The Perception on Food Quality among Urban People

Contaminated and unhygienic food intake is a major problem in the urban cities of Bangladesh. This raises a serious concern for health of the urban citizens. The research investigates into the attitude of the urban educated people on their awareness of food safety. The findings of the study suggest a high degree of awareness amongst respondents of the attitudinal survey. People with higher educational background show higher degree of awareness of how the quality of food should be maintained. A lack of confidence on the functions of government regulatory agency in testing the food standard is also reflected in the study.

Rules-based international order and US Indo-Pacific strategy: what does it mean for China's BRI?

The third decade of the 21st century has witnessed more tensions, instabilities, and new alliances in the Indo-Pacific/Asia-Pacific region due to intensifying rivalry and strategic competition between the US Indo-Pacific Strategy (IPS) and China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), two grand strategies of the US and China respectively. This article aims to assess the Rules-Based International Order (RBIO) and comprehend Biden's IPS, particularly exploring how the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) may impact China's BRI. This paper argues that RBIO is debatable and not universal. It is also argued that while the IPEF unveiled by President Biden represents a strategically important step forward, a long-term US genuine commitment to its implementation to counter China's BRI is essential. The methodology of this research is primarily based on secondary literature and official documents. This study concludes that although China is reluctant to pay too much attention to the US IPEF in its official statements, China is concerned about this economic initiative. The paper also concludes that because of the intense US-China rivalry, new alliances will emerge in the region leading to a new cold war or new world order

Vermi-compost to improve tomato production in Bangladesh

Our objective was to test the effectiveness of vermin compost as a substitute for inorganic fertilisers for sustainable, large-scale tomato production. The Green Revolution in Bangladesh promoted the indiscriminate use of factory fertilisers and pesticides to obtain better crop yields. Owing to poor soil management, the organic matter (OM) content is decreasing in some situations. The use of organic fertilisers along with effective soil management can restore soil OM and sustain soil health.Vermi-compost (VC) - mainly the excreta of earthworms - is rich in humus and nutrients. It also contains a lot of microorganisms beneficial to plant growth. As a soil amendment, VC may provide a tool for soil OM management

Modeling and simulation of nanofluid transport via elastic sheets

The field of nanofluidics research has spanned over the past decade with a variety of promising applications. We investigate the ``laminar boundary layer flow’’ of a Newtonian nanofluid past a moving extendable/contractable horizontal plate with surface velocity and thermal slip effects. The passively controlled nanofluid model (PCM) is considered. Such models are physically more realistic as compared to the “actively controlled models” (ACM). Using Lie symmetry group method, the governing equations are reduced by a set of highly coupled nonlinear ODE’s with thermo-solutal coupled boundary conditions. The reduced equations are solved numerically by a generalized collocation method. The influences of the emerging parameters on the local skin friction factor and the local Nusselt number are depicted numerically. The skin friction is decreased as the thermo-phoresis and buoyancy ratio parameters are decreased. The heat transfer rates reduce with thermophoresis and buoyancy ratio parameters. Velocity slip also leads to a rise in wall temperature gradient. This study is relevant to near-wall flows in nanofluid fuel cells, nano-materials processing et

Performance implications of export assistance: the mediating role of export entrepreneurship

Purpose Although both institutional export assistance and entrepreneurial orientation (EO) contribute separately and positively to export performance, the interplay between them has received little attention. This study examines the role of international EO in deriving performance benefits from governmental and nongovernmental export assistance. Design/methodology/approach In this longitudinal study, two surveys were administered at two different times: In 2011, 705 Bangladeshi apparel exporters were surveyed, and in 2019, a subsequent survey of 198 firms in multiple industries was conducted. The aim of the surveys was to assess the relationships between governmental and nongovernmental assistance, EO and export performance. Findings The results of the first survey show that, while nongovernmental assistance influences performance directly and via EO, governmental assistance has only direct effects. Furthermore, the negative influence of government assistance on EO reduces the total effects and renders them nonsignificant. The results of the second survey demonstrate that government EPPs have both direct and indirect positive and significant effects on market performance, indicating a partial mediation, whereas quasi-governmental assistance has positive and significant direct effects as well as negative but nonsignificant indirect effects. Nongovernmental EPPs have both direct and indirect significant effects on international performance, indicating a partial mediation. Research limitations/implications The study has important implications for researchers studying export assistance and its impact on firm performance. Instead of adopting a parochial view of government assistance, this study categorizes such assistance into three types – government, quasi-government and nongovernment. Furthermore, this study bridges the export assistance and international entrepreneurship literature by including EO. Practical implications Entrepreneurs must emphasize the use of government assistance in order to enhance export performance. However, to promote both entrepreneurship and performance, they must emphasize nongovernment assistance. Exporters should also capitalize on the assistance extended by various quasi-governmental agencies to bolster export performance. Originality/value Given the performance advantage of export assistance, this study highlights the contribution of the private sector in promoting export entrepreneurship while shedding light on the pernicious role of (quasi-)governmental assistance in export entrepreneurship

Clostridioides difficile binary toxin binding component (cdtb) increases virulence in a hamster model

Background Clostridioides difficile is the leading cause of hospital-acquired gastrointestinal infection, in part due to the existence of binary toxin (CDT)-expressing hypervirulent strains. Although the effects of the CDT holotoxin on disease pathogenesis have been previously studied, we sought to investigate the role of the individual components of CDT during in vivo infection. Methods To determine the contribution of the separate components of CDT during infection, we developed strains of C difficile expressing either CDTa or CDTb individually. We then infected both mice and hamsters with these novel mutant strains and monitored them for development of severe illness. Results Although expression of CDTb without CDTa did not induce significant disease in a mouse model of C difficile infection, we found that complementation of a CDT-deficient C difficile strain with CDTb alone restored virulence in a hamster model of C difficile infection. Conclusions Overall, this study demonstrates that the binding component of C difficile binary toxin, CDTb, contributes to virulence in a hamster model of infection

Use of quantitative molecular diagnostic methods to identify causes of diarrhoea in children: a reanalysis of the GEMS case-control study.

BACKGROUND: Diarrhoea is the second leading cause of mortality in children worldwide, but establishing the cause can be complicated by diverse diagnostic approaches and varying test characteristics. We used quantitative molecular diagnostic methods to reassess causes of diarrhoea in the Global Enteric Multicenter Study (GEMS). METHODS: GEMS was a study of moderate to severe diarrhoea in children younger than 5 years in Africa and Asia. We used quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) to test for 32 enteropathogens in stool samples from cases and matched asymptomatic controls from GEMS, and compared pathogen-specific attributable incidences with those found with the original GEMS microbiological methods, including culture, EIA, and reverse-transcriptase PCR. We calculated revised pathogen-specific burdens of disease and assessed causes in individual children. FINDINGS: We analysed 5304 sample pairs. For most pathogens, incidence was greater with qPCR than with the original methods, particularly for adenovirus 40/41 (around five times), Shigella spp or enteroinvasive Escherichia coli (EIEC) and Campylobactor jejuni o C coli (around two times), and heat-stable enterotoxin-producing E coli ([ST-ETEC] around 1·5 times). The six most attributable pathogens became, in descending order, Shigella spp, rotavirus, adenovirus 40/41, ST-ETEC, Cryptosporidium spp, and Campylobacter spp. Pathogen-attributable diarrhoeal burden was 89·3% (95% CI 83·2-96·0) at the population level, compared with 51·5% (48·0-55·0) in the original GEMS analysis. The top six pathogens accounted for 77·8% (74·6-80·9) of all attributable diarrhoea. With use of model-derived quantitative cutoffs to assess individual diarrhoeal cases, 2254 (42·5%) of 5304 cases had one diarrhoea-associated pathogen detected and 2063 (38·9%) had two or more, with Shigella spp and rotavirus being the pathogens most strongly associated with diarrhoea in children with mixed infections. INTERPRETATION: A quantitative molecular diagnostic approach improved population-level and case-level characterisation of the causes of diarrhoea and indicated a high burden of disease associated with six pathogens, for which targeted treatment should be prioritised. FUNDING: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Computational Investigation of Hydromagnetic Thermo-Solutal Nanofluid Slip Flow in a Darcian Porous Medium With Zero Mass Flux Boundary Condition Using Stretching Group Transformations

In this paper, hydromagnetic thermo-solutal nanofluid flow past a flat plate embedded in a Darcy porous medium has been investigated considering zero mass flux with velocity and thermal slips boundary conditions. The nanofluid flow is considered as 2D, steady state, incompressible, and laminar. We used a generalized stretching group of transformations to develop the similarity solutions of the model. Using these transformations, the transport equations of the nanofluid flow model are reduced to a system of nonlinear ordinary differential equations (ODEs). Finally, the transformed ODEs are computationally solved using MATLAB nonlinear equation solver "fsolve" and ODE solver "ode15s". Solutions are compared with previously available results and the comparison shows good correlation. Furthermore, the computational results are provided to demonstrate the influence of the dimensionless velocity slip parameter, thermal slip parameter, magnetic field parameter, Brownian motion parameter, thermophoresis parameter, and Darcy number on the dimensionless velocity, temperature, and nanoparticle volume fraction (concentration) fields, as well as on the heat transfer rate and skin friction. It was found that the skin friction factor decreases (increases) while the heat transfer rate increases (decreases) with the velocity (thermal) slip parameter. Both the heat transfer rate and the friction factor increase with the magnetic field and Darcy number

Numerical computation of pulsatile hemodynamics and diagnostic concern of coronary bifurcated artery flow for Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluid

Atherosclerotic with the high occurrence of plaque formation due to stenosis has attracted wide attention among researchers. The left coronary artery has been studied in two-dimensional and in three-dimensional (3D) bifurcation as the models of blood flow through Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids to better understand the physical mechanism. The computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) technique is incorporated in COMSOL Multiphysics and then it is justified by satisfactory validation. It is found that the Newtonian model shows larger recirculation zones than non-Newtonian does. The present study also focuses on the evaluations of the lesion of diagnostic and the coefficient of pressure drop assessments on the basis of the diagnostic parameter’s critical values affected by the rheological model. Nevertheless, the leading concentration of the subsisting investigation works is confined to the change of importance factor (IFc) affected by arterial blockage. But the IFc of non-Newtonian fluid for 3D left coronary artery bifurcation model decreases with increasing bifurcation angle and the time-averaged inlet pressure is the least for smaller bifurcation angles. The current research further concentrates that the flow separation length reduces with developing bifurcation angle in bifurcated geometry. It is significant to mention that non-Newtonian blood flow model incorporating hemodynamic and diagnostic parameters has great impacts on instantaneous flow systems