ghanaopendata/ghanaian-research-english huggingface dataset:
Change as a tool for enchanging organisational development: A case study of Ejisu Government Hospital

Ejisu Government Hospital (EGH) has often experienced no significant improvement in performance following policy changes. This is because management had never appreciated fully how the process of change affects an organisation’s ability to achieve the goals of the change being sought. This study examines the role of change as an organisational development tool at EGH through exploring its historical drivers of change, prevalent resistors to change and identifying the critical success factors for managing change at the hospital. Because of budgetary constraints, methodology used was limited to data collection from a paper based questionnaire that was analysed with the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and Excel. The drivers of change identified were categorised as either internal or external drivers. Data analysis showed that internally, power and influence is the main internal driver of change; whereas externally, political factors are the main driver of change at the Hospital. The study revealed that the sources of resistance to change were primarily from blind resistance, intellectual (ideological) resistance and political resistance. Many factors on the personal level underlying these resistances were isolated, of which poor communication was identified as the major reason why people resist change at the Hospital. Of the nine (9) critical success factors discovered for effective change at EGH, personnel training was found to be the factor with the highest effect on successful implementation of and acceptance of change. It is therefore recommended to the hospital’s management that all subsequent changes be implemented in the following sequence: begin with proper planning to assess all systemic effects of the proposed change; if such an assessment still proves desirable, then effective communication and negotiation with all key stakeholders and implementers is carried out; and then finally education and training is implemented and monitored to assess feedback and necessary modifications to achieve the goals of the change.

Source: KNUST
Change management practices in the Ghanaian Construction Industry

Changes are inevitable in any construction project. Needs of the owner may change in the course of design or construction, market conditions may impose changes to the parameters of the project, and technological developments may alter the design and the choice of the engineer. The engineer’s review of the design may bring about changes to improve or optimize the design and hence the operation of the project. Further, errors and omissions in engineering or construction may force a change. All these factors and many others necessitate changes that are costly and generally un-welcomed by all parties, Al-Dubaisi (2000). Change management process is the sequence of steps or activities that a change management team or project leader would follow to apply change management to a project. In Ghana like other countries change management is the responsibility of change management team (CMT) or consultants. Over the years, parallel streams of experts in the form of Architect, Engineers, and consultant have operated concurrently with the public agencies in Construction industry (CI). These agencies are Ghana Highway Authority, Department of Urban Roads and Department of Feeder Roads. The prime purpose of this research was exploring the change management processes used in Ghanaian construction industry. Data was also gathered using closed and open-ended questionnaires. The results were analyzed using descriptive techniques. The study shows that all the four models listed in literature review are applicable in Ghanaian construction industry but Flowchart model is the most useful model. The findings shows that corrections and unforeseen site conditions are the major causes of change in construction project, also inadequate funding, inflation fluctuation and Change or increase mark up for contractor are the three main difficulties that are always encounter during change implementation.

Source: KNUST
Changes in electrolyte and lipid metabolism of hypertensive patients in Komfo Anokye Teaching hospital following the administration of anti-hypertensive drugs

Serum levels of total cholesterol, Low density lipoproteins (LDL), high density lipoproteins (HDL), Calcium, Potassium and sodium were estimated in 140 newly diagnosed patients of essential hypertension. Serum levels of these same parameters were also estimated in an equal number of normotensives serving as control group matching age to age and sex to sex. A follow up study was done on 64 of the hypertensive patients. This study was conducted at the Komfo Anokye Teaching hospital Kumasi, with the bulk of the patients coming from within the city and its surrounding towns. Cholesterol was estimated using the enzymatic method. (Reagents constituted by bio-merioux were used). Flame emission technique (CORNING 405) was used to assay the electrolytes. The o-cresolpthalein complexone method was used to assay for calcium. Serum levels of urea and creatinine were also determined using the diacetylmonoxime and Jaffe reactions respectively. The results showed a positive correlation between Total cholesterol, LDL and age with diastolic blood pressure for both patients and control group and a weak negative correlation between serum levels of HDL and age with diastolic blood pressure. A significant difference in the level of total cholesterol between hypertensives and normotensives was observed. No statistically significant difference was observed in LDL and HDL levels between hypertensives positive correlations were demonstrated betweenserum sodium and calcium levels with diastolic blood pressure, whilst a weaker correlation existed between potassium levels and diastolic blood pressure. Thirteen out of the 140 patients studied developed renal failure with a mean sodium level of 129.77 ±2.78mmol/L. The subjects responded rapidly to the management using a combination of diuretics, sympathetic nervous acting agents; receptor blockers and vasodilators. Though their blood pressures returned to the normal base line, their cholesterol and LDL levels remained high above the norinotensive range. No significant difference was found in the serum electrolyte level between the treated hypertensives and control group. A strong positive correlation was shown between serum total cholesterol; LDL levels, and essential hypertension. A weak correlation was established for the serum electrolytes level with blood pressure, whilst an inverse correlation between diastolic blood pressure and HDL levels was established.

Source: KNUST
Changes In Land Use And Land Cover And Cocoa Production In Relation To Artisanal Gold Mining In The Amansie West District, Ghana

Artisanal and small-scale gold mining can greatly impact cocoa production by reducing land cover, labour force and the quantity of cocoa produced, yet these effects have been scarcely studied. This study examined the effects of land use/land cover change as a result of artisanal and small-scale gold mining on cocoa production from 1997 to 2016 in the Amansie West District, Ghana, using both quantitative and qualitative methods. Google Earth, Landsat images and Geographical Information System (GIS) were used to estimate and map land use/land cover changes over the period. Purposive and doublestaged cluster sampling methods were used to obtain information on the subject matter from three relevant institutions and 434 cocoa farmers, respectively, in the district. The t-test was used to evaluate the differences in cocoa production between the periods 1997 to 2006 and 2007 to 2016, whereas the Pearson correlation was used to assess the relationship between the farm size and cocoa harvested over the same period. Change matrices for the periods 1986 to 2007 and 2007 to 2016 were used to ascertain the extent to which artisanal gold mining had taken over cocoa land cover. Results indicated a significant decrease in cocoa production over the period 2007 to 2016 compared to the period 1997 to 2006. There was also a statistically significant positive correlation between the extent of farms size and cocoa produced over both. The extent of land cover of cocoa farms accounted for 10 % variance in cocoa production. Subsequently the maps showed that the land cover of cocoa increased by 13% from 1986 to 2007 while in 2016 there was a 1.8 % increase in land cover. Artisanal and small-scale gold mining on the other hand experienced an increase of 124% in land cover from 1986 to 2007, and again, a dramatic increase of 12442% increase in 2016. The change matrices for both 1986 to 2007 and 2007 to 2016 showed that land converted to artisanal mining sites were covered mostly by cocoa farms. These outcomes reflected a direct linkage between the extent of land use and land cover changes due to artisanal and small-scale gold mining and cocoa production which can be effectively addressed if the plight of the cocoa farmer is made the prime focus.

Source: KNUST
Changes in Serum Lipids and other Biochemical Indices Associated with Liver Damage in Chronic Hepatitis B Infection

Chronic hepatitis B infection affects nearly 400 million people who are at a risk of death by liver-related complications. The liver plays a vital role in lipid metabolism, hence its consequent degeneration following chronic hepatitis B infection could potentially provoke dyslipidemia. This study therefore, sought to evaluate the effect of the chronic hepatitis B infection on host serum lipid profile. A cross-sectional study was conducted on chronic hepatitis B patients, attending a specialist care at the Oncology Unit at the KATH, during a 9-month period. On the basis of serological and liver enzyme assays, participants were categorized as chronic symptomatic (HBcAb +ve, HBsAg +ve, HBV-DNA ≥ 103 copies/ml and serum AST and ALT ≥ 40 IU/l) or chronic asymptomatic (HBcAb +ve, HBsAg +ve, HBV-DNA ≤ 103 copies/ml, serum AST and ALT ≤ 40 IU/l) and a control group of apparently healthy individuals (HBcAb -ve, HBsAg -ve, serum AST and ALT ≤ 40 IU/l). The relationship between the patients’ HBeAg status and pathological stage of infection was evaluated using some indices of lipid metabolism – VLDL, LDL, HDL, triglyceride, and total serum cholesterol, using Chi-square (Χ2) analysis. Fifty seven (57) participants fulfilled the inclusion criteria consisting of 41 males (62.9%) and 16 females (37.1%) (p=1.000). Ten (10) of the patients (17.5%) showed active chronic HBV infection (HBeAg +ve) while 47 patients (82.5%) were inactive chronic carriers of the infection (HBeAg-ve) (p=0.1718). Serum triglyceride levels were significantly lower among the chronic HB-infected population, compared to the healthy control (p=0.0051). Serum cholesterol, LDL, HDL, total cholesterol/HDL and HDL/LDL ratios were unaffected by the disease. This work has shown that serum triglyceride is lowered in chronic hepatitis B infection.

Source: KNUST
Changes in water quality in the Owabi water treatment plant in Ghana

The study was conducted on the status of the quality of water from the Owabi water treatment plant that supplies drinking water to Kumasi, a major city in Ghana, to ascertain the change in quality of water from source to point-of-use. Physico-chemical, bacteriological water quality parameters and trace metal concentration of water samples from five different treatment points from the Owabi water treatment plant were investigated. The raw water was moderately hard with high turbidity and colour that exceeds the WHO guideline limits. Nutrient concentrations were of the following order: NH3\NO2 -\- NO3 -\PO4 3-\SO4 2- and were all below WHO permissible level for drinking water in all the samples at different stages of treatment. Trace metal concentrations of the reservoir were all below WHO limit except chromium (0.06 mg/L) and copper (0.24 mg/L). The bacteriological study showed that the raw water had total coliform (1,766 cfu/100 mL) and faecal coliform (257 cfu/100 mL) that exceeded the WHO standard limits, rendering it unsafe for domestic purposes without treatment. Colour showed strong positive correlation with turbidity (r = 0.730), TSS (r C 0.922) and alkalinity (0.564) significant at p\0.01. The quality of the treated water indicates that colour, turbidity, Cr and Cu levels reduced and fall within the WHO permissible limit for drinking water. Treatment process at the water treatment plant is adjudged to be good.

Source: KNUST
Changes in Water Quality from Source to Point-of-Use: A case study of the Owabi Headworks

Water supports all forms of life and is a key natural resource that is inevitable for sustaining human health. Poor quality water is a vehicle for the spread of diseases. This study was conducted to ascertain the change in quality of drinking water from source to point-of-use from the Owabi Headworks supplies to some parts of Kumasi and its environs...

Source: KNUST
Chaplain’s Desk: A Weekly Reflection – Vol. 2

As part of his sermon on the mount, Jesus made this statement, for truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the laws until all is accomplished – Matt. 5:18. This is a very profound statement. It buttresses the importance and significance of the Word of God. It is against this backdrop that the authors came out with the chaplain’s Desk. Chaplain’s Desk: A Weekly Reflection Vol. II is a sequel to the earlier edition published last year. It is serving as the same purpose to help the Family of God and allow the Word of God to guide them in their spiritual journey towards eternal life. May God touch the hearts of all who read these volumes as they try to grow in their spiritual life. Amen.

Source: KNUST
Characeterization of faecal sludge and analysis of its lipid content for biodiesel production

As urbanization continues to take place, the management of sanitation is becoming a major concern in urban areas of many African countries. For countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) to achieve the millennium development goal of halving the number of people without access to improved sanitation, a paradigm shift is needed. Aside sanitation, SSA countries lag behind the rest of the world in access to modern energy services, a situation that is militating against poverty reduction. This work looks at the characteristics that make faecal sludge (FS) from Kumasi a viable feedstock for the production of biodiesel, a renewable energy fuel. Faecal sludge from households were analysed for their lipid content, moisture content, total solids and pH. On the average, the lipid content was found to be in the range of 8.84 – 9.71% of dry FS depending on the type of faecal sludge. The moisture content varied between 82.45 – 99%, while the pH was between 6.65– 8.49. Lipids were extracted from dry faecal sludge using different methods; soxhlet extraction method (solvents: hexane, petroleum ether and methanol), ‘Bligh and Dyer’ method, Folch method and extraction with hexane-methanol-acetone combined-solvent system also known in this work as HMA extraction method. It was found that extraction with methanol yielded the highest amount of lipids, i.e., 12.67%w/w of the dry FS while petroleum ether extracted the least amount of lipids, i.e., 3.05%w/w of the dry FS. The lipids extracted with methanol contained 10.48% saponifiable matter while lipids extracted with petroleum ether contained 2.09% saponifiable matter. HPLC analyses revealed that lipids extracted with hexane and petroleum ether using soxhlet method produced the highest amount of triglycerides, i.e., 16.6% and 16.0% respectively. Soxhlet extraction with these solvents showed that they contained lower levels of free fatty acids, 2.4% and 2.2% respectively, as compared the other methods. GC analyses, indicated that all the lipids extracted from the different methods predominantly contained 16-carbon and 18-carbon fatty acids, which is a good sign since these are the kind of fatty acids in vegetable oil used as major precursors for biodiesel production.

Source: KNUST
Characterisation of Jasmine 85 rice (Oryza sativa) variety from different sources of seed production in Ghana

Following the observation that rice variety Jasmine 85 from two sources in Ghana were different in morphology, samples of Jasmine 85 were collected from seven sources in Ghana. A reference source was obtained from Africa Rice Centre in Senegal for comparison. An experiment was set up in a Randomized Complete Block Design and under standard conditions in Nobewam (Ashanti region) to ascertain if there were any differences among the sources. Morphological data was taken in the field to identify off types and characterise the sources. All the sources were not significantly different in terms of aroma, anthocyanin coloration, leaf pubescence, and ligule shape, but the sources showed significant differences with regards to pericarp colour, days to 50% heading, plant height, number of tillers, seed length, seed width, panicle length, and number of secondary branches. Physico-chemical analyses were done for further characterisation. Grain size and shape, grain chalkiness, cooking time, head rice yield, gelatinisation temperature, amylose content, and viscosity properties were significantly different among the sources. Grain hardness was not significantly different among the sources. Molecular characterisation using 15 SSR markers was done to establish the genetic resemblance among the sources. The sources differed significantly, although the result also showed that they are closely related. A cluster analysis run on the morphological and physico-chemical data gave four clusters: (GBEWAA and TONO), (SARI), (PV), (KIP, CRI, ARI, DARTEY). The molecular data on the other hand gave three clusters: (TONO, DARTEY, PV), (SARI, ARI, CRI), (KIP, GBEWAA). The results imply that seeds from different sources should not be mixed for production, and these varieties should be treated separately in future evaluations.

Source: KNUST
Chaos in Dynamical Systems

The behavior of dynamical system has become an interesting field of endeavor. Periodicity, fixed points and importantly chaos of systems have evolved as an integral part of mathematics and especially in dynamical system. We tend to consider asymptotic behavior of systems especially in the area of chaos. No universally accepted definition exist for chaos but we consider the various routes to chaos including transitivity, expansivity, topological entropy, Lyapunov exponent, dense orbits, period doubling , period three point and sensitive dependence to initial conditions. A combination of each of these guarantees a type of chaos. We study the various distinct routes to chaos and how various kinds of chaos are interrelated. Properties of an unknown map can be associated with that of the known via topological conjugacy, hence properties of unknown maps can always be studied in terms of the unknown. The tent map and logistic maps are two known chaotic maps. We explore how numerical values are used to determine chaos especially in terms of Lyapunov exponents with respect to known maps like the tent map and logistic maps. ’Chaos is when the present determines the future but the approximate present does not approximately determine the future.‘Edward Lorenz’.

Source: KNUST
Characterisation of soil physical properties for pond design for aquaculture among rice farmers at Kwabre district

Agriculture, the backbone of the Ghanaian economy employs around 51% of Ghana’s work force. Currently most younger farmers are quitting and moving to urban centres for other forms of employments because they claim it is not lucrative. There are various ways of minimising this drift and one of them is by developing alternative livelihood for small-scale farmers so that the full potential of the land and the farming skills of the farmers will be achieved. This study concentrates on the way of developing aquaculture through the initial soil study so as to develop alternative livelihood in fish production in earthen ponds. The study area of this project was a valley bottom site at Adawonmase in the Kwabre District of the Ashanti Region in Ghana. Farmers grow rice at the start of the rainy season (April/May) and harvest within three to four months (August/September). After harvesting the rice, they do not do any meaningful agriculture since by then the rains have stopped. In a bid to develop an alternative livelihood for the farmers, an initial reconnaissance study was undertaken to interact with the farmers. The farmers showed keen interest after a series of interviews on possible alternative livelihood to rice farming that they can practice in the off season. They expressesd interest in practising off-season aquaculture as a better alternative to farming in their locality. In a bid to shape up this development of an alternative livelihood in fish farming, a lot of soil data was collected from two different sites (flood plain and upslope part of the valley bottom) and tested at the soils laboratory for their various soil physical properties so as to know the soils’ water holding capacities which will aid in modelling a pond type for construction in the future. Finally, after numerous soil analyses, an embankment pond, was proposed to be constructed on the upslope part of the valley bottom. This is because of the compactive nature of the clayey soils there and how easy and inexpensive it was construct these types of ponds.

Source: KNUST
Characterisation of Pearl Millet [Pennisetum glaucum, (L), R.BR] Germplasm in Ghana

Germplasm collections represent the store of genetic information available for crop breeding and improvement. Germplasm characterisation can be carried out by means of morphological, biochemical, or molecular analysis. Molecular analysis using genomic DNA is reliable since it can be carried out at any developmental state of plant and offers the opportunity to efficiently compare all accessions. The Simple Sequence Repeats (SSR) markers used have demonstrated to be very informative in studying relationships in closely related plant species as well as readily detecting co-dominant inheritance and exhibiting a high level of polymorphism per loci. One hundred and twenty-six Pearl millet accessions were collected from Upper East, Upper West and Northern Regions which are home to Pearl millet production in Ghana. Days to 50 % booting separated 123 of the collections into Early, Medium and Late maturing groups whiles morphological data helped to further group the early maturity group into three clusters and five clusters each for medium and late maturity groups using Unweighted Pair-group Method with the Arithmetic Means (UPGMA) and Jaccard’s coefficient range of 0-1. Thirty-six Pearl millet SSR markers (loci) used to genotype 119 of the accessions collected, revealed an average of 8.8 alleles per locus. A maximum of 20 alleles were observed by loci Xpsmp2270 and Xpsmp2068, and a minimum of three alleles were revealed by loci XPsmp2246 and Xpsmp2201. Mean PIC, expected and observed heterozygosity values obtained indicate high polymorphism in the accessions. The sizes of alleles ranged from 98bp at locus Xpsmp2068 to 377bp at locus M13_Xpsmp2203. A combination of the molecular and morpho-agronomic data resulted in 30 (24.39%) accessions selected as core which could serve as trait-specific and local gene source for enhanced Pearl millet breeding work in Ghana.

Source: KNUST