Paradox of Informal Luxury Housing Boom in a Post-Mining Town in Ghana

This paper examines spontaneous construction of new housing in Obuasi, the largest gold mining town in Ghana after its closure in 2014. Obuasi has become spatially different as more new luxury houses have been developed by the former miners over a relatively short period without coordination. The paper explores the role of lump sum severance packages received from industrial collapse on housing. Using in-depth interviews with former miners who have built their houses after the mine closure, the reasons for the use of the severance packages to build and thoughts behind the choices of housing typologies have been discussed. This paper established that the former workers built their new houses with their take-home money to overcome the bottlenecks in the formal housing finance market and to fulfil continuity of “good-living” privileges previously enjoyed for working and living in the gold mines. The paper concludes that industrial workers should be provided livelihood options training before they are laid off from their respective employments. Keywords: Post-mining towns, Obuasi, informal housing, housing finance, Ghana DOI: 10.7176/JRDM/73-04 Publication date: February 28th 202

Information and communication technology (ICT) : an effective tools for e-learning

Abstract: This research is based on the premise that, there is still a need to understand whether improvement in technology is appreciated, fully supported in the vision of contributing to the academic business in Africa. The aim of this research is to explore the extent to which the incorporation of technology in teaching and learning has so far benefited teachers and learners in Africa. The objectives of the study is to highlight the benefits of using e‐learning system to find out whether new technologies have enhanced teaching institutions in Africa

PSkel-MPPA: Uma Adaptação do Framework PSkel para o Processador Manycore MPPA-256

TCC(graduação) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina. Centro Tecnológico. Ciências da Computação.Aplicações paralelas podem ser classificadas de acordo com o padrão de computação e coordenação. Dentre os padrões mais conhecidos destacam-se o map, reduce, pipeline, scan e stencil. Este último é muito utilizado em diversas áreas, como simulação física de partículas, previsão meteorológica, termodinâmica, resolução de funções diferenciais, manipulação de imagens, entre outras. O PSkel é um framework de programação paralela desenvolvido para simplificar o desenvolvimento de aplicações que seguem o padrão stencil. Utilizando uma abstração de alto nível, programador define o kernel da computação, enquanto o framework se encarrega de executar a computação paralela em multicores e em Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) de maneira eficiente. O objetivo deste trabalho é propor uma adaptação do framework PSkel para o processador manycore emergente MPPA-256, batizada de PSkel-MPPA. A motivação para tal adaptação está relacionada à dificuldade de desenvolvimento de aplicações do padrão stencil para o MPPA-256, tendo em vista as suas características arquiteturais intrínsecas que tornam o desenvolvimento de aplicações paralelas onerosas e suscetíveis a erros. A adaptação do framework permite simplificar o desenvolvimento de aplicações stencil para o MPPA-256, escondendo do desenvolvedor detalhes de implementação, tais como a necessidade de comunicação explícita entre as memórias do chip e a distribuição de computações entre os núcleos de processamento. Diversos experimentos foram efetuados com a solução proposta para o MPPA-256, comparando-a com a solução para multicores já existente. Os resultados mostraram que a solução proposta para o MPPA-256 permite reduzir o consumo de energia das aplicações stencil em até 1.45x apesar de apresentar uma perda de desempenho de até 3.3x

Experimental investigation of ice cutting by high-pressure water jet: deicing on marine vessels

Ice development on surfaces during winter or in severely cold climates affects several industries, including aviation, hydropower, telecommunications, navigation, electrical distribution, and transportation. The traditional technique of deicing maritime vessels with human labor is laborious and time-consuming especially when ice adhesion strength is high. Current alternative deicing technologies may be too expensive or impossible to implement. Since water is easily accessible to maritime operations and heat energy diverted from the engine to heat up the water, high-pressure water jet (HPWJ) is proving to be a useful deicing technology, which is the focus of our investigation. HPWJ is currently used in high-level precision manufacturing in the automotive, aerospace, building products, electronics, food, paper and steel industries. HPWJ has low efficiency in strong winds, especially when the stand-off distance is long and might damage equipment if the operation parameters are not adjusted appropriately. The main objective of this study is to investigate the combined effect of operational parameters including operating pump pressure, nozzle geometry, water jet temperature, and standoff distance on the depth of cut through an ice block at certain time of cut. The significance of the main objective is to maximize depth and width of cut in order to facilitate the delamination of ice accrued on surfaces. Ice was simulated in the lab by making ice blocks that were kept at -10 °C throughout the experiment. Preliminary cases were acquired using a factorial design of experiment at different levels with five parameters, including the nozzle type, yielding biased results. New cases were developed, and the measured responses were used to generate regression model equations for the four nozzle types. The models predicted depth of cut with a P-value less than 0.0001 and an F-value of 23.26 with 99% confidence, showing that the models are significant. Also, the Predicted R² of 0.7473 is in reasonable agreement with the Adjusted R² of 0.8166; i.e. the difference is less than 0. 2. According to the findings, the nozzle geometry has the greatest impact on the maximum depth of cut, followed by the time of cut, pump pressure, water jet temperature, and stand-off distance. Whereas the models predicted width of cut with a P-value less than 0.0001 and an F-value of 44.67 with 99% confidence, showing that the models are significant. The respective Predicted and Adjusted R² values of the width of cut are 0.8635 and 0.8973 and are in reasonable agreement with a difference of less than 0.2. Also, the nozzle geometry has the greatest impact on the maximum width of cut, followed by the stand-off distance, pump pressure, time of cut and water jet temperature. This study investigated the effectiveness of HPWJ deicing on maritime vessels. The optimization of operational parameters is used to develop a cuttability chart for various thicknesses of accumulated ice on the deck and various vessel surfaces. To the best of authors’ knowledge, this is the first research on the combined effect of operating pump pressure, water jet temperature, standoff distance of the different nozzle geometries ( 0 ,15 ,25 and 40 ) on the depth and width of cut in ice blocks

The Determinants of Access to Credit for Cash Crop Production in Ghana: A Case Study of the Cocoa Industry

The study was conducted in order to ascertain the determinants of access to credit for cash crop production in Ghana with special reference to the Cocoa Industry. The study adopted a descriptive survey design. Simple random sampling technique was used to sample 150 respondents for the study. A binary probit model was used to estimate the probability of access to credit by farmers. The determinants of access to credit for the cocoa farmers were assessed with variables; saving level, belonging to lending group, knowledge of microfinance institution and association/trade group/farming body of respondents. A research question was formulated to guide the study. Factors that tend to improve the farmers’ literacy, savings and revenue result in pushing the farmers away from relying on credit from these financial institutions whereas factors that make farmers worse off leads them to go for more credit. Results from the regression analysis show that savings level of the farmer, revenue from sales, farm size and how long a farmer has been into farming significantly determine a farmer’s chance of having access to credit from formal and informal credit sources. It was recommended that extending credit to women will not only accelerate the growth of their micro-farms but also has tickle down effects on their entire households as income earned from their farms is mostly used to cater for their household. Keywords: Cocoa, Access to Credit, Loans, Savings and Interest rate

Application of Total Quality Management (TQM) in the South African banking sector : the case of First National Bank (FNB) in South Africa

Abstract: Total Quality Management (TQM) is an essential tool for effective management. This tool takes into consideration three basics elements in order to produce quality, these include inter-alia: customer satisfaction, employee involvement and continuity in performance improvement. The study therefore set out to identify the barriers that impede the service and staff engagement portfolio to effectively implement TQM. The purpose of the current study is to collect original data in order to describe and measure the behaviour in a larger population. The initial or rather primary data for this study was obtained from an electronic administered survey which objective was to probe the kind of barriers that prevent effective TQM implementation in the service and staff engagement portfolio. The secondary data were collected through documents analysis and internet research

The Determinants of Access to Credit for Cash Crop Production in Ghana: A Case Study of the Cocoa Industry

The study was conducted in order to ascertain the determinants of access to credit for cash crop production in Ghana with special reference to the Cocoa Industry. The study adopted a descriptive survey design. Simple random sampling technique was used to sample 150 respondents for the study. A binary probit model was used to estimate the probability of access to credit by farmers. The determinants of access to credit for the cocoa farmers were assessed with variables like; saving level, belonging to lending group, knowledge of microfinance institution and association/trade group/farming body of respondents. A research question was formulated to guide the study.An interview guide was used in collecting responses from the farmers. Factors that tend to improve the farmers’ literacy, savings and revenue result in pushing the farmers away from relying on credit from these financial institutions whereas factors that make farmers worse off leads them to go for more credit. Results from the regression analysis show that savings level of the farmer, revenue from sales, farm size and how long a farmer has been into farming significantly determine a farmer’s chance of having access to credit from formal and informal credit sources. It was recommended that extending credit to women will not only accelerate the growth of their micro-farms but also has tickle down effects on their entire households as income earned from their farms is mostly used to cater for their household. Keywords: Cocoa, Farmer, Loans, Savings and Interest rate

Exploring the Motives for Operating in Ghana’s Informal Slum Sector

In the developing world, slums house a sizeable amount of the urban population and most slum inhabitants are engaged in informal activities. In Sub Sahara African countries this sector has historically contributed above 50% to non-agricultural Gross Value Added. Informal sector activities in Ghanaian slums employ a substantial amount of people, who on average earn about $8 a day, a figure which is above the poverty threshold of$2 a day. Most of these slum activity operators reside in slums whereas a sizable amount reside in formal housing, a phenomenon which has led to the growth of Ghanaian urban slums. To assist these slum operators grow and someday integrate into the formal sector, it is important to find out the factors that motivated them to engage in these activities in the first place. The study employed Exploratory Factor Analysis, on a sample of 344 drawn from the two biggest slums (Sodom & Gomorrah and Akwatia Line) in Ghana’s two major cities, Accra and Kumasi respectively. The results show a set of six clusters, explaining 61% of the variation in motives for slum activities. The avoidance of government regulation was found as the main motive for one’s involvement in slum activities. Other driving forces include the ‘luxury’ of working at one’s own time, making use of one’s talents and family relations, as well as the quest for earning a higher incom

Computational Complexity of Modified Blowfish Cryptographic Algorithm on Video Data

Background: The technological revolution has allowed users to exchange data and information in various fields, and this is one of the most prevalent uses of computer technologies. However, in a world where third parties are capable of collecting, stealing, and destroying information without authorization, cryptography remains the primary tool that assists users in keeping their information secure using various techniques. Blowfish is an encryption process that is modest, protected, and proficient, with the size of the message and the key size affecting its performance. Aim: the goal of this study is to design a modified Blowfish algorithm by changing the structure of the F function to encrypt and decrypt video data. After which, the performance of the normal and modified Blowfish algorithm will be obtained in terms of time complexity and the avalanche effect. Methods: To compare the encryption time and security, the modified Blowfish algorithm will use only two S-boxes in the F function instead of the four used in Blowfish. Encryption and decryption times were calculated to compare Blowfish to the modified Blowfish algorithm, with the findings indicating that the modified Blowfish algorithm performs better. Results: The Avalanche Effect results reveal that normal Blowfish has a higher security level for all categories of video file size than the modified Blowfish algorithm, with 50.7176% for normal Blowfish and 43.3398% for the modified Blowfish algorithm of 187 kb; hence, it is preferable to secure data and programs that demand a high level of security with Blowfish. Conclusions: From the experimental results, the modified Blowfish algorithm performs faster than normal Blowfish in terms of time complexity with an average execution time of 250.0 ms for normal Blowfish and 248.4 ms for the modified Blowfish algorithm. Therefore, it can be concluded that the modified Blowfish algorithm using the F-structure is time-efficient while normal Blowfish is better in terms of security.publishedVersio

Harmonisation of corporate governance laws in the Southern African Development Community

Magister Legum - LLMIn terms of the SADC Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP), the main objective of the community is to achieve a monetary union through the creation of a regional central bank by 2016 and adoption of a single currency by 2018 in a systematic and progressive manner. The envisaged monetary union in the SADC is premised on a number of economic and financial regulations aimed at stimulating efforts by member states to achieve deeper forms of regional integration. The latter imperatives include a harmonised payment system as well as a corporate governance system among others. Nonetheless it is surprising how the pace of the process has been very subpar taking into consideration that it is the year 2015 and there has been no clear carved out legislation in any form which deals with the aspect of corporate governance raises concerns. This study serves as not only a reminder but also gives guidelines to taking progressive steps towards harmonised systems of law to ensure the efficient running of companies in SADC. This study is predicated upon other successful systems and the lessons that SADC could make use of as examples in creating a robust system of laws to ensure good corporate governance and in the long run the fulfilment of the concept of a monetary union