ghanaopendata/ghanaian-research-english huggingface dataset:
The Use of Caffeine Citrate in the Management of Neonatal Apnea in Low‐ and Middle‐Income Countries: A Rapid Systematic Review.

Background and Aims: Caffeine citrate is an example of a methylxanthine approved for managing apnea of prematurity (AOP). However, there is limited evidence of its use in low‐ and middle‐income countries (LMICs). This rapid systematic review aims to appraise the literature on using caffeine citrate in managing neonatal apnea in LMICs. Methods: A comprehensive search was conducted on literature reporting the treatment of AOP in LMICs. The search was based on a population, intervention, comparison, and outcome format using medical subject heading terms. The PRISMA and PRISMA extension for scoping reviews guidelines were meticulously followed. PubMed, Science Direct, and Scopus were among the bibliographic databases searched. Initially, 2638 articles were identified based on the keywords used. However, after eliminating duplicates and implementing advanced options (only full‐text, language, and year), the articles were further screened by abstract and title, ensuring a rigorous selection process. Results: The evaluation of 10 studies involving 1010 preterm infants provided compelling evidence. Our findings demonstrated that caffeine citrate, compared to aminophylline, had fewer adverse effects. The adverse effects, including feeding intolerance, tachycardia, central nervous system derailment, and hyperglycemia, were significantly reduced with caffeine citrate. Furthermore, data from the included studies revealed that caffeine citrate had a lower risk of recurrent apnea and was less likely to fall out of the recommended therapeutic range than aminophylline. These results unequivocally establish caffeine citrate's safety, efficacy, and cost‐effectiveness in treating prematurity apnea in LMICs, providing a reliable and beneficial intervention for neonatal care in these regions. Conclusion: Caffeine may be a preferred option in managing AOP in LMICs. However, high drug prices and lack of availability of caffeine may be factors limiting its use in these settings.

Source: UG
The use of non-prescription medicine versus self-assessed health: evidence from Malawi

Abstract Background The use of medicine is an important part of any health care process and the improvement of health status of any population. While some medicines are legitimately prescribed by practitioners, others take drugs not prescribed by practitioners when they suffer from illness or injuries. The effect of such actions on the health of individuals cannot be overlooked. Even though majority of health policies in developing countries have focused on chronic diseases and the functioning of health systems, abuse of drugs or medicines is a serious population health problem that deserves equal attention. The objectives of the current study are to examine the social and economic dimensions of the use of non-prescription medicines and to determine the effect it has on self-assessed health of individuals. Methods The study employs data from the second Integrated Household Survey of Malawi with a sample of 2506 individuals who reported an incidence of illness or injury over the past two weeks before the survey. Regression analysis is conducted at two levels, first is a probit model to identify socio-economic factors that influence the use of non-prescription medicine. The second step uses an ordered probit to model the effect of the use of non-prescription medicines on self-assessed health of individuals. Results Results from the probit model show that availability of a health facility in the community negatively affects the use of non-prescription medicines. Age of the individual and the total household health expenditure relate to higher use of non-prescription medicine. Results from the ordered probit model shows that individuals who used non-prescription medicines were likely to report lower categories of self-assessed health. Conclusions While policy makers need to engage in public campaign to educate the population on the health risks posed by the use of non-prescription medicines, attention also has to be paid to the social and economic characteristics of the population. Efforts to provide health facilities in communities where they do not exist and improve existing ones will be a crucial step in reducing the use of non-prescription medicines.

Source: UG
The Wave of Military Coup D’état in West Africa: Lessons and Its Implications in the Sub-Region.

Military coup was a common phenomenon after decolonization of Africa. Recounting recent happenings within the political space in West Africa, military coup has become an all too familiar subject of scholarly scrutiny, and there seems to suggest that there is a return of military coups in the sub-region. The military in Africa, and particularly in West Africa have had common reasons for coups, and the destabilizing factors have predominantly been security crises, poor economic performance, poverty, autocratic regimes, ethnic politics, detentions and convictions without trial, and corruption among others. From 2020 to 2022 only, there have been six coup d’états in Africa of which four were in West Africa, with the most recent happening in Burkina Faso on January 24, 2022. This research therefore examined the political and economic implications of military coups in the sub-region and interventions that can be put in place to end them. The study used a qualitative research methodology to collect and examine data. Both primary and secondary data sources were used, and a purposive sampling technique was used in the selection of participants. The study found that military coups weaken ECOWAS and promote unconstitutionalism and tyranny. The study further revealed that the recent coups have contributed to slow economic growth, rise in prices of essential commodities, loss of human resources and increase in refugees across the sub region. The study recommends that political leaders across West Africa should respect regional, sub-regional and national protocols, should protect human rights of their citizens and should prioritize their national security.

Source: UG
Theatre of Intentionality: Theorizing the Place of Dramatic Intentionality in the Theatre Arts

From studies on the workings of the human consciousness, based on psychoanalytical, phenomenological and existential analyses, conclusions have been drawn that consciousness is always consciousness of something. The argument is simply that consciousness is not just a dormant awareness of ideas or phenomena; it is always directed/prompted at taking action(s) or counter action(s). The prompt for actions or counter actions in consciousness is what Sartre identified as the intentionality of consciousness. In actual fact, Sartre argues that consciousness is intentionality. Appropriating this position, therefore, I have continued to argue that every dramatic art is an act of consciousness, meaning that, every dramatic art is based on certain intentionality of the artist, either as a playwright, play director, actor/actress, light/sound technician, make-up, costumer or theatre critic. There is always an intentionality, the consciousness prompt, behind our actions as theatre practitioners. Consequently, this paper lays bare the theoretical framework christened ‘dialectical text consciousness’ for the argument that every dramatic art is essentially an act that is based on certain intentionality of consciousness. And, it is on the strength of the argument of the paper, an argument which actually developed from my PhD thesis, that I have proposed what is called a “Theatre of Intentionality” in the title of the paper.

Source: UG
Theatre, african cultural heritage recovery and tourism

Cultural heritage is an aspect of study that falls under the broad definition of culture itself. Heritage constitutes the core elements that a people have embarked in their culture which is distinctively unique. The study of the cultural heritage of a given people is crucial for the understanding of identity, values, beliefs, political, anthropological and socio cultural foundations of a people and what they uphold as the basis and essence of their livelihood. Theatre (Drama) is the representation of a people’s way of life, and a form of communication that reflects the everyday lifestyle and essence of life from stage to an audience. In fact, it is the impersonation of life itself, enhanced through body extensions such as costumes, make up, dialogue and sound to tell a story. An exploration into how theatre could be applied to the enhancement of a people’s cultural heritage. How theatre could be used to recover almost the extinct cultural practices and how it could be used as a mechanism to boost the economy has not been fully explored. This paper will therefore focus on how theatre could be applied in the recovery and promotion of a people’s cultural Heritage, and also to enhance community-based tourism.

Source: UG
Theistic humanism and a critique of Wiredu’s notion of supernaturalism

In decrying the evils of supernaturalism, African philosopher Kwasi Wiredu (1931–) proposes humanism, by making concern for human well-being the basis for morality. However, the presentation of humanism as a simple replacement for supernaturalism is objectionable. Wiredu’s notion of supernaturalism is too narrow since it is only a variant of supernaturalism. His reference to humanism is too broad since humanism is an umbrella of very conflicting worldviews, such as that between secular and theistic humanism. Although Wiredu does not specify which variant of humanism he means, and although he acknowledges that the Akan (the author’s tribe in West Africa) believes in a Supreme Being, his general ontology shows that he is closer to the secular than the theistic variant. This article explores the ideological extensions of the two and argues that theistic humanism provides the compatibility needed for being religious and at the same time basing morality on humanistic/naturalistic concerns. In doing so, it distinguishes super naturalism per se from its ethical and cosmological variants. As a corrective to Wiredu, this article blames these two variants of supernaturalism, rather than supernaturalism per se, for the evils that Wiredu adduces. The conclusion is that in theistic humanism, humanism escapes the dangers of ethical and cosmological supernaturalism without necessarily adopting the anti-naturalist connotations currently popular with modern secular humanism.

Source: UG
Theistic humanism and a critique of Wiredu's notion of supernaturalism

In decrying the evils of supernaturalism, African philosopher Kwasi Wiredu (1931–) proposes humanism, by making concern for human well-being the basis for morality. However, the presentation of humanism as a simple replacement of supernaturalism is objectionable. Wiredu’s notion of supernaturalism is too narrow, since it is only a variant of supernaturalism. His reference to humanism is too broad, since humanism is an umbrella of very conflicting worldviews, such as that between secular and theistic humanism. Although Wiredu does not specify which variant of humanism he means, and although he acknowledges that the Akan (the author’s tribe in West Africa) believe in a Supreme Being, his general ontology shows that he is closer to the secular than the theistic variant. This article explores the ideological extensions of the two and argues that theistic humanism provides the compatibility needed for being religious and at the same time basing morality on humanistic/naturalistic concerns. In doing so, it distinguishes supernaturalism per se from its ethical and cosmological variants. As a corrective to Wiredu, this article blames these two variants of supernaturalism, rather than supernaturalism per se, for the evils that Wiredu adduces. The conclusion is that in theistic humanism, humanism escapes the dangers of ethical and cosmological supernaturalism without necessarily adopting the antisupernaturalist connotations currently popular with modern secular humanism.

Source: UG
Theobromine toxicity and remediation of cocoa by-products: An overview

Cocoa-producing and processing countries generate huge quantities of cocoa by-products that have potential as livestock feed. Theobromine, a ubiquitous methylxanthine in the cocoa plant, imposes limitations on the use the by-products by exerting detrimental effects on animals at high dietary concentrations. This has necessitated studies on the development of appropriate detheobromination methods. A measure of success has been achieved using liot water extraction, alkali treatment or microbial treatment. This mini-review discusses progress made in the development of appropriate physicochemical and biological remediation procedures for cocoa waste products. © 2013 Asian Network for Scientific Information.

Source: UG
Theobromine-degrading potential of yeast strain isolated from tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) fruit

At high dietary concentrations of cocoa (Theobroma cacao) pod husk, theobromine exerts deleterious effects on animals, thereby limiting the utilization of the husk as animal feed. The development of simple and efficient procedures for the elimination of the methylxanthine from the husk would be of tremendous benefit to both the cocoa and animal production sectors. Investigations aimed at sourcing for biological agents suitable for the detheobromination of cocoa pod husk resulted in the isolation of a yeast strain from tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) fruit. The isolate was biochemically, physiologically and morphologically characterized and identified as Candida krusei. The dependence of its growth on pH, carbon and nitrogen sources was studied. Optimal pH was found to be 5.5. Growth was most vigorous when glucose was used as a source of carbon. Isocratic reversed-phase HPLC using 0.01 M KH2P04: methanol (88:12; v/v) with UV detection was performed to identify theobromine metabolites. Demethylation at position 3 appears to be a major catabolic route for theobromine in the yeast isolate. The isolate holds promise as a tool for the biodetheobromination of cocoa pod husk. Further investigation into its ability to completely utilize theobromine is a subject of ongoing research in our group. © 2012 Academic Journals Inc.

Source: UG
Theorising the Concept of Development Education from African Centred Perspective

It has been said that, the link between ‘development’ and ‘education’ is often assumed and not theorised. Recent advances in Black African Studies have embraced an African centred conceptual framework in the study of Africana life, history, culture and life in Africa generally. The use of such conceptual framework has been employed and even expanded by scholars in disciplines such as Africana Studies, psychology, and literature. However, there has not been much done on an African centred development education, grounded in an African centred conceptual framework. It is generally believed that, a sound development framework for any country can derive its roots from a comprehensive context-driven policy based on grounded theory. A comprehensive African centred education policy must come from and driven by the African people and meet their peculiar context. Five important questions arise: Does the underdevelopment in Africa stem from education policies that are not African-centred (neither come from the people, nor reflect their context)? If Africa’s education policies are context driven and centred on the African people, why the failure of the continent in developing a sustainable framework of development for its people? What African centred principles, concepts and ideas are used by African instructors in African educational institutions? What practices do these instructors use to implement these principles, concepts and ideas on the ground? What reasons are behind instructors’ use or failure to use such practices into aspects of their African centred pedagogy? This chapter focuses on a review of the worldview, framework and an intellectual analysis of the link between ‘development’ and ‘education’. The chapter discusses the possibility of an African centred ‘Development Education’ contingent upon the usage of an African worldview as the conceptual framework. The usefulness, impacts and significance of an African-centred epistemology and African-centred grounded theories are explored for an enduring African-centred development education.

Source: UG
Theorising the Intersection of Public Policy and Personal Lives through the Lens of ‘Participation’

The continued interest in political economy-inspired perspectives on economic and social policies is an attempt to understand policymakers as human beings who are influenced by values, votes and other factors that were once thought to be exogenous to policy choices. However, there is still little theorising about those on the other side of the policy equation. This article seeks a better understanding of how ordinary people engage in a very personal way with policy. I present a model of participation grounded in empirical research with members of a poverty-reduction project in Ghana, and a conceptual framework informed by an interpretive or sense-making approach to policy analysis. The model is based on the three principles of ‘subjectivity’, ‘temporality’ and ‘situatedness’: First, human beings make subjective interpretations of policy grounded in their life histories; secondly, temporality is an inherent aspect of how individuals cognitively organise their lives; and thirdly, people experience policy as one of many overlapping contexts in which they are situated.

Source: UG
A Theory of (C)overt Object Pronouns in Kwa

In this talk, I argue that the distribution of null versus overt object pronouns in Gã and several other Kwa languages) can best be explained in structural terms; all overt pronouns are realised in a specifier position while null object pronouns are deleted in a complement position. Kwa languages like Akan, Baule, Ga˜, Nzema, a.o. exhibit a null object pattern whose profile does not seem to fit any of the types traditionally acknowledged in theoretical linguistics lit- erature, i.e., the possibility of omitting an object pronoun does not depend on (a) agreement marking (contra Jaeggli 1982; Rizzi 1986), (b) topicality (contra Huang 1984), or (c) the mor- phology of their pronominal system (contra Neeleman & Szendroi 2007). Thus, in Ga˜, for instance, the realisation of third person object pronouns can be summarised as in (1). CONTEXT +ANIM -ANIM a. Clause-final overt null (1) b. Argument of change of state predicates overt overt c. Before verbs overt overt d. Argument of depictive predicates overt overt From (1), it is apparent that we are confronted with a new kind of null object, i.e., one that seems to be conditioned by clausal-finality and animacy.The question thus arises: What accounts for the natural classes; what explains the uniform realisation of the inanimate object pronoun in (1-b,c,d), and all animate object pronouns, to the exclusion of the inanimate object pronoun in (1-a). At first sight, a uniform explanation of (1) appears illusive, and existing proposals in the Kwa literature, e.g., Chinebuah (1976), Saah (1992), Osam (1996), and Larson (2005), for which (1) is revived problem appear not to provide a satisfactory solution either. I claim, following Kayne’s (1994) Linear Correspondence Axiom (LCA), that we can trace the (non-)pronunciation of an object pronoun to where in the syntactic structure it is located (i.e., specifier or complement) at the point of linearisation. I will provide independently-motivated arguments to show that this analysis works for the Ga˜ data problem presented above, and that we can extend same to the analysis of objectpronouns in other ((un)related) languages, such as Ewe and Dagaare. The conclusion, thus, will be that the overt-covert object pronoun distinction that we find in Kwa languages is a reflection of a specifier-complement asymmetry in grammar.

Source: UG
Therapeutic benefits of nitric oxide in lung transplantation

Lung transplantation is an evolutionary procedure from its experimental origin in the twentieth century and is now recognized as an established and routine life-saving intervention for a variety of end-stage pulmonary diseases refractory to medical management. Despite the success and continuous refinement in lung transplantation techniques, the widespread application of this important life-saving intervention is severely hampered by poor allograft quality offered from donors-after-brain-death. This has necessitated the use of lung allografts from donors-after-cardiac-death (DCD) as an additional source to expand the pool of donor lungs. Remarkably, the lung exhibits unique properties that may make it ideally suitable for DCD lung transplantation. However, primary graft dysfunction (PGD), allograft rejection and other post-transplant complications arising from unavoidable ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) of transplanted lungs, increase morbidity and mortality of lung transplant recipients annually. In the light of this, nitric oxide (NO), a selective pulmonary vasodilator, has been identified as a suitable agent that attenuates lung IRI and prevents PGD when administered directly to lung donors prior to donor lung procurement, or to recipients during and after transplantation, or administered indirectly by supplementing lung preservation solutions. This review presents a historical account of clinical lung transplantation and discusses the lung as an ideal organ for DCD. Next, the author highlights IRI and its clinical effects in lung transplantation. Finally, the author discusses preservation solutions suitable for lung transplantation, and the protective effects and mechanisms of NO in experimental and clinical lung transplantation.

Source: UG
Therapeutic benefits of nitric oxide in lung transplantation

Lung transplantation is an evolutionary procedure from its experimental origin in the twentieth century and is now recognized as an established and routine life-saving intervention for a variety of end-stage pulmonary diseases refractory to medical management. Despite the success and continuous refinement in lung trans plantation techniques, the widespread application of this important life-saving intervention is severely hampered by poor allograft quality offered from donors-after-brain-death. This has necessitated the use of lung allografts from donors-after-cardiac-death (DCD) as an additional source to expand the pool of donor lungs. Remarkably, the lung exhibits unique properties that may make it ideally suitable for DCD lung transplantation. However, primary graft dysfunction (PGD), allograft rejection and other post-transplant complications arising from un avoidable ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) of transplanted lungs, increase morbidity and mortality of lung transplant recipients annually. In the light of this, nitric oxide (NO), a selective pulmonary vasodilator, has been identified as a suitable agent that attenuates lung IRI and prevents PGD when administered directly to lung donors prior to donor lung procurement, or to recipients during and after transplantation, or administered indirectly by supplementing lung preservation solutions. This review presents a historical account of clinical lung transplantation and discusses the lung as an ideal organ for DCD. Next, the author highlights IRI and its clinical effects in lung transplantation. Finally, the author discusses preservation solutions suitable for lung trans plantation, and the protective effects and mechanisms of NO in experimental and clinical lung transplantat

Source: UG
Therapeutic efficacy of artemether-lumefantrine combination in the treatment of uncomplicated malaria among children under 5 years in 3 ecological zones in Ghana

The Epidemiology Department contributes to the mission of the institute through basic and applied epidemiological research on, but not limited to, malaria and other diseases of public health importance. It is also home to the Social Science Unit of the Institute, including the Health Support Centre for HIV/AIDS and other communicable and noncommunicable health problems.

Source: UG