Drug policy-making in Sri Lanka 1984-2008: people, politics and power

Policy analysis has not been a part of mainstream Sri Lankan research or academic tradition, and hence there exists a lack of research on policy studies in Sri Lanka. Given also a paucity of research on illicit drug use and contemporary drug policy, this research study generated and analysed a body of evidence about the response to drug misuse and its related policies in Sri Lanka between 1984 and 2008. As the subject of drug policy can be viewed through a variety of perspectives, this thesis adopted a multi-disciplinary approach. It drew on ideas, theories, concepts and research from a variety of social science disciplines such as sociology, political science, international relations, public administration and social policy and included an historical approach to understanding policy development. The study provides an informed narrative describing the rationale for the development of Sri Lanka’s drug policies, their course and outcome and the roles of the various actors, institutions, organisations and interest groups already established, or which came into existence to respond to drug misuse. This shows how, and why, particular policies are shaped and influenced by the actors, institutions and organisations, and by particular discourses. The conceptual foundations for this study were epistemic community theory, stakeholder analysis and policy transfer theory; and the thesis will seek to explain policy in changing contexts. Semi-structured key informant interviews and documentary analysis were the main research methods employed. The analysis revealed that external influences, stakeholder dynamics, consensus in policy approaches, and moral frameworks have combined to sustain a criminal justice model to the management of drug problems and to ward off attempts to introduce a system with a stronger focus on treatment and public health. This study demonstrates that the interests of stakeholders and their relative power significantly influenced the legitimisation of consensual knowledge diffused by epistemic communities which underpinned policy outcomes

On the Feasibility of Fine-Grained TLS Security Configurations in Web Browsers Based on the Requested Domain Name

Most modern web browsers today sacrifice optimal TLS security for backward compatibility. They apply coarse-grained TLS configurations that support (by default) legacy versions of the protocol that have known design weaknesses, and weak ciphersuites that provide fewer security guarantees (e.g. non Forward Secrecy), and silently fall back to them if the server selects to. This introduces various risks including downgrade attacks such as the POODLE attack [15] that exploits the browsers silent fallback mechanism to downgrade the protocol version in order to exploit the legacy version flaws. To achieve a better balance between security and backward compatibility, we propose a mechanism for fine-grained TLS configurations in web browsers based on the sensitivity of the domain name in the HTTPS request using a whitelisting technique. That is, the browser enforces optimal TLS configurations for connections going to sensitive domains while enforcing default configurations for the rest of the connections. We demonstrate the feasibility of our proposal by implementing a proof-of-concept as a Firefox browser extension. We envision this mechanism as a built-in security feature in web browsers, e.g. a button similar to the \quotes{Bookmark} button in Firefox browsers and as a standardised HTTP header, to augment browsers security

PSD Estimation of Multiple Sound Sources in a Reverberant Room Using a Spherical Microphone Array

We propose an efficient method to estimate source power spectral densities (PSDs) in a multi-source reverberant environment using a spherical microphone array. The proposed method utilizes the spatial correlation between the spherical harmonics (SH) coefficients of a sound field to estimate source PSDs. The use of the spatial cross-correlation of the SH coefficients allows us to employ the method in an environment with a higher number of sources compared to conventional methods. Furthermore, the orthogonality property of the SH basis functions saves the effort of designing specific beampatterns of a conventional beamformer-based method. We evaluate the performance of the algorithm with different number of sources in practical reverberant and non-reverberant rooms. We also demonstrate an application of the method by separating source signals using a conventional beamformer and a Wiener post-filter designed from the estimated PSDs.Comment: Accepted for WASPAA 201

Book Review: A Guide to Academic Writing and Research Reports by Senior Prof. Dr. Mangala Fonseka and Dr. Athula Manawaduge

Scholarly or academic writing is clear, concise, planned, coherent, and backedup by evidence. Its purpose is to aid the reader’s understanding. Hence, itconsists of a formal style and tone. Further, it does not require the use of longsentences and instead uses clear and concise language with simple vocabulary.Research report writing is an integral part of academic writing. Hence, bothacademic and research report writing play a vital role in developing a multitudeof researchers across the globe. The authors of the book entitled “A Guide toAcademic Writing and Research Reports” identified such a role to developprolific researchers amongst the student community both within and outside theuniversity in Sri Lanka

Aetiological Factors Associated With End Stage Renal Disease; Analysis of End Stage Renal Patients in Sri Lanka

Introduction: End stage renal disease (ESRD) can be considered as one of the growing health problems as well as a public health issue in Sri Lanka. The demographic and epidemiological transition currently the country undergoes, contribute significantly to this problem. Methods: This study was conducted at the Nephrology Clinic, Kandy Teaching Hospital, a tertiary level medical institution. The study sample consisted of renal transplant patients satisfied the selection criteria. Considering the estimated sample size, no sampling techniques were used and a total of 305 patients interviewed using the study instrument, an interviewer-administered questionnaire. Results: Investigation of possible aetiology of ESRD revealed that for 69.5% cases aetiology was not well established. Among the known aetiological factors, diabetes (38%) was the commonest followed by nephrotic syndrome (19%) and hypertension (18%). This distribution pattern differs from what was observed in other countries. The differences in the aetiology of ESRD in regard to sex of patients, ethnicity, educational status, occupation and income were statistically not significant. Conclusion: Investigation of possible aetiology of ESRD revealed that for 69.5% cases aetiology was not well established. Among the known aetiological factors, diabetes (38%) was the commonest followed by nephrotic syndrome (19%) and hypertension (18%). The differences in the aetiology of ESRD in regard to sex of patients, ethnicity, educational status and occupation were statistically not significant. Key words: End Stage Renal Disease, Aetiological factors, Non Communicable Diseas

Morbidity Pattern in End Stage Renal Disease Patients Before And After Renal Transplantation

Introduction: To effectively and efficiently plan programmes for prevention and control of End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD)/ chronic kidney disease, there is a need for basic epidemiological and clinical data. This hospital-based descriptive study on renal transplant patients attempted to provide some information on their morbidity pattern before and after renal transplantation. Methods: A hospital-based study was conducted at the Teaching Hospital, Kandy. The study sample consisted of 305 patients who had undergone real transplant and attended the clinic during the three month period of data collection. Interviewer administered questionnaire was used as the data collection tool. Results: Renal transplant patients are prone to infections mainly due to iatrogenic immunosuppression. Cytomegalovirus infection was the commonest. Other common infections observed were upper respiratory tract infections, gastroenteritis and urinary tract infections. All the patients who participated in the study developed at least one non-communicable disease during the follow up period. Anaemia (54%) was the most common problem encountered, followed by rejection, both acute and chronic (50%) and dyslipidaemia (44%). Almost all the participants had hypertension developed before or after the transplantation. This suggests that hypertension is leading to ESRD, resulting from ESRD or just a co-morbidity. Conclusion: Cytomegalovirus infection was the commonest infectious disease reported. Other common infections observed in this study were upper respiratory tract infections, gastroenteritis and urinary tract infections. All the patients developed at least one non-communicable disease during the follow up period. Key words: Morbidity, Renal Transplant, Non Communicable Diseas

Social Listening Practices towards Social CRM and Customer Relationship Performance in the Fast-Food Industry in Sri Lanka

This study is carried out to identify the impact of social listening practices on social CRM and customer relationship performance in the fast-food industry in Sri Lanka. The target population for this study included the internal stakeholders from the organizations in the fast-food industry located in the Colombo metropolitan area which uses social media. The data was obtained via a structured questionnaire using a sample of 150 registered organizations. The time horizon was cross-sectional, and data were analyzed through both descriptive and inferential analysis. Based on the Resource-Based View (RBV) and the Capabilities Based Perspective, especially the dynamic capabilities theories, the conceptual model of this research study was developed by expecting that, organizations in the fast-food industry in Sri Lanka can exploit capabilities which are social listening practices and social CRM capabilities and resources which are customer relationship orientation and social media technology usage to obtain higher customer relationship performance.  Further, gain a competitive advantage over their competitors by effectively utilizing such resources. This is one of the few papers to exclusively focus on the impact of social listening practices on social CRM and customer relationship performance in the fast-food industry in Sri Lanka. The findings of this study have important implications for the fast-food industry in Sri Lanka. Keywords: Customer Relationship Management (CRM); Customer Relationship Orientation (CRO); Customer Relationship Performance; Social Customer Relationship Management (Social CRM) capabilities; Social media technology; Fast-food industr

PSD Estimation and Source Separation in a Noisy Reverberant Environment using a Spherical Microphone Array

In this paper, we propose an efficient technique for estimating individual power spectral density (PSD) components, i.e., PSD of each desired sound source as well as of noise and reverberation, in a multi-source reverberant sound scene with coherent background noise. We formulate the problem in the spherical harmonics domain to take the advantage of the inherent orthogonality of the spherical harmonics basis functions and extract the PSD components from the cross-correlation between the different sound field modes. We also investigate an implementation issue that occurs at the nulls of the Bessel functions and offer an engineering solution. The performance evaluation takes place in a practical environment with a commercial microphone array in order to measure the robustness of the proposed algorithm against all the deviations incurred in practice. We also exhibit an application of the proposed PSD estimator through a source septation algorithm and compare the performance with a contemporary method in terms of different objective measures