of twelve months from March 2013 in Dhaka. Buccal swabs for HLA-DR typing were collected from 46 SLE cases and 46 age and sex matched unrelated healthy controls. HLA-DR typing was carried out by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with sequence specific primers. Among 46 cases, female versus male ration was 22: 1 and mean age at study entry was 27.05 ± 8.17 years, ranging from 12.5 – 45 years. A total of 10 (HLA-DR1 to DR10) HLA antigens were determined in both cases and controls. The most frequent HLA-DR observed among cases was DR2 (86.96%) followed by DR7 (41.30%). When compared with healthy controls, the HLA-DR2 was significantly associated with SLE (p ?0.05, RR: 4.6914, 95% CI: 1.658 to 13.267). No other HLA-DR had significant association with SLE. No association of HLA-DR was observed with age of onset of disease among SLE cases. Results of the study reveal that HLA-DR2 gene is a risk factor for development of SLE in Bangladeshi population.

Sundarbans is the largest mangrove forest in the world and a UNESCO World Heritage site. This area is populated by some of the world’s poorest people characterized by low levels of socio-economic indicators. However, it is one of the richest areas in the world in terms of natural resources and biodiversity. Climate change is evident here and is one of the important drivers of migration, food insecurity and poverty in this area. The basic objective of our study is to assess the socio-economic impact of climate change and its implications for availability of natural resources, and thereby to understand the adaptation needs of the people. Climate change not only impacts agricultural productivity but also the occupational structure. The decline in food security and the lack of other developmental choices in the face of climate variability are a serious threat to the economic viability of population. We have used stratified sampling techniques for data collection at household level based on pre-designed questionnaires and focus group discussion. We have tried to analyze vulnerability based on LIFE framework and log-linear regression model, and suggest some adaptation strategies to reduce vulnerability.

Image recognition systems have demonstrated tremendous progress over the past few decades thanks, in part, to our ability of learning compact and robust representations of images. As we witness the wide spread adoption of these systems, it is imperative to consider the problem of unintended leakage of information from an image representation, which might compromise the privacy of the data owner. This paper investigates the problem of learning an image representation that minimizes such leakage of user information. We formulate the problem as an adversarial non-zero sum game of finding a good embedding function with two competing goals: to retain as much task dependent discriminative image information as possible, while simultaneously minimizing the amount of information, as measured by entropy, about other sensitive attributes of the user. We analyze the stability and convergence dynamics of the proposed formulation using tools from non-linear systems theory and compare to that of the corresponding adversarial zero-sum game formulation that optimizes likelihood as a measure of information content. Numerical experiments on UCI, Extended Yale B, CIFAR-10 and CIFAR-100 datasets indicate that our proposed approach is able to learn image representations that exhibit high task performance while mitigating leakage of predefined sensitive information., Comment: Accepted for oral presentation at CVPR 2019

A large percentage of the world’s population is concentrated along the coastal zones. These environmentally sensitive areas are under intense pressure from natural processes such as erosion, accretion and natural disasters as well as anthropogenic processes such as urban growth, resource development and pollution. These threats have made the coastal zone a priority for coastline monitoring programs and sustainable coastal management. This research utilizes integrated techniques of remote sensing and geographic information system (GIS) to monitor coastline changes from 1989 to 2010 at Hatiya Island, Bangladesh. In this study, satellite images from Thematic Mapper (TM) and Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM) were used to quantify the spatio-temporal changes that took place in the coastal zone of Hatiya Island during the specified period. The modified normalized difference water index (MNDWI) algorithm was applied to TM (1989 and 2010) and ETM (2000) images to discriminate the land–water interface and the on-screen digitizing approach was used over the MNDWI images of 1989, 2000 and 2010 for coastline extraction. Afterwards, the extent of changes in the coastline was estimated through overlaying the digitized maps of Hatiya Island of all three years. Coastline positions were highlighted to infer the erosion/accretion sectors along the coast, and the coastline changes were calculated. The results showed that erosion was severe in the northern and western parts of the island, whereas the southern and eastern parts of the island gained land through sedimentation. Over the study period (1989–2010), this offshore island witnessed the erosion of 6476 hectares. In contrast it experienced an accretion of 9916 hectares. These erosion and accretion processes played an active role in the changes of coastline during the study period.

not available Bangladesh J Med Microbiol 2016; 10 (2): 1-3

Murshidabad is the second largest traditional silk producing district in West Bengal, which bears a golden legacy of producing superlative silk in India since seventeenth century. Kassimbazar was one of the major hubs of silk purchase for the British silk merchants. The industry went into great decline as the Industrial Revolution in the West set in. In the post Independence period attempts were made to revive this home-based artisanal industry in India to expand employment and income opportunities in the rural economy. However, during 2002-2012, there was an exodus of more than 23 thousand silk farmers and 10 thousand silk weavers from the industry. This paper delves into issues related with income determinants of the household silk industry in Murshidabad. The primary data analysis exposes that ‘language efficiency’, ‘number of family members’, ‘ownership of bicycle/motorbike and television’, ‘male labour force’ and ‘women autonomy’ are positively influencing the income of the silk producing households, while the significant factors which inversely influences the level of annual income of the silk producing households are ‘age of the household head’, ‘female workers’, ‘cost of production’, ‘male family members’, ‘morbidity of female’ and ‘expenditure autonomy of female in the family’. The government should adopt pro-active measures like subsidizing the cost of silk weavers, revamp the health insurance scheme of the silk manufacturing women and increase the language efficiency to enhance the silk manufacturers’ income earning capacity. The government should also raise the level of sanitation facility of the silk reelers and weavers and communication goods like bicycle, television to be provided.

This paper presents a compact slotted rectangular microstrip antenna with modified ground plane. Performance advancements with simple modifications of a reference antenna has been carried out in the entire work. The radiating patch and the ground surface has been loaded by two asymmetrical slots and two symmetrical slots respectively. This slight change in antenna shape makes the microstrip antenna more compact. In addition, the directivity, gain, and radiation efficiency have been enhanced significantly. The overall antenna size is 41.3 mm × 48.5 mm × 1.6 mm. The proposed antenna provides 19.8% of the compactness along with 2.9dB of gain enhancement, directivity boost of 2.5dB and radiation efficiency improvement of 25%, approximately. An acceptable relationship is observed between co and cross polarization from achieved patterns which imply the antenna structure as a qualified radiator in terms of polarization purity. A prototype is fabricated with proper characterization. The measured results have a good agreement with simulated results.

Background: Reticulocyte count with immature reticulocyte fraction (IRF) used in the laboratories to evaluate the bone marrow erythropoietic activity and have great diagnostic and prognostic importance in the treatment of anemias and other pathological conditions. Objective: The aim of this study was to establish the normal reference range for reticulocyte count and its parameter. Methods: In this study reticulocyte profile were evaluated by automated analysis in 40 healthy control subjects by XT-2000i (Sysmex) hematology analyzer and compared with measurements obtained by manual methods. Manually reticulocytes were supravitally stained with new methylene blue. Results: This study found MRC was 0.81 ±0.46%. The FCMR was 0.97±0.17%, Ret abs was found .04±.02(10 6 / μl) and IRF was found 3.92±1.35%. Conclusion: The precision of the automated analyzer was found significantly higher than the manual methods. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjmed.v21i2.13616 Bangladesh J Medicine 2010; 21: 80-83

There is a great need to determine the susceptibility of individual Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains as rapidly as possible because emergence of multidrug-resistant and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis in developing countries. The study was conducted to evaluate the thin layer agar (TLA) media for rapid detection of resistance of M.tuberculosis to rifampicin (RMP) and isoniazid (INH) in clinical isolates and to determine the sensitivity and time to positivity compared to the proportion method. One hundred clinical isolates of M.tuberculosis were studied. For the TLA method, three compartment Petri plate containing 7H11 agar and 7H11 agar with RMP and INH. Results were compared to the proportion method for RMP and INH. The sensitivity for INH and RMP+INH was 85.7 % and 100%. The use of a TLA plate enables the rapid detection of resistance to the two prime anti-tuberculosis drugs RMP and INH in a median time of 9.60 days. TLA was a rapid method for the detection of resistance of M.tuberculosis in the two drugs studied. This faster method is simple to perform, providing an alternative method when more sophisticated techniques are not available in low-resource settings.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjmm.v7i1.19313 Bangladesh J Med Microbiol 2013; 07(01): 2-6

Calprotectin is a calcium and zinc binding protein released from leucocytes, markedly elevated in organic bowel diseases (OBD). Faecal calprotectin (FC) is supposed to be a reliable biomarker to screen the suspected patients with OBD. This study was aimed to determine the role of FC level in screening the suspected OBD patients. It was carried out by measurement of FC using a commercially available ELISA kit among 50 patients with chronic diarrhoea for ? 6 weeks with or without other GIT symptoms who underwent colonoscopic evaluation (35 OBD patients and 15 disease control) and 12 healthy control. Significantly higher value (P

Background: The incidence of oral cancer varies globally and regionally and is closely linked with geographical, social, economical, biological, ethnic, dietary and environmental factors. In India, buccal mucosa (cheek) is the most common site for the lesion having 50% of all the oral cavity cancers and the incidence of oral cancers is about 10.6 % of all cancers. The aim of the study was to study the mucosal lesions with regard to mode of presentation, aetiopathology, histopathological aspects, various surgical modalities.Methods: The prospective observational and descriptive tertiary care institute based case study was undertaken at Medical College, Kolkata. A total of 30 patients were included in the study.Results: Maximum number of patients was in the 51-60 yr age group and the male: female sex ratio was 7:3. The maximum risk factors were found to be smoking and tobacco. 16.67% patients had premalignant lesions namely leucoplakia whereas 73.33% of the patients presented with oral ulcers as the chief complaint. Most of the patients presented in the late stage. Squamous cell carcinoma was the most common histological type. Out of 30 patients, 6 underwent wide local excision only and the rest underwent neck dissection. Mandibulectomy was done in 14 patients, Pectoralis major myocutaneous flap was the most common reconstructive procedure used (43.33%).Conclusions: Cancer of the oral cavity accounts for a high incidence in our country due to our social habits. In spite of easy accessibility to early lesion, the number of locally advanced lesion is very high. This can be prevented by creating health awareness.

Background: Construction of a gastrointestinal stoma is a frequently performed surgical procedure. Although formation of defunctioning loop ileostomy is usually a straightforward procedure, there is an appreciable complication rate. The purpose of the research was to study the complications, outcome associated with temporary ileostomy and to study the complications related to its closure.Methods: Institutional based observational study using prospective data collection large ileal perforations covering more than one third of the circumference, or gangrenous change or severe adhesions and old perforations with presence of peritoneal contamination were included in the study. 50 patients were included in the study. Clinical, intra-operative, biochemical parameters with stomal and peristomal complications and tissue histopathology were assessed in the study.Results: The commonest aetiology for which stoma was performed enteric perforation (44%) whereas perforation was the commonest aetiology for which stoma was performed (64%) apart from gangrene and other aetiologies. The commonest post-operative complication encountered was skin excoriation (64%). Most of the the complications encountered post operatively were statistically significant when correlated with aetiology and duration of presentation.Conclusions: Although being bothersome, loop ileostomy is still a live saving procedure. Complications of stoma could be managed conservatively with the application of proper user-friendly stoma appliances and it is of paramount importance that ileostomies are properly sited. Before closure of ileostomy it is essential to be careful of operative biopsy report showing non-specific inflammation. Preference of surgeons in the present day to perform ileostomy in emergency setting is increasing.

Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) arise from interstitial cells of Cajal identified in 1893 by Santiago Ramon y Cajal and present with a myriad of symptoms including gastrointestinal bleeding, obstruction, and lump. However, cystic presentation of GIST is a rare presentation and few cases have been reported in literature till date. Our patient presented as a recurrent abdominal cyst with provisional diagnosis of the mesenteric cyst. On surgery, a huge cyst adhered to the mesentery was found adhered to a part of the jejunum which required resection and anastomosis. Postoperative biopsy revealed it to be a case of GIST with cystic degeneration due to hemorrhage and necrosis. The author tries to find out whether preoperatively any features are predictive of this rare diagnosis to enable R0resection for good prognosis.

Bangladesh has experienced several catastrophic Tropical Cyclones (TCs) during the last decades. Despite the efforts of disaster management organizations, as well as the Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD), there were lapses in the residents’ evacuation behavior. To examine the processes of TC forecasting and warning at BMD and to understand the reasons for residents’ reluctance to evacuate after a cyclone warning, we conducted an individual in-depth interview among the meteorologists at BMD, as well as a questionnaire survey among the residents living in the coastal areas. The results reveal that the forecasts produced by BMD are not reliable for longer than 12-h. Therefore, longer-term warnings have to be based on gross estimates of TC intensity and motion, which renders the disseminated warning messages unreliable. Our results indicate that residents in the coastal areas studied, do not follow the evacuation orders due to mistrust of the warning messages—which can deter from early evacuation; and insufficient number of shelters and poor transportation possibilities—which discourages late evacuation. Suggestions made by the residents highlight the necessity of improved warning messages in the future. These findings indicate the need for improved forecasting, and more reliable and more informative warning messages for ensuring a timely evacuation response from residents.

Bangladesh is subject to a variety of environmental stressors and is characterized by large imbalances in the distribution of natural resources due to poor environmental management or a lack thereof. In addition, current and future climate change impacts are likely to yield even more significant consequences. The effort to minimize the gap between policy and implementation is targeted at grass-root level and encompasses physical conservation aspects, increasing the optimum use of resources, and socio-cultural awareness building programs. Government plans and policies provide legal coverage to strengthen management and occasionally ratify international protocols for global linkages. Scientists and the government identify the environmental sectors, providing an extensive list of generalized issues. Between 1995 and 2010, a large number of local and international nongovernmental organizations worked with government agencies on the integration of government policies that directly addressed environmental management mainly. Although the overall intellectual infrastructure at the local level is reasonably good, the significant, but weak coordination between various government agencies has been identified as a priority. Nevertheless, local poverty, a lack of alternative development methods, the slow growth of quality education, and poor international/cross-cultural partnerships are major weak points. The case study focuses specifically on the availability of international funds and the weak role that developing nations play in the North-South dialogue forum.

The Right to Education Act came into effect on 1st April 2010 which ensures free and compulsory education to every child between the ages 6-14 years. “Free education” means that no child, other than a child who has been admitted by his or her parents to a school which is not supported by the appropriate Government, shall be liable to pay any kind of fee or charges. On the other hand, “Compulsory education” casts an obligation on the appropriate Government and local authorities to provide and ensure admission, attendance and completion of elementary education by all children in the 6-14 age groups. India is currently having 8.1 million eligible students who are either dropouts or have never gone to school. Therefore, bringing them back to school can be considered as one of the major challenges in implementing Right to Education (RTE).The target of RTE actually follows from a global set target, namely Millennium Development Goals, which states that every child must achieve primary education by 2015. The 1990 world conference on “Education for All” was held in Thailand, where few global goals were set, including achievement of universal primary education by 2000. Again in 2000, the World Education Forum in Senegal reaffirmed and extended the Thailand commitment. Universal Primary educations along with gender parity were reaffirmed again in the Millennium Summit at New York. However the world cannot reach its goal unless all the nations proceed forward. This clarifies the prioritization and relevance of the Right to Education Act in India.According to India’s “Education for All Middle Decade Assessment”, primary school enrolment has increased by 13.7% in between 2001-2005, which reaches close to universal enrolment in Grade I. Despite this success, 1 out of 4 children left school before reaching Grade V and almost half before reaching Grade VIII in 2005. Thus Drop-Out seems to be the major hurdles in the pace of achieving RTE.Jayachandran (2007) has shown that there is a common tendency to show inflated enrolment rates through official statistics mainly to project a successful trend, but that ultimately leads to magnifying dropout rates. Therefore we can say that the Official Statistics of Ministry of Human Development & Resources (1997-98) always project an exaggerated number. On the other hand NSS Data depends upon household sample survey, which believes to reflect the true trend. But calculation of dropout rate through 52-Round NSS data projects a much lower trend for dropout. Surprisingly in both the cases, West Bengal captures the second highest position in the dropout statistics. According to official statistics (MHRD, 97-98) the dropout rate in West Bengal is as high as 35.8% while calculation from NSS 52 Round data shows it is 11.5%.Uttar Dinajpur is the lowest ranking district in the state in achieving literacy rate and highest ranking state in dropout. The greatest challenge in achieving RTE in the district is to reduce its 34.75% dropout rate in primary education( Cohort Study, 2005) as well as enroll 13,477 out of school eligible children in the age group between 6 to 9 years (HHS2010 ) and 16,140 out of school children in the age group between 10 to 14 years (HHS, 2010).The major objective of this paper is to shed some light on the issues of dropout in primary education as a specific case study on the district of Uttar Dinajpur. There are some general perceptions regarding the causes of dropout while policy prescription requires some area specific target doctrine. The socio-economic factors often remain a non quantifiable entity and exercise of econometrics fails to capture the impact of those invisible issues. But unless those problems remains identified the target of RTE would remain a delusion. I intend within my limited scope of analysis to provide some insight in those issues.

Background: Urinary tract infection (UTI) remains one of the most common and major complications after renal transplantation. Objective: The study was undertaken to get an insight regarding the bacterial pathogen which is responsible for UTI in post renal transplant patients and their risk factors association. Methods: This was an observational study, conducted in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) from December 2010 to December 2011. Twenty- one renal transplant recipients were evaluated for UTl after surgery up to six weeks. Microscopic examination and culture of urine were performed in every pre-transplant period, 3rd POD, 7th POD, within six weeks and as per patient's clinical condition. UTI was considered when bacterial count was

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) remains one of the major causes of death from a single infectious agent worldwide. The early detection of new cases of pulmonary tuberculosis is an important goal in tuberculosis control program.Objective: 1n this study, thin layer agar (TLA) culture was compared with Lowenstein-Jensen (LJ) culture for rapid detection of pulmonary tuberculosis. Methods: It was a cross sectional study conducted in National Tuberculosis Reference Labora­tory (NTRL) of National Institute of Disease of Chest and Hospital (NIDCH), Dhaka, from July 2010 to June 2011. A total of 100 sputum smear positive for acid fast bacilli (AFB) by Z-N staining, pulmonary tuberculosis patients were included in this study. Samples were processed by modified Petroff method and then cultured on thin layer 7H11(TL7H11) plates and L-J tubes. TL7H11 plates were observed microscopically for rnicrocolony growth once a week for 6 weeks, and L-J tubes were observed once a week for 8 weeks. Results: The recovery rates of mycobacteria on only TLA, only LJ and on both media were 90%, 97% and 88% respectively. Overall positivity was 99% in both L-J and TLA media. Mean time for detection of mycobacteria on TLA was 9.04±1.66 days compared to 21.78±6.19 days on L-J media. The rate of contamination was higher (6%) in L-J media than in TLA media (4%). Conclusion: The TL7H11 media can be used as an alternative to the Lowenstein-Jensen medium for early isolation of mycobacteria in resource constrained settings.

India has five million working children which is more than two percent of the total child population in the age group of 5-14 years. Despite existence of legal prohibitions, several socio-economic situations ranging from dearth of poverty, over–fertility, non-responsive education system to poor access in financial services adversely affect a section of children and keep them in work field. This work burden not only prevents the children from getting the basic education, it is also highly detrimental to their health and ultimately leads to intellectual and physical stunting of their growth. At this backdrop, this paper measures the magnitude of child rights to education enjoyed by the child labour across the states of West Bengal. The paper identifies various reasons behind non-inclusiveness of a great portion of child labour in main-stream of education through empirical analysis in two backward districts of West Bengal. An analysis of NCLP activities based on evaluation surveys helps to trace the gap of work and lack of convergence mechanism with activities of Sarba Shiksha Mission. We recommend few measures to revamp the whole process, so that relationship between child labour and inclusive education activities can be revamped. NCLP and Sarba Shiksha Mission should work hand in hand to fulfill this objective. Complete implementation of Right to Education can help to solve many of these issues involved with child labour, as the act itself has an inclusive approach.

Background/Aim: Gastro duodenal ulcer is a common disorder of the gastrointestinal tract. Several Indian medicinal plants have been traditionally and extensively used to prevent different diseases. In the present research studies, Bael fruit ( Aegle marmelos (AM), family: Rutaceae ) which are also called as Bilva in ancient Sanskrit was used as a herbal drug and its antioxidative role in aspirin- induced gastroduodenal ulceration in albino rat was evaluated using essential biochemical parameters. Patients and Methods: Mucosal thickness (MT), ulcer index (UI), different biochemical parameters, such as aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD), reduced glutathione (GSH), and lipid peroxidation (LPO) were measured in all the groups, to study the possible involvement of antioxidants with gastroduodenal protection. Results: A significant decrease in MT, SOD and CAT activities and GSH level and a significant increase in UI, AST, ALT, and ALP activities and LPO level were observed in aspirin treated stomach and duodenum of albino rats. Conclusions: Pretreatment with AM fruit pulp extract for 14 consecutive days showed the reverse effects of aspirin suggesting gastro-duodenal protective and anti- ulcerogenic properties of AM through its antioxidant mechanism.

Indian Leather Industry is recognized as one of the most promising foreign exchange earning sectors since early 1970s. The industry was hard hit by two consecutive foreign environment bans since 1989. Along with that, few domestic environmental regulations also resulted into closure down of a number of leather tanneries during this period. However, the government intervention and the successive compliance measures adopted by the firms ultimately helped the industry to gain momentum in its export sector. This paper analyzes the far reaching impact of these environmental regulations on export sector of Indian Leather Industry. Whether this boost in leather export marks a trade-off relation between environmental quality and volume of exports is a matter of debate, which is attempted in this paper. This paper, within the limitations of data availability regarding environmental statistics, has determined a positive relation between environmental quality and volume of leather exports and justified that instead of Pollution Haven Hypothesis, Indian Leather Industry rather confirms Porterɺs Hypothesis.

Employment generation is one of the major potentials of Sericulture and Silk Industry in India. The farm and non-farm activity of this sector creates sixty lakh mandays of employment every year mostly in rural sector. The industry helps to create egalitarian distribution of income as it transfers greater share of its wealth from high end urban customers to poor artisan classes. In West Bengal, more than one lakh families are occupied with sericulture activities where Karnataka is the state with the largest number of families involved with sericulture. Despite having high level family involvement, West Bengal produces smaller quantities of raw silk compared to Karnataka as well as Andhra Pradesh. This paper investigates the reason of this low production and finds out that low productivity of land is no way responsible for that. Different Employment Models constructed in this paper suggest that ‘area of mulberry cultivation’, ‘cocoon-market’ and ‘power-looms’ are powerful factors in changing the level of employment, while the primary survey exposes factors like ‘unitary household structure’, ‘income’ ‘years of education’ and ‘numbers of female in the household’ as the significant factors in accelerating average employment per family. The spillover effect of this employment generation is studied at the end. The study finds that as a poverty eradication measure, sericulture fails to expand in rural West Bengal vis-a-vis the other prominent states. But income inequality is undoubtedly diminished with the practice in sericulture.

Background: Neonatal septicemia is one of the major health problems throughout the world. Infections are a frequent and important cause of morbidity and mortality in neonatal period. Objective: The objective of this study was the role of hematologic scoring system (HSS) in the early diagnosis of neonatal septicemia. Methods: This is a prospective study consisted of 100 neonates admitted at neonatal ICU, BSMMU, who were clinically suspected cases of septicemia. The neonatal hematological parameter was measured in all cases. Blood culture was done for the gold standard of proven sepsis. There were 12 out of 100 neonates (12%) who had culture proven sepsis. They were predominantly preterm and of very low birth weight. Results: On evaluation of various hematological parameters total leucocytes count, total neutrophil count, IT ratio (>0.2), IM ratio (> 0.3), total immature PMNs count, platelet count were found to have optimal sensitivities and negative predictive values. Using these values hematologic scoring system was formulated according to Rodwell et al. Score > 4 has a sensitivity of 100%, specificity of 60%, with PPV 26% and NPV 100 %. Considering the high sensitivity, negative predictive value, this study implies that score > 4 were more reliable as a screening tool for sepsis than any of the individual hematological parameter. Conclusion: HSS are useful test to distinguish the infected from non infected infants. They also provide a effective guideline to make decisions regarding judicious use of antibiotic therapy. Keywords: Hematologic scoring system (HSS); Blood culture; Neonatal septicemia DOI: 10.3329/bsmmuj.v3i2.7053 BSMMU J 2010; 3(2): 62-67

Visual pattern recognition is a complex problem, and it has proven difficult to achieve satisfactorily instandard three-layer feed-forward artificial neural networks. For this reason, an increasing number ofresearchers are using networks whose architecture resembles the human visual system. These biologicallybasednetworks are bidirectionally connected, use receptive fields, and have a hierarchical structure, withthe input layer being the largest layer, and consecutive layers getting increasingly smaller. These networksare large and complex, and therefore run a risk of getting overfitted during learning, especially if smalltraining sets are used, and if the input patterns are noisy. Many data sets, such as, for example, handwrittencharacters, are intrinsically noisy. The problem of overfitting is aggravated by the tendency of error-drivenlearning in large networks to treat all variations in the noisy input as significant. However, there is one wayto balance off this tendency to overfit, and that is to use a mixture of learning algorithms. In this study, weran systematic tests on handwritten character recognition, where we compared generalization performanceusing a mixture of Hebbian learning and error-driven learning with generalization performance using pureerror-driven learning. Our results indicate that injecting even a small amount of Hebbian learning, 0.01 %,significantly improves the generalization performance of the network.

Neurofibroma is a benign tumor of cutaneous nerves. These are benign tumors which may have a varied presentations ranging from a cosmetic problem to a spinal tumor which may lead to neural complications. We here by present a case where the patient has become an appendage of the tumor and its the mass of the tumor that has handicapped the patient.The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s12262-010-0129-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Electro Static Precipitator’s in India — that dedust about 65000 MWe capacity — have come a long way from their Western Pedigree. The imported designs mutated, prompted by the Indian coal/ash, which characterize uniquely- essentially high ash content of atypical composition and very high resistivity. Insufficient initial recognition of this aspect, incremental environmental consciousness and progressively deteriorating coal quality led to a convoluted and not so satisfactory ESP performance scenario in the country. Recognizing the need for organic interventions, NTPC undertook multiple studies and tests-backed up by a strong knowledge network- on almost all ESP performance enhancement options. While certain options are under extended observation, Flue Gas Conditioning (FGC) — based on encouraging test results and worldwide presence — is being inducted in some NTPC stations. Triggered by this broad-based program, FGC has started appearing front stage in India. This study visits aspects that make FGC attractive for Indian ESPs. Looking beyond the present, an attempt has been made to examine the potential of ESP-FGC combination as a dependable alternative for the long term. “Technology maturity”, “flexibility in space requirements” and the “blanket performance control” that FGC offers are the critical success factors. Implementation economics though unclear now, is complimented by the relatively low locked capital component, which FGC offers. It emerges that a sound theoretical base for the conditioning agent choice and its action on ash/ESP performance is missing and needs to be developed for a systematic development and spread. Technology initiatives are invited for this task. The paper, oriented as a comprehensive narration to act as a precursor to such developmental work, therefore picks up from ESP advent in India enumerating the key reasons for the pessimistic performance response through the key FGC application determinants.Copyright © 2004 by ASME

Sigmoid volvulus is a rare and potentially life-threatening complication of Hirschsprung' disease. A young patient presenting with sigmoid volvulus is not common and Hirschsprung's disease should be suspected in patients in this age group presenting with otherwise unexplained colonic volvulus. Here we report a rare and interesting case of Hirschsprung's disease presenting as sigmoid volvulus in a 15-year-old girl and the sufferings of the patient due to this uncommon entity.

Occurrence of bilateral breast neoplasms with same or different histology is rare. It can occur as synchronous (diagnosed within 3 months) or metachronous (separate occurrences) lesions. Breast sarcomas are the most unusual of all breast malignancies. Here, we have reported a case of a 50-year-old postmenopausal lady with metachronous presentation of breast neoplasms of different histology. Right breast ductal carcinoma (stage 3c), followed by left breast sarcoma (size 45 × 34 cm) diagnosed at an interval of 6 years. Modified radical mastectomy was done for both breasts, followed by adjuvant therapy.

Two rare cases of adenocarcinoma of the caecum and ascending colon concomitant with tuberculosis at the same site are reported. The plausibility of an aetiological relationship between the two pathological conditions has been discussed along with a review of the relevant literature. Tuberculosis complicating malignant disease is a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge; and the likelihood of the two occurring together should be kept in mind especially in tuberculosis endemic areas and in patients with equivocal symptoms.

e-mail: chandon.roy@gmail.com Some organizations and indeed, countries operate proficiency testing schemes to which laboratories subscribe. While these ensure the integrity of the analytical process, they may not assure compliance with GCP. This document is intended to provide a unified framework for sample analysis to lend credibility to the data generated and facilitate the acceptance of clinical data by regulatory authorities from around the world. It is important to recognize that the framework outlined in this document will be applied across a diverse set of disciplines involved in the analysis of samples from clinical trials. It is, therefore, important to understand that this framework should be interpreted and applied to the work of those organizations that undertake such analyses with the objective of assuring the quality of every aspect of the work that they perform.2

Light emitting diode (LED) fluorescence microscopy offers well described benefits compared with brightfield microscopy by Ziehl-Neelsen stained sputum, even which are smear negative. We evaluated the diagnostic performance of fluorescence microscopy, using novel light-emitting diode (LED) technology as an alternative to the brightfield microscopy. The objective of this study was the role of LED fluorescence microscopy in diagnosis of smear negative pulmonary tUberculosis. This is a prospective study consisted of 50 smear negative patients, who were clinically suspected cases of pulmonary tuberculosis. All samples were stained by both ZN stain and Auramine stain and as a gold standard all were cultured on Lowenstein-Jensen Media. On evaluation of all sputum samples were found negative by ZN method but by auramine stain 16%, 20%, 20% cases were found positive by conventional fluorescence microscopy (CFM), LED and culture respectively. LED fluorescence microscopy is more useful test to distinguish the smear negative cases. It also provide an effective guideline to make decisions regarding judicious use of antitubercular drug therapy. Keywords: Smear negative Sputum; LED; CFM; Culture; Pulmonary Tuberculosis DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjpath.v26i1.9126 BJPATH 2011; 26(1): 3-6

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common childhood malignancy in Bangladesh. ALL is treated with chemotherapy due to high responsiveness. After chemotherapy infection may occur which increases the time of aplasia. For this purpose, reliable laboratory tests that will indicate early haematological recovery are needed. At present, absolute neutrophil count (ANC), reticulocyte counts and peripheral blood film (PBF) examination are used after chemotherapy for prediction of bone marrow recovery. Reticulocyte quantification in the peripheral blood samples, as a percentage or absolute count with immature reticulocyte fraction (lRF) are a reliable measure of haematological recovery established by many studies. This cross sectional study was carried out to evaluate the haematopoietic recovery in children with ALL by automated reticulocyte analysis. Total fifty patients were enrolled in this study on remission induction phase. They received the drugs of the protocol of UKALL-XI. All patients were between 8 months to 15 years age range with a mean age of 5.5 ±3.2. In this study the recovery of reticulocyte percentage occurred at a median of 20 days; ARC 18 days; IRF 16 days; HFR 18 days and ANC was obtained after a median of 23 days. This study established that among the various parameters IRF recovered earlier than others. Keywords: Immature Reticulocyte Fraction(lRF); High fluorescent reticulocyte (HFR); Low fluorescent reticulocyte (LFR); Middle fluorescent reticulocyte (MFR); Absolute neutrophil count (ANC); Absolute Reticulocyte count(ARC). DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjpath.v26i1.9128 BJPATH 2011; 26(1): 10-13

Background: Tuberculosis remains world's leading cause of death from a single infectious agent. Fluorescence microscopy offers well-described benefits, comparing with brightfield microscopy, for the evaluation sputum smear samples for tuberculosis. We evaluated the diagnostic performance of fluorescence microscopy, using novel Light Emitting Diode (LED) technology as an alternative to the conventional fluorescence microscopy by Auramine stain as well as brightfield microscopy by Ziehl- Neelsen (ZN) stain. Objectives: The objective of the study was to see the usefulness of LED fluorescent microscopy in the diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis. Methods: This is a prospective study consisted of 150 sputum samples from the patients of NIDCH, Mohakhali. All samples were stained by auramine and ZN stain at BSMMU and culture was done in Lowenstein-Jensen (L-J) media as gold standard at NTRL, Mohakhali. Results: In this study total 66(44%) out of 150 sputum specimens were positive for Mycobacterium Tuberculosis by culture. Sensitivity and specificity documented for the different modalities were 95.38% and 94.11%, respectively, for the LED assessment; 68.18% and 90.47%, respectively, for the CFM assessment; and 56.06% and 97.61%, respectively, for brightfield microscopy by ZN stain. The difference in their case detection rate was statistically significant (χ2=119.38, p

In Bangladesh with a large number of pulmonary tuberculosis cases and financial constraints with high HIV risk, evaluation of scanty i.e paucibacillary cases has great importance. To study the efficacy of Light Emitting Diode fluorescent microscopy in the diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis specially paucibacillary cases in comparison to conventional fluorescent microscopy, Ziehl-Neelsen staining and culture of sputum samples from patients suspected of pulmonary tuberculosis. 150 sputum samples collected from the patients suspected of pulmonary tuberculosis were processed by the Petroff's method, and subjected to Ziehl-Neelsen staining (ZN), which were examined by both LED and conventional fluorescent microscope (CFM) and culture on Lowenstein- Jensen media (gold standard) for detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. In this study, out of 150 patients 14.67%, 8.67%, 4% cases were detected as paucibacillary (Scanty) cases by LED, CFM, ZN respectively. LED fluorescent microscopy is more effective in the detection of paucibacillary cases of pulmonary tuberculosis than other methods of microscopic examination. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bmj.v40i1.9958 BMJ 2011; 40(1): 22-26