The Impact of Facebook Marketing on Customer-Based Brand Equity and Purchase Intention on Fashionwear Retail Industry in Sri Lanka

Purpose –This study focuses on examining the impact of Facebook marketing components on customer-based brand equity (CBBE) and purchase intention (PI).  Design/methodology/approach – A conceptual model was developed based on the literature and related hypotheses were tested based on the responses of 390 Facebook (FB) fans of four leading fashion-wear retailers in Sri Lanka who have been selected on a random basis. The data was collected using an online survey and analyzed using the structural equation modeling. Findings- The results indicate that Facebook marketing has a strong impact on customer-based brand equity. The items entertainment, reputation and relationship remain for Facebook marketing construct to test its impact on customer-based brand equity. This finding helps to recognize the role of Facebook marketing from the strategic point of view, confirming its significant contribution in taking a brand to the next level. Furthermore, the direct impact of Facebook marketing on purchase intention was not significant and customer-based brand equity fully mediates the relationship between Facebook marketing and purchase intention. Originality –This research applies the Honeycomb model which is a rarely used model to identify the components of Facebook marketing. Hence, this can be identified as one of first this kind of research in Sri Lanka. Further, this study address Fashion-wear retail industry which another important but understudied sector in Sri Lanka. Implications – This article connects the consumers’ opinion on Facebook marketing. The findings of Facebook marketing on taking brand equity into next level will be useful for decision making in business organizations. The effective use of social media will reduce the promotional expenses. Further, the application of Honeycomb model shows the appropriate criteria for Facebook marketing and fill the gap of the unavailability of criteria for social marketing evaluation

Water quality parameters in relation to chronic kidney disease in Sri Lanka

In Sri Lanka, high concentrations of certain water quality parameters in drinking water are assumed to be causing Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD). Nmih Central Province (NCP) in Sri Lanka repotis the highest number of CKD patients and mmiality rates. The repmied research herein concentrates on re-examining diverse causative factors identified by previous researchers on CKD and analysis of water quality in samples from shallow wells supplying drinking water to CKD patients and non-patients in NCP. The samples were tested for a number of parameters such as anions, cations, and heavy metals. These include Cd, Na, Ca, F and Cl which previous researchers have suggested as causative factors for CKD. The preliminmy analyses of data indicated majority of water quality parameters collected from the study area did not exceed the WHO drinking water quality standards. The critical water quality parameters that could cause the CKD were investigated using Factor Analysis techniques. From the water samples collected from the CKD Patients the parameters of Na, Cl, Mg, F and Ca could be grouped into one Factor and identified as hydro-geologically originating. Another Factor which could be due to nutrients from fetiilizer was identified consisting of N and P whereas Cd was grouped into a single Factor. In contrast, the water quality parameters in water samples collected from CKD Non-Patients were different and could not be clearly grouped into any special category

Evaluation of brick kiln performances using computational fluid dynamics (CFD)

Modern history of civilization is concurrent to the use of brick and its manufacturing. Nowadays tunnel kiln is the most widely used technology for brick production. This paper tries to provide an idea of the brick making process in tunnel kiln. The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software, ANSYS CFX is being used to evaluate kiln performances using gas as its fuel. Simplified geometry was drawn and meshed using appropriate tools of ANSYS CFX. Several pertinent assumptions were made to reduce the complication of the simulation. Turbulence, combustion, radiation and NO models were adopted for simulation of a realistic tunnel kiln environment. Simulated temperature profile almost replicates industrial kiln situation as found in existing literature. CFD analysis helps to simulate the temperature profile of the brick kilns, the mass flow fractions of CO2 and NO emissions at outlet, and also the air velocity profile inside the kiln. The simulated temperature generated in a tunnel kiln is found to be between 1300 K and 300 K. CO2 and NOx volume generated inside the kiln is estimated as 1.01 m3/s and 0.108 m3/s respectively

Comparative performance of permeable and porous Pavements

The traditional approach to stormwater management is based on the development of urban drainage networks to convey stormwater away from developed areas quickly. With the increase in impermeable areas due to urban development, the quantity of stormwater runoff is significantly increased, overloading existing infrastructure. Pollutants carried by stormwater to receiving waters are also a major concern. Pervious pavements in car parks and driveways have potential to reduce peak discharge and the volume of runoff flowing into urban drains and improve runoff water quality by trapping the sediments in the infiltrated water. The paper focuses on presenting results from field tests carried out in Melbourne, Australia to evaluate reductions in peak discharge and the volume of stormwater after infiltrating through pervious pavement surfaces. The current study examines two types of pervious pavement surfaces: namely C&M Ecotrihex pavers and Atlantis turf cells and compares their performance against a conventional asphalt paved car park. Considerable reduction in peak discharges, runoff volumes, pollutant concentrations and loads were obtained from field tests. These reductions reduce the stresses on hydraulic infrastructures and on the ecosystem of the receiving waters. Furthermore, both C&M Ecotrihex and Atlantis turf cell surfaces reduces the lag-time by at least one hour to the peak discharge compared to the asphalt surface. This would further reduce the pressure on the infrastructure during a big storm event

Radical Anatomy, Seedling Morphology and Host Detection of Seedlings of Cassytha filiformis

Seed biology is foster for ecologically sound management of parasitic weeds. The seedlingwhich is the first vegetative phase of a plant after the germination has particular importancein the study of seed biology. Distance of parasite from the host plant, and germinationmorphology are two important aspects in life cycle of a parasitic plant. However, the littleattention has been given to the study of germination biology of Cassytha filiformis. Thus, mystudy was conducted to identify the radical anatomy, seedling morphology, and minimaldistance of the host to successful attachment of C. filiformis.Manually scarified seeds were allowed to germinate on moisten filter papers and germinatedradicals were collected in FAA solution and were used to study the anatomy of radicle usingmicrotome sectioning. Another sample of seedlings was allowed to grow further andphotographs were taken at different developmental stages. Some of selected seedlings wereplanted in soil media which are placed in three different distances from the host plants (5 cm,10 cm, and 15 cm) and number of attached seedlings to their host and maximum days ofsurvival without the aid of host was determined.Anatomy of radical was similar to the general anatomy of typical dicotyledonous plant rootwhich consist of outer epidermis, cortex and steal with an outer pericycle. After 5-6 days thisis differentiated into 4 adventitious roots. A yellowish, conical hypocotyl is developed ascontinuous event of germination and this curved and formed a n-shaped loop in order toattach the substratum and to raise the cotyledon up. Thus the germination type is epigeal.According to the observations 100% of seedlings were attached to their respective host whichwas placed in 5 cm distance whereas about 60% of seedlings were able to attach where hostwas in 10 cm distance. 94% of seedlings were failed to attach their hosts in 15 cm distance.Attachment rates between 5cm, 10cm and 15cm differ significantly (F= 20.14, p<0.001).Thus the minimal distance for successful attachment, host plant should be ranged from 5cmto 10 cm. And the seedlings can survive for about eight weeks without attaching a host usingstored food reserves.

Covid-19 and Emergency Medicine: A Scientometric Assessment of Global Publications

This study analyses Covid-19 and Emergency Medicine research output during 2020-2021 on different parameters including global publications share, citation impact, contribution of authors and patterns of research communication in most productive and preferred journals. Web of Science Citation Database has been used to retrieve the data for 2 years (2020-2021) with 991 publications using the combined search of Covid-19 with topic field and Emergency Medicine with using Web of Science Subject Categories. The USA tops the list, with a publications share of 38.6%(383) followed far by Italy and UK ranks second with 7.7%(76), Canada with 7.6% and India ranks 14th positions with global publications share of 1.7 %(17)). The most productive Institutions are: Harvard Medical University lead with 34 Publications and received 134 Citations followed by University Toronto with 29 (96 Citations), Massachusetts Gen Hospital with 26 (86 Citations), Monash University with 22 (92 Citations), Columbia University and University Ottawa with 18 publications. The top most 5 preferred Journals are: AMERICAN JOURNAL OF EMERGENCY MEDICINE (IF: 1.70 with 141 publication followed far by ANNALS OF EMERGENCY MEDICINE (IF: 5.35) with 97 publications, RESUSCITATION (IF: 4.57) with 77, WESTERN JOURNAL OF EMERGENCY MEDICINE (IF: 1.80) with 71 and EMERGENCY MEDICINE JOURNAL (IF: 2.04) with 64. But its average annual publication growth rate and global publication share is high and Citation quality as reflected in Average Citations Per Paper is less. Concludes that the research needs to increase its output and bring about improvement in the quality of its research efforts. This can be done by investing much more international collaboration and by modernizing and strengthening its research infrastructure in the field of Medicines

Indian Contribution in Animal Behaviour Research: A Scientometric Study

The study analysed the characteristics of articles published by the Indian Scientists in the field of Animal Behaviour, a total 10030 Publications retrieved from the Scopus online database were analysed. There were as many as 120 countries actively engaged research with Indian researchers, which produced 10,030 publications during the study period. The most productive and the highest number of Collaboration with the United States of America (844), followed by Next the UK with 253, Germany (184), Australia (114), Japan (111) and Saudi Arabia (107). Among these institutions, Panjab University, Punjab topped in the list with 431 publications (57 H-Index) followed by Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, Bangalore with 349 (34 H-index) publications and University Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences India with 332 publications (H-Index-23) and Banaras Hindu University with 304 Publications(38 H-Index). The most preferred journals were: Indian Journal of Experimental Biology topped in the list with 301(Cite Score-3.0, SJR-0.227 and SNIP-0.512) articles followed by PLOS ONE with 180(Cite Score-5.2, SJR-1.023 and SNIP-1.205) articles, Indian Journal Of Physiology And Pharmacology with 151 articles, European Journal Of Pharmacology 116(Cite Score-5.5, SJR-0.988 and SNIP-0.957) articles. However, the Indian based articles were kept rising from 1999 to 2020. The most prolific authors are: Kulkarini with 148 Publications from University Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences India, Chandigarh, India followed by Chopra (17), Gadagkar (60), Bhattacharya (57), Singh (48), Mahesh(47), Kokare (45), Kumar P. (44) and Archunan (43) and Kumar V. respectively. The study noted that Bharathidasan University faculty G. Archunan presence in top ten authors

Role of informal healthcare providers in tuberculosis care in low- and middle-income countries: A systematic scoping review.

Achieving targets set in the End TB Strategy is still a distant goal for many Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs). The importance of strengthening public-private partnership by engaging all identified providers in Tuberculosis (TB) care has long been advocated in global TB policies and strategies. However, Informal Healthcare Providers (IPs) are not yet prioritised and engaged in National Tuberculosis Programs (NTPs) globally. There exists a substantial body of evidence that confirms an important contribution of IPs in TB care. A systematic understanding of their role is necessary to ascertain their potential in improving TB care in LMICs. The purpose of this review is to scope the role of IPs in TB care. The scoping review was guided by a framework developed by the Joanna Briggs Institute. An electronic search of literature was conducted in MEDLINE, EMBASE, SCOPUS, Global Health, CINAHL, and Web of Science. Of a total 5234 records identified and retrieved, 92 full-text articles were screened, of which 13 were included in the final review. An increasing trend was observed in publication over time, with most published between 2010-2019. In 60% of the articles, NTPs were mentioned as a collaborator in the study. For detection and diagnosis, IPs were primarily involved in identifying and referring patients. Administering DOT (Directly Observed Treatment) to the patient was the major task assigned to IPs for treatment and support. There is a paucity of evidence on prevention, as only one study involved IPs to perform this role. Traditional health providers were the most commonly featured, but there was not much variation in the role by provider type. All studies reported a positive role of IPs in improving TB care outcomes. This review demonstrates that IPs can be successfully engaged in various roles in TB care with appropriate support and training. Their contribution can support countries to achieve their national and global targets if prioritized in National TB Programs

The implications of ambitious decarbonisation of heat and road transport for Britain’s net zero carbon energy systems

Decarbonisation of heating and road transport are regarded as necessary but very challenging steps on the pathway to net zero carbon emissions. Assessing the most efficient routes to decarbonise these sectors requires an integrated view of energy and road transport systems. Here we describe how a national gas and electricity transmission network model was extended to represent multiple local energy systems and coupled with a national energy demand and road transport model. The integrated models were applied to assess a range of technologies and policies for heating and transport where the UK’s 2050 net zero carbon emissions target is met. Overall, annual primary energy use is projected to reduce by between 25% and 50% by 2050 compared to 2015, due to ambitious efficiency improvements within homes and vehicles. However, both annual and peak electricity demands in 2050 are more than double compared with 2015. Managed electric vehicle charging could save 14TWh/year in gas-fired power generation at peak times, and associated emissions, whilst vehicle-to-grid services could provide 10GW of electricity supply during peak hours. Together, managed vehicle charging, and vehicle-to-grid supplies could result in a 16% reduction in total annual energy costs. The provision of fast public charging facilities could reduce peak electricity demand by 17GW and save an estimated £650 million annually. Although using hydrogen for heating and transport spreads the hydrogen network costs between homeowners and motorists, it is still estimated to be more costly overall compared to an all-electric scenario. Bio-energy electricity generation plants with carbon capture and storage are required to drive overall energy system emissions to net zero, utilisation of which is lowest when heating is electrified, and road transport consists of a mix of electric and hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles. The analysis demonstrates the need for an integrated systems approach to energy and transport policies and for coordination between national and local governments

Leveraging Deep Learning Based Object Detection for Localising Autonomous Personal Mobility Devices in Sparse Maps

© 2019 IEEE. This paper presents a low cost, resource efficient localisation approach for autonomous driving in GPS denied environments. One of the most challenging aspects of traditional landmark based localisation in the context of autonomous driving, is the necessity to accurately and frequently detect landmarks. We leverage the state of the art deep learning framework, YOLO (You Only Look Once), to carry out this important perceptual task using data obtained from monocular cameras. Extracted bearing only information from the YOLO framework, and vehicle odometry, is fused using an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) to generate an estimate of the location of the autonomous vehicle, together with it's associated uncertainty. This approach enables us to achieve real-time sub metre localisation accuracy, using only a sparse map of an outdoor urban environment. The broader motivation of this research is to improve the safety and reliability of Personal Mobility Devices (PMDs) through autonomous technology. Thus, all the ideas presented here are demonstrated using an instrumented mobility scooter platform