Insights into the compositional and temperature-mediated magnetic characteristics of chromium-doped ZnO nanoparticles.

This study explores the influence of chromium content and temperature on the magnetic characteristics of ZnO synthesized via the cost-effective coprecipitation approach. The host ZnO structure is not significantly changed by chromium doping, even at 5 wt.% of chromium concentration, according to x-ray diffraction studies. The Zn-O characteristic stretching vibration band at 480 cm-1and the other functional group attached to the Cr-doped ZnO nanoparticles are confirmed by Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy studies. Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy analysis shows the interaction between chromium ions and ZnO causes bandgap narrowing, and the observed optical bandgap values fall as chromium content increases in the host ZnO matrix. Point defects such as zinc interstitial, zinc vacancy, and oxygen vacancy that exist in the Cr-doped ZnO nanoparticles are inveterate through photoluminescence spectroscopy. Vibrating sample magnetometry investigations reveal weak ferromagnetic behavior at low applied fields and diamagnetic signatures dominating at high applied fields in the Cr-doped ZnO nanoparticles at 300 K. The magnetic characteristics are also tunable in terms of temperatures, which opens new avenues for fabricating dilute magnetic semiconductors with various applications.

Comparative Study between Paracervical Block and Non-Steroidal Anti Inflammatory Drug for Relief of Pain during Manual Vacuum Aspiration Procedure.

The incidence of first trimester pregnancy loss is around 10.0-20.0% of registered pregnancies. Manual vacuum aspiration is a safe, effective and acceptable option of treatment for patients diagnosed with first trimester pregnancy loss. Main disadvantage of MVA is the pain caused by manipulation of the cervix, the uterine suction and the cervical dilatation. This study showed the way how the pain and discomfort might be reduced. This was a cross-sectional comparative study was conducted at the obstetrics and Gynecological Department of Sadar hospital, Manikganj, Bangladesh from January 2017 to December 2017. All the consecutive women admitted and diagnosed as incomplete abortion, missed abortion and anembryonic pregnancy (blighted ovum) were included in this study. Sampling technique was purposive sampling. The objective of this study was to compare the effectiveness of paracervical block anesthesia with non-steroidal anti inflammatory drug (NSAID) for relief of pain during the manual vacuum aspiration procedure for the treatment of first trimester pregnancy loss. Total 120 cases were included in this study. Assigned study population were divided into two groups like Group A and Group B. 60 of the study population were included in Group A who were given paracervical block anesthesia 3 minutes before the procedure. Another 60 study population was included in Group B who was given diclofenac 75mg intramuscular injection, 30 minutes before the procedure. Both intraoperative and postoperative pain level was evaluated by using visual analog scale ranged from (0-10 points) 30 minutes after the procedure. At the same time the satisfaction level of the study population were measured by 5 points lickert scale. Regarding clinical profile of the study population it showed no significant difference in case of mean age, mean gestational age and mean duration of the procedure between two groups. The mean intraoperative pain score in Group A was 4.0±1.3, in Group B it was 5.4±1.5 (p=0.001) which was significant. So it showed that paracervical block anesthesia significantly reduced the pain in relation to diclofenac 75mg intramuscular injection. Mean postoperative pain level 30 minutes after procedure in Group A was 2.2±0.4 and in Group B was 2.4±0.4 (p=0.343), where post-operative pain is lower in Group A than Group B. Though this difference is not statistically significant (p=0.343). In Group A 73.0% (n=44) and in Group B 43.0% (n=26) study population were agreed that the procedure was easy. Most common adverse effect was epigastric pain which was 1.7% (n=1) in Group A and 10.0% (n=7) in Group B. Paracervical block significantly reduces intraoperative pain during Manual Vacuum Aspiration (MVA) procedure in the treatment of first trimester pregnancy loss in comparison to intramuscular injection of diclofenac. In conclusion it might be mentioned that regarding paracervical block anesthesia, efficacy is higher and side effects are less. Moreover paracervical block anesthesia is cost effective.

Effect of Meconium Staining Amniotic Fluid on Fetal Outcome.

Meconium-stained amniotic fluid is the passage of meconium by a fetus in utero during the antenatal period or in labour. It has for long been considered to be a bad predictor of fetal distress and meconium aspiration syndrome (MAS). The objective of this study was to find out the fetal outcome of MSAF and clear amniotic fluid. This cross- sectional comparative study was carried out in Upazilla Health Complex, Palash, Narshingdi from July 2016 to June 2017. A total of 100 pregnant women among them 50 women with MSAF and 50 women with clear liquor were studied to see the record of ANC, mode of delivery and fetal outcome by APGAR score. Study showed that among MSAF group 76.0% (n=38) had irregular ANC and 24.0% (n=12) had regular ANC whereas in clear liquor 86.0% (n=43) had regular ANC 14.0% had irregular ANC. Among MSAF (50 cases) thick meconium was in 20 cases (40.0%) and thin meconium was in 30 cases (60.0%). Regarding mode of delivery 52.0% (n=26) MSAF cases had instrumental delivery and Caesarean section compared to 24.0% (n=12) in clear liquor group. Regarding thick MSAF among 40.0% (n=20), (n=14) had low APGAR score and (n=6) had normal score at one minute and (n=9) low APGAR score and (n=11) normal score at five minutes. In clear liquor, among 100.0% (n=50), 20.0% (n=10) had low APGAR score and 80.0% (n=40) had normal score at one-minute and at five minutes 8.0% (n=4) had low APGAR score and 92.0% (n=46) had normal score. Among MSAF 26.0% (n=13) were admitted to SCBU compare to 12.0% (n=6) in clear liquor group. The mean SCBU stay was 3.1 days in MSAF whereas 1.2 days in clear liquor. Among MSAF babies 4.0% (n=2) had MAS compared to no MAS in clear liquor group. Regarding Survivalist 92.0% (n=46) were alive in MSAF whereas 100.0% all (n=50) were alive in clear liquor group.

Phytochemical characterization by GC-MS and in vitro evaluation of antiproliferative and antimigratory studies of Leucas aspera leaf extracts on MDA-MB-231 cell line.

Breast cancer is the most recurrently identified and one of women's prominent causes of death. Currently, researchers have turned their focus on natural chemicals from synthetic chemicals due to their environmental, economic, and health benefits. Considering this, the medicinal plant Leucas aspera was chosen for the current study. The aim of this study was to isolate and characterize secondary metabolites from L. aspera and determine the antiproliferative and antimigratory activities in the MDA-MB-231 cell line under in vitro conditions. Phytochemicals from L. aspera were isolated through sequential extraction using hexane, dichloromethane, and ethyl acetate. These extracts were qualitatively screened, subjected to FT-IR, and analyzed using GC-MS. The antiproliferative activity was determined through the MTT assay. Scratch assay was utilized to determine the antimigratory activity of the plant extracts. The phytochemical analysis revealed the presence of steroids, alkaloids, phenols, flavonoids, galactose, tannins, saponins, and amino acids in the extracts. The results of the cell viability assay indicated that the crude dichloromethane and ethyl acetate extracts inhibited cell proliferation, with inhibitory concentrations of 5 and 3 µg/ml, respectively. In contrast, the crude hexane extract did not exhibit any cytotoxicity. Furthermore, the scratch assay results showed that the plant extracts had cell migration inhibitory properties. The outcomes of the current study conclude that L. aspera possesses active therapeutic agents with strong anticancer potential, effectively impeding the proliferation and invasion of MDA-MB-231. Further studies are needed to identify the potential active agents that contribute to these activities.

Utilizing adaptive deformable convolution and position embedding for colon polyp segmentation with a visual transformer.

Polyp detection is a challenging task in the diagnosis of Colorectal Cancer (CRC), and it demands clinical expertise due to the diverse nature of polyps. The recent years have witnessed the development of automated polyp detection systems to assist the experts in early diagnosis, considerably reducing the time consumption and diagnostic errors. In automated CRC diagnosis, polyp segmentation is an important step which is carried out with deep learning segmentation models. Recently, Vision Transformers (ViT) are slowly replacing these models due to their ability to capture long range dependencies among image patches. However, the existing ViTs for polyp do not harness the inherent self-attention abilities and incorporate complex attention mechanisms. This paper presents Polyp-Vision Transformer (Polyp-ViT), a novel Transformer model based on the conventional Transformer architecture, which is enhanced with adaptive mechanisms for feature extraction and positional embedding. Polyp-ViT is tested on the Kvasir-seg and CVC-Clinic DB Datasets achieving segmentation accuracies of 0.9891 ± 0.01 and 0.9875 ± 0.71 respectively, outperforming state-of-the-art models. Polyp-ViT is a prospective tool for polyp segmentation which can be adapted to other medical image segmentation tasks as well due to its ability to generalize well.

Unsupervised local center of mass based scoliosis spinal segmentation and Cobb angle measurement.

Scoliosis is a medical condition in which a person's spine has an abnormal curvature and Cobb angle is a measurement used to evaluate the severity of a spinal curvature. Presently, automatic Existing Cobb angle measurement techniques require huge dataset, time-consuming, and needs significant effort. So, it is important to develop an unsupervised method for the measurement of Cobb angle with good accuracy. In this work, an unsupervised local center of mass (LCM) technique is proposed to segment the spine region and further novel Cobb angle measurement method is proposed for accurate measurement. Validation of the proposed method was carried out on 2D X-ray images from the Saudi Arabian population. Segmentation results were compared with GMM-Based Hidden Markov Random Field (GMM-HMRF) segmentation method based on sensitivity, specificity, and dice score. Based on the findings, it can be observed that our proposed segmentation method provides an overall accuracy of 97.3% whereas GMM-HMRF has an accuracy of 89.19%. Also, the proposed method has a higher dice score of 0.54 compared to GMM-HMRF. To further evaluate the effectiveness of the approach in the Cobb angle measurement, the results were compared with Senior Scoliosis Surgeon at Multispecialty Hospital in Saudi Arabia. The findings indicated that the segmentation of the scoliotic spine was nearly flawless, and the Cobb angle measurements obtained through manual examination by the expert and the algorithm were nearly identical, with a discrepancy of only ± 3 degrees. Our proposed method can pave the way for accurate spinal segmentation and Cobb angle measurement among scoliosis patients by reducing observers' variability.

Unveiling the impact of aging on BBB and Alzheimer's disease: Factors and therapeutic implications.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a highly prevalent neurodegenerative condition that has devastating effects on individuals, often resulting in dementia. AD is primarily defined by the presence of extracellular plaques containing insoluble ß-amyloid peptide (Aß) and neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) composed of hyperphosphorylated tau protein (P-tau). In addition, individuals afflicted by these age-related illnesses experience a diminished state of health, which places significant financial strain on their loved ones. Several risk factors play a significant role in the development of AD. These factors include genetics, diet, smoking, certain diseases (such as cerebrovascular diseases, obesity, hypertension, and dyslipidemia), age, and alcohol consumption. Age-related factors are key contributors to the development of vascular-based neurodegenerative diseases such as AD. In general, the process of aging can lead to changes in the immune system's responses and can also initiate inflammation in the brain. The chronic inflammation and the inflammatory mediators found in the brain play a crucial role in the dysfunction of the blood-brain barrier (BBB). Furthermore, maintaining BBB integrity is of utmost importance in preventing a wide range of neurological disorders. Therefore, in this review, we discussed the role of age and its related factors in the breakdown of the blood-brain barrier and the development of AD. We also discussed the importance of different compounds, such as those with anti-aging properties, and other compounds that can help maintain the integrity of the blood-brain barrier in the prevention of AD. This review builds a strong correlation between age-related factors, degradation of the BBB, and its impact on AD.

Physicochemical characterization of polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) produced by the rare halophile Brachybacterium paraconglomeratum MTCC 13074.

BACKGROUND: Polyhydroxybutyrate is a biopolymer produced by bacteria and archaea under nitrogen-limiting conditions. PHB is an essential polymer in the bioplastic sector because of its biodegradability, eco-friendliness, and adaptability. The characterization of PHB is a multifaceted process for studying the structure and its properties. This entire aspect can assure the long-term viability and performance attributes of the PHB. The characteristics of PHB extracted from the halophile Brachybacterium paraconglomeratum were investigated with the objective of making films for application in healthcare. RESULTS: This was the first characterization study on PHB produced by a rare halophile, Brachybacterium paraconglomeratum (MTCC 13074). In this study, the strain produced 2.72 g/l of PHB for.5.1 g/l of biomass under optimal conditions. Methods are described for the determination of the physicochemical properties of PHB. The prominent functional groups CH3 and C = O were observed by FT-IR and the actual chemical structure of the PHB was deduced by NMR. GCMS detects the confirmation of four methyl ester derivatives of the extracted PHB in the sample. Mass spectrometry revealed the molecular weight of methyl 3-hydroxybutyric acid (3HB) present in the extract. The air-dried PHB films were exposed to TGA, DSC and a universal testing machine to determine the thermal profile and mechanical stability. Additionally, the essential property of biopolymers like viscosity was also assessed for the extracted PHB. CONCLUSIONS: The current study demonstrated the consistency and quality of B. paraconglomeratum PHB. Therefore, Brachybacterium sps are also a considerable source of PHB with desired characteristics for industrial production.

Study of Serum Zinc Level in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus.

A major global public health concern is the prevalence of diabetes mellitus, especially in developing countries like Bangladesh. While still battling communicable diseases, Bangladesh is already inundated with non-communicable diseases. Type 2 diabetes has been found in almost 90.0% of all instances of diabetes. The main risk factors for type 2 diabetes are an excessively caloric diet, advanced age, sedentary behavior and obesity. Along with preexisting risk factors, many micro-nutrients have been related to a rise in the incidence of diabetes. The study's objective was to measure and contrast the zinc levels in serum between individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus and healthy controls. This cross-sectional study was conducted from July 2018 to June 2019 at the Mymensingh Medical College, Mymensingh, Bangladesh. Based on inclusion and exclusion criteria, the subjects were chosen using a purposeful (non-random) sample method. In total, 100 people participated in this study. They were divided into two groups: 50 individuals who had been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes mellitus were chosen as cases and 50 individuals who appeared to be in generally excellent health were chosen as controls. For the analytical aims of this investigation, serum zinc levels were examined. All values were expressed as the mean SD. The statistical analyses were carried out using the Windows program statistics package for social science (SPSS). The statistical significance of the difference between the case and control groups was evaluated using the Student's unpaired 't' test. A thorough research revealed that type 2 diabetes mellitus patients had significantly lower mean serum zinc levels than healthy controls (case group was 110.96±13.60 and control group 130.18±9.95µg/dl). Cross-sectional research was used in this study. The current study's findings showed that type 2 diabetes mellitus patients had dramatically changed serum zinc levels. The study's hypothesis was verified as a result.

Antibacterial and antibiotic potentiating capabilities of extracts isolated from Burkillanthus malaccensis, Diospyros hasseltii and Cleisthanthus bracteosus against human pathogenic bacteria.

Antibiotics which once a boon in medicine and saved millions of lives are now facing an ever-growing menace of antibacterial resistance, which desperately needs new antibacterial drugs which are innovative in chemistry and mode of action. For many years, the world has turned to natural plants with antibacterial properties to combat antibiotic resistance. On that basis, we aimed to identify plants with antibacterial and antibiotic potentiating properties. Seventeen different extracts of 3 plants namely Burkillanthus malaccensis, Diospyros hasseltii and Cleisthanthus bracteosus were tested against multi-drug resistant Acinetobacter baumannii, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Methicillinresistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA). Antibacterial activity of hexane, methanol and chloroform extracts of bark, seed, fruit, flesh and leaves from these plants were tested using, disk diffusion assay, minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) assays. Antibiotic potentiating capabilities were tested using time-kill assay. B. malaccensis fruit chloroform extract showed the biggest zone of inhibition against MRSA (13.00±0.0 mm) but C. bracteosus bark methanol extract showed the biggest inhibition zone against MSSA (15.33±0.6 mm). Interestingly, bark methanol extract of C. bracteosus was active against MRSA (8.7±0.6 mm), MSSA (7.7±0.6 mm) (Gram-positive) and A. baumannii (7.7±0.6 mm) (Gram-negative). Overall, the leaf methanol and bark methanol extract of C. bracteosus warrants further investigation such as compound isolation and mechanism of action for validating its therapeutic use as antibiotic potentiator importantly against MRSA and A. baumannii.

Barriers and facilitators to social prescribing in child and youth mental health: perspectives from the frontline.

There is growing interest in the role of Social Prescribing (SP) to help promote mental well-being and support individuals with mental health difficulties. Yet, implementation of SP to children and young people (CYP) has proved slow and underdeveloped compared with adult populations. Understanding the barriers and facilitators will help key stakeholders to better embed SP for CYP into practice. Using the Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF), a comprehensive, theoretical-led framework, underpinned by 33 behaviour change theories and 128 constructs, perceived barriers and facilitators to SP were investigated. The sample comprised of 11 Link Workers and 9 individuals involved in facilitating SP with CYP, who took part in semi-structured interviews. Transcripts were analysed using a deductive thematic analysis, and themes were coded under each theoretical domain. Overall, 33 barriers and facilitators for SP were identified across 12 domains of the TDF. Under capability, barriers and facilitators were found for knowledge, skills, memory/attention/decision making processes, and behavioural regulation. For opportunity, barriers and facilitators were found for social/professional influences, as well as environmental context and resources. Finally, for motivation, domains covered included: beliefs about consequences, beliefs about capabilities, optimism, motivations/goals, reinforcement, and emotions. Findings suggest that a wide range of barriers and facilitators affect the implementation of CYP SP to improve mental health and well-being. Interventions which target different domains related to capability, opportunity and motivation should be developed to better facilitate CYP SP.

Comparison of Serum Zinc in Children of Wilson Disease and Non-Wilsonian Volunteers in Bangladesh.

Wilson disease (WD) is an autosomal recessive disorder of copper metabolism with diverse clinical manifestations. Zinc (Zn) has been used for treatment of WD. Recent studies showed low serum zinc level in patients suffering from WD than the normal. This cross-sectional analytical study has been designed to compare the serum zinc level between paediatric patients suffering from WD but yet not started treatment and children who have normal ALT level. This study was carried out at the Department of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition, BSMMU, Dhaka, Bangladesh from July 2018 to June 2019. Total 51 children were included in this study. Among them 27 were diagnosed case of WD aged between three to eighteen years and 24 children of same ages who were suffering from other than liver disease having normal ALT were included as volunteers. The patients of WD were divided into four groups according to their presentation as acute hepatitis, chronic liver disease (CLD), acute liver failure & neuropsychiatric manifestation. Informed written consent was obtained from all patients and volunteers for participation in this study. Along with other physical findings and laboratory investigations 3 ml of venous blood were collected for estimation of serum zinc level. After estimation of serum zinc level results were analyzed statistically. The difference in serum zinc levels were compared between the groups. Serum zinc level was significantly lower in Wilson disease patients (43.8±19.7µg/dl; range: 13-83) compared to volunteers group (67.8±11.8µg/dl; range: 47-97) p<0.001. Among the diseased group, serum zinc level were significantly lower in 18 CLD (38.4±17.4µg/dl) and in 4 acute liver failure (33.1±3.7µg/dl) compared to 4 acute hepatitis (71.8±4.3µg/dl) (p=0.001) and (p<0.001) respectively. Mean serum zinc level was low in 4 Wilsonian acute liver failure (33.1±3.7µg/dl), which was significant compared to those (23) who presented as Wilson disease non acute liver failure (45.7±20.8µg/dl) (p=0.013). Serum zinc level was significantly lower in Wilson disease children compared to the volunteers. Zinc level was also found significantly low in Wilson disease presented as CLD and acute liver failure in comparison to Wilson disease presented as acute hepatitis.

Recent insights into the hepatoprotective potential of medicinal plants and plant-derived compounds.

Liver problems are a worldwide concern, and conventional medicinal therapies are ineffective. Hence, safeguarding the healthy liver is vital for good health and well-being. Infections due to virus, immune problems, cancer, alcohol abuse, and an overdose of drugs are some of the causes of liver diseases. Antioxidants derived from medicinal plants and conventional dietary sources can protect the liver from damages caused by oxidative stress system and various chemicals. Plants and plant-derived phytochemicals are appealing hepatoprotective agents since they have less side effects and still there is a lot of interest shown in using herbal tonics for treating liver disorders. This review therefore primarily focuses on newly discovered medicinal plants and compounds produced from plants that fall under the classifications of flavonoids, alkaloids, terpenoids, polyphenolics, sterols, anthocyanins, and saponin glycosides, all of which have the potential to be hepatoprotective. Hosta plantaginea, Ligusticum chuanxiong, Daniella oliveri, Garcinia mangostana, Solanum melongena, Vaccinium myrtillus, Picrorhiza kurroa, and Citrus medica are some potential plants having hepatoprotective effects. We conclude that these phytochemicals and the plant extracts listed above are used in the future to treat a variety of liver diseases, additional research is still needed to develop safer and more potent phytochemical drugs.

Relationship of Serum Creatinine Level in Heart Failure Patients in Bangladesh.

Heart failure means that the heart is unable to pump blood around the body properly. It usually happens because the heart has become too weak or stuff. In collaboration with department of Cardiology, Mymensingh Medical College Hospital, Mymensingh, Bangladesh this cross-sectional study from January to December 2018 was performed in the department of Biochemistry in Mymensingh Medical College, Mymensingh, Bangladesh. The aim of this study was to explore the relationship of serum creatinine in patients with heart failure (HF) for management purpose. In this study 120 subjects were included, where 60 patients of diagnosed HF acts as case group and 60 individuals were normal healthy acts as control group. Serum creatinine was determined by colorimetric method from each sample. Statistical analysis was performed by SPSS windows package, version 21. Among the study groups the mean serum creatinine levels were 2.20±0.87mg/dl and 0.92±0.26mg/dl in case and control group respectively. Analysis showed that the mean serum creatinine level was highly significantly (p<0.001) increased in HF patients in comparison to that of control group.

HbA1c and Troponin-I Levels and Their Relationship in Patients with Acute Coronary Syndrome.

Acute coronary syndrome is a growing public health concern. Diabetic patients are more vulnerable to develop acute coronary syndrome due to accelerated atherosclerosis. Acute coronary syndrome is common in diabetes mellitus and is a major cause of mortality and morbidity in these patients. Troponin-I is a biochemical marker for cardiac muscle injury. Elevated glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) is also regarded as an independent risk factor for acute coronary syndrome in patients with diabetes mellitus.The aim of this study was to assess the relationship of HbA1c and Troponin-I level in patients with acute coronary syndrome. This cross-sectional study was conducted in the Department of Biochemistry, Dhaka Medical College, Dhaka, Bangladesh from July 2018 to June 2019. Total study subjects were ninety five of both gender selected from the admitted patients of the cardiology department of the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD), Dhaka. Diagnosis of acute coronary syndrome was confirmed by cardiologist. Diagnosis of diabetes mellitus was confirmed by Random Blood Glucose (RBG) level. Study subjects were grouped, acute coronary syndrome with diabetes mellitus as Group A and acute coronary syndrome without diabetes mellitus as Group B. Baseline parameters was recorded in data collection sheet. HbA1c, Troponin-I level of all study subjects were analyzed and recorded. Mean age of the study subjects in Group A and Group B were 51.06 years and 51.66 years respectively. Male gender was predominant in both groups. Mean SBP and DBP were significantly higher in Group A than Group B. Mean HbA1c level of the study subjects in Group A was significantly higher than Group B (p=0.001). Mean Troponin-I level in Group A was also significantly higher than Group B (p=0.023). HbA1c and Troponin-I levels were positively correlated in Group A (r=0.471, p=0.001). The present study demonstrated significant positive correlation of HbA1c and Troponin-I level in diabetic patients with acute coronary syndrome.

Study of Changes in Serum Copper Level in Patients with Acute Myocardial Infarction.

Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) commonly known as heart attack is defined pathologically as the irreversible death of myocardial cells caused by ischemia. Risk factors include high blood pressure, smoking, diabetes, lack of exercise, obesity, high blood cholesterol and excessive alcohol intake. The major cause of acute MI is coronary atherosclerosis with superimposed luminal thrombus, which accounts for more than 80% of all infarcts. Micronutrients and trace elements are very essential for normal functioning of the body. Even though they are required in very small amount, an alteration in the level of this element may lead to serious diseases like CAD and its consequences. The injury induced by reperfusion of the ischemic myocardium could result partially from the cytotoxic effects of oxygen free radicals. Copper is involved in several of the reactions in the protection from free radical damage. So, this study was designed to evaluate serum cupper level in AMI patients. This case-control study was conducted in the Department of Biochemistry, Mymensingh Medical College, Mymensingh, Bangladesh from July 2016 to June 2017. Total number of subjects was 120 in number. Among them 60 were diagnosed case of acute myocardial infarction and 60 were apparently healthy volunteers. Data were collected using pre-designed data collection sheets. After proper counseling informed written consent was taken from the study population. The study revealed that mean serum copper level was higher in case group as compared to control group. The mean±SD values of copper were 105.44±24.15µg/dl and 146.49±23.52µg/dl in control and case group respectively. The level of significance was 0.001 (p<0.05). After analyzing the results of the study it is concluded that serum copper level was significantly higher in Acute Myocardial Infarction patients than normal individuals. Therefore, estimation of serum copper level in AMI patients might be useful to take appropriate measure to prevent free radical induced reperfusion injury.

Study of Serum Calcium and Magnesium Levels in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Patients.

The prevalence of diabetes mellitus is a significant global public health concern, particularly in emerging nations like Bangladesh. Bangladesh is already overrun with non-communicable diseases while still battling communicable diseases. About 90.0% of all cases of diabetes that have been diagnosed are type 2 diabetes. High calorie diet, age, sedentary lifestyle and obesity are the main risk factors for type 2 diabetes. Different micronutrients have been linked to an increased incidence of diabetes in addition to existing risk factors. The goal of the study was to assess the serum levels of calcium and magnesium in people with type 2 diabetes mellitus and compare them to those in healthy controls. This cross-sectional study was conducted from July 2018 to June 2019 at the Mymensingh Medical College, Mymensingh, Department of Biochemistry in cooperation with the Department of Endocrinology, Mymensingh Medical College Hospital, Mymensingh, Bangladesh. Purposive (non-random) sampling was used to pick the subjects based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. This study had 100 individuals in total. Out of them, 50 people with type 2 diabetes mellitus who had been diagnosed were chosen as cases, and another 50 people who appeared to be in generally good health were chosen as controls. Serum calcium and magnesium levels were measured for this study's analytical purposes. The mean±SD was used to express all values. The statistical package for social science (SPSS), a Windows application, was used to conduct the statistical analyses. Using the Student's unpaired 't' test, the statistical significance of the difference between the case and control groups was assessed. Following comprehensive analysis, it was discovered that type 2 diabetes mellitus patients had considerably lower mean serum calcium (in case group was 8.46±0.63 and control group 8.86±0.64mg/dl) and magnesium levels (in case group was 2.09±0.42 and control group 2.24±0.16mg/dl) than healthy controls. According to the results of the current investigation, patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus had significantly altered serum calcium and magnesium levels. As a result, the study's hypothesis was accepted.

Assessing the Effectiveness of Clinical Skills Laboratory and Traditional Lecture in Teaching Basic Life Support and Performance Evaluation According to Different Domains of Revised Bloom's Taxonomy.

Sudden cardiac arrest out-side hospital is serious global concern. If non-medical people are taught to initiate the basic life support (BLS) training with cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) then the mortality could be reduced significantly. This was a non-randomized controlled study to evaluate clinical skills laboratory (CSL) as teaching tool for basic life support (BLS) training in comparison to traditional lecture. Sample size was 68 and performed in Sylhet Women's Medical College from July 2022 to September 2022. All the participants were third year nursing students. They were enrolled in to two groups. Group-A were taught BLS by clinical skills laboratory (CSL) and Group-B were taught by traditional lecture (TL). At the end of the teaching all of them were tested by a vetted multiple choice question (MCQ) set. The questions were set according the 5 levels of revised Blood's taxonomy. Mean score of Group-A (CSL) were higher the TL group (p=0.0003). Among the revised Bloom's taxonomy understand, apply and evaluate domains were significantly better taught (p<0.05) by CSL. The sensitivity of CSL was 0.559 in comparison to TL for BLS training. In the modern medical education teaching and assessment should be focused on the higher levels of learning taxonomy. Introducing CSL in medical education could boost up the psychomotor and cognition both in the medical education.

Environmental enteric dysfunction and small intestinal histomorphology of stunted children in Bangladesh.

There is lack of information on the histological characteristics of the intestinal mucosa in Bangladeshi children. Collection of intestinal biopsy samples and assessment of the histomorphological features is considered to be the traditional gold standard for diagnosis of environmental enteric dysfunction (EED). The purpose of the study was to evaluate the intestinal histological characteristics of stunted children aged between 12-18 months with possible EED. 110 children with chronic malnutrition (52 stunted with length-for-age Z score, LAZ<-2 and 58 at risk of stunting with LAZ <-1 to -2) from the Bangladesh Environmental Enteric Dysfunction (BEED) study protocol who underwent upper gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopy were selected for this study. To explore the association of EED with childhood stunting, upper GI endoscopy was done and the biopsy specimens were studied for histopathology. Villous height and crypt depth were measured and the presence and intensity of inflammatory infiltrates in the lamina propria was investigated. Bivariate analysis was performed to examine the relationship between stunting and histologic morphology. More than 90% children irrespective of nutritional status were diagnosed to have chronic non-specific duodenitis on histopathology. Half of the children from both groups had villous atrophy as well as crypt hyperplasia and lymphocytic infiltration was present in more than 90% children, irrespective of groups. However, no statistically significant difference was observed when compared between the groups. The prevalence of chronic non-specific duodenitis in Bangladeshi children, irrespective of nutritional status, was high. A significant number of these children had abnormal findings in intestinal histomorphology. Trial registration number: ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT02812615 Date of first registration: 24/06/2016. https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/results?cond=NCT02812615&term=&cntry=&state=&city=&dist.

Antibacterial and antibiotic potentiating capabilities of extracts isolated from Burkillanthus malaccensis, Diospyros hasseltii and Cleisthanthus bracteosus against human pathogenic bacteria

@#Antibiotics which once a boon in medicine and saved millions of lives are now facing an ever-growing menace of antibacterial resistance, which desperately needs new antibacterial drugs which are innovative in chemistry and mode of action. For many years, the world has turned to natural plants with antibacterial properties to combat antibiotic resistance. On that basis, we aimed to identify plants with antibacterial and antibiotic potentiating properties. Seventeen different extracts of 3 plants namely Burkillanthus malaccensis, Diospyros hasseltii and Cleisthanthus bracteosus were tested against multi-drug resistant Acinetobacter baumannii, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Methicillinresistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA). Antibacterial activity of hexane, methanol and chloroform extracts of bark, seed, fruit, flesh and leaves from these plants were tested using, disk diffusion assay, minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) assays. Antibiotic potentiating capabilities were tested using time-kill assay. B. malaccensis fruit chloroform extract showed the biggest zone of inhibition against MRSA (13.00±0.0 mm) but C. bracteosus bark methanol extract showed the biggest inhibition zone against MSSA (15.33±0.6 mm). Interestingly, bark methanol extract of C. bracteosus was active against MRSA (8.7±0.6 mm), MSSA (7.7±0.6 mm) (Gram-positive) and A. baumannii (7.7±0.6 mm) (Gram-negative). Overall, the leaf methanol and bark methanol extract of C. bracteosus warrants further investigation such as compound isolation and mechanism of action for validating its therapeutic use as antibiotic potentiator importantly against MRSA and A. baumannii.