ghanaopendata/ghanaian-research-english huggingface dataset:
Improvement of Setting Time and Early Strength Development of Pozzolana Cement through Chemical Activation

The use of clay pozzolana is being massively promoted in Ghana by CSIR-BRRI because of its technical, economic and to a large extent, environmental advantages. Work done with clay pozzolanas in Ghana indicate that by replacing approximately 30% by mass of ordinary Portland cement with burnt clay pozzolana through intimate mixing, the resulting Portland pozzolana cement (PPC) exhibits compressive strength values good for both load-bearing and non-load-bearing structural application. That notwithstanding, pozzolana cements are noted for their slow strength development resulting in low early strengths and slow nature of setting. This study has investigated the improvement of setting times and early strength development of cement samples containing 10%, 20%, 30% and 40% clay pozzolana by chemically activating the samples with 1% - 4% CaCl2, Na2SO4, and AlCl3. The physical, chemical and mechanical properties of the pozzolana cement at raw and hydrated state were studied. The results indicate that, 30% pozzolana cement activated with 2% Na2SO4, 3% CaCl2 or 4% AlC3 is able to improve early strengths by 28.4%, 28.4%, 26.8% respectively and 28-day strengths by 9.5%, 8.0% and 16.3%. Setting times were also accelerated to equal that of OPC by the addition of 2% Na2SO4, 3% CaCl2 or 4% AlCl3. The study therefore showed that the addition of Na2SO4, CaCl2 or AlCl3 could greatly improve the early strength development and significantly reduce the setting time of pozzolana cement. Water permeability of pozzolana cement decreased as chemical activator concentration increased from 1% - 4%. The economic analysis reveals that chemical activation of pozzolana cements is economically viable as the activation with Na2SO4, CaCl2 or AlCl3 gives similar strengths as OPC. The activation of 30% pozzolana cement with 2% Na2SO4, 3% CaCl2 or 4% AlCl3 slightly increases the unit cost of pozzolana cement but still about 16.7%, 16.2% or 13.1% less expensive than OPC.

Source: KNUST
Improving Access To Agricultural Data Using An Integrated Data Management Approach Case Study: Ghana Agricultural Production Survey

Agricultural development is vital to achieving the Millennium Development Goals, particularly those related to poverty and food security and to environmental sustainability. .Promoting agriculture data access is a way of fulfilling an important need of the national economy of a country. Ensuring that stakeholders have access to quality agriculture data is important in promoting development and also a step towards achieving sustainable development. Many developing countries across the globe do not have easy access to quality agricultural data. In Ghana deficiency in capacity, inadequate infrastructure and community support for agriculture data collection has been reported. The main objective of the study was to assess the usefulness of the Ghana Agriculture Production Survey in providing the needed data for stakeholders of agriculture. The study used a descriptive survey design. Respondents were selected from eighteen (18) districts across Ghana using stratification based on geographical location of the districts and simple random sampling technique. In all one hundred and four (n=104) respondents were interviewed using one structured questionnaire. The data were analyzed using Statistical Product for Service Solution (SPSS) Version 24 for windows. The results were quantitatively presented using tables and charts in the form of frequencies and percentages. The study results reveals that a majority of the respondents showed high perception and good satisfaction regarding the system. However, some respondents were of the view that standards and governance procedures were not fully adhered to, despite the fact that they observed improved effectiveness and efficiency in the system. Insufficient time and inadequate logistics were also some of the challenges identified as well as inadequate financial resources, community sensitization and public education as beyond system level challenges. Therefore, it is suggested that management should implement the appropriate strategies to address the identified challenges with use of institutional and stakeholder collaboration. Since improvement in utilization and quality of any system require a multi-sectorial teamwork. Addressing these challenges can lead to the sustainability of the good things that exist and further improvement of the system. Hence this study provides valuable information for improving agricultural data access in Ghana.

Source: KNUST
Improving Cell Edge Performance for LTE Network Using 0.8 Ghz and 2.6 Ghz Frequency Bands

To provide maximum Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) capacity for cell-edge Long Term Evolution (LTE) customers, the received signal strength from the Base Station (BS) to the User Equipment (UE) should be high. However, increasing power levels at the BS to ensure signal availability for users at the cell edge presents Inter-Cell Interference (ICI) in the LTE network, which drastically impacts the Quality of Service (QoS) negatively. As a solution to curb this problem, researchers have adopted several techniques such as Geometric Factor Model (GFM), Heterogeneous Network (HN), and Power Variation System (PVS) to assign a carrier frequency to users based on their respective distance from the base station to boost the signal at the cell edge. However, these methods do not include the current channel conditions present in a multipath fading environment which are the main concern that needs to be taken into consideration. It is therefore imperative to investigate the performance of the LTE network by considering the impairment in the wireless channel to see its corresponding effect on the user performance. The inclusion of these challenges in the wireless channel will give an idea of the performance of the LTE network and the means to improve it for the optimum benefit for the users. This work presents the performance of cell-edge users in the LTE network on 0.8 GHz low band and 2.6 GHz high band, signal propagation experiment in MATLAB\Simulink environment based on Markov model. Carrier aggregation provides a technique for LTE users to access the network using multiple frequency bands, which have varying penetration losses and enlarged bandwidth for the user. The low and high band frequencies used in this work help the user at the cell edge to achieve coverage and throughput at the same time in the LTE network. The simulated signal-to-noise ratio of the two frequencies achieves a better performance metric for customers to experience a good internet service. The average bit error rate (BER) for users using 0.8 GHz was 5.50e-5 while the average bit error rate for users using 2.6 GHz was 1.98e-4. Cell edge users using 0.8 GHz frequency carrier experienced an average of 92% throughput while those on 2.6 GHz experienced an average of 70% throughput. These results provide a realistic and reliable approach to mitigate cell edge challenges for LTE users than those achieved by other methods such as GFM, HN, and PVS used by earlier researchers.

Source: KNUST
Improving Children’s parks in Kumasi.

Parks form a very valuable part of community space. Literature suggests that well-maintained parks contribute greatly to the value of a neighbourhood and that restoration of poorly maintained parks can provide a focus for urban regeneration. Despite the growing importance of parks as vital components of urban environments, very little value is placed on parks in Ghana. This lack of value placed on parks is manifested in wastelands of gravel, mud and hard surfaces often void of greenery with no interesting places for children to play and socialize. There is therefore the need to focus attention on the declining quality of parks in Ghana. This research was carried out in Kumasi and focuses solely on parks that have been specially designated as play areas for children. The principal research objective was to investigate the development of children’s parks in Ghana, identifying the barriers to their development and develop new approaches to the design of such parks in Kumasi. By way of a case study, an appraisal of the Kumasi Children’s Park was conducted and the results showed that considering the current trends in children’s play areas today, the facility is woefully inadequate. These findings contributed to the development of a design proposal for a children’s park for the city of Kumasi to provide a safe environment for children’s play. This thesis advocates that parks are an extremely important part of urban environments and its main contribution is the development of a design proposal to solve the problem identified.

Source: KNUST
Improving construction site safety in selected regions of Ghana

This dissertation reports the results of a construction site survey in selected regions of Ghana. The objectives of the research are to establish the current level of safety on construction sites, identify and examine the major factors that affect construction site safety and make recommendations for improving safety on Ghanaian construction sites. Literature search revealed a wealth of factors thought by authors to influence construction site safety. Questionnaires were used to collect safety-related information from construction site operatives, site managers, construction company managers, factory inspectors and consultants. A questionnaire was also developed and used to measure the level of safety of selected construction sites. Data were analysed using relative ranking index, Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient and Kendall concordance analysis. The results of the survey reveal lack of enforcement of and compliance with safety legislation and failure of most management of construction companies to adopt safety practices, such as: company safety policy, safety training and orientation programmes, safety incentive schemes, standard accident record keeping system and accident investigation. The top six factors, determined from the study, that influence construction site safety are: top management commitment to worker safety; establishing safety training and orientation for site operatives; safety auditing by safety committees; maintaining construction sites tidy; taking into consideration health and safety matters during the design phase of a facility and accident investigation and record keeping. The research also established that consultants make decisions that impact construction safety and that they do so as a matter of professional ethics.

Source: KNUST
Improving community participation in basic education management: the case of Kasena-Nankana District

Community participation in Basic Education Management is one of the core strategies being used to achieve the objectives of the fCUBE programme in Ghana. The ever increasing demands of most school communities for infrastructure, teaching and learning material, qualified teaching staff as well as incentives to motivate teachers to teach in the most remote and rural areas in Ghana have made the task of Government in meeting Basic Education needs a daunting one. Recognising this challenge, the Government of Ghana initiated the concept of School- Based Management through decentralisation in education delivery to coincide with one of the three components of fCUBE namely: increasing access to and participation in basic education (GES, 2001: 6). This was seen as a way to shed off some burden and encourage as well as strengthen community ownership and management of basic schools in Ghana. However, the current management strategy of basic schools is confronted with sociocultural, economic and political problems threatening the realisation of effective and efficient school delivery in the Kasena-Nankana District. The ignorance of most parents and guardians of their role in the current educational decentralised system, the lack of resource capability (material and human) to actively participate in school management processes juxtaposed with conflict of School-Based Management organizations over control in school matters have posed a significant threat to effective school delivery. A careful review of available literature on community participation in education, using country and international publications, reports of Ghana government on education as well as unpublished documents enabled the choice of appropriate technique of investigation. To ascertain the veracity or otherwise of the problems militating against local level involvement in Basic Education Management, a cross sectional design technique of the Case Study approach was adopted with the units of analysis encompassing local level actors involved in school management processes as well as personnel of the District Directorate of Education. Results of the study have shown that communities participate in several ways in the management of basic schools in the district. These range from administrative functions through maintenance/provision of infrastructure, budgeting/financing to monitoring and evaluation. The extent of involvement however, varies across board as communities either lack the resource capability or expertise to participate in some spheres of school management processes in the district. Further, some problems also hinder community participation m iii Basic Education Management in the Kasena-Nankana District which require redress if Basic Education Management must gain true community ownership and acceptability. The ultimate redress strategy should therefore, be a policy intervention requiring mandatory community involvement in school management, capable of eliciting the requisite commitment and support needed to make Basic Education delivery effective.

Source: KNUST
Improving Buildability: A Look at Off-Site Production

The need to control large quantities of waste, complete construction work within time and budget and the issue of construction failure have been a problem in the Ghanaian construction industry for a long time. It is the adoption of new technological advancement in the construction sector that is seen as the way forward to achieving easily buildable works. Off-site production (OSP) has been an area of research interest the world over, as it can help minimise construction waste and improve construction time and ultimately reduce cost of construction schemes. Thus it is worthwhile to study how the adoption of off-site production will impact positively on buildability in the Ghanaian Construction Industry.In this study the benefits and hindrances as well as the possibilities for the adoption of off-site production by stakeholders of the Ghanaian construction industry such as Architects, Quantity Surveyors, Structural Engineers, Manufacturers and Suppliers of off-site produced building components and Estate developer in Accra and Kumasi was addressed. The survey method included a structured questionnaire and qualitative data collection through semi structured interviews and site visits.The research result indicates that, in spite of the constraints in the adoption of off-site production, stakeholders of the Ghanaian construction industry believe in the need to explore it's use. It indicated the adoption of off-site production will in the long run help meet the housing deficit in the country and increase the level of growth of the construction industry in the country especially in the field of Real Estate development due to the use of repetitive designs.Off-site production has the capacity to offer increased choice of solutions and to further improve quality and value for money. Other results of the survey are presented.

Source: KNUST
Improving control of buruli ulcer in Nkawie District of the Ashanti Region

Buruli ulcer (Bu) is a disease of the skin caused by mycobacteriurn ulcerans, a bacterium related to those causing tuberculosis (TB) and leprosy, and leads to massive destruction of the skin layer often resulting in debilitating deformities and severe prolonged morbidity. In recent years, increasing number of cases have been reported in some countries in West Africa, namely, Benin, Ghana, Togo, La Cote d’Ivoire and Liberia. In addition to these numbers of cases, there has also been increasing geographical spread of the disease within these countries. Thus the disease has generated a serious health concern in Ghana since 1993 to policy makers, health professionals and affected individuals and communities. The aim of this study was to improve control of Buruli ulcer in Nkawie District. The study design was non-interventional, specifically cross sectional descriptive study. Data for the study was collected from 10 endemic communities in the district. Questionnaire administration and key informant interview were used as data collection techniques to elicit information from respondents. The study was conducted among 100 people aged 15 years and above, infected by the disease. With the aid of computer software (Epi info version 3.0) tables, histograms and pie charts data were analyzed. The study revealed that 40% of the respondents believed that the disease is not caused by bacterium but when offending the gods which is contrary to the view that BU a disease caused by Mycobacterium Ulcerans (Aseidu. 2000). The study further showed that 40% thought BU was not a hospital disease and sought herbal treatment from traditional healers. Furthermore, it was revealed that 85% of respondents went to the hospital with the disease at ulcerative stage. The findings of the study showed that 95% of the respondents covered 10km and more as the nearest distance to district hospital which is a constraint on seeking health care. It emerged from the study that 92% were physically incapacitated with 56% deformed and 36% disabled Again, the socio economic and cultural factors influence the control of BU as 40% believe that it is a disease one gets when he or she has offended the gods and therefore prefer herbal treatment. The researcher recommends that people in the endemic community should be educated periodically on the disease most especially preventive measures and simple methods of detecting and reporting the disease early enough to forestall the devastating effects of the disease. It is further recommended that Ministry of Health (MOH) strengthens Community Based Surveillance Programme (CBSP) through training and provision of adequate funds and logistics for better delivery and deformed patients should be socially, physically and economically rehabilitated in the health facilities and communities.

Source: KNUST
Improving efficiency of truck haulage system in an open pit mine - a case study at Ghana Manganese Company (GMC), Nsuta - Wassaw

This thesis work investigated the performance of the truck-shovel haulage System for the open-pit operation at Ghana Manganese Company (GM C). The present haulage operations were studied and time and motion studies conducted to establish the distribution parameters of the cycle time for the truck haulage operations at Hill B, Hill D south crest and the Stockpile. The resultant statistics and truck breakdown and repair times were used to simulate the truck-shovel haulage operations using SIMAN IV. The results generated from the SIMAN Summary Report were used to construct confidence intervals and plot bar charts. The results revealed that at the present existing haulage system, the average quantities of materials hauled per shift are 2208 tonnes of carbonate ore, 2193 tonnes of carbox ore and 2170.5 tonnes of Ballast Waste. It was also found out that the shovels operating at the various pits and stockpile were underutilised. Average shovel utilisation per shift at Hill B. is 42.6% and at Hill D south crest is about 46.3%. Similarly the average shovel utilisation at the stockpile is 49%. The results also showed that the truck queuing at shovels are very minimal. A truck queue at a shovel 26 to 38 minutes of the 8 hour shift. An alternative method for improving the operation was considered by looking at two possible areas observed to be shortcoming. Each case was applied to the original operation and simulated to see the effect on production. The results showed that when the number of trucks is increased from 10 to 13, the achieved average shovels utilisation are increased. The average shovel utilisation at Hill B is 54.2% and at the stockpile is 63%. Similarly at Hill D south crest the shovel utilisation is 51.4%. On the other hand the carbonate ore hauled per shift is 2834 tonnes, the carbox ore is 2824 tonnes while the ballast waste is 2317 tonnes per shift. The results also revealed that when maintenance was improved to about 20%, the average tonnage of materials hauled per shift increased. The tonnage of carbonate ore increases from 2208 to 2408 tonnes per shift. The carbox ore also increased from 2193 to 2336 tonnes per shift while the waste material hauled increased from 2170.5 to 2317 tonnes per shift. Similarly the shovels utilisation were also increased. The average shovel utilisation at the Stockpile, Hill B and Hill D south crest pits are 50.6%, 47.3% and 47.2% respectively. The combined results of the alternative arrangement also revealed that the material hauled per shift was increased. For carbonate ore is 3169 tonnes and the carbox ore tonnage is 3242 tonnes. The waste material hauled is 3125 tonnes. Similarly, the shovels utilisation also improved. At Hill B the average shovel utilisation is 69.6% and at Hill D south crest is about 67%. The shovel utilisation at the stockpile is 72.4%.

Source: KNUST
Improving cost control on construction projects in SekondiTakoradI Metropolis of the Western Region of Ghana

Project cost control has obtained much attention in the construction industry as a result of excessive cost increase and losses incurred by contractors in Ghana. Over the decade, poor cost control management and overrun on project are problems which have caused significant project cost overrun in both developed and developing countries. This needs mitigation measure to improve cost performance and help projects to be executed within budgeted estimate. In recent times, researchers have been working on the causes of project cost overrun and problems associated with it; however, their research is normally geared towards after max findings, leaving out the managerial project cost principles which are needed in the life cycle of the project execution as preventive measures. This paper seeks to address these by accessing the extent of use of project cost control tools, and the problems project managers face during implementation. Contractors of D1K1/A1B1, D2K2/A2B2/D3K3/A3B3 and D4K4/A4B4 are the main target for concentration in this research. Thirty one (31) set of structured questionnaires were used to solicit information through snowball sampling from expert on the field. All questionnaires issued were retrieved representing 100% for the analysis. The mean score ranking technique and discussion using text and tables were adopted for data analysis. The findings show, that, profit and loss based on progress payment was the most frequently used cost control techniques by contractors, with Overall Profit and loss, and Earn Value Analysis, following respectively. Regarding the problems faced by contractors on implementation of cost control techniques, Lack of Management Policy on Control Practices raked highest with Improper Estimates, Inadequate Work Break-down Structure, Poor Standards and Budgeting Techniques following in this order. Recommendation, Project managers‟ knowledge on cost control tools and techniques should be improved through in-service training for both fresher‟s and existing ones. The education should be based on control principles such as Earned Value Analysis, Cost Value Reconciliation and Forecasting. Since they minimize cost better that the traditional method, that is profit and loss and profit and loss on progressive payment based and unit cost

Source: KNUST