ghanaopendata/ghanaian-research-english huggingface dataset:
Wrong usage of concord among senior school students a study among SHS 2 students of Nkawkaw Senior High School

The major problem investigated in this study is the difficulties Senior High School year 2 students of Nkawkaw Senior High School encounter in the use of concord in English. The purpose of the study was to identify this concord learning challenges, find out why those challenges exist and find appropriate ways to help the students. The instruments used to collect data were observation, questionnaire and tests. A total of 50 students were randomly selected to take part in the study. Findings showed that most of the students could not apply the rules of concord correctly. They had very serious problems with subject-verb concord. Most students applied concord rules correctly to a very large extent after they were taken through the rules guiding concord in the intervention procedure. In conclusion, this research has proved that an intervention discussion is very important in assisting students to overcome their concord learning challenges.

Source: UEW
Xylafrique ,Contemporary art compositions based on the Dagaaba Gyil (xylophone) genre

The study adopted a mode of creativity/dynamic approach through the synthesis of Dagaaba gyil genre and Western compositional techniques and approaches. To ground the study in the rich cultural traditions of the Dagaaba people of Winneba and Kasoa in the Central Region of Ghana an anthropological documentation formed an important part of the study. The study adopted Nketia‟s syncretic approach theory (1982), the bi-musicality, African Pianism theories of Euba (1992) and Webster‟s model of creative thinking in music. In addition to Akuno‟s (1997) theory on social functions in which; the contextual meaning of the composition was based. Thirty-nine Dagaaba gyil folk songs were collected from traditional performers, through purposeful and snowball sampling techniques. Songs were recorded, transcribed and analysed for dominant traditional musical features. The result was a compositional inspiration on which the Xylafrique was based. Rhythmic and melodic accuracy of the transcribed songs were ascertained by play backs using FINALE notation software. The report contains a discussion on the unique elements of Dagaaba gyil music, the full musical score of the innovations, and the analysis of the score and finally the perspectives highlighted all the social, moral and educational relevance of the work.

Source: UEW
You Have a Lot to Answer For: Human Rights, Matriliny, and the Mediation of Family Conflicts at the Department of Social Welfare in Ghana

Scholars have argued that the implementation of legal reforms in African settings has largely failed because of the persistence of norms and values that privilege collective interests over individual rights. With a focus on the work of the Department of Social Welfare (DSW) in a matrilineal Asante town in Ghana, this article reflects on the potential for state institutions to implement a human rights perspective through family dispute resolution processes. In this context, the key factors that influence the work of institutions such as the DSW, which has a human rights mandate, include the long history of family legal contests outside the lineage and the principle of economic separateness in the context of marriage. The effect of these developments is that the opportunity continues to exist for individuals, in this case women, to advocate for their rights as mothers even in a supposedly collective social setting. The evidence supports the position that cultureis not always the impediment to human rights that it is often made out to be. [legal pluralism, human rights, matriliny, Ghana, marriage]. 2021 by the American Anthropological Association

Source: UEW
Youth involvement in political vigilantism: A study of Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly

The rationale of this study was to determine the underlying reasons for youth involvement in political vigilantism and to explore the threat political vigilantism poses to the peace of the country. The qualitative paradigm was adopted for the study. The design was a case study. Twenty-five (25) respondents were sampled through purposive sampling techniques. Field data was collected with the aid of interview-guide and analyzed using content and thematic analysis. It was found through the study that political parties form vigilante groups due to the mistrust they have in state security apparatus. The study also found out that vigilante groups are formed to perpetuate the rule of political parties. It was revealed through the study that political vigilantism poses threat to the maintenance of law and order in the country. Political vigilantism and its associated violent activities are a great threat to the maintenance of law and order and the general peace and security of the country. Political violence, which is a major component of political vigilantism, jeopardises political stability, democratic reform, prospects of economic development, and creates human suffering and in some cases degenerates into civil war. The study therefore recommends that political parties desist from interfering in the work of the police and the judiciary and that the law should apply squarely to the perpetrators of the political violence if arrested by the police.

Source: UEW
Youth unemployment and human security in Ghana A study of the Effutu Municipality

Unemployment has been a problem of interest since the industrial revolution in the 1800’s, yet reducing unemployment to the barest minimum is a challenge to economies worldwide especially Africa including Ghana. Sadly, the major sufferers of this canker are the youth. This threatens the human security of the unemployed youth, their families and Ghanaians at large. The purpose of this study was to uncover the connection between youth unemployment and human security in the Effutu Municipality. The specific objectives were to find out how youth unemployment has manifested in the municipality; examine the consequences of youth unemployment on human security in the area and explore how the measures adopted to mitigate youth unemployment have improved human security in the municipality. The case study design within the phenomenological interpretative paradigm was adopted and underpinned by the Keynesian unemployment theory to realise the goal of the study. Data was collected with the aid of semi-structured interview guide, and analysed using thematic narratives. The study found that youth unemployment in the municipality is high and this adversely affects human security in the municipality. Evidence to the above included negative effects on the psychological and physical wellbeing of the unemployed youth, financial constraints and strenuous livelihood to the family. The study recommends that government policies should target the youth and strict measures to curb illegal fishing should be observed in order to reduce youth unemployment and ensure improvement of human security in the municipality

Source: UEW
Youth unemployment and human security in Ghana A study of the Effutu Municipality

Unemployment has been a problem of interest since the industrial revolution in the 1800’s, yet reducing unemployment to the barest minimum is a challenge to economies worldwide especially Africa including Ghana. Sadly, the major sufferers of this canker are the youth. This threatens the human security of the unemployed youth, their families and Ghanaians at large. The purpose of this study was to uncover the connection between youth unemployment and human security in the Effutu Municipality. The specific objectives were to find out how youth unemployment has manifested in the municipality; examine the consequences of youth unemployment on human security in the area and explore how the measures adopted to mitigate youth unemployment have improved human security in the municipality. The case study design within the phenomenological interpretative paradigm was adopted and underpinned by the Keynesian unemployment theory to realise the goal of the study. Data was collected with the aid of semi-structured interview guide, and analysed using thematic narratives. The study found that youth unemployment in the municipality is high and this adversely affects human security in the municipality. Evidence to the above included negative effects on the psychological and physical wellbeing of the unemployed youth, financial constraints and strenuous livelihood to the family. The study recommends that government policies should target the youth and strict measures to curb illegal fishing should be observed in order to reduce youth unemployment and ensure improvement of human security in the municipality.

Source: UEW
Zambian Secondary School Biology Teachers� Profiles of Planned Topic-specific Pedagogical Content Knowledge for Teaching Respiration

Teachers� pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) has the potential to influence lesson planning, teaching and students� academic performance in science. Since PCK is embodied in lesson planning (as planned PCK), this study employed the multiple-case design to describe in-depth the biology teachers� profiles of planned topic-specific PCK (plTSPCK) for teaching respiration. While the target population comprised all biology teachers in Chipata district of Zambia, data were collected from nine teachers drawn from six secondary schools. The study used face-to-face lesson planning interviews which were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Mavhunga and Rollnick�s model of TSPCK was adopted as the analytical framework. After analysing each interview transcript, the teachers� integration of plTSPCK components was summarised into plTSPCK maps. The findings reveal that (a) the integration of the plTSPCK components in the teachers� profiles was idiosyncratic; (b) the components conceptual teaching strategies, curricular saliency and students� prior knowledge were central to the integration of plTSPCK; and (c) representations and what makes the topic easy/difficult were the least integrated components. The study recommends enhancing teachers� PCK through teacher professional development activities such as lesson studies using the TSPCK framework as an analysis tool for the lesson plans and the observed lesson to demonstrate the planned and enacted PCK respectively. � 2022 Southern African Association for Research in Mathematics, Science and Technology Education (SAARMSTE).

Source: UEW
Ↄkwan a duadwimfoↄ fa so de akanfoↄ mm di dwuma, nkyerɛ kyerɛ mu ne nsunsuanso

Nhwehw[mu yi botae[ ne s[ [hwehw[ akwan a duadwumfo] fa so de Akanfoɔ mm[ di dwuma ne nkyerɛkyerɛmu a ɛda adi wɔ mu, na afei ahw[ nsunsuanso] a Akanfo] mm[ a duadwumfo] nam wcn duadwini so bu no de br[ kuromafo] no. Menam kwalitatifo kwan so dii me dwuma no. Mede mfitiaseɛ nsɛmmoano ne mmataho nsɛmmoano na ɛyɛɛ mpɛnsɛmpɛnsɛmu yi. Menyaa mfitiaseɛ nsɛmmoano yi firii Asante Mantam mu duadwumfo ɛnum a w]n mu mmi[nsa w] Ahwia na mmienu nso w] Kumase Cultural Centre. Mede bosoom mmienu na boaboaa duadwumfoɔ mmɛ aduosuon a mede mpɛnsɛmpɛnsɛmu wɔ me dwumadie yi mu Anobaebaeɛ adwumayɛdeɛ na mede dii dwuma yi titire wɔ nhwehwɛmu yi mu. Ahohyɛmu nhwɛeɛ nso yɛ adwumayɛdeɛ baako a mefaa so de nyaa nsɛmmoano de dii dwuma yi. Nhwehw[mu no mu no, [daa adi sɛ, akwan ahodoɔ mmiɛnsa na ɛkɔ so wɔ duadwini mu. Akwan mmiɛnsa yi mu biara wɔ mmɛ bi a duadwumfoɔ no de di dwuma. Saa akwan yi ne wɔn a wɔsene nnua no, wɔn a wɔde kaado keka ho ne wɔn a wɔtɔn. Ɛdaa adi bio sɛ, duadwumfoɔ mmɛ bi yɛ deɛ ɛkyerɛ ahemfie nsɛnkyerɛnne, deɛ ɛkyerɛ Adinkra nsɛnkyerɛnne anaa ahyɛnsodeɛ ne deɛ ɛkyerɛ Akanfo] mmɛ ankasa. Afei, nsunsuansoɔ a Akanfoɔ mmɛ ankasa mu abɛbudeɛ de brɛ kuromafoɔ bi ne sɛ, obi bɛhwɛ akyire yie ne amanfoɔ ani bere sɛ wɔbɛboa obi a ɔdi dwuma pa bi. Dwumadie yi b[boa ma adesuafo], nhwehw[mufo] ne amamfo] ahuni hia a [hia s[ w]te w]n ani k]hw[ duadwini adwuma no.

Source: UEW
Knowledge, Attitude and Perception of contraceptive use among students of Colleges of Education in Eastern and Greater Accra regions: implications for counselling practice

The study used a mixed approach involving quantitative and qualitative methods to explore the perceptions, attitudes and knowledge of students from Colleges of Education in the Greater Accra and Eastern regions of Ghana on contraceptive use. Stratified, simple random and convenience, census, proportional sampling techniques were used to sample 434 students from the population for both the quantitative and qualitative approaches. A cross-section survey was initially conducted among 380 students from the Colleges of Education. Those who were engaged in the qualitative aspects were fifty-four. The study used semi-structured questionnaire with closed-ended questions for the survey. Semi-structured interview and focus group discussions guides were also used. The quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics, anova, reporting the means and their standard deviations. The independent sample t-test was also used to test the gender difference in contraceptive use among males and females. The qualitative data were analysed thematically. The findings generally indicated that, the College of Education students had satisfactory perceptions, attitudes and knowledge on contraceptive use. More than half of the students had good knowledge on contraceptives and indicated their use in preventing pregnancies and STIs. The perception of students included the use of contraceptive to preventing pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, affordability and availability perceptions of contraceptives. On attitudes towards contraceptives, some students adhered to using contraceptive due to the risk of unintended pregnancies and STIs. This notwithstanding, there were identified gaps with regard to some of their perceptions and attitudes towards contraceptive use. Perception gaps included fears due to infertility and negative effects associated with the use of contraceptives, embarrassment from use and seeking contraceptive information, contraceptives as a foreign concept and contraceptive use as a woman‘s responsibility. The study also revealed students remarking the difficulty in reaching orgasm when using contraceptives and engaging in unprotected sexual intercourse in the absence of contraceptives. There was a significant difference between the use of contraceptives between males and females. Based on the findings, there is the need for pragmatic steps such as education, formation and strengthening health clubs in schools to provide accurate information to students. The need for adequate counselling and guidance support is critical to improve the perceptions, attitudes and knowledge of students from the Colleges of Education in the Greater Accra and Eastern regions of Ghana.

Source: UEW
3-Monochloropropandiol and glycidyl esters in heat-processed oil-based food products: Exposure and risk

Fatty acid esters of 3-monochloro-1,2-propanediol (3-MCPDE) and glycidol (GE) are potentially harmful heatinduced contaminants produced during food processing. In this study, 100 heat-treated oil-based food samples covering fried, smoked, grilled, and baked food groups were collected in Koforidua, Ghana and analysed for the two esters using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The dietary exposures were estimated by a probabilistic approach using Monte Carlo Simulation. Levels of 3-MCPDE and GE in the foods ranged from <limit of detection (LOD) to 1.28 mg/kg and <LOD to 1.20 mg/kg, respectively, and the highest mean levels were found in smoked foods with concentrations of 0.91 mg/kg (3-MCPDE) and 0.61 mg/kg (GE). The modal dietary exposure to 3- MCPDE and GE in the different food groups ranged from 0.01 to 1.18 µg/kg bw/day and 0.01 to 0.8 µg/kg bw/day, respectively. The 95th percentile estimates for 3-MCPDE exposure (33 %) and GE margin of exposure (MoE) (92 %) contravened the health-based guidance values established by the Joint Food and Agriculture Organization/World Health Organisation Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). This suggests health concerns for heavy consumers, especially females and children aged 3 to 9 years. The food groups that contributed to these unsafe exposures were mostly fried and smoked foods. Therefore, reducing the levels of 3-MCPDE and GE in these foods is recommended to lower the health risk.

Source: KNUST
A 40–100 MHz phase-locked loop frequency synthesizer with built-in self-test

The Phase locked loop (PLL) is one of the most important devices in modern electronic systems. PLLs are widely used for clock generation or frequency synthesis in communication systems, computers, radio and other electronic applications. However, due to the use of expensive external equipment and amount of time involved, traditional VLSI testing methods are inefficient for testing of PLLs. In this thesis, a fully functional PLL frequency synthesizer which operates from 40MHz to 100MHz is designed. The designed PLL exhibits phase noise of -71dBc/Hz at 1kHz, which is low enough for a wide array of applications. To solve the testing problem, Built-In Self-Test (BIST) is employed. A BIST scheme based on a defect-oriented method of testing is proposed. A prototype adds BIST circuitry, a good part of which is derived from existing components of the original design. The PLL BIST scheme is generic and hence portable to similar PLL designs. One significant addition unit is a simple response collector that combines shifting and counting functionalities. The entire system is designed in a typical CMOS process using a 3V power supply which is commonly found in today’s portable products. Spectre® simulations of the PLL show that it is capable of synthesizing any frequency between 40 and 100MHz within a reasonably short acquisition time. The output waveform of the generated signal is clean and shows no spikes whatsoever. Experimental simulations also reveal that the BIST circuitry is capable of generating the exact test pattern needed. It also performs efficiently all the unique checks which make up the PLL BIST. The final test output is very consistent and produces the same results for a number of different runs of the simulation.

Source: KNUST
A blockchain-based certificateless public key signature scheme for vehicle-to-infrastructure communication in VANETs

Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs) have been developing based on the state-of-art in wireless network communication technologies to improve traffic on roads. However, there are some threats to security and privacy due to the open wireless environment in VANETs and the high speed of vehicles. The uthentication of messages related to traffic which are exchanged with the vehicles and the Road-Side Unit (RSU) is considered one of the most VANETs necessary security requirements. In this context, several schemes have been designed to secure the traffic-related messages in VANETs. However, these schemes suffer from high computational costs in signatures’ verification. To minimize the computational cost of signature generation and verification, we propose an efficient Certificateless Public Key Signature (CL-PKS) scheme using bilinear pairing to provide conditional privacy-preserving authentication for Vehicle-To-Infrastructure (V2I) communication in VANETs. The CL-PKS scheme supports batch signature verification and aggregate signature verification functions to speed up verification process. In addition to this, we include blockchain to our CL-PKS scheme to implement revocation transparency of pseudo-identities efficiently before verifying the signatures. Furthermore, this scheme provides security proof and protection against different types of attacks. The proposed scheme incurs lower computational cost as compared to that incurred by existing schemes.

Source: KNUST
1, 3-Dipolar cycloaddition reactions of selected 1,3-dipoles with 7-isopropylidenenorbornadiene and follow-up thermolytic cleavage: Acomputational study

The mechanism, regio-, stereo-, and enantio-selectivities of the 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reactions of7-isopropylidenenorbornadiene (DENBD) with nitrones and azides to form pharmaceutically relevantisoxazolidine and triazole analogues have been studied computationally at the M06/6-31G(d), 6-31G(d,p), 6-311G(d,p), 6e311þþG(d,p) and M06-2X/6-31G(d) levels of theory. In the reactions of DENBDwith phenyl nitrones, the cycloaddition steps have low activation barriers, with the highest being 16 kcal/mol; and the Diels-Alder cycloreversion steps have generally high barriers, with the lowest being 20 kcal/mol, suggesting that the isolable products in these reactions are the bicyclic isoxazolidine cycloadductsand not the thermolytic products. This is in contrast to the reactions of DENBD with phenyl azide wherethe isolable products are predicted to be the thermolytic products since the Diels-Alder cycloreversionsteps had relatively lower activation barriers. Electron-donating substituents on the dipolarophile sub-strate favour attack of the nitrone on the least hindered side of the DENBD substrate while electron-withdrawing substituents on the dipolarophile substrate favour attack on the more hindered side ofthe DENBD, indicating that site-selectivity is affected by nature of substituents. Global reactivity indicescalculations are in good agreement with the activation barriers obtained. Analysis of the electrophilic(PþKÞand nucleophilic (P KÞParr functions at the reactive centres reveal that the cycloaddition occursbetween atoms with the largest Mulliken and NBO atomic spin densities which agrees well with theenergetic trends and the experimental product outcomes.

Source: KNUST
[3 + 2] Versus [2 + 2] addition: A density functional theory study on the mechanistic aspects of transition-metal-assisted formation of 1,2-dinitrosoalkanes

The pathways for the transition metal-assisted formation of 1,2-dinitrosoalkane complexes of cobalt and its congeners, have beenstudied using DFT/M06 with the LACVP∗basis set. The activation barriers for the one-step [3 + 2] addition pathway for theformation of 1,2-dinitrosoalkanes, proposed by Bergman and Becker, are generally low compared to the activation barriers for the[2 + 2] addition to form an intermediate, which is the first of the two-step pathway proposed by Rapp ́e and Upton, which are veryhigh. The barriers of the rearrangement of the Rapp ́e intermediates to the final products by reductive elimination involving thesecond metal-nitrogen𝜋-bond are also very high. The reactions of the Co complexes have lower activation barriers than Rh andIr complexes. The barriers of the reactions involving olefins with electron-donating groups are generally lower compared to thereactions of the parent (unsubstituted) ethylene while the activation barriers for reactions of olefins with electron-withdrawinggroups are generally higher compared to the parent (unsubstituted) ethylene. The one-step [3 + 2] pathway remains the mostfavoured irrespective of the metal centre or the nature of the olefin. The mechanism of the reaction is therefore settled in favour ofthe [3 + 2] addition pathway.

Source: KNUST