Structural patterns of fisheries communities with relation to ecological condition in subtropical coastal waters of the northern Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh

1720-1732Fisheries assemblages with notes on the ecological conditions in coastal waters of the northern Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh, were investigated based on beach seine fishing net data form a one-year cycle (2015-2016) data collected by beach seine net. A total of 75 species comprising of 61 finfishes, 7 shrimps, 2 cephalopods, 2 lobsters and 3 crab species were identified. Among them, 58 species were commonly distributed in all four seasons, while 16 species were found dominant to the total communities. The species number, richness, evenness, and species diversity peaked in the monsoon and fell in the winter. Multivariate analysis of CAP and dbRDA revealed that there were clear temporal and spatial variations in fisheries assemblages in the Kohelia channel. RELATE analysis showed a significant correlation between fisheries communities with environmental variables. Furthermore, best matching analysis (BEST/BIOENV) confirmed that these temporal and spatial variations were driven by changing salinity, transparency and nutrients either alone or combined with soil nutrients. Thus, these findings suggest that fisheries community structure is shaped by the ecological condition in this marine channel system

Regional Variations of Fertility Control Behavior among Rural Reproductive Women in Bangladesh: A Hierarchical Analysis

Women’s fertility decision is quite difficult in male-dominant rural culture due to their poor reproductive autonomy. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in rural community of Bangladesh between November 2017 and February 2018 among 1285 respondents selected by multi-stage stratified sampling to explore regional variations of rural women’s fertility control behavior and its determinants using hierarchical and other inferential statistics. Data collection was done by face-to-face interview using questionnaire. Average parity was 2.5 per woman and 41% respondents had three or more children. About 60% of them used modern contraceptives (MCs) and oral contraceptive pill (OCP) was their first choice. Male participation in contraceptive use was less than 5%. Regional variation, women’s empowerment, fertility control knowledge, family planning (FP) attitude, social influence, perceived behavioral control (PBC) and fertility intention were significant predictors of fertility control behavior (p < 0.05). Significant regional variations were determined in fertility control behavior of rural women (p < 0.05). Almost all of its predictors explained by Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) also showed significant regional variations (p < 0.05). Current fertility control policy should be strengthened more not only to improve fertility behavior of rural women but also to establish regional equity in fertility control by improving their reproductive decision-making in a rational way

Static and Dynamical Properties of heavy actinide Monopnictides of Lutetium

In this work, density functional theory within the framework of generalized gradient approximation has been used to investigate the structural, elastic, mechanical, and phonon properties of lutetium monopnictides in rock-salt crystal structure. The spin orbit coupling and Hubbard-U corrections are included to correctly predict the essential properties of these compounds. The elastic constants, Young's modulus E, Poisson's ratio v, shear modulus G, anisotropy factor A and Pugh's ratio are computed. We found that all lutetium monopnictides are anisotropic and show brittle character. From the wave velocities along [100], [110] and [111] directions, melting temperature of lutetium monopnictides are predicted. Dynamical stability of these monopnictides has been studied by density functional perturbation theory

Seasonal shift in soft bottom-dwelling community structure in coastal waters of the northern Bay of Bengal, Indian Ocean

2021-2031Benthic invertebrate communities play an important role in functioning of benthic food webs and commonly used as potential biomarkers in environmental monitoring programs. The seasonal variation in community structures of macro benthos was studied in northern Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh from summer 2015 to spring 2016. A total of 45 species belonging to 35 families, 25 orders and 5 classes were identified. Of these species, 14 were commonly distributed and 10 were highest contributors. The species number, total abundance and species richness peaked in summer and sharply dropped in winter whereas evenness and diversity were highest in spring and both were lowest in winter. Multivariate analysis (CAP and RELATE) revealed a clear significant seasonal shift in community patterns of the benthic communities with relation to environmental variables. Further, BIOENV signified that water temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen and water nutrients were the main drivers to shape the community structure. These finding suggest that seasonal shift in benthic communities in response to environmental changes might be used as bio indicators for discriminating environmental quality status in coastal ecosystems

Success and time implications of SpO2 measurement through pulse oximetry among hospitalised children in rural Bangladesh:Variability by various device-, provider- and patient-related factors

BACKGROUND: Hypoxaemia is one of the strongest predictors of mortality among children with pneumonia. It can be identified through pulse oximetry instantaneously, which is a non-invasive procedure but can be influenced by factors related to the specific measuring device, health provider and patient. Following WHO's global recommendation in 2014, Bangladesh decided to introduce pulse oximetry in paediatric outpatient services, ie, the Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI) services in 2019. A national committee updated the existing IMCI implementation package and decided to test it by assessing the pulse oximetry performance of different types of assessors in real-life inpatient settings. METHODS: We adopted an observational design and conducted a technology assessment among children admitted to a rural district hospital. Eleven nurses and seven paramedics received one-day training on pulse oximetry as assessors. Each assessor performed at least 30 pulse oximetry measurements on children with two types of handheld devices. The primary outcome of interest was obtaining a successful measurement of SpO2, defined as observing a stable (±1%) reading for at least 10 seconds. Performance time, ie, time taken to obtain a successful measurement of SpO(2) was considered the secondary outcome of interest. In addition, we used Generalized Estimating Equation to assess the effect of different factors on the pulse oximetry performance. RESULTS: The assessors obtained successful measurements of SpO(2) in all attempts (n = 1478) except one. The median time taken was 30 (interquartile range (IQR) = 22-42) seconds, and within 60 seconds, 92% of attempts were successful. The odds of obtaining a successful measurement within 60 seconds were 7.3 (95% confidence interval (CI) = 3.7-14.2) times higher with a Masimo device than a Lifebox device. Similarly, assessors aged >25 years were 4.8 (95% CI = 1.2, 18.6) times more likely to obtain a successful measurement within 60 seconds. The odds of obtaining a successful measurement was 2.6 (95% CI = 1.6, 4.2) times higher among children aged 12-59 months compared to 2-11 months. CONCLUSIONS: Our study indicated that assessors could achieve the necessary skills to perform pulse oximetry successfully in real-life inpatient settings through a short training module, with some effect of device-, provider- and patient-related factors. The National IMCI Programme of Bangladesh can use these findings for finalising the national IMCI training modules and implementation package incorporating the recommendation of using pulse oximetry for childhood pneumonia assessment