ghanaopendata/ghanaian-research-english huggingface dataset:
Review of net present value and internal rate of return as investment evaluation criteria for mineral projects

Regardless of the complexity or the degree of sophistication that is associated with the evaluation of mineral projects, the evaluation criterion used in the evaluation process ultimately must indicate whether or not the project is economically viable. When the project being evaluated is to be compared with other alternatives, the criterion chosen should show the relative attractiveness of the project. The NPV and IRR evaluation criteria have enjoyed a widespread use in the mineral industry. ‘In this dissertation, a cash flow for a Ghanaian hypothetical gold project has been formulated. The cash flow analysis results in using the NPV and IRR as indicators on a 100% and 40% equity respectively shows that the project is economically viable. The values obtained for the 40% equity are much higher than that for the 100% equity. The information provided by the two criteria and their practicability has been discussed. It has been concluded that the NPV and the IRR complement each other to a very large extent as there is no clear dominance between the two criteria. It is therefore recommended that the two be used together whenever possible in order to obtain a sound basis for decision making as they almost always lead to the same evaluation decision.

Source: KNUST
A review of the decentralization policy of Ghana in the context of the district assembly sub-structures

Centralized system of government and development planning in the Developing World particularly in Ghana was seen as a bane to sustainable and equitable development and fbr that matter the best reason lbr the under development of countries within this brackets. Consultation with beneficiaries of development programmes and projects was completely absent resulting in lack of community ownership and sustainability of projects and programmes. Ghana embarked upon a local government reforms and decentralization programme in 1988 under the then PNDC government, which passed the local government law PNDC Law 207, of 1988 to put the reform in place. The principal reason behind the reform programme was the devolution of power and responsibilities to the local government bodies (DAs) to promote local development and improve the standard of living of the populace in a sustainable manner, through local democracy. The background to Ghana’s decentralization policy was against the backdrop that a greater majority of the citizenry was excluded from the management of public affairs and most importantly in governance in the past. “Power to the people” was the catch phrase that underpinned the decentralization policy. A Legislative Instrument (L.J. 1589) under the Local Government Act, 1993 (Act 462), also established the District Assembly Sub-structures (Sub-metro, Zonal, TownlArea Councils and Unit Committees), which forms the base structure of the local government system of Ghana and within, which people’s participation in local governance and development can take place. The decentralization policy mandates the MMDAs to stimulate and enhance development at the local level through the SDSs. But these SDSs in most MMDAs are still either non-operational or inefficient in the performance of their roles and responsibilities. Indeed, in some places, they only exist on paper. xi Essentially, this study was conducted to review the entire decentralization policy with focus rather on the S1)Ss at the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assembly Levels in order to assess the effectiveness of the structures and processes of their implementation. Questionnaires and Key Informant Interview guides were the major tools of investigation. A number of focus group discussions were also conducted with groups of some major stakeholders at the SDSs level. The research findings and conclusions indicated that there is inadequate commitment of both policy makers (government) and implementers (MMDAs) to the functionality of the SDSs. This was evidenced by the lack of complete devolution to the SDSs level and the irregular transfer of the 5% DAC and 50% IGF to the SDSs for their operation. Perhaps, the most important recommendation based on the output of the study is that, government and all local government stakeholders should rededicate their commitments towards the operationalisation of the SDSs by undertaking a comprehensive review of the local government law to make the system more efficient and capable of engendering sustainable local and equitable development.

Source: KNUST
A review of the free medical care facility for Ministry of Health workers: the case of Kumasi Metropolis

Ministry of Health staff, their Spouses and four children (below 18 years) were exempted from all hospital fees in 1986. This free medical ire policy need to all civil servants in the country in 1991. It is important that the managers of the system ensure that it is not abuse, and beneficiaries obtain maximum satisfaction from it. The principal objective of the study is to review the operations of the free medical care facility for health workers in the Kumasi Metropolis. A descriptive cross-sectional study of how the free medical care facility for health workers is managed within the Kumasi Metro Health Administration was done. A retrospective analysis of medical bills submitted for refund between January I 7 to June 1998 was done. Health workers within the Kumasi Metro Health Administration were interviewed using structured questionnaires. Interviews and discussions were used in extracting information from managers of the system. Results obtained indicated lack up-to-date documentation of information on staff dependants at the health centres and a significant percentage of drugs are prescribed outside the essential drug list. In addition proprietary drug prescribing increased the medical bills. The delay in refund and its cumbersomeness were problems confirmed. It was also detected that most health workers were not conversant with the guidelines for the implementation of the free medical care facility. Recommendations made include enforcing the use of family identification cards, ensuring the availability of all drugs prescribed at the centres to discourage staff from buying drugs from private source, and encouraging prescribing drugs from the essential Drugs List (EDL). In addition, ensuring that the guidelines for the implementation of the free medical care facility are clearly explain to staff.

Source: KNUST
A review of the exemption policy at the sub-district level: a case study of Ejisu-Juaben District of Ashanti Region

Providing exemptions is meant to increase access to healthcare for those who cannot pay. Thus, the main aim of the exemptions is to mitigate the problems of user charges and to ensure equity. The Vulnerable in Society which traditionally includes children, pregnant women, the elderly (70+) and certain diseases of public health importance are exempted from user charges. Since providing exemptions is not free, as someone has to pay for it, it calls for proper management of the funds. This will require knowing how implementers understand and interpret the policy and efforts made by them to achieve objectives for exemptions. The main objective of the study was to assess the effect of the exemption policy at the Ejisu-Juaben District. The study design was retrospective cross-sectional, employing both quantitative and qualitative methods. The sample size was 50 and made up of 42 sampled households and 8 key informants. Results from the study indicated increases in attendance for the Aged and pregnant women over the years. Though children under 5 years were being exempted from consultation fees no claims were being made for reimbursement whilst the other categories, especially, paupers were not being exempted for reasons well known — difficulty in identification. The level of awareness among households was high especially for the aged. However, delays in reimbursement and the amount involved were seriously decapitalizing the drug and non-drug accounts. Recommendations were made to health managers to plan towards utilisation of exemption funds, especially amount per capita on each category and the need to integrate data on exemption into routine data collection system.

Source: KNUST
Review of the hydraulic capacity of some existing culverts on selected roads in Kumasi Metropolis (Ghana)

Culverts are one of the most important and common crossing structures that allow roadways to traverse rivers and streams. Due to their importance, their design and construction are to be done in such a way as to avoid overflow of water. Inadequate sizing of culverts leads to ponding of water behind the structure and eventually flooding of the culvert and the roadway. Inadequate sizing of culverts in the country has come about because engineers have been relying on their experience to select the sizes without going through vigorous computational design. This research work looks at 16 culverts in the Kumasi metropolis, which have been experiencing frequent flooding. The 16 culverts were selected after series of interviews, consultation and field visits with the various road agencies of the Kumasi metropolis. Thereafter, landsat images for various years were used to obtain catchment areas contributing flow to the various culverts. The satellite images also enabled us to determine areas of vegetation and settlement over the years. Areas of vegetation represent areas of high permeability while areas of settlement denote areas of high imperviousness. With these areas of settlement and vegetation, runoff coefficients of the contributing catchment were calculated over the years. Times of concentrations were then computed by the Brandy Williams equation. The intensities of rainfall were then defined at 25 years return period with the aid of IDF curves of Kumasi and subsequently the discharge at the various culvert sites computed using the modified rational formula. The Civil 3D software was then used to size the various drains at different years. The results show that out of the 16 culverts investigated only four (4) were found to have adequate sizes and that the frequent floods that were experienced here were due to other factors such as silting and blockages while twelve (12) were found to be inadequate. The results show that in general some form of computation, especially determination of hydrological flow at the culvert site must be done to enable quick use of culvert nomograms for selecting the appropriate culvert size.

Source: KNUST
The reviewed Government textbook policy and the printing industry : ‘a case study of selected press houses in Kumasi’

The textbook policy of the Ministry of Education is leaning itself to an era of great expansion in the textbook production industry in Ghana. The textbook market which was monopolized by the Government is finally being released unto the private sector. In light of this, the study sought to examine the current production capacity and practices of the printing industry and from the findings make recommendations that will aid local printing houses take maximum advantage of the new policy. The areas of study are the production capacity, the equipment holdings of the various press houses, their finances, personnel and their educational levels. The sector is divided into four main divisions by the National Association with regards to their sizes, equipment holdings, number of personnel and turnover. The findings realized that most of the press houses have the equipment for the prepress and the press, but lack equipment for the binding and finishing section. In order to to maximize the opportunities presented by the textbook policy, the local firms needed to build on their finishing capacity. It was again realized that almost all the press houses underutilize their equipment for the simple reason that there was not much work demand. Other concerns were in the areas of taxes on inputs to textbook production as well as quality measures, educational levels of employees and financing of book production. With the hypothesis it was found that the reviewed policy would have a positive impact on the press houses as this would increase their work demands and maximize their production thereby creating more job opportunities for the generation with the printing profession. This policy itself is an expansion in the indigenous printing industry, as the previous policy favoured foreign firms and was dominated by multinationals like Macmillan and Longman. Policy makers in the year 2001 announced at the 25 Annual Ghana Book Awards Ceremony in Accra, decided to review the textbook policy of 40%/60% ratio to 60%/40% in favour of the local press houses. Based on the findings, recommendations were made to improve the production practices in the printing industry. These include increasing local printing capacity and upgrading binding technique; employing people with professional background as well as organizing a periodic training for workers; creating strategic alliance with publishers and adopting quality management practices for a sustainable competitive advantage.

Source: KNUST
Revised mathematical morphological concepts: dilation, erosion, opening and closing

Mathematical morphology is the theory and technique for the analysis and processing of geometrical structures, based on set theory, lattice theory, topology, and random functions. Mathematical Morphology is most com-monly applied to digital images, but it can be employed as well on graphs, surface meshes, solids, and many other spatial structures. Mathematical Morphology has a lots of operators but the most basic and important ones are Dilation and Erosion. Since it development, Morphological operators have been governed by algebraic properties, which we seek to improve in this study. Mathematical proofs are outlined for propositions which were discovered during the investigation of what happens to Dilation and Erosion when the set or structural element in a morphological operation is parti-tioned before the operation is taken. It turns out that some of the operators distribute over union and intersection with a few exceptions and it is also possible to partitioned the set or structural element before carrying out the morphological operation.

Source: KNUST
Reviewing procurement system in the Holy Family Hospital, Techiman, Ghana

Provision of health services in developing country is saddled with a myriad of problems, prominent among them is procurement. Procurement is an especially critical concern in the developing and transitional economies where public resources are already scarce coupled with mismanagement and corruptions. These obstruct provision of high quality service culminating in high mortalities. These most often are avoidable. What is required is probably readily availability of appropriate resources; both material and human. Apparently, efficient procurement system is critically needed to improve service delivery, especially, in the health sector. A case study of Techiman Holy Family Hospital was therefore undertaken to assess the methods and processes employed in the procurement of health sector goods. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were employed. A sample size of 23 was purposively selected for data collection using, interviews, questionnaire and discussions. With a help of checklists observation was carried out at two stores in the Hospital. The study confirmed among other things, that only 5% of the drugs and non-drug consumables purchased from the Regional Medical Stores, the other sources of procurement by the hospital for drugs and non-drug consumables are the Diocesan Health Pharmacy and the open market. It was further revealed that there are no controls in the distribution of goods distributed to the various departments. Moreover, apart from the Administrator of the hospital, none of the staff is conversant with the Procurement Procedure Manual of the Ministry of Health. Although the hospital seems to be doing well for procuring most of the drugs and non-drug consumables now, the current situation questions its sustainability. Consequently, it is recommended more training, and recruitment stock control experts amidst strict adherence to the Procurement Procedure Manual are critical to ensure continuous provision of efficient services to their clients.

Source: KNUST
Reward Systems and Employees’ Behaviour in the Obuasi Municipal Assembly in Ashanti Region, Ghana

In Ghana, it is a known fact that the root cause of the reoccurrence of the numerous industrial actions embarked by employees is ineffective reward systems. The questions that still remain answered in the minds of people included; what effects do rewards have on employees’ behaviour? This question and others formed the bases from which by a case study as a research design. Thus, the objectives of the study among other things were to investigate whether rewards had any effect on employees’ behaviour. Again, the study aimed to examine whether or employees were satisfied with rewards. The stratified sampling technique was used to select 200 respondents in the Obuasi Municipal Assembly to find these. The SPSS widows’ software was used to analyse the data both qualitatively and quantitatively using tools such as percentages, frequencies, and the chi-square in the hypothesis test. The results revealed that employees were not rewarded effectively and as such they were dissatisfied. Employees were also uncommitted and had no intention to remain with their jobs. The study thus, recommended that rewards should be integrative so as to make it satisfactory to employees.

Source: KNUST
Review of the management of severely malnourished children at the maternal and child health hospital in Kumasi, in relation to the WHO Protocol

This study was done in the Maternal and Child Health Hospital in Kumasi, Ashanti Region of Ghana. The aim of this study was to review the management of the severely malnourished children, in line with the WHO protocol, who were brought to the hospital. In order to address the objectives of the research, data was collected using existing recorded information on the changes in weight of the children during their management, semi-structured interviews of mothers/caregivers as well as health providers and observation of the facility in order to determine whether it was conducive for the management of the severely malnourished children. The research work took place between the period of July 26 and October 16, 2004. A purposive sampling technique was used in selecting the respondents for the study. The sample for the study consisted of 34 severely malnourished children and their mothers/caregivers and 8 health providers. Impediments affecting the effective management of severely malnourished children identified were inadequate nutritional care practices of the mothers/caregivers such as exclusive breastfeeding, feeding children weaning foods only, insufficient night feeds, lack of supervision during feeding, and interference. The inadequate nutritional/care practices of health providers that were impediments to management of severely malnourished children identified included their lack of checking for hypoglycemia, lack of supervised feeding, failure to follow the WHO protocol on prevention/treatment of hypoglycemia, hypothermia, dehydration, correction of electrolyte imbalance and micronutrient deficiencies. The recovery rate determined through monitoring of the changes in the weight of the severely malnourished children was generally appropriate. Observations showed that the facility provided a congenial environment for managing the severely malnourished children. It is recommended that health providers of the Maternal and Child Health Hospital should adhere strictly to the WHO protocol for the management of severely malnourished children. Also management of the Maternal and Child Health Hospital should hold meetings quarterly on the job refresher training for the health providers on the WHO protocol on the management of severely malnourished children and the need to adhere to it, and the Ghana Health Service/Ministry of Health should develop its own protocol/guidelines for the management of severely malnourished children, taking into consideration peculiar characteristics of the local environment.

Source: KNUST
Revolte des adolescents dans taaw de sembene ousmane et lemiroir de la vied’aminata maiga ka

In this work, we research on revolt of enlightened adolescents in Taaw and Le Miroir de la vie, respectively written by Sembene Ousmane and his Senegalese compatriot, Aminata Maïga Ka. The study articulates problems and challenges of the African youth and of the African Continent after independence. It also finds that disobedience, insolence, confrontation, rural-urban migration, terrorism as well as opposition to social and political ideologies of elders are, among others, ways by which the adolescents rebel. The causes of the rebellion range from hostile negative cultural practices to irresponsibility of parents and some African leaders. These people remain the target while destruction and social instability exemplify the negative effects of the revolt. The work also bemoans the invocation of curses on the rebellious child, his or her ejection from the home, undue deployment of the security agencies to arrest him or her as well as other ways by which the antagonistic behavior of the African youth is dealt with in the society. The research does not only re-echo ways of molding the African youth into responsible and productive adults but also suggests ways of favorably reforming the sociopolitical fibers of post-independent Africa for better humanity.

Source: KNUST
Rheological and microstructural investigation of oat -glucan isolates varying in molecular weight

The rheological properties and microstructure of aqueous oat -glucan solutions varying in molecular weight were investigated. The structural features and molecular weights (MW) were characterized by 13C NMR spectroscopy and high performance size-exclusion chromatography (HPSEC), respectively. The microstructure of the -glucans dispersions was also examined by atomic force microscopy (AFM). The samples with -glucan content between 78 and 86% on a dry weight basis had MW, intrinsic viscosity ([ ]) and critical concentration (c*) in the range of 142–2800 × 103 g/mol, 1.7–7.2 dl/g and 0.25–1.10 g/dl, respectively. The flow and viscoelastic behaviour was highly dependent on MW and on the concentration of the -glucans dispersions. Pseudoplastic behaviour was exhibited at high concentrations and Newtonian behaviour was evident atlow concentrations. At the same concentration,the viscosity was higher for higher MW samples. The Cox–Merz rule was applicable for the lower molecular weight samples at higher concentrations whereas the high molecular weight sample deviated at concentrations greater than 1.0%,w/v. The mechanical spectra with variation of both MW and concentration were typical of entangled biopolymer solutions. AFM images revealed the formation of clusters or aggregates linked via individual polymer chains scattered heterogeneously throughout the system. The aggregate size increased with the molecular weight of the samples investigated and has been linked to the rheological behaviour of the samples.

Source: KNUST