Maternal Mortality in Ghana: Impact of the Fee-Free Delivery Policy and the National Health Insurance Scheme

Maternal mortality (MMR) is the second largest cause of female deaths in Ghana. Yet, many households cannot afford the cost of skilled delivery The study utilized the Panel Data Model to examine the impact of the fee-free delivery (FDP) and the National Health Insurance Policy (NIP) exemptions on MMR in Ghana. The Demographic and Health Survey reports on Ghana from 2002 to 2009 served as the main data source. Data were analyzed using Panel data model with within group fixed effects estimator. MMR declined significantly over the period studied. Both FDP and NIP positively impacted MMR at a 5% level of significance. In addition, skilled delivery was a significant predictor of MMR. Stakeholders would do well to ensure NIP is adequately funded in order to sustain the decline in MMR

Predicting Smoking Behaviors Among Junior High School Students in Ghana

Despite the rising rate of smoking in sub-Sahara African countries, measures to control the tobacco epidemic have been limited to developed countries. The purpose of the present study was to recommend predictive models for determining predictors of smoking tendencies among junior high school students in Ghana. The 2009 Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS) served as the data source. The GYTS is a school-based survey designed to enhance the ability of countries to monitor tobacco use among youth and to guide the implementation and evaluation of tobacco control and prevention programs. Logit model and forward selection were used to choose predictive variables for smoking tendencies and behaviors. Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve, Area under the curve (AUC) and C-Index were validation tools used to assess the predictive power of recommended models. Results showed promising potential for different predictive models: where students smoked, having friends who smoked, having people smoke in their presence, chewing tobacco products, and a student's sex significantly predicted their smoking tendencies

Some Remarks on the Trapezoid Rule In Numerical Integration

In this paper, by the use of some classical results from the Theory of Inequalities, we point out quasi-trapezoid quadrature formulae for which the error of approximation is smaller than in the classical case. Examples are given to demonstrate that the bounds obtained within this paper may be tighter than the classical ones. Some applications for special means are also given

Euler-related sums

The purpose of this paper is to develop a set of identities for Euler type sums of products of harmonic numbers and reciprocal binomial coefficients

Impurity State and Variable Range Hopping Conduction in Graphene

The variable range hopping theory, as formulated for exponentially localized impurity states, does not necessarily apply in the case of graphene with covalently attached impurities. We analyze the localization of impurity states in graphene using the nearest-neighbor, tight-binding model of an adatom-graphene system with Green's function perturbation methods. The amplitude of the impurity state wave function is determined to decay as a power law with exponents depending on sublattice, direction, and the impurity species. We revisit the variable range hopping theory in view of this result and find that the conductivity depends as a power law of the temperature with an exponent related to the localization of the wave function. We show that this temperature dependence is in agreement with available experimental results

Harmonic number sums in closed form

We extend some results of Euler related sums. Integral and closed form representation of sums with products of harmonic numbers and cubed binomial coefficients are developed in terms of Polygamma functions. The given representations are new

Congruity between Assessment Criteria and Cooperating Teacher Assessment of Student Teachers

This study investigated the congruity between cooperating teachers\u27 assessment of student teachers and established set of criteria for assessment during student teaching. The study also examined the substance of the comments of cooperating teachers about student teachers\u27 performances. The final evaluation forms submitted by the cooperating teachers to the student teaching coordinator served as the main source of data. These forms were content analyzed to determine the congruity of cooperating teachers\u27 assessment and the set of assessment criteria. The researcher developed the Brockport Supervision Analysis System—Physical Education (BSASPE) instrument for data analysis. Subjects for the study included 41 cooperating teachers (27 males and 14 females) who supervised 32 student teachers for the period Fall 1995 through Spring 1998. The student teachers (22 males and 10 females) were enrolled in the physical education teacher certification program at SUNY Brockport. The student teachers in this study taught in 34 different schools during the period covered by the study. These included 17 elementary schools, 11 middle schools, and six high schools. The results indicated that while most cooperating teachers awarded outstanding and highly competent grades to their student teachers, it was incongruent with the set of assessment criteria established by the university. However, the assessment of one student teacher awarded a non-competent grade was congruent with assessment criteria. It was also found that the cooperating teachers\u27 comments were related to the competencies under which they were written. The study showed that cooperating teachers\u27 comments differed with the grade levels taught by student teachers. There is the need for further research to ascertain why most cooperating teachers\u27 assessments were not congruent with established assessment criteria, even though they had the ability to make comments related to the major competencies for student teaching

Perpetuating Inefficacy: Comparing Counterterrorism Policies in the Bush, Obama, and Trump Administrations

Honors (Bachelor's)International StudiesUniversity of Michiganhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/147394/1/jsofo.pd

Some BBP-type series for polylog integrals

An investigation into a family of definite integrals containing log-polylog functions will be undertaken in this paper. It will be shown that Euler sums play an important part in the solution of these integrals and may be represented as a BBP-type formula. In a special case we prove that the corresponding log integral can be represented as a linear combination of the product of zeta functions and the Dirichlet beta function