Tagging Study on Green Turtle (Chelonia mydas) at Thameehla Island, Myanmar

March 5-6, 2009, Bangkok, ThailandSea Turtle Conservation and Management Activities have been carried out in Myanmar since 1986. Thameehla Island is a major nesting area for green turtles. Inconel tagging on green turtle (Chelonia mydas) experiment was conducted at Thameehla Island, Ayeyarwady Division, Myanmar in 2002. The nesting population and tags recovered were recorded. The results of this study showed that only 21.82 % of the nesting turtles could be tagged during the study period. Out of 280 green turtles that had been tagged at Thameehla Island from 2002 to October 2008 only 58 individuals had re-migrated up to 2008. This indicates that only 20.71 % of green turtles had returned to Thameehla Island. Ninety three frequencies of tagged turtles had re-migrated to Thameehla Island. Out of 63 tagged turtles recovered from 2002 to October 2008, 33 green turtles nested at Thameehla Island. Even though we cannot draw any significant conclusion, the collected data would help understand the basic ecology of sea turtles around Myanmar

Myanmar

Myanmar is situated in the easternmost Indochina Peninsula. It boasts of richly-varied marine resources along extensive coastal shores which can be divided into three regions , namely Rakhine, Ayeyarwaddy and Gulf of Mottama ( the Delta Zone) and the Taninthayi. The Myanmar coastline is approximately 2,831 km long. Regions are bounded by territorial sea and the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). The territorial sea of Myanmar extends 12 nautical miles from the base line towards the sea and the EEZ covers all areas of territorial sea and extends 200 nautical miles from the base line seawards (Lwin, 2004)

Seagrass conservation and monitoring in Myanmar: the biodiversity, distribution and coverage of seagrasses in the Tanintharyi and Rakhine

Surveys on seagrass taxonomy, distribution and extent were carried out in 14 locations within Myeik Archipelago and along the Rakhine Coast

Characterization of a Quantum Cascade Laser Based Emissivity Monitor for CORSAIR

Continuous improvements of quantum cascade laser (QCL) technology have extended the applications in environmental trace gas monitoring, mid-infrared spectroscopy in medicine and life science, law enforcement and homeland security and satellite sensor systems. We present the QCL based emissivity monitor for the CORSAIR blackbody. The emissivity of the blackbody was designed to be better than 0.9999 for the spectral range between 5 to 50μm. To actively monitor changes in blackbody emissivity we employ a QCL-based infrared illumination source. The illumination source consisted of a QCL and thermoelectric cooler (TEC) unit mounted on a copper fixture. The stability of the QCL was measured for 30, 60, and 90s operation time at 1.5A driving current. The temperature distribution along the laser mounting fixture and time dependent system heat dispersion were analyzed. The results were compared to radiative and conductive heat transfer models to define the potential laser operating time and required waiting time to return to initial temperature of the laser mount. The observed cooling behaviour is consistent with a primarily conductive heat transfer mechanism

Soil-transmitted helminth reinfection four and six months after mass drug administration: Results from the delta region of Myanmar

Background Mass drug administration (MDA), targeted at school-aged children (SAC) is the method recommended by the World Health Organization for the control of morbidity induced by soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infection in endemic countries. However, MDA does not prevent reinfection between treatment rounds and research suggests that only treating SAC will not be sufficient to bring prevalence to low levels and possibly interrupt transmission of STH. In countries with endemic infection, such as Myanmar, the coverage, who is targeted, and rates of reinfection will determine how effective MDA is in suppressing transmission in the long-term. Methods/principal findings In this paper, data from an epidemiological study on STH, comprising three surveys conducted between June 2015 and June 2016 in the delta region of Myanmar, are analysed to determine how STH prevalence and intensity in the study community changes over the course of a year, including reinfection after two MDA rounds in which the whole study sample (all age groups, n = 523) were treated with albendazole. Prevalence in the first survey (August 2015) was 27.92% for any STH, 5.54% for Ascaris lumbricoides, 17.02% for Trichuris trichiura and 9.75% for hookworm. Over the year (survey one to survey three), prevalence of any STH decreased by 8.99% (P < 0.001) and mean EPG significantly decreased for T. trichiura (P < 0.01) and hookworm (P < 0.001). Risk ratios (RRs) for a four-month reinfection period (August to December) were statistically significant and were below one, indicating that STH prevalence had not bounced back to the prevalence levels recorded immediately prior to the last round of treatment (any STH RR = 0.67, 95% CI 0.56–0.81; A. lumbricoides RR = 0.31, 95% CI 0.16–0.59; T. trichiura RR = 0.70, 95% CI 0.55–0.88; hookworm RR = 0.69, 95% CI 0.50–0.95). The only statistically significant RR for the six-month reinfection period (December to June) was for A. lumbricoides infection in SAC (RR = 2.67, 95% CI 1.37–5.21). All six-month RRs were significantly higher than four-month RRs (P < 0.05). Evidence of predisposition to infection (low and high), as measured by the Kendall Tau-b statistic, was found for all species overall and within most age groups stratifications, except for hookworm infection in preschool-aged children. Conclusions/significance This study demonstrates that, for certain demographic groups, a six-month gap between MDA in these communities is enough time for STH infection to return to STH prevalence levels recorded immediately before the previous MDA round, and that on average the same individuals are being consistently infected between MDA rounds