EFFECTS OF INSTITUTIONAL FACTORS ON NON-PERFORMING LOANS IN STATE BANKS OF SRI LANKA

Non-Performing Loans (NPL) is a significant phenomenon especially in the State Banks of Sri Lanka. This is a typical feature in the majority of the banks in Asian countries. NPL arise based on several reasons. Among them, this study examines the significance of the institutional factors on Non-Performing loans. The population comprised of loan borrowers from State banks in Sri Lanka. Sample comprised 102 loan borrowers selected through random sampling from selected state banks in Western Province that borrowed loans during 2013-2018.. Data was collected through a questionnaire based on 08 variables identified through literature review and analyzed using independent sample t tests. Results show except management efficiency all other variables influenced on NPL. Policies should formulate to mitigate the effects of influential variables.&nbsp

Electrophysiological and behavioural responses of fall armyworm Spodoptera frugiperda: A potential phytovolatile technology for its management

The fall armyworm (FAW), scientifically known as Spodoptera frugiperda (J.E. Smith) (Lepidoptera:Noctuidae), is an invasive and polyphagous pest associated with maize (Zea mays L.). An experiment was conducted during 2020–21 at South Eastern University of Sri Lanka, Oluvil, Sri Lanka and the Coconut Research Institute of Sri Lanka Lunuwila, Sri Lanka to investigate the olfactory perception of 22 host plant volatiles by electroantennogram (EAG) and behavioural assays for males, virgin and mated females of FAW. The findings indicated that trans-2-Hexen-1-ol, Benzaldehyde, Nonanoic acid, cis-3-Hexen-1-ol, and 4-Phenyl-2-butanone elicited elevated EAG responses in FAW antennae. Additionally, β-Citronellol and ethyl butyrate elicited amplified responses specifically in mated females and males, respectively. Dose-response study revealed that the observed responses remained statistically non-significant (P>0.05), regardless gender or physiological condition of females across the 1%, 5%, 10% and 15% dose intervals. In behavioural study, observed that 1% Benzaldehyde attracted a substantial number of moths to the treatment side for both virgin and mated females, whereas 1% β-Citronellol displayed repellent properties specifically for mated females of FAW. Therefore, these findings suggest that volatile plant compounds may serve as a theoretical basis for devising novel control strategies for FAW. This includes the potential development of attractants, repellents, and mass capture killers effective for both males and females of FAW, in addition to the currently used female sex pheromone

Development and Diffusion of Sorghum Improved Cultivars In India: Impact on Growth and Stability in Yield

Sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] is one of the major staple foods for the poorest and most food-insecure people across the semi-arid tropics of the world. Sorghum bicolor ssp. Verticilliflorum is believed to be the progenitor of cultivated sorghum (Harlan, 1972). It is cultivated in wide geographic areas in Africa, Asia, Americas and the Pacific regions. While it is the fifth most important cereal crop in the world after wheat, maize, rice and barley, in India, sorghum is the fourth largest cereal crop after rice, wheat and pearl millet and the second major food crop in Africa after maize. Sorghum is often a recommended option for farmers operating in harsh environments where other crops do poorly, as it can be grown with limited rainfall (400-500 mm) and often without or with limited application of fertilizers and other inputs. In India, sorghum is grown in both rainy (2.6 million ha) and postrainy (3.5 million ha) seasons. An estimated 2 million ha is under forage sorghum, grown in the summer season. Nearly 30-40% of the rainy season sorghum is grown as the sole crop while the rest is cultivated as an intercrop with pulses and oilseeds in India. On the other hand, 90% of postrainy season sorghum is grown as a sole crop, which is most preferred for food purposes

Belle II Executive Summary

Belle II is a Super $B$ Factory experiment, expected to record 50 ab$^{-1}$ of $e^+e^-$ collisions at the SuperKEKB accelerator over the next decade. The large samples of $B$ mesons, charm hadrons, and tau leptons produced in the clean experimental environment of $e^+e^-$ collisions will provide the basis of a broad and unique flavor-physics program. Belle II will pursue physics beyond the Standard Model in many ways, for example: improving the precision of weak interaction parameters, particularly Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa (CKM) matrix elements and phases, and thus more rigorously test the CKM paradigm, measuring lepton-flavor-violating parameters, and performing unique searches for missing-mass dark matter events. Many key measurements will be made with world-leading precision.Comment: 7 pages, to be submitted to the "Rare and Precision Measurements Frontier" of the APS DPF Community Planning Exercise Snowmass 202

Boreal forest soil carbon fluxes one year after a wildfire: Effects of burn severity and management

The extreme 2018 hot drought that affected central and northern Europe led to the worst wildfire season in Sweden in over a century. The Ljusdal fire complex, the largest area burnt that year (8995 ha), offered a rare opportunity to quantify the combined impacts of wildfire and post-fire management on Scandinavian boreal forests. We present chamber measurements of soil CO2 and CH4 fluxes, soil microclimate and nutrient content from five Pinus sylvestris sites for the first growing season after the fire. We analysed the effects of three factors on forest soils: burn severity, salvage-logging and stand age. None of these caused significant differences in soil CH4 uptake. Soil respiration, however, declined significantly after a high-severity fire (complete tree mortality) but not after a low-severity fire (no tree mortality), despite substantial losses of the organic layer. Tree root respiration is thus key in determining post-fire soil CO2 emissions and may benefit, along with heterotrophic respiration, from the nutrient pulse after a low-severity fire. Salvage-logging after a high-severity fire had no significant effects on soil carbon fluxes, microclimate or nutrient content compared with leaving the dead trees standing, although differences are expected to emerge in the long term. In contrast, the impact of stand age was substantial: a young burnt stand experienced more extreme microclimate, lower soil nutrient supply and significantly lower soil respiration than a mature burnt stand, due to a thinner organic layer and the decade-long effects of a previous clear-cut and soil scarification. Disturbance history and burn severity are, therefore, important factors for predicting changes in the boreal forest carbon sink after wildfires. The presented short-term effects and ongoing monitoring will provide essential information for sustainable management strategies in response to the increasing risk of wildfire

Search for lepton-flavor-violating τ\tau decays into a lepton and a vector meson using the full Belle data sample

Charged-lepton-flavor-violation is predicted in several new physics scenarios. We update the analysis of $\tau$ lepton decays into a light charged lepton ($\ell$ = $e^{\pm}$ or $\mu^{\pm}$) and a vector meson ($V^0$ = $\rho^0$, $\phi$, $\omega$, $K^{\ast0}$, or $\overline{K}{}^{\ast0}$) using 980 fb$^{-1}$ of data collected with the Belle detector at the KEKB collider. No significant excess of such signal events is observed, and thus 90% credibility level upper limits are set on the $\tau \rightarrow \ell V^0$ branching fractions in the range of (1.7--$4.3) \times 10^{-8}$. These limits are improved by 30% on average from the previous results.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figures; added one sentence in Acknowledgments; added a systematic uncertainty about the number of background estimation, and corrected some sentence

Search for Bs0→ℓ∓τ±B{}^0_s \rightarrow \ell^{\mp} \tau^{\pm} with the Semi-leptonic Tagging Method at Belle

We present a search for the lepton-flavor-violating decays $B{}^0_s \rightarrow \ell^{\mp}\tau^{\pm}$, where $\ell = e, \mu$, using the full data sample of $121~\mathrm{fb}^{-1}$ collected at the $\Upsilon(5S)$ resonance with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energy $e^+e^-$ collider. We use $B{}^0_s \overline{B}{}^0_s$ events in which one $B{}^0_s$ meson is reconstructed in a semileptonic decay mode and the other in the signal mode. We find no evidence for $B{}^0_s \rightarrow \ell^{\mp}\tau^{\pm}$ decays and set upper limits on their branching fractions at $90\%$ confidence level as $\mathcal{B}(B{}^0_s \rightarrow e^{\mp}\tau^{\pm}) < 14.1 \times 10^{-4}$ and $\mathcal{B}(B{}^0_s \rightarrow \mu^{\mp}\tau^{\pm}) < 7.3 \times 10^{-4}$. Our result represents the first upper limit on the $B{}^0_s \rightarrow e^{\mp}\tau^{\pm}$ decay rate.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, Submitted to JHE

Search for the decay B0^{0}s_{s} → η′^{′} K0^{0}S_{S}

We report the results of the first search for the decay B0s→η′K0S using 121.4  fb−1 of data collected at the Υ(5S) resonance with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energy e+e− collider. We observe no signal and set a 90% confidence-level upper limit of 8.16×10−6 on the B0s→η′K0S branching fraction