A Chance in Myanmar Induced by the Minimum Wage Policy in Thailand:A Case Study of Myawaddy Industrial Area

The central goverment of Myanmar has developed the Myawaddy Industrial Area to enhance domestic small and medium-sized enterprises by setting up plants at the border of Thailand, but the present economic conditions in Myanmar make the realization of this plan difficult. In the Moe Sot district of Thailand, there are currently many Burmese migrant workers who could potentially become the workforce for the industrial area, if the central government creates new jobs. Multinational Corporations in Thailand plan trans-boundary investments to surrounding countries where workers are paid law wages, after Thailand enacted a nationwide minimum wage policy which regulates at least 300 baht per day per worker as of 2013. The Myawaddy Industrial Area could drive the industrialization of Myanmar, if the government institutes a duty free zone to attract foreign direct investment and develops infrastructure. This paper discuss the effects of the industrial area located at the border of Myanmar in relation to the maquila program in Mexico and the Export Processing Zone in NIEs as previous models

Pollution Risks Accompanied with Economic Integration of ASEAN Countries and the Fragmentation of Production Processes

Economic integration in the Southeast Asian region has been rapidly progressing resulting in an accelerating fragmentation of the production processes. Thai multinational corporations have moved factories over their national borders. Similar fragmentation arose along the US-Mexico border from the 1970s and resulted in serious industrial pollution in Mexico along the national border. This paper examines the risks of pollution accompanied with the fragmentation of the production processes. The current state of industrial areas in Cambodia and Myanmar, along the national border of Thailand, is analyzed in relation to Maquiladoras in Mexico and industrial areas in India. An international environmental agreement, similar to what was agreed upon between Mexico and the US, would seem to be the most effective way to prevent pollution

Echoic memory of a single pure tone indexed by change-related brain activity

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The rapid detection of sensory change is important to survival. The process should relate closely to memory since it requires that the brain separate a new stimulus from an ongoing background or past event. Given that sensory memory monitors current sensory status and works to pick-up changes in real-time, any change detected by this system should evoke a change-related cortical response. To test this hypothesis, we examined whether the single presentation of a sound is enough to elicit a change-related cortical response, and therefore, shape a memory trace enough to separate a subsequent stimulus.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Under a paradigm where two pure sounds 300 ms in duration and 800 or 840 Hz in frequency were presented in a specific order at an even probability, cortical responses to each sound were measured with magnetoencephalograms. Sounds were grouped to five events regardless of their frequency, 1D, 2D, and 3D (a sound preceded by one, two, or three different sounds), and 1S and 2S (a sound preceded by one or two same sounds). Whereas activation in the planum temporale did not differ among events, activation in the superior temporal gyrus (STG) was clearly greater for the different events (1D, 2D, 3D) than the same event (1S and 2S).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>One presentation of a sound is enough to shape a memory trace for comparison with a subsequent physically different sound and elicits change-related cortical responses in the STG. The STG works as a real-time sensory gate open to a new event.</p

Common cortical responses evoked by appearance, disappearance and change of the human face

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>To segregate luminance-related, face-related and non-specific components involved in spatio-temporal dynamics of cortical activations to a face stimulus, we recorded cortical responses to face appearance (Onset), disappearance (Offset), and change (Change) using magnetoencephalography.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Activity in and around the primary visual cortex (V1/V2) showed luminance-dependent behavior. Any of the three events evoked activity in the middle occipital gyrus (MOG) at 150 ms and temporo-parietal junction (TPJ) at 250 ms after the onset of each event. Onset and Change activated the fusiform gyrus (FG), while Offset did not. This FG activation showed a triphasic waveform, consistent with results of intracranial recordings in humans.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Analysis employed in this study successfully segregated four different elements involved in the spatio-temporal dynamics of cortical activations in response to a face stimulus. The results show the responses of MOG and TPJ to be associated with non-specific processes, such as the detection of abrupt changes or exogenous attention. Activity in FG corresponds to a face-specific response recorded by intracranial studies, and that in V1/V2 is related to a change in luminance.</p

A transition from unimodal to multimodal activations in four sensory modalities in humans: an electrophysiological study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>To investigate the long-latency activities common to all sensory modalities, electroencephalographic responses to auditory (1000 Hz pure tone), tactile (electrical stimulation to the index finger), visual (simple figure of a star), and noxious (intra-epidermal electrical stimulation to the dorsum of the hand) stimuli were recorded from 27 scalp electrodes in 14 healthy volunteers.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Results of source modeling showed multimodal activations in the anterior part of the cingulate cortex (ACC) and hippocampal region (Hip). The activity in the ACC was biphasic. In all sensory modalities, the first component of ACC activity peaked 30–56 ms later than the peak of the major modality-specific activity, the second component of ACC activity peaked 117–145 ms later than the peak of the first component, and the activity in Hip peaked 43–77 ms later than the second component of ACC activity.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The temporal sequence of activations through modality-specific and multimodal pathways was similar among all sensory modalities.</p

チュウイ ガ タイセイ カンカク ジョウホウ ショリ ト ハンノウ シュツリョク ニ オヨボス エイキョウ

筑波大学博士 (学術) 学位論文・平成16年7月23日授与 (甲第3557号