VOLUNTARY ACTION OF A FIRM ON ENVIROMENT MANAGEMENT: AN EMPIRICAL ASSESSMENT ON SRI LANKAN FOOD PROCESSING FIRMS’ RESPONSE TO THE PRIVATE AND REGULATORY INCENTIVES

The effect of a set of private/market (i.e. financial implications, internal efficiency, market response) and public/non-market (i.e. government regulation, judiciary/legal system) incentives for a firm to act voluntarily on environmental quality is examined. It uses the levels of adoption of five solid waste management practices [SWMPs], namely: (1) 3R system; (2) Composting; (3) Good manufacturing practices; (4) Biogas unit, and (5) ISO 14000 by food processing sector in Sri Lanka in response to the prevalence of each incentive at the firm as the case. The data collected from 325 firms through in-depth interviews and site inspections and supported by a validated structured questionnaire were analyzed using the principles of Structural Equation Modeling. The “Analysis of Moment Structures” (AMOS) software was used to establish the relationships between the levels of adoption of SWMPs and the strength of each incentive. The results show that firms‟ response to environment is relatively low, i.e. 49.2% did not adopt a single practice, while only 28%, 12%, 7.4%, 3.1% and 0.3%, respectively, have adopted 1, 2, 3, 4 or all practices. Firms tend to adopt a higher number of SWMPs as the relative strength of an each incentive perceived by the decision maker of firm gets increases. Firms put a higher weight on the impact on regulation and legal system than the private incentives and the firm size has a substantial impact on its response to the environment. The results highlight the importance of bringing the current public regulatory regimes in developing countries like Sri Lanka towards co-regulation, which is practiced by developed countries like Australia and Canada to facilitate businesses to come up with own solutions for environmental and food quality, as the outcome of this analysis points out that firms‟ compliance to the recommended SWMP was not triggered satisfactorily by the private/voluntary action.Environment management, Food processing sector in Sri Lanka, Incentives, Regulation, Solid waste management, Voluntary adoption, Farm Management,

Theoretical studies on structural and decay properties of Z=119Z=119 superheavy nuclei

In this manuscript, we analyze the structural properties of $Z=119$ superheavy nuclei in the mass range of 284 $\le$ A $\le$ 375 within the framework of deformed relativistic mean field theory (RMF) and calculate the binding energy, radii, quadrupole deformation parameter, separation energies and density profile. Further, a competition between possible decay modes such as $\alpha-$decay, $\beta-$decay and spontaneous fission (SF) of the isotopic chain of $Z=119$ superheavy nuclei under study is systematically analyzed within self-consistent relativistic mean field model. Moreover, our analysis confirmed that $\alpha-$decay is restricted within the mass range 284 $\leq$ A $\leq$ 296 and thus being the dominant decay channel in this mass range. However, for the mass range 297 $\leq$ A $\leq$ 375 the nuclei are unable to survive fission and hence SF is the principal mode of decay for these isotopes. There is no possibility of $\beta-$decay for the considered isotopic chain. In addition, we forecasted the mode of decay $^{284-296}$119 as one $\alpha$ chain from $^{284}$119 and $^{296}$119, two consistent $\alpha$ chains from $^{285}$119 and $^{295}$119, three consistent $\alpha$ chains from $^{286}$119 and $^{294}$119, four consistent alpha chains from $^{287}$119, six consistent alpha chains from $^{288-293}$119. Also from our analysis we inferred that for the isotopes $^{264-266,269}$Bh both $\alpha$ decay and SF are equally competent and can decay via either of these two modes. Thus, such studies can be of great significance to the experimentalists in very near future for synthesizing $Z=119$ superheavy nuclei.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1611.00232, arXiv:1704.0315

Structural and decay properties of Z=132,138Z=132,138 superheavy nuclei

In this paper, we analyze the structural properties of $Z=132$ and $Z=138$ superheavy nuclei within the ambit of axially deformed relativistic mean-field framework with NL$3^{*}$ parametrization and calculate the total binding energies, radii, quadrupole deformation parameter, separation energies, density distributions. We also investigate the phenomenon of shape coexistence by performing the calculations for prolate, oblate and spherical configurations. For clear presentation of nucleon distributions, the two-dimensional contour representation of individual nucleon density and total matter density has been made. Further, a competition between possible decay modes such as $\alpha$-decay, $\beta$-decay and spontaneous fission of the isotopic chain of superheavy nuclei with $Z=132$ within the range 312 $\le$ A $\le$ 392 and 318 $\le$ A $\le$ 398 for $Z=138$ is systematically analyzed within self-consistent relativistic mean field model. From our analysis, we inferred that the $\alpha$-decay and spontaneous fission are the principal modes of decay in majority of the isotopes of superheavy nuclei under investigation apart from $\beta$ decay as dominant mode of decay in $^{318-322}138$ isotopes.Comment: 16 pages, 10 figures , 8 table

A Review of Biotechnological Artemisinin Production in Plants

Malaria is still an eminent threat to major parts of the world population mainly in sub-Saharan Africa. Researchers around the world continuously seek novel solutions to either eliminate or treat the disease. Artemisinin, isolated from the Chinese medicinal herb Artemisia annua, is the active ingredient in artemisinin-based combination therapies used to treat the disease. However, naturally artemisinin is produced in small quantities, which leads to a shortage of global supply. Due to its complex structure, it is difficult chemically synthesize. Thus to date, A. annua remains as the main commercial source of artemisinin. Current advances in genetic and metabolic engineering drives to more diverse approaches and developments on improving in planta production of artemisinin, both in A. annua and in other plants. In this review, we describe efforts in bioengineering to obtain a higher production of artemisinin in A. annua and stable heterologous in planta systems. The current progress and advancements provides hope for significantly improved production in plants

Formation of Medium-Heavy Elements in Rapid Neutron Capture Process

We predict the neutron drip-line and simulate the r—process path for Cu — Sn, based on the calculation of binding energy in the frame-work of relativistic and non-relativistic mean field formalisms. We also compare the quadrupole deformation parameterβ2, and one neutron separation energy Sn of these isotopic series with the results of finite range droplet model (FRDM) prediction. the results produced by RMF and ShF are comparable to each other and also agreeable with the FRDM model

Optimum shapes of a periodic array of isothermal pipes embedded in a slab subjected to uniform convection

The project's main objective is to obtain optimum shapes of a periodic array of isothermal pipes that maximize heat transfer. The pipes are embedded in a two-dimensional slab whose surfaces are subjected to uniform convection