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Objective: In this study our main goal is to evaluate the risk factors associated with vitamin D deficiency in Dhaka Medical College Hospital. Method: This cross-sectional study was carried out at Dhaka Medical College Hospital from January 2018 to Jun 2019. A total of 100 patients attending at OPD of various specialties with symptoms unrelated to gross vitamin D deficiency were included in the study. Results: During the study, majority of the cases were belonging to >24 years age group and 60% were female. 50% were service holder followed by 50% cases spent 3-6 hours in outdoor, 50% cases covered their body 60–80%.45% had vitamin D insufficient level and 33% had vitamin D deficiency level. Individuals who had a serum deficiency of 25-OHD had significantly lower calcium levels (9.25 ± 0.49, p ¼ 0.02), and those with insufficiency had significantly higher hemoglobin (14.3 [13.2e15.2] p < 0.001). There was a strong correlation found between gender; 0.03, educational level; 0.02 and number of hours spent outdoors; 0.01 with Vitamin D deficiencies. Conclusion: From our study we can say that, factors like, less outdoor activities, obesity or covering whole body, which could be responsible for more hypovitaminosis in case of female was not noticed. But it was very much clear that >24 years age group was the most vulnerable with highest level of hypovitaminosis-D. Some of these strategies include designing and implementing national programs for preventing and combating vitamin D deficiency, promoting healthy lifestyles and physical activity among the general public, as well as using vitamin supplements as a simple and cost-effective method.

Background: Weaning of a patient from mechanical ventilation is very important for the outcomes of the patients. Objective: The purpose of the study was to evaluate the serum level of BNP before and after 2hours of spontaneous breathing trial (SBT) among patients under mechanical ventilation. Methodology: This prospective cohort study was conducted in the Department of Anesthesia, Analgesia and Intensive Care Medicine at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, Dhaka, Bangladesh over a period of 2 years. Study population was selected for weaning from mechanical ventilation support for the first time in the age group of more than 18 years with both sexes. Plasma BNP level of all patients was measured before and after 2 hours of spontaneous breathing trial. Results: A total number of 30 patients were recruited for this study. One-third (33.3%) of the patients failed on SBT. The mean percent changes of BNP (pg/ml) during 2-h of SBT in weaning success and failure groups were 38.41±9.379 and 59.51±2.940 respectively (p=0.01). The receiver-operating characteristic curve analysis for BNP as a predictor of weaning outcome, showed that the area under the curve (AUC) was 0.89. Conclusion: In conclusion BNP is currently a good predictor of different cardiac diseases. Journal of Current and Advance Medical Research, July 2021;8(2):125-129

Tweety family member 3 (TTYH3) is a calcium-activated chloride channel with a non-pore-forming structure that controls cell volume and signal transduction. We investigated the role of TTYH3 as a cancer-promoting factor in bladder cancer. The mRNA expression of TTYH3 in bladder cancer patients was investigated using various bioinformatics databases. The results demonstrated that the increasingly greater expression of TTYH3 increasingly worsened the prognosis of patients with bladder cancer. TTYH3 knockdown bladder cancer cell lines were constructed by their various cancer properties measured. TTYH3 knockdown significantly reduced cell proliferation and sphere formation. Cell migration and invasion were also significantly reduced in knockdown bladder cancer cells, compared to normal bladder cancer cells. The knockdown of TTYH3 led to the downregulation of H-Ras/A-Raf/MEK/ERK signaling by inhibiting fibroblast growth factor receptor 1 (FGFR1) phosphorylation. This signaling pathway also attenuated the expression of c-Jun and c-Fos. The findings implicate TTYH3 as a potential factor regulating the properties of bladder cancer and as a therapeutic target.

Chikungunya fever caused by the mosquito-transmitted chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is a major public health concern in tropical, sub-tropical and temperate climatic regions. The lack of any licensed vaccine or antiviral agents against CHIKV warrants the development of effective antiviral therapies. Small interfering RNA (siRNA) mediated gene silencing of CHIKV structural and non-structural genes serves as a potential antiviral strategy. The therapeutic efficiency of siRNA can be improved by using an efficient delivery system. Metal-organic framework biocomposits have demonstrated an exceptional capability in protecting and efficiently delivering nucleic acids into cells. In the present study, carbonated ZIF called ZIF-C has been utilized to deliver siRNAs targeted against E2 and nsP1 genes of CHIKV to achieve a reduction in viral replication and infectivity. Cellular transfection studies of E2 and nsP1 genes targeting free siRNAs and ZIF-C encapsulated siRNAs in CHIKV infected Vero CCL-81 cells were performed. Our results reveal a significant reduction of infectious virus titre, viral RNA levels and percent of infected cells in cultures transfected with ZIF-C encapsulated siRNA compared to cells transfected with free siRNA. The results suggest that delivery of siRNA through ZIF-C enhances the antiviral activity of CHIKV E2 and nsP1 genes directed siRNAs.

COVID-19 caused by SARS-CoV-2 can develop the disease with different degree of clinical severity including fatality. In addition to antibody responses the antigen specific T cells may play a critical role in defining this protective immune response against this virus. As a part of a longitudinal cohort study in Bangladesh to investigate B and T cell specific immune responses, we sought to evaluate the activation induced cell marker (AIM) and the status of different immune cell subsets during infection. A total of 115 participants were analyzed in this study which included participants with asymptomatic, mild, moderate and severe clinical symptoms. In addition, healthy controls (19 in each group) were analysed. Specimens from participants collected during the pre-pandemic period were also analyzed (n=10). Follow-up visits were conducted on day 7, 14, and 28 for all the cases since the enrollment (day 1). In this study 10 participants among the moderate and severe cases expired during the course of follow up. We observed a decrease in mucosa associated invariant T (MAIT) cell frequency on the initial days (day 1 and day 7) in comparison to later days of the COVID-19 infection. However, natural killer (NK) cells were found to be elevated in symptomatic patients just after the onset of disease compared to both asymptomatic patients and healthy individuals. Moreover, we found AIM+ (both OX40+ CD137+ and OX40+ CD40L+) CD4+ T cells to show significant increase in moderate and severe COVID-19 patients in response to SARS-CoV-2 peptides (specially spike peptide) compared to prepandemic controls, who are unexposed to SARS-CoV-2. Notably, we did not observe any significant difference in the CD8+ AIM markers (CD137+ CD69+), which indicates the exhaustion of CD8+ T cells during COVID-19 infection. These findings suggest that the patients who recovered from moderate and severe COVID-19 were able to mount a strong CD4+ T cell response against shared viral determinants that ultimately induced the T cells to mount further immune responses to SARS-CoV-2.

Matrin3 is an RNA-binding protein that affects diverse RNA-related processes, including mRNA splicing. While Matrin3 has been intensively studied in neurodegenerative diseases, its function in cancer remains unclear. Here, we discovered Matrin3-mediated regulation of mitotic spindle dynamics in colorectal cancer (CRC) cells. We identified bound and regulated Matrin3-target RNAs transcriptome-wide in CRC cells and found that Matrin3 broadly modulates mRNA splicing patterns. Among the top Matrin3 targets, we focused on CDC14B and found that Matrin3 loss increased inclusion of an exon containing a premature termination codon into the CDC14B transcript and simultaneous down-regulation of the standard CDC14B transcript. Selective knockdown of the CDC14B standard transcript phenocopied Matrin3 knockdown and exhibited reduced proliferation and defects in mitotic spindle formation, suggesting that CDC14B is a key downstream effector of Matrin3. Collectively, these data reveal an important role for the Matrin3/CDC14B axis in control of CRC cell proliferation and mitotic spindle formation.

Copper (Cu)-pollution of agricultural lands is a big threat to crop production. Exogenous chemical treatment is an easily accessible and instant approach to remediate metal toxicity, including Cu-toxicity in plants. We compared the effects of ascobin (ASC, ascorbic acid:citric acid at 2:1) and glutathione (GSH) in mitigation of Cu-toxicity in rice. Plants subjected to Cu-stress displayed growth inhibition and biomass reduction which were connected to declined levels of chlorophylls, relative water content (RWC), total phenolic compounds, carotenoids and Mg2+ . An increased accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and malondialdehyde indicated an evident oxidative stress in Cu-stressed plants. However, application of ASC or GSH minimized the inhibitory effects of Cu-stress on rice plants by restricting Cu2+ uptake, and improving mineral balance, chlorophyll contents and RWC. Both ASC and GSH pretreatments reduced the levels of ROS and malondialdehyde, and improved the activities of antioxidant enzymes, suggesting their alleviating roles against oxidative damage. A comparison on the effects of ASC and GSH under Cu-stress revealed that ASC was more effective in restricting Cu2+ accumulation (69.5% by ASC and 57.1% by GSH), Ca2+ and Mg2+ homeostasis, protection of photosynthetic pigments, and activation of antioxidant defense mechanisms [catalase (110.4%), ascorbate peroxidase (76.5%) and guaiacol peroxidase (39.0%) by ASC, and catalase (58.9%) and ascorbate peroxidase (59.9%) by GSH] in rice than GSH, and eventually resulting in better protection of ASC-pretreated plants against Cu-stress. In conclusion, although ASC and GSH differed in induction of stress protective mechanisms, both were effective in improvement of rice performance against Cu-phytotoxicity.

Mankind is facing an unprecedented threat of existence due to the antibiotic resistance developed by bacteria. The unripe fruits of Diospyros malabarica (Desr.) Kostel. (family: Ebenaceae) can be considered as one of the natural sources to tackle this issue. The present study is designed to assess the antimicrobial activity of D. malabarica seed and flesh ex-tracts. Herein, D. malabarica extracts were prepared using polar solvents (i.e., water and 70% ethanol) and their antimicrobial activity as well as in vivo toxicity was investigated. Their antibacterial activity was investigated against gram positive (Bacillus subtilis) and gram negative (Escherichia coli DH5α, and Salmonella typhi) bacteria at different time points. All the extracts showed the highest antibacterial activity after 2 hours of incubation. The aqueous seed extract showed the maximum zone of inhibition (i.e., ~13 mm) against Bacillus subtilis with a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) value of 2 μg/μl. The an-tibacterial propensity was also confirmed through trypan blue dye exclusion assay, CellToxTM Green assay, and lipid peroxidation (LPO) assay. On the other hand, the etha-nolic seed extract demonstrated higher antifungal activity through inhibition of mycelial growth. All the extracts showed excellent hemocompatibility against both human and rat red blood cells (RBCs). They also did not show any toxicity to rat liver and kidneys. Taken together, this study demonstrates that the aqueous and ethanolic extracts of D. malabarica seed and flesh could be an effective source of natural antimicrobial agents with no cytotox-ic activity.

Metabolites of azo dyes are often carcinogenic, teratogenic, mutagenic and recalcitrant in nature. In this study, four biofilm consortia such as C1 (Vitreoscilla sp. ENSG301, Acinetobacter lwoffii ENSG302, Klebsiella pneumoniae ENSG303 and Pseudomonas fluorescens ENSG304), C2 (Escherichia coli ENSD101, Enterobacter asburiae ENSD102 and E. ludwigii ENSH201), C3 (E. asburiae ENSD102, Vitreoscilla sp. ENSG301 and Bacillus thuringiensis ENSW401), and C4 (E. coli ENSD101, E. ludwigii ENSH201 and B. thuringiensis ENSW401) were applied to degrade and detoxify methyl orange (MO), a carcinogenic, sulfonated mono azo dye, used in textile dyeing industry worldwide. The consortia of C1, C2, C3 and C4 showed 97.30, 98.75, 99.51 and 99.29% decolorization, respectively in yeast extract peptone (YEP) broth containing 200 mg L−1 MO within 60 h of incubation in static condition. The optimum pH and temperature for decolorization was 7.0 and 28 °C, respectively. Some divalent metal ions including Mg2+, Ca2+, Zn2+ and Mn2+ could stimulate MO decolorization. UV–Vis spectral analysis showed that the absorption peak at 465 nm originated from the azo (N 000000000000 000000000000 000000000000 111111111111 000000000000 111111111111 000000000000 000000000000 000000000000 N) bond was completely disappeared within 60 h of incubation. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) results also revealed that several major peaks including azo bond peak at 1602.6 cm−1 are completely or partly vanished, deformed or shifted. Activities of azoreductase, NADH-DCIP reductase and laccase were significantly increased in the bacterial cells within 60 h of incubation in comparison to that of control (0 h). The chemical oxygen demand was incredibly reduced by 85.37 to 91.44% by these consortia. Accordingly, plant (wheat seed germination) and microbial (growth of the plant probiotic bacteria such as Pseudomonas cedrina ESR12 and Bacillus cereus ESD3 on biodegraded products) toxicity studies showed that biodegraded products of MO are non-toxic. Thus, all these consortia can be utilized in bioremediation of MO from wastewater for safe disposal into environment. To our knowledge, this is the first report on degradation and detoxification of MO from wastewater by bacterial biofilm consortia.

The experiment was conducted at established rose garden of Regional Agricultural Research Station, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, Jashore during 2017-18 and 2018-19 winter season (November-April). The experiment was laid out in a RCBD design with three dispersed replications. Four treatment combination were as follows: T1 =IPM package-1: Mechanical control + Sticky trap (Blue and White) + weekly spray of Azadirechtin (Bio-neem plus 1EC) @ 1.0ml/L of water, T2 = IPM package-2: Mechanical control+ Sticky trap (Blue and White)+ spray of Thiamethoxam 20% (Virtako 40SC) @ 1.5 ml/L of water, T3 = IPM package-3: Mechanical control+ Sticky trap (Blue and White)+ weekly spray Chlorphenapyr (Intrepid 10EC) @ 1 ml/L of water and T4 = Farmers practice: weekly spray Imidacloprid (Imitaf 20SL) @ 0.5ml/L of water. For mechanical control hand picking was done and harmful insect also classified as the most direct and the quickest way to remove clearly visible pests. Two color stiky trap (white and blue) were set up in each line. The lowest number of rose thrips was found in IPM package 2 (6.36 in 2017-18 and 3.03 in 2018-19) and highest in farmer’s practices (14.36 in 2017-18 and 12.40 in 2018-19). The lowest percent flower infestation of rose was recorded in IPM package 2 (9.98 to 17%) and the highest in Farmers practice (19.72 to 32.66%). The highest yield (864000 no./ha in 2017-18 and 535932 no./ha) was recorded from IPM package 2 and the lowest in farmers practice (438750 no./ha in 2017-18 and 388857 no./ha). The results revealed the highest MBCR was observed in IPM package-2 (Mechanical control+ Sticky trap (Blue and White) + spray of Thiamethoxam 20% (Virtako 40SC) @ 1.5 ml/L of water.) treated plot (17.2 to 49.7) in both the year. Finally, it may be recommended that IPM package 2 is very much effective to control thrips of rose as well as high yield and more economic return. Progressive Agriculture 31 (2): 89-93, 2020

The Higher Himalayan Crystallines (HHC) in the Siyom river section of eastern Arunachal Himalaya, display top-to- ESE compressional ductile shear from Pene to Menchuka. In this part of the Himalayan Metamorphic Belt (HMB), the base of the Main Central Thrust (MCT) is the southern boundary of the ductile shear fabrics in HHC. Across the MCT, a significant break in the grade of metamorphism is observed between the HHC and the Lesser Himalayan Sequences (LHS). The ductile shear fabrics documented in the HHC are primary S-C and S-C’ fabrics, asymmetric folds, porphyroclasts and porphyrobalsts, brittle-ductile structures and asymmetric boudins. Three phases of folding representing three deformation episodes (D1-D3) in HHC are recorded in the area. The rocks of the HHC in Siyom valley are completely transposed by the D2 deformation into NNW dipping C- plane. Ductile shear represented by grain scale structures include sigmoidal foliation, rotation of the inclusion trails in garnet porphyroblasts, asymmetric folds with consistent top-to-ESE sense of shear. The ductile to brittle-ductile shear fabrics in the area indicate that the thrust sense of shear in the HHC is consistent without any shear sense reversal from Pene to Menchuka. These compressional shear fabrics provide invaluable field evidences for constraining the evolution of this part of the Higher Himalaya.

Vegetable acts as major valuable source of nutrients. Among different vegetables, okra was analyzed to study moisture content, ash content, soluble dietary fiber (SDF), total carbohydrates, and micro-minerals, fatty acid compositions and pesticide residues. Fatty acid compositions were studied by gas chromatograph equipped with a flame ionization detector (GC-FID) while, gas chromatograph equipped with electron capture detector GC-ECD was used for analysis of pesticide residues. Total carbohydrate content was determined by ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometer. The amount of soluble dietary fiber was estimated by acid extraction method. Fe, Cu and Zn content were analyzed by atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS). The relative percentage of fatty acids were found to be palmitic, cis-9-oleic, linoleic, linolenic and arachidic acid in a range of 0.27-1.35, 3.78 - 6.32, 30.67- 38.44, 2.13 - 4.85 and 1.29 -3.17 %, respectively. Residual diazinon, chlorpyrifos, fenvalerate, cypermethrin and quinalphos were not found to be present in any sample. Total carbohydrate, SDF, moisture and ash content in fresh okra fruits were found to be 6.01- 6.09, 3.35 - 3.50, 88.02 - 91.84 and 1.72 - 2.04 %, respectively. The amount of Fe, Cu and Zn was 11.41-11.43, 1.78 -1.85 and 8.56 - 9.05 mg per 100 g sample, respectively. Dhaka Univ. J. Sci. 68(2): 155-160, 2020 (July)

Among metallic nanoparticles, silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) have a wide spectrum of medical applications. Herein, biogenic silver nanoparticles (bAgNPs) were prepared from extracts of Caesalpinia di...

Drought stress is a major concern for current agriculture as it limits plant growth and yield. An experiment was conducted with a drought susceptible rice (Oryza sativa L. cv. BRRI dhan29) to explore the potential functions and possible mechanisms of exogenous glutathione (GSH)-induced drought stress tolerance. Fifteen-day-old seedlings, GSH-pretreated or non-pretreated (0.2 mM GSH for 72 h), were subjected to PEG-induced (15% polyethylene glycol 6000) drought stress for 4 days. Rice plants exposed to drought stress displayed reduced growth, which was correlated with reduced chlorophyll content, water balance, antioxidant enzymes activities and mineral contents (K+, Ca2+ and Mg2+), as evidenced by principle component analysis (PCA) and heatmap clustering. The PCA also revealed that hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and malondialdehyde (MDA) accumulations were strongly linked with the declined growth and development of rice plants under drought stress. Importantly, pretreatment with GSH improved the growth responses of rice plants to drought stress. GSH strengthened numerous physio-biochemical processes which were coupled with increased uptake of K+, Ca2+ and Mg2+, enhanced accumulation of soluble sugars, higher activities of enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidants. Moreover, GSH-pretreated seedlings under drought stress conditions had lower levels of O2·− , H2O2 and MDA which indicates successful adaptation of rice seedlings to drought stress. The results of PCA strongly supported that GSH conferred drought tolerance mostly by enhancing antioxidant activities and mineral homeostasis. Collectively, our findings provide an important prospect for use of GSH in modulating drought tolerance in rice plants. Breeding strategies should therefore be undertaken to increase the GSH content of rice plants as a means to increase drought tolerance.

The experiment was conducted with two IRRI lines and two BRRI varieties at the research field of Plant Physiology Division of Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI), Gazipur during October 2010 to September 2011 in Boro season to study the low temperature as cold tolerance effect on rice at vegetative and reproductive stages. All the genotypes (IR77496-31-2-1-3-1, IR62266-42-6-2, BRRI dhan28 and BRRI dhan36) of transplanting date 30 November, 15 December and 30 December showed higher yield except 15 November transplanted rice. The 15-November transplanted rice appeared with a significant cold in the reproductive stage. Moreover, BRRI dhan28 was not found to observe as tolerant to low temperature in reproductive stage, and produced the lowest yield 0.71 t/ha and highest (39.47%) sterility. BRRI dhan36 resulted yield 2.18 t/ha and exerted its ability to withstand the jolt of cold to some extent at the reproductive phase and IR62266-42-6-2 pronounced significantly better performance compared to BRRI dhan36. The IR77496-31-2-1-3-1 genotype exhibited the highest yield (4.27 t/ha) and marked as tolerant to cold temperature. All the genotypes performed the highest sterility percentages on 15-November transplanted rice except the genotype of IR77496-31-2-1-3-1 with lower sterility. Vegetative and reproductive stages were encountered at cold temperature in the month of January, 2011. The panicle initiation stage was fallen with (13.1 °C) low temperature and maximum temperature (25.6 °C) in 2nd week of February, 2011 during grain formation stage. Number of grains was naturally degenerated in growth stages where reduction division stage or pollen formation was happened in booting stage. Earliest transplanted date (15 November) revealed the shortest plant height and panicle length at low temperature. Duration of PI, growth and maturity stages were decreased with the advancement of transplanting dates of 30 November, 15 December and 30 December.

In Bangladesh, the use of different types of pesticides has increased in crop protection purposes. These pesticides may affect farmers’ health and contaminate the aquatic environment. The objectives of the current study were to assess the use of pesticide by the vegetable farmers and their associated health hazards caused by pesticide application. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from fifty vegetable farmers of three different villages at Mymensingh Sadar Upazila during February and March of 2019. Results showed that the mostly used pesticide was Mefonexam (used by 40% interviewed farmers), followed by Thiamethoxam + Chlorantraniliprole (24%), Profenofos + Cypermethrin (20%), and Propineb (10%). The highest application frequency was reported as 30 times for Ebamectin. The present study recorded Chlorpyrifos as the highest using dose (7.5 kg/ha) in vegetable farms. Approximately 42% of the farmers were reported to increase the amount of applying pesticide in the last 5 years where 46% continued same. More than half of the respondents (56%) were reported to use at least one protective measure during pesticide application. Most of the interviewed farmers (56%) reported no health risk while applying pesticides. Sixty percent of the interviewed farmers were claimed to have faced some negative health symptoms. Respondents were reported to face headache (31%), eye irritation (27%), vomiting (20%), dizziness (12%), and skin irritation (7%). The study indicates that the farmers of Mymensingh are not conscious about the proper use of pesticide, thus this kind of injudicious use of pesticide causes serious occupational health hazards. Res. Agric., Livest. Fish.7(1): 165-174, April 2020