Women Participation in Rural Tourism: A Case of Ella, Sri Lanka

Tourism industry is one of sectors that have potential to develop and grow in the next few years in Sri Lanka. According to Tourism Development Strategy of Sri Lanka, tourism industry is expected to be the largest foreign exchange earner by 2024. The principal focus of this study was to explore major factors that affect women’s participation and non-participation in the hospitality industry in Ella DS division Sri Lanka. The study used a deductive approach, and primary data were collected through a self-administered structured questionnaire. Samples were 60 women, consisting of thirty women involved in the hospitality industry and thirty women of the non-hospitality industry, randomly selected. Results were analyzed using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics.  The results found that the differences in language skills and problem-solving had the most significant effect on women’s participation in hospitality industry. Besides, childcare responsibility and lack of experience were affected women’s involvement in this industry. The results also showed that most of the non-hospitality workers have language barriers (33.3%), lack of knowledge about tourism industry (23.3%), and lack of opportunities to engage in tourism work (13.3%). Based on the results, 53.3% of 30 non-hospitality workers had an idea to be involved in tourism and hospitality industry in the future, while the remaining 46.6% had no idea to be involved

Induced norms for sampled-data systems

In this paper, we consider a general linear interconnection of a continuous-time plant and a discrete-time controller via sample and hold devices. When the closed loop sampled-data feedback system is internally stable, bounded inputs produce bounded outputs. We present some explicit formulae for the induced norm of the closed loop system with L[infinity] (i.e. peak value) and 1 (i.e. integral absolute) norms on the input and output signals.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/29776/1/0000115.pd

Optimal controller synthesis with stability,

In this paper, we consider the problem of finding controllers which place the eigenvalues of the closed-loop system matrix in a prespecified circular region in the left-half plane and minimize an associated quadratic cost function. We give solutions to both state-feedback and output-feedback synthesis problems.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/31562/1/0000489.pd

Economic Analysis of Jatropha Bio-diesel Production in Sri Lanka

There has been an increasing trend in investments in renewable energy sources in the recent years. This study assesses the economic and financial feasibility of Jatropha production in Sri Lanka under the prevailing policy regime. The nominal protection coefficient and effective protection coefficients were employed to gauge the level of protection for bio-diesel production using Jatropha in Sri Lanka. The cost benefit analysis was performed to assess the feasibility of Jatropha bio-diesel production in Sri Lanka. The conventional measures like NPV, BCR, and IRR were used in financial and economic terms. Nominal Rate of Protection (NPR) was calculated by dividing the local Jatropha bio-diesel price by the border price of biodiesel. The NPR for Bio-diesel implies that nearly 47% of protection at local market level. Effective Protection Rate (EPR) for seed production is 90%, for oil extraction and bio diesel processing it is 128%. Implication of this is that the producers will be protected and they receive returns 47% greater than what they would have received under free market conditions for Jatropha cultivation. Except for the benchmark situation, all other considered scenarios produce a favourable NPV, BCR and IRR for Jatropha bio-diesel production. Economic benefits due to CO2 reduction were also considered in the analysis.KEYWORDS:Cost benefit Analysis, Jatropha Biodiesel, Protection Coefficien

The role of riboflavin in decolourisation of Congo red and bioelectricity production using Shewanella oneidensis-MR1 under MFC and non-MFC conditions

Dissimilatory metal reducing bacteria can exchange electrons extracellularly and hold great promise for their use in simultaneous wastewater treatment and electricity production. This study investigated the role of riboflavin, an electron carrier, in the decolourisation of Congo red in microbial fuel cells (MFCs) using Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 as a model organism. The contribution of the membrane-bound protein MtrC to the decolourisation process was also investigated. Within the range of riboflavin concentrations tested, 20 µM was found to be the best with >95% of the dye (initial concentration 200 mg/L) decolourised in MFCs within 50 h compared to 90% in the case where no riboflavin was added. The corresponding maximum power density was 45 mW/m2. There was no significant difference in the overall decolourisation efficiencies of Shewanela oneidensis MR-1 ΔMtrC mutants compared to the wild type. However, in terms of power production the mutant produced more power (Pmax 76 mW/m2) compared to the wild type (Pmax 46 mW/m2) which was attributed to higher levels of riboflavin secreted in solution. Decolourisation efficiencies in non-MFC systems (anaerobic bottles) were similar to those under MFC systems indicating that electricity generation in MFCs does not impair dye decolourisation efficiencies. The results suggest that riboflavin enhances both decolourisation of dyes and simultaneous electricity production in MFCs

Pairwise assembly of organopalladium(II) units with cyanurato(3-) and trithiocyanurato(3-) ligands: formation of chiral Pd12, Pd10 and Pd9 cage-molecules

The o-palladated, chloro-bridged dimers [Pd{2-phenylpyridine(-H)}-μ-Cl]2 and [Pd{N,N-dimethylbenzylamine(-H)}-μ-Cl]2 react with cyanuric acid in the presence of base to afford closed, chiral cage-molecules in which twelve organo-Pd(II) centers, located in pairs at the vertices of an octahedron, are linked by four tetrahedrally-arranged cyanurato(3-) ligands. Incomplete (Pd10) cages, having structures derived from the corresponding Pd12 cages by replacing one pair of organopalladium centers with two protons, have also been isolated. Reaction of [Pd{2-phenylpyridine(-H)}-μ-Cl]2 with trithiocyanuric acid gives an entirely different and more open type of cage-complex, comprising only nine organopalladium centers and three thiocyanurato(3-) ligands: cage-closure in this latter system appears to be inhibited by steric crowding of the thiocarbonyl groups

2 optimal control for sampled-data systems

This paper considers an 2 optimal control problem for sampled-data systems. After defining a new 2 norm for sampled-data systems, we give a state space solution to the optimal controller synthesis problem. We show that the 2 optimal control problem for a sampled-data system is equivalent to a standard 2 optimal control problem for a related discrete-time system.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/29009/1/0000038.pd