Unveiling the Impact of Project Governance on Performance of Public Sector Development Projects in Sri Lanka

The governance of public sector development projects has become an increasingly complex theme in the diverse nature of managing stakeholders, structuring project formation and development, planning, monitoring, and surveillance, and their expectations. Thus, stakeholders’ interests should be addressed by the governments. The main objective of this research is to investigate project governance and its basics, for the application in the Sri Lankan public sector development projects to increase project performance in terms of public sector growth and sustainability. Funding agencies, policymakers, government regulators, and other associated partners attempt to support smooth project execution and accomplish the desired project outputs and outcomes by emphasizing the importance of project governance.The study conducts a literature review on project governance to bridge a knowledgegap in investigating the function of project governance and the efficiency of the Sri Lankan public sector development projects. It employs a qualitative research approach and reviews the related literature including scholarly journal articles. The findings indicate that project governance must be practiced achieving project objectives related to optimal economic and social benefits for the country's accelerative development plan and from the standpoint of the government, project governance and performance serve as cornerstones of a development plan. Finally, this study comprehensively examines the roles and practical implementation of project governance within Sri Lankan projects, providing invaluable insights and recommendations for enhancing project performance, fostering growth, and ensuring sustainability within the public sector. Keywords: Development Projects, Performance, Project Governance, Public Sector, Sri Lank

Impact of emotional intelligence on transformational leadership of academic heads of state universities in eastern province of Sri Lanka

Emotional intelligence has developed gradually popular as a measure for discovering possibly effective leaders, and as an instrument for developing effective leadership skills. Regardless of this popularity, however, there is little experimental research that confirms the usefulness of emotional intelligence in these areas. The aim of this paper is to discover the connection between emotional intelligence and transformational leadership. The research population consisted of 117 academic heads who are employed in state universities in Eastern province of Sri Lanka. Since the population size was small, total population sampling method was used. . Data gathering was done by using self-administered questionnaire. The study aimed to 117 respondents from which 98 respondents were realized and recorded around 82% of response rate. The correlation between emotional intelligence and transformational leadership was investigated in this study of academic heads. The results showed that there is a strong positive correlation (r= 0.717) between EI and TL which was significant at 0.01 level. The result of simple regression study revealed that, R square and adjusted R square values exposed as 0.514 and 0.509 respectively, states around 51% of the variations on transformational leadership explain by the emotional intelligence. Further researchers can reproduce this study with a large number of sample sizes by concerning other provinces of Sri Lanka and covering both private and public universities. Further, this study imply that proper strategies should be formulated by the universities in order to enhance, emotional intelligence level and to advance the leader‟s abilities and skills in the day-to-day contacts with all subordinates

Staphylococcus aureus lipoteichoic acid inhibits platelet activation and thrombus formation via the Paf receptor

Impaired healing is common in wounds infected with the major human pathogen Staphylococcus aureus, although the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. Here, we show that S.aureus lipoteichoic acid (LTA) inhibits platelet aggregation caused by physiological agonists and S. aureus and reduced platelet thrombus formation in vitro. The presence of D-alanine on LTA is necessary for the full inhibitory effect. Inhibition of aggregation was blocked using a monoclonal anti-platelet activating factor receptor (PafR) antibody and Ginkgolide B, a well-defined PafR antagonist, demonstrating that the LTA inhibitory signal occurs via PafR. Using a cyclic AMP (cAMP) assay and a western blot for phosphorylated VASP, we determined that cAMP levels increase upon platelet incubation with LTA, an effect which inhibits platelet activation. This was blocked when platelets were preincubated with Ginkgolide B. Furthermore, LTA reduced haemostasis in a mouse tail-bleed assay

Bacillus anthracis Peptidoglycan Stimulates an Inflammatory Response in Monocytes through the p38 Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase Pathway

We hypothesized that the peptidoglycan component of B. anthracis may play a critical role in morbidity and mortality associated with inhalation anthrax. To explore this issue, we purified the peptidoglycan component of the bacterial cell wall and studied the response of human peripheral blood cells. The purified B. anthracis peptidoglycan was free of non-covalently bound protein but contained a complex set of amino acids probably arising from the stem peptide. The peptidoglycan contained a polysaccharide that was removed by mild acid treatment, and the biological activity remained with the peptidoglycan and not the polysaccharide. The biological activity of the peptidoglycan was sensitive to lysozyme but not other hydrolytic enzymes, showing that the activity resides in the peptidoglycan component and not bacterial DNA, RNA or protein. B. anthracis peptidoglycan stimulated monocytes to produce primarily TNFα; neutrophils and lymphocytes did not respond. Peptidoglycan stimulated monocyte p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase and p38 activity was required for TNFα production by the cells. We conclude that peptidoglycan in B. anthracis is biologically active, that it stimulates a proinflammatory response in monocytes, and uses the p38 kinase signal transduction pathway to do so. Given the high bacterial burden in pulmonary anthrax, these findings suggest that the inflammatory events associated with peptidoglycan may play an important role in anthrax pathogenesis

Studies of the cause and mechanism of gram-positive septic shock

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