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BackgroundThe disease addiction to chemical substances or drugs such as alcohol (ethanol, C2H5OH) is still not recognised by many medical practitioners as a diagnostic nosology in Ghana. It is usually considered a moral challenge, rather than a medical condition. This perception is propagated even in the Ministry of Health’s Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) policy document which punishes symptoms of substance use disorders. This study seeks to explore the perception and attitude of employers towards employees with alcohol use disorders (AUDs).MethodA qualitative approach of in-depth interviews and observations which described the perceived attitudes of employers (using HR managers as proxy) towards employees with AUD of ten private and public hospitals in the Greater-Accra Metropolis was adopted. The face-to face interviews conducted using a an interview guide were audio-recorded and later transcribed. On average, the interview lasted between 45 and 60 minutes.ResultsFindings from the 10 interviews revealed that psychological factors accounted for AUD regardless of the nature of their work. In spite of prevalence of AUD in some hospitals, it was interesting to know that majority of these facilities had no employee assistance programmes (EAPs) and the few that had some policies on AUD were not implementing them.ConclusionThis paper focused on some aspect of HR managers’ perceived attitude toward an aspect of their mental well-being which is AUD. However, there are other pertinent issues that are crucial to employee total well-being that can be addressed in future research.

In this paper, from the perspective of improving the durability of superhydrophobic coatings, a strong and durable superhydrophobic coating was prepared by a simple spray method. The coating has good chemical stability and mechanical durability. After soaking in aqueous solution with pH value of 1 and 14 for 30 hours and 24 hours respectively, the contact angle is 139.8 ° and 143.5 °respectively. After 90 times of abrasion, the contact angle is still 148 ° and the coating shows excellent self-cleaning and antifouling properties.

A water and mildew proof SiO2 and ZnO/silica sol superhydrophobic composite coating was prepared by a one-step method and applied to a circuit board. The preparation method is simple and inexpensive, and convenient for large-scale preparation.