Structure Functions of the Nucleon in a Soliton Model

We study nucleon structure functions in the soliton picture of the bosonized Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model. We focus on their vacuum contributions and examine whether they are outweighed by their valence quark counterparts.Comment: 4 pages, contribution to the proc. of int. conf. QNP18, Tsukuba (Japan), Nov. 201

Nucleon Structure Functions from the NJL-Model Chiral Soliton

We present numerical simulations for unpolarized and polarized structure functions in a chiral soliton model. The soliton is constructed self-consistently from quark fields from which the structure functions are extracted. Central to the project is the implementation of regularizing the Dirac sea (or vacuum) contribution to structure functions from first principles. We discuss in detail how sum rules are realized at the level of the quark wave-functions in momentum space. The comparison with experimental data is convincing for the polarized structure functions but exhibits some discrepancies in the unpolarized case. The vacuum contribution to the polarized structure functions is particularly small.Comment: 23 pages, 11 figure

Hair zinc status and its correlation with height indicator in pre-school and school children from a mixed income, low density (mild) community in southern Ghana

Objectives: To determine and assess the chronic zinc nutritional status of pre-school and school children living in a mixed-income, low-density (mild) community in southern Ghana and determine if zinc deficiency was implicated in growth stunting of the children. Design: Prospective/comparative study. Setting: A cluster of schools, made up of a nursery, two primary schools and two Junior Secondary School pupils living in Kwabenya, a village recently transformed into an urban community. Subjects: Three hundred and fourty four pupils, aged two and half to eighteen years. Main outcome measures: Levels of hair zinc were determined in three hundred and fourty four pupils, aged two and half to eighteen years, using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer. Age was assessed from birth baptismal certificates while height was determined using stainless steel stadiometer. The socio-economic status of the children was also assessed using pretested, weighted and structured questionnaires. Results: The chronic zinc nutritional status was generally good. Out of 344 pupils, 72% (248/344) had adequate status, while 11% were zinc deficient and 9.5% marginally deficient. Excess zinc status was found in 7.5% (26/344) of the children. It appears that growth stunting was not associated with zinc deficiency neither was zinc status affected by the socio-economic status of the children's families. Conclusion: Nutritional education should be mounted to families of children with deficient, marginally-deficient and excess zinc status and to encourage those with adequate status to maintain their zinc status. East African Medical Journal Vol.81(1) 2004: 42-4

The Challenge of Involvement and Detachment in Participant Observation

The technique of participant observation, and the roles involved, have been widely discussed in the literature across a range of settings and topics. However, researchers rarely argue for a particular role that a participant observer should adopt. In this paper, I attempt to argue for the participant-as-observer role. I do so by reviewing existing literature on the topic. I argue that the complete observer and the complete participant roles are not applicable in today\u27s research environment because, aside from their practical problems, they violate the ethical requirement of informed consent. I argued further that the observer-as-participant role, with its limited involvement in the life of informants, not only prevents the researcher from fully understanding the context of the study, but also instils doubts and suspicion in informants, leading to concealment or distortion of data. I therefore conclude that, where all the four roles are possible, the participant-as-observer role, which offers a higher degree of involvement, should be employed to enable the researcher to get deeper understanding of the context under study. I add, however, that the participant observer should, in this case, account for his/her biases and their possible effects on his/her observations

Child Labour in Ghana: Ecological Perspective

One of the major socio-economic problem that have engaged the attention of world leaders and researchers presently is child labour. The phenomenon persists in spite of the effort made by International Labour Organization and other reputable organizations to eliminate it. This paper examines this phenomenon in African context, with specific reference to Ghana. It draws on the ecological approach in Community Psychology which claims that, in both research and intervention planning, the notion of context must be placed front and centre. International conventions that seek to eliminate child labour, as well as Ghana’s Children’s Act, are examined in relation to the Ghanaian culture. Besides, several studies and articles in the area of child labour are also examined. It is argued that, for interventions to be successful, it should take into account the culture of the people. Thus, child labour and its related light work should be given contextual definitions. Keywords: Child Labour, Ecological Perspective, Ghana, Culture, Context

Nets and Nettles: Two Conceptions of Community for Two Ghanaian Migrant Businesses

In this paper, I present two distinct approaches to migrant entrepreneurship. I conducted an ethnography of two Ghanaian migrant businesses, one of which draws on the Ghanaian community, and the other which distances itself from it. I show that our current understanding of social capital romanticises the notion of community, and that from the perspective of particular entrepreneurs, the same mechanisms by which social capital provides benefits for businesses can as well lead to detrimental effects. I argue that the nature of community as well as the resources that members have at their disposal, has implications for the particular entrepreneurial strategies that members adopt. There are multiple, sometimes conflicting, tendencies in any particular entrepreneurial context, and I propose that the configuration of factors, like individual and community resources, leads to the dominance of one or other of the various tendencies that constrain entrepreneurial strategy. In this study, two entrepreneurial approaches emerge: community-orientation and market-orientation. I propose the notion of strategic coethnicity to explain the operation of the two identified entrepreneurial approaches

Helping Others Through The Holidays: The Importance Of Relationship Building To Support Communities

Low-income communities lack resources in the areas of education, healthcare, mental health, etc. These environments limit shoppers from purchasing healthy foods and in some cases any food at all. Commonwealth Mental Health and Wellness Center (CMHWC) is a comprehensive behavioral health and wellness clinic that provides the highest standard of care for its clientele while also meeting their diverse needs. The purpose of this senior level internship was to assist families in need with access to food items for Thanksgiving. Clients participated in a needs assessment to provide a better understanding of what each individual family needed. Donor and provider letters were sent out requesting donations for these families. A total of 50 families were provided with Thanksgiving holiday baskets during the 2020 giveaway

Criminality in the microfinance sector: a symptom of “broken window”

The phenomenal rate of deviant acts in the microfinance sector of Ghana’s economy has generated a great deal of debate about its ramifications for the future of the sector and financial inclusion efforts. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) target 16:4 acknowledges the dangers syndicated crimes pose to the attainment of the goals and proposes a reduction in all forms of illicit financial flows and organized crime by 2030. In this paper, it is argued that one of the major effects of criminality in the microfinance sector is the deepening of financial exclusion of people who are already on the fringes of the financial inclusion bracket. Semi-structured and in-depth interview guides were used to collect data for the study. The Broken Window theory of criminology was adopted as the theoretical framework to guide the study. The study found that criminal and fraudulent activities in the microfinance sector are real issues that need attention. The study concludes that the laxity and delays on the part of state institutions mandated to regulate the sector and their inability to crack the whip on criminal elements in the sector have contributed to the festering of crimes in the sector and its resultant financial exclusion. The study recommends that regulatory agencies should develop and deploy stringent monitoring and surveillance regime in order to forestall the occurrence of criminal activities which have plagued the sector

"Intimate Knowledge of the Country": Factions and Struggles for Administrative Control in the Early Gold Coast Government, 1844-1854

This paper examines conflicts between factions in the early British colonial administration in the Gold Coast. The reversion of administration control from the company of merchants to the Colonial Office generated hostility within the administration. Mercantile resentment stemmed from a perception that metropolitan control was likely to undermine the results of their labours and jeopardise their commercial interests. These circumstances provided a fertile breeding ground for the pattern of conflicts that embroiled officials of the colonial administration from 1844. However, when allowed the opportunity to influence administrative policy, merchants adopted cordial relations with the new officials and readily offered their cooperation. This study suggests that we cannot assume that colonial administrations functioned as coherent units. Another implication is that uncritically accepting the ‘coloniser’ and ‘colonised’ dichotomy obscures many important differences within each category and blinds us to the important social and political implications of these internal divisions