• SUVANNABHUMI
• /
• v.8 no.1
• /
• pp.95-119
• /
• 2016

From the migrant care-workers arriving in Japan from the Philippines and Indonesia to support the depleted social support system for the large population of the elderly (Ogawa 2012) to the increasing number of retiring Japanese embarking on long-stay tourism in Malaysia (Ono 2015), the Japanese image of Southeast Asia as an exotic destination offering cheap labor in return for official development assistance seems to be fading away. Yet these changes are not necessarily reflected in the way contemporary Japanese, especially those who belong to the global, "spiritual-but not-religious" (Fuller 2001) population, think of and "consume" Southeast Asia in their daily lives. Using three case-studies, spiritual tours, Thai massage, and an NGO founded by a Japanese spiritual therapist, this paper argues that in Japan's large spiritual market, which targets people seeking alternative ways to express their religiosity, the old-fashioned colonial exoticism of Southeast Asian narratives were integrated in a totalizing discourse, in which Japan remains the exceptional outlier (Tanaka 1993), a country still claimed to be "advanced" both spiritually and economically.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.13 no.4
• /
• pp.1361-1364
• /
• 2012

Background: Results of screening colonoscopy from Western countries reported adenoma detection rates (ADRs) of 30-40% while those from Asia had ADR as low as 10%. There have been limited data regarding screening colonoscopy in Thailand. The objectives of this study were therefore to determine polyp and adenoma detection rates in Thai people, to evaluate the incidence of colorectal cancer detected during screening colonoscopy and to determine the endoscopic findings of the polyps which might have some impact on endoscopists to perform polypectomy. Materials & Methods: This study was a retrospective electronic chart review of asymptomatic Thai adults who underwent screening colonoscopy in our endoscopic center from June 2007 to October 2010.Results: A total of 1,594 cases were reviewed. The patients had an average age of $58.3{\pm}10.5$ years (range 27-82) and 55.5% were female. Most of the cases (83.8%) were handled by staff who were endoscopists. A total of 488 patients (30.6%) were reported to have colonic polyps. Left-sided colon was the most common site (45.1%), followed by right-sided colon (36.5%) and the rectum (18%). Those polyps were removed in 97.5% of cases and 88.5 % of the polyps were sent for histopathology (data lost 11.5%). Two hundred and sixty three cases had adenomatous polyps, accounting for 16.5 % ADR. Advanced adenomas were detected in 43 cases (2.6%). Hyperplastic polyps were mainly located distal to the splenic flexure of the colon whereas adenomas were found throughout the large intestine. Ten cases (0.6%) were found to have colorectal cancer. Four advanced adenomas and two malignant polyps were reported in lesions ${\leq}$ 5 mm. Conclusion: The polyp detection rate, adenoma detection rate, advanced adenoma detection rate and colorectal cancer detection rate in the screening colonoscopy of Thai adults were 30.9%, 16.5%, 2.6% and 0.6% respectively. Malignant transformation was detected regardless of the size and location of the polyps. Therefore, new technology would play an important role indistinguishing polyps.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.14 no.10
• /
• pp.5953-5956
• /
• 2013

Background: Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) is the most common cancer in Northeast Thailand. It is also a crucial health problem for Thai people. Various risk factors for CCA have been identified in the upper part of Northeast Thailand, but no similar studies of risk factors have been conducted in the lower parts of the region. This study aimed to investigate factors associated with CCA in the resident population. Materials and Methods: A hospital-based case-control study was conducted during 2009-2012 with the recruitment of 123 CCA cases and 123 non-CCA patient controls, matched for sex, age and residential area. Information was collected by interview with a structured questionnaire. Blood samples were collected for assays of anti-OV antibodies. Associations between various personal factors, dietary habits, family history, the presence of anti-OV antibodies and CCA were analyzed using multiple conditional logistic regression. Results: Patients who consumed raw meat (beef, pork) and alcoholic beverages ${\geq}3$ times per week had a higher risk of CCA than non-consumers ($OR_{adj}$=4.33; 95%CI=1.14-16.35 and $OR_{adj}$=2.13; 95%CI=1.00-4.55, respectively). Patients who had a family history of cancer had a higher risk than those who did not ($OR_{adj}$=4.34; 95%CI=1.80-10.43). Also, patients who had anti-OV antibodies (AU>23.337) had a higher risk than those whose anti-OV antibodies were below the cut-off ($AU{\leq}23.34$) ($OR_{adj}$=3.09; 95%CI=1.04-9.16). Conclusions: As is the case in the upper part of Northeast Thailand, OV infection is a crucial risk factor for CCA in people who live in lower part of the region. Similarly, a family history of cancer and the consumption of alcohol are risk factors for CCA.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.17 no.7
• /
• pp.3455-3458
• /
• 2016

Osteosarcoma is a common primary malignant bone tumor in children and adolescents. Recent worldwide average incidences of osteosarcoma in people aged 0 to 24 years were 4.3 and 3.4 per million, respectively, with a ratio of 1.4:1. However, data on the incidence of osteosarcoma in Thailand are limited. This study analyzed the incidence of osteosarcoma in the upper northern region of Thailand, with a population of 5.85 million people (8.9% of the total Thai population), using data for the years 1998 to 2012, obtained from the Chiang Mai Cancer Registry (CMCR) at Chiang Mai University Hospital and the Lampang Cancer Registry (LCR) at the Lampang Cancer Hospital, a total of 144 cases. The overall annual incidence of osteosarcoma was 1.67 per million with a male:female ratio of 1.36:1. Incidences by age group (male and female) at 0 to 24, 25 to 59 and over 60 years were 3.5 (3.9 and 3.0), 0.8 (0.9 and 0.6), and 0.7 (0.8 and 0.5), respectively. The peak incidence occurred at 15 to 19 years for males and at 10 to 14 years for females. The median survival time was 18 months with a 5-year survival rate of 43%. Neither the age group nor the 5-year interval period of treatment was significantly correlated with survival during the 15-year period studied.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
• /
• v.8 no.1
• /
• pp.21-25
• /
• 2004

People in tropics have the ability to tolerate heat by residential permanence in the tropics. Previously, we have shown that African and Thai subjects who lived for whole their lives in only their respective countries sweat less under hot conditions than South Koreans who also lived whole their lives in Korea. The difference in sweating responses was attributed to the dissimilar central and peripheral sweating mechanisms operating in people from both groups. In the present study, acetylcholine (ACh), the primary transmitter for the sudomotor functions, was iontophoretically administered to South Koreans and Africans to determine the characteristic sudorific responses of their acclimatized biologic make-up to their respective environments. Using quantitative sudomotor axon reflex test (QSART), direct (DIR) and axon reflex (AXR) responses were evaluated. The findings revealed that the sweat onset-time among South Koreans was 0.91 min earlier than among Africans (P<0.01). The axon reflex sweat volume of nicotine receptor activity AXR(1) and sweat volume of muscarinic receptor activity DIR(2) among South Koreans were 79% and 53% greater (P<0.01), respectively. These results indicate that the reduced thermal sweating among Africans is at least in part attributed to the diminished sensitivity of sweat glands to ACh.

• The Southeast Asian review
• /
• v.23 no.1
• /
• pp.169-194
• /
• 2013

A Korean writer, Yi Soonwon's The Face and a Thai writer, Win Lyovarin's Three Worlds of Rat Ekathet symbolize into literature the historical demonstration which occurred in Korea and Thailand. Comparing the characters in these two works, we come to the conclusion that the background in which people use violence strongly relates with their emotion. The character in The Face commit emotional violence in which receiving education and training and having jostled situation were sprouted as hostility. On the other hand, the characters in Three Worlds of Rat Ekathet show the difference in the sense that they feel a pleasant sensation when they use violence, intoxicated in the power of violence. One thing that two works have in common is that people committing a sin suffer from a guilty conscience and guilty fears when we see the way to treat them. It is how psychological punishment is made by their own. In The Face, the character suffers from psychological punishment in the fear that the other may be aware of his past record when we see the difference to deal with emotional violence. That who committed violence not to be able to open up honorably can never be free from the judgement of conscience out of the law and the sense of guilt continues for his life. However, emotional punishment made by a guilty conscience in Three Worlds of Rat Ekathet has the limited period if sinners make the process of purification which means not committing a fault again. The ultimate way of treating those who committed violence is to forgive them with love and is the process of purification to change violence into non-violence.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
• /
• v.56 no.1
• /
• pp.49-52
• /
• 2018

The family Thapariellidae has been reported in only 3 countries since 1990. The objective of this study was to identify Thapariella anastomusa metacercariae in snails in Thailand based on morphological traits using a light (LM) and a scanning electron microscope (SEM). A total of 94 Filopaludina snails were collected and identified as 50 F. martensi martensi and 44 F. doliaris. Metacercariae of T. anastomusa were recovered from the snails by the crushing method. The overall prevalence was 22.3% (21/94), and the mean intensity was 17.0 per snail. The prevalence in F. martensi martensi was 24.0% (12/50) and F. doliaris 20.5% (9/44) with the mean intensity of 18.8 and 14.8 per snail, respectively. SEM revealed traits such as a concave ventral body and well-developed oral and ventral suckers. This study represents the first report of T. anastomusa in South East Asia. While LM and SEM observations provide novel insights into T. anastomusa metacercarial morphology and life history, the trematode's life cycle remains unclear. To date, there has been no report of T. anastomusa causing infections in humans. However, the snails F. martensi martensi and F. doliaris carrying the infective stages of T. anastomosa are frequently consumed by Thai people. This consumption, particularly uncooked snails, may present a risk of Thapariella infections in humans.

• Industrial Engineering and Management Systems
• /
• v.13 no.4
• /
• pp.398-407
• /
• 2014

Shortages and delays in a humanitarian logistics system can contribute to the pain and suffering of survivors or other affected people. Humanitarian logistics budgets should be sufficient to prevent such shortages or delays. Unlike commercial supply chain systems, the budgets for relief supply chain systems should be able to satisfy demand. This study describes a comprehensive model in an effort to satisfy the total relief demand by minimizing logistics operations costs. We herein propose a strategic model which determines the locations of distribution centers and the total inventory to be stocked for each distribution center where a flood or other catastrophe may occur. The proposed model is formulated and solved as a mixed-integer programming problem that integrates facility location and inventory decisions by considering capacity constraints and time restrictions in order to minimize the total cost of relief operations. The proposed model is then applied to a real flood case involving 47 disaster areas and 13 distribution centers in Thailand. Finally, we discuss the sensitivity analysis of the model and the managerial implications of this research.

• Journal of Distribution Science
• /
• v.18 no.6
• /
• pp.77-82
• /
• 2020

Purpose: In the period of international integration, how is the implementation of intellectual property regulation in developing countries? Do intellectual property rights help attract more Foreign direct investment (FDI)? This study aims to show the effect of intellectual property rights, reflect in the number of patent registered (Patent distribution into two components: Patent_residents and Patent_non-residents) on FDI attraction in Vietnam. Research design, data and methodology: Using Autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model for the data collected from 1990 to 2018 with EViews version 9 software. Conclusions: The results indicate that the number of patent protection has a positive effect on FDI in both short term and long term. In particular, only patent registration of foreign individuals and organizations has a significant positive effect on attracting FDI, while that of Vietnamese patents is not statistically significant. From the results of this study, we provide some recommendations to help attract FDI based on raising awareness of intellectual property rights: Increase international cooperation for innovation to learn and encourage patent; Improve the capac ity of inventing as well as the ability to register patents of Vietnamese people; Government agencies are tasked to support a nd review registration procedures; Encouraging patent registration based on the patent.

• Journal of Information Technology Applications and Management
• /
• v.24 no.3
• /
• pp.23-49
• /
• 2017

This paper is part of the dissertation for an MSc in Project Management and Innovation of Strathclyde Business School The research aims at understanding how IT-SMEs (Small and Medium-sized Enterprises in Information Technology Business) implement and use Flexible Work Arrangements and Flexible Working Hours (FWH/FWA) in their organisations. In-depth interview data was collected from managers and business owners of 31 companies whose needs for Work-Life Balance varied. Results show that many factors positively influence IT-SMEs to use FWH/FWA. For example, customers and partners working at different work-hours, traffic congestions between home and office, and the general stereotype of IT personnel. However, the results also found several concerning factors that may hamper the success of FWH/FWA implementation. They include the inadequacy of management skills in tracking, monitoring, and assessing employee's real performance, contextual factors for Thai IT-SMEs, i.e. conflict resolution culture, IT people's protocol of communication exchanges, and shortcoming of technology infrastructure. The findings also show that many companies that had used FWA eventually stopped. Thus, a four-phase cyclical framework called PLIC (Purpose-Limitation-Implementation-Consequence) has been developed as an approach to FWH/FWA implementation.