The Politics of English in Sri Lanka: Perspectives from Postcolonial Anglophone Literature

Anglophone literature by writers from former British colonies has been viewed by literary critics as an act of writing back to the colonial centre. Such a view presents these writers as located in the margins, where they re-appropriate and re-fashion the language of the coloniser in service of those it once oppressed, to paraphrase Salman Rushdie and Ashcroft et al. However, in framing postcolonial Anglophone literature within this centre-periphery binary, this mode of reading presents the writer as resisting the colonial metropole but fails to address the status of English in relation to racial, ethno-linguistic and class conflicts in postcolonial countries like Sri Lanka. English in Sri Lanka is constitutionally recognised as a “link language” under the presumption that it mitigates linguistic conflicts that have erupted between the country’s various ethnic groups, notably between the Sinhalese and Tamils. This contributes to English functioning as a “vanishing mediator”, as Aamir Mufti calls it, where in acting as a mediator it assumes an aura of transparency which obscures its function as a vehicle for generating “elite cultural capital” in Sarah Brouillette’s words. Departing from the centre-periphery model, this thesis examines two Sri Lankan Anglophone literary texts, Shehan Karunatilaka’s Chinaman (2010) and Michael Ondaatje’s Running in the Family (1982) to understand the status of English in relation to the politics of ethnicity, race, class and language in Sri Lanka. A novel about cricket, I read Karunatilaka’s depiction of the imperial cultural product, which has been appropriated by the former colony, as an analogy for the English language, one that allows for an interrogation of the assumptions that English and cricket can unite and “link” the nation amidst competing Sinhala-Tamil nationalisms. An exploration of his Anglophone Burgher cultural heritage, Ondaatje’s text brings to the fore the complicity of this ethnically privileged minority subject, which I read as challenging the assumptions about ethnicity, race and language boundaries in Sri Lanka. My analyses of these texts interrogate the assumptions of “link language” implied in the country’s constitution, while revealing that English in Sri Lanka both exposes the fault lines of Sri Lankan society while disrupting notions of ethno-linguistic purity that have come to define the Sinhala-Tamil conflict and post-colonial race relations in the country

Types of English Determiners Accordıng to Their Position

The article deals with determiners and their types according to the position in English. Here, viewpoints of different linguists have been looked through. In the article we disscussed the problem of  functions of determiners and the notions they express in a language such as definiteness and indefiniteness. Besides, the articles touches upon the types of determiners according to their position in a sentence or a combination. Here, 3 types of determiners – pre-determners, central determiners and post-deerminers are analysed. The article also clarifies the difference between general and special determiners in Modern English. Key words: determiners, pre-determiners, central determiners, post determiners, noun phrase, modification DOI: 10.7176/JLLL/65-07 Publication date: February 29th 202

The weighted Hellinger distance in the multivariate kernel density estimation

The kernel multivariate density estimation is an important technique to estimate the multivariate density function. In this investigation we will use Hellinger Distance as a measure of error to evaluate the estimator, we will derive the mean weighted Hellinger distance for the estimator, and we obtain the optimal bandwidth based on Hellinger distance. Also, we propose and study a new technique to select the matrix of bandwidths based on Hellinger distance, and compare the new technique with the plug-in and the least squares techniques

Application of Data Mining In Marketing

One of the most important problems in modern finance is finding efficient ways to summarize and visualize the stock market data to give individuals or institutions useful information about the market behavior for investment decisions. The enormous amount of valuable data generated by the stock market has attracted researchers to explore this problem domain using different methodologies. Potential significant benefits of solving these problems motivated extensive research for years. The research in data mining has gained a high attraction due to the importance of its applications and the increasing generation information. This paper provides an overview of application of data mining techniques such as decision tree. Also, this paper reveals progressive applications in addition to existing gap and less considered area and determines the future works for researchers.Comment: 06 Pages, 02 Figures, 01 Table, Volume 2, Issue

Policy agenda-setting and the use of analytical agenda-setting models for school sport and physical education in South Africa

Philosophiae Doctor - PhDThis study focused on policy agenda-setting models for school sport and physical education in South Africa. The primary objective was to assess and propose options for improved agenda-setting by focussing on the use of agenda-setting models and by applying it to physical education and school sport and the policy agenda of the national government. The study has shown that pertinent school sport and physical education policy issues, as supported by key role-players and principal actors, were initially not placed on the formal policy agenda of government during the research investigation period (2005-2009). However, during 2010 and 2011 the issue of school sport and physical education received prominent attention by authorities and these developments were subsequently included in the study. The study aimed at contributing to existing policy agenda-setting models and by recommending changes to the Generic Process Model.The study also made a contribution by informing various role-players and stakeholders in education and school sport on the opportunities in policy agenda-setting. The study showed that policy agenda-setting is a vital step in the Generic Policy Process Model. Policy agendasetting in South Africa is critical, as it is important to place new and emerging policy issues on the policy agenda and as a participative public policy process is relatively new in this young democracy. The reader should not confuse the study as one dealing with school sport and physical education primarily, but rather as a research investigation dealing with policy agenda-setting models as applied to school sport and physical education.The secondary objectives of the study included the development of a historical perspective on trends and tendencies in education and sport in South Africa. A second objective was to provide theoretical perspectives on public policy and specifically on policy agenda-setting.From these theoretical perspectives, the Generic Policy Process Model was selected to use as a model that provided guidance on the overall policy process normally followed in South Africa. The Issue Attention Cycle and Principal Actor Models on Agenda-Setting were selected to apply to the case study to specifically ascertain important factors related to policy agenda-setting such as the identification of key role players as well as key policy issues. The Generic Policy Process Model provided for both a comprehensive set of phases as well as specific requirements and key issues to be addressed during each phase of the policy process.In terms of findings the study found that a number of specific agenda-setting elements or phases needed to be added to the Generic Policy Process Model, which includes a problem stage, triggers, initiator, issue creation and actors or policy stakeholders.The Principal Actor Model to agenda-setting was selected for application to the case as different actors have different levels of success at each policy stage. In the South African experience it is important to look at who sets the policy agenda and why, who can initiate agenda-setting and the role played by these principal actors in the agenda-setting process.Issue emergence often places policy issues on the policy agenda. The public is initially involved in issues, but in the long term public interest declines. The government realizes the significant costs involved in placing policy issues back on the agenda. This leads to a decline in issue attention by policy-makers and the public. The Issue Attention Cycle Model of agenda setting was used to analyse this phenomenon in South African Education policy.The study provides a case assessment of the South African experience. From the research findings, a set of conclusions and recommendations were developed for improved policy agenda-setting models and implications for school sport and physical education, as well as tools to place it on the national policy agenda were identified. The research findings suggest that pertinent school sport and physical education policy issues, as supported by key roleplayers,stakeholders and principal actors were not placed on the formal policy agenda of the government as a vital step in the policy process between 2005 and 2009. Ever since, principal policy actors, civil society NGOs, and government officials placed sufficient pressure on the Minister of Basic Education to place Physical Education on the agenda. Subsequently,Minister Angie Motshega has placed physical education in the school Curriculum under the subject Life Orientation and Lifeskills. It has become evident from the research that agendasetting is both necessary to, and a complex phase in, the policy-making process.This study has shown that major policy issues such as physical education and school sport were neglected during the period 2005 and 2009 despite reformed and advanced policy cycles in government. It has also shown that the role of policy agenda-setting in the overall policymaking process was revisited by government in the subsequent period 2010/2011 and placed on the policy agenda. Specific lessons of experience emanated from this process.The study recommends that the triggers of the agenda-setting phases be added to the Generic Policy Process Model, which should include the problem stage, triggers, initiators, issue creation, actors and policy stakeholders. Principal actors in the agenda-setting model in South Africa want the issue of physical education and school sport to be part of the school curriculum, and therefore be placed back on the policy agenda by the Government on its institutional agenda. Furthermore, the study showed that actors wanted it to be compulsory in all phases of the school (Foundation, Intermediate, Senior, GET, FET) and that it should have the same legal status as other subjects.The important findings include that:Comprehensive policy process models such as that of Dunn, Wissink and the Generic Process model may need to be reviewed to incorporate more fully the policy-agenda setting stages of the overall process; Current policy agenda setting models in use are relevant and valuable in identifying key role players as well as key issues and considerations regarding the policy process; Institutional arrangements to strengthen the role of NGOs and lower level institutions,such as schools to participate in policy agenda setting are important; and the study has shown that a number of key factors have been identified that had a key influence on policy agenda-setting in the case of physical education and school sport in South Africa. These included the influence of changing political leadership, the competency of policy capacities in government, the profile of issues in the media etc.The key findings of the study have shown that further potential exists to improve monitoring and evaluation and policy analysis.The study made a set of recommendations to principal actors such as the Minister of Education, Minister of Sport and Recreation, non-governmental organisations, interest groups, department officials and pressure groups. A set of research topics was also identified for future research

Canada’s Foreign Policy : the imperative for change under a new liberal government

Abstract: Canada’s foreign policy is in tatters, its global image is tarnished, and the incoming Trudeau government will need to work miracles to repair the country’s damaged reputation

Urban Solid Waste Generation and Management Issues Analysis of Solid Waste Disposal in the Kattankudy Urban Council Area, Sri Lanka

Urban solid waste management is a problem for local authorities of many cities in Sri Lanka,due to rapid population growth and changes in consumption patterns of urban households,leading to large quantity of solid waste generation. This paper addresses solid wastemanagement in the Kattankudy urban council area in Sri Lanka. The study used mainlysecondary data collected from the Urban Council office and some discussions with UCofficials dealing with waste management. Total waste generation per day was 37,368 kg, totalbio waste per day of 21,371 kg (57.20%), total Non-bio waste per day 15,829 kg (42.36%),and total special waste per day 168 kg (0.44%). Total waste generated per day was composedof bio waste of 21,371 kg (57.20%), total Non-bio waste of 15,829 kg (42.36%), and totalspecial waste of 168 kg (0.44%). The total waste generation per person per day was 0.753 kg,0.43 kg of biodegradable waste, 0.32 kg non-biodegradable waste and 0.003 kg special wasteper person per day. It was estimated that about 54% of the revenue collected by theKattankudy UC was being spent on solid waste collection activities, which has hindered useof funds for other essential service provision such as repairs to roads, water supply andsanitation facilities. Findings indicate that massive amounts of solid waste are generatedwhich are difficult to collect and dispose. Some policy issues are discussed for a better wastemanagement strategy

On Adjacent Channel Interference-Aware Radio Resource Management for Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communication

Safety applications play an essential role in supporting traffic safety and efficiency in next generation vehicular networks. Typical safety applications require vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication with high reliability and low latency. The reliability of a communication link is mainly determined by the received interference, and broadly speaking, there are two types of interferences: co-channel interference (CCI) and adjacent channel interference (ACI). The CCI is cross-talk between transmitters scheduled in the same time-frequency slot, whereas ACI is interference due to leakage of transmit power outside the intended frequency slot. The ACI is typically not a problem in cellular communication since interference is dominated by CCI due to spectrum re-usage. However, ACI is a significant problem in near-far situations, i.e., when the channel gain from the interferer to receiver is high compared to the channel gain from the intended transmitter. The near-far situation is more common in V2V broadcast communication scenario due to high dynamic range of the channel gain and penetration loss by intermediate vehicles. This thesis investigates the impact of ACI on V2V communication and methods to mitigate it by proper radio resource management (RRM), i.e., scheduling and power control.In [Paper A], we first study ACI models for various transmission schemes and its impact on V2V communication. We propose a problem formulation for a) optimal scheduling as a Boolean linear programming (BLP) problem and b) optimal power control as a mixed Boolean linear programming (MBLP) problem. The objective of the problem formulation is to maximize the connectivity among VUEs in the network. Near-optimal schedules and power values are computed by solving first a) and then b) for smaller size instances of the problem. To handle larger-size instances of the problem, heuristic scheduling and power control algorithms with less computational complexity are proposed. We also propose a simple distributed block interleaver scheduler (BIS), which can be used as a baseline method.In [Paper B], we formulate the joint scheduling and power control problem as an MBLP to maximize the connectivity among VUEs. A column generation method is proposed to address the scalability of the network, i.e., to reduce the computational complexity of the joint problem. Moreover, the scheduling problem is observed to be numerically sensitive due to the high dynamic range of channel values and adjacent channel interference ratio (ACIR) values. Therefore, a novel method is proposed to reduce the sensitivity and compute a numerically stable optimal solution at the price of increased computational complexity.In [Paper C], we extend the RRM problem formulation to include various objectives, such as maximizing connectivity/throughput and minimizing age of information (AoI). In order to account for the fairness, we also formulate the problem to improve the worst-case throughput, connectivity, and AoI of a link in the network. All the problems are formulated as MBLP problems. In order to support a large V2V network, a clustering algorithm is proposed whose computational complexity scale well with the network size. Moreover, a multihop distributed scheduling scheme is proposed to handle zero channel state information (CSI) case

A SIMPLE RP-HPLC METHOD FOR SIMULTANEOUS ESTIMATION OF ORGANIC IMPURITIES, ENANTIOMER AND ASSAY OF DEXLANSOPRAZOLE

Objective: To develop a simple and accurate RP-HPLC method for simultaneous estimation of organic impurities, enantiomer and assay of Dexlansoprazole, proposed method was validated according to an International Conference on Harmonisation of technical requirements for registration of pharmaceuticals for human use (ICH) guidelines.Methods: Cellulose tris-(3,5-dichlorophenylcarbamate) bonded on silica gel (Chiralpak IC) were used as stationary phase. Acetonitrile (ACN) and 10 mM dibasic potassium phosphate buffer of pH 7.20, adjusted with dilute ortho phosphoric acid, were used as mobile phase in gradient composition at a flow rate of 1.0 ml/min. UV detection was made at 283 nm and run time was 27 min.Results: Limit of detection (LOD) and Limit of quantification (LOQ) was 42 and 126 ng/ml, respectively. Analytes response was studied from 0.25-1.50 µg/ml and r2 value of the calibration curve was>0.999. Accuracy was studied in three different concentrations, the mean recovery was observed between 93.8 and 102.5%. To the maximum of 0.01% impurity variation was observed between the results of inter and intra-day precision.Conclusion: Proposed method is specific, precise, sensitive, linear and accurate. As a significance of this proposed method, the listed known impurities of Lansoprazole monograph [United States, British and European pharmacopoeias (USP/BP/Ph. Eur.)] Were used in method development and separation was demonstrated. Apart from this, enantiomer resolution was achieved and the same chromatogram was used for assay calculation.Â