The Effect of Mechanization on Safety and Productivity of a Gold Mine

New resource determinations enable gold mines to change from the conventional system of mining and introduce mechanized mining methods. This decision could however be plagued with problems. It is necessary to review mechanization to determine its impact. In this study safety, gold production, productivity, manpower, maintenance and equipment cost data was collected and analyzed along with questionnaire and interviews from a mine to determine its performance before and after mechanization. From the study, mechanization reduced mining grade cut-off by 86%, increased gold production per annum by 94%, has increased tonnage productivity per man-month by 564%, improved the skill levels of workers but reduced manpower by 53% and has potential to creating labour unrest. It has helped reduce Loss Time Injury Frequency Rate by 1160%, has helped reduce accidents by 94%, but has potential to increase fatality on a mine. Mechanization is also capital intensive with high maintenance cost, causes the inability of mines to sustain production levels, rapidly exhausts ore reserves, causes grade control problem associated with dilution of the ore hence increasing operating cost, workers are exposed to long term health risk, and there is high incidence of crime

CD4 T cell activation as a predictor for treatment failure in Ugandans with Plasmodium falciparum malaria.

Host immunity plays an important role in response to antimalarial therapy but is poorly understood. To test whether T cell activation is a risk factor for antimalarial treatment failure, we studied CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cell activation in 31 human immunodeficiency virus-negative Ugandan patients 5-37 years of age who were treated for uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria. Increased CD4(+) T cell activation, as indicated by co-expression of HLA-DR and CD38, was an independent risk factor for treatment failure (hazard ratio = 2.45, 95% confidence interval = 1.02-5.89, P = 0.05) in multivariate analysis controlling for age, baseline temperature, and pre-treatment parasite density. The results provide insight into the role of cellular immunity in response to antimalarial therapy and underscore the need to investigate the mechanisms behind immune activation

Achieving Quality and Equity in Ghana’s Secondary Education: Strategies, Opportunities, and Constraints

The increasing completion rate of primary education has led to an increase in demand for secondary education (SE) worldwide. This phenomenon has been necessitated by the pressure of modern economies seeking young people with sophisticated skills, knowledge, and competence that cannot be developed only from primary education. Given the global need and emphasis on secondary education, massive investment has been made in many countries to make this level of education available and accessible to all individuals. However, despite the intense desire and the investment made, issues of availability and accessibility of secondary education are often hampered by inequities in the provision of this public good along spatial dimensions. The challenge facing developing countries in their attempt to expand secondary education is that they mostly sacrifice quality for quantity. This trade-off creates a situation where the products of beneficiaries of secondary education do not possess the requisite skills, knowledge, and competence for sustainable living. This study aims to analyze educational strategies implemented in SE in Ghana and how those policies are geared towards improving access, bridging the equity gap, and improving quality. The research employed a combination of qualitative document analysis and semi-structured interviews to answer the study's research questions. The interviews were conducted via Zoom with three categories of participants, namely the  heads of SHS, teachers, and parents. Seven interviews were conducted with participants from two schools. The major findings from the study included the prevalence of class and social divisions in access to high-status SHS as high-status SHS in urban centers are not within reach of people from poor quintile, the prevalence of gender disparity, PWD in SHS faces discrimination and stereotypes, lack of continuity of policies, teaching to test instead of the acquisition of skills. CSSPS, FSHS, and SEIP were found in the study as a major strategies to improve quality and equity in SE. The study recommends that the use of the bottom-up approach in policy development,formulation, and implementation, adopting sustainable local financing alternatives to donor support in policy financing, and effective decentralization.publishedVersio

Accelerating the Performance of a Novel Meshless Method Based on Collocation With Radial Basis Functions By Employing a Graphical Processing Unit as a Parallel Coprocessor

In recent times, a variety of industries, applications and numerical methods including the meshless method have enjoyed a great deal of success by utilizing the graphical processing unit (GPU) as a parallel coprocessor. These benefits often include performance improvement over the previous implementations. Furthermore, applications running on graphics processors enjoy superior performance per dollar and performance per watt than implementations built exclusively on traditional central processing technologies. The GPU was originally designed for graphics acceleration but the modern GPU, known as the General Purpose Graphical Processing Unit (GPGPU) can be used for scientific and engineering calculations. The GPGPU consists of massively parallel array of integer and floating point processors. There are typically hundreds of processors per graphics card with dedicated high-speed memory. This work describes an application written by the author, titled GaussianRBF to show the implementation and results of a novel meshless method that in-cooperates the collocation of the Gaussian radial basis function by utilizing the GPU as a parallel co-processor. Key phases of the proposed meshless method have been executed on the GPU using the NVIDIA CUDA software development kit. Especially, the matrix fill and solution phases have been carried out on the GPU, along with some post processing. This approach resulted in a decreased processing time compared to similar algorithm implemented on the CPU while maintaining the same accuracy

Recycling Potential of Waste Di-Isobutyl-Ketone (DIBK) and Recovery of Residual Gold

Di-Isobutyl-Ketone (DIBK) has been commonly used in most mining and allied industries to extract gold from aqueous solutions for analytical purposes. In most cases a complexing agent, methyl tricapryl ammonium chloride otherwise called aliquat 336 is added to the DIBK to give a 1% volume by volume solution. The DIBK containing aliquat 336 is then used to extract gold from aqueous solutions for subsequent analysis using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry (AAS). After the AAS analysis the DIBK-aliquat solution containing gold is stored as waste since its disposal is often associated with environmental and health problems. This paper investigated the possibility of using distillation to recover gold contained in the waste generated in Ghana as well as the recycling potential of the distillate (regenerated DIBK). It was established that distillation of the waste DIBK yielded about 92% distillate leaving a residue of tar, which contained all the gold in the waste. Thermal oxidation of the residue followed by conventional cyanidation of the resulting ash led to gold recovery of 98.97% and the gold extraction efficiency of the regenerated DIBK compares very well with that of fresh DIBK

Emotional intelligence, job satisfaction and job commitment of public elementary school teachers in the division of Antique

Abstract onlyThis study was conducted to determine the level of emotional intelligence satisfaction and job commitment of public elementary school teachers in the Division of Antique. Specifically the study sought to determine the profile of the elementary school teachers according to sex, age, civil status, teaching position, educational attainment and length of service and if those personal and work related characteristics are related to the teachers’ emotional intelligence satisfaction and job commitment. The teachers’ emotional intelligence was examined in terms of five sub-skills namely: emotional awareness, managing one’s emotions, self-motivation, empathy and coaching other's emotions. In consonance with the objectives of the study, it was hypothesized that sex, age, civil status, teaching position, educational attainment and length of service are significantly related to the level of emotional intelligence, job satisfaction and job commitment of the teachers. It was also predicted that emotional intelligence is significantly related to job satisfaction job satisfaction is significantly associated with job commitment and job commitment is significantly related with emotional intelligence. This study made use of the descriptive-relational method with one-shot survey design. The respondents of the study were 333 public elementary school teachers in the Division of Antique. They were selected using multi-stage sampling procedure. The research instruments used were Dr. Nicholas Hall’s Emotional Intelligence Self Evaluation, Job Satisfaction Questionnaire retrieved from internet and Job Commitment Questionnaire constructed by Delicana. The statistical tools used were the frequency counts, percentage, mean, Chi-square, Gamma and Cramer’s V. Majority of the respondents of this study were female, 40 to 49 years old, married, Teacher I in position, graduates of education courses and with 6 to 19 years experience in teaching. The findings disclosed that in general, the teachers had an average emotional intelligence therefore they need some development. It was only between teachers’ age and self-motivation skill that relationship was found to be significant. Teaching position and educational attainment were also found to be significantly related with one sub-skill which is coaching other’s emotions. All other factors were not significantly related with the other four areas of emotional intelligence. The teachers as a whole group, were satisfied with their job, with the highest proportion in satisfied with their work while the lowest, satisfied with facilities and working environment. A great majority of the teachers were satisfied with their job as teachers. Moreover, there was significant association between teaching position and job satisfaction among the elementary school teachers. Age, sex, civil status, educational attainment and length of service were not significantly related to job satisfaction. In general, the majority of the teachers were highly and moderately committed to their job as teachers and only one respondent manifested low commitment. Sex and length of service were found to be significantly related with job commitment. The other personal and work-related characteristics of the teachers had no significant bearing on their job commitment. A significant association was found between the respondents’ job satisfaction and their job commitment. Only one dissatisfied teacher had low commitment. The findings further disclosed that a significant relationship between the teachers’ level of emotional intelligence and job commitment, and so with job satisfaction and job commitment. This study failed to establish a significant association between emotional intelligence and job satisfaction. Based on the findings and conclusions presented, the following recommendations are offered: There is a need to develop and enhance teachers’ emotional intelligence in terms of emotional awareness, managing one’s emotion, self-motivation, empathy and managing other’s emotions by providing trainings and seminars. The efforts and commitment of the teachers who have “high commitment” level maybe acknowledged through a comprehensive merit reward system in order to encourage more teachers to serve to the utmost. Moreover, these teachers should be emulated and should serve as models to other teachers. The school should provide opportunity or avenue for professional growth or career development for the teachers. The competence and commitment of the female teachers should be sustained and the male teachers should be given special programs (scholarship, benefits, and the like) moral support and encouragement to help them become more competent in their teaching profession, hence high commitment can be maintained or maximized. Schools should provide interventions or incentives to enhance and encourage more teachers’ job satisfaction and sustain commitment. Lastly, it is further recommended that other related studies involving emotional intelligence be explored in other areas of educational concerns in different groups of respondents for a wider and deeper understanding of its significance in job satisfaction, work ethics, job performance and job commitment in any workplace in any organization relative to education.Doctor of Educatio

Neuro-oncology access in Sub-Saharan Africa: A literature review of challenges and opportunities

Background: Ensuring equitable access to treatments and therapies in the constantly evolving field of neuro-oncology is an imperative global health issue. With its unique demographic, cultural, socioeconomic, and infrastructure characteristics, Sub-Saharan Africa faces distinct challenges. This literature review highlights specific barriers to neuro-oncology care in the region and explores potential opportunities for enhancing access. Methods: Predetermined keyword searches were employed to screen titles and abstracts using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses framework. Inclusion criteria were studies published between January 1, 2003, and June 20, 2023, specifically addressing the capacity and challenges of neuro-oncology in the Sub-Saharan African region. The data sources queried were PubMed and Google Scholar. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses were deliberately excluded. All authors conducted independent screening and structured data extraction meticulously. Results: Our paper identified multiple challenges that impede access to quality treatment for brain tumors. These include constrained resources, insufficient training of healthcare professionals, certain cultural beliefs, and a general lack of awareness about brain tumors, all contributing to delayed diagnosis and treatment. Furthermore, the lack of detailed data on the incidence and prevalence of primary central nervous system tumors impairs the accurate assessment of disease burden and precise identification of areas requiring improvement. However, we discovered that ongoing research, advocacy, enhanced training, mentorship, and collaborative efforts present valuable opportunities for substantial progress in neuro-oncology access. Conclusions: While we provide a glimpse of the current state, we hope these results will help stimulate dialogue and catalyze initiatives to surmount highlighted obstacles and improve neuro-oncology outcomes across Sub-Saharan Africa.</p

Prevalence and predisposing factors of brachial plexus birth palsy in a Regional hospital in Ghana: A five year retrospective study

Introduction: brachial plexus birth injury is one of the challenges associated with maternal delivery, with varying prevalence between countries. Brachial plexus birth injury poses negative health implications to children and also has socio-economic implications on families and the community as a whole. To treat BPB injury, a multi-disciplinary treatment approach is recommended. Brachial plexus birth palsy is categorised into two-upper plexus injury (Erb's palsy) and lower plexus injury (Klumpke's palsy). These categories present with various degrees of injuries, with less severe injuries responding well to treatment and in most instances may resolve on their own, but serious and complicated injuries will require a multi-disciplinary treatment approach to treat and/or manage. Effective treatment and management depends on adequate knowledge of the disease condition. These include the risk factors and prevalence of Brachial plexus birth injury within a particular population at a specific period in time. The aim of this study was to determine the risk factors and the prevalence of a hospital based BPBP within a five-year period (2013-2017). Methods:&nbsp;a five-year retrospective study design was used. The study involved selection of all clients' diagnosed with brachial plexus birth palsy, where their gender, birth weight, complications at birth, type of brachial plexus suffered, mothers' diabetes status, mother's age, birth attendant, side of affectation, presentation at birth and mode of delivery were recorded. Results:&nbsp;the prevalence rate of brachial plexus birth palsy was 14.7% out of a total of three hundred and twenty (320) cases reviewed over the study period in the Volta Regional Hospital. Erb's palsy was found to be the modal type of BPBP in this population (93.6%). Conclusion:&nbsp;there is the need to provide a nationwide education on the risk factors that predispose babies to brachial plexus birth palsy. There is also the need for frequent antenatal visit by pregnant women; this will help in the provision of best antenatal history, diagnostic investigation in determining the birth weight and safe mode of delivery

The import substituted poultry industry; evidence from Ghana

Rapid growth in Ghana’s poultry imports revealed the weaknesses of the domestic industry in competing with imported products. Establishment of an intensive poultry system as a benchmark for examining the performance poultry production and marketing in addition to interviews with poultry stakeholders revealed the constraints in the poultry industry in Ghana. Results emphasized that Feed Conversion Rate is a major factor in reducing production cost and improving the broilers growth efficiency. The BNARI feed conversion rate for the broiler is 1.56 Kilogram of feed needed to produce 1 kg live weight compared to 2.12 kg of feed to produce 1 kg live weight by other poultry farmers engaged in the study. Feed costs represent more than 70% of the total cost of broilers production, and feed utilization efficiency, are critical for the growth rate of broilers. A major constraint is the lack of protection on the infant poultry industry by the Ghana government leading to unfair competition with cheap imported poultry products, which is 30-40 percent cheaper and undermines the growth of the local industry. Other constraints are high feed cost, high chick mortality as a result electricity power outage for brooding, feed and water contamination and consumer preference for imported poultry meat. There is still 74% demand market share to be fulfilled. The Ghana poultry industry is insecure because poultry farms are collapsing faster than new farms are being established or old farms are being expanded. There is a need for serious intervention by the government through policies and enforcements to reverse this trend.Kwamina Ewur. Banson, Gobinath Muthusamy, Ebenezer Kond