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Children with disabilities are at an increased risk of experiencing child maltreatment (CM). We aimed to estimate the prevalence of different forms of CM among children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in Bangladesh. We interviewed 45 randomly selected mothers of ASD children who attended a tertiary care hospital in Dhaka, Bangladesh, to treat their children. Data regarding CM was collected using a standard screening tool recommended by the International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (ISPCAN). We asked mothers to report about their child-rearing practices to identify CM, including physical, psychological, and sexual abuse, and neglect, along with their non-violent disciplinary practices. The children's age range was 3 to 9 years, and approximately 82 percent were boys. All children were found to have experiences of physical and psychological abuse throughout their childhood. Seventy-three percent of children experienced neglect during the past year while 82 percent during their entire childhood. The reported prevalence of sexual abuse was 4.4 percent in the past year and 8.9 percent during their childhood. However, all parents followed non-violent disciplinary practices, and the prevalence of maltreatment did not differ between boys and girls. Higher instances of CM in Bangladesh, especially among ASD children, raise concern for its adverse social consequences and calls for appropriate mitigation practices as proclaimed by the United Nations Child Rights Charter.

Household latrine access generally is not associated with reduced fecal contamination in the environment, but its long-term effectiveness has not been measured. We conducted an environmental assessment nested within the WASH Benefits Bangladesh randomized controlled trial (NCT01590095). We quantified E. coli and fecal coliforms in samples of stored drinking water, child hands, mother hands, soil, and food among a random sample of households from the sanitation and control arms of the trial. Samples were collected during eight quarterly visits approximately 1–3.5 years after intervention initiation. Overall, there were no substantial differences in environmental fecal contamination between households enrolled in the sanitation and control arms. Statistically significant reductions were found in stored water and child hands after pooling across sampling rounds, but the effects were small and not consistent across rounds. In addition, we assessed potential effect modification of intervention effects by follow-up time, season, wealth, community-level latrine density and coverage, population density, and domestic animal ownership. While the intervention had statistically significant effects within some subgroups, there were no consistent patterns of effect modification. Our findings support a growing consensus that on-site latrines are insufficient to prevent fecal contamination in the rural household environment., An on-site latrine and child feces management intervention in rural Bangladesh did not reduce fecal indicator bacteria in the household environment, adding to growing literature on the limitations of latrines as a sanitation solution.

Islam is second largest religion being practiced around the globe. It is fastest growing believe and rapidly expanding in the western world despite several misunderstanding including Islamic standpoint on organ transplantation and tissue grafting. The objective of this study is to determine the Islamic view point on organ transplantation and tissue grafting with special reference pertaining to human needs under the ambit of Shariah doctrine of necessity and world religions. Since, Islam and other world religions have given immense consideration to humans whether they are alive or dead, and the desecration of human body is considered a violation sufficed to a great sin. Injunctions of the holy Quran and Sunnah have evidently expressed sanctity to human life/body. Hence, taking one’s life without a legal rights or even inflicting any sort of harm, injury, and aggression against an individual is terming an unlawful act. Notably, some scholars contended that, classical jurists’ are silent on the issue of organ transplantation predominantly the transfer of organs from one species to another species. But, in reality, our argument is that, the organ re-plantation can be seen in the Prophetic era. However, as per their view, the reason is obvious, since the organ transplantation associated with the advancement of science. Accordingly, the recent progress in transplant sciences were not totally known to the classical jurists, although, issues pertaining to the sale of human organs have been discussed by them (jurists). Similarly, many other innovative matters can be seen in Prophetic traditions, and that is why, as per jurist’s assertion, it can practically be traced in the Prophetic era.Consequently, this study argues that, the permissibility of organ donation and transplantation somehow mentioned in the main sources of Islamic law and biomedical ethics. Therefore, the basis and rules of permissibility will be derived while discussing organ transplantation, particularly in homo, allotransplant and other inter-related issues under the rubric of necessity doctrine. Bangladesh Journal of Medical Science Vol.20(3) 2021 p.511-524

Introduction: Pilonidal sinus is a commonly encountered problem with multiple surgical options. With Z- plasty, primary closure ensues faster healing while the alteration of local anatomy reduces recurrence. The extremely low recurrence rate following Z-plasty for pilonidal sinus results from the fact that the operation was planned with the true physiology of the disease in mind. It is the deep natal cleft which predisposes to pilonidal sinuses and this architecture is altered with multiple Z -plasty. Materials and methods: A prospective, observational study was conducted into department of Plastic Surgery and burn, Dhaka Medical College and Hospital. Here 18 patients with pilonidal sinus were treated by Z – plasty between 2013 to 2018. Result: There was only one recurrence during the follow up time. There were no necrosis of flaps and no wound dehiscence. Conclusion: The Z-plasty technique is an effective procedure for treating pilonidal sinus in terms of both faster healing and lower recurrence rate. J Dhaka Medical College, Vol. 28, No.2, October, 2019, Page 164-171

BackgroundHousehold-level sanitation interventions have had limited effects on child health or environmental contamination, potentially due to low community coverage. Higher community-level coverage with safely managed sanitation can reduce opportunities for disease transmission.MethodsWe estimated associations between community sanitation coverage, environmental fecal contamination, and child health among 360 compounds in the control arm of the WASH Benefits trial in rural Bangladesh (NCT01590095). In each compound, we enumerated E. coli in environmental samples and recorded the 7-day prevalence of caregiver-reported diarrheal disease and acute respiratory infections (ARI) in children under five. We observed indicators of latrine access and quality among all neighboring compounds within 100m of study compounds. We defined community coverage as the proportion of neighboring compounds with (1) at least one latrine, and (2) exclusively hygienic latrines (improved facility observed to safely contain feces), within both 50m and 100m of study compounds. We assessed effect modification by population density and season.ResultsAdjusted for confounders, study compounds surrounded by 100% coverage of at least one latrine per compound within 50m had slightly lower log10E. coli counts in stored water (Δlog=-0.13, 95% CI -0.26, -0.01), child hand rinses (Δlog=-0.13, 95% CI -0.24, -0.02), and caregiver hand rinses (Δlog=-0.16, 95% CI -0.29, -0.03) and marginally lower prevalence of diarrheal disease (prevalence ratio [PR]=0.82, 95% CI 0.64, 1.04) and ARI (PR=0.84, 95% CI 0.69, 1.03) compared to compounds surrounded by

The study is designed to investigate the issue of abortion for rape-victims to draw the attentions of Islamic clerics in order to appraise consciousness and outlook of legal edicts within constrain of Islamic bio-medical and bio-ethical norms. For this purpose, a number of Islamic treatises are systematically examined, and a cross-cultural along with a cross-country assessment of 47 countries abortion laws particularly ‘Muslim-majority’ (OIC member) countries are conducted to assess the momentous impacts on rape-victims. Additionally, contemporary data i.e. legal edicts and various reported rape/adultery cases in different Islamic countries are analyzed with special reference to the circumstances in which the verdicts are issued. The study asserts that mostly the classical and contemporary literature silent on the cited issue except few of the legal edicts. Although, Islamic lit and scripts including bio-medical and bio-ethical has discussed it in general way. As a result, the rape victims appeared that they may be allowed termination of unwanted fetus due to coerced sexual relation. But, whether in preview of, some of the legal edicts which causes intricacy, the state laws, rules and more particularly the religious and cultural aspects may allow this kind of deliberation? A predominantly conventional approach was found, since 18 out of 47 countries do not allow abortion except for necessity. Less than 50% of OIC members legally permit abortion on medical grounds. Nevertheless, there was a substantial diversity between Muslim countries. Albeit, a multidimensional viewpoint is very important due to the consequential psychiatric and social problems, since there is an immense need to provide real solutions to such cases that would not contradict Islamic bioethical principles. Therefore, termination of rape resulting pregnancies may be declared valid, provided with specific conditions and guidelines as per Shariah keeping in view bio-medical and bio-ethical norms. Bangladesh Journal of Medical Science Vol.19(3) 2020 p.372-385

Improved sanitation has been hypothesized to reduce soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infections by reducing the prevalence and concentration of STH eggs/larvae in soil. We evaluated the effect of a randomized sanitation program (providing households with an improved dual-pit latrine, tools for child/animal feces management, and behavioral messaging) on reducing the prevalence and concentration of STH eggs in soil from household courtyards. We collected soil samples from 1405 households enrolled in the sanitation intervention (n = 419) and control (n = 914) groups of a cluster-randomized controlled trial (WASH Benefits) in rural Bangladesh approximately 2 years after the initiation of the interventions. We analyzed samples for Ascaris lumbricoides, Trichuris trichiura, and hookworm eggs by microscopy. We estimated prevalence ratios (PR) and egg count ratio (ECR) to compare the prevalence of STH eggs and arithmetic and geometric mean egg counts for STH eggs per gram of soil in the sanitation and control arms. Among intervention households, latrines achieved high and sustained user uptake by adults while child open defecation remained common and most households did not dispose of child feces hygienically. In courtyard soil from control households, the prevalence of any STH eggs was 75.7% and the prevalence of any larvated STH eggs was 67.3%. A. lumbricoides was detected in 63.0% of control samples and T. trichiura in 55.7% of control samples; hookworm was not detected in any sample. In the control arm, the arithmetic mean egg count for any STH was 3.96 eggs/dry gram, while the geometric mean was 1.58 eggs/dry gram. There was no difference between the intervention and control groups in the prevalence of any STH eggs (PR = 0.98 (95% CI: 0.91, 1.05)) or mean egg counts (ECR = 0.08 (95% CI: -0.10, 0.26) for geometric mean and 0.07 (95% CI: -0.22, 0.37) for arithmetic mean). Adjusted models gave similar results. A compound-level sanitation intervention that provided improved latrines and tools for disposal of child and animal feces did not have an impact on STH eggs in soil. In order to effectively reduce the prevalence and concentration of STH eggs in the environment, sustained, widespread use of sanitation strategies to isolate and hygienically dispose of child and animal feces may need to complement traditional strategies for containment of adult human feces. Trial Registration:NCT01590095., Author summary Improved sanitation has been hypothesized to reduce soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infections by reducing the prevalence and concentration of STH eggs/larvae in soil. We evaluated the effect of a randomized sanitation program (providing households with an improved dual-pit latrine, tools for child/animal feces management, and behavioral messaging) on reducing the prevalence and concentration of STH eggs in soil from household courtyards. We collected soil samples from 1405 households enrolled in the control and sanitation intervention arms of a cluster-randomized controlled trial (WASH Benefits) in rural Bangladesh approximately 2 years after the initiation of the interventions. We analyzed samples for Ascaris lumbricoides, Trichuris trichiura and hookworm eggs by microscopy. We found no effect of the sanitation intervention on STH eggs in soil. In order to effectively reduce the prevalence and concentration of STH eggs in the environment, sustained, widespread use of sanitation strategies to isolate and hygienically dispose of child and animal feces may need to complement traditional strategies for containment of adult human feces.

Ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) are known to reflect emotional processing, brain neurochemistry, and brain function. Collecting and processing USV data is manual, time-intensive, and costly, creating a significant bottleneck by limiting researchers’ ability to employ fully effective and nuanced experimental designs and serving as a barrier to entry for other researchers. In this report, we provide a snapshot of the current development and testing of Acoustilytix™, a web-based automated USV scoring tool. Acoustilytix implements machine learning methodology in the USV detection and classification process and is recording-environment-agnostic. We summarize the user features identified as desirable by USV researchers and how these were implemented. These include the ability to easily upload USV files, output a list of detected USVs with associated parameters in csv format, and the ability to manually verify or modify an automatically detected call. With no user intervention or tuning, Acoustilytix achieves 93% sensitivity (a measure of how accurately Acoustilytix detects true calls) and 73% precision (a measure of how accurately Acoustilytix avoids false positives) in call detection across four unique recording environments and was superior to the popular DeepSqueak algorithm (sensitivity = 88%, precision = 41%). Future work will include integration and implementation of machine-learning-based call type classification prediction that will recommend a call type to the user for each detected call. Call classification accuracy is currently in the 71–79% accuracy range, which will continue to improve as more USV files are scored by expert scorers, providing more training data for the classification model. We also describe a recently developed feature of Acoustilytix that offers a fast and effective way to train hand-scorers using automated learning principles without the need for an expert hand-scorer to be present and is built upon a foundation of learning science. The key is that trainees are given practice classifying hundreds of calls with immediate corrective feedback based on an expert’s USV classification. We showed that this approach is highly effective with inter-rater reliability (i.e., kappa statistics) between trainees and the expert ranging from 0.30–0.75 (average = 0.55) after only 1000–2000 calls of training. We conclude with a brief discussion of future improvements to the Acoustilytix platform.

Idiopathic Sclerosing Encapsulating Peritonitis (or abdominal cocoon) is a rare cause of small bowel obstruction, especially in adult population. Diagnosis is usually incidental at laparotomy. We report one such rare case, outlining the fact that an intra-operative surprise diagnosis could have been facilitated by previous investigations. Journal of Surgical Sciences (2015) Vol. 19 (2) : 75-79

Fecal indicator organisms are measured to indicate the presence of fecal pollution, yet the association between indicators and pathogens varies by context. The goal of this study was to empirically evaluate the relationships between indicator Escherichia coli, microbial source tracking markers, select enteric pathogen genes, and potential sources of enteric pathogens in 600 rural Bangladeshi households. We measured indicators and pathogen genes in stored drinking water, soil, and on mother and child hands. Additionally, survey and observational data on sanitation and domestic hygiene practices were collected. Log10 concentrations of indicator E. coli were positively associated with the prevalence of pathogenic E. coli genes in all sample types. Given the current need to rely on indicators to assess fecal contamination in the field, it is significant that in this study context indicator E. coli concentrations, measured by IDEXX Colilert-18, provided quantitative information on the presence of pathogenic E. coli in different sample types. There were no significant associations between the human fecal marker (HumM2) and human-specific pathogens in any environmental sample type. There was an increase in the prevalence of Giardia lamblia genes, any E. coli virulence gene, and the specific E. coli virulence genes stx1/2 with every log10 increase in the concentration of the animal fecal marker (BacCow) on mothers' hands. Thus, domestic animals were important contributors to enteric pathogens in these households.

Phyllodes tumor of the breast is a rare mixed tumor of epithelial and mesenchymal origin with an incidence of less than 1% of all primary breast tumors. This tumor is well known for its high potential for local recurrence ranging in 8–40% of patients. Excision of tumor with a 2-cm margin without raising skin flap along with overlying skin and underlying part of pectoralis major muscle described by our team seems to be a guarantee against local recurrence. It was a prospective cohort study conducted at the Department of Surgical Disciplines, AIIMS, New Delhi, India, from March 2011 to December 2016. Patients with large phyllodes tumor were managed with a “radical mastectomy without axillary lymph node dissection” whereas women with a small lesion were treated with a wide local excision with a 2-cm margin of healthy breast tissue all around the lesion following our surgical technique. Sixty-one women were enrolled in this study. Twenty-nine patients underwent wide local excision, and 32 patients with large, recurrent, or malignant tumors were managed by radical mastectomy without axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) (27 patients) and with ALND in 5 patients with enlarged axillary nodes. None of the patients have developed local recurrence till date with a follow-up period ranging from 2 to 59 months. Excision of tumor with a 2-cm margin without raising skin flap along with overlying skin and underlying part of pectoralis major muscle is a very effective technique to prevent local recurrence.

One of the most challenging topics in financial market analysis is predicting stock prices. Factors like supply and demand in the market, market sentiment, and investor's expectations, economic and political shocks can affect stock prices. All these factors make stock prices volatile and chaotic. Several machine learning models have been developed to make more precise and accurate predictions. Support vector regression (SVR) and K-nearest neighbor (KNN) regression are the most popular machine learning techniques used for stock price prediction. Our study follows the hypothesis that the SVR algorithm is a more precise way of predicting the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) than the KNN regression. This research has made predictions and compared prediction errors between SVR and KNN. The analysis has been conducted on recent years’ data of some selected shares listed on the DSE. The performance of the models is measured in terms of their root mean squared error (RMSE), R-squared ( $$R^{2}$$ ), adjusted R-squared score values. We have optimized our model performance by tuning different combinations of hyper-parameters. The best result was found with the linear SVR model in the case of BXPHARMA with the highest R-squared score of about 97.04%, and lowest RMSE of about 1.23, followed by the KNN regression model with an R-squared score of approximately 96.39% and RMSE of about 1.38. SVR has the lowest RMSE and highest R-squared values in all cases.

Diarrheal illnesses from enteric pathogens are a leading cause of death in children under five in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Sanitation is one way to reduce the spread of enteric pathogens in the environment; however, few studies have investigated the effectiveness of sanitation in rural LMICs in reducing pathogens in the environment. In this study, we measured the impact of a sanitation intervention (dual-pit latrines, sani-scoops, child potties delivered as part of a randomized control trial, WASH Benefits) in rural Bangladeshi household compounds by assessing prevalence ratios, differences, and changes in the concentration of pathogen genes and host-specific fecal markers. We found no difference in the prevalence of pathogenic Escherichia coli, norovirus, or Giardia genes in the domestic environment in the sanitation and control arms. The prevalence of the human fecal marker was lower on child hands and the concentration of animal fecal marker was lower on mother hands in the sanitation arm in adjusted models, but these associations were not significant after correcting for multiple comparisons. In the subset of households with ≥10 individuals per compound, the prevalence of enterotoxigenic E. coli genes on child hands was lower in the sanitation arm. Incomplete removal of child and animal feces or the compound (versus community-wide) scale of intervention could explain the limited impacts of improved sanitation.

Child open defecation is common in low-income countries and can lead to fecal exposure in the domestic environment. We assessed associations between child feces management practices vs. measures of contamination and child diarrhea among households with children