Browsing by Author "Ranasinghe, P"

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Embargo
E-Learning Assistive System for Deaf and Mute Students
(IEEE, 2022-12-09) Ranasinghe, P; Akash, K; Nanayakkara, L; Perera, H; Chandrasiri, S; Kumari, S
E-learning has become a popular digital platform among both students and teachers. When using an e-learning system, deaf-mute students can get significant benefits. It allows students to better grasp their studies by providing additional details. The major problem that the deaf and mute community encounters in the e-learning environment is that they are no longer attempting to enroll in normal institutions, which do not provide many facilities for them due to a lack of resources, a lack of learning facilities, and some social disturbances. To achieve that problem this system will translate the lecturer’s voice into text, map words with pre-created sign language animations, generate subtitles for lecture videos, clearly identify the face position of the lecturer, detect difficult words, track the hand gestures, and practice sign language so that it will increase learning resources, facilities, usability and help teachers to execute their teaching process through this platform. Therefore, normal institutions can use this system as their learning management system. It will approach deaf and mute students to enroll in normal institutions and do their studies as typical students.
Embargo
The Hope: An Interactive Mobile Solution to Overcome the Writing, Reading and Speaking Weaknesses of Dyslexia
(IEEE, 2019-08-19) Thelijjagoda, S; Chandrasiri, M; Hewathudalla, D; Ranasinghe, P; Wickramanayake, I
Dyslexia is the most common disorder in the world that have weaknesses in writing, reading and speaking. As a well spread disorder there are several stages of Dyslexia that has to recognize before giving the treatments. The current treatment is known as “Speech Therapy” which is given by a doctor or a therapist in a hospital or in a special education unit. These weaknesses are more wide spread and effects one in five people in the world. Dyslexia also runs in families. It can be recognized in kindergarten but if not it will be a huge disadvantage and will cause difficulties for further studies when the victim grows up. The people who are suffering from Dyslexia are step aside of the society and most of them are not very social and not open to the society. Therefor the treatment has to be creative and unique in order to get it in to the user. This tool named “The Hope” assembles Dyslexia therapies in a graphical and creative way to present the user to make it more accurate. Key content of this research covers selecting the Dyslexia stage, load the therapies and detect gestures and voice. The end result will be mainly based on Artificial Intelligence, Virtual reality, Image processing and Voice recognition technologies. Whoever suffers from Dyslexia or anyone who is willing to improve their writing, reading and speaking skills can use “The Hope” with a parent or a guardian and can get a clear improvement by following the therapies that the application provides daily. Application will provide an appreciation and a reward system to motivate and encourage the user to use the application daily. Following the therapies daily will improve the user skills. This tool lets users easily recognize their writing, reading and speaking weaknesses and will help to overcome them in a creative and accurate way.
Open Access
In Silico Analysis of the Diversity of DPYD Gene Variants Aff ecti ng Fluoropyrimidine Toxicity: A Comparison of South Asians with Other World Populati ons
(Faculty of Humanities and Sciences, SLIIT, 2024-12-04) Perera, N; Weerasinghe, M; Kasturiarachchi, J; Ranasinghe, P
Fluoropyrimidine (FP) chemotherapy drug is uti lized to treat colon, head, neck and breast cancers. Apart from its eff ecti veness, toxicity is a limitati on. DPD (dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase) enzyme, which aids in the FP metabolism is produced by the highly polymorphic DPYD gene. Mutati ons in the DPYD gene cause the defi ciency or non-functi onality of the DPD enzyme which varies among diff erent populati ons. This research aimed to compare allele frequencies of common DPYD gene variants of South Asians (SAS) such as DPYD*2A(rs3918290), DPYD*9(rs1801265), DPYD*5, rs2297595, DPYD*6, rs17376848, rs56038477, DPYD*4(rs1801158), rs67376798 and rs75017182 with Africans (AFR), Amish (AMI), Lati n Americans (AMR), Ashkenazi Jewish (ASJ), East Asians (EAS), Finnish (FIN) and Non-Finnish (NFE). Allele frequencies were obtained from the Genome Aggregati on Database in the PharmGKB database. Χ² analysis was performed. p<0.05 was deemed to be stati sti cally signifi cant. The study found a signifi cant diff erence between the SAS populati on and AFR, AMR, ASJ, EAS, FIN and NFE populati ons for the DPYD*9A gene variant, except for the AMI populati on. The distributi on of the DPYD*2A gene variant of SAS was found to be signifi cant in the AFR, ASJ, FIN and NFE populati ons, except for AMR and AMI. The prevalence of DPYD*5, DPYD*6, rs17376848, and rs56038477 in the SAS signifi cantly diff ered from all above-menti oned populati ons. The distributi on of the rs75017182 gene variant in SAS has shown signifi cant diff erences with AFR, AMR, ASJ and EAS except for NFE and FIN. This study highlights the variati ons in pharmacogenomics data specifi c to populati ons that could lead to personalized medicine and the need for DPYD genotyping before cancer treatment, especially in SAS communiti es where clinically signifi cant geneti c variati ons and haplotypes occur. Study fi ndings pinpoint the potenti al contributi on of DPYD gene variati ons to individual variability in anti -cancer dosage requirements among SAS.
Open Access
A Study on the Diversity of Pharmacogenomic Variants Aff ecti ng Dapsone Hypersensiti vity: A Comparati ve Study Based on South Asian and Other World Populati ons
(Faculty of Humanities and Sciences, SLIIT, 2024-12-04) Weerasinghe, M; Perera, N; Kasthuriarachchi, J; Ranasinghe, P
Recent data from Sri Lanka indicates an increase in leprosy cases, emphasizing the necessity of dapsone as a drug vital for managing it. Ironically, dapsone eff ecti veness is accompanied by dapsone hypersensiti vity syndrome (DHS) which varies among populati ons. We postulate that this is due to signifi cant diff erences between SNP frequencies in HLA-B*13:01, CYP2C9*3, rs701829, rs17211071, and rs201929247. As per our reading, no comparati ve study has been done so far on DHS and related genes between South Asian (SAS) and other world populati ons. Therefore, this study compares the allele frequencies of SNPs from PharmGKB and dbSNP of world populati ons against SAS using chisquare (χ²) tests. For HLA-B*13:01; it is reported that Europeans, Africans, African others, and African Americans have demonstrated signifi cant diff erences, and Asians, EAS, Other Asians, and Lati n Americans have shown no signifi cant diff erences. For CYP2C9*3 and rs701829; Americans, Africans, Amish, Ashkenazi Jews, East Asians (EAS), Finns, and Non-Finnish Europeans (NFE) all have demonstrated a signifi cant diff erence from SAS. For rs17211071, Africans, Amish, Americans, East Asians, Finns, and NFE demonstrated no signifi cant diff erence, and ASJ showed a signifi cant diff erence. For rs201929247, Africans and Finns had no signifi cant diff erences, whereas Americans, Amish, ASJ, EAS, and NFE had. Hence, compared with other populati ons, allele frequencies of some studied SNPs were signifi cantly diff erent in SAS, and these may likely account for the variability of DHS occurrence among these populati ons. Signifi cant allele frequency diff erences between SAS and the rest of the world populati ons’ impact personalized medicine in leprosy treatment. Clinical research needs to determine the opti mal dapsone dose alterati ons, considering environmental and other factors behind DHS.