Research Publications

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End date: 2012Has files: Yes

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 281
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    PublicationOpen Access
    Trade Liberalisation and Poverty in South Asia
    (Taylor & Francis Books, 2011) JAYATHILAKA, R; DE MEL, D
    The relationship between trade and poverty has long been debated in academic and policy circles. The purpose of this chapter is to contribute to this debate through an in-depth study of the experience of Sri Lanka, the first country in South Asia to break away from the protectionist past by embarking on a decisive process of economic opening in 1977. During the first decade after independence in 1948, Sri Lanka continued with a liberal trade regime, until growing balance of payments problems induced a policy shift towards protectionist import substitution policies from the early 1960s. By the mid-1970s the Sri Lankan economy had become one of the most inwardoriented and regulated outside the group of centrally planned economies. In 1977, Sri Lanka responded to the dismal economic outcome of the closedeconomy era by embarking on an extensive economic liberalisation process, becoming the first country in the South Asian region to do so. Despite major macroeconomic problems and political turmoil, market-oriented reforms have been sustained over the ensuing years. Sri Lanka is now classified as one of the few developing countries outside East Asia that have achieved a clear policy shift from the entrenched import-substitution era. This policy transition has brought about notable structural changes in the economy (Athukorala and Rajapatirana 2000; World Bank 2005b; Kelegama 2006). However, the impact of liberalisation reforms on the incidence of poverty and poverty reduction has not yet been systematically studied. Therefore, the main objective of this chapter is to systematically examine the link between trade liberalisation and poverty reduction through employment channels. The chapter is arranged as follows: Section 2 provides an overview of trade policy shifts and the role of trade in the economy. Section 3 surveys the incidence and patterns of poverty. Section 4 examines key channels through which trade policy impacts on poverty. Section 5 examines some cross-cutting issues. Section 6 reports the results of an econometric analysis undertaken to examine the determinant of poverty at the household level with emphasis on the impact of trade policy. The chapter ends with a summary of key findings and policy inferences.
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    PublicationOpen Access
    Identification of the Poor in Sri Lanka: Development of Composite Indicator and Regional Poverty Lines
    (researchgate.net, 2006-03) Siddhisena, p; Jayathilaka, R
    The identification of the poor and the definition of poverty is rather complex since poverty dimensions are multifaceted. Poverty is not just an inadequacy of income to meet basic needs or the inability to spend. It is largely associated with numerous demographic, socio-economic, cultural, environmental, health and psychological factors. The aim of this study is therefore to compute a composite indicator of multidimensional poverty and regional poverty lines to identify the severity of poverty and regional disparities of poverty. The study was based on the two data sets and the main objectives of the study are: Identification of the poor by using a broader definition of poverty; Measurement of regional differences on poverty using the poverty indices and constructed poverty lines; and Development of a Composite Indicator of Multidimensional Poverty to identify poverty by severity and also to examine regional disparities of poverty.
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    PublicationOpen Access
    FTA Negotiations in Asia-Pacific Region: An Empirical Study on the Determinants FTA among the Bilateral Trading Partners
    (researchgate.net, 2009-11) Jayathilaka, R; Keembiyahetti, N
    Historically, Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) have been, and will continue to be, an important gateway for improving world trade, given that the world trading system is substantially hampered by man-made barriers. This paper examines into the deterministic key factors and their relative importance for FTA negotiations among the bilateral trading partners using a Probit Model based on 9,178 nonzero trading pairs having 705 active and operational bilateral FTAs. Based on the estimated model, the study projects the future potentiality of FTA negotiations in the Asia-Pacific region. The study works on eleven hypotheses regarding the dependency of FTA on the economic and non-economic characteristics of the bilateral trading partners and the findings support 9 out of the 11 hypotheses. The likelihood of forming an FTA between a pair of countries is higher: (1) the closer in distance the two trading partners are; (2) less remote a natural pair is relative to other countries; (3) economically larger the trading partners are; (4) more similar the trading partners are in economic size; (5) larger the differences in relative factor intensity are; (6) greater is the political stability; (7) more discontinued than connected by a common border; (8) for countries having higher import tariffs in the past; and (9) larger the number of FTAs the neighborhood countries have already signed up. These factors have economically important and statistically significant effects on the probability to form an FTA. However, this study rejected the null favouring alternative that (10) sharing a common language or having colonial relationships has no influence on negotiating for an FTA. Furthermore, our findings rejected (11) the null that countries having a higher degree of export/import intensity tend to form FTAs leading to the conclusion that the past trade or existing level of trade is not a good motivation to form FTAs. Based on the estimated model the study shows that the Asia-Pacific region is well beyond the South Asian region in terms of FTA potentiality, but the European region shows more potentiality than Asia-Pacific and any other region in the world.
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    PublicationEmbargo
    Design evolution of mechatronic systems through modeling, on-line monitoring, and evolutionary optimization
    (Pergamon, 2012-02-01) Gamage, L. B; De Silva, C. W; Campos, R
    This paper presents a system framework to automate the design evolution of multi-domain engineering systems. The developed system integrates machine health monitoring with an expert system to monitor the performance of an existing mechatronic system and to take a decision as to whether and which part of the system a design improvement is necessary. A system model represented by Linear Graphs is evolved using genetic programming to obtain a design that optimally satisfies a specified level of performance. The developed approach allows exploration of the design space to find the optimum design solution in an automated manner. In order to control the arbitrary exploration of the design space, domain knowledge, expertise, and input from the machine health monitoring system are used. The design evolution algorithm is implemented using GPLAB, a MATLAB tool, and integrated with Simscape for modeling and simulation. The developed system is applied to redesign the electro-mechanical conveyor system of an industrial fish processing machine.
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    PublicationOpen Access
    An interactive framework for image annotation through gaming
    (acm.org, 2010-03-29) Seneviratne, L; Izquierdo, E
    Image indexing is one of the most difficult challenges facing the computer vision community. Addressing this issue, we designed an innovative approach to obtain an accurate label for images by taking into account the social aspects of human-based computation. The proposed approach is highly discriminative in comparison to an ordinary content-based image retrieval (CBIR) paradigm. It aims at what millions of individual gamers are enthusiastic to do, to enjoy themselves within a social competitive environment. It is achieved by setting the focus of the system on the social aspects of the gaming environment, which involves a widely distributed network of human players. Furthermore, this framework integrates a number of different algorithms that are commonly found in image processing and game theoretic approaches to obtain an accurate label. As a result, the framework is able to assign (or derive) accurate tags for images by eliminating annotations made by a less-rational (cheater) player. The performance analysis of this framework has been evaluated with a group of 10 game players. The result shows that the proposed approach is capable of obtaining a good annotation through a small number of game players.
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    PublicationEmbargo
    Multi Objective Optimization of Lifecycle Cost, Unmet Load, and Renewable Energy Capacity for an Expansion of Existing Standalone Internal Combustion Generator (ICG) Systems
    (Elsevier, 2011-01-01) Perera, A. T. D; Attalage, R. A
    This paper presents, for the first time, the application of the strength Pareto evolutionary algorithm to the multi-objective design of isolated hybrid systems, minimising both the total cost throughout the useful life of the installation and the unmet load. For this task, a multi-objective evolutionary algorithm (MOEA) and a genetic algorithm (GA) have been used in order to find the best combinations of components for the hybrid system and control strategy. Also, a novel control strategy has been developed and it will be expounded in this article. As an example of application, a PV–wind–diesel system has been designed, obtaining a set of possible solutions (Pareto set) from which the designer can choose those which he/she prefers considering the costs and unmet load of each. The results obtained demonstrate the practical utility of the design method used.
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    PublicationEmbargo
    Integrating industrial technologies, tools and practices to the IT curriculum: an innovative course with .NET and java platforms
    (acm.org, 2005-10-20) Athauda, R; Kodagoda, N; Wickramaratne, J; Sumathipala, P; Rupasinghe, L; Edirisighe, A; Gamage, A; De Silva, D
    Exposure to state-of-art industry technologies, tools and practices by students provide CS/IT graduates highly desirable skills and marketability. A key expectation of the industry from their new cadre is a speedy integration into the business environment resulting in productive work. This usually requires having a sound technological background, a maturity to assess the environment and adapt quickly, and highly-developed soft skills to be productive in a team environment. Incorporating such experience and skills into a CS/IT curriculum is challenging and is still in its infancy stages. We undertook such as an endeavor in integrating .NET into the IT curriculum. Microsoft's .NET platform is becoming increasingly popular in the industry. Incorporating .NET into the undergraduate IT curriculum provides a plethora of skills and increases the employability of our graduates. We integrated .NET without a major revision to the existing curriculum by introducing an optional course in the final year (senior-level) of the IT undergraduate program. In addition to the .NET platform, the course covered the Java platform, which is similar in architecture to .NET. The course emulated an industry-based environment with real-world based assignments, focused on deliverables, used state-of-art IDEs and documentation, and pair programming to create a highly productive environment. The “soft skills” were integrated into the course with a project that implemented a virtual marketplace. Students in groups played different entities in the virtual marketplace and communicated with each other via Web Services. The project provided a virtual business environment and exposure to teamwork, collaboration, competition, negotiating, and creativity skills. Our first offering of the course in semester 1, 2005, attracted 128 students. The course created a highly productive environment throughout the semester. Students completed 7 assignments and the project within the 14-week semester. The initial results are encouraging and provide many insights to CS/IT departments planning to incorporate such courses.
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    PublicationEmbargo
    Eigenface based automatic facial feature tagging
    (IEEE, 2008-12-12) Wijeratne, S; Jayawardena, S; Jayasooriya, S; Lokupathirage, D; Patternot, M; Kodagoda, N
    There are several approaches to search databases of faces. However such methods still require a significant use of humans to interpret an eyewitness account and so forth. In many cases these searches are done using visual building tools as creating a graphical face model. A system that can easily interface with general users should directly search a person by description given verbally or textually. This would reduce costs in the search process. Facial feature characteristics identification would act as a stepping stone in cataloguing large face databases automatically thus providing the possibility of a description based face search by text. This paper presents the possibility of utilizing eigenface approach to recognize different characteristics of a facial feature and assigning descriptive words such as "Large", "Small" to each feature. After training the system, it would automatically attempt to match a pattern in the training set that best describes the input image and output a tag associated with it. This effectively allows an image of a person's face to be tagged by his or her feature characteristics. While utilizing the standard set steps as defined in the eigenface algorithm, slight modifications are done in the algorithm that matches input images with ones in the training set. The training set defined has a very huge impact for the final outcome, and due to the subjective nature of the training, future research would be done on this regard. The investigation showed that the method works fine with well defined features such as eyes but fails for features such as foreheads due to the lack of significant differences or characteristics between such features. Hence it is seen that while eigenface can be used for the categorization of well defined features, it is unable by itself to create a system that can cover all features of a face.
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    PublicationEmbargo
    Applicability of three complexity metrics
    (IEEE, 2012-12-12) De Silva, D. I; Kodagoda, N; Perera, H
    Over the years a number of complexity metrics have been proposed. However, there have been only a few studies conducted to compare those proposed metrics in terms of their practical applicability. The few researches that have been conducted to assess the applicability of a complexity metric have also used the five properties proposed by Briand et al. However determining whether a complexity measure satisfies some theoretical complexity properties is not a reliable method of determining the practical applicability of it. Thus, the main intent of this study was to compare three proposed code complexity metrics: McCabe's cyclomatic complexity, Halstead's software science and Shao and Wangs' cognitive functional size and identify which metric is the most suitable metric that can be used in the current state of the art with the help of thirty programmers. To conduct this empirical study ten freely available java programs were used as the base. From this study it was identified that Shao and Wangs' cognitive functional size is the best complexity metric that can be used in the real world.
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    PublicationEmbargo
    Voizlock-human voice authentication system using hidden markov model
    (IEEE, 2008-12-12) Maduranga, R. G; Jayamaha, M; Senadheera, M. R. R; Gamage, T. N. C; Weerasekara, K. D. P. B; Dissanayaka, G. A; Kodagoda, N
    Speaker authentication is the process of automatically recognizing who is speaking on the basis of individual information included in speech waves. Many principles are used in the area of voice recognition. This paper provides a method of storing the voiceprints of individuals uniquely, based on the Hidden Markov Model. HMM has been used in the speech recognition area for a long period of time, but VoizLock project explores a way of using HMM for voice authentication which is different from speech recognition. This voiceprint will then be used for voice authentication, using text-independent speaker recognition methods in which the system does not rely on a specific text being spoken, but solely on the voice of the speaker. This paper also provides details about certain misconceptions with regard to voice authentication that exist in the society. This paper explains more about the user training phase detailing how the voice print of an individual is stored in the system by extracting certain values of the waveform using HMM. Apart from the training phase this analyses the results obtained from the testing done covering different scenarios pertaining to voice authentication.