A Contribution to the limnology of Colombo Lake

This paper records the results of investigations of plankton, benthic fauna and fish fauna carried out between 1957 and 1963. The standing crop of net plankton in the lake was found to be 249.6 Kg/ha. This plankton is not being fully utilized by the fish fauna in the lake. Stocking the lake with a plankton feeder like Chanos chanos (Forskal) is recommended. The figure of 24.37 Kg/ha obtained for the standing crop of bottom fauna in the lake was comparatively low. This indicates that the bottom fauna is being fully utilized by the fish. The introduction and establishment of Tilapia mossambica (Peters) had not wiped out a single indigenous species of fish from the lake that produces about 2,000 lbs. of fish per acre per year. This can be increased by the introduction of a plankton feeder (Chanos chanos), and by further exploitation of existing stock

Fishes of Ceylon: a catalogue, key and bibliography

A knowledge of the specific composition of Ceylon fish fauna is essential to any programme of development of commercial fisheries, or the study of Ceylon's ichthyology and the need for cataloguing it has been keenly felt for many years. The need for cataloguing the whole of Ceylon's flora and fauna was stressed by the Natural Science Section of the Ceylon Association for the Advancement of Science during its 1952 annual sessions and it was then that the writer agreed to help satisfy this need by compiling an up-to-date check list of species of two families of fishes, the Clupeidae and the Carangidae, which are important in the beach seine fishery which he was studying at that time. In the course of this work it was decided to expand the check-list to make it comprehensive of all species of fish that have been recorded from Ceylon to date and to supply keys for their identification. This has involved a screening of the pioneer works of Bennet (1834) and Day (1878-1889) and the many subsequent references to Ceylon fish scattered through various scientific journals and other publications, some of them long out and now almost unobtainable

Demersal fishery resources of Sri Lanka and its present level of exploitation with special reference to off-shore and deep-sea waters

Following a brief review of development of demersal fishing off Sri Lanka, the author reviews the fishing grounds of the Wadge Bank, the Pedro Bank, and the Mannar Bank. He reviews the deepwater trawling fisheries particularly in relation to the 1972 survey conducted by the 'Optimist' and also small boat trawling in coastal waters. Lastly he considers handlining for groundfish, which is principally conducted by fishermen operating traditional craft

Resources of the Wadge and Pedro Banks

Sri Lanka's interest in trawler fishing dates back to 1902 when a Colombo merchant attempted to operate a trawler off Sri Lanka's waters. The next attempt was made in 1907. These attempts did not proceed any further. Between 1920 and 1923 a very comprehensive survey of the littoral waters around the island was carried out. One of the principal aims of the survey was to investigate the possibility of trawler fishing in the seas around. Malpas (1926) and Pearson and Malpas (1926) reporting the results of the survey indicated that the Wadge and Pedro banks were the only areas available for commercial trawler operations and indicated that the fish resources in the two banks could be profitably exploited. Commercial exploitation of the Wadge bank commenced in 1928 and a fishery is now firmly established in the bank. The Marine Biologist and the Director of fisheries in their administration reports and Sivalingam and Medcof (1957) and the author (1965) have reported on the progress of the Wadge bank fishery. Some of the trends indicated by an analysis of the records of the commercial trawling operations are further discussed in this paper

A Preliminary survey of 21 Ceylon lakes. 2. Limnology and fish production potential

Some morphometric, physical and chemical conditions of 21 lakes in Ceylon are described. The values for the organic matter in the plankton and for the dry weight of bottom fauna in the lakes have been calculated. These values have been utilised to evaluate the potential fish production figures for the lakes. Fishing trials were made in each lake. Suggestions regarding mesh sizes and time of fishing are put forward

A guide to the freshwater fauna of Ceylon

Freshwater animals are of importance in the economy of most countries. In recent years the scientific cultivation of freshwater fish for food has been spreading throughout South-East Asia and the Far-East. New and useful species of fish have been introduced into many countries including Ceylon where the older system of trapping any variety of fish that is available is being replaced by scientifically planned management with a view to increasing the production of good quality fish. Considerable quantities of food mainly in the form of fish are being taken from our freshwaters, providing a cheap source of much needed protein in the diet of the villager. More recently large quantities of freshwater fish are being consumed by the urban population

An approach to the development of commonsense knowledge modeling systems for land selection

The land use methods which are ergonomically and environmentally appropriate are determined first and foremost by characteristics and location. For instance, land selection in architectural construction domain is considered as an area in land use methods, which involves commonsense knowledge of architects. This is because land selection criteria are very personal and there is no theory behind how it should be done. Sometime, there are too many redundancies in the process selection of lands. In this paper we present an approach to modeling commonsense knowledge in a sub field of architecture domain of land selection to come up with land classifications as psychological, physical and social events. This gives three-phase knowledge modeling approach for modeling commonsense knowledge in, which enables holistic approach for land selection. At the initial stage commonsense knowledge is converted into a questionnaire. Removing dependencies among the questions are modeled using principal component analysis. Classification of the knowledge is processed through fuzzy logic module, which is constructed on the basis of principal components. Further explanations for classified knowledge are derived by expert system technology. This paper describes one such approach using classification of human constituents in Ayurvedic medicine. Evaluation of the system has shown 77% accuracy

Application of nanomaterials in the sustainable built Environment

Nanotechnology is widely regarded as one of the twenty-first century’s key technologies, and its economic importance is sharply on the rise. In the construction industry, nanomaterials has potentials that are already usable today, especially the functional characteristics such as increased tensile strength, self-cleaning capacity, fire resistance, and additives based on nano materials make common materials lighter, more permeable, and more resistant to wear. Nonomaterial are also considered extremely useful for roofs and facades in the built environment. They also expand design possibilities for interior and exterior rooms and spaces. Nano–insulating materials open up new possibilities for ecologically oriented sustainable infrastructure development. It has been demonstrated that nanotechnology has invented products with many unique characteristics which could significantly provide solutions current construction issues and may change the requirement and organization of construction process. This paper examines and documents applicable nanotechnology based products that can improve the sustainable development and overall competitiveness of the construction industr

DEVELOPMENT OF FUZZY EXPERT SYSTEMS FOR TACIT KNOWLEDGE MODELING IN STRATEGIC DECISION-MAKING

Knowledge modelling gives the intention of knowledge engineering which is applicable for managing information systems. Tacit knowledge is the key issue of knowledge modelling aspect because all knowledge is rooted in tacit knowledge. In recognizing knowledge as a new resource in gaining organizational competitiveness, knowledge management suggests a method in managing and applying knowledge for improving organizational performance. Much knowledge management research has focused on identifying, storing, and disseminating process related knowledge in an organized manner. Applying knowledge to decision making has a significant impact on organizational performance than solely processing transactions for knowledge management. This paper presents a research that incorporates modelling of tacit knowledge for strategic decision-making. Here we have used fuzzy expert system for developing an approach for modelling tacit knowledge. We primarily used fuzzy logic together with statistical technique of principal component analysis as techniques for modelling tacit domains. Tacit knowledge in Ayurvedic sub-domain of individual classification has been acquired through a questionnaire and analysed to identify the dependencies, which lead to make tacit knowledge in the particular domain. It has shown 77% accuracy in using the tacit knowledge for reasoning in the relevant domain. Keywords: Fuzzy Expert System, Tacit Knowledge, Principal Component Analysis, and Strategic Decision-making, Ayurvedic MedicineFor full Paper: [email protected]

A FUZZY EXPERT SYSTEM FOR BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE

Business Intelligence (BI) is recognized as an increasingly important support for business decision making in emerging business environment, where a huge amount of data is growing fast and scattered around. Explicit knowledge can be presented formally and capable of effective (fast and good quality) communication of data to the user where as commonsense knowledge can be represented in informal way and further modeling needed for BI. Acquiring useful Business Intelligence (BI) for decision-making is a challenging task in dynamic business environment. In this paper we present an approach for modeling commonsense knowledge in Business Intelligence. A fuzzy expert system based on principal component analysis (PCA) and statistical fuzzy inference system for modeling Business Intelligence in commonsense knowledge is introduced in, which enables holistic approach for disaster management. This paper describes one such approach using classification of human constituents in Ayurvedic medicine. Evaluation of the system has shown 77% accuracy. Key words: Business Intelligence, Statistical inference system, Common sense knowledge, Principal component analysis and Ayurvedic medicineFor full Paper: [email protected]