Inflation Targeting as the Monetary Policy Framework: Bangladesh Perspective

Inflation targeting strategy has become a widely accepted monetary policy framework in many countries all over the world. Our study finds that the central bank of Bangladesh is neither inflation targeting nor does follow any other rule-guided monetary policy, rather the policy is formulated with substantial discretion under the guidelines of donor agencies. This paper provides the evidence that monetary sector of Bangladesh economy has gained considerable degree of maturity and fulfils a number of prerequisites to adopt inflation targeting strategy. Using data over 1980-2010 we estimate an error correction model in order to examine if interest rate policy could fight the inflation. This is evident that deviation in inflation from target can be corrected via the changes in interest rate. Empirical findings jointly with few descriptive statistics provide strong evidence to recommend inflation targeting as the monetary policy strategy for Bangladesh.Bangladesh, Inflation Targeting, Monetary Policy.

Convenience and short comings among paediatric cochlear implant candidates

Background: Cochlear implants have revolutionized the treatment of severe-to-profound sensorineural hearing loss in children. However, the convenience and shortcomings experienced by pediatric cochlear implant candidates in various settings remain understudied. This study aimed to assess the convenience and shortcomings among pediatric cochlear implant candidates in home, school, and other social settings. Methods: This was a prospective clinical study that was conducted in the Cochlear Implant (CI) Center, Combined Military Hospital (CMH), Dhaka and Chattogram, Bangladesh from July 2015 to December 2022. A total of 200 parents of pediatric cochlear-implanted children were enrolled in this study as the study subjects. A simple random sampling technique was used in sample selection. All data were processed, analyzed, and disseminated by using MS Excel and SPSS version 22.0 program as per necessity. Results: The study analyzed information collected during the study period, focusing on the convenience and shortcomings reported by the parents of cochlear implant recipients. The findings revealed that the highest level of convenience was reported in some other social settings (82.84%), followed by home (75.67%) and school (64.4%). In contrast, shortcomings were reported primarily in the home environment (63.6%), followed by school (34.6%) and other social settings (31.45%). Conclusions: In the majority of cochlear implant children, convenience is observed in some other social settings than home or school. In the majority of cochlear implant children, shortcomings are observed in their homes

Advanced CNC/PEG/PDMAA Semi-IPN Hydrogel for Drug Delivery Management in Wound Healing

A Semi Interpenetrating Polymer Network (semi-IPN) hydrogel was prepared and loaded with an antibiotic drug, gentamicin, to investigate the wound healing activity of this system. The semi-IPN hydrogel was synthesized by combining natural polymer cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) and synthetic polymer polyethylene glycol (PEG) and poly (N,N0-dimethyl acrylamide) (PDMAA), which was initially added as a monomer dimethyl acrylamide (DMAA). CNC was prepared from locally obtained jute fibers, dispersed in a PEG-NaOH solvent systemand then mixed with monomer DMAA, where polymerization was initiated by an initiator potassium persulphate (KPS) and cross-linked by N,N0-methylenebisacrylamide (NMBA). The size, morphology, biocompatibility, antimicrobial activity, thermal and swelling properties of the hydrogel were investigated by different characterization techniques. The biocompatibility of the hydrogel was confirmed by cytotoxicity analysis, which showed \u3e95% survival of the BHK-21, Vero cell line. The drug loaded hydrogel showed antimicrobial property by forming 25 and 23 mm zone of inhibition against Staphylococcus aureus (gram-positive) and Escherichia coli (gram-negative) bacteria, respectively, in antimicrobial analysis. At pH 5.5, 76% of the drug was released from the hydrogel within 72 h, as observed in an in vitro drug release profile. In an in vivo test, the healing efficiency of the drug loaded hydrogel was examined on a mice model with dorsal wounds. Complete healing of the wound without any scar formation was achieved in 12 days, which revealed excellent wound healing properties of the prepared drug loaded semi-IPN hydrogel. These results showed the relevance of such a system in the rapid healing of acute wounds

Hypothermia in preterm infants admitted to low-resource neonatal units in northern Nigeria: an observational study of occurrence and risk factors

Background: Hypothermia is an important cause of morbidity and mortality among preterm and low-birth-weight neonates. In resource-constrained settings, limited referral infrastructure and technologies for temperature control potentiate preterm hypothermia. While there is some documentation on point-of-admission hypothermia from single center studies, there are limited multicenter studies on the occurrence of hypothermia among preterm infants in resource-limited-settings. Therefore, we conducted a multicenter study to determine the prevalence and risk factors for hypothermia at the time of admission and during the first 72 h after admission in northern Nigeria. Method: We carried out a prospective cohort study on preterm infants admitted to four referral hospitals in northern Nigerian between August 2020 and July 2021. We documented temperature measurements at admission and the lowest and highest temperatures in the first 72 h after admission. We also collected individual baby-level data on sociodemographic and perinatal history data. We used the World Health Organization classification of hypothermia to classify the babies’ temperatures into mild, moderate, and severe hypothermia. Poisson regression analysis was used to identify risk factors for moderate-severe hypothermia. Results: Of the 933 preterm infants enrolled, 682 (72.9%) had hypothermia at admission although the prevalence of hypothermia varied across the four hospitals. During the first 24 h after admission, 7 out of every 10 babies developed hypothermia. By 72 h after admission, between 10 and 40% of preterm infants across the 4 hospitals had at least one episode of moderate hypothermia. Gestational age (OR = 0.86; CI = 0.82–0.91), birth weight (OR = 8.11; CI = 2.87–22.91), presence of a skilled birth attendant at delivery (OR = 0.53; CI = 0.29–0.95), place of delivery (OR = 1.94 CI = 1.13–3.33) and resuscitation at birth (OR = 1.79; CI = 1.27–2.53) were significant risk factors associated with hypothermia. Conclusion: The prevalence of admission hypothermia in preterm infants is high and hypothermia is associated with low-birth-weight, place of delivery and presence of skilled birth attendant. The prevalence of hypothermia while in care is also high and this has important implications for patient safety and quality of patient care. Referral services for preterm infants need to be developed while hospitals need to be better equipped to maintain the temperatures of admitted small and sick newborns

Thermally crosslinked electrospun nanofibrous mat from chrome-tanned solid wastes for cationic dye adsorption in wastewater treatment

Chrome-tanned solid wastes from the tannery were used to extract collagen hydrolysate (CH) for the fabrication of electrospinning nanofibrous mat with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) to remove cationic dye from wastewater. The nanofibrous mat was thermally crosslinked by heat curing to make it stable in neutral, acidic, and basic environments. The prepared nanofibrous mat was characterized by attenuated total reflectance infrared spectroscopy (ATR-IR), thermogravimetry (TGA), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and water dissolution properties. The detailed experimental results revealed that the nanomat prepared from CH: PVA (2:3) yielded better stability in an aqueous solution after thermal crosslinking. The nanofibrous mat was used as adsorbent and its adsorption properties were evaluated from the adsorption behaviour of methylene blue (MB), a common cationic dye. The adsorption results demonstrated that the nanomat showed maximum adsorption capacity of 99.9 mg g−1 with 88.8% removal efficiency at pH 12. The adsorption parameters were optimized and revealed to be highly pH sensitive, with 12.0 being the optimum pH for the highest dye removal. The experimental results revealed that the adsorption capacity of the nanofibrous mat grew with increasing initial dye concentration and decreased with increasing adsorbent doses. The thermodynamic study indicated that the adsorption kinetics (R2 > 0.99) followed pseudo-second-order equation, and the equilibrium data was the best suited by the Langmuir model (R2 > 0.99). On the other hand, the electrospun nanofibrous mat showed significantly better adsorption than the prepared CH-PVA composite film. The results for cationic dye adsorption suggest that the potential broader applications of collagen hydrolysate-based nanofibrous mat for pollution control may include its use as potential adsorbent for wastewater treatment

Evaluation of Fat Binding Capacity of Gamma Irradiated Chitosan Extracted from Prawn Shell

<div><p>We previously studied the effects of 2–100 kGy gamma radiation (generated from ⁶°Co) on physicochemical, thermal, morphological, and antimicrobial properties of chitosan. The results demonstrated that these properties of chitosan were largely influenced by the action of gamma radiation. In addition, the fat binding capacity (FBC) of chitosan was found to be increased with increasing irradiation doses. In this work a thorough <i>in-vivo</i> investigation on mice was performed to examine FBC of irradiated chitosan (30–100 kGy) in animal bodies. Different groups of mice specimens were fed with γ-irradiated chitosan along with natural rodent chow and cheese as well as sufficient supply of water. The unconsumed lipid measured in feces was found to increase by 67% in mice whose diet included 100 kGy irradiated chitosan, relative to that nonirradiated chitosan. After twelve weeks of intimate observation, mice were sacrificed to examine triglyceride (TG) and total cholesterol (TC) content in mice blood. The results demonstrated that TG and TC values of mice fed with γ-irradiated chitosan were significantly lower than that of the control. All of these findings are expected to enhance the future research on irradiated chitosan to be used as potential fat reducer in human metabolism.</p></div