Determination of yield and erosion damage functions using subjectively elicited data: application to smallholder tea in Sri Lanka

Tea has been Sri Lanka’s major export earner for several decades. However, soil erosion on tea‐producing land has had considerable on‐site and off‐site effects. This study quantifies soil erosion impacts for smallholder tea farms in Sri Lanka by estimating a yield damage function and an erosion damage function using a subjective elicitation technique. The Mitscherlich‐Spillman type of function was found to yield acceptable results. The study indicates that high rates of soil erosion require earlier adoption of soil conservation measures than do low rates of erosion. Sensitivity analysis shows the optimum year to change to a conservation practice is very sensitive to the discount rate but less sensitive to the cost of production and price of tea.Crop Production/Industries,

A Cultural Feminism Analysis of Modern Sinhala Poetry of Female Poets Revealed on the Female Cultural Oppression: Resourcing from Poetry of Anuradha Nilmini, Suharshani Dharmarathna and Vipuli Hettiarachchi

Feminism is an expression of female agony and exhibiting their oppression. In modern poets too, female poets exhibit the expression of female agony through their creations. Those female poets try to express the oppression they experienced and all the females as whole through female ideologies. The main focus of this study is the modern female poets are being culturally oppressed. The difference of femininity is inherited from naturally and the gender has been created by the patriarchal culture. Religion, Customs, Marriage, Morals, the system of ownership, Industries are the incidental elements that subjected to suffer culturally according to the female poets represent through radical poetries. According to the modern female poets that are expressed through their creations, females are suffered physically and mentally than ideology suffering. This research studies how the females are suffered from culturally by selected poetries written on modern poets Anuradha Nilmini, Suharshani Dharmarathna and Vipuli Hettiarachchi. This study is qualitative and selected primary recourses as poets of Anuradha Nilmini, Suharshani Dharmarathna and Vipuli Hettiarachchi. And, as secondary resources this research uses literal articles and books that are written under the feminism, culture and female cultural oppression by modern female poets.DOI: http://doi.org/10.31357/fhss/vjhss.v05i01.0

A Comparative Study on Socio-Economic Impact of COVID- 19 Pandemic on Fisheries Industry in Tangalle Divisional Secretariat Division

The COVID-19 pandemic, which has provided the basis for creating a highly problematic environment in every sector of the world today has also had a significant impact on the fisheries industry which is one of the world’s leading economic activities. The main objective of this study was to examine the socio-economic impacts on fisheries industry before and during COVID-19 pandemic situation with special reference to Tangalle Divisional Secretariat Division. The study was based on the four Grama Niladhari Divisions of Kudawella North, Central, South and West associated with the Kudawella Fisheries Harbor. Primary data was collected from a field survey using a semi structured questionnaire from 74 fishing families representing the 75% of the population under stratified random sampling. Paired T test was carried out to test the variables comparatively before and after COVID-19 pandemic to confirm the result statistically. In addition, simple statistical methods were used for the quantitative assessment. Results revealed that the epidemic situation had a significant socio-economic impact on the fishing industry during the COVID-19 pandemic situation such as declining income, growth of indebtedness, disruption of children’s education, mental distress and social stigma. Suggestions were identified to mitigate the impacts. In this context, it was concluded that the COVID-19 epidemic has primarily affected the fisheries industry and as a result, created many socio-economic problems for the fisheries community. DOI: http://doi.org/10.31357/fhss/vjhss.v07i01.0

An Investigation of Affordances and Constraints for Continued Usage of Mobile Payment Technology

Users may continue to use or abandon a technology even after adoption. India’s historic demonetization of cash, which had forced users to adopt mobile payments, was followed by the return of cash to circulation after two years. This offers a setting to investigate users’ continued usage of mobile payment technology, since a majority of users continued using payment apps. We develop a research model that utilizes technology affordances and constraints theory (TACT) to study technology as contextually-embedded objects with respect to their capabilities perceived by humans. We identify the affordances and constraints that act as influencers or barriers to continued usage of mobile payment technology. We further analyze the effect of merchant and payment app companies on continued usage. We propose a survey-based methodology to gather empirical evidence for the developed research model. This study has important implications for IS research and practice since affordance theory, a novel theory for the field of mobile payments, provides a valuable lens for understanding action potential of a technology as an interplay between user and environment

ENVIRONMENTAL LEGISLATION ENFORCEMENT CAPACITY OF GOVERNMENT THROUGH DIVISIONAL SECRETARY SOME EMERGING ISSUES

The Divisional secretary (OS) is the chief administrative officer at divisional level for boththe central government and the provincial councils. This paper attempts to examine the levelof authority held by the OS in relation to environmental management related legislationenforcement, Data was collected through individual discussions with relevant officers ordifferent institutes. people concerned. and through participatory observations of in Mihintalearea and by participating District Environmental Law Enforcement Committee (DELEClmeetings.According to the Environmental Act No. 58 of 1988 (Revised), OS has the authority orpublic lands (less than 200 hectare) and is responsible for issuing permits for any small scaleindustry while Pradeshiyasaba is responsible for monitoring. In addition, OS is responsiblefor public land resources management. Other officers such as the Rural DevelopmentOfficer, the Community Development Officer, Samurdhi Managers. Samurdhi DevelopmentOfficers ctc., directed to OS office are responsible for duties relating to environmentalprotection and management. The majority of environmental complaints which are producedthrough Gramaniladharis to the OS are settled either through provisions in land legislationor by co-ordinating with other institutes. However these administrative officers do not haveformal training on environmental management.The paper also discusses some cases related to environmental pollution and the coordinationof different institutions. In addition, social and political issues in environmentallegislation enforcement are discussed. Attitudes and constraints of DELEC on legislationenforcement are also discussedConsideration of various institutes related to OS office as one unit in environmentalmanagement is very important and efficient. Though OS system is a legally andinstitutionally empowered and well organized institution for implementing environmentlegislation. it still runs in a traditional frame. Recommendations are made to improve andstrengthen the environmental legislation enforcement capacity for proper management ofresources.

Biochemical expression of exudes of a fungal-bacterial bio film during growth and maturation

Biofilms are often complex communities of multiple microbial species and remain attached to surfaces. Fungal-bacterial biofllms are formed when the fungal surface is colonized by one or more species of bacteria. These biofilms can enhance microbial effectiveness compared to the monocultures. Beneficial biofilms can be developed in vitro and be used for various agricultural and biotechnological purposes. As a recent development in biofertilizer research, fungal-rhizobial biofilms have been developed and these are termed biofilmed biofertilizers (BFBFs). This research was focused to investigate chemical composition of compounds exuded during growth and maturation of the biofilms. A developed fungal-bacterial biofilm using an Azotobacter species and a Colletorichum fungal species was used for the study. Exudates of the biofilm, fungal monoculture and bacterial monoculture in solid and liquid states were extracted separately by using three organic solvents; hexane, ethyl acetate and methanol. Extraction was done weekly for four weeks during growth and maturation of the biofllm. Then extracted exudates dissolved in organic solvents were evaporated by using a vortex evaporator. Thereafter crude was mixed with potassium bromide (KBr) and pellets were made. The KBr pellets were analyzed using Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. To evaluate the effect of the exudates of the fungal-bacterial biofilm on seed germination and plant growth in comparison to bacterial and fungal monocultures, a plant assay was done weekly by using lettuce (Lactuca sativa) seeds (N 48). During all four harvests, the fungal-bacterial biofllm produced more diverse functional groups than the mono cultures. The developed biofilm produced carboxylic acids and carboxylic salts, which are associated with plant growth promoting hormones, especially in first and second harvests. Significantly higher plant height and high germination of lettuce with the biofilm exudates could be attributed to above fact. During third and fourth weeks, the biofllm produced more amines and amides than fungal and bacterial mono cultures. This may have contributed to increased pH in biofilm cultures compared to the mono cultures. Thus, it can be concluded that biochemical expression of exudates of fungal-bacterial biofilms during their growth and maturation is very useful for breaking dormancy of seeds and their germination and growth, contributing to high plant productivit

The Prevalence and Epidemiological Features of Ischaemic Heart Disease in Sri Lanka

Background: There is limited evidence on the prevalence of ischaemic heart disease (IHD) and its association with risk factors and socioeconomic status (SES) in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Given the relatively high levels of access to healthcare in Sri Lanka, the association of IHD with SES may be different from that observed in other LMICs. Objectives: To estimate the prevalence of IHD in Sri Lanka, determine its associated risk factors and its association with SES. Methods: We analysed data from 6,513 adults aged ≥18 years examined in the 2018/19 Sri Lanka Health and Ageing Study. We used the Rose angina questionnaire to classify participants as having angina (Angina+) and used self-report or medical records to identify participants with a history of IHD (History+). The association of Angina+ and History+ with age, ethnicity, sector of residence, education level, household SES wealth quintile, area SES wealth quintile, hypertension, diabetes, smoking, total cholesterol, cholesterol-to-HDL ratio, waist-to-hip ratio and body mass index were analysed in unadjusted and adjusted models. Additional analyses were performed to investigate sensitivity to correction for missing data and to benchmark estimates against evidence from other studies. Conclusions: We estimated prevalence of History+ of 3.9% (95% CI 3.3%-4.4%) and Angina+ of 3.0% (95% CI 2.4%-3.5%) in adults aged 18 years and over. The prevalence of Angina+ was higher in women than men (3.9% vs. 1.9%, p &lt; 0.001) whilst prevalence of History+ was lower (3.8% vs. 4.0%, p = 0.8), which may suggest a higher rate of undiagnosed IHD in women. A history of IHD was strongly associated with age, hypertension and diabetes status even after adjusting for sociodemographic factors. Though the prevalence of History+ was higher in the most developed area SES tertile and urban areas, History+ was also associated with less education but not household SES, consistent with patterns emerging from other LMICs.</p

Average Rate Analysis of Cooperative NOMA aided Underwater Optical Wireless Systems

In this paper, we consider a cooperative non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) aided underwater optical wireless system in which the source transmits to two users where the near user serves as a relay node to the far user. Our proposed system consists of multiple narrow-angle light-emitting diode (LED)/photodiode (PD) elements at the source, near user, and far user. In order to achieve communication, our system selects a single LED/PD at each node. We propose several low complexity LED/PD selection schemes that aim to maximize the link throughput and in addition consider optimal and random LED/PD selection for benchmarking. In order to characterize the performance of each scheme, bounds and closed-form tight approximations on the average achievable sum rates are presented. The use of multi element nodes and NOMA increase the average sum rate significantly over conventional orthogonal access. Moreover, near-optimal throughput can be achieved using channel gain based and line-of-sight based LED/PD selection schemes in the medium-to-high transmit power regimes. The derived expressions are also useful to investigate the impact of key system and channel parameters such as the source transmit power, power allocation factor, node placement, and the number of elements at each node