ghanaopendata/ghanaian-research-english huggingface dataset:
Engagement Capability, Innovation Intensity and Firm Performance: The Role of Competitive Intensity

This study assesses how service firms’ engagement capability enhances their value creation advantages. We analyze how the development of engagement capability helps service firms to cre ate innovation advantages and enhance firm performance. The study also evaluates the moderating effect of competitive intensity on the relationship between engagement capability and firm per formance. We collected data from the service sectors from an emerging African economy, Ghana. The validity and the reliability of the constructs were confirmed through a confirmatory factor analysis. We then assessed our hypothesized relationships through robust standard error hierarchical regression. The results show that developing and deploying customer engagement capability by firms produces positive effects on both innovation intensity and firm performance. The study also finds that competitive intensity as a market condition serves as a boundary condition and therefore moderate the relationship between customer engagement and firm performance. A useful implication from this study is that, inasmuch as service firms must encourage customer engagement and participation in the value creation process, firms must also be mindful of their capacity to meet the engagement requirements for effective value co-creation of the market conditions under which they currently operate.

Source: UG
Engagement in physical activity for health and well being: Self-rated activity level, perception of the value of physical activity and differences among teachers in public primary schools of six selected educational circuits

Often, children draw inspiration from teachers who participate in regular physical activity for health and wellbeing. In this study, we examined 1) teachers’ self-rated participation level in physical activity and perception of the value of physical activity for enhancing health and wellbeing 2) teachers’ gender and class level differences in participation of physical activity and perception of the value of physical activity for enhancing health and wellbeing and 3) the correlation between teacher participation in physical activity, perception of the value of physical activity and the frequency at which physical education lessons were taught. The study adopted a cross-sectional survey with a sample of 172 subjects out of estimated population of 300 in six randomly sampled educational circuits in the Volta Region, Ghana. Self-structured questionnaire was validated by means of expert opinion and was found dependable for data collection. Pre-data analyses were performed to screen and clean data from probable errors. Data analyses were performed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS for Windows, Version 17). The study found that the extent to which most public primary school teachers participated in physical activity was generally low. To great extent, teachers perceived positively the value of physical activity for enhancing health and wellbeing. The study did not show statistically significant differences in gender and class level participation of teachers in regular physical activity and perceptions of the value of physical activity for enhancing health and wellbeing. Positive correlation was found between teachers’ participation in regular physical activity and the frequency at which physical education lessons were taught in public primary schools.

Source: UG
Engaging research ethics committees to develop an ethics and governance framework for best practices in genomic research and biobanking in Africa: the H3Africa model

In the past decade, there has been an increase in genomic research and biobanking activities in Africa. Research initiatives such as the Human Heredity and Health in Africa (H3Africa) Consortium are contributing to the development of scientific capacity and infrastructure to support these studies on the continent. Despite this growth, genomic research and biobanking have raised important ethical challenges for key research stakeholders, including members of research ethics committees. One of these is the limited ethical and regulatory frameworks to guide the review and conduct of genomic studies, particularly in Africa. This paper is a reflection on a series of consultative activities with research ethics committees in Africa which informed the development of an ethics and governance framework for best practices in genomic research and biobanking in Africa. The paper highlights the engagement process and the lessoned learned.

Source: UG
Engaging Students Online: Readiness of Lecturers to Use Learning Management System (LMS) at a Technical Vocational Education and Training College

Higher education institutions worldwide have embraced remote learning as a response to restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in in the imposition of stay-at-home protocols. While this shift from conventional face-to-face mode to remote learning platforms represents a notable innovation in education circles, we contend that implementing online learning in these times requires faculty to be adequately prepared to use online tools to facilitate learning among students effectively. In this case, a study conducted at a vocational college, a rural community college in South Africa: we explore the readiness of lecturers (N = 15) to use an institutionally designed Learning Management System (henceforth referred to as MLMS) to engage their students in learning. The study revealed that the participants were largely unprepared to use the MLMS for teaching. This lack of readiness was influenced by the poor MLMS design, lack of user experience, and inadequate technological resources for lecturers and learners. It emerged from the findings of this paper that the MLMS needs upgrading to improve its effectiveness for online and teaching purposes. The findings suggest that the college should seek the buy-in of lecturers by providing them with further training on the use of the MLMS

Source: UG
Engaging young adults in fostering entrepreneurial mind-set using the community education approach: Case study of chorkor community, Ghana

This paper draws on McGivney’s study of adult education for marginal groups, including unemployed young adults. The young unemployed adults in Ghana are growing in numbers; hence engaging them using the community education to foster entrepreneurial mind-sets is a means of addressing the unemployment problem. The formation of learning groups helps foster self-help and enhances the contributions of diverse synergies to community development and transformation. This qualitative case-study used young adults between the ages of 18 to 35 at Chorker, Accra, as the unit of analysis. Judgmental sampling techniques were adopted to sample fourteen (14) participants to participate in the study. They consist of 8 participants for in-depth interview and 6 participants comprising three (3) male and three (3) female formed focus group discussions. Data was analyzed using descriptive narrative and interpretivist approaches. The results indicate that the participants were empowered as they engaged in group learning to acquire skills in trades. The study recommends that young adults are motivated to engage in community education to foster entrepreneurial mind-set, innovate and exploit opportunities to make their communities more vibrant and sustainable

Source: UG
Engendering economic policy in Africa.

Despite Africa's relatively commendable growth performance since 2000, growth has not been accompanied by structural transformations. First, there has been little diversification from agriculture into industry, particularly manufacturing. Second, the poverty headcount and inequality remain high in many countries, even as African countries continue to rank lowest on the United Nations Development Programme's Gender Inequality Index. This contribution goes beyond the individualistic approach of supply-side policies and unveils deeper mechanisms that need to be tackled for the two transformations (diversification and inequality reduction) to occur. It demonstrates that gender inequality relies on unwritten but dominant social norms, hence, informal institutions. The removal of formal legislation that constrains women's agency, the enactment of formal laws, and the implementation of economic policies designed specifically to create incentives for behavior change are recommended.

Source: UG
English Bosman and Dutch Bosman: A Comparison of Texts

What will follow in this and subsequent papers will constitute an extended gloss of the English translation of Willem Bosman's account of the Guinea coast. This translation was published in London in 1705 under the title A New and Accurate Description of the Coast of Guinea. .And was based on the 1703 Dutch edition published in Amsterdam. For the English translation I have used the edited reprint published in 1967, which was an identical copy of the 1705 edition. For the Dutch version I have used the 173.7 edition, also published in Amsterdam; this was in fact the last of a series of reprints of the 1709 second edition. This second edition contained numerous amendments and additions to the first (1703) edition, and these will be noted as they occur. In addition to including all the material in the Dutch edition which was omitted from the English translation," I have included all passages in which significant differences in tone or meaning occur. Throughout I have tried to retain the capitalization, italicization, and punctuation employed in the Dutch version-styles to which the English translation generally conformed. Citation is by page number, paragraph, and line number within paragraph, with the first paragraph presumed to begin in each case with the first line of a page. Thus, for example, P. 17 1/8 indicates that the gloss concerns the eighth line of the first paragraph on page 17 of the English translation. Shorter passages are arranged on a FOR. READ basis, while for longer passages only the Dutch original is included after SHOULD READ. It is believed that this will not result in any problem of comparison. Besides comparing the texts directly I have added explanatory notes where these seemed appropriate

Source: UG
English in Contact with Swahili: Enrichment or Threat?

As a result of British colonial rule in Africa and other parts of the world, the English language occupies the position of the world’s most influential and global language and its impact on many languages is remarkable. Swahili has also attained the status of a developed, influential and global African Language. The two languages have had a long standing relationship, and have been described as languages at war or in competition. In this light, this paper sets out to examine the influences that the English language has had and still has on Swahili as the two languages continue to co-exist in Tanzania. The paper demonstrates that the influence of the English language on Swahili is dichotomous: its enriching influence on the language in terms of development and expansion on the one hand and its endangering influence in terms of interference and language shift.

Source: UG
English in the mix: Evolving roles of english in the language practices of twi speakers in Ghana

This article is concerned with language alternation between Twi and English in informal conversation. Twi is the most widely spoken indigenous language of Ghana, also used in the broadcast media, especially radio; English, the former colonial language, is the official language, and the main language of the education system and print media. However, English is now gradually encroaching on domestic and informal domains, and younger urban speakers are increasingly shifting towards English as a first language. Participants in the conversations examined here were of different generations and educational backgrounds. Analysis was approached from both a structural and a sociolinguistic perspective. The data reveal developing patterns in the contact between the grammars and lexicons of Twi and English. They also reflect associations and values attached to Twi and English respectively, and to codeswitching as a communicative mode of everyday interaction in Ghanaian society. © 2012 University of South Africa Press.

Source: UG
English Reading Proficiency and Academic Performance Among Lower Primary School Children in Ghana

There have been several issues about the reading skills and abilities of children in Ghana, and how reading proficiency might influence the academic performance of children. In view of the above, this study examined the influence of reading proficiency on the academic performance of lower primary school children in Accra. Using a cross-sectional survey design, 383 participants (Grades 1-3) were sampled in Accra. The children were administered questionnaires that measured their English reading proficiency, paternal involvement, maternal involvement, financial situation, and demographic characteristics as well as their academic performance. Results showed that reading proficiency was significantly and positively related with children’s performance on all standard performance tests after controlling for paternal involvement, maternal involvement, financial situation, and age. Type of school significantly affected academic performance, however, no gender differences were observed in the children’s academic performance. The implications for educational practice and research are espoused.

Source: UG
Enhanced electrolyte performance by adopting Zwitterionic lithium-silica sulfobetaine silane as electrolyte additive for lithium-ion batteries

Zwitterionic lithium-silica sulfobetaine silane is fabricated by first synthesizing zwitterion sulfobetaine silane, grafting it onto hydrophilic silica to form silica sulfobetaine silane, and then lithiating the silica sulfobetaine silane. The resultant lithium-silica sulfobetaine silane additive is used as a liquid electrolyte additive in lithium-ion batteries with varying weight percentages in 1 M LiPF6 (ethylene carbonate/dimethyl carbonate ¼ 1:1). The electrolytes with the lithium-silica sulfobetaine silane shows higher ionic conductivities (1.92 × 10-2 S cm-1 at RT and 1.62 × 10-3 S cm-1 at -20 oC) and greater electrochemical stability (anodic limit at ~5.5 V vs. Li/Liþ) than the pure electrolyte (anodic limit at ~4.6 V vs. Li/Liþ). The discharge capacity of the lithium nickel cobalt manganese oxide/graphite cell is improved at higher C-rates with the addition of lithium-silica sulfobetaine silane due to increased ionic conductivity. The lithium nickel cobalt manganese oxide/graphite cells with the lithium-silica sulfobetaine silane additive also show stable cycling performance. These findings warrant the use of lithium-silica sulfobetaine silane as an electrolyte additive in lithium-ion batteries.

Source: UG
An Enhanced Method for Tail Index Estimation under Missingness

Extreme events in earthquakes, wind speed, among others are rare but may lead to catastrophic effects on humans and the environment. The primary parameter in the estimation of such rare events is the tail index which measures the tail heaviness of an underlying distribution. Since extreme events are rare, the presence of missing observations may further lead to flawed. In view of this, there is a growing effort by researchers to address this problem. However, the existing methods of estimating the tail index use only the available nonmissing data. Thus, if the missing observations are influential values, ignoring them could introduce more bias and higher mean square error (MSE) in the tail index estimation and subsequently other extreme event– estimators such as high quantiles and small exceedance probabilities. In this study, we propose imputation of the missing observations before applying some standard estimators (Hill and geometric-type) to estimate the tail index. Through a simulation study, we assess the performance of the standard estimators under the proposed data enhancement method and the existing modified estimators of the tail index. The results show that the enhanced estimators have relatively lower bias and MSE. The estimation method was illustrated with a practical dataset on wind speed with missing values. Therefore, we recommend imputation mechanism as viable for enhancing the performance of tail index estimators in the case where there is missingness.

Source: UG
Enhanced toll-like receptor responsiveness associated with mitogen-activated protein kinase activation in Plasmodium falciparum-infected children

The Department of Parasitology conducts research into parasitic diseases of public health importance with the overall goal of reducing their transmission and the heavy disease burden that they impose on affected populations. The Department maintains focus on parasitic diseases in general. These include major diseases such as malaria, and others listed under the Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) control initiative such as, lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis, schistosomiasis, soil-transmitted helminthiasis, trypanosomiasis and leishmaniasis.

Source: UG
Enhanced transfer of arsenic to grain for Bangladesh grown rice compared to US and EU

A field survey was conducted in arsenic impacted and non-impacted paddies of Bangladesh to assess how arsenic levels in rice (Oryza sativa L.) grain are related to soil and shoot concentrations. Ten field sites from an arsenic contaminated tubewell irrigation region (Faridpur) were compared to 10 field sites from a nonaffected region (Gazipur). Analysis of the overall data set found that both grain and shoot total arsenic concentrations were highly correlated (P<0.001) with soil arsenic. Median arsenic concentrations varied by 14, 10 and 3 fold for soil, shoot and grain respectively comparing the two regions. The reason for the sharp decline in the magnitude of difference between Gazipur and Faridpur for grain arsenic was due to an exponential decline in the grain/shoot arsenic concentration ratio with increasing shoot arsenic concentration. When the Bangladesh data were compared to EU and US soil–shoot–grain transfers, the same generic pattern could be found with the exception that arsenic was more efficiently transferred to grain from soil/shoot in the Bangladesh grown plants. This may reflect climatic or cultivar differences.

Source: UG
Enhancing Access to Education for out-of-school Children in Hard to Reach Communities in Ghana: The ACE experience

Access to quality Basic Education for all school-age children has been the vision of governments of many developing countries, especially those in sub-Saharan Africa. However, the way to provide access to quality education for all school-age children, especially in the hard-to-reach communities has been a major challenge. This position paper looks at an innovative approach to providing access to quality education in hard- to-reach communities in Northern Ghana by the Alliance for Change in Education (ACE), through the Wing School project. The paper aims to share the good practices of the ACE Wing School model. It highlights the key characteristics of the ACE methodology, approach to access, ACE Wing School approach to quality of learning outcomes, community participation. Challenges of the ACE methodology are highlighted and aspects of the ACE methodology which could be useful for state adoption have been recommended to stakeholders of education in Ghana.

Source: UG
Enhancing buruli ulcer control in Ghana through social interventions: A case study from the obom sub-district

The Epidemiology Department contributes to the mission of the institute through basic and applied epidemiological research on, but not limited to, malaria and other diseases of public health importance. It is also home to the Social Science Unit of the Institute, including the Health Support Centre for HIV/AIDS and other communicable and noncommunicable health problems.

Source: UG
Enhancing Clinical Microbiology For Genomic Surveillance Of Antimicrobial Resistance Implementation In Africa

The Bacteriology Department aims to improve the quality of life first for Ghanaians and the world at large by conducting research into bacterial diseases of public health importance to Ghana and globally. In addition to working on enteric pathogens and sexually transmitted diseases, the department’s current main focus is on the two most important mycobacterial diseases of public health importance to Ghana, namely Buruli ulcer (BU) and tuberculosis (TB).

Source: UG
Enhancing corporate bankruptcy prediction via a hybrid genetic algorithm and domain adaptation learning architecture.

In the contemporary business landscape, accurately evaluating a company’s financial health is essential for stakeholders to mitigate risks and avert bankruptcy. This study presents an innovative approach to improving business bankruptcy prediction through the hybrid integration of Domain Adaptation Learning (DAL) and Genetic Algorithm (GA) techniques. The hybrid model harnesses DAL to address distributional changes in the real world scenarios and utilize GA’s proficiency in feature selection. Six machine learning models are rigorously evaluated against the proposed hybrid model: Random Forest (RF), Support Vector Machine (SVM), Logistic Regression (LR), Gradient Boosting (GB), k-Nearest Neighbours (k-NN), and Stacking Ensemble (SE). Our hybrid model performs well on imbalanced target datasets using the Area Under the Precision–Recall Curve metric: 0.93 (RF), 0.93 (SVM), 0.89 (LR), 0.91 (GB), 0.88 (k-NN), and 0.92 (SE). These findings highlight the model’s ability to overcome the limitations of traditional approaches, offering a more reliable predictive framework for stakeholders to make informed decisions and proactively manage financial stability. Future research directions may explore the applicability of this hybrid model across different industries and the integration of additional techniques to further enhance its performance.

Source: UG
Enhancing focused antenatal care in Ghana: An exploration into perceptions of practicing midwives

Objective: The specific objectives of this study were to explore the perceptions of midwives on focused antenatal care at a large urban hospital in Tema, Ghana. Methodology: An interpretive descriptive design was used to explore, interpret and describe the perceptions of midwives in the provision of focused antenatal services to pregnant women. Purposive sampling techniques were used to recruit participants (midwives). Data were collected by conducting individual semi-structured interviews. The recorded interviews were transcribed verbatim. Data were manually coded using two methods described by Saldana (2009). Guba's model of trustworthiness was implemented. Findings: Five themes emerged from the data analysis. It included midwives' conceptualization of FANC and their perception of FANC processes/flow, quality of care, factor inhibiting the implementation of FANC, and strategies to enhance FANC interventions. Discussion: Continuous quality management is essential to ensure a supportive environment to deliver FANC services. Continued and increased support from Ghana Health Service (GHS) will be of great importance. Conclusion: It is clear that the midwives in this study perceived FANC positive. FANC contributes to the quality of ANC delivery and subsequent improvement in the health status of pregnant women in Ghana. In addition, the findings contributed to existing knowledge and have the potential to guide future research in the field of ANC to improve maternal health and reduce maternal deaths. © 2015 The Authors.

Source: UG