Generation of Synthetic Density Log Response using Multivariate Adaptive Regression Splines

There are instances in well logging operations where log response can be missing or inaccurate for a specific depth of interest due to wellbore conditions such as wellbore size, wellbore rugosity and mud cake effects. The conventional approach is to rerun the logs at definite depths, however, this remedial technique is costly, time-consuming and prone to errors due to the presence of a casing. Machine learning methods are currently implemented as an innovative way of predicting missing log responses. The present study seeks to investigate the potential of multivariate adaptive regression splines (MARS) as a density log predictive model. The performance of the developed MARS model was judged with the widely used artificial neural networks (ANN). The results reveal that MARS generalise better when predicting the density log response of the testing data. The MARS density log model achieved the highest correlation of 0.869, an error rate of 0.01196 and 0.1094 for MSE and RMSE respectively on the withheld dataset. While back propagation neural network (BPNN) and radial basis function neural network (RBFNN) had 0.855 and 0.802 as R, 0.0128 and 0.0147 as MSE, 0.1131 and 0.1212 as RMSE respectively. Therefore, a cost-effective MARS model can accurately generate synthetic density well log response

The linkages between agriculture and malaria: Issues for policy, research, and capacity strengthening

"Malaria afflicts many people in the developing world, and due to its direct and indirect costs it has widespread impacts on growth and development. The global impact of malaria on human health, productivity, and general well-being is profound. Human activity, including agriculture, has been recognized as one of the reasons for the increased intensity of malaria around the world, because it supports the breeding of mosquitoes that carry the malaria parasite. Malaria can cause illness (morbidity), disability, or death; and all three effects have direct and indirect costs that can affect productivity. Since agriculture is the main activity of rural people in many endemic areas, it has been suggested that effective malaria control measures can be devised if attention was paid to the two-way effects of agriculture and malaria. There is the need to compute the direct costs of malaria treatment and control and the impacts of those costs on the ability of farm households to adopt new agricultural technology and improved practices, and keep farm and household assets. It is equally important to know the indirect costs of seeking health care and taking care of children and others who are afflicted by malaria and the relationship of the indirect costs to the farm labor supply and productivity. On the other hand, many agricultural activities like irrigation projects, water-harvesting and storage, land and soil management techniques, and farm work sequencing can lead to increase in mosquito populations and therefore increase the incidence of malaria in agricultural regions. This paper has raised issues on the two-way effects of agriculture and malaria and recommended areas that require policy actions and further research. The research findings can then be used in devising effective policies for controlling malaria in endemic areas of the world and assist in preparing a tool kit for capacity development on agriculture and malaria." from authors' abstractMalaria, Agriculture, Development, technology, Impact, Research, Policy, Capacity strengthening, Innovation, Institutional change, Science and technology,

Children’s Work in Ghana:Policies and Politics

This chapter explores policy and legislation aimed at preventing, regulating and abolishing harmful children’s work in Ghana. The government aligns itself with mainstream development partners and the UN in viewing harmful children’s work as a breach of dignity, wellbeing and fundamental human rights. Campaigns, laws and policies have been put in place to stop such work, yet the number of children involved in prohibited work and those combining such work with schooling continues to rise. The chapter identifies the incompatibility of these policies and programmes with the country’s historical, socio-cultural, economic and political realities. It concludes that legislation and interventions aimed at preventing children’s hazardous or harmful work should draw on both the formal legislative rights and the informal, traditional rights discourses if they are to help advance children’s development, rights and best interests

Children’s Work in Ghana:Policies and Politics

This chapter explores policy and legislation aimed at preventing, regulating and abolishing harmful children’s work in Ghana. The government aligns itself with mainstream development partners and the UN in viewing harmful children’s work as a breach of dignity, wellbeing and fundamental human rights. Campaigns, laws and policies have been put in place to stop such work, yet the number of children involved in prohibited work and those combining such work with schooling continues to rise. The chapter identifies the incompatibility of these policies and programmes with the country’s historical, socio-cultural, economic and political realities. It concludes that legislation and interventions aimed at preventing children’s hazardous or harmful work should draw on both the formal legislative rights and the informal, traditional rights discourses if they are to help advance children’s development, rights and best interests

Evaluation of the Food and Drugs Authority, Ghana Regulatory Review Process: Challenges and Opportunities

© The Author(s) 2022. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License,. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.Purpose: This study aimed to assess the current regulatory review process of the food and drugs authority (FDA) Ghana by identifying key milestones, target timelines, good review practices and quality decision-making practices and evaluating the overall regulatory performance from 2019 to 2021, as well as the challenges and opportunities for improvement. Methods: The FDA Ghana representatives completed the optimising efficiencies in regulatory agencies (OpERA) questionnaire, including data identifying the milestones and overall approval times for all products registered by the FDA Ghana from 2019 to 2021. Results: Of the new active substances approved from 2019 to 2021, 91% were biologicals processed by full or abridged reviews pathways. Timelines for these reviews were within authority targets but were longer compared with generics. Of generics approved from 2019 to 2021, 97% were pharmaceuticals processed by the full review pathway, with timelines within authority targets and shorter compared with new active substances. Regardless of the review model used, approval times for new active substances increased from 84 to 355 calendar days 2019–2021 due to the impact of the pandemic. Guidelines, standard operating procedures and review templates were in place and the majority of indicators for good review practices were implemented. Several quality decision-making practices were implemented, although currently there is not a systematic structured approach. Conclusion: The FDA Ghana monitors regulatory performance and currently meets its target timelines. To achieve World Health Organization Maturity Level 4 status, an electronic tracking system, benefit-risk assessment framework and template and the publication of assessment reports are recommended.Peer reviewe

Social factors influencing child health in Ghana

Objectives Social factors have profound effects on health. Children are especially vulnerable to social influences, particularly in their early years. Adverse social exposures in childhood can lead to chronic disorders later in life. Here, we sought to identify and evaluate the impact of social factors on child health in Ghana. As Ghana is unlikely to achieve the Millennium Development Goals’ target of reducing child mortality by two-thirds between 1990 and 2015, we deemed it necessary to identify social determinants that might have contributed to the non-realisation of this goal. Methods ScienceDirect, PubMed, MEDLINE via EBSCO and Google Scholar were searched for published articles reporting on the influence of social factors on child health in Ghana. After screening the 98 articles identified, 34 of them that met our inclusion criteria were selected for qualitative review. Results Major social factors influencing child health in the country include maternal education, rural-urban disparities (place of residence), family income (wealth/poverty) and high dependency (multiparousity). These factors are associated with child mortality, nutritional status of children, completion of immunisation programmes, health-seeking behaviour and hygiene practices. Conclusions Several social factors influence child health outcomes in Ghana. Developing more effective responses to these social determinants would require sustainable efforts from all stakeholders including the Government, healthcare providers and families. We recommend the development of interventions that would support families through direct social support initiatives aimed at alleviating poverty and inequality, and indirect approaches targeted at eliminating the dependence of poor health outcomes on social factors. Importantly, the expansion of quality free education interventions to improve would-be-mother’s health knowledge is emphasised