Quality of life of caregivers and impact on the nuclear family of children with leukaemia in the National Cancer Institute of Sri Lanka

Childhood leukaemia is the commonest cancer in children aged below 15 years. A diagnosis of childhood leukaemia is a devastating experience for any parent. This hospital-based descriptive cross sectional study aimed to assess the quality of life (QOL) of caregivers and the impact on the nuclear families of children with leukaemia. A convenient sample of 140 caregivers was surveyed using an interviewer administered questionnaire. Nearly 50% of caregivers reported low QOL in the psychological 71(50.7%), social 66(47.1%) and environmental 64(45.7%) domains while most nuclear families underwent moderate financial 88(62.9%) and psychological 100(71.4%) impacts. There was a statistically significant decline in parental employment status following the diagnosis (p<0.05).Full Tex

Estimating rainfall distributions at high temporal resolutions using a multifractal model

International audienceRainfall data from 18 stations in the vicinity of Tokyo city, measured to a precision of 1 mm, were analysed for multifractal properties. A multifractal model based on the scaling properties of temporal distribution of rainfall intensities was formulated to investigate the intensity distribution relationships in the available scaling regime. Although conventional analysis did not provide encouraging results with these measurements, an alternative approach that could be applied to rainfall data of widely variable quality and duration was used to establish a scaling relationship between daily and hourly rainfall intensities. Using a discrete cascade algorithm based on the log-Lèvy generator, synthetic hourly rainfall series were generated from the multifractal statistics of daily-accumulated rainfall. Several properties of rainfall time series that are relevant to the use of rainfall data in surface hydrological studies were used to determine, statistically, the degree of agreement between the synthetic hourly series and observed hourly rainfall. Keywords: rainfall modelling, cascades, multifractal, downscalin

Mechanical modelling of high power lateral IGBT for LED driver applications

An assembly exercise was proposed to replace the vertical MOSFET by lateral IGBTs (LIGBT) for LED driver systems which can provide significant advantages in terms of size reduction (LIGBTs are ten times smaller than vertical MOSFETs) and lower component count. A 6 circle, 5V gate, 800 V LIGBT device with dimension of 818μm x 672μm with deposited solder balls that has a radius of around 75μm was selected in this assembly exercise. The driver system uses chip on board (COB) technique to create a compact driver system which can fit into a GU10 bulb housing. The challenging aspect of the LIGBT package in high voltage application is underfill dielectric breakdown and solder fatigue failure. In order to predict the extreme electric field values of the underfill, an electrostatic finite element analysis was undertaken on the LIGBT package structure for various underfill permittivity values. From the electro static finite element analysis, the maximum electric field in the underfill was estimated as 38 V/μm. Five commercial underfills were selected for investigating the trade-off in materials properties that mitigate underfill electrical breakdown and solder joint fatigue failure. These selected underfills have dielectric breakdown higher than the predicted value from electrostatic analysis. The thermo-mechanical finite element analysis were undertaken for solder bump reliability for all the underfill materials. The underfill which can enhance the solder reliability was chosen as prime candidate

Tsunami impacts on shallow groundwater and associated water supply on the East Coast of Sri Lanka: a post-tsunami well recovery support initiative and an assessment of groundwater salinity in three areas of Batticaloa and Ampara Districts

Groundwater, Aquifers, Salinity, Natural disasters, Water supply, Drinking water, Wells, Rehabilitation, Mosquitoes, Disease vectors, Environmental Economics and Policy, Health Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Bed load sediment transport and morphological evolution in a degrading uniform sediment channel under unsteady flow hydrographs

Flume experiments are conducted to investigate the intrinsic links between time-varying bed load transport properties for uniform sediments and bed surface morphology under unsteady hydrograph flows, in the absence of upstream sediment supply. These conditions are representative of regulated river reaches (e.g. downstream of a dam) that are subject to natural flood discharges or managed water releases, resulting in net degradation of the river bed. The results demonstrate that the hydrograph magnitude and unsteadiness have significant impacts on sediment transport rates and yields, as well as hysteresis patterns and yield ratios generated during the rising and falling limbs. A new hydrograph descriptor combining the influence of total water work and unsteadiness on bed load transport is shown to delineate these hysteresis patterns and yield ratios, whilst correlating strongly with overall sediment yields. This provides an important parametric link between unsteady hydrograph flow conditions, bed load transport and bed surface degradation under imposed zero sediment feed conditions. As such, maximum bed erosion depths and the longitudinal bed degradation profiles along the flume, are strongly dependent on the magnitude of this new hydrograph descriptor. Similarly, non-equilibrium bed forms generated along the flume indicate that formative conditions for alternate bars, mixed bar/dunes or dunes are defined reasonably well by an existing morphological model and the new hydrograph descriptor. These findings provide a new framework for improved predictive capabilities for sediment transport and morphodynamic response in regulated rivers to natural or imposed unsteady flows, while their wider application to graded sediments are also considered

Sri Lankan tsunami refugees: a cross sectional study of the relationships between housing conditions and self-reported health

BACKGROUND: On the 26th December 2004 the Asian tsunami devastated the Sri Lankan coastline. More than two years later, over 14,500 families were still living in transitional shelters. This study compares the health of the internally displaced people (IDP), living in transitional camps with those in permanent housing projects provided by government and non-government organisations in Sri Lanka. METHODS: This study was conducted in seven transitional camps and five permanent housing projects in the south west of Sri Lanka. Using an interviewer-led questionnaire, data on the IDPs' self-reported health and housing conditions were collected from 154 participants from transitional camps and 147 participants from permanent housing projects. Simple tabulation with non-parametric tests and logistic regression were used to identify and analyse relationships between housing conditions and the reported prevalence of specific symptoms. RESULTS: Analysis showed that living conditions were significantly worse in transitional camps than in permanent housing projects for all factors investigated, except 'having a leaking roof'. Transitional camp participants scored significantly lower on self-perceived overall health scores than those living in housing projects. After controlling for gender, age and marital status, living in a transitional camp compared to a housing project was found to be a significant risk factor for the following symptoms; coughs OR: 3.53 (CI: 2.11-5.89), stomach ache 4.82 (2.19-10.82), headache 5.20 (3.09-8.76), general aches and pains 6.44 (3.67-11.33) and feeling generally unwell 2.28 (2.51-7.29). Within transitional camp data, the only condition shown to be a significant risk factor for any symptom was household population density, which increased the risk of stomach aches 1.40 (1.09-1.79) and headaches 1.33 (1.01-1.77). CONCLUSION: Internally displaced people living in transitional camps are a vulnerable population and specific interventions need to be targeted at this population to address the health inequalities that they report to be experiencing. Further studies need to be conducted to establish which aspects of their housing environment predispose them to poorer health

EXTRACTING VEGETATION INFORMATION FROM SATELLITE DATA FOR THE NILWALA CATCHMENT AREA, SOURTHERN SRI LANKA

It is evident that increasing human activities on forest resources can lead to floods, soilerision, loss of bio diversity, and increase in atmospheric gases causing global warming,Sustainable management of forest resources requires accurate data on the current status ofthe environment as well as tools to support the decision making process, Remote Sensingand Geographical Information Systems have increasingly been used as decision supporttools, Particulaly, recent advancements in satclitc remote sensing have facilitatedacquiring valuable data and information in assessing the current status of thc environmentat varying levels of detail. Thc purpose of this study is to assess the potential of satclitcremote sensing in vegetation mapping of the Nilwala catchment area of Southernn SriLanka, The paper presents thc preliminary work amid at extracting vegctation informationfrom Landsat TM and ETM data, The maps produced applying image processingtechniques such as image differencing, Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NIJVI),ISOCLUSS unsupervised classification and Tasseled Cap Transformation show the extent,quality and change of vegetation in the catchment area, Information derived from satellitedata can further be used in modeling erosion potential in agricultural areas, mapping theflood risk, and land cover and land use change analysis when combine with geographicalinformation

Application of phasor measurement units for monitoring power system dynamic performance

This Working Group is a sequel to a previous working group on Wide Area Monitoring and Control for Transmission Capability Enhancement, which published the Technical Brochure 330 in 2007. Since then the synchrophasor technology has advanced rapidly and many utilities around the world have installed hundreds of PMUs in their networks. In this Technical Brochure, we look at the current state of the technology and the extent to which it has been used in the industry. As the technology has matured, it is also important to understand the communication protocols used in synchrophasor networks and their relevant cyber-security issues. These concerns are briefly discussed in the brochure. The applications of Phasor Measurement Units (PMU) measurements reported here are divided into three categories: (a) applications already installed in utility networks, (b) applications that are well-tested, but not yet installed, and (c) applications that are beneficial to the industry, but not fully developed yet. The most common and mature applications are wide area monitoring, state estimation, and model validation. Out of these three applications, wide area monitoring is well established in the industry. The protection and control applications are emerging as evident from the reported examples. The experience of using remote synchrophasor measurements as feedback control signals is not widely reported by the industry. In parallel to this Working Group, Study Committee B5 had a Working Group on “Wide area protection and control technologies.” The Technical Brochure 664 published by this Working Group in September 2016 reviews synchrophasor technology and discusses the industry experience with wide area protection and control. The North American synchrophasor Initiative (NASPI) is another technical group that has gathered and reported a wide range of PMU experiences of industry and researchers. In summary, the field-tested applications presented in this Technical Brochure are a testimony to the confidence of utilities in the synchrophasor technology. The progress in state estimation techniques indicates that synchrophasor measurements will become a standard part of energy management and security assessment systems in the near future