MODELLING AGRO·FORESTRY SYSTEMS FOR IMPROVED ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE: A COMPARATIVE ECONOMIC ANALYSIS

Despite promising ecological features of various agro-Iorestry systems, adoption or thesesystems by farmers is not always encouraging. This is not surprising. as fanners areoperating in a highly competitive commercial environment. where priority is given toeconomic goals rather than environmental goals. One solution is to develop AF modelswith species combinations that generate economic returns comparable to competingenterprises. simultaneously with environmental benefits.The main objective of the current study is to investigate species combinations withimproved economic performance. Here two AF practices in Sri Lanka, namely, coconutinter cropping and avenue cropping based on Gliricidia were considered. lnformationgathered both from primary and secondary sources were used in the study. A number ofpotential crops were categorized according to their income generating and resourceutilisation patterns. Among them, there are perennials, semi perennials as well as seasonalcrops. Two AF models were developed using Linear Programming technique. Modelsproposed jak, banana, pepper and coffee as the inter cropping combination which gives thehighest economic performance under coconut based systems. In case of avenue croppingwith Gliricidia, number of legumes and cereals along with banana was selected as theoptimum combination. The economic performance of the developed models were assessedby cost-benefit analysis and their implications on a selected set of economic parametershave been discussed.The whole exercise shows that, species combination of a system is an important aspectwhich determines the economic performance of the system. It further suggests that speciescombination can be manipulated to generate models with desired economic characteristics.Therefore, challenge ahead is to design models with species combinations that find ahalance between economic and environmental objectives.

What is the association between childhood adversity and subsequent chronic pain in adulthood? A systematic review

Funding: NHS Education for Scotland. KN was academic fellow from 2018 to 2022. SEEM was funded through an academic clinical fellowship from the Scottish Government's Chief Scientist Office (CSO grant number CAF_17_06). DS is a fellow on the Multimorbidity Doctoral Training Programme for Health Professionals, which is supported by the Wellcome Trust [grant number 223499/Z/21/Z].Background Adverse childhood experiences and chronic pain are complex problems affecting millions of people worldwide, and result in significant healthcare utilisation. Our review aimed to determine known associations between adversity in childhood and chronic pain in adulthood. Methods We performed a prospectively registered systematic review (PROSPERO ID: 135625). Six electronic databases (Pubmed, Medline, Cochrane, Scopus, APA PsycNet, Web of Science) were searched from January 1, 2009 until May 30, 2022. Titles and abstracts were screened, and all original research studies examining associations between adverse childhood experiences and chronic pain in adulthood were considered for inclusion. Full texts were reviewed, and a narrative synthesis was used to identify themes from extracted data. Ten percent of studies were dual reviewed to assess inter-rater reliability. Quality assessment of study methodology was undertaken using recognised tools. Results Sixty-eight eligible studies describing 196 130 participants were included. Studies covered 15 different types of childhood adversity and 10 different chronic pain diagnoses. Dual reviewed papers had a Cohen's kappa reliability rating of 0.71. Most studies were of retrospective nature and of good quality. There were consistent associations between adverse childhood experiences and chronic pain in adulthood, with a ‘dose’-dependent relationship. Poor mental health was found to mediate the detrimental connection between adverse childhood experiences and chronic pain. Conclusion A strong association was found between adverse childhood experiences and chronic pain in adulthood. Adverse childhood experiences should be considered in patient assessment, and early intervention to prevent adverse childhood experiences may help reduce the genesis of chronic pain. Further research into assessment and interventions to address adverse childhood experiences is needed.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

CHANGING LAND USES AND RAPID DECLINE OF FOREST COVER THE ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVE

Sri Lanka provides a classic example for rapid tropical deforestation. Just over a period of;1 century. its forest cover has been reduced to a quarter of what it used to he.Consequences of this degradation process have been discussed widely. However, littleattention was directed to identify the causes and nature of this process in detailed manner.Therefore this paper attempts to identify and discuss some of the important causal factorsresponsible for decline of the forest cover in the country. The main objective of thisexercise is to derive useful policy implications that arc important for sustainablemanagement of forest resources .A wide variety of factors could be identified as causal factors of this trend. Broadly, theyGill be catcgoriscd as physical and socio-economic factors. The paper direct its attentionmainly towards socio-economic factors associated with agricultural development efforts ofthe country.The history of deforestation was traced in relation to the historical evolution of policiesresponsible for expansion of agricultural land uses in the country. Emergence ofcompeting uses for forestlands and other economic activities were reviewed comparatively,giving attention to development priorities of different time periods. Simultaneously, itdraws from variety of sources on demographic and socio-economic development of thecountry too. The factors that arc important in national and local scales also werediscussed.Rased on the above exercise. some policy implications were derived. They arc discussed inthe context of priorities of the forest policy identified by the Forestry Sector master Plan(1995). Some rccomrncnd.uions also were made based on the findings of the study.

Low Serum Paraoxonase; A Risk Factor for Coronary Artery Disease?

Objective: Serum Paraoxonase (PON) is a calcium dependent esterase which hydrolyses organophosphates. However, evidence exists for protective effect of PON against oxidative damage. PON has three genetic polymorphism (PON-1, PON-2, PON-3). The PON-1 has shown to provide resistance to development of atherosclerosis by protecting lipoprotein against oxidative modifications. Therefore, a study was performed to assess the relationship between Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) and PON-1 activity. Methods: A comparative cross-sectional study was performed with 33 angiogram positive patients and 48 healthy volunteers. Blood samples were collected after a 10 hours fast from controls and from patients who were awaiting angiogram test. Samples were analyzed for PON-1 activity using ELISA method. Data were analyzed using SPSS 15.0 statistical software. Results: The PON-1 concentration of angiogram positive cases and healthy volunteers (controls) were in the range 7.9 – 78.7 ug/ml and 14.9 – 395.2 ug/ml respectively. Angiogram positive cases showed significantly low (mean 36.7 ug/ml; P < 0.05) PON-1 activity when compared to controls (mean 111.5 ug/ml) suggesting that the low PON-1 activity has a potential to lead to an increased risk of CAD. Conclusion: The PON-1 activity may be a useful sensitive marker for assessment of CAD

Blockchain and smart contracts : a solution for payment issues in construction supply chains

The construction industry has dynamic supply chains with multiple suppliers usually engaged in short-term relationships. Government legislation, novel types of payment agreements, conventional information technology solutions, and supply chain management best practices have endeavoured to solve payment-related financial issues in the construction industry, which are mainly caused by the complexities of the construction supply chain. Nevertheless, payment-related issues persist as one of the key challenges in the industry. Applications of blockchain technology–a trusted, distributed data storing mechanism–along with smart contracts are gaining focus as solutions for complex interorganisational processes. A smart contract is a self-executing script that codifies a set of rules or agreements between multiple parties and runs across the blockchain network. This paper identifies the suitability of blockchain and smart contract technologies in solving payment issues in the construction industry. An expert forum of construction industry stakeholders served as the primary data collection method through a structured questionnaire. The key finding of the paper is that blockchain and smart contract powered solutions can significantly mitigate the payment and related financial issues in the construction industry, including partial payments, nonpayments, cost of finance, long payment cycle, retention, and security of payments

IMPACT OF HOUSEHOLD ECONOMIC FACTORS ON INCOME AND SPECIES DIVERSITY OF KANDYAN HOMEGARDENS

Being a highly popular agricultural land use with lot of promising ecological features,Kandyan Home Gardens (KHGs) have strong economic and social functional relationshipswith the occupants. Most homegardens have been developed out of long term efforts ofhousehold members which often extend to multiple generations. Wide variety andadaptation found in homegardens even within relatively small areas with approximatelysimilar agro climatic and physiographic conditions strongly indicate the high influence ofsocio economic factors on composition and structure of homegardens. Unless vital socioeconomic relationships involved with homegardens are properly understood, achievingbroad policy objectives could become a difficult task. Therefore this study attempts toinvestigate some of the socio economic relationships associated with KHGs.Data collection has been done by conducting a survey in 3 villages in Kandy district usinga structured questionnaire. Information related to important physical features ofhomegardens and socio economic aspects of households have been gathered. Based on thegathered information two multiple regression models have been developed to elaborate onfactors influencing the income obtained from homegardens and number of species found inhomegardens.Results show monetary income from the homegarden has shown statistically significantpositive relationships with size of land, capital used, family labour and number of species.This indicates that in households with high resource endowments homegardens tend to bemore commercially productive. Income from other sources has shown a negativerelationship with the income from homegardens. The second model shows someinteresting results which has important implications related to bio diversity of the system.Land extent, domestically used subsistent outputs and number of family members hasshown positive relationships with number of species found in the homegardens. Capitalused has shown a significant negative relationship. This indicates that as the resourcemanagement is shifted towards more capital intensive forms from subsistent forms it canlead to reduce the bio diversity of the system. This is a very important implication whichshould be considered seriously in any policy related to use as homegardens.We can conclude that as homegarden management orients more towards intensive formsit has the potential to increase the income. However this could lead to deterioration of thespecies profile of the system. Therefore, the challenge for policy is to find a balancebetween ecological sustainability and economic viability of the system.

Use of a rapid diagnostic test to detect cutaneous leishmaniasis in Sri Lanka

Objectives: This study was initiated to determine the sensitivity and specificity of a commercially available rapid diagnostic test (RDT) to detect leishmania antigen in cutaneous leishmaniasis(CL) skin lesions among Sri Lankan patients compared to PCR and Slit skin smear(SSS).Methods: Patients clinically suggestive of CL lesions were subjected to parasitological investigations. The clinical history was collected by the researcher. Samples were collected by a qualified trained medical officer from the suspected CL lesions at the dermatology clinic in the Hambantota hospital and from the patients coming to the Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Sri Jayewardenepura. RDT was done at the Hambantota hospital and samples were brought to the Department of Parasitology, to perform SSS, PCR and cultures.Results: Fifty samples have been collected thus far and PCR was performed only in 48 samples. Out of the 50 samples only 9 were positive by RDT and 32 by SSS and PCR. The 9 samples that were positive for RDT were positive by SSS and 7 positive by PCR. Of the 41 samples that were negative by RDT, 16 were negative by PCR as well as SSS.Conclusions: From the data collected it can concluded that RDT is not the best method to diagnose CL skin lesions in patients in Sri Lanka. Also it confirms that the best method to diagnose leishmaniasis is PCR

Additive growth inhibitory effects of ibandronate and antiestrogens in estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer cell lines

INTRODUCTION: Bisphosphonates are inhibitors of osteoclast-mediated tumor-stimulated osteolysis, and they have become standard therapy for the management of bone metastases from breast cancer. These drugs can also directly induce growth inhibition and apoptosis of osteotropic cancer cells, including estrogen receptor-positive (ER+) breast cancer cells. METHODS: We examined the anti-proliferative properties of ibandronate on two ER+ breast cancer cell lines (MCF-7 and IBEP-2), and on one ER negative (ER-) cell line (MDA-MB-231). Experiments were performed in steroid-free medium to assess ER regulation and the effect of ibandronate in combination with estrogen or antiestrogens. RESULTS: Ibandronate inhibited cancer cell growth in a dose- and time-dependent manner (approximate IC(50): 10(-4 )M for MCF-7 and IBEP-2 cells; 3 × 10(-4 )M for MDA-MB-231 cells), partly through apoptosis induction. It completely abolished the mitogenic effect induced by 17β-estradiol in ER+ breast cancer cells, but affected neither ER regulation nor estrogen-induced progesterone receptor expression, as documented in MCF-7 cells. Moreover, ibandronate enhanced the growth inhibitory action of partial (4-hydroxytamoxifen) and pure (ICI 182,780, now called fluvestrant or Faslodex™) antiestrogens in estrogen-sensitive breast cancer cells. Combination analysis identified additive interactions between ibandronate and ER antagonists. CONCLUSION: These data constitute the first in vitro evidence for additive effects between ibandronate and antiestrogens, supporting their combined use for the treatment of bone metastases from breast cancer

The bisphosphonate zoledronic acid impairs membrane localisation and induces cytochrome c release in breast cancer cells

Bisphosphonates are well established in the management of cancer-induced bone disease. Recent studies have indicated that these compounds have direct inhibitory effects on cultured human breast cancer cells. Nitrogen-containing bisphosphonates including zoledronic acid have been shown to induce apoptosis associated with PARP cleavage and DNA fragmentation. The aim of this study was to identify the signalling pathways involved. Forced expression of the anti-apoptotic protein bcl-2 attenuated bisphosphonate-induced loss of cell viability and induction of DNA fragmentation in MDA-MB-231 cells. Zoledronic acid-mediated apoptosis was associated with a time and dose-related release of mitochondrial cytochrome c into the cytosol in two cell lines. Rescue of cells by preincubation with a caspase-3 selective inhibitor and demonstration of pro-caspase-3 cleavage products by immunoblotting suggests that at least one of the caspases activated in response to zoledronic acid treatment is caspase-3. In both MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7 breast cancer cells, zoledronic acid impaired membrane localisation of Ras indicating reduced prenylation of this protein. These observations demonstrate that zoledronic acid-mediated apoptosis is associated with cytochrome c release and consequent caspase activation. This process may be initiated by inhibition of the enzymes in the mevalonate pathway leading to impaired prenylation of key intracellular proteins including Ras