Assessing brand Ghallywood: A study of the elements that constitute and characterize the Ghanaian film industry

Thesis submitted to the Department of Business Administration, Ashesi University College, in partial fulfillment of Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration, April 2013This paper explores the history, current state, and possible future of the Ghanaian film industry, by assessing its strengths, weaknesses and opportunities. By treating the Ghanaian film industry like a brand, this paper researched and discussed brand assets that could be leveraged to make the industry more marketable to an international audience. Findings showed that the industry's biggest assets lie in the nation's unique traditions, human capital, and cultural values. This paper recommends that filmmakers adopt new business models, work with government to create a foundation that provides filmmakers with capital, and finally, lobby for the passing of the film bill that has remained with parliament for nearly a decade now.Ashesi University Colleg

Telecommunications Wireless Generations: Overview, Technological Differences, Evolutional Triggers, and the Future

This study expands on prior studies on wireless telecommunication generations by examining the technological differences and evolutional triggers that characterise each Generation (from 1G to 5G). Based on a systematic literature review approach, this study examines fifty (50) articles to enhance our understanding of wireless generation evolution. Specifically, this study analyses i) the triggers that necessitated the evolution of wireless telecommunication generations and ii) makes a case regarding why it is imperative to look beyond the fifth Generation (5G) network technologies. The authors propose areas for future research

Business models for circular sanitation: lessons from India

Providing safe sanitation in the developing world is still a major hurdle to achieving Sustainable Development Goal number six, with 61% of the global population lacking safely managed sanitation services. Circular economy in the context of sanitation focuses on the whole sanitation chain which includes the provision of toilets, the collection of waste, treatment and transformation into sanitation-derived products including fertiliser, fuel and clean water. As well as potentially reducing the cost of toilet provision, a circular economy approach also has the potential to enable positive environmental and health impacts, unlike other systems where waste may be discharged untreated into the environment. The implementation of a system level transformation is not simple, considering operator capacity, lack of funding, slowly growing acceptance by local communities, and a policy landscape which can be inconsistent in its support for the circular economy. As India invests in long-term infrastructure to improve citizens’ quality of life (e.g., Swachh Bharat Mission), it could incorporate circular economy principles into the design of infrastructure, creating effective urban nutrient and material cycles, enhancing economic development and welfare. This represents a significant opportunity for government and businesses in India to develop circular sanitation infrastructure to recover and valorise biological nutrients. After collecting information from five case studies across India, covering different treatment technologies, waste-derived products, markets and contexts; this research identifies the main barriers and enablers for circular sanitation business models to succeed. Whilst there were many different institutional and technological arrangements, common issues of managing and enforcing incoming waste and competing with chemical fertilisers were found

Business models for circular sanitation: lessons from India

Providing safe sanitation in the developing world is still a major hurdle to achieving Sustainable Development Goal number six, with 61% of the global population lacking safely managed sanitation services. Circular economy in the context of sanitation focuses on the whole sanitation chain which includes the provision of toilets, the collection of waste, treatment and transformation into sanitation-derived products including fertiliser, fuel and clean water. As well as potentially reducing the cost of toilet provision, a circular economy approach also has the potential to enable positive environmental and health impacts, unlike other systems where waste may be discharged untreated into the environment. The implementation of a system level transformation is not simple, considering operator capacity, lack of funding, slowly growing acceptance by local communities, and a policy landscape which can be inconsistent in its support for the circular economy. As India invests in long-term infrastructure to improve citizens’ quality of life (e.g., Swachh Bharat Mission), it could incorporate circular economy principles into the design of infrastructure, creating effective urban nutrient and material cycles, enhancing economic development and welfare. This represents a significant opportunity for government and businesses in India to develop circular sanitation infrastructure to recover and valorise biological nutrients. After collecting information from five case studies across India, covering different treatment technologies, waste-derived products, markets and contexts; this research identifies the main barriers and enablers for circular sanitation business models to succeed. Whilst there were many different institutional and technological arrangements, common issues of managing and enforcing incoming waste and competing with chemical fertilisers were found

Evaluating the circular economy for sanitation: Findings from a multi-case approach

Addressing the lack of sanitation globally is a major global challenge with 700 million people still practicing open defecation. Circular Economy (CE) in the context of sanitation focuses on the whole sanitation chain which includes the provision of toilets, the collection of waste, treatment and transformation into sanitation-derived products including fertiliser, fuel and clean water. After a qualitative study from five case studies across India, covering different treatment technologies, waste-derived products, markets and contexts; this research identifies the main barriers and enablers for circular sanitation business models to succeed. A framework assessing the technical and social system changes required to enable circular sanitation models was derived from the case studies. Some of these changes can be achieved with increased enforcement, policies and subsidies for fertilisers, and integration of sanitation with other waste streams to increase its viability. Major changes such as the cultural norms around re-use, demographic shifts and soil depletion would be outside the scope of a single project, policy or planning initiative. The move to CE sanitation may still be desirable from a policy perspective but we argue that shifting to CE models should not be seen as a panacea that can solve the global sanitation crisis. Delivering the public good of safe sanitation services for all, whether circular or not, will continue to be a difficult task

African Linguistics in Central and Eastern Europe, and in the Nordic Countries

Non peer reviewe

An investigation into the use of zinc oxide nanowiresensors in the detection of micro-RNA cancer biomarkers

Cancer is a complex disease characterised by genes which encode oncogenic and tumour-suppressor proteins. microRNAs (miRNA), a group of small noncoding RNAs that regulate gene expression, have been shown to participate in a number of essential biological process including cell proliferation control, hematopoietic B-cell lineage fate, B-cell survival, brain patterning, pancreatic cell insulin secretion and adipocyte development [1]. Abnormal expression, that is, the loss, amplification and mutations of miRNA genes has been identified in a wide variety of cancers including B-Cell Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (B-CLL) [2], breast carcinoma [3], primary glioblastoma [4], hepatocellular carcinoma [5], papillary thyroid carcinoma [6], lung cancer [7], colon carcinoma [8], and pancreatic tumours [9]. Presently, medical diagnostic tests, by and large, are performed in laboratories equipped with benchtop analyzers and operated by trained lab technicians. Although these systems have a high throughput, in most cases patients wait a number of days to receive their test results [10]. Being able to perform diagnostic tests at or near the site where patients encounter the health care system; and receiving the results within the time frame of a consultation with a healthcare professional (approximately 15 minutes [11]), would be extremely beneficial. It would provide actionable information that can lead to several changes in patient management. With respect to cancer diagnostics and treatment, this would reduce the need for multiple patient visits; enabling the prompt treatment of the illness in a more targeted fashion. Point of Care (PoC) devices are diagnostic devices which rapidly provide actionable information for patient care at the time and location of an encounter with the health care system. They are becoming more prevalent. The most commonly found type of PoC device is the Lateral Flow Immunoassays (LFIA) [12] [13]. However, LFIA conventionally provide qualitative results (i.e., yes or no) which are of little use when trying to gauge changes in concentration as would be needed in detecting the loss or amplification miRNA strands. Furthermore, LFIA suffers from difficulties due to varying consistency of the flow rate and from non-uniform dispersion of the sample to label [10]. Field Effect Transistor (FET) biosensors, a promising class of PoC devices, have been shown to able to distinguish between iv different concentrations of molecular analyte [14]. This function would be vital in cancer diagnosis revolving around detection of the abnormal expression of miRNA. This is because cancerous cells typically manifest a deviation in miRNA concentration from the normal range. These FETs are made with established semiconductor techniques and technologies meaning that, they can be readily integrated with other electronic systems. This would enable on chip signal processing and the instantaneous electronic transmission of results from remote areas to a centralised hub. The goal is to leverage the advantages in semiconductor technologies to develop a PoC device for cancer diagnostics. This is to enable cancers to be caught and treated earlier thus reducing the need for invasive or debilitating treatments like surgery or chemotherapy. In pursuit of this goal, the preliminary step was to fabricate FETs capable of detecting changes in miRNA concentration. The FETs fabricated for this purpose were Zinc Oxide Nanowire Field Effect Transistors (NWFETs) arrays. ZnO is an ideal material with which to fabricate these NWFETs because it is naturally a n-type semiconductor [15], thus eliminating the need for a high temperature doping process steps. ZnO has a large and direct band-gap (3.37 eV [16]) which enables it to sustain large electric fields; withstand higher breakdown voltages; generate lower levels of noise; and operate at high temperatures and levels of power [17]. The ZnO NWFETs were passivated with stack high-κ dielectrics. The stack layer consists of a layer of Hafnium dioxide sandwiched between two Aluminium oxide layers which has been shown to diminish threshold voltage drift effectively [18]. Once fabricated, the ZnO NWFETs were first tested to observe how well they functioned as transducers of ionic charge. The ZnO NWFETs were seen to be excellent transducers of ionic charge with a shift in gate voltage per pH of 117 mV/pH. This shift in gate voltage per pH is comparable to largest known value of 220 mV/pH recorded by Knopfmacher’s single Silicon NWFET with a Dual Gate [19]. It is also twice as large as the Nernst limit (59 mV/pH). Following the pH-sensing experiment, a microDNA(miDNA) detection investigation was conducted. miDNA are the stable biological equivalent of miRNA and thus can serve as proxy of miRNA detection. The result of the investigation was compelling. The ZnO NWFETs were found to have a 43.88% Sensitivity to one order of magnitude changes in miDNA concentration (10 nM, 100 nM and 1 µM). Subsequently, the same investigation was carried out with miRNA as the analyte. In this instance the ZnO NWFETs were found to have a 5.07% Sensitivity to one order of magnitude changes in miRNA concentration of (10 nM, 100 nM and 1 µM). These results irrevocably demonstrate that ZnO NWFETs are capable of detecting changes in miRNA concentration. Thus, making ZnO NWFETs a suitable candidate for the development of a PoC device with which to conduct cancer diagnostics

Reconsidering approaches for facilitating non-state actors’ participation in Global Plastics Treaty regime

To be Published in EJLS Issue 14(2) in January 2023The current approach to non-State actors’ participation in international environmental law is limited. This article, therefore, argues for a reconsideration of non-State actors’ participation to create more opportunities to facilitate easy access to meaningful participation in the drafting, negotiation, and subsequent implementation of the proposed global plastic treaty. The article explains how environmental democracy could be at the heart of the negotiation and implementation of the proposed plastic treaty by creating more avenues for participation among relevant non-State actors thereby contributing to accountability efforts. The article proposes that the proposed plastic treaty could be the first multilateral environmental agreement to operationalise Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration which lays down the pillars of environmental democracy (i.e., access to information; access to participation in decision-making processes on environmental issues; and access to justice in environmental matters). This could contribute to strengthening the global plastic treaty, especially when regulating major industry players

Infertility with Impaired Zona Pellucida Adhesion of Spermatozoa from Mice Lacking TauCstF-641

Fertilization is a multistep process requiring spermatozoa with unique cellular structures and numerous germ cell-specific molecules that function in the various steps. In the highly coordinated process of male germ cell development, RNA splicing and polyadenylation help regulate gene expression to assure formation of functional spermatozoa. Male germ cells express tauCstF-64 (Cstf2t gene product), a paralog of the X-linked CstF-64 protein that supports polyadenylation in most somatic cells. We previously showed that loss of tauCstF-64 causes male infertility because of major defects in mouse spermatogenesis. Surprisingly, although Cstf2t−/− males produce very few recognizable spermatozoa, some of the spermatozoa produced are motile. This led us to ask whether these Cstf2t−/− sperm were fertile. A motile cell-enriched population of spermatozoa from Cstf2t-null males dispersed cumulus cells of cumulus-oocyte complexes normally. However, motile spermatozoa from Cstf2t-null males failed to fertilize cumulus-intact mouse eggs in vitro. In addition, sperm adhesion to the zona pellucida (ZP) of cumulus-free eggs was significantly decreased, indicating tauCstF-64 is required for production of spermatozoa capable of ZP interaction. Acrosomal proteins involved in sperm-ZP recognition, including zonadhesin, proacrosin, SPAM1/PH-20, and ZP3R/sp56, were normally distributed in the apical head of Cstf2t−/− spermatozoa. We conclude that tauCstF-64 is required not only for expression of genes involved in morphological differentiation of spermatids but also for genes having products that function during interaction of motile spermatozoa with eggs. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration that a gene involved in polyadenylation has a negative consequence on sperm-ZP adhesion

Multi-stack insulator to minimise threshold voltage drift in ZnO FET sensors operating in ionic solutions

FET biosensors operating in an electrolyte experience a monotonic, temporal and relatively slow change in threshold voltage caused by the hydration of the insulator layer between the electrolyte and the FET's channel. Minimising this temporal change in threshold voltage is critical as, over time, the drain current of n-channel FETs decreases, making it difficult to distinguish between the signal generated in response to analyte - receptor binding events and the background noise generated by the electrolyte and the FET biosensor. While Rapid Thermal Annealing of the insulator layer is known to diminish threshold voltage drift and its negative effects, it is not compatible with a low temperature fabrication process of 200 °C. Our low temperature approach to minimising threshold voltage drift involves depositing a tri-layer insulator stack, consisting of a layer of HfO2 between two Al2O3 layers. Wetting ZnO NWFETs with PBS (10 mM phosphate, 150 mM KCl, pH 7.4) for an hour, showed that ZnO NWFETs with a stack insulator layer experienced a much smaller threshold voltage and drain current drift (100 mV, 0.064 nA) than ZnO NWFETs with a single material insulator layer (≥4300mV, 2.72 nA), Aluminium oxide in this case. Having established the resilience enhancing properties of the stack insulator layer on FETs operating in electrolytes of physiological relevant ionic concentrations; ZnO NWFETs with a stack insulator layer were shown to be capable of detecting the presence of the miDNA-21 strands. This, in effect, paves the way for miRNA sensing experiments in the near future and for exploring the potential of ZnO NWFETs as a diagnostic tool