Effects of interest rate on banks dividend in Ghana

The paper tries to figure out what effect the interest rate has on GCB Bank Plc's dividend. For the study, time series data from 2000 to 2020 are put through the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model. ADF and PP was tests to see if the dividend, interest rate, profitability, and inflation rate data set was stationary. The outcome was that the variables were stationary at levels and first differences. In the long run, ARDL tests show that the relationship between a bank's dividend and its interest rate and profitability is negative. In the short run, there is also a relationship between interest rate and dividend that is not positive. However, there is a positive relationship between the bank’s profitability and dividend. Finally, an impulse (shock) on interest rate in the short run period had a negative relationship with dividend but the long run period shows a positive relationship among the two variables. Keywords: interest rate, dividend, GCB Bank PLC DOI: 10.7176/RJFA/13-20-07 Publication date:October 31st 202

Investigation of the effects of image compression on the geometric quality of digital protogrammetric imagery

We are living in a decade, where the use of digital images is becoming increasingly important. Photographs are now converted into digital form, and direct acquisition of digital images is becoming increasing important as sensors and associated electronics. Unlike images in analogue form, digital representation of images allows visual information to· be easily manipulated in useful ways. One practical problem of the digital image representation is that, it requires a very large number of bits and hence one encounters a fairly large volume of data in a digital production environment if they are stored uncompressed on the disk. With the rapid advances in sensor technology and digital electronics, the number of bits grow larger in softcopy photogrammetry, remote sensing and multimedia GIS. As a result, it is desirable to find efficient representation for digital images in order to reduce the memory required for storage, improve the data access rate from storage devices, and reduce the time required for transfer across communication channels. The component of digital image processing that deals with this problem is called image compression. Image compression is a necessity for the utilisation of large digital images in softcopy photogrammetry, remote sensing, and multimedia GIS. Numerous image Compression standards exist today with the common goal of reducing the number of bits needed to store images, and to facilitate the interchange of compressed image data between various devices and applications. JPEG image compression standard is one alternative for carrying out the image compression task. This standard was formed under the auspices ISO and CCITT for the purpose of developing an international standard for the compression and decompression of continuous-tone, still-frame, monochrome and colour images. The JPEG standard algorithm &Us into three general categories: the baseline sequential process that provides a simple and efficient algorithm for most image coding applications, the extended DCT-based process that allows the baseline system to satisfy a broader range of applications, and an independent lossless process for application demanding that type of compression. This thesis experimentally investigates the geometric degradations resulting from lossy JPEG compression on photogrammetric imagery at various levels of quality factors. The effects and the suitability of JPEG lossy image compression on industrial photogrammetric imagery are investigated. Examples are drawn from the extraction of targets in close-range photogrammetric imagery. In the experiments, the JPEG was used to compress and decompress a set of test images. The algorithm has been tested on digital images containing various levels of entropy (a measure of information content of an image) with different image capture capabilities. Residual data was obtained by taking the pixel-by-pixel difference between the original data and the reconstructed data. The image quality measure, root mean square (rms) error of the residual was used as a quality measure to judge the quality of images produced by JPEG(DCT-based) image compression technique. Two techniques, TIFF (IZW) compression and JPEG(DCT-based) compression are compared with respect to compression ratios achieved. JPEG(DCT-based) yields better compression ratios, and it seems to be a good choice for image compression. Further in the investigation, it is found out that, for grey-scale images, the best compression ratios were obtained when the quality factors between 60 and 90 were used (i.e., at a compression ratio of 1:10 to 1:20). At these quality factors the reconstructed data has virtually no degradation in the visual and geometric quality for the application at hand. Recently, many fast and efficient image file formats have also been developed to store, organise and display images in an efficient way. Almost every image file format incorporates some kind of compression method to manage data within common place networks and storage devices. The current major file formats used in softcopy photogrammetry, remote sensing and · multimedia GIS. were also investigated. It was also found out that the choice of a particular image file format for a given application generally involves several interdependent considerations including quality; flexibility; computation; storage, or transmission. The suitability of a file format for a given purpose is · best determined by knowing its original purpose. Some of these are widely used (e.g., TIFF, JPEG) and serve as exchange formats. Others are adapted to the needs of particular applications or particular operating systems

Developing A One Stop Shop Model For Integrated Land Information Management

In Ghana much attention has not been given to the development of land information system which will integrate the data on land ownership, land use and land value for all the land agen-cies under the land administration system to facilitate the processing of applications within the land delivery systems. This situation presents a lot of delays and inefficiencies in delivering land services to the investor and other potential clients of land sector agencies involved in the land administration practised in Ghana. This paper describes the development of a one stop shop model for integrating information on the attributes of a parcel and their accessibility. A cross sectional survey was conducted in six land sector agencies in Kumasi on data formats, standards and accessibility in provision of land delivery services to their clients. The results of the survey were then used to design a client server application based on a one stop shop concept to integrate the parcel attribute information. The client server application was designed with Microsoft SQL Server 2000, VB.Net 2005 and Microsoft Visio. A Land Management Key (LANMANK) program was finally developed with geodatabase capabilities for storing and displaying spatial data as well as other non-spatial data. LANMANK has a unique parcel identifier for land transactions such as land transfers, title registration, property rating, building and development permits proc-essing. Also, it allows the user to create back ups for the database and also restore the database at a later date.Keywords: One stop shop, LANMANK, unique parcel identifier, client server applicatio

Embedding knowledge transfer to increase productivity in school nursing.

This article is a discussion paper aimed at school nursing leaders and, importantly, nursing managers and academics who are looking for ways to sustain nursing services. With austerity, there is a compelling demand for future NHS services including school nursing to effectively identify, manage, share, and transfer the knowledge externally sourced and internally developed to support productivity improvements. Productivity has been applied liberally in this article by its narrow definition, that is: ratio of outputs (number of school nursing interventions) compared to the inputs used to deliver the intervention (number of school nurses). NHS services have faced productivity challenges, which have resulted in a search for ways to run safely and efficiently. Knowledge assets are abundant in school nursing and reside within interactions with children, young people and their families; policies and procedures; as well as in connected agencies such as education and social care. The turbulence of the austerity measures can make NHS school nursing services' knowledge, experience, and expertise a dominant source of increasing productivity. The service needs to transfer expert knowledge as it seeks to develop efficient application of resources and survive the turbulence. Evidence from businesses in the service sector shows that internal transfer of knowledge and expertise across teams leads to increased productivity. Considering that this has been possible within the service sector, knowledge transfer may provide a key to unleashing productivity potential in NHS school nursing service. Central to this debate to lift school nursing productivity is a need to understand the drivers of productivity and recognising that other factors like investment also impact on productivity. This is an economy-wide issue, however, the school nursing service itself can have a unique impact on this debate

A Collaborative Approach to Anti-Oppression Work at a Predominately White Institution

The University of Illinois has taken an inclusive approach to address sexual violence and related oppressions through the creation and implementation of an embedded Confidential Advisor (survivor advocate) model. This embedded model utilizes collaborative and student-centered approaches to confront barriers that marginalized students and communities face when seeking support. Target Audience: Student Affairs Professionals and Student

The school nursing course in the northeast of Scotland.

This article aims to share insights into the education preparation of school nurses to acquire essential competences and an interdisciplinary approach to learning and practice in Scotland

Prison without Walls: Perception about Community Service as an Alternative to Imprisonment in Kumasi Metropolis, Ashanti Region, Ghana

The numerous challenges, such as increasing prisoner population, inadequate financial support and deteriorated training facilities, have not enabled the Prisons Service to perform their functions adequately. The paper aimed at investigating the perception among residents of Kumasi metropolis about community service as an alternative to imprisonment. This study adopted the social survey research design to investigate the perception of 200 respondents regarding community service as an alternative form of punishment to imprisonment. The study revealed that generally, the public were well informed about community service and preferred it to imprisonment. On the contrary, preference for community service was related to its perceived appropriateness for reducing the stigma that was usually attached to ex-convicts as well as its perceived ability to reform offenders better than imprisonment. Respondents agreed that minor offences were appropriate for community sentences. Also, people with communicable diseases, pregnant and nursing mothers, single parents and first time offenders should be given community service which must be communal in nature. Some recommendations were made

Accuracy and inter-cloud precision of low-cost mobile LiDAR technology in estimating soil disturbance in forest operations

Forest operations can cause long-term soil disturbance, leading to environmental and economic losses. Mobile LiDAR technology has become increasingly popular in forest management for mapping and monitoring disturbances. Low-cost mobile LiDAR technology, in particular, has attracted significant attention due to its potential cost-effectiveness, ease of use, and ability to capture high-resolution data. The LiDAR technology, which is integrated in the iPhone 13–14 Pro Max series, has the potential to provide high accuracy and precision data at a low cost, but there are still questions on how this will perform in comparison to professional scanners. In this study, an iPhone 13 Pro Max equipped with SiteScape and 3D Scanner apps, and the GeoSlam Zeb Revo scanner were used to collect and generate point cloud datasets for comparison in four plots showing variability in soil disturbance and local topography. The data obtained from the LiDAR devices were analyzed in CloudCompare using the Iterative Closest Point (ICP) and Least Square Plane (LSP) methods of cloud-to-cloud comparisons (C2C) to estimate the accuracy and intercloud precision of the LiDAR technology. The results showed that the low-cost mobile LiDAR technology was able to provide accurate and precise data for estimating soil disturbance using both the ICP and LSP methods. Taking as a reference the point clouds collected with the Zeb Revo scanner, the accuracy of data derived with SiteScape and 3D Scanner apps varied from RMS = 0.016 to 0.035 m, and from RMS = 0.017 to 0.025 m, respectively. This was comparable to the precision or repeatability of the professional LiDAR instrument, Zeb Revo (RMS = 0.019–0.023 m). The intercloud precision of the data generated with SiteScape and 3D Scanner apps varied from RMS = 0.015 to 0.017 m and from RMS = 0.012 to 0.014 m, respectively, and were comparable to the precision of Zeb Revo measurements (RMS = 0.019–0.023 m). Overall, the use of low-cost mobile LiDAR technology fits well to the requirements to map and monitor soil disturbances and it provides a cost-effective and efficient way to gather high resolution data, which can assist the sustainable forest management practices

Ethanolic stem bark extract of terminalia ivorensis A. Chev. protects against potassium dichromate–induced nephrotoxicity in rats.

Objective: The plant Terminalia ivorensis is used in traditional medicine as a diuretic and in the management of renal failure. We reported previously that the ethanol stem bark extract of the plant protects against gentamicin-induced renal and hepatic damage in rats. To further elucidate the mechanism of its renoprotective activity, we studied the effects of the extract on Potassium dichromate–induced nephrotoxicity in rats. The present study assessed the effectiveness of the ethanol stem bark extract of Terminalia ivorensis - against renal oxidative injury evoked by potassium dichromate. Methods: Adult Sprague Dawley rats pre-treated with (100–1000 mg/kg p.o. bwt) of Terminalia ivorensis extract for 5 days were challenged with a single dose of Potassium dichromate (20 mg/kg Sc) in the neck region on the 4th day. On the sixth day, renal function and markers of oxidative injury were assessed. Results: Terminalia ivorensis (300–1000 mg/kg p.o) pre-treatment dose dependently prevented decreases in urine output in rats challenged with a nephrotoxic dose of Potassium Dichromate. The extract also protected the rats against Potassium dichromate-induced rise in serum electrolytes, urea and creatinine. Furthermore, it dose dependently prevented Potassium dichromate-induced decrease in renal glutathione (GSH) levels whereas tissue oxidative enzymes Superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase were protected from damage. Markers of lipid peroxidation such as level of renal Malondialdehyde (MDA) and myeloperoxidase (MPO) also decreased dose dependently when compare with Potassium dichromate treated groups. The extract also protected the histomorphology of the kidney against Potassium dichromate induced damage. Conclusion: The ethanol stem bark extract of Terminalia ivorensis protects kidney against Potassium dichromate-induced renal damage

Toxicity and Safety Implications of Herbal Medicines Used in Africa

The use of herbal medicines has seen a great upsurge globally. In developing countries, many patronize them largely due to cultural acceptability, availability and cost. In developed countries, they are used because they are natural and therefore assumed to be safer than allopathic medicines. In recent times, however, there has been a growing concern about their safety. This has created a situation of ambivalence in discussions regarding their use. Some medicinal plants are intrinsically toxic by virtue of their constituents and can cause adverse reactions if inappropriately used. Other factors such as herb-drug interactions, lack of adherence to good manufacturing practice (GMP), poor regulatory measures and adulteration may also lead to adverse events in their use. Many in vivo tests on aqueous extracts largely support the safety of herbal medicines, whereas most in vitro tests on isolated single cells mostly with extracts other than aqueous ones show contrary results and thus continue the debate on herbal medicine safety. It is expected that toxicity studies concerning herbal medicine should reflect their traditional use to allow for rational discussions regarding their safety for their beneficial use. While various attempts continue to establish the safety of various herbal medicines in man, their cautious and responsible use is required