Juvenile Delinquency: Its Causes and Effects

The aim of the study was to find out the circumstances that led inmates of two correctional facilities for young offenders into behaviours considered criminal and the effect it has had on them and the society they lived in. The study hypothesized that; peer association and family situation will influence delinquency and that delinquency did not have a significant effect on the future (schooling) of the juveniles affected. Fifty-seven (57) inmates of two Junior Correctional Centres in Accra were conveniently selected to respond to a structured questionnaire. Juveniles attributed the causes of their delinquent behaviours to their own initiatives, family situations, spiritual influences and peer association. Peer pressure was found to influence adolescent behaviour formation. Implications of juveniles’ incarceration and parental role in guiding adolescent children are discussed. Keywords: delinquency, juvenile, causes, peer association. DOI: 10.7176/JLPG/88-24 Publication date: August 31st 201

Gold Mining and its Effects through the Lens of an Archaeologist: Experiences from the Prestea Area, South Western Ghana

Gold has a historical, economic and cultural heritage in Ghana’s past. Over two millennia, its exploration, mining and trade has fascinated many. Mining and its associated effects on the environment have recently generated heated debates among stakeholders. Various research has been conducted on the subject; however, little ethnoarchaeological inquiries have been done in Ghana. This paper presents the effects of the mining industry from an ethnoarchaeological perspective at Prestea and its environs. The evidence shows the various effects of mining on both the natural environment and the socio-economic and cultural structures in the Prestea area of southwestern Ghana

Differences among age, gender and school factors in Ghanaian senior secondary school students' aspirations for entrepreneurial careers

A position paper on after-school job aspirations for Ghanaian students based on their gender, age and other school factors.Research has shown that demographic and contextual factors such as age, gender, among others have influence on secondary school students' aspirations for entrepreneurship careers. Again, it has been noted that entrepreneurial potential should be identified and evaluated at secondary school level so that teachers and counsellors will be more successful in augmenting entrepreneurial propensity at the stage of development in which individual career options are still open. This study therefore determined whether differences in age, gender and school factors influenced Ghanaian senior secondary school students' aspirations for entrepreneurial careers. The descriptive research design was adopted for this study. A total of 2,000 students were selected from Forms 3 and 4 for the study. Five research questions were set to guide the study whilst multi-stage sampling procedure was used to select the sample. A questionnaire titled “Self-Knowledge, Family Influence and Career Knowledge Level on Aspirations for Entrepreneurial Careers ” was used to obtain relevant data which were analysed using descriptive statistics. The conclusion of the study was that there were differences with respect to age, gender, course of study and school type in students' aspirations for entrepreneurial careers, while there was none regarding form/class level. Among the counselling implications are that counsellors must take into consideration personal and contextual variables of students during career counselling, especially in entrepreneurship, and also people in lower age groups must be encouraged to take up entrepreneurship, and thereafter business start-up activity. It was recommended that entrepreneurship education should be incorporated in the secondary school curriculum in Ghana, and entrepreneurial careers in particular, must not be stereotyped

Somali Bibliography --2012

A bibliography of resources arranged alphabetically and published before 2012

Somali Bibliography by Keyword --2012

A bibliography of resources organized by topical keyword and published before 2012

Modified variable step-size incremental conductance MPPT technique for photovoltaic systems

A highly efficient photovoltaic (PV) system requires a maximum power point tracker to extract peak power from PV modules. The conventional variable step-size incremental conductance (INC) maximum power point tracking (MPPT) technique has two main drawbacks. First, it uses a pre-set scaling factor, which requires manual tuning under different irradiance levels. Second, it adapts the slope of the PV characteristics curve to vary the step-size, which means any small changes in PV module voltage will significantly increase the overall step-size. Subsequently, it deviates the operating point away from the actual reference. In this paper, a new modified variable step-size INC algorithm is proposed to address the aforementioned problems. The proposed algorithm consists of two parts, namely autonomous scaling factor and slope angle variation algorithm. The autonomous scaling factor continuously adjusts the step-size without using a pre-set constant to control the trade-off between convergence speed and tracking precision. The slope angle variation algorithm mitigates the impact of PV voltage change, especially during variable irradiance conditions to improve the MPPT efficiency. The theoretical investigations of the new technique are carried out while its practicability is confirmed by simulation and experimental results

Comparisons between sequenced and re-sequenced genomes of historical subterranean clover mottle virus isolates

We report comparisons between the complete genomic sequences of five historical Western Australian isolates of subterranean clover mottle virus (SCMoV) from 1989–2000, and an infectious clone of its 1989 isolate. Sanger Sequencing (SS) and High Throughput Sequencing (HTS), or both, were used to obtain these genomes. Four of the SCMoV isolates were sequenced by SS in 1999–2002, but re-sequenced again by HTS in 2020. The pairs of sequences obtained from these four isolates differed by only 18–59 nucleotides. This small difference resulted from the different sequencing methods, the < 1–5 years each isolate was host passaged before freeze-drying prior to HTS sequencing, or a combination of both. Since SCMoV has not been reported outside Australia, this similarity suggests the population sequenced represents the progeny of either an indigenous virus that spread from a native legume to subterranean clover after its introduction or a recent seed-borne incursion from elsewhere. The ORF1 was the most variable, and the phylogenetic tree constructed with ORF1s showed the isolates grouped according to their symptom severity in subterranean clover, indicating the probability that ORF1-encoded P1 protein is a symptom determinant. A satellite RNA was associated with all SCMoV genomes obtained by HTS but none derived by SS

In vivo anti-malarial potentials of some plants extracts on ICR-mice, Mus musculus

Five medicinal plants, Acacia nilotica (Fabaceae), Citrus aurantifolia (Rutaceae), Mangifera indica (Anacardiaceae) Carica papaya (Caricaceae), and Psidium guajava (Myrtaceae) used for the treatment of malaria/ fever by the Hausa people of Kano-Nigeria were selected based on their traditional claims. These were extracted using ethanol. The in vitro antiplasmodial activities of these extracts against laboratory adapted chloroquine susceptible strain of Plasmodium falciparum (3D7) were earlier reported (Dabo et al. 2013). This study was conducted to evaluate the in vivo antiplasmodial activity of four of these extracts using icr mice in the 4-day suppressive test against P. berghei. The extracts evaluated were: Acacia nilotica (Fabaceae) stem extract coded as ANSF1; Citrus aurantifolia (Rutaceae) leaf extract coded as CALF1; Mangifera indica (Anacardiaceae) leaf extract coded as MILF1 and combination of C. aurantifolia, Carica papaya (Caricaceae), M. indica and Psidium guajava (Myrtaceae) leaves extract coded as CBLF1. CALF1, ANSF1 and CBLF1 (combination) exhibited appreciable degree of suppression of 31.06%, 25.16 and %16.35% respectively. MILF1 did not exhibit any suppression against the P. berghei parasite in vivo at all. With the exception of haemoglobin content (P&lt;0.0363), haematological analysis of the various blood parameters of mice in the control and treated mice indicated no statistical difference (P&gt;0.05). Thus it can be concluded that, the apparent absence of changes in haematological profile alongside activities exhibited by CALF1 (Rutaceae), CBLF1 (a combination) and ANSF1 (Fabaceae),) suggest the bio-availability and antiplasmodial activities of the active substances in the plants evaluated.Keywords: Antimalaria; In vivo, Plants Extracts; Mus musculus; Plasmodium berghei

Heavy Metal Loading in Surface Sediments along the Kawere Stream, Tarkwa, Ghana

Sediment contamination by heavy metals resulting from anthropogenic activities is increasingly becoming a global concern due to the risk it poses to human well-being and ecological integrity at large. The purpose of this study was to assess the heavy metals loading in sediment along the Kawere stream. Ten sediment samples were collected, acid digested and analysed for copper (Cu), lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), manganese (Mn), zinc (Zn), nickel (Ni), chromium (Cr), cobalt (Co) and iron (Fe) using a Varian AA240FS Atomic Absorption Spectrometer (AAS). The Australian and New Zealand Environment and Conservation Council (ANZECC) guidelines for freshwater sediment quality was used as the benchmark against which the measured metal concentrations were compared. Nemerow’s pollution and potential ecological risk indices were used to evaluate the pollution status and ecological risk levels of the heavy metals in the stream. The results obtained indicated that, except Cu which exceeded the ANZECC trigger value of 65 mg/kg at three sampling sites (K01=171.29 mg/kg, K05=170.83 mg/kg and K07=113.31 mg/kg), all other measured heavy metals concentrations were below their corresponding ANZECC values. Heavy metal pollution assessment showed that three samples (K01, K05 and K07) were slightly polluted, suggesting the likelihood of posing a health threat to the aquatic organisms and humans. Calculated Ecological Risk Index (RI) ranged from 3.229 to 19.750 (RI &lt; 150), representing a low ecological risk. As such, the metals, Cu, Ni, Cd, Pb, Cr, and Zn pose a low ecological risk to the aquatic ecosystem. Although the ecological risk is low based on the current results, constant monitoring of the stream quality is recommended due to the increasing human activities along the stream as well as the sediments ability to accumulate and remobilise heavy metals back into the water column and possibly transferring them through the food chain. &nbsp; Keywords: Heavy Metals, Sediment, Ecological Risk Assessment, Pollution, Strea

Foodborne illness among school children in Ga east, Accra

Background: A food borne illness was reported in Ga- East district of Greater Accra Region among school children in May, 2007 after eating food provided at school. The objective of the investigation was to determine the source, mode of contamination and the causative agent.Methods: A case-control study was conducted, cases were schoolchildren with abdominal symptoms and controls were children of the same sex and class without any symptom during the same period. The school children were selected by systematic sampling. Food handlers and the children were interviewed by a structured questionnaire. Food handlers were physically examined and their stools and blood examined. The kitchen for food preparation was inspected. Risks of food borne infection from the foods eaten were determined using attack rates .Results: The minimum, peak and maximum incubation periods were 2, 11 and 61 hours respectively. The source was rice and groundnut soup (with the highest attack rate difference). Stool and blood samples of food handlers were not infective. Storage facility for food items was poor. No food samples were available for organism isolation. A protocol to prevent such outbreaks was nonexistent.Conclusion: The short incubation period and symptoms presented suggest an infective origin. The storage of the meat may potentially have been the point of contamination. The study showed that the schoolchildren ate contaminated food although the investigation could not determine the causative agent. Protocols to prevent such outbreaks need to be developed for the schools.Keywords: Food borne, illness, contaminated food, school children, Accr