Peripheral and Gender Perspectives: The Russia-Ukraine War and Africa’s Response and Impact

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, most African countries avoided open alignment with either Russia or Ukraine, favoring a wait-and-see approach until the situation’s consequences for African households, energy security, and the agricultural sector became more evident. Using the nexus between world systems and dependency theories as an analytical tool, this study examines how African governments have responded to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and how the continent has been affected by the war. This examination is accomplished via a qualitative analysis of primary data such as reports issued by independent international organizations, think tanks, and media houses. Furthermore, the analysis is complemented by secondary sources such as media reports and expert crisis analysis. This study argues that although Africa as a continent and African women in particular, by virtue of occupying the periphery of world politics, have been marginalized in decision-making regarding the war, they have nevertheless been negatively impacted by the war. Lacking agency in world affairs, the continent has responded to the war in a disjointed way without considering the voices and input of African women, who are increasingly bearing the brunt of the global impact of the war. Consequently, Africa, led by patriarchal leadership via the African Union (AU), has struggled to abide by its continental charter principles of noninterference and remain committed to its tradition of nonalignment in international affairs. The continent has not been impervious to the negative impact of the conflict because of its structural dependence on countries in the global core. Politically, the war has resulted in further marginalization of the continent and its women due to the continent’s lack of agency. Economically, the conflict has led to rising energy costs, inflation, and food insecurity, all of which disproportionately affect African women. Socially, the conflict has disrupted the academic life of African students in Ukraine, with women students particularly vulnerable to gender-based violence. The research calls for the inclusion of more African women’s voices in decision-making at the AU, as African women and girls bear the brunt of most global crises such as war

Evaluating Rural Farmers Knowledge, Perception, and Adaptation Strategies on Climate Change in Ghana: A case study of the Wa West District, Ghana

Climate change is a phenomenon that has received significant international attention over the past years due to its profound negative effects on community livelihood especially in developing countries like Ghana where rain-fed agriculture is the main source of employment and livelihood for the majority of the population. Various studies have shown that knowledge and perceptions of people on climate change can have a significant influence on their adaptation and mitigation options, it is vital for researchers to, therefore, undertake regular assessments to gather concrete information on climatic trends and its impact so as to prescribe the best mitigative remedies. This work, therefore, evaluates the perceptions of farmers, their level of knowledge on climate change and the various strategies they employ in Wa West District of the Upper West region of Ghana. Based on findings from this study, a fervent recommendation for the building of resilience interventions in the study area that will target farmers especially women with low adaptive capacity to help boost their capacity in dealing with climate change was proposed. Keywords: Adaptation strategies, Barriers, Climate Change, Knowledge, Rural farmers

A Risk-based Assessment of Ghana Commercial Bank Limited

Risk management is a very important concept for any business as most financial decisions revolve around the corporate cost of holding risk. This issue is particularly important to banks since risk constitutes their core business processes. This study assesses the risk profile of GCB to ascertain its soundness and conformity to international best practices. The study selects credit, liquidity, market and operational risks as dependent variables while size, NPLs ratio, capital adequacy and asset management are utilized as explanatory variables for the period of five years from 2007 to 2011. The regression results indicate that the size of bank does not influence any of the risks. Apart from credit risk which is influenced positively by the NPL ratio, all the other risks, show a negative relationship with NPL ratio. The capital adequacy has a negative relationship with credit and liquidity but a positive relationship with market and operational risks. Both debt-equity ratio and asset management establish a positive relationship with credit and operational risks, but a negative relationship with liquidity and market risks. Generally, the study revealed that GCB has a good risk profile in the face of challenging global economic and business environment. The Bank had adequate risk management structures to ensure sound management of financial and operational risks. These structures were also in line with internationally accepted principles for managing risks. The study recommends that the Bank adopts an integrated, enterprise-wide risk management approach, promoting a corporate culture that understands risk management and incorporate it into the broader corporate strategy. Keywords: Risk, liquidity, capital adequacy, strategy, enterprise-wide risk managemen

Hearing Loss in Chronic Kidney Disease

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is assuming public health significance worldwide largely driven by the surge in diabetes mellitus, hypertension and obesity. CKD patients, particularly those from resource restraint regions of the world, face huge challenge in terms of accessibility and affordability to care. Besides these challenges in care, several other co-morbidities often exist among these patients in addition to the primary disease like diabetes and hypertension. Yet, these “subtle” co-morbidities are often overlooked by Caregivers. Hearing loss is one of such co-morbidities CKD patients face but it is often overlooked. The situation is worse among children who often cannot express themselves. The etiology of hearing loss among CKD patients are multifactorial. It is hoped that this neglected aspect of care for patients with chronic kidney disease will receive the needed attention for holistic care of the CKD patient

Indications and Outcomes of Corneal Transplant Surgery in Ghana

Background: Corneal blindness contributes to 25% of all blindness. We review corneal transplant, a common surgical remedy, in Ghana to determine indications and visual outcomes in resource-poor environments. Methods: A retrospective cross-sectional study of keratoplasty evaluating indications, pre- and postoperative outcomes complications and  their associations, between January 2014 and December 2018 at a teaching  hospital in Ghana. Descriptive statistics and McNemar’s test were used for the analyses. Results: Seventy-five eyes were studied. The mean ± standard deviation (SD) age of patients was 45.08 ± 17.85 years, the majority being 20–39 years (58.7% were male). Pseudophakia bullous keratopathy (PBK) was the commonest indication for keratoplasty (26.7%) followed by keratoconus (21.3%). Preoperatively 96% of eyes were blind with vision <3/60 with 64% out of the total eyes with vision <1/60. Postoperatively, 60% of all grafts had uncorrected vision of 3/60 or better after the last follow-up. McNemar’s test revealed a statistically  significant difference between postsurgical and pre-surgical visual acuity (VA) (p < 0. 001). The median follow-up period was 12 months. The commonest postsurgical complication was raised intraocular pressure (IOP) (22.7%) with a total of 14.7% of grafts failures. Conclusion: In this setting, PBK is the leading indication for corneal transplant. Visual outcomes for corneal transplant in this  resource poor area are not worse than in other settings. We need to pay attention to corneal transplant services to cater for the expected increase  in PBK from the increasing cataract surgical rate

Design for safety in construction:a study of design professionals in Kuwait

Purpose: Design for safety (DfS), also known as prevention through design (PtD), is a concept that mitigates accidents and hazards through considerations during the design stage of building projects. The literature provides much information on this concept, but such information is only limited to a few developed countries such as the UK, the USA and Australia. There is limited insight into DfS implementation in the construction industry of several countries, including countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) such as Kuwait. Therefore, this study investigates DfS implementation among design professionals in the Kuwait construction industry. Design/methodology/approach: The study used a questionnaire survey to obtain data from design professionals. The data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics (i.e. analysis of variance and t-test). Findings: The results revealed that DfS awareness among design professionals is very high; there is a very high willingness among design professionals to apply the concept, and design professionals generally view DfS implementation as important. Despite these, the frequency of implementation of DfS practices is generally moderate. In addition, the results revealed that though there is a high interest in DfS training among the design professionals, their actual engagement in training is low. The results also suggest some association between the frequency of engagement in the DfS practices and designers' DfS awareness, training and education. DfS related regulations, industry guidance, formal education and training are considered by design professionals to have the greatest influence on DfS implementation in Kuwait. Originality/Value: These emerging findings both mirror and contradict aspects of the outcomes of previous DfS studies in other countries. Furthermore, the findings from this study provide insights into a less investigated area regarding work-related health and safety in the GCC region. It offers new and additional information and insights into the current state-of-the-art DfS implementation in the construction industry in Kuwait. In view of the findings, joined-up efforts by government, industry and academia are needed to enhance DfS implementation by design professionals in Kuwait

Evaluation of Data Processing and Artifact Removal Approaches Used for Physiological Signals Captured Using Wearable Sensing Devices during Construction Tasks

Wearable sensing devices (WSDs) have enormous promise for monitoring construction worker safety. They can track workers and send safety-related information in real time, allowing for more effective and preventative decision making. WSDs are particularly useful on construction sites since they can track workers’ health, safety, and activity levels, among other metrics that could help optimize their daily tasks. WSDs may also assist workers in recognizing health-related safety risks (such as physical fatigue) and taking appropriate action to mitigate them. The data produced by these WSDs, however, is highly noisy and contaminated with artifacts that could have been introduced by the surroundings, the experimental apparatus, or the subject’s physiological state. These artifacts are very strong and frequently found during field experiments. So, when there is a lot of artifacts, the signal quality drops. Recently, artifacts removal has been greatly enhanced by developments in signal processing, which has vastly enhanced the performance. Thus, the proposed review aimed to provide an in-depth analysis of the approaches currently used to analyze data and remove artifacts from physiological signals obtained via WSDs during construction-related tasks. First, this study provides an overview of the physiological signals that are likely to be recorded from construction workers to monitor their health and safety. Second, this review identifies the most prevalent artifacts that have the most detrimental effect on the utility of the signals. Third, a comprehensive review of existing artifact-removal approaches were presented. Fourth, each identified artifact detection and removal approach was analyzed for its strengths and weaknesses. Finally, in conclusion, this review provides a few suggestions for future research for improving the quality of captured physiological signals for monitoring the health and safety of construction workers using artifact removal approaches

Low referral completion of rapid diagnostic test-negative patients in community-based treatment of malaria in Sierra Leone

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