Raising Consciousness: Challenging Diversity in Christian Publishing

The Christian publishing industry has overlooked the importance of diversity, particularly its impact on black American audiences. While studies show that diversity and inclusion can lead to more innovation through problem-solving, there persists a paradox where a lack of opportunities, disparities in wealth and employment and systemic prejudices can play a role in the ethnic and racial homogeneity of the Christian publishing industry. Thus, there are many barriers preventing people of color from emerging to the market, reflecting in the storytelling, content creation and audience of African-descent followers

Intrarectal quinine for treating Plasmodium falciparum malaria: a systematic review

BACKGROUND: In children with malaria caused by Plasmodium falciparum, quinine administered rectally may be easier to use and less painful than intramuscular or intravenous administration. The objective of this review was to compare the effectiveness of intrarectal with intravenous or intramuscular quinine for treating falciparum malaria. METHODS: All randomized and quasi-randomized controlled trials comparing intrarectal with intramuscular or intravenous quinine for treating people with falciparum malaria located through the following sources were included: Cochrane Infectious Diseases Group Specialized Register, CENTRAL, MEDLINE, EMBASE, LILACS and CINAHL. Trial quality was assessed and data, including adverse event data, were extracted. Dichotomous data were analysed using odds ratios and continuous data using weighted mean difference. RESULTS: Eight randomized controlled trials (1,247 children) fulfilled the inclusion criteria. The same principal investigator led seven of the trials. Five compared intrarectal with intravenous quinine, and six compared intrarectal with intramuscular treatment. No statistically significant difference was detected for death, parasite clearance by 48 hours and seven days, parasite and fever clearance time, coma recovery time, duration of hospitalization and time before drinking began. One trial (898 children) reported that intrarectal was less painful than intramuscular administration. CONCLUSION: No difference in the effect on parasites and clinical illness was detected for the use of intrarectal quinine compared with other routes, but most trials were small. Pain during application may be less with intrarectal quinine. Further larger trials, in patients with severe malaria and in adults, are required before the intrarectal route could be recommended

Challenges in Information System Procurement in Higher Educational Institutions in Ghana

Information System/Information Technology (henceforth IS/IT) has become the cornerstone for the success of the modern business. The education sector continues to acquire information system/technology tools with some pecuniary interest as competition for the best students intensifies. Globalization accompanied by economic integration is also pushing competition among tertiary institutions to a new frontier driven by the deployment of ICT in both operational and management processes. The deployments have introducedadditional challenges to these institutions. The ultimate among such challenges is their procurement. In this paper we present challenges of IS/IT procurement in higher educational institutes in Ghana, using Takoradi Polytechnic (a public sector institution) as a case study. The main objective is to understand the processes in the acquisition of IS/IT products and to access the effectiveness of such processes in the procurement delivery. It employs questionnaire and interviews as its principal tool of data collection. The sources of data are both primary and secondary. A thorough analysis of our data revealed among others the following findings; software procurement does not go through the rudiments of strict procurement practices, inadequate funding, poor contractual provision for and ill-enforced service level agreement. Based on the findings we recommend close collaboration between the various stakeholders in the procurement process, technical training onIT procurement risks, contractual management capabilities and current best practices regarding the procurement of IS/IT products and services. We also suggest that Software acquisition should be formalized and given greater attention with proper financial allocation in annual infrastructure budget. Keywords: deployment, Software procurement, Contractual provisions, IS/IT products, procurement practices

Level of Penetration and Challenges Facing Adoption of I.C.T. In Ghanaian Hospitals

The purpose of this study was to find the level of penetration and challenges facing adoption of ICT in the operations of Ghanaian hospitals. Four hospitals in the Western Region of Ghana were selected namely; Esikado Hospital, Takoradi Hospital, Nagel Memorial S.D.A. Hospital (Takoradi), and Axim Government Hospital. The questionnaires were administered to staff of these Hospitals. At least 25 questionnaires were administered to each hospital whiles two or more questionnaires were administered to each Unit of the hospitals. At the end of the study it was found that the level of ICT penetration in the healthcare delivery in Ghanaian hospitals is low and the main challenges facing the adoption of ICT tools in the operations of the hospitals are inadequate ICT tools and frequent breakdown of the few tools available. Keywords: Information and Communications Technology (ICT), Telemedicine, Ultrasonography, e-health, Out Patient Department (OPD)

An Analysis of the Readiness of Voters in the Western Region of Ghana for Electronic Voting

The study was conducted to find out how ready voters in the Western region are for electronic voting. It focused on electorates’ perspective and also assessed the infrastructural readiness of the Electoral Commission (EC) for e-voting. The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) was used as the base theory for the study. Using the survey’s research design, questionnaires were administered to 400 electorates in Sekondi – Takoradi and 352 of the electorates responded. An interview was also held with the staff of the Electoral Commission (EC) in the Sekondi-Takoradi constituency to ascertain EC’s infrastructural preparedness for e-voting. The study revealed that the majority (70.5%) of the electorates were aware of e-voting through one medium or the other but only a few (10.2%) of the electorates had ever used e-voting in an election. The majority (67.3%) of the electorates perceived the usefulness variables as important characteristics of e-voting that can help mitigate the electoral irregularities in the current electoral process. The majority (72.3%) of the electorates had very high confidence in e-voting. However the response from the interviewee suggested that EC is not in the least prepared for the introduction of e-voting. Perhaps the year “2016 and beyond”. Based on the findings, the study concludes that it is feasible to implement e-voting in Ghana but for the lack of infrastructure. Keywords: Electronic (e-voting), Electoral Commission (EC), Direct Recording Electronic (DRE), Personal Digital Assistants (PDA’s), Election Management Bodies (EMBs

One-domain-one-input: adaptive random testing by orthogonal recursive bisection with restriction

One goal of software testing may be the identification or generation of a series of test cases that can detect a fault with as few test executions as possible. Motivated by insights from research into failure-causing regions of input domains, the even-spreading (even distribution) of tests across the input domain has been identified as a useful heuristic to more quickly find failures. This finding has encouraged a shift in focus from traditional random testing (RT) to its enhancement, adaptive random testing (ART), which retains the randomness of test input selection, but also attempts to maintain a more evenly distributed spread of test inputs across the input domain. Given that there are different ways to achieve the even distribution, several different ART methods and approaches have been proposed. This paper presents a new ART method, called ART-ORB, which explores the advantages of repeated geometric bisection of the input domain, combined with restriction regions, to evenly spread test inputs. Experimental results show a better performance in terms of fewer test executions than RT to find failures. Compared with other ART methods, ART-ORB has comparable performance (in terms of required test executions), but incurs lower test input selection overheads, especially in higher dimensional input space. It is recommended that ART-ORB be used in testing situations involving expensive test input execution

R13. Formulation development of loratadine immediate-release tablets using hot-melt extrusion coupled with 3d-printing technology

Corresponding author (Pharmaceutics and Drug delivery): Sundus Hussain Omari, [email protected]://egrove.olemiss.edu/pharm_annual_posters/1012/thumbnail.jp

Electrospray Deposition of Polyvinylidene Fluoride (PVDF) Microparticles: Impact of Solvents and Flow Rate

Polymeric microparticles have been shown to have great impacts in the area of drug delivery, biosensing, and tissue engineering. Electrospray technology, which provides a simple yet effective technique in the creation of microparticles, was utilized in this work. In addition, altering the electrospray experimental parameters such as applied voltage, flow rate, collector distance, solvents, and the polymer-solvent mixtures can result in differences in the size and morphology of the produced microparticles. The effects of the flow rate at (0.15, 0.3, 0.45, 0.6, 0.8, and 1 mL/h) and N, N-Dimethylformamide (DMF)/acetone solvent ratios (20:80, 40:60, 60:40, 80:20, 100:0 v/v) in the production of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) microparticles were studied. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to observe changes in the morphology of the microparticles, and this revealed that a higher acetone to DMF ratio produces deformed particles, while flow rates at (0.3 and 0.45 mL/h) and a more optimized DMF to acetone solvent ratio (60:40 v/v) produced uniform spherical particles. We discovered from the Raman spectroscopy results that the electrosprayed PVDF microparticles had an increase in piezoelectric β phase compared to the PVDF pellet used in making the microparticles, which in its original form is α phase dominant and non-piezoelectric

Employing Hot-Melt Extrusion Technology to Enhance the Solubility of Cannabidiol (CBD)

Corresponding author (Pharmaceutics and Drug Delivery): Iman Taha, [email protected]://egrove.olemiss.edu/pharm_annual_posters_2022/1020/thumbnail.jp