ghanaopendata/ghanaian-research-english huggingface dataset:
Optimizing the Layout of Pipe Network System of Asuakwa - Sunyani from the Main Source, Abesim in the Brong Ahafo Region

Network design phase is done before usually laying the network infrastructure. Hence it is very important that the design achieves optimality and reliability. As the water supply industry matures, there is vital interest in good pipe network design. The study is to access some of the causes of water supply problems faced by the Sunyani Community.To find the optimal solution to the pipe network system for the supply path for efficient supply, a solution-oriented modeling approach can help to devise efficient automatic planning and optimization schemes for Sunyani municipal. This thesis discuses how good mathematical models can be obtain for real-world problems using prim‘s algorithm, which model structures to minimize pipe network systems and which can help in easy and less expensive water supply especially in the Asuakwaa in Sunyani from Abesim thus Tano river.The prim‘s algorithm employed to find the optimal solution was able to reduce the total pipe network system of about 30% of the original network. After having briefly explained the main aspect of network planning such as minimum connection, reliability, network configuration and so on, it characterizes the difference situation where basic algorithms of graph theory could be reused.

Source: KNUST
Optimizing Transportation Cost of Solid Waste: a case study in the New Juaben Municipality

Ridding our cities, towns and communities of filth has been one of the major concerns of various governments in Ghana. Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies have the responsibility of ensuring that the populace is not engulfed with filth to the detriment of their health. Owing to the skyrocketing prices of petroleum products and high maintenance cost of vehicles used in the collection and transportation of solid waste by Zoomlion in the New Juaben Municipality. This thesis sought to determine the number of trips each type of vehicle (skip, compactor and roll-on) used in the transportation should go per day to minimize operational cost. The problem was formulated as an Integer Linear Programming problem and was solved using the software AMPL and the CPLEX solver. The results show that if only one roll-on vehicle makes 14 trips per day, the expected quantum of solid waste needed to be hauled to the landfill site at Akwadum, 5km away, per day, can be achieved at a minimum cost of GH70.

Source: KNUST
An optimum bank fund allocation plan from a loan portfolio: the case study of Atwima Kwanwoma Rural Bank

The thesis is designed to model a linear programming problem and to apply optimization techniques to the operations of real life problems of banks giving out loans to different clientele. The main objective of the study was to determine the maximum net returns which comprises of the difference between the revenue from interest and lost funds due to bad debts. The bad debts are not recoverable both as principal and interest, thus reducing the total revenue. It is also to u se the optimum solution to determine among the different clientele, the ones that are recommended and the ones that are least attractive. Atwima Kwanwuma Rural Bank was chosen as the bank for the study. Atwima Kwanwuma Rural Bank give out loans to different group of peoples such as: Travel loans, other loans, Churches loans, Group loans and Susu loans among others. A linear programming model which is one of the quantitative analysis techniques was developed and the Simplex Method used to solve the problem. It was found out that the bank could make an optimum profit of 23.002 billion annually. That is about 37.1% of 62 billion, the total amount disbursed as loans to the above

Source: KNUST
Optimum Loan Portfolio Selection: A Case Study of Juaben Rural Bank, Ashanti Region

Banks receive money on current or deposit account, pay and collect cheques drawn by or paid by customers, making of advances to customers. A bank can generate revenue in a different ways including interest, transaction of fees and financial advice. The main method is through charging interest on the capital it lends out to customers. The objectives of the study were; (i) to come out with a quantitative model that will maximize the returns on loans (ii) to determine optimum loan portfolio for Juaben rural bank. Both primary and secondary data were gathered from Juaben Rural Bank. The data included; type of loans, the interest rate and the probability of bad debt associated with each type of loan. The data was then modelled as a linear programming problem. The Quantitative Manager for Windows software was used to solve the problem. It was observed that out of six million, five hundred thousand Ghana cedis (GH¢6,500,000.00) to be disbursed as loan in 2012 financial year, one million, one hundred and ten thousand, four hundred and sixteen Ghana cedis (GH¢1,110,416.00) and seven hundred and four thousand, one hundred and sixty-six Ghana cedis (GH¢704,166.00) should be given to agriculture and transport sectors respectively. The trading sector should be given one million, four hundred and eighty- nine thousand, five hundred and eighty four Ghana cedis (GH¢1,489,584.00), The cottage industry, one million, four hundred and thirty five thousand, four hundred and seventeen Ghana ceids (GH¢1,435,417.00) and salary loans one million, seven hundred and sixty thousand, four hundred and seventeen Ghana cedis (GH¢1,760,417.00). With these allocation the bank will make a maximum profit of one million, eight hundred and fifty- two thousand, four thundered eighty- five Ghana cedis eighty nine pesewas (GH ¢1,852,485.89).

Source: KNUST
Optimum Production Planning Problem: A Case Study of Aspect Water Company Limited in Techiman Municipality

All production firms aim at maximizing profit after sales of their products but due to lack of technological and scientific approach in the production setting, many cannot achieve the stated objectives. This study showed the trend of production of sachet water at AWCL which gave the quantity of sachet water produced in each month for the year, 2011. The major objective of this study is to minimize the total cost of production at AWCL using Linear Programming model. The optimal solution to the production planning problem was generated by LP Solver and the demand and supply at each month were determined. The AWCL incurs cost of GH¢1.2355 when producing a bag of sachet water but with the use of linear Programming model, the cost of producing a bag of water was reduced to GH¢0.831519. The analysis also showed that, increasing the wages of regular workers and reducing that of overtime help the company to produce more with minimum cost of production. AWCL should employ more overtime labour when it is necessary to meet the urgent demands from the customers. Instead of employing more manual labour force, the company could have used machinery that can do assembling and packaging of the sachet water. Computer – based planning (scheduling) help the manufacturers to attend to orders from their respective customers easily and to enhance on – time delivery of products. The computerized planning performs better and faster than manual scheduling tools. The analysis showed that the production planning can facilitate the production processes in a way that help the company to streamline the activities that go on during acquisition of raw materials for production and the demands from the customers could be met when the wages of regular labour force are increased.

Source: KNUST
An Optimum Fund Allocation Pun from a Loan Portfolio: Case Study South Akim Rural Bank Limited

The dissertation is designed to model a linear programming problem and apply optimization techniques to the operation of real life problems of banking given out loans to different clientele. The main objective of the study was to determine the maximum optimal profit which comprised the difference between the revenue from interest and the lost funds due to bad debts. Since bad debts are unrecoverable as both die principal and interest, thus reducing the total revenue. It is also used as the optimal solution to determine among the different clientele, the one that are recommended and those that are less attractive. A rural bank named, South Akim Rural Bank Limited was chosen for the case study. The bank gives loans to people of various categories, classified as Agriculture loans, Cottage industry loans, Transport loans, Commerce loans and Personal loans. The various group loans are analyzed and mdeled as various linear inequalities. Linear programming is developed and solved by using simplex tableau method It has found out that the bank made an optimal profit of 0.527192 million Ghana cedis annually with the decision variables optimal value: x, =0.0000, x2=0.0000, x3 =0.0000, x4 =0.9395and x5 =0.9400. This pilot study outlines the result of reduced Cost associated with some of decision variables and how to adjust them just to be profitable. ✓ Furthermore, the report looks at the effect analysis on the change of the Right-Hand Side of a constraint and that of the objective function coefficient for basic variables they have on the current basis, decision variables and the optimal Z-value

Source: KNUST
Optimum Production Problem: A Case Study of Ghacem- Takoradi

The cement industry is the building block of the nation's construction industry. Few construction projects can take place without utilizing cement somewhere in the design. The most important use of cement is the production of mortar and concrete – the bonding of natural or artificial aggregates to form a strong building material, which is durable in the face of normal environmental effects. The main objective of this study is to develop cement production model at Takoradi-Ghacem using linear programming to minimize the monthly cost of cement production. A theoretical method used in solving models (graphical method and simplex method) and sixpap, software for solving linear programming models was used. The study revealed among others, the factors that influence the cost of producing cement at Takoradi- Ghacem for which the production of a bag of cement becomes expensive. The factors include: cost of labour, cost of electricity, cost of fuel, cost of raw materials and cost of maintenance. Among the above listed factors, the most influential factors are: cost of raw materials and cost of electricity. The study revealed that, the average total cost ghs38500.40 and ghs1003585 for raw materials and electricity respectively can be optimized to ghs69667.04. This optimal solution can be achieved if the total quantity of electricity is reduced to 554859.45 kwh and the quantity of raw materials remains the same.

Source: KNUST
Option of the Collegiate System at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST): Any Impact on the Provision of Library Service/a Decade of Collegiality Prospects and Challenge

The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) adopted the collegiate system as a method of administration in 2004. What motivated this system of administration? How has the system impacted on the provision of library services? Are there any measures, which could be put in place to ensure the sustenance of the new system? This evaluative piece is an attempt to answer the outlined questions. Data was gathered from selected interviews and secondary source, which is qualitative data. Data from each source was analyzed descriptively. The research revealed that, the collegiate system has fostered a strong sense of community, bringing together leading academics and students across subjects and year groups and from different cultures and countries. Colleges have invested heavily in facilities including extensive library resources and IT provision. Decision making in the library system has improved which before, decisions affecting library affairs in the faculties (as was the case) were taken by the faculty board in most cases with no representation from the library. With the adoption of the collegiate system, the College Librarian serves on all boards of the faculties and has direct influence on every decision taken at that level. Now, library matters have been brought to the fore and are now considered among top priorities in the agenda of all faculties. The improvement has also affected the budgetary allocation of the library. The collegiate system has triggered series of restructuring and expansion works. This has affected the provision of library services through redesign of library spaces in the colleges, recruitment of additional staff and the acquisition of relevant literature to support the teaching, learning and research. This evaluative research reveals that, the system has gained roots, structures continue to be improved, initial challenges are being overcome. The recommendations given is that, support is needed for periodic review of the new collegiate system. Such reviews will assist in ensuring that most created and anticipated impediments are managed and solved.

Source: KNUST
Options for forestry extension service delivery for small holder farmers

Forestry extension models have the potential of improving landscape restoration in the off-reserve areas. Off reserve landscape restoration is purely dominated by small holder farmers who lack requisite knowledge to sustain tree planting activities. As a business, forestry extension provides a platform for knowledge sharing to small holder farmers in the area of forest management, silvicultural techniques, marketing and investment. Prescribing an appropriate option for forestry extension model has become a major challenge for most third world countries where publicly-led forestry extension services had failed due to funds. The current situation present lack of permanent institutional framework to carry out forestry extension services efficient and appropriate to small holder farmers in off reserve areas where landscape has deteriorated and requires restoration. This institutional deficiency is therefore seen as a gap affecting the contribution of small holder farmers in off reserve landscape restoration. Nketia (2014) confirm this gap by stating that forest plantation developer’s especially small holder farmers lack adequate knowledge and support needs in their drive to establish and manage forest plantations. The type of knowledge gaps that farmers require through forestry extension services provision are; marketing, Technical, farmer associations and emerging purposes extension (Swanson, 2008). This study was an attempt to access the appropriate models of options for forestry extension services delivery. Random and purposive sampling techniques were employed for the selection of respondents in nine communities of the three study areas as well as the key informants of the institutions that were involved in the delivery of forestry extension services. The results revealed that the public led extension model was the most preferred model type as against the partnership, NGO and private extension type though the four were closely related. 24% of respondent preferred FC-led public extension model, 21.8% preferred partnership/hybrid type by FC-NGO and 19.8% had preference for NGO under privately extension model. Accordingly, the FC-NGO led-partnership / hybrid forestry extension model was recommended as an appropriate model. This is because contemporary forestry extension model is shifting to partnership model and also NGO‘s led field extension practiced have observable result compared with any other model type.

Source: KNUST
Oral health care delivery in Ghana - the case of Tamale Municipality

Oral Health Care delivery is an important aspect of the Delivery of general care in the country. However, this aspect of the care seems neglected. To date no situation Analysis has been carried out for improvements to be made to the service in Tamale municipality, even though Clinical Data point to increasing deterioration. In this study the factors affecting Oral Health Care delivery have been examined and recommendations made. The study was a cross-sectional descriptive one involving collection of Data from various sources, Oral Health Survey of twelve years old and fifteen year olds to determine the disease burden, interviews and questionnaires. Results obtained indicated the following: 1. Oral Health Care delivery faces problems of lack of Policy guidelines, lack of budget allocation, lack of personnel and lack of oral Health Care promotion activities. There is also a low priority given to the sector by Health managers. 2 There is a high prevalence of oral diseases in the municipality Prevalence levels ranged from 52% to 68% for periodontal disease and 12% to 24% for caries. 3. Knowledge and attitudes of patients toward Oral Health are poor. Pain is the greatest compelling factor for utilization of the service (85%). 4. Public Dental Health is much more important to health needs than clinical work, which only deals with a small portion of the disease burden. 5. Knowledge and attitudes of Teachers and community /Public Health Nurses are excellent and this could be tapped for the general benefit of the community.

Source: KNUST
Option pricing : a particle filtering approach

Option pricing is a critical issue in the financial market. An investigation into the use of Sampling Importance Resampling (SIR) filter for financial option pricing in the Black-Schole model is performed. The impact of process noise, measurement noise, and the number of particles on the accuracy and performance of SIR filter is examined. The Black-Schole model is solved by the finite difference scheme. The SIR filter is implemented by the use of the GARCH model and the Black-Schole model with synthetic data. The effect of different process noise, measurement noise, and number of particles on the SIR filter was examined. It was found that the SIR filter performed well at lower process noise and high measurement noise when considering profitability of a call option. Also, as the number of particle decrease the SIR filter performed very well.

Source: KNUST
Oral Health Centre, Kumasi

It has been estimated that 80% of the total Ghanaian population have some form of oral health need, be it in the form of hygiene, maintenance or treatment of dental or maxillo facial diseases. Knowledge of the maintenance of teeth is very low in Ghana and most cases that reach the dentist are in the destructive stage. In Ghana, most oral diseases are preventable, however, the lack of education especially in the rural areas aggravates the situation. It is in this light that the Ministry of Health in its efforts to provide health for all by the year 2020, has proposed for all health institutions a certain level of service facilities related to the community they serve.

Source: KNUST
Oral Health Literacy and Behaviors among students of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology

Introduction: Oral health is a major determinant in the overall quality of life of all individuals. Oral health literacy, which is the ability of an individual to obtain, understand and use oral health information needed to make informed choices concerning oral health, has been put forth as one of the main influencers of oral health outcomes. This study is to relate oral health literacy (OHL) to certain selected variables. Method: A cross-sectional design was used for this survey. A sample size of 381 was determined by EpiInfo. An interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to collect data among KNUST students. REALD-30 toolkit was used to assess OHL and OHL levels. Multiple linear and multivariate regression analysis was used to determine the predictive associations between OHL and other variables such as college, gender, age, dental visit status and frequency of tooth brushing. Results: Social media was the most preferred medium of oral health education among students (67.65%) while the most preferred medium for the general population was television and radio (49.47%). 33.96% of the population had no prior exposure to any form of oral health knowledge, while 33.18% had never visited a dentist. The mean OHL score was 12.10, with 88.50% having low OHL levels, 8.82% having moderate OHL levels and 2.67% having high OHL levels. Gender (C=-0.116, p=0.005), age (C=- 0.025, p=0.003), college (C=-0.071, p=0.000) and exposure to education (C=0.132, p=0.002) significantly predicted OHL levels. Dental visit status (C=-0.15, p=0.013), frequency of visit (-0.29, p=0.008) and tooth brushing frequency (C=-0.199, p=0.006) were also significantly predicted by OHL levels. Conclusion: About a third of the population had neither been exposed to oral health education nor visited a dentist. There is the need for further studies and further education of students and the general population to be carried out through their preferred media.

Source: KNUST
Oral health literacy and behaviors among students of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology

Introduction: Oral health is a major determinant in the overall quality of life of all individuals. Oral health literacy, which is the ability of an individual to obtain, understand and use oral health information needed to make informed choices concerning oral health, has been put forth as one of the main influencers of oral health outcomes. This study is to relate oral health literacy (OHL) to certain selected variables. Method: A cross-sectional design was used for this survey. A sample size of 381 was determined by EpiInfo. An interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to collect data among KNUST students. REALD-30 toolkit was used to assess OHL and OHL levels. Multiple linear and multivariate regression analysis was used to determine the predictive associations between OHL and other variables such as college, gender, age, dental visit status and frequency of toothbrushing. Results: Social media was the most preferred medium of oral health education among students (67.65%) while the most preferred medium for the general population was television and radio (49.47%). 33.96% of the population had no prior exposure to any form of oral health knowledge, while 33.18% had never visited a dentist. The mean OHL score was 12.10, with 88.50% having low OHL levels, 8.82% having moderate OHL levels and 2.67% having high OHL levels. Gender (C=-0.116, p=0.005), age (C=-0.025, p=0.003), college (C=-0.071, p=0.000) and exposure to education (C=0.132, p=0.002) significantly predicted OHL levels. Dental visit status (C=-0.15, p=0.013), frequency of visit (-0.29, p=0.008) and toothbrushing frequency (C=-0.199, p=0.006) were also significantly predicted by OHL levels. v Conclusion: About a third of the population had neither been exposed to oral health education nor visited a dentist. There is the need for further studies and further education of students and the general population to be carried out through their preferred media.

Source: KNUST
Ore petrology and geochemistry of the Ichiniso Bauxite Deposit, Awaso, Ghana

The petrological, geochemical and genetic relationships characterising the Ichiniso bauxite deposit have been examined. Seven litho-units, segregating into iron-rich and iron-poor varieties, have been distinguished. It is concluded that the bauxite resulted from the removal of Na, K, Ca, silica and iron by leaching when kaolinitic clays, developed from the phyillite bedrock, were subjected to varying Eh — pH conditions. Resilication of the low-lying section of the deposit have recognised.

Source: KNUST