Statistical Modeling of the Number of Deaths of Children in Bangladesh

Efforts to reduce the number of children’s death in developing countries through health care programs focus more to the prevention and control of diseases than to determining the underlying risk factors/predictors and addressing these through proper interventions. This study aims to identify socioeconomic and demographic predictors of the number of children’s death to women aged 12-49 from the Bangladesh Health and Demographic Survey (BDHS) administered in 2011. The number of children’s death in a family is a non-negative count response variable. The average number of children’s death is found to be 28 per 100 women with a variance of 44per 100 women. Thus Poisson regression model is not a proper choice to predict the mean response from the BDHS data due to the presence of over-dispersion. In order to address over-dispersion, we fit a Negative Binomial Regression (NBR), a Zero-Inflated Negative Binomial Regression (ZINBR) and a Hurdle Regression (HR) model. Among these models, ZINBR fits the data best. We identify respondent’s age, respondent’s age at 1st birth, gap between 1st birth and marriage, number of family members, region, religion, respondent’s education, husband’s education, incidence of twins, source of water, and wealth index as significant predictors for the number of children’s death in a family from the best fitted model. Identification of the risk factors of the number of children’s death is an important public health issue and should be carried out correctly for the much needed intervention

Thalassemias in South Asia:clinical lessons learnt from Bangladesh

Abstract Thalassemias are emerging as a global public health concern. Due to remarkable success in the reduction of childhood mortality by controlling infectious diseases in developing countries, thalassemias are likely to be a major public health concern in the coming decades in South Asia. Despite the fact that Bangladesh lies in the world’s thalassemia belt, the information on different aspects (epidemiology, clinical course, mortality, complications and treatment outcomes) of thalassemias is lacking. In this comprehensive review, the aim is to to depict the epidemiological aspects of thalassemias, mutation profile and current treatment and management practices in the country by sharing the experience of dealing with 1178 cases over 2009–2014 time periods in a specialized thalassemia treatment centre. We have also discussed the preventative strategies of thalassemias from the context of Bangladesh which could be effective for other developing countries

The phonological, morphological and syntactical patterns of standard colloquial Bengali and the Noakhali dialect

Standard Colloquial Bengali (SCB) is the language used by the majority of educated speakers at the present time in Bangladesh and West Bengal. In contrast with this standard language there are dialects of Bengali sufficiently different to be unintelligible to SCB speakers. One of these is the Noakhali Dialect, spoken in the southern part of the country on the border of the Bay of Bengal. It is a somewhat isolated region, which explains at least in part the development of this divergent form of the language. The Noakhali Dialect (ND) differs from SCB at all linguistic levels; phonological, morphological and syntactical, as well as in lexicon. The aim of this thesis is to make a comparative and contrastive study of the standard language and the dialect at all these levels in order to establish the degree of their divergence. It is essentially a synchronic study, so that, in general, no attempt is made to link the present-day forms with possible ancestral sources in Sanscrit. For the phonological and morphological analyses, the generative approach of Noam Chomsky and Morris Halle has been used, which involves a study of distinctive features. Special emphasis is given to the phenomenon of gemination, and vocalic and consonantal alternation. The phonological structure of the morphemes of each language has been reduced to rules, and the sets of inflectional and derivational morphemes are described in some detail. As an approach to syntax, noun-phrase rules and verb-phrase rules have been elaborated for both languages. On the whole, however, SCB and ND differ little in their broader syntactical patterning so that a detailed study of their syntax would contribute little to a contrastive analysis. Thus the main emphasis of the present study is at the level of phonology and morphology, where significant contrasts can be brought out, once the generative theories have been adapted to suit a language like Bengali which is more highly inflected than English.Arts, Faculty ofLinguistics, Department ofGraduat

A Hierarchy of Time-Complexities Based on CRCW PRAMs

A hierarchy theorem for parallel time-complexities between constant and 1og n / log<log n> is presented. Suppose that t(n) is a function such that there is a TM making (t(n)) ^<Θ (1)> moves and that the inverse function t^<- 1>(n) is bounded by O (1og n / log<log n>). Then, there exists a language L such that Θ(t^<-1>(n)) time is necessary and sufficient for CRCW PRAMs with polynomially many processors to recognize L

CRCW PRAMの時間計算量の稠密な階層

A hierarchy theorem for parallel time-complexities between constant and 1og n / log is presented. Suppose that t(n) is a function such that there is a TM making (t(n)) ^ moves and that the inverse function t^(n) is bounded by O (1og n / log). Then, there exists a language L such that Θ(t^(n)) time is necessary and sufficient for CRCW PRAMs with polynomially many processors to recognize L

A study on knowledge of patients with end stage renal disease towards dialysis in a tertiary care hospital in Dhaka city

Background and objective: There are approximately two million patients suffering from end stage renal disease (ESRD) worldwide requiring renal replacement therapy (RRT) in the form of dialysis. There are very few statistics regarding the knowledge and attitude towards dialysis among ESRD patients in Bangladesh. The present study was undertaken to understand the existing knowledge of the patients with ESRD regarding dialysis. Methods: This cross sectional descriptive study was done on 104 patients with ESRD requiring immediate dialysis. This study was conducted in the department of Nephrology, BIRDEM General Hospital, Dhaka, Bangladesh over a period of six months. After obtaining informed consent the participants were given a self-administered questionnaire that included questions on socio-demographic status, age, gender, different aspects of knowledge about dialysis and the reasons to accept and refuse dialysis for the treatment of ESRD. Results: A total of 104 patients with ESRD were enrolled in the study. The mean age was 54.20(±11.82) years, 87.5% were more than 40 years of age, and 72.1% were male. Eighty two percent mentioned diabetes as the cause of kidney disease. About half of the respondents (52.88%) knew dialysis as an option for the treatment of ESRD followed by kidney transplant (11.54%). A few (7.3%) mentioned medicine and dietary modification as the treatment. There was no statistical association between prior knowledge and agreeing to do dialysis (χ2= 0.7814; p=0.376699). Most of the patients (78%) gathered knowledge about dialysis from doctors. Seventy two patients (69.2%) agreed to do dialysis. Among them 37 patients (51.4%) agreed as they considered it as a part of treatment and 32 patients (44.4%) agreed because they were advised by doctors. Reasons for refusal to do dialysis were - fear of death (59.37%), financial constraints (31.25%) and lack of availability of dialysis centre (9.37%) Among study populations, only 20 patients (19.2%) mentioned about peritoneal dialysis (PD) and all of them (100%) were informed by doctors. Conclusion: The present study has demonstrated that prior knowledge on dialysis has no influence on the decision to do dialysis for the treatment of ESRD. Availability and access to dialysis facility and counseling on beneficial aspects of dialysis is required to motivate the patients for dialysis with ESRD. In addition to health care providers, social media may play an important role in promoting public awareness regarding dialysis as a treatment modality of ESRD. IMC J Med Sci 2017; 11(1): 11-1