ghanaopendata/ghanaian-research-english huggingface dataset:
A generic framework for consultancy services pricing in Ghana: the case of quantity surveying practice

The pricing of goods and services dates back to the pre historic era. It has metamorphosed into various forms over the decades manifesting in barter system and the use of substances like cowries to represent it. Among the marketing mix of people, place, promotion and price, pricing is the least researched. Similarly, in our modern world, much attention has not been paid to the pricing of services provided by consultants as compared to manufactured goods. Equally worst are the services provided by professionals and specialists notably quantity surveyors. The aim of the study was to develop a generic framework for pricing quantity surveying consultancy services. Methodologically, the study was positioned in the positivist tradition. Thus the quantitative approach was adopted in the conduct of this study. The data collection instrument was survey questionnaire which was administered to 79 respondents providing a response rate of 72 per cent. Twelve key hypotheses were postulated via theoretical framework based on pricing theories and concepts. The study adopted the chi square test and factor analysis for data analysis. The discussion and interpretation of results were supported by systematic synthesis leading to the development of the generic framework for pricing which demonstrated the foundational issues of client -consultant relationship; and demand and supply. Other findings demonstrated by the generic framework include the pricing spine; pricing management; pricing catalyst and pricing strategies. The study also found pricing relationship between pricing strategies and profitability; pricing objectivity; pricing strategy; time taken to render service to clients and business management including cost; and production of timely reports to be significantly related to business management, service cost management, technical and financial capabilities. The findings also have the prospect of much applicability in the pricing of iv services provided by other consultants operating in the built environment to achieve sustainable prices for the services they render to clients. Numerous future studies were advanced to address the limitation of this study. Some of the future research agenda advanced include: an in-depth exploration of pricing objectives with much emphasis on their influence on price levels; a study to determine the willingness to pay (WTP) by clients for consultancy services; an empirical study to ascertain the relationship between economic development and demand for consultancy services inter alia.

Source: KNUST
The genesis and development of Akan drama

In this dissertation I have attempted to examine the evolution of Akan dramatic forms by focusing attention on four traditions, which are as follows: story-telling, puppet shows, masquerade and funeral celebrations. The dissertation also, examines the modernization of these dramatic forms from the oral tradition to the modern scripted forms. The present research reveals that certain cultural practices of our society such as folktales and funeral celebrations can be polished and modernized to form the basis of drama as entertainment for our modern society. It will also go a long way to educate the youth to acquire communicative skills and develop their talents since most folktales told are didactic in tone. Like the works of Shakespeare, Plato etc. dramatic works such as The Marriage of Anansewa, The Dilemma of a Ghost etc. have the potential of entertaining and instructing at the same time for several years to come.

Source: KNUST
A genetic algorithm model for vehicle routing problem (VRP)

Genetic algorithms provide a search technique used in computing to nd true or approximate solution to optimization and search problems. In this work, Genetic algorithm is tested to nd the optimal route for the Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP). The Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) is a complex combinatorial optimization problem that belongs to the NP-complete class. Due to the nature of the problem it is not possible to use exact methods for large instances of the VRP. Genetic Algorithms are used to model the Vehicle Routing Problem which shows the superiority of Genetic Algorithm over the company's normal route. Matlab simulations was carried out to nd the optimal route of Amponsah Efah Pharmaceutical limited from its main depot after the production stage in Adum, Kumasi.

Source: KNUST
A Genetic Algorithm for option pricing

The search for a better option pricing model continues to nd the one that outperforms the existing ones in the nancial market. We present a Genetic Algorithm to price a xed term American put option when the underlying asset price is Geometric Brownian Motion. The Genetic Algorithm has a better approximation of the relationship between the option price and its contract terms. Our method produces a perfect and a minimum option price that outperforms other models like the Black-Scholes under the same conditions. Our method requires minimum assumptions and can easily adapt to changes and uncertainties in the nancial environments.

Source: KNUST
Genetic analysis of agronomic traits in Oryza sativa X O. sativa Cross

The objectives of this experiment were to study the inheritance of agronomic traits, determine the inheritance of aroma, estimates the heritability of important quantitative traits in rice (Oryza sativa L.). Six generations viz., P1, P2, F1, F2, BCP1 and BCP2 of a cross between IET6279 and IR70445-146-3-3 were used in present study. The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications at the CSIR- Crops Research Institute, Kumasi Ghana during 2014/2015 minor cropping season. Genotypes differed significantly at (p>0.001) for all the traits studied, which implies that the genotypes constitute a pool of germplasm with adequate genetic variability. Generation mean analysis suggested that additive effects had a major role for the expression of plant height, number of tillers, number of panicles, panicle length, culm length, leaf length, flag leaf width, grain width, number of spikelet per panicle, number of spikelet per plant. Spikelet fertility per cent and grain yield per plant, suggested that phenotypic selection was appropriate at an early stage. Epistasis effect was significant in most of the characters. Among interactions additive x additive and additive x dominance effects were important, but additive x dominance is more important than additive x additive effect, while dominance x dominance was less important than other genetic effect in the inheritance of traits. Both additive and non-additive gene action were important for the expression of days to 50% flowering, days to maturity, leaf width, flag leaf length, grain length, 100 grain weight, number of fertile spikelet per panicle and number of fertile spikelet per plant. Therefore, selection for these characters would be fruitful, if delayed till epistasis effects are reduced to minimum. The inheritance pattern of aroma in rice was carried out in the cross among one non-aromatic and one aromatic varieties. All the F1 and BCP1 plants of the cross were non-aromatic indicating that the gene controlling aroma in the donor parent was recessive. The segregation ratio of aromatic to non-aromatic plants was 1:3 in F2 and 1:1 in BCP2 plants confirming the monogenic inheritance of aroma. High broad sense heritability estimates (63 – 83%) was observed for characters viz. plant height, culm length, grain length, grain width, days to 50% flowering, days to maturity and 100 grain weight suggesting that the traits are primary under genetic control. Low estimates of broad sense heritability (27 - 49%) for number of tillers, number of panicle, panicle length, leaf length, leaf width, flag leaf length, flag leaf width, number of spikelet per panicle, number of spikelet per plant, number of fertile spikelet per panicle, number of fertile spikelet per plant, spikelet fertility per cent per plant and grain yield per plant, indicating environmental influence on this traits.

Source: KNUST
Genetic Analysis of Resistance to Pod Shattering in Soybean (Glycine Max. (L) Merrill).

Genetic analysis of resistance to pod shattering was undertaken on three soybean crosses with reciprocals involving resistant and susceptible varieties to examine broad sense (h2bs) and narrow sense (h2ns) heritability, minimum number of genes involved (MNG), mid-parent heterosis (MPH), cytoplasmic inheritance and allelic relationship between shattering and non-shattering. Two sets of experiments were conducted. The first experiment was a non-replicated crossing block in plastic pots to develop F1 populations at the plant house of the Faculty of Agriculture – Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi (Latitude 06o 41′ N and longitude 01o 33′ W). F1 plants were selfed to produce F2 generations. The F1 progenies were backcrossed to both parents to produce BC1 and BC2 progenies. The second experiment was a replicated trial laid in a randomized complete block with three replications to determine genetic ratios for levels of pod shattering resistance at F2 and this was used to determine allelic relationship between shattering and non-shattering genes using chi-square test. Mean h2bs was 0.30 (range 0.00 – 0.90) and mean h2ns was 0.92 (range 0.00 – 1.72) indicating the importance of both additive and non additive variances, suggesting that improvement in resistance can be achieved through breeding. Mean MNG was two genes (range 1 – 3) indicating that genes for resistance differed among parental lines. Mean MPH was -3.7% (range -44.1 – 55.7%) indicating that heterosis did not influence the expression of resistance to pod shattering in soybean. There was no difference between the mean of any F1 population and it’s reciprocal, indicating lack of maternal influence and that the character could be under nuclear gene control. Observed ratios at F2 population revealed that, inheritance of resistance to pod shattering is quantitative and under the influence of either duplicate recessive or dominant and recessive epistasis depending on the parental genotypes used in the cross.

Source: KNUST
Genetic analysis of the performance traits of cattle in the tropics: case study of the K.N.U.S.T. dairy/beef cattle research station in Kumasi

A study was made of the performance of 250 Holstein-Friesian cattle comprising 27 imported foundation stocks and their locally-born offspring and 202 Holstein-Friesian x N’dama crossbreds of various grades reared between 1976 and 1996 at the U.S.T. Dairy/Beef Cattle Research Station at Boadi in Kumasi, These animals were mainly managed under field conditions. Genetic and phenotypic parameters were estimated where possible. Levels of inbreeding and their influence on mortality of the Holstein-Friesians born on the farm were also determined. The average performance of the Holstein-Friesians was below what had been reported from temperate environments. The imported Holstein-Friesians performed significantly better than any other group of cattle used in this study (P< 0.05). The performance of the crossbreds increased with the increase in the proportion of Holstein-Friesian genes they possessed up to the 75% grade in most traits. The animals were disposed of for various reasons. The major reason was death from various causes. Inbreeding did not appear to be an important cause of the high mortality of the Holstein-Friesians at the station since a large proportion (61.17%) of those that died were not inbred. The repeatability estimates for the imported and locally-born Holstein-Friesians respectively were: - milk yield 0.08 ± 0.095 and 0.41 ± 0.109; lactation length 0.09 ± 0.096 and 0.25 ± 0.116 and calving interval 0.07 ± 0.122 and 0.17 ± 0.144. The heritability values were:- first lactation milk yield, 0.58 ± 0.321 first calving interval 0.19 ± 0.082; Total milk yield 0.31 ± 0.272, Total number of days in lactation, 0.56± 0.408, number of calvings, 0.41 ± 0.333; and first lactation length of at least 100 days duration, 0.15 ± 0.192. Correlations between the various traits were determined. First lactation milk yield was highly and positively genetically correlated with the second lactation milk yield (rg 0. 65 ± 0.263) and with persistency of milk yield during the early part of the first lactation (rg = 0.90 ± 0.097). The genetic correlations with total milk yield and with first lactation length were moderate being 0.49 ± 0.372 and 0.57 ± 0.354 respectively.

Source: KNUST
Genetic characterization of exotic and landraces of cassava in Ghana

Cassava cultivars grown in Ghana are often misrepresented due to improper characterization of the genetic materials available. The genetic diversity of 45 accessions which consist of 24 exotic and 21 landraces (selected as a core of 150 cassava accessions) collected from Crops Research Institute of Ghana were assessed and characterized using agro-morphological and molecular means. Both quantitative and qualitative traits such as plant height, angle at first branching, canopy spread, petiole length, root yield, dry matter content, root shape, petiole colour, and pubescence on apical leaves were used to assess their variability for phenotypic characterization. Genomic DNA of the accessions were extracted and used as template for Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) amplification involving nine Simple Sequence Repeat (SSR) markers. The recorded gel bands as well as the agro-morphological traits were subjected to cluster analysis and development of dendrogram to show the corresponding similarity coefficients. Agro-morphological characterization grouped 2 accessions into cluster A, whilst 43 accessions were grouped in cluster B. Molecular characterization also grouped 16 accessions in cluster A and 29 in cluster B. Overall, both molecular and agro-morphological characteristics put 3 accessions in cluster A and 42 in cluster B. The genotype identification showed that, the phenotypic characters have a similarity coefficient range of 0.80%-1.00% whilst the molecular also had a wider coefficient range of 0.2-1.0%. These features showed the extent of diversity present in the accession evaluated and served as a basis for efficient management and utilization of germplasm in breeding programme. Therefore, the application of morphological descriptors in characterization of germplasm should be backed by the use of molecular markers.

Source: KNUST
Genetic diversity of p. falciparum in low and high transmission intensities in Southern Ghana

Background: Malaria is a public health challenge that is preventable and can be treated but P. falciparum, the main parasite agent, has survived in the midst of several intervention programmes aimed at combating the infection especially in Sub - Saharan Africa where malaria is endemic. P. falciparum genetic diversity is frequently measured by genotyping the merozoite surface protein (msp 1, 2), however the recent inclusion of Capillary Electrophoresis (CE) based microsatellite markers has enhanced the accuracy of the estimation of multiplicity of infection (MOI) and parasite diversity. This study aims at utilizing 12 unlinked microsatellite markers, msp -2 and Glutamate-Rich Protein (glurp) antigenic marker to determine parasite diversity in different transmission intensities in southern Ghana. METHODS: Whole blood was collected from asymptomatic volunteers living in Obom (hyper-endemic) and Asutuare (holoendemic). Quick DNA kit was used to extract DNA from whole blood samples. The presence of P. falciparum was confirmed by species specific primers Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). P. falciparum positive samples were then used for genotyping msp -2 and glurp markers. Clonal Parasite positive samples of msp – 2 were subjected to capillary-based microsatellite genotyping in addition to MSP - 2 genotyping. Results: 44 (55%) and 24 (30%) samples were positive for N5 (3D7) and M5 (FC27) at Obom with average MOI of 1.30. N5 strain was prevalent at both study sites. Only 8(10%) and 4(5%) of N5 and M5 strains respectively were genotyped at Asutuare with an average MOI of 1.0. To compare the prevalence of N5 and M5, a non parametic t-test of p < 0.05 in Obom and p > 0.05 was recorded in Asutuare. For glurp R II region 55 (68.5%) and 70 (87.5%) were genotyped for Obom and Asutuare sites. An average of 35 samples were genotyped using microsatellites markers, average number of alleles for both Obom and Asutuare were 10 and 8 respectively. Genetic diversity of microsatellites was low; He ranged from 0.00 to 0.577 Conclusion: Parasite diversity was high with msp – 2 marker compared to glurp gene, microsatellites had low genetic diversity of the parasites at both sides but the sensitivity and high resolution makes them the markers of choice for genotyping P. falciparum.

Source: KNUST
Genetic diversity in Liberian and Ghanaian rice (Oryza Sativa l., Oryza Glaberrima Steudei) Germplasm using morphological and simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers.

Rice is an important staple food crop that feed over half of the global population and it has become the cereal that provides a major source of calories for the urban and rural poor in Africa. However, little attention has been paid to the improvement of Liberian and Ghanaian rice germplasm evaluation and the genetics of some quality traits. The need for increasing rice cultivation depends not only on cultural/traditional practices but also on their inbuilt genetic potential to withstand stresses. Therefore, these varieties have to be collected and evaluated for their exploitable genetic variability and conserved. The first step in achieving this is to evaluate and characterize available rice germplasm or genotypes at both morphological and molecular levels to reveal important traits or accessions of interest to plant breeders for crop improvement. In experiment, arranged in Completely Randomized Design was conducted to study the genetic variability among and within 48 genotypes or accessions obtained from Central Agricultural Research Institute (CARI), Suakoko, Liberia and Plant Genetic Resources Research Institute (PGRRI), Bunso, Ghana. DNA was extracted from 48 plants per accession without bulking to check the purity of the accession using the 16 SSR markers. Field data taken included 28 qualitative and 14 quantitative traits scored using the IRRI descriptor list. Analysis of variance revealed highly significant difference (P≤ 0.01) among the accessions for all quantitative traits studied except for grain width. Qualitative data revealed some variations among the traits. Four significant principal components analysis were identified and accounted for 55.3%. PC1 had Eigen-value of 0.44 explaining 18.5% of the total variation. Next was PC2 which had 0.31 as its Eigen-value, explained 14.5% to the total variation. Correlation analysis indicated that length of ligule was highly significant and positive with leaf width of blade. Similar observation was made with grain length and length of ligule. The SSR markers were highly informative as generated by the powerMarker V3.25 software. At the iii similarity coefficients 90%, the highly distance genetic diversity was found between two accessions, ACSS37 and ACSS1. Cluster X was the largest of all the clusters while Clusters VII and VIII were the second largest clusters with 7 accessions each. The outcome of this study should be useful to manage the gremplasm conservation and future rice genetic improvement. However, all the accessions may be cultivated over time at different locations on the field to ascertain their stability and purity.

Source: KNUST
Genetic diversity studies in pepper (Capsicum spp)

Genetic characterization using morphological and molecular markers is imperative in making available useful information on the genetic diversity within a species. Such information is vital in providing the basis for proper conservation strategies and to orientate effective breeding methods. The overall objective of this study was to examine the genetic diversity and relatedness among in-country pepper accessions. Fifty local pepper genotypes were characterized using 35 quantitative and qualitative traits from seedling emergence to crop maturity. Morphological data were subjected to principal component analysis (PCA) followed by hierarchical cluster analysis using euclidean similarity coefficient. The first four principal components accounted for 72.44% of the total genetic variance among the 50 pepper genotypes with the larger part of the variance explained by cotyledon leaf width, fruit width, plant height and fruit length. The study showed a great variation in fruit traits revealing six fruit shapes and four fruit colours. Although there was substantial variation among the accessions based on phenotypic traits, cluster analysis revealed low genetic diversity among the accessions. Molecular analysis using 8 SSR markers generated a total of 35 alleles with an average of 4.38 alleles per locus. Polymorphism information content (PIC) ranged from 0.20 to 0.74 with an average of 0.42. The mean values of gene diversity and heterozygosity were 0.44 and 0.26 respectively , signifying a substantial amount of polymorphism among the primers. Molecular cluster analysis based on UPGMA revealed a much wider genetic dissimilarity of 0.26 to 0.90. The accessions were clustered into two main groups at 0.26 with cluster 2 having fifteen sub-clusters at a similarity coefficient of 0.46. The study has shown that both morphological and SSR markers are effective tools in studying genetic diversity in Capsicum species. This observed diversity among the pepper genotypes can therefore be used for improving pepper through selection and hybridization.

Source: KNUST
Genetic Diversity of PCR-Positive, Culture-Negative and Culture-Positive Mycobacterium ulcerans Isolated from Buruli Ulcer Patients in Ghana

Culture of Mycobacterium ulcerans from Buruli ulcer patients has very low sensitivity. Thus confirmation of M. ulcerans infection is primarily based on PCR directed against IS2404. In this study we compare the genotypes obtained by variable number of tandem repeat analysis of DNA from IS2404-PCR positive cultures with that obtained from IS2404 positive, culture-negative tissue. A significantly greater genetic heterogeneity was found among culture-negative samples compared with that found in cultured strains but a single genotype is over-represented in both sample sets. This study provides evidence that both the focal location of bacteria in a lesion as well as differences in the ability to culture a particular genotype may underlie the low sensitivity of culture. Though preliminary, data from this work also suggests that mycobacteria previously associated with fish disease (M. pseudoshottsii) may be pathogenic for humans.

Source: KNUST