Introduction – Elections are a cornerstone of democratic societies, enabling citizens to express their preferences and shape the direction of their governments. Economic conditions, political dynamics, and social factors often play pivotal roles in influencing voter behavior and determining electoral outcomes, making elections a key area of study in understanding governance and policy change. Objectives – This study examines how key economic factors like inflation, unemployment, and poverty influence election results in Ghana. It also looks at how these economic elements shape voter choices and predicts the possible outcomes of the 2024 general elections using past data. Methodology – The study used historical economic and political data from 1992 to 2023, applying statistical models like ARIMA (Auto-Regressive Integrated Moving Average) to forecast future election outcomes. Economic indicators such as inflation and unemployment were included to study their relationship with voter behavior. Findings - The results show that economic factors significantly impact voter turnout and party vote share. High inflation and unemployment rates tend to reduce voter support for incumbent parties. The model also predicts possible outcomes for the 2024 election based on these economic trends. Conclusion and Recommendation – The study concludes that improving economic conditions, such as reducing unemployment, could positively influence electoral outcomes for incumbents. It is recommended that policymakers focus on stabilizing the economy to enhance electoral success.

Fastener holes are among the most common natural stress concentrators in metal structures. The life cycles of various structural elements, such as those in aircraft structures, automobiles, and rail-end bolt joints are limited by fatigue damage around the holes. An effective approach to delay the formation and growth of fatigue macrocracks is to introduce residual hoop compressive stresses around the holes. Two methods have become established in the prestressing of fastener holes in aircraft components: split sleeve and split mandrel, which implement one-sided processes. The common disadvantage of both methods is the complex procedure due to the need for high accuracy of the initial holes. This article presents a new modified split mandrel method providing the same tightness (interference fit) with a wide tolerance of the pre-drilled hole diameters reducing the number of technological cycle steps and production costs. То implement the new method, a functionally connected tool and a device with a hydraulic drive were developed. An extensive experimental study of 2024-T3 AA specimens was carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of the method under a high scattering of the pre-drilled holes. The new method provided a deep zone of residual hoop compressive stresses on both faces of the specimens after cold working and after hole final reaming. The removal of a plastically deformed layer around the hole of suitable thickness during the final reaming decreased the axial gradient of residual hoop stress distribution. Fatigue tests on a tensile pulsating cycle verified the effectiveness of the modified split mandrel method to significantly increase the fatigue life by 6.6 times based on cycle fatigue strength compared to the conventional case of machining the holes. The obtained S-N curves for three groups of samples with initial hole diameters of 8.0, 8.1, and 8.2 mm which were cold worked with the same tightness of 0.32 mm and final reamed, aligned well indicating that the new method can provide constant fatigue strength for a given stress amplitude.

The production of a ton of steel in an integrated steel plant generates of approximately 1 ton of ferrous slag. A great part of ferrous slags is recycled in civil and road construction etc., but a huge amount is still dumped. Recycling ferrous slag as cement precursor was considered the upcycling route. Regulation (EU) 2024/1252 requires the Member States to provide information, until November 2026, on the critical raw materials (CRM) amount in their secondary resources and on quantification methods used for. This study addresses two synergic objectives: ensuring the reliability of XRFS results and screening for CRM in ferrous slags based on XRFS outcomes. The main novelty of the paper is the way of ensuring the reliability of the XRFS results based on weighted arithmetic mean and on the maximum likelihood approach. Secondly, the XRFS measurements carried on ferrous slags demonstrate that they contain significant amounts of CRM like Ba, Sr, Y, etc. XRFS cannot detect light CRM. Our preliminary LIBS measurements on ferrous slags disclosed the presence of Li and Be. The drawbacks of the XRFS technique impose further research to develop an integrated XRFS, LIBS and XRD procedure for comprehensive and trustworthy CRM screening in extractive waste piles.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on every individual in the United States. The launch of the COVID-19 vaccines is estimated to have averted millions of deaths and reduced over 18 million COVID-19 related hospitalizations. In September 2023, the updated 2023-2024 COVID-19 vaccine that include a monovalent component that corresponding to the omicron variant XBB.1.5 reflecting the predominant circulating variant at the time of strain selection, was approved and was recommended for use in all people ≥ 6 months of age. Despite this recommendation, the US uptake of the updated COVID vaccines over the 2023-2024 season has been far from optimal, placing many people at unnecessary risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes. This paper provides an overview of the current state of COVID-19 in 2023-2024, and barriers to vaccine uptake. With the continued evolution of the virus, the potential for more virulent variants and the lower public acceptance of vaccination, the potential barriers that contributed to low vaccine uptake are explored, as well as to provide solutions for improving COVID-19 protection for future seasons.