Human rights limitations: clarifying the emerging obligations of business

The United Nations recognises that businesses have responsibility for human rights and there are ongoing negotiations that may lead to the adoption of legally binding framework to ascribe human rights obligations to businesses. The present study considers that ascribing human rights obligations to businesses raises the corresponding need to clarify whether human rights limitations could be factored into their obligations. In contribution to the clarification of this issue, this thesis examines two requirements for permissible limitation of human rights, namely, the concepts of ‘law’ and ‘legitimate aims’. It undertakes a legal analysis of these concepts in terms of whether within the specific context of business, they might respectively include (i) rules that are generated by businesses themselves and (ii) the core interests of businesses as grounds for human rights limitations. It shows how the doctrine of private delegation explains the disposition of businesses to generate rules that may serve as valid bases for human rights limitations and finally proposes the core interests of businesses that may also have to be prioritised as the ‘equivalents’ of legitimate grounds for human rights limitations in business contexts

The role of politics in attempts to resolve the Manya-Yilo conflict in Ghana

Conflict over a natural resource deposit is commonplace in many resourcerich African countries. Such is the case at Odugblase in the Eastern Region of Ghana where the Manya Krobo and the Yilo Krobo traditional councils are in a protracted conflict pertaining to their claims of sovereignty overland-sites where limestone is mined – each vying for a greater portion of the mineral royalties set aside for local authorities. This article studies theattempts by the government and the mining company (Ghana Cement Limited) to resolve the Manya-Yilo conflict, in order to understand whynone of them was successful. This study finds that the government’s committee of enquiry to resolve the Manya-Yilo conflict was unsuccessfulas the investigation process did not adequately involve the traditional councils and there is no political will to enforce the recommendation of thecommittee. Similarly, a mediation attempt by Ghana Cement Limited was unsuccessful due to the limited involvement of the opponents. The complex political structure, the inadequate regulations for distributing mineral royalties, and weak municipal assemblies are major factors protracting the Manya-Yilo conflict. The traditional councils need to negotiate with each other so that they and their respective municipal assemblies  receive the limestone royalties and use the funds to develop the mining community. Keywords: natural resource conflict, revenues claimed, adjudication, mediation, politics, Ghan

Blockchain Value Creation Logics and Financial Returns

With its complexities and portfolio-nature, the advent of blockchain technology presents several use cases to stakeholders for business value appropriation and financial gains. This 3-essay dissertation focuses on three exemplars and research approaches to understanding the value creation logics of blockchain technology for financial gains. The first essay is a conceptual piece that explores five main affordances of blockchain technology and how these can be actualized and assimilated for business value. Based on the analysis of literature findings, an Affordance-Experimentation-Actualization-Assimilation (AEAA) model is proposed. The model suggests five affordance-to-assimilation value chains and eight value interdependencies that firms can leverage to optimize their value creation and capture during blockchain technology implementation. The second essay empirically examines the financial returns of public firms\u27 blockchain adoption investments at the level of the three main blockchain archetypes (private-permissioned, public-permissioned and permissionless. Drawing upon Fichman\u27s model of the option value of innovative IT platform investments, the study examines business value creation through firm blockchain strategy (i.e., archetype instances, decentralization, and complementarity), learning (i.e., blockchain patents and event participation), and bandwagon effects using quarterly data of firm archetype investments from 2015 to 2020. The study\u27s propensity score matching utilization and fixed-effects modeling provide objective quantification of how blockchain adoption leads to increases in firm value (performance measured by Tobin\u27s q) at the archetype level (permissionless, public permissioned, and private permissioned). Surprisingly, a more decentralized archetype and a second different archetype implementation are associated with a lower Tobin\u27s q. In addition, IT-option proxy parameters such as blockchain patent originality, participation in blockchain events, and network externality positively impact firm performance, whereas the effect of blockchain patents is negative. As the foremost and more established use case of blockchain technology whose business value is accessed in either of the five affordances and exemplifies a permissionless archetype for financial gains, bitcoin cryptocurrency behavior is studied through the lens of opinion leaders on Twitter. The third essay this relationship understands the hourly price returns and volatility shocks that sentiments from opinion leaders generate and vice-versa. With a dynamic opinion leader identification strategy, lexicon and rule-based sentiment analytics, I extract sentiments of the top ten per cent bitcoin opinion leaders\u27 tweets. Controlling for various economic indices and contextual factors, the study estimates a vector autoregression model (VAR) and finds that finds that Bitcoin return granger cause Polarity but the influence of sentiment subjectivity is marginal and only stronger on bitcoin price volatility. Several key implications for blockchain practitioners and financial stakeholders and suggestions for future research are discussed

Parental HIV/AIDS status and death, and children's psychological wellbeing

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Ghana has an estimated one million orphans, 250,000 are due to AIDS parental deaths. This is the first study that examined the impact of parental HIV/AIDS status and death on the mental health of children in Ghana.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In a cross-sectional survey, 4 groups of 200 children (children whose parents died of AIDS, children whose parents died of causes other than AIDS, children living with parents infected with HIV/AIDS, and non-orphaned children whose parents are not known to be infected with HIV/AIDS) aged between 10 and 19 were interviewed on their hyperactivity, emotional, conduct, and peer problems using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Children whose parents died of AIDS showed very high levels of peer problems [F (3,196) = 7.34, p < .001] whilst both orphaned groups scored similarly high on conduct problems [F (3, 196) = 14.85, p < .001]. Hyperactivity showed no difference and was very low in the entire sample. Emotional problems were very high in all the groups except among the non-orphaned children [F (3, 196) = 5.10, p < .001].</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Orphans and children living with parents infected with HIV/AIDS are at heightened risks for emotional and behavioural disorders and that efforts to address problems in children affected by HIV/AIDS must focus on both groups of children. Parallel to this, researchers should see these findings as generated hypotheses (rather than conclusions) calling for further exploration of specific causal linkages between HIV/AIDS and children's mental health, using more rigorous research tools and designs.</p

The Information Needs and Information-seeking Behavior of Health Care Practitioners: A Case Study of Health Care Practitioners of the Narh-Bita Hospital, Tema, Ghana.

Health information plays a major role in the delivery of care worldwide. it helps physicians make informed clinical decisions for the betterment of their patients. This study examined the information needs and information-seeking behavior of health care practitioners at the Narh-Bita hospital, Tema. The study employed the survey method and a questionnaire was used as an instrument for data collection. A sample of 69 health practitioners were randomly selected and given questionnaires to fill. Data obtained was analyzed using frequency accounts and simple percentages. The results showed that practitioners\u27 information needs covered different clinical topic areas. The information-seeking behavior of practitioners was also found to vary towards a range of information resources with computer-based information resources being dominant. The study further revealed that the information resources consulted by practitioners had an impact on their clinical decision-making. It therefore recommended that measures should be put in place to ensure that there is reliable Internet connection for practitioners to access the open Internet and on-line databases to satisfy their numerous information needs

Peanut yield response to micro and macronutrients of a Ferric Lixisol in the Guinea savanna zone of Ghana

abstractA field experiment was conducted on a Ferric Lixisol at the Savanna Agriculture Research Institute, Wa (10° 3I N, 20° 50I W) in the Guinea savannah zone of Ghana in 2010 and 2011, to study the effect of Cu, Mn, Zn, Ca, P and K on elemental uptake, peanut yield and yield components. Nine treatments were arranged in a randomized complete block (RCB) design with four replicates. Results from the study showed that nutrient application had a positive effect on nutrient concentration, nutrient uptake, pod yield, seed yield and total biomass. The PK + gypsum + Zn treatment had the highest pod yield, seed yield and total biomass. Increases in pod yield of the fertilized treatments ranged between 16.6 per cent and 47.8 per cent over the control. Where micronutrients were combined, some antagonism between micronutrients was also observed. Application of the macronutrients P and K and the micronutrient Zn had the greatest impact on yield.Original scientific paper. Received 16 Sep 14; revised 31 Mar 15