Schools Pupils’ Perceptions of Factors Impacting on their Creativity Development in Ghana

This study examines the pupils’ perceptions of factors likely to impact on their creativity development in public and private primary schools in Asokwa Sub-Metro Authority, in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. Questionnaires were administered to the pupils to examine their attitudes, beliefs, and current school and classroom environments. Pupils were found to possess accurate concepts regarding what constitutes creativity and revealed conflicts with the school and classroom environments. The paradox between public and private schools pupils’ reported support for creativity enrichment and virtual lack of related classroom practice and inadequate school infrastructure is explored as a result of multiple misconceptions and contributing variables. Results tested at the 0.05 level of significance indicated that significant difference existed in the pupils` perception of detail bases on (i) school type; (ii) age; while no significant difference existed in the perception of details of pupils based on school class and gender. Implications are discussed, as well as possible limitations and directions for future research. Further studies would need to be conducted to investigate the conditions under which perception of creativity development in children would be enhanced alongside their academic achievement. Keywords: Creativity, creative teaching, learning environment, pupils’ perception

Quantifying inequities in COVID-19 vaccine distribution over time by social vulnerability, race and ethnicity, and location: A population-level analysis in St. Louis and Kansas City, Missouri

BACKGROUND: Equity in vaccination coverage is a cornerstone for a successful public health response to COVID-19. To deepen understanding of the extent to which vaccination coverage compares with initial strategies for equitable vaccination, we explore primary vaccine series and booster rollout over time and by race/ethnicity, social vulnerability, and geography. METHODS AND FINDINGS: We analyzed data from the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services on all COVID-19 vaccinations administered across 7 counties in the St. Louis region and 4 counties in the Kansas City region. We compared rates of receiving the primary COVID-19 vaccine series and boosters relative to time, race/ethnicity, zip-code-level Social Vulnerability Index (SVI), vaccine location type, and COVID-19 disease burden. We adapted a well-established tool for measuring inequity-the Lorenz curve-to quantify inequities in COVID-19 vaccination relative to these key metrics. Between 15 December 2020 and 15 February 2022, 1,763,036 individuals completed the primary series and 872,324 received a booster. During early phases of the primary series rollout, Black and Hispanic individuals from high SVI zip codes were vaccinated at less than half the rate of White individuals from low SVI zip codes, but rates increased over time until they were higher than rates in White individuals after June 2021; Asian individuals maintained high levels of vaccination throughout. Increasing vaccination rates in Black and Hispanic communities corresponded with periods when more vaccinations were offered at small community-based sites such as pharmacies rather than larger health systems and mass vaccination sites. Using Lorenz curves, zip codes in the quartile with the lowest rates of primary series completion accounted for 19.3%, 18.1%, 10.8%, and 8.8% of vaccinations while representing 25% of the total population, cases, deaths, or population-level SVI, respectively. When tracking Gini coefficients, these disparities were greatest earlier during rollout, but improvements were slow and modest and vaccine disparities remained across all metrics even after 1 year. Patterns of disparities for boosters were similar but often of much greater magnitude during rollout in fall 2021. Study limitations include inherent limitations in the vaccine registry dataset such as missing and misclassified race/ethnicity and zip code variables and potential changes in zip code population sizes since census enumeration. CONCLUSIONS: Inequities in the initial COVID-19 vaccination and booster rollout in 2 large US metropolitan areas were apparent across racial/ethnic communities, across levels of social vulnerability, over time, and across types of vaccination administration sites. Disparities in receipt of the primary vaccine series attenuated over time during a period in which sites of vaccination administration diversified, but were recapitulated during booster rollout. These findings highlight how public health strategies from the outset must directly target these deeply embedded structural and systemic determinants of disparities and track equity metrics over time to avoid perpetuating inequities in healthcare access

The evolving SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in Africa: Insights from rapidly expanding genomic surveillance

INTRODUCTION Investment in Africa over the past year with regard to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) sequencing has led to a massive increase in the number of sequences, which, to date, exceeds 100,000 sequences generated to track the pandemic on the continent. These sequences have profoundly affected how public health officials in Africa have navigated the COVID-19 pandemic. RATIONALE We demonstrate how the first 100,000 SARS-CoV-2 sequences from Africa have helped monitor the epidemic on the continent, how genomic surveillance expanded over the course of the pandemic, and how we adapted our sequencing methods to deal with an evolving virus. Finally, we also examine how viral lineages have spread across the continent in a phylogeographic framework to gain insights into the underlying temporal and spatial transmission dynamics for several variants of concern (VOCs). RESULTS Our results indicate that the number of countries in Africa that can sequence the virus within their own borders is growing and that this is coupled with a shorter turnaround time from the time of sampling to sequence submission. Ongoing evolution necessitated the continual updating of primer sets, and, as a result, eight primer sets were designed in tandem with viral evolution and used to ensure effective sequencing of the virus. The pandemic unfolded through multiple waves of infection that were each driven by distinct genetic lineages, with B.1-like ancestral strains associated with the first pandemic wave of infections in 2020. Successive waves on the continent were fueled by different VOCs, with Alpha and Beta cocirculating in distinct spatial patterns during the second wave and Delta and Omicron affecting the whole continent during the third and fourth waves, respectively. Phylogeographic reconstruction points toward distinct differences in viral importation and exportation patterns associated with the Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Omicron variants and subvariants, when considering both Africa versus the rest of the world and viral dissemination within the continent. Our epidemiological and phylogenetic inferences therefore underscore the heterogeneous nature of the pandemic on the continent and highlight key insights and challenges, for instance, recognizing the limitations of low testing proportions. We also highlight the early warning capacity that genomic surveillance in Africa has had for the rest of the world with the detection of new lineages and variants, the most recent being the characterization of various Omicron subvariants. CONCLUSION Sustained investment for diagnostics and genomic surveillance in Africa is needed as the virus continues to evolve. This is important not only to help combat SARS-CoV-2 on the continent but also because it can be used as a platform to help address the many emerging and reemerging infectious disease threats in Africa. In particular, capacity building for local sequencing within countries or within the continent should be prioritized because this is generally associated with shorter turnaround times, providing the most benefit to local public health authorities tasked with pandemic response and mitigation and allowing for the fastest reaction to localized outbreaks. These investments are crucial for pandemic preparedness and response and will serve the health of the continent well into the 21st century

Towards the Dual Mandate of Ecotourism in Africa: Comparative Evidence from Ghana

This article compares the impacts of ecotourism based on a study of Kakum National Park and  Boabeng-Fiema Monkey Sanctuary in Ghana. The study employed a mixed-method approach, which involved 200 semi-structured interviews with randomly selected residents from the study communities. Furthermore, the study selected some residents purposively for in-depth interviews and focus group discussions. The quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics, and the qualitative data were analysed thematically. The study provides strong evidence that ecotourism is a formidable tool for biodiversity conservation in Ghana. However, as regards community development, ecotourism’s  contribution remains largely ineffective. Thus, there is a need for a proactive stakeholder analysis that  focuses on community participation, ecotourism market knowledge and entrepreneurial programmes for the residents around eco-destinations in Ghana that support sustainable development.Keywords: Community-based ecotourism, state-led ecotourism, Kakum National Park, Boabeng-Fiema Monkey Sanctuary, Ghan

Internet telephony: technology, costs and strategy for cable operators

Internet telephony is real-time voice communication over a packet-switched network using Internet protocols. This is in contrast to traditional telephony that occurs solely over a circuit-switched network, such as Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). Each call of traditional telephony on a circuit-switched network has a fixed amount of bandwidth with a guaranteed Quality of Service (QoS). Regardless of whether the parties are speaking or not, they are using the allocated bandwidth until the call ends. Any unused bandwidth due to a pause in conversation can not be allocated to another call. On the other hand, packet-switched network has been developed for applications where a variable QoS is tolerable. Internet being a packet-switched network does not guarantee QoS, but this has not prevented Internet telephony in becoming popular. Internet telephony as compared to traditional telephony requires all information to be broken into packets that are individually routed over the network. Hence, if there is a pause in the conversation of an Internet telephony call, no packets are generated and packets of other users can be transmitted. This report addresses the issue of providing Internet telephony over the cable network to cable subscribers. The technology, costs and strategy required for cable operators to offer this service are discussed. By upgrading the cable network from one-way transmission of video and radio signals to two-way transmission of video, data and radio signals, the cable network is made suitable for this service. By combining two technologies: Internet telephony technology and modern cable technology, a Technology Reference Model is developed for this service on the cable television (CATV) networks. A cost model is developed based on the Technology Reference Model. From the cost model, the cost of providing this service on the cable television networks is roughly determined. Cost analysis performed proves that the subscriber cost is the dominant cost among all the components in the cost model. Current policy and regulating issues surrounding Internet telephony are also presented. Interconnection, Pricing and Marketing Strategies, which will help cable operators to survive on the Internet telephony market, if they decide to enter into this market, are also addressed.Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer ScienceTelecommunicatie- en Verkeersbegeleidingssysteme

Arable and forest land user rent in a peri-urban district, Ghana

Land-use policies meant to mitigate deforestation activities in Ghana will have to consider the heterogeneity of the drivers of arable and forest land degradation. This would help avoid the one-size fits all approach to solving this problem. The urgency for this realisation is premised on the recent increasing monetary incentive to convert arable and forest land to other land uses in peri-urban Ghana. This study hypothesised that there is no significant relationship between land rent and the conversion probability from arable and forest land to other land uses such as commercial, industrial and residential land uses in Bosomtwe, a peri-urban district in the Ashanti region of Ghana. Four-hundred and one usufruct or land-owning households and individual landowners participated through a three-stage sampling procedure. The results indicated a significant relationship between higher land rent and conversion probability from arable land to other land uses such as commercial, industrial and residential land uses. Specifically, receiving land rent above GH¢400 (OR = 1.979) predicted the outcome variable in all three models. Moreover, being a female (OR = 0.612), ageing: 56 and 65 (OR = 2.158) and 76 and above (OR = 11.781), traders/food vendors (OR = 0.423) and widows (OR = 2.050) had some odds of predicting the outcome variable. The study recommends a reformation of government land use conversion policies and decisions in collaboration with landowners, to include parameters which assess the effect and benefits of land conversion decisions on biodiversity before leasing out land rights