Assessing Barriers for Delayed Antenatal Care Services among Tribal Women of Bangladesh

@#Introduction The time to start Antenatal Care (ANC) check-up is very significant because it determines the way to resolve complications and remedies during pregnancy. Different parameters play important roles in participating ANC in a society. A global consensus gives us the idea that most tribal people living in remote areas are far from basic needs related to education, employment, and affordable healthcare. The study aimed to delve into delayed ANC practices and the factors affecting the decision to receive ANC among tribal women dwelling in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) of Bangladesh. Methods This paper is a quantitative study. Interview schedule or questionnaire was mainly used as an instrument for data collection from 556 married women having babies for less than one year. Multinomial logistic regression was performed to determine significant factors related to the time of the introduction of ANC. Results Only 16.4% of the women had started to receive ANC in the early stage of pregnancy (≤3 months) and 13.5%, after three months (delayed ANC) of their pregnancies. 70% did not seek ANC. The result found that one-third (29.9%) of the pregnant women wanted ANC from a trained doctor, but only 16.4% initiated attendance within three months of the pregnancy. Conclusions The study results suggest that specific efforts are needed to advance the socio-economic status of the tribal people; they need to increase the educational level of women and their husbands, build their nearest health centers, and strengthen family planning programs.

Subjective Variables have no Impact on Subjective Well-being of Polices.

The purpose of the present study was to see whether subjective variables have any impact on subjective well-being of police population. Six subjective variables were measured such as job position (job rank), marital status, selfreported socioeconomic status, educational qualification, career interest, and staying with family were included in the study. Among these variables job position and educational qualification varied in 4 ways and other four variables varied in 2 ways. The multivariate and univariate test results indicate that the main effects of each of these variables, and their interaction effects were all non-significant. Thus subjective variables are not important determinants of subjective well-being of polices.

Protective effects of Moringa oleifera Lam. leaves against arsenic-induced toxicity in mice

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To evaluate the protective role of leaves of Moringa oleifera (M. oleifera) Lam. against arsenic-induced toxicity in mice.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Swiss albino male mice were divided into four groups. The first group was used as non-treated control group while, the second, third, and fourth groups were treated with M. oleifera leaves (50 mg/kg body weight per day), sodium arsenite (10 mg/kg body weight per day) and sodium arsenite plus M. oleifera leaves, respectively. Serum indices related to cardiac, liver and renal functions were analyzed to evaluate the protective effect of Moringa leaves on arsenic-induced effects in mice.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>It revealed that food supplementation of M. oleifera leaves abrogated the arsenic-induced elevation of triglyceride, glucose, urea and the activities of alkaline phospatase, aspartate aminotransferase and alanine aminotransferase in serum. M. oleifera leaves also prevented the arsenic-induced perturbation of serum butyryl cholinesterase activity, total cholesterol and high density lipoprotein cholesterol.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>The results indicate that the leaves of M. oleifera may be useful in reducing the effects of arsenic-induced toxicity.</p>

Nutritional status among the children of age group 5-14 years in selected arsenic exposed and non-exposed areas of Bangladesh

To assess and compare the nutritional status of children aged 5-14 years in arsenic exposed and non- exposed areas. It was a cross sectional study conducted on 600 children of age 5-14 years from arsenic exposed and non-exposed areas in Bangladesh. Designed questionnaire and check list were used for collection of data. To estimate BMI necessary anthropometric measurements of the studied children were done. Dietary intakes of the study children were assessed using 24-hours recall method. The difference of socio-economic conditions between the children of exposed area and non-exposed area was not significant. On an average the body mass index was found to be significantly [p < 0.01] lower among the children of arsenic exposed area [49%] in comparison to that of children in non-exposed area [38%]. Stunting [p < 0.01], wasting [p < 0.05] and underweight [p < 0.05] were significantly higher in exposed group in comparison to non-exposed group. No significant difference of nutrition intake was found between exposed and non-exposed children as well as thin and normal children. In this study children exposed to arsenic contaminated water were found to be suffered from lower nutritional status

Study characteristics of juvenile diabetes mellitus cases in Bangladesh

Objective: To identify the proportion and some selected characteristics of juvenile diabetics attending BIRDEM hospital

Materials and Methods: This was a cross sectional study. The study was conducted in the BIRDEM hospital. All Diabetic young aged up to 18 years who visit BIRDEM hospital were included in study population. The sample size was 240

Results: It was observed that among the respondents 43.3% were protein deficient pancreatic diabetes [PDPD], 30.8% were Type-1 diabetes, 20% were fibro-calculus pancreatic diabetes [FCPD] and remaining 5.8% were Type-2 diabetes. Family history of diabetes was found among one-fifth of the respondents. It was found that majority 86.4% of Type-1 diabetes were presented in early age < 10 years in contrast to Type-2 diabetes 4.5%, PDPD 9.1% and FCPD 0.0%. It was found that 50% of type-1 diabetes patient and 17.6% of Type-2 diabetes patient were from urban area and 24.5% of FCDP patient and 52.8% of PDPD patient were from rural areas. It was observed that Type-1 and Type-2 diabetes were associated with the family history of diabetes mellitus than FCPD and PDPD. Severe underweight and sever stunted was significantly higher among the protein deficient diabetes mellitus compare to Type-2 diabetes

Conclusion: Juvenile diabetes is emerging health problem in modern era. Like old population the incidence of juvenile diabetes is increasing day by day. It is time for the health planner to prevent and control the disease; otherwise it will be major problem after a decade

Assessment of Microbial Load in Made Tea and Antimicrobial Property of Made Tea Infusion

This study aimed to find out that a cup of tea is or is not safe for human health from microbial contamination and to point out the antimicrobial property of made tea liquor. Different made tea brands were collected randomly from different super shop of Dhaka city. The Association of Official Agricultural Chemists (AOAC), 2005 was used as official methods of analysis. The Standard Plate Count (SPC) technique was used for total microbial load, yeast and fungal count. Most Probable Number (MPN) technique was used for the enumeration of coliform in tea samples. Bacteria, yeast, mould and coliform were observed before and after boiling in all studied the samples. Before boiling, total microbial load and coliform were found at significantly higher of its’ acceptable limit (p0.05). After boiling, only coliform was observed significantly higher in all except Tetley tea at its’ non-acceptable limit (p<0.05). Fecal coliform was not present at every stage of this study. Made tea liquor has shown to have antimicrobial property. Boiling in tea preparation and its’ liquor antimicrobial property considerably reduced the level of microbial load to safe level for public consumption.

Phytochemical screening and antimicrobial activity of Coccinia cordifolia L. plant

The medicinal plant, Coccinia cordifolia L. was analyzed for its chemical composition. The antimicrobial activities of the methanol, water, ethanol and ethyl acetate extracts of Coccinia cordifolia L. plant were evaluated against some Gram positive bacteria [Sarcina lutea, Bacillus subtilis and Staphylococcus aureus], Gram negative bacteria [Salmonella typhi, Shigella dysenteriae and Escherichia coli] and fungi [Candida albicans, Aspergillus niger and Penicillium notatum]. Chemical analysis showed that the plant is rich in nutrients, especially antioxidant compounds such as total phenol, vitamin C and beta-carotene. Phytochemical screening showed that the methanolic extract contains the bioactive constituents such as tannins, saponins, phenols, flavonoids and terpenoids. In the methanolic extract of the plant, promising antimicrobial potential was observed against the tested microorganism. Methanolic extract showed highest activity against Shigella dysenteriae, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, and Candida albicans compared to the other extracts. Water extract showed less antimicrobial activity as compared to other extractants

Efficient Mining of Interesting Patterns in Large Biological Sequences

Pattern discovery in biological sequences (e.g., DNA sequences) is one of the most challenging tasks in computational biology and bioinformatics. So far, in most approaches, the number of occurrences is a major measure of determining whether a pattern is interesting or not. In computational biology, however, a pattern that is not frequent may still be considered very informative if its actual support frequency exceeds the prior expectation by a large margin. In this paper, we propose a new interesting measure that can provide meaningful biological information. We also propose an efficient index-based method for mining such interesting patterns. Experimental results show that our approach can find interesting patterns within an acceptable computation time.

An Efficient Approach to Mining Maximal Contiguous Frequent Patterns from Large DNA Sequence Databases

Mining interesting patterns from DNA sequences is one of the most challenging tasks in bioinformatics and computational biology. Maximal contiguous frequent patterns are preferable for expressing the function and structure of DNA sequences and hence can capture the common data characteristics among related sequences. Biologists are interested in finding frequent orderly arrangements of motifs that are responsible for similar expression of a group of genes. In order to reduce mining time and complexity, however, most existing sequence mining algorithms either focus on finding short DNA sequences or require explicit specification of sequence lengths in advance. The challenge is to find longer sequences without specifying sequence lengths in advance. In this paper, we propose an efficient approach to mining maximal contiguous frequent patterns from large DNA sequence datasets. The experimental results show that our proposed approach is memory-efficient and mines maximal contiguous frequent patterns within a reasonable time.

Evaluation of antitumour activity of Calotropis gigantea L. root bark against Ehrlich ascites carcinoma in Swiss albino mice

OBJECTIVE@#To investigate experimentally the possible antitumor effect of methanol extract (ME) of Calotropis gigantea L. (C. gigantean) root bark and its petroleum ether (PEF) and chloroform (CF) soluble fractions against Ehrlich ascites carcinoma (EAC) in Swiss albino mice.@*METHODS@#The effects of ME (10 and 20 mg/kg), PEF (40 and 80 mg/kg) and CF (20 and 40 mg/kg) on the growth of EAC and life span of EAC bearing mice were studied. Hematological profile and biochemical parameters (SALP, SGPT and SGOT) were also estimated.@*RESULTS@#Results of in vivo study showed a significant decrease in viable tumor cell count and a significant increase of life span in the ME and CF treated group compared to untreated one. The life span of ME and CF treated animals was significantly (P<0.05) increased by 43.90% (20 mg ME/kg) and 57.07% (40 mg CF/kg). ME and CF brought back the hematological parameter more or less normal level. ME and CF also restored the altered levels of serum alkaline phosphatase (SALP) and serum glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase (SGOT).@*CONCLUSIONS@#Methanol extract (ME) of C. gigantea root bark and its chloroform soluble fraction (CF) possesses significant antitumor activity.

Inhibition of Ehrlich ascites carcinoma by Manilkara zapota L. stem bark in Swiss albino mice

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To evaluate the antitumor activity of Manilkara zapota (M. zapota) L. stem bark against Ehrlich ascites carcinoma (EAC) in Swiss albino mice.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The in vivo antitumour activity of the ethyl acetate extract of stem bark of M. zapota L. (EASM) was evaluated at 50, 100 and 200 mg/kg bw against EAC using mean survival time. After administration of the extract of M. zapota, viable EAC cell count and body weight in the EAC tumour hosts were observed. The animal was also observed for improvement in the haematological parameters (e.g., heamoglobin content, red and white blood cells count and differential cell count) after EASM treatment.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Intraperitoneal administration of EASM reduced viable EAC cells, increased the survival time, and restored altered haematological parameters. Significant efficacy was observed for EASM at 100 mg/kg dose (P<0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>It can be concluded that the ethyl acetate extract of stem bark of M. zapota L. possesses significant antitumour activity.</p>

Tagetes erecta Linn. and its mosquitocidal potency against Culex quinquefasciatus

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate mosquitocidal effects of ethanolic extract of flowers of Tagetes erecta (T. erecta) and its chloroform and petroleum ether soluble fractions against the larvae of Culex quinquefasciatus (Cx. quinquefasciatus).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The fresh flowers of T. erecta were extracted in cold with ethanol (5.0 L) and after concentration, the ethanol extract was fractionated with chloroform and petroleum ether to afford a brownish syrupy suspension of ethanol extract (50.0 g), petroleum ether soluble fraction (18.6 g) and chloroform soluble fraction (23.8 g). The larvicidal effect of ethanol extract and their solvent fractions were determined by the standard procedure of WHO against different instars of Cx. quinquefasciatus.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Among the tested samples the chloroform soluble fractions showed the highest toxicity and consequently, the lowest LC50 values (14.14 µg/mL, 17.06 µg/mL, 36.88 µg/mL and 75.48 µg/mL) for all the instars larvae of Cx. quinquefasciatus. The larvae showed comparative tolerance in the course of increasing age and time.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>It can be concluded that the flowers of T. erecta are very effective natural larvicide and could be useful against Cx. quinquefasciatus.</p>

Antimicrobial and Cytotoxic Activity of Di-(2-ethylhexyl) Phthalate and Anhydrosophoradiol-3-acetate Isolated from Calotropis gigantea (Linn.) Flower

A phytochemical study on the flowe r of Calotropis gigantea (Linn.) using silica gel column chromatography and preparative thin layer chromatography, led to the first time isolation of Di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (compound 1) and anhydrosophoradiol-3-acetate (compound 2). The structures of these compounds were confirmed by spectroscopic analyses (IR, HRTOFMS and NMR). The antibacterial and antifungal activities of ethyl acetate extract, compound 1 and compound 2 were measured using the disc diffusion method. Ethyl acetate extract and compound 1 presented better results than compound 2. The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of the extract and compounds were found to be in the range of 16~128 microg/ml. The cytotoxicity (LC50) against brine shrimp nauplii (Artemia salina) were also evaluated and found to be 14.61 microg/ml for ethyl acetate, 9.19 microg/ml for compound 1 and 15.55 microg/ml for compound 2.

Antishigellosis and Cytotoxic Potency of Crude Extracts and Isolated Constituents from Duranta repens

The crude ethanol extracts (stem and fruits), their fractions and two triterpenes, beta-Amyrin and 12-Oleanene 3beta, 21beta-diol, isolated as a mixture from the chloroform soluble fraction of an ethanolic extract of Duranta repens stem, were evaluated for antibacterial, antifungal activities by the disc diffusion method and cytotoxicity by brine shrimp lethality bioassay. The structures of the two compounds were confirmed by IR, 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR and LC-MS spectral data. The chloroform soluble fraction of stem and ethanol extract of fruits possess potent antishigellosis activity and also exhibited moderate activity against some pathogenic bacteria and fungi but the isolated compound 1 (mixture of beta-Amyrin and 12-Oleanene 3beta, 21beta-diol) showed mild to moderate inhibitory activity to microbial growth. The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of the extracts (stem and fruits), their fractions and compound 1 were found to be in the range of 32~128 microg/ml. The chloroform soluble fractions of stem and ethanol extract of fruit showed significant cytotoxicity with LC50 value of 0.94 microg/ml and 0.49 microg/ml, respectively against brine shrimp larvae.

Toxicological evaluation of the root and stem bark extracts of madhuca indica

This research work was conducted with the root and stem bark of Madhuca indica to find out their toxicological properties employing Brine Shrimp Lethality Bioassay. It was found that the root and stem extracts of the plant contained some constituents that were toxic for the Brine Shrimp Nauplii. The ether and alcohol extracts may have cytotoxic properties as well as other pharmacological activities but the ethyl acetate extracts showed mild activity. The results were discussed with reference to the indication of using the plant extracts as anti-mutagenic agent and appeared to be well-supported by their chemical constituents

In vitro studies on antibacterial property of the root and stem bark extracts of oroxylum indicum

The antimicrobial properties of the bark extracts of Oroxylum indicum was investigated using agar diffusion method. In this study, eight pathogenic bacteria namely: Staphylococcus aureus. Streptococcus pyogenes, Vibrio cholerae. Salmonella typhi, Escherichia coli, Bacillus cereus, Shigella dysenteriae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa and one fungus, Candida albicans were selected. The ether extracts [EE] and alcohol extracts [AE] were found to be active against almost all of the bacteria and fungus tested. The ethyl acetate extract [EaE] of the root bark showed antimicrobial activity against four micro-organisms viz. Candida albicans, Shigella dysenteriae, Bacillus cereus and Streptococcus pyogenes but that of stem bark showed no activity against any of the micro-organisms. All the activities were compared by measuring the zone of inhibition with the standard antibiotic