ghanaopendata/ghanaian-research-english huggingface dataset:
Comparative study of physical and mechanical properties of A36 mild steel welded joints using oxyacetylene and shielded metal arc welding processes

One of the crucial industrial methods for joining metals has been welding, hence many techniques have been developed to get an efficient and cost-effective process for different kinds of materials. In this study, an attempt was made to investigate the tensile and bending strength of A36 2.5 mm thick mild steel plate welded by the processes of oxyacetylene and shielded metal arc welding (SMAW). The specimen, having been carefully welded to form butt and lap joints were subjected to tensile and bending tests using universal testing machine WAW-1000H. Four test runs were performed for each welded joint. Based on the results obtained from the tensile and bending tests conducted, it was observed that oxyacetylene welded joint produced a stronger joint that could withstand much higher force compared with shielded metal arc welded joint when lap and butt joints were considered. Where in oxyacetylene lap welded joint, an average maximum ultimate tensile strength of 332.75 N/mm2 under an average force of 83.188 KN was obtained for four sample specimen, shielded metal arc lap welded joint, recorded an average maximum ultimate tensile strength of 288.5 N/mm2 under an average force of 72.125 KN. For butt joint, oxyacetylene recorded an average tensile strength of 288.75 N/mm2 under an average load of 72.125 KN as against 256.75 N/mm2 under an average load of 64.163 KN for shielded metal arc welded joint. However, in considering bending strength of oxyacetylene butt and lap welded joints and shielded metal arc butt and lap welded joints where the joined workpiece might be subjected to bending working conditions, shielded metal arc butt and lap joints recorded bending strength of 6.0 N/mm2 under an average force of 0.6 KN and 6.50 N/mm2 under an average force of 0.65 KN for butt and lap joints respectively as against 5.88 N/mm2 under an average load of 0.59 KN and 6.38 N/mm2 under an average load of 0.64 KN for oxyacetylene welded butt and lap joints respectively. It is therefore recommended to welding practitioners, engineers and fabricators that, for tensile strength, using 2.5 mm thick mild steel plate, oxyacetylene butt and lap welded joints should be used compared to shielded metal arc butt and lap welded joints as the former could withstand much higher tensile strength than than the later. However, for bending strength, shielded metal arc butt and lap welded joints appears slightly beneficial than the other.

Source: UEW
A comparative study of senior high school students WASSCE achievement in core and elective mathematics from 2016 to 2018

This study compared Senior High School Students’ achievements in core and elective mathematics from 2016 to 2018. The study employed an explanatory sequential mixed method, and used a sample of three hundred and two (302) WASSCE results of past students who studied both Core and Elective Mathematics. Stratified, purposive, simple random and snowball sampling techniques were used for the research. Seventy-eight (78) past students and sixteen (16) teachers were also sampled for the study. The instruments used to collect data were questionnaire, semi-structured interview guide, and WASSCE results. The results indicated that students who offered both subjects performed better in Elective Mathematics than the Core Mathematics. It also showed that majority of students developed negative attitude to the study of Core Mathematics than the Elective Mathematics because they believed the former is superior to the latter. Co-curricular activities were found to deny students and teacher of precious instructional hours. The results also indicated that some Core Mathematics teachers skipped some important topics with the view that the Elective Mathematics teachers would teach them. The study recommended that students should be counselled to develop positive attitude towards the study of both subjects because they boosted their chances of gaining admission into tertiary institutions. Besides, school managements, heads of mathematics departments should intensify their monitoring activities so that mathematics teachers would not skip any topic. Furthermore, co-curricular activities should be planned in such a way that they would not interfere with the academic work.

Source: UEW
Comparative study of sports participation on academic performance of student-athletes and non student-athletes in Offinso College of Education

The purpose of the study was to compare and ascertain whether participation or non participation in sports has any influence on the academic performance of OFCE students. The study was intended also to find out whether there would be any difference between the academic performance of female student- athletes compared to non female student athletes and lastly to study whether there would be differences between male student athletes compared to malenon student- athletes. Forty student- athletes were purposively selected from among the college’s student- athlete population of 124 from the Ashanti/ Brong-Ahafo (ASHBA) team and stratified random sampling was used to select a sample of160 from a population of975 non students- athletes in the college. The non student athletes were divided into Diploma in Basic Education A- Diploma in Basic Education H separately and then, by random number method of the simple random sampling each student was given the chance to be chosen. The study adopted causal comparative research design with independent t- test as the statistical technique at a significant level of 0.05 of two tailed to answer four research questions and one hypothesis. Students mean cumulative GPA score was used to answer three questions and a sixteen item questionnaire with reliability co-efficient of 0.79 was used to answer one research question. The findings revealed that students have good reasons for playing sports and do not see playing sports to be affecting their academic performance. However, students who play sports for the college were sometimes disadvantaged because they at times get too tired or miss lectures playing sports for the college. There was slight difference in the mean cumulative GPA scores of student athletes as compared to non student-athletes. It is recommended that college authorities and parents should encourage students to actively take part in sporting activities and also train students to plan and manage their time for sports and academic activities.

Source: UEW
Comparative study of technology usage a case study of formally and non-formally trained fashion designers in the Kumasi Metropolis of the Ashanti Region, Ghana

Sustainability of a fashion enterprise depends largely on creativity and innovative technology application, good entrepreneurial skills as well as adoption of appropriate marketing strategies. Although the Ghanaian fashion designers may be formally or non formally trained, it is unclear the differences in their services and marketing techniques and their respective areas that require improvements. This study therefore aimed at assessing the dichotomy in the use of creative and innovative technology, entrepreneurial skills as well as marketing strategies among formally and non-formally trained fashion designers in the Kumasi Metropolis of the Ashanti region, Ghana. The study employed a qualitative cross-sectional approach of design. Through non-random sampling technique and the use of structured questionnaire, data obtained from formally and non-formally trained fashion designers were processed statistically. Descriptive statistics as well as inferential statistics including Independent samples t-test and Chi Square analyses were performed. In several respects, it was observed that, the formally trained designers were more creative, applied innovative technology, better at displaying entrepreneurial skills and marketing their products and services. This has established a baseline information about the fashion designers in the Kumasi Metropolis for further studies across the country. It is recommended that, computer application is encouraged during training of all fashion designers. If possible, both non-formal and formal training should be encouraged for better effect. Government could come to the aid of beginner fashion designers with soft loans.

Source: UEW
Comparative study of the hygienic knowledge and practices between urban and rural food vendors at lorry parks in the Volta region

The risk of food getting contaminated depends largely on the health status of the food handlers, their personal hygiene, knowledge and practice of food hygiene. To this effect the aim of the study was to evaluate the hygienic knowledge and practices between urban and rural food vendors at lorry parks. The objectives of the study is to evaluate the hygienic knowledge level of food vendors at the lorry parks, assess the level of hygienic practices among food vendors at the lorry parks and determine the ways of improving the hygienic knowledge and practices of food vendors at the lorry parks. A descriptive crosssectional study was used to evaluate the hygienic knowledge and practices between urban and rural food vendors at lorry parks. Two hundred and sixty (260) food vendors were randomly selected for the study, comprising one hundred and thirty (130) food vendors at Ho market (Urban) and one hundred and thirty (130) food vendors at Sogakope (Rural) lorry parks in the Volta Region. A self-designed structured questionnaire was used to collect data from 260 food vendors. Data collected through various methods were inputted, processed and analysed by using IBM SPSS-20.0 Statistics. The study found that majority of urban (72.0%) food vendors have knowledge on how to store leftover food to avoid food poisoning as compared to the rural (32.6%) food vendors. The study affirmed that 15.2% of the urban and 4.1% of the rural food vendors ensure proper food hygienic practices by washing utensil in hot water. Based on this it was concluded the urban food vendors demonstrated good knowledge on hygienic than rural food vendors, but low in hygienic practices. It was recommended that safety and hygienic inspectors at Ho municipality should advice the vendors on using hot water for utensils and hand-washing. Regular inspections should be carried out in order to improve the knowledge level and hygienic practices of the food vendors and funding on Environmental Health activities.

Source: UEW
Comparative study of the performance in the core subjects by students who completed in 3 and 4 years in the 2013 WASSCE at Asuom Senior High School

This study examined the possible relationship between the academic performance in the Core Subjects of the 3rd and 4th year students who sat for the 2013 WASSCE in Asuom Senior High School. The design used by the researcher for the study was a comparative research design which adopted the quantitative approach to analyse the data. The test results for the performance of students in Social Studies indicated that the number of years spent by a candidate in school has an association with the performance in the subject. Even though the test results for English Language, Mathematics and Integrated Science showed no association between number of years a candidate spent in school and the performance in these three subjects. The study results for gender also indicated that with the exception of English Language which saw a relatively better performance of both genders, the boys performed better than the girls in the rest of the core subjects. The test results for Social Studies indicated that there is an association between grade obtained and the gender of candidates. This was also true in Integrated Science and Mathematics where the boys’ performance was better than the girls. Meanwhile, the test results in English Language showed no association between boys and girls. In general, the performance of girls in English Language was better compared to the boys. Finally, on the residential status of students the study results indicated that there were no association between the students’ residential status and their performance in English Language and Social Studies, but there was an association between students’ residential status and their performance in Mathematics and Integrated Science with the boarders performing better than the day students. Implications from the results suggest a need to include gender sensitivity training for teachers, increased mathematics support for girls’ students.

Source: UEW
A comparative study on the predictive ability of archived and SBAS-InSAR inventories for landslide susceptibility using frequency ratio model in Western Area, Sierra Leone

Landslides have caused substantial economic loss, infrastructural damage, and threatened lives and human shelter in Western Area, Sierra Leone (Africa), requiring effective mitigations. Landslide susceptibility (LS) mapping is one effective and foremost step in reducing landslide disaster as it provides vital information to the local authority for land use planning and management in the future. A set of controlling factors and landslide inventory (LI) are typically used to generate LS. Thus, the LS accuracy can be affected by the LI availability and its source and timespan. Here, the impact of LI from two sources and timespans on the accuracy of LS is analyzed. The LIs are the archived inventory (archived-LI) and small baseline subset (SBAS) interferometry inventory (SBAS-LI). The former LI consisted of landslide events from 1945 to 2014. The latter was acquired by analyzing the ground deformation with multi-temporal Sentinel-1 SAR datasets and covered between 2015 and 2017. Eleven landslide controlling factors after multicollinearity diagnostics were selected. With the controlling factors in a GIS-based environment, the frequency ratio (FR) model is applied to both LIs and the factors, generating two LS maps. Each map accuracy was validated using recent landslides from 2017 to 2020. The area under the curve (AUC) of the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was 0.739 and 0.898 for the LS from the archived-LI and SBAS-LI, respectively. The degree-of-fit index of 61.7% for the LS from the archived-LI and 80.8% from the SBAS-LI was obtained. The SBAS-LI produced more reflective present LS and possibly for future susceptibility even though the number of events in the modeling was about one-third of that in the archived-LI. Thus, the current LI is preferred for LS analysis. � 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.

Source: UEW
A comparatively analysis of the practical skills acquisition in electrical engineering training programme (a case study of Accra and Kumasi polytechnics)

This research was designed to determine the comparative study of practical skills acquisition in electrical engineering training programme in Accra and Kumasi Polytechnics. The study population was made of 316 and 262 making a total of 578 students in the Department of Electrical/Electronic Engineering from the Accra and Kumasi institutions respectively. A samples size of 25% was randomly selected from the total populations of the two study institutions. A total number of 145 questionnaires were distributed and 123 completed questionnaires were received making a response rate of 84.82%. Out of this, 73 were respondents from Kumasi while the remaining 50 were Accra respondents. The findings revealed that skills acquisition provides access to better working and payment conditions, practical training helps in equipping individuals with the essential skills to become useful in the society, and acquisition of skills prepare students to fit in readily employment in all sectors of the economy and revealed lack of training materials in both institutions and related firms. The study recommended that, the Government should increase budgetary allocations for provision of adequate training facilities and resources in the Polytechnics Education to make practicals effective.

Source: UEW
Comparing activity-based and discussion methods of teaching and learning of seed germination a case study in Anyinasu MA Junior High School, Ashanti Region

The aim of this study was to compare the activity-based and discussion methods of teaching and learning of seed germination: a case study in Anyinasu M/A Junior High School. Thirty pupils were involved in the study. The pupils were put into two groups (Group ‘A’ and Group ‘B’). Group ‘A’ of 15 pupils were taught seed germination using discussion method whiles Group ‘B’ also made up of 15 pupils, were taught the same concept using activity-based approach. The two groups were post-tested based on test items prepared by the researcher. The study revealed that Group ‘A’ members recorded a mean value of 6.4 (25.6%). However, members in Group ‘B’ recorded a mean value of 15.1 (60.4%). Again, it was discovered that most pupils (10 pupils representing 66.7%) from Group ‘B’ scored above average. Meanwhile, only 2 pupils (representing 13.3%) from Group ‘A’ obtained similar score. Paired sample test (t test) result indicates a significant difference of 0.000 (p<0.05). It was concluded that activity-based method of teaching is significantly effective than the discussion method of teaching as far as teaching and learning of science is concerned.

Source: UEW
Comparing english and Mo/Deg nominal group qualifiers

The task of this study is primarily to investigate the differences between English and Mo/Deg nominal group (NG) qualifiers to identify any similarities within the NG qualification structures of these languages. In otherwise, the study finds answers to the questions: �What are the qualifying elements within the Mo/Deg and English NGs?� and �What are the differences and similarities between the Mo/Deg NG qualification and that of English?� Using homogeneous sampling, the study purposefully sampled thirty (30) educated Mos/Dega (speakers of the Mo/Deg language). Short simple English sentences containing NG qualifiers designed by the researcher were given to them to translate into Mo/Deg. This was to see how the qualifiers are used in the language. Also, some of these sentences were given to some members of the staff of the Mo/Deg project of GILLBT to translate into Mo/Deg for further correct use of the qualifiers in the Mo/Deg language. The translated versions were then collected as data and analysed based on the Systemic Grammar principles of the NG structure. The results showed that the adjectival groups (AdjG), the clause, the numerals, and the determiners (pre-central, central, and post-central) occur at the qualifier position in Mo/Deg, whereas in English, it is the prepositional groups (PG), the adjectival groups (AdjG) (under some conditions), and the clause, which occupy the qualifier slot. However, it was also found out that the common linguistic units which occur in both languages as qualifiers are the adjectival groups and the clause. � Australian International Academic Centre, Australia.

Source: UEW
Comparing the effects of analogy-based and animation based instructional approaches on the cognitive achievement of senior high school students in deoxyribonucleic acid concepts

The principal focus of the study was to investigate the comparative effect of the extent to which analogy-based and animation-based instructional approaches influence senior high school students’ cognitive achievement (academic performance and retention) in biological molecular concepts especially in deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) structure and replication, transcription and translation concepts. Four research questions with two hypotheses guided the study and tested at 0.05 level of significance. A quasi-experimental design was used. A sample of seventy nine (79) second year Senior High School biology students were purposively sampled and used from two schools (Boakye Tromo Senior High/Technical School and Yamfo Anglican Senior High School) out of an estimated population of One Thousand and Fifty Eight (1058) biology studentsin the Tano North Municipal. DNA Concept Achievement Test (DNACAT) with a reliability coefficient of 0.88 was used to measure students’ achievement and retention before and after treatments. Data obtained were analysed using various statistics including mean, standard deviation, Wilcoxon signed rank test, Mann Whitney test, paired sampled t-test, independent sampled t-test, Cohen d effect size and one way ANCOVA at a significant level of 0.05. Pictorially, box plots were used to present the data. The study indicated that both analogy-based and animation-based instructional approaches significantly improved the students’ academic performance compared to the convectional lecture-based instructional approach. However, the study showed that the students taught with analogy-based instructional approach outperformed their counterparts who were taught with animation-based instructional approach especially in the application concepts/questions. Again, there was a significant difference in the retention of the concepts between the two instructional groups in favour of the analogy-based instructional group. Based on these findings, educational implications as well as recommendations and suggestions for further studies were made

Source: UEW
Comparing the effects of concept mapping and co-operative instructional approaches on the cognitive achievement of senior high school students in excretion

The primary focus of the study was to determine the effectiveness of concept mapping and cooperative learning as instructional approaches on students’ performance in excretion. It was also to explore the extent to which concept mapping and cooperative learning as instructional approaches improved students’ conception in excretion.The quasi-experimental design of non-equivalent pre-test-intervention-post-test with two intact biology classes was employed. Purposive sampling technique was used to select 76 SHS 2 students. The instruments used for data collection were Achievement Tests (General Knowledge in Biology Performance Test (GKBPT)) and Students’ Performance Test in Excretion (SPTE) with K-R 20 reliability coefficients of 0.812 and 0.866 respectively, class exercises and homework/assignments. Point Biserial Correlation, Wilcoxon Signed Rank test, effect size, chi-square and ANCOVA test were employed to analyse the quantitative data collected through the students’ achievement score. The study showed that the students taught with concept mapping approach and their counterparts taught with co-operative learning approach had significant improvement in the performance of the achievement test in excretion, however there was no significant difference in the performance of the two groups. The result rather indicated that the use of co-operative learning as an instructional approach made students perform homogenously in the post-test than the concept mapping instructional approach. The study indicated that there was no statistically significant relationship between the instructional approach the students received and their correct conceptions of excretion. Based on these results, educational implications for classroom practices as well as recommendations and suggestions for further studies were made.

Source: UEW