Stock Market Measures and Market Performance

Sri Lanka is considered a highly fluctuating economy in the South Asian region. It is vital to understand the behavior of economy in order to obtain the maximum benefit. Stock market can be considered as one of the key influencers to the economy whereas the behavior of the stock market would highly define the behaviors of the overall economic system. It is required to identify the stock market measures and their contribution for the market development in order to identify the influence of stock market.The immense importance of its actions on the market performance leads to find more about the stock market’s measures. This research contains the evidence of the study conducted to identify the development of the stock market along with the behavior of the stock market measures such as all share price index, market capitalization, dividend yield, price to earnings ratio and shares traded equity.  All of these variables were used to obtain a model to describe and predict performance of stock market over the time.This study is based on the secondary data obtained from the CSE (Colombo Stock Exchange). A trend analysis was conducted for each series of data and results were used for the analysis carried on from there. Unit root test was performed to ensure the stationarity of the data. Then, a time series regression model and Granger causality tests were used to identify the relationship between the measures of stock market. Major finding of the study depicts that all the measures of the stock market have influences on the stock market development except for the dividend yield. These findings are useful in the process of decision making in many aspects.

RFID-Based Wireless Multi-Sensory System for Simultaneous Dynamic Acceleration and Strain Measurements of Civil Infrastructure

© 2001-2012 IEEE. In this paper, we develop a radio frequency identification (RFID)-based wireless multi-sensory infrastructure health monitoring (IHM) system that can simultaneously measure dynamic acceleration and strain. The system consists of a novel multi-sensor integrated semi-passive ultra-high frequency (UHF) tag antenna that can be mounted on civil infrastructure elements; even made out of metal. The system is capable of measuring 3-axis dynamic acceleration and strain with spectral bandwidths of 40 Hz and 26.5 Hz, respectively. The natural frequency determination of infrastructure by the dynamic acceleration and strain measurements of the proposed system is accurate to 60 mHz. Benchmarking of the RFID-based wireless multi-sensory system is provided by comprehensive comparison of the results with measurements from a commercial wireless strain measurement system. The proposed system has 30 mHz natural frequency determination error when compared with dynamic strain measurement from the commercial system

Phenolic and polyphenolic compounds of wheat (Triticum spp.): extraction and antioxidative properties

Phenolic and polyphenolic compounds were extracted from wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) in order to assess their biological activity under different in vitro conditions. The effects of primary processing such as milling and pearling were also examined. The antioxidant capacity of wheat was evaluated using a number of in vitro assays based on scavenging of several free radicals and reactive oxygen species (ROS) and control of lipid and DNA oxidation. -- The optimum conditions for the extraction of crude phenolics from whole grain and bran of soft and hard wheats were determined using response surface methodology (RSM). A face-centred cubic design (FCD) was used to investigate the effects of three independent variables, namely solvent composition (%), extraction temperature (°C) and time (min) on the response, that is the total antioxidant capacity (TAC). Although the optimum extraction conditions were established, in the interest of operational costs related to energy consumption, phenolics were generally extracted using 80% aqueous ethanol for prolonged periods at low temperatures. Crude phenolics extracted with 80% aqueous ethanol yielded 75-80% antioxidant activity as compared to that under optimum conditions. The extractability of phenolics from wheat under simulated gastric pH conditions revealed that pH treatment facilitated the extraction of phenolics. In the latter study wheat phenolics of non-treated and treated samples were extracted into water. The antioxidant activity of treated samples was much higher than that of non-treated samples. Phenolics extracted belonged to the free, soluble esters and insoluble-bound fractions. Soluble esters of phenolics and insoluble-bound phenolics were extracted after alkaline hydrolysis of samples. The contribution of bound phenolics to the total phenolic content was significantly higher than that of free and esterified fractions. In the in vitro antioxidant assays, the bound phenolic fraction demonstrated a significantly higher antioxidant capacity than free and esterified phenolics. In all experiments detailed above, two commercial samples of soft (70% Canadian Eastern soft red spring and 30% Canadian Eastern soft white winter) and hard (90% Canadian Western hard red spring and 10% Canadian Eastern hard red winter) wheat mixtures were used. The antioxidant potential of the milling fractions examined decreased in the order of bran > whole grain > flour. Most of the phenolics were concentrated in the bran and these were not available for analysis under normal extraction conditions. -- The effects of primary processing, namely pearling and milling, on the phenolic content and antioxidant capacity were determined using two wheat cultivars, namely CWAD (Canadian Western Amber Durum; Triticum turgidum L. var. durum) and CWHRS (Canadian Western hard red spring; Triticum aestivum L.). After pearling the phenolic content and antioxidant capacity in the grains were significantly decreased. As the degree of pearling was increased there was a gradual decrease in the phenolic content and hence the corresponding antioxidant capacity in the resultant pearled product. The by-products resulting from 10-20% pearling possessed the greatest antioxidant capacity. Among different milling fractions the bran had the highest phenolic contents while the endosperm possessed the lowest and this was also reflected in antioxidant capacity of different milling fractions in the two cultivars. -- The HPLC analysis of commercial wheat mixtures revealed that ferulic acid was the predominant phenolic acid while in the pure cultivars examined sinapic acid was the major phenolic acid. This study demonstrated the importance of bran in the antioxidant activity of wheat, hence consumption of wheat as whole grains may render beneficial health effects

Rickettsioses in Sri Lanka – A mini review

Rickettsioses are a group of vector-borne diseases that have come to the limelight in Sri Lanka during the last two decades. Evidence for spotted fever group rickettsioses, scrub typhus and other related diseases have been reported from Sri Lanka in a geographically restricted manner.  This review summarizes the work done locally, that are publicly accessible as of 24th November 2018 with keyword searches ‘rickettsioses and Sri Lanka’, and ‘typhus and Sri Lanka’, on PubMed and Google Scholar. There is a considerable body of literature on rickettsioses in Sri Lanka, particularly as a result of collaborations with international research groups. These indicate that rickettsioses are found throughout the country, in a geographically restricted manner

Molecular Characterization of Circulating Microbiome Signatures in Rheumatoid Arthritis

Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) has been increasingly associated with perturbations to the microbial communities that reside in and on the body (the microbiome), in both human and animal studies. To date, such studies have mainly focused on the microbial communities that inhabit the gut and oral cavity. Mounting evidence suggests that microbial DNA can be detected in the blood circulation using a range of molecular methods. This DNA may represent an untapped pool of biomarkers that have the potential to report on changes to the microbiome of distant sites (e.g., example, the gut and oral cavity). To this end, through amplification and sequencing of the bacterial 16S rRNA variable region four, we evaluated the presence and identity of microbial DNA in blood samples obtained from RA patients (both prior to and 3 months following the instigation of treatment) in comparison to a small number of healthy control subjects and samples obtained from patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and psoriatic arthritis (PA). Bacterial-derived DNA was identified in the majority of our patient samples. Taxonomic classification revealed that the microbiome community in RA was distinct from AS, PA, and the healthy state. Through analysis of paired patient samples obtained prior to and 3 months following treatment (V0 vs. V3), we found the microbiome to be modulated by treatment, and in many cases, this shift reduced the distance between these samples and the healthy control samples, suggesting a partial normalization following treatment in some patients. This effect was especially evident in seronegative arthritis patients. Herein, we provide further evidence for the existence of a blood microbiome in health and identify specific taxa modulated in disease and following treatment. These blood-derived signatures may have significant utility as disease biomarkers and suggest this area warrants further investigation

Numerical Modeling of Nonhomogeneous Behavior of Structured Soils during Triaxial Tests

The nonhomogeneous behavior of structured soils during triaxial tests has been studied using a finite element model based on the Structured Cam Clay constitutive model with Biot-type consolidation. The effect of inhomogeneities caused by the end restraint is studied by simulating drained triaxial tests for samples with a height to diameter ratio of 2. It was discovered that with the increase in degree of soil structure with respect to the same soil at the reconstituted state, the inhomogeineities caused by the end restraint will increase. By loading the sample at different strain rates and assuming different hydraulic boundary conditions, inhomogeneities caused by partial drainage were investigated. It was found that if drainage is allowed from all faces of the specimen, fully drained tests can be carried out at strain rates about ten times higher than those required when the drainage is allowed only in the vertical direction at the top and bottom of the specimen, confirming the findings of previous studies. Both end restraint and partial drainage can cause bulging of the triaxial specimen around mid-height. Inhomogeneities due to partial drainage influence the stress–strain behavior during destructuring, a characteristic feature of a structured soil. With an increase in the strain rate, the change in voids ratio during destructuration reduces, but, in contrast, the mean effective stress at which destructuration commences was found to increase. It is shown that the stress–strain behavior of the soil calculated for a triaxial specimen with inhomogeneities, based on global measurements of the triaxial response, does not represent the true constitutive behavior of the soil inside the test specimen. For most soils analyzed, the deviatoric stress based on the global measurements is about 25% less than that for the soil inside the test specimen, when the applied axial strain is about 30%. Therefore it can be concluded that the conventional global measurements of the sample response may not accurately reflect the true stress–strain behavior of a structured soil. This finding has major implications for the interpretation of laboratory triaxial tests on structured soils

Towards the development of an integrated ethical decision-making framework for Sri Lankan accountants: A developing country context

The rash of corporate collapses, fraud, and corrupt activities seen all around the world in recent years has not only provoked criticism of accountants, but also prompted researchers world-wide to increasingly turn their attention to the ethical decision-making process. Sri Lanka, the focus of this thesis, has a unique culture; on the one hand, it flourishes within Buddhism, while, on the other, it is one of the world’s most corrupt nations. Given that setting, the overarching research objective guiding this study is to develop an integrated ethical decision-making framework for the accounting profession in Sri Lanka, a developing country. Drawing from Rest’s (1986) four-component model, the study attempts to understand the ethical decision-making process of Sri Lankan accountants. A number of other extant models/frameworks and ethical philosophies were used as theoretical lenses in conjunction with Rest’s model to interpret the findings. The study took a mixed methods approach to create a research framework. Written and video vignettes developed specifically for the study, data collected through 40 semistructured interviews, and a questionnaire survey completed by 315 accountants formed the foundation of this framework. In the process of developing an integrated ethical decision-making framework for Sri Lankan accountants, the study achieved three subobjectives and addressed seven research questions. The study’s first research subobjective is achieved by exploring the nature of ethics and the ethical decision-making of Sri Lankan accountants. While the accountants who participated in this study have different opinions about ethics and ethical decision-making, the majority agree on three key points: ethics is a complex topic; it plays a crucial role in their decision-making; and, the accountant’s role is challenging, given the corrupt environment in Sri Lanka. The aim of the second research subobjective is to examine the association between ethical philosophies and the decisions of Sri Lankan accountants. The rationales accountants offered for the decisions they made were interpreted using a number of ethical philosophies which were included in the study’s framework of analysis. The finding that Sri Lankan accountants’ decision-making centres primarily, not only on various rules, rights, justice, and deontological principles, but also on religious ethics, represents a unique finding. The third research subobjective is accomplished by contributing to the literature on the impact individual, organisational, professional, and moral intensity factors exert on the ethical decision-making of Sri Lankan accountants. As have prior studies, this study also finds that the role of these factors is mixed and inconclusive in the context of Sri Lanka, a developing country. This thesis’ overarching research objective of developing an integrated ethical decision-making framework for the Sri Lankan accounting profession is achieved in three ways: through the framework of analysis; the ethical decision-making checklist; and, the recommendations that accompany the framework of analysis. This study makes both methodological and theoretical contributions. At a methodological level, the study developed customised vignettes in written and video form to stimulate the participants’ responses to the issue of ethical decision-making. In addition, the incorporation of video vignettes into the interview process marks one of the study’s distinctive and innovative contributions to methodological knowledge. At the theoretical level, the findings contribute to the literature by offering an integrated ethical decision-making framework for Sri Lankan accountants. In making that contribution, this thesis argues that ethical decision-making constitutes a “wicked problem” in Sri Lanka, a context in which corruption is pervasive