Representation of Socio-cultural Authenticity in Post-colonial Sri Lankan Poetry in English

The criticisms of Sri Lankan Literature in English have emphasized the inherent inability of Sri Lankans to produce competently written poetry in the English language when compared with the native English standards. These critics have underrated or completely have overlooked the significant achievements and a substantial amount of high-quality English poetry which carries authentic Sri Lankan flavor. Only a handful of researches on Sri Lankan Poetry has investigated the “genuine Sri Lankanness” of the subject. This study investigated how the authentic Sri Lankan flavor is represented in Sri Lankan poetry in English which were subjected to timely socio-cultural movements. The Sinhala-Buddhist identity, the criticism of Tamil separatism, the suffering undergone by the Sinhalese in Lankan civil war are elucidated combined with a typically Sri Lankan flavor. The absence of researches on this particular aspect where the poets have employed the Sri Lankan flavor in their writing tempted the researcher to study the area in detail. A qualitative approach with a content, thematic and discourse analyses have been applied in this research in elucidating the areas of Sri Lankan flavor in the literary texts. The true Sri Lankanness represented in the literary texts of selected Sri Lankan authors representing areas such as relationships, politics, social contexts, religions as well as education have been investigated and emphasized in this study

Reasons behind the Passivity of Sri Lankan Youth on Eco-Consciousness

This paper explores the reasons behind the passivity of Sri Lankan youth on Eco Consciousness. Even though there are enough debates, researches and discussions about being conscious towards nature in Sri Lanka, the youth between 18-25 of age could be identified as apathetic or are as environmentally not savvy. Due to current Covid-19 pandemic situations they are more engrossed in internet since internet has overpowered the youth. With the emergence of new social media such as Instagram, Facebook etc., the Sri Lankan youth has totally neglected being close to nature and being sensitive towards environmental issues and crimes. Eco-consciousness among most Sri Lankans are visible only when certain environmental crisis comes into a discussion platform or forum. The actual eco-conscious population is either politically silenced or is totally fed up due to the lethargic responses from the responsible parties. Therefore, Eco criticism could be used in order to enhance their eco consciousness

The Impact of the Reading Habit on the Writing Skills of Primary Students

Rosli et al. (2018) suggested that reading is an attempt to comprehend the writer’s message, while Alnahdi and Aftab (2020) stated that it is a gateway to all other information, which may lead to understanding the world outside the text. Hence, Al-Jarf (2021) and Dadzie (2008) asserted that reading is a multifaceted cognitive process of comprehending words written in a textual form that allows readers to enhance their knowledge for personal growth and academic success. This study investigated the impact of the reading habit of the Grade Three students of a selected English Medium Private school, in Kandy, on their writing skills. Since reading lays the foundation for all the other skills in the English language, it is important to inculcate the reading habit from a young age. The research was carried out with a sample population of 30 students (from 03 classes), selected under the random sampling method. The class teachers of the three classes were also included in the study. The students were given a questionnaire that included 10 questions, under 4 criteria which would assess their level of reading habit. A separate questionnaire was given to the teachers that would assess the writing skill of the students under 04 criteria. Each questionnaire was then given scales to identify the level of reading habits as well as writing skills. The major findings of this study were that the students who have a good level of reading habits, have a good level of writing skills. The students who have a low level of reading habits, have a poor level of writing skills. It can be identified that reading is important to improve the writing skill of students. Inculcating reading habits within the student at a young age would help to create better writers for the future. Therefore, teachers should encourage students to improve their reading habits

Instrumentation of a Sewer Tunnel in Weak Singapore Soils

The effects of tunnelling in soft ground consisting mainly of Singapore marine clay were recently monitored to establish ground response characteristics. A sewer tunnel of 2.1 m square section was driven at a depth of 6.3 m in this soil by jacking conventional shield and face supports against installed timber lining. Ground response was monitored by an assortment of field instruments read over several weeks\u27 duration. Peck\u27s proposal (1969) of fitting a normal distribution profile to lateral surface settlement field plots when a heading is well past, and the suggestion by Oshikoshi et al 0978) that similar profiles may be drawn across an error function fitted to longitudinal surface settlement field plots, have been confirmed for the site. In addition, similar relationships to the above were found to apply with depth. Thus, taking into account Lo\u27 s (1982) determination of standard deviation and ground loss volume for marine clay based on the relationships proposed by Peck (1969) and Yoshikoshi et al (1980), it should, in principle, be possible to determine the vertical ground displacement pattern associated with any tunnel excavation in this soil

Species Composition of Odonate Fauna in Meegahawatta, a Wetland Area in Hanwella, Sri Lanka

Approximately 120 species of Odonata (Zygoptera and Anisoptera) have been recorded in SriLanka to date. There are many gaps in our knowledge of Odonata taxonomy and distribution. The presentstudy, therefore, was carried out to investigate adult Odonata species present in Meegahawatta area(1000m2) in Hanwella. The study was carried out using two fixed quadrats (20m x 10m) randomlyestablished in two selected sites. Total number of individuals belonging to each species was countedfortnightly by using binoculars. A total of 27 species, 11 Zygoptera and 16 Anisoptera representing eightfamilies were recorded. This comprised of three endemic Zygopteran species (Libellago adami,Pseudagrion rubiceps ceylonicum and Prodasineura sita) and three endemic anisopteran species(Epopthalmia vittata cyanocephala, Cyclogomphus gynostylus and Macrogomphus lankanensis). Amongthose identified was one recently discovered and yet un-described Archibasis species. Of the threeendemic Anisopteran species recorded, C. gynostylus and M. lankanensis are listed as vulnerable speciesin the IUCN Redlist of 2010. Although the Zygopterans showed higher Diversity Index and EvennessIndex (H’= 1.99, E= 0.83) than the Anisopterans (H’=1.96, E= 0.32), their Richness Index (R=1.67) wasless than that of the Anisopterans (R= 2.49). The most common Zygopteran species recorded wasPseudagrion malabaricum whereas Neurothemis tulia tulia was the most common anisopteran species

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

Deterministic processes vary during community assembly for ecologically dissimilar taxa

The continuum hypothesis states that both deterministic and stochastic processes contribute to the assembly of ecological communities. However, the contextual dependency of these processes remains an open question that imposes strong limitations on predictions of community responses to environmental change. Here we measure community and habitat turnover across multiple vertical soil horizons at 183 sites across Scotland for bacteria and fungi, both dominant and functionally vital components of all soils but which differ substantially in their growth habit and dispersal capability. We find that habitat turnover is the primary driver of bacterial community turnover in general, although its importance decreases with increasing isolation and disturbance. Fungal communities, however, exhibit a highly stochastic assembly process, both neutral and non-neutral in nature, largely independent of disturbance. These findings suggest that increased focus on dispersal limitation and biotic interactions are necessary to manage and conserve the key ecosystem services provided by these assemblages