http://ir.lib.ruh.ac.lk/handle/iruor/7340 This community contains all other publications produced by the University Academic Members. 2026-10-25T02:38:12Z http://ir.lib.ruh.ac.lk/handle/iruor/21992 The investor gaze: recognition heuristic, social liability and legal disillusionment among foreign tourism entrepreneurs on Sri Lanka's southern coast Laksiri, W.M.R.; Jeewantha, G.K.C. This study examines investment failures among foreign visitors and tourism entrepreneurs on Sri Lanka’s southern coast, exploring what can go wrong after tourism-related familiarity encourages investment. It introduces the “investor gaze” as the epistemic position emerging when tourists become resident investors, distinguishing it from familiarity-based confidence and “substitutional collapse,” a specific failure mechanism. A qualitative, interpretive multiple-case study draws on semi-structured interviews with two Sri Lankan attorneys providing proxy accounts of sixteen matters, alongside Sinhala-language press coverage. Inductive thematic analysis identifies four failure typologies: nominee-title property fraud; partnership and operational breakdown; personal, familial and household entanglement; and structural sector traps. Substitutional collapse appears in eight matters and in dyadic or modified form in three, but does not apply to five, including both sector-trap matters. Where this mechanism operates, investors possess substantial economic capital but limited independent local social capital, relying on one trusted intermediary as a substitute for community embeddedness. Relationship breakdown or intermediary defection leaves them without fallback support. The findings identify initial counterparty matching as a critical vulnerability and distinguish this mechanism from established strong-tie pathologies. The study connects macro-level tourism-driven familiarity effects with micro-level failure evidence as a hypothesis requiring further testing. It offers a due-diligence lens focused on control of title, licences and banking, and access to independent local information, alongside policy proposals requiring testing and costing. Because matters were selected through legal or media exposure, findings do not establish failure prevalence; agreement between attorney and press accounts indicates consistency rather than independent corroboration. 2026-10-08T00:00:00Z http://ir.lib.ruh.ac.lk/handle/iruor/21991 Sri Lankan ethnic cuisine on YouTube: a computational netnographic study of food‑neophobic and food‑neophilic audience reactions and the digital transmission of culinary heritage. Laksiri, W.M.R. Sri Lankan cuisine is a layered ethnic food heritage shaped by tropical agriculture and by centuries of Arab, Portuguese, Dutch, and British contact atop a South Indian rice-and-curry foundation, and it is increasingly encountered by global audiences not at the destination but on digital platforms. This paper analyses 21,984 predominantly English-language comments posted on 45 YouTube videos about Sri Lankan ethnic cuisine, using VADER sentiment analysis, LDA topic modelling, and a purpose-built keyword lexicon for phobic and philic markers. The findings challenge two conventions of the survey literature. First, philic markers outnumber phobic markers by about seven to one (13.1 vs 1.9%), and where both appear in the same comment (1.5% of the sample) the sentiment reads positive, not negative; because the unit of analysis is the comment rather than the commenter, this co-occurrence is reported as a discursive rather than a dispositional phenomenon. Second, phobic response is not concentrated in a single kind of content but spreads across every one of the eight topics recovered by the LDA. The strongest interpretive contribution of the analysis is the identification of peer-to-peer cultural translation as a discursive mechanism associated with the mitigation of neophobic framing: commenters writing from insider-like discursive positions routinely convert unfamiliar Sri Lankan dishes into familiar reference points for outsider viewers, performing what this paper argues is a contemporary form of oral tradition through which Sri Lankan ethnic food heritage is transmitted to global audiences. Long-form videos polarise audience response more sharply than Shorts do. Implications for ethnic food heritage preservation, cross-cuisine transmission, and destination practice follow. 2026-10-07T00:00:00Z http://ir.lib.ruh.ac.lk/handle/iruor/21591 Bactericidal effect of nanosilver synthesized with Neolitsea cassia mucilaginous extract. Warnasooriya, S.R.; Jayasinghe, A.D.; Asanthi, H.B.; Kodithuwakku, E.P. This study focused on green synthesis of silver nanoparticles using mucilaginous leaf extracts of Neolitsea cassia and demonstrating the bactericidal effect of the product against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli, which are common in polluted water. A concentration series of silver nitrate was subjected to four treatments by mixing with separate (a) aqueous and (b) 80% methanol extracts of N. cassia leaves in (c) atmospheric and (d) nitrogen gaseous environments, for comparison. A linear increment of the dry weight of silver nanoparticles was observed with increasing silver nitrate concentration (r = 0.99, p = 0), resulting in higher yields from 80% methanol extracts in an atmospheric environment. As characterized by surface plasmon resonance absorption, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy, quasi-spherical crystalline silver nanoparticles of 11.7nm average diameter were synthesized. The disk diffusion method showed that the growth of E. coli and S. aureus in culture media was increasingly inhibited with increasing nanoparticle concentration (r = 0.95, p = 0 and r = 0.93, p = 0, respectively). It was concluded that 80% methanol extract in an atmospheric environment was the most productive way to green-synthesize silver nanoparticles from the mucilaginous sap of N. cassia. 2024-03-07T00:00:00Z http://ir.lib.ruh.ac.lk/handle/iruor/21560 DEVELOPMENT & EVALUATION OF JACK OPERATED HERBAL JUICE/OIL EXTRACTOR FOR AYURVEDIC MEDICINE PREPARATION Shantha, K.Y.H.D.; Pathiraja, P.M.Y.S.; Ranatunga, Y.M.M.K.; Rajawatta, K.M.W. Sri Lanka has a rich indigenous system of traditional medicine known as Ayurveda, which combines Sinhala traditional medicine, Indian Ayurveda and Siddha systems, Greek Unani medicine through Arab influence, and the unique Desheeya Chikitsa. The objectives of this research were to identify the essential practices for equipment development in the Ayurvedic sector, to examine the scientific principles underlying traditional practices, and to design Ayurvedic machinery. To achieve these goals, a needs identification survey was conducted involving over 10 institutes in Sri Lanka and more than 300 indigenous doctors across the country. Data were collected from 120 of these doctors to ascertain the specific requirements of the sector. In Ayurvedic preparations, herbal juice extraction is done manually, and ‘Pehe’ is used to extract oil from hard materials like “mee” and to extract the remaining oil from Kalka, making the process time-consuming and labour-intensive. To address this challenge, a hydraulically operated juice/oil extractor was designed to fulfil one of their requirements. This machine operates at low temperatures, which helps to preserve the nutrients and flavour of the juice/oil. It is operated using 4-ton hydraulic jack. Extracted juice percentages (wet basis) were 65% and 60% for Gotukola and Neeramulliya leaves respectively. Extracted oil/juice % (wet basis) were 36%, 48.89%, 19.8%, 20.4%, 68.52% and 52% for Mee (without steaming), Mee (steamed), Sesame (black), Sesame (normal), Nelli (without seeds) and Nelli (with seeds) respectively. Results revealed that using this method juice/oil can be extracted efficiently using this extractor than traditional methods. An extractor is a portable device which can be operated by a single person. Since the raw material contaminating machine components of the extractor are made of food-grade stainless steel, the hygienic extraction process is secured. The extractor has a capacity of approximately 3 kg of crushed leaves or 1 kg of crushed seeds per batch. Over 100 machines have been distributed to small and medium-scale Ayurvedic practitioners involved in medicine preparation. 2024-01-01T00:00:00Z