Prisoners‟ rehabilitation in Sri Lanka

The problem of prisoners is a burden to current Sri Lanka as 1.5% of the totalpopulation of Sri Lanka are Srilankan prisoners, and the most important fact is that outof that percentage 46% are in between 20 to 30 years and 36.5% are imprisoned due todrug related matters. It is an obstacle for the current development of the society and thecountry, as the government has to allocate a large amount of funds from the budget forthe prisoners.The objective of the research is to introduce a new rehabilitation programme tocivilize the prisoners, value and develop their own skills for the benefit of the countryand release them to the society as good citizens.When the prisoners are released to the society there are more possibilities ofthem engaging again in criminal activities due to many reasons such as poverty, lack ofeducation, background and etc… That is why to prevent their re imprisonment and toadjust their mental formation and to start their lives through basic human requirementsprisoners‟ rehabilitation is needed. Though there is a current rehabilitation programmeconducts, it should be reviewed, restructured and reprogrammed through the vavles ofthe old programme and introduce new methods and techniques to the new society as adeveloping nation. It will be a better bench mark for the policy makers.Both quantitative and the qualitative methods will be used to gather theinformation. There will be two focus groups, such as current prisoners and releasedprisoners. With the permission from the prison department around 100 prisoners fromboth the categories will be interviewed inside the prison individually, confidentially andrespectfully. (LTTE prisoners are excepted from the research), The advice and theguidelines will be taken from the rehabilitation trainers and the scholars.Key words: Prisoners, Rehabilitation, Development, Training, Scholar

GARDINERIN, A BIOLOGICALLY ACTIVE ACETOGENIN FROM THE SRI LANKAN GONIOTHALAMUS GARDINERI HOOK. F. AND THOMSON

Objective: The study was undertaken to isolate biologically active compounds from Goniothalamus gardineri, a plant endemic to Sri Lanka. Methods: Roots and flowers of Goniothalamus gardineri were extracted into dichloromethane and methanol. A new acetogenin, gardinerin isolated by column chromatography of the dichloromethane extract was structurally characterized using NMR and Mass spectroscopies. It was found to be mosquito larvicidal (against 2nd instar larvae of Aedes aegypti), cytotoxic (in the brine shrimp assay) and antioxidant (DPPH assay). Results: Gardinerin exhibited potent mosquitolarvicidal activity (LC50 = 0.0744±0.37 ppm.), cytotoxicity (LC50 = 1.5±0.37 ppm) and antioxidant activity (IC50 =10.02±0.01 ppm). The same extract furnished (5R)-goniothalamin. The hexane extract of the flowers of G. gardineri yielded poriferesterol and stigmast-4, 22-dien-3-one.Conclusion: The endemic plant G. gardineri has yielded an acetogenin possessing highly potent antioxidant, cytotoxic and mosquitolarvicidal activity. Â

LOCATE: a mammalian protein subcellular localization database

LOCATE is a curated, web-accessible database that houses data describing the membrane organization and subcellular localization of mouse and human proteins. Over the past 2 years, the data in LOCATE have grown substantially. The database now contains high-quality localization data for 20% of the mouse proteome and general localization annotation for nearly 36% of the mouse proteome. The proteome annotated in LOCATE is from the RIKEN FANTOM Consortium Isoform Protein Sequence sets which contains 58 128 mouse and 64 637 human protein isoforms. Other additions include computational subcellular localization predictions, automated computational classification of experimental localization image data, prediction of protein sorting signals and third party submission of literature data. Collectively, this database provides localization proteome for individual subcellular compartments that will underpin future systematic investigations of these regions. It is available at http://locate.imb.uq.edu.au

Advances in Natural Language Question Answering: A Review

Question Answering has recently received high attention from artificial intelligence communities due to the advancements in learning technologies. Early question answering models used rule-based approaches and moved to the statistical approach to address the vastly available information. However, statistical approaches are shown to underperform in handling the dynamic nature and the variation of language. Therefore, learning models have shown the capability of handling the dynamic nature and variations in language. Many deep learning methods have been introduced to question answering. Most of the deep learning approaches have shown to achieve higher results compared to machine learning and statistical methods. The dynamic nature of language has profited from the nonlinear learning in deep learning. This has created prominent success and a spike in work on question answering. This paper discusses the successes and challenges in question answering question answering systems and techniques that are used in these challenges

Estimation of drag coefficient of trees considering the tree bending or overturning situations

Drag coefficients of a real tree trunk and the sheltering effects of an upstream trunk on a downstream one in a linear arrangement with different spacings and inclinations were investigated in detail. In addition, for elucidating the change of drag coefficient for an overturned tree, drag force acting on a real tree with roots was also measured in this study. For the measurement of drag force with different inclinations, Terminalia Cattapa and Albizia sp., vegetated in Sri Lanka, were selected in this study. Drag coefficient of inclined tree trunk has the similar tendency in relation to the Reynolds number with that of vertical standing tree investigated in Tanaka et al.(2011). For the vertical tree trunk with rough surface, drag coefficient of rear-side tree trunk was decreased with decreasing L/d (where, L is spacing and d is the diameter of trunk). In addition, as a result of mutual interference experiment of two inclined tree trunk, the drag coefficient of rear-side trunk decreased with the increase of the inclination. Under the influence of the increment of projected area due to existence of roots and shear force acting on tree trunk surface, the drag coefficient of a tree with roots became similar value (1.0-1.2) comparing with that of a vertical standing tree

Analysis of drag force characteristics of real trees with three different types of vegetation for bioshield in coast

This paper presents the experimental investigations on drag force characteristics of vegetation in mitigating the impact of tsunami and other surge effects by the resistance offered to the flow. The experiment was conducted in a laboratory towing tank of 50m x 2m x 2m. Three types of vegetation species used were the trees with small thin broad leaves (Wetakeyya), large broad leaves (Kottamba) and stick type leaves (Kasa). The drag force characteristics of the vegetations mainly depend on the differences in the distribution of foliation, different streamlining mechanism of the leaves against flow, the roughness and the shape of the tree trunk. Drag coefficient of vegetation varies with the flow velocity; the lower flow velocities show higher drag coefficients because of the maximum frontal projected area of the plant. The drag coefficients for the canopies show higher values for the Reynolds numbers less than 106. For canopies with large broad leaves (Kottamba), it ranges from 0.02 to 0.2. The drag coefficients for small thin broad leaves (Wetakeyya) and stick type leaves (Kasa) range from 0.1 to 1.7 and 0.18 to 0.7. Comparatively the drag coefficient of Wetakeyya is greater than Kottamba and Kasa at larger Reynolds numbers (Re > 106). Previous studies on vegetal drag are mainly focused on the single rigid cylinders and colony of rigid cylinders. The studies with single rigid cylinders show an almost linear relationship between drag force and square of the mean velocity of flow. However, the limited studies with natural flexible vegetation show a linear relationship between drag force and mean velocity. Drag coefficient for the trunks of above three types of trees were found less than the smooth cylinder for the region of Re > 60000. For this region the drag coefficient for Kasa trunk ranged in between 0.9 to 1.0 while for the smooth PVC pipe it ranged in between 1.2 – 1.4. For Kottamba it was in between 0.8 – 0.9 and for Wetakeyya it was around 0.6

The Secret Life of Collagen: Temporal Changes in Nanoscale Fibrillar Pre-Strain and Molecular Organization during Physiological Loading of Cartilage

Articular cartilage is a natural biomaterial whose structure at the micro- and nanoscale is critical for healthy joint function and where degeneration is associated with widespread disorders such as osteoarthritis. At the nanoscale, cartilage mechanical functionality is dependent on the collagen fibrils and hydrated proteoglycans that form the extracellular matrix. The dynamic response of these ultrastructural building blocks at the nanoscale, however, remains unclear. Here we measure time-resolved changes in collagen fibril strain, using small-angle X-ray diffraction during compression of bovine and human cartilage explants. We demonstrate the existence of a collagen fibril tensile pre-strain, estimated from the D-period at approximately 1–2%, due to osmotic swelling pressure from the proteoglycan. We reveal a rapid reduction and recovery of this pre-strain which occurs during stress relaxation, approximately 60 s after the onset of peak load. Furthermore, we show that this reduction in pre-strain is linked to disordering in the intrafibrillar molecular packing, alongside changes in the axial overlapping of tropocollagen molecules within the fibril. Tissue degradation in the form of selective proteoglycan removal disrupts both the collagen fibril pre-strain and the transient response during stress relaxation. This study bridges a fundamental gap in the knowledge describing time-dependent changes in collagen pre-strain and molecular organization that occur during physiological loading of articular cartilage. The ultrastructural details of this transient response are likely to transform our understanding of the role of collagen fibril nanomechanics in the biomechanics of cartilage and other hydrated soft tissues

Author Correction:A comprehensive analysis of chromosomal polymorphic variants on reproductive outcomes after intracytoplasmic sperm injection treatment

Correction to: Scientific Reports https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-28552-w, published online 24 January 202