ghanaopendata/ghanaian-research-english huggingface dataset:
Food label experiences among tertiary students in the Western North Region of Ghana

Food labels are important tools for promoting healthy eating, preventing food borne diseases and food allergies. Examining consumers’ experiences with food labels helps to measure their impact in fulfilling these purposes. A survey was conducted among 193 students from three Training Colleges in the Western North Region of Ghana. A validated questionnaire was used to solicit information on demographics, nutrition knowledge exposure, food label use, factors and challenges that affect food label use. There were 53.9% males and 46.1% females, with the majority of them within the age of twenty and twenty-five years (86.1%). Most participants viewed food labels as very important information used in the choice of packaged foods (89.6%). Food label information, often read by users were the expiry dates (94.2%), name of the product (89.1%) and manufacturing dates (83.9%). With nutrition information, participants focused very often on proteins (69.9%), fats (62.2%), vitamins and minerals (63.2%). Factors that influenced food label use were nutrition knowledge (73.1%), health status (70.5%) and educational level (61.1%). Even though food label use was high among participants, they strongly agreed that small font size (39.9%), inability to interpret nutritional values (36.3%) and unfamiliar terminologies (35.8%) impeded maximum utilization of the information. In addition, 48.2% agreed that limited time for shopping also limited their use of food label information. The study, therefore, suggests that public education on food labels should be intensified and policies that will simplify food label information should be considered to enhance better understanding and consequently promote healthy food choices.

Source: KNUST
Food safety practices in food service establishments: a case study of the Greater Accra Region

There is an upsurge in the number of Food Service Establishments (FSEs) in most cities in Ghana. FSEs generally provide ready to eat (RTE) foods for all categories of people. Food safety practices of these FSEscanhave far reaching implications for the health and wellbeing of most people since the FSEscan serve as media for transferring diseases. The perennial incidence of deaths due to Cholera in Ghana gives cause for concern. Yet there is limited systematicstudy conducted to test the effect of activities of food providers on food contamination and their level of knowledge on food safety issues in Ghana. This study assessedthe food safety practices ofninety-seven (97) FSEs, conveniently selected from eleven communities withinthe Greater Accra Region. The Food and Drugs Authority Code of Hygienic Practice for FSEswas used as a benchmark to guide development of the data collection instruments for the study. The data was obtained through a face-to-face interview, using a structured but partially open-ended questionnaire. The findings of the study revealed that more females than males worked in food service establishments. Awareness of food safety was generally high amongst food handlers in the study area. However more than half (60 %) of those who were awarehad not been trained on food hygiene. Additionally, nearly three quarters (71%) of food handlers indicated they had undergone the mandatory food handler‟s test. The study thus concluded that there were inadequate food safety practices exhibited by food handlers within the study area.The study recommends the increase and sustained provision of tailored madesensitization and training programmes on food safety forFSE operatives by key stakeholders responsible for ensuring food safety in the Country

Source: KNUST
Forecasting Infation in Ghana using Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO)

The phenomenon of in ation has proven to be both important and unpredictable. The goal of every Central Bank is to achieve and maintain a desirable rate of in ation in a scal year. Major macroeconomic policies pertaining to minimizing in ation are implemented based on predictions made into the future. In this study the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) intelligent method was used to make in-sample forecasts of in ation gures over a period. The Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedastic (GARCH) model was used to obtain an in ation model. The proposed method was implemented using Matlab (2012a) and forecasts error were measured using MSE, MAPE and MAD. The results obtained revealed that the method yielded lower errors for the in ationary data sets used.

Source: KNUST
FORECASTING INDUSTRIAL/COMMERCIAL ELECTRICITY CONSUMPTION USING THE LOGISTIC MODEL (Case study of the Electricity Company of Ghana Limited)

This thesis presents an electricity forecasting model based on the Logistic equation. The proposed model is applied to electricity consumption data of only industrial and commercial consumers. This data is obtained from an Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) system implemented by the Electricity Company of Ghana Limited. The system enables the company to read the meters of industrial and commercial customers remotely without having to send a meter reader to the customer‟s premises. As a result of the implementation of the AMR system, the Electricity Company of Ghana Limited has the capacity to feed enormous amount of energy consumption data into a central AMR database at the head office. The development of the model involved using the analytical solution of the Logistic differential equation. The solution curve has monthly energy consumption as the dependent variable and time as the independent variable. The parameters in the solution curve are computed using linear regression analysis. This is done by fitting the linear form of the solution to historical electricity consumption data. The carrying capacity of the Logistic equation which is referred to as optimal asymptote in this thesis is computed using Fibonacci Search Technique. The optimal asymptote and the parameters that are computed are further substituted into the solution curve of the Logistic equation. This final solution is then used to compute future consumptions. Finally the model was applied and a comparison made between forecast consumption and historical consumption to establish the validity of the model.

Source: KNUST
Foraging strategies and some morphometric characteristics of the African Honeybee (Apis mellifera adansonii L) in the humid forest environment

The foraging strategies and some important morphometric characters of the African honeybee, Apis iuellifera adansonii were studied in detail in humid forest environment with the view to contributing to a full appreciation of the relative importance of this race in crop pollination and honey production. Twenty-four plant species were identified in three study sites as melliferous plant species. Most of them grow together and flower sequentially; their flowering seasons are sharply defined except for few of them which show some overlap. Some of the plant species provide nectar and pollen while others provide only pollen. The one hour production rates and sugar concentration of field populations were measured to determine diurnal pattern and concentration of nectar. All the plant species had similar diurnal patterns of nectar secretion but differed in nectar standing crop. The sugar concentration of nectar in more open corollas proved much more variable through the day than the concentration in the nectar of the partially or totally concealed nectaries. The foraging pattern of A. m. adansonii on the plant species was analysed, particularly in relation to weather. The results indicated that A.m. adansonii did not differ from other races of honeybee in its response to changes in weather conditions. Its numbers foraging were significantly affected by temperature, and relative humidity. Wet and cloudy conditions also reduced greatly its foraging activity. The relative abundance of A. m. adansonii on the melliferous plant species may partly be influenced by weather conditions. Sixteen morphometric characters of the bee were measured to determine whether any differences exist between populations found in the same ecological zone. The results indicated that the populations sampled were remarkably similar in all these characters. The proboscis which was relatively longer than that of the North African race, enhanced the feeding of A. m. adansonii on nectar in the melliferous flowering plants with exposed or concealed nectaries.

Source: KNUST
Forecasting of National Health Insurance Scheme Claim: a case study of Aowin-Suaman District Health Insurance Scheme

Health insurance is a form of insurance in which people pool their resources together to pay for medical expenses that are incurred by the insured. Claims payment by the National Health Insurance Scheme remained challenging, the monthly health care of claims payment by National Health Insurance Scheme seems to be rising. This study presents an Auto Regressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) model to see the pattern of growth. Time series claims payment data for the Aowin-Suaman District Mutual Health Insurance Scheme (DMHIS) for the period January 2010 to November 2014 were analyze using time series methods. Appropriate Box-Jenkins model was fitted. From the result, it was clear that ARIMA(1,1,0) model was the best for forecasting claims payment.

Source: KNUST
Foreign aid, human capital development and economic growth in Ghana.

The main purpose of this study was to examine foreign aid, human capitaldevelopment and economic growth in Ghana using a time series data for the period of 1975 to 2014. The study looked at the real impact of aid on human capital development and its consequence effect on economic growth in Ghana. Growth should comprise a sustained increase in both physical and human capital development. Even the growth of physical capital should impact positively on the human capital and hence economic growth. The ARDL technique was employed to examine the possibility of long run and short run effects among the variables. The Granger causality test was also used to investigate if there is any causal relationship between foreign aid on human capital development and economic growth. The statistical results obtained revealed that foreign aid had a positive and significant effect on human capital development both in the long run and short run respectively. The Granger causality test result showed that there is causality between human capital development and economic growth and also there is no causality between human capital development and foreign aid. The study recommends that the efforts of Ghana and its donor partners will coordinate better and properly plan their efforts to undertake projects that will have positive impacts in the long run on growth in Ghana. Those projects should include public capital which will help educate and increase productivity of large group of people and their private capital. The government should create a strong absorptive capacity in terms of complete recognized framework and stable macroeconomic environment that will help the country maximize the benefits of foreign aid, and then the objectives of their multi-donor budgetary support could be very well achieved.

Source: KNUST
Foreign aid and economic growth in Ghana (1970-2005)

This study examines the long and short-run relationships between foreign aid and economic growth as well as some selected macroeconomic variables as inflation and money supply in Ghana for the period 1970 to 2005 by means of time series analysis. This study employs the ARDL cointegration technique to examine the possible long and short-run effects among the investigated series. Also, a macroeconometric method is used to estimate the fungibility of aid to Ghana. The results suggest that, the impact of foreign aid on economic growth in Ghana is significantly negative, which is attributable mainly to the fungibility of aid. Among numerous policy recommendations, the study suggested policies which aimed at properly formulating and implementing good monetary and fiscal policies, as aid works effectively in good macroeconomic environment. Also, it is recommended that foreign aid should help reassign resources away from activities that produce normal goods towards activities that produce public goods, which benefit more people. Furthermore, there is a need to properly monitor aid-utilizing projects to avoid the misutilization and the mismanagement of the foreign capital resources.

Source: KNUST
Foreign direct investment, quality governance and economic growth in ghana

The role of quality governance in the globalization process has been recognized as a catalyst for the attraction of foreign capital to boost productivity and international trade for holistic economic development. In general, a country draws more foreign investment the better its institutional framework is. However, there is a limited understanding of how quality governance affects different types of foreign investment and how they do so. The study's main objective is to investigate the impact of FDI on Ghana's economic development. The study uses the ARDL model on a time series of data extending from 2000 to 2020 to accomplish this goal. To find out the existence of a long-run relationship among the variables, I run the Pesaran cointegration test and the finding confirms presence of long run relationship. According to the study, FDI has little long-term and short-term beneficial effects on economic growth. Additionally, the research notes that FDI-induced economic growth in Ghana is typically improved by the quality of governance. In the long run, the results indicate that all the governance quality-induced FDI indicators have significant impacts on GDP except FDI*PS. Whereas FDI*VA, FID*GE, and FDI*RQ significantly enhances economic growth, FDI*CC significantly reduces GDP. Therefore, I recommend Ghana should take a keen interest in the development of the quality of governance or institutions to facilitate the efficient utilization of the inflow of funds from foreign direct investment to increase the nation's economic growth.

Source: KNUST
Forecasting mortality rate: the perspective of KNUST GUSSS

Longevity risk is something that is coming to the notice of the world. For over some time now, life expectancy is increasing rapidly and pension fund managers are on the lookout. In this research, we sought to the estimation of mortality rate, measurement of longevity and forecast of mortality rates. The Cairns- Blake-Dowd (CBD) (2006) model was used for longevity and Holt’s linear trend method was used for the forecast of the mortality rates. The research models were applied on data from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology section of the Ghana University Staff Superannuation Scheme pensioners within the period of 2005 to 2015. At the end of the research, mortality rates were estimated by the application of the force of mortality. The estimated rates were found to directly depend on the number of deaths. longevity was measured and was found to go with higher ages. That is, the chance for an eighty (80)year old to live longer than expected after retirement is higher than that of a seventy (70) year old. Future mortality rates predicted. At the end, alpha (0.6) and beta (0.4) was found to be the best forecast point with future mortality rates ranging between 0.010 and 0.017.

Source: KNUST
Forecasting Utilization by Subscribers of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS): A Case Study of the Nadowli District Mutual Health Insurance Scheme (DMHIS)

Since the implementation of Ghana’s National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in 2004, the monthly healthcare facility utilization by subscribers seems to be rising. This study presents an Auto Regressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) model to ascertain the pattern of growth. It also presents a forecast for six leading months. Monthly time series utilization data for the Nadowli District Mutual Health Insurance Scheme (DMHIS) for the period March 2006 to June 2012 were analysed by time series methods. Appropriate Box-Jenkins model was fitted. Validity of the model was tested using standard statistical techniques. The forecasting power of the model was validated with six months in-sample observations. The identified model is a Seasonal Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (SARIMA) presented as ARIMA(0,1,0)(1,0,0)12 i.e. X_t=X_(t-1)+0.492(X_(t-12)-X_(t-13) )+W_t, with a twelve (12) months period.

Source: KNUST
Forest plantation development: an option for economic growth in Ghana.

A forest cover activity such as forests plantation establishment is an investment which could serve as stock of natural capital providing sources of revenue and subsistence benefits, generate job opportunities which can absorb shocks of household incomes in rural areas particularly. Under the study, forest plantation area, government spending, labour, and enrollment were treated as factor of production using the secondary data from World Bank on Ghana for the period 1980-2015 and analysing through E-view 9. Specifically, the short run and long run effects of forest plantation on economic growth were examined using the ARDL approach. The study showed that forest plantation area significantly affects GDP positively in the short run period and long period. Also, enrolment significantly affects economic growth positively both in the short run and long run. Government expenditure and inflation were found to have no effect on economic growth in the long run but they have positive effects on economic growth in the short run. It is recommended that, policies/programmes should be initiated and implemented by the central government to promote the plantation of forest establishment as an option to promote economic growth. All activities such as illegal Chain-saw operators which has the tendency to reduce timber resource must be closely monitored to protect the forest belt of the country.

Source: KNUST
Forensic estimation of time since death: a comparative study of polynomial regression and modified Newton’s models

Empirical studies have been made into the determination of Time Since Death (ATSD).This study attempts to briefly review most of the methods used to estimate TSD and concentrate on the development of a Polynomial Regression Model (PRM) and a Modified Newton’s Model (MNM) that accurately predicts TSD and chose the most consistent, efficient and accurate estimator of TSD between the two. Such a model, when accurately developed, will add to the security services scientific ways of predicting TSD, as well as, help in civil and criminal cases. The study found out that the PRM best predicts TSD with an R2 of 99:87% given the two secondary data obtained from the Journal of the Indian Academy of Forensic Medicine 2005 volume 27(3) : 170 - 176 and the Acta Morphologica 2006, volume 3(3) : 52 - 53 (Macedonia Association of Anatomists and Morphologists). The MAPE, MAD and SSE of the two models were also statistically tested and compared to that of the Actual Time Since Death (ATSD).The MNM relied on the use of an iterative method, to determine the number of times, time (denoted t in hours) changes over time for Rectal Temperature (RT) to coincide with the developed model of differential equation .The calculation embodied several parameters /conditions that affect the cooling rate of dead bodies.

Source: KNUST
Forest regeneration after logging: a case study in a moist semi-deciduous forest in Ghana

The effect of different intensities of logging on some properties of forest soils, emergence and growth of forest tree seedlings and proliferation of weeds in logging gaps was studied in four disturbance categories; loading bays, tree-fall gaps, primary skid trails and secondary skid trails with forest understorey as control in Bobiri Forest Reserve. Loading bays and primary skid trails were morn compacted than the other sites. However, compaction did not affect the growth f measured seedlings. The dry bulk density did not differ significantly between sites. Wet and dry season matric potentials were not statistically different between sites. There was prolific seedling emergence in all the sites in the first few months following logging but declined considerably after S months. Seedling numbers increased with reducing gap size with loading bays recording the lowest seedling population and the secondary skid trails recording the highest Pioneer species were relatively abundant in loading bays than all the ecological species guilds while the non-pioneers showed preference for smaller gaps. For example Ceiba pentandra (pioneer) was the only species that survived in the loading bays for the 27-month period of the study but could not survive in the forest shade. Relative growth rate in diameter and height for Ceiba pentandra seedlings were significantly higher in the loading bays than all the other sites. Species diversity increased with decreasing gap size from the loading bays to secondary skid trails. Weed biomass increased with increasing size of gaps. Logging enhances tree seedling regeneration but has important consequences on the commercial value of the tropical rain forest.

Source: KNUST
Forest inventory by statistical methods — an evaluation of the sampling error of cruises in the Bonkoni Forest Reserve at Mim, Brong Ahafo Region

In recent times, the timber industry in Ghana engaged on enumeration wor1c with the aim of acquiring information on all trees which are in the forests and not only on those species which have hitherto been regarded as primary or, economic to the timber industry, In the light of this development, a hundred per cent enumeration survey in the Bonkoni Forest Reserve was initiated by the Mim Timber Company, the concessionaire, with the following objectives: 1.To ascertain the actual stocking of all trees which have girth sizes of five feet and above in this Forest Reserve; 2. To teach the Company’s enumeration team the techniques of identifying the lesser known species and also the enumeration survey procedures. As expected, the field works very costly and time consuming. It is the purpose of this thesis to utilise the results of this enumeration and to find out whether satisfactory inferences can be made using statistical methods. Six compartments each were having an area of 129.5ha. (0.5 sq. ml) constituted the unit of assessment and the species on this 77a (3sq, ml.) of total area constituted the ultimate unit. It is intended to verify whether a sampling fraction of less than 10 per cent could give a useful guide as to the nature and composition of the parent population. The results of this study demonstrate that for most of the species, a sampling fraction of 5 per cent could be considered adequate for most purposes. Average deviation for Pycnanthus angolensis and Pterygota macrocarpa was nil at that level of cruising. On the other hand, if sampling were to apply to Triplochiton sclerexylon and Celtis adolfi-friderici, a 1.25 per cent cruising could be considered satisfactory.

Source: KNUST
Formal Reductions: Experimentation in Conceptual Paintings

This project looked at experimentation in conceptual art through certain ideologies. These ideologies included; formalism, reductionism and conceptual art together with orphism, minimalism and neo-plasticism. The formalist theory does not encourage mere figurative expressions but rather emphasis on form and visual aspects of a painting. This research was used as a communicative tool to merge the narrative with the significant form through the paintings produced. In this research, formalism has been given a narrative face through the use of figures together with reductionism through conscious equity in the distribution of colours and movement of lines. The research highlighted the similarities of Formalism, Orphism, Neo-Plasticism, Reductionism, Minimalism and Conceptual Art. Also their relation to African Art was dealt with appropriately. This will help readers know, understand and be able to strike the balance among these styles when necessary and their relation to African art.

Source: KNUST