The Problems and Constraints Faced by Small Scale and Informal Business Community in the Tourism Industry: A Case Study from Ella, Sri Lanka

Small scale and informal business sector in tourism is an effective mechanism which generates different advantages. It has come into existence as an important feature of peripheral tourist destinations. However, communities in such businesses confront different constraints which hinder their involvement. The main objective of this study was to analyze the issues and constraints faced by the small scale and informal business community of the Ella divisional secretariat division of the Badulla district. After a preliminary survey, this study area was selected. The total population (221) in the selected business sector was stratified into 13 categories and 90 respondents were selected by stratified random sampling method. Research techniques such as interviews and questionnaire surveys were employed for data collection. Qualitative techniques including the quotation and thematic analysis and quantitative techniques such as the methods of central tendency were employed for data analysis. The results of the study reveal that the small and informal businesses fall into 13 groups. The entrepreneurial characteristics identified were classified under the themes of the location and permanency of the business, source of capital and investment. The constraints were identified under 10 categories. Different measures have been introduced to eliminate such issues. However, there is a pressing need of carrying out an in-depth study to investigate these issues in detail and novel policies and plans are timely and significant to lessening the issues and constraints identified.http://doi.org/10.31357/fhss/vjhss.v05i02.0

An Analysis of Factors Causing Socio-Economic Impacts of The Urban Sprawl: A Case Study on Wattala-Mabole Urban Council Area and its Outskirts, Sri Lanka

Urban expansion in adjacent areas has been addressed by different dimensions depending on the context. Sri Lanka is gradually developing, and urban areas have mostly expanded in an unplanned manner resulting in uncontrolled urban sprawl in their new territories. Similarly, the Wattala-Mabole urban council area also has a site of urban sprawling. The main objective of this research is to identify and analyze the different factors which generate the socio-economic impacts of the urban sprawl in the study area. Further, the paper examines the challenges and opportunities of urban sprawl in the urban council and its surrounding areas. The methodological steps for the study include a questionnaire survey and interviews, and secondary data for the spatial analysis. Moreover, the spatial data have been analyzed through geographic information system applications. This study identified major factors of the urban sprawl which generate socio-economic impacts such as ‘monthly household income impacts the accommodation of the community, and unemployment causes robbery and illegal activities.’ Moreover, the rapid growth of urban council outskirts causes an increase in land value unaffordability. It was stated by the urban council that the service industries, warehouses, and massive production factories have utilized most of the low-lying lands in the outskirt area at comparatively low prices. Hence, this rejuvenated urban growth. Further, the study found that some people who are living in urban fringes gain economic benefits due to the urban sprawl by providing accommodations to the migrants, and having more business opportunities and demand for goods. However, both the urban and outskirt dwellers face socio-economic and environment related problems due to the urban sprawl. Thus, national and local governments should step ahead and implement policies to overcome the issues of the community. DOI: http://doi.org/10.31357/fhss/vjhss.v08i01.0

Power, politics and policy in the appropriation of urban wetlands: the critical case of Sri Lanka

Little is known about the drivers and governance strategies of appropriation of urban nature in the global south. We compare urban land-grabbing in the city of Colombo, Sri Lanka, with broader understanding of rural land-grabbing in the developing world. We show that the colonial legacy of appropriation and alteration of urban wetlands in Colombo has attained new heights in the neo-liberal period. This cyclical process has caused acute irreversible damage to the wetland ecosystem and a vast majority of the urban poor, with the marginalised continuing to suffer dispossession and environmental hazard. In recognition of the inherent limitations of 'uncontrollable' hybrid ecologies, potent social struggles have emerged to resist the continued appropriation agenda. As this cycle is perpetuated, broader social struggles for democratic urban governance have overtaken the pursuit of narrow political-economic goals and internal policy reform

The prevalence and correlates of depressive symptoms in patients with cancer treated in a Tertiary health care facility in Southern Sri Lanka

Depression is a common co-morbidity of cancer. Further, depression and cancer are significant public health issues. Depressive symptoms are found to cause deterioration of quality of life (QoL), leading to physical disabilities/impairments, poor drug adherence, prolonged hospitalization, shortened survival time and risk of suicides.  This study identified the prevalence of depressive symptoms and explored correlates of depressive symptoms among patients with cancer in Sri Lanka. A descriptive cross-sectional survey was conducted with a sample of 393 cancer patients undergoing treatment at a tertiary care hospital in Southern Sri Lanka. An interviewer-administered questionnaire and the Centre for Epidemiological Studies-Depression scale (CES-D) were used to collect information on prevalence and correlates of depressive symptoms. Basic descriptive statistics, independent t-test, and Pearson correlation coefficients were used in the statistical analysis. The mean age of the sample was 56 ±11.9 years and 59% were women. Elevated depressive symptoms (CES-D score ≥ 16) were found in 8.4% of the patients (95% CI: 5.3%, 10.7%).  Patients who reported having any form of impairments scored high on CES-D, compared to those with no physical impairments (p < 0.01). Patients with low income as well as those with low education had higher scores in CES-D scale. Depressive symptomatology appears to be a considerable health issue in this group.  Correlates of depressive symptoms include poor income, low education level, and self-reported physical impairments; these correlates need to be considered in psychological interventions of patients with cancer.         KEYWORDS: Cancer, CES-D, depressive symptoms, impairments, Sri Lanka &nbsp

A Model Based on Mechanics to Predict Settlements in Bioreactor Landfills

Prediction of waste settlement behavior during the construction phase of a landfill is vital to effective functioning of leachate recirculation systems and gas collection pipe network, yet prediction of waste settlement is complex and difficult to perform. Few models, are currently available which can be used to calculate landfill settlement of the entire waste thickness after closure without accounting for variation in density and other parameters with depth. By starting after closure, these models do not account for settlements during construction. The use of entire depth does not allow for the calculation of strains at different depths. When landfills are operated as bioreactors, waste decomposition and gas production are accelerated making the problem more complicated. Rapid degradation results in a significant impact on waste properties, settlement and stability. Accurate prediction of this rapid change in volume is of importance in estimating airspace, planning construction sequence, designing covers as well as planning for expansions. This paper focuses on the behavior of the density and settlements of waste with time and space and proposes a new mathematical model based on mechanics which is capable of computing settlements during construction of landfills. The impact of leachate recirculation and different waste types on settlement behavior of a landfill is also accounted in the proposed model

Women Empowerment through Cultural Tourism A Case Study in North Central Province of Sri Lanka

Cultural tourism is one of the fastest growing tourism niche markets in recentyears. It has received much attention in developing countries and economicallyimpoverished regions around the world, where it is being promoted and widely adoptedas a regional development strategy to contribute to the socioeconomic development ofthe lagging areas. At the same time, cultural tourism generates income, economic andsocial benefits for host communities living in rural and remote areas ensuring thewomen empowerment which is one of the dominated discussions at local and globalscales.The main objective of the paper is to analyse the contribution of cultural tourismfor women empowerment with particular reference to the North Central Province of SriLanka. Further, attention is given to analysis of women‟s involvement in culturaltourism activities.A representative sample of both cultural sites and rural villages with culturaltourism attractions and activities were selected for the detailed study. A 30 percentsample of host communities that are living within 02 km of surrounding areas fromselected research sites (villages and towns), were selected from each village usingrandom sample technique.Given the exploratory nature of the research, various research techniques like,field surveys, questionnaires, interviews, observations, group discussions, have beenemployed. Quantitative as well as qualitative analysis were used for data analysis.The overall findings of this study are that cultural tourism has contributed toentail optimal women representation in cultural tourism, women domestic improvement,entrepreneurial development, saving improvements, women representation in businesssector, women‟s right of decision making and the like. The findings of this investigationcan assist rural developers in the implementation of community development strategiesbased on women‟s empowerment.Key words: Cultural and rural tourism, Women empowermen

A Comprehensive Model for Anaerobic Degradation in Bio-Reactor Landfills

A new generation of sustainable landfill was designed and constructed in the City of Calgary, Canada to achieve sustainable municipal solid waste (MSW) management. This sustainable landfill called “biocell” involves sequential operation of a landfill cell to produce methane gas during the first stage of anaerobic degradation and in-situ composting within the cell footprint. Once methane recovery is minimal, the second stage aerobic degradation initiated by injecting air through methane recovery system and finally landfill is mined for resource and space recovery in the third stage. The resources that can be recovered include compost like material and recyclables such as plastics, metal, and glass. Non-recovered waste but with high energy content can be used as refuse derived fuel. The practice of this approach will no longer require the need to allocate valuable land for new landfills on an on-going basis. There is leachate re-circulation and environmental monitoring to enhance biodegradation in the biocell. The biocell eliminate problems of ground/surface water contamination, landfill gas emission and the need for new land to use for waste disposal. However, currently there is limited knowledge on landfill mining and in order to estimate the best time to initiate landfill mining a comprehensive mathematical model was developed. The model developed solves the mass and energy balance of waste decay, which computes the rate of gas generation, change of gas and gas flux through the system. This study focuses on anaerobic phase of biodegradation of biomass and the degradation of the biomass was assumed to follow first order kinetics. The decomposing bio mass is represented as cellulose for energy balance computation, which is a major constitution of the MSW. The degradation of bio mass due to micro-organisms generates methane, carbon dioxide and water as the final products and the reaction is exothermic. In this model using the decay of waste computed from mass balance and cellulose as equivalent chemical representing the waste a relationship between the mass degraded with time was established. The heat released due to anaerobic decay is computed and hence computes the increase in biocell temperature. Then selecting the representative decay constant for the computed biocell temperature, the decomposition of waste was computed for the next time step. The above computation is continued in order to obtain the landfill settlement, temperature and the movement of landfill gas and leachate

Tsunami hazards: impact mitigation characteristics of coastal vegetation

In the aftermath of the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004 the protection offered by coastal vegetation became evident in many countries affected and the role of coastal green belts in mitigating tsunami impacts has now been clearly recognized. Coastal green belts also attract attention as an environmental friendly and cost effective measure of impact mitigation. In this study, expanding the previous works conducted, further experiments were conducted to assess the energy dissipation and impact mitigation characteristics of coastal vegetation in detail. The resistance offered towards the flow which depends on the characteristics of individual plants and characteristics of the vegetation as a whole were assessed. Tests were conducted in a hydraulic flume in which vegetation was represented by geometrically similar small scale models. The energy dissipation of flow through vegetation was determined under steady flow conditions and reduction in inundation extent was assessed under unsteady flow conditions. Energy dissipation levels up to 48 % and inundation reduction levels up to 35 % were obtained in the experiments which clearly indicate the effectiveness of coastal green belts in tsunami impact mitigation. The dependence of the level of inundation reduction on the level of energy dissipation was also investigated

A Case Study of Assessing Button Bits Failure through Wavelet Transform Using Rock Drilling Induced Noise Signals

Finding the precise moment of button breakage of bits during drilling, with the experience of drill rig operators is a serious concern for modern vibrant mining industry. This research proposed a new methodology to find the failure of button using the sound generated by rock-bit interactions. The experiment is conducted by the video and sound data recorded during a drilling process in an underground mine, that uses a Sandvik AXERA7 twin boom jumbo drill rig and Polycrystalline diamond (PCD) tapered button bits. Signal analysis techniques such as Fourier transform and Wavelet transform are utilised to analyse the hectic noise signal recorded. The analysed results are shown that Wavelet Transform is much more effective in finding singularity points such as chipping or breakage of a button in compared to the Fourier Transform. The outcome of this analysis, which is the peak intensity at the breakage point, was correlated to the average intensity of the sound wave using moving average method. The results suggest that the noise generated during the drilling process can be used to detect the condition of the drill bit

Tuning the properties of complex transparent conducting oxides: role of crystal symmetry, chemical composition and carrier generation

The electronic properties of single- and multi-cation transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) are investigated using first-principles density functional approach. A detailed comparison of the electronic band structure of stoichiometric and oxygen deficient In$_2$O$_3$, $\alpha$- and $\beta$-Ga$_2$O$_3$, rock salt and wurtzite ZnO, and layered InGaZnO$_4$ reveals the role of the following factors which govern the transport and optical properties of these TCO materials: (i) the crystal symmetry of the oxides, including both the oxygen coordination and the long-range structural anisotropy; (ii) the electronic configuration of the cation(s), specifically, the type of orbital(s) -- $s$, $p$ or $d$ -- which form the conduction band; and (iii) the strength of the hybridization between the cation's states and the p-states of the neighboring oxygen atoms. The results not only explain the experimentally observed trends in the electrical conductivity in the single-cation TCO, but also demonstrate that multicomponent oxides may offer a way to overcome the electron localization bottleneck which limits the charge transport in wide-bandgap main-group metal oxides. Further, the advantages of aliovalent substitutional doping -- an alternative route to generate carriers in a TCO host -- are outlined based on the electronic band structure calculations of Sn, Ga, Ti and Zr-doped InGaZnO$_4$. We show that the transition metal dopants offer a possibility to improve conductivity without compromising the optical transmittance