Journal Title: Journal of Technology and Value Addition
Volume : 1
Issue : 2
Page : 1 – 7
Submitted: May 29, 2019; Accepted: July 23, 2019
Correspondence : jagath@uwu.ac.lk

In this work, we have investigated the ion transport properties and the structure of a Na-ion conducting solid polymer electrolyte based on polyethylene oxide. Sodium perchlorate, NaClO4, was used as the salt. The electrolyte samples were synthesized using common solvent casting method varying the polymer and salt compositions. The prepared samples were characterized using three techniques. The impedance spectroscopy was used to calculate the ionic conductivity whereas FTIR spectroscopy was used to identify the ion-ion and ion-polymer interactions. The polarization microscopy was used to analyze the morphology and the crystallinity of the samples. Our results showed that the maximum ionic conductivity of 1.01×10-4 Scm-1 at room temperature can be obtained with the electrolyte having PEO: NaClO4 20:1 molar ratio. The collected polarization micrographs showed a remarkable change in surface mophology and crystallinity of the electrolytes with different salt concentrations. Further, analyzed FTIR spectra indicated that there is a small but clear influence on the vibrational modes of the polymer backbone after addition of the salt.

Keywords: Solid polymer electrolytes, PEO, Ionic conductivity, Interactions

Journal Title: Journal of Technology and Value Addition
Volume : 1
Issue : 2
Page : 8-16
Submitted: May 27, 2019; Accepted: July 23, 2019
Correspondence : saranganethmi@yahoo.com

A study was conducted to determine the effect of citrus peel essential oils on the extending shelf life of f tomatoes. Peel extracts were prepared from sweet orange (Citrus sinensis), lime (Citrus aurantiifolia) and sour orange (Citrus aurantium) peel using a rotary evaporator. Most abundant microbial species were isolated from rotten tomatoes and were tentatively identified as Bacillus spp. and Penicillium spp. The antimicrobial activities of three peel extracts were tested by using agar well diffusion assay. Positive controls for bacteria and fungi were Amoxicillin and Fluconazole respectively, while 50% ethanol was used as negative control. Both concentration and type of extract significantly affected for Minimum Inhibitory Diameter (MID) (p < 0.05). Although the highest MID was resulted from positive controls (2.6 ± 0.3 cm, 3.4 ± 0.4 cm for Amoxicillin and Fluconazole respectively), amongst peel extracts, sweet orange peel extracts had shown highest MID of 2.5 ± 0.8 cm and 2.1 ± 0.3 cm (at 2.5 mg/mL) for both bacteria and fungi respectively. A solution of sweet orange peel extracts (2.5 mg/mL) was prepared and sprayed on a batch of ripen tomatoes at same variety and size, while Amoxicillin and Fluconazole solution and distilled water were sprayed on another three batches of tomatoes. The shelf life of sweet orange peel extract solution sprayed batch was exhibited 26 days in average while the shelf life of batches sprayed with Amoxicillin, Fluconazole and water were 19 days, 20 days and 5 days in average respectively. Therefore, sweet orange peel extracts could be used to prepare antimicrobial solutions to extend shelf life of tomatoes.
Keywords: Tomatoes, Citrus sp. peel extract, Shelf life

Journal Title: Journal of Technology and Value Addition
Volume : 1
Issue : 2
Page : 17-30
Submitted: May 22, 2019; Accepted: July 23, 2019
Correspondence : isharawijesinghe0@gmail.com

tyre cord (CTC) is a low cost filling material derived from the rejected pneumatic tyres which consist of carbon black (CB) and fibre materials other than the rubber. Due to this composition, CTC is possible to be used as reinforcement in Base compounds of the Solid tyres. Therefore, the Solid tyres Base compounds can be reinforced using a combined filler systems of pure CB and CTC to achieve acceptable properties while reducing the cost of the compounds. Therefore, the effects of combined filler system of carbon black (CB) and chopped tyre cord (CTC) was investigated on the properties of the low speed solid tyre base compounds made of Natural rubber (NR) and Reclaim rubber (RR) blend. Compounds were prepared varying CB to CTC ratios at 65:35, 55:45, 45:55 and 35:65 in parts per hundred parts of rubber (pphr) loading levels. The processing safety (Ts2), optimum cure time (Tc90) and the have been improved when the CTC content in the compounds is increased while other curing properties are acceptable. Physico-mechanical properties of the compounds have shown values within the required standard limits of solid tyre Base compounds at the 65 pphr of CTC coupled with 35 pphr of carbon black, the CB/CTC-35/65 compound compared to Control (CB/CTC-65/35). Dynamic mechanical properties have proved that the elastic properties have been increased when the strain rate or the force frequency is increased in both CB/CTC-35/65 and Control compounds. Also the CB/CTC-35/65 compound has shown better damping properties compared to Control at all the frequencies. Finally, the CB/CTC-35/65 can be recommended to use for Solid Tyre Base compounds as an ecofriendly method of managing the CTC waste produced in pneumatic tyre industry.

Keywords: Carbon black, Chopped tyre cord, Dynamic mechanical properties, Physico-mechanical properties

Journal Title: Journal of Technology and Value Addition
Volume : 1
Issue : 2
Page : 31-40
Submitted: May 24, 2019; Accepted: July 23, 2019
Correspondence : fathifazly@gmail.com

Phishing is a major cybercrime which challenges the information security by mimicking legitimate websites to steal personal identity data and financial account credentials. Victims suffer from financial aspect and other private data theft. As there is a rapid advance in phishing activities via fake websites many anti phishing techniques are emerging but phishers use different and efficient techniques to trick victims so an intelligent and resilient model is required to detect the phishing sites. Data mining techniques can be used to develop an efficient model with the nontrivial and implicit information that can be mined from large datasets using classification algorithms to classify a websites legitimacy. Four different classification algorithms were implemented to classify the data set andcomparatively studied for their performances, accuracy and number of rules created. The rules generated from the classification algorithms showed 96.76% accuracy whereas the prevailing phishing detection tools promises 92% as the highest accuracy which may effectively contribute for real time phishing website detection.

Keywords: Phishing, Data mining

Journal Title: Journal of Technology and Value Addition
Volume : 1
Issue : 2
Page : 41-56
Submitted: May 14, 2019; Accepted: July 23, 2019
Correspondence : anupamakulasinghe@gmail.com

Pulses play a vital role in the Sri Lankan diet as a protein source. Nutritional and health benefits of pulses are remarkable. Therefore, they have gained attention as a good source of nutrients to defeat the malnutrition in developing countries. Carbohydrates, protein, minerals, vitamins, fiber and other bioactive compound of pulses vary among different species and varieties. Sri Lanka is a valuable repository for agro-biodiversity and it is rich in genetic diversity as well. Pulses grown in Sri Lanka reflect this value and there are nearly 100 species and varieties of pulses available in this country. Most common examples are cowpea, green gram, horse gram, black gram, lentils, common beans and winged beans. There are inter-species and intra-species variations found in the nutritional values, health benefits and therapeutic effects found in these varieties. Further, they can tolerate adverse environmental conditions than genetically improved pulse varieties. Therefore, it is vital to identify pulses with higher nutritional value and high tolerance for adverse environmental conditions, pests and diseases. It will be very beneficial to get the maximum use of lands with poor environmental quality. Compositional data on Sri Lankan traditional pulses will be also useful for nutrition research, product developments, estimating/comparing the nutrient content of foods, identifying sources of particular nutrients, analyzing individuals’ diets, devising special diets for patients, analyzing dietary survey data, assessing how dietary intake affects health and disease outcomes, devising special diets for epidemiological research, monitoring food and nutrient availability, development of dietary guidelines, consumer information and education, food labeling and nutrient claims and marketing etc.
Keywords: Agro-biodiversity, Compositional analysis, Nutrition, Pulses, Sri
Lanka, Traditional

Journal Title: Journal of Technology and Value Addition
Volume : 1
Issue : 2
Page : 57-71
Submitted: May 17,2019; Accepted: July 23, 2019
Correspondence : prabodha.rathnayaka965@gmail.com

Committed employees are increasingly becoming a valued asset in organizations. The general objective of this study was to determine how the job satisfaction and organizational factors influence on employee work commitment in Uva Wellassa University. To attain this, the study examined the organizational factors and employee job satisfaction that influence employee commitment in University. A descriptive and statistical research design was adopted to analyze demographic characteristics of the university staff and to build a profile of the factors that influence employee commitment in university. The population of interest was the academic, non-academic and administrative staff. The study population comprised a total of 299 employees from those three sectors. The data collection instrument was a tailor-made structured questionnaire. Methods used for analyzing data included factor analysis and multiple linear regression. The results show that organizational factors have a strong influence on employee commitment. These factors include; organizational dependability, effectiveness of the organizations social processes, and the organizational climate. In addition to that employee job satisfaction also highly influence the employee commitment.

Keywords: Employee Commitment, Factor Analysis, Job Satisfaction, Organizational
Factors