Public Health Educational Strategies for Alternative Medicine Use in Ghana

Although, Ghanaians’ markets were choked with varieties of alternative medicines, only a small portion of the population depended on the use of alternative remedies. Research indicated that many people were not aware of the potency and the existing of the indigenous medicines. The writer’s focal motive for this paper was to look at the criteria for public health education. Interestingly, criteria for public health education were analytically examined. It came to bear that information giving out was crucial in awareness creation, changing of attitude, belief and behavior. However, channels or methods of public health education were also examined. The importance of public health education in alternative medicines was also censoriously researched. Additionally, application of alternative medicine in Ghana for holistic health was exclusively written.  The information gathered for this academic work was through primary and secondary ways and means. The main primary gathering tools for this work were discussion or interview, opinion poll or questionnaire and field observation.  Books, internet, journals, newspapers, periodicals and yearly reports from civil services, governments and institutions were the central tools for secondary data gathering. The calculable or quantitative and qualitative methods were employed for the analyses of the research aftermath.   The result or the product of the study was deliberated and deductions were worn-down

Use of Birth Control Products and Economic Welfare of Women: A Case Study of Amasaman Area Council, Accra, Ghana

Use of birth control products and contraceptives could improve the economic welfare of women, arising from adequate spacing of child births and reduced financial pressure and lower stress on women having fewer and well maintained children. In order to interrogate this assertion, a quantitative survey-based study was conducted that involved a diverse and heterogeneous population of 400 randomly selected women in all 39 settlements of the Amasaman Area Council in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. The first objective of this study was to analyze the factors which influenced the current use of birth control products and contraceptives. The second objective ascertained whether women who had ever used birth control products and contraceptives, at least once in their reproductive lifespans, had higher economic welfare than those who had never used these products at all. The results of the analysis showed that the likelihood of using birth control products and contraceptives declined with increasing income of the women. Students were less likely to use birth control products and contraceptives than non-students. However, the degree of awareness of these products was influential in increasing the likelihood of use of these products by students and higher-income women. Other variables which influenced the likelihood of use of birth control products and contraceptives included the perceived quality of reproductive health information and the quality of health services provided by nurses and doctors at clinics. It was established that women who had ever used birth control products and contraceptives, over their reproductive lifespans, had significantly higher incomes than those who had never used these products

Use of Birth Control Products and Contraceptives by Adult Males: A Case Study of the Amasaman Area Council, Accra, Ghana

The study analyzed adult males’ use of birth control products and contraceptives in an heterogenous community in Accra using a scientific random sampling survey of 300 persons from 39 rural, semi-rural and urban communities. The results of the analysis indicated that the respondents had no external sources of information with regards to the majority of the nine identified birth control products and contraceptives. Peers and friends were the major source of information about these products. The likelihood of using these products was significantly influenced by the extent of awareness of their availability. Increasing level of awareness of birth control products and contraceptives for men with lower levels of formal educational attainment led to their increased likelihood of using these products suggesting the important role of information about these products to socially-disadvantaged groups of people, Ever use (both present and past use) of birth control products and contraceptives was shown to be linked to higher economic welfare of respondents, particularly for men with higher family sizes

Improved process modifications of aqueous ammonia-based CO2 capture system

Extensive research works on CO2 capture process using MEA have been carried out and showed promising results. Nevertheless, it has been acknowledged that the use of MEA is associated with high cost, solvent degradation issues and corrosion. The issues above have motivated researchers to explore and test other potential solvents such as aqueous ammonia (NH3). As result, NH3 based CO2 capture systems have recently attracted much attention as an alternative to MEA based counterparts. Despite their encouraging applications, high volatility of NH3 raise concerns on the energy requirement related to the solvent recovery. Consequently, energy efficient NH3 based CO2 capture systems by modifying the process is desirable. This study, therefore, aims to propose and evaluate three different stand-alone process configurations of absorption-desorption processes in a NH3-based system and compare them with the traditional absorption-desorption system in respect to total energy consumption. These modifications include Rich Solvent Split (RSS), Lean Vapor Compression (LVC), and Rich Vapor Compression (RVC). Results indicate that among these three proposed process modifications, LVC led to the highest reboiler energy savings of 38.3% and total energy savings of 34.5% compared to NH3 based conventional configuration. These findings can serve as essential recommendations for further studies on and large-scale implementations of aqueous NH3 as a better solvent

Investigating mediated effects of fear of COVID-19 and COVID-19 misunderstanding in the association between problematic social media use, psychological distress, and insomnia

Introduction: Due to the serious situation of the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) worldwide, many countries have implemented policies to minimize the spread of COVID-19 infection. However, some of these policies prevent people from physical contact. Consequently, many individuals may rely on social media to obtain information concerning COVID-19. Unfortunately, social media use (especially problematic social media use) may give rise to psychological distress. Therefore, this study thus examined potential psychopathology to explain the association between problematic social media use, psychological distress, and insomnia. Methods: Utilizing an online survey, a sample of Iranian young adults (n = 1078 with 628 males; mean age = 26.24 years [SD ± 7.41]) completed questions and psychometric scales concerning psychological distress, insomnia, problematic social media use, fear of COVID-19, and COVID-19 misunderstanding. Results: Problematic social media use was significantly associated with psychological distress both directly and indirectly. The indirect effects were through fear of COVID-19 (unstandardized coefficient [B] = 0.177; Bootstrapping SE = 0.026) and COVID-19 misunderstanding (B = 0.060; Bootstrapping SE = 0.014). Problematic social media use was significantly associated with insomnia both directly and indirectly. The indirect effect was through fear of COVID-19 (B = 0.062; Bootstrapping SE = 0.019) but not COVID-19 misunderstanding (B = 0.012; Bootstrapping SE = 0.014). Discussion/conclusion: Due to the pressure of the COVID-19 outbreak, individuals are highly likely to develop psychological distress and insomnia. Apart from developing appropriate health policies to minimize the spread of COVID-19 infection, healthcare providers should design appropriate online campaigns to eliminate people's fear of COVID-19 and to diminish misunderstanding concerning COVID-19

Postcolonial leadership between the sovereign and the beast

There is a crisis in leadership throughout the world, but the focus of this article will be on the crisis in postcolonial Africa. How is this crisis constructed within the politics of the global village? The leadership crisis in Africa is often portrayed by Western-influenced media as leaders being beasts if they do not comply with the wishes and dictates of Western capital, or characterised as puppets of Western capital, a puppet of the Western sovereign. Is there a way beyond these characterisations, or is it a political necessity to divide the world into friends and enemies, as Carl Schmitt would like us to believe? Taking Derrida into consideration, a way will be sought beyond this characterisation. Derrida�s ideas concerning the sovereign will pose the question: can leadership move beyond being either a puppet of a Western sovereign or being the beast of darkest Africa? The article will argue that the political gathering into a collective will not be destroyed if this distinction disappears, although the distinction will be ruined. Yet, these ruins will be the place for the possibility of something other, an impossible possibility � the madness of the impossible possible, or the madness of holy folly and the hope and dream of leadership still to come.Intradisciplinary and/orinterdisciplinary implications: The article addresses the postcolonial context, specifically of Africa, but not limited to Africa. It challenges traditional theories on leadership and proposes a hermeneutical approach to interpreting and understanding leadership.</p

The Dualism of Contemporary Traditional Governance and the State

In many parts of the world, people live in “dual polities”: they are governed by the state and organize collective decision making within their ethnic community according to traditional rules. We examine the substantial body of works on the traditional–state dualism, focusing on the internal organization of traditional polities, their interaction with the state, and the political consequences of the dualism. We find the descriptions of the internal organization of traditional polities scattered and lacking comparative perspective. The literature on the interaction provides a good starting point for theorizing the strategic role of traditional leaders as intermediaries, but large potentials for inference remain underexploited. Studies on the consequences of “dual polities” for democracy, conflict, and development are promising in their explanatory endeavor, but they do not yet allow for robust conclusions. We therefore propose an institutionalist research agenda addressing the need for theory and for systematic data collection and explanatory approaches

Inclusion, measurement and relevance… and Covid-19

This is an accepted manuscript of an article published by Springer in Postdigital Science and Education on 17/08/2020, available online: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42438-020-00182-9 The accepted version of the publication may differ from the final published version.This paper addresses the theme of ‘widening student access, participation and lifelong learning’ within the wider issue of ‘measuring excellence’ in the UK higher education and finds them both to be problematic. An earlier paper entitled ‘Inclusion in an age of mobility’ (Traxler 2016) written over 4 years ago made the case that the inclusion agenda of the UK higher education of 1990s was largely a failure in its own terms but had in any case been made irrelevant by the subsequent onset of pervasive and ubiquitous connectivity and mobility, profoundly transforming the production, ownership, distribution and nature of learning and knowing and problematising the role and status of universities and lecturers.Published onlin