Dynamics of Maize Price in Ghana: Linear versus Nonlinear Cobweb Models

This paper intends to study the price dynamics of maize in Ghana using cobweb models derived from linear demand and nonlinear supply function and then compare with that from linear demand and supply functions which are constructed from real economic price and production data of maize. Comparative analysis of stability conditions of the equilibrium was discussed

BioSGAN: Protein-phenotype Co-mention classification using semi-supervised generative adversarial networks

Valuable and relevant information that relates human proteins with their phenotypes in biomedical literature stays hidden from biomedical scientists due to the rapid rise in biomedical publications. Previous studies that developed computational methods to extract this knowledge mostly rely on rule-based linguistic patterns and supervised machine learning approaches. In this work, we propose the use of generative adversarial networks to develop a novel method called BioSGAN for the protein-phenotype co-mention classification task. We demonstrate the potential associated with combining a small labeled dataset with vast unlabelled biomedical text data extracted from Medline abstracts and PubMed Central open Access full-text in a semi-supervised machine learning framework. Our method achieves state-of-the-art performance for classifying the validity of a given sentence-level co-mention of a human protein and phenotype by convincingly outperforming a traditional machine learning-based counterpart. These findings have implications for biocurators, researchers, and the text mining community involved with biomedical relation extraction

Moral economy and the sustainability of the arttisanal marine fishing industry in Shama, Ghana: Moral economy and the sustainability of the arttisanal marine fishing industry in Shama, Ghana

Fishing plays an important role in the Ghanaian economy and about 10% of Ghanaians directly or indirectly make their living from the fishery sub-sector. This, notwithstanding, artisanal fishing is characterised by seasonality, rising costs of operation and diminishing catches resulting from pirate fishing by foreign trawlers, use of illegal fishing techniques and, lately, the drilling of light crude oil offshore. The main objective of this paper was to examine traditional institutional arrangements within the artisanal fishing industry in Shama, a community along the west coast of Ghana. Emphasis was placed on social relations within the context of a moral economy that ensures that the fishing activities and livelihoods are sustained in the face of dwindling fish stocks and high expedition costs. The sustainable livelihood approach was reviewed to high-light the vulnerability context within which community livelihoods are obtained and the risk management and coping strategiesindividuals employ to deal with such vulnerabilities. Those risk coping strategies were carried out within the context of a community moral economy. A total of 33 respondents were selected by accidental and purposive sampling for the study. Interviewing, focus group discussions and non-participant observation were used for data collection and analysis. The study revealed that stakeholders in the artisanal marine fishing industry in Shama draw on family, social networks and social claims to ensure the sustainability of their livelihoods. It is through social networks and claims that the people were able to access financial capital to support their fishing businesses and cope with vulnerabilities

Potassium Application Positively Modulates Physiological Responses of Cocoa Seedlings to Drought Stress

With increasing frequency and intensity of dry spells in the cocoa production zones of West Africa, strategies for mitigating impact of water stress on cocoa seedling survival are urgently required. We investigated the effects of applied potassium on biomass accumulation, physiological processes and survival of cocoa varieties subjected to water stress in pot experiments in a gauzehouse facility. Four levels of potassium (0, 1, 2, or 3 g/plant as muriate of potash) were used. Soil water stress reduced plant biomass accumulation (shoot and roots), relative water content (RWC), chlorophyll content and fluorescence. Leaf phenol and proline contents were increased under water stress. Additionally, compared to the well-watered conditions, soils under water stress treatments had higher contents of exchangeable potassium and available phosphorus at the end of the experimental period. Potassium applied under well-watered conditions reduced leaf chlorophyll content and fluorescence and increased leaf electrolyte leakage, but improved the growth and integrity of physiological functions under soil water stress. Potassium addition increased biomass partitioning to roots, improved RWC and leaf membrane stability, and significantly improved cocoa seedling survival under water stress. Under water stress, the variety with the highest seedling mortality accumulated the highest contents of phenol and proline. A significant effect of variety on plant physiological functions was observed. Generally, varieties with PA 7 parentage had higher biomass partitioning to roots and better seedling survival under soil moisture stress. Proportion of biomass partitioned to roots, RWC, chlorophyll fluorescence and leaf electrolyte leakage appear to be the most reliable indicators of cocoa seedling tolerance to drought

Examination of Household Solid Waste Management in Nadowli Township in Ghana: A Waste Management Hierarchy Approach

The purpose of the study was to identify the gaps between existing practices and the provisions of the hierarchy of waste management model in the Nadowli Township of the Upper West Region of Ghana. A cross-sectional study design with quantitative and qualitative approaches was adopted and questionnaires, observation and interview guides were used to collect data from a sample size of 100 respondents. Findings revealed that the methods of waste management in the model cannot be practiced without linkage to the roles of stakeholders. While waste disposal is the least preferred option in theory, it was the most practiced method. Accordingly, avoidance, reduction, reuse and recycling were less practiced, resulting in ineffective prevention of pollution, diseases, environmental resource conservation and sustainability. It was recommended that adequate coverage of educational campaigns and infrastructural development could bridge the gap between theory and practice.Keywords: Solid Waste, Waste Management Methods, Stakeholders, Nadowl

Price Dynamics of a Delay Differential Cobweb Model

The paper uses a new technique to find a unique solution to a delay differential cobweb model (formulated from a joint supply-demand function of price) with real model parameters via the Lambert W-function without considering any complex branches. The dynamics of the model are demonstrated with simulations and found to complement previous studies using literature values. However, the condition for instability δ/β>1 in the previous studies was defied by our model due to the time delay associated with the supply function. The practical application and advantage of this model over the existing models are that the stability of this model is not limited to only the ratio of price elasticity of demand and supply but also the time-delay parameter (i.e., a missing link in the previous models). Our model, on the other hand, loses its stability when the time delay associated with the supply function is fixed at τ=1.8. Since most of the physical systems, including economical systems, are time-delay inherent and such stability conditionalities should not limit their performance, it is recommended that such systems be modelled using delay differential functions. The novelty of this research is that there has not been a definite general solution to the cobweb model with a time delay whose price dynamics mimic the behaviour of the existing cobweb models in the literature. An illustrative example in a delayed fractional-order differential equation also buttressed the importance of the time delay in the model, aside from the impact of the ratio of the price elasticity of supply and demand

MOESM1 of Factors influencing the practice of exclusive breastfeeding among nursing mothers in a peri-urban district of Ghana

Additional file 1. Questionnaire