ghanaopendata/ghanaian-research-english huggingface dataset:
Bergapten modulates ovalbumin-induced asthma

Prior studies on the anti-inflammatory compound bergapten have shown promise in averting allergic airway hyperresponsiveness. This study sought to establish its possible role in modulating an immunologically-induced airway inflammation and hyperresponsiveness in an ovalbumin model of asthma. Asthma is characterised by inflammation and constriction of the airway passages. Therapy is aimed at bronchodilation and reducing inflammation. Histamine is an inflammatory mediator and involved in immune reactions. It is released from mast cells which are important sentinel cells of the innate immune system involved in the inflammatory response. In the asthma model, ovalbumin solution (2 mg ovalbumin) was administered i.p. as a sensitisation dose on day 1 and on day 14 as a booster dose to sensitise the immune system. This was followed by a 10-day challenge on days 21 – 30 using aerosolised ovalbumin (1% w/v dissolved in phosphate-buffered saline, PBS) at a cut-off latency of 10 min. Bergapten was administered at doses of 3 - 30 mg kg-1 p.o. 1 h prior to each challenge. Times to pre-convulsive dyspnoea were recorded. Guinea-pigs were sacrificed and lungs harvested for histological and antioxidant studies. In determining the effect of bergapten on histamine, an isolated guinea pig ileum preparation by the administration of bergapten (1 – 10 μg ml-1) in the presence of histamine. Bergapten increased times to pre-convulsive dyspnoea in the ovalbumin challenge and reduced pathological damage to bronchial tissue. The deposition of collagen around bronchioles was minimised. Antioxidant studies showed higher catalase and superoxide dismutase activity in groups treated with bergapten. Bergapten produced a rightward shift on the Schild plot analysis with a slope of 1.4 and a pA2 value of 9.3 was obtained in the isolated tissue experiment which confirms that bergapten acts as an antagonist on histaminic H1 receptors. Bergapten modulates inflammation in ovalbumin-induced asthma and antagonises histamine at the H1 receptor.

Source: UCC
Beta-teleradiographic method for the estimation of chlorophyll concentration and the assessment of yield of some cowpea varieties (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.)

The objective of this study was to estimate the chlorophyll concentration in the leaves of "UCC-Early". "UCC- White" and "Bengpla·· varieties of cowpea by means of beta-teleradiography and spectrophotometry in order tn compare both methods. Yield parameters were also measured to enable further comparison of the methods. For the beta-teleradiography. the detached middle leaflet of the fourth trifoliate leaf trom the shoot apex of the main stem for each variety was placed on x-ray film in a protective cover (light tight cover) and was irradiated for up tn 45 minutes. The film density was determined for many sections on each variety at the sixth. seventh and eighth weeks after sowing. On the other hand, for the spectrophotometer analysis, the absorbency of chlorophyll from the cowpea leaves solutions were determined at a wavelength of 663nm for each of the cowpea varieties at the sixth, seventh and eighth weeks after sowing. The film density obtained from the beta-teleradiographic method indicated a high positive correlation with the absorbance determined from the spectrophotometric method. "UCC-Early" variety proved to be the best variety in terms of absorbance and optical density of film, followed by "UCC- White" and" Bengpla" varieties. These observations were in the order of the performance of the three varieties of cowpea in terms of grain yield and most of growth parameters in which "UCC-Early" recorded highest values followed by "UCC- White" and "Bengpla" varieties. Based on an accurate interpretation of this beta-teleradiographic method it rnay be possible to determine the economic yield of a plant before the harvesting stage.

Source: UCC
Between old and new: Cognitive dissonance and the politics of research

In what ways does academic dissonance influence the conduct of research? Or rather what does it mean to convert from a research tradition that valorizes realism to one that emphasizes the rhizomatic, the postmodern, the (inter)subjective? In this narrative, I critically reflect on the challenges I encountered in transitioning as an academic from Ghana steeped in linguistics and education with an avid emphasis on post/positivism to becoming a doctoral student of interpretive inquiry as practiced in the humanities of an American university. The narrative draws inspiration from a recent pilot study I conducted to explore interactional rituals used among student editors of a college news bulletin. Based on a lessons-learnt approach, the paper is a modest contribution to studies on the politics of research, the objectivity/subjectivity debate, and research in cognitive dissonance

Source: UCC
Between Sociolinguistics and Literature: Address and Reference Terms in Post-Colonial Ghanaian Literature

Taking cognisance of the cruciality of address and reference terms (ARTs) in real-world interactions, ARTs transcend into literary texts reflecting the nexus between Sociolinguistics and Literature. Little attention has been given to ARTs in literary texts, with a dominant scholarship adopting ethnographic approaches in face-to-face interactions. To occupy this niche, the present study explores the kinds and variations of ARTs in three post-colonial Ghanaian literary texts and examines how the ARTs implicate character traits. Adopting a qualitative descriptive approach, facilitated by directed and summative content analyses, the study analysed 558 ARTs from three post-colonial Ghanaian literary texts. The analysis revealed eight kinds of ARTs which were dominated by personal names. Also, aside from context, social variables and post-colonial issues such as racism, social class, occupation, Westernism, and globalisation accounted for variation in the use of ARTs across the novels. Again, characters’ traits were portrayed through the ARTs. Based on these findings, the study provides contributions to the three-pronged theories and offers implications for studies on ARTs and literary onomastics.

Source: UCC
Beyond creativity: The new historicist’s lens

Literature is life and literary creators often times employ real life happenings as resources in their creative ventures. Thus, such literary works could educate on aspects of life that serve as resources in literary creativity. Such phenomenon resonates with the utilitarian view that literature must have a specific function of education: morals, historical happenings of a group of people, rules, etc. This paper seeks to discuss some historical manifestations in some selected E3e drama texts: T4k4 At-lia, Fia Yi Dziehe, Ew4 Moya na Fiag7 Ag4k4li and Me2e Ablotsidela. The study is in five sections. Firstly, the introduction offers a general overview of the entire study while the second section discusses the data collection procedure. Sections three and four look at the theoretical premise and analysis of selected texts, where historical thrusts are revealed, respectively. The last section summarizes and concludes the entire study

Source: UCC
Beyond duty of care: providing psychological safety at Kakum national park

There are two dimensions to safety: the physical and psychological. However, studies on tourism safety have primarily focused on the physical dimension, with little attention paid to the psychological safety. Using Kakum National Park (KNP) as a case study, this study assessed the provision of psychological safety focusing on the institutional arrangements for psychological safety, employees' perspectives on psychological safety, psychological safety practices provided, the factors that shape its provision and visitors experience of psychological safety onsite. In-depth interviews were conducted with forty-three (43) visitors, ten (10) tour guides, and three (3) managers. The managers were purposively sampled; visitors were conveniently sampled; while a census was conducted for tour guides. MaxQDA was used for thematic data analysis. The study principally found that KNP provides some form of psychological safety to visitors. To be specific, employees were found to hold a positive perspective towards providing psychological safety to visitors, despite being motivated primarily by self-interest. Onsite, eight (8) psychological safety practices were identified. However, these practices were shaped by ten factors. These notwithstanding, KNP’s institutional arrangements for psychological safety were found to be informal and weak. Also, findings on visitors' psychological safety experience were inconclusive. Based on these findings, it can be concluded that KNP erratically provides psychological safety to its visitors. The study recommends that psychological safety needs to be redefining and streamlined in order to demarginalize it as a dimension of safety. Furthermore, government agencies tasked with planning and developing Ghana's tourism must help to institutionalize psychological safety by incorporating it into their general agenda for attraction sites safety.

Source: UCC
Beyond fragmentary: A proposed measure for travel vaccination concerns

The travel medicine literature points to travelers’ concerns as significant promoters of their under-vaccinations. Therefore, this study researches the hitherto understudied concept of vaccination concern and its theoretical scope in the international travel space. It attempts a conceptualization of the concept by delimiting its theoretical scope and proposes a measure for it. An exploratory sequential mixed-methods design was used to conduct four interlocking studies using data from a netnography, field interviews, and surveys among varied international travelers. A scale with six dimensions, comprising safety, efficacy, cost, time, access, and autonomy concerns were revealed. The scale significantly explained mainstream and segments-based tourists’ uptake attitudes and behavior for their eligible vaccines. The findings suggest that anti-travel vax sentiments and public vax sentiments despite conceptually similar are considerably distinct. The broad nature of the scale and its prediction of travelers’ vaccine uptake make it clinically relevant for tracking and resolving concerns for increased vaccine uptake

Source: UCC
Beyond Handwashing: Water Insecurity Undermines Covid-19 Response in Developing Areas

The global response to COVID-19 has invoked the familiar refrain “back to basics” with respect to basic control strategies such as quarantining and isolation, handwashing, and social distancing. The pandemic has already revealed stark structural challenges to the health care and governance systems of many high-income nations. As of March 2020, we have only seen a glimpse of how COVID-19 may affect low- and middleincome nations that have even fewer material resources. In this context – particularly in high-density urban areas that are potential epicenters of transmission – perhaps no other single factor will impede control strategies as the daily struggle experienced by billions of households globally: water insecurity.

Source: UCC
Beyond Kinematics: Exploring Periodicity and Figurative Patterns Elicited by Selected Ghanaian Musical Types

This study sought to examine the nature of patterns produced in sand particles stirred by fifteen (15) Ghanaian musical compositions selected under the three broad musical genres: traditional, popular and Ghanaian art music. It explored sonic-related factors that influence the generation of specific patterns in sand particles and the extent to which musical super-impositions over sine waves at specific frequencies influence the shapes produced in fine particles. Three Ghanaian musical types as categorized by Agawu (1984) were selected. Employing random sampling principles, five songs were selected from a collection of twenty songs each based on the three musical types. The songs were fed into a constructed and tested cymatic device in turns. From the observation, and analysis that were done employing the VLC and the sonic visualizer software, it was realised that the patterns generated fundamentally, possessed qualities of Chladni figures, which was induced by a blend of frequencies and amplitudes. Furthermore, the figures created were largely related in features. The study revealed that apart from entertainment, sound impacts positively on humans through other means like cymatics which exposes its non-physical characteristics. In this way, the modern day music teacher is able to add up to the delivery skills which influence teaching and learning. The study captured series of frequencies and amplitudes, which produced the cymatic figures. These frequencies and amplitudes could be used to replicate the same cymatic figures by other persons. Thus, the provision of the frequencies and amplitudes means an enhancement in the teaching and learning of music in schools to expand the frontiers of music education.

Source: UCC
Beyond nutrients, health effects of entomophagy: a systematic review

Purpose – Edible insects have emerged as a promising inexpensive option to address malnutrition among vulnerable groups in the world. However, it is not clear whether including insects in diets can improve health outcomes. This paper aimed to investigate the impact of edible insect consumption on human health. Design/methodology/approach – A search was conducted in PubMed Central, BioMed Central, Plosone, Cochrane, Google Scholar, Google Search and bibliographies for all human studies on the impact of edible insect consumption on human health published from January 1990 to April 2018. Findings – Twelve studies met the inclusion criteria. Consumption of cereals fortified with edible insects improved iron status and growth in infants and led to the development of life threatening anaphylactic reactions in sensitive people. Practical implications – Edible insects are nutritious. More rigorous studies are needed to confirm nutrient bioavailability, acceptability and nutritional benefits in humans. Originality/value – This review shows that the utilization of edible insects as food promotes desirable health outcomes, but caution must be taken to prevent allergic reactions in some cases.

Source: UCC
Beyond resumptives and expletives in Akan

In Akan, resumption is obligatory for extraction from a subject position. Accordingly, there is usually agreement between the resumptive pronoun (RP) and its referent constituent. However, data from the Asante-Twi dialect suggest that it is possible to have a non-agreeing pronoun in the extraction site. But this is only possible for the highest subject position. In this paper I show that what occupies the subject position in the non-agreeing situation is an instance of the insertion of a default pronoun. Gaps in subject positions are not allowed at all in Akan. In order to avoid violating this constraint in the case of the highest subject, the language has two options; it either uses a resumptive pronoun, or a default pronoun

Source: UCC
Beyond science: Traditional concept of preservation and biodiversity in Ghana: Focus on two traditional areas in Central Region

Since time immemorial, indigenous knowledge systems of different geographical environments across the globe have been used to protect and conserve groves. Presently, while some of these edifices are being preserved for various reasons, others are facing extinction due to diverse challenges. The study, underpinned by dimensions of indigenous knowledge and indigenous ecological knowledge frameworks within the paradigm of endogenous development, explores the beliefs and practices that have been used to preserve groves in three selected communities in the Central Region of Ghana. It also explores some of the benefits associated with the groves, and focuses on the intangible benefits to these communities. In-depth interviews and focus group discussions, as well as community institutional resource mapping and observation were used to collect data from chiefs, priests and elders. The results show that groves were owned and managed by either clans or communities, or both. Traditional sciences have been used to preserve these groves. Groves preserve community histories, ancestral and local knowledge. However, the breakdown of traditional values threatens the existence and preservation of such heritage

Source: UCC
Beyond Self Containment: On the Politics of Identity and Culture in a ‘Glocal’ Society

As a result of the epiphany of giant multinational media conglomerates, transnational trade networks and the politics of globalization, it is tempting to believe that individual and national identities have morphed. This article argues that such homogenization in relation to individuation is tedious to accept. It draws from theories of symbolic interactionism, social psychology, Foucauldian, and postcolonial constructs to hold that structuralist significations of postmodern society ought to be contested. The article emphasizes that human identity can hardly be spoken of in either/or terms, by revisiting notions of selfhood, culture, and bio-power. The paper concludes by examining how these elements act, shape, and constrain individual identities in „glocal‟ societies, rather than as persons affected by them in homologous deterministic ways

Source: UCC
BEYOND VOLATILITY-AN AUTOREGRESSIVE CONDITIONAL DENSITY MODEL FOR THE JOHANNESBURG STOCK EXCHANGE ALL SHARE INDEX RETURNS

The study used the Autoregressive Conditional Density (ACD) methodology to model time-varying higher moments in the distribution of returns of the JSE All Share Index (JSEALSI) over the15-year period, January 2003 to December 2017. We found that the fourth higher moment beyond the variance is needed to completely describe the distribution of returns during the sample period. This was done with the GARCH (1, 1)-ACD-NIG model. Further, backtests were performed using the ACD and GARCH models at 1% and 5% to ascertain the soundness of these models in estimating firm risk exposures. The analysis generated the correct number of VaR exceedances which are independent too; hence we fail to reject either model as suitable for the estimation of risk. We also performed the Berkowitz independence test at the 1% quantile. Both models generated higher p-values with the GARCH model seemingly providing a slightly better fit in the tails. Overall, the results show that the fourth moment is needed to completely characterize the distribution of the returns during the sample period but the various goodness-of-fit tests are unable to discriminate clearly between the GARCH(1,1) and the GARCH(1, 1)-ACD-NIG models.

Source: UCC
Bible, ecology and sustainable development: a reading of genesis 1:1-2:4A

This paper explores how Gen. 1:1-2:4a reflects the concept of sustainable development (SD) and posits symbols for addressing ecological crisis: symbols that can be used to inform our belief systems. This investigation is imperative in the face of the integrated effort in finding solutions to ecological and environmental difficulties. Its rationale, therefore, is to demonstrate that the Bible can equally engage in the discourse on SD. It, indeed, has something to offer in the quest for solutions to ecological crisis. In this respect, there is the need for exploratory studies aimed at investigating the prospects for positive interface between the Bible and ecology, toward pragmatic response to ecological crisis

Source: UCC
Bicycles: An answer to mobility needs of rural children?

Many Sub Saharan African countries still have dire transport needs. Children in particular are faced with mobility constraints in their quest to access, education, health and recreation. This study investigated the ownership and use of bicycles among children in Rural Ghana. The study was conducted in six rural communities within two ecological zones (forest and coastal). Both qualitative and quantitative data collections were employed within the context of a cross-sectional study design. A sample size of 454 was chosen among children aged between 8 and 18. Individual and households were used as unit of analysis where appropriate. Results from this study revealed that 36.4% of the households owned bicycles whilst usage was significantly higher at 63.9%

Source: UCC
Big Data Challenges and Solutions in the Medical Industries

Big data today is being investigated to find the bits of knowledge that prompt better choices and vital business moves. The data innovations are developing to a point in which an ever-increasing number of associations are set up to pilot and embrace big data as a center part of the data administration and examination framework. It is a range of research that is blasting yet at the same time confronts many difficulties in utilizing the esteem that information brings to the table. The battle against “spam informa- tion” and information quality is a pivotal issue. Big data challenges are discussed and some solutions are proposed because the volume of made information will surpass the capacity limits and will require cautious determination.

Source: UCC
The big question: why do change initiatives in education often fail to yield desired results?

Although a wealth of fascinating literature on change management abounds in education, there is credible evidence to suggest that a lot of initiatives introduced with the view to bringing about improvement in pupils’ learning outcomes often fail to yield intended results. By reviewing literature from disparate research sources, this article unearths the causal factors of this change conundrum while exemplifying implicitly the kinds of strategic work that needs to be done order to bring about the desired outcomes of change. The inherent criticisms of the problem-solving approach to change management adopted by the article are also discussed. The article contends that the approach to change management it adopts is illuminating for the following two reasons. First, the approach propels ‘effective leadership’ as a crucial ingredient for a successful change strategy. Second, it advises against adopting the straight-jacket of external accountability that favours the imposition of change from the ‘outside’

Source: UCC
Bilingual Translation West African Monetary Institute (Wami) Macroeconomic Developments and Convergence Report Afrique Defense Mensuel D’information Militaire

The work primarily centres on bilingual translation. That is, an effort to translate a source language into a target language expressing both the ideas and feelings of the writer. The two basic languages employed in the study are English and French. The documents are a report by West Africa Monetary Institute and a francophone monthly magazine on the military and defence in Africa. The essence is to make the texts available to francophone and anglophone readers to appreciate the efforts made by bilingual translators and further promote unity and co-existence. In the process, there were such difficulties relating to semantics, thus, the problem of lexis and structure, as well as the given context and the prevailing circumstance. Appropriate methodology was therefore required to be able to overcome the challenges. With regard to methodology, sentences are translated one after the other by sub-dividing them into units, that is, ‘le découpage’. This is followed by analysis of the grammatical structure of the sentence. What we note here is ‘réseaux de signification’, thus, the basic meaning of the text. Paraphrasing of the original work is done for the possibility of transposition that conforms to the characteristics of the target language. This is followed among others by ‘recomposition’, ‘étoffement’ and ‘adaptation’. It should however be noted that all these elements are complementary and that they are all employed in order to lay bare the ideas and feelings of the writers and thus remain faithful to the original work. It is expected that the final work would be understood by any reader who has no fore-knowledge of the source text.

Source: UCC