ghanaopendata/ghanaian-research-english huggingface dataset:
Identification of Plasmodium Falciparum Histidine-Rich Protein Ii and Iii (PFHRP2/3) gene deletions in two communities in southern Ghana: Implications on rapid diagnostic tests

Malaria Rapid Diagnostic Tests (RDT’s) have improved malaria diagnosis in highly endemic rural settings. However, the increasingly high false negative rates of Plasmodiumfalciparum histidine-rich protein II (PfHRP2) based RDT kits (PfHRP2-RDT) is a major obstacle to the rapid and reliable diagnosis of malaria. This study was aimed at determining the rate of false-negative RDT as well as the prevalence of P. falciparum parasites with pfhrp2 deletions in selected communities in the Southern Ghana. Whole blood was collected from volunteers living in Obom (high transmission) and Asutsuare(low transmission) and separated into plasma and cell pellet. Genomic DNA was extracted from 310 cell pellets from both sites using the ZymoDNA Kit®. Species-specific 18srRNAPCR was used to identify P.falciparum positive samples. Pfmsp2 and glurp genotyping was used to determine recrudescence or new infection. Good quality DNA samples were then subjected to pfhrp2 exon 1 and PCR as well as pfhrp3 exon 2 PCR. PfHRP2 antigen level was determined using a pfhrp2 Malaria Ag CELISA kit.Microscopy estimation of malaria parasites were 3.3 % of samples from Asutsuare against 39.8 % of Obom samples. The RDTs had 1.7 % of samples from Asutsuare while Obom had 53.4 %. Using 18srRNAPCR for P. falciparum speciation, 59.1 % of the Asutsuare samples tested positive for the malaria parasite whereas 65.8 % of the Obom samples tested positive. Plasmodium falciparum parasites with deletions of both pfhrp2 and pfhrp3 gene were 1.7 % in Obom and 4.8 % in Asutsuare. An R-square value of 0.997 and 0.994 were obtained for Obom and Asutsuare Regression Analysis of ELISA respectively. Deletions of pfhrp2 and pfhrp3 genes were identified in the two study sites and there were higher quantities of PfHRP2 antigens in Obom than in Asutsuare.

Source: UCC
Identification of sand flies (diptera: psychodidae) collected from cutaneous leishmaniasis endemic focus in the Ho Municipality, Ghana

Leishmaniasis, is a vector-borne disease transmitted to humans through the bite of infected female sand flies. Active and continuous monitoring of the sand fly is an important aspect of disease control. Thus, the correct identification of its vectors is paramount in this regard. Objective: The study was conducted to morphologically and molecularly identify female sand fly species in a cutaneous leishmaniasis endemic focus collected in three villages in the Ho Municipality of the Volta region. CDC light traps and sticky paper traps were used for the collection of the sand flies. The morphologically identified sand flies were molecularly confirmed by running PCR with the mitochondrial cytochrome coxidase gene subunit I (COI) primers and DNA sequenced. A total of 537 sand flies were collected, made up of 363 females and 174 males. Eleven different species of sand flies was morphologically identified – one Phlebotomus species and ten Sergentomyia species. The PCR amplified products showed bands of molecular weights 658 base pairs for the primers. The molecular identification using the 658-bp fragment of the (COI) gene was congruent with the morphological identification

Source: UCC
Identification of Sand Flies (Diptera: Psychodidae) Collected from Cutaneous Leishmaniasis Endemic Focus in the Ho Municipality, Ghana

Leishmaniasis, is a vector-borne disease transmitted to humans through the bite of infected female sand flies. Active and continuous monitoring of the sand fly is an important aspect of disease control. Thus, the correct identification of its vectors is paramount in this regard. Objective: The study was conducted to morphologically and molecularly identify female sand fly species in a cutaneous leishmaniasis endemic focus collected in three villages in the Ho Municipality of the Volta region. CDC light traps and sticky paper traps was used for the collection of the sand flies. The morphologically identified sand flies was molecularly confirmed by running PCR with the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase gene subunit I (COI) primers and DNA sequenced. A total of 537 sand flies was collected, made up of 363 females and 174 males. Eleven different species of sand flies was morphologically identified – one Phlebotomus species and ten Sergentomyia species. The PCR amplified products showed bands of molecular weights 658 base pairs for the primers. The molecular identification using the 658- bp fragment of the (COI) gene was congruent with the morphological identification.

Source: UCC
Identification of the Vector and Leishmania Species in Endemic Cutaneous Leishmaniasis Communities in the Ho Municipality

Leishmaniasis is a parasitic neglected tropical disease which is caused by protozoan parasites. These parasites are transmitted by the bite of infected female sand flies (vectors) that feed on blood. Monitoring of these sand flies is significant for leishmaniasis control. This study assessed the relationship of species of sand flies, Leishniania spp. and human host in endemic communities of the Ho Municipality. Structured questionnaires were administered to individuals in the selected endemic communities. Sand flies were collected, and morphologically identified using Centre for Disease Control light and sticky paper traps and taxonomic keys respectively. Cytochrome c oxidase 1 gene was used to confirm the sand flies that were morphologically identified. Initial PCR amplification of cytochrome b and mincircle genes were carried out. DNA sequencing was carried out to identify blood meal source and Leishniania DNA in sand flies. A phylogenetic tree was constructed and a pairwise heat map was generated to examine the patterns of relatedness/ similarity amongst the Leishmania spp. detected. The results obtained from the knowledge, attitude and practice analysis showed that 88.29% of the study participants had a reasonable knowledge of the disease and its local name. The study participants were of the view that the disease was mainly treated with a particular type of herb - Hyptis suaveolens (L) Poit. Eleven different species of sand flies were morphologically identified. Of the female sand flies species identified, 23.14% had taken a blood meal. DNA sequencing results indicated that four of the female sand flies had fed on house mouse {Mils nuiscuhts) and human blood. It can be concluded that L. major, L. amazonensis and L. donovani were identified as the possible parasites circulating in the endemic communities.

Source: UCC
Identifying and Meeting the Counselling Needs of Distance Learners as Shapers of Students’ Academic Success: The Case of University of Cape Coast, Ghana

The purpose of the study was to identify and meet the counselling needs of distance students, focusing on College of Distance Education (CoDE), University of Cape Coast (UCC) diploma students, in order to help shape students’ academic success. The moderating roles of organisational culture and effective counselling service delivery were also considered. The descriptive survey design was used. The sample size of the study was 1110. Purposive sampling technique was used to select three regional capitals (Greater-Accra, Ashanti and Northern Regions) while stratified random sampling technique was used to select the respondents. Questionnaire with a reliability coefficient of 0.895 was the instrument used. Out of the 1110 questionnaires administered, the researcher was able to collect 1075 completed and accurate questionnaires, representing 96.8 percent response rate. The independent samples t-test and hierarchical linear multiple regression analysis were used to analyse the data. The findings of the study revealed that diploma students of CoDE had four broad priority counselling needs. Furthermore, the counselling needs of distance students were not adequately met by the College. The study concludes that whenever the organisational culture of the college supports the activities of the counselling unit, and also when the service delivery of the unit is perceived to be effective, the unit is able to meet students’ identified priority needs which will in turn lead to students’ academic success. However, to enhance academic success, students’ personal characteristics such as gender, age and level of study should be considered when identifying and meeting the counselling needs of students. It is recommended to the College to nurture the kind of atmosphere that will support counselling activities in order to help boost students’ academic success.

Source: UCC
Identifying key contributing root system traits to genetic diversity in field grown cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L. Walp.) genotypesying key contributing root system traits to genetic diversity in field grown cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L. Walp.) genotypes

Cowpea is a grain legume that is grown extensively as an alternate protein and income source for many smallholder farmers. Characterizing cowpea root phenotypes could provide the basis for developing genotypes with root system architecture (RSA) traits that increase soil resource acquisition. Measuring RSA traits of any field crop is a demanding task, in terms of expediency, time, cost, and competence. Targeted root phenotyping strategies focusing on a few relevant traits might aid in side-stepping some of the challenges associated with phenotyping roots of field crops. The objectives of this study were to (i) measure genotypic variation for RSA and shoot traits of cowpea genotypes; and (ii) identify candidate variables and genotypes that contribute the largest share of variance. Sixty cowpea accession were grown in field trials at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana. Seventy variables, mostly quantitative RSA traits were measured. Multivariate analysis was used to determine major traits contributing to variation. There were significant differences (P < 0.05) for the majority of traits evaluated. Fifty-nine traits had coefficients of variation of ≥0.3 among genotypes and were selected for further examination. Broad-sense heritability (H2) estimates were generally intermediate to high and ranged from 0.11 to 0.96. The Shannon-Weaver diversity index (H’) was variable among traits and ranged from 0.00 to 0.88. Shoot and root biomass correlated closely and positively with count- and length- and diameter-related traits. Cluster analysis identified three homogeneous genotype groups and identified groups of cowpea genotypes that could be exploited in breeding programs to improve the genetic basis of root traits. The first nine principal components explained over 74% of total genotypic variation for the twenty-nine traits included in the PCA. Sixteen traits contributed more than other traits to the variability in PC1 and PC2. Soil and root tissue angle-related traits, shoot and root diameter-related traits, root biomass, hypocotyl root length, root count and lateral root density -related traits were among the top 50% of the most important traits contributing to variation and thus warrant consideration in efforts to breed for improved genotypes in cowpea. The workflow presented offers a robust, cost-effective and simple approach to identifying focal root traits that contribute to diversity in grain legumes. The results could potentially facilitate the characterization of specific traits suitable for targeted genotype selection and breeding of new cowpea varieties for efficient RSAs.

Source: UCC
Identity and representation through language in Ghana: The postcolonial self and the other

Research related to colonialism and post colonialism shows how the identities of indigenous people were constructed and how these identities are reconstructed in our contemporary world. The thrust of this paper is that colonialism brought a shift in the linguistic structure of Ghana with the introduction of the use of English among Ghanaians. The coexistence of both Ghanaian languages and English after colonialism has introduced a hybrid linguistic situation that is engineered by the presence or absence of literacy among the people of Ghana. The paper asserts that language and formal literacy, which have been closely linked to the English language, have informed the construction and reconstruction of identities of elitism and subjectivities and subsequently led to the representation of such identities in different pragmatic contexts. The paper advocates a reconsideration of language policies in mainly post-colonial contexts to bring indigenous language to coexist equally with former colonial languages in education and other related contexts

Source: UCC
Identity and resistance in Toni Morrison’s Song Of Solomon, Beloved and Paradise

This thesis, on quest for identity and the use of resistance in Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon, Beloved and Paradise, examines the African-American’s search for an authentic self and the various forms of resistance they resort to in their quest. In Song of Solomon, the protagonist, Milkman leaves home in search of gold that would buy him his freedom but rather ends up on a journey in search for his roots; the discovery of which eventually earns him his identity. In Beloved, Sethe, the protagonist, and others had to resist slavery at Sweet Home, the ironically named slave plantation, in search for their freedom and identity and to resist recapture and return to slavery; Sethe had to kill her baby daughter, Beloved. Sethe has to live through a lot of trauma before being redeemed. Again, in the quest for an authentic self, an identity based on racial purity in Paradise, nine 8-rock men from the town of Ruby murder five harmless women in a nearby Convent because they suspect the women of being stumbling blocks in their quest. The thesis shows the extent to which the search for a genuinely moral and cultural identity depends on a revisionary historiography. We cannot really claim ourselves morally or politically until we have reconstructed our individual and collective identities, re-examined our dead and our disremembered. This project is not simply one of adding to one’s ancestral line, it often involves fundamental discoveries about what ancestry is, what continuity consist in, how cultural meanings do not just sustain themselves through history but are in fact materially embodied and fought for.

Source: UCC
Identity Resources and Mathematics Teaching Identity: An Exploratory Study

Previous studies have reported the influence of professional development (PD) on participating teachers’ identities. However, what goes on in PDs, how and why they shape particular identities require further investigation. This study contributes in this direction by drawing on the notions of practice-linked identities and identity resources to examine how two teachers’ mathematics teaching identities developed following their interactions with the resources offered in a particular PD. We argue that their developing mathematics teaching identities appeared to be linked to their backgrounds and initial motivations for joining the PD, which in turn influenced their selective interaction with resources. Implications for research and PD are discussed.

Source: UCC
Identity: Globalization, Culture and Psychological Functioning

This paper examines the influence of globalization on psychological functioning. It noted that globalization is somehow a vital step toward both a more stable world and better lives for people in it. However, human lives are increasingly being challenged and integrated into larger global networks of relationships. The forces of globalization are taxing the youth, families, and cultural systems worldwide. All social systems are contaminated by the need to borrow values, morals, skills, and competencies from the next regions or nations. The process of globalization and its attendant consequences may lead to a stripping away of culture identity. It will lead to a break down in social interaction within a local context, a vital means that used to build a great sense of cultural identity and belongingness. This is because globalization is speeding up social and cultural processes such that time and space are no longer constrain on human activities. Conditions and social interactions are now organized so as to connect presence and absent others. Then also most people in the world now develop a bicultural identity, in which part of their identity is rooted in their local culture while another part stems from an awareness of their relation to the global culture. Furthermore, there is pervasiveness of identity confusion as local cultures change in response to globalization, some young people find themselves at home in neither the local culture nor the global culture.

Source: UCC
Ideological prostitution as a bane of africa's development: a reading of the suns of independence and tribaliques

One major concern which serves as raw material for literary production for most post independence African novels is the phenomenon of ideological prostitution. Thisphenomenon is a direct product of ideological confusion resulting from the divergent nature of the interests of Western colonialists who scrambled over the African continent following the Berlin Conference in 1884. The colonial enterprise was driven by the sheer desire of Western capitalist countries to usurp, dominate and exploit occupied territories in Africa to feed Western industries in metropolitan Europe. In the wake of this adventure, conflicting ideologies such as capitalism, socialism, communism, Marxism, Leninism, Christianity, nationalism, fetishism, Islam, traditionalism, modernism, etc. which were generating a lot of debates in Western societies found themselves smuggledinto Africa with the various agents of colonialism and imperialism. Be it through the British colonial policy of indirect rule or the French policy of direct rule and assimilation, the African people have been fully or partially socialized into these exogenous ideologies which they do not understand in any way, yet are expected to use in the conception of solutions to their ever-growing developmental challenges and socio-political, organisation. This paper is an attempt to provoke intellectual discourse and to generate critical debates on the need for ideological literacy informed by indigenous African realities and world views. It critically examines how Ahmadou Kourouma and Henri Lopès, combining symbolism, metaphor, irony and sarcasm, bring to the fore the ridiculous nature of ideological prostitution, otherwise confusion, and its nefarious developmental impact. The study is an empirical one supported with textual data gathered the two novels listed in the topic above. It is posited in the theoretical framework of Van Dijk's Critical Discourse Studies (CDS)

Source: UCC
Ideological prostitution as a bane of africa's development: a reading of the suns of independence and tribaliques

One major concern which serves as raw material for literary production for most post-independence African novels is the phenomenon of ideological prostitution. This phenomenon is a direct product of ideological confusion resulting from the divergent nature of the interests of Western colonialists who scrambled over the African continent following the Berlin Conference in 1884. The colonial enterprise was driven by the sheer desire of Western capitalist countries to usurp, dominate and exploit occupied territories in Africa to feed Western industries in metropolitan Europe. In the wake of this adventure, conflicting ideologies such as capitalism, socialism, communism, Marxism, Leninism, Christianity, nationalism, fetishism, Islam, traditionalism, modernism, etc. which were generating a lot of debates in Western societies found themselves smuggled into Africa with the various agents of colonialism and imperialism. Be it through the British colonial policy of indirect rule or the French policy of direct rule and assimilation, the African people have been fully or partially socialized into these exogenous ideologies which they do not understand in any way, yet are expected to use in the conception of solutions to their ever-growing developmental challenges and socio-political, organisation. This paper is an attempt to provoke intellectual discourse and to generate critical debates on the need for ideological literacy informed by indigenous African realities and world views. It critically examines how Ahmadou Kourouma and Henri Lopès, combining symbolism, metaphor, irony and sarcasm, bring to the fore the ridiculous nature of ideological prostitution, otherwise confusion, and its nefarious developmental impact. The study is an empirical one supported with textual data gathered the two novels listed in the topic above. It is posited in the theoretical framework of Van Dijk's Critical Discourse Studies (CDS)

Source: UCC
If Teachers Don’t Read, How do Students Learn?

The study examined teachers’ involvement in the implementation of a pedagogical innovation in the curriculum. One hundred and ninety secondary school teachers were purposively sampled. A questionnaire was designed to explore a number of elements including availability and use of the document and teachers’ knowledge of the innovation specified in the curriculum. The findings showed that teachers are not involved in the implementation of the curriculum as they should. This is evident from the fact that they do not have knowledge of the curriculum with regards to the pedagogical innovation. Teachers do not read the syllabus of the subjects they teach as they should. In order for curriculum innovation to be properly implemented and sustained, teachers’ roles in and understanding of the innovation are crucial. Thus, the implications of the findings are discussed in terms of teacher preparation and training.

Source: UCC
“If your parents help you grow your teeth; you help them lose theirs”: Family Support for the Aged in Yamoransa, Ghana

Using the hierarchical compensatory model of social care, the study assessed the material and instrumental family support available to the aged in Yamoransa. A cross-sectional survey design was employed to collect data from 153 respondents aged 60 years and above using the simple random sampling technique. It was observed that the traditional system of support for the elderly was still functional with families providing the aged with both material and instrumental support. The results also showed that females receive more assistance on material support thanmales; but males receive more instrumental support than females. Both males and females intimated that the support they received was inadequate. To ensure a reliable care system for the elderly family and community members should reinforce the Ghanaian tradition of filial piety

Source: UCC
IFRS compliance, corporate governance and financial reporting quality of GSE-listed nonfinancial firms

The adoption of International financial reporting standards (IFRS) has been presented in several empirical literature as a factor that could improve the quality of financial reports. However, Ghana has not attained the desired levels of financial reporting quality after the adoption of IFRS. Literature reveals that lack of proper enforcement of these high-quality standards may result in limited compliance and will undermine the effectiveness of these standards in terms of attaining high-quality financial reports. This study therefore argues that the relationship between IFRS compliance and reporting quality revolves around some enforcement mechanisms like corporate governance structures. In view of that, by using random effect estimation technique, this study examined the role of corporate governance in the relationship between IFRS compliance and the reporting quality of firms listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE). The study found that the right corporate governance mechanisms will enhance the positive effect of IFRS compliance on reporting quality. This study further recommends that to gain an appreciable level of public confidence in the annual reports of firms listed on the GSE, the audit committee’s independence and the board’s independence should be strengthened to ensure that management does not only adopt IFRS, but that the standards are actually complied with.

Source: UCC