Impact of COVID-19 Lockdowns on air quality in Bangladesh : Analysis and AQI forecasting with support vector regression

Over the past few decades, air pollution has emerged as a significant environmental hazard, causing premature deaths in Southeast Asia. The proliferation of industrialization and deforestation has resulted in an alarming increase in pollution levels. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly reduced the amount of volatile organic compounds and toxic gases in the air due to the decrease in human activity caused by lockdowns and restrictions. This study aims to investigate the air quality in various geographical areas of Bangladesh, comparing the air quality index (AQI) during different lockdown periods to equivalent eight-year time spans in 10 of the country's busiest cities. This study demonstrates a strong correlation between the rapid and widespread dispersion of COVID-19 and air pollution reduction in Bangladesh. In addition, we evaluated the performance of Support Vector Regression (SVR) in AQI forecasting using the time series dataset. The results can help improve machine learning and deep learning models for accurate AQI forecasting. This study contributes to developing effective policies and strategies for reducing air pollution in Bangladesh and other countries facing similar challenges

Impact of opioid-free analgesia on pain severity and patient satisfaction after discharge from surgery: multispecialty, prospective cohort study in 25 countries

Background: Balancing opioid stewardship and the need for adequate analgesia following discharge after surgery is challenging. This study aimed to compare the outcomes for patients discharged with opioid versus opioid-free analgesia after common surgical procedures.Methods: This international, multicentre, prospective cohort study collected data from patients undergoing common acute and elective general surgical, urological, gynaecological, and orthopaedic procedures. The primary outcomes were patient-reported time in severe pain measured on a numerical analogue scale from 0 to 100% and patient-reported satisfaction with pain relief during the first week following discharge. Data were collected by in-hospital chart review and patient telephone interview 1 week after discharge.Results: The study recruited 4273 patients from 144 centres in 25 countries; 1311 patients (30.7%) were prescribed opioid analgesia at discharge. Patients reported being in severe pain for 10 (i.q.r. 1-30)% of the first week after discharge and rated satisfaction with analgesia as 90 (i.q.r. 80-100) of 100. After adjustment for confounders, opioid analgesia on discharge was independently associated with increased pain severity (risk ratio 1.52, 95% c.i. 1.31 to 1.76; P < 0.001) and re-presentation to healthcare providers owing to side-effects of medication (OR 2.38, 95% c.i. 1.36 to 4.17; P = 0.004), but not with satisfaction with analgesia (beta coefficient 0.92, 95% c.i. -1.52 to 3.36; P = 0.468) compared with opioid-free analgesia. Although opioid prescribing varied greatly between high-income and low- and middle-income countries, patient-reported outcomes did not.Conclusion: Opioid analgesia prescription on surgical discharge is associated with a higher risk of re-presentation owing to side-effects of medication and increased patient-reported pain, but not with changes in patient-reported satisfaction. Opioid-free discharge analgesia should be adopted routinely