Factors affecting the Gender- based Consumer purchase intention towards Ethical Fashion (A case study on undergraduates of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura)

The study examines the factors affecting the gender-based consumer purchase intention towards ethical fashion in Sri Lanka. Primary data was gathered using self-administrated questionnaire through online platform and physically. Sample of the study was selected using stratified and simple random sampling techniques through undergraduates from three selected faculties of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura. Sample size of the study was 371 respondents including 228 female and 143 male undergraduates. Both descriptive analysis and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) method were applied for the quantitative data. Findings of the study revealed that both the female and male consumers have an identical level of awareness regarding the ethical fashion market and related scopes. The respondents of the study have a positive impression on ethical fashion concept, and they believe that the concept itself is necessary for the betterment of the society and environment. Attitudes and beliefs regarding ethical fashion and subjective norms were identified as the major factors which affect the purchase intention towards ethical fashion among the consumers. Furthermore, it was found that gender doesn’t have any moderate effect in determining the consumers’ purchase intention towards ethical fashion in the young adult consumers in Sri Lanka. Findings of the study suggested that the fashion industry should implement new methods to motivate the purchasing intention of young customers. Also, such methods should promote the core values of ethical fashion concept as most of the consumers are not aware about those and for the expansion of the ethical fashion industry.  DOI: http://doi.org/10.31357/fhss/vjhss.v08i02.1

Historic Total Fertility Rates of Sri Lanka (1960 – 2021) and Future Trends

Fertility is one of the key components that determine the population change in Sri Lanka. Total Fertility Rates (TFR) are the average number of children a woman would have by the end of her childbearing years (15-49) if she bore children at the current age-specific fertility rates. The average has been declining over the past decade in Sri Lanka. It is essential to understand the trends and patterns of TFR in that aspect to enhance the quality of predetermined long-term economic, health and educational plans as well the policy implements in the country. The main objective of the study is to identify the trends and patterns of historic Total Fertility Rates of Sri Lanka (1960 – 2021) and future trends. The study carries out based on the secondary data on TFR extracted from World Bank data (1960-2021). Initially, the univariate time series analysis was utilized to identify the pattern of TFR using the R Statistical software. This study revealed that there is a decreasing future trend in TFR using ARIMA (1, 2, 1) model which was fitted as the best model to forecast the future behavior TFR. The fitted model was. The forecasted TFR values for the period from 2022 to 2026 were 1.9577, 1.9372, 1.9167, 1.8963 and 1.8758 respectively. It is suggested to have a comparative study on fertility trends and patterns with consideration of socioeconomic and cultural factors in Sri Lanka since TFR varies due to socioeconomic and cultural diversity

Structural Study of the Compound [(C10O8H2)2 (C4N2H6)].2H2O Synthesized by Hydrothermal Condition

A new metal–organic compound [(C10O8H2)2(C4N2H6)].2H2O(I) was hydrothermally synthesized from an aqueous solution of Fe (NO3)3 9H2O, (btec) (btec= 1, 2, 4, 5-benzenetetracarboxylic acid) and piperazine. Compound I crystallizes in the triclinic system with the P1 space group. The unit cell parameters are a = 8.271 Å, b = 8.500 Å, c = 9.660 Å, α = 87.12°, β = 89.53°, γ = 70.91°, Z= 2, V= 640.96(6) Å3 and Dx= 1.602g/cm3. The refinement converged into R= 0.047 and RW = 0.059. The structure, determined by single crystal X-ray diffraction, consists of two carboxyl group, piperazine and two molecules of water

IoT-based surveillance camera distribution using triangle geometry

IoT systems provide excellent solutions to many applications in both civilian and military aspects. This is even facilitated by the advent of many types of cameras with the diminishing cost of communication devices. We focus on the surveillance system that collaboratively monitors an intended area. A good design of such systems should ensure complete coverage with the ability to detect and track objects. Existing surveillance systems produce sensing coverage redundancy with extra communication overhead and cost. This paper presents an IoT-based surveillance system that exhibits many features. First, it provides an efficient distributed network clustering algorithm based on the Field of View (FoV) of cameras. Second, maximum area coverage can be achieved with a minimum number of camera sensors. Simulation results show that our proposed camera distribution algorithm outperforms other existing techniques in terms of the needed number of cameras, coverage percentage, and cluster size. We also believe that the efficiency of our algorithm can be improved with the involvement of the reinforcement learning approach where dynamic camera adaptation can be achieved based on the traffic distribution and changing conditions in the surveillance area.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Prevalence of pre-diabetes and undiagnosed diabetes in the Mollerussa prospective observational cohort study in a semi-rural area of Catalonia

Objectives: To assess the prevalence of undiagnosed diabetes and pre-diabetes in the healthy population in the Mollerussa cohort. As a secondary objective, to identify the variables associated with these conditions and to describe the changes in glycaemic status after 1 year of follow-up in subjects with pre-diabetes. Design: Prospective observational cohort study. Setting: General population from a semi-rural area. Participants: The study included 583 participants without a diagnosis of diabetes recruited between March 2011 and July 2014. Results: The prevalence of undiagnosed diabetes was 20, 3.4% (95% CI 2.6 to 4.2) and that of pre-diabetes was 229, 39.3% (37.3 to 41.3). Among those with pre-diabetes, 18.3% had isolated impaired fasting plasma glucose (FPG) (FPG: 100 to <126 mg/dL), 58.1% had isolated impaired glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) (HbA1c 5.7 to <6.5) and 23.6% fulfilled both criteria. Follow-up data were available for 166 subjects; 41.6%(37.8 to 45.4) returned to normoglycaemia, 57.6% (57.8 to 61.4) persisted in pre-diabetes and 0.6% (0 to 1.2) progressed to diabetes. Individuals with pre-diabetes had worse cardiometabolic risk profiles and sociodemographic features than normoglycaemic subjects. In the logistic regression model, variables significantly associated with pre-diabetes were older age (OR; 95% CI) (1.033; 1.011 to 1.056), higher physical activity (0.546; 0.360 to 0.827), body mass index (1.121; 1.029 to 1.222) and a family history of diabetes (1.543; 1.025 to 2.323). The variables significantly associated with glycaemic normalisation were older age (0.948; 0.916 to 0.982) and body mass index (0.779; 0.651 to 0.931). Conclusions: Among adults in our region, the estimated prevalence of undiagnosed diabetes was 3.4% and that of pre-diabetes was 39.3%. After a 1-year follow-up, a small proportion of subjects (0.6%) with pre-diabetes progressed to diabetes, while a high proportion (41.6%) returned to normoglycaemia. Individuals with pre-diabetes who returned to normoglycaemia were younger and had a lower body mass inde

HTLV-1 and -2 envelope SU subdomains and critical determinants in receptor binding

BACKGROUND: Human T-cell leukemia virus (HTLV) -1 and -2 are deltaretroviruses that infect a wide range of cells. Glut1, the major vertebrate glucose transporter, has been shown to be the HTLV Env receptor. While it is well established that the extracellular surface component (SU) of the HTLV envelope glycoprotein (Env) harbors all of the determinants of interaction with the receptor, identification of SU subdomains that are necessary and sufficient for interaction with the receptor, as well as critical amino acids therein, remain to be precisely defined. Although highly divergent in the rest of their genomes, HTLV and murine leukemia virus (MLV) Env appear to be related and based on homologous motifs between the HTLV and MLV SU, we derived chimeric HTLV/MLV Env and soluble HTLV-1 and -2 truncated amino terminal SU subdomains. RESULTS: Using these SU constructs, we found that the 183 and 178 amino terminal residues of the HTLV-1 and -2 Env, respectively, were sufficient to efficiently bind target cells of different species. Binding resulted from bona fide interaction with the HTLV receptor as isolated SU subdomains specifically interfered with HTLV Env-mediated binding, cell fusion, and cell-free as well as cell-to-cell infection. Therefore, the HTLV receptor-binding domain (RBD) lies in the amino terminus of the SU, immediately upstream of a central immunodominant proline rich region (Env residues 180 to 205), that we show to be dispensible for receptor-binding and interference. Moreover, we identified a highly conserved tyrosine residue at position 114 of HTLV-1 Env, Tyr(114), as critical for receptor-binding and subsequent interference to cell-to-cell fusion and infection. Finally, we observed that residues in the vicinity of Tyr(114 )have lesser impact on receptor binding and had various efficiency in interference to post-binding events. CONCLUSIONS: The first 160 residues of the HTLV-1 and -2 mature cleaved SU fold as autonomous domains that contain all the determinants required for binding the HTLV receptor

A Comparative Study of Benchtop and Portable NIR and Raman Spectroscopic Methods for the Quantitative Determination of Curcuminoids in Turmeric Powder

Turmeric consumption is continually increasing worldwide. Curcuminoids are major active constituents in turmeric and are associated with numerous health benefits. A combination of spectroscopic methods and chemometrics shows the suitability of turmeric for food quality control due to advantages such as speed, versatility, portability, and no need for sample preparation. Five calibration models to quantify curcuminoids in turmeric were proposed using benchtop and portable devices. The most remarkable results showed that Raman and NIR calibration models present an excellent performance reporting RMSEP of 0.44% w/w and 0.41% w/w, respectively. In addition, the five proposed methods (FT-IR, Raman, and NIR) were compared in terms of precision and accuracy. The results showed that benchtop and portable methods were in good agreement and that there are no significant differences between them. This study aims to foster the use of portable devices for food quality control in situ by demonstrating their suitability for the purpose

Inactivation of the DNA-repair gene MGMT and the clinical response of gliomas to alkylating agents

Background: the DNA-repair enzyme O6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) inhibits the killing of tumor cells by alkylating agents. MGMT activity is controlled by a promoter; methylation of the promoter silences the gene in cancer, and the cells no longer produce MGMT. We examined gliomas to determine whether methylation of the MGMT promoter is related to the responsiveness of the tumor to alkylating agents. Methods: we analyzed the MGMT promoter in tumor DNA by a methylation-specific polymerase-chain-reaction assay. The gliomas were obtained from patients who had been treated with carmustine (1,3-bis(2-chloroethyl)-1-nitrosourea, or BCNU). The molecular data were correlated with the clinical outcome. Results: the MGMT promoter was methylated in gliomas from 19 of 47 patients (40 percent). This finding was associated with regression of the tumor and prolonged overall and disease-free survival. It was an independent and stronger prognostic factor than age, stage, tumor grade, or performance status. Conclusions: methylation of the MGMT promoter in gliomas is a useful predictor of the responsiveness of the tumors to alkylating agents

Validation of a DNA methylation microarray for 285,000 CpG sites in the mouse genome

Mouse has been extensively used as a model organism in many studies to characterize biological pathways and drug effects and to mimic human diseases. Similar DNA sequences between both species facilitate these types of experiments. However, much less is known about the mouse epigenome, particularly for DNA methylation. Progress in delivering mouse DNA methylomes has been slow due to the currently available time-consuming and expensive methodologies. Following the great acceptance of the human DNA methylation microarrays, we have herein validated a newly developed DNA methylation microarray (Infinium Mouse Methylation BeadChip) that interrogates 280,754 unique CpG sites within the mouse genome. The CpGs included in the platform cover CpG Islands, shores, shelves and open sea sequences, and loci surrounding transcription start sites and gene bodies. From a functional standpoint, mouse ENCODE representative DNase hypersensitivity sites (rDHSs) and candidate cis-Regulatory Elements (cCREs) are also included. Herein, we show that the profiled mouse DNA methylation microarray provides reliable values among technical replicates; matched results from fresh frozen versus formalin-fixed samples; detects hemimethylated X-chromosome and imprinted CpG sites; and is able to determine CpG methylation changes in mouse cell lines treated with a DNA demethylating agent or upon genetic disruption of a DNA methyltransferase. Most important, using unsupervised hierarchical clustering and t-SNE approaches, the platform is able to classify all types of normal mouse tissues and organs. These data underscore the great features of the assessed microarray to obtain comprehensive DNA methylation profiles of the mouse genome.We thank the CERCA Programme/Generalitat de Catalunya for institutional support. This work was supported by the Health Department PERIS-project no. SLT/002/16/00374 and AGAUR-project no. 2017SGR1080 of the Catalan Government (Generalitat de Catalunya); Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MCI), Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI), and European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) project no. RTI2018-094049-B-I00 and PID2020-117284RB-I00; the Cellex Foundation; Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellowship no. 895979 from the European Commission (BNV); and ‘la Caixa’ Banking Foundation (LCF/PR/GN18/51140001).Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Far-field characterization of the thermal dynamics in lasing microspheres

This work reports the dynamical thermal behavior of lasing microspheres placed on a dielectric substrate while they are homogeneously heated-up by the top-pump laser used to excite the active medium. The lasing modes are collected in the far-field and their temporal spectral traces show characteristic lifetimes of about 2 ms. The latter values scale with the microsphere radius and are independent of the pump power in the studied range. Finite-Element Method simulations reproduce the experimental results, revealing that thermal dynamics is dominated by heat dissipated towards the substrate through the medium surrounding the contact point. The characteristic system scale regarding thermal transport is of few hundreds of nanometers, thus enabling an effective toy model for investigating heat conduction in non-continuum gaseous media and near-field radiative energy transfer