Visual Techniques for the Determination of Age and Sex of Sambar Deer (Rusa unicolor unicolor) in Horton Plains National Park, Sri Lanka

A standard table was developed to facilitate the unambiguous identification of growth stages and gender of sambar deer (Rusa unicolor unicolor) calves from newborn to one year in Horton plains national park, Sri Lanka (HPNP). This was developed by evaluating the phenotypic characteristics of sambar deer calves (n=97±34) of known growth stages in 2018. A standard table was prepared based on their sex, shape of the snout, shape of the head and forehead between ears, size of the ears for the face, size of the neck, shape of the body, shape of the belly, shape of the back, size of the body and the behavior. The accuracy of the table was tested by using experienced people (n=30) who are regular visitors at HPNP. The average number of sambar deer in HPNP grassland in year 2018, during the study period was 919. In new born calves the accuracy of identification of gender was 83% and the accuracy of identification of growth phase was 87%. Identification of both sex and the growth phase of newborn calves simultaneously was 77% accurate. When the calves reach two weeks from birth, the accuracy of identifying their sex was increased to 93% whereas their growth phase was identified with 90% accuracy. The accuracy of identifying both sex and the growth phase simultaneously was 83% in calves two weeks after birth. When the calves reached five months from calving, the accuracy of identification of both sex and the growth phase increased to 100%. Calves at six months age, the identification of growth phase was 97% accurate. Accuracy of identifying of both gender and the growth phase simultaneously was 97%. In the sample between six months and one year the accuracy of identification of gender and growth phase was 95%. Starting from newborn stage to six months of age, the accuracy of identification based on the characters of the standard table increased steadily. However, upon reaching six months, there was a declination of identifying both gender and the growth phase of the sambar deer in HPNP simultaneously.Keywords: Sambar deer calves, Gender, Growth phase, Horton Plain

Bird Diversity in Different Landuse Types in Belihuloya, Intermediate Zone of Sri Lanka

Land clearance and land use changes are known to affect bird communities greatly. Birds are ecologically important as they contribute to ecosystem services, sensitive to habitat change and act as an indicator taxon. Different land use types support different avifaunal communities primarily determined by the resource availability. An avifaunal survey was hence conducted in home gardens, paddy fields, secondary forest patches and Pinus plantations in Belihuloya, Rathnapura District, within the intermediate zone of Sri Lanka from February to June 2019 to document the bird communities and their diversity in each land use type and to record threats faced by them. Birds were sampled along 64 line transects (200 m each) in four different land use types where four transects were established in each land use. Each transect was replicated four times and sampled in the morning from 07:00 to 09:00 h and in the evening from 16:00 to 18:00 hrs. A total of 2,142 observations were recorded from the study area representing 106 different bird species in 44 families, including eleven species (10.4%) endemic to Sri Lanka and eight threatened species (7.5%) and eleven winter visitors (10.4%). Red-vented Bulbul was recorded as the most abundant species in the study area. Among the habitats, highest species richness (61) was recorded in paddy fields, where the Simpson diversity index is lowest (0.048). Secondary forest patches had the greatest Shannon diversity index (3.45) as well as the highest species richness estimators such as Chao 1 (60.53), Chao 2 (81), and the incidence-based coverage estimator (ICE; 84.67). According to the non-metric multidimensional scaling analysis, species composition of birds are similar in forests and home gardens. Paddy fields had a moderate similarity while the Pinus plantation showed the highest dissimilarity to other habitat types. Habitat fragmentation, land clearance, environmental pollution, overuse of fertilisers in paddy fields and man-made intentional forest fires were identified as major threats to the avifauna in the study area. Enhanced public awareness on birds and conservation, conducting further researches on birds in least explored areas in Belihuloya, minimising fragmentation and other threats through better collaborative landscape management are proposed to facilitate bird conservation.Keywords: Avifauna, Belihuloya, Intermediate zone, Land use types, Pinus plantatio

Micro-Habitat Preferences of Litter-Dwelling Land Snail Communities along an Elevation Gradient in the Upper Catchment of Walawe Basin in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka is reported with highly diverse and endemic land snail fauna. Nevertheless, it is greatly under sampled while data are scarce on their micro-habitat preferences, which are critical for land snail conservation decision making due to their limited mobility and high susceptibility to predation. Here we have investigated the micro-habitat factors that influence variation of species richness and diversity of land snail fauna along an elevation gradient from 100 m to 2,200 m, in order to see whether those malacofaunal communities differ significantly with the elevation dependent features of their micro-habitat. The investigation was conducted along a transect from Udawalawe to Horton Plains National Parks in the upper catchment of the Walawe basin in Sri Lanka, by collecting specimens through time restricted searches within twelve 10×10 m quadrats, from November 2017 to February 2018. Nine micro-habitat variables viz. soil moisture, soil pH, litter depth, soil temperature, air temperature, canopy cover, undergrowth cover, dead-wood content and tree density were measured for each quadrat. Correlation analysis followed by regression was used to establish the relationships between the micro-habitat variables and land snail species richness, diversity, percentage endemism and threatened percentage. The present study populated a database of 770 records of live land snails and shells of dead specimens, representing 33 species belonging to nine families, with 80% of species endemic to Sri Lanka, including a possibly undescribed Cyclophorid. Family Ariophantidae (13 species; 55.7%) represented the highest number of specimens including the most abundant species (Euplecta acuducta; 16.8%), followed by Glassulidae (5 species). The results of the present study reveals that micro-habitat variables directed by the elevation have influenced the land snail richness and diversity variation along the transect. Increasing litter depth (r=0.71; p=0.01) and tree density (r=0.771; p=0.003) were recorded to highly influence the species richness, while the land snail diversity (Simpson Index) had a strong relationship with the soil moisture content (r=0.719; p=0.003). Percentage species endemism of land snails was highly correlated with the soil moisture (r=0.798; p=0.002) and the soil temperature (r=0.786; p=0.002). Canonical Correspondence Analysis identified soil temperature, litter depth and soil moisture as the major micro-habitat variables associated with land snail distribution while indicator species have been identified for each micro-habitat variable.Keywords: Land snail, Micro-habitat, Species diversity, Walawa basi

A transient tribodynamic approach for the calculation of internal combustion engine piston slap noise

An analytical/numerical methodology is presented to calculate the radiated noise due to internal combustion engine piston impacts on the cylinder liner through a film of lubricant. Both quasi-static and transient dynamic analyses coupled with impact elasto-hydrodynamics are reported. The local impact impedance is calculated, as well as the transferred energy onto the cylinder liner. The simulations are verified against experimental results for different engine operating conditions and for noise levels calculated in the vicinity of the engine block. Continuous wavelet signal processing is performed to identify the occurrence of piston slap noise events and their spectral content, showing good conformance between the predictions and experimentally acquired signals

The feasibility of milkfish (Chanos chanos) aquaculture in Solomon Islands

Fish is crucial to food and nutrition security in Solomon Islands, and demand is expected to increase due to a growing population. However, it is projected that current capture fisheries production will not meet this growing demand. Aquaculture has the potential to mitigate the capture fishery shortfall, and the Government of Solomon Islands is prioritizing aquaculture as a solution to meet future food and income needs. Aquaculture in Solomon Islands is still in early development. Mozambique tilapia (Oreochromis mossambicus) is farmed for household consumption, but its prolific reproductive rate and resulting slow growth limit its potential as a commercial aquaculture species. More productive fish species that are not indigenous to Solomon Islands but are successfully farmed overseas could be introduced; however, such a decision needs to take into account the potential ecological or social impacts. For land-based pond aquaculture, the only indigenous species that has been farmed extensively elsewhere is milkfish (Chanos chanos). This report presents a feasibility assessment for milkfish farming in Solomon Islands. It synthesizes the current knowledge about milkfish farming and presents results of a 4-year study on the potential for milkfish aquaculture in Solomon Islands

Study of the B^0 Semileptonic Decay Spectrum at the Upsilon(4S) Resonance

We have made a first measurement of the lepton momentum spectrum in a sample of events enriched in neutral B's through a partial reconstruction of B0 --> D*- l+ nu. This spectrum, measured with 2.38 fb**-1 of data collected at the Upsilon(4S) resonance by the CLEO II detector, is compared directly to the inclusive lepton spectrum from all Upsilon(4S) events in the same data set. These two spectra are consistent with having the same shape above 1.5 GeV/c. From the two spectra and two other CLEO measurements, we obtain the B0 and B+ semileptonic branching fractions, b0 and b+, their ratio, and the production ratio f+-/f00 of B+ and B0 pairs at the Upsilon(4S). We report b+/b0=0.950 (+0.117-0.080) +- 0.091, b0 = (10.78 +- 0.60 +- 0.69)%, and b+ = (10.25 +- 0.57 +- 0.65)%. b+/b0 is equivalent to the ratio of charged to neutral B lifetimes, tau+/tau0.Comment: 14 page, postscript file also available at http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/public/CLN

Radiative Decay Modes of the D0D^{0} Meson

Using data recorded by the CLEO-II detector at CESR we have searched for four radiative decay modes of the $D^0$ meson: $D^0\to\phi\gamma$, $D^0\to\omega\gamma$, $D^0\to\bar{K}^{*}\gamma$, and $D^0\to\rho^0\gamma$. We obtain 90% CL upper limits on the branching ratios of these modes of $1.9\times 10^{-4}$, $2.4\times 10^{-4}$, $7.6\times 10^{-4}$ and $2.4\times 10^{-4}$ respectively.Comment: 15 page postscript file, postscript file also available through http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/public/CLN

Measurement of the Mass Splittings between the bbˉχb,J(1P)b\bar{b}\chi_{b,J}(1P) States

We present new measurements of photon energies and branching fractions for the radiative transitions: Upsilon(2S)->gamma+chi_b(J=0,1,2). The masses of the chi_b states are determined from the measured radiative photon energies. The ratio of mass splittings between the chi_b substates, r==(M[J=2]-M[J=1])/(M[J=1]-M[J=0]) with M the chi_b mass, provides information on the nature of the bbbar confining potential. We find r(1P)=0.54+/-0.02+/-0.02. This value is in conflict with the previous world average, but more consistent with the theoretical expectation that r(1P)<r(2P); i.e., that this mass splittings ratio is smaller for the chi_b(1P) triplet than for the chi_b(2P) triplet.Comment: 11 page postscript file, postscript file also available through http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/public/CLN

Search for a W' boson decaying to a bottom quark and a top quark in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

Results are presented from a search for a W' boson using a dataset corresponding to 5.0 inverse femtobarns of integrated luminosity collected during 2011 by the CMS experiment at the LHC in pp collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV. The W' boson is modeled as a heavy W boson, but different scenarios for the couplings to fermions are considered, involving both left-handed and right-handed chiral projections of the fermions, as well as an arbitrary mixture of the two. The search is performed in the decay channel W' to t b, leading to a final state signature with a single lepton (e, mu), missing transverse energy, and jets, at least one of which is tagged as a b-jet. A W' boson that couples to fermions with the same coupling constant as the W, but to the right-handed rather than left-handed chiral projections, is excluded for masses below 1.85 TeV at the 95% confidence level. For the first time using LHC data, constraints on the W' gauge coupling for a set of left- and right-handed coupling combinations have been placed. These results represent a significant improvement over previously published limits.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters B. Replaced with version publishe

Search for the standard model Higgs boson decaying into two photons in pp collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV

A search for a Higgs boson decaying into two photons is described. The analysis is performed using a dataset recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC from pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV, which corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 4.8 inverse femtobarns. Limits are set on the cross section of the standard model Higgs boson decaying to two photons. The expected exclusion limit at 95% confidence level is between 1.4 and 2.4 times the standard model cross section in the mass range between 110 and 150 GeV. The analysis of the data excludes, at 95% confidence level, the standard model Higgs boson decaying into two photons in the mass range 128 to 132 GeV. The largest excess of events above the expected standard model background is observed for a Higgs boson mass hypothesis of 124 GeV with a local significance of 3.1 sigma. The global significance of observing an excess with a local significance greater than 3.1 sigma anywhere in the search range 110-150 GeV is estimated to be 1.8 sigma. More data are required to ascertain the origin of this excess.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters