Browsing by Author "Wickramasinghe, H."

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    Diagnosis of leptospirosis: comparison between microscopic agglutination test, IgM-ELISA and IgM rapid immunochromatography test
    (Public Library of Science, 2015) Niloofa, R.; Fernando, N.; de Silva, N.L.; Karunanayake, L.; Wickramasinghe, H.; Dikmadugoda, N.; Premawansa, G.; Wickremasinghe, A.R.; de Silva, H.J.; Premawansa, S.; Rajapakse, S.; Handunnetti, S.
    BACKGROUND: Leptospirosis is diagnosed on clinical grounds, and confirmed by microscopic agglutination test (MAT). IgM-ELISA (Serion-Virion) and immunochromatography test (Leptocheck-WB) are two immunodiagnostic assays for leptospirosis. Their sensitivity, specificity and applicability in Sri Lanka have not been systematically evaluated. METHODS: Clinically diagnosed leptospirosis patients (n = 919) were recruited from three hospitals in the Western Province of Sri Lanka, during June 2012 to December 2013. MAT, IgM-ELISA and Leptocheck-WB were performed on all patient sera. MAT titer of ≥400 in single sample, four-fold rise or seroconversion ≥100 in paired samples were considered as positive for MAT. For diagnostic confirmation, MAT was performed during both acute and convalescent phases. Anti-leptospiral IgM ≥20 IU/ml and appearance of a band in the test window were considered as positive for IgM-ELISA and Leptocheck-WB test respectively. Patients with an alternative diagnosis (n = 31) were excluded. Data analysis was performed using two methods, i) considering MAT as reference standard and ii) using Bayesian latent class model analysis (BLCM) which considers each test as imperfect. RESULTS: MAT, IgM-ELISA and Leptocheck-WB positivity were 39.8%, 45.8% and 38.7% respectively during the acute phase. Acute-phase MAT had specificity and sensitivity of 95.7% and 55.3% respectively, when compared to overall MAT positivity. IgM-ELISA and Leptocheck-WB had similar diagnostic sensitivity when compared with acute-phase MAT as the gold standard, although IgM-ELISA showed higher specificity (84.5%) than Leptocheck-WB (73.3%). BLCM analysis showed that IgM-ELISA and Leptocheck-WB had similar sensitivities (86.0% and 87.4%), while acute-phase MAT had the lowest sensitivity (77.4%). However, acute-phase MAT had high specificity (97.6%), while IgM-ELISA and Leptocheck-WB showed similar but lower specificity (84.5% and 82.9%). CONCLUSIONS: Both IgM-ELISA and Leptocheck-WB shows similar sensitivities and specificities. IgM-ELISA may be superior to MAT during the acute phase and suitable for early diagnosis of leptospirosis. Leptocheck-WB is suitable as a rapid immunodiagnostic screening test for resource limited settings.
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    A Study on how audience reception affects Professional Wrestling
    (Proceedings of the Undergraduate Research Symposium (HUG 2019), Department of English, Faculty of Humanities, University of Kelaniya. Sri Lanka, 2019) Wickramasinghe, H.
    The success of a Professional Wrestling or any entertainment medium depends entirely on its reception by the audience. Without listening to the audience‟s expectations the show cannot exist. Therefore, audience reception plays a major role in Professional Wrestling storylines. While audience reception has been very predictable and manipulatable in the past, the audience reception in contemporary wrestling has turned very unpredictable and confusing for producers of Wrestling shows. There are varied reasons for changing audience receptions among Professional Wrestling fans which span from entertainment values to cultural, social, gender and athletic values of people. This research is concerned with analyzing and understanding some of the prominent changes in values that affect the audience reception of Professional Wrestling and how they have refashioned Professional Wrestling as a product. The critical framework for the research is Stuart Hall‟s Reception Theory which helps us understand the influence of audience manipulation (Preferred Reading), the rejection of preferred readings (Oppositional Reading) and compromisation between dominant and oppositional readings by the audience (Negotiated Reading) in Professional Wrestling. Furthermore, changing audience reception in Professional Wrestling will be discussed by comparing and contrasting audience reception to traditional (Old-School) and modern (NewSchool) methods of professional wrestling since their entertainment ideals have had differing receptions in the past and in the present. To conduct this analysis, the research will use analyzed examples from wrestling promotions such as WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment), AEW (All Elite Wrestling), NJPW (New Japan Professional Wrestling) and the independent circuit. In conclusion, the deeper intention of this research is to understand how changing values, knowledge bases and perceptions are influencing audience reception in Professional Wrestling and how they have fashioned the changes in the business of Professional Wrestling.