Authors:Kwame Obeng, Eric Kwabena Forkuo, Jonathan Arthur Quaye-Ballard, Yaw Mensah Asare, Patrick Opoku, Adwoa Semdu Obeng Pages: 1 - 18 Abstract: The Densu basin has a lot of natural resources and serves as a source of livelihood for millions of people in terms of agriculture, tourism, and employment. The basin has undergone a lot of Land Use Land Cover changes which is caused by deforestation, mining and some agricultural practices. This research assessed the rate, extent, and distribution of LULC in the Densu basin of Ghana from 1991 to 2020. Landsat images for 1991, 2002, 2008, 2014, and 2020 were selected for classification with five LULC classes namely; forest, farmland, grass and shrub, bare land and settlement, and waterbodies. The Random Forest Classification algorithm was used for the classification. A total of 250 ground-truthing samples and image interpretation was used in developing training data. Throughout the study period, forest and farmland decreased by 10.27% and 12.19% respectively. Grassland and shrub, bare land and settlement, and waterbodies increased by 4.8%, 17.19%, and 0.47% respectively. The study revealed that many farmlands and forests have been converted into bare land and settlements as a result of urbanization and most of these locations have grassland and shrubs surrounding them for beautification reasons. Activities like salt and sand winning are implicated in the increase in water because they cause craters that eventually fill with water. The overall accuracy ranged from 92 to 96 with the overall kappa ranging from 0.91 to 0.95 indicating a good classification performance. Knowledge of these LULC changes is of great importance to policymakers for the monitoring and protection of natural resources PubDate: 2023-04-19 Issue No:Vol. 41, No. 1 (2023)
Authors:Olakiitan Ibukun Adeniyi, Ruth Olonijolu Ifeoluwa , Vivian Ifeyinwa Omekam , Akinrefon Adesupo Adeoye , Mercy Oladuti Olubimpe Pages: 19 - 30 Abstract: The society and the environment have great influence on the attitudes and the decisions made by her residents. The age at which a woman enters marriage to some extent is influenced by the society and the environment she lives in and some other socio-demographic factors. This study employs a hierarchical survival analysis which account for state differences in the age at first marriage among Nigerian women using the dataset from 2018 National Demographic Health survey. The Cox model with two independent random effects was used to provide parameter estimates as well as estimates of the random effects variances at all the levels. It was found that state heterogeneity had the highest contribution and location of residence within the state also contributed to the differences in the timing of marriage. The study also revealed that region, location of residence, wealth index, respondent age at first sex, birth cohort, religious affiliation and educational qualification of the women were significant factors in determining the age at first marriage. PubDate: 2023-04-19 Issue No:Vol. 41, No. 1 (2023)
Authors:Dominic Niliyuun Najoin, Linda Dari Pages: 31 - 41 Abstract: The research was conducted to determine the physicochemical characteristics of watermelon wine developed from four different Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains (Lalvin EC 1118, Lalvin QA 23, Redstar rouge and Redstar premier classique). The physicochemical characteristics of the treatments determined included pH, titratable acidity, °Brix, and ethanol content. The data obtained were subjected to two-way analysis of variance. The mean pH, titratable acidity, apparent °Brix and ethanol during fermentation ranged between 3.629-3.848, 1.090-1.85%, 17.69-8.13°Brix, and 1.530-7.545ABV% respectively. It was noticed that the fermentation time significantly influenced the physicochemical parameters examined irrespective of the yeast strain used. However, the physicochemical characteristics findings showed that all the yeast strains used were suitable for watermelon wine production. PubDate: 2023-04-19 Issue No:Vol. 41, No. 1 (2023)
Authors:Charles Yaw Oduro, Ronald Adamtey, Clifford Amoako Pages: 42 - 64 Abstract: Rural Ghana has potential for widespread use of biogas energy by households, which would contribute to the achievement of UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 7 (affordable and clean energy). However, knowledge of households’ willingness to adopt it is still scanty. Therefore, this paper examines socio-economic factors that may influence the willingness of households in the Birim North District of Ghana to adopt biogas energy for cooking. Using survey data, the study analyses the effects of gender, age, education and occupation of household heads, household size, type of energy currently used for cooking, household expenditure on energy for cooking, income and prior awareness on willingness to adopt biogas. Data were collected from a random sample of 392 households, and analysed using chi-square and multiple binary logistic regression methods. With the exception of education, all the socio-economic variables stated above have significant effects on households’ willingness to adopt biogas technology. However, the exact nature of the influence of these variables (i.e. whether negative or positive) does not necessarily conform to what pertains elsewhere. The findings provide local governments and other stakeholders with relevant insights to properly target households with appropriate educational and marketing strategies for biogas adoption. PubDate: 2023-04-19 Issue No:Vol. 41, No. 1 (2023)
Authors:Mark Boata, Raphael Johnson, Yaa Asantewaa Osei, Yaw Duah Boakye, Francis Kwaku Amankwah, Frederick William Akuffo Owusu, Stephen Yao Gbedema Pages: 65 - 81 Abstract: Hospital-acquired infections (HAI) are known to be responsible for prolonging hospital admissions and increasing mortality rates worldwide. Disinfectants are used to clean surfaces to reduce the risk of transmission of pathogens responsible for HAI in medical facilities. This study sought to determine the efficacy of disinfectants prepared and used in some medical facilities in the Kumasi metropolis. Forty-two disinfectants were sampled from the sanitary departments of fourteen health facilities selected in the Kumasi Metropolis. The antimicrobial activity of the selected disinfectants was evaluated on test microorganisms using the Agar well diffusion method and Chick martin tests. All 42 disinfectants sampled from the health facilities were identified to be different brands and concentrations of sodium hypochlorite solution. At the stated concentrations of dilution (1.2 -1.8 % v/v) of use, none of the 42 disinfectants showed any zone of inhibition against the test organisms (E. faecalis, E. coli, P. aeruginosa, S. aureus, S. typhi, and C. albicans) used. The study revealed that the concentration of sodium hypochlorite was lower than what was stated on the manufacturer’s label. However, the prepared concentrations (between 2.0 and 6.0 % v/v) of the disinfectants showed antimicrobial activity against the test organisms. The study has shown that at the stated concentrations of use in various health facilities, the selected disinfectants did not display any antimicrobial activity against the test organisms and therefore cannot prevent the transmission of HAI in the medical facilities. At the stated concentration, thick perfumed and Madar bleach produced better antimicrobial activity. Higher concentrations prepared of at least 2.0 % v/v of selected disinfectants are recommended to achieve effective disinfection in health facilities. PubDate: 2023-04-19 Issue No:Vol. 41, No. 1 (2023)
Authors:Mohammed Abdul-Kabir, Alvin J Munsamy , Ahmed Abdul-Sadik Pages: 82 - 100 Abstract: Purpose: This survey was designed to assess the available ophthalmic service delivery units and the eye health promotion strategy in the Ashanti region of Ghana. Methods: Twenty-four (24) eye care delivery units in 10 districts, randomly selected from the 43 in the Ashanti region, were assessed for this cross-sectional study, using a structured questionnaire adopted from the Questionnaire on Available Human Resources, Infrastructure and Equipment. The structured, pretested questionnaire was used to collect data from the most senior eye cadre in each of the facilities, with respect to the available human resources, infrastructure and service delivery. Thereafter the availability and implementation of eye health promotion tools were determined by interviewing district directors of health services and eye care cadres in the sampled districts. Results: Of the sampled districts, 40% do not have any ophthalmic facilities operated by the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and three (30%) of the sampled districts also do not have any private ophthalmic service delivery units. All sampled eye care facilities were equipped with most of the basic, but essential, diagnostic and refraction equipment, including visual acuity charts, trial lens sets, trial lens frames and ophthalmoscopes. Fewer of the sampled facilities provided specialty services, such as contact lens services (20.8%), low vision services (8.3%), and binocular vision care (25.0%). None of the districts (100%) had a formalised eye health promotion and advocacy strategy. Conclusion: In the Ashanti region of Ghana, there exists an uneven distribution of ophthalmic facilities; limited specialised ophthalmic services; insufficient eye care cadres; and very limited advanced diagnostic equipment. The ratio of eye care cadres to population lags behind the VISION 2020 target. Of the districts, 60% do not have public-funded eye clinics. There is no evidence of existing eye health promotion strategies at the district level in the Ashanti region of Ghana. PubDate: 2023-04-19 Issue No:Vol. 41, No. 1 (2023)
Authors:Marina Aferiba Tandoh , Regina Turkson, Charles Apprey Pages: 101 - 112 Abstract: Food labels are important tools for promoting healthy eating, preventing food borne diseases and food allergies. Examining consumers’ experiences with food labels helps to measure their impact in fulfilling these purposes. A survey was conducted among 193 students from three Training Colleges in the Western North Region of Ghana. A validated questionnaire was used to solicit information on demographics, nutrition knowledge exposure, food label use, factors and challenges that affect food label use. There were 53.9% males and 46.1% females, with the majority of them within the age of twenty and twenty-five years (86.1%). Most participants viewed food labels as very important information used in the choice of packaged foods (89.6%). Food label information, often read by users were the expiry dates (94.2%), name of the product (89.1%) and manufacturing dates (83.9%). With nutrition information, participants focused very often on proteins (69.9%), fats (62.2%), vitamins and minerals (63.2%). Factors that influenced food label use were nutrition knowledge (73.1%), health status (70.5%) and educational level (61.1%). Even though food label use was high among participants, they strongly agreed that small font size (39.9%), inability to interpret nutritional values (36.3%) and unfamiliar terminologies (35.8%) impeded maximum utilization of the information. In addition, 48.2% agreed that limited time for shopping also limited their use of food label information. The study, therefore, suggests that public education on food labels should be intensified and policies that will simplify food label information should be considered to enhance better understanding and consequently promote healthy food choices. PubDate: 2023-04-19 Issue No:Vol. 41, No. 1 (2023)
Authors:Christiana Subaar, Joseph Kwabena Amoako , Alfred Owusu, Kwasi Preko, Sylvester K Danuor Pages: 113 - 126 Abstract: The study measured brain (head) temperature variation of patients during magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) examinations. The challenges of measuring temperature increase in-vivo during MRI have led to an increase in the use of numerical methods to precisely predict and quantify the temperature increase and distribution in the human brain during a normal MRI scan. To this end, an explicit formula in the finite difference time domain has been applied to solve Penne’s bioheat equation with the help of the matrix laboratory (MATLAB) programming language. Three-dimensional temperature distribution in patients during MRI was estimated. The study was carried out at the 37 Military Hospital and the Diagnostic Center Limited, Ghana. Fifty (50) adult patients’ forehead temperatures were measured with an infra-red thermometer before and after the MRI. The ages of the patients ranged from 32 to 68 years, with a body mass index ranging between 22.16 and 44.16 kgm-2. The lowest temperature during the MRI from the simulated results was 37.5 o C and the highest temperature was 42.5 o C. The results during MRI scan depicted brain hyperthermia, predicting that the radiofrequency of electromagnetic radiation during MRI leads to tissue heating resulting temperature being highest on the skin, low in the skull, and higher again in the brain. The highest stimulated brain temperature during the brain MRI study depicts brain hyperthermia, and this effect may be caused by the MRI components and the pathological condition of the patient. The experimental results validated the theoretical results by showing that there is a temperature increase after patients’ brain MRI scans. However, the intermittently measured pre-and post-scan temperatures were all within guidance level of 1 °C recommended by the United States Food and Administration and the International Electrotechnical Commission PubDate: 2023-04-19 Issue No:Vol. 41, No. 1 (2023)
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