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This study examines flood-induced vulnerabilities among women in northern Bangladesh. Poor and disadvantaged women are more vulnerable to disasters than men due to the conditions that predispose them to severe disaster impacts. Women suffer from physical injuries and are often evicted from their dwellings due to floods. Difficulties in finding adequate shelter, food, safe water, and fuel for cooking, as well as problems in maintaining personal hygiene and sanitation, prevent women from performing their usual roles at home. All of these are problems related to women's gender identity and social roles. Many poor and destitute women remain unemployed during and after floods. Women also suffer from domestic violence and are subject to harassment when taking shelter or refuge at community centers. These particular vulnerabilities and problems interrupt women's mitigation efforts and adaptation capacities in disaster risk reduction.

The reaction between acetylenes and sulfoxides, studied as a test case for gold-catalyzed intermolecular addition, provides the oxyarylation compounds 3 in good yields. Unpredictably, in all cases a single regioisomer arising from the electrophilic aromatic alkylation at the position adjacent to the sulfur atom is obtained instead of the expected Friedel-Crafts regioisomer. A new concerted mechanism based on DFT calculations is proposed to account for the products in this intermolecular gold(I)-catalyzed reaction.

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Antagonistic potentials of seven rhizoshere soil fungi viz., Aspergillus flavus Link., A. fumigatus Fresen., A. niger Tiegh., A. terreus Thom., Penicillium sp., Trichoderma harzianum Refat. and T. viride Pers. were tested in opposition to six pathogenic fungi viz., Colletotrichum sp., Curvularia lunata, Fusarium moniliforme, F. oxysporum, F. semitectum and Phomopsis sp. isolated from different leaf spots and fruit rots of brinjal. Out of seven soil fungi, Trichoderma harzianum was found most effective to control the growth of all the test fungi in the study of colony interactions and effects of volatile and non-volatile metabolites. This fungus may be exploited commercially to biocontrol the diseases.

In the presence of a catalytic amount of Pd2+ or Pd0, oxidative homo-coupling of arylzinc compounds was achieved by the use of N-chlorosuccinimide (NCS) or O2 as an oxidant. Different reaction pathways were involved in the catalytic reactions depending on the oxidants; NCS or O2 probably oxidized I− or Pd0 to I+ or Pd2+, respectively. This reaction disclosed a new and facile synthetic method of biaryls from aryl halides or arenes via arylzinc intermediates.

In an average, 2106 fungal colony forming units were settled within ten minutes on one square meter area at noon from the air of Dhaka University campus during February 2011 to January 2012. Among the identified fungi, Aspergillus was one of the most dominating genus in all the stations over the study period. The second was Penicillium followed by Cladopsorium, Curvularia, Alternaria, Fusarium, Trichoderma, Pestalotia, Rhizopus and Colletotrichum. In the dry winter (December - February), Alternaria, Cladosporium, Curvularia and Rhizopus showed its peak. Hot humid summer (April) is the most favourable season for the occurrence of Colletotrichum. Similarity has been found in fungal biodiversity in the indoor and outdoor air. However, higher number of colony was recorded from indoor (57.23%) than that of outdoor air. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjb.v42i2.18029 Bangladesh J. Bot. 42(2): 273-278, 2013 (December)

Fifty five angiospermic plants were selected for evaluating the effect of their aqueous extracts on the in vitro vegetative growth of Fusarium moniliforme Sheldon. Extracts of 17 plants showed varied degrees of inhibitory effects on the test pathogen. For instance the leaf extract of Lawsonia inermis showed maximum inhibition (60.65 %) followed by roots of Asparagus racemosus (50.59 %). The possibility of using these plant extracts in seed treatment to control bakanae disease of rice is suggested. Antifungal property of leaves of Andrographis paniculata and Lagerstroemia speciosa against bakanae disease is reported here for the first time. Key words: In vitro, Vegetative growth, Bakanae, Fusarium moniliforme, Plant extracts doi:10.3329/bjb.v37i1.1569 Bangladesh J. Bot. 37(1): 85-88, 2008 (June)