University of Peradeniya

About: University of Peradeniya is a education organization based out in Kandy, Sri Lanka. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 5970 authors who have published 7388 publications receiving 197002 citations.

Impact of Nutritional Labeling on Consumer Buying Behavior

Abstract: Nutritional label plays an important role in providing the relevant nutrition information to consumers. Inclusion of a nutritional label on food items may be an important packaging decision for the Sri Lankan food processors. Hence, a study was conducted with a view of identifying the market for nutritional labeling and the factors that influence the consumer willingness-to-pay for nutritional labeling. Data were collected from a random sample of 90 consumers selected from three supermarkets - Dhanasiri, Cargill’s Food City and Royal Garden Mall - located in Kandy. Market for nutritional labeling were identified by exploring data and a logit method of analysis was performed to identify the factors that influence the willingness-to-pay for nutritional information on food items. A significantly greater proportion of individuals in the age category 36 to 50 years, individuals with tertiary education, individuals with special dietary status and households with less than four members were willing to pay more for the nutritional labels. Logit analysis showed that gender, level of education and special dietary status have a significant positive effect and the household size has a significant negative effect on the willingness to pay for nutrition information. Accordingly, it could be stated that incorporation of a nutritional panel in the package would enhance the demand for food products and it would be an appropriate strategic task for the local food processors. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4038/sjae.v5i0.3475 SJAE 2003; 5(1): 35-46

Automated Control Technique for a Single Phase Dynamic Voltage Restorer

Abstract: The Dynamic Voltage Restorer (DVR) is a commercially available, popular device to eliminate voltage sags and swells in the distribution lines. Its basic function is to inject the voltage difference (difference between the pre-sag and sag voltage) to the power line and maintains the pre-sag voltage condition in the load side. Different control strategies are available depending on the compensation technique used for compensation. A new control strategy for the single-phase voltage sags based on in-phase compensation technique is described in this paper. In the designed control, the DVR initially tracks the phase angle of the supply voltage and produce a reference voltage signal with the rated load voltage magnitude. If any phase jump occurred at the supply voltage, phase angle of the reference voltage signal is adjusted slowly to track the phase angle of the supply voltage. The difference between the reference and measured voltage is injected by the DVR. Therefore with this DVR control technique, the load will not experience any phase jump or dip. The simulation was carried out using EMTDC/PSCAD software and the results show a very good level of compensation for different voltage sags.