ghanaopendata/ghanaian-research-english huggingface dataset:
Reading Strategies Among Junior High School Students: A Case Study at Yamoransa

Reading strategies play a crucial role in enhancing pupils' reading comprehension performance in the learning of the English Language (EL). However, the development and application of effective reading strategies have been challenging for school pupils, particularly in Yamoransa. The main objective of this study was to explore the reading strategies employed by Junior High School (JHS) pupils in Yamoransa, with the aim of gaining a deeper understanding of the complexities involved in the teaching and learning of reading comprehension, as well as the experiences of both pupils and teachers in the school setting. A qualitative case study approach was adopted for this research, underpinned by Vygotsky's (1978) theory of Constructivism. Data were gathered from thirty-three (33) participants through in-depth interviews and observational techniques. The study identified questioning, reading aloud, reading tests, and modeling as key reading strategies used to address reading difficulties in English Language comprehension. The findings of this study provide valuable insights for policymakers, teachers, parents, and stakeholders at Yamoransa and beyond about the significance of implementing effective reading strategies to enhance EL reading comprehension and improve pupils’ academic performance. Based on the results, the study recommends reducing class sizes, improving the school environment, and ensuring that adequate reading materials are made available by the Mfantsiman Municipal Directorate of Education. It was also found that large class sizes, an unconducive school environment, insufficient reading materials, and excessive playtime among pupils contributed to poor reading performance and ineffective reading strategies.

Source: UCC
Real exchange rate and economic growth in Ghana

This study sought to determine the effect of real effective exchange rate on economic growth in Ghana using annual data for the period 1984 to 2014. The study employed the Auto Regressive Distributed Lag Estimation technique as well as the Bounds Testing approach to cointegration to establish a long run relationship between Economic Growth and Real Effective Exchange Rate in Ghana. The result suggests that real exchange rate, capital stock, and labour force exert a positive and statistically significant effect on economic growth both in the long-run and short-run. The study recommended that there is the need to ensure macroeconomic stability by ensuring exchange rate stability; productive government expenditure as well as ensuring the growth of the capital stock.

Source: UCC
Real Time PCR Assay in differentiating Entamoeba histolytica and Entamoeba dispar infections in patients fecal samples attending St Camille hospital in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

Amoebiasis is a parasitic infection caused by Entamoeba histolytica. The diagnosis of amoebic infections, based on microscopic stool examination does not differentiate between E. histolytica and E. dispar, the commensal species because these two species are morphologically indistinguishable. The re-description of these species in 1993 and the exclusive pathogenicity recognized to E. histolytica have stimulated reassessment of the epidemiology of amebiasis using molecular techniques. This study aimed to diagnose and differentiate E. histolytica and E. dispar in feces for a first time in Burkina Faso. Fecal samples from 413 patients suffering from gastrointestinal disorders, attending the Saint Camille Hospital in Ouagadougou were collected and processed by direct microscopic examination for the presence of Entamoeba species and other intestinal parasites. A real-time PCR was then developed and assessed for the detection and the differentiation of E. histolytica and E. dispar. Based on single fecal sample examination, the overall prevalence of E. histolytica/E. dispar was 22.5 % (93/413) with 84.9 % (79/93) in infected adults and 15.1 % (14/93) in children under 5 years. Fourteen (14) samples of 93 (15.05 %) E. histolytica/E. dispar microscopy positive samples were PCR positive. E. dispar was the most common, with a prevalence of 71.4 % (10/14) against 21.4 % (3/14) for E. histolytica. One case of mixed infection was recorded. We showed for the first time in Burkina Faso, that real-time PCR is an excellent tool in the re-definition of the epidemiology of E. histolytica according to WHO recommendation and also for proper management of this tropical neglected disease.

Source: UCC
Recent trends in the daily rainfall regime in Southern West Africa

Extreme climate events, either being linked to dry spells or extreme precipitation, are of major concern in Africa, a region in which the economy and population are highly vulnerable to climate hazards. However, recent trends in climate events are not often documented in this poorly surveyed continent. This study makes use of a large set of daily rain gauge data covering Southern West Africa (extending from 10◦ W to 10◦ E and from 4◦ N to 12◦ N) from 1950 to 2014. The evolution of the number and the intensity of daily rainfall events, especially the most extremes, were analyzed at the annual and seasonal scales. During the first rainy season (April–July), mean annual rainfall is observed to have a minor trend due to less frequent ut more intense rainfall mainly along the coast of Southern West Africa (SWA) over the last two decades. The north–south seasonal changes exhibit an increase in mean annual rainfall over the last decade during the second rainy season (September–November) linked by both an increase in the frequency of occurrence of rainy days as well as an increase in the mean intensity and extreme events over the last decade. The study also provides evidence of a disparity that exists between the west and east of SWA, with the east recording a stronger increase in the mean intensity of wet days and extreme rainfall during the second rainy season (September–November)

Source: UCC
Recent trends in the daily rainfall regime in Southern West Africa

Extreme climate events, either eing linked to dry spells or extreme precipitation, are of major concern in Africa, a region in which the economy and population are highly vulnerable to climate hazards. However, recent trends in climate events are not often documented in this poorly surveyed continent. This study makes use of a large set of daily rain gauge data covering Southern West Africa (extending from 10◦ W to 10◦ E and from 4◦ N to 12◦ N) from 1950 to 2014. The evolution of the number and the intensity of daily rainfall events, especially the most extremes, were analyzed at the annual and seasonal scales. During the first rainy season (April–July), mean annual rainfall is observed to have a minor trend due to less frequent ut more intense rainfall mainly along the coast of Southern West Africa (SWA) over the last two decades. The north–south seasonal changes exhibit an increase in mean annual rainfall over the last decade during the second rainy season (September–November) linked by both an increase in the frequency of occurrence of rainy days as well as an increase in the mean intensity and extreme events over the last decade. The study also provides evidence of a disparity that exists between the west and east of SWA, with the east recording a stronger increase in the mean intensity of wet days and extreme rainfall during the second rainy season (September–November)

Source: UCC
Receptive Learning Styles of Introverts, Ambiverts and Extroverts in Senior High Schools in Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis

Learning to relate with people in their own style is important in helping to understand why they react the way they do. The purpose of this study was to determine the differences in the receptive learning styles of introverts, ambiverts and extroverts in Senior High Schools (SHS) in the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis. The study also sought to find out the influence of gender on the receptive learning styles of introverts, ambiverts and extroverts. Three hundred respondents were sampled for the study using stratified and simple random sampling methods. The research instrument used was a questionnaire designed by the researchers with a overall reliability analysis of 0.79 using the Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient. The study revealed that there were no significant differences in the visual/verbal, visual/non-verbal and tactile/kinesthetic learning styles of introverts, ambiverts and extroverts. However, there were significant differences between males and females in the auditory/verbal learning style with females showing more usage of the learning style. Based on the findings, it was recommended that teachers should employ a variety of teaching methods to help students with various learning styles to achieve better in the classroom. It was also recommended that school counsellors and teachers offer effective guidance in the schools on how to match temperament to the appropriate academic behaviours so as to enhance students’ performance. Again, curriculum planners and educators should take note that many learners in the senior high schools are visual/verbal and visual/non-verbal learners as such they should consider drawing more programmes that allow students to study alone, use pictures and diagrams to understand complex ideas, watch and listen to programmes on a computer or television and to learn new information by reading about it in a text book.

Source: UCC
Receptor and Channel Heteromers as Pain Targets

Recent discoveries indicate that many G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) and channels involved in pain modulation are able to form receptor heteromers. Receptor and channel heteromers often display distinct signaling characteristics, pharmacological properties and physiological function in comparison to monomer/homomer receptor or ion channel counterparts. It may be possible to capitalize on such unique properties to augment therapeutic efficacy while minimizing side effects. For example, drugs specifically targeting heteromers may have greater tissue specificity and analgesic efficacy. This review will focus on current progress in our understanding of roles of heteromeric GPCRs and channels in pain pathways as well as strategies for controlling pain pathways via targeting heteromeric receptors and channels. This approach may be instrumental in the discovery of novel classes of drugs and expand our repertoire of targets for pain pharmacotherapy.

Source: UCC
Reciprocal Determinism between Students’ Mathematics Self-Concept and Achievement in an African Context

The study tests the theoretical and methodological models of the direct feedback loop in which mathematics self-concept and achievement are specified as both causes and effects of each other using the TIMSS–2011 cross-sectional data set. The participants were students in grades 8–9 from five African countries participating in TIMSS–2011 (N=38,806, MAge =15.42, SD =1.37). Using nonrecursive structural equation models, the author examined the reciprocal-effects model indicating that achievement has an effect on self-concept (skill-development model) and that mathematics self-concept has an effect on achievement (self-enhancement model). There was support for the skill-development, self-enhancement as well as direct feedback loop models. Discussion centres on the theoretical, methodological, and practical implications of the results.

Source: UCC
Recit Et Realisme Dans En A7tendant Le Vote Des Betes Sauvagesde Kourouma Et Germinal De Zola

The works of Kourouma and Zola have been studied by many scholars, in diverse scholarly works with greater possibility of enriching the areas of study on the works. Thus, the approach to this study, 'Recit et Realisme dans En attendant Ie vote des biUes sauvages de Kourouma et Germinal de Zola'. is but not, from an exclusively narratological perspective. The study examines the manifest links between narrative and the concept of realism that is an aesthetic effort to bridge the gap between fiction (imagination) and reality (truth/fact). Based on a critical examination of textual data collected mainly from Zola's Germinal and Kourouma's En attendant Ie vote des betes sauvages, the study establishes the fact that the two novelists, through a harmonious combination of rhetorical and narratological tools, reproduce historical events without producing history textbooks. The aesthetic artistry of the two novelists is clearly demonstrated in their successful harmonization of narrative fiction and fiction-based historical events in their texts. The study tries not only to unearth but also to elucidate the rhetorical and narratological constructs and their various components that the texts are made of and shed light on the correlation between them as a harmonious textual architecture geared toward realism. In other words, it determines the structure of the works and the stories, thus, capturing the full import of the titles and the relationship between the narrative novelties of Zola and Kourouma. The study affirms the position that realism coexists with fiction in the two texts. It is the aesthetic ingredient that makes the distinction between a narrative text founded on historic events and a history textbook.

Source: UCC
Reclaiming sodium affected soil: the potential of organic amendments

A study was conducted to evaluate the potential of organic amendments in managing sodic soils for crop production. In doing this, a pot experiment was conducted in which saw dust biochar (SDB), palm fiber biochar (PFB), poultry manure biochar (PMB) and poultry manure (PM) were applied to sodic soil sampled from an industrial area in Cape Coast, Ghana. Gypsum amendment and a control were included for the purpose of comparing results. All amendments were applied at the rate of 4.78 t ha-1 which was the full gypsum requirement rate for the soil. Amended soils were incubated and weekly sampled for 6-weeks (week 3 to 8) for laboratory analysis. Periodic watering was done to keep soils moisture at field capacity. From the results, organic based amendments marginally reduced soil pH and electrical conductivity (EC). Same amendments significantly (P = 0.05) increased soil Ca+2 and Mg+2, with SDB registering the highest increase. The increases in the levels of Na+ and K+ were marginal and statistically insignificant (P = 0.05). PFB recorded the highest cation exchange capacity (CEC) at week 8 and SDB and PFB reduced soil sodicity below the minimum threshold of exchangeable sodium percentage (ESP) 15. All organic based amendments recorded marginal increase in soil organic carbon (OC) but SDB recorded the highest value for OC at week 8. PMB released the highest amount of available P, with peak availability observed in week 6 Insignificant (P = 0.05) increases were also observed for soil NH4+-N and NO3-N. SDB and PFB recorded 90% and 80 maize seed germination and also, 10.1 t ha-1 and 8.7 t ha-1 dry matter yields respectively. No maize seed however germinated in the control and all other amendment

Source: UCC
Reclassification of Ghana’s Agro-Ecological Zones

Agro-ecological zones (AEZs) are essential for guiding agricultural planning and economic investments. In Ghana, climate change and evolving land use patterns have significantly altered key agro-climatic parameters such as mean annual rainfall (MAR), length of growing period (LGP), and land use and land cover (LULC) characteristics. This study analyzed long-term agro-climatic datasets (1991–2020) and LULC maps (2001, 2010, 2019, and 2021) using standardization, trend analysis, correlation, ANOVA, and Geographic Information System (GIS) tools. Key findings revealed significant reductions in LGP thresholds (P < 0.05) across most zones except the Sudan Savanna AEZ. MAR trends varied, with notable decreases in the Tropical Humid, Deciduous Forest, and Transitional AEZs, while the Coastal Savanna AEZ experienced a slight increase. Intra-zonal variations deviated from old FAO AEZs, as shown by anomalies at stations like Saltpond, Yendi, and Sewhi Bekwai. LULC analysis showed substantial forest (-22%) and agricultural land (-27%) losses, alongside increases in built-up areas (+31%), barren land (+27%), and rangeland (+7%). A GIS-based Multi-Criteria Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) reclassified AEZs into six zones (A–F), revealing significant spatial shifts. Notable changes included the southward expansion of the SSAEZ into the Guinea Savanna AEZ, a southwest shift in THAEZ and DFAEZ, and cross-migrations in CSAEZ and GSAEZ boundaries. These findings highlight the challenges posed by AEZ changes to crop suitability, land productivity, and agro-economic investments in Ghana’s agrarian economy. Regular decadal AEZ revisions using GIS and remote sensing are recommended to support sustainable agricultural planning and resource management.

Source: UCC
Reconstituting the Self: of Names, Discourses and Agency in Amma Darko’s Beyond the Horizon

What “Mara” signifies and how this is constitutive of the quest for a conscious but problematic postcolonial transnational subjectivity has rarely reverberated in the burgeoning critical commentary on Amma Darko’ Beyond the Horizon. This paper explores how ‘Mara’ functions in Beyond the Horizon as a name and concept that summons a specific biblical discourse that foregrounds female migratory subjectivity, vulnerability, dispossession and redemption, and a Fanti concept of a beleaguered and ethical subjectivity that emerges from complicity, radical decision and agency. The paper demonstrates that these discourses are pertinent in determining how Mara reconstitutes her subjectivity at the margins of Empire. The paper contributes to our nderstanding of how literary names designate and conceptualise experience, function as archetypal and intertextual coda that gesture, to borrow Judith Butler’ words for our purposes, to “a world beyond themselves [and] their boundaries,” and therefore have rhetorical and thematic force. How Mara negotiates the problematic of capture is therefore crucial to Darko’ narrative of awakening

Source: UCC
Records management practices of administrative staff at the western regional office of the Ghana education service

This study examined the records management practices of administrative staff at the Western Regional office of the Ghana Education Service. Among other things, it sought information on the availability, maintenance and utilization of records. The descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. The site and the participants were selected through the purposive sampling technique. The study involved a sample of 16 participants which comprised 5 administrators, 2 secretaries, 8 human resource persons and a clerk. Data were gathered through the use of interviews and observation. Findings from the study show that, almost all the respondents did not receive any form of training before assumption of duty, neither had they received any form of on the job training. This is really affecting their work. Based on the findings, the study recommends among others that, the GES should provide adequate training for any employee posted to assume any administrative duties, and existing staff must be given in-service training periodically. There must be a genuine development of a good record keeping system with regards to generation and maintenance of records of each department. Record keeping facilities must be provided. These facilities include files, cupboards, cabinets, shelves and computer sets. Again GES should equip the office with logistics for records storage

Source: UCC
Recruitment and placement in Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS)

Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) is a state agency responsible for the collection of taxes in Ghana. The role of CEPS is important because it collects about 55 percent of national revenue (Anipa, 1997: 11) but who gets recruited into CEPS has been questioned as there are several accusations by the general public about the fact that recruitment into CEPS has been shrouded in secrecy. Officers have also often been heard complaining that placements are not fair enough. Based upon these, the study sought to investigate the recruitment and placement in CEPS. Specifically, the study sought to investigate the recruitment process in CEPS; identify the methods of screening applicants; investigate the extent of transparency of new officers and investigate the perception of officers regarding recruitment and placement. The study covered 120 CEPS officers selected from the Head Office (Accra), Tema and Sunyani Collections. It relied on both primary and secondary sources of information using questionnaires and interviews as the major data collection instruments. The study revealed that CEPS kept a regular rotation of officers with most officers spending between one and four years at each duty station, but that the process was not transparently done. Also the process of CEPS recruitment was transparent; that about 25 percent of officers are considering leaving CEPS due to their dissatisfaction over placement and transfers. The study therefore recommends that vigorous public and internal assessment of placements and transfers be undertaken to address the challenges faced by officers.

Source: UCC
Recruitment and retention of academic staff in Ghana: A case study of Tamale Polytechnic

The purpose of this study is to find out the process of recruitment of teaching staff and the factors that militate against the recruitment and retention of this category of staff in Tamale Polytechnic. The research design considered most appropriate for this study is the descriptive design. This is because it gives an opportunity to the researcher to get the opinion of the population concerning some issues of interest and relevance to the study. A sample size of 28 was used from a total population of 140 HND teaching staff of Tamale Polytechnic for the 2008/2009 academic year. The research instrument used to collect data was a set of questionnaires developed by the researcher. Both closed-ended and open-ended items were included to add up to 37 items and under sub-headings. The responses of the 28 respondents were coded into the SPSS computer programme and analysed under its four sections tables of frequencies and percentages were used to describe, illustrate and explain findings. Key findings included the fact that the HND teaching staff population was predominantly male. Also, only 11 out of the 28 respondents have a second degree. Nearly 80% of the respondents were non-resident staff and they saw the type of accommodation they live in as not suitable. Respondents were not happy with their salary levels, welfare services and allowances. Some suggestions and recommendations on the basis of the findings included the fact that the polytechnic management ensured that the recruitment procedure was enhanced.

Source: UCC