Excess co-movement in asset prices: The case of South Africa

The paper investigates excess co-movement in asset prices in South Africa between 1995 and 2005 using the definition of excess comovement as correlation between two asset prices beyond what could be explained by key economic fundamentals. The results of the study suggest that there is excess co-movement between returns on equities and bonds in South Africa. The findings suggest that there are considerable noise traders on the financial market in South Africa. The result of this behaviour would be the tendency for the equity and bond prices to move together more than would be predicted by their shared fundamentals. These results are consistent with the possibility that a fad or crowd psychology plays a role in the volatility on the market for the two asset classes.Excess co-movement; Asset prices; equity market; bond market; South Africa

Nurse Practitioners\u27 Attitudes Toward Nonpharmacological Interventions for Individuals Diagnosed with Clinical Depression

Depression negatively impacts the American economy, and there is a shortage of physicians to provide treatment. Nurse practitioners are viable alternatives to provide high-quality treatment of depression. The project\u27s purpose was to describe nurse practitioners\u27 attitudes toward nonpharmacological interventions to treat clinical depression. Attitude theory provided the theoretical framework. The American Psychiatric Association\u27s guidelines for treating major depression provided the conceptual framework. The project used a quantitative nonexperimental descriptive survey research design. A purposeful sample of 63 nurse practitioners was obtained from members of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners. Data were collected through an online survey that included questions about participant demographics, attitudes about depression treatment modalities, and experience with individual and group psychotherapy in the treatment of depression. Frequencies and percentages were calculated for demographic information and information related to the use of individual and group therapy. Means and standard deviations were calculated for each of the Likert scale items. The findings showed that participants had more knowledge about medications used to treat depression and individual therapy than they did about group therapy. Findings showed that the participants believed that medication combined with individual therapy was the most effective treatment for individuals diagnosed with depression. Barriers to using group therapy were identified. These findings provided information to nurse practitioners about preferred treatment modalities for depression and the barriers to using group therapy to treat depression

Availability, Affordability, and Pricing of Anti-cancer Medicines in Selected Low and Middle-Income Countries in Africa

Introduction: Cancer is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in Low-and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs). Health outcomes may improve with early detection and treatment. In several African countries including Ghana and South Africa, due to the absence of a clear medicine pricing policy, cancer medicines have high price variations due to forex fluctuations, and import tariffs, which impact access. Aim: This research aimed to assess the availability, affordability, prices, and price components of cancer medicines in South Africa and Ghana. Method: A systematic literature review was undertaken on the availability, pricing, affordability, and access to cancer medicines in LMICs. An adapted World Health Organization (WHO) and Health Action International (HAI) methodology was used to determine the availability, prices, and affordability of cancer medicines in South Africa and Ghana, including a case study to assess the price components in the Ghana distribution chain. Also, affordability according to the impoverishment of the population after procuring cancer medicines in South Africa was determined. Results: The literature review showed that in LMICs, there are wide differences in cancer medicine availability and prices amongst medicine brands in different countries, with low-income earners abandoning treatment because of unaffordability. This research showed similar findings of very low availability of cancer medicines beneath the WHO target of 80%, substantial differences in the prices of different cancer medicine brands due to high markups for both generics and branded medicines in all sectors, originator brands having higher markups than generic products, high medicine prices in private facilities compared to the public facilities and unaffordability of cancer medicines by low-income earners with some impoverished after buying cancer medicines. Conclusion: This research contributes to academic knowledge and the findings can support quality pricing data, comprehensive policies, regulations, and innovative interventions by governments and stakeholders to improve affordable access to cancer medicines

The faint low-frequency radio universe in continuum: exploitation of the pre-SKA deepest survey

This thesis presents a thorough and significant work on the properties of radio sources as derived from deep 610-MHz GMRT data and ancillary multi-wavelength data. The faint radio sources at 610-MHz are found out to distances such that the objects are seen as they were when the universe was less than half its current age. These data provide a first look at the faint radio sky at sensitivities that will soon be achieved by key programs on the South African MeerKAT radio telescope, and thus take a first step in the exploration of the radio universe that will be made by the Square Kilometre Array. I report deep 610-MHz GMRT observations of the EN1 field, a region of 1.86 deg2 . We achieve a nominal sensitivity of 7.1µ Jy beam−1 . From our 610 MHz mosaic image, we recover 4290 sources after accounting for multiple component sources down to a 5σ flux density limit of 35.5 µ Jy. From this data, I derive the 610 MHz source counts applying corrections for completeness, resolution bias and Eddington bias. The 610- MHz source counts show a flattening at flux densities below 1 mJy. The source counts are higher than previous observations at this frequency below this break. However, they are generally consistent with recent models of the low-frequency source population. Using ancillary multi-wavelength data in the field, I investigate the key issue of source population classification using the deepest data at an intermediate-low frequency (higher than LOFAR and lower than JVLA), where previous work has not been sensitive enough to reach the µJy population. By cross-matching against the multi-wavelength data, I identify 72% of the radio sample having reliable redshifts, of which 19% of the redshifts are based on spectroscopy. From the classification, I obtain 1685 sources as Star-Forming Galaxies (SFGs), 281 sources Radio-Quiet (RQ) and 339 sources Radio-Loud (RL) Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) for the sub-sample with redshifts and at least one multi-wavelength AGN diagnostic. SFGs are mostly low-power radio sources, i.e L610 MHz 1025 W Hz−1 . From cross-matching my sample with other radio surveys (GMRT at 325-MHz, FIRST at 1.4-GHz and JVLA at 5-GHz), I obtain the median spectral index from 325-MHz to 610-MHz to be −0.80 ± 0.29, 610-MHz to 1.4-GHz to be −0.83 ± 0.31 and 1.4-GHz to 5-GHz to be −1.12 ± 0.15. The main result is that the median spectral index appears to steepen at the highest frequency. With the above catalogue in hand, I use the non-parametric V/Vmax test and the radio luminosity function to investigate the cosmic evolution of different source populations. I study SFGs and derive their IR-radio correlation and luminosity function as a function of redshift. By integrating the evolving SFG luminosity functions I also derive the cosmic star formation rate density out to z = 1.5. I address the long standing question about the origin of radio emission in RQ AGN. I compare the star formation rate (SFR) derived from their far-infrared luminosity, as traced by Herschel, with the SFR computed from their radio emission. I find evidence that the main contribution to the radio emission of RQ AGN is the star formation activity in their host galaxies. At high luminosities, however, both SFGs and 1 RQ AGN display a radio excess when comparing radio and infrared star formation rates. The vast majority of our sample lie along the SFR − M? ”main sequence” at all redshifts when using infrared star formation rates. This result opens the possibility of using the radio band to estimate the SFR even in the hosts of bright AGN where the optical-to-mid-infrared emission can be dominated by the AGN. I investigate the evolution of radio AGN out to z ∼ 1.5 with continuous models of pure density and pure luminosity evolution with Φ? ∝ ( 1 + z)(2.25±0.38)−(0.63±0.35)z and L610 MHz ∝ ( 1 + z)(3.45±0.53)−(0.55±0.29)z respectively. I also constrain the evolution of RQ AGN and RL AGN separately with a continuous model of pure luminosity evolution. For the RQ and RL AGN, we find a fairly mild evolution with redshift best fitted by pure luminosity evolution with L610 MHz ∝ ( 1 + z)(2.81±0.43)−(0.57±0.30)z for RQ AGN and L610 MHz ∝ ( 1 + z)(3.58±0.54)−(0.56±0.29)z for RL AGN. The results reveal that the 610 MHz radio AGN population thus comprises two differently evolving populations whose radio emission is mostly SF-driven or AGN-driven respectively. Finally, I probe the infrared-radio correlation and radio spectral indices of the faint radio population using stacking. I stack infrared sources in the EN1 field using the MIPS 24 micron mid-infrared survey and radio surveys created at 325 MHz, 610 MHz and 1.4 GHz. The stacking experiment shows a variation in the absolute strength of the infrared-radio correlation between these three different frequencies and the MIPS 24 micron band. I find tentative evidence of a small deviation from the correlation at the faintest infrared flux densities. The stacked radio spectral index analyses reveal that the majority of the median stacked sources exhibit steep spectra, with a spectral index that steepens with frequency between α 325 610 and α 610 1400. This work is particularly useful to pave the way for upcoming radio surveys with SKA pathfinders and precursors

Perception Of Students On Mobile Technology Based Library Services

Introduction: Emerging trends in library and information space especially in the academic environment requires remote and boundary less access to library services. Mobile technology has been recognised as the single most embraced technology in the world. Implementing this technological innovation will bring a lot of relief to students in University of Cape Coast and the University community in general. The study attempts to investigate the perception of students of University of Cape Coast on mobile technology-based library service. The pilot study involved six management members from the library and fifteen students comprising ten undergraduate and five postgraduate students

The Clash of Legal Cultures: The Treatment of Indigenous Law in Colonial and Post-Colonial Africa

The judiciary and legislature need to adapt African indigenous law to make it a tool of socio-economic development without sacrificing the core values of African society: the values of fellowship, of being each other’s keeper, and the notion that the free development of each is indeed a condition for the free development of all. The modern African judge will be the first to acknowledge that, in many senses, the problems faced by the British judges in colonial Africa have not vanished. Almost one hundred percent of the African judiciary is now African. But even though there is no longer the gross disparity of national origin between a judge and his community, a judge often does not come from the particular locality whose ethnic law he is administering. Apart from this ethnic question, there is an enormous educational and cultural gap between a senior judge with a Western education and the ordinary families he may deal with. Thus, the judicial system may have moved from a problem of race and ethnicity to one of class

Edina Bronya as a Lieux de Memoire: Developmental Inferences

Many works exist on festivals in Ghana. Some of the works discuss the religious relevance of festivals whereas others touch on the social and political spheres. A little reflection on the historical patterns of life vis-à-vis the coming of the Europeans reveals a change. By change, the paper refers to an adaptation of foreign approaches into majority of Ghana’s festival celebrations. Moreover, one finds a shift from the indigenous approach to a foreign style. This change on one perspective has to some degree caused majority of Ghanaians to forget how their indigenous festivals provide a good basis for reconnecting the past with the present and vice versa. In this regard, this paper examines the “Edina Bronya”, (Elmina New Year Festival) peculiar to the indigenous people of the Edina Traditional Area as a case study in the Central Region of Ghana. The paper uses the historical and descriptive research design coupled with the ethnographical method of active participation and an interview of an oral historian. The paper systematically aims at contributing to historical literature on Dutch-Elmina (Ghana) relations. The discussion overlaps into showcasing the Edina bronya festival as a lieux de memoire; a site for continuos reconnection with the past. The first thesis is that theories as offered by cultural memory, comminicative memory and lieux de memoire offer applicable methodologies to African Traditional Religious (ATR) studies but also presents some limitations to such a perpetually oral society.  The paper through analysis also posits developmental potential as presented from the celebration of the festival as a second thesis for the write up. The findings of this research is aimed at contributing to literature on the continuos social importance of festivals as an appendage of African Traditional Religion and a better comprehension of the theories of memory in its relevant applications to it. Key Words: Edina Bronya, Cultural Memory, Communicative Memory, Lieux de Memoire, Societal Developmen