In vitro antidiabetic activities of Myanmar medicinal plants: Cassia siamea Lam. and Butea monosperma Roxb.

This study aimed to evaluate the antidiabetic potentials of Cassia siamea and Butea monosperma. Cytotoxic activity of test extracts was performed by a hemolytic assay. Estimation of the antidiabetic properties was explored by α-glucosidase and DPP-IV inhibition assays. The glucose transportation activity of test extracts across the yeast cells was expressed by a glucose uptake assay. Non-hemolytic effects of test extracts were shown as lysis per cent less than 15 on RBCs. The inhibition potential of test extracts on α-glucosidase enzyme illustrates that IC50 values (μg/mL) of C. siamea was 76.33±12.2 and B. monosperma was 77.28±2.02. While the IC50 values of the acarbose was 36.76±1.55 μg/mL. In addition, the tested extracts showed the ability to inhibit DPP-IV enzyme activity in a concentration-dependent manner. The IC50 (μg/mL) values of C. siamea, B. monosperma, and the sitagliptin were 117.02±9.73, 103±8.5, and 144.85±13.43, respectively in DPP-IV inhibitory assay. Moreover, the test extracts could transport glucose in yeast cells representing the glucose uptake effectively especially in B. monosperma with a concentration-dependent manner in all tested glucose concentrations. This study provided that the tested extracts promise to possess the antidiabetic potential with non-hemolytic properties, diabetic-enzymes suppressing potency and glucose utilizing ability

Determination of Oncogenic Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Genotypes in Anogenital Cancers in Myanmar

Molecular and epidemiologic investigations suggest a causal role for human papillomavirus (HPV) in anogenital cancers. This study identified oncogenic HPV genotypes in anogenital cancers among men and women in a 2013 cross-sectional descriptive study in Myanmar. In total, 100 biopsy tissues of histologically confirmed anogenital cancers collected in 2008-2012 were studied, including 30 penile and 9 anal cancers from Yangon General Hospital and 61 vulvar cancers from Central Women's Hospital, Yangon. HPV-DNA testing and genotyping were performed by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism. Overall, 34% of anogenital cancers were HPV-positive. HPV was found in 44.4% of anal (4/9), 36.1% of vulvar (22/61), and 26.7% of penile (8/30) cancers. The most frequent genotypes in anal cancers were HPV 16 (75%) and 18 (25%). In vulvar cancers, HPV 33 was most common (40.9%), followed by 16 (31.8%), 31 (22.7%), and 18 (4.6%). In penile cancers, HPV 16 (62.5%) was most common, followed by 33 (25%) and 18 (12.5%). This is the first report of evidencebased oncogenic HPV genotypes in anogenital cancers among men and women in Myanmar. This research provides valuable information for understanding the burden of HPV-associated cancers of the anus, penis, and vulva and considering the effectiveness of prophylactic HPV vaccination

EMPLOYEE PERCEPTION TOWARDS TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT PRACTICES IN ROSE GARDEN HOTEL

Human resources are a crucial but expensive resource and therefore in order to sustain economic and effective performance of this resource, it is important to optimize their contribution to the achievement of the aims and objectives of the hospitality and tourism organization through training and development. While Rose Garden hotel is keeping on training their staff, it is necessary to assess the outcome of these trainings as well as their employees’ perceptions towards their current training and development practices. The purpose of this thesis is to examine the hotel employees’ perception towards training and development practices at Rose Garden Hotel. In order to understand the study aim, three goals were developed and focused particularly on identifying the training and development practices at Rose Garden Hotel, identifying the current training programs at Rose Garden Hotel, and finally analyzing employee’s perception towards training and development practices at Rose Garden Hotel. The study used both primary and secondary sources for the conduct of the research. The research findings revealed that employee orientation program was highly positively perceived by its employees. The total employees’ perceptions mean scores with minimum standard deviations pointed out that employees have positive perceptions towards all four dimensions regarding training and development practices at Rose Garden hotel. However, the employee’s perception of training facilities was the highest among all four dimensions. The paper further recommends that training and development offered by Rose Garden hotel should ensure a better understanding of the mission and vision statement of their hotel so that, employees can identify themselves with the organizational values in the discharge of the duties

Land Cover Classification Based Multiclass Support Vector Machine

Remote sensing data are attractive for deriving land cover information through the image classification. Most of the practical application involves multiclass classification, especially in remote sensing land cover classification. Support Vector Machine (SVMs) are based on statically learning methods and originally designed for the binary classification. A number of methods have been purposed to implement SVMs to produce multiclass classification. The main aim of this paper is to implement the supervised classification method for multispectral remote sensing images by using multiclass SVMs. This paper emphasizes on Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG), multiclass classification method on SVM. This system is implemented by JAVA Netbeans5.5 language

AGRICULTURAL MECHANIZATION AND STRUCTURAL TRANSFORMATION IN MYANMAR’S AYEYARWADY DELTA

Myanmar has experienced rapid economic growth since the civilian government came into power in 2011. Structural transformation of the economy, similar to that already experienced by other countries in the region, appears to be underway, with labor moving from agriculture to more productive urban-based industrial and service sectors. As this trend continues, it is likely that the share of agriculture in GDP will shrink in relative terms, even while continuing to grow in absolute value. The immediate consequences of this shift are labor shortages and rising agricultural wages, causing farmers to seek to substitute machines for manual labor to keep agriculture productive and profitable. Given the likelihood that structural transformation is already underway, we set out to understand current levels and rates of mechanization, and its characteristics and drivers. In order to do so, a representative farm survey was conducted in May 2016 in four townships close to Yangon city where paddy and pulses are widely cultivated; two in Yangon region (Kayan, Twantay) and two in Ayeyarwady region (Maubin, Nyuangdon)

SUPPLY SIDE EVIDENCE OF MYANMAR’S GROWING AGRICULTURAL MECHANIZATION MARKET

Recent evidence suggests that the mechanization of agriculture is proceeding rapidly in areas of Myanmar close to the country’s major city, Yangon, as farmers - driven by the need to remain profitable in the face of labor shortages and rising wage rates - adopt a variety of labor saving technologie

SUPPLY SIDE EVIDENCE OF MYANMAR’S GROWING AGRICULTURAL MECHANIZATION MARKET

Recent evidence suggests that the mechanization of agriculture is proceeding rapidly in areas of Myanmar close to the country’s major city, Yangon, as farmers - driven by the need to remain profitable in the face of labor shortages and rising wage rates - adopt a variety of labor saving technologies (Win and Thinzar 2016). In this brief, we present findings from the first survey in Myanmar to analyze the supply side of agricultural mechanization. We find evidence of rapid growth in the number, geographical distribution, and sales of agricultural machinery supply businesses. The range and value of machinery sold accelerated rapidly, especially post-2011 as the country opened economically. New hire-purchase financing arrangements for machinery played a key role in facilitating this growth

In vitro antidiabetic activities of Myanmar medicinal plants: Cassia siamea Lam. and Butea monosperma Roxb.

483-490This study aimed to evaluate the antidiabetic potentials of Cassia siamea and Butea monosperma. Cytotoxic activity of test extracts was performed by a hemolytic assay. Estimation of the antidiabetic properties was explored by α-glucosidase and DPP-IV inhibition assays. The glucose transportation activity of test extracts across the yeast cells was expressed by a glucose uptake assay. Non-hemolytic effects of test extracts were shown as lysis per cent less than 15 on RBCs. The inhibition potential of test extracts on α-glucosidase enzyme illustrates that IC50 values (μg/mL) of C. siamea was 76.33±12.2 and B. monosperma was 77.28±2.02. While the IC50 values of the acarbose was 36.76±1.55 μg/mL. In addition, the tested extracts showed the ability to inhibit DPP-IV enzyme activity in a concentration-dependent manner. The IC50 (μg/mL) values of C. siamea, B. monosperma, and the sitagliptin were 117.02±9.73, 103±8.5, and 144.85±13.43, respectively in DPP-IV inhibitory assay. Moreover, the test extracts could transport glucose in yeast cells representing the glucose uptake effectively especially in B. monosperma with a concentration-dependent manner in all tested glucose concentrations. This study provided that the tested extracts promise to possess the antidiabetic potential with non-hemolytic properties, diabetic-enzymes suppressing potency and glucose utilizing ability

Gastroduodenal Ulcerative Colitis in Association with Ulcerative Pancolitis

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease, traditionally regarded as being limited to the colorectum. Although several gastroduodenal lesions have been reported in cases of UC, in general, duodenal lesions in UC are believed to be uncommon and gastric lesions in UC are a rare presentation. In this report, we presented a 66-year-old lady with upper GI presentation with gastroduodenal ulcerative colitis accompanying pancolonic UC

Prevalence and Genetic Characteristics of Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus argenteus Isolates Harboring Panton-Valentine Leukocidin, Enterotoxins, and TSST-1 Genes from Food Handlers in Myanmar

Asymptomatic carriers of toxigenic Staphylococcus aureus are potential source of diseases, including food poisoning. Toxigenic potential and genetic traits of colonizing S. aureus were investigated for 563 healthy food handlers in Myanmar. Carriage of S. aureus was found in 110 individuals (19.5%), and a total of 144 S. aureus isolates were recovered from nasal cavities (110 isolates) and hands (34 isolates). Panton-Valentine leucocidin genes (pvl) were detected in 18 isolates (12.5%), among which 11 isolates were classified into coa-VIa, agr type III, and ST1930 (CC96) that had been also detected in pvl-positive clinical isolates in Myanmar. A pvl-positive, ST2250 nasal isolate was identified as S. argenteus, a novel coagulase-positive staphylococcus species. Toxic shock syndrome toxin-1 (TSST-1) gene was detected in five pvl-negative isolates. All of the 144 isolates harbored at least one of the 21 enterotoxin(-like) gene(s). The most prevalent enterotoxin(-like) gene was selw (98%), followed by selx (97%), sei (28%), sely (28%), sem (26%), sel (24%), and sea and sec (22% each). Considerable genetic diversity with five groups was detected for selw. The present study revealed the relatively high rate of pvl, as well as the wide distribution of enterotoxin(-like) genes among colonizing S. aureus in Myanmar