ghanaopendata/ghanaian-research-english huggingface dataset:
Time-varying dependence dynamics between international commodity prices and Australian industry stock returns: a Perspective for portfolio diversification

This paper investigates the time-varying dependency dynamics between the international commodity prices of Brent crude oil, natural gas, cocoa, and Australia's sectoral stock returns, using daily prices ranging from 1st December 2011 to April 23, 2020. The considered sector stocks include Technology, Telecom, Real Estate, Energy, Basic Materials, Utilities, Industrials, Financials and Health Care. We employ the time-varying Markov switching copulas to investigate the dynamic dependence between those international commodity prices and the Australian industry stocks returns, as well as using various portfolio techniques, including the minimum variance portfolio, the minimum correlation portfolio and the recently developed minimum connectedness portfolio to test portfolio performance. We establish that the dependence between commodities and sectoral stock returns is Markov switching and time-varying. Our results further show that Brent crude oil is a good hedge for the financial sector, natural gas is a good hedge for all sectors except real estate, and cocoa co-crashes with the technology, industrials and real estate sectoral returns. Based on the hedging effectiveness of the competing portfolios, we show that bivariate and multivariate portfolios significantly reduce the risk of investing in a single asset. In particular, the results indicate a significant role for commodities, with weights ranging from approximately 25% to 50%, depending on the portfolio construction of choice. Australian stocks typically have the lowest portfolio weights under all competing portfolios, thus confirming their hedging role to a commodity investment portfolio. Our analysis contributes unique evidence to the literature on the role of commodity assets as a complement to mainstream investment.

Source: UG
Timeliness of rotavirus vaccination at sentinel sites in four early-adopter African countries

The main research focus of the Electron Microscopy and Histopathology Department in the past 20 years has been in the areas of enteric diarrhoeas with special emphasis on rotavirus. Through its diarrhoea surveillance studies, the Department has helped to firmly establish rotaviruses as a major cause of diarrhoea in children, and document the circulation of unusual rotavirus genotypes in Ghana. The Department has also recently expanded its diagnostic repertoire to include the identification and characterization of noroviruses, astroviruses, and other enteric viruses.

Source: UG
Tin oxide based dye-sensitized solid-state solar cells: surface passivation for suppression of recombination

Dye-sensitized solid-state solar cells based on SnO2 where the crystallite surface is passivated with ultra-thin structures constituted of MgO, ZnO and CaO are examined using high extinction coefficient indoline dye D149 as the sensitizer. Results clearly demonstrate that surface passivation effectively suppress leakage of electrons from interconnected SnO2 crystallites preventing recombination with the hole transport substrate CuSCN. In the presence of passivating films of any type, the optimum efficiency occurred at nearly same SnO2 film thickness of 12 μm. MgO passivated system at a MgO surface concentration of ~8×10−9 g cm−2 yielded the highest efficiency of 2.82% under standard measurements conditions using cells of active area 0.25 cm2.

Source: UG
Title of Book: Akan Kasa Nhyehyεeε

The book deals with the basic grammar of Akan. It is a 234-page book made up of nine substantive chapters. The book first deals with the basic spelling rules and orthography of the Akan language. The subsequent chapters 2-7 discuss in details the word classes (parts of speech) in Akan. They include, nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, conjunctions, interjections, and focus markers. Each of these is discussed by looking at their concepts, subcategories, syntactic structures and morphology. Each of the chapters ends with revision questions that will help students to know how much they have learnt. Chapter 8 looks at sentence and clause structures by discussing simple, compound and complex sentences. It further considers types of clauses and their structures namely, main and subordinate clauses and the conjunctions that are related to each of these. Chapter 9 concentrates on Phrase Structures paying attention to Nominal Phrases (NP) and Verbal Phrases (VP). Each of these is well treated with illustrated examples, exercises and revision questions. The book ends with a summary in chapter 9.

Source: UG
TMPRSS2:ERG Gene Fusions in Prostate Cancer of West African Men and Ameta-Analysis of Racial Differences

The prevalence of TMPRSS2-ERG fusions in prostate cancer varies by race. However, such somatic aberration and its association with prognostic factors have neither been studied in a West African population nor been systematically reviewed in the context of racial differences. We used immunohistochemistry to assess ERG expression as the established surrogate of ERG fusion genes among 262 prostate cancer biopsies from the Ghana Prostate Study. Poisson regression with robust variance estimation provided prevalence ratios and 95% confidence intervals of ERG expression in relation to patients' characteristics. We found 47 of 262 (18%) prostate cancers were ERG-positive, and negative ERG staining was associated with higher Gleason score. We further conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of TMPRSS2-ERG fusions in relation to race, Gleason score, and tumor stage, combining results from Ghana with 40 additional studies. Meta-analysis showed the prevalence of TMPRSS2-ERG fusions in prostate cancer to be highest in men of European descent (49%) followed by Asian (27%) and then African (25%). The lower prevalence of TMPRSS2-ERG fusions in men of African descent implies that alternative genomic mechanisms might explain the disproportionately high prostate cancer burden in such populations.

Source: UG
To Beijing and back: Reflections on the influence of the Beijing Conference on popular notions of WOMEN’S empowerment in Ghana.

The 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing was a pivotal moment for legitimating women’s rights work in Ghana and served as a powerful framing for women’s empowerment. This article explores the Beijing conference and examines its influence on popular notions of and efforts to promote women’s empowerment. We argue that the discursive context provided by the conference shaped popular narratives about women directly and also through its influence on the ideas and practices of public institutions and civil society. There is greater acceptance that women have rights that should be promoted and protected, and that there should be institutions and systems to which they have recourse. However, significant work remains to be done in tackling the resistances and tokenism that continue to dominate public discourses and actions to advance gender equality. Further efforts to advance women’s empowerment and gender equality in Ghana must therefore build on the legacy of the Beijing conference.

Source: UG
To call it tragedy or not to call it tragedy: the cultural politics involved

Tragedy as a form has always been professed with Eurocentric worldview. Juxtaposing this uniqueness directly with an Afro-centric understanding to reflect the form is challenging. Tragedy has evolved over the years, from the classical heroic model to the modern; tragedy of the common man. In order to have a blueprint closest to the tragic genre, many playwrights infuse certain indigenous elements into their plays just to make them look similar or run parallel to the original form. In seeking to connect traditional culture to performance, major tragic playwrights in Ghana and Nigeria have utilized traditional indigenous religious rites, myths and rituals as material for structure and form. It is often whispered however that 'Africans often laugh at tragedy’. Although the myth surrounding this conjecture is yet to be unraveled, the questions remain as: Do Africans and for that matter Ghanaians have their own form of tragedy and can this form be suitably called tragedy or would a different name be applied? Do we as Ghanaians have our own kind if occurrences, disasters and catastrophes that attract more empathy and purge their emotions other than the Aristotelian form? These questions keep lingering in my mind. I hope to interpret these complexities and the cultural politics involved in these creative workings.

Source: UG
To Coil or Not To Coil: Application Practices, Perception and Efficacy of Mosquito Coils in a Malaria-Endemic Community in Ghana

Although evidence of mosquito coils’ impact on disease epidemiology is limited, they are popularized as mosquito-borne disease prevention devices. Their usage affects the environment, human and mosquito health. This study investigated the perception, usage pattern and efficacy of coils in a predominantly poor malaria-endemic Ghanaian peri-urban area. Information on protection methods, perception and usage pattern was garnered using questionnaires. The efficacy of commonly used coils in the area was then assessed on the malaria vector, Anopheles gambiae, in a glass chamber. Sole or co-application of mosquito control methods and risky usage practices were reported. Coils were deemed harmful to humans and mosquitoes, and their perceived effectiveness varied, with several factors influencing their purchase. High d-allethrin concentration coils induced quicker mosquito knockdown; however, mortality was less than 85%. The coil usage pattern compromises users’ health and can enhance mosquito tolerance to d-allethrin. The coils were ineffective against the vector, outlining a dichotomy between the users’ perception of efficacy and the observed efficacy. Hence, the usage of other safer and more effective vector control methods should be encouraged to protect households.

Source: UG
To comment or not to comment on judgments of the courts of law

The Tsatsu Tsikata case has come to an end. Or has it? In the last couple of weeks, the media, one of the veritable bulwarks of our infant democracy, has literally pursued and harassed members of the legal community for comments on the case. In many instances, the media was genuinely seeking for a down-to-earth explanation of the events reported to have happened in the High Court (Fast track Division) on the 18th of June, 2008, when the judgment in the case was delivered, and what the options for Mr. Tsatsu Tsikata were. They were also seeking to assist the public to understand the implications for the administration of Justice and for Mr. Tsikata, given that one aspect of the case was then pending before the Supreme Court for determination when judgment was delivered in the high Court. Things got so bad that some radio and television stations were literally begging for clarification on some of the issues, for the public. In this short article, I express concern about the silence of the legal community and the Ghanaian public after what appears to be a travesty of justice, and suggest reasons for that sentence. I end the piece by noting some reasons why the administration of justice must constantly be under the watchful eye of the citizenry and point to ways of doing this.

Source: UG
To Explore or to Exploit? Opportunities, Dynamic Capabilities, and Performance of Maritime Enterprises in Ghana

This study investigates how the recognition and exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities influence small business performance via interactions with firm-level innovation capability and learning orientation. We frame the study within the maritime-sector context and seek to contribute to the understanding of how the interplay between opportunity recognition, exploitation, innovation capability and learning orientation affects the entrepreneurial performance of local businesses when there is a technological policy change. The study further frames its arguments from a dynamic capability perspective and tests its arguments with data from 284 local businesses operating in the Port of Tema. Findings reveal that opportunity exploitation and learning orientation as well as their interplay have a positive and significant effect on entrepreneurial performance. The study consequently presents local micro-entrepreneurial reactions to macro-level policy changes within the maritime sector, an issue that has largely remained uninvestigated in the African business literature due to maritime blindness.

Source: UG
To Keep the Law or to Repeal It: Views of Parliamentarians On the Call to Decriminalise Attempted Suicide in Ghana

We explored the views of members of parliament (MPs) in Ghana on the call to decriminalise attempted suicide. We applied reflexive thematic analysis to Parlia mentary Hansards (2017–2020) on calls to decriminalise attempted suicide in Ghana. 11 MPs shared their stance for or against the call. We developed three major themes that entailed, often, opposing views: (1) deterrent effect of the law (against: the law punishes and deters to protect life; for: the law is insensitive and has ironic effects), (2) enforcement of the law (against: leave things as they are, the law is not enforced, anyway; for: crime is not self-inflicted) and (3) prioritisation of suicide prevention (against: focus on more pressing issues, but resource support systems; for: the law and legitimate support systems cannot co-exist). The findings indicate two needs: to extend suicide literacy to Ghanaian MPs, and to initiate a public/private member’s bill on attempted suicide decriminalisation.

Source: UG
To speak or not to speak with the whole mouth: Textualization of taboo subjects in Europhone African literature

Taboos, since the dawn of time, have been used by human societies to regulate behavior and discourse. African writers are aware of these codes that regulate conduct, supposedly in the name of the common good. The article discusses taboo adherence and taboo violation in respect of death, madness, sex, and incest in Europhone African literature and concludes that African writers largely display a certain dynamism in their reaction to taboos. © 2006 Sage Publications.

Source: UG
‘To speak or not to speak’: Exploring the reasons and channels of (non) disclosure of child sexual abuse in the Ga community in Ghana

Child sexual abuse is a relatively common phenomenon across nations. Studies show that disclosing child sexual abuse is a critical aspect in resolving the problem. Yet, many children do not disclose their experiences of sexual abuse due to socio-cultural factors. The purpose of this study is to identify how incidences of child sexual abuse came to be known. Participants were selected through purposive and snowball sampling from selected com munities in the Ga community in Ghana. The findings of the study revealed that almost all the cases of child sexual abuse were discovered accidentally; that victims rarely made the deliberate effort to report these abuses. The few participants who disclosed their sexual abuse did so to their friends. The findings underscore the need for creating a culturally enabling environment that targets empowering victims to disclose their experiences of sexual abuse in order to obtain support and redress.

Source: UG
To what extent are the antimalarial markets in African countries ready for a transition to triple artemisinin-based combination therapies?

Introduction Triple artemisinin-based combination therapies (TACTs) are being developed as a response to artemisinin and partner drug resistance in the treatment of falciparum malaria in Southeast Asia. In African countries, where current artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) are still effective, TACTs have the potential to benefit the larger community and future patients by mitigating the risk of drug resistance. This study explores the extent to which the antimalarial drug markets in African countries are ready for a transition to TACTs. Methods A qualitative study was conducted in Nigeria and Burkina Faso and comprised in-depth interviews (n = 68) and focus group discussions (n = 11) with key actor groups in the innovation system of antimalarial therapies. Results Evidence of ACT failure in African countries and explicit support for TACTs by the World Health Organization (WHO) and international funders were perceived important determinants for the market prospects of TACTs in Nigeria and Burkina Faso. At the country level, slow regulatory and implementation procedures were identified as potential barriers towards rapid TACTs deployment. Integrating TACTs in public sector distribution channels was considered relatively straightforward. More challenges were expected for integrating TACTs in private sector distribution channels, which are characterized by patient demand and profit motives. Finally, several affordability and acceptability issues were raised for which ACTs were suggested as a benchmark. Conclusion The market prospects of TACTs in Nigeria and Burkina Faso will depend on the demonstration of the added value of TACTs over ACTs, their advocacy by the WHO, the inclusion of TACTs in financial and regulatory arrangements, and their alignment with current distribution and deployment practices. Further clinical, health-economic and feasibility studies are required to inform decision makers about the broader implications of a transition to TACTs in African counties. The recent reporting of artemisinin resistance and ACT failure in Africa might change important determinants of the market readiness for TACTs.

Source: UG
To What Extent Can Indirect Elections Reduce the Frequency of Contested Presidential Election Results in Africa?

A contested election result can undermine the progress of a state, including fueling lengthy and costly litigations and electoral violence. Given the rise in cases of contested election results despite some improvements in the quality of electoral processes in Africa over the years, this study investigates the extent to which the adoption of indirect elections by African states could reduce the frequency of contested presidential election results in these countries. Evidence was gathered by using non-probability stratified sampling to select 25 African countries and 6 non-African countries and collecting secondary data on the frequency of contested elections, choice of electoral system, median Gross Domestic Product per capita, quality of election processes and the extent of power sharing from 1989 to 2020. The dissertation regresses the frequency of contested elections (dependent variable) on the other variables. The choice of electoral system and the interaction between the electoral system and the quality of election processes are significant at p-levels of .003 and .029 respectively. This means that the correlation between electoral systems and the frequency of contested elections had only a 0.3 percent chance of being observed if the occurrence was due to mere chance. The probability was 2.9 percent for the correlation between the interaction term and the frequency of contested elections. For Senegal and Ghana, two African countries that use direct elections and possess the highest quality of electoral processes in the sample, the regression model predicts that the historical frequencies of contested elections in these countries are more than 5 times the mean frequency of contested elections of indirect election countries. As the quality of election processes decline among direct election countries within the sample, the gap between the predicted frequencies for direct election countries and the predicted frequencies for indirect countries widens, with the latter always being lower. This signals greater benefits for African countries with lower quality of election processes than those of Ghana and Senegal, if they do adopt indirect elections. It follows that African countries using direct elections are expected to report lower frequencies of contested election results if they adopt indirect elections. The policy implication is that African states relying on direct elections need to explore how they might transition to indirect elections in order to limit the frequency of contested presidential election results.

Source: UG
Tobacco use in older adults in Ghana: sociodemographic characteristics, health risks and subjective wellbeing

Abstract Background Tobacco use over the life-course threatens to increase disease burden in older adulthood, including lower income countries like Ghana. This paper describes demographic, socioeconomic, health risks and life satisfaction indices related to tobacco use among older adults in Ghana. Methods This work was based on the World Health Organization&#8217;s multi-country Study on global AGEing and adult health (SAGE), conducted in six countries including Ghana. Wave one of SAGE in Ghana was conducted in 2007-2008 as collaboration between WHO and the University of Ghana Medical School through the Department of Community Health. A nationally representative sample of 4305 older adults aged 50 years and above were interviewed. Associations between tobacco consumption and sociodemographic, socioeconomic, health risk and life satisfaction were evaluated using chi-square and odds ratio (OR). Logistic regression analyses, adjusted for age, sex and other variables, were conducted to determine predictors of tobacco consumption in older persons. Results Overall prevalence of current daily smokers among older adults in Ghana was 7.6%. Tobacco use (i.e. ever used tobacco) was associated with older males, (AOR&#8201;=&#8201;1.10, CI 1.05-1.15), older adults residing in rural locations (AOR&#8201;=&#8201;1.37, CI 1.083-1.724), and older adults who used alcohol (AOR&#8201;=&#8201;1.13, CI 0.230-2.418). Tobacco use was also associated (although not statistically significant per p-values) with increased self-reporting of angina, arthritis, asthma, chronic lung disease, depression, diabetes, hypertension, and stroke. Older adults who used tobacco and with increased health risks, tended to be without health insurance (AOR&#8201;=&#8201;1.41, CI 1.111-1.787). Satisfaction with life and daily living was much lower for those who use tobacco. Regional differences existed in tobacco use; the three northern regions (Upper East, Northern and Upper West) had higher proportions of tobacco use among older adults in the country. Quitting tobacco use was higher in the 70+ years age group, in women, among urban residents and in those with at least secondary education. Quitting tobacco use also increased with increasing income levels. Conclusions Tobacco use among older adults in Ghana was associated with older men living in rural locations, chronic ill-health and reduced life satisfaction. A high proportion of older adults have stopped using tobacco, demonstrating the possibilities for effective public health interventions. Health risk reduction strategies through targeted anti-smoking health campaigns, improvement in access to health and social protection (such as health insurance) will reduce health risks among older persons who use tobacco.

Source: UG