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Background: Sodium and potassium intake is known to be a modifiable determinant of hypertension. Also, daily intake of these electrolytes is subject to much geographical and ethnic variation. The impact of sodium and potassium intake on blood pressure in Bangladeshi subjects in incompletely known. Our objective was to determine the relationship between urinary sodium and potassium excretion, and blood pressure in Bangladeshi subjects. Methods: Patients attending the Outpatient Department of the Department of Cardiology, SSMC & MH, who fulfilled the inclusion and exclusion criteria, were taken as study sample. Hypertensive individuals were considered as group 1 and apparently healthy individuals who did not have hypertension were considered as group 2 for the study. Estimates of 24-hour sodium and potassium excretion were made from a single spot urine specimen and were used as surrogates for intake. We assessed the relationship between sodium and potassium excretion and blood pressure. Results: The spot urinary sodium excretion was significantly higher in hypertensive group than in normotensive group (98.03 ± 71.13 mmol/L vs. 77.11 ± 41.71 mmol/L) (p=0.011). On the other hand, the spot urinary potassium excretion was lower in hypertensive group than normotensive group (33.95 ± 41.03 mmol/L vs. 39.43 ± 31.47 mmol/L), but the differences did not reach statistical significance (p=0.679). The estimated 24-hour urinary sodium excretion was higher in hypertensive group than in normotensive group (8.84 ± 3.57 gm vs. 7.67 ± 3.16 gm) and the difference was statistically significant (p = 0.015). Estimated 24-hour urinary potassium excretion was lower in hypertensive group (4.15 ± 1.37 gm) than in normotensive group (4.48 ± 1.56 gm), but the difference between 2 values did not reach statistical significance (p=0.114). Conclusion: Compared to the normotensive counterparts, sodium intake is significantly higher and potassium intake is lower in hypertensive Bangladeshi subjects. Cardiovasc j 2023; 15(2): 118-123

Decision science has a wide range of applications in daily life. Decision information is usually incomplete and partially reliable. In the fuzzy set theory, Z-numbers are introduced to handle this situation because they contain the restriction and reliability components, which complement the impaired information. The ranking of Z-numbers is a challenging task since they are composed of pairs of fuzzy numbers. In this research, the vectorial distance and spread of Z-numbers were proposed synergically, in which the vectorial distance measures how much the fuzzy numbers are apart from the origin, which was set as a relative point, and their spreads over a horizontal axis. Furthermore, a ranking method based on the convex compound was proposed to combine the restriction and reliability components of Z-numbers. The proposed ranking method was validated using several empirical examples and a comparative analysis was conducted. The application of the proposed ranking method in decision-making was illustrated via the development of the Analytic Hierarchy Process-Weighted Aggregated Sum Product Assessment (AHP-WASPAS) model to solve the prioritization of public services for the implementation of Industry 4.0 tools. Sensitivity analysis was also conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed model and the results showed that the proposed model has improved its consistency from 66.67% of the existing model to 83.33%. This research leads to a future direction of the application of ranking based on the vectorial distance and spread in multi-criteria decision-making methods, which use Z-numbers as linguistic values.

Background: Different adaptation and changes have been practiced during COVID-19 pandemic. Objective: In this paper we investigated the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on service delivery in the department of interventional neurology and adaptation of the department to the changed environment. Methodology: This was a retrospective analysis of diagnostic digital subtraction angiography (DSA) procedures done from January 2018 to December 2020 and were analyzed to detect significant breaks in time trend. Results: A total of 358, 426 and 251 patients got admitted for DSA in consecutive three years from 2018 to 2020 respectively. There was a sudden drop in the number of DSA procedures from 30 to 50 patients per month in the pre-COVID era before March 2020 to less than 10 patients per month during the COVID period of March to June 2020. However, the situation gradually improved following the introduction of RT-PCR test for SARS CoV-2 in June 2020. A poison regression showed a significant increase in monthly DSA procedures in the year 2019 compared to the year 2018, but a significant decrease in the pandemic year of 2020. Conclusion: By incorporating COVID-19 testing as a pre-requisite test before DSA procedures, the department of interventional neurology recovered from experiencing a significant drop in the number of performed DSA procedures in the initial periods of the pandemic to reaching a level observed in the pre-COVID era. Bangladesh Journal of Infectious Diseases, April 2022;9(Suppl_1): S3-S8

Freshwater prawn farming has become an important component in the livelihood of marginal farmers in the freshwater interface of Southwestern coastal Bangladesh. This prawn farming has been integrated with rice and/or vegetable either simultaneously or sequentially. In an attempt to assess the status of integrated prawn-agriculture gher farming in the area, 20 farms at Fakirhat Thana, Bagerhat were surveyed during August-October, 2005. Farmers were interviewed with questionnaire on the production and economics of such integrated farms. Stocking of prawn PL was done at the densities 0.5 to 2.0 PL m-2 during February-March in simultaneous culture and at the densities 3.0 to 7.0 PL m-2 during June-July in sequential system. This integrated prawn farming has beneficial impact on the income of the farmers. Net profit was calculated to be Tk 20,395 ha-1 from a cycle (5-6 months) of simultaneous culture and Tk 35,457 ha-1 from sequential system, and Tk 127,000 ha-1 from rice + prawn + vegetable farming.

Background: Thalassaemia is an emerging global public health concern. It is considering as a rapidly growing major health burden for low- and middle income countries. The prevalence of thalassaemia is increasing in Bangladesh, indicates that thalassemia will be an emerging health burden for our country. Objective: To assess the level of mental stress among parents with a thalassemic child. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among the 141 parents with a thalassemic child in the purposively selected two hospitals’ Dhaka Shishu Hospital and Bangladesh Thalassemia Hospital in Dhaka. ‘Parental stress scale’ (PSS) was used to measure the level of stress. Results: The mean age of the parents was 36.2±8.8 years and nearly two-thirds (63.8%) of them were aged below 40 years. Almost half of the participants (49.6%) and their spouses (59.6%) completed their education upto the higher secondary level. The mean monthly family income was 27,113.5±46,696.9 taka. More than half of the parent’s (53.2%) had low level of mental stress. The education, occupation, monthly family income, presence of >1 thalassaemic child in family, received blood from a voluntary blood donor, normal growth of thalassaemic child and history of thalassaemic child death were significantly associated with the level of mental stress by PSS scores of the parents (p1 beta thalassaemia major child (47.6%), received blood from a voluntary blood donor (50.0%), had a history of normal growth of thalassaemic child (60.4%) and had no history of thalassaemic child death (50.0%). Conclusion: Existence of the children with thalassemia in a family cause massive stress and anxiety for parents. Psychological supports for them are essential as a part of comprehensive medical care along with clinical management of the thalassemic child. The burden of disease can be reduced through effective preventive approaches, such as carrier screening, prenatal counseling and diagnosis. KYAMC Journal Vol. 13, No. 02, July 2022: 102-107

Introduction: The one of the main causes of hospital acquired infection (HAI) is the lack of knowledge and improper practice of employees in the hospital. Training programs on the infection control for each employees can reduce the rate of infection acquired from hospital. Aim of the study: The aim of this study was to assess the knowledge and practice of infection control among the employees in DMCH and ShSMCH. Methods: This descriptive type of cross-sectional study was conducted in Dhaka Medical college Hospital and Shaheed suhrawardi Medical college Hospital Dhaka for a period of one year starting from January-2019 to December-2019. Total 139 employees (Physician and Nurses) were included in this study. Result: Among 139 respondents, mean age were 31.97±7.412 (SD). 51.8% (n= 72) were female and 48.2% (n= 67) were male. In this study, 99.3% (n=138) of the respondents were aware of infection control. The current study shows that the 100% (n=139) of respondents know about nosocomial infection. 95.7% (n=114) know infection control technique prevent nosocomial infection and 82% (n=114) of the respondents know infection can occur after discharge from hospital. Maximum 63.3% (n=88) of the respondents know the most effective method to control infection were hand washing properly and the minimum 4.3% (n=6) know prudent use of antibiotics, 38,8% (n=54) know wearing caps, masks and shoe cover and 9.4% (n=13) knows regular vaccination of health care worker. Maximum of the respondents 48.2% (n=67) practice often, 33.8% (n=47) practice always, 17.3% (n=24) practice sometime and minimum .7% (n=1) of the respondent never practice infection control guideline. Conclusion: Physician and nurses in the current study have average knowledge and practice level regarding infection control.

INTRODUCTION This study determined the distribution of sasX, qacA/B and mupA genes from methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) isolated from clinical samples and nasal swab samples of the same patients and analysed their genetic relatedness. METHODS Polymerase chain reaction was used to detect the presence of sasX, qacA/B and mupA genes from 47 paired MRSA isolates. A paired isolate was defined as one nasal swab (colonising) isolate and clinical isolate that caused infection in the same patient. 22 selected paired isolates were subjected to multilocus sequence typing (MLST). The genetic relatedness among the isolates and association between the putative genes with epidemic sequence types (STs) were investigated. RESULTS 7 (14.9%, n = 14) paired isolates were positive for the sasX gene. qacA/B genes were positive in 7.4% (n = 7) of the isolates, from three paired isolates and one clinical isolate whose paired colonising isolate was negative. The paired sample of three patients were positive for both genes. The mupA gene was not detected in all the isolates. MLST revealed two epidemic STs, ST22 and ST239, and a novel ST4649. sasX and qacA/B genes were found in ST239 in 29.5% (n = 13) and 13.6% (n = 6) of cases, respectively. Gene co-existence occurred in 13.6% (n = 6) of MRSA ST239 and 2.3% (n = 1) of MRSA ST4649. CONCLUSION sasX and qacA/B genes were present in the MRSA isolates, while the mupA gene was undetected. ST22 and ST239 were the major MRSA clones. The circulating MRSA genotypes conferred different virulence and resistance determinants in our healthcare settings.

Background Genome-Wide Association Studies have identified genetic polymorphisms located at the Adenylate Cyclase 5 (ADCY5) and Parathyroid Hormone 1 Receptor (PTH1R) genes on chromosome 3 as susceptibility loci for type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in different population. The present study investigates the association of these two susceptibility loci (rs11708067 at the ADCY5 and rs11926707 at the PTH1R gene) with T2DM in Bangladeshi population. Furthermore, the association of circulating levels of vitamin D, Calcium (Ca), phosphate, and parathyroid hormone (PTH) with T2DM and the different genotypes of these SNPs were also studied.Methods and Materials A total of 415 individuals (211 T2DM patients and 204 healthy controls) were enrolled in the current study. The rs11708067 and rs11926707 were genotyped using the Taqman SNP Genotyping Assays. Univariate logistic regression analyses were performed for parameter associations with T2DM.Results In a sex-stratified analysis, the variant allele of the ADCY5 SNP (rs11708067) was associated to T2DM in males (odds ratio = 2.5, p-value = 0.02) but PTH1R SNP (rs11926707) did not show any significant correlation with T2DM (odds ratio 1.0 in both sexes, p-value > 0.05). In the correlation study, phosphate was shown to be significantly linked with Ca (p-value Conclusion Although ADCY5 has been identified as a T2DM susceptible locus in the Bangladeshi male population, the same cannot be said for the PTH1R locus in either males or females.

The date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) is a popular edible fruit consumed all over the world and thought to cure several chronic diseases and afflictions. The profiling of the secondary metabolites of optimized ripe Ajwa date pulp (RADP) extracts is scarce. The aim of this study was to optimize the heat extraction (HE) of ripe Ajwa date pulp using response surface methodology (RSM) and artificial neural network (ANN) modeling to increase its polyphenolic content and antioxidant activity. A central composite design was used to optimize HE to achieve the maximum polyphenolic compounds and antioxidant activity of target responses as a function of ethanol concentration, extraction time, and extraction temperature. From RSM estimates, 75.00% ethanol and 3.7 h (extraction time), and 67 °C (extraction temperature) were the optimum conditions for generating total phenolic content (4.49 ± 1.02 mgGAE/g), total flavonoid content (3.31 ± 0.65 mgCAE/g), 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (11.10 ± 0.78 % of inhibition), and cupric-reducing antioxidant capacity (1.43 µM ascorbic acid equivalent). The good performance of the ANN was validated using statistical metrics. Seventy-one secondary metabolites, including thirteen new bioactive chemicals (hebitol II, 1,2-di-(syringoyl)-hexoside, naringin dihydrochalcone, erythron-guaiacylglycerol-β-syringaresinol ether hexoside, erythron-1-(4′-O-hexoside-3,5-dimethoxyphenyl)-2-syrngaresinoxyl-propane-1,3-diol, 2-deoxy-2,3-dehydro-N-acetyl-neuraminic acid, linustatin and 1-deoxynojirimycin galactoside), were detected using high-resolution mass spectroscopy. The results revealed a significant concentration of phytoconstituents, making it an excellent contender for the pharmaceutical and food industries.

PurposeThis research paper attempts to empirically examine the relationship between the performance of the banking industry and foreign direct investment (FDI), thereby helping the readers contemplate one of the least explored areas of the existing literature associated with the idiosyncratic characteristics of FDI resulting from its interaction with the efficient banking performance of the host country. The study has focused on the economy of Bangladesh because of its significant amount of FDI inflows from the rest of the world and its adoption of many liberalization policies, especially in the banking sector and in the areas of international business and trade.Design/methodology/approachThe study, to produce unbiased estimates, employed the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model for analyzing the time series data collected from reliable sources.FindingsThe key outcomes of the study reveal that the sound performance of the banking industry appears to be counterproductive for FDI inflows, which is a bit unconventional insight. In the context of Bangladesh, trade openness, inflation rate and infrastructural development seem to be the dominant factors behind the rising inflows of FDI. Market size appears to be an insignificant determinant of FDI inflows.Originality/valueThis is a unique study because of its focus on the unexplored area in the literature.

PurposeThis paper empirically examines the impact of terrorism on the insurance–growth relationship in the context of Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, thereby attempting to address the unexplored area in the relevant literature.Design/methodology/approachThe study considered MENA as it has been one of the terribly affected zones in the world during the study period. Panel data for the period (2002–2017) are sourced from reliable sources for 14 member economies of the MENA region.FindingsAfter employing the suitable econometric procedures on the panel data, the results indicate that terrorism appears to have detrimental impact on the observed positive relationship between insurance and economic growth. In addition, trade openness seems to be the main driving force behind economic growth of the selected MENA countries. Surprisingly, the study suggests a negative association between the growth of physical capital and economic growth. Human capital has played a positive but insignificant role in improving economic growth as it is insignificant in majority of the specifications. The growth of labor force has although positively but insignificantly influenced economic growth. Finally, the results demonstrate that government expenditures and high inflation are harmful for growth.Originality/valueThe study investigated the impact of terrorism on the insurance–growth relationship for the first time, and hence policymakers of the MENA region are expected to be benefited enormously from the findings of the study.