Young key affected population in Myanmar: are there any challenges in seeking information and care for HIV/sexually transmitted infections and reproductive health? [version 2; referees: 2 approved]

Background: Unmet needs and barriers in seeking HIV/STI and RH information and care are present especially among young key affected population (YKAP). Therefore, the study was conducted to determine the health seeking behaviors of YKAP regarding HIV/STI and RH, and challenges in seeking health information and care. Methods: A cross-sectional, mixed-methods study was conducted at two large cities in Myanmar. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with YKAP aged 15-24 years. In-depth interviews and key informant interviews were done with YKAP and health care providers. Descriptive statistics and bivariate analyses were done for quantitative data and thematic analysis was applied for qualitative data. Results: A total of 119 young men who have sex with men (YMSM) and 123 young female sex workers (YFSW) included in the study. Mean age of YMSM and YFSW were 20.9±2.4 and 21.7±2.2 years. Over 30% of YMSM and 49.3% of YFSW had experience of any STI symptom. Particularly, 17% of YMSM and 10% of YFSW had genital ulcer, and majority sought health care at NGO clinics. About 37% of YMSM and 40% of YFSW visited Drop-in-center (DIC) within one to six months. Over 13% of YMSM and 14.6% of YFSW had challenges in seeking HIV/STI and RH information.  YMSM/YFSW type and age of YMSM were associated with visit to DIC. Lesser proportions of Tha-nge (43.5%), younger age YMSM (66.7%), brothel-based YFSW (47.9%) visited DIC than others (p<0.05). Challenges and unmet needs expressed by YKAP were reluctance in asking health information, worry for future fertility, consequences of anal sex and contraception. Challenges expressed by providers were limited time during outreach service and difficulty in reaching entertainment-based sex workers. Conclusions: Special attention in provision of health information should be paid to YKAP since there is a considerable proportion of YKAP with unmet need in seeking HIV/STI/RH information and care

Socio-economic and agricultural factors associated with stunting of under 5-year children: findings from surveys in mountains, dry zone and delta regions of rural Myanmar (2016–2017)

Abstract Objective: The study’s objective was to investigate multiple underlying social, economic and agricultural determinants of stunting among under-five children in three distinct ecological areas in rural Myanmar. Design: Repeated cross-sectional surveys in three states of Myanmar. Setting: Rural households in Chin (mountainous), Magway (plains) and Ayeyarwady (delta). Participants: From two purposively selected adjacent townships in each state, we randomly selected twenty villages and, in each village, thirty households with under-five children. Households in the first survey in 2016 were revisited in late 2017 to capture seasonal variations. Results: Stunting increased from 40·4 % to 42·0 %, with the highest stunting prevalence in Chin state (62·4%). Univariate Poisson regression showed factors contributing to child stunting varied across the regions. Adjusted Poisson regression models showed that child’s age and short maternal stature (aRR = 1·14 for Chin, aRR = 1·89 for Magway and aRR = 1·86 for Ayeyarwady) were consistently associated with child stunting across three areas. For Chin, village-level indicators such as crop consumption (aRR = 1·18), crop diversity (aRR = 0·82) and land ownership (aRR = 0·89) were significantly associated with stunting. In Magway, the number of household members (aRR = 1·92), wealth status (aRR = 0·46), food security status (aRR = 1·14), land ownership (aRR = 0·85) and in Ayeyarwady, women’s decision-making (aRR = 0·67) and indicators related to hygiene (aRR = 1·13) and sanitation (aRR = 1·45) were associated with stunting. Conclusions: Area-specific factors were associated with stunting. Maternal short stature and child age were consistent determinants of stunting. A multi-sectoral local approach, including improvements in transport, is needed to address the intergenerational malnutrition problem

FUNCTIONAL STUDIES OF ER60 PROTEASE IN BREAST CANCER

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

Investigation of Beauty Accessories Sales and Marketing by using Association Rule Mining

Many business enterprises accumulate large quantities of data from their day to day operations. Therefore, in this system, huge amounts of customer purchase beauty accessories data are collected daily by supplier representatives in transaction database. Supplier representatives are interesting in analyzing fivecategories beauty accessories to investigate about increase amount of purchasing of their customers. Such valuable information can be used to support a variety of business-related applications such as sales and marketing promotions. In this paper, we present an investigation framework by executing a methodology of association rule mining and correlation analysis. This system is mainly composed of three parts which are data collection, choice of frequent itemsets by generating association rules with Apriori algorithm and computation with correlation analysis to relate data items from each rule. According to interestingness measures, such as generating association rules and correlation, this system can give investigation of beauty accessories sales and marketing for supplier representatives

Mental Tasks Signal Classification

Electroencephalogram (EEG) signal is animportant source of information for knowingbrain processes. To interpret the brain activity,Matching Pursuit Based EEG signalclassification is proposed. This system includesthree main components which are Preprocessing,Feature extraction and Classification. In thepreprocessing step, Wavelet Packet IndependentComponent Analysis (WPICA) method is used toremove some unwanted noise of EEG recording.Matching Pursuit (MP) with Wavelet PacketDictionary is used to extract the features of EEGsignal. The k Nearest Neighbor (kNN) classifiedthe extracted MP features. In this work, theKeirn and Aunon EEG dataset is used in theexperiments. The feature extracted from MPbased wavelet packet dictionary achieved over90% accuracy in two seconds length ofbrainwave signal in five mental tasksclassification

Critical Thinking Skills of Student Teachers in Yangon Region

The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the critical thinking skills among student teachers in Yangon Region. Then, this study aimed to investigate the difference in critical thinking skill of student teachers by institutions, gender, age groups, level of education, voluntary reading, socioeconomic status and using internet. And then, the relationship among critical thinking skill, level of education, voluntary reading and socioeconomic status were explored. A total of 450 student teachers from Yangon University of Education and two Education Colleges such as Yankin and Thingangyun participated in this study. Critical Thinking Skill Test (CTST) developed by Nu Nu Nyunt (2012) was used as the research instrument. In this study, 82 out of 450 (18%) of student teachers were found to be advanced skilled thinkers, 169 out of 450 (38%) were skilled thinkers and 199 out of 450 (44%) were unskilled thinkers. Among the five sub-scales, interpretation sub-scales was the highest but analysis sub-scales was lower than the other four cognitive skills. Moreover, inference skill was the second highest among the five sub-scales. In addition, evaluation skill was the third stand and explanation skill was the second last stand among the five critical thinking cognitive skills

Performance of different mulching materials on soil moisture content, weed infestation and growth of maize (Zea mays L.)

Two field experiments were conducted at Yezin farm and Sepin research farm, Yamenthin, Myanmar to investigate the effect of different mulching materials on growth, soil moisture and weed infestation of maize and to identify the most Two field experiments were conducted at Yezin and Sepin research farms, Yamethin, Myanmar to investigate the effect of different mulching materials on growth, soil moisture and weed infestation of maize and to identify the most suitable mulching materials for maize cultivation in the study areas during the dry season (October, 2019 to March, 2020). The experiments used randomized complete block design (RCB) with three replications. No mulching and six mulching materials, including rice straw mulching, rice husk mulching, maize stover mulching, mung bean stover mulching, soybean stover mulching and white plastic polyethylene mulching were tested. NK-621 (120 days) was used as the tested variety. Different mulching materials showed higher plant height and SPAD value than no mulching whereas rice straw mulching was highest at both locations. The highest LAI was achieved from rice straw mulching at Yezin. At Yamethin, the maximum LAI (2.19) was recorded from rice straw mulching at maximum growth stage (MGS), LAI (2.71) observed from maize stover mulching at tasseling stage (TS). The maximum crop growth rate (CGR) (13.31 gm-2day-1) was achieved from rice straw mulching at Yezin and (14.19 gm-2day-1) at Yamethin.&nbsp; Soil moisture content and weed infestation were significantly different among different mulching materials at two locations. White plastic polyethylene mulching and rice straw mulching were observed as the most suitable for soil moisture content and minimal weed infestation.&nbsp;According to the results, rice straw mulching is the best in all parameters among the treatments for Yezin and Yamethin areas. suitable mulching materials for maize cultivation in the study areas during the dry season (October, 2019 to March, 2020). The experiments were assigned by using randomized complete block design (RCB) with three replications. A total of seven treatment; no mulching (T1) and six mulching materials including rice straw mulching (T2), rice husk mulching (T3), maize stover mulching (T4), mung bean stover mulching (T5), soybean stover mulching (T6) and white plastic polyethylene mulching (T7) were tested. The most widely sown variety, NK-621 (120 days) was used as the tested variety. Different mulching materials showed higher plant height and SPAD value than no mulching whereas rice straw mulching (T2) was highest at both locations. At three sampling times, the highest LAI was achieved from rice straw mulching (T2) at Yezin. At Yamenthin, the maximum LAI (2.19) was recorded from rice straw mulching at maximum growth stage (MGS), LAI (2.71) observed from maize stover mulching (T4) at tasseling stage (TS) and LAI (2.00) achieved from white plastic polyethylene mulching (T7) at grain filling stage (GFS). The maximum crop growth rate (CGR) (13.31 gm-2day-1) was achieved from rice straw mulching (T2) at Yezin and (14.19 gm-2day-1) at Yamenthin.&nbsp; Soil moisture content and weed infestation were significantly different among different mulching materials at two locations. White plastic polyethylene mulching and rice straw mulching were observed as the most suitable for soil moisture content and minimal weed infestation.&nbsp;According to the results, rice straw mulching is the best in all parameters among the treatments for Yezin and Yamenthin areas

Social net coloring : bringing film-making into the digital homes

Film-making is a high-investment, high-risk industry. We aim to define a framework to bring about a new socio-cultural phenomenon which we call Social Film-Making, bringing part of the film-making process into the digital home community. A wider group of people can be involved via their digital homes to participate in the various stages of film-making to contribute their creative ideas much like the practice of Wikipedia. By connecting people, we want to transform the film industry into a low-investment, low-risk industry and thus bringing film-making accessible to everyone. In this paper, we present only our work on Social Net Coloring, which is a apart of our Social Film-Making project, to enable project managers and artists to color large amount of digital frames in a web-mediated platform that provides excitement, efficiency and flexibility in the film-making process

Factors Controlling Vegetation Fires in Protected and Non-Protected Areas of Myanmar

<div><p>Fire is an important disturbance agent in Myanmar impacting several ecosystems. In this study, we quantify the factors impacting vegetation fires in protected and non-protected areas of Myanmar. Satellite datasets in conjunction with biophysical and anthropogenic factors were used in a spatial framework to map the causative factors of fires. Specifically, we used the frequency ratio method to assess the contribution of each causative factor to overall fire susceptibility at a 1km scale. Results suggested the mean fire density in non-protected areas was two times higher than the protected areas. Fire-land cover partition analysis suggested dominant fire occurrences in the savannas (protected areas) and woody savannas (non-protected areas). The five major fire causative factors in protected areas in descending order include population density, land cover, tree cover percent, travel time from nearest city and temperature. In contrast, the causative factors in non-protected areas were population density, tree cover percent, travel time from nearest city, temperature and elevation. The fire susceptibility analysis showed distinct spatial patterns with central Myanmar as a hot spot of vegetation fires. Results from propensity score matching suggested that forests within protected areas have 11% less fires than non-protected areas. Overall, our results identify important causative factors of fire useful to address broad scale fire risk concerns at a landscape scale in Myanmar.</p></div