Research Publications

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3

Open Access
Aggressive strategies of the COVID-19 pandemic on the apparel industry of Sri Lanka using structural equation modeling
(PLoS ONE, 2023-06-21) Rajapakshe, W; Karunaratna, D. S. M.; Ariyaratne, W. H. G.; Lakshani Madushika, H. A.; Perera, G. S. K.; Shamila, P
During the COVID-19 crisis, the apparel industry faced many challenges. Aggressive cost-cutting strategies became a top priority, and in turn, these influenced stressors and adversely affected business sustainability. This study examines the impact of aggressive strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic on business sustainability in the apparel industry of Sri Lanka. Further, it investigates whether the relationship between aggressive cost-cutting strategies and business sustainability was mediated by employee stress, considering aggressive cost reduction strategies and workplace environmental changes. This was a cross-sectional study with data collected from 384 employees in the apparel industry in Sri Lanka. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was applied to analyze the direct and indirect effects of aggressive cost reduction strategies and workplace environmental changes on sustainability with mediating effects of stress. Aggressive cost reduction strategies (Beta = 1.317, p = 0.000) and environmental changes (Beta = 0.251, p = 0.000) led to an increase in employee stress but did not affect business sustainability. Thus, employee stress (Beta = -0.028, p = 0.594) was not a mediator in the relationship between aggressive cost-cutting strategies and business sustainability; business sustainability was not a dependent variable. The findings proved that managing workplace stress, particularly improving stressful working environments and aggressive cost reduction strategies, can enhance employee satisfaction. Thus, managing employee stress could be beneficial for policymakers to focus on the area(s) required to retain competent employees. Moreover, aggressive strategies are unsuitable to apply during crisis to enhance business sustainability. The findings provide additional knowledge to the existing literature, enabling employees and employers to predict causes of stress and serve as a significant knowledge base for further studies.
Open Access
Modeling of router-based request redirection for content distribution network
(Foundation of Computer Science, 2013-01-01) Harahap, E; Wijekoon, J; Tennekoon, R; Yamaguchi, F; Ishida, S; Nishi, H
The increase of digital data between content’s servers and clients in a network causes congestion problems when downloading big web contents including files, streaming media, etc. The problem becomes pronounced when a narrow bandwidth or unexpected termination of streaming services is appeared. Content Delivery Network (CDN) is introduced to overcome such problems by redirect client’s request to the best server which proximal and least loaded. However, with intensity increase of people accessing a particular content, the performance of CDN is reduced and sometimes congested. We propose an architecture to solve such problems with a new method to redirect client’s request through a special router called Service-oriented Router (SoR). In this paper, several analytical studies and experiments have been conducted and the result show that router-based redirection is more effective than DNS-based redirection that is currently being used. SoR has been introduces as a content-based router and has capability to do deep packet inspection (DPI) into the packet streams and analyze them. We use SoR in our proposed method as a CDN’s core-router to redirect client’s request to the best server. Our experiment conducted with model and numerical analytic supported by optimal redirection probability based on delay between router and server. The experiment result confirmed that the router-based redirection reduced the response time by 23.3% compared to the DNSbased redirection.
Open Access
Flood modeling in the Mahaweli River reach from Kothmale to Polgolla
(University of Peradeniya, 2007) Rathnayake, U. S; Weerakoon, S. B; Nandalal, K. D. W; Rathnayake, U
The occurrence of floods and inundation of the low lands adjacent to the Mahaweli River reach from Gampola to Polgolla were very frequent prior to the Kotmale reservoir project in mid 1980s. However, during last two decades with the construction of the Kotmale dam, the regulation of flow by the reservoir has reduced the inundation risk of these lands, which were vulnerable to frequent flooding. As a result, these lands are developed at an increasing rate and more people have started to live in them. This fact gives an alarming signal to the authorities, as the damage that might be caused due to an extreme flood event could be significant. It is therefore of paramount importance that comprehensive flood modeling and inundation analysis of the Mahaweli River reach between Kotmale and Polgolla is carried out. This paper presents the flood modeling and inundation analysis in the Mahaweli river reach from the Kotmale dam to Polgolla barrage using the HECRAS model. The HECRAS model was set up for the river reach using the river cross-sections at 200 m intervals from Kotmale dam to Polgolla barrage. The model was applied to estimate the water stages along the river reach for the floods of different return periods. Though the Kotmale reservoir acts as a flood control reservoir for floods of medium return periods, it becomes ineffective to reduce the flood levels in the downstream flood plains due to floods of high return periods when it has to release high discharge. Inundation areas in the downstream of the dam due to several flood discharges are presented.

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