Prevalence and seroprevalence of Plasmodium infection in Myanmar reveals highly heterogeneous transmission and a large hidden reservoir of infection.

Malaria incidence in Myanmar has significantly reduced over recent years, however, completeness and timeliness of incidence data remain a challenge. The first ever nationwide malaria infection and seroprevalence survey was conducted in Myanmar in 2015 to better understand malaria epidemiology and highlight gaps in Annual Parasite Index (API) data. The survey was a cross-sectional two-stage stratified cluster-randomised household survey conducted from July-October 2015. Blood samples were collected from household members for ultra-sensitive PCR and serology testing for P. falciparum and P. vivax. Data was gathered on demography and a priori risk factors of participants. Data was analysed nationally and within each of four domains defined by API data. Prevalence and seroprevalence of malaria were 0.74% and 16.01% nationwide, respectively. Prevalent infection was primarily asymptomatic P. vivax, while P. falciparum was predominant in serology. There was large heterogeneity between villages and by domain. At the township level, API showed moderate correlation with P. falciparum seroprevalence. Risk factors for infection included socioeconomic status, domain, and household ownership of nets. Three K13 P. falciparum mutants were found in highly prevalent villages. There results highlight high heterogeneity of both P. falciparum and P. vivax transmission between villages, accentuated by a large hidden reservoir of asymptomatic P. vivax infection not captured by incidence data, and representing challenges for malaria elimination. Village-level surveillance and stratification to guide interventions to suit local context and targeting of transmission foci with evidence of drug resistance would aid elimination efforts

EMPLOYEE PERCEPTION TOWARDS E-LEARNING PRACTICES OF KBZ BANK

E-learning has been an essential tool in not only education setting but also working environment as a result of the advances in information and communication technology. Especially organizational effectiveness can be achieved by training and skill development of employees with effective learning and development tool. Implementing training and skill development programs in banks helps in running banking business effectively, and makes the banks prepared to cope up with changes and developments. The research adopted a quantitative approach to examine all the employees in KBZ Bank who have studied e-learning courses with different features of contents. A total of 460 respondents were interviewed by using the structured questionnaires. The results revealed that there are four sets of factors which influence the success of E-Learning in KBZ bank. These are: employees’ characteristics (computers skills; motivation and attitudes); technology (quality of technology and effectiveness of infrastructure) and design and content (perceived ease of use and quality of content) and management support. In addition, the findings show that there are some differences in perceptions amongst employees according to gender, age, educational background, working experience and positions in the work. The main contribution of this research is that it addresses how employee perceives the e-learning practices

Decision Making System for Type of Coffee Drinks by using Fuzzy Logic

In this system, decision making for the type of coffee drink is implemented by using fuzzy logic. Five types of coffee drinks: coffee with soft instants, coffee with normal instants, coffee latte, coffee espresso and coffee macchiato are considered. There are three instants to mix: milk, fresh milk and coffee powder. Fuzzy decision making system determine the type of coffee drinks according to the ratio of instants. The fuzzy control system consists of three main parts. There are fuzzification, inference engine and defuzzification. Center of Gravity (COG) defuzzification method is used in this system. This paper is implemented by using C# programming language

Energy Consumption Analysis of AODV and DSR routing protocols in Mobile Ad Hoc Network

MANET (Mobile Ad hoc Network) is selforganizing and self configuration and selfcontrolled network without the need of any basestation AP(Access Point). Mobility of nodes inMANET causes ever changing topologies. As one ofconstraints in MANET is limited battery resources,It is important to know energy efficiency of routingprotocols to limit the power consumption, prolongthe battery life and to improve the robustness of thesystem. This paper focuses on energy consumptionmetric Total Energy Consumed, Total RemainingEnergy and Energy Consumption per successfuldata delivery (ECSDD) in some of the routingprotocols in MANET such as DSR, AODV byvarying pause time, node velocity and packetsending rate and area of network. Simulation isdone by using NS-2

Two-Stage BJT Amplifier with Negative Voltage Series Feedback Analysis Program Proteus 8

In this paper, the common two-stage amplifier voltage series negative feedback amplifier circuit is analyzed theoretically. With negative feedback, the closed-loop voltage gain can be reduced and controlled so that the op-amp can function as a linear amplifier. Negative feedback is the basic method and essential means of improving amplifying circuit efficiency. Then using Proteus 8 professional as simulation software, the relationship between the gain obtained by open-loop and the simulation of the closed-loop and the pass-band is shown by comparing the real experimental data with the result of the circuit’s simulation and the waveform. Negative feedback opposes or subtracts from the input signals giving it many advantages in the design and stabilization of control systems. Basically the relationship consistent with the calculated results, that is in good agreement with the theoretical analysis

Normal Ultrasonographic Renal length in relation to Glomerular Filtration rate among students in Universiti Malaysia Sabah

Variation in kidney size occurs in many renal diseases and considered as important indicator in evaluation of these problems. Our study aims to set a normal range of kidney lengths among healthy young adult University students in UMS and will act as an input for further research to establish a normal range in people in sabah states. Total 321 UMS students from different programs were participate in this study. The ages range from 19 to 25 year. Both male and female are included the number of female participants (66%) are greater than male (34%) students. Chinese constitute 32.7%,Malay 24%,Kadazan 10.9%,Indian 3.7% and so on. The largest religious group is Islam ( 38.5% ). The mean BMI of 320 students is 21.35 ± S.D 3.58. Ultrasonographic renal measurements reveal the mean length in BMI of right and left kidneys of the students are almost the same i.e., 9.81±O.75 BMI and 9.85±O.58 BMI respectively.It will also exclude kidney pathology detected by ultrasonography despite the normal findings of physical examination and laboratory function tests.Thus it will improve awareness of possibilities kidney diseases which can be present in apparently normal healthy adults

The Construction of a Scale to measure Environmental Concerns

Measurement issues and structure of environmental concerns (ECs) were assessed in this study. The present paper compared two different scales used in previous research to measure beliefs about awareness of consequences (ACs), or concerns, for egoistic, altruistic, and biospheric-valued objects. One hundred and ten participants from two separated Universities in Myanmar completed both the ACs and ECs scales. The findings have theoretical and practical implications for research into ECs, and for applications of the value-belief-norm (extended norm activation) theory. The important finding was that the EC scale is superior to the AC Beliefs scale in terms of reliability and dimensionality of sub-scales in Myanmar samples. Thus, in order to further study the environmental attitudes, values, intention, and behavior of the people in Myanmar, the ECs scale would be essential, applicable, and beneficial for further research

Clinical and molecular surveillance of artemisinin resistant falciparum malaria in Myanmar (2009–2013)

Abstract Background Emergence of artemisinin-resistant malaria in Southeast Asian countries threatens the global control of malaria. Although K13 kelch propeller has been assessed for artemisinin resistance molecular marker, most of the mutations need to be validated. In this study, artemisinin resistance was assessed by clinical and molecular analysis, including k13 and recently reported markers, pfarps10, pffd and pfmdr2. Methods A prospective cohort study in 1160 uncomplicated falciparum patients was conducted after treatment with artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT), in 6 sentinel sites in Myanmar from 2009 to 2013. Therapeutic efficacy of ACT was assessed by longitudinal follow ups. Molecular markers analysis was done on all available day 0 samples. Results True recrudescence treatment failures cases and day 3 parasite positivity were detected at only the southern Myanmar sites. Day 3 positive and k13 mutants with higher prevalence of underlying genetic foci predisposing to become k13 mutant were detected only in southern Myanmar since 2009 and comparatively fewer mutations of pfarps10, pffd, and pfmdr2 were observed in western Myanmar. K13 mutations, V127M of pfarps10, D193Y of pffd, and T448I of pfmdr2 were significantly associated with day 3 positivity (OR: 6.48, 3.88, 2.88, and 2.52, respectively). Conclusions Apart from k13, pfarps10, pffd and pfmdr2 are also useful for molecular surveillance of artemisinin resistance especially where k13 mutation has not been reported. Appropriate action to eliminate the resistant parasites and surveillance on artemisinin resistance should be strengthened in Myanmar. Trial registration This study was registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, identifier NCT02792816