Water and Sanitation Practices and Health: A Study on the Tea Garden Workers in Moulvibazar District, Bangladesh.

Access to safe drinking water and hygienic sanitation facilities are extremely important for a healthy life. Without these, a healthy, sound and harmonic life is impossible. In many countries around the world, especially underdeveloped and developing countries, access to safe drinking water and hygienic sanitation facilities aren’t satisfactory.The present paper tries to find out the water and sanitation practices and their health-related impacts on the tea garden workers. This study focused on the two areas of Moulvibazar District, Alinagar and Madhabpur, two of the most tea gardens brimming areas in Bangladesh.The data were collected from 60 households (30 from each area). The study observes: in both of the areas, people use open defecation or very unhygienic latrines and dependent on the open and unsafe sources of water. This paper analyzes the impact of these conditions on the health of the tea garden workers

An Analysis of the Characteristics and Practices of Selected Alabama Small Livestock Producers: A Focus on Economics and Marketing

Abstract The study examined the characteristics and practices of small livestock producers, focusing on economics and marketing. Data were obtained from a convenience sample of 121 small producers from several South Central Alabama counties, and were analyzed using descriptive statistics, including chi-square tests. The socioeconomic characteristics reflected a higher proportion of part-time farmers; a higher proportion with at most a two-year/technical degree or some college education; and a higher proportion with $40,000 or less annual household income. A majority had been farming more than thirty years, and most had small herds. Also, very few made profits; many sold animals live on-farm or at auction/stockyard, and kept records. The chi-square tests showed that farming status, gender, race/ethnicity, age, education, and household income had statistically significant relationships with selected farm, economic, and marketing characteristics. Educational programs should be implemented in the study area emphasizing economics and marketing, and taking into consideration socioeconomic factors

An effective deep learning network for detecting and classifying glaucomatous eye

Glaucoma is a well-known complex disease of the optic nerve that gradually damages eyesight due to the increase of intraocular pressure inside the eyes. Among two types of glaucoma, open-angle glaucoma is mostly happened by high intraocular pressure and can damage the eyes temporarily or sometimes permanently, another one is angle-closure glaucoma. Therefore, being diagnosed in the early stage is necessary to safe our vision. There are several ways to detect glaucomatous eyes like tonometry, perimetry, and gonioscopy but require time and expertise. Using deep learning approaches could be a better solution. This study focused on the recognition of open-angle affected eyes from the fundus images using deep learning techniques. The study evolved by applying VGG16, VGG19, and ResNet50 deep neural network architectures for classifying glaucoma positive and negative eyes. The experiment was executed on a public dataset collected from Kaggle; however, every model performed better after augmenting the dataset, and the accuracy was between 93% and 97.56%. Among the three models, VGG19 achieved the highest accuracy at 97.56%

An Analysis of the Characteristics and Practices of Selected Alabama Small Livestock Producers: A Focus on Production and Processing

Abstract The study assessed the characteristics and practices of small livestock producers, emphasizing production and processing. Data were obtained from a convenience sample of 121 small producers from South Central Alabama, and analyzed using descriptive statistics, including chi-square tests. The socioeconomic factors showed most were part-time farmers; middle-aged producers; producers with at most a two-year/technical degree or some college education, and producers with $40,000 or less annual household income. A majority practiced rotational grazing, fed a combination of forage (direct from pasture), hay and concentrate, and about half conducted soil tests regularly. Furthermore, many had goats with parasite problems that were treated these primarily with anthelmintics; most sold live animals. The chi-square tests showed that farming status, gender, race/ethnicity, education, and household income had statistically significant relationships with production and processing characteristics. Socioeconomic factors should be considered in programs assisting producers in the study area. Keywords: Livestock Producers, Small Producers, Characteristics and Practices, Production and Processin

The Impact of Socioeconomic Factors on Selected Practices by Small Livestock Producers in Alabama

Socioeconomic factors are generally believed to affect practices of small livestock producers. Yet, there has been limited research on the issue, especially in Alabama. This study, therefore, focused on the impact of socioeconomic factors on practices of small livestock producers in Alabama. Data were obtained from a convenience sample of 121 producers from South Central Alabama, and were analyzed using descriptive statistics and logit analysis. The socioeconomic factors reflected a higher proportion of part-time farmers; many more middle-aged persons, with at most a two-year/technical degree or some college education; and a higher proportion with $40,000 or less annual household income. A majority practiced rotational grazing; had parasite problems; used veterinary services; kept records, and nearly half conducted soil tests regularly. In addition, several socioeconomic factors had significant effects on selected practices; farming status had a significant effect on rotational grazing; education and income had significant effects on parasite problems; age had a significant effect on veterinary services; and race/ethnicity and education had significant effects on record keeping. The findings suggest that socioeconomic factors are important and must be considered in program implementation. Keywords: Socioeconomic Factors, Practices, Small Livestock Producer

Prevalence of Health Hazards: A Study on the Female Workers of Garment Industry in Gazipur District, Bangladesh.

The present study tries to find out the prevalence of health hazards among the female workers of the garment industry in Gazipur district, Bangladesh. This study focused on two sub-districts, Sreepur and Kaliakoir, of Gazipur district. Data for this study were collected from 100 female garment workers of Gazipur district. This study observes female workers in the industry consistently suffer from a range of physical health complexities such as headache, eye problem, hand pain and respiratory difficulties. This study also analyses the causes and measures to solve the health issues of female workers of the garment industry

An Analysis of the Characteristics and Practices of Selected Alabama Small Livestock Producers: A Focus on Economics and Marketing

The study examined the characteristics and practices of small livestock producers, focusing on economics and marketing. Data were obtained from a convenience sample of 121 small producers from several South Central Alabama counties, and were analyzed using descriptive statistics, including chi-square tests. The socioeconomic characteristics reflected a higher proportion of part-time farmers; a higher proportion with at most a two-year/technical degree or some college education; and a higher proportion with $40,000 or less annual household income. A majority had been farming more than thirty years, and most had small herds. Also, very few made profits; many sold animals live on-farm or at auction/stockyard, and kept records. The chisquare tests showed that farming status, gender, race/ethnicity, age, education, and household income had statistically significant relationships with selected farm, economic, and marketing characteristics. Educational programs should be implemented in the study area emphasizing economics and marketing, and taking into consideration socioeconomic factors

Molecular identification and antibiotic resistance patterns of diverse bacteria associated with shrimp PL nurseries of Bangladesh: suspecting Acinetobacter venetianus as future threat

Shrimp aquaculture has been accomplished with breeding and nursing of shrimp in an artificial environment to fulfill the increasing demand of shrimp consumption worldwide. However, the microbial diseases appear as a serious problem in this industry. The study was designed to identify the diverse bacteria from shrimp PL (post-larvae) nurseries and to profile antibiotic resistance patterns. The rearing water (raw seawater, treated and outlet water) and shrimp PL were collected from eight nurseries of south-west Bangladesh. Using selective agar plates, thirty representative isolates were selected for 16S rRNA gene sequencing, antibiotic susceptibility test and MAR index calculation. Representative isolates were identified as Aeromonas caviae, Pseudomonas monteilii, Shewanella algae, Vibrio alginolyticus, V. brasiliensis, V. natriegens, V. parahaemolyticus, V. shilonii, V. xuii, Zobellella denitrificans which are Gram-negative, and Bacillus licheniformis and B. pumilus which are Gram-positive. Notably, six strains identified as Acinetobacter venetianus might be a concern of risk for shrimp industry. The antibiotic resistance pattern reveals that the strain YWO8-97 (identified as P. monteilii) was resistant to all twelve antibiotics. Ceftazidime was the most powerful antibiotic since most of the studied strains were sensitive against it. The six strains of A. venetianus showed multiple antibiotic resistance patterns. MAR index were ranged from 0.08 to 1.0, and values of 26 isolates were more than 0.2 which means prior high exposure to the antibiotics. From the present study, it can be concluded that shrimp PL nurseries in southern part of Bangladesh are getting contaminated with antibiotic resistant pathogenic bacteria

A Cross Sectional Study on Knowledge and Attitude among Diabetic Patients about Diabetes and Its ComplicationsA Cross Sectional Study on Knowledge and Attitude among Diabetic Patients about Diabetes and Its Complications

Abstract: Backgroun