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Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is considered the most frequent cause of end-stage renal disease (ESRD). For early diagnosis and follow up of renal function in patient with established DN, Duplex Doppler Sonography can be used as noninvasive tool. The aim and objective of the study was to determine whether resistive index could remain higher in type 2 diabetic patients having nephropathy in comparison with that of non-diabetic controls. This case-control study was done in the department of Radiology and Imaging, Bangladesh Institute of Research and Rehabilitation in Diabetes, Endocrine and Metabolic Disorders (BIRDEM) from 1st Octy 2014 to 30th June 2015. Total 65 diabetic nephropathy patients were taken as study group and 65 healthy subjects were included as healthy control subjects. Duplex Color Doppler sonography of interlobar artery was carried out in both groups for the measurement of Peak systolic velocity, end diastolic velocity and arterial Resistive Index (RI). The RI of interlobar artery of left kidney in control group was 0.58±0.08 (mean±SD) and the mean RI of interlobar artery of left kidney in diabetic nephropathy patients was 0.74±0.53 (mean±SD). The difference of RI of interlobar artery of left kidney in the two groups was statistically significant and the RI of right kidney of control and that of case groups were 0.60±0.09 and 0.76±0.031 (mean±SD) respectively. In between control and case groups the RI of right kidney was statistically significant (p = <0.5). So, resistive index of interlobar artery was increased in type 2 diabetic nephropathy patients in comparison to control group. Study findings reveal that resistive index remains significantly higher in patients with diabetic nephropathy than control group. For this reason, RI can be used for early diagnosis of diabetic nephropathy by Duplex Doppler ultrasonography.

In this study, the vibrational and optical responses of 0-10% excess Cu incorporated ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) prepared by the low temperature (∼400 °C) wet chemical route were investigated experimentally and were found to be predominantly linked to the formation of both intrinsic and Cu induced crystallographic defects instead of substitutional Cu itself for the first time. For low temperature chemical synthesis, the effective band gap ( E g ) of pristine ZnO NPs was found to be as low as 2.84 eV, which was followed by a further reduction by as high as ∼24.4% with gradual Cu inclusion. Excess Cu incorporation was found to drastically restrict the particle growth phenomenon by ∼61% and alter the shape morphology from anisotropic to irregular isotropic. Although all NPs showed a single phase structure with hexagonal P 6 3 mc symmetry, the X-ray peak profile analysis along with the characteristic E 2 (High) Raman peak and electron-phonon coupling strength obtained from the 2nd order Raman mode suggested the presence of appreciable crystallographic disorders pertaining to point defects like Cu induced Zn and O interstitials and vacancies. Optical analysis revealed a gradual increase in Urbach tailing ( E u ) from 0.35 to 0.96 eV directly associated with both intrinsic and Cu induced disorders arising from successive Cu incorporation at low processing temperature. A correlation between E g and E u predicted a direct-type band-to-band transition energy of ∼3.2 eV for the pristine ZnO crystal, suggesting both intrinsic and excess Cu induced extrinsic disorders to be the primary source of optical modulation of the NPs for the low temperature processing condition.

Zinc Oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles (NPs) have been synthesized by a simple chemical precipitation method. The effect of monoethanolamine (MEA) content in different solvents on ZnO NPs synthesis and their structural properties has been investigated. The NPs synthesized by using isopropanol (IPA) with 15 ml MEA as a stabilizer under the most favorable conditions (deposition time, t d  = 120 min, temperature = 60 °C) showed good structural properties. Synthesized NPs exhibited beneficial structural properties after annealing. The hexagonal wurtzite crystal structure of ZnO NPs was verified by XRD. Different models were used to calculate structural parameters such as crystallite size, strain, stress, and energy density for all the reflection peaks of XRD corresponding to ZnO lying in the range 2θ = 15⁰-80⁰. The crystallite size of the ZnO nanoparticles was found to be 50-60 nm. FTIR and EDX confirmed the presence of ZnO NPs in the samples. SEM micrograph of all the samples revealed that the grain sizes decrease gradually with the increase of the amount of MEA. UV-Visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy results provide evidence that the ZnO NPs possess broader absorption bands, together with high band gap energy. The ZnO NPs synthesized with IPA solvent have the highest transmittance and band gap energy of 3.3eV. According to DLS data, various content of MEA stabilizer in solvent affects the hydrodynamic size of ZnO NPs., Competing Interests: The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Kazi Hanium Maria reports administrative support, equipment, drugs, or supplies, and statistical analysis were provided by Department of Physics, University of Dhaka and Experimental Physics Division, Atomic Energy Centre, Dhaka. Kazi Hanium Maria reports a relationship of 10.13039/501100006523University of Dhaka with Centre for Advanced Research in Sciences, 10.13039/501100009500Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Bangladesh Atomic Energy Centre, 10.13039/501100005999Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research that includes: non-financial support., (© 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Background: Acute coronary syndrome (ACS) remains a cause of high morbidity and mortality among adults, despite advances in treatment. Treatment modality and outcomes of ACS mainly depend on the time yielded since the onset of symptoms. Prehospital delay is the time between the onset of myocardial ischemia/infarction symptoms and arrival at the hospital, where either pharmacological or interventional revascularization is available. This delay remains unacceptably long in many countries worldwide, including Bangladesh. The current study investigates several sociodemographic characteristics as well as clinical, social, and treatment-seeking behaviors, with an aim to uncover the factors responsible for the decision time to get medical help and home-to-hospital delay. Materials and Methods: A prospective cross-sectional study was conducted between July 2019 and June 2020 in 21 district hospitals and 6 medical college hospitals where cardiac care facilities were available. The population selected for this study was patients with ACS who visited the studied hospitals during the study period. Following confirmation of ACS, a semi-structured data sheet was used to collect the patient data and was subsequently analyzed. Results: This study evaluated 678 ACS patients from 30 districts. The majority of the patients were male (81.9%), married (98.2%), rural residents (79.2), middle-aged (40-60 years of age) (55.8%), low-income holders (89.4%), and overweight (56.9%). It was found that 37.5% of the patients received their first medical care after 12 h of first symptom presentation. The study found that the patients' age, residence, education, and employment status were significant factors associated with prehospital delay. The patients with previous myocardial infarction (MI) and chest pain arrived significantly earlier at the hospital following ACS onset. Location of symptom onset, first medical contact with a private physician, distance from symptom onset location to location of first medical contact, the decision about hospitalization, ignorance of symptoms, and mode of transportation were significantly associated with prehospital delay. Conclusions : Several factors of prehospital delay of the ACS patients in Bangladesh have been described in this study. The findings of this study may help the national health management system identify the factors related to treatment delay in ACS and thus reduce ACS-related morbidity and mortality.

The main protease of SARS-CoV-2 is a promising drug target due to its functional role as a catalytic dyad in mediating proteolysis during the viral life cycle. In this study, experimentally proven 14 HIV protease peptides were screened against the main protease of SARS-CoV-2. Fourteen middle and high school "student researchers" were trained on relevant computational tools, provided with necessary biological and chemical background and scientific article writing. They performed the primary screening via molecular docking and the best performing complexes were subjected to molecular dynamics simulations. Molecular docking revealed that HIP82 and HIP1079 can bind with the catalytic residues, however after molecular dynamics simulation only HIP1079 retained its interaction with the catalytic sites. The student researchers were also trained to write scientific article and were involved with drafting of the manuscript. This project provided the student researchers an insight into multi-disciplinary research in biology and chemistry, inspired them about practical approaches of computational chemistry in solving a real-world problem like a global pandemic. This project also serves as an example to introduce scientific inquiry, research methodology, critical thinking, scientific writing, and communication for high school students., (© 2021 International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.)

Determinants of pre-hospital delay after myocardial infarction, strictly among South-Asian rural community, till now is largely unknown. And Bangladesh is not an exception. It is a fact that though around two third of its population still live in villages, we do not know what factors are having influence on such delay. To find out these primers of time consumption before seeking medical help, this is a picture of a medical college hospital situated in a rural precinct. This cross-sectional analytical study was conducted among 98 patients came with Myocardial Infarction (MI) who had met inclusion and exclusion criteria from July 2019 and December 2019. Both STEMI & NSTEMI patients were selected as they have similar attributes. Data was collected in the coronary care unit using a preformed questionnaire. Among 98 MI patients, where 16 female and 82 male patients had average age 53±12 years. Average income rural community was around 100 USD. Almost 50% of sample were illiterate or below 5th grade. On average 6.6 hours (95% CI: 3.5-12.3) were required to reach CCU after symptom onset, whereas distance to first medical contact (FMC) was about 10.2 Km (95% CI: 6.4-16.2). Median distance to nearest PCI-capable hospital was 140 Km (IQR- 20 Km). Only 28% of patients could reach hospital within 2 hours, where 85% had onset of symptom while they were at home. Tertiary level medical college (74.5%) followed by Upazilla (Sub-urban) government health complex (22.4%) were frequent site of FMC. Principle mode of transport to hospital was CNG-three-wheeler (75% of cases). Logistic regression analysis showed only low literacy was as significant predictor about more than 2 hours pre-hospital delay (OR=2.58; p=0.043). Other factors such as low income (OR=2.51; p=0.126), diabetes mellitus (OR=2.99; p=0.059), female sex (OR=1.56; p=0.753), house wife (OR=1.88; p=0.547), previous MI (OR=1.52; p=1.000), symptom ignorance (OR=2.14; p=0.455) increases pre-hospital delay and distance to FMC <10 Km (OR=0.44; p=0.079) no significant prediction of pre-hospital delay after myocardial infarction. As rural community has less access to education low literacy has a significant impact on pre-hospital delay after myocardial infarction. So measures should be taken in rural areas through patient education and social awareness program regarding MI symptom and danger of delayed medical attention.

This study is aimed to find out various clinical, radio-graphical and echocardiographic variables to predict mitral valvular disease and their correlation with Echocardiography. This cross-sectional observational study was conducted in the Department of Radiology and Imaging, in collaboration with Department of Cardiology, Mymensingh Medical College Hospital (MMCH), Mymensingh, Bangladesh from January 2017 to December 2018. Total 50 consecutive cases enrolled in this study who was the patients of mitral valvular disease. Both chest radiograph and echocardiograph were done for each patient. There were 76% female and 26% male with a female-male ratio 3.16:1 with mean±SD (41.54±12.44). About 42% patients had previous history of rheumatic fever. The most common x-ray findings of heart were increased central density (90%) followed by enlargement in transverse diameter (88%), straightening of the left border (88%), widening of the carina (86%), full pulmonary conus (84%) and double contour of right border (76%). About 47(94%) patients confirmed mitral valvular heart disease on echocardiography. The prominent findings included left atrium was predominantly severely dilated (50%), severely reduced mitral valve orifice area (68%), mild mitral regurgitation (46%) and mild pulmonary hypertension (38%). And overall sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV and accuracy of chest radiograph in the detection of mitral valvular heart disease were 85.11%, 66.67%, 97.56%, 14.89% and 84%, respectively. These findings suggest that chest radiograph could be used as an adjunct tool with echocardiography.

Noonan's syndrome is a developmental disorder characterized by short stature, typical facial dysmorphia, congenital heart defects and skeletal deformity. It may be sporadic or inherited as an autosomal dominant or recessive trait which occurs, one in 1000-2500 live births. We report a case of 16 years young girl presented to the hospital with short stature, Shortness of breath, morphologic features and congenital heart defect of Noonan Syndrome who has no similar history in the family and admitted in Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University on 12th August 2018.

Heart failure (HF) is becoming an increasingly prevalent healthcare problem. Besides, Ischemic heart disease (IHD) and Hypertension (HTN), there is a number of other factors that continue to evolve as risk factors for heart failure. The aim of the study was to identify the different risk factors of heart failure patients. This case-control study was conducted in the Department of Cardiology, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU), Dhaka, Bangladesh from August 2014 to July 2015. It was included 75 patients of heart failure (cases) and 75 age and sex matched adult individuals (friends and relations of heart failure cases) as controls. The risk factors studied were grouped into demographic, clinical, behavioral and biochemical variables. The age distribution between case and control groups was almost identical with mean ages of either group being 55 years (p=0.922). The sex distribution was also fairly comparable with male being predominant in both the groups (p=0.574). In this study IHD followed by uncontrolled hypertension (p=0.001) are came out to be the predominant risk factors of heart failure followed by smoking and obesity (p<0.001). From the findings of the study, it can be concluded that a number of risk factors are involved in heart failure cases. Of them ischemic heart disease and uncontrolled hypertension are the predominant ones followed by smoking and obesity. The best strategy would, therefore, be to treat and control ischemic heart disease, hypertension, obesity, diabetes and smoking habit in the population. However, as the risk factors in the population continue to change; ongoing surveillance is important to guide right preventive strategy in future.

Rheumatic heart disease is in the declining phase, with the increase of urbanization and increment of availability of healthcare facility. However still it causes a substantial number of morbidity and mortality in South Asia. The prevalence of Rheumatic Fever and Rheumatic heart disease in Bangladesh is still high, 0.6 and 0.3 per thousand populations respectively. In the rheumatic process mitral is the frequently involved valve, mostly in the form of mitral stenosis. Choice of a treatment modality and its success largely depend on the accurate assessment of severity of disease especially the extent and distribution of calcification. Echocardiography has a key role in the determination of the severity of mitral stenosis as well as assessment of details calcification. Conventionally 2 dimensional and Doppler echocardiography is used. Now a days, 3D echocardiography offers better cardiac imaging for detail evaluation. The heart being a complex structure, the 3D evaluation would certainly offer better imaging for the accurate assessment of the mitral stenosis, especially details of presence & distribution calcification. This cross-sectional observational study was done from May 2012 to October 2012 in University Cardiac Centre, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU), Dhaka, Bangladesh. Data were collected with informed written consent, from 50 subjects who underwent transthoracic 2D and 3D Echocardiography for the assessment of rheumatic mitral valve with special emphasis on accurate assessment of severity, extent and distribution of calcification. Precise measurement of MV area is essential in the assessment of severity, which is found comparable by both 2DE (0.98±0.24cm²) and 3DE (0.92±0.23cm²). But in identifying calcification and accurate assessment of severity, more importantly commissural involvement is better detected by 3DE (p=0.002). This has extreme importance in therapeutic decision making in the treatment of chronic rheumatic MS. So, to formulate an efficient management plan, three-dimensional echocardiography has promising prospects in detecting severity & extent of rheumatic calcification.

Long term mortality is higher in Non-ST-segment elevated myocardial infarction (NSTEMI) patients than STEMI paitents. NSTEMI are a high risk factor for ensuing cardiovascular events in diabetic patients. But, use of drug eluting stents (DES) will further improve outcomes in patients with diabetes suffering early percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). The aim of the study was to determine the changes in left ventricular (LV) systolic activity after successful PCI in NSTEMI diabetic patients was compared with non-diabetic patients. This comparative clinical study was performed in the Department of Cardiology, University Cardiac Center, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU), Dhaka, Bangladesh from July 2017 to June 2018. Thirty (30) diabetic and 34 non-diabetic patients with NSTEMI undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention were included in the study. In all patients PCI with drug eluting stent was performed successfully. Earlier echocardiography (2-Dimensional) was done, at release subsequent PCI and 3 months afterward to evaluate the LV systolic activity and compare to diabetics and non-diabetics at all levels of evaluation to assess the outcome of intervention. At baseline LVEF was rather lower in diabetic group than non-diabetic group patients. In diabetics patients segments with abnormal wall motion (WMA) was higher than non-diabetics patients. While the LVEDD, LVIDd and LVIDs were significantly larger in the earlier group than those in the latter group, the LVESV was no different in both groups. At release from hospital, no significant enhancement was observed in either group following PCI in terms of LVEF, number of segments with WMA, LVIDd and LVIDs. However, both LVEDV and LVESV reduced successfully in both groups with decrease of LVESV being more marked in non-diabetics compared with diabetics (p=0.018). However, 3 months after PCI, LVEF improved (8.4±1.2%) in diabetics and 7.9±1.2% in non diabetics patients but this improvement between two groups was not statically significant (p=0.631). Similarly baseline to 3 months after PCI LVIDs reduces in diabetics patients (5.7±1.9%) and 4.8±1.1% in non diabetics patients but the difference between both groups was not significant (p=0.201). Diabetic patients more frequently required 2 stents (p=0.30), while stent's diameter and length did not differ between the study groups. This study demonstrated that improvement of the parameters of left ventricular systolic function after using of drug eluting stent in NSTEMI diabetic patients was not lower to the non diabetic group under same condition. So, suggestion of PCI with drug eluting stent may be extended in NSTEMI diabetic patient.

We describe the syntheses of three different deoxy-D-allose analogs [2-deoxy-d-allose (2-DOAll), 1,2-dideoxy-d-allose (1,2-DOAll), and 1,2-didehydro-1,2-dideoxy-d-allose (1,2-DHAll)] and their fatty acid esters via regioselective lipase-catalyzed transesterification. Among them, 2-DOAll and its decanoate (2-DOAll-C10) showed higher inhibitory activity on plant growth, which is similar to d-allose (All) [corrected] and its decanoate (All-C10). Bioassay results of deoxy-All-C10 on four plant species suggest that the hydroxy group at the C-1 position might be important showing growth inhibitory activity. In addition, co-addition of gibberellin (GA3) with 1,2-DHAll-C10 and 2-DOAll-C10 recovered plant growth, suggesting that they might mainly inhibit biosynthesis of gibberellin.

Background: Mortality from breast cancer is high in low- and middle-income countries, in part because most patients have advanced stage disease when first diagnosed. Case-finding may be one approach to changing this situation., Materials and Methods: We conducted a pilot study to explore the feasibility of population-based case finding for breast cancer by community health workers (CHWs) using different data collection methods and approaches to management of women found to have breast abnormalities. After training 8 CHWs in breast problem recognition, manual paper data collection and operation of a cell-phone software platform for reporting demographic, history and physical finding information, these CHWs visited 3150 women >age 18 and over they could find--from 2356 households in 8 villages in rural Bangladesh. By 4 random assignments of villages, data were collected manually (Group 1), or with the cell-phone program alone (Group 2) or with management algorithms (Groups 3 and 4), and women adjudged to have a serious breast problem were shown a motivational video (Group 3), or navigated/accompanied to a breast problem center for evaluation (Group 4)., Results: Only three visited women refused evaluation. The manual data acquisition group (1) had missing data in 80% of cases, and took an average of 5 minutes longer to acquire, versus no missing data in the cell phone-reporting groups (2,3 and 4). One woman was identified with stage III breast cancer, and was appropriately treated., Conclusions: Among very poor rural Bangladeshi women, there was very limited reluctance to undergo breast evaluation. The estimated rarity of clinical breast cancer is supported by these population-based findings. The feasibility and efficient use of mobile technology in this setting is supported. Successor studies may most appropriately be trials focusing on improving the suggested benefits of motivation and navigation, on increasing the numbers of cases found, and on stage of disease at diagnosis as the primary endpoint.

A cross-sectional survey, using cluster sampling technique, of slum population, was done to explore the oral health status and the prevalence of common oral diseases. A close ended questionnaire comprising Decayed, Missing and Filled Teeth (DMFT) Index, Gingival Index (Löe and Silness) and Plaque Index was applied to evaluate and record oral diseases, in both male and female population, covering a wide range of age groups. Clinical examination was carried out in different shum set ups, including slum schools by trained and calibrated examiners. Three thousand nine hundred and four (3904) slum dwellers participated in the survey. Prevalence of Caries was expressed in mean DMFT, recording of gingival status followed the method of Löe and Silness, oral hygiene status was evaluated using Plaque index. Mean decayed component, of the DMFT, was significantly higher than filling and missing component. Both decayed and missing components showed increasing trend, and filling components decreased as the age progressed. Prevalence of gingivitis and plaque accumulation was remarkably high among slum dwellers. Significantly high level of common oral diseases was found among Tongi slum dwellers.

Phlorotannins are polyphenols of marine algae, particularly brown seaweed, having multiple biological activities. A reverse phase-high performance liquid chromatography method was developed for rapid and routine quantification of two major phlorotannins, dieckol and phlorofucofuroeckol-A (PFE-A), from boiling water- and organic solvent-extracts of brown seaweeds Ecklonia cava, E. stolonifera and Eisenia bicyclis. The regression equations for dieckol and PFE-A were as follows: the concentration (mg ml(-1)) = 16.56 x peak height (cm) + 0.44, and the concentration = 20.60 x peak height (cm) + 0.11, with correlation coefficients of 0.996 and 0.999, respectively. Compared to organic solvent extraction, the recovery yield of dieckol from boiling water extracts of E. cava, E. stolonifera and E. bicyclis was 86%, 93%, and 98%, respectively. The recovery yield of PFE-A was 74%, 86% and 62%, respectively. Antioxidant activity was detected in each E. bicyclis water extract (91%), followed by E. stolonifera (90%) and E. cava (74%). Dieckol and PFE-A showed almost 9- and 7-fold stronger antioxidant activity than the standard butylhydroxytoluene, and 6-and 4-fold greater than L-ascorbic acid in molar concentration, respectively.

The lithium ion diffusion coefficient of a 93% Li β-alumina single crystal was measured for the first time using pulsed field gradient (PFG) NMR spectroscopy with two different crystal orientations. The diffusion coefficient was found to be 1.2 × 10(-11) m(2)/s in the direction perpendicular to the c axis at room temperature. The Li ion diffusion coefficient along the c axis direction was found to be very small (6.4 × 10(-13) m(2)/s at 333 K), which suggests that the macroscopic diffusion of the Li ion in the β-alumina crystal is mainly two-dimensional. The diffusion coefficient for the same sample was also estimated using NMR line narrowing data and impedance measurements. The impedance data show reasonable agreement with PFG-NMR data, while the line narrowing measurements provided a lower value for the diffusion coefficient. Line narrowing measurements also provided a relatively low value for the activation energy and pre-exponential factor. The temperature dependent diffusion coefficient was obtained in the temperature range 297-333 K by PFG-NMR, from which the activation energy for diffusion of the Li ion was estimated. The activation energy obtained by PFG-NMR was smaller than that obtained by impedance measurements, which suggests that thermally activated defect formation energy exists for 93% Li β-alumina single crystals. The diffusion time dependence of the diffusion coefficient was observed for the Li ion in the 93% Li β-alumina single crystal by means of PFG-NMR experiments. Motion of Li ion in fractal dimension might be a possible explanation for the observed diffusion time dependence of the diffusion coefficient in the 93% Li β-alumina system.

Objective: To demonstrate proof of concept for a smart phone-empowered community health worker (CHW) model of care for breast health promotion, clinical breast examination (CBE), and patient navigation in rural Bangladesh., Methods: This study was a randomized controlled trial; July 1 to October 31, 2012, 30 CHWs conducted door-to-door interviews of women aged 25 and older in Khulna Division. Only women who disclosed a breast symptom were offered CBE. Arm A: smart phone with applications to guide interview, report data, show motivational video, and offer appointment for women with an abnormal CBE. Arm B: smart phone/applications identical to Arm A plus CHW had training in "patient navigation" to address potential barriers to seeking care. Arm C: control arm (no smart phone; same interview recorded on paper). Outcomes are presented as the "adherence" (to advice regarding a clinic appointment) for women with an abnormal CBE. This study was approved by Women's College Hospital Research Ethics Board (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) and district government officials (Khulna, Bangladesh). Funded by Grand Challenges Canada., Results: In 4 months, 22,337 women were interviewed; <1% declined participation, and 556 women had an abnormal CBE. Control group CHWs completed fewer interviews, had inferior data quality, and identified significantly fewer women with abnormal breast exams compared with CHWs in arms A and B. Arm B had the highest adherence., Conclusion: CHWs guided by our smart phone applications were more efficient and effective in breast health promotion compared with the control group. CHW "navigators" were most effective in encouraging women with an abnormal breast examination to adhere to advice regarding clinic attendance.

Sargassum fulvellum (Turner) C. Agardh is an edible brown macroalgae having pharmacological importance. In previous reports, we described the screening of marine algae for their neuritogenic activity in developing hippocampal neurons and found that ethanol extract of S. fulvellum (SFE) possesses promising neurite-outgrowth-promoting activity. In this study, we evaluated whether the initial neurite promoting effect of SFE was followed on the further neuronal maturation and synapse formation. SFE exhibited dose-dependent effect on neurite maturation with an optimum concentration of 5 μg/mL. The initial neuronal differentiation is significantly promoted by SFE. Subsequently, compared with control culture, SFE increased the indices of axonal and dendritic developments such as the number and the length of primary processes, and branching frequencies. In addition to its effect on neurite development, SFE significantly increased the number of puncta for postsynaptic density-95, synaptic vesicle 2, and synapse (about 35%, 67%, and 125%, respectively, of control). Moreover, SFE dose-dependently protects neurons from naturally occurring death in normal culture condition. Taken together, our data demonstrate that SFE can promote neuronal maturation and synaptogenesis and support neuronal survival, suggesting the beneficial effect of this alga in nervous system.

Bangladesh's oral cancer incidence is high. Dentists can participate in tobacco control. The aim of this study is to explore tobacco use, tobacco control attitudes and oral cancer knowledge among Bangladeshi dental undergraduates. This cross-sectional study used the Global Health Professional Students Survey and the Humphris Oral Cancer Knowledge Scale. One hundred eighty six questionnaires were analysed, a 79% response rate. Tobacco use, oral cancer knowledge, attitudes towards tobacco control and the dentist's role in tobacco cessation varied significantly between colleges and by gender. Oral cancer knowledge and positive tobacco control attitudes did not influence tobacco use. There is a global problem in preparing dental students for a holistic, integrated approach to oral cancer prevention.

A very simple, ultra-sensitive and highly selective non-extractive spectrophotometric method for the determination of trace amount of cadmium using 5,7-dibromo-8-hydroxyquinoline (DBHQ) has been developed. DBHQ reacts in a slightly acidic solution with cadmium to give a deep greenish-yellow chelate, which has an absorption maximum at 396 nm. The average molar absorption co-efficient and Sandell's sensitivity were found to be 5.3 x 10(3) L mol(-1) cm(-2) and 20 ng cm(-2) of Cd, respectively. Linear calibration graphs were obtained for 0.1-30 microg mL(-1) of Cd. A large excess of over 50 cations, anions and some common complexing agents do not interfere with the determination. The method was successfully used in the determination of cadmium in several Standard Reference Materials as well as in some environmental waters, biological and soil samples.