ghanaopendata/ghanaian-research-english huggingface dataset:
Trends in the use of a small coastal lagoon by waterbirds: Muni Lagoon (Ghana)

This paper presents data from a twelve-year (1986-98) monitoring of waterbird populations at Muni Lagoon, and discusses the ornithological importance of the lagoon and trends in the use of the site by waterbirds. The small brackish lagoon forms part of the Muni-Pomadze Ramsar site situated on the Ghana coast. A total of 48 species of waterbirds were recorded at the site comprising of 29 species of waders, eight species of terns, two species of gulls, seven species of herons and egrets, one species each of duck and cormorant. The most abundant waterbirds species recorded on the site were the Curlew Sandpiper, Ringed Plover, Greenshank, Black-winged Stilt, Common Tern, Black Tern, Royal Tern and the Sandwich Tern. Three species of waders, Black-winged Stilt, Pratincole and Little Tern were observed to breed at the site. The highest numbers of waterbirds occurred on the site in the period September to March. The site remains an internationally important wetland site by virtue of supporting internationally important numbers of four species of terns: Royal Tern, Sandwich Tern, Common Tern and Black Tern. The value of Muni lies more in its use as a feeding/staging site for migrating waders that spend the non-breeding season in Ghana or pass through to winter further south, and as a roosting site for terns which feed mainly at sea. The use of the site by waterbirds has increased by some 400% between 1986 and 1998. This is attributed to improved prey availability resulting from the opening of the lagoon into the sea during the 1994 floods, and reduced disturbance of feeding and roosting birds. This would imply that the value of the site as waterbird habitat could improve considerably with appropriate habitat management interventions and continued protection.

Source: UG
Trends in utilisation and inequality in the use of reproductive health services in Sub- Saharan Africa

Background: The paper argues that unlike the income literature, the public health literature has not paid much attention to the distribution of substantial improvements in health outcomes over the last decade or more, especially, in the Sub-Saharan African (SSA) context. Thus, the paper examines current levels of utilisation, changes in utilisation as well as inequality in utilisation of reproductive health services over the last 10 years in SSA. Methods: The paper uses two rounds of Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data from 30 SSA countries (latest round) and 21 countries (earlier round) to compute simple frequencies, cross-tabulated frequencies and concentration indices for health facility deliveries, skilled delivery assistance, 4+ antenatal visits and use of modern contraceptives. Results: The results confirm the fact that utilisation of the selected reproductive health services have improved substantially over the last 10 year in several SSA countries. However, current levels of inequality in the use of reproductive health services are high in many countries. Interestingly, Guinea’s pro-poor inequality in health facility delivery and skilled attendance at birth changed to pro-rich inequality, with the reverse being true in the case of use of modern contraceptives for Ghana, Malawi and Rawanda. The good news however is that in a lot of countries, the use of reproductive health services has increased while inequality has decreased within the period under study. Conclusion: The paper argue that whiles income levels may play a key role in explaining the differences in utilisation and the levels of inequality, indepth studies may be needed to explain the reason for differential improvements and stagnation or deterioration in different countries. In this way, best practices from better performing countries can be documented and adapted by poor performing countries to improve their situation.

Source: UG
The Trial of Socrates: A Study in Legal Moralism

of the law. The paper concludes that in the nature of some public morality crimes, it is desirable to leave the scope of the law empirically underdetermined, so that the Athenian criminal law in question does not fail in legality; that it was appropriate for Socrates to plead his character and to use persuasion as proof; and that it was legitimate to engage public opinion, represented by the jury, in the determination of the empirical content of the law. Based on the trial of Socrates, this is a study in legal moralism, which concerns whether the law does in fact or ought to enforce moral standards. Given that the law is sometimes used to enforce standards of public morality, as is the law against obscenity, bigamy, pornography, and so on, this paper is concerned with certain juridical problems associated with public morality law—problems about legality, and about whether in some public morality crimes the character of the accused is legitimate evidence, persuasion can constitute proof, and the jury can play a determining role in interpreting the empirical content

Source: UG
The Tribes of Zambia

In 1934, the late J. Moffat Thomson, C.B.E., then Secretary for Native Affairs, wrote a Memorandum on the Native Tribes and tribal Areas of Northern Rhodesia. The tribal map which accompanied the Memorandum was drawn by the late W. C. Fairweather, C.B.E., then Director of Surveys. This .Memorandum, printed by the Government Printer, has long been out of print and there has been no handy guide to the tribes of the Territory. On the other hand, there has been so much research and so many writings on the tribes during the past twenty years that a reprinting of Moffat Thomson's work would Dot have been sufficient to indicate the present knowledge of tribal origins and history. This work then is completely new. I have quoted freely from Moffat Thomsor because his paper was the first comprehensive description of where our tribes came from and their relationships with each other. It formed an invaluable basis for future research. But his paper was very short and I have had to enlarge considerably in order to make full use of later studies. I have not hesitated to contradict Moffat Thomson on occasion and, in order to make this work as authoritative as possible, I have quoted extensively from acknowledged experts. At the same time, I have tried to keep the descriptions simple and straightforward and I have avoided, I hope, any ethnological theorising. The result is, no doubt, uneven. The amount of space given to a tribe does not necessarily indicate its relative importance. There may have been more written about it or, as in the case of many of the smaller tribes, it may be of more interest to write about them before they are absorbed by larger units. In any case most of the larger units, e.g. Bemba, Ngoni, Lozi, have a full-scale bibliography of their own. Research, especially under the aegis of the Rhodes-Livingstone Institute, still goes on and knowledge of tribal origins and affinities is constantly being extended, so that this work is far from being exhaustive and does not pretend to be anything but a quick survey of tribal origins as known to-day. Criticism has been made of the « rather miscellaneous scraps of ethnographic data that keep popping up here and there" in this book. It is true that the theme of this work is historical rather than sociological, but the. scraps", e.g. on the Tonga or Mambwe, do tie up with the recent history and development of the tribe concerned. They also add interest, I believe, and emphasise differences in cultural history.

Source: UG
Triggering regime change: A comparative analysis of the performance of innovation platforms that attempted to change the institutional context for nine agricultural domains in West Africa

The article synthesises the experiences of innovation platforms (IPs) that engaged in open-ended experimental action to improve the institutional context for smallholder farm development in West Africa. The IPs sought change at the level of the institutional regime covering an entire agricultural domain (such as cocoa, cotton, oil palm or water management). Their purpose was therefore not to ‘roll out’ farm-level technologies across rural communities. The IPs's outcomes were documented and analysed throughout by means of theory-based process tracing in each of seven of the nine domains in which regime change was attempted. The evidence shows that by means of exploratory scoping and diagnosis, socio-technical and institutional experimentation, and guided facilitation IPs can remove, by-pass, or modify domain-specific institutional constraints and/or create new institutional conditions that allow smallholders to capture opportunity. The article describes the 5-year, €4.5 million research programme in Benin, Ghana and Mali, covering theory, design, methods and results. It is the sequel to Hounkonnou et al. in AGSY 108 (2012): 74–83.

Source: UG
TRIPS, the Doha Declaration and increasing access to medicines: policy options for Ghana

There are acute disparities in pharmaceutical access between developing and industrialized countries. Developing countries make up approximately 80% of the world's population but only represent approximately 20% of global pharmaceutical consumption. Among the many barriers to drug access are the potential consequences of the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement. Many developing countries have recently modified their patent laws to conform to the TRIPS standards, given the 2005 deadline for developing countries. Safeguards to protect public health have been incorporated into the TRIPS Agreement; however, in practice governments may be reluctant to exercise such rights given concern about the international trade and political ramifications. The Doha Declaration and the recent Decision on the Implementation of Paragraph 6 of the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health may provide more freedom for developing countries in using these safeguards. This paper focuses on Ghana, a developing country that recently changed its patent laws to conform to TRIPS standards. We examine Ghana's patent law changes in the context of the Doha Declaration and assess their meaning for access to drugs of its population. We discuss new and existing barriers, as well as possible solutions, to provide policy-makers with lessons learned from the Ghanaian experience.

Source: UG
Troop education and avian influenza surveillance in military barracks in Ghana, 2011

Most research activities involve the use of molecular methods such as regular PCR (PCR), quantitative PCR (Q-PCR), genomic sequence and analysis using different software, genetic engineering, probe hybridization techniques, biological and molecular cloning, evaluation of immune markers for laboratory diagnosis of infections, serological assays involving the use of rapid tests, ELISA-based evaluations and immunofluorescent assay techniques.

Source: UG
Tropical agricultural land management influences on soil microbial communities through its effect on soil organic carbon

We analyzed the microbial community that developed after 4 years of testing different soil-crop management systems in the savannah-forest transition zone of Eastern Ghana where management systems can rapidly alter stored soil carbon as well as soil fertility. The agricultural managements were: (i) the local practice of fallow regrowth of native elephant grass (Pennis e tum purpureum) followed by biomass burning before planting maize in the spring, (ii) the same practice but without burning and the maize receiving mineral nitrogen fertilizer, (iii) a winter crop of a legume, pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan), followed by maize, (iv) vegetation free winter period (bare fallow) followed by maize, and (v) unmanaged elephant grass-shrub vegetation. The mean soil organic carbon (SOC) contents of the soils after 4 years were: 1.29, 1.67, 1.54, 0.80 and 1.34%, respectively, differences that should affect resources for the microbial community.From about 290,000 sequences obtained by pyrosequencing the SSU rRNA gene, canonical correspondence analysis showed that SOC was the most important factor that explained differences in microbial community structure among treatments. This analysis as well as phylogenetic ecological network construction indicated that members of the Acidobacteria GP4 and GP6 were more abundant in soils with relatively high SOC whereas Acidobacteria GP1, GP7, and Actinobacteria were more prevalent in soil with lower SOC. Burning of winter fallow vegetation led to an increase in Bacillales, especially those belonging to spore-forming genera. Of the managements, pigeon-pea cultivation during the winter period promoted a higher microbial diversity and also sequestered more SOC, presumably improving soil structure, fertility, and resiliency. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.

Source: UG
The true cost of solving the plastic waste challenge in developing countries: The case of Ghana

Mismanaged plastic waste is a major environmental concern, especially in countries of the Global South. Municipal solid waste management can not only alleviate environmental problems but also create jobs and promote local economic growth. However, providing appropriate waste management services is costly. The question is to what extent waste management policies that have proven to be successful in other geographies can help solve the challenge in developing countries. Specifically, the economics and financial flows along the value chain need to be known. In this paper, we shed light on these questions by presenting a novel, model-based method to elicit and assess the cost structure of the recycling sector in developing countries. We exemplify our method with plastic waste management in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana—an area particularly challenged by plastic waste. For this purpose, we surveyed over 80 participants of the waste management value chain and combined the data with insights from expert interviews and workshops. Based on this data, we built a bottom-up model with 67 parameters, reflecting all cost positions in the waste management value chain. We found that street waste pickers are the poorest and most vulnerable, earning only a fraction of the already low minimum wage. Middlemen and aggregators, while often being criticized for their earnings, also provide social security-like services to waste pickers. In addition, formal and informal recyclers differ not only in earnings and size but also in recycled quality, where the informal sector provides higher quality.

Source: UG
Trump’s Foreign Policy towards Israel and the Palestinian Question

This study aims at exploring Trump’s foreign policy towards Israel and the Palestinian question. It is obvious that the United States has played very significant roles in trying to secure peace between Israel and Palestine. However, Trump’s government has recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and provided more financial support to Israel as part of its foreign policy. Additionally, Trump has cut down bilateral aid to Palestine. This change of position of the Trump government makes it difficult to understand if that advance the cause of peace in the region, hence, the decision to undertake this study. The main objective of the study is to explore the political and economic implications of Trump’s foreign policy for Israel and Palestine. The study employed qualitative research method. Data was obtained through semi-structured interviews with purposively selected officials from the US, Israeli and Palestinian embassies in Ghana. The study found out that President Trump’s foreign policy has economic and political implications for the conflict between Israel and Palestine. It also found out that Trump’s foreign policy was biased against the Palestinians and poses a threat to the peace process in the region. The study concludes that the UN must be dynamic in its quest to achieve peace in the region. While the United States is encouraged to remain a neutral arbiter in the peace process, participation must be adequately broadened to complement her efforts. The study also recommends that Fattah and Hamas must unite in achieving a solution to the Palestinian question

Source: UG
Truncated forms of a novel yeast protein suppress the lethality of a G protein α subunit deficiency by interacting with the β subunit.

In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the mating pheromone-initiated signal is transduced by a heterotrimeric G protein and normally results in transient cell cycle arrest and differentiation. A null allele of the G alpha (GPA1/SCG1) subunit results in cell death due to unchecked signaling from the G beta gamma (STE4, STE18, respectively) heterodimer. We have identified three high copy suppressors of gpa1 lethality. Two of these genes encode known transcription factors. Mat alpha 2p and Mcm1p. The third is a truncated form of a novel gene, SYG1. Overexpressed wild type SYG1 is a weak suppressor of gpa1. In contrast, the isolated mutant allele SYG1-1 is a strong suppressor that completely blocks the cell cycle arrest and differentiation phenotypes of gpa1 cells of both mating types. One deletion mutant (SYG1 delta 340) can suppress the cell cycle arrest associated with gpa1, but the cells retain a differentiated morphology. SYG1-1 can suppress the effects of overexpressed wild type G beta but is not able to suppress the lethality of an activated G beta mutant (STE4Hpl). Consistent with these genetic observations, the suppressing form of Syg1p can interact with the STE4 gene product, as determined by a two-hybrid assay. SYG1-1 is also capable of promoting pheromone recovery in wild type cells, as judged by halo assay. The sequence of SYG1 predicts eight membrane-spanning domains. Deletion mutants of SYG1 indicate that complete gpa1 suppression requires removal of all of these hydrophobic regions. Interestingly, this truncated protein localizes to the same plasma membrane-enriched subcellular fraction as does full-length Syg1p. Three hypothetical yeast proteins, identified by their similarity to the SYG1 primary sequence within the gpa1 suppression domain, also appear to have related structures. The properties of Syg1p are consistent with those of a transmembrane signaling component that can respond to, or transduce signals through, G beta or G beta gamma.

Source: UG
Truncation of some Akan personal names

This paper examines some morphophonological processes in Akan personal names with focus on the former process. The morphological processes of truncation of some indigenous personal names identified among the Akan (Asante) ethnic group of Ghana are discussed. The paper critically looks at some of these postlexical morpheme boundary processes in some Akan personal names realized in the truncated form when two personal names interact. In naming a child in a typical Akan, specifically in Asante’s custom, a family name is given to the child in addition to his/her ‘God-given’ name or day-name. We observe truncation and some phonological processes such as vowel harmony, compensatory lengthening, etc. at the morpheme boundaries in casual speech context. These morphophonological processes would be analyzed within the Optimality Theory framework where it would be claimed that there is templatic constraint that demands that the base surname minimally surfaces as disyllable irrespective of the syllable size of the base surname. The relatively high ranking of this minimality constraint, we claim in this paper, forces the application of the compensatory lengthening rule to ensure satisfaction of that constraint in the truncated forms. © 2015, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Press. All rights reserved.

Source: UG
Trust and customer engagement in the banking sector in Ghana

Customer engagement has become a topical issue in the marketing literature in recent times. Many researchers have called for more research to be done on the antecedents of customer engagement. In response to this call, we examine the impact of trust on customer engagement. We used the survey research design to address the research question. We used the intercept approach to select the participants of the study. We collected the data from retail banking customers in Ghana. The hypotheses were tested using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). The findings of this study show that trust in service providers and economy-based trust have a significant and positive effect on emotional engagement, cognitive engagement, and behavioural engagement. The implications of the findings have been discussed at the end of the paper.

Source: UG
The Truth Imagined: The Imposture of Enric Marco as Portrayed in Javier Cercas’ El impostor.

In his El impostor, Javier Cercas, the prolific Spanish writer, sought to unmask Enric Marco, who had lived his public life as a holocaust survivor and anti-Franco crusader, as an imposter. Couched in epistemological (fiction vs reality) and moralistic (truth vs. falsehood) terms, Marco’s imposture is debated against the backdrop of Spain’s most recent history: the Civil war and its aftermath, the Franco dictatorship, the Transición and the fervor of the Memoria histórica. In this presentation, I will read El impostor in light of three questions: a) What is an imposture b) Is an imposture justified and justifiable, and c) Is a public imposture the sign of the times.

Source: UG
The Tshi -Speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast of West Africa. Their Religion, Manners, Customs, Laws, Language.

THE GOLD COAST consists of that portion of the West African coast comprised between the Assini River on the west and the Volta River on the east, and extends from about 3° 30' west longitude to 30' east longitude. The Gold Coast colony extends from the Assini River to the town of Flohow, some sixty miles to the east of the Volta River; but the territory beyond the latter is really a portion of the Slave Coast. The greater portion of the Gold Coast consists of dense forest, which covers innumerable small hills, averaging from 100 to 300 feet in height. Inland, these hills take the shape of low ranges running more or less parallel with the general line of the coast, and which culminate in the well-known Adansi Hills. All this forest tract, locally termed" the bush," May, for all. Practicable purposes, be considered impenetrable.

Source: UG
A tuberculin skin test survey among Ghanaian school children.

The Bacteriology Department aims to improve the quality of life first for Ghanaians and the world at large by conducting research into bacterial diseases of public health importance to Ghana and globally. In addition to working on enteric pathogens and sexually transmitted diseases, the department’s current main focus is on the two most important mycobacterial diseases of public health importance to Ghana, namely Buruli ulcer (BU) and tuberculosis (TB).

Source: UG