ghanaopendata/ghanaian-research-english huggingface dataset:
Enhancing The Institutional Image Of Tamale College Of Education: Perspectives Of Administrative Staff

Due to keen competition in the higher educational landscape, it has become imperative for higher institutions to improve service quality and institutional image to help induce high patronage. Studies explored how student preferences shape institutional image to the neglect of the perspectives of administrative staff. This study explores the gap by examining the perspectives of administrative staff in enhancing the institutional image of Tamale College of Education. A collective case study approach was adopted to study thirty (30) purposively selected administrative staff who were interviewed and audiotaped from 8th to 22nd April, 2022. Ethical standards such as permission, consent, confidentiality and anonymity were ensured through appropriate communicates, inform consent, digital data security and unification of data respectively. Data was analysed using thematic content analysis. It was discovered that, institutional image was generally perceived as the overall mental view of people about an institution’s popularity or goodness, which view, can be individualistic or communal. Participants perceived Tamale College of Education to be good and popular because it is well-known and prepares its graduates effectively. The overarching insights revealed that, the perception of administrative staff of the importance of their roles in improving institutional image motivated them to work diligently. They implemented good records system, staff development and also worked overtime without compensation. However, administrative staff faced challenges such as poor conditions of service, infrastructural shortage, dusty environment, lack of means for emergency mails and water shortage. Opening multiple campuses, multistory structures, vehicle for emergency mails and mechanized boreholes are recommended.

Source: UCC
Enhancing urban roads maintenance in Ghana: Implications for sustainable urban development Aboagye

Enhancing maintenance of urban roads is a condition that helps to promote sustainable urban development. It helps to put roads in good shape which in turns provide several economic, social, and environmental benefits in urban areas. This paper sought to develop economically feasible road maintenance interventions that can be resorted to enhance the maintenance of urban roads in Wa Municipality (Ghana). Data on four road classes were used. These roads were Class A (major arterial road), class B (minor arterial roads), Class D (distributor roads) and Class E (access roads). The HDM-4 economic analysis model was used to process and analyse the data. The overall data analysis of the roads was made to cover a 30 year period starting 2013. The following treatment options were found as suitable to enhance the maintenance and sustainability of urban roads in the study area: Class A - "70mm thick overlay for every 11years at intervention level of 3.63 IRI", Class B - "40mm thin overlay for every 9 years at intervention level of 3.91 IRI", Class D - "40mm thin overlay for every 9 years at intervention level of 4.04 IRI", and Class E - "25mm surface dressing (resealing) for every 12 years at intervention level of 6.22 IRI". It is therefore recommended that public funds must be used judiciously with desirable portions allocated for timely road maintenance to enable the roads provide maximum economic and social benefits to the users

Source: UCC
Enhancing Workplace Safety Culture in the Mining Industry in Ghana

The paper concerns organisational safety culture and how it may be applied to reduce employee accidents in the mining industry in Ghana. A sample of 340 managerial workers of three mining companies in the Tarkwa Nsuaem Municipality was selected using the simple random sampling technique. Data for the study was gathered using a survey questionnaire. The Structural Equation Modelling analysis technique was performed to establish the relationship between safety culture and each of the five dimensions of workplace safety (work safety, management safety practices, safety programmes, supervisor safety and co-worker safety). It was found that safety culture is a significant positive predictor of work safety (R2 = 0.039), management safety practices (R2 = 0.272), safety programmes (R2 = 0.159), co-worker safety (R2 = 0.225) and supervisor safety (R2 = 0.199). The study concluded that workplace safety can be improved by enhancing the safety culture in the mining industry in Ghana. The study recommends that in order to curb the incidence and occurrence of accidents and injuries in the mining industry in Ghana, Human Resource (HR) managers should lay more emphasis on ways that would enhance the safety culture of all employees in the industry.

Source: UCC
Enriching Roasted Maize Porridge to Enhance Intake of Protein and Vitamin a Using Locally Available Staple Foods

Protein deficiency, particularly among youngsters, is widespread in most developing nations. An effective approach to address this insufficiency is to integrate regionally abundant staple foods, such as Bambara groundnut and soybean, into current and widely consumed meals, like porridge made from roasted maize flour. For addressing issue related to vitamin A deficiency among expectant mothers and infants, the use of staple foods such as ripe plantain and orange-fleshed sweet potatoes, which abound in Vitamin A, can be explored. Thus, in this study, the properties of composite flours made from roasted maize, Bambara groundnut, and ripe plantain (MBP), roasted maize, Bambara groundnut, and orange-fleshed sweet potatoes (MBO), and roasted maize, soybean, and ripe plantain (MSP) were investigated. Additionally, the study assessed the consumer preference for porridge made from the ingredients. Increasing the quantities of Bambara groundnut, soybean, orange-fleshed sweet potatoes, and ripe plantain resulted in an augmentation in protein and β-carotene levels, respectively, while having no impact on the physicochemical quality. The iron content was enhanced by increasing the amount of ripe plantain, while the zinc content was enhanced by increasing the amount of orange flesh sweet potatoes. Nevertheless, elevated concentrations of the Bambara groundnut and soybean resulted in an augmentation of the tannin content. Hedonic sensory scores indicated no significant changes in acceptability in terms of aroma, appearance, texture, and taste. Therefore, the porridges from the composite flours from this study could easily be accepted by consumers because their attributes were similar to those of roasted maize porridge that they are familiar with.

Source: UCC
Enrichment of tiger nut milk with microbial transglutaminase cross-linked protein improves the physico-chemical properties of the fermented system

Milk proteins cross-linked with microbial transglutaminase were investigated for their potential to improve the microbiological and physico-chemical properties of fermented tiger nut milk. Fermented systems with cross-linked proteins did not affect S. thermophilus viable counts but decreased that of L. delbrueckii ssp. bulgaricus compared to the untreated protein systems. Systems with cross-linked proteins showed shorter microbial lag time and a higher pH reduction rates during fermentation. During storage of the fermented product, viable counts of L. delbrueckii ssp. bulgaricus decreased faster than that of S. thermophilus, and systems with cross- linked proteins revealed a lower decrease in L. delbrueckii ssp. bulgaricus cell counts compared to untreated proteins during 15 d. Products from cross-linked sodium caseinate or whey protein showed 16.4 fold and 3.6 fold increase in viscosity, and approx. 30 % and 36 % decrease in syneresis compared to their untreated counterparts, respectively. The addition of proteins to tiger nut milk improved the lightness of the fermented product and minimized lightness decrease during storage, and casein cross-linking further improved lightness. The enrichment of tiger nut milk with cross-linked protein has therefore a large potential for improving the physical characteristics of fermented tiger nut milk

Source: UCC
Enseigner le français langue étrangère (FLE) par le multimédia au Ghana: Implications didactiques et institutionnelles

L’enseignement du français langue étrangère (FLE) a évolué depuis son introduction au Ghana. Celui-ci a connu les mêmes changements de méthodologies qui ont tous essayé d’apporter des solutions ‘miracles’ aux difficultés d’apprentissage des apprenants de langue un peu partout dans le monde. Cet article présente succinctement l’évolution de ces méthodologies au Ghana. Il considère aussi en quelle capacité l’enseignement basé sur le multimédia apporterait des solutions plus concrètes face à la diversité des objectifs d’apprentissage et des profils d’apprenants de FLE. Le rôle du multimédia est alors défini par rapport à de nouvelles situations ou conditions d’apprentissage qui prennent en compte, entre autres, la diversité langagière des apprenants et la construction de compétences plurilingue et pluriculturelle. L’adoption des dispositifs d’enseignement basée sur le multimédia entraîne cependant des conséquences didactico-institutionnelles sur lesquelles l’article propose des pistes de réflexion. Cet article incite toutefois les enseignants à envisager de nouvelles manières d’enseigner le FLE qui s’appuient sur des atouts technologiques de l’époque

Source: UCC
Enslaved women’s traumas and resistance to slavery: a study in four selected novels.

The thesis examines the trauma that enslaved women encounter at various stages of their capture and enslavement, the ways in which they resist the brutalities of slavery, and how these are represented in the four literary texts under study. The study is subjected through the lens of the psychoanalytic theory of trauma and Slaves resistance to enslavement. The study also employs a qualitative research by doing a close reading of the texts and enhancing the analysis with further information from texts books, journals and articles. Character is the tool used to answer the research questions. Critical analyses of the texts reveal that trauma is not only physical but psychological as well. The findings further suggest that trauma could be Transgenerational. Some female characters did not experience first-hand traumas from the Transatlantic Slave Trade but they are subjected to Transgenerational traumas from their enslaved parents and ancestors. In addition, another important finding is that enslaved women devise several forms of resistance to enslavement such as running away, committing suicide, infanticide, and using negotiation. The study concludes by recommending Africans to resist all forms of enslavement.

Source: UCC
Ensuring equitable distribution of land in Ghana: Spirituality or policy? A case study from the forest-savanna agro ecological zone of Ghana

This article explores the pent-up question of equitable distribution of land in Ghana using the Forest-Savanna Agroecological Zone as a case study. It focuses on the dichotomy of policy versus indigenous spirituality in contemporary distribution of land in Ghana. After independence several attempts have been made to restructure land title holding in Ghana by way of land registration. The effectiveness of these attempts is also examined. The paper concludes that Ghana needs pragmatic steps (policies) to confront the challenges of land distribution. And in taking these pragmatic policies, the religio-cultural underpinnings (the people`s worldview) of land issues in Ghana should be factored into the policy that will result. Anything short of this will make the implementation of any land policy in Ghana ineffective

Source: UCC
Ensuring equity and Inclusion in higher Education provision: ghana’s Approach

The current economic stage of the world is argued to be that of a knowledge economy. This refers to a shift from the dependence on natural resources to a new paradigm where the production and use of knowledge are paramount. Countries all over the world are striving to have full participation in the knowledge economy by providing opportunities for equitable access to higher education in order to provide advance knowledge to all citizens. Ghana is striving hard to achieve equitable higher education and use it as the agency for spearheading its full participation in the global knowledge economy, but so far, Ghana’s approach to equitable higher education, which is worth sharing, has not been synthesized and shared with the scholarly community. This chapter analyzes and synthesizes the various initiatives Ghana has undertaken to promote equitable higher education, draws attention to the gaps between rhetoric and realities, and makes recommendations for improvements in the initiatives

Source: UCC
Entero-Hepatic Discord: Consequences for Liver Disease Pathogenesis and the Risk of Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most debilitating malignancies of hepatic origin and does not only contribute significantly to global cancer-related mortality but also global disease burden. Malfunctioning and dysregulation of the entero-hepatic axis culminating from chronic ingestion of dietary and other non-specific food substances have been implicated in liver disease pathogenesis and this has the potential to increase risk of HCC. As a result, there have been increased efforts to advance understanding of the role played by the perturbed gut in liver disease and the key cell and molecular players involved. Luckily, growing evidence from many independent studies seem to lend credence to the phenomenon of bidirectional pathogenesis of entero-hepatic diseases. This has raised hopes of finding more sensitive and specific biomarkers for prognosis and diagnosis of entero-hepatic diseases as well as identification of new therapeutic targets, more specifically for therapy against major risk factors (NAFLD, NASH, liver fibrosis, and cirrhosis) of HCC. This chapter takes a panoramic view of the interactions between the perturbed gut and the susceptible liver. Specifically, the chapter highlights the consequences of gut dysbiosis for liver disease pathogenesis and the risk of HCC.

Source: UCC
Entero-Hepatic Discord: Consequences for Liver Disease Pathogenesis and the Risk of Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most debilitating malignancies of hepatic origin and does not only contribute significantly to global cancer-related mor- tality but also global disease burden. Malfunctioning and dysregulation of the entero-hepatic axis culminating from chronic ingestion of dietary and other non-specific food substances have been implicated in liver disease patho- genesis and this has the potential to increase risk of HCC. As a result, there have been increased efforts to advance understanding of the role played by the perturbed gut in liver disease and the key cell and molecular players in- volved. Luckily, growing evidence from many independ- ent studies seem to lend credence to the phenomenon of bidirectional pathogenesis of entero-hepatic diseases. This has raised hopes of finding more sensitive and specific biomarkers for prognosis and diagnosis of entero-hepatic diseases as well as identification of new therapeutic tar- gets, more specifically for therapy against major risk fac- tors (NAFLD, NASH, liver fibrosis, and cirrhosis) of HCC. This chapter takes a panoramic view of the interactions between the perturbed gut and the susceptible liver. Spe- cifically, the chapter highlights the consequences of gut dysbiosis for liver disease pathogenesis and the risk of HCC.

Source: UCC
Entrance skin dose assessment of selected computed radiography facilities in Ghana

The basic challenge with computed radiography (CR) systems is the large dynamic range which provides an opportunity for radiographers to gradually increase exposure factors and still produce good image quality, a practice that can lead to dose creep. Materials and Methods: The aim of this study was to establish the entrance skin dose (ESD) values for nine selected examinations in three CR facilities in Ghana (chest PA, abdomen AP, lumbar Pelvis AP, lumbar spine LAT, cervical spine AP, cervical spine LAT, skull PA and skull LAT). ESD was estimated by the indirect method involving the use of a standard equation. The study involved 150 females and 120 males with the average age of 50 ± 14 years. The average weight of the study population was 69 ± 8 kg, and the average height of 162 ± 9 cm. The CR systems used at all the hospitals were manufactured by Shimadzu medical systems (Kyoto, Japan) and the model number was UD150L-40E. Results: The average ESDs (mGy) for each examination were; 0.93 ± 0.7, 3.04 ± 0.4 , 4.95 ± 0.9, 0.59 ± 0.3, 0.63 ± 0.4, 1.77 ± 0.3, 1.64 ± 0.3, 2.31 ± 0.4 and 3.15 ± 0.6 for chest PA, lumbar spine AP, lumber spine LAT, cervical spine AP, cervical spine LAT, skull PA, skull LAT, pelvis AP, and abdomen AP respectively. The single factor ANOVA t-test that was performed indicated a significant difference (p-value =5.73 x 10-15) among the ESDs for chest PA examination. Conclusion: Over exposure of patients is very possible with CR systems, it is therefore important for patient dose to be audited periodically in order to achieve the principles of As Low As Reasonably Achievable (ALARA)

Source: UCC
Entrepreneurial Ability, Technological Innovation and Self-Employment Among Students of the University of Cape Coast Entrepreneurial Ability, Technological Innovation and Self-Employment Among Students of the University of Cape Coast

This study examined the effect of entrepreneurial abilities, technological innovation and self-employment among students of University of Cape Coast. It explored whether the technological innovativeness of the students and certain personal characteristics have any influence on their entrepreneurial intentions and their inclination of being self-employed. There was a stratified sampling selection of 379 undergraduate students of the University of Cape Coast, of various programmes for the study. The design employed for the study was the descriptive survey and questionnaire was used for the data collection. The statistical tools employed for this study were Statistical Package for Services Solution (SPSS) version 26 and Smart PLS version 3. The results of the study indicated that, entrepreneurial abilities have a positive influence on technological innovation and self-employment among the students of the University of Cape Coast. Some characteristics such as entrepreneurial self-efficacy, personal attitude, subjective norms, perceived behaviour control and entrepreneurial intentions were found to have positive influence on their self-employment intentions. Technological Innovation which was used as a mediating variable for the nexus between entrepreneurial abilities and self-employment was also found to have a higher positive influence on the self-employment intentions of the students of the University of Cape Coast. The study recommends that, the leadership of the University of Cape Coast must encourage students and precisely, the undergraduate regular students, by means of sensitizing them in every means they can and also imbedding in them the requisite entrepreneurial knowledge and skills to help them have the self-employment intentions.

Source: UCC
Entrepreneurial Education and Entrepreneurial Culture among University of Cape Coast Students in Ghana

Currently the Ghanaian economy's capacity to absorb new recruits into the formal sector has fallen. Therefore, for young people to escape the incidence of not getting employed after school, active intervention is necessary. There is an urgent need for young people to be trained and educated in the field of entrepreneurship especially university students. This study examined the link between entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial culture among university students in Ghana. A sample of 203 students was randomly selected from the three schools in University of Cape Coast Ghana. Correlation coefficient was the parametric statistical tools used to test the association in the study. Entrepreneurial culture was measured using entrepreneurial mindset, business startup motives and entrepreneurial orientation. Four dimension were used under entrepreneurial orientation; proactiveness, perseverance, innovativeness and risk taking propensity. A significant relationship was observed between entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial culture. This study therefore argues that entrepreneurship education will equip the students with the skills with which to be self-reliant. Results again holds the implication for among others, that if entrepreneurship education is made core and studied by all students irrespective of the areas of specialization, will help inculcate the culture of entrepreneurship in University of Cape Coast students leading to they being job creators rather than job seekers, and in the long term effect, graduate unemployment will be reduced

Source: UCC
Entrepreneurial Inclination among Ghanaian University Students: The Case of University of Cape Coast, Ghana

This study examined the level of entrepreneurial inclination among Ghanaian university students. It explored whether the academic programmes read by students and certain personal characteristics have any influence on entrepreneurial inclination. 520 final year students of the University of Cape Coast, reading various programmes were randomly sampled for the study. The design employed for the study was the descriptive survey and questionnaire was used for the data collection. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used for the data analyses. These included percentages and frequencies, regression analysis and one way analysis of variance. The results of the study indicate that generally, Ghanaian students have high level of entrepreneurial inclination. However, students' age, gender and academic programmes were found to have no significant effect on their entrepreneurial inclination. Meanwhile, students' personal characteristics such as leadership attributes, task performance attitude, achievement attitude and risk taking attributes, were found to have positive influence on their entrepreneurial inclination. The findings from the study were discussed in relation to the related literature reviewed.

Source: UCC
Entrepreneurial motivation and firm performance of small and medium scale enterprises in the new Juaben municipality

Despite entrepreneurship being regarded as a driving force in the development of many countries, few studies have been conducted to investigate the various motivational factors that influence performance. This dissertation therefore attempts to examine the relationship between various motivation factors and firm performance of the entrepreneurs in the New Juaben Municipality. Descriptive research design was employed in this study. Simple random sampling was employed to select 205 SMEs from 434 registered members of NBSSI. However, only 70 SMEs responded adequately due to closure, change in address and relocation of some sampled firms. The instrument used for data collection was an interview schedule. The bivariate correlation and regression analysis were used to analyse the data. The results indicate that there is an insignificantly positive relationship between the motivational factors such as entrepreneurial traits, pull factors and push factors and firm performance of the entrepreneurs. For instance an increase in pull motivational factors leads to an improvement in firm performance of entrepreneurs in the New Juaben Municipality. However, resource availability motivational factors had an insignificant negative impact on firm performance of the entrepreneurs. It is therefore recommended that less reliance must be placed on resource availability since it influences firm performance negatively. Again, government must make SMEs look attractive by providing educational support to entrepreneurs for them to perceive settingup SMEs as a lifestyle but not out of frustration.

Source: UCC