ghanaopendata/ghanaian-research-english huggingface dataset:
Gamblers’ risk of ruin and optimal bets on football scores

Football scores which serves as the basis for wagering vis-a-vis the betting centres of mybet.com sporting center, Supabet, Alfabet, Premier bet, Safari bet, Euro bet in Ghana, is influenced by varied variables of both quantitative and qualitative making it uncertain, as the possibility of ruin stare gamblers. Model based on Poisson regression is adopted through bivariate poisson distribution to estimate the scoring rates of teams and probabilities of wins for both home and away using sports data of EPL 2013/2014 season and validated with 2014/2015 season. MLEs approach is adopted for parameter estimations. Red cards, Yellow cards, corner profile, shots on targets of teams as key scores determinants are analysed for purpose of determining the significant elements, while assessing the risk exposure of the gambler through gambler’s ruin theory. The result indicated that, with a higher away scoring rates of teams, there remain higher probability of winning away than a home win, nonetheless making the point that, teams on average perform well playing at home. Corners profile and shots on target was found to significantly influence both home and away play of teams. The study concludes that, the optimally betting strategy for the gambler is to bet bold in a sub-fair situation, while taking a pulse caution in a super-fair situation relative to the expected fortune to reach from an initial bankroll.

Source: KNUST
Game theory model of consumers response to service offers. a case study of MTN-Ghana and Vodafone-Ghana in the Tamale Metropolis

Telecommunication and mobile phone usage for that matter have assumed a centre stage in the Ghanaian economy like any other economy the world over to a degree that its possession is increasingly becoming a necessity. The situation resulted to serious competition among Service Providers in the sector in their quest to control the market. The objectives of this thesis are to model consumers' response to the service offers employed by two Mobile Service Operators using game theory as well as to determine the optimal strategies and utilities of the considered firms. These operators included the MTN and Vodafone-Ghana. We compared their selected service offers to determine how consumers react to them. The Lemke Howson Algorithm was used to solve the model and Nash Equilibria of the game were determined. The optimal strategies and utilities of the competing firms were obtained.

Source: KNUST
Gamification in education: improving elementary mathematics through engagement in hybrid learning in the classroom

The study of mathematics is essential in the education of an individual because it serves as the basis of science and engineering fields. Thus, knowledge in mathematics play effectual role in national development. In spite of this merit and numerous significances chalked by the study of mathematics, Ghana seems to suffer from student failure in mathematics both in the Basic Education Certificate Examination and the West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination. According to research, general absenteeism on the part of teachers and students, lack of interest of students in the study of mathematics, lack of instructional materials, and lack of educational interventions that could help engage students in the study of mathematics are some of the causes of student failure in the study of mathematics. Based on these findings, the researcher adopted gamification framework as an intervention that can facilitate teaching and learning of at the basic level. The study employed the qualitative research design. Participant observation and interviews were used to collect and analyse data in the classroom environment of one primary school in Kumasi and also to evaluate the efficacy of the gamification framework as an intervention to improve interest and performance among lower primary pupils. Purposive and simple random sampling techniques were adopted to sample 125 lower primary pupils and three (3) lower primary teachers as respondents. The introduction of gamification and blended learning into the classroom encouraged active, participatory and collaborative learning by engaging pupils in the study of mathematics. This intervention changed the classroom dynamics and fostered new teaching and learning approaches. The introduction of this gamification model also boosted pupil-teacher interactivity, turned the pupils into motivated active learners, and iii increased the level of pupils’ engagement in learning mathematics. The study has reveal that there is a high potential of using gamification as an intervention to augment t he traditional teaching methods used in the teaching of mathematics in primary schools with the end objective of increasing the level of pupil engagement, motivation and interaction in the classroom lessons and also making the teaching and learning of mathematics enjoyable in Ghanaian primary schools.

Source: KNUST
Gamification in home economics education to enhance students’ drawing at Mpohor senior high school

Drawing is an important component in the General Knowledge in Art (GKA) syllabus and also an integral requirement in the WASSCE results. Most students offering the GKA as an elective subject sees drawing as canker. Comparably, Visual Art students offering GKA have an upper hand on their Home Economics counterpart who are also studying the subject: with reasons that, the Visual Arts students draw in other art-related subjects such as Picture Making, Sculpture, Graphic Design among others. Most Home Economics Students offering GKA develop a phobia for drawing; while others omit GKA and choose its alternative elective, because of how it is taught in the various secondary schools in Ghana. Grounded on these verdicts, the researcher espoused Gamification as an intervention to aid teaching and learning of drawing at the SHS level. This study identified and analyzed the teaching activities in teaching and learning of drawing; to implement Gamification as an instructional strategy in teaching and learning of drawing for Home Economics students; and also evaluate the effect of Gamification as an instructional strategy in teaching and learning of drawing for.The study employed the mixed-method research design; descriptive and quasi-experimental research methods. Participant observation, interviews and questionnaires were employed to gather and scrutinize data in the classroom environment of Home Economics second years class in Mpohor. It also weighed the effectiveness of the gamification as a mediation to improve concentration and enactment among Home Economics students offering GKA. Purposive sampling was espoused to sample fifty nine (59) Home Economics students and two (2) GKA teachers as respondents. The sample teachers were guided on the designing of definite objectives; how to choose appropriate teaching methods and approaches.The introduction of gamification heartened vigorous, participatory and collective learning by engaging students in the study of drawing in GKA. The gamification intervention transformed the classroom subtleties and promoted innovative teaching and learning methods. The gamification model also increased student-teacher interactivity; curved the students into inspired lively learners, and augmented the level of students’ engagement in learning drawing. The research concluded that gamification offers a great perspective on existing methods of teaching. The researcher recommended the following: GKA teachers should move towards learner-centred approaches and engross in innovative ways of boosting up their teaching with numerous technological changes in order to make lessons collaborative, pleasurable and explicable; teachers should consider interactive based lessons, set reachable concise objectives and choose suitable teaching and learning resources from their immediate environment; GKA teachers should develop suitable formative and summative valuation methods and implement group teaching approaches considering the time allocated in order to make all students reach the accepted level of mastery.

Source: KNUST
Gender and leadership positions: understanding women’s experiences and challenges in patriarchal societies in Northern Ghana

Purpose – Women are rarely seen in positions of leadership in patriarchal societies, which is unsurprising.Following gender equity policies, few women have been able to break through the gender equity barrier and assume leadership positions in schools. Few research investigations have delved into the experiences and challenges that women encounter in positions of leadership in patriarchal societies in government schools in Northern Ghana. The study seeks to comprehend the experiences and challenges that women confront in positions of leadership in patriarchal societies in Northern Ghana. Design/methodology/approach – The study aimed to gain a better understanding of the experiences and challenges that women encounter in educational leadership roles in patriarchal societies in Northern Ghana. To achieve the study’s objectives, a quantitative research approach and a social survey design were used, as well as descriptive and inferential statistics. Findings – The findings of the study revealed that in patriarchal societies in Northern Ghana, women experience conventional gender roles that conflict with roles, cultural values, gender stereotyping, family responsibilities and cultural beliefs and perceptions of women and attitudes and low expectations of women’s managerial skills discourage women from taking on leadership positions in men-dominated societies.

Source: KNUST
Gender and energy services in the rural non-farm economy of Ejisu-Juaben Municipality

Energy is central to the issues of development of rural non-farm economy (RNFE), global security, gender equity, environmental protection and sustainable development. Developing the RNFE, sustaining its growth and improving the living standards of the rural poor require adequate and reliable supply of energy. There exists the absence of ‘gender’ disaggregated data on the specific energy needs for productive services at the RNFE. The study thus sought to examine the gendered usage of energy at the RNFE, identify the factors influencing decisions to use particular energy forms and the implications of the supply and utilisation of the energy fuel on in the RNFE. One hundred and fifty four (154) operators within the RNFE in four communities in the Ejisu-Juaben Municipality were interviewed: Bonkra, Adadientm, Hwereso and Kubease. Relevant institutions such as the Energy Commission, Municipal Planning Office and the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG); were also interviewed for primary data to supplement secondary data from literature. The study employed the mixed research design to collect relevant primary data from the units of enquiry. The operators ran 15 categories of enterprises. Approximately 48% and 52% of the enterprise operators were females and males respectively. Activities at the RNFE were found to be informal and similar to those of the urban informal economy. The type of activities at the RNFE were found to be gendered where women were involved in the food preparation activities. The enterprises made use of varied energy fuels ranging from traditional solid fuels to cleaner energy ones. The study revealed that reasons for the preference for energy fuels were not very gendered at the RNFE. This was further confirmed by a Chi square test which revealed no significant association between gender and the type and preference for an energy service for productive purpose. The preference for an energy service was thus influenced by type of activity one was engaged in at the RNFE. Despite the health risks associated with solid fuels, they still remained central to activities of the food based enterprises, because they were readily available, reliable and affordable. Based on the findings, the study recommended efforts by health institutions to intensify public health care programmes to educate operators on the short and long-term implications of utilising the solid fuels. The study further recommended efforts by the government to encourage PPPs to promote investments into R&D and the deployment of alternative cleaner energy forms. Lastly, the study recommended for encouraging gender participation in energy intervention initiatives, due to the differing energy needs of men and women in the RNFE.

Source: KNUST
Gender and rural transport planning study in the Upper East Region of Ghana

The study, carried out in the Upper East Region of Ghana, has the objective of determining how responsive the current state of transport provision, including conventional motorised means of transport, roads, intermediate means of transport (or IMT) and paths are in facilitating the attainment of needs of rural dwellers. The extent to which increased and varied IMT can facilitate the attainment of survival and income generating needs to positively alleviate the burden of labour placed on women and men is therefore targeted for investigation. To that purpose, market surveys and questionnaires were administered to market women and group discussions carried out in various communities to assess the burden of labour and the current method of accomplishment, whether on foot or through IMT. Once the number and type of activities requiring transport are determined, it then becomes the task to identify appropriate IMTs so as to facilitate needs. Delving into the topic, the study reveals that 80 % of basic survival needs, those of going to and from farm and collecting water and fuel wood are internal to the village and carried out on paths, almost exclusively through head-portage by women. Road use is confined to meeting only 3% of rural dwellers transport needs, specifically marketing and trading activities, which are again solely undertaken by women. Findings demonstrate that there is unequal access to both conventional and alternative means of transport, meaning IMT in the region. Although transport in the form of tro-tros and IMT’s such as donkey or bullock carts and bicycles are in use, the actual accessibility is both financially and socially restricted with certain groups experiencing privileges which are not commensurate to their daily travel and transport requirements. These existing financial and social/cultural barriers preventing males and females from experiencing the same degree of accessibility, impinges upon efficient use of resources and facilitation of needs attainment. It is therefore recommended that communal IMT initiatives be introduced to alleviate the burden of rural transport and stimulate multi-sector growth, which will directly link agricultural and rural transport provision sectors thereby providing a complementary system of growth and exchange. Institutional, community and financial constellations are suggested so as to adequately share responsibility and ensure sustainability.

Source: KNUST
Gender Constraints and Rice Varietal Characteristics Preferences in Lowland Rice Ecosystem in Ghana

This study examined the constraints and differences in varietal preferences for male and female rice farmers in lowland rice ecosystem in Ashanti Region of Ghana. Successful development interventions such as dissemination of improved rice varieties are, by their nature, transformative but paying attention to gender constraints and varietal preferences will always make them more effective. Yet, these issues are not adequately documented and analyzed in adoption studies. A total sample size of seventy (70) rice farmers was randomly selected for an in-depth individual interview, using structured questionnaires. Analytical tools used were mainly descriptive and statistical methods. The results indicate that gender constraints are influenced by gender roles. The male constraints are lack of credit to expand cultivation, land preparation, bird scaring, land availability and weeding, whilst their female counterparts are credited to expand cultivation, bird scaring, weeding, labour availability and land preparation. Furthermore, the varietal preferences of males are marketability, good taste, good cooking quality, medium plant height and good aroma, whilst good taste, early maturity, high yield, high tillering ability and marketability loom very large in females’ choice of rice varieties characteristics. The paper concludes that Ghana needs to review her rice breeding policies to confront the challenge of low adoption of improved rice varieties, and in doing this gender constraints and preferences for varietal characteristics should be factored into breeding.

Source: KNUST
GARCH Volatility Modeling and Forecasting of Continuously Compounded Returns; Case Study: Ghana Stock Exchange

This research presents a rudimentary description of the procedures and applica- tions of ARMA specification in financial time series modeling of the Guinness Ghana Limited and further replicates those concepts on 21 listed companies in the Ghana Stock Exchange Databank Stock Index. The data is from the first financial week in January of 2004 to the last financial week in December of 2008 excluding non-trading days and public holidays. Several tests of the statistical sig- nificance and accuracy of the most appropriate SARIMA(p, d, q)(P,D,Q)S and ARIMA(p, d, q) specifications are performed through checks on the asymptotic standard errors, adoption and implementation of the principle of parsimony, ex- amining correlogram plots among other several tests before final selection is made. Analysis is performed to test for ARCH effect presence and a final confirmation is thus achieved by using Engle’s Lagrange multiplier test with a null hypothesis of ’no ARCH effects’. All shares except ABL show no presence of ARCH effects. Conditional volatility is thus modeled from the GARCH specification model fit- ted to ABL which is an ARCH(1) model. The volatility is forecasted for 3 years ahead. These tests are replicated at the sector level (i.e.one level higher than the share level), it is discovered that the ARMA specification for all sectors captures all the ARCH effects. Which implies that the volatility of ABL vanishes at the sector level. A further replication of concepts is performed at the industry level(i.e one level higher than the sector level), it is also discovered that, the ARMA spec- ification for all industries captures all the ARCH effects. However at the over all DSI returns level, it is discovered that after a SARIMA(2, 1, 3)(2, 0, 1)1 model specification a GARCH(1, 1) model is fit to capture the uncaptured non-linear ARCH effects present. The ARCH coefficient of the GARCH(1, 1), α was found to be positive and statistically significant which indicates significant short run volatility persistence (i.e. there is significant ARCH effects in the series). The es- timate of β, the GARCH coefficient, which represents the contribution of shocks to long run volatility persistence, has a positive and statistically significant value. This means that there is significant long run persistence in volatility. It is con- cluded that since the sum of the ARCH and GARCH coefficients, α + β > 1, volatility shock is strongly persistent and under the GARCH model, there is no covariance stationarity.

Source: KNUST
Gender differences on the risk of mother to child transmission of HIV-1 during postpartum period in Ghana. Case Study: Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, HIV Unit

This study sought to find the association of some risk factors with the detection of HIV in infants born to HIV positive mothers in Ghana. A secondary data, from April 2011 to April 2014, from the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra was used in this study. The data obtained involved some two thousand and seventy eight (2,078) mothers with clinical and outcome of birth history. For the purpose and interest of this study, only mothers on the PMTCT program were considered and this brought the total number of subjects to 950. Due to inconsistencies and missing information for some data points, some were dropped and this finally brought the total number of observations to 244 infants. The Chi-square test (p-value of 0.7211) showed that the type of delivery does not associate with detection of HIV; the test also showed (p-value of 0.1584) that breastfeeding practices was not associated with the outcome of detection of HIV. Gender of baby and the outcome of the HIV detection were associated (p-value of 0.0184). It was observed that there was an association between breastfeeding and gender of baby. In the final model, gender was significant with a p-value of 0.0198 at 5% level of significance. From the maximum likelihood estimates, the effect of gender based on the odds ratio estimate was 2.127 with 95% confidence interval between 1.127 and 4.012. The log-rank test showed border line significant results with (p-value of 0.0495) that there existed a significant time to detection of HIV between female babies and male babies, with male babies showing a shorter duration for HIV positive detection than females in general. This study concludes that delivery mode and breastfeeding practices are not significant routes through which HIV is transferred from mother to child, for mothers on PMTCT. The study again showed that male babies have almost twice the risk of HIV-1 infection compared to female babies and that the time to positive detection is shorter for male babies than female babies with a median time to detection of 343 days for male babies.

Source: KNUST
Gender ideology, career aspirations and leadership styles: a comparative analysis of male and female managers in selected financial institutions.

The comparison of leadership styles between male and female has played a critical role in the development of leadership theory and practice over the years. Even though empirical studies have investigated leadership styles between male and female, much attention has not been given to the antecedents and intervening mechanisms that result in the choice of leadership styles between male and female managers in Ghana. This is why this study sought to examine the effects of gender ideology on the career aspirations and leadership styles between male and female managers in some selected banking institutions in Kumasi Metropolis. The quantitative approach was adopted and the purpose of the study was explanatory as the study sought to explain the relationships between the key variables of the study. The population for the study consisted of all management staff of the four selected banks, namely, Odotobri Rural Bank Limited, Standard Chartered Bank, Fidelity Bank Ghana Limited and Sinapi Aba Savings & Loans Limited. Using purposive sampling, 150 staff were selected from these banks’ branches in Kumasi Metropolis. A structured questionnaire was used as the data collection instrument. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS version 20) was used in the data analysis to generate frequencies, percentages, mean, standard deviation, t-test, moderation and mediation analysis. The study revealed male leaders to be more aggressive than female leaders. Female leaders on the other hand, were more helpful and understanding than male leaders. Female leaders were more interested in work-life balance than male leaders. Female leaders were found to exhibit more democratic leadership, laissez-faire leadership, and transactional leadership styles as compared to male leaders. There was however no statistically significant difference between male and female leaders on authoritarian and transformational leadership styles. Career aspiration did not mediate nor moderate the relationship between gender ideology and leadership style of male and female managers. But rather, both gender ideology and career aspiration had direct effects on the leadership styles of managers. The selected demographic variables of managers did not also have any moderating effect on the relationship between gender ideology and career aspiration of management members in the financial sector of Ghana. Based on the findings, it is recommended that both male and female leaders be trained to blend some of the male and female oriented leadership styles to enhance their effectiveness.

Source: KNUST