Poverty and happiness: An examination of the factors influencing happiness among the extreme poor in rural Ghana

Every person desires some level of inner fulfilment at different stages of life and this could come from a combination of several factors including material and resource acquisition and social prestige. The challenge, however, is whether happiness levels across the different social strata are the same, especially among the poor and the neglected. Using data from the Livelihood Empowerment against Poverty survey in Ghana, we analyse the factors that influence happiness among the extreme poor. The positive and negative factors are discussed in the paper

Market participation and rural poverty in Ghana in the era of globlization

This paper investigates the factors that influence market participation in rural economies. This is based on the premise that participation in the market is an important channel through which the global economy impacts on the rural areas and can have a positive impact on poverty reduction through increased incomes. A case study approach is adopted using four rural communities in three ecological zones of Ghana. – poverty ; case study ; prices ; markets ; rural econom

Rabbit Production in Selected Urban Areas of Southern Ghana: Status and Implications for Policy and Research

A survey was conducted to elicit information on rabbit keeping in 26 urban areas of southern Ghana. The average age of the rabbit keepers was 44.3 years, and 95.5% of the keepers had formal education. Most of the producers got into rabbit keeping for money to meet urgent family needs, while household consumption was a major factor influencing the decision for rearing rabbits. Personal savings was the main source of income for the establishment of the rabbit enterprises. The major breeds of rabbits kept were the California White, New Zealand White and crossbreds of varied genetic variations. Backyard, small-scale and medium-scale commercial rabbit holdings were held by 18.2, 51.7 and 30.2% of the keepers respectively. The average rabbit population per farm was 77.8, with an average of 8.4 bucks, 21.6 does. Young rabbits formed 70.0% of the rabbit population. Owners of rabbitries usually cared for their animals as hired labour was expensive and often not available. High cost of feed was the most significant constraint to rabbit keeping, and mange was the most common disease affecting the rabbits. Marketing of rabbits was not organized, and this served as a disincentive to expanding the holdings. The rabbits were mostly sold either life or as fresh carcasses at the farm gate. To ensure a rapid growth of the rabbit industry, research should be undertaken to address the identified constraints to production while appropriate policies are put in place to enhance the growth of the industry

Fourier Method for Approximating Eigenvalues of Indefinite Stekloff Operator

We introduce an efficient method for computing the Stekloff eigenvalues associated with the Helmholtz equation. In general, this eigenvalue problem requires solving the Helmholtz equation with Dirichlet and/or Neumann boundary condition repeatedly. We propose solving the related constant coefficient Helmholtz equation with Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) based on carefully designed extensions and restrictions of the equation. The proposed Fourier method, combined with proper eigensolver, results in an efficient and clear approach for computing the Stekloff eigenvalues.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure

Safety of overlapping inpatient orthopaedic surgery: A multicenter study

BackgroundAlthough overlapping surgery is used to maximize efficiency, more empirical data are needed to guide patient safety. We conducted a retrospective cohort study to evaluate the safety of overlapping inpatient orthopaedic surgery, as judged by the occurrence of perioperative complications.MethodsAll inpatient orthopaedic surgical procedures performed at 5 academic institutions from January 1, 2015, to December 31, 2015, were included. Overlapping surgery was defined as 2 skin incisions open simultaneously for 1 surgeon. In comparing patients who underwent overlapping surgery with those who underwent non-overlapping surgery, the primary outcome was the occurrence of a perioperative complication within 30 days of the surgical procedure, and secondary outcomes included all-cause 30-day readmission, length of stay, and mortality. To determine if there was an association between overlapping surgery and a perioperative complication, we tested for non-inferiority of overlapping surgery, assuming a null hypothesis of an increased risk of 50%. We used an inverse probability of treatment weighted regression model adjusted for institution, procedure type, demographic characteristics (age, sex, race, comorbidities), admission type, admission severity of illness, and clustering by surgeon.ResultsAmong 14,135 cases, the frequency of overlapping surgery was 40%. The frequencies of perioperative complications were 1% in the overlapping surgery group and 2% in the non-overlapping surgery group. The overlapping surgery group was non-inferior to the non-overlapping surgery group (odds ratio [OR], 0.61 [90% confidence interval (CI), 0.45 to 0.83]; p < 0.001), with reduced odds of perioperative complications (OR, 0.61 [95% CI, 0.43 to 0.88]; p = 0.009). For secondary outcomes, there was a significantly lower chance of all-cause 30-day readmission in the overlapping surgery group (OR, 0.67 [95% CI, 0.52 to 0.87]; p = 0.003) and shorter length of stay (e, 0.94 [95% CI, 0.89 to 0.99]; p = 0.012). There was no difference in mortality.ConclusionsOur results suggest that overlapping inpatient orthopaedic surgery does not introduce additional perioperative risk for the complications that we evaluated. The suitability of this practice should be determined by individual surgeons on a case-by-case basis with appropriate informed consent.Level of evidenceTherapeutic Level III. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence

Assessing the value of future accessions to the WTO Agreement on Gouvenement Procurement (GPA): Some new data sources, provisional estimates, and an evaluative framework for individual WTO members considering accession

The WTO Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA) is a plurilateral Agreement, meaning that it comprises only a subset of the full Membership of the WTO. Currently, a number of WTO Members that are not Parties to the Agreement either are actively seeking accession to it, have commitments to accede to the GPA in their respective WTO accession protocols or are, on their own initiative, looking at the potential pros and cons of accession. In this context, there is a need for factual information concerning the potential consequences of GPA accession, and a framework to assess related benefits and costs. Of interest is both the systemic value of such accessions - i.e. the value they will add to the extent of market access commitments under the Agreement - and their potential benefits and costs for individual acceding Parties. This Working Paper introduces new sources of information relevant to these topics (principally, the statistical reports that have been circulated recently by GPA Parties) and shows their relevance to and usefulness in assessing the above-noted matters. The Paper presents estimates of the size of potential market access gains from pending and possible future GPA accessions, based on simple extrapolations from the data sources identified. Next, the Paper shows how the same data sources can assist in throwing light on the potential benefits and costs of GPA accession for individual WTO Members/countries contemplating accession. The latter use of the data is developed in the context of a more general discussion of the benefits and costs of GPA accession for individual WTO Members, also drawing on existing literature, qualitative aspects and insights from the field (i.e. our own work in advising and conducting seminars for such countries and other WTO Members)