Background The COVID-19 pandemic and countrywide lockdown could negatively impact household food insecurity among low-income households. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of household food insecurity and its influencing factors among low-income people in Bangladesh during the lockdown of COVID-19. Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted through face-to-face interviews from 500 low-income households during the countrywide COVID-19 lockdown. A pretested, structured and validated questionnaire was used to collect socioeconomic characteristics, household income conditions, and food accessibility. Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) and Dietary Diversity Score (DDS) were used to measure food insecurity. Multinomial logistic regression models were estimated to evaluate and predict risk factors that influence food insecurity. Results The study found that above 67% of households was mild-to-moderate food insecure while 23% experienced severe food insecurity. Significantly, 88%, 97.4%, and 93.4% of the households had anxiety and uncertainty, inadequate quality, and inadequate quantity of food, respectively. The regression analysis revealed the age 36–50 years (RRR: 4.86; 95% CI: 2.31–7.44, RRR: 4.16; 95% CI: 2.25–6.10) and monthly income <58.3 USD (RRR: 3.04; 95% CI: 1.12–5.14, RRR: 3.26; 95% CI: 1.79–4.71) were significantly associated with food insecurity (p <0.001). Likewise, less-income (RRR: 3.87; 95% CI: 1.37–6.46, RRR: 2.99; 95% CI: 1.16–4.83), increase in food prices (RRR: 1.29; 95% CI: 0.32–2.33, RRR: 1.08; 95% CI: 0.05–1.12), and those who did not have same type of earning as before during the COVID-19 lockdown (RRR: 3.41; 95% CI: 1.33–5.62, RRR: 2.60; 95% CI: 0.99–4.24) were potential risk factor for MMFI and FI. Conclusion This study found that households become more susceptible to food insecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown period. Based on the findings, we suggest some essential food policies and adequate food assistance to mitigate these negative consequences.
The United Nations projects that one in every six people will be over the age of 65 by the year 2050. With a rapidly aging population, the risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD) becomes a major concern. AD is a multifactorial disease that involves neurodegeneration in the brain with mild dementia and deficits in memory and other cognitive domains. Additionally, it has been established that individuals with Human Immunodeficiency Virus-1 (HIV-1) experience a 5 to 10-year accelerated aging and an increased risk of developing HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND). Despite a significant amount of clinical evidence pointing towards a potential overlap between neuropathogenic processes in HAND and AD, the underlying epigenetic link between these two diseases is mostly unknown. This study is focused on identifying differentially expressed genes observed in both AD and HAND using linear regression models and a more robust significance analysis of microarray. The results established that the dysregulated type 1 and 2 interferon pathways observed in both AD and HAND contribute to the similar pathologies of these diseases within the brain. The current study identifies the important roles of interferon pathways in AD and HAND, a relationship that may be useful for earlier detection in the future.
Rainwater conservation and soil erosion prevention are vital for the economic and financial sustainability of dry land agriculture. An integrated watershed development programme is thus a means of achieving these goals. Presently, integrated watershed management is receiving worldwide recognition as an effective model for watershed planning. A watershed is considered the basic geographical unit for developing any plan by integrating various social, economic, and policy factors with modern science. Hence, it is an approach to develop the basic resources for sustainable life support. The present study was conducted to assess the impacts of the watershed development programme on the social and biophysical aspects in a micro-watershed area of Cooch Behar district, West Bengal, India. This study confirmed that the project had positive effects that strengthened the socio-personal and economic characteristics of the farmers and improved the biophysical environment of the farms. The soil and water conservation efforts have increased the total cultivable area as well as improved the irrigation and drainage facilities in the micro-watershed units, thereby increasing the acreage and productivity of crops.
Background: Combination antiretroviral therapy has significantly advanced HIV-1 infection treatment. However, HIV-1 remains persistent in the brain; the inaccessibility of the blood–brain barrier allows for persistent HIV-1 infections and neuroinflammation. Nanotechnology-based drug carriers such as nanodiscoidal bicelles can provide a solution to combat this challenge. Methods: This study investigated the safety and extended release of a combination antiretroviral therapy drug (tenofovir)-loaded nanodiscs for HIV-1 treatment in the brain both in vitro and in vivo. Result: The nanodiscs entrapped the drug in their interior hydrophobic core and released the payload at the desired location and in a controlled release pattern. The study also included a comparative pharmacokinetic analysis of nanodisc formulations in in vitro and in vivo models. Conclusion: The study provides potential applications of nanodiscs for HIV-1 therapy development.
Given that precipitation is a major component of the earth's water and energy cycles, reliable information on the monthly spatial distribution of precipitation is also crucial for climate science, climatological water-resource research studies, and for the evaluation of regional model simulations. In this paper, four satellite derived precipitation datasets: Climate Prediction Center MORPHING (CMORPH), Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), the Precipitation Estimation Algorithm from Remotely-Sensed Information using an Artificial Neural Network (PERSIANN), and the global Satellite Mapping of Precipitation (GSMaP) are spatially analyzed and compared with the observed precipitation data provided by Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD). For this study, the different precipitations data sets are spatially analyzed from 2 nd May 2019 to 4 th May 2019 at the time of Cyclone "FANI". It is found that the satellite derived precipitation datasets are reasonably matched with the observed but slightly different.
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