The Efficacies of Secretarial Profession by Ghana Education Service and Higher Education Institutions

This project is carried out by employing an empirical method through questionnaire design and administration and tapped the perceptions and knowledge of the target elements of this study.  The research frame was about Ghana Education Service office workers within the Accra Metropolis including higher education institutions.  A qualitative data analysis is presented more in the literature review to support in conclusions for the purpose of this project work.  More importantly, the backbone of the research was based on both primary and secondary sources of data, which helped and revealed a lot of contentions within the secretarial practice.  A total of 200 questionnaires was developed and distributed among 200 staffs of G.E.S. based on random sampling technique.  This means that it is not the total number of GES in the Metropolis that was considered, it was only the total figure of 200 questionnaires that was considered and administered on the participants randomly.  The participants for that matter the respondents included the management, Supervisors, Secretaries/Stenographers, University Administrators and some Teachers/Lecturers.   The questionnaires were directly administered which gave results; hence, all the 200 questionnaires were answered and returned for presentation and analysis.  This was an opinion seeking from the elements of the population and drawn clear conclusions from their answers after careful presentation and analysis.  Ghana Education Service is one of the Government of Ghana public institutions established by an act of parliament to oversee the Educational systems in Ghana. Secretarial Practice is a professional practice and it has been misconstrued by many public or government administrators in terms of educational advancements and reforms in fulfilling the economic needs of a country.  Among all educational programmes at the higher level of education, it is only secretarial practice that has not been considered in the Universities at most.  Hence, no organization in Ghana has positions called company or corporate secretary which is meant to be professionally higher position for secretarial practitioners.  The career path for people pursuing secretarial studies in Ghana has limited future success and growth since the programme designers at the Universities failed to design courses that will build secretaries skills and knowledge to occupy the executive positions in corporate businesses and government sector to help them professionally to derive the objectives forward for successful development and growth. Keywords: secretary, roles, perception, company secretary, typewriting, career path, typist, receptionis

The Influence of Authority, Initiative, and Unity of Direction in Achieving Good Governance in Africa using Mplus v8 Scientific Tool

This is an inductive and applied research study with the application of both quantitative and qualitative methods using Mplus v8 and presented the findings. The study targeted how authority, unity of direction and initiative are used in the public sector organisations in Ghana through organisational charts and structures. The research primary source of data is Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) and of which 55 sample size were collected within GNAT in Tamale, Northern Region. GPower 3.0.10 was also used to calculate this sample size to support the data analysis. The research findings shows that the public sectors in Ghana organisational charts needs to be transformed or changed completely to suite the public sector as humble institutions and not a bossy type of organisation’s jobs. The occupants of the public sector organisations are supposed to serve and not as directors. The model of the hypothesis shows that there is positive relationship between authority and good governance, also, it indicated a lower coefficient for initiative which correlates with good governance, whereas, the analysis shows that there is negative relationship between unity of direction and good governance. By this it means that there is the need for more concentration on unity of direction. As former President Obama once said that Africa does not need strong men but rather Africa needs strong institutions (New York Times report, 2009), and this is the only way Ghana and Africa can build its human capital towards achieving good governance by adopting the findings in this research. Keywords: authority, unity of direction, initiative, public sector, good governance, organisation, charts, structures, Ghana DOI: 10.7176/PPAR/9-4-05 Publication date: April 30th 2019

Pengaruh Kuat Arus dan Tegangan Terhadap Perubahan Kandungan Logam pada Lindi TPA Sampah dengan Metode Elektrolisis

Pada umumnya setiap kota memiliki tempat pembuangan umum atau TPU sebagai tempat pengolahan akhir dari limbah domestik dari warga kota tersebut. Setiap hari bahkan jam, sampah dari berbagai macam tempat dan jenis dikumpulkan di TPU. Sampah-sampah yang tertumpuk tersebut menghasilkan limbah cair lain akibat rembesan air hujan yang akan menjadi air lindi (leachate). Pengolahan limbah untuk air lindi perlu dilakukan karena air lindi termasuk dalam golongan limbah. Salah satu cara pengolahan limbah lindi ialah elektrolisis yang dilakukan pada penelitian ini dimana diharapkan mampu menurunkan kadar Fe dan Zn pada limbah air lindi TPA Bukit Pinang Samarinda, mengetahui variasi tegangan, waktu optimum dan mengetahui pengaruh dari variasi tegangan dan waktu kontak. Pengolahan yang akan dilakukan pada penelitian ini adalah elektrolisis dengan menggunakan batang karbon sebagai katoda dan anoda dengan variasi tegangan (3.6 volt, 6.6 volt dan 9.6 volt) dan waktu kontak (30 menit, 45 menit dan 60 menit). Hasil yang diperoleh setelah dilakukan elektrolisis dengan tegangan (V) yang digunakan yaitu masing-masing 3.6V, 6.6V dan 9.6V. Dimana kadar Fe pada 30 menit ialah 0.1064 mg/L, 0.1046 mg/L dan 0.1209 mg/L, pada 45 menit ialah 0.1157 mg/L, 0.1283 mg/L dan 0.1066 mg/L dan 60 menit ialah 0.1084 mg/L, 0.1247 mg/L dan 0.1139 mg/L. Sedangkan variasi waktu dan tegangan tidak memberikan pengaruh yang signifikan terhadap perubahan kandungan logam dalam air lindi. Kadar Zn setelah dielektrolisis masing-masing pada 30 menit 0.0009 mg/L, 0.0007 mg/L dan 0.0006 mg/L, 45 menit ialah 0.0005 mg/L, 0.0006 mg/L dan 0.0006 mg/L dan 60 menit ialah .0004 mg/L, 0.0015 mg/L dan 0.0007 mg/L.Kata Kunci: penurunan, air lindi, kandungan logam, elektrolisi

Uncle Snow Enterprise: homemade ice cream / Muhamad Arif Aizat Zulkefle ...[et al.]

We planned to do this business because there are huge opportunities to combine all the homemade ice cream products is one side which come out as 'Uncle Snow'

Management of Government Owned Bus Companies Services in Ghana: Application of Scientific Methods Analysis in Perspective

Government owned transport companies in Ghana ought to up their management decisions on the factors surrounding the Supportive Work Culture of their staffs especially, the drivers. Without drivers there will be no movement of buses to various destinations. Besides, it is the drivers that come into contact with customers or passengers every day and faces a lot of safety issues and other road challenges such as traffic and bad roads and bad road networks. Hence, since drivers have been agitating and demonstrating for better conditions of service, calls for further investigation into the sector, it means job satisfaction has been a problem for them. Since the outer loadings and outer weights affects many of the constructs. This research model tested showed that employees work behaviour and commitment have influence on their Job Satisfaction at work. This also reveals that the Good Governance aspect needs much improvement to reflect the desire of the drivers in order to achieve the company objectives. The Outer loadings of the constructs for the various variables showed both weak and higher Outer Loadings but a combination of all these was significant in almost all the measurements results

Market Positioning of Public and Private Universities:Students Perspective

This paper concentrates on universities strategies for admitting students and the rate at which private sector universities expand in today’s higher educational setups. This paper answers the following question: to what extend are the public universities different from the private universities? In an attempt to find the answers, the whole study is developed<br />towards students’ perception of the universities positioning in terms of what they are offering to the customers, through what they prompt people to apply for admission? Therefore, this<br />paper looks at the prevailing admission strategies and potential students’ entry requirements at both public and private universities to determine the theoretical systems that are used by these universities in competition for customers (students). A quantitative survey of students in both public and private universities in Ghana was undergone In all, a total number of 255 questionnaires were printed. Only 187 were answered and returned out of 200 distributed questionnaires to the public sector universities whereas 55 questionnaires were distributed to the private sector students and 51 were answered and returned. This research was based on sampling data collection methods. The findings show that there are three categories of universities such as Publicly/Fully Independent Chartered Universities, Privately Owned Universities and Personal/Sole Proprietorship University Colleges. All these affect students’ choices for admission application. The findings clearly indicate that both public and private universities<br />purposes are related using Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Coefficient formulae to that of the sole proprietorship colleges. Also, the admission requirement strategies differ between public and private universities

Investigating Genetic and Other Determinants of First-Onset Myocardial Infarction in Malaysia: Protocol for the Malaysian Acute Vascular Events Risk Study

INTRODUCTION: Although the burden of premature myocardial infarction (MI) is high in Malaysia, direct evidence on the determinants of MI in this multi-ethnic population remains sparse. The Malaysian Acute Vascular Events Risk (MAVERIK) study is a retrospective case-control study established to enable investigation of genomic, lipid-related and other determinants of acute MI in Malaysia. To our knowledge, it represents the largest case-control study of MI and related traits in Malaysia. In this paper, we report the study’s design and initial results. METHODS: By June 2019, MAVERIK had enrolled about 2500 patients with first-ever MI and 2500 controls without cardiovascular disease (CVD), frequency-matched by age, sex and ethnicity, from 17 hospitals in Malaysia. For each participant, serum and whole blood have been collected and stored. Clinical, demographic and behavioural information has been obtained using a 200-item questionnaire. RESULTS: Tobacco consumption, history of diabetes, hypertension, markers of visceral adiposity, indicators of lower socioeconomic status, and family history of coronary disease were more prevalent in cases than controls. Crude and adjusted (age, sex) logistic regression models for traditional risk factors indicated that current smoking, previous smoking, history of high blood pressure, history of diabetes mellitus, family history of CHD and obesity (BMI>30) were associated with MI in age- and sex-adjusted models. CONCLUSION: The MAVERIK study can serve as a useful platform to investigate genetic and other risk factors for MI in an under-studied South-East Asian population. It should help to hasten discovery of disease-causing pathways and to inform regionally appropriate strategies that optimise public health action

The Malaysian Acute Vascular Events Risk (MAVERIK) study protocol: studying genetic and other determinants of first-ever myocardial infarction in Malaysia (Preprint)

INTRODUCTION: Although the burden of premature myocardial infarction (MI) is high in Malaysia, direct evidence on the determinants of MI in this multi-ethnic population remains sparse. The Malaysian Acute Vascular Events Risk (MAVERIK) study is a retrospective case-control study established to enable investigation of genomic, lipid-related and other determinants of acute MI in Malaysia. To our knowledge, it represents the largest case-control study of MI and related traits in Malaysia. In this paper, we report the study’s design and initial results. METHODS: By June 2019, MAVERIK had enrolled about 2500 patients with first-ever MI and 2500 controls without cardiovascular disease (CVD), frequency-matched by age, sex and ethnicity, from 17 hospitals in Malaysia. For each participant, serum and whole blood have been collected and stored. Clinical, demographic and behavioural information has been obtained using a 200-item questionnaire. RESULTS: Tobacco consumption, history of diabetes, hypertension, markers of visceral adiposity, indicators of lower socioeconomic status, and family history of coronary disease were more prevalent in cases than controls. Crude and adjusted (age, sex) logistic regression models for traditional risk factors indicated that current smoking, previous smoking, history of high blood pressure, history of diabetes mellitus, family history of CHD and obesity (BMI>30) were associated with MI in age- and sex-adjusted models. CONCLUSION: The MAVERIK study can serve as a useful platform to investigate genetic and other risk factors for MI in an under-studied South-East Asian population. It should help to hasten discovery of disease-causing pathways and to inform regionally appropriate strategies that optimise public health action

Investigating Genetic and Other Determinants of First-Onset Myocardial Infarction in Malaysia:Protocol for the Malaysian Acute Vascular Events Risk Study

BACKGROUND: Although the burden of premature myocardial infarction (MI) is high in Malaysia, direct evidence on the determinants of MI in this multi-ethnic population remains sparse. OBJECTIVE: The Malaysian Acute Vascular Events Risk (MAVERIK) study is a retrospective case-control study established to investigate the genomic, lipid-related, and other determinants of acute MI in Malaysia. In this paper, we report the study protocol and early results. METHODS: By June 2019, we had enrolled approximately 2500 patients with their first MI and 2500 controls without cardiovascular disease, who were frequency-matched by age, sex, and ethnicity, from 17 hospitals in Malaysia. For each participant, serum and whole blood have been collected and stored. Clinical, demographic, and behavioral information has been obtained using a 200-item questionnaire. RESULTS: Tobacco consumption, a history of diabetes, hypertension, markers of visceral adiposity, indicators of lower socioeconomic status, and a family history of coronary disease were more prevalent in cases than in controls. Adjusted (age and sex) logistic regression models for traditional risk factors indicated that current smoking (odds ratio [OR] 4.11, 95% CI 3.56-4.75; P30 kg/m(2); OR 1.19, 95% CI 1.05-1.34; P=.009) were associated with MI in age- and sex-adjusted models. CONCLUSIONS: The MAVERIK study can serve as a useful platform to investigate genetic and other risk factors for MI in an understudied Southeast Asian population. It should help to hasten the discovery of disease-causing pathways and inform regionally appropriate strategies that optimize public health action. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): RR1-10.2196/3188