The Political Economy of China-Myanmar Bilateral Relations Under the framework of Belt and Road Initiative

After the political transition of Myanmar in 2011, China’s engagement strategy toward Myanmar has led the changes from the state-to-state relations into the multi-layered relations. At the same time, Myanmar’s foreign policy has also challenged Beijing’s economic and political interests in Myanmar in terms of the Myit-Sone Dam suspension by Myanmar’s first reform government. Later, the Aung San Suu Kyi’s government looks more closely with the PRC under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative. In this sense, it could be interesting to find Myanmar’s policy on China’s engagement and China’s responses to Myanmar’s development. Moreover, Myanmar has agreed to the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC) which is a strategically important economic corridor under the umbrella of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Among various China’s BRI projects in Myanmar, every case has a different characteristic, pattern, and situation, in terms of the different fundamental interaction relations among the state, market, and society. It means that China’s interest in Myanmar is a complicated and complex situation during Myanmar’s new political order. In this sense, the China-Myanmar bilateral relations have the multidimensional factors and it was shaped by the diverse state-holders’ interaction. Therefore, this paper will seek the China-Myanmar bilateral relations from the political economy perspective. At last, this paper will argue that the changing relations among state-market-society in Myanmar will play a crucial role in China-Myanmar bilateral relations by using the two-level game theory.

Community engagement in health services research on elimination of lymphatic filariasis: A systematic review

This study aimed to contextualize the extent, nature, and quality of community engagement in health services research on eliminating lymphatic filariasis in low-and middle-income countries of Southeast Asia and Pacific Region. We performed a systematic review, and the results were reported according to the PRISMA-S checklist. Relevant studies were searched in health-related electronic databases, and selected according to the inclusion criteria. Sixteen studies with various study designs were identified. The majority (68%) were conducted in India. Lay people, community leaders, and volunteers were the most common groups of community members (12/16,75%). Overall, the majority (13/16, 81%) were at the ‘moderate level’ of engagement in research context mainly by ‘collaboration’ in ‘developing methodology’ ‘collaboration’ in data collection and ‘collaboration’ for ‘dissemination of findings. The common barriers to the community engagement were lack of involvement of participating bodies and technology-related issues. In conclusion, the insufficient description of the community engagement process in the studies limits a deeper understanding and analysis of the issue. Future well-designed prospective studies with attention to the description of mechanisms of engagement, facilitating the whole process and reporting the community level outcome are recommended

Mining trajectory databases for multi-object movement patterns

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

Acid Phosphatase and Zinc Tests Are Effective for Semen Examination and Identification to Prove Intercourse

The presence of spermatozoa in vagina is a definite sign of sexual intercourse. However, sometimes microscopic examination does not find spermatozoa or reveals a false negative result. This is influenced by many factors, including the absence of ejaculate in the vaginal canal. In addition, there are other factors such as oligo/azoospermia, vasectomy, degeneration of sperm due to time, incorrect sampling, and improper storage. Therefore, examination of the other components of the ejaculate, ie. the enzyme acid phosphatase, choline and spermin, is important. Compared with spermatozoa, the enzyme phosphatase, choline and spermin have lower evidentiary value because these three components are less specific. However, the level of phosphatase enzyme found in the vagina is much lower than phosphatase enzyme that comes from prostate gland. In this study, as many as 192 samples in the form of patches with sperm/semen stains were tested with acid phosphatase test and zinc test through direct and indirect examination. In the first method, washing was carried out on day 1, day 7, and month 3, and testing was carried out after each washing. In the second method, washing was carried out simultaneously and testing was carried out on day 1, day 7 and month 3. Washing was carried out using 7 types of detergent for each 4 patch samples, and washing using water as control. The results showed very low sensitivity (0.186) and very high specificity (100%). This showed that both tests had high specificity values. Acid phosphatase test specifically showed the presence of the enzyme phosphatase, while zinc test specifically showed the presence of zinc in semen. This phosphohydrolase-phosphatase enzyme is easily degraded due to external factors, including temperature, humidity, and chemicals, ie. the element SDS (Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate) that has the ability to cut enzymes. The weakness of the acid phosphatase test is that this enzyme is easily degraded, either partially or completely, due to external factors, such as temperature, humidity, heat, and the presence of chemicals

N-acetylcysteine supplementation for the prevention of atrial fibrillation after cardiac surgery: a meta-analysis of eight randomized controlled trials

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Atrial fibrillation is the most common type of arrhythmia after cardiac surgery. An increasing body of evidence demonstrates that oxidative stress plays a pivotal role in the pathophysiology of atrial fibrillation. N-acetylcysteine (NAC) is a free radical scavenger, and may attenuate this pathophysiologic response and reduce the incidence of postoperative AF (POAF). However, it is unclear whether NAC could effectively prevent POAF. Therefore, this meta-analysis aims to assess the efficacy of NAC supplementation on the prevention of POAF.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Medline and Embase were systematically reviewed for studies published up to November 2011, in which NAC was compared with controls for adult patients undergoing cardiac surgery. Outcome measures comprised the incidence of POAF and hospital length of stay (LOS). The meta-analysis was performed with the fixed-effect model or random-effect model according to the heterogeneity.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Eight randomized trials incorporating 578 patients provided the best evidence and were included in this meta-analysis. NAC supplementation significantly reduced the incidence of POAF (OR 0.62, 95% CI 0.41 to 0.93; <it>P </it>= 0.021) compared with controls, but had no effect on LOS (WMD -0.07, 95% CI -0.42 to 0.28; <it>P </it>= 0.703).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The prophylactic NAC supplementation may effectively reduce the incidence of POAF. However, the overall quality of current studies is poor and further research should focus on adequately powered randomized controlled trials with POAF incidence as a primary outcome measure.</p

Detection of asymptomatic malaria in Asian countries: a meta-analysis of diagnostic accuracy

Background Achieving malaria elimination requires the targeting of the human reservoir of infection, including those patients with asymptomatic infection. The objective was to synthesise evidence on the accuracy of the rapid-onsite diagnostic tests (RDTs) and microscopy for the detection of asymptomatic malaria as part of the surveillance activities in Asian countries. Methods This was a meta-analysis of diagnostic test accuracy. Relevant studies that evaluated the diagnostic performance of RDTs and microscopy for detection of asymptomatic malaria were searched in health-related electronic databases. The methodological quality of the studies included was assessed using the QUADAS-2 tool. Results Ten studies assessing RDT and/or microscopy were identified. The diagnostic accuracies in all these studies were verified by PCR. Overall, the pooled sensitivities of RDT, as well as microscopy for detection of any malaria parasites in asymptomatic participants, were low, while their pooled specificities were almost ideal. For the detection of Plasmodium falciparum, pooled sensitivity by RDT (59%, 95%CI:16–91%) or microscopy (55%, 95%CI: 25–82%) were almost comparable. For detection of Plasmodium vivax, pooled sensitivity of RDT (51%, 95% CI:7–94%) had also the comparable accuracy of microscopy (54%, 95%CI,11–92%). Of note are the wide range of sensitivity and specificity. Conclusion The findings of this meta-analysis suggest that RDTs and microscopy have limited sensitivity and are inappropriate for the detection of asymptomatic Plasmodium infections. Other methods including a combination of PCR-based strategies, Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification (LAMP) technique must be considered to target these infections, in order to achieve malaria elimination. However, more data is needed for the wide acceptance and feasibility of these approaches. Studies to explore the role of asymptomatic and sub-patent infections in the transmission of malaria are of critical importance and are recommended

Experimental Study on Previous Concrete with Various Mix Ratios

The pervious concrete is designed with cementitious material content just enough to coat the coarse aggregate particles so that a configuration that allows the passage of water at a much higher rate than conventional concrete. The pervious concrete has many advantages that improves city environment, recharges the ground by rain water and could be used as pavement for light vehicles, pedestrian pathways, parking lots, also it reduces the tire pavement interaction noise etc. In this paper, structural property and permeability of pervious concrete made without and with different ratios of fine aggregate and pozzolan. 9.5 mm maximum size of crushed gravel and constant aggregate/cement ratio of 3.6 were used. Mix design void content is tested 20%. The specific gravity of fine aggregate 2.53 and the specific gravity of crushed stone 2.56. Type I Portland cement and water- reducing and retarding concrete admixture were used. Mix design is based on the no slump method from the American Concrete Institute’s Committee 211.3R-02, “Standard Practice for Selecting Proportions for No Slump Concrete.” This research work was divided into third/three sections. The first section is without pozzolan and fine aggregate and second section is with two different ratios of pozzolan third section is without pozzolan and with fine aggregate. Pozzolan is used as a supplementary cementitious material to partially replace Portland cement in pervious concrete mixes up to 20% by weight. Fine aggregate partially replace as a coarse aggregate in pervious concrete mixes up to 10% by weight. Mix design void content is tested 20%. This concrete is tested for its properties, such as density, void content, compressive strength and water permeability. The most important property of pervious concrete is its water permeability

Development of Double Haploid Lines from F1 Cross of Yar-8 x Thee Htat Yin Genotypes through Anther Culture

Anther culture has become a powerful technique for the rapid production of double haploid lines in crop breeding program. The objectives of this experiment were to examine the callusing and green plant regeneration ability of parents (Yar -8 and Thee Htat Yin) and their F1, and to develop the double haploid lines from the cross of Yar-8 and Thee Htat Yin genotypes. Nitsch and Nitsch (N6) medium with 2 mg.L-12, 4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid and 0.5 mg.L-1 kinetin was used for callus induction and Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium with 1 mg.L-1 Naphthalene acetic acid, 1 mg.L-1 Indole 3-acetic acid, 1 mg.L-1 Indole 3-butric acid, and 2 mg.L-1 kinetin was used for green plant regeneration. Callus induction was successfully observed in both parents and their F1. Plant regeneration from regenerated callus was dependent on the genotypes. Only Yar-8 and F1 progenies produced green plants as well as albino plants. Out of total 14 plants, 10 plants were double haploid (DH) plants. These double haploid lines (DH) could be done further evaluation to develop improved rice lines in Myanmar