Search results for: locally made effective microorganisms

Authors: Omran Al Balushi, Haitham Al Rawahi

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Enterprise Asset Management (eAM) has been implemented across different Generation, Transmission and Distribution subsidiaries in Nama Group companies. As part of Nama group, Oman Electricity Transmission Company (OETC) was the first company to implement this system. It was very important for OETC to implement and maintain such a system to achieve its business objectives and for effective operations, which will also support the delivery of the asset management strategy. Enterprise Asset Management (eAM) addresses the comprehensive asset maintenance requirements of Oman Electricity Transmission Company (OETC). OETC needs to optimize capacity and increase utilization, while lowering unit production. E-AM will enable OETC to adopt this strategy. Implementation of e-AM has improved operation performance with preventive and scheduled maintenance as well as it increased safety. Implementation of e-AM will also enable OETC to create optimal asset management strategy which will increase revenue and decrease cost by effectively monitoring operational data such as maintenance history and operation conditions. CMMS (Computerised Maintenance Management System) is the main software and the back-bone of e-AM system. It is used to provide an improved working practice to properly establish information and data flow related to maintenance activities. Implementation of e-AM system was one of the factors that supported OETC to achieve ISO55001 Certificate on fourth quarter of 2016. Also, full implementation of e-AM system will result in strong integration between CMMS and Geographical Information Systems (GIS) application and it will improve OETC to build a reliable maintenance strategy for all asset classes in its Transmission network. In this paper we will share our experience and knowledge of implementing such a system and how it supported OETC’s management to make decisions. Also we would highlight the challenges and difficulties that we encountered during the implementation of e-AM. Also, we will list some features and advantages of e-AM in asset management, preventive maintenance and maintenance cost management.

Keywords: CMMS, Maintenance Management, Asset Management, Maintenance Strategy

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Authors: Asiya Mahtab, Sushama Talegaonkar

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The research is aimed at developing targeted lipid-based nanocarrier systems of chondroitin sulfate (CS) to deliver an antirheumatic drug to the inflammatory site in arthritic paw. Lipid-based nanoparticle (TEF-lipo) was prepared by using a thin-film hydration method. The coating of prepared drug-loaded nanoparticles was done by the ionic interaction mechanism. TEF-lipo and CS-coated lipid nanoparticle (CS-lipo) were characterized for mean droplet size, zeta potential, and surface morphology. TEF-lipo and CS-lipo were further subjected to in vitro cell line studies on RAW 264.7 murine macrophage, U937, and MG 63 cell lines. The pharmacodynamic study was performed to establish the effectiveness of the prepared lipid-based conventional and targeted nanoparticles in comparison to pure drugs. Droplet size and zeta potential of TEF-lipo were found to be 128. 92 ± 5.42 nm and +12.6 ± 1.2 mV. It was observed that after the coating of TEF-lipo with CS, particle size increased to 155.6± 2.12 nm and zeta potential changed to -10.2± 1.4mV. Transmission electron microscopic analysis revealed that the nanovesicles were uniformly dispersed and detached from each other. Formulations followed sustained release pattern up to 24 h. Results of cell line studies ind icated that CS-lipo formulation showed the highest cytotoxic potential, thereby proving its enhanced ability to kill the RAW 264.7 murine macrophage and U937 cells when compared with other formulations. It is clear from our in vivo pharmacodynamic results that targeted nanocarriers had a higher inhibitory effect on arthritis progression than nontargeted nanocarriers or free drugs. Results demonstrate that this approach will provide effective treatment for rheumatoid arthritis, and CS served as a potential prophylactic against the advancement of cartilage degeneration.

Keywords: adjuvant induced arthritis, chondroitin sulfate, rheumatoid arthritis, teriflunomide

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Authors: F. Lops, G. Disciglio, A. Carlucci, G. Gatta, L. Frabboni, A. Tarantino, E. Tarantino

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Phelipanche ramosa L. Pomel is a root holoparasitic weed plant of many cultivations, particularly of tomato (Lycopersicum esculentum L.) crop. In Italy, Phelipanche problem is increasing, both in density and in acreage. The biological control of this parasitic weed involves the use of living organisms as numerous fungi and bacteria that can infect the parasitic weed, while it may improve the crop growth. This paper deals with the biocontrol with microorganism, including Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi and fungal pathogens as Fusarium oxisporum spp. Colonization of crop roots by AM fungi can provide protection of crops against parasitic weeds because of a reduction in their seed germination and attachment, while F. oxisporum, isolated from diseased broomrape tubercles, proved to be highly virulent on P. ramosa. The experimental trial was carried out in open field at Foggia province (Apulia Region, Southern Italy), during the spring-summer season 2016, in order to evaluate the effect of four biological treatments: AM fungi and Fusarium oxisporum applied in the soil alone or combined together, and Rizosum Max^® product, compared with the untreated control, to reduce the P. ramosa infestation in processing tomato crop. The principal results to be drawn from this study under field condition, in contrast of those reported previously under laboratory and greenhouse conditions, show that both AM fungi and F. oxisporum do not provide the reduction of the number of emerged shoots of P. ramosa. This can arise probably from the low efficacy seedling of the agent pathogens for the control of this parasite in the field. On the contrary, the Rizosum Max^® product, containing AM fungi and some rizophere bacteria combined with several minerals and organic substances, appears to be most effective for the reduction of P. ramosa infestation.

Keywords: Arbuscular mycorrhized fungi, biocontrol methods, Phelipanche ramosa, tomato crop

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Authors: Amritansh Agarwal, Tejaswi Agarwal

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Forest ecosystem plays very important role in the global carbon cycle. It stores about 80% of all above ground and 40% of all below ground terrestrial organic carbon. There is much interest in the extent of tropical forests and their rates of deforestation for two reasons: greenhouse gas contributions and the impact of profoundly negative biodiversity. Deforestation has many ecological, social and economic consequences, one of which is the loss of biological diversity. The rapid deployment of remote sensing (RS) satellites and development of RS analysis techniques in the past three decades have provided a reliable, effective, and practical way to characterize terrestrial ecosystem properties. Global estimates of tropical deforestation vary widely and range from 50,000 to 170,000 km2 /yr Recent FAO tropical deforestation estimates for 1990–1995 cite 116,756km2 / yr globally. Remote Sensing can prove to be a very useful tool in monitoring of forests and associated deforestation to a sufficient level of accuracy without the need of physically surveying the forest areas as many of them are physically inaccessible. The methodology for the assessment of forest cover using digital image processing (ERDAS) has been followed. The satellite data for the study was procured from USGS website in the digital format. While procuring the satellite data, care was taken to ensure that the data was cloud and aerosol free by making using of FLAASH atmospheric correction technique. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) has been used as a numerical indicator of the reduction in ground biomass. NDVI = (near I.R - Red)/ (near I.R + Red). After calculating the NDVI variations and associated mean we have analysed the change in ground biomass. Through this paper we have tried to indicate the rate of deforestation over a given period of time by comparing the forest cover at different time intervals. With the help of remote sensing and GIS techniques it is clearly shows that the total forest cover is continuously degrading and transforming into various land use/land cover category.

Keywords: remote sensing, deforestation, supervised classification, NDVI change detection

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Authors: Zahrasadat Hosseini, Jie Yuan

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Point-of-care (POC) diagnostic devices based on lab-on-a-chip (LOC) technology have the potential to revolutionize medical diagnostics. However, the development of an ideal microfluidic system based on LOC technology for diagnostics purposes requires overcoming several obstacles, such as improving sensitivity, selectivity, portability, cost-effectiveness, and prototyping methods. While numerous studies have introduced technologies and systems that advance these criteria, existing systems still have limitations. Electrochemical enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (e-ELISA) in a LOC device offers numerous advantages, including enhanced sensitivity, decreased turnaround time, minimized sample and analyte consumption, reduced cost, disposability, and suitability for miniaturization, integration, and multiplexing. In this study, we present a novel design and fabrication method for a microfluidic diagnostic platform that integrates screen-printed electrochemical carbon/silver chloride electrodes on flexible printed circuit boards with flexible, multilayer, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microfluidic networks to accurately manipulate and pre-immobilize analytes for performing electrochemical enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (e-ELISA) for multiplexed quantification of blood serum biomarkers. We further demonstrate fast, cost-effective prototyping, as well as accurate and reliable detection performance of this device for quantification of interleukin-6-spiked samples through electrochemical analytics methods. We anticipate that our invention represents a significant step towards the development of user-friendly, portable, medical-grade, POC diagnostic devices.

Keywords: lab-on-a-chip, point-of-care diagnostics, electrochemical ELISA, biomarker quantification, fast prototyping

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Authors: Zahrasadat Hosseini, Jie Yuan

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Point-of-care (POC) diagnostic devices based on lab-on-a-chip (LOC) technology have the potential to revolutionize medical diagnostics. However, the development of an ideal microfluidic system based on LOC technology for diagnostics purposes requires overcoming several obstacles, such as improving sensitivity, selectivity, portability, cost-effectiveness, and prototyping methods. While numerous studies have introduced technologies and systems that advance these criteria, existing systems still have limitations. Electrochemical enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (e-ELISA) in a LOC device offers numerous advantages, including enhanced sensitivity, decreased turnaround time, minimized sample and analyte consumption, reduced cost, disposability, and suitability for miniaturization, integration, and multiplexing. In this study, we present a novel design and fabrication method for a microfluidic diagnostic platform that integrates screen-printed electrochemical carbon/silver chloride electrodes on flexible printed circuit boards with flexible, multilayer, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microfluidic networks to accurately manipulate and pre-immobilize analytes for performing electrochemical enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (e-ELISA) for multiplexed quantification of blood serum biomarkers. We further demonstrate fast, cost-effective prototyping, as well as accurate and reliable detection performance of this device for quantification of interleukin-6-spiked samples through electrochemical analytics methods. We anticipate that our invention represents a significant step towards the development of user-friendly, portable, medical-grade POC diagnostic devices.

Keywords: lab-on-a-chip, point-of-care diagnostics, electrochemical ELISA, biomarker quantification, fast prototyping

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Authors: S. Ahmad, C. Yuan, Q. Zhang

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The assorted architectural plasticity of a plant is majorly specified by stooling, a phenomenon tackled by a combination of developmental, environmental and hormonal accelerators of lateral buds. Chrysanthemums (Chrysanthemum morifolium) are one of the most economically important ornamental plants worldwide on the account of having plentiful architectural patterns, diverse shapes and attractive colors. Side branching is the major determinant guaranteeing the consistent demand of cut chrysanthemum in flower industry. Presence of immense number of axillary branches devalues the economic importance of this imperative plant and is a major challenge for mum growers to hold a stake in the cut flower market. Restricting branches to a minimum level, or no branches at all, is the dire need of the day in order to introducing novelty in cut chrysanthemums. Temperature is a potent factor which affects largely the escalation, development of chrysanthemum, and also the genetic expression of various vegetative traits like branching. It affects differently the developmental characteristics and phenotypic expressions of inherent qualities, thereby playing a significant role in differentiating the developmental responses in different cultivars of chrysanthemum. A detailed study pertaining to the affect of temperature on branching in chrysanthemum is a clear lacking throughout the literature on mums. Therefore, searching with temperature as an effective means of reducing side branching to a desired level could be an influencing extension of struggles about how to nullify stooling. This requires plenty of research in order to reveal the extended penetration of temperature in manipulating the genetic control of various important traits like branching, which is a burning issue now a days in producing cut flowers in chrysanthemum. The present review will highlight the impact of temperature on branching control mechanism in chrysanthemum at morpho-physiological, hormonal and molecular levels.

Keywords: branching, chrysanthemum, genetic control, hormonal, morpho-physiological, temperature

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Authors: Shahnaz Haque, Anand Shukla, Sunita Singh, Anil Kem

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Introduction: Diabetes Mellitus is a chronic metabolic disease affecting millions worldwide. Metformin is the most commonly prescribed first line oral hypoglycemic drug for type 2 diabetes mellitus, but due to progressive worsening of blood glucose control during the natural history of type 2 diabetes, combination therapy usually becomes necessary. Objective: This study was designed to assess the treatment satisfaction between Sitagliptin versus Pioglitazone added to Metformin in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Methods: We conducted a prospective, open label, randomized, parallel group study in SIMS, Hapur, U.P. Eligible patients fulfilling inclusion criteria were randomized into two groups having 25 patients in each group using tab Sitagliptin 100mg, tab Pioglitazone 30mg added to ongoing tab Metformin (500mg) therapy for 16 weeks. The follow-up visits were on weeks 4,12 and 16. Result: 16 weeks later, addition of Sitagliptin 100mg compared to that of Pioglitazone 30 mg to ongoing Metformin therapy provided similar glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) lowering efficacy in patients with T2DM with inadequate glycemic control on metformin monotherapy. Change in HbA1c in group1 was -0.656±0.21%(p<0.0001) whereas in group2 was -0.748±0.35%(p<0.0001). Hence decrease in HbA1c from baseline was more in group2. Both treatments were well tolerated with negligible risk of hypoglycaemia. Weight loss was observed with Sitagliptin in contrast to weight gain seen in Pioglitazone. Conclusion: In this study, Sitagliptin 100 mg along with metformin therapy in comparison to pioglitazone 30 mg plus metformin therapy was both effective, well-tolerated and improved glycemic control in both the groups. Addition of pioglitazone had cause oedema and weight gain to the patients whereas sitagliptin caused weight loss in its patients.

Keywords: sitagliptin, pioglitazone, metformin, type 2 diabetes mellitus

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Authors: Raj Mukta Sundaram

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The location of Ayodhya is distinctly described along river Sarayu in the epic Ramayan. On the contrary, even elaborate descriptions of Lanka and its environs are still proving elusive to human ingenuity to find a direct correlation on the ground. His-torically, there were hardly any attempts to locate Lanka, but some speculations have been made very recently, of which Sri Lanka has gained widespread public ac-ceptance for obvious reasons, such as Sri and Lanka. This belief is almost secured by the impression of Ram Setu on the satellite images, which has led the government to initiate a scientific mission to determine its age. In fact, other viewpoints believe Lanka to be somewhere far-flung along the equator, and another has long proclaimed it to be in central regions of India, but both are diminished by contemporary belief. This study emanates from the fact that Sri Lanka has no correlation to epic, and more importantly, satellite images are deceptive. So the objectives are twofold - firstly, to interpret the text from a holistic approach by analyzing the ecosystem, settlements, geological as-pects, and most importantly, the timeline of key events. Secondly, it explains the pit-falls in the rationale behind contemporary belief. At the outset, it categorically rejects the notion of Ram Setu, which, in geological terms, is merely a part of the continental shelf developed millions of years ago. It also refutes the misconception created by the word “Sri,” which is, in fact, an official name adopted by the country in the seventies with no correlation whatsoever with the events of Ramayana. Likewise, the study ar-gues for the establishment of a prosperous kingdom on a remote island with adverse climatic conditions for any civilization at that time. Eventually, the study demonstrates that travel time for the distances covered by Lord Rama does not corroborate with the description in the epic. It all leads to one conclusion that Lanka cannot be in Sri Lanka. Rather, it needs to be somewhere in the central-eastern parts of India. That region jus-tifies the environs and timelines for the journeys undertaken by Lord Rama, besides the fact that the tribes of the region show strong allegiance to Ravana. The study strongly recommends looking into the central-east region of India for the golden abode of a demon king and rejuvenating tourism of a scenic and culturally rich region hitherto marred by disturbances.

Keywords: spatial analysis, Ramayan, heritage, tourism

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Authors: Aschalew Cherie Workneh, K. S. Hari Prasad, Chandra Shekhar Prasad Ojha

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Due to the increase in water scarcity, the crop water stress index (CWSI) is receiving significant attention these days, especially in arid and semiarid regions, for quantifying water stress and effective irrigation scheduling. Nowadays, machine learning techniques such as neural networks are being widely used to determine CWSI. In the present study, the performance of two artificial neural networks, namely, Self-Organizing Maps (SOM) and Feed Forward-Back Propagation Artificial Neural Networks (FF-BP-ANN), are compared while determining the CWSI of rice crop. Irrigation field experiments with varying degrees of irrigation were conducted at the irrigation field laboratory of the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, during the growing season of the rice crop. The CWSI of rice was computed empirically by measuring key meteorological variables (relative humidity, air temperature, wind speed, and canopy temperature) and crop parameters (crop height and root depth). The empirically computed CWSI was compared with SOM and FF-BP-ANN predicted CWSI. The upper and lower CWSI baselines are computed using multiple regression analysis. The regression analysis showed that the lower CWSI baseline for rice is a function of crop height (h), air vapor pressure deficit (AVPD), and wind speed (u), whereas the upper CWSI baseline is a function of crop height (h) and wind speed (u). The performance of SOM and FF-BP-ANN were compared by computing Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE), index of agreement (d), root mean squared error (RMSE), and coefficient of correlation (R²). It is found that FF-BP-ANN performs better than SOM while predicting the CWSI of rice crops.

Keywords: artificial neural networks; crop water stress index; canopy temperature, prediction capability

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Authors: Wenyang Wan

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The study of urban land use and landscape pattern is the current hotspot in the fields of planning and design, ecology, etc., which is of great significance for the construction of the overall humanistic ecosystem of the city and optimization of the urban spatial structure. Banan District, as the main part of the eastern eco-city planning of Chongqing Municipality, is a high ground for highlighting the ecological characteristics of Chongqing, realizing effective transformation of ecological value, and promoting the integrated development of urban and rural areas. The analytical methods of land use transfer matrix (GIS) and landscape pattern index (Fragstats) were used to study the characteristics and laws of the evolution of land use landscape pattern in Banan District from 2000 to 2020, which provide some reference value for Banan District to alleviate the ecological contradiction of landscape. The results of the study show that ① Banan District is rich in land use types, of which the area of cultivated land will still account for 57.15% of the total area of the landscape until 2020, accounting for an absolute advantage in land use structure of Banan District; ② From 2000 to 2020, land use conversion in Banan District is characterized as Cropland > woodland > grassland > shrubland > built-up land > water bodies > wetlands, with cropland converted to built-up land being the largest; ③ From 2000 to 2020, the landscape elements of Banan District were distributed in a balanced way, and the landscape types were rich and diversified, but due to the influence of human interference, it also presented the characteristics that the shape of the landscape elements tended to be irregular, and the dominant patches were distributed in a scattered manner, and the patches had poor connectivity. It is recommended that in future regional ecological construction, the layout should be rationally optimized, the relationship between landscape components should be coordinated, the connectivity between landscape patches should be strengthened, and the degree of landscape fragmentation should be reduced.

Keywords: land use transfer, landscape pattern evolution, GIS and Fragstats, Banan district

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Authors: Mrinal Kanti Bhowmik, Usha Rani Gogoi Jr., Anjan Kumar Ghosh, Debotosh Bhattacharjee

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In the last few decades, breast thermography has achieved an average sensitivity and specificity of 90% for breast tumor detection. Breast thermography is a non-invasive, cost-effective, painless and radiation-free breast imaging modality which makes a significant contribution to the evaluation and diagnosis of patients, suspected of having breast cancer. An abnormal breast thermogram may indicate significant biological risk for the existence or the development of breast tumors. Breast thermography can detect a breast tumor, when the tumor is in its early stage or when the tumor is in a dense breast. The infrared breast thermography is very sensitive to environmental changes for which acquisition of breast thermography should be performed under strictly controlled conditions by undergoing some standard protocols. Several factors like air, temperature, humidity, etc. are there to be considered for characterizing thermal images as an imperative tool for detecting breast cancer. A detailed study of various breast thermogram acquisition protocols adopted by different researchers in their research work is provided here in this paper. After going through a rigorous study of different breast thermogram acquisition protocols, a new standard breast thermography acquisition setup is proposed here in this paper for proper and accurate capturing of the breast thermograms. The proposed breast thermogram acquisition setup is being built in the Radiology Department, Agartala Government Medical College (AGMC), Govt. of Tripura, Tripura, India. The breast thermograms are captured using FLIR T650sc thermal camera with the thermal sensitivity of 20 mK at 30 degree C. The paper is an attempt to highlight the importance of different critical parameters of breast thermography like different thermography views, patient preparation protocols, acquisition room requirements, acquisition system requirements, etc. This paper makes an important contribution by providing a detailed survey and a new efficient approach on breast thermogram capturing.

Keywords: acquisition protocol, breast cancer, breast thermography, infrared thermography

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Authors: Sally Kafelghazal

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Introduction: Arab Americans, who include immigrants, refugees, or U.S. born persons of Middle Eastern or North African descent, may experience significant difficulties during acculturation to Western society. Influential stressors include relocation, loss of social support, language barriers, and economic factors, all of which can impact mental health. There is limited research investigating the effects of acculturation on the mental health of the Arab American population. Objectives: The purpose of this study is to identify ways in which acculturation impacts the mental health of Arab Americans, specifically the development of depression and anxiety. Method: A literature search was conducted using PubMed and PsycArticles (ProQuest), utilizing the following search terms: “Arab Americans,” “Arabs,” “mental health,” “depression,” “anxiety,” “acculturation.” Thirty-nine articles were identified and of those, nine specifically investigated the relationship between acculturation and mental health in Arab Americans. Three of the nine focused exclusively on depression. Results: Several risk factors were identified that contribute to poor mental health associated with acculturation, which include immigrant or refugee status, facing discrimination, and religious ideology. Protective factors include greater levels of acculturation, being U.S. born, and greater heritage identity. Greater mental health disorders were identified in Arab Americans compared to normative samples, perhaps particularly depression; none of the articles specifically addressed anxiety. Conclusion: The current research findings support the potential association between the process of acculturation and greater levels of mental health disorders in Arab Americans. However, the diversity of the Arab American population makes it difficult to draw consistent conclusions. Further research needs to be conducted in order to assess which subgroups in the Arab American population are at highest risk for developing new or exacerbating existing mental health disorders in order to devise more effective interventions.

Keywords: arab americans, arabs, mental health, anxiety, depression, acculturation

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Authors: Rashid S. Mohammad, Shicheng Zhang, Xinzhe Zhao

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In tight oil reservoirs, wettability alteration has generally been considered as an effective way to remove fracturing fluid retention on the surface of the fracture and consequently improved oil production. However, there is a lack of a reliable productivity prediction model to show the relationship between the wettability and oil production in tight oil well. In this paper, a new oil productivity prediction model of immiscible oil-water flow and miscible CO₂-oil flow accounting for wettability is developed. This mathematical model is established by considering two different length scales: nonporous network and propped fractures. CO₂ flow diffuses in the nonporous network and high velocity non-Darcy flow in propped fractures are considered by taking into account the effect of wettability alteration on capillary pressure and relative permeability. A laboratory experiment is also conducted here to validate this model. Laboratory experiments have been designed to compare the water saturation profiles for different contact angle, revealing the fluid retention in rock pores that affects capillary force and relative permeability. Four kinds of brines with different concentrations are selected here to create different contact angles. In water-wet porous media, as the system becomes more oil-wet, water saturation decreases. As a result, oil relative permeability increases. On the other hand, capillary pressure which is the resistance for the oil flow increases as well. The oil production change due to wettability alteration is the result of the comprehensive changes of oil relative permeability and capillary pressure. The results indicate that wettability is a key factor for fracturing fluid retention removal and oil enhancement in tight reservoirs. By incorporating laboratory test into a mathematical model, this work shows the relationship between wettability and oil production is not a simple linear pattern but a parabolic one. Additionally, it can be used for a better understanding of optimization design of fracturing fluids.

Keywords: wettability, relative permeability, fluid retention, oil production, unconventional and tight reservoirs

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Authors: Jaishree Ellis

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The United States Centers for Disease Control tells us that many women with disabilities will not receive regular health screenings, including Pap Smears and mammograms. This article was comprised and written to recognize the barriers to care, gaps in existing healthcare implementation, and viable methodologies for the provision of comprehensive and robust gynecologic care for women with disabilities. According to the World Health Organization, 15% of the world's population, or approximately 1 billion people, have disabilities, most of whom are identified as women. Women with disabilities are described as being multi-disabled, as in some places, they suffer exclusion because of their disabilities as well as their gender. The paucity of information regarding how to create a healthcare system that is inclusive of every woman, regardless of her type of disability (physical, mental, intellectual or medical), has made it challenging to establish an environment that makes it possible for individuals to access care in an equitable, respectful and comprehensive way. A review of the current literature, institutional websites within the United States and American resource guides was implemented to determine where comprehensive models of care for women with disabilities exist, as well as the modalities that are being employed to meet their healthcare needs. The many barriers to care that women with disabilities face were also extracted from various sources within the literature to provide an exhaustive list that can be tackled, one by one. Of the 637 Hospital Systems in the United States, only 7 provide website documentation of health care services that address the unique needs of women with disabilities. The presumption is that if institutions have not marketed such interventions to the community, then it is likely that they do not have a robust suite of services with which to make gynecologic care available to patients with disabilities. Through this review, 7 main barriers to comprehensive gynecologic care were identified, with more than 20 sub-categories existing within those. As with many other areas of community life, inclusion remains lacking in the delivery of healthcare for women with disabilities. There are at least 7 barriers that must be overcome in order to provide equity in the medical office, the exam room, the hospital and the operating room. While few institutions have prioritized this, those few have provided blueprints that can easily be adopted by others. However, as the general population lives longer and ages, the incidence of disabilities increases, as do the healthcare disparities surrounding them. Further compounded by this is a lack of formal education for medical providers in the United States.

Keywords: health equity, inclusion, healthcare disparities, education

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Authors: Sidra Shaw, Sarenna Shaw, Chae Joon Lee, Irimpan Mathews, Eric Koehn

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One of the biggest public health concerns of our time is increasing antimicrobial resistance. As of 2019, the CDC has documented more than 2.8 million serious antibiotic resistant infections in the United States. Currently, antibiotic resistant infections are directly implicated in over 750,000 deaths per year globally. On our current trajectory, British economist Jim O’Neill predicts that by 2050, an additional 10 million people (about half the population of New York) will die annually due to drug resistant infections. As a result, new biochemical pathways must be targeted to generate next generation antibiotic drugs that will be effective against drug resistant bacteria. One enticing target is the biosynthesis of DNA within bacteria, as few drugs interrupt this essential life process. Thymidylate synthase enzymes are essential for life as they catalyze the synthesis of a DNA building block, 2′-deoxythymidine-5′-monophosphate (dTMP). In humans, the thymidylate synthase enzyme (TSase) has been shown to be distinct from the flavin-dependent thymidylate synthase (FDTS) produced by many pathogenic bacteria. TSase and FDTS have distinct structures and mechanisms of catalysis, which should allow selective inhibition of FDTS over human TSase. Currently, C. diff is one of the most antibiotic resistant bacteria, and no drugs that target thymine biosynthesis exist for C. diff. Here we present the initial biochemical characterization of FDTS from C. diff. Specifically, we examine enzyme kinetics and binding features of this enzyme to determine the nature of interaction with ligands/inhibitors and understand the molecular mechanism of catalysis. This research will provide more insight into the targetability of the C. diff FDTS enzyme for novel antibiotic drugs.

Keywords: flavin-dependent thymidylate synthase, FDTS, clostridioides difficile, C. diff, antibiotic resistance, DNA synthesis, enzyme kinetics, binding features

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Authors: Prashant Neupane, Sumitra Kafle, Asmi Pandey, Laura Mitchell

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Pain following caesarean section can influence recovery, patient satisfaction, breast feeding success and mother-child bonding. Since the introduction of enhanced recovery protocols, mothers are often discharged 24 hours later. We identified concerns within our hospital with mothers tolerating poorly controlled pain in order to achieve earlier discharge and subsequently suffering significant pain at home with inadequate analgesia. Methods: We conducted a prospective audit of analgesic prescribing and post-operative pain scores after caesarean section. Mothers were seen on post-operative day one, their pain score recorded on a verbal analogue score from 0-10, and their prescription chart reviewed. A follow-up phone call was then made on post-operative day 3-7 to enquire about pain scores and analgesia use at home. Following this, a standardized proforma for prescribing after the caesarean section was introduced, including the addition of dihydrocodeine that patients can take home following discharge. There were educational update sessions for anesthetists and midwifes, and then a re-audit was conducted months later. Results: Data was collected from 50 women before and after the introduction of the change. Initial audit showed that there was considerable variation in prescribing, with four women prescribed no regular analgesia at all and inconsistency in the dose of oral morphine prescribed. Women were not given any form of analgesia to take home after discharge and were advised to take regular paracetamol and ibuprofen. However, 31/50 (62%) reported that they needed additional analgesia and eight women (16%) even sought prescription for additional analgesia from elsewhere. After the introduction of the change, prescribing was more consistent with all patients prescribed regular analgesia. 46/50 patients were given dihydrocodeine on discharge. Mean pain scores on post-operative day one improved from 5.16 to 3.9, and at home improved from 6.18 to 2.58. Use of dihydrocodeine at home significantly improved patients reporting of severe pain at home from 24% to zero. Discussion: Lack of strong analgesia out of the hospital and the increased demands on activity levels means that women are frequently in more pain at home after discharge. Introduction of a standardized prescription proforma, including the use of to-take-out dihydrocodeine, was successful in improving patient pain scores and the requirement for additional analgesia, both in hospital and at home.

Keywords: analgesia, caesarean section, post-operative pain, standardised

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Authors: J. Van der Walt, N. A. Plastow, M. Unger

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Gross and fine motor skill difficulties among children affect their ability to learn and progress in school. Research indicates that children in low socio-economic areas are at a higher risk of motor skill difficulties, while therapy resources are limited. The Hopscotch motor skill programme is a well-researched accessible in-school intervention developed by occupational and physiotherapists through complex intervention development. The development stage of the complex intervention development model firstly included a prevalence study in a low-resourced area in the West Coast of South Africa, indicating a high prevalence with significant motor skill difficulties among pre-school children at 14.5% with fine motor skill difficulties at 24.6%. A scoping review identifies motor skill interventions for pre-school children and a proposed a framework of fundamental concepts to consider when developing a motor skill intervention. a Delphi-study considered the framework and encouraged collaboration between therapists and educators to make the programme accessible, resource and cost effective, specifically geared towards a rural, low resourced area. The results from the Delphi study, together with the proposed framework from the scoping review was used to develop the Hopscotch programme, adopting a task-shifting approach. The eight-week small-group programme is facilitated by teachers with the support of therapists. The programme aims to improve the motor skills of pre-school aged children with motor skill difficulties to promote academic readiness through obstacle courses, ball skill games and fine motor games and crafts. A randomised controlled trial is planned as a next stage to determine the preliminary effect of the programme on the motor and early academic skills of pre-school children.

Keywords: accesible learning, motor skill intervention, school readiness, task shifting

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Authors: K. V. Venugopalan

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Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) have been accepted as the engine of economic growth and for promoting equitable development. The major advantage of the sector is its employment potential at low capital cost. The labour intensity of the MSME sector is much higher than that of the large enterprises. The MSMEs constitute over 90% of total enterprises in most of the economies and are credited with generating the highest rates of employment growth and account for a major share of industrial production and exports. Kerala is a small state in India with the limited land area with high potential in educated human resources need micro, small and medium enterprises for development. Kerala has the highest Physical Quality of Life Index (PQLI) in India and the highest Human Development Index (HDI) at par with the developed countries SME play an important role in alleviating poverty and contribute significantly towards the growth of developing economies. Financial institutions can play a vital role for the promotion of micro, small and medium enterprises in Kerala. The study entitled “Financial Institutions and its role in the promotion of Small and Medium Enterprises in Kerala “examine the progress of MSME in Kerala and India and also the role of financial institutions and the problems faced by entrepreneurs for getting advances with reference to ‘Kerala Financial Corporation’-an agency set up by the government for promoting small and medium enterprises in the state. This study is based on both secondary and primary data. Primary data for the study was collected from those entrepreneurs who availed advances from financial institutions. The secondary data include the investment made, goods and services provided, the employment generated and the number of units registered in MSME sector for the last 10 years in Kerala. The study concluded that financial institutions providing finance with simple procedures and charging smaller interest rates will increase the number of MSME's and also contribute gross state domestic product and reduce the unemployment problem and poverty in the economy.

Keywords: gross state domestic product, human development index, micro, small and medium enterprises

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Authors: Ririt Aprilin Sumarsono

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Composite member (concrete and steel) has been widely advanced for structural utilization due to its best performance in resisting load, reducing the total weight of the structure, increasing stiffness, and other available advantages. On the other hand, the environment load such as corrosion (e.g. chloride ingress) creates significant time-dependent degradation for steel. Analysis performed in this paper is mainly considered uniform corrosion for evaluating the composite beam without examining the pit corrosion as the initial corrosion formed. Corrosion level in terms of weight loss is modified in yield stress and modulus elasticity of steel. Those two mechanical properties are utilized in this paper for observing the stresses due to corrosion attacked. As corrosion level increases, the effective width of the composite beam in the concrete section will be wider. The position of a neutral axis of composite section will indicate the composite action due to corrosion of composite beam so that numerous shear connectors provided must be reconsidered. Flexure capacity quantification provides stresses, and shear capacity calculation derives connectors needed in overcoming the shear problem for composite beam under corrosion. A model of simply supported composite beam examined in this paper under uniform corrosion where the stresses as the focus of the evaluation. Principal stress at the first stage of composite construction decline as the corrosion level incline, parallel for the second stage stress analysis where the tension region held by the steel undergoes lower capacity due to corrosion. Total stresses of the composite section for steel to be born significantly decreases particularly in the outermost fiber of tension side. Whereas, the available compression side is smaller as the corrosion level increases so that the stress occurs on the compression side shows reduction as well. As a conclusion, the increment of corrosion level will degrade both compression and tension side of stresses.

Keywords: composite beam, modulus of elasticity, stress analysis, yield strength, uniform corrosion

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Authors: N. Nivedita, S. Durbha

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Critical Infrastructure (CI) consists of services and technological networks such as healthcare, transport, water supply, electricity supply, information technology etc. These systems are necessary for the well-being and to maintain effective functioning of society. Critical Infrastructures can be represented as nodes in a network where they are connected through a set of links depicting the logical relationship among them; these nodes are interdependent on each other and interact with each at other at various levels, such that the state of each infrastructure influences or is correlated to the state of another. Disruption in the service of one infrastructure nodes of the network during a disaster would lead to cascading and escalating disruptions across other infrastructures nodes in the network. The operation of Healthcare Infrastructure is one such Critical Infrastructure that depends upon a complex interdependent network of other Critical Infrastructure, and during disasters it is very vital for the Healthcare Infrastructure to be protected, accessible and prepared for a mass casualty. To reduce the consequences of a disaster on the Critical Infrastructure and to ensure a resilient Critical Health Infrastructure network, knowledge, understanding, modeling, and analyzing the inter-dependencies between the infrastructures is required. The paper would present inter-dependencies related to Healthcare Critical Infrastructure based on Hierarchical Coloured Petri Nets modeling approach, given a flood scenario as the disaster which would disrupt the infrastructure nodes. The model properties are being analyzed for the various state changes which occur when there is a disruption or damage to any of the Critical Infrastructure. The failure probabilities for the failure risk of interconnected systems are calculated by deriving a reachability graph, which is later mapped to a Markov chain. By analytically solving and analyzing the Markov chain, the overall vulnerability of the Healthcare CI HCPN model is demonstrated. The entire model would be integrated with Geographic information-based decision support system to visualize the dynamic behavior of the interdependency of the Healthcare and related CI network in a geographically based environment.

Keywords: critical infrastructure interdependency, hierarchical coloured petrinet, healthcare critical infrastructure, Petri Nets, Markov chain

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Authors: Cristina Domínguez, Steven N. Cuadra

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Aims: The aims of this study are: 1) to describe the occurrence and estimate the risk of suffering injuries of any kind, especially work-related injuries, in rural children working in agricultural activities and in urban children working on the street 2) to explore factors that might be associated with the occurrence of work-related injuries among child workers such as gender, school attendance, and performance of household chore. Method: We performed a crossectional study among working children in agricultural activities (120) and on the street (108) and in non-working referents (140) in 2019. We investigated self-reported injuries during the last 12 months, with focus on work-related injuries. Incidence rate, rate ratios, and 95% CI were calculated by Poisson regression. Results: Agricultural workers have a higher incidence of work-related injuries (2.1 per 1000 person-days) than children working on the street (1.8 per 1000 person-days). However, when considering girl’s unpaid work at home, girls had higher occurrence. Girls had a 30% increase on the risk of suffering work related injuries compared to boys. Performing household chore and attending school were the major predictors of injury occurrence. Discussion: Our data suggest If such partial and full-time girl’s housework is taken into account, there would be little or no variation between the sexes with regard to injuries occurrence, and the incidence rate of work related injuries among girls could even exceed that of boys A greater understanding of the interaction of factors related to how child workers spend their time, and its impact on children’s health, is needed in order to identify feasible and appropriate strategies to reduce the negative effect of work on children when elimination of child labor is not reachable in the short term. Clearly, gender aspects on child labor may allow for more effective targeting of prevention efforts.

Keywords: injuries, child labor, agricultural work, gender

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Authors: Anuoluwapo S. Taiwo, David S. Ayre, Morteza Khorami, Sameer S. Rahatekar

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This investigation aims to characterize the effect of Corn Cob (CC), an agricultural waste, for potential use as a filler material, reducing cement in natural fibre-reinforced cement composite boards used for building applications in low-cost housing estates in developing countries. The corn cob is readily and abundantly available in many West African States. However, this agricultural waste product has not been put to any effective use. Hence, the objective of the current research is to convert this massive agro-waste resource into a potential material for use as filler materials reducing cement contents in fibre-cement board production. Kraft pulp fibre-reinforced cement composite boards were developed with the incorporation of the corn cob powder at varying percentages of 1 – 4% as filler materials to reduce the cement content, using a laboratory-simulated vacuum de-watering process. The mechanical properties of the developed cement boards were characterized through a three-point bending test, while the fractured morphology of the cement boards was examined through a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). Results revealed that the flexural strength of the composite board improved significantly with an optimum enhancement of 39% when compared to the reference sample without corn cob replacement, however, the flexural behaviour (ductility) of the composite board was slightly affected by the addition of the corn cob powder at higher percentage. SEM observation of the fractured surfaces revealed good bonding at the fibre-matrix interface as well as a ductile-to-brittle fracture mechanism. Overall, the composite board incorporated with 2% corn cob powder as filler materials had the optimum properties which satisfied the minimum requirements of relevant standards for fibre cement flat sheets.

Keywords: agricultural waste, building applications, fibre-cement board, kraft pulp fibre, sustainability

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Authors: Tomas Premoli, Sareh Rowlands

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In this study, we investigate the impact of various convolutional neural network (CNN) architectures on the accuracy of diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease (AD) using patient MRI scans. Alzheimer’s disease is a debilitating neurodegenerative disorder that affects millions worldwide. Early, accurate, and non-invasive diagnostic methods are required for providing optimal care and symptom management. Deep learning techniques, particularly CNNs, have shown great promise in enhancing this diagnostic process. We aim to contribute to the ongoing research in this field by comparing the effectiveness of different CNN architectures and providing insights for future studies. Our methodology involved preprocessing MRI data, implementing multiple CNN architectures, and evaluating the performance of each model. We employed intensity normalization, linear registration, and skull stripping for our preprocessing. The selected architectures included VGG, ResNet, and DenseNet models, all implemented using the Keras library. We employed transfer learning and trained models from scratch to compare their effectiveness. Our findings demonstrated significant differences in performance among the tested architectures, with DenseNet201 achieving the highest accuracy of 86.4%. Transfer learning proved to be helpful in improving model performance. We also identified potential areas for future research, such as experimenting with other architectures, optimizing hyperparameters, and employing fine-tuning strategies. By providing a comprehensive analysis of the selected CNN architectures, we offer a solid foundation for future research in Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis using deep learning techniques. Our study highlights the potential of CNNs as a valuable diagnostic tool and emphasizes the importance of ongoing research to develop more accurate and effective models.

Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease, convolutional neural networks, deep learning, medical imaging, MRI

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Authors: Min Wei

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Objectives: Experience tourism represents an advanced stage of tourism compared with sightseeing tourism and relaxation tourism. Experience tourism reflects the full respect of experience economy to the human natures. This paper chose one of the most popular ocean tourism products in Zhoushan, as a subject and investigated the constructive elements in tourist experience based on the needs of tourists. Methods: This paper started with the influences of tourism product innovation on tourist experience, then proposed a model of the relationship between tourist experience, tourist satisfaction, and the following behavior of tourists, and concluded that tourist experience improves tourist satisfaction and thereby enhances tourist loyalty based on the developmental pathway of experience tourism. To ensure the accuracy of the collected data of the research results, the sample of this questionnaire survey is chosen by the method of occasional sampling, combined with the judgment of the investigators and the convenience of the questionnaire survey, the survey objects are selected from the scenic spots of Putuo Mountain, Zhujiajian, Taohua Island, waiting room of passenger terminal, etc. Before filling in the questionnaire, the author and the respondents have a short communication. On the premise that the respondents can fully understand the purpose and content of the questionnaire, tourists fill in the questionnaire independently and collect it on the spot. Results: The research results of this paper are mainly embodied in the following aspects: it is concluded that there are many constructive factors of tourists' experience in Zhoushan tourism products. Based on Zhoushan tourism products, this paper explores the constructive factors of tourists' experience in Zhoushan tourism products from three aspects: attracting object experience, facility experience and service experience. At present, there are still big differences between Zhoushan tourism products, tourists’ expectations and tourists' experience, mainly in the aspects of transportation, publicity and tour guide service. Corresponding measures should be taken to improve tourists' experience quality and satisfaction. Conclusions: The influence factors of island tourism products are discriminated, and established a structural model of tourist experience, which includes three basic elements: attractions, facilities, and services. This model was further verified by questionnaires and analyses in Putuo Shan, Zhujia Jian, and Taohua Island. Finally, we combined this model and made some suggestions on boost the satisfaction of Zhoushan islands.

Keywords: experience tourism, tourists’ expectations, tourists' experience, tourism products

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Authors: Nana Weng

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From 2008, Chinese Foreign Direct Investment flows to the European Union continued its rapid rise. Currently, the industrial structure adjustment in developing countries has also been placed on the international movement of factors of production. Now China economy is in an important period of transformation on industrial structure adjustment. Under the international transfer of industry background, the adjustment of industrial structure upgrading and sophistication are the key elements of a successful economic transformation. In order to achieve a virtuous cycle of foreign investment patterns and optimize the industrial structure of foreign direct investment as well, the research on the positive the role of the EU direct investment and how it impact China’s industrial structure optimization and upgrading is of great significance. In this paper, the author explained how the EU as an investment destination is different with the United States and ASEAN. Then, based on the theory of FDI and industrial structure and combining the four kinds of motives of China’s ODI in EU, this paper explained the impact mechanism which has influenced China domestic industrial structure primarily through the Transfer effect, Correlation effect and Competitive effect. On the premise that FDI activities do affect the home country’s domestic industrial structure, this paper made empirical analysis with industrial panel data. With the help of Gray Correlation Method and Limited Distributed Lags, this paper found that China/s ODI in the EU impacted the tertiary industry strongly and had a significant positive impact, particularly the manufacturing industry and the financial industry. This paper also pointed out that Chinese MNEs should realize several issues, such as pay more attention to high-tech industries so that they can make the best use of reverse technology spillover. When Chinese enterprises ‘go out,' they ought to keep in mind that domestic research and development capital contribution can make greater economic growth. Finally, based on theoretical and empirical analysis results, this paper presents the industry choice recommendations in the future of the EU direct investment, particularly through the development of the proper rational industrial policy and industrial development strategic to guide the industrial restructuring and upgrading.

Keywords: china ODI in european union, industrial structure optimization, impact mechanism, empirical analysis

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Authors: Jitendra Sharma

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Here a Homogeneous Charge is used as in a spark-ignited engine, but the charge is compressed to auto ignition as in a diesel. The main difference compared with the Spark Ignition (SI) engine is the lack of flame propagation and hence the independence from turbulence. Compared with the diesel engine. HCCI has a homogeneous charge and have no problems associated with soot and Nox but HC and CO were higher than in SI mode. It was not possible to achieve high IMEP (Indicated Mean Effective Pressure) values with HCCI. The Homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) is an attractive technology because of its high efficiency and low emissions. However, HCCI lakes a direct combustion trigger making control of combustion timing challenging, especially during transients. To aid in HCCI engine control we present a simple model of the HCCI combustion process valid over a range of intake pressures, intake temperatures, equivalence ratios and engine speeds. HCCI a new combustion technology that may develop as an alternative to diesel engines with high efficiency and low Knox and particulate matter emissions. The homogenous charge compression ignition (HCCI) is a promising new engine technology that combines elements of the diesel and gasoline engine operating cycles. HCCI as a way to increase the efficiency of the gasoline engine. The attractive properties are increased fuel efficiency due to reduced throttling losses, increased expansion ratio and higher thermodynamic efficiency. With the advantages there are some mechanical limitations to the operation of the HCCI engine. The implementation of homogenous charge compression ignition (HCCI) to gasoline engines is constrained by many factors. The main drawback of HCCI is the absence of direct combustion timing control. Therefore all the right conditions for auto ignition have to be set before combustion starts. This paper describes the past and current research done on HCCI engine. Many research got considerable success in doing detailed modeling of HCCI combustion. This paper aims at studying the fundamentals of HCCI combustion, the strategy to control the limitation of HCCI engine.

Keywords: HCCI, diesel engine, combustion, elementary investigation

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Authors: Asif Arshid, Ying Huang, Denver Tolliver

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Finite Element (FE) method coupled with ever-increasing computational powers has substantially advanced the reliability of deterministic three dimensional structural analyses of a structure with uniform material properties. However, railways trackbed is made up of diverse group of materials including steel, wood, rock and soil, while each material has its own varying levels of heterogeneity and imperfections. It is observed that the application of probabilistic methods for trackbed structural analysis while incorporating the material and geometric variabilities is deeply underworked. The authors developed and validated a 3-dimensional FE based numerical trackbed model and in this study, they investigated the influence of variability in Young modulus and thicknesses of granular layers (Ballast and Subgrade) on the reliability index (-index) of the subgrade layer. The influence of these factors is accounted for by changing their Coefficients of Variance (COV) while keeping their means constant. These variations are formulated using Gaussian Normal distribution. Two failure mechanisms in subgrade namely Progressive Shear Failure and Excessive Plastic Deformation are examined. Preliminary results of risk-based probabilistic analysis for Progressive Shear Failure revealed that the variations in Ballast depth are the most influential factor for vertical stress at the top of subgrade surface. Whereas, in case of Excessive Plastic Deformations in subgrade layer, the variations in its own depth and Young modulus proved to be most important while ballast properties remained almost indifferent. For both these failure moods, it is also observed that the reliability index for subgrade failure increases with the increase in COV of ballast depth and subgrade Young modulus. The findings of this work is of particular significance in studying the combined effect of construction imperfections and variations in ground conditions on the structural performance of railroad trackbed and evaluating the associated risk involved. In addition, it also provides an additional tool to supplement the deterministic analysis procedures and decision making for railroad maintenance.

Keywords: finite element analysis, numerical modeling, probabilistic methods, risk and reliability analysis, subgrade

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Authors: Daniele Losanno, Giorgio Serino

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This paper focuses on parametric analysis of reinforced concrete structures equipped with supplemental damping braces. Practitioners still luck sufficient data for current design of damper added structures and often reduce the real model to a pure damper braced structure even if this assumption is neither realistic nor conservative. In the present study, the damping brace is modelled as made by a linear supporting brace connected in series with the viscous/hysteretic damper. Deformation capacity of existing structures is usually not adequate to undergo the design earthquake. In spite of this, additional dampers could be introduced strongly limiting structural damage to acceptable values, or in some cases, reducing frame response to elastic behavior. This work is aimed at providing useful considerations for retrofit of existing buildings by means of supplemental damping braces. The study explicitly takes into consideration variability of (a) relative frame to supporting brace stiffness, (b) dampers’ coefficient (viscous coefficient or yielding force) and (c) non-linear frame behavior. Non-linear time history analysis has been run to account for both dampers’ behavior and non-linear plastic hinges modelled by Pivot hysteretic type. Parametric analysis based on previous studies on SDOF or MDOF linear frames provide reference values for nearly optimal damping systems design. With respect to bare frame configuration, seismic response of the damper-added frame is strongly improved, limiting deformations to acceptable values far below ultimate capacity. Results of the analysis also demonstrated the beneficial effect of stiffer supporting braces, thus highlighting inadequacy of simplified pure damper models. At the same time, the effect of variable damping coefficient and yielding force has to be treated as an optimization problem.

Keywords: brace stiffness, dissipative braces, non-linear analysis, plastic hinges, reinforced concrete frames

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Authors: Isaac Kofi Mensah

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E-government has been adopted and used by many governments/countries around the world including Ghana to provide citizens and businesses with more accurate, real-time, and high quality services and information. The objective of this paper is to present an overview of the Government of Ghana’s (GoG) adoption and implement of e-government and its usage by the Ministries, Departments and its agencies (MDAs) as well as other public sector institutions to deliver efficient public service to the general public i.e. citizens, business etc. Government implementation of e-government focused on facilitating effective delivery of government service to the public and ultimately to provide efficient government-wide electronic means of sharing information and knowledge through a network infrastructure developed to connect all major towns and cities, Ministries, Departments and Agencies and other public sector organizations in Ghana. One aim for the Government of Ghana use of ICT in public administration is to improve productivity in government administration and service by facilitating the exchange of information to enable better interaction and coordination of work among MDAs, citizens and private businesses. The study was prepared using secondary sources of data from government policy documents, national and international published reports, journal articles, and web sources. This study indicates that through the e-government initiative, currently citizens and businesses can access and pay for services such as renewal of driving license, business registration, payment of taxes, acquisition of marriage and birth certificates as well as application for passport through the GoG electronic service (eservice) and electronic payment (epay) portal. Further, this study shows that there is an enormous commitment from GoG to adopt and implement e-government as a tool not only to transform the business of government but also to bring efficiency in public services delivered by the MDAs. To ascertain this, a further study need to be carried out to determine if the use of e-government has brought about the anticipated improvements and efficiency in service delivery of MDAs and other state institutions in Ghana.

Keywords: electronic government, electronic services, electronic pay, MDAs

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