Qualitative study of parental perceptions of barriers & enablers of girls’ education in Monywa, Myanmar

In Myanmar, there are no significant gaps in literacy rates for boys and girls in the age group 15-19 years. However, the gap gradually increases after the age of 19. The study explored parents’ attitudes towards girls’ and boys’ schooling in Monywa, Myanmar to better understand parental perceptions. Findings show both rural and urban parents equally in favor of educating both daughters and sons, even when there’s a financial struggle for the family. One respondent observed that girls’ education was more likely to be prioritized if the girl was smart, while boys’ education was likely to be prioritized regardless

A Study of Burkholderia pseudomallei in the Environment of Farms in Thanlyin and Hmawbi Townships, Myanmar.

Melioidosis is a tropical infection, first described in Myanmar but now rarely diagnosed there, which is widespread in Southeast Asia. The infection is predominantly acquired by people and animals through contact with soil or water. This study aimed to detect the causative organism, Burkholderia pseudomallei, in environmental samples from farms in Thanlyin and Hmawbi townships near Yangon, Myanmar. One hundred and twenty soil samples and 12 water samples were collected and processed using standard microbiological methods. Burkholderia species were isolated from 50 of the 120 (42%) soil samples but none of the water samples. Arabinose assimilation was tested to differentiate between B. pseudomallei and the nonpathogenic Burkholderia thailandensis, and seven of 50 isolates (14%) were negative. These were all confirmed as B. pseudomallei by a species-specific multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR). This is the first study to detect environmental B. pseudomallei in Myanmar and confirms that melioidosis is still endemic in the Yangon area

Production of Kaonic Nuclei K‾ pp by p(p, K+) and p(d, Kº) Reactions

Reactions P(P,K+) K‾pp and d(P,K+) K‾pp are promising means to populate kaonic nuclei and in this work, the differential cross sections of the above reactions have been investigated theoretically. Existence of kaonic nuclear bound states is of utmost significance in studying antikaon nucleon interactions. The present work would provide experimentalists with important information on setting up experiments to search for bound state kaonic nuclear systems. Green's function method have been employed to determine the cross sections and it is found that there is a remarkable peak structure in spectrum which indicates the formation of K‾PP. kaonic nuclei. The optimum incident proton energy for P(P,K+) and d(P,K+) reactions to produce K‾pp is proposed to be 4GeV

Production of Kaonic Nuclei K-pp by p(p, K+) and p(d, K0) Reactions

We produced kaonic nuleus ppk- on p(p,K+) and p(d, K0) reaction by corresponding to various incident kinetic energies and spectator proton momenta by using Green’s function method

Characterization of Magnesium Ferrite, MgFe2O4

Magnesium ferrite, MgFe2O4, was prepared by solid state reaction method. Structural and vibrational characteristics of the sample were studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopic methods. Morphological features of the sample were investigated by Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). Simultaneous Thermogravimetric and Differential Thermal Analysis (TG-DTA) measurement was carried out to investigate the high temperature phases of the sample in the temperature range 303 K – 873 K (30C - 600C). Electrical conductivities and dielectric constants of the pelletized sample were investigated in the temperature range 300 K - 973 K (27C - 700C). It was found that the sample is a thermally high resistance material

Automatic Myanmar Text Summarization System

Automatic text summarization is used as atool to help people in reducing the time spentmanually extracting the main ideas from textdocuments. If the natural disaster news isprovided as the summary form includingimportant and relevant information, people inmanagement level can make comparisons andintelligent decisions quickly without exhaustingenergy by manually extracting the salient points.Moreover, for a normal user, automaticsummary report of the disaster news makes themclear perception and fully awareness of theeffects of the natural disaster by inspecting deathtoll and damage of the natural hazards.Therefore, this paper proposes AutomaticMyanmar Text Summarization framework that isbased on Information Extraction and practicalimplementation of this framework insummarizing natural disaster news which are inseven types: Earthquake, Flood, Landslide,Forest Fire, Tornado, Storm and VolcanicEruption described in Myanmar Language. Thetwo main components of the proposedframework, Myanmar Word Segmentation modelbased on Conditional Random Fields (CRFs)and Information Extraction Model using CRFs approach are also introduced

Effect of Alternate Wetting and Drying on Crop Performance, Water Input and Water Productivity of Direct Wet-seeded Inbred and Hybrid Rice

The experiments were conducted to evaluate the yield performance of the inbred and hybrid rice varie-ties under alternate wetting and drying (AWD), to compare the water productivity of rice varieties under AWD condition and to investigate the water saving percent in different rice varieties under AWD. Two water regimes (alternate wetting and drying, AWD and continuous flooding, CF) in main plot and four varieties including two hybrid varieties (Long-9, Yezin Pale Thwe-3) and two inbred varieties (Yaenelo-4 , Yaenelo-1) in sub plot were laid out as split plot design with four replications. During the study peri-od, loam soil in DaikU Township and silty clay loam soil in Maubin Township were observed. The max-imum grain yield and yield components of tested varieties were 2.99 t ha-1 in DaikU and 5.76 t ha-1 in Maubin. The water productivities of AWD were not statistically different with CF but water saving were resulted under AWD in both DaikU and Maubin townships. Hybrid rice produced higher grain yield, yield components, morphological traits and water productivity than those of inbred rice in both townships. Grain yield and water productivity were not significantly different between AWD and CF. However, more water can save under AWD than CF and subsequently found that above 20 % of water saving for hybrid and above 30% for inbred during summer rice growing season in the study areas. Therefore, this study indicated that applied AWD irrigation maintained current yield and reduction of water input for Hybrid and Inbred rice varieties under the tested areas, DaikU and Maubin Townships

Effect of GSTP1 polymorphism on efficacy and safety of cyclophosphamide aggressive therapy in lupus nephropathy patients

Background Lupus nephritis (LN) occurs in up to 60% of adults with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and is a predictor of poor survival. Cyclophosphamide (CYC) is regarded as the most effective immunosuppressive medication to improve survival for patients with LN. Objective This prospective hospital-based study was conducted to identify the effect of glutathione S transferase Pi-1 (GSTP1) genotypes on the efficacy and safety of CYC aggressive therapy. Methods We enrolled SLE nephropathy patients admitted to the Department of Rheumatology of the 500-bed Yangon Specialty Hospital (YSH), Yangon, Myanmar, who received CYC aggressive therapy for 6 months according to treatment guidelines for SLE patients with renal involvement. The frequencies of I/I, I/V and V/V GSTP1 genotypes were determined using the polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism method. The efficacy of CYC aggressive therapy between LN patients with wild GSTP1 (I/I) and those with polymorphic GSTP1 (I/V or V/V) genotypes was evaluated by comparing 24-h urinary protein levels and assessing the remission rates at 3 and 6 months after initiation of CYC. CYC-related myelotoxicity was assessed by reviewing complete blood picture results on the 10th day after CYC treatment. Results In total, 95 eligible patients were recruited. The frequencies of I/I, I/V and V/V GSTP1 genotypes were 54.7, 41.1 and 4.2%, respectively. At 3 and 6 months after CYC treatment, mean 24-h urinary protein had significantly decreased from baseline in both wild and polymorphic genotype groups (p &lt; 0.001). No significant differences were seen between the wild and polymorphic genotype groups with regard to changes in 24-h urinary protein levels, remission at 3 and 6 months or myelotoxicity. Conclusion CYC aggressive therapy had similar efficacy and caused no significant differences in myelotoxicity in wild GSTP1 (I/I) and polymorphic GSTP1 (I/V or V/V) genotypes in patients treated according to YSH guidelines for SLE patients with renal involvement.</p

Multi-environment BSA-seq using large F3 populations is able to achieve reliable QTL mapping with high power and resolution: An experimental demonstration in rice

Bulked-segregant analysis by deep sequencing (BSA-seq) is a widely used method for mapping QTL (quantitative trait loci) due to its simplicity, speed, cost-effectiveness, and efficiency. However, the ability of BSA-seq to detect QTL is often limited by inappropriate experimental designs, as evidenced by numerous practical studies. Most BSA-seq studies have utilized small to medium-sized populations, with F2 populations being the most common choice. Nevertheless, theoretical studies have shown that using a large population with an appropriate pool size can significantly enhance the power and resolution of QTL detection in BSA-seq, with F3 populations offering notable advantages over F2 populations. To provide an experimental demonstration, we tested the power of BSA-seq to identify QTL controlling days from sowing to heading (DTH) in a 7200-plant rice F3 population in two environments, with a pool size of approximately 500. Each experiment identified 34 QTL, an order of magnitude greater than reported in most BSA-seq experiments, of which 23 were detected in both experiments, with 17 of these located near 41 previously reported QTL and eight cloned genes known to control DTH in rice. These results indicate that QTL mapping by BSA-seq in large F3 populations and multi-environment experiments can achieve high power, resolution, and reliability

A first absolute chronology for Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age Myanmar: New AMS 14C dates from Nyaung'gan and Oakaie

Late prehistoric archaeological research in Myanmar is in a phase of rapid expansion. Recent work by the Mission Archéologique Française au Myanmar aims to establish a reliable Neolithic to Iron Age culture-historical sequence, which can then be compared to surrounding regions of Southeast Asia. Excavations at Nyaung'gan and Oakaie in central Myanmar have provided 52 new AMS dates, which allow the creation of Myanmar's first reliable prehistoric radiometric chronology. They have also identified the Neolithic to Bronze Age transition in central Myanmar, which is of critical importance in understanding long-range interactions at the national, regional and inter-regional level. This research provides the first significant step towards placing late prehistoric Myanmar in its global context