ghanaopendata/ghanaian-research-english huggingface dataset:
Local people’s willingness to contribute towards water quality improvement in Offin River in Atwima Mponua District, Ghana.

This study investigated local people’s willingness to allocate their household financial resources to help improve the degraded water quality of the Offin River. It also determined the factors that influence their willingness to pay towards the program. Closed ended questionnaire was developed and administered to households in three selected communities within the catchment area of the river to determine both WTP of residents and factors that affect their WTP. Results indicate that majority of respondents have visited the river and believe that improving water quality in the river is an important concern. Respondents were willing to make an average monthly contribution of GHȻ 45.51, per household, to support the improvement program of the Offin River. A multiple regression analysis conducted found factors such as future use of the river, household income, household size and years of residency of respondents, to be important drivers of WTP for the improvement of water quality of the Offin River. Other factors such as distance to the river, level of respondents’ education, occupation and gender, have no influence on respondents WTP. An independent-sample t-test conducted to test the influence of the socio-economic factors on the mean total willingness-to-pay (MTWTP) amount, found age to be the only variable with significant difference between the active and the non-active age groups (active age; M=6.97, SD=5.663, non-active age; M=8.88, SD=5.905; t(147)= -1.987, p=0.049). Based on the results of this study, illegal mining in and around the river need to be curbed and efforts made to dredge the river and also re-plant the trees and vegetation that once provided shade to the river. It is also recommended that decision-makers and environmental managers of the river endeavour to implement educational programs and enforce existing laws by involving the local people and where necessary, make new laws, to help improve the quality of water in the river. Keywords: Offin River, illegal mining, willingness to pay, environmental management, water quality improvement, vegetation restoration.

Source: KNUST
Local natural latex, a potential sculptural medium

This research has been undertaken to evaluate the suitability of local tree latex as a potential sculptural medium in second cycle institutions and for use by the artist in Ghana. It has been specifically designed to provide the art teacher and his students with the basic guidelines on how to acquire and use natural latex as local substitutes for imported and scarce sculptural media such as plaster of paris, Vinamould, fibre glass etc. This research serves as a practical solution to some of the perpetual problems facing art teachers, especially, in Senior Secondary Schools as well as Teacher Training Colleges, concerning materials for casting in sculpture. Latex, in general, has been employed in industry as material for production of foam rubbers, tyres, pipes (P.V.C.) shoe soles and plastic products. Latex from the para rubber (havea brasiliese) and fuhtumia elestica trees been chosen among others for the rpose of the research, the two trees rank high among the list. These are chosen because they are commonly found in Ghana. To meet the school requirements, simple experiments were conducted to test the suitability of the local natural latex as a potential sculptural medium. The results, though not the best are indicative of the effectiveness of these latex as a potential sculptural medium. This research has come out with other uses that local natural latex can be put to in terms of sculpture. In addition to its already known traditional uses as material for indigenous ball making material and as parchment stretched over the opening sides of empty tins as toy drums for children. It can be used as additional sculptural material besides cement, plaster of paris, polyfilla, vinamould, and glass fiber. This research proposes a step-by-step approach to the use of local natural latex in creating sculpture pieces through casting, modelling in-the-round and relief works model lesson plan on the application o the latex has been provided as a guide to teachers. The aim is to find out the possibility of using local natural latex as a resource material for sculpture and the relevant benefits that latex can offer in. terms of skills and knowledge that will predispose the student to creative individuality in a vocational oriented education. This research has been made possible through interviews with people, literary materials, personal observation and experiments. It is hoped that this thesis would be of vluab1e h1p to both art teachers and students, especially, those in the second cycle institutions; and to some extent, the practising sculptors and the local rubber and plastic industries

Source: KNUST
Location of a chain of two computer services at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology campus using the P-median model

One of the greatest problems facing both the public and the private sector enterprises is how to locate facilities. In public service oriented siting problems, decision makers have to decide about the location of public services (offices, schools, hospitals, ambulance services, banks, etc.), while emphasizing on the accessibility of public services to people. In the case of most medical emergencies, the risk of lost of life increases with response time. Consequently, one reasonable objective is to minimize response time given a limited budget. Industrial firms must determine locations for fabrication and assembly plants as well as warehouses. Retail outlets must also locate stores. The cost of serving a retail establishment from a warehouse may depend on the time a driver must spend traveling from the warehouse to the retail store. In this case, the cost depends approximately linearly on the distance between the store and the warehouse. In all cases the right location is paramount. This piece of work attempts to use the p-median model (2-median) to find suitable location for setting up a chain of two computer services at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) campus. Different methods were used to locate the suitable sites, but the main one was the Lagrangian algorithm. The result obtained using the Lagrangian suggested that, the two facilities be located at the Republic Hall (node E) and the University Hall (node B). The optimal objective function value was 1719170 metres. This value gave the demand-weighted distance. It resulted in the average distance of 207 metres. (i.e. the average distance = the demand-weighted distance divided by the total demand; 1719170 m / 8310 207 m). It implies that, on average, each student would travel a distance of 207 metres from a hall / hostel to the nearby facility.

Source: KNUST
Location of additional fire stations in the Kumasi city, using a binary integer programming model

With the increasing population of the City of Kumasi from 346336 in 1970 to 2035064 in 2010,the City is gradually expanding thereby increasing the coverage of the Fire Service Stations and consequently diminishing the responsiveness of the fire department. This thesis aims at answering these three questions:(1)Does the City need to build fire stations and how much of the city is currently covered at a standard travel time of 4 minutes?,(2)Which minimum combination of fire stations will cover all Kumasi within 4 minutes?(3)where should the City Authorities have to build new fire stations and in what order? The thesis seeks to increase the number of fire stations so as to save lives and property.A binary integer programming model is therefore used. The results indicated that the City needs more fire stations and that the Kumasi Fire Department will be able to cover all of Kumasi at a 4 minutes travel time with at least 9 fire stations and that they should be built in the following order at these sites:UEW-K(Lat 6.698131,Long -1.686326), Buokrom Estate(Lat 6.739015,Long -1.585980)and Bohyen(Lat. 6.7209012,Long. -1.6619288).

Source: KNUST
Location of a Library in Sunyani Municipality using The Planar K-Centra Single-Facility Euclidean Location Algorithm.

The Planar k-Centra Single-Facility Euclidean Location Algorithm was used to strategically locate a library in the Sunyani Municipality which will be closer to the k-50 farthest towns and suburbs. One hundred rectangular co-ordinates were generated for 100 towns and suburbs in the Municipality as the inputs for the algorithm. Matlab codes were used to run the algorithm. The algorithm generated (406647.9km , 935589.2km) as the optimal point with 1811500km as its objective function value(The sum of the distances of 50 farthest locations away from the optimal location). Hence the proposed community for the library is Benu No. 2.

Source: KNUST
Locating standpipe on optimal tree network for water distribution in St. Augustine’s Senior High School–Bogoso

Water is life, water is essential that you cannot live without it. The staff of Augusco who stay on campus find it difficult to get water as a result of pipelines not being connected to their houses. The installation of these pipelines to the bungalows is capitals intensive. Therefore the focus of this thesis seeks to find the minimum connection of pipe network using Prim’s algorithm, to model location of standpipe on the minimum connection network as 1 median problem and to find the optimal location of the standpipe using ReVelle and Swain algorithm. Problem of pipe connection in Augusco was model as a minimum connector problem and the problem of locating standpipe as 1 – median problem. Data collection was mainly from secondary source. Prim’s algorithm and ReVelle and Swain algorithm were used to minimize the pipeline network system of the school and location of standpipes respectively and were done by coding on a matlab platform. The total distance for the minimum spanning tree is 259406.1m. The minimum weighted distance is 1856m which occurs at the node 5 or locality E.

Source: KNUST
Location of Ambulance at Students’ Residence, KNUST: (A Vertex Two-Centre Problem)

Fire outbreaks, flood and health issues are problems that confront man daily. Their occurrences always need emergency attention within the shortest possible time. One way to deal with this problem on KNUST campus is to locate two centres close to halls of residence to place ambulance on KNUST campus for students and lecturers. The P-centre problem is a minimax problem, which minimizes the maximum distance between a demand and the nearest facility to the demand point. The P-centre model formulated by Daskin (1995) and the set covering model formulated by Daskin and Dean (1994) was used to model the problem of sitting two ambulances at two halls of residence on KNUST campus. The LINDO software application which uses branch and bound algorithm was employed to solve the problem. It was observed that, the facility should be located at Unity and University Hall. The two ambulances at these halls will serve all the halls.

Source: KNUST
Location of an Additional Landfill Site in Five Sub-Metros of the Kumasi Metropolis

A lot of studies and research have been done on location of landfill sites, fire stations, hospitals, ambulance and other such essential public facilities since their services have become an essential part of man’s daily life. The services they provide do come in handy to the beneficiaries when the need arise. Several methods have been used to solve these location problems. This thesis considers the problem of locating an additional landfill site (obnoxious facility) as a p-center problem under the condition that an existing facility is already located in the Kumasi Metropolis. The Berman and Drezner (2008) was used to locate a landfill site in five sub metros put together as a network to form 56 nodes of the Kumasi Metropolis which had one existing facility. Eight sites, namely Buokrom, Sepetimpo, Duase, Asabi, Asokore Mampong, Pakoso, Aperade and Manhyia were determined by the method. Factor rating analysis was used to select Asokore Mampong and the farthest distance travelled to the landfill site at the new location (Asokore Mampong) was determined to be 17km. The facility would serve the residents of these sub metros effectively if they are sited at the place indicated.

Source: KNUST
Location of an additional police station in Afigya Kwabre District using the conditional p-median approach

This study focuses mainly on conditional facility location problems on a network. This thesis discuss the conditional p–median problem on a network. Demand nodes are served by the closest facility whether existing or new. The thesis considers the problem of locating a police station facility (non–obnoxious facility) as a conditional p – median problem, thus some existing facilities are already located in the district. This thesis uses a new formulation algorithm for the conditional p- median problem on a network which was developed by Oded Berman and Zvi Drezner (2008) to locate an additional police station in Afigya Kwabre district. A 26 node network which had five existing police facilities was used. The result indicated that additional police station should be located at Nanso (node 21) with an optimal objective function value of 62292. The additional facility at Nanso will largely help reduce the pressure on the existing police stations and improved the security of the residents in the district.

Source: KNUST
Location of an Air Ambulance response Unit in the Brong Ahafo Region of Ghana Using the Planar K-Centra Single-Facility Euclidean Location Algorithm

The Planar K-Centra Single-Facility Euclidean Location Algorithm was used to strategically locate an Air Ambulance response Facility in the Brong Ahafo region of Ghana which will be closest to the k-6 farthest districts...

Source: KNUST
Location of another Airport in Ghana Using the Electre Method: (A Case Study)

The ELECTRE (Elimination et Choix Traduisant La Realité) meaning in English Elimination and Choice Expression Reality evaluation method is widely recognized for high-performance policy analysis involving both qualitative and quantitative criteria. However, a critical advantage of this evaluation method is its capacity to pinpoint the exact needs of a decision maker and suggest an appropriate evaluation approach. The discordance indices of modified ELECTRE evaluation method are used to explain the significance of modified evaluation standards. ELECTRE II evaluation method, applied to case simulation, helps analyze the potential effects triggered by the absolute value of the maximum differentiated performance and the absolute value of the sum of differentiated performance under two discordance index evaluation standards. In general, using the ELECTRE evaluation method in the absence of a differentiation process may produce results opposite to those desired by a decision maker. The method was used to determine the best out of 5 districts in the Upper West Region of Ghana. Discordance indices were calculated, together with calculations using the adjusted R squared. It was concluded that the best place to cite the airport was in Wa Municipal.

Source: KNUST
Location of an Electric Substation in the Kootokrom Township, Sunyani Municipality (An Application of Prim’s Algorithm and P-Median Method)

In Ghana, electricity consumption has been growing at 10 to 15 percent per annum for the last two decades. It is projected that the average demand growth over the next decade will be about six percent per year. As a result, consumption of electricity will considerably increase. The projected electricity growth assumption has profound economic, financial, social and environmental implications for the country. The aspirations of developing countries for higher living standards can only be satisfied through sustained development of their electric power markets as part of their basic infrastructure. There is therefore the need to establish an elaborate and extensive transportation system to efficiently and effectively move electricity from producing regions to consumption regions. The aim of this thesis is to locate an electric substation at the appropriate site in the Kootokrom Township and to model optimally, the connection of electric cables. Prim’s algorithm and P-median method have been used to realize an electric cable length of 1,642,027m and node 21 as the minimum connector and the best location respectively.

Source: KNUST
Location of semi-obnoxious facility and the transportation of solid waste in the Northern Region of Ghana. Case study: Zoomlion Ghana limited

Waste includes all items that people no longer have any use for, which they either intend to get rid of or have already discarded. Additionally, wastes are such items which people are require to discard, for example by law because of their hazardous properties. The United Nations and other agencies estimate worldwide annual waste production at more than 1 billion tons, and some estimates go as high as 1.3 billion (European Environment Agency, 2009). There are a number of different options available for the management of waste of which landfilling or disposal even though should be the last resort is however largely practiced in Africa and the West. Waste management in Ghana is by mainly identifying dumping sites, instituting vantage collection points and conveying the waste to the various dumping site(s). When the urban roads in northern Ghana are constructed, and collection points of waste are properly sited then the waste management company can now efficiently convey waste to the dump sites on time. This will eventually provoke the conscience of the people about the need for environmental cleanliness and healthy living conditions. There can then be a paradigm shift of waste management by merely moving from collection to dumping sites in Northern Region to management of waste by re-use, minimization and prevention, and recycling. The thesis therefore looks at scientific methods of dump-site location (method of factor-rating for facility location) using secondary data from Zoomlion Ghana Limited. The Floyd-Warshall’s algorithm is used specifically for the shortest path of transporting the waste from the various collection points to the dump-site. Matlab is the programming language used for the analysis which shows that, Gbalahi is the best site for the location of the semi-obnoxious facility (dump-site) by Zoomlion Ghana Limited, and that taking a detour or transit to the dump-site in most cases constitutes a shorter path than a direct path.

Source: KNUST
Location of Non-Obnoxious Facility (Hospital) in Ketu South District

The main purpose of this research is to model the location of two emergency hospitals for Ketu South district due to the newness of the district. This is to help solve the immediate health needs of the people in the district. One essential way of doing this is to locate two hospitals which will be closer to all the towns and villages in order to reduce the cost of travelling and the distances people have to access the facilities (hospital). In doing this, p-median and heuristics(RH1, RH2 and RRH) were employed to minimize the distances people have to travel to the demand point (hospitals) to access the facilities. Floyd-warshall algorithm was also adopted to connect the ten (10) selected towns and villages together. In conclusion, the best two sites for the location of the facilities in theKetuSouth districtwere Klikor-Agborume and Ehi.

Source: KNUST
Location of Two Fire Stations in Five Sub-Metros of the Kumasi Metropolis

A lot of studies and research have been done on the location of Emergency Medical Centers, hospitals, fire stations and other such essential public facilities since their services have become an essential part of man’s daily life. The services they provide do come in handy to the beneficiaries when the need arises. Several methods have been used to solve these location problems. This thesis uses a new heuristics for placing absolute p-centres on a network which was developed by Damle and Sule (2002) to locate two fire stations in five sub-metros put together as a network of the Kumasi Metropolis of Ghana. The result indicated that the facilities should be sited at Pakoso and Adiebeba with a coverage distance of 14km. The facilities would serve the residents of these sub-metros effectively if they are sited at the places indicated above.

Source: KNUST
Location of water treatment plant using the AHP,PROMETHEE and TOPSIS methodology in the Gyeme River at Obuasi

Facility location is a very important issue in our daily life and activities. In view of this, it is very important to look at the factors that infuence the location of a facility. In this case we want to lay emphasis on the location of water treatment plant in Obuasi, purposely to serve the people in Obuasi and the surrounding towns. The methods that the researcher employed is the AHP/PROMETHEE and TOPSIS methodology. After several models were reviewed,a data was collected and analyzed and it result interpreted. The findings of the researcher was also stated together with the recommendation. Some of the factors that the researcher considered were; road network, nearness to the market, nearness to a source of power, nearness to a river source among others. The analysis was done with excel and the procedure was done by the pairwise comparison matrix. The criteria and alternatives were carefully selected. However, the data which the researcher collected was through the use of questionnaire, prepared and administered to about 130 people who fall between the ages of 18 to 60 years. Various people whose work deal directly or indirectly with water, such as fltered water producers in and around Obuasi responded to the interview and answered the questionnaire given them. The management of the Ghana water Company and the Ghana statistical service were spoken to and their views taken. The difference in the outranking flows together with the partial and complete ranking of alternatives gave rise to the Alternative Gausu a suburb of Obuasi being selected as the best location,which was confrmed by the TOPSIS methodology.

Source: KNUST
Logistic regression analysis of factors associated with hypertension prevalence case study: Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), Kumasi, Ghana

Hypertension is one of the most important chronic non communicable diseases with increasing trend worldwide. According to Owusu et al (2012), hypertension topped the chart of cardiovascular risk pro le in Kumasi Metropolis. This study therefore examines the factors associated with hypertension prevalence in Kumasi Metropolis. The study employed binary logistic regression model based on 2013 data from cardiac clinic of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) Kumasi Ghana. The sample size used for this study was 300 patients who visited cardiac clinic of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) Kumasi in 2013. The study found out that educational attainment, alcohol intake, gender, age, BMI, family history and religious affiliation were significant in explaining hypertension prevalence in Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), Kumasi, Ghana with these probabilities; 0.196(Primary), 0.1073(Tertiary), 0.1189, 0.0045, 0.4465, 0.147, 0.033 and 0.0612 respectively. This study recommended that Ghana health Service should intensify it education on the consequence of obesity and how to reduce weight. Also, Ghana Food and Drugs Board should regulate the rate at which alcoholic drinks are being advertised on our media and also use the media to educate the general public the side effects of alcoholic drinks. Last but not the least, there should be mass health education on the dangers, prevention and control of hypertension.

Source: KNUST