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Paratransit trips on minibus vehicles have reportedly been unreliable, and users are unsatisfied with the quality of service they receive. Providing travel-related information, such as travel time information and introducing interventions along the roadway, may improve service quality and user experiences. To do this, there is a need to understand the nature of paratransit travel time and the factors affecting it. The study investigated factors affecting travel times of paratransit at the route and segment levels on two selected routes in Kumasi. A travel time survey onboard the vehicle was used to collect GPS, stop related and other information with the help of a mobile application. The Backward Stepwise Regression technique was used to determine the most significant factors which were drawn from literature and a careful study of paratransit operations. The results indicated that dwell times rather than stops contributed to paratransit travel times. Deviation from the route was found to increase travel time, contrary to the logic of using deviation to bypass apparent traffic congestion ahead. The study proffered interventions that can help improve travel time and the quality of service and made policy suggestions.

The goal of this paper is to describe the “horizontalization” of state/national constitutions in a scenario of globalizing law, where the Supranational World Order Legislative Policy Modelling (WOLPM) is dramatically redesigning the traditional hierarchy of legal sources, whose top were with state–national constitutions. The current scenario is radically different and state/national constitutions are no longer frameworks for law-making; rather they are part of a larger frame, but rather framed in a different framework. This new framework is vertically shorter and horizontally much longer, as transnational and supranational treaties are shifting the sovereignty is going more and more supranational and global; as a consequence, a condition of interdependence is emerging, which shapes a non-reversible network of networks. This horizontalization process evolves the innovative power of the legislative function in the global law system; this system is the one which can proactively support an innovation policy viable to the key challenges of our times. Furthermore, this power shift leverages and increases the quality of democracy: by a dramatical downsizing of the meso and the micro organizational Wiliamson’s costs -which can also facilitate a direct link between the macro and the psycho-social levels- an evolution seems to be emerging from different peoples to one People (eg: from the EU member states peoples to the EU people). A better comprehension of this evolution is based upon two theoretical grounds. On one side, Lawrence Friedman’s works about the globalization of culture and technology, which is also recombining social, political and religious traditions in the globalized law making process. On the other side the Luhmann-Teubner’s vision based on the concept of Law System (just one and global all over the planet); in this case, a Global Law System is implies two evolutive directions: a vertical direction, which means increasing law production at the top of this System; and a horizontal direction, consisting of structural couplings with local juridical social systems. These couplings can also show conflictual features. As a matter of fact, as Teubner points out, there is a crisis in traditional constitutionalism, that is caused by transnationalization. As a matter of fact, traditional constitutionalism is Nation-state based and hardly can it accept supranational sovereignties. Furthermore, tendencies are strong among social systems, to put themselves outside the state and to engender individual or institutional autonomy. In order to foresee the possible outcome of this trend, the best theoretical tool is the system/environment distinction. This notions draws a neat distinction between a more and more formalized and unified global world order (through supranational treaties as mentioned above) and a more and more turbulent and noisy environment, consisting of strong protests. According to systemic theory, irritation and resonance might make the law system oscillate, nevertheless the noisy environment has no construction function.

A techno-economic analysis was completed to compare the use of Hollow Fiber Membrane Modules (HFMM) with the more conventional structured packing columns as the absorber in amine-based CO2 capture systems for power plants. In order to simulate the operation of industrial scale HFMM systems, a two-dimensional model was developed and validated based on results of a laboratory scale HFMM. After successful experiments and validation of the model, a pilot scale HFMM was constructed and simulated with the same model. The results of the simulations, from both sizes of HFMM, were used to assess the feasibility of further up-scaling to a HFMM system to capture the CO2 from an 800 MWe power plant. The system requirements – membrane fiber length, total contact surface area, and module volume – were determined from simulations and used for an economic comparison with structured packing columns. Results showed that a significant cost reduction of at least 50% is required to make HFMM competitive with structured packing columns. Several factors for the design of industrial scale HFMM require further investigation, such as the optimal aspect ratio (module length/diameter), membrane lifetime, and casing material and shape, in addition to the need to reduce the overall cost. However, HFMM were also shown to have the advantages of having a higher contact surface area per unit volume and modular scale-up, key factors for applications requiring limited footprints or flexibility in configuration.

In this research, Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing is modelled and simulated to determine the most suitable bead modelling strategy. This analysis is aimed to predict distortion by means of thermomechanical Finite Element Method (FEM). The product model with wire as feedstock on plate as substrate and process simulation are designed in form of multi-layered beads and single string using MSC Marc/Mentat. This research begins with finding suitable WAAM parameters which takes into account the bead quality. This is done by using robotic welding system with 01.2mm filler wire (AWS A5.28 : ER80SNi1), shielding gas (80% Ar/ 20% CO2) and 6mm-thick low carbon steel as base plate. Further, modelling as well as simulation are to be conducted with regards to bead spreading of each layers. Two different geometrical modelling regarding the weld bead are modelled which are arc and rectangular shape. Equivalent material properties from database and previous researches are implemented into simulation to ensure a realistic resemblance. It is shown that bead modelling with rectangular shape exhibits faster computational time with less error percentage on distortion result compared to arc shape. Moreover, by using the rectangular shape, the element and meshing are much easier to be designed rather than arc shape bead.

In contrast to a two-stage hardening and tempering process, the definition of optimized cooling routes after hot working of low-alloy Cr steel allows the adjustments of high-strength microstructures with a sufficient degree of ductility at the same time without any additional heat-treatment. While compressed air cooling after hot forging of micro-alloyed steel grades leads to the formation of lower bainite with finedispersed cementite platelets, quenching by water spray down to the martensite start temperature results in the formation of martensite, that is self-tempered during the subsequent slow-cooling in air. The precipitation of nano-sized cementite precipitates result in superior mechanical properties with respect to impact and tensile testing. Cyclic deformation and crack propagation tests being carried out using resonance testing (100Hz) and ultrasonic fatigue testing (20kHz) systems revealed a pronounced increase in fatigue strength by about 150MPa of the self-tempered martensite condition as compared to the bainitic modification. For the latter one, a steady decrease of the fatigue strength is observed rather than the existence of a real fatigue limit.

As teorias epistemológicas do rastreamento sustentam que o conhecimento é uma relação real entre o agente cognitivo e seu ambiente. Os estados cognitivos de um agente epistêmico fazem o rastreamento da verdade das proposições que são objeto de conhecimento ao embasarem a crença em indicadores confiáveis da verdade (evidência, razões, ou métodos de formação de crença). A novidade nessa abordagem é que se dá pouca ênfase no tipo de justificação epistêmica voltada ao fornecimento de procedimentos de decisão doxástica ou regras de responsabilidade epistêmica. Este artigo oferece um pouco da história das teorias de rastreamento e, então, defende-as contra muitas objeções que se pretendem (equivocadamente) refutadoras dessas teorias

Wh-question fronting and focus constructions in Akan have three structural characteristics in common: constituent fronting, introduction of a clitic morpheme after the fronted constituent, and pronoun resumption in a canonical clause position. In comparing these constructions to each other and to related canonical constructions, one is confronted with the question whether the same discourse-contextual information is consistently expressed in both constructions. Using the framework of Lexical-Functional Grammar, we show that both whquestion fronting and focus constructions share representations in the constituent and functional structure. Considering the individual discourse-contextual information expressed in wh-question fronting and focus constructions, as compared to the discourse-contextual information expressed in the respective in situ and canonical clause counterparts, however, we show that a variance is drawn between them in the information structure. In a further constraint-based analysis, Optimality-Theoretic LFG is used to clarify the proposals made.

In their search for solutions to the development problems of Africa, students of African development have often ignored linguistic and other socio?cultural resources (Prah 1993). When linguistic issues are addressed at all, the fact that there is a multiplicity of languages in African countries is often seen as a hindrance to the development of the continent. This paper focuses on the relationship between language and development and offers a specific proposal for addressing issues of language policy and planning in Africa. Taking the language situation in Ghana as a case study, a model of development communication and education termed localized trilingualism is proposed; a model, it is believed, will enable Africa to harness its multilingual resources for accelerated and sustainable socio?cultural, economic and technological development in the 21st century.

The Contribution of Loanwords to the Study of Cultural History: An Illustration with the Dagaaba of Northwestern Ghana

Language, History and Culture in Northern Ghana: An Introduction to the Mabia Linguistic Group

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In this short essay, originally published in 2015 in Slate, the author looks at the relation between art-making and an awareness of the disasters associated with the Anthropocene: can we, should we, still focus on making works of art, detached from the world? Recalling his youthful involvement in environmental activism in Alaska, Adams remembers choosing to be a composer because, in that role, he was irreplaceable. For him, being fully engaged in a creative activity with no political agenda, or even a particular theme, allows him to make music that is authentically expressive, free of possible social meanings, and thus capable of inspiring renewed consciousness in its listeners. The responsibility of the artist is to their art, which may then help our species transform its way of being in the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]