Liberalisation and political decay : Sri Lanka's journey from welfare state to a brutalised society

economic recession;economic liberalization;Sri Lanka;political conditions

Distortions to Agricultural Incentives in Sri Lanka

Distorted incentives, agricultural and trade policy reforms, national agricultural development, Agricultural and Food Policy, International Relations/Trade, F13, F14, Q17, Q18,

Female parliamentarians and economic growth: evidence from a large panel

This article investigates whether female political representation affects economic growth. Panel estimates for 119 democracies using fixed-effects specifications and a system generalized method of moments approach suggest that, over recent decades, countries with higher shares of women in parliament have had faster growing economies

Characterising refractive index dispersion in chalcogenide glasses

Much effort has been devoted to the study of glasses that contain the chalcogen elements (sulfur, selenium and tellurium) for photonics’ applications out to MIR wavelengths. In this paper we describe some techniques for determining the refractive index dispersion characteristics of these glasses. Knowledge of material dispersion is critical in delivering step-index fibres including with high numerical aperture for mid-infrared supercontinuum generation

Nonperturbative renormalization group approach to frustrated magnets

This article is devoted to the study of the critical properties of classical XY and Heisenberg frustrated magnets in three dimensions. We first analyze the experimental and numerical situations. We show that the unusual behaviors encountered in these systems, typically nonuniversal scaling, are hardly compatible with the hypothesis of a second order phase transition. We then review the various perturbative and early nonperturbative approaches used to investigate these systems. We argue that none of them provides a completely satisfactory description of the three-dimensional critical behavior. We then recall the principles of the nonperturbative approach - the effective average action method - that we have used to investigate the physics of frustrated magnets. First, we recall the treatment of the unfrustrated - O(N) - case with this method. This allows to introduce its technical aspects. Then, we show how this method unables to clarify most of the problems encountered in the previous theoretical descriptions of frustrated magnets. Firstly, we get an explanation of the long-standing mismatch between different perturbative approaches which consists in a nonperturbative mechanism of annihilation of fixed points between two and three dimensions. Secondly, we get a coherent picture of the physics of frustrated magnets in qualitative and (semi-) quantitative agreement with the numerical and experimental results. The central feature that emerges from our approach is the existence of scaling behaviors without fixed or pseudo-fixed point and that relies on a slowing-down of the renormalization group flow in a whole region in the coupling constants space. This phenomenon allows to explain the occurence of generic weak first order behaviors and to understand the absence of universality in the critical behavior of frustrated magnets.Comment: 58 pages, 15 PS figure

Lattice Green functions and diffusion for modelling traffic routing in ad hoc networks

We describe basic properties of Markov chains on finite state spaces and their application to Green functions, partial differential equations, and their (approximate) solution using random walks on a graph. Attention is paid to the influence of boundary conditions (Dirichlet/von Neumann). We apply these ideas to the study of traffic propagation and distribution in ad hoc networks

Highly Cited Works in Animal Clinical Trials: A Scientometric mapping of Research Publications

This paper analyses the 2555 publications with more than 100 citations indexed in Web of Science under research in Animal Clinical Trials. These publications have been received 556159 Citations, written by 13280 authors from 2833 institutes across the world. The most productive countries are: USA is the leading country with 1442 (56.4%), UK with 304 (11.9%), Germany 209 (8.2%), Canada 179(7%), Australia (130), Italy (132), Netherlands (116). It is noted that 13 Countries registered more than 10000 Citations, 23 with more than 5000 Citations, 38 Countries with more than 1000 Citations. The most cited Institutions are: Harvard University is leading with 27478 Citations for 108 publications followed University of California San Diego with 14896 Citations for 46 Publications, University of Pettsburgh with 13746 Citations for 38 Publications, Johns Hopikins University with 12120 Citations for 53 Publications. There are 929 periodicals are preferred and also with high impact. The most cited journals are: Cancer Research published the largest number of the highly cited publications (50 papers, 10620 Citations), followed by Circulation with 9998 Citations for 37 Publications, PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA with 9317 Citations for 32 Publications, Lancet with 9181 Citations, JAMA-JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION with 7547 Citations for 21 Publications and New England Journal of Medicine with 6944 Citations for 11 Publications. The most cited authors are: Ahmad N with 4554 Citations for 4 Publications followed by Kellum JA and Ronco C with 4372 Citations for 2 publications respectively, Altman DG with 4231 Citations for 3 Publications. The most cited one is “Bellomo R, Ronco C, Kellum JA, Mehta RL, Palevsky P (2004). Acute renal failure - definition, outcome measures, animal models, fluid therapy and information technology needs: the Second International Consensus Conference of the Acute Dialysis Quality Initiative (ADQI) Group”, published in CRITICAL CARE with 4181 Citations

Research output on Covid-19/Coronavirus Vaccine: A Scientometric Study

This article presents a Scientometric analysis of Covid-19 Vaccine research Literature indexed by Web of Science. Assessing research activity is important for planning future protective and adaptive policies. The objective of the current study was to assess research activity on Covid-19 Vaccine literature. A Scientometric method was applied using Scopus, Documents on “Covid-19 literature”. The study period was from 1971 to 2020. The search query found 7181 documents in Coronavirus Vaccine literature. The growth of publications showed 4402 in 2020. Documents published in Vaccine journal received the highest number of publications (203) followed by Journal of Virology with 104 Publications, Nature with 96 Publications. The most productive countries are i.e. the United States with 2178 (H-Index-114), Chine with 1068 (H-Index-75, India with 678 (H-Index-26), and the United Kingdom with 614 (H-Index-53)

Assessing the impact of AI on the academic learning of agricultural students

Generative Pre-trained Transformers (GPTs) are transforming agricultural science education by enhancing students\u27 critical thinking, creativity and decision-making skills. However, concerns exist regarding over-reliance and diminished independent analytical thinking. This study investigated the impact of GPT usage among undergraduate and postgraduate students at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University. A structured questionnaire was employed to collect primary data from 164 students (122 GPT users and 42 non-users). The research adopts a descriptive design and utilizes statistical tools such as percentage analysis, Garrett ranking, Relative Importance Index (RII) and exploratory factor analysis to assess the influence of GPTs on cognitive skills. The findings indicate that the GPTs enhance efficiency, creativity and problem-solving, they additionally possess the risk of overreliance, reducing independent analytical thinking. Factor analysis revealed key dimensions, including decision-making enhancement, overreliance on AI and the impact on problem solving of agricultural science students. The study concludes that balanced AI integration is essential for maximizing GPT\u27s advantages while minimizing dependency. Agricultural institutions should promote critical engagement strategies to ensure responsible AI use and foster an optimal AI-human synergy in the academic learning process of agricultural students