Prevalence and determinants of behavioral risk factors of non-communicable diseases among a selected slum population in Bangladesh

BACKGROUND: Low and middle income countries and also the underprivileged population both are susceptible for the increased burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), and the practice of their behavioral risk factors (BRFs) is the main cause. However, these BRFs and their determinants among the slum population of Bangladesh weren’t adequately evaluated. The present study was carried out with the aim to find out the prevalence and determinants of BRFs of NCDs among a selected slum population in Bangladesh.METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted in purposively selected Rayerbazar slum of Dhaka city, Bangladesh, in 2017. A total of 192 adult (aged 18 to 65 years) residents were enrolled in this study using the convenient sampling method. A semi-structured questionnaire, adopted version of World Health Organization (WHO) STEPS instrument was used for data collection. Ascertainments of the risk factors were conducted as per the WHO STEPS guideline. Both descriptive and multivariate statistics were performed using the SPSS software.RESULTS: The majority of the respondents (72.4%) were men, and the mean ± standard deviation (SD) of the ages was 37.0 ± 13.6 years. Half (50%) of the respondents were tobacco users. Almost all (98.4%) reported insufficient fruit and vegetables (FAVs) intake. Almost 7 out of 10 (67.7%) of the respondents reported to perform inadequate level of physical activity (PA). However, very negligible (2.6%) proportion of the respondents reported alcohol consumption. The group of the respondents with the age above the mean age (≥ 35 years) reported higher use of tobacco whereas, the group of the respondents with the age below the mean age (< 35 years) reported a higher level of inadequacy of PA.CONCLUSION: BRFs of NCDs were substantial among the selected slum population of Bangladesh, where age was the major determinant. Health promotion and health education measures are recommended for slum population of Bangladesh to aware them of the BRFs of NCDs

Electric field driven destabilization of the insulating state in nominally pure LaMnO3

We report an electric field driven destabilization of the insulating state in nominally pure LaMnO3 single crystal with a moderate field which leads to a resistive state transition below 300 K. The transition is between the insulating state in LaMnO3 and a high resistance bad metallic state that has a temperature independent resistivity. The transition occurs at a threshold field (Eth) which shows a steep enhancement on cooling. While at lower temperatures the transition is sharp and involves large change in resistance but it softens on heating and eventually absent above 280K. When the Mn4+ content is increased by Sr substitution up to x=0.1, the observed transition though observable in certain temperature range, softens considerably. The observation has been explained as bias driven percolation type transition between two coexisting phases, where the majority phase is a charge and orbitally ordered polaronic insulating phase and the minority phase is a bad metallic phase. The mobile fraction f of the bad metallic phase deduced from the experimental data follows an activated kinetics with the activation energy nearly equal to 200 meV and the prefactor fo is a strong function of the field that leads to a rapid enhancement of f on application of field leading to the resistive state transition. We suggest likely scenarios for such co-existing phases in nominally pure LaMnO3 that can lead to the bias driven percolation type transition.Comment: Accepted in JPC

Behavioral Risk Factors of Noncommunicable Diseases Among Medical and Nonmedical Undergraduate Students of Dhaka City, Bangladesh

Background and aims: Behavioral risk factors of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are established during early age and continued into adulthood. In Bangladesh, the scenario of NCD risk factors among students was inadequately studied. The aim of this study was to assess and compare the prevalence of behavioral risk factors of NCDs between undergraduate medical and nonmedical students. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 280 undergraduate students (equal number of students from medical and nonmedical backgrounds). Respondents were selected purposively from 5 purposively-selected institutions. Modified WHO STEPS instrument was used for data collection. Respondents were asked about their behavioral risk factors (tobacco use, insufficient fruit and vegetable intake, inadequate physical activity, and alcohol consumption) by face-to-face interviews. Results: Men students were more in both groups. The mean age of the medical and nonmedical students was 22.1±2.0 and 21.8±1.9 years, respectively. Tobacco use was more among nonmedical students than that among the counterpart (22.1% vs. 15.7%). Medical students were more used to take insufficient fruits and vegetables compared to nonmedical students (97.9% vs. 93.6%). Equal proportions (71.4%) of students in both groups were used to perform inadequate physical activity. Alcohol consumption was observed more among nonmedical students (12.9% vs. 8.6%). Conclusion: Behavioral risk factors of NCDs were remarkable among students of both groups, mainly among nonmedical students

Rotational Variability and Detection of Superflares in a Young Brown Dwarf by TESS

We present a comprehensive analysis of a Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) high-quality light curve for a young brown dwarf, MHO~4 having spectral type M7.0, in the Taurus star-forming region. We investigate the rotation periods and characterize the BD's dynamic atmosphere and surface features. We present light curve analysis of MHO~4, and estimate the rotation period to be around 2.224~d. Remarkably, MHO~4 exhibits two significant flaring events. Furthermore, we also estimated bolometric flare energies to be within the energy range of $10^{34}$ to $10^{35}$ erg, which sits in the superflare category.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure

Recent advances in pesticide formulations for eco-friendly and sustainable vegetable pest management: A review

In order to reduce the loss and maintain the quality of vegetables harvest, pesticides are used together with other pest management techniques during cropping to destroy pests and prevent diseases. However, the use of pesticides during production often leads to the presence of pesticide residues in vegetables after harvest. Higher doses and repeated applications of conventional formulations lead to accumulate pesticide residues in vegetable commodities along with environmental pollution. With the increasing awareness of toxic effects of conventional formulations, there is a significant trend towards switching over from such pesticide formulations using petroleum and organic solvent based constituents to user and environment friendly water based pesticide formulations. The developed world has progressed substantially in this regard to develop eco-friendly formulations which are safer to vegetable and the environment. These formulations would not only replace toxic, non-degradable ingredients/adjuvants of the conventional formulations but also increase the bio-efficacy of the products through incorporating latest technologies including size reduction (Wettable Powder to Suspension Concentrate, Soluble Concentrate to Microemulsion), increased coverage of applied surface area (EC to ME/Nano-formulations), reduced wastage (Dust/WP to Controlled Release Formulations) and dose rates of applied same pesticides to improve food quality with minimum pesticide residues

Knowledge attitude and practices towards chronic kidney disease among type-2 diabetic patients in Bangladesh

INTRODUCTION: Having proper knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP) towards chronic kidney disease (CKD) among type-2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients is very important to reduce the disease burden. However, the information about KAP towards CKD among Bangladeshi T2DM patients is unknown, based on the available literatures till the date. OBJECTIVES: We aimed to assess the KAP towards CKD among T2DM patients attended a selected hospital in Dhaka city. METHODS AND MATERIALS: In this cross-sectional study, we conveniently selected Aalok hospital and also its 224 T2DM patients who attended the outdoor. We excluded the already developed CKD patients and aged over 70 years. We adopted a questionnaire from a validated instrument consisted of a 10 itemed knowledge, 8 itemed attitude, and 7 itemed practice domains towards CKD (total 25 items). Data were collected by face-to-face interviews. Both descriptive and comparative (Independent Sample t-tests and One-way ANOVA tests) statistics were used for data analysis where appropriates. RESULTS: Women respondents were higher (69.6%). The mean age of the respondents was 49.8±11.3 years. Most of them had average level of knowledge (69.6%) and attitude (60.7%). Majority also reported a good hypothetical practices in general if they would find out to have CKD. Knowledge was significantly associated (p<0.05) with sex, level of education, occupation, and income, whereas attitude was with sex, occupation, and income. CONCLUSION: T2DM patients of our study reported mostly average level of knowledge and attitude, and a good hypothetical practices in general towards CKD. Proper health awareness programs are needed to increase the KAP towards CKD among T2DM patients in Bangladesh

Study on anti-diarrheal activities of Abelmoscous esculentus seeds

The main objective of this study is to analyze anti-diarrheal activities of Abelmoscous esculentus. Phytochemical screening shows that Abelmoscous esculentus contain alkaloid, carbohydrate, saponines, diterpene, phytosterol, proteins and gums. Ethanolic extract of Abelmoscous esculentus as well as n-hexane soluble fraction and chloroform soluble fraction show 81.82% anti-diarrheal activities that is much higher than standard Loperamide (63.64%). Â

Anisotropic Physical Properties of the Kondo Semimetal CeCu1.11_{1.11}As2_2

The recently proposed novel materials class called Weyl-Kondo semimetal (WKSM) is a time reversal invariant but inversion symmetry broken Kondo semimetal in which Weyl nodes are pushed to the Fermi level by the Kondo interaction. Here we explore whether CeCu$_{1+x}$As$_2$ may be a new WKSM candidate. We report on its single-crystal growth, structure determination and physical properties investigation. Previously published studies on polycrystalline samples suggest that it is indeed a Kondo semimetal, which is confirmed by our investigations on single crystals. X-ray diffraction reveals that CeCu$_{1+x}$As$_2$ crystallizes in a tetragonal centrosymmetric structure, although the inversion symmetry could still be broken locally due to partially occupied Cu sites. Chemical analysis results in an average occupation $x$ = 0.11(1). The electrical resistivity increases logarithmically with decreasing temperature, and saturates below 10 K. A Kondo temperature $T_{\mathrm{K}}$ $\approx$ 4 K is extracted from entropy, estimated from the specific heat measurements. From Hall effect experiments, a charge carrier density of $8.8 \times 10^{20}$ cm$^{-3}$ is extracted, a value characteristic of a semimetal. The magnetization shows pronounced anisotropy, with no evidence of magnetic ordering down to 0.4 K. We thus classify CeCu$_{1.11}$As$_2$ as a tetragonal Kondo semimetal with anisotropic magnetic properties, with a possibly broken inversion symmetry, thus fulfilling the necessary conditions for a WKSM state.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, Proceedings of the International Conference on Strongly Correlated Electron Systems (SCES2019