http://dr.lib.sjp.ac.lk/handle/123456789/10673 2026-01-04T05:43:13Z 2026-01-04T05:43:13Z Dasanayaka, PN http://dr.lib.sjp.ac.lk/handle/123456789/10705 2022-03-21T10:25:34Z 2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Characterization of Some ex situ Conserved Finger Millet (Eleusine coracana (L.)) Germplasm Accessions in Sri Lanka Dasanayaka, PN Finger millet (Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn.) is a highly nutritious and important food crop widely cultivated in the arid and semiarid regions in the world. Therefore it is worthy to be subjected to crop improvement programs. Germplasm collection and characterization are preliminary and important steps in crop improvement programmes. This study was conducted to characterize randomly selected 24 finger millet germplasm accessions conserved at the plant Genetic Resource Centre, Gannoruwa, Sri Lanka using 14 quantitative characters. The maximum positive and significant coefficient of variation was observed between weight of grain per ear and weight of sun dried ear. Phenotypic correlation between weight of grain per ear was highly significant and positively associated with days to flowering, flag leaf width, flag leaf length, plant height, culm thickness, finger length, finger width, days to maturity and weight of sun dried ears, flag leaf width, flag leaf length, plant height, culm thickness, finger length, finger width, days to maturity and weight of sun dried ears. The principal component analysis revealed that the first five component with Eigen values greater than 0.87 contributed about 85.5% of total variability. The twenty for finger millet accessions grouped in to four main clusters in the cluster analysis. Results of cluster analysis could be used in the crop breeding and conservation programmes

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z Chandralatha, WMG Yapa, LGDS Maheshika, E http://dr.lib.sjp.ac.lk/handle/123456789/10703 2022-03-21T10:23:12Z 2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Necessity for an Application of Environmental Management into rural Areas (Special Reference to Malimboda Divisional Secretariat Division) Chandralatha, WMG; Yapa, LGDS; Maheshika, E Environmental management is a systematic approach to finding practical ways for saving water, energy and materials and reducing the negative impacts. Environmental problems have arisen due to human influences on environment in the worldwide. Many environmental problems like air pollution, illegal waste dumping, water pollution, green cover reduction, and noise pollution can be identified in urbanized areas, and mostly human impacted areas. But as a developing country, as well as affected by globalization, many rural areas in Sri Lanka are threatened by environment related issues , but there is no a considerable attention to identify environmental problems and threats in rural areas. This study is done for identify the necessity of application of environmental management into rural areas. Specific objectives are to identify, main reasons for those environmental problems, and to identify strategies that used by the community to prevent environmental problems. The study area is Malimboda Divisional secretariat division. Data collection is done using primary and secondary data sources. 40 questionnaires, 5 interviews, and field observations are used to collect primary data. Published and unpublished literature sources, books and internet are used to collect secondary data. MS Excel and SPSS are used to quantitative data analysis and some data which are received with interviews and observation are analyzed qualitatively. Results of analysis showed the major environmental problems as soil salinisation, water salinization, water pollution, water quality decreasing, soil degradation, deforestation, and bio diversity degradation are arising. There is a high necessity of application environmental management into Malimboda rural area. The rural community should be informed about future threat to increase existing environmental problems, and promote to use environmental management activities locally. It should pay the attention of governmental and nongovernmental attention to the rural areas, with establishing active laws and regulations.

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z De Alwis, D. Samarawickrama, Y.C http://dr.lib.sjp.ac.lk/handle/123456789/10701 2022-03-21T09:58:29Z 2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Low Cost Ultrasonic Based Wide Detection Range Smart Walking Stick for Visually Impaired De Alwis, D.; Samarawickrama, Y.C Blindness is a medical condition that requires approaching life in different ways. Unfortunately blindness still lacks proper care in the world. Many investigations have been carried out to facilitate the self-sufficient movements for the blind. The basic elementary instrument used is the traditional white cane. Many electronic travel aids have been introduced to the global market. However, more consideration is required for drawbacks of high cost, less user friendliness and less accuracy in these electronic travelling aids. Overcoming the challenges for visually impaired victims this article proposes a low cost ultrasonic based smart blind walking stick. This is a technological upgrade to the traditional white cane normally used by the blind. This device assists the victims to walk more confidently and independently. Most of the visually impaired belong to the low income community. Hence the main consideration was developing this device with Low cost and best achievable performance. This design for the visually impaired is integrated with a water sensor and ultrasonic obstacle detection sensors. The different obstacle conditions namely; mud puddles, low lying objects, ascending stairs, descending stairs and head high obstacles can be effectively and accurately detected. Early warning of danger is conveyed to the user due to the feature of wide obstacle detection range. The user is alerted by unique fingertip vibrations and sound patterns corresponding to the relevant user alert. The innovative design of the stick enables more compatibility and a wider obstacle detection range for the device with high accuracy. The low cost achievement of this design is outstanding with a total cost of less than 30 US dollars which can be further reduced in mass production.

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z Gnanapragasam, SR Cooray, TMJA http://dr.lib.sjp.ac.lk/handle/123456789/10700 2022-03-21T09:55:13Z 2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Forecasting Post-War Tourist Arrivals to Sri Lanka Using Dynamic Transfer Function Modeling Method Gnanapragasam, SR; Cooray, TMJA Tourism plays a big role in terms of economics in the development of a country. The arrivals were less during the war period in Sri Lanka due to the uncertainty of security. Forecasting tourist arrivals is essential for planning, policy making and budgeting purposes. The objective of the study is to fit a model to predict tourist arrivals by using dynamic transfer function (DTF) modeling method. The monthly tourist arrivals from June 2009 to June 2016 are extracted from the annual reports of Sri Lanka tourism development authority for this study. Prior to model fittings, the following techniques were carried out: Augmented Dickey- Fuller test, Kruskal- Wallis test, difference method, auto-correlation function and partial auto-correlation function. For model fitting, dynamic transfer function model for univariate time series process was employed. AndersonDarling test, Lagrange’s Multiplier test and White’s General test were applied for the residuals analysis. To evaluate the performance of the model on the basis of the fit of the forecasting, mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) was taken into account. It is stated that, over 7.3 million tourists had visited the island during the study period. Further it is noted that, every year there is a positive growth rate. It reveals that, there is dramatic increase in total tourist arrivals after the war. Soon after the war in Sri Lanka, a rapid increase in growth rate in the year 2010 is also observed. According to the MAPE value, it is concluded that, the fitted DTF model explains over 90% accuracy in terms of forecasting tourist arrivals. Based on the ex-post forecast, it is expected that nearly 1.105 million tourists will come to Sri Lanka in the last six months in 2016. It is approximately 14% increase in the arrivals over the last six months in the year 2015.

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z