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Lactic acid bacteria inoculants are employed to accelerate forage ensiling ensuring silage quality. Inoculants for ensiling are not produced locally and are restricted for importation in Sri Lanka. This study evaluated the potential of locally produced, freeze-dried Lactobacillus inoculants containing Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus rhamnosus, and Lactobacillus oris, on ensiling of guinea grass (Megathyrsus maximus) forage. The experiment was conducted as a complete randomized design (CRD). Guinea grass forage harvested at the 10 % flowering stage were chopped and inoculated with each Lactobacillus (i.e. treatments) species (i.e. 106 CFU/g fresh forage) or sprayed with deionized water (i.e. control). Six laboratory silos were prepared with each inoculant and one silo was the control. Silage samples were taken from 3 silos opened at 2 weeks and from the remaining 3 silos at 52 weeks post-ensiling. All samples were assessed for pH value and lactic acid content. In addition, the samples taken at 52 weeks were analyzed for organic matter digestibility (OMD) and metabolizable energy (ME) content. Guinea grass ensiled with Lactobacillus exhibited significantly (P<0.05) high lactic acid content and low pH value compared to the control as early as 2 weeks ensiling. At 52 weeks, guinea grass inoculated with L. rhamnosus recorded, significantly (P<0.05) higher lactic acid content compared to that inoculated with L. plantarum. Nevertheless, at 52 weeks guinea grass ensiled with, both L. rhamnosus and L. oris recorded significantly lower (P<0.05) pH values than those inoculated with L. plantarum. Inoculation of guinea grass with Lactobacillus significantly (P<0.05) increased the OMD and ME content of silage. This study concluded that locally produced, freeze-dried L. rhamnosus, and L. oris inoculants have the potential to enhance the ensiling guinea grass. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Substantial yield losses have been reported during the storage of Allium cepa L., and effective methods to minimize postharvest losses are currently lacking. Therefore the objectives of this study were to investigate the impact of pre-treatment with Trichoderma asperellum and Trichoderma virens on post-harvest losses during storage and to evaluate factors associated with these losses. The storage behaviors of Allium cepa L. bulbs after different field treatments with Trichoderma spp. were examined using a complete randomized design. The common onion bulb diseases encountered during storage were basal rot and black mould diseases, with Fusarium sp., Mucor sp., Penicillium sp., Aspergillus niger and Aspergillus flavus being associated with diseased bulbs. The results regarding the percentage of diseased bulbs showed that pre-harvest treatments with Trichoderma asperellum and Trichoderma virens did not have a significant effect on disease control during storage. Furthermore, storage losses of onions were attributed to sprouting, rooting and wilting, which were exacerbated by the prevailing temperature (~30-32°C) and relative humidity (~77%-79%) during the storage period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Speech and language therapists use developmental norms established for consonant acquisition to determine whether a child has age-appropriate, delayed or disordered speech skills. There are currently no established norms for the acquisition of Sinhala consonants, which have implications for accurate diagnosis. The aim of this study was to document preliminary trends observed in the trajectory of consonant sound development in Sinhala-speaking young children so as to form a set of 'working norms'. Method: A picture-based articulation assessment was administered to 70 typically developing children who were between 3 years and 6 years 11 months of age. Results: Regarding the rate of acquisition and order of acquisition, the fi ndings displayed trends comparable to general patt erns of consonant mastery reported within cross-linguistic studies. In addition, a diff erent rate of acquisition and order of mastery was observed for both uncommon Sinhala language-specifi c speech sounds showing ambient language eff ects and for a few common sounds occurring in Sinhala and other languages. Conclusion & Implications: The convergence and divergence in the rate and order of Sinhala consonant acquisition compared to the cross-linguistic literature has important clinical implications for assessment, early identifi cation of speech diffi culties and intervention within speech and language therapy practice in Sri Lanka. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The influence of heavy metal addition on total, bacterial, and fungal activities is studied in a laboratory experiment using forest soil contaminated with different concentrations of Zn or Cu. The different responses of bacteria and fungi to heavy metals are reflected in an increase in the relative fungal/bacterial ratio with increased metal load.

Wastewater-based epidemiology has emerged as a viable tool for monitoring disease prevalence in a population. This paper details a time series machine learning (TSML) method for predicting COVID-19 cases from wastewater and environmental variables. The TSML method utilizes a number of techniques to create an interpretable, hypothesis-driven framework for machine learning that can handle different nowcast and forecast lengths. Some of the techniques employed include:•Feature engineering to construct interpretable features, like site-specific lead times, hypothesized to be potential predictors of COVID-19 cases.•Feature selection to identify features with the best predictive performance for the tasks of nowcasting and forecasting.•Prequential evaluation to prevent data leakage while evaluating the performance of the machine learning algorithm., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2023 Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Bean rust is a devastating disease of snap beans in Sri Lanka. Our study endeavored to develop snap beans with resistance to Uromyces appendiculatus , the bean rust pathogen reported to have numerous virulent races. Accordingly, we needed a detailed understanding of the virulence of U . appendiculatus and to identify genes conferring effective rust resistance. To investigate the virulence, we collected leaves of snap bean with rust symptoms from four snap bean producing districts of Sri Lanka. From these samples we established 57 single pustule isolates. Each isolate was inoculated on a set of 12 differential cultivars, six from the Andean and six from the Middle American gene pools of common bean. The virulence of the isolates segregated into four distinct groups that comprised the first four reported races of U. appendiculatus in Sri Lanka, 23-5, 31-1, 31-11, and 63-21. All races were significantly more virulent on the Andean than on the Middle American differential cultivars. PI 1819966, a Middle American differential cultivar containing the Ur-11 gene, conferred resistance to all four races. Three other Middle American cultivars were resistant to three races. Conversely, five Andean differential cultivars were susceptible to all four races. PI 160418 was the only Andean differential cultivar with resistance to three races. The results suggested that rust resistance genes from the Middle American differential cultivars could be combined in different ways with the resistance of Andean PI 260418 to develop snap bean varieties with broad resistance to all races of U. appendiculatus in Sri Lanka., Competing Interests: The author(s) declare no conflict of interest.

Immunotherapy has shown promising treatment effects for a variety of cancers. However, the immune treatment efficiency for solid tumors is limited owing to insufficient infiltration of immune cells into solid tumors. The conversion of tumor-supportive macrophages to tumor-suppressive macrophages, inducing the functional reversal of macrophages, is an effective method and contributes to a subsequent antitumor response. The current challenge in the field is the poor distribution and systemic side effects associated with the use of cytokines. As a solution to this issue, we designed and synthesized microenvironment-responsive nanoparticles (P) with IL-12 payload (IL-12⊂P1). These nanoparticles could promote the systemic administration and release of IL-12 in the tumor microenvironment, and the locally responsive property of IL-12⊂P1 could subsequently re-educate tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs). In particular, our results illustrated the great therapeutic effects derived from the functional conversion of macrophages. Our strategy was to design a microenvironment-responsive material for local macrophage modification to overcome the physiological barrier of solid tumors. The shifting of macrophage phenotypes via IL-12⊂P1 achieved immunomodulation in the microenvironment for cancer therapy, with negligible cytotoxicity. We expect that the functional regulation of TAMs by pH-responsive nanomaterials is a promising therapeutic approach for cancer immunotherapy., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Introduction: Medical students undertake clinical procedures which carry a risk of sharps injuries exposing them to bloodborne infections., Objectives: To study the prevalence and correlates of sharps injuries among 4th-year medical students in the Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka., Materials and Methods: The survey was conducted among 4th-year medical students to find out the incidence of injuries during high-risk procedures, associated factors and practice and perceptions regarding standard precautions. A self-administered questionnaire was administered to a batch of 197 4th-year medical students., Results: A total of 168 medical students responded. One or more injury was experienced by 95% (N = 159) of the students. The majority (89%) occurred during suturing; 23% during venipuncture and 14% while assisting in deliveries. Most of the incidents (49%) occurred during Obstetrics and Gynecology attachments. Recapping needles led to 8.6% of the injuries. Thirty-five percent of students believed they were inadequately protected. In this group, adequate protection was not available in 21% of the incidences and 24% thought protection was not needed. Following the injury, 47% completely ignored the event and only 5.7% followed the accepted post-exposure management. Only 34% of the students knew about post-exposure management at the time of the incident. Only 15% stated that their knowledge regarding prevention and management was adequate. The majority (97%) believed that curriculum should put more emphasis on improving the knowledge and practice regarding sharps injuries., Conclusions: The incidence of sharps injuries was high in this setting. Safer methods of suturing should be taught and practiced. The practice of standard precautions and post-injury management should be taught.