An Assessment of Financial Literacy Levels among Undergraduate Business Students in Ghana

Financial literacy is imperative to enable students manage their finances and take advantage of investment opportunities. It is against this background that this study investigates financial literacy of undergraduate business students in the School of Business, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KSB) in Ghana. It employs a stratified random sampling technique to sample 203 undergraduate students using questionnaire as the research instrument. The study reveals that formal education is the major source of financial literacy of undergraduate students, followed by parents, the media, and peers. Level 400 students are the most literate financially followed by level 300, 100 and 200 students. Also, financial literacy is highest among accounting students followed by banking and finance, marketing, and human resource management students. Key words: Financial literacy; undergraduate student

The nature of Historical Facts: History teachers’ conception of it

The study focused on how History teachers conceived historical facts. With this, data illumination was done qualitatively. In all, a sample of 4 History teachers was used in the study. Thematic analysis was used for the analysis of the data. There were varying views on the developmental nature of historical facts. With this, the responses were related to two schools of thought, namely, the unique pattern of historical facts which undermines the developmental nature of History and the other aspect which talks about the element of development in History. On integration, it is astonishing that some teachers were ignorant of the integrated character of History while others acknowledged that the nature of History is such that it integrates with other social science subjects, notably, Geography, Economics, and Sociology. Regarding the element of subjectivity, responses were situated in the Positivist and Relativist philosophies. Those who identified themselves with the Positivists acknowledged Historical objectivity and yielded to no such thing as History being unobjective. The Relativists, on the other hand, intimated that History is subjective, no less no more. Finally, teachers in the study noted that there are no underlining theories or laws in History. Indeed, they all shared a view of the traditional Historians who do not accept and submit to theories and laws in historical explanations. Keywords: Historical facts, History teachers, Nature

Akan grammatical relations revisited

Morphological case languages do not necessarily depend on word order to determine their grammatical relations. However, structural case languages depend largely on word order to determine the various grammatical relations. For most configurational languages, the agent/experiencer usually precedes the patient/theme in a simple clause (in the active voice). In the passive voice, the patient/theme occupies the subject position while the agent becomes an object of a preposition (oblique) or omitted as evident in English. Akan, a Kwa language of the Niger-Congo family, being a nominative-accusative language, allows the agent/experiencer to precede the patient/theme in the active construction. In the passive- like construction, however, unlike a language like English, an impersonal pronounoccupies the subject position while the patient or theme remains at the object position. This implies that agents/experiencers do not occur at the oblique position in Akan; neither dopatients/ themes occur at the subject position. Certain verbs (symmetrical verbs), however, may allow the experiencer and the theme arguments to switch positions in the active construction without affecting the meaning of the sentence in the language. This paper seeks to highlight these marked grammatical relations in Akan within the framework of Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG)

THE HOMONYMIC CHAIN MODEL (HCM) AS A TOOL FOR MULTIPLE SENSE ANALYSIS

Many scholars – e.g. Glover (2005), Sekyi-Baidoo (2006) and Falkum (2010) – have expressed some concerns about Word Sense Multiplicity (WSM), which explains multiple meanings as part of a word. In other words, WSM is an integral part of any natural language including Akan on which this paper concentrates. As Agyekum (2002; 2005) and Levin (1993) observe, with WSM, users and researchers of language dwell on a particular sense of a word deeming it as an underlying representation of all other senses. In this paper, however, from the perspective of the homonymic and polysemic nature of a word, we seek to explore the Homonymic Chain Model (Oppong-Asare, 2012) as a tool for expressing the multiple meanings words in languages in descriptive terms. The model attempts to simplify the understanding of the various meanings of a word by conceptualizing its diverse senses. As will also be exhibited pictorially, the Homonymic Chain Model (HCM) also explains that a particular word may have two or more distinct meanings and each of the meanings may also have other related senses. As part of our conclusion, we contend among others that apart from aiding students and language learners to recognize and comprehend different senses of a word more clearly, HCM could also facilitate the work of translators working with Akan

Determinants of Capital Structure: Evidence from Ghanaian Firms

This paper investigates the determinants of capital structure using dataset from 33 listed and non-listed companies during the period 2003 – 2007 in Ghana.  A multiple regression analysis of pooled-cross sectional and time-series observations have been employed in the analysis.  The results identify long-term debt to be irrelevant component of capital structure of large unquoted and quoted firms in Ghana as there is a greater reliance on equity.  Furthermore, profitability, size, business risk and tangible assets have positive correlation with level of gearing of companies in Ghana.  On the other hand, growth, and tax indicate a negative correlation with the level of gearing. Keywords: Capital structure, financing decisions, listed, non-listed, Ghana

Micro-Loans and Micro Enterprises in Ghana: Players, Roles and Challenges

The role of micro-enterprises in developing countries cannot be under-estimated. Access to finance is critical to the growth of micro-enterprises. Contrary to the past, financial institutions in Ghana are now embracing the idea of financing micro-enterprises. The study examines the forms of financial institutions involved in the provision of micro-loans, the role of micro-loans in the micro-enterprises, and the challenges micro-enterprises face in accessing micro-loans. The simple random sampling technique was employed to collect data from 400 micro-enterprises. The study reveals that both mainstream universal banks and microfinance institutions are involved in the provision of micro loans to micro-enterprises. Also, micro-loans have impacted positively on the micro-enterprises in the study. Finally, high interest rates, provision of collateral, requirement to save regularly and short repayment period are the major challenges micro-enterprises face in accessing micro-loans in Ghana. Keywords: Ghana, micro-loans, micro enterprises, role, challenge

Development of Composite Material for Wind Turbine Blades

Rapid increases in the prices of conventional turbine blade making materials as well as future sustainability issues is attracting research interest in the development of polymer composites for turbine blade applications. This study examines the suitability of using a novel bamboo fibre and recycled plastics composite developed for wind turbine blade application. Bamboo fibre was extracted from raw bamboo by chemical and mechanical processes. Recycled High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) was collected, cut into pieces, cleaned and combined with extracted bamboo fibre to form the composite. The percentage ratio of fibre content in the ten specimens ranged from 2.5% to 25%. A series of mechanical tests were conducted on the specimens, including tensile test, impact test, water absorption test and sun radiation test. Results established that as the percentage of bamboo fibre in the specimen increased, the tensile strength and impact energy also increased. Water absorption and sun radiation tests conducted on specimen X revealed no meaningful impact its mechanical properties. Hence, the most significant deduction from this study is that the specimen with 25% bamboo fibre and 75% HDPE matrix possesses the quality that qualifies it to be used as a material for wind turbine blade fabrication

Performance measures for endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography and endoscopic ultrasound: A European Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ESGE) Quality Improvement Initiative

The European Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ESGE) and United European Gastroenterology present a short list of key performance measures for endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) and endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP). We recommend that endoscopy services across Europe adopt the following seven key and one minor performance measures for EUS and ERCP, for measurement and evaluation in daily practice at centre and endoscopist level: 1 Adequate antibiotic prophylaxis before ERCP (key performance measure, at least 90%); 2 antibiotic prophylaxis before EUS-guided puncture of cystic lesions (key performance measure, at least 95%); 3 bile duct cannulation rate (key performance measure, at least 90%); 4 tissue sampling during EUS (key performance measure, at least 85%); 5 appropriate stent placement in patients with biliary obstruction below the hilum (key performance measure, at least 95%); 6 bile duct stone extraction (key performance measure, at least 90%); 7 post-ERCP pancreatitis (key performance measure, less than 10%); and 8 adequate documentation of EUS landmarks (minor performance measure, at least 90%). This present list of quality performance measures for ERCP and EUS recommended by the ESGE should not be considered to be exhaustive; it might be extended in future to address further clinical and scientific issues

UK and Ireland Joint Advisory Group (JAG) consensus statements for training and certification in diagnostic endoscopic ultrasound (EUS)

Background and Aims: International endoscopy societies vary in their approach for credentialing individuals in endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) to enable independent practice; however, there is no consensus in this or its implementation. In 2019, the Joint Advisory Group on GI Endoscopy (JAG) commissioned a working group to examine the evidence relating to this process for EUS. The aim of this was to develop evidence-based recommendations for EUS training and certification in the UK.Methods: Under the oversight of the JAG quality assurance team, a modified Delphi process was conducted which included major stakeholders from the UK and Ireland. A formal literature review was made, initial questions for study were proposed and recommendations for training and certification in EUS were formulated after a rigorous assessment using the Grading of Recommendation Assessment, Development and Evaluation tool and subjected to electronic voting to identify accepted statements. These were peer reviewed by JAG and relevant stakeholder societies before consensus on the final EUS certification pathway was achieved.Results: 39 initial questions were proposed of which 33 were deemed worthy of assessment and finally formed the key recommendations. The statements covered four key domains, such as: definition of competence (13 statements), acquisition of competence (10), assessment of competence (5) and postcertification mentorship (5). Key recommendations include: (1) minimum of 250 hands-on cases before an assessment for competency can be made, (2) attendance at the JAG basic EUS course, (3) completing a minimum of one formative direct observation of procedural skills (DOPS) every 10 cases to allow the learning curve in EUS training to be adequately studied, (4) competent performance in summative DOPS assessments and (5) a period of mentorship over a 12-month period is recommended as minimum to support and mentor new service providers.Conclusions: An evidence-based certification pathway has been commissioned by JAG to support and quality assure EUS training. This will form the basis to improve quality of training and safety standards in EUS in the UK and Ireland.</p

UK Joint Advisory Group consensus statements for training and certification in endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography

© 2022 The Authors. Published by Thieme Open. This is an open access article available under a Creative Commons licence. The published version can be accessed at the following link on the publisher’s website: https://www.thieme-connect.de/products/ejournals/abstract/10.1055/a-1629-7540Introduction: Despite the high-risk nature of endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP), a robust and standardised credentialing process to ensure competency before independent practice is lacking worldwide. On behalf of the Joint Advisory Group (JAG), we aimed to develop evidence-based recommendations to form the framework of ERCP training and certification in the UK. Methods: Under the oversight of the JAG, a modified Delphi process was conducted with stakeholder representation from the British Society of Gastroenterology, Association of Upper Gastrointestinal Surgeons, trainees and trainers. Recommendations on ERCP training and certification were formulated after formal literature review and appraised using the GRADE tool. These were subjected to electronic voting to achieve consensus. Accepted statements were peer-reviewed by JAG and relevant Specialist Advisory Committees before incorporation into the ERCP certification pathway. Results: In total, 27 recommendation statements were generated for the following domains: definition of competence (9 statements), acquisition of competence (8 statements), assessment of competence (6 statements) and post-certification support (4 statements). The consensus process led to the following criteria for ERCP certification: 1) performing ≥300 hands-on procedures; 2) attending a JAG-accredited ERCP skills course; 3) in modified Schutz 1-2 procedures: achieving native papilla cannulation rate ≥80%, complete bile duct clearance ≥70%, successful stenting of distal biliary strictures ≥75%, physically unassisted in ≥80% of cases; 4) 30-day post-ERCP pancreatitis rates ≤5%; 5) satisfactory performance in formative and summative direct observation of procedural skills (DOPS) assessments. Conclusion: JAG certification in ERCP has been developed following evidence-based consensus to quality assure training and to ultimately improve future standards of ERCP practice