1,169 research outputs found
Nutritive Value and Silage Quality in Fodder Sorghum (\u3cem\u3eSorghum bicolor\u3c/em\u3e), Maize (\u3cem\u3eZea mays\u3c/em\u3e) and Hybrid Napier (\u3cem\u3ePennisetum americarnum\u3c/em\u3e × \u3cem\u3eP. purpureum\u3c/em\u3e) Grown in Sri Lanka
For continuous genetic improvement of cows, nutrition and management conditions should be improved to allow cow to produce its inherited potential production. However, many farmers not pay desired attention on forage quality and one of the main reasons for the low productivity of dairy cattle is under nutrition. Therefore, production of high quality fodder varieties is vital for strengthening the dairy sector in Sri Lanka. Hybrid Napier var. CO-3 is widely used for cattle feeding in Sri Lanka. It is important to find out other forage varieties with maximum nutritive values and minimum anti-nutritive factors which can be used as a cattle feed. Sorghum is a crop for semi-arid regions in tropical and sub-tropical zones which can be grown successfully throughout the country both under irrigated and rain-fed conditions. In addition, it has shown a huge potential to produce high green fodder yields. Maize is one of the most important plants grown for fodder production in the world. It possesses most of the characteristics of an ideal type of fodder and forage plant. Hence, this field research was conducted to investigate the possibilities in use of fodder Sorghum var. sugargraze and Maize var. pacific 984 as green fodder and/or silage in Sri Lank
UNDERSTANDING THE VALUE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN ORGANISATIONS: A TAXONOMIC APPROACH
While organizations strive to leverage the vast information generated daily from social media platforms and both decision makers and consultants are keen to identify and exploit this information’s value, there has been little research into social media in the business context. Social media are diverse, varying in scope and functionality, this diversity entailing a complex of attributes and characteristics, resulting in confusion for both researchers and organizations. Taxonomies are important precursors in emerging fields and are foundational for rigorous theory building. Though aspects of social media have been studied from various discipline perspectives, this work has been largely descriptive. Thus, while the need for a rigorous taxonomy of social media is strong, previous efforts to classify social media suffer limitations – e.g. lack of a systematic taxonomic method, overreliance on intuition, disregard for the users’ perspective, and inadequate consideration of purpose. Thus, this study was mainly initiated by the overarching question “How can social media in the business context be usefully classified?” In order to address this gap, the current paper proposes a systematic method for developing a taxonomy appropriate to study social media in organizations context, combining Nickerson et al,’s (2012) IS taxonomy building guidelines and a Repertory grid (RepGrid) approach
Boundary element based multiresolution shape optimisation in electrostatics
We consider the shape optimisation of high-voltage devices subject to electrostatic field equations by combining fast boundary elements with multiresolution subdivision surfaces. The geometry of the domain is described with subdivision surfaces and different resolutions of the same geometry are used for optimisation and analysis. The primal and adjoint problems are discretised with the boundary element method using a sufficiently fine control mesh. For shape optimisation the geometry is updated starting from the coarsest control mesh with increasingly finer control meshes. The multiresolution approach effectively prevents the appearance of non-physical geometry oscillations in the optimised shapes. Moreover, there is no need for mesh regeneration or smoothing during the optimisation due to the absence of a volume mesh. We present several numerical experiments and one industrial application to demonstrate the robustness and versatility of the developed approach.We gratefully acknowledge the support provided by the EU commission through the FP7 Marie Curie IAPP project CASOPT (PIAP-GA-2008-230224). K.B. and F.C. thank for the additional support provided by EPSRC through #EP/G008531/1. J.Z. thanks for the support provided by the European Regional Development Fund in the IT4Innovations Centre of Excellence project (CZ.1.05/1.1.00/02.0070) and by the project SPOMECH – Creating a Multidisciplinary R&D Team for Reliable Solution of Mechanical Problems, reg. no. CZ.1.07/2.3.00/20.0070 within the Operational Programme ‘Education for Competitiveness’ funded by the Structural Funds of the European Union and the state budget of the Czech Republic. Special thanks to Andreas Blaszczyk from the ABB Corporate Research Center Switzerland for fruitful discussions and for providing the industrial applications.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Elsevier via http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcp.2015.05.01
Effects of recreational camping on the environmental values of national parks in Sri Lanka
Camping is a popular activity in the contemporary nature-based tourism domain and rapidly gaining momentum as a key recreational activity in Sri Lanka’s national parks (NPs). Recreational uses such as camping in natural areas can induce significant and often localised resource impacts that can affect soil, vegetation, wildlife and water, with the severity of such impacts varying according to the intensity of use. Hence, monitoring of the biophysical conditions of campsites has become an important component in the reserve management agenda in many places, especially in developed countries. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to examine the biophysical impacts associated with the recreation ecology of camping in Sri Lanka. Ten campsites from three dry zone NPs were selected to assess biophysical impacts of camping activities. Field measurements were based on the fixed radial transect method. Gathered data included the total area of the campsite, erosion potential measured as the area of exposed soil (devoid of vegetation or organic litter), number of exposed roots and human damage to trees, number of fireplaces/ fire scars on the ground, visual counts of litter, soil compaction measured by penetrometer, loss of woody debris. This study reports significant levels of environmental degradation related to all the indictors of biophysical impacts at both high and low use campsites. There was no evidence for any difference in the level of environmental degradation associated with high and low use campsites. The loss of natural values associated with campsites negatively impacted visitors’ nature-based experience. These findings highlight the importance of managing biophysical impacts in campsites to provide a high-quality visitor experience, while sustainably managing tourism activities in NPs
Re-Conceptualising IS Function\u27s Support Performance: A Preliminary Model
While IS function has gained widespread attention for over two decades, there is little consensus among information systems (IS) researchers and practitioners on how best to evaluate IS function’s support performance. This paper reports on preliminary findings of a larger research effort proceeds from a central interest in the importance of evaluating IS function’s support in organisations. This study is the first that attempts to re-conceptualise and conceive evaluate IS function’s support as a multi-dimensional formative construct. We argue that a holistic measure for evaluating evaluate IS function’s support should consist of dimensions that together assess the variety of the support functions and the quality of the support services provided to end-users. Thus, the proposed model consists of two halves, ‘Variety’ and ‘Quality’ within which resides seven dimensions. The Variety half includes five dimensions: Training; Documentation; Data-related Support, Software-related Support; and Hardware-related Support. The Quality half includes two dimensions: IS Support Staff and Support Services Performance. The proposed model is derived using a directed content analysis of 83 studies; from top IS outlets, employing the characteristics of the analytic theory and consistent with formative construct development procedures
Generalized and multi-oscillation solitons in the Nonlinear Schr\"odinger Equation with quartic dispersion
We study different types of solitons of a generalized nonlinear Schr\"odinger
equation (GNLSE) that models optical pulses traveling down an optical waveguide
with quadratic as well as quartic dispersion. A traveling-wave ansatz
transforms this partial differential equation into a fourth-order nonlinear
ordinary differential equation (ODE) that is Hamiltonian and has two reversible
symmetries. Homoclinic orbits of the ODE that connect the origin to itself
represent solitons of the GNLSE, and this allows us to study the existence and
organization of solitons with advanced numerical tools for the detection and
continuation of connecting orbits. In this way, we establish the existence of
connections from one periodic orbit to another, called PtoP connections. They
give rise to families of homoclinic orbits to either of the two periodic
orbits; in the GNLSE they correspond to generalized solitons with oscillating
tails whose amplitude does not decay but reaches a nonzero limit. Moreover,
PtoP connections can be found in the energy level of the origin, where
connections between this equilibrium and a given periodic orbit, called EtoP
connections, are known to organize families of solitons. As we show here, EtoP
and PtoP cycles can be assembled into different types of heteroclinic cycles
that give rise to additional families of homoclinic orbits to the origin. In
the GNLSE, these correspond to multi-oscillation solitons that feature several
episodes of different oscillations in between their decaying tails. As for
solitons organized by EtoP connections only, multi-oscillation solitons are
shown to be an integral part of the phenomenon of truncated homoclinic snaking.Comment: 25 Pages, 13 figure
Evaluation of Community Resilience Aspects of Sri Lankan Coastal Districts
This research is carried out to evaluate important community resilience aspects of coastal districts in Sri Lanka and to provide suitable recommendations to strengthen them. After carrying out an indepth literature survey and interviewing key personnel who are involved in the field of Disaster Management and Disaster Risk Reduction, existing status of the coastal hazards, multi-hazard assessments, early warning mechanisms, national policies, guidelines and efforts and regional cooperation were identified. During the literature survey, it was observed that Sri Lanka has developed a Hazard profile for the country and has an Early Warning Dissemination System which seems to function quite well by the book. What is more, the country is in the process of orienting the existing national policies and guidelines with the post 2015 global standards such as the Sendai framework and Sustainable Development Goals. Sri Lanka being a member of Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System (IOTWMS) and Regional Integrated Multi-Hazard Early Warning System for Africa and Asia (RIMES) depicts that the country has a good regional cooperation in terms of Early Warning. Even though Sri Lanka lacks efficient and sustainable resilience mechanisms focused on the coastal communities, national efforts are underway to build up the coastal resilience. Training and public awareness campaigns, efficient funds, properly maintained hierarchy and concern to the coastal ecosystems are some of the enablers identified in this study which are associated in building coastal resilience. Developing and updating a multi-hazard map, improving the interagency cooperation and driving towards a people-centred Multi-Hazard Early Warning System (MHEWS) are some of the recommendations given after the analysi
Accessing Stereochemically Rich Sultams via Microwave-Assisted, Continuous Flow Organic Synthesis (MACOS) Scale-out
The generation of stereochemically-rich benzothiaoxazepine-1,1′-dioxides for enrichment of high-throughput screening collections is reported. Utilizing a microwave-assisted, continuous flow organic synthesis platform (MACOS), scale-out of core benzothiaoxazepine-1,1′-dioxide scaffolds has been achieved on multi-gram scale using an epoxide opening/SNAr cyclization protocol. Diversification of these sultam scaffolds was attained via a microwave-assisted intermolecular SNAr reaction with a variety of amines. Overall, a facile, 2-step protocol generated a collection of benzothiaoxazepine-1,1′-dioxides possessing stereochemical complexity in rapid fashion, where all 8 stereoisomers were accessed from commercially available starting materials
ASSESSMENT OF PRESENT SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES AND IMPACTS IN SArnCALOA MUNICIPALITY LIMITS
The urban agglomerations of the developing countries have in the last two decadeswitnessed some unprecedented growth in their populations. Such growth has beenaccompanied by complex problems. The challenge of the clearing the city of solid wasteis one of the greatest problems. The management of refuse involves the collection,transportation, treatment and finally disposing of solid wastes in hygienic andauthentically acceptable manner at the lowest possible cost. The public sector agencies indeveloping countries as Sri Lanka, faces serious budgetary limitations in conductingproper solid waste management programmes.This submission presents an assessment study conducted in Batticaloa Municipalitylimits. The main objective of this submission is to assess the amount of solid wastecomposition dumped in landfill per day and examine the current problems due to thelandfill and built up a management plan for integrated solid waste management to thestudy area.The landfill is found about I.5Km away from heart of the town and O.5Km formBatticaloa lagoon. The extent of the landfill is about 7acres, depth varies from 18 to21feet and originated by illicit sand and gravel mining. Total accumulation of solid wasteper day is 61 tons. But the Batticaloa Municipality collects only 36 tons per day due toinadequate assistance. The composition of the waste goes to the landfill mainlydegradable organic waste which is about 74%. Potable water in the vicinity of landfill areexamined and found as not to meet the drinking water quality standard regard withNitrate, phosphate, and sulphate ions.
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