Measuring and reporting of intellectual capital: with special reference to commercial banks in Sri Lanka

Importance and growing pressure from shareholders on Intellectual Capital (IC) have been increased over the past decades since managing, measuring and reporting oflC is becoming recognized as an important strategy for transparency and more complete information on the potential profitability and growth of organizations in competitive environment. However, Sri Uinkan companies still give little importance for the measuring and reporting of IC. Thus, the objective of this study is to develop a measuring and reporting framework for IC in Sri Utnkan contexts. This study is conducted over five limited liability commercial banking companies currently operating in Sri Lanka. Study found that measuring and reporting framework for IC was developed in western countries could be applied in Sri Lankan contexts with required adjustments based on stakeholders' prospective and available information

Temporal Changes of Land Use Pattern in Batticaloa Municipal Council, Sri Lanka

Batticaloa, one of the fastest-growing cities in Sri Lanka, is the most vital urban agglomeration that should concentrate on the temporal changes in land use. Seven (7) land use categories, namely commercial, residential, agricultural, scrubland, mangroves, water bodies, and barren land in Batticaloa, have changed by the different purposes of utilization. This study aims to identify the land-use changes of the Batticaloa Municipal Council from 1980 to 2018. Primary and secondary data collection methods were used to gather the data for analysis. Maximum likelihood classification method was used to interpret the maps. The comparison was made to the various land use categories in 1980, 1990, 2000, 2010, and 2018. The temporal pattern of land-use change was presented via a comparison of those periods of land use maps. ArcGIS 10.4.1 and MS Excel 2013 were used to interpret the maps and analyze data. The study revealed that there were major land-use changes identified in the study area between 1980 and 2018. Commercial and residential areas increased by 20.17 ha and 1148.57 ha, respectively. Barren land and agricultural land lost 769.54 ha and 301.99 ha, respectively. The certain extent of rest land use categories was converted into some other land use category during these periods. The effects of human activities are immediate and often radical, while the natural effects are relatively long. However, the recommendations are to the future land use planning, protecting mangrove resources through land-use strategies by the government, community participation, and encouraging the approval of urban planners to make decisions about urban development.KEYWORDS: Land use changes, Temporal pattern, Barren land, Plannin

Distribution and Conservation Awareness of Grey Slender Loris (Loris lydekkerianus nordicus) at Sampopham’s Arboretum, Dambulla, Sri Lanka

Lorises are very unique creatures that live on trees. As a result of habitat destruction, they have become a rarity and are on the verge of extinction. Sam Popham’s Arboretum, Dambulla is Sri Lanka’s only dry zone Arboretum where an amazing spectrum of trees, birds, butterflies, dragonflies, and mammals can be observed in their natural setting. The slow Lorises are now identified as a heavily threaten group of animals and declared as threatened species in Sri Lanka. Therefore, it is an urgent necessity to take measures to protect them in their habitats. There are no studies reported so far on different habitats and the distribution pattern of the Loris population at Sam Popham’s Arboretum. The main objective of this research is to study the distribution pattern and population estimation of Grey Slender Loris in different habitats at Sam Popham's Arboretum. The number of Lorises, its gender, maturity (adult/juvenile) and the species of tree (with the height) which Lorises were spotted were recorded and tagged. The data was collected for a period of seven months from January 2019 to July 2019. The results obtained so far showed that Lorises are restricted to certain specific tree species. Although the forest is rich with large no trees belonging to several families, they commonly occupied species such as Pamburu (Pamburus missionis), Daduwa (E. bracteata), Welan (P. suberifolium), Elapath Habarala (Diospyros ferrea), and Ahatu (Ficus tinctoria). Furthermore, the Lorises were sighted at a height of 5 feet and above. According to the results, 31 Grey Slender Lorises were found and 14 of them were adult males, six were adult females and 11 were juveniles. Out of the tree species, Daduwa (E. bracteats) has the highest number of loris sightings consisting of 4 adult Lorises all were male adults. Elapath Habarala (D. ferrea), Ahatu (Ficus tinctoria) and Velan (P. suberifolium) each consist 3 Grey Slender Lorises which were 3 adults males, 1 female and 4 juveniles. As per the present study, during the full moon, the Loris sighting was relatively low compared to other days due to the moonlight. However, during the study, an average of 3 Lorises can be observed within a period of 2 hours. This indicates that there is a good population of Lorises within the Arboretum. Therefore, the establishment of similar Arboretums and enhancing the knowledge of the general public will help to uplift the rapidly declining Loris populations in the area.Keywords: Loris, Arboretum, Dambulla, Distributio

Achieving Optimal Performance and Quality in LAN and WLAN for Mission-Critical Applications

© 2024 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. This is the accepted manuscript version of a conference paper which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-6974-6_17Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) properties are vital for its reliability in mission-critical applications. This research aims to find network topology, call signalling and voice codecs property combinations that meet reliability targets of VoIP communication in a Small Office Home Office (SOHO) environment where network resources may be limited but reliable and secured operation is essential. Local Area Network (LAN) and Wireless LAN (WLAN) scenarios are evaluated using Quality of Service (QoS) and Mean Opinion Score (MOS) measurements to find which property combinations satisfy predefined classes; best quality and best performance. The research extended Roslin et al. [1] on LAN VoIP to WLANs, and validated Khiat et al. [2] s and Guy [3]’s work that argued SIP was effective in optimal set up. This research found that VoIP combinations offer some desirable characteristics, but at the cost of other properties required, leading to categorisation being based on the interpretation of the results, concluding that though, not ideal for mission-critical applications, combinations function well in replicating real-world scenarios. The analysis also established VoIP's scalability for application-based configurations, impact of VoIP’s modularity and ease of configuration in achieving user expectations. Further property testing can solidify VoIP’s capabilities to function for mission-critical environments

DSC enthalpic transitions during starch gelatinization in excess water, dilute sodium chloride, and dilute sucrose solutions

Background: Starch phase transition characteristics were studied by pre-treating starch samples in excess water, dilute sodium chloride and dilute sucrose solutions and subjecting them to differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Unmodified maize, wheat and potato starches were held at specific temperatures between 30 and 90 °C for 30 min and promptly cooled to 25 °C. Treated samples were then analyzed in situ by DSC. Results: It was found that the progression of the phase transition behavior differed among the three starches and was dependent on the solvent. It was also revealed that phase transition-related enthalpic changes started to occur at low temperatures and that this process involved a continuous sequence of structural changes, resulting in progressive differences in endothermic patterns from low to high temperatures. Conclusion: These findings are in agreement with recent evidence suggesting that starch gelatinization occurs over a wider temperature range rather than as a sudden order–disorder transition taking place within a narrow temperature range. The phase transition mechanism is determined by starch type and solvent combination

DSC enthalpic transitions during starch gelatinization in excess water, dilute sodium chloride, and dilute sucrose solutions

Background: Starch phase transition characteristics were studied by pre-treating starch samples in excess water, dilute sodium chloride and dilute sucrose solutions and subjecting them to differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Unmodified maize, wheat and potato starches were held at specific temperatures between 30 and 90 °C for 30 min and promptly cooled to 25 °C. Treated samples were then analyzed in situ by DSC. Results: It was found that the progression of the phase transition behavior differed among the three starches and was dependent on the solvent. It was also revealed that phase transition-related enthalpic changes started to occur at low temperatures and that this process involved a continuous sequence of structural changes, resulting in progressive differences in endothermic patterns from low to high temperatures. Conclusion: These findings are in agreement with recent evidence suggesting that starch gelatinization occurs over a wider temperature range rather than as a sudden order–disorder transition taking place within a narrow temperature range. The phase transition mechanism is determined by starch type and solvent combination

Atypical Protein Kinase Cs in Melanoma Progression

Melanoma is one of the fastest growing types of cancer worldwide in terms of incidence. To date, reports show over 92,000 new cases in the United States in 2018. Previously, we introduced protein kinase C-iota (PKC-ι) as an oncogene in melanoma. PKC-ι promotes survival and cancer progression along with PKC-zeta(ζ). In addition, we reported that PKC-ι induced metastasis of melanoma cells by increasing Vimentin dynamics. Our previous results showed that PKC-ι inhibition downregulated epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), while inducing apoptosis. In this chapter, we summarized these findings which were based on the in-vitro applications of five specific atypical PKC (aPKC) inhibitors. In addition, the underlying mechanisms of the transcriptional regulation of PRKCI gene expression in melanoma is also discussed. Results demonstrated that c-Jun promotes PRKCI expression along with Interleukin (IL)-6/8. Furthermore, forkhead box protein O1 (FOXO1) acts as a downregulator of PRKCI expression upon stimulation of IL-17E and intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM-1) in melanoma cells. Overall, the chapter summarizes the importance of PKC-ι/ζ in the progression of melanoma and discusses the cellular signaling pathways that are altered upon inhibitor applications. Finally, we established that aPKCs are effective novel biomarkers for use in the design of novel targeted therapeutics for melanoma