6507 research outputs found
Sort by
The effect of extraction method on yield and antimicrobial activity of Acronychia pedunculata
Get PDFAcronychia pedunculata (Rutaceae) is often used in traditional medicine for treating various
skin diseases. Previous studies have shown significant antibacterial activity of the plant against
methicillin-sensitive and methicillin-resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA and
MRSA). In the present study, methanolic extracts of different plant parts (Stem-bark, leaves,
root, fruits) prepared by two extraction methods, Soxhlet and ultrasound-assisted solvent
extraction (UASE), were examined for antimicrobial activity. The screening of the plant
extracts for their in vitro antibacterial activity against standard S. aureus (ATCC 5923) and two
MSSA, five MRSA strains was carried out using agar well diffusion method. Antifungal activity
was determined against the fungus C. cladosporioides using the TLC bioautography method.
Yields of extracts varied with the plant part and the extraction method. For Acronychia
pedunculata, the Soxhlet method afforded higher yield for the leaf, stem-bark, and fruit/seed
extracts than the sonicator method, while the root gave higher yields from the sonicator method.
Antimicrobial activity varied depending on the plant part and the extraction method
Impact of social media usage on students’ academic performance before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in Sri Lanka
No full textPurpose – Restrictions imposed on freedom of movement and interaction with others due to the COVID-19
pandemic have had the effect of causing many people, especially students, to become addicted to social media.
This study aims to investigate the effect of social media addiction on the academic performance of Sri Lankan
government university students during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Design/methodology/approach – A convenience sampling technique was used to conduct a
quantitative cross-sectional survey. The survey involved 570 respondents from nine state universities in Sri
Lanka. The raw data from the completed questionnaires were coded and processed using SPSS for descriptive
and inferential statistical analysis.
Findings – The findings of this study indicated that the overall time spent on social networking increased
dramatically during COVID-19. Based on the results, this study found that there was no association between
the time spent on social media and the academic performance of students before COVID-19 came on the scene.
However, a significant association was found between the time spent on social media and students’
performance during the pandemic. The authors concluded that overblown social media use, leading to
addiction, significantly negatively affects academic performance.
Originality/value – This study helps to understand the impact of social media use on the academic
performance of students during COVID-19. Restrictions imposed by COVID-19 have changed the typical
lifestyle of the students. Therefore, social media usage should be reassessed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The findings of the study will comprise these new insights, and they may well show how to adapt social
media to contribute to academic work in meaningful ways
Development of herbal tea using powdered pumpkin seeds (cucurbita maxima)
Get PDFPumpkin seeds are an excellent source of essential nutrients. The pumpkin
seeds are generally thrown away after the flesh is consumed. By creating
value-added products like herbal tea blends, pumpkin seed consumption can
be increased. The Cucurbita maxima variety of pumpkin was chosen for this
study because it is commonly grown in Sri Lanka. The samples were
collected from the open market in the Gampaha district. The optimal time
required for drying of pumpkin seed was determined by measuring the
moisture content of the pumpkin seeds at one hour interval while dehydrating
at 70°C. The dried pumpkin seeds were made into five treatments and roasted
at 130°C, 140°C, 150°C, 160°C, and 170°C for 15 minutes. Then the roasted
pumpkin seeds were ground to form powdered pumpkin seed (PPS).
Moisture content (MC), ash content (AC), acid insoluble ash (AIA) content
and pH content of PPS samples were determined. PPS samples with tea bag
and without tea bags for brewed for 5 minutes. A sensory evaluation using
seven points hedonic scale was conducted to determine the odor, color, taste,
appearance, and overall acceptability of the brewed PPS with and without tea
bags. PPS sample roasted at 170°C resulted the lowest MC, AC and AIA
value as 1.97±0.02%, 4.24±0.35% and 0.28±0.02% respectively and highest
pH content 6.94±0.02. PPS roasted at 170°C without tea bag obtained
significantly higher scores for color, odor, taste, appearance and overall
acceptability. The findings showed that roasted powder at 170°C can be used
To make herbal tea
Radon and Health
No full textRadon ( 222 Rn) is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, and chemically unreactive noble gas generated from the natural radioactive decay series of uranium ( 238 U) present in the soil, rocks, and water. It is considered one of the major sources of background radiation of natural origin and responsible for approximately 55% of the natural ionizing radiation dose to humans. Radon, a known carcinogen, may be found indoors, including in homes, workplaces, mines, and caves. Prolonged exposure to high concentrations of radon and its progeny via inhalation may result in adverse health effects, including respiratory diseases and lifetime risk of developing cancers. The recommended radon concentration by the World Health Organization and the International Commission for Radiation Protection is 100 and 200 Bq/m 3 . The following chapter provides comprehensive coverage on chemistry, safety levels, detection methods, prevention and mitigation actions, and health risks of radon
Extractive text summarization of online scientific articles for digital library repository
Get PDFIn a scientific community including researchers and students who are
dedicated in reading, experimenting and writing ideas to the research world, they must
refer to a significant number of articles on a daily basis. Digital libraries play a key role
in supplementing scientific articles within online platforms. Due to the much abundance
quantities of such articles presented in various platforms, the searching process tends
toward time consuming, and identifying much related resources among them becomes
again difficult. On the other hand, the majority of the scientific articles are available on
a subscription-based and the online archives show only a document abstract but users
necessitate extra material to determine if the article is extremely relevant or not, even
if it merely provides a quick description. Therefore, this work aims to introduce an
alternative approach to simplify the searching and sorting of the scientific articles for a
digital library where a short subunit of sentences of the subscribed articles will be
provided before purchasing it. To find a best algorithm for the process of summarisation
of scientific articles within a short time and provide a good comprehension of the
scientific document are to be investigated. Summaries from the publicly available
SumPubMed dataset of scientific articles are evaluated using supervised and
unsupervised approaches and manual summaries from them are compared. Text Rank
algorithm performed better than the TF-IDF and K-Means algorithms, and the system
achieved a better result when increasing the content size of the article
Echidnophaga gallinacea (Stickt tight fleas) infestation in backyard poultry: a case report
Get PDFFive 24-months-old backyard chickens in a flock of 30 birds from Pottuvil were
brought to the Veterinary Investigation Centre in Ampara with a history of restlessness
and anorexia. Clinical examination revealed the gregarious aggregation of fleas around
the eyes, comb and wattle, which resulted in partially closed eyes as well as ulcerations
around the eyes. The fleas were collected from the wattle and around the eyes. The
samples were sent to the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Sciences,
University of Peradeniya for the detailed examination. The fleas were identified as
Echidnophaga gallinacea depends on the morphological characters. The birds were
treated with manual removal of fleas combined with topical Malathion dusting. To
avoid infestation, the entire flock of backyard chickens were sprayed with Amitraz
12.5% solution (12.5%, 2 ml in 1 liters of water). The farmer was advised to burn the
infested organic material in the farm premises and also recommended to use wire cages
at least 3 feet above the ground to minimize chances of flea infestation. Subsequent
recheck examinations did not reveal any fleas on the affected birds or on any of the
other birds housed in the same farm
Intention of continuous use of zoom for e-learning ‘with special reference to management undergraduates’ of south eastern university of Sri Lanka
No full textThe COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on people's lives, altering
how they work, live, play, and study. Due to infection concerns, classroom
instruction was discontinued throughout this pandemic. As a result, e-learning has
grown in importance as a means for educational institutions to carry on with their
teaching and learning operations. Only a few empirical research have examined the
variables influencing students' intentions to use Zoom for online learning
consistently. The purpose of this study is to determine the factors that affect
management undergraduates' desire to continuously use Zoom applications for elearning at South Eastern University of Sri Lanka's Faculty of Management and
Commerce. This study is quantitative, and data from a sample of 300
undergraduates from the Faculty of Management and Commerce at South Eastern
University of Sri Lanka were gathered via a self-administered questionnaire
survey. Around 2400 students from various faculty departments make up the
population. A total of 300 responses to the 331 questionnaires were delivered to
the students via Whatsapp and used for this study. The necessary statistical analysis
was completed using SPSS and the data was imported from the Google form that
was used to collect the data.
Performance expectancy, hedonic motivation, work-life quality, and access to the
internet all significantly contributed to the explanation of the intention to continue
using the Zoom application for e-learning. Effort expectancy significantly
decreased the likelihood that people would continue using the Zoom program for
e-learning. The findings showed that the most significant element influencing
management undergraduates' intention to continuously use Zoom applications for
e-learning was hedonic motivation. Additionally, the explanation of the intention
to continue using the Zoom program for e-learning was positively and significantly
influenced by performance anticipation, hedonic motivation, work-life quality, and
access to the internet. However, effort expectations made a significant, but
negative, contribution to the justification of the decision to keep utilizing the Zoom
e-learning program. The study's conclusions offer crucial recommendations for
decision-makers, designers, developers, and researchers, enabling them to better
understand the primary elements influencing the decision to continue using Zoom
for e-learning during the pandemic. Since there is a lack of knowledge on the
crucial issues and components that influence the student's continuous intention to
use e-learning systems during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, universities and
higher educational institutions that implement e-learning for conducting academic
activities continuously face a significant problem in identifying the factors
influencing the intention for continuous use of the system. To fill current theoretical and empirical research gaps, this study examines undergraduates'
ongoing intent to use Zoom for online learning activities while also adding to the
body of knowledge
Cult of Shiradi Sai baba in cultural domain of Jaffna: cultural inquiry on religion and worship
Get PDFReligion and its associated worship traditions are one of the creations
of human culture. Renowned anthropologist, E.B. Tylor defined religion as belief in
spiritual beings. Numerous religious traditions have been originated in different
periods of the world history and have being spread among the people. The South
Asia is an origin center of foremost religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism
and Sikhism in the world. It could be observed in the religious history of South Asia
that new religious cult are being formed through the religious syncretism process during
the various historical periods of the region. In this context, this present study attempts
to make a cultural inquiry on Shiradi Sai Baba cult which is popularizing worship
tradition among people of India and Sri Lanka. The worship of Shiradi Sai Baba,
which is emerging as a unique religious tradition in predominantly line with the Hindu
religious tradition in Jaffna, creates a space for getting new religious experiences
among the Hindu devotees. The objectives of this study is to analyze the unique
features of the Shiradi Sai Baba cult and its socio-cultural importance in the Jaffna
cultural domain and discuss the religious and social factors behind its dynamics. This
study is based on the ethnographic method which is principal approach in the study
of culture. The primary data for this study were collected through the fieldwork
conducted in Shiradi Sai Baba shrines in Jaffna. Sai Mandri, one of the Shiradi Sai
Baba worship centers located at Navalar Road, Nallur has been selected as a sample
study center for this study. A person born in an Islamic family of Shiradi village,
Maharashtra State in India has been deified as a popular deity and worshiped in India
and Sri Lanka. The devotees can directly involved in this worship practice in various
manners, though it is associated with Hindu worship. This Shiradi Sai Baba worships
led to leaving the traditional Hindu cultural manners specially the concepts of purity
and impurity in ritual matters, and to a new state of worship patterns. Definitions
related to the sanctity of religion in the Hindu cultural tradition have been followed
very flexibly in the worship tradition of Sri Sai Baba. However, this study reveals that
the worship of Shiradi Sai Baba, which is very much in tune with the Hindu cults, is
making new changes in the religious beliefs and practices of the youth in Jaffna
Forecasting of energy consumption in an industrial firm using statistical and machine learning models
Get PDFManufacturing industry is a key contributor to the economy.
These manufacturing firms are high energy consumers and currently facing
challenges in their energy demand due to scarcity, cost, subsequent
environmental impact on heavy consumption, social and consumer pressure
for carbon footprint of consumer goods and industry specific global
compliances and regulations. Then an accurate short-term forecast of
energy consumption is a must to maintain optimal supply and usage while
minimizing negative concerns against higher consumption. This will enable
a smooth operation with a minimum risk on energy related inventories.
Electricity, biomass, furnace oil and diesel are the main energy sources in
industry. In current context, studies are conducting on electricity
consumption in industries, buildings, and residential boundaries. However,
predictions on total energy consumption on manufacturing firms are not
frequently studied. Both conventional statistical models and deep learning
models are widely used for this task. In this exercise, a manufacturing entity
has been selected to predict its forthcoming month’s energy consumption
using historical energy consumption and manufacturing figures. Existing
literature related to energy consumption prediction suggested, four models
to predict energy consumptions. Fb prophet, vector auto regression, Long
Sort Term Memory (LSTM) and Auto Regressive Integrated Moving Average
(ARIMA) models were taken to make predictions for energy consumption in
terms of electricity and biomass. Performance of each models were
compared using root mean squared error, mean absolute error and mean
percentage absolute error. LSTM outperformed over all other models for both
types of energies and the same model was selected to predict monthly
energy consumption of selected entity
The impact of social brand activism in advertising on the perceived brand attitude of millennials & generation z consumers concerning cosmetics brands in Sri Lanka
Get PDFPurpose: In recent years, there has been a growing trend of brand activism, where
companies use their platforms and resources to advocate for social and
environmental causes in addition to their traditional business objectives.
Therefore, this study aims to examine the impact of social brand activism in
advertising on the perceived brand attitude of millennials and generation Z
consumers concerning cosmetics brands in Sri Lanka.
Design/methodology/approach: For the proposed model of this study, social
brand activism in advertising is employed as an independent variable, including
dimensions: information credibility, celebrity trustworthiness, perceived
argument quality, issue involvement, perceived authenticity, and brand cause fit,
while perceived brand attitude is the dependent variable. Mainly, 150 young
consumers of respective brands, are randomly selected, representing the whole
population of generation Z and millennials consumers in Sri Lanka. A selfadministrated questionnaire is distributed, and responses are tested using SPSS
version 25. The study used a quantitative research approach, with descriptive
statistics, Karl Pearson's correlation analysis, and regression analysis utilized to
examine the data.
Findings: The study's findings emphasized that Social Brand Activism in
Advertising significantly impacts the perceived brand attitude. Moreover, it has
been concluded that all six dimensions of social brand activism significantly and
positively impacted the perceived brand attitude.
Practical implications: The study concluded that if corporations utilize social
brand activism efforts to influence young customers' positive brand attitudes
about cosmetics products in Sri Lanka, the efforts will be a success.
Research limitations: The results should be interpreted with caution due to
several limitations such as the small sample size, the narrow focus on cosmetics,
the use of self-administered questionnaires, and longer data collection due to
Covid-19.Originality value: The findings of this research study will support brand
managers, policymakers, and advertisers to be more concerned when they address
social issues through their marketing campaigns and other kinds of social moves