Infrastructure facilities for deep-sea and off-shore fishing

The author presents a brief account of the infrastructure facilities required for the fishing industry. He describes those facilities presently available in Sri Lanka, and those that are under construction, and gives a few suggestions indicating the nature of infrastructure facilities that are vital to the local situation at its present stage of development. The principal facilities discussed are (1) fish landing places; (2) unloading handling facilities; (3) vessel servicing facilities; and (4) navigation aids

Impact of Macroeconomic Factors on Stock Market Performance of Sri Lanka A Sectoral Approach

Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE), Sri Lanka was considered to be one of the topperforming stock markets in the world in recent past (until Dec 2010). After the end ofthe civil war in the country it has attracted a lot of investors and firms during a timeperiod where all the uncontrollable factors like political stability and security concernswere rapidly changing.The main purpose of this study is empirically investigating the impact ofmacroeconomic factors on emerging stock market of Sri Lanka. Relationships betweenmacroeconomic factors such as Inflation (measured by Colombo Consumer Priceindex), Interest rates, Exchange rates, Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and MoneySupply and stock market performance have been tested using All share Price index(ASPI), Milanka index and five major sector indexes for the period from 2003 to 2010.Relationship between CSE indexes and macroeconomic factors was tested using naturallogarithm values of monthly data and quarterly data. Regression analysis was the highlyused statistical method in this research to find the relationships.Influence of the macroeconomic factors to the CSE was determined by thecoefficient of correlation r values between CSE index/Milanka index/Sectoral index andeach macroeconomic factor given above. The results of the analysis revealed that theMoney supply and Colombo Consumer Price Index have a major impact over the stockmarket performance. It is further revealed that the GDP and Interest rate also havesignificant impacts, though it is anticipated, that the Exchange rates do not have anysignificant influences over the CSE. Influences of the macroeconomic factors have beenranked according to the strength of the coefficients and their collective influences havealso been considered under the multiple regression analysis.Key words: Macroeconomic factors, Stock market indexes, Linear regression, Multipleregressio

Impact of the disaster-induced relocation process on the displaced communities in Kegalle district, Sri Lanka

Disaster induced displacement and relocation is a frequently occurring phenomenon in the Sri Lankan context. Resettlement has been recognized as a regular result of disasters such as landslides due to the large-scale property damage that occurs. This paper investigates the impact of the disasterinduced relocation process on displaced communities. The study revolves around the sub-objectives of investigating the various needs of victims in different stages of displacement and how relocation has altered the social, cultural, and livelihood dimensions of the victims. Victims of the Aranayake landslide who were residing in the Kegalle district and who were resettled mainly in a Donor Driven relocation site were selected for the study. A purposive sampling technique was implemented in two phases. In the first phase, in-depth interviews with officials and focus group interviews with community members were carried out. Next, a community needs analysis was conducted with the participation of the community and officials. The data suggests that there is a clear lacuna in strong, written policy frameworks and its practical implementation when satisfying the various needs of displaced communities. Being confined to only understanding the social and economic details of various displaced groups, policy planners have tended to neglect the necessity of conducting a needs analysis with the main reason being the lack of perception of relocation as a long-term process. Therefore, in conclusion, the study suggests a model that addresses the need for a holistic institutional arrangement with further disaster risk management strategies to address the adverse impact on the disaster-induced, displaced community

Influenza epidemiology, vaccine coverage and vaccine effectiveness in sentinel Australian hospitals in 2013: the Influenza Complications Alert Network

The National Influenza Program aims to reduce serious morbidity and mortality from influenza by providing public funding for vaccination to at-risk groups. The Influenza Complications Alert Network (FluCAN) is a sentinel hospital-based surveillance program that operates at 14 sites in all states and territories in Australia. This report summarises the epidemiology of hospitalisations with confirmed influenza, estimates vaccine coverage and influenza vaccine protection against hospitalisation with influenza during the 2013 influenza season. In this observational study, cases were defined as patients admitted to one of the sentinel hospitals, with influenza confirmed by nucleic acid testing. Controls were patients who had acute respiratory illnesses who were test-negative for influenza. Vaccine effectiveness was estimated as 1 minus the odds ratio of vaccination in case patients compared with control patients, after adjusting for known confounders. During the period 5 April to 31 October 2012, 631 patients were admitted with confirmed influenza at the 14 FluCAN sentinel hospitals. Of these, 31% were more than 65 years of age, 9.5% were Indigenous Australians, 4.3% were pregnant and 77% had chronic co-morbidities. Influenza B was detected in 30% of patients. Vaccination coverage was estimated at 81% in patients more than 65 years of age but only 49% in patients aged less than 65 years with chronic comorbidities. Vaccination effectiveness against hospitalisation with influenza was estimated at 50% (95% confidence interval: 33%, 63%, P<0.001). We detected a significant number of hospital admissions with confirmed influenza in a national observational study. Vaccine coverage was incomplete in at-risk groups, particularly non-elderly patients with medical comorbidities. Our results suggest that the seasonal influenza vaccine was moderately protective against hospitalisation with influenza in the 2013 season. This work i

The impact of a hand hygiene workshop on improving the knowledge of hand hygiene of medical students

Introduction and Objectives: Knowledge of hand hygiene is important for medical students. The aim of this study was to compare the knowledge before and after a workshop on hand hygiene held for medical students at the Faculty of Medicine, General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University, Sri Lanka.Methods: A self-administered, pre-tested validated questionnaire, based on hand hygiene guidelines of the World Health Organization (WHO), was distributed among the medical students before and after conducting a workshop on hand hygiene.Results were assessed by comparing the current guidelines set by the WHO with the knowledge of hand hygiene among the medical students.Results: All 177 students participated in the study before conducting the workshop. There were 104 (58.8%) preclinical and 73 (41.2%) clinical students. Of the 104 preclinical students, the percentage who knew the importance of “My five moments for hand hygiene” approach (hand hygiene before direct contact with patients, after direct contact with patients, before clean/aseptic procedures, after contact with blood/body fluid and after contact with patient’s surrounding) before conducting the workshop were 53.8%, 67.3%, 51.0%, 88.5% and 34.6% respectively. Of the 73 clinical students, the percentage who knew the importance of the “My five moments for hand hygiene” approach before conducting the workshop were 49.3%, 63.0%, 87.7%, 94.5% and 27.4% respectively. Of the 112 students who participated in the workshop, there were 68 (60.7%) preclinical and 44 (39.3%) clinical students. Of the 68 preclinical students, 77.9%, 79.4%, 91.2%, 95.6% and 70.6% knew the importance of the “My five moments for hand hygiene” approach post workshop. Post workshop, the percentage of the 44 clinical students who knew the importance of “My five moments for hand hygiene” approach were 90.9%, 88.6%, 93.2%, 97.7% and 81.8% respectively.Conclusions: The pre workshop knowledge of hand hygiene among the two categories of medical students was not satisfactory. The knowledge on each component of “My five moments for hand hygiene” concept improved to more than 70% after conducting the workshop. </p

Low cost GIS data base solution for water utility network in Sri Lanka

In 1999 National Water Supply and Drainage Board (NWSDB) commenced developing a Water Utility GIS for the Greater Colombo(GC) area with the objective of improving its operations and maintenance activities. National Survey Department of Sri Lanka was contracted out to produce 1:1000 scale 3D digital base maps from Air Photographs. Available water utility maps were digitized using Autocad Map GIS and updated using Global Positioning Systems and other survey methods. Due to voluminous nature of base maps and utility data it is impractical to store them as a one seamless coverage. Storing these data as separate map tiles leads to several practical constraints such as updating difficulties, searching delays and data retrieval problems. Therefore it is required to develop a Geo-database to efficiently manage these data. It is not feasible to utilize available commercial Geo-databases for this purpose due to their high purchasing and maintenance costs. As a solution PostgreSql, a free Open Source Object Relational Database Management System(ORDBMS) was selected. PostgreSql has a module called PostGIS which handles spatial data and is used by hundreds of similar organization around the world. The software successfully runs on Linux Operating System, which also is a freeware. Geo-database was established in PostgreSQL ORDBMS with necessary table structures, relations etc., to store and manage geometric/attribute data of water features including 3D basemap data. A user friendly interface was developed within Autocad Map GIS to handle data uploading and retrievals. All necessary procedures were introduced to the organization for the efficient management of the Geo-database. Further, an Intranet Web Map Browser was developed to browse the data. Currently the system has 18 themes with total objects of around 800,000 and successfully used by all Water Manager Regions in GC area for their day-to-day activities. This implemented solution provides an excellent platform for the NWSDB to do advance geo data management for low cost

Autonomic Function following Acute Organophosphorus Poisoning: A Cohort Study

Autonomic dysfunction after chronic low level exposure to organophosphorus (OP) pesticides has been consistently reported in the literature, but not following a single acute overdose. In order to study autonomic function after an acute OP overdose, sixty-six overdose patients were compared to 70 matched controls. Assessment of autonomic function was done by heart rate response to standing, deep breathing (HR-DB) and Valsalva manoeuvre; blood pressure (BP) response to standing and sustained hand grip; amplitude and latency of sympathetic skin response (SSR); pupil size and post-void urine volume. The patients were assessed one and six weeks after the exposure. The number of patients who showed abnormal autonomic function compared to standard cut-off values did not show statistically significantly difference from that of controls by Chi-Square test. When compared to the controls at one week the only significant differences consistent with autonomic dysfunction were change of diastolic BP 3 min after standing, HR-DB, SSR-Amplitude, SSR-Latency, post-void urine volume and size of the pupil. At 6 weeks significant recovery of autonomic function was observed and only HR-DB was decreased to a minor degree, −5 beats/min [95%CI 2–8]. This study provides good evidence for the lack of long term autonomic dysfunction following acute exposure to OP pesticides

Association of endometriosis and p53 gene codon 72 polymorphism in a group of Sri Lankan women

Objectives: To evaluate the association between endometriosis and the p53 gene polymorphism in a group of Sri Lankan women.Methods: A case control study was conducted in a tertiary care hospital where women with endometriosis (N=25) were compared with women without endometriosis (N=25), both confirmed by laparoscopy or laparotomy. Genotype distribution of the p53 codon 72 polymorphism was analyzed by allele specific polymerase chain reaction and direct sequencing. Allele frequency was compared using chi square test to determine the association.Results: Allele frequencies of the three p53 genotypes, Arg/Arg, Arg/Pro and Pro/Pro in the study population (26%, 60% and 14% respectively) conformed with the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. There was no statistically significant difference (p = 0.155) in the frequency of proline allele between the cases and controls {odds ratio of 1.5 (95% CI 0.83- 2.73)}. However among the women with endometriosis the proline allele frequency was 36.7% in stage IV and 50% in stage III compared to 25% and 16.7% respectively in stages II and I.Conclusions: In this group of Sri Lankan women, p53 codon 72 polymorphism was not associated with endometriosis although a higher frequency of proline allele was observed in advanced stages of the disease.

Adopting and Implementing Waste Management Practices in the Printing Industry- A Sri Lankan Case

Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to examine why and to what extent aprinting company in Sri Lanka adopts and implements waste managementpractices.Design/methodology/approach-The study employed the case study method. Theannual report provided the basis as the starting point of information for the study.Thereafter, the primary data were collected by conducting semi structuredinterviews which were supported by the researchers’ observations at the factorypremises. Further, as secondary sources of data company web site, magazines andhandouts issued were used.Findings –The study identifies that the printing company had started wastemanagement practices with a view of supporting its profit maximization motive.The company has managed to continue waste management practices in a holisticmanner during last three years. The study demonstrates how waste managementsystems can be applied successfully, despite initial challenges.Research limitations/implications – The results of the study are difficult togeneralize due to the contextual characteristics which are unique to this companyand its environment.Originality/value – The paper attempts to fill the paucity of research in the printingindustry in developing countries especially in emerging South Asian countries. Thefindings of the study will be useful for the organizations to develop and maintainsound waste management systems, particularly in the printing industry.Keywords- Developing countries; environmental management accounting; printingindustry; waste management.Paper type- Case Stud

Influenza Vaccine Effectiveness against Hospitalisation with Confirmed Influenza in the 2010-11 Seasons: A Test-negative Observational Study

Immunisation programs are designed to reduce serious morbidity and mortality from influenza, but most evidence supporting the effectiveness of this intervention has focused on disease in the community or in primary care settings. We aimed to examine the effectiveness of influenza vaccination against hospitalisation with confirmed influenza. We compared influenza vaccination status in patients hospitalised with PCR-confirmed influenza with patients hospitalised with influenza-negative respiratory infections in an Australian sentinel surveillance system. Vaccine effectiveness was estimated from the odds ratio of vaccination in cases and controls. We performed both simple multivariate regression and a stratified analysis based on propensity score of vaccination. Vaccination status was ascertained in 333 of 598 patients with confirmed influenza and 785 of 1384 test-negative patients. Overall estimated crude vaccine effectiveness was 57% (41%, 68%). After adjusting for age, chronic comorbidities and pregnancy status, the estimated vaccine effectiveness was 37% (95% CI: 12%, 55%). In an analysis accounting for a propensity score for vaccination, the estimated vaccine effectiveness was 48.3% (95% CI: 30.0, 61.8%). Influenza vaccination was moderately protective against hospitalisation with influenza in the 2010 and 2011 seasons