Developing Myanmar’s Public Private Telecommunications Partnerships

Myanmar has embarked on a rapid pace of political liberalization and market-oriented reforms after 60 years of conflict and isolation. Myanmar labeled one of the world’s most repressive, censored and underdeveloped telecommunications sectors, has adopted a host of reforms to rapidly improve the nation’s economy and quality of life of its citizens. A critical component of this objective is modernizing Myanmar’s information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure with its exceptionally low penetration rates given the size and the potential of the market. Myanmar’s selection of Ooredoo and Tenenor to expand the country’s limited mobile services network was transparent, fair and corruption free. Both  international telecommunications corporations have extensive “telecommunications frontier” experience and have five-year plans to grow the mobile services penetration rate to 100%.This paper argues that establishing and sustaining public-private partnerships are pivotal for Myanmar’s telecommunications infrastructure to reach its full potential by buildingentrepreneurial and public policy solutions that contribute to socioeconomic development and entry into the global information environment. It then analyzes the opportunities that Multilateral Organizations, United States agencies and corporations have to influence Myanmar conclusively by instituting a modern regulatory framework, promoting market innovations and competition aimed at developing shared principles to usher private sector activities in a transitional economy. Lastly, the paper provides policy recommendations for Myanmar’s continued political and economic liberalization agenda. Keywords: Myanmar, Information, Telecommunications Infrastructure, Public-private partnership, World Bank, Ooredoo, Tenenor, Cisco Systems, USAID

Hydrogenation of CO on a silica surface: an embedded cluster approach

The sequential addition of H atoms to CO adsorbed on a siliceous edingtonite surface is studied with an embedded cluster approach, using density functional theory for the quantum mechanical (QM) cluster and a molecular force field for the molecular mechanical (MM) cluster. With this setup, calculated QM/MM adsorption energies are in agreement with previous calculations employing periodic boundary conditions. The catalytic effect of the siliceous edingtonite (100) surface on CO hydrogenation is assessed because of its relevance to astrochemistry. While adsorption of CO on a silanol group on the hydroxylated surface did not reduce the activation energy for the reaction with a H atom, a negatively charged defect on the surface is found to reduce the gas phase barriers for the hydrogenation of both CO and H2C = O. The embedded cluster approach is shown to be a useful and flexible tool for studying reactions on (semi-)ionic surfaces and specific defects thereon. The methodology presented here could easily be applied to study reactions on silica surfaces that are of relevance to other scientific areas, such as biotoxicity of silica dust and geochemistry

Demanda de tração, mobilização de solo na linha de semeadura e rendimento da soja, em plantio direto.

Resumo O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar a relação entre a força de tração (FT) na haste sulcadora de adubo e o volume de solo mobilizado na linha de semeadura em função da quantidade de resíduos, do tráfego de rodados de trator e da profundidade de sulcamento, e sua influência sobre a performance agronômica da soja. Os tratamentos englobaram seis doses de resíduos culturais (DR), duas profundidades de trabalho das hastes sulcadoras (PT) e duas condições de tráfego – com e sem tráfego de rodados de trator –, em blocos ao acaso e parcelas subsubdivididas. Os tratamentos foram aplicados com e sem irrigação, em Argissolo Vermelho, sob plantio direto. As diferentes PT e condições de tráfego influenciaram significativamente a FT. Independentemente da condição de irrigação, as DR não influenciaram a produtividade de grãos e a massa seca da parte aérea da soja. Sem irrigação, a produtividade da soja aumentou em 180 kg ha?1 quando a PT passou de 0,064 para 0,10 m, o que demonstra que a aplicação do fertilizante a profundidades maiores é uma prática viável para diminuir os efeitos da seca sobre a cultura. Termos para indexação: Avena strigosa, Glycine max, doses de resíduo, força de tração, semeadora de precisão

Electronic properties of silica nanowires

Thin nanowires of silicon oxide were studied by pseudopotential density functional electronic structure calculations using the generalized gradient approximation. Infinite linear and zigzag Si-O chains were investigated. A wire composed of three-dimensional periodically repeated Si4O8 units was also optimized, but this structure was found to be of limited stability. The geometry, electronic structure, and Hirshfeld charges of these silicon oxide nanowires were computed. The results show that the Si-O chain is metallic, whereas the zigzag chain and the Si4O8 nanowire are insulators

Ab initio study of reflectance anisotropy spectra of a sub-monolayer oxidized Si(100) surface

The effects of oxygen adsorption on the reflectance anisotropy spectrum (RAS) of reconstructed Si(100):O surfaces at sub-monolayer coverage (first stages of oxidation) have been studied by an ab initio DFT-LDA scheme within a plane-wave, norm-conserving pseudopotential approach. Dangling bonds and the main features of the characteristic RAS of the clean Si(100) surface are mostly preserved after oxidation of 50% of the surface dimers, with some visible changes: a small red shift of the first peak, and the appearance of a distinct spectral structure at about 1.5 eV. The electronic transitions involved in the latter have been analyzed through state-by-state and layer-by-layer decompositions of the RAS. We suggest that new interplay between present theoretical results and reflectance anisotropy spectroscopy experiments could lead to further clarification of structural and kinetic details of the Si(100) oxidation process in the sub-monolayer range.Comment: 21 pages, 8 figures. To be published in Physical Rev.

Variabilidade espacial dos atributos físicos e químicos de solo e planta na UP Uva para Vinho, Bento Gonçalves, RS.

Tecnologias de agricultura de precisão (AP) são pouco contempladas pelo setor primário para aumentar a qualidade e competitividade do vinho brasileiro. Por isso, esta pesquisa considera várias tecnologias de AP num vinhedo do cv. Merlot, clone 347, UP Uva para Vinho, localizado em Bento Gonçalves, RS. Neste resumo apresentam-se resultados preliminares relacionados à análise da variabilidade espacial dos atributos físicos e químicos de solo e planta, complementando o trabalho de Miele et al. (2011), também apresentado neste workshop. Os dados sugerem haver variabilidade espacial significativa para vários atributos, com boa correlação com as classes taxonômicas de solo (Argissolos, Cambissolos e Neossolos) e, em certos casos, dependência com o manejo realizado no vinhedo. Os próximos passos consistem em afinar a espacialização dos dados e definir métodos adequados de integração

Squeezing based on nondegenerate frequency doubling internal to a realistic laser

We investigate theoretically the quantum fluctuations of the fundamental field in the output of a nondegenerate second harmonic generation process occuring inside a laser cavity. Due to the nondegenerate character of the nonlinear medium, a field orthogonal to the laser field is for some operating conditions indepedent of the fluctuations produced by the laser medium. We show that this fact may lead to perfect squeezing for a certain polarization mode of the fundamental field. The experimental feasibility of the system is also discussed.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure

Kaplan-Narayanan-Neuberger lattice fermions pass a perturbative test

We test perturbatively a recent scheme for implementing chiral fermions on the lattice, proposed by Kaplan and modified by Narayanan and Neuberger, using as our testing ground the chiral Schwinger model. The scheme is found to reproduce the desired form of the effective action, whose real part is gauge invariant and whose imaginary part gives the correct anomaly in the continuum limit, once technical problems relating to the necessary infinite extent of the extra dimension are properly addressed. The indications from this study are that the Kaplan--Narayanan--Neuberger (KNN) scheme has a good chance at being a correct lattice regularization of chiral gauge theories.Comment: LaTeX 18 pages, 3 figure

Modelagem do crescimento radicular em função da dinâmica da água e resistência do solo.

Editado por Arnaldo Colozzi Filho, João Henrique Caviglione, Graziela Moraes de Cesare Barbosa, Luciano Grillo Gil, Tiago Santos Telles