Satisfaction and Behavioral Intention of Clients in Big T Event Management Company

This study aims to examine the influencing factors on client satisfaction and to analyze the effect of client satisfaction on behavioral intention of client in BIG T Event Management Company. The scope of the study covers the clients whose took corporate events form BIG T Event Management Company. Descriptive and analytical research methods are used to achieve the above objectives. Both primary data and secondary data are used in this study. Sample population is 60 out of 71 clients according to Yamane sampling formula. Respondents are selected by using simple random sampling method. Primary data are collected by using structured questionnaires with 5-point Likert scale. Linear regression method is applied to analyse the data. The result reveals that delivery and flexibility have significant effects on customer satisfaction among four competitive priorities. Regression result reveals that flexibility is the main determinant factor on customer satisfaction. It is also found that customer satisfaction has a direct positive effect on behavioural intention of the customers. The study recommends that BIG T Company should focus a sense of flexibility in order to adapt to rapidly changing circumstances by monitoring the latest trends and technology at the foreign countries and creating innovative event plans. In addition, it should find the reliable third parties and suppliers of event decorations and equipment in order to deliver the service as expected. Finally, BIG T Company should conduct a post-event survey to explore whether customers enjoyed about the event, and where company has room to improve for customer satisfaction

Health behavior, stress and obesity among working age women in Myanmar

Aim:  This study aimed to determine the prevalence of overweight and obesity and to investigate the association between socioeconomic factors, health behaviors, health literacy, knowledge, attitude, physical and mental health status, and overweight and obesity among working age women in Myanmar. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 1,094 women aged 18 to 59 years old who were recruited by using multistage random sampling from 12 townships out of 6 districts among three states/regions. A structured questionnaire was developed and applied to assess the prevalence of overweight and obesity. Generalized Linear Mixed Model (GLMM) was performed to determine the association between dependent and independent variables after controlling the effects of covariates presenting adjusted OR and 95% confidence interval. Results: More than half of the respondents were with overweight and obesity (51.28%; 95%CI: 48.31-54.23). The multivariable analysis indicated that factors significantly associated with overweight and obesity included; aged 31-59 years (Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR) = 1.72, 95%CI:1.22-2.40), living without family (AOR= 2.07, 95%CI:1.20-3.57), average monthly income ≥200,000MMK (AOR= 1.38, 95%CI:1.05-1.82), parity≥1 (AOR= 1.61, 95%CI: 1.17- 2.23), high fat & protein consumption ≥5-days per week (AOR= 2.90, 95%CI:1.91-4.39), alcohol consumption (AOR= 2.53, 95%CI:1.91-3.36) and moderate-severe stress (AOR= 1.47, 95%CI:1.11-1.94). Conclusion: More than half of working age women were with overweight and obesity. Socioeconomic status, health behavior and stress are the factors behind over nutrition. The findings provide relevant evidence to develop the appropriate policies and public health interventions in order to minimize the burden of overweight and obesity. Likewise, it is anticipated that this outcome would support the prevention of cardiovascular and other chronic diseases. &nbsp

Elephants born in the high stress season have faster reproductive ageing

Senescent declines in reproduction and survival are found across the tree of life, but little is known of the factors causing individual variation in reproductive ageing rates. One contributor may be variation in early developmental conditions, but only a few studies quantify the effects of early environment on reproductive ageing and none concern comparably long-lived species to humans. We determine the effects of ‘stressful’ birth conditions on lifetime reproduction in a large semi-captive population of Asian elephants (Elephas maximus). We categorise birth month into stressful vs. not-stressful periods based on longitudinal measures of glucocorticoid metabolites in reproductive-aged females, which peak during heavy workload and the start of the monsoon in June-August. Females born in these months exhibit faster reproductive senescence in adulthood and have significantly reduced lifetime reproductive success than their counterparts born at other times of year. Improving developmental conditions could therefore delay reproductive ageing in species as long-lived as humans

Systematic Review of Immunosuppressant Guidelines in the COVID-19 Pandemic

Funding The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. Conflict of interest statement The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest. Supplemental material Supplemental material for this article is available F Barlow-Pay, T Win Htut et al. online.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Males have more aggressive and less sociable personalities than females in semi-captive Asian elephants

Personality, i.e. consistent between-individual differences in behaviour, has been documented in many species. Yet little is known about how males and females of long-lived, highly social species differ in their measures of personality structure. We investigated sex differences in the mean, variance, and covariance of three previously reported personality traits (Attentiveness, Sociability, Aggressiveness) in 150 female and 107 male Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) from a semi-captive population in Myanmar. These three personality traits were obtained by performing exploratory factor analysis on 28 behavioural items that had been rated by experienced elephant handlers. We found that males scored significantly higher on Aggressiveness and tended to score lower on Sociability than females. However, no sex difference was found in the mean scores of Attentiveness. Variances for the three personality traits did not differ between the sexes, suggesting that male and female elephants share the same range of personality variation. Likewise, trait covariances were similar between the sexes. While both sexes show complex sociality in the wild, female Asian elephants typically live in highly social family units, whereas male elephants' social bonds are weaker. Males usually form dominance ranks by aggressive interactions, especially during musth. Our results on a large sample of individuals living in their natural environment are thus in agreement with elephant life-histories and parallel the findings of sex differences in other long-lived highly social species with similar life-histories

Evolutionary significance of maternal kinship in a long-lived mammal

Preferential treatment of kin is widespread across social species and is considered a central prerequisite to the evolution of cooperation through kin selection. Though it is well known that, among most social mammals, females will remain within their natal group and often bias social behaviour towards female maternal kin, less is known about the fitness consequences of these relationships. We test the fitness benefits of living with maternal sisters, measured by age-specific female reproduction, using an unusually large database of a semi-captive Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) population. This study system is particularly valuable to an exploration of reproductive trends in a long-lived mammal, because it includes life-history data that span multiple generations, enabling a study of the effects of kinship across a female's lifespan. We find that living near a sister significantly increased the likelihood of annual reproduction among young female elephants, and this effect was strongest when living near a sister 0-5 years younger. Our results show that fitness benefits gained from relationships with kin are age-specific, establish the basis necessary for the formation and maintenance of close social relationships with female kin, and highlight the adaptive importance of matriliny in a long-lived mammal.This article is part of the theme issue 'The evolution of female-biased kinship in humans and other mammals'.</p

How big is it really? Assessing the efficacy of indirect estimates of body size in Asian elephants

Information on an organism’s body size is pivotal in understanding its life history and fitness, as well as helping inform conservation measures. However, for many species, particularly large-bodied wild animals, taking accurate body size measurements can be a challenge. Various means to estimate body size have been employed, from more direct methods such as using photogrammetry to obtain height or length measurements, to indirect prediction of weight using other body morphometrics or even the size of dung boli. It is often unclear how accurate these measures are because they cannot be compared to objective measures. Here, we investigate how well existing estimation equations predict the actual body weight of Asian elephants Elephas maximus, using body measurements (height, chest girth, length, foot circumference and neck circumference) taken directly from a large population of semi-captive animals in Myanmar (n = 404). We then define new and better fitting formulas to predict body weight in Myanmar elephants from these readily available measures. We also investigate whether the important parameters height and chest girth can be estimated from photographs (n = 151). Our results show considerable variation in the ability of existing estimation equations to predict weight, and that the equations proposed in this paper predict weight better in almost all circumstances. We also find that measurements from standardised photographs reflect body height and chest girth after applying minor adjustments. Our results have implications for size estimation of large wild animals in the field, as well as for management in captive settings.</p

The elephant in the family: Costs and benefits of elder siblings on younger offspring life-history trajectory in a matrilineal mammal

Many mammals grow up with siblings, and interactions between them can influence offspring phenotype and fitness. Among these interactions, sibling competition between different-age offspring should lead to reproductive and survival costs on the younger sibling, while sibling cooperation should improve younger sibling's reproductive potential and survival. However, little is known about the consequences of sibling effects on younger offspring life-history trajectory, especially in long-lived mammals.We take advantage of a large, multigenerational demographic dataset from semi-captive Asian elephants to investigate how the presence and sex of elder siblings influence the sex, survival until 5 years old, body condition, reproductive success (i.e. age at first reproduction and lifetime reproductive success) and long-term survival of subsequent offspring.We find that elder siblings have heterogeneous effects on subsequent offspring life-history traits depending on their presence, their sex and the sex of the subsequent offspring (named focal calf).Overall, the presence of an elder sibling (either sex) strongly increased focal calf long-term survival (either sex) compared to sibling absence. However, elder sisters had higher impact on the focal sibling than elder brothers. Focal females born after a female display higher long-term survival, and decreased age at first reproduction when raised together with an elder sister rather than a brother. Focal males born after a female rather than a male showed lower survival but higher body weight when both were raised together. We did not detect any sibling effects on the sex of the focal calf sex, survival until 5 years old and lifetime reproductive success.​​​​​​​Our results highlight the general complexity of sibling effects, but broadly that elder siblings can influence the life-history trajectory of subsequent offspring. We also stress the importance of considering all life stages when evaluating sibling effects on life trajectories.</ol

Changes in age-structure over four decades were a key determinant of population growth rate in a long-lived mammal

A changing environment directly influences birth and mortality rates, and thus population growth rates. However, population growth rates in the short term are also influenced by population age-structure. Despite its importance, the contribution of age-structure to population growth rates has rarely been explored empirically in wildlife populations with long-term demographic data. Here we assessed how changes in age-structure influenced short-term population dynamics in a semi-captive population of Asian elephantsElephas maximus. We addressed this question using a demographic dataset of female Asian elephants from timber camps in Myanmar spanning 45 years (1970-2014). First, we explored temporal variation in age-structure. Then, using annual matrix population models, we used a retrospective approach to assess the contributions of age-structure and vital rates to short-term population growth rates with respect to the average environment. Age-structure was highly variable over the study period, with large proportions of juveniles in the years 1970 and 1985, and made a substantial contribution to annual population growth rate deviations. High adult birth rates between 1970 and 1980 would have resulted in large positive population growth rates, but these were prevented by a low proportion of reproductive-aged females. We highlight that an understanding of both age-specific vital rates and age-structure is needed to assess short-term population dynamics. Furthermore, this example from a human-managed system suggests that the importance of age-structure may be accentuated in populations experiencing human disturbance where age-structure is unstable, such as those in captivity or for endangered species. Ultimately, changes to the environment drive population dynamics by influencing birth and mortality rates, but understanding demographic structure is crucial for assessing population growth

Investigating associations between nematode infection and three measures of sociality in Asian elephants

Frequent social interactions, proximity to conspecifics, and group density are main drivers of infections and parasite transmissions. However, recent theoretical and empirical studies suggest that the health benefits of sociality and group living can outweigh the costs of infection and help social individuals fight infections or increase their infection-related tolerance level. Here, we combine the advantage of studying artificially created social work groups with different demographic compositions with free-range feeding and social behaviours in semi-captive Asian elephants (Elephas maximus), employed in timber logging in Myanmar. We examine the link between gastro-intestinal nematode load (strongyles and Strongyloides spp.), estimated by faecal egg counts, and three different aspects of an elephant's social world: individual solitary behaviour, work group size, and work group sex ratio. Controlling for sex, age, origin, time since last deworming treatment, year, human sampler bias, and individual identity, we found that infection by nematodes ranged from 0 to 2720 eggs/g between and within 26 male and 45 female elephants over the 4-year study period. However, such variation was not linked to any investigated measures of sociality in either males or females. Our findings highlight the need for finer-scale studies, establishing how sociality is limited by, mitigates, or protects against infection in different ecological contexts, to fully understand the mechanisms underlying these pathways. Significance statement Being social involves not only benefits, such as improved health, but also costs, including increased risk of parasitism and infectious disease. We studied the relationship between and three different sociality measures-solitary behaviour, group size, and the proportion of females to males within a group-and infection by gut nematodes (roundworms), using a unique study system of semi-captive working Asian elephants. Our system allows for observing how infection is linked to sociality measures across different social frameworks. We found that none of our social measures was associated with nematode infection in the studied elephants. Our results therefore suggest that here infection is not a large cost to group living, that it can be alleviated by the benefits of increased sociality, or that there are weak infection-sociality associations present which could not be captured and thus require finer-scale measures than those studied here. Overall, more studies are needed from a diverse range of systems that investigate specific aspects of social infection dynamics.Peer reviewe