Relationship of maternal serum zinc level with gestational diabetes mellitus

Background: Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is a prevalent pregnancy disease in Bangladesh that poses risks to the health of both mother and fetus. Glycosuria-related nutritional deficiencies are often associated with GDM. Zinc, an essential micronutrient, plays a central role in insulin-mediated glucose metabolism and storage. Because of its importance in insulin-related processes, zinc deficiency is potentially relevant to pregnancy-related carbohydrate intolerance. The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship of maternal zinc deficiency with gestational diabetes mellitus. Methods: This case-control study, conducted from October 2020 to September 2022, involved 160 pregnant women aged 18-35 from the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, BSMMU, Dhaka. Of these, 80 women diagnosed with GDM (24-40 weeks gestation) and 80 matched healthy controls were included in our study. Results: The mean (SD) zinc level was much lower in the cases than in the controls (59.60±19.37 µg/dl and 91.84±38.19 µg/dl, respectively; p-value = <0.001). There was a significant negative correlation of serum zinc levels with both FBG (r=-0.406, p<0.001) and 2HABG (r=-0.381, p<0.001). The likelihood of developing gestational diabetes was approximately 4.2 times higher in mothers with low serum zinc (<68 g/dL) than in mothers with zinc levels of 68 g/dL (p<0.001; OR=4.214; 95%- CI=2.158-8.231). Conclusions: Low maternal serum zinc levels have been found to be associated with gestational diabetes mellitus. Therefore, the serum zinc level can be used as a predictor to determine the risk of developing gestational diabetes mellitus.

Bacteriological Evaluation of Drinking Water of Rajshahi City, Bangladesh

Access to pathogen free safe drinking water is one of the major challenges of the 21st century for most of the people of world. According to WHO guidelines, 100 ml sample of safe drinking must be free of total coliform, fecal coliform and E. coli. Hence, this study was designed for bacteriological evaluation of drinking water collected from different restaurant in Rajshahi city, Bangladesh. Among 10 samples, no detectable E. coli was found in 5 water samples (100 ml each) while 8-50 detectable E. coli in 100 ml water sample was found in the remaining 5 samples which exceeded the BDS and WHO standard of drinking water. Four randomly selected isolates (B1, B2, B3 and R) which were isolated from different water samples were subjected to 16S rRNA gene sequencing. It was found  that the 16S rRNA sequence of isolate B1, B2 and B3 had 98% similarity to that of Enterobacter asburiae, Escherichia coli and Acinetobacter sp respectively. Similarly, 16S rRNA sequence of isolate R had 99% similarity to that of Klebsiella pneumonia. Results of biochemical analysis revealed that all four isolates were negative to Catalase, KOH and Oxidase test while variations were found for other tests. Similarly, all four isolates were able to ferment all tested carbohydrates except cellulose. The optimum pH and temperature for the growth of the all isolates was pH 7.0 and 37ºC. It was found that all the isolates were sensitive to majority of the antibiotics used

Biochemical and histopathological profiling of Wistar rat treated with Brassica napus as a supplementary feed

Metabolic changes together with cardiovascular and hepatic factors are related to the development of diseases like myocardial lipidosis, heart disease, and profound toxicity. The aim of this animal study is to determine the effects of high erucic acid containing rapeseed oil (Brassica napus L.) varieties on liver, kidney and heart muscles in Wistar rats. Male Wistar rats were divided into three groups where each group containing four rats. Group A was considered as control diet group, while Group B rapeseed wild oil group and Group C rapeseed hybrid oil group were considered as experimental diet groups. The levels of aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT),alkaline phosphatase(ALP), creatine kinase-MB (CK-MB) and creatinine of two experimental groups were significantly elevated while compared to the control groups (p  0.05). Noticeable tissue injury observed in this study is a sign of the relative toxicity of erucic acid containing rapeseed oil to mammalian species. The use of Brassica napus as a supplementary feed ingredient should be, therefore, thoroughly considered Keywords: Rapeseed oil, Rattus norvegicus, Serum enzymes, Erucic acid, Tissue profilin

A PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF LMS, RLS AND LATTICE BASED ALGORITHMS AS APPLIED TO THE AREA OF LINEAR PREDICTION

Abstract: This paper presents a performance analysis of three categories of adaptive filtering algorithms in the application of linear prediction. The classes of algorithms considered are Least-Mean-Square (LMS) based, Recursive Least-Squares (RLS) based and Lattice based adaptive filtering algorithms. The performances of the algorithms in each class are compared in terms of convergence behavior, execution time and filter length. The analysis determines the best converging algorithm from each class. Finally the best performing algorithm for adaptive linear prediction is selected