Analysis of the relationship between quality and price of yam in Ghana - second round (NRI report no. 2428)

In 1997, NRI staff and officers from the Ghanaian Ministry of Food and Agriculture conducted two quantitative surveys of yam trading in Techiman market. The aim was to establish the importance of financial losses caused by poor yam quality and to measure the relationships between price and a series of quality defect variables. This report summarises the analysis of data gathered during the second survey. Data was analysed using multiple regression. Of the nine quality variables measured in the market, only "rotting" could be proved to have a significant influence on price. This result should not be interpreted to mean that other quality variables do not have an impact on price, merely that there was insufficient variation in quality for the statistical techniques to prove the existence of other price quality relationships. Moreover, at the time of the survey, these findings suggest that the financial losses caused by quality defects were slight. The report concludes with suggestions for improving the data gathering methodology for future surveys. In particular, it recommends extensive qualitative surveys to establish the incidence of quality defect related financial losses throughout the year. If these surveys indicate high financial losses, the research should attempt to establish the quantitative nature of price quality relationships using biased sampling techniques

Experiences of shared sanitation – towards a better understanding of access, exclusion and ‘toilet mobility’ in low-income urban areas

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 6.2 calls for ‘adequate and equitable sanitation for all’. In dense, rapidly urbanising cities, the challenge of providing household sanitation means that many countries include shared, community and public toilets in their national strategies to meet global goals. However, shared sanitation is associated with several problems including poor management and exclusion. This study examines shared sanitation access and use by using innovative mapping methods in compound house units in Fante New Town, Kumasi, Ghana. This study reveals that 56% of house units have at least one toilet. Of the 47% of people living in these house units, almost a third were excluded from using the toilet. Tenure status was the main driver for exclusion, with nearly half of people reporting non-usage ‘not allowed’ to use the toilet by the landlord. This study outlines key policy interventions to address broader institutional and regulatory barriers to shared sanitation. At the settlement level, this includes the provision of safe, well-managed public toilets and engagement with landlords to improve house unit toilet access. At the national and global level, this study calls for nuanced indicators to assess the quality of access and to ensure shared sanitation works for everyone

The use of free autogenous rib grafts in maxillofacial reconstruction

Background: Hard tissue defects in the maxillofacial region due to trauma or ablative surgery result in functional and cosmetic problems. State-of-theart methods for reconstruction include the use of vascularised tissue. Objective: To review our results with the use of non-vascularised rib grafts for maxillofacial reconstruction. Method: Patients who underwent maxillofacial reconstruction using rib at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital during 1996-2004 were studied. The technique for rib harvest and implantation of the graft was standardized. Clindamycin was administered peri-operatively and the harvested rib was temporarily stored in clindamycin/saline before implantation. The graft was successful if it survived beyond 6 months after placement. Follow- up was for at least 12months postoperatively. Results: A total of 29 patients were studied. The indications for grafting included ameloblastoma, malignant disease, cyst, ankylosis, and trauma. Either rib bone only or with cartilage were used. In 90% of patients (26/29) the graft healed uneventfully. Two patients had dehiscence of the wound with exposure of the graft intraorally within two weeks of surgery and were successfully managed with antibiotics. Conclusion: Free autogenous rib was successfully used to reconstruct defects in the maxillofacial region. Further stabilization of the graft by intermaxillary fixation and the prophylactic use of clindamycin may have helped to minimize complications

Prevalence of plant-parasitic nematodes associated with tomatoes in three agro-ecological zones of Ghana

A study was conducted between August 2014 and May 2015 to identify plant-parasitic nematodes taxa associated with tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) and to assess the knowledge, perceptions and experiences of growers of the crop on occurrence and management of the parasites on their farms in nine communities within the semi-deciduous forest, the forest/savanna transitional and the savanna agro-ecological zones of Ghana. Semi-structured questionnaires were designed and administered to 54 randomly selected growers from the nine communities. Composite rhizosphere soil and tomato root samples were collected from two farms in each of the nine communities, and nematodes extracted, identified and recorded. The study revealed that many growers (73%) could not distinguish between nematode infestation, nutrient deficiency and moisture stress and, therefore, lacked knowledge on nematode control. Most of the growers (63%) continually cropped their land to tomato for periods of 4 –7 years without fallowing. All growers applied only inorganic fertilizer to their crops. Symptoms of nematode infestation were widespread in fields with high yield losses. Tomato was a host to Helicotylenchus spp. (11.5% in soil), Hoplolaimus spp. (1.0 % in soil), Meloidogyne spp. (37.4% in soil and 69.3% in roots), Pratylenchus spp. (20.6% in soil and 13.7% in roots), Rotylenchulus spp. (11.0% in soil and 12.2% in roots), Scutellonema spp. (9.5% in soil and 4.9% in roots), Tylenchus spp.(7.6% in soil) and Xiphinema spp.(1.4% in soil) across the nine communities surveyed. Semi-deciduous forest and Savanna agro-ecological zones had the highest and least population densities of nematodes, respectively. These nematodes, if not managed efficiently, could also serve as constraint to tomato production in the country

A Study of the Publication pattern in CSIR- Plant Genetic Resources Research Institute

Plant genetic resources (PGR) are those resources that are of benefit to man. They are plant materials containing useful characters of actual or potential values. They are the basic raw mate­rials for crop improvement today and for the future. This paper analysed changes in publication trend by scientists from 1981 to 2015 at the CSIR-Plant Genetic Resources Research Institute. It investigated major commodities covered by the articles produced by scientists of the Institute. The main area of study included publication formats covered by the articles in the Plant Ge­netic Resources Research Institute Reference (PGRRIREF Directory) (1981-2015). The study also highlighted recent research and development activities in each publication discipline in the PGRRIREF Directory. It is believed that information gathered from the analysis of this research, would increase the utilization of the crop plants in Ghana and beyond. Content analysis method and interviews were used for the study of the Publication pattern in CSIR-Plant Genetic Re­sources Research Institute. The findings indicated among others that, socio-economic (27.2%), horticulture (21.5%), root and tubers (18.5%) recorded increasing publication disciplines. Tech­nologies developed in these publication disciplines could be put on-line for a wider audience to enhance efficient conservation and utilization of plant genetic resources materials. Keywords: CSIR-Plant Genetic Resources Research Institute; publication pattern; discipline; formats; research activitie

Traits and land transformation change the fortunes of grasshopper generalists vs. specialists in a biodiversity hotspot

Understanding the link between species traits and how they use various elements in a heterogeneous agro-natural landscape is essential for conservation planning. Land-use and season affect the availability of resources for herbivorous insects such as grasshoppers. Also, the level at which these herbivores utilise these resources on the landscape depend on their traits. We focus here on the Cape Floristic Region biodiversity hotspot, which is rich in both endemic plants and narrow-range grasshoppers. We assessed dispersion patterns and abundance of the grasshopper species across the agro-natural mosaic, while specifically focusing on species traits and how they change over two seasons (spring and summer). We found that land-use and species traits played major roles in grasshopper spatial dispersion across the landscape, with season a highly significant variable. Not surprisingly, highly mobile, generalist feeders were abundant and widely dispersed across the landscape. Importantly however, this was especially the case in late season, when they could take advantage of high plant productivity in the vineyards. In contrast, low mobility, specialist feeders were limited to occupying only natural fynbos vegetation in both seasons. Generally, the highly mobile generalists benefitted in two ways: occupation of transformed areas, and receiving a population boost late season. This was not the case for the low-mobility specialists, which were doubly disadvantaged: not able to move far, and lacking their specific host plants in the transformed areas. From a conservation perspective, our results indicate the importance of improving functional connectivity using natural fynbos for conservation of the endemic specialists, while the generalists can largely look after themselves across this agro-natural mosaic

Social Structure and Variation in the Family Formation Process: The Case of Age at First Marriage and Duration between First Marriage and First Birth in selected sub-Saharan African Countries

The present study employed the Cox proportional hazard regression model to examine the effect of select socio-demographic factors on the family formation process in five sub-Saharan African countries using the most recent Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) data for the respective countries. Specifically, the study examined the effects of education, residence, religion and age at first marriage on age at first marriage, age at first birth and the duration between first marriage and first childbirth in Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and Zambia. On the whole, we found that Ghana has the highest median age at first marriage, while Ethiopia has the lowest median age at first marriage. Both level of urbanisation and education were inversely related to the proportion of women ever married in all five countries. While education was positively associated with age at first marriage in all five countries, it was negatively associated with duration between marriage and first birth in all the countries with the exception of Ghana. With the exception of Ghana and Nigeria, there were no statistically significant differences in the median age at first marriage between rural and urban areas in Ethiopia and Kenya; the hazard of early marriage was higher in urban than rural settings in Zambia

Tumour PD-L1 expression in small-cell lung cancer: A systematic review and meta-analysis

: Antibodies against programmed death-1 (PD-1), and its ligand, (PD-L1) have been approved recently for the treatment of small-cell lung cancer (SCLC). Although there are previous reports that addressed PD-L1 detection on tumour cells in SCLC, there is no comprehensive meta-analysis on the prevalence of PD-L1 expression in SCLC. We performed a systematic search of the PubMed, Cochrane Library and EMBASE databases to assess reports on the prevalence of PD-L1 expression and the association between PD-L1 expression and overall survival (OS). This meta-analysis included 27 studies enrolling a total of 2792 patients. The pooled estimate of PD-L1 expression was 26.0% (95% CI 17.0-37.0), (22.0% after removing outlying studies). The effect size was significantly heterogeneous (I2 = 97.4, 95% CI: 95.5-98.5, p \u3c 0.0001).Positive PD-L1 expression was a favourable prognostic factor for SCLC but not statistically significant (HR = 0.86 (95% CI (0.49-1.50), p = 0.5880; I2 = 88.7%, p \u3c 0.0001). Begg\u27s funnel plots and Egger\u27s tests indicated no publication bias across included studies (p \u3e 0.05). Overall, there is heterogeneity in the prevalence of PD-L1 expression in SCLC tumour cells across studies. This is significantly moderated by factors such as immunohistochemistry (IHC) evaluation cut-off values, and assessment of PD-L1 staining patterns as membranous and/or cytoplasmic. There is the need for large size, prospective and multicentre studies with well-defined protocols and endpoints to advance the clinical value of PD-L1 expression in SCLC

Perceptions of undergraduate allied health students of the clinical learning environment and clinical educators’ attributes at the University of Ghana

Background. Clinical education is a vital aspect of the education of health sciences students and consists of two components, i.e. the clinical learning environment and supervision. Objectives. To determine the undergraduate allied health sciences students’ perceptions regarding clinical educators’ attributes and the clinical learning environment. Methods. This cross-sectional study included 169 undergraduate students, randomly recruited from various allied health professions programmes of the University of Ghana. The McGill clinical teacher evaluation tool and the clinical learning environment inventory were used to determine students’ perceptions of clinical educators’ attributes and the clinical learning environment, respectively. The Kruskal-Wallis test and independent t-tests were used to test for relationships between students’ level and programme of study and their perceptions. The level of significance was set at 95%. Results. Of the 169 participants, there were 99 (58.6%) male students, 79 (46.7%) third-year students and 82 (48.5%) medical laboratory science students. Only 16 (9.5%) participants indicated visits by lecturers during clinical rotations. The third-year students had a statistically significant perception of their clinical learning environment (p=0.000), while the differences between perceptions of clinical learning environment among the various programmes were also statistically significant (p=0.028), but not for clinical educators’ attributes (p=0.261). Conclusion. Allied health sciences students have positive perceptions of their clinical learning environment and clinical educators’ attributes. More frequent visits by lecturers to students during clinical rotations may ensure that student innovation is achieved in accordance with their classroom tuition