An analysis of the term “marriage” from the Buddhist perspective

The history of human society is nothing but the description of the evolution and diffusion of various institutions designed toward perpetuation, maintenance and survival of society. The institution of marriage occupies a unique place in the realm of institutions and it is this institution which is instrumental in perpetuating human society through regulations of conjugal and filial ties. The institution of marriage is as old as emergence of the world. As a social institution, it has taken different forms in different societies from time immemorial. It is very useful to analyze definition of what the marriage is. We have the numerous theories offered by social anthropologists about the origin and history of this important institution its various forms, modes and conditions in different epochs and societies. The family as the basis of marriage has been a self-contained unit with a division of functions on a sex basis, each partner performing his or her duties in the best interests of the family as a cooperative unit. The intermixing of cultures affects the institution of marriage and has been changing its shape in different societies in different epochs. Apart from this, the social political, moral and economic conditions of a particular social order have always affected the form of marriage in society. Buddhism has mainly affected to the marriage system. The major aim of this research is to discuss of the marriage as described in Buddhist literature

Analysis on Supply Chain of Organic Vegetables and Organic Rice reaching Colombo

Organic food can simply be identified as the food that is produced from organic farming. The market for organic food in Sri Lanka is on the rise and the main consumer is the Colombo District. The growers are mostly from outside areas. Systematic studies on organic food from the supplier perspective however have not being carried out. The present study aims at identifying the actors of the supply chain of organic rice and vegetables and evaluating the price ranges. The methodology adopted mainly was a structured questionnaire survey among the suppliers, a market survey and key informant interviews. The study focused on the main supermarket chains in Colombo, open markets, other specific organic supermarkets and organic food exhibitions. To establish the existing supply chain the supermarkets were chosen using purposive sampling and the actors were chosen using snowball sampling. A total of 22 supermarket outlets were chosen from the supermarket chains of Keells and Softlogic Glomark. The Colombo Good market was identified as an open market and 20 individual producers were interviewed. Only the local producers were chosen for the study. The food was categorised and the price ranges were quantified. The chain supermarkets have a greater proportion of leafy vegetables, other organic vegetables but lesser varieties of organic rice. In specific and open markets the quantities available of green vegetables are greater than the leafy vegetables and a variety of organic rice is observed. Chain supermarket outlet sources indicate that only 15-20% sales are gained from organic food compared to their conventional counterparts. It was observed that the large scale suppliers earn a larger profit but small scale rice farmers in remote areas get a very low profit. Suppliers find labour as the major cost component. The minimum price increment for organic food was 27% for leafy vegetables. Higher price increments were found for recognized, certified, branded products where the price is sometimes seven times higher than the conventional price. Dedicated organic supermarkets seem to have higher prices for most of the food items. Thus the public image and the recognition play a greater role in defining price mechanism for the organic vegetables and rice. The general conclusion is that because the organic foods industry is still growing, the majority of chain supermarkets retailing organic food are not able to achieve the same level of economies of scale as conventional vegetable due to the higher prices.Keywords: Organic food, Supply chain, Market structure, Price differenc

Habitus and reflexivity in tandem? Insights from postcolonial Sri Lanka

This article contributes to the unresolved concern about the relationship between habitus and reflexivity. Using Sri Lanka, a postcolonial social context, as the research ground, the article provides a contemporary interpretation of individuals' reflexive and habitual behaviour that displaces Bourdieu's concept of habitus as inappropriate for the representation of 21st-century social dynamics. While Sri Lanka is often labelled a traditional society, where habitual, routine, pre-reflexive action is thought to be more common, studies that question this generalised view appear to be largely absent. Therefore, based on a critical realist morphogenetic perspective that offers the analytical possibility of both routine and conscious action, this article investigates the role of habitus and reflexivity through 75 work and life histories gathered from Sri Lanka. The findings suggest that even the reproduction of traditional practices has increasingly become a reflexive task; thus, this work supports the position that habitus fails to provide reliable guidance to understand social action, even within a society labelled as traditional

Socio-economic and marketing aspects of Laila and Bottom Long Line fisheries in the Kalpitiya peninsula of Sri Lanka

Surrounding Net Fishery (laila) and Bottom Long Line Fishery which operate in the coastal waters of Kalpitiya Peninsula, compete for the same fish resources, resulting in a fishery dispute between the respective fishermen. Both fisheries target demersal as well as mid pelagic fishes, such as travellys (parava), mullets (galmalu) and barracudas (ulava). As the dispute had an adverse impact on the social harmony in the fishing community of the area, a socio-economic survey was conducted to study the underlying factors and to suggest policy measures to resolve the issue. The laila fishermen were resident fishermen in the Kalpitiya Peninsula while bottom long line fishermen were migratory fishermen from Negombo and Chilaw areas in the west coast of Sri Lanka. The Kalpitiya peninsula is located in the North West coast, some 50 km away from the west coast. Although the educational level and literacy rate of the laila community was below that of the bottom long line community, the laila community was economically better off. The net economic returns from laila fishery were superior to that from bottom long line fishery. The boat owner's and crew's share per operation of laila fishery were Rs.3,736 and Rs.947 respectively. The same figures for bottom long line fishery were Rs.588 and Rs.327 respectively. The resource rent from laila fishery was Rs.5,860, however, and much higher than that for bottom long line fishery (Rs.275), showing that the laila fishery exploits the targeted fish resource at a much higher rate compared to bottom long line fishery. This situation badly affects the equitable distribution of resources between the two fishing communities and results in unequal economic gains. Based on the findings of this study, certain input/output controls are proposed to address this problem, among which is the need to increase license fee for laila fishery units to offset the higher exploitation rate of fish resources

Perturbation of Dopamine Metabolism by 3-Amino-2-(4Ј- halophenyl)propenes Leads to Increased Oxidative Stress and Apoptotic SH-SY5Y Cell Death

ABSTRACT We have recently characterized a series of 3-amino-2-phenylpropene (APP) derivatives as reversible inhibitors for the bovine adrenal chromaffin granule vesicular monoamine transporter (VMAT) that have been previously characterized as potent irreversible dopamine-␤-monooxygenase (D␤M) and monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitors. Halogen substitution on the 4Ј-position of the aromatic ring gradually increases VMAT inhibition potency from 4Ј-F to 4Ј-I, parallel to the hydrophobicity of the halogen. We show that these derivatives are taken up into both neuronal and non-neuronal cells, and into resealed chromaffin granule ghosts efficiently through passive diffusion. Uptake rates increased according to the hydrophobicity of the 4Ј-substituent. More importantly, these derivatives are highly toxic to human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y but not toxic to M-1, Hep G2, or human embryonic kidney 293 non-neuronal cells at similar concentrations. They drastically perturb dopamine (DA) uptake and metabolism in SH-SY5Y cells under sublethal conditions and are able to deplete both vesicular and cytosolic catecholamines in a manner similar to that of amphetamines. In addition, 4Ј-IAPP treatment significantly increases intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) and decreases glutathione (GSH) levels in SH-SY5Y cells, and cell death is significantly attenuated by the common antioxidants ␣-tocopherol, N-acetyl-L-cysteine and GSH, but not by the nonspecific caspase inhibitor N-benzyloxycarbonyl-Val-Ala-Asp-fluoromethyl ketone. DNA fragmentation analysis further supports that cell death is probably due to a caspase-independent ROSmediated apoptotic pathway. Based on these and other findings, we propose that drastic perturbation of DA metabolism in SH-SY5Y cells by 4Ј-halo APP derivatives causes increased oxidative stress, leading to apoptotic cell death. Oxidative stress in the central and peripheral nervous systems plays a significant role in neurodegenerative disorders, aging, and the toxicity of a large number of neurotoxins Numerous studies indicate that efficient uptake, biosynthetic conversion, and storage of catecholamines in vesicles are mandatory for proper functioning of catecholaminergic neurons. The vital proteins responsible, including vesicular H ϩ -ATPase (V-H ϩ -ATPase), cytochrome b 561 (b 561 ), dopamine-␤-monooxygenase (D␤M), and vesicular monoamine transporter (VMAT), have been well characterized (Beer

Metabolic energy decline coupled dysregulation of catecholamine metabolism in physiologically highly active neurons: implications for selective neuronal death in Parkinson’s disease

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is an age-related irreversible neurodegenerative disease which is characterized as a progressively worsening involuntary movement disorder caused by the loss of dopaminergic (DA) neurons in substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc). Two main pathophysiological features of PD are the accumulation of inclusion bodies in the affected neurons and the predominant loss of neuromelanin-containing DA neurons in substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc) and noradrenergic (NE) neurons in locus coeruleus (LC). The inclusion bodies contain misfolded and aggregated α-synuclein (α-Syn) fibrils known as Lewy bodies. The etiology and pathogenic mechanisms of PD are complex, multi-dimensional and associated with a combination of environmental, genetic, and other age-related factors. Although individual factors associated with the pathogenic mechanisms of PD have been widely investigated, an integration of the findings to a unified causative mechanism has not been envisioned. Here we propose an integrated mechanism for the degeneration of DA neurons in SNpc and NE neurons in LC in PD, based on their unique high metabolic activity coupled elevated energy demand, using currently available experimental data. The proposed hypothetical mechanism is primarily based on the unique high metabolic activity coupled elevated energy demand of these neurons. We reason that the high vulnerability of a selective group of DA neurons in SNpc and NE neurons in LC in PD could be due to the cellular energy modulations. Such cellular energy modulations could induce dysregulation of DA and NE metabolism and perturbation of the redox active metal homeostasis (especially copper and iron) in these neurons

On-site construction waste management: activity based waste generation

Sustainability of a construction project is often considered as a very important parameter in evaluating the success of the project. Though the management of material waste that generated as a result of onsite construction activities were initially regarded as less important to the overall sustainability of the project, current trends proves it otherwise. Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is one of those driving-forces that make the construction waste management an important sustainability indicator of a construction project. As a result of LEED as well as other assessment tools, construction waste management is very common in practice. However the effectiveness of the current management practices is questionable because prediction of waste material quantities is often neglected during the process. Therefore, to accomplish effective construction waste management (minimization, recycling, reuse, etc.) it is essential to predict quantities of construction waste which essentially depends on identifying the sources of waste generation and their relationships to quantity of waste. This paper presents the findings of a current research work on prediction of construction waste based on activity based construction waste generation method. The proposed activity-based construction waste generation modeling facilitates material waste predictions using several parameters including activity specific factors, environmental factors, worker related factors, etc. Statistical model that Predicts the drywall waste generation was presented in this paper. The study was based on the work carried out at several building construction sites in Calgary, Alberta. The findings can be incorporated into a planning tool which can essentially be used for the construction waste management process at sites

Impact of Fishing BoatCraft and Gear Combinations Operating in Coastal Fishery on Fisher Income in Sri Lanka

Coastal fishery is an important sub-sector of the fisheries sector in the country. Coastal fishproduction in 2012 was 257,540 Mt and its contribution to the total marine fish productionwas around 62%. More than 100,000 fishers are engaged in the coastal fishery sub-sectorwho represent more than 50% of the fishers of the country. There are several types of fishingboats/crafts and gears are used in the coastal fishery. This study has been done to examinevariation in the per fisher income by different craft and gear combinations used in the coastalfishery. The study was conducted in 2012 and the sampling frame confined to outboard fibrereinforced plastic boats (OFRP), outrigger canoes (Oru), log rafts (Teppam) and motorizedtraditional crafts (Wallam). The sample selection was done by application of randomsampling and data collection carried out administering structured questionnaires. A totalnumber of 150 of above mentioned fishing boats/crafts of five fishing districts in theSouthern and West coast were subjected to this study. Two hypotheses were tested under thisstudy: 1. There is no difference in per fisher income of different fishing crafts (H0:μ1=μ2=μ3=μ4) 2. There is no difference in per fisher profit according to fishing gears (H0:μ1=μ2=μ3=μ4). The collected data were analysed using SPSS software and considered αlevel was 0.05 for the test. Calculated F value for the first hypothesis was 1.94 (P=0.107)which indicated that the Null hypothesis of the first test can’t be rejected. It means the perfisher income does not change acoording to the fishing boats/crafts. The calculated F valuefor the second hypothesis was 2.50 (P=0.009) which explained that the Null hyposthesis ofthe second hypothesis can be rejected. It means that the per fisher profit will be changedacoording to fishing gears used in the coastal fishery. According to the mean seperation itwas proven that the fishers who use trawl lines and bottom long lines earned higher profitsthan the fishers who use other fishing gears