ESTIMATING INCIDENT SOLAR RADIATION IN TROPICAL ISLANDS WITH SHORT TERM WEATHER DATA

Solar radiation incident on a particular location depends on geographical and meteorological factors and as such vary spatially as well as temporally. For any given solar radiation related application an accurate prediction of incident solar radiation is important. However due to high cost of measuring and recording, solar radiation data are confined generally to a few locations, for example in Sri Lanka it is confined only to the capital city, Colombo. As such, a correlation to predict incident solar radiation based on meteorological and geographical parameters will have to be identified and validated taking into account the climatic differences in tropical regions with localized variations. In addition, due to non-availability of accurate historical meteorological data, estimated percentage variations are identified which can be used to predict incident solar radiation at a given location when two broad climatic regions are defined

Total waste management using cleaner production and industrial ecology principles in Sri Lankan hotel sector

Hotel sector is one of the main revenue earners in current Sri Lankan economy. This sector is rapidly growing post war period. Since tourists arrive Sri Lanka comes for diverse reasons hotels are located in all around the country to attracting these tourist groups and mostly this industry is located adjacent to environmentally sensitive places such as virgin forests, beaches and archeologically significant locations. Due to this number of protests and demonstrations also happened in certain places for opposing this industry expecting that there would be environmental damages sometime ago. Therefore, proper environmental management practices are of paramount importance. Waste disposal is one major area which needs to be addressed first and foremost. Waste generated in this industry can be divided into solid waste and waste water. Furthermore, solid waste can be divided into biodegradable and non degradable waste. Waste water is generated from the laundry, kitchen, toilet /bathroom cleaning etc. Some of the waste categories depend on the occupancy of the hotels and some depend on the reception functions which are held in hotels (ex. Kitchen waste generated after wedding functions etc). However, it is impossible to minimize this type of waste generation or to educate the guests on waste generated issues due to the nature of the industry and high competition in this sector. Therefore, best possible options remains are to have proper waste management system to run this industry in sustainable manner. If there is a way to reuse waste generated then there will not be much impact to the industry. Conversely Cleaner Production (CP) and Industrial Ecology (IE) principles are being used successfully in manufacturing sector for many years to address the waste generated in those industries. Hence in this research these two concepts are used in local hotel sector to manage waste generated. that shows that diesel and LP gas consumption can be reduced considerably. There are number of ways waste is reused in productive manner. Out of them energy harnessing from biogas generators are significant. The biogas generator which converts all biodegradable waste generated to useful flammable biogas Methane (CH4). This gas is used completely as a fuel to pre-heat water which is used in steam boiler for laundry purposes thereby reduces diesel consumption for boiler firing considerably. Only percentage of waste water is used for biogas generation, rest of the wastewater and wastewater mixed with chemicals are treated in treatment plant and treated water is used for gardening purposes and organic farming and some studies are carried out to use them for water fountains etc. Furthermore, non-degradable wastes are segregated at the point of generation and sell them for recycling purposes. A pilot project is carrying out in one of the leading hotels in Kandy and preliminary studies were done with already established hotel which has bio gas generator in Uva province. Results reveals that shows that diesel and LP gas consumption can be reduced considerably

Managing the Pandemic in the South Asian (SAARC) Countries

This paper explores the coronavirus pandemic response from a South Asian perspective. When their case numbers were still relatively low, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries adopted lockdowns at the same time or before India did. On 24 March 2020, when there were just two confirmed cases, Nepal went into lockdown, and Sri Lanka locked down on 22 March, when there were 78 cases. India locked down the day after Nepal, with all countries imposing some form of restrictions on people’s movement. This paper draws its data from the first year of the pandemic that loomed in the SAARC nations. The regional cooperation provided by SAARC has allowed the sharing of resources and a strengthening of the region’s self-reliance. Notably, the commitment made by India to ensure its neighbours are supplied with vaccines, many of these donated. The eight-member SAARC states are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. This paper draws on the knowledge and perceptions of academics and social workers in the SAARC countries. It provides insight into the responses, impacts, vulnerabilities, and challenges faced by the region and in each specific country since the beginning of COVID-19. This paper also offers a discussion on vaccines, PPE, as well as the role of cooperation across the region. The relationship between India and the SAARC countries and its ‘neighbourhood first’ policy are also discussed

Evaluation of the antioxidant and phototoxic potentials of Bauhinia microstachya var. massambabensis Vaz leaf extracts

Four different leaf extracts of B. microstachya var. massambabensis were studied to evaluate their antioxidant capacity by using three in vitro methods, with Ginkgo biloba and Trolox® as the standards. With the DPPH and ABTS·+ methods, the antioxidant activity of the extracts was in the following order, from maximum to minimum: AcEt > WAc > raw EtOH > EtOH CA > EGb, while with the ORAC method, it was as follows: EtOH CA > raw EtOH > AcEt > WAc > EGb. Phototoxic analysis was performed in yeast cultures of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. From the ethyl acetate extract, 2 flavonoids kaempferol-3-O-rhamnoside and astragalin-2”,6”-O-digallate were isolated and identified by HPLC and 1H- and 13C-NMR; to our knowledge, this is the first report of the occurrence of astragalin-2”,6”-O-digallate in the Bauhinia genus.Colegio de Farmacéuticos de la Provincia de Buenos Aire