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Myanmar has an insufficient number of mental health workers with few institutional facilities resulting in a significant treatment gap. Although few mental health services are integrated into primary health care (PHC), the challenges are unknown. This study aimed to assess the challenges perceived by providers in the service delivery of satellite mental health care (SMHC) in two sample townships in Yangon.

The research was based on a case study design by applying a qualitative approach using in-depth interviews (IDIs). In the three types of service providers, a total of six staff participated as interviewees. These consisted of two team leaders, two clinical specialists providing consultations to clients and two mental health nurses.

Providers perceived the following as major challenges in the provision of services: unstable financial resources and management, insufficient human resources and capacity of service providers, restricted outpatient services, the lack of a functional referral system, overcrowding, inadequate individual consultation time, long-waiting hours, finite opening days and hours and poor setting of infrastructure, resulting in lack of privacy.

In the absence of similar studies in Myanmar, findings could not be placed in the context of the national literature for comparison. Further, the study involved a limited number of respondents, which may have affected the findings.

Although the challenges revealed were not uncommon in mental health services in developing countries, this study focused on a specific model of mental health care integrated into general healthcare settings in Myanmar. The findings offer a benchmark on efforts to develop decentralized mental health services in Myanmar and provide input for future in-depth studies.

Dust (particulate matters) is very dangerous to our health as it is not visible with our naked eyes. Emissions of dust concentrations in the natural environment can occur mainly by road traffic, constructions and dust generating working environments. The purpose of this paper is to assess the ambient dust pollution status and to find out the association between PM concentrations and other determinant factors such as wind speed, ambient temperature, relative humidity and traffic congestion.

A cross-sectional study was conducted for two consecutive months (June and July, 2016) at a residential site (Defence Services Liver Hospital, Mingaladon) and a commercial site (Htouk-kyant Junction, Mingaladon) based on WHO Air Quality Reference Guideline Value (24-hour average). Hourly monitoring of PM2.5 and PM10 concentration and determinant factors such as traffic congestion, wind speed, ambient temperature and relative humidity for 24 hours a day was performed in both study sites. CW-HAT200 handheld particulate matters monitoring device was used to assess PM concentrations, temperature and humidity while traffic congestion was monitored by CCTV cameras.

The baseline PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations of Mingaladon area were (28.50±11.49)µg/m³ and (52.69±23.53)µg/m³, means 61.48 percent of PM2.5 concentration and 54.92 percent of PM10 concentration exceeded than the WHO reference value during the study period. PM concentration usually reached a peak during early morning (within 3:00 a.m.-5:00 a.m.) and at night (after 9:00 p.m.). PM2.5 concentration mainly depends on traffic congestion and temperature (adjusted R²=0.286), while PM10 concentration depends on traffic congestion and relative humidity (adjusted R²=0.292). Wind speed played a negative role in both PM2.5 and PM10 concentration with r=−0.228 and r=−0.266.

The air quality of the study area did not reach the satisfiable condition. The main cause of increased dust pollution in the whole study area was high traffic congestion (R²=0.63 and 0.60 for PM2.5 and PM10 concentration).

In light of the key role attributed to the board of directors as a monitoring tool to constrain earnings management practices, this study aims to examine the effect of some board attributes on accrual-based earnings management and real earnings management in the Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) context, whose institutional, economic and legal environment is markedly different from that of most organization for economic cooperation and development countries.

The authors selected a sample of 161 nonfinancial companies from nine MENA countries between 2014 and 2021 (corresponding to an unbalanced data panel of 486 observations). The authors used the generalized least squares regression test to examine the relationship between board attributes and earnings management.

The authors found that three board attributes (size, independence and gender diversity) have no effect on both types of earnings management practices, while CEO duality has no effect on accrual-based earnings management but has a significant and negative effect on real earnings management. Overall, the results suggest that most board attributes do not play a crucial role in reducing earnings management.

The results provide valuable insights into the universal role of corporate governance mechanisms and raise questions about the role of the board of directors in improving reporting quality in the MENA context.

Regulators should adapt corporate governance mechanisms to the characteristics of the institutional context in which they are inserted.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to examine the effect of various board characteristics on both types of earnings management practices in the MENA context. It also provides the first empirical evidence of the relationship between board gender diversity and earnings management in the MENA region.

This study aims to present a study on the supply chain process of a Myanmar-based pharmaceutical company (named ABC Pvt. Ltd. in this study) that produces pharmaceutical products across Myanmar and aims of bringing quality medical products and best care for Myanmar people’s health. The study aims to identify the key supply chain challenges and manage the opportunities executed by this pharmaceutical company to improve the supply chain process during the COVID-19 outbreak.

This work used a case study and conducted semistructured interviews with the manager, senior managers and senior staff of the ABC Company to improve the supply chain process and develop a comprehensive structural relationship to rank them to streamline the uncertainties, real-time information and agility in a digital supply chain using grey relational analysis (GRA) method.

From the data analysis and results, “Impact of political factor,” “Delay in import process” and “Weak internet connection,” and “Weak knowledge of the use of digital platform,” “Poor information sharing in online by employees” and “Information flow from top management to operational level” have been identified as top and bottom three key challenges, respectively. “Inventory management,” “Selection of transport method” and “Operational cost”, and “Marketing and brand Innovation,” “Online delivery of products” and “E-commerce enablement (Launching applications, tracking system)” are identified as the top and bottom three managing the opportunities, respectively.

The findings of the study help to supply chain decision-makers of the company in their establishment of key challenges and opportunities during the COVID-19 era. As a leading company, it always tries to add value to its product through a supply chain system, effective management teams and working with skillful decision-making toward satisfying the demand on time and monitoring the supplier performance.

The novelty of this study is to identify the key supply chain challenges and opportunities by the GRA method to rank them, considering the case of Myanmar pharmaceutical manufacturing company as a case-based approach to measuring its performance during the COVID-19 outbreak era. This work will assist managers and practitioners help to the company to provide optimal services to its consumers on time in this critical situation.

One important strategy Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) employ to compete in the global market is to engage in foreign investment, but firms must know how they can perform better in the host country market. International subsidiaries’ performances play a chief role for MNEs’ globalization strategy. The purpose of this paper is to construct multi-level research with parent-level data at the higher level and subsidiary-level data at the lower level.

This study helps capture the rapid growing trend in emerging markets and uses a sample of Taiwanese enterprises and their subsidiaries in China. The data come from the Taiwan Economic Journal database. Precisely, the authors obtain 711 Taiwanese MNEs and 4,458 of their subsidiaries in China.

This study finds among the parent company’s attributes that firm size, firm total performance, depth of internationalization and foreign shareholding have significant impacts on subsidiary performance, while within the subsidiary’s attributes, subsidiary size, subsidiary-owned capital and total investment fund significantly affect subsidiary performance.

In order to capture subsidiary performance, this study uses a multi-level analysis approach with the Hierarchical Linear Model statistic method to separate parent company attributes and subsidiary-owned attributes as two distinct levels. This method fills the gap in the literature by analyzing subsidiary performance and clarifying that foreign direct investment is a multi-level phenomenon that cannot be analyzed using a one-level analysis method.

This study analyzes the impact of exchange rate volatility (ERV) on inbound tourist arrivals from four ASEAN countries namely Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand during 1970–2017. Volatility in the exchange rates between the tourist currency and ringgit Malaysia is measured using the Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity model. The results from Autoregressive Distributed Lagged models indicate that ERV has no significant impact on tourist arrivals from ASEAN to Malaysia. This implies that tourists from these countries may not be sensitive to ERV when choosing Malaysia as their travel destination. There are two possible explanations for the results. First, Malaysian ringgit has been depreciating against major currencies and regional currencies in recent years, which makes ringgit relatively cheaper than other ASEAN currencies. Second, the empirical results of the study support the argument that ERV has a more serious impact on tourist spending compared to tourist arrivals.

This paper focuses on the quality characteristics of steamed and boiled blue whiting fish (Micromesistius poutassou) cracker, with the aim of encouraging and promoting the use of this small pelagic inexpensive, readily available fish in food production and reducing post-harvest losses of the fish.

The blue whiting fish cracker was developed using boiling and steaming methods. Minced blue whiting fish meat was mixed with cassava starch in the ratio of 50:50, and other ingredients were incorporated. The dough obtained was divided into two and stuffed into two different muslin cloths. One of the stuffed dough was steamed (100°C for 15 min), whereas the other was boiled in water for 90 min. The boiled and steamed doughs were cooled at 4°C for 12 h, sliced at 2 mm thickness and oven dried at 50°C for 12 h to obtain non-expanded blue whiting fish crackers. The non-expanded blue whiting fish crackers were fried in vegetable oil to obtain expanded blue whiting fish crackers. The quality characteristics of the expanded crackers were determined using standard methods, and data obtained were subjected to analysis of variance; the mean scores were compared using Turkey’s (HSD) test. The sensory evaluation was done using 25 untrained panellists, and results were analysed statistically.

The study revealed the steamed fish cracker has significantly higher nutritional composition in terms of the proximate, mineral, fatty acid and amino acid compositions. Potassium was the most predominant mineral in the crackers, and copper was the least predominant mineral. The saturated fatty acid contents were 43.2 per cent (steamed) and 48.6 per cent (boiled), whereas the unsaturated fatty acid contents were 55.5 (steamed) and 48.5 per cent (boiled). The n6/n3 ratio obtained for steamed and boiled fish cracker was 4.0. The steamed fish cracker had a higher L* value, whereas the Brown index (100 − L*) of the steamed fish cracker was lower (33.4) than that of the boiled fish cracker. The linear expansion was higher for the boiled blue whiting fish crackers (41.8 per cent). The boiled blue whiting fish cracker had higher expanded starch structure than the steamed blue whiting fish cracker. The aroma and taste were highly correlated with overall acceptability.

The paper reports the quality characteristics and overall acceptability of steamed and boiled blue whiting fish crackers.

The purpose of this study is to contrast the capacity of tourism-specialized and non-tourism-specialized systems in small developing insular societies to achieve a well-being model aligned with the Agenda 2030.

The empirical method of this work consists of a panel-corrected standard errors analysis for a total of seven Caribbean Small Island Developing States (SIDS) to measure the contribution of both economic diversification and tourism specialization to well-being in the Agenda 2030 framework. Time period considered in the analysis include 2005–2019.

Linear and nonlinear relationships reveal the need to conjugate both tourism specialization and economic diversification in the 2030-development agendas of small developing insular societies as both represent a means to achieve a well-being model aligned with the Agenda 2030.

One of the main novelties of this work is that development is analyzed from a multidimensional point of view (standard of living, access to education and health services), as an integrated thinking that considers any tourism development model that defines a route with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Agenda 2030 as main destination in SIDS. Specifically, practical implications are given combining recommendations to foster development and face poverty (SDG-1), while inequalities situations are reduced (SDG-10) and decent jobs are generated (SDG-8). These implications also focus on strengthening local suppliers of goods and services from other sectors to be integrated into the destination value chain (SDG-2), ensuring access to education (SDG-4) and contributing to gender equality (SDG-5).

这项工作的实证方法包括对7个加勒比海小岛屿发展中国家进行面板校正标准误差（PCSE）分析, 以衡量经济多样化和旅游专业化对2030年议程框架中的福祉的贡献。分析中考虑的时间段包括2005–2019年。

这项工作的目的是对比小型发展中岛国社会的旅游专业系统和非旅游专业系统的能力, 以实现与2030年议程相一致的福祉模式。

线性和非线性关系表明, 在发展中小岛国社会的2030年发展议程中, 需要将旅游专业化和经济多样化结合起来, 因为两者都是实现与2030年议程一致的福祉模式的手段。

这项工作的主要创新点之一是, 从多维的角度（生活水平、受教育机会和健康服务）来分析发展, 作为一种综合思维, 考虑任何旅游发展模式, 确定了一条以可持续发展目标和2030年议程为主要目的地的小岛屿发展中国家路线。具体来说, 在减少不平等状况（SDG-10）和创造体面工作（SDG-8）的同时, 结合促进发展和面对贫困（SDG-1）的建议, 给出了实际意义。此外, 要加强其他部门的货物和服务的当地供应商, 以融入目的地价值链（SDG-2）, 保证受教育的机会（SDG-4）和促进性别平等（SDG-5）。

El método empírico de este trabajo consiste en un análisis de errores estándar corregidos por panel (PCSE) para 7 Pequeños Estados Insulares en Desarrollo para medir la contribución al bienestar a través de la especialización turística y la diversificación económica en el marco de la Agenda 2030. El horizonte contemplado en el análisis incluye 2005–2019.

El objetivo de este trabajo es contrastar la capacidad de los sistemas especializados y no especializados en turismo dentro de las pequeñas sociedades insulares en desarrollo para lograr un modelo de bienestar alineado con la Agenda 2030.

Las relaciones lineales y no lineales revelan la necesidad de conjugar tanto la especialización turística como la diversificación económica en las agendas de desarrollo 2030 de las pequeñas sociedades insulares en desarrollo, ya que ambas representan un medio para alcanzar un modelo de bienestar alineado con la Agenda 2030.

Una de las principales novedades de este trabajo es que se analiza el desarrollo desde un punto de vista multidimensional (nivel de vida, acceso a la educación y servicios de salud), como un pensamiento integrado que considera cualquier modelo de desarrollo turístico que defina una ruta con los ODS y la Agenda 2030 como destino principal en los PEID. En concreto, se ofrecen implicaciones prácticas que combinan recomendaciones para fomentar el desarrollo y hacer frente a la pobreza (ODS-1), al tiempo que se reducen las situaciones de desigualdad (ODS-10) y se generan empleos decentes (ODS-8). Asimismo, fortalecer a los proveedores locales de bienes y servicios de otros sectores para que se integren en la cadena de valor del destino (ODS-2), garantizar el acceso a la educación (ODS-4) y contribuir a la igualdad de género (ODS-5).

The purpose of this study shows how overall board diversity influences corporate risk-taking. Board diversity is quantified into task-oriented diversity (tenure and education) and relation-oriented diversity (age and gender). Further, this study tests whether the association of board diversity and corporate risk varies across state-owned firms (SOEs) and non-state-owned firms (NSOEs).

The authors used a sample of Chinese listed firms over the period 1999-2017. The results are estimated using the fixed-effects model. To deal with the endogeneity problem and single model bias, the authors use a dynamic model, i.e. two-step generalized method of moment’s model.

The results show that both task-oriented and relation-oriented diversity reduces corporate risk. Further, the authors document that overall board diversity reduces risk-taking across different types of firms, that is, SOEs and NSOEs. These results are consistent after controlling for endogeneity problems.

The results provide implications for enhancing corporate governance practices by considering overall board diversity as an important factor influencing corporate decisions. The findings suggest that policymakers and shareholders should consider different diversity attributes important for the composition of a board, which can enhance board outcomes.

Most of the prior studies considered only one dimension of diversity, and therefore, have overlooked the overall board diversity. Unlike prior studies, this study considers four board diversity attributes – age, gender, tenure and education, and further tests their association with corporate risk. Further, this study also examines the effect of overall diversity on corporate risk in SOEs and NSOEs.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of board gender diversity on earnings management level and strategy.

This study is conducted in the French context where firms are pressured since 2010 to appoint more women on boards. More specifically, this research is based on a sample of 85 companies listed in the SBF120 over 2010-2014. A number of econometric techniques are used including generalized least squares to test the panel regressions.

The results suggest that women on boards are effective in their monitoring role. Indeed, the findings show a significant negative effect of board women presence on earnings management practices level. However, there is no empirical evidence that board gender diversity affects the earnings management strategy. Moreover, the results reveal that some control variables influence significantly the earnings management level and strategy.

The findings support the efforts made by French political bodies to increase gender diversity on corporate boards, and might inspire political actors of other countries to take initiatives to regulate the promotion of women’s appointment on boards of directors.

This paper contributes to the issue of discrimination against women in law and in practice. Indeed, the findings highlight the beneficial effects of women participation in power and decision-making positions.

This research contributes to the debate around gender diversity on boards. Most prior studies that have analyzed the relationship between gender diversity and earnings management were conducted in a voluntary context of appointing women on boards. This paper extends prior research by addressing this issue differently and in a regulated context: where the government set mandatory quotas for female board representation.