Suchergebnisse

Flooding is a major problem in many developing urban centres in Ghana, including the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis (STM). Residents who are living close to the Anankwari, Kansawura and Whin rivers in the metropolis often experience flooding when the rivers overflow their banks, resulting in lives being lost, people being displaced and properties being destroyed. One durable solution to the flooding problem is voluntary and permanent relocation of 'vulnerable' residents; but this form of solution cannot be achieved without a clear understanding of the sociocultural factors that influence the decision-making process. This study uniquely investigated the sociocultural and economic factors affecting voluntary and permanent relocation of flood victims, using Eshiem, Kansawurodo and Whindo communities as a case study. Employing a mixed cross-sectional design method, 207 heads of households were selected to fill in questionnaires; interviews were conducted with nine representatives of the traditional councils, and areas affected by flooding were photographed. The findings show that voluntary and permanent relocation was overlooked by most flood victims due to perceived inability to rent new places owing to low incomes, fear of losing income-generating ventures that serve as sources of livelihoods, hope of gaining income from the oil production within the region and the need for restitution from government before evacuation. From a sociocultural viewpoint, they felt uncomfortable with losing ancestral lands and landed properties as well as breaking long-standing ties with their community folks and other networks. Flood victims' willingness to stay in the flood-prone communities was also influenced by duration of stay in the communities and ownership of landed assets. When considering voluntary and permanent relocation of flood victims as a durable solution in the future, these sociocultural and economic factors need to be carefully considered. ; http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/jamba.v9i1.303

Over the past few years, there has been a significant change in how news is reported and shared due to technological advancements and the popularity of social media platforms. This shift has enabled citizen journalism, which has strongly influenced media systems and public discourses. The purpose of this study is to discover the main themes, research paradigms and trends regarding citizen journalism in Africa. Data was drawn from Taylor & Francis, Google Scholar, Sage Publication and Emerald Insight databases. The researchers applied a systematic literature review method to the dataset, and after applying the protocol and the analysis model, a corpus of 27 articles was obtained in June 2023, covering a decade from 2013. The findings indicate that ethics in journalism, bureaucracy in journalistic reporting, objectivity in news reporting, professionalism in citizen journalism and social media are the main themes in citizen journalism discussed in the selected articles over the research period. The predominant research paradigm of the reviewed articles is qualitative. The review exposes various unexplored areas of citizen journalism in Africa and recommends further studies in the field.

Clarity of Terahertz image is essential at various security checkpoints to avoid life's dangers and treats. However, Terahertz images are distorted by noise. Noise is frequently present in digital images during the image collection, coding, delivery, and processing phases. It is extremely difficult to remove noise from digital images without prior knowledge of the noise model. Wavelet transforms have gained popularity as a tool for image denoising. In this paper, we advance a solution to this challenge using Global Threshold selection as well as wavelet transform filters. When compared to denoising Gaussian noise at the same percentage induced, biorthogonal is the most effective denoising filter for salt and pepper noise. As the salt and pepper noise increases from 20% to 60%, the hidden security image as our target varnishes or is overpowered by the induced salt and pepper noise. We discover that despite the fact that the bior 4.4 and sym4.0 wavelet transform filters prove powerful in denoising the image, it is still not clearer and that when an image is tainted by Gaussian noise, wavelet shrinkage denoising is nearly perfect in both bior4.4 and sym 4.0, whereas when the image is tainted by salt & pepper noise, wavelet shrinkage denoising is nearly perfect in both bior4.4 and sym 4.0.

BACKGROUND: Tackling neonatal mortality is essential for the achievement of the child survival millennium development goal. There are just under 4 million neonatal deaths, accounting for 38% of the 10.8 million deaths among children younger than 5 years of age taking place each year; 99% of these occur in low- and middle-income countries where a large proportion of births take place at home, and where postnatal care for mothers and neonates is either not available or is of poor quality. WHO and UNICEF have issued a joint statement calling for governments to implement "Home visits for the newborn child: a strategy to improve survival", following several studies in South Asia which achieved substantial reductions in neonatal mortality through community-based approaches. However, their feasibility and effectiveness have not yet been evaluated in Africa. The Newhints study aims to do this in Ghana and to develop a feasible and sustainable community-based approach to improve newborn care practices, and by so doing improve neonatal survival. METHODS: Newhints is an integrated intervention package based on extensive formative research, and developed in close collaboration with seven District Health Management Teams (DHMTs) in Brong Ahafo Region. The core component is training the existing community based surveillance volunteers (CBSVs) to identify pregnant women and to conduct two home visits during pregnancy and three in the first week of life to address essential care practices, and to assess and refer very low birth weight and sick babies. CBSVs are supported by a set of materials, regular supervisory visits, incentives, sensitisation activities with TBAs, health facility staff and communities, and providing training for essential newborn care in health facilities.Newhints is being evaluated through a cluster randomised controlled trial, and intention to treat analyses. The clusters are 98 supervisory zones; 49 have been randomised for implementation of the Newhints intervention, with the other 49 acting as controls. Data on neonatal mortality and care practices will be collected from approximately 15,000 babies through surveillance of women of child-bearing age in the 7 districts. Detailed process, cost and cost-effectiveness evaluations are also being carried out. TRIAL REGISTRATION: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov (identifier NCT00623337).

Funding: Brain Health Scotland, who are overseeing the development of Brain Health Services within NHS Scotland, are funded through a grant from the Scottish Government. Brain Health Scotland is hosted legally within Alzheimer Scotland who received this grant ; Peer reviewed ; Publisher PDF