Community Participation in Urban Planning: the Case of Managing Green Spaces in Kumasi,Ghana

The entrenched position now taken by participatory planning in urban planning practice has made the call for community participation in the planning process now higher than ever. Community participation has been well-acknowledged to give local people a voice in planning decisions. This paper assessed the level of participation by local people in the management of urban green spaces. Using a case study research approach, Kumasi city, once the garden city of Africa was selected as the study area. The Kumasi city authorities, and residents including opinion leaders, and officials of allied bodies on green spaces constituted the study’s target population. A blend of qualitative research techniques such as in-depth interviews, focus group discussion, and personal observation was employed whilst theoretical sampling technique was adopted. It was found out that the participation of the local people in the management of green space was low. The local people were neither consulted nor informed on green space projects (parks and gardens) by the city authorities. They were also not empowered to self-facilitate initiatives on green spaces and passively involved in final decisions on green spaces. To correct the situation, it is recommended that features of the communicative planning theory such as dialogue, consensus building, and facilitative leadership should be given attention in the urban planning system of Kumasi especially on green space projects.     

Optic nerve signals in a neuromorphic chip II: Testing and results

Seeking to match the brain's computational efficiency, we draw inspiration from its neural circuits. To model the four main output (ganglion) cell types found in the retina, we morphed outer and inner retina circuits into a 96 x 60-photoreceptor, 3.5 x 3.3 mm2, 0.35 microm-CMOS chip. Our retinomorphic chip produces spike trains for 3600 ganglion cells (GCs), and consumes 62.7 mW at 45 spikes/s/GC. This chip, which is the first silicon retina to successfully model inner retina circuitry, approaches the spatial density of the retina. We present experimental measurements showing that the chip's subthreshold current-mode circuits realize luminance adaptation, bandpass spatiotemporal filtering, temporal adaptation and contrast gain control. The four different GC outputs produced by our chip encode light onset or offset in a sustained or transient fashion, producing a quadrature-like representation. The retinomorphic chip's circuit design is described in a companion paper [Zaghloul and Boahen (2004)].     

Assessment of greywater reuse as a potential mitigation measure for water shortages and sanitation problems in senior high schools

The study assessed water shortages and its effects on sanitation in Senior High Schools using structured questionnaires involving water availability, water use pattern and perception of greywater reuse. Additionally, an observation of the sanitation situation was done to validate the responses. The study found that water availability was an issue as this caused students to use more than an hour round trip to access water resulting in poor sanitation and hygiene practices. Meanwhile, an average greywater generation rate of 14.5 L per person per day, is always disposed of despite its potential reuse. Greywater reuse was accepted by respondents as 59% proposed reusing it if available for non‐potable applications (94%) such as toilet cleaning and flushing. This is because, there is a significant association between cleanliness of the toilet facilities and usage (P < 0.05). Respondents who declined greywater reuse cited health risks (58%), uncomfortable feeling (37%) and cultural issue (5%).     

Soil nutrient maps of Sub-Saharan Africa: assessment of soil nutrient content at 250 m spatial resolution using machine learning

Spatial predictions of soil macro and micro-nutrient content across Sub-Saharan Africa at 250 m spatial resolution and for 0–30 cm depth interval are presented. Predictions were produced for 15 target nutrients: organic carbon (C) and total (organic) nitrogen (N), total phosphorus (P), and extractable—phosphorus (P), potassium (K), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), sulfur (S), sodium (Na), iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), aluminum (Al) and boron (B). Model training was performed using soil samples from ca. 59,000 locations (a compilation of soil samples from the AfSIS, EthioSIS, One Acre Fund, VitalSigns and legacy soil data) and an extensive stack of remote sensing covariates in addition to landform, lithologic and land cover maps. An ensemble model was then created for each nutrient from two machine learning algorithms—random forest and gradient boosting, as implemented in R packages ranger and xgboost—and then used to generate predictions in a fully-optimized computing system. Cross-validation revealed that apart from S, P and B, significant models can be produced for most targeted nutrients (R-square between 40–85%). Further comparison with OFRA field trial database shows that soil nutrients are indeed critical for agricultural development, with Mn, Zn, Al, B and Na, appearing as the most important nutrients for predicting crop yield. A limiting factor for mapping nutrients using the existing point data in Africa appears to be (1) the high spatial clustering of sampling locations, and (2) missing more detailed parent material/geological maps. Logical steps towards improving prediction accuracies include: further collection of input (training) point samples, further harmonization of measurement methods, addition of more detailed covariates specific to Africa, and implementation of a full spatio-temporal statistical modeling framework.     

A review on ductile mode cutting of brittle materials

Brittle materials have been widely employed for industrial applications due to their excellent mechanical, optical, physical and chemical properties. But obtaining smooth and damage-free surface on brittle materials by traditional machining methods like grinding, lapping and polishing is very costly and extremely time consuming. Ductile mode cutting is a very promising way to achieve high quality and crack-free surfaces of brittle materials. Thus the study of ductile mode cutting of brittle materials has been attracting more and more efforts. This paper provides an overview of ductile mode cutting of brittle materials including ductile nature and plasticity of brittle materials, cutting mechanism, cutting characteristics, molecular dynamic simulation, critical undeformed chip thickness, brittle-ductile transition, subsurface damage, as well as a detailed discussion of ductile mode cutting enhancement. It is believed that ductile mode cutting of brittle materials could be achieved when both crack-free and no subsurface damage are obtained simultaneously.     

Survival pattern of hemodialysis patients in Kumasi, Ghana: A summary of forty patients initiated on hemodialysis at a new hemodialysis unit

To evaluate the survival pattern of hemodialysis patients at a dialysis unit in Kumasi, Ghana, through a retrospective (observational) study. Patients who were placed on hemodialysis at the dialysis unit at Komfo Anokye teaching hospital from October 25, 2006 to December 2007. The patients were followed from initiation of dialysis until December 31, 2007. The overall mortality was 14 (35.9%) on the incident population for the period and that for the first 90 days was 12 (32.4%) patients. Chronic glomerulonephritis was the underlying kidney disease in 35.9%. This was followed by hypertension (19.1%) and diabetes mellitus (15.4%), respectively. Cardiovascular diseases accounted for 42% of mortality. This was followed by septicemia (25%) from the access site and anemia (25%). Fifty percent of the patients were able to afford 20 sessions of hemodialysis before stopping. The most powerful predictors of survival were the duration of hemodialysis (P=0.05) and the number of hemodialysis sessions (P=0.02). Age at initiation of hemodialysis was not significant. First 90-day mortality of patients on hemodialysis is high in poor African countries. This is due partially to the late referral of patients and also the cost of the dialysis treatment. Efforts will have to be made to reduce the cost of the dialysis treatment. Reuse technology (of dialyzer, etc.) should be introduced to cut down the cost of hemodialysis. Peritoneal dialysis should also be introduced for highly motivated patients. Efforts should also be made to reduce the increasing incidence of kidney disease, and finally third-world countries should consider establishing kidney transplantation, that is cost effective.     

Translinear circuits in subthreshold MOS

In this paper we provide an overview of translinear circuit design using MOS transistors operating in subthreshold region. We contrast the bipolar and MOS subthreshold characteristics and extend the translinear principle to the subthreshold MOS ohmic region through a drain/source current decomposition. A front/back-gate current decomposition is adopted; this facilitates the analysis of translinear loops, including multiple input floating gate MOS transistors. Circuit examples drawn from working systems designed and fabricated in standard digital CMOS oriented process are used as vehicles to illustrate key design considerations, systematic analysis procedures, and limitations imposed by the structure and physics of MOS transistors. Finally, we present the design of an analog VLSI translinear system with over 590,000 transistors in subthreshold CMOS. This performs phototransduction, amplification, edge enhancement and local gain control at the pixel level.     

Multi-objective versus single-objective optimization of batch bioethanol production based on a time-dependent fermentation model

Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy - Traditional process simulators, such as Aspen Plus, are inadequate for optimizing multiple-objective systems in fermentation-based processes. This work...     

The Investigation of E-Learning System Design Quality on Usage Intention

ABSTRACT

A well-designed product increases customer value and leads to repeat usage. However, studies on the impact of website quality on customer usage fail to distinguish website competence from website capability, ignoring that website quality performance has impacts on other website quality attributes. We gather data from 314 undergraduate students and apply partial least square method to examine the design quality mechanisms and other factors that influence users’ experience. Our results indicate that offering personalized products or services is an important enabler toward enhancing users’ attitude and usage intention. Particularly, for IS education in the format of e-learning, our results suggest firms developing textbook technology platforms primarily focus on creating superior quality designs leading to capabilities that enhance user customization. The customization experience will lead to better satisfaction via both perceived usefulness and perceived ease-of-use.