ghanaopendata/ghanaian-research-english huggingface dataset:
Intra-observer evaluation of teacher-student questioning behaviours: A case study of the quality and frequency of questions administered in physical education theory class

Questioning in teaching and learning environment is an effective way of encouraging learners to contribute to the subject matter. A lesson is incomplete without questioning learners or offering learners the opportunity to question the teacher. Teachers should engage learners in high-order questions that trigger critical thinking in teaching and learning environment. However, studies that focused on judging the quality of questions generated in classroom setting revealed that most classroom questions fell within lower-order of thinking (Caspari-Sadeghi et al., 2021; Momsen et al., 2010). Again, earlier study conducted by a group of psychologists revealed that over ninety-five percent (95%) of the questions learners encountered required them to think at the lowest possible level - the recall of information (Bloom et al., 1956). Based on Bloom’s original work relating to cognitive levels of thinking, we conducted a descriptive analysis of the quality and frequency of questions administered in a lesson involving 38 students of a College of Education and one physical education teacher (intern of a University in Ghana). Specifically, we concentrated on classroom behaviours that related to the quality and frequency of questions asked in physical education (PE) classroom setting. From a video-recorded lesson, data on questioning behaviours of students and the teacher in a theory physical education class were collected via self-developed event recording instrument. An expert in research (senior university faculty) inspected and approved the instrument for collecting accurate data for the study. Data were descriptively analyzed and presented in tables and figures. Analysis of intra-observer results revealed that most of the classroom questions were lower-order questions that did not promote critical thinking among students. In order of magnitude (lowest level to highest level), questions asked by the teacher occurred at the level of knowledge, understanding, synthesis and evaluation. Findings also revealed that there was no question asked at the level of application and analysis by the teacher in the entire 35 minutes lesson. The study showed that students did not ask any question(s) in the entire duration of the lesson. We recommend that questions of various levels should form part of planning decisions of every teacher.

Source: UG
Intracellular expression of antisense RNA transcripts complementary to the human immunodeficiency virus type-1 vif gene inhibits viral replication in infected T-lymphoblastoid cells

Most research activities involve the use of molecular methods such as regular PCR (PCR), quantitative PCR (Q-PCR), genomic sequence and analysis using different software, genetic engineering, probe hybridization techniques, biological and molecular cloning, evaluation of immune markers for laboratory diagnosis of infections, serological assays involving the use of rapid tests, ELISA-based evaluations and immunofluorescent assay techniques.

Source: UG
Intrathecal chemoprophylaxis in the prevention of central nervous system relapse in burkitt's lymphoma

Most research activities involve the use of molecular methods such as regular PCR (PCR), quantitative PCR (Q-PCR), genomic sequence and analysis using different software, genetic engineering, probe hybridization techniques, biological and molecular cloning, evaluation of immune markers for laboratory diagnosis of infections, serological assays involving the use of rapid tests, ELISA-based evaluations and immunofluorescent assay techniques.

Source: UG
Introducing electronic transaction levy in Ghana: A possible curse or a blessing? The public’s perception

This study seeks to determine Ghanaians’ perceptions of the new electronic transaction levy (E-levy) and the impact of their perception on their intention to use electronic transactions (ETs) that attract the levy, financial inclusion (FI) and financial well-being (FW). To achieve this, the study employs PLS-SEM with a sample size of 782. Generally, we found Ghanaians have limited knowledge on E-levy. Thus, Ghanaians should be re-educated about E-levy. We again document that the per ception of Ghanaians towards E-levy is negative. Also, we found most Ghanaians intend to reduce their patronage of ETs that attract levy. Furthermore, Ghanaians’ perception of the E-levy reduces their intention to use ETs that are affected by the levy and, by extension, adversely affect FI and FW. Hence, based on the perception of Ghanaians, the E-levy introduced is a curse. We recommend that the government of Ghana review the E-levy policy to minimize its negative effects. We specifically suggest that government raise the GH¢100 per day transaction exemption thresh old to increase the intention to use ETs and FI; moreover, government can exempt businesses that pay income tax from E-levy to reduce the tax burden on their income. Also, government should re-enlighten the public on the benefits of E-levy to the country, reassuring the public of accountability and honesty in implementing the E-levy policy to increase their intention to patronize ETs that attract levy. Again, we record a significant and positive total effect of FI on FW. Thus, additionally, government should introduce policies that ensure FI.

Source: UG
Introducing improved cultivars: Understanding farmers' seed drying and storage practices in central Ghana

Improved upland rice cultivars introduced in Volta Region, Ghana, have been perceived to store poorly compared to farmers' traditional cultivars. A survey was conducted in 2003 in the Hohoe district of this region, where a Participatory Varietal Selection programme had started in 1997, to gain insight into farmers' seed production and storage practices that are likely to affect seed quality in storage. Farmers rated keeping quality (p < 0.001), tolerance to storage pests (p < 0.001), seed quality (p < 0.001) and establishment of their local cultivars Kawomo, Viono and Wuwulili as much better than the improved cultivar IDSA 85. Initial seed moisture content ranged from 12.8 to 18% and germination from 0 to 82%. There was a significant relationship between seed moisture content and duration of drying prior to storage (p < 0.001) and storage method (p = 0.015). Germination loss in storage was rapid at high moisture content and slow at low moisture content. Between 60 and 80% of seeds germinated after six months storage at 12.8% moisture content. The viability equation predicted accurately germination of farmer-saved seed stored under ambient temperature in Ghana. Except for the japonica rice cultivar WAB 126-18-HB, the traditional cultivars Kawomo, Viono and Wuwulili survived better in storage than improved cultivars. There is a need to improve seed quality of improved cultivars if farmers are to benefit from their higher yields and grain quality and to improve storage practices. © 2007 Cambridge University Press.

Source: UG
Introducing insecticide impregnated bednets in an area of low bednet usage: an exploratory study in north‐east Ghana

To find out the acceptability of the use of insecticide impregnated bednets before launching a large-scale trial to evaluate their impact on child mortality, 96 permethrin impregnated bednets were distributed in 4 communities within the Kassena Nankana district of the Upper East Region of Ghana, where previously only 4% of the people had owned a mosquito net. The nets were readily accepted and used by the recipients. The major benefit perceived by the users was the reduction of the nuisance effect of mosquitoes and other insects. The people in the study area normally sleep on mats in either an open courtyard or a sleeping room depending on the weather but this did not deter them from using the nets. The white nets distributed for this study became dirty with use, and users thought they needed to be washed. In order to discourage this, it is recommended that dark coloured nets be used in the main intervention trial. After having used the nets for a year, the community members expressed willingness to buy the nets if they were made available after the harvest season when they had sold their crops and had enough money to pay for them. The results of this study have been used to plan and conduct a large intervention trial.

Source: UG
Introduction

The social sciences are disciplines, which have been taught in most universities and colleges across the world. They mainly deal with society, aspects of the group life of human beings and their relationships. In other words, the social sciences may be regarded as the scientific study of social, cultural, psychological, economic, and geo-political forces that guide individuals in their actions (Kuper and Kuper, The Social Science Encyclopedia, 1985; Hunt and Colander, Social Science: An Introduction to the Study of Society, 2004). Even though they are closely related to the humanities in that both deal with human beings and their culture, they are, at the same time, different. While the social sciences are mostly concerned with those basic elements of culture that determine the general patterns of human behaviour, the humanities deal with special aspects of human culture and are primarily concerned with attempts to express spiritual and esthetic values and to discover the meaning of life. In addition, whereas the social sciences study issues in a systematic, scientific way, the focus of the humanities is more on emotions and feelings (Hunt and Colander, Study Guide for Social Science: An Introduction to the Study of Society, 2010). © 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht. All rights reserved.

Source: UG
Introduction

Review books or articles provide a critical and constructive analysis of existing published literature in a field, through summary, analysis, and comparison, often identifying specific gaps or problems and providing recommendations for future research. These are considered as secondary literature since they generally do not present new data from the author's experimental work. Review articles can be of three types, broadly speaking: literature reviews, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses. It also the researcher to stay abreast of new literature in the field.

Source: UG
Introduction

This introductory essay for the issue presents an overview of issues related to ‘Q-Squared in Policy: the use of qualitative and quantitative methods of poverty analysis in decision-making’. We focus on issues raised on the supply side of data use, relating, inter alia to the informational content and policy usefulness of different types of data and analysis. These issues are grouped under the headings of: outcomes vs. processes, unpacking processes and thick and thin. We begin however, with a brief discussion of one aspect of the demand side, namely the politics of data use, given its centrality to the issues at hand. © 2008 eContent Management Pty Ltd.

Source: UG
Introduction of Haemophilus influenzae type B conjugate vaccine into routine immunization in Ghana and its impact on bacterial meningitis in children younger than five years

This report shows the impact of a pentavalent vaccine that includes Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) conjugate vaccine on bacterial meningitis in children younger than 5 years in Ghana. A review of the first 3 years of a pediatric bacterial meningitis surveillance program, started in August 2001 in Accra, Ghana, was undertaken. There was a significant reduction, P = 0.042 and 0.017, in percentage of purulent meningitis in children younger than 1 year, comparing the first year when the vaccine was introduced, to the second and third years, respectively.

Source: UG
Introduction to a Culturally Sensitive Measure of Well‑Being: Combining Life Satisfaction and Interdependent Happiness Across 49 Diferent Cultures

How can one conclude that well-being is higher in country A than country B, when well-being is being measured according to the way people in country A think about well-being? We address this issue by proposing a new culturally sensitive method to comparing societal levels of well-being. We support our reasoning with data on life satisfaction and inter-dependent happiness focusing on individual and family, collected mostly from students, across forty-nine countries. We demonstrate that the relative idealization of the two types of well-being varies across cultural contexts and are associated with culturally different models of selfhood. Furthermore, we show that rankings of societal well-being based on life satisfaction tend to underestimate the contribution from interdependent happiness. We introduce a new culturally sensitive method for calculating societal well-being, and examine its construct validity by testing for associations with the experience of emotions and with individualism-collectivism. This new culturally sensitive approach represents a slight, yet important improvement in measuring well-being.

Source: UG
An Introduction to Ancient Rome

The nearly 2000 years of the history of the Roman Empire is, without argument, one of the richest sources of information about human nature. This highly abridged version of the Roman experience, which concentrates only on the western part of the Empire, highlights aspects of the Roman experience—governance, politics, Rome’s imperialist motives, Romanisation, slavery, art and architecture, political economy, entertainment, education, philosophy, law, and religion—in order to (1) reveal creative responses to challenges of existence, and varieties of personality, disposition, and motivation that could define humanity; (2) illuminate the imperial dynamics that would implicitly account for the cultural and institutional changes in Africa as a consequence of Western imperial interventions.

Source: UG
Introduction to Foodborne Infections and Intoxications Subtitle: An African Perspective

Foodborne infections and intoxications pose a significant global health threat, especially in Africa and other low-income regions. The goal of this book is to explore the intricate web of factors that influence foodborne infections in Africa. It delves into specific aspects of food safety, providing insights into the unique challenges and opportunities that Africa presents. By integrating disciplines such as microbiology, epidemiology, veterinary medicine, public health, and food science, the textbook advocates for a multidisciplinary approach to develop effective preventive measures, surveillance systems, and interventions.

Source: UG
Introduction to Foodborne Infections and Intoxications Subtitle: An African Perspective

Foodborne infections and intoxications pose a significant global health threat, especially in Africa and other low-income regions. The goal of this book is to explore the intricate web of factors that influence foodborne infections in Africa. It delves into specific aspects of food safety, providing insights into the unique challenges and opportunities that Africa presents. By integrating disciplines such as microbiology, epidemiology, veterinary medicine, public health, and food science, the textbook advocates for a multidisciplinary approach to develop effective preventive measures, surveillance systems, and interventions

Source: UG
An Introduction to the African Economy

I should like to thank the Delhi School of Economics for inviting me to deliver a series of four lectures which were to serve as An Introduction to the African Economy. Delhi University's decision to place this series of lectures at the disposal of a wider public gave rise to the publication of this book which I hope will stimulate further the growing interest in the African economy. The approach throughout this book has been mainly historical and descriptive since a comprehensive general background knowledge of Africa does not constitute the normal working equipment of the average reader. At the risk of over-simplification, I have covered familiar grounds, re-stated basic economic' trends in general terms and cited some of my examples from outside the African continent. I hope this book will add something, however small, to the current literature on the African economy.

Source: UG
Introduction To The Special Issue: Africa’s Digital Youth And Media And Information Literacy Competencies And Practices

Across Africa, young people are living digital lives that manifest in their growing uptake of digital resources and media for daily routines. Africa’s media landscape is changing rapidly and has been characterized by increased media access among the youth (Silver & Johnson, 2018; Commey, 2020; Boulianne & Theocharis, 2020). The re-democratization and media liberalization wave of the 1990s expanded media availability significantly, bringing particularly radio and TV close to young people. But perhaps the biggest catalyst to the growth in access to, and use of media among young people across the continent has been the significant expansion in internet access and its affordance of access to new media. As shown in Table 1 and Fig. 1, internet access across the continent has expanded significantly over the past decade.

Source: UG
Introduction: Current Perspectives on Islamic Family Law in Africa

This special issue of Islamic Africa brings together new critical perspectives on the status of Islamic Family Law, commonly referred to as sharīʿa, within four African countries – Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique and Senegal – each reflecting distinctive gendered cultural, colonial and postcolonial realities. The introduction provides a general overview of the state of the art on Islamic family law in Africa and highlights the significant thematic focus of each contribution and the new areas for further inquiry that the volume opens. These topics and questions include among others: (a) the ways in which European colonialism and contemporary democratization processes have opened spaces for religious pluralism, thereby shaping the articulation of Muslim personal law within different African postcolonial state judicial systems; (b) how Islamic judicial practices, institutions, and authorities such as malamai and/ or Kadhis engage themselves with the secular state and/or are constrained by both the state and by the legal pluralism encountered within both Muslim majority and minority African countries; (c) the gendered implications of the hierarchical relation between Kadhi Courts and a national High Court; (d) the benefits and/or shortcomings of harmonizing Islamic Family Law; (e) what is to be learnt from women choosing to settle marital disputes and divorce within and/or outside the “legal protective space” afforded by the state judicial system and its inclusion of Islamic Family Law; (f) the role of human agency in influencing the administration of Islamic family law and/or interpreting the law; how judicial systems that are shaped by European and Islamic patriarchal systems confronted by the resilience of indigenous matrilineal Customary Law within contemporary African societies; and (g) the compatibility between the various articulation of African Islamic family laws with universal human rights and individual freedom. Ultimately, this special issue of Islamic Africa offers an insightful reflection on how Islamic Family Law plays an important role in democratic constitution-making or testing processes.

Source: UG
Introduction: Urban Crime and Poverty Nexus

A key issue that has attracted the attention of criminologists and others in the field of crime studies is the extent to which crime influence poverty and vis-à-vis. While this debate has extensively engaged the attention of criminologists and other social scientists in the developed world, little academic attention has been given to this debate in Africa in general and Ghana in particular. Indeed the limited academic attention to crime in Africa has led to a situation whereby models and theories on the subject are largely founded on the experiences of the developed world. This introductory section to this special issue of Ghana Journal of Geography on ‘Crime and poverty nexus in urban Ghana, highlights in brief the key issues and competing theories at the heart of the relationship between crime and poverty. This and the other papers in the volume seek to make a contribution to our knowledge and understanding of the poverty-crime nexus by adding a Third World or Sub-Saharan Africa perspective to this area of criminological research.

Source: UG
Introduction: When was gender?

Review books or articles provide a critical and constructive analysis of existing published literature in a field, through summary, analysis, and comparison, often identifying specific gaps or problems and providing recommendations for future research. These are considered as secondary literature since they generally do not present new data from the author's experimental work. Review articles can be of three types, broadly speaking: literature reviews, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses. It also the researcher to stay abreast of new literature in the field.

Source: UG
Introgression of QTLs for Drought Tolerance into Farmers’ Preferred Sorghum Varieties

Sorghum is a major staple food crop for the people in semi-arid areas of Africa and Asia. Post-flowering drought is a global constraint of sorghum production. The study aimed to improve stay-green (STG) characteristics of farmer-preferred sorghum varieties in Tanzania using markerassisted backcrossing. A total of 752 individuals representing five BC2F1 populations and their parents were genotyped using previously reported KASP markers linked with STG 3A and STG 3B quantitative trait loci (QTL). In the BC2F1 populations, the maximum number of individuals with heterozygous alleles were observed in S35*Pato background (37) whereas only seven individuals derived from the B35*Wahi parents’ background contained heterozygous alleles. Of the 30 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers, favourable alleles were observed at 18 loci in BC2F1 populations. In the BC2F1 generation, the highest (0.127 kg/panicle) grain yield was observed in the B35*NACO Mtama 1 background population. The genotypic analysis revealed the presence of favourable alleles in homozygous conditions at markers loci associated with STG 3A and STG 3B QTLs in BC2F3 populations, suggesting successful introgression of STG QTLs from the donor parents to the recurrent parents. Across water irrigation regimes, the highest (0.068 kg/panicle) mean grain weight was observed in the genotype NA316C. Therefore, our study demonstrated the utility of marker-assisted backcrossing for drought tolerance improvement of locally adapted sorghum varieties in Africa.

Source: UG
Introgression of Two Drought QTLs into FUNAABOR-2 Early Generation Backcross Progenies Under Drought Stress at Reproductive Stage

FUNAABOR-2 is a popular Ofada rice variety grown in a large area under rainfed upland condition across western states of Nigeria. We used the combination of phenotypic and marker-assisted selection (MAS) to improve grain yield of FUNAABOR-2 under drought stress (DS) at the reproductive stage via introgression of two drought quantitative trait loci (QTLs), qDTY12.1 and qDTY2.3. Foreground selection was carried out using peak markers RM511 and RM250, associated with qDTY12.1 and qDTY2.3, respectively, followed by recombinant selection with RM28099 and RM1261 distally flanking qDTY12.1. Furthermore, BC1F2-derived introgressed lines and their parents were evaluated under DS and non-stress (NS) conditions during the 2015–2016 dry season. Overall reduction of grain yield under DS compared to NS was recorded. Introgressed lines with qDTY12.1 and qDTY2.3 combinations showed higher yield potential compared to lines with single or no QTL under DS, indicating significant positive interactions between the two QTLs under the FUNAABOR-2 genetic background. Pyramiding of qDTY12.1 and qDTY2.3 in the FUNAABOR-2 genetic background led to higher grain yield production under DS and NS.

Source: UG