Private international law and the African Economic Community : a plea for greater attention.

oppong rf Private international law deals with problems that arise when transactions or claims involve a foreign element. Such problems are most frequent in a setting that allows for the growth of international relationships, be they commercial or personal. Economic integration provides such a setting and allows for the free movement of persons, goods, services and capital across national boundaries. The facilitation of factor mobility resulting from economic integration and the concomitant growth in international relationships results in problems which call for resolution using the tools of private international law. An economic community cannot function solely on the basis of economic rules; attention must also be paid to the rules for settling cross-border disputes. Consequently, considerable attention is given to the subject within the European Union (EU) and other economic communities

Rapid Vertical Flow Assay On Aunp Plasmonic Paper For Sers-Based Point Of Need Diagnostics

SERS based immunoassays for point-of-care diagnostics is a promising tool to facilitate biomarker detection for early disease diagnosis and control. The technique is based on a sandwiched system in which antigen is first captured by a selective substrate and then labeled by an extrinsic Raman label (ERL). Here, we report on the use of gold nanoparticle modified filter paper as a novel capture membrane in a vertical flow format. This vertical flow configuration affords reproducible flow of sample and label through the capture substrate to overcome diffusion limited kinetics and significantly reduced assay time. The filter paper was selected due to its affordability and availability, while the embedded AuNPs maximized plasmonic coupling and SERS enhancement. Additionally, the embedded AuNP served as a scaffold to immobilize capture antibody to specifically bind antigen. In this work, a SERS-based rapid vertical flow (SERS-RVF) immunoassay for detection of mouse IgG was developed to establish proof of principle. Optimization of assay conditions led to a limit of detection of 3 ng/mL, which is comparable to more traditional formats carried out in multi-well plates and significantly reduced assay time to less than 2 minutes. Additionally, IgG was accurately quantified in normal serum to validate the SERS-RVF assay for application to the analysis of biological samples. These results highlight the potential advantages of the SERS-RVF platform for point-of-need testing. KEYWORDS: Immunoassay; surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS); plasmonic paper; vertical flow assay; point-of-need (PON) testing;point-of-care (POC) diagnostics

Classroom Factors that Affects the Performance of Integrated Science Students at the Junior High School in the Kumasi Metropolis of Ghana

The purpose of the study was to find out the opinions of public and private Junior High School science teachers on the classroom factors that affect performance of students in integrated science in public and private junior high schools in the Kumasi metropolis. The study used descriptive survey designed. The sampling procedure employed for the study was both random and purposive sampling. While the integrated science teachers were purposively sampled due to their subject they teach, the students were randomly selected. Questionnaire and interview were used for data collection. It was found out that integrated science teachers to be aware that classroom factors such as teacher-student relationship, availability of science resource materials, teaching methods employed by teachers, class size, supervision and physical infrastructure are likely to affect performance of students in integrated science at the J.H.S. level. Again, the findings revealed that the selected public schools within the Kumasi metropolis were well resourced with the following: adequate physical infrastructure, adequate science resource materials, adequate science text books and adequate trained science teachers as against their private school counterparts with inadequate physical infrastructure, inadequate science resource materials, inadequate science text books and few trained science teachers. It was recommended that effective supervision must be performed regularly by heads of schools during integrated science lessons. The heads of the public JHS especially, those in the Kumasi metropolis must be made to regularly ensure that their science teachers teach very well during integrated science lessons. Keywords: Laboratory, Performance, Classroom factor

The Effect of Culture on the Teaching and Learning of Science at the Basic Schools in Ghana

The purpose of the study was to investigate how culture influences the teaching and learning of science at the basic schools in the Agona West Municipality of the Central Region, East Akim Municipality of the Eastern Region and the Kwabre District of the Ashanti Region of Ghana. The research design used for this study was descriptive survey. The sampling procedure employed for the study was the purposive sampling. A total of three hundred and thirty (330) subjects were selected, made up of three hundred (300) students and thirty (30) science teachers. The instruments used for collecting data for the study consisted of questionnaire, interview and observation schedules. It was found out that students had cultural knowledge they use in explaining phenomena. Teachers were aware of student’s cultural knowledge especially in explaining concepts. It was recommended that teachers should teach their students bearing in mind their cultural knowledge and incorporate that in their teaching. Keywords: Culture, Cultural knowledge, Scientific concept, Taboos

Evaluation of Selected Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea

Groundnut, the most important grain legume in Ghana, is largely cultivated under rainfed conditions within the Guinea savanna zone of the country. The pods and haulms are important sources of income for smallholder farmers in the region. There is an emerging market for groundnut haulms as livestock feed in Ghana. A population of 30 groundnut genotypes were evaluated for yield (pod and haulm) and its components as well as good haulm nutritive value. High significant differences were observed among the genotypes for all agronomic traits. Average pod yield ranged from 1.6 to 5.7 t/ha with SAMNUT 23 and ICGV-IS 13081 being the most productive. Eight out of the 30 genotypes produced haulm yields above 8 t/ha. There was no significant difference among genotypes for in vitro gas production, digestible organic matter, ash, neutral detergent fibre, and metabolizable energy. However, crude protein, crude fibre, and acid detergent fibre were significantly different. Crude protein content was highest (12.53%) in GAF 1723 and lowest (8.00%) in ICGV-IS 08837. Genotypes GAF 1723, ICGV 00064, and ICGV-IS 13998 combined good pod/haulm yield with high haulm nutritive quality. Their utilization will improve farmers’ income and livelihoods in the Guinea savanna of Ghana

Barriers to Buruli ulcer treatment completion in the Ashanti and Central Regions, Ghana.

BACKGROUND: Buruli ulcer is a chronic ulcerating skin condition, with the highest burden found in Central and West Africa where it disproportionately affects the most vulnerable populations. Treatment is demanding, comprising eight-weeks of daily antibiotics, regular wound care and possible surgical intervention. Treatment completion is key to optimising outcomes, however the degree of and barriers to this are not well understood. Recent change from injectable treatment (SR8) to oral treatment (CR8) has made it feasible to further decentralise care, potentially improving treatment access and completion. However, the impact of this and of other demographic and clinical influences on treatment completion must be explored first to ensure appropriate models of care are developed. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: A retrospective clinical notes review and secondary data analysis of records from patients diagnosed between 1 January 2006-31 December 2018 at four district hospital clinics in the Ashanti and Central Regions, Ghana. Univariable analyses and multivariable logistic regression were performed to assess the association between explanatory variables and treatment completion. There were 931 patient episodes across the four clinics with overall treatment completion of 84.4%. CR8 was associated with higher treatment completion compared to SR8 (OR 4.1, P = 0.001). There was no statistically significant association found between distance from patient residence to clinic and treatment completion. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Improved treatment completion with CR8 supports its use as first line therapy and may enable decentralisation to fully community-based care. We did not find an association between distance to care and treatment completion, though analyses were limited by data availability. However, we did find evidence that distance to care continues to be associated with more severe forms of disease, which may reflect the higher costs of accessing care and lower awareness of the condition the further a patient lives. Decentralised care must therefore also continue to support community engagement and active outreach to identify cases early