This cross-sectional study investigated the prevalence and risk factors of hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections among 266 drug users ...attending a drug-addiction treatment centre in Dhaka, Bangladesh, from November 1996 to April 1997. Of the 266 addicts, 129 were injectable drug users (IDUs), and 137 were non-injectable drug users (non-IDUs). The seroprevalences of hepatitis B virus surface antigen (HBsAg), anti-HBc, anti-HBs, and anti-HCV antibodies among the IDUs were 8 (6.2%), 41 (31.8%), 15 (11.6%), and 32 (24.8%), and among the non-IDUs were 6 (4.4%), 33 (24.1%), 9 (6.6%), and 8 (5.8%) respectively. None of the drug users were positive for anti-HIV antibody. Although the prevalence of HBV infection did not significantly differ between the IDUs and the non-IDUs, the prevalence of HCV infection was significantly higher among the IDUs. Among the IDUs, the prevalence of both HBV and HCV infections was associated with sharing of needles and longer duration of injectable drugs used. The seroprevalence of HBV infection in both IDUs and non-IDUs was significantly higher among those who had a history of extramarital and premarital sex. The prevalence of HCV infection was not associated with sexual promiscuity There was no association between the seroprevalence of HBV and HCV infections and age. Active preventive programmes focusing on educational campaigns among the youths against substance abuse should be undertaken.
In this investigation, electrophoretic deposition of Titanium Oxide (P25) nanoparticles on Fluorine doped Tin Oxide (FTO) substrate has been studied. Three deposition parameters such as deposition ...time, deposition distance, and deposition voltage have been varied to get a uniform metal-oxide layer. The rate of deposition has been observed by varying those three parameters. Rate of deposition clearly increases as an effect of increasing deposition time and voltage. On the other hand, rate of deposition decreases by increasing the distance between the substrates. Surface morphology image shows that huge amount of cracks are formed while the amount of deposition increases beyond a certain level. By observing the surface morphology, optimized deposition parameters have been proposed for the deposition of TiO 2 for thick microfilm application.
Background and Aims: Data on Bacterial isolates from tracheal aspirates in children with severe pneumonia requiring intubation and mechanical ventilation especially in developing countries are very ...limited. We examined the microbial spectrum of bacteria isolated from tracheal aspirate of those children. The antibiotic susceptibility profiles of those bacteria were also examined.Methods: We evaluated the data of all mechanically ventilated children aged 0-59 months admitted to Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of Dhaka Hospital of the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b) between August 2009 and July 2013 having their tracheal aspirate culture done. Data were extracted from electronic medical records of the Dhaka Hospital.Results: Among 836 admitted pneumonia children in the ICU, we identified 35 children who fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Among them 34 (97%) had positive bacterial growths: Klebseilla species in 14 (40%), Escherichia coli in 11 (31%), Acinetobacter in 8 (23%) and Streptococcus species in 8 (23%). Additionally, Enterococcus, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudominas and Proteus species were identified in 6 (17%), 4 (11%), and 2 (6%) of the children respectively. The susceptibility of the gram-negatives, except Klebseilla, to ampicillin, cotrimoxazole, gentamycin, ciprofloxacin, azithromycin, and ceftriaxone ranged from 0- 54%, while that for ceftazidime and amikacin ranged from 12-80%. The sensitivity of Klebseilla to these antibiotics ranged from 0-100%.Conclusions: Our data suggests that gram-negative bacteria, Klebseilla followed by Escherichia coli, and Acenetobacter are the predominant bacteria associated with severe pneumonia in ventilated children. The increased number of infections caused by Gram-negative bacteria is being accompanied by rising rates of multi-drug resistance which underscores the importance of aggressive antimicrobial therapy in the management of such children.Bangladesh Crit Care J September 2014; 2 (2): 60-64
Bio-Medical Data Integration Based on MetaQuerier Architecture Hasan, Khondker Shajadul; Islam, Munirul; Chowdhury, M Samiullah ...
Proceedings of the International Conference on Bioinformatics & Computational Biology (BIOCOMP),
01/2011
Conference Proceeding
Biologists are often interested to query published phylogenetic data for research purposes. PhyQL, a Web-based visual phylogenetic query engine, can be quite useful on this regard. In PhyQL, we have ...implemented a data model and a visual query language to interact with hierarchically classified tree elements. To hide textual query submission, PhyQL provides a design interface to build the query visually. The users can build simple to complex queries using the query operators. PhyQL separates the application layer from the data layer by a logic layer leading to reduced query tools development time. Moreover,PhyQL provides interactive tree views in radial, phylogram and dendrogram layout. It can be accessed online at http://integra.cs.wayne.edu/softwares/phyql/.
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