ghanaopendata/ghanaian-research-english huggingface dataset:
Further Validation of a Rapid Screening Semiquantitative Thin-Layer Chromatographic Method for Marketed Antimalarial Medicines for Adoption in Malawi

A recently developed semiquantitative thin-layer chromatographic (SQ-TLC) assay has been employed in postmarketing surveillance of antimalarial medicines used in Malawi prior to HPLC assay. Both methods gave analogous results in a significant majority of the samples, with a good correlation ( r = 0.9012) for the active pharmaceutical ingredients of the dosage forms assayed. Artemether-containing medicines had the highest percentage (92.67%) of samples with comparable results for both assays. The lowest percentage (66.67%) was observed in artesunate-containing medicines. The SQ-TLC method was validated for specificity, accuracy, precision, linearity, and stability according to the International Conference on Harmonisation guidelines, with the results falling within acceptable limits. For specificity, retention factor values of the test samples and reference standards were comparable, while accuracy and precision of 91.1 ± 5.7% were obtained for all samples. The method was linear in the range 1.0–2.0 µ g/spot with a correlation coefficient of r = 0.9783. Stability tests also fell within acceptable limits. In this study, we present the validation of the SQ-TLC method and propose its adoption as a rapid screening tool for field estimation of the quality of antimalarial and other essential medicines in Malawi and other parts of the developing world prior to a more accurate HPLC assay.

Source: UG
Future flooding of the Volta Delta caused by sea level rise and land subsidence

Abstract The Volta Delta (Ghana, West Africa) is increasingly impacted by Sea Level Rise (SLR). SLR renders the Volta Delta mostly vulnerable to flooding, salinization of water resources and agricultural fields, and permanent loss of lands. This would potentially threaten its population, infrastructure and economy, and could be worsened by land subsidence (LS). Relative Sea Level Rise (RSLR) in this study is the rate of LS with respect to SLR. It is thus very important to precisely quantify LS rates together with SLR and plan and assess countermeasures. This study presents and discusses recent LS rates in the Volta Delta derived from satellite-based SAR-Interferometry and their impact on relative SLR. Sentinel-1 scenes acquired between 2015 and 2021 were used to quantify recent LS in the study area. The Persistent Scatter Interferometry (PS-InSAR) technique was applied, which allowed for estimating displacement rates of coherent backscatter targets with mm/yr precision. Separate analyses of time series for the Keta lagoon and Songor lagoon areas of the delta give insight into the vertical land movements, with irregularly distributed average rates of up to 4 mm/yr. LS in the Volta Delta is due to various causes, most prominently natural compaction of young deltaic sediments, but also aquifer over-exploitation and salt mining, and probably increasingly less compensated by a drop in sediment supply due to damming. Furthermore, projection of future elevation projections by RSLR was assessed by combining the observed LS rates with three IPCC representative concentration pathways (RCP) scenarios. The RSLR impact assessments computed revealed that by 2100, more than 20% of the Volta Delta districts could potentially be below MSL for all the addressed RCP scenarios, including the fragile but key sand barriers surrounded by water bodies. The study is, however, a preliminary investigation and recommends further local ground-based LS investigations to calibrate PS-InSAR outcome, thus improving our understanding of the areas driving critical present and future changes in the Volta Delta.

Source: UG
The future of document delivery for developing countries: a view from West Africa

Discusses interlending and document supply between libraries in developing countries by highlighting some of the barriers militating against effective interlibrary lending. Examines the future of document delivery in these countries in the light of these problems. Various measures need to be taken in order to improve the situation. These include the proper development of national bibliographies and union catalogues; proper record keeping of document delivery transactions; an increase in the use of information technology in libraries; and a change of attitude by librarians and governments in these countries towards document delivery.

Source: UG
The future of library and information science education in Ghana

The library and information science programmes in Ghana are discussed with a view to assessing their problems as well as expectations for the future. Various problems such as poor staff development programmes, lack of teaching aids, inadequate research facilities, the poorly equipped departmental laboratory and funding are considered. All these have affected the image of the Department of Library and Archival Studies of the University of Ghana, the only library school in the country. The writer concludes that there is a very strong need to revise the curricula of the library schools in order to provide sound library education which will be reflected in the quality of service of library staff, thereby improving the image of the profession.

Source: UG
The future of the International Criminal Court in African Crisis and its Relationship with the R2P Project.

The article focuses on the activities and reception of the International Criminal Court in the continent that thus far has most eagerly welcomed its ideals; Africa. The trajectory charted is one which starts from a note of extreme enthusiasm from states' leaders to civil society alike, to one of disaffection and disillusionment due to the discriminate nature of the application of universal jurisdiction hinting at a an attempt towards new forms of colonialism. This has resulted in the discussions noted concerning an African alternative to the ICC. The article concludes that even with possible emergence of an African alternative to the ICC in the form of the expanded functions of the African Court of Human and Peoples' Rights, the future of the ICC and R2P in Africa will centre on the co-operation of the States of the continent, which in turn necessitates that the future conduct of the ICC, nor the invocation of R2P, does not continue on its trajectory of African alienation.

Source: UG
The Future of the Relationship between the US and China.

The most significant bilateral relations in the international system is that of the relations between the US and China. This is not only premised on the significant economic clout of both countries, but also on the enormous magnitude of arsenals accumulated by these two powers. The increasing interconnectedness and interdependence of the world have made it impossible for economic ,security and humanitarian issues in one country to be contained within the borders of that country without it being felt elsewhere .The US strategic shift towards the Asia Pacific region which many experts view within the context of trying to contain the rising power of China and its resultant aggressive behavior and assertive territorial claims in the Asia Pacific region therefore raise serious global security concerns. As a result of the enormous capacities of both states, an improvement in relations between them could have enormous impacts on the whole wide world. On the other hand, should relations between them deteriorates it could have far reaching devastating consequences on the international system. This has made it very necessary for the relations between the two powers to be carefully studied. The future relations between the pair would likely be marked by conflict and cooperation. This is backed by the numerous territorial disputes in the region involving the US, China and her regional neighbors .Equally important is China’s demand on global resources and her widely perceived unfair trade practices. Nevertheless the likelihood that the pair would be united by common interests and likewise common dangers is incredibly high.

Source: UG
Fuzzy Logic and Machine Learning-Enabled Recommendation System to Predict Suitable Academic Program for Students

In recent years, educational data mining has gained a considerable lot of interest as a consequence of the large number of pedagogical content that can be gathered from a range of sources. This is because there is a lot of instructional information that can be obtained. The data mining tools collaborate with academics to improve students’ learning strategies by analyzing, sifting through, and estimating components that are pertinent to students’ characteristics or patterns of behavior. This is accomplished through the following steps: EDM is utilized in the vast majority of instances to develop the classification model, which then assigns a certain class to each student based on the known properties of the training dataset. Before putting the classification model into use, it is possible to utilize a test dataset to verify that the model is accurate. This article provides a description of a recommendation system that determines the most beneficial academic program for students by utilizing fuzzy logic and machine learning. The compilation of student dataset has begun. It includes a total of 21 features and 1000 individual cases. e initial step is to employ the CFS attribute selection method. This methodology selects 15 of the initial set of 21 characteristics. Following the completion of the data gathering, it is put through various machine learning methods such fuzzy SVM, random forest, and C4.5. This methodology that has been offered makes predictions about the academic program that is best suitable for students.

Source: UG
Fuzzy Logic-Based Systems for the Diagnosis of Chronic Kidney Disease

Kidney failure occurs whenever the kidney stops to operate properly and would be unable to cleanse or refine the bloodstream as it should. Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a potentially fatal consequence. If this condition is diagnosed early, its progression can be delayed. There are various factors that increase the likelihood of developing kidney failure. As a consequence, in order to detect this potentially fatal condition early on, these risk factors must be checked on a regular basis before the individual’s health deteriorates. Furthermore, it lowers the cost of therapy. The chronic kidney or renal disease will be recognized in this work utilizing fuzzy and adaptive neural fuzzy inference systems. The fundamental purpose of this initiative is to enhance the precision of medical diagnostics used to diagnose illnesses. Nephron functioning, glucose levels, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, maturity level, weight and height, and smoking are all elements to consider while developing a fuzzy and adaptable neural fuzzy inference system. The output variable describes a specific patient’s stage of chronic renal disease based on input factors such as stage 1, stage 2, stage 3, stage 4, and stage 5. The outcome will show the present stage of a patient’s kidney. As a result, these methods can assist specialists in determining the stage of chronic renal disease. MATLAB software is used to create the fuzzy and neural fuzzy inference systems.

Source: UG
A fuzzy Topsis framework for selecting fragile states for support facility.

Aid recipient-countries especially those classified as ‘fragile states’ look to donor agencies and other financial organizations for various forms of support facilities to rebuild institutions and repair infrastructure. As countries within the fragile states bracket increase around the world, competition for such assistances has also become keen. To select countries for the fragile states support facility run by the African and Asian development banks, expert ratings over sets of unquantifiable performance based criteria are used to determine the ultimate deserving countries. In order to ensure transparency and fairness in the face of competition, such multi-criteria ratings demand techniques that do not only model human judgements but take into account the effect of variations in expert ratings as a result of possible influences. This paper proposes a fuzzy TOPSIS framework for selecting fragile states for support facility based on the African Development Bank selection criteria. Using pre-defined linguistic terms parameterized by triangular fuzzy numbers, a numerical example is provided on how the framework can be used by decision makers towards final selection of competing countries for the fragile states support facility. The paper anticipating possible influences of lobbyists, further performs a sensitivity analysis to examine the effect that bias in expert ratings could have on the final selection. The result shows a framework that can be applied in instances of selecting countries and organizations for aid purposes.

Source: UG
Ga clauses without syntactic subjects

In Ga, certain locative or goal-oriented expressions involve a type of multi-verb construction that is characterized by the independence of the agreement (including A(spect), M(ood) and P(olarity)) features and argument structures of the verbs, such that the syntactic and functional status of the second, locative VP poses an interesting problem. The compositional semantics of the sentence suggests that the second, locative VP, sometimes known as a "verbid" expression, is the Predicate of the first, which then must be its semantic subject, and a close examination of various constructions in Ga indicates that this is a reasonable interpretation. On the other hand, only the first verb takes the full range of aspectual markers and arguments. This together with the relations holding between the objects of the verbs, and the behaviour of the locative VP when in focus, suggests that on the syntactic level the reverse situation holds, that the locative clause specifies the other as its adjunct. © Walter de Gruyter.

Source: UG
Gains and Losses from Internal Migration: Evidence from Migrant-Sending Households in Ghana.

Migration is a common strategy adopted to escape poverty and improve living standards, but it is not without risks and there are no guarantees of success. The authors analyse the impact of migration on the welfare of migrant-sending households in Ghana by exploring what their living standards might have been had their migrant members remained at home. They do this by estimating a counterfactual consumption distribution for households with migrants. They examine the importance of selection bias and compare results obtained with and without selection controls. They illustrate how sensitive conclusions about the welfare gains of migration are to the decision to address selection issues. They present preliminary results which suggest that estimated gains are sensitive to whether and how theyaddress selection bias. While the uncorrected results suggest an average gain from migration for households with migrants, once they control for potential selection bias they find that on average households with migrants are worse off than they might have been had their members stayed at home. Their selection corrected results also suggest that initially better off households are more likely to experience gains from migration and that poorer households lose out. Their results are consistent with qualitative research conducted with a small sample of migrants from our migrant-sending households.

Source: UG
Gains in Grain Yield of Extra-Early Maize during Three Breeding Periods under Drought and Rainfed Conditions

12 Drought is a key maize (Zea mays L.) production constraint in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Fourteen, 13 15 and 25 extra-early maturing maize cultivars, with varying Striga resistance, drought and low soil 14 nitrogen tolerance, were developed from 1995 to 2000 (Period 1), 2001 to 2006 (Period 2) and 2007 to 15 2012 (Period 3), respectively. The objectives of this study were to examine yield gains in the cultivars, 16 investigate inter-trait relationships and yield stability under six drought and 17 rain-fed conditions in 17 West Africa, 2013-2016. Annual rate of yield increase across cultivars was 0.034 Mg ha-1 (3.28 %) 18 and 0.068 Mg ha-1 (2.25 %) while yield gains per period were 0.17 and 0.38 Mg ha-1 under drought and 19 rain-fed environments, respectively. Yield gains under drought and rain-fed environments were related 20 to prolonged flowering period, increased plant and ear heights, improved stalk lodging, ear and plant 21 aspects, whereas delayed leaf senescence and increased number of ears per plant (EPP) accompanied 22 yield improvement under drought only. Ear aspect and EPP were primary contributors to yield and 23 could be used as selection criteria for yield enhancement under drought and rain-fed conditions. High 24 yielding and stable cultivars across all environments based on additive main effects and multiplicative 25

Source: UG
The Galabat-Metema Cross-Border Onchocerciasis Focus: The First Coordinated Interruption of Onchocerciasis Transmission in Africa

The Department of Parasitology conducts research into parasitic diseases of public health importance with the overall goal of reducing their transmission and the heavy disease burden that they impose on affected populations. The Department maintains focus on parasitic diseases in general. These include major diseases such as malaria, and others listed under the Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) control initiative such as, lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis, schistosomiasis, soil-transmitted helminthiasis, trypanosomiasis and leishmaniasis.

Source: UG
GALC deletions increase the risk of primary Open-Angle Glaucoma: The role of mendelian variants in complex disease

DNA copy number variants (CNVs) have been reported in many human diseases including autism and schizophrenia. Primary Open Angle Glaucoma (POAG) is a complex adult-onset disorder characterized by progressive optic neuropathy and vision loss. Previous studies have identified rare CNVs in POAG; however, their low frequencies prevented formal association testing. We present here the association between POAG risk and a heterozygous deletion in the galactosylceramidase gene (GALC). This CNV was initially identified in a dataset containing 71 Caucasian POAG cases and 478 ethnically matched controls obtained from dbGAP (study accession phs000126.v1.p1.) (p = 0.017, fisher's exact test). It was validated with array comparative genomic hybridization (arrayCGH) and realtime PCR, and replicated in an independent POAG dataset containing 959 cases and 1852 controls (p = 0.021, OR (odds ratio) = 3.5, 95% CI -1.1-12.0). Evidence for association was strengthened when the discovery and replication datasets were combined (p = 0.002; OR = 5.0, 95% CI 1.6-16.4). Several deletions with different endpoints were identified by array CGH of POAG patients. Homozygous deletions that eliminate GALC enzymatic activity cause Krabbe disease, a recessive Mendelian disorder of childhood displaying bilateral optic neuropathy and vision loss. Our findings suggest that heterozygous deletions that reduce GALC activity are a novel mechanism increasing risk of POAG. This is the first report of a statistically-significant association of a CNV with POAG risk, contributing to a growing body of evidence that CNVs play an important role in complex, inherited disorders. Our findings suggest an attractive biomarker and potential therapeutic target for patients with this form of POAG.

Source: UG
Gallstones in Ghanaian children with sickle cell disease

OBJECTIVE: This prospective, cross-sectional study was done to define the prevalence and age of onset of gallstones in Ghanaina children with Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) in steady state, using ultrasonography.MATERIALS AND METHOD:The study was conducted at the Paediatric SCD clinic, Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Accra, Ghana. Three hundred and fifteen (315) children comprising 162 males and 153 females aged 2 to 13 years with a confirmed diagnosis of SCD of haemoglobin SS, (HbSS), Haemoglobin SC, (HbSC) or Haemoglobin S-betathalassemia (SbetaThal) genotype whose parents/guardians gave informed conset, were recruited consecutively. The main outcome measure was the detection of gallstones in the gall bladder or common bile duct by ultrasonography. RESULTS:Thirteen children, 12 males and 1 female had gallstone, giving an overall prevalence of 4%. The youngest was aged 6. Four children had sludge only. Peak age of prevalence was 12 years. All patients under 12 years with gallstone were males (92.3%). The very high male: female ratio in these sickle cell disease children is at variance with the normal male: female ratio of 1:4.6. Although twenty percent of all the patients were genotype SC, only one SC patient had gallstones, giving a prevalence rate of 0.3%, and a prevalence ratio of stone in SS: SC of 12:1. Twenty patients had no spleen detectable clinically or on ultrasoound examination and none of them had gallstones. CONCLUSION:Gallstones occur at an early age in children with sickle cell disease in Ghana.

Source: UG
The Gambian epauletted fruit bat shows increased genetic divergence in the Ethiopian highlands and in an area of rapid urbanization

The Gambian epauletted fruit bat (Epomophorus gambianus) is an abundant species that roosts in both urban and rural settings. The possible role of E. gambianus as a reservoir host of zoonotic diseases underlines the need to better understand the species movement patterns. So far, neither observational nor phylogenetic studies have identified the dispersal range or behavior of this species. Comparative analyses of mitochondrial and nuclear markers from 20 localities across the known distribution of E. gambianus showed population panmixia, except for the populations in Ethiopia and southern Ghana (Accra and Ve‐Golokwati). The Ethiopian population may be ancestral and is highly divergent to the species across the rest of its range, possibly reflecting isolation of an ancient colonization along an east–west axis. Mitochondrial haplotypes in the Accra population display a strong signature of a past bottleneck event; evidence of either an ancient or recent bottleneck using microsatellite data, however, was not detected. Demographic analyses identified population expansion in most of the colonies, except in the female line of descent in the Accra population. The molecular analyses of the colonies from Ethiopia and southern Ghana show gender dispersal bias, with the mitochondrial DNA fixation values over ten times those of the nuclear markers. These findings indicate free mixing of the species across great distances, which should inform future epidemiological studies.

Source: UG