ghanaopendata/ghanaian-research-english huggingface dataset:
Quercetin protects against testicular toxicity induced by chronic administration of therapeutic dose of quinine sulfate in rats

Background: Quinine, a rapidly acting blood schizonticide with a long history of use for the treatment of malaria, is gradually been implicated in reproductive toxicity. Methods: In this study, testicular and spermatotoxic effects of quinine sulfate (QS) following treatment with an oral dose of 10 mg/kg/day (normal therapeutic dose) for 8 weeks was investigated in male albino rats. Toxicity was evaluated by assessing antioxidant defense capacity and markers of oxidative stress and testicular dysfunction in the testes and epididymal sperm. The possible ameliorative effect of quercetin (QC), when co-administered with QS, was also assessed. Results: Administration of QS induced oxidative stress in rats. The activities of superoxide dismutase, catalase, and malondialdehyde (a marker of lipid peroxidation) increased (p<0.05) both in the testes and epididymal sperm following QS treatment when compared with saline-treated (control) rats. Ascorbic acid levels were significantly reduced, with an insignificant decrease in glutathione and testosterone levels in the QS-treated rats, when compared with control. The spermiogram decreased with increase in total sperm abnormalities in QS-treated rats and was associated with histopathological changes. Our results revealed that QC significantly ameliorated QS-induced testicular toxicity and oxidative stress. Conclusions: The testicular toxicity of QS is in part due to impairment of testicular antioxidant defense spermatogenesis and enhancement of lipid peroxidation. Also, the ability of QC to reverse the deleterious effects of QS on the testes and epididymis qualifies it as a potent chemo-protective agent against QS-induced reproductive toxicity

Source: UCC
The question of rhetorical agency in scientific communication: A case study

Though rhetorical scholars have argued that scientific inquiry does not lack human agency, our knowledge of how agency is enacted in scientific texts is blurred. Using abstracts from the American Journal of Bioethics, this paper argues and demonstrates how our understanding of rhetorical agency can be enhanced through the neglected theory of tagmemics. Intended as a heuristic, the paper argues that contributors to the American Journal of Bioethics are capable of constructing individual responsible agency that is in tandem with rhetorical choices they make within their community of consensus

Source: UCC
Quête identitaire au cœur de la bâtardise: le dilemme de Fama dans Les Soleils des Indépendances d’Ahmadou Kourouma

Des indépendances à ce jour, les pays africains sont toujours à la recherche de politiques de développement viables sans succès. Les régimes civils issus des élections multipartites au lendemain des indépendances politiques ont rapidement fait place à des régimes parti-uniques peu après. Ceux-ci ont à leur tour été successivement remplacés par des régimes militaires à caractère dictatorial. Par conséquent, la quête de l’identité perdue sous le joug colonial reste une marche interminable pour le continent noir. Tantôt c’est le capitalisme, tantôt c’est le socialisme, tantôt, c’est la démocratie-socialiste ou capitaliste, ou quelque chose d’autre. L’Afrique est-elle vraiment indépendante ? Comment s’identifie-t-elle au sein de la communauté des nations ? Peut-elle retourner dans son passé lointain révolu pour se redécouvrir ? Le devenir du continent noir est-il intrinsèquement lié au recouvrement d’un passé peu glorieux tel que revendiqué par Fama ? Telles devraient être les questions que se pose Kourouma à travers l’évolution de Fama, son protagoniste dans Les Soleils des Indépendances. Fama attire à la fois la pitié et la condamnation. Né prince, Fama assiste lamentablement au déclin du pouvoir aristocratique des Doumbouya dont il est le dernier descendant, le vrai prince héritier. Il est tracté entre deux mondes qui s’excluent mutuellement sous les soleils ‘des indépendances maléfiques’– l’aristocratie traditionnelle d’un côté, et la république moderne de l’autre. Imbu d’une insolence princière et d’une mégalomanie aveuglante, Fama engage une lutte acharnée contre la nouvelle ère qui lui ôte son identité princière sous les soleils des indépendances. Cette étude examine la nature désillusionnée et désorientée de ce personnage de Kourouma comme un reflet de l’image de l’Afrique postcoloniale en quête perpétuelle de ses repères identitaires pour sortir des bourbes de l’exploitation et de l’avilissement néocolonialistes contemporains. L’étude porte fondamentalement sur l’analyse de données textuelles recueillies du tout premier texte romanesque d’Ahmadou Kourouma qui se voudrait un diagnostic des indépendances africaines. Elle s’inspire d’une combinaison des approches d’analyse critique du discours et sociologique. Le but de cette étude est de formuler des réflexions critiques conduisant au développement socio-économique et humain durable en provocant de nouveaux débats sur les choix de politiques qui s’imposent pour le devenir de l’Afrique

Source: UCC
Quit intentions in the customs division of the Ghana Revenue Authority

This study sought to assess the extent of labour turnover in the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority and a cross sectional research design was adopted to help achieve the objectives of the study. A questionnaire was designed to collect the data for the study and after the data collection; a sample size of 161 was obtained for the study. From the outcome of the study showed that there is evidence of both internal and willingness to quit customs division of Ghana Revenue Authority. It was also realised that, a greater percentage of the female officers were more willing to quit the customs’ division of Ghana Revenue Authority than their male counterparts. The study recommended that the customs’ division of Ghana Revenue Authority identify and give attractive incentives to officers. Also, management style should not be authoritative, human resource development; working conditions should be improved through quality training and adequate tools for the performing of duties.

Source: UCC
Quitting the hotel job: empirical observation from the Eastern Region of Ghana

The voluntary quitting of a job, especially when it involves valued employees, has dire consequences for the affected organization and the industry as a whole. Consequently, identifying the factors that trigger quitting intentions should be the first step towards devising strategies to minimise employees’ attrition rate. The current study explored the rate of quitting and factors that determine or influence employee’s intention to quit hotel jobs in the Eastern Region of Ghana as well as the perceived consequences and strategies put in place by management to minimise the problem. Owing to the small numbers of hotels (37), quantitative survey used a census involving all, star-rated hotels in the study area. Afterwards, 310 hotel staff were selected through random sampling. Additionally, eight employees and nine key informants, including managers and proprietors were purposively sampled and interviewed. Quantitative data were analysed using chi-square tests, binary logistic regression and factor analysis, while qualitative data were recoded, processed and analysed thematically. Intention to quit was found to be high. Overall, 71% of the employees intended to quit. Unequal treatment, training, professional comitment of staff, lack significant role in employee intention to quit. Unmarried employees and those who had attained secondary and technical/vocational education had a higher propensity to quit. Employees in the human resource and food and beverage departments, those in the higher star-rated or large hotels were the most likely to quit. Strategic measures put in place included reward system and compensation packages. Frequent collaboration between the hotel sector and educational institutions is recommended to alleviate the threats of quitting jobs.

Source: UCC
Quoting and reporting across languages: A system-based and text-based typology

This paper reports on a cross-linguistic corpus-based investigation of linguistic strategies of quoting and reporting of speech and thought across six genetically unrelated languages (Arabic, English, Dagaare, Hindi, Spanish and Japanese). Specifically, the study draws on Michael Halliday’s concept of projection that covers the traditional categories of quoting and reporting as a type of logico semantic relation. The study also examines projection “trinocularly”, by viewing quoting and reporting from three viewpoints, namely their semantics, their lexicogrammatical realizations and the structural configuration they display. The use of projection as a unified domain of inquiry and the trinocular perspective ensures a systematic accounting of the generality and specificity of projection across the languages. Section 1 specifies our investigation, relating it to the traditional account of quoting and reporting. Section 2 describes our corpus data. Section 3 introduces the theoretical and descriptive categories used to describe verbal and mental projection as a type of logico-semantic relation, using English for illustration. Section 4 presents a crosslinguistic discussion of the data from the six languages. Finally, Section 5 compares and contrasts the results of this study, discusses the general and language-specific features of projection and concludes by commenting on how our approach to quoting and reporting extends previous approaches

Source: UCC
Rabbit production in selected urban areas of southern Ghana: status and implications for policy and research

A survey was conducted to elicit information on rabbit keeping in 26 urban areas of southern Ghana. The average age of the rabbit keepers was 44.3 years, and 95.5% of the keepers had formal education. Most of the producers got into rabbit keeping for money to meet urgent family needs, while household consumption was a major factor influencing the decision for rearing rabbits. Personal savings was the main source of income for the establishment of the rabbit enterprises. The major breeds of rabbits kept were the California White, New Zealand White and crossbreds of varied genetic variations. Backyard, small-scale and medium-scale commercial rabbit holdings were held by 18.2, 51.7 and 30.2% of the keepers respectively. The average rabbit population per farm was 77.8, with an average of 8.4 bucks, 21.6 does. Young rabbits formed 70.0% of the rabbit population. Owners of rabbitries usually cared for their animals as hired labour was expensive and often not available. High cost of feed was the most significant constraint to rabbit keeping, and mange was the most common disease affecting the rabbits. Marketing of rabbits was not organized, and this served as a disincentive to expanding the holdings. The rabbits were mostly sold either life or as fresh carcasses at the farm gate. To ensure a rapid growth of the rabbit industry, research should be undertaken to address the identified constraints to production while appropriate policies are put in place to enhance the growth of the industry

Source: UCC
Rabies mortality and morbidity associated with animal bites in Africa: A case for Integrated Rabies Diseases Surveillance, Prevention and Control - A Scoping review

Background: Rabies a neglected tropical disease, mostly affecting poor and vulnerable populations living in remote rural areas in developing countries. The disease continues to pose a significant public health a threat with an estimated 59,000 dog-transmitted human deaths, of which an estimated 21,476 human deaths occur in Africa each year. The global strategy has been set by the quartite World Health Organization (WHO), the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Global Alliance for Rabies Control (GARC), aiming for "zero human deaths associated with dog transmitted rabies by 2030". African countries, however, face several challenges and there are still gaps in controlling rabies. The aim of this study review is to determine rabies prevalence, mortality and associated risk factors in both human population and animal population and to evaluate the presence or absence of integrated one health surveillance response in African nations. Methods and analysis: We will conduct an electronic literature searches on PubMed, CINAHL, (Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature), Scopus, and Web of Science and other relevant databases. Reference lists from identified published articles or reviews and conference abstracts will also be searched for relevant articles. Published and unpublished literatures (grey) will be included in the search. The findings will be presented graphically in terms of mortality, morbidity, interventions for rabies control in Africa, research gaps identified, available research evidence, rabies surveillance, prevention and control and adverse events. Conclusion: This review will contribute to the coordination of interventions for surveillance, prevention, and control with African countries as country-based gaps and challenges and opportunities will be highlighted. In addition, the scaling up of post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP rabies will be evaluated in African countries and the projection to achieve the target of "zero deaths of human rabies by 2030" in Africa

Source: UCC
A radical-local approach to bringing cultural practices into mathematics teaching in Ghanaian primary schools, exemplified in the case of measurement

The main aim of this article is to put forward the idea of the general value of the radical-local approach to teaching and learning for the development of mathematics teaching in Ghana, both in relation to classroom teaching and for teacher training. To illustrate this idea, this article reports on a study that drew on aspects of the radical-local approach to teaching and learning (Hedegaard & Chaiklin, 2005), to teach the idea of measurement to primary four school children from an average rural school in Cape Coast Metropolis of Ghana. The first four teaching sessions with a primary four class are described. Each of the teaching sessions drew on the social and cultural practices of the children to help them form an idea of what measurement is and which physical properties could be measured from given objects. Qualitative analysis of the teaching sessions revealed that the teaching approach enabled children to change their notion of measurements as involving measuring tables, chairs and human beings and so on, to measuring attributes of these objects. It also helped the pupils appreciate that several attributes could be measured from a given object. The study supports the idea that a radical-local approach can be used to teach measurement meaningfully to pupils, and has potential to be used for mathematics teaching more generally. Implications for mathematics teacher education in Ghana and similar sub-Saharan African countries are discussed.

Source: UCC
Radiofrequency Exposure From Gsm Mobile Phone Handsets in Ghana: Exposure Assessment and Modelling With Exposure Parameters

ABSTRACT Ghana remains one of the countries in the world with high cellular communication subscription. The public is becoming more concerned about any potential Radiofrequency (RF) health hazards that may exist. However, very little studies have been conducted in Ghana on RF exposure from mobile phones. This work researched on the influencing factors that affect GSM mobile phone SAR. It concentrated on how distance of phone from the head, phone position, phone orientation and transmission channel affect the Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) of regulatory approved and unapproved Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) mobile phones. Even though the approved phone recorded statistically significant higher SAR values relative to the unapproved phone, its SAR values were more regular and predictable compared to the unapproved phone. SAR values were below the ICNIRP and FCC basic restrictions with the highest SAR being 25 % of the limit. SAR values of high earn phones agreed with that of the unapproved phone but rather lower than the approved phone. The study shows that, moving the phone just 1 cm from the head reduces the 10 g SAR of the approved phone by 53 % whiles interestingly increasing that of the unapproved phone by 71 %. A one-phase exponential model and an exponential decay model were derived to predict SAR as a function of phone distance from head. A SAR calculator application has been developed, providing mobile phone users with an alternative, inexpensive, and easy way to estimate their RF exposure. The work adds to base line data for regulators and government agencies to inform policy. It also complements relevant scientific knowledge expanding the data frontiers on mobile phone RF exposure.

Source: UCC
Radiological And Clinical Pattern Of Pleural Effusion In Ilorin.

Background: Pleural effusion (PE) is the disorders commonest manifestation of pleural disease and may herald pathologies from other parts and Sancho quoted incidence of of the body. Etiology varies with age and geographical location. Chest radiography is an essential component of early assessment though there are suggestions to apply ultrasonography also early in patient evaluation. This study aims to determine radiological and clinical pattern of pleural effusions based on clinical and radiological may provide clues to the etiology4, diagnosis of pleural effusion and to correlate occurs in a wide variety of clinical conditions this with etiology. and because it may evade clinical detection, Method: A retrospective analysis of 276 plain other diagnostic measures are often Chest X-rays (CXR) of patients diagnosed necessary4,5. These includes imaging clinically to have PE over a period of 6½ years modalities, pleural fluid analysis, pleural in the University of Teaching Hospital was biopsy and thoracoscpy2,3,4,5. Of the imaging conducted. techniques, plain CXR has become a Result: A bimodal age distribution involving universally accepted modality being cheap, the first and second decades was easily accessible and non-sophisticated. demonstrated. Etiological factors were Other modalities include thoracic identified in 95.6% of cases. Chronic ultrasound (ThUSS), chest CT scan, and inflammation and pyogenic effusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)2,3,5. accounted for 47.6%. Amongst children, adolescents and young adults, the The aim of this study is to determine the percentage rose to 62.0%. Heart failure was clinical characters of patients with pleural responsible for PE in 18.1% of all the cases effusion evaluated by plain chest radiograph and 63.3% of patients =50years. More than at the radiology department of University of half of PE occurred in the right hemithorax Ilorin Teaching Hospital, Nigeria and to (53.1%). Pyogenic and malignant effusion correlate this to the etiology. It is expected showed predilection for the right side (75.6% that this will reflect the pattern which exists and 58.3% respectively). Heart failure in a developing society. accounted for 57.1% of all patients with bilateral effusions. Conclusion: We found that chronic This retrospective study was conducted at inflammation and pyogenic effusion the radiology department of University of accounted for a greater proportion of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH). The etiological factors. Conventional CXR is still requests and reports of plain chest valuable as a first line investigative modality

Source: UCC
Radiological Impact Assessment in Underground Goldmine; Measurements, Statistical Analysis And Radiation Protection Viewpoint

Measurements of indoor radon concentrations, environmental factors, soil and rock samples were collected monthly over a period of one year in 10 different levels in an underground goldmine to determine the radiological impact on workers. The detectors were installed in batches within four quarters. The measurements were carried out using LR115 solid state nuclear track detectors. Statistical models were applied in the prediction and analysis of the radon concentration at various depths. The results show that the activity concentration of radon in the underground mine ranges from a minimum of 2 Bqm-3 to a maximum of 284 Bqm-3 with a mean value of 58.51 Bqm-3.The highest radon concentration was observed in the second quarter when the season was warm and the lowest radon concentration was observed in the first quarter when the season was colder. The exposure rate, annual effective dose and excess lung cancer risk were below the acceptable limit. A positive relationship was observed between dry bulb temperature, relative humidity and radon concentration while a negative relationship was observed between barometric pressure, air quantity, wet bulb temperature, wet kata temperature and radon concentration. Statistical analysis of the results indicate that all the relationships were insignificant. Principal component analysis deduced three main factors that influences the indoor radon concentration of which wet bulb temperature was statistically significant. The hazard indices, exposure rate, excess lung cancer risk and annual effective dose from the rock and soil samples possess no radiological hazard if used for building materials. Even though radon concentration increases with increased depth, the assumption of the time series model confirmed a reduced radon concentration with adequate ventilation.

Source: UCC
The radon health hazards education in Ghana

Radiation and radioactive isotopes constitute a natural part of our environment. High concentrations of these radioactive isotopes in the environment can be a threat to our health. The largest fraction of the natural radiation we receive comes from the radioactive gas radon, which disintegrates by emitting alpha particles. Although it cannot be detected by human senses, radon and its radioactive by-products are a health concern because they can cause lung cancer when inhaled over many years. Radon is present everywhere in the rock, soil, water and air because of the ubiquitous nature of its parent radioactive element uranium in geological terrain. In this paper, we highlight the need for measurement of radon in the environment, and the possible health hazards due to radon gas, especially from building materials and water in Ghana. We present preliminary results from our recent work and suggest remedial measures to avoid high intake of radon. In the preliminary results, using the BEIR III model to calculate the distribution of lung cancer cases per year in Dome in 2009 between the different age groups from radon exposure of 2.03 WLM per year gave a total of 5 cases per year

Source: UCC
Rainfall variability over Ghana: Model versus rain gauge observation

This paper used the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) Regional Climate Model, Version 3 (RegCM3) and rain gauge data selected from the Ghana Meteorological Agency (GMet) from 1990 to 2008 to investigate the extent and nature of variability in the annual rainfall and pattern of the raining seasons in Ghana. In the study, six meteorological stations selected from three rainfall distribution zones according to the divisions of the GMet were used to study the pattern of rainfall and its departure from the normal trend. The study also assessed the performance of the RegCM3 simulation with reference to the observed gauge data. Results confirmed the unimodal nature of the rainfall annual cycle over the northern belt and bi-modal rainfall nature over the middle and southern belts of Ghana. Negative departures of rainfall implying consistent downward trend were observed at all the stations. Our analysis showed that RegCM3 captured the average rainfall over Ghana but demonstrated an underestimation as compared to the observed gauge data. The model also had difficulty stimulating the departures accurately in direction and in magnitude in all the stations except for Accra where RegCM3 simulated the right direction of the departures

Source: UCC