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The Impact of human resources information system on non-executive employees’ performance with special reference to manufacturing industry
No full textThe very purpose of the study was to determine the impact of Human Resource Information System (HRIS) on employee job performance. HRIS is a software or online solution for entering, tracking and storing data. Employee job performance, as it means, is the contribution of an employee to his/her organization. Most of the researches on this topic were conducted in Western Province of Sri Lanka especially in Colombo while this study is carried out in Southern Province. The descriptive research is based on the deductive approach adopted here. A quantitative method was used and questionnaire survey method was employed as the main data collection method. One of the well reputed manufacturing companies was selected to collect relevant data through a structured questionnaire. 85 full time employees were randomly selected from the southern region in Sri Lanka. Collected data were analysed using Alpha test, correlation and regression through IBM SPSS to understand the relationship between HRIS and employee performance. Time and attendance system, Training and development system, Performance Management system, Self- service system were used as the determinants of HRIS. According to the research findings, 4 dimensions of HRIS have positively influenced with employee performance
a study of Ritigala monastic complex in Sri Lanka
No full textRitigala is one of the most picturesque places in Sri Lanka. This picturesque value is mainly
due to its cultural and natural aspects. Ritigala mountain range is located in the Palugaswewa
divisional secretariat, Kekirawa in Anuradhapura district. The most outstanding value of this
Archaeological site is the Padhanaghara building tradition. Rare species of flora and founa is
found in this forest and the value of this heritage is immeasurable due to the dense forest
which has been there unharmed for thousand of years.
There are more than enough reasons for Ritigala to be included in the world heritage list due
to the above mentioned outstanding universal values. But it seems that no considerable
attention in this regard has has yet been drawn on the part of heritage conservation authorities.
A long and meticulous feasibility study has to be done before Ritigala being declared a world
heritage site in addition, management system which is to be submitted in this regard should be
prepared in impact of declaration of amonument as a wodld heritage: A study of Ritigala
monastic complex in Sri Lanka, it is attempted to research the need for it. It is done
employing the methodologies of defining what a world heritage is, how it can be applied to
Ritigala and examing the advantages and dis advantages arising from that it was observed
when analysing the data collected the local and foreign tourists that majority of them are of
the opinion of it being declare a world heritage. A few tourists have expressed their comments
against. It justifying their reasons. Both of these parties have expressed their opinions based
on some facts and they can be justified depending only on the management system
implemented once it had been declared a world heritage site. Some of the locals also were
posed the question whether Ritigala be declared a world heritage or not. When their responses
were summarized, it is clear that they have shown more inclination for it than otherwise more
over attention was paid to the world heritage sites in Sri Lanka and in othr countries in
relation to their present condition after the inclution of them in the world heritage category. It
was reveated that there are many such sites which have been maintained minimizing the
damages and conserving the heritage due t the actions taken under the world heritage concept.
Thus, there is evidence that this concept has been a success. On the other hand, there are some
other world heritage sites in and out of Sri Lanka, which have failed to achieve success due to
the lake of a proper management system. Venice charter and Narah document provide a very
wide coverage on the subject of conservation of cultural heritage. Thus, how for these charters
could be utilized in relation to Ritigala has been examinedhere.
However, local and foreign tourists have expressed their concern over environmental issues
which could be arisen due to declaring Ritigala a world heritage site. So, strict measures
should be taken to protect the founa and flora of this natural reserve. Several suggestions on
how Ritigala could be carefully maintained once it is declared a world heritage site have been
presented here. Deciding on the number of tourists allowed entry to the site on a day,
preventing opportunities for the unnecessary tourists entering the site by increasing the value
of entry tickets, closing down the site for some period of time every year for the
environmental balancing are the suggestions which require attention since majority of the
tourists have expressed the need forimplementing rules, regulations and restrictions for
conserving the site, implementation of these rules, regulations and restrictions also could lead
to minimizing the damages to the site
a study on infrastructure projects in Sri Lanka
No full textGovernment of Sri Lanka (GOSL) has history of applying Public Private Partnerships (PPP) in public infrastructure development projects. All the construction projects are prone to disputes, however, the projects procured via PPP is most subjected to disputes due to its nature and characteristics, where involve huge stakeholders with various interests, complex and long-term nature, prone to impacts from outside forces, often beyond the control of the collaboration parties, complex legal arrangements, easily subjected to misinterpretation. Disputes are the key factor, which avert the wealthy accomplishment of the project and subsequently end up in huge unexpected costs, contract revocation, and relationship and reputation devastation. It is difficult to entirely eliminate the disputes in PPP; however, the disputes could be mitigated by proposing the most suitable strategies for PPP projects.
Accordingly, this study aims on how to mitigate disputes in PPP infrastructure projects in Sri Lanka. Qualitative approach was adopted as the most appropriate research approach for this study and interviews were conducted using semi-structured interview guideline among the personnel who involved in Sri Lankan’s PPP projects, thereby the total of twelve participants from public party, private party and others were interviewed. Documentary review also adopted as secondary data collected tool. Data were analysed by adopting cause and effect diagram and content analysis using pre-determined themes as per research objectives.
The eventual findings revealed that, the disputes in Sri Lankan PPP infrastructure projects often occurred related to political, legal, environmental, land and market & revenue; which are identified as most influential categories, in which the PPP projects are highly affected, and those cannot be eliminated in the future PPP projects as well. Meanwhile, disputes related to contract, design and specification, and construction are identified as medium influencing categories, in which the PPP projects are considerably affected and those factors can be eliminated by the time, based on the experiences and when the PPP projects get familiar to professional, thereby, those can be eliminated based on the mitigation strategies. In addition, human behavior and economic related dispute are considered as less influential factors, where human behavior related disputes can be mitigated though the education, training, and well communication system. Moreover, economic related disputes can be settled by allocating proper contingencies and adequate contractual provision in the contract and those already practiced by the project practitioners in Sri Lanka.
Finding further revealed that, inadequate knowledge on PPP, lacks in partnering, lack of transparency, poor quality of contract drafting, lack of legal, policy, administration and investment framework, changes in government and policy, poor public awareness, absence of procurement guideline and standard forms for PPP, poor centralized legal system, poor feasibility and risk management strategies, poor coordination, changes in technology are most significant root causes of disputes in PPP in Sri Lanka. Accordingly, public and private parties’ close cooperation and effective relationship management, proper coordination, increase the quality of contract drafting, obtain experts’ advice, appoint independent partner, proper feasibility study and risk analysis are found as most frequent dispute mitigation strategies. Moreover, develop the strong PPP framework, strong national policies, permanent entities to PPP, transparency procedure, conduct public awareness, develop proper guideline and standard form of contract for PPP, improve PPP unit, improve adequate knowledge on PPP, re-negotiation, strengthen state guarantee, and appoint steering committee are the most significant strategies which can suggest for the future PPP projects in Sri Lanka
Biometric authentication system using multi-agent technology in border control
No full textIn today’s world security is the most important aspect. Border criminals, frauds, unauthorized
immigrants are burning issues in Sri Lanka within the last few years due to the lack of proper
identification system i.e. duplicate passports, fake identity, etc. Therefore, the efficiency and
accuracy of the traditional authentication system are not good enough to overcome this
disaster. Furthermore, cryptanalysis and brute force attacks are dramatically strong with
uncontrolled demanding of computational power. In fact, the efficiency and accuracy of the
authentication are not enough to cater the future authentication systems by comparing
traditional user authentication techniques. Therefore, Biometrics is the ideal solution for
authentication as it has advantages over conventional systems. Second, it's not important to
recall a biometric and it can't easily be lost. It makes the client much smoother. In addition, it
is not easy to stolen or loan a biometric to a relative.
Biometrics can provide greater security and comfort than traditional methods of human
identification. Even if we don't want to replace a conventional method with a biometric one,
we are certainly future consumers of these systems, which will even be mandatory for new
passport models. Therefore, it is important to be familiar with biometric security engineering
possibilities. The most common way for people to perform biometric authentication maybe
facial recognition. Face recognition can be based on single images, multiple still images or
video sequences. Although most of the efforts have been traditionally dedicated to the former,
the latest is rising, probably due to the lowering of prices in devices for image and video
acquisition. The system was designed using the technology of multi-agents and it has two
phases biometric capturing phase at VISA granting process and biometric recognition phase
at border points. The product's longevity is maintained through the use of biometric and
nonbiometric techniques. This solution has been implemented as a multi-agent program with
a hybrid approach that identification of faces and validation of fingerprint. The system has
been tested in a border protection environment which is a more time-critical real-world
application and notices the 87% accuracy in the recognition phase. The proposed system
evaluated with traditional border management software and time calculated for each
participant. Those participants have given informed consent participation at the evaluation
Assessing life span of vehicle tyres by analyzing multiple failure modes using parametric approaches
No full textIn the recent decades, modelling multiple failure data which was a largely neglected analytical issue until the development of sophisticated techniques has gained a greater enthusiasm among the statisticians, which, can be advocated to address the precise nature of multiple failure type data. This study employs methodologies for the analysis of multiple failure modes for a dataset with two tyre categories namely Cross ply and Radial. Each tyre category had two types of tyres and five distinct modes of failures. Type of tyre and mode of failure are considered as explanatory variables. The lifetime (time to failure) of the tyres, which is the core response of interest, was modelled as a function of the explanatory variables and the fitted models were used to assess the validity of the prevailing warranty period. Two approaches of parametric survival regression were used for regressing the lifetime as a function of the failure mode and tyre type which were the explanatory variables considered in the study. Under the first approach, one model each was fitted for Cross ply tyres and Radial tyres treating all failure modes together, whereas in the second approach, one model for each failure mode of each tyre category was fitted. Reliability estimates for lifetime were obtained and compared across the two approaches of model fitting. A significant difference among the two approaches was not seen with respect to survival estimates. However, with respect to residual analysis, accommodate data dependencies and provision for adjusting the shape flexibility to parameter can be regarded as improvements of the second approach, which fitted separate models for each failure mode. In conclusion, the methods deployed in this study enable better decision making with respect to warranty setting and identifying failure modes and failure timings precisely
Development of low cost online structural health monitoring system for civil infrastructures using wireless smart sensors
No full textOver the last few decades number of tall buildings has seen an exponential increase. At present tallest ever building under construction measures 1000m vertically, and the height of future buildings is likely to be even higher. Monitoring the behaviour of tall buildings using them as living laboratory is extraordinarily important in an international context to optimize its performance. Structural health monitoring is a new paradigm which facilitates the purpose of monitoring buildings or any other infrastructure on real time basis. Structural health monitoring has seen various advanced developments in recent past. Wired sensor networks were used to monitor the target at the beginning. In modern days wireless network with higher number of nodes is used to monitor the target very precisely.
In this research a wireless sensor network which is capable of sensing ambient vibrations in terms of accelerations was developed. The sensors mounted in each node are capable of measuring very small vibrations (1 mg range). The communication between each node was established using wireless network protocol, sub-1 GHz (Radio waves) which is very efficient in terms of long-range communications, power consumption and penetration through obstacles. When it comes to collecting data using wireless sensor networks, there are inherent challenges such as time synchronisation, scalability, packet handling (collision), packet loss, data storage, power consumption etc. However, accuracy of time synchronisation was identified to be the most crucial problem as far as interpretation of results is concerned. Two methods of time synchronization were checked in laboratory level. One method is known as receiver to receiver model and other one is centre to receiver model. Wireless sensor network was checked for its performance in laboratory level and accelerometers were calibrated using shaker table which has accurate analog sensors and digital accelerometers which are already calibrated in laboratory level.
Completely developed wireless sensor network which is capable of collecting synchronous data, was established in a target building of 48 floors with 185m height. The locations of sensors were predetermined using mathematical model made using finite element package, ETABS. Bi directional acceleration data was collected with sampling frequency of 100 Hz. Collected data was chunked and converted into frequency domain from time domain using fast Fourier transform algorithm and modal damping ratios, peak acceleration corresponding to particular frequency and modal displacement were extracted.
Extracted modal damping ratios were compared with the damping ratios suggested in various codes and it could be observed that the calculated modal damping ratios are higher than the
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values that are suggested by various codes. The mode shapes plotted using the building response data showed a good agreement with the mode shapes produced by Operational Modal Analysis
Investigation of the effect of mold releasing agent and residual calcium nitrate/calcium ion of nitrile higher mil gloves to wet look defect
No full textTwo types of latex are used in disposable gloves manufacturing as natural latex and synthetic latex. Calcium nitrate (calcium ion) is used as the coagulant and calcium carbonate or calcium stearate is used as the former releasing agent.
In pre leaching of natural latex gloves, protein removal also required other than the calcium nitrate removal and post leaching is necessary to further removal of protein. Effectiveness of leaching depends mainly on - three factors as leaching time, leaching tank condition and leaching temperature. In natural latex gloves, it can be maintained leaching takes place at a higher temperature since natural rubber has a high crystalline temperature. But in synthetic latex gloves manufacturing, it cannot be kept at the leaching tank temperature at higher temperatures since the glove becomes hard since its crystalline temperature is low. If the glove film has high thickness, leaching is difficult. Limitation of water supply and high wastewater treatment costs are the main issues with leaching.
Chlorination is used to modify the disposable glove surface by reducing the tackiness which is a characteristic of rubber. Chlorination reduces the friction between the rubber surface and the other surface which come into contact. There are two types of chlorination as online chlorination and offline chlorination. Online chlorination is done by immersing the glove into a chlorine water tank before removing the glove from the former. At online chlorination, the inner surface of the glove gets smoother. If smoothness of the outside surface also requires, offline chlorination is done as a batch process in chlorinators (a machine like a washing machine). Other than that, chlorine water solution can convert calcium carbonate/ calcium stearate which is used as the former releasing agent to calcium salts. There are some disposable gloves which the chlorination is in complete. Chlorination is used to reduce the tackiness resulted from this incomplete chlorination.
Calcium ion can absorb moisture from the surrounding. If calcium ion remains on the latex glove surface, it gives a wet look by absorbing the surrounding moisture. In the industry, it is called “Oil marks”. The degree of wet look depends on calcium ion concentration and surrounding moisture content. If the glove surface contains a
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moisture absorbing material like calcium carbonate or corn starch, wet look is not visible even if the glove surface has a significant amount of calcium ions
Impact of superior supportiveness on employee turnover intention in IT industry
No full textInformation Technology (IT) has been a fast-growing industry in Sri Lanka. According to the 2013 ICT workforce survey by the Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) of Sri Lanka, the ICT workforce has grown since 2003. According to them, this growth is expected to be resumed hereafter. ICT companies take the second-largest share of the ICT workforce (40.8%). Nevertheless, in spite of the significance of the industry and the occupation, it encounters numerous challenges when it comes to turnover intention. As per previous sources, 67% of employees left jobs and have the intention to leave their jobs because of the problems with their superior. According to them, superior support is a crucial factor for employees. Superiors need to take required measures to control those measures to thrive in the competitive business market. This research intends to assist the retention of IT professionals by recognizing the impact of superior support. This study will help the superiors of IT organizations to understand the impact and take necessary actions to minimize employee turnover.
The research uses a qualitative research methodology. The preliminary survey and online survey are used to identify the impact of superior support. All the main factors and sub-factors of superior support identified through the literature review were finalized from the preliminary survey. The results of the online survey helped to determine the impact of each main factor. Three hundred eighty (380) responses were received from different IT professionals. Superior’s Emotional, Practical, Instrumental, and Companionship support are the main factors identified from the literature review. Also, several sub-factors were identified for each main factor and used for the questions in the online survey. Emotional support of superior is the main factor having a higher impact on employee turnover intention, as identified during the online survey. Employees with different genders, job roles, years of industry experience have different kinds of opinions on superior support factors. Based on the online survey results, several interviews were carried out with a number of superiors to get feedback for the survey findings. Most of the superiors are interested in providing Emotional and Practical support to their employees. Nevertheless, some superiors did not agree with a few sub-factors and had a different opinion. The agreeableness of superiors who participated in interviews was positive and aligned with results and analysis of the online survey.
This research conveys some valuable outcome that can be applied into the organizational operation by the superiors. By applying this, we anticipate better retention rates of IT professionals inside the organization together with the industry. The refined profession will therefore strengthen the accuracy of the product or project, resulting in higher client and customer fulfilment in addition to the pleasure and incentive of IT professionals
Optimization of rainfall spatial variability for daily streamflow estimation with a monthly water balance model
No full textPrecipitation varies significantly over space and time within a watershed. Precipitation has a
vital role in determining surface hydrological processes because of its influence on streamflow
estimations using mathematical models. Though monthly rainfall data provides ease of access
due to availability and affordability, daily data is the preferred option of engineers, planners
and water managers. This is because daily time resolution is considered as a unit which
reasonably represent the catchment time lag. If a water model calibrated using monthly data
could estimate daily streamflow from a watershed, then this would be of immense value for
sustainable water resources management. The three-parameter monthly water balance model
(3PMWBM) proposed by (Dissanayake, 2017) has demonstrated the capability with an
application on 2 watersheds in Sri Lanka while using Thiessen averaging method for rainfall
input. Wijesekera and Musiake (1990a, 1990b) had optimized both rainfall station weights
and model parameters for improved streamflow estimations by enabling the calibration of
point rainfall measurements to generate a spatially averaged rainfall to reflect the response of
the corresponding watershed. The study objective is to estimate streamflow in daily timescale
using a monthly water balance model while optimizing the spatial variability of rainfall
leading to enhanced water security and sustainable water management. Daily data from 2005
to 2014 of 4 rainfall stations of Badalgama watershed (1360 km2) in Ma Oya Basin, Sri Lanka
are used to evaluate the streamflow predictions with the 3PMWBM when rainfall station
weights are optimized. The 3PMWBM was developed, calibrated and verified with and
without optimizing the rainfall gauging station weights. A spreadsheet tool and an object
oriented modelling tool was used for the model development. Mean Ratio of Absolute Error
(MRAE) was selected as the objective function during calibration and verification. The high,
medium and low flow determined from observations and annual water balance were also were
used during evaluation. The optimum value based on literature and analysis for Sc, C and k
are 908, 2.5 and 0.69 respectively for monthly model. The MRAE calibration and verification
results obtained at consecutive steps 0.41,0.409 and 0.36 and 0.60,0.62,0.50 i.e. optimizing
model parameters, optimizing rainfall weights, optimizing model parameter and rainfall
weights at the same time Thiessen weights are (0.26,0.19,0.20,0.35), (0.20,0.16,0.26,0.38) and
(0.23,0.14,0.27,0.36) respectively for Ambepussa, Andigama, Aranayake and Eraminigolla
stations. Daily streamflow estimations in Badalgama watershed using 3PMWBM with the
optimization of rainfall station weights with optimum average MRAE 0.64. The study found
that spatial variability of rainfall can significantly affect model results about 17%
improvement in average MRAE at monthly scale when station weights and parameters are
simultaneously optimized and under same case when the model is used for daily streamflow
estimation, up to 8% improvements in average MRAE are noticed