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This multi-authored collection of papers examines the complex realities of research on natural resource industries, including the messy entanglements of extraction, materiality, and everyday social life this research entails. Of central importance to the contributors is how scholars confront fieldwork challenges ethically, methodologically, and corporeally. The collection has two key objectives. First, it expands our understanding of extractive industry by bringing together work on resources conventionally understood as extractive (e.g. oil and minerals) alongside resource-intensive industries not typically examined through an extractive lens, for instance fisheries, agricultural monocultures, water, and tourism. As such, it considers the historical and current conditions that facilitate the extraction of resources in parallel, cyclical, and reproducing forms. Second, the collection examines scholarly positionalities, methodologies, and dilemmas that arise when studying nature-intensive industries, including the extractive dimensions associated with social research itself. Together, the pieces argue that research concerning extractive industries entails multiple scholarly positions—positions problematically inflected with colonialism and always shaped by power relations. Contributors to the section draw largely from feminist, postcolonial, anti-racist, and historical materialist insights to frame and problematize the corporeal and representational concerns arising from their scholarship on nature-intensive industries, including personal dilemmas that they have encountered in their work. Overall, the collection is driven by the realization that research, and the analyses it entails, may serve as a tool for emancipatory intervention yet also reproduce inequality. The futures of the people and ecosystems at the center of our studies impel constant reflection so that our work, and that of the next generation of scholars, may offer critical analysis that contributes to transforming—rather than reinforcing—oppressive relations associated with extractive sectors and industries.

Background: Hemorrhagic stroke, involving bleeding within the brain or surrounding areas, presents a distinct profile of socio-demographic and clinical characteristics. Hemorrhagic strokes are more common in older adults. However, younger individuals with certain risk factors can also be affected. This study aimed to find out the socio-economic characteristics of hemorrhagic stroke patients. Methods: This prospective observational study was conducted in the Medicine In-patients Department of Dhaka Medical College Hospital, Dhaka, Bangladesh, from October 2009 to March 2010. A total of 60 cases of hemorrhagic stroke were enrolled using a purposive sampling technique. Data analysis was performed using MS Office tools. Results: The mean age of participants was 50.33 ± 8.93 years, with a male-to-female ratio of 3:1. 13.3% were illiterate, 60% had a monthly family income of over 10,000 BDT. Family history of stroke was reported by 13.3%, 28.3% experienced symptoms during sleep, 20% during work, and 15% during excitement. 58.3% experienced a sudden onset of symptoms. Frequent comorbidities included hypertension (40.0%) and diabetes mellitus (30.0%). Headache was the most common symptom (66.7%). Neurological exams showed normal consciousness in 66.7%, with varying grades in the remainder. Normal speech was noted in 70.0%, normal muscle bulk in 91.7%, and hypertonic muscle tone in 80.0%. Among hemorrhagic stroke patients, 51.7% had right-sided intracerebral hemorrhage on CT. Conclusion: Older adults are particularly susceptible to hemorrhagic stroke. Most patients experience a sudden onset of symptoms, with headaches being the most common. Typically, patients retain normal consciousness, speech, muscle tone, and muscle bulk in the majority of cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Poor glycemic control and high diabetes and prediabetes incidence are influenced by socioeconomic disparity. Raising awareness and ensuring that people with prediabetes are receiving medication, maintaining their glycemic control, and getting the proper care they need despite their socioeconomic situation are crucial in the fight against diabetes. This study aims to assess the sociodemographic status, self-awareness, and risk factors associated with prediabetes in Bangladesh. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was carried out among 500 participants aged >18 years to evaluate and summarize their demographic data, socioeconomic status, and responses to various questionnaires about their conditions related to prediabetes and their awareness of this condition. Results: Analysis of factors revealed that 41% and 39% of the participants had first- and second-degree relatives with diabetes, respectively. Meanwhile, 36% of the participants maintain physical activities, 30% prefer sweetened beverages, and 29% have high blood pressure. The participants were aware of different statements related to diabetes, such as how lifestyle modification and awareness can help people with prediabetes. Conclusions: This study provided insights into the underlying factors related to prediabetes and enabled us to identify the prediabetes conditions unknown to people in Bangladesh. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data fusion aims to provide a more accurate description of a sample than any one source of data alone. At the same time, data fusion minimizes the uncertainty of the results by combining data from multiple sources. Both aim to improve the characterization of samples and might improve clinical diagnosis and prognosis. In this paper, we present an overview of the advances achieved over the last decades in data fusion approaches in the context of the medical and biomedical fields. We collected approaches for interpreting multiple sources of data in different combinations: image to image, image to biomarker, spectra to image, spectra to spectra, spectra to biomarker, and others. We found that the most prevalent combination is the image-to-image fusion and that most data fusion approaches were applied together with deep learning or machine learning methods.

In this intervention, we call for extending the critical lens of intersectionality to the field of climate justice. We do so by identifying the theoretical and methodological links through which intersectionality can benefit climate change studies. These include common roots in radical theory, a focus on marginalized populations, challenging dominant epistemologies and ontologies, similar strategies for pursuing social justice, de-emphasizing of positivist methodologies, while at the same time deploying similar research methods, embracing cross-scalar and spatio-temporal analysis, and strong emphasis on interdisciplinarity and cross-sectoral alliances. We conclude with a number of potential questions to inform future research on these linkages and to encourage fellow scholars to consider what we see as an indispensable theoretical and methodological synergy of intersectionality and climate justice for a more equitable present and future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water plays a pivotal role in economic activity and in human well-being. Because of the prominence of water in production (primarily for irrigation) and in domestic use (drinking, washing, cooking), conflict over water and the effects of gender-influenced decisions about water may have far-reaching consequences on human well-being, economic growth, and social change.At the same time, social conflicts and social change are shaped and mediated, often in unexpected ways, by the natural conditions in which water occurs. The social relations of water are poorly understood.This article introduces a framework for disaggregating conditions of access to water and uses it to examine three pressing questions in Bangladesh. First, extraction of groundwater for irrigation has made many drinking-water hand pumps run dry. Second, increasing use of groundwater for drinking has been associated with the poisoning of at least 20 million people through naturally occurring arsenic in groundwater. Third, the article examines some of the ways access to water has been changed by the rise of shrimp aquaculture for export.This article highlights new directions for the analysis of interactions among water, class, and gender. The existing literature has tended to focus on the implications of gender analysis for government policy, especially development projects and water resources management, and for women’s organization. In this article we begin to sketch some questions that arise from a concern to understand the broader context of social change.