A high performance test of differential gene expression for oligonucleotide arrays

Logit-t employs a logit-transformation for normalization followed by statistical testing at the probe-level. Using four publicly-available datasets, together providing 2,710 known positive incidences of differential expression and 2,913,813 known negative incidences, performance of statistical tests were: Logit-t provided 75% positive-predictive value, compared with 5% for Affymetrix Microarray Suite 5, 6% for dChip perfect match (PM)-only, and 9% for Robust Multi-array Analysis at the p < 0.01 threshold. Logit-t provided 70% sensitivity, Microarray Suite 5 provided 46%, dChip provided 53% and Robust Multi-array Analysis provided 63%

Gender and syllabus based study approaches and academic performances

The objective of the study was to examine the impact of gender-wise and syllabus-wise study approaches in academic performances of high school students. Study involved ninety high school students (45 girls, and 45 boys) randomly selected from two high schools in Galle, and Gampaha, Sri Lanka. Study process of respondents was measured by employing the ‘revised two-factor Study Process Questionnaire’ of Biggs et.al (2001). Descriptive and inferential analyses of data were conducted by using the SPSS software. The Study Approaches (including study motives, and study strategies) employed by respondents during the study process were examined. Relationships were tested among study process variables pertaining to the gender, and syllabus of respondents and their academic performances. High School girls have indicated deeper study methodologies in comparison to the boys. Science stream students recorded deeper study methodologies, and Arts stream students recorded surface study methodologies. Girls recorded superior examination results over boys. A positive relationship was found between the surface study approach and Academic performances of girls. Study highlights the necessity of defining, and applying integrated study process approaches, and evaluation techniques for the vitality of education. © 2012, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague. All rights reserved.Internal Grant Agency of FaME TBU [IGA/FaME/2012/038

Modeling study of sea ice for the Northern Sea Route: toward the short-term prediction

第4回極域科学シンポジウム横断セッション：[IA] 「急変する北極気候システム及びその全球的な影響の総合的解明」―GRENE北極気候変動研究事業研究成果報告2013―11月12日（火） 国立極地研究所 ２階大会議

Potential of simplified hydroponics technology as a resource efficient urban household food production system

Low cost appropriate technologies for efficient food production are very much in need for increasing population to grow their own food. Simplified hydroponics is an aggregate hydroponics system which can be used with limited resources such as space, water, energy, labor, time, cost etc. This technology is based on minimal inputs, requiring no green houses, commercial energy sources or expensive equipment. Simplified hydroponics systems are built with recycled or discarded wooden or plastic containers (boxes) filled with inert growing media, having a hole (about 1.5 cm above the bottom) on the container wall which helps to retain water and nutrients. This serves as a water and nutrient store for the plants, minimizing the wastage and also preventing environment pollution as there is no run off. Therefore, hand watering once a day with hydroponics nutrient is sufficient. The low input of labor has enabled this technology to be used by even physically and mentally challenged. This technology has now been adopted in twelve Latin American and African countries and International experience indicate that using simplified hydroponics technology, a 40 m2 space can provide a family of four with 500 calories each day, or over a pound of fresh vegetables for each. Therefore, it would be very much useful to test the potential of simplified hydroponics for urban food production in Sri Lanka as an appropriate, affordable, and accessible technology option. Three pilot projects have been conducted in Sri Lanka using a new nutrient formula developed by us and patented. The first project was to identify the suitability of simplified hydroponics system for the mentally ill and was conducted at Ridiyagama Mental Health Rehabilitation Centre. Twenty vegetable beds have been successfully managed by the mentally ill for a period of six months. The second project was conducted to test the adaptability of this technology to communities in Hambantota District involving ten households having limited space, for a period of six months, and was successfully completed. The third one was to quantify the space efficiency and to identify the suitability of the system to grow local crops utilizing a balcony space at Nugegoda. The results show that using a space of 3.6 m2, in 21 rigiform boxes (0.17 m2 each) having 2 plants /growing bed produced approximately 12.5Kg of total green harvest in a 4-5 month crop cycle. Crop varieties cultivated were tomatoes, brinjoles, bitter guard, long beans, cabbage, beans, okra, and Chinese kale. To produce that harvest the amount of hydroponics nutrients used was 18 liters/box for four month crop cycle costing approximately Rs.50 /box for nutrients. Simplified hydroponics can be recommended as a low cost technology suitable for busy office workers, house wives, elderly or disabled to grow vegetables within a limited space available. New designs, local low cost growing media, arrangement systems are yet to be identified to make this system more efficient

Demographic, individual, job diversities and knowledge sharing: A study of enterprising family businesses

Employees' knowledge sharing intention in a firm is recognized as a key positive factor of business sustainability and longevity. Yet, the diverse nature of firms has made a difficulty to make general conclusions about employees' knowledge sharing intentions, which is dependent on individual characteristics. Therefore, focusing on family businesses in Sri Lanka, this study investigates the influ-ence of employees' demographics, individuality and job diversity on knowledge sharing intentions. 132 employees who serve in enterprising family businesses in Sri Lanka were randomly selected for the survey and each was given a questionnaire. The influence of employee demographics, individuality and job diversity regarding knowledge sharing was then analyzed using a multiple regression model. Out of eight factors, only employee's age, level of education and job orientation have significantly in-fluenced the knowledge sharing intentions of employees in family businesses. These findings highlight the importance of the level of employee's age, education and job orientation on individual knowledge sharing behavior in family businesses. © 2019 Ravindra Hewa Kuruppuge, et al.Internal Grant Agency of FaME TBU [IGA/FaME/2018/006

Genome-wide analysis of core promoter elements from conserved human and mouse orthologous pairs

BACKGROUND: The canonical core promoter elements consist of the TATA box, initiator (Inr), downstream core promoter element (DPE), TFIIB recognition element (BRE) and the newly-discovered motif 10 element (MTE). The motifs for these core promoter elements are highly degenerate, which tends to lead to a high false discovery rate when attempting to detect them in promoter sequences. RESULTS: In this study, we have performed the first analysis of these core promoter elements in orthologous mouse and human promoters with experimentally-supported transcription start sites. We have identified these various elements using a combination of positional weight matrices (PWMs) and the degree of conservation of orthologous mouse and human sequences – a procedure that significantly reduces the false positive rate of motif discovery. Our analysis of 9,010 orthologous mouse-human promoter pairs revealed two combinations of three-way synergistic effects, TATA-Inr-MTE and BRE-Inr-MTE. The former has previously been putatively identified in human, but the latter represents a novel synergistic relationship. CONCLUSION: Our results demonstrate that DNA sequence conservation can greatly improve the identification of functional core promoter elements in the human genome. The data also underscores the importance of synergistic occurrence of two or more core promoter elements. Furthermore, the sequence data and results presented here can help build better computational models for predicting the transcription start sites in the promoter regions, which remains one of the most challenging problems

Impact of group interactions on farmers' entrepreneurial behaviour

Group interactions form an important component among the many factors influencing the entrepreneurial behaviour of farmers. Understanding group interactions provides insights to foster entrepreneurial activities. Matale district, which is among the top 4 districts producing high amount of vegetables in the Sri Lanka was selected for the study. Two successful farmer organizations, one of them farming in both seasons (throughout the year), and the other farming only a single season per year, were selected for the study. Overall objective of the study was to examine the impact of group interactions on entrepreneurial behaviour of vegetable farmers. Stratified random sampling was used to select an overall sample of 60 vegetable farmers, having two samples consisting of 30 each from the two farmer organizations. Descriptive and inferential analyses were conducted using the SPSS software package. Results indicated a significant relationship between the group interactions and entrepreneurial behaviour of farmers. Study revealed effective entrepreneurial behaviour involving high planning ability, and decision making ability Majority of the farmers were at a moderate level of innovativeness, risk orientation, coordinating ability, opportunity seeking behaviour, self-confidence, achievement motivation, and cosmopolitanism. Group interactions were moderate at seasonal planning, and in selecting of crops. Group interactions were low in land preparation, pest and disease controlling, harvesting, irrigation water distribution, participating in training programmes, and selling. Entrepreneurial behaviour of farmers has enhanced with group interactions. The two farmer groups had significant differences in group interactions and entrepreneurial behaviour due to group characteristics. It is recommended to improve group interactions through awareness programmes, and small group formation activities