Chili powder is a globally traded commodity and one of the most important parts of regular diet of the people of Bangladesh. It is reported that chili power has been adulterated by Sudan III-IV dyes since 2003. A simple, fast and cost effective method for the identification of Sudan dyes (III and IV) present in chili powder was proposed here and the method was based on the characterization of UV-visible spectral data using artificial neural network (ANN). Artificial neural network (ANN) was developed for the simultaneous assay of chili powder adulterated with Sudan III-IV. 47 standard mixture solutions were prepared using orthogonal experimental design (OED) to build a calibration data set. UV-visible spectra of these mixtures were obtained between 200 and 800 nm at 1 nm interval. The results of the artificial neural network were compared with that of other two calibration techniques namely, principal component regression (PCR) and partial least square regression (PLSR). ANN shows better prediction efficiencies comparing with PCR and PLSR. Prediction by ANN on the basis of spectroscopic data is 85% for chili powder, 70% for Sudan III and 60% for Sudan IV in terms of coefficient of determination (R2 ). Six different branded chili powders collected from the local market, and were measured by using the proposed method. It was found that no samples contained Sudan III-IV. So, the proposed method can be easily used in the quality control of any chili powder adulterated with Sudan IIIIV dyes as an alternative analysis tool.

Background Unlike subcutaneous lipomas, thoracic cavity lipomas are extremely rare and can develop to be quite large without causing any symptoms. However, managing massive lipoma that involves both chest cavities is usually challenging, especially when considering the approach for excision. Case We report our experience of surgical management of a case of a 46-year-old male with huge intrathoracic lipoma that extends bilaterally and is known to be the largest of such kind. The tumor was resected successfully using median sternotomy. Histological analysis confirmed features of lipoma. Conclusion To remove a bilateral intrathoracic lipoma, various surgical approaches have been documented. In our experience, a median sternotomy allows better exposure, which aids in complete surgical extirpation resulting in the prevention of recurrence.

It has been widely acknowledged that female workers account for 80% of the Ready Made Garments (RMG) industry’s workforce in Bangladesh but a number of studies estimated different male to female workers’ ratios ranging from 35: 65 to 55:45. To contribute to such debate, this paper leverage the data of the ‘Mapped in Bangladesh’ (MiB) project. While the objective of the MiB project is to enable transparency and accountability in the RMG sector by providing the industry stakeholders accurate, updated and authentic factory data collected through the factory census method and published in a digital map; this paper aims to shed light on the male to female ratio of workers employed in the RMG factories of Bangladesh is not 20:80, but it is 42:58 according to the findings from MiB data. Presenting such data, the study seeks to discuss how factory issues can influence the gender composition of RMG Workers. These issues such as factory locations, factory type, factory size and production sections are important to understand the challenges of future research addressing the gender composition of RMG workers in Bangladesh.

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