Earnings Inequality in Sri Lanka

Since the 1990s, accelerating economic growth has regained its dominance in the anti poverty strategies. However, the rising tendency of income inequity at the global level and within the countries emphasizes the need to incorporate distributional factors to make the pro-poor growth strategies effective. This paper explores the sources of this surge in income inequality in a developing country context. The paper attempts to estimate an earnings function for Sri Lanka based on the household expenditure survey. The earners are distinguished by ethnicity, gender, sectors of employment, place of residence, education and occupation. One of the significant results of this study is that there was no "ethnic effect" per se on earnings on Sri Lanka. Having seen a significant gender effect in earnings, the paper further attempts to calculate the degree to which this gender difference in earnings represents "discrimination" against women.Labor and Human Capital,

Cultural Records of the Fishing Villagers in The Novel "Semmeen"

The coast of Kerala is dotted with small fishing villages. They are small villages inhabited by simple fishermen who have bonded with the sea in their lives. It is written by Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai, a village story based on the lifestyle, culture, discipline, and faith of the people of such coastal villages. It was translated by Sundara Ramasamy. George Moore, a scholar, says that the novel is a great tool for the author to bring out the experiences he has discovered in his life. Creations can only be created based on events that one has experienced, seen, heard, and studied. In that sense, the novel is beyond the confines of the page. The novel is related to a story in which the author can freely express any opinion in his way. Based on that, the Semmeen novel is a regional novel based on the life events of a particular section of the people. It is related to the livelihood problems of coastal people. It was at that time when the Tamil translation novel was slowly developing that Sundara Ramasamy translated the Malayalam novel "Semmeen", written by Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai, into Tamil. Let us look at its cultural records

Toothpaste Brands –A Study of consumer behavior in Bangalore city

‘Consumer is king’ –the statement carries profound truth in it. Today the success of any firm depends upon the satisfaction of consumers. For satisfying the consumers the firm should know about the behavior of the consumers. In these circumstances understanding consumer is a very difficult task because of the changing technology, innovation, and changes in life style. Researchers conducted many research in this area, and they given only few suggestion, but there is no final conclusion. As per the ideas given by the researchers, there are two factors influencing the consumers such as intrinsic and extrinsic factors. It is difficult to classify consumers by conventional demographic factors and unless their thought process and buying behavior are fully understood, decisions on product designs and packaging, branding and distribution channels are likely to be misplaced. With the inevitability of change looming large over the horizon, Indian companies must learn from their western counterparts; not only to identify the sources, timing and direction of the changes likely to affect India, but also the new competencies and perspective that will enable them to respond to these changes, comprehensively and effectively. This study mainly focus on understanding the external factors like demographic, social, cultural ,price, quality ,product attributes etc for buying toothpaste. The market share of any product is highly determined by the purchasing behavior of the consumers. Following study is conducted by the researcher to find out the behavior of the consumers, to analyze the preference of consumers, & consumer awareness. Descriptive research design was adopted and the data is collected through primary and secondary sources. The method adopted for conducting survey is questionnaire; Simple random sampling technique was adopted for selecting the consumers

Clinico mycological study of dermatophytosis

Background: Dermatophytoses is common, more prevalent in tropical and subtropical countries including India. Though not life threatening as it can cause great discomfort particularly in immunosuppressive conditions. It remains a general public health problem, which is prevalent in all age groups and both sexes. Aims: To study clinicomycological profile of patients.Methods: The Cross Sectional study was done on clinically diagnosed cases of Dermatophytosis with sample size of 200 cases for one and half year period.Results: The males to female ratio are 1.86:1. The common age group affected was 31-40years. Dermatophytosis was common in active workers, more common in urban than rural population particularly in low socioeconomic group of people and in summer season. Tinea corporis was the common clinical variant. 133 cases were both KOH and culture positive. The KOH mount was positive in 90% cases. In the present study 144 patients (72%) had positive culture results and 47 cases were KOH positive but culture negative, 11 cases were culture positive but KOH negative and 9 cases were both KOH and culture negative. Microsporum audoinii was isolated in 2%, Trichophyton mentagrophytes in 14%, Trichophyton rubrum in 52% and Trichophyton violaceum in 4%.Conclusions: Tinea corporis and Tinea cruris were the most common clinical types. Tinea corporis was predominantly a disease of adult males whereas Tinea capitis was seen mainly in pre- pubertal age group. Potassium hydroxide (KOH) wet mount and cultures were done for all the cases. T. rubrum was the commonest species isolated from most clinical types followed by T. mentagrophytes except T. capitis where T. violaceum was isolated

A lightning climatology of northeast India:1998-2007

About 55,000 lightning flashes were recorded by the Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) during the 10-year period (1998-2007) in northeast India (NEI) and were analyzed to study their total climatology, seasonal, annual and inter-annual variations. The results suggest that the western region of the northeast India is prone to a maximum amount of lightning activity and the northeast and eastern part is minimal in activity. The activity shifts west and east as the season advances. It is stagnant in the western and southwestern region in the last season of the year. The highest percentage of activity is observed during the pre-monsoon season. During the annual course the activity exhibits bimodal variation giving an average value of 8.4 flashes/pass. The time series analysis of the parameter shows that the activity over NEI shows a consistent increase from 1998 to 2002 and then onwards it shows a consistent decrease. The activity in December is a characteristic feature for the region. The highest magnitude of activity is noticed in the year 2001 with 20 flashes/pass

A GREEN STRATEGY TO SYNTHESIZE ENVIRONMENT FRIENDLY METAL OXIDE NANOPARTICLES FOR POTENTIAL APPLICATIONS – A REVIEW

Chemical reducing and capping reagents are largely used in synthesizing metal oxide nanoparticles which limits the biomedical applications. Researchers have recently found out the eco-friendly technique of green synthesis which enhances the unique physical and chemical properties of nanomaterials. In this critique, we discuss green route to synthesize metal oxide nanoparticles and its significant applications in various fields of energy and environment, aerospace, medicine, biotechnology, etc.This study arouses to provoke new research design of approach to synthesize nanoparticles for various technological applications. In this review, most of the metal oxides nanoparticles with different plant extract with enhanced properties for its potential applications are discussed which confirms plant extracts as a potential candidate to be used as reducing and capping agent

Bacoside A: Role in Cigarette Smoking Induced Changes in Brain

Cigarette smoking (CS) is a major health hazard that exerts diverse physiologic and biochemical effects mediated by the components present and generated during smoking. Recent experimental studies have shown predisposition to several biological consequences from both active and passive cigarette smoke exposure. In particular, passive smoking is linked to a number of adverse health effects which are equally harmful as active smoking. A pragmatic approach should be considered for designing a pharmacological intervention to combat the adverse effects of passive smoking. This review describes the results from a controlled experimental condition, testing the effect of bacoside A (BA) on the causal role of passive/secondhand smoke exposure that caused pathological and neurological changes in rat brain. Chronic exposure to cigarette smoke induced significant changes in rat brain histologically and at the neurotransmitter level, lipid peroxidation states, mitochondrial functions, membrane alterations, and apoptotic damage in rat brain. Bacoside A is a neuroactive agent isolated from Bacopa monnieri. As a neuroactive agent, BA was effective in combating these changes. Future research should examine the effects of BA at molecular level and assess its functional effects on neurobiological and behavioral processes associated with passive smoke

THERMO GRAVIMETRY-DIFFERENTIAL SCANNING COLORIMETRY-MASS SPECTROSCOPY-A REVIEW

Thermogravimetric analysis is an analytical technique used to determine a material's thermal stability and its fraction of volatile components by monitoring the weight change that occurs as a sample is heated at a constant rate. Differential scanning colorimetry analysis is used to measure melting temperature, the heat of fusion, latent heat of melting, reaction energy etc. Mass spectroscopy is a powerful analytical tool with many applications in pharmaceuticals and biomedical fields. The increase in sensitivity and resolution of the instrument as opened new dimensions in analysis of pharmaceuticals and complex metabolites of biological systems. Thermo gravimetry coupled with differential scanning colorimetry and Quadra pole mass spectrometry was applied to monitor the thermal stability and chemical properties of natural polymers isolated from chemically different soils. The TGA/DSC, when coupled with MS generic multiple ions from the sample under investigation, it then separates them according to a specific mass-to-charge ratio. The coupled instrument is used for simultaneous identification of organic compounds, used to evaluate the physical properties, degradation stability of powder coating

FORMULATION AND OPTIMIZATION AND IN VITRO CHARACTERIZATION OF OLANZAPINE LIPOSOME

Objective: Olanzapine (OZ) is a thioeno benzodiazepine class second-generation or atypical antipsychotic that selectively binds to central dopamine D2 and serotonin (5-HT2c) receptors used for the treatment of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. The present paper is aimed at developing an optimized liposome-loaded OZ as an approach for brain targeting through the nasal route for effective therapeutic management of schizophrenia. Methods: The OZ liposomes were prepared by the thin-film hydration method. Various independent variable such as phospholipid, cholesterol and sonication time was optimized by using Design-Expert® Software to obtain the dependent variables of entrapment efficiency, vesicle size and zeta potential. The optimized formulation was predicted based on the response obtained by the point prediction method. Results: The entrapment efficiency of the formulation was range between 72.9 and 85.1 %. The average particle size of all the 15 experimental runs lies between the minimum and maximum values of the size 258.33 to 325.32 nm, respectively. The zeta potential ranges from-27.53 to-11.46 mV. The optimized formulation for characterized for its morphology by Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM). In vitro release studies of OZ-loaded liposomal formulation was carried by dialysis sac method using pH 7.4 phosphate buffer (PBS) as a medium. The maximum release was found to be 98.43±1.2 % up to 24 h. The R2 zero-order kinetics and Korsmeyer-Peppas model was found to be 0.9919 and 0.9664, respectively. The zero-order shows the best-fit model with a highest R2 value exhibiting better correlation and the ‘n’ value was also found to be 0.85; indicating both diffusion-controlled and swelling-controlled drug release that is anomalous transport. Conclusion: The results, clearly states that the prepared formulations justify the parameters and OZ might be a suitable candidate to target the brain through nasal delivery

An Approach for Loan Approval Prediction Using Machine Learning

Banking sector is one such field where the company needs more accurate results after analysis. There are many people applying for bank loans from banks or other finance companies each day. But the banks cannot provide loan to every individual who is applying for loan. There is a very complex task that the bank employees do to study an analyze if the applicant is genuine or not. To find this out, there are a lot of factors to be considered. Going through this huge amount of data can be a really difficult task and yet one cannot be sure if the applicant will be able to pay back the loan within the given time or not. Objective of the paper is to make thorough analysis of the test data and make predictions if the applicant is genuine or not. For this process, we are using Machine Learning where the trained data is used to make predictions