Organizational Learning and Job Complexity as Predictors of Commitment among Employees at Nestle Ghana Limited

The study examined organizational learning and perceived job complexity as predictors of commitment among employees at Nestle Ghana Limited. One hundred and twenty (120) employees were selected using the convenience sampling to complete the Dimensions of Learning Organization Questionnaire, Job Diagnostic Survey and Organizational Commitment Questionnaire. The findings were determined with the independent t test, the Pearson r and regression analyses. Findings indicated that employees who perceived high job insecurity were less committed than those who perceived low job complexity. A significant positive relationship was found between organizational learning and employee commitment. Individual learning accounted for more variance in organizational commitment compared to group and organizational components of learning organization. These stand to reason that to improve employees' commitment, management needs to dedicate a lot of efforts in creating a conducive environment that encourages learning and also redesign complex jobs that meet the knowledge, skills and abilities of employees

Multiyear Rainfall and Temperature Trends in the Volta River Basin and their Potential Impact on Hydropower Generation in Ghana

The effects of temperature and rainfall changes on hydropower generation in Ghana from 1960–2011 were examined to understand country-wide trends of climate variability. Moreover, the discharge and the water level trends for the Akosombo reservoir from 1965–2014 were examined using the Mann-Kendall test statistic to assess localised changes. The annual temperature trend was positive while rainfall showed both negative and positive trends in different parts of the country. However, these trends were not statistically significant in the study regions in 1960 to 2011. Rainfall was not evenly distributed throughout the years, with the highest rainfall recorded between 1960 and 1970 and the lowest rainfalls between 2000 and 2011. The Mann-Kendall test shows an upward trend for the discharge of the Akosombo reservoir and a downward trend for the water level. However, the discharge irregularities of the reservoir do not necessarily affect the energy generated from the Akosombo plant, but rather the regular low flow of water into the reservoir affected power generation. This is the major concern for the operations of the Akosombo hydropower plant for energy generation in Ghana

Primacy of effective communication and its influence on adherence to artemether-lumefantrine treatment for children under five years of age: a qualitative study.

BACKGROUND\ud \ud Prompt access to artemesinin-combination therapy (ACT) is not adequate unless the drug is taken according to treatment guidelines. Adherence to the treatment schedule is important to preserve efficacy of the drug. Although some community based studies have reported fairly high levels of adherence, data on factors influencing adherence to artemether-lumefantrine (AL) treatment schedule remain inadequate. This study was carried-out to explore the provider's instructions to caretakers, caretakers' understanding of the instructions and how that understanding was likely to influence their practice with regard to adhering to AL treatment schedule.\ud \ud METHODS\ud \ud A qualitative study was conducted in five villages in Kilosa district, Tanzania. In-depth interviews were held with providers that included prescribers and dispensers; and caretakers whose children had just received AL treatment. Information was collected on providers' instructions to caretakers regarding dose timing and how to administer AL; and caretakers' understanding of providers' instructions.\ud \ud RESULTS\ud \ud Mismatch was found on providers' instructions as regards to dose timing. Some providers' (dogmatists) instructions were based on strict hourly schedule (conventional) which was likely to lead to administering some doses in awkward hours and completing treatment several hours before the scheduled time. Other providers (pragmatists) based their instruction on the existing circumstances (contextual) which was likely to lead to delays in administering the initial dose with serious treatment outcomes. Findings suggest that, the national treatment guidelines do not provide explicit information on how to address the various scenarios found in the field. A communication gap was also noted in which some important instructions on how to administer the doses were sometimes not provided or were given with false reasons.\ud \ud CONCLUSIONS\ud \ud There is need for a review of the national malaria treatment guidelines to address local context. In the review, emphasis should be put on on-the-job training to address practical problems faced by providers in the course of their work. Further research is needed to determine the implication of completing AL treatment prior to scheduled time

Which health research gets used and why? An empirical analysis of 30 cases

Background: While health research is considered essential for improving health worldwide, it remains unclear how it is best organized to contribute to health. This study examined research that was part of a Ghanaian-Dutch research program that aimed to increase the likelihood that results would be used by funding research that focused on national research priorities and was led by local researchers. The aim of this study was to map the contribution of this research to action and examine which features of research and translation processes were associated with the use of the results. Methods: Using Contribution Mapping, we systematically examined how 30 studies evolved and how results were used to contribute to action. We combined interviews with 113 purposively selected key informants, document analysis and triangulation to map how research and translation processes evolved and contributions to action were realized. After each case was analysed separately, a cross-case analysis was conducted to identify patterns in the association between features of research processes and the use of research. Results: The results of 20 of the 30 studies were used to contribute to action within 12 months. The priority setting and proposal selection process led to the funding of studies which were from the outset closely aligned with health sector priorities. Research was most likely to be used when it was initiated and conducted by people who were in a position to use their results in their own work. The results of 17 out of 18 of these user-initiated studies were translated into action. Other features of research that appeared to contribute to its use were involving potential key users in formulating proposals and developing recommendations. Conclusions: Our study underlines the importance of supporting research that meets locally-expressed needs and that is led by people embedded in the contexts in which results can be used. Supporting the involvement of health sector professionals in the design, conduct and interpretation of research appears to be an especially worthwhile investment

Problems with use of medicines

No Abstract

Residual insecticides, inert dusts and botanicals for the protection of durable stored products against pest infestation in developing countries

Insect pests associated with durable grains and processed food cause considerable quantitative and qualitative losses throughout the world. Insect infestation can occur just prior to harvest, during storage in traditional storage structures, cribs, metal or concrete bins, and in warehouses, food handling facilities, retail grocery stores as well as in-transit. Many tools are available for managing insects associated with grains and processed food. Although pest management strategies are changing to meet consumer’s demand for food free of insecticide residues, address concerns about safety of insecticides to humans, delay insecticide resistance development in insects and comply with stricter insecticide regulations, the use of synthetic residual insecticides will continue to be a major component of stored-product pest management programmes. Selective use of residual insecticides requires a through understanding and evaluation of risks, costs and benefits. The use of plant and inert materials may be a safe, cost-effective and environmentally friendly method of grain preservation against pest infestation among low-resource poor farmers who store small amounts of grains. There is a dearth of information on the use of plant materials by rural farmers in Africa for stored-product protection. The most promising candidate plant materials for future utilization as grain protectants are Azadirachta, Acorus, Chenopodium, Eucalyptus, Mentha, Ocimum, Piper and Tetradenia together with vegetable oils from various sources. Neem is the only plant from which several commercial products have been developed worldwide. However, unlike synthetic insecticides these alternatives often do not provide effective or rapid suppression of pest populations and may not be effective against all species of pests. These alternatives are also more expensive than synthetic insecticides, and have not been tested extensively under field conditions in the tropics. This paper focuses on the current state of the utilization of residual insecticides, inert dusts and botanicals by resource-poor farmers for protection of durable stored produce against pest infestation in Africa. A major research priority is a well designed on-farm trials to validate the efficacy of botanicals and inert dusts for stored-product protection using standard procedures and formulations that can be transferred to other communities. Key words: Botanicals, Residual insecticides, Inert dusts, Grain storage, Storage pests, Stored product

Systemic transformative adaptation towards urban economic resilience

The socioeconomic impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic are likely to increase further across economies. There is increasing apprehension on the status of rail transport infrastructure megaprojects which are already complex and face many uncertainties and it is imperative to initiate a restoration coupled with support to be implemented in a timely manner. Investors continue to invest in rail megaprojects that run high risks of being over-scheduled and over-budgeted, which has raised the need to improve rail megaporjects and their investments in order to establish the economic base of any society. Hence it is vital to analyse the systemic risks in rail megaprojects given their complexity and uncertainty towards developing an efficient risk management framework. To improve the performance of the procurement of rail megaprojects, the present study conducts a detailed literature review to explore the key procurement risk indicators and critical success factors for public procurement of rail megaprojects. The key findings are used to develop an integrated approach towards a systemic transformative adaptation to enable the effective incorporation of the procurement risk management process into the planning and decision-making of rail megaprojects in the UK. This study develops a conceptual framework that indicates that one of the most critical enablers of improvement in the performance of procurement of rail megaprojects is by enabling a collaborative approach. This is a unique study that presents key procurement risk indicators and critical success factors to derive sustainability based enablers to improve the performance of the procurement process of rail megaprojects

Intersections of Identity and Sexual Violence on Campus: Centering Minoritized Students’ Experiences

Book Revie

Towards a large-scale quantum simulator on diamond surface at room temperature

Strongly-correlated quantum many-body systems exhibits a variety of exotic phases with long-range quantum correlations, such as spin liquids and supersolids. Despite the rapid increase in computational power of modern computers, the numerical simulation of these complex systems becomes intractable even for a few dozens of particles. Feynman's idea of quantum simulators offers an innovative way to bypass this computational barrier. However, the proposed realizations of such devices either require very low temperatures (ultracold gases in optical lattices, trapped ions, superconducting devices) and considerable technological effort, or are extremely hard to scale in practice (NMR, linear optics). In this work, we propose a new architecture for a scalable quantum simulator that can operate at room temperature. It consists of strongly-interacting nuclear spins attached to the diamond surface by its direct chemical treatment, or by means of a functionalized graphene sheet. The initialization, control and read-out of this quantum simulator can be accomplished with nitrogen-vacancy centers implanted in diamond. The system can be engineered to simulate a wide variety of interesting strongly-correlated models with long-range dipole-dipole interactions. Due to the superior coherence time of nuclear spins and nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond, our proposal offers new opportunities towards large-scale quantum simulation at room temperatures

Xenopus fraseri: Mr. Fraser, where did your frog come from?

A comprehensive, accurate, and revisable alpha taxonomy is crucial for biodiversity studies, but is challenging when data from reference specimens are difficult to collect or observe. However, recent technological advances can overcome some of these challenges. To illustrate this, we used modern approaches to tackle a centuries-old taxonomic enigma presented by Fraser’s Clawed Frog, Xenopus fraseri, including whether X. fraseri is different from other species, and if so, where it is situated geographically and phylogenetically. To facilitate these inferences, we used high-resolution techniques to examine morphological variation, and we generated and analyzed complete mitochondrial genome sequences from all Xenopus species, including >150-year-old type specimens. Our results demonstrate that X. fraseri is indeed distinct from other species, firmly place this species within a phylogenetic context, and identify its minimal geographic distribution in northern Ghana and northern Cameroon. These data also permit novel phylogenetic resolution into this intensively studied and biomedically important group. Xenopus fraseri was formerly thought to be a rainforest endemic placed alongside species in the amieti species group; in fact this species occurs in arid habitat on the borderlands of the Sahel, and is the smallest member of the muelleri species group. This study illustrates that the taxonomic enigma of Fraser’s frog was a combined consequence of sparse collection records, interspecies conservation and intraspecific polymorphism in external anatomy, and type specimens with unusual morphology