Macroeconomic impact of remittances and the Dutch Disease in a developing country

The magnitude of the flow of remittances to a developing country like Bangladesh and their rate of growth has become a significant factor in its economy. The huge flow of remittances affects the production sector and employment structure, as well as the scale of external trade competitiveness of the economy as measured by the real exchange rate (RER). Movement of the RER from its equilibrium position is very important and is also crucial in identifying the factors most influencing this movement. Using Johansen cointegration and Vector Error Correction models, this study has found that the flow of remittances is appreciating the RER and decreasing the external trade competitiveness of Bangladesh; thus, the procedure is slowly bringing about deterioration in the economy of Bangladesh, a process known as Dutch Disease. To counter this, a gradual relaxation of the trade barrier plus promotion of external trade diversification and diversion of the remittances flow from non-tradable sectors to priority investment areas will counteract the adverse consequences of remittances on the Bangladeshi economy in the long run

Protection against shigellosis caused by Shigella dysenteriae serotype 4 in guinea pigs using Escherichia albertii DM104 as a live vaccine candidate strain

Recently, we reported the induction of protective immunity by environmental Escherichia albertii strain DM104 against Shigella dysenteriae in guinea pig model. In this study, we assessed three different immunization routes, such as intranasal, oral, and intrarectal routes, and revealed differences in immune responses by measuring both the serum IgG and mucosal IgA antibody titers. Protective efficacy of different routes of immunization was also determined by challenging immunized guinea pigs against live S. dysenteriae. It was found that intranasal immunization showed promising results in terms of antibody response and protective efficacy. All these results reconfirm our previous findings and additionally point out that the intranasal immunization of the environmental E. albertii strain DM104 in guinea pig model can be a better live vaccine candidate against shigellosis

Salbutamol in acute organophosphorus insecticide poisoning - a pilotdose-response phase II study

Treatment of acute organophosphorus (OP) insecticide poisoning is difficult, with many patients dying despite best care. Pre-clinical studies have shown benefit from salbutamol, possibly due speeding alveolar fluid clearance or reducing bronchoconstriction. In this small pilot dose-response study, we aimed to explore whether addition of nebulized salbutamol to standard care might improve resuscitation.We performed a single-blind phase II study comparing the effect of two different doses of nebulized salbutamol versus saline placebo, in addition to standard treatment. Primary outcome was oxygen saturations over the first 60 min of resuscitation; secondary outcomes included heart rate, incidence of dysrhythmias, time to 'atropinization', atropine dose required, and mortality.Seventy-five patients were randomized to receive 5 mg (Salb5, n = 25) or 2.5mg (Salb2.5, n = 25) of salbutamol, or saline placebo (NoSalb, n = 25), by nebulizer. Oxygen saturations did not differ between groups over the first 60 min of resuscitation (median AUC NoSalb: 1376 [95% CI 1282 to 1470], Salb2.5: 1395 [1305 to 1486], Salb5: 1233 [1100 to 1367]; p = .9898). Heart rate was also similar across the three arms. Median time to full atropinization, and atropine dose required, were the same for all three arms (NoSalb 15.0 [10-16] min and 12.6 [8.0-13.4] mg, Salb2.5 15.0 [10-16] min and 12.6 [9.3-16.8] mg, and Salb5 15.0 [10-20] min and 12.6 [10.7-20.6] mg; p = .4805 and p = .1871, respectively). Three (12%) patients died in the Salb2.5 and Salb5 groups and two (8%) in the NoSalb group.This pilot study, within the limitations of its small size and variation between patients, found no apparent evidence that administration of nebulized salbutamol improved resuscitation of patients with acute OP insecticide self-poisoning. The data obtained provides a basis to design further studies to ultimately test the role of salbutamol in OP insecticide poisoning

BaDLAD: A Large Multi-Domain Bengali Document Layout Analysis Dataset

While strides have been made in deep learning based Bengali Optical Character Recognition (OCR) in the past decade, the absence of large Document Layout Analysis (DLA) datasets has hindered the application of OCR in document transcription, e.g., transcribing historical documents and newspapers. Moreover, rule-based DLA systems that are currently being employed in practice are not robust to domain variations and out-of-distribution layouts. To this end, we present the first multidomain large Bengali Document Layout Analysis Dataset: BaDLAD. This dataset contains 33,695 human annotated document samples from six domains - i) books and magazines, ii) public domain govt. documents, iii) liberation war documents, iv) newspapers, v) historical newspapers, and vi) property deeds, with 710K polygon annotations for four unit types: text-box, paragraph, image, and table. Through preliminary experiments benchmarking the performance of existing state-of-the-art deep learning architectures for English DLA, we demonstrate the efficacy of our dataset in training deep learning based Bengali document digitization models

Bans of WHO Class I Pesticides in Bangladesh –Suicide Prevention without Hampering Agricultural Output

Pesticide self-poisoning is a major problem in Bangladesh. Over the past 20-years, the Bangladesh government has introduced pesticide legislation and banned highly hazardous pesticides (HHPs) from agricultural use. We aimed to assess the impacts of pesticide bans on suicide and on agricultural production.We obtained data on unnatural deaths from the Statistics Division of Bangladesh Police, and used negative binomial regression to quantify changes in pesticide suicides and unnatural deaths following removal of WHO Class I toxicity HHPs from agriculture in 2000. We assessed contemporaneous trends in other risk factors, pesticide usage and agricultural production in Bangladesh from 1996 to 2014.Mortality in hospital from pesticide poisoning fell after the 2000 ban: 15.1% vs 9.5%, relative reduction 37.1% [95% confidence interval (CI) 35.4 to 38.8%]. The pesticide poisoning suicide rate fell from 6.3/100 000 in 1996 to 2.2/100 000 in 2014, a 65.1% (52.0 to 76.7%) decline. There was a modest simultaneous increase in hanging suicides [20.0% (8.4 to 36.9%) increase] but the overall incidence of unnatural deaths fell from 14.0/100 000 to 10.5/100 000 [25.0% (18.1 to 33.0%) decline]. There were 35 071 (95% CI 25 959 to 45 666) fewer pesticide suicides in 2001 to 2014 compared with the number predicted based on trends between 1996 to 2000. This reduction in rate of pesticide suicides occurred despite increased pesticide use and no change in admissions for pesticide poisoning, with no apparent influence on agricultural output.Strengthening pesticide regulation and banning WHO Class I toxicity HHPs in Bangladesh were associated with major reductions in deaths and hospital mortality, without any apparent effect on agricultural output. Our data indicate that removing HHPs from agriculture can rapidly reduce suicides without imposing substantial agricultural costs

Measuring routine childhood vaccination coverage in 204 countries and territories, 1980-2019 : a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2020, Release 1

Background Measuring routine childhood vaccination is crucial to inform global vaccine policies and programme implementation, and to track progress towards targets set by the Global Vaccine Action Plan (GVAP) and Immunization Agenda 2030. Robust estimates of routine vaccine coverage are needed to identify past successes and persistent vulnerabilities. Drawing from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2020, Release 1, we did a systematic analysis of global, regional, and national vaccine coverage trends using a statistical framework, by vaccine and over time. Methods For this analysis we collated 55 326 country-specific, cohort-specific, year-specific, vaccine-specific, and dosespecific observations of routine childhood vaccination coverage between 1980 and 2019. Using spatiotemporal Gaussian process regression, we produced location-specific and year-specific estimates of 11 routine childhood vaccine coverage indicators for 204 countries and territories from 1980 to 2019, adjusting for biases in countryreported data and reflecting reported stockouts and supply disruptions. We analysed global and regional trends in coverage and numbers of zero-dose children (defined as those who never received a diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis [DTP] vaccine dose), progress towards GVAP targets, and the relationship between vaccine coverage and sociodemographic development. Findings By 2019, global coverage of third-dose DTP (DTP3; 81.6% [95% uncertainty interval 80.4-82 .7]) more than doubled from levels estimated in 1980 (39.9% [37.5-42.1]), as did global coverage of the first-dose measles-containing vaccine (MCV1; from 38.5% [35.4-41.3] in 1980 to 83.6% [82.3-84.8] in 2019). Third- dose polio vaccine (Pol3) coverage also increased, from 42.6% (41.4-44.1) in 1980 to 79.8% (78.4-81.1) in 2019, and global coverage of newer vaccines increased rapidly between 2000 and 2019. The global number of zero-dose children fell by nearly 75% between 1980 and 2019, from 56.8 million (52.6-60. 9) to 14.5 million (13.4-15.9). However, over the past decade, global vaccine coverage broadly plateaued; 94 countries and territories recorded decreasing DTP3 coverage since 2010. Only 11 countries and territories were estimated to have reached the national GVAP target of at least 90% coverage for all assessed vaccines in 2019. Interpretation After achieving large gains in childhood vaccine coverage worldwide, in much of the world this progress was stalled or reversed from 2010 to 2019. These findings underscore the importance of revisiting routine immunisation strategies and programmatic approaches, recentring service delivery around equity and underserved populations. Strengthening vaccine data and monitoring systems is crucial to these pursuits, now and through to 2030, to ensure that all children have access to, and can benefit from, lifesaving vaccines. Copyright (C) 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.Peer reviewe

Melioidosis in South-East Asia: contribution to a fever cohort, and in vitro studies of MAIT cell function

Melioidosis is a neglected tropical disease caused by the Gram-negative bacterium Burkholderia pseudomallei (BP). Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a major risk factor. A mathematical model estimated 1,650,000 melioidosis cases in 2015 worldwide with 16,931 cases in Bangladesh, but the disease is rarely diagnosed in Bangladesh. This thesis set out to determine whether melioidosis is a significant cause of fever in Bangladesh, and to characterise the human mucosal-associated invariant T-cell (MAIT) response to BP and other Gram-negative bacteria. We prospectively determined the aetiology of fever in 201 adult patients in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and found melioidosis to be the joint commonest cause (with E. coli) of bacteraemia. We also noticed high rates of antimicrobial resistance in Gram-negative infections. We tracked the phenotype, activation and function of MAIT cells during acute melioidosis and other Gram-negative infections. MAIT cells responded rapidly to BP, releasing IFN-γ via both MR1 and cytokine-dependent pathways. The frequency and IFN-γ expression by MAIT cells following BP stimulation was significantly reduced in acute melioidosis patients compared to endemic controls, and significantly reduced in acute patients who died compared to survivors. We then examined the effect of DM on the MAIT cell response. In the endemic control population, IFN-γ expression was reduced in DM compared to non-DM. This was not explained by differences in activation or exhaustion markers (PD-1 and TIM-3) between groups. Finally, we found IFN-γ production by MAIT cells was significantly lower in the Gram-negative sepsis patients compared to healthy controls. In conclusion, we have demonstrated that melioidosis is one of the commonest causes of community-acquired bacteraemia in Bangladesh. We have also revealed a potential key role for MAIT cells in survival in acute melioidosis, and their significance in host defence against other Gram-negative bacteria