ghanaopendata/ghanaian-research-english huggingface dataset:
Management system for National Health Insurance hospitals

It has been observed that it is stressful for patients on the Ghana National Health Insurance Scheme to get quality health care. This stress is due to congestion at the hospitals that operate under the scheme. The congestion does not only waste the time of the patients but can also cause death. There is also the need of sharing medical and patient information among hospitals that operate under the scheme. Inability of sharing data renders the work of the scheme inefficient. This dissertation seeks to address the problem of congestions at the hospitals that operate under the scheme. The project also seeks to address the problem of how to access and manage patients and dispensary records in every hospital that operates under the scheme. The approach of this project is to develop a mobile web application to keep and manage patients and dispensary records. The main assertion is that, this system will save time and will provide a means to access and share medical information in every hospital under the scheme. The system proposed composes of a fault tolerant database system, a web interface and a mobile interface. The function of the fault tolerant database is keeping and managing the data. That of the web interface is assisting the hospital staff to administer their services. The mobile interface is a scheduling application that will enable patients to book appointments with a doctor at a specific hospital. The web interfaces deals with the need of sharing data among hospitals and the scheduling application is the means of controlling the perceived congestion at the hospitals that operate under the scheme.

Source: Ashesi
Maximum Power Point Tracking of Photovoltaic Systems for Rural Applications.

PV modules exhibit a point at which its power is maximum; this point is called Maximum Power Point (MPP). Due to changes in weather conditions, the MPP changes and the PV module efficiency. Specifically, temperature and irradiance are the parameters that affect the solar panel characteristic properties. This project describes and implements an MPPT algorithm that tracks the MPP at every point in time depending on the load. The algorithm was modeled using MATLAB Simulink and tested under different weather conditions. It was tested under standard test conditions which are the temperature of 25 0C and irradiance of 1000W/m2 where the efficiency was 85.63%. The temperature and irradiance were changed, and the MPP was tracked under each circumstance.

Source: Ashesi
Mechanical and physical properties of reinforced composites with palm kernel shells for structural applications

Sustainability is a common target for most people in the construction sector or who are ready to build. Also, shelter is a basic human need, but the construction of houses is quite expensive and not to mention sometimes not sustainable. This led to the adoption of new strategies to cut costs in the construction sector, and some of those practices use natural fibers in construction. Palm kernel shells are a form of fiber widely available, durable, and considered waste. Although Palm kernel shells are considered waste, why not transform waste into a product which can help people who want to construct at a reduced price? This study aims to analyze the mechanical and physical properties in palm kernel shells reinforced concrete by varying the fiber contents and then comparing it to the standard concrete. Compressive, flexural, and thermal analysis tests were conducted on concrete samples with different percentages of palm kernel shells. Results showed that compressive strength decreased with increasing palm kernel shell percentage while fracture toughness increased. Thermal conductivity slightly reduced with the increase in palm kernel shells. These findings demonstrate the potential for using palm kernel shells in construction as a sustainable and affordable solution.

Source: Ashesi
Mechanical Characterization of BFRP for Aircraft Wing Spars Applications

The Aerospace industry's demand for lightweight, high-strength material continuously increases, leading to a continuous increase in demand for Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymers (CFRP). These CFRP are highly applied in some internal parts of aircraft, like the internal structures of the wings, such as spars and ribs. This research explores Bamboo reinforced Composites (BFRP) as a sustainable alternative to CFRP for aircraft wing spar applications. The species used in this research is the Bambusa Vulgaris, which was sourced in the eastern region of Ghana. The Bambusa Vulgaris strips were treated at different concentrations of NaOH and durations to optimize mechanical properties. According to the guidelines in the Advisory Circular (AC 20-107B) prepared by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), different sample groups of Fiber-matrix ratios were prepared and tested. The mechanical properties of the composite were determined through the Flexural, hardness, and Singer Fiber pullout tests, which revealed that the sample group D with 30% bamboo Fiber content has the best mechanical performance, closely comparable to the properties of CFRP. Finite Element Analysis (FEA) was done to validate the experimental results, showing promising structural integrity under bending loads. While this research proved that Bamboo reinforced Composites have the potential to meet the mechanical properties of CFRP and reduce carbon emissions, there is a need for further testing, such as SEM, tensile test, and in-depth numerical analysis, to fully validate their application in spars and higher demanding levels.

Source: Ashesi
Mechanical characterization of earth-based composites materials reinforced with treated bamboo fibres for affordable housing

This paper presents the characterization of laterite-cement-based matrix composites, reinforced with chemically modified bamboo fibers. Fiber extraction and chemical modification were first explored by soaking slabs of bamboos in NaOH solution (5 wt.% of NaOH in distilled water) for 14 days. Fiber characterization, as well as the flexural and compressive strength of reinforced composites, were carried out with MTS universal mechanical testing machine. Comparative results on the compressive and flexural strength were obtained at 80 wt.% laterite (L) to 20 wt.% cement (C) with fiber ratios from 5-25 wt%. The compressive strength of the composites varied from 7.2 MPa (at 5 wt.% bamboo fiber) to 17.67 MPa (at 25 wt% fiber blocks). The hardness of the composites was found to improve from 66.67-75.0 HD with bamboo fibers. Results were then discussed for possible structural applications such as enhancing low-cost building blocks for rural communities in Ghana.

Source: Ashesi
Mechanical Optimization of Ceramic-based Composites for Water Filtration

The production of ceramic filters is one that many organizations and individuals have undertaken to curb the spread of waterborne diseases and ailments arising from harmful microorganisms and the mishandling of water bodies. These ceramic filters often have a lifespan of close to 2 years, and on occasion, even shorter time due to mishandling of the filters or their ability to perform to full functionality over a short period. This paper seeks to tackle the issue of many of these filters not being mechanically optimized, causing either early structural damage or insufficient flowrate. Doing this required analysis to find both the right taper angle and height configurations of the filter, as well as the best composite ratio of clay and combustible material, in which the porosity level is large enough for a sufficient flowrate while ensuring that it of good strength. Simulations provided on stress and strain analysis done in SolidWorks show that taper angles of 10o with a height of 20cm and 20o and a height of 30cm would be appropriate while having a clay to the combustible material ratio of 70:30 would be ideal.

Source: Ashesi
Media freedom and political stability in Sub-Saharan Africa: a panel data study

Political stability is often cited as a key determinant of growth in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) although little research that identifies the factors that ensure political stability in SSA is available. A pertinent determinant of political stability in SSA may be press freedom since on one hand, the press can contribute to political stability by keeping the electorate informed thereby keeping a check on graft, fraud, embezzlement and other corrupt practices of government officials. On the other hand, however, the press can be manipulated to generate political instability by misinforming the public so the exact relationship between press freedom and political stability in SSA is ex ante unclear. By investigating the determinants of political stability and accounting for possible of endogeneity bias, this paper (i) isolates the most pertinent variables that affect political stability in Sub-Saharan Africa and (ii) investigates to what extent press freedom mitigates or worsens the incidence of political instability in the SSA region. A panel of 31 SSA countries from 1984–2007 is used in static and dynamic panel data frameworks to investigate the determinants of political stability and to verify the relationship between media freedom and political stability in SSA. Important determinants of political stability are found to be mainly related to economic performance, macroeconomic policies, unemployment the level of education and regime type. Preliminary results also suggest that media freedom may be a vital determinant of political stability in SSA although less so than economic, political and social factors. Ongoing estimations suggest elasticities of political stability with respect to media freedom calculated at different values of media freedom are nonzero. The research result should help guide policy makers in the different nation states of SSA in drafting pragmatic media and economic policies that will promote political stability in their respective countries.

Source: Ashesi
Medlink: Revolutionizing Emergency Healthcare Drug Accessibility in Ghana Using a Novel Dynamic Geofencing Algorithm

The inability to quickly access essential medications during emergencies can lead to tragic outcomes. In Ghana, this issue is particularly acute due to delayed arrival at hospitals and set back in locating pharmacies stocked with needed drugs. To address this critical problem lingering in our health sector, this study introduces a groundbreaking dynamic geofencing algorithm. While traditional static geofencing has been used extensively to support geriatric patients with Alzheimer and Dementia by sending notifications based on predefined zones to caregivers, little research has been done on dynamically defining geofences to locate pharmacies with needed medications. This research focuses on developing a dynamic geofencing algorithm that converts geographic coordinates into a cartesian system for improved efficiency in locating closest pharmacies stocked with the needed medications. Our approach leverages HCI principles, such as context-aware computing which enables the system to intelligently adapt to users’ real-time locations and needs, significantly reducing search time and effort. Through extensive experimentation and analysis, the proposed algorithm has demonstrated a substantial reduction in time required to locate pharmacies stocked with needed medication as compared to the traditional approach of moving from one pharmacy to the next. This study underscores the transformative potential of dynamic geofencing in cutting down delays in accessing emergency healthcare in Ghana. By providing reliable, real-time information on the availability of medications in nearby pharmacies, this research paves the way for timely access to emergency healthcare, ultimately improving health outcomes in resource constrained settings.

Source: Ashesi
Mhealth and mobile security

This Applied Project reviews, designs and implements security for the mobile application used by the MHealth project. The result of improving security brings the project in line with Ghana Ministry of Health’s Legal and Policy Framework for Health Information and Health Data Reporting. Information security is one of the prime concerns for healthcare nowadays, because even though electronic record keeping enhances efficiency, it also poses a vulnerability of access. Security is improved in MHealth by encrypting the database mainly and implementing various user authentication techniques. This will enable the application and the project protect their data and prevent unauthorized access by attackers. Given that Ghana is now moving into a phase of electronic record keeping, this contribution will be a necessary start for the implementation of an electronic system.

Source: Ashesi
Minimizing power losses in high voltage distribution system

The demand for electricity in Ghana keeps increasing as the population grows, which has led to concerns about power losses as well as rising energy cost. The popular convention is to increase the power production to take care the loss [1]. The project is based on the reduction in High Voltage Distribution System (HVDS) in the Upper West Region of Ghana. A distribution system takes carries electricity from the transmission system to the end user. The voltage in the buses reduces when moved away from the substation and this is because of insufficient reactive power which can be provided by capacitor shun and series compensation [2]. This project is aimed at identifying the optimal sizes and locations of a shunt capacitors to be replaced in a radial distribution system considering the overall economic savings due to power minimization and capacitor cost. The is achieved in two stages, the first step is carrying out a load flow of a pre-compensated distribution system. Loss Sensitivity Factor (LSF) is carried out based on the load flow solution to identify the potential locations for compensation. The LSF is used to identify the candidate buses. The second stage is using the Genetic Algorithm (GA) to identify the sizes of the capacitors for reducing the energy loss cost and the capacitor cost.

Source: Ashesi
Mobile application to track diet of diabetics: Using telemedicine to enhance healthcare delivery

This project researches on how telemedicine can enhance healthcare delivery for diabetics in Ghana, and based on the findings, builds a technological tool to help diabetics track the level of sugar they consume. Using the Korle-Bu Diabetic Centre as a prototype, a session was conducted to observe activities at the centre, and an interview with the Director of the department was held to gain insight into the state of the hospital. 50 patients were also interviewed to find out how often and why the visit the centre. The interviews revealed that the main purpose of patients’ visit to the Korle-Bu Diabetic Centre was to check blood sugar levels, and this showed low levels of self-management among patients. My research showed that telemedicine could be used as tool for remote consultation, electronic record keeping and for self-management of chronic diseases Based on these findings, this project built an application to improve self-management of diabetes by allowing patients to track the amount of sugar they consume in their daily meals. The app also facilitates remote consultation and electronic record keeping. This app contains a large database of the nutritional values of Ghanaian foods and is built specifically for the Ghanaian community. In the long run, the app will be developed further to allow connections with devices such as the fitbit which track weight gain and loss, and heartbeat rate. This will enable the user to get more holistic data and reassurance that the figures being computed are indeed right.

Source: Ashesi
Mobile financial services in Ghana - Measures for achieving safety and security of services

The use of mobile phones has become part of the daily activities of about ninety percent of Ghanaian adults. This has contributed to the rapid adoption of mobile financial services by Ghanaians. In 2014, Bank of Ghana reported over two million registered users. Africa and the rest of the world have also experienced this exponential growth in the use of mobile financial services. Due to the huge money it is raising in that sector, fraudsters have made several attempts on these systems leading to the loss of enormous sums of money. The objective of this study is to understand the mobile financial service ecosystem in Ghana and internationally, assess what risks users may face and suggest measures to help prevent or reduce the effects of these risks. In order to better understand the concept of mobile financial service, some academic papers were reviewed revealing the components of the ecosystem, risks that these players may face and some proposed solutions by scholars. Case studies, in-depth interviews and secondary data were gathered for this research. Findings from the data collected show that some risks users may face include: malware infection of devices or point of sale terminals, corruption of information stored on the server of acquirers or service providers, theft of data during transaction, including man-in-the middle attacks, advanced persistent thefts and insecure data connectivity. Also some mitigation measures to these threats include enforcement of two factor authentication on systems, securing data connections using Secured Socket Layer (SSL) authentication, secure configuration, hardening of critical servers and data encryption during transactions. This study is limited geographically because the interviews held included players in the mobile financial service ecosystem in Accra only. Also only three companies were interviewed for this study due to the limited time constraint.

Source: Ashesi
Mobile health based information system

Healthcare delivery continues to be a major focus for Ghana as it strives to reach the objectives outlined in the Millennium Development Goals [1]. A major roadblock to reaching these goals has been the average long distances between the rural areas and the healthcare provision centers in the country. In order to overcome this hurdle, the Ministry of Health decided to train healthcare officers who live within these rural areas to help improve the situation. The health officers need an effective way to communicate or relay information back to the district office without having to travel to the District office regularly. They also occasionally need assistance in determining the best way to approach or cater to the emerging health needs of the communities. mHealth Knowledge is a Mobile Health based information system that provides functionality to allow for the sharing of information between community health officers and healthcare professionals at the district office.

Source: Ashesi
Mobile money as a means for financial inclusion and convenience in e-commerce payment within the informal sector in Ghana

In this era of the coronavirus andemic, which affected individuals in all spheres of life, businesses have had to move operations online. With remote working more prevalent than it has ever been, people are spending more time online. Online shopping has become popular over the past few months due to the decline in offline shopping - as a result of the existence of lockdowns. The payment systems used in online shpping, unfortunately, do not favour the unbanked populations because they mostly center around the use of bank accounts and cards. This thesis seeks to investigate the feasibility of a solution that addresses the issue of financial inclusion in e-commerce payment. The research focuses on the integration of a mobile money payment option to e-commerce sites and how it could promote or decrease financial inclusion and convenience for the informal sector workers in Ghana.

Source: Ashesi
Mobile money SMS classification and text analysis: Exploring possibilities for enhanced financial inclusion

In the past two decades, financial technology (fintech) has grown to become one of the most significant economic drivers in developing countries especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Despite the prevalence of these fintech mostly in the form of mobile money platforms, the number of unbanked populations across developing countries has remained high. This applied project presents a human-centered approach in the innovator-side exploration of the integration between the banking sector and fintech. Such innovations should ask nothing more from the user than they already have, should adopt a fluid digital footprint, and the services offered by integrated platforms should be dynamic. To that end, the paper presents a system that classifies mobile money SMSs and use them to prepare a secure financial statement that might enhance the Know-Your-Customer requirements for the unbanked and also ensure that they can easily transfer their mobile money credit record and easily access services in the banking sector.

Source: Ashesi
Mobile payments system: The challenges to its adoption in Ghana and what can be done to make it catch on?

Mobile Payment System (MPS), which is the use of mobile phone as a "wallet" to make payments through a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) connectivity or Short Message Service (SMS), or through a Near Field Communication (NFC), is increasingly becoming widely used in many countries globally, such as Japan, Korea, United States of America, South Africa and Kenya. The aim of this thesis is to use various research techniques, including questionnaire, interviews, observations and case studies to find out the challenges to the adoption of Mobile Payment Systems in Ghana, and propose solutions to encourage the wide acceptance of this platform, as a convenient alternative payment system in the country. Also, an application for Mobile Payments, named SikaPay is developed. Mobile phones present an enormous opportunity for use as a platform for a "Payments System". Traditionally in Ghana, financial transactions are made using physical cash or checks. However, from the survey conducted as part of this project, people are willing to use Mobile Payment system on their phones. Also, the application developed as part of this project simulated the flexibility of how a Mobile Payment System should be, by allowing user to create their own account and update their account at any time.

Source: Ashesi
Mobile technology in transportation: A cashless means for transportation payment using NFC and QR codes in Ghana

Over the years, many means of cashless payments for goods and services have been implemented in Ghana. Although these systems claim diversity given the vast number of services that can be paid for on their respective platforms, they lack an avenue for the payment of transportation. This project attempts to fill this gap by developing a means of paying for transportation in a cashless fashion. In this project, technology such as NFC, QR codes and smartphones is employed to implement a cashless payment solution for transportation that will be a handy tool and asset to the average Ghanaian. At the end of this project, a thoroughly tested cross-platform mobile application along with a web-based application was created. The mobile application enables a public transport commuter to pay transport fares in a cashless manner via QR codes and NFC. It also allows a vehicle owner to monitor transactions made by his/her vehicle. The web-based application, on the other hand, enables a system status administrator to monitor the system and a transport credit retailer to sell transport credits.

Source: Ashesi