Effect of Social Media on Perceived Students Academic Performance of Higher Institutions: A case of Public Universities in Accra, Ghana

It is an undisputable fact that the advancement of technology has taken over all activities in the world. Being it business, education or church activities. The popularity of social media is relatively recent and the effect of Online Social Networking (OSN) on students’ performance has not received much scholarly attention. The aim of this study is to examine the role of social media on perceived students’ academic performance of higher educational institutions focusing on public universities in Accra, Ghana. The study adopted a descriptive survey. Purposive sampling technique was used to select three public universities within greater Accra Region. Primary data was collected using structured questionnaires which were administered personally. Stratified random sampling technique was used to select the sample size of 298 students from the three public universities. Data was presented by the use of frequency tables then analyzed using descriptive statistical techniques such as frequencies and percentages. A multiple regression analysis was also conducted to investigate the effect of social media platforms on students’ academic performance. The study ascertained that there is positive correlation between social media and academic performance and social media can be used to predict academic performance of tertiary students. The study concludes that most of the students use social media platforms to entertain themselves during lecture period when lectures is boring. It’s recommended that, tertiary institutions should make it a point connecting academic activities with social media platforms in order to get the attention of students to improve upon their academic performance. Keywords: Social Media, Perceived Students, Academic Performance and Public Universities in Ghan

Assessing the roles of green innovations and renewables in environmental sustainability of resource-rich Sub-Saharan African states : A financial development perspective

Environmental literature keeps expanding on the natural resources-environmental sustainability conundrum. However, most studies examine this conundrum in different geographical locations other than resource-rich Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries while also neglecting the criticality of issues like green innovations, financial development, and renewable energy. Besides, the likelihood of a nonlinear relationship has often been jettisoned in the framework. Thus, the resources-sustainability nexus was examined in the SSA using robust econometric techniques, while underscoring the roles of green innovations, renewable energy, and financial development. Using the cross-sectional augmented auto-regressive distributed lag (CS-ARDL), cross-sectional augmented distributed lag (CS-DL), and the common correlated effect mean group (CCEMG) approaches that conciliate with residual cross-sectional dependence and heterogeneity amongst others, we discovered that (i) the natural resources-sustainability nexus is nonlinear in SSA. (ii) unlike the environmental gains from green innovations and renewables in the SSA, natural resource harms their environmental sustainability (iii) the interaction between financial development and natural resources worsened the ecosystem of the countries (iv) the interaction between natural resources and the duo of green innovations and renewable energy enhances SSA's ecological quality (v) urbanization damage environmental sustainability by spurring ecological footprints. Furthermore, one-way causality paths were observed from the trio of natural resources, financial development, and green innovations to ecological footprints. But renewable energy and urbanization had a feedback causal relationship with ecological footprints. The findings are robust to CO2 emissions as an alternative environmental quality measure. Policy implications to foster SDGs-related pollution mitigation agenda were thereafter extensively discussed for the SSA.© 2024 The Authors. Natural Resources Forum published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of United Nations. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Engineering Geological Characteristics of Quartzite Types for Concrete Production in Ghana

The production of concrete in Ghana involves the use of several mineral aggregates such as gneisses, granites, granodiorites and quartzites. The use of quartzites for concrete, however, is well patronized especially by private low cost housing builders due to its low cost compared to other alternatives. Quartzites are known to have strength characteristics which are not uniform and as such vary from low to high depending on their metamorphic state.This research provides some Engineering Geological characteristics of quartzite types used for concrete works in parts of Southern Ghana and offers a classification of quartzites for easy field identification by Construction Engineers. The results of strength tests and petrologic examination confirm that there are different types of quartzites with strengths that correlate positively with their level of geologic state. In addition, the most metamorphosed quartzite was found to be resistant to weathering and useful for producing concrete for structural work. Keywords: Quartzite types, aggregate strength, quartz, concret

Pitting and Repair of the Space Shuttle's Inconel(Registered TradeMark) Honeycomb Conical Seal Panel

During return to flight servicing of the rudder speed brake (RSB) for each Space Shuttle Orbiter, inspectors discovered numerous small pits on the surface of the #4 right hand side honeycomb panel that covers the rudder speed brake actuators. Shortly after detection of the problem, concurrent investigations were initiated to determine the extent of damage, the root cause, and to develop a repair plan, since fabrication of a replacement panel is impractical for cost, schedule, and sourcing considerations. This paper describes the approach, findings, conclusions and recommendations associated with the investigation of the conical seal pitting. It documents the cause and contributing factors of the pitting, the means used to isolate each contributor, and the supporting evidence for the primary cause of the pitting. Finally, the selection, development and verification of the repair procedure used to restore the conical seal panel is described with supporting process and metallurgical rationale for selection

Spectroscopic Characteristics of Carbon Dots (C-Dots) Derived from Carbon Fibers and Conversion to Sulfur-Bridged C-Dots Nanosheets

We synthesized sub‐10 nm carbon nanoparticles (CNPs) consistent with photoluminescent carbon dots (C-dots) from carbon fiber starting material. The production of different C-dots fractions was monitored over seven days. During the course of the reaction, one fraction of C-dots species with relatively high photoluminescence was short-lived, emerging during the first hour of reaction but disappearing after one day of reaction. Isolation of this species during the first hour of the reaction was crucial to obtaining higher-luminescent C-dots species. When the reaction proceeded for one week, the appearance of larger nanostructures was observed over time, with lateral dimensions approaching 200 nm. The experimental evidence suggests that these larger species are formed from small C-dot nanoparticles bridged together by sulfur-based moieties between the C-dot edge groups, as if the C-dots polymerized by cross-linking the edge groups through sulfur bridges. Their size can be tailored by controlling the reaction time. Our results highlight the variety of CNP products, from sub‐10 nm C-dots to ~200 nm sulfur-containing carbon nanostructures, that can be produced over time during the oxidation reaction of the graphenic starting material. Our work provides a clear understanding of when to stop the oxidation reaction during the top-down production of C-dots to obtain highly photoluminescent species or a target average particle size

Assessment of knowledge, practices, and barriers to pharmacovigilance among nurses at a teaching hospital, Ghana: a cross-sectional study.

Background: Pharmacovigilance may be defined as the continuous monitoring of the reaction between a drug agent or combination of drugs a patient took and steps taken to prevent any associated risk. Clinical trials conducted before drug approval cannot uncover every aspect of the health hazards of approved drugs. People with carefully selected characteristics are monitored for the safety and efficacy of the drug; hence, common adverse drug reactions (ADRs) following proper use of the medication can be detected. This calls for continuous monitoring of drugs to report any undocumented ADRs during the clinical trial. The study aimed to assess the knowledge, practice, and barriers to pharmacovigilance among nurses at a teaching hospital. Methods: The study was a descriptive cross-sectional study, and a stratified sampling technique was used to select 125 nurses within the three units: medical, surgical, and pediatric wards. A structured questionnaire was developed and used for data collection based on the study's objectives and reviewed literature. Results: The majority (67.2%) of the respondents were females, and 32.8% were males. Most (71.2%) of the nurses had low knowledge of ADR reporting procedures. Also, 84.8% of the nurses knew the purpose of reporting ADRs. The purpose of ADR reporting, as perceived by respondents, was to identify safe drugs (80.8%) and calculate the incidence of ADR (75.2%). Additionally, among the nurses who reported having nursed a patient with ADRs, 52.54% stated they reported the case, while 47.46% did not report it. The most cited reason for not reporting ADRs was that nurses considered the reaction normal and commonly associated with that medicine (35.7%). In comparison, 28.5% of the nurses said they did not know they were supposed to report the adverse drug reaction. There was no statistically significant difference between ranks of nurses, ward, attending in-service training, and pharmacovigilance practice. Conclusion: In conclusion, nurses in this study had inadequate knowledge of pharmacovigilance and its reporting procedure. The study found that most nurses fear that reporting ADRs may be wrong because most of the nurses in the study did not have any form of pharmacovigilance training

Assessment of knowledge, practices, and barriers to pharmacovigilance among nurses at a teaching hospital, Ghana : a cross‑sectional study

Acknowledgements We would like to thank all the nurses at the various units who participated in the study. Funding The authors did not receive any specific funding for the study. The study was funded by the researchers.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Development and clinical performance of high throughput loop-mediated isothermal amplification for detection of malaria.

BACKGROUND: Accurate and efficient detection of sub-microscopic malaria infections is crucial for enabling rapid treatment and interruption of transmission. Commercially available malaria LAMP kits have excellent diagnostic performance, though throughput is limited by the need to prepare samples individually. Here, we evaluate the clinical performance of a newly developed high throughput (HTP) sample processing system for use in conjunction with the Eiken malaria LAMP kit. METHODS: The HTP system utilised dried blood spots (DBS) and liquid whole blood (WB), with parallel sample processing of 94 samples per run. The system was evaluated using 699 samples of known infection status pre-determined by gold standard nested PCR. RESULTS: The sensitivity and specificity of WB-HTP-LAMP was 98.6% (95% CI, 95.7-100), and 99.7% (95% CI, 99.2-100); sensitivity of DBS-HTP-LAMP was 97.1% (95% CI, 93.1-100), and specificity 100% against PCR. At parasite densities greater or equal to 2 parasites/μL, WB and DBS HTP-LAMP showed 100% sensitivity and specificity against PCR. At densities less than 2 p/μL, WB-HTP-LAMP sensitivity was 88.9% (95% CI, 77.1-100) and specificity was 99.7% (95% CI, 99.2-100); sensitivity and specificity of DBS-HTP-LAMP was 77.8% (95% CI, 54.3-99.5) and 100% respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The HTP-LAMP system is a highly sensitive diagnostic test, with the potential to allow large scale population screening in malaria elimination campaigns