Evaluating the addition of radar with optical data for vegetation mapping in a montane region in Sri Lanka

The use of freely-available multi-source imagery for mapping vegetation in montane terrain is important for many developing countries that do not have the funding for high-resolution data capture.Radar images are also now freely available and include Sentinel-1 in dual polarisation,and PALSAR-2.These images can penetrate cloud cover and provide the advantage of acquiring data in a cloudy tropical region.This research evaluated whether the addition of radar with optical and topographic data improves classification accuracy in a montane region in Sri Lanka.Six classification experiments were designed based on different combinations of image data to test whether radar data improved land cover classification accuracy compared with optical data alone.Random forest classifier in the Google Earth Engine has been utilised to classify the tropical montane vegetation.The results indicate that radar or optical data alone cannot obtain satisfactory results.However,when combining radar with optical data the overall accuracy increased by approximately 5%,and by an additional 2%when topography data were added.The highest accuracy(92%)was achieved with multiple imagery,and adding the vegetation indices improved the model slightly by 0.3%.In addition,feature importance analysis showed that radar data makes a significant contribution to the classification.These positive outcomes demonstrate that freely-accessible multi-source remotely-sensed data have impressive capability for vegetation mapping,and support the monitoring and managing of forest ecological resources in tropical montane regions.

Morphological characterization, antioxidant capacity and diversity of Syzygium cumini trees from Sri Lanka

Syzygium cumini(L.)Skeels(Madan)is widely distributed in South Asian countries,including Sri Lanka,where it was naturally found.There were only few studies reported on S.cumini for its values and other benefits in Sri Lanka.This study focuses on morphological characterization and the diversity of S.cumini trees in seven locations of Sri Lanka.Data were collected on different morphological traits.Leaf,flower and fruit morphology showed significant differences among locations.Further,trees from Batticaloa region showed different morphology,which would potentially open a different avenue for further study to trace different cultivars across the country.Results of the diversity index and multivariate analyses indicated high diversity in morphology and antioxidant capacity of trees.The variables such as leaf area,inter-nodal length,petiole length,anther length,filament length,fruit size and pericarp thickness could be suitable candidates to investigate the morphological variation of S.cumini any further.Antioxidant capacity studies also showed significant differences among locations and trees.Fruit hue angle was positively correlated to antioxidant capacities.Finding of this study concluded that the wide distribution of S.cumini trees throughout Sri Lanka in different geographical locations showed high diversity in leaf,flower and fruit morphology together with antioxidant capacity.

Ecotourism Practices in Sri Lankan Eco Resorts： A Supplier Perspective Analysis

Ecotourism is potentially the best growing segment in the international market. Many hoteliers in Sri Lanka promote the sustainable use of this concept as a new market-oriented concept. However, arrivals of eco tourists to Sri Lanka have been less than 1% over the last decade. A comprehensive case study research approach was used to conduct this research. Interpretive paradigm and the social constructionists＇ philosophical stand of the researchers provided the opportunity to explore or describe a phenomenon in context using a variety of data sources. In the sample, managerial level staffs were selected to conduct in-depth interviews to explore the meaning of the term ＂eco resort＂. Analysis of in-depth interviews and observations showed that the practice of the eco resort concept has been misused by the hoteliers in Sri Lanka. They have been unable to classify the eco tourists and identify the market and customer segment clearly.

Mitigating Cadmium (Cd) Toxicity in Montane Forest Soils Using Biochar: Laboratory Trial for Soils from Horton Plains, Sri Lanka

Horton Plains (HP), one of the two montane forests in Sri Lanka and habitat to many endemic species of plants and animals, has been severely affected by forest dieback. Past research has identified a direct link between soil pollution with Cadmium (Cd) and the phenomenon of forest dieback. As a consequence, forest dieback is increasing proportionately to the soil pollution. Hence, this study focuses on identifying a cost-effective remediation technique to neutralize soil Cd, and thereby reducing forest dieback. Soil samples were collected from HP, mainly Thotupolakanda site which shows more than 90% severity of forest die back, and bulked together. The soil was high (13.4) in organic matter and low (5.42) in pH, and three soil amendments were tested in this research as;bio char prepared using 1) rubber nut shells, 2) rice husk, and 3) dead wood from HP. Each sample was spiked with 20 ml of 5 ppm (parts per million) Cd solution, and four treatments a) soil + rubber-nut shell biochar (T1), b) soil + rice husk biochar (T2), c) soil + wood-from-HP biochar (T3), and d) soil only (T4), with five (05) replicates, were setup. During the first eight weeks after the application of treatments, it was observed that T1 showed the best performance, by showing a consistent trend in reducing the available soil Cd, with T2 following closely. The interesting observation was that the natural forest soil (T4) was also able to buffer the loading of Cd. At the close of the experiment, it was observed that the available soil Cd goes almost to zero, in less than 24 months.

Mining Profitability of Telecommunication Customers Using K-Means Clustering

Data mining is the powerful technique, which can be widely used for discovering the customers’ behaviors as well as customer’s preferences. As a result, it has been widely used in top level companies for evaluating their Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system today. In this study, a new K-means clustering method proposed to evaluate the cluster customers’ profitability in telecommunication industry in Sri Lanka. Furthermore, RFM model mainly used as an input variable for K-means clustering and distortion curve used to identify optimal number of initial clusters. Based on the results, telecommunication customers’ profitability in Sri Lanka mainly categorized into three levels.

Sinicization of Indic Loanwords in Chinese Language: Foreignization to domestication

Indic loanwords in Chinese language account for the largest number of loanwords in Mandarin Chinese.These loanwords have become an important integral part of the lexicon of Chinese language and throughout decades have undergone assimilation,semantic extension and phonological adaptation.The present study is an investigation into the modes,levels and history of Sinicization of Indic loanwords in Chinese language.Fundamentally,it is evident from the literature and historical accounts that Sinicization of these loanwords is a process from foreignization to domestication.Native-Chinese doctrines and philosophies,essentially Taoism and Confucianism have had multifaceted influences on the Sinicization process which has resulted in semantic extension,semantic change or total diminution of original meaning.While less used high culture-sensitive loanwords have completely disappeared from modern Chinese,loanwords of higher Sinicization level have completely secularized.It is observed that foreignized loanwords have very less tendency of being absorbed into modern Chinese and many such terms have been excluded in modern Chinese dictionaries.

Geo-vegetation Mapping and Soil Geochemical Characteristics of the Indikolapelessa Serpentinite Outcrop,Southern Sri Lanka

The serpentinite blocks of Indikolapelessa, located along an identified litho-tectonic boundary between the Highland Complex （HC） and the Vijayan Complex （VC） of Sri Lanka, have undergone extensive lateralization with metal enrichment. Characteristic serpentinite vegetation with some endemic species was recognized in the soils and supergene deposits develop on serpentinite lithology. This type of geological and ecological relationship forms vegetation covers on serpentinite lithologies which are sharply demarcated from the surrounding metamorphic terrains. The aforesaid ＂geo-ecological phenomenon＂ can be used as a tool for geo-vegetation mapping in ultramafic terrains to trace the geological boundaries in landscapes where rock outcrops are virtually absent. We success- fully applied the concept of geo-vegetation mapping in order to demarcate the boundary of underlain serpentinite rocks from surrounding non-serpentinite metamorphic rocks （e.g. granitic gneiss）. The hypothesis was supported by the geochemical variations of soils/supergene deposits found at serpen- tinite and non-serpentinite sites, especially immobile elements and some trace elements. Based on whole rock chemistry and soil chemical data obtained, we suggest that the Indikolapelessa serpentinite outcrop, together with the other four serpentinite outcrops, is more likely to represent the Mg-rich mantle fragments at the time of overthrusting of the two crustal blocks of HC and VC during the Pan- African event.

Religious Involvement in Young Islamic Women Participation in Physical Education, Sports, and Physical Activities

This study is to identify the relationship between young Islamic women involvement in physical education,physical activities,and sports.Today,limited attention has been paid to the relationship of young female Muslims and sports.This relationship can be noted as a social problem,and therefore need a specific attention to this problem.This study examines how Muslim female students display their participation in physical education and sporting activities and how their Islamic background influences of the way of the precise their engagement with the field of sport.Being a Muslim young woman and participating in sport is getting as a challenge of their ethnic identities.So that the young Muslim women clearly positioning within the framework of their ethnic identities are not interested in sports because they not seen it as a respectable femininity.According to the previously reported guidelines and results,the methodology was constructing for this systematic review.All the original data in this article were collected from published articles in research gate and Google scholar.The articles were searched under the topics of“religious involvement in Muslim female’s physical education,sports and physical activities”and“Muslim Female Participation in Olympics”.Results show that the religious involvement has positive attitudes toward female participation but extensive parental influence important to the young Muslim women involvement in the sports field.This paper also expresses that Muslim girl’s participation in physical education,physical activity,and sports is less because they are in struggle between their identity as Muslims and dress codes as well as the sporting requirements and in the other hand mixing or interaction with the opposite gender and doing exercises on Ramadan.

The Leap from Organic Light-Emitting Diodes to Organic Semiconductor Laser Diodes

In recent years,organic light-emitting device technology has expanded from organic light-emitting diodes(OLEDs)to organic semiconductor laser diodes(OSLDs)with the progress of sophisticated molecular and device architectural designs.In OLEDs,the development of thermally activated delayed fluorescence molecules has been intensively investigated recently.As a result,the internal quantum efficiency of OLEDs containing relatively simple aromatic compounds without precious metals has reached almost 100%.Furthermore,incorporating a distributed feedback resonator structure into the OLED architecture has yielded OSLDs that exhibit the features of current-pumped lasing.In this short review,the authors describe the recent paradigm shift from OLEDs to OSLDs,mainly fromthe perspective of materials innovation.