Browsing by Author "Dissanayake, S"

Now showing 1 - 10 of 10

item: Thesis-Abstract
Analysis of trading mechanisms for carbon emission credits generated by local projects under Kyoto Protocol
Fernando, WKBPM; Dissanayake, S
This research study was carried out as part of the MBA program conducted by the University of Moratuwa. This is an exploratory type of research carried out to analyze the trading mechanisms for carbon emission credits generated under the Kyoto protocol. This study explores the existing trading mechanisms for Certified Emission Reductions (CERs), a tradable commodity generated under Clean Development Mechanisms (CDM) bob the Kyoto Protocol and proposes an electronic trading system to improve the trading efficiency and the liquidity of the commodity./ Currently, a number of CDM projects are under way in Sri Lanka and most of these projects are power generation plants based on renewable energy sources. Even though most of these projects are financially viable, they would not have been implemented in the absence of additional financial benefits generated by selling CERs due to various reasons including long pay back period, high initial cash outflows and other uncertainties attributed to this industrial sector. These private companies are finding it difficult to attract funding for CERs at a reasonable price compared to market value of substitute products. The existing negotiation process is lengthy and complex and there are many other deviations from perfect market conditions applicable to these trading mechanisms. Due to these reasons, the liquidity of CERs is very low and there is very high price volatility. The average price obtained by local CDM projects for CERs is considerably less than thecurrent market price of substitute carbon products. There arc several well established carbon emission markets in USA and Europe that facilitates trading of these various different carbon emission products but such a system is not available for trading of CERs. Due to the low liquidity of CERs and many other reasons, only a very small fraction of the potential CDM capacity in Sri Lanka is considered for actual implementation up to now. To avoid above problems and to obtain maximum possible financial benefits from Kyoto Protocol, an electronic trading system is proposed to facilitate trading of CERs. The proposed trading system incorporates a trading model that enables anonymous trading that facilitates trading without disclosing ones identity to the market. Buy and sell orders will be displayed by aggregating the total volume available at each price. The trading model will also support executing already negotiated trades on the trading system enabling outside parties to make use of the straight through processing features available for electronic trading systems. All or none execution facilities will be provided if a trader does not want his order to get partially executed. All market data will be based on moving average for a specific period. A flexible transaction commission structure will be used to allow large institutional investors to carry out trading without paying excessive commission./ The proposed electronic trading system will establish perfect market conditions by bringing together prospective buyers and sellers of CERs into a single place and making the price information freely available to everyone. An electronic trading system will enforce equal status for all the participants, avoiding the problem of unequal bargaining powers of buyers and sellers. Latest straight through transaction processing will enable speedy settlement of transaction proceeds and transfer of CERs between the registries of different parties. An electronic trading system will provide an efficient platform for the trading of CERs generated by CDM projects and will be able to bring together a wide\n audience of buyers and sellers into one trading system. This will help to improve the liquidity of CERs and will facilitate the establishment of equilibrium price for CERs where the demand and supply matches each other, thus reducing the price volatility of the commodity. Establishment of such trading system will greatly benefit all the non Annex I parties, specially countries like Sri Lanka that is not a big player of the CER market in terms of generated volume./ The trading system should be operational at least by early 2007 because, most of the current CDM projects will be operational by that time and the demand from all Annex I countries will considerably increase as the commitment period from 2008 to 2012 will be getting closer by then. The geographical scope that should be targeted for the initial implementation of the trading system should cover at least South Asian region since this region will be generating enough CERs to attract a large pool of buyers. Initially, the trading system should facilitate spot trading of CERs and Futures contracts of CERs as minimum. The proposed electronic trading system will be financially feasible considering the projected CER volume for the region, CER price under perfect market conditions, proposed transaction commission structure, etc. There will be enough incentive for brokerages participate in this trading system and existing brokerages currently managing the trading of equities or some other commodities will make a move into the trading ofCERs which is expected be a multi billion dollar business in few years.
item: Conference-Full-text
An analytical design & optimization approach to enhance warehouse operations
(IEEE, 2021-07) Dissanayake, S; Rupasinghe, T; Adhikariwatte, W; Rathnayake, M; Hemachandra, K
This paper presents an overview of integrating warehouse design and optimization modelling approach to enhance the supply chain performance. The approach is derived through a literature review as well as by considering the practitioners approach in the Sri Lankan context. The method is explained along with the framework to integrate the isolated solutions and derive the overall warehouse design solution, simulation, and optimization models. The main contribution of this paper is to guide the practitioners in consistently maintaining an optimum warehouse operation through warehouse design to enhance supply chain performance.
item: Conference-Full-text
Criteria for setting speed limits for Sri Lankan road ways
(2013-11-11) Abeysekara, PTN; Senanayake, MPDSRK; Senevirathna, STR; Wicramasinghe, WMVSK; Dissanayake, S
The available knowledge and studies which have been carried out on setting speed limits for Sri Lankan road ways are very limited. Speed limit, on a given roadway, is a much important factor for road users, because that decides the travel time. This research attempts to evaluate the applicability of speed limits for Sri Lankan road network and develop a methodology for setting up speed limit for selected road section. In the selection of road sections for this research, the scope was limited to straight road sections in flat terrains in sub-urban areas and other characteristics such as shoulder conditions, roadside development and etc pretty much equal. Then, the sample speed data was collected on selected road sections according to the vehicle category. The collected data was processed and compared with existing speed limits. Besides, a questionnaire survey was carried out in order to find out drivers' knowledge and attitude about speed limits on those selected road sections. According to the obtained results, only three-wheelers and buses exceeded the speed limits which were to be adopted on the road sections by drivers. Then, the speed limit for motor cycles, car/van/jeep, light goods vehicles can be increased while Speed limit for heavy vehicles is kept as of for these road sections. After considering the results of the questionnaire survey it can be suggested that the speed limits for three-wheelers and buses can be increased by 10 kmph with respect to their prevailing speed limit values.
item: Conference-Extended-Abstract
The development and implementation of an Extended Transport Management System (ETMS)
(Sri Lanka Society for Transport and Logistics, 2016-06) Madurapperuma, S; Ebert, LJ; Dissanayake, S; Gunaruwan, TL
item: Conference-Abstract
Identification of factors related to state level safety belt usage rates in the United States
(Department of Civil Engineering, 2011-07) Dissanayake, S; Pasindu, HR
Safety and efficiency of the transportation system is extremely important for the economic development of any region. Safety record of the United States highway system is stagnating over the last several years with annual fatalities of around 41,000 and millions of injuries. Total economic cost due to these motor vehicles crashes has been estimated to be more than $ 230 billion based on National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's estimations. Transportation community is looking at various strategies for improving highway safety of road users with the intention of reducing these huge economic losses. Seat belt usage has frequently been identified as one of the most effective ways of improving highway safety in highly motorized countries. Seat belts are considered to be particularly useful in reducing fatalities. In the United States, even though mandatory seat belt laws have been widely regarded as one of the best ways of increasing seatbelt usage by motorists, some states still struggle with passing primary seat belt laws that could save many lives. While usage rates considerably vary among states with primary and secondary seat belt laws, there could be many other factors that affect usage rates in any given state. Examples of some of these other potential characteristics include level of urbanization, composition of roadway infrastructure, education level of the road users, number and/or percentage of minorities, gender and age distributions, penalty for seat belt violation, average income, and crime rates. While a change in seat belt policy seems like a more feasible way to achieve increased seat belt usage rates in a given state, it is not possible to accurately evaluate the impact due the seat belt policy without considering these other factors into consideration. Accordingly, this study developed statistical models to identify the factors that are determinants of state seat belt usage rates, which also quantified the effect of changing the law on usage rate. Data on seat belt usage for this study were obtained through the observational surveys conducted throughout each of the states in the United States. Findings indicate not only the benefits of primary seat belt law, but also identifies the critical user groups for whom more focused education programs could be developed. Additionally, more critical facility types were also identified where increased enforcement on which might bring the most effective results in terms of seat belt usage.
item: Conference-Abstract
Identification of safety issues of older drivers using survey data
(Department of Civil Engineering, 2011-07) Perera, L; Dissanayake, S; Pasindu, HR
In the past, many research studies have analyzed crash data to identify various factors contributing to older-driver over-involvement in crashes. However, it is also necessary to identify other types of safety related information which cannot be extracted from crash data, such as exposure to different weather and road conditions, difficulties associated with vehicle maneuvering, modifications made to driving patterns, etc., which might be playing a significant role in older-driver safety. Therefore, a questionnaire was prepared and a survey was conducted to identify those issues and difficulties highlighted in crash data. Based on the responses, a detailed examination was done to understand different behavioral changes in older drivers with respect to various conditions. Based on the survey results it was found that most of the older drivers have more than fifty years of driving experience and their seat belt usage was also found to be high. Left turns appear to be the most challenging maneuvering task. Analysis based on age revealed that level of difficulty associated with older drivers increase with age and similarly, preference to avoid demanding conditions, such as snowy weather, nighttime driving, and use of freeways has also increased with aging. Older drivers older than 70 years were highly involved in crashes and those with elevated income levels and education had higher involvement in crashes. Older male drivers indicated higher levels of difficulties in stopping, stopped waiting to turn, or slowing down situations. On the other hand, females showed higher levels of difficulty associated with identifying speeds and distance of oncoming traffic compared to males. Findings of this study could be used to develop more focused programs towards improving older driver safety.
item: Thesis-Full-text
Identifying the best supply chain model for a fashion apparel retail brand
Sathkoralage, MR; Dissanayake, S; Sivakumara, T
Supply chain is one of the key term in modern business world. Emphasis on supply chain has seen a vigorous change from being a supportive function to an integrated strategy within last couple of decades. It’s a common belief in the business world that Brands are no longer competing but the supply chains. Apparel & clothing is one of the biggest industries in the world. Clothing being a basic need of human, it’s a never ceasing industry. Apparel retailing is a part of apparel supply chain. Very much like any other industry, apparel supply chain is a globalized and scattered supply chain. A cotton grown in India getting converted to yarns in Vietnam and the yarn sails all the way to far -East Asia which then becomes a fabric in China. This fabric then goes through the garment manufacturing process in Indonesia with trims made in Thailand. Then that garment goes to a shopping mall in Germany and an Australian traveler buys it. This is a typical supply chain in apparel. This gives us an image of how complicated the apparel supply chain and how complicated it is to manage apparel supply chain. There are so many researches written based on studies of identifying optimum supply chain. There are numerous studies on the generic supply chain strategies and the applicability of those based on different aspects of the business. However there are very few researches written specifically on apparel business. Also though there are many researches which outline the generic supply chain, there’s hardly anything which discuss about individual strategies and their applicability specifically for apparel retailing. The attempt of this research is to identify the usage of the strategic elements in achieving the most effective supply chain. In order to do this, the research has carried out a thorough literature survey and focus group interviews while best practices of current best performing supply chains were studied in parallel. By gathering all the strategies concurrently through all the above routes, a questionnaire was created and the perception of the apparel industry professionals on the applicability of those strategies were analyzed through the questionnaire data. So in summery the research identifies the most effective mix strategic elements for the supply chain model of an apparel retail fashion brand.
item: Conference-Abstract
Low cost speed management in high speed rural roadways: optical speed bars
(Department of Civil Engineering, 2011-07) Dissanayake, S; Balde, A; Pasindu, HR
Despite considerable safety measures implemented by traffic and transportation engineers, speeding continues to be a significant safety problem on the highway network, both in the United States and other countries. Even though higher traffic volumes and more travel occur in urban areas, majority of fatal crashes occur in rural areas indicating the significance of the issue. When high-speed roadways pass right through the small towns in rural areas there are considerable drops in speed limits, making proper speed management critically important. However managing speed has always been a challenge particularly in rural communities due to the low budgets available leading to lower levels of enforcement. It is therefore necessary to identify effective, low-cost approaches to control speeds in such areas. Optical Speed Bar (OSB) treatment is one such approach, where transverse pavement makings are put in place with gradually deceasing spacing giving the drivers the perception of going faster than they actually are traveling. This research attempted to evaluate the effectiveness of OSBs in reducing approach speeds on two-lane, rural divided highways approaching small communities. Each approach had one lane and speed drop was either from 65 mph to 45 mph (4 sites) or from 55 mph to 30 mph (1 site). Speeds data were collected and analyzed both before and after installation of the optical speed bars at the five ssites. Effectiveness of the bars was evaluated using changes in mean and 85* percentile speeds under different categories by considering all vehicles, vehicle classification (two axles vs. more than two axles), days of the week (weekdays vs. weekends), and time of day (daytime vs. nighttime). The t-testforthe sample mean and the F-test of variance were used to determine significant differences in speeds among datasets. Significant reductions in mean speeds and speed variance were observed at the end of the OSBs at four of the five sites, and one site showed no statistically significant change in speeds. Speed reductions were higher during daytime and weekdays. Higher speed reductions for twoaxle vehicles were observed, with the exception of one test site. Daytime speeds and speeds of two axle vehicles decreased the most at almost all test sites. However speeds analyzed farther downstream of the treatments gave indication that speed reductions were not maintained for a long distance. However, when considering the low cost associated with the treatment, optical speed bars might be a good solution to control approach speeds in small communities.
item: Thesis-Full-text
Perception. JS - a framework for context acquisition, processing and presentation
Dissanayake, S; Walpola, M
Context Awareness which is an area of Pervasive Computing that enables a person to accomplish his day-to-day tasks by seamlessly interacting with the “smart” devices that embedded in the environment (smart space). In contrast to how a user interacts with a desktop computer or a mobile device using various input/output devices, Pervasive Computing paradigm acquires user’s context using sensors embedded in the surrounding environment, and identifies the actions the user would need to perform in a specific context. The Pervasive Computing application would then perform the required action on behalf of the user or it would give recommendations on the action the user would need to perform. are Because the number of smart devices are being produced and increased rapidly the demand for context awareness applications also increase, software developers can exploit the new computing paradigm to provide more innovative user-centered software solutions. However, the biggest obstacle for Context Awareness application development is its high complexity due to its broad technical areas (i.e. handling sensor imperfections, modelling smart environments, inferencing context, integrating with heterogenous systems or sensors, etc.) Hence software developers fail to provide quality context awareness applications that meet end-user requirements or fail to accurately identify context. Additionally, such software development increases project schedules, and could increase its bug rate. This research project addressed the above problems by developing a software framework that enables the software developers to develop their applications using the fundamental features of Context Awareness such as Context Acquisition, Context Processing and Context Presentation. Apart from its functionality this research project focused on enhancing the quality of the framework by introducing quality attributes such as extensibility (which enables the developers to address the problem of heterogeneity), portability (which enables toe developers to use the framework in various devices and platforms), and usability (which enables the framework more usable by the developers). From the technical perspective, the framework is based on the architecture of Sentient Object which this project aims to implement the architecture using a JavaScript technology stack. JavaScript enables to mitigate the problem of heterogeneity because the technology stack that will be used to develop the framework consist of Apache Cordova which enables to implement sensing mechanisms in a broad range of smart devices, and Node.js which enables to execute the context server in multiple platforms. One of the most prominent aspect of the framework is that when the framework is embedded in a JavaScript application, the framework can transform the application into a Sentient Object. A Sentient Object can acquire contextual information using sensors, model and processes the context using an inferencing engine, and to respond to context changes using actuators. Scalability can also be achieved through Sentient Objects which can separate contextual information capture from context processing using a context server approach.
item: Conference-Abstract
A simulation model for evaluating warehouse layout design parameters based on process strategy
(Sri Lanka Society of Transport and Logistics, 2020-11) Dissanayake, S; Rupasinghe, T; Niwunhella, H; Gunaruwan, TL
Products flowing through the supply chain to warehouses is a necessary evil: although there is no value addition to the product, warehousing is inevitable due to market volatility and uncertainty. Therefore, customized value propositions have been introduced to the warehouse which has led to changes in its role. In such conditions, performance of the warehouse is critical for customer value creation, be it in terms of cost, speed or accuracy. Therefore, the need to improve the warehouse operation is significant. This paper is an attempt to use Arena simulation package to describe a simulation model of a warehouse operation process for receiving and issuing goods. The aim of this study is to find warehouse design decisions that optimize the performance of an operation considering different process options, in relation to given input parameters. Six different strategies are simulated to evaluate feasibility in relation to overall cost and service levels. The simulation is done for a set of input parameters considering changes in design variables. Results show the total cost, resource and time required for each option in a predictable manner. Moreover, it provides a tool to understand system behaviours by carrying out ‘‘what-if’’ assessments and to identify which factors can be changed to optimize operations. Therefore the purposes of this study are to 1) identify the input, decision and response parameters of the warehouse process, 2) derive values for each based on time and activity based study, 3) develop a simulation model to support systematic decision making through “what-if” analysis, 4) conclude on the optimal processes based on input parameters, and 5) provide recommendations and future study opportunities to expand the paper.