Role of Carcinoembryonic Antigen in Severity Assessment and Mortality Prediction in COVID-19 Patients.

Background Early risk stratification of COVID-19 may yield a better prognosis by tailoring effective treatment strategies. Recent studies have identified that elevated carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) has prognostic value in terms of disease severity and mortality in patients with pneumonia. This study aims to explore the potential of CEA as a marker for both severity assessment and mortality prediction in COVID-19 patients.

Silver Micro-Nanoparticle-Based Nanoarchitectures: Synthesis Routes, Biomedical Applications, and Mechanisms of Action.

Silver has become a potent agent that can be effectively applied in nanostructured nanomaterials with various shapes and sizes against antibacterial applications. Silver nanoparticle (Ag NP) based-antimicrobial agents play a major role in different applications, including biomedical applications, as surface treatment and coatings, in chemical and food industries, and for agricultural productivity. Due to advancements in nanoscience and nanotechnology, different methods have been used to prepare Ag NPs with sizes and shapes reducing toxicity for antibacterial applications.

Efficient and participatory design of scale-appropriate agricultural machinery workshops in developing countries: A case study in Bangladesh.

Smallholder farmers provide the foundation for food security in South Asia. However, increasing seasonal labor scarcity caused by rural out-migration has resulted in growing agricultural labor costs, presenting challenges to cash-constrained smallholder farmers that hire manual labor for land preparation, sowing, harvest and post-harvest operations. Technological innovations in small-scale agricultural machinery appropriate for the small field sizes and limited resource endowments of South Asia's farmers have been proposed as a potential solution to this problem.

A Simplified Irrigation Pump Testing Method for Developing Countries: A Case Study in Bangladesh.

Much of South Asia experiences a monomodal rainfall pattern with a distinct dry season following the annual monsoon. Enabling irrigation during the dry season has therefore been crucial in assuring improved productivity and double-cropping. This is particularly the case in southern Bangladesh, where recent government initiatives have called for an expansion of surface water irrigation to reduce pressure on groundwater tables in intensively cultivated areas in the north of the country, where dry season rice is grown.

Synthesis of Highly Efficient Bifunctional Ag/CoO Catalyst for Oxygen Reduction and Oxygen Evolution Reactions in Alkaline Medium.

Ag/CoO catalysts using three different modes of solution combustion synthesis were developed and characterized by X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy to identify crystallite size, oxidation state, composition, and morphology. Cyclic voltammetry and linear sweep voltammetry measurements for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) confirm the bifunctionality of the electrocatalysts. The electrochemical evaluation indicates that a synergic effect between Ag and Co enhances the activity through the fast breaking of O-O bond in the molecular oxygen to enhance the reduction mechanism.

Preparation of different polymorphs of cellulose from different acid hydrolysis medium.

In this study, medical cotton was subjected to acid hydrolysis in sulfuric, hydrochloric and phosphoric acid medium to prepare cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) with different morphologies and polymorphism. Morphology of the prepared CNC samples revealed fiber shaped morphology for sulfuric and hydrochloric acid hydrolyzed samples, whereas, spherical shaped for phosphoric acid hydrolyzed samples. The size of the spherical shaped CNC decreased with the increase of hydrolysis time, from 853 nm for 12 h to 187 nm for 48 h.

Prevalence of colibacillosis in chickens in greater Mymensingh district of Bangladesh.

Aim: This study was conducted for determination of the prevalence of colibacillosis in chicken in poultry farms in Mymensingh and Tangail districts. Isolation, identification, and antibiogram profile of were also performed.

Materials And Methods: A total of 25 chickens manifested clinical signs of colibacillosis were collected from five different poultry farms during natural outbreaks.

One-step sonochemical syntheses of Ni@Pt core-shell nanoparticles with controlled shape and shell thickness for fuel cell electrocatalyst.

We demonstrate a facile one-step method to synthesize Ni@Pt core-shell nanoparticles (NPs) with a control over the shape and the Pt-shell thickness of the NPs. By adjusting the relative reactivity of the Pt and Ni reagents in ultrasound-assisted polyol reactions, two Ni@Pt NP samples of the same composition (Ni/Pt=1) and size (3-4 nm) but with different particle shape (octahedral vs. truncated octahedral) and different Pt-shell thicknesses (1-2 vs.