• Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• 제22권1호
• /
• pp.40-54
• /
• 2017

According to FAO, "agricultural sectors are particularly exposed to the effects of climate change and increases climate variability". As a result, the study makes an attempt to answer the question: Is there a causal effect between agricultural production and carbon dioxide emissions in Ghana? By employing a time series data spanning from 1960 to 2015 using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag method. There was evidence of a long-run equilibrium relationship running from copra production, corn production, green coffee production, milled rice production, millet production, palm kernel production and sorghum production to carbon dioxide emissions. The short-run equilibrium relationship shows that, a 1% increase in copra and green coffee production will increase carbon dioxide emissions by 0.22% and 0.03%, a 1% increase in millet and sorghum production will decrease carbon dioxide emissions by 0.13% and 0.11% in the short-run while a 31% of future fluctuations in carbon dioxide emissions are due to shocks in corn production. There was bidirectional causality between milled rice production and carbon dioxide emissions, millet production and carbon dioxide emissions and, sorghum production and carbon dioxide emissions; and a unidirectional causality running from corn production to carbon dioxide emissions and carbon dioxide emissions to palm kernel production.

• 한국해양바이오학회지
• /
• 제3권1호
• /
• pp.18-23
• /
• 2008

Fisheries constitute an important sector in national economic development, and estimate to contribute about 3% of the total GDP and 5% of the GDP in agriculture. Fish production from aquaculture has been estimated at 950 tonnes for 2004. In 2003, Ghana produced only 51.7% of its requirements from its domestic sources and in 2004, achieved 68.1% of its fish requirement through domestic production and imports. It has been estimated that the production from ponds and culture-based fisheries is worth about US$ 1.5 million a year. The aquaculture sub sector comprises largely small-scale subsistence farmers who practice extensive aquaculture in earthen ponds in contrast to the intensive practices of commercial farmers. There is one cage facility which produces 200 tonnes or 21.1% of the total output. There are several laws to regulate and govern the sector and the government has set up institutions that are responsible for developing fisheries and aquaculture policy and directing and establishing research priorities. The Directorate of Fisheries (DoF) is the lead government agency for aquaculture development and the Water Research Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) is mandated to carry out aquaculture research. To promote fish farming, imports of farm fish are not allowed.

• Safety and Health at Work
• /
• 제10권3호
• /
• pp.341-346
• /
• 2019

Background: Although the concept of workload is important to nursing practice, only a few nursing researchers have focused on the issue of workload within the nursing context. Knowledge of how the dynamics of workload affects the job stress of nurses working in a specific unit or department in a hospital setting, and the influence of coworker support on this relationship, still remains limited. This study, therefore examined the effect of workload on job stress of Ghanaian outpatient department nurses and the moderating effect of coworker support on this relationship. Methods: A cross-sectional survey design was used, and questionnaire was used to collect data from a sample of 216 outpatient department nurses from four major hospitals in Ghana. The data collected measured workload, job stress, and coworker support using National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Task Load Index, job stress scale, and coworker support scale, respectively. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, correlation, and hierarchical regression. Results: High levels of workload were associated with high levels of job stress of the nurses. Also, higher levels of workload were related to higher levels of job stress for nurses who received high levels of coworker support, but this was not the case for those who received low levels of coworker support (reserve buffering effect). Conclusion: The finding reiterates the adverse effect of workloads on employees' health, and the reverse buffering effect implies that supporting a colleague at work should be conveyed in a positive manner devoid of negative appraisal.

• 한국벤처창업학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 한국벤처창업학회 2018년도 추계학술대회
• /
• pp.269-275
• /
• 2018

Electronic commerce, the act of trading online, with its myriad of potential has been seldom looked at within the context of developing countries. E-commerce presents SMEs in developing economies the opportunity to adequately compete on a global stage. The exponential growth of e-commerce in developed economies further widens the financial gap between developed and developing economies. This study looks at a practical e-commerce adoption framework for Ghanaian SMEs and by extension, developing economies and looks at the net benefits that are available to current adopters. The study uses structural equation modeling, using Partial least squares (PLS) regression to analyze the data in the research. Using PLS algorithms as well as bootstrapping calculations. It combines the use of surveys (154) and interviews (38) as means of data collection. The findings of the research indicate that there is a need for legislation on e-commerce trading to regulate the trade in Ghana, with policies such as e-contracting and e-signature laws among others. Also, a current call for an expansion of the mobile payment methods within the country. For the private investor, a ripe market for logistics services. The study also proposes a simple guideline for SMEs looking to adopt or expand their e-commerce usage, that considers technological, organizational and environmental factors that come to play within e-commerce adoption.

• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
• /
• 제36권4호
• /
• pp.298-310
• /
• 2020

Fuel management can play enormous role in fire management in tropical dry forests. However, unlike the temperate forests, knowledge on implications of different fuel management methods in tropical forests is often inadequate. In this study, the implications of prescribed burning and hand thinning treatments on implementation cost, fuel loading and post-treatment fire behaviour were tested and compared in degraded forests and teak plantations in two forest reserves of different levels of dryness in Ghana. The study found that prescribed burning was less expensive (62.02 US Dollars ha-1) than hand thinning (95.37 US Dollars ha-1). The study also indicated that the two fuel management methods were able to reduce fuel loading in degraded forests and teak plantations. However, prescribed burning was more effective in reducing fuel loading than hand thinning. While the relative change of fuel reduction was 13% higher in prescribed burning than the hand thinning in degraded forest, it was 41% higher in prescribed burning than hand thinning in teak plantations. The fire behaviour of post-treatment experimental fire was also lower in prescribed burning than the hand thinning and control plots. Fuel management, therefore, has a great potential in fire management in degraded forests and teak plantations in Ghana.

• 국제학술발표논문집
• /
• The 7th International Conference on Construction Engineering and Project Management Summit Forum on Sustainable Construction and Management
• /
• pp.313-320
• /
• 2017

Price fluctuation contract is imperative and of paramount essence in the construction industry as it provides adequate relief and cushioning for changes in the prices of input resources during construction. As a result, several methods have been devised to better help in arriving at fair recompense in the event of price chang es. However, stakeholders often appear not to be satisfied with the existing methods of fluctuation evaluation, ostensibly because of the challenges associated with them. The aim of this study was to identify the challenges to usage of building construction cost indices in Ghana. Data was gathered from contractors and quantity surveying firms. The study utilized survey questionnaire approach to elicit responses from the contractors and the consultants. Data gathered was analyzed scientifically, using the Relative Importance Index (RII) to rank the problems associated with the existing methods. The findings revealed the following among others; late release of data; inadequate recovery of costs; and work items of interest not included in the published indices as the main challenges of the existing methods. This study will provide useful lessons for policy makers and practitioners in decision making towards the usage and improvement of available indices.

• 한국의학물리학회지:의학물리
• /
• 제35권1호
• /
• pp.1-9
• /
• 2024

Margin inclusion or exclusion remains the most critical and controversial aspect of stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) for metastatic brain tumors. This review aimed to examine the available literature on the impact of margins in SRS of brain metastasis and to assess the response of some medical physicists on the use of these margins. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses method was used to review articles published in PubMed, Embase, and Science Direct databases from January 2012 to December 2022 using the following keywords: planning target volume, brain metastasis, margin, and stereotactic radiosurgery. A simple survey consisting of five questions was completed by ten medical physicists with experience in SRS treatment planning. The results were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics version 26.0. Of the 1,445 articles identified, only 38 articles were chosen. Of these, eight papers were deemed relevant to the focus of this review. These papers showed an increase in the risk of radionecrosis, whereas differences in local control were variable as the margin increased. In the survey, the response rate to whether or not to use margins in SRS, a critical question, was 50%. Margin addition increases the risk of radio necrosis. The local control rate varies among treatment modalities and cannot be generalized. From the survey, no consensus was reached regarding the use of these margins. This calls for further deliberations among professionals directly involved in SRS.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• 제54권3호
• /
• pp.842-848
• /
• 2022

Parametric studies of heat transfer and fluid flow are very important research of interest because the design and operation of fluid flow and heat transfer systems are guided by these parametric studies. The safety of the system operation and system optimization can be determined by decreasing or increasing particular fluid flow and heat transfer parameter while keeping other parameters constant. The parameters that can be varied in order to determine safe and optimized system include system pressure, mass flow rate, heat flux and coolant inlet temperature among other parameters. The fluid flow and heat transfer systems can also be enhanced by the presence of or without the presence of particular effects including gravity effect among others. The advanced Generation IV reactors to be deployed for large electricity production, have proven to be more thermally efficient (approximately 45% thermal efficiency) than the current light water reactors with a thermal efficiency of approximately 33 ℃. SCWR is one of the Generation IV reactors intended for electricity generation. High Performance Light Water Reactor (HPLWR) is a SCWR type which is under consideration in this study. One-eighth of a proposed fuel assembly design for HPLWR consisting of 7 fuel/rod bundles with 9 coolant sub-channels was the geometry considered in this study to examine the effects of system pressure and mass flow rate on wall and fluid temperatures. Gravity effect on wall and fluid temperatures were also examined on this one-eighth fuel assembly geometry. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code, STAR-CCM+, was used to obtain the results of the numerical simulations. Based on the parametric analysis carried out, sub-channel 4 performed better in terms of heat transfer because temperatures predicted in sub-channel 9 (corner subchannel) were higher than the ones obtained in sub-channel 4 (central sub-channel). The influence of system mass flow rate, pressure and gravity seem similar in both sub-channels 4 and 9 with temperature distributions higher in sub-channel 9 than in sub-channel 4. In most of the cases considered, temperature distributions (for both fluid and wall) obtained at 25 MPa are higher than those obtained at 23 MPa, temperature distributions obtained at 601.2 kg/h are higher than those obtained at 561.2 kg/h, and temperature distributions obtained without gravity effect are higher than those obtained with gravity effect. The results show that effects of system pressure, mass flowrate and gravity on fluid flow and heat transfer are significant and therefore parametric studies need to be performed to determine safe and optimum operating conditions of fluid flow and heat transfer systems.

• 월간포장계
• /
• 통권294호
• /
• pp.75-81
• /
• 2017

• 대한전기학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 대한전기학회 2008년도 제39회 하계학술대회
• /
• pp.38-39
• /
• 2008

KEPCO conducted the project called the "Feasibility Study for the Han (Ghana) - Bobo Dioulasso (Burkina Faso) - Bamako (Mali) Interconnection Project" as its first African project. This paper deals with power system analysis and Transmission line and substation design of approximately 750 kilometers of the 225 kV single circuit transmission lines and six substations. The main contents of the power system analysis results and preliminary engineering design include power flow, transient stability, eigenvalue analysis, transmission line design, substation design and economic analysis.