Association of serum ferritin with insulin resistance in women with polycystic ovarian syndrome

Background: Emerging scientific evidence has disclosed unsuspected influences between iron metabolism, insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. Even mildly elevated body iron stores are associated with statistically significant increases in glucose homeostasis indices. But till now high serum ferritin associated with type 2 diabetes is not recognized as an entity in the current clinical guidelines for the management of type 2 diabetes.Methods: This was a Cross sectional study carried out from September 2016 to March, 2017 at PCO clinic of infertility outpatient department (OPD), department of obstetrics and gynecology, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, Dhaka, Bangladesh. The study population consisted of all the diagnosed PCOS patients. Purposive sampling Main outcome variable: serum ferritin level and insulin resistance index (Homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance: HOMA-IR).Results: Most of the (90.9%) patients were aged 20-30 years having BMI >25 kg/m2, mostly overweight (52.53%) or obese (25.25%). Significant increase of serum ferritin level (72.89±34.97; p=0.001) was noted in PCOS patients with insulin resistance. Marked increase in serum ferritin (82.81±31.57, p<0.001), fasting serum insulin (16.39±7.1; p<0.001), HOMA-IR (3.51±1.55; p<0.001) and more cases with insulin resistance (78.3%; p<0.001) were found in women with high ferritin level (when ≥45.5 ng/ml). Statistically significant strong positive correlation between serum ferritin level and fasting insulin level (r=0.528; p<0.001) as well as HOMA-IR (r=0.492; p<0.001) were observed.Conclusions: These results demonstrated that elevated level of serum ferritin was associated with insulin resistance in PCOS women

Quality and antioxidant activity of rice grown on alluvial soil amended with Zn, Cu and Mo

Insufficient micronutrients are a common phenomenon in Malaysian soils derived from riverine alluvium, which affect the growth and quality of rice. A study was conducted on such soils at Kelantan, Malaysia to evaluate the effects of applying Zn (5kgha −1 ),Cu (4kgha −1 ) and Mo (0.5kgha −1 ) along with the recommended N, P, K and S at 120, 30, 50, 10kgha −1 , respectively on rice plant growth, grain yield, quality and antioxidant activity. Any single micronutrient or in combination with macronutrients had positive effects on the growth, chlorophyll contents, grain quality, and protein content of rice. Application of micronutrients increased phenolic compound by 40% and flavonoid content by 71.54% in rice grain compared to the control, particularly, Zn and Cu had positive effects on grain protein percentage. Furthermore, the application of micronutrients increased Zn, Mo, and Cu content in grain and straw. Higher values of antioxidant activities were found in the de-husked grain compared to those of the milled rice in micronutrient applied treatments. The application of the micronutrients to the riverine alluvium soil enhanced rice yield by 18% via uptake of nutrients, attributed to increased physiological performance, leading to higher harvest index and grain quality

Quality Assessment of Hydroxychloroquine Tablet A Comparative Evaluation of Drug Produced by Different Pharmaceutical Companies in Bangladesh

Hydroxychloroquine is the most commonly prescribed antimalarial extensively used to treat rheumatoid arthritis. It is extensively utilized as a repurposing drug, as well, in many countries worldwide to treat COVID-19. The pharmaceutical sector of Bangladesh is much enriched, and different pharmaceutical companies in Bangladesh produce this drug. Since the drug quality might vary significantly among different brands, assuring the quality of medicine is absolutely necessary considering the health issues, particularly therapeutic efficacy and safety. Therefore, this study examined the quality of hydroxychloroquine produced by Bangladeshi pharmaceutical companies, concentrating on quality control parameters: the assay, dissolution, disintegration, hardness, friability, and weight fluctuation. All the brands of hydroxychloroquine tablets contained the stated amount of API between the range of 96.41±0.62 and 100.61±0.71 that met USP specification (100±5%). All brands met the pharmacopeial limit for the percentage of weight fluctuation, hardness test, friability, and disintegration time. Weight variation was between 0.31±0.01% and 0.46±0.02%, hardness was between 4.31 ± 0.88 and 7.36 ± 0.74 kgf, friability was less than 1%, and disintegration time was 5.42± 0.11 and 5.42± 0.11 min. In the dissolution test, all the samples attained more than 70% dissolution after 30 minutes. The mean percentage of hydroxychloroquine released in phosphate buffer was between 95.44±0.55 (Brand B) and 98.19±0.39 (Brand C) after 60 min. No significant difference was among the tested drugs from different companies, and all quality assessment parameters were within USP specifications. Therefore, hydroxychloroquine from the Bangladesh market is safe and effective

Computing for Recognition: Design and Development of Just Technologies with Marginalized Communities

269 pagesMany of today's advanced computing tools and technologies are built and marketized to improve the quality of life of people worldwide, including the Global South populations. Examples of such technologies include computer-mediated collaborative (CMC) tools, FinTech, and advanced artificially intelligent tools for healthcare, among others. However, these tools and technology rarely understand people's sensibilities of justice, values, and identities. These three together fall under the umbrella of recognition. I build on Dipesh Chakrabarty, a South Asian political philosopher, and define recognition as a social instrument that validates marginalized communities in a multicultural society by ensuring justice for them, honoring their values, and acknowledging their identity. Misrecognition of people's justice, values, and identities further marginalizes them in a multicultural society as their voice is misheard and disregarded in the history, economy, and local and broader policy-making, and further jeopardizes their empowerment. This thesis discusses such marginalized community's empowerment through ``computing for recognition" and looks at the rural communities in Bangladesh, a low-income and low-resource country in South Asia. In a six-year-long ethnography-based thesis project, I focused on studying and building computing technologies for recognizing the identities and values of justice for marginalized communities. I deployed a variety of qualitative, quantitative, and design methodologies to probe and address social justice agendas in low-resource, marginalized communities. My field studies in Bangladesh revealed the challenges faced by rural populations and minorities, including rural women, low-literate and faith-based communities, and survivors of sexual harassment. I co-designed and evaluated computing technologies, including accessible, low-cost, and intelligent mobile and web applications, to understand the problems better, provide the community with tools to aid their existing methods of accessing ICTs and solving problems, and hence, contribute to improving the quality of their life in the longer run. My thesis projects include: (a) conducting ethnography to study how they conceptualize and practice their recognitions in and over computing technologies and (b) developing and designing systems and applications using co-designing strategies. My thesis addresses the recognition of marginalized communities through three broad themes: transformative, bypass, and polysemic design. My thesis (i) argues that marginalized community's expectations from the technologies showing differ from the expectations of the users in the Global North and intends of the technology designers in the West, (ii) reinforces marginalized community's existing strategies of transformative and distributive justice through codesigning tools to combat some of the long-existing patriarchal and gender discriminatory values and further contributes to their small-scale macro level empowerment, and (iii) pushes the methods of political design within HCI in a direction that bypasses the existing roadblocks and on going conflicts of values on the community's empowerment and designing beyond the user in a way that particular set of the people in the community may benefit

Levels of lanthanides and natural radionuclides in the uncultivated soils near industrial area of Bangladesh

Twenty five uncultivated surface soil samples collected from the northern and southern regions of Dhaka Export Processing Zone (DEPZ), industrial area of Bangladesh, were analyzed for their contents of Y, lanthanides and natural radionuclides (Th and U) using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICP-MS). Analogous concentrations of the Y, lanthanides, Th and U were observed in the both regions of DEPZ around several kilometer distances. Further, the measured values showed no particular contamination. However, the concentrationsof the light lanthanides (La, Ce and Nd) in the Bangladeshi soils were around twice than the worldwide average value. But, the smooth curve of the chondrite normalized patterns of the lanthanides suggested that the lanthanide contents of the Bangladeshi soils in thisarea are the results of the natural dispersion process rather than the anthropogenic activities. In addition, the relatively high Th and U concentrations and Th/U ratio were observed in Bangladeshi soils of this area, most likely due to the effect of their parent materials such as clay stones which have a high Th/U ratio. Since, this is the first precise result for the Y, lanthanides, Th and U contents in Bangladeshi soils, it could be useful in understanding thebackground level and the characteristics of these elements in the Bangladeshi soils

In vitro comparative quality evaluation of different brands of esomeprazole tablets available in selected community pharmacies in Dhaka, Bangladesh

Abstract Objective Esomeprazole is the S-isomer of omeprazole, used to treat gastro esophageal reflux disease. It is one of the widely manufactured and marketed drugs by many pharmaceutical companies in Bangladesh. The aim of the study is to compare the different physical parameters including hardness, friability, diameter, thickness, disintegration time, dissolution test and assay for quality evaluation and characterization of tablets of five different brands of Bangladeshi pharmaceutical company. The specified compendial method was followed for their evaluation test. Results Esomeprazole Mg tablets are enteric coated tablet, there was no disintegration for any brand occurred in 0.1 N HCl after 2 h and all tablets were disintegrated within 19.93 ± 0.04 to 29.05 ± 0.14 min in phosphate buffer (pH 6.8). Weight variation and Hardness were between 1.01 ± 0.29 to 2.01 ± 0.14% and 5.32 ± 0.06 to 7.12 ± 0.12 kgf respectively. Medicine released after 2 h in 0.1 N HCl were varied from 2.55 ± 0.24 to 4.47 ± 0.31% which was less than 10% and in phosphate buffer (pH 6.8) the percentage of medicine release were between 100.9 and 105.9% after 60 min. In case of assay the results of all brands were between 95.28 ± 0.08 and 99.40 ± 0.11%. The obtained results of all parameters were complied with pharmacopoeial limit. So from this study we can conclude that products of esomeprazole available in Bangladeshi pharmaceutical market meet the quality parameter to satisfy therapeutic efficacy

Iodine and Bromine contents in some agricultural soils of Bangladesh

第5回ヨウ素利用研究国際シンポジウ