Determinants of Antenatal Care Visits in Bangladesh: A Quantile Regression Analysis.

Background: Maternal and infant mortality is a major problem in a developing country like Bangladesh and these deaths are mostly related to incomplete antenatal care (ANC) visits. Adequate ANC visits for women are crucial in controlling maternal and infant mortality. Aims: To investigate factors associated with ANC visits among women of reproductive age (15-49) in Bangladesh using the Bangladesh Demographic Health Survey 2017-2018 (BDHS) data. Methods: This study included 5012 respondents, of whom 2414 women (48.2%) were complete ANC visits and 2598 women (51.8%) were incomplete ANC visits. Quantile regression was used for analysis indicating that the effects of different covariates functioned differently across the utilization of antenatal care visits. The results revealed the women's educational level, birth order number, sex of household head, and wealth index were highly significant on the lower, middle, and higher quantiles of the number of incomplete ANC visits. Besides, in the higher quantiles (for example, 75% quantile), the place of residence was highly significant. For division variables, Rajshahi, Rangpur, and Khulna were highly significant in lower and middle quantiles, while Dhaka, Khulna, Mymensingh, and Rajshahi were insignificant in higher quantiles. Conclusions: This study observed that education, wealth index, birth order of children, and place of residence are associated with utilization of ANC visits and significantly influence maternal mortality. These determinations can help healthcare programmers and policymakers to take appropriate policies and programs for complete antennal care visits among pregnant women in Bangladesh. In order to increase the number of ANC visits among women, it is necessary to establish a mutually coordinated and trusting relationship between the government, non-governmental organizations and NGOs.

Clinically proven natural products, vitamins and mineral in boosting up immunity: A comprehensive review.

Background: and Purposes: The terminology "immune boost-up" was the talk of the topic in this Covid-19 pandemic. A significant number of the people took initiative to increase the body's defense capacity through boosting up immunity worldwide. Considering this, the study was designed to explain the natural products, vitamins and mineral that were proved by clinical trail as immunity enhancer. Methods: Information was retrieved from SciVerse Scopus ® (Elsevier Properties S. A, USA), Web of Science® (Thomson Reuters, USA), and PubMed based on immunity, nutrients, natural products in boosting up immunity, minerals and vitamins in boosting up immunity, and immune booster agents. Result: A well-defined immune cells response provide a-well functioning defense system for the human physiological system. Cells of the immune system must require adequate stimulation so that these cells can prepare themselves competent enough to fight against any unintended onslaught. Several pharmacologically active medicinal plants and plants derived probiotics or micronutrients have played a pivotal role in enhancing the immune boost-up process. Their role has been well established from the previous study. Immune stimulating cells, especially cells of acquired immunity are closely associated with the immune-boosting up process because all the immunological reactions and mechanisms are mediated through these cells. Conclusion: This article highlighted the mechanism of action of different natural products, vitamins and mineral in boosting up the immunity of the human body and strengthening the body's defense system. Therefore, it is recommended that until the specific immune-boosting drugs are available in pharma markets, anyone can consider the mentioned products as dietary supplements to boost up the immunity.

Abundance, characteristics, and ecological risks of microplastics in the riverbed sediments around Dhaka city.

Microplastic (MP) pollution has become an escalating problem in Bangladesh due to its rapid urbanization, economic growth, and excessive use of plastics; however, data on MP pollution from fresh water resources in this country are limited. This study investigated microplastics pollution in riverbed sediments in the peripheral rivers of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. Twenty-eight sediment samples were collected from the selected stations of the Buriganga, Turag, and Balu Rivers. Density separation and wet-peroxidation methods were employed to extract MP particles. Attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy was used to identify the polymers. The results indicated a medium-level abundance of MPs in riverbed sediment in comparison with the findings of other studies in freshwater sediments worldwide. Film shape, white and transparent color, and large-size (1-5 mm) MPs were dominant in the riverbed sediment. The most abundant polymers were polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), and polyethylene terephthalate (PET). Pollution load index (PLI) values greater than 1 were observed, indicating that all sampling sites were polluted with MPs. An assessment of ecological risks, using the abundance, polymer types, and toxicity of MPs in the sediment samples, suggested a medium to very high ecological risk of MP pollution of the rivers. The increased abundance of MPs and the presence of highly hazardous polymers, namely; polyurethane, acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, polyvinyl chloride, epoxy resin, and polyphenylene sulfide, were associated with higher ecological risks. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis indicated that the MPs were subjected to weathering actions, reducing the size of MPs, which caused additional potential ecological hazards in these river ecosystems. This investigation provides baseline information on MP pollution in riverine freshwater ecosystems for further in-depth studies of risk assessment and developing strategies for controlling MP pollution in Bangladesh.

Effect of sizes of vinyl modified narrow-dispersed silica cross-linker on the mechanical properties of acrylamide based hydrogel.

Polymeric hydrogel with the incorporation of nano to submicro-meter sized materials forms an exhilarating new generation of composite hydrogels. Most of the applications of hydrogels are in aqueous environments in which they swell to a very high degree. This emanates from low density of the polymer chains, making them highly inferior in terms of physical strength and their prospective applications. In order to address the weak mechanical properties, hydrogels have successfully prepared with high tensile strength and toughness by reinforcing the acrylamide (AAm) network with 3-methacryloxypropyltrimethoxysilane (MPTS) modified silica particles (MSiO2) as chemical cross-linker. The MSiO2 cross-linkers are prepared from narrow-dispersed silica particles (SiO2) of 100 nm, 200 nm, and 300 nm diameters to investigate the effect of cross-linker sizes on the mechanical strengths of hydrogels. The presence of MSiO2 remarkably increases the stretching ability and toughness of hydrogels compared to conventional hydrogels. The tensile strength, toughness, and Young's modulus of the hydrogel decrease from 30 to 11 kPa, 409 to 231 kJ/m3, and 0.16 to 0.11 kPa, respectively, while the SiO2 particle size increase from 100 to 300 nm and the concentration of AAm and MSiO2 (%) are kept constant. The compressive strength and toughness of the hydrogel decrease from 34 to 18 kPa and 6 to 4 kJ/m3, respectively, but the Young's modulus increases from 0.11 to 0.19 kPa. This work is excellent proof of regulating mechanical strength of hydrogel by adjusting the particle size of MSiO2 cross-linkers.

A review on Impact of dietary interventions, drugs, and traditional herbal supplements on the gut microbiome.

The gut microbiome is the community of healthy, and infectious organisms in the gut and its interaction in the host gut intestine (GI) environment. The balance of microbial richness with beneficial microbes is very important to perform healthy body functions like digesting food, controlling metabolism, and precise immune function. Alternately, this microbial dysbiosis occurs due to changes in the physiochemical condition, substrate avidity, and drugs. Moreover, various categories of diet such as "plant-based", "animal-based", "western", "mediterranean", and various drugs (antibiotic and common drugs) also contribute to maintaining microbial flora inside the gut. The imbalance (dysbiosis) in the microbiota of the GI tract can cause several disorders (such as diabetes, obesity, cancer, inflammation, and so on). Recently, the major interest is to use prebiotic, probiotic, postbiotic, and herbal supplements to balance such microbial community in the GI tract. But, there has still a large gap in understanding the microbiome function, and its relation to the host diet, drugs, and herbal supplements to maintain the healthy life of the host. So, the present review is about the updates on the microbiome concerns related to diet, drug, and herbal supplements, and also gives research evidence to improve our daily habits regarding diet, drugs, and herbal supplements. Because our regular dietary plan and traditional herbal supplements can improve our health by balancing the bacteria in our gut.

Low-cost informational intervention reduced drinking water arsenic exposure in Bangladesh.

Thirty million Bangladeshis continue to drink water with unacceptable levels of arsenic (>10 µg/L), resulting in a large public health burden. The vast majority of the Bangladeshi population relies on private wells, and less than 12% use piped water, increasing the complexity of mitigation efforts. While mass testing and informational campaigns were successful in the early 2,000 s, they have received little attention in recent years, even though the number of wells in the country has likely more than doubled. We investigated the effect of a low-cost (

Genetic association in CYP3A4 and CYP3A5 genes elevate the risk of prostate cancer.

BACKGROUND: CYP3A4 and CYP3A5 are biologically potential genes responsible for prostate cancer. AIM: We aimed to analyse the expression and association of CYP3A4 and CYP3A5 genes in prostate cancer. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Web-based bioinformatics tools were used to assess the association of CYP3A4 and CYP3A5 genes with prostate cancer risks. A case-control study of 210 prostate cancer cases and 207 controls was also approved to determine the allelic variants of the CYP3A4 gene- rs2740574 (CYP3A4*1B) and the variant of CYP3A5 gene-rs776746 (CYP3A5*3) using Polymerase Chain Reaction-Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (PCR-RFLP). The risk of prostate cancer was estimated as odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) using unrestricted logistic regression models. RESULTS: Our in silico data confirmed that both CYP3A4 and CYP3A5 genes are significantly associated with higher prostate cancer risks. In the case of CYP3A4*1B polymorphism, the heterozygote (*1 A/*1B), mutant (*1B/*1B), and combined heterozygote plus mutant (*1A/*1B+*1B/*1B) genotypes showed 3.52-fold, 3.90-fold, and 3.67-fold increased risk of prostate cancer, respectively. In the case of CYP3A5*3 polymorphism, the heterozygote (*1/*3), mutant (*3/*3), and combined (*1/*3+*3/*3) genotypes were found to be significantly associated with 5.11-, 5.49-, and 5.28-fold greater risk of prostate cancer, respectively. CONCLUSION: Our results indicate that CYP3A4*1B and CYP3A5*3 are significantly associated with increased prostate cancer risk.KEY MESSAGESBioinformatics tools were used and concluded that the CYP3A4 and CYP3A5 genes were significantly associated with the development and progression of prostate cancer.CYP3A4 and CYP3A5 polymorphisms were significantly associated with an increased risk of prostate cancer.Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR)-Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (RFLP) was used to estimate polymorphisms of prostate cancer progression in the Bangladeshi population.

Role of H2 receptor blocker famotidine over the clinical recovery of COVID-19 patients: A randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a global pandemic putting the population at a high risk of infection-related health hazards, mortality and a potential failure of proper medical therapies. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate the potential use of the existing drugs that could be used as options for the medical management of COVID-19 patients. AIM: To evaluate the role of the H2 receptor blocker "famotidine" in COVID-19 illness. METHODS: This study was done on seriously ill COVID-19 patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) from different institutes in Bangladesh. Patients were divided into famotidine treatment group "A" (famotidine 40 mg to 60 mg oral formulation every 8 h with other treatment as given), and control group "B" (treatment as given). National early warning score (NEWS)-2, and sequential organ failure assessment day-1 score was calculated to evaluate the outcome. Outcomes were evaluated by the time required for clinical improvement, characterized as duration required from enrollment to the achievement of NEWS-2 of ≤ 2 maintained for 24 h; time to symptomatic recovery, defined as the duration in days (from randomization) required for the recovery of the COVID-19 symptoms; mortality rate; duration of ICU and hospital stay; total period of hospitalization; the rate of supplementary oxygen requirement; the computed tomography (CT) chest recovery (%), the time required for the viral clearance and "NEWS-2" on discharge. RESULTS: A total of 208 patients were enrolled in this study with 104 patients in each group. The famotidine treatment group had comparatively better recovery of 75% and a low mortality of 25% than the control with a recovery of 70% and a mortality of 30%. Duration of clinical improvement (group A 9.53 d, group B 14.21 d); hospitalization period among the recovered patients (group A 13.04 d, group B 16.31 d), pulmonary improvement in chest CT (group A 21.7%, group B 13.2%), and the time for viral clearance (group A 20.7 d, group B 23.8 d) were found to be statistically significant P ≤ 0.05. However, the Kaplan Meier survival test was not significant among the two study groups, P = 0.989. CONCLUSION: According to our study, treatment with famotidine achieved a better clinical outcome compared to the control group in severe COVID-19 illness, although no significant survival benefit was found.

Efficacy and Outcome of Remdesivir and Tocilizumab Combination Against Dexamethasone for the Treatment of Severe COVID-19: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Objective: In this study, we investigated the efficacy and safety of remdesivir and tocilizumab combination therapy against dexamethasone for the management of severe COVID-19 patients. Methods: This was a multicenter study. Cases were randomly chosen and divided into two groups using an odd-even ratio of 1:1 applied to the hospital registration number. Group A received remdesivir [5 mg/kg (<40 kg) or 200 mg (>40 kg) on day 1 and then 2.5 mg/kg (<40 kg) or 100 mg (>40 kg) daily] + tocilizumab [8 mg/kg up to 800 mg highest 12 h apart], and group B was the control and received dexamethasone 6 mg/day. In addition, a broad-spectrum antibiotic and other essential treatments were received by all patients. To evaluate the mortality risk, the sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA) score was calculated on day-1. Treatment outcomes were measured as time to clinical improvement; mortality rate; duration of ICU stay; total period of hospitalization; the rate of (Supplementary Material) oxygen use; time to clinical failure; National Early Warning Score-2 (NEWS), and the percentage of lung recovery on CT of chest on discharge. Clinical trial registration ID: NCT04678739. Results: Remdesivir-Tocilizumab group had a lower mortality rate (25.49%) than the control (30.77%). The time to clinical improvement (Group A-9.41; B-14.21 days), NEWS-2 on discharge (Group A-0.89; B-1.2), duration of ICU stay (Group A-7.68; B-10.58), and duration of hospitalization (Group A-9.91; B-14.68) were less in the treatment group. Group A had a better percentage of lung recovery on chest CT than the control (Group A-22.13; B-11.74). All these differences were statistically significant (p= <0.05) in a t-test. However, no significant survival benefit was found among the study groups in Kaplan-Meier survival analysis, p = 0.739. Conclusion: The remdesivir-tocilizumab combination had preferable outcomes compared to the dexamethasone therapy for the treatment of severe COVID-19 concerning mortality rate and clinical and pulmonary improvement, although it did not demonstrate a significant survival benefit. Clinical Trial Registration: https://clinicaltrials.gov, NCT04678739.

Effects of Green Tea (-)-Epigallocatechin-3-Gallate (EGCG) on Cardiac Function - A Review of the Therapeutic Mechanism and Potentials.

Heart disease, the leading cause of death worldwide, refers to various illnesses that affect heart structure and function. Specific abnormalities affecting cardiac muscle contractility and remodeling and common factors including oxidative stress, inflammation, and apoptosis underlie the pathogenesis of heart diseases. Epidemiology studies have associated green tea consumption with lower morbidity and mortality from cardiovascular diseases, including heart and blood vessel dysfunction. Among the various compounds found in green tea, catechins are believed to play a significant role in producing benefits to cardiovascular health. Comprehensive literature reviews have been published to summarize the tea catechins' antioxidative, anti-inflammatory, and anti-apoptosis effects in various diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases, cancers, and metabolic diseases. However, recent studies on tea catechins, especially the most abundant (-)-Epigallocatechin-3-Gallate (EGCG), revealed their capabilities in regulating cardiac muscle contraction by directly altering myofilament Ca2+ sensitivity on force development and Ca2+ ion handling in cardiomyocytes under both physiological and pathological conditions. In vitro and in vivo data also demonstrated that green tea extract or EGCG protected or rescued cardiac function, independent of their well-known effects against oxidative stress and inflammation. This mini-review will focus on the specific effects of tea catechins on heart muscle contractility at the molecular and cellular level, revisit their effects on oxidative stress and inflammation in various heart diseases, and discuss EGCG's potential as one of the lead compounds for new drug discovery for heart diseases.

High prevalence of vancomycin non-susceptible and multi-drug resistant enterococci in farmed animals and fresh retail meats in Bangladesh.

The emergence of antimicrobial resistant Enterococcus spp., a main cause of untreatable nosocomial infection, in food animals and dissemination to humans is a public health risk. The study was performed to determine the prevalence and antimicrobial resistance, and virulence characteristics of Enterococcus faecalis and Enterococcus faecium in food animals and meats in Bangladesh. Enterococcus spp., were confirmed using sodA gene specific PCR, and antimicrobial resistance and virulence properties were characterized by PCR. Enterococcus spp. were recovered from 57% of the collected samples (n = 201/352). Farm samples yielded significantly higher (p ≤ 0.05) prevalence (62%) than that of retail meat samples (41%). E. faecalis (52%) is most frequently isolated species. Greater proportions of isolates exhibited resistance to tetracycline (74%), erythromycin (65%) and ciprofloxacin (34%). Fifty-one isolates are vancomycin non-susceptible enterococci (VNSE), of which forty-seven are MDR and twenty are linezolid resistant, a last line drug for VNSE. Virulence factors such as gelatinase (gelE), aggregation factor (asa1) and sex pheromone (cpd) are detected along with vancomycin resistance gene (vanA, vanB and vanC2/C3) in VNSE isolates. The high prevalence of MDR enterococci in food animals and retail meats may cause consumers infections with concomitant reduction of available therapeutic options.

Amassing the Covid-19 driven PPE wastes in the dwelling environment of Chittagong Metropolis and associated implications.

This study investigates the Covid-19 driven indiscriminate disposal of PPE wastes (mostly face mask and medical wastes) in Chittagong metropolitan area (CMA), Bangladesh. Based on the field monitoring, the mean PPE density (PPE/m2± SD) was calculated to be 0.0226 ± 0.0145, 0.0164 ± 0.0122, and 0.0110 ± 0.00863 for July, August, and September 2021, respectively (during the peak time of Covid-19 in Bangladesh). Moreover, gross information on PPE waste generation in the city was calculated using several parameters such as population density, face mask acceptance rate by urban population, total Covid-19 confirmed cases, quarantined and isolated patients, corresponding medical waste generation rate (kg/bed/day), etc. Moreover, the waste generated due to face mask and other PPEs in the CMA during the whole Covid-19 period (April 4, 2020 to September 5, 2021) were calculated to be 64183.03 and 128695.75 tons, respectively. It has been observed that the negligence of general people, lack of awareness about environmental pollution, and poor municipal waste management practices are the root causes for the contamination of the dwelling environment by PPE wastes. As a result, new challenges have emerged in solid waste management, which necessitates the development of an appropriate waste management strategy. The ultimate policies and strategies may help to achieve the SDG goals 3, 6, 11, 12, 13, and 15, and increase public perception on the use and subsequent disposal of PPEs, especially face masks.

PPE pollution in the terrestrial and aquatic environment of the Chittagong city area associated with the COVID-19 pandemic and concomitant health implications.

The present study focuses on the indiscriminate disposal of personal protective equipment (PPEs) and resulting environmental contamination during the 3rd wave of COVID-19-driven global pandemic in the Chittagong metropolitan area, Bangladesh. Because of the very high rate of infection by the delta variant of this virus, the use of PPEs by the public is increased significantly to protect the ingestion/inhalation of respiratory droplets in the air. However, it is a matter of solicitude that general people throw away the PPEs to the dwelling environment unconsciously. With the increase of inappropriate disposal of PPEs (i.e., mostly the disposable face masks made from plastic microfibers), the possibility of transmission of the virus to the general public cannot be neglected completely. This is because this virus can survive for several days on the inanimate matter like plastics and fibers. At the same time, the result of environmental contamination by microplastic/microfiber has been widespread which eventually creates the worst impact on ecosystems and organisms. The present results may help to increase public perception of the use and subsequent disposal of PPEs, especially the face masks.

Convolutional Embedded Networks for Population Scale Clustering and Bio-Ancestry Inferencing.

The study of genetic variants (GVs) can help find correlating population groups and to identify cohorts that are predisposed to common diseases and explain differences in disease susceptibility and how patients react to drugs. Machine learning techniques are increasingly being applied to identify interacting GVs to understand their complex phenotypic traits. Since the performance of a learning algorithm not only depends on the size and nature of the data but also on the quality of underlying representation, deep neural networks (DNNs) can learn non-linear mappings that allow transforming GVs data into more clustering and classification friendly representations than manual feature selection. In this paper, we propose convolutional embedded networks (CEN) in which we combine two DNN architectures called convolutional embedded clustering (CEC) and convolutional autoencoder (CAE) classifier for clustering individuals and predicting geographic ethnicity based on GVs, respectively. We employed CAE-based representation learning to 95 million GVs from the '1000 genomes' (covering 2,504 individuals from 26 ethnic origins) and 'Simons genome diversity' (covering 279 individuals from 130 ethnic origins) projects. Quantitative and qualitative analyses with a focus on accuracy and scalability show that our approach outperforms state-of-the-art approaches such as VariantSpark and ADMIXTURE. In particular, CEC can cluster targeted population groups in 22 hours with an adjusted rand index (ARI) of 0.915, the normalized mutual information (NMI) of 0.92, and the clustering accuracy (ACC) of 89 percent. Contrarily, the CAE classifier can predict the geographic ethnicity of unknown samples with an F1 and Mathews correlation coefficient (MCC) score of 0.9004 and 0.8245, respectively. Further, to provide interpretations of the predictions, we identify significant biomarkers using gradient boosted trees (GBT) and SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP). Overall, our approach is transparent and faster than the baseline methods, and scalable for 5 to 100 percent of the full human genome.

Fabrication and characterization of stretchable denim fabric using core spun yarn.

This study aimed to investigate the effect of extensibility on cotton blended polyester-spandex core-spun yarn in the weft direction of 3/1 right-handed Z-twill denim. For the preparation of samples, 100% ring spun cotton yarn of 42 tex (14s/1 Ne) was used as warp, and 70:30, 30:70, 60:40, and 40:60 cotton-polyester core-spun yarn of 30 tex (20s/1) was used in the weft direction. Four categories of denim fabric were fabricated by using the air-jet weaving machine. Spandex yarn was used as a core material of weft with a percentage of 2%, 2.5%, 1.9%, and 1.8% respectively. Different physio-mechanical characteristics namely tensile and tearing strength, GSM, growth and recovery percentage, initial modulus, bending length, drape co-efficiency, abrasion resistance, flexural rigidity were evaluated to justify the quality of fabricated pieces of denim. Water wicking and breathability were taken into consideration when determining comfort. Higher cotton containing specimens exhibited lower tensile and tearing strength. Additionally, the produced denim fabrics showed balanced drapability and good breathability.

Coronavirus disease 2019 and future pandemics: Impacts on livestock health and production and possible mitigation measures.

The World Health Organization declared coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) a pandemic on March 11, 2020. COVID-19, the current global health emergency, is wreaking havoc on human health systems and, to a lesser degree, on animals globally. The outbreak has continued since the first report of COVID-19 in China in December 2019, and the second and third waves of the outbreak have already begun in several countries. COVID-19 is expected to have adverse effects on crop production, food security, integrated pest control, tourism, the car industry, and other sectors of the global economy. COVID-19 induces a range of effects in livestock that is reflected economically since human health and livelihood are intertwined with animal health. We summarize the potentially harmful effects of COVID-19 on livestock and possible mitigation steps in response to this global outbreak. Mitigation of the negative effects of COVID-19 and future pandemics on livestock requires the implementation of current guidelines.

Prevalence of anemia and associated risk factors among pregnant women attending antenatal care in Bangladesh: a cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Anemia has created attention worldwide because of its adverse effects on the mother and the fetus during pregnancy. A large body of evidence has shown that pregnant women are the most vulnerable group to anemia. OBJECTIVES: This study aims to determine the prevalence of anemia, and associated risk factors, among pregnant women attending antenatal care (ANC) at government and private hospitals in Bangladesh. METHODS: This cross-sectional study included 424 pregnant women, who visited hospitals for ANC from January to July 2019. We used a simple random sampling technique to select study subjects. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire and participant's current medical record cards. SPSS software was used for analyzing data. RESULTS: The prevalence of anemia was 62.5% and significantly (P < 0.001) higher in the subjects attending ANC in government hospitals (68.7%) than in private (55.0%) hospitals. The prevalence of the severity of anemia was 28.3% mild, 36.9% moderate, and 3.40% severe in government hospitals while in private hospitals was 14.7% mild, 39.8% moderate, and 0.5% severe anemia. Anemia was significantly associated with maternal age 20-25 years [adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 1.9] and 26-30 years (AOR = 2.37), monthly family income (300-500) US$ (AOR = 2.76), and ANC in government hospitals (AOR = 2.02), the parity [multiparous (AOR = 1.92)], gravidity [multigravid (AOR = 1.63)], contraception [no contraception (AOR = 2.50), and iron supplement [no iron supplement (AOR = 0.64). CONCLUSIONS: The result suggests that pregnant women should receive routine ANC and recognize iron supplementation during pregnancy. Finally, the results of this study are particularly relevant for pregnant women who are receiving ANC.

Risk Areas for Influenza A(H5) Environmental Contamination in Live Bird Markets, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

We evaluated the presence of influenza A(H5) virus environmental contamination in live bird markets (LBMs) in Dhaka, Bangladesh. By using Bernoulli generalized linear models and multinomial logistic regression models, we quantified LBM-level factors associated with market work zone-specific influenza A(H5) virus contamination patterns. Results showed higher environmental contamination in LBMs that have wholesale and retail operations compared with retail-only markets (relative risk 0.69, 95% 0.51-0.93; p = 0.012) and in March compared with January (relative risk 2.07, 95% CI 1.44-2.96; p<0.001). Influenza A(H5) environmental contamination remains a public health problem in most LBMs in Dhaka, which underscores the need to implement enhanced biosecurity interventions in LBMs in Bangladesh.

Exploitation of seawater for cotton and polyester fabrics colouration.

Water is the ultimate and mostly used media during textile materials processing, especially in colouration. This study investigated the possibilities of using seawater for cotton and polyester fabrics dyeing. Single jersey fabrics made of 100 percent cotton and polyester were dyed using a standard recipe and two separate water source as dyeing mediums. It has been focused on the assessment of colour fastness to wash, perspiration, saliva, rubbing, water, light and colour difference value due to compare the efficiency of dyeing media. The results revealed that the cotton fabric dyed with seawater showed lighter shade than that of ground water sample. But for polyester fabric darker shade was obtained compared to ground water. The cotton sample dyed with sea water carried about 15% higher colour strength than ground water dyed sample but for polyester it was very negligible, only 3%. Moreover, the results of colour fastness to wash, perspiration, saliva, rubbing, water and light for seawater dyed samples of cotton and polyester were shown satisfactory outcomes having the grading of 4-5 in most of the cases. This exploration established that commercial dyeing processes were robust and can be practically transferable into the seawater medium for cotton and polyester fabrics.