ghanaopendata/ghanaian-research-english huggingface dataset:
A retrospective analysis of breast cancer subtype based on ER/PR and HER2 status in Ghanaian patients at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Ghana

Background Breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease composed of multiple subgroups with different molecular alterations, cellular composition, clinical behaviour, and response to treatment. This study evaluates the occurrence of the various subtypes and their clinical and pathological behaviour in the Ghanaian breast cancer population at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH). Methods Retrospective review of case notes of patients who had completed treatment for breast cancer at the KBTH within the last 5 years was conducted between April 2011 and March 2012. Subtypes were determined by immunohistochemistry classification based on expression of estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), and human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER-2). Result A total of 165 cases contributed to this study. The mean age at diagnosis was 52.5 ± 12.1 years. Tumour size ranged from 0.8 cm to 15 cm with a mean of 4.9 ± 2.8 cm and median of 4 cm. Tumour grade was Grade I 8.3 %, Grade II 60.8 % and Grade III 30.8 %. ER, PR and HER2/neu receptor positivity was 32.1, 25.6 and 25.5 % respectively. Almost half (49.4 %) of the study population had triple negative tumours. Luminal A, luminal B and non-luminal HER2 were 25.6, 12.2, and 12.8 % respectively. No statistically significant association was seen between subtype and tumour size, tumour grade, lymph node status and age at diagnosis. Conclusion Triple negative tumour is the most occurring subtype in the Ghanaian breast cancer population treated at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital. Lack of association seen between subtypes and their clinical and pathological behaviour could be due to small sample size.

Source: UG
A retrospective content analysis of studies on factors constraining the implementation of health sector reform in Ghana

Ghana has undertaken many public service management reforms in the past two decades. But the implementation of the reforms has been constrained by many factors. This paper undertakes a retrospective study of research works on the challenges to the implementation of reforms in the public health sector. It points out that most of the studies identified: (1) centralised, weak and fragmented management system; (2) poor implementation strategy; (3) lack of motivation; (4) weak institutional framework; (5) lack of financial and human resources and (6) staff attitude and behaviour as the major causes of ineffective reform implementation. The analysis further revealed that quite a number of crucial factors obstructing reform implementation which are particularly internal to the health system have either not been thoroughly studied or overlooked. The analysis identified lack of leadership; weak communication and consultation; lack of stakeholder participation, corruption and unethical professional behaviour as some of the missing variables in the literature. The study, therefore, indicated that there are gaps in the literature that needed to be filled through rigorous reform evaluation based on empirical research particularly at district, sub-district and community levels. It further suggested that future research should be concerned with the effects of both systems and structures and behavioural factors on reform implementation. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Source: UG
Return and Volatility Dynamics among Four African Equity Markets: A Multivariate VAR-EGARCH Analysis

A multivariate VAR-EGARCH is used to examine the returns and volatility dynamics between thin-traded adjusted equity returns from Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa. The findings suggest a reciprocal return spillover between Ghana and Kenya, and between Nigeria and South Africa. In addition, Nigeria appears to be the source of volatility innovations in Ghana, Kenya and South Africa. Own market volatility is pronounced, and volatility is highly persistent in all four markets with Ghana, Kenya and South Africa exhibiting volatility asymmetry.

Source: UG
Return and volatility spillovers among oil price shocks and international green bond markets

We analyse the spillover effects between oil price shocks and green bonds issued in twelve developed economies. We decompose oil price shocks into demand, risk and supply shocks. We employ daily data from December 2008 to June 2022 enabling us to cover major global crisis episodes such as the global financial crisis, European sovereign debt crisis, Covid-19 pandemic, Russia-Ukraine conflict, and the corresponding boom and bust in energy markets. Our results show the dominance of the US and the European green bond markets as the main contributors to return and volatility spillovers among international green bonds, respectively. The degree of connectedness among markets varies over time with a more pronounced effect on returns during turbulent periods. Oil shocks exhibit a relatively low degree of connectedness with green bonds implying potential diversification attributes. This result is, particularly, supported in the case of green bond markets of USA, Euro, Denmark and Hong-Kong.

Source: UG
Returning African Christians in Mission to the Gold Coast

The transatlantic slave trade created an African diaspora in the Westernworld. Some of these diaspora Africans encountered and embraced thereligion of their Western masters. Life in the Caribbean diaspora providedan opportunity for the nestling of ideas that were to shape theestablishment of the Christian faith in Africa. Following the failures ofEuropean missionaries to make an impact in Africa in the earlynineteenth century, freshly emancipated Christians from the Caribbeanbecame agents of social transformation in the Gold Coast, Cameroun andNigeria. Using archival records from Basel in Switzerland and Ghana, thispaper explores the missionary initiative of Jamaican Christians whoworked under the aegis of the Basel Evangelical Missionary Society from1843 to 1918. It provides evidence that these Jamaican Christians becameprincipal agents for the success of the Basel Mission's enterprise in theGold Coast in the nineteenth century. The paper argues against aEurocentric approach to mission historiography that has obviated theroles of Africans in the nineteenth century and demonstrates the legacywhich these returning Africans have left the church in Africa.

Source: UG
Returns from the South: Effects of return migration of Ghanaian migrants from China on livelihoods and wealth inequalities in Ghana

The sedentary bias that characterizes discourses on migra tions from and within the Global South has failed to inform a consistent exploration of international migration from and among global southern countries as normal, desirable and impactful to migrants and their social networks at different spatial levels. Migration-development nexus analyses are predominantly framed around Global South-Global North migration episodes whereby cash and social remittances from the North to the South are expected to trigger de velopment in poorer global southern origin countries. This approach neglects the possibility of similar outcomes ac cruing from south-south migrations. Drawing on qualitative research methods among Ghanaian migrants to China, our paper addresses the question how does south-south mi gration affect livelihoods and wealth inequality? We argue that blunt global categorizations such as “Global South” and “Global North” only serve to obfuscate what is a rather het erogenous bunch of countries, with divergent opportuni ties for migrants. We recommend that greater focus should be on the contextual factors at the origin and destination, the quality of return preparedness and the human capital of the migrants rather than an arbitrary clustering around a binary Global South-Global North trajectory as though they are internally homogenous. We conclude that there s heterogeneity in the effects of south-south migration on household livelihoods and wealth inequalities.

Source: UG
Revealing the burden of maternal mortality: A probabilistic model for determining pregnancy-related causes of death from verbal autopsies

The Department of Immunology conducts research in the field of immunology of infectious and non-infectious diseases. The Department has the overall goal of contributing knowledge to better diagnosis, management, control and prevention of infectious and non-infectious diseases in Ghana and worldwide. This is consistent with the overall strategy of the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR) and in line with the strategy of the College of Health Sciences of the University of Ghana.

Source: UG
Revealing the Structural Plasticity of SARS-CoV‑2 nsp7 and nsp8 Using Structural Proteomics

Coronavirus (CoV) nonstructural proteins (nsps) assemble to form the replication−transcription complex (RTC) responsible for viral RNA synthesis. nsp7 and nsp8 are important cofactors of the RTC, as they interact and regulate the activity of RNA-dependent RNA polymerase and other nsps. To date, no structure of the full-length SARS-CoV-2 nsp7:nsp8 complex has been published. The current understanding of this complex is based on structures from truncated constructs, with missing electron densities, or from related CoV species where SARS-CoV-2 nsp7 and nsp8 share upward of 90% sequence identity. Despite available structures solved using crystallography and cryo-EM representing detailed static snapshots of the nsp7:nsp8 complex, it is evident that the complex has a high degree of structural plasticity. However, relatively little is known about the conformational dynamics of the individual proteins and how they complex to interact with other nsps. Here, the solution-based structural proteomic techniques, hydrogen−deuterium exchange mass spectrometry (HDX-MS) and cross-linking mass spectrometry (XL-MS), illuminate the dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 full-length nsp7 and nsp8 proteins and the nsp7:nsp8 protein complex. Results presented from the two techniques are complementary and validate the interaction surfaces identified from the published three-dimensional heterotetrameric crystal structure of the SARS-CoV-2 truncated nsp7:nsp8 complex. Furthermore, mapping of XL-MS data onto higher-order complexes suggests that SARS-CoV-2 nsp7 and nsp8 do not assemble into a hexadecameric structure as implied by the SARS-CoV full-length nsp7:nsp8 crystal structure. Instead, our results suggest that the nsp7:nsp8 heterotetramer can dissociate into a stable dimeric unit that might bind to nsp12 in the RTC without significantly altering nsp7−nsp8 interactions.

Source: UG
Reversible binocular visual loss in temporal association with artesunate-amodiaquine treatment in a child on mefloquine chemoprophylaxis.

A case of an acute reversible visual loss in a 10-year-old child who was on mefloquine prophylaxis, and was treated with artesunate-amodiaquine for an acute febrile illness diagnosed clinically as uncomplicated malaria, is reported. On admission the patient could not perceive light and had bilateral papilloedema. She was treated with dexamethasone and recovered her sight gradually over a 21-day period. There has been no previous report to our knowledge, of an association between acute visual loss and mefloquine, amodiaquine, or artesunate in the published literature, even though mefloquine is associated with blurring of vision, and antimalarials of the quinoline class have been associated with retinopathy (during long term use). While causality is difficult to ascribe in this case, it may be prudent to avoid the use of quinoline-based antimalarials for treating acute malaria in travelers taking mefloquine prophylaxis, because information on the safety of concurrent use of artemisinin combination therapies and mefloquine, or other recommended prophylactic regimens, is limited.

Source: UG
Reversible suppression of bone marrow response to erythropoietin in plasmodium falciparum malaria.

The Epidemiology Department contributes to the mission of the institute through basic and applied epidemiological research on, but not limited to, malaria and other diseases of public health importance. It is also home to the Social Science Unit of the Institute, including the Health Support Centre for HIV/AIDS and other communicable and noncommunicable health problems.

Source: UG
A Review of a Collaborative Online International Learning

Abstract—Globalization has exacerbated the need for engineers who are capable of working in a cross-cultural environment. Multinational companies continuously seek for engineers who are interculturally competent and capable of conducting business successfully in a cross-cultural environment. However, the skills required to be successful in a multicultural environment are difficult to be taught in the traditional classroom. One of the most effective approaches to acquiring intercultural competency skills is through experiential learning. It is, therefore, not surprising that most colleges all over the world are devoting resources towards the internationalization of their classrooms and the campus community. This ensures that students are provided with a diverse environment, so they can learn from, and about diverse cultures to enhance their intercultural competency skills. Another effective approach is the study abroad programs, which require students to travel to different countries. However, these approaches require a lot of resources that may not be available to the less fortunate students. Therefore, a more cost-effective approach, such as Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL), is receiving a lot of attention in recent years. In this study, some engineering technology students participated in a 8-week long COIL program with materials engineering students from different languacultural and geographical regions. This study reviews the results and compares the performance of the COIL students with those who were not involved in the study. It was observed that the COIL teams performed significantly better on the project work. In addition, 70% (of the 11 students from the University of Ghana) and 85% (of the 20 students from the University of Dayton) respectively reported that the collaboration was either effective or very effective

Source: UG
A review of academic freedom in Africa through the Prism of the UNESCO's 1997 Recommendation

An assessment of the level of compliance of the UNESCO Recommendation in Europe, Australia, USA and other jurisdictions indicates that the document has been honoured more in its breach than in its observance. Having returned to an ethos of a democratic culture and a refinement of the role of the university in the globalization era, it is time for Africa also to be assessed on the level of compliance with the UNESCO Recommendation. This assessment is done based on four indicators identified in the UNESCO Recommendation: institutional autonomy, institutional governance, individual rights and freedoms, and tenure. The conclusion reached is that academic freedom has indeed found its way back into African universities after its complete roll-back during the post-independence era. However, the university reforms undertaken in the globalization era in many African universities have undermined greater respect for academic freedom and made hollow the gains made in the respect of freedom in this era

Source: UG
A review of afrotropical rheotanytarsus thienemann et bause, 1913 (Diptera: Chironomidae)

Twelve new Afrotropical species are described, R. kjaerandseni sp. n., as male, female, pupa and larva; R. longicornus sp. n. and R. transversus sp. n. as female and pupa; R. acuminatus sp. n., R. plerunguis sp. n., R. remus sp. n., R. bufemoratus sp. n., R. abonae sp. n., R. aquilus sp. n., R. atrius sp. n., R. digitatus sp. n. and R. jongkindi sp. n. as males only. Eight species are redescribed, R. rioensis Langton et Armitage, as male, female, pupa and larva; R. guineensis Kieffer as male, female and pupa; R. ororus Lehmann, as male, pupa and larva; R. fuscus (Freeman) as male and pupa; R. angustus (Freeman) comb. n. and R. ceratophylli (Dejoux) as male and female; R. samaki Lehmann, as male and pupa; R. montanus Lehmann, as male only. R. buculicaudus Kyerematen described in Kyerematen, Sæther and Andersen (2000) is illustrated. The genus has been recently divided into 21 species groups of which 10 have Afrotropical representatives, namely the pentapoda, acuminatus, photophilus, globosus, pellucidus, guineensis, trivittatus, ororus, thermae and phaselus groups. Keys to males, females and pupae of Rheotanytarsus from the Afrotropical region are given and the zoogeography discussed. The genus as a whole probably originated at the very end of the fragmentation of Pangaea. The Afrotropical species show warm / eurythermic vicariant Gondwanan patterns with multiple sister group relationships between the Afrotropical and the Sino-Indian region, African - West Palaearctic vicariance patterns, and limited evidence for West African - Brazilian vicariance patterns.

Source: UG
Review of Antenatal-Linked Voluntary Counseling and HIV Testing in Sub-Saharan Africa: Lessons and Options for Ghana

SummaryVoluntary counselling and HIV testing has become an integral part of HIV prevention and care programs in many countries in sub-Saharan Africa. A number of interventions offer potential to reduce mother-to-child HIV transmission. These interventions, including antenatal and or intrapartum administration of antiretroviral drugs require the integration of voluntary counselling and HIV testing for pregnant women into antenatal care. Ghana's strategic framework for HIV control calls for the integration of voluntary counselling and HIV testing to antenatal care nationwide. It sets as target, the year 2005 when VCT would be widely available and accessible in the country. This paper reviews medline-indexed publications on antenatal-linked VCT programs of sub-Saharan Africa. Four critical themes were used in the medline search. These are acceptability, rates of return for test, disclosure of results vis-à-vis confidentiality and cost effectiveness. The growing consensuses on these issues are discussed in relations to the findings of a recent study conducted among 270 pregnant women in Navrongo in the Kassena-Nankana district of northern Ghana. Suggestions are made to guide the on-going pilot VCT and prevention of mother-to-child programs in Ghana. It is also suggested on the basis of the review and the findings of the Navrongo study that Ghana should explore options likely to promote universal access and overall acceptability. These include couple counselling, guarantee of confidentiality, free testing and continuum of care for mothers who are test positive.

Source: UG
A review of biopolymer (Poly-β-hydroxybutyrate) synthesis in microbes cultivated on wastewater

The large quantities of non-degradable single use plastics, production and disposal, in addition to increasing amounts ofmunicipal and industrialwastewaters areamong themajor global issues known today. Biodegradable plastics from biopolymers such as Poly-β-hydroxybutyrates (PHB) produced by microorganisms are potential substitutes for non-degradable petroleum-based plastics. This paper reviews the current status of wastewatercultivated microbes utilized in PHB production, including the various types of wastewaters suitable for either pure or mixed culture PHB production. PHB-producing strains that have the potential for commercialization are also highlighted with proposed selection criteria for choosing the appropriate PHB microbe for optimization of processes. The biosynthetic pathways involved in producing microbial PHB are also discussed to highlight the advancements in genetic engineering techniques. Additionally, the paper outlines the factors influencing PHB production while exploring other metabolic pathways and metabolites simultaneously produced along with PHB in a bio-refinery context. Furthermore, the paper explores the effects of extraction methods on PHB yield and quality to ultimately facilitate the commercial production of biodegradable plastics. This reviewuniquely discusses the developments in research on microbial biopolymers, specifically PHB and also gives an overview of current commercial PHB companies making strides in cutting down plastic pollution and greenhouse gases.

Source: UG
Review of community-based interventions for prevention of cardiovascular diseases in low- and middle-income countries

Background. An increasing burden of cardiovascular disease (CVD) is occurring in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) as a result of urbanisation and globalisation. Low rates of awareness and treatment of risk factors worsen the prognosis in these settings. Prevention of CVD is proven to be cost effective and should be the main intervention. Insight into prevention programmes in LMIC is important in addressing the rising levels of these diseases. Objective. To evaluate the effectiveness of the community-based interventions for CVD prevention programmes in LMIC. Design. A literature review with searches in the databases of PubMed, EMBASE, CINAHL, LILACS, African Index Medicus and Google Scholar between 1990 and May 2012. Results. Twenty-six studies involving population-based and high-risk interventions have been included in this review. The content of the population intervention was mainly health promotion through media and health education, and the high-risk approach focused often on education of patients, training of health care providers and implementing treatment guidelines. A few studies had a single intervention on exercising or salt reduction. Most studies showed a significant reduction of cardiovascular risk ranging from lifestyle changes on diet, smoking and alcohol to biomedical outcomes like blood pressure, glucose levels or weight. Some studies showed improved management of risk factors like increased control of hypertension or adherence to medication. Conclusion. There have been effective community-based programmes aimed at reducing cardiovascular risk factors in LMIC but these have generally been limited to the urban poor. Health education with a focus on diet and salt, training of health care providers and implementing treatment guidelines form key elements in successful programmes. © 2012 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

Source: UG
A Review of Epidemiological Studies of Asthma in Ghana

The Department of Parasitology conducts research into parasitic diseases of public health importance with the overall goal of reducing their transmission and the heavy disease burden that they impose on affected populations. The Department maintains focus on parasitic diseases in general. These include major diseases such as malaria, and others listed under the Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) control initiative such as, lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis, schistosomiasis, soil-transmitted helminthiasis, trypanosomiasis and leishmaniasis.

Source: UG