International Research Symposium on Pure and Applied Sciences (IRSPAS)
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Item Beneficial functions of plant materials used in shodhana process of mercury in Ayurveda Rasashastra(International Conference on Applied and Pure Sciences, 2020, 2020) Gunaratna, T. A. N. R.; De Silva, W. R. M.; Prajapati, P. K.; De Silva, K. M. N.Shodhana process in rasashastra is a mandatory process for each material prior to use in herbomineral pharmaceutical preparations. Although different types of mercury (Hg) shodhana”processes are described in rasashastra, in Sri Lanka, Ayurveda herbo-mineral manufacturers use a three-step method with Allium sativum extract, Piper betel extract and the decoction using Terminalia chebula, T. bellerica and Phyllanthus emblica. Although this method is well-known within the Ayurveda community, there are no research evidences available to identify the support and the functions given by the plant materials in the mercury shodhana process. Therefore, this research was carried out to analyse the elemental changes that would occur to commercially available mercury during the shodhana process. Shodhana process was carried out as mentioned in the Rasa Jala Nidhi textbook (volume I) of rasashastra literature under the mercury section (eighth process). As the shodhana process involves three steps, there were four samples to be analysed namely, crude mercury, first step completed Hg, second step completed Hg and final step completed Hg. Samples were microwave digested using HNO3: HCl in 3:1 ratio and diluted prior to the Inductive Coupled Plasma Mass Spectroscopy (ICPMS) analysis. These four Hg samples were then, subjected to ICPMS analysis. Standard 2A was performed to check Ag, Al, As, Ba, Be, Cd, Co, Cr, Cs, Cu, Fe, Ga, K, Li, Mg, Mn, Ni, Pb, Rb, Se, Sr, Tl, U, V, Zn elements and standard 2A Hg was performed to check Hg element. Cu, As and V were measured in He gas mode and rest were measured in no gas mode. The analysis was carried out in triplicate. Origin and R software were used for the comparison. According to the results obtained, Mg, Al, Fe, Co, Zn, Cd, Ba and Pb were present in the crude mercury as noticeable elements, but the element levels were changed with each shodhana step. Most importantly, it clearly shows the reduction of Pb level from 2347.25 ± 0.01 ppb to 173.20 ± 0.02 ppb. Furthermore, trace elements such as Li, Ni, Ga and U were completely removed from mercury after the completion of shodhana process. The reason for the reduction of metal ions can be attributed to metal iron chelation, detoxification procedures with plant bioactive compounds such as organic sulphides, polyphenols and flavonoids. Therefore, these results reflect the benefit of shodhana process and clearly explains the use of plant extracts as a removal agent of unwanted metal ions, which are trapped in Hg.Item Potential of using leaf extract of Annona glabra as a novel, green source for the synthesis of silver nanoparticles(4th International Research Symposium on Pure and Applied Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2019) Paragodaarachchi, Y. L.; Wickramarachchi, P. A. S. R.This study aims at investigating the potential of using the leaf extract of Annona glabra for the green synthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) and optimization of process parameters to obtain nanoparticles with narrow size range. A. glabra is a very troublesome invasive species, where it grows in estuaries and stifles mangroves. Phytochemicals present in plant extracts are capable of acting as reducing and stabilizing agents during the synthesis of nanoparticles. The active ingredient responsible for the reduction of Ag+ ions and stabilization of silver nanoparticles varies depending on the plant extract used. Aqueous leaf extracts of A. glabra were prepared by heating chopped leaves (20.0 g) with water (100.0 mL) at different temperatures (60 – 100 °C) for 1 hour. AgNPs were synthesized by incubating silver nitrate (20.00 mL), as the precursor, with the plant extract, as the reducing agent. The mixture was incubated for 3 hours under slow agitation and dark conditions. Amount of plant extract (2 – 10 mL), concentration of silver nitrate (1 – 10 mM) and incubation time (0.5 - 24 hours) were changed to find the optimum conditions for the synthesis of AgNPs. Formation of silver nanoparticles were confirmed by the color change of the mixture from faint yellow to light brown and the surface plasmon resonance band around 420 nm. The size of the nanoparticles formed were measured by dynamic light scattering (DLS).The surface plasmon resonance peak maxima was detected at 417 nm for the biofabricated AgNPs using A. glabra leaf extract. With the increase of plant extract, size of AgNPs increased from 206 – 314 nm. Particle size increased from 183 – 224 nm with increase of silver nitrate concentration. The plant extract made at 100 °C produced the smallest nanoparticles. The size of AgNPs were polydispersed in a range of 10 – 190 nm displaying a narrower size range which falls within the general nanoscale. The optimum formulation was obtained at 100 °C extraction temperature for the leaf extract, 2 mL of plant extract, 1 mM silver nitrate and 7 hours of incubation. Leaf extract of A. glabra can be used for the synthesis of AgNPs and only low concentrations of leaf extract of A. glabra are needed to synthesize silver nanoparticles.Item Current situation in the consumption of biomass energy for industrial boilers; Kalutara district(4th International Research Symposium on Pure and Applied Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2019) Leelarathna, W. D. S. R.; Bandara, W. A. R. T. W.Biomass fuel has shared a prominent place in the Sri Lankan industrial primary energy supply. Many industries including agricultural, manufacturing, and commercial sectors use biomass to fulfill their energy requirements. This study was carried out to collect information on biomass type and fuel wood species that are used in industries and to identify, reasons for consuming fuel wood species, limitation of using form of fuel wood in industries located in Kalutara district. An interviewer based survey was carried out in fifteen industries including tea, rubber, food and beverage, textile, wood product and paper product industries. According to the industrial survey results, 66.67% of respondent industries use only biomass boilers, 20% use biomass boilers and furnace oil boilers and, 13.33% use both biomass and diesel. Respondent industries in Kalutara district, use fire woods, saw dust, branches and roots as biomass type in their biomass boilers. Among them 73.33% use only the fire wood.20% of respondents use only the saw dust and 6.67% industries use both saw dust and fire wood. 100% of respondent industries in their biomass boilers use mainly Rubber wood. Other than that mix fuel woods such as Albezia (Albizia lebbeck), Mango (Mangifera indica), Ginikuru (Alstonia macrophylla), Gliricedia (Gliricidia sepium) and other minor species such as Kasa Ghas (Caurina equisetifolia), Gal Goraka (Clusia rosea), Ipil Ipil (Leucena leucosephala) from the jungle used as fuel wood. Reasons for consuming fuel woods for their boilers are low cost, high energy capacity and also to maintain the high quality of their output. Based on the survey the respondent industries also experience some disadvantages of using fuel woods. They can be identified as high amount of ash production and low availability of woods in some periods of the year. 100% of respondent industries daily buy fuel wood for their factories from fuel wood suppliers and the saw mills. Size and moisture content are the only factors they consider when they purchase fuel woods. All the respondents use mixture of fuel wood species. Because of that fuel becomes a heterogeneous mixture which leads to low efficiency.Item Refurbishment of Under-utilized Scientific Equipment for Modern Teaching and Research: Case of a Bio-reactor Upgrade(4th International Research Symposium on Pure and Applied Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2019) Pallegedara, A.; Chandrakumara, O.We have found that large number of expensive scientific equipment purchased, received under foreign aids, national grants or any other public monetary funds are highly under-utilized in state universities especially those received before ten to thirty-five years. The apparent reasons found were; support and spares are not available to be replaced, venders or the manufacturer no longer available, lack of operational guides available, replacement for damaged parts cannot be found and due to their complexities refurbishments were failed etc. Therefore, we realize the value of saving billions of money to the nation if we could properly regain the operations of those equipment and enabling them with modern requirements for teaching and research in the universities and institutes. Hence we propose the refurbishment of a Bio-reactor (Fermenter); is the machine with enclosed and sterilized environment for making microorganism-controlled products. In the fermentation, fermenter controls critical functions of fermenting process such as temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen (DO) and mixing speed or agitation. The reengineered legacy fermenter was manufactured in 1985 by B.E. Marubishi, Japan and it was out of operation since 25 years. The machine was built entirely with analog controls including signal conditioner. The EPROM in the machine has been exposed to ultraviolet light sources and programs would be erased. The pH and dissolved oxygen sensors are galvanic type. MSU control unit and signal conditioner have been connected with each other via legacy data buses. Refurbishment of the MSU unit and signal conditioner has been bypassed and sensors are connected with newly built electronic circuit with the in house developed software modules. The sensor signals are processed by two micro-controllers and send it to the central raspberry processor. The raspberry-Pi processes the inputs and sends back the signals to control the fermenter. The control signals are again processed by micro-controller and thus it changes the fermenter parameters according to received control signals. The proposed control interface is web-based and it can be accessed anywhere in the world. The IoT conversion could help the students to do their research and practical work in bioengineering conveniently. Scientific Fermenter is an expensive equipment and not easy to afford for a new one. By the proposed research and development project we were able to save around 30 million LKR of public money and also started the teaching of new courses and research projects. Trials and experiments were carried out under well-controlled standard calibrations and setup was aligned with original operational characteristics. Refurbished setup was verified with the set of results obtained compared with that of original electronics and control algorithm given in published data.Item Optimization approaches for inventory management in Blood Supply Chains: A systematic review of literature(4th International Research Symposium on Pure and Applied Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2019) Gunawardana, K. D. R.; Vidanagamachchi, K.; Nanayakkara, L. D. J. F.Blood Supply Chain Management is highly critical, as ensuring the availability of the right blood type, at the right place, in the right quantity, at the right time is a matter of life and death. Unlike other products, there is no substitute to human blood. Therefore, there is an increasing need of wisely managing this invaluable resource. Studies show that blood availability in countries need to be increased in order to meet the demands of ageing populations. Meanwhile, the discard rate of blood collections has an impact on the people’s attitude towards the blood system of the country and the first-time donor return rate. The overall objective of this study is to investigate the optimization approaches towards inventory management aspect in blood supply chains. A systematic review of literature has been carried out to investigate different optimization approaches and management concepts towards blood inventory optimization while maximizing the service levels and minimizing discard rates. Firstly, articles were selected through a web search based on the keywords of the study domain in order to ensure the relevance to the study. Further, articles published between 2000 and 2019 were considered ensuring novelty of findings. Keywords such as “inventory management”, “supply chain”, “optimization”, “simulation” and “blood” were used. In the process of reviewing literature, initially 43 studies were analysed through the keywords search and 15 papers were selected which are directly related with the area of the study. Studies revealed that perishable and substitution inventory management systems with stochastic demands are highly complex and scarcely represented in the literature. The studies further indicated that simulation could be used as a tool to determine optimal inventory policies accounting for perishability and substitution. A framework was developed summarizing management concepts and optimization techniques used in blood inventory management. This framework can be used to identify potential research areas that are available in this arena and as a guidance for future researchers who are willing to study in this field. As a further research, it is suggested to explore the behaviour of inventory management practices of multi-product, multi-echelon and perishable supply chains with highly uncertain demand and supplyItem Development of an industry 4.0 based information sharing model for the apparel industry in Sri Lanka: A systematic review of literature(4th International Research Symposium on Pure and Applied Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2019) Udakanjalee, H.; Miuli, K.; Savini, N.; Tharaka, V. K.The world is currently experiencing the benefits of the fourth industrial revolution which is termed as Industry 4.0. The objective of this research is to identify the most appropriate Industry 4.0 tools to improve the productivity of intra and inter-organizational information flow in the Sri Lankan apparel industry. Inefficient Information flows across the supply chain partners in the Sri Lankan apparel industry has been identified as a major drawback contributing to reduced performance levels. The interruption of the flow of information within the organization and with other stakeholders cause problems such as disruption of smooth production flow, production delays, confusion among employees and poor customer interactions, etc. The methodology used in this research was a structured literature review in which research papers published under the keywords industry 4.0, sustainable supply chains, and information sharing models were reviewed. Approximately 20 research papers published between the years 2015-2019 in key research databases including Scopus, Emerald Insight and Research Gate were referred and reviewed to gather facts using the above keywords. It has been identified that there is a lack of researches in the area of information sharing within the organizational level using industry 4.0 tools. Then a pilot survey has been conducted with two of the leading Sri Lankan apparel manufacturing companies in order to gain an industrial perspective. The developed model is focused on improving the productivity of information sharing within different functional units of the organization and among the end-to-end Supply Chain partners by combining Industry 4.0 tools. This model guides the companies in the apparel industry to create efficient information sharing across the supply chain, through mapping the information flow across the partners upon the ERP integration with industry 4.0 tools. Briefly, the model suggests extracting data from the work floor through IoT devices, analyzing using big data and Artificial Intelligence before transmitted to the relevant departments. Using Augmented Reality and simulations work floor activities can be easily communicated to the workers. Cloud-based solutions are used for vertical integration with other organizationsItem Transport optimization models for the downstream agricultural supply chain: A systematic review of literature(4th International Research Symposium on Pure and Applied Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2019) Kaldera, H. G. S. R.; Tharaka, V. K.; Wickramarachchi, A. P. R.Agricultural supply chains play a major role in the Sri Lankan economy as the agricultural sector accounts for 7.6% of the total gross domestic product and 26.6% of the total employment. Sri Lankan consumers have to pay more for vegetable products mainly due to the perishable nature of vegetables and the inefficiencies in the supply chain which is leading to high levels of wastage. According to previous research, 48% of post-harvest wastage happens during transportation. Some other factors that contribute to such waste include: packaging, storage conditions, communication of information, and excess supply. The objective of this study is to explore existing network optimization models for the vegetable supply chains in order to minimize cost and wastage levels. Factors that contribute to inefficiencies, prevailing policies and the current operating model of the downstream logistics in vegetable supply chain have been examined through a systematic review of 30 selected research papers. Various distribution network optimization models, tools and techniques that could be used for this purpose were reviewed through literature analysis. A framework was developed for distribution network optimization of vegetable supply chain in order to reduce wastage and increase the efficiency of the downstream logistics process. Based on the review of literature, Mixed-integer linear programming and integer programming were identified as widely used models for developing a three-stage optimized distribution network. Data regarding Cost, time, distance between distribution centres and retail locations and transported quantities are required to develop these models. In addition, simulation, genetic algorithms, heuristic and simplex are identified as potential techniques and CPLEX, Xpress-MP, GLPK and Supply Chain Guru are identified as tools that are capable of deriving optimal solutions by considering all the elected variables. In conclusion, this research discusses how the end consumer is benefitted by an optimized agricultural distribution network. Further, this research provides an insight into the currently available knowledge in the research area and acts as a guide for developing an optimized distribution network while suggesting the most suitable optimization models and techniques for future research on the agricultural supply chain in Sri LankaItem Determination of heavy metals in soil in chronic kidney disease of unknown etiology affected areas of Karanbankulama (A preliminary study(4th International Research Symposium on Pure and Applied Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2019) Rajaguru, R. A. M. T. S.; Subramanium, S.S.; De Silva, R. C. L.The increased prevalence of Chronic Kidney Disease of unknown etiology (CKDu) among specific occupational groups confined to specific geographical regions of Sri Lanka has dragged the attention of scientific community in recent years. The objective of the study was to determine the concentrations of heavy metals Cu, Cr, Zn, Pb and Cd and characteristics like moisture content, organic matter content, pH and conductivity in soil samples obtained in the areas which are affected CKDu. The study was conducted in the Karanbankulama area in North Central Province, Sri Lanka. Soil samples were collected from reservoirs and paddy fields. Prior to the heavy metal analysis an acid or acid combination such as HCl: HNO3, HNO3: H2O2 and HNO3 was examined to digest the soil samples aid with microwave digestion. A higher metal concentration was obtained for aqua regia for each metal mentioned above when a selected soil sample was treated with the above acid combinations. Flame Atomic Absorption Spectrometer was used for the analysis of the samples. The resulted concentrations were 10-37, 20-86, 3-30 and 25-50 mg kg-1 for Cu, Pb, Cr and Zn respectively. However, Cd was not in detectable limits by FAAS. The results showed that the concentrations of Cr, Zn, Pb were in the permissible levels set by WHO (World Health Organization) while the concentration of Cu was recorded slightly above the permissible levels in paddy field soil of some sites. The soil characterization studies showed that the pH of the soil in tanks and paddy fields was in between 5-7. Moreover, the soil conductivity measurements showed a considerable variation even between the samples of the same site. This may be due to the variations in the accumulation of fertilizer in the paddy field. Furthermore, the concentration of the electrolytes was less than that of the paddy fields. The organic matter percentage of the soils in tanks in two sites were relatively higher than other sites. The moisture percentage in the tank soil samples was in the range 1-4% while it was 1-3% in the soil samples in the paddy fieldsItem Vehicle routing optimization in Sri Lankan megacity logistics context(4th International Research Symposium on Pure and Applied Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2019) Warnakulasuriya, M. M.; Vidanagamachchi, K.; Niwunhella, D. H. H.; Nanayakkara, L. D. J. F.Sri Lanka has been making its way to develop its metropolitan city, Colombo, as a megacity. Transportation is one of the basic components to consider in planning any city emerging as megacities. City logistics function is a major factor which influences the economy and the social activities of a country. In megacity logistics, the growth in the volume of freight traffic and the aim to optimize the logistics activities have led research in recent years. According to the National Transport Report for year 2017, Port of Colombo handled 651,968 of Imports (TEUs) alone in year 2016. The majority of the destinations of this freight is Colombo and its suburbs. Considering the growing demands, the Western Region Megapolis Master Plan has been developed to cater systematic inland freight transportation in Colombo and suburbs. Therefore, it is important to focus on optimizing the urban transport network as well as the freight transport which has been given insignificant attention to date. Routing of flows and scheduling of deliveries are the two main factors to be considered in optimizing freight transport on which a lot of opportunities lie upon. Routing of flows is the pattern of flow at different spatial scales and scheduling of deliveries determines the flow of freight traffic through time windows. This study investigates the impact of city logistics for the road network in Sri Lanka, considering the main land transport corridors to map the freight flows as identified in the Megapolis Master Plan – Sri Lanka. This is done through a systematic data collection from a company handling freights within Colombo to match the Sri Lankan city logistic scenario about the freight transport regarding the units that are transported, and travel times taken for the considered destinations from the depot where freights are consolidated before released into the road network. It also identifies main city destinations around Colombo, the freight flows and freight volumes (in TEUs) in determining the impact of it for the road network. Thereby, this study will depict a vehicle routing optimization model to optimize the freight outflow function, minimizing the time taken. This is conducted through a simulation-based approach using the Supply Chain Guru simulation and modelling software, which is tested with the data collected. This vehicle routing simulation will provide platform for improved operation with identified demands to minimize the freight traffic and decision making in terms of the road network utilization for future demandsItem GIS as a tool to find the suitable place for construction of water tanks in Karuwalabadda, Puttalam District, Sri Lanka(4th International Research Symposium on Pure and Applied Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2019) Vaigunthan, T.; Lansakara, L. M. A. P.; Weerasinghe, V. P. A.The United Nations has long been addressing the global water crisis caused by insufficient water supply to satisfy basic human needs and growing demands on the world's water resources to meet human, commercial and agricultural needs. Although there are lots of water bodies in Sri Lanka some parts of the country suffer with a severe water crisis. Karuwalabadda is a Grama Niladari Division (GND) in Puttalam district in Sri Lanka which has 135 houses and more than 245 families and there are no any surface water bodies observed in the area. The most considerable problem in that area is the lack of drinking water due to longer period of drought except 4 -5 months. Many organizations and students from different universities tried to help them as short term solutions by distributing water in bowsers and bottles. There were several drawbacks of these solutions such as water distribution coverage is changing, water distribution does not occur throughout the day, higher fuel waste for water bowsers, there is no specific route for distribution of water and plastic bottles make environmental problem etc. Hence previous solutions are not sustainable, it is proposed to construct tanks permanently in different locations of the area. The suitable locations to construct water tanks were found out using ArcGIS software for the construction of tanks with minimum environmental impacts. From the GND map of Sri Lanka, Karuwalabadda study area was extracted and digitized with houses and main roads. Buffer was done 500m away from houses and 75m away from roads and then reclassified. Land use map of Karuwalabadda was converted from vector to raster. Surface water layer was not considered because there are no any surface water body in Karuwalabadda GND. Criteria for the suitable locations were bare land, 500 m away from houses and 75 m away from main roads. The final suitable area to construct water tanks map was prepared by assigning weightage to different thematic maps as 60% to land use map, 20% to houses and 20% to roads and then they were superimposed by weighted overlay tool. Final map was classified into 03 classes as suitable, moderately suitable and not suitable area. From suitable area 07 locations were selected to construct the water tanks. It was observed that constructing seven tanks of capacity 3000 L in the selected areas the water need of the whole village can be fulfilled. Proposed number of families for one tank can be approximately 22 families. Society based maintenance can be an effective way to maintain these tanks and by handing over these tanks to Preadeshiya Sabha water can be filled once a week. GIS technology is an effective and efficient tool for solving any location based environmental problems in the world and it has more potential to be used further to overcome many environmental challenges.