Bago Region Research Articles

Assessment of the Breaching Event, Breach Parameters and Failure Mechanisms of the Spillway Collapse in the Swa Dam, Myanmar

The spillway of the Swa earthen dam, constructed in Yedashe Township, Bago Region, Myanmar, collapsed suddenly on 29 August 2018 and resulted in a huge flood to downstream areas causing fatalities and the displacement of thousands of localities. This study aimed to assess the spillway breaching process in terms of the breaching parameters such as the average breach width, failure time and peak outflow, and failure mechanisms. We analyzed the event from the changes in the study site before and after the event and used water discharge conditions from satellite data and water level records during the event. We compared the breaching parameters using empirical equations from past failed events with tested scenarios for failure mechanisms, such as overtopping and piping. According to satellite data, 97% of the storage from the reservoir was discharged, and the peak breach outflow rate was 7643 m3/s calculated from the water level records. The selected empirical formulas were applied, and the estimated average breach widths, failure times and peak discharge from the formulas were larger in overtopping and nearer in piping than that of the observed data for the Swa Dam. Thus, a concrete spillway might impact the erodibility rate of breaching compared with concrete-faced and earthen dam types.

Unmet needs for hypertension diagnosis among older adults in Myanmar: secondary analysis of a multistage sampling study

BackgroundHypertension is a major cause of morbidity among older adults. We investigated older adults’ access to health services in Myanmar by focusing on unmet needs in diagnosing hypertension. This study aims to identify factors associated with the unmet needs for hypertension diagnosis in the study areas of Myanmar.MethodsThis is a secondary data analysis of the survey which is a cross-sectional study conducted with older adults (aged ≥ 60 years) in the Yangon and Bago regions of Myanmar. Objective indicators of health were collected, including blood pressure, height and weight. The diagnosis of hypertension was considered an unmet need when a participant’s blood pressure measurement met the diagnostic criteria for hypertension but the disease had not yet been diagnosed. Bivariate and multivariate analyses using logistic regression were performed to identify factors associated with the unmet need for hypertension diagnosis. Factors related to lifestyle habits and medical-seeking behaviour were selected and put into the multivariate model.ResultsData from 1200 people, 600 from each of the two regions, were analysed. Altogether 483 (40.3%) participants were male, 530 (44.2%) were aged ≥ 70 years, and 857 were diagnosed with hypertension based on their measured blood pressure or diagnostic history, or both, which is a 71.4% prevalence of hypertension. Moreover, 240 (20.0%) participants had never been diagnosed with hypertension. In the multivariate analysis, these unmet needs for hypertension diagnosis were significantly associated with male sex (odds ratio [OR] 1.46, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.05–2.05), residence in the Bago region (OR 1.64, 95% CI 1.09–2.45) and better self-rated health (OR 1.70, 95% CI 1.24–2.33), but not with education, category on the wealth index or living arrangement.ConclusionsThere are barriers to accessing health services for hypertension diagnosis, as evidenced by the regional disparities found in this study, and charitable clinics may decrease the financial barrier to this diagnosis.

Factors associated with betel quid chewing among adolescents living in Nattalin township, Bago region, Myanmar

Background: Betel quid (BQ) chewing is a common practice in Myanmar. BQ chewing is a risk factor for oral health problems and is associated with multi-organs cancer. The earlier age and the larger quantity of BQ per day enhance more health risks. The main aim of this study was to find out the prevalence and to identify the factors associated with BQ chewing practice among the adolescent population.Methods: Cross-sectional quantitative (primary) study was conducted on 160 adolescents (10-19 years) in Nattalin township in Myanmar using interviewed structured questionnaire. All data analysis was done by using statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS) statistical software.Results: The prevalence of BQ chewing adolescents was 28.2% of the total sample (n=160). The BQ chewer group contained more males than females. The earliest age of starting BQ chewing was 6 years old. Socio-demographic characteristics included age (equal or more than 15 years) (p<0.001), male (p<0.001), rural residence (p=0.009), working group (p<0.001), pocket money of more than 10000 kyats (p<0.001), having BQ used family members (p=0.017) and BQ used close friends (p<0.001) and the negative attitude (p=0.006) toward BQ chewing were the factors significantly associated with BQ chewing practice in this study.Conclusions: In conclusion, more than one-fourth of the studied adolescents chewed BQ and the majority had a good knowledge level. Many more effective anti-BQ chewing interventions and strong behavioural change health promotion programmes emphasizing the dangers of BQ chewing habits for adolescents need to be developed nationwide.

Prevalence and possible causes of antibiotic self-medication among rural dwellers and volunteer health workers in Nattalin Township, Bago region, Myanmar

Background: In Myanmar, the emergence of antibiotic-resistant strains is increased, but its exact causes remain unrecognized. This cross-sectional study examined the prevalence and possible causes of antibiotic self-medication (ASM) among rural dwellers and volunteer health workers (VHWs).Methods: 445 adult rural dwellers from 24 villages and all the 133 registered VHWs within Nattalin Township were examined for illnesses, types and sources of antibiotics, knowledge, perception and possible causes for ASM practices within the last six months. The significant causes of ASM were determined by 95% CI resulting from bivariate and multivariate analysis.Results: The ASM proportions of rural dwellers and VHWs were 14.2% and 84.2%. The top three most frequent illnesses for ASM were sore throat-(28.6%), respiratory symptoms-(15.8%) and diarrhoea-(17.9%) among rural dwellers and the common cold-(30.4%), sore throat-(25.0%) and respiratory symptoms-(20.6%) among VHWs. In ASM of rural dwellers and VHWs, amoxicillin-(46.0% and 67.9%) was used for the most frequency followed by cefixime-(33.3% and 29.5%), ampicillin-(22.2% and 8.9%) and penicillin-V-(6.3% and 10.7%). For ASM practice, convenience-(54.0% and 65.2%), their prior experiences-(60.3% and 49.1%) and cost reduction advantages-(31.7% and 25.0%), and for the availability of antibiotics, community pharmacies-(88.9% and 78.6%) were mentioned among rural dwellers and VHWs respectively. Among rural dwellers and VHWs, ASM was significantly associated with knowledge-(AOR: 0.5, 95% CI-0.2, 0.9, AOR: 0.2, 95% CI-0.05, 0.8) and keeping antibiotics-(AOR: 64, 95% CI-14, 292, AOR: 45, 95% CI-5.1, 395).Conclusions: Through multisectoral approaches, it is necessary to promote awareness of the consequences of irrational antibiotic use, enforce national drug laws, and regular inspections on community pharmacies, and provide easy access to public health infrastructures.

Rural development and transformation of the rice sector in Myanmar: Introduction of best management practices for sustainable rice agriculture

Myanmar has experienced considerable economic and social changes since its political transition in the early 2010s. Its agriculture sector has demonstrated rapid intensification and modernization. Agricultural best management practices (BMPs), e.g., drum seeders and laser land levelling, were introduced to rice farmers in Bago Region in 2012 to increase sustainable production and counter negative environmental impacts. The objective of this study was to determine the socioeconomic and agronomic changes due to the adoption of BMPs between adopters and non-adopters. Using a digital survey questionnaire application to collect household data, 200 farmers in eight villages were interviewed in 2012 and 2017. Data were analysed using uni- and multivariate statistics. Mediation analysis was utilized to evaluate the effect of the farmer group on rice yields. Overall, all farmers in this study experienced substantial positive changes over the course of five years in line with the national development efforts. Differences among adopters and non-adopters were not significant, but notable distinctions existed between cropping patterns. Rice-pulse farmers had higher yields ( + 0.4 t/ha), yet rice-rice farmers had larger cultivation areas, received higher agricultural credits, and had superior income levels. Nevertheless, rice yields remained low (<4 t/ha). Education was found to be an important predictor of yield. Hence, this factor is crucial for accelerating agricultural development in Myanmar. Improving extension services and knowledge transfer are necessary to expand the dissemination of sustainable BMPs and make farmers more resilient against the negative implications of climate change.

High prevalence of soil-transmitted helminth infections in Myanmar schoolchildren

BackgroundAchieving the elimination of soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infections requires a sufficient understanding of the current epidemiological status of STH endemicity. We aimed to examine the status of STH in Myanmar – a country with the eighth highest STH prevalence in the world, 10 years after instigation of the national deworming programme.MethodsIn August 2016 we screened for STH infections using Kato Katz (KK) microscopy and real-time PCR (qPCR) in schoolchildren from the Bago Region township of Phyu, a STH sentinel site in Myanmar. Ten schools were randomly selected, and one stool sample each from a total of 264 students was examined. Prevalence and intensity of infection were calculated for each STH.ResultsHigh prevalence of STH was identified in the study area with 78.8% of the schoolchildren infected with at least one STH by qPCR, and 33.3% by KK. The most prevalent STH was Trichuris trichiura, diagnosed by both KK (26.1%) and qPCR (67.1%), followed by Ascaris lumbricoides (15.5% KK; 54.9% qPCR). No hookworm infections were identified by KK; however, the qPCR analysis showed a high prevalence of Ancylostoma sp. infection (29.6%) with few Necator americanus (1.1%) infections.ConclusionsDespite bi-annual deworming of schoolchildren in the fourth-grade and below, STH prevalence remains stubbornly high. These results informed the expansion of the Myanmar National STH control programme to include all school-aged children by the Ministry of Health and Sports in 2017, however further expansion to the whole community should be considered along with improving sanitation and hygiene measures. This would be augmented by rigorous monitoring and evaluation, including national prevalence surveys.

Factors affecting data quality of health management information system at township level, Bago region, Myanmar

Background: Health information from Health management information system (HMIS) is the core essential operator for strengthening the health system. The effectiveness of the Myanmar health system is challenged by the poor-quality assurance of healthcare data. Methods: The aim of the quantitative study was to evaluate the township HMIS to assess the factors affecting the data quality assurance through three main aspects; organizational, technical, and behavioral. In this cross-sectional study, eight townships from four districts in Bago Region were randomly picked. Under these townships, from a random sample of 117 public health facilities altogether, 273 public health professionals (PHPs) were culled and 291 HMIS registers and 1270 HMIS monthly reports were reviewed. The researchers applied the PRISM tools developed for assessing district and facility HMIS. SPSS assisted the researchers in computing the frequencies and percentages, practicing cross-tabulation, and analyzing bivariate statistics using the Cox proportional hazards model.Results: Out of 281 PHPs invited, 273 were likely to participate in this study. The overall prevalence of the HMIS data quality was 30.4%. Poor data quality assurance was associated with the burden of workload (95%CI-1.16-2.91), poor management ability of the supervisors (95%CI-1.22-2.54), weak handover practice of the HMIS document (95%CI-1.65-2.22), and unavailability of HMIS resources (95%CI-1.12-2.45). The statistically significant relationships were found between low-quality data and some technical factors such as inexpertness for data analysis (95%CI-1.14-2.19), over-workload of paper-based HMIS (95%CI-1.21-2.44), differences between information systems (95%CI-1.22-2.81), and multiple reporting (95%CI-1.64-2.36). There were significant associations between the unacceptable data quality and the human factors such as lower scores of perceived confidences (95%CI-1.18-2.29), competence (95%CI-1.17-2.77), and promotion of the culture of information (95%CI-1.09-2.33).Conclusions: Current township HMIS data quality is unacceptable. It is necessary to strengthen several factors relating to organization, technology and behaviors of HMIS and to develop the effective township-level strategic plan for improving data quality.

Development of flood damage assessment method for residential areas considering various house types for Bago Region of Myanmar

Development of a flood damage estimation method that considers house type is important to evaluate the effectiveness of different adaptation options. This study aimed to analyze flood impact on residential areas and household damage, to develop a new, more accurate, method for flood damage assessment, considering different house types. To do this it was necessary to understand the vulnerability of different house types and household assets, and to develop flood damage functions which accounted for these variations. We considered the Bago River basin of Myanmar as a study area. A detailed household questionnaire survey was conducted to collect data. Using this data, new flood damage functions for residential buildings and assets for different types of house were developed by considering building characteristics such as construction materials, number of stories, and height of plinth level from the ground. The actual and potential flood damage data were combined to develop flood damage functions with improved accuracy for extreme floods. Then, flood damage to residential buildings and assets for recent floods were assessed by developing a grid-based approach, integrating hydrologic-hydraulic and flood loss estimation models. The reduction in expected annual damage by use of different flood adaptation options for residential buildings was also evaluated quantitatively. The results of this study show that elevating the plinth level of the building and adding an additional story to the house can significantly reduce the flood damage to residential buildings and assets, and these results provide useful information for establishing flood protection adaptation measures.

Nats in the Land of the Hintha: Village Religion in Lower Myanmar

Nats in the Land of the Hintha:Village Religion in Lower Myanmar Keziah Wallis (bio) Introduction1 When I first arrived in Myanmar in 2012, I had fairly well-developed expectations of the kinds of lived religious practices I would see.2 Fresh from completing a class in Religions of Southeast Asia, I had spent time reading the literature by Bénédicte Brac de la Perrière, Melford Spiro, and other scholars on the complex relationship between Buddhism and the nats (နတ်).3 What I found in Yangon largely conformed to these expectations. It was only when my fieldwork shifted from the urban space of Yangon to a village in the Bago region that I found these expectations fundamentally challenged. As I grew more familiar with the location, [End Page 193] I found significant differences between what my participants told me and what I read in the academic literature on the nats. It was not only the academic literature that seemed to contradict my experiences in the field. Yangonbased participants were often shocked when I described the rituals I had attended in the village. I came to realize that there were multiple distinctions separating the lives of my village-based participants from those depicted in the literature on the nats. First, my participants were Bamar living in contemporary rural Myanmar and not the rural Myanmar of the anthropologists working in the 1960s. Second, unlike the urban-based spirit-mediums (; nat-kátàw) of Brac de la Perrière's research, my participants were not religious specialists. The few who did live in Yangon had only moved there within the past fifteen years. Perhaps most importantly, my participants were from Bago in Lower Myanmar; the majority of research on nats—with the notable exception of Brac de la Perrière's work—has taken place in Upper Myanmar. While Bago today is included as part of myanmangainngán (), historically the space has been predominantly Mon. The city of Bago was founded by the Mon in the thirteenth century as the center of the influential Ramaññadesa Kingdom. The city was also the center of the Taungoo Empire, founded in the sixteenth century by Tabinshweti-min who had ties to the Bamar court at Ava and ostensibly "became Mon" in order to rule from the Mon city (Shorto 1961:68; Lieberman 1978:457). Inscriptions at Thaton locate Bamar presence within the Mon political center in the eleventh and twelfth centuries (Stadtner 2008:202) and suggest long-standing connections between Bamar and the Lower Myanmar region. While Bamar migration to Bago would have [End Page 194] undoubtedly occurred during Tabinshweti-min's reign when it was the center of the Bamar court, the widespread Bamar settlement of the region did not begin until the eighteenth century (Lieberman 2003:1:203). The pattern intensified during the Konbaung era (1752–1885) as Bamar people migrated south to work in the British control delta regions (see Adas 1974:chap. 2). According to the 1983 Population Census, Bamar made up 88.9% of the population of Bago (Ministry of Home and Religious Affairs 1987:I–14). While the data on ethnicity for the 2014 census have not been released, this ratio is unlikely to have changed substantially. Primary research for this paper took place in Shwe Moe,4 a medium-sized village which exemplifies the dynamics of identity in Bago. The Shwemawdaw pagoda, one of the premier Mon Buddhist sites in Myanmar, is visible from the village's southwest fields. All thousand residents of the village identified themselves as "only Bamar."5 Residents' pride in their "only Myanmar" (read Bamar) heritage was often distinguished with the neighboring village which shares the same village tract and is comprised of Mon and Bamar inhabitants. Despite expressing an explicitly Bamar identity, close conversations frequently revealed more complex ethnic heritages, and many residents saw themselves as the descendants of Bamar men who migrated from Upper Myanmar during the early colonial period and married Mon women already living in the region (see also Brac de la Perrière 1996:57). There is historical evidence to support this narrative of Mon-Bamar heritage. Konbaung policy of the...

Assessment of Knowledge and Performance of Village Health Volunteers after Expanding Their Responsibilities in Bago Region, Myanmar, 2017

With declining malaria morbidity in recent years, the National Malaria Control Program, in 2017, expanded Village Health Volunteer (VHV) responsibilities with the integration of other diseases, including dengue haemorrhagic fever, lymphatic filariasis, tuberculosis, leprosy and HIV/AIDS; and changed their name to Integrated Community Malaria Volunteer (ICMV). This study aimed to assess VHV's knowledge and performance before and after integration and to identify challenges. VHV’s knowledge was assessed with an uncontrolled pre- vs. post-intervention study, and malaria-related performance was assessed with a pre- vs. post-intervention with a non-randomized comparison group. The number of suspected malaria cases blood tested were compared in an intervention township (Kyauktagar) and comparison township (Daik-U). Data were collected by face-to-face interviews and review VHV’s reports and patient registers. The VHV attrition rate was 5% (4/86) over 3 months. All knowledge scores increased significantly after training. However, follow-up knowledge scores were still relatively low. The only difference in reporting status between pre- and post-integration was in timeliness, which was significantly better post-integration. Blood testing was increased in the intervention township. ICMVs had no challenges in malaria activities but some difficulties on reporting forms for other diseases. In conclusion, VHV performance improved in malaria-related aspects after the training. This will support malaria elimination efforts but their performance for non-malaria diseases should be re-evaluated.

Seroprevalence of toxoplasmosis among reproductive-aged women in Myanmar and evaluation of luciferase immunoprecipitation system assay

BackgroundsPrimary infection with Toxoplasma gondii during pregnancy can pose serious health problems for the fetus. However, the epidemiological status of toxoplasmosis among reproductive-aged population in Myanmar is largely unknown. Although luciferase immunoprecipitation system (LIPS) assays for serodiagnosis of toxoplasmosis was developed mostly using mouse infection model, had not been tested by using field-derived human samples.MethodsA total of 251 serum samples were collected from reproductive-aged women, residing in Shwegyin township, Bago region, Myanmar and analyzed with a commercial ELISA kit, as well as in-house LIPS assays.ResultsThe overall seroprevalence for Toxoplasma gondii infection by the commercial ELISA was 11.5%. No clear risk factor was identified except for being in the younger age group (15–30 years old). Overall, LIPS assays showed low sensitivity when the commercial ELSA was used as a reference test.ConclusionWe identified the epidemiological situation of toxoplasmosis in some rural communities in Myanmar. The data obtained here will serve as a primary information for the effort to reduce toxoplasmosis in this region. Although looked promising in the previous experiments with mouse infection model, we found that the reported LIPS procedures need further improvements to increase the sensitivities.

Fish Species Diversity in Upstream and Downstream of Sittaung River, Bago Region, Myanmar

Fish Species Diversity in Upstream and Downstream of Sittaung River, Bago Region, Myanmar

Feasibility of Developing a Community-Based Cancer Registry in Kawa Township in Myanmar

PURPOSE The objectives of this implementation research were to implement an innovative approach by basic health staff (BHS) using a cancer registry mobile application for continuous data reporting and to evaluate the process of establishing a community-based cancer registry. METHODS Eighty BHS in Kawa township, Bago region, were trained on the mobile application based on locally adapted CanReg5 software, common cancers and symptoms, and plans for implementation and monitoring. Required information of confirmed cancer cases was collected by the focal persons among local BHS using the application installed on their mobile devices and reported online to a database accessed by researchers. Two focus group discussions with BHS were conducted to identify challenges encountered during implementation and their suggested practical solutions. RESULTS A total of 74 confirmed cancer cases were registered during the 6-month implementation period. The most common cancers registered were breast cancer (20 cases), followed by GI cancers (18 cases) and lung cancers (9 cases). This finding was consistent with common cancers from regional hospital reports. Some data incompleteness was observed in topography, staging, and treatment information. In qualitative discussions, BHS reported technical difficulties in becoming familiar with morphologic codes, in saving registered cases in their phones, and in reading biopsy results and clinical notes. BHS approached family members mostly to obtain the hospital/laboratory records of patients with confirmed cases and some faced reluctance as family members did not want to inform the patients about their diagnosis. BHS could not register some cases when documents were not present, although they definitely knew the cases, including expired cases. The patient and/or caregiver expected financial or other support when they were registered. Once cancer is highly suspected or diagnosed, patients stop seeking proper care and turn to traditional healers. This is a result of the lack of knowledge about cancer. The cost of cancer health care is also a factor that influences whether treatment is sought. CONCLUSION A community-based cancer registry by BHS is feasible to a certain extent with some improvements. More community participation and proper referral to facilitate care are needed, as well as addressing technical difficulties.

Profiling of Volatile Organic Compounds in Wild Indigenous Medicinal Ginger (Zingiber barbatum Wall.) from Myanmar.

The emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) strongly depend on the plant species and are differently represented in specific taxa. VOCs have a degree of chemical diversity and also can serve as chemotaxonomic markers. Zingiber barbatum Wall. is a wild medicinal ginger plant endemic to Myanmar whose VOC composition has never been screened before. In this study, we screened the rhizome of Z. barbatum to identify the VOC composition by the application of gas chromatography combined with time-of-flight-mass spectrometry (GC-TOF-MS). The resulting VOC profile of Z. barbatum showed that it consists mainly of monoterpenes (21%) and sesquiterpenes (30%). Intraspecific similarities and dissimilarities were found to exist between Z. barbatum genotypes in terms of VOC composition. Four accessions (ZO191, ZO223, ZO217, and the control accession ZO105) collected from the Shan State and Mandalay region of Myanmar were found to share a similar VOC profile, while two accessions (ZO64 and ZO160) collected from the Bago region were found to vary in their VOC profiles compared with the control accession. The two identified compounds, i.e., α-bergamotene and β-(E)-guaiene may serve as discriminative chemical markers for the characterization of Z. barbatum species collected in these three geographical regions of Myanmar. This study represents a first attempt to identify and describe the VOCs in the medicinal species Z. barbatum that have not been reported to date.

Autonomous Continuation of Community Health Workers' Activities in Thegon Township, Bago Region, Myanmar

Background: Few studies have reported on the autonomous continuation of Community Health Worker (CHW) activities after external supervision and support have ended.Objective: The study reports CHW activity continuation in Thegon Township, Bago Region, Myanmar, observed after the supervision by the external organization is completed.Method: Following the completion of a child nutrition program in Thegon Township, CHWs were left unsupervised and uninformed of a follow-up at 10, 23, and 40 months from the end of the program survey due to unforeseen circumstances. In a follow-up survey in 2014, data on the activity implementation status from CHWs and activity attendance from caregivers of the target children were collected. Focus group discussions were held with caregivers concerning their information sources on child nutrition and health.Results: On average, CHWs were found to have continued with 2.6 of the four core activities, often with modifications, irrespective of the time since completion of the non-profit-organization-led program. Meanwhile, caregiver attendance decreased over time. Caregivers recognized CHWs as information sources.Discussion: Although unsupervised, CHWs ambitiously continued with their activities, but sorted through and modified them, which may have been unrelated to the local acceptance of the program, as caregiver attendance decreased even as CHWs continued the activities. The observation may highlight the importance of proactive engagement and thus, the autonomy of CHWs in their activity continuation.

Growth and Yield Models for Thinned Teak Stands in Taungoo District, Bago Region of Myanmar

Growth and Yield Models for Thinned Teak Stands in Taungoo District, Bago Region of Myanmar

A qualitative study on acceptability of the mistreatment of women during childbirth in Myanmar

BackgroundImproving the quality of maternal health care is critical to reduce mortality and improve women’s experiences. Mistreatment during childbirth in health facilities can be an important barrier for women when considering facility-based childbirth. Therefore, this study attempted to explore the acceptability of mistreatment during childbirth in Myanmar according to women and healthcare providers, and to understand how gender power relations influence mistreatment during childbirth.MethodsA qualitative study was conducted in two townships in Bago Region in September 2015, among women of reproductive age (18–49 years), healthcare providers and facility administrators. Semi-structured discussion guides were used to explore community norms, and experiences and perceptions regarding mistreatment. Coding was conducted using athematic analysis approach and Atlas.ti. Results were interpreted using a gender analysis approach to explore how power dynamics, hierarchies, and gender inequalities influence how women are treated during childbirth.ResultsWomen and providers were mostly unaccepting of different types of mistreatment. However, some provided justification for slapping and shouting at women as encouragement during labour. Different access to resources, such as financial resources, information about pregnancy and childbirth, and support from family members during labor might impact how women are treated. Furthermore, social norms around pregnancy and childbirth and relationships between healthcare providers and women shape women’s experiences. Both informal and formal rules govern different aspects of a woman’s childbirth care, such as when she is allowed to see her family, whether she is considered “obedient”, and what type of behaviors she is expected to have when interacting with providers.ConclusionsThis is the first use of gender analysis to explore how gender dynamics and power relations contribute to women’s experiences of mistreatment during childbirth. Both providers and women expected women to understand and “obey” the rules of the health facility and instructions from providers in order to have better experiences. In this way, deviation from following the rules and instructions puts the providers in a place where perpetrating acts of mistreatment were justifiable under certain conditions. Understanding how gender norms and power structures how women are treated during childbirth is critical to improve women’s experiences.

A Diameter Distribution Yield Prediction for Teak Stands in Taungoo District, Bago Region of Myanmar

A parameter recovery procedure was applied to characterize the parameters for the Weibull distribution function based on four percentile methods and two hybrid methods which were the combination of diameter percentiles and moment methods. The procedure was used to develop a diameter distribution yield prediction for teak stands in Taungoo District of Myanmar. All the methods were evaluated by using independent observed data and calculating error indices. Among them, method 1 which involved the 31st and 63rd diameter percentiles produced the lowest error index. Therefore, method 1 was considered to predict yield based on diameter distribution and selected to construct a yield table for the study area. An example was also provided to show users how to apply this kind of yield prediction.

Assessing the Yield of a High Yielding Rice Variety, Byaw Htun, Planted Using the Cut-stem Transplant Method and Cultivated in a Deep-water Area, Bago Region, Myanmar

Assessing the Yield of a High Yielding Rice Variety, Byaw Htun, Planted Using the Cut-stem Transplant Method and Cultivated in a Deep-water Area, Bago Region, Myanmar

Distribution Pattern and Seasonal Variation of Bird Species from Semi-Urban Area of Taungoo Environs

The environs of Taungoo Township, Bago Region are one of the high biodiversity areas in Myanmar, locating eastern side of the high mountain ranges of Middle Yoma. The dense of every green and deciduous forest in the middle Middle Yoma were logging since 10 - 20 years ago. The birds inhabiting in that area have to refuge in suitable habitats nearby. The resent status of bird species is needed to assess the diversity of birds with the respect to distribution and seasonal variation after the construction of Yangon-Nepyitaw, Myanmar after twenty years ago. A total of 50 species of 27 genera, 22 families under nine orders were recorded. That represented 44 resident species (32 terrestrial species and 12 water bird species), and 6 species of migratory birds (1 terrestrial species and 5 water bird species). As habitat utilization, 24 bird species in paddy fields, 21 species in scattered trees, 33 species in wetland and 25 species in forest habitat types were investigated. Some species used more than one habitat types. According to the assessment of abundance categories based on the calculation of individual numbers of the birds, abundant category (3 species), common bird (1 species), frequent category (5 species), uncommon category (3 species) and rare species (28 species) were categorized. Hence, bird community was still sustainable in this area. In the aspect of conservation status, all recorded bird species were under least concern categories, according to the IUCN Redlist in the study area.