The impact of foreign divestment on economic growth in Myanmar: evidence from ARDL approach

In 1988, Myanmar started pursuing an open door policy and released its economy from closed-door policy to market-orientation. The foreign direct investment started flowing into the country, and the foreign trade rapidly increased. Unfortunately, market liberalisation was short-lived because Myanmar being imposed an economic sanction by Western countries in the late 1990s. In subsequent years, multinational firms substantially pulled out their investments from Myanmar market. This study seeks to investigate the patterns of foreign divestment and its impact on Myanmar economy. The primary objective of this research is to formulate the systematic analysis of the impact of foreign divestment on economic growth of Myanmar. Firstly, this study reviews the determinants that influence divestment in Myanmar. Secondly, patterns of divestment are analysed based on the firm-level characteristics. Finally, an empirical model is estimated to analyse the impact of divestment on economic growth by employing Autoregressive Distributed Lag Approach (ARDL) by covering the annual data from 1990-2013. The test confirms that there is a cointegration between foreign divestment and real GDP. The results shows foreign divestment has a negative impact in economic growth of Myanmar in both short and long run. This study also finds that the human capital was negatively significant in the context of Myanmar while explaining its relationship with economic growth. These findings embrace practical implications for policy makers, investors and government

Aptamer Antagonists of Myelin-Derived Inhibitors Promote Axon Growth

Myelin of the adult central nervous system (CNS) is one of the major sources of inhibitors of axon regeneration following injury. The three known myelin-derived inhibitors (Nogo, MAG, and OMgp) bind with high affinity to the Nogo-66 receptor (NgR) on axons and limit neurite outgrowth. Here we show that RNA aptamers can be generated that bind with high affinity to NgR, compete with myelin-derived inhibitors for binding to NgR, and promote axon elongation of neurons in vitro even in the presence of these inhibitors. Aptamers may have key advantages over protein antagonists, including low immunogenicity and the possibility of ready modification during chemical synthesis for stability, signaling, or immobilization. This first demonstration that aptamers can directly influence neuronal function suggests that aptamers may prove useful for not only healing spinal cord and other neuronal damage, but may be more generally useful as neuromodulators

Development of Natural Language Processing based Communication and Educational Assisted Systems for the People with Hearing Disability in Myanmar

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) provide people with disabilities to better integrate socially and economically into their communities by supporting access to information and knowledge, learning and teaching situations, personal communication and interaction. Our research purpose is to develop systems that will provide communication and educational assistance to persons with hearing disability using Natural Language Processing (NLP). In this paper, we present corpus building for Myanmar sign language (MSL), Machine Translation (MT) between MSL, Myanmar written text (MWT) and Myanmar SignWriting (MSW) and two Fingerspelling keyboard layouts for Myanmar SignWriting. We believe that the outcome of this research is useful for educational contents and communication between hearing disability and general people

Into the groove:instructive conductive silk films with topological guidance cues

Instructive biomaterials capable of controlling the behaviour of the cells are particularly interesting scaffolds for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Novel biomaterials are particularly important in societies with rapidly aging populations, where demand for organ/tissue donations is greater than their supply. Herein we describe the preparation of electrically conductive silk film-based nerve tissue scaffolds that are manufactured using all aqueous processing. Aqueous solutions of Bombyx mori silk were cast on flexible polydimethylsiloxane substrates with micrometer-scale grooves on their surfaces, allowed to dry, and annealed to impart β-sheets to the silk which assures that the materials are stable for further processing in water. The silk films were rendered conductive by generating an interpenetrating network of polypyrrole and polystyrenesulfonate in the silk matrix. Films were incubated in an aqueous solution of pyrrole (monomer), polystyrenesulfonate (dopant) and iron chloride (initiator), after which they were thoroughly washed to remove low molecular weight components (monomers, initiators, and oligomers) and dried, yielding conductive films with sheet resistances of 124 ± 23 kΩ square-1. The micrometer-scale grooves that are present on the surface of the films are analogous to the natural topography in the extracellular matrix of various tissues (bone, muscle, nerve, skin) to which cells respond. Dorsal Root Gangions (DRGs) adhere to the films and the grooves in the surface of the films instruct the aligned growth of processes extending from the DRGs. Such materials potentially enable the electrical stimulation of cells cultured on them, and future in vitro studies will focus on understanding the interplay between electrical and topographical cues on the behaviour of cells cultured on them

Sacrificial crystal templated hyaluronic acid hydrogels as biomimetic 3D tissue scaffolds for nerve tissue regeneration

Pores are key features of natural tissues and the development of tissues scaffolds with biomimetic properties (pore structures and chemical/mechanical properties) offers a route to engineer implantable biomaterials for specific niches in the body. Here we report the use of sacrificial crystals (potassium dihydrogen phosphate or urea) that act as templates to impart pores to hyaluronic acid-based hydrogels. The mechanical properties of the hydrogels were analogous to the nervous system (in the Pascal regime), and we investigated the use of the potassium dihydrogen phosphate crystal-templated hydrogels as scaffolds for neural progenitor cells (NPCs), and the use of urea crystal-templated hydrogels as scaffolds for Schwann cells. For NPCs cultured inside the porous hydrogels, assays for the expression of Nestin are inconclusive, and assays for GFAP and BIII-tubulin expression suggest that the NPCs maintain their undifferentiated phenotype more effectively than the controls (with glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and BIII-tubulin expression at ca. 50% relative to the chemically/mechanically equivalent not templated control hydrogels). For Schwann cells cultured within these hydrogels, assays for the expression of S100 protein or Myelin basic protein confirm the expression of both proteins, albeit at lower levels on the templated hydrogels (ca. 50%) than on the chemically/mechanically equivalent not templated control hydrogels. Such sacrificial crystal templated hydrogels represent platforms for biomimetic 3D tissue scaffolds for the nervous system

FACTORS INFLUENCING SUCCESSFUL SUCCESSION AND BUSINESS CONTINUITY OF FAMILY-OWNED BUSINESSES IN LIVESTOCK INDUSTRY

This study aims to explore the factors influencing on the succession process and business continuity of family-owned businesses in livestock industry, Myanmar. Primary data are collected from 65 family business owners who are running the business more than 10 years in poultry sector. The findings show that succession planning and agreement to continue the business of primary stakeholders have the significant effect on successful succession. The propensity of incumbent to step aside the business negatively effects on successful succession. Moreover, the study found that the effect of successful succession on business continuity of family-owned businesses in livestock industry. The results of the study highlight that the family-owned businesses in Myanmar Livestock industry are well- planned for the succession process and business sustainability

Smart Card Security Enhancing System By using Symmetric Key Algorithm

Information technology plays a vital rolefor the development of smart cards. Smartcardscan change the form of the delivery ofservices and goods, through theautomatedidentification and verification ofcustomers, resulting in significant efficiency gainsandultimately lower costs for consumers. Peoplefrom different jobs of life extract informationfromthese smart cards. Smart cards have the potentialbenefit to people with the right ofprivacy and giveusers confidence in the trustworthiness ofcommercial organizations andstate institutions. Itcan also provide different kinds of facilities tousers and as well asorganizations such as accessand control.In this paper, the student security forstudent registration, library and school feepayment system is implemented by using Twofishalgorithm for high secure system.This systemprovides data entry for student affair, registrationfor student library card, hiring book for libraryand doing statistic for monthly school fee. Thisproposed system enhance characteristics ofsecurity features for confidentiality, integrity andavailability by using Twofish algorithm and SHA-1