Taxonomy and Systematic Analysis of the Two Genera Alpinia and Amomum of the Family Zingiberaceae in Sri Lanka

Alpinia and Amomum are the largest two genera that list the highest number of endemics offamily Zingiberaceae in Sri Lanka. The family is recognized as a least studied plant group inthe country, justifying the need for a thorough study. Hence, it is timely that the family istaken into consideration of molecular and systematic studies given new techniques areavailable. As a pioneering step, in this study, we addressed several taxonomic issues,phylogenetic relationships and conservational status of Alpinia and Amomum. In order tocollect more morphological data to address species boundaries with better insights, over 130morphological characters were studied and analysed using multivariate statistical methods.Molecular phylogenetic analysis was done using two Chloroplast gene regions (trnL-trnF andtrnS-trnfM). Results of the morphological analysis revealed the segregation of species ratherdepending on both vegetative and floral characters than only on floral characters. Study alsoidentified a group of Amomum with a new character combination which needs to berecognized as a new species or subspecies along with a new addition to genus Alpinia (A.zerumbet) in Sri Lanka. Furthermore, in our efforts to make a field key for easy identificationof species, results of this study also highlighted the difficulty in using only vegetativecharacters to differentiate species. Hence, the study has resulted in identifying a different andan easy set of morphological characters for species identification for Sri Lankan species.Evolutionary analysis of the two genera confirms that the Sri Lankan members of the twogenera Alpinia and Amomum have a monophyletic origin. Although the genus Alpinia has amonophyletic lineage, two members (A. abundiflora and A. fax) show a polytomy within thegenus. This was evident in both phylogenetic analysis and the morphological analysis.According to trnL-trnF and trnS-trnƒM data analysis, all the studied members of the genusAmomum have an exclusive monophyletic origin. Illumination of an immediate need forconservation efforts of these species is another important finding of the current study

Identification of a lipolytic <em>Trichoderma</em> sp. and characterization of its extracellular lipase

Lipases are abundantly used in a wide range of industries. Currently, microbial lipases are the most popular source of industrial lipases, of which fungal lipases stand out due to their low cost of production, catalytic activity, and extracellular nature. The demand for lipases has kept researchers exploring new lipolytic fungi. However, the success of such studies lies in the optimization of the growth medium to maximize lipase secretion and the characterization of the enzyme to achieve its highest activity. Therefore, this research was undertaken to identify a lipolytic fungus that was isolated from soil, optimize its lipase secretion, and characterize it. Based on the results of the current study, the lipolytic fungus was identified as Trichoderma longibrachiatum. Its lipase secretion was maximal when it was cultured in a medium containing olive oil and ammonium sulfate as carbon and nitrogen sources, respectively, at a pH of 7.0. Further, the Trichoderma lipase showed its highest activity at a pH of 6.0 and 40 °C. Moreover, preincubation of the lipase with Ca2+ increased its activity. The enzyme characterization revealed that the extracted Trichoderma lipase has industrially desirable properties. The research results showed that the lipolytic Trichoderma longibrachiatum could be focused on industrial applications

Diesel degrading potential of bacterial strains present in petroleum contaminated soils

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Population genetic structure of Sri Lankan backyard chicken flocks: Implication for conservation and genetic improvement programs

Traditional ‘random’ sampling strategy for molecular characterization has revealed low genetic differentiation and weak genetic structure among Asian and African indigenous, non-descript chicken populations although they carried high within-population phenotypic and molecular genetic diversity. In the present study, 192 backyard chickens collected following a nearly ‘complete’ sampling strategy for all adult birds within flocks of 75 households in five villages at two sites in Sri Lanka were genotyped using 20 microsatellite markers. The phenotypes and history of these birds were also recorded. A link of phenotypic composition and flock size with specific genetic structure of the backyard chicken populations was explored. The results suggest that the households who used to keep large flocks of indigenous backyard chickens of mixed genotypes should be included in in-situ conservation program to effectively maintain and sustainably utilize these important chicken genetic resources

FARMER ATTITUDES TOWARDS ADOPTION OF SUSTAINABLE PROTECTION TECHNOLOGIES: THE CASE OF INTEGRATED PEST MANAGEMENT IN VEGETABLE CULTIVATIONS IN SRI LANKA

This study examines empirically the extent to which vegetable cultivatingfarmers in Sri Lanka are willing to adopt effective, economical andsustainable crop protection technologies such as Integrated Pest Management(lPM) instead of applying solely chemical pesticides to control pests. It usesprimary data collected through a series of personnel interviews with arandomly selected sample of vegetable farmers (n = 100) that practicechemical control measures in the Kurunegala and Puttalam districts in theWayamba Province from May to July in 2005.The behavioural change in farmer attitudes and perceptions towards adoptionof environmentally-friendly IPM techniques instead of applying chemicals onthe vegetable cultivation on a regular basis were captured by means of twoindexes - Additive Index (AI) and a Multiplicative Index (MI), which usedthe scores given by participants to the survey to a set of attitudinal statements(n = 17) explaining this behaviour on a Likert scale. The outcome of AI andMI were in turn modelled with the farmer's socio economic characteristics,including the age, sex, level of education, income, managerial time,experience in farming, extent of land allocated for cultivation, crop type,availability of credit and extension facilities etc. to test significance of thesefactors on this behaviour. The results suggest that many of these have asignificant impact on the farmer's degree of responsiveness towards adoptionof sustainable agricultural practices. The outcome of analysis highlights theneed of provision of appropriate private and regulatory incentives for farmersto change their behaviour in this respect

Production characteristics and technical efficiency of buffalo farming in Thanamalwila veterinary division, Sri Lanka

Peer reviewe

A Comparative Study of Demand for Medical Care on Non Communicable Diseases: Western vs. Alternative

Medical care is an input to the production of health. People get treatment for their health issues under western medicine , complementary and alternative medicine. Western medicine can be identified as the most famous and modern medical care system in the world. Complementary and alternative medicine refers to avariety of health practices as ayurveda, homeopathy, acupuncture, herbs, yoga, etc . Considering Sri Lankan context, with the rapid increase of ageing population, there is a growing trend in non communicable diseases. Most of people tend to use these two systems to recover from non communicable diseases asasthma, cholesterol, hypertension, arthritis, etc. The main objective of this study was to distinguish between the demand for alternative medicine and western medicine related to non communicable diseases. It was considered socio demographic and economic factors for demand in medical care for both sectors. Primary data was based on Arogya private hospital and Siddhayurvedini private ayurvedic care institution in Gampaha. It was selected 100 non communicable disease patients using systematic sampling method. Logistic regression model was mainly used to distinguish between the alternative and western medical care. According to the findings of this study, females are more likely to demand for both medical cares. Middle age, unemployed, arthritis patient and duration of disease 2-5 years cause to raise demand for alternative medical care. Diabetic patient, employed, believing health status as serious and having employer provided insurance cause to raise demand for western medical care. Relative to the demand for alternative medical care, living in rural area and lower educated people are negatively associated with demand for western medical care.KEYWORDS: Demand, Western, alternative, non communicable disease

WHAT DETERMINES RECREATIONAL TELEVISION BEHAVIOUR OF PEOPLE? A STUDY WITH REFERENCE TO THE GAMPAHA DISTRICT

Although the television industry carries great importance in micro andmacroeconomic aspects and supports a great demand as a recreational orleisure source among people, it seems that the television industry is laggingbehind its actual capacity and is widely contributing to the domestic GDP.Less effective management and poor identification of choices of people hasdriven the industry toward poor conditions. Therefore, this studycontributes to identify the factors that support the television programpreferences of people, selection of public or private channels and timespent in front of the television. These identifications would indeed help thetelevision industry to achieve maximum capacity while competingeffectively in an oligopolistic market and achieving higher contribution tothe national GDP.In order to obtain the statistical analysis, primary data has been gatheredfrom four Grama Niladari Divisions of the Gampaha Divisional Secretariatin the Western Province, Sri Lanka. Simple random sampling procedurehas been carried out in the sample selection process and data has beengathered from 609 individuals in 168 households; from February 2015 toApril 2015, to identify determinants of programme preferences andpublic/private channel choices, the binary logistic regression model hasbeen applied. The semi log regression model is used to identify thedeterminants of television watching hours of the people.Results in the binary logistic model of programme preferences emphasizethat old, male, married and employed individuals are showing more interestin news and knowledge related programmes while creating positivesignificant relationships with the news and knowledge based programmedemand. When a person is being employed, public channels were mostlypreferred creating significant positive relationship while when a person ishaving specific political norm, they prefer mostly private channels andcreate significant negative relationship in the model. Regarding the hoursallocated for watching television by the people, age, marital status andemployment status shows positive relationships within the model.Considering the employed segment; when a person has more than 8 hoursof working time, it shows a significant negative relationship with televisionwatching hours. In descriptive statistics, it shows that old and middle agedpeople are more interested in watching news and politics related programmes while females mostly prefer programmes containing softcontent such as tele-dramas and religion based programmes. Considering news preference in separate, Hiru TV was leading among other channels. “Atapattama” on ITN was the most preferred knowledge based programme followed by “Doramadalawa” on ITN. “Satana” programme on Sirasa TV was the mainly preferred political programme among individuals. On the other hand, when it came to tele-dramas, the largely favoured Indian mega dramas were “Me Adarayai” and “Sapna”, telecast by Sirasa TV. “Hiru CountDown” was leading among the respondents when it came to their most preferred musical programmes. Keywords: Demand for Watching Television, Hours Spent Watching Television, Programme Specific Demand, Public/Private Channel Choice

BEHAVIOR OF Ceratophora tennentii GUNTHER, 1834 IN RELATION TO AMBIENT TEMPERATURE IN A SELECTED HABITAT IN KNUCKLES FOREST RANGE OF SRllANKA

A research was conducted in the eastern slope of the northern flank of the Knuckles forestrange for a period of 3 months from March - June 2002 with the objective of studying thegeneral behavior of C. tennentii related to the ambient temperature. Data was collected fora period of 10 days between 0800 to 1800 hrs using focal sampling method. Juvenile (1),male (M) and female (F) lizards were observed and the ambient temperature or thesubstrate used in the habitat Was recorded. An average temperature in the study sitefluctuated from 16.80DC in the morning, H.2SDC at noon and 16.25DC in the evening.Activity of all lizards was high around noon (1100-1300 hrs) and it was observed that theyare relatively inactive in the morning and evening when the ambient temperatures wereminimum. All the groups spent more time on resting (1 = 50.83%, M = 42% and F =55.83(10). The most preferred substrates were tree trunks and cardamom plants (J = 34.3%,33.5%; M = 37.3%, 28.2%; F = n5%, 32.2% respectively). It can be concluded that thegeneral behavior of C. tennentii correlates with the ambient temperature where a highdegree of activity was observed during the daytime. The optimum range could be 20°C-24DC for captive management of these lizards. They preferred substrates exposed tosunlight such as tree trunks and cardamom plants where there were numerous insectsduring the flowering season

Arterial versus venous lactate: a measure of sepsis in children.

This study assessed the agreement between arterial and venous blood lactate and pH levels in children with sepsis. This retrospective, three-year study involved 60 PICU patients, with data collected from electronic or paper patient records. The inclusion criteria comprised of children (≤17 years old) with sepsis and those who had a venous blood gas taken first with an arterial blood gas taken after within one hour. The lactate and pH values measured through each method were analysed. There is close agreement between venous and arterial lactate up to 2 mmol/L. As this value increases, this agreement becomes poor. The limits of agreement (LOA) are too large (±1.90 mmol/L) to allow venous and arterial lactate to be used interchangeably. The mean difference and LOA between both methods would be much smaller if derived using lactate values under 2.0 mmol/L. There is close agreement between arterial and venous pH (MD = -0.056, LOA ± 0.121). However, due to extreme variations in pH readings during sepsis, pH alone is an inadequate marker. CONCLUSION: A venous lactate ≤2 mmol/L can be used as a surrogate for arterial lactate during early management of sepsis in children. However, if the value exceeds 2 mmol/L, an arterial sample must confirm the venous result. What is known: • In children with septic shock, a blood gas is an important test to show the presence of acidosis and high lactic acid. Hyperlactataemia on admission is an early predictor of outcome and is associated with a greater mortality risk. • An arterial sample is the standard for lactate measurement, however getting a sample may be challenging in the emergency department or a general paediatric ward. Venous samples are quicker and easier to obtain. Adult studies generally advise caution in replacing venous lactate values for the arterial standard, whilst paediatric studies are limited in this area. What is new: • This is the first study assessing the agreement between arterial and peripheral venous lactate in children with sepsis, with a significant sample of patients. • This study shows that a venous sample with a lactate of ≤ 2 mmol/L can be used as a surrogate measurement for arterial lactate during early management of sepsis in children. However, if the venous lactate is above 2 mmol/L, an arterial sample must be taken to confirm the result