SOCIAL SCIENCE SCHOLARS PERCEPTION TOWARDS OPEN ACCESS AND INSTITUTIONAL REPOSITORIES

The main objective of this study is to explore the attitudes and knowledge about open access publishing and institutional repositories of social science scholars and their participation towards university digital repository.  Questionnaire based survey method was employed and the self-administered questionnaires were distributed among all permanent academic staff members in the Faculty of Arts, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka on May, 2016 and out of 192, 99 duly completed questionnaires were received making a 51.6% response rate. The results revealed that only 48% of the respondents had knowledge about open access publishing and nearly 22 % of them never heard about the term “open access”. These results gave an insight that the majority of the respondents are not familiar with the term of open access. The results further revealed that most of the respondents learnt about the institutional repositories as a result of a web search engine, information provided at the faculty or meetings held in the university and by working in subject based archives. Only 51% of the respondents were aware of the university digital repository and 36% mentioned that they were not aware of it. Of the respondents, 40% mentioned the university digital repository is either very important or important and 38% agreed that the establishment of institutional repository for the University of Peradeniya will enhance the global reputation of the university.  The interesting finding is that 57% of the respondents reported their willingness to contribute to the university digital repository in future while 14% of them were not willing to contribute in future

Exploring the Hot and Gaseous Universe from Infrared to X-ray

Over 90% of baryonic matter in the universe exists as astrophysical plasmas. The gasis often far from thermodynamic equilibrium, so numerical non-equilibrium spectralsynthesis simulations are used to understand observations. cloudy simulates vari-ous physical conditions, providing spectra predictions. This thesis aims to meet thechallenge of new observatories like the JWST (James Webb Space Telescope) andXRISM (X-Ray Imaging Spectroscopy Mission). These simulations are no betterthan the underlying atomic and molecular database and the fourth chapter detailsa long-needed update to an evolving database. The predicted spectra are stronglyaffected by the composition of the gas, which is determined in part by the condensa-tion of certain elements into solid particles called “dust grains”. I showed the effectsof self-consistently depleting abundances within H ii regions, using the Orion Nebulato demonstrate changes to the spectrum as the degree of dust depletion is altered.Next, an analysis of emergent strong spectral-line intensities is obtained by calcu-lating the abundances into cloudy models of a family of extragalactic H ii regions.These predictions are then compared with Sloan observations to constrain the de-pletion strength for a large sample of extragalactic H ii regions. These two projectsimpact the interpretation of JWST observations. Finally, I improved the treatmentof one-electron doublets, allowing us to simulate observations from the new genera-tion of X-ray microcalorimeters. These advances impact projects using NASA’s mostrecent orbital observatories, JWST and XRISM

Simulation of Depletion-induced Surface Subsidence in a Coal Seam

Coalbed methane (CBM) drew increasingly the attention as an unconventional source of natural gas during the last decades, globally and domestically. In spite of the fact that it is one of the main hazardous concerns in coal mining it is one of the most advantageous sources of natural gas especially due to its high purity of methane and quality. In conventional natural gas reservoirs the pressurized gas is stored in porous space or fracture space but in CBM natural gas molecules mainly is adsorbed to coal matrix. Therefore in contrast to conventional natural gas reservoirs, the gas production of CBM initiates after decreasing the reservoir pressure down to a threshold in order to initiation the desorption process. According to the presence of water in CBMs which creates a remarkable pressure due to hydrostatic head of water the above desorption threshold will be achieved after dewatering process. Dewatering process will lead in decreasing reservoir pressure in one hand which helps the gas desorption but will lead in increasing effective stress which is applied to rock solid skeleton on the other hand. Such an increase in effective stress accounts for rock structure deformation which has a high impact on surface subsidence due to shallow depth of coal seams. Presence of soft formations in dewatered horizon especially coal seams will increase effectively the deformation of the formations, which could potentially result in remarkable subsidence profile.Studying the depletion induced deformation due to CBM production is the main aim of this study. A three-dimensional finite element program developed will be used to investigate the stress field perturbation and rock structure deformation with emphasize on surface subsidence. In order to cover a wide range of real condition in CBM production a sensitivity analysis is carried out on main parameters including coal seam thickness and deformability properties

Effects of postharvest relative humidity and various re-cutting on vase life of cut rose flowers

Studies were conducted to evaluate the effects of different relative humidity levels (60%, 75%, and 90%) and re-cutting (0 cm, 1 cm, 2 cm, 3 cm, 4 cm, and 5 cm re-cutting end of flower stem) treatments on vase life of cut rose flower. Two separate experiments (bucket and vase experiments) were conducted based on completely randomised design with factorial arrangement with eight replications in bucket experiment and five replications in vase experiment. Analysis of variance revealed that two ways effect of various RH and re-cuts did not significantly (P ≤ 0.05) affected flower vase life, relative fresh weight, solution uptake, and bacterial populations. Cut rose flower stored in chamber with 90% relative humidity had the longest vase life, while those one kept in 60% showed the shortest longevity. The result of mean comparisons revealed with increasing relative humidity from 60% to 90%, bacterial populations was increased too

Information Resources Usage and Information Literacy Skills of School Teachers in Sri Lanka: a Survey

This study examines information resource usage and information literacy skills of school teachers in Sri Lanka. The study population was in-service graduate school teachers who work in government schools in the country. Multistage cluster sampling method was used to select the study sample. The study adopted a quantitative research methodology, and a self-administered survey questionnaire was distributed among 3200 teachers, and collected data were analyzed using SPSS (21.0). The results gave an insight that school teachers in Sri Lanka used a wide array of sources of information to fulfill their professional information needs. The results revealed that teachers have specific information literacy skills, which are imperative for the effective use of information resources

Challenges Faced by School Teachers when Seeking Information: How Barriers be Addressed

The present study explored the challenges faced by school teachers when seeking information for teaching purposes and made suggestions to overcome these challenges. The study used a mixed-method approach, comprising a questionnaire survey and focus groups discussions. The data collected through the questionnaires were mainly quantitative and were analysed using the SPSS (21.0) while the qualitative data from the focus group discussions were analysed using thematic content analysis. For the quantitative approach, 318 school teachers were sampled in questionnaires survey where the descriptive statistics were used for analysis. The study found a variety of barriers that influenced teachers’ information seeking process either the problems with the library resources, school environment barriers or personal barriers. The study recommended that school libraries should be improved and expanded with library resources while providing better information technology facilities within the school environment and also should provide more support and training to school teachers with information literacy skills to empower them to face these challenges

Study of Information Seeking Pattern of School Teachers in Sri Lanka with respect to Curriculum Planning

The study was conducted to examine information seeking pattern of school teachers in Sri Lanka. The survey method was adapted for this study and a self-administered questionnaire was used as main data collection tool. The school teachers who enrolled to follow postgraduate courses in the Department of Education, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka were selected as the study population and the collected data were analyzed using SPSS (21.0). The study found that most of the respondents used face to face discussions and mass media as communication channels and most of the respondents study curriculum, teachers’ guides and students’ text books before preparing the lesson plans. Most of the teachers seek information with a perceived idea in mind. The teachers consider whether the contents of the documents address the topics on the syllabi adequately when evaluating information sources. This study also identified several problems that encounter by the teachers when seeking information for Curriculum planning

Detection of human papillomavirus DNA sequences in oral lesions using polymerase chain reaction

The purpose of the present study was to estimate the frequency of HPV DNA in four groups of oral lesions, including oral squamous cell carcinoma. Sixty paraffin-embedded oral tissue samples were examined for the presence of HPV DNAs using the PCR technique. These specimens were obtained from patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), leukoplakia, oral lichen planus (OLP), and pyogenic granuloma (PG). Consensus primers for L1 region (MY09 and MY11) and specific primers were used for detection of HPV DNA sequences in this study. we detected HPV DNA in 60% (9 out of 15) of OSCCs, 26.7% (4 out of 15) of leukoplakia, 13.3% (2 out of 15) of OLPs, and 6.7% (1 out of 15) of PGs. Statistical analysis showed that the prevalence of HPV in OSCC was significantly higher than other groups (P < 0.05). The frequency of HPV-16 and 18 detection in OSCC samples were 40% and 20%, respectively. The prevalence of these high risk HPVs was significantly higher in OSCC group (P < 0.05). The results of the present study show a successive increase of detection rate of HPV-16 and 18 DNAs from low level in samples of pyogenic granuloma and non-premalignant or questionably premalignant lesions of OLP to premalignant leukoplakia and to OSCC. © 2007 Tehran University of Medical Sciences. All rights reserved

The trophic status of the Zayandeh River dam lake in the spring and summer, 2017

The Zayandeh River dam lake, supplies freshwater for municipal, agricultural and industrial activities of three central Iranian provinces. Monthly water sampling was conducted in the spring and summer 2017 at four stations in the lake to determine trophic state. Electro-conductivity, temperature, pH, turbidity, total suspended solids, total dissolved solids, nitrate, phosphate, dissolved oxygen, biological oxygen demand also chlorophyll-a levels were measured in the samples. The maximum value of Trophy State Index (TSI) was recorded in May and the minimum value in September. Based on TSI, the Lake was oligotrophic in the spring and summer. However, in the May, the lake was in mesotrophic state, probably due to floods, runoff and drainage of farmlands. Due to high temperatures and biological activity in the summer, nitrate and phosphate decomposition increased. On the other hand, agricultural activities decreased compared to the spring, resulted in decreases in the concentration of nutrients, especially nitrate. Therefore, the lake is in oligotrophic state from June to September