International Research Symposium of UWU-2018
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Item Evaluation of Physiochemical Changes in Un-Boiled Eggs Stored at Different Temperatures(Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2018) Eregama, G.R.S.R.; Aruppala, A.L.Y.H.; Pitawala, H.M.J.; Abeyrathne, E.D.N.S.Eggs are considered as powerhouse of nutrients and also it is very popular food in the world due to its nutritional value. Among that, hard boiled eggs are widely used in ready-to-eat food processing industry. However, storing of hard boiled eggs under refrigeration and freezing conditions lead to some problems including rejection of customer demands due to its textural changes. Objective of this study was to check the effect of storing temperature on textural changes in un-boiled egg white with time. Medium sized brown shell eggs collected from commercial layer farm and stored under room temperature (27 °C), refrigeration (4 °C) and freezing (18 °C) conditions for 0, 6, 12, 18, 24 and 48 hours. Then the stored eggs were boiled for 100 °C for 15 minutes and egg properties were studied under Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy (ALPHA), texture profile analysis using Texture analyzer (CT3), visual observation done by using gemological microscope and color was measured using colorimeter (CR 410 Chromo meter). Sensory qualities of boiled eggs were measured using 30 untrained panelists. According to the results, frozen eggs were showing low acceptance in all organoleptic properties checked (p<0.05). Hardness and gumminess of eggs were effected significantly during the storage in frozen eggs from the rest of the treatments (p<0.05). FTIR spectrums also confirm that the textural changes in bonds of amide A (3271 cm-1), amide I (1626.2 cm-1), amide II (1539.0 cm-1), C=O stretch of COO- (1397 cm-1), asymmetric PO2- stretch (1240 cm-1). However, the color of the egg white was not significantly different (p>0.05) among treatments. Sensory results revealed that frozen eggs after 12 hours did show low acceptance comparing the rest. As a conclusion storing temperature of un-boiled eggs has an effect on the texture of eggs after boiling.Item Preliminary Study on ICT Applications in Agriculture to Enhance Information System using Mobile Crowdsensing(Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2018) Wilson, R.S.I.; Goonetillake, M.D.J.S.; Walisadeera, A.I.This study analyzed the existing Information and Communication Technology (ICT) applications in the agriculture information system and proposed a method to enhance a mobile-based information system using mobile crowdsensing. The proposed system enables farmers in Sri Lanka to report events such as diseases, about their crops and get advices for making farming decisions. The lack of realtime information environment makes issues in the farming life cycle and that will affect the national economy and employment. Existing studies were analyzed for identifying the capability to establish a mobile-based information environment in the farmer-community in Sri Lanka. The applications introduced in the studies are covering several aspects such as market price, vendors, crop details, pest and disease information, etc. In order to create a real-time information environment, the real-time data related to farms need to be collected. Mobile sensing is a technique to obtain real-time data from a large group of individuals. Thus, the mobile sensing technique introduces for the farmer-community that allows farmers to participate the system by sharing mobile sensing data like images, text, voice, location, date and time. The knowledge-base of the system contains knowledge about crops, diseases, pests, fertilizer requirements and control methods for growing problems. Thus, the agriculture information in the knowledge-base can be accessed by the farmers according to the shared sensory data. Over the time period, agriculture information can be updated as the technology advancement, seasonal changes or unexpected weather changes. Thus, new knowledge needs to be stored in the agriculture knowledge-base with the help of domain experts. Moreover, by reasoning the collective data shared by farmers and experts, interesting aspects like the suitable crops to grow in a particular area, the crops badly affected by a specified disease in a particular area or treats rapidly spread in a particular period, etc. can be obtained for decision making. Further analysis can be done for future predictions from the large collection of data.Item Diurnal Behavioral Patterns and Substrate Use of Endemic Endangered Frog Fejervarya greenii in Horton Plains National Park (HPNP)(Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2018) Prabhath, M.C.; Jayasekara, E.G.D.P.; Mahaulpatha, W.A.D.With the objective of providing important data through studying diurnal behavioral patterns and substrate use for the conservation of endemic endangered frog Fejervarya greenii the study was conducted in and around five lentic waterbodies in HPNP for three consecutive days per month from January to December 2016. Time periods were selected as 06:00 hrs — 09:00 hrs, 09:00 hrs - 12:00 hrs, 12:00 hrs 15:00 hrs, 15:00 hrs - 18:00 hrs and 18:00 hrs - 20:00 hrs. Possible substrate types were recorded as submerged plant cover, bare water cover, short plants and shrubs cover, grass cover, decaying plant matter and leaf litter cover, sand, mud, gravel and rocks. Locomotion, feeding, resting, refuge use, alert, calling, courtship and swimming were identified as distinct behaviors of F.greenii. The behavior of both mature and immature individuals were recorded in 30 second intervals for 20 minutes in each time period. The utilized substrate in each behavioral pattern was recorded. Individuals tend to rest between 06:00 hrs - 09:00 hrs. They were moderately active during 09:00 hrs - 12:00 hrs and mature individuals used to call most of the time. F. greenii was mostly inactive during the time period of 12:00 hrs - 15:00 hrs. They tend to rest, call and exhibit courtship behaviors during 15:00 hrs 18:00 hrs. They were most active during 18:00 hrs - 20:00 hrs. Each distinct behavior was recorded in submerged plant cover. Swimming was restricted to bare water cover. Calling and courtship behaviors were restricted to submerged plant substrate. Gravel and rocks were not utilized. Relatively inactive behavior during the time period of 12:00 hrs - 15:00 hrs was probably a behavioral adaptation to avoid high desiccation during this hottest time. Calling and courtship behaviors were observed in each month which indicates that this species breeds continuously throughout the year. This study identifies the submerged plant cover associated with lentic water bodies as the breeding habitat of this endangered frog population.Item Effect of Induced Ripening Agents on Physicochemical Properties of Ambul Banana (Musa acwninata, AAB)(Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2018) Maduwanthi, S.D.T.; Marapana, R.A.U.J.This study is to evaluate effects on induced ripening agents on physicochemical parameters of banana. Freshly harvested green mature banana (Musa acuminata, AAB) hands, which were in same maturity stage, were subjected to 1000 ppm ethephon, 1000 ppm acetylene, 20% Ethylene Glycol, Wood smoke and natural ethylene emits from ripened fruits. Physicochemical properties were measured in each treated sample in every 48 hours until the fruits get overripe. Ethephon showed significantly different (p < 0.05) L* and a* values in fully yellow stage from others at the same stage. Firmness of the peel and flesh was reduced during ripening where the lowest flesh firmness (31.25 g) was obtained for acetylene and wood smoke treated samples. Hardness of the peel reduced from 1541.45±135g to 221-334g during ripening. Acetylene treated fruits showed the highest moisture percentage in flesh and the lowest in peel at overripe stage comparing to others. Titratable acidity showed increasing pattern through ripening and pH showed decreasing pattern. The highest titratable acidity was recorded in ethephon treated samples while the lowest was recorded in naturally ripened samples at fully yellow stage. pH which was 5.3±0.2 in raw sample was decreased up to 4.2±0.1 in carbide treated samples at fully yellow stage when that in the control sample was 5.1±0.1. Pulp Total Soluble Solids (TSS) was increased from 0.6 to 5.2-5.5 during ripening and rate of TSS increment was highest in ethephon treated samples. Maximum pulp to peel ratio was obtained in carbide treated fruits while that was lowest in ethephon treated samples. Total sugar content was increased from 0.3±0.04 g1100g of fresh weight to 19.91±0.07 g/100g in natural ripening while it was 10.2-10.6 g1100g in treated samples in fully yellow stage. Starch content showed decreasing trend throughout ripening process where it was reduced from 16.64±1.15 g1100g to 1.22-1.39 g/100g in fully yellow stage. KeywordsItem Impact of Fashion Involvement and Hedonic Consumption on Impulse Buying Tendency of Sri Lankan Apparel Consumers: The Moderating Effect of Age and Gender(Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2018) Colombage, V.K.; Rathnayake, D.T.Fashion and clothing is a foremost aspect of human life. Early studies have identified many variables as antecedents of fashion related impulse purchases and role of fashion involvement and hedonic consumption as predictors of fashion related impulse buying are less examined. Literature suggests that there can be a moderating effect of age and gender on the relationship between fashion involvement, hedonic consumption and impulse purchases of apparels. The purpose of this research is to examine the impact of fashion involvement and hedonic consumption on impulse buying tendency of Sri Lankan apparel consumers with moderating effect of age and gender. Researcher employed single cross-sectional research design for study and population was Sri Lankan apparel consumers who were above twenty years old. Sample of study was drawn from Colombo district where 324 responses were obtained using a structured questionnaire. According to multiple regression analysis, there was a positive impact of fashion involvement and hedonic consumption on impulse buying tendency of Sri Lankan apparel consumers. Hedonic consumption had a higher relative strength to predict impulse purchases of Sri Lankan apparel consumers in comparison to fashion involvement. Further, the researcher examined the moderating effect of age and gender on relationships between fashion involvement, impulse buying and hedonic consumption, impulse buying. However, it was revealed that there is no significant moderating effect from age and gender on aforesaid relationship. Based on the findings of study, it is suggested to practitioners of fashion retailing to stimulate and fulfill hedonic needs and desires of fashion consumers to persuade consumers for more fashion-oriented impulse purchases. Future studies under the same topic can be conducted with cultural influences on the impulse purchase of fashions and situational factors such as time and money availability.Item Impact of Compensation Management Practices on the Performance of Small and Medium Enterprises in Western Province of Sri Lanka(Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2018) Balasuriya, M.A.U.; Sutha, J.Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) sector is the largest contributor in Gross Domestic Product in Sri Lanka. But they perform more in a way that is entirely different from that of the large firms in economy. Among them human resource practices are in a questionable stage. Because the practices and policies adopted by larger firms does not fit perfectly to the small and medium sized enterprises. When considering about the firm performance, compensation practices directly influences and helps the firm to grow. Though there are number of studies aimed towards investigating the relationship between compensation practices and firm performance, there is only a few number of researches conducted to find whether Nature of the firm moderates the relationship between the compensation practices and firm performance in Small and medium enterprises. Therefore, in order to assess the moderating effect, the current study collected data from a sample of fifty SME firms in Western province of Sri Lanka by using stratified sampling technique and by using a questionnaire. A fair representation was available from all three districts due to use of this method. Using multiple regression analysis, Pearson's correlation and Andrew F. Hayes's moderation assessment model, the data were analyzed. Finally, this study found that there is strong positive relationship between the compensation practices and the firm performance. In addition, the firm size and age of the firm significantly moderates the relationship between Compensation practices and firm performance while the type of industry does not significantly moderate the relationship between compensation practices and small and medium firm performance.Item Characterization of the Mechanical Behavior of Packaging Material Using Digital Image Processing(Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2018) Herath, H.M.P.K.; Karunarathne, A.G.C.; Liyanage, R.L.; Kartheeswaran, T.; Etampawala, T.; Ranasinghe, R.M.I.S.Among various packaging materials polymers, polymer blends and polymer composites are ubiquitous owing to their low cost, high flexibility, lightweight and reusability. However, their behavior drastically depends on the forces especially tensile and abrasion that employs oil the materials during the packaging. Reusability of the material depends on whether the material is in its elastic or plastic region. However, according to the existing literatures, such regions are difficult to identify without having high-tech instrumentation such as a tensometer. To overcome such barrier, in this study a new prototype optical method, digital image processing (DIP), is proposed. The correlation between the colour variation of the material and its mechanical properties have been investigated. The colour of polymer materials changes in presence of applied force due to the microscopic level molecular arrangement. The traceable color change of several polymer materials in presence of applied force have been captured as a function of time using a digital camera. The captured images were processed to extract the ensemble average mean, median, standard deviation, entropy, and kurtosis in spatial domain. The changes were compared with the stress-strain relationship of the material measured using a tensometer. The kurtosis and the entropy extracted by DIP feature extraction method has some meaningful correlation with the experimentally measured mechanical properties. The correlation between the selected features and the experimentally measured parameters were obtained by quadratic regression fitting. The results obtained in this study illustrate that digital imaging and processing using a correlation algorithm could easily be used to identify the elastic and plastic region of the measured polymers over the traditional methods of extracting such data using tensometer. However, it is necessary to further validate this method for different types of polymers.Item Tendencies in Production, Imports and Per Capita Availability of Potato and Its Challenges in Sri Lanka(Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2018) Prasannath, V.Potato is the fourth most vital crop in the world and one of the important crops in Sri Lanka due to its high consumer preference and disposable profit generation. In this context, the objectives of this study were to review the trends in potato production, the area under harvested, imports and per capita availability, and to investigate the government involvement in regulating the prices and importation. The study is mainly based on secondary data which were collected from the annual reports of Central Bank of Sri Lanka and Department of Census and Statistics from 1961 to 2016. The data were first tabulated and then graphs were produced and based on the observed patterns certain interpretations were made. Both total production and area under harvested display the similar trend for the study period with a sudden decline in 1997. Badulla and Nuwara-Eliya districts contributed on average 73% and 26% of the national potato production respectively in the last decade. The yield of potato expresses a gradual increase over the period with frequent fluctuations. The imports of potato were lesser than the production until 2006 with a surge in the years from 1997 to 2001 and thereafter importation was increased drastically and continuously, which is 148,081 metric tons in 2016. Imports of potato contribute 5.1% of the national imports and 41% of the food and beverages imports on average in last five years. Per capita availability of potato showed an increasing trend where it was doubled from 3.89 kg/year to 7.79 kg/year during the period from 1995 to 1997 and reached its peak of 10.5 kg/year in 2016. The government imposes several policies such as maximum retail price and special commodity levy time to time in order to protect the local farmers as well as to make the availability of potatoes to consumers when demanded. Several input subsidies have been introduced to promote potato cultivation. Therefore, these modes of government interventions should remain to retain the potato sector competently.Item Highly Adsorptive Filter Based On Iron Oxide Nanoparticles for Dye Removal from Aqueous Solutions(Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2018) Dissanayake, D.M.S.N.; Chandrakumara, G. T. D.; Mantilaka, M.M.M.G.P.G.Dyes are major contaminants in the industrial effluents which cause adverse effects to living beings. Today, the removal of these dyes plays a major role in water purification processes. The nanoscale iron oxides as a high adsorptive filter material can be identified as a versatile dye removal method. Due to high abundance and low cost, ferruginous laterite can be considered as an alternative iron source for the synthesis of iron oxide nanoparticles. This work was performed to synthesis iron oxide nanoparticles using laterite through an obvious and innovative route and to evaluate their potential dye adsorptive removal behavior. First, powdered laterite was reacted with HCl to extract Fe' ions as we have studied previously. The digested solution separated by centrifugation was mixed with urea and heated in reflux condition for 5 h. Then the resultant precipitate was separated, dried and calcined for 2 h at 650 °C to obtain iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs). Synthesized nanoparticles were characterized by Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), Thermo Gravimetric Analysis (TGA), Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) spectrometer and X-ray Diffractometer (XRD). SEM images revealed the spherical morphology of particles with 50 nm average particle sizes of the iron oxide nanoparticles, while FTIR and XRD data confirmed the presence of hematite crystalline phase. IONPs were used as an absorbent in a specially designed laboratory scale filter apparatus and several aqueous solutions of acid dyes were used as an adsorbates. The adsorption behavior was evaluated by varying the dye concentration and inlet flow rate of the filter and analyzing the filtrate by UV-VIS spectrophotometer. The filter proved to be effective in removing these dyes fully when the dye concentration is as high as 1000 ppm. Keywords: Laterite, Hematite, Nanoparticles, Adsorption, FilterItem Production of Biodiesel from Yellowfin Tuna (Thunnus albacares) Fish Skin Wastage(Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2018) Amangilihewa, G.V.; Mahaliyana, A.S.; Kariyawasam, M.G.T.R.; Abeyrathne, E.D.N.S.; Etampawala, T.N.B.Yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares) is one of the major exporting fish species in Sri Lanka. Approximately 50% of the total large pelagic catch in Sri Lanka constitutes tuna-like fish species and usually fillets, steaks, cubes are exported. The rest, which is approximately 1/3 of the harvest is discarded which contain head, skin, tail, viscera and fins. Roughly 5000 tons of fish waste are generated every year in Sri Lanka. Dumping such waste in to the environment can cause various environmental problems. This study was focused to add value to such waste by producing biodiesel as an alternative energy source for petroleum. Tuna fish skins were collected from local processing factory and brought to the laboratory under 4 °C and cut in to small pieces. Fish oil was extracted using different solvents; absolute ethanol, ether, nhexane and 1:1 mixture of ethanol and water using ultra sonication and soxhlet extraction method. Fatty acid profile, energy and the yield was calculated. Accordingly there were no any significant difference in yield of the extracted oil with single solvents used (p > 0.05). But ether was selected as the best solvent (3.24 g±0.61). Among the two methods, Soxhlet method showed the highest oil yield (20 mL/kg of fish skin). Fish oil profile was obtained by using Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC) and Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectroscopy (GC-MS). The extracted oil was used to produce biodiesel using single step transesterification with potassium methoxide. The percent conversion of oil in to biodiesel was 88%. Fourier Transmission Infrared (FTIR) Spectroscopy method was used to characterize the fish oil as well as the biodiesel. The energy capacity of the synthesized biodiesel was measured using a Differential Scanning Calorimeter. All the test results were benchmarked against the commercially available petrochemical based diesel. Accordingly, ether soxhlet separation can be used as a potential biodiesel production from Yellowfin tuna fish skin.Item Minimizing the Cutting Damages While Maximizing the Cutting Efficiency in the Apparel Industry(Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2018) Aththanayake, A.M.S.M.C.M.; Siyambalapitiya, S. B.; Meegama, A.In the apparel industry, higher number of garments should be sewed under the given requirements. Damaged panels can be fixed by replacing them with a re-cut. Area allocated for the finished cut (market place) is contributed to the sewing department to achieve targets aligned to lean. A pre-plan under some constraints will maximize daily cut quantities which will increase the number of sewed garments. The objective of this paper is to use principles of optimization related to minimizing wastage of the fabric while maximizing the cutting efficiency by identifying the parameters which are related to the laying and the cutting process of the garment industry. Related factors are identified during the laying process as ratio, marker length and number of plies for the size variation. The problem is broken down into roll format and lap format which are 2 laying formats. Size variation of 3 parts of a garment called front panel, back panel and gusset, marker length, ratio, number of plies, cutting time and laying time per layer and the cut quantity has being recorded (per unit) under the mentioned 2 formats. According to the analysis panel variation does not depend on the ratio, number of plies and marker length. In conclusion the cutting efficiency is maximized by changing those 3 variables. The results show that the optimal ratios are less than 25 and 27 for the lap format and roll format respectively. The cutting process requires an average time of 72 minutes per layer. This method reduces laying and cutting time per layer by 20-30 minutes by keeping the quality of the cut panels unchanged. In comparison, due to the decreased ratio and increased number of plies, the marker length is automatically reduced along with the length of the cutting tables which contributes to save some square feet for the sewing department. 80% of marker efficiency can also be satisfied with the new solution. Using these multiple objectives, daily production can be increased.Item Antibacterial Activity of Silver Deposited Vein Graphite against Waterborne Pathogenic Escherichia coil(Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2018) Kumar, K.K.A.D.; Amaraweera, T.H.N.G.; Premetilake, M.M.S.N.; Wijayasinghe, H.W.M.A.C.The microbial contamination of drinking water is a major health problem in the world which requires an effective treatment. Silver ion (Ag+2) is used as nonspecific antibacterial factor and it acts against a very broad spectrum of bacterial species. In this study, antibacterial efficiency of Ag deposited vein graphite were studied using Escherichia coli strain. Ag was deposited on the graphite surface by reduction of Ag+2 in silver nitrate solution using reducing agent. Scanning electron microphotographs of the Ag deposited graphite reveal that the deposited silver particles are highly agglomerated or spongy voids. Although the size of silver particle agglomerates are relatively coarse, the average size of individual silver nanoparticle is around 75 nm. Antibacterial efficacy of the synthesized sample was investigated using waterborne pathogenic E. coli strain. The antibacterial test was done using prepared composite samples and samples of E. coli, using shake flask method. A commercial antibiotic (Ofloxin-200 mg) was used as the positive control. The samples were drawn periodically (1, 1.5, 2, 2.5 and 3 hours) from the flask and tested against E. coli by plate count method using standard procedures. There was a significant E. coli removal efficiency by the synthesized Ag Graphite composite compared to purified graphite and positive control (One-way ANOVA, p-value=0.00). Therefore, this study suggests that Ag- vein graphite composite could be used as an effective material in water purification, especially in removing of E. coli.Item An Accurate Multiple Sequence Alignment Algorithm for Biological Sequence Sets with High Length Variations(Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2018) Jayasingha, J.A.D.T.B.; Wannige, C.T.Multiple sequence alignment (MSA) is used for many studies in modern biology. There are many algorithms available for the alignment of multiple sequences. Among them, progressive alignment algorithm is the most commonly used heuristic alignment strategy for MSA. It solves MSA with an economic complexity but does not provide accurate solutions, because there is a conflict between accuracy and complexity. The existing similarity score method in progressive alignment algorithm does not consider the lengths of the sequences in the considered sequence set. So, if the protein or DNA sequences are with high length variations, the initial alignment scores may not produce a correct measure of similarity between the sequences. This leads to less accurate initial alignment scores, and as a consequence, final multiple sequence alignment may produce inaccurate results. In this research, we present a modified progressive alignment algorithm especially for sequences with high length variations. We modify the latest version of ClustalW 2.1 by replacing the similarity distance measure in ClustalW algorithm with a novel distance measure. The new distance score method captures the distance between each sequence pairs in sequence set and the obtained distance measure is utilized to generate a better guide tree for progressive alignment. In order to determine the pairwise similarity distance measure, we used lengths of the shortest common super-sequence (SCS) and the Longest Common Sub-sequence (LCS). We assessed our algorithm with BALIBASE 3.0 protein benchmark and compared the obtained results to those obtained with ClustalW alignment algorithm using the Quality score (Q Score) and the Sum of Pairs Score (SPS). We obtained better Q scores and SP scores for the alignments from modified ClustalW algorithm over original ClustalW algorithm. Furthermore, the alignment speed of modified ClustalW algorithm is multiple times faster than the original ClustalW algorithm. KeywordsItem Possibility of Using Remote Sensing Techniques as a Tool in Exploration of Marble Deposits in Sri Lanka(Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2018) Amarasiri, P.G.S.C.; Jaliya, R.G.C.; Ediriweera, E.P.S.K.Remote sensing with the aid of hyper-spectral data are widely used in mineral exploration. However in Sri Lankan context remote sensing has not been used for mineral exploration due to nonexistence of most of required data and the vegetation cover is one of the major factor that limit the remote sensing approach. From that, the study area Balangoda and Mathale consist of rapid variation in elevation that may cause shadow effect which restrict the reflection of solar radiation. This study investigates the possibility of using freely accessible multispectral data for marble exploration. Classification techniques and topographical features were used to locate calcite and dolomite occurrences in the study area. Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) data were used for topographic feature identification and Sentinel2 data were used for accurate classification. Anticline-syncline formations and fractured zones were identified using SRTM data. Effective classified images were obtained from Sentinel-2 and Landsat-8 data processing. Training polygons was used to extract the spectral signature in each data set. Although direct spectral signatures of calcite and dolomite are not prominent in remote sensing images, indirect indicators help in delineating possible mineralizing zones. Decision tree for each data set was used in classification process. This study proves that using relatively high resolution data acquired from Sentinel-2 can be used for more effective classification than Landsat-8 data sets in mineral explanations. Keywords: Remote sensing, Mineral exploration, Marble, SRTM, Landsat-8, Sentinel-2.Item Determinants of Tourism Industry Attractiveness: Evidence from Tourism and Hospitality Undergraduates of Public Universities in Sri Lanka(Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2018) Jayarathna, P.D.N.A.B.; Kulathunga, K.M.M.C.B.A person's perception on his vacation is of vital to be effective in any specific circumstance. Tourism industry employment being of extraordinary noteworthy at this intersection in Sri Lanka, the work potential and the genuine emotions on this of its future pioneers is of basic for the accomplishment of quickly developing tourism industry of the nation. Sri Lankan tourism industry needs considerably more manpower to convey great administration for individuals who visit the country. For that the government universities provide degrees identified with hospitality and tourism. Key objectives are, to identify the current status and trends in the tourism industry, examine the factors affect to the perception tourism undergraduates towards the tourism industry and identify the most influencing factors to the attraction of tourism industry. Data was collected utilizing surveys which filled by 60 undergraduates contemplating tourism degrees in government universities. Sample was selected using stratified sampling method. Questionnaire designed by using six dimensions. As indicated by illustrative measurements undergraduates concurred with social, cultural, economic and personal factors and decently conceded to environmental and industry factors. While considering on affection of these factors to the dependent variable; social factors are the most influencing factor and cultural factors are the slightest influencing factor. Despite the fact that early researchers discovered negative perception among tourism graduates towards their career, as per the discoveries of the present examination, they have thought of positive recognitions than negative discernments. It is recommended to improve the understanding of undergraduates on tourism industry and working conditions and attitudes to maintain positive ideas towards tourism industry. Future researches should be focused to take undergraduates from private universities, select students from different groups such as fresher, junior and senior and also implement qualitative approach to analyze data.Item An Empirical Study of the Impact of Brand Personality on Brand Commitment: Evidence from Sri Lankan Smartphone Market(Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2018) Kumari, A.G.P.M.; Gunarathne, Y.M.C.Brand commitment is one of the most-cited concepts in marketing literature, and today, this concept plays a vital role in strategic management. It is surely true that the committed customers to a particular brand seldom switch to another. In Sri Lankan smartphone market context, firms introduce new versions, capture new technology rapidly and product quality and features are getting homogenous due to technological changes, competition and globalization. Thus, to gain customer commitment towards a brand, smartphone manufacturers need to focus on other aspects than product features and quality. Hence this study investigated whether the brand personality can be used to derive customer commitment towards the brand. The study objectives were; firstly to identify the impact of brand personality on brand commitment, secondly to identify the impact of brand personality on affective commitment and continuance commitment separately and finally to identify the relative contribution of brand personality dimensions on brand commitment in Sri Lankan smartphone market. Five brand personality dimensions studied were Sincerity, Excitement, Ruggedness, Competence and Sophistication. 100 smartphone users were considered as the sample and the data were collected using a questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, correlation coefficient, simple linear regression and stepwise regression analysis techniques were used to analyse the data. The results indicated that there is an impact of brand personality on brand commitment, affective brand commitment and continuance brand commitment. Further it revealed that all five brand personality dimensions are positively impact on brand commitment while sophistication showed the highest and the competence showed the next highest contribution. Hence the researcher recommends the smartphone manufacturers to consider on improving brand personality dimensions to derive customer commitment towards such brand.Item RFID Based Smart Personal Baggage System(Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2018) Kasun, P.; Vidanagamachchi, S.M.Advances in the RFID technology over the last three decades have revolutionized the field of engineering. The technology has been applied to an enormous number of applications where contactless identification is required. The rate of adoption of the technology keeps increasing due to the relatively low cost of the modern RFID based systems. Personal asset tracking is becoming more and more important since people tend to forget their belongings due to their hectic schedules and the increased number of personals gadgets in use. In this paper, a method of using RFID based system to track the personal items and their safety during travel has been introduced. The system is designed in such a way that it is embedded into a backpack, a handbag or a traveling bag. With the help of the area tagging and the pre-programmed schedule, the customized RFID reader system is capable of realtime tracking, managing the integrity and providing anti-theft capabilities to the personal belongings while traveling. Then, the system integration method and the special strategies of controlling the RFID system with a constrained environment inside a baggage have been elaborated in detail. In addition, we introduced a dynamic transmit power controlling algorithm to maintain the tracking perimeter to be restricted only to the baggage, even when the items inside the baggage are changing and the signal attenuation is changed. Furthermore, we discussed a patchantenna, which is designed to use with the specific application requirements and space constraints in detail. The integration and research results have been successful and based on that, future improvements to the system with technology advancements have been discussed along this paper. Keywords: RFID, Personal-assets, Smart-baggage, Anti-theft, Patch-antennaItem Transition towards Production Orientation to Market Orientation: A Case Study of Organic farmers' in Kandy District(Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2018) Abeysekara, A.M.W.W.N.D.B.; Samaraweera, G.O.; Gunaratne, L.H.P.Commercialization has been identified as an available strategy for up-scaling the farming, where the success is largely depending upon their degree of market orientation. Though the organic farming is a demanding notion in a green economy, farmers are low profit earners comparatively to the other industries in Sri Lanka. Therefore, this study attempted to investigate the present status of market orientation of organic farmers opposed to production orientation. The study was conducted among purposively selected 40 organic farmers in Kandy district, using a Likert scale structured survey questionnaire. The questionnaire was consisted of number of production and marketing criteria and farmers' decision making in production and marketing was evaluated by the study. A score was assigned from the scale varying from 1 to 5 for both orientations. Further, regression analysis was adopted to identify the significant factors for farmers' business orientation. Findings revealed that 60% of organic farmers were culminated in production orientation without consider on being market oriented. This brings about the need for placing a greater emphasis on inculcating market oriented mind sets among farmers. Moreover, gender (G), civil status (C), land area (L) and income from organic farming (1) were identified as the significant factors influencing their decision of business orientation (MO = 64.588 - 11.635 G - 16.021 C + 5.857 L +8.388 I + 9.45181). The study recommends disseminating knowledge on market availability for organic foods towards farmers; provide adequate guidance and support for organic manure preparation as stimulus to switch the organic farmers towards market orientation. Keywords: Market orientation, Organic farming, Production orientationItem Germination Characteristics of Rhizomes of Panicum maximum in Coconut Plantations of Sri Lanka(Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2018) Augustin, A.M.; Senarathne, S.H.S.; Premathilake, K.G.; Herath, H.M.S.K.Panicum maximum is a major weed in the coconut lands and many of the bare lands. Being an invasive and aggressive weed, other than high seed production capacity, germination of rhizomes has a major role for its continuity as a perennial weed. If germination is controlled, it would ultimately result in growth suppression and control of the weed for some extent. Experiment was therefore conducted to investigate the impact of air drying of rhizomes of P. maximum on reduction of moisture, total carbohydrate percentage and finally the germination at the CRI, Lunuwila, Sri Lanka. A bulk of uniformly grown plants of P.maximum was uprooted from a coconut land and grouped into 8 treatments based on three factors such as presence/absence of soil with roots, presence/absence of leaves, split/unsplit bush condition. Rhizomes were air dried for 0 to 12 days at 3 days interval in a plant house. Air drying of rhizomes for more than 3 days reduced the moisture content, total carbohydrates and germination of rhizomes. Initial moisture content of 75.4 % reduced to the lowest of 6.4% when drying for 12 days in P.maximum without soil, with leaves treatments. Initial carbohydrate content also reduced from 0.17% to 0.03% when drying for 12 days in P. maximum without soil, without leaves treatments. Germination was totally inhibited when air drying for more than 9 days in all treatments and further P.maximum without soil, with leaves treatments recorded 16 - 20% germination. Most effective agronomic practice to control P.maximum was the removal of the soil attached to the root system after uprooting and laying for air drying for 6-9 days, where soil is no in contact with roots.Item Feasibility of using industrial waste in Sri Lanka to develop composite construction material: A Review(Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2018) Chiranjaya, Y.A.S.O.Sri Lanka has been facing an increasing industrialization process since free market economy in 1977. Consequently, a multitude of factories were located in highly populated urban or sub-urban areas and their improper disposal of waste has ensued environmental pollution and public health hazards. On the other hand, an excessive demand for clay bricks has arisen due to the growth of population and advancements in the construction sector in the country. A sustainable solution for both above stated problems can be derived by developing this composite clay brick using selected industrial wastes in order to achieve green economic benefits. The purpose of this paper is to review the previous literature to overlook the feasibility of utilizing industrial waste to develop a composite brick for construction industry in Sri Lanka by using clay and solid industrial waste such as ceramic, glassware and electronic waste, fly ash, rice husk ash and sugarcane bagasse ash. Clay is a nonrenewable resource which was used as the main raw material in the production of the clay brick. As the first step, selected industrial waste materials were processed and mixed with clay in different weight ratios. Thereafter, the mixture was subjected to shape and press. Subsequently the firing was done in suitable temperature conditions for selected time ranges. Finally, drying process was carried out by natural or artificial methods. After the manufacturing, standard tests were done in order to examine the compressive strength, water absorption and bulk density of the bricks. The composite bricks that were made from various industrial wastes indicated favorable results in above tests in different clay to waste mass ratios. Despite the limitations in the research area, this brick can be used for constructions in the future through further research, development and standardization. Keywords: Industrial Waste, Composite, Construction Material, Sustainability, Waste Management