Refereed Journals

Dried sewage sludge is an appealing biomass fuel for industrial kilns, because of its availability, affordability and has a positive effect on improving the symbiotic sustainable circularity of liquid waste treatment plants. The study investigated the fuel characteristics (efficiency, environmental and human safety) of biochar produced from sewage sludge for utilization as heating energy and compared the fuel performance to charcoal produced from wood sources using the Water Boiling Test method and X-ray Fluorescence Spectroscopy. Biochar briquette with equal ratio of carbonized sludge and wood shavings grants a solid fuel with good quality in terms of the burning rate (10.51 g/min.), specific fuel consumption (107.13 g/l) and emission levels of CO (59.64 g kg^-1 of fuel) and PM_2.5 (4.76 g kg^-1 of fuel). This fuel compared favourably with other biomass fuels used in Ghana. Also, no adverse impact on the environment and human health was observed in the use of the biochar with the low air quality index (35.23) recorded when the fuel is used in a well-ventilated cooking environment as well as showed low potential ecological risk (121.54) in terms of the heavy metals in the residual ash when disposed of in the soil. The positive energy balance (2.35 MJ/kg) of the production is indicative the potential carbon savings

The COVID-19 epidemic had a profound impact on global health and the economy and Ghana was no exception to its far-reaching consequences. Regarding detection of the causative agent-the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), reverse-transcription-qPCR (RT-qPCR) is widely recognized as a very sensitive and reliable diagnostic technique used globally. There are, however, high operational costs in acquiring test kits, equipment, and accessories for RT-qPCR testing, which pose significant challenges in resource-limited settings. Hence, this proof-of-concept study set out to develop a more affordable COVID-19 protocol for use in low or lower-middle-income settings, such as Ghana, that would bypass the traditional extraction process using inexpensive reagents and evaluate the possibility of processing samples collected using wooden shaft swabs. Several less expensive media were used for the extraction-free process. Results demonstrated that direct RT-qPCR assay after 5 min heat inactivation of virus at 95 °C in 0.1× PBS or molecular grade water resulted in viral detection with quantification cycle (Cq) values that are comparable to results obtained following the extraction process. Also, wooden shaft swabs could be used for sampling if incubation times are kept to less than 6 h. The study demonstrates that extraction-free protocols are one way to minimize the cost of COVID-19 testing by RT-qPCR.

Malaria continues to pose a health challenge globally, and its elimination has remained a major topic of public health discussions. A key factor in eliminating malaria is the early and accurate detection of the parasite, especially in asymptomatic individuals, and so the importance of enhanced diagnostic methods cannot be overemphasized. This paper reviewed the advances in malaria diagnostic tools and detection methods over recent years. The use of these advanced diagnostics in lower and lower-middle-income countries as compared to advanced economies has been highlighted. Scientific databases such as Google Scholar, PUBMED, and Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI), among others, were reviewed. The findings suggest important advancements in malaria detection, ranging from the use of rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) and molecular-based technologies to advanced non-invasive detection methods and computerized technologies. Molecular tests, RDTs, and computerized tests were also seen to be in use in resource-limited settings. In all, only twenty-one out of a total of eighty (26%) low and lower-middle-income countries showed evidence of the use of modern malaria diagnostic methods. It is imperative for governments and other agencies to direct efforts toward malaria research to upscale progress towards malaria elimination globally, especially in endemic regions, which usually happen to be resource-limited regions.

In this work, the effects of calcination temperatures ranging from 600°C to 1,000°C on the changes in mineralogical phases and mechanical characteristics of calcined impure kaolinite clay blended cement mortars were investigated. The impact of calcining temperature on pozzolanic activity of impure kaolinite clay was evaluated using direct and indirect methods. The findings demonstrated that at 700°C, kaolinite changed from a crystalline to an amorphous metakaolin phase. Specific surface, water demand, and setting time of the blended cements decreased as calcining temperature increased. The compressive strengths of blended cement mortar containing low-grade clay calcined at 700°C, 800°C, and 900°C were found to be greater than that of 600°C and 1,000°C. Based on the results of pozzolanic reactivity evaluations and compressive strength development, the most effective calcining temperature was shown to be between 800°C and 900°C.

Cost, environmental, and social impacts of road construction delay have been widely investigated, but not its impacts on pavement structural performance. This study conducted pavement structural analysis and distress survey on a section of the N6 Highway in Ghana that had experienced more than a decade of construction delay to examine the impact of the delay on pavement structural performance. The pavement structure and its variants (representing different construction stages) were mechanistically modeled in WESLEA, a layered elastic pavement analysis program, to determine critical pavement strains for fatigue and rutting performance prediction. Also, various pavement structural design scenarios, simulating different construction stages and traffic loading, were analyzed using the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) flexible pavement design procedure to examine the effects of construction delay on pavement structural capacity. The mechanistic analysis showed that trafficking a partially completed pavement considerably increases critical strain levels and exposes the pavement to a higher risk of fatigue and rutting damage. Large structural capacity deficits were obtained for the incomplete pavements: the thinner the in-situ pavement structure and the longer the construction delay, the greater the structural capacity deficit and the greater the damage risk. Opening incomplete pavement structures to traffic for a long time must be avoided because the associated high critical strains and inadequate in-situ structural capacity can induce premature failure, as corroborated by the distress survey findings. Construction staging specifications must be strictly enforced, while construction delay must be avoided and, if impossible, its effects minimized through effective project construction management.