Biogas Production from Biodegradable Kitchen Waste Generated on University of Science and Technology Campus, Ghana

The alarming potential environmental problems (low investment, operation cost, technical requirements, air, water and land pollutions, improper waste management practices) linked to organic fraction of municipal solid waste which is mostly landfilled in many parts of the world have fostered the need for a biological treatment using anaerobic digestion. This is an attractive technology for waste stabilization with potential mass and volume reduction and significantly the generation of valuable by-products such as biogas and compost material.This research work focused on the biogas production from kitchen waste generated on the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology campus, Ghana. The experiment was carried out in a multi-stage anaerobic digestion system operated under mesophilic temperature. Various process parameters were measured including temperature, pH, conductivity, total solids, moisture content, BOD, percentage BOD removal, biogas production and biogas production rate.  The waste degraded at a rate of 36.1±2.2% / day, with average biogas production of 8.9±3.15 litres per day. Maximum biogas production rate per kilogram of total solids (TS) was 4.5±1.6 L/kg TS of biogas per day. Keywords: Biogas production; biodegradable waste; kitchen waste; methanogenic reactor; hydrolysis reactor; buffer system; KNUST; Ritter TG05/5 Drum-type Gas Meter; gas analyser, MSW DOI: 10.7176/JEES/10-7-04 Publication date:July 31st 202

Challenges of Teaching Akans (Ghana) Culturally-Specific Environmental Ethics in Senior High Schools: Voices of Akans and Biology Teachers

Indigenous cultural groups have lived sustainably with their natural resources (land, water bodies, forests, wildlife animals and plants) by employing particular culturallyspecific environmental ethics. These include spiritual perceptions about natural environmental resources, totemic beliefs and taboos. Consequently, many scholars in the country have recommended the integration of these culturally-specific environmental ethics in environmental policies and formal school curricula. The purpose of this research was to explore the views of Akan indigenous knowledge (IK) holders and senior high school Biology teachers on challenges they predicted could confront the teaching of Akan culturally-specific environmental ethics in the senior high school Biology curriculum. An interpretivist paradigm with an ethnographic, naturalistic research style, using in-depth conversational interviews was employed to explore the views of research participants. The perceived challenges included stigma attached to culturally-specific environmental ethics; requirement of proof and experimentation; the use of a foreign language in schools; formal education; loss of the fear for the gods and spirits in nature; centralised curriculum; democracy and political biases. The research concluded that being aware of the possible challenges to the teaching of the Akan culturally-specific environmental ethics can influence policies related to these ethics as well as guide Biology curriculum developers and stakeholders. Keywords: culturally-specific environmental ethics; Akan cultural group; Akan nature conservation; Ghana Biology curriculu

Hybrid Approach to Classification of DDoS Attacks on a Computer Network Infrastructure

The advancement in technology, its ease of use, and the competitive nature of its deployment in business operations have led to the wide spread of networking systems globally, and Ghana is not an exception. Most business operations and even personal activities are now conducted online leading to increased network connectivity, access to networked resources, and the corresponding cyber-attacks on these network systems. Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) is one of the sophisticated attacks in the cyberspace. In DDOs, the attacker floods the network with massive and unsolicited traffic, causing the network infrastructure to exhaust all its resources in responding to the attacker’s request, thereby denying access to legitimate users of such resources. In this study, we designed and implemented a hybrid deep learning model (CRNN-Infusion) for detection and classification of DDoS attacks. Our model utilized the CNN, and RNN models, with the CICDDoS2019 dataset obtained from the Canadian Institute of Cybersecurity (CIC) for its training, with Random Search Hyperparameter Tuning (RSHT) and Feature Selection (FS) techniques for model efficiency and dimensionality reduction. Cybersecurity (CIC) for the model’s training, with Random Search Hyperparameter Tuning (RSHT) and FS techniques for model efficiency and dimensionality reduction. The results showed that, our proposed model is a better classifier for DDoS attacks compared to other deep learning (DL) models trained on the same dataset. With the highest accuracy of 98.92%, hybrid deep learning models are suitable for detecting and classifying DDoS attacks on network infrastructures. The findings point out that, with the appropriate choice of feature selection and hyperparameter tuning techniques, hybrid deep learning models perform optimally, with 98.92% accuracy, 99.02% precision, 98.92% recall, and 98.93% F1 score for our proposed model

The Global Impact of COVID-19: Historical Development, Molecular Characterization, Drug Discovery and Future Directions

In December 2019, an outbreak of a respiratory disease called the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by a new coronavirus known as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) began in Wuhan, China. The SARS-CoV-2, an encapsulated positive-stranded RNA virus, spread worldwide with disastrous consequences for people’s health, economies, and quality of life. The disease has had far-reaching impacts on society, including economic disruption, school closures, and increased stress and anxiety. It has also highlighted disparities in healthcare access and outcomes, with marginalized communities disproportionately affected by the SARS-CoV-2. The symptoms of COVID-19 range from mild to severe. There is presently no effective cure. Nevertheless, significant progress has been made in developing COVID-19 vaccine for different therapeutic targets. For instance, scientists developed multifold vaccine candidates shortly after the COVID-19 outbreak after Pfizer and AstraZeneca discovered the initial COVID-19 vaccines. These vaccines reduce disease spread, severity, and mortality. The addition of rapid diagnostics to microscopy for COVID-19 diagnosis has proven crucial. Our review provides a thorough overview of the historical development of COVID-19 and molecular and biochemical characterization of the SARS-CoV-2. We highlight the potential contributions from insect and plant sources as anti-SARS-CoV-2 and present directions for future research