Factors influencing on Job decision of Management Undergraduates in North and East Universities of Sri Lanka

This paper attempts to investigate the preferences on taking the decision of Job and to find out the factors influencing on Job decision of the management undergraduate in North and East Universities of Sri Lanka. A closed ended questionnaire was developed as tool for data collection. A total number of 400 third and final year management students from 3 Universities and 2 Campuses located in North and East of Sri Lanka have been responded to the questionnaire. The quantitative analyses were conducted with the help of SPSS. The result reveals that majority of the respondents’ preferred for future career developments are public sector and private sector organizations. One third of the total respondents plan to seek employment in their chosen field specially after obtaining the bachelor's degree. Further Salary, interesting job, job security and educational opportunity are the major factors for the management graduates in Job decision. Keywords: Job decision, Management, Undergraduate, Universit

Sinhala and Tamil : a case of contact-induced restructuring

PhD ThesisThe dissertation presents a comparative synchronic study of the morphosyntactic features of modern spoken Sinhala and Tamil, the two main languages of Sri Lanka. The main motivation of the research is that Sinhala and Tamil, two languages of diverse origins—the New Indo-Aryan (NIA) and Dravidian families respectively—share a wide spectrum of morphosyntactic features. Sinhala has long been isolated from the other NIA languages and co-existed with Tamil in Sri Lanka ever since both reached Sri Lanka from India. This coexistence, it is believed, led to what is known as the contact-induced restructuring that Sinhala morphosyntax has undergone on the model of Tamil, while retaining its NIA lexicon. Moreover, as languages of South Asia, the two languages share the areal features of this region. The research seeks to address the following questions: (i) What features do the two languages share and what features do they not share?; (ii) Are the features that they share areal features of the region or those diffused into one another owing to contact?; (iii) If the features that they share are due to contact, has diffusion taken place unidirectionally or bidirectionally?; and (iv) Does contact have any role to play with respect to features that they do not share? The claim that this research intends to substantiate is that Sinhala has undergone morphosyntactic restructuring on the model of Tamil. The research, therefore, attempts to answer another question: (v) Can the morphosyntactic restructuring that Sinhala has undergone be explained in syntactic terms? The morphosyntactic features of the two languages are analyzed at macro- and micro-levels. At the macro-level, a wide range of morphosyntactic features of Tamil and Sinhala, and those of seven other languages of the region are compared with a view to determining the origins of these features and showing the large scale morphosyntactic convergence between Sinhala and Tamil and the divergence between Sinhala and other NIA languages. At the micro-level the dissertation analyzes in detail two morphosyntactic phenomena, namely null arguments and focus constructions. It examines whether subject/verb agreement, which is different across the two languages, plays a role in the licensing of null arguments in each language. It also examines the nature of the changes Sinhala morphosyntax has undergone because of the two kinds of Tamil focus constructions that Sinhala has replicated. It is hoped, that this dissertation will make a significant contribution to the knowledge and understanding of the morphosyntax of the two languages, the effects of language contact on morphosyntax, and more generally, the nature of linguistic variation.Scholarship Programme of the Higher Education for the Twenty First Century (HETC) Project, Ministry of Higher Education, Sri Lanka

Predatory Potential of Nymphal Odonates on Aedes aegypti Developing in Freshwater and Brackish Water Habitats.

Aedes aegypti, the primary vector of dengue, undergoes preimaginal development in brackish water (BW). However, dengue vector control exclusively targets freshwater (FW) habitats. The present study evaluated the predatory efficacy of nymphal odonates that can develop in both FW and BW. Nymphs of three damselfly and three dragonfly species from FW and BW habitats were identified and acclimatized to FW (<0.5 gL-1 salt) and BW (10 gL-1 salt) mesocosm conditions. The experiment was repeated nine times with nine different individual predators per species under both salinity conditions. One hundred L3 Ae. aegypti from FW and BW laboratory colonies were introduced to determine the predatory rate (PR) and clearance rate (CR) after 24, 48, and 72 h, and one hundred L3 larvae were introduced every 24 h. The dragonfly nymph Hydrobasileus croceus and the damselfly nymph Paracercion hieroglyphicum showed the highest PR and CR under both rearing conditions at all times. However, damselfly and dragonfly nymphs significantly (p < 0.05) differed in their CR under both FW and BW conditions. Thus, all six odonate species have predatory potential and this suggests that they could be used as biological control agents to eliminate preimaginal stages of Ae. aegypti developing in both FW and BW habitats

INTERFERON - CELLULAR INTERACTIONS: INDUCTION OF PROTEINS, ANTIPROLIFERATIVE AND OTHER PHENOTYPIC EFFECTS (PROTEIN KINASE)

The antiviral, antiproliferative, and protein-inducing activities of rat fibroblast-derived interferon (RfIFN) were examined in four rat cell lines (RFA-1, JS, IEC6, and C6) and one mouse cell line (L929B). A pronounced reduction in virus yield, viral RNA synthesis, and viral protein synthesis were noted in both rat and mouse cells treated with RfIFN prior to vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) infection. RfIFN also exhibited a strong antiproliferative effect on rat cells. Approximately a 50% reduction in cell number was seen in rat cell cultures exposed to 100 u/ml RfIFN. In contrast, only a mild antiproliferative action was observed in L929B cells treated with the same dose of RfIFN (\u3c12% reduction). A 50% inhibition of proliferation was seen only at a dose of 2000 u/ml. Elevated levels of two double-stranded (ds) RNA-dependent enzyme activities were also evident in extracts of RfIFN-treated rat and mouse cells. Depending on the cell type, and length and dosage of RfIFN treatment, a 5-93 fold increase in 2,5A synthetase levels were noted. In interferon treated cells a dsRNA-dependent protein kinase (PK) enhanced the phosphorylation of two proteins that had M.W.s of 35 kD and 63 kD in rat cells. In mouse cells the larger protein had a M.W. of 67 kD. The 35 kD was indirectly shown to be the smallest subunit of the eukaryotic initiation factor. The interferon-enhanced synthesis of several other proteins with approximate M.W.s of 13.5, 15, 16, 50, and 78 kD were shown by one- and two-dimensional gel electrophoresis. These proteins were observed in both rat and mouse cells. The effects of long term culture of rat cells in the continuous presence of RfIFN in the growth medium were also examined. The results indicate that, in the three cell lines studied, prolonged treatment with RfIFN selects a population of cells whose growth rates are unaffected by interferon. A cell line that was cultured for over 150 passages with RfIFN was also resistant to the antiviral effect. The examination of interferon-induced proteins in the above cell lines suggests a lack of correlation between the antiproliferative state and the two dsRNA-dependent enzyme activities. However, a correlation between the other induced proteins and the antiviral effect was evident in the cell line that was resistant to the antiviral effect

Biological differences between brackish and fresh water-derived Aedes aegypti from two locations in the Jaffna peninsula of Sri Lanka and the implications for arboviral disease transmission.

The mainly fresh water arboviral vector Aedes aegypti L. (Diptera: Culicidae) can also undergo pre-imaginal development in brackish water of up to 15 ppt (parts per thousand) salt in coastal areas. We investigated differences in salinity tolerance, egg laying preference, egg hatching and larval development times and resistance to common insecticides in Ae. aegypti collected from brackish and fresh water habitats in Jaffna, Sri Lanka. Brackish water-derived Ae. aegypti were more tolerant of salinity than fresh water-derived Ae. aegypti and this difference was only partly reduced after their transfer to fresh water for up to five generations. Brackish water-derived Ae. aegypti did not significantly discriminate between 10 ppt salt brackish water and fresh water for oviposition, while fresh water-derived Ae. aegypti preferred fresh water. The hatching of eggs from both brackish and fresh water-derived Ae. aegypti was less efficient and the time taken for larvae to develop into pupae was prolonged in 10 ppt salt brackish water. Ae. aegypti isolated from coastal brackish water were less resistant to the organophosphate insecticide malathion than inland fresh water Ae. aegypti. Brackish and fresh water-derived Ae. aegypti however were able to mate and produce viable offspring in the laboratory. The results suggest that development in brackish water is characterised by pertinent biological changes, and that there is restricted genetic exchange between coastal brackish and inland fresh water Ae. aegypti isolates from sites 5 km apart. The findings highlight the need for monitoring Ae. aegypti developing in coastal brackish waters and extending vector control measures to their habitats

Salinity tolerance of brackish and fresh water-derived <i>Ae. aegypti</i> from Kurunagar and Thirunelvely respectively.

<p>The mean percent survival of first instar larvae to adulthood at each salinity level together with standard errors of the means of triplicate determinations are shown for the different colonies. Larvae were derived from brackish and fresh water colonies maintained at the original salinity and after reversal of salinity for two and five generations. A. Experiment 1 - second generation; B. Experiment 2 - second generation; C. Experiment 1 - fifth generation; D. Experiment 2 - fifth generation.</p

Hatching of <i>Ae. aegypti</i> eggs in brackish and fresh water.

<p>Results are the mean numbers of eggs from three replicate experiments ± standard deviation that hatched into larvae at 48 h from 150 original eggs. Unpaired Student's t tests were performed to determine the significance of differences in the mean numbers of eggs hatching in brackish and fresh water for the corresponding original and reversal colonies (columns 1 <i>vs</i> 2 and 3 <i>vs</i> 4 respectively) in the three different experiments. The asterisks indicate that in every such comparison significantly more eggs hatched in fresh water compared to brackish water at p<0.05. Corresponding comparisons of the pairs of means in columns 1 <i>vs</i> 3 and 2 <i>vs</i> 4 were not statistically significant with p>0.05. The original brackish and fresh water colonies were derived from <i>Ae. aegypti</i> collected in Kurunagar and Thirunelvely respectively in the Jaffna peninsula.</p><p>Hatching of <i>Ae. aegypti</i> eggs in brackish and fresh water.</p

LC₅₀ for salinity tolerance of <i>Aedes aegypti</i> colonies.

<p>LC₅₀ is the salt concentration in parts per thousand (ppt) that results in 50% mortality in the transition from first instar larvae to adults.The 95% confidence intervals of the LC₅₀ values are shown in parentheses. The original brackish and fresh water colonies were derived from <i>Ae. aegypti</i> collected in Kurunagar and Thirunelvely respectively in the Jaffna peninsula.</p><p>LC₅₀ for salinity tolerance of <i>Aedes aegypti</i> colonies.</p