Delaying child marriage through community-based skills-development programs for girls: Results from a randomized controlled study in rural Bangladesh

In Bangladesh, where efforts to prevent child marriage have focused on the enforcement of laws and policies, little research exists on what approaches work best to delay marriage and why. To help fill this evidence gap, in 2012 the Population Council and partners embarked on a four-year study to understand whether skills-building approaches to empower girls can delay marriage in three districts in southern Bangladesh where child marriage rates are high. The BALIKA project reported here is the first rigorously evaluated study to provide evidence on approaches to delay child marriage in Bangladesh. BALIKA results show that programs that educate girls, build their skills for modern livelihoods, and engage their communities can reduce the likelihood of child marriage by one-third and produce better health, educational, and social outcomes for girls

Cerebral infarction: an unusual manifestation of viper snake bite

Snake envenomation causes significant mortality and morbidity. Viper bite usually present with local cellulites, renal failure and bleeding disorders. Thrombotic manifestation of snake bite is rarely reported and early administration of Anti-Snake Venom Serum (ASV) also reduces the risk of thrombotic complications. Cerebral infarction in case of viper bite may be due to hypotension, hypercoagulability or direct action of venom on vessel wall. We report a rare case of viper bite, presented with renal failure and cerebral infarction in spite of early ASV institution. The thrombotic manifestation in this case was possibly due to disseminated intravascular coagulation

ALVEC, auto-scaling by lotka volterra elastic cloud: a qos aware non linear dynamical allocation model

Measurement of the dynamic elasticity of resource allocation in cloud computing continues to be a relevant problem in the related literature. Yet, there is scant evidence on determining the dynamic scaling quotient in such operations. Elasticity is defined as the ability to adapt to the changing workloads by provisioning and de-provisioning of Cloud resources and scaling is essential for maintaining elasticity in resource allocation. We propose ALVEC, as a model of resource allocation in Cloud data centers (Sarkar et al. , 2016) [7,16], to address dynamic allocation by auto-tuning the model parameters. The proposed model, governed by a coupled differential equation known as Lotka Volterra (LV), fares better for management of Service Level Agreement (SLA) and Quality of Services (QoS). We show evidence of true elasticity both in theoretical and numerical applications. Additionally, we show that ALVEC as an example of unsupervised resource allocation, is able to predict the future load and allocate virtual machines efficiently

Recent pattern of Co-infection amongst HIV seropositive individuals in tertiary care hospital, kolkata

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Opportunistic Infections (OIs) and co-infections are the major cause of deaths amongst HIV infected individuals and this mostly depends upon the risk factors, type of exposure and geographic region. The commonest types of infections reported are tuberculosis, chronic diarrhoea, oral candidiasis, herpes simplex virus-2, cytomegalovirus, hepatitis B virus and hepatitis C virus. Due to the scarcity of OIs data available from this region, we had designed a study to determine the frequency of different OIs amongst HIV seropositive patients.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Analysis of the different spectrum of OIs/Co-infections were carried out with 204 HIV sero-positive patients (142 males and 62 females) who visited the HIV/AIDS Apex Clinic in a tertiary care hospital from March 2006 to March 2009. The CD4+ count was estimated using FACS Calibur, the routine smear test, serology, nested RT-PCR and DNA sequencing were carried out to determine the different OIs.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In this study, HIV seropositive patients were mostly from middle age group (31-40 yrs) with CD4+ counts in majority of symptomatic AIDS patients below 200 cells/mm³. The common co-infections/opportunistic infections were OC (53.43%), CD (47.05%), HSV-2 (36.76%), TB (35.29%), CMV (26.96%), HBV (15.19%) and HCV (7.35%). Dual infections, like HSV-2 & CMV (15.38%), HSV-2 & TB (14.61%), HSV-2 & oral candidiasis (24.61%) and CMV & oral candidiasis (14.61%) were significant in follow-up patients. Triple infections were also common e.g., TB, CD, OC infection occurring frequently in about 14.21% of the study population. Multiple infections like OC, TB, CD amongst the viral co-infected patients with HSV-2, HCV, CMV and HBV are also reported in this study. The genotyping analysis of the HCV co-infected HIV individuals shows that two belonged to HCV genotype 1 and 8 belonged to genotype 3.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>A wide spectrum of OIs were observed amongst HIV-infected patients in the HIV/AIDS Apex Clinic. Oral candidiasis, CD, CMV and HSV-2, were the common OIs in those patients. This study aims to provide a clearer picture regarding infections occurring amongst HIV seropositive individuals so that the scientific findings could be translated into sustainable prevention programmes and improved public health policies.</p> <p>Trial registration</p> <p>None</p

Problems and Prospects of the Foreign Direct Investment-based Organization in Bangladesh

The article examines the problems and prospects of foreign direct investment (FDI)-based organizations in Bangladesh. The article applied a mixture of statistical tools and techniques, including a stratified random sampling and a survey questionnaire to collect relevant data. The sampling frame and sample size were based on the organizations involved in FDI-based businesses in Bangladesh. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted to examine the structure and pattern of the data. Ordinal logistic regression and odds ratio were applied as well. Role of the Board of Investment along with economic freedom and the foreign investment act emerged as the most statistically significant factors which impact patterns of FDI in the country. Keywords: Economy, Foreign Direct Investment, Bangladesh JEL Classifications: E, F,

Accelerating action to end child marriage in Bangladesh

Despite considerable social and economic progress in Bangladesh, child marriage remains the norm. The Population Council is partnering with UNFPA and the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs to empower girls with gender, life, and livelihood skills, and to engage communities to address fundamental normative drivers of child marriage. The objective of the baseline study is to generate a set of indicators against which change can be measured, and to provide specific information about the status of adolescents in the study area in ways that can guide intervention strategies and inform programs and policies. Baseline findings will provide a benchmark against which changes resulting from the intervention may be measured at the endline period and will identify themes in need of further exploration through qualitative research. Overall, the data reveal important contrasts in the social lives of adolescents by marital status, education, and age. The report notes several findings that may inform program strategies and are worth considering in the design of interventions

Evaluation of the impact of the voucher program for improving maternal health behavior and status in Bangladesh

Vouchers, a demand-side financing (DSF) instrument for health-care services, were introduced in Bangladesh in 2006. The DSF program grants vouchers to pregnant women to receive free antenatal, delivery, and postpartum care services as well as free medicine, and financial assistance is provided for transportation. Deliveries with skilled service providers are financially incentivized and providers are reimbursed for their services from a special fund. After piloting DSF initially in 21 subdistricts (upazilas), the government expanded it to another 12 upazilas in 2007 (the second phase), and in its third phase in 2010 the program was expanded to another 11 upazilas. To measure DSF’s effect on improved access, quality, and reduced inequity for reproductive health services, during the third phase of the program the Population Council conducted a comprehensive evaluation with both baseline and endline surveys in 11 DSF upazilas and compared their outcomes with those from upazilas served by similar facilities not included in the DSF program. This final report contains key facility and policy program recommendations