The Open University of Sri Lanka

The elderly and disabled population in Sri Lanka has been growing for a while. Some people include the country’s protracted conflict, traffic accidents, a low labor force, and tiny family structures. As a result, caregivers must provide physical and mental aid to the elderly and people with disabilities. The demand for caregivers will worsen as a result of these hectic lives. In the future, this service robot may be utilized to address this issue. Most of the researchers work to create various types of service robots, particularly with voice recognition, facial recognition, etc., to replace caregivers. However, they could be more effective for those who are disabled. In order to care for people based on their gait, a new way is needed to recognize emotional experiences. As a result, research efforts are concentrated on creating an interactive service robot eye that can recognize and display emotions based on human movements. Acknowledging and understanding people’s emotions and assisting them in adequately expressing and managing them, identifying emotional recognition and expression seek to comprehend and enhance people’s emotional well-being. These people enable the development of systems and apps that support emotional understanding and improve mental health and well-being. This chapter explains how people’s well-being influences emotional recognition. It investigates if a single physiological signal may improve the current approach to emotional recognition. There is still a great deal of emotional strain present, far more than Sri Lankans deem healthy. According to studies, time management may seriously impair people’s ability to improve their health. Increased health awareness is correlated with better emotional and physical health and emotional recognition. An experiment was carried out in the selected residential setting with several users to test the effectiveness of the created intelligent system. During set up, several items are put in the nearby area. By removing several unnecessary factors, the robot eye could correctly discern human emotions during robot eye implementation, according to the experiment’s results. By using additional datasets, it is possible to establish the fundamental behavior of the robot eye with high precision and under various lighting situations.

This qualitative study examined the role of different languages used in the country in the lives of 12 participants from the four main ethnic groups of Sri Lanka (i.e., Sinhalese, Tamil, Muslim, and Burgher). It sought to understand how monolingual language policies have impacted upon the country's plurilingual language ecology. The study examined the language ideologies of participants to understand how structures of social power have worked through monolingual language policies to influence and shape their language behaviors and practices. While the impact that language policies have had on different Sri Lankan languages has been examined, no study has analyzed it through the point of view of language ideologies of actual speakers of different languages. The observations made by the participants show that the monolingual ideologies of the language policies of 1832 and 1956, by assigning sole official language status to English and Sinhala respectively, have caused them to gain dominance and diminished the status of other languages, thereby altering the plurilingual language ecology of Sri Lanka. Their observations also showed how the 1956 policy's establishment of Sinhala as the dominant language within the language ecology of the country had elevated the position of the majority community—the Sinhalese, and strengthened the power of the then government which had ridden into power through the Sinhalese majority vote. The analysis of data also indicated that, although the 1956 policy was implemented with the aim of dismantling the structures of power introduced during colonial rule, both policies have served to support and reinforce a social hierarchy based on a Western model. What the data revealed about the role that the two monolingual language policies of 1832 and 1956 seem to have played in establishing and reinforcing the dominance of Sinhala and English respectively, suggest that although political subjugation of the country by European powers has officially ended, Sri Lanka continues to operate within the structures of power established during colonial times.

Temperature dependence of ionic conductivity of three different compositions of the Mg(BH4)2:polyethylene oxide (PEO):propylene carbonate (PC) polymer gel electrolyte with Mg(BH4)2:PEO molar ratios of 1:8, 1:10, and 1:12 was studied. The composition with Mg(BH4)2:PEO = 1:10 exhibited the highest ionic conductivity of 7.60 × 10−6 S cm−1 at 30 °C. The effect of TiO2 nanofiller on ionic conductivity enhancement was studied for Mg(BH4)2:PEO:PC:TiO2 polymer gel electrolyte by varying the TiO2 weight ratio from 0 to 12.5 wt.%. The highest ionic conductivity of 17.95 × 10−6 S cm−1 at 30 °C was exhibited by the electrolyte composition with 10 wt% of TiO2 nanofiller. The optimized electrolytes had a Mg++ cationic transference number of 0.22 for the filler free electrolyte and 0.30 for the TiO2 10wt% filler incorporated electrolyte. Both electrolytes had negligible electronic conductivity. A more than two-fold increase in the ionic conductivity and a 30% increase in Mg++ ion transference number can be attributed to the nanofiller effect caused by TiO2. This preliminary study shows the possibility of developing this PEO-based polymer gel electrolyte to be used in rechargeable Mg ion batteries.

The structural and surface morphological features and their influence on electrical and wetting characteristics against liquid petroleum gas (LPG) sensing of synthesized nanostructured cuprous oxide (Cu 2 O) thin films grown by electrochemical deposition (ECD) on indium tin oxide (ITO) glass substrates in lactate bath (pH 10) were investigated. p-Cu 2 O films revealed a cubical-tetrahedron nano-scale polycrystalline grain distribution (average grain size: 64.2 nm, interplaner spacing: 0.24 nm) that exhibited dominance in the crystallographic plane (111). LPG sensing evaluations of p-Cu 2 O/ITO done at 70°C constant temperature with 100% LPG at 5 cc/min flow rate, showed excellent gas sensor response, recovery, and stability over time due to its moderate wetting behavior (average contact angle: ~86°). AC impedance measurements carried out at room temperature demonstrated an ionic to electronic conduction variation from 100 Hz to 1 MHz, due to adsorption/desorption of LPG molecules (C n H 2n+2 ) and oxygen species on the nano-particles surface. Cu 2 O/ITO flat band potential was found to be higher than its’ ambient state after exposure to LPG with an increment in acceptor density. Overall, this efficient LPG sensing could be attributed to the interfacial properties of Cu 2 O thin films and ITO substrates, that provide optimized fabrication process of nano-structured Cu 2 O thin films.

Potato is a major global crop and transmission of tuber borne diseases is a major cause of yield reduction in potato cultivation. The potato tuber harbors an array of undescribed microorganisms which may include pathogens of quarantine importance. Therefore, many countries follow stringent quarantine regulations to prevent the entry of pests with the imported potato seed stocks. In this study, 16S rDNA-based meta-genomic analyses was carried out to detect the microbial pathogens and to characterize the bacterial diversity associated with the potato seed tuber consignments imported to Sri Lanka for cultivation purposes. DNA extracted from the potato tubers were sequenced by using Ion Torrent Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technology and meta-genomic studies were performed by amplifying a ~ 400 bp V1-V2 hypervariable region of the prokaryotic 16S rRNA gene. The computational steps required to analyze the NGS data of 16S rDNA were carried out by using the MG-RAST online pipeline which implements workflows for sequence alignment with the SILVA SSU ribosomal RNA database. The sequence analysis profiled all available bacteria within each sample. Bacteria representing Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes , Cyanobacteria , Planctomycetaceae and Sphirochaetales phyla were detected in varying abundances. PCR with the species specific primers and sequencing confirmed the presence of Ralstonia solanacearum , Pectobacterium caratovorum , Streptomyces scabies and Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae which are pathogens of quarantine importance.

The economic crisis in Sri Lanka has significantly impacted the country's education system, with schools facing challenges in maintaining regular operations and providing quality education to students. This study examined the strategies employed by school principals to ensure teaching and learning amid the crisis. Twelve school principals were interviewed, representing 7 Sinhala medium and 5 Tamil medium schools. The findings highlighted the following challenges schools face: low attendance of students and teachers, learning loss, disruption of remote learning activities, malnutrition among students and psychological issues among students, teachers, and parents. Despite these challenges, the study found that school principals worked hard to ensure that teaching and learning continued during the economic crisis. They had implemented several strategies to address their challenges, including flexible attendance policies, temporary accommodation for teachers who travel far from school, and sharing meals with poor students. The study concludes that school principals have played a critical role in ensuring that teaching and learning continued during the economic crisis in Sri Lanka. Their strategies have helped mitigate the crisis's impact on students and teachers, but more support is needed from the government. The study recommends that the government should consider to provide the following support to schools: increasing public transport at low cost for the students and teachers for regular attendance; resuming Nutrition support for students; increasing salaries for teachers; Strengthening remote learning initiatives by reducing the price of digital devices and expanding internet access; providing psychological support for students and teachers; and prioritization of timely; and Long-term planning to build resilience in the education system. By implementing these recommendations, the government can help ensure that the education system in Sri Lanka can withstand future economic shocks.

Researchers have long recognized the significance of creative thinking in equipping students with the necessary skills for success in the contemporary world. However, the current approach to teaching drama in Sri Lanka has been deemed obsolete, failing to adequately prepare students to thrive in the globalized era. In response to this concern, a non-randomized control group study was undertaken to investigate the impact of process drama techniques on creativity within secondary school settings. Notably, two teachers from the intervention group were actively engaged in the study and later interviewed to gain deeper insights into their perceptions of employing process drama techniques instead of conventional methods. This article delves into the myriad ways in which drama teachers' pedagogical strategies can effectively enhance creative thinking in their students. Moreover, the study's results offer valuable implications for developing targeted professional learning opportunities for teachers, aiming to foster a comprehensive understanding of creativity and its practical application within the classroom environment. By embracing innovative and experiential approaches like process drama techniques, educators can empower their students to cultivate imaginative thinking, problem-solving abilities, and adaptability - essential skills for navigating the complexities of the modern world.

This study tried to find out the levels of motivation and engagement among early adolescents. Motivation and Engagement Scale-Junior School (MES-JS) was employed to collect data and the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was employed to measure the construct validity of the scale in relation to two low socio-economic districts. But it did not give a robust factor solution. Then, it was decided to conduct exploratory factor analysis (EFA). This paper aimed to investigate the EFA procedures conducted to derive a robust factor solution. MES-JS was administered among 100 Sinhala and 100 Tamil-medium eighth grade students (50 students from each gender) selected through the stratified random sampling method. Schools were represented by type 2 government schools which have the lowest achievement rates located in the Monaragala and Nuwara Eliya districts in Sri Lanka because they represented low socio-economic districts in Sri Lanka. The stratum used to select the students was based on the students’ ethnicity, gender, and the number of classes in Grade 8 in each school. This study used the PCA method of extraction to determine the final factor solution. The method used was the scree test in combination with eigenvalues to decide the number of factors to retain. The EFA analyses derived four factors in relation to early adolescents’ motivation and engagement in learning in two low socio-economic Sri Lankan districts. With an accurate and useful description of the underlying construct and with the theoretical meaning of the items in those factors, factors were named as “Failure Avoidance and Anxiety” (FAA), “Positive Motivation” (PM), “Uncertain Control” (UC), and “Positive Engagement” (PE). Further analyses should be employed using these newly derived factors to identify low socio-economic Sri Lankan early adolescents’ motivation and engagement in learning. Accordingly, those identified four factors will contribute to understand of motivation and engagement among early adolescents in low socio-economic districts as those were derived considering the characteristics of those students through the EFA.

This paper addresses a gap in literary research in the scholarship on Leonard Woolf’s The Village in the Jungle: a lack of demonstrated understanding on the part of major critics as to what constitutes a village-jungle in the early-20th-century Ceylonese context and, as a result, misunderstanding of the novel’s main characters and events. By drawing on comparative and indigenous sources by writers like R.L. Spittel and Mayaran- jan, the paper calls attention to narratives on forest-life as representing a sensibility that is experientially derived; this – in contrast to the claims of Woolf’s critics – brings on a sensibility that lies beyond simplistic claims to “orientalism” and endorsement of colonial views. The discussion centrally draws on the significance of comparative local sources in framing insights to forest life in Ceylon, as the absence of such comparisons hinders the understanding of a novel like The Village in the Jungle to the point of producing readings that prove incomplete and even misleading.

Key Clinical Message Confusion of drug names has been identified as a leading cause of medication errors and potential iatrogenic harm. Most of these errors occur because of look‐alike or sound‐alike drugs. This case series gives examples of duplication errors due to brand confusion, where there are no similarities in the names.

This article concludes the interprofessional education series published by the Centre for the Advancement of Interprofessional Education Research Subgroup, and considers the lessons that can be learned from experiences of emergency remote teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic. Consideration is given to the practicalities of emergency remote teaching, including its preparation, delivery and proposed outcomes of using online platforms for interprofessional education. The article is written as a guide for others to draw on and includes considerations for future delivery and sustainability of interprofessional education in midwifery practice and other fields of health and social care.

Polydeoxyribonucleotide (PDRN) is an accelerated diabetic wound healing therapy with promising abilities to promote cell growth, angiogenesis, collagen synthesis, and reduce inflammation where its sustainable delivery and release behavior is critical to ensure effective wound healing properties. Therefore, a nanopolyplex was developed here, by encapsulating PDRN with chitosan to affirm its delivery systematically. The physicochemical characterization revealed its successful encapsulation which facilitates the gradual release of PDRN. In vitro studies of the polyplex demonstrated no cytotoxicity and enhanced cell proliferation and migration properties with high antimicrobial activities. In vivo, wound healing studies in Wistar rats dorsal skin defect model induced with diabetes mellitus affirm the highest wound healing activity and wound closure rate by chitosan/PDRN polyplex treatment. Considerably high histopathological changes such as epithelialization, collagen deposition, blood vessels, and hair follicle formation were observed under the polyplex treatment. The immunohistochemical analysis for platelet endothelial cell adhesion molecule (CD31) and cluster of differentiation (CD68) revealed the ability of polyplex to increase CD31 expression and decrease CD68 expression thereby promoting the wound healing process. Collectively, these results suggest that significantly accelerated, high-quality wound healing effects could be obtained by the developed chitosan/PDRN polyplex and thus it could be introduced as a potential therapeutic product for diabetic wound healing.

Beira Lake, in the heart of Colombo City in Sri Lanka, is a prominent landmark, serving a variety of important services such as flood control, and providing habitat and nesting grounds for the city’s wildlife. During the past decades, Beira Lake has become highly polluted due to anthropogenic activities. The majority of the past restoration attempts failed, revealing a lack of understanding of the pollutant intricacies. The objective of this study is to investigate the trophic status of all four basins of the lake to investigate the pollution status. Thirty-nine sampling locations were randomly selected based on a 100 × 100 m grid covering the entire lake for water quality sampling. Water quality index (WQI) and trophic level index (TLI) were calculated to further investigate the pollution scenarios. WQI, total nitrogen, total phosphorous, Secchi depth, and Chlorophyll-a were considered to calculate the TLI of the lake. As per the WQI, more than 93% of the lake’s surface area is in poor condition. The TLI reveals the hypereutrophic status of the lake water. According to principal component analysis, eutrophication and algal bloom index observed can be due to the heavy anthropogenic activities and land use patterns around the catchment indicating a high possibility of untreated effluent entering the lake through the active inlets. The effluent entering the lake should be managed immediately to prevent further deterioration of the entire lake. Immediate restoration of the lake is recommended, as the hypereutrophic state may lead to irreversible an imbalance in the lake ecosystem.

Electrochromic devices based on nanofiber membrane gel electrolytes offer several advantages over polymer gel electrolytes. Many advantages such as high chemical stability, easy handling, less leakage, wide working temperature range, and long cycle life show high compatibility of nanofiber membrane electrolytes in different electrochemical power devices. In this work, we have succeeded in replacing the liquid electrolyte, with a nanofibre membrane-based gel electrolyte prepared by the electrospinning method and applied in Electrochromic Devices (ECD). Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) dissolved in N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) was used as the electrospinning solution. PAN-based nanofibres were deposited on a spin-coated SnO 2 layer, prepared on Fluorine-doped Tin Oxide (FTO) glass substrate. The electrospinning time was changed to obtain the different thicknesses of the fiber mat. Gel-type membrane electrolyte was prepared by soaking the nanofibre membrane electrode in the 1M LiClO 4 in PC solution. TiO 2 electrochromic electrode was prepared by the “doctor blade” method. ECDs were fabricated with the configuration of FTO glass/TiO 2 /PAN-based nanofibre membrane gel polymer electrolyte /SnO 2 /FTO glass by sandwiching the two electrodes. Electrochromic performances of ECDs fabricated with nanofibre membrane electrolyte were compared with ECDs fabricated with liquid electrolyte (1 M LiClO 4 in PC) and PAN gel electrolyte (PC (0.4g) + EC (0.4 g) + LiClO 4 (0.03 g) + PAN). ECDs with nanofibre membrane electrolytes showed the highest transmittance variation of 33.40% in the visible region while identical ECD based on corresponding liquid electrolytes showed a transmittance variation of 35.95%.

Leea indica (Burm. f.) Merr. (Vitaceae) is used for the treatment of wounds in traditional medicine practiced in Sri Lanka. The current study is carried out to investigate its wound healing potential in terms of in vitro cell migration and proangiogenic activity. The scratch wound assay (SWA) guided fractionation of dichloromethane extract of L. indica led to the isolation of a rare phytosterol, stigmast-5-en-3β,7α,22α-triol (1), betulin (2), lupeol (3), and β-sitosterol (4) all of which showed enhanced cell migration in SWA and significant proangiogenic response in chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) assay. The identities of compounds 1-4 were established by the analysis of NMR spectroscopic data and comparison with those reported. This is the first report of the occurrence of compounds 1 and 2 in L. indica.

Plastic and polythene are useful innovations and are used for many products ranging from paper clips to spaceships due to their cost effectiveness, versatility, ease of production, and water resistant. However, the misuse and improper disposal of plastic and polythene create serious environmental, health, social, and financial issues. Thus, it is important to adhere to responsible disposal methods. The present study focused on the magnitude of usage, disposal methods, public awareness, and perception toward household polythene and plastic usage and disposal methods. A total of 150 respondents were selected using the cluster sampling technique in the Kuruwita Pradeshiya Sabha, Ratnapura, Sri Lanka. The data were collected through face-to-face and online interviews. The weights of the collected wastes were measured through a handheld digital scale. The findings of the study revealed that the majority of the respondents use polythene and plastic products and 83.33% of the respondents use these for their daily life due to the lack of alternatives and easy availability. The majority of the respondents mentioned the use of separate bags for shopping made out of eco-friendly materials. Shopping in supermarkets has been a reason to increase the usage of polythene and plastic. HDPE, PET, and LDPE were the most commonly-used plastics types and among which HDPE was the highest (24%) in the study area. Findings further revealed that the people with post-graduate education used more polythene and plastic (19.8%) and the usage was higher (40.39%) in families in the non-governmental sector. The participants with monthly income higher than 100,000 LKR used more polythene and plastic (28.84%) compare to others. The common way of disposing of was burning and participants had only a fair knowledge of banning, recycling, reusing, and controlling plastic waste. The study revealed the need for strict regulations and necessary actions to control the usage of polythene-based products.

We characterise zircon megacrysts from Kawisigamuwa carbonatite as a new potential reference material for laser ablation‐inductively coupled plasma‐mass spectrometry (LA‐ICP‐MS) U‐Pb and Hf isotope analysis. We studied ten 0.5‐4 cm long, brown megacrysts that consist of oscillatory zoned (OZ) and nearly featureless cathodoluminescence‐bright recrystallised (RX) zircon domains. The zircons have low to moderate radiation damage (total α‐dose <0.5 x 10 ¹⁸ events/g), tested by the measured FWHM of the ν 3 (SiO 4 ) Raman band < 5 cm ‐1 . An ID‐TIMS weighted mean ²⁰⁶ Pb/ ²³⁸ U age of 532.39 ± 0.66 Ma (2s uncertainty) was determined for OZ zircon domains of three grains. While Hafnium content varies within and between crystals (6630‐9960 μg/g) the in‐situ mean ¹⁷⁶ Hf/ ¹⁷⁷ Hf ratios of ten crystals overlap within uncertainty. We recommend a mean ¹⁷⁶ Hf/ ¹⁷⁷ Hf of 0.282003 ± 0.000020 (2s) as preliminary working value for OZ domains. Two OZ megacrysts yield indistinguishable δ ¹⁸ O VSMOW of 12.1 ± 0.4‰ and 12.2 ± 0.4‰ (2s). Elevated Th/U (>1.5), Zr/Hf (59‐75) and low Hafnium contents in OZ domains are similar to those of zircons from carbonatites of mantle origin, while high δ ¹⁸ O and low εHf i (‐15.8 to ‐17.1) indicate a crustal contribution. The zircons probably grew from crustal‐derived carbonate melts under high grade metamorphic conditions.

Wave models used for wave energy resource assessments are subjected to uncertainties, which differ from one location to another over the defined model area. This is because the models are typically calibrated and validated using a single or few validation points, and the model uncertainties of the wave parameters generally grow with the distance to the validation point. The spatial uncertainty of wave resource is one of the vital considerations in wave resource numerical modelling, since it is used to estimate the confidence in site assessments of potential wave energy device locations away from the validation point and is a necessary requirement of a resource assessment to IEC TS 62600-101. This paper focuses on developing a methodology for determining the spatial uncertainty by analysing how wave parameter uncertainties may change with location over the model area. A test site is modelled using the SWAN third-generation numerical wave model and validated at a single location for several wave parameters. A set of Monte-Carlo simulations are used to generate estimates of model uncertainties for locations around the validation point and a step-wise procedure is demonstrated with appropriate justifications to evaluate the uncertainties at these locations with respect to the validation point. Finally, the obtained results are used with a Wave Energy Convertor (WEC) numerical model to estimate the uncertainties on the power capture of the device.