ghanaopendata/ghanaian-research-english huggingface dataset:
Human resource planning practices in the Roman Ridge School

This study examines the extent of human resource planning practices in The Roman Ridge School in Accra. The researcher adopted the descriptive research design following an extensive related literature review. Total population sampling was adopted due to the unit of interest and size of the population. 54 (89%) out of a total sample of 61 (100%) completed the survey. Questionnaire and interview guides were used to collect data and descriptive analytical technique was employed. The findings of the literature review were confirmed by a field study involving the administering of questionnaire to the teaching staff and an interview of top level management. The findings concluded that aspects of human resource strategies are being practiced in the Roman Ridge School but with implementation barriers to professional development, promotion and appointment, retention and environmental influences.The study concluded that there is an urgent need to develop and implement a comprehensive and long term HRM policy that firstly, gives consideration to routine management activities and secondly, give teachers an entitlement to continuing professional development which is subject to performance reviews and leads to promotions and appointments.

Source: UCC
Human Resource Practices and Organisational Commitment at The Municipal/District Assemblies in the Upper East Region

The purpose of the study is to examine how employees' organisational commitment is affected by HRM practises in District and Assemblies in the Upper East Region. The study specifically sought to assess the human resource practices in the Upper East region, indicators of employee commitment and the effect of compensation, performance appraisal, work-life balance and training and development on organisational commitment. A sample of 179 employees in the districts of Bongo, Kassena-Nankana Municipal, and Builsa South District completed a survey that provided the study's data from a population of 330. In order to investigate the effects of human resource management practices, the study used a quantitative research approach and an explanatory research design. The results showed that there was a favourable relationship between compensation, work-life balance, and performance reviews and the three aspects of organisational commitment. However, the study did not find any significant evidence of a meaningful relationship between training and development and organisational commitment. that of the four important HR practices—compensation, work-life balance, performance appraisal, and training and development—training and development had no appreciable impact on employee commitment. The study concluded that of the four important HR practices—compensation, work-life balance, performance appraisal, and training and development—training and development had no appreciable impact on employee commitment. In light of these findings, the research offers enlightening recommendations to public sector organizations on enhancing workforce organizational commitment.

Source: UCC
Human resource practices and their effects on print production at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology press

The issue of human resource management has become paramount and complex due to current trend of business competition resulting from globalisation and trade liberalisation. The purpose of this study was to examine the human resource management (HRM) practices of the University Printing Press of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (UPK) and how they affect print production. The study focused on four HRM practices namely, resource planning, recruitment and selection, training and development and performance appraisal. In gathering data for the study, quantitative method was adopted as study design for the research. Questionnaire and interview schedule were the instruments used to collect data in 2009. The entire population of the press made up of 43 permanent staff and 28 non- permanent staff was used as the sample. The study revealed that short term, ad-hoc and exigency approaches were adopted by UPK to address human resource planning processes instead of long-term strategies. UPK relies mainly on external sources for recruitment while promotions formed only a small proportion of internal recruitment. The findings also revealed that on- the-job training is the only training and development activity of the press and it is even not extensive. There was also a weak link between training and development and performance appraisal. Based on the findings, it was recommended that, the press incorporates human resource planning in its strategic plan. Adequate budgetary allocation should be made available for training and development programmes/activities.

Source: UCC
Human Rights Abuse Of The Sick In Prayer Camps In Mpohor District

This study assessed human rights abuse of the sick in prayer camps in Mpohor District for NGO intervention. Purposive sampling procedure was used to select 20 participants. A semi-structured interview guide was used for data collection, Data were analysed using Miles and Huberman thematic content analysis. Four major themes emerged as categories of people who are found at the prayer camps, healing practices that go on in the prayer camps, abuses in the healing practices of the prayer camps and patients’ level of satisfaction with healing practices at prayer camps. The study revealed that, different people visit prayer camps for healing from different kinds of ailments. It was also found that custodians of the prayer camps do not regard the background one comes from since they claim to be directed by the Spirit to administer healing processes and practices for the sick. Again, the healing practices were found to include consumption of herbal concoctions, purging with the herbal concoction, bathing with cold water in the open, bathing in a river, smearing one's body with a prepared pomade, and wearing little or no clothes on the body amidst inhumane treatment and abuse like canning, rolling on the ground for several times, being locked in a room for several hours, being chained, inhaling smoke and eating foods without salt. Based on findings and conclusions, it is imperative to educate the general public on the kind of treatment meted out to sick people in prayer camps. Additionally, more awareness should be created on the dangers that sick people put themselves in when they visit varios prayer camps for healing to help savage the situation. The laws governing the operation of prayer camps should be enforced to prevent custodians of prayer camps from subjecting sick people under their care to inhumane and abusive treatment. Finally, NGOs should liaise with responsible stakeholders in health to hold prayer camps accountable for the lives of the sick in their camp.

Source: UCC
Human rights and freedoms in the administration of the University of Cape Coast: Experiences of students and administrators

The study investigated perceptions and experiences of administrators and students on human rights and freedoms in the University of Cape Coast (UCC). The research questions provided a framework for this study while the Cultural Reproduction and Structural Violence theory offered useful theoretical frames for understanding social justice and human rights in higher education in Ghana. The study adopted a qualitative research design, using the case study approach to examine, understand, explore and interpret the human rights and freedoms situation in the UCC. Thirty students and 10 administrators from the University were purposively selected for interview. The data collected consisted of personal notes on observation, interviews, and institutional documents. Inductive analysis process was used to make explicit specific statements and themes. The study showed that the administration of the University has shown great commitment to the application of the principles of human rights and freedoms but some traces of structural violence have been transferred from society into the University. It recommends the establishment of human rights centre to handle human rights complaints and promote respect for human rights in the University of Cape Coast as well as in the larger community.

Source: UCC
Human Rights in Corporate Organisations in Ghana: The Case of Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (Ceps)

The study explored human rights abuses in the operations of Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS). It identified specific human rights abuses on both internal and external stakeholders and the impact of such abuses on all stakeholders. It also identified the ways in which CEPS management is responding to the issues of rights abuses in the operations of the service. One hundred respondents, fifty from internal respondents and another fifty from external respondents were randomly selected and questioned. The respondents were selected from two collections, Kotoka International Airport (KIA) and Sunyani. The responses were analysed with SPSS and presented in the form of exploded pie-charts and simple frequency tables. The results suggest that there are human rights abuses at all levels in the operations of CEPS. Sixty-four percent of internal and ninety-four percent stakeholders have been abused. The rights abuses for internal stakeholders include poor working conditions and poor relationships with superiors. The abuses of external stakeholders include discrimination and unofficial taxes. The effects of rights abuses on internal stakeholders include low morale and poor health, and for the external stakeholders, abuses lead to bad image for CEPS and an unwillingness for stakeholders to corporate with CEPS officials. Majority of stakeholders perceived CEPS management to be making some efforts to avoid human rights abuses. Respondents also suggested that all stakeholders should be educated on the implication of human rights abuses.

Source: UCC
Human Security Implications Of Illegal Mining On Communities Surrounding Atiwa Forest, Ghana

While mining has been proven to contribute significantly to economic development of nations, including Ghana, illegal mining has been a serious problem affecting people. In recent times, illegal miners have been reported to operate in the Atiwa Forest, with concomitant human security implications. The present study, therefore, relied on the human security and resource curse theories as well as Maslow‘s theory of needs to qualitatively examine the human security implications of illegal mining activities in the Atiwa Forest. The study relied on interviews of 31 respondents involving illegal miners, traders, farmers, family heads, royals of three communities around the Atiwa Forest as well as members of Forestry the Commission, District Assembly, Divisional Police, Community Mining Taskforce, District Police, and Mineral Commission. The study revealed that the illegal mining activities have affected the main sources of water in the communities, as well as people‘s food security, personal security, and health security. In addition, the study found that conflicts occur among the miners, miners and regulatory bodies, and miners and the communities. It was also found that regulatory institutions employed prosecution of illegal miners, education, and collaborative forest management as means of fighting illegal mining in the study area, which are partly effective. The study also revealed that the people use a number of coping strategies to offset the impact of illegal mining activities on their lives. It is recommended that job creation in the study area, sensitization of people on the negative consequences of illegal mining, and law enforcement should be given serious consideration in order to see to the end of illegal mining in the Atiwa Forest.

Source: UCC
Human tracking in video surveillance using particle filter

Automated human tracking is a task that has a wide area of applications and has become more important nowadays. This research proposes to investigate the use of Bayesian inference technique specifically particle filter for tracking human in video surveillance. Kalman filter which has been the de facto technique for real world tracking performs poorly for most of the problems because, the real world applications are often non-linear and non Gaussian. The particle filter on the other hand is a tool for estimating the posterior probability density of state of a dynamic model that includes non-linear and non-Gaussian real world applications. The filter uses random sample to estimate the possible location of the tracked object in the next immediate frame even in the presence of occlusion. In order to initialize the tracking process, humans are first detected using a pretrained human detection model in video. The detector utilize model fusing method which is the combination of histogram of oriented gradient based human detector model and Haar feature based upper body detector to locate position of moving person in video. The technique performed excellently well when evaluated on the publicly available CAVIAR dataset and outperformed the Kalman flter algorithm

Source: UCC
Human tracking in video surveillance using particle filter

Automated human tracking is a task that has a wide area of applications and has become more important nowadays. This research proposes to investigate the use of Bayesian inference technique specifically particle filter for tracking human in video surveillance. Kalman filter which has been the de facto technique for real world tracking performs poorly for most of the problems because; the real world applications are often non-linear and non Gaussian. The particle filter on the other hand is a tool for estimating the posterior probability density of state of a dynamic model that includes non-linear and non-Gaussian real world applications. The filter uses random sample to estimate the possible location of the tracked object in the next immediate frame even in the presence of occlusion. In order to initialize the tracking process, humans are first detected using a pretrained human detection model in video. The detector utilize model fusing method which is the combination of histogram of oriented gradient based human detector model and Haar feature based upper body detector to locate position of moving person in video. The technique performed excellently well when evaluated on the publicly available CAVIAR dataset and outperformed the Kalman filter algorithm

Source: UCC
Humanised deontologism: Theory and praxis for contemporary moral philosophising

This work is committed to analysing two main divergent ethical theories, Kant’s Deontological Ethics and Utilitarianism, which have created a sharp division among moral philosophers since time of old. It is the hope of the researcher to find a meeting point for these two theories, canvassing the possibility of each complementing the other. The import is to synthesise the basic assumptions driving these theories to, firstly, bridge the sharp division and secondly, to make the theories as appealing and practicable as possible. By this we introduce what we call Humanised Deontologism, which would, in other words, be a deontological synthesis that appeals to real life situations as a result of a fusion of Kantian Deontology and Utilitarianism

Source: UCC
A hybrid cryptographic and digital watermarking technique for securing digital images based on a generated symmetric key

The high increase in the transmission of digital data over secured and unsecured communications channels poses a lot of security and privacy concerns to both the transmitter and the receiver. Many operations engaged today in urban and warfare, be they for construction, monitory of plants, high voltage lines, military, police, fire service, intelligence etc. engages the use of surveillance systems that transmit sensitive data to and fro the command centre to the remote areas and this data in transmission needs to be secured. In this paper, we proposed a hybrid cryptographic and digital watermarking technique for securing digital images based on a Generated Symmetric Key. The cryptographic encryption technique made use of both pixel displacement and pixel encryption in securing the images that are to be stored or transmitted across secured and unsecured communications. The digital watermarking technique was used to authenticate the image. The programming and implementation was done using MATLAB

Source: UCC
A hybrid cryptographic encryption technique for securing surveillance digital images in mobile urban situation awareness systems

With the increase in structural complexities in modern cities, many operations, be they military, police, fire service, intelligence, rescue, or other field operations, require localization services and online situation awareness to make them effective. The digital data collected from such systems are sensitive hence security concerns regarding the transmission of such digital data across secured and unsecured communication channels needs to be secured. In this paper, we proposed a hybrid cryptographic encryption technique for securing Surveillance digital images data in Mobile Urban Situation Awareness System using RSA public-key encryption cryptosystem and RGB pixel displacement. The implementation was done using MATLAB simulation software

Source: UCC
A hybrid quantum eraser scheme for characterization of free-space and fiber communication channels

We demonstrate a simple projective measurement based on the quantum eraser concept that can be used to characterize the disturbances of any communication channel. Quantum erasers are commonly implemented as spatially separated path interferometric schemes. Here we exploit the advantages of redefining the which-path information in terms of spatial modes, replacing physical paths with abstract paths of orbital angular momentum (OAM). Remarkably, vector modes (natural modes of free-space and fiber) have a non-separable feature of spin-orbit coupled states, equivalent by probing a step-index optical fiber channel with a vector mode, relevant to high-order spatial mode encoding of information for ultra-fast fiber communications

Source: UCC
A Hydro-Ethanolic Extract of Synedrella Nodiflora (L.) Gaertn Ameliorates Hyperalgesia and Allodynia in Vincristine-Induced Neuropathic Pain in Rats

Background : The hydro-ethanolic extract of Synedrella nodiflora (L.) Gaertn whole plant has demonstrated analgesic effects in acute pain models. The extract has also demonstrated anticonvulsant effects in murine models of experimental epilepsy. The present study illustrates an evaluation of the hydro-ethanolic extract of the plant for possible analgesic properties in hyperalgesia and allodynia associated with vincristine-induced neuropathy in rats. Method : Neuropathic pain was induced in Sprague-Dawley rats by injecting 100 μ g/kg of vincristine sulphate on alternative days for 6 days (days 0, 2, 4, 8, 10 and 12). Vincristine- induced cold allodynia, mechanical hyperalgesia and thermal hyperalgesia were measured pre-vincristine administration and on days 15, 17 and 19 post-vincristine administration. The rats were then treated with S. nodiflora extract (SNE) (100, 300 and 1000 mg/kg), pregabalin (10, 30 and 100 mg/kg) and distilled water as vehicle daily for 5 days and pain thresholds were measured on alternate days for 3 days. Results: SNE and pregabalin produced analgesic properties observed as increased paw withdrawal latencies to mechanical, tactile, cold water stimuli and thermal hyperalgesic tests during the 5 days of treatment.

Source: UCC
A hydro-ethanolic extract of Synedrella nodiﬂora (L.) Gaertn ameliorates hyperalgesia and allodynia in vincristine-induced neuropathic pain in rats

ackground: The hydro-ethanolic extract of Synedrella nodiflora (L.) Gaertn whole plant has demonstrated anal- gesic effects in acute pain models. The extract has also demonstrated anticonvulsant effects in murine models of experimental epilepsy. The present study illustrates an evaluation of the hydro-ethanolic extract of the plant for possible analgesic properties in hyperalgesia and allo- dynia associated with vincristine-induced neuropathy in rats. Method: Neuropathic pain was induced in Sprague-Daw- ley rats by injecting 100 μg/kg of vincristine sulphate on alternative days for 6 days (days 0, 2, 4, 8, 10 and 12). Vin- cristine-induced cold allodynia, mechanical hyperalgesia and thermal hyperalgesia were measured pre-vincristine administration and on days 15, 17 and 19 post-vincristine administration. The rats were then treated with S. nodi- flora extract (SNE) (100, 300 and 1000 mg/kg), pregabalin (10, 30 and 100 mg/kg) and distilled water as vehicle daily for 5 days and pain thresholds were measured on alternate days for 3 days. Results: SNE and pregabalin produced analgesic proper- ties observed as increased paw withdrawal latencies to mechanical, tactile, cold water stimuli and thermal hyper- algesic tests during the 5 days of treatment. Conclusions: The findings suggest that hydro-ethanolic extract of S. nodiflora possesses anti-hyperalgesic and anti-allodynic effects in vincristine-induced neuropathic pain in rats.

Source: UCC
Hydro-ethanolic leaf extract of Ziziphus abyssinica Hochst Ex A. Rich (Rhamnaceae) exhibits anti-nociceptive effects in murine models

Background: Despite substantial advances in pain research and treatment, millions of people continue to suffer from pain and this has been attributed mainly to the unavailability of effective and safer analgesics. The use of plants as medicines is still widespread and plants constitute a large source of novel phytocompounds that might become leads for the discovery of newer, effective and safer alternatives. Various parts of Ziziphus abyssinica have been used in folk medicine in several African countries as painkillers. However, there is no report on the possible anti-nociceptive effects of this plant especially the leaves, hence the need for this current study. Methods: The possible anti-nociceptive activity of hydro-ethanolic leaf extract of Ziziphus abyssinica (EthE) was assessed in rodents using chemical (acetic acid, formalin and glutamate), thermal (tail-immersion test) and mechanical/inflammatory (carrageenan) models of nociception. Results: EthE (30-300 mg/kg, p.o.) dose-dependently and significantly inhibited chemical-induced nociception with a maximum inhibition of 86.29 ± 2.27%, 76.34 ± 5.67%, 84.97 ± 5.35%, and 82.81 ± 5.97% respectively for acetic acid, formalin (phase 1), formalin (phase 2) and glutamate tests at its highest dose. EthE also dose-dependently and significantly increased reaction times in both tail-immersion and carrageenan-induced hypernociceptive tests. The activities of the extract in the various models were comparable with the effect of morphine hydrochloride and diclofenac sodium used as standard analgesic drugs. Conclusion: Oral administration of hydro-ethanolic leaf extract of Ziziphus abyssinica ameliorates nocifensive behaviours associated with chemical-, thermal- and mechanical/inflammatory - induced nociceptive pain.

Source: UCC
The hydrochemical characteristics of groundwater in the Tarkwa Mining Area, Ghana

A study has been carried out on the groundwater in the Tarkwa mining area to establish the hydrochemistry of groundwater in the community. The groundwater was found to vary considerably in terms of chemical and physical properties. Generally, the water was mildly acidic (pH 4.3 to 6.7), moderately mineralized and fresh. Chemical constituents are generally low. The order of relative abundance of major cations in the groundwater is Na > Ca > Mg > K while that of anions is HCO3 > Cl > SO4.The majority of groundwater clustered toward Ca–Mg–HCO3 with the remaining being Na-Cl and Na-HCO3 water types. Weathering and ion exchange are probably the main processes through which major ions enter the groundwater system

Source: UCC