Market Performance of Selected Pulses in Myanmar

This paper shows to investigate the performance and efficiency of marketing system of chick pea, green gram and pigeon pea in each selected townships. This study assessed the marketing channel, distributed marketing margins and spatial market price integration to evaluate the performance of pulses marketing in Myanmar. The result showed that producer received the largest net margin followed by the exporter, town wholesaler, wholesaler in Bayintnaung market and finally by the primary collector, pigeon pea marketing channel for Myittha contained primary collector, town wholesaler, Myingyan town wholesaler, Yangon and Mandalay wholesaler and exporter. MAPT also served as intermediate is for export. In this channel, the largest share of net margin kept by producers while the exporter had the share. However, wholesaler in Bayintnaung market, town wholesaler and primary collector reaped small amount of net margin. Among the all intermediateries, the exporters margin was highest for these selected pulses although the other margins were reasonable. The marketing inefficiency exists at the exporters level. It can be concluded that the lower marketing margin is the indicator of competitive and efficient market. The analysis of the two markets integration was to know the degree of co-movement of prices in spatially separated market. The assumption was that Mandalay current wholesale price depend upon the Yangon current wholesale price and taking one to five lags weekly wholesale price of both Yangon and Mandalay markets. The percentages of cointegrated can be seen 57% for chick pea, 65% for green gram and 85% for pigeon pea. It can be concluded that there exist the long-run co-integration for pigeon pea price correlation and moderately co-integration for both chick pea and green gram within the Yangon and Mandalay markets.Myanmar pulses market, market integration, marketing margin, marketing channel, Agribusiness, Marketing,

Empirical Modeling for Diffusion of Nitrogen into AISI 430 Ferritic Stainless Steel

This study is based on the solution nitriding of ANSI 430 ferritic stainless steel. Solution nitriding play a significant role in enhancing the surface hardness of AISI 430 ferritic stainless steels. However, this particular area need further research in term of empirical modeling for future engineering guidance and references. The study of this project focused on the identification of the appropriate empirical model for diffusion of nitrogen into AISI 430 ferritic stainless steel. And then, the results were compared with the existing experimental results which were conducted on the same temperature. This research starts by searching for any other relevant journal or article published by other researchers and from there, the results were reviewed and useful information were summarized and taken as information to this research. This study involved few analytical calculations, more to theories and literature reviews, research of pre-existing experimental works and results and finally comparison between theoretical results and existing experimental results. As for software, the familiarization of Microsoft Excel is more than enough to solve the developed formulations

Chemistry of titanium compounds in concentrated sulphuric acid solution

Imperial Users onl

A perception of International Tourists toward Tourism Products in and around Yangon

This research studied the perceptions of international tourists towards tourism products in and around Yangon. Field research consisted of a sample size of 385 respondents at 5% tolerable level of error by applying a simple random sampling method. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used for data analysis. The findings show that overall perception by respondents is neutral to all tourism products of the study. Respondents are indifference in the perception of attractions, travel agents and restaurants when they are distinguished by age levels, gender, education level and purpose of travel. Similarly, there is no difference in perception of international tourists in the following aspects: accommodation when distinguished by age levels, gender; transportation when distinguished by nationality, age levels, gender and purpose of travel; entertainment when distinguished by nationality, gender, education levels and purpose of travel; gifts and souvenirs when distinguished by gender, education level and purpose of travel. Surprisingly, the findings suggest that difference in gender has no effect on perception of international tourists towards any products of study

Social Innovation Abroad: Service-Learning Program at Magga Foundation

Service Learning has been utilized as a means to increase knowledge, develop practical skills and provide a broad understanding of community engagement, development and social change for students. Students’ participation in those service-learning programs are growing globally in this interconnecting world. This Course-Linked Capstone (CLC) presents a detailed plan for a service-learning program exclusively designed for undergraduate students in Myanmar. Magga Foundation will organize social Innovation Abroad, a 13-week intensive study abroad program, in partnership with Ashoka organization in India and Thailand. The program aims to provide holistic development, cross-cultural communication, interdisciplinary and experiential global education for students. It is also to facilitate participants learning in design thinking and solution-based approaches in problems solving. Keywords: service learning, study abroad, inclusion, community solution, experiential education, design thinking, social chang

Optimized Fabrication Of Tio2 Nanotube Arrays By Anodization For Solar Cell Applications

TiO2 nanotubes (TNT) arrays have attracted significant attention in solar cell applications: photoelectrochemical cell (PEC) and dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) for the production of renewable energy. In this thesis, highly ordered, uniform surface TNT arrays were successfully fabricated by anodization of titanium in ammonium fluoride (NH4F)/ethylene glycol (EG) electrolyte containing alkaline species of LiOH, NaOH or KOH. As a comparison, TNT arrays were also fabricated in H2O/EG under the same condition. The H2O/EG electrolyte resulted in shorter TNTs (10 m) and diameter of 160 nm. This is due to the high chemical etching at the tip of nanotubes, caused by the higher concentration of H+ ions. Alkaline species especially NaOH and KOH added into fluoride/EG electrolytes produced longer tubes with length of 18 and 23 m and a diameter of 160 and 170 nm, respectively. The present of alkaline species increased the electrolyte pH and this can suppress chemical etching process at the top part of nanotubes. However, they do not affect the local acidification inside the nanotubes at the tube bottom that is needed for inwards growth of the tubes. As for the LiOH, it was observed that the salt did not dissolve very well in the electrolyte, hence the length of nanotubes in this electrolyte is only 14 m. As-anodized TNT arrays formed in alkaline species added into fluoride/EG electrolyte have anatase crystallites within them due to the higher content of OH ions. NaOH/EG was acknowledged in this work as the most optimum electrolyte for nanotube formation with considerable length and good surface etching that open up the nanotubes at the top. Studies on the effect of the amount of NaOH, amount of NH4F, applied voltage, anodization time and annealing process were then conducted and it was found that 1 M of NaOH, 0.7 wt % of NH4F, 60 V of applied voltage, 60 min of anodization time and 450 C of annealing process can produce the highest photocurrent of PEC. The TNTs were used as photoanode in both PEC and DSSC. The PEC performance was determined by photocurrent generation of the cell and by solar to hydrogen conversion efficiency (STH). Maximum STH of 4.3 % was achieved from photoanode comprising of 23 m long TNT arrays and a diameter of 175 nm derived in 5 wt % NaOH/EG corresponding to photocurrent of 3.5 mA/cm2. As for the DSSC, it was also found that NaOH/EG sample gave the best performance with photoconversion efficiency () of 3.1 % and a short-circuit current density (Jsc) of 9.1 mA/cm2 as this sample has the longest length, largest aspect ratio, and good anatase crystallinity. This sample was then decorated with silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) by photodeposition method as to extend absorption of light to the visible region and to reduce the recombination of photogenerated electron/hole pairs. 10-30 nm diameter Ag NPs were formed from 0.2 M Ag-precursor solution and the Ag NPs/TNTs exhibit the highest of 3.7 % and Jsc of 12.2 mA/cm2 compared to sample without Ag NPs. The increase in photoconversion efficiency was due to the surface plasmon resonance effect and excess electrons from the Ag NPs

Processing and Characterization of Activated Carbon from Toddy Fruit Husk

The focus of this research work was the processing and characterization of activated carbon from toddy palm fruit husk. To identify the purity of raw material, the properties of toddy palm fruit husk in terms of moisture, ash, volatile matter, fixed carbon content and bulk density were determined. Activated carbon was prepared by chemical activation of toddy palm fruit husk and then by carbonization. The effect of carbonization temperature and time on the appearance and properties of processed activated carbons were investigated. The physico-chemical properties of processed activated carbon such as moisture, ash, volatile matter and fixed carbon content were determined. The highest fixed carbon content was obtained with 25 % w/w zinc chloride as chemical activating agent at carbonization temperature 350°C for carbonization time 45 min. For the assessment of the quality of the product, the properties such as surface area, iodine sorption capacity and methylene blue number were also investigated. Furthermore, the phase and microstructure of the prepared activated carbons were determined by X-Ray Diffraction Spectroscopy (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The high iodine sorption capacity and fairly high methylene blue number indicated that the processed activated carbon had large surface area and well developed mesoporosity. Therefore toddy palm fruit was the potential to be a promising precursor for the processing of activated carbon

Adsorption Properties of Malaysian Activated Carbon for Use in Solar Refrigerator

Detail experiments and analyses have been made on the solar refrigerator using activated charcoal and methanol adsorption cycle. A test rig was designed to study adsorption and desorption capability of activated carbon. A comparison has been made between adsorbability of six Malaysian commercial activated carbons. To improve the adsorbability of the carbon a simple method was tested. Base on Dubinin equation, some them10dynamic properties of adsorbent adsorbate necessary for refrigeration calculation had been obtained. In this experiment methanol is used as the refrigerant medium. The amollnt of methanol adsorbed by the activated carbon was measured as a function of temperature of the activated carbon. During the experiment, the temperature of the unadsorbed methanol was kept constant. From Dubinin-Astakhov equation, parameters of adsorption data were determined using graphical analysis. A Claperyon P-T-X (pressure, temperature and concentration) diagram was then constructed