Implementation of initiatives to reform the quality of education in rural Ghanaian junior high schools

Despite Ghana\u27s record investment in education, in 2008, only 40% of students passed the Basic Education Certificate Examinations (BECE) at the end of junior high school and gained admission into senior high school. Urban schools continue to outperform rural schools and the gap between Ghana‟s best and worst performing schools continues to widen. This study investigated the effectiveness of education policy implementation and how this has impacted on education reform in one rural district of Ghana‟s Upper West Region. The research investigated the status of education in Junior High Schools, the impact of Reform 2007 and the factors that influenced the implementation of the reform initiatives. Following analysis of Ministry of Education policy documents, a questionnaire elicited detailed background information from head teachers about junior high schools and the impact of the reform on their schools. Interviews and focus group discussions with key stakeholders were used to assess the extent of coherence in purpose, policy and program implementation at district, regional and national levels. It is evident from research data that the low academic standards and low pass rate at BECE is the result of inexperienced head teachers, the lack of qualified teachers, low teacher professionalism, low community support for education and inadequate resources. Reform 2007 refocused attention on curriculum, teacher education and supervision initiatives. However, the hierarchical structure and values of Ghana Education Service, poor communication especially at District level, lack of professional learning opportunities to interpret the policies, inadequate human and material resources to implement programs were factors that limited the implementation of the reform initiatives. The current study has added to existing knowledge on implementing education policy to support reform initiatives. This study addresses the gap in the literature on the implementation of education policy through programs and its impact on performance in JHSs in a rural district of Ghana. Recommendations have been developed for reform of program implementation that will lead to enhanced educational outcomes for JHSs

Quantum Dragon Solutions for Electron Transport through Single-Layer Planar Rectangular

When a nanostructure is coupled between two leads, the electron transmission probability as a function of energy, E, is used in the Landauer formula to obtain the electrical conductance of the nanodevice. The electron transmission probability as a function of energy, T (E), is calculated from the appropriate solution of the time independent Schrödinger equation. Recently, a large class of nanostructures called quantum dragons has been discovered. Quantum dragons are nanodevices with correlated disorder but still can have electron transmission probability unity for all energies when connected to appropriate (idealized) leads. Hence for a single channel setup, the electrical conductivity is quantized. Thus quantum dragons have the minimum electrical conductance allowed by quantum mechanics. These quantum dragons have potential applications in nanoelectronics. It is shown that for dimerized leads coupled to a simple two-slice (l = 2, m = 1) device, the matrix method gives the same expression for the electron transmission probability as renormalization group methods and as the well known Green\u27s function method. If a nanodevice has m atoms per slice, with l slices to calculate the electron transmission probability as a function of energy via the matrix method requires the solution of the inverse of a (2 + ml) (2 + ml) matrix. This matrix to invert is of large dimensions for large m and l. Taking the inverse of such a matrix could be done numerically, but getting an exact solution may not be possible. By using the mapping technique, this reduces this large matrix to invert into a simple (l + 2) (l + 2) matrix to invert, which is easier to handle but has the same solution. By using the map-and-tune approach, quantum dragon solutions are shown to exist for single-layer planar rectangular crystals with different boundary conditions. Each chapter provides two different ways on how to find quantum dragons. This work has experimental relevance, since this could pave the way for planar rectangular nanodevices with zero electrical resistance to be found. In the presence of randomness of the single-band tight-binding parameters in the nanodevice, an interesting quantum mechanical phenomenon called Fano resonance of the electron transmission probability is shown to be observed

DEVELOPING TREES TOLERANT TO DEGRADED MINE SOILS

The project discussed in this thesis is part of a larger project developing trees that can tolerate and withstand heavy metals and acidic soils from historic mining operations in Butte Montana as a solution to re-establishing long-term tree growth on those sites. The project involved growing tree seedlings native to Butte, Montana and planting them on degraded mine soils, tailings, and processing wastes (mine waste) located within the Butte Priority Soil Operable Unit (BPSOU). The seedlings were grown for 34 weeks in a greenhouse located on Montana Tech’s campus before being transplanted to a contaminated site (the Clark Mill site) located within the BPSOU. The outcome of the project is expected to lead to a successful solution for re-establishing tree growth in the degraded mine waste in Butte with minimal post-planting human intervention. Work conducted on the project to date has shown successful growth of seedlings in degraded mine waste. It is believed that the final outcome of the project will result in significantly improved reclamation of the BPSOU through tree growth. This will result in improved and maintained water quality in Silver Bow Creek in Butte Area One that can be accomplished with lower development and maintenance costs

Assessing the Impact of Macroeconomic Variables on the Performance of the U.S. Stock Market

Using S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average indices as the benchmark to measure the U.S. stock market, the study focused on assessing the effects macroeconomic variables on the performance of stock market. Using multiple regression model, the study found a negative correlation of unemployment rate and GDP growth rate on the stock market performance but established a direct relation with inflation and the stock market performance. The study concluded that, the negative relationship with GDP growth rate was because the U.S. stock market tracks its performance from the global technology industry rather than economic growth whiles unemployment rate was due to the fact that, depending on the economic scenario, this variable affects the stock market differently. However, the direct relationship between the inflation because a high inflation rate reduces the purchasing power which affects the number of stocks bought and the income generated from the stock market. Keywords: Stock Market, Economic Growth, Macroeconomic Indicator, United States, Developed Country DOI: 10.7176/RJFA/11-14-08 Publication date:July 31st 202

Spatial Interaction of Agricultural Land Uses and their Impacts on Ecosystem Service Provision at the Landscape Scale

The relationship between agricultural land use and it impact on ecosystem services, including nutrient cycling and biodiversity conservation, is extremely complex. This complexity has been augmented by isolated research on the impact of agriculture land uses on the landscape's capacity to provide ecosystem services (ES) particularly in most vulnerable areas of Sub-Saharan Africa. Though a considerable number of studies emphasize the nexus between specific land use types and their impact on N-deposition across agriculture landscapes, a sufficient modeling basis for an empirical consideration of spatial interactions between different agricultural land use types at the landscape scale across rural-urbanizing areas in Sub-Saharan Africa is consistently missing. In view of this, the motivation to understand, assess and address significant roles that size, shape, spatial location, and interactivity of different land use patch types play in assessing land use interactions and their impact on ecosystem service provision and the overall landscape resilience necessitated the core of this PhD thesis. This thesis aimed at finding answers to the question of which assessment framework could be employed to understand the interaction of land use types and their impact on ecosystem services, the present thesis introduces a semi-quantitative assessment framework implemented in the GISCAME suite to provide scientific and practical answers to this question. Ahead of the framework development, a thorough review of land use planning documents from selected countries within the WASCAL project area to uncover the key relevance government places on incorporating the ES concept was undertaken. This was with the view that mentioning the concept in such legal document alone does not suggest its relevance if road maps for their implementation is not sufficiently provided, with laid down institutional provisions, roles, responsibilities, support systems and commitments. The outcome of this objective significantly influenced the subsequent objectives of this thesis. Subsequently, I employed Voronoi tessellation and midpoint displacement algorithms implemented in the Structure Generator (SG4GISCAME) to generate alternative land use mosaics to mimic the patchy agricultural landscape character of the study area. The key objective here was to present the output of this alternative landscape as a partial solution to the data scarcity issue which hinders mapping and hypothetical testing of the landscape structure and their role in landscape resilience. To achieve the objective of identifying core sets of landscape indicators to explore the significant influence of the landscape structure and pattern as an influence on landscape resilience, I employed analytical and statistical multivariate principal component and factor analysis to eliminate the landscape metric redundancy. The outcome helped to propose core set as indicators capable to be used for ecosystem services assessment and land use planning. The result revealed that only 6 landscape metrics had the capacity to explicitly define the configuration and compositional landscape character of the Vea catchment area. This result served a critical input into the development of the assessment framework. In developing a framework to assess the contribution of the landscape spatial structure to the resilience of the socio-ecological system (SES), I mapped the capacity of the landscape structure to provide regulating ecosystem services with the aid of land use maps as proxies. Analytical Hierarchical Processes and Expert stakeholder approaches were used to identify and subsequently map key regulating ES identified from the catchment area. Following, a multi-criteria analysis was employed to link stakeholder mapping and landscape metrics to provide a functional understanding of the interrelationship of both methods and how they provide integrative insights into the landscape resilience and ES trade-off concepts respectively. This assessment was undertaken using a 2012 multi-temporal RapidEye land use classification data and implemented with the aid of the cellular automaton module in GISCAME. In the absence of explicit ecological modeling and spatial data, the result of this methodology provides a comprehensively rich ES assessment approach not only for the research area, but for transferability across West Africa. The result of this assessment is to inform, across governance levels, different planning, and development scenarios with the potential to alter the landscapes structural character and thereby impede ES flow and resilience of the SES. Indirectly, the relevance of the landscape structure to land use planning was significant across the outcomes of the thesis. Further, the approach establishes potential trade-offs and synergies across the agricultural landscapes structure and thereby suggest planning and management supports to optimize agricultural production and improve ecosystem service flows in Sub-Saharan Africa. Overall, the implementation of the multi-criteria evaluation function in GISCAME demonstrated beyond question, the functional relevance of the GISCAME software tool as the only tried and tested ES integration framework implemented within the WASCAL project area

Encouraging Organic Agriculture: The Effects of Conversion Subsidies

This thesis examines the importance of conversional subsidies in accounting for an increase in organic acreage in the 12 North-Central States in the United States. Monthly time series data that spans from January 2002 to December 2014 was used in the analysis. Empirical evidence suggests that increase in organic acreage is due in part to the availability of conversion subsidies. Without government assistance, most small-scale farmers are not sufficiently motivated to switch to organic production due to the high initial costs involved in transitioning. Further, increased institutional support could facilitate organic adoption and its absence is detrimental to increasing the rate of adopting organic production methods

Governance units as interstitial organizations: the role of governance organizations in the development and establishment of Building Environmental Assessment Methods (BEAM)

Green Building has been touted as the future of building construction. However, its emergence, due to the fluidity of the green building concept, is sometimes fraught with power struggles in the debate over which standards and practices to be adopted. With the emergence of Building Environmental Assessment Methods, much hope has been put on their associated third-party certification organizations to help forge a common ground for green building. These organizations are boundary spanning, traversing multiple professional jurisdictions, organizational fields, and involving various state and non-state actors. Despite wielding much influence in the development, establishment and promotion of BEAMs, the authority, and legitimacy of governance organizations are being questioned as to whose interest they serve, and whether they promote realistic green building practices. We argue that while the success of these governance organizations will be their ability to act as neutral ‘brokers” of green building practices, they may end up capitulating the interest of powerful actors. Drawing on the theory fields proposed by Fligstein and McAdam (2012) and the concept of interstitial emergence, we explore the role of governance organizations for BEAMS in the building industry. The case is made that there is a need to examine the activities of governance organizations in the development of BEAMs, and why conceptualizing them as interstitial/boundary-spanning organizations could offer new insights and research directions in the burgeoning researching on BEAMs.postprin

Communication Design or Graphic Communication Design: Demystifying the Impending Controversy

The phrase ‘Graphic Design’ has been the adopted name for the branch of Visual Art that combines text, illustration and other visual elements to communicate messages. This name has reigned for decades, however, since the emergence of the digital revolution and the information age, different names have been adopted to replace the popular name graphic design. The adaptation of the new names has sparked controversy in the fraternity across the world, and these ideological positions have created confusion among people outside the profession regarding a definite name for the profession. In this paper, the researchers who are part of the fraternity and in academia sought the views and opinions of graphic design tutors in senior high schools in the Cape Coast metropolis in the Central Region of Ghana on the controversy through questionnaire and semi-structured interviews, and a total of 10 graphic design tutors were used. The data was analysed and discussed using quasi qualitative-analytical approaches. The findings revealed that, there are diverse entrenched opinions of people in the controversy which does not suggest a possibility of compromise to adopting a definite name soon. To indicate their position in the argument, the researchers employed critical thinking and inductive reasoning to examine the facts that emerged from the views of the tutors discussed, and the findings from the analytical review, and concluded on what they believe should be the appropriate name for the programme. Keywords: Graphic Design, Communication Design, Visual Communication Design and Graphic Communication Design. DOI: 10.7176/ADS/86-04 Publication date:October 31st 202