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Wastewater generated in white pepper (Piper nigrum L.) processing contains high Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) and hydrolyzable tannins that results dark tan/brown colour effluent which cannot be discharged to the environment without proper treatment. Therefore, these experiments were conducted to investigate the effectiveness of electro-coagulation using aluminum (Al) electrodes and coagulation-flocculation with Alum [Al 2 (SO 4) 3 .18H 2 O] in reducing the strength of pepper soaked effluent. A laboratory scale electro-coagulation unit was made using two aluminium plates (9 cm × 5 cm × 0.3 cm) as electrodes leaving a 0.5 cm gap between plates and powered with a 12 V DC power supply through a resistance box which is used to regulate the current density. The current density could be controlled between 0-1 A. Coagulation flocculation with Alum was tested at five doses; 1 to 5 g/L with 1 g increments at laboratory scale. The effluent colour was measured using a spectrophotometer at a wave length of 600 nm. According to the results, removal efficiencies of colour, Turbidity and COD were 94%, 91% and 89%, respectively for 20 minutes of electro-coagulation and 92%, 90% and 92%, respectively with 3 g/L Alum treatment. The pH of the effluent during electro-coagulation for 20 minutes increased to 9.0 while Alum treatment with 3g/L reduced to 5. When treated effluent filtered through a fine sand filter, Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), Electrical Conductivity (EC) and COD could be reduced further and reached the standard values to discharge in to the environment as irrigation water.

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Pollen analysis plays an important role when identifying the botanical and geographical origins of bee honey. The aim of the present study was to identify the major plant sources that contribute to the increase of yield of honey which was obtained from selected regions of Sri Lanka such as Ella, Elpitiya, Welimada, Minipe, Loggaloya, Anuradhapura, Kothmale, Haputhale and Nuwara Eliya. The morphology of pollen was observed with light microscope and total pollen counts were expressed in pollen percentage frequency. Based on the analysis, Welimada, Haputhale, Nuwara Eliya and Loggaloya samples were categorized as unifloral honey and remaining honeys were multifloral. Nuwara Eliya, Elpitiya, and Kothmale bee honey samples were categorized as good quality honey because they had absolute pollen count >1,000,000/10g. There were 82 pollen types belonging to 29 families identified through the study. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Among different plant families, Myrtaceae, Fabaceae, Asteraceae, Poaceae, and Malvaceae families highly contributed for nectar and pollen sources of honey bee in the areas examined in this study. Through identifying the major plant sources for honey bees, this study demonstrated the potentiality for expanding and sustainable bee keeping practices in Sri Lanka.

This paper describes a low yield case which results in a unique 68 mm single ring wafer sort failure pattern. A systematic problem solving approach with the application various FA techniques and detailed Fab investigation resolved the issue. The root cause for the unique ring failure pattern was due to a burr at the implanter load lock. The burr scratched and toppled the photoresist resulting in subsequent blocked well implantation and memory failure.