Ergodic theorems for transient one-dimensional diffusions

For one-dimensional diffusions X that drift off to + ∞ we give conditions on a set B and the drift and diffusion coefficients of X for (1/t)∫t0 IB(X(u))du to converge w.p.l as t → ∞

Does Gender Matter in Employment With Special Reference to Managerial Positions in the Licensed Private Commercial Banks in Sri Lanka

Sri Lankan women participation can be seen in every sphere of the country invarying degrees. However, in certain circumstances, it is likely to perceive that, avariety of constraints would hinder the women involvement and discriminate her in thesociety. Thus, the study mainly attempted to assert whether there is such kind ofconviction, which creates constraints for women to attain managerial positions in theprivate sector with special reference to Licensed Private Commercial banks in SriLanka.Accordingly, the study is focused to identify the perception of selectedorganizations on women participation in managerial positions as well as to find outwhether there is gender inequality in the composition of Managerial positions inselected organizations.In the study both the quantitative and qualitative approaches were used in orderto satisfy objectives of the study. Accordingly, 30 employees from 9 private commercialbanks including 8 domestic banks and 1 foreign bank which are located in the Colombocity were selected as the sample of the research by considering the convenience for datacollection and accessibility. Questionnaires were used as the main method for primarydata collection. Secondary data were gathered through published and unpublishedsources. In order to make quantitative and diagrammatical base for data analysis,Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS 16.0) and Microsoft Office Excel 2007were used.The results revealed that, very limited female participation could be found in topmanagerial positions in the selected banks. Further, huge household responsibilities andlong office working hours, would lead working women to struggle in striking a balancebetween personal and work life, especially married women and females in extendedfamilies. When considering the context of working environment, discrimination could be observed in terms of salary and opportunities for career enhancement. Also in theorganizational perspectives, male employees are more likely to be positively perceivedby the banks rather than female employees.In conclusion, study reveals that the female employees in the private banks aremore likely to be kept in middle level positions whilst top positions are held by maleemployees, showcasing the gender inequality in the selected banks.Key words: Gender, Employment, Managerial positions, Licensed private commercialbank

BEHAVIOUR OF JUVENILE ASIAN ELEPHANTS IN Panicum maximum DOMINA TED GRASSLANDS IN THE UDA WALA WA NATIONAL PARK.

Guinea grass (Panicum maximum) dominated grasslands, a major habitat typein the Udawalawa National Park, is frequently occupied by wild elephants.Behaviour of juvenile elephants (4-6 years old) inhabiting the habitat wasstudied from April 2004 to March 2005. Focal animal sampling was employedto quantify behaviour and total time of observation was 3100 minutes.The activity budget of the juveniles comprised of ten behaviour patterns;feeding (44%), resting (24%), locomotion (19%), play (5%), comfort (5%),drinking, social, exploratory, agonistic and anxious. Maximum feeding (55%)and minimum resting (13%) were recorded during late afternoons (1500-1800hrs) whilst maximum resting (37%) and minimum feeding (29%) wererecorded during late mornings (0900-1200 hrs). Locomotion and otherbehaviour patterns did not significantly vary with time. Time spent on feedingwas higher in wet months (47%) than in dry months (39%). Resting wasrelatively higher in dry period (27%) than in wet (21 %). P. maximum was themajor food type consumed throughout the year while they fed on native grassesand herbs to a lesser extent (21-29%). Significant correlations between ambienttemperature and time spent on feeding (r= -0.716) and resting (r = +0.751)were evident.The Department of Wildlife Conservation and the Born Free Foundation, UKare acknowledged.

An audit of specimens received for superficial fungal studies to the Department of Microbiology, University of Ruhuna

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Determinants of online shopping among tertiary students in Ghana: An extended technology acceptance model

The increasing penetration rate of the internet and technology in the world is quickly promoting online shopping. This has been fueled by growing innovations in the telecommunication and financial sector in an attempt to depeen financial inclusion. Innovations such as mobile money payments systems by mobile telephony companies have contributed to the continuous growth in online shopping amidst and the new generation of consumers who desire richer experiences. This study sought to identify the determinants of online shopping behaviour among tertiary students through the lens of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). The study proposed a revised TAM that integrated perceived cost and perceived risk to investigate what determined students online shopping intention and actual use. The survey involved a sample of 580 undergraduate students. The statistical technique used was Structural Equation Modelling-Partial Least Squares (SEM-PLS). The results showed that effect of ease of use on usefulness was very significant as same has been predicted by the Technology Acceptance Model. Among the independent variables, perceived cost (PC) was found to be the most significant factor affecting actual use (AU) of online shopping among students, nonetheless, perceived cost (PC) had no significant effect on purchase intention (PI). Perceived risk (PR) had no significant effect on actual use (AU) however, had a significant effect on purchase intention (PI). The study recommends online sellers to make online shopping efficient and less costive with assured safety and security of transactions as well as the product itself. A set of shopping platform could even be created specifically to give discounts and other offers to students. It also recommends future studies to employ additional determining factors such as the type of product/service, convenience and personal/demographic and geographic factors as influential to students’ online purchasing behaviour. © 2019, © 2019 The Author(s). This open access article is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license

Utilisation of an operative difficulty grading scale for laparoscopic cholecystectomy

Background A reliable system for grading operative difficulty of laparoscopic cholecystectomy would standardise description of findings and reporting of outcomes. The aim of this study was to validate a difficulty grading system (Nassar scale), testing its applicability and consistency in two large prospective datasets. Methods Patient and disease-related variables and 30-day outcomes were identified in two prospective cholecystectomy databases: the multi-centre prospective cohort of 8820 patients from the recent CholeS Study and the single-surgeon series containing 4089 patients. Operative data and patient outcomes were correlated with Nassar operative difficultly scale, using Kendall’s tau for dichotomous variables, or Jonckheere–Terpstra tests for continuous variables. A ROC curve analysis was performed, to quantify the predictive accuracy of the scale for each outcome, with continuous outcomes dichotomised, prior to analysis. Results A higher operative difficulty grade was consistently associated with worse outcomes for the patients in both the reference and CholeS cohorts. The median length of stay increased from 0 to 4 days, and the 30-day complication rate from 7.6 to 24.4% as the difficulty grade increased from 1 to 4/5 (both p < 0.001). In the CholeS cohort, a higher difficulty grade was found to be most strongly associated with conversion to open and 30-day mortality (AUROC = 0.903, 0.822, respectively). On multivariable analysis, the Nassar operative difficultly scale was found to be a significant independent predictor of operative duration, conversion to open surgery, 30-day complications and 30-day reintervention (all p < 0.001). Conclusion We have shown that an operative difficulty scale can standardise the description of operative findings by multiple grades of surgeons to facilitate audit, training assessment and research. It provides a tool for reporting operative findings, disease severity and technical difficulty and can be utilised in future research to reliably compare outcomes according to case mix and intra-operative difficulty

Leaf-level photosynthetic capacity in lowland Amazonian and high elevation, Andean tropical moist forests of Peru

We examined whether variations in photosynthetic capacity are linked to variations in theenvironment and/or associated leaf traits for tropical moist forests (TMFs) in the Andes/west-ern Amazon regions of Peru. We compared photosynthetic capacity (maximal rate of carboxylation of Rubisco (Vcmax),and the maximum rate of electron transport (Jmax)), leaf mass, nitrogen (N) and phosphorus(P) per unit leaf area (Ma,Naand Pa, respectively), and chlorophyll from 210 species at 18field sites along a 3300-m elevation gradient. Western blots were used to quantify the abun-dance of the CO₂-fixing enzyme Rubisco. Area- and N-based rates of photosynthetic capacity at 25°C were higher in upland than low-land TMFs, underpinned by greater investment of N in photosynthesis in high-elevation trees. Soil [P] and leaf Pa were key explanatory factors for models of area-based Vcmax and Jmax but did not account for variations in photosynthetic N-use efficiency. At any given Na and Pa, the fraction of N allocated to photosynthesis was higher in upland than lowland species. For a smallsubset of lowland TMF trees examined, a substantial fraction of Rubisco was inactive. These results highlight the importance of soil- and leaf-P in defining the photosyntheticcapacity of TMFs, with variations in N allocation and Rubisco activation state further influenc-ing photosynthetic rates and N-use efficiency of these critically important forests

Disruption of STAT3 signaling promotes KRAS induced lung tumorigenesis

STAT3 is considered to play an oncogenic role in several malignancies including lung cancer; consequently, targeting STAT3 is currently proposed as therapeutic intervention. Here we demonstrate that STAT3 plays an unexpected tumour-suppressive role in KRAS mutant lung adenocarcinoma (AC). Indeed, lung tissue-specific inactivation of Stat3 in mice results in increased KrasG12D-driven AC initiation and malignant progression leading to markedly reduced survival. Knockdown of STAT3 in xenografted human AC cells increases tumour growth. Clinically, low STAT3 expression levels correlate with poor survival and advanced malignancy in human lung AC patients with smoking history, which are prone to KRAS mutations. Consistently, KRAS mutant lung tumours exhibit reduced STAT3 levels. Mechanistically, we demonstrate that STAT3 controls NF-B-induced IL-8 expression by sequestering NF-B within the cytoplasm, thereby inhibiting IL-8-mediated myeloid tumour infiltration and tumour vascularization and hence tumour progression. These results elucidate a novel STAT3NF-BIL-8 axis in KRAS mutant AC with therapeutic and prognostic relevance.P 25599(VLID)183891

Properties of the Liquid-Vapor Interface of Acetone-Water Mixtures. A Computer Simulation and ITIM Analysis Study

Molecular dynamics simulations of the liquid-vapor interface of acetone-water mixtures of different compositions, covering the entire composition range have been performed on the canonical (N, V, T) ensemble at 298 K, using a model combination that excellently describes the mixing properties of these compounds. The properties of the intrinsic liquid surfaces have been analyzed in terms of the Identification of the Truly Interfacial Molecules (ITIM) method. Thus, the composition, width, roughness, and separation of the subsurface molecular layers, as well as self-association, orientation, and dynamics of exchange with the bulk phase of the surface molecules have been analyzed in detail. Our results show that acetone molecules are strongly adsorbed at the liquid surface, and this adsorption extends to several molecular layers. Like molecules in the surface layer are found to form relatively large lateral self-associates. The effect of the vicinity of the vapor phase on a number of properties of the liquid phase vanishes beyond the first molecular layer, with the second subsurface layer already part of the bulk liquid phase in these respects. The orientational preferences of the surface molecules are governed primarily by the dipole-dipole interaction of the neighboring acetone molecules, and hydrogen bonding interaction of the neighboring acetone-water pairs. (Figure Presented). © 2015 American Chemical Society

Towards disappearing user interfaces for ubiquitous computing: human enhancement from sixth sense to super senses

The enhancement of human senses electronically is possible when pervasive computers interact unnoticeably with humans in Ubiquitous Computing. The design of computer user interfaces towards “disappearing” forces the interaction with humans using a content rather than a menu driven approach, thus the emerging requirement for huge number of non-technical users interfacing intuitively with billions of computers in the Internet of Things is met. Learning to use particular applications in Ubiquitous Computing is either too slow or sometimes impossible so the design of user interfaces must be naturally enough to facilitate intuitive human behaviours. Although humans from different racial, cultural and ethnic backgrounds own the same physiological sensory system, the perception to the same stimuli outside the human bodies can be different. A novel taxonomy for Disappearing User Interfaces (DUIs) to stimulate human senses and to capture human responses is proposed. Furthermore, applications of DUIs are reviewed. DUIs with sensor and data fusion to simulate the Sixth Sense is explored. Enhancement of human senses through DUIs and Context Awareness is discussed as the groundwork enabling smarter wearable devices for interfacing with human emotional memories