Browsing by Author "Bandara, N"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6

item: Conference-Full-text
Crash analysis on the outer circular expressway
(IEEE, 2022-07) Bandara, N; Dias, I; Rathnayake, M; Adhikariwatte, V; Hemachandra, K
The road crash analyses help to identify blackspots in the roadways specially in expressways where the vehicle speed is considerable higher. The crashes in expressways occur due to various reasons. However, it is imperative to identify such crash causes which leads to accident blackspots. Therefore, this study was conducted with the aim of identifying the blackspots of the road section of the Outer Circular Highway (Expressway)of Sri Lanka where the study area spanned for a length of 19 km. The research study analyzed the governing traffic and the road geometrical parameters which have a potential influence towards the crashes in the blackspots for the Left-Hand Side (L.H.S.) and the Right-Hand Side (R.H.S.) of the expressway. Therefore, in the research study, the most governing sub parameters, either causative or corelated in the blackspots were identified. Moreover, the results were further visualized as the overall road segment and the blackspots segments to visualize the change of crash causing factors in the blackspots. The results revealed that the causative or corelated traffic and road characteristics are similar for the L.H.S. and R.H.S. blackspots. The results are beneficial to identify the optimal road characteristics influential towards blackspot and for safe road designing to reduce potential blackspots.
item: Conference-Abstract
Critical factors for market sales promotion on social media in banking sector
(2017) Bandara, N; Bandara, HMND
Banks are adopting social media for market sales promotions as it is popular and enables targeted marketing, direct customer engagement, and multiple forms of engagement at a lower cost. However, the effectiveness of market sales promotions is not clear as they primarily rely on number of likes, sharing, and comments than the actual customer conversions. Moreover, it is unclear what factors to be considered while launching and running a successful market sales promotion campaign. We identify those factors through a case study of twelve market sales promotions from different banks in Sri Lanka. The research was conducted as a qualitative analysis based on the Straussian grounded theory, because this version of grounded theory allows a literature review for theoretical sampling, concept development, and defining properties and dimensions. Data were gathered through a set of interviews and observations. We found that six factors that mainly contribute to a successful market sales promotion campaign, namely the type of the promotion, target audience, timing of campaign, platform for communication, mode of communication, and resources. Moreover, platform rules, regulations, and organizational constraints affect the strength of the relationship between the independent and dependent factors.
item: Conference-Full-text
Mapping on-road driver experiences of main roads: application of artificial intelligence, gis, and google maps
(Sri Lanka Society of Transport and Logistics, 2023-08-26) Galagedara, H; Bandara, N; Gunaruwan, TL
The user experience reveals valuable information about the surrounding environment and how individuals feel about the moment emotionally. Researchers have shown the impact of emotions on decision-making, including driving-related decisions in a positive mood tended to maintain a safer driving performance. With the development of intelligent human-machine systems, emotion recognition has become emerging topics for transport-related research works. The methodlogy recognizes the facial expressions of vehicle drivers to map drivers’ experiences with Google Maps data. Findings show how intersections and traffic conditions affect the driver’s emotional changes during the driving situation. This new information layer can be use to identify driver feedback during different traffic and as a valuable dataset to technological enhancements to play a major role in better driving performance and fewer accidents.
item: Article-Full-text
Migration of phthalates from PET water bottle in events of repeated uses and associated risk assessment
(2020) Jayaweera, M; Perera, H; Bandara, N; Danushika, G; Gunawardana, B; Somaratne, C; Manatunge, J; Zoysa, K; Thathsara, T
Phthalates are widely used as a plasticizer in manufacturing polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles to improve softness, flexibility, durability, longevity, and workability. Phthalates are known in instigating profound human health hazards. In many developing countries, lack of proper disposal facilities established for empty PET bottles and the absence of legislation on reuse invariably persuade people to reuse them for storing potable water. An experiment was conducted with two commercial brands of PET bottles to explore the potential of phthalate migration when domestically refilled and reused in multiple times at two temperature conditions. Temperatures of ambient (27 ± 2 °C) and warm (60 ± 2 °C) were selected as the refilling temperatures because of the common practice by people. For both brands, only bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) levels were detected in refilled water in every event of reuse. For both brands, mean DEHP levels migrated to water at 60 ± 2 °C were significantly higher (p < 0.05) compared to those at 27 ± 2 °C. Risk analyses carried out on human health suggested that there exist no definite acute or chronic health risks when the refilled water is consumed continuously for 30 years for both temperatures. Still, such risks were higher for the consumption of refilled water of warm temperatures than those of ambient temperature. However, this study elucidates that DEHP migration would be at an alarming rate when the events of reuse of a single bottle increase so that regulations banning the reuse of empty PET bottles are paramount, especially for developing countries.
item: Article-Full-text
Modelling vegetation land fragmentation in urban areas of Western Province, Sri Lanka using an Artificial Intelligence-based simulation technique
(Public Library of Science, 2023) Jayasinghe, A; Ranaweera, N; Abenayake, C; Bandara, N; De Silva, C
Vegetation land fragmentation has had numerous negative repercussions on sustainable development around the world. Urban planners are currently avidly investigating vegetation land fragmentation due to its effects on sustainable development. The literature has identified a research gap in the development of Artificial Intelligence [AI]-based models to simulate vegetation land fragmentation in urban contexts with multiple affecting elements. As a result, the primary aim of this research is to create an AI-based simulation framework to simulate vegetation land fragmentation in metropolitan settings. The main objective is to use non-linear analysis to identify the factors that contribute to vegetation land fragmentation. The proposed methodology is applied for Western Province, Sri Lanka. Accessibility growth, initial vegetation large patch size, initial vegetation land fragmentation, initial built-up land fragmentation, initial vegetation shape irregularity, initial vegetation circularity, initial building density, and initial vegetation patch association are the main variables used to frame the model among the 20 variables related to patches, corridors, matrix and other. This study created a feed-forward Artificial Neural Network [ANN] using R statistical software to analyze non-linear interactions and their magnitudes. The study likewise utilized WEKA software to create a Decision Tree [DT] modeling framework to explain the effect of variables. According to the ANN olden algorithm, accessibility growth has the maximum importance level [44] between -50 and 50, while DT reveals accessibility growth as the root of the Level of Vegetation Land Fragmentation [LVLF]. Small, irregular, and dispersed vegetation patches are especially vulnerable to fragmentation. As a result, study contributes detech and managing vegetation land fragmentation patterns in urban environments, while opening up vegetation land fragmentation research topics to AI applications.
item: Article-Full-text
Urban watercourses in Peril: Implications of phthalic acid esters on aquatic ecosystems caused by urban sprawl
(Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute, 2019) Jayaweera, M; Danushika, G; Bandara, N; Dissanayake, J; Gunawardana, B; Manatunge, J; Zoysa, K
Urban sprawl worldwide warrants the use of large quantities of industrial and household products containing phthalic acid esters (PAEs) resulting in adverse impacts on the quality of aquatic life in urban watercourses. The presence of six PAEs (dimethyl phthalate (DMP), diethyl phthalate (DEP), di(n-butyl) phthalate (DBP), benzyl butyl phthalate (BBP), bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), and di(n-octyl) phthalate (DnOP)) in 22 shallow urban watercourses in Colombo and suburbs of Sri Lanka was investigated. The average concentrations of DEP, DBP, BBP, and DEHP in all watercourses varied between 2.5–265.0, 1.0–32.0, 61–108, and 12–165 g/L, respectively. DMP and DnOP were below the limits of quantification (DMP-0.5 g/L, DnOP-1.0 g/L) for all watercourses. DEHP was the most abundant PAE in many watercourses. The significant factors affecting the ubiquitous presence of PAEs in watercourses are the inherent properties of each PAE, presence of industrial and household products with great potential for the migration of PAEs in the sub-catchments, and quality of the receiving water. The contamination levels of PAEs in most of the watercourses are alarmingly high, as evidenced by higher concentrations of DEHP and DBP than those of Canadian permissible levels for the protection of aquatic life (16 and 19 g/L). This study was the first effort in Sri Lanka to investigate the presence of PAEs in urban watercourses.