Human–elephant coexistence challenges in Myanmar: An analysis of fatal elephant attacks on humans and elephant mortality

Understanding the underlying causes behind human–elephant conflict (HEC)-driven mortality of humans and elephants will help improve both parties’ wellbeing. The objective of this study was to examine the temporal and spatial mortality patterns of humans and elephants and the influence of local attitudes, conflict factors and habitat factors on elephant poaching. We used the Myanmar Forest Department data from 2001 to 2020 for humans and 2011 to 2020 for elephants together with explanatory data on human attitudes, habitat, and conflict factors. Approximately seven persons were killed annually in elephant attacks, with a bias towards men. The annual mortality of elephants during the study period was on average 16 individuals, and most elephants were killed by humans. There was a significant relationship between the number of killed humans and human-killed elephants around HEC villages. Villages with more property damage exhibited a higher rate of human mortality, which also correlated with negative feelings of local people towards elephants. Elephant poaching was higher in villages with less suitable habitat available for elephant use. Human encroachment is an important cause of HEC, leading to human loss and forming the main threat to the survival of wild elephants. We suggest local involvement to ensure good governance in conflict resolution and mitigation strategies and to strengthen law enforcement. Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) Human–elephant conflict (HEC) Attack Mortality PoachingpublishedVersio

Effect of human–elephant conflict on local attitudes toward the conservation of wild Asian elephants in Myanmar

The study of attitudes toward wild elephants and human–elephant conflict (HEC) is vital to understanding what attitudes are held by local people and how to incorporate them into wild elephant conservation. This study investigated the interlinkages between the HEC experience and local people’s attitudes toward the conservation of wild elephants and which exploratory factors influence these attitudes. We used a Bayesian Belief Network (BBN) framework to highlight the interlinkages between HEC and people’s attitudes. The basic BBN model indicated that HEC was central in determining the attitudes of local people. Although people generally hold positive attitudes toward elephants, people support having elephants in the country but not in their own regions. Conservation willingness was not obvious due to the lack of deliberate assistance from the government to the affected communities. We suggest implementing education programs to promote local awareness of conflict mitigation techniques. Bayesian belief network(BBN); conservation; elephas maximus; human–elephant conflict (HEC); wildlifepublishedVersio

Information Security System Based on English and Myanmar Text Steganography

Due to the growth in frequent exchange of digital data over public channel, information security plays an important role in daily part of communication. Hence, various techniques like steganography are applied in information security area for more efficient information security system. This paper proposes two new text steganographic approaches using two different languages which are based on Unicode standard for secure data transfer over the public channel. The main aim is to overcome the limited embedding capacity, suspiciousness, and data damaging effect due to modification of existing steganographic approaches. The first approach conceals a message, without degrading the cover, by using four specific characters of words of the English cover text. The second approach performs message hiding by using the three specific groups of characters of combined words in Myanmar cover text while maintaining the content of the cover. The structure and operation of the proposed approaches based on the idea of existing text steganographic technique: Hiding Data in Paragraph (HDPara) algorithm. In this work, an empirical comparison of the proposed approaches with HDPara approach is presented. According to the comparison results, the proposed approaches outperform the existing HDPara approach in terms of embedding capacity.

Possible Solutions of Water Pollution Control for Chindwin River and Major Lakes in Monywa

This paper focuses on proposed possible solutions for water pollution control in Chindwin River and major lakes in Monywa. Field investigation and questionnaire survey were conducted to gather information about pollution sources in the previous study. The questionnaire set including eight questions being prepared according to five-point Likert rating scale, had been designed based on guidelines for Tanzania National Environmental Management Council (TNEMC). The responses from the survey were analysed by descriptive analysis, relative importance index (RII) and H statistic test. Water quality assessment on urban river water and lake water were performed. Municipal wastewater, industrial wastewater, illegal open dump of solid waste and agricultural waste were identified as major pollution sources of urban river and major lakes in previous study. Therefore, the possible solutions such as decentralized wastewater treatment (constructed wetlands, stabilization pond and bioretention), in-lake treatment techniques, soft engineering techniques and integrated solid waste management are proposed based on literature, secondary academic sources such papers, journals and other sources

Survival analysis of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in New Yangon General Hospital by prognostic indicators

Background: Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and it can infect anyone resulting in serious illness and death. Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted in New Yangon General Hospital (NYGH), Yangon between September and November, 2022. Previous records of COVID-19 in-patients admitted to NYGH from 1st June to 31st October, 2021, were reviewed. COVID-19 in-patients who tested positive by real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) or rapid diagnostic test (RDT) were included in this study. Multivariate analysis by Cox proportional-hazards (CPH) model was used to identify the prognostic indicators associated with the survival of COVID-19 inpatients. Results: Of (460) COVID-19 positive patients, there were 133 (28.9%) deaths with mortality rate of 16.9 per 1000 person-days. Then, 97 (72.9%) deaths occurred within 21 days of symptom onset, with median survival time of 28 (95% CI: 25-36) days. The results of the CPH model showed that the abnormal chest X-ray (CXR) [aHR=3.8, 95% CI: (1.1, 12.6), p=0.032], SpO2 level below 92% [aHR=3.7, 95% CI: 2.3, 5.9, p<0.001)], serum creatinine level more than 133 µmol/L [aHR=1.9, 95% CI: 1.1, 3.2, p=0.025] and C-reactive protein level (CRP) more than 10 mg/L [aHR=3.9, 95% CI: 1.2, 12.9, p=0.027] were the prognostic indicators of COVID-19 death among inpatients in NYGH. Conclusions: Patients with abnormal CXR result, low SpO2 level, high serum creatinine level, and high CRP level may have increased risks of death among COVID-19 inpatients in NYGH. Thus, close monitoring of the hospitalized COVID-19 inpatients by using these prognostic indicators should be emphasized

Prediction of Storm Surge and Risk Assessment of Rakhine Costal Region

Rakhine coastal region, western coast of Myanmar, is prone to cyclone and storm surge flooding. The probability of cyclone in Rakhine coast is more than those of any other places of Myanmar coast. That’s why, it is very essential to develop storm surge risk maps for Rakhine state. The study area for numerical simulation covers the latitude 14° to 22° N and longitude 89.8° to 98.1° E. Five historical storm surge heights along the coast are determined both by empirical equation and simulated using Delft 3D numerical model coupling with Delft Dashboard and, compared with observed peak surge. Hazard maps of storm surge are developed by modelling three cyclone scenarios for respective recurrence interval. In this study, population data, housing data and livelihood data of Rakhine State during the period of 2010 are adopted for vulnerability analysis. Vulnerable maps for human and social sector, physical infrastructure sector and production sector are developed by using Analytical Hierarchy Process. Finally, risk maps for population, production, infrastructure and livelihood sector of Rakhine State by village tracts are developed by using ArcGIS 10.3

Conduction system pacing: promoting the physiology to prevent heart failure

Cardiac conduction system pacing provides physiological ventricular activation by directly stimulating the conduction system. This review describes the two types of conduction system pacing: His bundle pacing (HBP) and left bundle area pacing (LBAP). The most significant advantage of HB pacing is that it can provide a regular, narrow QRS; however, the disadvantages are challenging implantation and a high risk of re-intervention due to lead dislodgement and the development of high pacing threshold. LBAP provides optimum physiological activation of the left ventricle by engaging the left bundle/fascicular fibers. LBAP is more physiological than traditional RV apical pacing and could be an attractive alternative to conventional cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT). The advantages of LBAP are a relatively more straightforward implantation technique than HBP, better lead stability and pacing thresholds. HBP and LBAP are more physiological than right ventricular pacing and may be used instead of conventional pacemakers. Both HBP and LBBP are being investigated as alternatives to conventional CRT

Pathways to Women’s Empowerment in the Promotion of Climate Smart Agriculture in the Philippines, Myanmar, and Cambodia

Climate change is not gender neutral. Women are a vulnerable population within a vulnerable population. Far from an equalizing event, climate change risks and disasters often magnify and aggravate existing inequalities in society, including gender inequality. National governments and the international development community recognized that in order to strengthen and accelerate their goals for agricultural development, economic growth and food security they need to build the contributions that women make and take steps to alleviate barriers to women empowerment. A quantitative-qualitative study has been undertaken to investigate how the promotion of climate smart agriculture is contributing to women empowerment within the climate smart villages (CSVs) in Myanmar, Cambodia and the Philippines. The analysis of survey results (n=121) showed that the majority of the women farmers opt to make decisions jointly with their husbands in activities related to agriculture production. Women’s participation in the decision-making process are related to decisions on what crops or crop varieties to plant. Women are more engaged in the decision making related to small livestock such as goats, pigs and chickens, they have gained more experience and knowledge and are able to provide good suggestions regarding livestock. Increased income is a powerful measure of women’s economic empowerment. Across the six CSVs, there is a significant difference in the perceived increase in incomes. The impact of women’s increased income has been equally positive at both the household and community level, with increased involvement in household and production decision-making and increased and more active participation in community activities. Household borrowing and saving have traditionally been the normative responsibility of women. This finding is supported by focus group discussions (n=113) in the CSVs where women are designated as budget planner and keeper of the household income. The study also indicated that the promotion of homestead gardens and small livestock buffered the negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic to the households as these activities provided them with food, enabled them to share or sell vegetables to their neighbors, and reserved food for extended lockdowns

Three Novel Biphenanthrene Derivatives and a New Phenylpropanoid Ester from Aerides multiflora and Their α-Glucosidase Inhibitory Activity

A phytochemical investigation on the whole plants of Aerides multiflora revealed the presence of three new biphenanthrene derivatives named aerimultins A–C (1–3) and a new natural phenylpropanoid ester dihydrosinapyl dihydroferulate (4), together with six known compounds (5–10). The structures of the new compounds were elucidated by analysis of their spectroscopic data. All of the isolates were evaluated for their α-glucosidase inhibitory activity. Aerimultin C (3) showed the most potent activity. The other compounds, except for compound 4, also exhibited stronger activity than the positive control acarbose. Compound 3 showed non-competitive inhibition of the enzyme as determined from a Lineweaver–Burk plot. This study is the first phytochemical and biological investigation of A. multiflora