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Thermal burns are a major cause of death and suffering around the globe. They can cause debilitating, life-altering injuries as well as lead to significant psychological and financial consequences. Several research works have been conducted in attempt to find a wound healing therapy that is successful. At present, hydrogels have been widely used in cutting-edge research for this purpose because they have suitable properties. This study aimed to see how therapy with chitosan-polyethylene glycol (Ch-Peg) based hydrogels affected the healing of burn wounds in rats. With the concern of public health, xanthan gum (X), boric acid (B), gelatin (Ge), polyethylene glycol (Peg), chitosan (Ch), glutaraldehyde (G), and HPLC-grade water were prepared using X : Ge : G, X : Ge : Peg : G, X : Ge : Ch : G, X : Ge : Peg : Ch : G, X : Ge : B : Ch : G, X : Ge : B : Peg : G, and X : Ge : B : Peg : Ch : G. The produced composite hydrogels were examined for swelling ability, biodegradability, rheological characteristics, and porosity. The 3D structure of the hydrogel was revealed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). After that, the structural characterization technique named Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) was used to describe the composites (SEM). Lastly, in a rat skin wound model, the efficacy of the produced hydrogels was studied. Swelling ability, biodegradability, rheological properties, and porosity were all demonstrated in composite hydrogels that contained over 90% water. Hydrogels with good polymeric networks and porosity were observed using SEM. The existence of bound water and free, intra- and intermolecule hydrogen-linked OH and NH in the hydrogels was confirmed using FTIR. In a secondary burned rat model, all hydrogels showed significant wound healing effectiveness when compared to controls. When compared to other composite hydrogels, wounds treated with X : Ge : Peg : Ch : G, X : Ge : B : Peg : G, and X : Ge : B : Peg : Ch:G recovered faster after 28 days. In conclusion, this research suggests that X : Ge : Peg : Ch : G, X : Ge : B : Peg : G, and X : Ge : B : Peg : Ch : G could be used to treat skin injuries in the clinic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Malnutrition is one of the principal causes of child mortality in developing countries including Bangladesh. According to our knowledge, most of the available studies, that addressed the issue of malnutrition among under-five children, considered the categorical (dichotomous/polychotomous) outcome variables and applied logistic regression (binary/multinomial) to find their predictors. In this study malnutrition variable (i.e. outcome) is defined as the number of under-five malnourished children in a family, which is a non-negative count variable. The purposes of the study are (i) to demonstrate the applicability of the generalized Poisson regression (GPR) model as an alternative of other statistical methods and (ii) to find some predictors of this outcome variable. Methods: The data is extracted from the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS) 2007. Briefly, this survey employs a nationally representative sample which is based on a two-stage stratified sample of households. A total of 4,460 under-five children is analysed using various statistical techniques namely Chi-square test and GPR model. Results: The GPR model (as compared to the standard Poisson regression and negative Binomial regression) is found to be justified to study the above-mentioned outcome variable because of its under-dispersion (variance < mean) property. Our study also identify several significant predictors of the outcome variable namely mother's education, father's education, wealth index, sanitation status, source of drinking water, and total number of children ever born to a woman. Conclusions: Consistencies of our findings in light of many other studies suggest that the GPR model is an ideal alternative of other statistical models to analyse the number of under-five malnourished children in a family. Strategies based on significant predictors may improve the nutritional status of children in Bangladesh. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]