Cross examinations of maritime trade disruptions in Africa during COVID-19 pandemic

This study examined the influence of the disruption of COVID-19 on maritime shipping activities in Africa. Particular attention was paid to the variations in the performance of selected African countries in container ship calls, container throughput, and liner shipping connectivity between 2019 and 2020. Eighteen (18) African countries were selected from all the geographical regions of the continent based on data availability. Secondary data was drawn from records of maritime trade in the publications of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) (2019, 2020, and 2021) as well as World Bank Development Indicators for the selected countries. Explorative data analysis was used to organize and present the data. Results showed that the North African region alone recorded an improved percentage of container ship calls in 2020 than in 2019. Results by individual countries showed that Ghana recorded the highest positive increase in ship calls in 2020 from her record in 2019. In addition, Morocco, recorded the highest container throughput in 2020 than the record in 2019 while all the countries exhibited a winding record of liner connectivity between the last quarter of 2019 through the last quarter of 2020. The study concluded that the disruption of maritime activity by the COVID-19 pandemic had a mixed impact on African countries’ performance. However, Africa has the potential to be more resilient to unforeseen shocks and become competitive if it is more integrated into the global supply chain and deploys modern and efficient technology and innovation to the shipping business more than it ever did

Essays on International Trade: Demand Volatility, Exporting and the Adoption of Innovations.

This dissertation comprises three essays on two themes in international trade - volatility and innovation. I explore how volatility influences exporters' choices of foreign destinations, how innovation is spurred by export participation and foreign investment, and how countries adopt a policy innovation - a treaty that facilitates the creation of enforceable international trade contracts. In the first chapter, I develop a simple model of trade with heterogeneous firms facing stochastic demand. As those firms incur adjustment costs in response to market fluctuations, the model predicts that fewer firms will enter destinations with high demand volatility - those destinations are less profitable. I test the prediction using data on the universe of Chinese exports at the firm level. The data show that fewer exporters serve destinations with high demand volatility. The second chapter of the dissertation compares the effects of foreign direct investment and exporting on product innovation. Governments in many developing economies try to stimulate innovation and private-sector growth with policies that promote exports or attract foreign investment. Using a rich firm level database of Chinese manufacturing and industrial enterprises, I show that exporting is a stronger predictor of product innovation than foreign investment. Firms that receive foreign investment tend to engage in more product innovation, but not at the same level as the firms that learn by exporting. The third dissertation chapter discusses the adoption of innovations. The policy innovation I consider is a trade treaty that allows private parties to create enforceable international trade contracts, even in the absence of a common legal jurisdiction. Private international arbitration between importers and exporters are enforced by the national courts of signatories to the 1958 New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (NYC). This treaty makes private international arbitration a viable legal alternative to trading on reputation or self-enforcement. Surprisingly, many countries waited decades to join the NYC despite the obvious benefits. I show in this chapter that peer effects contribute to countries' adoption of the treaty. Countries with regional trade agreement partners that are NYC members have a higher hazard of participating in the treaty.PhDBusiness AdministrationUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/113636/1/molabisi_1.pd

EFFECTS OF INTEGRATED FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM ON PERFORMANCE OF PUBLIC SECTOR IN NIGERIA

The purpose of this study is to analyse the effectiveness of Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS) on performance of public sector in Nigeria. Public finance management has come under immense scrutiny by donor community as well as general public in a call for enhanced accountability of the government expenditures for an improved public service delivery. To analyse the effectiveness of identified factors on the use of the system, descriptive and inferential statistics were used. The sample size was drawn from the sections of finance department that includes, budgeting, procurement and internal audits, and at public works department where the financial systems are applied. The study revealed that there was a positive relationship between the effectiveness of IFMIS on public financial management and the independent variables; financial reporting, budgeting, internal controls and projects as was revealed in the regression analysis. The study concluded that there was a relationship between IFMIS in public finance and financial reporting, budgeting, internal control and government projects as 72.4% of the effectiveness of IFMIS was accounted for by the study independent variables. The relationship gave 95% confidence level of effectiveness. The study recommended that the IFMIS be enhanced and improved at system development level so that it gives real figure and factor in more functions of operation linked to financial service for better service delivery

Acute and chronic effects of Δ⁹-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) on cerebral blood flow:A systematic review

Acute and chronic exposure to cannabis and its main psychoactive component, Δ 9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), is associated with changes in brain function and cerebral blood flow (CBF). We therefore sought to systematically review the literature on the effects of THC on CBF following PRISMA guidelines. Studies assessing the acute and chronic effects of THC on CBF, perfusion and volume were searched in the PubMed database between January 1972 and June 2019. We included thirty-four studies, which altogether investigated 1259 humans and 28 animals. Acute and chronic THC exposure have contrasting and regionally specific effects on CBF. While acute THC causes an overall increase in CBF in the anterior cingulate cortex, frontal cortex and insula, in a dose-dependent manner, chronic cannabis use results in an overall reduction in CBF, especially in the prefrontal cortex, which may be reversed upon prolonged abstinence from the drug. Future studies should focus on standardised methodology and longitudinal assessment to strengthen our understanding of the region-specific effects of THC on CBF and its clinical and functional significance. </p

Clinical Coding and Indexing as Indispensable Tool In Health Care, Teaching and Research: A Case Study of Obafemi Awolowo Teaching Hospital Complex (OAUTHC) Ile-Ife, Osun State

Clinical coding and indexing is the process by which medical procedure and diagnoses are represented and displayed by universal code number. It is a system that plays a key role in modern healthcare and also allow statistical analyses of diseases and treatment, diagnoses related group, reimbursement, easier observance and tracking of epidemic and production events. The study therefore aimed at examining coding and indexing as indispensable tool in healthcare, teaching and research; a case study of OAUTHC Ile-Ife, Osun State. The target population was 152 health records officer in OAUTHC, Ile-Ife. A cross-sectional research method was adopted. Data was collected using questionnaire as the instrument for the study. A systematic random sampling technique was employed in selecting 80 participants, 80 questionnaires were distributed and 70 were retrieved. This formed a response rate of 87.5%. Statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 20 was used for the analysis in order to avoid errors due to manual calculations. Findings reveals that more than 90% of the respondents agreed that coding and indexing is an indispensable tool to health care, teaching and research as it provides standard and quality healthcare services to the patients, policy creation, clinical audit and finance. The study also revealed that coding patching is highly susceptible to human error with clinician-based errors ranging from incorrectly defining a clinical entity to underreporting co-morbidities. It is therefore recommended that clinicians and HROs must work collaboratively to improve the quality of healthcare data flow with frequent review of clinical documentation and coding report to ensure accurate and reliable healthcare data for resource allocation, health planning which enhance patient treatment, teaching and research

Wrong Patient, Wrong Drug: An Unfortunate Confluence of Events

Older adults, aged 65 years or older, represent 14.9% of U.S. population, and are projected to increase to 22% by 2050. It is estimated that almost half of hospitalized patients are older adults and is expected to increase as the population ages. Hospitalized older adults are most vulnerable to adverse events because of aging‐related conditions, physiological changes, and multiple comorbidities as well as fragmented care. The primary goal of health care providers is to improve patient safety and decrease adverse events. This chapter will use a complex clinical scenario with numerous potential overlapping risks to address the many active and latent factors that lead to patient safety‐related adverse events. Factors involved, as well as preventive strategies, will be discussed in detail

Team dynamics in virtual, partially distributed teams:optimal role fulfillment

In this study, we explored team roles in virtual, partially distributed teams, or vPDTs (teams with at least one co-located subgroup and at least two subgroups that are geographically dispersed but that collaborate virtually). Past research on virtual teams emphasizes the importance of team dynamics. We argue that the following three roles are particularly important for high functioning virtual teams: Project Coordinator, Implementer and Completer-Finisher. We hypothesized that the highest performing vPDTs will have 1) a single Project Coordinator for each subgroup, 2) multiple Implementers within the team, and 3) fewer Completer-Finishers within the team. A sample of 28 vPDTs with members working on two different continents provides support for the second and third hypothesized relationships, but not the first

Mycobacterium bovis Strains Causing Smear-Positive Human Tuberculosis, Southwest Ireland

Mycobacterium bovis caused 3% of human tuberculosis cases in southwest Ireland during 1998–2006. Of 11 M. bovis strains genotyped, 9 belonged to common animal spoligotypes. Seven strains were from sputum and potential sources of human-centered disease transmission. Ten-locus variable-number tandem repeat typing gave unique strain profiles and would detect disease outbreaks

Try, try again: Lessons learned from success and failure in participatory modeling

Participatory Modeling (PM) is becoming increasingly common in environmental planning and conservation, due in part to advances in cyberinfrastructure as well as to greater recognition of the importance of engaging a diverse array of stakeholders in decision making. We provide lessons learned, based on over 200 years of the authors' cumulative and diverse experience, about PM processes. These include successful and, perhaps more importantly, not-so-successful trials. Our collective interdisciplinary background has supported the development, testing, and evaluation of a rich range of collaborative modeling approaches. We share here what we have learned as a community of participatory modelers, within three categories of reflection: a) lessons learned about participatory modelers; b) lessons learned about the context of collaboration; and c) lessons learned about the PM process. First, successful PM teams encompass a variety of skills beyond modeling expertise. Skills include: effective relationship-building, openness to learn from local experts, awareness of personal motivations and biases, and ability to translate discussions into models and to assess success. Second, the context for collaboration necessitates a culturally appropriate process for knowledge generation and use, for involvement of community co-leads, and for understanding group power dynamics that might influence how people from different backgrounds interact. Finally, knowing when to use PM and when not to, managing expectations, and effectively and equitably addressing conflicts is essential. Managing the participation process in PM is as important as managing the model building process. We recommend that PM teams consider what skills are present within a team, while ensuring inclusive creative space for collaborative exploration and learning supported by simple yet relevant models. With a realistic view of what it entails, PM can be a powerful approach that builds collective knowledge and social capital, thus helping communities to take charge of their future and address complex social and environmental problems

The Role of Bacterial Plasmids in the Biodegradation of Low-Density Polyethylene in Mitigating Climate Change

Polyethene causes pollution and global warming not only because of the increase in the problem of waste disposal and landfilling but also because it releases carbon(iv)oxide and dioxins due to burning, which hurts the climate. Recent studies have shown that biodegradation using plasmid prosessing bacteria (PPB) could help prevent environmental damage from pollution and reduce carbon footprint and greenhouse gas emissions from polyethene usage. This study assayed the low-density polyethylene degrading potential of PPB assayed from polyethylene-polluted sites. Soil samples and waste sachet water bags, popularly called 'pure water', were collected from a polyethene dumpsite near Ekiti State University. These samples were analysed for bacterial loads and polyethene degrading PPB using nutrient agar and mineral salt medium, respectively.The biodegradation of low-density polyethene using sachet water films was observed spectrophotometrically using the broth culture of the bacterial isolates for 30 days on a mineral salt medium. The bacteria were identified based on molecular characterisation using 16S RNA sequencing. Six bacterial isolates identified from polyethene polluted sites include: Lysinibacillus xylanilyticus strain BN-13 (S6), Rhodopseudomonas palustris strain KRPR02 (W5), Pseudomonasaeruginosa strain JAY (N2), Stenotrophomonas maltophilia strain T7D7, Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain SMVIT-1 (S1) and Achromobacter xylosoxidans YEB (W11), and four isolates were observed to have the presence of plasmid after analysis.The four isolates were used to degrade the PE films, which peaked at degradation on the 21 days, followed by a gradual declination on the 28 days. L. xylanilyticus strain BN-13(S6) exhibited the highest degradation of 0.898 nm, and A. xylosoxidans strain YEB (W11) exhibited a minor degradation of 0.788 nm. The result revealed that PPBs are competent biodegrades of polyethene wastes and can be used as a better approach to restoring polyethene and mitigating climate change