CONSTRUCTION OF A PRECISE GROWTH MODEL TO PREDICT THE NDIVIDUAL STEM VOLUME OF Alstonia macrophylla WALL. EX G. DON

In order to reduce the pressure on existing Natural Forests in Sri Lanka,Forest Department promoted growing timber species as plantations and inhome gardens. Among the suggested species Alstonia macrophylla(Hawarinuga) has recently become popular due to its fast growth rate, ease ofestablishment and timber value. There are about 1913 ha extent of Alstoniamacrophylla plantations at the end of the year 1998 maintained by the ForestDepartment of Sri Lanka. However, this figure must be higher than thatbecause many other private organizations are establishing Alstoniamacrophylla plantations in the wet zone in large scale. This species is alsogrown in home gardens, alleys and borders as non-blocks (non-plantations).However, at present there is no method at present for estimating the stemvolume of this species, which is considered as the most important variable incommercial forestry. Therefore a mathematical model was constructed in thisstudy to predict the individual stem volume of Alstonia macrophylla treesgrown in plantations.Since Alstonia macrophylla is widely found in wet zone of Sri Lanka, studysites were selected from Galle (two even-aged plantations from Pituwala andWattehena Beats) districts. The ages of these plantations were 19 and 16respectively. Ten 0.02 ha circular plots with slope correction were randomlylaid out for each plantation, in order to measure the necessary parametersfrom the individual trees. Diameter at breast height (dbh), total height andheight to the crown base of all the trees inside the plots were measured.Newton's formula was used in this research because it is the most accuratemethod. In order to calculate the volume using the Newton's formula, thestem of each tree was hypothetically divided into 4 -5 sections. Then thebottom, mid and top diameters and section lengths were measured usingSpeigal Relascope and Blume Leiss Altimeter respectively. The final sectionof the tree was assumed as a cone and only the bottom diameter and heightwere used in that particular section. The total volume of each section wasestimated by adding the section volumes calculated using Newton's formulato the volume of the final section.First a theoretical model structure was developed using the relationship ofform factor with volume, height and area at the base. Regression analysis wasused to fit the data into the model. Untransformed as well as transformedcombinations of all variables were tested. In this procedure the combinedvariable (basal area * tree height) was always kept as the first explanatoryvariable. After trying with many combinations of selected variables withvolume, final model was selected using its compatibility with the real world,R2 values, and residual distributions, model bias value and modelingefficiency. The selected models at the preliminary stage indicated very highperformance and insignificant bias. In order to select a final one, the abovemodels were validated with a new set of data. The final selected model in thisstudy to predict the individual stem volume with insignificant bias ofAlstonia macrophylla is; --.jv= 0.659 log BA *Ht + 0.00404 ...fer h

Impacts of Meteorological Parameters on the Abundance of Malaria Vector in Batticaloa District, Sri Lanka

Malaria is one of the most widespread Vector-BorneDiseases (VBDs) in the world causing serious losses to the health and economy. Out of many factors, meteorological parameters effects on malaria distribution significantly. Conditions including higher temperature, lower relative humidity and higher wind velocity are found to be affecting on mosquito oviposition, propagation and survival. In Sri Lanka, Batticaloawas considered as one of the malaria endemicdistrictsduring recentpast. Control and effective management in these areas had been difficult due to the lack of reliable data, human resource and the deterioration of the infrastructure caused by years of armed conflict. This study was carried out to identify the relationships exist between different malaria vectors and meteorological parameters in the district of Batticaloa.Entomological surveillance was carried out in three potential malaria sensitive areas (Vakarai, Vakaneri and Mandur) with a radius of 20km in the district of Batticaloa from April 2013 to July 2014. Adult mosquito samples were collected monthly by WHO standard method; Cattle Baited Net Collection (CBNT). Monthly meteorological parameters (T: mean temperature, RF: total rainfall, WS: wind speed and RH: Relative humidity) during the study period were also collected from the Department of Meteorology. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 15.0. Pearson’s correlation coefficients (r) at 0.05 probability were used to investigate the relationships among meteorological variables of the current month along with lag time period of two months and vector densities. The most dominant mosquito species in the area was An. subpictuswith a relative abundance of 31.56% while An. nigerrimuswas the second highest (21.22%). Significant relationships were only observed with RH and WS where, An. nigerrimus showed a negative moderate relationship (r=0.372; p=0.03) while An. subpictus showed a positive relationship (r= 0.375; p=0.029) with RH. In addition, An. subpictusalsoshowed a negative relationship with one month lagged time of WS. The findings of the study reveal that the relationships that exist between the vector and the meteorological parameters are complicated and unpredictable. Neither patterns nor consistencies were observed in these relationships. The adaptation of vector and the influence of other environmental and anthropological factors on the vector mosquito could be the reason for this behaviour.Keywords:Malaria, Vector, Abundance, Relative humidity, Wind spee

Identifying False Content and Hate Speech in Sinhala YouTube Videos by Analyzing the Audio

YouTube faces a global crisis with the dissemination of false information and hate speech. To counter these issues, YouTube has implemented strict rules against uploading content that includes false information or promotes hate speech. While numerous studies have been conducted to reduce offensive English-language content, there's a significant lack of research on Sinhala content. This study aims to address the aforementioned gap by proposing a solution to minimize the spread of violence and misinformation in Sinhala YouTube videos. The approach involves developing a rating system that assesses whether a video contains false information by comparing the title and description with the audio content and evaluating whether the video includes hate speech. The methodology encompasses several steps, including audio extraction using the Pytube library, audio transcription via the fine-tuned Whisper model, hate speech detection employing the distilroberta-base model and a text classification LSTM model, and text summarization through the fine-tuned BART-Large- XSUM model. Notably, the Whisper model achieved a 48.99\% word error rate, while the distilroberta-base model demonstrated an F1 score of 0.856 and a recall value of 0.861 in comparison to the LSTM model, which exhibited signs of overfitting

SEED GERMINATION OF MASBEDDA (Gymnema sylvestre), A RARE MEDICINAL PLANT AS AFFECTED BY pH AND ORGANIC SOLVENTS

The use of plants in treating diseases can be traced to the remote past. However due tolack of organized and scientific cultivation, proper management and awareness of socialfactors, the number of these medicinal plants is decreasing at an alarming rate. Gymnemasylvestre is one of rare medicinal plant species, which has high demand in the market.Since, little information is available on germination dynamics of Gymnema seeds, thepresent investigation was carried out to study the effect of pH and organic solvents ongermination of Gymnema sylvestre seedsFresh seeds taken from the plant were used for the experiment. Five pH solutions (i.e.4,6,7,8 andlO) were used to moist the filter papers in petri dishes, which contained seeds.A separate experiment was carried out to study the effect of organic solvents (i.e.Ethanol, Ether, Xylene, and Acetone) on germination following same procedure withusing distilled water as a control. eRD was used in both experiments with 20 replicateseach containing lO seedsResults showed that significantly (p<0.05) higher germination of seeds (56% and 52%) atpH 4 and 6 respectively, whereas the lowest germination (36%) showed at pH 10. Thehighest germination (62%) was recorded from the seeds treated with distilled water,followed by Xylene (42%) and Ether (39%). A significantly (p<O.05) lower germinationwas showed in Acetone (10%) and Ethanol (6%). According to the findings of theexperiment it can be concluded that slightly acidic media would be the best pH for thegermination of Gymnema sylvestre seeds, whereas the organic solutions showed negativeeffects.

Proteomics of Buccal Cavity Mucus in Female Tilapia Fish (Oreochromis spp.): A Comparison between Parental and Non-Parental Fish

Mouthbrooding is an elaborate form of parental care displayed by many teleost species. While the direct benefits of mouthbrooding such as protection and transportation of offsprings are known, it is unclear if mouthbrooding offers additional benefits to embryos during incubation. In addition, mouthbrooding could incur negative costs on parental fish, due to limited feeding opportunities. Parental tilapia fish (Oreochromis spp.) display an elaborated form of parental care by incubating newly hatched embryos in oral buccal cavity until the complete adsorption of yolk sac. In order to understand the functional aspects of mouthbrooding, we undertake a proteomics approach to compare oral mucus sampled from mouthbrooders and non-mouthbrooders, respectively. Majority of the identified proteins have also been previously identified in other biological fluids or mucus-rich organs in different organisms. We also showed the upregulation of 22 proteins and down regulation of 3 proteins in mucus collected from mouthbrooders. Anterior gradient protein, hemoglobin beta-A chain and alpha-2 globin levels were lower in mouthbrooder samples. Mouthbrooder oral mucus collectively showed increase levels of proteins related to cytoskeletal properties, glycolytic pathway and mediation of oxidative stress. Overall the findings suggest cellular stress response, probably to support production of mucus during mouthbrooding phase

On rare Cetacean species off Sri Lanka, including the killer whale Orcinus orca (Linn.) (Delphinidae: Cetacea)

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Therapeutic compounds

This invention relates to novel structural analogues and derivatives of compounds with general analgesic or related pharmacological activity. In particular the invention relates to derivatives of opioid compounds, particularly morphine and related compounds, in which an opioid compound is linked via the nitrogen at position 17 to a space group, which in turn is linked to a charged group, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof. In particularly preferred embodiments the opioid compound is morphine, codeine, or buprenorphine