The Kanda tribe is one of the lesser known small tribes of Bangladesh
with an estimated population of about 1700 people (according to them),
and on the verge of extinction as a separate entity. To ...some extent,
they have assimilated with the surrounding mainstream Bengali-speaking
population, but they still maintain their cultural practices including
traditional medicinal practices, for which they have their own tribal
healers. Nothing at all has been documented thus far about their
traditional medicinal practices and formulations, which are on the
verge of disappearance. The Kanda tribe can be found only in scattered
tea gardens of Sreemangal in Sylhet district of Bangladesh; dispersion
of the tribe into small separated communities is also contributing to
the fast losing of traditional medicinal practices. The objective of
the present study was to conduct an ethnomedicinal survey among the
traditional healers of the Kanda tribe (in fact, only one such healer
was found after extensive searches). Information was collected from the
healer with the help of a semi-structured questionnaire and the guided
field-walk method. A total of 24 formulations were obtained from the
healer containing 34 plants including two plants, which could not be
identified. Besides medicinal plants, the Kanda healer also used the
body hairs of the Asiatic black bear ( Ursus thibetanus ) and bats (
Pteropus giganteus giganteus) in one of his formulation for treatment
of fever with shivering. The ailments treated by the Kanda healer were
fairly common ailments like cuts and wounds, skin diseases,
helminthiasis, fever, respiratory problems (coughs, asthma),
gastrointestinal disorders (stomach pain, constipation, diarrhea),
burning sensations during urination, various types of pain (headache,
body ache, toothache, ear ache), conjunctivitis, poisonous snake,
insect or reptile bites, jaundice, and bone fractures. A number of
important drugs in allopathic medicine like quinine, artemisinin, and
morphine (to name only a few) have been discovered from observing
indigenous medicinal practices. From that view point, the formulations
used by the Kanda healer merit scientific studies for their potential
in the discovery of cheap and effective new drugs. Scientific
validation of the medicinal formulations of the Kanda healer can also
be effective for treatment of ailments among this tribe, which does not
have or does not want to have any contact with modern medicine.
Misogyny is defined as hostility, dominance, harassment, intimidation, and violence against women. Social media networks are rapidly developing. As a result, misogyny is becoming increasingly ...fashionable. This paper presents a solution to the problem of automatically classifying misogynistic Bengali messages on social media platforms. Several procedures have been taken to preprocess the data. Tf-Idf and Word Embedding with BERT are implemented so that computers can read text. Several machine learning-based models including Random Forest, SVM Polynomial kernel, SVM Signal kernel, and Adaptive Boosting have been tested to build a multi-class analyzer that identifies Misogynistic text in Bengali on social media. The models have been evaluated with the performance measures such as accuracy, precision, recall, and F1 scores. With 62.61 percent accuracy, the SVM sigmoid kernel outperforms all other models. As per our knowledge, no earlier research has been conducted on the classification of Bengali misogynistic text; consequently, the current research is the most comprehensive to date.
Phytochemical investigations on the organic extracts of the leaves of
Suregada multiflora have led to the isolation of ten tetracyclic diterpene lactones
1–
10
, members of a rare class of abiatene ...diterpene lactones. Compounds
1–
5
were found to be new. The structures of gelomulides
F
(
11
),
D
(
12
) and
E
(
13
) were revised on the basis of 2D NMR and X-ray diffraction evidences. Compounds
1
and
2
contain an epoxy linkage between C-8 and C-14, whereas compounds
3–
5
were identified as 8,14-dihydroxy analogues of diterpene lactones. The stereochemical assignments in new compound
1
are based on X-ray diffraction analysis. Compounds
6
and
7
were identified as the known gelomulides
A
,
G
. The structures of compounds
7–
9
were unambiguously confirmed by X-ray diffraction analyses.
A study of the cytotoxic extracts of the leaves of
Suregada multiflora has led to the isolation of ten tetracyclic diterpene lactone members of a rare group of diterpenes. Strucutre revision of some earlier reported diterpene lactones on the basis of 2D NMR and X-ray diffraction analyses is discussed.
The study was conducted for the isolation and detection of Bacillus anthracis spores from soil collected from Sirajganj district (a north-western district of Bangladesh), and to assess the parameters ...that may relate to the repeated anthrax outbreak. A total of 48 soil samples were collected from the study area during January 2012 to November 2012. Endospores were extracted from soil and the Bacillus anthracis was identified using conventional bacteriological, biochemical and sensitivity test against Penicillin-G. The viable B. anthracis spores could be detected from 14 (29.17%) soil samples. The mean pH of anthrax positive soil was weakly acidic (6.38±0.15), indicating that a suitable pH range for anthrax spore was present in the soil of Sirajganj. During the disease outbreak period (May and June) the average temperature of this area was 32°C and the average rainfall was 158 mm and 90 mm, respectively. Although the temperature variation had no significant influence on the occurrence of anthrax spore, rainfall was found to be significant.
Background The aim of this paper was to ascertain stress experienced by mothers of prospectively followed up preterm infants, and associations with family, child and maternal factors and children's ...neuro‐development.
Methods Within a follow‐up study of preterm infants <33 weeks gestational age at a Child Development Center in Dhaka Shishu Hospital, mothers were interviewed with the Self‐Report Questionnaire (SRQ) at each visit. Association between SRQ scores and child, family and maternal variables at first and final visit and children's neuro‐developmental outcomes was determined.
Results Low income mothers were more compliant (54%) compared with the defaulters (31%) (P = 0.0001) among the 159 mothers enrolled. Of the 88 mothers who were followed up until a mean age of 22 months of their child, 29.3% were at high risk for psychiatric morbidity at first visit compared with 23.9% on their last visit. Use of abortifacients (P = 0.026) and higher maternal age (P = 0.040) were significantly associated with maternal stress at first visit; while at last follow‐up, total number of visits had the most significant association (P = 0.041). Twenty‐five per cent and 19% of mothers were at risk for psychiatric morbidity in children developing normally and those with neuro‐developmental impairments respectively.
Conclusions Mothers at risk for psychiatric morbidity can be helped through follow‐up support within public hospitals close to their homes, which is most availed by low income families. Neuro‐developmental monitoring of high‐risk infants closer to homes may be more feasible in resource poor countries than reliance on hospital visits, which increase stress. Biological markers of stress and coping strategies need further research.
Self-Organizing Maps (SOM) have been used for patterning and visualizing ten environmental parameters and phytoplankton biomass in a mactrotidal (>10 m) Gyeonggi Bay and artificial Shihwa Lake during ...1986–2004. SOM segregated study areas into four groups and ten subgroups. Two strikingly alternative states are frequently observed: the first is a diverse non-eutrophic state designated by three groups (SOM 1–3), and the second is a eutrophic state (SOM 4: Shihwa Lake and Upper Gyeonggi Bay; summer season) characterized by enhanced nutrients (3 mg l−1 dissolved inorganic nitrogen, 0.1 mg l−1 PO4) that act as a signal and response to that signal as algal blooms (24 µg chlorophyll-a l−1). Bloom potential in response to nitrification is affiliated with high temperature (r = 0.26), low salinity (r = −0.40) and suspended solids (r = –0.27). Moreover, strong stratification in the Shihwa Lake has accelerated harmful algal blooms and hypoxia. The non-eutrophic states (SOM 1–3) are characterized by macro-tidal estuaries exhibiting a tolerance to pollution with nitrogen-containing nutrients and retarding any tendency toward stratification. SOM 1 (winter) is more distinct from SOM 4 due to higher suspended solids (>50 mg l−1) caused by resuspension that induces light limitation and low chlorophyll-a (<5 µg l−1). In addition, eutrophication-induced shifts in phytoplankton communities are noticed during all the seasons in Gyeonggi Bay. Overall, SOM showed high performance for visualization and abstraction of ecological data and could serve as an efficient ecological map that can specify blooming regions and provide a comprehensive view on the eutrophication process in a macrotidal estuary.
Hydrochemistry in parts of the Lower Tista Floodplain in northwest Bangladesh is dominated by alkalies and weakly acid, having highest concentration of sodium cations and bicarbonate anions ...respectively. Groundwater is characterized by sodium-calcium and sodium-potassium cation and bicarbonate-chloride-sulphate anion facies, and genetically ‘normal chloride’, ‘normal sulphate’, and ‘normal carbonated’ type, and soft to saline. Based on electrical conductivity values, the area is divided into northern fresh and southern saline groundwater zone, and values like salinity, Na%, SAR, and RSC and a good correlation between Na
+
and Cl
−
, and Cl
−
and salinity reveals increasing salinity with depth indicating a mixing of fresh and saline bodies due to marine transgression (?) during Holocene period in the Bengal delta. The rock weathering is likely to affect the groundwater quality by dolomite dissolution and calcium precipitation, representing reverse softening process and is brine seawater. Water extracted from shallow zone (from 20 to 30 m) has suitability for drinking purpose, livestock consumption and irrigation purposes, and partially suitable for industrial use, but that from deeper zone (from 30 to 50 m) is generally poor and unsuitable especially for irrigation purposes with low alkali and moderate to high salinity hazard. So groundwater can be used for irrigation in the area of fine textured soil with proper management practices.
This is a literature review for the year 2008 and contains information specifically related to suspended growth processes including activated sludge and sequencing batch reactors. This review is a ...subsection of the Treatment Systems section of the annual literature review. The review encompasses modeling, nutrient removal, system design and operation, oxygen transfer and solids separation. Two topics that have seen an increase in activity compared to historical reviews are membrane bioreactors and fate and occurrence of hormones and pharmaceuticals, which are referred to as microconstituents review, while membrane bioreactors are reviewed in another section in this journal. Other subsections from the Treatment Systems section that might also be related to this section include: Wastewater Collection Systems, Biological Fixed Film Systems, and Modeling, Instrumentation, Automation, and Optimization of Wastewater Treatment Facilities. Many of the subsections in the Industrial Wastes, Hazardous Wastes, and Fate and Effects of Pollutants sections could also have some overlap with this section.
Diabetes mellitus (DM), a disease characterized by abnormalities in insulin secretion and consequent hyperglycemia, affects millions of people world-wide. It has been estimated that 3.8% of the rural ...population and a larger percentage of the urban population of Bangladesh suffers from this disease, which over the years can lead to hypertension, cardiovascular disorders and diabetic nephropathy, to mention only a few. Modern allopathic medicine has no known cure for DM. On the other hand, traditional medicinal practitioners (TMPs) are known in Bangladesh to treat DM with concoctions made from medicinal plants. It is also claimed by the TMPs that their treatment can completely cure DM. We accordingly conducted an ethnomedicinal survey of TMPs in two northern districts of Bangladesh, namely Dinajpur and Panchagar to find out about medicinal plants used by them to treat DM. Interviews were conducted with the help of a semi-structured questionnaire and plant specimens as pointed out by TMPs were collected and identified at the Bangladesh National Herbarium. The names of 14 plant species were obtained. These plant species (with family name given in parenthesis) included
Catharanthus roseus
(Apocynaceae),
Coccinia grandis
(Cucurbitaceae),
Psidium guajava
(Myrtaceae),
Cassia occidentalis
(Fabaceae),
Fragaria vesca
(Rosaceae),
Coccinia cordifolia
(Cucurbitaceae),
Murraya koenigii
(Rutaceae),
Aegle marmelos
(Rutaceae),
Abroma augusta
(Sterculiaceae),
Berberis asiatica
(Berberidaceae),
Cryphaea glomerata
(Cryphaeaceae),
Saccharum spontaneum
(Gramineae),
Hyptis suaveolens
(Lamiaceae), and
Tinospora cordifolia
(Menispermaceae). Plants like
Catharanthus roseus
,
Psidium guajava
, and
Coccinia cordifolia
have already been reported in scientific studies to have considerable hypoglycemic potential. It is expected that more studies on the other plants can lead to identification of novel compounds to treat DM.
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