Book Chapters

Permanent URI for this collection https://rda.sliit.lk/handle/123456789/4200

The book chapters authored by SLIIT researchers are included in this collection. Access to full texts may be restricted depending on the access and licensing terms.

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Now showing 1 - 20 of 20

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IT Management Practices in Small Firms
(IGI Global, 2005) Cragg, P; Suraweera, T
Computer based information systems have grown in importance to small firms and are now being used increasingly to help them compete. For example, many small firms have turned to the World Wide Web to support their endeavours. Although the technology that is being used is relatively well understood, its effective management is not so well understood. A good understanding is important as the management of IT is an attribute that has the potential to deliver a sustainable competitive advantage to a firm (Mata, Fuerst, & Barney, 1995). This chapter shows that there is no one accepted view of the term “IT management” for either large or small firms. However, the term “management” is often considered to include the four functions of planning, organising, leading, and controlling. This framework can be applied to small firms and specifically to their IT management practices.
Open Access
Strengthening University-Industry Linkage in Developing Countries through International Cooperation: Case of Sri Lanka through Cooperation of Toyohashi University of Technology, Japan
(Springer, Dordrecht, 2008) Homma, H; Attalage, R. A; Ikeda, N
The paper aims at highlighting the importance & the role of the University-Industry linkage in fostering the development of engineering education in developing countries. International cooperation is employed as the tool for strengthening this link and the pilot project on the faculty of engineering, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka (UoM) through the efforts of the International Cooperation Center for Engineering Education Development (ICCEED) of Toyohashi University of Technology (TUT), Japan is described. The project implementation strategy & current status are presented and the expected output is highlighted.
Open Access
EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE POOR ASSESSING SPATIAL DISPARITIES
(South Asia center for policy Studies, 2009-02) Tilakaratna, G; Tilakaratna, A; Jayatilaka, R; Perera, R
Sri Lanka enjoys a remarkable progress in terms of its basic education indicators, compared to many other developing countries in the world. By 2004, it had an adult literacy rate of about 92.5 per cent, and a net primary enrolment ratio of 98 per cent. The primary completion ratio for Sri Lanka is also relatively high, with only about 3 per cent of the students dropping out before reaching grade 5. Moreover, Sri Lanka has achieved significant progress in gender equality in education. The adult literacy rate for female is 96 per cent of that for male while youth literacy rate for female is as high as 101 percent of that for male. In addition, net primary enrolment ratio for female is about 97 per cent and is at the same level as that for male students. However, it is interesting to note that the combined ratio for all educational levels for female is about 102 per cent of that for male, implying higher enrolments among female students
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IT Management in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises
(IGI Global, 2010) Suraweera, T
Computer-based information systems have grown in importance to SMEs, and are now being used increasingly to help them compete. For example, many SMEs have turned to the Internet to support their endeavours. Although the technology that is being used is relatively well understood, its effective management is not so well understood. A good understanding of IT management is important, as the management of IT is an attribute that has the potential to deliver a sustainable competitive advantage to a firm (Mata, Fuerst, & Barney, 1995). This article shows that there is no one accepted view of the term “IT management” for either large or small firms. However, the term “management” is often considered to include the four functions of planning, organising, leading, and controlling. This framework has been applied to SMEs and specifically to their IT management. The article also shows that recent studies have shown significant links between IT management and both IT adoption and IT success. Resource-based theory is helping researchers gain a greater understanding of IT competences. These advances look likely to improve our understanding of the relationship between IT use and SME performance.
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Recent trends in EMG-Based control methods for assistive robots
(InTech, 2013-05-22) Gopura, R. A. R. C; Bandara, D. S. V; Gunasekara, J. M. P; Jayawardena, T. S. S
Utilization of electrodiagnosis; namely electromyography (EMG), nerve conduction studies, late responses, repetitive nerve stimulation techniques, quantitative EMG and evoked potentials, has long been discussed in many text books as basic principles. However the usage of electroneuromyography is rather new in some aspects when compared with tasks of daily practise. This book, we believe, will cover and enlighten those aspects where electrodiagnosis has begun to play important roles nowadays.
Open Access
Poverty Concepts, Trends in Global Poverty and Sri Lanka
(Department of Demography, University of Colombo, 2015-03) Jayathilaka, R
There is a large body of literature on the concept of poverty in general and its measurement. Poverty has been one of the most debated concepts in development economics and international trade, with the international focus on poverty reduction under Millennium Development Goals (MDG) drawing much attention to its definition and measurement. Over at least the last two decades, the definition of poverty has also been a central issue in policy making towards poverty reduction in developing countries. The reason for this is because poverty definitions and measurements have important implications for poverty reduction policies. A study of India and Peru, drawing on both national data and micro surveys, found that significantly different people were identified as poor in the two countries. This was determined according to two different measurements of poverty ranging from a narrow definition, in terms of the monetary capability, to a broader definition, in terms of the participatory approach adopted by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) (Ehrenpreis, 2006)
Open Access
Improving the understanding of safe-sex behaviours with the use of two models in Health Psychology
(Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Abeysinghe, N
Health psychology, which is a branch of psychology, aims to understand human health (wellbeing, illnesses, and vulnerabilities) from a biopsychosocial perspective that takes the biological, psychological, and social aspects of life into consideration. This sub-discipline broadly emphases its role in health promotion and maintenance of health, prevention and treatment of illness, detection and focus on causes of illnesses, and overall improvement of the health care system. Health psychologists utilise a broad range of psychological theories and models developed within the sub-discipline for the above functions. This paper outlines how two theoretical models in Health Psychology, the Transtheoretical Model (TTM), and the Health Belief Model (HBM), contribute to the understanding of safe-sex behaviours. Unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases are noticeable problems around the globe. Almost one million adolescent women aged 19 or under become pregnant each year in the USA alone (Ventura & Freedman, 2000), and the number of adolescents acquiring sexually transmitted infections (STI), including Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), approximates to 3.5 million (Chambers, & Rew, 2003). In the UK the number of new diagnoses for STIs has increased from 63% over the last ten years (Health Protection Agency, 2008). In relation to homosexual relationships, there is still a high incidence of unsafe sex, mainly in the form of unprotected anal intercourse, despite the long number of years of health promotion and education aimed at this population (Crossley, 2000).
Open Access
Development Plan as a Tool to Improve the Disaster Resilience of Urban Areas
(Springer, Cham, 2017-03-22) Perera, R; Khaimi, D; Khailani, B
This chapter argues for the mainstreaming of disaster resilience attributes in local development plans as an overarching adaptive measure with regards to urban areas facing climate related disasters. The chapter is based on empirical research involving a group of professional urban planners and managers who are responsible for formulating development plans for local urban areas in a developing country. Using the key-informant technique, the research investigated the ideas of a set of professional planners and managers regarding the suitable urban planning strategies to improve the resilience of local areas against a common hazard (e.g., flooding) that has a tendency to intensify due to climate change. In the next step, the common attributes of more frequently suggested strategies were identified using the principal component analysis technique. In the last step, the extent to which the local development planning system has responded so far to the vulnerability reduction and resilience improvement needs of the civil society. The findings indicate that local planners are sensitive to the flood risks faced by people. They have incorporated policies and strategies in the local development plan to minimize exposure of the people and property to flood hazard and improve the adaptive capacity of the urban settlements. However, the sector-based organization of the plan prepared by the federal level planners was found to be a hindrance to improving mainstream disaster resilience attributes in development planning. Therefore, the paper calls for strengthening the participatory planning and development capacity of the local authorities to enable more resolute mainstreaming of disaster resilience in local development plans.
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Case Studies: Use of Low Strain Transient Dynamic Response Method for Rock Socketed End Bearing Bored Piles
(ASTM Compass, 2018-05-28) Kodithuwakku, T. H; Thilakasiri, S; Rathnayaka, A
The transient dynamic response (TDR) method has been introduced to pile integrity testing over several decades. The TDR method requires measuring both pile top velocity and force induced at the pile top by a small handheld hammer. Force and velocity information can be used to determine the pile condition near the top of the pile and the stiffness of pile-soil-rock system. It has been suggested by researchers that the dynamic stiffness at low frequencies obtained from the TDR method relates to the static stiffness of a pile. The static stiffness determines the initial linear region of load-displacement behavior of a particular pile. However, little attention has been paid to developing a correlation between the dynamic stiffness obtained from the TDR method and the static stiffness of a pile head. Therefore, systematic field tests were performed on rock-socketed end-bearing bored piles to determine both dynamic stiffness and static stiffness. The piles were tested using both high-strain dynamic load testing and low-strain pile integrity testing. Based on the field testing results, this paper suggests a correlation between dynamic stiffness and static stiffness. Furthermore, successful implementation of the TDR method on rock-socketed end-bearing bored piles is verified through case studies. In addition, the case studies show that dynamic stiffness and first resonant frequency could be used to identify the doubtful piles having low toe stiffness.
Open Access
Drawing in or ruling out “Family?” The evolution of the family systems approach in Sri Lanka
(Springer, Cham, 2019) Ekanayake, E. S; Abeysinghe, N
This chapter traces the baby steps of family systems approaches (FSA) in Sri Lanka. It captures some of the early known discussions about FSA held between academics, development workers, practitioners and grassroots counsellors and shares with the reader their genuine questions, doubts, cautious enthusiasm and joyous discoveries. The chapter also provides insights into the sociocultural realities within which counselling services are offered, the nature of the mental health and psychosocial services (MHPSS) in Sri Lanka, the diverse players and the specific limitations and challenges that proponents of FSA would need to navigate. The reader is invited to experience two real-life events in which the authors have explored the adaptation and use of FSA together with their students, co-workers and trainees. The first is in a classroom where masters-level students of counselling experience FSA as a practical learning experience. The second shares explorations with field counsellors working directly with vulnerable family members of migrant workers. These two scenarios highlight the reasons for and the manner in which FSA has been chosen as a robust, flexible and powerful tool capable of addressing the demands of evolving family systems and a changing Sri Lankan society.
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Virtual community based destination marketing with YouTube: Investigation of a typology
(IGI Global, 2020) Sambhanthan, A; Thelijjagoda, S; Good, A; Scupola, A
YouTube has now evolved into a powerful medium for social interaction. Utilizing YouTube for enhancing marketing endeavours is a strategy practiced by marketing professionals across several industries. This paper rationalizes on the different strategies of leveraging YouTube-based platforms for effective destination marketing by the hospitality industry (hotels) and provides insights on the critical drivers and challenges embedded within YouTube-based community interactions for destination marketing. The comments made by YouTube users have been subjected to a content analysis and the results are reported under the five broad clusters of virtual communities. More broadly, the typology of virtual communities is adapted to evaluate the YouTube platform for effective destination marketing.
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Predicting the academic performance of students using utility-based data mining
(IGI Global, 2020) Liyanage, S. R; Kasthuriarachchi, K. T. S
Data mining in education has become an important topic in the sphere of influence of data mining. Mining educational data encompasses developing models, plotting data, and utilizing machine learning algorithms to derive patterns on educational data by attempting to uncover hidden patterns, create information for hidden relationships using educational statistics, and perform many more operations that are unfeasible using traditional computational tools. This research aims to identify the main factors that influence the academic performance of learners in tertiary education system in Sri Lanka. A conceptual framework and an analytical framework on factors affecting the academic performance was constructed with this aim. The analytical framework was then validated with the data collected from technology learners in a tertiary educational institute.
Open Access
Intelligent Vision Impaired Indoor Navigation Using Visible Light Communication
(Springer, Cham, 2020) Jayakody, A; Murray, I; Hermann, J; Lokuliyana, S; Dunuwila, V
Recent statistics of the World Health Organization (WHO) indicate that over 253 million of the world’s population to be visually impaired. Most of these individuals use the white cane as an assistive tool or are often accompanied by caretakers or voluntary helpers as indoor navigation is particularly challenging for them. This chapter describes a substitute vision system designed to assist vision impaired individuals through the use of visible light communication and geomagnetism. Furthermore, the use of database optimization increases the speed and efficiency of data retrieval thus reducing system response time. Though navigation systems that support the visual impaired are readily available, there have been no systems that use both visible light communication and geomagnetism capable of providing accurate and secure indoor navigation assistance, which in turn would increase the overall satisfaction of the system users.
Open Access
Regaining construction momentum
(Sri Lanaka Economic Association, 2020-08) Jayathilaka, R; Gunaratna, K. L
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iParking—Smart Way to Automate the Management of the Parking System for a Smart City
(John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2021-04-06) Jayakody, A; Edirisinghe, E. A. G. A; Karunanayaka, S. A. H. M; Ekanayake, E. M. C. S; Dikkumbura, H. K. T. M; Bandara, L. A. I. M
Due to the highest usage of vehicles which occurs with developing economy and the improved city modernization level, traffic congestion and parking have become one of the main social problems. Despite the progress, there is still a need for an enhanced and distributed solution that can exploit data and provide an appropriate and real-time method on parking systems. This paper describes the design and implementation of a smart parking management system (SPMS) which can solve the previously mentioned parking problem. Huge traffic causes a considerable deal of damage, like the increment of accidents, the air pollution caused by a substantial amount of CO2 released by vehicles, and the unnecessary stress on drivers who must drive in often narrow and very busy roads and time wastage to find a free spot to park. Thus, to take care of the parking issue, present day advances have been made to furnish vehicle parks with smart devices that help street clients to identify the nearest available car park. In this paper, the development of the new fully automated parking system which is called iParking is presented. IParking is a design and a development of a smart parking system that will ensure the implementation of the outdoor parking system for the Smart City concept by using image processing (IP) and machine learning (ML). With connected to smart parking, a mobile app alerts the user about available spaces and guide user to the exact location with accuracy. IParking system aims to take the driver’s stress out while finding a parking space in city centers where all cars in the city are looking for parking slots in the same time.
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HemoSmart: A Non-Invasive Device and Mobile App for Anemia Detection
(John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2021-04-06) Jayakody, A; Edirisinghe, E. A. G. A; Lokuliyana, S
The Hemoglobin concentration in human blood is an important substance to health condition determination. With the results which are obtained from Hemoglobin test, a condition which is called as Anemia (a low level of Hemoglobin) can be revealed. Traditionally the Hemoglobin test is done using blood samples which are taken using needles. The non-invasive Hemoglobin level detection system, discussed in this paper, describes a better idea about the hemoglobin concentration in the human blood. The images of the fingertip of the different hemoglobin level patients which is taken using a camera is used to develop the neural network-based algorithm. The pre-mentioned algorithm is used in the developed non-invasive device to display the Hemoglobin level. Before doing the above procedure, an account is created in the mobile app and a questionnaire is given to answer by the patient. Finally, both the results which are obtained from the mobile app and the device are run through a machine learning algorithm to get the final output. According to the final result patient would be able to detect anemia at an early stage.
Open Access
Where Ethics and Culture Collide: Ethical Dilemmas in Grief Work Following the Easter Sunday Attacks in Sri Lanka
(Springer, Cham, 2021-05-23) Abeysinghe, N; Ekanayake, E. S
The success of mental health care for individuals and affected communities is strongly connected to the service providers' adherence to ethical standards of the profession. These ethical standards aim to ensure the safety, well-being and the best possible quality of service to the service users. As trainees and novice counsellors, these aspects are discussed and learned in detail during counsellor training programmes and other courses in mental health care. Continued professional supervision is considered an essential element of providing mental health care within an ethical framework by almost all the counsellor and mental health-care professional bodies in the world. Yet, this is practiced by few practitioners in low- and middle-income countries due to the shortage of trained, accessible, experienced supervisors. In this chapter, we discuss the importance of continued supervision in a changing sociocultural context to help mental health practitioners to be alert and prompt to safeguard the clients and ensure the best possible care for them when cultural aspects and ethical standards of client care are in conflict as they some times are.
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An Empirical Study on Paddy Harvest and Rice Demand Prediction for an Optimal Distribution Plan
(wiley, 2022-03-04) Rankothge, W. H
This book provides the state-of-the-art applications of Machine Learning in IoT environment. The most common use cases for machine learning and IoT data are predictive maintenance, followed by analyzing CCTV surveillance, smart home applications, smart-healthcare, in-store ‘contextualized marketing’ and intelligent transportation systems. Readers will gain an insight into the integration of Machine Learning with IoT in various application domains.
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Learning Style Preferences of Business Students in Saudi Arabia
(IGI GLOBLE Scientific, 2024) Rajapakshe, W
This chapter describes different types of learning style models It further explores Saudi Arabian business students' behavior regarding their preferences for different learning styles, as defined by the VAK learning styles model. 138 respondents who registered for theoretical courses and 128 for mathematical courses participated in the study. The data was gathered using a VAK modality questionnaire. The analysis indicated an apparent inclination towards multimodal learning compared to unimodal learning, with visual learning being the most favored unimodal mode. Moreover, the results of the independent sample t-test reveal no statistically significant difference in preferences among students enrolled in theoretical modules and those enrolled in mathematical modules.
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Addressing Academic Stress: Implications for Female Students in Saudi Arabia
(IGI GLOBLE Scientific, 2024) Rajapaksha, W
Saudi Arabia's higher education policies have propelled a surge in female enrollment, mitigating female unemployment and bolstering the Saudization initiative. This surge in national education has curbed reliance on foreign institutions and facilitated access to higher education for local high school graduates. However, despite these advancements, student dropout rates and academic underperformance persist. This study investigates the influence of stressors on academic performance among female students in Saudi Arabia. Findings indicate that academic stress and stressors related to personality significantly affect academic performance, while stressors linked to career paths do not exhibit a similar impact.