Students pick up the perception that mathematics is abstract and therefore, the learning of mathematics would yield to them no benefit. With their attitude towards mathematics modelled and their interest for mathematics impacted by this automatic generated perception, they may never again appreciate the beauty of mathematics. In this paper, the researchers used structural equation modeling (SEM), to investigate the variables that affect students’ interest, among the variables, students’ confidence and motivation. The foregoing variables were conceptualized to have a direct effect on students’ interest in mathematics, whilst mathematics anxiety and students’ knowledge of the usefulness of mathematics were conceptualized to have indirect effects on their interest in mathematics moderated by students’ confidence and motivation. The result showed that significantly students’ confidence directly affects students’ interest in the learning of mathematics and there is a direct relationship between confidence and motivation. A student’s knowledge about the usefulness of mathematics indirectly increases the student’s interest in mathematics.

A disease can be defined as an adverse change from a normally functional state of the living body usually characterized with or accompanied with some signs and symptoms which is differing in nature from physical injury. A pandemic is the worldwide spread of a new disease. COVID-19 is one of the global pandemic that emerged in Wuhan, China, in December 2019 and has since then spread over through the world. In Ghana, the first case of COVID-19 was reported in March 14, 2020 and has increased from just one case to over 29000 cases with over 150 deaths as at July 23, 2020. This study focuses on the estimation of the basic reproductive number, R0 using the Next Generation Method (NGM) approach. COVID-19 data in Ghana was collected and parameters were estimated using the Least-Squares Method. The basic reproductive number of Ghana is estimated to be 2.52 whilst the R0 ranges between 1.47 − 2.65 for transmission rates of 0.5 − 0.9.

Background: Knowledge of the relative abundance and biting rates of riverine blackflies (vectors of onchocerciasis) is essential as these entomological indices affect transmission of the disease. However, transmission patterns vary from one ecological zone to another and this may be due to differences in species of blackfly vectors and the climatic conditions in the area. This study investigated the effects of climate variability on the relative abundance and biting rates of blackflies in the Tanfiano community (Nkoranza North District, Bono East Region, Ghana). Such information will help to direct policy on effective timing of the annual mass drug administration of ivermectin in the area. Methods: The study employed human landing collections and locally built Esperanza window traps to collect blackflies from March 2018 to February 2019. The relative abundance and biting rates of the Simulium vectors as well as the monthly climatic conditions of the study area were monitored. Correlation analysis and Poisson regression were used to establish the relationships between the variables. Results: The relative abundance and biting rates of the Simulium vectors were highest in the drier months of March, April and August, characterized by high temperatures, low humidity, longer hours of sunshine and stronger winds. The rainy months of May, June and July, characterized by low temperatures, high humidity, few hours of sunshine and weaker winds, had relatively low blackfly abundance and biting activity. Correlation analysis showed that only temperature was significantly, positively correlated with the relative abundance of blackflies (r = 0.617, n = 12, P = 0.033) and monthly biting rates (r = 0.612, n = 12, P = 0.034). A model to predict relative abundance and monthly biting rates using climatological variables was developed. Conclusions: This study demonstrated that Simulium species in the study area preferred higher temperature, lower humidity and rainfall, more hours of sunshine and relatively stronger winds for survival. It is thus recommended that for the study district and others with similar climatological characteristics, mass drug administration of ivermectin should take place in April and September when the abundance of vectors has begun to decline after peaking.

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Measles is a reemerging disease that has a devastating impact, especially among children under 5. In this paper, an SEIRS model is developed to investigate a possible outbreak among the population of children under 5 in the Sunyani Municipality. We consider waning immunity or loss of immunity among those who were vaccinated, which leads to secondary attacks among some in the population. Using Routh-Hurwitz criterion, Matrix Theoretic and Goh-Volterra Lyapunov functions, the stability of the model was investigated around the equilibria. We have computed the threshold parameter, 0 R , using the Next Generation Matrix method. The disease-free equilibrium is globally stable whenever 0 1 R ≤ and unstable otherwise. The endemic equilibrium is globally stable when 0 1 R > .