International Research Symposium on Pure and Applied Sciences (IRSPAS)

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Author: search.filters.author.Hakmanage, N. M.Has files: Yes

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    Association between backache related quality of life and serum creatinine in Chronic Kidney Disease of unknown aetiology (CKDu) patients in the North Central Province, Sri Lanka
    (4th International Research Symposium on Pure and Applied Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2019) Aslam, F.; Hakmanage, N. M.; Suriyakumara, V.; Sandaruwan, L.; Kumarasinghe, N.
    Chronic kidney disease of unknown aetiology (CKDu) is a slow progressive disease that cannot be detected until the later stages. This is commonly described among the agricultural communities in Sri Lanka. CKDu has been a burden over the past two decades and mainly affects the North Central province. This disease is spreading towards the Southern, North Western and Central provinces. CKDu is staged using the estimated-glomerular filtration rate (e-GFR) which is the standard test performed under the WHO guidelines using serum creatinine (SCr) measurement. Backache has been identified as a common symptom among patients suffering from any form of CKDu. It is postulated that backache can be used as an indirect measure to gain an insight about the patients’ health status. The pain measurement also allows an overall assessment of the individuals’ quality of life affecting activities of daily living and which can be used to measure total outcome of the disease. Using an interviewer-based questionnaire, backache was assessed among patients with CKDu. Roland-Morris low back pain and disability questionnaire (RMQ) was used, which had 24 questions and given scores ranging from 0-24. In addition to RMQ, five questions related to the body and pain derived from the KDQOL questionnaire (a standard tool used to determine quality of life (QOL) in kidney disease affected patients) was also used. The scores were combined and evaluated into four main types of backaches: no backache, intermittent, nociceptive and neuropathic backache. The questionnaire was categorized into four variables Correlation statistics were applied to determine the relationship between backache and SCr values in CKDu. IBM SPSS version 23 was used for the statistical analysis. Based on results, a predictive model was designed to understand the correlation between the severity of backache and serum creatinine in CKDu patients. A sample of 75 patients with CKDu were included in the analysis. R-square of 80.9% was observed only in RMQ model. The ANOVA test reported how well the regression equation fits the data. There was a positive relationship between SCr and severity of backache (p<0.001). Using the available findings, a predictive model was designed to understand the severity of backache with serum creatinine in CKDu patients. This may be used in early interventions to improve QOL. However, future studies and larger sample size are required to establish these findings
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    Route optimization of solid waste collection in Gampaha
    (Research Symposium on Pure and Applied Sciences, 2018 Faculty of Science, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2018) Hakmanage, N. M.; Jayasundara, D. D. M.
    For this study, we have selected Gampaha municipal area. According to the estimates and the enumerated population 2012 (census) in Sri Lanka, among the 25 districts, the highest population is reported from Colombo district. The second highest population is reported from Gampaha district. Even though there are several waste management problems, before a huge disaster due to unsustainable disposal waste in second populated district in Sri Lanka, we propose an optimal waste collecting path. The main objective of this research is to optimize Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) collection routes using mathematical model to maximize collected solid waste amount and minimize the cost and collection time. To use route optimization process, data related in collection process such as type of vehicles used to waste collection and capacity, the amount of solid waste production and the number of inhabitants for each route are essential. Lack of such data leads us to estimate the solid waste production amount per each route by considering the number of houses/buildings in each route. For 10 sections in the Gampaha Municipal area, the modified maximum flow amount technique and the shortest path model were used to optimize solid waste collection process with minimum cost. The Geographic Information System (GIS) and Google map were used to identify routes, count number of houses/buildings in each route, and to find route distance between each connected junctions/intersections. Total traveled distance for the waste collection at each day was calculated as 858 km after finding the optimum routes by proposed model which is more than 10% efficient compared to the current traveled distance. In the current system, 10 vehicles are being used for collection whereas proposed model needs only 8 vehicles. According to this study, 14.2% and 20% thrift can be obtained via distance and vehicle allocation respectively. The consequences of the reductions in travelled time, total time and travelled distance were savings in costs related to fuel consumption.