Factors Associated with Haemoglobin Prevalence among Ghanaian Children Aged 6 – 59 months.

This study was undertaken to assess the prevalence of anaemia and to investigate various factors associated with haemoglobin (Hb) prevalence in children aged 6–59 months in Ghana. The data set used was based on a longitudinal study from the fourth round Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS). This was a national survey conducted by Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) to monitor the progress of women and children. A sample of 7,626 children under-five years across the country between 2009 and 2011 were selected for the survey. Multiple logistic regression and bootstrap technique for parameter estimates were used to determine the relationship of biological, socio-economic, nutritional and other factors associated with Hb concentration. The prevalence of anaemia among children between 6 – 59 months in Ghana found in this study was 64.7% which is quite high even though lower than the 2008 GDHS rate of 78%. This is so because it is still higher than the WHO cut-off point of 40% making it a serious public health concern. The highest rate of 36.2% occurs within the 6 – 23 months. The factors observed to be highly significantly associated with anaemia among these children included malaria prevalence (p-value=0.000), age of the child (p-value=0.000), household economic status (0.000), region of residence (p-value=0.000), mothers educational level (p-value=0.000) and sex of the child (p-value=0.000). All other factors considered such as area of residence and ethnicity were not significant (p-values > 0.05). In a nutshell, children who are born to more advantaged women who have high educational levels, economically sound, live in areas that are not infested with malaria, live in the southern part of Ghana and are females have low probability of becoming anaemic than their counterparts who are disadvantaged and live in malaria prone environment. Keywords: Haemoglobin, Prevalence rate, Anaemia, Malaria, Socio-Economi

Economic Factors That Influence Mortality Rate: An Evidence From Ghana

The purpose of this paper is to analyze how economic growth influence mortality rate in Ghana from the year 2000 to 2016 based on a dynamic model augmented with life expectancy, employment and economic growth. Results show that life expectancy is the critical most important factor in changing the level of mortality rate negative. Economic growth (GDP) and employment have plausible negative signs to mortality rates. However, they will significantly have influence in the case of discrete growth policy implementation and thus demonstrating the importance of living standards to mortality. Also, Granger causality tests show a significant relationship from employment and economic growth and reflects their importance in changing the observed levels of mortality. Keywords: Life Expectancy, Mortality rate, Employment, Unemployment, Medicare, Economic Growth, Granger causality. DOI: 10.7176/JESD/11-4-05 Publication date: February 29th 202

A survey of recent contributions of high performance NoC architectures

The Network-on-Chip (NoC) paradigm has been herald as the solution to the communication limitation that System-On-Chip (SoC) poses. However, power consumption is one of its major defects. To ensure that a high performance architecture is constructed, analyzing how power can be reduced in each area of the network is essential. Power dissipation can be reduced by adjustments to the routers, the architecture itself and the communication links. In this paper, a survey is conducted on recent contributions and techniques employed by researchers towards the reduction of power in the router architecture, network architecture and communication links

The Effect of Household Characteristics on Child Mortality in Ghana

The objective of this study was to establish the relationship between household characteristics and mortality among children under the ages of five in Ghana. Ghana’s under-five mortality rate stands at 82 deaths per 1000 live births and infant mortality rate of about 53 deaths per 1000 which is far above the world’s average in 2006 of 52 deaths per 1000 live births (GSS, MICS 2011). Again, according to (IGME 2012 report) in the 2011 under-five mortality league, Ghana is ranked 34 among 195 countries with child mortality rate of 78 per 1000. (Number 1 being the highest and 195 being the lowest in terms of child mortality). In order to address this problem, the authors used survey data on 4169 women respondents drawn from the 10 administrative regions of Ghana. Brass-type indirect techniques for mortality estimation were employed to establish the mortality rates. In addition, logistic regression analysis examined factors related with child mortality. Of the 1411 women who gave birth during the survey period about (295) 20.9% had given birth who later died. Findings show wide mortality differentials by Mothers’ age, mothers’ educational levels, place of residence, and household size. Breastfeeding, children ever born, material used for floor of the dwellings and region of residence were the four major variables highly associated with child mortality. The study concludes that household structure, source of drinking water and toilet facilities used were not related to child mortality. There is need for adult literacy, secondary and above education for women and sensitization about the effects of large households, exclusive breastfeeding and children ever born. Such studies provide insight into understanding the relationship between various household characteristics and child health outcomes. Keywords: Household, Characteristics, Child, Mortality, Ghan

Performance Implications of Supply Chain Management Practices among Manufacturing Firms in Ghana

The purpose of this study was to assess the causal relationship between five dimensions of supply chain management (strategic supplier relationship, quality of information sharing, level of information sharing, customer service relationship and postponement) and the performance of manufacturing firms in the Kumasi metropolis of Ghana. Data was collected using questionnaires responded to by 87 manufacturing firms in Kumasi. The relationships were modelled into a framework and hypothesised. A 7-point Likert Scale was used to measure the constructs. Pearson’s Correlations and Ordinary Least Square (OLS) Regression analyses were conducted to test the hypothesis. The findings revealed that SSR and Post did not have any positive influence on OP. However, the result suggested that CR, IS, and IQ positively influence OP of manufacturing firms in Kumasi. The results also found only two hypotheses (H2 and H3) were supported, with the remaining three not supported. The finding that strategic supplier relationships have no positive effect on OP is suggestive that managers should invest significant resources to build a strong relationship with their suppliers. Connected to this path is to ensure that the quality of information shared with their trading partners is equally improved to enhance collaboration. While postponement has its attendant benefits for the organisation, it is also apparent from the study that managers must determine optimal postponement by examining the associated costs within various supply chain configurations according to the market needs. This study has provided evidence to show the impact of supply chain management practices on the performance of firms in an emerging manufacturing industry. This study may be one of the key supply chain related research projects conducted on the manufacturing industry in the Kumasi metropolis. The outcomes of this research have far-reaching implications for manufacturing companies in other regions of the country in an era where Ghana is attempting to use industrialisation as a major driver for economic development. Keywords: Supply Chain Management Practices, Supply Chain, Organizational Performance, Manufacturing Firm, Firm Performance DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/14-18-06 Publication date:September 30th 202

A survey of system level power management schemes in the dark-silicon era for many-core architectures

Power consumption in Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) technology has escalated to a point that only a fractional part of many-core chips can be powered-on at a time. Fortunately, this fraction can be increased at the expense of performance through the dark-silicon solution. However, with many-core integration set to be heading towards its thousands, power consumption and temperature increases per time, meaning the number of active nodes must be reduced drastically. Therefore, optimized techniques are demanded for continuous advancement in technology. Existing efforts try to overcome this challenge by activating nodes from different parts of the chip at the expense of communication latency. Other efforts on the other hand employ run-time power management techniques to manage the power performance of the cores trading-off performance for power. We found out that, for a significant amount of power to saved and high temperature to be avoided, focus should be on reducing the power consumption of all the on-chip components. Especially, the memory hierarchy and the interconnect. Power consumption can be minimized by, reducing the size of high leakage power dissipating elements, turning-off idle resources and integrating power saving materials

Low Birth Weight and Associated Maternal Factors in Ghana

This study examines the prevalence of low birth weight (LBW) among infants and its association with maternal factors in Ghana. The study used a data set based on alongitudinal study from the fourth round Multiple Indicators Cluster Survey (MICS). This was a national  survey conducted by Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) in 2011 to monitor the progress of women and children. A sample of 10,963 women within the reproductive age (15 - 49 years) across the country between 2009 and 2011 were selected for the survey. In this study, a multiple logistic regression was used to determine the relationship of maternal factors and low birth weight. The estimated LBW prevalence was 9.2% which is higher than other part of the world. Few children are weighed at birth as less than 50% of babies born in Ghana are weighed at birth.This means that the prevalence rate could be higher than the current estimate. This stands to reason that the rate still indicates a public health problem (ACC/SCN, 2000). The factors observed to be  highly significantly associated with LBW included Antenatal Care (p-value =0.0010), Educational level (p-value =0.0011), Location (p-value =0.0011) and Economic status (p-value=<0.0001) as well as Central region (p-value= 0.0003). There is also risk for maternal age less than 24 and above 35 years (p-value=1.3409E-19 and 3.8257E-21 respectively), mothers who had given birth to more than four children (p-value=1.4519E-33) and women in Northen region (p-value= 0.0535 ). All other variables considered such as malaria in pregnancy, ethnicity, and marital status were not very significant (p-values > 0.05). In a nutshell, economic status, educational level, antenatal care and location are highly significantly risk factors associated with LBW in Ghana. Early/late maternal age and parity of more than four also showed some level of significance with LBW. Malaria in pregnancy, ethnicity, and marital status among others were however not significant. Keywords: Low birth weight, maternal factors, prevalence rate, risk factor