North Bengal Research Articles

Clinical Profile Analysis of Tuberculosis Patients Attended in a Tertiary Care Hospital in Bangladesh

Background: Despite noteworthy socio-economic development and advances in medical science, tuberculosis (TB) remains a major public health problem. Although it is a curable disease, still millions of people suffer and a large number of patients die from this infectious disease. Now a day, the prevalence and nature of tuberculosis are not in a consistent stage. So we need more current information regarding this issue. Aim of the study: The aim of this study was to assess the clinical profile of tuberculosis patients attended in a tertiary care hospital in Bangladesh. Methods: This was a prospective, observational study which was conducted in the department of Medicine, North Bengal Medical College, Sirajgonj, Bangladesh during the period from January 2020 to June 2022. In total 87 diagnosed patients with tuberculosis, treated in the mentioned hospital were selected as the study subjects. Before data collection, proper written consents were taken from all the participants. For data collection a predesigned questionnaire was used in data collection. Collected data were processed, analyzed and disseminated by using MS Excel and SPSS version 23.0 program as per necessity. Results: In this study, the male-female ratio of the participants was 1.7:1. The highest number of participants were from the 41-50 years’ age group which was 27.59%. BMI (Kg/m2) was found ≥18.5 in 61% and < 18.5 was found in 39% of patients. Majority (56%) of the cases were ‘non- smoker’. As the types of TB, pulmonary Koch’s, CNS tuberculosis, abdominal Koch’s, and TB lymphadenitis were found in 43% 21%, 14%, and 13% of participants respectively which was noticeable. In this study, among all the participants, cough and fever were found as two most frequent symptoms which were found in 93% and 84% of patients respectively. Conclusion: Fever and cough are the two most frequent symptoms in tuberculosis patients. Although the death rate among TB patients is not alarming, the treatment success rate of the first treatment attempt is not satisfactory among tuberculosis patients.

Frequency of Metabolic Syndrome and Lipid Profile Analysis among Patient with Type 2 Diabetes: A Single Center Study

Background: Diabetes mellitus is associated with various metabolic disorders, which leads to the progression of the disease and its complications. Dyslipidemia has been noted to play an integral role in the pathogenesis and progression of micro and macro vascular complications in diabetes mellitus (DM) patients. Lipid profile is the indicators of dyslipidemia. Aim of the Study: The aim of this study was to accumulate the frequency of metabolic syndrome and lipid profile among patient with type 2 diabetes. Methods: This hospital based descriptive type of observational study was conducted in the Department of Medicine, North Bengal Medical College and Hospital, Sirajgonj, Bangladesh during the period from January 2022 to December 2022. In total 97 diagnosed patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus were enrolled in this study as the study subjects. Proper written consents were taken from all the participants before data collection. All demographic as well as clinical data were recorded. Data were processed, analyzed and disseminated by using MS Excel and SPSS version 23.0 program as per necessity. Results: The highest number (37%) of our participants was from 41-50 years’ age group and the female participants were dominating in number. Majority of the patients (63%) were obese: ≥30. In this current study, the frequency of metabolic syndrome was found as 71%. The mean± SD total cholesterol, triglyceride, LDL cholesterol and HDL cholesterol of the respondents were found as 179.88±42.81, 179.88±42.81, 109.74±46.69 and 44.75±7.68 mg/dL respectively. Among the majority of our patients (72%) normal (≥40 mg/dL) HDL level was found. Conclusion: The higher frequency of metabolic syndrome among type 2 diabetes patients demands more attention from health professionals as well as the policy makers. There may not have any significant correlation of metabolic syndrome or type 2 diabetes with lipid profile but aged people may be prone to those diseases.

Spatio-temporal variations of a meandering channel morphodynamics: A study along the Kaljani River in Bhuchungmari-Moamari Section of North Bengal Dooars, West Bengal (India)

Rivers being the most dynamic and natural engines receive the maximum outcome of process-form activities over space and time. Displacement and shifting of course of the alluvial channels over the lower gradients result into severe bed-bank scouring activities temporally. River Kaljani within the neo tectonically active zone of North Bengal plains is an example of temporal variations of high sinuosity and braiding over the softer lithology. The present work is focusing on a temporal study from 1970 to 2019. The SOI Topographical map of 1:50,000 scales has been the base layer along with temporal satellite imageries (1990, 2000, 2010 and 2019). The schematization has followed digitization, rectification and overlaying of conformal layers extracted from the USGS website under UTM Projection system and WGS of 1984 datum for north 45 zones under GIS platform. Multi-temporal satellite data identified serious course changes of the selected reach of lower segment of Kaljani River. The rectified multi-spectral bands are used to make the NDWI for identification of the water content on earth surface followed by selective morphometric analysis e.g. sinuosity index, braided index and roundness of curvature to access the spatio-temporal changes accomplishing some derivative mathematical equations. Descriptive statistics viz. mean, standard deviation (SD), coefficient of variation (CV), skewness and kurtosis were used and explained maximum course oscillations. The authors tried to examine the fact for six temporal frames i.e. 1970, 1990, 2000, 2006, 2010 and 2019 and received high sinuosity of all categories. Conclusively the work claims to set a documentary approach to examine the morphodynamics of an alluvial channel of Sub-Himalayan foothills.

Study of urban sprawl of Siliguri city

During past four decades, Siliguri city has drew a lot of people. In this four-decade Siliguri city convert into an important economic centre of the entire north Bengal, as a result land use land cover distribution of the city changed rapidly. This study aims to identify the pattern and analyse the urban growth of the city from 1991 to 2021 by giving special emphasize on built up growth. The Landsat TM, ETM and LISS IV data has been used for determine the built-up growth of the Siliguri city. Modified Maximum Likelihood Classifier approach has been adopted to classify the satellite image. From the analysis it is found that there is a drastic change in built-up 1254.54 percent in respect to 1991. The sprawl has been measured using Shannon's entropy. These changes are harmful for the ecological balance of the city surrounding. It can further influence the city’s sustainable development conditions.

Valorization of banana peel into α-amylase using one factor at a time (OFAT) assisted artificial neural network (ANN) and its partial purification, characterization, and kinetics study

In this present study α-amylase producing bacteria were isolated from the soil near North Bengal University canteen on an amylase agar medium. Primary screening of the isolates was done by iodine test, based on the clear zone around the bacterial colonies in the media plates. Seven bacterial isolates were selected and quantitatively screened for amylase production. Among them, strain sps2 showing the highest amylase activity (215 ± 2 IU/ml) was selected for further studies. Isolated strain sps2 was identified both morphologically and biochemically and further confirmed by 16s rRNA sequencing as Streptomyces pratensis sps2 (Gene bank accession No. OP 236721). Optimization of α-amylase produced by the isolate was conducted under submerged fermentation of low-cost carbon source banana peel, using a one factor at a time (OFAT) approach. Maximum amylase activity of 821.33 ± 0.57 IU/ml was recorded after 2 days of fermentation. The artificial neural network (ANN) model was employed using the OFAT data to generate a predictive model for amylase production and the R-value of 0.94496 and the RMSE of 64.82 suggesting that the neural network has the precise capability to generate an optimization environment. Ammonium sulfate precipitation and dialysis techniques were used to partially purify the α-amylase and then characterized. The enzyme was found to have a molecular mass of 28 kDa (SDS-PAGE and zymogram) with a Km and Vmax of 2 mg/ml and 1000 μmol/min, respectively. The enzyme was found to be thermostable in the temperature range of 4–90 °C and more stable at alkaline pH with optimum pH of 7.

Quality of Life and Associated Determinants among Female Tea Garden Workers of Indigenous Communities in Sub-Himalayan West Bengal, India: A Cross- Sectional Mixed Methods

The purpose of this study was to examine the self-perceived quality of life (QOL) using World Health Organization quality of life (WHOQOL-BREF) instrument and associated controlling factors among socio-economically marginalized tribal female tea garden (TG) workers. A cross-sectional mixed-method research design involving both quantitative and qualitative techniques was employed on 378 study samples (18–60 years tribal female TG workers) between February and May 2022 across 10 TGs of Sub-Himalayan north Bengal, India. For the study, both summary statistics (mean, median, mode, standard deviation, and percentage distribution) and inferential statistics (Welch’s ANOVA, independent t-test, paired t-test and multivariate regression) were used to understand the dynamics of QOL and respondents narratives were facilitated to investigate the corresponding phenomenal scenario. Results: Findings indicate the QOL of the tribal female workers variably associated with different socioeconomic conditions and subjective well-being. The findings recommend that female tribal TG workers were perceived to have good ‘overall quality of life’ with a response rate of 33.1%, whereas more than 20% of participants respond that they were poor QOL on ‘overall quality of life’ and ‘general health’ items. The findings show lower summary statistics for most items in the environmental domain. Additionally, the study constructs a multivariate model that identifies several factors including socio-economy, neighbourhood, social relation, and others were significantly control the QOL of the study subjects. These outcomes may have important implications for future studies employing WHOQOL-BREF or similar instruments on different communities with distinctive sociocultural characteristics.

AN ACCOUNT OF AVIFAUNA OF A TRANSITIONAL ZONE BETWEEN A TOWNSHIP AND A LARGE RIVER BASIN IN NORTH BENGAL

A survey was conducted covering the area lying between a large river bed and the edges of a township in the Jalpaiguri district of North Bengal. A total of 73 species of birds were recorded under53 generaand 17 orders. The highest number of species belonged to order Passeriformes. Five species reported were under Near-Threatened category. Of the orders recorded, relative diversity index was observed to be highest for Passeriformes, followed by Anseriformes and Coraciiformes, while at family level, the same was maximum for Anatidae.

Status of Women’s Education and Gender Disparity in Literacy in North Bengal, India

Status of Women’s Education and Gender Disparity in Literacy in North Bengal, India

Green tea processing by pan-firing from region-specific tea (Camellia sinensis L.) cultivars - a novel approach to sustainable tea production in Dooars region of North Bengal

The black crush-tear-curl (CTC) tea constitutes the bulk tea production in Dooars region of North Bengal while green tea processing is confined to fewer tea estates, however, recent trends of the tea industry indicate gradual inclination towards green tea production. Our novel research findings on pan-fired green teas from twelve cultivated region-specific tea varieties at three flushes and data analysis of chemical and sensory quality attributes showed diversity in the leaf chlorophyll and carotenoid contents, as well as wide ranges of variation in green tea quality constituents including Polyphenols, Total Catechins, Catechin fractions, caffeine, free amino acids, Polyphenol to Amino acids ratio, Soluble Solid content and tasters’ quality scores. Most parameters differed significantly among the tea cultivars and between the three flushes within a certain cultivar. This study has highlighted the role of genetic variability of tea cultivars, processing conditions, and seasonal influence in determining green tea quality.

Migration and Environmental Disorder in Post-Colonial North Bengal: An Impact on Society

Migration and Environmental Disorder in Post-Colonial North Bengal: An Impact on Society a micro level study. Environmental disbalance and Migration is a fact. Several countries in India have faced this problem. Migration is one of the primary factors of population explosion. The theory of ‘push’ and ‘pull’ factor were mainly responsible for migration of people from one place to another. As because, North Bengal is considered as a gateway of India, so migration means did not only indicate the outsiders, migration indicates the internal migration also. However, whether the population increases for internal or external reason, it creates an unusual situation for a common traditional society, economy, politics, administration, socio-cultural lifestyle as well as the environment of North Bengal. Environmental resources were greatly affected by the migration issues in North Bengal. Actually, human migration and population growth in concert with globalization trends, greatly affect the environment and conservation efforts. The concept of the environment and the migration that is “environmental refugee” is particularly earned the attention during 1970s. It can be said that the real purpose of the said paper is to discuss the effect of migration on the environment and on the lives of the people of North Bengal.

Functional traits and phylogenetic analysis of top-soil inhabiting rhizobacteria associated with tea rhizospheres in North Bengal, India

Rhizobacteria associated with cultivated crops are known to stimulate plant growth through various indirect or direct mechanisms. In recent years, the host list of plant growth promotion/promoting rhizobacteria has expanded to include bean, barley, cotton, maize, rice, vegetables, peanut, rice, wheat, and several plantation crops. However, interaction of rhizobacteria with tea plants of organic and conventional tea gardens is poorly understood. In the present study, rhizobacterial species associated with tea rhizosphere were isolated from 14 tea gardens located in North Bengal, India. In total, 16 rhizobacterial isolates isolated from collected soil samples were assessed for antagonistic and plant growth promotion/promoting activity under laboratory conditions. Molecular characterization based on sequencing of 16S rRNA gene revealed dominance of Bacillus with five species followed by Pseudomonas with two species. Interestingly, only one isolate was affiliated with actinobacteria, i.e., Microbacterium barkeri. Out of 16 isolates, isolates Bacillus subtilis OKAKP01, B. subtilis BNLG01, B. paramycoides BOK01, M. barkeri BPATH02, and Stenotrophomonas maltophilia BSEY01 showed highest growth inhibition against Fusarium solani (68.2 to 72.8%), Pseudopestalotiopsis theae (71.1 to 85.6%), and Exobasidium vexans (67.4 to 78.3%) causing respective Fusarium dieback, gray blight, and blister blight diseases in tea crop. Further, these five isolates also possessed significantly greater antifungal (siderophore producer, protease, chitinase, and cellulase activity) and plant growth promotion/promoting (indole-3-acetic acid production, ACC deaminase, ammonia, and phosphate solubilization) traits over other eleven rhizobacterial isolates. Therefore, these five isolates of rhizobacteria were chosen for their plant growth promotion/promoting activity on tea plants in nursery conditions. Results from nursery experiments revealed that these five rhizobacteria significantly improved growth rates of tea plants compared with the control. Therefore, this study suggests that these rhizobacteria could be used to formulate biopesticides and biofertilizers, which could be applied to sustainable tea cultivation to improve crop health and reduce disease attack.

The Impact of New Media on Tourism: A Study on West Bengal

This research report consists of informative data on tourism and the approach of new media in the tourism industry. The adaptation to new changes towards technology is a dynamic change. In this research proposal, there is a brief discussion on West Bengal tourism and some of the offbeat places in North Bengal. In the tourism industry, social media plays a significant role in communicating with tourists and guides. This research paper talks about tourism in West Bengal. This research paper initiated to discuss all the repercussions and growths of social media referred to tourism. Therefore, the role of social media platforms has a great impact on the tourism industry.

Computer-Assisted Learning versus Conventional Methods for Pathology Tutorials: A Longitudinal Interventional Study

Introduction: One of the important objectives of undergraduate pathology teaching is to enable the student to correlate the normal and altered morphology of different organ systems in common diseases. The conventional chalk and board method of tutorials for imparting this training is not free of disadvantages. ComputerAssisted Learning (CAL) is the trend of the day worldwide. Aim: The present study aimed to compare the effectiveness of CAL with the conventional method for pathology tutorials, with special emphasis on the retention of knowledge in students. Materials and Methods: The present study was a longitudinal interventional study involving 110 students of the second Professional MBBS batch of the Department of Pathology at North Bengal Medical College, Darjeeling, a rural area Medical College, for a period of six months from December 2017 to June 2018. The students were divided into an intervention group taught by the CAL method and a control group taught by the chalk and board method. On the day of teaching and one month after that, assessment was done by histopathology slide spotting. Focus Group Discussion (FGD) and a pre-tested and validated questionnaire completion were also undertaken. Paired t-test was used for comparison in both groups. Results: Those instructed by the CAL Method scored significantly higher than the control group students in both Spotting-1 and Spotting-2. In Spotting-1, the average score of group A (interventional group) and group B (control group) students was 71.11±27.67 (SD) and 38.89±24.75, respectively (p-value 0.01). In Spotting-2, the average score of group A and group B students was 67.78±28.52 (SD) and 29.44±28.85 (SD), respectively (p-value-0.01). Conclusion: The present study concluded that the CAL method is acceptable to both students and facilitators. It resulted in a significantly improved performance of students in the diagnosis of histopathology slides assessed immediately after teaching and one month after teaching. Hence, CAL also assists in the retention and recall of information.

Ntestinal Metaplasia in Barrett’s Oesophagus: A Clinicopathological Study

Introduction: The incidence of Oesophageal Adenocarcinoma (EAC) has increased at a faster rate than any other cancer in the developed nations. Despite advances in treatment, five year survival rate for EAC is <15%. Till date, Barrett’s Oesophagus (BE) is the only known precursor of EAC increasing its risk by greater than 30 to 60 fold. Most important risk factor for development of dysplasia and EAC is specialised Intestinal Metaplasia (IM) in BE. Aim: To find the association between clinical, endoscopic and histopathological features and presence of IM in patients with endoscopically suspected BE. Materials and Methods: This was an institution based descriptive study with a cross-sectional design conducted in the Departments of Pathology and Surgery, in a tertiary care centre of North Bengal for four years (2017-2021), among patients attending surgery and medicine Outpatient Department (OPDs) or Inpatient Department (IPDs), suspected on clinical basis and subsequent endoscopic detection of BE utilising Prague criteria. Periodic Acid-Schiff (PAS) and Alcian Blue (pH 2.5) stains were used to detect complete or incomplete IM and results were analysed using appropriate statistical software. Results: Among 120 cases included in the study, 72 (60%) had Short Segment Barrett’s Oesophagus (SSBE) and 48 (40%) Long Segment Barrett’s Oesophagus (LSBE). Hiatal hernia was significantly more frequent in LSBE patients (32 out of 48) compared to patients with SSBE (24 out of 72). The associations of tobacco and alcohol abuse with microscopically proven BE were statistically significant with p-values of 0.005 and 0.004, respectively. The association of IM with the increasing length of Columnar Lined Oesophagus (CLE) was statistically significant (p-value=0.004). Conclusion: Tobacco and alcohol abuse, presence of hiatal hernia (particularly in LSBE patients) were significantly associated with BE. Increasing length of CLE is more commonly associated with IM. Incomplete IM was observed more commonly in LSBE cases whereas complete IM was detected more frequently in cases diagnosed as SSBE by endoscopy

Platelet-Rich Plasma Therapy for Hair Loss Treatment in North Bengal Medical College, Sirajganj, Bangladesh

Platelet-Rich Plasma Therapy for Hair Loss Treatment in North Bengal Medical College, Sirajganj, Bangladesh

Grey Blight Disease Detection on Tea Leaves Using Improved Deep Convolutional Neural Network.

We proposed a novel deep convolutional neural network (DCNN) using inverted residuals and linear bottleneck layers for diagnosing grey blight disease on tea leaves. The proposed DCNN consists of three bottleneck blocks, two pairs of convolutional (Conv) layers, and three dense layers. The bottleneck blocks contain depthwise, standard, and linear convolution layers. A single-lens reflex digital image camera was used to collect 1320 images of tea leaves from the North Bengal region of India for preparing the tea grey blight disease dataset. The nongrey blight diseased tea leaf images in the dataset were categorized into two subclasses, such as healthy and other diseased leaves. Image transformation techniques such as principal component analysis (PCA) color, random rotations, random shifts, random flips, resizing, and rescaling were used to generate augmented images of tea leaves. The augmentation techniques enhanced the dataset size from 1320 images to 5280 images. The proposed DCNN model was trained and validated on 5016 images of healthy, grey blight infected, and other diseased tea leaves. The classification performance of the proposed and existing state-of-the-art techniques were tested using 264 tea leaf images. Classification accuracy, precision, recall, F measure, and misclassification rates of the proposed DCNN are 98.99%, 98.51%, 98.48%, 98.49%, and 1.01%, respectively, on test data. The test results show that the proposed DCNN model performed superior to the existing techniques for tea grey blight disease detection.

A Study on Decision Making Ability of The Rural Women on Farm Management

Farm women decision is an important factor for agricultural management. In India majority of the agricultural workers were women. There are diff erent factors are present which is infl uence the decision-making ability of the women farmers. Keeping this in view the present study was conducted to fi nd out the decision-making ability of the rural women on agricultural management and factor infl uencing on this decision. The study was conducted in North Bengal region of India with the help of ex post facto research design. It was found from the study that majority of the farm women jointly take farm decision with the male members of the family, decision making ability level was medium and the independent variables information exchange, constraints, communication skill, sources of farm information, land holding, scientifi c orientation and farm knowledge are the crucial factor of decision-making skill of the rural women on farm management.

Assessment of Genetic Diversity Using D2 Statistics in Brinjal of North Bengal

Aim: Assessment of genetic diversity studies using D2 statistics in Brinjal of North Bengal.
 Study Design: Diversity D2 analysis.
 Methodology: This study was undertaken to understand the genetic divergence of the 32 brinjal genotypes collected from different locations of North Bengal region. Through diversity D2 analysis whole genotypes were categorized under seven groups with no evidence for geographical diversity as necessarily cause of genetic diversity.
 Results and Conclusion: Highest genetic diversity was recorded in cluster I and V argued for their utilization to develop transgressive segregate lines. Genotypes under cluster VI and VII found to be effective for the improvement of yield related attributes. The cross combinations between cluster VI and V, cluster VI and II, cluster VI and VI, cluster VI and I, cluster VI and III, cluster VI and cluster VII could be effectively utilized to improve heterotic population or recombinant.

A novel strain of Shigella isolated from the gut of Lepidocephalichthys guntea has in its genome a complete gene package for Type ll secretion system, and elaborate repertoire of genes responsible for multiple antibiotic-resistance and metal resistance via specific efflux channels.

The bacterial strain GCP5 was isolated from the gut of a bottom-dwelling fish Lepidocephalichthys guntea, that lives in the Magurmari River near North Bengal University in Siliguri, India. GCP5 was phylogenetically assigned to the Shigella genus using whole genome-based trees, k-mer analysis, the multilocus species tree (MLST), and single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)-based trees, and the genetic makeup of the isolate was determined following assembly of the genome sequences and genome annotation with several bioinformatics tools. The presence of a complete package of general-secretory-pathway (gsp) genes, grouped in an operon identical to a well-characterized type II secretion system (T2SS), was confirmed by genome mining of Shigella sp. GCP5. The operon's gsp genes shared the most homology with Escherichia coli gsp genes. A few more high-pathogenicity islands (HPIs) in the GCP5 genome were validated using the pan-genomes analysis pipeline (PGAP) and island viewer. Several antibiotic-resistance genes were found in this genome, as well as the existence of key antibiotic efflux pump families, allowing for the creation of a gene network of several antibiotic efflux transporters. In addition, the genome contained genes specific for nickel transport, the nikABCD system, and the RND family transporter cusCFBA, which confers resistance to copper and silver by effluxing out Cu+ and Ag+ ions.

Carpet Industry and its Workers: A Case Study of Sikkim, North Bengal

This article is about the carpet industry and its workers of Sikkim. Women carpet workers dominate this industry. 2.5% share of total states industrial development comes through this industry. The area of investigation is Sikkim, North Bengal and the entire work is based on the secondary data.