Discrepancies in Chest X-Ray among Patients with Tuberculous Cervical Lymphadenitis

Abstract Tuberculous cervical lymphadenitis is not an uncommon entity when it comes to otolaryngology practice and that too in Bangladesh. In tuberculous cervical lymphadenitis the bacilli may reach the neck nodes from the lungs as well, through circulation. This study was done in the department of ENT and Head Neck Surgery, Dhaka Medical College Hospital, Dhaka, from January 2012 to January 2013 and was designed to find out chest x-ray abnormalities in apparently chest asymptomatic confirmed tuberculous cervical lymphadenitis without associate disease. The diagnosis of tuberculous cervical lymphadenitis was confirmed by fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) and/or smear for acid-fast bacillus, and chest x-ray (PA view) was done in all confirmed cases (n=183). (13%) and abnormal chest x-ray in 51 cases (27.87%). Pulmonary infiltration, the commonest radiological finding was detected in 32 cases (17.49%), hilar enlargement in 17 cases (9.29%), right paratracheal opacity in 2 (1.09%), obliteration of costophrenic angles in 3 cases (1.64%) and miliary mottling in one case (0.55%). Upper zonal predominance of lung parenchymal infiltrations was noted in 12.57% and right lung involvement in 16.39%. Single zone was affected in 9.84% cases and multiple zones were involved in 7.65% cases. We observed right hilar enlargement in 6.56%, left hilar lymphadenopathy in 4.37% and bilateral hilar lymphadenopathy in 2.73% cases. We concluded that routine chest x-ray PA view should be done in all tuberculous lymphadenitis before categorization and starting of treatment

Effects of integrated plant nutrition systems with fertilizer deep placement on rice yields and nitrogen use efficiency under different irrigation regimes

Improved fertilizer management, with a combination of organic and inorganic inputs, has the potential to enhance rice yield while maintaining soil health. However, studies on the effects of broadcast prilled urea (PU) and urea deep placement (UDP) applied in combination with organic inputs (poultry litter [PL] and vermicompost [VC]), as integrated plant nutrition systems (IPNSs), on rice yields and nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) under alternate wetting and drying (AWD) irrigation are limited. We conducted field experiments during the dry and wet seasons of 2018, 2019, and 2020 to investigate the effects of fertilizer treatments, including control (no nitrogen), UDP, PU, and IPNSs (PU + VC, PU + PL, and UDP + PL) on rice yield and NUE under two irrigation regimes – AWD and continuous flooding (CF). The results revealed that fertilizer treatment and irrigation regime had significant (p < 0.05) interaction effects on rice yield and the agronomic efficiency of N (AEN) during the dry season. UDP significantly (p < 0.05) boosted rice yield, total dry matter (TDM), and NUE as compared to broadcast PU in both wet and dry seasons. Similarly, the IPNS treatment of UDP with PL significantly (p < 0.05) boosted rice yield, TDM, and NUE in comparison to broadcast PU. Under AWD irrigation, UDP alone produced higher rice yields than other treatments, while UDP, and UDP with PL produced similar yields under CF irrigation. During the dry season, AWD irrigation significantly (p < 0.05) increased rice yield, TDM, and AEN when compared to CF conditions, but during the wet season, AWD irrigation demonstrated a rice yield and NUE equivalent to CF. This research implies that using a UDP alone or in combination with PL as an IPNS could be a good way to boost crop productivity while also maintaining soil fertility

Post Covid-19 strategies for power and energy sectors of Bangladesh

Bangladesh has tremendous development potential across a wide range of socioeconomic sectors. Over the past decade, its energy and power sectors have grown consistently. However, the unexpected outbreak of COVID-19 threatens the continuation of progress. To successfully overcome and comply with the post-pandemic scenario, it is necessary to implement the appropriate strategies and action plans. The goal of this study is to suggest strategies that will result in the optimal development of Bangladesh’s power and energy sectors in the post-pandemic scenario and minimize COVID-19’s long-term effects as much as possible. For this purpose, the study first examines the growth of Bangladesh’s power and energy industry, and conducts the Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, and Threats (SWOT) analysis. Then, utilizing the Analytical-Hierarchy-Process (AHP) and TOWS, the SWOT elements are ranked in order of importance so that the most crucial aspects that are useful for evaluating the current state and potential future consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic can be identified. Using the Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) technique, the suggested strategies for the recommended guidelines are then ranked. The innovation in the methodology is that the SWOT-AHP-TOWS are used and then MCDM method is applied directly on the results of the former. This method of combining these two analysis tools is novel and, to the best of our knowledge, has not previously been utilized in any other publication. The findings are threefold — the quantitative results of the SWOT-AHP, the formulated TOWS strategies, and the ranking of the strategies by the MCDM. Lastly, these strategies are linked to the current nine global goals that Bangladesh is a part of, which benefit its power industry to grow after the COVID-19 pandemic

Generation of Tumor Antigen-Specific iPSC-Derived Thymic Emigrants Using a 3D Thymic Culture System

Summary: Induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived T cells may provide future therapies for cancer patients, but those generated by current methods, such as the OP9/DLL1 system, have shown abnormalities that pose major barriers for clinical translation. Our data indicate that these iPSC-derived CD8 single-positive T cells are more like CD4+CD8+ double-positive T cells than mature naive T cells because they display phenotypic markers of developmental arrest and an innate-like phenotype after stimulation. We developed a 3D thymic culture system to avoid these aberrant developmental fates, generating a homogeneous subset of CD8αβ+ antigen-specific T cells, designated iPSC-derived thymic emigrants (iTEs). iTEs exhibit phenotypic and functional similarities to naive T cells both in vitro and in vivo, including the capacity for expansion, memory formation, and tumor suppression. These data illustrate the limitations of current methods and provide a tool to develop the next generation of iPSC-based antigen-specific immunotherapies. : A barrier for clinical application of iPSC-derived CD8 T cells using OP9/DLL1 is their abnormal biology. Vizcardo et al. show that a 3D thymic culture system enables the generation of a homogeneous antigen-specific T cell subset, named iTEs, which closely mimics naive T cells and exhibits potent anti-tumor activity. Keywords: thymopoiesis, T cell differentiation, iPSC differentiation, adoptive cell transfer, naïve T cell, recent rhymic emigrants, fetal thymus organ culture, immunotherapy, 3D culture, tumor antigen specific T cel