Drought is one of the most destructive abiotic stresses that impact the growth, physiology, yield, and nutritional quality of seeds of crop plants. In modern agriculture, the use of nanoparticles can be beneficial due to their large surface area and higher potentiality to enter into the plant leaf during foliar application. This study aims to evaluate the effects of foliar spray containing varying doses (0, 100, and 200 ppm) of the nano-iron (Fe3O4) on the growth, physiology, yield, and seed nutritional quality of soybean under drought (40% of field capacity, FC) and well-watered (80% of FC) conditions. Leaf water status, chlorophyll content of leaves, the height of the plant, fresh leaf weight, fresh stem weight, fresh petiole weight, total dry weight, seed yield, and protein and oil content in soybean seeds were found to be suppressed by the applied drought stress. Under both drought (40% of FC) and controlled well-watered (80% of FC) conditions, the foliar application of nano-iron substantially improved the growth, physiology, yield, and quality of soybean seeds. The nanoparticles at 200 ppm increased soybean seed yield by 40.12 and 32.60% in drought and well-watered conditions, respectively, compared to the untreated plants. Furthermore, nano-iron increased the oil content of soybean seeds by 10.14 and 7.87% under drought and well-watered conditions, respectively, compared to the untreated control. Our results indicate that the application of nano-iron improved drought tolerance, yield, and seed quality of soybean, so exogenous foliar sprays of 200 ppm Fe3O4 were more effective than the other treatments in enhancing drought tolerance and can be utilized to reduce losses caused by drought stress in soybean-growing areas.

To find out the effect of planting methods on the yield and yield attributes of short duration Aman rice varieties, a field trial was conducted at the farm of Bangladesh Rice Research Institute, Gazipur, during July to November 2012. The treatments comprised of three BRRI released high yielding varieties viz., BRRI dhan39, BRRI dhan49 and BRRI dhan57 and three planting methods viz., direct seeding of dry seed, direct seeding of sprouted seed and transplanting. It was a factorial experiment conducted in a Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications. Planting methods had a significant effect on the growth duration of rice. The rice crop established with direct seeding of the dry and sprouted seed matured 7 days earlier than transplanting. The variety BRRI dhan39 gave the highest yield (4.964 t•ha −1 ) when grown with direct seeding of sprouted seed compared to other varieties. The highest net return (23362.00 BDT ha −1 ) and cost benefit ratio (1:1.49) were observed in direct seeding of the sprouted seed method. So, direct seeding of sprouted seed might be the best planting method because about 19.94% production cost is reduced due to the omission of seedling raising and transplanting operations as well as the reduction in the length of the crop cultivation period.

Poultry production has boomed in Bangladesh in recent years. The poultry sector has contributed significantly to meet the increased demand for animal source proteins in the country. However, increased use of antimicrobials and antibiotics appeared to be a significant threat to food safety in the poultry sector. The poultry drug and feed sellers are at the frontline position involving selecting and delivering the antimicrobials to the poultry farmers. Studies assessing the poultry drug and feed sellers’ knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAPs) are limited. The current study aimed to assess the community poultry drug and feed sellers’ KAPs of antimicrobial use (AMU) and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in some selected areas of Bangladesh. We determined the respondents’ (drug and the feed sellers) KAPs of AMU and AMR using a tested and paper-based questionnaire. The study demonstrated that most respondents have insufficient knowledge, less positive attitudes, and inappropriate practices regarding AMU and AMR. The factor score analysis further showed that the type of respondents and their years of experience, level of education, and training on the drug were the significant factors impacting the current knowledge, attitudes, and practices of AMU and AMR. The adjusted logistic regression analysis revealed that the drug sellers who completed their education up to 12th grade and had training on the drug had adequate knowledge of AMU and AMR. The data also showed that the drug sellers belong to the age group 31–35 and 36–40 years and who completed 12th grade had good attitudes on the same. Likewise, the analysis further determined that drug sellers belonging the age category 18–25 and 26–30 years, and interestingly, the respondents who completed education up to 12th grade, had better practices. Spearman’s rank-order correlation revealed a positive association between each pair of the KAPs scores for the respondents. The correlation was fair between knowledge–attitudes, knowledge–practices, and attitudes–practices. Based on the current study results, we recommend educational interventions and appropriate training for the poultry drug and feed sellers to raise awareness and to upgrade their current knowledge on the appropriate use of antimicrobials. This will ultimately lead to reducing the chances of developing AMR in the poultry sectors of the country.

A new technology for the production of transparent material using a "crystalline" polymer is proposed in the present study. Further, transparent and flexible crystalline polymer nanohybrid film containing well-dispersed nanodiamond filler was fabricated. Partially fluorinated crystalline polymer with switchboard-type lamellae results in high transparency as a consequence of the formation of a high-density amorphous structure based on high-temperature drawing just below the melting point at 110 °C. Although the formation of nanohybrid materials composed of fluorinated-polymer/organo-modified nanocarbon is generally difficult, we confirmed the formation, via melt-compounding, using atomic force microscopy and wide-angle X-ray diffraction. Even though the polymer matrix/nanodiamond hybrid has remarkable aggregation properties, a well-dispersed state was achieved because of improvement in wettability obtained through surface modification of filler. The resulting nanohybrid demonstrates transparency, increased thermal degradation temperature, and enhanced mechanical properties, which seem to be derived from the nucleation effect caused by the adsorption of the terminal polymer chain onto the organic modifier.

A yearlong study was carried out in indigenous cattle of five upazila namely Khagrachari Sadar, Laxmichari, Matiranga, Mahalchari and Dighinala in Khagrachari Hill District, Bangladesh for determination of statuses of various biochemical parameters. Apparently healthy cattle (100) were selected and blood samples were collected aseptically. Biochemical analysis of carbohydrates, proteins, fats, minerals, electrolytes and enzymes were performed by using automated biochemical analyzer (Humalizer ® -3000). The results showed that, the variations of parameters were not significant (p>0.05) between male and female. Although there was a slight increase of calcium (Mean±SEM) 8.01±0.32 mg/dl, glucose 69.21±2.31 mg/dl, LDL 5.69±0.22 mg/dl and uric acid 3.85±0.34 mg/dl of female compared to 7.34±0.42, 68.32±1.81, 5.05±0.25 and 3.37±0.27 of the male. On the other hand, SGOT (100.14±4.86 U/L) was slightly higher in male compared to the female (91.97±5.55). There was a slight variation in ALP (218.81±29.12 U/L) of growing cattle compared to the calf's (293.57±42.78) and production cattle (300.88±27.24), although the variation was not significant (p>0.05).