No abstract

Elephant foraging directly affects the growth, survival and vegetation dynamics of forests. They consume a variety of plants including trees, vines, shrubs and herbs. Even though elephants are considered as important seed dispersal agents, very few studies have been carried out to study the seed dispersal ability of elephants in Sri Lanka. Hence, this study was conducted in a natural forest and a bordering chena cultivation area in Maragamuwa (70 0 70"N and 80 0 65"E), within Kumaragala Forest Reserve, from September 2014 to February 2015 to determine the seed dispersal capability of elephants. Three boli were collected randomly from each dung pile and rest were kept in the field and observed until the decomposition was complete. Collected boli were broken and visible seeds were identified by comparing with a reference seed collection. Unidentified seeds were cultivated in sterilised soil. Broken boli were kept in a greenhouse and watered to identify the plants whose seeds were invisible to the naked eye.The study found a total of 84 dung piles and 252 boli were collected from those piles. Fifty three piles out of 84 (63.09%) contained seeds or seedlings of one or more plant species. A total of 22 plant species belonging to nine families were observed to germinate from boli. Among these 22 species, 12 species were cultivated (representing 54.55% of the plant species germinated from boli) and 10 (45.45%) were non-cultivated plant species. Seventeen plant species from chena cultivation area and six species from natural forest were found. Careya arborea and Megathyrsus maximus were the most frequently found seeds and seedlings. Among the cultivated plants, climbers (41.67%), shrubs (8.33%), and herbs (50%) were found, and among the non-cultivated plants trees (60.00%), herbs (4.55%) and shrubs (13.64%) were found regularly. It is interesting to note that herbs formed 50% of the cultivated plants, while they formed only 4.55% of the non-cultivated plants germinating from elephant dung boli. The results from this study could be used to develop habitat enrichment programs for wild elephants that help in mitigating the human-elephant conflict, which is now becoming a serious conservation issue for the Sri Lankan elephant.

Background: Chronic kidney disease that cannot be explained by traditional factors such as hypertension, diabetes mellitus is called chronic kidney disease unexplained etiology. With limited evidence on the success of interventions in enhancing medication adherence, this study was designed to test patient compliance and adherence on taking medication in North Central Province in Sri Lanka.Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted in a selected area of NCP to identify compliance, adherence. Data was collected using an interviewer administered questionnaire by visiting patients at their own residences.Results: A total of 200 people participated in this study. 92.5% of the population was involved in agriculture and 63% worked more than 1 acre of farmland. Among the selected population (74%) were not educated about the side effects of medication. 60.5% had missed taking their medicines during the prescribed time period. The entire population of the study was selected among patients having a monthly income of less than 15,000 Sri Lankan rupees. There was a statistically significant association in missing doses with land extent, patient’s income and stages of the disease.Conclusions: Non adherence and compliance to the medication is common in patients that worked in largely extended lands, were in late stages of the disease and had reduced income. Compliance and Adherence to the medication can be enhanced by proper counseling and improving patient’s knowledge about their medication.

Aims: Asthma is one of the biggest health burdens on the Sri Lankan population. Achievement of treatment goals isdetermined mainlythrough pharmacological management. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the patient inhaler handling techniques and their awareness regarding their disease condition, as well as to find out how an educational intervention effects patients‘ inhaler handling techniques. Study Design:  A Prospective cross sectional study used. Place and Duration of Study: National Hospital for Respiratory Diseases, Welisara and Colombo South Teaching Hospital, Kalubowila between June 2017 to August 2017. Methodology: Clinically diagnosed asthma patients were randomly divided into Control and Test groups. Control comprised 94 patients and the test comprised 93 patients. Their baseline knowledge about asthma and inhaler-using technique were assessed in 1st month by using an interviewer-administered questionnaire and checklist respectively. The test group was given both information leaflet and verbal instructions. Again, all the participants were assessed for the inhaler techniques on their next clinic day by using the same questionnaire and the checklist. Results: After the educational intervention, there was a statistically significant improvement in the test group, in the adherence to the nine steps, including critical steps, regarding all 3 device types (PMDI, DPI, and PMDI with Spacer) in the 2nd-month visit. (at  P =.05) When considering awareness about asthma in the total population, most participants were knowledgeable regarding asthma. Conclusion: We observed gaps in knowledge between current practice and what is expected in patients with asthma regarding their inhaler therapy. This might be due to the quality of instructions delivered by health care providers being insufficient and them lacking the time to observe patients individually for the inhaler techniques. Awareness regarding asthma and inhalation techniques can be raised by using information leaflets as well as through verbal counseling.