ghanaopendata/ghanaian-research-english huggingface dataset:
Weed Control Studies on Soybean in the Coastal Shrub and Thicket Vegetation Belt of Central Region

Protein malnutrition, major dietary problem in developing countries, Ghana included, requires greater attention today than ever before. Soybean, a high protein legume has recently been accepted by Ghanaians as an alternative to groundnuts and cowpea in their diet. On weight for weight basis, the yield of this crop is approximately twice that of meat, cowpea, beans and four times that of cereals. Besides soybean has less pest and disease problems as compared to other well established legumes. However, weed competition is one of the major constraints in the production of the crop. Thus the experiment was to determine:- (a) the critical competition period so as to establish the most economical weeding regime for the crop. (b) the most practical and cost effective weed management practice in soybean fields and (C) residual action of two pre-emergence herbicides, Galex and Stomp, on the field by bioassay techniques. The studies were carried out at the Teaching and Research Farm of the School of Agriculture, University of Cape Coast, during the 1994 Major and the 1995 major seasons. The field experiments were set up as RCBD with four replicates at a spacing of 75cm x 5 cm. Ten weeding regimes were tried in the 1st experiment while the second experiment consisted of 12 treatments which included varying rates of Stomp, Galex, hoeing periods and their combinations. The third experiment employed a bioassay technique using sorghum and millet as test plants to determine residual levels of the two pre-emergence herbicides. The studies showed 67% and 81% yield reduction as a result of unchecked weed growth in 1994 and 1995 respectively. At 70% attainable yields, the critical periods of competition were found to be 23-35 and 20-32 days after emergence in the 1994 and 1995 seasons respectively. Also, soybean grain yield and its parameters and plant growth decreased significantly as duration of weed competition increased from 10 to 40 days after crop emergence. The herbicides studied gave a relatively higher percentage weed control in the 1994 minor season than in the 1995 major season. This was attributed season to the dominance of Cyperus rotundus L. and Trianthema postulacastrum L. which are known to be efficient plants and therefore better competitors than soybean, in the 1995 major season weed population. The studies showed that both herbicides proved effective against weeds at 2.0 kg/ha except on Cyperus rotundus. In both seasons of study, manual weed control resulted in a financial Advantage and no level of residual, concentration, likely to prove injurious, phytotoxic or detrimental to subsequent crop growth and development was detected.

Source: UCC
Weighted average information criterion for selection of an asymmetric price relationship

This study evaluates the performance of the recently developed model selection criteria (WIC) against commonly used alternatives (AIC and BIC) in terms of their ability to recover the true asymmetric data generating process. Monte Carlo simulation results indicate that the performance of the model selection methods depends on the sample size, the difference in asymmetric adjustment parameters and the amount of noise in the model used in the application. WIC outperforms AIC and BIC under stable conditions such as a large sample and small noise levels. Additionally, WIC outperforms AIC and BIC as the difference between asymmetric adjustment speeds increases. These results suggest that WIC is a very reliable and useful criterion in asymmetric price transmission model selection

Source: UCC
West African monsoon (WAM) jump and its implication for rain-fed agriculture in the transition and coastal savannah agro-ecological zones of Ghana

West African rainfall variability plays an essential role in the economies of West African countries it has a major influence on industrial and agricultural production, which is largely, weather dependent. This plays an important role in food security and water availability. This work focuses on the West African Monsoon (WAM) jump and its implication for rain-fed agriculture in the Transition and Coastal Savannah agro-ecological zones of Ghana. In this study, the seasonal rainfall variability over West Africa is investigated using GPCP satellite data. Again, rainfall data from Wenchi in the Transition zone and Saltpond in the Coastal Savannah agro-ecological zone from 1990 to 2008 were acquired from the Ghana Meteorological (GMet) Agency for the study. The seasonal rainfall variability over these synoptic stations was studied in two climatological periods from 1990-1998 and 2000-2008 hereafter called CP1 and CP2 respectively. The agricultural implication is also checked. The results helped establish the rainfall regimes between these two climatological periods with CP1 being wet and CP2 being dry across West Africa. The rainfall peaks was found to have been shifting to later dates in CP2. Rainfall intensity in Wenchi was found to have a little reduction in the later part of the year across both CP1 and CP2 with the effect much felt in CP2. Saltpond also suffered a significant decrease in rainfall intensity over the minor season. Length of rainfall in high maize yield years selected randomly was found to be higher than that of randomly selected low maize yield years in Wenchi whereas in Saltpond, rainfall length was higher in low yield years than the that of the high yield years.

Source: UCC
West African Theatre and Performing Arts Journal (WATPAJO)

The West African Theatre and Performing Art~ Journal (a.k.a WATPAJO), which is the first Journal of Theatre and Performing Arts in Africa, was conceived and birthed by Professor E.G Kofoworola during his sabbatical leave at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana. By its creation, the journal has provided the long awaited platform for critical discourse of theatre and performing arts in the West African sub region. WATPAJO explores Theatre and Performing Alts with the aim of re-defining the culture and folklore of the people of West Africa. The conceptual framework of the journal hopes to advance the metaphoric ramification of theatre to re-orientate the peoples of West Africa and Africa in general, towards knowledge, progress and development. As a product from academic interaction between resourceful and fertile minds, I am delighted to note that the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the University of Ilorin, Nigeria and the University of Cape Coast, Ghana continues to yield good fruits for the benefit of mankind. This journal is the third publication emanating from the collaborative efforts. It is my sincere hope that this laudable initiative of the Performing Arts Department, University of Ilorin and Theatre Studies Department of the University of Cape Coast will serve as a model for other faculties and departments in both universities. I observed that the articles contained in this maiden edition of the journal were reviewed by recognised authorities in the field of theatre and performing arts, with an array of accomplished academics from across the world on the editorial board. I therefore wish to congratulate all those whose articles had been selected for publication. Finally, while wishing the editorial board good success and Godspeed, I sincerely hope that this journal will continually be a veritable reference point for scholars and students of theatre and performing arts in Africa and the world at large.

Source: UCC
Wetland river flow interaction in a sedimentary formation of the White Volta Basin of Ghana

Groundwater resources in the floodplain wetlands of the White Volta River basin of Ghana is a major source of water for irrigation activities of communities living around and baseflow to sustain the flow of the river. Hydrology of the floodplain wetlands in the basin is complex, characterized by temporally variable storage volumes with erratic contribution to streamflow. For the continual usage of groundwater resources in the floodplains there is a need to study the form of interaction between the main river and floodplain wetlands. The study, adopted the PM-WIN (MODFLOW) model for simulating the interaction between the wetland and stream. Additionally, the lower boundary discharge output from the HYDRUS-1D model is the estimated recharge. This input quantifies the temporal and spatial variations in sub-surfaces discharges in the floodplain wetland. The simulation of the sub-surface hydraulic head of the wetland indicates a systematic variation relative to the White Volta River response to changes in the rainfall pattern. The interaction conditions vary from season to season with March, April, and May showing the least leakage (estimated values of 0.03 mm/day, 0.06 mm/day, and 0.15 mm/day, respectively) from the river into the floodplain wetland. Notably, the interaction between the wetland and the river as simulated is bidirectional. With most of the flow coming out from the river into the floodplain wetland, this condition persists in the months of August and September

Source: UCC
Wettability property in natural systems: A case of flying insects

Recently, scientists have demonstrated that material surfaces in nature that possess special wettability properties are composed of micro- and nanostructures. In this study, we focused on the importance of surface structures in determining the wettability of wings of the flying insect species: Idea malabarica, Lucilia sericata and Chrysomya marginalis. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) analysis indicates the different nano-/micro- structures identified on the wings. Surface roughness which plays a role in influencing the wettability was theoretically estimated from the SEM images. While the spherical liquid water droplets used for testing wettability were observed to float on the surface of the Idea malabarica and Lucilia sericata wings, the surface of the Chrysomya marginalis wing was made completely wet. The super-hydrophobicity of the Idea malabarica wing as compared to the near hydrophobicity/mild hydrophilicity of the Lucilia sericata wing and the distinct hydrophilicity of the Chrysomya marginilis wing could be attributed to its complicated composition of nano- /microstructures and higher surface roughness value.

Source: UCC
Wharton’s Jelly-Derived Mesenchymal Stromal Cells and Fibroblast-Derived Extracellular Matrix Synergistically Activate Apoptosis in a p21-Dependent Mechanism in WHCO1 and MDA MB 231 Cancer Cells In Vitro

The tumour microenvironment plays a crucial role in tumour progression and comprises tumour stroma which is made up of different cell types and the extracellular matrix (ECM). Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) are part of the tumour stroma and may have conflicting effects on tumour growth. In this study we investigated the effect of Wharton’s Jelly-derived MSCs (WJ-MSCs) and a fibroblast-derived ECM (fd-ECM) on esophageal (WHCO1) and breast (MDA MB 231) cancer cells in vitro. Both WJ-MSCs and the fd-ECM, alone or in combination, downregulate PCNA, cyclin D1, Bcl-2, Bcl-xL, and MMPs and upregulate p53 and p21. p21 induction resulted in G2 phase cell cycle arrest and induced apoptosis in vitro. Our data suggest that p21 induction is via p53- dependent and p53-independent mechanisms in WHCO1 and MDA MB 231 cells, respectively. Vascular endothelial growth factor, Akt, and Nodal pathways were downregulated in cancer cells cocultured with WJ-MSCs. We also demonstrate that WJ-MSCs effects on cancer cells appear to be short-lived whilst the fd-ECM effect is long-lived. This study shows the influence of tumour microenvironment on cancer cell behaviour and provides alternative therapeutic targets for potential regulation of tumour cells.

Source: UCC
What Coaches Can Learn from Athlete Perceptions

Competitive athletes attribute their successes and failures to factors such as ability, effort, task difficulty, and luck. Research shows that the type of attribution athletes use to define outcomes affects both motivation and performance: It is therefore important for coaches to fully understand the attribution process. Heider <1944) categorized behavioral outcomes into effective personal force (ability and effort> and effective environmental force <task difficulty and luck>. Based on his theory the four attributions of ability, effort, task difficulty, and luck influence future success and failure. In 1972, Weiner restructured Heider's four attributions into a two-dimensional framework he called locus of causality. Locus of causality has two components: stability and locus of control.

Source: UCC
What factors influences dietary and non-dietary vitamin D intake among pregnant women in an African population?

Objective: Data on dietary vitamin D (vitD) intake, sunlight exposure, and the associated determinants are lacking in Africa. The aim of this study was to establish the factors influencing vitD intake and sun- light exposure among pregnant women in an African population with the goal of improving maternal vitD nutrition. Methods: A population-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 703 mother–infant pairs ac- cessing postnatal care at the five main health facilities in Cape Coast, Ghana in 2016. Information on sociodemographic characteristics and sunlight exposure practices during pregnancy were collected using a structured questionnaire. A semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire was used to estimate vitD intake during pregnancy. Results: VitD nutrition awareness during pregnancy was low in the study area. Education, occupation, ethnicity, and marital status influenced vitD intake in this population. In a multivariable linear regres- sion adjusting for potential confounders, lack of information on essential nutrients needed in pregnancy, and infrequent consumption of recommended foods resulted in 10.51 μg (95% confidence interval [CI], −19.59 to −1.42) and 26.18 μg (95% CI, −47.18 to −5.17) reduction in vitD intake, respectively. Lack of in- formation on the importance of vitD in pregnancy, and on their dietary and non-dietary sources resulted in 11.76 μg (95% CI, −21.53 to −2.00) and 26.34 μg (95% CI, −52.47 to −0.21) reduction in vitD intake, re- spectively. Employment status of mothers was associated with statistically significant higher sunlight exposure. Conclusions: The study findings call for rolling out literacy and nutrition education programs targeted at women in sub-Saharan African countries to help improve maternal nutrition.

Source: UCC
What is Happening in Ghanaian Junior High School Mathematics Classrooms?: A Look at Students’ Perception

In recent times, there has been public outcry about students’ poor performance in mathematics in Ghana. Since available literature is replete with the fact that students’ perception of their mathematics classroom environment influences their participation in classroom activities and hence their mathematics achievement, this study was designed to examine how junior high school students perceived their mathematics classroom learning environment. A total of 350 eighth and ninth graders (i.e., junior high school forms two and three students) from four public and two private schools in a metropolitan community in southern Ghana participated in the study. The study adapted the What is Happening in This Class (WIHIC) questionnaire, a questionnaire designed to measure students’ perception of their classroom environment on four different subscales. The results revealed that, though in general, the perception of students were positive, ranging from sometimes to often, that of the public school students were relatively more positive than their private school counterparts in each of the subscales. Implications of this are discussed and recommendations for classroom teachers and future research are also presented.

Source: UCC
What is history? : The science of the past in perspective

Some puzzles in human life are universal and cut across generations. That is why some of the very issues that boggled the minds of many people centuries ago continue to baffle many people today. Such problems often attract the attention of scholars and generate debates among them. The meaning of the term “history” and the nature of history in general are certainly some of the sensitive problems that have remained highly debatable among historians and allied scholars. In fact, the debate on “what is history?” has continued without resolution for several centuries. The term “history” has been defined or explained differently by different people at different times and under different circumstances. Though these definitions or explanations have been accepted and used, the lack of unanimity on the part of historians on a common definition places students and teachers of history in a difficult situation concerning what exactly history is. We believe that in the contemporary setting, any definition or explanation given to history must be situated in a framework that is comprehensive enough to make the nature and philosophy of the discipline clear. Using both primary and secondary documents, and employing the multi-disciplinary approach, this paper examines some of the important definitions or explanations that have been given to history with the view to constructing a definition or an explanation that is appropriate for history today. In its survey, the study finds that several definitions have been formulated for history over the centuries. It observes, however, that some of the definitions or explanations are inappropriate and unacceptable today in view of their inability to reveal the true nature of history and clarify the philosophy behind the study of the past. In its evaluation and conclusion, the paper appreciates that history has both art and science dimensions, and is also a practice with an avowed philosophy. Taking all these into consideration, the paper then defines or explains history in a context that is comprehensive enough to depict history as a discipline that is concerned not only with the past, but also, and more especially, with the present and the future for the development of society and the various sciences or disciplines. As a result, the study draws attention to the need to promote the serious study of history in schools

Source: UCC
What is in a flag? the Swastika and Togoland and nationalism

Flags were important symbols in the acquisition of colonies in Africa since 1884. Karl Peters and two colleagues went to Zanzibar in 1884 with ‘a number of German flags and treaty forms and hoisted the flags at Mbuzini’. In 1886, the British governor in the Gold Coast Colony distributed flags to Krepi chiefs who signed the Krepi bond of 1886. This article adds to our knowledge on the appropriation of symbols in colonial situations in Africa and elucidates the influence of Nazi ideology on the Togoland Congress in its fight against the integration of the Trust Territory into the Gold Coast. The flying of the Swastika by the Togoland Congress was a controversial incident which has not received attention from scholars but which offers an opportunity to re-examine the political views of Togolanders from a new perspective. Most scholars who worked on British Togoland focused their research mainly on post World War 1 histories of the region. Yet most of the historical processes of the post-World War 1 era actually started in the second half of the nineteenth century with the formal German colonization of the territory

Source: UCC
‘What is in a Name?’ Naming Practices in Four Texts of Amma Darko

The study aims at exploring the names and naming practices in four texts of Amma Darko, namely Beyond the Horizon, Faceless, The Housemaid and Not Without Flowers. The categories of names studied comprise personal names, place names and animal names. The study, an interface between literature and language, adopts the theory of Duranti’s (1997) Three Interconnected Theoretical Framework to provide insight into the function of language (names) in culture in the areas of indexicality, performance and participation. A complementary theory is the Description Theory of names with particular reference to Replacement Theory of (proper) names which views a name as describing the object it names. The research design is qualitative. It uses the purposive sampling technique. The analytical procedure is a triangular analytical framework. The analysis suggests that names are not created, deployed or used arbitrarily but can dictate the roles of their referents. Also, names are found to have thematic and sociocultural significance. Archetypes created are in the areas of character trait, theme and ideology. The findings in this thesis contribute to the scholarship in onomastics (traditional and literary) as well as to language and culture with sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropological implications. The findings also have implication for further research.

Source: UCC
What is “policy”, a problem–solving definition or a process conceptualisation?

An investigation into the usage of the term “policy” suggests that the term is elusive owing to the very many ways it is used to refer to a highly diverse set of phenomena. This paper reviews conceptions explicated in education policy literature to provide conceptual insights into the meaning of the term and an understanding of the dynamics of the policy process. The traditional problem-solving definition views policy fundamentally as a thing, a guide and a document of some sort, containing a page or flips of pages indicating policy choices reached by policy makers and which policy implementers or actors are to follow in dealing with a recognised problem of concern, and is thus criticised for two main reasons. Firstly, the view is criticised for neglecting the socio-cultural dynamism of policy processes. Secondly, it is criticised for its implicit over-determinism. The process model pays attention to the social agency of the policy process and is thus criticised for not focusing on policymaking, but on understanding actor interactions within the process. Based on these explorations, and in gauging a working definition of policy, the paper adopts a theoretical eclecticism approach whereby education policy is conceptualised as neither the product of policy making nor a process, but both. Significantly, policy in this context is conceptualised as referring fundamentally to the exercise of power and the language that is used to legitimate the process.

Source: UCC
What works and what does not work in response to COVID-19 prevention and control in Africa

ince the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic in December 2019 in Wuhan, China, there have been nearly 6,663,304 conﬁrmed cases of COVID-19, including 392,802 deaths, worldwide as of 10:00 CEST 06 June 2020. In Africa, 152,442 COVID-19 cases and 4334 deaths have been reported as of 02 June 2020. The ﬁve countries with the highest commutative number of cases in Africa are South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria, Algeria, and Ghana. Africa, and the rest of world, has had to swiftly undertake the necessary measures to protect the continent from irreversible effects of the COVID-19 pandemic that is claiming lives and destroying livelihoods. The lower number of COVID-19 cases in most African countries is attributed to inadequate health systems, low-to-absent testing capacity, poor reporting systems, and insufﬁcient numbers of medical staff. The COVID-19 pandemic poses a great threat to most African countries, from cities to rural areas, and has created a strong demand on already scarce resources. Intense mobilization of additional resources is required to implement established emergency contingency measures. Measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 include closure of borders and restricting movement of people within a country; this has resulted in the tourism sector being adversely affected by the loss of income. Cooperative prevention and control measures are one of the promising solutions to deplete the spread of COVID-19 on the continent.

Source: UCC