Qualitative assessment of regular and premium gasoline available in Bangladesh markets.

Assessing the quality of fuel is essential to comprehend its impact on the environment and human health. In this study, the evaluation of fuel quality standards at the consumer level was conducted by analyzing the motor fuels in Khulna, Bangladesh. A total of 32 samples of petrol (regular gasoline), and octane (premium gasoline) were collected from the fuel stations in the Khulna City Corporation area and analyzed with an FTIR-Fuel Analyzer. Fuel properties, such as research octane number (RON), motor octane number (MON), ethanol content, olefins content, and oxygen content were analyzed. For petrol, the average RON, MON, olefins, and oxygen content were 95.34, 85.70, 8.23 %v/v, and 0.78 %m/m, respectively, and for octane, they were 96.96, 85.39, 1.25 %v/v, and 0.09 %m/m, respectively. Almost all of these parameters complied with both Bangladesh standard and Euro 5 fuel specifications, and those that did not comply were very close to their standard values. However, benzene concentration, which was not specified in Bangladesh Standard, was the most alarming metric for octane since none of the samples matched the Euro 5 fuel specifications of the maximum concentration of 1 %v/v benzene; on average it was 3.70 %v/v. Although petrol benzene content (average 1.50 %v/v) was not as bad as it was for octane, it was still nowhere near good enough, with only 25% of the samples within the recommended level among the studied sample. This information holds significance in establishing the fuel profile and facilitating the identification of distinct samples linked to adulteration. Therefore, the analysis of motor fuel qualities is essential for maintaining the environment, human health, and the economy of a country.

Dengue presenting as a case of acute pancreatitis-A rare case report.

Atypical presentations may be presented with the common symptoms in Dengue. We, hereby, present a case of Dengue who was admitted in our hospital with the complaints of fever, upper abdominal pain, and vomiting, literally diagnosed as a case of acute pancreatitis.

Health and wellbeing of indigenous older adults living in the tea gardens of Bangladesh.

BACKGROUND: There are currently 1.5 million indigenous people in Bangladesh, constituting 1.8% of the total population and representing one of the country's most deprived communities. This study explores the health status and quality of life along with their determinants among indigenous older people in Bangladesh in order to fill the knowledge and evidence gap on this topic. METHODS: A mixed-methods approach was deployed in October 2019 in the Sylhet division of Bangladesh which involved a cross-sectional survey among 400 indigenous older adults (200 males, 200 females) from 8 tea gardens using a pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire. Ten in-depth interviews were also conducted with providers of the tea garden health facilities. Descriptive analysis, multiple logistic and multi-nominal linear regression were performed to explore associated factors around health and quality of life. RESULTS: Of the total respondents, the majority (79.5%) had chronic diseases, with visual difficulty being predominant (74%) among the conditions. Almost all (94%) of the respondents experienced delays in receiving treatment and poverty was identified by most (85%) as the primary cause of those delays. Extreme age, being male, living alone and low family income were significantly associated with suffering from chronic conditions. Furthermore, having a chronic condition and extreme age were found to be significantly associated with a low quality of life. Health service providers identified lack of logistical support in the health facilities, the economic crisis and lack of awareness as the major causes of poor health status and poor health seeking behaviour of the indigenous older adults. CONCLUSION: Indigenous older men in extreme old age are more vulnerable to adverse health conditions and poor quality of life. Health literacy and health seeking behaviour is poor among indigenous older adults generally and there is a huge gap in the health services and social supports available to them.

Susceptibility of Field Populations of Eggplant Fruit and Shoot Borer (Leucinodes orbonalis Guenée) to Cry1Ac, the Protein Expressed in Bt Eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) in Bangladesh.

Eggplant (Solanum melongena Linn.), or brinjal, was engineered to express an insecticidal protein (Cry1Ac) from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) and commercialized in Bangladesh on a limited basis in 2014. As part of an insect resistance management strategy, studies were conducted to determine the susceptibility of the targeted insect pest, the eggplant fruit and shoot borer, Leucinodes orbonalis (Guenée), to Cry1Ac using a diet-incorporation bioassay method. Eighteen populations of L. orbonalis were collected from the main brinjal growing areas in 17 districts of Bangladesh during 2018-2019 and assayed. Larvae from each population were reared to adults and allowed to mate. Eggs from the matings were allowed to hatch, and neonates were used for bioassays. Bioassays were performed with different concentrations of Cry1Ac and an untreated control. Median lethal concentrations (LC50) ranged between 0.035 and 0.358 ppm and molt inhibitory concentration (MIC50) values ranged from 0.008 to 0.181 ppm. Variation in susceptibility among field populations was 10.22-fold for LC50 and 22.63-fold for MIC50. These results were compared to values from 73 populations in India. Overall, the results showed similar natural variation and suggest that these Bangladeshi values can be used as benchmarks for resistance monitoring as Bt brinjal becomes more widely adopted in Bangladesh.

Influenza B virus outbreak at a religious residential school for boys in Northern Bangladesh, 2011.

BACKGROUND: National media reported a febrile illness among dormitory residents of a boys' religious school. We investigated the outbreak to identify cause. METHODS: Individuals with fever (>100°F) and cough or sore throat between 1 and 13 August 2011 were influenza-like-illness (ILI) case-patients. We collected histories and specimens from hospitalized case-patients and visited campus to explore environmental context. RESULTS: All 28 case-patients were dormitory residents including 27 hospitalizations. Accommodation space per resident was <0.8 square metres. Nasal and oropharyngeal swabs from 22 case-patients were positive for influenza B virus using real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR). CONCLUSIONS: Overcrowding likely facilitated transmission leading to this dormitory outbreak.

Ergodic capacity comparison of optical wireless communications using adaptive transmissions.

Ergodic capacity is investigated for the optical wireless communications employing subcarrier intensity modulation with direct detection, and coherent systems with and without polarization multiplexing over the Gamma-Gamma turbulence channels. We consider three different adaptive transmission schemes: (i) variable-power, variable-rate adaptive transmission, (ii) complete channel inversion with fixed rate, and (iii) truncated channel inversion with fixed rate. For the considered systems, highly accurate series expressions for ergodic capacity are derived using a series expansion of the modified Bessel function and the Mellin transformation of the Gamma-Gamma random variable. Our asymptotic analysis reveals that the high SNR ergodic capacities of coherent, subcarrier intensity modulated, and polarization multiplexing systems gain 0.33 bits/s/Hz, 0.66 bits/s/Hz, and 0.66 bits/s/Hz respectively with 1 dB increase of average transmitted optical power. Numerical results indicate that a polarization control error less than 10° has little influence on the capacity performance of polarization multiplexing systems.