Browsing by Author "Kumburegama, S."

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2

Assessment of Nutritional Status of Adolescents in Kandy district- Sri Lanka
(Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Kelaniya, 2015) Kumburegama, S.; Sharmila, K.L.H.
The term adolescence is commonly used to describe the transition stage between childhood and adulthood. Although 21% of the population of Sri Lanka consists of adolescents, studies on nutritional status among this group are limited. The general objective was to assess the nutritional status of grade 11 students. The descriptive cross sectional study was carried out in grade eleven classes in government schools in type 1AB and 1C. 12 different schools were selected randomly. BMI was calculated and nutritional status was assessed using the age and sex specific BMI- percentiles growth charts and WHO cutoff marks. The prevalence of thinness (<5th percentile) was 49%, the prevalence of risk of overweight (85th -95th percentile) was 6.5%, and prevalence of overweight (>95th) was 2.1%. Boys were at higher risk of both underweight and overweight than girls. The nutritional status showed statistically significant associations with maternal education level and the number of siblings in the family. Of all the students, 32.3% were not satisfied with their current body weight and most of them were girls (39.5%). Of the students who belonged to risk of overweight category 64% were not following any weight related practices. Over half of the risk of overweight students‘ (60%) perception was that they belonged to normal weight category and 50% of overweight students assumed that their body weight is within the normal range and the other 50% assumed that they are in risk of overweight. But none of the overweight students perceived that they are overweight. Skipping breakfast was the major problem (36.7%). Under nutrition, risk of being overweight and overweight are the problems of adolescence. Awareness, health education and focused interventions are timely requirement to minimize health related problems of adolescents in Sri Lanka.
Correlation between pest gastropod occurrence and selected environmental variables in agricultural lands in the Nuwara Eliya district, Sri Lanka
(Faculty of Science, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka., 2021) Thilakarathne, K.G. D. D.; Ranawana, K. B.; Kumburegama, S.
Many of the exotic terrestrial pest gastropods introduced to Sri Lanka, either intentionally or accidentally, are well established as pests in agricultural lands, but hardly any studies have been carried out to determine the factors affecting their occurrence. Hence, this study was conducted to determine the correlation between selected environmental factors and density of gastropod pest species in some agricultural lands in the Nuwara Eliya district. A total of 80 agricultural lands were sampled from 2017 to 2019, where each land was surveyed for pest gastropods by establishing ten 1 m2 sampling plots for a maximum of 15 minutes/plot. Species richness and abundance were recorded in the field and species were identified at the field using available guides. Unidentified species were brought to the laboratory for further identification. Elevation, atmospheric temperature, rainfall, relative humidity and soil pH were measured using a Magellan Explorist 310 portable GPS, a Kestrel 4000nv weather tracker and a HANNA-HI-99121 electronic digital pH meter at each sampling location. Canonical correspondence analysis (CCA), Pearson’s correlation and generalized linear mixed model (GLMM) in R studio were used to analyze data. The first two axis of CCA explained 85% of the total variation. Species were ordered along the first axis in the CCA primarily affected by elevation while the second axis affected by rainfall and soil pH. CCA results indicated that the measured environmental factors influencing the occurrence of the gastropod species. For example, Deroceras laeve (Muller, 1774), Deroceras reticulatum (Miller, 1774), Milax gagates (Draparnaaud, 1801) and Mariella dussumieri (Gray, 1856) were influenced by the elevation and atmospheric temperature; Cryptozona chenui (Pfeiffer, 1847), Macrochlamys indica (Godwin and Austen, 1883), Subulina octona (Bruguiere, 1789) and Euplecta emiliana (Pfeiffer, 1854) were influenced by the rainfall and soil pH; while Allopeas gracile (Hutton, 1834), Leavicaulis alte (Ferussac, 1822), Lissachatina fulica (Bowdich, 1822), Cryptozona bistrialis (Beck, 1837) and Ratnadvipia irradians (Pfeiffer, 1853) were influenced by the relative humidity. According to the correlation analysis, the gastropod species richness was positively correlated to the daily rainfall (r=0.34, p<0.05); the total species abundance at all the sites were positively correlated to the elevation (r=0.56, p<0.05) and negatively correlated to the atmospheric temperature (r=-0.42, p<0.05). The results of this study indicate that gastropods could become invasive and pests due to changes in climatic and environmental factors whilst causing severe economic losses to agricultural crops in the Nuwara Eliya district. Therefore, the knowledge on the effects of environmental factors, as revealed by the results of this study, can be used to formulate management plans to control the occurrence and distribution of pest gastropods in the Nuwara Eliya district.