Developing effective institutions for water resources management: A case study in the Deduru Oya Basin, Sri Lanka

River basins / Water resource management / Water lifting / Wells / Domestic water / Population / Economic aspects / Income / Irrigation programs / Institutions / Policy / Groundwater / Agricultural development / Fish farming / Pumps / Ecology / Water supply / Drought / Poverty / Land use / Water scarcity / Natural resources / Agricultural production / Cropping systems

Effects of recreational camping on the environmental values of national parks in Sri Lanka

Camping is a popular activity in the contemporary nature-based tourism domain and rapidly gaining momentum as a key recreational activity in Sri Lanka’s national parks (NPs). Recreational uses such as camping in natural areas can induce significant and often localised resource impacts that can affect soil, vegetation, wildlife and water, with the severity of such impacts varying according to the intensity of use. Hence, monitoring of the biophysical conditions of campsites has become an important component in the reserve management agenda in many places, especially in developed countries. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to examine the biophysical impacts associated with the recreation ecology of camping in Sri Lanka. Ten campsites from three dry zone NPs were selected to assess biophysical impacts of camping activities. Field measurements were based on the fixed radial transect method. Gathered data included the total area of the campsite, erosion potential measured as the area of exposed soil (devoid of vegetation or organic litter), number of exposed roots and human damage to trees, number of fireplaces/ fire scars on the ground, visual counts of litter, soil compaction measured by penetrometer, loss of woody debris. This study reports significant levels of environmental degradation related to all the indictors of biophysical impacts at both high and low use campsites. There was no evidence for any difference in the level of environmental degradation associated with high and low use campsites. The loss of natural values associated with campsites negatively impacted visitors’ nature-based experience. These findings highlight the importance of managing biophysical impacts in campsites to provide a high-quality visitor experience, while sustainably managing tourism activities in NPs

Fluids of hard ellipsoids: Phase diagram including a nematic instability from Percus-Yevick theory

An important aspect of molecular fluids is the relation between orientation and translation parts of the two-particle correlations. Especially the detailed knowledge of the influence of orientation correlations is needed to explain and calculate in detail the occurrence of a nematic phase. The simplest model system which shows both orientation and translation correlations is a system of hard ellipsoids. We investigate an isotropic fluid formed of hard ellipsoids with Percus-Yevick theory. Solving the Percus-Yevick equations self-consistently in the high density regime gives a clear criterion for a nematic instability. We calculate in detail the equilibrium phase diagram for a fluid of hard ellipsoids of revolution. Our results compare well with Monte Carlo Simulations and density functional theory.Comment: 7 pages including 4 figure

The AzTEC mm-Wavelength Camera

AzTEC is a mm-wavelength bolometric camera utilizing 144 silicon nitride micromesh detectors. Herein we describe the AzTEC instrument architecture and its use as an astronomical instrument. We report on several performance metrics measured during a three month observing campaign at the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope, and conclude with our plans for AzTEC as a facility instrument on the Large Millimeter Telescope.Comment: 13 pages, 15 figures, accepted for publication in Monthly Notice

FitFlame – Health and Fitness Coaching Application to Mitigate the Issues in the Current Applications

Online fitness coaches help people achieve a healthy lifestyle by offering customized solutions. The demand for professional coaching is expected to grow in the coming years. Nevertheless, no applications in the market address the problems in the coaching process. Today, coaches and clients had to use many third-party apps. The reason for this is that no single fitness coaching app offers communication and exercise-tracking features. Even though some apps meet some of these requirements, they are out of reach for most people's budgets. This paper aims to suggest a robust and full-fledged app to mitigate those issues. FitFlame is the name of the proposed app. Both coaches and clients can benefit from this app. Also, FitFlame is a fitness coaching system available on mobile and the web. It helps clients locate and contact coaches, subscribe to coaching plans, and track their progress. It does away with third-party programs and gives users a better experience

Diffusion and viscosity in a supercooled polydisperse system

We have carried out extensive molecular dynamics simulations of a supercooled polydisperse Lennard-Jones liquid with large variations in temperature at a fixed pressure. The particles in the system are considered to be polydisperse both in size and mass. The temperature dependence of the dynamical properties such as the viscosity ($\eta$) and the self-diffusion coefficients ($D_i$) of different size particles is studied. Both viscosity and diffusion coefficients show super-Arrhenius temperature dependence and fit well to the well-known Vogel-Fulcher-Tammann (VFT) equation. Within the temperature range investigated, the value of the Angell's fragility parameter (D $\approx 1.4$) classifies the present system into a strongly fragile liquid. The critical temperature for diffusion ($T_o^{D_i}$) increases with the size of the particles. The critical temperature for viscosity ($T_o^{\eta}$) is larger than that for the diffusion and a sizeable deviations appear for the smaller size particles implying a decoupling of translational diffusion from viscosity in deeply supercooled liquid. Indeed, the diffusion shows markedly non-Stokesian behavior at low temperatures where a highly nonlinear dependence on size is observed. An inspection of the trajectories of the particles shows that at low temperatures the motions of both the smallest and largest size particles are discontinuous (jump-type). However, the crossover from continuous Brownian to large length hopping motion takes place at shorter time scales for the smaller size particles.Comment: Revtex4, 7 pages, 8 figure

Post-tsunami natural regeneration of coastal vegetation in the Hambantota district in south-eastern Sri Lanka

A qualitative rapid survey was conducted in 45 plots distributed in the gentle seashore vegetation andsand dunes (n = 13), coastal scrublands (n = 19), and mangroves (n = 13) along the coastline ofHambantota District, affected by the Indian Ocean tsunami. The objective of the survey was toinvestigate the natural regeneration of coastal vegetation 20 months after the tsunami disturbance21 plant species belonging to 19 families were recorded as the prominent plants regenerating inaffected mangroves, while 16 species in 15 families and 32 species in 23 families were observed asprom inent plants to regenerate in affected areas of the gentle sea-shore vegetation and coastalscrublands respectively.In tsunami affected mangrove stands Acanthus iltctfolius (in 50% of study plots), Achrosticumaureum (40%) and Lumnitzera racemosa (17%) were the dominant species establishing in openmuddy substrates, while Clerodendrum inerme (57%), Lumnitzera racemosa and Excoecariaaga//ocha (29% each) were regenerating in sand deposited in the mangrove patches.Ipomoea pes-caprae (85%), Scaevola taccada and Calotropis gigantea (23% each) were observedas the dominant species re-establishing in the gentle seashore vegetation, while Spinifex littoreusshows a slow rate of regeneration. Most of the destroyed Pandanus odoratissimus bushes facingthe beach are not regenerating. Instead a new row of Pandanus was observed regenerating immediatelybacking the original stands. Prominent species regenerating in coastal scrublands are Crotonbonplandianus and Gymnema sylvestre (37% each), Clerodendrum inerme (16%), Calotropisgigantea (10%) and Crateva adansonii (10%) and saplings of Azadirachta indica and Limoniaacidissitna .Invasive alien plants, mainly Opuntia dillennii have established well and spreading vigorously inaffected coastal scrublands (58%), some study plots of gentle seashore vegetation (31 %) as wellas on sand depositions in the affected mangroves (15%). This species was observed replacing thespaces occupied by destroyed Pandanus odoratissimus bushes and Spinifex littoreus beds.Invasive alien plants such as Prosopis juliflora and Lantana camara were also spreading intsunami disturbed coastal scrublands.

The MacGyver effect: alive and well in health services research?

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In a manner similar to the television action hero MacGyver, health services researchers need to respond to the pressure of unpredictable demands and constrained time frames. The results are often both innovative and functional, with the creation of outputs that could not have been anticipated in the initial planning and design of the research.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>In the conduct of health services research many challenges to robust research processes are generated as a result of the interface between academic research, health policy and implementation agendas. Within a complex and rapidly evolving environment the task of the health services researcher is, therefore, to juggle sometimes contradictory pressures to produce valid results.</p> <p>Summary</p> <p>This paper identifies the MacGyver-type dilemmas which arise in health services research, wherein innovation may be called for, to maintain the intended scientific method and rigour. These 'MacGyver drivers' are framed as opposing issues from the perspective of both academic and public policy communities. The ideas expressed in this paper are illustrated by four examples from research projects positioned at the interface between public policy strategy and academia.</p

A Topological Glass

We propose and study a model with glassy behavior. The state space of the model is given by all triangulations of a sphere with $n$ nodes, half of which are red and half are blue. Red nodes want to have 5 neighbors while blue ones want 7. Energies of nodes with different numbers of neighbors are supposed to be positive. The dynamics is that of flipping the diagonal of two adjacent triangles, with a temperature dependent probability. We show that this system has an approach to a steady state which is exponentially slow, and show that the stationary state is unordered. We also study the local energy landscape and show that it has the hierarchical structure known from spin glasses. Finally, we show that the evolution can be described as that of a rarefied gas with spontaneous generation of particles and annihilating collisions

The Evolution of PSR J0737-3039B and a Model for Relativistic Spin Precession

We present the evolution of the radio emission from the 2.8-s pulsar of the double pulsar system PSR J0737-3039A/B. We provide an update on the Burgay et al. (2005) analysis by describing the changes in the pulse profile and flux density over five years of observations, culminating in the B pulsar's radio disappearance in 2008 March. Over this time, the flux density decreases by 0.177 mJy/yr at the brightest orbital phases and the pulse profile evolves from a single to a double peak, with a separation rate of 2.6 deg/yr. The pulse profile changes are most likely caused by relativistic spin precession, but can not be easily explained with a circular hollow-cone beam as in the model of Clifton & Weisberg (2008). Relativistic spin precession, coupled with an elliptical beam, can model the pulse profile evolution well. This particular beam shape predicts geometrical parameters for the two bright orbital phases which are consistent and similar to those derived by Breton et al. (2008). However, the observed decrease in flux over time and B's eventual disappearance cannot be easily explained by the model and may be due to the changing influence of A on B.Comment: 20 pages, 18 figures, Accepted by ApJ on 2 August 201