Benjamin David | Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (original) (raw)

Papers by Benjamin David

... Patient Safety in an Open Source Software Toolkit for Image-Guided Surgery Applications. Gary... more ... Patient Safety in an Open Source Software Toolkit for Image-Guided Surgery Applications. Gary K., Kokoori S., David B., Otoom M., Blake ... Additional Comments: The aims and the approach seem to be very reasonable and I probably would have rated the paper much higher, if ...

Le premier chapitre de cette these s’interesse a la relation entre les technologies de l’informat... more Le premier chapitre de cette these s’interesse a la relation entre les technologies de l’information et de la communication (TIC) et la productivite dans 8 pays de l’OCDE. L’objectif est de trouver une explication a la coexistence d’un progres technologique marque associe a l’absence de rupture dans les performances de productivite sur les dernieres decennies. Nos resultats suggerent qu’il y a une relation positive entre la diffusion des TIC et le progres technique tandis les variations d’efficience sont associees negativement avec ces technologies. Ces resultats suggerent que les economies etudiees sont toujours en phase d’adaptation. Le deuxieme chapitre analyse le role des TIC dans la polarisation du marche du travail. En utilisant des donnees de 8 pays industrialises, nos resultats attestent d’une contribution des TIC a cette dynamique et d’un impact differencie par pays et par industrie. Nous relevons aussi que la diffusion des TIC s’accompagne d’abord d’un biais technologique ...

The aim of this paper is to highlight the advantages of algorithmic methods for economic research... more The aim of this paper is to highlight the advantages of algorithmic methods for economic research with quantitative orientation. We describe four typical problems involved in econometric modeling, namely the choice of explanatory variables, a functional form, a probability distribution and the inclusion of interactions in a model. We detail how those problems can be solved by using "CART" and "Random Forest" algorithms in a context of massive increasing data availability. We base our analysis on two examples, the identification of growth drivers and the prediction of growth cycles. More generally, we also discuss the application fields of these methods that come from a machine-learning framework by underlining their potential for economic applications.

This paper focuses on dynamic of diffusion of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and... more This paper focuses on dynamic of diffusion of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and their impact on labor productivity. Our contribution lies in taking into account the non-linearity of this relationship arguing successively integration time and a time when new productivity gains appear. The existence of this particular sequence is modeled using a Logistic Smooth Transition model (LSTR) which permits to verify the delayed effect assumed for nine of the twelve countries studied. Different values of the adjustment periods across them are related to the structural characteristics of economies considered.

Scientific Reports, 2020

We investigated root communities of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) in relation to lavender (L... more We investigated root communities of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) in relation to lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) and lavandin (Lavandula intermedia) health status from organic and conventional fields affected by Phytoplasma infection. The intensity of root mycorrhizal colonization was significantly different between diseased and healthy plants and was higher in the latter regardless of agricultural practice. This difference was more pronounced in lavender. The root AMF diversity was influenced by the plant health status solely in lavender and only under the conventional practice resulting in an increase in the AMF abundance and richness. The plant health status did not influence the distribution of root AMF communities in lavandin unlike its strong impact in lavender in both agricultural practices. Finally, among the most abundant molecular operational taxonomic units (MOTUs), four different MOTUs for each plant species were significantly abundant in the roots of healthy lave...

Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology, 2021

Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education, 2021

Quantitative PCR (qPCR) has numerous applications in biology. In an education setting, qPCR provi... more Quantitative PCR (qPCR) has numerous applications in biology. In an education setting, qPCR provides students an opportunity to better understand the PCR mechanism by providing both quantitative information about the reactions and also data to troubleshoot PCRs (e.g., melt curves). Here, we present a relatively short (2-h) laboratory activity to demonstrate qPCR to quantify plasmid copy number (CN) by measuring the cycle threshold ( C T ) values for a genomic gene and a plasmid gene using transformed cells as a template. The activity can be combined with additional laboratory exercises, including bacterial transformation, to create the template to be used in the qPCRs. This lab activity is ideal for undergraduate laboratory courses that include recombinant DNA technology.

Biomedical Engineering Education, 2020

Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education, 2019

Enzymes are ubiquitous in the fields of biology and microbiology, catalyzing critical reactions a... more Enzymes are ubiquitous in the fields of biology and microbiology, catalyzing critical reactions and enabling a broad range of biotechnological applications. Despite the important role that enzyme catalysis plays in biological processes, undergraduate students often struggle to understand enzyme kinetics in the classroom. In an attempt to improve students’ understanding of the topic, we present a relatively short and inexpensive laboratory activity designed to give students hands-on experience with generating and manipulating enzyme kinetic data. Students perform restriction digests of DNA at various time points, visualize the reaction products on an agarose gel, and quantify their data in order to construct Lineweaver-Burk plots which compare the effects of a restriction enzyme and its engineered version. The activity may be completed in a single two-hour lab session and, unlike other enzyme assays designed for laboratory courses, does not require a microplate reader to complete. Th...

International Journal of Applied Decision Sciences, 2020

International Journal of Applied Decision Sciences, 2019

Criminologists and psychologists around the world are finding new initiatives to identify crimina... more Criminologists and psychologists around the world are finding new initiatives to identify criminals and understand crime scenes. This work focuses on predicting the occurrence of crimes for a released prisoner, based on crime propensity prediction, using a supervised machine learning technique. This original research is intended to design and develop a new dataset of 30 attributes that exists nowhere and is exclusively created to define prisoners so as to differentiate them by their propensity to crime using psychological and behavioural factors obtained from jails and assorted sources. The research incorporates an analysis of seven search methods, in tandem with seven subset evaluation techniques, to undertake feature selection, and nine classification algorithms for the classification of prisoners. It is found that the wolf search algorithm, used with the correlation-based feature subset evaluation technique and radial basis function classifier, performs best providing 97.8% precision, 97.5% recall and low error values.

British journal of hospital medicine (London, England : 2005), Jan 2, 2017

B ack pain is a common presenting symptom in primary and secondary care with between 60 and 80% o... more B ack pain is a common presenting symptom in primary and secondary care with between 60 and 80% of the UK population experiencing back pain at some point in their lifetime (Sieper et al, 2009). Major spinal pathology is rare but delayed or missed diagnoses can lead to significant loss of function for the patient and potentially serious medicolegal consequences for the clinician (Todd et al, 2009). The key to improving the diagnosis of major spinal pathology and reducing the incidence of secondary neurological sequelae is threefold: 1. Focused history and physical examination 2. Appropriate radiological and laboratory investigations 3. Emergent transfer of patients to specialist spinal centres for definitive management when necessary. This article covers the essential clinical information that must be obtained from the history and physical examination in patients presenting with atraumatic back pain. For the purpose of this article major spinal pathology is divided into infective, neoplastic and degenerative causes. The key features of each category are outlined to remind

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