An assessment of the village tank rehabilitation program of the Freedom From Hunger Campaign Board in Anuradhapura District

Farmer managed irrigation systems / Tank irrigation / Rehabilitation / Farmers' associations / Settlement / Sri Lanka / Anuradhapura / Tanthirimale

Colombo Twin and Singleton Study (CoTASS): A description of a population based twin study of mental disorders in Sri Lanka

Background: The Sri Lankan twin registry is one of the first to be established in a developing country, and its design has ensured sampling from a wide range of environmental conditions. It thus has great potential to examine environmental and genetic influences on diverse phenotypes, including psychiatric disorders, in the context of a diversity of environmental exposures, which may not have been fully explored in previous twin studies in developed countries. This paper presents the rationale for the study, describes its context, and the methods for twin ascertainment and data collection. Methods: A population-based twin register was established in the Colombo district of Sri Lanka using infrastructure designed to periodically update the electoral register. We invited a subsample from this register to participate in the project on common mental disorders, using random ascertainment. A separate non-twin sample was randomly selected from the geographical areas where twins were found. Home interviewers collected diagnostic information on common mental disorders, as well as environmental exposures including life events, socio-economic conditions, and the impact of the civil war and the Tsunami of 2004. Results: We identified 19,302 individuals in the creation of the population based twin register. We randomly selected a subsample, of whom 4,387 were eligible to participate and 4,024 agreed to be interviewed ( including data on 1,954 complete pairs of twins and 5 sets of triplets). Those who refused consent had a similar mean age and sex ratio to those who were interviewed. We invited 2,485 singletons to participate and 2,019 were interviewed. Conclusion: Initial exploration of the data suggests the samples are very representative of the Colombo district of Sri Lanka, so we have created a unique resource for understanding the influences on mental disorders in developing countries, and to compare to the influences found in developed countries

Supporting people's placemaking theory and practice The case of support housing in Sri Lanka

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:DX186102 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Annotated biblioraphy of M.Sc. dissertations submitted to the Department of Architecture up to 1987

Annotated Bibliography of M Sc. Dissertations on Housing submitted to the Department of Architecture University of Moratuwa upto 1987

An assessment of the village tank rehabilitation program of the Freedom From Hunger Campaign Board in Anuradhapura District

The Village Tank Rehabilitation Program of the National Freedom From Hunger Campaign (FFHC) Board is assessed in this paper as a parallel study to the Anuradhapura Dry-Zone Agriculture Project (ADZAP) which was carried out by the International Irrigation Management Institute (IIMI) in 1988. Following a nongovernmental approach, the FFHC Board has implemented tank rehabilitation programs in several districts in the island. The Thanthirimale cluster in Anuradhapura District is the largest tank rehabilitation project implemented by the Board. In this study, the Board's program in Thanthirimale was assessed through a sample survey, following a similar survey methodology used to assess the Tank Rehabilitation Program of ADZA

Kölliker’s Organ and the Development of Spontaneous Activity in the Auditory System: Implications for Hearing Dysfunction

Prior to the “onset of hearing,” developing cochlear inner hair cells (IHCs) and primary auditory neurons undergo experience-independent activity, which is thought to be important in retaining and refining neural connections in the absence of sound. One of the major hypotheses regarding the origin of such activity involves a group of columnar epithelial supporting cells forming Kölliker’s organ, which is only present during this critical period of auditory development. There is strong evidence for a purinergic signalling mechanism underlying such activity. ATP released through connexin hemichannels may activate P2 purinergic receptors in both Kölliker’s organ and the adjacent IHCs, leading to generation of electrical activity throughout the auditory system. However, recent work has suggested an alternative origin, by demonstrating the ability of IHCs to generate this spontaneous activity without activation by ATP. Regardless, developmental abnormalities of Kölliker’s organ may lead to congenital hearing loss, considering that mutations in ion channels (hemichannels, gap junctions, and calcium channels) involved in Kölliker’s organ activity share strong links with such types of deafness

Mathematical analysis of startup mark in elastic tape on a narrow fabric loom

Start-up marks are considered as one of the major defect in woven fabric, it occurs when the loom is restarted after loom stoppage due to various reasons. This defect is more prominent in high speed weaving looms especially with elastic warp yarns and is caused to deteriorate the fabric quality. This research paper deals with the mathematical analysis of the startup mark generation in elastic tape on narrow fabric loom. Mathematical analysis was carried out for both continuous operation condition and under stopping condition of the narrow fabric loom. A system simulation was carried out using the model developed and compared with the experimental results to show the accuracy of the model