Myanmar-China Asymmetrical Relations: The Case Study of Myitsone Hydropower Dam Project through the Lens of Small Power’s Strategies [védés előtt]

The aim of the research is to find the strategies and tactics of small powers in relations with great power neighbour under the asymmetrical relationship. The research problem The research accommodates the two important research problems. (1) To investigate how a small power can manage its asymmetrical relations with a great power neighbor. (2) To observe how a small power cooperative with a big power without deteriorating its sovereignty, by protecting its national interest, and by avoiding confrontation with the big power, as well as by preserving the bilateral relations between them. The subject of analysis The research emphasizes on the Myanmar-China asymmetrical relations with a special focus on the Myitsone dam hydropower project as a case study which is a critical issue between the two countries. The impact of the dam issue not only effects on the Sino-Myanmar relations but also influences on other asymmetrical relations between China and small powers. It also The research question What tactics and strategies does Myanmar use to increase its room for maneuver in its asymmetric relationship with China? Hypotheses The research will investigate two hypotheses: (1) The behaviors of small powers can be identified between a tactical and strategical level in an asymmetric relationship. (2) Small powers are capable of changing the behavior of big powers in different ways besides by using balancing and bandwagoning strategies. Conclusion and the highlight of a new scientific result Regarding the big picture of Sino-Myanmar relations, it has been found that Myanmar practices the “bandwagoning” strategy with limits. In the Myitsone Dam suspension, the Myanmar government used the “balancing” strategy with limits. To answer the promised research question, the research can investigate that Myanmar has used both bandwagoning and balancing strategies in limit. The research has revealed the detailed analysis of Myanmar’s tactical and strategical moves toward China. As a new scientific result, the research insists that small states are really important actors in international relations. Despite their power discrepancy with big powers, small countries have the capability to counterbalance and counterweight great powers through their tactical moves. In doing so, small states can change the behavior of great powers without breaking up their relationships. They can improve their own leverages and abilities within the framework of cooperation with stronger powers. Thus, power is not a determinant factor in international relations, even in the asymmetrical relationship. Small powers can manipulate their strategies by developing their political leverage, by taking advantages of stronger powers’ deficiencies, by effectively using its geostrategic importance, by engaging regional and international organizations, and so on. The research highlights the two distinct strategies of bandwagoning and balancing, in which small powers can maneuver these two strategies in limitation. They can utilize these two strategies not only in resisting stronger powers but also in seeking and developing their interests. Small powers can also influence the behavior of great powers through their impressive strategies

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

Myanmar traditional medicine formulations and their antioxidant, antiglycation and alpha-glucosidase inhibitory activities: Potentials for antidiabetes complications

Myanmar Traditional Medicine (MTM) has been used since ancient times to treat life-threatening diseases like diabetes. In this study, various in vitro assays were used to prove that four MTM formulations were effective at treating diabetes. Antioxidant activities were determined using in vitro DPPH, nitric oxide (NO), and superoxide (SO) radical scavenging assays. The Folin-Ciocalteu method was used to quantify the total phenolic content, while the BSA-fluorescent antiglycation and α-glucosidase inhibitory assays were utilized to determine the antidiabetic activity of MTMs. Among the tested samples, MTM3 showed the best activities for almost all the biological assays tested in this experiment with the % inhibition of 82.89 ± 1.64 for NO and 65.02 ± 2.82 for SO radical scavenging activity, 92.12 ± 1.18 for α-glucosidase inhibitory activity and IC50 of 180.29 ± 1.6 µg/ml for the antiglycation activity. It also possessed the highest total phenolic content of 149.41 ± 3.7 mg GAE/g of extract/l among the tested samples. Therefore, the findings suggested that MTM could help diabetic patients improve their quality of life through antioxidant activity against several free radicals and their antiglycation and α-glucosidase inhibitory characteristics

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

REPORTING STUDENTS’ MARK LIST USING DATA WAREHOUSE

Data Warehousing has emerged as an effective mechanism for converting data into useful information. Data warehouse system allows for the integration of a variety of application systems. This system is intended to support the management’s decision making process, especially for the mark list system of Computer University by constructing data warehouse. This system is created that is a relational design with fact tables and dimension tables. Based on the data warehousing theory, the user can retrieve the required summary information using the concept of snowflake schema, which is the database schema of multidimensional data mode

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