Nature of Prehistoric Archaeological Investigation and Research in Sri Lanka (1992 – 2019)

Sri Lankan prehistoric investigations can be divided into several phases. Identifying the nature of prehistoric archaeologicalinvestigation and research in Sri Lanka between 1992 – 2018 is the research problem of this paper. The main objective of theresearch is to collect data and information of Prehistoric Archaeological Investigation and Research (Exploration andExcavation) in Sri Lanka between 1992 – 2018 and arrange them in chronological order. In this process data and information werecollected using primary and secondary sources through library survey, Field study, web survey and interviews were conducted toobtain more quantitative data The key research findings of the research are based on the identified several extraordinaryfeatures of this period compared to the early research periods such as systematic excavations, chronological methods, multidisciplinary approach, researches in associated with new scientific methodologies and innovative scientific methodologies including genealogical experiments. DOI : http://doi.org/10.31357/fhss/vjhss.v06i01.1

Development of new cultivation technology for straw mushroom (Volvariella volvacea) using locally available raw materials

Paddy straw mushroom (Volvariel1a volvacea) is an edible mushroom variety which can be cultivatedunder tropical and sub tropical conditions. In Sri Lanka, though the majority of farmers grow oystermushroom they are willing to undertake other mushroom types, including straw mushroom and milkymushroom. Straw mushroom cultivation is highly rewarding because of the favourable climaticconditions in Sri Lanka and the abundant availability of raw materials. The existing outdoor methodfor straw mushroom cultivation introduced by the Department of Agriculture (DOA) gives low orlandirregular yield. As the optimum environmental conditions are crucial in straw mushroom production,an indoor cultivation method using a polythcne house was tested with the existing outdoor method.Cotton waste and paddy straw were used as the growing media in both outdoor and indoor conditionsunder four treatments viz. paddy straw compost in polythene house (T 1), cotton waste compost inpolythene house (T2), paddy straw in outdoor environment (T3) and cotton waste in outdoor environment(T4), arranged in a Completely Randomized Design with three replicates. The results revealed that the indoor cultivation method with cotton waste compost substrate (TI) gave significantly highervalues for average yield (6901.\8 kg/ha) and average marketable yield (6489 kg/ha) compared toother treatments. Outdoor culture in straw substrate (T3) resulted lowest values for the same yieldparameters (567.\3 kg/ha, 516.3\ kg/ha, respectively). Indoor cultivation method with paddy strawcompost and cotton waste compost both resulted higher yields when compared to the outdoor cu Iture.As paddy straw is freely available in Sri Lanka, combining of paddy straw compost and cotton wastecompost as the substrate for straw mushroom culture under indoor conditions would be more profitabl

Impact of culture towards disaster risk reduction

Number of natural disasters has risen sharply worldwide making the risk of disasters a global concern. These disasters have created significant losses and damages to humans, economy and society. Despite the losses and damages created by disasters, some individuals and communities do not attached much significance to natural disasters. Risk perception towards a disaster not only depends on the danger it could create but also the behaviour of the communities and individuals that is governed by their culture. Within this context, this study examines the relationship between culture and disaster risk reduction (DRR). A comprehensive literature review is used for the study to evaluate culture, its components and to analyse a series of case studies related to disaster risk. It was evident from the study that in some situations, culture has become a factor for the survival of the communities from disasters where as in some situations culture has acted as a barrier for effective DRR activities. The study suggests community based DRR activities as a mechanism to integrate with culture to effectively manage disaster risk

Clinical Practice: Giant Cell Tumour of the Jaw Mimicking Bone Malignancy on Three-Dimensional Computed Tomography (3D CT) Reconstruction

A wide range of diseases may present with radiographic features of osteolysis. Periapical inflammation, cysts and benign tumours, bone malignancies, all of these conditions may show bone resorption on radiograph. Features of the surrounding bone, margins of the lesion, and biological behaviour including tendency to infiltration and root resorption, may represent important criteria for distinguishing benign tumours from their malign counterpart, although the radiographic aspect of the lesion is not always predictive. Therefore a critical differential diagnosis has to be reached to choose the best management. Here, we report a case of giant cell tumour (GCT) whose radiological features by computed tomography (CT) suggested the presence of bone malignancy, whereas the evaluation of a routine OPT scan comforted us about the benign nature of the lesion. A brief review of the literature on such a benign but locally aggressive neoplasm is also provided

Clinical Practice: Giant Cell Tumour of the Jaw Mimicking Bone Malignancy on Three-Dimensional Computed Tomography (3D CT) Reconstruction

A wide range of diseases may present with radiographic features of osteolysis. Periapical inflammation, cysts and benign tumours, bone malignancies, all of these conditions may show bone resorption on radiograph. Features of the surrounding bone, margins of the lesion, and biological behaviour including tendency to infiltration and root resorption, may represent important criteria for distinguishing benign tumours from their malign counterpart, although the radiographic aspect of the lesion is not always predictive. Therefore a critical differential diagnosis has to be reached to choose the best management. Here, we report a case of giant cell tumour (GCT) whose radiological features by computed tomography (CT) suggested the presence of bone malignancy, whereas the evaluation of a routine OPT scan comforted us about the benign nature of the lesion. A brief review of the literature on such a benign but locally aggressive neoplasm is also provided

Climate Change Impacts on Rice Farming Systems in Northwestern Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka has achieved tremendous progress since 1950 in crop production and food availability. Yields grew at an impressive rate until leveling off in the mid-eighties. Sri Lanka's population is anticipated to grow in the coming decades, creating an ever-greater demand for food security on the household, sub-district, regional, and national scales.The agricultural sector in Sri Lanka is vulnerable to climate shocks. An unusual succession of droughts and floods from 2008 to 2014 has led to both booms and busts in agricultural production, which were reflected in food prices. In both instances, the majority of farmers and consumers were adversely affected.At present the rice-farming systems are under stress due to inadequate returns for the farmers and difficulty in coping with shocks due to climate, pests, and diseases, and prices for produce. There are government price-support mechanisms, fertilizer-subsidy schemes, and crop insurance schemes, but the levels of the supports are modest and often do not effectively reach the farmers

Nitrogen - grasping the challenge. A manifesto for science-in-action through the International Nitrogen Management System. Summary report

Report published by Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Edinburgh, UK on behalf of the International Nitrogen Management System (INMS). Freely available to download from the Official link

Healing through culturally embedded practice: an investigation of counsellors’ and clients’ experiences of Buddhist Counselling in Thailand

This thesis is concerned with an exploration of counsellors’ and clients’ lived experiences of Buddhist Counselling, an indigenous Buddhist-based counselling approach in Thailand. Over the past decade, Buddhist Counselling has received a growing interest from Thai counselling trainees and practitioners, and it has also expanded to serve Thai people in various settings. Research on Buddhist Counselling is very limited and most of the existing studies in the field have focused on measuring the effectiveness of the approach. While these studies have consistently indicated the positive effects of Buddhist Counselling on psychological improvement across several population groups, the significant questions of how Buddhist Counselling brings about such outcome and how it is experienced are still largely unanswered. Moreover, existing research is concentrated much more on clients’ views than counsellors’ views, although counsellors’ views of their counselling practice can also serve as a knowledge base of the field. This thesis thus sets out to contribute to rectifying this omission by exploring Buddhist Counselling from the perspectives of both counsellors and clients. The thesis is based on two qualitative studies. The first study addressed Buddhist Counselling from the perspective of five counsellors through a focus group and semi-structured interviews. The second study explored Buddhist Counselling from the perspective of three clients, using two semi-structured interviews with each of them. All data received were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). The study reveals counsellors’ and clients’ overall positive experience of engaging in Buddhist Counselling. Central to the accounts of the counsellors are the following perceptions: that their practice of Buddhist Counselling is culturally congruent with the existing values and beliefs of both themselves and their clients; that their personal and professional congruence is key to their therapeutic efficacy; and that they enhance such congruence through their application of Buddhist ideas and practices in their daily lives. Key to the clients’ accounts is their emphasis on the significant roles of the counsellors’ Buddhist ideas and personal qualities, and of their religious practices in facilitating healing and change. Key shared findings from both studies reveal that the participants’ accounts of their cultural background and their experiences of Buddhist Counselling are intertwined. Adopting hermeneutics to address this intertwinement, I reveal the cultural and moral dimensions underlying the practice of Buddhist Counselling. Based on such revelation, I suggest that Buddhist Counselling in particular, as well as psychotherapy in general, should be better understood as a historically situated, culturally bound, and morally constituted activity of people who are concerned with improving the quality of their lives and their community, rather than the transcultural and merely relational work of morally-neutral practitioners

Tallo: A global tree allometry and crown architecture database.

This is the final version. Available from Wiley via the DOI in this record. Data capturing multiple axes of tree size and shape, such as a tree's stem diameter, height and crown size, underpin a wide range of ecological research-from developing and testing theory on forest structure and dynamics, to estimating forest carbon stocks and their uncertainties, and integrating remote sensing imagery into forest monitoring programmes. However, these data can be surprisingly hard to come by, particularly for certain regions of the world and for specific taxonomic groups, posing a real barrier to progress in these fields. To overcome this challenge, we developed the Tallo database, a collection of 498,838 georeferenced and taxonomically standardized records of individual trees for which stem diameter, height and/or crown radius have been measured. These data were collected at 61,856 globally distributed sites, spanning all major forested and non-forested biomes. The majority of trees in the database are identified to species (88%), and collectively Tallo includes data for 5163 species distributed across 1453 genera and 187 plant families. The database is publicly archived under a CC-BY 4.0 licence and can be access from: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6637599. To demonstrate its value, here we present three case studies that highlight how the Tallo database can be used to address a range of theoretical and applied questions in ecology-from testing the predictions of metabolic scaling theory, to exploring the limits of tree allometric plasticity along environmental gradients and modelling global variation in maximum attainable tree height. In doing so, we provide a key resource for field ecologists, remote sensing researchers and the modelling community working together to better understand the role that trees play in regulating the terrestrial carbon cycle.Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)Natural Environment Research Council (NERC); Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech RepublicFAPEMIGUniversidad Nacional Autónoma de MéxicoUniversidad Nacional Autónoma de MéxicoConsejo Nacional de Ciencia y TecnologíaSwedish Energy AgencyUKRIFederal Ministry of Education and ResearchNational Natural Science Foundation of ChinaNational Natural Science Foundation of ChinaNational Science FoundationNational Science FoundationInternational Foundation for ScienceP3FACDynAfForNanjing Forestry UniversityJiangsu Science and Technology Special ProjectHebei UniversityAgence Nationale de la RechercheAgence Nationale de la RechercheAgua Salud ProjectU.S. Department of EnergyCAPE