Plastics are used widely everywhere in our life and without plastic, modern civilization would indeed look very diverse. This study focuses on the toxic effects of plastic on human health and environment and possible consequences of health risk assessment in Bangladesh. Plastics are essential materials in modern civilization, and many products manufactured from plastics and in numerous cases, they promote risks to human health and the environment. Plastics are contained many chemical and hazardous substances such as Bisphenol A (BPA), thalates, antiminitroxide, brominated flame retardants, and poly- fluorinated chemicals etc. which are a serious risk factor for human health and environment. Plastics are being used by Bangladeshi people without knowing the toxic effects of plastic on human health and environment. Different human health problems like irritation in the eye, vision failure, breathing difficulties, respiratory problems, liver dysfunction, cancers, skin diseases, lungs problems, headache, dizziness, birth effect, reproductive, cardiovascular, genotoxic, and gastrointestinal causes for using toxic plastics. Plastics occur serious environment pollution such as soil pollution, water pollution, and air pollution. Application of proper rules and regulations for the production and use of plastics can reduce toxic effects of plastics on human health and environment.

Background: Child malnutrition still remains a major cause of childhood morbidity and mortality in Bangladesh. This study aims to determine the prevalence and identify the associated risk factors of child malnutrition in Bangladesh using multilevel logistic regression model on data from the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS), 2014. Methods: A total sample of 6965 children aged 0-59 months was extracted from BDHS 2014. We performed descriptive analysis and multilevel generalized linear regression analysis with clustered data structure. Results: Our findings show that among children the prevalence of moderate and severe values was respectively: 25 and 12% for stunting; 11 and 3.1% for wasting; 25 and 7.9% for underweight. The probability of stunting increased with age, with highest rate among children aged 36-47 months, which was significantly higher than children aged less than 6 months (OR = 6.71, 95% CI = 4.46, 10.10). Female children are found to be 11% less likely to be stunted than male children (OR = 0.89, 95% CI = 0.78, 1.02). Children with birth interval less than 24 months were significantly more likely to be stunted than children of first birth by 36% (OR = 1.36, 95% CI = 1.11, 1.67). Mothers with a normal BMI were 16% less likely to have children with stunting compared to mothers who are underweight (OR = 0.84, 95% CI = 0.76, 0.93). Other factors which were associated with a higher risk of stunting included parents with lower educational levels, children from the poorest wealth index, and mothers aged less than 20 years as first birth. Conclusion: Government and non-government organization should generate effective program to aware women of reproductive age about adverse effect of short birth interval, and to aware parents about standard height and weight according to age and gender of children. Overall, necessary steps may be taken to make people educated and to reduce household wealth inequality to improve nutritional status of children.

Fruits ofSonneratia apetala (Buch.-Ham.) are widely used as food and in treatingvarious diseases in the tropical coastal areas. This study evaluated nutrient compositions in pericarp and seed of this fruit. Each of pericarp and seed was successively fractionated into n-hexane, diethyl ether, chloroform, ethyl acetate and methanol. Polyphenols contents and antioxidant activities of different pericarp and seed fractions were measured in different in vitro methods and phenolic compounds were determined by HPLC. Carbohydrates, proteins, lipids and ash contents were 29.6, 8.8, 2.8 and 25.5% of dry weight (d.w.) in pericarp whereas 28.3, 11.5, 4.2 and 22.7% in seed, respectively. Among the mineral macro-elements, K content was the highest (pericarp: 1.81%, seed: 0.88% of d.w.) followed by Na, Ca, Mg, P and S while in micro-elements, Fe was at the largest (pericarp: 132.5 ppm, seed: 107.3 ppm of d.w.) followed by Mn, Zn and Cu.A c c e p t e d M a n u s c r i p t 2 Methanol fraction of seed (MS) showed the highest polyphenols content (221.9 mg GAE (gallic acid equivalent)/g fraction), DPPH (IC 50 = 2.1 μg/mL) and NO (IC 50 = 490.8 μg/mL) free radical scavenging. Similarly, MS also attained very strong reducing power (OD = 1.67 at 100 µg/mL), Fe 2+ chelating and total antioxidant capacity. When subjected to HPLC analysis of MS, six polyphenols namely caffeic acid, (+)-catechin, (-)-epicatechin, ellagic acid, gallic acid and quercetin were detected and quantified as 88.1, 1459.3, 310.1, 616.9, 416.7 and 71.8 mg/100g of MS, respectively. Therefore, the fruit of S. apetala, especially its seeds could be of great use in preparation of functional foods and dietary supplements.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are the group of ∼22 nucleotides long noncoding small endogenous and evolutionary conserved post-transcriptional regulatory RNAs, which show an enormous role in various biological and metabolic processes in both animals and plants. To date not a single miRNA has been identified in coffee (Coffea arabica), which is an economically important plant of Rubiaceae family. In this study a well-developed, powerful and comparative computational approach, EST-based homology search is applied to find potential miRNA of coffee. We blasted publicly available EST sequences obtained from NCBI GenBank against previously known plant miRNAs. For the first time, one potential miRNA from a large miRNA family with appropriate fold back structures was identified through a series of filtration criteria. A total of six potential target genes in Arabidopsis were identified based on their sequence complementarities. The target genes mainly encode transport inhibitor like protein, transcription factor, DNA-binding protein, and GRR1-like protein, and these genes play an important role in various biological processes like response to chitin, cold, salt stress, water deprivation etc. Overall, findings from this study will accelerate the way for further researches of miRNAs and their functions in coffee.

Tuberculous spondylitis is prevalent in the authors' hospital. Both computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging are extremely helpful for diagnosis, and tissue aspirate is a good confirmatory method. A good outcome is expected if the diagnosis is made in early stages before the appearance of spinal deformity and neurologic symptoms. Surgical intervention can be avoided in these cases regardless of the presence or absence of paraspinal abscesses.