The Socio-Economic Effects of HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Nigerian Case

Since the discovery of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) in the early 80s on the continent of Africa and Nigeria in 1986, the disease has turned out to be the most devastating and destructive in contemporary African societies. It has a serious impact on human resources and other aspects of societal development. The paper has examined some of the social and economic effects in Nigeria, using secondary data. It pointed out the impact of the disease on the population and loss of lives among the youth in their productive and reproductive ages, which reduces the labor supply which, in turn affects the overall economic output at micro and macro levels. The effect is glaring on the family that bears the cost of medical care and other expenses in addition to the suffering from stigma associated with AIDS. The financial burden of the family is responsible for the reduced care and consumption pattern in particular for women and children. The infected persons who remain alive but lose their jobs continue to face the problem of settling medical bills. The children of the dead who become orphans lose parental care and the required support for education and other welfare services. Among others, the paper recommends that the government and other stake-holders should put more efforts on the prevention of new infections and initiate welfare programs to address the problems of the infected and the immediate members of their families, in particular women and children. Keywords: HIV/AIDS, Social Effects, Economic Effects, Stigma, Discriminatio

The Problems of Living with Disability in Nigeria

Disabled persons like the able have certain peculiar qualities that are innate. Most of them are trainable. Therefore, with proper care and support from the government and members of the civil society, their talents can be fully harnessed to reduce their dependency and promote their economic and social development. But there are bottle-necks on the way to alleviating the suffering of these people and improving their living conditions. This paper examines the problems of living with disability in Nigeria and focuses its attention on the multiple problems faced by disabled persons and their significant others with a view to understanding their negative experiences of living with disability. Documentary source was used to collect the data for this paper. Most of the materials used were sourced from the library, internet and the personal collections of individuals. The chosen theoretical framework for the paper is the Medical Model of and the Social Model of disability. The paper pointed out that disable persons suffer and experience discrimination by the government and most members of the society in which they live. Majority of them have negative experiences with respect to employment, proper training, sustainable and dependable empowerment, exclusion from social interaction and participation in decision making on issues that affect their lives such as lack of access to public facilities. The paper argued that the absence of effective laws for the protection and promotion of their rights hamper proper and adequate funding of disabled organizations and the provision of a comprehensive welfare service to them, in particular, free health care services, among others. It is recommended that the Nigerian government should, as a matter of urgency, ensure the signing of the Disability Bill into law and also consider the provision of welfare and social security services to disabled persons as a priority. There is the need to change the negative attitude and perception of the public towards disabled persons into a positive one through education and enlightenment campaigns. Keywords: Disability, Discrimination, Stigma, Disability bill, Empowerment

The relationship between board characteristics and earnings management in Nigerian listed companies

Board characteristics have been affecting companies‟ earnings due to managers‟ efforts to employ several strategies intentionally to manipulate firms‟ earnings in order to match their predetermined target, and such characteristic may influence the possibility of mispresentation of the reported earnings by managers. The objective of this study is to examine the relationship between board characteristics and earnings management in the Nigerian listed companies. A total of 79 listed companies in Nigerian Stock Exchange are selected and analyzed. Data are solely obtained from secondary sources, using annual reports and accounts of the sample companies for the financial year 2012. The results show that the board size positively and significantly affects earnings management. However, audit committee size is found negative and marginally significant with earnings management. The results suggest that larger board size is not efficient to minimize the tendency of managers to manage earnings and audit committee size should be increased in order to minimize the likelihood of earnings management

The Political Economy of Cost-Free Education in Ghanaian Public Schools: A Critical Analysis of National Resources (Finance, Materials and Manpower)

This paper explores the subject matter of cost-free education that has been hotly and contentiously debated by political parties and incumbent governments before and during general elections in Ghana. These debates are usually centered on the feasibility or otherwise of a cost-free first and second cycle’s education to the multitude of Ghanaian children. The portent of these arguments or debates of the possibility of a cost-free education stems from the realization that the majority of Ghanaian parents are unable to educate their children of school-going age as a result of abject poverty. This paper argues that the flux of ideas on cost-free education in Ghanaian public schools is unsustainable, and that it is a populist and a political gimmick. Keywords: Abject poverty, Basic School, Education, Political Economy, Public School, skewed

Pharmacogenomics In Pharmacy Practice: Current Perspectives.

Pharmacogenomics (i.e., the application of genetic information in predicting an individual's response to drug therapy) plays an increasingly important role in drug development and decision-making regarding precision medicine. This has been shown to reduce the risk of adverse events and improve patient health-care outcomes through targeted therapies and dosing. As the field of pharmacogenomics rapidly evolves, the role of pharmacists in the education, implementation, and research applications of pharmacogenomics is becoming increasingly recognized. This paper aims to provide an overview and current perspectives of pharmacogenomics in contemporary clinical pharmacy practice and to discuss the future directions on advancing pharmacogenomics education, application, and research in pharmacy practice

Crime Combat in Developing Economies: The Dilemmas of the Ghana Police Service

This paper examines crime prevention in Developing Economies in Africa with special focus on Ghana and the Ghana Police Service. By and large, the Ghana Police Service has been in the news for wrong reasons partly as a result of several researched outcomes and public perceptions that tagged it as an institution riddled with corruption, extortion and embroiled in politics of patronage and clientelism with governments. This image of the Ghana Police Service has had negative repercussions on public understanding of its professionalism and the institutionalization of policing in communities in Ghana. In spite of these perceptions and bastardizations, public confidence in the police in combating armed robbery and preventing crime in general in Ghana has not completely waned. Indeed, records of the successes of the police in combating crime in Ghana abound and public memory of them continues to reverberate in some circles. This paper argues that the Ghana Police Service has been unnecessarily ‘framed’ in a negative limelight to the extent that its performance in crime prevention and protection of lives and properties has been glossed over. Keywords: Armed robbery, Corruption, Crime, Developing economies, Patronage, Police capacity, Police Service, Stealin

Pharmacy Students’ Informal Use of Facebook and its Perceived Role in Pharmacy Education in Jordan

Objectives: The use of social media, including Facebook, as a tool for learning is becoming increasingly important in health professional education programs including pharmacy. This study aimed to evaluate undergraduate pharmacy students’ informal use and attitudes toward Facebook in professional pharmacy education in Jordan. Methods: This study was a cross-sectional web-based survey using a 38-item questionnaire that was developed through a multi-phase iterative process. The study targeted all professional year pharmacy students, both BSc and PharmD, at Jordan University of Science and Technology (JUST). Results: Seven hundred twenty pharmacy students responded to the survey (response rate 31.3%). The majority of the students (98.8%) had personal accounts on Facebook. Of this, the majority (82.4%) reported that they unofficially used Facebook as a tool for studying or academic purposes beside other social purposes. Overall, the students demonstrated positive attitudes toward the use of Facebook in pharmacy education. About 78.6% of the respondents reported that Facebook contributed to their academic success. Furthermore, a substantial proportion of the students found Facebook well acceptable in teaching and learning environment (55.2%) and believed that pharmacy schools should formally encourage students to use Facebook for academic purposes (54.1%). Conclusion: The findings of this study suggest that pharmacy students in Jordan frequently and highly utilize Facebook as an unofficial tool for communication, teaching and learning. Pharmacy schools should make every effort to create appropriate learning environment within Facebook that could positively impact students’ academic success. Interventions to improve attitudes toward social media e-professionalism should be in place before formally implementing Facebook and other social media platforms within the pharmacy academic environment. Conflict of Interest We declare no conflicts of interest or financial interests that the authors or members of their immediate families have in any product or service discussed in the manuscript, including grants (pending or received), employment, gifts, stock holdings or options, honoraria, consultancies, expert testimony, patents and royalties. Treatment of Human Subjects: IRB review/approval required and obtained   Type: Original Researc

The Gods, Spirits And Magical Powers At War: Reflections On The Psychological Dimension Of The Nawuri-Gonja Conflict, Northern Ghana

In 1991 and 1992, the Nawuri and the Gonja clashed over allodial rights in lands in the Nawuri area of the present-day Kpandai District in the Northern Region of Ghana. The conflict was cataclysmic, and throughout its conduct, there were psychological dimensions. In all the events before the conflict and throughout the phases of the conflict, metaphysical and superstitious resources were utilized and became the fulcrum in the conduct of the conflict. As the conflict occurred in the part of Ghana where superstition and belief in spiritual powers was an integral part of people’s psychology, the Nawuri and the Gonja naturally provided space for the gods, spirits, and magical powers in the conduct of the conflict. With an ingrained philosophy that empiricism is controlled by metaphysical forces, the Nawuri and the Gonja mixed superstition in every aspect of the conflict. This paper examined the extent to which superstitious beliefs played a catalytical psychological role in the Nawuri-Gonja conflict. It analyzed the space provided for spiritual forces – the gods, spirits, and magical powers – and the extent to which these psychological factors determined the course of the conflict. The paper argued that it is impossible to reconstruct a cogent narrative of the conflict – both in terms of its conduct and the scale – without recourse to the psychological factors

Optimal Design and Cost Analysis of Hybrid Autonomous Distributed Generation System for a Critical Load

One of the universal targets of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals is affordable and clean energy. It is on this premise that this study presents the integration of PV-wind distributed generation system into an existing diesel generator powered water treatment plant in a suburban town of Wudil, Nigeria. Inadequate and epileptic supply from the grid caused the dependence of the plant on the generator. The optimal design was determined using the Hybrid Optimization of Multiple Energy Resources (HOMER) software developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Simulation results produce an optimal hybrid system which includes photovoltaic (PV) panels, wind turbines, converter, batteries and a generator with a cost of energy of $0.26 at a renewable fraction of 95%. An analysis also demonstrates that implementing this design will result in low and fairly constant fuel price in the lifecycle of the project. This will, in turn, support sustainable economic development of communities served by the water treatment plant

Understanding adverse drug-related emergency department visits: development of a conceptual model through a systematic review

Background: The burden of adverse drug event (ADE)-related emergency department (ED)visits is increasing despite several preventive measures. The objective of this paper was todevelop and validate a conceptual model for a better understanding of ADE-related ED visitsand to guide the design and implementation of effective interventions.Methods: The development of the model involved a systematic review of the literatureusing PubMed and Embase databases. Studies reporting the risk factors associatedwith ADE-related ED visits were included. The methodological qualities of the includedstudies were assessed using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT). The model wasmapped and validated using face and content validity by an expert panel. Deficiencies andtargeted interventions were identified, and steps for the design and implementation wererecommended.Results: The literature search generated 1361 articles, of which 38 were included in thereview; 41 risk factors associated with ADE-related ED visits were identified. All factors weremapped, and the model was validated through face and content validity. The model consistedof six concepts related to sociodemographic factors, clinical factors, ADE-related to ED visits,ADE while in the ED, outcomes, and consequences. Interventions could be targeted at thefactors identified in each concept to prevent ADE-related ED burden.Conclusion: A conceptual model to guide the successful design and implementation ofstrategies to prevent ADE-related ED visits and the occurrence of ADE at ED was developed.Clinicians should take these factors into consideration to prevent untoward events, especiallywhen treating high-risk patients