We conduct a randomized experiment among women in urban Sri Lanka to measure the impact of the most commonly used business training course in developing countries, the Start-and-Improve Your Business (SIYB) program. We study two groups of women: a random sample operating subsistence enterprises ...

The ca. 1.0–1.1 Ga Vijayan Complex (VC) of eastern and southeastern Sri Lanka is one of three high-grade metamorphic terranes making up the basement of the island and is in tectonic contact with the adjacent, older Highland Complex. It consists predominantly of granitoid gneisses ranging in com...

Geochemical variations in stream sediments (n = 54) from the Mahaweli River of Sri Lanka have been evaluated from the viewpoints of lithological control, sorting, heavy mineral concentration, influence of climatic zonation (wet, intermediate, and dry zones), weathering, and downstream transport....

Sri Lanka is composed of four major tectonic units known as the Wanni, Highland, Kadugannawa and Vijayan complexes, and preserves important records of the history of the Gondwana supercontinent. The Highland Complex records Neoproterozoic–Cambrian metamorphism associated with the assembly of th...

Geochronology of zircons from river-sediments in Sri Lanka has never been attempted. Here we present Rare Earth Elements (REE) and U-Pb isotopes of ∼700 zircon grains by laser ablation ICP-MS technique, from sediments of the major rivers in the Sri Lankan basement (rivers of Mahaweli, Kelani, K...

The importance of platelet-activating factor (PAF) in producing hypotension, hemoconcentration and alterations in carbohydrate metabolism following thermal injury was investigated in chronically catheterized rats. Animals were fasted overnight, anesthetized with pentobarbital, and then injected ...

Affecting factors to the acyl chitosan isothiocyanate synthesis by N-phenylthiocarbamoylation and the following acylation was investigated using octyl 2-amino-2-deoxy-β-D-glucopyranoside as a model compound. It was found from the acetylation of N-phenylthiocarbamoyl glucosamine derivative with ...

An efficient photoinduced strategy for the preparation of coumarins was developed. In the presence of N-iodosuccinimide (NIS) as a free-radical initiator and under LED (380–385 nm) irradiation and metal-free conditions, the reaction of alkynoates underwent smoothly to afford the corresponding c...

8-Methoxypsoralen (8-MOP) is a well established drug in the treatment of various skin diseases. Pretreatment of mice with 8-MOP before administration of 4-(Methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone (NNK) significantly reduced the incidence of NNK-induced tumor. The present study was designed t...

The antioxidant capacity of hydroxylated coumarins and hydroxybenzoic acids has been widely described. However, there is little information on the antioxidant activity when both systems are functionalized. In this work, new hybrid compounds synthesis with a common coumarin scaffold and hydroxybe...

Many of the toxicants in tobacco smoke undergo biotransformation in the lungs of smokers, both to reactive and to detoxified derivatives. Human air-liquid-interface (ALI) airway tissue models have emerged as an advanced in vitro model for evaluating the toxicity of inhaled substances; however, t...

The new phthalonitriles (1 and 2) and zinc, indium, magnesium metalled tetrasubstituted phthalocyanines bearing 7-oxy-4-(pyridine-3-yl)coumarin substituents in the peripheral (1a-c)/non-peripheral (2a-c) positions were prepared for the develop novel water-soluble phthalocyanines. Newly synthesiz...

Cigarette smoking (CS) and betel quid (BQ) chewing are two known risk factors that have synergistic potential for the enhancing the development of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) in Taiwan. Most mutagens and carcinogens are metabolically activated by cytochrome P450 (CYP450) to exert their m...

The synthesis of novel zinc and cobalt metallo phthalocyanines with four 7-oxy-3-(4-pyridyl)coumarin dye groups on the periphery/non-periphery were prepared by cyclotetramerization of 7-(3,4-dicyanophenoxy)-3-(4-pyridyl)coumarin (1)/7-(2,3-dicyanophenoxy)-3-(4-pyridyl)coumarin (2) and also a pht...

Two new coumarin derivatives, 7-(diethylamino)-3-(pyridin-2-yl)coumarin (DAPC) and 3-(pyridin-2-yl)-benzo[5,6]coumarin (PBC), were synthesized and characterized by elemental analysis, 1H NMR, FT-IR and UV–vis absorption spectra. Their structures were determined by X-ray crystallography single c...

In search of antiinflammatory drugs with a new mechanism of action, U0126 was found to functionally antagonize AP-1 transcriptional activity via noncompetitive inhibition of the dual specificity kinase MEK with an IC50 of 0.07 μM for MEK 1 and 0.06 μM for MEK 2. U0126 can undergo isomerization...

The hypertrophic agonist endothelin-1 rapidly but transiently activates the extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2) cascade (and other signalling pathways) in cardiac myocytes, but the events linking this to hypertrophy are not understood. Using Affymetrix rat U34A microarrays, we ide...

In order to investigate a role for the extracellular-signal-regulated kinases 1 and 2 (ERK1/2) on hippocampal neurotransmitter release, we studied the effect of commonly used MEK (mitogen-activated protein kinase [MAPK]/ERK kinase) inhibitors, PD098,059 and U0126, on depolarization-induced gluta...

A common approach to construct a bioartificial renal tubule system is to utilize renal tubular cells seeded in porous polymer membrane hollow fibers. We have reported that overgrowth of renal tubular cells was not beneficial for the transport and reabsorption functions of bioartificial tubules. ...

Nociceptin binds to nociceptin opioid peptide (NOP) receptors. We reported that although high doses of nociceptin impaired memory function and that these effects were mediated via NOP receptors, low doses of nociceptin attenuated the memory impairment, and these attenuating effects were not medi...