ghanaopendata/ghanaian-research-english huggingface dataset:
Designing to heal: the role of architecture in promoting healing in the long-term care setting

Hospitals first appeared at the start of the Christian era to shelter sickor weary travelers and persons too poor or ill to be treatedat home, yet their dirty, crowded and dark environmentwere anything but hospitable. The change from this tothe present day hospitals has been metamorphic.(Shi, L., & Singh, D, 2001). Hospitals are complex buildings containing many departments of different specializations where diagnostic or therapeutic activities take place, while other administrative, ancillary, or service units sustain, and support main functions, to compliment the health care process. While healthcare functional aspects following the same medical trends have the same influence on hospital architecture all through the world, yet, cultural aspects form a dominant deviant influence in each country according to its different cultural trends following habits and traditions. Although sustaining patients’ comfort is a universal demand, its application might warrant different methods. This thesis therefore describes in detail the status and perspective of Ghanaian healthcare facilities with an analysis of emerging trends of healthcare facilities, the impacts hospital architecture has on patients and staff with an overall aim of improving design efficiency in healthcare facilities and improving patient and staff comfort healthcare facilities. The study was carried out on a random sample of hospitals operating under government jurisdictions. Sample size was roughly restricted to the two main teaching hospitals in Ghana; Korle-Bu and Komfo Anokye and the Sunyani Regional Hospital. The material itself consisted of pictorial and technical data, as obtained from the archives of said institutions. Plan types of these institutions were examined and analysed with respect to functional classification of spaces constructed.

Source: KNUST
Designs on glass beads as inspiration for packaging glass beads

Packaging and labelling of glass beads in Ghana leaves much to be desired which can make the products competitive on the market. Glass beads are used by nearly all the ethnic groups in Ghana but these beads are displayed without appropriate packages and labels. Designs on glass beads offer unlimited opportunities for packaging and labelling the products but are not being fully used. The research was delimited to the Koforidua Culture Centre, Koforidua which is the Eastern Regional capital of Ghana. This is because of its colossal glass beads production and patronage. This research aimed at using designs on glass beads as inspiration for packaging glass beads. To achieve this aim, the study sought to; establish the categories of glass beads at the Koforidua Culture Centre, ascertain the traditional methods for packaging the glass beads at the Koforidua Culture Centre and design and produce alternative packages for the glass beads inspired by some artistic impressions on them. In relation to this, the descriptive method of research was used and the research approach was qualitative. The main findings of the research are that glass beads are categorise in four groups, thus, same design, mixed designs, spacerless design and source of colour. Their main style of packaging glass beads is the use of plain polythene, sacks and papers. It was in this context that the researcher came out with an alternative package to mitigate the traditional method of packaging at the centre. The study recommends that, weight and/or size categorisation should be considered, traditional method of packaging should be enhanced to more advanced forms where information and specification of the content are displayed on the packages to increase patronage. The study concludes that packaging design is an indispensable promotional activity in the marketing of any product, iii and that marketers and designers of glass beads at the Koforidua Culture Centre are indispensable when it comes to knowledge on the production, names, and the history of glass beads. Packaging and labeling form part of presentation to attract customers.

Source: KNUST
Desire and Taste: Disillusion in Migration

Individual taste and desires are informed and regulated by laid down structures of capitalism and consumerism, and most times we just fill in these structures .The cloths we wear, the food we eat, institutions we attend and jobs we offer or desire to offer, may all be some forms of lacks and wants introduced in our lives for us to also invest our in. These may constitute Disillusion. This thesis explores ideas on Desire and Taste, and engages the diverse heterotopias related to them and how they manifest as disillusions in migration. Some literature on advertisement and public relation, commodification, and consumer behaviours inspired by taste and certain actions have been reviewed. Some artists who have worked on desire and taste as well as confectionary art and techniques were also examined to give the work grounding. Sculptures rendered in sugar depicting some barter objects of the transatlantic slave trade and everyday use objects were created. A final exhibition in the form of installation was done to investigate the responses to taste and desire and was captioned “Unveiling the Veiled” which stirred a lot of reactions and comments amongst viewers.

Source: KNUST
Detecting and quantifying plasmodium falciparum in blood and tonsils: towards an understanding of malaria-related oncogenesis

Epidemiological evidence strongly implicates chronic Plasmodium falciparum infection in the aetiology of endemic Burkitt’s lymphoma, although the role of malaria is still not well understood. A characteristic feature of this tumour is a chromosomal translocation in which a pro-cancer gene, MYC, is juxtaposed to the promoter region of the immunoglobulin heavy chain gene, leading to the uncontrolled growth of B-lymphocytes. This study was designed to test whether the malaria parasite actually resides in tonsils and can directly cause DNA damage which could then predispose to the Burkitt’s lymphoma translocation. Three methods of diagnosis, namely microscopy, rapid diagnostic test (RDT) and qPCR, were used to detect and quantify P. falciparum in blood and tonsils obtained from tonsillectomy patients. Interestingly, parasitemia was detected in tonsils by all three methods, even in cases where parasitemia was negative with whole blood. Comet assay was then performed for each sample to estimate DNA damage. DNA damage was assessed in terms of tail DNA, tail length and tail moment. Consistent with the hypothesis, student t-tests revealed significant differences in DNA damage between low- and high-probability parasitemia samples by all three comet parameters assessed (p-values 0.0266, 0.0316 and 0.0389 respectively; alpha =0.05). These data demonstrate that P. falciparum is a potent mutagen and suggest that the parasite might directly cause the characteristic translocation of endemic Burkitt's lymphoma.

Source: KNUST
Detection and Characterization of ESBL-Producing Escherichia coli From Humans and Poultry in Ghana

Aim: To determine the molecular epidemiology of ESBL-producing E. coli from the intestinal tract of humans and poultry in rural Ghana. Methods: During a 6-month period, fecal samples from all children admitted to the Agogo Hospital (Ghana) and broilers at eight poultry farms located within the hospital catchment area were collected. After screening on selective ESBL agar, whole genome sequencing (WGS) was performed on all ESBL isolates. The genomes were analyzed using multilocus sequence typing (MLST), ESBL genotyping and genome-based phylogenetic analyses. Results: Of 140 broilers and 54 children, 41 (29%) and 33 (61%) harbored ESBL E. coli, respectively, with prevalences on farms ranging between 0 and 85%. No predominant sequence type (ST) was detected among humans. ST10 was most prevalent among broilers (n = 31, 69%). The ESBL gene blaCTX−M−15 was predominant among broilers (n = 43, 96%) and humans (n = 32, 97%). Whole-genome-based phylogenetic analysis revealed three very closely related broiler/human isolate clusters (10% of ESBL isolates) with chromosomal and plasmid-mediated ESBL genes. Conclusion: The findings demonstrate a high frequency of intestinal ESBL-producing E. coli in rural Ghana. Considering that animal and human samples are independent specimens from the same geographic location, the number of closely related ESBL isolates circulating across these two reservoirs is substantial. Hence, poultry farms or meat products might be an important source for ESBL-producing bacteria in rural Ghana leading to difficult-to-treat infections in humans.

Source: KNUST
Detection and management of zoonotic diseases at the Kumasi slaughterhouse in Ghana

Slaughterhouse surveys are important in the detection and management of zoonotic diseases. Routine reports from the Kumasi slaughterhouse, in the Ashanti region of Ghana, include cases of zoonotic diseases. Due to its location and size, Kumasi is the major cattle market and an important transit point for cattle trade from places within and outside Ghana. This present study was designed to examine slaughterhouse reports and to explore the nature of the knowledge, attitude and practices of butchers who operate at this slaughterhouse, in relation to zoonoses. The study was largely descriptive, employing qualitative methods and tools. Butchers were interviewed and their practices along the production line observed. The study indicates that zoonotic diseases are frequently detected at the Kumasi slaughterhouse. However the knowledge, attitudes, practices and beliefs of the butchers are largely inadequate for their profession in view of the important public health role that butchers play. The butchers have never received any form of training. It is recommended that the butchers receive training on a regular basis and that laws be formulated and implemented to protect the health of the butchers and the general public.

Source: KNUST
Detection of Man-In-The-Middle Attack in IEEE 802.11 Networks

The recent proliferation of high speed wireless portable devices has resulted in a significant demand for wireless LANs. WLANs offer tremendous flexibility to the mobile user, compared with their wired LANs equivalent. With this development, Wireless networks are vulnerable to many identity-based attacks in which a malicious device uses forged MAC addresses to masquerade as a specific client. One of these attacks is Man-in-the-middle attack. Interestingly the man-in-the-middle is usually part of the network where malicious activities are mostly least expected. Most stakeholders turn to secure their networks against unauthorized users paying less attention to those within their own networks. In solving this malicious activity, we studied the state of the act of executing man-in-the-middle attack in wireless networks. Based on this study, a mechanism has been developed to detect this attack. We generated a list of database consisting of IP addresses and MAC addresses of authorized users on a WLAN to check on packets coming to the destination host. The detection mechanism has been simulated in a wireless environment to test the effectiveness of the detection mechanism. In all cases the simulated man-in-the-middle attack was detected. The performance of the proposed detection mechanism was evaluated against an existing detection mechanism.

Source: KNUST
Detection and mitigation security threats in cloud systems

Clouds systems provide computation and storage services to organizations and individuals with improved flexibility and low cost. Cloud customers hire resources in the form of virtual machines (VMs) within the cloud. However, these VMs may face various security threats. In this paper, three scenarios were created using RIVERBed simulation tool to detect and mitigate potential security threats targeting cloud systems. The primary objective of these scenarios is to evaluate the performance of database and web application under three different scenarios (no firewall, firewall and firewall blocking the web traffic). To demonstrate how these three scenarios can enhance cloud security, where there is no firewall, another scenario where firewall is created to filter database and web application packets and the third scenario is made to block the web traffic across the cloud. The performance metrics selected at the three levels (global level, node level and link level) is used to evaluate the performance for the database and web application from the simulations using two applications the database and web application, it is seen that the database application performance is improved when the web traffic is blocked. Even against the packet latency and the security policies the database point to point utilization is enhanced.

Source: KNUST
Detection of Mycolactone A/B in Mycobacterium ulcerans–Infected Human Tissue

Background: Mycobacterium ulcerans disease (Buruli ulcer) is a neglected tropical disease common amongst children in rural West Africa. Animal experiments have shown that tissue destruction is caused by a toxin called mycolactone. Methodology/Principal Findings: A molecule was identified among acetone-soluble lipid extracts from M. ulcerans (Mu)- infected human lesions with chemical and biological properties of mycolactone A/B. On thin layer chromatography this molecule had a retention factor value of 0.23, MS analyses showed it had an m/z of 765.6 [M+Na+] and on MS:MS fragmented to produce the core lactone ring with m/z of 429.4 and the polyketide side chain of mycolactone A/B with m/z of 359.2. Acetone-soluble lipids from lesions demonstrated significant cytotoxic, pro-apoptotic and anti-inflammatory activities on cultured fibroblast and macrophage cell lines. Mycolactone A/B was detected in all of 10 tissue samples from patients with ulcerative and pre-ulcerative Mu disease. Conclusions/Significance: Mycolactone can be detected in human tissue infected with Mu. This could have important implications for successful management of Mu infection by antibiotic treatment but further studies are needed to measure its concentration.

Source: KNUST
Detection of Salmonella Typhi nucleic acid by RT-PCR and anti-HlyE, -CdtB, -PilL, and -Vi IgM by ELISA at sites in Ghana, Madagascar and Ethiopia

Background: We aimed to assess the prevalence of Salmonella Typhi through DNA and IgM-antibody detection methods as a prelude to extended surveillance activities at sites in Ghana, Madagascar, and Ethiopia. Methods: We performed species-specifc real-time polymerase reaction (RT-PCR) to identify bacterial nucleic acid, and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for detecting HlyE/STY1498-, CdtB/STY1886-, pilL/STY4539- and Vi-antigens in blood and biopsy specimens of febrile and non-febrile subjects. We generated antigen-specifc ELISA proxy cut-ofs by change-point analyses, and utilized cumulative sum as detection method coupled with 1000 repeti‑ tive bootstrap analyses. We computed prevalence rates in addition to odds ratios to assess correlations between ELISA outcomes and participant characteristics. Results: Defnitive positive RT-PCR results were obtained from samples of febrile subjects originating from Adama Zuria/Ethiopia (1.9%, 2/104), Wolayita Sodo/Ethiopia (1.0%, 1/100), Diego/Madagascar (1.0%, 1/100), and Kintampo/ Ghana (1.0%, 1/100), and from samples of non-febrile subjects from Wolayita Sodo/Ethiopia (1%, 2/201). While IgM antibodies against all antigens were identifed across all sites, prevalence rates were highest at all Ethiopian sites, albeit in non-febrile populations. Signifcant correlations in febrile subjects aged<15 years versus≥15 years were detected for Vi (Odds Ratio (OR): 8.00, p=0.034) in Adama Zuria/Ethiopia, STY1498 (OR: 3.21, p=0.008), STY1886 (OR: 2.31, p=0.054) and STY4539 (OR: 2.82, p=0.022) in Diego/Madagascar, and STY1498 (OR: 2.45, p=0.034) in Kintampo/Ghana. We found statistical signifcance in non-febrile male versus female subjects for STY1498 (OR: 1.96, p=0.020) in Adama Zuria/Ethiopia, Vi (OR: 2.84, p=0.048) in Diego/Madagascar, and STY4539 (OR: 0.46, p=0.009) in Kintampo/Ghana. Conclusions: Findings indicate non-discriminatory stages of acute infections, though with site-specifc diferences. Immune responses among non-febrile, presumably healthy participants may mask recall and/or reporting bias leading to misclassifcation, or asymptomatic, subclinical infection signs induced by suppression of infammatory

Source: KNUST
Determinant for delays on cocoa feeder roads project in Ghana

Cocoa production is a major source of revenue for socio-economic development in the country and also cocoa remains the major net export and the backbone for Ghana’s economic development. Recently Ghana was ranked second in the production of cocoa beans producing 700,000 tons of cocoa beans annually. These and many others are the main reasons why proper networks have to be provided to enhance the transportation of the cocoa products effectively by construction of feeder roads that connect the place of production to sales point while minimizing the occurrence of delays. It must be noted that, currently, the effective construction of road networks is facing many challenges. These challenges may originate from client or consultant and in most occasions the contractor. The aim of this paper was to examine the determinants for delays on cocoa feeder roads projects and develop strategies to curb these delay factors. In relation to the aim, the following objectives were set; identification of the causes of delays on cocoa roads projects and identification of the strategies to curb the delays on cocoa roads project. In connection to this, the methodology adopted was the quantitative approach which included the use of survey questionnaire. Thirty (30) questionnaire were administered to various stakeholders in the construction of cocoa feeder roads. The data were analysed and they demonstrated that most of the delay factors were related to construction material management and low productivity of work personnel. The analysis also showed that in spite of all the delay factors that existed in the construction of cocoa feeder roads, effective planning can be the antidote to almost all the factors. This research demonstrates how to improve on the successfulness of execution of cocoa feeder roads.

Source: KNUST
Detection of Viable Mycobacterium ulcerans in Clinical Samples by a Novel Combined 16S rRNA Reverse Transcriptase/IS2404 Real-Time qPCR Assay

Buruli ulcer disease (BUD) caused by Mycobacterium ulcerans involves the skin and soft tissue. If left untreated, extensive destruction of tissue followed by scarring and contractures may lead to severe functional limitations. Following the introduction of standardized antimycobacterial chemotherapy with rifampicin and streptomycin, recurrence rates of less than 2% were reported. However, treatment failures occur and a variety of secondary lesions necessitating customized clinical management strategies have been reported. True recurrences by definition occur more than three months after completion of antibiotic treatment, are characterised by the presence of viable bacilli, and require a second course of antibiotics. ‘‘Non-healers’’ may harbour viable, possibly drug-resistant M. ulcerans strains and may benefit from surgical intervention. Early-onset immune-mediated paradoxical reactions emerging during or shortly after treatment do not contain viable bacilli and may heal under conventional wound care and/or minor surgery; lateonset secondary lesions presumably attributable to secondary infection foci may clear spontaneously through enhanced immune responses primed by initial treatment. None of the current diagnostic techniques is applicable to rapidly address the pivotal question of the presence of viable bacilli in non-healers and patients with secondary BUD lesions, and optimal time points for collection of follow-up samples have not yet been investigated. Therefore, to date treatment monitoring is mainly based on clinical observation [1– 5]. Reverse transcriptase assays targeting 16S rRNA and mRNA were successfully applied for the rapid detection of viable mycobacteria in clinical samples from patients with tuberculosis and leprosy [6,7]. To employ this technique for classification of BUD lesions and monitoring of treatment success we developed a M. ulcerans–specific RNA-based viability assay combining a 16S rRNA reverse transcriptase real-time PCR (RT-qPCR) to determine bacterial viability with an IS2404 quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) for increased specificity and simultaneous quantification of bacilli.

Source: KNUST
The Determinant of Bank Interest Rates Spreads in Ghana

In Ghana, there is a widespread perception that interest rate spread is too wide. Banks, on the other hand, had justified the wide interest rate spread on the basis of some economic variables that affect the banks. The purpose of this study is to examine the determinants of the bank interest margin in Ghana. This study therefore examines the determinants of banking sector interest rate spreads in Ghana. Based on the availability of data, the study focused on some banking industry-specific and macroeconomic determinants of (IR) spread. This study used exploratory and explanatory approaches. The exploratory methodology was used to identify the factors affecting determination of interest rate spreads and an explanatory approach was employed to establish how the factors affect the determination of interest spread in Ghana. The study found that factors affecting the determination of interest rate spread in Ghana are GDP, Exchange Rate, Prime Rate, Treasury Bill Rate, Liquidity, Overhead Costs, Loan Loss Provisioning and Profit Margin.

Source: KNUST
Determinant of loan default, a case study of Dumpong rural Bank limited and other Rural Banks in the Kwahu Municipality

The main aim of this study is to examine the determinant of loan default in Dumpong rural bank and other rural banks in the Kwahu Municipality. It specifically tries to examine in detail, the laid down credit policy which regulates loan administration and to determine how loan default affects the operations of rural banks. The study employed survey and descriptive research design and uses questionnaire to collect data from five rural banks in the Kwahu Municipality namely Kwahu Rural Bank, Kwahu Praso Rural Bank, Odwen Anoma Rural Bank and Mumuadu Rural Bank. At the end of the data collection, the collected data was analyzed. Simple frequency tables, figures and percentages were used to analyze the data. The study revealed that, poor monitoring, bad weather, wrong timing of credit delivery, business failure and high interest rate makes the customers default the loan. It was further revealed that microfinance loan and agriculture loan had the highest percentage of loans default rate. The conclusion of the study is that loans default affects the profitability of rural banks and even cause a “run” on the bank. The study recommended that, rural banks should establish local credit bureaus that will provide database to which all participating financial institutions will provide the names of defaulted clients and their personal data. This will help identify defaulted clients among the banks easily. The officials of the bank must visit the customers on regular basis to know the state of their business.

Source: KNUST