EFFECTS OF TEXT MESSAGING ON THE ACADEMIC WRITING OF PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS OF A GHANAIAN COLLEGE OF EDUCATION

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of text messaging on the academic writing of first-year pre-service teachers of Offinso College of Education. Empirical studies on the use of text messages in specific cultures were reviewed in order to demonstrate how the present study is both similar to and different from previous research. Descriptive survey research design was employed by the researchers to conduct this study. The student population for the study was 350. Quota sampling and simple random sampling techniques aided the researchers to select 50 pre-service teachers for the study. The instruments used were questionnaires, interviews and essay-type tests. The study revealed that the vocabulary items students used in their SMS texting contained numbers, reduction, clipping and shortening, and that the use of these vocabulary items had a negative effect because these items found their way into the academic writing of students. The researchers recommend that college tutors should sensitize the pre-service teachers on the need to avoid SMS language in their academic writings to help them overcome the menace. To curtail everything, they should text using Standard English to avoid being addicted to texting language.  Article visualizations

Understanding of Entrepreneurship in the Emergency of High Technology Firms: the Impact of the Longitudinal Case Study within a Construction Industry Context.

Entrepreneurs create companies, employment and are often in the vanguard and view technology developments and applications- they are the Schumpeterian agents of ‘creative destructive’. This is widely recognized reality which underpins national and regional policies to create the conditions necessary to encourage and sustain entrepreneurial start-up companies. It is therefore surprising there is a dearth of research in to entrepreneurship within a construction industry context-given the high company formation rate in most within a construction sectors. This deficiency is further accentuated by the lack of understanding of entrepreneurship in high technology domains in an era when we seek new technologies to improve the environmental and whole lifecycle performance of buildings. This paper reportson an ongoing Construction Knowledge Exchange funded project which is tracking time, real time, the start- up and growth of a company which developing and introducing a range of leading edge light emitting diode technologies. Interim results will be presented on the interplay between business environment conditions and the complex emergence of the company: from the original motivation of the founders of the firm, to its growth strategy and organizational design and its business development and marketing strategy. Key words: entrepreneurship, high technology, light emitting diode, Context,Industr

Prevalence of postpartum depression in Ghana: a systematic review study

Postpartum depression affects many women and remains the fourth-leading cause of disability and premature death. This study reviewed Ghanaian mothers’ postpartum depression studies. This systematic study examined PubMed, Scopus, Up-to-date, Science Direct, Google Scholar, and Proquest to estimate postpartum depression prevalence. Between 2009 and 2022, published papers on the prevalence of postpartum depression in English were analyzed. Postpartum depression, risk variables, and prevalence were all included in the search approach. An examination of the literature revealed that a trend in the prevalence of PPD has been identified. According to the research, Community-based research in Northern Ghana found prevalence rates between 16.8 and 33.5 percent, whereas estimates from the rest of the nation were between 3.8 and 11.3 percent. The findings from this study might also be utilized to guide future investigations and the design of preventive measures

Implementing Hebert’s Multimodal Approach to Improve Hand Hygiene Quality: A Position Statement

The health care field is ever growing and changing at rapid speeds. One consistent and important issue in the field circles around infection prevention and control. The paper seeks to highlight issues and trends pertaining to hand hygiene quality improvement. Hand hygiene is key in ensuring the safety and health of both personnel and clients. In addition, it is a key in health promotion and cost saving. The paper advocates for Hebert’s Multimodal Approach to improve hand hygiene. This approach will promote good patient care outcomes and quality of work life of health care personnel

Assessing the impact of artisanal gold mining on the environmental sustainability of groundwater resource for water security in southwestern Ghana

The increase in illegal gold mining (galamsey) activities that harm the environment by polluting water sources necessitates the need to take meaningful steps towards protecting the environment.The Jacobu water system in the Amansie Central district was selected as a case study. The purpose of the work is to assess the environmental sustainability of groundwater resource and whether surface water pollution has seeped into the water table to pollute groundwater resource. Methodologically, the study employed groundwater sustainability assessment framework, involving both linear and non-linear sustainability index functions, as well as analytical hierarchy process (AHP). Four groundwater sustainability aspects of quantity, quality, ecosystem and management were assessed. Also, thirteen groundwater sustainability indicators were created for the study. Using the linear sustainability index function, the environmental sustainability index was 0.845, which indicates an excellent level. For the assessment to properly reflect the reality in the study area, the combined linear and non-linear sustainability index function revealed a good level, 0.765, showing an environmentally good overview of Jacobu groundwater resource. This, therefore, suggests the need to ensure continuous protection of groundwater resource. Generally, the study area has not yet experience hydromorphic dispersion of polluted surface water into groundwater resources. For a sustainable groundwater in the future, strict control measures by enforcing environmental laws and regulations to prevent possible pollution of groundwater resource due to ‘‘galamsey’’ activities is critical to protect the invisible resource. This can be done through community engagement, and innovative approaches to monitoring and controlling illegal mining activities. This is to help sustain future generation's security of the ‘invisible’ groundwater resource in Ghana and contributes to Goal 6 (Ensuring Access to Clean Water and Sanitation) of the Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations

Artificial intelligence for cybersecurity: a systematic mapping of literature

Due to the ever-increasing complexities in cybercrimes, there is the need for cybersecurity methods to be more robust and intelligent. This will make defense mechanisms to be capable of making real-time decisions that can effectively respond to sophisticated attacks. To support this, both researchers and practitioners need to be familiar with current methods of ensuring cybersecurity (CyberSec). In particular, the use of artificial intelligence for combating cybercrimes. However, there is lack of summaries on artificial intelligent methods for combating cybercrimes. To address this knowledge gap, this study sampled 131 articles from two main scholarly databases (ACMdigital library and IEEE Xplore). Using a systematic mapping, the articles were analyzed using quantitative and qualitative methods. It was observed that artificial intelligent methods have made remarkable contributions to combating cybercrimes with significant improvement in intrusion detection systems. It was also observed that there is a reduction in computational complexity, model training times and false alarms. However, there is a significant skewness within the domain. Most studies have focused on intrusion detection and prevention systems, and the most dominant technique used was support vector machines. The �findings also revealed that majority of the studies were published in two journal outlets. It is therefore suggested that to enhance research in artificial intelligence for CyberSec, researchers need to adopt newer techniques and also publish in other related outlets

Towards Financial Sustainability: Beneficiaries’ Perception and Performance of Community Water Supply Services in Ghana

Revenue mobilization is critical for community-managed water systems to overcome financial constraints and to achieve financial sustainability. Using data from beneficiaries of a community managed water supply system in Ghana, we employed descriptive statistics, chi-square, perception index and document review of the system’s financial reports to assess beneficiaries’ views and perception on revenue mobilization for operations and maintenance, system expansion as well as sustainability of the project. The results showed that revenue mobilization for sustainability of operations and maintenance is significantly influenced by water connection type and religion while marital status, age and income of beneficiaries determine sustainability of the project’s expansion. The findings further revealed a significant relationship between sustainability of replacement of the project’s accessories and water connection type as well as gender, marital status, age and income of beneficiaries. The average perception index of 3.2 showed that beneficiaries perceived revenue mobilization as very good for replacing the water system’s accessories. Revenue mobilization is able to support the water system’s expansion to help meet the increasing water demands. In addition, with an average perception index of 3.6, the beneficiaries’ perception was that revenue was enough to fund operations and maintenance. Furthermore, the document review of the system’s financial reports confirmed beneficiaries’ perception of sufficiency of revenue for operations and maintenance. Finally, we found weaknesses in revenue mobilization with over 40% of bills in arrears, mostly from private users. To build resilience to the financial crisis with enhanced innovations, the study recommends the institution of effective debt recovery strategies such as the provision of pre-paid metering for private users, adoption of a public standpipe pay-as-you-fetch system as well as the introduction of smart tap technology for public standpipes in community-managed water supply systems

Towards sustainable food crop production: Drivers of shift from crop production to mining activities in Ghana's Arable Lands

This study contributes to the observed reduction of arable lands discourse by examining the shift in land use patterns as well as factors influencing farmers' shift from crop production to mining activities. To achieve this, we employed a combination of Geographic Information System (GIS) technology and Cragg's Double Hurdle Econometric Model as analytical tools. Our approach integrates an econometric model of land use with GIS simulations that predict the spatial pattern of land-use change. The results revealed that crop production lands have been converted into artisanal small-scale mining (galamsey) sites, a development which has implications on food security, life on land and effective utilizations of land and water resources. The results also showed that membership in Farmer-Based Organizations (FBOs), access to credit, and low yield of food crops influenced farmers to shift from crop production to participate in mining activities. In addition, the extent of participation in mining was influenced by family size, membership in FBOs, and low crop yield. While mining operations offer substantial economic benefits, it is crucial to strike a balance between land use for mining activities and food crop production. This is because it has the potential to worsen recent hikes in food prices and subsequently leading to rising inflation rates in Ghana. Our findings have implications on achieving multiple SDGs, viz. SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation) and SDG 15 (Life on Land) as minimizing illegal mining helps increase food production as well as protect water bodies and land. We therefore suggest that government should take steps to make credit accessible to farmers by collaborating with financial institutions and also collaborate with Crops Research Institutes to develop high-yielding crop varieties. Future research could focus on exploring the impact of participating in mining activities on the profitability of food crop production in Ghana

The impact of artisanal gold mining on the sustainability of Ghana's river basins: The case of the Pra basin

The study examined the critical factors influencing the sustainability of the Pra river basin in Ghana, with a focus on water pollution incidents caused by illegal mining (galamsey) activities. The study followed a quantitative research approach using data collected from 156 respondents in the Amansie Central district of Ghana. Generally, Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats (SWOT), Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) as a multi-criteria technique in two stages of discrete and continuous sustainability analysis and descriptive statistics were the methods of analysis. The study revealed that licensing procedures that do not address environmental impacts, government ban on illegal mining (galamsey) activities as well as poor capacity and financial constraints greatly influence the sustainability of the Pra river basin. Also, self-cleansing capacity of the river basin as well as protection of the ecological status of water in the basin were respondents’ lowest priority. The results revealed that all criteria are currently within a sustainable range with a maximum score indicating a weak sustainability level of the basin due to the pollution incidents. Building on this empirical understanding calls for defensive strategies to be employed. The study therefore recommends amongst other things that revisiting the ban on illegal mining (galamsey) activities, and at this time, within the buffer zones of the basin area is critical for implementation. This, however, calls for a strong collaboration between government, civil society organizations and local communities towards addressing the environmental, economic and human aspects of water security, sustainability and management for the basin