A Comparative Study of Mindfulness between Male and Female Intervarsity Taekwondo Players of India

Mindfulness refers to being completely in touch with and aware of the present moment, as well as taking a non-evaluative and non-judgmental approach to one’s inner experience. The present empirical investigation was conducted to compare the mindfulness of male and female intervarsity taekwondo players of India. One hundred and four Taekwondo players (Male = 52 and Female = 52) who participated in the All India Intervarsity Taekwondo tournament held at Manipur University, Canchipur (India) in 2012 were taken as the subjects. Their age ranged from 17 to 27 years. Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS) developed by Brown and Ryan (2003) was administered on the subjects to assess the level of mindfulness of the subjects of two experimental groups. ‘t’ test was employed to analyze the data. Results of the study revealed insignificant difference between male and female intervarsity taekwondo players of India in regard to mindfulness. Keywords: Mindfulness and Taekwond

MANAGING AND MAXIMISING THE USE OF SEWAGE IN TAMALE

Treated water is used for bathing, fl;ushing toilets, drinking, cooking, washing, recreation, building, construction and gardening in Tamale resulting in high generation of sewage. Reuse of sewage at homes will supplement the national water budget especially in towns and cities.  This will promote income generation, socio-economic equity and urban food security (Shaat 1998). The treatment ponds in Tamale during the research was basic (pH range 8-10) and was unaffected by seasonal variations. Turbidity values ranged from 32 to 480 NTU. Electrical conductivity varied between 1128-5035 µS/cm. The concentration of DO in sewage ranged from 3.3mg/l in the discharge pond to 10.7mg/l in the aerobic pond. The mean total coliforms of sewage ranged between 1136 and 1880 CFU while faecal coliforms ranged between 336-739 CFU. The proportion of those who pay for water use (69%) coincided with those who use tap water. About 47% of the people in Tamale who use piped water do not get regular supply of water. Willingness to pay for water use was negatively related (?= -0.01) to education

FARMING, EXCRETA AND HEALTH IN TAMALE METROPLITAN AREA-AN ENVIRONMENTAL PERSPECTIVE

Poverty and the rising cost of synthetic fertilizer have compelled backyard gardeners to resort to wastewater irrigation and excreta fertilization in Tamale. Research has indicated that soil texture and nutrients are improved greatly if sludge and wastewater are used for crop production because excreta contain all the nutrients needed for plant growth but may be supplemented for potassium. Infectious organisms such as bacteria, viruses, protozoa and parasites (worms) are found in sludge. Three methods were used by the farmers: Surface spreading method-55%; Pit method-17%; and Spot method-28%. Those who apply four trips of excreta per acre acquired more yield (15 bags/acre of maize) than those who applied less than four trips of faecal sludge. Keywords: Pathogens, Excreta, Hazardous, Bacteria, Compost, Plough, Cespit tank

PESTICIDE POISONING MONITORING OF CLIENTS AT KEDI HEALTH CARE CENTER IN NAVRONGO

Fruits and vegetables are highly nutritious and form a key food commodity in the human consumption.  They are highly perishable due to their low shelf life.  These food commodities are reported to be contaminated with toxic and health hazardous chemicals like calcium carbide, ethephon and oxytocin which are used for artificial ripening of fruits and for increasing the size of fruits and vegetables respectively. The indiscriminate use of chemicals has led to pesticide residues in humans due to crop contamination with natural occurring toxic substances and heavy metallic substances. Out of a sample of 70, 63% were males and 37% were females. The low number of females was due to financial constraints. Sixty seven percent of those who were interviewed were single, widowed or divorced. This indicates that those who were single took independent decisions as far as health care was concern. Ninety percent of the respondents had ever been to school and 81% could read so illiteracy was not the cause of pesticide poisoning. Forty nine percent of the respondents had no income and 99% eats vegetables. Of those who eat vegetables 57% occasionally eat vegetables while 43% eat vegetables frequently. Analysis indicated that, 54% of respondents obtained vegetables from their farms and 36% from the market. The 10% obtained vegetables from friends or relatives. Sixty eight percent female and 58% men had abnormal concentration of pesticides in their blood because the female eat a lot more vegetables than males. There was no much difference between the married (58%) and single (60%) in the concentration of pesticide in their blood and indicated that pesticide poisoning does not depend on ones marital status. Concentration of pesticide in the blood is a cumulative effect resulting from the consumption of other vegetables, fruits and grains which have been treated during production and storage. Vegetables and other food stuff should be properly cleaned before use. Those who use vegetables without washing had more abnormalities (67%) in their blood than those who washed (59%). Keywords: Abnormal, Concentration, Pesticide, Cumulative, Organophosphate, Organochlorid

The impact of government funding on senior high enrolment in Ghana

Successive governments, both military and civilian regimes, funded senior high school education in Ghana to increase access and improve quality since the nation attained independence on 6 March 1957. In the study reported on here we adopted a quantitative research method using secondary data from five public senior high schools in the Wa Municipality, as these schools are beneficiaries of government funding in Ghana. We used the generalised linear model to test the impact of government funding on student enrolment. The study reveals that government funding has a significant impact on increasing enrolment among girls but it is not statistically significant in increasing boys’ enrolment. Keywords: enrolment; government funding; senior high school; sustainable development goal

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Simulation for the Extraction of Blood Clot in Middle Cerebral Artery using ‘GP’ 2 Device

Stroke has become the number three killer disease in Malaysia following heart disease and cancer; with 110 of people dying from it every day. The effects of stroke often lead to life-changing, permanent impairment to the patients such as paralysis, speech and logic sequencing. Hence, recent studies are looking into stroke treatments with minimal after surgical effect to patients. One of the alternatives is using mechanical thrombectomy devices. In this project, the simulation for ‘GP’ 2 device which functions to extract the blood clot in the artery without damaging the arterial wall and causing downstream embolism is presented. The simulation will be carried out using computational fluid dynamics; applying the Volume of Fluid (VOF) model. In grid size selection, it is clear that finer grids results in higher accuracy calculations i.e. better results. However, this is achieved at the cost of prolonged computational time. From grid sensitivity study in identifying the optimum grid size that is fine enough to generate accurate calculations but large enough to avoid extra computational time; the grid size of 0.2mm is used. The design for ‘GP’ 2 Device has to be characterised to identify which of the two proposed designs is efficient for the suction of blood clot for 100% occlusion in the Middle Cerebral Artery. Design for ‘GP’ 2 Model 1 device is better at clot extraction than the Model 2 device because increase in surface area for suction favours same-suction principle rather than vortex creation to break the clot. Theoretically, higher pressure results in faster clot extraction. However, the value of pressure applied shall be observed closely so that no arterial damage is done and it can be applied for clinical tests. For both models, it can be shown that higher pressure extracts blood clot at lower time whereby the fastest clot extraction occurs at time 0.00498s for Model 1, and 0.01211s for Model 2 both at 60 kPa

Modelling Divorce Epidemic on Network

Most couples entering into marriage are happy and do not anticipate divorce as an option. However, in reality, marriage is complicated, and many factors can lead to divorce. Using a compartmental model, we simulated and analyzed transmission network of divorce spread in continuous time on networks (that is, we analyzed married- divorced-separated model on networks). According to our findings, divorced individuals or nodes can cause many marriage nodes to become separated. Again there were few divorced nodes at the peak and at the end of the epidemic, but most marriages resulted in separation at the end of the epidemic. At the end of the epidemic, 80% of married nodes became separated nodes, which is a very serious problem. This suggests that divorce or separation is contagious and can spread quickly through indirect contact. This makes it vital to examine the effect of divorce to the population so as reduce the number of broken homes at the end of the divorce epidemic. Keywords: compartmental model, complex systems, Marriage networks, divorce epidemic

Vertical coordination mechanisms and farm performance amongst smallholder rice farmers in northern Ghana

Despite the fact that contracting facilitates farmer participation in agrifood value chains, evidence on farmers’ participation in different forms of contracts and the impact on farm performance is still limited. This study examines the determinants and impacts of vertical coordination mechanism‐spot market transactions, written, and verbal contract‐on‐farm performance of rice farmers in northern Ghana, using a multinomial BFG model to account for selectivity bias. The findings indicate that vertical coordination participation decision is significantly influenced by age, access to credit, labor, association membership, and sales to institutional buyers. The empirical results also reveal significant gains in farm performance outcomes from participating in written and verbal contracts, relative to spot market transactions