Assessing the influence of land-use change on the variability of soil chemical properties in semi-arid zone of Ghana

The study aimed at providing basis to consider spatial variability in soil fertility to inform effective decision making in mineral fertilizer recommendations. The study area was classified into six land-use categories using a rural rapid appraisal technique with the aid of the farmers in the community, and by remote sensing satellite imagery (Quick bird). Land-use categories varied significantly in their nutrient, organic carbon content, and stock with coefficient of determination ranging from 0.14 to 0.46. This is reflected in decline in soil nutrient, organic carbon content, and stock with increasing number of years the land was put under cultivation except for permanently cultivated fields. Permanantly cultivated fields were located in the homestead and benefited from nutrient imports from the bush fields. The two farm types also differed significantly with respect to soil nutrients, organic carbon and stock. Soil organic carbon content was 8.2 and 4.5 g kg-1 for the homestead and bushfields, respectively. Soil organic carbon stock estimated for the two farm types were 125 and 74 t ha-1 for the homestead and bush fields, respectively. The study shows a distinct zone of nutrient enhancement within the homestead and bushfields that should be sampled separately when sampling the zone for fertilizer recommendations

Attitudes towards inclusion of general education teachers who have and have not taught in an inclusive classroom

Through the lens of Bandura\u27s social-cognitive theory, which proposes that one\u27s sense of self-efficacy can foster positive beliefs, the purpose of this descriptive, quantitative study was to determine whether the attitudes held by general education teachers have an influence on their perceptions of inclusion. General education teachers\u27 beliefs in their abilities regarding teaching in inclusive classrooms may have an influence on the success of inclusion. This study examined the difference in attitudes toward inclusion between elementary school general education teachers whose previous teaching experience was with solely general education students but who now teach in an inclusive classroom, and those whose only teaching experience has been in the inclusive classroom. Eighty one general education teachers from public elementary schools in a suburban school district completed the Scale of Teachers\u27 Attitudes Toward Inclusive Classrooms (STATIC). Results from independent-samples t-tests and Mann-Whitney difference tests showed no significant statistical difference between mean STATIC scores and indicated the attitudes of both groups were positive towards inclusion. The acknowledgement of current teacher attitudes towards inclusion promotes positive social change by serving as a rationale for other school districts to create professional development opportunities. These opportunities will allow general education teachers to become better prepared in supporting and educating special needs students in their classrooms

Evaluation of soil properties of the Sudan Savannah ecological zone of Ghana for crop production

Low soil fertility and limited ability of farmers to purchase fertilizers in the Sudan savannah zone of Ghana has resulted in the decline in the yield of cereals over the years. There is, therefore, the need to identify soil parameters that are critical to crop production, to manage them effectively and improve fertilizer use efficiency to increase crop yield. To achieve this, an area of about 1.5 km2 was divided into grid cells (100m2) and characterised for their soil properties (organic carbon, pH, and soil texture). Data collected was used in a pedo-transfer function to estimate additional soil parameters that were not measured (i.e. wilting point, field capacity, available water and saturation). These were used as input to the crop simulation model (APSIM- Agriculture Productions Systems sIMulator) to simulate sorghum grain yield for each grid cell. Linear regression and factor analysis were also employed in explaining the data. Grain yield ranged from 402 to 1092 kg ha-1 with a mean of 673 kg ha-1 using 2005 weather data and 228 to 907 kg ha-1 with a mean of 427 kg ha-1 using 2000 weather data without fertilizer application. The model was sensitive to all input parameters. Soil texture and organic carbon were identified to have significant effect on crop yield. Soil organic carbon is, therefore, to be managed for the development of a good tilth and hence sustainable yields of sorghum at the study site

Formal Derivation of Concurrent Garbage Collectors

Concurrent garbage collectors are notoriously difficult to implement correctly. Previous approaches to the issue of producing correct collectors have mainly been based on posit-and-prove verification or on the application of domain-specific templates and transformations. We show how to derive the upper reaches of a family of concurrent garbage collectors by refinement from a formal specification, emphasizing the application of domain-independent design theories and transformations. A key contribution is an extension to the classical lattice-theoretic fixpoint theorems to account for the dynamics of concurrent mutation and collection.Comment: 38 pages, 21 figures. The short version of this paper appeared in the Proceedings of MPC 201

Transesophageal Echocardiographically-Confirmed Pulmonary Vein Thrombosis in Association with Posterior Circulation Infarction

Pulmonary venous thromboembolism has only been identified as a cause of stroke with pulmonary arteriovenous malformations/fistulae, pulmonary neoplasia, transplantation or lobectomy, and following percutaneous radiofrequency ablation of pulmonary vein ostia in patients with atrial fibrillation. A 59-year-old man presented with a posterior circulation ischemic stroke. ‘Unheralded’ pulmonary vein thrombosis was identified on transesophageal echocardiography as the likely etiology. He had no further cerebrovascular events after intensifying antithrombotic therapy. Twenty-eight months after initial presentation, he was diagnosed with metastatic pancreatic adenocarcinoma and died 3 months later. This report illustrates the importance of doing transesophageal echocardiography in presumed ‘cardioembolic’ stroke, and that potential ‘pulmonary venous thromboembolic’ stroke may occur in patients without traditional risk factors for venous thromboembolism. Consideration should be given to screening such patients for occult malignancy

Nature’s role in supporting health during the COVID-19 pandemic: a geospatial and socioecological study

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about unprecedented changes to human lifestyles across the world. The virus and associated social restriction measures have been linked to an increase in mental health conditions. A considerable body of evidence shows that spending time in and engaging with nature can improve human health and wellbeing. Our study explores nature’s role in supporting health during the COVID-19 pandemic. We created web-based questionnaires with validated health instruments and conducted spatial analyses in a geographic information system (GIS). We collected data (n = 1184) on people’s patterns of nature exposure, associated health and wellbeing responses, and potential socioecological drivers such as relative deprivation, access to greenspaces, and land-cover greenness. The majority of responses came from England, UK (n = 993). We applied a range of statistical analyses including bootstrap-resampled correlations and binomial regression models, adjusting for several potential confounding factors. We found that respondents significantly changed their patterns of visiting nature as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. People spent more time in nature and visited nature more often during the pandemic. People generally visited nature for a health and wellbeing benefit and felt that nature helped them cope during the pandemic. Greater land-cover greenness within a 250 m radius around a respondent’s postcode was important in predicting higher levels of mental wellbeing. There were significantly more food-growing allotments within 100 and 250 m around respondents with high mental wellbeing scores. The need for a mutually-advantageous relationship between humans and the wider biotic community has never been more important. We must conserve, restore and design nature-centric environments to maintain resilient societies and promote planetary health

Prior Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Surgery and Outcome After Percutaneous Coronary Intervention: An Observational Study From the Pan-London Percutaneous Coronary Intervention Registry.

Background Limited information exists regarding procedural success and clinical outcomes in patients with previous coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). We sought to compare outcomes in patients undergoing PCI with or without CABG. Methods and Results This was an observational cohort study of 123 780 consecutive PCI procedures from the Pan-London (UK) PCI registry from 2005 to 2015. The primary end point was all-cause mortality at a median follow-up of 3.0 years (interquartile range, 1.2-4.6 years). A total of 12 641(10.2%) patients had a history of previous CABG, of whom 29.3% (n=3703) underwent PCI to native vessels and 70.7% (n=8938) to bypass grafts. There were significant differences in the demographic, clinical, and procedural characteristics of these groups. The risk of mortality during follow-up was significantly higher in patients with prior CABG (23.2%; P=0.0005) compared with patients with no prior CABG (12.1%) and was seen for patients who underwent either native vessel (20.1%) or bypass graft PCI (24.2%; P<0.0001). However, after adjustment for baseline characteristics, there was no significant difference in outcomes seen between the groups when PCI was performed in native vessels in patients with previous CABG (hazard ratio [HR],1.02; 95%CI, 0.77-1.34; P=0.89), but a significantly higher mortality was seen among patients with PCI to bypass grafts (HR,1.33; 95% CI, 1.03-1.71; P=0.026). This was seen after multivariate adjustment and propensity matching. Conclusions Patients with prior CABG were older with greater comorbidities and more complex procedural characteristics, but after adjustment for these differences, the clinical outcomes were similar to the patients undergoing PCI without prior CABG. In these patients, native-vessel PCI was associated with better outcomes compared with the treatment of vein grafts