Salt Intake Behaviors among Type 2 Diabetic Patients of a Tertiary Level Hospital in Dhaka City.

Hypertension and diabetes co-exist frequently. Therefore, salt intake behavior, a risk factor of hypertension, in diabetic patients plays an important role in determining their cardiovascular outcome. The purpose of this study was to assess the knowledge and behaviors of health risks associated with a salt intake in adults with type 2 diabetes. This cross-sectional study was conducted among the type 2 diabetic in-patients of Bangladesh Institute of Health Sciences General Hospital, Dhaka, Bangladesh from October to December 2016. Data were collected from 131 respondents through interview using WHO STEPS module of salt with adaptation to local context like on amount of added salt while taking meal. Information on blood pressure, body mass index and relevant co-morbidities were also collected. About half of the respondents were women (56.5%). Mean age of the respondents was 54.3±14.4 years. More than six in 10 of them (62.6%) took added salt while taking meal; and 40.5% took processed foods with high salt. The mean amount of added salt intake among the users was 4.4±1.6gm per day having no significant difference between men and women. Though 47.3% of the respondents believed that lowering salt in meal is very important and 77.9% of them believed that excess salt or salty sauce can cause health problems. Salt intake behavior is poor in patients with type 2 diabetes even having regular contacts with doctors and other health professionals. Appropriate measures can be taken to increase awareness, change their attitude and behavior regarding salt consumption.

Changes of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium content during storage of vermicomposts prepared from different substrates.

The study was conducted to determine the optimum storage time for vermicompost without significant loss of nutrients; nitrogen (N), phosphorous (P), and potassium (K). Cattle manure, paddy straw, municipal solid wastes, and fly ash were used for vermicompost preparations. The dynamics of N, P, and K in the vermicomposts were studied during 180 days of incubation at 28-32 °C. In general, N concentration increased in the first 90-105 days of incubation and then gradually decreased until the 180th day while P and K concentrations steadily decreased over the length of the study, with the rate of loss leveling off after 150 days. The rate of nutrient loss was directly related to the initial level, decreasing the fastest for the nutrients with the highest initial concentrations. Optimum storage times were substrate and N dependent.

[Heterotopic pancreas in the stomach wall -- a rare histological diagnosis of submucous lesson -- casuistic report]. / Heterotopický pankreas v stene zalúdka, ako raritná histologická diagnóza submukóznej lézie -- kazuistika.

Heterotopic pancreas (HP) is defraed as abnormally localized pancreatic tissue without any anatomical and vascular connection with pancreas. Incidence of HP is 0.2-0.5% of patients underwent upper medial laparotomy. The most common symptoms of HP are abdominal discomfort and pain, upper gastrointestinal bleeding and intermittent bowel obstruction. Gastroscopy is the most commonly used first diagnostic procedure. Ultrasound evaluation, computer tomography and namely endoscopic ultrasound evaluation are useful imaging procedures of HP. Casuistic report of patient with upper gastrointestinal bleeding is presented. Imaging procedures have recorded stomach tumor 3cm in diameter in back wall of stomach. Billroth II resection of stomach was performed. Histological evaluation of removed part of stomach recorded heterotopic pancreas type 1 of Heinrich classification. HP diagnosis before surgery is difficult because of submucous localization of lesion. Fine needle biopsy during gastroscopy is one of diagnostic possibilities without surgery. Endoscopic excision of lesion is possible if histological evaluation by fine needle biopsy is successful and anatomical localization is appropriate. The most of patients need surgical excision of HP. Peroperative histological evaluation allows a minimalization of excision area. Opinions of asymptomatic HP treatment are ambiguous. The most of published papers recommend excision of asymptomatic HP also, because of risk of next complications.

Meningeal carcinomatosis as the first manifestation of malignant carcinomatosis.

Meningeal carcinomatosis (MC) is a malignant infiltration of the leptomeninges and subarachnoid space and can be a devastating complication of a systemic malignancy. Although often found in patients with known metastatic malignancies, MC can also be the initial manifestation of an underlying malignancy. We report four case studies where back pain, dizziness, cognitive decline, headache and headache with the cranial nerve VI palsy were the first signs of MC. In two cases, adenocarcinoma ventriculi was found, in other one, the markers of the gastrointestinal tract malignancy were highly positive but malignity was not found, and in the last one, there was a known breast carcinoma. The diagnosis of MC requires the finding of malignant cells in the cerebrospinal fluid, but sometimes several lumbar punctures are required to establish the diagnosis, and also MRI with gadolinium. Finally, we would like to highlight the fact that markedly decreased glycorrhachia in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) can also be the first sign of MC (Fig. 6, Tab. 2, Ref. 23).

Effect of microbial inoculation during vermicomposting of different organic substrates on microbial status and quantification and documentation of acid phosphatase.

In this experiment, three microbial strains were inoculated in two different organic wastes to study their effect on the humic acids content, acid phosphatase activity and microbial properties of the final stabilized products. Pyrophosphate extract of vermicomposts were analyzed through polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis to study the nature of a isozymes in different treatments. Results suggested that vermicomposting increased humic acids content and acid phosphatase activity in organic substrates and microbial inoculation further enhanced the rate of humification and enzyme activity. Although humic acids content in different microorganism-inoculated vermicomposts were statistically at par, acid phosphatase activity in these treatments was significantly (P<0.05) different. Results revealed that microbial respiration was increased due to vermicomposting, but a reduction in microbial biomass was recorded after stabilization of organic wastes. Although vermicomposting increased the value of microbial quotient (qCO(2)), microbial inoculation did not show any significant effect on qCO(2). The zymogram revealed that two isozymes of acid phosphatase (group II and group III) were present in all vermicompost samples and higher acid phosphatase activity in fungi-inoculated vermicomposts might be due to the presence of an additional isozyme (group I) of acid phosphatase.

A mathematical model on the effect of M. denticulata weed on different winter crops.

Many weeds interfere with the productivity of wheat and other winter annual crops; however, one common weed Medicago denticulata, appears to have a beneficial effect. An experiment was conducted at Agricultural Experimental Farm of the Indian Statistical Institute, Giridih, Jharkhand to observe the effect of M. denticulata (a legume) on different crops yield of barley (Hordeum vulgare Sensu lato), linseed (Linum usitatissimum L.), Indian mustard [Brassica juncea (L.) Czernj. & Cosson] and wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). The commensalisms interaction was studied, in which one species benefits, while the other is unaffected, between the crops, M. denticulata and other weeds, to observe the role of medicago as biological control agent of other weeds for enhancement of crop productivity. Further, a statistical test was performed to establish the effect of M. denticulata and weed infestations based on one-step Markov structure of the covariance matrix of the biomass. This permitted development of a mathematical model of a crop-M. denticulata-other weeds system and their interactions through direct and indirect competition for resources. Crops yield decreased considerably due to the presence of other weeds, while it increased due to introduction of medicago and hence medicago acted as a controlling agent in a crop-M. denticulata-other weeds system. Our mathematical analysis supported the experimental findings. The model parameters are estimated through a nonlinear least square and stochastic differential equations. Moreover, some thresholds for the growth of medicago population came out from our analysis that may be used as a biological control threshold for the enhancement of crop productivity.

Changes in organic - C, N, P and K and enzyme activities in vermicompost of biodegradable organic wastes under liming and microbial inoculants.

The aim of this work was to study the effect of different organic wastes, viz. cow dung, grass, aquatic weeds and municipal solid waste with lime and microbial inoculants on chemical and biochemical properties of vermicompost. Cow dung was the best substrate for vermicomposting. Application of lime (5 g/kg) and inoculation of microorganisms increased the nutrient content in vermicompost and also phosphatases and urease activities. Bacillus polymyxa, the free-living N-fixer, increased N-content of vermicompost significantly (p < or = 0.01) as compared to other inoculants.