The scheme is to stimulate students to take up programmes in the field of Math and Science and make Science and technology the critical drivers for the country’s socio-economic development.

The Minister for Environment, Science and Technology, Ms. Sherry Ayittey, announced this at a national forum on Ghana’s Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) policy in Accra yesterday.

The forum was on the theme, “Achieving a middle-income status through science, technology and innovation”, and it was meant to discuss the STI policy before it gets to the higher realms of the Executive arm of the government.

The goal of the STI policy is to harness the nation’s total science and technology capacity to achieve national objectives for poverty reduction, competitiveness of enterprises, sustainable environmental management and industrial growth.

Specific objectives are among other things, facilitating the mastering of scientific and technological capabilities and providing the framework for inter-institutional efforts in developing STI programmes in all sectors of the economy to provide the basic needs of society.

It is also to create the conditions for the improvement of scientific and technological infrastructure for research and development and innovation.

The STI policy was adopted as a national document in 2000. It was, however, not implemented.

The two consultants who worked on the draft policy are Prof. Jerome Siaw Djangmah and Dr. Goerge Owusu Essegbey, both Ghanaian intellectuals and scientists.

Ms. Sherry Ayittey said to extend the country’s laboratories to the marketplace; Cabinet had approved a policy which stipulates the use of local raw materials such as Pozolana cement in the building and construction industry, cassava flour in the joinery industry, bio-char organic fertilizer for farmers and paper from wood.

She admitted that the government could not do it alone and called for partnerships among the private sector, the development partners, the United National, academia and the government in that area.

Ms. Ayittey said Ghana’s vision of attaining a middle-income status is dependent on the extent to which the country mobilised its scientific and technological capacity to address specific challenges.

The Chairman of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), Mr. P.V. Obeng, who chaired the function, said science and technology are “value items” in the world environment which Ghana is not exploiting to develop.

He noted that science will enable the nation to move away from the old ways of doing things and accelerate economic development.

He said as chairman of the NDPC, no project will earn his support if it is not done differently from what was done in the past with scientific innovations.
Prof. Djangmah, for his part, said the nation needs to set aside at least one per cent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for research into science and technology, as directed by the African Union (AU).

He said Ghanaian students are not doing well in science and mathematics at the secondary level, noting that attention needed to be paid to that area.

The team’s work focused on a neurotransmitter that typically plays an important role in communication among nerve cells in the brain and fosters learning and memory. This glutamate neurotransmitter opens the NMDA (N-methyl-D-aspartate) receptors, allowing the entry of calcium into the nerve cells.

Under normal conditions, the activity of the NMDA receptors is tightly regulated to prevent nerve cells from becoming overloaded with calcium. During a stroke, however, that process of regulation breaks down. The excessive influx of calcium through NMDA receptors kills the nerve cells and can cause severe brain damage.

Striving to prevent such calcium overloads, the research team discovered that an enzyme, DAPK1 (Death-Associated Protein Kinase 1), binds to a portion of the NMDA receptor and acts as a “cell death signal” during strokes.

Researchers hypothesized that by preventing DAPK1 from binding with the NMDA receptors, they could prevent the calcium overloads and cell deaths. They developed a potent compound to test their theory and found that the compound blocked DAPK1, protecting brain cells against stroke injury, and did not affect the beneficial physiological functions of the receptors.

The findings appear in the Jan. 22 issue of Cell, one of the leading journals in the field.

“It is conceivable that this study not only provides new insights into the cellular and molecular basis responsible for stroke damage, but also provides a therapeutic target for stroke therapy,” said Youming Lu, the LSU professor who led the team of scientists.

The findings also may have significant implications for developing therapeutic drugs to treat other neurodegenerative diseases, said UCF Assistant Professor Sic Chan, a study collaborator who has done extensive research on the role of calcium in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

“Anytime we gain an increased understanding of the molecular mechanism of neurodegeneration, that enhances our ability to make better drugs,” he said.

To date, all stroke clinical trials targeting glutamate receptors have failed, largely because of their side effects, an inefficient delivery of compounds from the blood to the brain or the length of time it takes for the drugs to work effectively.

A career in Animation and Visual effects is for those who have a creative mind and a soaring imagination. Besides being creative, one needs a professional degree in 3D Animation and Visual Effects. Courses are available world wide to pursue masters in this.

Some of the disciplines in this profession are visual effects artist, texture artist, technical director, lighting artist, pre-visualisation artist, character animator and modeller. Whatever area one chooses to pursue, knowledge in traditional arts and animation skills on computer is the foundation. So, one begins with these courses.

Professionals in 3D Animation and Visual Effects can find work in video game design, motion picture
effects, DVD production, internet site design as well as ad design, television broadcast animation, and for entertainment like music concerts, comedy shows, and amusement rides that requires animation.

There will also be plenty of openings for education, corporate, health care, and governmental operations, including office training films, trade shows, and flight training video, and college course animations broadcast in the classroom or through web streaming video. This certainly does reflect the massive demand for 3d artists and animators in a variety of field.

Some of the top schools providing professional degree and hands on training in 3D Animation and Visual Effects are

National Institute of Design – Ahmedabad, India
E-dutainment Unlimited-Mumbai, India
Nanyang Tecnological University-Singapore
Hongik University, Korea
Gnomon Institute of visual effects, USA
Vancouver Film School, Canada
California Institute of the Arts, USA
School of Visual Arts, USA
University of The Arts, USA
Rhode Island School of design, USA
Royal College of Art, UK
National Film and Television School, UK
Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemburg, Germany
THE COLE NATIONALE SUPRIEURE DES ARTS DCORATIFS (ENSAD), France

Some of the graduates from these schools work in Disney, Pixar, DreamWorks skg, Blue Sky Studio and Nickelodeon. These the best places to end up after the formal training in 3D Animation and Visual Effects.

There are plenty of job opportunities if you hold a professional degree in Animation and Visual Effects. You can find work any where in the world.

Seems to me what the President needs to do more of is “explain the why.” Explaining the why is one of the leader’s most valuable tools in the citizen or employee engagement game. Explaining the why pulls people in, creates a common understanding of the situation or crisis, and helps everyone absorb how the change relates to them. Sometimes there’s no real need to explain the why – it’s either plainly obvious why we all need to pitch in (disaster in Haiti) or the call to action is logical and produces a “of course we’re with you” type of response (creating a set of core values for the company).

But President Obama (and you, perhaps) often face more cloudy motivational issues. Here’s just a few of the topics that the administration is dealing with that could use a health dose of “why” – Afghanistan, health care, the financial system bailout, and, coming soon (gulp), probable tax increases. Given his oratory skills, it’s surprising that Obama hasn’t taken his case for each of these changes directly to the American people in plain, easy to digest language (I’ll never understand why Presidents don’t literally hold a monthly “all hands meeting” with 300 million of their closest friends to say “here’s what we accomplished this month, here’s why we worked on that, and here’s what we’re going to work on next month” – why would that be so hard?). Seems like you become President and you forget Rule # 1 of being a leader – communicate, constantly!

Jack Welch used to talk about the need for leaders to be relentless and boring – to repeat, repeat, repeat the message until it resonated, helping people make sense of what was going on, how they fit in, and why it mattered. That’s it, really – here’s what we need to do, here’s why, and here’s what it means to you. How hard is that? Yet most leaders completely under-leverage this communication trifecta – they may be relatively clear about what needs to be done, but they definitely don’t stress the why or the “what’s in it for you” nearly enough.

It’s easy to see where Obama could be explaining the why more often, but what about you? What are you trying to rally your people around that could use more explanation? Why are you asking them to change, work harder, squeeze costs, etc.? What’s that getting you (and them)? It might even be 2 or 3 layers deep – we have to do this, to get to here, which is important for achieving this goal, etc.

Start thinking more about “explaining the why” – it’s a powerful communications technique that never goes out of style. Every time (yes, every time) you communicate something, add the why; notice the difference in how the message is received. You can do this – it takes a little extra preparation, but the returns are worth it. And if you can’t figure out the why, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it (which is part of the problem with health care reform – average American’s can’t tell why Washington wants to change the status quo).

Let me leave you with this – leading is a lot like parenting, yes? You explain the why to your kids when they’re young, right (don’t touch the stove, because…)? Same thing with your employees. Help them understand why you’re asking them to do certain things… it helps them understand. Just don’t fall back on that old parenting standby (“because I said so!”) – that won’t go over too well with your team!

. The GRE is now only available as a computer-adaptive test. This is how it works: instead of having a pre-determined mixture of easy, medium, and hard questions, the computer will select questions for you based on how well you are doing. The first question will be of medium difficulty; if you get it right, the second question will be selected from a large group of questions that are a little harder; if you get the first question wrong, the second will be a little easier. The result is that the test automatically adjusts to your skill level. The Tough questions have more credit than easier ones.
.You can still earn a very high score even if you answer several questions incorrectly. Correct answers to Harder questions leads to large score as compared to easier questions. This means to Get large score more difficult questions has to be answered.
.Some (Very few) Universities may demand Subject GRE.
. After completing your exam you can send your scores (free!) to four Universities so be prepared.
. Your GRE scores are valid for 5 years.
.You may appear again in GRE after one month.
Total testing time is up to three hours, not including the research section. The directions at the beginning of each section specify the total number of questions in the section and the time allowed for the section.

The Analytical Writing section is always first. For the Issue task, two topics will be presented and you will choose one. The Argument task does not present a choice of topics; instead, one topic will be presented.

The Verbal and Quantitative sections may appear in any order, including an unidentified unscored section. Treat each section presented during your test as if it counts.

Section Number of Questions Time
Analytical Writing 1 Issue Task 45 minutes
Analytical Writing 1 Argument Task* 30 minutes
Verbal 30 30 minutes
Quantitative 28 45 minutes
Unscored** Varies Varies
Research*** Varies Varies
* For the Issue task, two essay topics are presented and you choose one. The Argument task does not present a choice of topics; instead one topic is presented.
** An unidentified unscored section may be included and may appear in any order after the Analytical Writing section. It is not counted as part of your score.
*** An identified research section that is not scored may be included, and it is always at the end of the test.

Some Facts

. Maximum score for sections Verbal, Quantitative is 800. An analytical writing score will be reported on a 0-6 score scale, in half-point increments.
. GRE is generally required by universities in North America (USA and Canada).
. Most Universities require General GRE for admission to MS and Ph.D. in Engineering Sciences.
. Generally for engineering Students score above 1200 (750+ 450+ 4) is considered good for admission for middle order universities ranked between 40 to 90 .There may be some deviations.
. For all engineering Students GRE Q is most important for best results GRE Q must be well above 740 ,GRE A above 650(A>4.0/6.0), GRE V above 450.
. GRE score can considerably improve University Ranking. TOEFL is most important. TOEFL score must be well above 213.Generally
. Top 50 ranked Universities may require GRE>1300(770+,530+,>4/6) and TOEFL>250.For International students Verbal section is quite difficult. So they must prepare hard on vocabulary.

Note: Work hard in GRE Quantitative. Work on Permutation/combination, probability, mean/median/mode… etc.